15 Jul by Kuwait Times

Bureaucracy: World’s oldest form of torture

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Exhibit in NYC explores the man behind the Muppets

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Sheikh Ahmad re-elected OCA head See Page 62

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Local

FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

What’s holding

women back? By Lisa Conrad

omen’s issues in Kuwait are somewhat bipolar. Monumental changes have been made, but some issues persist as the two ends of the scale swing turbulently to and fro. Dr Moez Doraid, Director of the co-ordination division of UN women, shared his thoughts on the situation, especially with the regard to work, in Kuwait and the Middle East as a whole. “They have made considerable progress in Kuwait, over the last three or four decades. School enrollment and educational levels for women in Kuwait have risen rapidly, and it was a historic milestone not only for Kuwait but also for the entire Gulf region when Kuwaiti women won the right to participate in elections, vote and run for elections.”, says Doraid, who was previously the UN resident coordinator and UNDP resident representative in Kuwait. Women’s participation in politics has also increased significantly in Kuwait, with Doraid hailing Kuwait as “A pioneer in the Gulf region”. He added: “We at UN women are keen to see other countries follow suit. In recognizing this milestone, we have to recognize the leadership of the late Amir and of the current Amir as well as the role of Kuwaiti NGO’s.” Doraid praised Kuwait’s speedy improvements, which went from winning the right to vote in one election and, by the next, female candidates winning seats in parliament. Women’s freedoms were also improved as the Human Rights Watch reported that August 2010 saw the law prohibiting women from obtaining passports without their husband’s permission struck down for being unconstitutional. He added that it was vital to keep in mind, when considering the Kuwaiti context, that the starting point was considerably more recent than other nations: “We have to remember that they started recently, in the sixties and seventies. Through public investment they have made impressive changes very quickly and probably, in terms of rate of increase of indicators such as school enrollment, Kuwait, as well as other Arab gulf countries, we’re seeing some of the fastest progress in the world. Because they started so recently, however, there is still much ground to be covered.” The UN’s ‘Progress of the World’s Women: In Pursuit of Justice’ report revealed that women in Kuwait still don’t have equal rights at work regarding opportunity and working hours. There are currently no laws protecting women from sexual harassment at work, which could be working to worsen their chances of entering male dominated fields: “I was interested in engineering, but I know that it’s mainly men who work in engineering here. First, it’s harder to compete with them, I think they’re seen as more valuable or intelligent in such fields. Secondly, if someone makes an inappropriate remark to me, what do I say? What if it’s my boss? It’s like having to choose between your career and your dignity.”, says marketing student Loulwa. Constraints on women working are often changeable depending on social and cultural

issues. Fatima, a Kuwaiti national who had wanted to pursue medicine, said: “I wanted to be a doctor. But I wanted to study abroad to do it, because the education there is better and I wanted to learn in the countries who had made the most advancements in medicine. But people talk sometimes if you’ve studied abroad, especially for the amount of time it takes to become a doctor. Some of my friends studied medicine, and I admire them so much for it, but my family wouldn’t allow me to go. I understand their reasons completely, but I wish there was as strong a concentration on career as there is on reputation.” Participation and opportunities are both areas in need of improvement, said Doraid: “The area where Kuwait and other Arab countries are lagging, is in terms of opportunities. Economic participation in the labor force is a problem throughout the Arab region, which has the lowest level of female participation in the labor force. It’s lower than any other region in the world. Only about 26 percent of Gulf women are participants in the labor force.” High school student, Noor, says “It is a priority to finish your education, and I want a degree. I don’t know what I want to work in yet because it’s hard to decide on what to study because if you chose something demanding, you may risk losing family life later. I know it’s the same in the West. Women end up having to try and balance both, but here family, for women, is seen as the priority over work. You can choose from many subjects, but when you do, you have to think beyond just your career aspirations. The restrictions on us are both external, and internal.”

‘If someone makes an inappropriate remark to me, what do I say? What if it’s my boss? It’s like having to choose between your career and your dignity’.

Local FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

Satire Wire

From the editor’s desk

Disappointing work ethics

Travel travail

By Sawsan Kazak By Abd Al-Rahman Al-Alyan sawsank@kuwaittimes.net

nyone who has spent any time in Kuwait can attest to the sometimes lax and slack work ethics in the country. Very few ﬁelds are competitive and timings are more of a suggestion than an actual rule in some companies. Having worked in various places in Canada, I can truly say that working in Kuwait is much more relaxing and less stressful. As much as I hate to make sweeping general statements, I have to say that as a whole, work ethics in Kuwait are disappointing. Many people in this country have got used to doing the bare minimum and getting away with it. There is something about this country that just makes you slow down and get into some very bad habits. I guess it’s hard to get motivated when you are surrounded by people stuck in bad habits themselves. There are those who sometimes try to go above and beyond the status quo; who try to show themselves as good employees. These people are made fun of and ridiculed for trying to have solid work ethics as if working hard is a mockable oﬀense. Since

when is doing what is asked of you and little bit more something to laugh at? Do those who are mocking believe that doing more at your job is a funny thing or are they afraid that all that extra work will make them look bad? Maybe these people feel threatened by any kind of competition and there is a fear that they will not be able to do the same. Or is it that these people have misunderstood their roles as employees? Being employed does not mean finding out what is required and performing those duties with the least amount of enthusiasm. Also, if there is a duty that you believe could benefit your workplace and you are able to perform that duty, it is not wrong to volunteer your time to benefit the whole. Trying to please and impress your management and employer is not an attitude that is funny - if anything, it is one that should be rewarded and looked up to. If everyone would adopt this perspective at work, we could eradicate laziness at the office in our lifetime. Until then, try not to ridicule those who are trying hard - see if you can help them in any way.

myopinion@kuwaittimes.net

n every institution, be it a private or public one, a certain amount of logic is needed to help make ends meet. When it comes to customer care, logic is needed to ﬁnd the easiest and fastest way to serve customers. Every organization thrives to develop in a way that makes it a pioneer in customer service. In the world of travel, airlines have developed to make booking, purchasing tickets and checking-in much easier. You can do it all online and you are just a click away from having your boarding pass with you. Many airports have even caught up with the logic of making life easier for travelers. For example, some airports in the European Union have started scanning EU passports rather than stamping them. In some EU states, they don’t even do that; they just look at the passport as the police would look at a driving license at any random check-point in Kuwait. It’s not just a matter of customer care but logistics have also become a business for any operation be it big or small. For targets to be achieved, well planned logistics is a must. Timing is another factor that goes really well with logistics. Timing your move well is crucial to making a plan successful. Okay, by now you are wondering where I am going with all this, so I will stop beating around the bush and come straight to the point: Kuwait Airport. Despite being one of the oldest airports in the Gulf, it has handled itself really well through the years. It is well known that summer is the busiest period of the year for Kuwait Airport as thousands of holidaymakers flee our not-

so-tropical weather. When it’s fully functional, the airport has proven to be a bit too small for the country and it’s about time Kuwait invested in a new airport or a new terminal to be able to sustain the growth in the number of travelers. Anyway, the existing terminal is still a good one and a decision to refurbish the place has been taken and what better timing to start than the summer? That’s right. At the busiest period in the airport’s calendar, civil aviation decides on a logistics nightmare by closing down half of the arrival’s lounge, baggage reclaim lounge and half of the restaurants and cafes in the duty free area - and when I say duty free, I mean all the shops and restaurants that are placed after passport control and not the little shopping mall before that which travelers can’t fully enjoy because of time constraints. Perhaps those restaurants, cafes and shops were targeted at people greeting travelers and airport staﬀ to slack at rather than for travelers to have a chance to enjoy themselves while they wait for their ﬂights. Anyway, back to the main question. Why are we refurbishing the airport and making it close down sections at a high season time? It has made traveling horrible. Security queues are reaching outside the building, passport control is a mess and baggage reclaim looks like the Friday market. A very wise and welltimed decision indeed.

KUWAIT: Boats are seen silhouetted against the setting sun at Shuwaikh port recently. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Local FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

Bureaucracy

World’s oldest form of

By Hussain Al-Qatari

f you are an expatriate, renewing your residency, getting a visit visa for a family member or processing your spouse’s residency is an inevitable nightmare you have to go through annually. Scattered across Kuwait’s six governorates, immigration departments are the next competitor for the title of ‘torture chamber’ after gyms. The long wait for hours, the lack of guidelines and communication with the clerks are all elements that add to the build-up of frustration. As we approach the month of Ramadan where the working hours are short, renewing residencies witnesses a high season. The areas with most density of expatriate labor are the governorates of Farwaniya and Hawally, with their immigration departments located respectively in Dajeej and Salmiya. This is what you can see on a regular day in the immigration department in Salmiya, which is not at all different from what takes place in Dajeej or any other immigration department in branch in Kuwait. The difference could be the building set-up. The routine is the same. The scene of action is the big hall to the left of the entrance, where the expatriates go to do their paperwork. The place is packed all day, all year. In the other hall, the one to the left where Kuwaiti nationals do their paperwork, the story is the same but the plot twists are different. We will get to that later. Fanning themselves against the heat with legal documents, people in the waiting room of the Hawally Immigration Department are easily entertained. Some make friendships on the spot - ethereal momentary friendships that only last until one finishes renewing their residency paperwork and leaves the building. An Egyptian man who appears in his late thir-

ties or early forties approaches the seating area, and a South Asian expat scoots over to make room for him. The South Asian young man takes out tissues from his pocket and hands them to the Egyptian who wipes his glistening forehead and lets out a sigh. In another line of seats, a woman in a sari cradles a crying infant while conversing with two men and looking at the screen which keeps changing numbers ever so slowly. The system of the numbers is confusing. Seated in the room are probably a hundred and fifty people, some holding small slips with numbers and others not. Others just walk in, force their way into a small huddle of people in front of a desk of an angry clerk and then leave.An old man, bald except for a white tuft of hair at the back of his head, is reading a newspaper. Next to him a younger man is reclined towards the wall, his eyes closed, surrendering as if announcing his defeat against the conundrum of getting paperwork done in this department. The facial expressions of the employees are rigid, as if operating on auto-pilot. There are a dozen employees in this room. One of them, a woman in a hijab sitting behind the counter takes the stack of papers one Asian

torture

expat hands her. She flips through them, takes a look, signs something, gestures with her hand for him to hand her a stamp sticker. She sticks it on the papers, signs, hands him the papers and pushes a button next to her computer announcing for the next person in line to come to the counter. Employees don’t make eye-contact, and rarely speak, resorting to do so in a very minimal manner, with no grammar. “Where your stamp.” Or “Go upstairs.” Or “Bring paper from kafeel.” If the person handing the paper doesn’t hear the employee well - which is very likely - since the place is noisy with all the echoing chatter, the employee repeats the word more aggressively and loudly and motions for him to leave so the next person in line can step forward. Amid the ocean of noise and chatter, a clerk started screaming for Mahboob, whom we found out is the tea boy. The clerk was dealing with someone from the subcontinent, and the language barrier was too diﬃcult for even minimal comprehension in that situation. “Tell for him in his language he must go medical, doctor, doctor. Why he no finish doctor work? Next time he come bring kafeel,” the clerk tells Mahboob who asks a number of

The tea boys in all ministry establishments are indeed the backbone of the workflow. Not only do they keep the clerks highly caﬀeinated and well-hydrated, but they know all the tricks and gimmicks in the business

questions to determine which language this man speaks. The backbone The tea boys in all ministry establishments are indeed the backbone of the workflow. Not only do they keep the clerks highly caﬀeinated and well-hydrated, but they know all the tricks and gimmicks in the business. If you don’t wish to wait in line, he can tell you which line to stand in for a speedier treatment. The machine that hands the number slips broke down? The tea boy comes with a marker, a notebook and a ruler and starts handing numbers. Lost and confused? Spot a tea boy and ask him your questions. He will tell you exactly what papers you are missing. The lack of guidance in ministry establishments is truly compensated by the existence of quick-witted tea boys, always willing to help even if for a small tip in exchange. A man walks in with a big stack of paper, stands in the middle of the waiting room looking for someone to give him guidelines. He, an Asian, communicates with an Arab expat sitting waiting for his turn in broken Arabic, but the conversation goes in a certain flawless rhythm. In the hall for Kuwaiti nationals, as opposed to the other hall, there are three employees - two of whom actually work. The hall is for Kuwaiti nationals and expatriates with wasta, someone tells me. He once saw a Lebanese television host get his paperwork done there. “His sponsors are VIPs, you know,” he says. The employees there operate in a robotic manner similar to that in the other hall. The waiting time is less, and the paperwork process is smoother. The feeling of claustrophobia and wanting to exit the place as soon as you can, however, is existent in both halls, perhaps more strongly in one than the other.

Drive Now. Talk Later.

Mobile COMP FRI new.indd 3

11/3/10 4:52 PM

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By Mafaz Al-Suwaidan

he war on the stigma around mental illness in Kuwait is being waged by 21-year-old twin sisters who will not stop until it is won. Dalal and Alaa Al-Homaizi are Kuwaiti students in their third year of psychology at Boston’s Northeastern University. The sisters launched a campaign last month entitled SPEAK, Standing for Psychological Education and Awareness in Kuwait. The campaign looks to promote destigmatizing people with mental illness, seeking treatment and psychology as an occupational choice. Last week, the twins faced a room of 40 young women around their age and spoke to them about the goals of their campaign. Although the questions started off slow, they quickly picked up pace. By the end of the talk, the girls were flooded with personal questions, requests for further information and email addresses of those wanting to volunteer. “All of the reactions we’ve received have been positive,” says Dalal, “both from professionals and from regular people. Most ask us how they can help.” Inspiration The girls’ inspiration behind the campaign sprouts from their studies. “Psychology introduced us to a lot of things we were not aware of. I took a class called deviant behavior and social control and learned how stigma can affect the actual identity and core being of a person,” says Alaa. “At that point I knew that I should target this stigma that hurts people.” Alaa then went to her sister and they came up with a vision. “We knew Kuwait was ripe for change and it showed through the immediate support we got,” says Dalal. “We are not a society that rejects but one that accepts when given the facts.” The girls then took their proposal to their professor who immediately jumped aboard. As a result of their clear vision and professor’s support, the university offered them a directed study class that would give them an opportunity to research awareness, reduction and prevention campaign methods for their work in Kuwait. “We will study and research

Kuwait for a semester to customize the campaign for our culture and have it backed up by research,” says Alaa. ‘Don’t be scared and hide’ Some of the main goals of the campaign are to create an open and honest dialogue about mental illnesses in the country, increase awareness and decrease judgment as well as support those with mental problems. “We want people with mental issues to have equal opportunity in education, in careers, in marriage and so on. We need to move past the idea of crazy people in straitjackets,” says Alaa. “We want people who suﬀer from mental illnesses to not be scared and hide.” The sisters spoke of a family they knew with an aunt who suﬀered and was locked in a room and not allowed to integrate with the rest of the family. “She wasn’t treated badly, she was just not accepted and hidden. She was even feared as a scary-figure by the children,” says Dalal. “This probably happened because of the family’s lack of awareness and education.” Although interested in psychology from a young age, the girls first entered university studying business management at Kuwait University (KU). Two years into their degree they decided they would transfer to the field they loved. It was the reactions they received that drove them to add the education aspect to the campaign. “People have told us that you’ll go crazy like your patients,” says Alaa. “One professor in KU stopped in the middle of class when he found out we were transferring and said in front of everyone ‘Are you serious? You know you’ll go crazy’”. By promoting psychology as a field, the girls hope to see more students choose psychology and social work as both are underdeveloped fields in Kuwait. Psy-lence During their work the sisters came up with a new term, “psy-lence”, which they use to describe the psychological silence they believe to be the source of all the stigma.”Mental illness is definitely not a topic we talk about over the dinner

table, which is evidence that stigma exists,” says Dalal. “People would rather suffer in ‘psy-lence’ than get treatment,” adds Alaa. The campaign is still taking its first steps with an official launch coming soon. During the summer they hope to launch the campaign blog, website, advertisements and public pledge parties to encourage people to accept mental illness and speak out on the stigma surrounding it. “Just like you wouldn’t want a kid to go hungry, I wouldn’t want people to suffer like that,” says Alaa. “It’s my obligation as a human being.” The sisters are the only two leading the campaign right now and hope to incorporate more members soon. They don’t see their work ending anytime soon and aim to have the campaign and its message eventually spread to other Arab countries. “Mental issues and different attitudes are a part of life. So education needs to continue across generations,” says Dalal.

The SPEAK sisters — Dalal and Alaa.

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Ambili Babu (center) with her Ground Zero dance team performs last Friday at American International School, Maidan Hawally. (Right) Ambili, Bivin and other dancers perform their second conceptually choreographed dance.

Young dancers mix street dance, theater and more By Sunil Cherian

“G

obsmacked” - a word used among freaky-wacky youths to denote “amazing” - would fit these young dancers’ efforts in body movements or conceptual choreography. The founders of this new Indian dance movement in Kuwait, a clinical psychologist, a software engineer and a dance teacher at a school are a blend of bond, balance and blooming creativity. They show what traditional stage performers do not dare to do onstage, like incorporating martial arts into dance, and continue experimenting with new concepts offstage, making modern story concepts into various dance forms. Their two dance numbers, performed with 10 student-dancers last Friday at American International School, Maidan Hawally, as part of the Al-Mulla-Jeevan TV program before an awestruck audience, have made them go home with several offers in the coming months. Sleeves up and pants tightened, they have begun practicing for their next show, utilizing the summer vacation as most of the “gang members” are school-going. Ambili Babu, the psychologist of ‘Ground Zero’, as they have named their team, said she

sees dance as a therapy. Dance is not just a movement of body, she said, but an effective form of communication. “There’s rhythmic movement in everything. Our heart beats to a rhythm. Through dance, these movement-patterns emerge as a flow of energy, letting go of our negative energy and sustaining at the same time positive vibes”. For their performance last Friday, Ambili & Co had a surprise member who literally stole the show whenever he appeared on stage Achu (Ajith), her chubby younger brother who just completed his doctoral studies in China. For their art loving parents - their father has been in Kuwait for more than three decades the children’s dance shows are their own dreams realized. Renji Mathew Thomas, another Kuwaitborn-and-brought-up member of Ground Zero, and a software engineer with the Al-Sayer Group, insists on body stretching exercises, yoga and quta, a derivative of kung-fu. Our dance is a creative flow of emotions, he said. “People have seen different stories in the form of dance in ballets. But our experiment is with the form where the hero is not shy to express his angst and aggression”. Anything goes well with their next flexible member Bivin KS, the dance instructor at Khaitan Indian School. He is a curious mix of a street dancer, an actor portraying the romantic and the depressed and a playmate for kids. Along with Ambili last Friday, he breathed positive life into a popular sad song through his agile, spirited and graceful movements while the remix of the sad song was played - an altogether new experience for much of the audience. The dynamism and the chemistry between the three is a delight to watch. Onstage, they are 100 percent professionals. Offstage, they tease, play, listen and respect one another. The three are familiar with various dance forms retro, rave, break and free style, Bollywood, contemporary, classical, hip-hop, and salsa. But as choreographers, ego far aside, they choose what is best for the team, for wholeness. Perhaps that attitude is their best contribution to the younger generation - their own student-members. As Nithya, a student-member of the team recalled: “The other day while we were practicing for the new show, Bivin nose

landed bleeding to our fret. But after wiping his nose, Bivin said, ‘let’s continue’. Wow! I’ve never seen such dedication!”

The dynamism and the chemistry between the three is a delight to watch. Onstage, they are 100 percent professionals. Oﬀstage, they tease, play, listen and respect one another.

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Mideast More bang for your buck, thanks to exchange rates, not turmoil

f you can put up with the occasional government crackdown, interruptions in Internet and cellphone service and a bodyguard following you around, then the Middle East has become a better place to work in the past year for expatriates, at least from a cost-of-living point of view. Of 18 Middle East and North African (MENA) cities surveyed in March for cost of living relative to a benchmark of New York, all but two showed substantial declines from a year ago, according to a survey by the global human resources consulting firm Mercer. Among the biggest drops, Cairo fell 41 places to rank 128th among 214 cities covered in the global survey. Tehran dropped 27 places to No. 130 and Dubai 26 places to 81.

became costlier for expats due to a strong local currency in Brazil and high inflation elsewhere. Mercer’s survey measures the comparative cost of more than 200 items, including housing - the single biggest factor - transportation, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment. The only two MENA cities to show a relative rise in costs were the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh, which rose nine places to 135th, and Beirut, which advanced five to no. 75. “Generally speaking, the cities in the Middle East are quite low in the ranking relative to New York,” Constantin-Metral said. “In Riyadh, however, rental accommodation costs have increased quite a lot. There is rising demand and limited supply. In Beirut, prices for accommodation have also increased

tures, Mercer said. Jones Lang Lasalle said in a report that after sharp falls in 2009 and 2010, villa rents in Dubai grew 4 percent in the second quarter in certain “established areas”. But, it said, apartment rents continued to decline, by 1 percent in the three months and by 3 percent from a year earlier. Cairo’s big 41-place drop in costs was largely due to the depreciation of the Egyptian pound that followed the mass protests and strikes that led to President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster last February and the resulting sharp slowdown of the economy. The pound was down more

Interestingly, even as relative costs are stable or in decline, Mercer says that the Middle East’s expat executives are in line for pay raises this year

This Sept 1, 2009 picture shows Westerners as they walk on the Marina Walk promenade in Dubai. — AP

A lot happened in the region between March 2010 and March 2011, but the decline in living costs for expatiates generally had more prosaic reasons than toppled leaders, mass protests and civil war. The biggest factor was that many of the region’s currencies are linked to the US dollar, sending costs down for expatriates living on dollar incomes, said Nathalie Constantin-Metral, a senior researcher at Mercer. “As the dollar depreciated against other currencies, it pushed down relative costs,” she said. “Other cities around the world have gone up in the ratings, while Middle East cities have gone down. If you look at the cost of living in local currencies, costs have remained quite stable.” Although the list of top-10 top-cost cities was relatively stable, the expense of keeping someone housed, clothed, fed and entertained jumped in dollar terms in Australia, where the local currency gained 14 percent on the dollar in the year ending in March. Asian cities also grew more expensive because of the limited housing supply meeting expat standards. Latin American cities

quite strongly and to a lesser extent so have prices of food.” In fact, by global standards the Middle East is a relatively cheap place to live if you are collecting a dollar salary. By far the most expensive city in the region is Tel Aviv, but it ranks only 24th. After that, Abu Dhabi comes in at 67 and Beirut at 75. The big expatriate center, Dubai, ranks 81 in the Mercer survey. Four cities rank among the world’s cheapest, including Manama in Bahrain, Kuwait City, Doha in Qatar and Rabat, Morocco’s capital. However, Constantin-Metral pointed out, the costs do not include security, which has likely become a bigger factor for expatriates living and working in the region this year. The cost of living in Dubai for expats fell because of declining rents and a tepid economy still struggling to recover from the real estate and financial crisis that hit in 2008. Many tenants have been moving from larger units to smaller ones due to reduced household income and a “more cautious approach” towards household expendi-

than 8 percent at the end of March 2011, compared with March 2010. But if it had relatively little impact on costs themselves, the Arab Spring did have some impact on collecting data for the survey. The main factor attributable to the Arab Spring was in collecting data. Bahrain’s capital Manama was gripped by protests followed by a Saudi-led crackdown over the course of March, while in Libya civil war divided the country between government and rebel territories and paralyzed the economy. As a result, the data for Manama and Tripoli reflect September 2010 prices, except for accommodation, which is from March 2011, ConstantinMetral said. Interestingly, even as relative costs are stable or in decline, Mercer says that the Middle East’s expat executives are in line for pay raises this year. A survey of multinational companies in June said that across the region, which excludes North Africa but includes countries as far east as Pakistan, executives are set to increase compensation an average of 5.7 percent. Among the biggest increases will go to countries that have suﬀered violence, including Pakistan (13.5 percent) and Bahrain (6 percent), according to the Mercer estimates. — The Media Line

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Internet crisis goes to the parliament MP calls for subsidized connections By Hussain Al-Qatari KUWAIT: The battle against ISPs and the Ministry of Communication has found its way to the National Assembly as several lawmakers took it upon themselves to solve the dilemma once and for all. MP Dhaifallah Buramia particularly said that he will submit questions to the Minister of Communication with regards to the matter, saying this can go as far as submitting an interpellation request if there is no cooperation. “The citizen has a right to be protected against the greed of merchants who own these Internet service provider companies. The government’s silence towards the greed of these companies is just an encouragement for these companies to keep doing what they’re

KUWAIT: Kuwait’s Army Chief of Staff Lt-Gen Ahmad AlKhaled Al-Sabah discussed yesterday with visiting US Commander of the Central Command First Lieutenant General James N Mattis ways to bolster military cooperation and current developments in the regional and international arena. The US commander presented to his Kuwaiti host an honorary Order of Merit Commander, expressing appreciation for his efforts in boosting military cooperation and relations between the two sides. Al-Khaled expressed appreciation for the kind gesture from the US for such a recognition. The meeting was attended by high ranking military officials in the Kuwaiti army. — KUNA

HRW calls on Kuwait to free Web activists DUBAI: An international rights group is urging Kuwait’s authorities to release two men detained for Internet posts criticizing Gulf rulers. Human Rights Watch says the two men were arrested last month and held without bail. It wants authorities to investigate claims that one of the men has been mistreated in detention. Kuwait has not confirmed the arrests. According to Wednesday’s statement, one man was arrested for Twitter messages critical of crackdowns in Bahrain while the second was arrested for a YouTube video criticizing HH the Amir. The group’s regional director Joe Stork says the detentions are aimed at intimidating Web activists in the Gulf. — AP

doing,” said Buramia. He added that if the government is complicit in conspiring with the merchant families against the consumers, it will be held accountable. Another MP, Mohammad Hayef, proposed a legislation that grants citizens a high-speed Internet connection at a subsidized rate. Hayef noted that the government must be fully supportive of giving people the right to communicate and express their opinions as a basic human right. Seeing that the Internet has become part and parcel of everyday life, Hayef suggested a high-speed connection for all citizens and expats at a yearly fee of no more than KD 20 paid to the Ministry of Communication. How the ministry divides subscriptions between service providers is a

detail the MP did not mention in his proposal, leaving it for the experts. “The Ministry of Communication must have legislations that protect the Internet provider business from being monopolized. There should be true competition for good services, and no monopoly in that business,” he said. “The first clause in the legislation suggestion states that the services provided must be in compliance with Islamic sharia,” he stated. Hundreds of users voiced their dissatisfaction since the beginning of June with the newly implemented fair usage policy, which sets a daily limit of downloads per user. Once the limit is exceeded, the speed is dropped down by 75 percent until the next day. ISPs said this policy is to combat abuse of Internet speed and illegal downloads.

KAC office in London to work on Saturdays LONDON: The Supreme Regional Manager of Kuwait Airways Corporation (KAC) in Europe and Director of the London office Waleed Al-Muhanna said yesterday that KAC’s office in London will work exceptionally during the weekend, specifically on Saturdays to help assist those wishing to return to the country before the start of the month of Ramadan. Al-Muhanna said in a statement to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that all workers in the office will work six days a week from the July 16th to July 30th, calling on passengers wishing to return during the next two weeks to contact the KAC office to provide its staff with their phone numbers in order to facilitate their safe return. He added that “unfortunately vacant seats aboard the KAC flights are not available from July 18th till August 4th”, but it is possible to provide seats in case some passengers postpone their travel, or patients and their companions decide to extend the period of treatment. He said the problem of lack of seats during this period is not exclusive to

LONDON: Kuwait Airways staﬀ attend to customers at KAC’s London oﬃce. — KUNA Kuwait Airways, adding that other Arab and foreign airlines also suffer from this problem in spite of the abundant flights operated by those airlines daily. He added that passengers’ provision of their phone numbers will

make it easier to know how many seats could be available a day in advance, indicating that office staff on a daily basis call the telephone numbers of all registered passengers to assure their date of travel. — KUNA

Smartphones in Kuwait make up 80% of market Sales of basic cell phones take a beating KUWAIT: In just two years, smartphones have kicked older mobiles oﬀ their throne in Kuwait and come to make around 80 percent of the mobile phone market, so that the older technology has slipped from 75 to just 10 percent of all sales, and the shift is most certainly felt by sellers. One seller said that so much is focused on smartphones, specifically those manufactured by Apple, Samsung, and Blackberry, that the dealer decided to stop selling oth-

er mobiles and concentrate on products and services of this category alone. Al-Shimmiri added that while the popularity of the devices and the applications and programs they use started with youth, smartphones are very quickly catching popularity among those aged 40 and over. “There is so much demand,” he said, “that we cannot keep up, sometimes.” Another seller, Dhyaa Slaiman, said 80 percent of his company’s sales are in the smart-

phones column. In fact, he explained, the older phones are only bought by customers who only use the regular phone function and nothing else, like Asian workers. On the reason behind the popularity of smartphones, he mentioned availability of free video and audio communication, display and receipt of messages in diﬀerent media, and most specifically, video streaming programs. In addition, the programs used by the devices are fast becoming less

complicated and luring sometimes “unexpected” clientele. One unexpected category of customers, he said, was the senior clients. More and more grandparents are using smartphones nowadays to communicate with and follow up with what goes on in their grandchildren’s lives. “We notice that clients in this category come to us very regularly to purchase the latest applications and programs for their devices.” —KUNA

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KSE grapples with pressures KUWAIT: Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE)’s trading retreated this week under internal and external pressures which scared many traders from making purchasing or selling as many preferred to wait and see before making any move in this vague situation, Kuwaiti economists said. In separate statements to KUNA, two Kuwaiti economists forecast the market to face temporary recession in the third quarter of the fiscal year with continuation of the summer vacations and the advent of the holy fasting month of Ramadan as many traders prefer to take rest in this period. Economist Maytham Al-Shakhas told KUNA that this week KSE saw a continuation of weak transactions due to debate on the start of control on listed companies. Al-Shakhas added that this has largely made traders lose confidence in the market’s ability to return to its balanced state soon as long as the vision is still unclear about many issues related to the listed companies and the financial markets. He revealed that external factors had also contributed to the deteriorating situation of the stock market this week, citing the rise of the US debt limit which impacted Gulf markets, including the Kuwaiti one. Al-Shakhas expected t this situation to continue till a remarkable development or action takes place, giving the slide of the market value on Monday to its lowest level in ten years. Economist Adnan Al-Dulaimi said the heated debate over the terms of the financial market and the recently announced financial results of the National Bank of Kuwait for the first half of 2011 had greatly impacted transactions. Dulaimi, however, underlined that the strong speculations on some stocks have also played an important role in the trading. Many of the speculators have benefited from this very vulnerable situation of the market, especially in the two sessions of Sunday and Monday. He expected that market indices to increase slightly in the coming weeks with the support of the financial statements of the listed companies, especially of the banking sector, which releases its financial statements early due to their good operational performance thanks to the control of Central Bank of Kuwait.— KUNA

Amir condoles victims of Mumbai explosions No Kuwaitis harmed: Consul General KUWAIT/NEW DELHI: HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah sent yesterday a cable of condolences to India’s President Pratibha Patil, over the terrorist attacks in Mumbai that led to numerous deaths and injuries. HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah and HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad AlAhmad Al-Sabah sent similar cables. Meanwhile, the Consul General of Kuwait in Mumbai Salem Al-Khaledi

yesterday confirmed no Kuwaiti nationals or business interests in Mumbai were harmed in Wednesday’s triple bomb blasts. In a written statement to KUNA, he said: “There is no Kuwaiti citizen -resident or tourist who has come to any harm from this painful event.” He further emphasized that there was no harm to any Kuwaiti interests, including the consulate of Kuwait, the Kuwait Airways oﬃce or the Kuwait petroleum oﬃce for marketing oil in India.

Earlier in the day, the consul general also presented his condolences to the state government of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital city. On Wednesday, Kuwait’s ambassador to India Sami Al-Sulaiman had told KUNA that preliminary information collected from the consulate oﬃce in Mumbai had indicated that there was no harm to Kuwaiti nationals in the Indian city. He had stated that final information would be collected and shared gradually. — KUNA

Specialists to improve chest hospital KUWAIT: The management of Kuwait Chest Diseases Hospital (CDH) and McGill Redevelopment Team announced yesterday that as a part of the continuous eﬀorts in providing the highest level of care, four professionals have been invited to perform various procedures and work on major improvement at CDH. In a press release, the CDH management said that Dr Sheldon Magder, Dr Wayne J Warnica, Dr Donald Nuss and Dr Robert Kelly have been invited for the whole month of this month to enhance the performance of this Kuwaiti medical facility. Dr Sheldon Magder is a professor of Medicine and Physiology at McGill University and a senior physician at the McGill University Heath Centre.

Within the activities of the Asseelah International Forum currently held in Morocco, a joint Kuwaiti-Moroccan fashion exhibition was held for Kuwaiti designer Raja’ Al-Bader and her Moroccan counterpart Seham Al-Hubaitti. — KUNA

His clinical work is primarily as an Intensive Care physician at the McGill University Health Centre and he also performs outpatient cardiology. Dr Magder has an active research program with both basic science and clinical projects, which involve studies on hemodynamics, vascular biology, sepsis, and skeletal muscle function. He is currently director of the Critical Care Research Fellowship program. Dr Magder will be assisting his colleagues at CDH’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Dr Wayne J Warnica is Director of Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at University of Alberta Hospital and Associate Professor in Medicine at University of Alberta; Director of Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at Foothills Medical Centre;

and Professor of Medicine at University of Calgary. His main interests have been Acute Coronary Syndromes, Heart Failure and Heart Transplant, teaching undergraduates, graduates, and in continuing education, and clinical research. His ongoing research interests mainly include participation as local Principle Investigator for IMPROVE-IT, PACE-MI, ORIGIN, (all of which are NIH sponsored trials) and new trial, ELIXA, on investigating the role of diabetic control after Acute Coronary Syndromes. Dr Warnica is assisting CDH in establishing the Heart Failure Program, teaching local staﬀ, providing care to heart failure and heart transplant patients in Kuwait.— KUNA

FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

Murdoch and son summoned to testify

Bomber kills 3 at memorial for Afghan leader’s brother

Mullen says N Korea poses ‘very real’ threat

ALLAHABAD: An activist of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, or World Hindu Council, shouts slogans to protest against Wednesday’s explosions in Mumbai as they burn an eﬃgy of Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram yesterday. — AP

End to terrorism not guaranteed: India Mumbai blasts probe turns to key CCTV footage MUMBAI: The triple bombing that killed 21 in the heart of India’s financial capital sparked anger yesterday over the government’s inability to prevent terror strikes despite overhauling security forces after the 2008 Mumbai siege. Indian oﬃcials say they have made extraordinary security reforms since 10 Pakistani terrorists rampaged across the city nearly three years ago, but following Wednesday’s attack they warned they may never be able to guarantee a terror-free nation in a region plagued by extremism. “We live in the most troubled neighborhood in the world,” said Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, pointing to nearby Pakistan and Afghanistan. “Every part of India is vulnerable.” No terror group claimed responsibility and investigators had no immediate suspects in the bombings that shook three separate neighborhoods within minutes during Wednesday’s busy evening rush. Chidambaram said the government had no intelligence warning. “Whoever has perpetrat-

ed this attack has worked in a very, very clandestine manner,” he said. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was expected to visit Mumbai later yesterday. “Why is Mumbai being attacked again?” said a frustrated Uttam Jain, who works in a gold shop in the Jhaveri Bazaar jewelry market that was hit by one of the blasts. Jain said he was “disgusted with politicians who promise security, but do nothing after the media cameras are gone.” The bombings marked the worst terror attack in India since the 2008 siege, which killed 166 people over three days. After that attack, the government expanded police recruiting and training, bought hightech equipment and updated its ancient police arsenal. It established a National Investigation Agency to probe terror attacks and set up commando bases across the country - including one in Mumbai - so rapid reaction forces could swiftly arrive at the scene of an attack. Chidambaram said state and national intelligence agencies were working

far more closely than in the past and intelligence collection was far more extensive. The 31-month gap between attacks in Mumbai underscored the large number of foiled threats, he said. However, the law enforcement system in the country was so badly degraded that even these changes have done little to increase safety, said Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management. He called the NIA “a tiny little organization,” that is badly underresourced. “It is not the FBI.” While the police have improved, arriving on the scene of the blasts within minutes Wednesday, their training, forensic and investigative capabilities remain horribly deficient, leaving them powerless to uncover terror plots before they are carried out, he said. “We thought we were safe,” said Anita Ramaswami, a 33-year-old accountant. “But things still are the same and people in Mumbai continue to feel vulnerable.” The sheer number of targets across a country of 1.2 billion, makes it nearly

impossible to protect, oﬃcials said. “It’s very diﬃcult to stop every single terror attack,” said Rahul Gandhi, a senior leader of the ruling Congress Party. At Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the Mumbai train station where 52 people were gunned down in the 2008 attacks, armed railway police - some of them behind sandbagged barricades - struggled yesterday to monitor the crush of passengers. An estimated 3.75 million commuters on more than 1,600 trains pass through India’s busiest train station every day. “The crowds are so dense during peak hours it would be impossible to keep a check, even with the most stringent security,” said station manager D K Gupta. Mumbai, a city of 18 million people, is the heart of India’s business community. It houses the country’s stock exchange and the popular Bollywood film industry. At the scene of the bombings, investigators struggled to preserve evidence with plastic sheets as a driving rain washed away the bloodstains. —AP

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FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

UK short of Libya targets, not resources, says source Gaddafi forces use civilian infrastructure

CAIRO: In this file photo, an Egyptian man dances with a national flag as he protests for a second day in Tahrir Square. — AP

Tahrir protesters feel heat in push for reform CAIRO: It’s hot, noisy and uncomfortable. Nonetheless, protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square insist on pursuing their sit-in to demand change, despite warnings and concessions from the ruling army. A “tent city” covers the roundabout in the heart of the bustling Egyptian capital and provides relief from the scorching sun and temperatures of up to 40 degrees celsius. Activists have been camping out in Tahrir-the focus of protests that toppled president Hosni Mubarak in February-since mass nationwide rallies on Friday against the slow pace of reform. Protesters who first took to the streets to demand Mubarak’s resignation have increasingly directed their anger at the ruling military council headed by Mubarak’s long-time defence minister Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi. They accuse the army of maintaining an absolute grip on power that blocks the democratic path and failing to meet the revolution’s demands, which include an end to military trials and the speedy and open trial of former regime officials found guilty of abuse. Mohammed al-Taher, a 70-year-old engineer, seeks refuge under a small tree. “I don’t want any money, I have airconditioning in my apartment but I prefer to be here because this is Egypt,” said Taher camping in the square with his wife and two children. Street vendors snake through the crowds, selling everything from cold drinks and Egyptian flags to pictures of the “martyrs of the revolution” and caricatures of Mubarak. A tangle of wires sprouts from lamp posts, providing the electricity to recharge mobile phones and lap tops-indispensable for the online activists who tweet the progress of the protests. “The council should not run the country, the prime minister is not in control,” said Mohammed Wagih, the rug he sleeps on rolled up under his arm. “We are not stupid, we know they want us to go home,” said the 26-year-old, after a stern warning from the military council against all those deemed to be harming the national interest. The warning was perceived as a threat and the protesters say it has only strenghthened their resolve to continue. On Wednesday, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces sought to placate the protesters by announcing the sacking of hundreds of police officers and a delay in holding parliamentary elections originally set for September. A debate on whether to delay the elections had been under way for months, with some calling for them to be postponed to give new groups more time to organise. Anger over routine police torture was a driving force behind the January 25 uprising, during which clashes with security forces and Mubarak loyalists left people 846 dead and more than 6,000 injured. Shaking his dice over a backgammon board, Ahmed Khoziem said he was “ready to stay in Tahrir a year if need be.” The military has been accused of using Mubarak-era tactics to stifle dissent. The people’s frustration was loud and clear on Tuesday when hundreds chanted for the downfall of the military chief across Egypt’s main cities of Cairo, Alexandria and Suez. The armed forces, which were hailed as heroes at the start of the uprising for not opening fire on protesters, “have now lost our confidence,” said George Ekram, 18.“In six months, nothing has changed,” he said, as he sat in Tahrir Square. The huge roundabout has been blocked off to traffic and the protesters have taken charge of security, demanding to see identity papers and searching anyone coming through. —AFP

LONDON: Britain is running short of military targets in Libya as the forces of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi are increasingly using civilian infrastructure and vehicles, a defense ministry source said yesterday. Britain is a leading member of a coalition enforcing a United Nations-mandated air campaign over Libya to protect civilians from Gaddafi’s forces, who have proved resilient despite nearly four months of devastating air strikes. The length of the bombing campaign has raised concerns in Britain and abroad that coalition members, of whom many have cut defense spending to tackle budget deficits, will not be able to sustain the tempo of attacks. “We’re not short of military assets. It’s the targets. There’s only so many targets you can take out whilst minimizing civilian damage,” the senior source told Reuters. “We’ve had credible intelligence that Gaddafi is using civilian warehouses. He’s definitely changing his tactics,” said the source, who also echoed NATO claims that Gaddafi’s forces were using civilian vehicles to deter air strikes. Western states are frustrated by a five-month rebel campaign that-despite support from NATO warplanes-has failed to overthrow Gaddafi, and some governments are now looking instead to talks as a way out of the conflict. Civilian casualties undermine NATO’s mission to protect Libyan noncombatants. In June, the alliance admitted that its weapons destroyed a house in Tripoli in which Libyan oﬃcials said nine civilians were killed. Senior British military staﬀ have publicly warned of the growing strain on their resources caused by the Libya campaign, prompting calls for the defense ministry to re-open a comprehensive review of the military published last autumn. Britain also has 9,500 troops in

GUALISH: A Libyan rebel washes his face next to a rocket launcher at a rebel position in the flashpoint hilltop town of Gualish yesterday. Britain has said it’s running short of targets as Gaddafi increasingly uses civilian infrastructure. — AFP Afghanistan, the second largest contingent of foreign troops after the United States. Under the Strategic Defense and Security Review (SDSR), the $55 billion defense budget will be cut by eight percent in real terms over the next four years, part of measures to tackle Britain’s budget deficit. The defense source dismissed calls to revisit the review. “Current military deployments fall within the assumptions of the SDSR, and there’s still slack. We haven’t dropped any of our standing commitments,” the source said. Senior military figures and analysts are also concerned that major defense programs will be at risk if there is no firm commitment to increase defense spending after 2015. The programs are part of the military’s “Future Force 2020” plan,

and include replacing Britain’s fleet of nuclear-armed submarines, building two new aircraft carriers and buying both Eurofighter and Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) combat jets. Lockheed Martin builds the JSF while the Eurofighter is made by a consortium of Italy’s Finmeccanica , Britain’s BAE Systems and EADS . Prime Minister David Cameron said last year it was his “strong view” that defense spending should rise after 2015 but oﬀered no guarantees, and with the next general election due in 2015, the decision could be out of his control. The defense source was confident spending would rise. “If there isn’t an increase post 2015, that would threaten future force 2020. Everyone knows that, which is why we’re confident of getting an increase.” — Reuters

‘Fed up’ faction shakes up Senegalese politics DAKAR: Launched by a group of rappers in January, a movement called “Fed up” has shaken Senegal’s political scene and become the symbol of protests against President Abdoulaye Wade’s regime. Youths have rallied, denouncing the 85-year-old Wade’s eﬀorts to run for a third term as president as well as crippling power cuts, corruption and other social ills. “We want a democratic revolution in Senegal, to change things by voting,” said Fadel Barro, a journalist and coordinator of the movement which was started by a group of friends, the oldest of whom is 33 years.”On January 16 there was a power cut which lasted 20 hours (in Dakar). We said that something has to be done. A group of rappers from the group ‘Keur Gui’-which has a history of challenging authority-took the lead,” he added. Voluntary, peaceful, secular and independent of any political party, “Fed up” has mobilised large segments of the population to “change the system and address the concerns of the Senegalese.” Ibrahima Sene, a leader of Benno Siggil Senegal, a coalition of opposition parties, said the movement represented “an expression of frustration” amongst the youth of the west African nation. And a leader of the ruling party, Mbaye Jacques Diop, warned the movement “could be dangerous” for the embattled regime. On June

22, the night before lawmakers were to decide on proposed changes to the constitution, leaders of “Fed up” clashed with police during a demonstration against the new laws. Several were arrested.The amendments would have added a vice president to the presidential ticket for next year’s polls, and dropped the winning threshold for a first-round victory to 25 percent of votes from the current 50 percent. It would also see the vice president take over automatically in case of the president’s death or resignation and was seen as an eﬀort by Wade to ensure his son Karim Wade would suceed him. The next day, riots broke out in which over 100 people were injured, forcing Wade to shelve the changes. “Fed up” has since been aligned with the “23 June Movement” of opposition parties and civil society organisations which took part in the protests. “Between what president Wade has promised, and what he has delivered, it is like night and day,” said rapper Cyrill Toure. Toure said Wade “preferred to change the engine of his airplane than that of the Joola ferry” which sank in September 2002, leaving some 1,900 dead on the route between Dakar and Ziguinchor. “Wade must declare that he will not be a candidate ... The constitution and his age do not allow him to run for oﬃce.” —AFP

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FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

Air strikes on militants in south Yemen kill 7 Militants attack hospital, steal medicine

BEIRUT: The seven Estonian tourists abducted nearly four months ago while cycling through Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley, wave to photographers as they stand at the balcony of the French embassy, in Beirut, Lebanon, yesterday. — AP

Kidnapped Estonians freed in Lebanon BEIRUT: Seven kidnapped Estonians were freed in Lebanon yesterday, almost four months since armed men abducted them as they entered the country on a bicycle tour from neighboring Syria. The seven, all men in their 30s and 40s, appeared on the balcony of the French embassy in the capital Beirut, where they smiled and waved at journalists gathered outside before joining hands and taking a bow. A police official told AFP the group had been released yesterday morning in the town of Sahel Al-Taybi, in the lawless Bekaa Valley, and appeared to be in good health. The authorities have not disclosed any details in the case. The cyclists, kidnapped at gunpoint in eastern Lebanon on March 23, are currently staying at the French embassy as Estonia, a tiny Baltic nation of 1.3 million, has no embassy in Lebanon. They will undergo a medical examination at the embassy before being joined by Estonia’s Foreign Minister Urmas Paet later in the day and traveling home to the former Soviet republic today. A top Lebanese judge will also hear the seven Estonians’ testimonies yesterday, a judicial source told AFP. Lebanon’s Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi said he was pleased with the “happy ending” but underlined that the case was far from over. “The case is not closed to Lebanon’s judiciary, which will continue its investigation until all details are uncovered and those responsible for the abduction identified,” Qortbawi said in a statement. Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves saluted the men’s “resilience and willpower” in a statement yesterday. Their plight has drawn widespread support in their homeland, where leaders had taken to wearing yellow ribbons to symbolise hope that they would be released. The seven Estonians are Kalev Kaosaar, August Tillo, Madis Paluoja, Priit Raistik, Jaan Jagomagi, Andre Pukk and Martin Metspalu. Andres Metspalu, father of Martin Metspalu, told the Delfi news portal he felt “enormous joy and relief”. “If you remember that some are held hostage for years, and ours for just under four months, all went well,” he said. Kalev Kaosaar’s father Juri Kaosaar also confirmed the seven were in good shape and that their spirits were high. “I’ve already talked to my son and both the health and mood of all the men is very good,” he told the Estonian daily Postimees. “We were also told that before they can come home, they will undergo medical checks in Lebanon. And they also have to collect their bikes,” which were found at the kidnap scene, he added. France, which has played a leading role in investigating the case, welcomed news of the “happy ending” yesterday. “France had been solicited for... logistic and diplomatic aid in the case as Estonia does not have an embassy in Lebanon,” said Paris’ ambassador to Lebanon, Denis Pietton. Since the kidnapping in the eastern Bekaa Valley, the case had been shrouded in mystery, but several people were arrested in Lebanon in connection with the kidnapping. The abductors-believed to be a previously unknown group called Haraket Al-Nahda Wal-Islah (Movement for Renewal and Reform) - had reportedly demanded ransom in exchange for the release of the Estonians. — AFP

ZINJIBAR: Air strikes in south Yemen killed at least seven Islamist militants, a security oﬃcial said yesterday, while armed tribesmen entered the city of Zinjibar to try and wrest it from militant control. The oﬃcial said there were likely more casualties in the two air strikes north of Zinjibar, capital of Abyan province, but that militants had dragged bodies away from the area. At least 35 people were wounded, he said. Violence has gripped Yemen since February when protests erupted calling for an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 33-year rule. Abyan has seen a rising challenge from militants suspected of ties to al Qaeda, who seized two cities and an army base in the past few months.

Western powers and Saudi Arabia, which shares a border with Yemen, are worried Al Qaeda’s Yemen wing is taking advantage of the security vacuum to expand in an area from where it has previously launched failed attacks against the United States. A security oﬃcial said the air strikes were carried out by the Yemeni air force, refuting reports by residents that the planes looked like American drones. Residents said the strikes hit a government building, where security oﬃcials said 50 militants were suspected of hiding. “The airplanes were small in size and hovered in the city’s skies at midnight,” Mohammed Maseeny, a resident, said. Later yesterday, militants raided an Abyan hospital, stealing medicine and

kidnapping a medic. Previous eﬀorts by the Yemeni army to ﬂush militants out of Abyan had not been successful, but tribesmen said they were getting the upper hand against militants and that some had retreated due to increasing hostility from residents, the military and the tribes. Tribesmen said they had entered Zinjibar but that militants appeared to have withdrawn from the city where streets were deserted and power was cut. Fearing an ambush by militants, the tribesmen said they withdrew to the outskirts of the city. Others said they saw militants in the distance heading towards the Hutat Mountains, a militant stronghold which has served as a refuge for nearly a decade. — Reuters

Saleh’s promise to return fragments chaotic Yemen DUBAI/SANAA: Bandages cover the extensive burns on President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s body, but he insists he will return Yemen-a move threatening to further fragment a country convulsed by chaos. In a televised recording last week, the frail yet defiant 69-year-old made his first appearance since a bomb attack on his mosque in Sanaa in early June. From Saudi Arabia, where he is convalescing, he vowed to “confront a challenge with a challenge”. To supporters, the sight of Saleh was a cause for celebration after speculation over his health. They say he is down, but not out, despite six months of mass protests that have loosened his threedecade grip on power. “The president will return soon and we will hold the biggest party in Yemen’s history to receive him, he was in good health and that angered the opposition,” said Abdullah Abdulrahman, a supporter in Sanaa who fired celebratory shots after seeing the footage. Riyadh and Washington, both targets of foiled attacks by the Yemen-based Al Qaeda in

the Arabian Peninsula, hoped to lessen turmoil by pressing Saleh to accept a Gulf Arab power transfer plan. But despite signaling acceptance to three different versions of plan, he backed out of signing every time. Most likely, analysts say, Saleh can only return as a weakened figurehead unable to unify a country awash in weapons and so splintered that some opposition groups have begun to turn their guns on each other. “I don’t think there is any side strong enough to win the conflict, only strong enough to ensure the stalemate continues” said Ghanem Nuseibeh, a London-based analyst at Political Capital. The capital itself is divided: the troops of Ali Mohsen, a top general who defected from Saleh to the protesters in March, controls the north. Saleh’s relatives, who lead the powerful Republican Guard forces, have the south. Other provinces, where tens of thousands of protesters still camp out daily, are embroiled in constant clashes between pro-opposition tribesmen and

SANAA: In this ﬁle photo, anti-government protesters shout slogans during a demonstration demanding the resignation of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Saleh’s promise to return to already chaotic Yemen has further fragmented the country. — AP

the Republican Guard. Saleh’s sons and nephews are eager to maintain the status quo, hoping the president can return. “I think they are trying to drag out the process as long as possible in the hopes that President Saleh can return and go from there,” said Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen scholar at Princeton. “Essentially what you have is the president’s family holding the country hostage.” Lack of leaders General Mohsen has not shown the military strength to overpower Saleh’s loyalists and the wealthy al-Ahmar family, seen as close to Yemen’s bank roller Saudi Arabia, lost their chance at a smooth transition into power after their tribal backers clashed with Saleh’s forces, a ﬁght that nearly tipped the country into civil war. “It is over for all three families, over. They attacked each other, and so in a sense they killed each other politically,” said Yemeni analyst Ali Seif Hassan in Sanaa. Even the major donors Washington and Riyadh seem hesitant over what to do about Yemen. Autocratic Saudi Arabia faces more turmoil as it looks for a strong man but is loathe to encourage a democracy on its borders. Nuseibeh, of Political Capital, said the United States might welcome a federalized, democratic Yemen if it could ensure powerful forces help keep a lid on Al Qaeda. But neither power seems willing to tip the scale by backing a speciﬁc group or plan, instead hoping they can revive the thrice-foiled Gulf initiative and create a power share. The growing challenge of unifying Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest state, which borders oil giant Saudi Arabia and sits on a strategic oil shipping lane, may give time for al Qaeda’s aggressive Yemen-based branch and insurgents in the north and south seeking to chip away at power. “The longer the struggle, the more cracks you will see ... If the stalemate continues it will strengthen certain elements of the military and the danger is it could consolidate the power of AQAP,” Nuseibeh said. — Reuters

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FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

Bomber kills 3 at memorial for Afghan leader’s brother Bombing underscores likelihood of renewed instability

DRESDEN: The parade vehicle of former French General and President Charles de Gaulle is being lifted into the Museum for Military History yesterday. The Horch 830 BL Sedan Cabriolet car belongs to the Audi Museum in Ingolstadt, southern Germany, and is on loan in Dresden. — AFP

Tajikistan releases BBC reporter on bail DUSHANBE: A BBC reporter jailed last month in Tajikistan on charges of belonging to a banned Islamic group was granted bail yesterday and released from custody, the country’s top prosecutor said. Urunboi Usmonov still faces prosecution and will have to sign a statement declaring he will not leave the country, General Prosecutor Sherkhon Salimzoda told reporters. Usmonov, 59, was arrested in June on charges of belonging to the radical Islamic movement Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which has been banned in the Central Asian country since 2001. Usmonov has worked for the BBC Central Asian service for the past 10 years. The case drew widespread international criticism, including from the United States and the European Union. The BBC expressed hope in a statement earlier this week that Usmonov would be cleared and say his association with Hizb-ut-Tahrir was exclusively related to his professional duties. “We believe that meetings and interviews with people representing all shades of opinion are part of the work of any BBC journalist,” the statement said. The broadcaster also voiced it distress over Usmonov’s physical wellbeing, saying BBC colleagues who visited him in jail found him “frail and frightened.” Usmonov’s family reported he went missing on June 13, then returned home a day later accompanied by security service officials. Family members said he appeared to have been beaten up. Tajik authorities have shown signs of concern over the diplomatic fallout around the case. Sukhrob Sharipov, head of a think-tank affiliated with the presidential administration, said Usmonov’s arrest seriously damage to the country’s international reputation. “They need to think before committing to a particular action,” Sharipov said. Officials say President Emomali Rakhmon has taken personal interest in Usmonov’s case. Tajikistan is taking increasingly strict measures to stamp out all signs of radical Islam. But government critics say heavyhanded efforts to arrest members of Hizb-ut-Tahrir and other similar radical organizations has only served to drive the groups further underground. Some 150 Hizb-ut-Tahrir members were jailed in Tajikistan last year and another 40 members have faced the same fate so far this year. — AP

KANDAHAR: A suicide bomber targeted an Afghan memorial service yesterday held for the assassinated brother of the president, killing three people including a senior cleric and a child. Local officials said 15 people were also wounded when the attacker blew himself up in a mosque in the southern city of Kandahar, where visiting cabinet ministers from the capital Kabul had to be airlifted to safety. The bombing underscores the likelihood of renewed instability in Kandahar, one of Afghanistan’s bloodiest battlegrounds and the birthplace of the Taleban, in the power vacuum created by the death of powerbroker Ahmed Wali Karzai. “Now we know that three people were killed and 15 injured in today’s suicide attack,” said Kandahar governor Toryalai Wesa. The provincial authority and a national lawmaker said a number of high-ranking government officials had been present but were not hurt. “We’d left the mosque to go to a hall nearby for lunch. The government delegation left 10 minutes before the explosion,” said lawmaker Kamal Naser. Kandahar senator Bismullah Afghan, however, was wounded in the shoulder, his brother said. An AFP reporter saw the government delegation rapidly evacuated after the attack in two Afghan army helicopters. The head of the religious council for the southern province of Kandahar, Hikmatullah Hikmat, was among those killed, the interior ministry said. “The bombing was in a corner of the mosque. It’s a big mosque,” said ministry spokesman Siddiq Siddiqi. He confirmed it had been the

KANDAHAR: Afghan policemen stand guard outside the mosque after a suicide attack yesterday. — AP venue for a service in memory of Wali Karzai, the younger half-brother of President Hamid Karzai shot dead on Tuesday. The interior ministry said one child was among the dead. A second explosion of a remotely-detonated bomb planted nearby killed one other civilian and injured two, said provincial police chief Abdul Razeq. A lawmaker who was at the service said the government delegation included the ministers of defence, justice and public works, as well as deputy ministers of various ministries and 15 MPs. Wali Karzai was buried by the president at a funeral which drew thousands of mourners in Kandahar on Wednesday, after he was shot dead in his study by a close friend and the commander of his personal protection force. Ahmad Shah Spah, who leads a

movement advocating good governance in the south, said the mosque attack was a sad indication of things to come. “We will witness increased violence and insecurity in Kandahar and southern Afghanistan in the wake of AWK’s death, as other tribes as well as the armed opposition will be trying to use the situation in their favour,” he said. The United Nations announced yesterday that the number of civilians killed in the Afghan war in the ﬁrst half of 2011 rose 15 percent, putting the year on track to be the deadliest in a decade. The disturbing rise in deaths came after the United States sent thousands of extra soldiers into Afghanistan and said levels of violence in the 2011 ﬁghting season would indicate the extent to which the troop surge had worked. — AFP

Spain’s Socialists swing left, too little too late MADRID: Spain’s Socialists are wooing lost leftist voters after being battered at local polls and while it will not help them win the next general election, they may block the conservatives from controlling parliament. In his ﬁrst speech as Socialist candidate, former deputy prime minis-

PARIS: The French ‘’Patrouille de France’’ performs over the Louvre Pyramid during the annual Bastille day parade yesterday. — AFP

ter Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba called for a tax on banks and distanced himself from austerity measures the Socialists have implemented to ward off the euro zone debt crisis. But analysts and politicians say Rubalcaba’s gestures are unlikely to win over the Indignados (Indignant) movement of young anti-austerity protesters or other voters who abandoned the Socialists at local elections in May. The centre-right opposition Popular Party (PP), led by Mariano Rajoy, leads the Socialists by 14 percentage points in polls, and Spaniards see him as a better manager of the economy, currently struggling with the highest unemployment rate in the European Union. More than one in five of the labour force are out of work. The Socialists are keen to block an absolute majority for the PP in parliament because they want to force the conservatives to have to make concessions in their reform agenda. Elections are due by March, but many commentators suspect the Socialists may bring them forward to November to take advantage of a likely summer uptick in employment. “It will be very difficult for the Socialists to win the elections because people are so affected by the downturn,” said Jose Pablo Ferrandiz, director and researcher at influential polling company Metroscopia. “People view Rajoy as more capable of overcoming the crisis. But it is probable that Rubalcaba will achieve a sweet defeat that avoids a PP majority.” Politicians from across the spectrum said Rubalcaba is a skilled negotiator who will make the most of a PP minority government if he ends up leading the Socialists in opposition. —Reuters

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Saudis seeking arms amid growing fears: Analysts RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s hunger for weapons, initially aimed at staving oﬀ the threat of Iran, has grown with the upcoming US withdrawal from Iraq and instability in Yemen and Bahrain, analysts say. “Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries in general realize that they must rely on themselves to defend themselves during this critical period marked by the beginning of a US withdrawal from Iraq,” said Anwar Eshki, director of the Middle East Institute for Strategic Studies. About 46,000 US troops remain in Iraq and are due to leave by December 31 under an agreement with Baghdad, although US oﬃcials have said they may keep some there after the deadline if requested by Iraqi authorities. Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, has traditionally bought US and British arms, but it showed no hesitation in contacting a new supplier, Berlin, with which it is negotiating the purchase of 200 Leopard tanks, according to reports in Germany. The order is worth some two billion euros, German magazine Der Spiegel said on its website. “The kingdom is looking for weapons in Germany and even in Russia, knowing that with the vacuum left

by the Americans in Iraq, Iran might begin to extend its influence to the Levant reaching out to the Mediterranean sea,” said Eshki. “Gulf countries need to feel capable of facing any threat from Iran or Iraq, as Kuwait and Bahrain are Saudi Arabia’s last lines of defense,” said the Jeddah-based researcher. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, whose country sent about 1,000 troops to Bahrain, freeing up local security forces to crush a month-long uprising, recently reiterated Riyadh’s rejection of “foreign adventures” in Bahrain, in a reference to Iran. “Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states have strategy to maintain their security,” Faisal said on July 5. “If Iran wants to play a key role as a regional power, it must take into account the interests of neighboring countries and not just its own,” the minister said. Relations between the Sunni-ruled Gulf Arab states and non-Arab, predominantly Shiite Iran were strained following the March crackdown on Shiite-led protests in Bahrain. Saudi Arabia, a key player in Middle East politics, is also facing threats from neighboring Yemen. Yemen has since January been gripped by protests calling for the

ouster of its long-time president, and also must contend with the threat of Al-Qaeda militants. “Saudi Arabia is facing new threats in Yemen, (and) Iran’s nuclear program,” said Theodore Karasik, the director for research and development at the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis. “This program raises fears due to its unclear nature. It represents a threat to Saudis especially within the perspective of American withdrawal from Iraq and the events in Syria and Lebanon,” he said. Western nations accuse Iran of seeking to develop an nuclear bomb under the guise of an energy program. Tehran vehemently denies the charges. The United Nations has already slapped a wide range of sanctions on the Islamic republic over its refusal to halt its uranium enrichment program. “Iran’s war games also do not reassure the Saudis, who are paying attention to Iran’s behaviour in the shadow of its ballistic missiles weapons,” said Karasik. Saudi Arabia’s “foreign policy is more aggressive; it is not like before anymore-it is more assertive,” he added. The Saudis are diversifying their weapons suppliers, but remain major customers for US weapons.

“Saudi Arabia’s pre-eminent security partner for external and internal defense remains the US, and this is unlikely to change for the foreseeable future,” says London-based Gulf region analyst Neil Partrick. Saudi Arabia and the United States are holding negotiations on the final details of a massive arms deal. The United States said in November that the $60 billion deal would take eﬀect despite initial worries from US lawmakers over its impact on Israeli security. The Pentagon unveiled plans on October 20 last year for the sale to Saudi Arabia of 84 F-15 fighter jets, 70 Apache attack helicopters, 72 tactical Black Hawk helicopters and 36 light helicopters, as well as upgrades for 70 F-15s. The delivery of the weapons to the kingdom, thought to be the largest single US arms sale ever, would be spread across 15 to 20 years. “However, potentially widening the arc of suppliers, and even possibly advisers, fits a general trend seen for sometime in Saudi Arabia and in other GCC states who want to ensure a broad range of diplomatic and possibly security supporters on the international stage,” said Partrick. — AFP

Thai PM-elect survives ‘noodlegate’ but further threats still looming Political honeymoon over for first female PM-elect

MISRATA: In this file photo, rebel fighters fire a Grad rocket at the front line west of Libya. — AP

Muslim Brotherhood blossoms in Arab Spring BAGHDAD: Hailed as the dawn of democracy in the Middle East, the Arab Spring has boosted the Muslim Brotherhood, which has emerged as the major political force in most countries swept by the upheaval. And while they stand a good chance of winning elections due to feeble competition, notably in Egypt and Tunisia, the Brotherhood are expected to seek power-sharing deals, at least initially. “Though the Muslim Brotherhood was not at centre stage during the protest movements, it is now an important part of the political spectrum in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and elsewhere,” said Francois Burgat, an expert on Islamic politics. “It is not inconceivable that they will actually win the majority. However, both in Tunisia and Egypt, they do not currently intend to present oﬃcial candidates for the presidency of the republic,” said Burgat, author of “Islam in the era of Al-Qaeda.” Politically the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928 by the Egyptian Hassan al-Banna, has been the most influential Islamic movement in the Arab world. They stick to their motto of “God is our goal/the Prophet Mohammed is our leader/the Koran is our law,” but now also espouse democracy. Severely repressed until the popular protest movements ousted Zine el Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, the Brotherhood have now emerged as key players. In Egypt, the Brotherhood’s support for a constitutional referendum proposed by the military contributed to the massive 77% victory by which it passed. The democratic and secular movements, which had called for a rejection of the referendum on constitutional amendments, found themselves on the losing end. Better organized than their competitors, the Brotherhood founded the “Freedom and Justice” party, and for the Autumn elections plans to field candidates in only half of the constituencies, in an eﬀort to avoid looking like a hegemony. They also have announced they will not front a candidate in presidential polls.—AFP

BANGKOK: Call it “noodlegate”. As cameras clicked, Prime Minister-elect Yingluck Shinawatra, sleeves rolled up, stirred a dish of spicy noodles at a market, surrounded by hungry voters ahead of a crucial election. The event, designed to burnish the 44-year-old businesswoman’s folksy appeal, landed her in trouble. After her party won Thailand’s July 3 election by a landslide, her rivals cried foul, accusing her of breaking laws that forbid the handing out of gifts or, in her case, noodles. Two weeks after leading her Puea Thai Party to victory, the political honeymoon is over for Thailand’s first female prime minister-elect. The political novice is under pressure to come good on a trove of big-spending campaign promises and appease supporters of her controversial brother, self-exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, without damaging the economy or giving her brother’s enemies a pretext to challenge her. “Pressure is set to build for Yingluck in the short term,” said Brittany Damora, a Singapore-based risk consultant at security firm AKE Ltd. She survived “noodlegate”-the case was thrown out after Thailand’s election watchdog ruled on Tuesday she only cooked the noodles and didn’t serve them. But she faces a bigger challenge over a potentially destabilising probe into whether her party broke election laws. Thailand’s election watchdog has yet to certify Yingluck’s victory and a battery of legal threats has raised the question of whether the election results will be reversed-a scenario that could draw thousands of her supporters onto the streets in a new wave of unrest. As she fights fires on multiple fronts, she is also struggling to shed the widely held belief that she is a proxy for Thaksin, a billionaire at the centre of Thailand’s intractable political crisisloved by millions of rural and urban poor

BANGKOK: Thai Prime Minister-elect Yingluck Shinawatra of the Pheu Thai Party and youngest sister of ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra reacts during an interview. — AP but loathed by many middle-class Thais, ment case involving Thaksin three years powerful generals and royalist conserva- ago. Yingluck last week told Reuters she tives. Yingluck’s Puea Thai Party cam- stood by her testimony. paigned heavily on the twice-elected Andrew Walker, a Thailand specialist at Thaksin’s name and his populist policies. the Australia National University, said she While these helped to win over the rural must tread carefully but attempts to topmasses, they could also undo her. The ple her would put the country on a “dangoverning Democrat Party, which lost the gerous path”. “The forces aligned against election and is allied with the elite in her face an uphill battle,” he said. “There is Bangkok and the military, has lodged a no way that they can credibly claim that legal complaint calling for Puea Thai’s dis- this election result does not reflect the will solution for allegedly allowing banned of Thai voters. politicians to direct its campaign, includThe clear-cut win for Puea Thai — 265 ing Thaksin. As evidence, they cite one of of the 500 house seats or 300 when includPuea Thai’s campaign slogans, “Thaksin ing its five coalition partners- allayed fears thinks, Puea Thai acts”. The staunchly anti- of instability after the election. The Thai Thaksin People’s Alliance for Democracy stock market raced to a seven-week high (PAD) has filed a separate complaint, seek- on July 5. But the enthusiasm has been difing to void the election on grounds that ficult to sustain. Stocks have lost a percent since then on a combination of weakness two million Thais were not able to vote. The Supreme Court will rule on that on Wall Street and uncertainty surroundcase on Wednesday. A PAD-linked group ing Yingluck. If her fate is left to Thailand’s has also pressed state investigators to courts, history is not on her side: courts probe Yingluck for alleged perjury in testi- have dissolved two pro-Thaksin ruling parmony she gave during an assets conceal- ties. — Reuters

International FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

Murdoch summoned to testify, Brooks agrees to questioning Former executive editor of the News of the World arrested LONDON: British lawmakers formally summoned Rupert Murdoch and his son James yesterday to testify over the phone hacking scandal as the arrest of another ex-employee piled more pressure on the media mogul. Rebekah Brooks, the chief executive of Murdoch’s British newspaper division, accepted an invitation to appear for questioning by parliament’s media committee next Tuesday, but the Murdochs had refused to attend, it said in a statement. Police meanwhile arrested Neil Wallis, former executive editor of the News of the World, as the furore which has led to the closure of the tabloid and forced Murdoch to drop a takeover bid for satellite broadcaster BSkyB raged on. The scandal also threatened to spread to Australia and the United States where lawmakers called for an inquiry into whether Murdoch’s journalists there were involved in illegal practices like some of their British counterparts. British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said they should appear before the committee “if they have any shred of sense of responsibility, of accountability for their position of power”. The committee asked the Murdochs, both US citizens, and Brooks, a British national, to attend on Tuesday but bared its teeth

when Rupert Murdoch, 80, said he was busy and James said he could only come on August 10. It said it had “made clear its view that all three should appear to account for the behavior of News International and for previous statements made to the Committee in Parliament, now acknowledged to be false.” “Accordingly, the Committee has this morning decided to summon Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch to appear” next Tuesday. In a letter to the committee, Murdoch said he was “fully prepared” to give evidence to a judge-led inquiry into the aﬀair announced by Prime Minister David Cameron. For Brooks, herself a former News of the World editor, it promises to be a tough session. At her last committee appearance in 2003 she admitted: “We have paid the police for information in the past”, though she later said she was referring to the industry in general. The extent of those payments is part of a Scotland Yard inquiry which is also dealing with the voicemail hacking. The Australian-born Murdoch has been in London in crisis mode since Sunday, the day the 168-year-old News of the World published its last ever edition. The row had rumbled on for months but exploded last week after it

European Commission officials inspect Denmark border crossings COPENHAGEN: A team of European Commission experts inspected Denmark’s new, tougher customs checks yesterday following a warning that Brussels would not tolerate any breach of EU law on free movement in Europe. Denmark last week reinforced its borders by stationing more customs agents at crossings in a bid to halt illegal goods. The measures have upset Denmark’s neighbor to the south, Germany, stirred debate about free travel in Europe and prompted a warning from the European Commission that the border checks must not endanger the free movement of goods, services and people. The Commission team met Danish oﬃcials, inspected the border crossing at the Oresund bridge to Sweden, and was scheduled to visit a road crossing on the DanishGerman border yesterday, a Danish government spokesman said. Denmark insists it is within its rights to step up customs checks at its frontiers and that the measures are not in breach of the 1995 Schengen treaty that abolished passport checks throughout much of the European Union. European Commissioner for Home Aﬀairs Cecilia Malmstrom said in a statement on Wednesday that a final decision on whether the Danish measures are in line with EU law on free movement would depend on how they are put in practice. “The full respect of EU rules-giving EU citizens and businesses the right to move freely-will be ensured through continued monitoring and dialogue with Denmark,” Malmstrom said. “Without prejudice to the results of the mission, the Commission reserves the right to make use of its powers under the Treaties should a violation of EU law become apparent in the course of further analysis,” she said. —Reuters

CHELTENHAM: This file photo shows News Corporation Chief Rupert Murdoch (Left) and his son James at the Cheltenham Racing Festival in central England. British lawmakers formally summoned both yesterday to testify over the phone hacking scandal. — AFP emerged that it had targeted the messages of Milly Dowler, a murdered 13year-old girl, and of the families of the veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. On Wednesday, his News Corp. announced it was dropping its bid for full control of BSkyB, whose portfolio includes live English Premier League

football and blockbuster films and has 10 million household subscribers. Murdoch overruled his son and likely heir James in the decision to back out of the BSkyB deal, after James had pressed for seeking regulatory approval of the deal, the New York Times reported yesteday. —AFP

Government renounces Indian temple treasure NEW DELHI: The government of a southern Indian state asked yesterday that recently discovered treasure in a local temple worth up to $20 billion should remain with its religious custodians. Lawyers acting for Kerala state told the Supreme Court that the sacks of gold coins, precious stones and jewellery should stay at the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in the city of Thiruvananthapuram. “The government feels that all objects should remain in the vaults and the objects are not varied enough to display in a museum,” said an aﬃdavit filed at the top court in New Delhi and seen by AFP. The state stressed that the wealth was donated by individuals to the temple, dedicated to Hindu god Vishnu, and should therefore not be considered state property. It was built hundreds of years ago by the local king of Travancore and was latterly supervised by trustees appointed to look after the intricate multi-storey structure, which is a popular tourist attraction. The Supreme Court has been asked to rule on who owns the riches: either the temple trust, the former Travancore royal family or the state. The head of the

former royal family has also renounced any personal claim to the extraordinary discoveries, saying the wealth should be used for social projects like hospitals or schools. The Supreme Court has sent an investigating team to Thiruvananthapuram and asked for a detailed inventory of the

multiple vaults, one of which has not yet been opened. The chief minister of Kerala, Oommen Chandy, initially put the value of the treasure at $11.2 billion, while a member of the Supreme Court team, retired judge C.S. Rajan, said it could be worth twice as much. — AFP

KERALA: This file photo shows a general view of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in the capital of Kerala state, Thiruvananthapuram, after enormous quantities of gold and silver jewellery, coins and precious stones were found in the vaults. — AFP

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Authorities release videos taken by Dugard captors SAN FRANCISCO: Prosecutors have released videos recorded by the Northern California couple who abducted Jaycee Dugard and held her captive for nearly two decades, including footage of one of dozens of home searches by a parole officer that never found the kidnapped girl. The videos recorded by Dugard’s abductors, Phillip and Nancy Garrido, also provide chilling details about the two and their outings to stealthily shoot footage of young girls frolicking. Three video clips were among several pieces of evidence released Tuesday by El Dorado County prosecutors “to highlight the gravity and severity of the mistakes made,” and to improve the supervision and detection of sexual predators.The video of a parole officer’s visit shows yet again how the state botched chances to find Dugard as she was kept hidden for 18 years in the backyard of the couple’s home in Antioch, North Carolina. Throughout the years, parole officers had paid dozens of visits to the home to check on Phillip Garrido and give him drug tests, but none of the officials reported any irregularities. The footage was

recovered from videotapes found in trash in the Garridos’ backyard. They had apparently tried to destroy many of the tapes with chemicals. But investigators, with the help of NASA technicians, were able to recover footage from the damaged tapes. Still photos of the partially destroyed tapes were included in the released evidence. One of the videos, taken sometime between 1989 and 1993, shows Phillip Garrido playing a guitar and singing while sitting against a tree at a park. His wife and accomplice Nancy Garrido is behind the camera and appears to be pretending to record him, though the focus is on the children behind him. “What you need to do, you need to make it look like you’re pointing at me,” Phillip Garrido is heard saying. “Further you are away from me, they can’t tell exactly where it’s pointed.” As he plays guitar, he is heard asking, “You got me real good?” “Yes, I can see you really good!” replies a woman’s voice, as the camera zooms in on a girl in a red tank top swinging on a bar on a play structure. Another clip taken around the same time features close-ups of girls’ legs as they

ABC presenter Diane Sawyer interviews Jaycee Dugard on her kidnap and imprisonment ordeal. Videos taken by her captors of her imprisonment have been relesased by authorities. — AP stand in a parking lot. Phillip Garrido is heard asking on the tape: “You think anybody can see me?” Other footage shows a parole officer following Phillip Garrido through his Antioch home during a routine search done under terms of his parole after a 1976 rape and kidnapping conviction. The video, first aired Sunday by ABC News, was taken by Nancy Garrido between 2000 and 2007. It shows the parole officer searching rooms of the house but never looking in

Mass graves in Sudan? US group releases new photos NAIROBI: A US satellite monitoring group released images yesterday amid fears that they show a mass grave in Sudan, saying witnesses also have described 100 or more bodies being thrown into a pit in the same area. The Satellite Sentinel Project images show what appear to be freshly dug sites in Southern Kordofan state, where Sudan’s Arab military has been targeting a black ethnic minority loyal to the KADUGLI: In this Digital Globe satellite military of the newly inde- image. — AP pendent Republic of South Sudan. “The DigitalGlobe satellite images contain many of the details and hallmarks of the mass atrocities described by at least five eyewitnesses to the alleged killings,” said Nathaniel A. Raymond, of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, which analyzes the project’s images. Fighting broke out in the region on June 5. Neither the UN, outside aid groups nor journalists have access to the region, raising fears that more violence is being carried out than is known publicly. A spokesman for Sudan’s ruling party denied the project’s allegations and said the area is accessible to observers, though aid groups say it is not. “Even if there is any suspicion on such pictures, people can go there and visit the area and see what is the actual reality,” said Rabie A. Atti, National Congress Party spokesman. “I think this is only rumors trying to, you know, blacken the people of our government.” Eric Reeves, a professor at Smith College in Massachusetts who has written a book on the atrocities in the western Sudan’s Darfur region and is following the violence in Kordofan, said reports have been coming out of the Nuba Mountains for weeks of targeted killings. He had not seen the satellite photos when contacted late Wednesday but said the satellite project had an “impeccable” record of interpreting previous satellite images from Sudan, particularly the contested region of Abyei. “No one will be able to express skepticism after the confirmation of mass graves. We’ve had these reports for weeks now, and they keep coming,” said Reeves. “We now have, if not a smoking gun, satellite confirmation of ethnically targeted extermination efforts.” The satellite group said three excavated areas measuring about 26 meters by 5 meters are visible near a school in the town of Kadugli. — AP

the backyard, where Dugard was being held with her two daughters fathered by Phillip Garrido after she was kidnapped in South Lake Tahoe in 1991.Officials blurred the parole officer’s face before releasing the images. “So right now, it’s just you, your wife and your mother in here?” the parole agent asks Phillip Garrido. His response is not clear, but the officer can he heard saying, “OK.” Phillip Garrido later confronts the officer as he leaves the home. “I don’t understand. I’m

doing everything I’m supposed to do,” Garrido says. “No one’s ever talked to me like this.” Phillip Garrido was sentenced last month to 431 years to life in prison after pleading guilty to kidnapping and rape in the Dugard case. Nancy Garrido was sentenced to 36 years to life after pleading guilty to similar charges. Other released evidence includes several pages of federal parole documents, a 1972 booking photo of Phillip Garrido, and a photo of a handwritten note with Dugard’s name, which she wrote down when she was discovered by parole oﬃcers in 2009. A report by a federal judge found that parole agents failed to properly monitor Garrido and to stop his crimes against Dugard. Dugard already has received a $20 million settlement under which the state acknowledged repeated mistakes were made by parole agents responsible for monitoring Phillip Garrido. Dugard - whose memoir, “A Stolen Life,” was released the same day as the videos - told ABC News she had even talked to an agent during one home visit. “He made me feel like he didn’t really care,” she said. — AP

US, Russia approve adoption safeguards ‘We have a new quality to our cooperation’: Lavrov WASHINGTON: The United States and Russia agreed Wednesday to strengthen safeguards on adoptions, hoping to remove a key irritant as the two powers highlight improving ties. On a visit to Washington, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov took up a range of issues from Libya to Syria to missile defense. In a rare step for a nonhead of state, Lavrov met at the White House with President Barack Obama. Lavrov also signed an accord with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on adoption. Many Russians were outraged last year when a Tennessee woman returned her sevenyear-old adopted son on a flight alone back to Russia with a note saying he was violent and she could not care for him. “We take very seriously the safety and security of children that are adopted by American parents and this agreement provides new, important safeguards to protect them. It also increases transparency for all,” Clinton told reporters. Under the accord, only agencies approved by Moscow would be able to arrange adoptions in Russia. The only exception would be for children adopted by biological relatives. The agreement also calls for Russia to provide more information on children’s social and medical histories and for monitoring and reporting on US parents after they adopt children. Lavrov praised the deal for including “guarantees and safeguards for both sides” and said Russian diplomats would be given access to adoptive parents. But a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, denied that any US or Russian government officials would be allowed into homes for checks. The official said that monitoring would be conducted by adoption providers. The United States has the world’s most adoptive parents and Russia has long been one of the biggest sources of children, with only China and Ethiopia providing

WASHINGTON: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov exchanges a document with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at the State Department. — AP more children last year. But the number of children adopted from Russia to the United States has declined to 1,079 last year from a peak of 5,862 in 2004, according to official figures. Clinton and Lavrov also signed an agreement intended to streamline visa regulations and recommitted the nations to disposal of weaponsgrade plutonium. Obama took office in 2009 and proclaimed a “reset” in relations with Moscow, which had grown increasingly tense at the end of George W. Bush’s presidency at a time of rising Russian wealth and assertiveness. Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev reached a new START treaty on nuclear disarmament and have agreed to cooperate on a ballistic missile shield, a major source of friction between the former Cold War foes. Lavrov played down disputes over missile defense and Libya, where Russia has criticized Western intervention against Moamer Kadhafi’s regime. — AFP

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FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

14 killed in Karachi violence after minister’s comments ‘My statement was my personal view’: Mirza

SEOUL: Admiral Mike Mullen (Second right), chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staﬀ, Admiral Robert Willard (Second left), commander of the US Paciﬁc Command, and South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-Jin salute with outgoing General Walter Sharp and incoming General James Thurman (left) during a change of command ceremony for the top commander of US troops in South Korea, at a US Army base in Seoul yesterday. — AFP

Mullen says N Korea poses ‘very real’ threat SEOUL: North Korea poses a “very real” threat to peace and is likely to mount fresh attacks on South Korea unless a strong deterrent is in place, the top US military officer said yesterday. In comments delivered at a time of high cross-border tensions Admiral Mike Mullen said Pyongyang had also given no indication it would drop its nuclear ambitions. “The threat (from the North) remains very real,” Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff told to pool reporters after attending the inauguration of a new commander of US forces in South Korea. “North Korea shows no signs of relenting in pursuit of its nuclear capabilities, and I’m not convinced that they won’t provoke again.” Mullen began his Asian tour in Beijing, where he said he urged China “to play a leadership role” in restraining its ally the North. Tensions on the Korean peninsula have flared since the South accused the North of torpedoing one of its warships with the loss of 46 lives in March 2010. The North denied the charge but last November shelled a border island, killing four South Koreans including two civilians and briefly sparking fears of war. In recent weeks the North’s military has threatened reprisals for anti-Pyongyang signs displayed by the South’s troops. It also vows to hit back for the now-banned use by some Seoul military units of portraits of the North’s ruling family as shooting-range targets. Mullen said US and South Korean forces “have a sense of urgency to essentially work on planning to deter the North from further provocations. Whether they will be deterred or not, that’s to be seen.” Earlier yesterday, army General James Thurman took over as commander of the 28,500 US troops in South Korea and vowed to counter any provocations. He will also head the United Nations Command, a legacy of the 1950-53 war in which the US spearheaded a UN force defending the South, and the South Korea-US Combined Forces Command. Thurman, quoted by Yonhap news agency, said both Seoul and Washington are “prepared to honor our commitments, provide stability, deter conflict and, if we must, fight and win.” The general said the alliance “stands ready to counter any provocation intended to destabilize the Korean peninsula”. Mullen told reporters that both the North’s leadership succession plan and a major anniversary next year are factors in its behavior. Leader Kim Jong-Il is preparing his youngest son Jong-Un as eventual successor. Some analysts believe the son’s role may be formally announced next year, the 100th anniversary of the birth of founding president Kim Il-Sung. Kim’s regime has vowed to create a “great, powerful and prosperous” nation to mark the anniversary of his late father’s birth. — AFP

KARACHI: Fresh political violence gripped Pakistan’s commercial capital, Karachi, yesterday, leaving 14 people dead in fighting sparked by a senior ruling party leader’s criticism of the city’s dominant political group. Angry mobs went on a rampage and burnt vehicles after Zulfiqar Mirza, a minister in the Sindh provincial assembly and senior member of President Asif Ali Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), urged the people of Karachi and Hyderabad, the second-largest city of Sindh, to “stand up ... and rid yourselves” of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). “I appeal to the people of Karachi especially, and of Hyderabad, to stand up for yourselves, for Pakistan, for Karachi and for your innocent children, and rid yourselves of these cursed ones,” he said while talking to reporters, referring to senior MQM leaders. In comments broadcast repeatedly by local television stations, he also criticized Mohajirs-the descendents of Urdu-speakers who migrated from India-for being ungrateful for the home they were given after the creation of Pakistan in 1947. Provincial home minister Manzoor Wasan said 14 people were killed and 25 wounded in violence since last night. At least one person was killed in Hyderabad, police said. Several protests were held in Karachi and other cities of the province, where hundreds of angry protesters burnt tires, chanted slogans against Mirza and burnt his effigies, demanding his removal as a minister. Many roads were closed in Karachi after protesters torched sever-

KARACHI: Pakistani volunteers use a trolley to shift a wounded man during the new wave of violence in Karachi yesterday. — AFP al vehicles following heavy ﬁring all night in many areas. Mirza later apologized for his comments. “My statement last night was my personal view and was not meant to hurt anybody’s sentiments. But if it has done that, I sincerely apologize,” he said in a statement. Karachi, home to more than 18 million people, has a long history of ethnic, religious and sectarian violence. It was a major target of al Qaedalinked militants after the September 11 2001 attacks on the United States, when Pakistan joined the US-led campaign against militancy. The latest incidents come after a surge in ethnic and political violence in Karachi last week, which killed more than 100 people. As the commercial hub, any upheaval in Karachi could disturb industrial activity and have serious consequences for the economy. The

country is struggling to control a rising Taliban insurgency in the northwest along the border with Afghanistan, while militant attacks in bigger cities are also on the rise. The insurgency, perceptions of corruption and chronic power shortages have put oﬀ long-term investors, hurting the fragile economy which has been propped up by an $11 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout program. Leaders from the PPP sought to defuse the tension, saying Mirza’s views were his own and did not reﬂect party policy, but that was not enough to contain the violence. “I apologize to the Urdu-speaking people who were hurt by this statement,” Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters in Islamabad. “I am speaking on behalf of our leadership, and our entire leadership has disowned it.” — Reuters

Australia may review media laws after News Corp scandal CANBERRA: Australia’s government may review media laws in the wake of the phone hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch’s British paper the News of the World, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said yesterday, as an influential party demanded a probe into media ownership and regulation. “To see some of the things that have been done to intrude on people’s privacy, particularly in moments of grief and stress in the family lives, I’ve truly been disgusted to see it,” Gillard told Australia’s National Press Club. “I anticipate that we will have a discussion amongst parliamentarians about this, about the best review and way of dealing with all of this,” she said. Australia’s influential Greens Party called on Wednesday for a wide-ranging parliamentary inquiry into media ownership and regulation, and questions Australian-born Murdoch’s domination of the country’s newspapers. “Following events in Fleet Street (British media), it is very clear that here in Australia there’s sufficient concern about the potentially unrolling of similar events,” Greens Senator Bob Brown told a news conference. Murdoch’s News Ltd dominates the Australian newspaper industry, commanding nearly three-quarters of daily metropolitan newspaper circulation. Murdoch’s News Corp has been rocked by allegations that journalists and hired investigators working for its flagship British tabloid the News of the World hacked into the voicemails of thousands of people, from victims of notori-

ous crimes to families of soldiers killed in the war in Afghanistan. Murdoch shut down the News of the World in a move to contain the damage, but withdrew his bid for broadcaster BSkyB on Wednesday as outrage over alleged crimes at his newspapers galvanized lawmakers who showed a rare unity in the British parliament. — Reuters

LONDON: News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch, (right) , his son Lachlan Murdoch, (center) , a board member of Australia’s Network Ten and an unidentiﬁed woman leave his residence in central London, yesterday. — AP

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WSHINGTON: US President Barack Obama meets with Congressional leadership about budget talks in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington. — AFP

Moody’s puts US on review Gold shines; US, euro debts cloud outlook HONG KONG: The dollar fell yesterday, sending gold to a record high, after a Moody’s warning on the United States’ credit rating but resilience in US Treasuries suggested bond investors expected lawmakers to ultimately raise the county’s debt ceiling in time to avoid default. The weak dollar gave the beleaguered euro a slight reprieve although a looming Italian bond auction kept investors on edge. European stock markets were set for a lower start with Britain’s FTSE 100 seen down 1.2 percent and Germany’s DAX down a percent. Italy will likely have to pay a hefty price to sell up to 5 billion euros of long-term bonds in what will be a key test of market appetite for the country’s debt since contagion worries sparked a sharp sell-oﬀ in its assets. The standoﬀ in the US Congress over raising Washington’s debt ceiling while disagreements over a plan to reduce the ballooning deficit prompted Moody’s to place its Aaa rating on review for a possible downgrade for the first time since 1996. For markets, the stalled US debt talks have added to worries that Europe’s sovereign debt crisis is worsening. Meantime, euro zone leaders

sought to break an impasse on how and when to grant Greece urgent aid. The risk of a lower credit rating for the US overshadowed Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s suggestion, in testimony to Congress, that the central bank could provide more stimulus if the economy weakens further. “It’s a very political environment right now and that’s causing all this volatility and you’d have to be too brave to take very big decisions,” said Elke Schoeppl-Jost, Chief Investment Oﬃcer at BEA Union Investment in Hong Kong. “Gold is speaking its own language and I expect its rise will continue,” said Schoeppl-Jost. “Especially if there is more money-printing from the US”. The potential for another round of asset purchases by the Fed, known as quantitative easing, and the Moody’s warning added up to a double whammy for the dollar. It slid to a four-month low of 78.48 against the yen earlier in the day before regaining some ground to hit a session high of 79.01 on talk that a US bank was a buyer of dollars. The stronger yen drove demand for Japanese government bonds with the yield on 10-year

JGBs dropping below 1.085 percent to an eightmonth low and the benchmark Nikkei stock index which ended 0.3 percent lower. Exporters were hit by the yen’s rise with Sony Corp down a percent and Toyota oﬀ 0.8 percent. Adding a layer of uncertainty to already jittery markets, a senior oﬃcial at Japan’s Ministry of Finance said it was possible Japan could intervene in the market without giving any advance warning. The White House and Congress must forge a deal to raise America’s debt limit by Aug 2 or the government will run out of money to pay its bills and default on some obligations. But they have so far failed due to a sharp divide over taxes. The US currency was on the run in Asia hitting a fresh record low against the Swiss franc around 0.8082 francs earlier while the euro rose to $1.4177 after having fallen to as low as $1.3984. Against a basket of currencies, the dollar was down 0.2 percent at 75.092, having tumbled for a high of 76.053. The Moody’s warning has intensified pressure on US lawmakers to scramble together a deal to avert a debt default. “We believe that the most likely scenario is that the Moody’s statement provides motivation for a

more serious push to a political compromise and USD selling on this factor may unwind,” said Steve Englander, head of G10 foreign exchange strategy at Citigroup. Gold powered to a fresh record on course for a ninth successive day of gains, matching a similar winning streak in 2006. Elsewhere in Asia, the MSCI Asia ex-Japan was trading down 0.3 percent lower with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index down 0.3 percent. “From a macro perspective and even a fundamental perspective Asia is in a much stronger position than the West, but you can’t look at Asia in isolation,” said Catherine Yeung, investment director at Fidelity Investments in Hong Kong. “You look at market turnover and it’s been incredibly thin. From a fund flow point of view, the biggest risk for Asia Pacific markets still remains what’s going in the US and Europe,” said Yeung, who added that there were buying opportunities based on valuations for long-term investors in Asia. Thomas Kwan, Head of Asian Debt Investment at Baring Asset Management, said a US technical default “would be troublesome to the market, even for a very short period of time. Look at what happened to Italy on Monday.” —Reuters

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China to keep tight controls on property market SHANGHAI: China’s premier says the government will keep controls on property deals in place to help fend off a speculative bubble, reflecting top-level unease over limited progress in cooling the overheated market. Wen Jiabao urged local governments to abide by efforts to cool the property market and to meet targets for building more affordable public housing. Such housing is meant to accommodate ordinary families unable to afford commercial property due to surging prices. “Pressure on housing prices in some cities is still strong, and in some places controls have been relaxed,” a government statement cited Wen as telling a Cabinet meeting yesterday. “The current real estate market is at a critical period. We must unswervingly stick to controlling the trends,” it said. As of the end of June, construction had begun on more than 5 million units of public housing, more than half the annual target, the statement said. State media say more than 30 million people are having trouble finding affordable housing, and

developers have been lukewarm on investing in the relatively unprofitable part of the market. Noting uneven

progress and low use rates in some areas, Wen called for fair and equitable distribution of such housing and curbs on surg-

WEST VANCOUVER: A wealthy Chinese immigrant family inspects a villa in the high-class neighborhood of West Vancouver. According to a report by consultancy Colliers International, 2,527 Vancouver homes sold in the first quarter of 2011 in Vancouver, up 35 percent from 2010. According to the report, the increase in sales was due to a surge of investors from mainland China.— AFP

Shift in petrodollar investment to unnerve Western markets LONDON: The long-standing support from petrodollars for Western financial markets is gradually waning as oil-rich countries favor recycling their windfall revenues closer to home and away from low-yielding developed economies mired in the debt crisis. Big oil producing countries provided a key source of stability and liquidity for developed markets in the past, and their purchases of Western assets also helped mitigate the impact of higher energy costs on economic growth. Petrodollar savings flows over the coming year are expected to hit $70 billion a month, surpassing the level reached during the boom of 2005-2007, as the global economy resumes a recovery after the current soft patch. But low real and expected rates of return in developed markets and debt crises in the euro zone and the United States will dissuade oil producers from making investments in the West. This is especially likely because any oil producers are prioritizing domestic spending, partly because political unrest in the Arab world highlighted the need for redistributing wealth at home. “It’s not so clear-cut now. If you have an oil price rise driven by a supply shock, it’s the tap being turned off. It’s difficult for the economy to adapt,” said Carl Astorri, global head of economics and asset strategy at UK private bank Coutts. “There’s traditionally a silver lining of countries getting these revenues invested back in financial markets. This time around they’re being used to pacify their voters. They are being more recycled at home.” HOME BIAS Following popular revolts in the Middle East and North Africa, countries like Bahrain, Libya and Kuwait increased domestic spending or handed cash outright to their citizens in packages totaling as much as four percent of gross domestic product. Saudi Arabia alone is spending $130 billion, or a staggering 30 percent of its GDP. These countries can more than afford to do so, if Goldman Sachs’ estimate for petrodollar savings flows are anything to go by: the bank forecasts imply $840 billion over the coming year, based on Brent oil at $126.50 a barrel by mid-2012. On a monthly basis, this is second only to the record $90 billion pace reached briefly in July 2008 and compares with $10 billion in March 2009 when Brent oil fell below $50 a barrel. Even for those less affected by the turmoil, the domestic economy may be more attractive destination given faster growth. In the case of Qatar, where the economy is expected to grow 20 percent this year, the government is planning to spend $225 billion in the next five years on new infrastructure projects including road and rail networks. —Reuters

ing rents. Investment in property rose by nearly a third over a year earlier in the first half of this year to 2.63 trillion yuan ($404.6 billion), according to data released Wednesday. Despite 15 months of eﬀorts to cool the housing market, prices remain firm, according to a recent report by Standard Chartered Bank, which surveyed the situation in both large cities and in smaller provincial cities. The government has raised interest rates and bank reserve requirements, repeatedly. Some cities have also hiked the amount of money needed for downpayments and imposed restrictions on families’ purchases of second and third properties. But prices are still rising, though at a slower pace. China’s economic growth slowed to a still-robust 9.5 percent in April-June, giving Beijing room to tighten controls to fight surging inflation, which hit a three-year high of 6.4 percent in June as food prices raced higher. Such increases worry China’s communist leaders as they erode public trust in their ability to continue deliver improving living standards.— AP

Oil halts rally; concerns grow about US deficit 3rd round of stimulus would raise oil’s appeal SINGAPORE: Oil paused yesterday on growing concerns about the budget deficit and credit rating of top consumer the United States, putting the brakes on a rally sparked by the possibility of a new round of economic stimulus. US crude for August fell 2 cents to $98.03 a barrel by 0627 GMT, still up about 2 percent this week, while Brent shed 30 cents to $118.48, less than $9 from this year’s peak above $127. Moody’s Investors Service jolted White House debt talks on Wednesday with a warning that the US may lose its top credit rating in the coming weeks, piling pressure on Washington to lift its debt ceiling. Earlier, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the US central bank was ready to ease monetary policy further in what would be a third round of so-called quantitative easing if economic growth and inflation slowed much more. “People are still skeptical about Bernanke’s comments,” said Tony Nunan, a risk manager with Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Corp. “With their hands tied by the budget, it seems to me they would have a hard time pushing through with another round of quantitative easing. If there is one, investors would come back and there would be more financial demand for oil futures.” The Fed’s second round of quantitative easing, or looser monetary policy to stimulate job creation and economic growth, concluded at the end of June. A continuation of last week’s disappointing U.S. employment data may raise the need for a third one. “Bernanke is making a brave statement,” Nunan said. “It’s important for him to come out and say they want to keep the focus on job growth.” Higher employment boosts fuel consumption. Average US gasoline demand in the last four weeks was down

UMMERN: An employee of German energy supplier RWE works at a drill pipe in the northern German city of Ummern. Russian gas giant Gazprom and German utilities group RWE said yesterday they are looking to form a strategic partnership to construct jointly gas and coal power plants in Europe. — AFP 0.9 percent from year-ago levels, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. Oil prices on Wednesday also rose after government figures showed US crude inventories fell a bigger-than-expected 3.12 million barrels in the week to July 8. Gasoline stocks fell by 840,000 barrels, the

Energy Information Administration said, compared with projections for a 200,000barrel rise, while distillates, including heating oil and diesel, rose 2.97 million barrels, more than seven times as much as expected. Brent’s premium to US crude widened to $22.74 on Wednesday after closing at $20.32 a day earlier. — Reuters

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Overseas growth offsets UK retail pain LONDON: Overseas growth and market share gains are helping British retailers cope with sluggish consumer spending at home and rising raw material costs, updates from chains including Primark , Mothercare and ASOS showed. Discount clothing chain Primark said yesterday it had managed to combine the two, reporting a pick-up in sales growth in its fiscal thirdquarter at a time when most high street rivals are struggling to grow at all, sending its shares 3 percent higher. Online fashion retailer ASOS and baby goods group Mothercare both highlighted strong sales abroad in the face of a weaker British market, while Sports Direct posted a rise in year profit as it benefited from prob-

lems at rival JJB UK-focused retailers are having a torrid time as shoppers are squeezed by rising prices, subdued wages growth and a government austerity drive. A survey on Tuesday showed sales at British stores open over a year fell 0.6 percent year-on-year in June following a 2.1 percent drop in May. Clothing chains have faced extra pressure from a jump in the price of raw materials such as cotton and rising wages in China, where many of them produce their garments. Primark, owned by Associated British Foods, has responded by absorbing most of the cost increases, taking a hit to proﬁt margins in order to protect its lowprice credentials. The move has been

painful. AB Foods cut its full-year earnings guidance in April. But Finance Director John Bason said a pick up in third-quarter sales growth showed the strategy was right. “Our numbers speak for themselves ... Primark has built up huge trust with its consumer base. We’re not going to throw that away for the sake of one cotton price shock,” he said, adding an easing in cotton prices since March should allow margins to recover in the second half of ﬁscal 2011-12. Primark said sales rose 15 percent in the 16 weeks to June 25, boosted by growth in markets like Germany and Spain, and Bason signaled sales at stores open over a year had continued to rise at around the ﬁrsthalf rate of 3 percent, including increases in

Britain and Ireland. “Pretty robust in the current climate,” Credit Suisse analyst Charlie Mills said of Primark’s performance, raising his target price on AB Foods shares to 1,180 pence from 1,060. Marks & Spencer, Britain’s biggest clothing retailer, on Wednesday reported flat underlying sales at its non-food business. AB Foods shares were up 30 pence at 1,088 pence at 1029 GMT, the top riser among European blue-chip stocks . AB Foods, which also markets Silver Spoon sugar, Mazola vegetable oil, Ovaltine drinks and Twining teas, said its grocery arm was also benefiting from growth abroad, offsetting weakness in Britain which led to a profit warning last month from UK-focused Premier Foods.— Reuters

Italy rushes to reform budget Borrowing rates jump BRUSSELS: Luxembourg’s Prime Minister and Eurogroup president Jean-Claude Juncker (left) talks to European Central Bank president Jean Claude Trichet prior to the start of the Eurogroup meeting at the EU Headquarters in Brussels. — AFP

Eurozone banking stress tests due amid turmoil LONDON: The European Union this week publishes results of stress tests on Europe’s embattled banking sector amid a dangerous phase in the eurozone debt crisis that threatens to engulf Italy and Spain. The European Banking Authority, the EU’s London-based regulator for the financial sector, has carried out assessments on 91 banks representing 65 percent of the sector and will publish its findings at 1600 GMT today. The purpose is “to assess the resilience of European banks to severe shocks and establish a common, conservative stress testing benchmark,” the EBA said on Wednesday. However, no default is assumed in the tests. The EBA’s tests come at a crucial time, after the long-term cost of borrowing for Italy and Spain reached record highs this week, amid intensifying concern over sky-high levels of public debt. “The forthcoming European bank stress tests put in the spotlight a common channel of contagion: investors’ concerns about European banks’ exposure to peripheral euro area debt markets, which could eventually constrain these banks’ ability to lend, or worse still, lead to forced develeraging,” Barclays Capital analysts said in a research note. “A long lasting lending crunch is a likely conclusion if the results of today’s bank stress tests show that bank capital is scant.” The stress tests will seek to establish whether the banks can weather a series of adverse scenarios over the next two years. They include a worsening in the eurozone sovereign debt crisis, a global negative demand shock in the United States, sliding property markets, and major depreciation in the US dollar. Traders are speculating that between 10-15 financial institutions could fail the crucial new assessment. In a gloomy development on Wednesday, German regional bank Helaba announced it had failed to pass. The new tests are designed to combat criticism over last year’s banking sector review which found that just seven out of the 91 European banks inspected were vulnerable to economic stress. Of the 91 lenders examined in 2010, five in Spain, one in Germany and one in Greece failed to pass. —AFP

MILAN: Italian borrowing rates spiked yesterday just as parliament rushed to adopt huge budget cuts to save the economy, the third-biggest in the eurozone, from being dragged down by the debt crisis The bond auction was successful but the rate on 15-year bonds rose to 5.90 percent-the highest level since the introduction of the euro, indicating investor unease following days of market turmoil and political uncertainty. The rate on ﬁve-year bonds was at its highest level since June 2008. The Senate, or upper house of parliament, was expected to give initial approval to a four-year crash austerity plan now raised to an estimated 47 billion euros ($67 billion) from 40 billion euros after investor pressure. Italy has one of the highest debt levels in the world and one of the lowest growth rates in Europe and reports of inﬁghting between Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti have spooked investors. “If we don’t have a balanced budget then public debt-a monster from our past-would devour our future and the future of our children. The world is watching us,” Tremonti told parliamentarians ahead of the Senate vote. He also warned other European governments on the fallout of the crisis. “There should be no illusions about who will be saved.

Like on the Titanic, the first class passengers won’t be able to save themselves,” he said. Tremonti proposed introducing a constitutional provision that would force Italian governments to keep balanced budgets-a measure already in force in Germany that President Nicolas Sarkozy is also trying to enact in France. Business daily Il Sole 24 Ore said that “the nightmare of one of Europe’s founding states defaulting... has set off a strong and targeted reaction” from Italy’s parliament, which is approving the austerity budget in record time. The lower house of parliament is set to give its final approval today. The main centre-left opposition Democratic Party has said it will vote against the program but will not impeded its passage through parliament. It has called for fresh elections after the approval of the austerity plan. Opposition leaders said Berlusconi had lost his credibility over the crisis. The austerity plan is aimed at bringing Italy’s budget deficit down to 0.2 percent of gross domestic product by 2014 from 4.6 percent last year. It includes plans for a round of privatizations from 2013, a freeze on public sector salaries and hiring and a new charge for health check-ups. The austerity measures also include a sped-up partial reform of pensions and a crackdown on tax exemp-

tions in a bid to drum up revenues. The Milan stock exchange was down 1.56 percent after the bond auction with banks and insurers suffering the biggest falls. Intesa SanPaolo, Italy’s second biggest bank led the plunge with shares dropping 3.11 percent to 1.591 euros. Luca Cazzulani, a bond analyst at UniCredit bank said the market reaction was “irrational” since demand for Italian bonds “remains solid.” Milan economics professor Guido Tabellini said the rise in Italy’s cost of borrowing rates on financial markets in recent days could spell danger. “Another couple of weeks like this and Italy is out of the market,” he said. European leaders are facing demands for rapid action to fight a debt crisis that has pushed up market volatility, but diplomats say there are still too many divisions over a key issue-agreeing a second rescue package for Greece. The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday said that Greece would need another 104 billion euros (148 billion dollars) in aid with two-thirds coming from the European Union and around one-third from private creditors. The IMF warned Greece has little margin of error to avoid defaulting on its 330 billion euros of debt, saying: “Capital account pressures in Greece remain acute, and Greece continues to face extremely high spreads.”— AFP

UK fuel poverty up again LONDON: The number of English households spending more than a tenth of their income to stay warm is expected to rise this year, having jumped 20 percent in 2009, a government report found yesterday. Utilities including Centrica and Scottish Power have recently announced double-digit gas and power price rises as energy inﬂation crimps consumer spending during a fragile economic recovery. The government on Tuesday pro-

posed new support for more expensive renewable wind and nuclear power, arguing that the country needed to “get oﬀ the hook” of imported fossil fuels, prices of which are projected to rise over the long-run. Yesterday’s report showed that fuel poverty in England rose yearon-year from 2004-2009, and said that it was likely to rise again this year. “Fuel poverty is projected to remain at around 4.0 million households in England in

2010 and rise slightly to 4.1 million in 2011,” it said. Fuel poverty is deﬁned as households that spend more than a tenth of their income on energy to stay warm. The new data showed that across Britain fuel poverty jumped by 1 million households to 5.5 million in 2009. In England, there were 4 million fuel-poor households in 2009 compared with 3.3 million in 2008. —Reuters

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Charter considers sweetened Melrose bid Charter shares up 1.5%, Melrose up 0.8% LONDON: Charter International said it is considering an improved offer from manufacturing buyout firm Melrose that could value the British industrial tool maker at 1.4 billion pounds ($2.2 billion). Charter said the 840 pence per cash and stock offer - 8 percent higher than a preliminary offer from Melrose-is conditional on financing and due diligence. The company had called the previous 780

pence per share bid “opportunistic” and too low, and a top-10 shareholder told Reuters that Charter’s board was trying to “ﬂush out white knights,” including US-based rival Lincoln Electric. Analysts have indicated that Charter could eventually be sold for as much as 900 pence a share, or $2.6 billion. In a separate statement issued yesterday, Melrose said the majority of the revised oﬀer would be sat-

isﬁed by the issue of Melrose shares. “Melrose would include a ‘mix and match’ election within its proposed oﬀer structure, allowing Charter shareholders to elect for more cash or more equity consideration, depending on their and other shareholders’ elections,” it said. A cash and stock bid would give Charter shareholders a chance to gain from any increases in the value of Melrose shares, which have per-

formed strongly and are up 16 percent since the start of the year. Meanwhile, in the days before oﬀer talks were made public, Charter shares fell 27 percent in two months as the company battled management issues amid falling sales at its core unit. Charter shares were up 1.5 percent at 829.5 pence at 1010 GMT yesterday, while Melrose shares were up 0.8 percent at 364.9 pence. — Reuters

Obama, foes clash as US debt talks flare up Global warnings raise stakes in debt standoff

BEIJING: The European Union’s trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht (left) speaks as China’s Commerce Minister Chen Deming looks on at a press conference in Beijing yesterday. The EU’s trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht and China’s Commerce Minister Chen Deming met in the Joint Committee yesterday. — AFP

US economy worries China BEIJING: China is watching whether the Federal Reserve launches a new stimulus that might hurt China by pushing up commodity prices, a Cabinet researcher said yesterday. The US economy “has been doing worse than expected” and Beijing needs to “seriously assess” possible risks to its vast holdings of American debt, said Yu Bin, an economist in the Cabinet’s Development Research Center. “The prospects of the US economy are worrying,” Yu said at a government-organized briefing. Beijing uses such briefings to explain official views, though the researchers do not act as government spokespeople. Yu expressed concern about a possible third round of Fed purchases of government bonds, known as “quantitative easing” or QE. He said that might hurt China by depressing the value of the dollar and driving up prices of commodities needed by its industries. Most commodities are traded in dollars. The Fed bought $600 billion in bonds late last year and early this year to keep interest rates low and support prices of assets such as stocks. On Wednesday, Chairman Ben Bernanke said the Fed was ready to take action if the US economy weakens and said a third round of purchases was a possible option. “We are following closely whether the United States will introduce QE3, because we believe it will have a major impact on China’s economy,” said Yu, director-general of the Development Research Center’s Department of Macroeconomic Research. “The drastic rise in commodity prices caused by the devaluation of the US dollar will have a major impact on inflation, on economic growth and on Chinese people’s daily lives.” Yu warned that such a move also would affect the “longterm trajectory of the US economy.” “Therefore, I believe the United States should be careful,” he said. China held some $1.15 trillion in US Treasury debt as of the end of April, according to the latest US government data. Chinese leaders have repeatedly appealed to Washington to avoid taking steps in response to US economic weakness that might erode the value of the dollar and Beijing’s holdings. “As the largest buyer and holder of US Treasury bonds, we need to seriously assess the risks,” Yu said. Yu said Beijing could reduce risks by restructuring its portfolio of foreign reserves and assets, though he gave no details. And he said that in the long run, Beijing has to keep a reasonable level of foreign reserves. Moody’s Investors Service on Wednesday said it was reviewing the US bond rating for a possible downgrade, saying there is a small but rising risk that the government will default. — AP

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama clashed sharply with a top Republican foe yesterday as tense talks to avert a ruinous early August US debt default flared up amid grim warnings about the global consequences. US central bank chief Ben Bernanke said a default would plunge the economy into “major crisis,” while ratings agency Moody’s warned the United States may lose its sterling triple-A debt rating on rising risks of a short-term default. Default would “throw shockwaves through the entire global financial system,” and risk sending the fragile US economy into a new recession, the US Federal Reserve chairman told a key congressional committee. Obama, who was to hold a fifth straight day of negotiations with Republicans and fellow Democrats at 4:15 pm (2015 GMT) yesterday, planned to take stock of the seemingly stalemated process today, a Democratic aide said. “Friday is not a hard deadline,” the aide told reporters after the contentious discussions wrapped up their fourth day, but “the clock is ticking, they have to get this done.” Obama needs the Republican-led House of Representatives and Democratic-held Senate to sign off on a deal to close the yawning US deficit while allowing cash-strapped Washington to borrow past an August 2 deadline. The president, who has pressed for a comprehensive deal to last through his 2012 reelection campaign, was sending Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to brief Senate Democrats Thursday on the state of the negotiations. Obama has called for cuts to social safety net programs dear to Democrats while pushing for tax hikes on the rich, a step rejected by Republicans who charge doing so will smother investment and crush already weak job growth. Tensions boiled over Wednesday, with Obama heatedly rejected Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s push for a short-term deal anchored on spending cuts, according to key Republican and Democratic aides. Obama said he would veto such a stopgap measure, warned Cantor “don’t call my bluff,” and declared himself ready to take his case to US voters, agreed aides on both sides, who described the events on condition of anonymity. Republican aides described Obama as storming out

WASHINGTON: People arrive at the US Chamber of Commerce second annual jobs summit in Washington, DC. The US Chamber of Commerce hosted the Jobs for America Summit that focused on the challenges and factors that influence job creation in a global economy. — AFP of the meeting in a huff, while their Democratic counterparts said that the presidential rebuke left Cantor chastised and speechless. “I’ve reached my limit. This may bring my presidency down, but I will not yield on this,” according to a Republican aide. The president’s message was “enough posturing, he said ‘enough is enough.’ He did not abruptly walk out. He was done with the meeting, everyone was done with the meeting, and he left,” said a Democratic aide. An aide to Republican House Speaker John Boehner later signaled that the lawmaker was prepared to accept a short-term deal in which spending cuts outweigh the debt limit increase and tax hikes are off the table. The shift to a stopgap could clear the way for a plan crafted by Republican Senate Minority Mitch McConnell, whose proposal would effectively see the debt limit rise only with Democratic votes and without guaranteeing spending cuts. Leading Democrats and the White House greeted McConnell’s proposal carefully, but it was unclear whether the plan would rally enough Republican support to pass the divided US

Congress. Republicans have embraced fiscal discipline since Obama took office, after years in which they backed massive tax cuts and rejected paying for wars in Afghanistan and Iraq or a costly increase in a popular health care program. Obama has called for daily talks to reach a deal to lift the US debt ceiling, now at $14.29 trillion, in the face of a budget deficit expected to hit $1.6 trillion this year. The US hit the ceiling on May 16 and has used spending and accounting adjustments, as well as higher-thanexpected tax receipts, to continue operating without impact on government obligations. But by August 2, the government will have to begin withholding payments to bond holders, civil servants, retirees or government contractors. The prospect of a default led Moody’s to place US debt on a downgrade watch, citing prospects that talks may not reach a deal in time to “prevent a missed payment of interest or principal on outstanding bonds and notes.” “Moody’s considers the probability of a default on interest payments to be low,” the agency said. — AFP

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Dubai Holding repays $304.9 million bond DUBAI: Dubai Holding Commercial Operations Group (DHCOG), a unit of the conglomerate owned by Dubai’s ruler yesterday said it had repaid a 250 million Swiss franc ($304.9 million) bond, maturing yesterday. “Dubai Holding Commercial Operations Group is committed to meeting its financial obligations as they fall due,” the company said in a statement to the bourse. The company, the main unit of Dubai Holding, had said it would repay the Swiss franc bond when it announced its annual results in April, a move positively received by investors. DHCOG, which reported a return to profit in 2010 after a massive loss the previous year, and its parent Dubai Holding are part of a matrix of firms known informally as Dubai Inc, which includes conglomerate Dubai World. Dubai Inc firms were badly battered by the financial crisis and a subsequent property collapse that plunged Dubai into a debt crisis in 2009. Measures such as timely repayment of debt maturities as they fall due are likely to further improve sentiment towards Dubai but worries remain about the ongoing restructuring of another Dubai Holding unit, Dubai Group. DHCOG assets include the Jumeirah hotel group and business parks and hospitality units.—Reuters

S African strikes spark panic buying of petrol Prolonged strike could hurt growth prospects JOHANNESBURG: Scores of filling stations in South Africa were out of petrol yesterday due to strikes, raising concerns about a fuel shortage that could hit Africa’s largest economy. Tens of thousands of workers in the sector began walking off the job on Monday, delaying fuel deliveries and sparking panic buying at service stations in the country’s economic hub of Gauteng province, which includes Johannesburg. Refineries were still operating and petrol was being delivered to most petrol stations, indicating no immediate economic damage, but a prolonged and widening strike could hurt the transport sector and prospects for growth. The Fuel Retailers Association said more than 150 service stations in Gauteng had run dry by close of business on Wednesday. “The situation is worsening and if we don’t manage it properly, we might end up with a crisis next week,” said Reggie Sibiya, the FRA’s chief executive officer.

Many deliveries were hampered by intimidation from striking workers at depots, producers said. Unions and employers are locked in their mid-year bargaining session known as “strike season”, with many labor groups seeking wage increases that far exceed inflation. The Solidarity union, which represents about 6,000 skilled workers, yesterday joined the strike by about 70,000 workers mainly from the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers Union. CEPPWAWU members stopped work on Monday, demanding 13 percent wage increases, about triple the inflation rate, and above the 4 to 7 percent offered by employers. Other, smaller unions have also joined the strike. At a Caltex station near Johannesburg’s financial district of Sandton, Debbie Edery said after topping up her tank: “It’s disastrous. My husband had to leave his office today to go look for petrol. I don’t

know how we will get to work next week”. CEPPWAWU has said the strike will run into next week and no talks are planned. Employers in the sector include BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell, petrochemicals group Sasol , state-owned energy group PetroSA, Chevron and Total . Central bank and Treasury officials have said high wage increases threaten the outlook for inflation and the long-term prospects for the economy. A strike in the steel and engineering sector entered its second week on Monday, with the industry expecting substantial production and financial losses. The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) and employers in the sector are considering a compromise proposal put forward by the bargaining council, hoping they can avert the strike going into a third week. Possible strikes also loom in South Africa’s platinum, coal and gold industries. — Reuters

EU and Canada trade pact stalls BRUSSELS: Talks about a free-trade pact between Europe and Canada stalled this week as negotiators disagreed on how to open public contracts and services markets to each other’s operators. It now seems unlikely a pact that could add billions to annual income and strengthen transatlantic ties will be signed this year as planned, people briefed on the issue said. “It’s moving, but it’s slow. It’s clear the delay is on the European side,” Jason Langrish, director of the Canada Europe Round Table for Business, told Reuters. EU trade oﬃcials declined to comment and the Canadian government did not respond to requests for comment. The delay raises further doubts about a trade agreement that has come under increasing ﬁre from political and campaign groups on both sides. Some critics say a deal would boost the exploitation of controversial oil sands

deposits in Canada; others reject the opening of sensitive sectors such as drinking water, health and defence to market competition on both sides. But appetite among EU and Canadian businesses remains strong for a deal. SERVICES, PROCUREMENT AND INVESTMENT European capitals, armed with a veto on any deal negotiated by the EU’s executive Commission, have been slow to agree what services to exempt from Canadian competition, said Langrish and campaigners briefed on the talks by Canadian negotiators. EU states have also taken longer than expected to agree what guarantees a pact should oﬀer for Canadian investments in Europe and European investments in Canada, particularly in the energy and mining sectors, they said. —Reuters

Taiwanese group to buy AIG unit TAIPEI: The Taiwanese ﬁnancial regulator yesterday said a local conglomerate had met its conditional requirements to buy US insurance giant AIG’s Taiwan unit, closing the $2.16 billion deal. The Ruen Chen consortium led by Ruentex, one of Taiwan’s biggest conglomerates, will be allowed to acquire 97.57 percent of the shares controlled by AIG in its Taiwan unit Nan Shan Life, Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission said in a statement. The Commission last month conditionally approved the deal but demanded the buyer meet some other requirements. Among them was an additional Tw$6 billion ($207.6 million) in a custodial account, bringing the total amount of cash deposited in the account to Tw$30 billion, the Commission said. As a show of its long-term commitment to the insurer, Ruen Chen also agreed to keep all of its shares in Nan Shan in a trust for 10 years, and placed 70 percent of

holders’ shares in Ruen Chen in a trust for 10 years, it said. Troubled AIG, short of cash to repay a US government bailout, announced the planned sale of Nan Shan to the consortium in January in its second bid to find a buyer. Ruentex is a sprawling conglomerate with interests in sectors as diverse as construction, textiles and finance. AIG sold Nan Shan Life to a consortium led by Hong Kong-based Primus Financial Holdings for $2.15 billion in 2009, but the deal was rejected by the Taiwanese regulator last year. Taipei said the Hong Kong group lacked the experience needed to manage an insurer and argued it had failed to provide a long-term management commitment, claims rejected by the consortium. The rejection dealt a blow to AIG, once the world’s largest insurer, which has been selling assets to pay back US government loans since its rescue from collapse during the 2008 financial crisis.— AFP

TEHRAN: Iranian caretaker Oil Minister Mohammad Aliabadi (left) speaks to Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi as they attend the inauguration ceremony of Iran’s international oil stock exchange in Tehran on July 13, 2011. —AFP

Rare Iran gas oil cargo booked for Singapore SINGAPORE: Iran is set to ship a rare cargo of gas oil to Singapore this week, shipbrokers and traders said yesterday. The move surprised traders who said Iran was short on refining capacity and had difficulty importing oil products because of international sanctions over its nuclear program. The vessel Horizon Diana has been chartered to move 60,000 tons of the refined product from Iran to the city state for loading on July 16, two shipbrokers said. Details of the charterer are not known. “We’re more accustomed to seeing Iranian fuel oil than gas oil coming here. There’s also a lot of distillates supply now in the region,” said a distillates trader with an Asian trading house. “It would likely be very poor quality gas oil compared to what’s available in Singapore,” he added. Singapore’s onshore inventories of middle distillates hit a 71/2-month high of 16.1 million barrels for the week ended 6 July, before easing to just under

16 million barrels in the past week, government data showed yesterday. Various Iranian officials have said in recent months the country is now self-sufficient in oil products and has even started exporting it, but many external energy market experts have dismissed the claim it has made up for the imports. Iran’s latest refinery project-an expansion of its 100-year-old Abadan plant-suffered a fatal explosion and fire in May when it was being inaugurated by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Some politicians have said the new plant was rushed on stream too quickly. Iranian deputy oil minister Ali-Reza Zeighami said last month that Iran would export 1.5 million liters per day of diesel to Iraq, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency. Western sanctions-aimed at pressuring Tehran over the nuclear program some countries say is aimed at making atomic bombs-were tightened a year ago to exploit Iran’s lack of domestic refinery capacity. — Reuters

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Qatari Diar cuts staff, in strategy shift DUBAI: Qatar sovereign fund’s property investment arm, Qatari Diar, is eliminating staﬀ and cutting costs as the company seeks to overhaul its strategic goals, a regional daily reported yesterday, citing sources close to the company. Qatari Diar has cut 30 positions in recent weeks, bringing staﬀ count to 350, down from its peak of 600 employees two years ago, The National reported. In addition, Qatar’s Finance Minister Yousef Hussein Kamal has

replaced Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad Al Thani as chairman of the company last month, sources told the paper. Qatari Diar declined to comment on the staﬀ reduction or the appointment of a new chairman. The company, which has plans to redevelop London’s Chelsea Barracks site, is in the process of deciding whether to be an investment company or a property developer as its refocuses its strategy, one

source told the paper. The company’s regional projects include mixed-use projects in Syria and Yemen and a resort in Morocco worth nearly $1.5 billion combined, according to its website. It also owns the 71-storey mixeduse Shard Tower in London. Qatar plans to spend over $125 billion in the next five years on construction and energy projects according to its new development strategy. The tiny Gulf Arab state, the world’s largest exporter

Yell shares plummet as recovery proves elusive Shares down 18 percent LONDON: British directories publisher Yell Group Plc frustrated hopes of a recovery in its core business, saying trading was no better than previous guidance and sending its shares some 20 percent lower. “What’s disappointing is something that, quite frankly, shouldn’t be that surprising, which is that the current trading is as poor as it has been for the last two years and there’s no sign of it getting any better,” said analyst Alan Howard at brokerage Canaccord Genuity. Shares in Yell, which had risen sharply in recent sessions in heavy volume in anticipation of a turnaround strategy also set out yesterday, slumped 18 percent to 9 pence by 0918 GMT having fallen as low as 8.68p. Yell, which said in May it did not expect an improvement in the economic environment, said its guidance for earnings in the 2011-2012 finan-

cial year was unchanged and current trading was in line with expectations. “The fundamental problem that they have is exposure to very poor performing economies - UK, US A, Spain, a small business sector with very low levels of confidence and on top of that, a very fragile balance sheet,” Howard added. Yell’s recovery plan follows a sixmonth review and focuses on a digital strategy which the company said will help it return to growth. The heavilyindebted company, which was relatively slow to adapt to the shift to online advertising, said its new strategy includes a four-year plan to create local online marketplaces where it can generate revenue by charging fees for bringing customers and local suppliers together. Under the plan, Yell believes revenue and earnings will return to growth by 2015, adding the group

expects to see a 100 million pound ($160 million) reduction in fixed costs during the 2012 and 2013 period. “At this point we don’t want to hang any hard numbers on this,” Chief Financial Oﬃcer Tony Bates said in a phone interview when he was asked how much revenue and earnings were expected to grow. Bankers said Yell, which narrowly avoided insolvency in 2009 and had net debt of 2.8 billion pounds at March 31 compared with its current market value of around 218 million pounds, is exploring options for its debt pile and has already been talking to its major lenders. “We are meeting all of our covenants right now, we are meeting our interest payments, there’s no requirement on us to actually go and have a conversation about doing anything in respect of debt which matures in 2014,” Bates said.— Reuters

of liquefied natural gas (LNG), is facing an oversupply of commercial and residential property with more units expected to enter the market soon. “The real estate market has been muted in Qatar, just as we have seen in UAE,” said Philippe Dauba Pantanacce, a Dubai-based senior economist at Standard Chartered. “Qatar is still in an environment of large oversupply. This will put pressure on real estate companies.”—Reuters

China almost doubles rare earth export quota BEIJING: China yesterday nearly doubled the export quota of rare earths for the second half of the year to 15,738 tons, amid tensions with trade partners over its grip on the shipments of raw materials. The quota for the next six months of the year is up 97.3 percent from the 7,976 tons set for the same period last year, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce. It was unclear whether the quota covered iron alloys containing rare earths a rule Beijing announced in May as part of eﬀorts to further tighten control over the increasingly lucrative metals. China produces more than 95 percent of the world’s rare earths - 17 elements critical to manufacturing everything from iPods to low-emission cars and missiles. Beijing, keen to burnish its green credentials and tighten its grip over the highly sought-after metals, has started cleaning up the industry by closing illegal mines, restricting overseas shipments and hiking export taxes. In December, it slashed the export quota of the metals for the first half of the year to around 14,450 tons, down 35 percent from the same period in 2010, after cutting the maximum by 72 percent for the second half of 2009. The moves have led to a spike in international prices of the elements and triggered mounting complaints from foreign buyers. EU trade commissioner Karel De Gucht last week urged Beijing to “ensure free and fair access to rare earth supplies” when the World Trade Organization ruled against China’s export restrictions on some other raw materials than the metals. —AFP

Singapore economy stalls as manufacturing slumps SINGAPORE: Singapore’s economy stalled in the second quarter as manufacturing slumped amid weaker global demand for the city-state’s exports. Gross domestic product grew 0.5 percent in the April to June period from a year earlier, the Trade and Industry Ministry said yesterday. Industrial production slid 5.5 percent while services expanded 3.3 percent, the ministry said. Singapore enjoyed record economic growth last year as the global economy recovered from recession and two new casino-resorts boosted tourist arrivals. GDP surged 14.5 percent in 2010, and the government in May said it expected growth of up to 7 percent this year after a 9.3 percent expansion in the first quarter. But the expansion petered out last quarter as production of electronics and pharmaceuticals dropped, the ministry said. The economy contracted a seasonally adjusted and annualized 7.8 percent from the first quarter as manufacturing plunged 23 percent. “The Singapore economy’s rollercoaster ride continues with a vengeance,” said Robert Prior-Wandesforde, an economist with Credit Suisse in Singapore. “The fundamentals point to a soft patch rather than any-

thing more serious.” Higher oil prices, a struggling Japanese economy in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake and tsunami and Europe’s ongoing debt crisis all helped dampen global economic growth in the second quarter. China said Wednesday that its economy grew 9.5 percent in the second quarter, slowing slightly from 9.7 percent in the previous quarter. Singapore has sought in recent years to develop its tourism industry in a bid to become less dependent on manufacturing. Along with casinos built by Las Vegas Sands and Malaysia’s Genting, a slew of flashy new malls have sprung up in the last two years on the island’s Orchard Road shopping strip, bringing in visitors from countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and China. “Singapore is the hub of Southeast Asia for luxury shopping,” said Jean-Baptiste Debains, Asia-Pacific president for luxury goods maker Louis Vuitton, in an interview on Wednesday. Debains said LV plans to open its fifth store in Singapore in September. The second quarter economic data is preliminary and is compiled mostly from April and May statistics, said the ministry, which is scheduled to release complete figures next month.—AP

TOKYO: Money traders work under a screen flashing the US dollar against the Japanese yen at a foreign exchange in Tokyo yesterday. Exporters lost ground as the dollar weakened against the yen, which reduces the value of overseas profits when repatriated.—AP

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Spirit Airlines stands by ‘ultra low fares’

MIAMI: Standing before a luggage scale at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Rita Coskey was not happy with Spirit Airlines. As she struggled to lighten her overweight suitcase _ and avoid total baggage fees of $63 - the 25-year-old New Yorker renewed her vow to avoid the low-fare, fee-intensive airline for future travel. “I remember saying the same thing, I’ll never fly them again,” Coskey said. “When I saw it was cheap, I forgot all that.” It’s not that CEO Ben Baldanza doesn’t care about such complaints. But, he wonders, what do customers like Coskey expect? “No one gets surprised when you go into McDonald’s and don’t see filet mignon on the menu,” he said. Spirit Airlines Inc is unapologetically not filet mignon. The company prides itself on keeping costs low, offering the cheapest fares around and charging high fees for extras as basic as carry-on luggage and agent-printed boarding passes. That low-cost ethos trickles all the way up to the company’s humble headquarters in Miramar, Fla., where there is no receptionist, employees take out their own trash and the overhead lights operate on a minimum number of light bulbs when they’re even used. “We try to not spend money on things that our customers don’t really care about,” Baldanza said. “Our customers don’t care how nice my office is or how palatial our headquarters are.” NO MATTER THE COST While alienating some fliers, the no-amenity strategy has kept the company profitable since 2007. Spirit saw a net income of $7.9 million for the three months that ended March 31 - a stretch when the country’s five biggest airlines reported a loss of more than $1 billion combined. Despite a weakerthan-expected initial offering of public stock in late May, the company that uses SAVE as its stock symbol is earning admiration from Wall Street. “SAVE is the newest business model in town with absolutely no frills, small enough to grow capacity by 17 percent per year through 2015, and even lower unit costs than (JetBlue) and (Southwest), which should enable SAVE to profitably stimulate demand in new/existing markets through discounting tickets 1/3 below competitors,” wrote Citigroup analyst Will Randow in a July 5 investment advice note. Spirit’s business model may be relatively new, but the firm itself dates back nearly five decades, when it was founded as Clippert Trucking Company. Over the years, it became a charter tour operator, air charter and eventually a scheduled passenger airline called Spirit. Spirit chose Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport as its base in 2004 because of its low costs and proximity to Caribbean and Latin American destinations. Today, the airline is Fort Lauderdale’s largest carrier, with 19 percent of total passenger traffic for the first five months of 2011. The move to a low-cost approach came after investment management corporation Oaktree Capital Management gained control of the company following investments in 2004 and 2005. Indigo

Partners, a private equity fund with stakes in five other discount airlines around the world including Tiger Airways, Volaris and Avianova, acquired a majority stake in 2006. Spirit started shifting to a model the company calls “ultra low cost” after Indigo took majority ownership, using as an example Ireland’s much-criticized but historically successful budget carrier Ryanair. On Ryanair, base tickets may cost only a few dollars, but nearly everything else costs extra - including checked baggage, reserved seats and paying by means other than the company’s approved debit card. Since 2006, non-ticket revenue per passenger flight segment has mushroomed 600 percent. That revenue includes Spirit’s credit card, annual subscription to a club that allows access to the lowest rates and sales of advertising aboard planes. And yes, fees, where Spirit is the industry leader. It was one of the first US carriers to charge for checked bags in 2007 - a practice that even many legacy carriers have since adopted. And in 2010, Spirit pioneered charges for carry-on bags too big to fit under the seat. Last year, the airline ranked first among 20 carriers in fees as a percent of total operating revenue. According to government statistics, Spirit charged more than $104 million in bag and reservation change fees in 2010, accounting for 13.4 percent of its total operating revenue of nearly $780 million. All told, US airlines last year collected almost $5.7 billion from those two categories of fees. Recently, Spirit announced that boarding passes printed at the airport by an agent would cost $5 starting Nov 1. But the airline emphasized that printing at home and at kiosks for the next year would be free, and base fares would be reduced by $5. The fee-heavy strategy and other service practices related to Spirit’s tight cost structure have prompted rants on social media and user review sites such as Yelp. Complaints about long airport waits, delayed flights, poor service, cramped seats and fees for items as basic as water on a plane are common. Countered Baldanza: “You’re going to think I’m a jerk when I say the next thing, but if you have some sort of medical condition that requires you take a certain pill at 2 in the afternoon and you’re going to be on the plane at 2 in the afternoon, I think it’s going to be OK to expect that people are going to be responsible enough to make sure that they can take that pill.” In other words, pay the $3 for a bottle of water on board, or bring your own - though you’ll need to purchase that after you pass through security. Not all of its practices have passed government inspection, however. Spirit was ordered by the Department of Transportation to pay a $375,000 fine in 2009 for its procedures for bumping passengers from oversold flights and its handling of lost or damaged baggage, though the company only had to pay $215,000. The airline is now challenging some new DOT consumer protection rules. “They don’t want to be loved,” said George Hobica, founder of travel site Airfarewatchdog.com. But, he

said: “Nobody beats them pricewise - even with the fees.” Still, when it comes to more extreme ideas floated by Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary - such as charging for bathroom use and having passengers carry their own checked bags to the plane - Baldanza, who made $607,360 last year, says no. “In terms of what we’re willing to charge for, it’s really when we can make something an option,” he said. “We’re not going to charge for bathrooms because we don’t think bathrooms are optional.” Baldanza said he only considers adding fees that customers can avoid if they change behavior. “If you behave in a way that saves Spirit money, we’ll let you save that money,” he said. “If you behave in a way that costs us money, then we’re going to charge you that incremental cost.” In the past five years, he said, Spirit’s average base fare has dropped from $104 to $77 while fees have gone up from $5 to $35. The overall increase, he said, amounts to $3. Robert Mann, president of airline industry analysis firm RW Mann & Company, gives Spirit credit for that trade-off. He said most airlines add costs without giving customers anything in return. “When they talk about cutting the cost of something, a lot of that actually gets delivered to customers in the form of lower base fares,” he said. Spirit uses the “ultra low cost” moniker to distinguish itself from low-cost airlines such as Southwest and JetBlue. Those airlines win customers with prices that are often - but not always - cheaper than larger legacy carriers and passenger-friendly perks such as free checked bags, TVs and comfy seats. “On JetBlue you’re going to have more leg room and you’re going to be able to watch a TV, which are both very nice things,” Baldanza said. “But on Spirit, our fares are going to be lower.” Spirit crams in the most seats allowed by the government, so they’re more fuel-efficient and costeffective. But seat pitch is less than the industry average for economy class, and comfort is a secondary concern. Aircraft are utilized nearly 13 hours a day on average. The bottom line, according to Citigroup’s Randow, is that Spirit’s cost per available seat mile is more than 30 percent lower than the industry average, six percent below Southwest’s and 24 percent lower than JetBlue’s. That math includes adjustments for stage length, or the length of an airline’s average flight. Spirits now flies 35 planes - all Airbus A319, A320 or A321 models - to 46 US, Caribbean and Latin American destinations, and has another 33 aircraft on order for delivery by 2015. The average fleet age is four years, which keeps maintenance costs low for now. The company’s past model has been to lease its planes; Baldanza said Spirit hasn’t yet committed to how it will finance upcoming deliveries. Future routes haven’t yet been announced, but Baldanza said the ideal destinations will already be served by airlines that charge high fares and operate at higher costs. “When those are the case, we generally find that we can go in and lower the fares, stimulate the market, create more people flying,” he

said. “We’re trying to grow the market with lower fares.” The company is looking for balanced growth both in the US and internationally; in June, the airline announced new routes from Las Vegas and Chicago as well as flights from Fort Lauderdale to Toluca, Mexico, and San Salvador, El Salvador. Company filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission indicate that the Caribbean and Latin America are principal target growth markets for both leisure travelers and price-sensitive customers who want to visit friends and family back home. That segment is key to an airline’s survival in rocky economic times, said Ray Neidl, aerospace specialist at investment bank brokerage Maxim Group. “It’s the bottom economic strata; a lot of ethnic traffic that goes home that is very price-conscious,” Neidl said. “People want to go home, and they will pay, good times or bad.” Corporate travelers whose companies might pay for travel or who just want a more comfortable flying experience are not Spirit’s key market. Guys like Bruce Lamberto, on the other hand, fit their profile perfectly. He watches for sales, uses the Spirit credit card to earn mileage, and belongs to the $9 Fare Club so he can access the cheapest routes. To avoid baggage fees, the City of Miami Beach employee carries a bag small enough to fit under the seat in front of him, which is free. And he keeps his expectations low - not a bad idea when the airline you fly had a 73.1 percent on-time performance in 2010, compared to an average of 79.8 percent for 18 US carriers. “It’s a trade-off,” Lamberto said. “You want to fly for cheap, that’s what you get for cheap.” Lamberto uses Spirit for regular trips to Panama, a route that used to cost $400 or $500 and now costs about $250. He flew with his son and girlfriend to Niagara Falls recently for $152, total. “I’m not, like, a big fan of them, but where can you go for those kinds of fares?” asked Lamberto, 49. “I’m glad they exist.” His only major complaint about Spirit came last summer, when a pilot strike grounded flights for five days. Thousands of passengers were affected, and the strike was a blow to the company’s coffers as well. Operating income dropped from $111 million in 2009 to nearly $69 million in 2010 due to the strike and cost of fuel. Net income fell from $83.7 million in 2009 to $72.5 million in 2010, though that would have been much lower without a one-time $52 million tax benefit unrelated to the strike. Spirit’s low labor costs help them stay profitable, said Robert Herbst, founder of AirlineFinancials.com. The carrier pays 20 percent of its total revenue for wages and benefits, among the lowest in the industry. With a new contract in place through 2015 that includes pay raises, pilots are happier employees, said Capt. Sean Creed, head of the Spirit unit of the Air Line Pilots Association.—MCT

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FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

Libya and problem with The Hague By George Friedman

he war in Libya has been under way for months, without any indication of when it might end. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s faction has been stronger and more cohesive than imagined and his enemies weaker and more divided. This is not unusual. There is frequently a perception that dictators are widely hated and that their power will collapse when challenged. That is certainly true at times, but often the power of a dictator is rooted in the broad support of an ideological faction, an ethnic group or simply those who benefit from the regime. As a result, naive assumptions of rapid regime change are quite often replaced by the reality of protracted conflict. This has been a characteristic of what we have called “humanitarian wars,” those undertaken to remove a repressive regime and replace it with one that is more representative. Defeating a tyrant is not always easy. Gaddafi did not manage to rule Libya for 42 years without some substantial support. Nevertheless, one would not expect that, faced with opposition from a substantial antiregime faction in Libya as well as NATO and many other countries, Gaddafi would retain control of a substantial part of both the country and the army. Y et when we look at the situation carefully, it should be expected. The path many expected in Libya was that the support around Gaddafi would deteriorate over time when faced with overwhelming force, with substantial defections of senior leaders and the disintegration of his military as commanders either went over to the other side en masse, taking their troops with them, or simply left the country, leaving their troops leaderless. As the deterioration in power occurred, Gaddafi - or at least those immediately around Gaddafi - would enter into negotiations designed for an exit. That hasn’t happened, and certainly not to the degree that it has ended Gaddafi’s ability to resist. Indeed, while NATO airpower might be able to block an attack to the east, the airstrikes must continue because it appears that Gaddafi has retained a great deal of his power. The International Criminal Court One of the roots of this phenomenon is the existence of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which became operational in 2002 in The Hague, Netherlands. The ICC has jurisdiction, under UN mandate, to prosecute individuals who have committed war crimes, genocide and other crimes against humanity. Its jurisdiction is limited to those places where recognized governments are unwilling or unable to carry out their own judicial processes. The ICC can exercise jurisdiction if the case is referred to the ICC prosecutor by an ICC state party signatory or the UN Security Council (UNSC) or if the prosecutor initiates the investigation him or herself. The current structure of international law, particularly the existence of the ICC and its rules, has an unintended consequence. Rather than serving as a tool for removing war criminals from power, it tends to enhance their power and remove incentives for capitulation or a negotiated exit. In Libya’s case, Gaddafi’s indictment was referred to the ICC by the UNSC, and he was formally indicted in late June. The existence of the ICC, and the clause that says that it has jurisdiction where signatory governments are unable or unwilling to carry out their own prosecutions, creates an especially interesting dilemma for Gaddafi and the intervening powers. Consider the case of Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia. Milosevic, like Gaddafi, was indicted during a NATO intervention against his country. His indictment was handed down a month and a half into the air campaign, in May 1999, by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), a court that was to be the mold,

to a large extent, for the ICC. After the intervention, Milosevic clung to power until 2001, cracking down on the opposition and dissident groups whom he painted as traitors during the NATO air campaign. Milosevic still had supporters in Serbia, and as long as he refused to cede his authority, he had enough loyalists in the government who refused to prosecute him in the interest of maintaining stability. One of the reasons Milosevic refused to cede power was the very real fear that regime change in Serbia would result in a one-way ticket to The Hague. This is exactly what hap-

precedents. He has no motivation to capitulate, since that could result in him being sent to The Hague, nor is there anyone that he can deal with who can hold the ICC in abeyance. In most criminal proceedings, a plea bargain is possible, but this is not simply a matter of a plea bargain. Regardless of what a country’s leader has done, he or she holds political power, and the transfer of that power is inherently a political process. What the ICC has done since 2002 - and the ICTY to an extent before that - is to make the political process moot by making amnesty impossible. It is not clear if any

pened. A few months after Serbia’s October 2000 anti-Milosevic revolution, the new and nominally pro-Western government issued an arrest warrant for Milosevic, finally sending him to The Hague in June 2001 with a strong push from NATO. The Milosevic case illustrates the inherent risk an indicted leader will face when the government falls in the hands of the opposition. The case of Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb political leader, is also instructive in showing the low level of trust leaders like Gaddafi may place in assurances from the West regarding non-prosecution. Serbian authorities arrested Karadzic in July 2008 after being on the run for 12 years. He claimed in court proceedings at the ICTY that he was given assurances by the United States - denied by Washington - that if he were to step down and make way for a peace process in Bosnia, he would not be prosecuted. This obviously did not happen. In other words, the likely political arrangements that were arrived at to initiate a peace process in Bosnia-Herzegovina were wholly disregarded by the ICTY. Gaddafi is obviously aware of the Balkans

authority exists to offer and honor an amnesty. However, the ICC is a product of the United Nations, and the authority of the United Nations lies in the UNSC. Though there is no clear precedent, there is an implicit assumption that the UNSC would be the entity to offer a negotiated amnesty with a unanimous vote. In other words, the political process is transferred from Libya to the UNSC, where any number of countries might choose to abort the process for their own political ends. So the domestic political process is trumped by The Hague’s legal process, which can only be trumped by the UNSC’s political process. A potentially simple end to a civil war escalates to global politics. And this is not simply a matter of a leader’s unwillingness to capitulate or negotiate. It aborts the process that undermines men like Gaddafi. Without a doubt, most of the men who have surrounded him for years are guilty of serious war crimes and crimes against humanity. It is difficult to imagine anyone around Gaddafi whose hands are clean, or who would have been selected by Gaddafi if their hands weren’t capable of being

soiled. Each of them is liable for prosecution by the ICC, particularly the senior leadership of the military; the ICC has bound their fate to that of Gaddafi, actually increasing their loyalty to him. Just as Gaddafi has nothing to lose by continued resistance, neither do they. The ICC has forged the foundation of Gaddafi’s survival and bitter resistance. It is not a question only of the ICC. Recall the case of Augusto Pinochet, who staged a coup in Chile against Salvador Allende and presided over a brutal dictatorship. His support was not insubstantial in Chile, and he left power in a carefully negotiated political process. A Spanish magistrate, a minor figure in the Spanish legal system, claimed jurisdiction over Pinochet’s crimes in Chile and demanded that he be extradited from Britain, where Pinochet was visiting, and the extradition was granted. Today the ICC is not the only authority that can claim jurisdiction in such cases, but under current international law, nations have lost the authority to negotiate solutions to the problem of transferring power from dictators to representative democracies. Moreover, they have ceded that authority not only to the ICC but also to any court that wants to claim jurisdiction. Apply this to South Africa. An extended struggle took place between two communities. The apartheid regime committed crimes under international law. In due course, a negotiated political process arranged a transfer of power. Part of the agreement was that a non-judicial truth commission would review events but that prosecutions would be severely limited. If that transfer of power were occurring today, with the ICC in place and “Spanish magistrates” loose, how likely would it be that the white government would be willing to make the political concessions needed to transfer power? Would an agreement among the South Africans have trumped the jurisdiction of the ICC or another forum? Without the absolute certainty of amnesty, would the white leadership have capitulated? The desire for justice is understandable, as is the need for an independent judiciary. But a judiciary that is impervious to political realities can create catastrophes in the name of justice. In both the Serbia and Libya cases, ICC indictments were used by Western countries in the midst of bombing campaigns to legitimize their humanitarian intervention. The problem is that the indictments left little room for negotiated settlements. The desire to punish the wicked is natural. But as in all things political - though not judicial - the price of justice must also be considered. If it means that thousands must die because the need to punish the guilty is an absolute, is that justice? Just as important, does it serve to alleviate or exacerbate human suffering? Judicial Absolutism Consider a hypothetical. Assume that in the summer of 1944, Adolph Hitler had offered to capitulate to the allies if they would grant him amnesty. Giving Hitler amnesty would have been monstrous, but at the same time, it would have saved a year of war. The Nuremberg precedent makes the case for punishment. But applied rigorously, it undermines the case for political solutions. In the case of tyrannies, it means negotiating the safety of tyrants in return for their abdication. The abdication brings an end to war and allows people who would have died to continue to live their lives. The theory behind Nuremberg and the ICC is that the threat of punishment will deter tyrants. Men like Gaddafi, Milosevic, Karadzic and Hitler grow accustomed to living with death long before they take power. And the very act of seizing that power involves two things: an indifference to common opinion about them, particularly outside their countries, and a willingness to take risks and then crush those who might take risks against them. —Stratfor

FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011 www.kuwaittimes.net

Actress Nicole Kidman attends a special screening of 'Snow Flower and the Secret Fan' hosted by the Cinema Society at the Tribeca Grand Hotel on Wednesday, July 13, 2011 in New York. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; AP

Te c h n o l o g y FRIDAY, JulY 15, 2011

iPad challenger Xoom

The rise of the Android tablets

Working with a Windows PC, it is possible to use a USB connection to get music and videos onto the Xoom without special software like iTunes

pple has been dominating the market for tablet computers. But now, with Motorola’s Xoom and other tablet PCs rolling out, alternatives to the iPad are coming to stores, many using the new Google operating system Android Honeycomb. The idea of tablet computers has been around for more than 10 years. But the ones presented by Microsoft founder Bill Gates back then didn’t draw consumers, mainly because the technology was not yet ready. Thus, the honour of presenting the ﬁrst tablet computer to appeal to the masses fell to Apple chief Steve Jobs and his iPad in January 2010. Apple had the market to itself for almost a year. But now, companies like Motorola, Samsung and LG are bringing out tablets with Google’s Android 3.0 operating system, also known as Honeycomb. In some ways, these new versions outscore the market leader. One of the forerunners is Motorola’s Xoom. The US company kept close tabs on the development of Honeycomb and was the ﬁrst to be able to come out with an Android 3.0-ready tablet. Recently, a German Press Agency dpa team got to try out the device. At 730 grams, the Xoom is a little heavier than the 600-gram iPad and a bit wider. But it has a higher resolution in its 10.1-inch screen (1,280x800 pixels versus 1,024x768). Just like the iPad, the Xoom has

a solid aluminium housing. Motorola took more pains with its builtin cameras than Apple. The camera on the back offers 5 megapixels, while the one on the front for video chat features has 2 megapixels, significantly more than the iPad 2. That means the Xoom can record videos in quality of up to 720 pixels, even though its recordings tend to have a slightly bluish tint. Honeycomb tablets don’t have mechanical buttons for functions like menu, home, back and search, meaning the Xoom is completely controlled via its touch-sensitive screen. A full-screen mode allows the icons at the bottom of the display to fade out of sight. And anyone who needs to write multiple messages but has a hard time with the touchscreen keyboard can buy an external keyboard with a Bluetooth link. Xoom runs with a dual-core processor (a set of 1 gigahertz processors) to allow speedy work and smooth video playback. Just like with the iPad, the Xoom’s battery has a charge of about eight hours, or the equivalent of a full workday or a long-range flight. Thus, the Xoom is in the iPad’s league in terms of hardware and actually ranks better when it comes to the video camera. But if you compare the software and the range of media available for Honeycomb tablets, the balance tips back in favour of the iPad. While there are more than 200,000

programmes available for Android, all of which should theoretically work on the Xoom, very few of those programmes were designed with the tablet exclusively in mind. Meanwhile, there are 10,000 programmes just for the iPad. Thus, looking for a subscription to Flipboard, a virtual magazine with content pulled from networks like Facebook and Twitter, would be a waste of time in the European Android market. Indeed, many of the more successful publishing apps out there are not yet available for Honeycomb. It doesn’t help that Google has yet to set up separate categories for tablet-ready programmes and games like Pool Break, Cordy or Dungeon in its European marketplace, meaning customers have to look hard to find appropriate items. In the US, Google tablet apps are highlighted in a Featured Section for downloads. A similar problem exists with Xoom’s music service. While North American customers can try out the “Music beta by Google service,” no similar launch is foreseen in Europe. That leaves Amazon’s music service, and it really can’t keep up with the selection offered by Apple’s iTunes, especially since Amazon doesn’t offer movies or TV shows for sale or rent. Working with a Windows PC, it is possible to use a USB connection to get music and videos onto the Xoom without special soft-

ware like iTunes. Windows Explorer shows the tablet’s data directory and the appropriate folders. With a Mac, it’s necessary to use Android File Transfer, which can be downloaded for free from Google. Unlike the iPad, Xoom supports Adobe’s Flash Player, which has to be separately installed. The player only plays a small role in video playback, since leading portals like YouTube have started distributing most of their online videos in the iPad-compatible format H.264. But Flash often crops up in interactive graphics, live tickers and online games. Android Honeycomb also gives users more freedom in setting up the look of their homepage. While the iPad only allows the display of programme icons, links and notices, Honeycomb allows the display of up to ﬁve so-called widgets, small preview programmes for things like weather forecasts, email and stock market reports. But these advantages don’t quite go far enough toward making up for the disadvantages the Google tablet suﬀers in its marketplace for apps and media services. The Motorola Xoom, with UMTS, wi-fi and 32 gigabytes of storage is available in stores, starting at 630 euros (899 dollars), while a version without UMTS goes for 560 euros. The iPad 2, with a similar range of services, costs between 580 and 700 euros. — dpa

Relationships FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

Too much of a good thing Couple take in 109 foster babies in 28 years

oanie and Herb White look pretty good for having had 112 kids. OK, 109 of the children weren’t born to the Winnetka, Illinois, couple. They were foster children taken in by the Whites during the last 28 years. But still... 109 kids ... “Joanie knows what to do, what to expect,” Herb says. “Through the 109 she’s gotten it to a science.” Like doting grandparents, their home reflects their “babies,” as Joanie calls them. A wall of pictures. A full toy chest. Stuffed bunnies lounging around the living room. Framed photos on just about every flat surface. “We’re running out of table space,” Joanie says. “We love to take pictures. And some of the adoptive families have sent us pictures.” The Whites’ involvement in fostering - it’s more than simple involvement, it’s a mission - began about 28 years ago after Joanie saw a newspaper article about a childhood friend who had become a foster parent. She got in touch, and she and Herb began undergoing the necessary counseling and training to get licensed. “Our minds were made up,” she says. “We talked to our children (two sons and a daughter, now adults) and told them we wouldn’t neglect their activities. We’d just include the babies.” And include them they have, in every aspect of their life, from family trips to errands around town. “It was just like having another brother or sister. Except I had a hundred,” says daughter Allison, a 3rd-grade teacher in Naperville, Illinois, who has fostered four infants herself. “When we first started,” adds Herb, a

Joanie (left) and Herb White are pictured at their Winnetka, Illinois home. — MCT photos

Photographs of Herb and Joanie White’s foster children are displayed throughout their Winnetka, Illinois home.

consultant with offices in Chicago and Naperville, “I think people wondered, What’s going on here? Now, everybody knows. People on the block, people in the stores. ... Everyone asks, ‘Do you have a new baby?’” The Whites, who are in their 60s, have been an anchor for Chicago’s Children’s Home + Aid, which places the babies in their home. Although it’s not uncommon for people to foster dozens of children, they usually have more than one at a time. Seldom - possibly never, according to a CH+A spokesperson - have a couple run up a total like this, one infant at a time. “They’re wonderful,” Anne Larrea Barclay, the group’s assistant vice president-metropolitan region, says of the Whites. “They pay attention to everything that baby will need, all the medical needs, every medical appointment and follow-up, and the attachment, a lot of rocking with the baby, eye contact, playing with the baby and smiling and doing all that early stimulation.” And the babies whom the Whites welcome into their home need all the special attention they can get. “The babies we have now, in comparison to when we started, all are drug-exposed,” Joanie says. “We’re up at night” - and here she gives Herb a sideways glance - “I’m up at night with them.” Herb gets another look. “The tapper,” she says. “That’s my job,” he says in his defense. “To make sure she’s on the job.” For most of the infants, the Whites’ home is the first they’ve ever had. “Ninety-nine percent come here right out of the hospital, and they stay here an average of five or six months,” says Joanie, who manages to find time

to work as a volunteer, especially on Winnetka’s famed rummage sales. The last child they had - they foster only one at a time - was only about 2 months old when she left in March (the family that is adopting her already had her sibling, so the transfer was expedited). The oldest child they’ve had left when he was 13 months old. When it comes time for the Whites to give up one of their babies, the child leaves with not only medical records and a listing of his or her schedule, habits and preferences. Joanie also writes a personal letter for each child, detailing such things as whether the baby goes shopping or to the beauty shop with her, or whether the infant sits through her various volunteer meetings. It makes the baby’s transition to a new home easier. Says daughter Allison, “They’ve always had a very positive outlook for every child, recognizing there might be concerns, but also recognizing the possibilities that were there. I guess it was recognizing the full potential for each child, and reaching toward that for each child.” The Whites’ dedication and thoroughness have impressed Susan Wigoda, a lead attorney in the Cook County Oﬃce of the Public Guardian. Through the years, four children from her courtroom have landed with the Whites. Part of her job is to visit children in their foster homes, something she looks forward to when it comes to the Whites. “I walk out of there feeling that any child who has the misfortune to be in the child welfare system is fortunate to get their home,” Wigoda says. “When you think that Joanie gets up in the

middle of the night to feed a newborn, who may have been born drug exposed, it’s not her child. ... She’s doing this out of the goodness of her heart, and responding to these children’s needs. It’s really remarkable.” The Whites’ concern for a child doesn’t stop once the kid is out the door. Granted, they don’t know where most of their foster children have wound up. But they’ve managed to stay in contact with many families and to be part of the children’s lives. Joanie and Herb have been invited to christenings and church services, there have been Father’s Day visits, and adoptive families have come by for dinner. The day before the Whites sat down for an interview, a family that adopted two of the children that the Whites had cared for - and had three other kids - came out for lunch and spent the day. “We talk regularly to the Whites,” says one adoptive mother from the south suburbs, whose now-6year-old daughter was fostered by the Whites and who asked for anonymity. “We try to see them four times a year or so. But we talk once a month. They are part of my FAMILY.” But even if they don’t see their former foster children regularly, or ever again, the Whites know they have already contributed to their lives. “We don’t like it when they leave,” Herb says, “but if you can be a positive inﬂuence, that in itself is a great reward.” Their contributions to the children are much appreciated. Says the adoptive mom, “The love they give these children is the best. If every foster parent was the spitting image of them, the world would be a much better place.” — MCT

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FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

Shellfish

Everyday cooking By Sawsan Kazak

ome people are really terrified of cooking shellfish at home. There is always the fear of over or under cooking the shellfish and ruining a relatively expensive ingredient. But the great thing about shellfish is that it cooks quickly and only needs a few key ingredients to give it incredible flavor. Shellfish is the best for quick cook meals and last minute dinners. Try the following easy recipes and take the fear out of cooking shellfish. Send suggestions to: sawsank@kuwaittimes.net

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FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

Grilled lobster

with Garlic Butter Sauce 2 whole Lobsters, Split And Cleaned 1/4 cups Melted Butter 2 cloves Garlic, Finely Minced 2 Tablespoons Chopped Fresh Herbs (i.e. Chives, Parsley, Basil) 1/4 teaspoons Kosher Salt

f you’re buying a whole, live lobster, ask your fishmonger to split it in half if you’re too chicken or squeamish. You can also search online for “how to kill lobster.” You’ll want to split the lobster in half lengthwise and you’ll need a very sharp knife and kitchen shears to cut through the shell. Remove anything that doesn’t look appealing to you, like the green stuﬀ. Also remove the “vein” on the back of the lobster tail-they have one similar to a shrimp, but it’s probably clear or light pink colored, not black. Cut the claws oﬀ; you’ll cook them separately. In a small bowl, mix together the butter, garlic, herbs and salt. Have a long-handled brush ready. When your grill is hot, add the claws only and cover. Cook for 3 minutes. Next add the lobster bodies, shell-side up. Cover and grill for 3 minutes. Turn the lobster over, the bodies and the claws. Brush the garlic-butter all over the bodies. Cover and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, depending on the size of your lobsters (1 3/4 pound lobster = 6 minutes).

Corn & Crab Chowder 1 bunch green onion, chopped 2 stalks celery, finely chopped 1 can yellow corn 1/2 lb crab meat 2 tbsp beef bacon drippings 1/2 cup chicken stock 2 tsp chopped garlic 1 tsp black pepper 1/2 tsp red pepper (or to taste) 1 tbsp parsley 1 tsp celery seed 2 bay leaf 1/2 stick butter 1 pt milk

n beef bacon drippings, sauté onion, celery and garlic until brown. Add stock, butter, crab meat, corn, herbs and spices and bring to boil. Simmer 10 minutes. Add milk. Bring almost to boil. Serve with oyster crackers or dark bread.

Coconut

Shrimp Lemon

1 (8 ounce) package linguine pasta 1 tablespoon olive oil 6 cloves garlic, minced 1/2 cup chicken broth 1/4 cup white grape juice 1 lemon, juiced 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest salt to taste 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper 1 pound fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined 1/4 cup butter 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil

Shrimp

1 egg 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 2 cups flaked coconut 24 shrimp 3 cups oil for frying

n medium bowl, combine egg, 1/2 cup flour, baking powder. Place 1/4 cup flour and coconut in two separate bowls. Hold shrimp by tail, and dredge in flour, shaking oﬀ excess flour. Dip in egg batter; allow excess to drip oﬀ. Roll shrimp in coconut, and place on a baking sheet lined with wax paper. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, heat oil to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) in a deep-fryer. Fry shrimp in batches: cook, turning once, for 2 to 3 minutes, or until golden brown. Using tongs, remove shrimp to paper towels to drain. Serve warm with your favorite dipping sauce.

Pepper Linguini

ring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add linguine, and cook for 9 to 13 minutes or until al dente; drain. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, and saute garlic about 1 minute. Mix in chicken broth, juice, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, and pepper. Reduce heat, and simmer until liquid is reduced by about 1/2. Mix shrimp, butter, parsley, and basil into the saucepan. Cook 2 to 3 minutes, until shrimp is opaque. Stir in the cooked linguine, and continue cooking 2 minutes, until well coated.

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 : Jabbar and Musawwira are on a visit to Raﬁe’s village in Petra. An argument ensues between Jabbar and Raﬁe on who is the strongest. Musawwira plans a friendly contest.

www.the99.org

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FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

Rome for Free

The top things to do in Rome for frugal travelers

Colosseum in Rome

ooking to do Rome on the cheap? Sure, you can walk around aimlessly. It’s more fun in Rome than maybe anywhere else on the planet. But here are the ten best attractions in Rome that won’t cost you a lira or rather a Euro cent. 1. Take a foray into the Foro - The Roman Forum was the main marketplace and business center in ancient times, where you did your banking, trading, and shopping. Entering the forum is free, now as then. You won’t want to do banking with anyone in the Forum now, however. (Note: As of 2008, the Roman Forum is no longer free. The current Colosseum and Palatine Hill combination ticket will also include admission to the Roman Forum and will be valid for two days.) 2. Wander the Appia Antica - Walk the old road out of Rome on Sunday, when no cars are allowed. There are lots of ancient things to see on the peaceful walk, and the park has detailed routes and maps of the best walking and biking routes. 3. Don’t Liars just Grate on You? The Bocca della Verita was really an ancient sewer grate, but don’t let that stop you. Place your hand in the mouth and legend has it that your hands will be bitten oﬀ if you’ve lied. Be careful. Located in Piazza Bocca della Verita. 4. Free up your wanderlust: Pitch Three Coins into the Trevi Fountain - Gawk at Nicola Salvi’s late Baroque waterworks inﬂuenced by an earlier try by Bernini, then follow the Roman tradition of throwing a coin into the fountain to guarantee a return to the Eternal City. (News Flash: “Italian courts have recently ruled that Roberto Cercelletta, who has been scooping out coins tossed into the Trevi fountain for about 20 years, is not stealing public

money. He made an estimated 180,000 USD a year from his labors. Charity organization Caritas, which retrieves the money on Sundays when Cercelletta takes a day off, tried to get a court order to stop him” - Story thanks to zoomata.) 5. Scale the Spanish Steps - The Scalinata di Spagna, steps extending from Piazza di Spagna to Trinita dei Monti, were originally named after the Spanish Embassy adjacent. Ascend further from the top of the steps to get good views of Rome. The steps had a major restoration in 1995-6, and the once popular art of lunching on the steps is frowned upon, and fines can be levied. At the foot of the steps is the Keats-Shelley Memorial House (9 am to 1 pm and 2.30 to 5.30 pm, Monday to Friday, admission charge). The area around the steps offers designer shops, restaurants and bars.

6. Vatican on Vacation - While the Vatican Museums usually exchange filthy lucre for entrance peeks, you can visit free on the last Sunday of the month (see “Free Days in Rome” on page 2). Also free is an interesting visit under the Vatican to see the excavations or a Wednesday audience with the Pope. See our Vatican Directory for instructions on getting the required reservations. 7. Partake of the Pantheon - Originally a pagan temple, converted into a church in 608AD, which saved the whole deal from being ravaged for building materials. You’ll find it in Piazza della Rotonda, a favorite hang-out for young folks in the evening. It’s the best-preserved monument of imperial Rome, entirely rebuilt by the emperor Hadrian around AD 120 on the site of an earlier pantheon erected in 27 BC by Augustus’s

Roman forum

general Agrippa. Mon-Sat 8:30-7:30; Sun. 9-6. 8. Piazza Crawl - Piazza Navona and Piazza Campo dei Fiori are the two most famous piazze in Rome. Piazza Navona, which follows the plan of an ancient circus and contains two famous fountains by Bernini, comes alive in the evenings, while the Campo dei Fiori (the field of flowers) is best experienced during the market hours. You’ll eat much ch eaper around the Campo dei Fiori, where there are take-out stands and delis everywhere. 9. Strolling the neighborhoods: Trestevere - “Believe it or not, this is the “Italian quarter” of Rome. The streets are narrow and sometimes winding, although more often than not they will eventually lead back to the Piazza Santa Maria, home to one of the oldest churches in Rome. This piazza is the undisputed heart of trastevere, full of every kind of person imaginable-both stylish and unsavory. (A ﬁrm “no” and a stern look will shake oﬀ any unwanted attentions.) The church is famous for a Byzantine mosaic behind the altar, so drop a few coins in the light box (it will illuminate the mosaic for 60 seconds) and spend a few minutes there. It is well worth it.” - posted by cynar to our travel forum 10. Strolling the ne ighborhoods II: Testaccio - Testaccio is an old neighborhood built around a hill of Amphora fragments discarded by Roman era merchants who docked nearby at the ancient Tiber port . Recently, car repair shops and trendy clubs have been carved out of the base of this hill. Testaccio is rapidly becoming popular with the young, clubby crowd. You can eat organ meats here, the real Roman cooking. See our Testaccio directory for suggestions. —About

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Italian Food Markets: Rules, Vocabulary & Market Days in Italy

FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

f you’re not a foodie when you get off the plane in Italy, you just might be one by the time you leave. This country can do that to you. But you don’t have to be some kind of expert to thoroughly enjoy all kinds of culinary exploration during your trip - nor do you need to have a big travel budget to get into Italian food. You just need to have a sense of adventure, and you’ll want to seek out the Italian market days. While most tourists only happen upon Italian markets by accident as they’re walking from one museum to another, other people treat these markets as attractions all by themselves. They’re colorful and lively, and generally speaking aren’t for the tourists at all. These are where the locals pick up the foodstuffs that stock their pantries every week, and sometimes where they get their cleaning supplies, CDs, kitchen equipment, clothing, pet food, and furniture as well. Depending on the size of the market, you could buy just about everything you’d ever want from a hastily set-up table or from the back of a van that only pulls up once a week. But while you might not be there to pick up toilet cleaners or coffee pots, anyone can take advantage of the edible items that are always for sale at these markets in Italy. Certainly, part of the fun could be identifying unfamiliar fruits and veggies (not to mention seafood or meat) and then learning their Italian names, but if you’ve got an apartment rental in Italy or you’re staying in a hostel that has a kitchen you can do more than just look at the goodies on sale. You can become an active participant in the age-old tradition of market shopping! In this article, you’ll find information about how to buy food in Italian markets (there are rules, of course!) and also how to find out when the market days are where you’ll be visiting. Generally speaking, towns will have one day a week when the market comes to town - unless it’s a bigger town or city, in which case there may be several market days in different parts of the city. There are some market vocabulary words listed below that you’ll probably want to learn in order to do business in an Italian food market, and I’ve also found a few easy-to-prepare “hostel recipes,” as I’m calling them, which you should be able to whip up with what you can find on hand in a hostel or apartment rental kitchen. But even if you don’t have a kitchen at your disposal you can still shop in Italian markets - just pick up a hu nk or cheese, a loaf of bread, a piece of sausage, some fruit, and a bottle of wine or water and you’ve got the makings of a fine picnic. Rules of Markets in Italy Don’t touch the merchandise! You don’t get to touch what you’re buying until you’ve paid for it. This may seem counterintuitive, because, you’re thinking, “How can I tell if that peach is good if I don’t pick it up?” But in Italian markets, unless you’ve been given permission to serve yourself by the vendor, you’ll tell them what you want and how much of it you want and they’ll get it for you. The assumptions are that everything they have is good (so you don’t need to worry about getting anything bad), they know their inventory better than you do, and they don’t know where your hands have been. So this practice is partly bowing to their superior knowledge and partly about hygiene. In my experience, it’s more of the former than the latter, because I’ve even heard that regulars get better pickings than newcomers, so even if you move to a

new neighborhood and aren’t just a tourist you won’t get the best that vendor has to offer until you’ve come back for a few weeks in a row. Be that as it may, regardless of the fairness of this system, it is the way it is - so you’ll need to get used to it. Just point to what you want if you don’t know the word, tell the vendor how much you want (weight or number), and add a nice “per favore” at the end. They’ll usually choose and bag it for you, or hand you a bag and gesture that you can do it yourself (if you’re allowed to do it yourself, be careful not to rifle through everything this is where the hygiene thing comes in). Oh, and this rule applies to all foodstuffs; if you’re buying CDs or sponges, you can pick those up and look at them before you’ve paid for them! Bring your own bag. The Italians shop with their own bags, whether they’re plastic bags they’ve gotten at the store in the past or cloth bags specifically meant for market days. In Italian supermarkets, you’ll most likely pay a few cents for a plastic bag if you don’t already have one, so the locals have gotten used to bringing their own bags. You probably aren’t shopping with your own grocery bags, but a daypack/backpack will probably do just fine. The individual plastic or paper bags the vendor puts your fruits, veggies, or cheeses in doesn’t cost you extra, so don’t worry about that. Don’t try to barter. Haggling may be considered a sport by some people, but unless you know the vendor you’re not likely to get a discount on your purchases. In fact, you’re likely to insult them by offering less than the posted price. You can try to barter with the folks selling clothing if you’d like, but when it comes to the food vendors you’ll be paying the price that’s listed. They may choose to round your final price if you’ve bought a few things, but that’s th eir decision to make - not yours. Look for the lines. It’s true the world over, and it’s true in Italy - if there are five vendors selling the same thing and only one of them has a long line, it’s because that’s where the best stuff is. If you’ve got the patience and are keen on getting the best the market has to offer, hop in that line and just buy what everyone else is buying. Because while that vendo r may have the best beans, the one down the block might have better tomatoes. Know what you can bring home. You may have decided that rather than buy Italian goodies to cook while you’re in Italy you’ll bring them home as the per-

fect souvenir. Many of the things you find in Italian food markets is perfectly acceptable to bring back with you - but some of it isn’t. You can bring home dried foods, even dr ied mushrooms, and cured cheeses (like parmigiano) so long as they’re vacuum-packed. You can even bring back roasted coffee, but don’t even think about packing meats of any kind even if it’s fully cured, and even if it’s vacuum-packed. It’ll get taken away at customs faster than you can say, “Mamma mia!” Italian Market Vocabulary Italy is on the metric system, so not only are you dealing with a foreign language, you’re also dealing with kilograms instead of pounds. If you’re just cooking a small amount, you can sometimes ask for a number of things instead of a weight (4 tomatoes, for instance), but to really act like you know what you’re doing you can try on these words for size.

etto (ETT|toh)- 10th of a kilogram (plural is etti, or ETT|tee) chilo (KEE|loh)- one kilogram (just over 2 pounds) per oggi (pehr AWJ|jee) - “for today,” if you’re buying fruit that you’d like to be able to eat right away rather than let it ripen commas instead of periods - Note that Italian prices are written with the commas and periods swapped from the way we list them. So instead of euro 3.50 it would be written euro 3,50 - and if you were buying truffles and the number got high enough, you could fork over more than euro 1.000 rather than euro 1,000. numbers - It’s a good idea to learn your numbers 1-10, and then 100 and 1000 (though those last two are less likely to be useful when you’re buying food!). In Italian, 1-10 are: uno (OO|noh), due (DOO|eh), tre (treh), quattro (QWAH|troh), cinque (CHEEN|kweh), sei (say), sette (SEHT|teh), otto (AWT|toh), nove (NOH|veh), dieci (dee|EH|chee). Market Days in Italy While these links will help you find some of the markets in Italy, they aren’t comprehensive. So it’s a good idea to stop by the local tourist information office and see when the local market days are (and if there are multiple ones for a larger town or city). Moving2Italy2 has a great collection of links with information about market days all over Italy, broken down by region, and including antique markets. Tuscany Net has links to the market days in the major cities in Tuscany. In Italy has some of the outdoor food & antique markets listed by region; but remember that not all of the Italian food markets are outdoors!

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Years

Books

FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

Hot summer books written by women The Kid By Sapphire

ifteen years after the publication of Push, one year after the Academy Award-winning film adaptation, Sapphire gives voice to Precious’s son, Abdul. In The Kid bestselling author Sapphire tells the electrifying story of Abdul Jones, the son of Push’s unforgettable heroine, Precious. A story of body and spirit, rooted in the hungers of flesh and of the soul, The Kid brings us deep into the interior life of Abdul Jones. We meet him at age nine, on the day of his mother’s funeral. Left alone to navigate a world in which love and hate sometimes hideously masquerade, forced to confront unspeakable violence, his history, and the dark corners of his own heart, Abdul claws his way

toward adulthood and toward an identity he can stand behind. In a generational story that moves with the speed of thought from a Mississippi dirt farm to Harlem in its heyday; from a troubled Catholic orphanage to downtown artist’s lofts, The Kid tells of a twenty- first-century young man’s fight to find a way toward the future. A testament to the ferocity of the human spirit and the deep nourishing power of love and of art, The Kid chronicles a young man about to take flight. In the intimate, terrifying, and deeply alive story of Abdul’s journey, we are witness to an artist’s birth by fire.

Twisted

Split Second By Catherine Coulter

By Sara Shepard

t’s been a year since the torturous notes from A stopped and the mystery of Alison DiLaurentis’s disappearance was finally put to rest. Now seniors in high school, Aria, Spencer, Hanna, and Emily are older, but they’re not any wiser. The pretty little liars have more secrets than evertwisted secrets that could destroy the perfect lives they’ve worked so hard to rebuild. Aria’s jealous of her boyfriend’s new exchange student. Spencer’s getting a little too cozy with her soon-to-bestepbrother. Hanna’s one scandalous photo away from ruining her dad’s Senate campaign. And Emily will do anything to get a swim scholarship. Worst of all: Last spring break in Jamaica, they did something unforgivable. The girls are desperate to forget that fateful night, but they should know better than anyone that all secrets wash ashore . . . eventually.

serial killer is on the loose, and it’s up to FBI agents Dillon Savich and Lacey Sherlock to bring him down. They soon discover the killer has blood ties to an infamous and now long-dead monster. Savich and Sherlock are joined by agents Lucy Carlyle and Cooper McKnight, and the chase is on. At the same time, Agent Lucy Carlyle learns from her dying father that her grandfather didn’t simply walk away from his family twenty-two years ago: he was, in fact, murdered by his wife, Lucy’s grandmother. Determined to uncover the truth, Lucy moves into her grandmother’s Chevy Chase mansion. What she finds, however, is a nightmare. Not only does she discover the truth of what happened all those years ago, but she faces a new mystery, one that has been passed down from mother to daughter for generations. As the hunt for the killer escalates, Savich realizes he’s become the killer’s focus, and perhaps the next victim. Only Lucy can stop this madness before it’s too late.

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Years

Books

FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

Escape

Unlikely Friendships By Jennifer Holland

t is exactly like Isaiah 11:6: “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid . . . “ Written by National Geographic magazine writer Jennifer Holland, Unlikely Friendships documents one heartwarming tale after another of animals who, with nothing else in common, bond in the most unexpected ways. A cat and a bird. A mare and a fawn. An elephant and a sheep. A snake and a hamster. The well-documented stories of Koko the gorilla and All Ball the kitten; and the hippo Owen and the tortoise Mzee. And almost inexplicable stories of predators befriending prey-an Indian leopard slips into a village every night to sleep with a calf. A lionness mothers a baby oryx. Ms. Holland narrates the details and arc of each story, and also oﬀers insights into why-how the young leopard, probably motherless, sought maternal comfort with the calf, and how a baby oryx inspired the same mothering instinct in the lionness. Or, in the story of Kizzy, a nervous retired Greyhound, and Murphy, a red tabby, how cats and dogs actually understand each other’s body language. With Murphy’s friendship and support, Kizzy recovered from life as a racing dog and became a confident, loyal family pet. These are the most amazing friendships between species, collected from around the world and documented in a selection of fullcolor candid photographs.

By Barbara Delinsky

n her luminous new novel, Barbara Delinsky explores every woman’s desire to abandon the endless obligations of work and marriage-and the idea that the most passionate romance can be found with the person you know best. Emily Aulenbach is thirty, a lawyer married to a lawyer, working in Manhattan. An idealist, she had once dreamed of representing victims of corporate abuse, but she spends her days in a cubicle talking on the phone with victims of tainted bottled water-and she is on the bottler’s side. And it isn’t only work. It’s her sister, her friends, even her husband, Tim, with whom she doesn’t connect the way she used to. She doesn’t connect to much in her life, period, with the exception of three things-her computer, her BlackBerry, and her watch. Acting on impulse, Emily leaves work early one day, goes home, packs her bag, and takes oﬀ. Groping toward the future, uncharacteristically following her gut rather than her mind, she heads north toward a New Hampshire town tucked between mountains. She knows this town. During her college years, she spent a watershed summer here. Painful as it is to return, she knows that if she is to right her life, she has to start here. —bn.com

The Silent Girl By Tess Gerritsen

o one takes readers to the dark side and back with more razor-sharp jolts and sheer suspense than the storytelling master behind Ice Cold and The Keepsake. When New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen has a tale to tell, put yourself in her expert handsand prepare for the shocks and thrills that are certain to follow. Every crime scene tells a story. Some keep you awake at night. Others haunt your dreams. The grisly display homicide cop Jane Rizzoli finds in Boston’s Chinatown will do both. In the murky shadows of an alley lies a female’s severed hand. On the tenement rooftop above is the corpse belonging to that hand, a red-haired woman dressed all in black, her head nearly severed. Two strands of silver hair-not humancling to her body. They are Rizzoli’s only clues, but they’re enough for her and medical examiner Maura Isles to make the startling discovery: that this violent death had a chilling prequel.

Nineteen years earlier, a horrifying murder-suicide in a Chinatown restaurant left five people dead. But one woman connected to that massacre is still alive: a mysterious martial arts master who knows a secret she dares not tell, a secret that lives and breathes in the shadows of Chinatown. A secret that may not even be human. Now she’s the target of someone, or something, deeply and relentlessly evil. Cracking a crime resonating with bone-chilling echoes of an ancient Chinese legend, Rizzoli and Isles must outwit an unseen enemy with centuries of cunning-and a swift, avenging blade.

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Years

Beauty FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

The top 5 classic perfumes for women

erfumes may come and go with the seasons, but a few special fragrances never go out of style. These are the classic scents that launched to huge acclaim, and continue to be produced, worn and loved by women today.

for return to peace and optimism, the fashion house of Nina Ricci - known for its ethereal, flowing dresses, set out to develop an innovative new type of perfume for its female clients.

No 5 Perfume by Chanel In 1921, Coco Chanel asked perfumer Ernest Beaux to create something that “smells like woman.” The resulting elixir would become the world’s most iconic fragrance. An instant sales success when it was born, Chanel No 5 remains the grande dame of perfume sales to this day, with a bottle sold worldwide every 30 seconds.?

No 3 Joy Perfume by Jean Patou When times get tough, a new perfume can’t fix your finances, but it can take your mind oﬀ them for a while. In 1929, armed with this wisdom, Parisian perfumer Jean Patou created Joy Perfume for his wealthy American patrons whose fortunes had been ravaged by that year’s Wall Street crash. Despite their financial losses, and the high price of Patou’s product, Joy was cheaper than couture and women flocked to buy it.

No 4 L’Air Du Temps Perfume by Nina Ricci L’Air du Temps was launched in 1948, in the aftermath of World War 2. To capture and celebrate the longed-

No 2 Shalimar Perfume by Guerlain With a name that literally means “temple of love” in Sanskrit, Shalimar is the amber-oriental perfume that

spawned a host of successful imitators. Guerlain’s fragrance takes its name from the Indian Gardens of Shalimar, where emperor Shah Jahan met the woman who inspired him to build the Taj Mahal. A runaway success since its birth in 1925, Shalimar’s irresistible blend of fragrance notes has given it pride of place on the vanities of the world’s most famous women. No 1 Miss Dior Perfume by Christian Dior Miss Dior was launched in 1947 by Christian Dior, shortly after the success of the designer’s ground-breaking New Look collection, which revolutionized women’s fashion and reestablished Paris as the fashion capital of the world following World War 2. (www.about.com)

Long lasting perfume - How to make your fragrance last

on’t you hate when you spritz on your favorite perfume on your way out in the morning only to have it disappear by lunchtime? Fragrance may not be an essential part of a morning routine, but it’s a way for a woman to express herself and definitely makes a woman feel sexier, happier and more confident.

Chose a perfume that will last Citrus based fragrances usually disappear faster while musks and woody based fragrances tend to last longer because these oils evaporate slower. Regardless of what type of fragrance you like, the concentraion depends on the type of perfume you are using. Parfum contains the most oil and is the most expensive with the longest staying power. It’s followed by eau de parfum and eau de toilette, which is the type most suitable for everyday. Eau de cologne is the weakest scent and the least expensive. Preserve the potency of your fragrances by storing them in cool dark places away from direct sunlight. Always keep it in the box. Apply perfume so it lasts Fragrance will last longer on skin that is well-moisturized, because oils on the skin trap the fragrance notes and make them last longer. She suggests applying a body oil or moisturizer post-shower. When you apply the fragrance, concentrate on pulse points. These are areas where the veins are close to skin surface and you feel your circulation, including your wrists, neck, between your breasts and even behind knees. Don’t rub wrists

together after applying fragrance as it breaks down the oils. She also suggests a light mist of fragrance through the hair. Many fragrance lines also include shower gel and body lotions. While layering the scent in diﬀerent forms will help it last, these products can be costly. If they’re not in your budget, chose body products that are unscented or lightly scented. Don’t overdo it with perfume Less is more! We tend to not smell our own perfume sometime after applying it, this is actually a defense mechanism and our olfactive systems shut down. This does not mean it isn’t noticeable for others. Especially as we age, our sense of smell begins to dull. The old trick of walking through a mist does work, but avoid applying directly on clothing as it can stain and also doesn’t diﬀuse the scent as nicely as the natural oils on your skin. Reapply perfume throughout the day If you have dry skin or are headed out to a special evening, you can always carry a small travel size bottle with you as you may have to reapply. As a general rule of thumb, fragrances will last 4 to 8 hours, depending on quality and concentration of essential oils.—About

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Years

Beauty FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

How to keep hair healthy during the summer months S

ummer means fun in the sun. Lazy days at the beach, lounging poolside, jetting around town with the top down and enjoying a barbecue with friends. But if you don’t protect your hair from the elements, your dazzling ‘do may be brittle, dry and plagued with split ends come fall. Prevent green hair with an antichlorine shampoo and conditioner if your summer plans include a lot of pool time. Use a moisturizing sham-

poo and conditioner a few times a week to combat any dryness caused by daily exposure to the sun. Do a hot oil hair treatment followed by a clarifying shampoo about three times a month. The oil treatment oﬀers a moisture surge and adds luster, while the shampoo will remove any residue of chlorine, salt, sunscreen and styling products. Protect your hair and scalp from the damaging rays of the sun. Talk to your hairdresser or beauty supply store about creams and spray treatments that oﬀer sun protection. Alternate your updos. Minimize the breakage caused by tight or frequent ponytails by pulling your hair back with headbands, hair sticks or hair clips instead. Remember that color-treated hair will fade faster when exposed to the direct rays of the sun. Hats or head wraps are a must. Find out which sunprotection hair product is best-suited to your hair. Skip blow-drying and the use of

hot rollers and curling irons whenever possible. When it’s a must, always use heat-activated styling products, particularly at the ends, to guard against drying (www.ehow.com)

Fashion tips for the beach If

anyone asks us to visualize a beach, nine times out of ten (or maybe even ten out of ten) we’d come up with an idyllic vision of lonely palm trees, blue lagoons and knights in shining armor. However, the truth is that the more insecure we feel about our bodies, the more the idea of putting on a flimsy swimsuit and flaunting our maybe-not-so-perfect-figures for the whole world to see is a terrifying prospect. Stylists however tell us that we have to chill and take a minute to think before actually working ourselves into a panic. Going to the beach is like going out to a party or meeting your friends out for dinner. It’s not all about the bathing suit - you could have a perfect figure and the perfect suit and still get everything else wrong. It’s all about putting together a coordinated image, and dressing ourselves from head to toe - plus, of course, the must-have accessories. Choose a brightly colored tote bag for your beach towels, sunscreens, lip balm and the likes. You don’t have to head to the beach in flip-flops: for a more stylish look, choose a pair of wedge espadrille sandals that will add a few inches to your stature and elongate your legs. Then choose a colored match-

ing hat and oversize jewelry, plus a pair of stylish sunglasses. It’s time to choose a beach cover-up. Many women who are not happy with their current figures believe that if they opt for a style with lots of fabric, they will achieve a slimming effect. In fact, things are just the other way around: the more you cover up, the bulkier you look. “Don’t think of a beach coverup as a way to hide your body. Think of it as a fashion statement, and try to avoid the “tent” look because it’s only going to make you look larger”, a stylist says. Choose a colorful sarong coordinated with the rest of your accessories, or simply don a light summer dress on top of your bathing suit. Always remember to smile: a positive facial expression is the first thing most people notice. (www.news.softpedia.com)

Going to the beach is like going out to a party or meeting your friends out for dinner. It’s not all about the bathing suit

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Years

health FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

How exercise makes you gorgeous

nyone who makes a habit of going to the gym, unfurling a yoga mat or hiking in the woods is privy to a secret known only to the physically active: The rewards of exercise extend far beyond slimming down or adding muscle tone. Dozens of subtle changes visibly revamp the body and the psyche in ways scientists are only beginning to understand. Maybe your skin looks brighter, your step is springier or you’re more confident at work. Such small victories may go unnoticed by unobservant exercisers, but those on the lookout for these benefits will find them every bit as valid as gains measured by scales and calipers. Scientists chalk up such fitness boons to a range of powerful physiological and biochemical processes triggered by regular exercise. “Every cell in the human body benefits from physical activity,” says Tim Church, MD, PhD, the director of preventative medicine at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La. And, he says, you feel tangible rewards right away. “Within an hour of exercising, you feel less anxious; that night you sleep better; and for 72 hours afterward your body processes blood sugar more eﬃciently.”Need more incentive to lace up your sneakers? Here’s a peek into a few of the ways exercise can make you look and feel fantastic.

Smoother, more radiant skin Working up a good sweat is the equivalent of getting a mini-facial, says Audrey Kunin, MD, a dermatologist in Kansas City, Mo., and author of The DERMAdoctor Skinstruction Manual (Simon & Schuster,

2005). “When the pores dilate, sweat expels trapped dirt and oil. Just be sure to wash your face afterward so the gunk doesn’t get sucked back into the pores.” Breaking a sweat isn’t the only way exercise benefits the skin - it also reduces body-

wide inflammation, helps regulate skin-significant hormones and prevents free-radical damage. When you exercise, the tiny arteries in your skin open up, allowing more blood to reach the skin’s surface and deliver nutrients that repair damage from the sun and environmental pollutants. These nutrients also rev up the skin’s collagen production, thwarting wrinkles. “As we age, fibroblasts [the collagen-producing cells in the skin] get lazier and fewer in number,” Kunin says. “But the nutrients delivered to the skin during exercise help fibroblasts work more eﬃciently, so your skin looks younger.”

Increased stature No one has studied precisely why exercise makes you taller, but activities that stretch and strengthen muscles at the same time, like yoga or Pilates, can correct bad posture and therefore add height, says Dan Bradley, MD, an orthopedic surgeon at the Texas Back Institute in Denton, Texas. Hunching makes some muscle groups contract and others lengthen, he explains, which subtracts height. “If you actively work to bring muscles back into balance, your back will lengthen, your posture will improve and you can grow taller.” People with swayed backs benefit most from core strengthening exercises, such as planks, farmer’s walks and bird dogs. For

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Years

health FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

hunched shoulders, working on strengthening the upper back using resistance with bands, machines or free weights can help restore lost height. And, of course, exercise that improves posture tends to also make you look thinner, fitter and more confident. Less stress and anxiety Anxiety, fearfulness and uncertainty all drain your vitality and dampen your mood, which in turn tends to show on your face and in the way you carry yourself. Roughly 40 million Americans over 18 suffer from anxiety disorders, according to the National Institutes of Mental Health - that’s nearly 20 percent of all adults - and for many of them, that anxiety strips both the smile from their face and the spring from their step. Exercise has been shown to alleviate most mild to moderate cases of anxiety, and can very quickly improve mood. Jack Raglin, PhD, a sport psychologist at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind., is only half-joking when he says, “Exercise is like taking a tranquilizer, but better because you get the side effect of improved health and fitness.” Studies out of Raglin’s lab suggest that as little as 15 minutes of exercise bestows a calm that can last for hours. As for what kind of exercise elicits the biggest response, he recommends either heart-thumping aerobic exercise, like running, cycling or swimming, or a mixture of aerobic and anaerobic exercise, such as weight training. Better immunity and detoxification Exercise shores up the immune system by goosing the body into churning out more white blood cells, including neutrophils and natural killer cells. More white blood cells mean fewer bacteria and viruses sneak past the gate. Net effect: You don’t get that worn-down sick look that comes from feeling under the weather, and small blemishes and wounds of all kinds heal faster. Exercise also keeps the lymph system happy. The body has roughly 500 lymph nodes - little nodules of tissue that take out metabolic trash. But the nodes can’t haul garbage to the curb without the help of nearby muscles. When muscles contract during exercise, they put the squeeze on lymph nodes, helping them pump waste out of your system. Result: You look less puffy and polluted. Increased circulation is the key to both white blood cell production and better lymph drainage, and the best way to achieve it is to regularly do things that make you breathe hard, says David Nieman,

PhD, director of the human performance labs at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C. “Right now, your heart is pumping 4 to 5 liters of blood per minute, but, if you got up and went for a run, it would pump up to four times more.” That increased blood flow is what revs up the immune system, he says. His research shows that just 45 minutes of walking each day can cut the number of days of work you miss because of illness by up to 50 percent. The takeaway message, says Nieman, is simple: “There is no supplement or medication that has proven to be as strong as regular exercise in improving the immune system’s ability to detect and destroy invaders.” More restful sleep Plagued by dark circles? You’re not alone. As many as 60 million Americans wrestle with insomnia, according to a recent Harvard Medical School report. A slew of studies show exercise can elicit longer, more restful sleep. Why? Well, an intense workout may leave you more hungry for shuteye recovery time, but there’s more to it than that. Shawn Talbott, PhD, nutritional biochemist and author of The Metabolic Method (Current Book, 2008), explains that exercise sharpens the body’s sensitivity to the stress hormone cortisol, which can enhance sleep. Sleeping better leaves you looking fresh and healthy. Here’s how it works: When your boss yells at you, the body spews cortisol to help muscles either duke it out or run like the wind. But, instead, if you sit and seethe at your desk, the cortisol stays in the bloodstream, like a racecar circling the track in a speedway. If the stress is chronic, the presence of cortisol 24/7 blunts the body’s cellular receptors, muting the hormone’s arousal call. That lack of sensitivity causes the adrenal glands to make more, just to get the body’s attention. “It’s like your body turns the volume up full-blast to get the message across,” says Talbott. As a result, the body’s natural cortisol rhythms (high in the morning, low in the evening) “flatten out,” he explains, which can leave you mentally wound up at night and carrying excess baggage under your eyes the next day. But exercise is essentially a release valve for cortisol, helping you sleep more soundly and greet the day looking more refreshed, Talbott explains. “It sends a message to the brain that you’re using the cortisol for its original purpose - movement - and that it’s

safe to turn oﬀ the tap afterward.” Bottom line: Your body is able to use the downtime for the tissue-repair work that keeps you both looking and feeling great. Less visceral fat Yes, exercise can help you lose your love handles, but it’s the loss of excess fat deep inside the body that boosts your overall vitality and your looks. The body contains two types of fat. The one you can pinch (subcutaneous) is relatively benign. But the less visible stuﬀ, the visceral fat that pads the abdominal organs like so many packing peanuts, can be a killer. Excess visceral fat fuels low-grade inflammation in the body and is tied to a virtual who’s who of 21st-century ills, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, colon cancer, breast cancer and dementia. It can also upset the balance of important

hormones (more on that to come) that aﬀect your skin, hair and general appearance. Regular exercise trains the body to burn visceral fat more eﬃciently. Exercise attacks fat on several fronts, explains Jason Karp, PhD, an exercise physiologist at Miramar College, distance-running roach at San Diego State University and owner of RunCoachJason.com in San Diego. When you exercise regularly, your body makes more mitochondria, the cellular engines where aerobic metabolism takes place; it also produces more proteins to speed up the transportation of fatty acids into cells to be burned as energy; and it makes more enzymes that break down fat. “Enzymes regulate the speed at which chemical reactions take place. So the more enzymes you have, the faster visceral fat can be burned,” he adds. And the better your whole body looks as a result. — www.care2.com

Knockout nourishment

xercise alone isn’t going to make you look and feel gorgeous - you need to pair your workout with healthy food choices. Marcelle Pick, MSN, author of The Core Balance Diet (Hay House, 2009), offers these tips for how to eat beautifully. Eat foods rich in vitamin A. Hair, skin and nails depend heavily on vitamin A to stay strong and supple, says Pick. To up your intake, reach for more sweet potatoes, carrots, leafy greens and broccoli. Add omega-3s. Healthy fats help the skin retain moisture, says Pick. “When people don’t get enough good dietary fat, their skin gets dry and flaky, especially on the arms and abdomen.” Reliable sources include coldwater fish, walnuts and almonds. Ease up on alcohol. Being mindful of how much you drink can help keep the liver, the body’s main detoxifying organ, in tiptop shape, therefore brightening eyes and evening out skin tone. A little red wine (say 4 ounces) with dinner is fine, says Pick, but don’t overdo it - and avoid hard liquor altogether. Prioritize fiber. “The more veggies, fruits, beans and legumes you eat, the more efficiently your body will eliminate waste,” says Pick. The fiber in these foods helps reduce inflammation throughout the body. “And the antioxidants lower skin’s oxidative stress levels, staving off wrinkles and sun damage.” (See “Fiber: Why It Matters More Than You Think.”) Cut back on sugar. A high-sugar diet can feed bad bacteria in the gut and cause a lowgrade inflammation that can lead to skin problems, such as breakouts and dermatitis, says Pick. Instead, try agave nectar, a (truly) natural sweetener that doesn’t spike blood sugar.

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Museum peace:

apanese cool has, for decades now, been associated with everything fast, hi-tech and jangly; it’s the TVs on taxi dashboards, the control-panels on toilets, the underground universes around major train stations that keep buzzing even after a natural calamity that stunned the rest of us. And if you’re looking for a world-defining Japanese art form, you’re more likely to turn these days to anime and manga than to any of the country’s classical painters or mock-European forms. So it was shocking for me to go to the sleepy, faraway island of Naoshima - now turned into an “art island” rich with museums and installations - and find the coolest thing I’ve seen in my 24 years of living in Japan. It was, in some ways, the reverse of technology. The structures around Naoshima are super-hi-tech, 23rd-century constructions of grey reinforced concrete, with every next-generation innovation; but they take you back to the principles of spareness, simplicity and concentration that graced the haiku, brush-and-ink paintings and Noh dramas of old. Where technology makes you speedy, up-to-the-minute and allover-the-place, Naoshima so calms, grounds and slows you that you feel as if you’ve stepped into a meditative shrine. The journey to the old fishermen’s haunt in the Seto Naikai, or Inland Sea, is like a journey through the past. I set out from my home in Nara on a brilliant late-autumn afternoon, the trees blazing red, gold and radiant yellow all around me. To get to the remote island involved a bus, a train, another train to Kyoto, a bullet-train to Okayama

Japan’s Naoshima island

and then another local train, a slow ferry and a bus before, five hours later, I arrived at Naoshima’s Benesse House, the showpiece hotel where I was staying. With each change of vehicle, modernity seemed to thin out a little and I was closer to the old. By the time I left Okayama, I was in the middle of a much earlier Japan of unmanned ticket offices and deserted piers. The faces were simpler here - two local girls, swathed in grey earmuffs, had the countenances of Noh masks - and there were few signs in English. The train from Okayama clanked along, the opposite of a bullet train, stopping at an empty platform every two or three minutes, and as we inched past, I could see regiments of uniform houses, with grey tiled roofs, bunched against a hillside, smoke rising from the ricepaddies in front of them. By the time we arrived at the ferry town of Uno, I could hardly recall the Godiva coffee-shops and high-rises of Kyoto. When I reached Naoshima itself, I began to feel as if I’d stepped out of time altogether, in a world so deep in the past - and so far ahead in the future - that I lost all sense of when I was. Benesse House is a stylish and sleek construction, with Bose CD players on every desk - but no TVs or internet reception - and each room individually designed by the self-taught Osaka architect Tadao Ando. Its corridors are full of original contemporary canvasses and eerie light sculptures projecting classic Japanese landscapes through the near-dark. And the effect of all the modern art is, oddly, to take you back to the transfixing simplicity of

an old ryokan, or traditional inn, where simply watching the sun make stripes across the tatami mats, or figures cast silhouettes against the paper windows, becomes so absorbing you never want to leave your room. After the Benesse Company, a publishing firm centered in Okayama, took over the southern half of the island in 1985, working with the then-mayor Chikatsugu Miyake, it called in the minimalist Ando and invited him to design a huge swatch of natural park to be an international centre of art. Rising to the opportunity - surely any architect’s dream - he opened Benesse House in 1992, then created a Benesse House Museum (with hotel rooms on the second and third floors) up the road, and then built what is now known as the Oval, a James Bondian series of six more rooms for guests on the top of a mountain behind the museum, reached by private monorail. In 2004, he completed the Chichu Museum which is a 20minute walk away. In all my 50 years I’ve never seen a place as pure and elevating as the Chichu, and it speaks for the pristine futurism that makes Naoshima such a unique place. There are five major pieces - a set of Monet water lilies, a large chamber with a reflecting 6ft granite sphere at its centre by the American land artist Walter de Maria and three light installations by the American James Turrell. Rather than observing these pieces, though, you more or less inhabit them. In one Turrell piece - Open Field - you walk into a room flooded with an unearthly orange light. Then, one at a time, you step up

some stairs and into another large room suffused in soothingly deep blue light. Turn around, and the people in the room behind look like art works. Turn back, and you’re in a kind of dream state. Ten minutes walk from the Chichu, I came upon a new museum, opened only last year, to show off the works of the Korean-born Lee Ufan, again in a tall, grey, windowless Ando construction in a field. One of the pieces there, a single rock placed in front of a great earth-coloured slab, with a light shining on it, looked like a moving representation of a figure praying. Walking back from there towards Benesse House, I passed 88 buddhas along the side of the road made from industrial waste. A huge cube sat on a beach, and a “Cultural Melting Bath” hot tub on the cliffs above. At one point, on the silent road framed by glowing trees and the Inland Sea, I realised I could hear water lapping against the shore from two different beaches, each in a different key. The protected spaces and air of discerning clarity mark every detail in Naoshima. There are no pachinko parlours on the small island of 3,600 people, no video arcades, no clamorous department stores. Cars are rare and you can walk from one site to the very farthest in about an hour. If you look out to sea, you can watch the fishing boats slowly drifting to one of the quiet neighbouring islands; when you head into one of the museums, sometimes slipping off your shoes before entering a room, you’re in a prayerful hush again. While Benesse House is clearly the classic place to stay, budget-

minded travellers can sleep in one of 10 Mongolian yurts on the beach 10 minutes’ walk away, for less than £30 a night, or in various family-run minshuku, or guest houses, among the island’s villages. In one 18th-century village, Honmura, 30 minutes’ walk from Benesse House, six old wooden houses showcase the most contemporary of modern art works. Everywhere you look in Naoshima, the locals, and visiting artists, are coming up with new projects. There’s the “I ? YU” bathhouse in the port town of Miyanoura - where you bathe surrounded by a zany, eclectic “scrapbook” of work, including an aeroplane cockpit and a collage of erotica - and the Miaow Shima café in Honmura where you can sip coﬀee among a dozen sleeping cats. Naoshima is not like anything in the west, but more an ultra-cool reference and homage to what Japan has been doing all along, in cutting away distraction and using frames and light and silence to still the mind and train one in attention. And at a time when the modern nation has absorbed such a series of shocks, and is thinking about what grounds and steadies it, it makes more sense than ever to seek out this forward-looking shrine to the past. —Guardian

The “art island” of Naoshima is dotted with calming concrete installations a world away from Tokyo’s frenetic pace. Pico Iyer enjoys a moment of serenity

Museum is located on the southern edge of Naoshima island.

Part One of a two part series on Naoshima “art island” in Japan’s Inland.

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Installation by Carwyn Evans, sits alongside a 19th-century landscape at the National Museum of Art in Cardiﬀ.

Art work by Richard Long

Complete Welsh collection goes on display

amiliar favorites by Renoir, Cézanne and Monet are there, but also freshly minted pieces such a jagged stone circle created by Richard Long that two weeks ago was nothing more than a pile of rejected hunks of slate in a north Wales quarry. All are being brought together at the National Museum of Art, which opens on Saturday at the National Museum Cardiff. For the first time the full range of Wales’s art collection, from Tudor portraits to esoteric pieces of contemporary art, can be seen under one roof. The 10-year project, costing £6.5m, has involved the refurbishment of old galleries and the creation of six new spaces. Pieces that have long languished in storerooms have been hauled out and paintings and sculptures that were jammed together have been given more room. Temporary exhibitions are planned for the new contemporary galleries, the West Wing. The opening show, called I Cannot Escape This Place, features work by Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, David Hockney and Rachel Whiteread along with emerging artists such as Manon Awst and Benjamin Walther, who split their time between north Wales and Berlin. David Anderson, the museum’s director general, believes the opening is an important moment for Welsh art and culture. “The country’s collection of works by Welsh artists and international names is outstanding and it now has the home it deserves,” he said. “The National Museum of Art is a new landmark institution for the whole of Wales and is one of the largest art venues outside London.” The gallery has more than its fair share of works from the early 20th century, thanks to the eye of Gwendoline and Margaret Davies, sisters who used a family fortune made in the coalmines of south Wales to collect art. There are eight Monets, some Cézannes and a Van Gogh, Rain - Auvers, painted days before his death. Mike Tooby, the museum’s director of learning, programs and presentations, said one visitor asked in amazement: “Do we really have real Monets in Cardiff or are they copies?” “I had to convince him they were real,” said Tooby. “People need to be reminded that they don’t have to go a long way away for great experiences. They are right here.” The museum’s collection of paintings by Pembrokeshire artists Augustus and Gwen John is displayed in a section called Art After Cézanne. Old and new sit alongside each other. Unlliw, an installation created by Carwyn Evans out of 6,500 cardboard bird boxes in response to plans to build 6,500 homes in west Wales, partly obscures an early 19th-century landscape depicting Caernarfon Castle in north Wales. An oil painting by Lionel Walden of a night train getting up steam at a Cardiff steelworks is hung beside a 2003 abstract photograph by Paul Seawright showing the glow of streetlights in south Wales. The gallery is the latest in a series to open in regional centers. Turner Contemporary in Margate and the Hepworth in Wakefield opened this year and Firstsite is due to open in Colchester in September. —Guardian

Ten-year project opens with masters on show and special exhibition including work by Freud, Hockney and Whiteread

Art work by David Hockney.

Comic

To Yester

Word Sleuth Solution

Yesterdayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Solution

C R O S S W O R D

3 7 9

FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

ACROSS

1. A machine-readable version of a standard dictionary. 4. Any member of Athapaskan tribes that migrated to the southwestern desert (from Arizona to Texas and south into Mexico). 10. The act of slowing down or falling behind. 13. The seat within a bishop's diocese where his cathedral is located adv. 14. Of an instrument of certain death. 15. An agency of the United Nations affiliated with the World Bank. 16. Title for a civil or military leader (especially in Turkey). 17. Feel admiration for. 18. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine. 19. An overland journey by hunters (especially in Africa). 21. Unpleasantly and excessively suave or ingratiating in manner or speech. 23. A silvery ductile metallic element found primarily in bauxite. 24. Asian breed of large fowl with dense plumage and feathered legs. 28. A loose sleeveless outer garment made from aba cloth. 29. A metrical unit with unstressed-stressed syllables. 33. Someone who works (or provides workers) during a strike. 35. A person who swindles you by means of deception or fraud. 37. The cry made by sheep. 40. A native-born Israeli. 41. Being one more than one. 42. A fine grained mineral having a soft soapy feel and consisting of hydrated magnesium silicate. 44. An unabridged dictionary constructed on historical principles. 45. Of a pale purple color. 47. United States physician who specialized in diseases of the intestines. 49. A radioactive element of the actinide series. 50. Not only so, but. 52. A Loloish language. 56. A Hindu prince or king in India. 59. A hospital unit staffed and equipped to provide intensive care. 62. Earn on some commercial or business transaction. 63. A member of the genus Canis (probably descended from the common wolf) that has been domesticated by man since prehistoric times. 64. Measuring instrument in which the echo of a pulse of microwave radiation is used to detect and locate distant objects. 65. Small buffalo of the Celebes having small straight horns. DOWN 1. Small shrubby African tree having compound leaves and racemes of small fragrant green flowers. 2. Belonging to or befitting a supreme ruler. 3. Lacking or deprive of the sense of hearing wholly or in part. 4. (botany) Of or relating to the axil. 5. A tricycle (usually propelled by pedalling). 6. A unit of pressure. 7. The 22nd letter of the Greek alphabet. 8. Unpleasantly stern. 9. Fragrant resin obtain from trees of the family Burseraceae and used as incense. 10. A person who has lied or who lies repeatedly. 11. (Old Testament) In Judeo-Christian mythology. 12. A city in northwest Indiana on Lake Michigan. 20. According to the Old Testament he was a pagan king of Israel and husband of Jezebel (9th century BC).

22. (Jungian psychology) The inner self (not the external persona) that is in touch with the unconscious. 25. A Russian river. 26. (New Testament) One of the three sages from the east who came bearing gifts for the infant Jesus. 27. A plant hormone promoting elongation of stems and roots. 30. A platform raised above the surrounding level to give prominence to the person on it. 31. Being nothing more than specified. 32. A small nail. 34. A white metallic element that burns with a brilliant light. 36. United States writer (born in Poland) who wrote in Yiddish (1880-1957). 38. Small European freshwater fish with a slender bluish-green body. 39. A contagious skin infection caused by the itch mite. 41. Common Indian weaverbird. 43. Tall fan palm of Africa and India and Malaysia yielding a hard wood and sweet sap that is a source of palm wine and sugar. 46. Small tropical American tree bearing edible plumlike fruit. 48. Greek mythology. 49. A colorless and odorless inert gas. 51. Type genus of the Amiidae. 53. An inn in some Eastern countries with a large courtyard that provides accommodation for caravans. 54. A man distinguished by exceptional courage and nobility and strength. 55. A former copper coin of Pakistan. 57. A large bottle with a narrow mouth. 58. Relating to or characteristic of or occurring on the sea or ships. 60. A soft yellowish-white trivalent metallic element of the rare earth group. 61. Being one hundred more than three hundred.

Yesterdayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Solution

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FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

Your dog won’t be the only creature at the beach

Josette Cole, a registrar with the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibit Service, poses muppet character Kermit the Frog on his log for the upcoming ‘Jim Henson’s Fantastic World’ exhibit. —AP File photo shows a starfish (or sea-star) as it clings to a rock near Haystack Rock during low tide in Cannon Beach, Ore. —AP

ou and your dog are headed to the beach - for a day, a few days at a pet-friendly resort or a week at a friend’s beachfront home. What can you expect besides hot sand and salty water? In a word: Wildlife. Sea gulls are found in large, loud flocks at nearly every ocean in the world. Sea stars (historically called starfish) are found on both coasts. Sand crabs feed where the waves break on the Pacific coast and horseshoe crabs live in the shifting sands of the Atlantic coast. Here are some tips on taking dogs to the beach, and some fun facts about the other creatures you, your pet and your kids may encounter there. Dogs at the beach Dog-friendly beaches and resorts that cater to canines have grown in popularity in the past few years and can be found around the country. Websites like petfriendlytravel.com can provide details. Remember to bring a leash, doggie pick-up bags, fresh drinking water and a bowl. And be aware that the biggest risk for a dog at the beach is salt poisoning from the water, said Dr Tina Wismer, medical director for the Animal Poison Control Center run by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Urbana, Illinois. “Dogs who like to retrieve balls and other objects out of the water can ingest enough water to make them sick,” she said. In fresh water, the games are the same but the problem can be drinking too much water, or water intoxication. “The most common treatment of salt poisoning or water intoxication is intravenous fluid therapy,” the veterinarian said. Other things dog-owners should watch for: “Dogs can get sick from eating dead fish, crabs, or even bird feces,” Wismer said. “If a dog ingests dead animals, or feces found on the beach, they may need fluids and antibiotics, depending on what and how much was ingested.” In some areas, jellyfish can show up in the water. Their stings can be very painful for both dogs and humans. “If a dog is stung by a jellyfish, pain medication could be necessary,” Wismer

said. Some sea stars are also poisonous and can cause severe vomiting and drooling in a dog, she added. Sea gulls Gulls will eat whatever they find wherever they find it, said animal expert Marc Morrone, host of Hallmark Channel’s “Petkeeping with Marc Morrone.” “If a sea gull can’t go fishing, it will find something else and its babies will thrive. If a tern can’t go fishing, its babies will die,” Morrone said. Baby gulls are about the same size as their parents, but remain brown for three or four years before turning white. In the spring, a red dot develops on the necks of parent gulls. “This dot is where babies peck to cause the birds to regurgitate their food. The dots go away by summer when babies no longer need to be fed by their parents,” Morrone said. There are several species of gulls: the California gull can be found on the Pacific coast from Canada to northern Mexico. The herring gull is the most common on the East Coast. Almost all gulls can live for decades. “Don’t feed sea gulls,” warned Carrie Wilson, a marine biologist with the California Department of Fish and Game based in Monterey. That will encourage them and they are already pests, she said. They are opportunists, she explained, waiting until you go in the water to steal food from your beach blanket. Sea stars Sea stars won’t be found on the sand, but can attach to rocks, piers and pilings or around tide pools, said Kristine Barsky, a state Fish and Game marine biologist based in Ventura. Sea stars are invertebrates, not fish, so several years ago, scientists launched a campaign to get people to call them stars instead of fish, Barsky said. There are more than 1,800 species of sea stars and while the five-pronged versions are the most common, they may have as many as 40 arms. “Kids always want to take them home but the minute you do they die,” Barsky said. “They look good and thrive at the beach. As soon as you take them home, their color fades, they die and they smell bad.” —AP

Exhibit in NYC explores the man behind the

Muppets I

t seems so familiar to us now - puppet characters on television that are so real, so expressive, so alive that we forget there’s a human being doing the actual work behind the scenes. There’s a reason that’s so familiar, the organizers of an exhibit opening this weekend in New York say: Jim Henson. The master puppeteer and media innovator behind pop culture icons such as Kermit the Frog and Big Bird was a creative thinker who understood the opportunities that television and technology presented, said Karen Falk, archivist for The Jim Henson Company and curator of “Jim Henson’s Fantastic World.” “Jim was the first one to recognize that you can use television and get these incredibly expressive and believable performances out of puppets,” Falk said. “This was his innovation, he was the one who started this whole thing. This is why puppetry looks like this on television, because of this man.” The touring exhibit opening Saturday is making its last stop of a multi-year trip at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, where it will be on display into January. It’s fitting that the final stop is in New York - the museum is near Kaufman Astoria Studios, where Sesame Street is taped. Henson’s puppet creations including Big Bird and Bert and Ernie have been a vital part of what has made the children’s show a global success for decades. The final stop is also getting something other locations didn’t. Joining the drawings, cartoons and puppets on display is Miss Piggy, decked out as a bride from her stint in “The Muppets Take Manhattan.” “She wasn’t traveling with the exhibit, she’s very sensitive,” Falk said with a laugh. The exhibit gives visitors a window into Henson’s creative process. It touches on his youth and family life, his influences, his artistic endeavors from a young age through the years before his unexpected death in 1990 at age 53. There are sketches that show Henson’s original ideas for some of his puppets, like a drawing that shows how the Big Bird puppet would be operated (with a puppeteer’s arm and hand stretched upright to function as the neck and head.) There are video clips showing early incarnations of Kermit, as well as samples of the work Henson did while in college, and the commercial work he did after that. His movie eﬀorts like “The Dark Crystal” and “Labyrinth” also are included. And of course, there are Muppets. It all showcases a man who spent his life thinking

Art handlers Jo Nigoghossia, left, and David Colosi, wheel in the muppet character Miss Piggy for the upcoming ‘Jim Henson’s Fantastic World’ exhibit. visually and sharing those images with others. “Even as a child this man thought differently,” said Deborah Macanic of the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, who was the exhibit developer. “It was probably quite an effort for him to adjust himself to the way that people expected him to be, but look at what it created.” Visitors also will come away with an understanding of who Henson was as a person, said Bonnie Erickson, who worked with him and was the creator of the Miss Piggy puppet. He was patient, great to work for, and extremely positive, she said. “He created stuff that lightened people’s lives.” And that was part of his gift, presenting a positive, optimistic message without preachiness and making it entertaining, said Carl Goodman, executive director of the museum. “You do have to be a very specific kind of talent to get it pitch perfect,” he said. The museum is hosting a range of programming to go along with the exhibit. It includes screenings of Henson’s short and feature-length films, workshops for children on puppet-making and sound effects, and a talk by Jane Henson, his widow.—AP

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Lohan says she should have been

‘Black Swan’ L

Kardashian

to marry on August 20

indsay Lohan claims she should have had the lead role in ‘Black Swan’. The 25-yearold actress has reportedly spoken of her frustration that Natalie Portman was handed the part of ballet dancer Nina Sayers who descends into madness preparing for a production of Swan Lake - a role that earned her the Best Actress Oscar - insisting her own dance training made her ideal for the part. Plum Miami magazine writer Jacquelynn Powers reports the actress told her she did “ballet until she was 19 and was indignant that she was not considered for the movie ‘Black Swan’.” The troubled actress - who was recently freed from a 35-days house arrest, which she served in lieu of jail time after taking a necklace from an upmarket boutique store and violating the terms of probation set for her 2007 conviction for driving under the influence (DUI) - had refused to give an inter-

view to accompany a photo shoot she did for the publication, and the magazine instead accompanied the images with an account of her diﬃcult behavior. As well as costing the magazine $100,000 after turning up late, sending the shoot into overtime, she also refused to vacate the hotel room which the publication was paying for. Jacquelynn wrote: “Monday morning was supposed to be check-out time, but Lindsay and her posse refused to leave. It was like watching the lights come on at a nightclub after-hours - not pretty.” They also reported she was argumentative, drank wine while speaking about being alcohol-free, and insisted on cleaning a stripper pole before she would pose with it. A photographer on the shoot commented: “She has a dangerous element to her presence. You never know what’s gonna happen in the next two seconds. Is she gonna bite you?”

Dallas cops called to Minaj’s hotel

im Kardashian will reportedly get married on August 20. The 30-year-old socialite and her basketball star fiance Kris Humphries - who proposed to her in May - have set a date for their nuptials and will tie the knot after they have enjoyed separate bachelor and bachelorette parties Las Vegas nightclubs Tao and Lavo later this month, according to the New York Post newspaper. Planning is already well underway for the big day, and according to Kim’s sister Khloe their mother Kris Jenner is doing most of the work. Khloe said: “I have no idea what’s going on. But I’ve seen how much my mom has been doing, and I don’t know how my mom does it! Kim should be kissing the ground that she walks on. It’s amazing.” The family has not spend much time with the sportsman since he and Kim got engaged after just six months of dating, and Khloe hopes they all get the chance to hang out soon. She told UsMagazine.com: “We definitely need more bonding time. I just feel like we’re so busy.” It has been reported the bride has already invited at least 1,000 guests to the wedding, despite not currently having a venue. A source said: “There’s no location yet, but Kim is already invited at least 1,000, and the list is getting longer. The original idea was to have a wedding on each coast, but she now wants one huge wedding. “She’ll probably reveal where the ceremony is. She hopes to make a huge entrance. She’s having guests sign confidentiality agreements.”

ecords show police were called to a Dallas hotel after rapper Nicki Minaj argued with a friend, whom she said shoved a suitcase across her chin and lip. An incident report says Minaj, whose real name is Onika Maraj, refused to file a police report after the Monday call. She opened a Britney Spears concert Tuesday in Dallas. The incident report says Minaj asked a hotel employee to call police and told an oﬃcer she was sharing a room with the man with whom she was arguing. The report says she had slight bruising and the inside of her lip was cut. In tweets Wednesday, Minaj seemed to deny reports of being hit, saying anyone who “slapped or punched” her would “leave on a stretcher.” Minaj’s representative didn’t immediately comment.

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FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

Longoria’s Las Vegas gets shutdown

with having children

va Longoria’s Las Vegas nightclub has been temporary shutdown. The ‘Desperate Housewives’ star’s Eve club was closed on Monday to save money but her Beso restaurant remains open. Bankruptcy attorney Lenard Schwartzer said the nightclub is still profitable and could eventually be renovated and reopened. Eva owns a 32 per cent stake in the club and restaurant. In January, Beso restaurant filed for bank-

ruptcy after records filed at the US Bankruptcy Court in Las Vegas showed it was losing up to $76,000 a month and owed $1.8 million to landlords Crystals. The bankruptcy filing was designed to protect $2.5 million in assets and help the company Beso LLC restructure $5.7 million in debt and other liabilities. It wasn’t the first time Eva has had trouble with the restaurant. In June last year, the 36-year-old actres s was sued for

Baldwin files for divorce from wife

ariah Carey is “done” with having children. The 41-year-old singer - who gave birth to twins Moroccan Scott and Monroe in April - has threatened to “kill” husband Nick Cannon if he makes her give birth again. He said: “I want some (more), but I think my wife’s done. I tried to say, ‘Yo, let’s go for another round!’ and she’s like, ‘I’ll kill you!’” In celebration of the birth of the twins, the TV presenter gave his wife a pink and white diamond necklace to commemorate the happy occasion. Speaking to TV show ‘Extra’, Nick added: “It says Moroccan and Monroe in pink and white diamonds. My wife has so much jewellery, so I’ve got to be really creative when I give gifts.”However, the ‘America’s Got Talent’ host admitted the tots are both living up to their names, with his son adopting a “tough” character and his daughter already showing “diva” tendencies. Nick, 30, said: “My son Roc lives up to his name. He’s a tough guy. He’s already crawling. And then my daughter, she’s just a diva.” The man arrested for trespassing on Halle Berry’s property three times in three days has pleaded not guilty to felony stalking. Richard Franco did not speak during his appearance at a Los Angeles court yesterday (13.07.11), with his plea entered by Deputy Public Defender Ken Star, but he has been ordered to stay 500 away from the Oscar-winning actress and her home in the Hollywood Hills for three years. However, Superior Court Judge Upinder S Kalra decreed Halle’s three-year-old daughter did not require the same protection as she was not victim in the case. She is covered by a previous order set by a civil judge where he is not to go within 100 yards of her. Speaking during the hearing, Ken said the ‘X-Men’ star was “very shaken and showed signs of stress” when police asked her to identify Richard when he was arrested at her home on Monday night . Since the first two incidents at the weekend, Halle has hired a team of armed security oﬃcers to protect her home, and it was them who alerted her to Richard’s appearance on Monday, instructing her to “get to safety as quickly as possible” with her daughter, court filings show. Currently, Franco is behind bars with bail set at $150,000, and will return to court on July 27 for a preliminary hearing.

aniel Baldwin has filed for divorce from his wife Joanne. The actor - who has two children, Avis, three, and 23-month-old Finley, with the former model - has decided to end their four-year union, claiming Joanne is addicted to drink and drugs. The news comes just a day after he was granted a temporary restraining order against his spouse. Daniel - who met Joanne in 2007 when she was working as a chef in the rehab facility he was receiving treatment in for drug addiction - said: “Due to recent events in our home and for the safety of my children and myself, I have made this decision. “I have had my share of problems with drugs and alcohol many years ago and know firsthand how diﬃcult a position she is in.” According to gossip website TMZ, the judge who issued the restraining order gave Daniel temporary custody. Daniel, 50, has three other children, Kahlea, 27, Alexandra, 20, and Atticus, 15, from three previous relationships.

Rascal up takes Thai boxing

Carey ‘done’

breach of contract by the former managers Ronan and Mali Nachum alleging they had been forced out of their jobs by “scare tactics”. As well as accusing them of stealing cash, the pair were also said to have assaulted a server and punched a female patron in a document sent out by Eva and other part-owners including Jonas Lowrance. However Eva countersued to “protect the integrity of the restaurant”.

izzee Rascal has taken up Thai boxing. The ‘Bonkers’ rapper - who is facing a lifetime ban from British Airways after recently being thrown oﬀ a flight for allegedly abusing an air stewardess - practices the martial art to de-stress. He told BANG Showbiz: “I’ve been spending my time doing Thai boxing in Kent - it’s great. I do it because I like beating people up.” The 25-year-old hip-hop star - whose last album, ‘Tongue N’ Cheek’, was released in 2009 - has also turned his hand to photography as he takes time out from his music career. Speaking at the ‘Bing Your Britain’ photography competition hosted at Blackhall Studios in London’s Shoreditch on Tuesday night where he had some of his own work on display - he added: “Photography is something that’s always interested me, it’s great to have been involved in this. I just went back to my roots to take some pictures.” Dizzee - real name is Dylan Mills - was recently thrown oﬀ a British Airways plane bound for Portugal, resulting in him missing a gig at the Optimus Alive! festival in the European country, after he was reportedly abusive towards a steward. —Bang Showbiz

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Years

Lifestyle

FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

Rajnikanth home after treatment US film director Woody Allen chats with his team on the set of his new film The Bop Decameron at Rome’s Termini train station yesterday. The movie, being shot in several locations of the Italian capital, will be a comedy inspired by Giovenni Boccacio’s The Decameron.— AFP

Korean ‘street boy’ wows world with voice and courage

ressed in blue jeans, a checked shirt and sneakers, the soft-spoken young contestant 40272 on “Korea’s Got Talent” seemed a far cry from a typical opera singer. But Sung-bong Choi’s powerful baritone and his inspirational life story have now pulled at the heart strings of millions around the world thanks to the Internet, a story rivaling that of Susan Boyle. On Saturday he goes before the judges again in a semifinal round of the popular talent contest. But Choi, 22, now has as many fans from outside South Korea as at home and has been lauded by the likes of Justin Bieber. “For me, singing is a wide bridge that links me to the people and the world,” he said in an email to Reuters. In May, in the first round, when a judge said she couldn’t tell his occupation from the way he looked, Choi gave a nervous smile and said he was a manual labourer, to audience laughter. “You mean, early in the morning and things like that?” the judge said, laughing. A moment later, Choi hesitated when asked about his leaving the “family” portion of the application blank, then revealed in a soft voice that he’d been left in an orphanage at age three. He said he ran away two years later after he was beaten by people there, and then lived on the streets in the city of Daejon, south of Seoul. He survived by selling gum and energy drinks, and sleeping “on the

Sung-bong Choi

stairs or in public toilets”. Choi confessed just before his performance that he did not sing that well, but added “But when I sing, I feel like I become a diﬀerent person.” Then he launched into the Italian song “Nella Fantasia” (In My Fantasy). His rendition left the audience and judges in tears. “I just wanna give you a hug,” one judge said. In a country which has spawned countless K-pop boy and girl bands which have churned out hit after hit across Asia after careful grooming and rigorous training, Choi’s rise to fame is even more phenomenal than his choice of song. Like Susan Boyle, who shot to fame on a British TV talent show and became an internet hit with a song from an Andrew Lloyd-Webber musical, Choi has become a global phenomenon. His story has gone viral on YouTube, with more than 9 million hits. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BewknNW2b 8Y&feature=player_embedded). The likes of pop star Bieber, who was himself discovered on YouTube in 2008, and the “Perez Hilton” celebrity gossip website are among those lauding his talents. ‘Music is my best friend’ While some on the Internet have questioned the authenticity of his story, the show’s producer Kim Sae-jin stands by Choi. Indeed, Choi’s case was all too familiar during the height of the Asia financial crisis in the late 1990s, when authorities said thousands of children were abandoned by one or both parents. Many lived at home alone. “I have lived from hand to mouth and had even given up on my life as I guessed there was no more hope in the future. During that time, music is my only best friend,” Choi said in his email. The turning point came at 14, when a woman from a snack bar near a bus station in Daejon helped him enter night school. He soon passed middle and elementary school equivalency exams, and teachers discovered his talent for singing. “I still remember the moment when I first met a singer at nightclub when I was selling chewing gum. That was just a miracle,” Choi said. —Reuters

ews reports say Indian movie star Rajnikanth has returned home after staying several weeks in a hospital in Singapore where he was being treated for a kidney ailment. Press Trust of India reports that the 60-year-old actor arrived in the southern Indian city of Chennai yesterday. PTI says scores of fans were at the airport to greet the star. Three hospital stays in April interrupted the shooting of his latest film, “Rana,” before Rajnikanth left for Singapore in late May. Rajnikanth’s real name is Shivaji Rao Gaekwad. He has acted in more than 175 films since 1975. Many are in the Tamil and Telugu language films in southern India. —AP

Steven Spielberg to make first Comic-Con appearance

Steven Spielberg

omic-Con just got a giant guest: Steven Spielberg will attend the San Diego convention for the first time on July 22. He’ll bring footage from Paramount’s upcoming “The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn,” and participate in a panel discussion moderated by the Los Angeles Times’ Geoﬀ Boucher, the Times reported Wednesday. Spielberg also will receive the convention’s Inkpot Award. Previous winners include Ray Bradbury, Jack Kirby and R. Crumb. Spielberg will receive an Inkpot Award before the panel, which begins at 11 am in Hall H Paramount will release “Tintin” on Dec 23. —Reueters

Three ‘Glee’ stars to ‘graduate’ from TV show

hree of the biggest stars on hit musical TV comedy “Glee” will “graduate” high school next year and won’t be back on the show for a fourth season in 2012, the show’s creator said Wednesday. In an interview with showbusiness website The Hollywood Reporter, Ryan Murphy said that Lea Michele (Rachel), Chris Colfer (Kurt) and Cory Monteith (Finn) “are not going to be back at all for Season 4.” Murphy said the decision had been taken in order to keep the dark comedy, which features a group of misfits in a struggling high school choir, more credible. “You can keep them on the show for six years and people will criticize you for not being realistic, or you can be

really true to life and say when they started the show they were very clearly sophomores and they should graduate at the end of their senior year,” he told the Hollywood Reporter. Broadcaster Fox could not immediately be reached for comment. Murphy suggested that other characters would also be leaving the show when season three comes to an end in May 2012. He said that planning for life after high school will be a major theme of the upcoming third season of the Emmy-award winning show, which starts on September 20. Colfer, 21, who plays a bullied gay teen on the Fox show, has won Emmy and Screen Actors Guild awards for his performance. —Reuters

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Years

Lifestyle

FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

Alan Rickman

Snape voted greatest ‘Potter’ character in MTV poll

rofessor Severus Snape-the mysterious potions master at Hogwarts School - was named the greatest “Harry Potter” character of all time yesterday in a poll of fans run by MTV News. Snape, played on screen by British actor Alan Rickman, was declared winner of the MTV News Harry Potter World Cup, while a separate NextMovie.com readers poll declared witch Bellatrix Lestrange favorite villain, ahead of scheming schoolboy Draco Malfoy. After seven books and with the eighth and final movie- “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2” opening worldwide this week, the death of Hogwarts headmaster Professor Dumbledore was declared the most unforgettable moment in the series, winning 51 percent of the almost 36,000 votes cast. Dumbledore’s demise easily outstripped the smooch between Harry Potter and

girlfriend Cho Chang in “The Order of the Phoenix”. Hermione Granger’s time turner was voted the magical device most fans wish really existed, with Harry’s invisibility cloak coming in a close second. Neville Longbottom topped the poll for the character that fans thought should get a spin-oﬀ movie or book, closely followed by Luna Lovegood. As “Deathly Hallows - Part 2” closes an era for millions of moviegoers, NextMovie.com fans were also asked to predict which star would be the most successful in the future. Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) won a commanding 43 percent of the votes, followed by Daniel Radcliﬀe (Harry Potter) at 22 percent, and Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) with just 17 percent.—Reuters

actress Sharon Stone was ordered Wednesday to pay $232,000 in compensation to a worker who injured his knee after slipping and falling in her back yard. Peter Krause, who injured his right knee while installing a sound system in the star’s yard in August 2006, had been seeking up to $1.5 million for pain, suﬀering and loss of earnings. A jury at the Los Angeles Superior Court found her guilty of negligence, and ordered her to pay the much lower sum after considering arguments from both sides in the case, which started last week. “We’re very relieved it’s over,” said Krause as he hugged his wife, Melissa, after the verdict. Stone’s lawyer Jerry Popovich said he would speak to her before deciding whether to appeal, and lamented that the jury had not been convinced by the actress’s testimony in court of why she did not consider herself negligent. “We’re disappointed they did not take her testimony at face value,” he said. Krause sued Stone in August 2008. He claimed he slipped on mud, but when he reached for a lattice fence to steady his balance it gave way, and he fell about 12 feet down a slope into the neighboring yard. Stone was found guilty of negligence for only having a flimsy fence. Stone’s lawyer said earlier this week that both sides agreed Krause’s medical damages were $33,000, but said he should receive no more than about $120,000 for the rest of his claims. Krause’s lawyer John Torjesen had said his client should get $900,000 for pain and suﬀering due to the accident, and the rest of the $1.5 million claimed for lost wages.—AFP

Christine Brewer makes ‘Turandot’ debut

soprano Christine Brewer, who will make her debut as Puccini’s “Turandot” at the Hollywood Bowl on Sunday, says she is ready-at the age of 55 — to take on the “daunting” role. Having entered the opera world at the relatively late age of 30 or so- when many sopranos

Christine Brewer

are already past their prime-she says she can now handle one of the most challenging roles in the lyrical repertoire. “‘Turandot’ has always been a role that intrigued me, and I thought about it. People asked me to sing it, and I turned it down in a couple of places,” she told AFP. The Met in New York was among those asking. “But I thought that if I did a production that was an old production, I wouldn’t get the proper amount of rehearsal time. It is daunting on many levels. “But I do feel, now, that I want to give it a try.” Brewer takes to the stage for the first time Sunday as the terrible “ice princess” who methodically executes those who seek her hand in marriage and are unable to answer the three riddles she poses. She will be accompanied by the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra under the baton of its charismatic principal conductor, Venezuelan Gustavo Dudamel. The role has been taken up by some of the top singers of the 20th century, from Maria Callas and Birgit Nilsson to Joan Sutherland and Montserrat Caballe. “I’ve been working on it for a couple of years, slowing getting the character into my body, my mind, my

voice,” Brewer said. “Many times Turandot is one-dimensional: she is just the angry and cruel ice princess... to make believable that she and Calaf can have a relationship... you have to start catching glimpses of who she is as a human being. “I have to have this very lyrical approach so I can avoid the temptation to scream or make the role so harsh,” she added. Brewer says that she can add the Puccini role to her repertoire now in large part because of her patience and the caution which has been a hallmark of her career. “I’ve had an unusual journey in my career,” she said. “Thankfully I always had people just advising me and saying: ‘You know, you sing Mozart so beautifully now, why don’t you take advantage and sing that as much as you can?’ Then, gradually, we’ll do some of the Richard Strauss.’ “I didn’t sing Wagner until I was 40. I always looked at sort of the big picture and said OK, in ten years I would like to be singing this, in 15 years, I would like to be singing this,” she added. —AFP Sharon Stone

Lifestyle FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

Visitors on Vespas take

graffiti art

tour in Miami

been a bad word in America for a long time. We are trying to change that,” said Jayson Moreira, co-owner of Montana Colors North America, a spray paint company based in San Francisco, which donated 8,000 cans of spray paint used to create many of the murals in Miami during Art Basel. He even helped paint a mural of Japanese girls on the side of a twostory building that was once an RC Cola Plant. The world of graﬃti has its own lingo. Artists “tag” their works with their names. A “throw up” is a quick piece. A “bomb” is usually ille-

mural. Graffiti is changing, he said. “A purist would tell you it’s gotten really soft,” he said. “When I started, everything was illegal. There was (a) serious graffiti task force. They’re less aggressive now because so much of it is legit.” But while the artists are invited to do their work on buildings and sometimes get donated materials, for the most part they are not paid. Some predict that may change, and that the Miami graffiti community may eventually find fame and profit in their designs, the way artists like Keith Haring and Jean-

A graﬃti covered wall is shown in the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami.

raffiti was once considered a sign of urban decay, the sort of thing that might keep tourists away from a neighborhood. Now, not only is it an accepted art form, but it’s also the subject of a new tour in one of Miami’s trendiest neighborhoods, Wynwood, where legal outdoor murals by graffiti artists cover the walls near art galleries and restaurants. The two-hour tour - which takes place on Vespas - is offered by a company called Roam Rides. It starts with a 15-minute ride from Miami Beach over the Venetian Causeway to the Wynwood Arts District, considered the mecca of Miami’s emerging arts scene, and includes four or five stops to survey the area’s best graffiti. The tour ends with lunch at a happening Wynwood restaurant. Once considered a rough neighborhood, Wynwood has become a destination for artists from all over the world. Art galleries abound and events are held here each December as part of the Art Basel Miami Beach art fair. Wynwood is also now home to one of the world’s largest installations of murals by multiple graffiti artists. “It’s gotten to be so pervasive and it really brightens up the neighborhood,” Kit Sullivan of Roam Rides said. “It’s so not what you would expect of Miami,” said Jesse Bull, an economics professor who took one of Roam Rides’ recent graffiti tours. “The graffiti has kind of added to that. It livens it up and makes it fresh and artsy and I think that’s a good thing.” Guides point out work by different local artists - such as Typoe and “Tribe Called Phresh” aka TCP - while explaining the evolution of graffiti from the days when artists plastered their names on vacant buildings and train cars as a way to gain street cred. These days, building owners give permission to artists to spray paint their designs, and these legal pieces share the walls of dozens of neighborhood art galleries and chic restaurants. They’re easy to distinguish from illegal graffiti, which is often done fast, in secret and at night, with a single color or very few colors.

Rob Deieso, left, Adrian D’Alessandro both of Adelaide, Australia, and Jesse Bull an economics professor at Florida International University, stop to look at a graﬃti covered wall during a two-hour graﬃti tour given by Roam Rides in the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami. — AP photos

Dino Marrone of Adelaide, Australia stops to look at a graffiti covered wall during a two-hour graffiti tour given by Roam Rides in the Wynwood. The sanctioned murals, in contrast, allow artists to take their time, use multiple colors and work in-depth in large spaces with elaborate details. “It’s definitely a changing art form,” Sullivan said. “It’s gotten to the point where a lot of these guys don’t even use their names at all. They just have a certain distinctive style. You can recognize it when you see it.” For example, artist Chor Boogie’s signature work includes geometric elements and half-hidden faces, as well as an eye. Major paint companies are even helping graffiti artists make the transition to a legitimate art form by donating spray paint. “Graffiti has

gal work that is “thrown up” fast, often at night, in a place that’s diﬃcult to access. “Slashing” is when an artist disrespectfully “throws up” his names over a legal piece. A legally done mural or elaborate work that took days or weeks to complete is considered a “masterpiece.” Artists looking for a space to paint legally here may seek help from Primary Flight, an organization that has brought hundreds of artists to the streets of Wynwood. “A lot of people don’t go to museums or aren’t art collectors or art-educated,” Primary Flight founder Books Bischof said. “If you can take the same exact image from a street and put it in the museum, it doesn’t speak as loudly as it would if it were illegally on the street corner or in a gritty part of the neighborhood.” Oscar Montes, 36, has been painting since he was a young teenager. Better known as Trek6, the artist wanted to pay tribute to his origins and the Puerto Rican community that once made up the Wynwood area, so he painted a legal mural that included a coqui, the island frog named for the ‘ko-kee’ sound it makes at night. Montes said he spent around $2,000 of his own money on paint - as well as hours of his time under Miami’s hot sun - creating the

Michel Basquiat did in New York several decades ago. “That generation is going to bring it to another level where one day,” said Erni Vales, who runs a studio in the arts district, “it’s going to be like Pop Art.” —AP

A graﬃti artist that goes by the name “Serch,” works on a wall in the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami.

Stars

FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

Aries (March 21-April 19) The goals you have set for yourself are very commendable. Now it is time to set some short-term goals. As you experience success, you will continue to be triumphant. When you have set and achieved many goals, you will not feel slowed by one or two goals not working. If you set your goals too far in advance, you may find it easier to just abandon them. Set several goals that are challenging and will give you the opportunity of time to be successful in achieving the goals and then set a few goals for this year and a few for next year. Enjoy your successes through celebrations. Depending on the weather, you and a friend may decide to go bicycling through the park, try your luck at a little fishing or even take in a movie this evening.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) You might like to ignore responsibilities and do some socializing today but there is just no time. One of your big smiles and some sort of catch you later signal will have to suffice. In the late afternoon you may be able to break free from your work. Close relationships are most important to you and you have made a few friends from the workplace and a few friends from some of the stores you visit on the way home, and a few friends . . . well, you have a lot of friends. Your surroundings, circumstances and support system are the crucial spot, key link or what-have-you in the chain of your life. When things get hectic, it is in these areas that you can expect beautiful activity. You will have vivid dreams that will be indicators of the future—so keep a record.

Gemini (May 21-June 20) There is an instinctive imperative to be in control—pulling the strings, etc. This may lead to a greater interest or experience in healing and investing and in the great mysteries of life and death. There is a feeling that anything is possible. There is optimism, faith and there is a tendency to take chances at the deepest emotional levels. Where a marriage partner or significant other is concerned, you will probably be most attentive at this time. You may work with your loved one on some community project this afternoon. You are good at helping others. Your sense of values finds you on the side of good will and humanism at every turn. You appreciate goals and efforts at the global level and are pleased to contribute wherever you can.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) Difficulties, blocks and all manner of hot spots may be discovered and worked through to a positive result this morning. You may find the afternoon’s business matters run as smooth as possible. A better plan is now in effect. With your own finances a hole in the budget is discovered; it is time to start a saving routine. You may see where there is a chance to get a new car. A promotion on the job is highly probable soon as you go methodically about your quiet, conscientious, self. Your work habits have not gone unnoticed by those in a position to help you advance. Take a tape recorder, or a pad of paper, and place it on your bedside table so you will be ready to record your dreams—they are going to be very informative.

Leo (July 23-August 22) In-depth discussions and probing conversations find you at your mental best—perhaps around a table in a conference room. You must act with confidence and promptness today if you want to achieve the goal you have set for yourself. Your analytical abilities are at a high point. You have a clear vision into your own inner sense of values, how you appreciate and love. This is a good time to examine and think about what is important and of lasting value. A vacation cruise for enjoyment is a future possibility—you give it much thought. A message or invitation in the mail this evening is hard to ignore. There is a chance to have a special time with someone you love tonight. General good feelings and a sense of support make this a happy time.

Virgo (August 23-September 22) Today could be a frustrating time both at home and at work. Ask yourself if you are taking care of yourself in the ways of nutrition, exercise, rest, play and intellectual stimulation. Today you may find yourself a bit irritable and there could be a tendency to make poor choices. Purchasing items may not be in your best interest for now. Take time this afternoon to relax and think about the balance in your life. Insights into your deeper, more spiritual nature are available to you. You may be able to discover whole new areas of your mind that have been closed up to now. There are insights into your dreams and ideals. You may have the sensation of being awake within your own dream and reality may be as you dreamed it could be.

COUNTRY CODES Libra (September 23-October 22) You have a lot of energy to pour into practical and career decisions today. Your career or life-path may depend on your talent for responding and making something out of ideas and insights. The business world may call for your ability to react and build on opportunities. You tend to find your own way, which may run counter to what everyone else is doing. Your own solutions to life’s problems are practical regardless of feelings. It would not hurt to do some serious thinking along the lines of talent versus dollars. This is a good time to examine and think about what is important and of lasting value. You are a natural at sports and games—anything that gets out frustrations. You may enjoy sports activities later this afternoon.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) Communicating well is very important to you. Conversations and interactions go well. You may find yourself more talkative and easygoing than usual. Your tendency to compromise and settle for less than you dreamed can be a problem for you later in life. Surprisingly, others could learn from your calm attitude but you could also learn when the best time is for not being extremely passive. When you have rights, it would be good for you to learn to speak up. Watch others and find a mentor to mimic until you get the idea. It may come to your attention that you will be having company staying with you soon and house cleaning is something that you want to approach in sections and you will want to make your list of chores and shopping.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) You will help someone keep from being misled or getting too carried away with some plan or idea. Any mental pressure will be easy to handle today as you have the best attitude and actually enjoy solving problems. Hard decisions must be made soon and you are the right person to do it, although you do not like praise much so you may have to be asked more than once to help. You can make an effective change in your life and your life circumstances at this time. You set an example for others. Family matters will take precedence this afternoon and may take the better part of your time. Your dreams are such that you may want to monitor them for a message that will help you through a particular dilemma. Rest and laughter are good this evening.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19) You work well with those in authority who are independent and original. You could find yourself engaged in nonconformist causes, always ready to promote what is independent and innovative. You like radical approaches and find yourself in support of whatever newwave product or breakthrough advance is next in line. Communication, computers, electronics and everything new wave excites you and you excel here. You discover new ways of working with traditional materials. Nurturing, sympathy and a yearning to put down roots and a fondness for things that have stood the test of time are some of the hallmarks of the phase that begins in your life now. Romantic, social experiences and artistic tastes will show evidence of these factors.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) You have a fine mind and a great appetite for detail. You appreciate minute differences and distinctions. A crafty worker with an innate critical sense—you are always full of suggestions. Your careful, conservative mind wants to salvage every last thing. You may find yourself and a friendly co-worker hovering over topics of trivia during the break today. Your sense of humor is very important to balance your day—others enjoy being near you when you laugh. Your understanding of the unity behind appearances, along with the ability to put these thoughts into words, is a rare and valuable gift. You would make a good director, for you like working with mental images. Others value you for your ability to make practical decisions.

Pisces (February 19-March 20) There is a feeling that anything is possible if you set your sights high today. You will accomplish whatever you set out to do. There is optimism, faith and a tendency to take chances with the emotional roller coaster—careful. You can find new ways to relate and connect to others just now. This is a time of exploring your feelings and perhaps those of a loved one. You are very tolerant and accepting of differences—there are good insights available. You like to compromise and otherwise show your openminded thinking. This may involve a marriage, love relationships and/or social conventions. You are independent and value freedom and the ability to move around and avoid routine. You enjoy your eccentric friends this evening.

Afghanistan 0093 Albania 00355 Algeria 00213 Andorra 00376 Angola 00244 Anguilla 001264 Antiga 001268 Argentina 0054 Armenia 00374 Australia 0061 Austria 0043 Bahamas 001242 Bahrain 00973 Bangladesh 00880 Barbados 001246 Belarus 00375 Belgium 0032 Belize 00501 Benin 00229 Bermuda 001441 Bhutan 00975 Bolivia 00591 Bosnia 00387 Botswana 00267 Brazil 0055 Brunei 00673 Bulgaria 00359 Burkina 00226 Burundi 00257 Cambodia 00855 Cameroon 00237 Canada 001 Cape Verde 00238 Cayman Islands 001345 Central African Republic 00236 Chad 00235 Chile 0056 China 0086 Colombia 0057 Comoros 00269 Congo 00242 Cook Islands 00682 Costa Rica 00506 Croatia 00385 Cuba 0053 Cyprus 00357 Cyprus (Northern) 0090392 Czech Republic 00420 Denmark 0045 Diego Garcia 00246 Djibouti 00253 Dominica 001767 Dominican Republic 001809 Ecuador 00593 Egypt 0020 El Salvador 00503 England (UK) 0044 Equatorial Guinea 00240 Eritrea 00291 Estonia 00372 Ethiopia 00251 Falkland Islands 00500 Faroe Islands 00298 Fiji 00679 Finland 00358 France 0033 French Guiana 00594 French Polynesia 00689 Gabon 00241 Gambia 00220 Georgia 00995 Germany 0049 Ghana 00233 Gibraltar 00350 Greece 0030 Greenland 00299 Grenada 001473 Guadeloupe 00590 Guam 001671 Guatemala 00502 Guinea 00224 Guyana 00592 Haiti 00509 Holland (Netherlands)0031 Honduras 00504 Hong Kong 00852 Hungary 0036 Ibiza (Spain) 0034 Iceland 00354 India 0091 Indian Ocean 00873 Indonesia 0062 Iran 0098 Iraq 00964 Ireland 00353 Italy 0039 Ivory Coast 00225 Jamaica 001876 Japan 0081 Jordan 00962 Kazakhstan 007 Kenya 00254 Kiribati 00686

Kuwait 00965 Kyrgyzstan 00996 Laos 00856 Latvia 00371 Lebanon 00961 Liberia 00231 Libya 00218 Lithuania 00370 Luxembourg 00352 Macau 00853 Macedonia 00389 Madagascar 00261 Majorca 0034 Malawi 00265 Malaysia 0060 Maldives 00960 Mali 00223 Malta 00356 Marshall Islands 00692 Martinique 00596 Mauritania 00222 Mauritius 00230 Mayotte 00269 Mexico 0052 Micronesia 00691 Moldova 00373 Monaco 00377 Mongolia 00976 Montserrat 001664 Morocco 00212 Mozambique 00258 Myanmar (Burma) 0095 Namibia 00264 Nepal 00977 Netherlands (Holland)0031 Netherlands Antilles 00599 New Caledonia 00687 New Zealand 0064 Nicaragua 00505 Nigar 00227 Nigeria 00234 Niue 00683 Norfolk Island 00672 Northern Ireland (UK)0044 North Korea 00850 Norway 0047 Oman 00968 Pakistan 0092 Palau 00680 Panama 00507 Papua New Guinea 00675 Paraguay 00595 Peru 0051 Philippines 0063 Poland 0048 Portugal 00351 Puerto Rico 001787 Qatar 00974 Romania 0040 Russian Federation 007 Rwanda 00250 Saint Helena 00290 Saint Kitts 001869 Saint Lucia 001758 Saint Pierre 00508 Saint Vincent 001784 Samoa US 00684 Samoa West 00685 San Marino 00378 Sao Tone 00239 Saudi Arabia 00966 Scotland (UK) 0044 Senegal 00221 Seychelles 00284 Sierra Leone 00232 Singapore 0065 Slovakia 00421 Slovenia 00386 Solomon Islands 00677 Somalia 00252 South Africa 0027 South Korea 0082 Spain 0034 Sri Lanka 0094 Sudan 00249 Suriname 00597 Swaziland 00268 Sweden 0046 Switzerland 0041 Syria 00963 Taiwan 00886 Tanzania 00255 Thailand 0066 Toga 00228 Tonga 00676 Tokelau 00690 Trinidad 001868 Tunisia 00216 Turkey 0090 Tuvalu 00688 Uganda 00256 Ukraine 00380 United Arab Emirates00976

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Years

W h a t ’s O n FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

Dow’s Marine Conservation Program cleans up Sulaibikhat beach

4 volunteers, both individuals and members of diﬀerent environmental and non-profit groups, collected 380 kilograms of waste across 5000 sq. m. shoreline during Dow’s Marine Conservation Program’s Sulaibikhat beach clean-up held on 9th July 2011.

Dow’s Marine Conservation Program is a dedicated program under Al Yaal (alyaal.com), Kuwait’s first nationwide marine conservation initiative developed by The en.v Initiative. Dow Chemical is the title partner of Al Yaal.

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Years

W h a t ’s O n FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

Nandanam School of Dance (left) and Heart Beats perform during the Al Mulla-Jeevan TV mega show at American International School, Maidan Hawally, last Friday. Both dance groups performed during the two shows, afternoon and evening, captivating audience with their colorful, rich and dynamic dance performances.

traditionally modern dance

andanam is a new center for dance focusing on the revival of Indian classical art forms. The center has renowned teachers like Nrithabhooshanam Shyamala who has 35 years of experience in the field, and Kalamandalam Krishnendu who is also well-versed in traditional dance. About 50 students participated in Jeevan program, age ranging from 6 years to 30 years.

Nandanam’s proprietor Santhosh Cheeroth said the center will strive to teach Indian culture through dance and music. Heart Beats, on the other hand, is another dance troupe in Kuwait formed by youngsters who focus on contemporary and modern styles of dancing. Heart Beaters Sreejith Ajayaghosh, Lalson Perera, and Anoop

Manuel are the chief choreographers who tend to experiment with the 12 member team they have. Sreejith and Lalson mesmerized last Friday when they performed with the group during Al Mulla-Jeevan show with their costumes and props they used in their dances.

Aware Announcement

Baby Mathew Somatheeram, Jeevan TV Managing Director inaugurates the closing ceremony of Venal thanima summer camp, at United Indian School, Abbassiya.

he AWARE Center cordially invites you to its diwaniya presentation on Tuesday (July 19, 2011) entitled “Developing Global and Ethical Leaders through Quality Learning” by Khalid al-Dowsary at 7:00pm. This presentation looks at cross-cultural communication skills with a focus on development of dialogue with respect to the culture of others. It touches on improvement of presentation skills, leadership skills, and problem solving skills, creativity, critical thinking and teamwork spirit. Khalid is employed with Saudi Aramco employee as Superintendent of the Professional Learning Division within the Professional Development Department. Currently, he is also a student working towards a PhD in Business Administration with a concentration on Human Resource Development, Malaysia University. He holds his M. Ed. in Human Resource Development from University of Minnesota, USA - 2007.

National Institute of Open Schooling results declared

he National Institute of Open Schooling [NIOS], one of the National Boards set up by Central Government of India is the largest Open Schooling system in the world has announced the Secondary and Senior Secondary annual examination result of 2010-11 batches for Kuwait. All students are requested to contact MEI for University Services/Kuwait

Top National Institute of Open Schooling students

Educational Centre for detailed results. The Management and staﬀ take great pride in congratulating all the students for the good performance and whole hearted cooperation that they have shown during their study with us. The following students have topped their batch and in:

Senior Secondary: Geoal Joseph George, Mohammed Pamin U Chowdhury, Sundas Faheem, Hazel Maria Fernandes, Arwa Juzar Ali Bhurji, Swati Omar, Hamza K.V Secondary: Fathima Nusra Mohammad, Sameena Tai, Riyaz T Abdul Razak.

TV Listings FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

00:45 01:40 02:35 03:30 04:25 05:20 06:10 07:00 07:25 07:50 08:40 09:10 10:05 11:00 11:55 12:20 12:50 13:45 14: 40 15:30 16:00 16:30 16:55 17:25 18:20 18:45 19:15 20:10 21:05 22:00 22:55 23:50

16:10 Ben 10 16:35 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 17:15 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 17:40 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 18:05 Hero 108 18:30 Cartoon Network Dance Club 18:45 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack 18:55 Chowder 19:20 Adventure Time 19:45 The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy 20:10 Courage The Cowardly Dog 20:35 Cow And Chicken 21:00 Best Ed 21:25 Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends 21:50 Robotboy 22:00 Adventure Time 22:25 Hero 108 22:50 Ben 10 23:15 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 23:40 Chowder

Dogs/Cats/Pets 101 Untamed & Uncut Escape to Chimp Eden Chris Humfrey’s Wildlife I Was Bitten Animal Cops Houston Dogs 101 Lemur Street The Really Wild Show Crocodile Hunter Breed All About It Must Love Cats Dogs/Cats/Pets 101 Michaela’s Animal Road Trip Lemur Street Wildlife SOS Clinically Wild: Alaska Animal Cops Houston Animal Precinct RSPCA: On the Frontline The Really Wild Show Farm Life Farm Life Trophy Cats Breed All About It Planet Wild Crocodile Hunter Dogs/Cats/Pets 101 Last Chance Highway Whale Wars After the Attack Mutant Planet

00:00 Dinnerladies 00:35 The Weakest Link 01:20 Casualty 02:10 Born And Bred 03:00 Eastenders 03:30 Doctors 04:00 Dinnerladies 04:30 Fimbles 04:50 Balamory 05:10 Tikkabilla 05:40 Charlie And Lola 05:50 Fimbles 06:10 Balamory 06:30 Tikkabilla 07:00 Fimbles 07:20 Balamory 07:40 Tikkabilla 08:10 Charlie And Lola 08:20 Fimbles 08:40 Balamory 09:00 Tikkabilla 09:30 Charlie And Lola 09:40 Dinnerladies 10:10 Dinnerladies 10:45 The Weakest Link 11:30 Ray Mears Goes Walkabout 12:20 Doctors 12:45 Eastenders 13:15 Casualty 14:05 Dinnerladies 15:15 Dinnerladies 15:50 Ray Mears Goes Walkabout 16:40 The Weakest Link 17:25 Doctors 17:50 Eastenders 18:20 Casualty 19:10 Ray Mears Goes Walkabout 20:00 The Weakest Link 20:45 Doctors 21:15 Elbow With The BBC Concert Orchestra 22:10 Survivors 23:00 The Cup 23:30 Ideal

00:30 Masterchef: The Professionals 01:15 Come Dine With Me 02:05 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 02:30 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 02:55 Fantasy Homes By The Sea 03:45 Daily Cooks Challenge 06:45 Daily Cooks Challenge 07:15 French Food At Home 07:50 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 08:15 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 08:40 Antiques Roadshow 10:40 Glamour Puds 11:05 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 11:30 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 11:55 Antiques Roadshow 12:45 Cash In The Attic 13:30 Bargain Hunt

The SpiriT on oSn ACTion hD 14:15 Come Dine With Me 15:05 Glamour Puds 16:15 Glamour Puds 16:40 Rhodes Across China 17:25 Rhodes Across China 18:10 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 18:35 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 19:00 Antiques Roadshow 19:50 Cash In The Attic 20:35 Bargain Hunt 21:20 Come Dine With Me 22:10 Fantasy Homes By The Sea 23:00 Masterchef: The Professionals 23:45 Masterchef: The Professionals

00:00 00:30 00:45 01:00 01:30 01:45 02:00 02:30 02:45 03:00 03:30 03:45 04:00 04:30 04:45 05:00 05:30 05:45 06:00 06:30 07:00 07:30 07:45

BBC World News World Business Report Sport Today BBC World News America Asia Business Report Sport Today BBC World News Asia Business Report Sport Today Newsday Asia Business Report Sport Today Newsday Asia Business Report Sport Today Newsday Asia Business Report Sport Today Newsday Peschardt’s People BBC World News World Business Report BBC World News

08:00 BBC World News 08:30 World Business Report 08:45 BBC World News 09:00 BBC World News 09:30 World Business Report 09:45 Sport Today 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 World Business Report 10:45 Sport Today 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 Peschardt’s People 12:00 BBC World News 12:30 World Business Report 12:45 Sport Today 13:00 BBC World News 13:30 World Business Report 13:45 Sport Today 14:00 GMT With George Alagiah 14:30 GMT With George Alagiah 15:00 BBC World News 15:30 World Business Report 15:45 Sport Today 16:00 Impact 16:30 Our World 17:00 Impact 17:30 World Business Report 17:45 Sport Today 18:00 World Have Your Say 18:30 World Have Your Say 19:00 The Hub With Nik Gowing 19:30 BBC World News 19:40 Weekend World 20:00 The Hub With Nik Gowing 20:30 World Business Report 20:45 Sport Today 21:00 World News Today With Zeinab Badawi 21:30 World Have Your Say Extra 21:40 Weekend World 22:00 BBC World News 22:30 Middle East Business Report 23:00 BBC World News America 23:30 Peschardt’s People

00:05 Cow And Chicken 00:30 Cramp Twins 00:55 The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy 01:20 Courage The Cowardly Dog 01:45 Eliot Kid 02:10 Ed, Edd n Eddy 02:35 Ben 10: Alien Force 03:00 The Powerpuff Girls 03:15 Chowder 03:40 The Secret Saturdays 04:05 Samurai Jack 04:30 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 04:55 Best Ed 05:20 Skunk Fu! 05:45 Cramp Twins 06:10 Eliot Kid 06:35 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack 07:00 Codename: Kids Next Door 07:25 Cow And Chicken 07:50 Angelo Rules 08:05 Cartoon Network Dance Club 08:15 Adventure Time 08:40 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 09:05 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 09:30 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 10:00 Star Wars: The Clone Wars 10:30 Star Wars: The Clone Wars 10:55 The Powerpuff Girls 11:20 The Powerpuff Girls 11:45 Adventure Time 12:35 Ben 10: Alien Force 13:00 Ben 10: Alien Force 13:25 Bakugan: Gundalian Invaders 13:50 Bakugan: Gundalian Invader s 14:15 Skunk Fu! 15:05 Batman: The Brave And The Bold 15:25 Batman: The Brave And The Bold 15:50 Ben 10

00:00 00:30 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 06:30 06:45 07:00 07:30 08:00 09:00 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:45 12:00 13:00 13:30 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 18:30 19:00 19:45 20:00 20:30 21:00 21:45 22:00 23:00

Backstory World Sport The Situation Room World Report World Business Today Piers Morgan Tonight Anderson Cooper 360 World Sport Edit Room Future Cities World Report Backstory World Report World Report World Sport The Best Of Backstory World Business Today CNN Marketplace Middle East World One World Sport The Best Of Backstory Piers Morgan Tonight News Stream World Business Today International Desk The Brief World Sport World Report CNN Marketplace Middle East International Desk Talk Asia Quest Means Business CNN Marketplace Africa Piers Morgan Tonight Connect The World

00:40 01:35 02:30 03:25 04:20 05:15 05:40 06:05 07:00 07:50 08:45 09:10 10:05 10:30 10:55 11:25 12:20 12:45 13:15 14:10 15:05 16:00 1 6:55 17:50 18:45 19:10 19:40 20:05 20:35 21:00 21:55 22:50 23:45

Dirty Jobs LA Ink Ultimate Survival Heartland Thunder Mythbusters How It’s Made How Stuﬀ Works Dirty Jobs Heartland Thunder Street Customs 2008 How It’s Made Mythbusters Cake Boss Border Security Auction Kings Surviving The Cut Sons Of Guns Sons Of Guns Ultimate Survival Miami Ink Dirty Jobs Heartland Thunder Mythbusters Dual Survival Cake Boss Border Security Auction Kings How Stuﬀ Works How It’s Made Extreme Engineering Huge Moves Mighty Ships Dual Survival

00:05 00:55 01:45 02:35 03:00 03:25 04:15 04:45 05:40

Science Of The Movies Mega Builders Prototype This Bang Goes The Theory Bang Goes The Theory Catch It Keep It How Stuﬀ’s Made Mega Builders One Step Beyond

06:10 07:00 07:55 08:50 09:40 15:45 16:10 17:00 17:50 18:15 18:40 19:30 20:20 21:10 22:00 22:25 22:50 23:40

Eco-Tech Catch It Keep It How The Universe Works The Gadget Show Bang Goes The Theory Weird Connections Brainiac Cosmic Collisions Sci-Fi Science The Gadget Show The Tech Show Bad Universe Catch It Keep It The Gadget Show The Tech Show The Tech Show Bad Universe The Gadget Show

00:00 00:25 01:15 02:00 02:50 03:35 04:25 05:15 06:00 06:20 07:05 07:55 08:20 08:35 09:00 09:10 09:25 09:40 09:50 10:10 10:35 10:50 11:15 12:00 12:45 13:30 15:20 15:45 16:10 16:35 17:25 17:50 18:15 18:45 19:10 19:35 21:15 21:35 22:00 22:25 22:50 23:15 23:35

Kim Possible Fairly Odd Parents Stitch Replacements Emperors New School Stitch Replacements Fairly Odd Parents Emperors New School Phineas & Ferb Suite Life On Deck Good Luck Charlie Fish Hooks Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates Jungle Junction Handy Manny Jake & The Neverland Pirates Sonny With A Chance Fish Hooks Phineas And Ferb Shake It Up Good Luck Charlie Wizards Of Waverly Place Hannah Montana Camp Rock 2 The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody Fish Hooks Shake It Up Wizards Of Waverly Place Hannah Montana Fish Hooks Hannah Montana Good Luck Charlie Sonny With A Chance Avalon High Phineas & Ferb Good Luck Charlie Shake It Up Hannah Montana Sonny With A Chance Yr 2 Wizards Of Waverly Place Jonas

06:00 Kid Vs Kat 06:20 Kick Buttowski 06:40 Pokemon Dp: Sinnoh League Victors 07:05 Phineas & Ferb 07:40 Phineas & Ferb 08:05 Kick Buttowski 08:30 American Dragon 09:00 Kick Buttowski 11:05 Kick Buttowski 11:30 Pair Of Kings 11:55 Phineas & Ferb 12:45 Kid Vs Kat 13:30 Kid Vs Kat 13:50 The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody 14:15 The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody 14:40 Zeke & Luther 15:05 Kick Buttowski 15:35 Pokemon Dp: Sinnoh League Victors 16:00 I’m In The Band 16:25 Kick Buttowski 18:55 Kick Buttowski 19:10 The Avengers: Earths Mightiest Heroes 20:25 Kid Vs Kat 20:40 I’m In The Band 21:05 The Avengers: Earths Mightiest Heroes 21:30 Zeke & Luther 22:00 The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody 22:20 The Super Hero Squad Show

00:25 00:55 01:25 01:50 02:20 03:15 04:10

Kendra Extreme Close-Up E!es E!es E!es 25 Most Stylish Sexiest

TV Listings FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

05:05 06:00 07:50 08:20 09:15 10:15 12:05 13:05 13:35 14:05 14:35 16:25 16:55 17:55 18:55 19:55 20:55 21:25 22:25 23:25 23:55

00:30 01:20 02:10 03:00 03:50 04:45 05:15 06:10 07:00 07:50 08:40 09:05 09:30 10:20 11:10 12:00 12:50 13:15 13:40 14:30 14:55 15:20 16:10 17:00 17:50 18:40 19:05 19:55 20:20 21:10 21:35 22:00 22:50 23:40

Extreme Hollywood THS Behind The Scenes E! News The Dance Scene 40 Smokin’ On Set Hookups E! News Kendra Kendra Keeping Up With The Kardashians THS Behind The Scenes Khloe And Lamar E! News THS Kourtney And Kim Take New York Chelsea Lately Kendra E! News E!es Keeping Up With The Kardashians

The Haunted A Haunting True Crime With Aphrodite Jones Deadly Women Dr G: Medical Examiner Ghosthunters The Haunted Mystery Diagnosis Murder Shift Forensic Detectives Street Patrol Real Emergency Calls Mystery Diagnosis Undercover FBI Files On The Case With Paula Zahn I Was Murdered I Was Murdered Mystery Diagnosis St reet Patrol Real Emergency Calls Undercover FBI Files Forensic Detectives Murder Shift Real Emergency Calls Mystery Diagnosis Street Patrol On The Case With Paula Zahn I Was Murdered I Was Murdered Serial Killers True Crime With Aphrodite Jones Dr G: Medical Examiner

01:15 03:20 05:05 06:50 08:15 10:00 11:40 13:10 14:45 16:35 18:20 20:15 21:45 22:00

Who’ll Stop The Rain? Love Is All There Is-PG A Prayer For The Dying Diamond Skulls Gaily, Gaily-PG Escape Clause-PG Awake To Danger-PG .Com For Murder Hickey And Boggs-PG Hannah And Her Sisters-PG Invasion Of The Body Snatchers Seven Hours To Judgement-PG Mgm’s Big Screen-FAM Irma LA Douce-PG

00:00 02:00 PG15 04:00 06:00 08:15 10:15 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

The Uninvited-18 John Carpenter’s Ghosts Of Mars-

00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 Funny Or Die Presents 02:00 The Ricky Gervais Show 02:30 Party Down 03:00 Malcolm In The Middle 03:30 Hope And Faith 04:00 The New Adventures Of Old Christine 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne 06:00 According To Jim 06:30 Coach 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 The New Adventures Of Old Christine 08:30 Malcolm In Th e Middle 09:00 Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne 09:30 Community 10:00 Happy Endings 10:30 According To Jim 11:00 Coach 11:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:30 The New Adventures Of Old Christine 13:00 Hope And Faith 13:30 Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne 14:00 According To Jim 14:30 Community 15:00 Happy Endings 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 Coach 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 10 Things I Hate About You 18:30 The Oﬃce 19:00 Outsourced 19:30 Modern Family 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 Family Guy 22:30 Eastbound And Down 23:00 Funny Or Die Presents 23:30 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 07:00 08:00 08:30 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 07:30 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 12:30 14:00 15:00 16:00 16:30 18:00 19:00

White Collar Burn Notice The Good Guys Bones Strong Medicine Good Morning America Glee Emmerdale Look-A-Like The Good Guys The Martha Stewart Show The View White Collar Bones Live Good Morning America Strong Medicine The Ellen DeGeneres Show One Tree Hill Drop Dead Diva Oﬀ The Map Big Love The Good Guys Psych

Alias The Good Guys White Collar Burn Notice Bones Surface Alias Cougar Town Look-A-Like No Ordinary Family The Good Guys White Collar Burn Notice Cougar Town Look-A-Like No Ordinary Family Alias Sons Of Tucson Look-A-Like Covert Aﬀairs Drop Dead Diva

20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

Oﬀ The Map Big Love The Good Guys Surface

01:00 Neowolf-18 03:00 The Descent 2-18 05:00 Outpost-18 07:00 Unbreakable-PG15 09:00 Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant-PG15 11:00 A Knight’s Tale-PG15 13:15 The One-PG15 14:45 Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant-PG15 16:45 Harry Potter And The Half- Blood Prince-PG15 19:15 The Final-18 21:00 Orphan-18 23:00 Child’s Play 3-18

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

Four Christmases-PG15 Coming And Going-PG15 Maneater: Part I-PG15 Maneater: Part II-PG15 Aliens In The Attic-FAM The Lizzie McGuire Movie-PG For Love Or Money-PG Mad About Mambo-PG15 Four Christmases-PG15 Under The Tuscan Sun-PG15 Soul Men-18 Alfie-18

01:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 14:45 16:30

Gal-18 My Own Private Idaho-R Cry Baby-PG15 Born Free-PG Tuck Everlasting-PG Ice Castles-PG15 Where The Wild Things Are-PG Parlez-Moi De LA Pluie-PG15 Guarding Tess-PG

The Spirit-PG15 Angels And Demons-PG15 Panic Room-PG15 Stonehenge Apocalypse-PG15 Lara Croft: Tomb Raider-PG15 Panic Room-PG15 Arlington Road-18 Lara Croft: Tomb Raider-PG15 Blood And Bone-18 The Tripper-18

01:00 Sinners And Saints-PG15 03:00 My Son, My Son, What Have You Done?-PG15 05:00 Ponyo On The Cliﬀ By The SeaFAM 07:00 Flying By-PG15 09:00 When In Rome-PG15 11:00 The Last Airbender-PG15 13:00 Rugrats Go Wild-FAM 15:00 Charlie And Boots-PG15 17:00 Delgo-FAM 19:00 The Bounty Hunter-PG15 21:00 Nine-PG15 23:00 Inglourious Basterds-18

Charlie and Boots on osn CineMa

18:30 Jerry Maguire-18 21:00 The Informant!-PG15 23:00 Paradise-PG15

01:00 Mr. Nice-18 03:00 Don’t Fade Away-PG15 05:00 Surrogates-PG15 07:00 Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant-PG15 09:00 You Again-PG15 11:00 9-PG 13:00 The Last Song-PG15 15:00 Last Chance Harvey-PG15 17:00 You Again-PG15 19:00 Wake-PG15 21:00 Salt-PG15 23:00 Sleuth-18

00:00 Dr. Dolittle 2-PG 02:00 Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths-PG 04:00 Globehunters-FAM 06:00 Dinosaur Island-PG 08:00 My Fair Madeline-FAM 10:00 Toy Story 3-FAM 12:00 Nanny Mcphee And The Big BangPG 14:00 The Trumpet Of The Swan-FAM 16:00 Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel-FAM 18:00 Nanny Mcphee And The Big BangPG 20:00 Ulysses-PG 22:00 The Trumpet Of The Swan-FAM

00:00 Fragments-18 02:00 Nowhere Boy-PG15 04:00 Planet 51-PG 06:00 Stomp The Yard 2: HomecomingPG15 08:00 Adventures Of A Teenage Dragonslayer-PG 10:00 Secret Origin: The Story Of DC Comics-PG 12:00 Free Willy: Escape From Pirate’s Cove-FAM 14:00 Accidents Happen-PG15 16:00 Adventures Of A Teenage Dragonslayer-PG 18:00 Suburban Girl-PG15 20:00 Salt-PG15 22:00 The Haunting In Connecticut-PG15

00:00 01:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 22:00 23:00

WWE NXT The Open Championship WWE NXT WWE Vintage Collection Le Mans Highlights Super Rugby Highlights Live The Open Championship WWE Bottom Line WWE SmackDown

01:00 03:00 03:30 04:30 05:30 06:30 07:00 10:00 11:00 22:00 22:30

IRB Pacific Nations Cup Total Rugby Super Rugby Highlights AFL Highlights Trans World Sport Futbol Mundial Live AFL Premiership Golfing World Live The Open Championship Futbol Mundial IRB Pacific Nations Cup

00:30 01:00 08:00 11:30 13:30 14:00 15:00 18:30 20:30 21:00 21:30

Total Rugby The Open Championship Trans World Sport Live NRL Premiership Futbol Mundial Trans World Sport Live Snooker NRL Premiership ICC Criket World Futbol Mundial Live Super League

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00

WWE NXT UFC The Ultimate Fighter WWE Vintage Collection WWE NXT UFC The Ultimate Fighter UFC Unleashed WWE NXT WWE Vintage Collection Intercontinental Le Mans Cup Total Rugby

10:30 12:30 14:30 15:30 16:30 17:30 18:30 19:00 20:00 23:00

Live Rugby Union Live NRL Premiership WWE NXT Intercontinental Le Mans Cup V8 Supercars Championship V8 Supercars Championship V8 Supercars Extra WWE NXT WWE SmackDown UFC The Ultimate Fighter

00:00 Julian And Camilla’s World Odyssey 01:00 Rivers Of The World 02:00 World’s Greatest Motorcycle Rides 03:00 Glutton For Punishment 03:30 Chef Abroad 04:00 Globe Trekker 05:00 Julian And Camilla’s World Odyssey 06:00 Inside Luxury Travel-Varun Sharma 07:00 Globe Trekker 08:00 Nomad’s Land 09:00 World’s Greatest Motorcycle Rides 10:00 Africa Trek 10:30 Four Men And A Lady 11:00 Inside Luxury Travel-Varun Sharma 12:00 Globe Trekker 13:00 Planet Food 14:00 Nomad’s Land 15:00 World’s Greatest Motorcycle Rides 16:00 Globe Trekker 17:00 Inside Luxury Travel-Varun Sharma 18:00 Food Tripper 19:00 Globe Trekker 20:00 Globe Trekker Special 21:00 Temples In The Clouds 22:00 Indian Times 23:00 Globe Trekker

00:00 Jerseylicious 01:00 Fashion Avenue 01:30 Fashion Avenue 01:55 Big Boutique 02:25 How Do I Look? 03:20 Whose Wedding Is It Anyway? 04:15 Whose Wedding Is It Anyway? 05:10 Homes With Style 05:35 Area 06:05 Clean House 07:00 Big Boutique 07:30 Big Boutique 08:00 Homes With Style 08:30 Homes With Style 09:00 Fashion Avenue 09:25 Fashion Avenue 09:55 How Do I Look? 10:50 Whose Wedding Is It Anyway? 11:50 Clean House: Search For The Messiest... 12:50 Clean House 13:45 Clean House Comes Clean 14:15 Mel B: It’s A Scary World 14:45 Jerseylicious 15:40 Ruby 16:35 Giuliana And Bill 17:30 Top 10 17:55 Top 10 18:25 Giuliana And Bill 19:25 Big Boutique 19:50 Fashion Avenue 20:20 Clean House Comes Clean 20:45 Clean House Comes Clean 21:15 The Dish Presents 22:10 Clean House 23:05 How Do I Look?

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 03:30 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 09:30 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 15:30 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

World War II: Lost Films Ice Road Truckers Declassified Sliced Sliced Modern Marvels World War II: Lost Films World War II: Lost Films Ice Road Truckers Declassified Sliced Sliced Modern Marvels Battle Stations Battle Stations Ice Road Truckers Declassified Sliced Sliced Modern Marvels Battle Stations Battle Stations Ice Road Truckers Declassified Deep Sea Detectives Deep Sea Detectives Deep Sea Detectives

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Years

Information

FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION In case you are not travelling, your proper cancellation of bookings will help other passengers to use seats Airlines RJA JZR THY ETH UAE DHX ETD MSR FDB GFA QTR JZR THY KAC JZR JZR BAW KAC JZR KAC KAC KAC KAC FDB KAC KAC KAC UAE QTR ABY IRA ETD GFA MEA JZR JZR MEA IYE MSR JZR KAC RBG KAC MS R UAL RJA FDB OMA QTR KAC BBC KAC JZR QTR JZR JZR MLR ETD UAE GFA SVA JZR ABY ALK JZR KAC

Arrival Flights on Friday 15/7/2011 Flt Route 642 AMMAN 267 BEIRUT 772 ISTANBUL 620 ADDIS ABABA 853 DUBAI 370 BAHRAIN 305 ABU DHABI 614 CAIRO 67 DUBAI 211 BAHRAIN 138 DOHA 207 DAMASCUS 770 ISTANBUL 544 CAIRO 503 LUXOR 555 ALEXANDRIA 157 LONDON 416 JAKARTA / KUALA LUMPUR 541 CAIRO 206 ISLAMABAD 284 DHAKA 302 MUMBAI 332 TRIVANDRUM 53 DUBAI 678 MUSCAT / DUBAI 352 COCHIN 362 COLOMBO 855 DUBAI 132 DOHA 125 SHARJAH 619 LAR 301 ABU DHABI 213 BAHRAIN 404 BEIRUT 165 DUBAI 121 BAHRAIN 406 BEIRUT 825 SANAA 623 SOHAG 509 LUXOR 618 DOHA 3553 ALEXANDRIA / SOHAG 672 DUBAI 610 CAIRO 982 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 640 AMMAN 57 DUBAI 645 MUSCAT 140 DOHA 546 ALEXANDRIA 43 DHAKA 788 JEDDAH 257 BEIRUT 134 DOHA 201 DAMASCUS 535 CAIRO 403 COLOMBO / DUBAI 303 ABU DHABI 857 DUBAI 215 BAHRAIN 510 RIYADH 239 AMMAN 127 SHARJAH 227 COLOMBO / DUBAI 177 DUBAI 166 PARIS / ROME

Time 0:05 0:35 1:15 1:45 2:25 2:55 2:55 3:05 3:10 3:15 3:20 3:55 4:10 4:40 5:15 6:10 6:30 6:35 7:10 7:15 7:40 7:50 7:55 7:55 8:00 8:05 8:20 8:25 9:00 9:10 9:20 9:30 9:35 10:55 11:10 11:15 11:35 12:05 12:10 12:30 12:55 12:55 13:15 13:20 13:30 13:35 13:50 14:00 14:15 14:30 14:40 15:00 15:10 15:15 15:45 15:50 16:40 16:50 16:55 17:15 17:20 17:35 17:40 18:00 18:0 0 18:40

KAC KAC JZR KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC AIC JAI KAC JZR FDB OMA VOS MEA KAC SVA DHX GFA FCX QTR UAL UAE JZR JZR MSR DLH SAI JZR KLM JZR

502 542 213 744 614 674 774 102 575 572 562 787 61 647 81 402 786 506 372 217 304 136 981 859 135 185 612 636 441 539 447 481

BEIRUT CAIRO DEIREZZOR / ALEPPO DAMMAM BAHRAIN DUBAI RIYADH NEW YORK / LONDON CHENNAI / GOA MUMBAI AMMAN RIYADH DUBAI MUSCAT BAGHDAD BEIRUT JEDDAH JEDDAH BAHRAIN BAHRAIN RI YADH DOHA BAHRAIN DUBAI BAHRAIN DUBAI CAIRO FRANKFURT LAHORE / KARACHI CAIRO AMSTERDAM / BAHRAIN SABIHA

Airlines MEA LZB JZR AXB DLH AIC PIA THY ETH UAE FDB DHX ETD MSR KOR QTR THY JZR JZR RJA GFA KAC VOS JZR BAW FDB JZR KAC KAC KAC JZR KAC KAC

Departure Flights on Friday 15/7/2011 Flt Route 409 BEIRUT 7788 VARNA / SOFIA 540 CAIRO 390 MANGALORE / KOZHIKODE 637 FRANKFURT 982 AHMEDABAD / CH ENNAI 206 LAHORE 773 ISTANBUL 620 BAHRAIN / ADDIS ABABA 854 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 371 BAHRAIN 306 ABU DHABI 615 CAIRO 162 NORTH KOREA 139 DOHA 771 ISTANBUL 508 LUXOR 164 DUBAI 643 AMMAN 212 BAHRAIN 545 ALEXANDRIA 94 DUBAI / KANDAHAR 120 BAHRAIN 156 LONDON 54 DUBAI 534 CAIRO 177 FRANKFURT / GENEVA 671 DUBAI 117 NEW YORK 256 BEIRUT 787 JEDDAH 617 DOHA

18:45 18:50 19:05 19:15 19:20 19:25 19:25 19:25 19:30 19:35 19:50 20:00 20:00 20:10 20:15 20:15 20:20 20:35 21:00 21:25 21:30 21:35 22:00 22:00 22:10 22:35 22:50 23:00 23:05 23:30 23:35 23:50

Time 0:05 0:05 0:20 0:25 0:40 1:05 1:10 2:15 2:30 3:45 3:50 3:55 4:05 4:05 4:10 5:00 5:10 5:55 6:55 7:00 7:10 7:40 8:00 8:20 8:25 8:40 8:50 8:55 9:00 9:05 9:10 9:25 9:35

UAE ABY QTR ETD GFA IRA JZR MEA KAC JZR JZR KAC MEA KAC IYE MSR RBG JZR MSR RJA FDB UAL KAC OMA KAC KAC BBC JZR KAC QTR KAC KAC JZR JZR ETD MLR QTR UAE GFA ABY JZR S VA ALK JZR KAC KAC JAI FDB JZR KAC KAC OMA MEA SVA DHX GFA KAC QTR KAC KAC FCX JZR UAE JZR JZR KAC UAL MSR SAI

856 DUBAI 126 SHARJAH 133 DOHA 302 ABU DHABI 214 BAHRAIN 618 LAR 200 DAMASCUS 405 BEIRUT 541 CAIRO 212 DEIREZZOR / ALEPPO 238 AMMAN 103 LONDON 407 BEIRUT 501 BEIRUT 825 DOHA / SANAA 624 SOHAG 3554 ALEXANDRIA 176 DUB AI 611 CAIRO 641 AMMAN 58 DUBAI 982 BAHRAIN 561 AMMAN 646 MUSCAT 785 JEDDAH 673 DUBAI 44 DHAKA 480 SABIHA 773 RIYADH 141 DOHA 613 BAHRAIN 743 DAMMAM 786 RIYADH 538 CAIRO 304 ABU DHABI 404 DUBAI / COLOMBO 135 DOHA 858 DUBAI 216 BAHRAIN 128 SHARJAH 184 DUBAI 511 RIYADH 228 COLOMBO 134 BAHRAIN 283 DHAKA 361 COLOMBO 571 MUMBAI 62 DUBAI 528 ASSIUT 343 CHENNAI 351 COCHIN 648 MUSCAT 403 BEIRUT 507 JEDDAH 373 BAHRAIN 218 BAHRAIN 381 DELHI 137 DOHA 301 MUMBAI 205 ISLAMABAD 102 DUBAI 502 LUXOR 860 DUBAI 554 ALEXANDRIA 240 AMMAN 411 BANGKOK / MANILA 981 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 613 CAIRO 442 LAHORE

Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)

9:40 9:50 10:00 10:15 10:20 10:20 10:20 11:55 12:00 12:05 12:10 12:30 12:35 13:00 13:05 13:10 13:35 13:40 14:20 14:30 14:35 14:45 14:45 15:00 15:05 15:10 15:55 16:00 16:05 16:15 16:20 16:25 16:35 16:40 17:35 17:40 17:45 18:05 18:15 18:20 18:25 18:35 19:10 19:10 20:00 20:20 20:35 20:40 20:50 21:00 21:05 21:10 21:15 21:55 22:00 22:30 22:30 22:35 22:45 22:55 23:00 23:05 23:10 23:10 23:30 23:40 23:40 23:50 23:59

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Years

FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

ACCOMMODATION What causes bad breath? A bunch of stuff: eating foods and drinks, such as garlic, onions, cheese, orange juice and soda; failing to brush and floss your teeth; and smoking or using other tobacco products.

It’s bizarre that the produce manager is more important to my children’s health than the pediatrician. — Academy Award-winning actress and mother of four, Meryl Streep.

— kidshealth.org

Wave this oversize wand through the air to create colossal versions of a springtime favorite.

What do kids know about health? TIME For Kids and KidsHealth.org were wondering: When it comes to health-related issues, how knowledgeable are kids? We conducted a survey to find out. We asked more than 10,000 kids 21 questions about fitness, nutrition and healthy habits. Their answers impressed us. They showed that kids know a lot about staying healthy and that they want to learn even more. “Kids have a really strong basis of health knowledge,” says Dr. Mary Lou Gavin, a pediatrician and a medical editor for KidsHealth.org.

Disney FamilyFun magazine

YOUR HEALTH I.Q. When it’s time to select a snack or pick an activity, many kids would like to make a healthy choice. But to do that, they need information. That’s good news, because it turns out that kids have a lot of health-related knowledge. They are smart about nutrition. More than nine out of 10 kids are aware that water is a healthier drink than soda and that a plain potato is better for you than chips. About 88 percent of kids answered correctly that vitamin C makes an orange a healthy snack option. And nearly 85 percent know that the best way to get to a healthy weight is by exercising and eating a balanced diet. Kids also scored high on questions about the body. Nine out of 10 know what a brain looks like. Just as many can tell you where the heart is located. And a similar number can identify which organ is most affected by smoking: the lungs.

HOMEMADE BUBBLE SOLUTION Stir together 1/2 gallon of distilled water, 1/3 cup of dishwashing liquid (we used Joy) and 3 tablespoons of glycerin (available at drugstores).

It’ll probably take you a few minutes to figure out the right moves for making the best bubbles, but once you do, you won’t stop! 1. Coat 8 inches of one end of each dowel with glue, then wrap with yarn. 2. Cut a 3-foot length of yarn and tie one end to the covered tip of one

dowel, the other end to the tip of the other dowel. 3. Tie on a second, 4-foot length of yarn so that it hangs below the first. Let glue dry.

Craft glue (we used Delta Sobo brand) Two 3-foot wooden dowels 3’ Yarn 8”

4. Holding a dowel in each hand, dip the strings into a bucket of bubble solution (see above for our bubble recipe), then slowly pull the dowels apart, let-

When it comes to keeping active, sidewalk chalk seems to brim with superpowers. Here are four activities that are sure to unleash the power (and playfulness) of one of concrete’s most carefree companions. LONGSCOTCH: Play this version of hopscotch just like the classic game of stone tossing and skipping but draw the board with 20 squares instead of 10 for twice the workout. HIT THE SMALL MARK: Draw a series of o’s. From a designated spot, players take turns trying to hit each o with a tennis ball. (Draw the o’s in front of a wall so that the ball will bounce back or have another player

P H OTO S F R O M FA M I LY F U N M A G A Z I N E

ting a soap 4’ film form between the strands of yarn. Wave the wand slowly through the air to make giant bubbles.

Does all of this knowledge lead to healthy habits? In many cases, it does. About 85 percent of kids read the nutrition facts on their food packages at least some of the time. Most kids (87 percent) say they would rather go outside and play than stay inside and watch a movie. Many (85 percent) are willing to try new fruits and vegetables too. Health-smart kids know that staying well involves more than choosing nutritious food and being active. Dentists say it is important to brush your teeth at least twice a day. Three out of four kids brush that much or more. Hand washing matters too. More than four out of five kids say they wash their hands after using the bathroom. But only seven out of 10 do so before they eat.

catch each ball.) Play proceeds to the next player when an o is missed. BROAD JUMP CONTEST: Have each player take a turn jumping as far as she can from a designated spot. Use a different color chalk to mark each player’s distance. A kid playing alone can go for a personal best. 2-D OBSTACLE COURSE: Draw a meandering path (wide enough to run through), then inside it draw obstacles with instructions: a ladder (“Climb the ladder”), a high wire (“Don’t fall off the wire!”), and so on. Players must act out tackling an obstacle while standing on each drawing.

GOALS FOR GOOD HEALTH When it comes to making positive changes, kids are up for the challenge. Most kids said their health is pretty good. “They’re saying there is room for improvement,” Gavin says. Kids told us which goals they want help achieving. Learning how to cook is at the top of the list. Many kids also would like to get more exercise, eat better and learn to play new sports. How will you reach the health goals on your list? To learn more about the survey, visit kidshealth.org/healthsurvey. — Suzanne Zimbler © 2011 Time Inc. All Rights Reserved. TIME FOR KIDS and Timeforkids.com are registered trademarks of Time Inc.

A N S W E R : C . T H E P L AY E R O N T H E L E F T I S M I S S I N G A C O L L L A R .

M A RT Y W E S T M A N / M C T

“I don’t have any friends.” DEAR AMERICAN GIRL: I have a problem. I brought my class hamster home. Then my cat knocked the cage over — and the hamster died! I don’t want to go back to school, because I’m afraid — I feel bad the kids will all hate me. I Remind yourself that accidents happen. Then focus on what you can do to make the situation better. Ask your parents if you can call your teacher. You can apologize and buy a new hamster. When you go back to school, your teacher can explain that the hamster died and introduce the new pet to the class. The kids may be upset, but in time, they’ll become used to the new hamster.

Sharing accommodation, CA/C, available in Jabriya area 10, near Jabriya Indian School for decent couple or working ladies. Please contact: 99300513. (C 3521) 13-7-2011 Sharing available for family in a double bed room ﬂat + 2 toilet + hall, Abbasiya near opposite Asianet building, opposite Garden, Variety Store. Contact: 50202206/ 97213877. (C 3513) 12-7-2011 Sharing accommodation available in Hawally, Fourth Ring Road, for Pilipino couple, opposite Royal Hayath Hospital, Jabriya. Contact: 66189873. (C 3511) 11-7-2011 Sharing accommodation available in Abbasiya, furnished 2 bedroom ﬂat, from September 1. Rent KD 35. One vacancy. Contact: 99162583. (C 3507) 10-7-2011

HEALTHY HABITS

I 3-D FUN: Drawings appear to jump off the sidewalk when you use Crayola 3-D Sidewalk Chalk and its accompanying glasses. It makes the 2-D Obstacle Course particularly fun — and challenging. Ages 4 and up, Crayola, $5

DEAR AMERICAN GIRL: I don’t have anyone to play with at recess. I’m very lonely and shy, and it’s hard to make friends. It seems that everyone in my class has a friend except me. — Friendless I Sometimes it’s easier to get in on a group activity than to join a pair of friends. If you see some kids playing a game, ask, “Can I play, too?” You can also start something fun. Bring a ball or game to play with, and invite a few kids to join you. When you see someone who looks like she could be a friend, start a conversation. Smile, speak up, and be brave. There are friends out there for you — you just have to find them.

Sharing accommodation available for family or decent Indian Hindu or Catholic bachelors with Mangalorean Catholic family in a window A/C, two bedroom oﬀ Rashid Hospital, Shara Amman, Salmiya. Contact: 55995437/ 99200186. (C 3520)

FOR SALE I need Japanese car less than KD 700/-. Contact: 67607334. (C 3518) 13-7-2011 Corolla XLi 2002, silver color, KD 1,350/-. Contact: 55323839. (C 3514) 12-7-2011

SITUATION WANTED Accountant - B.Com Graduate passed in First Class knowing Peachtree and Tally accounting having 2 year experience in India and currently working in Kuwait. Seeking suitable job as ACCOUNTANT. Contact: 65179245. (C 3509) 12-7-2011 A well qualiﬁed Nigerian lady, oﬃce administrator inter personal skills with several years of experience in Kuwait, visa transferable, seeks suitable placement. Please contact: 94979702. Email: hettycharls@yahoo.com (C 3511)

A well qualiﬁed female executive secretary with several years of experience in Kuwait with US company, Visa transferable, seeks suitable placement. Please Contact: 99907403. Email: david_angel2003@yahoo.com (C 3512) 11-7-2011 Accountant - B.Com Graduate passed in First Class knowing Peachtree and Tally accounting having 2 year experience in India and currently working in Kuwait. Seeking suitable job as Accountant. Contact: 65179245. (C 3508)

SITUATION VACANT Required house maid for an Indian family in Farwaniya (live in or part time) (Indian, Sri Lankan preferred) salary KD 100/-. Contact: 97220933. (C 3510) 10-7-2011 Required a foreign Maths lady teacher to teach grade 4 Maths. Please Contact: 99011855. (C 3504) A family is seeking to hire a houseboy who is ﬂuent in English and is Christian. Contact: 99199020.

MATRIMONIAL Marthomite parents invite marriage proposals, for their daughter, fair 28/164 B.Com, MBA, working in MNC, from parents of professionally qualiﬁed boys (Engineers, CA, Doctor etc) preferably from Marthoma, CSI, Evangelical, with good family background. Contact: Email: advnaithu@yahoo.com (C 3516) Proposal invited for Orthodox boy 29/188cm, BSc (N) working in M.O.H. Prefer nurses working in Kuwait. Contact: 66704615. (C 3517)

CHANGE OF NAME I, Abdul Quyoom, holder of Indian Passport No. E0372009, hereby change my name to Abdul Quyoom Shaikh. (C 3515) 12-7-2011

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Years

Sports

FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

Vieira retires to take up new City post

FRANCE: (Left to right) Yellow jersey of overall leader, France’s Thomas Voeckler, Luxembourg’s Andy Schleck, Spain’s three-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador, Luxembourg’s national road champion Frank Schleck and Australia’s Cadel Evans climb in the 211 km and twelfth stage of the 2011 Tour de France cycling race. — AFP

Sanchez wins stage, Voeckler keeps yellow LUZ ARDIDEN: Olympic champion Samuel Sanchez of Euskaltel claimed his maiden Tour de France stage victory on the 211km 12th stage from Cugnaux to Luz Ardiden yesterday. Frenchman Thomas Voeckler, of Europcar, upset the formbook to retain the race leader’s yellow jersey after the first of three consecutive days in the Pyrenees. On the first high mountain stage of the race defending champion Alberto Contador lost over 10secs to his key rivals when he dropped oﬀ the pace late on the 13.3 km climb to the Pyreneean ski station. Spaniard Sanchez came over the finish line ahead of Belgian Jelle Vanendert of Omega-Pharma after attacking his fellow breakaway companion in the final 500 metres. Overall contender Frank Schleck, who had escaped from the yellow jersey’s chase group earlier, finished third, just ahead of a group which contained fellow rivals Cadel Evans, Ivan Basso and his younger brother Andy Schleck. In the overall standings Voeckler now leads Frank Schleck by 1min 49sec, with Evans third at 2:06 and Andy Schleck fourth at 2:17. Contador, who lost over a minute to his rivals in a crash on the first stage, is now seventh overall at 4:00 behind. Meanwhile, the first mountain stage of the Tour de France usually answers the question marks posed by the first week of the race and the main doubt this year is whether Alberto Contador’s knee is seriously injured or not. “The idea of going back home never crossed my mind. I’ll go back home for sure, but only at the end of the Tour,” the three-times Tour champion said when it was suggested he might quit because of the pain. Even though the Spaniard dismissed the injury, his main rivals were left wondering if he really is struggling and his comments were just part of the psychological warfare. “I didn’t scout the cycling sites but I read the headlines and yes I know (about Contador’s knee),” said Australian Cadel Evans, singled out by most riders as the most in-form contender before the three-day mountain stretch. “Certainly if he has a knee problem it can be painful. The knee is always a problem because there’s no real way you

can spare it the way you can the arm or the elbow, which are far less essential to pedalling the bike,” he added. Luxembourg’s Andy Schleck, second to Contador in the past two Tours, refused to be drawn into speculation about the Spaniard. “It doesn’t change anything because there are other riders out there, not just him. It is not just a duel between Alberto and me,” he said. The entire peloton are forecasting a battle between Contador and the Schleck brothers in the Pyrenees, as was the case in the two previous editions, with Evans this time joining in the fight. The Australian summed up the general feeling of anxiety before the gruelling 211-kms 12th stage to Luz-Ardiden which includes three climbs-the Hourquette d’Ancizan, which has never been climbed in the Tour before, the classic Tourmalet and the final ascent. “You never know before the first mountains exactly how you will feel. Sometimes you feel good and you’re dropped on the first climb. Sometimes you feel bad and you manage to keep up all day,” he said. While the first week claimed the scalps of several outside favourites like Briton Bradley Wiggins, Slovenian Janez Brajkovic and Belgian Jurgen Van den Broeck, the three days in the Pyrenees leave the favourites with no other choice than to attack. Contador’s knee problem has almost overshadowed the fact he still lingers 1:41 minutes behind Evans in the overall standings, 1:38 behind Frank Schleck and 1:30 adrift of his younger brother Andy. Yellow jersey holder Thomas Voeckler is widely expected to soon slip back.“I’ve always said that with Alberto Contador, the Frank and Andy Schleck combination was one of the hardest things to come up against in the mountains,” added Evans. Other mountain specialists should not be ruled out. Twice Giro d’Italia winner Ivan Basso has been surprisingly quiet since the start of the Tour while Dutchman Robert Gesink, harmed in several crashes in the first week, said he was “looking forward to the mountains”. The Tour finishes in Paris on July 24. —Agencies

MANCHESTER: France World Cup-winner Patrick Vieira has retired as a player to take up a new role of football development executive at current club Manchester City, the English Premier League side said yesterday. Born in Senegal the 35-year-old midfielder won three Premier League titles with Arsenal and four FA Cups before adding another FA Cup with City as the club ended their 35-year-wait for silverware by beating Stoke in last season’s final. He also won 107 caps for France and was a member of their 1998 World Cup winning side. “This role is a fantastic new challenge for me and I am very grateful to Manchester City for offering me this opportunity,” Vieira, who also won the European Championship with France in 2000, said in a City statement. “I have a lot to learn about the non-playing areas of the business but there are many very experienced people here for me to learn from and I am confident that I can make a significant contribution to the club’s ongoing success.” According to City, Vieira’s new post will entail “a wide ranging role, helping to deliver the club’s social responsibility programme, both in the UK and abroad, as well as working closely with City’s commercial partners”. The statement added Vieira would also take an “active role in the development of youngsters at the Platt Lane complex, providing mentoring support as part of the Academy’s Multiskills Programme, which seeks to provide a well-rounded lifestyle education for the club’s junior players”. Vieira, who became manager Roberto Mancini’s first signing at City in January 2010, having worked with the Italian at Serie A side Inter Milan, added: “I am particularly pleased to be given the opportunity to work with the club’s community scheme. “Manchester City has a great reputation for its commitment to its community and charity partners and I believe I can help to take that message to an even greater audience. “Everyone at Manchester City-the fans, the staff and the players-have made me and my family feel very welcome here over the past two years and I am very happy to have been given the chance to stay and develop my career away from the pitch,” added Vieira, as he called time on his 18 years as a pro footballer. Vieira will report to City’s chief football operations officer, Brian Marwood, who said: “Patrick is the ultimate professional and it is our very great privilege to introduce him as our new football development executive. “His experience in the world of football is virtually unparalleled and he will be a huge asset to our club as old and young alike benefit from his knowledge. “His contribution to world football during his time as a player was extraordinary and he will be remembered as one of the greatest players to grace the Premier League.” Vieira was not a regular starter at City but his 47 appearances in total yielded six goals and what turned out to be his final bow came as a late substitute in the FA Cup final win over Stoke at Wembley in May. He made his name in English football at Arsenal after joining the London club from AC Milan in 1996. At Arsenal, he became club captain and was a member of the ‘Invincibles’ team that did not lose a Premier League match in the 2003-04 season. But his career with the Gunners also saw him collect 10 red cards. Vieira left Arsenal to join Juventus, winning the Serie A title in 2006 although the Turin club were stripped of the Championship in the ensuing match-fixing scandal that engulfed Italian football. He moved on to Inter but his time there was best by injuries and he arrived in Manchester before the club’s 2010 Champions League triumph. “Whilst it is sad to see Patrick’s playing career come to an end, we are delighted he has chosen to extend his time with Manchester City in this new capacity,” Marwood said. —AFP

Sports FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

Dhoni urges India to stick to basics

Kattie Douglas of Fever in action.

Fever get past Sun INDIANAPOLIS: Katie Douglas scored 20 points as the Indiana Fever beat the Connecticut Sun 90-78 on Wednesday for their seventh consecutive victory. Jessica Davenport scored 14 points for the Fever, who have won 10 and lost three and lead the WNBA standings. Erin Phillips and Tamika Catchings had 13 apiece. Six Indiana players scored in double figures for just the third time in the club’s history. Indiana made 11 3pointers, with six Fever players making at least one 3. Tan White went 5 for 5 from 3-point range and finished with 17 points for Connecticut (6-5). Tina Charles had 15 points and 11 rebounds, but Renee Montgomery, the league’s No. 5 scorer, was held to six points on 2-for-12 shooting. Indiana led 32-18 at the end of the first quarter. The Fever went 4 for 5 from 3-point range and made 12 of 19 shots overall in the first 10 minutes. At Minneapolis, Diana Taurasi scored 27 points, including five 3-pointers, as Phoenix rallied to grab sole possession of first place in the Western Conference. Reserve DeWanna Bonner had 24 points for Phoenix, which has won five straight and nine of 10 after beginning the season with three consecutive losses. Penny Taylor added 19 points, eight rebounds and eight assists for the Mercury (9-4). She scored 14 in the fourth quarter to help Phoenix overcame an 11point deficit. Seimone Augustus led the Lynx (7-4) with 22 points. Lindsay Whalen added 19 and Rebekkah Brunson had 16 points and had 16 rebounds. Rookie Maya Moore had 15 points on 6-for-18 shooting. At New York, Nicole Powell scored 20 points to help Liberty win for the sixth time in seven games. Kia Vaughn had 14 points, Leilani Mitchell scored 12 and Plenette Pierson 11 for New York (8-5). Cappie Pondexter and Quanitra Hollingsworth each added 10 points. Angel McCoughtry scored 17 points, Coco Miller had 15 and Armintie Price added 12 for Atlanta (3-9), which has lost six of eight.The Liberty scored six consecutive points, capped by Pondexter’s fast-break layup, to take a 64-43 lead with 5:42 left in the third. New York led 54-37 at the break, its highest scoring first half of the season. At Rosemont, WNBA scoring leader Sylvia Fowles scored 21 points to lead Chicago to victory. Fowles, now averaging 20.4 points, added 13 rebounds in front of a franchise-record crowd announced at 13,838 at Allstate Arena. The Shock (1-12) has lost seven straight. Interim coach Teresa Edwards is 0 for 2 since taking over following Nolan Richardson’s resignation last week. —AP

TAUNTON: India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni says that if his side stick to the basics, preserving their number one Test ranking will take care of itself. Dhoni’s team, also the 50-over world champions, have topped the ICC’s Test table for more than a year but could be knocked oﬀ their perch if England, currently third, win the upcoming fourmatch series by two clear victories. India, who completed a 1-0 win in a three-Test series away to the West Indies on Sunday, have just one warm-up match-a three-day fixture against Somerset starting here today-before facing England at Lord’s next week. But a congested schedule and huge expectations are nothing new for World Cup-winning skipper Dhoni. “It’s not the rankings that are important to us. What is important is to play good cricket and enjoy the sport,” he told reporters at Taunton yesterday. “The rankings will take care of themselves.” The wicketkeeper-batsman, asked about the significance of the upcoming campaign, replied: “When you represent India and 1.2 billion have expectations from you, I think every series is important. “We can’t really take any side lightly. But it is important to still stick to the basics, not thinking too much about the opposition. “England are a very good side. We’ll have to be at our best, and try to do the small things right,” he added, ahead of a match against Somerset that will see England captain Andrew Strauss ‘guest’ for the south-west county to get more time in the middle, even though the opening batsman represents Middlesex. India will be coached by Duncan Fletcher, who held a similar position with England and guided Michael Vaughan’s men to Ashes glory in 2005. The former Zimbabwe all-rounder’s time in charge of England ended after a lacklustre 2007 World Cup campaign in the Caribbean and he insisted he had little inside information that could benefit India. “It’s four years since then, and the team has changed quite a lot,” said Fletcher. “There are a couple of senior players, but we will have to look at the tapes we’ve got (of the others).

India’s Mahendra Singh Dhoni “It’s strange for me. I never thought I’d be back in this role. “When I left England I thought I’d never get involved with cricket. But then I got the bug again.” Meanwhile, as England and India get ready to contest what will be the 2,000th Test match ever played, the International Cricket Council has promised to protect the “pinnacle form of the game”. Next week’s first of a four-match series at Lord’s, the ‘home of cricket’, will

also be the 100th Test between England and India and is set to provide India star Sachin Tendulkar with his latest opportunity to become the first batsman to score a hundred international hundreds. The series also gives England, currently third behind India and South Africa, the chance to leapfrog MS Dhoni’s tourists at the top of the ICC’s world Test rankings should they take the series by a margin of 2-0, 3-1 or better. —AFP

O’Meley wary of Leeds threat LONDON: Former Australia prop Mark O’Meley believes Hull’s play-oﬀ credentials will go on the line when they make the trip to struggling Leeds this weekend. After a shocking start to the season, the Black and Whites are one of the form teams of Super League with four wins from their last five propelling them up to seventh in the table. On the other hand, the Rhinos couldn’t be in worse shape with three successive defeats cranking up the pressure on boss Brian McDermott and former Kangaroos hooker Danny Buderus continuing to be linked with a return to the Newcastle Knights. But ex-Canterbury and Sydney Roosters powerhouse O’Meley insists Hull will not take the three time champions, who they entertain in the Challenge Cup quarterfinals a week later, lightly. “They are two huge games for both clubs in the next week and I don’t go in for the ‘good time to be playing Leeds’ stuﬀ that is going around,” said O’Meley. “They are a champion team I’m sure they will be really up for this game to show their fans what they are capable of and we’ve got to be ready for that. “We’ve been in their position

at the start of the season but we stayed strong despite the results and injuries we had and we’re getting the benefits of that now,” O’Meley said. “We’re approaching the business end of the season and we’ve got to step it up again. We’re in the top eight now but we want to get as high up the table as possible. “In both the NRL and Super League there have been teams that have come from nowhere to do well in the playoﬀs and I see no reason why we can’t do it. “The big thing is creating some momentum and it would be fantastic to carry on building that with a win at Leeds.” New Salford supremo Matt Parish has wasted little time in sticking the boot into his squad-and wants a response against Hull KR. Parish, who was Ricky Stuart’s right-hand man with New South Wales in the recent State of Origin series, arrived in time to see the Reds hammered at Hull last week. Salford’s playoﬀ hopes now hang by a thread and Parish said: “I’ve spoken to the boys about last Friday because it was very disappointing. —AFP

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Years

Sports

FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

NFL players, league agree it is time to end lockout NEW YORK: The National Football League and some of the game’s top quarterbacks agreed on Wednesday it is time to reach an agreement to end a four-month-old lockout rather than risk disrupting the start of the 2011 season. The comments from both sides were some of the most optimistic since talks on a new collective bargaining agreement broke down and prompted the league’s first lockout in almost a quarter of a century. “We believe the overall proposal made by the players is fair for both sides and it is time to get this deal done,” quarterbacks Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees, who are parties in a class-action antitrust lawsuit against the league, said in a statement. “This is the time of year we as players turn our attention to the game on the

field. We hope the owners feel the same way.” The NFL followed with its own statement that said they are eager to end a labor dispute that is threatening preseason games for America’s most popular professional sport. “We share the view that now is the time to reach an agreement so we can all get back to football and a full 2011 season,” the league said. “We are working hard with the players’ negotiating team every day to complete an agreement as soon as possible.” The comments from both sides came as NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and several owners met with players in New York in an attempt to end the work stoppage. The league is hoping to have an agreement in principle it can present to an owners meeting in Atlanta on July 21.

Lunde eyes Viking Classic NEW YORK: While most golf fans are focused on this week’s British Open at Royal St. George’s, American Bill Lunde will have a cool $1 million on his mind at the PGA Tour’s Viking Classic in Madison County, Mississippi. Lunde has led the tour’s unique 18-hole Kodak Challenge for the last 13 weeks and should he be at the top of the standings by the end of the season, he would earn the coveted $1 million bonus. The Kodak Challenge, which began in 2009, combines some of the US circuit’s most famous holes into a year-long event to give the players and golf fans extra interest late in the season. “As the year progresses, people are more and more aware of it,” Lunde, 35, told reporters at Annandale Golf Club on Wednesday. “You are focused on that hole, and obviously you want to birdie it. “It’s a million dollars. Everyone could use an extra million. I’m trying really hard, but it’s something that falls into place as the year progresses.” The Viking Classic is the 22nd of 30 tournaments to host the Kodak Challenge in 2011. The player who posts the lowest score relative to par on 18 of the Challenge holes will receive the $1 million prize. Going into this week’s event at Annandale, 26 players are within four strokes of Lunde, including his close friend and former University of Nevada-Las Vegas team mate Charley Hoﬀman who trails by just one shot. “It’s kind of a constant rivalry,” Lunde said of his goodnatured competition with Hoﬀman. “Everything we do is competitive from going to dinner-who is going to pay the bill? - to driving home-who is going to get home faster? “That’s the way it’s always been. I could also say we don’t want to beat the other, so that will kind of help push it (the rivalry), see where we are in the end.” Lunde, who won his first PGA Tour title at last year’s Turning Stone Resort Championship, was happy with his form ahead of Thursday’s opening round. “I feel good,” he said after playing in Wednesday’s proam competition. “I played pretty well today. It’s just more of like you feel comfortable about going into the weekend instead of I’m not hooking my driver.” With most of the game’s leading players in England for the year’s third major at Royal St. George’s, the field at the Viking Classic is relatively weak. While former major winners Steve Elkington, Rich Beem and Shaun Micheel are competing, little-known Tommy Gainey, at 42nd, is the highest-ranked player on the 2011 PGA Tour’s money list at Annandale. “It’s still a tournament and golf is a game where you can’t predict anything,” American Gainey said. “The worst player can beat the best player in this field this week. You never know. “My goal is to win no matter if it’s the hardest field of the year or the weakest field of the year or whatever. It doesn’t matter. You still got to hit the golf shots, and you still have to make the putts.” American Bill Haas, who triumphed by three shots at Annandale last year, is not defending his title as he is among those competing in this week’s British Open. —Reuters

At dispute is how to divide more than $9 billion in annual league revenue. Issues involving free agency, a rookie wage scale and pensions for former players. Both sides are scheduled to meet Tuesday in Minneapolis with the US magistrate judge helping to arbitrate the dispute. The first preseason game, the Hall of Fame contest between the St. Louis Rams and the Chicago Bears, is scheduled for Aug. 7. It has not been canceled as of yet although time is running short. Collective bargaining talks between the two sides broke down on March 11. The NFLPA then decertified itself as a union and nine NFL players including Brady, Manning and Brees filed their lawsuit against the league. The next day the league locked out the players. The players hoped to end the lockout

through the courts and were initially successful when a US judge ruled in their favor. But a federal appeals court upheld the lockout. Still to be heard is a judge’s decision on whether the players are owed damages in a case involving a $4 billion television contract owners negotiated. Judge David Doty ruled in March the NFL failed to maximize revenue in the deal, which the players claim gave the league a stockpile of cash to help it through the lockout. Also pending is a ruling by the National Labor Relations Board on an unfair labor charge brought in February by league owners against the players association. Both the players and the owners have agreed, though, that the dispute must be resolved through negotiation not the courts.—Reuters

Tearful Bjorn enjoys return to Sandwich SANDWICH: Thomas Bjorn took sweet revenge on Royal St George’s as the British Open got under way yesterday, eight years after he blew his best chance of winning golf’s most glittering prize here. The 40-year-old Dane stormed to a five-underpar 65, with seven birdies against two bogeys, to take the early clubhouse lead, as favorite Rory McIlroy struggled to get going before steadying for a one over 71. Others off to a good start were Spanish veteran Miguel Angel Jimenez who signed for a 66, one behind Bjorn, while England’s Simon Dyson came in with a 68 on an overcast, rainy day along the Kent coastline. Bjorn is best known for blowing a three-stroke lead with four to play the last time the Open was held at Sandwich in 2003. Struggling for form of late, he was only sixth reserve for this year’s tournament as recently as last week before a spate of withdrawals, but made the most of his call-up on Monday when Vijay Singh pulled out through injury. Bjorn went out in 33 and then had four birdies in five holes from the 12th before bogeying the last. “I wasn’t really over expecting to play in this championship but there were a lot of pull outs in the last week leading into this,” Bjorn said “There’s no reason to get too uptight. I knew I wasn’t coming in in the greatest of form, so just try and enjoy really being down here and try to use it more to find some form.” Bjorn later choked back tears when talking about his late father, who died in May. “He would have been very proud of what I did today,” he said. “That’s all I’ve really got to say.” Behind Bjorn, McIlroy’s quest for a rare US/British Open double got off to a troubling start. The 22-year-old from Northern Ireland won the US Open by a stunning eight strokes last month to make the move from golfing prodigy to superstar status, and in the absence of the injured Tiger Woods, he is the biggest draw at the 140th Open. McIlroy was watched by a sizeable and admiring gallery as he set off early on in the company of 2002 champion Ernie Els of South Africa and American hope Rickie Fowler. With just a slight breeze blowing, the Ulsterman, seeking to become the

SANDWICH: Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy plays a shot out of the bunker on the 15th hole during the first day of the British Open Golf Championship.—AP youngest winner of the Open since 1893, clobbered his opening drive safely up the fairway of the 444-yard, par four opening hole. But after over-hitting his approach, McIlroy three-putted from just oﬀ the back of the green. He then overhit his tee-shot at the long, par-three third and again needed three from the back of the green to drop to two over where he stayed through six. He grabbed his first birdie at the eighth though to reach the turn in one over 36, and then covered the back nine in level par for his 71, six shots of the lead. “On a day like this, I know better than most people, you can shoot a high number and put yourself out of the golf tournament,” he said. “So it was nice to go out and shoot a decent score. “I said yesterday, if the conditions stayed the same I’d take two 70s over the first two days, and if I shoot 69 tomorrow with similar conditions, I’ll be really happy going into the weekend.” It was the first time McIlroy had played competitively since winning in the United States, but he insists he can cope with the

spotlight as he attempts to become the first player to win the US and British Opens since Woods in 2000. World No.1 Luke Donald, seeking to provide the first English win in the Open since Nick Faldo in 1992 looked on song early on with a birdie at the third. But with the rain coming on, his dazzling short game seemed to desert him with bogeys at six, 11, 13 and 15 resulting in a one over 71. The 47-year-old Jimenez, whose best Open was a tie for third at Royal Lytham 10 years ago said after his 66 that age was no barrier to him. “It doesn’t matter what is your age to be a good sportsman,” he said. “And this links, like you can see all the years, any age can be around the leaderboard, you know, just experience, just timing, just patience is something that age gives to you, no?” Dyson, who was playing with Bjorn, said he had been suﬀering from pain in his lower back, but had never considered pulling out. “It’s always nice to play in Opens. It’s the best tournament in the world by a mile, I think,” he said.—AFP

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LOS ANGELES: (Left to right) Dallas Mavericks Shawn Marion, Jason Kidd, JJ Barea, Brian Cardinal, owner Mark Cuban, Dirk Nowitzki and Tyson Chandler pose backstage at the ESPY Awards.

LOS ANGELES: (Left to right) Maria Sharapova, New York Knicks Amare Stoudemire and Rachel Nichols present the award for Best Upset at the ESPY Awards. — AP photos

Mavericks, Nowitzki shine at Espy Awards LOS ANGELES: Professional basketball’s Dallas Mavericks and their star player Dirk Nowitzki took home top Espy Awards Wednesday night, capping a year that saw them become improbable champions. The Mavericks, who won the National Basketball Association championship over a Miami Heat team filled with superstars including LeBron James and Dwayne Wade, won the Espy for best team and Nowitzki was named best male athlete. “If this Dallas Mavericks team proved anything, it’s that good guys do win and can win and will win,” said team owner Mark Cuban on stage accepting the team honor. The win was somewhat awkward, however, because the NBA and its players are currently embroiled in a bitter contract dispute that has caused team owners to lock out players, and the two opposing groups are not talking to each other. German-born Nowitzki, accepting his award for best male athlete, acknowledged the uncomfortable scene at the awards saying he would like to thank Cuban, but couldn’t “since I can’t talk to him.” Olympic and World Cup champion skier Lindsey Vonn picked up the trophy for best female athlete for the second straight year. Like others, she thanked numerous people, but then Vonn looked at pop star Justin Bieber in the audience and asked “will you take a picture with me for my Facebook

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page.” Bieber laughed and nodded yes. The Espys are given to athletes by all sports cable TV network ESPN, and annually are a top gathering for men and women in fields from professional football to skiing, auto racing and even lesser-watched games such as lacrosse. Winners are chosen by fan voting. Other awards included best breakthrough athlete, which went to pro basketball player Blake Griﬃn of the Los Angeles Clippers and best championship performance for Tim Thomas, the goalie for pro hockey’s Stanley Cup winner, the Boston Bruins. Thomas also was named best National Hockey League player. US women’s soccer team player Abby Wambach was given an award for best play with her recent goal in the women’s World Cup. Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was named best National Football League Player, and Nascar racing champion took home the Espy for best driver. Host Seth Meyers got the show oﬀ to a comic start, poking fun at athletes ranging from football’s Brett Favre to baseball pitcher Brian Wilson and his much talked-about, bushy black beard. “Some pitchers have goatees; Brian Wilson has a goat,” joked Meyers.— Reuters

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TOKYO: President of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah (right) speaks as President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Jacques Rogge looks on during the opening of the 30th OCA general assembly in Tokyo. —AP

Sheikh Ahmad re-elected Asia chief TOKYO: Olympic Council of Asia President Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah was elected yesterday for a sixth four-year term at the organisation’s general assembly in Tokyo. Sheikh Ahmad, a 49-year-old Kuwaiti who assumed the post in 1991, has also been a member of the International Olympic Committee since 1992. The OCA’s 30th annual general assembly approved the 2014 Incheon Asian Games programme of 36 sports which included softball, a women’s event, under the category of baseball. Softball had been originally dropped from the programme in an eﬀort to prevent the Games from bloating further. Soft tennis was incorporated into tennis as the number of sports declined from 42 contested at the 2010 Guangzhou Games. The general assembly started with a moment of silence for the victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster which sparked a nuclear emergency on Japan’s northeastern coast. Sheikh Ahmad called for the tribute during his opening address, and delegates from all 45 national Olympic committees in Asia stood to observe the silence. IOC president Jacques Rogge also attended the meeting. The meeting preceded events marking the 100th anniversary of the Japanese Olympic Committee today and tomorrow. The OCA chief told the assembly Asia had been very active and held a series of multi-sports Games in the last four-year cycle, during which Beijing hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics. The South Korean resort of

Pyeongchang was awarded the 2018 Winter Olympics last week by the IOC. It will be the third Asian city to host the Winter Games after Japan staged the 1972 and 1998 editions in Sapporo and Nagano. “This is Asia, and always Asia is ready to host sports events,” Sheikh Ahmad said. “I would like to congratulate our friends from Korea, from Pyeongchang, for winning the bid to host the Olympic Winter Games in 2018. This is another success for our family and will give added value to the Olympic movement.” Meanwhile, International Olympic Committee president

Jacques Rogge yesterday ruled out the idea of North Korea co-hosting the 2018 Winter Olympics awarded to South Korea last week. “The IOC awards the Games to one city in one country,” he told reporters in Tokyo. “As far as spreading venues between the two countries, that’s something we do not consider under the current Olympic Charter. “We’re not going to change the Olympic Charter because otherwise you complicate the organisation.” After the South Korean resort of Pyeongchang won the 2018 bid, political parties in Seoul agreed to try to have the two Koreas field a

unified team and train together with the main opposition Democratic Party vowing to explore ways for them to co-host the Games. North Korean IOC member Jang Ung said in Tokyo on Wednesday Pyongyang may consider sharing some 2018 events if the current “serious political and military situation” on the divided Korean peninsula eases. Rogge, in Tokyo to attend ceremonies marking the centenary of the Japanese Olympic Committee, said it is still possible for the two Koreas to march together at ceremonies, as they did at the 2000 and

Super-suit era refuses to go quietly SHANGHAI: Swimming will try to bury the infamous super-suits era at the Shanghai world championships but a lack of new records will provide a constant reminder of the fiasco. While polyurethane-clad swimmers broke a whopping 43 world records at the 2009 edition in Rome, astonishing even themselves, athletes clad in traditional gear may set only a couple-or none at allin the Chinese metropolis. The stark fact is that since the suits-designed to help buoyancy and support certain muscles, making it easier to swim faster for longer-were outlawed at the start of 2010, not one long-course record has fallen. Swimming World Magazine writer John Lohn said the sport had suﬀered from the so-called technological doping episode, and predicted only two to five new world records would be set in Shanghai. “When they were in play, I thought the tech suits gave the sport a huge black eye,” Lohn told AFP. “The 2009 world championships were a joke with the more than 40 world records. None of that was pure. But we’ve moved on and the sport is where it should be these days, based on talent and work ethic.” Lohn said US swimmers Ryan Lochte and Rebecca

Soni should better the 200m individual medley and 200m breaststroke records, while China’s Sun Yang could test Grant Hackett’s legendary 1,500m mark, set in the pre-suits age of 2001. Swimming World Magazine has taken the unusual step of listing both the oﬃcial and the “textile” (nonsuper suit) records on its website, but Lohn did not support erasing the technology-assisted world bests. “I’m not a fan of wiping out the records set in tech suits. They were times that were recorded and to wipe them out would suggest they never happened,” he said. “However, I am a proponent of having two sets of world records for each event, one listing the all-time mark and another listing the best time produced in a textile suit.” He added that organisers and broadcasters of the world championships, hosted for the first time in the giant potential market of China, would not be worried by the records drought just one year away from the London Olympics. “I honestly don’t think the lack of world records is an issue for the broadcasters and organisers,” he said, noting that the upcoming Olympics would draw people to the sport. —AFP

2004 Summer Games, and form a joint team. “There could be symbolic actions together like the joint parade or, why not, the participation of a joint team,” the Belgian said. “This is something we could consider and will also have a very symbolic eﬀect. But don’t expect the IOC to spread the venues between the two countries,” he said, adding his organisation is “very sympathetic” about “bringing the athletes together”. There have been cases in which Winter Olympics events were staged in two nearby cities and some Summer Games events were held in other cities for geographical and climatic reasons. Relations between the two Koreas, technically at war since fighting against each other in the early 1950s, have worsened sharply in recent years and there was no joint march in Beijing in 2008 or at the Asian Games in China last year. An opinion poll released in Seoul on Monday showed 57.5 percent of South Koreans support a unified team while 30.5 percent are opposed. But 73.3 percent rejected the idea of co-hosting the event. The Korea Times said any cohosting plan was premature and would need IOC approval. It recalled attacks by the North apparently aimed at disrupting two previous international sports events. In November 1987, the North’s agents blew up a Korean Air plane in mid-air in an apparent attempt to dissuade people from attending the 1988 Seoul Olympics. And a naval battle between the two sides broke out during the South’s co-hosting with Japan of the football World Cup in 2002. — AFP

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Samba stars glitter at Copa America BUENOS AIRES: It was harder than expected, but Brazil has reached the Copa America quarterfinals and has started showing the form that makes it the cofavorite with Argentina to win the South American championship. Brazil and Paraguay clinched the last two remaining quarterfinal berths on Wednesday. Brazil defeated Ecuador 4-2 with two goals each from Neymar and Alexandre Pato to top Group B, and Paraguay d rew 3-3 with Venezuela. Venezuela had already advanced. Brazil has won the last two Copa America titles — and four of the last five — and will face Paraguay in the weekend quarterfinals. They drew 2-2 in the group stage. Argentina plays Uruguay, Colombia is against Peru and Chile faces Venezuela in the other quarterfinals. “It was the type of match we needed,” Pato said. “It was like a final to us and we had to win it no matter what. We did it and advanced in first place, which is what we wanted.” Brazil and Argentina both managed only draws in their first two group games. But when it counted, Lionel Messi delivered for Argentina - a 3-0 victory on Monday against Costa Rica - and Neymar and Pato stepped up for Brazil to build momentum going into the quarterfinals. “I like the way he played,” Brazil coach Mano Menezes said of Neymar. “He came back to mark on defense too. It’s important for him to play this role in the national team, too. We have confidence in (the young players) and we know they can continue to improve during the Copa America.” Argentina has the advantage of playing at home, but it is faces pressure to deliver its first major title since 1993. Brazil is under

less pressure, playing with a mix of youth and experience and building up for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Brazil finished with five points in Group B, level with Venezuela but ahead on goal difference. Paraguay, which allowed two late goals in a draw with the Venezuelans, advanced with three points as one of the two best third-place teams in the three groups. Chile was the best team in the group stage, but suddenly Brazil and Argentina look very prepared going into the final eight. “We played with that will to win,” Pato said. “Everybody expects Brazil to always play a great match but it’s very hard, all teams want to beat Brazil’s national team, and today it wasn’t different. Now it’s time to get back to work. It’s a new Copa America.” Brazil went ahead twice, from Pato in the 28th minute and Neymar in the 48th. But Ecuador equalized each time with Felipe Caicedo scoring in the 37th and 58th. But when Pato scored again in the 60th, there were no more comebacks with Neymar sealing the match in the 76th. “We leave a bit sad,” Caicedo said. “We had the character to rally two times. We could have tied again, but we lost our concentration. We left Brazil too much space, and you can’t do that.” The loss will put pressure on Ecuador coach Reinaldo Rueda, with reports that Costa Rica coach Ricardo La Volpe might replace him. Venezuela picked up a good psychological boost in the draw against Paraguay with two goals in the last five minutes from Grenddy Adrian Perozo and Nicolas Fedor. Venezuela has been the surprise of the tournament. The country is better known for its great baseball players, and is the only team in the 10-member South

CORDOBA: Brazil’s Ganso controls the ball next to Ecuador’s players during a Group B Copa America soccer match. Brazil won 4-2. —AP American confederation that has never played in the World Cup. Venezuela coach Cesar Farias offered reporters a 15-minute lecture after the match, upset that his team is often written off as the weakest in Latin America. “This is a team that works hard, has put in lots of hours, played lots of games and is asking for respect,” Farias said. Meanwhile, Brazil coach Mano Menezes saluted his side but warned he wanted further improvement after they got past Ecuador 4-2 to reach the Copa America quarter-finals as Group B winners. “I think we can still do better and they know that so we have to convince them as much’” Menezes said after the win at Cordoba gave them the group on goal difference ahead of Venezuela and booked

United rout Revolution FOXBOROUGH: Federico Macheda scored two goals, and perhaps more importantly won the praise of manager Sir Alex Ferguson, as Manchester United beat the New England Revolution 4-1 on Wednesday in the opening game of their US preseason tour. The 19-year-old Italian forward had been earmarked as the next big thing for United since scoring some key goals late in the 2008-09 season but had not been able to ﬁnd much playing time since; well behind the likes of Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov among the club’s

FOXBOROUGH: Manchester United defender Fabio (20) and New England Revolution midﬁelder Sainey Nyassi (17) ﬁght for position on a header during their exhibition soccer match. —AP

striking stocks. He made the most of a rare opportunity to impress on Wednesday, scoring the Red Devils’ second and third goals as the English club took control after a scoreless first half. “You saw Macheda finishing today first class,” Ferguson said. “He is something special. Nineteen years-old - I still have high hopes for him.” It was 0-0 after 45 minutes; a moral victory for the Revolution, which is in last place in Major League Soccer’s Eastern Conference. Michael Owen - another striker hoping for more playing time in the season ahead - opened the scoring for United in the 51st minute when he took a pass from Michael Carrick and aimed a low shot just under the goalkeeper’s outstretched leg. Just three minutes later, Carrick set up Macheda on a one-two that allowed the Italian to get between two New England defenders and score. New England pulled a goal back just two minutes later, as a Benny Feilhaber free kick deflected off Kenny Mansally and into the net. Macheda restored United’s two-goal buffer in the 61st minute, knocking in a Rafael cross. The result was put beyond doubt in the 81st when Gabriel Obertan used some fancy footwork to bedazzle a defender, and passed to Ryan Giggs who teed up Park Jisung to chip the ball over the goalkeeper. Playing for the first time since losing 3-1 in the Champions League final to Barcelona on May 28, United started only four players from that lineup and substituted liberally, with Wayne Rooney replaced at halftime. England winger Ashley Young made his first appearance in a United shirt after joining from Aston Villa last month for a reported $27 million. New goalkeeper David De Gea - earmarked as the replacement for Edwin van der Sar as United’s No. 1 - did not play. — AP

another meeting with third-placed Paraguay. “I am working with my players to make them better - that will always be the approach,” he said, repeating his mantra that the goal is to be ready for the 2014 World Cup. “I have extraordinary players,” he added in reference to the likes of two-goal stars Neymar and Pato as well as effervescent wingback Maicon. Menezes brushed off as “one of those things which happen in football” Ecuador’s opening goal when goalkeeper Julio Cesar let through a tame effort from Felipe Caicedo. Defender Daniel Alves said that the gloves were now off with Brazil having emerged from a difficult start which brought draws against the Venezuelans and Paraguayans. — AFP

Venezuela gets late equalizer in six goal thriller SALTA: Grenddy Adrian Perozo scored a stoppage-time equalizer with the help of his goalkeeper as Venezuela rallied for a 3-3 draw with Paraguay in a thrilling Copa America Group B match Wednesday. Venezuela was trailing 3-1 but pulled one back in the 89th via Nicolas Fedor. Goalkeeper Renny Vicente Vega then rushed to the other end in the game’s last play and met a corner with an angled header to set up Perozo’s equalizer two minutes into stoppage time. The result was still good enough to get Paraguay through to the quarterfinals, eliminating Costa Rica from the South American competition. Venezuela had already advanced. The surprise of the tournament, Venezuela finished with five points in Group B, two more than a Paraguay squad that had three draws in the preliminary stage. Brazil and Ecuador will play the group’s last match later Wednesday. The Brazilians have two points and need at least a draw to advance. Ecuador needs a win to progress. Fedor scored from inside the area with a low right-footer to put Venezuela back in the game, then Vega left his goal to help complete the comeback. He jumped high among several defenders and his own teammates and redirected the ball toward the net. Perozo came running in and easily headed it past Paraguay goalkeeper Justo Villar. Vega celebrated as if he had scored the goal himself, running around the field while the other Venezuelans tried to catch him. Venezuela had opened the scoring at the Estadio Padre Ernesto Martearena with striker Jose Salomon Rondon’s right-footer from the top of the area in the fourth minute. — AP

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Mavericks, Nowitzki shine at Espy Awards Page 61

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Samba stars glitter at Copa America Page 63

CORDOBA: Brazil’s Neymar celebrates after scoring in a Group B Copa America soccer match against Ecuador in Cordoba.—AP