21 Jan 2010

RI PT IO N BS C SU THE LEADING INDEPENDENT DAILY IN THE ARABIAN GULF

40 PAGES

THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2010

Kuwaitis urged to invest in Basra

SAFAR 6, 1431 AH

NO: 14616

Gaza flowers in Europe again as blockage eases

Yemen troops target wanted Qaeda figure PAGE 8

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Odemwingie’s double sends Nigeria into last 8 PAGE 19

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MPs pass Capital Market law 1,181 expats waiting for deportation B Izzaak

NEW YORK: His Highness the Prime Minister of Kuwait Sheikh Nasser AlMohammad Al-Sabah has left New York for home following a successful routine medical checkup. — KUNA

Women gym shut RIYADH: Health authorities in Jeddah have shut down an “illegal” women’s fitness centre attached to a hospital, closing one of the few venues where Saudi women are able to exercise, local media said yesterday. Although health officials have repeatedly blamed the high rates of heart disease and diabetes in the kingdom on poor diets and lack of exercise, health authorities said women’s fitness centers were not allowed.

“Anyone who violates regulations governing the running of health facilities would be punished severely because this involves people’s health,” Jeddah health official Muhammed Abdul Jawad told the English-language Arab News. The reports did not identify the Jeddah hospital affected, but a photograph in the Saudi Gazette showed an official sealing the club door with an announcement reading “Closed on the order of Jeddah Health Affairs.”

While gyms for men in the gender-segregated conservative Islamic society are permitted, women’s health clubs are forbidden, despite a clear demand shown by a surge in underground facilities in the past two years.

But last year a number of stand-alone women’s gyms were shut, though some attached to or inside hospital premises continued to function.

The reports said the country’s municipal and rural affairs ministry had recently closed two other gyms in the Red City of Jeddah and one in Dammam, eastern Saudi Arabia. — AFP

Saudi ‘Qatif sorcerer’ sentenced to death 100 women raped RIYADH: A Saudi man reported to have raped more than 100 women after posing as a spellcaster to lure them into his clutches has been sentenced to death, Saudi media reported yesterday. The “Qatif sorcerer” was originally sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes, but after more victims came forth the sentence was changed to execution, Al-Riyadh newspaper reported. The man, whose name was not given, terrified women around the eastern city of Qatif for several years.

He first drew them in by saying he could cast love spells, but then surreptitiously filmed their meeting and used his work for extortion and to rape them, according to Arab News. Authorities found hidden cameras and some 200 videotapes and 180 computer disks with footage of his victims in his home, Arab News said.

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KUWAIT: The National Assembly yesterday unanimously passed the first reading of the Capital Market law that calls for stringent supervision and regulation of the Kuwait Stock Market which MPs claimed had been lacking. All the 48 members present, including cabinet ministers, voted for the law which Commerce and Industry Minister Ahmad Al-Haroun described as a “major push for Kuwait’s comprehensive economic development”.

The law essentially calls for setting up of a five-member Capital Market Authority and although it will enjoy an independent status under the law, it will still be monitored by the office of the prime minister. The law also calls for turning the Kuwaiti bourse into a public shareholding company in which 50 percent of its shares will be sold to citizens in an initial public offering.

Twenty-four percent of the shares will be held by the government while the remaining 26 percent will be sold to a strategic private investor, according to rapporteur of the assembly’s financial and economic affairs committee MP Abdulrahman Al-Anjari. The law places emphasis on transparency and regulating trading in the market in a bid to prevent illegal activities, insider trading and other violations which MPs claimed were rampant in the bourse.

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KUWAIT: Under the patronage of His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah, the Deputy Premier for Economic Affairs Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah (inset) yesterday inaugurated the Classical Cars Festival at the Marina Mall. The 4-day festival titled ‘Kuwait Concours d’Elegance’ featured Kuwait’s first contest for vintage and luxury automobiles. — Photos by Fouad Al-Shaikh

In blow to Obama, GOP captures Massachusetts Democrats’ 60-vote Senate supermajority threatened BOSTON: In a stunning blow to President Barack Obama, Republican Scott Brown won a bitter US Senate race in Massachusetts on Tuesday and promised to be the deciding vote against his sweeping healthcare overhaul. Brown’s win robbed Democrats of the crucial 60th Senate vote they need to pass the healthcare bill and sent shudders of fear through Democrats facing tough races in November’s congressional elections.

What once seemed an easy Democratic victory turned into a desperate scramble in the last few

were driving the healthcare debate, and he took satisfaction in proving the experts-and Democrats-wrong.

“They thought that they owned this seat. They thought that they couldn’t lose,” Brown said. “You all set them straight.”

Brown’s upset with 52 percent of the vote in heavily Democratic Massachusetts raised the specter of large losses for Democrats across the country in November and left the party scrambling to find answers. “Anyone who has been out on the campaign trail has seen the anger,” Coakley, who was criticized for running a weak campaign,

told a room of dispirited supporters at a Boston hotel. “I am heartbroken at the result.”

Obama, who won almost 62 percent of the state’s vote in the 2008 presidential election, made a lastminute appeal in Massachusetts on Sunday to try to ignite enthusiasm for Coakley’s campaign to replace the late Senator Edward Kennedy, a Democratic icon and longtime champion of healthcare reform.

In Washington, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said the president called Brown after the result.

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8 slain in US shooting

460 die in Nigeria religious violence JOS: The death toll after four days of clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs in the Nigerian city of Jos and nearby communities has topped 460, according to a mosque official and human rights activists. Six military units and hundreds of police were stationed throughout Plateau state’s capital city in central Nigeria to enforce a 24-hour curfew yesterday.

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weeks as Brown surged ahead of Democratic state Attorney General Martha Coakley on voter fears over the economy, the healthcare bill and Obama’s agenda. Brown, a Massachusetts state senator, said he would be the pivotal 41st Republican vote against the healthcare overhaul in the 100-member Senate.

“People don’t want this trilliondollar healthcare plan that is being forced on the American people,” Brown told cheering supporters at a Boston hotel who chanted “41” and “Seat him now.” He said voters rejected the closed-door deals that

Christopher B Speight

WASHINGTON: Police yesterday arrested a man suspected of shooting to death eight people in the southern state of Virginia. The suspect, Christopher Speight, 39, surrendered without incident to police after being cornered in woods west of the historic town of Appomattox, a police statement said. “At 7:10 EST (1210 GMT) this morning, Christopher B Speight walked in the security perimeter and turned himself in without incident. Charges are pending. He was taken into custody and is being debriefed,” a police statement said.

Police had launched a massive manhunt in central Virginia after discovering sev-

en bodies at a rural home and another victim nearby. More than 100 sheriff department deputies, police officers and state troopers worked through the night to find Speight, cordoning off a section of the woods where he was hiding.

The shooting suspect on Tuesday fired at a helicopter called in to aid with the search. At least four shots hit the craft forcing it to make an emergency landing, officials said.

The incident began unfolding around noon on Tuesday when a deputy from the Appomattox sheriff’s office responded to an emergency call about an injured man lying on a country road. “When the

deputy arrived on scene, the deputy heard several gun shots,” Molnar said. “The male subject was transported

by Med-Flight State Police helicopter to Lynchburg General Hospital, where the man later died,” police said.

Officers who stayed at the scene found four bodies outside a nearby home and “three bodies inside the residence.”

The victims were male and female, according to police, who did not give a motive for the attack, although local media reported the wife and the son of the suspect were among the dead. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported yesteday that a male Continued on Page 13

Aftershock add to Haiti misery PORT-AU-PRINCE: The most powerful aftershock yet struck Haiti yesterday, shaking more rubble from damaged buildings and sending screaming people running into the streets eight days after the country’s capital was devastated by an apocalyptic quake. The magnitude-6.1 temblor was the largest of more than 40 significant aftershocks that have followed the Jan 12 quake. The extent of additional damage or injuries was not immediately clear.

Wails of terror rose from frightened survivors as the earth shuddered at 6:03 am.

US soldiers and tent city refugees alike raced for open ground, and clouds of dust rose in the capital. The US Geological Survey said yesterday’s quake was centered about 35 miles west-southwest of Port-au-Prince and 6.2 miles below the surface -

a little further from the capital than last week’s epicenter was. “It kind of felt like standing on a board on top of a ball,” said US Army Staff Sgt Steven Payne. The 27-yearold from Jolo, West Virginia was preparing to hand out food to refugees in a tent camp of 25,000 quake victims when the aftershock hit.

Last week’s magnitude-7 quake killed an estimated 200,000 people in Haiti, left 250,000 injured and made 1.5 million homeless, according to the European Union Commission. The strong aftershock prompted Anold Fleurigene, 28, to grab his wife and three children and head to the city bus station.

His house was destroyed in the first quake and his sister and brother killed. “I’ve seen the situation here, and I want to get out,” he said.

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PORT-AU-PRINCE: An earthquake victim Ena Zizi takes a drink of water after being carried alive from the rubble of Haiti’s devastating earthquake, one week after the city was reduced to ruins. — AP

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Thursday, January 21, 2010

Kuwaitis urged to invest in major Basra projects KUWAIT: The governor of the Southern Iraqi city of Basra has called on Kuwaiti entrepreneurs and investors to invest in major projects in both Basra and Iraq as a whole.

“Our city is like a garden nowadays; he who comes to it early reaps all the flowers, leaving only thorns for latecomers...therefore, we want our Kuwaiti brothers to harvest the vine before others,” said Basra’s Governor, Sheltagh Al-Mayyah.

Interviewed by Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai, Al-Mayyah assured prospective investors that Iraq is steadily becoming

more secure in various fields and that their funds and investments would be entirely safe there.

The senior Iraqi official expressed gratitude to His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah for his generous donation towards building a hospital in Basra.

He emphasized that this was not an unusual incidence of philanthropy since “Kuwaitis and Iraqis have always been the most loving neighbors...related as family and in-laws until the deposed tyrant Saddam Hussein ignored all these facts...may

Allah bestow his curse on those who aggress against their neighbors.”

Al-Mayyah angrily denied media reports that Iraqi women and children have been abducted and ‘sold’ abroad, asserting that these are simply baseless rumors promoted by an “agenda-driven media,” which he said exaggerates isolated incidents in order to turn them into major news stories.

The senior official also asserted that media reports about individual terrorist acts in Iraq are only aimed at impeding the upcoming elections there.

KUWAIT: Governor of Basra, Dr Sheltagh Al-Mayyah praised yesterday the Al-Babtain Central Library for Arabic Poetry for its active cultural role. A statement by Al-Babtain Central Library issued on this occasion said that Board Chairman Abdulaziz AlBabtain accompanied the Governor on a tour in the library. The Iraqi delegation praised the efforts put into this cultural institute, as it beautifully illustrates the Arab heritage and culture. Meanwhile, Al-Babtain thanked the visitors for their support and praise. Some 3,000 books were donated from Al-Babtain library to Al-Basra. — KUNA

Al-Khorafi firm on MPs’ consensus

‘National unity’ session to be set only after consultations KUWAIT: National Assembly Speaker Jassem Al-Khorafi said here ing the adherence of all MPs to their consensus on protecting the yesterday that he will not set a date for holding a special session for national unity. He said: “It is important that a consensus and acceptdeliberating the national unity topic before consulting with the MPs ance exist by the majority of the MPs on holding such a session and who accorded this matter to him. Al-Khorafi stressed in a press on its date in order that Abdullah Al-Salem Hall not turn into purstatement to the journalists the significance of “this topic”, reiterat- poseless discussion.”

In the same vein, Speaker He eventually pointed out tary Economic and Finance world that is increasingly connectivity and linkage Al-Khorafi expressed his that he carried out the meas- Committee said the parlia- competitive. among markets, such a step is The Kuwaiti bourse, it “imperative.” This in turn hope on having a final deci- ures approved by the National ment’s approval of the bill on sion on the law of the special Assembly ahead of voting in the “monetary markets said, had since its establish- means overwriting existing needs people today in the the first deliberation on the ad authority” yesterday was the ment taken on the role of legislation and creating a spespecial session held by the hoc committee report, point- right step forward. supervision and became a cialized legal body. The new National Assembly, asserting ing out that he was informed The committee noted this strong regional player as well bill comes in 13 articles, highthe importance of reaching a of the report’s completion fol- step is needed to keep up as reference and model for ly specific, to regulate all consensus between the leg- lowing discussion on the with international develop- startup markets. aspects and phases of transacislative and executive pow- amendments submitted on ments and to iron out impedWith the increasing varia- tions in the bourse and moneers, “for the sake of dears of the above-mentioned law. iments to smooth flow of cap- tion in investment tools, pri- tary sector in the state of special needs.”

Meanwhile, the parliamen- ital and to operate within a vatization of markets, and Kuwait.— KUNA

4,109 civil servants skip work to study since ’96 KUWAIT: A total of 4,109 civil servants in Kuwait have achieved some form of academic certification without taking a period of study leave since 1996, with many of them facing disciplinary action as a result of the time taken off to attend university, according to State Minister of Cabinet Affairs Roudhan Al-Roudhan.

Al-Roudhan revealed the numbers in a response to a question from MP

Abdurrahman Al-Anjari on the subject, explaining that all the employees in this group had attained their qualifications without first notifying the Civil Service Commission (CSC) in order to apply for a period of unpaid study leave which they are legally allowed in order to study.

The minister explained that in a large number of these individuals’ cases, they had faced disciplinary proce-

dures or problems with having their contracts renewed after regularly taking time off work to attend college or university classes.

Al-Roudhan added, however, that all those who attained such qualifications did benefit from them in terms of greater opportunities, promotion and other advantages, explaining that these are generally automatically conferred through the CSC after it receives official

notification from the Ministry of Higher Education.

The minister also responded to a related question from Al-Anjari about whether or not the supervisors of those civil servants who took unauthorized time off work to study were penalized for failing to deal severely with these absences, reported Al-Watan.

AlRoudhan explained that those supervisors who fail to

notice or notify their superiors of employees’ absence from the office would be subjected to the appropriate penalties as decided by the CSC. On the steps to be taken in preventing such absenteeism in the future, Al-Roudhan said that state bodies would have to impose more strict supervision in order to identify cases in which employees regularly take time off work in order to attend classes.

NATIONAL

Thursday, January 21, 2010

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Experts criticize media amendments

By Ahmad Saeid

This article has been removed in compliance with the proposed ‘amendments’ to the Press and Publication Law.

This is part of Kuwait Times’ campaign against the proposed amendments

Health Minister to start tour to US, Canada KUWAIT: Minister of Health Hilal Al-Sayer is set to start an official nine-day tour that will take him to the United States and Canada, during which a number of Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) are to be signed.

The minister revealed on Tuesday that he is set to sign an agreement with Toronto University to carry out an assessment of the facilities and services at Kuwait’s Hussein Makki Jumaa Specialist Surgery Center.

Dr. Al-Sayer explained that he is also seeking an arrangement so that professors and experts at the university can propose modifications to improve management, as well as medical performance, at the center.

The minister revealed that another of the issues to be discussed is whether or not it would be possible to put the center’s administration directly under the Canadian university’s supervision, specifically mentioning some of the areas of interest that could be positively affected by such cooperation, such as bigger, more active roles for medical staff, technical and nursing staff and the improvement of radiotherapy, chemotherapy and patient care.

The minister is set to visit a number of university and colleges of medicine during his tour, meeting with various senior officials to discuss cooperation and seek more university places and scholarships for Kuwaiti students in Canada.

The health ministry’s Assistant Undersecretary for Allied Medical Services Dr Qais

Hilal Al-Sayer Al-Duwairi said the ministry is also seeking to increase private investment in health services and facilities, with more exchanges of expertise and visits by physicians from both Canada and the US.

He noted that the quality of care provided at Kuwait’s hospitals is set to improve through the sharing of expertise with leading health bodies in the two countries and through sending physicians for both training and specialization.

The MoUs to be signed during the health minister’s tour will help Kuwait to achieve overall development in the health sector, he stressed, saying that this is the primary focus of the visit.

Drs Al-Sayer and AlDuwairi are to be accompanied on the tour by the Director of the Hussein Makki Jumaa Specialist Surgery Center Ahmad Al-Awadhi, as well as the heads of the center’s departments of anesthesiology and public relations. —KUNA

in the news Egyptian photo exhibition at 360 KUWAIT: The Egyptian Cultural office to Kuwait will organize a photo exhibition titled ‘Egypt through the Eyes of Diplomats’ between January 21 and 29 at the 360 mall. It will be held under the patronage of the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps to Kuwait, the Ambassador of Senegal, Abdul Ahad Embaki. The exhibition is aimed at introducing various aspects of life in Egypt as seen by participating diplomats who have worked at various embassies in Kuwait. Diplomats from the embassies of Russia, France, China, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan and the United States will participate in the event.

Motaz Amin, head of press office, Egyptian embassy

Entertainment City spring festival KUWAIT: The Entertainment City, one of the prominent facilities of the Touristic Enterprises Company (TEC), will hold its annual spring festival activities. Over the years, the TEC has been making efforts to provide visitors with the best quality of service and hospitality on special occasions. The announcement was made by the Head of the Operations and Activities Department at the TEC, Anwar Al-Madhaf. He explained that the festival will take place during the period between January 29 to February 12. Special events have been prepared for the opening ceremony. Several popular bands will perform during the event and shows dedicated to children that feature cartoon characters will be held. A slew of other programs will be held on Mondays and Fridays during the period of the festival.

Furthermore, visitors will have the chance to take advantage of a 50 percent discount offer on select rides in the park, in addition to three other free of charge rides, announced Al-Madhaf.

Unjustified price increase KUWAIT: The increase in prices of 88 items is unjustified, said Chairman of board of directors of Nuzhah Co-operative Society, Reyadh Al-Adsani. “The increase was a result of direct rise in price or a reduction in the net weight of items that are still sold at old rates,” he emphasized. He stressed that most companies have reaped enough profits. “Some are driven by greed to accumulate more (profits) leaving consumers as prey to this phenomenon at co-operative societies and department stores,” he remarked. The chairman pointed out that supply companies have been hiding the purchase invoices received from countries (from where goods are imported). This is in order to conceal the real prices paid and in turn justify price rise according to global rates, reported Al-Rai.

KUWAIT: Proposed amendments to the press law are emotionally motivated and lack consistency, legal experts said. The statements came during a seminar held at Kuwait University’s (KU) Law School yesterday morning. The seminar titled ‘The Audio-Visual law and the Need to Make Amendments’ hosted a number of legal experts who agreed that there is no need for amendments.

The event came as part of several activities in opposition to government suggested amendments to the press and publication, and the audio-visual law.

“The existing law is already tight,” said Legal expert Muhammad Al-Feily, “the amendments are suggested to make it more strict.”

Al-Feily explained that the executive authority was given the right to suggest legislations as an exception. They were given this ability so they could interact with the realities on the ground but this privilege should not be abused, “especially because it is not coming from an elected authority,” he said. “Legislation is a very powerful tool,” Al-Feily said. “In nature everything is allowed. Defining something as a crime should only be done out of necessity and to achieve a clear goal. This law does not seem to do any of that.”

“Protecting social peace and national unity cannot be reached by forbidding to talk about it,” he added. “If I have an ugly face and I break the mirror my face will not look any better.”

According to Al-Feily, also a professor at KU Law School, the proposed ideas are wrong and unbalances the art of legislation. If the bill is passed it would restrict the power of judges to assess the level of violations. Also, it contains inconsistencies like allowing

foreigners to own parts of media outlets, he pointed out. This could allow foreign forces to influence public opinion in Kuwait and ultimately harm national unity, he said. “In general, it seems like an emotional reaction from the government,” he concluded.

Attorney Ahmad Al-Mulaifi said that this kind of censorship was desired a long time ago.

“There are people who think the current law is a mistake, just like there are those who believe the constitution is a mistake,” AlMulaifi said. “They are working to limit the amount of freedom in the country.”

Al-Mulaifi was an MP and part of the legal committee in the National Assembly (NA) when the current audio-visual law was passed. He said that back then the government proposed censoring blogs and their attempt was stopped by MPs. “Now they’ve added censorship on blogs on these suggested amendments,” he said.

The ex-MP asserted that the current law already gives the government numerous tools to deal with local TV channels but they refuse to use them. He said that one of his acquaintances works at a local channel and told him that during the last elections the channel received a check. When he asked about the reason for receiving the check he was told it was to broadcast more news regarding a

KUWAIT: The panel of speakers at the seminar, (from left to right), Ayed Al-Manna, Ahmad Al-Mulaifi, Fayez Al-Thefiri, and Muhammad Al-Feily. — Photo by Joseph Shagra specific list of candidates.

“This is why they don’t want to use the tools they have, especially the one that states the Ministry of Information should assign an auditor to local channels. They don’t want to stop the illegal funding of these channels,” he concluded.

Ayed Al-Manna, a KU professor and a counselor with the

Kuwait Journalists Association, said that there is no point in asking to change legislation if the executive authority does not implement the rules.

Al-Manna accused the government of doing this to cover up their own failure. “We had periods of pre-censorship, and a period of post-censorship. When those ideas didn’t successfully gag voic-

es a new solution was proposed.

One to change editors in chief into observers out of fear of punishment. It doesn’t forbid you from writing but it makes it so you don’t want to write. It is a legislation that changes freedom into ‘useless freedom,’” he said.

Al-Manna, who is also a host on a local TV channel defended people’s right to know. “It is the

obligation and the role of the media to tell people the truth and provide a medium for people to express their opinions. He accused the government of generating the buzz around this law simply to keep people busy. He added that the law is not likely to be approved by the NA, and that the Kuwaiti media will not let this incident pass peacefully.

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Thursday, January 21, 2010

KOTC, SYMEX hold symposium

‘More consciousness can save environment’

By Nawara Fattahova KUWAIT: Environmental awareness is important to create a sustainable difference and many corporate firms now devote considerable attention towards environmental issues that plague Kuwait. Also, large companies seek to use eco-friendly materials and procedures. The Kuwait Oil Transportation Company (KOTC), one of the well-known companies in the field of transportation in collaboration with SYMEX Environmental Consulting Company, held an environmental awareness symposium for KOTC employees at the KOTC’s headquarters in Shuwaikh yesterday.

KUWAIT: Kuwait Airways Corporation officials with members of its sports teams. — KUNA

KAC honors its sports teams KUWAIT: Kuwait Airways Corporation’s (KAC) Board Chairman and Managing Director Hamad Al-Falah has reiterated the corporation’s support for its sports teams in local and regional festivities.

Al-Falah said during a celebration organized by KAC’s public relations department Tuesday night in honor of their outstanding athletic teams of this season, that the corporation is utilizing all its capabilities to sup-

port sports teams, which are putting effort towards development and success.

The honor list included 32 players of various sports.

Al-Falah urged all those honored to contribute to the development of KAC, in addition to social and sports communication with other institutions and to claim more sports championships locally and regionally.

Meanwhile, Adel Jasem Al-Gharib,

Public Relations and Media coordinator said in a speech on behalf of the honorees that KAC took up a new tradition of honoring those who excelled in the sports and contributed to the corporation’s prosperity. AlGharib thanked the Board of Directors, chaired by Al-Falah and the Public Relations Department, represented by its Director, Adel Mohammed Bouresly for their unlimited support of athletes in KAC. —KUNA

This article has been removed in compliance with the proposed ‘amendments’ to the Press and Publication Law. This is part of Kuwait Times’ campaign against the proposed amendments

in the news Sexual assault suspect held KUWAIT: Police arrested the main suspect, an Egyptian national, in the case where a fiveyear-old Egyptian girl was sexually assaulted.

An Indian maid and another Egyptian girl identified the man.

During interrogation, he confessed to committing the crime and Col Al-Saber was referred to concerned authorities. The Director of Security Information Department, Official Spokesman of Interior Ministry Colonel Mohammad Hashim Al-Saber made the announcement.

Illegal Iraqi immigrant caught KUWAIT: A man stopped by police in Jahra and asked to provide proof of his identity was found to be an Iraqi citizen carrying a forged Kuwaiti civil ID card. Police became suspicious of the man’s behavior after noticing that he seemed unsure of his surroundings and stopped him, discovering when they checked the ID card he provided that it was a forgery. Although the man attempted to escape the officers on foot, he was quickly apprehended and taken into custody, reported Al-Shahed. It was later discovered that he had illegally crossed the Iraqi border into Kuwait and had been travelling around the country using the forged ID. He has been referred to

the State Security Department for further questioning.

KFSD holds fire drill KUWAIT: Kuwait Fire Services Directorate (KFSD) personnel recently staged a fire drill as part of its eighth series of exercises in the third phase of its training program to help improve their rescue and firefighting skills. The exercise, organized by the KFSD’s firefighting and human resources development department, saw the firefighters respond to a hypothetical major crash between two cars and a Heavy Goods Vehicle on Nuwaiseeb Road, ‘rescuing’ the occupants trapped in two of the vehicles involved. The firemen were split into three teams, with one focusing on fighting the supposed blaze that ensued in one car after the collision, while the other two concentrated on rescuing the ‘trapped’ occupants of the other car. The KFSD announced afterwards that the exercise was a complete success.

US servicemen injured KUWAIT: Seven American Army servicemen sustained injuries in an accident that took place on Ali Al-Salem Airbase Road after a car accident. They were transported to Jahra Hospital by helicopter where servicemen and paramedics admitted and treated the soldiers. Head of Jahra Medical Directorate, Dr. Fahad Al-Khalifa, announced that all of the injured American soldiers are of Nepalese origin. He noted that one of the soldiers was admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit and is in critical condition. He added that the other six are in stable condition.

MoC promotion list cancelled KUWAIT: The Ministry of Communication (MoC) cancelled lists of candidates for supervisory posts after several violations were detected.

One of the violations regarded the presence of unqualified individuals being nominated for supervisory positions. Also, some of the candidates were personally handpicked and forced onto the list by senior ministry officials, reported Al-Watan.

The cancellation of the list was made directly by the MoC Minister, Mohammad Al-Busairi, after he received a petition signed by several MoC personnel who complained about wasta and favoritism. The Minister also created a special committee, led

by Ministry Deputy Essa AlMuzaidi, to review the list and ensure that only appropriate nominees remain on the list.

School CCTV cams installation to take six months KUWAIT: The Ministry of Education (MoE) faces a fresh headache after the companies bidding for the contract to install close-circuit TV (CCTV) cameras in Kuwait’s schools informed it that, even after the contract is awarded, the installation of the cameras in all the country’s schools will take a further six months to complete.

At the end of last month, the head of the education ministry’s information department ordered the formation of a team to monitor the tender’s progress, with ten senior experts from various ministry departments selected as members.

The team is studying the bids received for the contract and offering clarification to requests about any unclear terms to those bidding before issuing its recommendation of the company deemed most suitable to carry out the work, reported Al-Qabas.

On a separate issue, a study by educational researcher Fahad Al-Sarbal has found a strong correlation between school curricula and pupils’ academic preferences, indicating that the former have a strong influence on the latter.

Meanwhile, the Hawally Education Directorate’s elementary education level supervisor, Layla Al-Awadhi, recently organized a course for local teachers on the concept of comprehensive educational quality as implemented at the Shuhada’a Elementary School in the area.

Addressing the audience, Sara Al-Hadhoud, Supply and Purchasing Engineer, and Vice-President of LPG Filling Branch Recycling Team said, “By changing simple things or by being aware of our personal habits we can make a difference in keeping this country beautiful. We always want to consider our children and family, and keep Kuwait safe for many generations to come.”

The Sales and Marketing Manager at SYMEX, Waqar Abdul Hafeez held a presentation on the subject. He said that it is not a lack of awareness about the environment that forms the main issue; it is frustrations in life that distract citizens from realizing how they affect the environment.

“If we start becoming just a little more conscious, we can add up actions that help save the environment,” he explained.

SYMEX provides services like wash-water recycling systems, oil and water separators as well as waste management

KUWAIT: Waqar Abdul Hafeez holding the presentation.

— Photo by Fouad Al-Shaikh methods. Promotional goods available at the company include LED light bulbs that save more energy, jute bags and other biodegradable products like corn-starch pens.

The company’s proposals for sustainability and industry include recording environmental performance and waste

minimization measures adopted.

Abdul Hafeez concluded by saying that action plans should be created to implement environmentally sustainable solutions that reduce and possibly eliminate air, water and land pollution in Kuwait. He said that industries should strive

towards meeting the needs of the present without compromising with future goals.

Sheikh Ali Al-Sabah, DMD Administrative Affairs and Projects at KOTC, Fatma AlShatti, Team Leader of Waste Management at KPC and other company managers attended the event.

KUWAIT: Sue Anderson (left) and Sara Sparling. — Photo by Joseph Shagra

UK education consultants visit Kuwait

By Rawan Khalid KUWAIT: For the fourth consecutive year, representatives of Sue Anderson Consultants are currently visiting Kuwait to offer parents free expert advice and support on UK boarding schools, during their Middle East Exhibition Tour.

The representatives’ two-day visit to Kuwait began yesterday, and they will also be offering advice and guidance today at the Radisson Blu Hotel. They will later be taking the roadshow to other GCC countries, namely Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai.

The company is represented during this tour by its International Education and Marketing Consultant, and Sara Sparling, its Education Consultant, who are meeting prospective pupils’ families at the Radisson SAS Hotel. Sparling explained, “We started

10 years ago, and we offer free advice to families on schools, summer programs, and languages programs. This is the fourth year that we’ve come in January to Kuwait as part of the Middle East tour. We also spend two days in Bahrain, two days on Qatar and two days in Oman and travel to the UAE at least four times a year. We have an exhibition in the Kempinski Hotel at the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai on February 25, 26 and 27, where 28 schools’ representatives and principals will be offering advice.”

She explained that families from all over the Gulf were welcome to visit next month’s exhibition, saying, “Families from across the Gulf will fly to Dubai for the event and families living in the UAE will visit us to talk to the school principals and find out more about what they have to offer at their schools. While we’re here in Kuwait, we’re promoting the event through schools and

newspapers, with families coming in to visit us and find out more. We can talk about their children’s educational needs and what are they looking for, examining each child’s strengths and weaknesses, etcetera.”

She explained that Sue Anderson Consultants represents a wide range of British schools. “In the UK, we’ve visited over 380 schools, so we meet with prospective pupils’ families and find out what they’re looking for and then we recommend a school. We are here to talk to the families and recommend some schools to them; they can take some information away with them, and we’ll also have schools sending information out to them. We keep in touch with them by email and recommend that they come to the UK during term time to visit. We can also make appointments for them to visit and there is a lot of information on the internet,” she concluded.

Nine Asians in custody for ‘alcohol trade’ KUWAIT: Police from the Capital governorate discovered three Asian men selling alcohol in Salhiya. They were found in possession of 40 bottles of liquor and arrested for their illegal activities.

Authorities also located an illegal international phone call center run by another Asian man who they placed under arrest.

Meanwhile in Ahmadi, police arrested four Asians for selling homemade alcohol in Mahboulah.

The arrests occurred when three of the criminals were found in possession of four boxes containing bottles of liquor.

While being questioned, they informed authorities about their accomplice, a Korean, who was arrested in his home and found in possession of 168 bottles.

They were all taken to the proper authorities.

In another location, Farwaniya police busted an alcohol manufacturing operation in a local apartment. During the raid they discovered 180 barrels of liquor and placed the two Indians running the operation under arrest.

Work accident After falling from a considerable height, an Asian man working as an electrician at a construction site in Khaldia was admitted to the intensive care unit of a nearby hospital. Police are further investigating the incident.

Fugitive nabbed A citizen in the Sabah Al-Salem area placed an emergency call to authorities after being attacked by his ex-wife and her children. Police responded to the emergency and interrupted the fight only to discover that the man was wanted for a previous financial case.

After inspecting the citizen’s ID, officials discovered the caller’s criminal history and placed him under arrest.

Fatal accident A driver was killed in a car accident on a street in Ashbiliya. Paramedics responded to the emergency and discovered that the driver suffered a cardiac arrest as well as multiple fractures to his legs and spine. Paramedics brought the man to Farwaniya Hospital but the man succumbed to his injuries soon after arriving.

Wife assaulted In a domestic dispute in Al-Fintas, a man and his brother beat up his wife and stole KD 850 worth of her jewelry.

After the incident, the wife called her neighbors for help, who brought her to Adan Hospital for treatment.

Afterward she reported to the area’s police station with a medical report and filed a case against her attackers.

Following a short investigation police

arrested the assailants and brought them in for questioning.

Vice dens Police received a tip regarding prostitution and illegal call center operations in the Farwaniya governorate. In response, authorities launched a campaign in Jeleeb Al-Shuyiukh, Al-Hasawi and Al-Abasiya in attempts to halt the illegal activities. During the operation, five apartments were raided and three Asian prostitutes and eight men were placed under arrest. All the arrested were sent to the proper authorities.

Pedestrians injured Two Egyptian men, one 38 and the other 15 years of age, were seriously injured after being struck by a speeding car while trying to cross a street in Jeleeb Al-Shuyiukh. Police and paramedics responded to the emergency and brought the injured to Farwaniya Hospital. The driver of the vehicle, an Asian, was detained for investigations.

Child molested An Egyptian couple went to AlNugra police station and informed officials that their 5-year-old daughter was sexually molested near their building in Hawally. The parents explained that the incident occurred after their daugh-

ter returned home from a nearby park where she was supervised by their Indian maid. They informed officials that their daughter was taken by an unidentified man to the park’s bathroom and molested. After the maid was questioned, she confessed that the child had gone missing for half an hour and was found later crying. The maid explained that she could not discover the reason for the girl’s distress and thought there was no reason to worry.

The maid added that an Egyptian man had approached the girl earlier in the day and authorities suspect he may be the assailant. Police gathered a description of the suspect and are searching for the man.

Sponsor slapped A Kuwaiti woman was allegedly slapped by her chauffeur following a row between them at her home in Al-Oyoun.

Police are hunting for the man, who fled the scene immediately after striking his sponsor.

Drunk driver In a separate incident, a Kuwaiti motorist was arrested in Jahra after police who pulled him over discovered that he was driving under the influence of alcohol.

NATIONAL

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Thursday, January 21, 2010

Press freedom in peril

Proposed government amendments criticized

Protecting the freedom of expression n his article that recently appeared in AlWatan, Dr Shamlan Al-Essa expressed gratitude to all the Editors-in-Chief, senior TV administrative staff and the Kuwait Journalists Association for their commitment to uphold the constitutionally protected rights of opinion and expression. He also expressed admiration for their strong stance on rejecting any form of infringement upon these rights. “This action reflects positively on the media personnel who vehemently oppose curbs on freedom. Restricting press freedom during these times is unacceptable by any standard,” he wrote.

He went on to state that the Head of the KJA, Faisal Al-Qanaei has taken a great step by urging to boycott any MP that supports

I

the proposed amendments to the audio-visual law.

“We cannot deny the fact that our press and media have fallen prey to MPs’ and ministers ‘ vested interests. They have misused the media to achieve public success and secure a seat in the Parliament. Sadly, some editors and writers have been supportive of some MPs who openly favor these restrictions, and have even encouraged citizens to participate in protests and rallies,” the writer feels. He believes that this is one of the reasons why the Information Ministry has formulated the proposed amendments.

The media has emerged as a considerable force that shapes modern public opinion, as it makes an impact on society and politics.

A sample amended column

So, MPs and Minister cannot deride the profession of journalism and look down upon journalists, Al-Essa wrote.

Al-Essa believes that it is necessary for the Press, TV channels, and the KJA to take up different roles other than promote politicians who have taken advantage of them to enhance their images. “All media professionals, regardless of whether they work with the Press, TV, radio, or even cinema and theater should work together to support freedom. Any other form of restriction imposed under the pretext of protecting religion, cultural values, national unity should also be countered. Let us unite in support for freedom in the face of extremism and intellectual terrorism,” he concluded.

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The abuse of Her Majesty, the Press uring the days of press monitoring way back after the parliamentary dissolution of 1986, a Ministry of Information official explained to me how he used to prepare himself to receive various phone complaints from official figures regarding reports made against the ministry in the press, writes Fouad Al-Hashem in Al-Watan. After the censorship was imposed, however, the official stopped even looking at the newspaper for prior knowledge of what they might discuss!

In the first days of that period, materials that were banned from being discussed were restricted to criticism of the unconstitutional dissolution of the parliament, before expanding to include a ban on mentioning certain terms such as “democracy”, “the press,” “parliament,” “elected parliaments” and “political parties,” with even the use of the term “former MP” being proscribed in any form.

That excessive form of press censorship led ministers to make certain abrupt and absurd requests, such as one incident in which a minister called on the local press to demand that all reports concerning his ministry should be referred back to him before publication, in order for him to select which material should be published and which should be censored.

Of course, his request was rejected, while a letter expressing resentment at this request was sent to him.

Her Majesty the Press suffered drastic changes back in 1986, and the five daily national newspapers published at the time became very dull. Furthermore, several of the “supervisors” that the ministry allocated to monitor all material before publication had between minimal and no experience in journalism, with the understanding of some among them limited to participating in televised folk dancing displays!

The proposed visual-audio amendments that the Information Minister, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah is now seeking to impose would not only form a dark blot on his resume, but would also mean that Her Majesty the Press would be treated as if she was a maid with an expired residency visa who had escaped from her sponsors’ house!

Back in the 1980s, Kuwait could be compared to a young maiden with two beautiful eyes which were the “parliament” and the “press”. However, to continue this analogy, the government came and hit her in the eyes, leaving her blind, which allowed Saddam and his army to ‘rape’ her mercilessly starting on August 2, 1990! Therefore, the Minister should reconsider his plans for the best interest of the country.

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Freedom cannot be divided n an Al-Qabas column yesterday, Abdul Latif Al-Duaij’s wrote that the individuals who initially called for the restriction of freedoms and pushed for amendments to the audio-visual law are the same people who are objecting the amendments today. He argued that the Cabinets was forced to take action by those who’s intentions are to confine the freedom of expression.

In his column, he argued that political forces influenced the government indi-

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rectly by providing them with the necessary tools to execute the restrictions.

‘Those who once called for the banning of Al-Fali and Dr Abu Zaid from Kuwait are now complaining about the same problem they once endorsed,’ he pointed out.

‘It’s important to reiterate that defending freedom is a task that cannot be divided,’ he wrote. ‘Protecting people’s rights have to come from respecting others.’

Revised press law

Al-Qabas

Audio-visual bill needs further review tate Minister for Cabinet Affairs, Roudhan Al-Roudhan, announced that that the Cabinet has yet to approve amendments made to the audio-visual law. The bill, proposed by the Ministry of Information, contains severe restrictions on the freedom of the press. Al-Roudhan denied reports suggesting that the amendments had already been approved. He said that the Cabinet will review the amendments during their next scheduled session and added that the amendments are still being studied.

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he following is an example of how columns could look following the introduction of the proposed amendments to Kuwait’s audio-visual law, which columnists would be forced to follow in order to avoid jail or fines, writes Jaber Mohammed Al-Hajri in AlQabas: While the world is currently suffering from several bad situations, such as wars, poverty and natural disasters, it’s important for us not to follow these sorts of tensions in order to protect our cultural values and morals, since people cannot live without good morals.

One of the bad habits that people can indulge in is sleeping, after having a ‘heavy’ meal followed by a full glass of yogurt. And while old wives’ tales tell us that there is a direct connection between consuming milk products and old age, due to their direct effect on changing the hair color, it’s also more widely believed that exercise is the best way to maintain a younger look.

Our balanced and intelligent government has supplied citizens with all sorts of luxuries, including providing them with milk products, as well as places in which they can exercise such as sidewalks in each area.

However, these sidewalks could always be used for spreading gossip. And since we are living in a Muslim community, we believe that spreading gossip is abhorrent, and thus should be avoided.

Today the world has turned into a consumerist one, despite the continuous efforts from the ‘cheapskate’ societies, who will soon join forces with the ‘envious’ societies to form the world misfortune alliance. In addition, having a day out has been less enjoyable since open areas are mostly a desert environment without greenery, while fresh air has become rarer with increasing atmospheric pollution levels.

Freedom comes first “W

e understand that the gradual implementation of legislative measures resulted in the formulation of current press laws that paved the way for publishing newspapers and enabled legal action to be taken over ownership disputes,” wrote Dr Ghanim Al-Najjar in Aljarida. He went on to write that the reversal of the legislative process with the implementation of the proposed amendments to the audio-video law is not well-understood. He feels that only an outstanding individual will be able to definite the situation properly so that people gain more awareness.

Al-Najjar asked if it was possible for the one who placed ‘the ban on publishing or broadcasting to clearly define what amounts to insult or disparagement of the National Assembly and Cabinet.’ “What does this sentence mean?

So, if we express an opinion about the National Assembly building, and said that the additional buildings under construction look ugly, will that be considered an affront to the National Assembly? Or if we say that the pedestrian bridge leading to the Council of Ministers is an architectural eyesore, will that be considered an insult?”the writer questioned.

From 1986 to Dec 1991 Kuwait experi-

enced, like its neighboring countries, a period when its freedom was robbed. Pre-censorship was imposed on the press, and the media’s value reduced significantly. This is mainly owing to the fact that the government and the Censor Board decides what is to be published and behave according to their whims, Al-Najjar wrote. “We did not gain anything other than misery, and we did not preserve national unity, and no one was respected. In fact, the entire country and its unity became targets of insult,” he felt.

Al-Najjar believes that it is unacceptable to misuse patriotic feelings and use them as tools of oppression to attack the freedom of expression. Noble principles should not be used to restrict the society’s movement. Democracy without protected freedom will not be understood. ‘Freedom’ here means everyone’s readiness to accept the other’s opinion, and to refrain from using old ‘weapons’ to justify the superiority of one opinion. “It is important to go back and read George Orwell’s magnificent work ‘Animal Farm’ because it serves as the perfect example that our wise government and many MPs follow. This outdated example may completely jeopardize our future,” Al-Najjar concluded his article.

Al-Watan

Mohammed Al-Thalab

Cabinet burying problems not facing them emocracy and the freedoms of opinion and expression face severe restriction following the proposed amendments made by the Information Ministry on the audio-visual law. Several skeptics emerged in response to the recent government action, reported AlQabas. Many consider the move a reaction to recent sectarianism in the country and see it as a shortcut taken by the government to address the issue.

It’s important to raise a question here and ask whether the Cabinet has properly enforced the current audio-visual law before enforcing these new amendments?

More serious issues need to be looked at regarding this issue.

How did the cabinet come to believe that restricting freedoms was the best way to solve these problems? We need to bear in mind

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Revised law Existing press law

Al-Qabas

that the government already has the means to solve these problems.

The Cabinet can use the Ministry of Education to promote respecting different opinions and nationalities amongst younger generations. They can also use official media outlets to focus on critical social issues and give officials a platform from which to address them. The Cabinet has the ability to fix the slow pace of its directorates and prevent people from needing to seek ‘wasta’ in order to finalize their arrangements. These actions can eliminate favoritism while restricting freedoms surly will not.

The Cabinet only needs to carry out their role properly so that Kuwait can be returned back to its place amongst the best in the region.

Audio-Visual restrictions

Aadel Al-Qalaf

Al-Seyassah

NATIONAL

Thursday, January 21, 2010

CB governor plans scrutiny

in the news Charities audit system KUWAIT: A uniform auditing system is to be introduced to help carry out auditing work at local charity organizations, according to a senior Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor (MSAL) official. The system will be implemented with the help of foreign auditing bodies, explained Nasser Al-Ammar, the head of the MSAL’s Charity Organizations Department. AlAmmar also revealed that a recent meeting of senior MSAL and charity organization officials had featured discussion of how best to control the collection of charity funds, with the use of a K-net system put forward as one possible solution.

Al-Barrak slams foreign minister KUWAIT: MP Musallam Al-Barrak heavily criticized Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al-Sabah over Kuwait’s decision to provide financial aid to build a hospital for Iraqi farmers in AlBasra. He described this action as ‘an unjustified concession.’

He disapproved the action of starting development projects outside Kuwait, describing it as being ‘provocative and unacceptable.’ Al-Barrak also rejected the Minister’s stance on compensation payable to Kuwait, and accused him of offending citizens’ feelings, reported Al-Watan. He also questioned the

statement that the Minister had made on Iraqi officials who had failed to create a better atmosphere for debt write-off.

MoE funding application errors KUWAIT: A number of errors by staff in the Ministry of Education’s (MoE) finance department led to its funding application for the 2010/2011 academic year being doubled from KD 0.5 billion to KD 1 billion. The mistakes were only discovered when the Ministry of Financial Affairs turned down the MoE’s application, stating that it considered the amount applied for “extremely exaggerated” in comparison to the amount actually required. Senior MoE staff, who were initially puzzled by the finance ministry’s rejection of the application, discovered the errors on examining it. The finance ministry has now given preliminary approval to the revised application for KD 0.5 billion, recommending that the funding be disbursed in two installments, reported AlWatan. It is believed that the money will be spent on several projects planned by the education ministry, including a number connected with educational development.

UAE Exchange opens branch in Riggae KUWAIT: UAE Exchange, one of the largest money transfer and money exchange houses in the country, recently opened their 15th branch operation in Old Riggae. The new branch was inaugurated on Jan 14, by Mohammed H.M. Al-Humoud, Director, UAE Exchange Centre Kuwait in the presence of Pancily Varkey, Country Head, UAE Exchange Centre Kuwait.

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On the occasion, the management of UAE Exchange Centre reaffirmed their commitment to continue on the path of progress, expansion and diversification towards ensuring and sustaining customer delight. They assured their customers that UAE Exchange would live up to the recognition and appreciation that people have bestowed on them and maintain the high service standards and quality assurance that people have

become accustomed to from UAE Exchange.

The inauguration highlighted the fact that UAE Exchange is the first exchange company in Kuwait to be certified as ISO 9001-2008 and which offers the unique online remittances of “Money2Anywhere.” To avail of further details on this and other services customers can now log on to www.uaeexchangekuwait.com

Press ramblings on CB directives ‘incorrect’ KUWAIT: News circulated by some local newspapers on a Sabah said here yesterday. Sheikh Salem added that they delay in the annual fiscal data issued by local banks in 2009 are, “Just incorrect assumptions and a lack of knowledge on and attributing this to some instructions issued by the the nature of the fiscal data submitted by these banks and the Central Bank of Kuwait (CB) to these banks are just, “incor- usual period during which they are revised and approved by rect assumptions”, CB Governor Sheikh Salem Abdulaziz Al- the CB.” Sheikh Salem pointed out in a state- “There is no doubt that these reports economy for the seventh consecutive ment that his bank used, in recent years, need a deliberate scrutiny and study on month.

The CB governor added that, accordto approve the first fiscal data at the end the part of the CB in order to win sound of January, namely that the bank is still evaluation and to confer more confidence ing to such data, the annual inflation rate showing the relative change in the public within the usual period for studying these and trust upon our national banks.”

He went on to say that despite these index figure of the consumer prices for data and consequently there is no delay in additional reports,” We are still within March 2009 compared with the same this regard.”

He also made clear that in light of the the prescribed period for studying the fis- month of the previous year dipped to global financial crisis, the year 2009 is cal data, and there is nothing that some 5.7 percent following about 5.9 considered one of those exceptional requires anxiety or expressing a delay on percent in February 2009 compared with the same month of the previous year. years for banks and monitoring authori- this regard.”

Sheikh Salem made clear that this dipOn the CB revision of allocations, the ties which prodded the CB to ask for some additional reports from local banks governor said that this is done within the ping included a lot of commodity and serframework of the ordinary procedures vice sector composing the public index for that year.

Some of these reports are related to carried out by the CB when it approves figure of consumer prices in the state of Kuwait, most prominent of them is a conducting stress tests, the internal eval- the annual fiscal data of the local banks.

Meanwhile, another comment on the slide in the annual increase in rates in uation of capital sufficiency, the bank’s strategies and action plans to sort out the data recently issued by the Central the general level of prices of the foodimplications of the global financial crisis Directorate for Statistics on the inflation stuffs.

He concluded by saying that the housand the banks’methods for developing the rate in consumer prices in the state of risks management tactics, the CB chief Kuwait for March 2009, the governor ing service sector of the index also saw a said that there is a continued retreat in price dipping as well as the household added.

Sheikh Salem Al-Sabah explained that, the inflationary pressures on the local commodity and services sector. —KUNA

INTERNATIONAL

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Thursday, January 21, 2010

World aid agencies appeal to Israel to unlock Gaza GAZA: Palestinian high-school student Fida Hejji died of cancer waiting for Israeli permission to go to an Israeli hospital for treatment. Hejji, 18, was promised an entry permit three times. Three days after she died last November, her family got a call to say the hospital had set the date for her admission. One year after Israel’s offensive on Hamas-ruled Gaza, UN agencies and the Association for International Development Agencies (AIDA), representing over 80 NGOs, yesterday highlighted the health impact of the continuing blockade there.

They again called on Israel to relax its tight control of the Gaza Strip’s borders to allow in a sufficient supply of essential items and access to care not available in the enclave.

Max Gaylard, resident Humanitarian Coordinator for the Palestinian territories, said the blockade undermines the local health care system and puts lives at risk. “It is causing on-going deterioration in the social, eco-

nomic and environmental determinants of health,” he said. “It is hampering the provision of medical supplies and the training of health staff and it is preventing patients with serious medical conditions getting timely specialized treatment...”

Israel generally permits supplies of drugs into Gaza but not always enough to prevent shortages. Certain medical equipment such as x-ray and electronic devices are difficult to bring in and clinical staff frequently lack equipment they need.

Israel says most requests by Gazan patients to cross its border for treatment are approved, and that there has been a 25 percent increase in approvals since 2008 — data supported by World Health Organization findings issued by Gaylard’s office.

“Not only are we doing our utmost to allow the people of Gaza every possible medical treatment, but we are doing this in a situation in which their own government is imposing a state of war and trying

GAZA STRIP: Palestinian Bedouin children walk in floodwater after floods destroyed huts and agriculture in the Mughraka area, central Gaza Strip, Tuesday. Heavy rains caused serious damage to the infrastructure in the south Gaza City on Monday night. —AP

deliberately to harm Israelis, including those whose mission is to assist the very people of Gaza,” said Yigal Palmor, a spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry. “Not taking this into account is to do a great disservice to truth and the cause of caring for the health of Gaza residents.”

Hejji had hoped to get life-saving treatment in Israel as other Gazans have done. The Egyptian border is also closed. “In her (Hejji’s) last days she used to ask when she could rest, and when all her pain would come to an end,” said her mother Shadia.

“I knew she was dying.” Israel captured Gaza from Egypt in a 1967 war. The ensuing occupation saw limited Palestinian scope for developing an autonomous health service.Israel left in 2005 but the result was far from the peaceful coexistence it might have hoped for. Critics accuse Israel of applying collective punishment to Gaza’s 1.5 million people, who are ruled by an elected Islamist government of the Hamas movement.

Hamas refuses to recognise Israel and preaches armed struggle until its destruction. Hamas remains in control despite the hammering Gaza took in the offensive Israel launched a year ago to stop the continuous firing of rockets and mortars aimed at southern Israeli towns.

Israel refuses to let them have materials that can be put to military use. It says the Palestinians are too ready to blame all ills on Israel, and should not be ungrateful for the medical aid Israeli doctors and hospitals provide.

The UN report said 1,103 patients sought permits for treatment in Israel in December 2009.

Most succeeded but 21 percent were denied or delayed, as a result of which patients missed their hospital appointments and had to restart.

“Two patients died recently while awaiting referral - one in November and one in December,” it said. In total, “27 patients have died while awaiting referral” in 2009.—Reuters

targets Qaeda leader Israel accused of Yemen Yemenia flights to London suspended silencing protest JERUSALEM: Israel is arresting a growing number of prominent opponents to its policies toward the Palestinians, say critics who are accusing the government of trying to crush legitimate dissent. In the most high-profile case yet, Jerusalem police detained the leader of a leading Israeli human rights group during a vigil against the eviction of Palestinian families whose homes were taken by Jewish settlers. Since the summer, dozens of Palestinian and Israeli activists have been picked up, including those organizing weekly protests against Israel’s West Bank separation barrier as well as others advocating international boycotts of Israeli goods.

Some of the Palestinians were released without charge only after weeks and months of questioning. The arrests come at a time of shifting tactics in the protests against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and annexation of east Jerusalem, territories the Palestinians want for their future state. Israel captured both from Jordan in the 1967 Midea, st war.

The violence of the second Palestinian uprising, with mass marches and violent attacks, has given way to carefully calibrated protests and legal action in which Israeli and Palestinian activists now often work together.

The main protest efforts are Friday demonstrations against the West Bank barrier in the Palestinian villages of Bilin and Naalin and vigils in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheik Jarrah, where Palestinians have been evicted.

There appears to be an increased police crackdown on the protests with greater numbers of activists being arrested. In the West Bank, troops fire tear gas, stun grenades, and live rounds , even midnight arrest raids , to disperse anti-barrier protesters. Israel says the protests are illegal, and the harsh tactics are a response to stone-throwing and violent rioting.

In east Jerusalem, police have arrested some 70 demonstrators during marches in recent months, according to Israeli rights groups. At Friday’s protest, police arrested 17 Israelis, including Hagai Elad, head of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.

They were released 36 hours later by a Jerusalem court, which found the gathering to be illegal, but the arrests unnecessary. Elad said the arrests represent a “dramatic increase in attempts to silence dissent” that he believes began during last year’s offensive in Gaza, when Israel arrested hundreds of anti-war protesters, mostly Arab citizens of Israel. Israeli

police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld dismissed allegations of an arrest campaign and said recent protests in east Jerusalem did not have the required permits. “There’s no campaign whatsoever,” he said. “When there’s a right wing or left wing, or Jewish or nonJewish or Christian or Muslim demonstration ... they have to be fully coordinated with the police.” The residents of Bilin have marched every Friday since 2005 toward the barrier that separates villagers from 60 percent of their land. Last year, Nobel Peace Prize laureates Jimmy Carter and Desmond Tutu dropped by for a visit. Nearby Naalin started similar marches two years ago. Israel says the barrier seeks to keep out Palestinian attackers, including suicide bombers. Palestinians call it a land grab because parts of it jut far into the West Bank. The Bilin marchers, joined by Israeli sympathizers and international activists, chant and wave Palestinian flags.

Some youths throw stones at Israeli soldiers.

A Bilin man and five in Naalin have been killed and hundreds wounded over the years by soldiers. Israeli troops also have been injured, including one who lost an eye. Since June, Israel has arrested almost three dozen villagers, mostly during night raids on the village, organizers say. More than 100 have been arrested in Naalin, including 16 in the past month.

Schoolteacher Abdullah Abu Rahmeh, a leader of the Bilin protests, has been held since last month on charges of incitement and weapons possession , the latter stemming from spent Israeli tear gas canisters, stun grenades and other munitions he collected to show visitors. Two high-profile Palestinian activists were recently released without being charged.

Jamal Juma, coordinator of the Stop The Wall campaign, was held for 17 days.

Mohammed Othman, who encourages a boycott against Israel, was released after nearly four months. Othman, who was arrested upon his return from an advocacy trip to Norway, said he was interrogated almost daily. “The questions focused on the boycott movement, ‘How do you work on this and who are your contacts?”‘ said Othman, 33.

Interrogators searched his computer, his cell phone and e-mail accounts, he said. He had to pay a $2,700 bond. Israeli security officials said in a statement that Othman was detained on suspicion of involvement in “secretive” activities that threatened the security of the state. —AP

SANAA: Yemeni war planes struck at the rural home of an Al-Qaeda leader yesterday, pressing a government offensive against militants whose presence in the Arab country has alarmed Western governments. In London, the British government said it was suspending Yemenia airline flights to London over security concerns. Sanaa declared war on Al-Qaeda last week as pres-

It was not known if Shabwani was in his house at time of the strike in Maarib, east of Sanaa.

He is accused of sheltering militants on his farm, where training also took place.

Shabwani was one of six AlQaeda militants the government had previously said died in an air strike last week. Al-Qaeda later denied any of its members had been killed. Separately, Yemeni forces shot dead an Al-Qaeda fighter who tried to steal a government vehicle, state media reported. Western powers and neighboring Saudi Arabia worry Yemen could turn into a failed state and fear Al-Qaeda could exploit the ensuing chaos to strengthen its foothold in the poorest Arab country and turn it into a launch pad for further attacks.

Yemen, hunting Al-Qaeda in several provinces, is also fighting a northern Shi’ite insurgency and faces separatist sentiment in the south. Yemen has occasionally been hasty in announcing the deaths of militants. The death of another militant, Anwar AlAwlaki, whom Yemen reported last month might have been killed in an air strike, was never confirmed.

A local government source in Shabwa province later said officials were in talks with tribal sheikhs to try to persuade Awlaki to surrender, or be taken by force. Yemen gained a reputation as an Al-Qaeda haven after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, and came under the spotlight after crackdowns

sure mounted on it to crack down on the global militant group after its Yemen-based wing said it was behind an attempt on Dec 25 to bomb a USbound passenger plane. “The home of the terrorist Ayed Al-Shabwani was targeted in an air raid today, but until now there are no details on the result of the raid,” a Yemeni official said.

SANAA: Yemeni soldiers man a checkpoint at a street in Sanaa. Yemeni forces will strike Al-Qaeda extremists for as long as they pose a threat, the interior minister warned, as the Islamist group denied government claims of having killed six of its leaders. —AFP on the group in Pakistan and Afghanistan raised fears Yemen was becoming a training and recruiting centre for militants.

Britain suspended direct flights from Yemen as part of a wave of measures to tighten up border security, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said yesterday, warning that militant cells were

actively planning attacks. “We know that a number of terrorist cells are actively trying to attack Britain and other countries,” Brown told parliament.

He said Britain had agreed with Yemenia to suspend direct flights to London until security was improved. A Yemenia official told Reuters in Sanaa that British

officials had told Yemenia that, if it wants to fly to Britain, flights must first stop in a third country for security checks. Greater scrutiny of suspect airline passengers and closer global cooperation announced by Brown are aimed at preventing a repeat of intelligence mistakes that allowed the Nigerian suspect in

Palestinians outside refugee camps must disarm BEIRUT: The Lebanese government has reiterated its call for Palestinian groups outside refugee camps to disarm, saying the issue was “not up for negotiation.” “Lebanese sovereignty is not open to negotiation,” Information Minister Tareq Mitri said after a cabinet meeting late on Tuesday. “We should

implement the decision to disarm Palestinians outside of refugee camps and deal with the problem of arms and security within the camps,” he said, referring to a 2006 accord on disarmament between rival Lebanese leaders.

On Monday, the leader of a Syrian-backed Palestinian said it

would not disarm outside of the refugee camps but was willing to discuss where in Lebanon it holds its arms.

“Palestinian arms inside or outside the camps are part of our resistance against the Zionist enemy,” said Fatah alIntifada chief Said Mussa, who is also known as “Abu Mussa.”

“The presence of these arms does not affect Lebanese security,” Abu Mussa said, offering to talk to the Lebanese government “about the positioning of our arms.”

The statement came less than a month after Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s landmark visit to Syria, after which Hariri

Washington designates AQAP a terrorist group WASHINGTON: The United States has named Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) a terrorist group in a bid to cut support to the outfit blamed for the plot to bring down a Detroit-bound jet on Christmas Day. The State Department said it has also asked a UN committee that looks at sanctions against Al-Qaeda and the Taleban to take similar actions against AQAP and its leaders Nasir Al-Wahishi and Said Al-Shihri. “These actions prohibit provision of material support and arms to AQAP and also include immigration related restrictions that will help stem the flow of finances to AQAP,” department spokesman Philip Crowley said in a statement.

The designations-made by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in consultation with other senior US officials-also “give the Department of Justice the tools it needs to prosecute AQAP members,” he added. Crowley said the Yemen-based group has claimed it was behind a number of attacks against Saudi, Korean, Yemeni, and US targets since it was founded in January 2009. These include a March suicide bombing against South Korean tourists in Yemen, an attempt in August to assassinate Saudi Prince Muhammad bin Nayif,

and the December 25 bid to blow up a flight from Amsterdam as it landed in Detroit.

The designations “represent just one phase” of the US government’s response to the AQAP threat, Crowley said. He said Washington has also asked officials at a UN committee-set up by Security Council resolution 1267 in 1999 to pursue sanctions against Al-Qaeda and the Taleban-to take similar actions against the group and its leaders. “If successful, this will require all UN member states to implement an asset freeze, travel ban, and arms embargo against these entities,” Crowley said.

“These designations will occur less than one month after the Security Council adopted resolution 1904, which renewed and strengthened the 1267 regime,” he said. He said the resolution “created major new improvements to the way” the UN imposes sanctions on Al-Qaeda and the Taleban. “The actions taken today against AQAP support the US effort to degrade the capabilities of this group,” he said. “We are determined to eliminate AQAP’s ability to execute violent attacks and to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat their networks,” Crowley added. — AFP

the Detroit plot to board a USbound flight.

Washington is considering giving the Pentagon expanded powers to build up security forces in Yemen and other countries seen as emerging havens for Al-Qaeda, defense and congressional officials have said. — Reuters

BEIRUT: In this photo released by the Hezbollah media office, the leader of Lebanon’s Shiite Muslims, Hezbollah Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, right, meets with the head of the largest Shiite political party in Iraq Ammar Al-Hakim, left, in Beirut, Lebanon yesterday. —AP

said he had discussed Palestinian arms held outside of camps with President Bashar alAssad. Fatah al-Intifada was founded with Syrian backing during the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war and has bases in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border.

The Syria-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), led by Ahmad Jibril, also holds positions in Lebanon.

UN Security Council Resolution 1559, adopted in 2004, calls on Lebanon to assert sovereignty on the whole of its territory and disarm all militias, including armed Palestinian factions. By longstanding convention, however, the Lebanese army does not enter Lebanon’s 12 Palestinian refugee camps, leaving security inside in the hands of Palestinians.

Along with armed Lebanese factions, Palestinian guerrilla groups played a major part in Lebanon’s civil war. Palestinian factions and Lebanon’s Shiite militant group Hezbollah were the only parties not to surrender their weapons after the war, saying they were needed as defense against Israel.

But unlike most Palestinian factions in Lebanon, which are located inside the camps and remain loyal to Gaza or the West Bank, Fatah al-Intifada and the PFLP-GC continue to be backed by Syria.—AFP

INTERNATIONAL

Thursday, January 21, 2010

9

Moscow wins battle over Nice cathedral NICE: A French court ruled yesterday that a Russian Orthodox church built in Nice on the orders of Tsar Nicholas II belongs to Russia, handing Moscow a victory in its legal battle against parishioners. The onion-domed Cathedral of Saint Nicholas in the Riviera city and its entire contents including some 300 precious icons are the property of the Russian state, the tribunal in Nice said.

Russia had laid claim to the cathedral, built on land first acquired by Tsar Alexander II, after a 99-year lease expired in 2007. But the Nice Russian Orthodox cultural association challenged the move, arguing that they were the legitimate heirs to the building and not the Russian state.

The Nice court ruled that the parishioners did not have the right to buy the property under the terms of the longterm lease and that the cathedral, the largest Russian Orthodox church outside of Russia, should revert to Moscow. The association immediately

announced plans to appeal. “I cannot see how an association that has occupied the cathedral for 80 years in a peaceful and continuous fashion cannot be considered its owner,” said the group’s lawyer Antoine Chatain.

Russian embassy spokesman Andrei Kleymenov said Moscow was “satisfied” with the decision, which he said recognized the Russian state’s claim to the historic building. “It’s not the end of the proceedings. The other side is going to appeal,” Kleymenov cautioned, but he added: “We are satisfied that justice has been done and that our claim has been recognized.” Saint Nicholas Cathedral was completed in 1912 under the orders of Russia’s last tsar, Nicholas II, who wanted to provide Russian emigres and Russian travelers to the Riviera a place of worship. The large red-stone functioning cathedral was built on land acquired by Tsar Alexander II who erected a memorial for his eldest son and heir to

the Russian throne, Nicholas, after he died of meningitis in Nice in 1865. The cathedral had become a major tourist draw, with up to 150,000 paying visitors coming to the site every year. The local association had accused Moscow of trying to get hold of the revenues from the visits. The Russian Orthodox parish in Nice broke away from Moscow patriarch in 1931 and its members are followers of the Constantinople church.

The cathedral contains several rare icons dating back to the 16th and 17th century, donations from families of white Russians who fled the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. During hearings in November, the Russian government had argued that the deed for the land showed that Alexander II had acquired it on behalf of the state, and not for his family, the Romanovs. The defense had contended that the land was the tsar’s personal property and that there were no grounds for Moscow’s claim. — AFP

in the news Train crash injures 16 BERLIN: A train ploughed into a lorry stuck on the line in central Germany yesterday, injuring 16 people, three of them seriously, police said.

The 53-year-old driver of the truck steered his vehicle 70 meters down the railway line near Braunschweig before getting into difficulties, getting out of the cab and calling emergency services. But before the alert could be sounded, a regional train hurtling along at around 120 kilometers per hour and carrying 58 passengers slammed into the stranded lorry. The driver, who said he was trying to deliver his 30 tons of wheat to a mill whose main entrance was shut, was currently helping police with their enquiries. He has tested negative for alcohol. “The truck carrying 30 tons of wheat should not have been on the line,” a police spokesman said.

80 million Europeans live below poverty line BRUSSELS: Almost 80 million Europeans or 17% of people across the European Union currently live below

Fiery Merkel aims to turn the tide BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel sought to regain the initiative yesterday after a wobbly start to her second term, with a spirited defense of her policies and fiery attacks on her opponents. In a wide-ranging budget speech in parliament, Merkel insisted that a controversial plan to run up the largest debt mountain in the country’s history was indispensable to pull the economy, Europe’s largest, out of its slump. “The last decade ended with an international economic and financial crisis and for Germany, a slump of minus five percent, a record in the history of our country,” Merkel said.

She added: “The new decade begins with a debate over a budget with a record debt” of almost 86 billion euros (122 billion dollars). “Whoever does not see that the two are directly connected... should not bother to continue to participate in this debate,” said the conservative Merkel, to jeers from the opposition Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens. Since triumphantly winning a second term in September elections, the past few months have been less glorious for Merkel and her newlook coalition with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP).

Internal squabbling by coalition members over tax policy and the country’s unpopular mission in Afghanistan have seen Merkel’s popularity plunge in the polls and her aloof leadership style slammed, even by her allies. The coalition has promised tax cuts worth around 24 billion euros (34 billion dollars) but several senior members of Merkel’s own party have begun to get cold feet on the tax giveaway given the dire state of the public coffers. But Merkel sought to slap down any resistance, saying: “We are convinced that... tax relief is necessary and will even foster growth.” — AFP

the poverty threshold, according to an European Commission announcement yesterday. The vast majority of Europeans (73%) consider poverty to be a widespread problem in their country, with 89% calling for urgent action by their governments to tackle the problem. The European Commission and the Spanish Presidency of the EU will launch in the Spanish capital Madrid today the 2010 European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion. Under the slogan “Stop Poverty Now,” the 17 million euro awareness-raising campaign aims to put the fight against poverty centre-stage across the 27-member EU. “Combating poverty and social exclusion is an integral part of getting out of the crisis. It is too often the vulnerable in society who end up being hardest hit by the impacts of a recession,” commented European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

Moscow racist attacks kill 31 MOSCOW: Thirty-one people of “non-Slavic” appearance

were killed in attacks police classified as racist crimes in Moscow last year, the Russian capital’s police chief said yesterday. “Last year, there were 62 attacks perpetrated on people of non-Slavic appearance, including 26 murders and 25 cases of grievous bodily harm, five of which led to death,” police chief Vladimir Kolokoltsev told Interfax. Police raided 10 extremist youth groups and arrested 33 people in probes into racist crimes, including 14 murders, he added.

Attacks motivated by racism rose sharply after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

About 300 people were killed in such attacks between 2004 and 2008, according to the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights, an NGO that collates crime statistics. A survey published in December by independent pollster Levada found that 54 percent of Russians support the nationalist slogan “Russia for Russians”. President Dmitry Medvedev said soon after the survey’s publication that “severe” punishments were necessary to curb growing xenophobia in the country.

Russian journalist killed MOSCOW: A Russian news agency says a journalist has died after being beaten by a police officer in the Siberian city of Tomsk. RIA Novosti reports the 47year-old journalist died yesterday in a Tomsk clinic. It says the officer assaulted him in a police station where the journalist was detained in early January, and that the officer has been charged with manslaughter and abuse of office.

Sixteen journalists have been killed in Russia since 2000. Most of them had written reports critical of authorities.

The USbased Committee to Protect Journalists named Russia the world’ third deadliest country for the news media last year. Several Russian police officers have recently been charged with murder, beatings and other abuses.

AMSTERDAM: Supporters of Anti-Islam Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders are seen with posters, during a rally in support of Wilders outside the court building in Amsterdam yesterday. — AP

Dutch far-right MP in court over anti-Islam comments Protestors gather in support of Wilders AMSTERDAM: Right-wing Dutch MP Geert Wilders went on trial in an Amsterdam court yesterday charged with inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims in a case seen as a test of free speech in the traditionally tolerant Netherlands. Wilders, leader of the Freedom Party PVV, is standing trial after an appeals court ordered he should face charges in a decision that overruled the public prosecutor, who had argued Wilders was protected by the right to free speech.

The MP is charged over his 2008 film “Fitna” which accused the Quran of inciting violence as it mixed images of terrorist attacks with quotations from the Islamic holy book. He is also charged over his outspoken comments in the media, such as an opinion piece in a Dutch daily in which he compared Islam to fascism and the Quran to Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”.

But defense lawyer Bram Moszkowicz challenged the court’s jurisdiction and the prosecution’s case, stressing the Supreme Court should instead handle the case because Wilders is a politician and should be judged accordingly. “Wilders has made all of his comments in the capacity as a member of Parliament,” Moszkowicz told the court, adding Wilders has the right to comment on developments in society. Prosecutor Birgit van Roessel said if Wilders was not a politician, he would still have had the capability to make his comments and his statements should not therefore be seen as the obligation of an MP to represent the people.

COMBATIVE A fierce opponent of Islam in European culture, Wilders has proven popular in recent years with Dutch voters concerned

about immigration and its impact on Dutch society. Wilders’ Freedom Party emerged last year as the Netherlands’ secondlargest party in the European Parliament and recent polls have indicated the party stands a chance to become the largest in the Dutch Parliament in national elections due in May 2011. “I remain combative and still convinced that this political process will only lead to an acquittal,” Wilders has said on his website.

Outside the court, a crowd of protestors gathered behind police barriers to voice support for Wilders, carrying banners saying “Freedom Yes” and “Wilders process, a political process”.

But an anti-racism group placed 100 comments from Wilders online at www.watwilwilders.nl to back its allegations the MP is guilty of inciting immigrant hate and discrimination and that his com-

ments are not only a criticism of religion. Charged also with offending a group of people, the start of the case against Wilders yesterday aimed initially to deal with procedural issues, such as how many witnesses each side will call before handling the case proper at a later date.

The court must still rule, however, on the challenge to its jurisdiction. In October, Wilders won an appeal against a British government ban preventing him from entering Britain after he was barred in February 2009 from coming into the country on fears his presence would threaten community harmony and public safety. He faces a maximum of one year and three months imprisonment if convicted by the Amsterdam court on both counts. The prosecution has not ruled out the possibility, however, that it will request an acquittal. — Reuters

10

INTERNATIONAL

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Report cites ‘radicalization’ of US prisoners WASHINGTON: US law enforcement authorities believe as many as three dozen Americans who converted to Islam in prison have traveled to Yemen, possibly to train with Al-Qaeda, according to a Senate report.

The “radicalization” of the individuals has alarmed US officials even though no evidence has tied them to terror activities.

Several of the individuals have “dropped off the radar” for weeks at a time and continue to carry US passports, according to a copy of the report obtained by The Associated Press. The assessment was written by staff

working for Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, a Democrat. “Al-Qaeda’s recruitment tactics also have changed,” Kerry wrote in an introduction to the report.

“The group seeks to recruit American citizens to carry out terrorist attacks in the United States.” Al-Qaeda forces in Yemen have emerged in recent months as a pressing threat to US security, with ties to a recent airline bombing plot and the shooting deaths of 13 people at the US Army’s Fort Hood post. At the United Nations in New

York, the UN Security Council committee that handles sanctions against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemen branch of the international terror network, announced that the organization and two of its leaders will be subject to binding international sanctions including freezes on assets and an international travel ban.

The travel ban means the two men, Nasir al-Wahishi and Said Al-Shihri, would be subject to arrest anywhere in the world. The US Treasury also has imposed domestic sanctions against the Yemen organization and

the two men. The White House and Pentagon have said they have no plans to send ground troops there, and Yemen has made clear it would not want them.

Remaining options would include covert strikes against Al-Qaeda targets and increased aid to help train and equip Yemen’s own security forces.

Gen David Petraeus, head of US Central Command whose command territory includes Yemen, has said he would like to double military aid to that country, which currently is receiving about $67 million.

Kerry’s report was expected to set the stage for yesterday public hearing on Yemen with testimony from senior State Department officials. In addition to its finding that AlQaeda was trying actively to attract “nontraditional followers” who could penetrate US security, the staff report concludes that AlQaeda has remained a viable threat.

“Despite setbacks, Al-Qaeda is not on the run,” the report concludes.

Kerry’s staff also cites as many as 10 non-Yemeni Americans, in addition to the nearly three dozen prisoners, who moved to

Yemen, became Islamic fundamentalists and married Yemeni women to remain in the country. “Described by one American official as ‘blond-haired, blue eyed-types,’ these individuals fit a profile of Americans whom Al-Qaeda has sought to recruit over the past several years,” the report states. Tuesday’s action at the United Nations was its latest of several against AQAP and the two officials.

The organization has claimed responsibility for numerous terror acts targeting Saudi Arabia, Korea, Yemen and the United States since its inception in January 2009. — AP

Biggest operation ever of its kind

FBI arrests 22 in arms industry bribery sting WASHINGTON: FBI agents have arrested 22 people working in the arms and security industries in a massive sting operation, charging them with trying to bribe an African defense minister, US officials said Tuesday. In the biggest The detainees - 21 arrested Monday in Las Vegas, Nevada, the other in Miamiare charged with trying to obtain a 15-million-dollar contract in an African nation to outfit the presidential guard.

“This ongoing investigation is the first large-scale use of undercover law enforcement techniques to uncover FCPA violations,” Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer said.

“The fight to erase foreign bribery from the corporate playbook will not be won overnight, but these actions are a turning point. “From now on, would-be FCPA violators should stop and ponder whether the person they are trying to bribe might really be a federal agent.” The act bars US companies and citizens from bribing foreign officials to win business. During the two-and-a-half year investigation, FBI agents pretended to be acting on behalf of the defense minister of an African country, although no such minister was involved in the operation.

The defendants allegedly agreed to pay a 20 percent “commission” to a sales agent who they thought represented

operation ever of its kind, the 22 including at least three British nationals were held under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the Department of Justice said Tuesday.

WASHINGTON: US Speaker of the House Rep Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) (right) speaks to the media as House Majority Leader Rep Steny Hoyer (D-MD) (left) listens during a press availability on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. — AFP the minister in order to win the 15-million-dollar contract.

They were told half the “commission” would be paid to the defense minister. In fact the sales agent was an undercover

FBI agent, the Department of Justice said. “Corrupt payments to foreign officials to obtain or retain business erode public confidence in our free market system and

threaten to undermine foreign governments,” said US Attorney Channing Phillips.

Most of the suspects worked for US military equipment manufacturers, two

worked for British firms and one for an Israeli company, the department said, without naming the businesses due to the ongoing nature of the investigation. The companies manufactured such items as ammunition, body armor, firearms, rifles and grenade launchers, as well as tactical and ballistic equipment. After the indictments were revealed, 150 agents carried out searches in 14 places across the United States.

British police in London also carried out seven search warrants. “In this era of global commerce, the FBI is committed to curbing corruption at home or overseas. Companies should prosper through honest practices, not the practice of backroom deals and bribery,” said FBI assistant director Kevin Perkins. Former Justice Department fraud chief Steven Tyrrell called the arrests “extremely significant,” both in numbers-twice as many FPCA cases were brought in 2009 than in 2008 - and in the nature of the investigations. “These matters involve the use of traditional undercover investigative techniques-something we have not seen much of in the past in the FCPA context,” said Tyrrell. — AFP

Mexico’s drug war leaves a generation of narco widows Drug crackdown has killed 17,000, mostly young men ARTEAGA: Deep in western Mexico’s sun-baked marijuana hills, where the presence of drug gangs hangs heavy in the air, Norma Bello and her five children live in a tatty storeroom since her husband was knifed to death and her eldest son jailed over a narco slaying. Her eerily quiet town, Arteaga, sits in the shadow of a top drug lord’s ranch in Michoacan state and Bello sleeps fitfully, reliving the night armed police kicked down her door and slashed grain sacks looking for cocaine.

In the nearby city of Uruapan, Isandra, 45, has battled to build a life for her kids away from the drug world that turned her husband into a womanizing cokehead and eventually killed him.

Behind the daily toll of drug murders, thousands of “narco widows”, along with mothers, sisters and children, are paying dearly for a trade that has killed some 17,000 people in three years, the vast majority healthy young men.

“We are the ones who suffer,” said Bello, 38, whose son is accused of working for the “La Familia” gang and taking part in the 2009 slaying of 12 police officers whose bound and partly stripped bodies were dumped by a road in a bloodied heap. In Michoacan, where opium and marijuana have been grown for decades and corrupt former governments let smuggling flourish, poverty drives young men to work as cartel lookouts, informants and runners. Increasingly, many end up dead or in jail.

For every gruesome news photo of a hacked-up corpse or severed human head there is at least one woman, often several, left with her life in pieces. Some

are women who entered the narco world as teenage beauties brought to adorn drug ranch parties. The crackdown has also put some 80,000 suspected drug gang members behind bars, many of whom are beaten into confessions. Bello’s jailed son Evaristo, 20, was the main breadwinner since her husband was murdered a few years ago and his body dumped on a train track. “I am all alone. I’m frightened, I’m scared to go to sleep, but who am I going to complain to?” Bello

said.

TRAPPED FOR LIFE Since President Felipe Calderon launched a nationwide army crackdown on drug cartels in late 2006, turf wars between rival gangs have exploded, alarming the US government, foreign investors and tourists. After a recent slaying in Michoacan, the mothers of two of the victims sped to the crime scene, hauled all nine corpses into the back of their van and drove them off for a private wake without waiting for

the authorities to file a report. In December, revenge-seeking gunmen stormed into the home of a marine named a hero hours before at his funeral after he died during a drug raid. They murdered his grieving mother, aunt and two siblings in a spray of bullets. The wives or girlfriends of fallen drug traffickers must choose either to stay under cartel control and enjoy a few more years of drug money, or flee and keep a low profile. The luckiest hang on to any property, cars,

jewels or bank accounts their erstwhile partner had kept in their name. Others have fled as far as the United States and Peru, drug experts say, sometimes using undercover safe houses that shelter women escaping domestic and other violence.

“We suffer the consequences of our menfolk getting into this,” said Isandra, a striking-looking woman with large black eyes whose husband headed a marijuana-trafficking cell in the 1990s. — Reuters

ELKHART: President Barack Obama plays basketball at Riverview Elementary School in Elkhart, Ind. Obama earns decidedly mixed reviews in a new Associated Press-GfK poll judging his first year in office. His approval ratings have been becalmed for months, 56 percent in the survey yesterday. — AP

Obama allies seek to save health care plan WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama’s top Democratic allies vowed Tuesday to achieve his top domestic goal, remaking US health care, no matter the outcome of a special Senate election that could doom the plan. Republicans hoped to pull off a stunning upset win in Massachusetts and seize the seat held nearly a half-century by the late Democratic icon Ted Kennedy, breaking the Democrats’ 60-seat supermajority in the bargain.

But Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised that House and Senate negotiators would soon overcome the final obstacles to producing legislation blending the two chambers’ rival bills to enact the historic overhaul. “Whatever happens in Massachusetts, we will have quality, affordable health care for all Americans, and it will be soon,” Pelosi said.

“We’re right on course. We will have a health care reform bill and it will be soon.”

Pelosi played down talk that the House of Representatives would simply take up the Senate

bill in order to avoid a fresh vote there without the 60 votes needed to ensure passage over united Republicans’ delaying tactics. “We have to resolve some differences, establish some priorities, make some decisions, and that’s what we’re doing. Whatever happens in Massachusetts, we have to do that,” she told reporters. Many House members and Democrats’ labor union allieswhose help is especially crucial heading into the November midterm elections-have opposed the Senate bill and won key modifications over the past few weeks.

But some aides speculated privately about the historic legislation’s fate if little-known Republican state senator Scott Brown were to pull off a stunning upset of Democrat Martha Coakley in a race she had been expected to easily win. Earlier, Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Obama’s allies still hoped to meld the Senate and House plans but that “the Senate bill clearly is better than nothing.”

A victory by Brown, who has vowed to oppose the legislation, would give Democrats little time to act before he is seated, a process Senate and Massachusetts electoral officials suggest may take at least ten days.

Asked whether Democrats could reach their elusive House-Senate deal, craft a formal bill, and hold the final Senate and House votes all in the next two weeks, Hoyer replied: “Yes.” The Democratic plan aims to extend health care coverage to as many as 35 million of the 36 million Americans who lack it now and curb abusive insurance company practices. Democrats working on the final compromise had next to no margin for error: The Senate passed its bill on Christmas Eve by exactly the 60 votes needed and the House got just two more than the 218 needed seven weeks earlier.

Democrats have said they hope to pass a compromise bill before Obama’s marquee annual State of the Union address, now set for January 27. — AFP

US sees ‘mixed bag’ from Myanmar junta

TIJUANA: Seized guns and drugs are displayed by the army during a presentation of alleged gunmen and kidnappers to the media in Tijuana, Mexico. — AP

WASHINGTON: The United States aims to have more talks soon with Myanmar as it tries to engage the military junta in a bid to guide it toward democracy, a senior US diplomat said Tuesday. But Kurt Campbell, the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs, noted that there has been a “mixed bag” from Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, on calls for political reform.

“We have had some follow-on direct interactions... with Burmese authorities, and I think we’re going to be looking at a subsequent set of discussions in the near future,” Campbell told reporters.

“I would say to date it’s a mixed bag,” he said when asked about whether the regime has made progress since Campbell visited the country in November. “We have seen certain things that we’ve watched carefully. We’ve seen high-level engagement with Aung San Suu Kyi,” he said.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s leading pro-

democracy activist, has spent most of the past two decades under house arrest despite appeals for her release and her winning of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. “But at the same time, there are, of course, areas of real concern,” Campbell said. He referred to “problems... with persecution” of ethnic minorities. “And I think it would be fair to say that the secretary and our team is looking for greater clarity in the coming weeks,” he said, referring to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In September last year, President Barack Obama’s administration switched gears on Myanmar, opening up a dialogue to improve relations with a state that has long been treated as a pariah by the United States. The administration understood “we had to be patient and that we had to recognize the enormous challenges that have come with every attempt and strategy for dealing with the regime,” Campbell said. — AFP

INTERNATIONAL

Thursday, January 21, 2010

11

Tears as miracle survivors limp out from the rubble Elderly woman sings as she was pulled out of wreckage PORT-AU-PRINCE: Rescuers hauled a woman out of the Haiti earthquake rubble after she survived for a week without food or water and barely able to move. Another elderly woman started singing

PORT-AU-PRINCE: French rescuers work on a victim in a collapsed building yesterday in Port-au-Prince, one week after a strong 7.0 earthquake hit the impoverished country. — AFP

Haitians die at hospital for lack of supplies PORT-AU-PRINCE: Richardson Lagredelle was still speaking when medics rushed him into the United Nations hospital. A robust 28-year-old, he’d been dug from the rubble of Haiti’s apocalyptic earthquake after four days, only to be sent to a communal care center because clinics were overwhelmed. By the time he was moved to a UN hospital Tuesday morning, gangrene was spreading up his broken left leg. His body was beginning to collapse with an infection that caused severe dehydration. Dying muscles were creating massive pressure in his swollen legs and releasing toxins and salts that attacked the kidneys.

“He’s dying right now in front of our eyes,” said Dr Roberto Feliz. “What’s so frustrating is that we don’t have the basic equipment that would save him.”

“He’s a young, strong guy. In any normal hospital he’d survive.”

With Haiti’s main hospitals destroyed or damaged by last week’s magnitude-7 quake, the UN hospital is one of the best now operating. Even so, its two vast tents are so jammed with severely injured patients that others are forced to lie outside, and basic equipment - a heart-monitoring system, an intubator, a ventilator, even oxygen - is lacking.

Feliz, a Dominican-born anesthetist based at Boston Medical Center, said he could save the young janitor if he amputated the leg. But surgery could only be done if they could get Lagredelle properly rehydrated. The doctors sat him up on his stretcher, with his mother, Yannick, sitting back-

to-back with him on the stretcher to keep him up. By 10:45 a.m.

Lagredelle was becoming delirious. The intravenous drip wasn’t working, so medics cut his hospital gown off to prevent the sleeve from acting as a garrote.

They served him 12 liters of water, but with no monitoring system, the only thing to do then was wait. “If we can get him to urinate, and there’s no blood in it, then we can operate,” said Feliz, determined to make Lagredelle live.

“There’s at least a 20 percent chance he’ll make it through.”

“Give! Give!” Lagredelle shouted as he gasped for air while grabbing a jug from a medic to pour more water down his throat.

It was the last thing he managed to say before medics found a manual ventilator pump to help him breathe.

They pulled his stretcher a few yards away into the open so they’d have more space to work.

At 11:15 am, Lagredelle’s condition was critical. Some of the doctors wanted to just let him go, freeing their time for the dozens of other patients in need of urgent help. But Dr Enrique Ginzberg, of the University of Miami Hospital, decided to lead a team of 11 medics and doctors to keep him alive. They tried to revive Lagredelle with more intravenous fluids, cutting at his swollen legs with a scalpel and raising them to bring more blood to the heart.

“I couldn’t just let him go, and that’s my decision,” Ginzberg said. “We’ve had one too many people like this die in front of us.”

He also acknowledged that res-

Up to 200,000 Haitians in US could seek asylum WASHINGTON: Up to 200,000 Haitians living in the United States may be eligible to obtain temporary asylum following the massive earthquake that devastated their country one week ago, a senior US official said. “Our preliminary estimate is between 100,00 and 200,000 people,” said Alejandro Mayorkas, director of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said.

The US government on Friday offered Haitians living in the United States without proper immigration documents protection under a program known as Temporary Protected Status (TPS). A person with TPS status can be in the country for 18 months without fear of deportation, and following a review of their case, can obtain a temporary work permit.

The immigration chief however warned that only Haitians living in the United States before the earthquake struck are eligible. Those who try to enter the country illegally “will not succeed and they will be repatriated,” Mayorkas said.

Some 1.2 million Haitian immigrants currently live legally in the United States.

TPS requests will be received starting Thursday, said Mayorkas, who on Wednesday will be in Miami to meet members of the Haitian community to explain the application process.

The Immigration Services office will hold similar events in other US cities with large Haitian communities such as New York and Orlando, Florida. Mayorkas said that

his office opened a new web page in English and French to explain the process, and was preparing to handle an expected flood of applications.

Those who cannot afford the 130 dollars application fee — 470 dollars for those seeking a work permit-can ask for a fee waiver, said Mayorkas. Separately, a south Florida member of Congress returned from a visit to Haiti Tuesday and said he wants to personally inform President Barack Obama of what he saw.

Congressman Kendrick Meek represents a district that includes a section of Miami known as “Little Haiti,” where many Haitians live. He is the first member of the US Congress to visit Haiti after the earthquake, and said he wants to give Obama “a first hand account of what I saw in the last two days.”

Communications and security issues would top his agenda in any talks with the president, Meeks said.

“You can’t get a full appreciation” of the devastation “unless you walk down the streets of Port-au-Prince, into the neighborhoods downtown. I think it’s important that the people who make the decision have the full appreciation of what’s happening,” Meeks said.

“If the right decisions are not made right now it’s going to make this recovery process a lot more difficult.

And we will see the first effects of the international failure to meet the need of these very desperate individuals,” he added. — AFP

cuers had saved hundreds of imperiled patients since setting up camp in the UN hospital, a day after the Jan. 12 quake.

“There’s so very little chance, but we have to try,” said Dr. Hiba Georges, a Syrian-American from the Boston Medical Center who was born in Haiti. Even as Georges shook her head, doubting Lagredelle could make it, she struggled in the scorching latemorning heat to keep pumping the ventilator.

His vital signs began improving. There was a good heartbeat.

His blood pressure rose to 100.

“The patient is still inside there, he’s still fighting,” said Feliz, a constant optimistic smile on his face as he persuaded himself and others that Lagredelle could soon go to the operating block, hidden behind flimsy wooden panels a dozen yards (meters) away.

“Now, it’s up to him,” Feliz said, because there would be no operation if Lagredelle didn’t urinate. By 11:45 a.m. that hadn’t happened. Lagredelle was shaking with sporadic spasms despite the painkillers keeping him unconscious.— AP

Despite US military warnings that the operation would soon switch to the recovery of thousands of bodies, rescuers kept up the search into Wednesday for survivors like Hoteline Losana who defied the deadly odds.

Losana, 25, was pulled from the ruins of a Port-au-Prince shopping center. “She is conscious and in good form,” Thiery Cerdan of the French group Rescuers Without Borders, which carried out the nine hour operation with Haitian firemen and American experts.

Losana had been in an apartment over a supermarket when the 7.0 magnitude quake struck on January 12. The rescuers said she had no food or water, could barely move, and owed her survival to the position in which she was stuck. “We pulled someone out seven days after an earthquake, that is quite extraordinary,” said Bruno Besson, another member of the French team. Hours earlier, Mexican firefighters rescued Anna Zizi from beneath the ruins of the Roman Catholic cathedral. Zizi, aged about 70, was pulled from rubble two hours short of a full week after the quake struck.

“It seems rescuers were communicating with her and managing to get water to her through a tube.

She was singing when she emerged,” said Sarah Wilson, of British charity Christian Aid. Some of the rescuers were so overcome that they started crying.

The United Nations said that 121 people had now been rescued by international teams in the past week and that there were still hopes of finding more. But Major General Daniel Allyn, deputy commander of the military operation in Haiti, said US forces would soon switch the focus of the operation to recovering bodies rather than looking for survivors.

The Haitian government gave a latest toll of 75,000 dead, with another 250,000 injured and more than a million left homeless. US

when she was pulled out of the wreckage of Port-au-Prince cathedral hours before Hoteline Losana, 25, became the latest of Haiti’s miracle survivors.

PORT-AU-PRINCE: In this image provided by ACT Alliance showing earthquake victim Ena Zizi being carried alive from the rubble of Haiti’s devastating earthquake, Jan 19, one week after the city was reduced to ruins. Zizi was rescued from the collapsed home of the parish priest at Port-au-Prince’s Roman Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption, by members of a Mexican search and rescue team, several of whom were in tears as they pulled the woman free from tons of rubble. — AFP troops fanned out across the ruined capital, where the pace of the relief operation has heightened street tensions. Camped out under makeshift tents among the rubble, survivors faced a desperate hunt for food and water. For many looting is the only way.

“Look, when you are hungry and poor, nobody helps, you have to steal,” a defiant young man named Vincent said, as people plunged into the ruins of a flattened supermarket in the hope of finding food or something to sell.

On Tuesday, US paratroopers secured the ruined presidential palace, which is now surrounded by a squalid refugee camp. From

there, a 100-strong squad of soldiers marched to the city’s general hospital, which is swamped with injured people. “We are here to provide security to the hospital.

We work with the government of Haiti. We have rules of engagement, but we are on a humanitarian mission,” Sergeant Bill Smith said.

US Marines also landed southwest of Port-au-Prince to link up with UN peacekeepers before more troops and equipment arrives.

State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said there were 12,000 troops in or around Haiti, with about 2,200 Marines and sailors also expected to take part in

the relief operation. The UN Security Council voted unanimously to send 3,500 extra UN troops and police to Haiti to help maintain order and protect aid convoys.

Relatives said that Haitian police killed a 15-year-old girl, Fabienne Cherisma, while firing warning shots over looters in the capital.

Some witnesses in the angry crowd, including the girl’s father, said a policeman had aimed deliberately at the girl, while others spoke of a warning shot that went astray.

The US deputy military commander, Allyn, said there were now around 200 daily flights into the capital’s damaged airport, and

that two airstrips, in the coastal city of Jacmel and in San Isidro in neighboring Dominican Republic, would be in use by today. In a huge global effort, more than 1.2 billion dollars has been pledged in aid funding for Haiti, United Nations data showed Tuesday.

International efforts are also focusing on rebuilding the country, with a major donor conference set for Monday in Montreal.

Meanwhile, in a surreal scene, the giant 3,600-berth cruise ship Liberty of the Seas dropped anchor off the port of Labadee where Royal Caribbean International leases a private resort with beautiful beaches. —AFP

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INTERNATIONAL

Thursday, January 21, 2010

S Korean minister: Hit North first if threatened SEOUL: South Korea’s defense chief called yesterday for a pre-emptive strike on North Korea if there is a clear indication the country is preparing a nuclear attack.

The comments came as the two sides opened a second day of talks on further developing their joint industrial complex in the North, and were likely to draw an angry reaction from Pyongyang, which recently issued its own threat to break off dialogue with Seoul and attack.

South Korea should “immediately

launch a strike” on the North if there is a clear intention of a pending nuclear attack, Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said at a seminar in Seoul.

Kim made similar remarks in 2008 when he was chairman of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, prompting North Korea to threaten South Korea with destruction. The North, which conducted underground nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, claims its nuclear weapons are not for use against South Korea, but

rather are a security guarantee against what it claims is US hostility.

Despite the rhetoric from both sides, officials held follow-up discussions yesterday on the industrial complex in the North’s border city of Kaesong, according to Seoul’s Unification Ministry. It did not provide further details. The South Korean delegation was scheduled to return home later Wednesday, said Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung.

On Tuesday, they met for nearly

four hours to assess their joint tour of industrial parks in China and Vietnam undertaken in December.

Chun had described the talks as taking place “in a serious and practical atmosphere.” Seoul stressed the need for a quick and easy system for border crossings and customs clearance for South Koreans who travel to and from the industrial park, Chun said, in an apparent call on the North to improve the system. The North said their recent surveys in China and Vietnam offered an opportunity

to revitalize the complex, Chun said.

Kaesong, which combines South Korean capital and technology with cheap North Korean labor, is the most prominent symbol of interKorean cooperation. About 110 South Korean factories employ some 42,000 North Korean workers.

The complex came under a cloud in late 2008, however, when North Korea tightened restrictions on border crossings amid growing tensions between the two countries. This week’s talks came just days after

Pyongyang threatened to launch a “sacred nationwide retaliatory battle” and vowed to cease all communication with the South following reports of a South Korean contingency plan to handle any unrest in the isolated North. Meanwhile, South Korea’s top nuclear envoy Wi Sung-lac left for the US yesterday for talks with Stephen Bosworth, the special US envoy to North Korea, and other US officials on the North’s nuclear programs, according to the Foreign Ministry.

The trip comes as North Korea has recently made repeated demands that international sanctions be lifted before it will return to stalled negotiations aimed at ending its nuclear weapons programs.

Last year, Pyongyang quit the six-party talks — with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States — in anger over international condemnation of a prohibited longrange rocket launch. The following month it carried out its second underground nuclear test. — AP

India might lose ‘patience’ with repeat attack: US

Gates warns of militant threat to Indo-Pak ties NEW DELHI: US Defence Secretary Robert Gates warned yesterday that South Asian militant groups were seeking to destabilise the entire region and could trigger a war between nuclear-armed Pakistan and India. Reflecting anxiety in the region about New Delhi’s reaction if it were attacked by a mil-

itant group with roots in Pakistan, Gates said restraint by India could not be counted on. Gates said rebels in Al-Qaeda’s “syndicate”-which includes the Taleban in Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as Pakistan-based Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba-posed a danger to the region as a whole.

NEW DELHI: US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, second from left, and his wife Becky Gates, left, look on during a visit to the Taj Mahal in India, yesterday. Gates, his wife and traveling party flew yesterday on Indian military planes to the city of Agra for an afternoon visit of the historic monument. — AP

India warns Australia over latest assault NEW DELHI: India yesterday warned that the latest in a series of attacks on Indians living in Australia did not “augur well” for already cool ties between the two countries.

Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna said he was in touch with India’s embassy in Australia for more details of the attack late Friday on the 25-year-old taxi driver in the town of Ballarat, Victoria.

“It is very unfortunate that this should

keep repeating, which does not augur well for our bilateral relations,” Krishna told reporters in New Delhi.

The man suffered bruising to his upper body and swelling to his face after being assaulted by four passengers aged between 16 and 18.

Australian police have said those involved in the beating were “opportunistic.” It was the second time in as many days an Indian taxi driver had been target-

ed in Ballarat, 110 kilometres (70 miles) west of Melbourne.

A number of attacks against Indian nationals, including the fatal stabbing this month of a Punjab-born student, have inflamed diplomatic tensions.

The issue has prompted a strong reaction in the Indian press, with one newspaper likening Australian police to the Ku Klux Klan for their inability to halt the assaults. — AFP

Russian paedophile casts light on Cambodia crackdown PHNOM PENH: A Russian businessman accused of sexually abusing 19 children in Cambodia appealed against his conviction yesterday in a case that highlights an expanding crackdown to rid the impoverished country of paedophiles.

Lawyers for Alexander Trofimov, who was sentenced to 17 years in prison and is also wanted by Interpol and Russia for alleged sex offences, claimed there was no solid evidence to prove he had abused 19 girls while working as a director of a holiday resort company worth $300 million.

Trofimov’s appeal, in which the Supreme Court will make its ruling on Jan. 27, is the most high-profile case brought to court since Cambodia launched an anti-paedophile drive to ditch its reputation as a haven for foreign child abusers.

The move comes as Cambodia, a country blighted by poverty, corruption, human rights abuses and a thriving sex industry, seeks to clean up its image to attract the kind of foreign investment and tourism that spurred four years of double-digit growth prior to the global economic crisis.

Since 2008, 56 suspected paedophiles, mostly foreigners, have been arrested, with 22 convictions so far, according to Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE), a French group working closely with Cambodia’s police to track sex offenders.

Among those arrested last year were Americans, Canadians, Vietnamese, South Koreans, Israelis and citizens of numerous European countries.

Bith Kimhong, head of Cambodia’s Anti-Human

Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Department, said there was a worrying trend of sex and rape involving children.

However, Bith Kimhong said the government was committed to working with outside organisations to stamp out a crime that was hurting the country’s image.

“We arrested a lot of foreigners last year, more than 30 cases, double that of 2008 and we have increased the cooperation in finding the abusers,” he told Reuters.

Trofimov was executive director of Koh Puos Investment Group until his arrest in 2007 and was operating in Sihanoukville, a beach town infamous for child prostitution and a magnet for paedophiles driven out of neighbouring countries after similar crackdowns.

Russia’s request for Trofimov’s extradition is currently under way.

Peng Maneth, a lawyer who represented one of his victims, a 14-year-old girl, said the Russian was a dangerous man who should never be freed.

“He didn’t just invest in (resorts), he also invested in sex, with children — 19 of them,” Peng Maneth said.

APLE’s country director, Samleang Seila, commended the Cambodian government for its “remarkable efforts” in fighting foreign paedophiles.

“We have seen an increase in government’s political will,” he said. “Police have cooperated a lot. After every case reported to them, there were always serious investigations and resulted in arrests for prosecutions. These were remarkable efforts.” — Reuters

They are trying “to destabilise not just Afghanistan, not just Pakistan, but potentially the whole region by provoking a conflict perhaps between India and Pakistan through some provocative act,” Gates said during a visit to New Delhi.

“It’s important to recognise the magnitude of the threat that the entire region faces,” he added following talks with his Indian counterpart, A.K. Antony.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since their independence in 1947 and tension spiked again in 2008 when militants — that New Delhi identified as belonging to Lashkar-e-Taibaattacked the city of Mumbai, killing 166 people. India did not mobilise forces, unlike in 2001 when it massed troops on the border with Pakistan after an attack on its parliament.

This drew praise from Gates, but he said such restraint might not be repeated next time.

“I think it’s not unreasonable to assume India’s patience would be limited were there to be further attacks,” Gates warned.

New Delhi suspects the Pakistani intelligence service of supporting terror groups that target India and has consistently called on Islamabad to crack down on militants operating on its soil.

Gates described India as a vital partner in the struggle against extremist threats and said that he had discussed how to bolster USIndia military cooperation.

He also lauded India’s “extraordinary” financial aid to Afghanistan, but acknowledged the tension this created as both Islamabad and New Delhi vie for influence in Kabul.

“There are real suspicions both in India and Pakistan about what the other is doing in Afghanistan,” he said.

“So I think each country focusing its efforts on development, on humanitarian assistance, perhaps in some limited areas of training, but with full transparency for each other, would help allay these suspicions and frankly create opportunities,” he said. Gates, after a cultural trip to visit the Taj Mahal yesterday afternoon, is to head to Pakistan today. During his two-day trip to India, Gates has also reassured leaders in New Delhi that Washington will not abandon Afghanistan despite a timeline for the withdrawal of US troops.

In separate meetings with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna on Tuesday, Gates discussed regional security and offered reassurances over the target date of July 2011 for starting a drawdown of American forces, a US defence official said. Gates, mindful of India’s concerns about an early US exit, pledged the United States would remain committed to Kabul with major economic and diplomatic support even as its military presence is gradually scaled back.

US officials said the visit to India reflected a blossoming relationship between the two countries that has dramatically transformed since the mutual unease of the Cold War. Defence ties have expanded following the attacks of September 11, 2001, and a deal in July between the two countries helped clear the way for the sale of hi-tech US weaponry to India.

In November, President Barack Obama rolled out the red carpet for the Indian prime minister in the first full-fledged official visit of his presidency, toasting India as an “indispensable” partner. — AFP

HYDERABAD: Students shout slogans after setting a vehicle on fire during a protest that started during a funeral procession of a student who allegedly committed suicide to demand the creation of a new state of Telangana, in Hyderabad, India, yesterday. — AP

Clashes in India over delay in creating state HYDERABAD: Police used tear gas and fired rubber bullets to quell hundreds of stone-throwing protesters in southern India yesterday amid anger over delays in creating a new state in the region.

Some 16 people were injured in the violence. In December, India’s federal government had promised to carve out a new state called Telangana in the northern part of Andhra Pradesh state after a senior local politician went on a hunger strike to press the demand. But weeks later the government appeared to put the plan on hold and said more consultations were needed before the new state was formed.

Since then sporadic angry protests have erupted in the state.

Yesterday’s violence started when groups of university students in state capital Hyderabad tried to march through the streets with the body of a student who had allegedly committed suicide to demand the creation of the new state, B. Prasad Rao, the city’s top police official said. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets and used bamboo batons to beat back the angry students, who had

been pelting the security forces with stones, Rao said. At least 10 police and six students were injured in the clashes. “We are trying to bring the situation under control, but the stray incidents of stone-pelting are still continuing,” he said.

In several northern parts of the state, traffic was halted and schools and businesses were shut in response to a strike called by student groups in support of a new Telangana state.

Activists in the Telangana area have long complained it was underdeveloped and ignored by powerful politicians from southern Andhra Pradesh. Demands for a separate state have erupted sporadically since the 1950s. Several parts of India — the Bundelkhand region in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbha in the western Maharashtra state and Gorkhaland in the eastern West Bengal state — also face similar movements for new states. So far there have been no moves by the government to create separate states there.

India now has 28 states and seven federally administered regions. — AP

Grisly massacre footage shown at Philippine trial MANILA: A Philippine politician accused of massacring 57 people displayed no emotion yesterday as grisly footage was shown in court of the victims’ mangled and bloodied bodies being pulled from mass graves.

The video clips were part of evidence introduced by prosecutors against Andal Ampatuan Jnr, who is charged with murder over the election-related killings in the southern province of Maguindanao in November.

“What they did was too brutal. It was worse than demonic,” said Emmy Intia, a coordinator with Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption, who was one of several people who left the court after finding the footage unbearable.

Filmed by a local government employee who accompanied police as they retrieved the victims from the mass graves in the two days after the murders, the video showed bloodied bodies, some of which were already decomposing.

While the case has attracted global publicity and dominated local media, it was the first opportunity for many people linked to the case to see the 180 minutes of footage of the bodies being hauled out of the mass graves.

As the footage was shown, a sister of one of the female victims broke down and had to be helped out of the courtroom.

A male lawyer representing the victims also rushed out of the silent courtroom, covering his mouth as he headed for the bathroom to vomit.

However, Ampatuan Jnr, who has pleaded not guilty, had no visible reaction.

Sitting in a lavender shirt and flanked by security escorts and lawyers, Ampatuan Jnr watched the footage impassively as body after body was dug up from the earth.

At one point he casually applied liniment to his neck

MANILA: Datu Unsay Mayor, Andal Ampatuan Jr. (L) the prime suspect in the massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao province is led by a National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agent into a courtroom during the resumption of his trial at the national police headquarters compound in Manila yesterday. — AFP while stifling a yawn.

“He looked bored. It was like the most ordinary thing to watch,” Lilian de Lima, head of the government’s Commission on Human Rights, who was in the courtroom, told reporters.

Prosecutors allege Ampatuan Jnr and about 100 of his gunmen abducted and shot dead the victims to stop a rival, Esmael Mangudadatu, from running against him for the post of Maguindanao governor in May elections.

Mangudadatu’s wife and pregnant sister, as well as at least 30 journalists travelling with them, were among the 57 killed.

Mangudadatu had sent his relatives to an election office to register his candidacy.

Police have said Ampatuan Jnr’s father and namesake, the patriarch of the clan, who was then governor of Maguindanao,

should also be charged over the killings.

Ampatuan Snr and several other clan members were arrested after martial law was briefly imposed in Maguindanao and charged with rebellion.

However, no date for his rebellion trial has been set and prosecutors have yet to lay murder charges against him.

Before the killings, the Ampatuans were close political allies of President Gloria Arroyo, who armed and used them to help contain Muslim separatist rebels in the southern Philippines. They were expelled from Arroyo’s ruling party after the massacre and the government broke up their private armies. Ampatuan Jnr’s trial is expected to last months, if not years. As there is no death penalty in the Philippines, he faces a maximum penalty of life in jail. — AFP

NEWS

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Iran to knock three zeros off currency TEHRAN: Iran plans to knock three zeros from its national currency, the rial, so it can recover value it has lost in recent years, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying yesterday. “We are due to remove zeros from the currency... because for some reasons the rial has depreciated and we should bring its real value back,” the Mehr news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

The rial has dropped on international exchanges from 70 to the dollar at the

time of the Islamic revolution in 1979 to around 10,000 rials today. Central Bank chief Mahmoud Bahmani told reporters yesterday that he expected “one dollar to become even more expensive in the next year.” Bahmani had in September announced plans to strike three zeros off the currency but later said the idea had been shelved for further consideration.

Ahmadinejad did not say when the changes would take effect and gave no further details of the plan.

A populist, Ahmadinejad has been criticized for pumping excessive liquidity into the economy to fund infrastructure projects and causing huge money supply growth by giving loans, triggering high inflation. The country’s inflation rate stands at 13.5 percent and has been slowly falling since October 2008 when it hit a peak of around 30 percent. Bahmani vowed that inflation would be sliced back even further within the current financial year, which ends next March. — AFP

460 die in Nigeria religious violence Continued from Page 1 While the violence had subsided, streets were deserted and many businesses remained closed in Jos, which has been the scene of similar bloody sectarian clashes in recent years. The relative calm has allowed mosque officials to retrieve more bodies from neighborhoods just outside Jos. “We found more than 200 bodies gathered at the mosque in Kuru Gada Biu and 22 more at Mai Adiko,” said Muhammad Tanko Shittu, a senior mosque official organizing mass burials, who had earlier estimated the death toll among Muslims at 177.

US-based Human Rights Watch put the number of Christian dead at 65.

Official police figures were significantly lower with 35 people dead, 40 injured and 168 arrested since Sunday. “More troops have come in and the situation is now under control. But there are still many hoodlums dressed in fake police and military outfits causing havoc,” said Gregory Yenlong, spokesman for the Plateau state government. Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, in his first use of executive power, ordered troops to Jos on Tuesday

to restore order and prevent a repetition of clashes in November 2008, when hundreds of residents were killed in the country’s worst sectarian fighting in years.

President Umaru Yar’Adua, who has been in hospital in Saudi Arabia for nearly two months, has been briefed on the situation, said junior information minister Ikra Bilbis. This week’s violence erupted after an argument between Muslim and Christian neighbors over the rebuilding of homes destroyed in the 2008 clashes.

The fighting is unlikely to have a big impact on sub-Saharan Africa’s second biggest economy. Its oil industry is in the south and its banking sector mainly in the commercial capital Lagos.

BURNT BODIES A Reuters correspondent saw three burnt bodies lying on the streets in Jos and several buildings, churches and cars destroyed by fire. Armored vehicles and soldiers patrolled the city, while residents ventured outside with their arms held up to signal they were unarmed. The break in violence allowed mosque officials to retrieve dead bodies in the outskirts of the city, with 22 found in one nearby com-

munity, Shittu said. The city’s main hospital, Jos University Teaching Hospital, was forced to turn away some patients late Tuesday because doctors were too overwhelmed.

“Ninety percent of the casualties were from gunshot injuries with a few from knives and bows and arrows,” said Dr Dabit Joseph, who works at the hospital.

The Red Cross has 40 staff workers and several volunteers at seven centers in Jos to help thousands of displaced residents, an agency spokesman said. Nigeria has roughly equal numbers of Christians and Muslims, although traditional animist beliefs underpin many people’s faiths.

More than 200 ethnic groups generally live peacefully side-by-side in the West African country, although 1 million people were killed in a civil war between 1967 and 1970 and there have been outbreaks of religious unrest since then. Jos has been the centre of several major religious clashes in Africa’s most populous nation.

The November 2008 clashes killed around 700 people, according to Human Rights Watch, while more than 1,000 Jos residents died in similar fighting in September 2001. — Reuters

Aftershock add to Haiti misery Continued from Page 1 A massive international aid effort has been struggling with logistical problems, and many Haitians are still desperate for food and water. Still, search-and-rescue teams have emerged from the ruins with some improbable success stories - including the rescue of 69-year-old ardent Roman Catholic who said she prayed constantly during her week under the rubble.

Ena Zizi had been at a church meeting at the residence of Haiti’s Roman Catholic archbishop when the Jan. 12 quake struck, trapping her in debris. On Tuesday, she was rescued by a Mexican disaster team.

Zizi said after the quake, she spoke back and forth with a vicar who also was trapped. But he fell silent after a few days, and she spent the rest of the time praying and waiting. “I talked only to my boss, God,” she said. “I didn’t need any more humans.” Doctors who examined Zizi on Tuesday said she was dehydrated and had a dislocated hip and a broken leg.

Elsewhere in the capital, two women

were pulled from a destroyed university building. And near midnight Tuesday, a smiling and singing 26-year-old Lozama Hotteline was carried to safety from a collapsed store in the Petionville neighborhood by the French aid group Rescuers Without Borders.

Crews at the cathedral recovered the body of the archbishop, Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot, who was killed in the Jan. 12 quake. Authorities said close to 100 people had been pulled from wrecked buildings by international search-and-rescue teams. Efforts continued, with dozens of teams hunting through Port-auPrince’s crumbled homes and buildings for signs of life. But the good news was overshadowed by the frustrating fact that the world still can’t get enough food and water to the hungry and thirsty.

“We need so much. Food, clothes, we need everything. I don’t know whose responsibility it is, but they need to give us something soon,” said Sophia Eltime, a 29-year-old mother of two who has been living under a bedsheet with seven

members of her extended family. The World Food Program said more than 250,000 ready-to-eat food rations had been distributed in Haiti by Tuesday, reaching only a fraction of the 3 million people thought to be in desperate need.

The WFP said it needs to deliver 100 million ready-to-eat rations in the next 30 days, but it only had 16 million meals in the pipeline.

Even as US troops landed in Seahawk helicopters Tuesday on the manicured lawn of the ruined National Palace, the colossal efforts to help Haiti were proving inadequate because of the scale of the disaster. Expectations exceeded what money, will and military might have been able to achieve. So far, international relief efforts have been unorganized, disjointed and insufficient to satisfy the great need. Doctors Without Borders says a plane carrying urgently needed surgical equipment and drugs has been turned away five times, even though the agency received advance authorization to land. — AP

In blow to Obama, GOP captures Massachusetts Continued from Page 1 “The president told Senator Brown that he looks forward to working with him on the urgent economic challenges facing Massachusetts families and struggling families across our nation,” Gibbs said in a statement.

Expectations the Brown victory could be the death knell for healthcare reform drove health insurance and drug company stocks higher on Tuesday, lifting the Dow and the S&P 500 to 15-month closing highs. US Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said he would welcome Brown to the Senate as soon as he received the paperwork from Massachusetts officials. “I

believe it would only be fair and prudent that we suspend further votes on healthcare legislation until Senator-elect Brown is seated,” Democratic Senator Jim Webb said.

Massachusetts last elected a Republican to the Senate in 1972, but the shift could not have come at a worse time for Obama.

Democrats control 60 votes in the Senate to 40 for the Republicans, and the loss of one Democrat could doom the healthcare bill. Democratic leaders vowed to push healthcare reform through Congress despite the results, but several Democrats cautioned the party to reconsider its stance. “It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to take a step back and say we’re

going to pivot to do a jobs thing,” Representative Anthony Weiner of New York told reporters.

Republicans said the results confirmed the public’s distaste for Obama’s healthcare overhaul and their anger at being ignored by Democratic lawmakers. “The voters in Massachusetts, like Americans everywhere, have made it abundantly clear where they stand on healthcare. They don’t want this bill and want Washington to listen to them,” Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said. Millions of dollars had flooded into the state to buy nonstop television advertising for both sides, transforming a relatively sleepy contest into a bitter brawl. — Reuters

aware of any history of trouble in the family.

The Post reported that before daybreak yesterday police authorities closed Appomattox County’s four public schools and a local Christian academy. One nearby resident told the daily that law enforcement officers “told us to stay locked inside” and that some houses were evacuated.

The office of newly-inaugurated Virginia governor Robert McDonnell described the

shootings as a “horrific tragedy,” according to a statement carried by the Washington Post. The shooting came less than two years after Virginia was rocked by the fatal shooting of 32 people at Virginia Tech by a student gunman, Seung-Hui Cho. Appomattox, a small town in the south of the state, is best known as the venue for the surrender of Confederate general Robert E Lee that ended the US Civil War. — AFP

8 slain in US shooting Continued from Page 1 teenager was among the fatalities and said the shootings appeared to have been triggered by a family argument.

The daily wrote that Samuel Carter, an official on the Appomattox County Board of Supervisors, said he understood that a man had “shot and killed his wife and his son” during a dispute. Carter said he was not

MPs pass Capital Market law Continued from Page 1 Anjari also said the law illustrates acquisitions, listing of companies and all procedures necessary to combat paper companies and artificial increases or decreases in prices of stocks. Kuwait Stock Exchange is currently managed by a governmentappointed administration, headed by a director general and supervised by the commerce and industry minister. The law also separates between supervision and monitoring aspects and issues relating to executive orders. Haroun said the law will take the Kuwaiti bourses to levels of bourses in advanced countries. MPs welcomed the law, saying it will help introduce stringent regu-

lation and supervision to the Kuwaiti bourse and that will essentially help small investors who lost most of their fortunes because of suspicious trading.

They also said the law will help regulators curb illegal trading that has mainly hit small investors. Although Kuwait bourse was the first to be established in the Gulf in early 1970s, it is the only one without a capital market authority. The second and final vote on the law is expected to take place after two weeks after making amendments to a number of articles.

In another development, Interior Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Khaled Al-Sabah said yesterday that 1,181 expatriates, including 350 women and 26 children, are awaiting

deportation at the country’s deportation center. In a response to a question by MP Maasouma Al-Mubarak, the minister said that Bangladeshis top the list with 290 including 12 women followed by Indians with 241 including 57 women.

Sri Lankans came in third place with 115 including 88 women, Egyptians with 106 including two women, Pakistanis 79 men and Filipinos with 68 women and six men. The minister said that 103 people had been released after legalizing their stay and another 129 were released on temporary basis under a bail. The minister added that the would-be deportees cost around KD79,000 monthly on food which is about KD1 million a year.

Saudi ‘Qatif sorcerer’sentenced to death C o n t i n u e d f ro m Pa g e 1 He may have tricked as many as 350 women, according to Al-Riyadh. He was ultimately caught when a man related to a woman he had unsuccessfully targeted repor ted the case to the Commission for the Promotion of

Virtue and prevention of Vice-the Saudi religious police.

In a sting, a woman contacted him seeking to put a spell on her husband and tape-recorded his demand that she give him a nude picture of herself and 5,000 riyals ($1,333), Arab News said.

Al-Riyadh said the rapes had left many

women feeling destroyed and led to at least three divorces. In conservative Saudi society rape victims themselves are often the recipients of scorn and sometimes themselves blamed. “I have nothing to lose. What happened to me destroyed my life,” one victim said, according to the paper. — AFP

13

Gaza flowers in Europe again as blockage eases GAZA: This time last year Adham Hijazi was feeding his world-class carnations to animals, but now he hopes they will reach European markets thanks to an easing of Israeli closures on the Gaza Strip. For the first time since the Islamist Hamas movement seized power in the territory in June 2007, Gaza’s flower and strawberry farmers may be able to export most of their produce to Europe with help from The Netherlands.

“There are promises that the crossings will remain open for exports,” the 33-year-old farmer says as workers clip carnations and pack them into crates in a sprawling greenhouse near the southern Gaza town of Rafah. “Last year our losses were huge. I alone lost 800,000 dollars (550,000 euros),” he says. “We harvested the flowers and then we fed them to the sheep and cows.”

Israel allowed only limited exports of flowers and strawberries. Gaza’s main cash crops-during the season following the bloody Hamas takeover in June 2007 before halting all exports in January 2008, according to the Palestine Trade Centre (Paltrade), which works with the World Bank.

Exports only resumed after Israel’s devastating 22-day war on Hamas in December 2008 and January 2009, when 14 truckloads of carnations were allowed out of Gaza, according to Paltrade.

“The difficulty was that the peak of the season was far gone, and another issue was that many farmers had stopped by then,” said a Dutch official involved in the export projects, who spoke on condition of anonymity. This season, Israel began allowing exports in December, and since then more than a million flowers, mostly roses and carnations,

BEIT LAHIA: Palestinian farmers collect strawberries in a field in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. — AFP have been exported to The Netherlands, where many are then sent on to markets in Russia and Europe.

“So far it has been working well... There is a regular export taking place,” the official says, adding that roughly three shipments of 150,000 flowers were passing through the crossings each week. Farmers near Rafah have planted some 30 hectares of flowers with assistance from The Netherlands, according to Said Al-Rai, the Palestinian coordinator of the project. “The produce is distinguished by its high quality and deep-rooted reputation in European markets,” he says, adding that they expect to export 35 million flowers this season, mainly roses and carnations.

Gaza’s strawberry growers have also resumed exports after nearly two years, under a similar program with Agrexco, an Israeli firm that has marketed and distributed Gaza pro-

duce to Europe since the 1980s under its “Coral” brand.

However, Israel only began allowing exports at the start of January, causing the growers to miss out on the first two months of the four-month peak season. Since then around 40 tons of strawberries have been exported, according to the Dutch official.

The lush fields around the village of Beit Lahiya near the border with Israel boast some of the best strawberries in the region, but they were damaged when tanks and bulldozers rumbled through the area during the war. “We struggled and we farmed in order to export in the period between November 15 and December 25, but Israel did not open the crossings in this period despite the efforts

by The Netherlands,” says Assad Othman Yassin, the head of marketing in the Hamas-run agricultural ministry.

“On January 3 we exported

21 tons, but in the past we always began exporting in the middle of October and continued until March. In a normal season we would export 1,800 tons, or about 70 tons a day,” he adds. This year farmers around Beit Lahiya have planted 50 hectares, compared with 85 hectares in previous years, according to the local farming cooperative.

The farmers have also complained about delays at Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing, where boxes of produce can sit in the desert sun for hours at a time.

“Relatively speaking, it’s been a good season so far,” the Dutch official says, but he admits that Kerem Shalom is “not an ideal crossing.” Each month Israel allows hundreds of truckloads of basic goods into the territory of 1.5 million people, but apart from the strawberries and flowers it has allowed virtually no exports since Hamas took power. — AFP

OPINION

14

Thursday, January 21, 2010

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Cooperation spirit put to test in Haiti Fidel Castro Ruz

T

he news reported from Haiti describe a great chaos that was to be expected, given the exceptional situation created in the aftermath of the catastrophe. At first, a feeling of surprise, astonishment and commotion set in.

A desire to offer immediate assistance came up in the farthest places of the Earth. What assistance should be sent -and how- to a Caribbean nation from China, India, Vietnam and other countries that are tens of thousands of kilometers away?

The magnitude of the earthquake and the poverty that exists in that country generated at first some ideas about probable needs, which gave rise to all types of promises that are possible in terms of resources that later on are tried to be conveyed through every possible way. We Cubans understood that the most important thing at that moment was to save lives, and we are trained not only to cope with catastrophes like that, but also to cope with other natural catastrophes related to human health.

Hundreds of Cuban doctors were working there, along with quite a number of young Haitians of humble origin, who had become well trained health professionals, an area in which, for many years now, we have been cooperating with that neighboring and sister nation.

Some of our compatriots were on vacations, while other Haitians were being trained or studying in Cuba.

The destruction caused by the earthquake exceeded all calculations: the humble clay and adobe houses -in a city with almost two million inhabitantscould not stand. The solid government facilities collapsed; entire blocks of houses crumbled over their tenants who, at that time of the day -almost at dusk- were inside their homes; and they were all buried, dead or alive, under the rubble. The streets were filled with people claiming for help. The MINUSTAH -the UN contingent- the government and the police were left without leaders or headquarters. Soon after the earthquake, the main task of those institutions made up by thousands of persons was to know who were still alive and where they were.

The immediate decision adopted by the dedicated Cuban doctors who worked in Haiti, as well as by the young health professionals from Haiti who had graduated in Cuba, was to establish contact among them, know about each other’s fate and wonder what were the resources available to assist the Haitian people in the midst of that tragedy.

The Cuban doctors who were on vacation in Cuba as well as the Haitian doctors who were taking their specialization courses in our homeland immediately readied themselves to leave for Haiti. Other Cuban surgery experts, who had accomplished difficult missions, volunteered to accompany them. Suffice it to say that in less than 24 hours our doctors had already assisted hundreds of patients. Today, January 16, only three and a half days after the tragedy, there were already

thousands of people injured who had been assisted by them.

Today, Saturday, at noon time, the head of our medical brigade reported to us, among other data, the following: “...the work that is being done by our comrades is really commendable. The general opinion is that the Pakistani earthquake has been put in the shade - that was another huge earthquake, and some of these doctors worked there. In that country, many a time our doctors assisted patients with fractures whose bones were not well knitted together, or who had been crushed. But here reality has exceeded the imaginable: amputations abound, surgeries are being performed virtually out in the public. This is the image they envisaged of a war.” “...The ‘Delmas 33 Hospital’ is already operational. It has three operating rooms, its own power generation plants, doctors’ visits areas, etcetera, but is absolutely full.” “Twelve Chilean doctors have joined in.

One of them is an anesthesiologist. There are also eight Venezuelan doctors and nine Spanish nuns. It was expected that, at any moment, 18 Spanish, to whom the UN and the Haitian Public Health authorities had handed over the control of the hospital, would come, but they lacked some emergency supplies that had not arrived, so they have decided to join us and start working immediately.”

“Thirty two Haitian resident doctors were sent in; six of them were going straight to Carrefour, a place that was totally devastated. Traveling with them were also the three Cuban surgical teams that arrived here yesterday.” “...we are operating the following medical facilities at Port au Prince: ‘La Renaissance’ Hospital. The Social Insurance Hospital. The Peace Hospital.” “...Four Comprehensive Diagnostics Centers are already working”.

This information gives only an idea of the work that is being carried out by the medical staff from Cuba and those from other countries working with them, who were among the first to arrive in that nation. Our medical personnel is ready to cooperate and join forces with all other health specialists who have been sent to save lives in that sister nation. Haiti could become an example of what humankind can do for itself. The possibility and the means exist; but willingness is missing. The longer it takes to bury or incinerate the corpses and to distribute food and other vital supplies, the higher the risks of epidemics and social violence will be. Haiti will put to the test the endurance of the cooperation spirit before egoism, chauvinism, ignoble interests and contempt for other nations prevail.

A climate change jeopardizes the whole humankind. The earthquake at Port au Prince, hardly three weeks after the Copenhagen conference, is reminding all of us how selfishly and arrogantly we behaved then. Countries are taking a close look at all that is happening in Haiti. The world’s public opinion and peoples’ criticisms will be ever harsher and unforgiving.

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

India’s energy giants in global hunt for deals Unrest risk clouds Cameroon’s ‘bright future’ C A

By Salil Panchal

ash-rich Indian energy groups are looking to flex their newfound muscles with global acquisitions as the fast-growing country joins China in the hunt for vital resources, analysts say. “India’s oil and gas sector will be a force to reckon with this year for cross-border deals,” said Sidharth Punshi, India head of global investment bank Jefferies.

Reliance Industries, controlled by India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, has generated two billion dollars via stock sales since September and is expected to keep raising cash to boost its reserves and fund eventual acquisitions.

The company, India’s largest by market capitalization, already has Netherlands-based chemicals group LyondellBasell in its sights. But Lyondell, which does most of its business in the United States, has so far resisted a takeover offer from Reliance worth an initial 12 billion dollars.

“There is no doubt Reliance is looking to acquisitions (beyond Lyondell),” said energy analyst Deepak Pareek at Mumbai’s Angel Broking.

A deal between Reliance and Lyondell, the world’s third-largest chemicals maker, would create a global energy and chemicals giant, with annual revenues estimated at near 80 billion dollars. Reliance had no comment to make on its future takeover strategy when contacted by AFP. But Pareek said the speed with which Reliance has raised money has raised eyebrows. “Several local key projects have been completed, so Reliance can focus on acquisitions,” he added. For Reliance, an overseas acquisition would diversify its assets it is almost entirely focused on India at present-and would launch it as a global competitor to established European, US or Chinese rivals.

“There are oil companies in the UK, Canada and Central Asian Republics with proven reserves, which

could be attractive buy-out targets for Indian firms,” said Bundeep Singh Rangar, chairman of advisory firm IndusView. “The idea is to expand overseas and be one step ahead of global oil firms who are keen to enter India,” he said by telephone from his London office. Indian companies would be following the lead of Chinese energy giants such as CNOOC and Sinopec, which have been on a buying spree in Africa and Central Asia. India, which imports at least 70 percent of its oil needs, has like China been racing to find new energy sources to fuel its rapidly developing economy.

Reliance’s rivals, state-run exploration firm Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), Cairn India and Essar Oil, are also on the lookout for acquisitions.

Essar Oil is in talks to buy out three Shell refineries-one in Britain and two in Germany-in exchange for a 10-percent stake in the British group. Cairn India, controlled by British oil explorer Cairn Energy, has meanwhile begun pumping crude from a vast oilfield in the desert state of Rajasthan, which will eventually increase India’s crude output by 20 percent. Reliance itself became an Indian corporate giant by investing in its local refining and other operations, rather than through acquisitions.

It folded subsidiary Reliance Petroleum into its broader group the largest deal in India’s corporate history-in March last year. Its Jamnagar refinery, the world’s largest oil-processing complex in western India, now has a combined capacity to process 1.24 million barrels of oil a day. A dominant player at home, Reliance has raised two billion dollars by selling shares in three tranches since September.

Its cash reserves now stand at more than four billion dollars. “No one would liquidate treasury shares unless they are serious about raising funds (for acquisitions),” said Gaurang Shah, vice-president with Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services. — AFP

By Tansa Musa

nagging risk of unrest clouds the bright future Cameroon’s veteran president, Paul Biya, promised his central African nation with the launch of an infrastructure spending spree this year. Marking Cameroon’s 50th anniversary of independence, the usually low-profile Biya used a New Year’s Eve speech to declare 2010 the year in which the region’s largest economy, badly hit by the global slowdown, would see growth rates rise.

But sceptics question whether the projects or the growth will materialize, and say the issue is whether Biya, now in his 28th year in power, will face growing discontent for failing to tackle widespread poverty and a youth unemployment time-bomb. “The gap between people’s worsening quality of life and the promises of the president is getting deeper,” said Babissakana, head of the Prescriptor economic think-tank in Yaounde.

“The risk of social protest and rising demands is very high,” he warned, echoing concerns about the possibility of unrest raised in a report by the World Bank last month. The note of alarm contrasts with Biya’s upbeat Dec. 31 speech to the nation announcing the start of construction this year on the Lom Pangar hydro-electric dam, a deep sea water port and a raft of other power and mining projects. “With all these plans, Cameroon has without doubt a bright future in front of it,” pledged Biya, 76, who is widely expected to stand for re-election in 2011.

ASIAN TIGERS On paper, Cameroon is well placed to benefit from firmer oil and commodities prices as the global economy recovers.

The country of 19 million is the largest economic force in the region with national output of $25.1 billion. It is a vital trading crossroads blessed with sea access and natural resources including oil, timber, cotton, coffee and cocoa.

Since an insurrection that accompanied independence from Britain and France, Cameroon has largely avoided strife that has dogged neighbors such as the Central African Republic and Chad.

But while it dreams of attaining emerging economy status by 2035, it has been left behind by double-digit economic growth rates enjoyed in recent years by China and the Asian tigers. “With hardly three percent of annual growth rate and 2.7 percent of population growth, Cameroon’s gross domestic product per capita is growing at 0.3 percent a year,” said economist Christian Penda Ekoka. “Growth is also associated with the ability of a country to create jobs. In a country where more than 70 percent of the population is less than 30 years old... failure to do it is a potential bomb,”

he said of data showing that 78 percent of the youth are “underemployed”, or lacking sufficient work.

INDOMITABLE LIONS Ekoka and others argue that poor governance and official corruption are a drain on economic activity, something Biya has pledged to tackle with a zero-tolerance policy that has led to more than 100 cases against high-profile politicians since 2006. But skeptics say the main impact of Biya’s anticorruption drive has been to eliminate potential rivals, and they question why a 1996 constitutional article obliging holders of public office to declare their assets has still not been implemented. “The procrastination of the administration over implementing Article 66 ... shows their will in the fight against corruption is less firm than it appears,” said Matthias Eric Owona Nguini, political science lecturer at Yaounde II university.

Prescriptor’s Babissakana said he doubted that 2010 would be the year of “grand projects” promised by Biya, pointing to a track record of missed deadlines despite a topheavy government packed with no fewer than 66 ministers in 35 departments. In its hard-hitting report, the World Bank said Cameroon had failed to take advantage of the windfall of having most of its debt cancelled in 2006 and was off-track to meet most of the U.N. Millennium Development Goals for reducing poverty.

The percentage of the population classified as living in poverty stood at 39.9 percent, barely changed from the 2001 level of 40.2 percent, while around one-third of children were described in the report as “chronically malnourished”.

So far, the only break in Cameroon’s stability has been urban riots in 2008 over high fuel and food prices and moves

by Biya to extend his rule. Human rights groups said more than 100 people were killed as security forces put down the unrest. The government put the death toll at something over 40. Since then, there have been few open signs of dissent in a country where press watchdogs cite tough media restrictions.

Analysts predict Biya will cruise home in the 2011 poll, emulating ruling party victories in Gabon and Congo Republic last year in elections where the main suspense was over how much violence would accompany protests by the losing side. It is hard to say what might spark new unrest. One catalyst for the 2008 riots was defeat for the adored national soccer team in the African Nations Cup, where Cameroon’s “Indomitable Lions” are once again in contention this year. Babissakana said it was clear few voters would be seeking their brighter future in the polling booth, rueing: “Confidence in the electoral system remains extremely weak.” — Reuters

Spectre of food prices haunts India’s reform agenda

By Alistair Scrutton

F

or a barometer of India’s appetite for economic reform, look no further than the lowly lentil. This mainstay of the Indian diet has jumped in price by 42 percent in the last year as food inflation hits an 11-year high, giving government populists worried about consumer anger more sway over reformists to hijack investors’ wish-list of reforms.

The return of inflation to the headlines comes at the wrong time for the ruling Congress party as it mulls reforms like the liberalization of the agricultural sector, which could entail painful adjustments to freer markets by millions of Indians.

These reforms also include drives to make the power sector, retail and labor more responsive to market forces by cutting state-run subsidies that may help widen India’s 2009/10 fiscal deficit to a 16year high of 6.8 percent of GDP. “Inflation is a distraction that reinforces the government’s lack of appetite for reform and gives it a convenient excuse for not doing anything,” said V Ravichandar, managing director of Feedback consulting in Bangalore, which advises multinationals on doing business in India. Ahead of a Jan. 29 policy review, Indian authorities seem more focused on whether to tighten monetary policy to rein in inflation at the risk

of hurting an incipient recovery.

NO GREAT EXPECTATIONS Few expected speedy reform in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s second term. But there were hopes he would push policies to liberalize the state and boost both foreign and domestic investments to achieve growth rates similar to China’s. Singh has a freer hand, no longer

relying on the communist parties that propped up his first term government.

Many investors wanted cuts in subsidies for fuel, fertilizer and food. India’s growth story has been dogged by persistent high inflation, often because of supply bottlenecks blamed on state-controlled prices as well as poor roads and rail.

Reformers have been trying since 1991 to

NEW DELHI: A homeless man sits barefoot as a cup of tea offered to him by volunteers of an aid group is seen next to him on a cold morning in New Delhi yesterday. — AP

roll back a heavily socialist state that since Independence in 1947 has nationalist sectors from banks to mines, and subsidies on food staples like wheat. But with 42 percent of Indians living on less than the poverty line of $1.25 a day, reform has always been a political hot potato. Many farmers who receive subsidies for basics such as rice helped Congress win last year’s election.

It can still take 11 days to transport new cars from Chennai factories to salesrooms in northern India, while it is only a two-hour journey by plane. The world’s biggest rail network has just 20 refrigerated wagons, and many fresh vegetables rot in transit.

“Inflation makes dealing with irrational subsidies much more difficult,” said Pratap Bhanu Mehta, head of the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research.

“It’s a vicious circle, unless you deal with power and agricultural subsidies you are not going to fix long-term supply problems. Mehta pointed to the government giving cash compensation of $2.6 billion to state oil firms this month to cover losses on sales of fuel at below market rates to consumers.

It is money better spent on infrastructure, he said. But at a time when Indians are squeezed by high prices, cutting subsidies only becomes harder. A late mon-

soon and drought has forced the government to focus on getting economic growth back on track. “The government has been preoccupied in getting the macro economy right, and they may have succeeded”, said Amit Mitra, Secretary General of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry.

Officials say food inflation is temporary, and they expect reforms in the next session of parliament due in midFebruary. “In the beginning of March we should see a sharper than usual seasonal decline in food prices,” said Abhijit Sen, a member of India’s Planning Commission.

Still, other Asian countries like China face rising inflation as economies recover, but India may be in the trickiest position. Paul Schulte, a strategist at Nomura, told the Economic Times this week that India was “the number one inflation problem” country in the region in 2010.

While there have been little street protests, the opposition such as the communists in West Bengal and the Dalit leader Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh are attacking Congress over prices. Food prices have been key to political survival in the past. Onion prices helped push out a state government in 1980. “Unrest is always one step away in India. It can suddenly flare up,” said political analyst Mahesh Rangarajan. — Reuters

ANALYSIS

Thursday, January 21, 2010

15

Bulgaria’s EU fiasco hampers efforts to clean image

By Anna Mudeva

T

he embarrassing withdrawal of Bulgaria’s candidate for European commissioner has rekindled doubts about whether the Balkan country deserved its EU membership and can tame corruption that puts investors off. To prove skeptics wrong, the new centre-right government elected last July on pledges to clean up Bulgaria’s poor image, must produce swift results in ending a climate of impunity and reforming the judiciary, analysts say.

Rumiana Jeleva resigned as foreign minister on Tuesday and withdrew her nomination for EU commissioner on humanitarian aid after failing to convince members of the European Parliament of her competence and business ties. Her withdrawal removed an obstacle that had threatened to derail the new European Union executive but strengthened perceptions about the backwardness of the bloc’s poorest member.

To address criticism of incompetence on top of Bulgaria’s reputation as the most corrupt EU member, Prime Minister Boiko Borisov put forward Kristalina Georgieva, a senior World Bank official and respected economist, for the Commission job.

“Bulgaria, which is already under close scrutiny, cannot afford such mistakes,” said Kiril Avramov of the Political Capital think-

SOFIA: Bulgaria’s Defense Minister Nikolay Mladenov walks to a government meeting in Sofia yesterday. Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said he would propose Defense Minister Mladenov as his new foreign minister to replace Rumiana Jeleva who resigned earlier this week. — AFP tank. “The only adequate reply now is perseverance and results in the fight against crime and corruption.” Failure to demonstrate results by July, when the EU is due to assess Sofia’s progress, could threaten its access to some of the 11 billion euros ($15.62 billion) earmarked for Bulgaria up to 2013. Fed up with the soft

approach of the previous Socialist-led government, Brussels cut Bulgaria’s access to millions in EU aid in 2008.

SWEEPING REFORMS NEEDED Sceptical politicians in founder EU members like Germany and the Netherlands questioned the decision to let Bulgaria and

its Balkan neighbor Romania, which has similar problems, join the bloc in 2007 when it was clear they were not ready. Brussels concluded at the time that delaying membership might slow reforms further.

Russia’s growing economic influence in the Balkans was also a concern. Borisov’s government of reformists

and newcomers has won praise for slashing public spending, arresting notorious suspected kidnappers and dismissing hundreds of tax and customs officials to reduce graft. Prosecutors have charged former ministers with abuse of power and are investigating others over embezzlement. But not a single senior official has

been convicted and imprisoned for corruption so far.

Analysts that is far from enough and investors continue to complain that doing business in Bulgaria without paying bribes or encountering the mafia is almost impossible. More sweeping reforms are needed in the inefficient public administration and courts, they say.

“With the global foreign investment tap still under pressure... stories like that of Jeleva will continue to hamper Bulgaria’s ability to attract investment,” said Gabor Ambrus, emerging market analyst at 4Cast.

Some commentators say the EU debacle will add to worries at home about a deepening recession and is likely to hurt the government’s strong popularity ratings.

Some 45-50 percent of Bulgarians approve of the government and its leader Borisov, enchanted by the former bodyguard’s macho charisma, tough talk and forceful ways, polls show.

But the economy has not hit the bottom yet, economists say, and the main industry association has predicted that one in five Bulgarians will be jobless by year-end.

Tobacco growers, milk producers, railway and arms workers have staged small protests this month over unpaid wages and reduced public spending.

“The Jeleva fiasco has put an end to the government’s honeymoon,” said Andrei Raichev of pollster Gallup in Sofia. — Reuters

Loss in Kennedy seat haunts Obama agenda

By Stephen Collinson

O

n the last day of Barack Obama’s first year in power, Republicans cast huge doubts on his hopes of a transformative presidency by capturing the Senate seat once held by his mentor Edward Kennedy. In a stunning upset, angry Massachusetts voters Tuesday chose Republican Scott Brown, who vowed to be the single vote his party needs to block Democratic health care reformthe cause of the late Kennedy’s life.

The loss snatched away the 60-vote super-majority Democrats needed to trump Republican blocking maneuvers in the Senate, calling into question the party’s capacity to pass not only health care but other top Obama agenda items.

“Of course, it is rotten news for the administration. Of course, it is rotten news for health care (reform),” said Barbara Kellerman, of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School.

The triumph will electrify Republicans bent on blocking Obama’s agenda and scare Democrats facing reelection in mid-term elections in November. Massachusetts Democrat Martha Coakley fell for many reasons: complacency, a poor campaign, public disdain for incumbent leaders in Congress and independent voters making a point in a vote some saw as a referendum on Obama. But Republicans were already driving a simple narrative Tuesday night: that voters lashed out against Obama and his health care reform plan.

The question must also be asked: if Democrats cannot hold liberal Massachusetts, and the dynastic perch of Kennedys, what other seat is safe?

The Massachusetts loss follows two stinging Democratic defeats in gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia where Obama won big in 2008, and comes as his personal approval rat-

ings dip below 50 percent. “I can’t imagine a stronger message that voters are sending, but I am not sure that the White House is listening,” said Costas Panagopoulos, a campaigns specialist at Fordham University, New York.

The White House earlier rejected the idea of the special election as a repudiation of its tactics: spokesman Robert Gibbs said the president knew Americans were “upset” and “angry” but dismissed he had lost touch.

Coakley’s loss gives Democrats an immediate problem-passing healthcare-the cause of Kennedy’s life until he died in August, and a set of longterm political headaches. House speaker Nancy Pelosi was adamant on Tuesday that health care would pass into law, but Democrats will need to use political sleight of hand to do so.

“We will have quality, affordable health care for all Americans, and it will be soon,” she said. Longer term, Republicans will relish the chance to gum up the Senate, frustrate Democrats and possibly spark a political stalemate in the run-up to November’s elections.

Obama has a packed agenda and had signaled attempts to pass a huge climate bill, financial regulatory packages and even to the hot-button issue of immigration reform next year. But can such transformative goals be reconciled with an angry populace, skittish lawmakers and Obama’s diminished political standing?

“The agenda is going to slow somewhat-just by virtue of the political climate,” said Bruce Buchanan, a political science professor at the University of Texas at Austin. Obama took office at a time of deep national economic peril, and on the rationale that a huge crisis requires fundamental change pursued an ambitious domestic political agenda.

But will he now simplify his agenda and downplay expectations in a bid to head off an electoral calamity in November?

And can he avoid a repeat in those polls? “A stripped down version on which he could focus more personally, and carefully, would be my recommendation,” said Kellerman.

But it would be a mistake to write off Obama, given that ex-presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan also rebuilt

their presidencies on economic recovery. “The economy and the state of unemployment have a huge impact on how people view the political debate,” Buchanan said.

Democratic House Majority leader Steny Hoyer argued the Massachusetts race revealed deep anxiety among

Americans. “People are angry, people are fearful, people are very concerned about where the economy is,” he said.

“We’re all pretty unpopular. Why? Because people don’t feel good and we’re the leaders and we’re in office and they expect us to do something about it. — AFP

Massachusetts vote hurts US climate bill

By Richard Cowan

R

epublican Scott Brown’s upset victory on Tuesday in the special US Senate race has dealt a further blow to Democrats’ drive to pass a climate control bill in 2010. Last June, the House of Representatives narrowly passed a cap and trade bill that would require reductions in industrial emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases over the next four decades. It also would allow pollution permits to be traded in a new regulated market.

But the global warming bill has languished in the Senate, where some members have been trying to find a compromise. Once Brown takes office, Democrats will hold 59 of the 100 votes in the Senate and the Republicans 41. The bill needs 60 votes to overcome procedural hurdles that could block passage. Here’s a look at possible impacts of the Massachusetts election on the climate bill: In electing a conservative Republican, Massachusetts picked someone who campaigned against cap and trade and argued it would saddle consumers and businesses with higher costs.

Brown will replace the late Senator Edward Kennedy, a liberal icon who had been a supporter of the climate bill.

It’s now even tougher to pass the bill in the Senate this year. Republicans who oppose requiring industries to reduce carbon pollution will argue the vote was a message to President Barack Obama that one of his top priorities is out of sync with voters. Many of them will be further emboldened to oppose any comprehensive climate change bill this year.

Democrats will ramp up their rhetoric that a climate change bill will create and not lose jobs during these tough economic times. “This is the single best opportunity we

have for energizing the economy, creating jobs and getting cleaner air, and if you sell those arguments you’ve got a winning issue,” Senator John Kerry told Reuters on Tuesday in an emailed statement. The election result could give foreign countries such as China and India-both huge carbon emitters like the United States-further reservations about promising to set their own emission-reduction goals if Washington can provide no clear message that it also will do so. The turmoil that plagued the Copenhagen treaty talks last month seems likely to continue at the next UN conference in Mexico City next November.

Alternatives to cap and trade-and the trillion-dollar market for pollution permits it would create-could gain more traction. Those include less ambitious legislation encouraging the use of more alternative fuels, such as solar and wind power. Others likely will see an opening for pushing a pollution cap but without the trading mechanism, or a straight-forward tax on carbon. Republicans likely will be emboldened to seek more US oil drilling and additional government help to expand nuclear power.

Environmental groups will oppose the oil drilling and nuclear power moves unless they are coupled with aggressive steps to control carbon emissions throughout the US economy. They may conclude that a climate change bill’s best prospects will come in 2011, with the congressional elections behind them. But they would be gambling that Democrats won’t lose too many seats in November. The Environmental Protection Agency will continue down the path toward regulating carbon emissions for the first time.

The Obama administration prefers a comprehensive law instead of regulation but hopes the threat of regulation will encourage some Republicans to eventually join onto a compromise bill. — Reuters

Bereft of ally Ukraine, Georgia goes it alone against Moscow

By Michael Mainville

U

kraine’s expected turn towards Russia under a new president will leave proWestern Georgia to go it alone in opposing Moscow in the former Soviet Union, analysts said. With Orange Revolution leader Viktor Yushchenko’s inglorious ouster from office, Georgia has lost a key ally after nearly five years of joint efforts with Ukraine to transform the postSoviet political landscape. Hopes that both countries could be at the forefront of Western efforts to diminish Russia’s influence in its former empire have dimmed, analysts said, and Georgia is looking increasingly isolated. “Ukraine and Georgia were both playing the same role in terms of expanding Western influence in the former Soviet Union, and that is going to change,” said Ana Jelenkovic, a London-based regional expert with the Eurasia Group research firm.

“Georgia is probably now going to be standing alone in opposing Moscow,” she said. Sunday’s

Ukrainian election saw Yushchenko trounced by Moscow-leaning candidate Viktor Yanukovich, who will be the favourite in a run-off next month with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, another veteran of the Orange Revolution who has struck a pragmatic note on Kremlin ties.

Yushchenko had been a major ally and close friend of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who came to power in the 2003 Rose Revolution, another peaceful, pro-Western uprising.

Yushchenko, who is godfather to one of Saakashvili’s sons, made Ukraine one of Georgia’s strongest supporters during its brief 2008 war with

Russia over the breakaway South Ossetia region. In comments a day after the vote, Saakashvili insisted ties with Ukraine would remain s t r o n g d e s p i t e Yushchenko’s loss.

“The absolute majority of Ukrainians and Ukrainian politicians are Georgia’s f r i e n d s regardless of which presidential candidate’s camps they represent,” Saakashvili said in remarks shown on Rustavi-2 television. “Whatever happens in the

second round of these elections, I am sure these relations will not change.”

Analysts, however, said there is no way that ties will remain as close, especially if Yanukovich emerges the victor. “Yanukovich’s position has been outright hostile to Georgia, especially during the war,” said Svante Cornell, the research director of the Stockholm-based Central Asia Caucasus Institute. The loss of Ukraine as an ally could deal a serious blow to Georgia’s efforts to forge closer ties with the West and join the NATO military alliance, analysts said.

As a tandem, Georgia and Ukraine had a much higher profile in Western capitals than Georgia alone, said Lawrence Sheets, the Tbilisi-based Caucasus project director for the International Crisis Group.

“There’s no question that under Yushchenko there was something of a Ukraine-Georgia axis,” he said.

“Psychologically it made a big difference for Georgia to have this very big and important country as a partner in fighting Moscow.” The relationship could even turn confrontational if

Yanukovich is elected and follows through on a promise to recognize Georgia’s rebel regions as independent states. Moscow recognized South Ossetia and another rebel region, Abkhazia, as independent after the war, a move that has so far been followed by only Nicaragua, Venezuela and the Pacific island state of Nauru.

Shortly after the war, Yanukovich said in a statement that “Ukraine should accept the will of the people of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and recognize their independence.”

Jelenkovic said Yanukovich could use recognition of their independence as a quick way of cementing ties with Moscow. “It could be a way to start a new presidency off with a symbolic gesture towards Russia of where Yanukovich’s presidency stands,” she said. That, Sheets said, would deal “a huge psychological and diplomatic blow” to Tbilisi and make it absolutely clear that “Georgia is the last place” in the neighborhood fiercely opposing Kremlin influence. — AFP

focus

Terrorists will strike US again T

By Gregory F Treverton

he Obama administration’s mea culpa over the failure to prevent the attempted bombing of a US airliner bound for Detroit on Christmas Day is understandable but misses the point. Yes, the United States can do better at catching would-be attackers; that will always be the case. But the truth is that there is no absolute security - short of conceding victory to the terrorists by making it impossible for foreigners to visit the United States, hellish for Americans to fly and difficult for all to live normal lives.

America’s tolerance for terrorism cannot be zero. Although we obviously aim to do as much as possible, preventing every attack is an unattainable goal.

The country needs to steel itself for the near-certainty that there will at some point be another major strike on US territory. Even if the United States curtailed civil liberties to a degree most citizens would find intolerable, sooner or later some suicidal terrorist would find a way to manage a successful attack. The greatest threat may come from lone wolves with scanty records, as is apparently the case with the accused Fort Hood shooter, or from someone who acts alone even if trained and equipped by one of Al-Qaeda’s offshoots, as the would-be Detroit bomber allegedly did.

The Christmas Day episode highlights three critical points.

First is how much progress US intelligence has made. The 9/11 attacks were blamed on a failure to “connect the dots.” But foiling that plot would have required not just creative leaps of foresight by intelligence analysts, but also the political will to take draconian actions to prevent a large-scale attack organized from abroad on U.S. soil (something that hadn’t happened since Pearl Harbor and was therefore almost unthinkable).

By contrast, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and his alleged Yemeni helpers were on the US radar screen. Simply singling him out for a body search might have done the job. The intelligence community certainly failed to connect the dots, but at least this time it had the dots.

Second, the Christmas Day plot demonstrates that much of what passes for security is a waste of time and money. It often seems designed more to bother people than to prevent terrorism. The mass screening of departing passengers in Amsterdam was, almost by definition, too little to

catch the “underwear bomber” and probably too much for his innocent fellow passengers.

Finding the right balance is terribly difficult, but what’s needed is less mass screening of all those proverbial grandmothers. Racial and ethnic profiling is not only provocative, it is also ineffective, because it produces far too many “false positives” - people subjected to secondary screening without cause. Rather, what we need is more screening and profiling based on intelligence to provide grounds for suspicion (which should have included the wouldbe Detroit bomber) or on suspicious behavior (like having no luggage or paying cash for the ticket).

Third, the public furor over the foiled plot shows that more perspective on terrorism is essential. Terrorism frightens Americans because it seems so random. But it does not kill many. In the five years after 2001, the number of Americans killed per year in terrorist attacks worldwide was never more than 100, and the toll some years was barely in double figures. Compare that with an average of 63 by tornadoes, 692 in bicycle accidents and 41,616 in motor-vehicle-related accidents. Calling another attack “intolerable” is wishful thinking, not making policy. Some honest talk would be useful, so that when the next major attack comes - as it surely will - we can respond rationally and not just emotionally.

Soon after 9/11, I was seated at dinner next to former Defense Secretary Harold Brown. I asked him how much of a threat to the United States the attacks represented. His answer surprised me at the time, but he was right: On a scale of 1 to 10, the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 was an 8, he said; 9/11 was a 3. Those who lost their lives and their loved ones suffered mightily, and, as with any disaster, the psychological effect was magnified by the number of people who were killed at the same time. But for the nation, it was a blow, not a mortal threat.

When it comes to weathering terror attacks, the reaction of Israelis is instructive. After every bombing, they clean up as fast as possible. Thus, life can go on and the terrorists won’t be given a victory. By contrast, Americans let fear of terrorism stop life. So the terrorists win.

America’s security and intelligence apparatus can always do better. But it will never be able to stop every terrorist plot - a grim reality Americans need to grasp. — MCT

Drug lords and terrorism

T

he arrest last week of reputed Mexican drug lord Teodoro “El Teo” Garcia Simental underscores the contention that Mexico is in the midst of a counter-terrorism war, which President Felipe Calderon must continue pursuing with full vigor in spite of pressures for him to reverse course. By capturing Garcia and putting him on trial, Calderon not only sends a strong message to his own people about respect for the rule of law but helps Americans drug users better understand the violence and misery they are helping fund across the border.

Simental wasn’t a mere pot pusher. Authorities accuse him of carrying out 300 killings, including the assassinations of dozens of Tijuana police officers. He reportedly liked to behead his victims, hang them from overpasses or dissolve them in vats of caustic soda. He is reported to have sliced off the face of one victim and had it stitched onto a soccer ball. If this isn’t terrorism at its sadistic worst, then what is? The fact that El Teo was captured on the heels of last month’s killing of drug kingpin Arturo Beltran Leyva signifies real progress in restoring order to Mexico’s streets.

It also emphasizes the vastly improved level of cooperation and intelligence-sharing between Mexican and US law enforcement agencies. The US Department of Justice once listed El Teo as one of the 10 most wanted figures in the ArrellanoFelix drug cartel that ruled northwestern Mexico. He is

reputed to have been a hit man for the cartel but broke away to join forces with a rival group. A subsequent turf battle turned the streets of Tijuana and other western border cities into killing fields.

The Drug Enforcement Administration supplied information to Mexican authorities that prompted a five-month surveillance operation leading to Garcia’s arrest.

There’s no mistaking the message this sends to those who would follow down Garcia’s twisted path. In addition to drug trafficking, his organization profited through kidnappings and extortion.

Whether it’s Hezbollah and its eight-year reign of terror with kidnappings of Westerners in Lebanon or al-Qaeda with its ongoing atrocities in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, these are the acts of people devoid of compassion who think of killing and maiming only in terms of how they can more effectively intimidate the public into submission. That’s what terrorism is all about.

Americans’ hands are not clean. We would never accept the presence of people in our country who send money to AlQaeda, and yet we think little of the billions that American recreational users spend on drugs, trying hard not to notice how these very proceeds fund ongoing terrorist operations in Mexico. Calderon is doing his part to dismantle a menace that has besieged his country.

What he needs most from Americans is to stop funding the enemy. — MCT

SPORTS

16

Thursday, January 21, 2010

NHL results/standings NHL results and standings on Tuesday.

NY Rangers 8, Tampa Bay 2; Philadelphia 5, Columbus 3; Washington 3, Detroit 2; Atlanta 4, Toronto 3; Ottawa 4, Chicago 1; Pittsburgh 6, NY Islanders 4; Anaheim 5, Buffalo 4; San Jose 5, Los Angeles 1.

Eastern Conference Atlantic Division W L OTL GF GA PTS New Jersey 32 14 1 131 105 65 Pittsburgh 31 19 1 163 143 63 NY Rangers 24 19 7 135 133 55 NY Islanders 22 20 8 135 152 52 Philadelphia 24 21 3 148 140 51 Northeast Division Buffalo 30 12 6 138 113 66 Ottawa 26 21 4 142 151 56 Boston 23 17 8 123 121 54 Montreal 23 23 4 128 139 50 Toronto 17 25 9 137 177 43 Southeast Division Washington 31 12 6 185 138 68 Atlanta 22 20 7 153 159 51 Florida 21 20 8 141 149 50 Tampa Bay 19 20 10 127 154 48 Carolina 14 27 7 120 165 35 Western Conference Central Division Chicago 34 12 4 166 114 72 Nashville 29 17 3 140 136 61 Detroit 24 17 8 125 127 56 St. Louis 21 20 7 126 136 49 Columbus 19 24 9 137 174 47 Northwest Division Colorado 28 15 6 147 135 62 Vancouver 28 18 2 155 119 58 Calgary 26 18 6 131 129 58 Minnesota 24 23 3 138 150 51 Edmonton 16 27 5 128 165 37 Pacific Division San Jose 33 10 8 171 125 74 Phoenix 28 17 5 133 129 61 Los Angeles 27 19 3 144 138 57 Dallas 21 17 11 141 157 53 Anaheim 23 20 7 143 158 53 Note: Overtime losses (OTL) are worth one point in the standings and are not included in the loss column (L)

LOS ANGELES: Wayne Simmonds No. 17 of the Los Angeles Kings looks to pass as he is chased by Douglas Murray No. 3 of the San Jose Sharks during the second period at Staples Center. —AFP

Sharks power their way to top of NHL LOS ANGELES: The San Jose Sharks continued their scoring barrage with a 5-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday to move clear top of the NHL standings. A day after demolishing Calgary 9-1, Patrick Marleau and Ryane Clowe scored two goals apiece as San Jose moved two points above Chicago.

Dan Boyle added a goal and two assists in the Sharks’ win over their California rivals.

Wayne Simmonds scored for the Kings.

Senators 4, Blackhawks 1 In Ottawa, Peter Regin had a goal and an assist to help Ottawa notch its fourth straight win, beat-

ing Central Division leaders Chicago.

Regin restored Ottawa’s twogoal lead late in the second after Zack Smith and Ryan Shannon scored in the first to put the Senators up 2-0.

Mike Fisher scored a powerplay goal 16:45 into the third to seal the win, while Brian Elliott made 29 saves. Marian Hossa scored early in the second for the Blackhawks, whose three-game winning streak was ended.

Capitals 3, Red Wings 2 In Washington, Nicklas Backstrom and David Steckel scored 46 seconds apart late in the third period, rallying

Washington past Detroit for its fourth straight victory.

Backstrom erased the Red Wings’ on a power play with 6:45 left.

Steckel then deflected Alexander Semin’s shot to put Washington ahead.

Matt Bradley also scored for the Capitals. Dan Cleary and Brian Rafalski scored for the Red Wings, who dropped a third straight despite outshooting Washington 46-23.

Ducks 5, Sabres 4 In Anaheim, California, Ryan Getzlaf and Evgeny Artyukhin scored 62 seconds apart to trigger a four-goal first period as Anaheim held on to beat Buffalo.

Bobby Ryan connected on a power play as the Ducks extended their home winning streak to eight games. Mike Brown and rookie Troy Bodie also scored for Anaheim. Buffalo’s goals came via Tim Connolly, Clarke MacArthur, Steve Montador and Jochen Hecht.

Penguins 6, Islanders 4 In Pittsburgh, Evgeni Malkin broke out of a slump with a hat trick as Pittsburgh blew a threegoal lead before recovering to down New York. Sidney Crosby scored twice for the Penguins.

New York had its four-game winning streak snapped. Trent Hunter and Richard Park scored

Pacquiao, Clottey to rumble at the Cowboys Stadium ARLINGTON: Standing under the world’s largest high-definition television and surrounded by Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders, Manny Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey were all smiles for the announcement of their welterweight fight on Tuesday.

The March 13 bout will be the first boxing match at the $1.2 billion Cowboys Stadium. “This is going to be the Super Bowl of boxing,” said Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer.

Not really. That would’ve been the hoped-for matchup between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr., which was scuttled after Mayweather outlined a drug testing plan Pacquiao wouldn’t accept.

Had that fight come together, it would have been in Las Vegas. So as far as Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was concerned, things worked out just fine. “It did,” Jones said, smiling.

“This gave us an opening. We were very aggressive. We were pretty quick to make a deal.” Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum was smitten by the stadium during negotiations for a possible Pacquaio-Mayweather fight.

Arum returned for a Cowboys playoff game, sitting near former President George W. Bush in Jones’ box.

Arum has promoted fights at the Astrodome and at Yankee Stadium.

He predicts Cowboys Stadium “will have a big role in boxing for years to come.” “I have never, ever seen anything like it,” Arum said.

“There is nothing in the world like this place. It just blows you away.”

The stadium is hosting the NBA AllStar Game next month and will host the Super Bowl next year. It’s also in the running as a World Cup site, should football’s showcase come to the United States.

Money talks and Jones believes he can make it financially worthwhile for fighters. His goal is to host up to four or five fights a year, “once we establish that we are the place to fight and have the kind of stature that we want to have.” He used Madison Square Garden as a comparison. For this fight, the Cowboys are planning to sell around 40,000 seats, offering tickets on all but the highest decks.

Jones vowed that fight night will be even splashier than the news conference, where sparklers fired from the tips of the flagpoles, and Michael Buffer gave his signature introduction.

“We’re going to make this one of the most interesting fights to view that there’s ever been,” he said. “It’ll have everything to do with the flexibility of this board right above the ring. We’re going to have some fun with it.”

The fight itself should be pretty good, too. Pacquiao (50-3-2, 38 KOs) is widely considered the best fighter, pound-for-pound, in the world. In November, he beat Miguel Cotto, who beat Clottey (35-3, 20 KOs) last summer. However, that fight was a split decision that many felt should’ve gone to Clottey, a Ghanaian who lives in New York.

The boxers praised each other on Tuesday, and also were gushing over the facility and the glitzy news conference. “I like the introduction,” Pacquiao said. “I’m surprised. I feel like I’m a ... football player!” Soon enough, he looked like one.

Jones presented Pacquiao with a No. 3 jersey featuring his name on the back. Clottey received a No. 13 jersey. The significance? It’s shorthand for the date of the bout: 3-13. —AP

in the third period as the Islanders came back from deficits of 3-0 and 4-1 to tie it, but a tripping penalty midway through the period led to Malkin’s power-play goal that made it 5-4.

Rangers 8, Lightning 2 In New York, Vinny Prospal had a goal and assist in New York’s three-goal first period, setting up a big win over Tampa Bay. His linemate Marian Gaborik tied a career high with four assists.

Brandon Dubinsky started his team’s biggest scoring night of the season just 1:26 in, and Prospal and Chris Drury followed to give the Rangers a 3-1 lead after the first period. Dan Girardi

and Enver Lisin scored in the second as New York went ahead 5-1 despite recording only 20 shots to that point.

Flyers 5, Blue Jackets 3 In Philadelphia, Jeff Carter scored twice as Philadelphia downed Columbus. Ray Emery won for the first time since returning from abdominal surgery.

Carter scored on a breakaway 58 seconds into the game. He scored his 19th of the season in the second period. Arron Asham, Chris Pronger and Dan Carcillo also scored for the Flyers, who were hosting Columbus for the first time since 2006-07. Former

Flyer RJ Umberger scored two goals for the Blue Jackets, and Rick Nash also scored.

Thrashers 4, Maple Leafs 3 In Atlanta, Ilya Kovalchuk scored two goals, giving him 30 for the season, as Atlanta edged Toronto. The Thrashers scored four straight goals after Toronto’s Alexei Ponikarovsky’s two firstperiod goals in a span of 32 seconds.

Rich Peverley’s goal at 1:58 of the third period put Atlanta ahead 3-2, and Kovalchuk’s second goal 4:20 into the third period made it 4-2. Toronto’s Niklas Hagman scored 1:23 later but could not force overtime. —AP

Curlers welcome Simpson to the ice at Winter Olympics

Boxer Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines

VANCOUVER:- Homer Simpson is set to become the world’s most famous curler in a special episode of the animated series-an unlikely torchbearer for a sport craving respect at the Winter Olympics.

The beer-swilling, doughnut-guzzling cartoon character will pursue his Olympic dream in the episode of the popular, long-running series being aired days before the Feb. 12 opening ceremony of the Vancouver Games.

Curlers, once touchy about their sport being lampooned, say they are delighted, having learned to laugh at themselves, and will celebrate their place in the television spotlight with beer-and-doughnut parties across the United States.

“It brings attention to the sport,” Rick Patzke, the chief operating officer for USA Curling, told Reuters.

“I think it is a great thing.

“We tend to take things more good-naturedly now. In fact we’re encouraging clubs to hold beerand-doughnut parties.

“We don’t take it personal. Really, Homer and Marge are the quintessential curlers. They are able to laugh at themselves, drink beer and eat doughnuts.”

Curling, first played in medieval times on Scotland’s frozen lochs, is an ancient game struggling to find its place in a modern sporting world.

Since becoming part of the Olympic programme at the 1998 Nagano Games, the sport has worked hard to shed its reputation as a game played at weekends by unfit men and women.

While top curlers compete with the same intensity as Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps, their goodnatured approach to competition is another hallmark of a sport mocked for its image.

“I would say attitudes have changed since 1998,” said Patzke. “Back then the attitude was: “Hey, they are making fun of our sport, don’t even bother talking to the media”.

“There’s been a lot of education done on both sides and now both have embraced it.” Though it is still very much a niche sport, the world has become increasingly intrigued by curling.

It attracted significant audiences during the past two Winter Games, topping television ratings for all Winter Olympic sports, according to USA Curling, while cultivating a surprisingly hip following.

American country singer Toby Keith is a confirmed fan and Patzke says he has it on good authority that rockers Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi have on occasion rented ice time and picked up the brooms.

Plans have been developed for a curling-based

reality show called “Rockstars” with the winner getting a chance to represent the United States at a future Olympics.

The US curling teams even have their own ‘Hurry Hard’ condoms, a brand name inspired by the screams that can be heard at any curling rink as skips urge sweepers to clean the ice in front of the rock with shouts of: “Hurry, hurry, hard”.

Canada has had a long love affair with the sport and, with nearly one million registered curlers, has more people playing the game than the rest of the world combined.

Among Canadians, curling enjoys mainstream status with events attracting sold-out crowds and top television ratings.

Record low temperatures of minus 46 degrees Celsius failed to deter 16,000 curling fans from nearly filling Rexall Place in Edmonton last month to watch Kevin Martin defeat Glenn Howard for the right to represent Canada at the Vancouver Games.

In Canada, the best curlers compete on a professional circuit, their sweaters covered with as many sponsors’ logos as a Formula One car.

In Vancouver, only the Canadian men’s and women’s ice hockey teams will be under greater pressure than the curlers to win gold and tickets to the finals are hard to find.

“The CCA would have liked a larger venue, especially being in Canada,” Canadian Curling Association CEO Greg Stremlaw told Reuters. “We certainly could have filled a larger building if it had been built.

“We try to leverage the Games, use it as a catapult to attract people to the sport. We just happen to have it as part of our culture here and we have been quite successful.”

Names such as Eddie “The Wrench” Werenich and Schmirler “The Curler” are as familiar to Canadians as hockey players.

When Brad Gushue’s rink took gold at the 2006 Turin Olympics the Newfoundland foursome returned home to a heroes’ welcome and the new Team Gushue Highway.

Werenich was one of Canada’s greatest curlers but in 1988 found himself at the centre of national controversy when he was told he was too fat and had to lose weight if he wanted to represent the country at the Calgary Olympics.

No other curler touched Canadians as much as Sandra Schmirler, who won the 1996 world championship while six months pregnant then two years later skipped Canada to a first Olympic gold medal in Nagano. —Reuters

SPORTS

Thursday, January 21, 2010

17

Superstitious F1 king Schumacher likes to be odd LONDON: Formula One comeback king Michael Schumacher has swapped racing numbers with Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg for superstitious reasons.

“Michael has a preference for odd numbers,” a team spokeswoman said yesterday. “He asked if he could be the odd number and we were happy to accept.”

She said the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) had approved the switch, with Schumacher now having number three on his car and Rosberg four, and

a new list would be issued in due course.

As a seven times world champion, Schumacher has spent much of his record-breaking Formula One career with number one on his car. He won all his titles with odd numbers-five as number one and once with three and five-and retired with 91 wins.

The German’s comeback, aged 41 and following an absence of three years, was announced late last month and after compatriot Rosberg-who has yet to win a race-had been announced as the Mercedes team’s first signing.

Mercedes took over 2009 champions Brawn, run by Schumacher’s friend and former Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn, but Jenson Button took the number one to McLaren.

Since 1973, when drivers were given numbers for the entire season, nobody has started as number four and won the championship.

Thirteen is considered unlucky and not allocated while Britain’s Damon Hill raced with the number zero at Williams in 1993 and 1994 because in each year the reigning

champion (Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost) had left the sport.

Odd numbers are not Schumacher’s only foible. The German always wore a ceramic amulet, given to him by his wife and with the initials of his family members, when racing for Ferrari.

In 2004, he left it in his hotel in Bahrain and a team member had to rush and collect it before the race, which Schumacher then won. The German said later that the amulet had made “perhaps the decisive difference”.

Schumacher said on his website (www.michael-schumacher.de) on Wednesday he felt as if he had never retired after testing a GP2 car in southern Spain and was raring to go.

“I am practising since December physically very carefully and feel extremely fresh and fit,” he said.

“After my retirement at the end of 2006 I was very happy, I felt relieved, just like freed.

“I enjoyed that feeling because especially in the last two years F1 had demanded a great deal from me not the racing, that I loved during all

the time, but all those things which relate to living under constant observation.

“It did me extremely well to be quiet for those three years. It really is as if my batteries were fully loaded.

My energy is back completely,” added the German.

Meanwhile, former Ferrari head of aerodynamics John Iley has joined McLaren in the same role, a spokesman for the British-based Formula One team said yesterday.

The Briton, who left Ferrari last July after the Italian team’s 2009 car

was eclipsed by eventual champions Brawn GP and Red Bull, took up his new job at the start of the year.

Ferrari’s new chief aerodynamicist is Marco de Luca while Nikolas Tombazis, who returned to the Italian team from McLaren in 2006, is chief designer.

Mercedes-powered McLaren, fined a record $100 million in 2007 after a spy controversy involving leaked Ferrari technical data, have reigning world champion Jenson Button and 2008 champion Lewis Hamilton as their drivers. —Reuters

Flawless Plushenko sparkles

AUSTRALIA: HTC-Columbia-USA rider Andre Greipel of Germany celebrates winning Stage Two of the Tour Down Under Cycling event. Greipel won the stage to retain the leader’s jersey for the second day. —AP

Armstrong: Greipel man to beat ADELAIDE: Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong says Andre Greipel is the man to beat in the Tour Down Under after the German sprinter won yesterday’s second stage for the United States-based Team Columbia HTC. Greipel, the 2008 champion, has won the first two stages of the six-stage race _ lifting to seven his tally of Tour Down Under stage wins - to take a 14-second lead over New Zealander Greg Henderson and Gert Steegmans of Armstrong’s Team Radioshack.

Armstrong came in 48th in Wednesday’s stage, credited with the same time as Greipel, and is placed 39th overall after two stages, 20 seconds behind Greipel and one place behind Cadel Evans, the reigning world road racing champion.

Armstrong’s former teammate, US road racing champion George Hincapie is 23rd overall, and 2006 Tour de France champion Oscar Pereiro is 75th, 1 minute, 15 seconds behind the race leader.

Armstrong raced prominently in a stage made difficult by heat which touched 30 Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) and by a series of steep climbs, then a bunched finish. “It was not so bad, not as bad as last year,” said

Armstrong who is contesting the tour for the second time.

“It’s a shock for almost all of us who haven’t been racing. Just the intensity. The heat came on today and you just get those little steep walls so all in all not bad.”

Yesterday’s stage between Gawler and Hahndorf, on the outskirts of South Australia state capital Adelaide, unfolded as a replica of Tuesday’s first stage.

A group comprising young Australian David Kemp, Frenchman Michael Delage and Belgium’s Olivier Kaisen slipped away early in the stage and led by an eventual margin of 11 1/2 minutes.

Greipel’s Columbia teammates were able to control the peleton as the breakaway group slowly came back to the bunch and Greipel worked into a position from which he could drive past his rivals in a tight sprint.

“I am surprised how tired I am today,” Greipel said. “Even with the break we were happy to let it go out to eight minutes or more because we could claw back the time. “In the end it was like the finish (in Hahndorf) two years ago I waited a long time again before starting my sprint and we won again.”

Greipel’s win was celebrated in Hahndorf, a village of tightly-packed stone cottages established by German immigrants whose older residents still converse in German. “That is why we are here, to perform good and its nice to win in a German town,” Greipel said.

Armstrong said Greipel was “definitely the man to beat” after his dominance of the first two stages, which were ideally suited to sprinters. Team Radioshack’s ambition remained to get a stage win for Steegmans — 30th stage and third in general classification, 14 seconds down on Greipel.

“Andre’s showing great form,” Armstrong said. “(But) some of the longer stages might wear out the sprinters a bit.”

Armstrong said Thursday’s third stage from the Adelaide suburb of Unley to Stirling in the Adelaide Hills, which is likely to be raced in hotter temperatures and features a stiff climb to the finish, might diminish the dominance of the sprinters.

“It’s not a big explosion, it’s more of a slow attrition,” he said. “Every kilometer you lose another 20 guys and you don’t have many there at the finish. “It’s a painful finish, there’s no two ways about it, and everyone in the bike race tomorrow will suffer.” —AP

Westwood lands players’ award ahead of Abu Dhabi challenge ABU DHABI: World number four Lee Westwood received the European Tour Players’ Player of the Year award yesterday, the eve of his first appearance of 2010 at the Abu Dhabi Championship.

The 36-year-old Briton became the second winner of the trophy that was first handed out to Ireland’s Padraig Harrington in 2008.

Westwood struck a rich vein of form at the end of last year, winning the Portugal Masters and capturing the inaugural Dubai World Championship to clinch top spot in the final European money list.

“It was obviously a good year last year as I also got an award from the press writers and various other awards,” he told reporters.

“But to be voted the Players’ Player by the people you play with day in day out, week in week out and who know best what you go through emotionally when you are under pressure obviously means a lot.”

Westwood avoided snowbound Britain this month to work on his game in Barbados.

“My goal this year is to contend in the majors again and hopefully win one of them,” said the Englishman.

“I feel like I should have won the British Open last year but didn’t so I learnt a few things from that.” Westwood finished one stroke short of the Turnberry playoff won by Stewart Cink against his fellow American Tom Watson.

“The more often you get into situations like that I feel more comfortable and I’m also getting to the stage now where I should be in that position in most majors,” said Westwood.

“Winning the money list, there’s not many more places to go from there other than I suppose winning it more times. But it is the majors where I can improve the most because I haven’t won one and that’s everybody’s goal.” —Reuters

LA QUINTA: Sam Saunders, grandson of Arnold Palmer, speaks during a news conference for the Bob Hope Classic golf tournament. Saunders is playing in the tournament under a sponsor’s exemption. —AP

Rain in the desert? Hope Classic hopes not much LA QUINTA: For its first 50 years, the Bob Hope Classic in the Palm Springs area was affected by rain just about as often as the tournament’s namesake might have claimed he played a respectable round of golf — maybe once in a generation.

Yet the celebrities, amateurs and US PGA Tour pros gathered in the desert are bracing for the possibility of heavy rains hampering the first two days of the tour’s only five-day, four-course tournament.

A series of storms are pounding Southern California this week, and the heaviest rains are expected to hit yesterday — when the event starts — and today, putting the tournament organizers in unfamiliar positions under umbrellas.

The Hope Classic lost just two days to rain in its first 50 years, and none since 1980 — yet the tournament organizers closed Tuesday’s practice round to the public over

weather concerns.

Pat Perez won last year’s Hope Classic by getting off to a blistering start, finishing the first 36 holes in a US PGA tournamentrecord 20 under. He’s not likely to duplicate that feat amid raindrops and blustery winds — but he knows everybody will be working for the weekend, when the storms are likely to let up.

“I don’t like playing in the rain anyway,” said Perez, who lives in Arizona’s desert. “It’s cold, and I don’t like being wet. It’s just a damper. (But) it doesn’t do anything for me as far as defending, because I’m still here, and the tournament’s still going to go on. I have a lot of great memories from last year, and it will be a good week. It would be a better week if I won again.” The Hope Classic could use a good week, given its star-free field and glaring lack of a title sponsor — not to mention all that rain. —AP

TALLINN: Olympic champion Yevgeny Plushenko marked his international return with a recordbreaking men’s short programme at the European figure skating championships here yesterday.

The competition in the Estonian capital is the first major event since the 27-year-old retired four years ago because of knee injuries after claiming gold at the Turin Olympics.

But he showed he is ready to defend his Olympic title by breaking the points record he set in Turin, to lead three-time winner Brian Joubert of France by 2.75 points going into Thursday’s free skate final.

A visibly relaxed Plushenko opened his routine to Concierto de Aranjuez with a quadruple toeloop-triple toeloop combination, following up with a triple axel and triple lutz as he nailed all his required elements.

“I can skate better, believe me,” he warned. And replying to defending champion Joubert’s claims that he could beat the Russian, Plushenko told the Frenchman: “Try it.”

The skater from St Petersburg scored 91.30 points, bettering his previous record by 0.64, and putting him closer to a sixth European title.

Joubert, making his return after two months out with a foot injury, gave a strong performance to Rise by Safri Duo, but was technically lacking compared to the Russian as he doubled the planned triple toeloop in his opening quadruple-triple toeloop combination, to score 88.55.

“I watched him (Plushenko) on TV,” said 25-year-old Joubert. “I saw it was perfect and when I saw the score I said ‘it’s going to be difficult to beat him’ but it was possible.”

He added: “It’s like 2006 for the Olympics but then I did a very bad short programme. Now I did a good short programme and I’m able to fight him.”

France’s Yannick Ponsero is sitting third with 82.40 as twotime world champion Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland failed to shine on his return to competition by placing fifth, 77.75.

Olympic runner-up Lambiel retired for just over a year because of a thigh problem, but his return was not a solid one as he doubled his opening triple axel and stumbled out of the following quadruple toeloop jump during his crowdpleasing routine to Rossini’s Wilhelm Tell.

“The mistake I made is a mistake that can happen in competition because of the stress,” said the Swiss. “It was not a good performance for me.” The short programme counts for a third of the marks with the remainder coming in the free skating final.

Meanwhile, Oksana Domnina knew she had picked the right music for her Olympic routines with ice dance partner Maxim Shabalin when her dog gave its approval.

The Russian world champions, preparing for February’s Vancouver Olympics by competing at the European championships in Tallinn this week, had Domnina’s terrier Topi with them when they were choosing music that might take them to a gold medal.

“Although there were lots of pieces of music, my dog for some reason only reacted to two melodies-as it happens to the ones that our coach suggested we use for the Olympic season,” she told Reuters.

Having built a good lead in Tuesday’s compulsory dance- with music selected by the International Skating Union rather than the dogthe Russians will show their creative side in Thursday’s original dance and Friday’s free dance.

The 25-year-old Domnina and her 27-year-old partner, who missed the grand prix season because Shabalin had a knee injury, prompted plenty of Internet discussion with their eye-catching outfits at their national championships last month when they showcased their Aboriginalthemed original dance.

Dressed in costumes designed to look like they are wearing just body paint with a few green leaves stuck on, they won those Russian championships albeit with a few technical glitches that they hope to have ironed out in Tallinn. —AFP

ESTONIA: Russia’s Olympic champion Yevgeny Plushenko performs in his Men’s Short Program at the 2010 European Figure Skating Championships. —AFP

Cup must be decided on the water, say Alinghi VALENCIA: The America’s Cup should be decided on the water and not in a courtroom, holders Alinghi’s president said yesterday.

Challengers BMW Oracle of the US are disputing the validity of the sails of Swiss team Alinghi in a New York court, threatening the 33rd edition of the event scheduled for Valencia on Feb. 8.

“I hope we will find a solution because the sport should be decided on the water,” Alinghi president Ernesto Bertarelli said in an interview with Reuters Television in Valencia.

“I hope we are going to leave the court case behind and everybody is going to be looking at the sailing rather than the court papers.”

BMW argue the sails on Alinghi’s giant catamaran contravene nationality rules under the Deed of Gift document which governs the event while Alinghi say they are Swiss made.

The Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC), under whose colours BMW sail, expect the New York Supreme Court to hear their case next week or the week after but it is unclear when a ruling will be made.

“The America’s Cup is going to be fine, it’s always fine,” said Bertarelli. “It is going to happen on the eighth of February and that’s when we are ready to race.

“I’m going to be there ready to race,” added the Swiss entrepreneur, like BMW Oracle owner

Larry Ellison one of the world’s richest men.

The GGYC offered to rescind their legal challenge over the sails if Alinghi signed an agreement negotiated in Singapore last week by 1800 GMT on Monday.

The Swiss, represented by their club, the Societe Nautique de Geneve (SNG), refused to back down and said they were not prepared to negotiate under the threat of a lawsuit.

“If Larry is going to win the America’s Cup in court then I will be the first one to congratulate him,” Bertarelli said.

“That would be very funny.

But I’ve got a message for them: see you on the eighth of February.” —Reuters

SPAIN: The America’s Cup Alinghi 5 catamaran is seen in Valencia. America’s Cup challenger Oracle rejected the rules for the 33rd edition of the race proposed

by Alinghi, arguing they are ‘heavily biased’ in favor of the Swiss defender, and said they would ask a jury to revise the rules before the match. —AP

18

SPORTS

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Inventor of cricket Hawk-Eye defends technology LONDON: South Africa cricket coach Mickey Arthur has become the latest prominent figure in the sport to express reservations about the Hawk-Eye technology which is now being used to check legbefore-wicket decisions.

“I’m not 100 per cent convinced about the predictive element of Hawk-Eye and I don’t think many players are either,” Arthur wrote in the February issue of Wisden Cricketer which goes on sale this Friday.

Hawk-Eye uses data produced by video cameras to predict whether a ball that has

hit the batsman on the pads would have gone on to hit the stumps, the so-called lbw decision which can be among the most contentious in cricket. The technology is used in tennis to decide disputed line calls.

Under the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS) implemented in the recent four-match series between South Africa and England and in six tests in Australia, a third umpire uses Hawk-Eye to help decide whether the on-field official has made a correct decision in the event of an appeal from either side.

The case against Hawk-Eye was put by

former Australia fast bowler Dennis Lillee who said: “There’s no way Hawk-Eye can tell if a delivery is going to skid a bit more than normal or hit a crack, or a damp or worn patch, or a bit of grass on the wicket.”

It is a case that is robustly rejected by Paul Hawkins, the inventor of Hawk-Eye and a former player with the English minor county Buckinghamshire who graduated from Durham University with a doctorate in artificial intelligence.

“Dennis Lillee’s accuracy as a bowler is far greater than the accuracy of his journalism,” Hawkins said in a telephone inter-

view. “He has no understanding of the technology. He has got no idea what he is talking about.” “It still takes people time to buy into things they can’t understand, that’s probably the hardest thing.

“Hot spot (images produced by infrared cameras which can show whether the ball hit the bat or not) scored very high on believability but actually its accuracy and reliability aren’t very good.

“We score very high on our accuracy but our believability is what is harder because we use a virtual world.” Hawkins said Hawk-Eye calculated the trajectory of a

ball after it had bounced and hit the batsman’s pad, based purely on the behaviour of that particular ball.

“You only need about a foot (30 centimetres) to travel and you get an accurate prediction of the line, you need a little bit more to predict the height.

“If there is very little distance between pitching point and hitting the batsman, that is the hardest time to make an accurate prediction. That’s exactly the same for an umpire.

“We don’t measure before the ball is bowled, we measure what has happened on

that ball. “We don’t know if it’s kept low because it has hit a crack or skidded or not hit the seam or whatever. But we have seen what has happened to that ball by measuring it post-bounce just as an umpire does.”

Hawkins said the umpires in each of the 10 tests in which Hawk-Eye had been used to help determine lbw decisions believed each decision had been correct.

“We have now 10 test matches and most of the referrals have been lbws. We have certainly got every single one right,” he said. — Reuters

India take control after Gambhir feat

CHITTAGONG: India’s Gautam Gambhir (right) and Rahul Dravid run between wickets on the fourth day of the first cricket Test match between Bangladesh and India. — AP

Scoreboard CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh: Scoreboard at stumps on the fourth day of the first Test between India and Bangladesh yesterday: India 1st innings 243 (S. Tendulkar 105 not out, V. Sehwag 52; Shahadat Hossain 5-71, Shakib Al Hasan 5-62) Bangladesh 1st innings 242 (Mohammad Mahmudullah 69; Zaheer Khan 3-54, A. Mishra 3-66) India 2nd innings (overnight 122-1): G. Gambhir c Nafees b Shafiul V. Sehwag c Raqibul b Shakib A. Mishra c Tamim b Mahmudullah R. Dravid run out S. Tendulkar lbw b Rubel V. Laxman not out Yuvraj Singh c Ashraful b Shahadat D. Karthik c Rubel b Mahmudullah Zaheer Khan b Shakib I. Sharma not out Extras (b1, lb5, nb5, w3) Total (for eight wickets decl; 87 overs)

116 45 50 24 16 69 25 27 20 7 14 413

Fall of wickets: 1-90 (Sehwag), 2-188 (Mishra), 3-233 (Gambhir), 4-245 (Dravid), 5-272 (Tendulkar), 6-313 (Yuvraj), 7-362 (Karthik), 8394 (Zaheer).

Bowling: Shafiul 15-0-87-1 (w1), Shahadat 161-53-1 (w1), Rubel 15-0-94-1 (nb5, w1), Shakib 27-2-112-2, Mahmudullah 13-0-52-2, Ashraful 10-9-0.

Bangladesh 2nd innings (target 415): Tamim Iqbal not out 23 Imrul Kayes c Karthik b Zaheer 1 Shahriar Nafees c Sehwag b Sharma 21 Mohammad Ashraful not out 16 Extras (b4, lb1, nb1) 6 Total (for two wickets; 18 overs) 67 Fall of wickets: 1-8 (Kayes), 2-47 (Nafees).

Bowling: Zaheer 8-3-34-1, Sreesanth 5-0-11-0 (nb1), Sharma 4-1-7-1, Mishra 1-0-10-0.

Favre to face boyhood favorites in New Orleans MINNEAPOLIS: It appears that Brett Favre is just like everyone else — he never forgot his first love. Shortly after Favre and the Minnesota Vikings dismantled Dallas on Sunday to setup a showdown with the Saints in New Orleans for a berth in the Super Bowl, the 40-year-old quarterback recalled a conversation he had with Saints coach Sean Payton a while back.

“I told him secretly I’m a Saints fan,” Favre said. For years as a kid growing up in southeastern Mississippi, Favre never felt the need to hide his devotion to 1970s quarterback Archie Manning and the rest of those lovable losers — the Saints’ first winning season was in 1987 — even as many in the Gulf Coast region were cutting eye holes in grocery bags to avoid being identified at Saints games.

“All of those years I never wore a bag on my head, but I remember those days,” Favre said.

New Orleans isn’t home for Favre but when it comes to NFL cities, the Big Easy is as close as it gets. Favre grew up in Kiln, Mississippi, just an hour’s drive from New Orleans, and played at University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, a mere two hours from Bourbon Street. Now, in the latest dramatic twist to a 19th NFL season that has been almost too good to be true, Favre and the Vikings go into the Superdome on Sunday with only the Saints standing in his way of reaching a third Super Bowl.

“We didn’t think we were going to actually play,” Favre said of his past conversations with Payton. “There was always an outside chance, but go figure.” As this storybook season draws closer to a conclusion for Favre, it almost had to be this way. After signing with the rival Vikings, Favre has already beaten his former Green Bay Packers twice in convincing fashion. With a fourtouchdown performance against the Cowboys last weekend, he became the first quarterback to win a playoff game in his 40s and has put together one of the best seasons of his brilliant career.

He has thrown 37 touchdown passes and a career-low seven interceptions. His 4,202 yards passing were third-most behind seasons in 1995

Brett Favre seen in this file photo and 1998, a lifetime ago in NFL years. If he is to lead the Vikings to their first Super Bowl appearance since the 1976 season, it will have to be at the expense of the team that was so close to his heart for so long. Favre loved the Saints as a kid, even mimicking Manning in backyard games of his youth.

“We all liked Archie,” Favre’s brother, Scott, said in a telephone interview. “We’d go to quite a few games. Everybody down here, that’s their team.” Scott said Brett also was a big Cowboys and Roger Staubach fan, but the boys did have Saints banners hanging on their walls and relished meeting Saints players through the years.

As Favre rose to prominence in the NFL, he earned a following in the Gulf region that would match the Saints’ fervent fan base. He still spends the vast majority of his free time at his offseason home in Hattiesburg and suffered through the devastation of Hurricane Katrina with the rest of the folks in the area in 2005. Katrina destroyed the Kiln home where Favre grew up and his mother still lived at the time, and Favre’s vast estate in Hattiesburg was damaged as well. He helped raise millions in the storm’s aftermath to rebuild the region, which only further cemented his status as a local hero. — AFP

CHITTAGONG: India grabbed two early wickets to put themselves in a commanding position in the first Test against Bangladesh yesterday after Gautam Gambhir achieved a rare feat for the tourists.

Bangladesh face a stiff task to save the Test as they struggled to 67-2 in their second innings at stumps on the penultimate day in Chittagong while chasing an unlikely 415-run victory target.

Only four teams have chased more than 400 in the fourth innings to win a Test. Opener Tamim Iqbal was unbeaten on 23 at the close with Mohammad Ashraful on 16.

Indian paceman Zaheer Khan had Imrul Kayes caught behind in his second over before Ishant Sharma dismissed Shahriar Nafees (21), with stand-in captain Virender Sehwag taking a low catch at gully. Nafees failed to make the most of the chance he got on five when he was dropped by Venkatsai Laxman at second slip off Zaheer.

Left-handed opener Gambhir (116) earlier became the fourth batsman to smash a century in five successive Tests as India declared their second innings at 413-8 shortly after tea.

Australian Don Bradman holds the world record of making hundreds in six consecutive Tests.

South African Jacques Kallis and Pakistan’s Mohammad Yousuf are the others to have made centuries in five consecutive Tests.

“I never thought I would get five centuries,” said Gambhir.

“My job is to go out there and keep scoring runs for the team.

The most important thing for me is to give the team a good start.

“I think 415 is a very good target. The way we got two wickets in the second innings, I think it has set the game for us.

If we really bowl well tomorrow, we have a very good chance to win the Test.”

India added 291 to their overnight total of 122-1, with Gambhir, Laxman (69 not out) and nightwatchman Amit Mishra (50) the main contributors. Leftarm spinner Shakib Al Hasan finished with 7-174, the best by a Bangladeshi bowler against India in a Test. Gambhir completed his hundred in style, hoisting Shakib over long on for a six. He also hit 10 fours in his 129-ball knock.

His last four centuries came against New Zealand (at Napier and Wellington) and Sri Lanka (at Ahmedabad and Kanpur) in 2009. Gambhir fell cutting debutant seamer Shafiul Islam to Nafees at third man a few overs after reaching his ninth Test hundred in 28 matches.

India lost Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh in the afternoon session, but Laxman kept his end intact for more than two hours to boost his team’s total.

Tendulkar, who scored a century in the first innings, was trapped leg-before by seamer Rubel Hossain after making 16.

Yuvraj (25), who looked uncomfortable against shortpitched bowling on a few occasions, fell to a loose shot when he uppishly drove paceman Shahadat Hossain to Ashraful at short cover.

The morning session belonged to Gambhir and Mishra, who put on 98 for the second wicket. Mishra hit six fours in his maiden half-century.

Gambhir rarely looked in trouble against Bangladesh’s pace-spin combination, playing handsome strokes while adding 69 to his overnight score of 47. Bangladesh had a chance to dismiss Gambhir on 55 but Kayes dropped a sharp chance at forward short-leg off Shakib. — AFP

CLEVELAND: Toronto Raptors guard Jose Calderon (center) from Spain, tries to get past Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James (left) and Anderson Varejao, of Brazil, in the fourth quarter in an NBA basketball game. — AP

Cavaliers get past Raptors CLEVELAND: LeBron James just missed the triple double and Shaquille O’Neal reached another milestone as the Cleveland Cavaliers defeated Toronto 108-100 on Tuesday.

James finished with 28 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds for Cleveland who are beginning long spell of home games at Quicken Loans Arena.

Mo Williams added 22 points and 10 assists as the Cavaliers boosted their record to 15-3 at home this season.

Cleveland’s Shaquille O’Neal finished with 16 points and became the fifth player in National Basketball Association history to surpass 28,000 points in his career.

“There’s no layups when Shaq is covering the glass,” James said. “That’s what he’s about. He doesn’t care about putting guys on the floor.”

O’Neal reached the milestone with his opening basket in the first minute of the game.

He joined Kareem AbdulJabbar (38,387), Karl Malone (36,928), Michael Jordan (32,292) and Wilt Chamberlain (31,419) as the only players to reach the milestone.

O’Neal assisted on two crucial baskets down the stretch

NBA results/standings NBA results and standings on Tuesday. Cleveland 108, Toronto 100; Miami 113, Indiana 83.

Eastern Conference Western Conference Atlantic Division Northwest Division W L PCT GB Denver 26 14 .650 Boston 27 12 .692 Portland 25 17 .595 2 Toronto 21 21 .500 7.5 Oklahoma City 23 18 .561 3.5 NY Knicks 17 24 .415 11 Utah 23 18 .561 3.5 Philadelphia 13 27 .325 14.5 Minnesota 9 33 .214 18 New Jersey 3 37 .075 24.5 Cleveland Chicago Milwaukee Detroit Indiana

Central Division 32 11 .744 18 21 .462 16 23 .410 14 26 .350 14 27 .341

12 14 16.5 17

LA Lakers Phoenix LA Clippers Sacramento Golden State

Atlanta Orlando Miami Charlotte Washington

Southeast Division 26 14 .650 26 15 .634 21 19 .525 20 19 .513 14 26 .350

.5 5 5.5 12

Dallas San Antonio Houston Memphis New Orleans

and set the tone for Cleveland’s defence in the second half with hard fouls on Raptor Demar DeRozan and Jarrett Jack.

“I’m happy being No. 5.

There are some great names in front of me and some great names behind me,” O’Neal said.

“I’ve always been a player that

Pacific Division 32 9 24 18 18 22 15 25 12 27

.780 .571 .450 .375 .308

Southwest Division 27 14 .659 25 15 .625 23 18 .561 22 18 .550 21 19 .525

only gets happy about the big picture. It’s a great milestone but it’s something I don’t get too giddy about.”

Chris Bosh scored 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for Toronto but was held to just five points in the second half.

The Raptors were held

8.5 13.5 16.5 19 1.5 4 4.5 5.5

scoreless in the final 3:15 of the third quarter to fall behind 9183 heading into the final quarter. James hit two crucial free throws with 1:21 left in the fourth and Bosh committed a turnover with 24 seconds left which iced the game for Cleveland. — AFP

Moguls champions eye repeat show HONG KONG: Olympic moguls champions Dale Begg-Smith and Jennifer Heil will be looking to dazzle in Vancouver as they bid to defend their freestyle skiing titles with confidence sky-high.

The top draw in snowboarding is Shaun White, the reigning halfpipe gold medallist, highly fancied to add to his huge haul of trophies as he takes to the air in a routine of acrobatic jumps, twists and tricks.

Australia’s Begg-Smith, 25, who took gold in the men’s moguls in Turin in 2006, was on a hot streak earlier this month, winning three World Cup competitions in a row until his run was snapped but he still tops the overall moguls standings.

Steve Desovich, coach of the Canadian-born Begg-Smith, said his charge was “quite pleased” with his form in the run-up to Vancouver. “He’s feeling really good and he’s really peaking right in time for the Games, not that he will allow himself to think that way, because moguls is such a precarious event,” he told The Australian newspaper.

Canada’s Heil is also in top form heading into the Games, going one better than Begg-Smith and making it four World Cup wins on the trot to also top the overall standings in the moguls, in which competitors are required to perform two different jumps.

The 26-year-old is confident despite the inevitable pressure of defending her crown. “I dealt with a lot of pressure in 2006. But I’ve grown up a lot since then,” she said after her recent win in Calgary.

China are targeting two golds in freestyle.

Han Xiaopeng took gold last time around in the men’s aerials-in which competitors soar into the air, performing different jumps that combine back flips and twists-and three-time reigning world champion Li Nina took silver in the ladies’ event.

The freestyle programme is bolstered this year by the addition of ski cross which involves a timed qualification run before four skiers race down the course incorporating turns, flat sections and traverses as well as rolls, banks and ridges.

In snowboarding, there is no question that Shaun White will be the star attraction. White performs in the halfpipe, in which competitors perform their routine on the inside of a half-cylinder shaped snow tube or ramp.

The 23-year-old took gold in Turin in 2006, one of three snowboarding wins for the United States, matched by Switzerland, whose haul included the men’s and ladies’ parallel giant

slalom. But his task will be made a little easier by the absence of Kevin Pearce, one of the few riders to have beaten White in head-to-head competition. Pearce suffered a serious head injury in training this month.

In the ladies’ halfpipe American gold medallist Hannah Teter is expected to face competition from compatriot Gretchen Bleiler, who earned silver behind Teter in 2006.

Two-time world champion and two-time World Cup winner Lindsey Jacobellis is looking to add the elusive Olympic title to her medal collection in the snowboard cross, in which four racers bomb downhill over a series of jumps and ramps. — AFP

CANADA: Torchbearer Tyler MacRae snowboards down the halfpipe with the Olympic flame at Canada Olympic Park, site of the bobsled, luge, and ski jumping events during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics torch relay. — AP

SPORTS

Thursday, January 21, 2010

19

Arsenal top EPL table

EPL results/standings Arsenal 4 (Rosicky 43, Fabregas 52, Vermaelen 65, Arshavin 85) Bolton 2 (Cahill 7, Taylor 28-pen); Liverpool 2 (Kuyt 6, 90-pen) Tottenham 0.

Arsenal 4 English Premier League table after yesterday’s matches (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points): Arsenal 22 15 3 4 59 25 48

Bolton 2

BENGUELA: Egypt’s captain Ahmed Hassan (bottom right) loses the ball to Benin’s Felicien Singbo (right) and teammates during their African Cup of Nations Group C soccer match.—AP

Egypt cruise to record with victory over Benin BENGUELA: Six-time champions Egypt defeated Benin 2-0 yesterday to extend their unbeaten run in the Africa Cup of Nations to 15 games and qualify for the last eight.

The victory also meant that the Pharaohs finished top of Group C with a maximum nine points and will face the second-placed team in Group D in one of the quarter-finals on Monday. Nigeria qualified for the last eight as runners-up after beating Mozambique 30. Egypt are also on course for an unprecedented seventh Nations Cup title, while skipper Ahmed Hassan won his 169th cap against Benin to tie the Egyptian record for most international appearances.

Despite the scoreline, Egypt assistant coach, Shawki Gharib, insisted the winning margin should have been more decisive.

“We should have scored more goals, but it was also important that we won this game. We threw away several chances, but we also have to give some credit to the Benin goalkeeper, who pulled off several saves,” said Gharib.

“We are here to defend our crown as champions of Africa. All the games here are tough, but we are here to fight and in the end succeed. This is a feeling shared by the entire team.” Benin coach Michel Dessuyer said his team were unlucky in Angola but have learnt a few lessons and would continue to work hard. “We were unlucky not to make the impact we had hoped for here. We have taken some lessons from this experience and we will continue to work hard for us to do far better next time,” said the French coach.

Egypt, who rested key stars like Ahmed Fathi and

Wael Gomaa, took the lead after only seven minutes through an audacious effort by Ahmed AlMohammadi.

The highly-rated ENPPI defender swung a shot from about 40 metres which sailed over Benin goalkeeper Yoann Djidonou and into the top right corner of the net.

The defending champions doubled their advantage in the 23rd minute when the referee adjudged that Emad Motaeb bundled the ball over the goalline after Ahmed Raouf’s header from 12 yards out crashed against the post.

Egypt continued to cruise and would have increased their lead in the 27th minute but Raouf’s diving header from inside the 18-yard box flew straight at Djidonou for him to make an easy save.

On the resumption, Benin fought for an equaliser but it was Egypt who could have scored again in the 55th minute when Hassan’s long through ball set up Raouf, who darted into the box only for Djidonou to get his foot to the ball.

Motaeb was a constant danger and moments later, he again came close when Al-Mohammadi swung another cross into the Benin area, but his marker closed him down. In the 65th minute, substitute Mohammed Aoudou tested the reflexes of the durable Essam El-Hadary in goal for Egypt when he rose above the defence to power a free kick from the right flank only for the Ismailia goalkeeper to tip the ball away for a corner.

Omotoyossi would have reduced the deficit in the 70th minute but he flashed his angled shot from inside the box.—AFP

Preview

LONDON: Arsenal fought back from two goals down to go top of the Premier League with a controversial 4-2 win over Bolton at the Emirates Stadium yesterday.

Arsene Wenger’s title chasers were stunned when Gary Cahill put Bolton ahead before Matthew Taylor increased the visitors’ lead with a first-half penalty.

But Tomas Rosicky’s strike brought Arsenal back into the match and a piece of debatable refereeing from Alan Wiley allowed the Gunners to equalise through Cesc Fabregas.

Wiley waved play on despite William Gallas’s ugly stamp on Mark Davies and Arsenal, ignoring Bolton’s protests, took full advantage as Fabregas levelled.

Thomas Vermaelen’s goal completed Arsenal’s revival before Andrey Arshavin struck to send the north Londoners above previous leaders Chelsea on goals scored.

Chelsea have a game in hand on Arsenal, but Wenger’s men will fancy their chances of winning the title race if they continue to play with this kind of spirit.

With pole position up for grabs, Arsenal needed a repeat of the dominant display that saw them cruise to a 2-0 win at Bolton on Sunday. But the Gunners were caught cold in the seventh minute as woeful defending allowed Bolton to snatch a shock lead.

French left-back Gael Clichy started the comedy of errors when he miscued a clearance high into the air, then Vermaelen allowed Kevin Davies to out-jump him on the edge of the area and the rest of the Arsenal defence stood statuesque as Cahill pounced to drive the knock-down past Manuel Almunia.

Fabregas should have equalised moments later when Rosicky’s pass picked out the Arsenal captain but, with only Jussi Jaaskelainen to beat, he shot weakly at the Finn.

While Arsenal were beginning to carve open Bolton’s back four, their own defence still looked far from impregnable and it needed a fine stop from Almunia to keep out Taylor’s low free-kick.

Even the warning of that narrow escape went unheeded and the Gunners pressed the selfdestruct button again in the 28th minute.—AFP

LONDON: Arsenal’s Tomas Rosicky celebrates after scoring against Bolton Wanderers during their English Premiership soccer match.—AP

Chelsea

21 15

3 3 52 18 48

Man Utd

22 15

2 5 49 19 47

Tottenham

22 11

5 6 42 24 38

Man City

21 10

8 3 42 30 38

Liverpool

22 11

4 7 40 26 37

Aston Villa

21 10

6 5 29 18 36

Birmingham

21

9

6 6 21 19 33

Fulham

21

7

6 8 26 24 27

Everton

21

6

8 7 30 34 26

Stoke

21

6

7 8 19 26 25

Blackburn

22

6

6 10 23 39 24

Sunderland

21

6

5 10 30 38 23

Wigan

20

6

4 10 23 44 22

Burnley

21

5

5 11 22 43 20

West Ham

21

4

7 10 28 37 19

W’hampton

21

5

4 12 17 38 19

Hull

21

4

7 10 20 42 19

Bolton

20

4

6 10 28 42 18

Portsmouth

20

4

2 14 18 32 14

Nigeria reach last eight

Zambia play must win match BENGUELA: Zambia have to beat high-flying Gabon here today to reach the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals.

Zambia are bottom of Group D with a point from two matches, but victory at the Ombaka Stadium could well take them to their first last-eight spot since 1996.

“On Thursday we play against Gabon and we must win,” said Zambia midfielder Isaac Chansa, who added that the team were unlucky to lose 32 to Cameroon on Sunday in their second Group D match.

Chansa’s must-win declaration comes on the heels of a controvery stirred by coach Herve Renard back in Zambia, when he said that the team are not welcome in their country and that they are more at home when they play away from Zambia.

“Zambians are not proud of Zambia,” Renard said. He added: “When you are home, comments from Zambia are hard but from Europe and Africa they are happy. You have to be realistic and believe in yourselves because it is a long process building this team.”

Fans in Lubango cheered the team in their opening group match against Tunisia, which finished in a 1-1 draw. “You know why they supported us?” he asked. “It is because we played

Liverpool 2

Tottenham 0

Kuyt double downs Spurs BENGUELA: Gabon’s goalkeeper Didier Ovono catches the ball during their training at the Ombaka National Stadium ahead of their African Cup of Nations Group D soccer match against Zambia.—AP some very good football in the first 30 minutes.”

Gabon are the in-form team in having lost out to Cameroon for a place at the World Cup. They avenged their failure to reach South Africa in part when they beat Cameroon 1-0 in Lubango to get their Nations Cup campaign off to a fine start before they drew 0-0 with Tunisia.

As co-hosts of the next Nations Cup, Gabon are under pressure to post an impressive outing in Angola, and they have already proved that this is not a one-man band - Hull City’s Daniel Cousin and 10 others.

Midfielder Eric

Moutouloungui, who plays with Nice in France, has been full of running and enterprise and could have grabbed at least two goals against Tunisia on Sunday, while Ebang Ovono has looked safe and assured in goal.

“We must work hard to win this match,” Le Mans goalkeeper Ovono told AFP at the team’s Hotel Tropicana in Lobito, about 30 kilometres from Benguela.

“Zambia are a good team and they were unlucky to lose through a late goal to Cameroon.

We have to be at our best. “It’s equally important that we start preparing our team for the 2012 Nations Cup, which we will host with Equatorial Guinea.”— AFP

Eto’o backs Cameroon fighters LUBANGO: African superstar Samuel Eto’o is banking on fighting spirit driving Cameroon into the Cup of Nations quarterfinals today.

The ‘Indomitable Lions’ tackle fellow former champions Tunisia at the new 20,000-seat Tundavala Stadium in this southern Angola town and the stakes are sky high.

Victory for four-time title holders Cameroon over the ‘Carthage Eagles’ and they are definitely through to the lasteight phase of the biennial African football showcase.

A draw might suffice, depending on what happens between leaders Gabon and lowly Zambia at Ombaka Stadium in Benguela; a loss will condemn one of the pre-tournament title favourites to a humiliating early exit.

But three-time African Footballer of the Year and Inter Milan striker Eto’o says the thrilling come-from-behind 3-2 victory over Zambia last Sunday rekindled his pride in the national team.

“I was so proud to be Cameroonian that night, to be part of a team that displayed so much character and could rise to the occasion in the most difficult of situations,” said the ‘Lions’ captain. “It was a very difficult match for us with Zambia playing so well and defeat stared us in the face midway through the second half, but we fought on knowing the implications of not securing maximum points.”

The striker who succeeded long-serving defender Rigobert Song as skipper when French coach Paul Le Guen took control last August, played a central role

in the recovery by scoring the second goal with a trademark clinical finish.

And Eto’o, who helped Cameroon conquer Africa in 2000 and 2002, and is the leading all-time Cup of Nations scorer with 17 goals, has reason to be hopeful against a Tunisian side that must triumph to survive the group-phase cull. —AFP The countries have clashed Todayʼs matches on three times in the 53-year Africa TV (local timings)

African Nations Cup Gabon v Zambia 19:00 Al Jazeera Sport +9 Cameroon v Tunisia 19:00 Al Jazeera Sport 2

LIVERPOOL: Dirk Kuyt scored twice as Liverpool beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 at Anfield here yesterday to move within a point of fourth-placed Spurs in the English Premier League.

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez has come in for heavy criticism while the Reds’ Champions League hopes have suffered blow after blow and they went into this match with star players Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres missing because of injury.

But despite once again fielding a team that was far from full strength, they took the lead through Kuyt’s early strike.

The Dutchman added a second from the penalty spot in stoppage time to secure a significant victory that helped justify Benitez’s claim of “guaranteeing” a top four finish that would secure Champions League football next season.

Tottenham improved after the break but failed to end a miserable run of winless games away to ‘Big Four’ (Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool) opposition that has now reached 66 games.

Liverpool had a minor scare just five in as Pepe Reina took three attempts to gather a cross from Gareth Bale. But the goalkeeper came up with a long clearance that was flicked on by Kuyt to Alberto Aquilani.

The Italian just managed to tap the ball back to the Dutchman and Kuyt squeezed a shot past Heurelho Gomes into the corner to give the home side an ideal start.

Tottenham were struggling to put together any sustained spell of possession but Aquilani almost let them in. His loose pass flew straight to Bale and his swerving drive only just missed Reina’s goal.—AFP

LUBANGO: Nigeria’s John Obi Mikel (left) challenges Mozambique’s Simao in their African Cup of Nations Group C soccer match at Tundavala Stadium.—AP

Ten-goal thriller gets Villa to Wembley League Cup final BIRMINGHAM: Aston Villa booked their first Wembley final appearance in a decade after a 64 victory over Blackburn Rovers in the second leg of their League Cup semi-final here yesterday.

Victory at Villa Park saw Martin O’Neill’s men win the tie 7-4 on aggregate and they will now face either Manchester City or Manchester United in the final.

But his pre-match claim that this was the best Villa team their supporters had seen in 20 years looked hollow as a double from Nikola Kalinic put Rovers 2-0 up.

Villa endured a dreadful opening 25 minutes as they squandered the first leg advantage James Milner had given them in a 1-0 win at Ewood Park before the tie swung in their favour with the sending off of Rovers’ Christopher Samba five minutes before half-time.

Milner converted the penalty, which resulted from Samba’s foul in bringing down Gabriel Agbonlahor and added a second goal to cap a wonderful personal display which will only further enhance his England credentials as Villa moved within a match of winning their first trophy in 14 years.

But Blackburn continued to push Villa all the way, even a man down. After Kalinic’s double, Stephen Warnock converted at the far post, following Ashley Young’s cross, to put Villa back into the tie and make amends for his earlier error that gave Rovers such an emphatic start.

Warnock was at fault at the far post, failing to

challenge Croatia’s Kalinic for David Dunn’s corner under the crossbar and the Rovers striker’s header struck Warnock on the head before beating American goalkeeper Brad Guzan.

Villa were two down before the half hour mark when Kalinic started the move, which resulted in him tapping home the rebound after Martin Olsson’s header from Morten Gamst Pedersen’s cross had been half saved by Guzan.

Villa simply could not get to grips with Rovers’ five-man midfield, but that all changed when Samba was shown a straight red card for his trip on Agbonlahor as the pair chased Emile Heskey’s through ball.

Milner beat Paul Robinson from the spot before an own goal from Steven Nzonzi and further goals from Agbonlahor and Heskey left Villa with a seemingly comfortable lead.

At that point they could be forgiven for turning their thoughts to whether they played Manchester United or Manchester City, but at least Rovers demonstrated some character of their own to push Villa close.

Olsson produced a stunning volley from Gael Givet’s cross to reduce the deficit and when Brett Emerton’s volley from the edge of the area forced its way through a crowded penalty area, their were some nervous moments for Villa to endure.

But Ashley Young rounded off the evening with a wonderful solo effort, running from half way to beat Robinson with a curling shot.—AFP

LUBANGO: Russia-based Osaze Odemwingie scored just before and after half-time as Nigeria beat Mozambique 3-0 yesterday to reach the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals.

The midfielder from Lokomotiv Moscow was given time and space in the final minute of the opening half at Tundavala Stadium in this southern Angola town to rifle a low shot past goalkeeper Joao Rafael at his near post. And the veteran of four Nations Cup campaigns scored a far simpler goal two minutes into the second half as he tapped in a cross from captain Yakubu Aiyegbeni. A memorable match for Odemwingie was completed midway through the second half when Everton striker Yakubu was substituted by injury-troubled Obafemi Martins and the matchwinner became skipper of the ‘Super Eagles’.

Odenwingie said: “I’m happy for the team. We had a lot of pressure on us, but since the start of the competition we have made daily progress, from the goalkeepers to the strikers.”

Under-fire Nigeria coach Shuaibu Amodu added: “My job is to do a good CAN - I can’t avoid the critics. I’m happy that the boys were able to deliver the goods.

“As for our next rivals let me enjoy this victory today before speaking about Cameroon or any other team.” Mozambique coach Maart Nooij commented: “I can’t be disappointed, my players gave everything they had to give. We arrived here with our heads held high, and we’re leaving with our heads held high.”

Victory for Nigeria and an equally predictable 2-0 triumph for defending champions Egypt over Benin in Benguela at the same time brought a predictable climax to Group C of the biennial African football showcase. Egypt topped the table with nine points after comfortable victories over all three mini-league opponents as they seek a record third consecutive Nations Cup title having won at home in 2006 and in Ghana two years ago.

Nigeria recovered from a 3-1 opening-match loss to Egypt with wins over the minnows to collect six points while Benin and Mozambique brought up the rear with a solitary point each on the final standings.

Who the ‘Pharaohs’ and the ‘Super Eagles’ face in January 25 quarter-finals will be decided on Thursday when Gabon, Cameroon, Tunisia and Zambia fight to finish first and second in Group D. Egypt will face the pool runners-up at Ombaka Stadium in Benguela early next Monday with Nigeria remaining in Lubango to face the Group D winners later and surprise packets Gabon occupy top spot after two rounds.

Nigeria, needing a draw to clinch a last-eight place, looked the more threatening side in the opening half at a sparsely-populated 20,000-seat stadium and Chinedu Obasi missed a ‘sitter’ midway through. The Germanybased striker, a last-minute inclusion in the squad, headed at Rafael from a few metres when seemingly certain to break the deadlock in a match that seldom rose above the pedestrian.

Mozambique pushed the ball around impressively and Martinho ‘Paito’ Mucana stung the hands of Nigeria goalkeeper Victor Enyeama with a long-range effort that brought a good parried save. —AFP

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Henin and Clijsters march on

MELBOURNE: Justine Henin of Belgium reacts on her way to beating Elena Dementieva of Russia during the women’s single match at the Australian Open tennis championship. —AP

Li, Zheng shoulder Asian hopes MELBOURNE: Chinese stars Li Na and Zheng Jie were left to shoulder Asian hopes at the Australian Open yesterday after veterans Tamarine Tanasugarn and Kimiko Date-Krumm were bundled out.

It was familiar story with Li and Zheng routinely being the last left standing from a region that boasted 11 contenders on day one.

Li, Asia’s top player and seeded 16 after a stellar 2009, stormed into the second round with a 6-2, 6-0 romp over New Zealand’s Marina Erakovic, as she wrapped up a match postponed from Tuesday due to rain on the opening day.

Zheng, who made the fourth round last year, is deeper into the tourna-

ment after beating Spain’s 24th seed Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 for a third round berth.

It sets her up with a clash against 11th seeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli, a quarter-finalist last year, as Zheng seeks to match her exploits in 2009.

Since both players severed ties with China’s state sports system last year to manage their own careers and keep all of their prizemoney, Li has flourished more.

Moving up to 17 in the world and having made the fourth round at Roland Garros and her second Grand Slam quarter-final appearance at the US Open last year, she is now targetting the top 10.

“The goal for me this year is to break into the top 10. Yeah, that’s a good goal,” she said after her victory.

While Li and Zheng stayed alive, Tamarine was sent packing by comeback queen Kim Clijsters, but not before giving the Belgian a decent run for her money.

Clijsters went into the match as the overwhelming favourite against the experienced 32-year-old campaigner, but was made to work hard for over 90 minutes on the Rod Laver Arena before grinding out a 6-3, 6-3 win.

Tamarine had her chances and was kicking herself afterwards, saying she got herself into good positions by changing tactics, but couldn’t find the killer touch. —AFP

MELBOURNE: Justine Henin kept her fairytale comeback on track while it was business as usual for fellow Belgian Kim Clijsters on an intriguing third day of the Australian Open yesterday.

But while the two Belgians were recording victories in contrasting fashion at either end of the day, the Eastern European armada sailed on remorselessly.

Russians Dinara Safina, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Vera Zvonareva, Belarusian Victoria Azarenka and Serb Jelena Jankovic all recorded easy wins over outclassed opponents.

Fourth seed Caroline Wozniacki also got her campaign off to a positive start when she beat Canada’s Alexsandra Wozniak 6-4, 6-2 in a match held over from the previous day.

However, all the attention in Melbourne was on the second round classic between former champion Henin and world number five Dementieva, a match which lived up to all expectations when Henin beat the Russian 7-5, 7-6 (8/6).

Playing just her second tournament since returning from an 18-month retirement, Henin outlasted Dementieva in two hours, 50 minutes of pulsating tennis.

“It’s magical to win this kind of match in this kind of atmosphere, Henin said. “I’m concerned about tomorrow, when I’m going to wake up, how I’m going to feel.

“I said the other day I wasn’t feeling old, well I’ll see tomorrow morning.”

Both women played some spectacular attacking tennis over the two sets, with the quality of the match more suited to a final than the second round.

Either would have made a worthy winner, but Henin just managed to keep her composure on the big points to eke out the narrowest of victories.

Earlier, Clijsters put in a workmanlike performance to see off Thai veteran Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-3, 6-3, then said she planned to step up a gear.

Clijsters went into the match as the overwhelming favourite, but was made to work hard for over 90 minutes. “You know, I feel like I’m good enough on the day to beat my opponents,” she said.

The 26-year-old said she had always been able to time her run at tournaments, knowing when she needed to take her game to another level.

“Even last week in Brisbane was a good example,” Clijsters said. “You know, I won my matches not always convincingly, but good enough. “But when I had to play well against Justine (Henin in the final), I was able to really raise my level.”

Second seed Safina was another to impress as she dominated Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-4.

Safina, who finished runner up to Serena Williams here last year, looks to have recovered from a back injury she sustained late last year.

She made nine more unforced errors (40 to 31) than her 57th-ranked opponent in, but she could never be accused of playing conservatively as she also belted 31 winners to Zahlavova Strycova’s seven. Safina was satisfied with the win, but admitted there was plenty of room for improvement. —AFP

MELBOURNE: Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina celebrates after winning over James Blake of the US, during their men’s singles match at the Australian Open tennis championship. —AP

Del Potro wins marathon thriller MELBOURNE: US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro survived a desperate five-set dogfight to stay alive as Rafael Nadal stepped up his title defence at the Australian Open yesterday.

The Argentine fourth seed dodged a bullet when he scrambled past American James Blake in a four hour 17 minutes epic, 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 5-7, 6-3, 10-8 in a match that ebbed and flowed.

Earlier in the day, world number two Nadal declared himself back to full fitness as he steamed into the third round after a 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 rout of Slovak Republic’s Lukas Lacko.

Elsewhere on day three, Scotland’s Andy Murray notched another impressive performance with his second straight sets victory in as many matches, this time over Frenchman Marc Gicquel.

Seventh seed Andy Roddick clashed with the chair umpire after he coasted into the next round with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 win over Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci. Former finalist Fernando Gonzalez and French 12th seed Gael Monfils

were comfortable winners.

Del Potro, who dethroned Roger Federer in last September’s US Open final to claim his first Grand Slam title, needed all his fighting qualities to overcome the gallant 45th-ranked Blake.

Only five points separated the pair in Del Potro’s favour over the course of the gripping contest, 205 to 200. Del Potro will now face German Florian Mayer in the next round and is projected to face Roddick in the quarters.

Nadal battled knee problems for much of 2009 and there were question marks over his ability to win here, especially after being beaten

by Nikolay Davydenko in Doha in his first tournament of the year.

But there were no signs the Spaniard was hampered as he moved freely on the way to a dominant win over Lacko. “I am very good, I don’t have any problem,” Nadal said. “Sure, everybody can talk, but I am still working as much as I can to be in the top.

“There is lot of very good players, but I always do all in my power and nobody can ask me for more

than when I do all what I can do.”

Murray, who is charged with ending Britain’s 74-year Grand Slam drought in men’s tennis, disposed of 57th-ranked Gicquel in ruthless fashion, 6-1, 6-4, 6-3.

It followed the fifth seed’s easy win over South African qualifier Kevin Anderson on Monday, in which he dropped just four games.

Including his Hopman Cup preparation for the Australian Open, the 22-year-old has only dropped two sets in six singles matches in 2010. Roddick admitted he was wrong in his clash with the chair umpire over his ruling on a match point. The straight-shooting American finished his win over Bellucci by arguing with umpire Fergus Murphy over a Hawk Eye video review decision which went against him on the first of his two match points.

The video review ruled that a Bellucci volley had fractionally clipped the line saving the first match point, but Roddick contended that he wasn’t allowed to play the shot by an out-call from a line judge. —AFP

Oman Air launches full mobile, wi-fi aboard Airbus A330s

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DAMAC announces structural completion of Park Towers

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Germany announces 15% solar power subsidy cut

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Thursday, January 21, 2010

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Kuwait’s bullish strategy to beat slowdown Oxford Business Group launches The Report: Kuwait 2010

By Velina Nacheva KUWAIT: The measures taken by Kuwait’s government to mitigate the impact of the global economic slowdown are chartered in The Report: Kuwait 2010 which has been prepared by Oxford Business Group (OBG), a global publishing, research and consultancy firm. The report was launched at a press conference held in Courtyard Marriott Hotel yesterday.

Focusing on the highlights of the report, Oliver Cornock, OBG’s Regional Editor for the GCC, said, “the forward-thinking measures adopted by the government, coupled with Kuwait’s cushion of substantial energy reserves, meant the country was well placed to bounce back quickly from the economic downturn. “The indications are that Kuwait’s economy is in a healthy position,” he said. “As we begin to witness signs of economic recovery across the international business scene, I am confident that Kuwait will be at the forefront of the turnaround.”

In a summary introducing the report, Cornock said that Kuwait was “first and foremost far better placed than the majority of markets” at the onset of the economic slowdown. “Prudent use of the huge surpluses from oil meant that the government had huge savings which could be tapped into. The economy was never at the brink of, or even near, collapse. However, there were effects and the plummeting price of oil put the brakes on the stellar growth of recent years,” he said.

Weaknesses According to Cornock, the global credit crunch underlined some weaknesses in the Kuwaiti financial services sector. “Indeed, with one of the most sophisticated and integrated banking and investment sectors in the region, it was hardly surprising. However, the government acted quickly and injected billions to shore up the market and took steps to ensure that any further fallout was contained,” he said.

In his words, prior to the global financial crisis, the Kuwaiti economy was soaring on the back of these surging oil prices. Real GDP grew at an estimated 6.4 percent in 2008, reflecting higher oil produc-

ated,” he said. He further added, “That is not to say that with declining production from key fields the post-oil future shouldn’t be at the forefront of strategists’ minds. And with it widely accepted that the KIA - the world’s first sovereign wealth fund - made losses in line with other such funds around the world, minds might begin to turn toward reform.”

KUWAIT: (From left) Yasmeen Hamid Abdul Raheer, Head of Statistic and Information, Kuwait Foreign Investment Bureau, Faisal Hassan, Global Investment House, Oliver Cornock, OBG’s Regional Editor GCC, Manoj Kabra, Managing Partner, Moore Stephens Al-Nisf and Partners and Ahmed Barakat, Managing Partner Al-Sarraf and Al-Ruwayeh during the launch of The Report: Kuwait 2010 in Courtyard Marriott Hotel yesterday. —Photo by tion, up from 2.5 percent in 2007.

“As the world’s fourth-largest oil exporter, Kuwait benefitted handsomely,” he said. Taking the point further he stressed that “between 2002 and 2008, nominal GDP saw a compound annual growth rate of 22.8%. In 2007-08 the government ran a budget surplus for the eighth consecutive fiscal year, he said.

The 2008-09 fiscal year registered a budget surplus of KD2.74bn amounting to 6.9 percent of the country’s 2008 GDP, despite a large increase in spending, due mainly to the recapitalisation of a state pension fund equal to 10.5 percent of GDP, and lower oil revenues, he said.

Cornock then remarked that there was a “downside to so much economic growth.” He said, “Specifically, a bubble had formed in the country’s real estate sector and stock market. Rising per capita income and easy bank credit led consumers to borrow heavily to purchase property and securities, and authorities became worried about the rise in housing prices and credit growth.” He also explained that in early 2008 the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) intervened to try to slow bank lending and reduce the role of investors in residential real estate.

“These actions accomplished their intended effect, and the stock

market and housing sector began to cool. A rebound may have been around the corner when the global economic downturn hit, pushing prices down further,” he said.

Banks vulnerable In the summary, Cornock stressed that banks continue to remain vulnerable in that they have large exposures to asset markets and distressed investment companies. “Many have made significant provisions which have eaten into their bottom lines,” he said.

Notwithstanding, overall the sector remains robust, with solid capital adequacy ratios and stable sources of domestic funds, according to the

IMF’s 2009 Kuwait country report.

“Whilst last year didn’t see the bad news go away altogether - the repercussions of the Saad and AlGosaibi affair rumbled on with a number of institutions with exposure and making provisions - things certainly settled,” he said.

Cornock went on to add that “the government has sought to streamline its approach to the new financial environment with its new Financial Stability L aw, which would usher in reform and strengthen existing important and solvent companies in the form of loans. The government also wants to direct greater emphasis into productive economic activities.

Importantly the Central Bank also wants to strengthen risk management oversight of investment firms. However, the law met significant opposition at the parliamentary level, eventually being passed

by Amiri Decree.”

Cornock said that from the cancelled joint venture with Dow Chemicals to the now ubiquitous Project Kuwait, “parliamentary interference is now synonymous with the Kuwaiti economy.”

“However, this is not as bad as an outsider might initially imagine, with 90 percent of government revenue derived from oil, and another year of significant surplus on the cards, the pressure has been allevi-

Resilience Overall, the report emphasizes the resilience of the country in the face of the financial crisis and drop in oil prices from their peak in July 2008, including the fast and timely reaction of the government to inject funds into the economy, “which helped cushion the blow of the downturn”, OBG said in a press release.

The report includes a detailed, sector-by-sector guide for foreign investors, together with a wide range of viewpoints and interviews with the most prominent political, economic and business leaders, including HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

The report includes an in-depth analysis of the hydrocarbon industry and maps out the growth of the field. With a number of large-scale projects on the horizon, OBG’s new report explores the $84 billion investment plan for the industry, which will undoubtedly bring a confidence boost to the country. The report also provides an insight into the upstream and downstream projects earmarked for funding, exploring the plans in the pipeline for petrochemicals, transportation and a new refinery.

With alternative power sources high on the international agenda, the report examines the country’s plans to tap nuclear energy as a source of energy. It also dwells on the progress made following Kuwait’s move to import liquefied natural gas and the plans in place to build on this decision.

As the drive to diversify and reform Kuwait’s economy continues, OBG’s new report documents the expansion of the country’s nonoil sectors, which is expected to accelerate over the years. The report focuses on the significant growth, which is being witnessed in industry sectors such as manufacturing.

Dubai sets 2010 transport budget, no payment issues Infrastructure spending key to driving economy DUBAI: Dubai could spend about $3 billion in transport infrastructure projects in 2010 as it looks to stimulate the economy and has no issue paying its contractors, the chairman of the transport department said. The government has positioned its infrastructure development as central to its position as the Middle East’s commercial and tourism hub and continued to invest in it even as the economic crisis battered Dubai’s real estate market and sent tens of thousands of workers home.

“Investing in infrastructure is the driving force for the economy,” Mattar Al Tayyer, chairman of Dubai’s Roads & Transport Authority told a news conference yesterday.

“We have 10.5 billion dirhams budget for this year and we will spend more in the future,” he said, later adding that could rise to 10.7 billion dirhams.

Dubai sent shockwaves through global markets in November when it said it would request a standstill on billions of dollars of debts linked to the state-held holding firm Dubai World and its property units Limitless and Nakheel, developer of three palm-shaped islands. Costs on the Dubai metro rail project, which started operating in September, soared 80 percent to 28 billion dirhams, officials said in August.

Construction on the metro has been slowed as the Japanese leader of the consortium discusses cost increases due to design changes, a spokesman for general contractor Obayashi Corp said on Jan 7.

When asked whether Dubai could meet obligations to contractors and consultants on the project, Tayyer said “there is no issue.”

The other Japanese consortium members are general contractor Kajima Corp, Turkey’s Yapi Merkezi Insaat Ve Sanati AS, Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd and trading house Mitsubishi Corp. The full completion of the rail system was originally scheduled for this spring but is expected to be delayed until the end of the year. —Reuters

Arabtec wins Qatar, Nablus contracts worth $202m DUBAI: Dubai contractor Arabtec said yesterday it won contracts worth 740.7 million dirhams ($201.7 million) in Qatar and the West Bank, as it continues its overseas expansion to weather a downturn in its home market.

Arabtec, which earlier this month sold a 70 percent stake to Abu Dhabi’s Aabar Investments, said it won a 696 million dirham contract to build an office and hotel towers project in Doha, and a water loss reduction project worth 44.7 million dirhams in Nablus.

The Doha project will last 30 months to complete, and the Nablus project, its first in the West Bank, will take 20 months, Arabtec said in statements. “This is an important social project for helping the people of Nablus, and is part of our geographic expansion in the MENA region,” said Riad Kamal, Arabtec’s chief executive. The contract with Nablus Muncipality was signed by Arabtec and Al-Mukawilon Contracting Co in a joint venture, Arabtec said.

Arabtec has won a number of contracts in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar over the last few months to diversify its portfolio away from Dubai, where property prices

MADRID: People wait in line at a government employment office at Santa Eugenia’s Madrid suburb yesterday. The Spanish economy, the fifth largest in Europe, entered its first recession in 15 years at the end of 2008 as the global financial crisis hastened a correction that was already underway in its once-buoyant property sector. —AFP

US housing starts fall, producer prices rise WASHINGTON: New US housing starts unexpectedly fell in December, likely the result of unusually cold weather, while producer prices rose for a third straight month.

The Commerce Department said yesterday housing starts fell 4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 557,000 units, pulled down by a drop in groundbreaking activity for single-family dwellings. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected housing starts to rise to 580,000 units.

Building permits, however, soared in December. “At first glance housing starts were disappointing. But, they were offset by a huge jump in building permits. The data is suggestive of a continued gain in housing construction over the next several months,” said Michelle Meyer, economist at Barclays Capital in New York.

Meanwhile, US inflation pressures at the wholesale level eased in December as a drop in energy prices offset a big jump in food costs. The L abor Department said yesterday that whole-

Wholesale inflation edges up 0.2% sale prices edged up 0.2 percent last month, much slower than the 1.8 percent surge in November. Energy prices, which had been up for two months, fell in December.

The price performance at the wholesale level combined with last week’s benign reading on consumer prices supported the view that inflation is not a problem.

That gives the Federal Reserve room to keep interest rates low to boost the US out of a deep recession. Meanwhile, the Commerce Department reported that construction of new homes and apartments fell 4 percent in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 557,000 units as bad weather hit much of the country. But applications for new housing projects shot up 11 percent to an annual rate of 653,000, a better-than-expected performance indicating that builders are ready to ramp up production in 2010.

November’s housing starts were revised upwards to 580,000 units from the previously reported 574,000 units. A separate report from the L abor Department showed producer prices rose 0.2 percent last month as food prices surged, and recorded their largest year-on-year gain since October 2008.

US stock index futures held losses, while government bond prices were steady at higher prices. The US dollar was firmer against the euro.

Groundbreaking activity dropped a record 38.8 percent to an all-time low of 553,000 units for the whole of 2009.

Starts for single-family homes fell 6.9 percent last month to an annual rate of 456,000 units after rising 4.0 percent in November. Groundbreaking for the volatile multifamily segment rose 12.2 percent to a 101,000 unit annual pace, after surging 69.8 percent in November.

Housing is on the mend after a three-

year slump and new home construction contributed to economic growth in the third quarter of 2009 for the first time since 2005. However data such as pending home sales and homebuilder sentiment have hinted at potential weakness in a sector whose collapse triggered the most brutal US recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Even though producer prices rose for a third straight month, inflation pressures remain tame.

Muted inflation pressures and the unsettled housing market should allow the Federal Reserve to honor its pledge to keep overnight lending low for “an extended period.” Officials next meet on Jan. 26-27 to deliberate on monetary policy. New building permits, which give a sense of future home construction, rose 10.9 percent to 653,000 units last month, the highest since October 2008.

That compared to analysts’ forecasts for 590,000 units. For the whole of 2009, permits dropped 36.9 percent, the department said. —Reuters

BUSINESS

22

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Mastercard index shows positive outlook post crisis

UAE consumers optimistic, confidence up 187% in H1

Oman Air launches full mobile phone, wi-fi connectivity aboard Airbus A330s MUSCAT: Oman Air, the national carrier of the Sultanate of Oman, becomes the first airline in the world to offer the full connectivity suite (Mobile OnAir and Internet OnAir) on its commercial widebody aircraft when it starts to unroll full mobile phone and wi-fi connectivity across its brand new Airbus A330 fleet by the middle of February.

The move will give passengers in First, Business and Economy classes the opportunity to make and receive mobile phone calls, SMS, use email and the internet and keep up to date with social networking media, such as Facebook and Twitter.

Launching the new service, Oman Air’s Chief Executive Officer, Peter Hill, says: “We are delighted to be leading the field by bringing the digital age to in-flight passenger communications.

From mid-February we will be unrolling full connectivity across our Airbus A330 fleet, completing the task in the summer. This great new service will enrich the passenger experience and complement the stunning new interiors we are offering in all three classes of travel.

“For many travellers, the ability to communicate via phone, SMS, email or internet is a vital part of everyday life and staying in contact with friends, family or colleagues will constitute huge benefits for Oman Air’s customers. People are increasingly expecting internet and mobile connectivity “anywhere, anytime” and what better place is there than on an Oman Air A330, when you have a few quiet hours to catch up on your email, browse the internet or return that quick phone call.”

Availability of the service will be controlled by the crew to ensure a minimum of disturbance to passengers during, for example, the quietest periods of overnight flights.

Oman Air’s A330 fleet has been fitted with the Airbus ALNA V2 system, using Honeywell’s SwiftBroadband (SBB) solution. This supports both mobile phone and internet in-flight communication, ensuring that whatever devices passengers choose to use, they will receive a swift and effective service.

Peter Hill continues: “In today’s wired world, the distinction between phones and computers has been greyed and many devices perform more than one function. iPhones, Blackberries and a host of other devices require both phone and internet connectivity and our SBB platform offers just that. Oman Air’s new A330s have already been described by independent commentators as the most highly connected commercial widebody currently flying and we will continue to seek out new opportunities to offer our customers the very latest technology.”

Oman Air’s SBB connectivity follows the introduction to its A330 fleet of new in-flight entertainment (IFE) systems which offer four channels of live TV, as well as audio video on demand, iPod connection and USB ports for different usage. The IFE systems are installed within superb new First, Business and Economy class cabins, each of which offers new levels of comfort, space and luxury.

With six mini-suites - each offering a lie-flat bed, a 23-inch monitor and direct aisle access together with an elegant and relaxing lounge area,

Oman Air’s First Class experience evokes that of exclusive private jet travel. Oman Air’s Business Class cabin offers 20 seats, each with aisle access, a lie-flat bed and a 17-inch screen, whilst Economy Class seats offer fully adjustable head and leg rests, surprising amounts of leg and elbow room and individual, seatback-mounted video monitors.

In addition, delicious new menus have been created and stylish new Balenciaga-designed staff uniforms have been introduced.

Peter Hill concludes: “The introduction of our new in-flight connectivity service is the latest step in a transformation of Oman Air that has recently seen us introduce new aircraft, new interiors, new in-flight service and facilities, new routes and a new three-class service between Muscat and London Heathrow. We have now become a significant international player with a growing fleet of state-of-the-art aircraft and a growing network of exciting routes and destinations. We look forward to continuing our transformation, offering all our passengers the very best products, service and value as well as being the airline of choice for travellers to Oman, the Middle East and beyond.”

DUBAI: UAE consumers are more optimistic for the first half of 2010 compared to the latter half of last year, registering the highest increase in consumer confidence in the Middle East region, a survey showed yesterday. Consumer confidence in the United Arab Emirates took a leap of around 187 percent, rising to 86 from 30 on an index published by MasterCard Worldwide. The Gulf Arab state’s consumers are optimistic towards the first half period versus a pessimistic viewpoint in the second half of 2009.

The survey was conducted before state-owned conglomerate Dubai World shook world markets and investor confidence after requesting a debt standstill on its $26 billion of debt. The index measures consumer sentiment on five economic indicators; economy, employment, stock market, regular income and quality of life, and surveys 2,400 people in each country. Most people surveyed in the UAE were optimistic about stock markets, with confidence reaching 89.6 from 31.3.

Benchmarks in Dubai and Abu Dhabi are the worst performing markets in the Gulf Arab region this year, down 8 percent and 3.2 percent respectively. Confidence for the Middle East region was also up by 50 percent in the same period, jumping to a 75 optimistic sentiment from a 50 neutral.

Other regional countries surveyed included Egypt, Kuwait, Qatar, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia. Consumers in Qatar, the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, had the highest confidence levels, reaching 89, up from 71 for the second half of 2009. —Reuters

KUWAIT: Indian ambassador Ajai Malhotra and wife Ira Malhotra visit the sweet section of the Lulu Hypermarket yesterday. —Photos by Joseph Shagra

8-day ‘Incredible India Fest 2010’ kicks off Lulu Hypermarket sets precedent KUWAIT: In connection with the Indian Republic Day celebrations, Lulu Hypermarket commenced an eight-day event showcasing products from different parts of India, titled ‘Incredible India. Indian ambassador Ajai Malhothra inaugurated the celebrations yesterday.

“Ahlan wa sahlan to Incredible India,” said the ambassador, inaugurating the festival. “I am delighted to promote the well-known ‘Incredible India!’ campaign and cooperate with Lulu Hypermarket as it organizes a week-long “Incredible India 2010” show from January 20-27, 2010,” he said.

With an enormously rich culture, India is a land of jungles and deserts, of rugged mountain landscapes and broad rivers, a land where the modern and traditional blend seamlessly. It will fascinate you with its diversity, its vibrant fairs and festivals, its colors, scents, styles, customs, languages, and architecture, he said.

“I hope this week-long exposure will also encourage you to visit India and see its legendary palaces, forts, and architectural masterpieces, stay in its fine heritage hotels, energize yourself with yoga and rejuvenate yourself with ayurvedic treatments, laze on its beautiful beaches or go on yachting, gliding, or other adventure holidays,” he said.

In the spirit of the “India Tourism Road

Show” held in Kuwait in October 2009 and the “Festival of India in Kuwait” organized in November 2009, the week-long show inaugurated will provide another exposure to India’s rich cultural heritage. This time a number of Kuwait-based Indian artistes will bring you performances of Indian classical dances like Kuchipudi, Kathak, Bharatanatyam, Manipuri and Mohiniyattom, folk dances like Oppanna, Dandiya, Bhangra, besides flute, santoor, and tabla recitals.

There will be a fashion show by children in traditional Indian outfits, besides an exhibition of paintings by Nalini Mohan, an Indian artist based in Kuwait. You can also obtain information on tourist destinations across India from the India Tourist Office counter that has been set up. “Indian Heritage”, an outlet in Kuwait for Indian textiles and other goods, has set up an “Indian Corner”. You can also get a very wide range of quality Indian food and other products while viewing special displays on India that have set up inside the Hypermarket.

“I would like to appreciate the laudable effort made by the organizers and participants. I am sure you will enjoy “Incredible India 2010” and hope it will whet your appetite to visit India, which welcomes you with open arms. I declare open “Incredible India 2010,” he said.

Dubai Group may sell its 41% stake in ONIC DUBAI: Dubai Group, owned by the Gulf emirate’s ruler, may sell its 41 percent stake in Oman National Investment Corp, three sources familiar with the matter said, as Dubai seeks to address mounting debt issues. Dubai has been at the centre of a debt storm since flagship conglomerate Dubai World rocked global markets on Nov 25 with a request to creditors for a standstill agreement on $26 billion worth of debt.

Dubai Group, an investment vehicle whose parent company Dubai Holding is undergoing a transformation to help it weather the crisis. —Reuters

EXCHANGE RATES Commercial Bank of Kuwait US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian Dollar Australian DLR Indian rupees Sri Lanka Rupee UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi riyals Omani riyals Philippine peso Egyptian pounds US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian dollars Danish Kroner Swedish Kroner Australian dlr Hong Kong dlr Singapore dlr Japanese yen Indian Rs/KD Sri Lanka rupee Pakistan rupee Bangladesh taka UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi Riyal/KD Omani riyals Philippine Peso US Dollar Sterling pounds Swiss Francs Saudi Riyals

.2830000 .4660000 .4090000 .2760000 .2760000 .2610000 .0045000 .0020000 .0775570 .7556190 .4020000 .0750000 .7407520 .0045000 .0500000 CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES .2857000 .4686710 .4112230 .2788670 .2782420 .0552610 .0406890 .2638600 .0367920 .2058450 .0031600 .0063130 .0025060 .0034210 .0041860 .0778240 .7582150 .4040620 .0762260 .7424560 .0063060 TRANSFER CHEQUES RATES .2878000 .4719820 .2808430 .0767120

.2910000 .4760000 .4170000 .2850000 .2840000 .2700000 .0075000 .0035000 .0783370 .7632140 .4180000 .0790000 .7481970 .0072000 .0570000 .2878000 .4719820 .4141280 .2808430 .2802140 .0556520 .0409780 .2657240 .0370520 .2073030 .0031820 .0063580 .0025240 .0034450 .0042150 .0783210 .7630520 .4069240 .0767120 .7471920 .0063510

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co. EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 287.000 Euro 414.600

Sterling Pound Canadian dollar Turkish lire Swiss Franc Australian dollar US Dollar Buying Japanese Yen Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar Bangladesh Taka Philippine Peso Thai Baht Irani Riyal - Transfer Irani Riyal - Cash Egyptian Pound - Cash Egyptian Pound Yemen Riyal Tunisian Dinar Jordanian Dinar Lebanese Lira Syrian Lier Morocco Dirham Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham 20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

473.000 285.600 198.310 281.700 265.100 285.000 ASIAN COUNTRIES 3.189 6.284 3.394 2.509 3.942 207.400 36.980 4.152 6.252 8.744 0.301 0.292 ARAB COUNTRIES 55.250 52.963 1.379 219.920 405.500 193.920 6.325 37.080 GCC COUNTRIES 76.574 78.890 745.940 762.600 78.202 GOLD 222.000 115.000 59.000

Euro Cash Hongkong dollar Indian rupees Indonesia Iranian tuman Iraqi dinar Japanese yen Jordanian dinar Lebanese pound Malaysian ringgit Morocco dirham Nepalese Rupees New Zealand dollar Nigeria Norwegian krone Omani Riyal Pakistani rupees Philippine peso Qatari riyal Saudi riyal Singapore dollar South Africa Sri Lankan rupees Sterling pound Swedish krona Swiss franc Syrian pound Thai bhat Tunisian dollar UAE dirham U.S. dollars Yemeni Riyal 10 Tola Sterling Pound US Dollar

SELL CASH 267.400 764.410 4.550 281.500 693.800 15.800 56.500 167.800 55.550

411.300 37.620 6.265

406.300 0.193 87.900 3.940 212.000 746.490 3.415 6.260 79.070 76.750 207.750 41.170 2.507 473.000 282.200 8.930 78.300 286.900

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd

Bahrain Exchange Company COUNTRY Australian dollar Bahraini dinar Bangladeshi taka Canadian dollar Cyprus pound Czek koruna Danish krone Deutsche Mark Egyptian pound

412.800 37.770 6.620 0.035 0.280 0.251 3.280 407.890 0.194 87.900 39.000 4.240 213.500 2.183 51.400 746.670 3.490 6.450 79.500 76.750 207.750 41.170 2.757 475.000 41.600 283.700 6.400 9.070 222.000 78.300 287.300 1.420 GOLD 1,224.420 TRAVELLER’S CHEQUE 471.100 287.400

SELL DRAFT 265.900 764.410 4.163 280.000

207.800 53.027

US Dollar Canadian Dollar Sterling Pound Euro Swiss Frank Cyprus Pound Bahrain Dinar UAE Dirhams Qatari Riyals Saudi Riyals Jordanian Dinar Egyptian Pound Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees

287.350 279.710 470.710 410.330 276.450 704.305 761.985 78.215 78.860 76.655 405.486 52.980 6.265 3.400

Sri Lankan Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Japanese Yen Thai Bhat Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees

2.515 4.170 6.255 3.185 8.725 5.540 3.950

Kuwait Bahrain Intl Exchange Co. Currency

Rate per 1000 (Tran)

US Dollar Pak Rupees Indian Rupees Sri Lankan Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso UAE Dirhams Saudi Riyals Bahraini Dinars Egyptian Pounds Pound Sterling Indonesian Rupiah Yemeni Riyal Jordanian Dinars Syrian Pounds Euro Candaian Dollars

286.900 3.415 6.290 2.515 4.160 6.285 78.164 76.640 763.000 52.935 473.600 0.0000306 1.550 407.700 5.750 418.300 286.500

Al Mulla Exchange Currency

Transfer rate

US Dollar Euro Pound Sterling Canadian Dollar Japanese Yen Indian Rupee Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupee Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso Pakistan Rupee Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham Saudi Riyal *Rates are subject to change

287.000 410.850 470.500 279.400 3.170 6.265 53.000 2.509 4.154 6.268 3.405 763.600 78.000 76.550

BUSINESS

Thursday, January 21, 2010

23

GCC banks among the top performers in 2009 Recession impact in region limited • Overall crisis effect appears to be fading

Mahmoud Alradwan wins NBK’s top Al-Jawhara prize KD 125,000 KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK), the leading bank in Kuwait and the highest rated bank in the ME recently announced the names of the Al-Jawhara Draw prize winners for the month of January 2010 which was conducted at NBK’s Head Office.

The first prize of KD 125,000 was awarded to Mahmoud Ahmad Issa Alradwan, while the second place winner Jolie George Abdulmasih received KD 7,500. The third place winner Amna Shafi Nadeem Shafi was awarded KD 3,000 while the remaining 97 winners were awarded KD 400 each.

Al-Jawhara’s grand prize winner, Mahmoud Alradwan visited NBK’s Ardiya Branch, where he has been a loyal customer for many years, as soon as he received the unexpected and welcome news from an NBK representative that he had won Al-Jawhara’s top prize. Al Radwan stated that he has been banking with NBK for many years and is a proud customer due to the quality Sr.# 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100

Cert. No. 048132705 060122188 021417296 028071875 000961434 016444701 045149364 038110148 004950658 054071054 073021083 108156016 059075503 028215656 104656011 002125420 055023665 102543009 047272422 059101717 051005336 024103020 002921421 036068160 009389520 001470426 109580001 077016610 054044278 001414275 047231548 031057446 039539644 001258486 047381957 009160183 055013260 047216395 014301148 019159439 033102481 007535287 018160344 039615286 015395030 039507904 039550338 009339078 047351497 032728425 039036626 013171607 062022555 061002119 100069077 051152274 023166274 057018553 039563669 036055468 023221968 057049084 013438611 072016698 039574903 003095843 018345212 054127246 011009527 000946214 000225517 047375086 015306232 012231045 008097763 065004078 039180883 057031061 109835023 078000823 051048442 039475166 100004047 004237994 054082676 008979154 051162296 018291694 009342052 048183350 009989927 014036312 117409047 009970509 004236742 032112793 016426800 028194462 047398248 002927357

and service excellence he has received from NBK. Al-Jawhara account offers numerous benefits to NBK customers. It is not only an interest-free account with regular deposit and withdrawal privileges, but also automatically entitles account holders to enter the monthly AlJawhara draw. Each KD 50 in an Al-Jawhara account entitles the customer to one chance at winning any one of the one-hundred prizes allocated for each draw. All prizes are automatically credited to the winners’ accounts the day after the draw. The more money held in your AlJawhara account, the greater your chances of winning!

Al-Jawhara accounts are available for both Kuwaitis and non-Kuwaitis and can be opened at any one of NBK’s branches around Kuwait. For further information kindly visit www.nbk.com, or call Hala Watani at 1801801. Al Jawhara Winners January 2010

Name Of Customer Mahmoud Ahmad Issa Alradwan Minor Jolie George Abdulmasih Minor Amna Shafi Nadeem Shafi Min Hamed Husain A Rasoul Qasem Sana Alauldeen Tawfeq Jouma Masoumah Al Sayed Abbas Alqumi Maryam Abdulla Rahmani Mohammad Mahmoud Naser Ammar Aboud Abdulaziz Almansour Ajesh Chadha Mukesh Chadha Said Elsayed Mohammed Khafaga Minor Saoud Tareq Al Hmoud Ahmad Jamal Mohamad Jamal Abdulmohsin Abbas Sayed Talib Mostafawi Amal Fahad Khalil Al Qattan Mohamed Abdulaziz Alosh Musaed Ibarhim Yaqoub Alhajeri Mohammed Yousef Khaled Aladsani Dana Abdulrahman Mohammed Elhaj Abdulla Akbar Hassan Akbar Sakiena Ahmed Hasan Alsaraf Sammer Sammy Bushacra Fahad Sulaiman Khaleefah Murad Ahmad Mohd Obid Alshemeri Meshari Salah Mohamad Alkulaib Mustafa Akber Ali Bhinderwala Abdulaziz Kefah Faisal Alnema Mohammed Fawaz Alebrahim Ganeema Fowzi Mohamed Alkharafi Abdulkabir Puthiya Pattillath Hmoud Bader Maki Almatrouk Fahed Abdelrahman Ali Alkhamiri Amal Yousef Rashed Alqallaf Khaled Fuad Abdulhusain Hasan Minor Ghassan Mikail Shaikha Ahmed Faisal Althuwaini Rudayna Khalid Rashed Almulla Rabeah Abdulrasoul Haji Shehab Hanadi Jumah Soud Buarki Bader Othman Saleh Malallah Magdy Hezkyal Yanni Gohbryal Fahed Semayer Meshkhes Almutiri Manal Abas Ali Husain Almohd Ali Addis Dilnessa Workineh Minor Abdulaziz Nawaf Flayeh Alshemri Khaled Yousef Ayesh Zainah Elham Abdulrazaq Najem Alarooj Mohammad Jaser Abdualmohsen Alshemeri Aisha Awad Soud Albalhti Ersheed Mohd Abdula Alhajri Ibrahim Alsayed Abbas Alsayed Yousif Yousef Shehab Ahmad Hajji Mahdi Hayam Abdullhussain Jaber Abas Mohammed Ali Mohammad Shamsah Ame Abdulwahab Abdelaleem Mohammed Jarah Ahmad Husain Alkhzaiel Dalal Ibrahim Mohd Alterkat Hissham Naser Yousef Al Abduljaleel Yousef Yagoub Khaled Yousef Sumayah Hamadi Mejjali Nayef Mohammed Jaber Al Neamah Alia Mubarak Abdulaziz Al Hasawi Ian Thomas Raynor Abdulla Abdulmohsen Ajeel Aldhaher Abdallah Muhammad Husayn Alghamidi Abbas Salim Mohammed Al Shatti Kawthar Naser Abdulredha Marafi Sayeda Najafi Sayed Hussain Hussaini Habib Suliman Ali Al Qattan Hania Saleh Hamad Althkeer Henry Rodriguez Jr Minor Tharaa Firas Duaij Aloan Ihsan Yousef Elkara Suad Mohammed Rafie Marafie Eidh Maloah Nahar Alshamari Adnan Mohieddin Alkorky Hozaifah Essa Abdulla Nakhi Hessa Ali Abdullah Alnasib Minor Noor Alzahra Ali Abbas Shhaimi Mutlaq Obeid Mutlaq Al Sanea Fatmah Seheel Najem Alshemmeri Hoda Halem Bekhaazi Minor Farah Samir Al Najdi Badie Asperedon Hadad Plamen Petrov Enayah Beweash Farhan Alsaedi Muhana Abdulhameed Mohd Almuhana Manal Sadeq Mohd Alqalaf Faria Khalefa Abdulla Alwqaian Jamaan Dawood Jamaan Nadia Abdulla Abdul Aziz Al Humaidi Eman Ibrahim Yousef Alabdulrazaq Nuha Ahmad Hussein Al Madah Ebtehal Mohammed Rodhan Omar Abdulla Sayed Mohd Alsayed Omar Abeer Hamad Mownes Almownas Latifa Mutlaq Edbian Alzabi Afnan Abass Sayed Taleb Mastafwi Mahmoud Mohammad Fahmi Ahmad Maneef Mohamed Hadid Alshamri

Prize 125000 7500 3000 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400

KUWAIT: In its latest GCC brief, NBK reports, more than a year has passed since the global crisis imposed its toll on GCC banks.

With the worst of the global crisis now believed to be behind us, the risks facing most regional banks are ebbing, and we expect a gradual turnaround in banks’ attitude and activity.

Despite the strong link and integration with global financial markets, the strong capitalization and financial strength of regional banks, along with generous government support enabled banks to ride out these difficult times at a relatively low cost, and demonstrated their resilience and ability to weather sudden and dramatic shifts in their business environment.

Undoubtedly, the full impact of the crisis on banks varies from one bank to another, yet there has been a common reaction and response by regional banks to the new banking reality: a conservative lending approach, more dependence on government deposits, higher provisioning, cost cutting, and delays of expansion plans.

At the outset, the global crisis led to an exit of foreign liquidity which in turn raised funding costs. Later, the ensuing high uncertainty, slower economic activity and correction in real estate and stock markets, globally and regionally, led to deterioration in banks’ portfolios.

Fortunately, there has been no single collapse of any regional bank for a number of reasons including official support and adequate supervision, limited exposure to toxic assets and government readiness to bailout banks facing systemic or even idiosyncratic risks. The soundness and overall strong position of GCC banks can easily be inferred from the strong ratings most banks received from international rating agencies.

Performance However, banks’ buoyant performance of previous years obviously reached a turning point, and some key performance indicators were negatively affected. For example, preliminary data show a drop in profits of GCC banks during the first nine months of 2009 by 16.3% relative to the same 2008 period. The declines range between 5.5% for Qatari banks to 66% for Kuwaiti banks. Banks in Saudi Arabia reported a single digit drop in their profits (5.8%), while UAE and Oman banks saw a bigger fall at 14.9% and 14.6%, respectively. On the other hand, Bahrain was the only country to see an increase in its banks profits (+368%).

This is attributed mainly to the fact that the “Arab Banking Corporation” of Bahrain recorded $80 million in net profits in the first nine months of 2009 compared to $852 million losses recorded in the same 2008 period.

Part of this variance in performance reflects differences in approaches to impairment loans and investments. For example, in Kuwait, the sharp drop in profits is attributed mainly to over provisioning mandated by the central bank. Besides lower profits, banks also saw softer intermediation activity, weak growth in assets and squeezed margins, in addition to changes in balance sheet structures.

NBK GCC ECONOMIC BRIEF

The driving factors included slower economic growth; specific problems encountered by key borrowing sectors such as investment companies, real estate developers, and equity investors, in addition to the drop in interest rates and increased reliance on official sources of funding. A number of GCC banks were also negatively affected by two regional events that took place in 2009, specifically debt repayment problems at the Saad/AlGosaibi conglomerates and Dubai World. Despite the lack of adequate transparency, however, it is widely believed that overall exposure of regional banks to these two events is limited. Estimates suggest that exposure of Saudi Arabia banks to Saad/AlGosaibi is close to $5 billion, or 2.5% of their total credit to private sector as of August, 2009. The Central Bank of the UAE announced last November that 13 UAE banks (plus 7 foreign banks operating in the UAE) have total exposure to Saad & Gosaibi worth $2.9 billion.

Other GCC countries have exposures to this group that range between $192 million in Oman to $1.3 billion in Kuwait.

With respect to Dubai World, banks in 3 GCC countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman) have a total exposure of less than $0.5 billion.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia announced a limited exposure without giving numbers. On the other hand, exposure of UAE banks is expected to be the largest, though no official numbers have been released.

Overall, 2009 witnessed the emergence of a new operating environment that is set to pressure banks’ performance over the medium term, force a change in their business models, and heighten their focus on risk management as well as risk aversion to levels not seen before. In addition, central banks are enhancing their supervision and adopting tighter regulatory standards.

On the other hand, Gulf banks are set to benefit from an improvement in the economic and business environment as well as continued government support. With clean balance

sheets and higher provisions already in place, the anticipated performance and indicators of GCC banks in 2010 and over the medium term are expected to improve relative to 2009, though more barriers and risks are expected on the road to recovery. While profits are expected to show solid growth, albeit at a slower pace than that seen in prior years, they will nonetheless be affected by the relative squeeze on margins. Our forecasts are based upon the reasonably solid economic outlook for the region, developments that have taken place in GCC banks’ balance sheets and financial indicators since the onset of the crisis, and the demonstrated strong commitments of Gulf governments to support their respective domestic banks.

Slowdown in credit growth and funding constraints result in sluggish growth in balance sheets The repercussions of the global financial crisis on regional banks were felt directly in the developments of the balance sheets. After growing at an annual average rate in excess of 25% over the period 2003-2008, GCC banks saw their assets grow at the lowest rates in years. As of August 2009, these assets stood at $ 1.1 trillion, 1.4% higher than their level at end 2008 and 4.2% up y/y. The slowdown in credit growth and limited funding are to blame for this deceleration.

Country-wise, we see an increase in bank assets in all Gulf countries, except in Kuwait and Bahrain, where assets fell by 6.3% and 4.9%, respectively. In Kuwait, however, this drop in assets was purely the result of the Kuwaiti dinar depreciation against the US dollar during this period that amounted to 7%.

Kuwait is the only GCC country that pegs its currency to a basket of major currencies dominated by the dollar, while other members of the group peg their currencies to the US dollar.

In local currency terms, the assets of Kuwaiti banks were actually up by 0.7% y/y. On the other hand, Qatari banks recorded the highest

expansion in assets (+12%) followed by Omani banks (+9%). More recent data published by Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait (November 2009) show much stronger growth in bank assets from their August levels. In 2010, we expect growth in total assets close to 10%, especially with the anticipated resumption of credit growth at stronger pace than in 2009 as the local economies benefit from the continued expansion in government spending, in addition to the expected rise in banks’ foreign assets.

Banking activities Credit, especially to the private sector, is the largest component of assets, and a prime source of interest revenues. As of August 2009, data show credit to the private sector accounting for almost half of Gulf banks’ combined assets, up from 40% in 2002. The ratio ranges between 28% in Bahrain, to 63% in Kuwait and 66% in Oman. Furthermore, credit growth has been responsible for slightly more than 50% of the expansion in assets over the last five years, and for two thirds since the start of 2009.

In light of the economic difficulties facing the private sector across the region since late 2008, and the associated escalation in uncertainty, banks justifiably reacted by adopting a more conservative lending approach. Their main focus shifted from maximizing profits to saving their financial health and to maintaining ample precautionary liquidity cushions. This resulted in a significant deceleration in the growth of credit to the private sector. By endAugust 2009, outstanding credit facilities extended to the private sector across the six Gulf countries were only 1.9% higher than at end-December 2008.

On a year-on-year basis, the expansion in credit was also modest at 3.8%. These ratios are way below their levels of previous years, when credit growth averaged 30% per annum over the period 2003-2008, up from an average of10% in the four years prior to the start of the recent oil boom. It is worth noting that credit growth was expected to slow down even before the onset of the global crisis as a result of measures adopted by various central banks since late 2007 to curb rising inflationary pressures. For the second half of 2009, however, anecdotal evidence suggests that demand for credit had picked up, but there is the issue of quality of demand. Under such circumstances, banks are expected to target a higher quality of borrowers across the board. With the end of 2009, we expect growth in credit to the private sector to rise from 4.5% in 2009 to 8% in 2010, and 10% per annum over the years 2011 and 2012.

By way of summary, and despite their strong integration with global financial markets, the overall impact of the global crisis on GCC banks has been relatively limited and appears to be fading. And though some risk may remain for individual banks, banks, as a sector, are expected to record a solid performance this year and over the medium term.

(To be concluded)

DAMAC announces structural completion of Park Towers DUBAI: DAMAC Properties has announced the structural completion of its 8th project over the last one year with the final concrete pour on its Park Towers project at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). The unique 46-floor dualtower development, designed by Gensler, is due to be handed over later this year and will be one of the most iconic projects in the DIFC neighborhood. The Park Towers project is being constructed by Sharpoorji Pallonji.

DAMAC Properties has also announced that it has handed over new construction contracts for developments in Business Bay, Reem Island and Egypt as part of its commitment to construction and delivery of its projects.

Mohandass Saini, Managing Director and CEO of Sharpoorji Pallonji, joined construction workers and members of the project management team from DAMAC in a special ceremony to mark the final concrete pour. In his comments, Saini said:” Park Towers is the most prestigious development for us to be involved with and the first that we have worked on with DAMAC Properties. We are delighted to be building such an iconic and striking development that will stand forever as a testament to the hard work of all our staff here today.

“We are pleased to be part of the continuing Dubai success story and I congratulate everyone on the achievement of reaching the top floor.”

Ziad El Chaar, General Manager of

Senior Vice Presidents of DAMAC Properties John McNamara (left) and Niall McLoughlin (right) are joined by MD and CEO of Sharpoorji Pallonji Mohandass Saini and Vice President of Business Development and Contracts Vivek Anandarajah.

DAMAC Properties, added: “In recent months the construction staffs here have been working at a rate of completing one floor every five days. So I would like to thank them for this tremendous team effort.

“We have made it very clear that we will be continuing into 2010 with a focus on construction and delivery and milestones like this one help us to show that we are committed to this.”

Park Towers will offer more than 500

LG Electronics aiming to move 140m mobile units in 2010 KUWAIT: LG Electronics (LG), a global leader and technology innovator in mobile communications, yesterday unveiled a raft of ambitious plans for its mobile business, including a goal of selling 140 million units in 2010. Plans also include details of a concerted drive into the global smartphone market in an effort to become one of the top two mobile device manufacturers in the world by 2012.

140 Million Units in 2010 LG is aiming to sell a total of 140 million mobile handsets in 2010, a 20 percent increase year-on-year. Although the company is looking to increase its presence globally this year - it successfully opened about 100 mobile retail stores in the developing world in 2009 - it plans a particular strong push into the Korean and North American markets where it wants to be recognized as a provider of innovative, customized smartphones. By widening its range to include devices from the inventive and practical to the luxurious and chic, LG promises to be a vigorous, highly competitive presence in the mobile world this year.

Building the Smartphone Business Preparations for achieving its 2012 goal, which will give LG a double-digit share in the smartphone marketplace, are already well underway. Last year LG established a special smartphone business division and boosted its smartphone R&D workforce by an unprecedented 30 percent. This year, LG plans to unveil about 20 smartphones based on operating systems including Android, Windows Mobile and Linux.

Hopes are especially high for Android phones, which, with their user-friendly and open-access OS, are expected to make up more than half of all LG’s new smartphone releases. In the first half of 2010, LG will focus on producing easy-to-use smartphones aimed squarely at first-time owners before moving into premium handsets with cutting-edge designs later in the year. Through these efforts the company is confident it can introduce its first 10-million-unit smartphone sometime this year.

Tailored Content, Personal Service This eagerness to adapt to consumers’ needs is a theme running through LG’s entire push into the smartphone market.

With its 3 Screen Service, set for release this year, users will be able to view identical content on their handsets, PCs and TVs without converting to different formats. LG will unveil one of its innovations in February with the launch of a device supporting 3-Way Sync technology, which will allow seamless viewing of all mobile, PC and web content over a wireless network. LG is also hard at work with some of the world’s top content developers to ensure there is no shortage of fun and practical applications for its smartphones. “We are facing another revolutionary change in the mobile industry thanks to the rapid growth of smartphones and demand for more content and better services,” said H.S Paik, President of LG Electronics Gulf FZE. “We will continue to make breakthroughs in 2010 as we strive to maintain our trendsetter status and become one of the global top two by 2012.”

apartments in a range of sizes. Thanks to its glazed finish, each apartment will offer stunning uninterrupted views of the growing and maturing DIFC landscape.

External glass and aluminum cladding continues at pace and the building’s distinct blue double glazed finish is now clearly visible. The cladding at Park Towers is being carried out by Arabian Aluminum who also worked on the record breaking Burj Khalifa project. Chaar added: “To reach the top floor of the building marks a significant stage in the entire construction and development process. We will now be working hard to continue with the same focused progress on the exterior finishing of the building while the MEP works and interior designs and specifications are finalized.” In addition to offering freehold residential units for both UAE nationals and expatriates, Park Towers will feature three levels of distinctive retail, seven levels of state-of-the-art offices. In addition it will have excellent connectivity with direct pedestrian access to the DIFC retail spine and financial centre and is within easy walking distance of the Metro stations the main one of which has already started serving the area. It will also be excellently positioned for the Downtown area with the extensive shops and restaurants of Dubai Mall on hand and the world’s tallest tower Burj Khalifa just minutes away.

El Chaar added: “It is exciting to see that main construction work is now ending and that we are moving forward with the next phases of the development.”

24

BUSINESS GLOBAL DAILY MARKET REPORT

MIDEAST STOCK MARKETS

KSE stocks edge higher on fresh investor confidence KUWAIT: The Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) ended yesterday’s trading session in the green backed by the industrial index posting an above average daily gain.

Global General Index (GGI) added 1.22 points (+0.66 percent) during yesterday’s session to reach 185.88 points. Furthermore, the KSE Price Index posted a gain of 49.90 points (+0.71 percent), to close at 7,061.90 points. Market capitalization was up KD210.04mn yesterday to reach KD30.19bn.

Market breadth During the session, 140 companies were traded. Market breadth was skewed towards gainers as 67 equities advanced versus 36 that retreated. A total of 102 stocks remained unchanged during yesterday’s trading session.

Trading activities ended on a positive note yesterday as volume of shares traded on the exchange increased by 226.16 percent to reach 877.36mn shares. Furthermore, value of shares traded gained by 36.59 percent to stand at KD99.56mn. The Real Estate Sector was the volume leader for the day, accounting for 28.58percent of total shares traded. The Investment Sector was the value leader, accounting for 23.25 percent of total market value. Jeezan Holding Company saw 86.23mn shares changing hands, making it the volume leader. Gulf Finance House was the value leader, with a total traded value of KD8.05mn.

In terms of top gainers, Refrigeration and Warehousing Industries Company was the top gainer in the market, adding 9.80 percent and closed at KD0.280. On the other hand, IFA Hotels and Resorts Company was the biggest decliner for the day, dropping by 8.47 percent and closed at KD0.540.

Global sectoral indices ended on a positive note except for Global

Services Index, the only decliner. The index ended the day down 0.48 percent backed by heavyweights Agility and National Mobile Telecommunications Company (NMTC). Agility ended the day down 1.61 percent and closed at KD0.610 and NMTC ended today’s trading session down 1.30 percent and close at KD1.520.

In terms of gainers, Global Industrial Index took the top spot with a 4.78 percent gain. Aiding the sector was Kuwait Cement Company which posted a 9.09 percent gain to close at KD0.600. In addition, National Industries Group (Holding) was also a contributing factor to the index’s gain

by posting a 7.94 percent increase to end at KD0.340. It is worth to mention that only two stocks in the sector ended in the red yesterday.

Global Food Index came in second place with a 3.64 percent gain backed by five out of the six stocks in the sector ending in the green with the remaining scrip being unchanged.

Heavyweight Kuwait Foodstuff Company (Americana) posted a 4.29 percent gain and closed at KD1.460, making it the top gainer. Also noteworthy was United Food Industrial Group, which ended the day with a 3.03 percent gain.

Global’s special indices also ended on a positive note yesterday except

Thursday, January 21, 2010

for Global Islamic Index being the only decliner. The index ended the day down 0.81 percent backed by Boubyan Bank shedding 3.85 percent. Global Small Cap Index was the top gainer, up 1.86 percent backed by Palms Agro Production Company ending the day up 5.10 percent.

Oil news The price of OPEC basket of twelve crudes stood at $75.53 a barrel on Tuesday 19/1/2010, compared with $75.75 the previous day, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations.

Kuwaiti crude oil stood at $75.10 per barrel on Tuesday after shedding 17 cents compared to sales the day before.

SABIC lifts Saudi stocks; regional bourses mixed DUBAI: Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC), one of the world’s biggest chemicals firms, helped lift the index yesterday, after hitting a 15-month intraday high on earnings that beat forecasts.

The Saudi benchmark climbed 0.2 percent, while other Middle East markets were mixed, with investors wary as world stocks dipped.

SABIC rose 0.6 percent, hitting its highest level intraday since Oct. 21, 2008 after quarterly profit rose 15-fold.

“The expectations are that 2010 will be a good year for the company if the global economy is stable and continues to improve,” said Hesham Abo-Jamee, Bakheet Investment Group head of asset management. “This should reflect positively on the stock, which could rise 20-30 percent for the year.”

Yesterday, SABIC’s chief executive said he expected earnings to improve on higher product prices and rising oil prices, while East Asia will lead demand growth.

Disappointing bank earnings will affect Saudi Arabia’s market, said Abo-Jamee, but the high provisions taken by lenders, which caused most to miss analysts’ estimates, will be positive as banks clean up their books.

“Most banks will show good profits in the first quarter of 2010, with minimal provisioning,” said Abo-Jamee. Nevertheless, bank stocks are likely to trade sideways until the second half of the year, he said.

“Lending is still very low, but maybe it will be better in the second half of 2010,” he added.

A final-hour rally saw Dubai’s index rise 0.9 percent, easing away from Tuesday’s sixweek low. Volumes hit a seven-week low and were the second-lowest of the past 12months.

“There was a little buying towards the end of the session, but it’s too soon to say whether the market is stabilizing-it could be pure speculation,” said Ayman el-Saheb, Darahem Financial Brokerage director of operations.

Builder Arabtec climbed 2.6 percent and Emaar Properties rose 1.8 percent. The duo have been among the biggest losers in Dubai’s early-year slump.

“Dubai real estate, having dropped significantly in ‘08/’09, showed some stability in (the second half of 2009). But since then it

has not shown any firm direction,” said Richard Frost, head of research sales at AlFuttaim HC Securities. “Nobody is yet willing to price in a turnaround in real estate prices.” Abu Dhabi fell for a seventh session in eight as banks struggled. National Bank of Abu Dhabi fell 1.3 percent and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank lost 1.8 percent.

“There are still big question marks over UAE banks’ asset quality and whether/when NPLs (non-performing loans) will begin to come down meaningfully, and therefore reduce provisions,” said Frost.

National Bank of Kuwait, rose 1.9 percent, its first gain since announcing plans for a capital hike on Monday. Other Kuwait banks have made similar moves as lenders deal with rising provisions.

“Investors expect banks to make more capital increases and for banks to take further provisions in 2010,” said Essa al-Hasawi, a dealer at Noor Financial Investment Co. Oman slipped to a two-week low, falling 0.6 percent. “Volumes have been low, which shows some weakness ininvestor confidence,” said Sayed Quadry, vice president of business development at Amwal Investment in Muscat. “Oman results have been okay, but there’s some gloom around stock markets globally at the moment.”

HIGHLIGHTS EGYPT The index climbed 0.8 percent to 6,888 points.

SAUDI ARABIA The benchmark rose 0.2 percent to 6,382 points.

DUBAI The index rose 0.9 percent to 1,677 points.

ABU DHABI The benchmark fell 0.1 percent to 2,654 points.

OMAN The index dropped 0.6 percent to 6,436 points.

KUWAIT The index rose 0.7 percent to 7,062 points.

QATAR The measure fell 0.1 percent to 6,794 points.

BAHRAIN The index fell 0.1 percent to 1,463 points.

—Reuters

Thursday, January 21, 2010

BUSINESS

25

IMF chief says Asia may need capital controls HONG KONG: The IMF chief said yesterday Asia may need to erect temporary capital controls, warning of the potential for new economic bubbles as speculative money floods into the region.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn said the global economy looked on course to beat the 3.1 percent growth forecast currently expected by the International Monetary Fund for 2010, as a post-crisis recovery accelerates. Speaking in Hong Kong, the IMF managing director also reiterated his call for China to boost the value of its currency, the yuan, which critics say is kept artificially low to boost Chinese exports.

There is broad concern about the influx of foreign money pouring into Asiawhich has sent property prices rocketing in Hong Kong, Singapore and mainland China-as the region leads the recovery.

Strauss-Kahn said the cash flowing into Asia was in stark contrast to the

global financial crisis when the fear was of money drying up. “Understandably, however, policymakers in recipient countries are concerned now with how to manage these flows-their impact on exchange rates, domestic demand, financial stability-and the danger of asset bubbles,” he said.

Strauss-Kahn said options to discourage the inflow included cutting interest rates, accumulating reserves or tightening fiscal policy.

He added: “Capital controls can also play a role, particularly where the surge in capital flows is expected to be temporary, or where exchange rate overshooting is a real danger. “As long as it’s temporary, it may be the only way” to ward off a bubble, Strauss-Kahn told the Asian Financial Forum, a gathering of political and business leaders.

And in a veiled comment on China, he said: “In many countries, exchange-rate

appreciation should be the key responseespecially in those where the exchange rate is undervalued.”

Malaysia was ridiculed by financial institutions and foreign governments in 1998 when it became the first crisis-hit Asian country to roll out capital controls to protect its financial markets and collapsing currency. But the measures, including pegging the ringgit to the dollar and barring investors from taking money out of Malaysia, were later hailed by the IMF and other free-market proponents as an effective tool against speculation.

Economies worldwide went into a tailspin in late 2008 when credit dried up due largely to the collapse of a US property bubble. But Strauss-Kahn said some emerging economies could begin exiting stimulus programs sooner than rich countries, with world growth likely to outstrip the IMF’s forecast figure of 3.1 percent this year. Excluding Japan, Asia

may expand by more than seven percent, the IMF boss said.

He again dismissed fears of a “doubledip” recession for the world economy, but said the pace of recovery had been uneven with Asia bouncing back faster than the rest of the world.

The region must also look at boosting domestic demand to cut its reliance on foreign consumers, especially in the hard-hit United States, he said. StraussKahn said world leaders should press on with financial reforms to prevent a repeat of last year’s credit crisis, including better regulation and oversight of the banking sector.

“We need reform and we need political will,” he said. “There is still a lot to do... My concern is that in six to 12 months, everybody will be back to business as usual and will have forgotten the lessons of the financial crisis.” — AFP

Shares in German solar stocks extend losses HONG KONG: International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn addresses the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong yesterday. Asia is leading the world in recovery from the global economic crisis and, in the coming years, the region’s continued dynamism can give it an even greater role, said Strauss-Kahn. — AP

France cuts deficit forecasts PARIS: The French government yesterday cut its budget deficit forecasts thanks to better than expected economic growth.

French Budget Minister Eric Woerth shaved three-tenths of a percentage point off his deficit forecast for both 2009 and 2010 after stronger growth boosted tax receipts and cut welfare spending.

France’s expected growth rate this year at 1.4 percent is almost double previous forecasts.

In a revised 2010 budget presented to cabinet yesterday, Woerth said his revised 2010 budget foresees a budget gap of 8.2 percent of gross domestic product this year. While lower than the 8.5 percent of GDP forecast in

September, it is still a record.

The 2009 budget gap is now tabled at 7.9 percent of GDP, down from 8.2 percent, helped by government savings. But Woerth cautioned that the economy still remains fragile. “The future is uncertain,” he told journalists. European Union rules officially cap budget deficits at 3 percent of GDP, but governments quickly found excuses to break the limits and the rules were softened, even before they massively increased spending to ward off the worst of the economic crisis.

In 2009, according to EU commission forecasts for the 16 countries who use the euro, only tiny Luxembourg and Finland kept their deficits below 3 percent. — AP

GM pulls plug on Antwerp plant to cut costs: Report FRANKFURT: US carmaker General Motors will close its Opel plant in the Belgian port city of Antwerp, sources said yesterday, slamming the door on hopes to save the jobs of the site’s 2,300 staff.

GM has warned for weeks that the plant’s future was in jeopardy as it moves to chop more than 8,000 jobs and cut European capacity by a fifth, but it had refrained until now from making a final decision. “They did not back down from the decision to close Antwerp.

Now (Opel Chief Executive Nick) Reilly has announced that this would be implemented,” a company source said.

Reilly has long stated his preference that the group’s planned subcompact SUV would be manufactured not in Antwerp as originally planned but in South Korea

by Daewoo, the GM unit where both he and Opel’s new chief financial officer previously served in top management.

Daewoo is already in charge of developing GM’s global subcompact “Gamma” platform that will underpin the future Corsa hatchback and Meriva small van. A spokesman for the Flemish government said there was nothing new to report and said the regional authority remained committed to securing a future for the plant.

Opel and its British sister brand Vauxhall-rescued by a German government bailout last year when GM briefly dipped into US bankruptcy-are pushing through a radical shrinking program amid weak car markets. — AFP

Germany announces 15% solar power subsidy cut BERLIN: German Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen proposed a 15 percent cut in support for new roof-mounted solar power, a bid to ease the industry towards free competition but a slightly smaller reduction than expected.

The cut confirmed figures earlier published by Reuters and will take effect from Cuts in public support will weigh on companies like Q-Cells , Phoenix Solar and SolarWord, which depend on demand from Germany, the world’s biggest market for solar energy as measured by installed capacity.

Proponents of cuts say the industry is overly subsidized. Prices for solar products have fallen by as much as 50 percent over the last year, which has increased pressure on industry players to have more efficient production and become more competitive. “Such a step would lead to more consolidation, but this is what the sector needs,” said Olaf Koester, manager of the New Energy Fund at VCH. Additional cuts of 2.5 percent will be made from 2011 if installations exceed 3,500 megawatts (MW) in the previous 12 months.

A further cut of 2.5 percent is possible once the volume surpasses the 4,500 MW mark, Roettgen said. Feed-in tariffs will be raised from 2011 by 2.5 percent should installations fall below 2,500 megawatts. Since Germany’s new centre-right coalition government was elected in September, the solar power industry has expected cuts to the country’s solar aid, prompting installers to rush to build projects before they are announced.

The minister said the target for new installations was some 3,000 MW per year and just over half this had previously been achieved. However, lately the total was considerably higher than 3,000 MW, he added.

The global solar power industry has struggled over the past 15 months to secure funds for new projects as the financial crisis hit investment. Still, Germany’s lucrative incentives have kept the country at the forefront of the industry. —Reuters

April. It amounts to slightly less than the 16 to 17 percent reduction to the socalled feed-in tariffs that sources said last week was being eyed. Roettgen added that the tariffs for solar energy generated from open field and farmland sites should also be cut from July, by 15 percent and 25 percent respectively.

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel delivers a speech during a debate about the 2010 budget at the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament yesterday in Berlin. Merkel said she aimed to have Germany’s economy, Europe’s largest, back at its pre-crisis levels by 2013. — AFP

British jobless claims in biggest drop since 2007 LONDON: British jobless claims fell again in December at the fastest pace for two and a half years, data showed yesterday, fuelling hopes that the economy emerged from recession in the fourth quarter of 2009.

The number of people claiming benefits dropped 15,200 last month to 1.61 million, which was the sharpest monthly drop since April 2007, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement.

The figure for November was revised to show a fall of 10,800 people, which was a larger drop than the 6,300 reported last month. “The latest set of

RUSSELHEIM: Then General Motors Europe interim chairman Nick Reilly addressing a press conference about the restructuring plan of GM Opel plants in Germany in Ruesselsheim, western Germany. — AFP

Air France-KLM eyes Polish carrier LOT WARSAW: Franco-Dutch giant Air France-KLM is interested in investing in Poland’s troubled flagcarrying airline LOT, a news report published yesterday said.

In addition to Air France-KLM, two other investors are also eying state-run LOT, the Polish daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna said, without revealing its sources. Polish treasury spokesman Maciej Wewior told AFP that three would-be investors had come forward but declined to give details. But an Air France-KLM spokeswoman denied that the company was interested in LOT. “We have expressed no interest in LOT,” the spokeswoman told AFP without elaborating. The Polish state holds 93 percent of LOT, while the rest belongs to the airline’s staff.

The government has been aiming to privatize the carrier, which in 2008 lost 733 million zlotys (182 million euros, $261 million) and last year launched a restructuring program involving the

axing of 400 out of its 3,500 staff.

Wewior said the government currently favors bringing new investors on board via a capital increase.

“We do not foresee a sale of our stake,” he said. The money offered by an investor would “not be the only criteria” for choosing a bid, he added, saying “commitment to the company will also count”.

LOT was founded in 1929, placing it among the world’s oldest airlines. It is a member of the Star Alliance, which is steered by Germany’s Lufthansa. There was been regular speculation that Lufthansa could take over LOT. LOT was partially privatized in 1999 with the sale of a 25percent stake to Switzerland’s Swissair, which went bust in 2002. Poland spent the ensuing years trying to undo the 1999 deal, and in May 2009 finally bought back the stake from SAirLines, Swissair’s liquidator. — AFP

labor market data were surprisingly strong,” said Credit Suisse economist Neville Hill.

“The claimant count measure of unemployment fell for the second consecutive month in December, down 15,200 after a 10,800 fall in November.

“This is a compelling sign that the labor market has turned and the economy has pulled out of recession.” The ONS also revealed yesterday that the number of people unemployed fell 7,000 to 2.46 million people, while the jobless rate was unchanged at 7.8 percent.

Britain remains the last major world power mired

in recession after the euro-zone, France, Germany, Japan and the United States all emerged from a deep downturn that was sparked by the global financial crisis.

But economists expect that data due next week will show that the British economy escaped from recession in the three months to December.

“Today’s labor market statistics point towards strong economic growth in the final quarter of 2009,” said economists Benjamin Williamson at the Centre for Economics and Business Research, an independent consultancy. — AFP

Bank of America posts loss on aid repayment NEW YORK: Bank of America said yesterday it posted a loss of $194 million in the fourth quarter of 2009 on repayments to the US government, resulting in a loss for shareholders of $5.2 billion. For all of 2009, the largest US bank by assets had a profit of $6.3 billion, but for shareholders the results were a loss of 2.2 billion following payments to the US Treasury stemming from bailout aid. The results were affected by charge of 4.0 billion dollars to repay the US government for its capital aid under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, a massive effort to stabilize the banking system, Bank of America said.

“While it’s disappointing to report a loss for the fourth quarter, there were a number of important accomplishments worth noting,” said chief executive Brian Moynihan. “First, we repaid the American taxpayer, with interest, for the TARP investment. Second, we have taken steps to strengthen our balance sheet through successful securities offerings. And third, all of our non-credit businesses recorded positive contributions to our results.

Moynihan added: “As we look at 2010, we are encouraged by signs the economy is improving, as we have seen in the stabilization of our credit costs, particularly in the consumer businesses.

“That said, economic conditions remain fragile and we expect high unemployment levels to continue, creating an ongoing drag on consumer spending and growth.” — AFP

A Bank of America branch is shown in Charlotte, NC. Bank of America Corp said yesterday, it lost $5.2 billion during the final three months of 2009 as consumers struggled to make their mortgage and credit card payments. — AP

26

BUSINESS

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Bankrupt JAL scrambles to reassure passengers TOKYO: Japan Airlines sought to reassure the travelling public yesterday that it will keep flying despite declaring bankruptcy as its share price dropped to a new record low of just two US cents.

The debt-laden carrier apologised in full-page newspaper advertisements for causing “tremendous worries to customers” and promised that “JAL will keep flying” and that passengers’ air miles will remain valid.

“Please be reassured and use us as before,” the company pleaded.

The once iconic airline, a symbol of

Japan’s rise to prosperity, filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday with $26 billion in debt in the country’s biggest post-war corporate failure outside the financial sector.

It is set to undergo a painful overhaul under a new corporate chief, with more than 15,600 jobs to be cut, reducing the workforce by a third, and many loss-making routes expected to be slashed.

JAL, which carries more than 50 million passengers a year, is set to receive almost $10 billion in public funds and emergency loans under a three-year turnaround plan. Cabin

crew have changed their inflight announcements, now promising passengers that the airline is “striving for an early revival.”

“We ask for your continued patronage of the JAL group,” a cabin attendant said in a choked voice as she rehearsed the announcement before television cameras at a meeting at Tokyo’s Haneda airport.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange will delist JAL shares by February 20, a move expected to wipe out shareholders’ investments. JAL shares closed at a new record low of two yen (two US cents), down three yen

or 60 percent from Tuesday.

The company has made no announcement regarding its tie-up talks with American and Delta Air Lines, which are in a bidding war for a slice of the carrier, eyeing its lucrative Asian landing slots.

JAL is understood to prefer switching its alliance from the American Airlines-led Oneworld grouping to SkyTeam with Delta.

The government has tapped Kazuo Inamori, a 77-year-old entrepreneur and ordained Buddhist monk, to run the stricken airline during its overhaul, replacing Haruka Nishimatsu,

who resigned as president Tuesday.

JAL’s woes, analysts said, are the result of years of bad management, high costs stretching back to its days as a state-owned flag carrier as well as government pressure to service unprofitable routes to small domestic airports.

JAL was also hit particularly hard by the global economic downturn because it has a bigger network of overseas flights than its smaller rival All Nippon Airways, which was supported by relatively stable demand on domestic routes.

Shinsei Securities credit analyst

Yasuhiro Matsumoto said JAL’s turnaround plan involved “getting rid of money-losing businesses to return to profit and is not based on unfounded optimism that travel demand will grow in the future.”

However, he said, the government still “has no growth strategy.

It doesn’t have a strategy on how JAL should design its international network.” Standard & Poor’s said its credit ratings on Japan’s financial institutions and insurance companies-many of which are owed money

by JAL-would be unaffected by a request for a debt waiver of billions

of dollars.

The bankruptcy dominated newspaper front pages.

The Nikkei business daily said debt-ridden JAL’s failure should serve as a warning to other companies and the government in a country where the public debt now stands at about 180 percent of gross domestic product.

“If you shun the pain that is ahead of you, greater pain will come some day,” the Nikkei warned. “The fall of JAL, which shone in the past, sends this message to the state and companies.” —AFP

Bid to prevent speculative bubbles in real estate, other assets

China to curb lending spree, step up monitoring of banks HONG KONG: China will slow its massive lending spree and step up monitoring of banks as it tries to prevent speculative bubbles in real estate and other assets while keeping the country’s economic recovery on track, a top regulator said yesterday. China’s banking system is healthy despite last

year’s explosive growth in credit and regulators could manage the risks, said Liu Mingkang, chairman of the Chinese Banking Regulatory Commission.

“We are confident that risks envisaged could be well absorbed,” Liu said at a financial forum in Hong Kong.

Record bank lending in 2009 to support government spending on infrastructure and other projects under Beijing’s stimulus package has led to fears of asset bubbles and huge bank losses if too many loans sour. After handing out some 9.5 trillion yuan ($1.39 trillion) in loans last year, banks were expected to scale back lending to roughly 7.5 trillion ($1.09 trillion) in 2010, Liu said.

The total amount of loans will grow by as much as 18 percent in 2010 year over year, compared to nearly 32 percent in 2009, he said.

“We shall control, and we have controlled, the credit growth the whole year round,” Liu said. “This year we will continue to control the pace and amount of the credit supply.” Already, “corrective actions” have been taken against banks that lent too much or made bad loans to root out “excessive” exposure, consumer credit card risks and other problems, he said.

Regulators were paying MEDAK, India: Engineers from China Petroleum Pipeline (CPP) Material and Equipment Corporation weld special attention to loans for local government projects carbon steel pipes as part of a gas pipeline for India’s Reliance Industries Ltd at Medak some 175km from and real estate. All banks Hyderabad. India’s cash-rich energy giant Reliance Industries is on a worldwide hunt for takeover targets as it have been ordered to struggles to capture bankrupt chemicals group LyondellBasell, analysts say. —AFP “heighten their vigilance against an impossible, embedded credit risk,” Liu said. New leverage and liquidity restrictions would be imposed, he added. This month the government tightened restrictions to help curb riskier lending, dampen rising asset prices and ensure banks have enough money to handle losses.

Major banks were ordered to increase their reserve ratios by 0.5 percentage point to 16 percent. The central bank Public Service central bank to act appropriateTOKYO: Japan’s budget for the government has crafted a Britain’s also raised interest rates on fiscal year starting on April 1 is record $1 trillion budget for Agreement, which sets out pri- ly. But he added the indepenone-year bills, to help soak a stimulative one and the gov- fiscal 2010/11 while maintain- orities that the government dent BOJ should decide its own up extra money in the sysernment has no plans for fur- ing a self-imposed cap on new wants to achieve via policy, he operations. tem.

On currencies, Ogushi said ther fiscal measures to prop up bond issuance to help fund the added.

By most measures, Ogushi repeated the govern- Tokyo’s stance was in line with the fragile economy, a junior budget.

Chinese banks are among “In the past, we set initial ment’s mantra that the Bank of the Group of Seven statement, finance minister said yesterday. the world’s healthiest at the Bond investors are worried budgets at around the same Japan should work together with adding that such a stance moment. Not only are they about Japan’s bulging debt, size and then compiled extra the government to overcome remained unchanged under the flush with cash, but their bad which is approaching 200 per- budgets if we needed more deflation, adding he wanted the new minister, Kan. —Reuters loans, known as non-percent of gross domestic product, spending, but it’s slightly difforming loans, stand at just and fear the 4-month-old gov- ferent this time,” said Ogushi, 1.6 percent. ernment will spend more to who has played a key role in With China’s economic bolster the economy ahead of a crafting state budgets since the growth pegged at a blistering Democratic Party-led governmid-year election.

8 percent after a torrent of took power last “We have absolutely no ment lending, banks will see a rise intention of taking steps reck- September. in bad loans in the coming “The initial budget (for next lessly and pouring out public years, though losses are debt,” Parliamentary Secretary year) contains stimulative facexpected to be manageable, of Finance Hiroshi Ogushi told tors... we are not considering said Alistair Scarff, head of (an extra budget) now.”

Reuters in an interview.

Asia financial institutions Some market players see Ogushi, a 44-year-old lawresearch for Bank of maker from the ruling Naoto Kan, who became America Merrill Lynch in Democratic Party, said fiscal finance minister two weeks Hong Kong. prudence was the greatest ago, as being less hawkish than Smaller commercial challenge, adding that he would his predecessor, who quit for banks in China’s cities are continue to communicate with health problems. likely more at risk than are Ogushi, however, dismissed market participants to ensure the country’s heavyweight the market could absorb such talk. institutions, he said.

“Some members of the forissuance of Japanese governAt the same time, China’s ment bonds. Japan has barely eign media have called him modern banking system has emerged from its deepest ‘expansionist Kan’ but Minister yet to be fully tested. recession since World War Kan has been paying close China’s banks have never Two, and the government fears attention to the need for fiscal faced a recession or big lossthat deflation and weak demand prudence... He has said we es as profit-driven compamay push the economy back need to look for wisdom, not into recession, though many money,” Ogushi said. nies answerable to shareJapan’s government will put economists say a double-dip holders.

What’s more, together a medium-term fiscal recession is now unlikely. advanced risk management The government may also reform strategy in the first half systems and lending pracbe tempted to ramp up spend- of this year. Ogushi said there tices are a relatively new ing ahead of the election to try were various options for fiscal arrival at some banks. to win back voters turned off targets, not just primary bal“You have a banking sysby a funding scandal linked to a ance targets as previous govtem that has never really leading member of the ruling ernments have set, adding that JAKARTA: A man takes a nap on his motorcycle been through a down cycle,” party, some analysts say. the government wants to set Scarff said. “This is the first under a pedestrian bridge in Jakarta yesterday.

YearFaced with a tough balancing fiscal consolidation plans that time they’re really facing on-year core inflation, which excludes volatile food act between economic stimu- are easy and clear to underthese challenges as separate items and government-set prices, was 4.28 percent entities and modern financial lus and fiscal prudence, Prime stand.

One model for Japan could be compared with 4.29 percent in November 2009. —AFP Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s institutions.” —AP

No plan for Japan extra budget for next fiscal

TOKYO: Japan Airlines ground crew receive instructions regarding the automatic check-in machines at the Japan Airlines terminal at the Haneda International airport in Tokyo yesterday. Japan Airlines sought to reassure the travelling public that it will keep flying despite declaring bankruptcy as its share price dropped to a new record low of just two US cents. —AFP

Wipro profit jumps 19% on reviving demand MUMBAI: Indian software services firm Wipro Ltd said quarterly profit jumped 19 percent to 12.0 billion rupees ($259 million), driving the stock to a 10-year high, as companies benefiting from a spreading global economic recovery begin to send more work offshore to save on costs.

“We have seen a positive demand environment which has driven broad based sequential growth,” chairman Azim Premji said in a statement yesterday. Revenue for the October to December quarter was 69.8 billion ($1.5 billion), 6 percent higher than a year earlier.

Wipro stock rose 2.1 percent to 753.0 rupees its highest level since early 2000 — on the Bombay Stock Exchange yesterday morning, before falling back to 727.3 rupees in midday trade.

Revenue from Wipro’s core information technology services business rose 5.8 percent sequentially, to $1.13 billion in the December quarter, beating its own projections, as the US and financial services led revival began to spread to other

sectors, like telecommunications. Wipro said it expects IT services revenues to rise at least 3 percent, to between $1.16 billion and $1.18 billion, this quarter.

Executives said they expect volumes, which rose 4.3 percent sequentially, to continue to grow despite flat information technology budgets as global companies emerging from the downturn send more work offshore to cut costs. “They are going for more value for money budgets, which benefits people like us,” IT joint chief executive Girish Paranjpe told reporters.

Wipro said it added a net 4,855 employees in its IT services business. Executives said they plan a wage hike this quarter. Wipro opened a center in Chengdu, China and expanded its center in Atlanta, Georgia during the period. Wipro is India’s third largest software services firm by earnings. Its two largest competitors, Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services, also reported better than expected quarterly earnings on growing volumes. —AP

Ogushi says fiscal prudence key challenge

BANGALORE: Indian software services firm Wipro Ltd. Chairman Azim Premji, speaks during a press conference to announce the company’s quarterly financial results at their headquarters in Bangalore yesterday. —AP

Malaysia car sales to recover in 2010, says industry group KUALA LUMPUR: Auto sales in Malaysia fell by a smaller-than-expected 2 percent in 2009 but will rebound and could hit a record high this year amid the global economic recovery, an industry group said yesterday. Sales in Southeast Asia’s largest passenger car market fell to 536,905 vehicles last year, the Malaysian Automotive Association said.

It exceeded the association’s forecast of 500,000 vehicles as sales perked in the last quarter of the year, buoyed by government stimulus measures which boosted consumer spending, improved business confidence, said its president Aishah Ahmad. There were also aggressive sales campaigns. The stronger performance in the fourth quarter, underpinned by Malaysia’s economic recovery, is expected to extend into 2010, with auto sales seen rising 2.4 percent to 550,000 vehicles, Aishah said. It could beat the record high of 552,614 units sold in 2005, she said. “This could be a record year,” she told reporters. Malaysia’s economy is forecast to rebound to grow 2 percent to 3 percent in 2010 after a slump last year.

However, the government has cut spending for

2010 to rein in a swollen budget deficit and plans to revamp expensive fuel subsidies in the next few months. Aishah said the restructuring, which could see subsidies withdrawn for bigger engine cars, would not have a long-term impact on sales in that category as buyers of luxury cars could afford to pay higher fuel prices. She said the 2010 sales forecast was also based on expectations that interest rates would remain at record low levels amid the economic recovery.

The association, which groups some 40 car manufacturers and distributors, projected sales to rise to 566,500 vehicles in 2011, and to surge to 618,000 by 2014. Compact car maker Perodua was the bestselling car brand in 2009, retaining its leadership for a fourth straight year. Its market share rose to 31.1 percent from 30.5 percent in 2008, the association said. National carmaker Proton gained ground with a 27.6 percent share, up from 25.9 percent in 2007.

Japanese carmaker Toyota Motor Corp. secured 15.2 percent of the market, followed by Honda Motor Co. with 7.2 percent and Nissan Motor Co., with 5.9 percent. —AP

TECHNOLOGY

Thursday, January 21, 2010

27

What Internet? China region cut off 6 months now LIUYUAN: They arrive at this gritty desert crossroads weary from a 13-hour train ride but determined. The promised land lies just across the railway station plaza: a large, white sign that says “Easy Connection Internet Cafe.” The visitors are Internet refugees from China’s western Xinjiang region, whose 20 million people have been without links to the outside world since the government blocked virtually all online access, text messages and international phone calls after ethnic riots in July. It’s the largest and longest such blackout in the world, observers say.

Every weekend, dozens of people pile off the train in Liuyuan, a sandswept town on the ancient Silk Road that’s the first train stop outside Xinjiang, 400 miles (650 kilometers) east of Urumqi, the regional capital.

“We must get online! We must!” said Zhao Yan, a petite, ponytailed businesswoman from Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi. She has rented the same private booth in the Internet cafe every weekend since August in an uphill battle to keep her small trading business going.

“If this goes on another couple of months, I’ll have to give up,” Zhao said.

“I can’t keep up with the outside world, and I’m losing money.” Xinjiang residents are without Internet links unless they flee to farflung places like Liuyuan.

One customer had traveled 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) just to get online.

Authorities unplugged Xinjiang, a sprawling area three times the size of Texas, in an attempt to prevent a repeat

of the ethnic rioting between the Han Chinese majority and the mainly Muslim Uighur minority that the government says left almost 200 dead.

China’s government blamed overseas activists for the riots, saying they stirred up resentment in the Uighur community through Web sites and emails. For many, it feels like being thrown back in time 30 years.

Xinjiang now has no e-mail. No blogs. No instant messaging. The government this month promised Internet access would resume “gradually,” but it also said the same thing in July and not much has changed. So far, only four restricted Web sites, half of them staterun media, have returned.

No country has shut down an information infrastructure so widely for so long, said the Open Net Initiative, a Harvard-linked partnership that monitors Internet restrictions around the world. Some former Soviet Union countries have done it during sensitive elections, but “the blackout only lasted for hours or days at most,” said Rafal Rohozinski, the group’s principal investigator. The normal Internet in China is already among the world’s most restricted.

“The fact that the Chinese authorities had to resort to shutting down and cutting off the entire infrastructure ... is indicative of the difficulty they are having in controlling cyberspace,” Rohozinski said. “You can look at news or movies. That’s it. It’s all one-way,” said a 23-year-old from Urumqi, who sat a few screens away from Zhao and was

GANSU: In this photo taken on Sunday, Jan. 17, 2010, people surf Internet inside an Internet cafe in Dunhuang, in northwest China’s Gansu province. For six months now, the 20 million people in China’s far western region of Xinjiang have been without the Internet. —AP clicking between an e-mail account and a Russian-language Web site. He’d been online for 11 hours. He didn’t give his name because he’s half Uighur and was worried about retribution from authorities. Liuyuan has little more to offer the Xinjiang refugees besides its Internet

connection and its steady supply of cross-country trains.

“You don’t want to stay here,” said the desk clerk at the Liutie Hotel, the only guesthouse in town. Most people who get off the train are headed for the famous oasis of Dunhuang, two hours to

the south. On Sunday, most of the Xinjiang customers bolted back home after hearing word that mobile phone text-messaging services had finally resumed. The region’s mobile phone users sent 42.84 million text messages the first day of service alone, the state-

run Xinhua News Agency reported.

Users are still limited to no more than 20 texts per day, with no international service. International calls from Xinjiang were blocked, but the official Xinhua News Service reported that they were now allowed, starting yesterday.

One Xinjiang woman who wanted to chat with her American husband finally took an overnight bus to neighboring Kazakhstan to get online.

“It’s like a social experiment, what would happen if we take away the Internet?” said the husband, Kevin Komoroski, who lives in Missouri. He said their work on her U.S. visa application has slowed to a crawl and now relies on air mail.

“No one at any sort of level knows when it will end.” An international scientific conference was relocated outside the region. A board member of an international academic association travels regularly to Beijing, 1,800 miles from Urumqi, to check her e-mail. The Federal Express office in Urumqi tells customers to check orders by phone instead.

The Xinjiang government has said foreign investment and tourism were “seriously” affected last year, though it points to the July violence alone.

Import-export business fell 38.8 percent in the first nine months of last year, dropping almost 18 percentage points more than the rest of China, it said in a report this month. “We’re like deaf people now,” said Wei Chengzhi, who works in the online service office of Xinjiang Wind Energy Co. Ltd. “We’re

working on a joint project with a partner company in Shanghai. We can’t communicate with them. Nor can we do any online research.” Xinjiang’s commerce department says it now offers Internet access to companies that can get approval from the local foreign trade or foreign investment office, but only on weekdays.

One business owner couldn’t wait.

Just after the riots, Ma Hui and her husband took off on a three-day road trip east to Beijing to keep their dried fruit company going. Since then, her husband has lived in the capital to deal with online orders, while Ma lives in Urumqi and handles the product.

“We’ve been married three years and we’ve never lived apart before,” she said. “We don’t know when to expect the Internet to come back to normal.”

One person who doesn’t mind the blackout is the owner of Liuyuan’s Easy Connection Internet Cafe, who wouldn’t give his name but said he was quite happy with the increased business.

As night fell in Liuyuan, Zhao sighed and returned to her work online. She had three more hours before taking the overnight train home to Urumqi, but she expected to be back and online Saturday morning. It’s easy to recognize her fellow refugees by their computer bags, Zhao said. “You should go to Jiuquan,” the next major stop east along the railway, she said. “It’s a bigger city, and even more people go there. They check into the hotels and use the broadband.”

A faster connection — another 200 miles (320 kilometers) away.— AP

New tech tools help Haiti quake relief WASHINGTON: Hundreds of tech volunteers spurred to action by Haiti’s killer quake are adding a new dimension to disaster relief, developing new tools and services for first responders and the public in an unprecedented effort. “It really is amazing the change in the way crisis response can be done now,” said Noel Dickover, a Washington, DC-based organizer of the CrisisCamp tech volunteer movement, which is central to the Haiti effort.

NEW YORK: In this photo made Jan 11, 2010, a sign for IBM is shown in New York. IBM is expected to release fourth-quarter financial results after the close of the market on Tuesday. —AP

IBM offers clues on tech recovery, boosts guidance SAN FRANCISCO: Going into IBM Corp.’s fourth-quarter earnings report, a key concern was whether the technology company could eke out higher revenue after a year and a half of declines.

IBM has been pumping out higher profits for most of that time, but some analysts have worried it might be running out of moves to keep up its pace.

IBM answered those fears Tuesday with slightly better revenue than last year, a stunning amount of new services contract signings, and a better profit forecast for 2010. The numbers suggest the beginnings of a broad recovery in corporations’ technology spending, a trend illuminated by the latest numbers from chip maker Intel Corp., which is seeing brisker orders for the processors used in corporations’ computer servers. However, idiosyncrasies in IBM’s business mean that its results don’t always track with the direction of the overall economy, or even the technology industry in general.

So while IBM’s latest numbers offer some clues about the health of corporations’ technology budgets in the last three months of 2009, they wind up saying more about IBM’s ability to wring more out of its most profitable divisions even in tough times.

IBM, which is based in Armonk, New York, has leaned on its ability to cut its own costs and to sell its technology services as a way for other companies to save money. The stock has risen more than 50 percent in the past year. Nevertheless, investors apparently expected even more in the latest quarter and the stock slipped $2.68, or 2 percent, to $132 in extended trading. IBM shares

had risen 1.8 percent to close at $134.14 before the earnings report. “I think IBM is really doing great. Having said that, it’s difficult to get excited at this valuation of it - we’re talking a single-digit revenue growth company,” said Brian Marshall, an analyst with Broadpoint.AmTech. “When I look at the environment improving, there’s going to be a lot more leverage at other companies.” IBM reported after the market closed Tuesday that it earned $4.8 billion, or $3.59 per share, which was better than the $3.47 per share that analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were expecting. It represented a 9 percent increase over last year, when IBM’s net income was $4.4 billion, or $3.27 per share.

Revenue increased just under 1 percent to $27.2 billion, though at constant values for the dollar it would have dropped 5 percent. Analysts were expecting flat revenue of $27.0 billion.

Services and software revenue were higher, while hardware fell, though not as much as in previous quarters.

IBM also said it signed $18.8 billion in new services contracts in the quarter, up 9 percent from a year earlier. Revenue from those contracts mostly will be booked in the coming years.

For all of 2009, IBM’s net income rose 9 percent to $13.4 billion while revenue fell 8 percent to $95.8 billion. IBM’s higher guidance of at least $11 per share in profit in 2010 wasn’t entirely a surprise. The company had been telegraphing to investors for months that it was going to sail past its previous forecast of $10 to $11 per share in profit.—AP

Putin backs Russia’s 1st electric car project MOSCOW: Russia’s richest man, Mikhail Prokhorov won early backing from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for his plan to start mass production of electric cars, Putin’s spokesman said on Tuesday. Russia is seeking to modernize its commodity-based economy, which was hit hard by the global crisis when energy prices fell, and wants to achieve growth in technology sectors where it believes it may have some competitive advantage.

Prokhorov, a gold-to-basketball entrepreneur who sold some of his most lucrative assets just before the crisis, is sitting on a cash pile he is ready to invest. He has previously demonstrated strong interest in technology. “Putin listened very attentively and wanted to see this project discussed in detail with all the ministries involved as soon as possible,” Peskov told reporters without elaborating on the details of the plan.

Industry professionals who had seen the early design of Prokhorov’s car told Reuters that the vehicle would be a Golf-class sedan with a body made from plastic. They said Prokhorov was ready to provide project financing for two years. They said the

target price for the car would be around 8,800 euros and it would be a pure electric vehicle as opposed to a hybrid, which runs on both a conventional engine and battery-powered electricity.

Prokhorov’s Onexim Group currently has no car production facilities. It was not immediately clear whether Prokhorov planned acquisitions or partnerships to complete the project or whether he had asked Putin for funding. France’s Renault SA, which has a stake in Russia’s largest carmaker AvtoVAZ, and its Japanese partner Nissan Motor Co Ltd have been the most aggressive proponents of pure electric vehicles.

In August, the alliance unveiled a zero-emission, hatch-back vehicle called “Leaf;” it plans to start selling the first cars in the United States, Japan and Europe towards the end of 2010 at prices comparable to those of a gasoline-engine cars of the same size.

Electric car enthusiasts say that current battery technology has advanced significantly from that of earlier models, making electric cars cost-efficient.

Russia’s vast defense sector has some expertise in making batteries. — Reuters

Tim Schwartz, a 28-year-old artist and programmer in San Diego, feared upon learning of the disaster that, with an array of social-networking sites active, crucial information about Haitian quake victims would “go everywhere on the Internet and it would be very hard to actually find people _ and get back to their loved ones,” he said. So Schwartz quickly e-mailed “all the developers I’d ever worked with.” In a few hours, he and 10 others had built www.haitianquake.com, an online lost-and-found to help Haitians in and out of the country locate missing relatives.

The database, which anyone can update, was online less than 24 hours after the quake struck, with more than 6,000 entries because Schwartz and his colleagues wrote an “scraper” that gathered data from a Red Cross site. The New York Times, Miami Herald, CNN and others launched similar efforts. And two days later, Google had a similar tool running, PersonFinder, that the State Department promoted on its own Web site and Twitter.

PersonFinder grew out of missing-persons technology developed after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans in 2005.

Christopher Csikszentmihalyi, director of the Center for Future Civic Media at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, advocated online for consolidating all such tools into the Google version so the information wouldn’t be stuck in competing projects.

He considers PersonFinder, which can be embedded in any Web site and as of Tuesday had more than 32,000 records, a triumph because it “greatly increases the chances that Haitians in Haiti and abroad will be able to find each other.” Schwartz agreed and folded his database into PersonFinder, which he thinks will become “THE application for missing people for this disaster and all disasters in the future.”

The site has received several hundred thousand visits, said Google spokeswoman Elaine Filadelfo. She had no data on how many people had found loved ones using the tool. Another volunteer project forged in the quake’s aftermath is a cell phone text-messaging system that has helped the UN, Red Cross and other relief groups dispatch rescuers, food and water. Haitians needing help can send free text messages from phones on the nation’s Digicel and Comcel networks to the number 4636.

“At least 20 people so far have been able to use this program to tell their families in the US that they’re OK,” said Katie Stanton, a former Google employee working in the State Department’s Office of Innovation. —AP

“Developers, crisis mappers and even Internet-savvy folks can actually make a difference.” Volunteers have built and refined software for tracking missing people, mapping the disaster area and enabling urgent cell phone text messaging. Organizations including the International Red Cross, the United Nations, the World Bank and the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency have put the systems to use.

SAN DIEGO: Tim Schwartz, a 28-year-old artist and programmer, poses in his art studio on the campus of the University of California-San Diego, were he helped develop a data base for persons missing in the Haiti earthquake Tuesday, in San Diego. —AP

YouTube to stream IPL cricket live Google to have exclusive online rights MUMBAI: Google announced yesterday its videosharing website YouTube will stream all Indian Premier League cricket matches live in a deal that highlights the Internet giant’s broadcasting ambitions.

The third season of the lucrative IPL, which features the world’s top players in eight teams owned by rich businessmen and Bollywood stars, will be held in March and April this year.

Under the terms of the agreement, Google will have exclusive online rights for IPL content for two years, and Google and IPL will jointly share revenues from sponsorship and advertising. The deal is the first under which Google will stream a sports event live.

“We are excited, this will put India at the centre of a global experience,” said

Shailesh Rao, managing director of Google India.

“YouTube offers an open platform for sports and entertainment companies to take their content to a global audience and a great opportunity for advertisers.”

Google and IPL officials declined to comment on finances of the deal. “This unique initiative by IPL to partner Google India will give the league a global reach,” Lalit Modi, chairman of the IPL, said in a statement. Contrasting with censorship and cyberattack disputes they face in China, Google officials are confident of business growth in India.

“YouTube in India is one of the fastest growing websites. India cannot be compared to China,” Gautam Anand, YouTube’s Asia Pacific director for con-

tent partnerships, told AFP. “India’s most popular business platforms are entertainment and sports, which means Bollywood and cricket. This is where Google will strengthen its position further,” Anand said.

Viewers will be able to customize their screens by altering camera angles, going behind-the-scenes and choosing when to watch interviews. The IPL has been so popular that India’s Bollywood cinema producers have been forced to delay release of their movies and theatres forced to cut down shows when the matches are being played. Last year, the second season of IPL was moved to South Africa due to security concerns as tournament dates clashed with Indian general elections.—AFP

28

HEALTH & SCIENCE

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Study shows many diseases form deadly brain cancer WASHINGTON: The most common form of malignant brain cancer in adults is actually a set of four different pathologies, according to a study published Tuesday that could lead to more targeted treatment.

In identifying the separate subtypes of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) brain tumors, the US research team found that each one may form in different types of cells and thus require separate therapies.

Most patients who develop GBM, which spreads rapidly to other parts of the brain and is challenging to treat, die within about 14 months after they are diagnosed.

Three of every 100,000 Americans have been diagnosed with the disease in recent years-the highest incidence rate for malignant brain tumors. Among its most famous victims was the late senator Ted Kennedy, who died in August. “We discovered a bundle of events that

unequivocally occur almost exclusively within a subtype,” lead author Neil Hayes of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said in a statement. “These are critical events in the history of the tumor’s development and spread, and evidence is increasing that they may relate to the initial formation of the tumors.”

This finding could help understand which types of cells undergo changes that are ultimately responsible for initial can-

cer formation, key to crafting targeted and effective treatment regimens. Each subtype reacted differently to aggressive chemotherapy and radiation, the researchers found, which would mean that certain classes of drugs would work for some subtypes of brain tumors and not others.

Patients with one GBM subtype treated with aggressive chemotherapy and radiation seemed to be affected at a rate

about 50 percent slower than those treated with less aggressive therapy. This effect appeared less prominently in two of the subtypes and not at all in the fourth subtype. For their study published in the journal Cancer Cell, the researchers analyzed patient samples as part of the Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network, a government-funded project launched in 2006 to map all DNA activity in different types of cancers.

“These findings demonstrate the power of using a cancer’s genome to unravel the molecular changes that occur in the various cancer types targeted by TCGA,” said Eric Green, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health. “I’m optimistic that this type of knowledge will someday lead to improved personalized therapies and care for cancer patients.” — AFP

Money to fund three-year Slim Genomic Medicine Initiative

Mexican tycoon gives $65m to genetic study

DHAKA: In this June 3, 2005 file photo, a Royal Bengal tiger wades in a water pond at the national zoo in Dhaka, Bangladesh. One of the world’s largest tiger populations, already threatened by habitat loss and conflicts with humans, could disappear by the end of the century under rising seas, researchers said yesterday. — AP

MEXICO CITY : Telecommunications mogul Carlos Slim pledged $65 million Tuesday for genetic research on cancer, type 2 diabetes and kidney disease.

Scientists from Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Mexico’s National Institute of Genomic Medicine will collaborate on the three-year Slim Genomic Medicine Initiative.

Slim, who heads the Grupo Carso conglomerate and is one of the world’s richest men, said the project will help doctors better diagnose diseases and improve therapies. “Only with the development of this genomic science and surrounding technology will it be possible, as it was before with vaccines, to face these diseases and prevent these diseases through their early detection, their early diagnosis,” he said.

Eric S. Lander, president and director of the Broad Institute, a joint project of Harvard and MIT, said investigators will use about 10,000 samples to study the three diseases.

Researchers will analyze seven types of cancer, likely including breast cancer, he said.

Their diabetes research will focus on Mexico and Latin America, where diabetes is one of the

MEXICO CITY: Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim, right, speaks to Eric S Lander, President and Director of the Broad Institute, during a press conference in Mexico City Tuesday. — AP most common inherited diseases.

Scientists aim to understand the diseases’ genomic bases, not develop treatments. “The project alone cannot possibly produce treatments in three years,”

Lander said. Funding for the research will come from the Carlos Slim Health Institute, which Slim founded three years ago to improve medical care for Latin America’s neediest families. Slim said the proj-

ect is meant to support Mexican research and is not a business venture.

“Grupo Carso is not thinking of this as a commercial matter. It is totally a project with two objectives: One, to perform this inves-

tigation and disseminate it worldwide so that there are other contributions to general knowledge; the other, to try in some way for this to push and support more research in Mexico,” he said. — AP

Europe’s conquering heroes?

Likely farmers, study shows Scientists develop fast-acting germ killer

WASHINGTON: The conquerors who spread their seed across Europe in ancient times were prosperous farmers who imported their skills from the Middle East, researchers reported Tuesday. A study of the Y chromosome-passed down with very little change from father to sonsuggests that the men of Europe are descended from populations that moved into Europe 10,000 years ago from the “Fertile Crescent,” which stretches from Egypt across the Middle East into present-day Iraq.

“Maybe, back then, it was just sexier to be a farmer,” Dr Patricia Balaresque of Britain’s University of Leicester said in a statement. The researchers studied the DNA of 2,574 men from across Europe, they report in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Biology. Because the Y chromosome changes so little from one generation to the next, changes can be registered by

measuring random genetic mutations. This “molecular clock” painted a picture of genetic spread across Europe from the Middle East, where farming originated.

“We focused on the commonest Y-chromosome lineage in Europe, carried by about 110 million men,” Balaresque said. “It follows a gradient from southeast to northwest, reaching almost 100 percent frequency in Ireland. We looked at how the lineage is distributed, how diverse it is in different parts of Europe, and how old it is.”

More than 80 percent of European Y chromosomes appear to have the Middle Eastern origin.

Separate studies of mitochondrial DNA, passed along almost untouched from mother to daughter, suggest women mostly descend from the hunter-gatherers who dominated southern Europe after the Ice Ages. — Reuters

LONDON: A new fast-acting disinfectant that is effective against bacteria, viruses and other germs could help stop the spread of deadly infections in hospitals, German scientists said yesterday. Researchers from the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin said they had developed a fast-acting, practical formula which would kill germs on surgical instruments without damaging them through corrosion.

Disinfectants are the first line of defense against the spread of hospital-acquired infections and effective cleaning of surgical instruments is vital to beating them. The German

formula works against a wide range of germs, including some that survive ordinary disinfectants, such as Mycobacterium avium bacteria which can cause a tuberculosis-type illness and enteroviruses that may cause polio.

Drug-resistant bacteria, the socalled “superbugs”, are a growing problem in hospitals worldwide and poor hygiene among staff is often blamed for the spread of such infections. They kill about 25,000 people a year in Europe and about 19,000 in the United States. In previous studies, the German team found a simple alkaline detergent that could eradi-

cate prions-disease-causing proteins that are particularly hard to get rid of because they can become fixed onto surfaces through the use of some conventional disinfectants.

In their new study, Michael Beekes and Martin Mielke from the Institute’s hygiene department mixed the alkaline with varying amounts of alcohol and tested its ability to rid surgical instruments of bacteria, viruses and fungi and prions.

They found that a mixture with 20 percent alcohol was best. Beekes said he thought the new disinfectant could have a huge impact on hospital safety protocols.

“Standard formulations that eliminate prions are very corrosive,” he said in the study published in the Journal of General Virology. “The solution we’ve come up with is not only safer and more material-friendly, but easy to prepare, cheap and highly effective against a wide variety of infectious agents.” A Dutch study published last week found that the methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) superbug, which can cause blood poisoning, spreads not freely but in clusters, suggesting it is spread through healthcare systems by patients being repeatedly admitted to different hospitals. — Reuters

S Korea eyes bigger slice of medical tourism market SEOUL: It built its economy on ships, steel and semiconductors but now South Korea is pushing a new growth engine-a major share of the world’s booming medical tourism market. The government’s goal is one million foreign patients a year by 2020 and hospitals have launched aggressive marketing campaigns since they were allowed to advertise for foreign patients under a law that took effect last year.

“Today demand for medical services is higher than ever and medical tourism is growing rapidly,” Vice Knowledge Economy Minister Kim Young-Hak told the opening of a three-day medical tourism expo recently. The event, organised by the Korea Global Healthcare Association, which links hospitals, clinics and state agencies, drew about 5,600 visitors including nearly 300 foreigners. The association, which has 750 members, said foreign buyers reached deals worth 32 million dollars with hospitals that took part.

“Our medical tourism is growing fast.

We can easily catch up with Singapore and other Asian countries,” association chief Park In-Chool told AFP. Just under 350,000 people visited Singapore for treatment in 2007, according to official figures.

Park said he expected South Korea’s final

figures for 2009 would show some 50,000 foreigners had visited for treatment compared to 27,400 a year before.

“So far we have tried to attract more patients from China, Japan, Russia and the United States. From now on, we will step up our marketing in wealthy Middle East countries.” “Competition is already tough among Asian countries. Our government must move quickly to ease regulations and help our medical industry catch up with Asian rivals.” But the figures show South Korea to be a long way behind rivals such as Thailand, where around 750,000 people travelled for medical purposes in 2008, according to tourism authorities there.

Bumrungrad Hospital, one of the biggest private hospitals in Bangkok, said it treated around 430,000 foreign patients a year, from countries including the United States, Japan, Oman and Australia.

South Korea is in a good position given its high medical standards, according to L. Casey Chosewood, a director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who attended a seminar arranged by the Korea Global Healthcare Association.

“I think South Korea has a considerable advantage over many other countries.

It’s a very developed country and it

already has a very safe healthcare industry.” Scott Edelstein, a healthcare counsellor from US-based law firm Squire, Sanders and Dempsey, forecast that the value of global medical tourism would rise to 100 billion dollars in 2012 from 60 billion dollars in 2006. Many Americans visit Latin America because of its proximity but South Korea and other Asian countries are gaining popularity, he said. “It’s not for lower costs but it’s for quicker access to high quality care. I’m very optimistic about the growth of medical tourism in Korea,” Edelstein said.

South Korea opened centres in August to give medical tourists a one-stop service and is training coordinators to help foreigners find the care they want. The language barrier is the biggest hurdle, experts say. “You are not able to communicate to American patients about possibilities available here,” said Woody Anderson, head of US-based public relations agency EMMI Korea. South Korea, which is known for its high success rate in treatment of cancers and liver transplants, needed to advertise more and offer tour packages that appealed to prospective patients, he said.

“I think that Korea, if they can communicate to the rest of the world about their facilities, would be a lead country in Asia,”

Anderson said. “One opportunity for smaller clinics and hospitals here is the area of oriental medicine because that’s an area Americans are very enthusiastic about. China has faith in oriental medicine but Korea has science.” Along with its strength in traditional Asian medicine, South Korea is considered competitive in plastic surgery, dental care and ophthalmology, according to a 2008 government survey.

Vice-minister Kim said the cost of medical services in South Korea was around 30 percent of the price of treatment in the United States and around 60 percent of that in Japan, but the industry lacked recognition overseas. Doctors want better promotion abroad, standardisation of services and systematic government support. “Publicity and infrastructure are not sufficient,” said Lee Dae-Yong, an international affairs official at Seoul’s Yonsei University hospital. “We also need effective guidelines to solve legal problems.” Park, the head of the Korea Global Healthcare Association, was optimistic about the pace of change. “Our short-term goal is to become a leader in Asia’s medical tourism industry,” he said, predicting South Korea and China would eventually lead Asia’s healthcare market. “We’ve just made a start.” — AFP

SAN DIEGO: In this photo provided by the San Diego Zoo, a Koala joey named Miah is shown at the zoo on Monday. — AP

WHAT’S ON IN KUWAIT

30

Thursday, January 21, 2010

l-Jotahan Co recently held a special dinner party to celebrate the New Year in a most familiar atmosphere with all employees and their families.

Speaking on the occasion, board directors chairman, Abdul Majeed Madhi thanked all employees and wished them a happy evening while general manager, Hassan Deyab expressed pride in the Al-Jotahan family and thanked everybody for their efforts they exerted in 2009 and urged them to exert more on 2010. The ceremony included a raffle for some valuable prizes.

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Al-Jotahan celebrates New Year

Balloons decorate KES rightly colored balloons decorate Kuwait English School (KES) Preparatory Department playground every Thursday, helping the tiny tots in the KG Department to recognize and remember a different color each week. The children participate in many fun activities and dress in clothes to match the special Color Day. “Orange Day was very orange” said Mrs. Kismet, Year Leader. “The children seemed to be a bit hyper actually. I was on duty and they were a bit wild, so colors do have an effect on them”.

“I find orange makes them a bit wild”, agreed Mrs. Julie.

Ms Lorraine said the children in her class brought an orange item or object from home and were rewarded with a sticker on their sticker chart for doing so. Some children brought food, like a carrot or orange, in their lunch box.

“The kids really enjoyed it and did well to find so many things in the middle of winter” said Mrs. Sarah.

Through a wide variety of stimulating activities, the children have learned about the primary colors (red, yellow and blue), and are now experimenting to make new ones by mixing two primary colors to create a secondary color. The children are developing numerous recognition, coordination and motor skills by mixing the dif-

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Graphic Design Exhibition at AUK he American University of Kuwait’s Graphic Design Senior Thesis Exhibition will hold its opening reception on Saturday, January 23 from 7-9 pm. The exhibit will also be open the 24” and 25th from 12 - 5 pm each day.

This exhibition is the result of a GDES course titled, Senior Portfolio, where students are challenged to visualize an argument based on an observation and supported by research. The course, currently taught as an Independent Study by Professor

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Marcella Kulchitsky teaches students how to visualize the complex intersection between personal voice, conceptual understanding, and the USC of research for a graphic design exhibition. The course is largely self-directed and students arc expected to select and investigate a topic using design as a means to present their findings.

Students are graded on the creation and presentation of their thesis proposal, research, exhibit, and process book.

ferent colored paints together, making collages, and making bead pattern necklaces.

“Cooking is one of the most valuable experiences in early childhood learning. It develops language skills, hand/eye coordination, as well as

an understanding of basic mathematical concepts, increases concentration, teaches children about instructions and procedures and is an experience all children love to tackle”, said Mrs Kismet.

Some additional fun food activities planned for the children have included making coloured jelly, popcorn, egg sandwiches, icing biscuits and preparing dough for various cookies and cupcakes.

“I did rolling. Today I made a gingerbread man” said Tareq in Mrs Kismet’s class. Casey, in Mrs Lorraine’s class, said she made jelly.

Mrs Iwona’s class were making jelly. The children poured the jelly before it set and saw how it became solid after cooling. “It was a very sweet day with our lovely children”, she said.

“The kids really enjoyed eating their orange jelly. I gave them orange sweets”. said Ms Zara.

Children in Kuwait English School KG Department are studying shapes and colours through topic work. This year, KES KG Department are rotating 24 topic boxes around each class in turn. A selection of books related to topic work has been carefully chosen. The children are provided with a variety of educational resources related to each book, such as puppets, games, and jigsaws to help promote meaningful learning.

“Colours and shapes are everywhere!

You can reinforce the children’s learning by bringing their attention to the different colours and shapes while driving, walking, reading a story, shopping, cooking etc” added Mrs Kismet.

Al-Naqqi lectures about ambitions, hobbies in atwa and legislation attorney, Najla’a AlNaqqi, recently delivered a lecture at the “AlRawdha” girls high school titled “Together we achieve ambitions and hobbies”, which came as part on an invitation from the administrator of the school, Maha Al-Aiban, and supervised by head of the school’s athletics section, Rawiya Hashem.

During the lecture, AlNaqqi talked about ways of improving hobbies and utilize them to achieve benefit in life and to support ambitions. She further demonstrated some of her previous experience in the lecture, explaining to students how she managed to reach her goals through these ways. Several other lecturers participated in the lecture, including Mrs. Hind, Dr. Sajidah AlHolly, and Mrs Maha AlSaudi.

The lecture ended by Al-Naqqi being presented with an honorary shield from Al-Aiban and AlHolly, in a ceremonial activity that was attended by the school’s undersecretary, Fatima Al-Mislem.

Al-Rawdha? High

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Najlaa Al-Naqqi seen with members from the school’s staff.

Al-Naqqi seen with members of the staff and students.

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WHATʼS ON IN KUWAIT

Thursday, January 21, 2010

‘Mahanand Monis vo Soitan?’ charms Kuwait’s Konkani audience rancisco Gonsalves alias Franky meticulously enacting the role of the serial killer received admiration and applause from a capacity crowd at Kala Mogui Kuwait’s presentation of Tony Dias’ Konkani drama “Mahanand Monis vo Soitan?”. The audience were engrossed to the story which had Bushka, Jane, Jessica, Shruti in role of the victims, Jaju as Police Inspector and Manohar Bhingue as the Home Minister. Filu Dias, Trindade, David D’Costa, Conny M, Filipe Almeida and Socorro de Santa Cruz playing their part to perfection and flawless clarity in unfolding the story with sound, scenes, and captivating performances to everyone’s delight.

Equally the singers both within the visiting troupe as well as Kuwait-based singers entertained on varied latest subjects relating to the Goan community and two of the actors did dual roles with equal flair and modulation camouflaging themselves.

Comedians Janet Almeida, Aurelio and Ambe added to the funny bone with their timely interjection of humour delighting the crowd. Ajai Malhotra, the Ambassador of India was the chief guest and prominent Goans and KMK well-wishers Albano Pinto, Gaspar Almeida, Fr Lionel Braganza, Principal of IEAS (Don Bosco) accompanied him on stage along with Fr Teo Fernandes who welcomed the large gathering.

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The ambassador, in his brief introductory speech congratulated the organizers and also greeted everyone on the occasion of Pongal - the colourful festival of India. Kala Mogui Kuwait felicitated Socorro de Santa Cruz, a prominent singer and actor who has contributed for nearly three decades on professional circuit; well known singer, writerdirector-producer Rosary Ferns for his artistic talents on Konkani stage in Kuwait

and Tony Dias for his mind-blowing innovative work specially grooming and encouraging young actors and talents. Mementos were also presented to the Carmelite priests, Fr Melwyn D’Cunha and Fr Teo Fernandes in appreciation of their services in Kuwait who will bid farewell soon.

Speaking to this reporter, KMK President said “We thank all those who have contributed and coordinated to have this show

in a short time’s notice”, watching fabulous Franky in the title role “Mahanand Monis vo Soitan?” he said we are human, must not become devil in our daily life. Jet Airwayssponsored KWI-GOI-KWI air ticket was won by Manuel Goes for a housie game whereas two lucky winners won Coolpexsponsored products. Al-Yasra Food Co. served free snacks to the audience. KMK’s President Domingos Araujo and Event Co-

ordinator Felix Fernandes (de Merces) together thanked all their members & sponsors.

Sincere thanks was voiced to Da’iya Fencing Club Management, visiting and local artistes, supporters: Agnelo Rebello, Benny Rebello, Benny Vaz, Nicholas Rodrigues, Thomas Fernandes, Anand D’Souza, Rorry Miranda, Joaquim Rodrigues, Lawrence Cardozo, Laurie

Miranda and Manuel F.X. Fernandes, the press and news media: Arab Times Publications, Kuwait Times Publications, The Times English Weekly, Al-Watan English Daily, www.goa-world.com, www.Indiansinkuwait.com, www.Kuwaitsamachar.com, www.Mangalorean.com, www.Daijiworld.com, www.Goanet.org, Goa’s widely read Gulf-Goans e-Newsletter, The Goan Forum www.colaco.net, Lino B.Dourado, William Fernandes, Gaspar Crasto, Agnelo Fernandes, Tony Coelho, Sunoj Nambiar, Dr.Jose Colaco, O’Heraldo, The Navhind Times, Gomantak Times, VIxtt & all Goan Internet Forums & Goan Magazines for the wide publicity given to all their events in Kuwait. On Saturday, a farewell dinner to the Tony Dias’ complete troupe at the Kuwait Continental Hotel where they stayed before their onward journey to London to present two shows in Wembley & Swindon. In Doha-Qatar, the finale show will conclude the troupe’s tour according to latest information.

Congratulations to KMK for successfully organizing the event and giving a head start marking the commencement of the cultural activities for 2010 for the Konkani loving people. “KMK continuously endeavour to strive to entertain and participate along with other Indian organizations.

Speaker of Parliament meets Kuwaiti cricketers

Fancy dress at JIS

great cricket fan Jassem Al Khorafi Speaker of Kuwait Parliament received the Kuwaiti Nationals Cricketers who recently participated in the 1st GCC Cup for Nationals only held in Dubai UAE last month. Al Khorafi himself being a wicket keeper during his school days in UK the first thing he asked Bastaki who is your wicket keeper and Mahmud Abdullah was the lucky person to be Kuwait national team’s wicket Keeper. He praised all the players for their good perfomance. The Kuwaitis presented Jassem Al Khorafi a bat with all the players signatures as a token of goodwill gesture and the great support he extends to the Kuwaiti Cricketers and he wished all the success in future for the National Team.

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ll work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. Keeping this in mind Jabriya Indian School (JIS) organised an extracurricular activity in the form of a Fancy Dress Competition for the primary sections. The children of class I and II were dressed up as different characters like Batman, fairy, farmer,

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doctor, nurse, Hannah Montana, honeybee princess, warrior tiger, rabbit, Spiderman, clown etc. They were looking wonderful and the whole show was spectacular. The children and the teachers both enjoyed these lighter moments away from the academic activities.

Seminar on pediatrics health he Institution of Engineers (India) Kuwait Chapter’s has arranged a seminar on “Pediatric Scientific Explanation of Common Disorders and Treatments” Jointly presented by a panel of eminent Child Specialists consisting of 1. Dr. V. Satya Narayan, 2.Dr. Bhaskar Gupta, 3. Dr. N. Ram, 4. Dr. Gaurav Jadon.

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The Topics of the Seminar as follows: 1. Childhood Asthma by Dr. V. Satya Narayan.

2. Adolescent Problems by Dr. Bhaskar Gupta.

3. Convulsions in Children by Dr. N. Ram. 4. Prevention of Childhood Accidents by Dr. Gaurav Jadon.

Tulukoota bids farewell to Fr Melvin and Fr Theo

Seminar Date & Time: 22.01.2010, Friday, 10:30 A.M to 1:00 P.M. Seminar Venue: Holiday Inn, Downtown (at Daheya Ballroom, 4th Floor) This seminar is for the Family (Children of age 6 and above are only allowed).Lunch will be served at the end of the Program. Those who are interested to attend the seminar are requested to register their names by 16.01.2010 through email vptiwari55@hotmail.com with the Details of Name of the IEI Member, Name of the Spouse, Name of the Children, Contact Nos. For further clarification kindly contact Engr. V.P.Tewari (Mob.: 99560784).

ev Fr Melvin D’cunnha Parish Priest of Holy Family Cathedral & Rev. Fr Theo Fernandes - Our lady of Arabia Church Ahmadi were accorded a fond farewell by Tulukoota Kuwait during the first committee meeting held

by Tulukoota Kuwait at Caesars Restaurant Fahaheel on Friday, 15th January 2010.

It was truly an emotional moment as the compere for the program Shalini Alva read out the profile, and profound contributions made by Rev. Fr Melvin & Rev Fr Theo Fernandes.

Vice President Pascal B Pinto in his felicitation address highlighted the divine services rendered by Rev. Fr. Melvyn & Rev. Fr. Theo Fernandes

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The students and staff of Al Bayan Bilingual School recently donated a cheque of $2,560.50 to the people of Haiti.

during their tenure in Kuwait, and also extended a warm and hearty welcome to Rev. Fr John Harry D’souza & Rev. Fr. Andrew Fernandes, the new priests to Kuwait.

Tulukoota Kuwait President Swarna Shetty felicitated Rev Fr Melvin with memento, while Vice President Pascal Pinto presented memento to Rev Fr Theo Fernandes.

Tulukoota Kuwait advisor, Sudhakar Shetty, Vivek Rao, Sathischandra Shetty & A.K Ravindra presented buquet and welcomed the priests.

Sudhakar Shetty expressed his appreciation and gratitude to Fr Melvin for the overwhelming support received by the Koota since its inception, in the year

2000- the year Fr Melvin arrived to Kuwait.

The four priests praised Tulukoota Kuwait for its achievements in Kuwait, and the good work being carried out in Tulunadu as well.

Rev Fr Harry D’souza instantly won the heart of the people with his humor and fluency in Tulu.

The mixed feeling and emotions did not stop the attendees from enjoying the last moments with Fr Melvin & Fr Theo. Fr Melvin’s infectious laughter reverberated within the Caesars restaurant, while the attendees queued up to close up their final conversation by thanking Fr Melvin & Fr Theo, and hoping to see them in future.

INFORMATION

32

Thursday, January 21, 2010 FIRE BRIGADE Operation Room 777 Al-Madena 22418714 Al-Shohada始a 22545171 Al-Shuwaikh 24810598 Al-Nuzha 22545171 Sabhan 24742838 Al-Helaly 22434853 Al-Fayhaa 22545051 Al-Farwaniya 24711433 Al-Sulaibikhat 24316983 Al-Fahaheel 23927002 Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh 24316983 Ahmadi 23980088 Al-Mangaf 23711183 Al-Shuaiba 23262845 Al-Jahra 25610011 Al-Salmiya 25616368

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

For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128 HOSPITALS Sabah Hospital

24812000

Amiri Hospital

22450005

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24843100

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25312700

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24892010

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23940620

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POLICE STATION Al-Madena Police Station Al-Murqab Police Station Al-Daiya Police Station Al-Fayha始a Police Station Al-Qadissiya Police Station Al-Nugra Police Station Al-Salmiya Police Station Al-Dasma Police Station

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24810221

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4892674

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4719048

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THE PUBLIC AUTHORITY FOR CIVIL INFORMATION Automated enquiry about the Civil ID card is 1889988 AIRLINES

PHARMACIES ON 24 HRS DUTY GOVERNORATE Ahmadi

PHARMACY Sama Safwan Abu Halaifa Danat Al-Sultan

ADDRESS Fahaeel Makka St Abu Halaifa-Coastal Rd Mahboula Block 1, Coastal Rd

PHONE 23915883 23715414 23726558

Jahra

Modern Jahra Madina Munawara

Jahra-Block 3 Lot 1 Jahra-Block 92

24575518 24566622

Capital

Ahlam Khaldiya Coop

Fahad Al-Salem St Khaldiya Coop

22436184 24833967

Farwaniya

New Shifa Ferdous Coop Modern Safwan

Farwaniya Block 40 Ferdous Coop Old Kheitan Block 11

24734000 24881201 24726638

Hawally

Tariq Hana Ikhlas Hawally & Rawdha Ghadeer Kindy

Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Salmiya-Amman St Hawally-Beirut St Hawally & Rawdha Coop Jabriya-Block 1A Jabriya-Block 3B

25726265 25647075 22625999 22564549 25340559 25326554

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PRIVATE CLINICS Ophthalmologists: Dr. Abidallah Al-Mansoor Dr. Samy Al-Rabeea Dr. Masoma Habeeb Dr. Mubarak Al-Ajmy Dr. Mohsen Abel Dr Adnan Hasan Alwayl Dr. Abdallah Al-Baghly

25622444 25752222 25321171 25739999 25757700 25732223 25732223

Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT): Dr. Ahmed Fouad Mouner 24555050 Ext 510 Dr. Abdallah Al-Ali 25644660 Dr. Abd Al-Hameed Al-Taweel 25646478 Dr. Sanad Al-Fathalah 25311996 Dr. Mohammad Al-Daaory 25731988 Dr. Ismail Al-Fodary 22620166 Dr. Mahmoud Al-Booz 25651426 General Practitioners: Dr. Mohamme Y Majidi 24555050 Ext 123 Dr. Yousef Al-Omar 24719312 Dr. Tarek Al-Mikhazeem 23926920 Dr. Kathem Maarafi 25730465 Dr. Abdallah Ahmad Eyadah 25655528 Dr. Nabeel Al-Ayoobi 24577781 Dr. Dina Abidallah Al-Refae 25333501 Urologists: Dr. Ali Naser Al-Serfy 22641534 Dr. Fawzi Taher Abul 22639955 Dr. Khaleel Abidallah Al-Awadi22616660 Dr. Adel Al-Hunayan FRCS (C) 25313120 Plastic Surgeons: Dr. Mohammad Al-Khalaf 22547272

22434064 22435865 22544200 22547133 22515277 22616662 25714406 22530801

Dr. Abdal-Redha Lari Dr. Abdel Quttainah

22617700 25625030/60

Family Doctor: Dr Divya Damodar 23729596/23729581

Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr.

Zahra Qabazard Sohail Qamar Snaa Maaroof Pradip Gujare Zacharias Mathew

25710444 22621099 25713514 23713100 24334282

(1) Ear, Nose and Throat Psychiatrists Dr. Esam Al-Ansari 22635047 Dr Eisa M. Al-Balhan 22613623/0 Gynaecologists & Obstetricians: Dr Adrian Harbe 23729596/23729581 Dr. Verginia s.Marin 2572-6666 ext 8321 Dr. Fozeya Ali Al-Qatan 22655539 Dr. Majeda Khalefa Aliytami 25343406 Dr. Ahmad Al-Khooly 25739272 Dr. Salem soso 22618787 General Surgeons: Dr. Abidallah Behbahani 25717111 Dr. Amer Zawaz Al-Amer 22610044 Dr. Mohammad Yousef Basher 25327148

Paediatricians: Dr. Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rashed 25340300

Rheumatologists: Dr. Adel Al-Awadi 25330060 Dr. Khaled Al-Jarallah 25722290

(2) Plastic Surgeon Dr. Abdul Mohsin Jafar, FRCS (Canada)

25655535 Dentists:

Dr Anil Thomas

3729596/3729581

Dr. Shamah Al-Matar

22641071/2

Dr. Anesah Al-Rasheed

22562226

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22561444

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22619557

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22525888

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25653755

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25620111

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Internist, Chest & Heart: DR.Mohammes Akkad 24555050 Ext 210 Dr. Mohammad Zubaid MB, ChB, FRCPC, PACC Assistant Professor Of Medicine Head, Division of Cardiology Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital Tel: 25339667 Dr. Farida Al-Habib MD, PH.D, FACC Consultant Cardiologist Tel: 2611555-2622555 Inaya German Medical Center Te: 2575077 Fax: 25723123

Dr. Sohal Najem Al-Shemeri 25633324 Dr. Jasem Mola Hassan

Internists, Chest & Heart: Dr. Adnan Ebil 22639939 Dr. Mousa Khadada 22666300 Dr. Latefa Al-Duweisan 25728004 Dr. Nadem Al-Ghabra 25355515 Dr. Mobarak Aldoub 24726446 Dr Nasser Behbehani 25654300/3

Physiotherapists & VD: Dr. Deyaa Shehab 25722291 Dr. Musaed Faraj Khamees 22666288

25345875

Gastrologists Dr. Sami Aman

22636464

Dr. Mohammad Al-Shamaly 25322030 Dr. Foad Abidallah Al-Ali

22633135

Endocrinologist: Dr. Abd Al-Naser Al-Othman 25339330 Dr. Ahmad Al-Ansari

25658888

Dr. Kamal Al-Shomr

25329924

Psychologists/Psychotherapists Soor Center Tel: 2290-1677 Fax: 2290 1688 info@soorcenter.com www.soorcenter.com Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa, Ph.D. 2290-1677 Susannah-Joy Schuilenberg, M.A. 2290-1677 William Schuilenberg, RPC 2290-1677 Zaina Al Zabin, M.Sc. 2290-1677

Kuwait Airways Wataniya Airways Jazeera Airways Jet Airways Qatar Airways KLM Air Slovakia Olympic Airways Royal Jordanian Reservation British Airways Air France Emirates Air India Sri Lanka Airlines Egypt Air Swiss Air Saudia Middle East Airlines Lufthansa PIA Alitalia Balkan Airlines Bangladesh Airlines Czech Airlines Indian Airlines Oman Air Turkish Airlines

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Thursday, January 21, 2010

33 ACCOMMODATION Sharing accommodation available in Abbassiya for Keralite couple from January 26th or February 1st onwards. Rent KD 65. Contact: 66598187. (C 20228) Flat near Al Ommooma hospital, rent KD 160, with new furniture, for sale, 3 dishes and 6 LNPs, separate parking, available from 25th January. Contact: 97549378/ 94054916/ 66511549. (C 20232) 21-1-2010 Single room available in Bneid Al-Gar for working decent ladies, central A/C, available from this month, very near to Al-Salam hospital.

Please contact: 97879611. (C 20224) Room for rent at Al Mugera St Salmiya near Fahaheel Expressway for Filipinos only, call 99057302 any time. (C 20226) One furnished room available in C-A/C 3 bed flat in Jabriya block 8, near Hadi hospital, rent KD 80/PM for decent couple or working lady. Contact: 66706118, 99067385. (C 20225) Sharing accommodation available for a small family in a 2 bedroom, hall & kitchen central A/C flat near Emirates hotel, Abu Halifa with Keralite Christian family. Contact: 97612421.

(C 20227) 20-1-2010 Fully furnished sharing accommodation available in Abbassiya for couple or for two bachelors from Feb 1st.

Contact: 99264892.

(C 20222) One room accommodation available for single Indian bachelor in C-A/C flat near Indian Community School Salmiya, rent KD 65. Contact: 97237934, 25658475.

(C 20223) 19-1-2010

Fully furnished sharing accommodation available for Keralite family at Abbassiya (only 4 months, from Feb 1st). Contact: 99962214, 66957146. (C 20215) 18-1-2010 Sharing accommodation available for family or bachelor, central A/C building, bathroom attached near Garden store, Abbassiya.

Contact: 65662085, 66274078. (C 20208) One room furnished available near Indian Central school Abbassiya for decent bachelor or small family from 25th January, Indians only, reasonable rent. Contact: 99764178. (C 20107) Sharing accommodation available in Abbassiya near German clinic for decent bachelors (non smoking and non alcoholic) with a Keralite bachelor C-A/C new building, rent KD 45. Tel: 94942964. (C 20206)

FOR SALE Mitsubishi jeep Nativa 6 cylinder engine, alloy rim, fog launch, silver color, excellent condition, cash price KD 3,100 negotiable, installment possible. Contact 66507741. (C 20229) Corolla 2002 (1.8), for sale, run km 180,000, registration on 6-4-2010, KD 1350 final.

Contact: 99864113.

(C 20230) 21-1-2010 ATV 50cc E-Ton run great!.

Call 67039015. (C 20220) Household goods for sale.

Call 67039015. (C 20221) 20-1-2010 Toyota Camry XLi, 4 cylinders, model 2006, white color, done KD 47,000, excellent condition, price cash KD 3,150.

Contact: 97213518. (C 20219) Mercedes 99 E240, silver, very good condition, full

option, sunroof, wood decoration, cruise control, company original paint, lady driven, price KD 1750. Contact: 66321932. (C 20218) Mitsubishi Gallant, model 2003, silver grey color, in very good condition and insured up to October 2010, engine overhauled in November 09, from M/S auto-1 (ex Al Gannam), price fixed KD 1150. Call: 66608427. (C 20217) 19-1-2010 Mitsubishi Pajero 2000 model, (V6) very good condition, golden color, KD 1650. Phone: 99951793, 66605926. (C 20204) 17-1-2010 Sony TV, Electric oven, boiler/ Coffee maker and dishwasher for sale. Please call 97850290.

Pejot Pointer delivery van, 2008 model, KD 1,350.

Phone: 66052331.

(C 20199) Jeep Ford Escape, model 2001, color yellow, four doors, 6 cylinders, very good condition with original paint, 200,191 km, price KD 1,250 fixed.

Phone: 97786744/ 66804825.

(C 20200)

MATRIMONIAL Goan Roman Catholic parents invite proposals for their daughter BE, MBA 27/5.4 employed in Goa from professionally qualified boys. Email: portugnezh@yahoo.com (20233) 21-1-2010 Syrian Catholic parents in Kuwait invite marriage pro-

posals for their son, B.Tech, 29/177, employed in Kuwait.

Contact:jmj8002@gmail.com (C 20209) Proposals invited for Keralite Orthodox boy 27/180/BE, working MNC Banglore from professionally qualified girls.

Contact email: anish_relish@rediffmail.com (C 20211)

SITUATION WANTED Indian male, (MBA Finance) with 2.5 years accountant experience in India, currently seeking for job, proficient in Tally 9,SAP fico, MS Office. Holding valid transferable visa no. 18. Contact: 65547019, 25620738. (C 20214) 18-1-2010 Looking for a part time house maid job, experience in cooking, cleaning also new born baby massage.

Call 66367806. (C 20203) Looking for a suitable job as an accountant, qualification is M.Com, have nine years experience in Dubai, well versed in preparation of trial balance profit & loss A/C and balance sheet.

Please contact: 94942964.

(C 20205) 17-1-2010

No: 14616

CHANGE OF NAME I, Eusebio Fernandes holder Indian Passport No. E 3358259, hereby change my name to Eusebio Salvador Fernandes. (C 20231) 21-1-2010

TRANSPORT Transportation available anytime, anywhere in Kuwait, new Toyota Hiace van, please contact: 66731349. (C 20198) 20-1-2010

Flight Schedule Arrival Flights on Thursday 21/01/2010 Airlines Flt Route Jazeera 0263 Beirut Jet A/W 574 Cochin Gulf Air 211 Bahrain Turkish A/L 1172 Istanbul D.H.L. 370 Bahrain Emirates 853 Dubai Etihad 0305 Abu Dhabi Qatari 0138 Doha Ethiopian 622 Addis Ababa/Bahrain Kuwait 802 Cairo Falcon 201 Dubai Jazeera 0503 Luxor Cargolux 792 Luxembourg Jazeera 0527 Alexandria Jazeera 0529 Assiut British 0157 London Kuwait 412 Manila/Bangkok Kuwait 352 Cochin Jazeera 0181 Dubai Kuwait 302 Mumbai Kuwait 344 Chennai Kuwait 676 Dubai Kuwait 362 Colombo Emirates 855 Dubai Arabia 0121 Sharjah Qatari 0132 Doha Etihad 0301 Abu Dhabi Iran Air 603 Shiraz Falcon 203 Dubai Gulf Air 213 Bahrain Wataniya Airways 1121 Bahrain Iran Aseman 6791 Mashad Jazeera 0447 Doha Jazeera 0165 Dubai Jazeera 0425 Bahrain Wataniya Airways 1021 Dubai Jazeera 0113 Abu Dhabi Middle East 404 Beirut Oman Air 0645 Muscat Kuwait 382 Delhi Egypt Air 610 Cairo Mahan Air 5066 Mashad Jazeera 0171 Dubai Saudi Arabian A/L 508 Riyadh Wataniya Airways 2301 Damascus Egypt Air 621 Assiut Nas Air 745 Jeddah Jazeera 0525 Alexandria Jazeera 0257 Beirut Wataniya Airways 2001 Cairo Nas Air 703 Riyadh Saudi Arabian A/L 500 Jeddah Kuwait 562 Amman Kuwait 552 Damascus Jazeera 0457 Damascus Qatari 0134 Doha

Time 00:05 00:40 01:05 02:15 02:15 02:35 03:00 03:25 03:30 04:45 05:25 05:35 05:45 06:10 06:30 06:40 06:45 07:40 07:45 07:55 08:10 08:10 08:20 08:30 08:55 09:00 09:35 09:40 10:30 10:45 10:45 10:55 11.00 11:05 11:10 11:20 11:20 11:55 12:15 12:45 12:55 12:55 1305 13:30 13:35 13:55 14:00 14:05 14:10 14:20 14:25 14:30 14:35 14:40 14:45 15:00

Kuwait Kuwait Kuwait Royal Jordanian Jazeera Almasria Universal Global Emirates Gulf Air Etihad Saudi Arabian A/L Jazeera Jazeera Arabia Jazeera Wataniya Airways Jazeera Sri Lankan United A/L Jazeera Wataniya Airways D.H.L. Yemenia Wataniya Airways Kuwait Kuwait Kuwait Jazeera Kuwait Kuwait Kuwait Indian Kuwait Kuwait Jet A/W Jazeera Wataniya Airways Gulf Air Middle East Qatari Emirates Wataniya Airways Kuwait Jazeera Jazeera Global Jazeera Jazeera Jazeera Jazeera Kuwait Shaheen Air India Express Lufthansa Bangladesh Wataniya Airways Wataniya Airways Pakistan

284 544 546 800 0173 109 061 857 215 0303 510 0493 0239 0125 0367 2101 0497 227 982 0427 2003 473 824 1025 542 674 166 0177 786 614 774 575 102 618 572 0459 2103 217 402 0136 859 1129 502 0449 0429 081 0117 0433 0185 0695 548 441 393 636 045 2201 1029 215

Dhaka Cairo Alexandria Amman Dubai Alexandria/Assiut Baghdad Dubai Bahrain Abu Dhabi Riyadh Jeddah Amman Sharjah Deirezzor Beirut Riyadh Colombo/Dubai Washington DC Dulles Bahrain Cairo Baghdad Sanaa/Doha Dubai Cairo Dubai Paris/Rome Dubai Jedddah Bahrain Riyadh Chennai/Goa New York/London Doha Mumbai Damascus Beirut Bahrain Beirut Doha Dubai Bahrain Beirut Doha Bahrain Baghdad Abu Dhabi Mashad Dubai Shiraz Sharm El Sheikh/Luxor Lahore/Karachi Kozhikode/Cochin Frankfurt Dhaka/Doha Amman Dubai Karachi

15:10 15:30 15:30 15:40 16:05 16:30 16:50 16:55 17:05 17:15 17:15 17:30 17:35 17:40 1745 17:50 18:00 18:05 18:15 18:15 18:20 18:30 18:40 18:40 18:50 18:55 19:00 19:05 19:10 19:20 19:30 19:30 19:35 20:00 20:05 20:40 20:55 21:05 21:20 21:35 21:40 22:00 22:00 22:10 22:15 22:20 22:25 22:35 22:40 22:45 22:55 23:05 23:15 23:30 23:40 23:40 23:45 23:55

Departure Flights on Thursday 21/01/2010 Airlines Flt Route Jazeera 0528 Assiut India Express 390 Mangalore/Kozhikode United Airlines 981 Washington DC Dulles Indian 994 Mumbai/Chennai Pakistan 206 Lahore Lufthansa 637 Frankfurt Jet A/W 573 Cochin Kuwait 283 Dhaka DHL 371 Bahrain Turkish Air 1173 Istanbul Kuwait 381 Delhi Fmirates 854 Dubai Etihad 0306 Abu Dhabi Ethiopian 622 Addis Ababa Qatari 0139 Doha Jazeera 0164 Dubai Wataniya Airways 1020 Dubai Jazeera 0524 Alexandria Wataniya Airways 2000 Cairo Jazeera 0112 Abu Dhabi Jazeera 0446 Doha Gulf Air 212 Bahrain Wataniya Airways 1120 Bahrain Jazeera 0422 Bahrain Wataniya Airways 2300 Damascus Kuwait 545 Alexandria Jazeera 0256 Beirut Cargolux 792 Hong Kong Kuwait 543 Cairo British 0156 London Jazeera 0170 Dubai Kuwait 551 Damascus Kuwait 561 Amman Jazeera 0456 Damascus Arabia 0122 Sharjah Emirates 856 Dubai Kuwait 117 New York Qatari 0133 Doha Etihad 0302 Abu Dhabi Kuwait 173 Frankfurt/Geneva Iran Air 602 Shiraz Wataniya Airways 2002 Cairo Gulf Air 214 Bahrain Falcon 204 Baghdad Iran Aseman 6792 Mashad Global 062 Najaf/Baghdad Jazeera 0172 Dubai Kuwait 541 Cairo Wataniya Airways 2100 Beirut Jazeera 0492 Jeddah Jazeera 0366 Deirezzor Jazeera 0238 Amman Kuwait 103 London Middle East 405 Beirut Oman Air 0646 Muscat Kuwait 785 Jeddah

FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION 161

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

Egypt Air Mahan Air Wataniya Airways Kuwait Jazeera Saudi Arabian A/L Egypt Air Nas Air Jazeera Wataniya Airways Nas Air Jazeera Jazeera Kuwait Saudi Arabian A/L Kuwait Kuwait Kuwait Royal Jordanian Qatari Kuwait Jazeera Almasria Universal Gulf Air Etihad Emirates Arabia Jazeera Saudi Arabian A/L Jazeera Jazeera Wataniya Airways Global Jazeera Jazeera Wataniya Airways Sri Lankan Wataniya Airways Yementa Jazeera Kuwait Kuwait Jet A/W Gulf Air D.H.L. Kuwait Kuwait Middle East Jazeera Falcon Qatari Kuwait Emirates Jazeera Jazeera Kuwait Jazeera

611 5065 1024 673 0496 509 622 746 0176 2102 704 0426 0458 547 501 773 501 613 801 0135 617 0432 110 216 0304 858 0126 0262 511 0184 0116 2200 082 0448 0428 1128 228 1028 824 0694 343 331 571 218 171 801 675 403 0188 102 0137 301 860 0636 0526 415 0502

Cairo Mashad Dubai Dubai Riyadh Medinah Assiut Jeddah Dubai Beirut Medinah Bahrain Damascus Sharm El Sheikh/Luxor Jeddah Riyadh Beirut Bahrain Amman Doha Doha Mashad Alexandria Bahrain Abu Dhabi Dubai Sharjah Beirut Riyadh Dubai Abu Dhabi Amman Baghdad Doha Bahrain Bahrain Dubai/Colombo Dubai Sanaa Shiraz Chennai Trivandrum Mumbai Bahrain Bahrain Cairo Dubai Beirut Dubai Bahrain Doha Mumbai Dubai Aleppo Alexandria Kuala Lumpur/Jakarta Luxor

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

34

SPECTRUM

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Calvin

CROSSWORD 876

Aries (March 21-April 19) Some people just need a boost in the right direction and that may be the case today with a friend or co-worker. Be aware of opportunities to encourage and uplift someone that may have had a rough time lately. Lunch with a coworker may have you talking over past trips or vacations that you have each enjoyed. There is a feeling of support and camaraderie that you did not know could exist in the work place. This is a great time to be with others and to work together. You may be sought after as just the person for a particular job this afternoon. Your management abilities and objective strategies are in demand. There is a boost in your home life this evening—everyone is in a positive mood. Dive into your creative endeavors tonight.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) You may not be in charge of activities today, but you are required to give your input. Whatever is asked of you gets your full attention. This is a lucky day for you to receive money—expected or not. Perhaps you have won a football pool and the money is just now forthcoming. A group meeting this afternoon is productive. There are excellent ideas to be shared and inspiration is easy to find. Everyone seems genuinely interested in accomplishing a goal as a group and not as a competition. This may mean you represent a customer that needs intervention or a project that demands the talent of the whole group. If you are in a music group, you may enjoy the results from a choir practice or a bell choir rehearsal this evening.

Pooch Cafe

ACROSS 1. United States musician (born in Japan) who married John Lennon and collaborated with him on recordings (born in 1933).

4. In bed.

8. A rapid bustling commotion.

11. Relating to or characteristic of or occurring in the air.

12. Plant with an elongated head of broad stalked leaves resembling celery.

13. The upper side of the thighs of a seated person.

14. Any of a number of fishes of the family Carangidae.

16. Having undesirable or negative qualities.

17. The compass point that is one point east of due south.

18. Eurasian perennial bulbous herbs.

20. A soft white precious univalent metallic element having the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of any metal.

21. A radioactive element of the actinide series.

22. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine.

25. A burn cause by hot liquid or steam.

27. The blood group whose red cells carry both the A and B antigens.

29. Title for a civil or military leader (especially in Turkey).

32. A doctor's degree in religion.

33. A communist state in Indochina on the South China Sea. 35. Genus of tropical plants with creeping rootstocks and small umbellate flowers.

38. A loose sleeveless outer garment made from aba cloth.

39. A heavy brittle metallic element of the platinum group.

44. A small cake leavened with yeast.

46. An associate degree in applied science.

49. Any of various coarse shrubby plants of the genus Iva with small greenish flowers.

51. The 7th letter of the Greek alphabet.

52. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine.

53. Cry plaintively.

54. A compartment in front of a motor vehicle where driver sits.

DOWN 1. A kiln for drying hops.

2. An intensive care unit designed with special equipment to care for premature or low-birth-weight or seriously ill newborn.

3. Using speech rather than writing.

4. An associate degree in nursing.

5. An imaginary elephant that appears in a series of French books for children.

6. A federal agency established to coordinate programs aimed at reducing pollution and protecting the environment.

7. An informal term for a father.

8. Thickening of tissue in the motor tracts of the lateral columns and anterior horns of the spinal cord.

9. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

10. An organization of countries formed in 1961 to agree on a common policy for the sale of petroleum.

15. The face of a timepiece.

19. A genus of Ploceidae.

23. (Akkadian) God of wisdom.

24. Type genus of the Ranidae.

26. The elementary stages of any subject (usually plural).

28. The cry made by sheep.

30. A rare silvery (usually trivalent) metallic element.

31. Before noon.

34. The compass point that is one point east (clockwise) of due north.

36. An anti-TNF compound (trade name Arava) that is given orally.

37. An independent agency of the United States government responsible for collecting and coordinating intelligence and counterintelligence activities abroad in the national interest.

40. Any of numerous local fertility and nature deities worshipped by ancient Semitic peoples.

41. Common Indian weaverbird.

42. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

43. According to the Old Testament he was a pagan king of Israel and husband of Jezebel (9th century BC).

45. A room or establishment where alcoholic drinks are served over a counter.

47. The seventh and last day of the week.

48. The last (12th) month of the year.

49. A soft silvery metallic element of the alkali earth group.

50. A unit of information equal to one million (1,048,576) bytes.

Gemini (May 21-June 20) The clarity with which you speak will aid you in an important meeting today.

Your mind is quick and sharp and you have insight into how to outline important issues in which you have strong feelings. Gathering information for a presentation is a stimulating part of your day. The climb to reach your goal is almost as exciting as the achievement of your goal. Someone may oppose your ideas but you have great insight, particularly if you have done your research.

This is a mentally and socially active period for you. The secret ingredient is research. A friend may seek you out for psychological advice today.

Through listening and giving advice to others, you gain insights into some answers for yourself. You enjoy quiet activities this evening.

Non Sequitur Cancer (June 21-July 22) Your speed slows today as you contact with people that may want to unknowingly interrupt or slow your progress. Slowing down is OK—you may not be able to avoid the interruptions. Your intuition will come into play today.

You can rely on it to steer you in the right direction. Your imagination will see you through any problems. Superiors watch the confident way you handle yourself. Your ideas could be challenged but do not give up—you are on the right path. It may be that the timing is just not quite right for now. Through helping a young person this afternoon, you may come up with new ideas that will benefit your own life as well. Believe in yourself so that others will believe in you too. You may spend some time this evening with a friend.

Leo (July 23-August 22) This could be a time for real breakthroughs in the idea department. You are in top form when it comes to mental activity now. This, however, may not be the time to try new things or make a push to break away from the old routine. This is a great time to reflect and understand your own situation, just how you feel about yourself. A problem concerning a friend may come to your attention this afternoon. You feel deeply and passionately and when you are asked for advice you give others your full attention. Learn to make positive movements toward your own peace of mind—you do this for others, why not yourself. You are full of good ideas today. Later—laughter, as well as music, is good for the soul. A love relationship benefits from your affection.

Zits

Virgo (August 23-September 22) Listening is the key word today. The ability to clearly communicate may not be necessary just now. Some people can make our lives quite stressful if we allow it. You could be the third person in an argument and become too involved to be helpful—observe.

Know that this situation will pass and you will then wonder what happen to cause the problem. Gathering information and working with others may be an important factor in your job duties for the next few weeks. You have some excellent ideas; do not be afraid to express them. A little progressive thinking when expressing yourself will develop into some fascinating ideas. Work, achievement and ambition, as well as a few sweet words from your beloved, are just what motivates you.

Mother Goose and Grimm

Libra (September 23-October 22) You may only have one project in the works for now but soon there will be more than you can handle. You seem to know that the work is about to increase. You go about your day helping others that have not figured out some new technical matter most of this day. Authority figures are pleased at your cooperation and ingenuity. In the afternoon, at home, you may find yourself running errands and helping family members with homework, correspondence, bills, etc.

You might consider a trip to the country soon or some fun entertainment that would help you and your family have some real family-time together.

Find the time to have a side interest such as: a second job, volunteer work, charity, etc. Use your creativeness! You can relax this evening.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) You are inventive, original and involved with high-tech matters today. Money will come to you through other people or through your loved one’s investments. Earnings are strong and new opportunities come through your contacts with a variety of people. There are some new ideas and new plans into what you want to do with your investments. You may want to work toward setting up some plans to help a particular family or group—perhaps a college fund. You see yourself in a better light than from the past and with this new awareness come the desire to help others. Breakthroughs in compassion and fellowship are obvious today. Everything points to your taking the initiative. You could feel great support from those around you.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) Sympathy and understanding are important qualities that take on greater meaning. It’s wisdom, not knowledge that counts the most today. Coming to understand how you got where you are may give you an attitude of appreciation.

Remember that your goals are within your reach so that you do not become distracted with your competitive desires. You crave organization and practicality and you want to get things accomplished. You aim to have a place for everything and this includes the home place as well as the work place.

Others know just what to expect when they communicate or work with you.

You can expect a little boost, some extra support from those around you.

Your confidence is strong as you guide young people tonight.

Yesterday’s Solution

Yester

Yesterday’s Solution

To

00965 00974 009712 009714 009717 009716 00968 009626 00973 009661 009662 00202 00203 009611 0096311 0096321

Tunisia Rabat Washington New York Paris London Madrid Zurich Geneva Monaco Rome Bangkok Hong Kong Pakistan Taiwan Bonn

0021610 002127 001212 001718 00331 004471 00341 00411 004122 0033 00396 00662 00852 0092 00886 0049228

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) Obtaining and exchanging information takes on more emotional significance for you now. You will begin to find yourself digging for answers today that you never really knew you cared about before. There are new and exciting challenges ahead. Avoid, however, mental power struggles with others—allow events to unfold. A friend will teach you a new skill— perhaps turning it into a hobby. Involve yourself with a volunteer program. This will give you insight into other ways of life and different levels of acceptance. You will become more involved with neighbors or siblings this afternoon. You could help with plans for a wedding or a shower soon. Listening and communicating feelings becomes more important now. This is one of your best days for love.

INTERNATIONAL CALLS Kuwait Qatar Abu Dhabi Dubai Raas Al Khayma Al-Shareqa Muscat Jordan Bahrain Riyadh Makkah - Jeddah Cairo Alexandria Beirut Damascus Allepo

Capricorn (December 22-January 19) You have an assistant or helper at work that will go the extra mile for you. Ask plenty of questions in order to understand a new project and seek this helper if there are remaining questions. You may be encouraged to expand your thinking with regard to education.

Perhaps it is time to teach or take a class just to test the waters—you can do it! During the noon break, make sure that you find a positive atmosphere in which to enjoy your meal. Stay away from tense discussions at the table. Vary your menu as the same thing can become dull and will cause you to eat too fast. There may be unexpected surprises this afternoon. Your romantic appeal is strong today; if you are looking . . . you could find that for which are looking.

Word Sleuth Solution

Pisces (February 19-March 20) You are ready to understand what comes next in your life and you seem eager to get down to business. Your immediate superior is easy to work for and you may work closely with this person today. Here are real opportunities to complete and work out difficulties and projects that require both long-term effort and a high degree of discipline. You and your friends will be able to visit and enjoy activities together this afternoon. There is talk of jobs, family, children, homes and health. You will probably agree to exercise together and at least a few will follow through with this. You will want to be in good shape mentally and physically for this evening’s activity with young people. These little guys need your encouragement and influence.

TV PROGRAMS

Thursday, January 21, 2010

35

Orbit Listings / Show Listings AMERICA PLUS 00:00 Lost 01:00 Private Practice 02:00 Grey’s Anatomy 03:00 Cold Case 04:00 One Tree Hill 05:00 Lost 06:00 GMA Recorded 08:00 GMA Health 08:30 What’s the Buzz 09:00 Private Practice 10:00 Grey’s Anatomy 11:00 Ally McBeal 12:00 One Tree Hill 13:00 Cold Case 14:00 Ally McBeal 15:00 GMA Live 17:00 GMA Health 17:30 What’s the Buzz 18:00 One Tree Hill 19:00 Lost 20:00 The O.C. 21:00 ER 22:00 Bachelor 23:00 Supernatural ANIMAL PLANET 00:50 Animal Cops Houston 01:45 Africa’s Super Seven 02:40 Untamed & Uncut 03:35 Planet Earth 04:30 Animal Cops Houston 05:25 Animal Cops Houston 06:20 Lemur Street 06:45 Monkey Business 07:10 RSPCA: On the Frontline 07:35 Vet on the Loose 08:00 Wildlife SOS 08:25 Pet Rescue 08:50 Animal Precinct 09:45 The Planet’s Funniest Animals 10:10 The Planet’s Funniest Animals 10:40 RSPCA: On the Frontline 11:05 Animal Cops Houston 11:55 Planet Earth 12:50 Wildlife SOS 13:15 Pet Rescue 13:45 The Planet’s Funniest Animals 14:10 The Planet’s Funniest Animals 14:40 Africa’s Super Seven 15:35 Lemur Street 16:00 Monkey Business 16:30 Pet Rescue 16:55 Vet on the Loose 17:25 Wildlife SOS 17:50 Aussie Animal Rescue 18:20 Animal Cops Houston 19:15 Austin Stevens Adventures 20:10 Return to the Wild 21:10 Animal Cops Houston 22:05 Untamed & Uncut 23:00 Austin Stevens Adventures 23:55 Animal Cops Houston BBC ENTERTAINMENT 00:35 Casualty 01:25 The Week The Women Went 02:25 Mission Africa 02:55 Mission Africa 03:25 Goldplated 04:15 Casualty 05:05 Casualty 05:55 Mission Africa 06:35 Bargain Hunt 07:20 Balamory 07:40 Tweenies 08:00 Fimbles 08:20 Teletubbies 08:45 Yoho Ahoy 08:50 Tommy Zoom 09:00 Balamory 09:20 Tweenies 09:40 Fimbles 10:00 Teletubbies 10:25 Yoho Ahoy 10:30 Bargain Hunt 11:15 The Week The Women Went 12:15 Mission Africa 12:45 Mission Africa 13:15 The Weakest Link 14:00 Eastenders 14:30 Doctors 15:00 Bargain Hunt 15:45 Cash In The Attic 16:15 Blackadder 16:50 2 Point 4 Children 17:15 The Weakest Link 18:00 Doctors 18:30 Eastenders 19:00 Casualty 19:50 Casualty 20:40 Model Gardens 21:00 The Weakest Link 21:45 Doctors 22:15 Eastenders 22:45 Massive 23:15 Carrie & Barry 23:45 Jack Dee: Live At The Apollo BBC LIFESTYLE 00:05 Ching’s Kitchen 00:30 Masterchef Goes Large 01:00 Masterchef Goes Large 01:20 Cash In The Attic Usa 01:45 Hidden Potential 02:10 Living In The Sun 03:00 Ainsley’s Gourmet Express 03:30 Ching’s Kitchen 03:55 Masterchef Goes Large 04:25 Masterchef Goes Large 04:55 Cash In The Attic Usa 05:35 Cash In The Attic Usa 06:00 Hidden Potential 06:25 Living In The Sun 07:15 The Clothes Show 08:00 Antiques Roadshow 08:50 Cash In The Attic Usa 09:15 Cash In The Attic Usa 09:35 Hidden Potential 10:00 Gary Rhodes’ Local Food Heroes 10:45 Gary Rhodes’ Local Food Heroes 11:30 Living In The Sun 12:20 Antiques Roadshow 13:10 The Clothes Show 14:00 Gary Rhodes’ Local Food Heroes 14:45 Gary Rhodes’ Local Food Heroes 15:35 Daily Cooks Challenge

SHOW COMEDY 00:00 Friends 00:30 According To Jim 01:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:30 The Colbert Report 02:00 Sit Down, Shut Up 02:30 The Book Group 03:00 Home Improvement 03:30 The Colbert Report 04:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 04:30 The Colbert Report 05:00 Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne 05:30 Will And Grace 06:00 Two And A Half Men 06:30 Home Improvement 07:00 Fresh Prince Of Bel Air 07:30 Ellen 08:00 Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne 08:30 8 Simple Rules..

09:00 Watching Ellie 09:30 Malcolm In The Middle 10:00 Will And Grace 10:30 Two And A Half Men 11:00 Til Death 11:30 8 Simple Rules..

12:00 Ellen 12:30 Watching Ellie 13:00 Fresh Prince Of Bel Air 13:30 Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne 14:00 Home Improvement 14:30 Malcolm In The Middle 15:00 Friends 15:30 According To Jim 16:00 Ellen 16:30 Watching Ellie 17:00 Fresh Prince Of Bel Air 17:30 8 Simple Rules..

18:00 Will And Grace 18:30 Two And A Half Men 19:00 Til Death 19:30 Malcolm In The Middle 20:00 Friends 20:30 According To Jim 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 Comedy Central 22:30 Comedy Central 23:00 Nut Case 23:30 Til Death

The Wackness on Show Movies 16:05 Daily Cooks Challenge 16:30 Cash In The Attic Usa 16:50 Hidden Potential 17:10 Antiques Roadshow 18:00 The Clothes Show 18:50 Living In The Sun 19:45 Daily Cooks Challenge 20:15 Daily Cooks Challenge 20:40 Masterchef Goes Large 21:05 Ainsley’s Gourmet Express 21:35 Ching’s Kitchen 22:00 Superhomes 22:50 A Week Of Dressing Dangerously 23:15 A Week Of Dressing Dangerously 23:40 Ainsley’s Gourmet Express BBC WORLD 00:00 Bbc World News - U 00:30 Hardtalk - U 01:00 World News Today: Business Edition - U 01:45 Sport Today - U 02:00 Bbc World News - U 02:30 Hardtalk - U 03:00 Bbc World News America - U 04:00 Bbc World News - U 04:30 Asia Business Report - U 04:45 Sport Today - U 05:00 Bbc World News - U 05:30 Asia Business Report - U 05:45 Asia Today - U 06:00 World News Today - U 07:00 Bbc World News - U 07:30 Hardtalk - U 08:00 Bbc World News - U 08:30 World Business Report - U 09:00 Bbc World News - U 09:30 World Business Report - U 10:00 Bbc World News - U 10:30 World Business Report - U 10:45 Sport Today - U 11:00 Bbc World News - U 11:30 World Business Report - U 11:45 Sport Today - U 12:00 Bbc World News - U 12:30 Hardtalk - U 13:00 Bbc World News - U 14:00 Bbc World News - U 14:30 World Business Report - U 14:45 Sport Today - U 15:00 World News Today - U 16:00 World News Today - U 17:00 Bbc World News - U 17:30 Hardtalk - U 18:00 Bbc World News - U 18:30 Kill Or Cure? - U 19:00 World News Today - U 20:00 Bbc World News - U 20:30 World Business Report - U 20:45 Sport Today - U 21:00 Bbc World News - U 21:30 Hardtalk - U 22:00 World News Today - U 23:00 Bbc World News - U 23:30 Click - U CINEMA CITY 01:00 Shadow Puppets - 18 03:00 Silent Venom - PG15 05:00 Road of No Return - PG15 07:00 Breaking Up - PG15 09:00 Planet of the Apes - PG15 11:00 The Last Drop - PG15 13:00 Girl’s Best Friend - PG 15:00 Diamonds - Pt.*1* - PG15 17:00 Act of God - PG15 19:00 Cass - 18 21:00 The Negotiator - PG15

23:00 Room *6* - 18 E! ENTERTAINMENT 00:15 Streets Of Hollywood 00:40 E!es 01:30 Extreme Hollywood 02:20 Sexiest 03:15 Ths Investigates 05:05 Dr 90210 06:00 Beauty Queens Gone Wrong 07:45 Style Star 08:10 Style Star 08:35 E! News 09:00 The Daily 10 09:25 Leave It To Lamas 09:50 Leave It To Lamas 10:15 Ths 11:05 Ths 12:00 E! News 12:25 The Daily 10 12:50 Reality Hell 13:15 Reality Hell 13:40 Ths 15:25 Behind The Scenes 15:50 Behind The Scenes 16:15 E!es 17:10 Perfect Catch 18:00 E! News 18:25 The Daily 10 18:50 Streets Of Hollywood 19:15 Battle Of The Hollywood Hotties 19:40 Ths 20:30 Ths 21:20 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 21:45 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 22:10 E! News 22:35 The Daily 10 23:00 Dr 90210 23:50 Battle Of The Hollywood Hotties NAT GEO ADVENTURE 00:30 Jailed Abroad 01:30 Jailed Abroad 02:30 Destination Extreme 03:00 Madventures 03:30 Surfer’s Journal 04:00 Bondi Rescue 04:30 Destination Extreme 05:00 Madventures 05:30 By Any Means 06:30 Jailed Abroad 07:30 Jailed Abroad 08:30 Destination Extreme 09:00 Madventures 09:30 Surfer’s Journal 10:00 Bondi Rescue 10:30 Destination Extreme 11:00 Madventures 11:30 Kayaking China 12:30 Bondi Rescue 13:00 Bondi Rescue 13:30 First Ascent 14:00 Finding Genghis 14:30 Destination Extreme 15:00 Madventures 15:30 Surfer’s Journal 16:00 Bondi Rescue 16:30 Destination Extreme 17:00 Madventures 17:30 Kayaking China 18:30 Bondi Rescue 19:00 Bondi Rescue 19:30 First Ascent 20:00 Finding Genghis 20:30 Destination Extreme 21:00 Madventures

21:30 22:00 22:30 23:00 23:30

Surfer’s Journal Bondi Rescue Destination Extreme Madventures Kayaking China

NAT GEO WILD 00:00 Wild Russia 01:00 Dive To Tiger Central 02:00 Monkey Thieves 02:30 Monkey Thieves 03:00 Valley Of The Wolves 04:00 Hidden Worlds 04:30 Snake Wranglers 05:00 Flight Of The Elephants 06:00 Wild Russia 07:00 Dive To Tiger Central 08:00 Monkey Thieves 08:30 Monkey Thieves 09:00 Valley Of The Wolves 10:00 Hidden Worlds 10:30 Snake Wranglers 11:00 Super Pride 12:00 Ancient Creatures 13:00 The Kill Zone 14:00 Rescue Ink 15:00 Thunder Beasts 16:00 Hidden Worlds 16:30 Snake Wranglers 17:00 Super Pride 18:00 Ancient Creatures 19:00 The Kill Zone 20:00 Rescue Ink 21:00 Thunder Beasts 22:00 Hidden Worlds 22:30 Snake Wranglers 23:00 Super Pride PLAYHOUSE DISNEY 08:00 Special Agent Oso 08:25 Handy Manny 08:50 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 09:15 Imagination Movers 09:40 Chuggington 09:50 Chuggington 10:00 Chuggington 10:10 Handy Manny 10:30 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 10:50 Special Agent Oso 11:15 Imagination Movers 11:40 My Friends Tigger and Pooh 12:05 Chuggington 12:20 Chuggington 12:55 Handy Manny 13:05 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 13:30 Little Einsteins 13:50 Handy Manny 14:10 My Friends Tigger and Pooh 14:30 Little Einsteins 14:55 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 15:20 Jo Jo’s Circus 15:45 Jo Jo’s Circus 16:10 Higglytown Heroes 16:35 Higglytown Heroes 17:00 Happy Monster Band 17:05 My Friends Tigger and Pooh 17:30 Happy Monster Band 17:35 Handy Manny 18:00 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 18:25 Special Agent Oso 18:50 Chuggington 19:00 Imagination Movers 19:25 Handy Manny 19:50 Chuggington 20:00 Special Agent Oso 20:15 Little Einsteins 20:40 Handy Manny 20:50 My Friends Tigger and Pooh 21:00 End Of Programming

SHOW MOVIES 1 01:15 Awake - 18 03:00 The Wackness - 18 05:00 Quand J’etais Chanteur - PG 15 07:00 For One More Day - PG 15 09:00 Kung Fu Panda - PG 10:30 The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian - PG 13:00 Bedtime Stories - FAM 15:00 Hancock - PG 15 17:00 Evan Almighty - PG 19:00 Step Brothers - PG 15 20:45 Charlie Wilson’s War - 18 23:00 Elegy - R SHOW MOVIES 2 00:30 Into The Wild - PG 15 03:30 Iris - 18 05:30 Casamento De Romeu E Julieta, O - PG 07:30 The Children Of Huang Shi PG 10:00 Little Giants - FAM 12:00 Surf’s Up - PG 14:00 Heavyweights - PG 16:00 Little Giants - FAM 18:00 Surf’s Up - PG 20:00 The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas - PG 15 22:00 Atonement - PG 15

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

Survivor: Samoa Law And Order Emmerdale Coronation Street House 24 Saving Grace Survivor: Samoa Law And Order 24 Emmerdale Coronation Street Never Trust A Skinny Cook Never Trust A Skinny Cook 10 Years Younger (usa) 10 Years Younger (usa) Lipstick Jungle House Eureka Emmerdale Huey’s Cooking Adventure Starter Wife Bones Demons Secret Diary Of A Call Girl Secret Diary Of A Call Girl Lipstick Jungle

SUPER COMEDY 00:30 The Jay Leno Show 01:30 Notes From The Underbelly 02:00 The Ellen Degeneres Show 03:00 Everybody Loves Raymond 03:30 Late Night Show With Jimmy Fallon 04:30 Jimmy Kimmel Live 05:30 The Jay Leno Show 06:30 Notes From The Underbelly 07:00 Frasier 07:30 All Of Us 08:00 The Tonight Show With Conan O’ Brien 09:00 The Ellen Degeneres Show 10:00 Jimmy Kimmel Live 11:00 Everybody Loves Raymond 11:30 Frasier 12:00 Notes From The Underbelly 12:30 All Of Us 13:00 The Jay Leno Show 14:00 The Tonight Show With Conan O’ Brien 15:00 Late Night Show With Jimmy Fallon 16:00 The Ellen Degeneres Show 17:00 Everybody Loves Raymond 17:30 Frasier 18:00 Jimmy Kimmel Live 19:00 The New Adventures Of Old Christine 19:30 All Of Us 20:00 The Jay Leno Show 21:00 The Tonight Show With Conan O’ Brien 22:00 Late Night Show With Jimmy Fallon 23:00 HUNG 23:30 Jimmy Kimmel Live SUPER MOVIES 01:00 Angel - PG15 03:00 Beerfest - 18 05:00 What Happens in Vegas PG15 07:00 Superman Doomsday - PG 09:00 Malice in Wonderland - FAM

11:00 Tom & Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale - FAM 13:00 Unaccompanied Minors - FAM 15:00 Babylon 5: The Lost Tales PG 17:00 The Fountain - PG15 19:00 Real Time - PG15 21:00 The Day the Earth Stood Still 23:00 Take - 18 TCM 00:25 02:10 03:30 05:00 07:30 08:00 09:30 10:50 12:10 13:55 16:10 17:50 19:55 (1963) 21:20 23:00

Foxes (1980) Bad Day at Black Rock Boys’ Town How the West Was Won The Screening Room Boys’ Town Bad Day at Black Rock Across the Wide Missouri Butterfield 8 Anchors Aweigh Welcome to Hard Times The Champ The Mouse On The Moon Skyjacked Khartoum (1966)

THE HISTORY CHANNEL 00:40 Digging for the Truth 01:30 Lost Worlds 02:20 Mummy Forensics 03:10 Rome: Rise and Fall of an Empire 04:00 How the Earth Was Made 04:55 Comets: Prophets of Doom 06:40 Digging for the Truth 07:30 Lost Worlds 08:20 Mummy Forensics 09:10 Rome: Rise and Fall of an Empire 10:00 How the Earth Was Made 10:55 Comets: Prophets of Doom 12:40 Digging for the Truth 13:30 Lost Worlds 14:20 Mummy Forensics 15:10 Rome: Rise and Fall of an Empire 16:00 How the Earth Was Made 16:55 Comets: Prophets of Doom 18:40 Digging for the Truth 19:30 Lost Worlds 20:20 Mummy Forensics 21:10 Rome: Rise and Fall of an Empire 22:00 Warriors 22:55 Cities Of The Underworld 23:50 Modern Marvels THE STYLE NETWORK 00:00 Clean House - PG 01:00 Giuliana And Bill - PG 01:30 Giuliana And Bill - PG 02:00 Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane 02:30 Running In Heels - PG 03:00 How Do I Look? - PG 03:50 Split Ends - PG 04:40 Clean House - PG 05:30 Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

06:20 Glow - FAM 06:45 Area - FAM 07:10 How Do I Look? - PG 08:00 Style Star - PG 08:30 Style Her Famous - PG 09:00 My Celebrity Home - FAM

10:00 10:30 11:00 12:00 13:00 13:30 14:00 15:00 PG 15:30 16:00 17:00 18:00 18:30 19:00 19:30 20:00 21:00 22:00 22:30 23:00 23:30

Style Star - PG Dress My Nest - PG Peter Perfect - PG Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

Giuliana And Bill - PG Giuliana And Bill - PG Clean House - PG Clean House Comes Clean Dress My Nest - PG How Do I Look? - PG Split Ends - PG Style Her Famous - PG The Dish - PG Running In Heels - PG Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane Split Ends - PG Clean House - PG Dress My Nest - PG Style Her Famous - PG Giuliana And Bill - PG Giuliana And Bill - PG

TRAVEL CHANNEL 00:00 Globe Trekker - U 01:00 Africa Trek - U 01:30 Africa Trek - U 02:00 Inside Luxury Travel-varun Sharma - U 03:00 Travel Notebook - U 04:00 X-quest - U 05:00 Globe Trekker - U 06:00 Swiss Railway Journeys - U 07:00 Africa Trek - U 07:30 Africa Trek - U 08:00 Globe Trekker - U 09:00 Travel Today - U 09:30 Rudy Maxa’s World - U 10:00 Distant Shores - U 10:30 Skier’s World - U 11:00 Chef Abroad - U 11:30 Flavours Of Peru - U 12:00 Planet Food - U 13:00 Globe Trekker - U 14:00 Chef Abroad - U 14:30 The Thirsty Traveler - U 15:00 Taste Takes Off - U 15:30 Flavours Of Peru - U 16:00 Travel Notebook - U 17:00 Globe Trekker - U 18:00 Skier’s World - U 18:30 Extreme Travellers - U 19:00 Chef Abroad - U 19:30 The Thirsty Traveler - U 20:00 Africa Trek - U 20:30 Africa Trek - U 21:00 Essential - U 21:30 Croissants In The Jungle - U 22:00 Raider Of The Lost Snow - U 22:30 Skier’s World - U 23:00 Julian And Camilla’s World Odyssey - U XTRA MOVIES 01:30 Surviving Evil - PG15 03:30 Finding Amanda - 18 05:30 Player *5150* - PG15 07:30 The Nines - PG 09:30 Hardball - PG 11:30 P.C.U. - PG15 13:30 Lost - PG15 15:30 Hardball - PG 17:30 Joy Ride - PG15 19:30 In Tranzit - PG15 21:30 A Scanner Darkly - PG15

SHOW MOVIES ACTION 01:30 Children Of The Corn Vii: Revelation - 18 03:00 The Strangers - PG 15 05:00 H.i.t. - PG 15 07:00 Somebody Help Me - PG 15 09:00 The Andromeda Strain - PG 11:30 Artefacts - PG 15 13:00 The Host - 18 15:00 The Andromeda Strain - PG 17:30 Artefacts - PG 15 19:00 Anaconda 3: The Offspring PG 15 21:00 Anaconda: Trail Of Blood - R 23:00 Incubus - PG 15 SHOW MOVIES COMEDY 00:00 Jackass: The Movie - 18 02:00 Committed - PG 15 04:00 My Sassy Girl - PG 15 06:00 Good Burger - PG 15 08:00 Committed - PG 15 10:00 I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry - PG 15 12:00 Curse Of The Jade Scorpion PG 15 14:00 Pure Luck - PG 15 16:00 I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry - PG 15 18:00 Curse Of The Jade Scorpion PG 15 20:00 Half Baked - R 22:00 Numb - 18 SHOW MOVIES KIDS 01:30 The Mysteries Of The Easter Island - PG 03:00 The Pagemaster - PG 04:30 House Arrest - FAM 06:30 Andre - PG 08:15 Clockstoppers - FAM 10:00 Scooby-doo And The Ghoul School - FAM 11:45 Scooby-doo And The Reluctant Werewolf - FAM 13:30 The Trumpet Of The Swan FAM 15:00 Born To Be Wild - FAM 16:45 Magic Sport 2 - PG 18:15 The Trumpet Of The Swan FAM 19:45 Scooby-doo And The Ghoul School - FAM 21:30 Scooby-doo And The Reluctant Werewolf - FAM 23:15 Born To Be Wild - FAM SHOW SERIES 00:00 House 01:00 House Of Saddam

Finding Amanda on Xtra Movies

Star Listings (UAE Timings) STAR Movies

16:00 17:00 18:00 18:50 19:00 20:00 21:00 21:50 22:00 23:00 23:30 00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 03:30 04:00 05:00 05:25 05:50 06:00 06:50 07:00

American Idol Prison Break The Unit Starsky & Hutch American Idol Prison Break The Unit Starsky & Hutch [V] Tunes How I Met Your Mother NGC Program [V] Tunes [V] Tunes 7th Heaven The Simpsons The King Of Queens Beauty And The Geek Cops Cops V.I.P. Bones One Day At A Time American Idol

08:00 09:00 09:30 10:00 10:50 11:00 11:50 12:00 13:00 14:00 14:30 15:00

Prison Break How I Met Your Mother The Bold And The Beautiful 7th Heaven One Day At A Time Bones Starsky & Hutch [V] Tunes American Idol The Simpsons The King Of Queens Beauty And The Geek

Granada TV 21:00 Vroom Vroom (Series 2) 22:00 Emmerdale 22:30 Coronation Street 23:00 Vroom Vroom (Series 2) 00:00 The Springer Show 01:00 Coach Trip (Series 1) * 02:00 Action Thursday: Bloodlines 03:30 Young, Posh and Loaded 04:00 Art Crime 05:00 Emmerdale

05:30 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:30 10:00 11:00 11:30 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:30 16:00 16:30 17:00 18:00 19:00

Coronation Street The Springer Show Coach Trip (Series 1) * Action Thursday: Bloodlines Young, Posh and Loaded Art Crime Emmerdale Coronation Street The Springer Show The Chopping Block (Series 1) Action Thursday: Bloodlines Young, Posh and Loaded Emmerdale Coronation Street The Springer Show The Chopping Block (Series 1) Action Thursday: Bloodlines

Channel [V] 22:00 [V] Plug 22:30 The Playlist 23:00 Loop 00:00 Backtracks 01:00 Double Shot

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

[V] Plug The Playlist Loop Parental Control Double Bill [V] Tunes Double Shot Backtracks Loop [V] Plug Double Shot Backtracks [V] Tunes [V] Plug The Playlist Loop Videoscope [V] Tunes Backtracks [V] Tunes [V] Plug The Playlist Loop Videoscope [V] Tunes

Fox News 20:00 Happening Now 22:00 The Live Desk 00:00 Studio B with Shepard Smith Live 01:00 Your World with Neil Cavuto 02:00 Glenn Beck with Glenn Beck 03:00 Special Report with Bret Baier 04:00 The FOX Report with Shepard Smith 05:00 The O’Reilly Factor 06:00 Hannity 07:00 On the Record with Greta Van Susteren 08:00 The O’Reilly Factor 09:00 Hannity 10:00 On the Record with Greta Van Susteren 11:00 Glenn Beck with Glenn Beck 12:00 Fox Report 13:00 Special Report with Bret Baier 14:00 The O’Reilly Factor 15:00 FOX & Friends First Live 16:00 FOX & Friends Live 18:00 America’s Newsroom 19:00 America’s Newsroom

36

SPECTRUM

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Kate Hudson has a new boyfriend he ‘Nine’ actress - who split from US baseball player Alex ‘ARod’ Rodriguez in December - has seemingly mended her broken heart and has been bragging to friends she is already dating a new man, believed to be a photographer. While enjoying breakfast with pals at the weekend in A Votre Sante in Brentwood, California, the 30-year-old actress reportedly showed off pictures of her latest beau on her mobile phone and told them: “He’s a photographer!” The blonde beauty continued to play with her Blackberry throughout the

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meal, giggled profusely and looked “giddy” with excitement. A fellow diner told E! online: “At one point, they burst out laughing and one said ‘Oh my God!’ “Kate had a flirtatious smile on her face and looked really giddy.” As well as discussing her new lover, Kate and her two friends were also thought to be talking about her exboyfriend Alex. She said: “It’s too late.” A friend responded: “Don’t be nice about it.

It’s too late to apologize.” The 34-year-old sportsman is thought to have dumped Kate in December after seven months together, because she was too much of an attention seeker.

Thurman rekindles her romance ma Thurman has reportedly rekindled her romance with her ex-fiance.

The ‘Kill Bill’ actress was pictured locking lips with French financier Arpad Busson in New York, sparking speculation they have decided to give their romance another try. An onlooker said: “They weren’t behaving as if they were exlovers and at one point kissed each other and didn’t seem to mind who saw.” The couple ended their year-long engagement in November because Uma reportedly thought Arpad was too controlling and wanted to make drastic changes to her life. A friend said: “It seemed like he always wanted to run the show. “He wanted to bring in his own chef and his own security. He’d talk about redesigning her house in the city and knocking down buildings at her place upstate.” Uma who has 11-year-old daughter Maya and seven-year-old son Levon with ex-husband Ethan Hawke, and was also previously married to actor Gary Oldman - had previously admitted she wasn’t ready to marry again. She said: “I’m happily engaged but we haven’t set a wedding up.

I’m not in a rush to do anything.”

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Minogue admits she fancies women ylie Minogue has confessed she is attracted to girls. The ‘Wow’ singer admits she is a “natural flirt” and can’t help but admire beautiful women, but is adamant she has never been involved in a same-sex relationship. Kylie, 41, told Max Mexico magazine: “I have been attracted to some women. I am a sexual exhibitionist and part of me is a natural flirt. “But although I am attracted to women, I have never done anything with them.” Kylie - who is currently dating Spanish male model Andres Velencoso, 31 - was spotted at the 7th Heaven pole dancing club in the French ski resort of Chamonix three weeks ago.

Dancers Faye O’Neil and Katrina Redfern said the singer was “transfixed” as she watched them perform a sexy routine. Kylie has also previously joked about becoming a lesbian because of her huge gay fan base, and admitted to being attracted to late US actress Tallulah Bankhead. She said: “I’d go gay for her. She was a fascinating and exotic woman. There was so much to admire about her. “She lived life to the full, maybe a little too fully. I want to release the inner Tallulah in me.” In 2000, Kylie sent men’s pulses racing when she kissed ex-Spice Girl Geri Halliwell on a British TV chat show.

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Gibson’s public humiliation saved him el Gibson claims public humiliation has made him tougher. The ‘Edge of Darkness’ star - who has battled alcoholism, been arrested for driving under the influence and is in the process of divorcing wife Robyn - claims to have experienced everyone’s biggest fears on a “global scale” but insists he has learned from his mistakes. He said: “You ask anybody what their number one fear is and it’s public humiliation. Multiply that on a global scale and that’s what I’ve been through. It changes you and makes you one tough mother f***er. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. It’s really that simple. You can’t do anything but live in the moment and leave the future in the hands of providence and don’t regret the past too much. Maybe just take a lesson from it.”

The 54-year-old actor said he’d recently become very philosophical about life and is prepared to accept that bad things will happen to him. He said in an interview with the Daily Mirror newspaper: “Life is life and one has experiences that are painful and some that are very pleasant. One has reward and sacrifice and more reward and disappointment and joy and happiness, and it’s always going to be the same.” One thing in his life that Mel is thankful for is Lucia, his three-month-old daughter with girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva. He said: “There’s no gift like the gift of a young life and she’s so sweet. It’s fantastic. There are no possible words to describe it. It’s the same, but I’m different.”

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Sheen’s court date has been postponed been he ‘Hot Shots!’ actor, who has oke Bro wife his g ckin atta of sed accu now l ,wil Day as Mueller on Christm review have to wait until Friday for a emerded nee use hearing after his spo : said rce sou A ery. surg tal gency den to tor doc the by “She has been ordered date rt cou The rs.” hou 72 for bed stay in bans is set to review the order than - with wife his ing tact con from Charlie Max and -old onth who he has twins, 10-m be to it for n kee oke Bro Bob - with relaxed. Mueller’s attorney Yale court Galanter said: “Even though a being from rlie Cha order has prohibited band hus her ts wan she , oke Bro around And s. like he as n to see his kids as ofte eral sev er fath r thei n see e hav the kids appear times. “Brooke and Charlie will will not they but ning mor ay Frid in court

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Cowell signs a $500 million deal with Sony imon Cowell has signed a $500 million deal with Sony. The music mogul’s new two-year contract with the entertainment giants will see him rake in the staggering sum - expected to tip his fortunes close to the $1 billion mark - as he launches Syco TV to produce and sell the formats for his ‘X Factor’ and ‘... Got Talent’ franchises. Simon - who also heads up record label Syco and is expected to sign a new £10 million deal with UK TV network ITV - said: “I have had a fantastic relationship with Sony for many years and I’m delighted we are launching this venture together.” A source added: “He is truly in the driving seat. He felt like an employee before, but now he has some real ownership and is thrilled to be side by side with Sony.” The first project for Simon’s new company will be the launch of the US version of ‘The X Factor’ though the 50-yearold star has laughed off speculation that former Spice Girls star Victoria Beckham will be the first person he signs up to feature on the judging panel. He said: “That is not going to happen.

Absolutely not. Not because I don’t like her. It’s just not going to happen.” Despite speculation about who will appear alongside him in choosing the finalists, Simon insisted he isn’t going to rush into any decisions. He explained to OK! magazine: “In the UK we have 250,000 applicants every year and because there’s no upper-age limit and groups are allowed to enter, you get a lot of applications. “So we gave ourselves time to set up the show in 2011, which also gives us some time to work out who the judging panel is going to be. I don’t want to make any commitments yet.” ‘The X Factor’ is broadcast in 17 countries, while ‘... Got Talent’ is screened in 27.

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Grant thinks Pattinson ‘sexy’ he ‘Love Actually’ star is a huge fan of the ‘Twilight’ heartthrob and can understand why women of all ages fawn over him. He said: “I haven’t watched the second part yet of ‘Twilight’ yet, but I understand the fascination with Robert. I think he’s really sexy!” Hugh, 49, also revealed how he thought he looked sexy when he wore a cowboy hat in movie ‘Did You Hear About The Morgans?’ - until he saw himself on screen. He said: “I thought I looked pretty sexy with the Stetson hat. At least I was hoping I would. But after watching the film I have to admit I looked quite daft. “But you have to know that I always tell the costume designers to make me look as attractive as possible.” Recently there were reports Hugh was going to quit acting after he said it so many times but now he has just decided to see what projects come his way. He told Germany’s OK! magazine: “I realized that I’m going to make a fool of myself if I keep talking about it. So from now on I’m going to shut up about it.”

— Bang Showbiz

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SPECTRUM

Thursday, January 21, 2010

37

Music & Movies

Winehouse gets conditional discharge for assault my Winehouse pleaded guilty yesterday to drunkenly assaulting a theater manager at a family Christmas show and was ordered to pay her victim 185 pounds ($300) in compensation. The judge also gave the soul diva a conditional discharge, meaning she will avoid further punishment if she stays out of trouble for two years. “(That) may be harder than a fine, because you have now got to stay on the straight and narrow for the next two years,” District Judge Peter Crabtree told Winehouse, whose scrapes with the law have often overshadowed her Grammy-winning music.

A scrum of photographers met Winehouse as she arrived at Milton Keynes Magistrates Court, 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of London. The 26-year-old singer admitted charges of disorder and common assault during a Dec 19 performance of the pantomime “Cinderella,” starring Mickey Rooney. The petite singer had earlier admitted drinking five vodka and cola drinks that

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night.

Audiences at British pantomimes, or variety shows, are traditionally rambunctious and are encouraged to shout at the stage and join in with the songs. But prosecutors said Winehouse’s behavior went beyond the usual audience participation. Prosecution lawyer Julian Vickery said Winehouse had been “raising her voice in the spirit of the pantomime” during the show at Milton Keynes Theater. She “accepted in interview that some members of the audience may have found her disorderly,” and one had asked her to be quiet, he said.

The attorney said Winehouse later left the auditorium to go the toilet and, passing the bar, asked manager Richard Pound for another drink.

Vickery said Winehouse felt “hurt, embarrassed and patronized” when Pound suggested she have a glass of water instead and then asked her to leave. He said Winehouse “with no premeditation, grabbed his hair and pulled.” Winehouse,

Britain’s Prince William listens to sisters Alicia (L) and Emily Johnson (2nd L) at the Redfern Community Centre on January 19, 2010.

— AFP

Prince William says he gets a bad rap for his music B

ritain’s Prince William took a self-deprecating dig at his musical tastes during a visit to a youth rehab centre in Australia yesterday, saying it often made him the butt of jokes. The 27-year-old prince made the remarks following a rap jam session at the centre in eastern Sydney, which he toured with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. “I can’t do any beatboxing, I’m not so good at that,” he told Rudd, referring to the vocal percussion stylings of the hip-hop trio before them. “I normally get the piss taken out of me for my choice of music,” he joked. “Mine’s very varied-I like rock, Linkin Park... Kanye West.”

After his visit to the Ted Noffs centre, which runs three-month residential treatment programs for young people with serious drug and alcohol problems, William travelled to a major army base on Sydney’s western outskirts. William graduated as a fully-fledged Royal Air Force helicopter pilot just before his trip to Australia, and he took part in a live firing exercise with elite snipers who have

served in Afghanistan and Iraq.

He was welcomed Tuesday with a traditional Aboriginal “smoking ceremony” in the poor innercity neighborhood of Redfern, which was presided over by an elder daubed in body paint and bearing smoldering gum leaves. Thousands of cheering fans packed the suburb’s narrow streets for a glimpse of the prince, who last visited the country in the arms of his late mother, Princess Diana, when he was just nine months old in 1983. He met with Aboriginal elders to discuss, among other things, the repatriation of indigenous artefacts and remains, including the head of indigenous warrior Pemulwuy.

William reportedly slipped out for a seafood platter and a few beers at exclusive Sydney nightspot Bungalow 8 on Tuesday night. He will visit bushfire-ravaged areas near Melbourne today before returning home tomorrow. His Australia tour follows an official visit to New Zealand, where he represented his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II for the first time.—AFP

dressed in a white shirt and dark skirt with her beehive hair piled high, admitted yesterday that she had lashed out at Pound.

The judge said it was “obvious that alcohol played its part” in the incident. He said a medical report showed the singer had since tried to curb her drinking. “You clearly have taken effort from this report to address your alcohol problems and any other problems you may have, so you get credit for that,” the judge said.

Winehouse had been charged under her married name, Amy Civil, after reporting to a police station Dec. 23. The singer shot to stardom with the Grammy-winning album “Back to Black” in 2006, but her music has been overshadowed by drug use, legal run-ins and a tempestuous marriage that ended in divorce last year. Winehouse was acquitted last year of assaulting a fan who asked to take her picture after a charity ball. The judge said he could not be sure the blow had been deliberate. — AP

‘Avatar’ rules box office, eyes ‘Titanic’ record S

cience-fiction epic “Avatar” surged past the 500-million-dollar mark at the North American box office this weekend, maintaining its push towards an all-time record, final figures showed Tuesday. Director James Cameron’s groundbreaking 3-D spectacular added to its haul over the four-day Martin Luther King holiday weekend with another 54.4 million dollars, box office tracker Exhibitor Relations said. The movie has raked in more than 1.6 billion dollars worldwide since its release and is on course to overtake Cameron’s 1997 Oscar-winner “Titanic,” which remains the highest-grossing film of all time with 1.8 billion dollars.

China’s Internet users were up in arms yesterday over news that authorities planned to limit showings of “Avatar”, the US blockbuster that has seen millions flock to cinemas across the nation.“Avatar was late on the screenshow can they pull it ahead of time?” lamented one online user on Baidu.com, a popular web portal in China. A news report posted on the website of the China Film Group, which distributes movies in the world’s most populous country, indicated that the 2D version of the film was to be pulled.

Zhang Hongsen, deputy director of the China Film Bureau, which is responsible for movie censorship, said tickets for the 3D version of the film were selling like hot cakes, unlike the 2D version.

“So it’s normal that the 2D version is coming off screens. But the 3D and IMAX versions of Avatar will not budge,” he was quoted as saying. China only counts around 700 3D screens-just 15

A Chinese movie goer arrives to buy tickets for ‘Confucius’, a China-made patriotic film starring Chow Yun-fat, in Yichang, central China’s Hubei province yesterday.

—AFP

percent of the nationwide total of 4,600.

Online users, however, were angrily speculating that authorities were pulling some versions of the Hollywood blockbuster to make way for “Confucius”, a China-made patriotic film starring Chow Yun-fat due to come out on Friday.

“If the 2D version of Avatar doesn’t stop and continues until the Chinese New Year (February 14), not one Chinese-made film will survive,” one Baidu user said. “I had planned to go and see ‘Confucius’, but now, seeing this rubbish, shameless behind-the-scenes

behavior, I’m definitely not going to see it,” another person wrote on web portal Sina.com. Xinhua news agency reported earlier this month that “Confucius” would open with 2,500 prints-a national record. Zhou Baolin, head of marketing at the China Film Bureau, denied this was the case.

“There is no relation between ‘Avatar’ coming off screens and ‘Confucius’ coming out. Neither is there any relation with the film’s content,” he told AFP, suggesting the move was a simple business decision. “If there was a

A worker sets up a placard advertising the 60th Berlinale film festival at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, on January 15, 2010.

—AFP

Lohan to be star guest at Vienna opera ball ollywood actress Lindsay Lohan will be Austrian businessman Richard Lugner’s star guest at this year’s Vienna Opera Ball on February 11, he announced yesterday. The 23-year-old has starred in “The Parent Trap,” “Mean Girls” and “Bobby”.

Entrepreneur Lugner, 76, invites a celebrity every year as his guest to the sumptuous Opera Ball, the highlight of the Viennese social calendar.

Sophia Loren, Andie MacDowell, Pamela Anderson and Carmen Electra are among those who have accompanied him to the event in the past. Last year, “Desperate Housewives” star Nicollette Sheridan brought a touch of Hollywood glamour to what is by far the most opulent of the nearly 1,000 balls held in the Austrian capital during Carnival season.

—AFP

British singer Amy Winehouse, center, arrives at Magistrates Court in Milton Keynes, England, yesterday.

—AP

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Lindsay Lohan

Berlin film fest unveils star-packed line-up ew movies starring Ben Stiller, Julianne Moore, Gerard Depardieu, Jessica Alba and James Franco will headline the 60th Berlin film festival next month, organizers said yesterday. Following the announcement of fresh releases by Roman Polanski and Martin Scorsese at this year’s event, the Berlinale said in a statement it had nearly completed the selection of 26 films for its main program.

The festival, which will kick off February 11 with Chinese film-maker Wang Quan’an’s “Apart Together” (Tuan Yuan), will also see the world premiere of “Greenberg” by US indie star Noah Baumbach (“The Squid and the Whale”). In it, Stiller leads a cast including Jennifer Jason Leigh and Rhys Ifans and plays a New Yorker who flees to Los Angeles to work through a life crisis.

Moore and Annette Benning star in Lisa Cholodenko’s US-French production “The Kids Are Alright” about two children born as a result of artificial insemination who seek out their biological father. Provocative British director Michael Winterbottom, a favorite on the festival circuit, will screen “The Killer Inside Me” with Alba, Casey Affleck, and Kate Hudson in the story of a Texas sheriff’s dark secret.

Winterbottom clinched Berlin’s coveted Golden Bear top prize in 2003 for his refugees

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drama “In This World”. “The Killer Inside Me” will screen out of competition. Depardieu is expected in the German capital for the world premiere of the competition film “Mammuth” by Benoit Delepine co-starring Isabelle Adjani. Rob Epstein, director of the acclaimed 1984 documentary “The Times of Harvey Milk”, will present the competition entry “Howl” starring Franco as the beat poet Allen Ginsberg.

Catherine Keener, Amanda Peet and Rebecca Hall lead the cast of “Please Give” by US filmmaker Nicole Holofcener (“Friends With Money”) about real estate wars in New York. It will screen out of competition.

One of Europe’s top two film festivals, the Berlinale is the only one to sell tickets to the public. Its Golden and Silver Bear top prizes will be awarded at a gala ceremony on February 20. Polanski, who is awaiting possible extradition to the United States on charges of unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl, has been completing the Berlin competition entry “The Ghost Writer” while under house arrest in Switzerland. The picture’s stars Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan are expected in Berlin alongside Leonardo DiCaprio with Scorsese’s new thriller “Shutter Island” and Bollywood heartthrob Shah Rukh Khan appearing in “My Name is Khan.”— AFP

problem with (Avatar’s) content, it would not have gone past the censors.” Some movie-goers have linked the film’s portrayal of a tribe’s fight against humans chasing them from their land on a far-off planet with forced land evictions in China, which have recently sparked violent clashes. “Avatar is way too sensitive, it is against forced evictions,” a Sina.com user said. The China News Service quoted Zhang as saying that “Avatar” had already raked in 500 million yuan (around 73 million dollars) in ticket sales. — Agencies

Grammys will stage 3-D tribute to Jackson he Grammys are staging an unprecedented tribute in honor of Michael Jackson including a 3-D film clip the singer made before his death.A posthumous tribute to Jackson will be a focal point of the Jan 31 Grammy Awards broadcast, the Recording Academy announced Tuesday.

It will include a 3-D clip Jackson made for his hit “Earth Song,” a video that was to be integral to his comeback concerts in London in July 2009 — shows that never happened because of his June 25 death. Usher, Celine Dion, Carrie Underwood, Jennifer Hudson and Smokey Robinson will perform alongside the clip. Co-executive producer Ken Ehrlich said will be the first time an awards show will feature 3-D. Jackson will also be honored with a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy during the show. Last year, the show’s producers wanted Jackson to take part in the telecast to celebrate the 25th anniversary of “Thriller.”

Ehrlich had presented several ideas for performers, including Justin Timberlake and Usher, all of which excited Jackson. But in the end, he declined the show’s invitation. “He just wasn’t ready for it,” Ehrlich said.

Ehrlich produced the televised memorial to Jackson last year. He was with the singer the night before he diedand that’s when he first saw the 3-D clip of “Earth Song,” a call to action about the destruction of nature and animals by man.

“There are these incredible images of the beauties of nature, and then they are seen through the eyes of a little girl, and that girl falls asleep and when she wakes up, she is witness to the destruction of nature,” said Ehrlich.

“It’s all about questioning what our values are.” While a part of the clip was shown in the recent movie documentary “This Is It,” Ehrlich says the Grammys will show the full piece in 3-D. He said TV viewers will need 3-D glasses to experience the full effect of the clip. — AP

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SPECTRUM

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Thursday, January 21, 2010

Fashion Week

Fashion

A model displays a creation

by Hong Kong designer Do Do Leung.

— AP

Wang reviews skating outfits from Olympics past

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Models present selections of local designers under the ‘Brand Collections Show I’during Hong Kong Fashion Week in Hong Kong yesterday.

Hong Kong Fashion Week started on January 18 and will end today with 2,000 exhibitors from 30 countries.

— AP photos

esigner Vera Wang knows the ins and outs of competitive figure skating outfits because at one time, she wore them. As a child, Wang had visions of Olympic gold when she did all those early morning workouts at the rink and traveled to countless competitions, including the annual national championships in 1968. But she did not make the US team, traded her blades for high heels and has not looked back, building an all-encompassing lifestyle brand that includes fashion, accessories, tabletop housewares and stationery. Still, skating clearly has a place in her heart — “It’s a very special sport,” she says-and she keeps a hand in it by designing costumes for some top contenders, including Evan Lysacek, a favorite to medal in men’s figure skating in Vancouver, as well as previous Olympians Nancy Kerrigan and Michelle Kwan.

Wang got back on the ice for the first time in years late last year with Lysacek and enjoyed it, although she is a little more nervous about injuries as a 60-year-old mother and business leader than she was as a teenager. The session was not about her, however; it was about himunderstanding how his body moves and his particular balance of artistry and athleticism. “You wouldn’t want someone to lose Olympic gold because their sleeve ripped off,” Wang says.

Other considerations: The outfit has to sparkle like evening wear but function like workout gear; it has to stand up to the considerable wind generated by skaters’ speed; and it must be show-stopping from every angle, unlike a Hollywood-starlet gown that is usually photographed straight from the front or back. “This is more pressure than an Oscar dress in a strange way,” she says. The costume also has to complement the music. “I have to have the music for a skating costume,” she says, “and that’s not the way I normally work.” Wang, who has a spot in the US Figure Skating Hall of Fame thanks to her costumes, shares some thoughts on some outfits from Olympics past-only Kerrigan’s are her own designs: —Kerrigan wore a neon yellow dress with a pale-pink beaded bustline at the 1994 games in Lillehammer, Norway-and it was one of Wang’s favorites because it took Kerrigan out of her usual comfort zone as a sophisticate. “Neon is extremely active. You think of it for a cyclist or football or a swimmer. It has a feel of modernity and techno.”

• Also in ‘94, Kerrigan wore a white outfit with black illusion sleeves, a trick Wang also uses on the red carpet to create a sexy, suggestive silhouette without baring much skin. The clean lines and geometric vibe also were purposeful. “I thought it made her look tougher,” Wang explains.

• Kwan made a “gutsy” move in 1998 in Nagano, Japan, by wearing a periwinkle stretch-velvet dress, says Wang. It was a look reminiscent of Dorothy Hamill. (While she often collaborated with Kwan, this was by another designer.) “It’s a bit retro to go

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that simple,” Wang says. “It was a statement of confidence. Dresses had gotten so ornate.”

Irina Slutskaya of Russia might have been trying to channel Hamill in her glittery, red dress in Turin, Italy, but Wang says only the dark, short hair captured the former gold medalist’s spirit. Slutskaya’s jewels are more traditional for a later generation than Hamill, who favored outfits that were sleeker and understated.

Back in 1976 at Innsbruck, Austria, Hamill let her moves, not her sparse pink outfit, make the statement, Wang says. The lower neckline, however, did show off her hair, which Wang describes as “the wedge haircut that inspired the country.”

The midnight-sky blue combo that Shizuka Arakawa of Japan wore in Turin in 2006 “isn’t my taste,” says Wang. It’s a little too showy, but it did make Arakawa look like a risk-taker, which might have been the primary intention all along.

Italian Carolina Kostner wore a snowflakecovered outfit in 2006 that employed the sheer-illusion look that Wang likes for the ice. “She has a more womanly, mature style but this outfit brings her youth and whimsy,” Wang says.

American Sasha Cohen is a chameleon when it comes to her costumes, the designer says.

“You never know what Sasha is up to. ... One minute she’s ‘Carmen,’ the next minute she’s Gisele.” Wang says Cohen was probably intimately involved in the creation of the ombre-blue dress covered with sequins worn in Salt Lake City in 2002; she is for all her outfits. Even better than the blue one, Wang says, was the red number with a sunburstyellow hemline. “That dress was very beautiful.”

There was a bit of a jumpsuit craze in Turin, and Russian Elena Sokolova’s Tina Turnerstyle, black-and-champagne outfit fit right in, but Wang says she’s not a huge fan. She adds, this particular look was very severe and without even a hint of whimsy. Still, she says, there’s no denying the dramatic effect of a Turner lookalike-complete with spiky blond hair-catching air on a turn.

Ukranian skater Oksana Baiul liked “a lot of everything” on her dresses, and a frilly pink outfit from 1994 was no exception, Wang says. The fringe, the fur trim, the beads were all very much part of a trend of the Eastern Europeans of that time.

The metallic trenchcoat and umbrella prop that Japan’s Midori Ito wore in Albertville, France, in 1992 might make more sense if you heard the accompanying music, Wang says. “Was it ‘Singing in the Rain’? It must have been.” Yes, the outfit is unusual for the Olympic ice, she acknowledges, but skaters are also under pressure to try new things. — AP

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SPECTRUM

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Fashion

Fall-Winter

collections

Models present creations by designer Ronaldo Fraga as part of the 2010-2011 FallWinter collections of the Sao Paulo Fashion Week, in Sao Paulo, Brazil.—AFP

Models display creations

by Hong Kong fashion brand Ula at the annual Hong Kong Fashion Week yesterday in Hong Kong.—AP

Taiwan looks to China for nip and tuck boom eijing entrepreneur Li Jinxun’s first trip to Taiwan was a life-changing experience, but not because of the sightseeing. The 46-year-old took advantage of a short trip to the island last month to undergo minor cosmetic surgery at a clinic in Kaohsiung city, something he said had made him feel younger and better looking. “I’m very satisfied. I feel better already,” he told AFP. Li, who runs a construction firm, is among a new wave of affluent Chinese eager to fit some nips and tucks into their trips to Taiwan, where they can expect to find better medical staff and facilities than back home. “I think the doctors in Taiwan are more skillful, the clinic is comfortable and the service is more cordial” than on the mainland, he said.

The 30 members of Li’s tour group paid 100,000 Taiwan dollars (3,125 US) on average for a nine-day trip covering sightseeing and cosmetic enhancements, according to the Kaohsiung Aesthetic Medical Tourism Promotion Association.

They opted for simple procedures, such as tooth whitening, botox injections to smooth wrinkles and surgery to remove bags under the eyes or create double eye-

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A woman receives hyaluronic acid injection in a cosmetic surgery clinic in Taipei on November 26, 2009. — AFP lids-a popular procedure in Asia aimed at making the eyes look bigger.

“The demand from China is much higher than what we’d expected, and the visitors just keep coming in,” said Chen Chun-ting, secretary-general of the asso-

ciation, which plans to host three 100member mainland groups in January. “As China gets richer, more and more people are paying attention to their appearance and are willing to spend money in this area,” Chen said. The growing interest in

medical tourism coincides with an influx of Chinese visitors to the island, under more relaxed rules introduced since Beijing-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou took office in 2008.

More than 480,000 tourists arrived from the mainland from January to November 2009, nearly five times as many as during the same period in 2008, according to government figures.

Industry watchers are upbeat that Taiwan, which has been promoting medical tourism for two years, can hold its own against competitors in the region such as Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand. The prospect is greatly boosted by Taiwan’s advantage in attracting Chinese clients. Their common language, the island’s geographical proximity and competitive pricing all help, they said.

“We had a late start compared with our competitors, but we’re confident we can achieve as much. There is a lot of room for growth,” said Shih Chung-liang, head of the bureau of medical affairs at the island’s health department. In 2008, around 5,000 visitors came to Taiwan for health check-ups and cosmetic surgery,

creating an industry worth 40 to 50 million US dollars, according to Shih. “Our main target has been mainland Chinese since cross-Strait ties improved,” he said.

Shih said the island’s medical tourism market was expected to grow by 20 percent annually.

Private sector forecasts are even higher, with one group of 30 hospitals expecting its business to more than double to 95 million US dollars this year, according to its chief executive officer Wu Ming-yen. The potential clientele from the mainland is huge, as there are now around 100 million Chinese who can boast spending power equivalent to the average consumer in Taiwan and Hong Kong, Wu said.

“China is picking up in surgical skills as its economy rises but it still trails behind Taiwan in services. Unlike China, most hospitals in Taiwan are private and very competitive,” he said. Li, the 46year-old Beijinger, is already planning his second visit to Taiwan, this time bringing along his wife. “As we get older we need to look after ourselves more carefully. I want to have my teeth whitened and get a face-lift for my wife.”— AFP

www.kuwaittimes.net

‘Love Story’ author Erich Segal dies aged 72 rich Segal, the Ivy League professor who attained mainstream fame and made millions sob as writer of the novel and movie “Love Story,” has died of a heart attack, his daughter said Tuesday. He was 72. Francesca Segal said her father died Sunday at his home in London. She said he had suffered from Parkinson’s disease a neurological condition that affects movement-for 25 years.

His funeral was held in London on Tuesday, she said. Segal was a Yale classics professor and screenplay writer when he turned a proposed movie about two college students-preppy Oliver and smart-mouthed Jenny-into a novel.

Published in 1970, “Love Story” was a weeper about a young couple who fall in love, marry and discover she is dying of cancer. It was a million seller guaranteed to make readers cry and critics scream.

A much bigger audience caught up with the film version, which starred Ryan O’Neal and Ali MacGraw. Directed

by Arthur Hiller, with a plaintive, Henry Mancini-composed theme song that wouldn’t quit, “Love Story” gained seven Oscar nominations-including one for Segal for writing the screenplay, as well as for best picture, best director and best actor and actress. It won one Oscar, for

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Photo dated on September 9, 1986 shows US-born writer Erich Segal after receiving a literary prize in Deauville.—AFP

best music. Segal also wrote a sequel, “Oliver’s Story,” published in 1977, and made into a film, with O’Neal again in the lead male role. Segal would later say that Oliver was based in part on a couple of Harvard undergraduates who later became quite well known: Al Gore and Tommy Lee Jones. (He disputed reports that Jenny was based on Gore’s future wife, Tipper).

He was adored, and mocked. The famous “Love Story” line — “Love means never having to say you’re sorry” — became a national catchphrase, but provided endless fodder for jokes. John Lennon countered that “Love means having to say you’re sorry every 15 minutes.” Even O’Neal parodied his earlier role. In the comedy “What’s Up Doc?”, he responded to the famous line with the riposte, “That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard.” A rabbi’s son, born in New York City in 1937, Segal also had a long, distinguished academic career in classics, gaining a doctorate at Harvard and teaching at Yale, Princeton and Dartmouth while writing era-defining screenplays and novels.

He worked on surreal popular works like the 1968 screenplay to the animated Beatles film “Yellow Submarine” while

also publishing works on Greek tragedy, Latin poetry and ancient athletics. At his funeral, his daughter Francesca spoke of the knowledge that had been destroyed by Parkinson’s disease. “In (Tom) Stoppard’s Arcadia, Thomasina mourns the burning of the library of Alexandria and the losses of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides-all of Aristotle’s own library destroyed. And the image has for years made me think of my father, all his erudition and knowledge and wit and puns and stuff consumed in the flames of neurological disease,” she said in a eulogy she delivered at his funeral and later e-mailed to the AP. In the eulogy, she added: “That he fought to breathe, fought to live, every second of the last 30 years of illness with such mind-blowing obduracy, is a testament to the core of who he was-a blind obsessionality that saw him pursue his teaching, his writing, his running and my mother, with just the same tenacity.

He was the most dogged man any of us will ever know.” Segal was an honorary fellow of Wolfson College at Oxford University. He is survived by his wife, Karen James, and daughters Francesca, 29, and Miranda, 20. — AP

A file photo taken on March 24, 2002 shows US actors Ryan O’Neal and Ali MacGraw, the stars of the 1970 film ‘Love Story’. —AFP

India’s Eiffel Tower French photographer Izis rises from coconut groves captures poetic Paris I t’s been copied in Las Vegas and hangs on a thousand keyrings: now another replica of the Eiffel Tower is to be built in former French-occupied India, 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles) from the original.

Authorities in Pondicherry, the one-time capital of French India, have started construction of a 100-metre (330 feet) model of the famous iron landmark to attract tourists to the southeastern coastal region.

The replica, being built at a cost of 450 million rupees (10 million dollars) in the enclave of Yanam on India’s east coast, will have a restaurant, a viewing gallery with telescopes and an elevator-much like its sister in the French capital.

From the top, visitors will have panoramic views over the Bay of Bengal, surrounding green coconut groves and the seaside town of Kakinada, promoters say.

Yanam legislator and Pondicherry Minister for Revenue and Sports, Malladi Krishna Rao, told AFP visits to France had inspired him. “When I first saw the Eiffel tower I was fascinated by its beauty and grandeur and when I again visited the tower last year I thought I should have a similar tower in my region.” In colonial times, France vied with fellow European powers Portugal and the Netherlands for control of India, before losing out to British domination.

This photo taken on January 18, 2010 shows a scale model of an Eiffel Tower replica which will be constructed in Yanam, India’s Pondicherry state.

—AFP

On November 1, 1954, after long years of freedom struggle, control of Pondicherry and the other enclaves was transferred to India. The rest of India gained independence from British rule in 1947. Today, a strong French influence can be felt in Pondicherry and other former French enclaves that have well-maintained colonial architecture as well as street signs and cobbled streets reminiscent of those days.

The Yanam enclave lies hundreds of kilometers to the north of Pondicherry town. Four separate areas of former French India dotted around southern India comprise the Union Territory of Pondicherry. So far about 35 percent of the work on the tower, including the massive foundations, has been completed. It will be about a third of the size of the real thing, which stands 324 meters high on the left bank of the River Seine, and smaller than the roughly half-scale model that towers above casinos in Las Vegas. “The work is going on in full swing and we are planning to throw open the tower to the tourists in November this year,” Rao added. India’s biggest company, Reliance Industries, is funding more than half the cost of the construction project, with the central and local governments bearing the rest of the expense. — AFP

Decorating solutions for the big-screen TV puzzle or many families, the big-screen TV has become the contemporary fireplace — the focal point of the room and the spot where the family gathers. The challenge is to get it installed to ensure the best viewing without wrecking your home decor. Ahead of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, here are some tips.

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Hide or hang?

Mark Langos, who heads his own interior design firm in Los Angeles, California, reports that on the West Coast the big-screen television is treated as “a fact of life and work of art.” Most often he prefers hanging it on a wall to save space. Langos, who favors clean, contemporary designs, advises against putting the TV in a packed armoire where other objects may distract from the screen. “It’s generational,” says Scott Salvator, a New York City-based designer. He finds that clients over 45 want to hide the set, so for

them he will design a custom cabinet or select one ready-made. Media cabinets are available from many sources including stores like Ikea and Pottery Barn. In a media room he designed for a family in New Jersey, Salvator made the TV a star, hanging it above a fireplace and framing it with the surrounding paneling.

For those without a separate media room, study or family room, he says, “the living room is ‘every room.’ It is the largest room in the house. Put the TV there and dress the room down to an informal decor so it really gets used.” For those situations, Scott recommends country style as “easy to do, happy and forgiving of stains.”

Best viewing distance?

Most TVs perform best when viewed straight on. The screen size should depend on the viewer’s distance from it. Stuart Silloway, training manager for consumer elec-

tronics at Samsung, recommends measuring the distance from viewer to screen and dividing it by three to get the screen size. If it is 120 inches from eye to TV, for example, you should have a 40-inch set.

The feel will be like sitting in the back third of a movie theater, he says. If you prefer sitting closer to the front, adjust the formula accordingly. Scott Salvator has a sofa facing a TV on a wall in his office so his clients can try out the viewing distance. You can try this at a neighbor’s house or even in a store. “Kids,” Salvator says, “generally like to be right up close to the TV.” While a TV usually should be placed eye-level from a seated position, in bedrooms it generally should be somewhat higher, to be viewed from the bed without craning the neck. Langos recommends putting the TV on an adjustable mount on the wall that can tilt or swivel. There are motorized versions that may be operated from a remote.

German Furniture

A sofa combines textiles and wood at the international leading furniture fair IMM in Cologne, Germany, yesterday. The fair showcases the latest entire spectrum of products and services of the international furniture and interior design until Jan 24. — AP photos

What about the wires?

A tangle of wires can scar the look of a room. When possible, make them disappear by running them behind the wall or, with the proper equipment, you can have all the apparatus in a different room or in a closet.

According to Silloway, with dry wall construction, running the wires behind the wall is a relatively simple process that most professional installers can manage, and if you are handy you can do it yourself. Plaster walls present a greater challenge. “Always make sure the installer you hire is bonded and insured,” he says. For those whose budgets allow it, media systems may be integrated with lighting and window shades, all of which may be operated remotely.

Be seated!

For clients with a designated media room, Salvator has installed tiered seating as in a movie theater. But for most people, a comfortable sofa and swivel chairs with an ottoman serve well. An upholsterer can convert the favorite chair to a swivel.

— Agencies

A woman looks at photographs of members of the French Resistance (during World War Two) from French photographer Israelis Bidermanas aka ‘Izis’ (1911-1980). — AFP hagall painting the ceiling of the Paris opera, young lovers kissing by the Seine, grimfaced children at play in the streets: French photographer Izis captured the poetry of Paris in the 1950s. Izis was part of the French humanist movement that focused on scenes of everyday Parisian life, but he never achieved the fame of his contemporaries Robert Doisneau, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Willy Ronis and Brassai.

A first retrospective of his work opening this week in Paris pays tribute to Izis as one of France’s great photographers, a versatile artist who excelled at portraits, news photography and creative shots of street life. Born Izraelis Bidermanas in Lithuania under Tsarist Russia, Izis fled his country at the age of 19, arriving in Paris penniless and enormously grateful for the refuge afforded to him. “He wrapped his arms around Paris,” said Izis’ son, Manuel Bidermanas, a former director of the Sygma photo agency and co-curator of the exhibition opening at Paris city hall on Wednesday.

A melancolic, at times brooding artist, Izis injected some of that sadness into his work. His photographs of working-class Paris-children in the street, men eating in cafes, laundry hanging from clotheslines-show hardship but also dignity.

“I would say his work had a form of poetic sadness,” said Bidermanas. “He believed that we were all, deep down, quite fragile.” Izis’ “poetic sadness” was rooted in personal tragedy. During the war, Izis, his wife and Manuel, then only three years old, were forced to flee Paris when it came under German occupation.

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People watching a bath shaped like a woman’s shoe by label Maronese.

The family was taken in by farmers in a village near Limoges. Izis’ parents and brother who had stayed behind in Lithuania were killed during the mass extermination of Jews. In 1944, he joined the French Resistance and put his talent at the service of the cause, snapping shots of Resistance fighters. Those portraits of young men established him as a name in photography.

Returning to Paris, Izis opened a small studio and in 1949 went to work for Paris Match magazine, where he stayed for 20 years. Some of his famous works include a 1952 photo of Albert Camus, looking out from a Paris apartment balcony, with knitted brow, and choreographer Roland Petit, his fingers outstretched to show a dance movement.

He published several books of photographs and in 1951 was invited to display his work alongside Doisneau, Cartier-Bresson, Ronis and Brassai at New York’s MoMA. Izis scored a major scoop in 1963 when he was allowed to photograph Marc Chagall painting the ceiling of the Paris Garnier Opera house, at a time when the choice of the artist stirred controversy.

Paris Match ran a 20-page spread on the Chagall photos showing the Belarus-born artist, then 76, staring up at his masterpiece, paint brush in hand. A series of photographs he did at the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth gave him international exposure and he also made an emotional journey to Israel in 1952. “This is ‘my Paris’ that I have always photographed,” he wrote in the 1970s. “It is not modern Paris, neither is it old Paris.” Izis died at his Paris home in May 1980 at the age of 79. — AFP

Designer Peter Harvey sitting on his glass chair