17 Mar

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

40 PAGES

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17, 2010

Blind British soldier ‘sees’ with his tongue

Mubarak shown on TV chatting with doctors PAGE 8

Nice start

By Badrya Darwish

I

t has been less than 24 hours since the Amiri Diwan happily announced to the nation the start of the implementation of “Kuwait Vision 2035” project. A beautiful vision which aims to transform Kuwait into a financial hub which could make Kuwait one of the leaders in the world.

This vision intends to transform the infrastructure and the minds of the people completely and to create a new generation of young women and men in the workforce who will lead Kuwait into becoming one of the most advanced countries on the globe.

We all laughed when Mr Blair was announcing his vision. We all imagined our parliament and how hopeful it would be in implementing this vision. No surprise. Yesterday, one of the MPs suggested to the government to ban women from travelling unless they have a mahram (first of kin male companion - a rule which adheres to the sharia laws) or she has written permission from her legal guardian. Today, the only country that applies this rule is Saudi Arabia. But Saudi Arabia is exempted because it is the heart of Makkah and Madinah and the heart of Islam. There, women never broke the rules and it has been working under this rule for thousands of years.

Kuwait is a different story. It never applied the rule before. Women are travelling for business, for leisure and with family for many years. Imagine, every time I want to travel, I have to run to my son. Is my son my guardian now? Do I have to drag him wherever I go? Even if I accept the idea, would he be free to leave his family and work to accompany me?

What about other women who have different circumstances and whose fathers have died or who are divorced or everyone else in their families is busy with their own life?

I think the honorable gentlemen in parliament was enthusiastic to ask for this law because of the incident which allegedly took place at the airport between male and female officers who travelled to Sharm El-Sheikh without stamping their passports - a story that was later denied by the Ministry of Interior. Suppose, it was true. Does this have to apply on the rest of the nation and become a law?

Anyway, the proposal was passed to the parliament’s legislative and legal committee for study, and I hope they reject it.

Nice start for the Vision 2035!

Alwaleed bin Talal

Outrage at Murdoch’s Arab foray CAIRO: The tie-up between Arab entertainment giant Rotana and pro-Israel media mogul Rupert Murdoch is viewed in Egypt not only with suspicion but as signalling the decline of Arab film and art heritage. In a country where film and television attract some of the largest audiences across the Arab world, the tycoon’s foray into the Middle East is widely seen in cultural circles as a ruse to benefit Israel.

Murdoch’s News Corp last month acquired a 9.09-percent holding in the Rotana Group of Saudi royal and business tycoon Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, with an 18-month option to double the stake.

Rotana is one of the largest film producers in Egypt and also owns the rights to hundreds of Egyptian motion pictures. In Egypt, which signed a 1979 peace treaty with Israel but has resisted a warming of cultural ties, there has been wide suspicion that the tie-up with Rotana is part of a Murdoch scheme to thaw frosty Arab views of Israel. “Murdoch will enter every Arab home to impose Continued on Page 14

NO: 14670

Aga Khan’s Islamic treasures go on show in Berlin

150 FILS

Woods to return to golf at the Masters

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conspiracy theories

Rupert Murdoch

RABI ALTHANI 1, 1431 AH

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Info minister faces no-confidence vote 10 MPs file motion against Sheikh Ahmad after grilling

By B Izzak

KUWAIT : Information Minister Sheikh Ahmad AL-Abdullah Al-Sabah (left) shakes hands with opposition MP Ali Al-Deqbasi during a parliamentary session at the National Assembly. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

KUWAIT: Ten lawmakers yesterday filed a no-confidence motion against Information Minister Sheikh Ahmad AlAbdullah Al-Sabah following a grilling in which he was accused of risking national unity by failing to apply media laws against what they described as “corrupt media”.

The motion was filed following a six-hour grilling that passed off peacefully despite some tension, during which the minister came under continuous attack for not applying two media laws on newspapers and private satellite channels.

Voting on the motion will take place in a special session on March 25, Speaker Jassem Al-Khorafi announced at the end of the grilling debate. To pass, the motion requires a simple majority among the elected MPs who number 49 as Cabinet ministers are not allowed to take part in such votes although they are exofficio members of parliament.

If passed, Sheikh Ahmad will be ousted from his post as information minister and can keep his oil portfolio.

Continued on Page 14

Kuwait, Iraq carriers meet to sort issues KUWAIT: Kuwait Airways Corporation (KAC) yesterday welcomed meetings with Iraqi Airways’ officials, but categorically denied any prior knowledge of an ongoing visit by an Iraqi delegation to Kuwait. The Kuwaiti national carrier’s comments came in a press release to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) to comment on recent press reports suggesting that its officials had declined to meet their Iraqi counterparts to discuss unresolved issues between both airlines. In order to preclude unpredictable exaggeration, the Kuwaiti carrier said: “We learnt the Iraqi delegation’s visit to Kuwait only through the press.”

However, KAC made it certain in its statement that its officials will meet the Iraqi guests to reflect on a mechanism for resolving outstanding issues between the Kuwaiti and Iraqi carriers. The Iraqi government and its airlines owe the Kuwait national carrier $1.3 billion, apart from accumulated interest. A Kuwaiti newspaper quoted yesterday the General Manager of the Iraqi Airways Kefah Hussein as alleging that KAC officials had refused to meet him and his team.

The Iraqi airline dispute with KAC dates back to the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait over stolen planes and parts. After a court order in favor of KAC, the Kuwaiti carrier has threatened to have Iraqi planes seized in Europe to secure payment of the debt. — KUNA

Palestinians riot in Jerusalem Hamas calls for intifada • US envoy calls off Mideast trip JERUSALEM: Hundreds of Palestinians clashed with Israeli security forces across east Jerusalem yesterday in the worst rioting in years, as a senior Hamas leader called for a new “intifada” or uprising.

As the unrest rocked Jerusalem, US Middle East envoy George Mitchell delayed a visit to the region amid the most severe diplomatic row in decades between Israel and the United States, which has been struggling to revive peace talks. Police fired rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas at protesters who hurled stones and set up barricades with dumpsters and burning tyres in several neighbourhoods.

In one incident, youths hoisted a giant Palestinian flag and shouted, “We shall die and Palestine shall live.”

“They are donkeys and dwarfs!” a woman screamed as riot police and plainclothes security men hauled away a handcuffed, hooded youth.

Police pinned the youth to the ground, setting muzzled Doberman pinschers near them as the young man shrieked in panic. Palestinian merchants in east Jerusalem shuttered their stores in solidarity with the protests, and Palestinian schools in the city were closed.

In at least one neighbourhood undercover Israeli police officers disguised as protestors wrestled demonstrators to the ground and handcuffed them. Sixteen Palestinians were taken to hospital, with fractured bones, eye and stomach injuries, and dozens more were treated on the spot, according to the emergency services of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. One policeman was shot and wounded in the hand when an unknown gunman opened fire with a pistol at a group of officers patrolling an Arab neighbourhood of east Jerusalem, said police Continued on Page 14

OLDHAM, England: Akila Naqqash holds a picture of her kidnapped son Sahil Saeed yesterday after he was released safe and sound. — AFP

Kidnapped British boy freed in Pak Other families lament

JERUSALEM: Palestinian demonstrators hurl stones at Israeli troops in east Jerusalem yesterday. — AP

Thai protests turn ‘bloody’

BANGKOK: Thai police officers stand next to a sea of blood after protesters poured it on the ground at the ruling Democrat Party building yesterday. — AP

BANGKOK: Protesters spilled their own blood at the gates of Thailand’s government headquarters yesterday in a colourful act of political theatre designed to propel their fugitive hero back to power. Thousands of “Red Shirts” loyal to deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra queued up during the day to donate blood in makeshift tents, where it was poured from syringes into five-litre water bottles for the bizarre spectacle. Red leaders said they had collected 300 litres of blood, far short of their aim of 1,000 litres, most of which they poured at the Government House gates in the late afternoon to press their demand for

snap elections.

They later took some of the blood to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s Democrat party offices for a second protest, where a Hindu priest began the symbolic spilling by invoking a curse against the government. The demonstrators said they would march to Abhisit’s residence in central Bangkok today morning as they step up their campaign, though the premier will not be there.

The bloody show was the latest part of a pro-Thaksin demonstration which has drawn up to 100,000 protesters to the streets of Bangkok since the Continued on Page 14

JHELUM, Pakistan: A five-year-old British boy kidnapped at gunpoint during a holiday in Pakistan nearly two weeks ago was waiting to be reunited with his mother after being safely recovered yesterday. Sahil Saeed was taken from his grandmother’s house in the town of Jhelum, about 100 km south of Islamabad, in the early hours of March 4 while preparing to leave with his Pakistani father to fly back to Britain. “I am simply delighted that Sahil has been released safe and sound. I know that his family must be overjoyed following almost two weeks of terrible anxiety and uncertainty,” said British High Commissioner Adam Thomson.

“The top priority for the High Commission now is to ensure he is reunited with his parents as soon as possible and to help with his return to the UK,” he added, saying that although a “little tired”, Sahil was “in good spirits”. British officials gave no details on exactly how he had been recovered, saying he was in the care of Pakistani authorities and his uncle, and that the British consul was with him. “There remains an active police investigation and it would therefore be inappropriate to comment on ongoing operational issues,” Thomson said.

Pakistani police said the kidnappers had dropped off the child in a field yesterday, allowing officers to recover him, saying investigations were ongoing but that so far no arrests had been made. But provincial Law Minister Rana Sanaullah told Reuters an “international gang of kidnappers” was responsible for the abduction of the boy.

Continued on Page 14

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010

‘Not a practical step’

Mixed reactions to traffic fine deduction proposal

By Nisreen Zahreddine KUWAIT: The Interior Ministry has suggested a new method of exacting traffic fines from offenders - deducting the said amount from offenders’ salaries. This step was proposed in line with the Gulf Traffic Week that was observed here recently. If implemented, the step is believed to have lasting consequences.

Maysoun, another Lebanese expatriate, feels that this step is an intrusion into people’s privacy. She is totally against it.

Maysoun, who drove a car until a month ago, expressed certainty over this suggestion not seeing the light of the day. She admitted to receiving one

speeding ticket.

Raafat, a Syrian expat, said that it makes no difference if he paid the amount in cash or if it were deducted from his salary deposited in his bank account.

He, at the same time, said that many people would not approve of this act of invasion of privacy.

Regardless of the circumstances and the reasons that have prompted the suggestion of such a measure, there is no common consensus among public on its pragmatic or beneficial nature. Ayman, a Lebanese expatriate, was shocked to learn of this suggestion. “I just cannot believe it. It is enough that traffic laws are so firm here already,” he complained. He added that this is not a practical step as it is not logical to deduct traffic tickets from people’s salary accounts in banks.

Therefore, he thinks that such suggestions will not be implemented. “It is not a great deal, but people will refuse it,” he said.

Sarah, a young Kuwaiti woman, said that this measure is just one among the suggestions that the government has

been taking to reduce traffic offenses. “People will start abiding by the law when they are afraid of losing a part of their salaries,” she said.

Ahmad, an Egyptian expatriate, is in favor of the suggestion, “It is the same. We have to pay it in the end anyway,” he

added. He thinks that the Kuwaiti government has the right to take such a measure as it protects citizens’ safety and prevents careless drivers from creating accidents. This country is full of reckless drivers, they get many speeding tickets,” he added.

kuwait digest

National fund spending

I

n his column yesterday with Al-Qabas, Abdullatif Al-Duaij wrote about the expected doubling of state employees’ salaries in the next five years according to statistics provided by the International Bank.

‘In the meantime,’ he wrote, ‘our government is moving closer to being unable to pay the salaries of its employees. It remains to be seen whether this fact will urge the government to look for other sources of income and stop giving in to the demands of MPs who wish to consume the funds allocated for future generations,’ he continued.

He thinks that it is very unlikely that the government will take any step in either of those directions. He pointed to the government’s inability to stop the MPs’ efforts to drop the KD

5,000-10,000 loan for each citizen to support his perspective. ‘The theft of the fund for future generations will continue as long as we have an incapable government and MPs who are ignorant and irresponsible with their country’s wealth.’

He added that while it is almost certain that government salaries will double and that spending on public services will increase, it is not certain that oil prices will keep up with the government’s spending.

‘Unlike other items that maintain its value, oil is expected to drop due to the influence of politics,’ he pointed out. ‘Back in the 90’s, oil prices dropped as low as $10 per barrel, compared to $50 per barrel in the 80’s. This could happen again in the near future. Is our parliament prepared for such a day?’

in the news Food safety standards

KUWAIT : His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah received at Bayan Palace yesterday Ambassador of Tunisia Mustafa Baheya (top), Ambassador of Argentina Khorkhi Omar Antonio (middle) and Ambassador of the Republic of Brazil Roberto Abdullah (above). Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Dr Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah and a number of top officials attended the ceremony. —Photos by KUNA

Two MPs’ immunity lifted KUWAIT: During its regular session yesterday, Kuwait’s National Assembly (parliament) agreed to lift the parliamentary immunity of MPs Hussein AlQallaf and Daifallah Buramya.

National Assembly Speaker Jassem Mohammad Al-Khorafi announced the decision after votes were held on other issues, including the parliamentary legislative and legal committees’ reports on health

insurance, the parliament’s annual budget for 2010-11, and a proposal to allow the offspring of Kuwaiti female citizens to join the police force, with all being unanimously approved.

Yesterday’s parliamentary session also saw discussion of a request from MP Ali AlDegbasi to grill Information and Minister of Oil Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah, with the end

result being a no-confidence motion endorsed by 10 MPs. Since, according to Article 101 of the Kuwaiti constitution and provision number 144 of the National Assembly bylaws, a no-confidence motion can only be studied for seven days after it is filed, Al-Khorafi called for an extraordinary session to be held next Thursday (March 25) to look into the issue. —KUNA

KUWAIT: The Ministry of Health (MoH) is to support efforts to increase food product safety in order to raise Kuwait’s food safety standards to international levels, said a senior MoH official on Monday. Dr. Qais Al-Duwairi, the health ministry’s Deputy Assistant for Medical Support Services, also revealed that the MoH is to conduct an evaluation to assess the principal flaws which need to be addressed in the fields of food services and nutrition. The senior MoH official emphasized the importance of unifying the legislation and procedures followed in food safety-related issues in all the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member nations. Dr. Duwairi made his statements in his opening speech at the First Convention on Food Safety, which he explained was held as part of the ministry’s strategy to develop the health sector, reported Al-Qabas. Another senior MoH official, the head of the ministry’s food and nutrition department and organizer of the convention Dr. Nawal Al-Hamad, talked in his opening speech about the importance of food safety as both a significant part of overall social wellbeing and a central component in ensuring the food security that affects the country’s economic development.

Unconstitutional resignation KUWAIT: The Constitutional Court recently overruled a decree passed by the Minister of Social Affairs and Labor (MSAL) Mohammad Al-Afasi to relieve Sheikh Talal Al-Fahad of his duties as the Vice Chairman of the Public Authority for Youth and Sports (PAYS). The Minister had based his decision on Clause 5 for the year 2007. It states that any PAYS

official who is a member of the authority’s board, in addition to holding an administrative post, will be considered as having resigned from the administrative post, reported Al-Watan. The Constitutional Court ruled that the aforementioned clause is unconstitutional, therefore Al-Fahad’s resignation should be overruled.

Police cadet’s funeral KUWIAT: A large number of Saad AlAbdullah Police Academy staff and cadets on Monday attended the funeral of the young Kuwaiti cadet officer Abdullah Al-Kandari, who died the previous night of a sudden heart attack. At the funeral in Sulaibikhat Cemetery, the staff and fellow cadets offered their deepest condolences to Al-Kandari’s family, lauding his excellent personality, behavior and reputation. Al-Kandari had apparently been suffering from a heart condition for some time, which led to his being excused from participating in athletic training for the year prior to his tragic, untimely demise. The young man had also apparently been taking an increasing amount of time off sick as his condition worsened, reported AlWatan. Although it was initially reported that Al-Kandari had died during rehearsals for the academy’s graduation ceremony, it has since been revealed that he died of a massive heart attack that hit him while he was asleep on Sunday night in the police academy dormitory. Despite being rushed to Al-Sabah Hospital where medical staff battled to save his life, he did not recover consciousness and was pronounced dead shortly after arriving there.

KUWAIT: Chief of General Staff of the Jordanian Armed Forces, Lt Gen Meshal Al-Zabin, concluded an official visit to the country yesterday. He was seen off at the airport by Chief of the Kuwaiti Army General Staff Lt Gen Sheikh Ahmad Al-Khaled Al-Sabah, members of the Military Defense Council, the Jordanian ambassador to Kuwait and senior military officers. —KUNA

Cabinet faces six grilling motions in one term KUWAIT: MP Ali Al-Deqbasi initiated a grilling motion against the Minister of Information, Sheikh Ahmad AlAbdullah. It was the sixth motion filed against a member of the current Cabinet since its formation last year.

The first interpellation that the current Cabinet had faced was a grilling motion that was filed by MP Musallam AlBarrak on June 23, 2009 against the Minister of Interior Sheikh Jaber Al-Khalid AlSabah. The minister successfully defended accusations that were leveled against him. A no-confidence motion filed against him had also failed to make an impact.

Nearly six months later, a series of grilling motions were filed. Four ministers faced the interpellation motions that were filed against them in one

day. The first, and the most important of these motions, was filed by MP Dr Faisal AlMislem against HH the Prime Minister, Sheikh Nasser AlMohammad Al-Sabah.

MP Dr Mubarak Al-Walaan filed an interpellation against the Minister of Public Works and Municipality Affairs, Dr Fadhel Safar. Dr Faisal AlMislem returned with another grilling motion, this time, against the Interior Minister.

Both of these motions also ended in victory for the cabinet members, reported Al-Watan.

The same day also featured a fourth grilling motion filed by MP Dr Daifallah Buramia against the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, Sheikh Jaber AlMubarak Al-Sabah, which resulted in the minister’s success.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

The Labor Law Obligations of Workers and Employers and Disciplinary Penalties

act he committed outside the work site. unless such act is related to the work.

Section Two Article (32) The probation period of the worker shall be specified in the work contract, provided that it shall not exceed 100 working days. Either party may terminate the contract during the probation period without notice. In the event where the termination is made by the employer, he shall pay the workers end of service benefit for the period of work in accordance with the provisions of this Law. The worker shall not be on probation more than once for the same employer. The Minister shall issue a resolution to organize the conditions and regulations of work during the probation period.

Article (36) The employer shall obtain the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labors approval of the tables of penalties before the implementation thereof.

The ministry may modify these tables depending on the nature of the establishment or of the work and in line with the provisions of this Law. The Ministry shall present these tables to the competent organization, if any. Where no such competent organization exists, the general union shall be referred to and requested to provide its remarks and suggestions with regard to these tables.

Article (33) In the event where the employer entrusts another employer with the performance of a task or part thereof under the same conditions, the employer entrusted with the work shall treat his own workers and those of the original employer equally concerning all rights and both employers shall be jointly liable in this regard.

Article (34) The employer, who contracts for the execution of a government project or who employs his workers in remote areas, shall be obliged to provide them with a suitable accommodation and means of transportation to such remote areas free of charge. In the event where no accommodation is provided, the employer shall pay them an appropriate accommodation allowance. The Minister shall, by means of resolution determine the areas that are distant from urban development, the conditions of suitable accommodation and the accommodation allowance.

In all other events where he is required to provide accommodation for his workers, the employer shall be subject to the provisions of the resolution referred to in the preceding paragraph concerning the conditions of suitable accommodation and determining the accommodation allowance.

Article (35) The employer shall affix at a conspicuous location at the work place, the table of penalties that may be imposed on violating workers in preparing the tables of penalties, the employer shall take into consideration the following: a- The violations committed by workers and the penalty corresponding to each violation shall be specified. b- Penalties shall be progressively listed for the violations. c- Only one penalty may be imposed for each violation. d- The worker may not be punished for any act he committed if such act is proved 15 days after the date of committing such act. e- The worker may not be punished for an

Article (37) No penalty may be imposed on the worker unless he has been informed in writing of the act attributed to him, his statements have been heard, his defense investigated and the minutes of the investigation kept in his file. The worker shall be notified in writing of the penalties imposed upon him, their type and amount and the causes of the imposition thereof as well as the punishment that he will be exposed to in the event of repetition of the violation.

Article (38) Deduction from the worker’s remuneration shall not exceed 5 days in any one month. In the event where the punishment exceeds such deduction, the exceeding amount shall be deducted from remuneration of the following month or the following months.

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New Labor Law set to outlaw bad management practices

By Ben Garcia KUWAIT: Amy (not her real name), a cleaner at a private clinic in Salmiya, was shocked last month to find half of her KD 100 monthly salary, KD 50, being deducted at source from her pay. Amy previously worked as a houseUpon accepting it, she was aware that she would now have to meet her own food, transportation and accommodation costs, leading her to find shared accommodation nearby her work place for which she pays KD 30 per month. She spent an additional KD 20-30 per month on food, while the remaining KD 40 had to cover everything else, including toiletries and personal hygiene items, which cost approximately KD 5-10 per month.

Last month’s incident was certainly an unwelcome episode in Amy’s quest to

improve her life by getting a better job and is one which she told the Kuwait Times she certainly never wants to happen again.

‘They deducted KD 50 from my salary, saying that a medical instrument I accidentally broke was very expensive,’ she explained. ‘I told them to deduct the cost of the item in small installments, but they allow two salary deductions only, so it was very hard for me.’

Under the new private sector labor law amendments, this would not have been allowed.

maid, but after finishing her two-year contract with her former boss, she was allowed to transfer her Article 20 visa to an Article 18 one. Her new boss, the owner of the private clinic, offered her a monthly salary of KD 100, and she accepted gratefully since this was double the pay she had received from her previous employer.

For starters, Amy did not receive any written notification of the deduction decision, only being informed verbally. Under Article 37 of Chapter 3, Section 2 of the new legislation, however, no penalty may be imposed on any worker unless he or she has been formally notified of it beforehand in writing. Also, Article 38 of the newly amended law states that any deductions from workers’ monthly salaries may not exceed five days’ pay, meaning that repayments of larger sums must be spread over a longer period.

Francis (again not his real name), a Filipino citizen hired as a security guard by a Kuwaiti firm, told the Kuwait Times that he had signed a contract with the contracting agency in Manila before coming to Kuwait setting his pay for the position at KD 120 per month. Upon receiving his first month’s wages, however, he found that he had only been paid KD 80. When he complained about this to his employer, he was told that he would be on a probationary salary, paying only three quarters of the agreed wage for

Kuwait-Morocco team drafts trade accord

Article (39) The worker may be suspended from work during the period of investigation conducted by the employer or his representative provided that it does not exceed 10 days. In the event where the investigation is completed and the employee is not held liable for any violation, he shall be paid his remuneration for the period of suspension.

Article (40) The employer shall keep the proceeds of all deductions from remunerations of workers in a fund allocated for use in the social, economic and cultural matters that benefit the workers.

Deductions imposed on workers as penalty shall be recorded in a special register, stating the name of the worker, the amount of deduction and the reason of such deduction.

In the event where the establishment is liquidated, the total amount of the deductions existing in the fund shall be distributed among the workers employed by the employer at the time of the liquidation, in proportion to their respective periods of service.

The Minister shall issue a resolution setting forth the regulations that regulate the said fund and the method of distribution.

(TO BE CONTINUED)

the first six months of his job.

Although he appealed against this throughout the next six months, the management stuck to its guns, insisting that these were the company rules and giving him no choice but to accept it.

Again, under the new legislation, the company would have been unable to do this since in Article 32 in Chapter 3 of Section 2, it states that any probationary period shall not exceed 100 working days, with employers not allowed to subject any worker to more than one probationary period.

KUWAIT: The Kuwaiti-Moroccan team holding meeting yesterday. — KUNA

in the news

kuwait digest

The language of power ‘R

eading newspapers early in the morning might make one feel sick and distressed with all the unpleasant news and information they bring us,’ wrote Dr Yaqub Ahzmed Al-Sharrah in his Al-Rai column. He recollected reading statements made by Iranian armed forces advisor and supreme commander on the morning of Kuwait’s celebration of its national day anniversary. The article reported him threatening all ‘foreign powers’ into admitting and accepting Iran’s power and influence in Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, the Gulf, Afghanistan, the Hormuz Strait and Iran’s capability of controlling the whole region as sheer facts.

‘The Strait of Hormuz is a very narrow water passage, similar to Bab Al-Mandab strait on the far southern end of the Red Sea, where large vessels can pass by despite the fact that it is the main life-blood stream for Iran’s and other Gulf states’ trade and oil exports to the world’,

KUWAIT: The KuwaitiMoroccan team charged with drafting a commerce accord held a second preliminary meeting here yesterday pending setting a final date for signing it.

The Ministry of Commerce said in a press release that the team discussed several issues related to the draft agreement, related to economic and commercial aspects, affirming that it would be signed by the two countries’ ministers of trade at a date to be set soon.

Agenda of yesterday’s meeting dealt with discussing some provisions of the proposed accord. It was chaired by the assistant undersecretary for external trade affairs of the ministry of commerce, Abdel Aziz Al-Khaldi. The Moroccan side was represented by the envoy of the ministry of commerce, Lehul Quwaider. — KUNA

said Al-Sharrah. He refused to comment on the Strait’s safety and significance. ‘Blocking this particular Strait would mean an international catastrophe,’ he warned. He reminded how Israel turned the whole world up against Egypt when it threatened to close down the Tiran Strait at the southern end of Al-Aqaba Bay during the Israeli occupation of Sinai in the 1960s.

He also underscored that the Tiran Strait was not as important and significant to the world as that of Hormuz, through which 15 to 17 million oil barrels are exported worldwide on a daily basis. ‘Can any country deprive the whole world of its oil supplies? Can Iran defy the super powers and close the strait?’ he questioned. He expressed hope that Iran would, instead, resort to reason and work toward achieving regional peace as if it is an integrated process. ‘Iran’s safety and security is extremely important to all the neighboring Gulf countries and vice versa,’ he concluded.

Human rights accusations KUWAIT: Kuwait will send a detailed report explaining the human rights situation in the country, to the Human Rights Organization (HRO) in Geneva on May 8. It will include a response to workers’ rights and human trade accusations leveled against Kuwait, reported Al-Watan. Meanwhile, a senior Foreign Ministry Official rejected the categorization bedoon (stateless) people in Kuwait as ‘refugees.’ He was addressing the media, during the inauguration ceremony of a workshop held by the Supreme Commissariat for Refugees Affairs. Bedoons are “illegal or illegitimate residents of Kuwait,” he said. The Head of the Co-ordination and Follow-up Department, Ambassador Khalid Maghamis, said that bedoons’ issues cannot be discussed during the workshop.

Spring Arabic poetry festival KUWAIT: The Abdulaziz Al-Babtain Reward Foundation for Poetic Creativity announced on Monday that its third Spring Festival for Arabic Poetry will open on March 22. Among the activities organized for the festival is a ‘Qatari publications’ exhibition marking the selection of Doha as the Arab Culture Capital 2010, the foundation revealed in a press statement. The festival will also include “an evening of selective poetry readings from the works of late poet Fahad Al-Askar, a lecture on Arab immigrants’ poetry by Wade Falasteen and a selective reading of poet Abdullah Sinan’s works,” the statement added.

Municipality workers’ departure KUWAIT: A senior Kuwait Municipality official has reminded expatriate municipality employees that they must obtain clearance from the Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) before leaving the country for their annual vacation. Abdulaziz AlHabib, the deputy director of the municipality’s financial and administrative affairs department, explained that expatriate workers are employed on three types of contracts - those eligible for an end-of-service bonus, those on monthly payments with no eligibility for an end-of-service bonus and those employed as assistants. Al-Habib revealed that the payments for any outstanding bills for MEW utilities or services would be deducted from the bonus package of those in the first category, reported Annahar. The senior official added that obtaining such clearance is also compulsory for municipality employees transferring their residency visas from the municipality other sponsors.

KUWAIT: Kuwaiti and Serbian officials holding talks on mutual cooperation yesterday. — Photos by KUNA

Serbian PM visits Scientific Center KUWAIT: Serbian Prime Minister Dr Mirko Cvetkovic and his accompanying delegation visited yesterday Kuwait’s Scientific Center.

The Serbian premier toured the perimeters of the center and listened to a presentation by officials on its important role in providing scientific services and entertainment.

The senior guest and the accompanying delegation also visited an exhibition in the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) in Al-Ahmadi Governorate.

Upon arrival, they were greeted by Ahmadi Governor Sheikh Dr. Ibrahim Duaij Al-Sabah.

They toured the exhibition and listened to a presentation on the history of the discovery of oil and stages of evolution of the oil industry in Kuwait.

They were accompanied by the advisor at the Diwan of HH the Prime Minister, Sheikha Dr. Rasha Al-Hamoud Al-Sabah, and Kuwaiti Ambassador to the Serb Republic, Fawzi Abdulaziz Al-Jassim. — KUNA

KUWAIT: Traffic delegations of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) tour various departments of the Kuwaiti General Traffic Department yesterday.

The delegation are in Kuwait to mark the unified GCC Traffic Week which began on Sunday.

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NATIONAL

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Bootleggers nabbed

Infiltrator caught in Taima home with illegal drug pills KUWAIT: A man, previously deported, was arrested at a home in Taima where he was residing after illegally re-entering the country. The arrest was made after police received several reports regarding the man’s drug trafficking activ-

KUWAIT: Group photo of the German Ambassador with Faisal Al-Radwan and Thamer Al-Nafisi and others.

Alcohol trade A Bangladeshi was arrested for selling alcohol in Hasawi.

Police arrested the man after receiving a phone call informing them of his illegal activity.

Thirteen bottles of homemade liquor were found in his possession and he was referred to the proper authorities. Meanwhile, a citizen was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in Salmiya. Three bottles of liquor were also found in his car, ready for sale. He was taken to the proper authorities.

False accusations A woman went to the Mangaf police station and accused her husband of going on an intoxicated rampage and threatening to kill their children. Police officers responded to the emergency but found no trace of violence or intoxication. The man explained to police that he and his wife had an argument and that she called police out of spite. The two were taken back to the police station for further questioning.

KUWAIT: Visitors at the exhibition viewing some of the carpets.

Family troubles A female citizen in Jahara informed police that her son damaged her car after she refused to give him money to hang out with his friends. Police opened a file and are searching for the son.

Suicide case An Asian woman hanged herself in the stairway of her apartment building in Sulaibiya. Police and paramedics responded to the emergency and pronounced the woman dead after they arrived.

Police are investigating the incident further.

ities. He was also found with several illegal drug pills in his possession. After his arrest, the man confessed to paying 2,000 Saudi riyals to an employee at the Saudi side of the Kuwaiti-Saudi border. He was taken to the proper authorities.

Citizen dies A senior citizen died as a result of a serious injury he received 10 days after he was brutally assaulted by his mentally deranged son. He was pronounced dead in Mubarak Hospital’s ICU. Inmates row Three Asian inmates suffered eye injuries after they were engaged in a fight inside their cell at the Central Jail. They were transferred to the Al-Bahar Ophthalmology Center after receiving a medical check-up at the jail’s clinic.

Fire in Jahra Five women suffered smoke inhalation after a fire occurred in a beauty salon in Jahra.

Firefighters responded to the emergency and successfully evacuated the women before extinguishing the flames. Of the women injured, three were employees at the salon and two were customers. All the injured were treated at the scene. A case was opened for further investigation.

Illegal calls Three Asians were arrested in a Khaitan apartment being used as an illegal international phone call center. The arrests was made after police were informed of the illegal activities of the apartment. Several devices used for the international calls were found inside the apartment and confiscated. The arrested were referred to the proper authorities.

New smuggling scandal

Some of the rugs exhibited. — Photos by Fouad Al-Shaikh

Samovar Carpets launches exhibition in Shuwaikh

By Nawara Fattahova KUWAIT: The Samovar Carpets and Antiques launched an exhibition that showcases Rug Star

by Jurgen Dahlmann on Monday evening at AlTilal Commercial Center in Shuwaikh. The collection exhibited included handmade Tibetan carpets ‘super charged with life and color.’ The German Ambassador to Kuwait Dr Michael Worbs also attended the event.

Rug Star by Jurgen Dahlmann comes directly from Berlin, the hottest and trendiest collection in handmade Tibetan floor art. Made in Bhaktapuar, Nepal, Rug Star has quickly received international acclaim for fusing an old traditional handicraft with contemporary exercise of pattern, color and material.

Originally an architect, Jurgen Dahlmann’s designs reveal a childlike innocence and curiosity influenced from a childhood filled with chaos and experimental education. Using only the finest Tibetan wool and silk, Jurgen Dahlmann brings his rugs to life with the use of natural fibers like nettle and hemp ensuring a long lasting durability and rich feeling.

He is a proud licensed holder of Rug Mark International, which works to end illegal child labor in the carpet industry and to offer educational opportunities to children in South Asia. His workshop is ranked second for the best conditions for weavers around the world.

Rug Star Now 42, Jurgen became rug addicted at the age of 23, on his first trip to Nepal. Rug Star was founded seven years ago in October 2002, when Jurgen moved from architecture to design. The move fits with Jurgen’s view that a rug is the most liberal form of creating a space within a space without erecting obstacles. He aims to treat a carpet as it was originally intended, as a piece of room-creating furniture. Rug Star has come a long way in a short time. Jurgen has also worked on modular designs for IKEA. Rug Star has outlets in Berlin, Augsburg and Zurich and trading partners in fifteen countries.

The personality of design Jurgen Dahlmann believes that a textile is the most intimate form of furniture. His collections draw on many inspirations, some purely whimsical, and others to fit a purpose. The Quentin Tarantino film, Kill Bill, inspired his gun series, but that fantasy is balanced which combines kids’ drawings, doodles and scrawls with sophisticated

geometries of text and color. Jurgen respects the traditions of hand-knotted weaving, but he’s no fan of repeated patterns. He prefers what he calls ‘supercharged landscapes with life and color.’ His works are rebels in the ranks of standard classical and modern designs.

The collections Of his three collections, Rug Star (lassie is closest to conventional designs, varying from simple geometries to organic florals and washed color fields.) The Rug Addict has obvious oriental influences in soft or shocking palettes, Sixties psychedelia and more geometries in squares and rectangles. Love Stories introduce text into designs, which become increasingly personal. His Works in Progress expand the applications into pop art pieces, furniture, rug sculptures, playful modular patterns and freehand scribbles. Jurgen is fearless about what a rug can look like and do, but that is because he has such faith in the traditional techniques to match his imagination.

Bhaktapur workshop All of Jurgen’s rugs come from one workshop, in Bhaktapur, Nepal, but this is now much more than a workshop. The 400 workers have a day care center, a school and a small hospital, as an extension of their workplace for them and their children. This quality of care has given him a high ranking in the businesses of Nepal by Rug Mark, which licenses operators who observe their campaign to end child labor. Jurgen places social harmony as the most important factor in producing the highest quality rug. As she sees it, one rug will take four or five people working together rhythmically for as many as four months. The harmony in the rug comes directly from the people working together on the rug.

The Samovar Carpets and Antiques Born of the Persian Carpet Exhibition in Kuwait, Samovar Carpets and Antiques present the traditional and timeless beauty of the past with a modern flare, providing a luxurious and leisurely experience worthy of the treasures held within.

Being a family based business, the new generation at Hindi Group, have inherited their family’s skill for searching and selecting premium pieces from around the world, and also realize the importance of keeping themselves updated and familiarized with the latest interior trends, fabric designs and colors. Keeping that in mind, they offer a personal learning and buying experience, while delivering impeccable professionally supported, pre and post purchase customer service.

KUWAIT: There has been a new development in the recent incident regarding the 14 trucks caught smuggling groceries and supply materials out of the country through Al-Salmi Port. It was reported that 25 other trucks, containing the same material, escaped detection while on the same route. The 14 caught trucks, as well as the additional 25, indicates that there is an organized attempt to smuggle goods and other materials, allocated as part of the governmental support program, out of the country. Due to the large amount of materials busted, it is also likely that the smugglers received these materials from different locations rather than from a single supply. The trucks involved in the operation belong to local companies in Industrial Shuwaikh and Hawally.

During an emergency meeting, the Minister of Commerce urged ministry officials to supervise the process of searching the confiscated trucks. At the meeting, they also discussed the procedures that need to be carried out in cooperation with the Interior Ministry and the General Customs Department.

A report issued by the Audit Bureau for the fiscal year of 2008-2009 alerted the Ministry of Commerce of about 11 violations detected in its process of distributing supplies. It described the ministry’s monitoring as ‘inaccurate and easily manipulated.’

KUWAIT: The liquor which was hidden inside rolls of satellite cable. — Photos by Hanan Al-Saadoun

Liquor smugglers thwarted

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: Shuwaikh customs officers foiled an attempt to smuggle 2,000 bottles of liquor, after finding them hidden inside rolls of satellite cable in a 20-foot transport container. The confiscated liquor was handed over to police authorities, who are investigating the case.

Window leap A woman working as a maid sustained multiple injuries when she leapt from a second-floor win-

dow in a house in Sabah Al-Salem. The incident apparently took place after her sponsor informed her that Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor inspectors were about to visit the home.

Substation fire An Indian technician was injured when a fire broken out in an electrical substation in Block 4 of Mishref while he was working there. Emergency personnel were quickly at the scene and the man was taken to hospital while the blaze, which police said was quite small, was rapidly extinguished.

PAYS to focus on success of GCC youth, sports meeting: Chairman KUWAIT: The Public Authority for Youth and Sports (PAYS) is intent on guaranteeing the success of the upcoming 24th meeting of GCC Ministers for Youth and Sports being held in Kuwait next Friday, said PAYS’ Chairman Faisal Al-Jazzaf yesterday.

Al-Jazzaf told the press here that the four-day event will focus on decisions to elevate the status of sports in the region to enable young people to reach a higher level of sportsmanship internationally. Several meetings will precede the main event to successfully prepare for the ministerial meeting, affirmed Al-Jazzaf who thanked all those involved in the preparations.

Meanwhile, the 24th meeting of the GCC

nations Olympic Council heads will coincide with the youth and sports meeting.

Twafik Al-Eid, the head of the media committee for both meetings, affirmed that both share the objective of developing sports in the region.

He revealed that side events, including an exhibition of photos showcasing the achievements of GCC athletes and others will also be held as part of the event.

General coordinator of the meetings Mishal AlHadba said that senior sports officials and athletes would be presented with awards on the sideline of the meetings, adding that following up on resolutions of previous meetings would also be on the agenda during the two events. — KUNA

KUWAIT: Maj Gen Jassem Al-Mansouri, the Director General of the Kuwait Fire Services Directorate yesterday visited a colleague injured while tackling a fire, in Sabah Hospital where he is being treated. Lt Col Ali Abbas, the head of the Shuwaikh fire brigade, was fighting a fire at a tire store in Shuwaikh along with his colleagues when he fell from the ladder which he had climbed to rescue several of the staff there. — Photo by Hanan Al-Saadoun

Nasser Al-Foudari

Barrak Al-Heed

Green Island to hold Mother’s Day festival KUWAIT: The Green Island, one of the facilities of the Touristic Enterprises Company (TEC), will hold a special ‘Mother’s Commemoration Day’ festival on March 19. This will include several programs and activities, said the resort’s supervisor, Nasser AlFoudari.

The event will begin at 4 pm. Women belonging to all nationalities will be welcomed in a festive fashion at the Green Island’s entrance.

It will include participation from various Arab traditional folklore bands, each demonstrating the culture of their home countries, in addition to other programs that focus on commemorating mothers’ role in society.

Competitions for various prizes have also been allocated.

Furthermore, the event will also feature a competition to honor the youngest and the oldest mother from

among visitors. This event will be held as part of the TEC’s commitment to observe all the special occasions in society, give citizens and residents a chance to celebrate these occasions in a joyous atmosphere.

Meanwhile, Al-Egaila beach, one of the facilities of the Touristic Enterprises Company (TEC), will host the ‘Good Heart’ festival on Friday, March 19 to celebrate ‘Family Day.’ The event will start at 2:00 pm, said Supervisor of the Beach, Barrak Al-Heed. He indicated that several activities to celebrate Mother’s Day will be carried out, including programs and competitions for children. After that, a musical show will be held at 5:00 pm.

An operetta to commemorate the day will be performed.

Al-Heed further asserted on TEC’s commitment to provide the best quality service for its visitors, especially during special occasions.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

NATIONAL

5 ‘Govt not supposed to fly airplanes’

Wataniya Airways to add two new destinations KUWAIT: The head of Wataniya Airways has announced that the company is to add two new destination to its existing nine before this summer. Abdulsalam Al-Bahar, the head of the newest Kuwaiti airline, said that the government should not be flying planes, adding that he is waiting for the day when

Kuwait Airways will be privatized. Al-Bahar was speaking during a weekly seminar held at the Arab Media Forum premises, in the Yarmook area on Monday evening. The Wataniya Airways CEO said that Kuwait Airways has many more privileges as a government-owned company, making it harder for private companies to compete with it in a small market like Kuwait.

“They have subsidized prices for fuel, they pay 25 fils per square meter for their facilities while we pay 25 KD, and they are also the carrier for all government and official trips, for which they receive special prices,” he said.

Al-Bahar was also critical of government bureaucracy, pointing out that the current laws governing airlines have been in place since the 60s, when only one carrier was operating in Kuwait, meaning that they are not suitable for the current market. He added that the privatization of Kuwait Airways will create a strong competitor for Wataniya Airways, since both airlines will be subjected to equal treatment, with the resulting increased competition helping to enhance the services offered for Kuwaitis and to advance both companies’ capabilities.

Al-Bahar said that at present Wataniya has to use Sheikh Saad Airport because Kuwait International Airport (KIA) is already operating beyond its current capacity. “[KIA’s] capacity is around four million passengers, and it’s currently handling eight million passengers a year,” he said.

Al-Bahar further revealed that a study conducted for Wataniya Airways by an independent research company discovered that 95 percent of the airports close to the size of KIA are operated by only one carrier.

2009 was the worst year to date for aviation world-

companies. Have you ever heard of a profitable government-owned services company?” he asked, adding, “The government is not meant to fly airplanes, and the Public Investment Authority is also part of the government.”

Al-Bahar further contended that Kuwait is suffering from a surfeit of improvised decision-making, “The country is not only run through interpellations, and the policy of ‘things will resolve themselves’ is not right,” he stated, adding

By Ahmad Saeid

KUWAIT: Event organizers Reqaya Abdulwahab Al-Qatami (right) and Dr Labiba Al-Tamim. — Photos

by Joseph Shagra

Art charity for cancer patients

By Abdullah Al-Qattan KUWAIT: The Ghadir gallery held an open art sale yesterday in association with Hayat Cancer Association entitled ‘A small painting with a big heart’. The art pieces on display were created by children, artists and architects, which were sold at a nominal rate. The association will utilize the money collected to provide medicine to cancer patients who cannot afford medical treatment.

The Hayat Cancer Association, the fund established

by Reqaya Abdulwahab AlQatami in 2003, suggested the idea of coming up with 30x20 paintings. The fund was setup with the motive of administering cancer treatment to non-Kuwaitis who cannot afford treatment on their own.

Al-Qatami said that usually, each patient would cost the government around KD 45, including tests, consultations with doctor, and cost of medicine.

KUWAIT: The head of Wataniya Airways, Abdulsalam Al-Bahar (left) and Mathi Al-Khamis, the head of Arab Media Forum are seen during the seminar. — Photo by Ahmad Saeid wide, he said, adding that the Kuwaiti market has limited capacity.

“The local market can only handle two operators, not three,” he asserted, further noting that although he is looking forward to KAC’s privatization, Wataniya has no wish to acquire the other airline. In the meantime, he said that it would not be helpful to transfer KAC’s ownership to the Public Investment Authority.

“The private sector should be given the responsibility for operating such

pointedly, “The Minister of Communications barely speaks about anything but grilling.”

Wataniya Airways, Kuwait’s newest carrier, began operating in January 2009. It currently rents four airplanes, operating 22 flights a week. The company, which currently employs 400 staff from 48 countries, was the second in the world to introduce an On-Air service which allows passengers to use mobile phones and laptop computers on board its flights.

6

NATIONAL

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

One million lote trees to be planted

Promotion of environmental culture needed in Kuwait KUWAIT: Boosting the environmental culture and consolidation of the voluntary action among all walks of the Kuwaiti life is an important task, the supreme committee on planting one million lote trees in Kuwait stressed here yesterday. Head of the committee Khaled Al-Hassan said that the goal behind this project is to reduce the environmental risks faced by Kuwait and to urge youth to take part in the voluntary patriotic action. Al-Hassan also asserted that this project is a voluntary action carried out by a group of Kuwaiti young men and women, pointing out that the committee will receive the volunteers who want to work in the project whether from individuals or companies.

Simple inauguration planned for Jaber Stadium KUWAIT: Preparations are currently underway to hold a pared down inauguration ceremony for the Jaber Stadium next month.

A meeting was held between representatives from the Ministry of Public Works (MPW), the Ministry of Finance (MoF), the Civil Service Commission (CSC), and the Public Authority for Youth and Sports (PAYS) to discuss this matter.

According to the plan, that was prepared

during the meeting, main preparations for the stadium including the ground, entrances and exits will be arranged for inauguration.

More sophisticated steps will be implemented later as they need to go through several steps that involve the Central Tenders Committee (CTC) before being carried out, reported Al-Watan.

On February 15, the Cabinet had reviewed a request forwarded by the

MASL and PAYS to shorten the time period involved for the stadium’s inauguration.

They asserted that several adjustments need to be made, and cannot be carried out within the proposed time limit. For that, the PAYS recommends that sophisticated matters be postponed and focus on quick preparations to be made for the stadium to be inaugurated on time.

‘Encourage skills of talented youth’ ALGIERS: Delegates at the Fifth Arab Forum on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) on Monday agreed that more effort should be made to promote creativity and enhance the abilities of talented young Arabs youths in the field of hi-tech SME businesses.

Speaking during the second day of the two-day gathering, which concluded later that evening, Nedhal Mohammad Taleb, the representative of the Syrian Ministry of Industry attending the event, said that the development of SMEs could help support Arab economies.

“The ongoing forum aims to develop a database covering all sectors of SMEs in the Arab countries and outline a common strategy for development,” Taleb explained. “The SMEs play a pivotal role in creating jobs for young people and pushing economic growth.”

The Syrian official voiced hope that the gathering would reach viable and practical recommendations, praising the Algerian experiment in supporting SMEs. Another delegate, Mohammad Al-Fateh Al-Otaibi, a senior advisor at the Sudanese Ministry of Industry, said that the forum provides a platform for exchanging experience in the domain of industrial innovation.

“The Arab governments need to catalyze the sense of creativity among the young and capitalize on their huge potential, particularly in the SMEs sector,” he asserted.

The Sudanese official called for expanding the applications of information and communication technologies in this area.

Samir Omeir, the Director General of the Algerian SMEs Studies Authority, said that SMEs provide a lifeline for Arab economies and help to promote GDP growth.

“Arab countries need to give free rein to SMEs to revitalize their economies and enhance their competitive edge,” he asserted. — KUNA

Army restructuring

KUWAIT: Volunteers who participated in the 24th voluntary work training course. — Photos by KUNA

Key role for voluntary work KUWAIT: Voluntary work has a crucial role in developing the society and also serves to develop relations amongst all humans, said Chairman of Kuwait Red Crescent Society Barjas Al-Barjas yesterday.

Al-Barjas said after the conclusion of the 24th voluntary work training course here that the KRCS would continue to support such events

aimed at developing skills of aid workers.

The official lauded the 83rd participants in the course, saying that their input would help further integrate their skills and therefore contribute more to society. The course had introduced participants to first aid medical procedures as well as rules and regulations governing international aid work, stated the official. —- KUNA

KUWAIT: The Kuwaiti Army’s divisions and units face major restructuring in order to encourage older, more senior officers to retire and take advantage of the special benefits they are eligible for.

A senior military official told local daily Al-Rai that the initiative, which was introduced through a ministerial decision

by First Deputy Premier and Minister of Defense Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, will see some units being cancelled and others amended.

The new initiative, which is primarily aimed at officers of the rank of colonel or higher, will also see the merging of some units and divisions.

He said that this project coincided with the vision adopted by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) that called on world countries to forestation due to the environmental problems because of lack of trees and the dominating desert climate in what caused an increase in air dryness.

This project the first of its kind as it reduces the environmental risks countered by Kuwait and serves the country from the environmental perspective, he added.

Further, Al-Hassan hailed the efforts exerted by the Public Authority for Agricultural Affairs and Fish Resources (PAAAFR) as it harnessed all its potentials for supporting the volunteer youth in order to make Kuwait a verdant oasis.

He also said that there are some bodies that contributed to the implementation of this project, besides the PAAAFR, like the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR), the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science (KFAS), the Environment Public Authority (EPA), the National Assembly’s environmental affairs committee and the FAO. He added that this project gained approval and encouragement from the concerned environmental bodies as well as the Kuwaiti society as a whole.

KUWAIT: The lote is a tree of thick thorns that stands upon one stem with many branches and its height ranges between 2 and 3 meters.

On the reasons for selecting the lote tree in particular, AlHassan said that it is the first tree in Kuwait as it harks back to the days of our forefathers. It also contributes to the development of wild life with its ability to withstand the high temperatures, besides increasing oxygen and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, he added.

He went on to say that the

lote tree is one of the best kind of trees used in combating desertification and fixing the soil, pointing out that it is marked by forming a field of soft soil that bars sands from around it and prevents their sweep, besides its function as wind breaks.

The lote is a tree of thick thorns that stands upon one stem with many branches and

its height ranges between 2 and 3 meters and it may exceed this if it is not subjected to an organized grazing.

As for the roots, they are peg-like and goes deeply down the earth looking for water and they may reach deep in their search. Concerning the lote’s leaves, they are oval and semicircular with three nearly parallel veins. — KUNA

Supporting hand for hemophiliacs KUWAIT: Hemophilia is a very rare hereditary blood condition that can lead to paralysis or early death if untreated, but Kuwait has the means to provide treatment to patients so that they can lead normal lives, said specialists of the World Federation of Hemophilia (WFH) yesterday.

Deputy Programs Director and Regional Program Manager for Africa and the Middle East, Dr Assad Haffar, and Vice President of Finance, Rob Christie, were speaking on the sidelines of a visit during which they will participate in a symposium organized by Kuwait Hemophilia Society, titled ‘Towards a Better Life for Hemophilia Patients’.

“WFH is here to provide support to the local organization (Kuwait Hemophilia Society), to build capacity within the organization, provide resources, transfer knowledge, and provide a support base for the development of the organization locally,” explained Christie.

This, he noted, would be enhanced through the expertise that the WFH had gained from international models in building capacity in local organizations to manage the treatment and care of patients.

Hemophilia is a very rare disease that is passed on from the mother to her male child, and only one in 5,000-7,000 males are born with hemophilia worldwide, so some people never encounter this blood disorder. Hemophiliacs typically have a deficiency in the blood’s clotting factors and so suffer severe bleeding when injured, even internally.

Hemophilia A is the most common form of the disorder, and it is caused by a deficiency in Factor Eight. Hemophilia B is a deficiency in Factor Nine.

Factor Eights is the type that affects joints, and can also cause dangerous bleeding in abdomen and cerebral bleeding in the skull. “Because of its rarity, hemophilia tends to be very much hidden in many societies.

And because the disease is rare, there can be lack of knowledge in some cases that hinder correct diagnosis of the disorder.

Laboratories may not be equipped or may give wrong information in terms of establishing and understanding the disorder. So there are a number of barriers facing correct diagnosis,” Christie added.

He explained that untreated, hemophilia could lead to physical disability and death at an early age. “That doesn’t and shouldn’t happen in a country like Kuwait ... Given good treatment and care, people can lead

normal lives.” He added that Kuwait was at a “transitional stage” where there were good resources and reasonable knowledge, “but we need to bring a comprehensive care team together to provide even better treatment and care so these people live very normal lives.” As the father of a hemophiliac, Christie recounts how doctors failed to pick indicators of the condition his son was born with until he was three years old, and how in many cases when his child suffered bruises people mistook him for an abused child. “It was difficult for myself and my wife, because it can be a stigma.” Children with severe hemophilia would have join problems, and from the social point of view this could be very difficult because the child would not be able to play normal sports and could become withdrawn.

“In an emerged world, we would normally have a nurse or a social worker go with the mother of the child to the school to educate the teachers first, in some cases educate the classmates,” he said.

Dr Haffar said that Kuwait

was not the first Middle Eastern country that the WFH worked with, explaining that the federation usually held general “multidisciplinary” workshops on hemophilia care that bring hemophiliacs together with health professionals - hematologists, orthopedics, physiotherapists, nurses and doctors - to present the matter from different angles.

He also noted that the WFH had twinning programs - organization-to-organization or society-to-society - to “match” a society or organization from an emerging country with one in a developed country, where the former helps the latter to develop its work.

The WFH also has a “medical twinning partnership” program between emerging centers and established centers to help build the capacity to diagnose, support and treat hemophilia patients.

Dr Haffar also said explained the federation’s Global Alliance for Progress (GAP). “This is a program in which we (WFH) try to address all the aspects of hemophilia care in a country.

Usually we do this in partner-

ship with the local society and with the government, represented by the Ministry of Health or any other ministry related to hemophilia care. We have five GAP agreements signed in region - we started in Egypt in 2003, then Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia and Syria.”

Although he said it was too soon at this stage to discuss such matters, he hoped that such an agreement would be signed between the WFH and Kuwait in the future.

The expert said that one major obstacle that he, along with his colleagues, faces was the public’s perception of the disease, which he attributed to the fact that it was an inherited disorder that people often did not feel comfortable talking about.

He called for raising public awareness through educating people about this rare condition, including health authorities.

“Caring for a rare disease at an early stage is going to save a lot (of expenses).” Dr Haffar hoped that during their visit to Kuwait, the WFH representatives would get the opportunity to visit laboratories here. — KUNA

VIVA celebrates Mother’s Day with fun and special offers KUWAIT: VIVA is celebrating Mother’s Day with all their customers and their families by acknowledging this special day with great offers, fun activities and-hopefully lots of warm memories. VIVA as a word stands for life, and who should be most appreciated for bringing life and sacrificing for their children, than our dearest mothers?

“What better gift to give your mom, your sister, your wife, or even your daughter, than a Gold number, with VIVA’s compliments for one month? For this special celebration, all new VIVA customers can also benefit from an attractive Internet offer, with a free Golden number for their beloved mothers.” said VIVA Marketing Director, Rana Resheed.

Celebrations don’t stop there; VIVA will be present at Avenues Mall on March 19 and 20, in a newly developed booth. There, people can create memorable video wishes to their mothers in innovative ways-for free. A dedicated production team will edit these videos so customers can share them later, send them directly to their moth-

Rana Resheed ers via email, or even uploaded as links. Selected videos will also be featured on YouTube and local TV channels.

Instead of a video, people can also choose to have their pictures taken at the booth, and then have them printed directly onto a greeting card

prepared by VIVA’s team for this Golden day.

In short, VIVA is making it possible not only to celebrate Mother’s Day, but also to get valuable products and promotions that say more than a thousand words. VIVA’s Mother Day offer is available between today and March 23.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

INTERNATIONAL

7

Iran plagued with ‘despotism’ West ignoring human rights abuses in Iran: Nobel laureate

BAGHDAD: Iraqi employees of the electoral counting and sorting center register more votes yesterday. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki’s bloc looked likely to form parliament’s single largest grouping, after results showed the incumbent had strengthened his hold on key Baghdad province. — AFP

Iraq PM tightens grip on Baghdad BAGHDAD: Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri AlMaliki’s bloc looked likely to form parliament’s single largest grouping yesterday, after results showed the incumbent had strengthened his hold on key Baghdad province. Maliki’s success in the capital, which accounts for more than twice as many seats as any other province, builds on his lead in seven provinces overall, and is a major boost for his bid to retain the top job. Maliki’s main rival, secular ex-premier Iyad Allawi, leads in five provinces, with two-thirds of votes having been counted nationwide.

Officials have pleaded for patience and said that updated results, based on 85 percent of ballots counted, would be posted later yesterday. The election-the second since Saddam Hussein was ousted in the US-led invasion of 2003 - comes less than six months before the United States is set to withdraw all of its combat troops from Iraq.

Preliminary results, based on 60 percent of ballots counted in Baghdad, showed Maliki’s State of Law Alliance held a 65,000-vote lead over Allawi’s Iraqiya bloc with the Iraqi National Alliance (INA), a coalition of Shiite religious groups, a distant third.

Maliki, a Shiite who has sought to portray himself as the man who restored Iraq’s security, also holds leads in the oil-rich province of Basra, the third-biggest in Iraq, as well as five predominantly Shiite provinces south of Baghdad. Despite State of Law’s success, however, analysts have

cautioned that rival political groupings could still maneuver to form a coalition government without it. While State of Law has said it has established a committee to enter talks with blocs to form a government, Intisar Allawi, a senior Iraqiya candidate, said on Monday the grouping had held its own talks with the INA and the main Kurdish bloc, which she described as “very good and positive.”

Iraq’s proportional representation system makes it unlikely that any single group will clinch the 163 seats needed to form a government on its own, and protracted coalition building is likely.

Opposition groups have alleged fraud in the election and the count, but Maliki dismissed the claims in televised remarks to Iraq’s National Security Council broadcast late on Sunday, his first public appearance since his office announced on Thursday that he had undergone surgery for an unspecified ailment.

Election officials have also downplayed allegations of fraud. Faraj Al-Haidari, head of the national election commission, told reporters the number of complaints in the general election was less than half those filed during provincial polls in January 2009. Vote tallies have so far been released to chaotic scenes at the commission’s data entry centre in Baghdad’s Green Zone, with several provinces often published at once onto a single television screen, usually leaving some out of view, sparking shouts of anger from assembled journalists and observers. — AFP

TEHRAN: A day after his apartment block was besieged by hardliners calling for his prosecution, defiant Iranian opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi lashed out at the government, saying it was “plagued with despotism”, his website reported yesterday. The cleric, who continues to question the legitimacy of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s reelection, said it was still difficult for him to understand how the hardliner won the poll last year given his government’s track record.

“Unfortunately, the (Islamic) republic has been plagued with despotism and elections have become meaningless. It has become only a term,” Karroubi told visitors from the central province of Isfahan, according to his website Sahamnews.org. “How can one believe that a president with so many objections against him such as inflation, unemployment... gets more votes than he got in his first election?”

Ahmadinejad has been accused of

stoking inflation with populist policies that have involved pumping large sums of money into the economy. Karroubi again insisted that Ahmadinejad’s re-election was “not due to the popular vote which is why we saw an explosion of people” on the streets after the official results were announced. In the immediate aftermath of the declaration of the results of the June 12 poll, hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters poured onto the streets to reject Ahmadinejad’s re-election.

Karroubi’s remarks came two days after hardliners reportedly gathered outside his Tehran home, calling for him to be put to death. His wife, Fatemeh, charged that a group of “thugs” paid by “corrupt” government officials had vandalized the apartment block where the family lives. Iran’s Fars news agency described the small but vocal crowd which gathered outside the flats as “students and families of martyrs” of the Iran-Iraq war. Pictures carried by the

Syria wants to ‘open new page’ with Druze leader BEIRUT: Syria is ready to meet with a Lebanese politician who was one of its harshest critics in the past years and open a new page in relations, days after he said his comments about Damascus were “improper,” the militant Hezbollah group said. A reconciliation between Walid Jumblatt, leader of Lebanon’s Druse sect, and Damascus could boost Syria’s role in Lebanese politics years after its troops were forced out of the country.

It will also probably weaken the Western-backed coalition that Jumblatt once helped lead until he split with them in August. Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has been mediating between the Syrians and Jumblatt for several months.

A Hezbollah statement released late Monday said Nasrallah informed Jumblatt that Syria “will overcome” what happened in the past and open a new page. It added that Syrian President Bashar Assad will receive Jumblatt in the near future. In Damascus, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al-Moallem declined to answer a question about Jumblatt’s visit to Syria, saying only that Hezbollah’s statement is “accurate.” Jumblatt’s harshest verbal attack against Assad came on February 2007 when he told a crowd of tens of thousands of supporters that Assad was a “snake” and a “tyrant” and called for revenge against him.

The Hezbollah statement said the Syrian decision came after Jumblatt’s “clear stance and courageous review” of his comments. After the Hezbollah announcement, Jumblatt told Syria’s Al-Watan newspaper, which is privately owned but guided by government policy, “the old page has been turned forever.” Jumblatt, 60, was the main force behind the creation of a Western-backed alliance that led massive street protests to demand the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon following the Feb 14, 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri’s assassination. Many Lebanese blamed Syria for his death, a claim Damascus denies. The Syrians pulled their army out of Lebanon in April 2005 ending nearly three decades of domination of their smaller neighbor. Asked when he expects to visit Damascus, Jumblatt told Al-Watan that “there is no specific date yet but I am waiting to go to Syria because I have a lot to say to President Assad.” “The most important thing is to forget the past and open a new page,” he said. — AP

pro-government Borna news agency showed the building defaced with red coloring, while slogans pronouncing “Death to Karroubi” were scribbled on the walls.

Karroubi and former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi have led a protest movement against Ahmadinejad since his June re-election, which they reject as massively rigged. Karroubi was attacked by hardliners during Iran’s commemoration of the Islamic revolution of 1979 on February 11 and his car was shot at in January in the city of Qazvin, west of Tehran. The outspoken cleric, who with Mousavi stood against Ahmadinejad in the June vote, has infuriated hardliners by charging some post-election detainees had been raped in jail. Iranian authorities vehemently deny the allegations.

Western countries’ fixation on Iran’s disputed nuclear program is blinding them to human rights abuses, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi said on Monday. “In recent years, the nuclear issue has become the only subject that

gets talked about abroad but it’s the tree that hides the forest, the forest being human rights violations in Iran,” Ebadi told journalists in Paris. The West suspects Iran of secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons, a charge rejected by Tehran, which says its atomic program is purely for civilian energy purposes.

“Iran holds two sad records, that for the number of imprisoned journalists and that for the number of minors executed,” the Iranian human rights campaigner told a press conference to mark the release of a book by her in France. Girls can be held criminally responsible from the age of nine in the country and boys from the age of 15, she said. Ebadi, who has lived in exile in London for the last six months, said that Iran’s protest movement was made up of different political persuasions but “the common denominator is democracy and respect for human rights.” She said that she would not hesitate to return to Iran if needed but that she currently felt “more useful” abroad.— Agencies

Yemeni rebels ‘breach truce’, blasts hit Aden SANAA/ADEN: Yemen accused Shiite rebels yesterday of breaching a truce in the north and the country’s main southern city was hit by small blasts, testing the government as it strives to maintain stability. Separately, a government official said tests on the remains of five people recovered in northern Yemen this week showed they were not Europeans taken hostage in the north last year.

Yemen’s supreme security committee said northern rebels were dragging their heels on implementing a ceasefire deal struck with Sanaa in February to end fighting that drew in neighboring top oil exporter Saudi Arabia. “The (rebels) returned again to some sites after leaving, established new checkpoints, and committed numerous violations and attacks on citizens and some public and private installations,” Yemen’s state news agency reported the committee as saying.

The rebels were also refusing to hand over landmines removed from the conflict zone which were supposed to be destroyed by the state, the agency said. Sanaa came under intense international pressure to end its northern war after a failed attempt by the Yemen-based regional arm of Al-Qaeda to blow up a US-bound plane in December. Analysts say the truce agreement between the government and rebels, who belong

to the minority Zaydi sect of Shiite Islam, was unlikely to last as it does not address the insurgents’ complaints of discrimination by Sanaa.

On their website, the rebels, known as the Houthis after the family name of their leader, said military units and local officials had entered unhindered a number of northern areas on Monday, including Malahith, Razih and Al-Zaher.

“These steps come as we confirm that we do not interfere with matters of the local authorities, and that we have never done so and never will,” rebels said in a statement posted on Monday.

Western governments and neighboring Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, fear AlQaeda is exploiting instability on many fronts in Yemen to recruit and train militants for attacks in the region and beyond.

BLASTS HIT SOUTHERN CITY Sanaa is also struggling to contain growing violence in its south, where secessionists are seeking independence from the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Clashes between protesters, often armed, and security forces in have left a trail of dead and wounded on both sides. A series of small explosions hit Yemen’s main southern city of Aden late on Monday, prompting a heavy deployment of government troops, a local official said yesterday. — Reuters

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INTERNATIONAL

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Hysteria, tears in Berlusconi book on Italy’s love ROME: Hysterical and tearful messages from Italians imploring Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to persevere after being attacked last year fill a new book that hits stores just as campaigning for regional elections steps up. Published by the Mondadori company that Berlusconi owns, “Love always wins over envy and hatred” collates some of the 50,000 messages of support that poured in after a mentally unstable man smashed a small statue into the premier’s face at a rally in December,

New book compiles messages of support after attack breaking his teeth and nose.

Berlusconi, who has been embroiled in sex scandals and a fight with the judiciary, saw his popularity rise just after the attack. But corruption scandals and bungling over ballot lists for regional polls have prompted a slide in ratings recently.

The messages from across Italy to as far away as Vietnam run the gamut from defiant-”Show them you’re

indestructible!”- to desperate and sentimental-”We beg you, don’t abandon us and do clone yourself if you can”-to verging on hysteria.

“On seeing you covered in blood, my wife grabbed her hair and sobbed as she yelled ‘My Madonna, save Silvio!’” wrote Carlo F. “Prime Minister, we’re at the edge of a precipice: only you can save us and guarantee a future to our grandchil-

dren. We have prayed for you and will continue to do so every day.” In another, “Grandma Norina” called on Berlusconi’s deceased mother for help: “Your mamma in the heavens will protect you and give you the strength and serenity to continue your job.” Others wrote to say they wept, that “I’m hurt like as if my father had been hit” and “Without you I’d leave Italy”.

ELECTION THIS MONTH With the book out in stores just as Berlusconi tries to rally voters ahead of the March 28-29 vote, the left-leaning newspaper La Repubblica dismissed it as an election gimmick and mockingly dubbed it “Silvio Ceausescu’s little white book”. “It needs to be strongly said that this book at its heart becomes an election flyer, pure propaganda on

glossy paper,” Francesco Merlo wrote in the daily. In a foreword to the book, Berlusconi said the solidarity show made up for all the “slander, offences, false accusations” he had faced over the year and that the book was borne out of his desire to give the messages some recognition. “Just think that in the first two days after the attack I received over 50,000 messages via the Internet,

hundreds of faxes and flower bouquets,” Berlusconi wrote. “All the leaders of friendly countries telephoned me. And there was a continuous pilgrimage, first in hospital and then at (family home) Arcore.” A centrefold with statistics on various government projects and texts of two speeches by 73-year-old Berlusconi complete the book, dedicated to “The Italy that knows how to love”. A youthful-looking Berlusconi appears on the cover, smiling.— Reuters

Anxiety on succession as Mubarak recovers Egypt president shown on TV chatting to doctors CAIRO: Ten days after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak underwent surgery in Germany, there is growing uncertainty over his state of health and increased talk about who will eventually succeed him.

Yesterday, state television aired footage of the president for the first time since his gall bladder was removed on March 6, showing Mubarak sitting at a small table in a hospital room and talking to two doctors.

Markus Buchler, who heads the medical team that performed the surgery, told reporters the president “was upbeat and in very good spirits as usual.” “I am happy to say that his medical and general condition is improving in a satisfactory manner,” he said. But there was no indication when Mubarak, who delegated authority to Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif temporarily, would leave hospital.

Despite the almost daily upbeat statements on the president’s convalescence, anxiety over his health led to a drop on the Egyptian stock exchange.

The index fell 2.4 percent on Sunday and 3.8 percent on Monday before clawing back some of the losses on Tuesday with a 1.5 percent gain. Eissa Fathi, the manager of Strategic Company for Securities, attributed the rise to news that the president was expected to make an appearance on Egyptian television. “This trend is expected to continue, especially because the drop that happened (on Sunday and Monday) was random,” he said.

HEIDELBERG: A handout picture shows Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (center) talking to German doctors at the University of Heidelberg hospital in Heidelberg. — AFP Analysts say the president’s health, usually a closely guarded secret that has led to journalists being punished for questioning it, has intensified talk over his eventual succession. “We face many questions. What would happen if harm befell the president, or whether he could carry out his role until the end of his fifth term,” said Imad Gad, an analyst with the Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies. Mubarak, president since 1981, has no vice president. He has not indicated whether he will run for presi-

dent again next year, only telling a party member at a convention: “God Willing.”

The expression could have been meant either a yes or a polite evasion. His son Gamal has not commented on widespread speculation that he would succeed his father. “There is widespread anxiety in Egypt and the drop in the stock exchange indicated that. There is lack of certainty on how power will be transferred and talk on the postMubarak period has started,” Gad said. Like many analysts, Gad does not believe the 46-

year-old Gamal, a former investment banker who now holds an influential policy making post in his father’s National Democratic Party, has much chance of becoming next president.

“I doubt the Gamal Mubarak scenario. The security and military apparatuses know there is discontent towards inheritance of power, especially with increased talk of the prodigality of those around him and suspicions of corruption by those around him,” Gad said. He said he doubted the transfer of the post of commander-in-chief to an

unpopular man who, unlike all the country’s presidents until now, does not have a military background. Gad said a more likely scenario would be the military and the country’s powerful security services agreeing on a candidate, who would run as an independent, which would require support from 250 parliamentarians.

Amr Shobaki, another analyst with the Ahram centre, said Mubarak was not likely to run for another term because of his age and health. The most probable outcome, he said, “was an alternative from a government apparatus that the military and security agree on.”

Several people have been talked about as successors, including the powerful head of intelligence, Omar Suleiman.

Another possible candidate, Mohammed ElBaradei, the former chief UN nuclear watchdog, has popular support and leadership capabilities, Shobaki said.

But he is not supported by government agencies and at any rate has conditioned running on constitutional reforms that Mubarak has dismissed. Still, his arrival on the Egyptian political scene has diminished Gamal’s chances, said Mustapha Kamel, an American University of Cairo political science professor. “The entry of a person such as ElBaradei in the circle of those concerned with presidential nomination has made it difficult to think of Gamal Mubarak, because there is no comparison in terms of experience and national weight,” he said. — AFP

Women ‘more likely to die’ after heart attack

ALGIERS: Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci (center with white hair) chairs a meeting on terror threats with representatives of Libya, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Burkina Faso, in Algiers yesterday. — AP

N African countries meet on Qaeda threat ALGIERS: Seven north African states held talks yesterday in Algeria to plan a coordinated response to Al-Qaeda following a dangerous rise in the terror threat in the Sahara-Sahel region, officials said.

The conference “indicates our shared will to take adequate and suitable steps in a coordinated manner” in response to the terror threat “which has seen dangerous developments,” said Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci. An Al-Qaeda offshoot in north Africa, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), along with other criminal groups, has exploited the vast spaces of the Sahara and Sahel to hide from authorities after launching attacks or kidnapping foreigners.

“Obviously, putting into place effective and multifaceted border cooperation between our countries is crucial,” Medelci said before he and his counterparts or their deputies from Burkina Faso, Chad, Libya, Mali, Mauritania and Niger began talks behind closed doors.

Medelci also condemned growing links between terror and criminal groups in the region which has seen a rise in

weapons and drug smuggling. AQIM, commanded from Algeria, carried out a number of brazen attacks in that country in 2007, including a suicide attack targeting the convoy of Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika that killed 22 and injured more than 100.

The group’s sympathizers were arrested for shooting dead four French tourists in southeast of Mauritania in December 2007. In 2008 and 2009, AQIM shifted tack, and has since carried out multiple kidnappings, and in one case a killing, of Westerners, seeking the seeking the release of Islamist prisoners or money. The threat in the Sahel is being taken very seriously after the death of British tourist Edwin Dyer in June 2009, killed by AQIM after six months in captivity when London refused to yield to blackmail by the Islamist combatants. AQIM is still believed to be hiding in the northern Malian desert two kidnapped Spaniards and two Italians. Medelci called for an “unwavering and unconditional commitment” against terrorism, following a

recent row with Mali over the release of four Al-Qaeda militants which AQIM had demanded in exchange for the February release of a French hostage. Algeria and Mauritania recalled their ambassadors from Bamako after Mali released the four militants-two from Algeria, one from Burkina Faso and one from Mauritaniadespite the fact Algiers and Nouakchott wanted to try their nationals on terrorism related charges. While calling “security and peace a precondition to the development” of the Sahara-Sahel region, Medelci also reminded his counterparts of their obligation to help “those most deprived”.

The United States welcomed the efforts by the north African countries to improve counterterrorism cooperation.

“We hope the meeting will build upon ongoing efforts to strengthen regional cooperation and further consolidate collective action against groups that seek to exploit territories of these countries and launch attacks against innocent civilians,” US State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said in a statement. — AFP

ATLANTA: When it comes to matters of the heart, women should be treated more like men. A large study found that among patients admitted to the hospital for a heart attack, women were far less likely than men to get angiography to find vessel blockages or angioplasty to clear them. Women were about twice as likely as men to die within a month of a heart attack, the study said.

“This suggests that we could reduce mortality in female patients by using more invasive procedures,” said Dr Francois Schiele, chief cardiologist at the University Hospital of Besancon, France. Schiele, who presented the research at the American College of Cardiology meeting in Atlanta, said women should be treated with all recommended strategies, including invasive ones.

Some earlier studies have also suggested that women have a higher risk of death after a heart attack than men, but it is unclear why. Biological differences might explain it, researchers said, but there were also substantial differences in the treatment regimens women received. Researchers analyzed data from a registry that included more than 3,500 patients who were treated for heart attacks between January 2006 and December 2007. The women, who made up almost one-third of the patients, were nine years older than the men on average and had more health problems. In most major heart studies, the majority of patients have been men, leaving women an understudied population. The French study, sponsored by European drugmakers including GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and Sanofi-Aventis, found women received fewer effective treatments for heart attack. Women were almost twice as likely to die during the initial hospital stay and during the following month. The study showed that men were 57 percent more likely to get angiography, in which blood vessels are injected with dye so that blockages are visible on an X-ray. — Reuters

ABUJA: Nigerian youths protest in Abuja yesterday against the poor state of the nation, lack of security and electricity as well as for electoral reform. — AFP

Nigeria presidential vote set for Jan 22 or April 23 ABUJA: Nigeria’s presidential vote will be held on Jan 22, 2011 or April 23 depending on the outcome of electoral reforms before parliament, the West African country’s electoral body said yesterday.

The current presidential term in Africa’s most populous nation ends in May 2011 and elections are due by April next year under the present system. But a reform bill before parliament could bring the polls forward.

The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Maurice Iwu, said that until a notice of poll is issued either on Aug 2, 2010 or Nov 1, the provisional dates could still be modified. “We have prepared two provisional schedules for the elections,” Iwu said at a presentation in the capital Abuja, which was attended by a representative of Acting President Goodluck Jonathan. “What this means is that whatever the National Assembly comes up with, it is incumbent on the commission to modify these dates to accommodate the provisions,” Iwu said.

The presidential poll would be preceded by elections into the federal and state assemblies, and state governorships. Jonathan took over executive powers a month ago in the absence of ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua, who has since returned from three months in a Saudi hospital but remains too sick to govern the OPEC member nation of 140 million people. Jonathan’s takeover as acting leader ended immediate concerns about stagnation in government business but did not resolve the broader issue of who the country’s

next president will be, a decision which will determine whether economic and political reforms accelerate or stagnate.

ENSURE ELECTORAL JUSTICE Nigeria’s political kingpins are jockeying for influence over who the ruling PDP party’s presidential nominee should be and some say an early election would end the uncertainty sooner.

Jonathan said in a speech read at the presentation that the government wanted free and fair elections. A meeting of all political parties to discuss credible elections was being planned. “We will do all within our powers to promote free and fair elections and we will insist on electoral justice,” Jonathan said in a speech read by Justice Minister Kayode Adetokunbo. The elections that brought Yar’Adua to power in 2007 were so marred by vote-rigging, voter intimidation and ballot-stuffing that European Union observers dismissed them as not credible. Parliament is considering electoral reforms including a suggestion made by former Chief Justice Muhammadu Uwais that elections should take place at least six months before the presidential term expires, allowing time to settle any legal challenges before the new president is sworn in. The aim is to avoid a repeat of the legal battles that dogged the first half of Yar’Adua’s term and undermined his authority.

With the release of the timetable, campaigning for various political offices would soon kick-off in earnest in Africa’s top oil and gas producer, slowing down government business. — Reuters

Basque separatists are not terrorists: Caracas Chavez: Spain will lose investments in any spat CARACAS: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he was sure Basque separatists living in Venezuela and accused by Spain of belonging to the armed ETA rebel group were not engaged in terrorist activities.

On March 1, Spanish High Court Judge Eloy Velasco issued arrest warrants for suspected ETA members he said had trained with Colombian FARC rebels in Venezuela, including one Spanish-born man who has worked in the Venezuelan government.

Dozens of ETA members were deported to Venezuela at the request of then Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez in 1989 after failed peace talks.

Some became Venezuela citizens and have lived in the South American nation ever since. “A group of people arrived here who belonged to ETA and are now Venezuelans, they got married here, they have children and grandchildren and we are sure they are not participating in any terrorist activity. They are Venezuelan citizens,”

Chavez told reporters.

The socialist president, who has long been dogged by accusations his government helps rebel groups like Colombia’s FARC but denies such collaboration, said he would only act against the suspects if he was presented with hard facts, not “speculation and manipulation.”

According to Velasco’s detailed court ruling, in 2007, ETA rebels were given a Venezuelan military escort to a site in the jungle where they gave a course on handling explosives to visiting FARC guerrillas. ETA has killed more than 850 people while fighting for independence for the Basque Country. In a joint statement with Spain on March 6, Venezuela strongly denied any links between the government and ETA, and said it totally rejected the group’s activities.

Spanish Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has come under fire from the opposition for maintaining relatively good relations with Venezuela, where Spanish

companies have large investments. Chavez on Monday said the right-wing in Spain was trying to damage relations between the two countries. “The Spanish right, the Spanish right-wing press, is determined to damage relations. We don’t want to damage them, if they are hurt ...

Spain will lose the most with its investments in Venezuela, the gas, the oil,” he said.

Spain’s relations with Venezuela have suffered in recent years, with King Juan Carlos telling Chavez to “shut up” at a summit in Chile in 2007 after the Venezuelan repeatedly interrupted Zapatero and called former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar a Fascist. “I don’t understands why Zapatero defends Aznar. Zapatero gets upset because my foreign minister calls Aznar a ‘mafioso.’ He is!” Chavez said before warning Zapatero not to “disrespect” Venezuela. Spanish oil company Repsol has significant investments in Venezuela. Spain’s second-largest bank BBVA also has interests there. — Reuters

INTERNATIONAL

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

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Weekend drug trade bloodbath kills more than 100 MEXICO CITY: Relentless violence linked to drug trafficking claimed more than 100 lives in Mexico just last weekend, including a US consulate employee and her husband in Ciudad Juarez, police data showed.

Among the hardest hit areas were Guerrero state, home to the major tourist destination of Acapulco, where the notorious “La Familia” drug cartel is active. There were 45 weekend murders in Guerrero, police said.

In Chihuahua state on the US border, there were 36 killings, 20 of them in violence-plagued Ciudad Juarez, the prosecutor’s office said.

More than 2,600 people were murdered in Ciudad Juarez in 2009 in drug-related violence as the cartels battle for control over the lucrative smuggling routes into the United States. More than 15,000 have died across Mexico over the last three years in an escalating and often shockingly brutal drug war, according to government figures.

Meanwhile, the killing of three people linked to the US consulate in Mexico’s bloodiest drug war hotspot has thrown President Felipe Calderon a major test as he heads to this border city yesterday to try to contain spiraling violence. Suspected drug hitmen killed an American woman working at the consulate in Ciudad Juarez, just over the border from El Paso, Texas, and her US husband on Saturday as they left a chil-

Rival drug gangs struggle for control over Ciudad Juarez dren’s birthday party.

A Mexican man married to another consulate employee was killed around the same time in another part of the city after he and his wife left the same event. The FBI joined Mexican authorities in the investigation of the murders, while US officials downplayed suggestions that US diplomats had been targeted in the attacks. The White House expressed outrage over the murders and pledged to continue supporting Mexico’s fight against ruthless gangs smuggling narcotics into the United States.

“The tragic murders over the weekend underscore the imperative of our continued commitment to work closely with Mexican authorities to take down the drug trafficking organizations,” National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer.

Violence has exploded in recent months in Ciudad Juarez as rival drug gangs struggle for control over the city, a hotspot in Mexico’s threeyear-old drug war. The deployment of thousands of troops by Calderon, who has staked his presidency on beating back the drug cartels, has failed to stop the killing of more than 4,600 people over two years in the Ciudad Juarez area.

Calderon was already scheduled to visit Ciudad Juarez before the con-

TIJUANA: (From left) Lucio Garcia, 32, Victor Hugo Angulo, 24, and Francisco Sanchez, 20, arrested for his alleged ties with the Arellano Felix drug cartel, stand next to displayed weapons during a presentation to the media in Tijuana. — AP

GOP slams Obama hard line on Israel Condemnations, threats ‘encouraging enemies’ WASHINGTON: Republican lawmakers came out swinging yesterday against President Barack Obama’s hard line toward Israel over its controversial plans to expand a settlement in disputed East Jerusalem. The number three Republican in the House of Representatives deplored the Obama administration’s stance on Israel as “irresponsible” a week after Israel gave the green light to build 1,600 new homes for Jewish settlers in the area the Palestinians want as the capital of their future state. Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other top officials said last week’s announcement of the new construction was insulting and damaging to efforts to revive long-stalled peace talks.

“To say that I am deeply concerned with the irresponsible comments that the White House, vice president and the secretary of state have made against Israel is an understatement,” said House Republican Whip Eric Cantor, the only Jewish Republican in the House of Representatives.

“In an effort to ingratiate our country with the Arab world, this administration has shown a troubling eagerness to undercut our allies and friends.” He said the

administration’s public spat with the Jewish State “jeopardizes America’s national security.”

The government of hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave permission for the new construction in Jerusalem’s Ramat Shlomo neighborhood on March 9, just as Biden visited Israel, sparking a major diplomatic crisis.

Israel’s ambassador to Washington said bilateral relations have hit a 35-year low. It also came just two days after the Palestinians had reluctantly agreed to hold indirect, US-brokered negotiations with Israel. Senator Sam Brownback said in a statement that “it’s hard to see how spending a weekend condemning Israel for a zoning decision in its capital city amounts to a positive step towards peace.”

The Kansas Republican, a staunch defender of Israel in Congress, said it would be “far more worthwhile” for the administration to focus its efforts instead on shifting the location of the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a highly controversial proposal. There are no embassies in Jerusalem, as Israel captured and annexed East Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War in a move the international community does not recognize.

Israel considers all of the city its capital despite Palestinian claims to East Jerusalem.

Brownback also urged the Obama administration to narrow its focus on the “growing Iranian nuclear threat,” referring to the Islamic republic’s continued defiance of international calls to halt its controversial uranium enrichment program.

Israel considers Iran an existential threat.

Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, demanded that the Obama administration halt its condemnations of “an indispensable ally and friend of the United States.” “US condemnations of Israel and threats regarding our bilateral relationship undermine both our allies and the peace process, while encouraging the enemies of America and Israel alike,” she said. Ros-Lehtinen added that she was “deeply concerned” about the administration’s “softer approaches” toward the Palestinian Authority, Syria and Iran. Iran and Syria are the main foreign backers of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah but both deny that they provide anything other than moral support. Washington also accuses Syria of turning a blind eye to militants crossing its border into Iraq. — AFP

US warns of murder, kidnap threat in Haiti Flood risk for 200,000 homeless Haitians WASHINGTON: Four American nationals have been murdered in the Haitian capital since the January 12 quake, the United States said, stepping up its travel warning after a high-profile kidnapping.

Updating its advice to travelers after it emerged last week that kidnappers had abducted and later freed two European aid workers, the State Department added a special section on crime-related threats.

“US citizens traveling to and residing in Haiti despite this warning are reminded that there remains a persistent danger of violent crime, including homicides and kidnappings,” it said.

“Most kidnappings are criminal in nature, and the kidnappers make no distinctions of nationality, race, gender, or age. Some kidnap victims have been killed, shot, sexually assaulted, or physically abused.” The State Department provided no further information about the four American citizens it said had been murdered in Portau-Prince since the quake and it was not immediately clear if they were Haitian Americans or not.

The abduction of the two Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) workers was the first kidnapping of foreign aid staff since the quake, which killed more than 220,000 people and left 1.3 million people homeless. The United States ordered the departure of all non-emergency US government personnel in the immediate aftermath of the quake, but there are fears that crime could soar as the post-quake despondency grows. Haitian police and foreign security contractors have spoken of the danger posed by thousands of hardened criminals who escaped the main prison in the capital during the earthquake.

Most of them are believed to be hiding out in Cite Soleil, a city slum devastated by the 7.0-magnitude quake where police and UN peacekeepers struggle to impose the law. The State Department said the Haitian police force had improved since the arrival of thousands of United Nations peacekeepers in the troubled Caribbean nation in 2006 but warned that travel in the capital remained “hazardous.” US embassy personnel are under an embassy-imposed curfew and some areas of the capital, including downtown Port-au-Prince, are off limits for them after dark. Meanwhile, two months after arguably the worst natural disaster of modern times, Haiti faces further calamity as more than 200,000 quake survivors camp in putrid tent cities at risk of major flooding. The full number made homeless by the January 12 earthquake is far higher, some 1.3 million, but as the rainy season approaches the United Nations regards 218,000 people in 21 Port-au-Prince camps as those most at risk. — Agencies

sulate murders added to outrage at the slaying in January of 15 people, mainly teenagers, at a party. Many residents blame Calderon for fanning violence that has provoked an exodus of people from the manufacturing city and forced some US companies to freeze investment in factories.

“Calderon’s strategy is not working, but he doesn’t want to change it. He believes in the military and so we are at this impasse,” said security expert Pedro de la Cruz at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

“We are going to witness a lot more murders for the time being,” he added.

NO EVIDENCE CONSULATE TARGETED An FBI official in El Paso said there was still no evidence the consular killings were drug-related.

“There is no information that indicates that the victims were directly targeted due to their employment at the consulate,” said FBI Special Agent Andrea Simmons. Deeply concerned about the violence, Washington is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to help train Mexican police and provide helicopters and equipment to fight drug gangs. But across Mexico, drug violence is at its worst level ever. Nearly 19,000 people have been killed since Calderon came to power in 2006, and

many US students have heeded warnings not to cross the border this year for their annual “spring break” vacation.

Mexican anti-drug officials defend the army-backed strategy and told Reuters that the focus remained on using the 8,000 troops and federal police on the streets of Ciudad Juarez to crush drug cartels. Calderon is expected to meet the US consul in Ciudad Juarez and try to reassure local residents he is fighting the violence, but little more. Bloodshed has exploded in Ciudad Juarez in recent months as the head of the Juarez cartel, Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, fights off an offensive by Mexico’s No 1 fugitive drug lord, Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman.

Calderon’s main tactic so far has been to announce more investment in schools, hospitals, drug rehabilitation clinics and projects to regenerate the desert city. The conservative, who has made two hurried visits to Ciudad Juarez since the teenagers’ murders in January, says he aims to entice youths away from the drug trade with jobs and education. But many are skeptical as the murders continue, including the massacre of six people as they attended a funeral last week. “Ciudad Juarez is now a naked city without protection,” said Arizona-based drug trade expert and author Charles Bowden, who has sources close to the Juarez cartel. — Agencies

Pentagon investigates ‘contractor’ allegations WASHINGTON: The Pentagon said yesterday it was looking into “serious allegations” about a US Defense Department official accused of setting up a unit of private contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan to help track and kill suspected militants. But the Pentagon declined to confirm any of the allegations detailed in a New York Times report or say whether a formal investigation was underway. The newspaper reported Michael D Furlong, a retired Air Force officer, may have channeled money away from a program meant to provide US commanders with details of Afghanistan’s social and tribal landscape and toward secret efforts to hunt militants on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

“That story makes some serious allegations and raises numerous questions that warrant further review by the (defense) department,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. The US military acknowledged Furlong was a civilian employee at

US Strategic Command’s Texas-based Joint Information Operations Warfare Center.

According to its website, the center “uses information as a tool to change attitudes or perception.” Furlong’s title was strategic planner and technology integration advisor, said a spokesman for Strategic Command, which oversees Furlong’s work.

The Times reported Furlong hired contractors from private security companies that employed former CIA and Special Forces operatives. The contractors gathered intelligence on the whereabouts of suspected militants and the location of insurgent camps, with that material sent to military units and intelligence officials for possible lethal action in Afghanistan and Pakistan, unnamed officials told the paper.

The Times said the story was based on interviews with US military and intelligence officials and businessmen in the region. The sources requested anonymity, it said, because the case is under investiga-

tion.

The Times said Furlong’s operation appeared to have been shut down and the Defense Department investigation was looking at possible criminal offenses, including fraud. US Strategic Command declined to comment on any probe, saying: “We do not acknowledge whether someone is or is not under investigation.” It also said Furlong would not be available for media interviews.

‘PRETENDING TO BE JAMES BOND’ Some US officials interviewed by the Times said they became troubled that Furlong seemed to be running an off-thebooks spy operation. “While no legitimate intelligence operations got screwed up, it’s generally a bad idea to have freelancers running around a war zone pretending to be James Bond,” one US government official told the paper. — Reuters

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INTERNATIONAL

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Despite ban, African ivory flows to Asia DOHA: A booming black market in African ivory linked to Asian crime syndicates may scupper efforts by Zambia and Tanzania to hold a one-off sale of tusks, experts and delegates at a UN wildlife trade meeting say. At its last gathering in 2007, the UN-backed Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) voted a nine-year moratorium on exports of African ivory. The ban went into effect in 2008, after South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe carried out a one-time sale to Japan and China of stockpiled ivory.

But Zambia and Tanzania are now asking the 175-nation body, meeting in the Qatari capital Doha until March 25, for permission to unload their own ivory stocks, also taken legally from animals that died naturally or were culled. The two countries require a two-thirds majority for their bids to be approved. A coalition of 23 elephant-range nations not only opposes the measure, but wants to extend the ban on ivory sales to 20 years.

“The 2007 moratorium was meant to ensure there would be no markets (for

ivory) in neighboring countries. At first, it created panic among the poachers,” said Cosma Wilungula Balongelwa, a delegate from the Democratic Republic of Congo. But they regrouped and now operate with military force and tactics, he said. “They fire on herds with rocket launchers. In Salonga Park-at 36,000 square kilometers the largest in Africa our 140 rangers are completely overwhelmed.” In less than two months, hundreds of elephants in the DRC have been slaughtered by commando-style poachers, he said. “These are not amateurs. A local network would never be able to handle this volume of contraband.” The upsurge in poaching has caused experts to question the wisdom of allowing exceptional sales of state-held ivory. In 2007, CITES enforcement officials argued that the moratorium combined with the one-off sale, which raised 15.4 million dollars earmarked for conservation, would depress the price of illegal ivory and thus discourage poaching.

Instead, the tally of elephants killed by poachers has soared, especially in central

FIC. “At home, China claims to have a tightly controlled regime for trading in ivory, and imposes the death penalty for large-scale infringements. Chinese nationals living in Africa seem oblivious to this,” he said. Several African delegates, asking not to be named, also blamed mafia-like networks linked to buyers in China.

A study published in Science last week recommended that the Zambian and Tanzanian proposals be voted down until the impact of ivory sales is better understood. “The immediate fear is that ... allowing one-off sales in any African nation will stimulate the market for illegal ivory everywhere, particularly in those countries where law enforcement is inadequate,” said one of the coauthors, Rene Beyers, a researcher at the University of British Colombia.

Zambia holds 21 tons and Tanzania 89 tons of legally taken ivory stocks. But DNA analysis of contraband seized in Asia has indicated both countries are also among the most significant source of illegal ivory, according to the paper. — AFP

Africa. In Kenya, the number has jumped from 47 in 2007, to 145 in 2008, to 234 last years.

And in Chad, one of the northernmost elephant-range nations, the number of tuskers in the wild has plummeted from 3,885 in 2005 to 617 at the end of 2009, according to government figures.

In all these countries, trafficking has taken on military dimensions, said Celine Sissler-Bienvenu, an expert on illegal ivory trade at the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). “In December, 80 poachers entered the Central African Republic from Sudan and killed 36 elephants. Then they moved into the DRC and Cameroon. They had heavy arms and were divided into three units-shooters, cutters and transporters,” she said.

Powerful acids melted the elephants’ flesh so that tusks could be extracted quickly. Evidence also points to the “increasing role of Asian-run crime syndicates in moving large volumes of ivory from Africa to Asia,” said Tom Milliken, who monitors illegal trade in east and southern Africa for green group TRAF-

US-Indonesia military deal remains uncertain WASHINGTON: The United States said it could not predict when it would resume full military ties with Indonesia, as it laid out the details of President Barack Obama’s trip to Jakarta and Bali next week. Obama spent four years as a boy in Indonesia with his late mother, but the trip is more geared to business, focusing on trade, security and diplomacy rather than his biography or his childhood haunts. In the run-up to the visit, the administration has been preparing the way to resume training an elite Indonesian military unit as part of growing counter-insurgency and intelligence cooperation with Jakarta.

But the move would be controversial as the Kopassus unit is implicated in past human

Obama to visit Jakarta, Bali next week rights abuses, including in East Timor, and some key players in Congress oppose embracing the force before it has accounted for past behavior.

It remains unclear whether the dispute over Kopassus will be resolved in time for Obama’s visit which begins on March 23.

Officers from Kopassus were in Washington only last week in a bid to secure resumed US support for the unit, which was cut off in 1997.

“It would be good if we could move to full cooperation, fuller cooperation to include the special forces, the counterterrorism capabilities within the special forces of Kopassus,” said Jeffrey Bader, Obama’s senior

director for Asian affairs, briefing reporters on Obama’s trip.

“There is a certain history that needs to be overcome.

There were human rights violations in the 1990s in former East Timor. “We hope to be able at some point to move past and resolve those concerns (but) I can’t predict at this point when that day might arrive.” US officials have been complimentary on the growing security cooperation between Washington and Jakarta.

Last week, Indonesia confirmed that a major suspect of the 2002 Bali bombing, known as Dulmatin, an Al-Qaeda trained bomb specialist with a 10 million US dollar bounty on

his head, has been killed by police.

Obama will arrive in Jakarta on Tuesday, March 23 and have a meeting and a press conference with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, before being honored at a state dinner.

The next day, Obama is likely to make his most expressive reference to his childhood years in Indonesia, in a major speech also intended to build on his address to the Muslim world in Cairo last June.

“He’ll be able to speak to some of the progress that’s been made and that needs to be made on the issues that he spoke to in Cairo,” said Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national securi-

ty advisor for strategic communications. Obama will then meet with local business leaders and make some so far unspecified stops, but the White House has already said he will not visit the school he once attended in Jakarta, or the house where he lived.

The president will then head to the resort of Bali where he will hold an event with civil society groups to showcase Indonesia’s democratic progress in recent years, before heading to Canberra, Australia. Obama’s departure for Indonesia, which US officials see as an increasingly important player in East Asia, was delayed by three days until Sunday, March 21, allowing him to remain in Washington for the endgame of his health reform drive. — AFP

E Timor ‘still waiting’ for apology from Indonesia

JAKARTA: This 1970’s black-and-white file photo shows Obama, 9, (right) with his mother Ann Dunham, his Indonesian step-father Lolo Soetoro, and his less than one-year-old sister Maya Soetoro in Jakarta. — AP

US seeks deeper Asia-Pacific ties WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama will seek to deepen US ties in the Asia-Pacific region in the face of rising Chinese influence there when he visits Indonesia and Australia next week. After delaying his trip by three days to focus on his push for a US healthcare overhaul, Obama is now due to leave on Sunday on his first overseas tour of the year. Aides who briefed reporters on Monday said he hopes to advance US trade and security interests with two key partners. Here are some questions and answers about Obama’s March 21-26 trip: WHY IS HE GOING TO THE SOUTH PACIFIC? Obama will be trying to build on a broader trip to Asia last November when he attended a summit in Singapore and made his first presidential visit to China. Critics said that tour yielded few tangible gains. This time, Obama will be focused on Indonesia and Australia, which his aides number among a group of “middle powers” wielding greater clout internationally on issues ranging from global regulatory reform to climate change.

They are also seen as counterweights to an increasingly assertive China, Washington’s biggest economic rival, at a time when Sino-US tensions are high over Beijing’s currency practices, US arms sales to Taiwan and Obama’s meeting last month with exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

Aides framed the trip to the economically dynamic region as crucial to Obama’s vow to double U.S. exports in five years.

WHY IS HE STARTING OUT IN GUAM? Besides being a good refueling point on the way to Jakarta, Guam-a major hub of US military power in the Pacific- will serve as a useful place to underline Washington’s security commitment in the region. Obama will address local residents and US military personnel in his stop in the tiny US territory. But China, with its growing military might, and Japan, locked in a dispute with the Obama administration over the future of a huge US military base on Okinawa, will surely be listening as well.

WHAT’S ON THE AGENDA IN INDONESIA? Obama’s visit to the world’s most populous Muslim nation aims to capitalize on the president’s close ties to the country where he spent four years as a boy. Obama, who styles himself

as “America’s first Pacific president,” is due to sign a comprehensive partnership with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono that will seek to improve cooperation in a number of areas, including education, security, healthcare, energy and trade.

Analysts say trade and investment ties between the United States and Indonesia have lagged improvements in other aspects of the relationship. In his talks with Yudhoyono, Obama will discuss removing a number of high tariffs and other barriers that impede US exports. Washington and Jakarta are already close partners in the counter-terrorism fight and the two capitals have been holding detailed talks on normalizing military relations that would allow US training of Indonesian special forces.

During the two-day visit, Obama will deliver an address that will highlight US-Indonesia ties and look at what his administration has achieved since he promised Muslims a “new beginning” in a landmark speech in Cairo last June. He will also meet business leaders in Jakarta and then visit the island of Bali, a popular holiday destination, where he will host an event to discuss issues such as freedom of information and human rights.

WHAT ISSUES WILL BE TACKLED IN AUSTRALIA? Though the Australia leg of Obama’s trip has been trimmed, with Sydney dropped from the itinerary, Obama will seek to show a linchpin US ally it is not being shortchanged. Talks in Canberra between Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Obamawho will also address parliament-will include: HOW DOES CHINA FIGURE INTO THE TRIP? “It’s impossible to go to Asia and for the subject of China not to arise,” said Jeff Bader, Obama’s adviser on China. Obama will be followed to Jakarta within weeks by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, illustrating the competition for influence in the important export market of Southeast Asia, Obama’s trip is seen by some Asia experts as being aimed at countering China’s rising influence in the region. Playing in Obama’s favor is a growing concern in Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries that they are losing out in a free trade agreement signed with China last year. — Reuters

TOKYO: East Timor’s President Jose Ramos-Horta said yesterday that Indonesia still needs to apologize for its brutal occupation of the half-island even if relations between the neighbors have improved. “The only thing still missing is an apology... by those who were directing all the suffering,” Ramos-Horta told reporters during a visit to Japan. East Timor gained formal independence in 2002 after a bloody 24-year occupation

by Indonesia that led to the deaths of up to 200,000 people. A reconciliation commission established jointly by East Timor and Indonesia found in 2008 that while gross human rights abuses were committed by Indonesian forces, there should be no more trials and no further arrests.

Nobel Peace laureate Ramos-Horta, despite having lost three siblings in the conflict, has been opposed to the establishment of an international tribunal for crimes committed during the 1975-1999 occupation. Indonesia’s former president Abrurrahman Wahid apologized when he visited East Timor in 2000 but successive leaders including current President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono have stopped short of an apology, instead expressing regret.

The government in Dili has been pursuing a policy of appeasement with Jakarta, its biggest trade partner and an active supporter of East Timor’s membership bid for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). “We have excellent relations with Indonesia...

Normalising relations with Indonesia was decisive for our own peace and stability, and integrating in the region,” said Ramos-Horta. But “it doesn’t mean that we do not respect the suffering of the victims. Our state does not want to put the burden of helping the victims on anyone else, in this case Indonesia. We seek to help all the victims.”

Ramos-Horta on his visit also met Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and energy sector executives. He also secured 700 million yen ($7.7 million) in grant aid for forest preservation and renewable energy projects. The halfisland state is one of the world’s poorest countries and heavily dependent on natural gas exports. It was battered by plummeting energy prices during the global economic downturn. RamosHorta is due to visit the city of Hiroshima to participate in a forum on nuclear disarmament. —AFP

NAIROBI: Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) director Julius Kipng’etich (center), lifts an elephant tusk from a wooden case at the Nairobi National Park. — AFP

US denies tensions are crippling US-China ties WASHINGTON: A senior US official Monday denied that America’s relationship with China was crippled by tension, after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao bluntly blamed Washington for weeks of public rows. “We have a mature relationship with China ... I think the relationship is in good shape,” said President Barack Obama’s senior director for Asian affairs Jeff Bader, following weeks of discord over currency, Tibet and Taiwan. “We have a number of differences, and we are talking about them.

I would not describe it as a relationship of tension.”

Bader was speaking to reporters to preview Obama’s second visit to the Asia-Pacific region as president next week, a trip to Guam, Indonesia and Australia that was delayed over the political battle over health care reform. Asked whether recent arguments between Beijing and Washington would cast a shadow over Obama’s attempts to reinvigorate the US role in Asia, Bader said it would be impossible to go to Asia and not talk about China. On Sunday, Wen hit out with outspoken criticism of the United States, blaming Washington for recent tensions and calling on the Obama administration to take steps to repair the damage. Wen accused Washington of violating

China’s sovereignty when it approved the sale of billions of dollars in weapons to Taiwan in January, and again when Obama met the Dalai Lama at the White House last month. Relations have also deteriorated over a series of other issues.

Google’s threat to leave China over cyberattacks and web censorship, a string of trade disputes, and the value of the Chinese yuan. Wen, addressing hundreds of reporters at the end of China’s annual session of parliament, said relations between the world’s biggest and third-largest economies “got off to a good start” after Obama took office in January 2009.

But Washington’s moves on self-ruled Taiwan, which China sees as part of its territory, and Obama’s meeting with Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader had “violated China’s sovereignty” and provoked “serious disturbances” in ties. “The responsibility does not lie with the Chinese side but with the US,” Wen said. Washington has led calls for a stronger yuan, saying the currency is kept intentionally low to boost Chinese exports.

Obama last week said that a more market-oriented exchange rate for the yuan would help rebalance with world economy after the deep economic crisis. — AFP

‘Blood is life and we give it for democracy’: Thai protester BANGKOK: “I did this to show the spirit of Thai people fighting injustice,” said Chuleeporn Ruangsinprasert, 52, as a syringe of her blood was poured into a bottle for a messy show of political defiance.

Standing in a white tent littered with dirty cotton swabs, the retired university worker had joined thousands of red-clad protesters taking part in a mass blood collection to be spilled at the gate of the premier’s office.

“This is special, it is coming from my heart. I want to give my blood for society so we are no longer controlled by the elites who have all the power,” added Chuleeporn, as she pressed her small puncture wound.

Thousands of Red Shirts, who support populist ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra, queued from 8:00am to make their donations in two large tents at the Bangkok rally ground where they have been gathered since the weekend.

Faced with a refusal by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva a day earlier to meet their demand for immediate elections, the Red leaders announced their plan to spill the blood on Tuesday afternoon.

More than 50 medical volunteers were on hand to extract 10cc of blood from each protester, part of a collection it was hoped would reach 1,000 liters. The Red Shirts-a mixture of women and men, old and young, rural and urban-are united by their anti-elitist struggle and the color of their clothes. “It hurts a little bit but it’s okay. I’m doing this for our children, for democracy,” said 61-year-old rice farmer Kumpong Wongchompu, who had travelled 450 kilometers on

BANGKOK: Supporters of deposed Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra carry containers of blood as they arrive to spill it at Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s Democrat party offices in Bangkok yesterday. — AFP a truck from northeastern Khon Kaen.

Clad in a straw hat and wrap skirt with a red shirt, Kumpong was part of the mass of rural poor who form a large part of the pro-Thaksin movement.

Thaksin, who was deposed in a coup in 2006, lives in exile to avoid a jail term for corruption.

His supporters say his ousting was illegal and have been involved in months of tit-for-tat protests with a rival antiThaksin campaign. Doctors and nurses used rubber tourniquets to help extract the blood before pouring it into 5-litre water bottles and throwing each dirty syringe into a plastic bag on the floor.

A few donators winced and looked teary-eyed as they clenched their fists, waiting to be handed a piece of alcoholdipped cotton wool that told them their ordeal was over.

“I’m afraid of needles and I can’t look at blood, but I’m doing this for democracy. I love

Thaksin and I love the Red Shirts,” said Bangkok salesman Samrit Ruttapab, 34, who covered his face with his hand as he gave his blood. Volunteers offered donors cartons of sugary malt drinks and plasters at the rear of the tents. Outside, dozens of weary Red Shirts slept in hammocks, on the ground and in the back of trucks in the 35-degree-Celsius heat.

Speakers nearby took turns to rally the crowds with speeches, met with a wave of noise from the red movement’s trademark foot-shaped plastic clappers. Suda Rangkuporn, a 44-year-old linguistics professor from Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, said the blood donations had upped the stakes in Thailand’s riven political scene. “This is a political innovation,” she said.

“Blood has more meaning than just color. Blood is life and we give it for democracy. We are ready to give our lives to democracy,” she said. — AFP

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

INTERNATIONAL

11

Low-caste icon under fire over banknote garland NEW DELHI: A firebrand Indian politician who champions the poor faced a hail of criticism yesterday for wearing a garland of banknotes and spending millions of dollars on a lavish rally. Coverage of celebrations organized by Mayawati, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state, dominated Indian newspapers with pictures of her festooned with 1,000-rupee notes on most front pages.

Outrage from opposition parties led to the adjournment of the national parliament in New Delhi yesterday. The event-which drew a crowd of 200,000-

400,000 - was held in the state capital Lucknow on Monday to mark the 25th anniversary of the foundation of Mayawati’s left-wing Bahujan Samaj Party. The opposition accused her of spending two billion rupees ($40 million) on the celebrations, which saw Lucknow draped in blue lights. Newspapers speculated the garland could be worth up to a million dollars. Anti-poverty and health campaigners expressed outrage.

“From my point of view this is a misuse of public money,” J P Sharma from the Uttar Pradesh Voluntary Health

Association said. “This money could be used for the health and development of the most vulnerable communities here.”

Mayawati, whose stinging attacks on the ruling Congress party and establishment play well with her large following of poor and low-caste or Dalit Indians, has been criticized before for her spending. The Supreme Court in September forced her to halt the construction of Greek Parthenon-style memorials estimated to be worth 20 billion rupees ($420 million).

In a 2002 report, the World Bank esti-

mated that eight percent of the world’s poor live in northern Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state which borders Nepal. In a further twist, a swarm of bees approached the stage where Mayawati was speaking-leading to claims that they had been released deliberately to disrupt the 54-year-old leader, known as the Dalit Queen. “Someone disturbed honey bees at the nearby central school building by lighting a fire below the hive,” a statement from the local government said, promising an inquiry to identify the culprits. — AFP

Sri Lankan ‘hero’ Afghanistan denies peace court-martialed

LUCKNOW: In this file photo, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader and Chief Minister of the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh Mayawati (center) waves to a crowd at a party anniversary rally in Lucknow. — AFP

talks with Taleban No 2 KABUL: Afghanistan’s government denied a report yesterday that it had been holding secret peace talks with the Taleban’s number two leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, when he was arrested in Pakistan. The announcement last month of Baradar’s arrest in Karachi by US and Pakistani agents has led to numerous unconfirmed media reports the former top Taleban military commander might have been talking to Kabul, and that may have led to his arrest.

Despite being the mastermind of years of suicide strikes and other attacks on Karzai’s government, Baradar is Karzai’s tribal kinsmen and therefore seen as someone who might be more likely than other militants to accept an invitation to talks. The Associated Press reported yesterday that Baradar was involved in “peace talks” with Karzai’s government at the time of his arrest, quoting an unidentified aide to the Afghan president and a provincial official. Several Afghan officials have said they had heard similar reports of talks, but none have been able to provide details such as dates, locations of meetings or names of participants that would corroborate the claims.

“There was no direct contact between the government of Afghanistan and Mullah Baradar,” Karzai’s spokesman Waheed Omer told reporters yesterday when asked about the latest reports.

Karzai has occasionally used go-betweens without official status in preliminary efforts to reach out to militants. Omer said he was not aware of any such unofficial contact with Baradar, but fell short of denying it. “I cannot confirm this,” he said. “I can only keep record of my government in contact with someone. Outside the government, I don’t know.”

SPECULATION Karzai has announced a high profile effort at reconciling with Taleban leaders this year, leading to speculation peace moves are afoot. The Taleban have publicly spurned his overtures.

Western officials in Afghanistan say Karzai’s representatives have long been in contact with various Taleban leaders and commanders, often through kinship ties. Last year, Karzai’s representatives reached out to some insurgents through Saudi Arabia for “talks about talks”, aimed at seeking a framework under which negotiations might be held.

Karzai has invited Taleban who lay down arms to attend a peace conference in Kabul set for late April or early May. US officials say serious progress in negotiations is unlikely just yet, but they hope it will become more likely this year if they succeed in applying more pressure on the battlefield with 30,000 extra troops sent by US President Barack Obama. After years in which Pakistan seemed reluctant to pursue Afghan militants on its territory, Baradar’s sudden arrest has led to anxious speculation about Islamabad’s motives.

Some have suggested the arrest was a bid by Pakistan to ensure its interests are represented at any future talks. Others have said it could be an effort to sabotage talks that had already begun.

Still others say Baradar may have been arrested entirely by accident in a raid targeting someone else. Omer said Karzai’s main focus since Baradar was arrested is persuading Pakistan to turn him over to Afghanistan. Afghan officials say Pakistan agreed to hand Baradar over, but a Pakistani court has ruled that he cannot be extradited. — Reuters

Islamists behind Pune bombing NEW DELHI: A bombing that killed 16 people in western India last month was carried out by homegrown Islamists with links to militants in Pakistan, a top Indian security official said yesterday. The bombing came days before an important official dialogue between India and Pakistan and was the first major attack in India since the 2008 Mumbai raid by Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militants who killed 166 people.

“All the evidence which is coming currently is showing that it is the IM (Indian Mujahideen), rather than a Hindu militant group involved in the Pune blast,” Gopal Pillai, India’s Home Secretary, told Reuters in an interview. It was the first time a senior government official has blamed a particular group for the bombing. Pillai is the top civil servant in the interior ministry.

Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidamabaram promised last week a swift and decisive response if any militant attacks on Indian soil were found to have been planned and executed from Pakistan. The Indian Mujahideen (IM), an offshoot of the banned Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), first emerged in 2007 and 2008 when it claimed responsibility for a wave of bomb attacks in major Indian cities. Pillai said IM operatives are being trained in Pakistan and have links with Lashkar-e-Taiba, one of the largest Pakistan-based

militant groups, also blamed for the Mumbai attacks.

“The handlers are the same, the set of handlers which was involved in Mumbai,” Pillai said, referring to the weekend arrest of two suspected IM operatives in Mumbai, who were believed to be planning bomb attacks, including in the offices of energy firm Oil and Natural Gas Corp. He said the growing power of LeT was a big threat to peace in the region and said the militant group was spreading its tentacles beyond India and Pakistan.

Security experts say the LeT is now focusing on foreigners as targets and is fast emerging as an alternative to Al-Qaeda as a powerful militant group with a global presence.

“At least in the Middle East we find people (LeT militants). In Dubai, in Sharjah, in Saudi Arabia, the tentacles are there of the LeT,” Pillai said. He said the LeT had even spread to Hong Kong and into Singapore. Pillai said the reason there has not been a repetition of an attack like Mumbai was 25 percent due to geopolitics and Pakistan holding back, perhaps fearing Indian retaliation, and 75 percent due to the busting of at least 14 IM cells since 2008.

“There are several modules still there ... Our real fear is something they are doing now for something in 2011 or 2012. We do not know who is doing it,” Pillai added. — Reuters

Fonseka’s supporters detained amid protest COLOMBO: The former Sri Lankan army chief who lost his opposition bid for the presidency objected yesterday to his courtmartial hearing, saying the panel formed to decide his fate was biased against him, an ally said.

The arrest of Gen Sarath Fonseka has been condemned by the opposition and human rights groups, who accuse the government of retaliating against a man who dared challenge President Mahinda Rajapakse in his reelection bid.

The court-martial yesterday of Fonseka, considered one of the heroes of the government’s war against the Tamil Tiger rebels, has been shrouded in secrecy, with the military barring reporters from the event and refusing to release a detailed account of the proceedings.

Military spokesman Major General Prasad Samarasinghe said Fonseka, accompanied by his lawyer, appeared before a three-member panel at the country’s navy headquarters to face charges that he prepared the groundwork for his presidential campaign while still in military uniform.

A second charge that Fonseka violated regulations in purchasing military hardware will be taken up today, he said. Fonseka objected yesterday to the courtmartial soon after it began yesterday and said the presiding panel of three officers was biased because it included two men whom he had disciplined when he ran the army, said Anura Dissanayake a lawmaker and Fonseka ally.

The panel’s third member was a close relative of the current army commander who initi-

COLOMBO: Anoma Fonseka, wife of defeated presidential candidate and former military chief Sarath Fonseka (seen in the backdrop) looks on during a meeting at their party office in Colombo. — AP ated the court-martial, he said.

Fonseka also argued that an army commander cannot face a courtmartial. Many have been critical of the proceedings and expressed concerns that Rajapaksa is using all the levers of power to quash any opposition to his rule.

“Sarath Fonseke’s arrest continues the Rajapakse government’s postelection crackdown on political opposition,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s AsiaPacific Director. Police used tear

gas and batons to disperse a protest in support of Fonseka and arrested 14 people, according to Fonseka’s party, the Democratic National Alliance.

Police spokesman Prishantha Jayakody said he would not comment until he receives a report from local police. Fonseka’s wife, Anoma, said she opted not to attend the hearing because the charges against her husband were “a joke.” Soon after Fonseka’s arrest on Feb. 8, government offi-

tinely target Taleban and Al-Qaeda commanders in Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt, which Washington calls the global headquarters of Al-Qaeda and the most dangerous region on Earth. They have increasingly homed in on North Waziristan, which borders Khost province, where a Jordanian doctor turned Al-Qaeda double agent blew himself up on December 30 in the deadliest attack on the US spy agency in 26 years. The drone war has killed a number of high-profile targets, including Pakistani Taleban chief Baitullah Mehsud and possibly his successor Hakimullah Mehsud, but the raids fuel anti-American sentiment in Muslim Pakistan.

US officials say the strikes are a vital weapon in the war to defeat Al-Qaeda and reverse the Taleban insurgency in Afghanistan, where Washington is leading a major troop surge this year in a bid to end the eight-year war. More than 830 people have been killed in more than 90 US strikes in Pakistan since August 2008, with a surge in the past year as President Barack Obama puts Pakistan at the heart of his fight against Al-Qaeda. Washington is pressuring Islamabad to do more to dismantle militant border sanctuaries, as it struggles against the Taleban in Afghanistan, where more than 121,000 US and NATO troops are based. — AFP

Rajapakse and Fonseka were once strong allies in their campaign to defeat the Tamil Tiger rebels and end their 25-year armed campaign for an independent state.

After routing the rebels last May, both were hailed as heroes by the country’s Sinhalese majority. But they quickly turned on each other. Fonseka quit the army, challenged Rajapakse in the Jan. 26 election and lost by 18 percent. — AP

Gunbattle erupts at Indian space centre Shooting at Kashmir market leaves one dead

10 dead as US drone hits militant hideout MIRANSHAH: A US drone attack destroyed a mountain hideout in northwest Pakistan near the Afghan border yesterday, killing 10 militants including AlQaeda-linked suspects, officials said. The strike took place in the district of North Waziristan, a stronghold of Taleban and Al-Qaeda-linked fighters and increasingly targeted by the covert US drone war since a suicide attack killed seven CIA employees in Afghanistan. The missiles hit a compound used by militants near Datta Khel village, 20 kilometers west of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan, Pakistani security officials said. The exact identity of the militants was unclear and it was not immediately known whether there were any high-value targets.

“At least 10 militants, mostly foreigners, were killed,” one Pakistani security official said on condition of anonymity, adopting a term used widely in Pakistan to refer to Al-Qaeda-linked suspects. “Five missiles were fired by US drones,” he added. Three other security officials confirmed the missile strike and gave the same death toll, while a local intelligence official described the target as a mountain hideout for militants. Arabs were said to be among the dead. Militants cordoned off the area and were searching the rubble, where two cars were also destroyed in the strike, a local administration official said. US drone attacks rou-

cials went public with various allegations against him, including that he plotted to assassinate Rajapaksa and capture power.

But they are not among the official charges.

Fonseke’s supporters have denied the charges brought against him, saying the government is punishing the retired general for challenging Rajapakse and is attempting to cow the opposition before April 8 parliamentary elections.

BANGALORE: An Indian Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) paramilitary soldier stands guard at the Deep Space Network (DSN) facility of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in Bylalu village yesterday. — AFP

BANGALORE: Two men fired at security guards outside a high security space centre in southern India yesterday but it was too early to link it to a militant attack, the government said.

The brief shootout occurred in Byalalu, on the outskirts of IT hub Bangalore, outside an Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) building. The Home (Interior) Ministry sees ISRO buildings as a high priority target for militants, and has beefed up security around them after warnings of possible attacks.

Police said it was “too early to speak of a terror link”. Federal Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram told reporters in New Delhi that the attackers wore “some kind of a uniform” and possibly shot from countrymade pistols. “We have to find out who these people were, seems to be some kind of an amateurish attack,” Chidambaram said. “Nothing to be alarmed about. At the moment you can only call it an attack, whether it was terrorist or somebody else, we’ll know.”

India has raised security in the aftermath of a bombing that killed 16 people in western India last month.

Home Secretary Gopal Pillai said on Monday that attack was carried out by home-grown militants with links to militants in Pakistan. New Delhi has repeatedly accused Pakistan of failing to stop militants from carrying out attacks inside India.

India and Pakistan held their first official level talks since the 2008 Mumbai attacks last month. Analysts say another major attack on India could make it politically difficult for New Delhi to engage Pakistan and impact

regional security. Earlier, a spokesman for the ISRO said the shootout continued for some time. “Two people were seen moving in a suspicious manner outside our centre,” ISRO spokesman S Satish said. “The police immediately challenged them, and they opened fire in retaliation.” Police said they had launched a search for the two men who fled after the shootout.

In another development, a civilian was killed and four other people were wounded Tuesday when suspected militants attacked a police patrol in the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, police said. “One civilian died in hospital and two others were injured. Two CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) personnel were also wounded,” a police officer said. The daylight shooting took place in Lal Chowk, the main market area of Srinagar. It sparked panic as people ran for cover and troops moved in to search for the attackers.

It was the fourth assault within two weeks on police in Srinagar, a hub of Muslim militants fighting Indian rule in the Himalayan region. Three policemen were killed in the previous three attacks. Indian Kashmir has witnessed a recent spike in violence after several months of relative calm. In January, two gunmen threw grenades and opened fire in Lal Chowk before holing up in a guesthouse, where they held off commandos for nearly 24 hours before being shot dead. Further violent incidents have taken place since.

An insurgency against Indian rule in the Muslim-majority region erupted in 1989 and has claimed more than 47,000 lives, according to an official count. — Agencies

OPINION

12

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

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US Tea Party in 1770s and now

By Tristram Hunt

D

isguised as Indians, they poured out of the Old South Meeting House and headed down Hutchinson Street for Griffin’s Wharf. At a packed meeting to condemn the Tea Act, Samuel Adams declared “they had now done all that they could for the salvation of their country”. And this was the excuse the patriots needed as they smashed their way through the East India Company chests, dumping some 40 kg of tea worth nearly £10,000 into Boston harbour.

Today, the Tea Party patriots come dressed in George Washington outfits and Joker masks, with posters accusing President Obama of socialism, communism, even nazism.

This remarkable political insurgency, which mushrooms by the month and has both Democrats and Republicans terrified for their congressional seats, regards itself as the true heir to the republic’s ideals.

Thomas Jefferson’s adage, that “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of tyrants”, is a favoured banner.

And, to be fair to the Tea Party ideologues, they are being faithful to the principles of 1773: both as tax-dodgers and demagogues. For behind all the lofty talk of no taxation without representation, the Boston tea party hid some grubby material truths. Few in the early 1770s regarded a split from Britain as either possible or preferable.

In fact, the American colonies - and New England in particular - had done well out of the British Empire on the back of shipbuilding, whaling and war. Chief among the new merchant class was John Hancock, whose family firm had been built on provisioning the British army and Royal Navy. The capture of Canada the campaigns against the French and the Spanish ensured huge military profits for Boston businesses.

But it was when - in the aftermath of the seven years war - the government asked America to start paying its way, that trouble began. By the 1760s the British Treasury was massively in debt, with the costs of empire falling disproportionately on English taxpayers. Not unreasonably George Greville, the prime minister, wanted the prosperous colonies to accept more of the financial burden. New taxes on foreign imports were introduced together with a professionalised customs administration.

Unfortunately these levies hit Boston hard as it faced a postwar slump. What was more, the big merchants relied extensively on tax-dodging and smuggling for their riches.

Cargo ships laden with molasses from the West Indies, wines from Madeira, coffee from the East Indies, textiles and indigo - all slipped into Boston harbour in the dead of night with no duties paid. Even as the New England colonists urged London to

hammer Louis XIV and protect them from French encirclement, they refused to face up to their fiscal responsibilities.

Time and again, Britain indulged their wants. The Townshend Duties on foreign imports were reversed, the Stamp Act taxing newspaper and pamphlets was dropped, but it would not give in on the 1773 Tea Act. The legislation was designed to shore up the finances of the East India Company, carve out the Boston harbour crooks, and deliver cheap tea to the colonies.

All of which posed an unacceptable threat to the Boston Brahmins. Far from being a spontaneous outpouring of liberty, the “tea party” was brewed up by wealthy merchants worried their secret deals on tea imports were about to be exposed.

And so today, once more, wealthy corporate interests are winding up an angry populace - amid an economic slump - with spurious talk of freedom.

Having enjoyed the benefits of their own empire for the last 50 years and pocketed tax cuts during the Iraq war, the 21stcentury Tea Party movement is now grumbling about paying for power.

Of course, there are some differences. Today the Tea Party is a suburban, rather than urban, phenomenon; its Fox News philosophers lack something of the depth of Hancock, Adams and Benjamin Franklin. But the parallels are noteworthy: in its use of marches and street theatre it echoes the tarring-and-feathering mob politics that once governed Boston harbour.

So, too, its impressive use of new media. The pamphlets and cartoons of 18th-century New England are now replaced by blogs, cable television and internet radio. Also its religiosity: out of the Boston tea party emerged a “solemn league and covenant”, drawing on America’s Protestant pre-history and committing its members to collective action against the British. In vogue among modern Tea Party members is the line from the Declaration of Independence: “We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”

What turned the Boston tea party into the American Revolution was the British response - with the Coercive Acts radicalising opinion across the 13 colonies.

Wisely, President Obama has not antagonised his Tea Party opponents; he has chosen instead to give them enough rope to hang themselves. But with disillusion growing and the November mid-terms looming, his prospects don’t look promising.

What Obama needs to know is that if he is being set up for the role of Thomas Hutchinson - the last British governor of Massachusetts in this historical morality play, what remains of the British empire is ready to offer him asylum. — Guardian

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.

Mideast peace: Lessons from healthcare reform

By Amjad Atallah

I

t took a year of trying for President Obama to persuade Israelis and Palestinians to enter into “proximity talks” to resolve issues standing in the way of a final peace plan. But as we learned from the stunning announcement last week - during Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to the region - that Israel had approved 112 new settlement units in the West Bank and 1,600 new settlement units in East Jerusalem, there is a lot that can go wrong.

Assuming the Israeli announcement doesn’t derail the process before it gets under way, the Obama administration will need to move decisively. And in doing so, it should keep in mind three valuable lessons from the fight for healthcare reform. The first is the importance of maintaining ownership.

The administration made clear that getting affordable health care to all Americans was a top priority. But it then farmed out the details to legislators, who spent a year making a hash of things.

Similarly, James L Jones, Obama’s national security adviser, has made it clear that the Israeli-Arab conflict is a top priority for US national security interests in the Middle East. And it should be. Nothing would help us more in every theater of operations than a US-engineered resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In contrast to that assessment, however, other US officials - including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton - have said that although the United States wants an agreement, “we can’t want this more than the parties.” But, in fact, the United States may want an agreement more than this particular Israeli government.

Israel’s Likud leadership may have agreed to resume talks, but their actions seem designed to ensure failure. In addition to approving new settlements, Israeli officials have signaled that they want to reopen issues that have already been resolved in previous talks - such as where borders should be

drawn - rather than taking up where things last broke off, as called for by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Tzipi Livni, leader of Israel’s Kadima party.

This is oddly similar to the Republican demand that Congress go back to the beginning on health care in the wake of Scott Brown’s election to the Senate. Revisiting issues that have already been settled is not part of an honest attempt to reach an agreement, but rather an effort to run out the clock on this president. The administration must lay down the parameters for talks and then drive the parties to discuss areas of greatest agreement. If the parties can’t ultimately agree on all issues, the United States should marshal international support for proposals that can be endorsed by the UN Security Council. A second pertinent lesson from the healthcare process is the need to act quickly. Healthcare reform efforts have dragged on so long that opponents have had time to mount one hyperbolic attack after another.

Similarly, a long negotiation process on Middle East peace would allow spoilers to mount attacks that could doom an agreement.

The Arab League, which provided Abbas the cover he needed to agree to the peace talks, has threatened to pull its support for the process in the wake of Israel’s settlement announcement.

Assuming the league does stay engaged, it has called for a four-month deadline for concluding the talks, which would mean they would end shortly before Israel terminates its self-proclaimed moratorium on settlement construction.

Although the moratorium is rife with exceptions - as this week’s announcement showed - Palestinians assume Israel will launch into an even greater frenzy of construction on Palestinian land in September.

This gives the United States precious little time to get to an agreement.

But the good news is that many difficult issues have already been negotiated.

The indispensable ingredient now is American political will to see the

process concluded with a measure of real justice for Palestinians and security for Israelis. The Bosnian-CroatianYugoslavian talks lasted years while the international community playacted at being an “honest broker.” When the United States finally took charge, ram-

ming through an agreement - even an imperfect one - peace was achieved.

A final lesson of healthcare is the need to sell the public on the process.

Obama has finally taken to the “bully pulpit” to explain to Americans why the healthcare reform bill needs to be

passed now - even if it is imperfect.

NOTE: Amjad Atallah is director of the Middle East Task Force at the New America Foundation and served as a legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team from 2000-03 – MCT

Saudi legal reforms may take years

By Ulf Laessing

P

lans to modernise Saudi Arabia’s legal system - key to reassuring foreign investors - will take years due to a chronic shortage of qualified judges and lawyers and resistance from the powerful religious elite. The top oil exporter said this month it would set up commercial and appeal courts in the main cities as part of a $2 billion reform to modernise courts and train judges who apply the kingdom’s austere version of Sunni Islam. The move coincides with a crackdown on trading violations on the Arab’s biggest bourse by slapping heavy fines on major banks or withdrawing licenses for financial firms.

The United States last month also removed its key regional ally from a list of alleged intellectual property violators, citing a better law enforcement environment. Overhauling the judiciary and improving education are key reforms King Abdullah has tried since taking office in 2005 to create a modern state and combat Islamist militancy. But the monarch has to balance the views of conservative princes and clerics, who helped the Al Saud family to found the kingdom in 1930s.

Many oppose big changes. “The set up of commercial and other specialised courts will make our legal system very efficient,” said Saudi commercial lawyer Majed Garoub.

But he cautioned it might take more than five years to see the full impact of reform as the kingdom needs to train thousands of judges and faces a shortage of 10,000 lawyers able to deal with more specialised cases. “We will improve little by little,” said Garoub, who runs a well-establish law firm in the commercial hub of Jeddah. The Gulf Arab state needs to attract foreign investors to prepare for the day when its vast oil resources - more than a fifth of global reserves - run dry and to create jobs for its mostly young population of 18 million nationals.

With the kingdom rolling out a $400 billion investment program and opening up its bourse, industrial firms and banks have been coming, but weak legal standards still deter some.

“Concerns about contact enforcement and legal consistency are among the main issues for foreign investors,” said Paul Gamble, head of research at Saudi bank Jadwa Investment.

“The deficiencies of the current local system mean that highprofile commercial disputes are being heard in foreign

courts,” he added.

Several struggling family firms have filed multi-billion lawsuits abroad as they have little trust in Saudi courts and law enforcement. “Effective enforcement of the judgement can take years,” the US Department of Commerce said on its website. Despite being the biggest Arab economy and a member of the G20 group of the world’s biggest economies, Saudi Arabia lacks codification of judicial verdicts to act as precedent for cases.

In 1992 the kingdom issued a “basic law” to act as a constitution and it confirms Islamic law as the basis of its legal system. Only some regulations come via the kingdom’s appointed quasi-parliament, the Shura Assembly. Much is left vague, to custom, royal decrees or religious edicts which are non-binding but have influence in the tribal society. Saudi Arabia is only country where women are banned from driving even though there is no law explicitly stating that.

The lack of rulings based on precedent gives judges wide powers. Rulings for the same charge can differ from region to region and human rights activists say criminal trials are often not fair and lawyers are denied timely access to files. “Many judges do not accept that lawyers or witnesses are part of the process to find the truth in court. (A judge) thinks his understanding of the case is enough,” said a Western diplomat.

Most judges graduate from the Imam Mohamed Ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, a bastion of the kingdom’s austere version of Islam called Wahhabism, said columnist Abdullah Al-Alami. “More specialised judicial training centres in collaboration with international legal training institutes need to be established,” Alami said. “There will probably be resistance to emerging secular law, but I’m convinced that the judicial reforms will take place sooner or later.”

To bring changes, King Abdullah removed the hardline head of the Supreme Court, Sheikh Saleh Al-Lohaidan, last year. The government is also sending judges abroad to train in modern court procedures but activists are not holding their breath. “They should send the young judges abroad, not just the old ones who will not change,” said Ibrahim al-Mugaiteeb, head of the independent First Human Rights Society. “There is movement but we will have to wait 15-20 years to see real changes until 60-70 percent of judges of the old regime are retired.” — Reuters

Coming soon: ‘Oil-less’ economic growth

By Christopher Johnson

T

he world may soon achieve something long dreamed of by governments and policymakers: higher economic growth without using more oil. Rising efficiency, conservation and substitution are steadily reducing the amount of oil needed to fuel an increase in the goods and services produced around the world. Oil demand in the rich, industrialised countries of the West already appears to have peaked and the trend in developing economies is towards an ever-smaller increase in the amount of oil consumed for every extra unit of economic growth.

Global oil intensity - oil demand growth divided by economic growth - has fallen by about 2 percent a year over the last decade and the decline is now accelerating, spurred by high oil prices, moves to alternative fuels and measures to curb global warming. This does not yet mean that absolute oil consumption is falling because population growth

and rising wealth in poorer parts of the world will push up oil consumption for some time. But it does mean global oil use will eventually peak and start declining - and “oil-less growth” may not be far away.

“The rate of decline of oil intensity will accelerate,” said Eduardo Lopez, oil demand analyst at the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris, which advises industrialised countries.

“There is a structural change -

difficult to measure admittedly, but clear - that demand for burning fuels is no longer what it used to be.”

David Fyfe, head of the IEA’s oil industry and markets division, says price controls and subsidies as well as economic stimulus packages in China and elsewhere, will help prop up oil demand short-term, but longer-term the trend is downwards. “Globally speaking, oil intensity has been declining by around 2 percent annually over the past decade,” Fyfe said. “Our working assumption is that with fuel economy standards, fuel diversification and substitution ... oil intensity lessens by just under 2.5 percent over the next five or six years.”

This acceleration is probably partly due to prices: crude oil hit a record high of almost $150 per barrel in 2008 and are now fairly high historically at around $80.

Estimates of when global oil consumption will stop rising vary but many analysts see it happening over the next 15 years. BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward said

last month world oil demand would peak sometime after 2020 at between 95 million and 110 million barrels per day (bpd), compared with current oil demand of around 85 million bpd.

The trend towards better fuel economy for cars and other vehicles has been clear for some time and it is no surprise that developed economies are using less oil for power generation. But data from the IEA shows it is not just the richer parts of the world that are weaning themselves off oil.

Although fuel intensity in the developed countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has consistently been far lower than in non-OECD countries, the rate of decline has been very similar, IEA figures show.

The top energy forecasters, the IEA, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries all make different assumptions of oil demand, economic growth and the ratio between them. The IEA

says 1 percent of global economic growth now needs about 0.47 percent more oil, the EIA says it needs 0.51 percent, while OPEC suggests it needs only about 0.31 percent more oil.

The lower OPEC estimate may reflect a policy bias, analysts say, since the 12-country grouping represents oil producers who take a cautious, conservative approach to demand for their oil. A Deutsche Bank analysis of oil intensity shows over the last 30 years the annual percentage change in oil demand has equalled 0.9 percent of global economic growth minus 2 percentage points. But all the big forecasters expect the decline in oil intensity to pick up speed over the next decade.

The trend in the biggest oil consumer, the United States, is relatively easy to assess. Mary Novak, director of energy services at Global Insight, which provides the EIA estimates for oil demand growth, says jobs and income are the key indicators. — Reuters

ANALYSIS

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

13

Le Pen writes his way back into script

By Crispian Balmer

F

ar-right leader JeanMarie Le Pen, playing on fears over the spread of Islam, has regained the political initiative in France with a strong result in regional elections that poses a problem for President Nicolas Sarkozy. Bouncing back from a string of recent reversals, Le Pen’s National Front won a surprise 11.74 percent of the national vote in Sunday’s first round ballot and will dilute support for Sarkozy’s conservative block in crucial run-offs on March 21.

Aged 81, Le Pen himself enjoyed a remarkable personal triumph, winning 20.29 percent backing in the southern French Provence-Cote d’Azur region, which has absorbed hundreds of thousands of mainly North African immigrants in recent decades. His daughter Marine Le Pen also scored well, securing 18.31 percent support in the far north of France, where worries over industrial decline helped her cause amongst the working class. “We are once again at the centre of the political game,” said Marine Le Pen, looking both delighted and relieved.

The party still faces myriad problems, ranging from mass

French far right National Front party leader Jean-Marie Le Pen gives a press conference in Nanterre outside Paris Monday. – AP defections to disastrous finances, but at least for now, rivals will have to stop writing its obituary and instead come up with fresh ways to counter its renewed appeal. Opponents said low turnout on Sunday penalised the mainstream right but the result was significantly better than recent elections.

The National Front took just

6.34 percent in last year’s European parliamentary election and 4.29 percent in a 2007 ballot for the National Assembly.

Only last month, encouraged by opinion polls pointing to another poor showing by Le Pen in the regional vote, Immigration Minister Eric Besson described the National

Front as a “bogeyman that no longer exists”. Sarkozy himself believed he had managed to neutralise the National Front in 2007 by offering tough solutions of his own to its two main obsessions -immigration and security.

However, a government move in 2009 to organise a broad debate on national identity rekindled interest in the far

right by reviving controversies over how to deal with immigrants and Islam in a country that has Europe’s largest Muslim population.

“The debate on national identity brought back to the fore themes that were favourable to the National Front ... and proved counterproductive for the ruling party,” said Henri Rey, head of research at the Sciences Po political science institute. Le Pen, who has said the regional vote will be his last election campaign, proved astute at leveraging concerns over radical Islam, plastering billboards with a poster showing France covered by an Algerian flag, a veiled woman and minarets. “No to Islamism,” read the slogan.

The Algerian government protested and a court ruled the posters to be racist and ordered their removal, guaranteeing plenty of free publicity for the cash-strapped National Front.

“Are we or are we not free and sovereign, or are we at the beck and call of the Algerian government?” said Marine Le Pen. Her father clutched the banned poster to his chest when he went on primetime television on Sunday to vaunt the vote outcome, depicting himself as a victim of the system.

“The National Front, which

people said was beaten, dead and buried by the president, has shown that it is still a national force, and probably getting bigger,” said Le Pen, who shocked the world when came second in France’s 2002 presidential vote.

However, Sunday’s result does not resolve all the party’s problems. Previous election defeats drained the National Front coffers, limiting its resources and forcing it to quit its prestigious headquarters near Paris to much more modest offices.

There are also unresolved leadership problems, with Le Pen expected to hand over the baton to his daughter ahead of 2012 in a move that has sparked accusations of nepotism and encouraged some party faithful to jump ship and create their own movements.

“The party isn’t dead, but it is still very weak because of its leadership problems,” said Rey from the Sciences Po, adding that it was far too soon to say whether the party would manage to upset the next presidential election, as it did in 2002.

“The 2012 presidential election is a totally different type of election and we can’t say what the economic situation will be like.

Totally different issues will be at play,” he said. — Reuters

Sarkozy faces reform setback after midterm vote

By James Mackenzie

P

resident Nicolas Sarkozy will find it harder to win support for his plans to reform pensions and rein in France’s yawning budget deficit following a heavy defeat for his centre-right party in regional elections. The opposition Socialists came out well ahead of Sarkozy’s UMP in the first round of the regional ballot on Sunday, pointing to a significant defeat for the president’s party in the decisive second-round runoff on March 21. The regional councils, responsible for issues like school buildings or local transport, have little economic power and play no role in national government.

But the result, the last major ballot before Sarkozy seeks reelection in the 2012 presidential vote, is likely to embolden unions that oppose his reform agenda, making it more difficult for the government to claim broad backing for its plans. “It’s a pretty massive result. This is not the kind of result you get all the time. It’s a mini-landslide,” said Paul Bacot, a professor at the Sciences Po political science institute in the French city of Lyon.

With the pension system facing a steadily widening funding gap that is expected to climb to

French President Nicolas Sarkozy delivers a speech during his visit in the region devastated by the Xynthia storm Tuesday in La Roche-Sur-Yon. – AFP Ä14.5 billion ($19.93 billion) by 2013, Sarkozy has pledged an overhaul that is likely to raise retirement ages, a clear target for the opposition.

He must also squeeze spending significantly if he is to fulfil a pledge to his European partners of bringing the public deficit down from 8.2 percent of gross domestic product this year to below the European Union ceil-

ing of 3 percent by 2013.

The government had already shown itself to be extremely sensitive to protests over factory closures and Sarkozy has ruled out cutting pensions or raising taxes, stressing the role of France’s broad social protection network in the crisis.

The defeat in the regional vote could further reinforce the government’s caution as

Sarkozy gears up for what could be a much tougher election campaign than the one he experienced in 2007.

The Socialists have struggled since Sarkozy won power, but party chief Martine Aubry has restored confidence after taking the leadership in 2008 and the left has profited from discontent over issues ranging from jobs to immigration. Left

wing groups grabbed around 50 percent of the first round regional vote, with the Socialists alone taking just over 29 percent, ahead of 26 percent for the UMP, which was hard hit by the fact that more than half the electorate stayed at home.

Adding to worries for the UMP, the far-right National Front bounced back from a string of recent failures to win almost 12 percent support, meaning they will siphon off part the broader conservative vote in the crucial second round.

“This vote shows a clear rejection of the policies that have been followed,” the powerful CGT union said in a statement after the first round vote, announcing a “day of action” on March 23 to back demands on pay and pensions.

A steady stream of protests and strikes in recent months by groups ranging from teachers, police, judges and post office staff to oil refinery operators, car parts suppliers or airline staff have underlined a deep mood of discontent in France.

The euro zone’s second largest economy has weathered the financial crisis in better shape than many of its neighbours but even so, unemployment is over 10 percent, public finances are under strain and recovery is expected to be slow and bumpy.

“The labour relations climate at the moment is a delicate one for the government and very uncertain from the point of view of French society,” said Bernard Vivier, head of the Institut Superieur du Travail, a labour relations think tank.

Sarkozy has ruled out any major cabinet reshuffle after the regional poll, but the expected defeat of all eight ministers who ran in the elections has underlined growing doubts about the ability of the government to push through big changes.

To make matters worse, the UMP’s fomerly rock-solid discipline has frayed and potential centre-right opponents to Sarkozy, such as Jean-Francois Cope, head of the UMP parliamentary group, have come increasingly into the open.

While the implications for the next presidential election are unclear - the Socialists won the last regional poll in 2004 decisively, but went on to lose heavily to Sarkozy three years later the likelihood of radical new reforms seems slight. In an interview with the Le Figaro daily last week, Sarkozy had already signalled that he would slow the pace of reform next year, a marked shift in tone for a leader who came to power three years ago pledging profound and lasting change.— Reuters

Culture clash: Europe art provokes Muslims W

By Michael Weissenstein

ith the West locked in conflicts across the Muslim world, why would anyone throw fuel on the fire? A small group of Europeans have been doing just that provoking death plots and at least one murder by turning out art that derides Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and the Holy Quran in the name of Western values. Behind the scenes is something bigger: a rising European unease with a rapidly growing Muslim minority, and the spreading sense that the continent has become a front in a clash of civilizations.

Recent events - including surprising electoral success by an anti-Islamic Dutch party, moves to ban veils in France and minarets in Switzerland, and arrests in Ireland and the US this week in an alleged plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist - are signs of the rising tensions.

Swedish artist Lars Vilks says he was defending freedom of speech when he produced a crude black-and-white drawing of Muhammad (PBUH) in 2007.

Authorities say that set him in the crosshairs of an assassination plot by extremists including Colleen LaRose, a 46-year-old Muslim convert from Pennsylvania who dubbed herself “Jihad Jane.” Vilks said in a recent interview with AP that he wasn’t interested in offending Muslims as an end in itself, but wanted to show that he could make provocative art about any topic he chose.

“There is nothing so holy you can’t offend it,” he said.

The Danish newspaper JyllandsPosten also said it was defending free speech in 2005 when it printed 12 cartoons of Muhammad, setting off protests and the torching of Western embassies in several Muslim countries. And bottleblond Dutch populist politician Geert Wilders said he was promoting European values by producing Fitna, a 15-minute film that lays images of the Sept 11 attacks alongside verses from the Holy Quran. The film was shown in

Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks walks in the streets of Stockholm on March, 11, 2010. – AP Britain’s House of Lords this month.

The cases are extreme, but millions of moderate Europeans also are reexamining the meaning of the liberal values widely cherished across the continent. How, many are asking, should a liberal society respectfully deal with immigrants who often espouse illiberal values? Should the immigrants adopt the values of their adoptive land - or, to the contrary, should society change to accommodate the newcomers who now form part of it?

France, home to at least five million of the estimated 14 million Muslims in Western Europe, launched a parliamentrun dialogue on what to do about fullface veils last year. It ended with a parliamentary panel recommending a ban on the veils in buses, trains, hospitals, post offices and public sector facilities.

In December, a large majority of Swiss voters backed a ballot initiative banning the building of any new minarets.

The measures sparked some peaceful protests. But the most incendiary provocations have come from the Dutch and their Nordic neighbors, nations with

long histories of homogeneity, tradition of provocative artwork and less experience with large-scale immigration than former colonial titans like Britain and France. Jan Hjarpe, a professor emeritus of Islamic studies at Lund University in southern Sweden, near Vilks’ home, said the deliberate provocations were helpful to Islamic extremists, who have been hunting for targets that would win them popularity in the Muslim world.

“It has had almost no effect on the Muslim community in Sweden, who regard it as not very interesting,” he said. “These threats against him have to do with extremist groups that want something to react to.”

Denmark’s Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) cartoons emerged from a discussion in 2005 about whether Islam was being treated with special sensitivity among Danish artists for fear of reprisals from extremists. JyllandsPosten said the project was a way to challenge self-censorship and show that Muslims, too, must be ready to put up with mockery in a society based on democracy and free speech. Denmark

has an estimated 200,000 Muslims about 4 percent of the population - while the numbers in Sweden are believed to be somewhat higher.

Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet (PBUH), even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry. Danish Muslims took the cartoons as an affront, viewing them as symbolic of a backlash against Muslim immigrants in Denmark, manifested by the rise of a nationalist party and sometimes harsh anti-Muslim rhetoric in the Danish press.

An axe-wielding Somali man with suspected Al-Qaeda links has been jailed since January on preliminary charges of terrorism and attempted murder after breaking into the home of Kurt Westergaard, the 74-year-old Danish artist whose Muhammad (PBUH) cartoon outraged the Muslim world three years ago. The Somali man had won an asylum case and received a residency permit to stay in Denmark, officials said.

Outrage, threats and violence over depictions of Muhammad (PBUH) are nothing new: Salman Rushdie was forced into hiding in England for a decade because the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran issued a 1989 fatwa, or religious edict, ordering Muslims to kill him because his book, “The Satanic Verses”, insulted Islam.

Rushdie has survived, but in 2004, filmmaker Theo Van Gogh was slain on an Amsterdam street by Mohammed Bouyeri, a Dutch Muslim of Moroccan descent incensed by his film “Submission”, a fictional study of abused Muslim women. Van Gogh was repeatedly shot, and his throat was cut. A letter pinned to his chest with a knife threatened the life of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an outspoken critic of radical Islam who helped write the film.

The death accelerated the swelling of anti-Islamic populism in the once-tolerant Netherlands, where Muslims now make up some 5 percent of the 16 million population. In the 1980s and into the 90s, large numbers of immigrants -

mainly Turks and Moroccans encouraged to move to the country as cheap labor - barely integrated into mainstream society and instead stuck together in low-rent inner-city neighborhoods.

In light of the tragic record of the Dutch toward the Jewish population during the Nazi occupation, when some 70 percent were deported and killed, it was considered impolitic to show resentment against another ethnic group. But that didn’t mean the resentment wasn’t there. It was only in 2002 when the populist politician Pim Fortuyn began speaking openly against immigration and the threat to the Dutch identity that people felt free to voice their anger.

Fortuyn’s popularity soared, and the party he founded was hugely popular even after Fortuyn himself was assassinated (by an animal rights activist).

Successive governments clamped down on immigration and forced new arrivals to learn about the Dutch language and culture in an attempt to integrate them into mainstream society.

Wilders is derided by his enemies as a neo-fascist but has been able to turn his provocations into political success: his Freedom Party winning in the town of Almere and coming in second in The Hague this month the only two races it ran out of 394 cities and towns that elected local councils.

If the outcome is any indication of the parliamentary vote in June, Wilders could emerge as a kingmaker on the national stage with no combination of parties is likely to be able to form a working majority in the next parliament. One widely praised new book, journalist Christopher Caldwell’s “Reflections on the Revolution in Europe” has prompted ongoing discussion of whether Islam can ever truly be integrated into European society. Some see cause for optimism, however faint.

“I wonder whether the liberal order is really quite so weak and inept, whether the story is quite over just yet,” Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum wrote in one review. — AP

focus

Australian cities must transform for growth

By Michael Perry

A

ustralia circa 2050, population 35 million, climate change induced rising sea levels have flooded the Gold Coast resort region, apartment blocks are now used to grow food and people commute in monorail pods above the sea. In another city, Australians live on floating island pods with apartments both below and above sea level, the population has shifted from land to the sea because of the sky-rocketing value of disappearing arable land. Climate change has also forced many Australians to move inland and create new cities in the outback, relying on solar power to exist in the inhospitable interior.

These are just a few urban scenarios by some of Australia’s leading architects shortlisted for “Ideas for Australian Cities 2050+” to be staged at this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale. While these images may sound like science fiction, many architects and demographers say Australian cities must radically transform to cope with the pressures of population growth and climate change or face social unrest and urban decay. “If we don’t get this right ... all hell breaks loose, or our cities break down, there’s not enough water, there’s not enough power,” said one of Australia’s leading demographers Bernard Salt.

Australia survived the global financial crisis, due largely to China buying its resources, and while resource exports will continue to bolster its economy for decades, future prosperity may be threatened by a growing, ageing population, according to an Australian government report released in February.

The report said Australia’s population was set to rise by 60 percent to 35 million by 2050, mainly through migration, yet cities are already groaning under the present population.

“One of the major frontier issues for Australia over the next decade will be the future of our cities,” said Heather Ridout, chief executive of the Australian Industry Group, which is calling for major infrastructure investment in cities.

Among the beneficiaries of such development would be property firms like Lend Lease, Stockland and Mirvac Group, building material groups Boral Ltd and CSR, Australia’s top engineering contractor Leighton Holding Ltd, and the country’s biggest private hospital operator, Ramsay Health.

But demographers warn that Australian cities need to not only expand infrastructure, but ensure future residents have equal access to city facilities. Racial riots at Sydney’s Cronulla beach in 2005 and a series of attacks against Indian students in the past year are signs of growing social tensions in Australian cities, say demographers. “If we have a rising population, we need to make sure that we have appropriate infrastructure, so that we don’t lose the social cohesion that we take for granted,” said Larissa Brown from the Centre for Sustainable Leadership. “We need affordable access to housing, to transport, to healthcare.”

While Australia is double the size of Europe, three-quarters of the country is sparsely populated countryside or harsh outback, leaving the bulk of the population to inhabit a thin strip down the southeast coast. In fact, around 50 percent of the population live in the three largest cities - Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane - on a combined land area that is about the size of Brunei or Trinidad & Tobago.

Australia’s post-World War Two sprawling suburbia is under strain due to inadequate transport and public facilities.

“We’re at risk of seeing increasingly dysfunctional cities ... we’re starting to see sort of fragmentation and breakdown of the transport systems and increasing frustration for the residents of those cities trying to get around,” said Jago Dodson, urban researcher at Griffth University. A State of Cities 2010 report released in March said Australia’s major cities contribute neary 80 percent of GDP, but warned that worsening urban congestion would have a serious negative impact on economic growth if not addressed.

The Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics estimates the cost of road congestion for the Australian cities was about A$9.4 billion for 2005. Left unchecked, this is projected to rise to A$20 billion by 2020.

“Urban congestion contributes to traffic delays, increased greenhouse gas emissions, higher vehicle running costs and more accidents,” said Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese. “It is a tragedy that many parents spend more time travelling to and from work, than at home with their kids. Relieve urban congestion and we improve our quality of life as well as our productivity,” said Albanese.

In February, a 10-year, A$50 billion transport blueprint was announced for Sydney which will see a new heavy rail network, 1,000 new buses and possibly a fast train linking Sydney with the port city of Newcastle, to its north. Sydney, Australia’s biggest city, is daily gridlocked, forcing a motorist who travels 22 km a day to spend three days stuck in traffic each year.

Private transport currently accounts for about 90 percent of urban journeys in Australia and Transurban Group, which operates the nation’s major tollways, believes car usage will continue to rise, despite a move to public transport.

“Despite concern about climate change, road use in our cities is predicted to grow significantly in the next 20 to 30 years,” said Transurban in a 2009 sustainability report.

“New road projects will increasingly be part of integrated transport solutions for entire cities or transport corridors.”

But the company warned future road projects will cost more to build and develop due to climate change, with Australia’s government seeking to introduce a carbon emissions trading scheme and preapproval analysis of climate impacts of new projects. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s government plans to invest A$36 billion in transport infrastructure in the next 5 years. Improving efficiency in energy and transport infrastructure could increase GDP by nearly 2 percent, or the equivalent of A$75 billion, says Australia’s Productivity Commission.

Australia has one of the world’s highest home ownership rates, but the generational dream of a suburban home and garden looks set to be shattered. Over the next few decades, more Australians will be living in high-density housing, what some demographers call the ‘Manhattanization’ of cities. A new Sydney urban plan released in February calls for 700,000 new dwellings by 2036, with 70 percent of development to occur within existing suburbs and only 30 percent in new suburbs.

If Sydney does not consolidate, the city would need to expand 1.5 times in size to accommodate its growing population and would run out of available land within 30 years, said the New South Wales (NSW) state government plan.

Demographer Salt questions whether Australians will give up the “Neighbours” dream, citing the worldwide TV hit about life in a suburban Australian street.

“Neighbours...is absolutely integral to the Australian psyche,” said Salt, a partner at KPMG. Whether Sydney adopts a Manhattan or low-rise European urban plan, a rising population will put more pressure on housing stock. Australia already has one of the most expensive house prices in the world and housing affordability is falling. The Commonwealth Bank’s CommSec forecasts housing prices, which rose 12 percent in 2009, will rise by 810 percent in 2010 due to a rising population and a lack of stock. “For investors, rising rents and home prices is an attractive combination,” said CommSec’s chief economist James Craig. Leightons forecasts annual growth in residential construction of six percent through to 2014. Mirvac, one of the country’s top apartment construction firms, also forecasts growth, citing A$759 million worth of exchanged contracts, focusing on large-scale projects which are transforming old industrial sites in Sydney. — Reuters

NEWS

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Blind British soldier ‘sees’ with his tongue LONDON: A British soldier left blind by a grenade in Iraq has told how his life has been transformed by ground-breaking technology that enables him to “see” with his tongue. Lance Corporal Craig Lundberg, 24, can read words, make out shapes and walk without assistance thanks to a device developed in the United States which could revolutionise life for other blind people. Lundberg, from Liverpool in northwest England, completely lost his sight after being struck by a rocket-propelled grenade while serving in Basra in 2007.

Faced with a life of relying on a guide dog, he was chosen by the Ministry of Defence as the first person in Britain to trial the BrainPort device, which could revolutionise treatment for the blind. It converts images into electrical pulses which are sent to the tongue, where they cause a tingling sensation. The different strength of the tingles can be interpreted so the user can mentally visualise their surroundings and navigate around objects.

The device consists of a tiny video camera attached to a pair of sunglasses which are linked to a plastic “lollipop” which the user places on their tongue to read the pulses. The image is

LONDON: This handout shows Lance Corporal Craig Lundberg, a soldier who lost his sight in Iraq, being taught to ‘see’ with his tongue using a revolutionary new system. — AFP created by presenting white pixels from the camera as strong stimulation, black pixels as no stimulation, and grey levels as medium levels of stimulation, although interpreting

the images takes intensive training.

“It feels like licking a nine volt battery or like popping candy,” Lundberg explained Monday. “The camera sends

signals down onto the lollipop and onto your tongue. You can then determine what they mean and transfer it to shapes.

You get lines and shapes of things. It sees in black and white so you get a two-dimensional image on your tongue it’s a bit like a pins and needles sensation. It’s only a prototype, but the potential to change my life is massive. It’s got a lot of potential to advance things for blind people.” Thanks to the device, he can now “pick up objects straight away. I can reach out and pick them up when before I would be fumbling around to feel for them.”

Lundberg and British military surgeons have visited the US for training in how to use the device, which is being developed by a team led by Gale Pollock, a former major general in the US army. It is hoped that with further refinement, the BrainPort could be used for other blind British military personnel. However, the future of Lundberg’s trusty guide dog seems secure for now. “There is no way I’m getting rid of my guide dog Hugo, though - I love him. This (the BrainPort) is another mobility device, it’s not the be-all and end-all of my disability.” — AFP

Palestinians riot in Jerusalem Continued from Page 1 spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. The gunman managed to escape. Four other policeman were briefly taken to hospital and another 10 treated on the spot after being hit by rocks, while 60 Palestinians were arrested, Rosenfeld said.

The clashes erupted across east Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed in a move not recognised by the international community. Small clashes also took place in several West Bank towns. As the rioting was under way Hamas deputy politburo chief Moussa Abu Marzuk called for another popular Palestinian uprising. “The intifada must enjoy the participation of all of Palestinian society,” he told Al-Jazeera television. “Every Palestinian should rise up... against the forces of the (Israeli) occupation.” In the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip thousands of people took to the streets, chanting: “With our blood, with our souls, we sacrifice for you, Jerusalem.”

The Palestinians have launched two intifadas against Israeli rule in the occupied territories, the first in 1987 and the second in 2000, but Hamas’ calls for a new uprising in recent years have been largely

ignored. Anger was already high among Palestinians over Israel’s announcement of plans to build 1,600 new homes for Jewish settlers in east Jerusalem. The announcement last week also incensed the US administration, and Mitchell postponed a visit to the region that was to start yesterday. However, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States remained committed to reviving peace talks, telling reporters in Washington there was “too much at stake” for Palestinians and Israelis to abandon them. “Our goal now is to make sure that we have the full commitment from both our Israeli and the Palestinian partners to this effort,” she said.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon called for restraint from both sides and reiterated that Jerusalem’s final status should be decided by negotiations. Earlier this month, the Palestinians reluctantly agreed to hold indirect talks with Israel after a 14month hiatus in negotiations, but the outlook for a swift resumption of the peace process now looks bleak. The reopening of a twice-destroyed Hurva synagogue in the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem’s walled Old City on Monday further fuelled tensions.

Many Palestinians view Israeli projects

near the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound -Islam’s third holiest site - as an assault on its tense status quo or a prelude to the building of a third Jewish temple there. Jews refer to the compound as the Temple Mount and consider it their holiest site because the second Temple stood there before the Romans destroyed it in 70 AD. Rival Palestinian factions united in condemning the high-security opening of the landmark synagogue, which was last destroyed 62 years ago in fighting with Jordan during the 1948 war that followed Israel’s creation.

“This is no mere synagogue,” said Hatem Abdel Qader, the official in charge of Jerusalem affairs for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’ Fatah movement.

“This synagogue will be a prelude to violence and religious fanaticism and extremism, and this is not limited to Jewish extremists but includes members of the Israeli government,” he added. The US State Department took strong exception to the Palestinian statements, saying “such incitement” would heighten tensions. Israeli police had restricted access to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound since Friday and the army had sealed off the West Bank, fearing unrest. — Agencies

Kidnapped British boy freed in Pak Continued from Page 1 Pakistan had received information that European countries have identified suspects, and Pakistanis have been arrested here, he said, adding that a ransom was paid in a European country.

Relatives said they were delighted that Sahil was safe and vigorously denied repeated claims that the kidnapping was an inside job. Sahil’s mother, Akila Naqqash, who had begged for his release, said her son can expect a “big party” when he returns home to Oldham, in northern England, although it was not immediately clear when that would be. “I talked to him on the phone and I thought, ‘that’s my little boy’, that’s enough for me,” she told BBC radio. “The way he spoke to me was normal, like a normal little boy.” She said he had asked about his sisters and remarked how much he was missing his favourite toy. “I am just waiting for my little boy to come back. No more crying, I just want to have a big party,” she added.

Celebrating relatives in Pakistan handed out sweets in Jhelum to friends, neighbours and family members offering their congratulations. “I am thankful to God that he has been recovered. We are so happy,” his grandmother Tasneem Bashir told AFP. Relatives said Sahil was taken by robbers who stole jewellery and cash and demanded a $120,000 ransom.

Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik reiterated yesterday that the family could have been behind the abduction but police said there was no evidence that relatives had been involved. “Presently, we don’t know about the suspects or culprits,” Aslam Tareen, regional police chief, told reporters. “He was released to us. We were informed about the whereabouts and he was left there... in a field in Denga village,” he said. “He is quite well, he is playing, we have arranged some toys for him,” said Tareen, adding that he did not know whether a ransom was paid.

Doctors confirmed the boy was fit and well, saying he was under police protection and accompanied by British officials.

Kidnappings of Westerners are rare in Pakistan but abductions of locals are common. They are often related to family quarrels, love affairs, property disputes or simple quests for money - particularly for

the wealthier victims - by criminal gangs, some of whom are connected to militant networks. Local media said yesterday that the dead body of a two-year-old Pakistani girl who was kidnapped for ransom was found near the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Sahil’s Pakistani father had said the kidnappers stormed the house armed with guns and grenades, subjecting the family to a six-hour ordeal while he and his son were preparing to take a taxi to the airport and fly home. Malik said the boy’s father, Raja Naqqash Saeed, returned to Britain last week against Pakistan’s wishes. The family initially denied he had left the country. But Manchester police said yesterday that he was indeed in Britain and was cooperating with authorities. “There’s still a very active criminal investigation and Greater Manchester Police and the Pakistani authorities are still determined to bring people to justice,” said Assistant Chief Constable David Thompson.

Meanwhile, the parents and families of children missing far longer than Sahil, with none of the diplomatic support or pledges of assistance from the government and police, were left wishing for more. According to combined statistics from Pakistan’s four provinces, 240 people were kidnapped across the country in the first two months of the year alone with only 74 of them recovered so far.

When six-year-old Mahnoor Fatima disappeared, her mother’s world collapsed. But she was too poor and abductions too common for Pakistani police to do much more than register the case. So when Shamin Akhter Butt discovered senior officials were working round the clock to free Sahil, she rushed to his home in the vain hope of attracting attention to her plight. “Despite our cries and tears these last six months, nothing has happened. Why isn’t the same attention given to my daughter?” asked Butt through tears as she stood on the lawn of the British boy’s family home this month.

Mahnoor disappeared while playing outside on Oct 6 last year, but unlike Sahil, whose overjoyed family heard yesterday he had been released, she has never been seen again. “This shows the difference between rich and poor. No one even came to my house to console me...

Everything is done here for the rich and the British but nothing for Pakistanis and the poor,” she told AFP by telephone yesterday.

In Karachi, Mohammad Masroor, a sales executive with a local firm, said he welcomed Sahil’s release, but was desperately worried about his brother Irfan Ali, 22, who was kidnapped when he went out to run errands. “Other poor Pakistanis should be helped in the same way as the authorities helped that British family,” Masroor told AFP. “We searched for him the whole night. I inquired about him from relatives and searched hospitals but didn’t find him. Then we lodged a report with the police about his disappearance,” he said.

The next day, the family received an anonymous call demanding five million rupees ($59,500) for his release. “That call was a bombshell for the family, for our mother in particular. We were helpless as the amount was far beyond our reach,” he said. Police apparently believe kidnappers are holding Irfan somewhere in thick forest in northern Sindh province, leaving police “helpless” in accessing what has become a virtual no-go area for law enforcement authorities. “The whole family is extremely disturbed, but I have put all my savings together and borrowed from relatives to make it one million rupees. I believe Allah will help me in getting my brother released soon.”

In Peshawar, Tariq Ali’s 15-year-old son was kidnapped last August but he is still without news. “Our rulers don’t consider the children of Pakistani citizens human beings. They don’t act promptly as they do if a foreigner goes missing,” said Ali, who owns a bakery. His son Hashim Ali, a student in ninth grade was kidnapped in broad daylight just after leaving home for a nearby playground. “I’ve submitted applications to every government office ranging from the governor to the inspector general of police but nothing has happened. “But if a child with another nationality gets kidnapped in Pakistan then they do the maximum and even visit their homes,” Ali said. “They don’t even ask about locals and Pakistanis who are being kidnapped every day. I have lost zest for life without my son but nobody cares,” said Ali, the wrinkles on his face deepening into furrows. — Agencies

DOHA: Kuwaitis work yesterday at the stand of the Gulf state at the convention center in the Qatari capital where the meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) is taking place. The UN-administered body counts 175 signatories and offers varying degrees of protection for more than 33,500 species traded as live specimens, fur coats, culinary delicacies, raw timber, musical instruments or traditional Chinese medicines. — AFP

Thai protests turn ‘bloody’ Continued from Page 1 weekend, according to police, watched over by 50,000 security forces personnel.

The Hindu priest, wearing a traditional white outfit and with bare feet, knelt down in the blood to wipe his hands in it, before raising them aloft. Others then joined in, creating pools of blood at the steps of the offices. “This blood is to show our commitment in calling for democracy. This is an important curse ritual,” said Red leader Nattawut Saikur.

The Red Shirts, whose numbers appeared to be dwindling, held the blood bottles in the air triumphantly as they rode on trucks followed by thousands of supporters and monitored by riot police. They are protesting against the perceived elitism and illegitimacy of the Abhisit government, which came to power via a Dec 2008 parliamentary vote after a controversial court ruling ousted Thaksin’s allies.

Last month another court decision confiscated $1.4 billion from Thaksin,

whose followers are largely from the poor rural north and fervently support the populist policies he introduced before being ousted in a 2006 coup. They began their blood drive yesterday morning despite hygiene concerns raised by health officials. Organisers insisted only qualified medics were collecting donations, using one needle per person. “It doesn’t hurt.

I’ll do any activity the leaders say, I’m willing to participate because I want a democracy,” said Somsak Janprasert, 63, a retired railway official from Bangkok.

“This is a very symbolic way to express that our blood, the people’s blood, is power,” he said.

On Monday the Red Shirts spent several hours massed outside an army barracks on the northern outskirts of Bangkok where Abhisit and his government were holed up amid fears of violence by saboteurs. The premier rejected the crowd’s demands to dissolve parliament and call elections, and yesterday he again stood firm against their calls. “A decision

cannot be made between protesters and the government, because it is related to the whole country,” he said on television from the barracks.

A joint session of both houses of parliament was postponed yesterday due to the lack of a quorum, with some lawmakers fearing for their safety in the ongoing demonstrations, parliamentary officials said. At a separate army barracks across the city, four grenades exploded on Monday, wounding two soldiers and raising tensions. It was not clear if the attacks were linked to the Red Shirts, whose leaders denied involvement.

Since the coup that ousted Thaksin, Thailand has been rocked by protests from both supporters and opponents of the former premier, who lives abroad to avoid a jail term for corruption. Thaksin, who was spotted over the weekend in Montenegro, made an impassioned plea to supporters by a video link to Bangkok on Monday evening for the third consecutive night, urging them to fight on. — AFP

Outrage at Murdoch’s Arab foray Continued from Page 1 normalisation” of ties with Israel, said Egyptian film critic Ola Al-Shafei. The partnership amounts to “a defeat for the Arab film and art heritage,” she added.

Scriptwriter Osama Anwar Okasha wrote that Murdoch’s stake in Rotana was a “Trojan horse” designed to stealthily penetrate Arab culture. “The important thing is not the share sold by Alwaleed, but a person who hands over nine percent can also sell off the rest of the company,” said novelist Ezzat Qamhawi. “We are now facing the reality of the sale of Arab films and music to an investor whose media empire is one of the causes of the erroneous image of the Arab-Israeli conflict in the West,” he added.

Murdoch’s leading US news outlets like the strident Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, and his British holdings such as the Times, Sky TV and the Sun, are often accused of an anti-Arab, pro-Israel bias.

Egypt’s state-owned film company has already threatened to stop working with Rotana, whose bouquet of free-to-air satellite channels target an Arab audience across the Middle East that is equally opposed to Murdoch’s politics. “The Arabs see Murdoch as a person who does

not respect them, their faith, or heritage,” wrote Palestinian journalist and poet, Iqbal Tamimi. “The majority say that he is gambling with his money if he thinks that the Arabs will forget his far right-wing political news machine, or his pro-Israeli stands,” she added.

Murdoch has made no bones about his unabashed support of Israel for decades, and has received a number of awards from Jewish groups amid debate over his own Jewish roots. On the other hand, Alwaleed, known in his country as a progressive, is a strong supporter of Arab causes - though not stridently vocal against Israel. He said last month that he hoped the partnership could help moderate the widely-perceived anti-Arab bias of some of News Corp’s most strident outlets, such as Fox News. “It’s not only Fox that in general is against the Arab world.

It’s an American syndrome,” he said at a news conference in Riyadh when the deal was announced. “We will always do our best to lower that tone,” he said.

Some in America regard Alwaleed as the public face of Saudi Arabia’s hardline brand of Islam. Outside of financial markets where his Kingdom Holdings is known as the biggest individual shareholder of Citigroup, Alwaleed is best known for his rejected offer of $10 million to New York City for disaster relief after

the September 11 attacks. At the time Murdoch’s news outlets lambasted the Saudi prince, and Fox called his offer “an egregious, outrageous, unfair offence” because the money came with a letter asking Americans to consider how US Middle East policy might be linked to the attacks.

But Fox has since run in trouble with its supporters for allegedly bending to pressure from Alwaleed. When in 2005 Alwaleed was reported as saying he had influenced how Fox News depicted rioting in heavily Muslim suburbs in France, the conservative Accuracy in Media group called for an investigation. After Alwaleed, who owns a seven-percent stake in News Corp, gave an interview to Fox News this January conservatives blasted the network for its alleged kidglove treatment.

Rotana’s Khalijia channel has begun airing the controversial Turkish series “Valley of the Wolves,” which sparked a Turkish-Israeli diplomatic row for its negative portrayal of Israelis. When the Murdoch-Alwaleed partnership was announced, it stirred speculation Fox News would launch an Arabic news channel to compete with rivals Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, both respected and widely watched across the Arab world. Murdoch has denied such a plan. — AFP

Info minister faces no-confidence vote Continued from Page 1 The MPs who signed the motion were Jamaan Al-Harbash, Ahmad Al-Saadoun, Faisal Al-Mislem, Falah Al-Sawwagh, Khaled Al-Tahous, Shuaib Al-Muwaizri, Salem Al-Namlan, Mubarak Al-Waalan, Dhaifallah Buramia and Mubarak AlKhrainej. The griller, MP Ali Al-Deqbasi, accused the minister of failure to apply the press and publications law passed in 2006 and the audivisual law passed in the following year to regulate publications and private television channels respectively.

Deqbasi, a member of the Popular Action Bloc, claimed that the two laws included sufficient powers to curb “corrupt media” that has been launching a strong campaign that undermined Kuwait’s national unity and the constitutional parliamentary system. He said the press and publications law requires the information mister to appoint auditors at all local newspapers and other publications to closely monitor sources of funding for such publications and TV stations.

“The minister did not appoint such auditors to monitor their accounts and finances although he was repeatedly cautioned to do so,” Deqbasi said. “Some newspapers are distributing their copies free of charge and they have no advertisements, so who is funding them,” questioned Deqbasi. He declared that “I have serious information that some of these publications are being funded from outside”, but declined to give names.

Later, MP Mussallam Al-Barrak, who spoke in support of the grilling, confirmed that some newspapers were receiving funds from outside of Kuwait which “poses a serious threat on national unity”.

“Kuwait has been subjected to a campaign

that is more dangerous than terrorism which targeted our national unity and parliamentary system. Suspicious newspapers and satellite channels launched the campaign,” Deqbasi said.

Speaking about the controversial AlSoor satellite channel, which triggered wide protests, Deqbasi said that undersecretary of the information ministry said the channel does not fall under Kuwait’s law and advised those hurt by it to go to court. But an assistant undersecretary in the ministry on the same day sent a letter to Gulf Sat company asking it to halt broadcasting the station because it undermines national unity. Another channel rebroadcast the same controversial program and the minister did nothing. “It looks he was happy,” Deqbasi said. “The information minister has allowed certain media to hit at the constitution and national unity, and on top of that spread feelings of hatred and divisions in the Kuwaiti society,” the lawmaker said.

The minister however categorically denied the charges, saying he has taken all the necessary measures stipulated in the two laws to stop violations by the media. He said that the ministry is in the process of appointing auditors at newspapers and TVs to control their finances, but the process has taken a long time because it has to go through the Central Tenders Committee. Sheikh Ahmad said that that since the start of 2007, the ministry has filed 162 cases against publications and 47 lawsuits against private TV stations to the public prosecution against violations by the media, and vowed that the ministry will implement the law correctly.

However, the minister acknowledged that during the implementation, the min-

istry discovered a number of legal loopholes in the two laws. As a result, the ministry has prepared two draft laws to amend the two laws to close the gaps and is awaiting for the Cabinet’s approval to send the amendments to the National Assembly, Sheikh Ahmad said.

After that, three MPs supporting the grilling and three MPs opposed to it spoke alternately. The three supporters are MPs Barrak, Duwaisan and Waleed Al-Tabtabaei, while the opponents were MPs Saadoun Hammad, Adnan AlMutawwa and Khalaf Dumeitheer. Barrak lashed out at the minister saying that he cannot handle two portfolios and was totally focusing his time to the oil ministry. Tabtabaei said that a number of private satellite channels have proven to be true corrupt media and have been spreading poison in the society. On his part, Mutawwa said the minister has done more than any previous information minister.

Sheikh Ahmad was appointed to the Cabinet as oil minister in Feb 2009 and was also given the information portfolio following a general election last May. OPEC’s fourth largest producer has been rocked by political instability in recent years amid sharp differences between the government and parliament. In December, HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad Al-Ahmad AlSabah and Interior Minister Sheikh Jaber Khaled Al-Sabah survived two no-confidence votes after they were grilled.

Kuwait’s political disputes have deepened since Sheikh Nasser was appointed premier in 2006, forcing him to resign five times and form six different cabinets.

Parliament has also been dissolved three times and fresh elections held.

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010

15

Kenyan runners on track for love and marriage Eldoret.

Edwin and Caroline, who are struggling to break into the top elite in marathon running, are the latest in a line of celebrity marriages.

Olympic women’s 800m champion Pamela Jelimo saw it wise to marry her boyfriend/coach to ward off amorous advances from thousands of potential male suitors after winning the one-million dollar Golden League jackpot in 2008.

“Our lives are too dependent on each other and we’ve decided to take this leap,” Jelimo said following her civil marriage to Peter Murrey.

Julius Sang, a member of Kenya’s 4x400m relay gold medal-winning team at

ELDORET: Kenya’s track stars are running away from tradition and into each other’s arms, finding marriage to be the best way of espousing sporting careers and A-lister lifestyles.

During the past two decades there have been so many athletes who have said “I do”, as the rate of marriages between the track stars rises in Kenya.

“We tend to live very close knit life as we have less time to socialize outside the sport. But because we compete with women, it becomes conveninent to build relationships with them since we share one thing in common,” said Edwin Kibowen, who is married to fellow marathoner Caroline Chepkwony, and are based in

the 1972 Munich Olympics started the ball rolling when he married Tecla Chemabwai, the first Kenyan woman to compete in the Olympics, when they were both students in the United States.

Another pioneer husband and wife team were Kipsubai Kosgei, a world cross country champion and Mary Chemweno, a former African 800m record holder, who only accepted to be wed after her husband agreed to let her continue running after their marriage.

Two-time Olympic 5,000m silver medallist Paul Bitok and his wife Pauline Konga went a step further. They both won silver medals over 5000m at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, with Konga becoming the first ever

Kenyan female Olympic medallist.

Former teenage training partners, Ismael Kirui and Rose Cheruiyot married at a colourful ceremony in 1996, a year after completing a unique double at the Belfast international cross country meet.

Now a mother of three, Cheruiyot believes being married to a fellow runner is a big advantage. “Being a wife to a fellow athlete is very advantageous,” said Cheruiyot, winner of the Amsterdam marathon in 2006.

The 33-year-old attributes her achievement to her husband, who won the world 5,000m title in 1993 and 1995 for her prolonged stay at the top of her international career.

She said Kirui, who has since retired from running, understands her situation, and would do the baby-sitting while she races overseas.

World half marathon champion Mary Keitany also believes her strong bonding with her athlete husband enabled her to make a quick return to training only four months after delivering their son.

“Within one year, I have been able to win three big races overseas including running the second fastest time in the world in the half marathon,” said Keitany, who trains with her husband, Charles Koech in Iten, some 30 kilometres from Eldoret.

Former five-time world cross country champion Paul Tergat said he supported the

inter-athlete marriage as a way of breaking down the traditional cultural barriers involving married couples.

“We have seen so many young girls, who were very successful as juniors but were forced to stop running after they got married. The culture dictates that once a woman is married, she has to stay at home and raise the children,” Tergat said.

He gave the case of Chemokil Chilapong, the unheralded woman marathon runner from the remote West Pokot district, who stunned a strong field to win the Nairobi international marathon in 2005. She quit running after her husband wanted her to stay at home to tender to their family of eight. — AFP

NHL results/standings NHL results and standings on Monday. New Jersey 3, Boston 2; Columbus 5, Edmonton 3; Detroit 2, Calgary 1.

Eastern Conference Atlantic Division W L OTLGF Pittsburgh 41 23 5 217 New Jersey 41 24 3 183 Philadelphia 36 28 4 203 NY Rangers 31 29 9 181 NY Islanders 28 32 9 180

GA 197 164 185 188 214

PTS 87 85 76 71 65

Buffalo Ottawa Montreal Boston Toronto

Northeast Division 36 21 10 183 37 27 5 186 35 29 6 191 30 26 12 169 23 34 12 183

170 197 194 175 234

82 79 76 72 58

Washington Tampa Bay Atlanta Florida Carolina

Southeast Division 46 14 9 270 28 28 12 182 28 29 11 200 28 29 10 174 28 32 8 189

195 209 221 193 211

101 68 67 66 64

Chicago Nashville Detroit St. Louis Columbus

Western Conference Central Division 44 18 6 225 38 26 5 193 34 23 12 187 32 27 9 186 28 31 11 183

170 198 186 188 226

94 81 80 73 67

Vancouver Colorado Calgary Minnesota Edmonton

Northwest Division 43 23 3 228 39 23 6 204 34 26 9 174 33 29 6 188 21 41 7 174

176 179 172 197 241

89 84 77 72 49

Pacific Division San Jose 43 15 10 224 172 96 Phoenix 42 22 5 187 169 89 Los Angeles 40 23 5 206 182 85 Dallas 29 26 13 191 218 71 Anaheim 31 29 8 189 209 70 Note: Overtime losses (OTL) are worth one point in the standings and are not included in the loss column (L).

NEWARK: Travis Zajac No.19 of the New Jersey Devils controls the puck in front of Brad Marchand No.63 of the Boston Bruins at the Prudential Center. — AFP

Devils get past Bruins NEWARK: David Clarkson had a goal and an assist as the New Jersey Devils scored three times in the first period against Tim Thomas and held on for a 3-2 victory over the Boston Bruins on Monday night.

Clarkson took the shot that Rob Niedermayer deflected in and then scored

on a breakaway — set up by goaltender Martin Brodeur — to make in 2-0. Zach Parise finished the barrage that assured the Devils their 18th straight .500-plus season.

Blake Wheeler scored for the third consecutive game to cut Boston’s deficit to 3-1 at 43 seconds of the middle period.

Blue Jackets 5, Oilers 3 At Columbus, Ohio, Antoine Vermette had two assists and scored the clinching empty-netter, while Kristian Huselius added a goal and three assists for Columbus. Jake Voracek, Chris Clark and Marc Methot also scored for the Blue Jackets, who totaled only

three goals in their previous two games.

Derek Dorsett chipped in with two assists for the first multipoint game of his 91-game career. It was a wild, wide-open game full of odd-man rushes. That wasn’t a surprise, since the two teams rank near the bottom of the NHL in goals allowed.

“It’s the same for everyone, you qualify on the tyre and use it in the race as well.... it should be the same spec for the whole race.”

He also stood by his idea of allowing drivers to take ‘shortcuts’-a suggestion some interpreted as a joke by the often provocative billionaire when he first raised it in January.

“I’m dead serious,” he said, even if he questioned whether it would have made much difference in Bahrain. “What is a joke is the technical regulations at the moment and what they are producing.”

Ecclestone’s idea would envisage a track modification to allow drivers to cut out a corner a given number of times in a race “so that if you really get stuck behind somebody then you could still get past.

“I’m pushing but sometimes people don’t understand these things too well, they don’t see the advantages. But it would be good for a TV commentator, you’d get a lot of excitement out of it,” he told reporters at the weekend.

Meanwhile, Michael Schumacher’s Formula One return at the Bahrain Grand Prix was a big hit with German television viewers as almost twice as many tuned in this year, broadcaster RTL said yesterday.

The seven-times world champion’s comeback race was watched by an average audience of 10.5 million Germans on Sunday, compared to the 5.3 million viewers the season-opening event attracted last season.

“We did expect higher figures but we never dared think they would be that much higher,” RTL sports chief Manfred Loppe told reporters.

The race had a market share of just under 50 percent and a peak audience of 11.6 million as German Schumacher, 41, finished sixth in a Mercedes on his comeback after three seasons in retirement. Spain’s Fernando Alonso won in a Ferrari and his team mate Felipe Massa of Brazil was second. — Reuters

Red Wings 2, Flames 1 At Calgary, Tomas Holmstrom scored his 20th goal of the season with 1:19 left in the

third period to lift Detroit past the hosts.

The Red Wings extended their lead to three points ahead of the Flames for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference with 13 games remaining for each team. Pavel Datsyuk also scored for Detroit, which won its third straight. — AP

Players unite behind new charity

No need to panic, says Ecclestone LONDON: Formula One might be more exciting with shortcuts and no tyre choice but the sport should not be rushed into any knee-jerk changes after a dull season-opener in Bahrain, according to Bernie Ecclestone.

“I don’t panic about anything,” the commercial supremo told Reuters yesterday. “Even if there was an earthquake in London, I wouldn’t panic.”

Ecclestone, 79, suggested headlines criticising the ‘dull’ fare on offer at the weekend had more to do with sky-high expectations prompted by the return of seven times champion Michael Schumacher and arrival of new teams than any crisis. “I thought that Sunday’s race was on a par with many of the races of the last five years,” he said by telephone. “We need to wait for three or four races, there are lots of new things... we used to have lots of testing,” he added.

“Before we start thinking of changes we should take a serious look at the technical regulations. “We’ll have a chat in Malaysia (the third race of the season) I’m sure.”

Some team bosses called after the race at Sakhir for the rules to be tweaked, with Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes all in favour of the introduction of a second mandatory pitstop or ensuring the Bridgestone tyres are made less durable.

Ecclestone said it was a mistake to let “the inmates” decide the technical rules because they were only interested in winning races for their own teams, rather than thinking of the sport as a whole, and would never write themselves out of a job. “If the regulations were simpler, we wouldn’t need all these people,” he said.

Ecclestone suggested the sport might be better off eliminating tyre choices altogether with teams using just one kind, rather than a supersoft or prime, for qualifying and the race. “I think that there should be one type of tyre for the whole race,” he explained.

Robert Nilsson and Aaron Johnson each had a goal and an assist and Dustin Penner also scored for the Oilers.

MANAMA: Ferrari’s Spanish driver Fernando Alonso celebrates in the parc ferme of the Bahrain international circuit in this file photo. —AFP

BIRMINGHAM: Room 101 in a hotel in central Birmingham on an overcast morning and a new and possibly unique venture is launched.

Top players from the world of badminton, gathered for last week’s annual All England championships, give up their time for a media conference to lend the sport’s muscle to a new charity called Solibad.

Brainchild of French photojournalist Raphael Sachetat, its name in French is Badminton Sans Frontieres, echoing the renowned Medecins Sans Frontieres.

The aim is to pull together human and financial resources to raise funds through the badminton community and beyond to help small-scale projects.

Two are already under way at orphanages in Bali and Kuala Lumpur. Solibad is also engaged with another charity, Peace and Sport, on a project called “1,000 Rackets for Haiti”.

This aims to collect badminton equipment around the world to help Haitian youngsters living in survivor camps to overcome their trauma and to resume living together in confidence.

Sachetat, 37, told Reuters on the eve of the Solibad launch: “It’s exciting for me and I know the players are excited.

“It’s unique I think because it’s the first time so many players in one sport and the overall community have come together to support one foundation or one cause.

“I may be wrong but I’ve not seen that in any other sports.

It’s usually one star that has his

own foundation but everybody coming together from the top stars to the leisure players all for one cause, I think it’s unique.”

Those lending support at the media launch included former Olympic gold medallist Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia, England’s doubles supremo Nathan Robertson, former All England women’s titleholder Zhou Mi of China and worldranked number one men’s doubles player Koo Kien Keat of Malaysia.

In addition, Pi Hongyan, the Chinese-born woman player who represents France and is world-ranked five, has been involved from the start and is playing a major role.

Others lending backing include Denmark’s Jan Jorgensen, Nguyen Tien Minh from Vietnam, Germany’s Marc Zwiebler and Dutchwoman Judith Meulendijks.

They and all the others will act as Solibad ambassadors, backing the projects and spreading the word. Other possible projects are being looked at in Vietnam, Brazil, Manila, Madagascar and China.

Sachetat told Reuters: “The other thing which I think that is also quite unique is that we want it to be a joyful thing, to have fun really, so it’s a win-win situation.”

Sachetat spent some time in the field in Africa when training to be a doctor before, as he puts it, being “kidnapped” by badminton.

For the last 10 years he has followed the international circuit, becoming almost as familiar a face as the players themselves. Importantly, Sachetat

stresses every euro raised will go direct to the projects.

“There’s no waste at all,” he said. “Coming originally from a big NGO (non-governmental organisation) I know these organisations have to be there because they do a fantastic job.

“But on the other hand when we have a lot of people giving small amounts of money I feel it’s a shame that some of that money that’s been hard fought for goes into paperwork.”

“With us 100 percent of the money goes to the site. I am taking it myself so I know it’s going to go there and it’s well spent. “One euro raised, one euro on the ground. All the funds will go directly to our projects.”

The new English website (www.solibad.net) publishes information on Solibad resources and highlights action and concrete assistance in the field.

The latest money-raiser is an auction of one of the shirts worn by world number one Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia on the way to his first All England title which he won on Sunday.

Zhou, one of the ambassadors, told the media conference: “My philosophy coincides entirely with that of Solibad.” Fellow ambassador Robertson said: “It’s so unique in sport and I feel it is very important that badminton is the first to launch such an initiative.”

Sachetat said: “This all brings together my twin passions for badminton and humanitarian work. I am very excited.” — Reuters

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Mighty minnows Lithuania dream of World Cup SIAULIAI: Rising from the depths of Europe’s rugby pool, Lithuania can allow themselves a little star-gazing as they swim closer to the big fish of the 2011 World Cup. “It’s a bit utopian, but you can always dream,” captain and scr um-half Mindaugas Misevicius, 28, told AFP. “We’ve got nothing to lose, so even if we don’t make it, we’ll still hold our heads high,” he added, steaming and hopping from foot to foot after training in the harsh Baltic winter.

In this nation of 3.3 million people where basketball is dubbed the second religion-after Catholicism-rugby is less a poor cousin than a neglected acquaintance.

But Lithuania’s motley crew of amateurs are unbowed, displaying the fortitude that is powering them through the small-fry qualifying competition for the 2011 showpiece in New Zealand.

Amid a deep economic crisis, they shell out their own petrol money to drive to training weekends on snowclogged school playing fields like the one in the northern town of Siauliai, where the touchline was marked by twigs and tyres and the bench was a back seat removed from a van.

Despite the shoestring operation, manager Anatolius Smirnovas has overseen a 16-match unbeaten run. That testifies to his players’ motivation when they exchange their mismatched train-

ing kit for the yellow, green and red Lithuania jersey.

Mischievously, Smirnovas noted that Lithuania have imitated world champions South Africa, who notched up a string of 16 wins in 2008-2009.

A perfect record since 2006 has taken Lithuania up Europe’s seven-rung rugby ladder-not including the top-flight Six Nations — from the fifth division to the third.

While keeping the focus on European league games-they face the Swiss next month-they have cruised through the parallel World Cup qualifying competition and are honing their skills for a crunch home match on May 8 with second division champions Ukraine.

“It’s not just going to be a test of our mettle, but a real battle,” said Misevicius, who has been in the side for 11 years and whose day job is production manager with the local branch of a Swedish technology firm.

Victory over Ukraine would set up a two-legger against first division stalwarts Romania or Portugal on May 22 and June 5.

“Now it’s time for the serious stuff,” said coaching advisor Sigitas Kugskis.

“But they are enthusiasts, and enthusiasts are what rugby’s all about”.

His job is to develop the sport in a country which is home to just 1,650 registered players, or one Lithuanian in 2,000. That compares to rugby-worship-

ping New Zealand’s whopping one in 30.

It also contrasts with more than 88,000 Lithuanian basketballers, or one in 37 of the population.

Lithuania’s last World Cup hurdle would be a play-off later this year involving the globe’s best losers: Uruguay, Tunisia, and a still-undecided Asian team from among Kazakhstan, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and the multinational Arabian Gulf squad.

The winner will join Argentina, England and Scotland in Pool B in New Zealand. Misevicius plays club rugby for Siauliai’s Vairas-Jupoja, reigning champions of the 10-team domestic league. Like him, the majority of the national team are home-based. A hand-

ful, however, are among the 300,000 Lithuanians who have left to work in other EU nations since their homeland joined the bloc in 2004. They play in the Swedish top-flight or low-tier English clubs.

Lithuania were only recognised by the International Rugby Board after the country won independence from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991.

In the communist era, however, Lithuania in the 1970s and 1980s enjoyed a solid reputation in the Soviet championship pitting the union’s various republics. Smirnovas and Kugskis played in those days, which are ancient history to the current squad-average age 25. —AFP

Tiger Woods will return at Masters

SAN FRANCISCO:US Team member Tiger Woods reacts to his shot from the third tee, during the final round - singles matches at the Presidents Cup golf competition on October 11, 2009. —AFP

Time to improve status of World Cup, says Waters LONDON: Radical changes have been made to the World Cup in a bid to restore the team event to former glories, a leading European Tour official said yesterday.

The oldest international team competition in men’s professional golf, held annually since 1953 apart from two occasions in the 1980s, will take a break this year before returning in 2011 as a biennial event.

The Nov. 24-27 tournament at the Mission Hills Resort on Hainan Island in China will also be boosted by a record prize fund of $7.5 million-a $2 million increase on 2009.

“The World Cup 25 or so years ago was a very strong event but there were so few tournaments then that players were happy to travel around the world to represent their countries in the winter months,” the tour’s director of international policy Keith Waters told Reuters.

“But with the Race to Dubai (in Europe), the US FedExCup series and the amount of professional golf around now, the players have got a lot of choice so it was time to try and improve the status of the event.”

Last year’s World Cup at Mission Hills in Shenzhen, China attracted only three top-10 players but Britain’s Rory McIlroy was one of several competitors who said he hoped for a return to the days when the likes of Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus featured.

Waters said the organisers, the International Federation of PGA Tours, the International Golf Association, sponsors Omega and Mission Hills, all supported staging the event in alternate years.

“There was a thought there was a lot of pressure on players, for example the number of golf tournaments has increased significantly for the professionals to play in, and it may strengthen the tournament and the field to play it every other year,” he said.

“I think it’s fair to say the changes are there to improve and boost the strength of the field.”

One of the negatives in recent years has been the quality of the US team.

In 2009 the Americans were represented by world number 31 Nick Watney and 134thranked John Merrick in an event won by the Italian brothers, Edoardo and Francesco Molinari.

Waters, however, said it was not just a stronger team from the US the organisers were trying to attract. “It has been difficult for the South Americans and South Africans as well because of the travel and the tournaments going on in their countries at that time of the year,” he said.

“We hope in 2011 it’s going to be a stronger field all round, not just with the U.S. but other teams as well.” —Reuters

ORLANDO: Tiger Woods announced yesterday he will return to competitive golf in April at the Masters, nearly five months after revelations about a string of affairs wrecked his image as a global sports icon.

In a statement posted on his website, top-ranked Woods, 34, said he would return to the sport he has long dominated at famed Augusta National Golf Club at the year’s first major championship, which begins on April 8.

Woods has won four times at Augusta National, including his first major title in 1997, the first major crown ever taken by a black golfer.

“After a long and necessary time away from the game, I feel like I’m ready to start my season at Augusta,” Woods said on his website. “The Masters is where I won my first major and I view this tournament with great respect.”

Woods has not played in a tournament since winning the Australian Masters on November 15, the 82nd triumph of an amazing pro career that has seen him win 14 major titles, four shy of matching the record 18 won by Jack Nicklaus.

But 12 days after his Australian victory, Woods was in a car crash near his home that touched off a global scandal, leading to his admission of adultery and putting his golf career on hold while he fought his own personal demons.

“I have undergone almost two months of inpatient therapy and I am continuing my treatment,” Woods said.

“Although I’m returning to competition, I still have a lot of work to do in my personal life.”

Woods might be making progress on that front as well.

A photograph on the front page of yesterday’s New York Post shows Woods and wife, former model, Elin walking at their home, the first photo of them together since the scandal began. The couple also has two young children.

In addition to more than a dozen women claiming sexual encounters, some of them long-term affairs, Woods has faced the loss of many of the sponsors whose endorsement deals helped make him the first billion-dollar earner in sports.

Gatorade, Accenture and AT&T dropped Woods, although Nike stuck by the man they began endorsing when he turned professional in 1996 even as his situation turned Woods into a punch-line for comedians.

Woods apologized for his infidelity in an website posting last December, saying, “I regret those transgressions with all of my heart.”

On February 19, Woods made his first public appearance since the firestorm began, again apologizing for his “selfish and irresponsible” behavior.

In recent weeks, Woods was seen with coach Hank Haney working on his game and by fellow PGA players in practice sessions as he worked to recover physically and emotionally from the turmoil that swirled around him.

Woods decided against playing in a tune-up event to prepare himself for the challenges he will face on and off the Georgia course in three weeks time. “The major championships have always been a special focus in my career and, as a professional, I think Augusta is where I need to be, even though it’s been a while since I last played,” Woods said. —AFP

MARCOUSSIS: France’s rugby union national team scrum-half Morgan Parra (right) passes the ball during a training session. —AFP

France recall Bastareaud MARCOUS SIS: France coach Marc Lievremont yesterday recalled centre Mathieu Bastareaud ahead of David Marty to add weight to his backline for Saturday’s Six Nations grand slam game against England at the Stade de France.

The return of the bulky 21-year-old centre, who has eight caps to his name, is the only change from the team that defeated Italy 46-20 last Sunday.

“David performed well against Italy but we didn’t forget Mathieu’s very good performances in the first games of the championship,” coach Marc Lievremeont told a news conference.

“With rather lightweight wings and fullback, we decided to give more density to the middle of our backline.”

Bastareaud started France’s first three victories against Scotland, Ireland

and Wales but was rested on the bench for the Italy game because he had not fully recovered from an ankle injury suffered in a club game during the Six Nations break.

Marty, who is 27 and has 28 caps to his name, seized the opportunity to show his quality by scoring two tries against the Azzurri.

Lievremont said the selectors also discussed the possibility of promoting Julien Malzieu on the right wing but finally decided to retain Marc Andreu, who celebrated his first full cap with a try against Italy.

“We went for Marc because he is punchy and has a lot of dynamism and aggression in defence,” Lievremont said. There was no discussion however about giving a start to Sebastien Chabal

for the first time this season in the second row.

“There was no discussion about that.

We are ver y happy with the pair of Lionel Nallet and Julien Pierre and Sebastien’s capability of boosting the team when he comes on is a bonus,” said Didier Retiere, assistant coach in charge of the forwards.

Lievremont added that Chabal and the other replacements would play a particularly important part in Saturday’s game. “We are expecting a real clash and a summit in terms of commitment and ferocity,” he said.

“The England team are probably hurt but they have the players to punish us with their extremely direct game and they also have powerful and fast backs who can hit us on turnovers.” —Reuters

Ireland stick with same team for ‘huge’ Croke Park finale

DUBLIN: Ireland’s centre and captain Brian O’Driscoll playing his 100th cap for Ireland during the RBS Six Nations International rugby union match between Ireland and Wales in this file photo. —AFP

DUBLIN: Ireland will be unchanged for the third straight game when they face Scotland on Saturday in a Six Nations clash that coach Declan Kidney described as a “huge match” bringing the curtain down on rugby at Croke Park.

Champions Ireland are the only team that can stop France claiming their first Six Nations title in three years but must pray third-placed England can topple the unbeaten French and help bring about a 51-point swing in the points difference.

With a fifth triple crown in seven years up for grabs, and a farewell to bid the home of Gaelic sports before rugby returns to a rebuilt Lansdowne Road, there is a lot at stake.

“It’s a huge match for us,” Kidney told a news conference yesterday. “It’s a test match but it’s also our last match in Croke Park and there’s a trophy at stake for us should we manage to get something out of it.”

Kidney’s only injury worry ahead of Saturday is Gordon D’Arcy and the former Munster coach said if the centre has not recovered from deep bruising on his leg by Friday, Ulster’s Paddy Wallace will start in his place.

Ireland’s British & Irish Lions captain Paul O’Connell, who led them out against France in the first rugby international at Croke Park three years ago, will earn his 70th cap.

Despite winning their last eight Six Nations games against the bottom-ofthe-table Scots, Kidney suggested the final game of the championship would be tight and perhaps not the free-for-all fans want ahead of the late kick off in Paris.

“We’ve conceded about five (tries) this season and Scotland have only conceded six so we know our defence is going to have to be just as tight come Saturday’s game because Scotland are a very difficult side to break down,” Kidney said.

“We’re playing against a side who last year we only managed to get one try against and this year it will be difficult again.” —Reuters

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Valverde loses appeal against 2-year doping ban GENEVA: Spanish cyclist Alejandro Valverde lost his appeal yesterday against a two-year doping ban from racing in Italy.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that Italy’s Olympic committee was allowed to suspend Valverde using evidence seized by Spanish police in 2006 in the Operation Puerto investigation.

Valverde said he was denied a fair trial and vowed to challenge the “unacceptable” verdict at the Swiss Federal Court. It only has authority over CAS — which is based in Lausanne, Switzerland — if it finds the sports court abused the legal process.

The Italian Olympic body banned Valverde last May after it matched DNA evidence from a blood bag taken at a Madrid

clinic allegedly involved in an athletes’ blood-doping ring with his sample obtained when the 2008 Tour de France crossed into Italy.

“The Italian judicial authorities had obtained ... a sample from this bag which, according to an analysis performed by the Barcelona laboratory in 2006, contained EPO,” CAS said in a statement.

EPO is a synthetic hormone that boosts endurance by increasing the production of oxygen-carrying red blood cells.

Valverde appealed to CAS that the Italians had no legal right to judge him, and should not use Spanish evidence. In a statement issued Tuesday, Valverde said the CAS panel of three arbitrators ignored a

Madrid provincial court decision that Puerto evidence could not be used.

Valverde also claimed German lawyer Ulrich Haas had a conflict of interest and should have been removed from the panel because he previously worked with the World Anti-Doping Agency. WADA took part in legal arguments before the three-day hearing in January.

“The impartiality of the arbitrators is a necessary condition to have a fair trial,” Valverde said. The 2009 Spanish Vuelta champion is banned from racing in Italy until May 10, 2011 but can still race elsewhere despite efforts by the International Cycling Union (UCI) to extend the ban worldwide.

Valverde finished second on Sunday in

the Paris-Nice race, the first major stage event of the European season. The 2010 Tour de France, cycling’s signature event, also does not enter Italy. Valverde’s Caisse d’Epargne team could not select him for last year’s race because one stage went on Italian roads.

However, the 29-year-old racer faces another threat to his sporting liberty at CAS this week.

A four-day case is scheduled to begin tomorrow pitting Valverde and his national cycling federation against the combined forces of WADA and the UCI. The global doping watchdog and cycling’s governing body have been frustrated in their attempts to sanction Valverde since the

Puerto case opened. They have gone to CAS to challenge the Spanish federation’s consistent refusal to open disciplinary proceedings against Valverde using evidence from the Puerto probe.

The UCI welcomed yesterday’s ruling and said it was determined “to take the necessary measures to secure a suspension that is applicable internationally.”

Thursday’s case is unusual because CAS typically hears appeals of judgments passed by a lower authority. Here, its panel will be the first legal body to consider the arguments.

WADA and the UCI must establish that there is enough evidence against Valverde to justify the Spanish federation opening a

disciplinary case.

The Puerto inquiry began four years ago when police raided a Madrid clinic to gather evidence about Eufemiano Fuentes, a Spanish doctor allegedly at the center of a blood-doping ring.

More than 50 cyclists were implicated, including Italian rider Ivan Basso, who served a two-year ban. But Spanish authorities have been reluctant to pursue their riders.

Valverde enjoyed a career year in 2009 after the Italian ban was imposed, winning the Tour of Catalonia, France’s Dauphine Libere and the classic Vuelta in September. He has won three stages at the Tour de France, including the opening stage in 2008 to wear the yellow jersey as race leader. — AP

Djokovic scrapes through as Nadal hammers Ancic

INDIAN WELLS: Novak Djokovic of Serbia serves to Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany during the BNP Paribas Open. — AFP

Jelena survives marathon INDIAN WELLS: Jelena Jankovic had to fight her way into the fourth round of the Indian Wells WTA tournament on Monday while former world number one Kim Clijsters was upset by Russian Alisa Kleybanova.

Serbian sixth seed Jankovic beat Italian Sara Errani 2-6 7-6 6-4 in an error-strewn marathon on the stadium court before twice champion Clijsters of Belgium tumbled out 6-4 1-6 7-6.

Third seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus also made a premature exit, going down 7-6 6-2 at the hands of 28th-seeded Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain.

Jankovic piled up 57 unforced errors, compared to Errani’s 42, to clinch victory in two hours, 48 minutes when the Italian made a hash of an overhead smash after a protracted rally.

“It was really a battle out there, and I just tried to stay positive as much as I could,” Jankovic, a semifinalist here in 2008, told reporters.

“I just tried to fight for every point and kept going and kept going.

“I would play a couple of points well and then I would just give away a lot of points. At the end, I was able to win and that’s the most important thing.”

INDIAN WELLS: Jelena Jankovic of Serbia returns a forehand against Sara Errani of Italy during the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. — AFP

Errani, bidding to beat a top-10 player for the first time in 12 attempts, broke the world number nine three times to sweep through the opening set in just 31 minutes.

Jankovic squandered a 3-1 lead in the second, along with five set points in the tiebreak, but levelled the match with a crunching forehand winner down the line.

The final set was also an up-anddown affair with Errani being broken three times and Jankovic twice but the Serb made her greater experience count.

After trailing 2-4, she won the next four games to reach the fourth round for the third time in four years.

Jankovic will next meet 17th-seeded Israeli Shahar Peer, who beat ninth seed Flavia Pennetta of Italy 6-4 6-7 6-1.

Clijsters, who returned to competition in 2009 following a two-year retirement and won her second US Open title in just her third tournament back, appeared to regain control after losing a tight opening set to Kleybanova.

The 26-year-old Belgian broke her opponent four times to storm through the second set and raced to a 4-0 lead in the third-set tiebreak before losing momentum.

After the 23rd-seeded Russian had clawed her way back to 4-4, Clijsters netted a backhand, struck a forehand wide and then dumped a forehand into the net to lose the match.

“I definitely think I let it slip away but credit to her,” Clijsters, the 14th seed, said. “She played some really good points to get back into it.

“What got me to be ahead was I was playing aggressive tennis and being dominant. She put me under pressure during those long rallies and I kind of just backed off a little bit.”

Earlier, holder Vera Zvonareva of Russia comfortably advanced by beating Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova 6-2 6-3 and eighth-seeded Australian Samantha Stosur crushed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 6-3 6-0.— Reuters

INDIAN WELLS: Second seed Novak Djokovic saved three match points before scraping past Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber while Rafa Nadal eased into the fourth round of the Indian Wells ATP tournament on Monday.

Trailing 4-5 and 0-40 in the deciding set, Djokovic took advantage of a spate of unforced errors by his opponent to claw his way back from the brink of defeat and triumph 6-3 2-6 7-6.

After Djokovic battled though in just over twoand-a-half hours on the stadium court, twice champion Nadal of Spain eased home with a 6-2 6-2 demolition of Croat Mario Ancic.

World number two Djokovic, champion here in 2008, won the 10th game of the final set when Kohlschreiber netted a forehand and the Serb went on to clinch the tiebreak 7-3 as the German’s resistance crumbled at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

Djokovic, who appeared to be in total control after sweeping through the opening set and leading 2-0 in the second, let out a loud yell of relief after sealing victory with a forehand winner.

“Fighting through, it’s another win so I try to look on the positive side, the things I did well,” the 22-year-old told reporters. “He easily could be the winner of this match, and he would deserve it.

“I am still trying to find rhythm, to feel good on the court. For the next match, I want to maintain focus right up to the end and not have any mental breakdowns in the middle.”

The Serb will next meet 20th-seeded Croat Ivan Ljubicic, who crushed Argentine qualifier Brian Dabul 6-2 6-3.

Kohlschreiber, who beat Djokovic in straight sets when the pair last met at the 2009 French Open, took the second set after winning six games in a row on a sun-splashed afternoon in the California desert. He went on to break Djokovic in the second game of the third set and immediately held serve to lead 3-0.

“If I could pull my hair off, I would do it in that moment,” Djokovic said of his frustration after losing nine games in a row.

In a match of bizarre momentum shifts, the Serb saved two break points in the next game and then broke his opponent twice to lead 4-3 before he lost serve in the eighth.

Djokovic appeared to be on his way out when he hit a forehand long to trail 0-40 in the 10th game but he won the next three points courtesy of a forehand smash at the net and successive backhand errors by Kohlschreiber.

He managed to hold serve and maintained winning momentum after the wildly fluctuating set went into a tiebreak.

Nadal, who beat Britain’s Andy Murray in last year’s final, broke Ancic twice in each set to line up a fourth-round encounter with big-serving American John Isner. “I am feeling confident, I am playing well,” the Spanish world number three said. “I am playing at the good level.

“My serve was important but more important was my rhythm from the baseline. I lost only a few points because I didn’t make many mistakes, only seven unforced errors in two sets.”

Earlier, 21st seed Juan Monaco of Argentina upset 11th-seeded Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-6 3-6 63 in three hours and one minute, the longest match this week. — Reuters

LONDON: Binocular ridden by Tony McCoy clears the last hurdle on his way to winning the Champion Hurdle during day one of the 2010 Cheltenham Festival. — AP

Binocular bounces back to win Champion Hurdle CHELTENHAM: Binocular, trained by Nicky Henderson and ridden by Tony McCoy, won the Champion Hurdle, the feature race on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival yesterday.

Favorite last year when third Binocular, a 9-1 shot, took up the running at the second last to stay on strongly and beat Khyber Kim (7-1) with Zaynar (15-2) in third.

It was a remarkable success given that the winner had been out of sorts and all but declared a non-runner last month after three indifferent prep runs before bouncing back to take the hurdling crown.

Henderson said: “It hasn’t been an easy passage. But when we were beaten last year we said we would come back for this one.

“A few weeks ago we were 9/10ths in favour of taking him out of the race. But we buckled down and along with (owner) JP McManus’ team we did a lot of work. And we ironed out a few things.”

Binocular was supplying McManus with his fourth Champion and Henderson with his fifth after Punjabi 12 months ago and 1980s hat-trick king See You Then.

McManus, whose celebrated green and yellow silks were carried by three-time winner Istabraq, commented: “This is very pleasing.

“I saw him the other day and he looked magical. A few weeks ago I wasn’t worrying about how he would do I’d given up all together!”

With the Cotswold course bathed in spring sunshine the 12-runner field was sent on its way with Celestial Halo, beaten a neck into second last year, the first to show his hand.

Zaynar, the dashing five-year-old grey with a flat pedigree to match his looks and also hailing from Henderson’s stable, was tracking him in second with Punjabi lying third and McCoy biding his time in behind on Binocular.

The multiple champion jockey began to reel in

the leaders down the hill, powering to the front before the home turn.

The six-year-old Binocular then dispelled any lingering doubts that his stamina was unsuited to the unforgiving Cheltenham hill to stay on strongly and etch his name on the Festival’s roll of honour.

Three-time winner McCoy reported: “I don’t know how he has won this because it was only the other day he really gave me the feeling that he might turn things round.

“I couldn’t get over the way he was beaten last year. He hasn’t been impressive all season but comning down the hill I spoke to Ruby (Walsh) on Celestial Halo and asked him how he was doing and he said ‘worse than you’.”

The major disappointment of the race was Noel Meade’s 3-1 favourite Go Native, who according to jockey Paul Carberry was never travelling well after diving at the second hurdle - dashing any hopes of picking up a one million pound bonus for adding this to his wins in two key warmups.

Meade and Carberry had a wretched afternoon as Casey Jones, the pair’s contender in the William Hill Trophy Handicap Chase, had to be put down.

Bookmakers in contrast had a day to remember, with favourite after favourite failing to oblige up until the closing Mares’ Hurdle won by 6-4 market leader Quevega, the third Irish-trained winner of the afternoon.

Today the Paul Nicholls-trained Master Minded seeks to become the first horse since Badsworth Boy to win three consecutive Queen Mother Champion Chases.

Nicholls, who on Friday has Kauto Star and Denman renewing rivalry in the Gold Cup, reported: “He is very, very well and did a brilliant piece of work with Kauto Star last weekend.”— AFP

Quarter Mile Club honors Kuwaiti Champions

By Nawara Fattahova KUWAIT: The Kuwait Quarter Mile Club hosted a ceremony to honor the Kuwaiti champions of the 2010 Qatar Drag Race on Monday. Sheikh Basil Al-Salim Al-Sabah, Chairman of the Kuwait Quarter Mile Club, awarded the champions for their impressive results.

The Kuwaiti champions ranked first in six categories out of ten in the drag race. “The Kuwaiti champions did very well in the race and we are proud for their standard. We are looking forward to the upcoming championship in Abu Dhabi which will be held for the first time on the Yas International Track. It will flag off next Thursday and continue until Saturday,” noted Sheikh Basil Al-Sabah.

The procedure of establishing a quarter mile club has gone as planned. ‘HH the Amir is supporting us and HH has promised to solve any problem that the track may face. I hope that next season we will be one of the GCC countries to organize the sport and practice it as we did before,” he added.

The Kuwait Quarter Mile Club has certain technical specializations registered at the Public Authority for Youth and Sports (PAYS) and also with the International Car Federation. “We refuse any interference in our specialization because we are in the country of laws,” Sheikh Basil asdded.

In the ‘Motorcycle’ category and ‘Promo Mode Bike’ category Mishal Al-Saber, from the STS

KUWAIT: Group photo of the Kuwaiti champions at the honoring ceremony held on Monday with Sheikh Basil Al-Sabah (sitting in the middle). team, ranked first at the competition and was recognized as the allover first in the championship.

Mohammed Bu Rashid, from the MRB team, ranked second. Mohammed Al-Yaqout ranked third.

In the ‘Super Street Bike’ category, Mohammed Al-Baddah ranked first, while Kathem Al-Ali ranked second and Saqer Al-Khalaf ranked third. First ranked in the ‘Stock Bike’ category was Bader Bin Eidan while Mahdi Al-Sarraf

ranked second and Misfer Al-Misfer ranked third.

In the ‘Out Low’ category, Sheikh Duaij AlSabah ranked first and Suod Al-Zibin ranked second. In the ‘43.5 Index’ category, Tareq AlQadeeri ranked first, Qasim Al-Ajmi ranked second and Bader Khorshid ranked third.

In the ‘Super Street V8,’ first ranked was Abdullah Al-Shatti while Mohammed Qasim came in second. In third place was Mohammed Ashkanani.

SPORTS

18

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Celtics stop Pistons, Lakers beat Warriors BOSTON: Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Michael Finley scored 15 points apiece, and Kevin Garnett had 14 points and eight rebounds on Monday night to help the Boston Celtics coast to a 119-93 victory over the Detroit Pistons.

Boston rested its starters in the fourth quarter while beating a non-contender for the second straight home game. But in between was a 104-93 loss at Cleveland that could be a more important measurement of where the Celtics stand in the playoff hunt.

Will Bynum had 16 points and seven assists, and Jason Maxiell had 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Pistons, who lost Tayshaun Prince to a firstquarter back injury, then slumped to their ninth loss in 11 games.

Lakers 124, Warriors 121 At Oakland, Kobe Bryant scored 29 points and Pau Gasol added 26 to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to their ninth straight victory over the Golden State Warriors.

Andrew Bynum added 19 points and 14 rebounds, and Lamar Odom had 17 points and 12 boards for the Lakers, who have won three straight following their first three-game losing streak in more than two years.

The Lakers led by 11 late in the fourth quarter but barely held on for the victory. It wasn’t sealed until Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis missed 3-pointers in the final seconds.

Ellis’ last-ditch attempt bounced on the rim three times before falling aside at the buzzer. Curry scored 29 points for the Warriors, who have lost seven of eight.

Rockets 125, Nuggets 123 At Houston, Aaron Brooks scored 31 points, including a jumper with 2.9 seconds left, to help the Rockets end Denver’s six-game winning streak.

Carmelo Anthony scored 45

NBA results/standings NBA results and standings on Monday.

NY Knicks 94, Philadelphia 84; Boston 119, Detroit 93; Houston 125, Denver 123; Utah 112, Washington 89; LA Lakers 124, Golden State 121; New Orleans108, LA Clippers 100.

LOS ANGELES: New Orleans Hornets’ Marcus Thornton lays the ball up against the Los Angeles Clippers during the first half in an NBA basketball game. —AP points for the Nuggets, but missed a 3-point attempt at the buzzer.

Luis Scola grabbed the final rebound and finished with 23 points and 11 boards.

Scola was coming off a career-high, 44-point game, and converted a key three-point play with 41 seconds remaining

to put Houston ahead 122-121.

Kevin Martin scored 29 points for Houston. Chauncey Billups and J.R. Smith added 17 apiece for the Nuggets.

Jazz 112, Wizards 89 At Salt Lake City, Carlos Boozer scored 23 points and Deron Williams notched his 35th

double-double of the season as Utah ended a two-game losing streak by beating Washington.

Williams finished with 17 points and 11 assists. Andray Blatche scored 24 points and Mike Miller added 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Wizards, who lost their eighth straight game.

Knicks 94, 76ers 84 At Philadelphia, Danilo Gallinari scored 21 points and Toney Douglas added 20 as New York rallied past struggling Philadelphia.

Al Harrington contributed 15, Tracy McGrady scored 14 and Wilson Chandler had 12 points and 11 rebounds for the

Knicks. Jrue Holiday scored 18 points, Willie Green added 17 and Andre Iguodala had 14 points and a career-high 17 rebounds for the Sixers, who have lost five in a row and 10 of their last 11.

Hornets 108, Clippers 100 At Los Angeles, David

Eastern Conference Atlantic Division W L PCT Boston 42 24 .636 Toronto 32 33 .492 NY Knicks 24 43 .358 Philadelphia 23 44 .343 New Jersey 7 59 .106 Central division Cleveland 52 15 .776 Milwaukee 36 29 .554 Chicago 31 34 .477 Detroit 23 44 .343 Indiana 21 45 .318 Southeast Division Orlando 47 21 .691 Atlanta 42 23 .646 Charlotte 34 31 .523 Miami 35 32 .522 Washington 21 44 .323 Western Conference Northwest Division Denver 45 22 .672 Utah 43 24 .642 Oklahoma City 41 24 .631 Portland 41 28 .594 Minnesota 14 53 .209 Pacific Division LA Lakers 49 18 .731 Phoenix 41 26 .612 LA Clippers 25 43 .368 Sacramento 23 44 .343 Golden State 18 48 .273 Southwest Division Dallas 45 22 .672 San Antonio 39 25 .609 Houston 34 31 .523 Memphis 35 32 .522 New Orleans 33 35 .485

West scored 24 points as New Orleans ended a sevengame road losing streak with a victory over the Clippers.

New Orleans beat the Clippers for the 13th straight time since a 100-90 loss on Jan. 8, 2007. Darren Collison, New Orleans’ first-

GB 9.5 18.5 19.5 35 15 20 29 30.5 3.5 11.5 11.5 24.5

2 3 5 31 8 24.5 26 30.5 4.5 10 10 12.5

round draft pick out of UCLA, had 18 points and 14 assists. Emeka Okafor, the only player to start all 68 games for the injury-depleted Hornets, had 14 rebounds and 12 points. The Clippers lost their eighth straight game overall and 10th in their last 11. —AP

Swann spins England to victory over B’desh

CHITTAGONG: England’s Graeme Swann (center facing camera) celebrates with teammates the dismissal of Bangladesh’s Mushfiqur Rahim (unseen) during the last day of their first Test cricket match. —AP

Scoreboard Scoreboard after England beat Bangladesh by 181 runs in the first test at the Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong, Bangladesh yesterday.

England first innings 599-6 dec (A. Cook 173, K. Pietersen 99, P. Collingwood 145, I. Bell 84) Bangladesh first innings 296 (T. Iqbal 86, Mahmudullah 51, M. Rahim 79; G. Swann 5-90) England second innings 209-7 dec (S. Hasan 4-62) Bangladesh second innings (overnight 191-5) T. Iqbal b Swann 14 I. Kayes c Prior b Finn 23 Z. Siddique c C’wood b Swann 106 A. Ahmed c Prior b Bresnan 26 Mahmudullah b Bresnan 5

S. Hasan lbw b Swann 4 M. Rahim b Swann 95 N. Islam c Carberry b Swann 36 A. Razzak lbw b Broad 1 S. Hossain c Prior b Bresnan 12 R. Hossain not ou 0 Extras (b-2 lb-7) 9 Total (all out; 124 overs) 331 Fall of wickets: 1-33 2-45 3-99 4-105 5110 6-277 7-294 8-301 9-327 Bowling: Broad 24-7-65-1, Bresnan 24-7-63-3, Finn 18-7-47-1, Swann 4911-127-5, Pietersen 7-1-15-0, Trott 20-5-0.

CHITTAGONG: Graeme Swann completed a maiden 10-wicket haul to help England overcome some stubborn resistance from Bangladesh and register a 181run victory on the fifth afternoon of the first Test yesterday.

Off-spinner Swann ended a battling 167-run sixthwicket partnership in the second over after the lunch break to dash any hopes Bangladesh had to saving the match as England ran through the tail after struggling for more than two sessions.

Zunaed Siddique struck his maiden test century and received valuable support from vice-captain Mushfiqur Rahim as Bangladesh saw off the morning session without the loss of a wicket in pursuit of a world record victory target of 513.

However, Zunaed was unable to add to his lunch score of 106, giving a catch to Paul Collingwood at slip after spending more than six-and-a-half hours at the crease and negotiating 292 balls in an innings which included 17 fours.

Coming together with the score on 110-5 around 20 minutes before tea on the fourth day, Zunaed and Rahim batted out more than two sessions to revive Bangladesh’s faint hopes of getting something out of the match.

Once Zunaed departed, Rahim soon followed when he charged down the wicket to a Swann delivery but missed the line and was bowled for 95.

The diminutive wicketkeeper-batsman, who also scored fifty in the first innings, struck 12 fours in his 212-ball vigil.

“We were a little bit concerned. Full credit to the way those two fought, they didn’t give us any chances,” England captain Alastair Cook told reporters. “If you apply yourself and bat really well, (you are) really hard to get out.

“It was easy to get frustrated but the way we kept our emotions in check to keep our skill level high was very important.”

England then raced through the tailenders as Bangladesh, who had resumed on 191-5, were eventually dismissed for 331 in their second innings.

Naeem Islam was the last man out, caught by Michael Carberry off Swann at midwicket after making 36 off 45 balls, blasting three sixes and as many fours in his cameo to give the handful of supporters remaining in the stadium something to cheer.

All but one of his boundaries came off Swann, who finished the second innings with figures of 5-127 and was named man of the match after his overall 10-217 performance.

“Swanny has so much control of his game, he is very easy to captain. He knows the fields he wants and you trust him to make the breakthrough,” Cook added.

“To get 10 on that wicket was an amazing effort and he bowled a lot of overs, so that shows determination.”

Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan believed that had Zunaed and Rahim survived a little longer into the afternoon session, the hosts would have had a chance.

“During lunch, I told Mushfiqur (Rahim) we needed to work hard for around 40 more minutes to do something, but we could not do it,” he said.

“They came back strongly after the break and showed their character. They are really professional and they kept bowling in the good areas that created the pressure on us.” The second and final Test starts in Dhaka on Saturday. —Reuters

Three top teams join Rising Stars in semis KUWAIT: The XVI edition of the prestigious Goa Rolling Trophy sponsored by Bassem Intl. Trading Co., continued at the MOH Grounds on March 12, 2010, where three teams joined Rising Stars in the semifinals. The tournament is organized under the auspices of Kuwait Indian Football Federation (KIFF) and officiated by KIFF Referees.

The day’s proceedings started with Indian Strikers taking on Kuwait Goan Association. Both teams started cautiously. Indian strikers should have taken the lead in the 21st minute when Shaw was required to tap in the cross, but he blasted over the bar from 6 yards out.

The second half saw Lourenco’s header, off a corner, bring about a one handed save by Kannan, under the Indian Strikers bar. After 11 minutes, Kannan was guilty of gifting KGA the lead, when he let Jimmy’s innocuous looking cross slip through his fingers and into the net. The score remained that way,

as neither team could break down their rival’s defense.

In the second match, CRC Chinchinim faced United Friends Club. This being their second meeting in as many tournaments, both teams were wary of each other.

Both teams played cautiously and did not give each other any room.

Most part of the match was played at a slow pace and confined

ly considered a local derby and between them, has lifted the coveted GOA Rolling Trophy, seven times.

As expected, the match started at a fast pace, and Maroons were lucky to survive in the 11th minute after NYC’s Bernard shot wide after a rare defensive lapse. 6 minutes later, Gabby should have converted Philip’s cross, but missed from

XVIth GOA Rolling Trophy to the midfield. As regulation and extra time did not yield a result, the tie-breaker was resorted to. Even here the stalemate continued resulting in the sudden death shootout. It was at the 10th attempt, that UFC’s spot kick was saved thus giving CRC a semifinal berth.

The match of the day was the pitting of long time rivals Navelim Youth Centre and hosts and holders GOA Maroons. This match is usual-

close range.

Four minutes later, Duarte put his header wide from close range.

Three minutes before the end of the first half, a spectator, Russell ran on to the field and approached the referee. This stupid prank brought a halt to proceeding and disrupted a good move that was building up between Philip, Gaby and Kennedy of Maroons.

Three minutes into the second half, Steven took the ball down the

right flank and pulled it back for Philip to cross. NYC’s defense failed to clear and the ball landed invitingly at the feet of Kennedy who made no mistake. A goal line save by John denied Elvis doubling the lead, two minutes later.

With NYC a bit shaken up, Maroons sustained the pressure for the next 10 minutes through Gabby, Steven, Philip and Terrence. NYC then regained their composure and counter attacked, bringing out the best of Maroons formidable defense comprising of Ian, James, Regi, Alex with Anthony manning the upright.

With five minutes to go, Maroons brought in Cookie for Terry and Jerry for Elvis, to try and increase their lead. This had immediate effects as Kennedy and Jerry missed clear chances within a minute of each other.

Semi final matches to be played on Friday (19 March 2010) Rising Stars v/s CRC Chinchinim at 06:45; Kuwait Goan Association v/s GOA Maroons at 08:15.

SPORTS

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

19

In South Africa, ardent fans are ‘the 13th player’ BLOEMFONTEIN: Thousands of people stomp their feet and chant the traditional Sesotho-language greeting, “Siwelele, wele, wele”, cheering Bloemfontein’s football team with a burst of song from the heart of a South African township.

The joyous scene in the 20,000-seat Ramabodu stadium is a typically South African celebration of football, born of the apartheid years, when football stadiums were one of the only venues where blacks could gather in public. And Bloemfontein may be home to South Africa’s most enthusiastic football fans.

Men and women, elderly and infants, pack into every available space in the stadi-

um. A human sea, dressed in the white and green colours of the local Celtics team, undulates through the stands.

They sing and dance without pausing for one second of the 90 minutes of game time.

“They are the 13th player. They are just phenomenal,” said coach Owen Da Gama.

“It’s something special. I’ve played in Belgium, I’ve played in Ireland, but I’ve never seen such support. This support, when you go down, then they start getting more powerful. It’s really fantastic.”

The hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors expected for the World Cup “are going to be surprised by the South African supporters,” he said. “There is no violence,

there is no fighting.”

The party starts well before the match, along the road where fans often walk for kilometres to reach the stadium, and doesn’t end until late into the night. Despite the drinking, and the marijuana, the hooliganism that mars European matches is unknown in South Africa.

“If I lose or I win, I party,” said Shay, a Soweto Pirates fan. He says he’s 49-yearsold, and he’s “been a Pirates supporter for the same number of years. Our father was a Pirates supporter.”

Sixteen years after South Africa’s first all-race elections, the long shadow of the country’s divided past still endures in sport.

Whites are rarely seen at football stadiums, although some turned out for the curtain raiser Confederations Cup last June.

In the 19th century, football gained popularity across the country. When racial segregation was institutionalised in 1948, football was already a sport for blacks while white Afrikaaners, descendants of the first European settlers, took to rugby.

Even during the darkest hours of apartheid, the stadium would be packed on weekends, remembers 38-year-old David Butiki Mokwena. “On Saturdays and Sundays, we used to come here when Celtics was playing,” he said.

“As kids, we used to play football with a

ball made of plastic bags. I was amazed, looking at real football,” he said.

“We were very happy as young people, because even if we didn’t have money, they would allow us to come in when it was halftime, and watch the game for free.”

“When the Celtics were playing, everything would stop. The shebeens (bars) knew they wouldn’t make any money until the football was over. Even at churches, the pastors would keep the ceremony short. It’s still the case now,” he said.

Away from the stadium, blacks risked arrest if they were seen singing and dancing, because police would assume they were protesting against the government. “But

when we were here, they knew we were celebrating. No one would arrest us,” Mokwena said.

Then in 1988 things changed, as national television showed thousands of fans raising their fists in the air and singing the liberation anthem “Nkosi Sikelel i’Afrika”, or God Bless Africa, at the football.

“The black, green and gold flag of the ANC was fluttering in the bright sunshineeven though flying it carried a prison sentence — and the tears rolled freely down my cheeks as the crowd rose, fists in the air to sing,” said Tony Karon, a journalist and former activist. “I knew in that moment that the regime had lost.” —AFP

Barcelona to unleash magical Messi on Stuttgart at Camp Nou

BORDEAUX: Olympiakos’ players jog during a training session at the Chaban Delmas stadium in Bordeaux, southwestern France on the eve of their Group A Champions League soccer match against Bordeaux. —AP

Bordeaux shun crisis talk BORDEAUX: Defender Matthieu Chalme says Bordeaux have emerged unscathed from an indifferent run of form prior to the return leg of their Champions League last-16 tie with Olympiakos today.

The French champions secured a precious 1-0 victory in the away leg three weeks ago but have since hit a sticky patch on the domestic front.

Draws against Montpellier and Monaco and a surprise 2-1 loss at home to Auxerre have seen Bordeaux’s lead at the Ligue 1 summit whittled down to goal difference, after they led by nine points at the turn of the year.

The 0-0 draw at Monaco on Sunday allowed them to preserve a slender advantage over second-placed Montpellier but they retain a game in hand and right-back Chalme insists talk of a crisis is wide of the mark.

“During our bad run, no team has gone ahead of us, which is the most important thing, the only positive and, perhaps, they’ve missed their chance,” he said.

“We’re still first, still in the (Champions League) last 16, in the final of the League Cup. I see things, I read things, I hear lots of things but if this is a crisis, I can’t imagine what you’d do if the team was 17th.”

Bordeaux are competing in the Champions League for the first time since the 1999-2000 campaign but breezed through a difficult group featuring Bayern Munich and Juventus with five wins and a draw from six matches.

The first-leg win in Greece means they are now the only unbeaten side left in the competition and coach Laurent Blanc says they have the potential to achieve something extraordinary.

“In a cup competition, and even the Champions League, a lot of things can happen,” he said. “The last four teams are often the same and you can name them in advance, but there could be a surprise.

“I’m not saying Bordeaux will provide that surprise, but it could be another club. We need to savour what we’ve achieved so far, play with the quality we have, try to minimise our weaknesses, and, above all, play with the same

desire we’ve shown since the beginning of this competition.”

Olympiakos, meanwhile, are looking to salvage pride from a disappointing domestic campaign. With four games of the Greek season to go Bozidar Bandovic’s men are seven points behind leaders Panathinaikos and their fiveyear reign as national champions appears destined to come to an end.

“It is certain that the Greek championship is over for us,” said captain and veteran goalkeeper Antonis Nikopolidis, whose side warmed up for Wednesday’s match with a 2-2 draw at home to lowly Giannina.

Olympiakos have not reached the Champions League last eight since 1999 but Swedish international defender Olof Mellberg says they must believe in themselves at the Stade Chaban-Delmas.

“We have the ability to do something in France against Bordeaux,” said the former Juventus and Aston Villa man.

“Bordeaux are a strong team on their home pitch and with the 1-0 win against us in the first match, it will be difficult, but anything can happen and we have seen that before in the Champions League.”

Blanc’s only selection dilemma revolves around who to pick in place of centre-back Marc Planus, who misses out with a knee ligament injury.

Ludovic Sane, who started the first leg in midfield, is one option, but Blanc experimented in the draw at Monaco by deploying Brazilian defensive midfielder Fernando in the centre of defence.

Chalme, playmaker Yoann Gourcuff and centre forward Marouane Chamakh all started the Monaco game on the bench but they will be restored as Bordeaux revert to their patented 4-2-3-1 European formation.

Argentine international midfielder Jesus Alberto Datolo was due to travel with Olympiakos after overcoming a muscle problem that had threatened his participation. The Brazilian pair of striker Diogo and midfielder Dudu, however, have both been ruled out due to injury. —AFP

Lippi has faith in ageing Italy ROME: Marcello Lippi, coach of defending champions Italy, said yesterday that his ageing squad is not a source of concern to him as he prepares for this summer’s World Cup in South Africa.

Italy will go into the tournament with many of the stars that took them to glory in Germany in 2006 and although key players such as Fabio Cannavaro, Gianluca Zambrotta and Andrea Pirlo are all the wrong side of 30, Lippi insists that it will make no difference over a month-long tournament.

“If I had to play a whole season with this team, I’d probably make other choices,” he told reporters here.

“But for one month, it’s not a problem.

The quality of a player is not just about age or technique, there’s also enthusiasm, experience, charisma, wisdom, familiarity with international matches...

“It’s about one month and six or seven matches. We don’t necessarily need players aged 24.” Italy’s last outing was a disappointing goalless draw in a friendly with Cameroon earlier in the month, but Lippi said he was not concerned by their display.

“After the match, where we were missing six or seven big players and where I gave debuts to two young players, everyone said: ‘They’re not in the right shape’,” he said. “But nothing counts today. What counts is June.”

One of the thorniest issues surrounding the Italy squad is 19-year-old

Marcello Lippi Inter Milan striker Mario Balotelli, who continues to be overlooked by Lippi despite some impressive performances for his club and clamour for his inclusion in the World Cup squad from members of the Italian media.

Balotelli, though, is a divisive figure who has a turbulent relationship with club coach Jose Mourinho and is regularly the target of abuse from opposition fans.

Quizzed over Balotelli’s non-selection, Lippi insisted it was a case of putting the needs of the team first.

“Every country has its debates,” he said. “In Brazil, it’s Ronaldinho. In Italy, it’s Balotelli. But it’s the coaches who make the decisions, motivated by the construction of the squad.

“They’re talented players but that doesn’t necessarily mean we have to

pick them. But I’ve never said that such-and-such a player was in or that such-and-such a player was out.

“There’s no-one ‘in or out’ and, until mid-May, I’ll look at everyone.

“As for Balotelli, he has great qualities and I’m sure that once he’s finished maturing at Inter there’s no doubt his qualities will be useful to the national side.” Balotelli was born in Italy to Ghanaian parents and has occasionally been the subject of racist abuse. Lippi, though, says it is not his responsibility to make a symbolic stand against the racists by calling up the teenager.

“Everyone knows that I’m against every form of racism,” he said. “But a coach can’t make decisions based on this motive. And anyway, he’s already playing for the under-21s with (Angelo) Ogbonna and (Stefano) Okaka (who are also of African origin).

“When I feel the time has come to call him up, I will do so, but purely for sporting reasons.” Lippi’s future beyond the World Cup has yet to be resolved, but the 61-year-old, who led Italy to glory at the last World Cup, refused to be drawn on whether he hopes to prolong his tenure with the Azzurri.

“It doesn’t interest me to talk about the future,” he said. “Talking about after the World Cup doesn’t mean anything today.” Italy were drawn alongside Paraguay, New Zealand and Slovakia in Group F at the World Cup. They begin their campaign against Paraguay on June 14. —AFP

MADRID: Holders Barcelona hope Argentine sensation Lionel Messi can continue his rich vein of goalscoring form today against VfB Stuttgart in the second leg of the last 16 Champions League tie at Camp Nou. Messi bagged a terrific hat-trick of solo goals in the 3-0 win over Valencia on Sunday to take his season’s tally to 22 league goals and now Stuttgart must somehow find a way to nullify the Ballon D’Or winner.

“He (Messi) is the best in the world.

What he contributes with his talent makes him stand out,” said goalkeeper Victor Valdes. “He could become the best player in history.”

Barcelona begin as strong favourites to reach the quarter-finals after the 1-1 first leg draw in Germany but the treble winners need only look at rivals Real Madrid who were eliminated in front of their own fans by the less prestigious Lyon at the last 16 stage.

“We have to be very careful,” said Mexican defender Rafa Marquez.

“Stuttgart are strong and will be the same as they were in Germany.

“We have to remember that what happened to (Real) Madrid could happen to us.

We have to always respect the opposition and continue to work with humility.”

Preview Stuttgart are ninth in the German topflight, 21 points behind leaders Bayern Munich, so they won’t be playing in this competition next season unless they can shock everyone by winning the trophy.

The Germans, beaten 2-1 by Schalke at the weekend, have never gone past the last 16 stage in the Champions League and have their work cut out to break that sequence although they are unbeaten on their travels in Europe this season.

Swiss coach Christian Gross took over at Stuttgart from Markus Babbel in December and has lifted spirits at the club while Belarus winger Alexander Hleb is one player with a point to prove on his return to Camp Nou. Hleb cost Barcelona 15 million euros from Arsenal in the summer of 2008 and was part of the team that won the league, Kings Cup and Champions League treble although he played a bit part often coming off the substitutes bench.

Barcelona loaned the 28-year-old Hleb to old club Stuttgart in the summer and the player knows all about the quality of his former team-mates.

“This was the one opponent I didn’t want, because I know Barcelona are so strong,” said Hleb. “Against any other team we could put up a fight and would have the same chances, but not against Barcelona. “They play the nicest football and every player can decide a game on his own. We don’t just have to concentrate on Leo (Messi) because of course he is the most dangerous player but on every other player, be it Xavi, (Andres) Iniesta, Thierry (Henry), Pedro (Rodriguez) or (Zlatan) Ibrahimovic. Even in defence they set a real standard.”

Barca captain Carles Puyol may return from the injury that ruled him out of the Valencia win otherwise Argentine Gaby Milito or Marquez will deputise at centreback. French international captain Thierry Henry came off the substitutes bench to great effect against Valencia to throw his hat in the ring for a starting spot against Stuttgart. “In the locker room we know that we are all important,” said Messi.

“Henry has really helped with his work, his desire, his pressure. With him on the field the game (against Valencia) changed.”

Henry would come up against two old Arsenal team-mates in Hleb and Jens Lehmann with all three in the Arsenal team that lost 2-1 against Barcelona in the 2006 Champions League final in Paris. —AFP

Matches on TV (local timings) UEFA Champions League Bordeaux v Olympiakos ........ 22:45 Al Jazeera Sport +4 Barcelona v Stuttgart ............ 22:45 Al Jazeera Sport +5

SPAIN: Barcelona’s Argentinian forward Lionel Messi celebrates his goal during a Spanish League football match against Valencia in this file photo. —AFP

Beckham ‘positive’ after Achilles surgery HELSINKI: Former England captain David Beckham said yesterday that an operation to fix his ruptured Achilles tendon had been a “success” and that he was focused on “getting back to full fitness”.

“I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their messages of support, they mean a lot to me,” read a statement on the 34-year-old’s official website.

“The operation was a success and I’d like to thank Dr Orava and all the medical staff who looked after me during my time in Finland.

“I’m feeling positive and now concentrating on getting back to full fitness over the coming months.” Earlier, Beckham’s orthopaedic surgeon Sakari Orava told AFP that the former Real Madrid and Manchester United man would be quickly back on his feet.

“The patient is doing well and is in good spirits,” Orava said by telephone. “Today (Tuesday), we will practice walking with crutches.”

Beckham twisted his left ankle during the final minutes of AC Milan’s 1-0 Serie A win against Chievo on Sunday and limped off the field before being stretchered away in pain and in tears.

The on-loan LA Galaxy midfielder flew to the western Finnish city of Turku in a private plane on Monday for an operation at the sports injury clinic of Mehilaeinen hospital.

Finnish media reported that

Beckham’s wife, Victoria Beckham, arrived in Turku to visit her husband yesterday.

The former Spice Girl reached Turku airport just after 1700 local time (1500GMT) and took a car towards the centre of the city, according to Finnish news agency STT. Orava said Beckham’s leg would be in a cast for three-tofour months and in a support for around the same length of time. “Talk of training and playing is pure speculation,” Orava said.

After the surgery on

Monday night Orava said there was “no chance” Beckham would recover in time to play for England at the World Cup, which kicks off in South Africa on June 11.

Beckham will stay in Finland until Wednesday before flying home to Los Angeles, likely through England, Orava said.

“I recommended him not to get on a long flight to fly across the Atlantic straight away,” Orava said, adding this was advice he gave all his patients after such surgery. —AFP

FINLAND: Victoria Beckham arrives at a garage in Turku, Finland to visit her husband, David Beckham, AC Milan’s English midfielder who had Achilles tendon surgery in a local hospital. —AP

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LONDON: Inter Milan’s Samuel Eto’o celebrates scoring the first goal during a Champions League last 16 second leg soccer match against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge Stadium.—AP

Eto’o gives Mourinho revenge over Chelsea LONDON: Inter Milan manager Jose Mourinho got his revenge on Chelsea as a late goal from Samuel Eto’o sealed a 1-0 last 16 second leg victory over his former club at Stamford Bridge yesterday for a 3-1 aggregate victory.

Mourinho was back at Chelsea for the first time since being sacked in September 2007 following a power struggle with Blues owner Roman Abramovich and he showed the Russian what he had let go by devising the perfect game-plan to eliminate his former team.

The Portuguese coach once criticised Tottenham for “parking the bus” after Chelsea were shut out by

their defensive London rivals, but Mourinho borrowed a trick or two from that scheme to keep Carlo Ancelotti’s side at bay before Eto’o’s strike secured victory.

Chelsea, who had Didier Drogba sent off in the final moments, hadn’t been held without a goal at home for 11 months, yet they rarely threatened to find a way through an Inter defence superbly marshalled by Lucio and Walter Samuel.

It was a classic Mourinho display as Inter ground the life out of Chelsea and then delivered the killer blow in clinical fashion. At last Mourinho, who disappeared down the tunnel quickly at the end, had his

moment of vindication.

Mourinho seemed to enjoy himself from the moment he arrived at the stadium as he signed autographs for Chelsea fans and chatted briefly with Ancelotti before emerging to take up his unfamiliar position on the away bench.

He was greeted with respectful applause from the home supporters but it was hardly the rapturous reception many, including Mourinho, had predicted. Inter needed only a draw to go through and the visitors were content to defend in numbers.

The onus was on Chelsea to set the tempo and Ancelotti’s team created what few openings there were in a

frantic first half.

Florent Malouda appealed in vain for a penalty when his incisive run was ended by an uncompromising block from Lucio, while Michael Ballack threatened with a long-range effort that skimmed just wide. It was

Champions League heavyweight stuff with the temperature never far from boiling point.

Lucio caught Malouda with a dangerously high boot, sparking a shoving match between several players, then Maicon made a superb challenge to stop Drogba getting a shot off as

poke his shot goalwards, only for Julio Cesar to make a brave save at the French forward’s feet.

From the corner, Samuel risked conceding a penalty as he wrestled Drogba to the floor but German referee Wolfgang Stark didn’t see the offence.

Mourinho lost just one game at Stamford Bridge during his three and a half year reign and he was just 45 minutes away from surviving his first as a visitor.

Chelsea weren’t going out quietly though and Malouda forced Cesar into a smart stop at his near-post early in the second half.

Ancelotti sent on Joe Cole as the

Blues began to run out of ideas but Eto’o put the tie beyond their reach in the 78th minute.

Wesley Sneijder had been at the heart of Inter’s few attacking moments and he lofted a superb pass towards Eto’o, who held off his marker before driving a low shot past Turnbull.

Mourinho had promised not to celebrate if Inter won but the moment got the better of him as he leapt to his feet with fists pumping.

Chelsea’s frustration came to the surface as Drogba was sent off in the final moments after a clash with Thiago Motta to complete a miserable day for the hosts. —AFP

Sevilla rue Palop blunder

Wigan 1

Aston Villa 2

Villa push for Europe gets back on track WIGAN: James Milner put Aston Villa back at the heart of the battle for Champions League football next season with the decisive strike in a 2-1 win over Wigan here yesterday.

The England World Cup hopeful struck the winner just after the hour mark after Gary Caldwell had cancelled out the James McCarthy own goal which had gifted Villa the lead.

The victory left Villa in seventh place in the Premier League table but they are just three points off fourthplaced Tottenham with a game in hand over their rivals.

Villa had top scorer Gabriel Agbonlahor back in action following his recovery from a vir us, with Emile Heskey making way.

Wigan, just four points above the relegation zone, were hoping to boost their survival hopes by winning at home for only the second time since November.

the Chelsea striker prepared to pull the trigger 10 yards out.

Mourinho grew more animated by the minute as he rose from the bench time and again to protest any decisions that went against Inter.

Eto’o had a glorious chance to put Inter ahead when Maicon’s cross cleared two Chelsea defenders and reached the Cameroon forward at the far post, but his header bounced tamely into the turf and over the bar.

Mourinho buried his head in his hands and Nicolas Anelka nearly made Inter pay for that miss just before half-time.

When Drogba’s pass reached Anelka six yards out, he twisted to

LONDON: Aston Villa’s James Milner celebrates after scoring against Wigan during their English Premier League soccer match. —AP Manager Rober to Mar tinez kept faith with Caldwell after a horror show in the 4-0 loss at Bolton at the weekend and Wigan were first to show, Hugo Rodallega breaking into the box but firing wide before Maynor Figueroa shot inches over.

Villa’s first hint of menace came when Ashley Young tur ned in an Agbonlahor cross from an offside position. Figueroa then tested Brad Friedel from distance and John Carew, who sent a shot skidding narrowly wide, and Stewart Downing, whose free-kick was touched over

by Chris Kirkland, both went close before Villa took the lead in the 25th minute.

Carew headed down a Downing cross and McCarthy, under no apparent pressure, sliced an attempted clearance into his own net.

Wigan, though, were level inside two minutes with Caldwell rising to glance Charles N’Zogbia’s free-kick past Friedel.

Kirkland produced a brilliant stop to prevent Carew from restoring Villa’s lead before the interval but the home side were far from out of it and Marcelo Moreno

went close just af ter the restart, his curling shot sliding nar rowly wide with Friedel beaten.

Villa began to asser t themselves however and, after Caldwell had cleared a Carew flick off the line, they reclaimed the lead just after the hour mark.

Kirkland failed to clear a cross convincingly and, when the ball fell to Milner on the edge of the area, the England midfielder unleashed a shot that found its way through a crowd of bodies and into the net. There was to be no way back for Wigan. —AFP

MADRID: A costly goalkeeping blunder from Sevilla captain Andres Palop helped CSKA Moscow qualify for the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time with a 21 win here yesterday.

The Russians march on to uncharted waters at the expense of Sevilla having secured a 3-2 aggregate victory.

With the last 16 tie level at 2-2 Palop allowed Japan international midfielder Keisuke Honda’s longrange free-kick to creep in on 55 minutes and Sevilla could not find the two goals they needed as they joined Spanish counterparts Real Madrid in exiting the competition.

Tomas Necid shot CSKA into a 39th minute lead only for Argentine Diego Perotti to equalise two minutes later and level the tie 2-2 on aggregate.

Palop then underestimated the ferocity of 23-year-old Honda’s free-kick which forced its way in and proved the decisive moment in the tie. Sevilla coach Manolo Jimenez sprung a surprise by fielding Brazilian Luis Fabiano as a lone striker with three speedy wingers behind in Perotti, Diego Capel and Jesus Navas.

The club’s 15 million euro club record signing Alvaro Negredo, who scored in the first leg, was left pressing the substitutes bench along with Mali international striker Frederic Kanoute. CSKA also played with one target-man in Necid with Honda in the hole and the dangerous Milos Krasic coming in off the wing. With just under three minutes gone Sevilla had a golden chance to go in front when

SPAIN: Sevilla’s Luis Fabiano from Brazil (right) and CSKA Moscow’s Berezutski Vasili from Russia (left) fight for the ball during the second leg of the first knockout round of a Champions League. —AP Navas, hoping to gatecrash the Spain squad for this summer’s World Cup, broke down the right and fed Fabiano but the Brazilian’s shot was straight at goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev who parried the effort. A tame shot from Krasic was all CSKA mustered until the 25th minute when Palop fumbled a Honda shot and the midfielder tried again despite being on the ground but his shot went wide.

The Russians drew first blood on 39 minutes when Necid let the ball run cleverly before curling his precise shot into the corner to put his side 2-1 up on aggregate.

However, the lead lasted barely two minutes as a long goal-kick from Palop was poorly defended

and Navas fed Perotti to prod home to level the match and the tie.

Sevilla were relieved but knew they couldn’t concede another away goal as it would mean they would have to score twice to progress. Kanoute came on for Capel at the start of the second half to give Sevilla more punch up front and almost had an immediate impact flicking on a Navas cross but Perotti couldn’t apply the final touch as the ball flew past him at pace.

The hosts were on the front foot but an unexpected goalkeeping mistake from the usually reliable Palop gave CSKA another away goal and meant Sevilla had to score twice in the remaining 35 minutes.

Honda’s 55th minute free-kick shot was powerful but should have been saved by Palop who got his positioning all wrong and his reaction showed he felt it was his fault.

CSKA collected a host of yellow cards as they tried to break the game up and prevent Sevilla from having a lifeline. Fabiano went close on 77 minutes but the Russians held on to become the first side to beat Sevilla at home in this season’s Champions League and reach the quarter-finals for the first time in their history. Sevilla’s exit follows that of Real Madrid meaning holders Barcelona, who are in action against VfB Stuttgart today, are Spain’s last hope in the competition. —AFP

Heavyweight to featherweight: Tyson races pigeons NEW YORK: Former world heavyweight champ Mike Tyson will take flight on Animal Planet with a new sport — pigeon racing. The network this week announced a new reality show that will pit Tyson, a novice pigeon racer, against serious competitors.

The show is currently titled “Taking on Tyson” and promises to bring audiences inside this “intensely competitive and bizarrely fascinating world.”

Tyson has raised pigeons all his life

but will take to the rooftops as a racing rookie. The network says he’ll be assisted by a colorful team of pigeon experts as he rears, trains and races them. The show is scheduled to be taped this spring in New York City and air early next year.

Meanwhile, Amir Khan knows well how fellow Brit Naseem Hamed used a win over a New Yorker at Madison Square Garden in his US debut to attract new fans.

Hamed defeated Kevin Kelley in

1997, and Khan wants the exact same result when he defends his WBA 140pound (631/2-kilogram) title against Paulie Malignaggi on May 15 in The Theater at the Garden.

“He can make me a bigger star here,” Khan said yesterday as he and Malignaggi promoted the bout in New York. The 23-year-old Khan has a 22-1 record with 16 knockouts. He said that to expand his fan base in the United States, he must win with style.

In personality, Khan is probably

more like Kelley and Malignaggi like Hamed. But there’s good reason to believe Khan can rack up American fans if he takes care of business in the ring.

Trainer Freddie Roach compared Khan to Oscar De La Hoya, whose Golden Boy Promotions he recently joined in his attempt to raise his profile in the US. Handsome and charming are some of the words Roach used to describe Khan, who has quite a few followers who don’t

normally watch boxing.

“I know there’s going to be a lot of pressure on me without the home crowd,” Khan said. “But I know the fans are going to start to love me.” He wanted to come to America early in his career — just like Hamed. The two talk often, and the former champ has told Khan how great the New York fans are. Even if they’re cheering against him — at least at the start of the fight.

“When Amir gets punched in his mouth, they’re going to love it,” said

Malignaggi, a former champ who is 273 with five knockouts.

Khan is well aware that much more than a title belt is riding on this bout. If all goes right, he’ll suddenly be a big name among American boxing fans. “I don’t only want to win the fight,” he said. “I want to win with good style.”

The Hamed-Kelley fight was Malignaggi’s first big live bout.

Malignaggi was 17 and had been boxing for only about six months when he sat in the cheap seats. Malignaggi couldn’t

help but enjoy Prince Naseem’s flashy 10-minute entrance and cocky proclamations.

Hamed won by knockout in the fourth round to retain his WBO featherweight championship in what to that point had been a closely contested fight.

Malignaggi had been cheering for Kelley but came away a fan of the victorious Brit. “He had the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand,” he recalled. —AP

Burgan Bank opens solutions branch in Aswaq Al-Qurain

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German investor confidence drops again in March

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China says yuan is not to blame for trade surplus

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010

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OPEC to keep output unchanged: Kuwait Demand picking up: Naimi ● No need for another meeting before Sept: Algeria KUWAIT: There is a consensus among OPEC members to keep output unchanged, and no change is expected at today’s meeting in Vienna, Kuwait’s Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah said yesterday. Asked what OPEC would do in the meeting, he said: “No change”. He also said OPEC would ask for more compliance on output targets. “We will. That is the major issue,” he told reporters at Kuwait’s parliament.

Oil demand is picking up, Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi said yesterday, which could mean OPEC does not have to take any action on supply this year.

“We have been sailing very well and we will continue to sail very well,” Naimi, minister for the world’s top oil producer, told reporters a day ahead of a meeting of the group, many of whose members have voiced concern it is pumping too much oil.

In December 2008 OPEC agreed members would slash 4.2 million barrels per day (bpd) from output to curb supply at 24.84 million bpd as the chill of recession threatened to shrivel oil demand.

Rising prices in the last year and a hesitant global recovery have encouraged revenuehungry OPEC members to add supply. In February, OPEC delivered just 53 percent of the pledged output curbs-down from 81 percent a year ago.

Nevertheless, oil prices have not strayed far from levels Saudi Arabia considers beneficial to producers and consumers, around $7080 per barrel, as investors eye a future pick-up in demand to mop up current oversupplies.

Yesterday, Algerian Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil said prices will edge up into the $80-85 range by year end.

Benchmark US crude futures gained over $1 towards $81 per barrel yesterday, largely driven by stock markets rallying on optimism about recovery. But prices remain volatile and often move on factors other than fundamental supply and demand.

On Monday, prices had fallen nearly 2 percent as the dollar gained and investors worried China might tighten credit further to put a brake on racing inflation-and consequently slow booming growth.

Oil market players remained cautious about short-term demand. United Arab Emirates Oil Minister Mohammed Al-Hamli said the oil market may see a decline in global demand in the second quarter, adding current fundamentals do not call for a change in OPEC’s output policy.

Royal Dutch Shell Chief Executive Peter Voser said yesterday oil market fundamentals remained weak in the short term but medium term demand is robust. Several ministers arriving in Vienna stressed the need to adhere to output targets as global demand heads into the traditionally weak second quarter.

Saudi Arabia is one of the best adherents to output targets in OPEC, pumping 8.22 million bpd in February against an implied target of 8.05 million bpd. But Naimi is taking a more relaxed view on OPEC overproduction, taking the longer view shared by major forecasters that bustling China will drive even stronger global economic recovery later this year.

“The reason why the global economy is going to grow faster is because China and India are pulling very hard,” OECD secretary general Angel Gurria said as he forecast global growth this year of 4 to 4.5 percent. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects China’s economy to expand 10 percent this year while advanced economies will deliver a faltering 2.1 percent.

Naimi said OPEC would not reduce supply if it meant prices could be driven too high.

“The market is happy, there is balance, there are no shortages, there is enough investment going on,” he said. Khelil said OPEC will probably not need to meet again before its scheduled September meeting. “We’ll stay with this situation and we’ll see in September,” he told a news briefing. —Reuters

VIENNA: Mohamed bin Dhaen Al Hamli, Minister of Energy from the United Arab Emirates talks to journalists as he arrives at a hotel for a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting countries, OPEC, in Vienna yesterday. —AP

Markets cautious about EU aid pledge to Greece BRUS SELS: European countries’ pledge to help Greece with loans received a lukewarm welcome from markets yesterday as investors remained worried that the form and timing of the aid remains unclear.

Stock markets rose but the euro traded in a narrow range around $1.3675 after EU finance ministers said they had a blueprint for financial help for Greece — which they hope the debt laden country will never need. The exact form of the help — likely some form of bilateral loan — was yet to be decided. JeanClaude Juncker, the head of the eurozone group, said European Union leaders meeting later this month would make the final decision on the size and the type of financial rescue.

“There is no loan facility at the moment, because Greece hasn’t asked for anything but if this is the case, I’m sure all the euro countries will be there,” said Spanish Finance Minister Elena Salgado, as she arrived for the meeting.

Greece needs to borrow €54 billion ($74 billion) this year — 20 billion euros of that in April and May — but is being forced to pay higher interest rates than more fiscally prudent European nations.

Greece has warned that its budget problems will worsen unless interest rates come down — and the euro-zone pledge of help is one way of trying to convince markets that they should charge less for Greek debt.

The country’s financial troubles have undermined the shared euro currency and raised fears that other indebted governments may face similar difficulties borrowing money. A Greek default would be a serious blow to the euro, and economists and financial markets assume the EU would find some way to step in and stop it, although European governments have been reluctant to say how they might do that. Putting up taxpayer money to cover Greece’s budget misdeeds could be unpopular in other countries. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told parliament

yesterday that neither Germany nor the EU had made any decisions regarding emergency help for Greece. “There is no need for decisions and no decisions have been made,” Schaeuble said.

“However, if there would be an immediate situation of insolvency, we would have to react to it.” Yesterday’s market reaction showed investors remain cautious as long as the details are not ironed out. Ben May, European economist at Capital Economics, noted it was still uncertain how any bilateral loans would work and what would trigger the aid. Still, the fact that help would not be limited to guarantees was a positive sign. “While explicit support could still be some way off, the latest announcement is a step forward,” he said. In a bid to soothe investors, Greece has announced painful tax increases and spending cuts to squeeze its budget and save another €4.8 billion this year, including public sector wage cuts that angered unions and sparked two nationwide strikes last week. —AP

ATHENS: A pedestrian passes a plaque of a Greek one-drachma coin, which was replaced by the euro in 2002, outside Athens City Hall yesterday. Stock markets rose but the euro traded in a narrow range around $1.3675 after EU finance ministers said yesterday they had a blueprint for financial help for Greece. —AP

Dubai may offer new debt at zero DUBAI: Dubai World may offer creditors new debt tranches at zero or reduced interest in a plan to restructure $26 billion in debt, a UAE newspaper said on its website, citing bankers close to the situation.

“What they (Dubai World) came back with was not as bad as most banks had anticipated. Under this plan they would refinance several different tranches. Some would come with zero interest and some with reduced interest rates,” the daily The National quoted one banker as saying.

Government-owned conglomerate Dubai World is expected to make a formal proposal to creditors on an infor mal seven-member coordinating committee this month.

“None of the proposed new tranches involves an immediate “haircut”, a reduction in principal, but all, because of the absence or reduction of interest payments, would mean that the banks forego future interest income,” the Abu Dhabibased newspaper said.

“Among the possible scenarios are: repayment in full over five years but with no interest paid in that period; repayment over seven years with interest at about 2 per cent; repayment over a minimum of eight years with interest paid at close to the one-year London interbank offer rate (Libor),” it said.

The plans, which are yet to be finalized and approved

by Dubai’s gover nment, were informally presented to representative of the creditors committee last week, it added.

Dubai World held informal talks with major creditors, which include HSBC a n d S t a n d a rd C h a r t e re d , in London earlier this month as it finalizes a deal. —Reuters

No obstacles expected in Zain-Bharti deal: Report KUWAIT: Kuwaiti telecom Zain and India’s Bharti Airtel have faced no obstacles in due diligence and expect the $9 billion deal to close on time, a Kuwaiti newspaper said yesterday.

Daily Al-R ai, quoting unnamed sources familiar with the deal, said both firms were keen on closing the sale of Zain’s African assets to Bhar ti on March 25 as scheduled. “ We a re p ro g re s s i n g with due diligence step by

s t e p a n d t h e re a re n o obstacles so far. Each of Zain and Bharti are keen to finalize the transaction a c c o rd i n g t o t h e p re s e t timetable,” according to a person quoted by the newspaper.

The paper said due diligence had been done on the majority of Zain’s Af r i c a n a s s e t s i n m a j o r countries and only proced u r a l s t e p s , w h i c h a re u n l i ke l y t o c h a n g e t h e final report, remain.

The newspaper quoted

sources as saying Bharti, India’s largest telecoms firm, is expected to name the final bank consortium on the deal. Bharti’s exclusive talks with Zain r un until March 25, and follow two failed attempts by the Indian firm to tieu p w i t h S o u t h Af r i c a ’ s M T N , Af r i c a ’ s b i g g e s t telecoms firm.

Bhar ti is looking at a mix of dollar and r upee funding to finance the Zain deal, sources told Reuters last month. —Reuters

KAC offers special fares KUWAIT: Kuwait Airways declared special fares yesterday for travelers to other Gulf countries, the Middle and Far East, the Indian subcontinent and Europe.

The chief regional manager of the KAC, Bader Al-Ameeri, said in a press release the low fares were intended to satisfy as many

clients as possible and remain competitive visa-vis other airlines.

Fare for a two-way flight to a Gulf country is set at KD 17, Europe KD 91, the Middle East KD 37, the Indian sub-continent KD 47 and the Far East KD 111, he said, noting that they do not include taxes. —KUNA

Mideast aluminum output to exceed 3m tpy by 2010 DUBAI: Aluminum production in the Middle East is expected to exceed 3 million tons per year (tpy) by the end of 2010, the chairman of the newly formed Gulf Aluminium Council (GAC) Abdulla Kalban said yesterday.

Current production in the region was pegged at about 2 million tpy which made up about 5-6 percent of the global production capacity, he said. Kalban said global aluminum demand, which is expected to grow by 12 percent this year, was being driven by construction, transportation and packaging sectors.

Global demand was expected to remain relatively robust despite moves by China to tighten bank lending and raise capital requirements for domestic banks, said Kalban, who is also the president and chief executive of Dubai Aluminium (Dubal).

China has been a principal driver of the global economic recovery, having spent heavily on stimulus packages last year as the mature economies of the United States and Europe grappled with the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

“We are bullish about the market for 2010, 2011, the signs are encouraging,” Kalban told a press conference.

The United Arab Emirates has invested around $20-$22 billion in developing new smelter capacity, Kalban said, which was more than half of the total investments in the region which included plants in Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Aluminum production in the region was currently around 2 million tpy. —Reuters

Depa shares rally on stock split DUBAI: Dubai-based interiors contractor Depa Ltd received shareholder approval to pursue a two-for-one stock split and to list its shares in UAE dirhams instead of US dollars.

Depa stock rose 4.5 percent on the news to a 16-week high.

Deepa shareholders at an extraordinary meeting gave the board of directors the authority to conduct the stock split on March 30, the company said in a statement yesterday.

Depa is one of the biggest listings on the Nasdaq Dubai exchange, which has undertaken a number of measures in recent months to boost liquidity but has not prevented key companies from undertaking their own measures to fuel trading.

On Monday, Kingdom Holding, the investment firm of Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, said it would buy $375 million worth of shares in its hotel division listed on Nasdaq Dubai in a blow to the beleaguered bourse. —Reuters

BUSINESS

22

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Jan Verduyn takes over as GM of The ‘Safir’ Marina Hotel Kuwait

Mubarak Al-Kabeer Governor Sheikh Ali Al-Salem Al-Sabah attends ceremony

Burgan Bank opens solutions branch in Aswaq Al-Qurain

KUWAIT: Burgan Bank Chairman seen with the Governor inaugurating the new Aswaq Al-Qurain branch.

RIM introduces BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express KUWAIT: Research In Motion (RIM) yesterday introduced BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express - free new server software that wirelessly and securely synchronizes BlackBerry smartphones with Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft Windows Small Business Server.

The new BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express software will be provided free of charge in order to address two key market opportunities. First, the software offers economical advantages to small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) that desire the enterprise-grade security and manageability of BlackBerry(r) Enterprise Server but don’t require all of its advanced features. Second, more and more consumers are purchasing BlackBerry smartphones and the free BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express software provides a cost-effective solution that enables IT departments to meet the growing demand from employees to be able to connect their personal BlackBerry smartphones to their work email.

BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express works with Microsoft Exchange 2010, 2007 and 2003 and Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2008 and 2003 to provide users with secure, push-based, wireless access to email, calendar, contacts, notes and tasks, as well as other business applications and enterprise systems behind the firewall. Importantly, the new server software utilizes the same robust security architecture found in BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

“Today we are announcing an exciting new offering that further expands the market opportunity for the BlackBerry plat-

form,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO, Research In Motion. “In a marketplace where smartphones are becoming ubiquitous, BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express significantly raises the bar by providing a cost-effective solution that allows companies of all sizes to support enterprisegrade mobile connectivity for all employees without compromising security or manageability.”

With BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express connected to Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft Windows Small Business Server, BlackBerry smartphone users will be able to: * Wirelessly synchronize their email, calendar, contacts, notes and tasks * Manage email folders and search email on the mail server remotely * Book meetings and appointments, check availability and forward calendar attachments * Set an out-of-office reply * Edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files using Documents To Go * Access files stored on the company network * Use mobile applications to access business systems behind the firewall For IT administrators, BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express also offers the following: * Runs on the same physical or virtual server as the Microsoft mail server or on its own server. BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express is also certified for use with VMware ESX * Over 35 IT controls and policies, including the ability to remotely wipe a

smartphone and enforce and reset passwords * A Web-based interface that allows remote administration and makes it easy to install the software, connect BlackBerry smartphones and apply usage policies BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express is expected to be available as a free download in March. For more information, visit www.blackberry.com/besexpress.

Litigation cases fall in Dubai property market DUBAI: Litigation cases in Dubai’s property sector have eased since the immediate aftermath of the property crash, and a soonto-be published property decree is a step toward better transparency, a lawyer at an international law firm said yesterday.

“After the initial wave of claims, I have witnessed a drop off in the number of claims that are going to court,” Clyde & Co’s Richard Bell told Reuters in an interview.

“We probably had dozens of cases back then but now we just have a handful,” he said.

Efforts by developers to accommodate purchasers in the light of the economic downturn-including lowering purchase prices, or back loading instalment payments towards the completion of projects, were helping reduce the number of cases, he said.

“There is also uncertainty as to what can be achieved through litigation for the developer and purchaser, and there is a risk that they will be found liable. —Reuters

KUWAIT: Burgan Bank amongst the leading and most dynamic regional banks in the state of Kuwait - continued its tradition of innovation by inaugurating a new Financial Center Branch in Aswaq Al-Qurain yesterday.

The opening was attended by the Governor of Mubarak AlKabeer Sheikh Ali Al Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah.

The Governor was welcomed by Tariq AbdulSalam - the Chairman of Burgan Bank and Masaud Hayat - Managing Director of Burgan Bank to the momentous occasion which was also attended by senior delegates of the Bank and VIP clients.

The new ‘Solutions Branch’ a pioneering concept by Burgan Bank will feature all complete range of financial services from simple banking transactions to personalized and customized financial advice.

“We are extremely delighted to open our 22nd branch in Kuwait. At Burgan Bank we are committed to offering our customers a new, fresh and inviting banking experience. With the state-of-the-art modern interiors and design, we look forward to catering to our customer needs,” said Tariq AbdulSalam Chairman, Burgan Bank.

Aswaq Al-Qurain Branch is located at Dahiyat Abu-Feteera - Block 3 - Plot 31 - Aswaq Al Qurain Area - Ground Floor.

The working hours of the branch are from 08.30 am to 3:30 pm.

Burgan Bank, a subsidiary of KIPCO (Kuwait Projects Company), is a regional bank with majority owned subsidiaries in the MENA region.

The youngest and most dynamic regional commercial bank, established in 1977, the Bank has acquired a leading role in the retail, corporate and investment banking sector through innovative product offers and technologically advanced delivery channels. Its subsidiaries include Gulf Bank Algeria (Algeria), Bank of Baghdad (Iraq) and Jordan Kuwait Bank (Jordan). It has continuously improved its performance over the years by applying an expanded revenue structure, good asset quality, diversified funding sources and a strong capital base. The adoption of state-of-the-art services and ground-breaking technology has positioned it as a trendsetter in the domestic market and within the MENA region. At present it enjoys a wide reach through our network of 22 branches and nearly 130 ATM’s making it one of the widest ATM networks in the GCC.

Jan Verduyn - General Manager Safir Marina Hotel Kuwait

KUWAIT: The Safir International Hotel Management, Kuwait, announced yesterday the appointment of Jan Marie - Roger Verduyn as General Manager of The “Safir” Marina Hotel Kuwait. Verduyn brings over three decades of international experience in the hospitality and hotel management industry to his post at The “Safir” Marina Hotel.

Commenting on Verduyn’s appointment, Helmut H Meckelburg, Chief Executive Officer, Safir International Hotel Management, said, “We are very pleased to have a hotel veteran like Jan joining us at The “Safir” Marina Hotel Kuwait.

His appointment reinforces our commitment to delivering the best service to our customers by hiring qualified personnel in key positions”.

Verduyn has previously worked as the General Manager for several international hotel companies in Belgium, Egypt, Thailand, Cyprus, South Korea, Vietnam, Cameroon, Kenya and Sri Lanka.

Yusuf A Alghanim & Sons launches the giant offer 2010 Chevrolet Traverse, Tahoe, Silverado and Avalanche at unbelievable prices KUWAIT: Yusuf Ahmed Alghanim & Sons launches the much awaited Giant Offer on selective Chevrolet models. This campaign allows customers to take advantage of lucrative offers on Kuwait’s favorite vehicles, including the 2010 Chevrolet Traverse for only KD7,777.

The Chevrolet Traverse offers a satisfying balance of great performance and fuel efficiency. Sporting an All Wheel Drive (AWD) and 4x2 and powered by a 3.6L V-6 engine with direct injection, the Traverse’s engine generates a segmentleading 313 hp @ 6300rpm and 389 Nm of torque at 3300 rpm.

Customers can customize their Chevrolet Traverse to their respective personalities through a choice of three distinct trims: LS, LT and LTZ. As the only crossover vehicle which offers expressive style, well-equipped convenience storage features and extensive cargo volume, the Chevrolet Traverse comes fully equipped to provide riders with the smoothest and most comfortable ride, with features including seating for eight, a panoramic sunroof, rear view camera, and a flip-down DVD system.

For those who prefer a more powerful, full-sized ride, look no further than the Chevrolet Avalanche. As the region’s most flexible SUV, the Avalanche is powered by a 5.3L engine generating a tremendous 310 hp at 5,200 rpm, and 454 Nm of torque at 4,400 rpm when required. The engine is mated to a Hydra-Matic six-speed automatic transmission with electronically controlled overdrive and Driver Shift Control. Made to fit any personality, the Avalanche is available in several different trims -LT and LTZ, and can be upgraded to the ultimate off-road experience with the Z71 package. On the inside, the Chevrolet Avalanche exudes luxury and extremely high levels

of refinement, comfort, quality and convenience. With the ability to function as an SUV, pick-up or both, the Avalanche offers complete flexibility thanks to the exclusive Midgate. The Midgate opens to extend the cargo bed’s 1.6 m length to 2.5 m. The Avalanche also offers a host of convenience features, including remote vehicle starting, Ultrasonic Rear Parking Assist, Rearview Camera, AUX & USB input, DVD player with a flip down screen, navigation and a sunroof. Safety is also prioritized with the Avalanche, as the vehicle features a 360-degree safety system of occupant protection and crash-avoidance technology. Standard safety features include StabiliTrak stability control system with rollover

mitigation technology and headcurtain side-impact air bags on all models.

Yusuf A Alghanim & Sons Automotive has long been committed to providing customers with unbeatable offers and world-class service. With a comprehensive range of Chevrolet sedans, SUV’s and sports cars as well as unparalleled after-sales service with the world’s biggest and most advanced automotive service center, Yusuf A. Alghanim & Sons Automotive is also dedicated to providing all customers with the ultimate ownership experience. To find a model that will perfectly suit your world, visit Yusuf A. Alghanim & Sons showrooms and take advantage of the March madness while you can.

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 .4310000 .381000 .2690000 .2800000 .2610000 .0045000 .0020000 .0780180 .7601060 .4020000 .0750000 .7451520 .0045000 .0500000 CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES .2875500 .4328570 .3937830 .2712430 .2822680 .0529170 .0404940 .2631070 .0370560 .2058630 .0031910 .0063540 .0025280 .0034130 .0042130 .0783270 .7631160 .4066730 .0767190 .7472550 .0063190 TRANSFER CHEQUES RATES .2896500 .4359140 .2731640 .0772080

.2930000 .4400000 .39900000 .2770000 .2880000 .2680000 .0075000 .0035000 .0788020 .7677450 .4180000 .0790000 .7526410 .0072000 .0580000 .2896500 .4359140 .3965640 .2731640 .2842670 .0532920 .0407810 .2649650 .0373180 .2073210 .0032140 .0063990 .0025460 .0034370 .0042430 .0788270 .7679820 .4095540 .0772080 .7520200 .0063640

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co. Japanese Yen Indian Rupees

EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES 3.213 6.330

Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar Bangladesh Taka Philippine Peso Thai Baht Irani Riyal - Transfer Irani Riyal - Cash

3.419 2.526 3.970 207.100 37.240 4.169 6.313 8.901 0.301 0.292 GCC COUNTRIES Saudi Riyal 77.070 Qatari Riyal 79.400 Omani Riyal 750.800 Bahraini Dinar 767.500 UAE Dirham 78.710 ARAB COUNTRIES Egyptian Pound - Cash 56.250 Egyptian Pound 52.734 Yemen Riyal 1.340 Tunisian Dinar 210.700 Jordanian Dinar 408.100 Lebanese Lira 193.900 Syrian Lier 6.331 Morocco Dirham 35.882 EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 288.850 Euro 396.200 Sterling Pound 434.720 Canadian dollar 284.600 Turkish lire 189.300 Swiss Franc 273.300 Australian dollar 264.200 US Dollar Buying 287.000 GOLD 20 Gram 217.000 10 Gram 112.000 5 Gram 58.000

Bahrain Exchange Company COUNTRY Australian dollar Bahraini dinar Bangladeshi taka Canadian dollar Cyprus pound Czek koruna Danish krone Deutsche Mark Egyptian pound

SELL CASH 267.700 767.990 4.410 287.100 567.100 15.800 54.200 167.800 56.530

SELL DRAFT 266.200 767.990 4.170 285.600

208.700 52.789

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

400.000 37.880 6.600 0.035 0.297 0.261 3.290 409.940 0.195 89.220 47.800 4.260 207.100 2.183 50.500 750.170 3.540 6.540 79.870 77.110 208.730 41.510 2.774 439.000 41.700 276.100 6.400 9.220 217.900 78.800 289.200 1.380 GOLD 1,197.760 TRAVELLER’S CHEQUE 437.000 288.800

398.500 37.730 6.335

408.210 0.194 89.220 3.960 206.600 749.990 3.435 6.325 79.440 77.110 208.730 41.510 2.527 437.000 274.600 9.050 78.800 288.800

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd 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

288.700 287.715 439.565 400.430 271.910 707.620 764.155 78.580 79.195 76.955 407.395 52.640 6.350 3.430

Sri Lankan Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Japanese Yen Thai Bhat Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees

2.530 4.170 6.310 3.200 8.890 5.559 3.970

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 Nepali rupee Yemeni Riyal Jordanian Dinars Syrian Pounds Euro Candaian Dollars

288.850 3.430 6.340 2.540 4.175 6.350 78.695 77.195 767.500 52.765 440.300 0.00003195 3.980 1.550 410.200 5.750 401.200 290.900

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

288.600 398.350 436.850 285.500 3.222 6.332 52.700 2.527 4.170 6.320 3.425 767.850 78.600 77.010

BUSINESS

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

23

Oman inflation to peak, budget seen in surplus Muscat to keep dollar peg, stay away from Gulf union

FRANKFURT: The twin towers of the Deutsche Bank building are seen in Frankfurt, central Germany. Deutsche Bank AG says it made net income of 5 billion euro ($6.9 billion) in 2009 and that it expects the banking market to progress slowly toward “a new form of normality” this year and next. —AP

Gulf Bank congratulates winners of Al-Danah weekly draw KUWAIT: Gulf Bank launched Al-Danah 2010 with more chances for its Al-Danah customers to win cash prizes throughout the year. The Bank holds weekly, quarterly and annual prize draws for its customers, encouraging them to keep their money in their account for as long as possible to enhance their chances of winning.

The Bank held its sixth draw on March 14, 2010, announcing a total number of 10 AlDanah weekly prize draw winners, each awarded with prizes of KD 1,000. The winners were: Abdulla Jamal Abdulla AlMesbahi, Hasan Ali Khuder, Adel Mahmoud Ali Tifouni, Muna AbdelKarim Ali Shamoh, Hesa Nabel Yousef Khalifa Al Shahen, Fahad Salem Abdullah Al Ajmi, Ghanima Hamad Mohammed AlShayji, Ehssan Mohmod Malek Mohd Eqbal Malek, Meshaal Issa Mohd Ali AlQattan and Adnan Ahmed Jasem Abul A minimum deposit of just KD200 is needed to open an Al-Danah account. Not only does Gulf Bank’s Al Danah account allow customers

to win, but it is also encourages customers to save money. The more money deposited and the longer it is kept in the account, the more chances there are to win.

Al Danah also offers a number of unique services including the Al-Danah Deposit Only ATM card which helps account holders deposit their money at their convenience; as well as the Al-Danah calculator which is now in operation to help customers calculate their chances of becoming an Al-Danah winner.

To be part of the Al-Danah draw customers can visit one of Gulf Bank’s 50 branches, transfer on line, or call the Telebanking service 1805805 for assistance and guidance. Customers can also log on to www.e-gulfbank.com, Gulf Bank’s bilingual website, to find all the information regarding Al Danah or any of the Bank’s products and services or log on www.egulfbank.com/aldanah, to find out more about Al-Danah and who the winners are.

Shariah Investing

Focusing on fundamentals

By Jahangir Aka KUWAIT: In previous reports, we have discussed two broad assumptions: The first being that Sharia investors would continue to benefit from a lack of exposure to the volatile financial sector.

The second being that as conventional markets stabilized and financials in particular moved into recovery Sharia indices would begin to lose their trend of strong out performance and the alpha built over the credit crisis period would begin to give way.

Looking back on 2009, both assumptions appear to have been affirmed. At the end of the last year, the MSCI World Islamic Index had outperformed the MSCI World Index and continued to be the stronger performer over the last 10 challenged quarters as demonstrated in Figure 1.

However, in USD terms, the 2009 performance of both indices shows that the Islamic index returned 27.08% and the conventional returned 26.98%, a less dramatic out performance than in 2008 where the Islamic index outperformed its conventional counterpart by 5.74% or in 2007 when

the out performance was 8.22% Looking back at Q4 In the last quarter of 2009, the MSCI World Islamic Index’s allocation to low-debt companies and non-financial stocks continued to work in its favor.

Financials were the worst-performing sector for the quarter, falling both on fears surrounding the potential for default on Dubai World’s debt as well as increased European forecasts regarding the amount of bad debts still remaining on bank balance sheets. Although there were positive signs of recovery throughout the quarter, the

Top Ten Industry Exposures Returns of MSCI World Islamic Index relative to MSCI World Index 01/07/2007 to 31/12/2009

Islamic Index continued to benefit strongly from its lack of exposure to these troubled sectors, illustrated by its out performance of the conventional index by more than 3.5%.

Among the sectors that are more sensitive to changes in the economic cycle (cyclical sectors), Materials led the way in Q4, climbing in line with a surge in copper, gold and other metals.

Energy and Information Technology also outperformed the overall Islamic index, as oil prices moved higher and technology companies continued to show good prospects for the upcoming year. The cyclical Industrials sector slightly underperformed the index, joined by the more defensive Utilities and Telecommunications sectors among the laggards.

Looking back further than the last quarter, Figure 2 below highlights contributors to Industry return over the last 10 challenged quarters. The chart shows the return impact of the top ten industry positions of the MSCI World Islamic index and that, when compared to the MSCI World Index, a deviation in allocations to Banks (underweight), Diversified Financials (underweight) and Pharmaceuticals & Life Sciences were the top 3 drivers of alpha (excess return) for the Islamic Index. This is consistent with the discussion that Sharia investors have benefited from a lack of exposure to the financial sector. However some of this alpha was offset by an overweighting of cyclical sectors.

Shifts in sector leadership and volatile swings in cyclical industries such as Energy and Consumer Goods resulted in them detracting from the Islamic index in relative terms. * Jahangir Aka; SEI Investments (Middle East)

MUSCAT: Oman’s inflation will accelerate this year to 4-5 percent as the not reconsidering a decision to pull out of a planned Gulf Arab monetary economy improves while sharply higher oil prices should enable the govern- union. The global downturn slashed inflation across the world’s largest oil ment to post a budget surplus, officials said yesterday. The non-OPEC oil pro- exporting region last year with some Gulf countries such as the United Arab ducer also vowed to maintain its currency peg to the dollar and said it was Emirates and Qatar seeing deflation.

But prices are ticking up again with economic recovery under way and large fiscal stimulus packages still in place.

Consumer price inflation in Oman shot up to a five-month high of 1.7 percent in January and its central bank sees inflation nearly tripling this year on imported price pressures.

“There will be an increase in inflation but not to a level that would cause difficulties. Of course most inflation will be coming from outside,” central bank Executive President Hamood Sangour al-Zadjali told Reuters on the sidelines of an economic conference.

“It will be within expected limits, between 4 to 5 percent,” he said.

The central bank prediction is above the economy ministry’s forecast in January of 3.5 percent, but inflation will be still well below a record peak of 13.7 percent in June, 2008. Analysts CHENNAI: Renault and Nissan President and CEO Carlos Ghosn addresses a press conference in Chennai yespolled by Reuters see 2010 inflation at 4 percent. terday. Japanese auto maker Nissan said it will launch its Micra small car in India in July this year, from a plant “We continue to see inflation in southern India, which is co-owned with its French partner Renault. —AFP picking up, driven mostly by housing price increases as Oman continues with its investment program and external factors such as a pick-up in global food prices,” said EFG-Hermes Chief Through its subsidiary, Waha DUBAI: Abu Dhabi’s Waha acquisitions centered on the vices. Waha is eyeing growth Economist Monica Malik.

Leasing, Waha owns and, or maninternationally through acquisiMiddle East, Far East, as well as Capital is in talks to buy controlOman’s economy is expected tions, mergers and projects, and ages around 100 commercial airling stakes in global aviation and north and west Africa. to grow 6.1 percent this year, When asked about financing, plans to invest up to $20 billion in craft, worth up to 16 billion maritime firms, and expects to both Zadjali and Economy conclude up to two deals in 2010, he said the company had a “good growing its business in the next dirhams. Its clients include Minister Ahmad bin Abdul-Nabi Etihad Airways, Emirates airline, its chief executive said in an relationship” with banks and few years.

Mekki reiterated yesterday, “The $20 billion will be spent Russia’s biggest carrier Aeroflot, would use the proceeds from a interview. helped by recovery in oil prices.

Salem Al-Noaimi said the planned 1 billion dirhams ($272 on growing our business in all Qatar Airways, Air Canada and The country’s gross domestic holding firm was in discussions million) convertible bond or spaces...and growing our sub- Malaysia Airlines. product rose 3.7 percent in real The firm achieved a net profit with up to 10 companies in the sukuk to fund the acquisitions. sidiaries,” he said. “We are in disterms in 2009. Analysts forecast aircraft leasing business and mar- Waha obtained board approval to cussions, some advanced, some of 217 million dirhams last year, 4 percent growth this year as the itime. “We are expecting to con- issue mandatory convertible early stages, with different com- up from 40 million in 2008. Waha, government boosts spending by clude at least one or two acquisi- bonds or sukuk on Feb. 23, and panies globally,” Noaimi said, formerly known as Oasis 12 percent and oil output is set to Leasing Co, tions in 2010,” said Noaimi. will seek shareholder approval at adding the strategy was to International rise by nearly 11 percent. “(There are) good valuations now an extraordinary general meeting acquire controlling stakes in changed from a solely leasing Despite budgeting a deficit company into an investment firms. and you get a better deal than a on March 21. this year, Oman now expects a Waha owns a 50 percent stake company in 2008 with four subThe diversified investment couple of years ago.” surplus as oil prices are now Noaimi said Waha was eyeing holding firm has interests in air- in AerVenture, a unit of Dutch sidiaries, including real estate, seen at $60 to $80 per barrel, the global market for aviation craft leasing, maritime, land aircraft leasing firm AerCap with financial services, leasing and above initial projections, Mekki maritime. —Reuters deals while its focus on maritime development and financial ser- an investment of $135 million. said. “From the beginning of the year until today, we have achieved an oil price of $70 per barrel, so I hope we will not face any deficit,” he told reporters.

“Our prediction is that the oil price will be between $60 and $80, and I think we are alright DUBAI: UAE’s Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) until now,” he said. Oman had Properties is planning an $817 million shopping based its 2010 budget on a proDUBAI: A total of 1364 entries from 16 delighted to still see growth in the mall and office project in Syria, as it seeks new jected oil price of $50 a barrel countries had been submitted to this Media category, a good start to the new markets in the Middle East and North Africa and expected a deficit of 800 milyear’s Dubai International Advertising Craft categories as well as a record outside an already packed Dubai. lion rials ($2.08 billion) given Festival, which kicked off on Sunday. number of attendees at the Festival,” The firm, famous for building an indoor ski plans to finance a range of infraDubai Lynx is the largest awards show said Philip Thomas, CEO of Cannes slope in Dubai, and which typically enters marstructure projects. celebrating creative excellence in Lions, organisers of the event. “Dubai kets with French retailer Carrefour as anchor OPEC meets today to discuss MENA’s advertising and communica- Lynx continues to be the largest awards tenant of its malls, will fund the project with its output but no action on targets is tions industry and the Festival will be in the region, the most sought after troown financing and with banks in Syria, its chief expected even beyond this meetattended by over 1000 delegates this phy to win and the premier industry executive said. ing. event to attend.” year.

“It will be a 3 billion UAE dirhams ($816.8 Oman will also likely issue The winners will be announced and Entries have been submitted in 10 million) project, 1 million square metres of 122 million rials in domestic categories: TV/Cinema (159 entries), honoured during the Dubai Lynx awards land, and will have a mall, hotels and office bonds at the end of 2010 to Print (300), Outdoor (233), Direct & ceremony and dinner held during the buildings,” MAF Chief Executive Peter replace the same amount of debt Sales Promotion (94), Media (230), evening of Wednesday 17 March at The Walichnowski told Reuters on the sidelines of maturing in November, Zadjali Radio (50), Interactive (83), Integrated Palladium in Dubai, attended by 1,300 its 430-store Mirdif City Centre opening in told Reuters. Mekki said no deci(39), and the new TV/Cinema Craft (35) industry peers. Other awards to be Dubai. sion had been taken yet. When and Print Craft (141) categories. The revealed during the Awards Ceremony Walichnowski said MAF, which is owned by asked if any international issues entries will be judged by top interna- are: Agency of the Year, Media Agency United Arab Emirates’ billionaire businessman were likely in 2010, Zadjali said: tional industry experts who will con- of the Year and the new Network of the Majid al-Futtaim, is in talks to build large malls “I don’t think so.”

Year. Saudi Telecom Company will be vene in Dubai at the weekend. in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. The company The Omani government has The top country participating is the honoured with the 2010 Advertiser of launched in Dubai yesterday. maintained a tight control of pubUAE with 847 entries, followed by the Year and Ramzi Raad, Chairman & The company has ten operating malls in the lic debt in the past years and Lebanon with 142, Egypt on 124 entries, CEO of TBWA\RAAD Middle East, will Middle East and North Africa and plans to Mekki told the conference the Saudi Arabia with 66 and Kuwait with 57. be presented with the prestigious 2010 more than double its portfolio by 2015 with 14 debt fell to 5.6 pct of GDP in “Honoring the best work and provid- Dubai Lynx Advertising Person of the new projects in the UAE, Oman, Egypt, 2009, from 34 percent in 1999. ing inspiration and motivation is para- Year Award.

Lebanon, Syria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and “They can run deficits of 10 To attend the Dubai International mount to agencies and their clients, Yemen. Walichnowski said the company’s percent of GDP in the next five especially during such an economic Advertising Festival or the Dubai Lynx malls have shown resilience to the global ecoyears without drawing down downturn. Despite an inevitable drop in awards ceremony and dinner, please nomic crisis and did not see a significant drop in their assets and there are very the overall number of entries, we are register online at www.dubailynx.com. sales in 2009. —Reuters few countries that can do it,” said Farouk Soussa, head of Middle East government ratings at Standard & Poor’s.

The country is rated “A” by Standard & Poor’s. Moody’s last SriLankan Airlines is offering adding even more features to the Middle East and the Far of wines and one champagne. month upgraded Oman to “A2”, an incredible Cash Back further customize the booking East) now have the luxury of The airline also has three new from “A1”, citing the strength of cocktails two full meal services on their signature Bonanza for passengers who process. public finances. Analysts expect Passengers can also check flights, with the new Five-Star ‘Taprobana’, ‘Island Sunrise’, book online and fly in its superb a fiscal surplus of 4 percent in Business Class cabins to any in online at www.srilankan.aero Meal Service and ‘a la carte’ and ‘Coconut Passion’, which 2010. are mixed on board by the cabin where they can select a seat of Service. city that the airline flies to.

Oman will continue to mainSriLankan is one of the few crew.

In addition to London and their choice, and print their tain its currency peg to the dollar All Business Class passenParis in the west and Beijing own boarding cards on normal airlines in the world to offer a and is not reconsidering a deciand Tokyo in the east, A4 paper. This allows them to Five-Star Meal Service for a gers can also enjoy the superb sion to pull out of a planned Gulf SriLankan serves 29 destina- avoid standing in line at check- Business Class fare, giving pas- facilities of the Serendib Arab monetary union at this at Colombo’s tions in 20 countries through- in counters, and they can report sengers the experience of a Lounge time, Zadjali said. out Europe, the Middle East relatively late to airports, five-star restaurant. The ‘a la Bandaranaike International “We shall continue to mainand Asia, including nine cities although before the counter carte’ Service provides a sec- Airport, at arrival, departure or tain that peg,” he told Reuters in in the Middle East and six in closure 60 minutes before ond meal at any time during the transit. They can take a remarks ahead of a meeting of departure time, and report flight, on the concept of ‘Eat refreshing shower, have a India.

Gulf central bank governors in Passengers who book directly to the baggage drop what you want, when you scrumptious meal, sip an invigKuwait next week. orating drink, use the internet want’. online at www.srilankan.aero counter.

The sultanate pulled out of a The entire bar service has or WiFi facilities, and even get SriLankan has totally transand pay by credit card will planned monetary union with receive 5 percent cash back, formed its Business Class also been upgraded, with a wide a soothing massage from the which will be credited to their experience, with its promise to range of new liquors that Siddhalepa Spa. Gulf neighbours in 2006, and The Business Class credit cards within 14 working “Change the way we fly, and includes Bombay Sapphire Gin, was followed by the UAE in days.

Bookings through the way you experience trav- Bailey’s Irish Cream, Bacardi Bonanza commenced on 1st 2009. Kuwait, which runs the SriLankan’s user-friendly el”. Business Class passengers Limon Rum, and Absolut March and will run until further six-nation Gulf Cooperation Internet Booking Engine dou- on SriLankan’s long-haul and Vodka. SriLankan also carries notice. It is valid for bookings Council (GCC) this year, has bled in 2009, and the airline is medium haul sectors (Europe, no less than six different types made from 1st March, 2010. made bringing both states back a priority. —Reuters

Waha Capital eyes two buys in 2010

Dubai Lynx attracts 1,364 entries, over 1,000 delegates

UAE’s MAF Properties eyes $817mn Syria project: CEO

Book Business Class on www.srilankan.aero and get cash back

24

BUSINESS GLOBAL DAILY MARKET REPORT

Kuwait stocks pare gains

Samba leads Saudi to new high; Dubai up MIDEAST STOCK MARKETS

KUWAIT: The Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) and major indicators ended yesterday’s trading session in the red reversing Monday’s marginal gains. The market’s decline was backed by losses witnessed in the Banking Sector and several blue-chip stocks.

GGI shed 3.04 points (-1.45 percent) during the session to reach 206.59 points.

Furthermore, the KSE Price Index decreased by 51.50 points (-0.69 percent) yesterday and closed at 7,444.30 points.

Market capitalization was down KD471.36mn yesterday to reach KD33.80bn.

Market breadth During the session, 143 companies were traded. Market breadth was skewed towards decliners as 74 equities retreated versus 32 that advanced. A total of 102 stocks remained unchanged during the trading session.

Trading activities ended on a mixed note yesterday as volume of shares traded on the exchange decreased by 11.02 percent to reach 359.72mn shares. However, value of shares traded increased by 3.61 percent to stand at KD59.57mn.

The Investment Sector was the volume leader accounting for 36.78 percent of total market volume. The Services Sector was the value leader with 36.75 percent of total traded value.

Manazel Holding Company saw 32.76mn shares changing hands, making it the volume leader.

Zain was the value leader, with a total traded value of KD6.75mn.

In terms of top gainers, Gulfinvest International Company was the top gainer for the day, adding 10.64 percent and closed at KD0.026. On the other hand, Wethaq Takaful Insurance Company shed 10.45

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

percent and closed at KD0.060, making it the biggest decliner in the market yesterday.

Sector-wise Global’s sectoral indices ended on a negative note except for Global Food Index being the only gainer. The index ended the day up 0.06 percent backed

by Livestock Transport & Trading Company being the only decliner in the index. The scrip ended the day down 1.45 percent and closed at KD0.340.

Global Banking Index was the biggest decliner yesterday, down 1.99 percent backed by six out of the nine banks ending the day in the red. Among them heavyweights National Bank of

Kuwait and Kuwait Finance House ended the day down 3.45 percent and 1.75 percent, respectively.

Global Services Index was the second biggest decliner in the market yesterday declining by 1.79 percent backed by heavyweight Zain. The scrip ended the day with a drop of 2.90 percent to close at KD1.340. Also noteworthy was Kuwait & Gulf Link Transport Company which ended the day down 3.57 percent and closed at KD0.270. Global’s special indices all ended in the red except for Global High Yield Index which was the only gainer.

The index ended the day up a marginal 0.005 percent backed

by Bank of Kuwait & the Middle East ending the day up 1.85 percent. Global Large Cap Index was the biggest decliner, shedding 2.21 percent from its value backed by six out the ten stocks that comprise the index ending in the red yesterday.

Oil news The price of OPEC basket of twelve crudes stood at $76.24 a barrel on Monday, 15/3/2010, compared with $77.74 the previous Friday, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations.

There is a consensus among OPEC members to keep output unchanged, and no change is expected at today’s meeting in Vienna, Oil Minister Sheikh

Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah said yesterday. He also said OPEC would ask for more compliance on output targets.

Market news The Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK), on 15/03/2010, okayed the request of Tamdeen Investment Co to repurchase 10 percent maximum of its issued shares for further six months, from the expiry date of last approval on 01/04//2010. The Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) has given the go-ahead to Gulf Investment House (GIH) to repurchase or offload a 10 percent maximum of its issued shares for further six months, as of 17/03/2010.

DUBAI: Samba Financial Group led Saudi Arabia’s index to a 17-month high yesterday ahead of a possible bond issue as Dubai and Qatar also hit landmark peaks as most Middle East markets resumed an uptrend.

The Saudi index rose 0.5 percent to its highest finish since October 2008 and Qatar reached a 12-week high, but Kuwait and Abu Dhabi slipped. Samba rose 4.3 percent. The lender is talking to several banks about a dollar-denominated international bond issue.

“Samba’s news gives good sentiment on banks,” said Saleh Al-Onazi, vicepresident of principal investment at Swicorp.

Banks vastly underperformed the Saudi market last year as investors fretted over provisions from bad debts, but Samba’s bond move helps erase some of these doubts, Onazi said.

Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC), the largest stock on the index, ended 1.3 percent higher, hitting a 17-month high, buoyed by firm oil prices. “There is a phrase in Saudi Arabia that SABIC is the TASI and the TASI is SABIC,” added Onazi.

Crude was up 1.3 percent at $80.85 a barrel at 1359 GMT ahead of OPEC’s meeting on Wednesday, boosting sentiment in the world’s top oil exporter. The organization is expected to keep output levels unchanged.

Dubai’s index hit a nineweek high as low valua-

tions drew in buyers ahead of a Dubai World debt offer, which is slated to be unveiled in March. “The market is still attractive and so retail players are taking advantage of the upside potential,” said Chamel Fahmy, Beltone Financial regional senior sales trader. “Dubai is trading at a discount to the MENA region.”

Union Properties and Deyaar rose 13 and 8.7 percent respectively.

“Whenever you see the blue-chips perform very well and confidence is up, investors will then shift towards the smaller names and so that’s why we’re seeing the likes of Union Properties and Deyaar do so well,” added Fahmy.

Drake & Scull International rose 4.4 percent after saying it plans a 7 percent cash dividend.

Depa rose 4.5 percent to a 16-week high. The contractor will switch to dirhams from dollars and implement a two-for-one stock split, with the former change a possible precursor for the stock to switch from the Nasdaq Dubai to the Dubai Financial Market.

“There’s not much interest in the Nasdaq Dubai,” said Ayman elSaheb, Darahem Financial Brokerage director of operations.

Doha’s index rose 1.7 percent as volumes hit a 14-week high after the market regulator gave the go-ahead for Qatar banks to trade shares on the bourse.

“This was a big incentive

for the market today - the main problem over the past few months has been the low trading volumes, so this move will be supportive of liquidity,” said Hani Girgis, assistant chief dealer at Dlala brokerage.

Industries Qatar (IQ) climbed 3.4 percent and Qatar National Bank (QNB) rose 3.9 percent.

“If I want to move the index higher, IQ and QNB are the first stocks I would choose,” add Girgis.Barwa Real Estate climbed 3 percent after reporting rising full-year profit.

HIGHLIGHTS SAUDI ARABIA The index rose 0.5 percent to 6,614 points.

DUBAI The index rose 2.1 percent to 1,758 points.

EGYPT The index climbed 1.8 percent to 6,466 points.

ABU DHABI The benchmark slipped 0.2 percent to 2,861 points.

KUWAIT The measure fell 0.7 percent to 7,444 points.

QATAR The index climbed 1.7 percent to 7,050 points.

OMAN The benchmark rose 0.2 percent to 6,620 points.

BAHRAIN The index edged up 0.02 percent to 1,510 points.

— Reuters

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

BUSINESS

25

German investor confidence drops again in March FRANKFURT: German investor confidence slipped for the sixth month in a row in March as expectations settled for a slow recovery in the next half-year, a closely watched survey showed yesterday.

The economic sentiment index of the ZEW Institute showed investors’ March outlook for the next six months dropped to 44.5 points from 45.1 points in February. The survey is viewed by many as a barometer for the economic outlook in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy.

ZEW, or the Center for European Economic Research, based in Mannheim, said that despite the decline, the index remains

well above its historical average of 27.2 points. “German business activity has moved from the intensive care unit to the rehab,” ZEW President Wolfgang Franz said in the report. “But it is still far from full recovery.”

The ZEW said the German economy has seen some indications of recovery in industrial production and incoming orders. Economic expectations for the 16 countries that share the euro currency decreased in March to 37.9 points from 40.2 points in February, while the indicator for the current economic situation in the euro-zone improved by 0.8 points and now stands at minus 61.3 points. “The downward trend in the ZEW mirrors the expecta-

tions that the still strong impulses from the inventory cycle and the fiscal stimulus measures are gradually phasing out,” UniCredit Economist Alexander Koch said in a research note. “The current level remains, however, above average in late winter, suggesting that no abrupt end of the economic recovery is in the cards.” Koch said European countries’ budget concerns, particularly Greece’s, didn’t have much effect on German growth expectations. Furthermore, the weaker euro of recent weeks, should help German exports as European goods become cheaper to markets like the US. Earlier yesterday, the Federal Statistical

Office revised its 2009 export figures slightly upward. The Federal Statistical Office said that Europe’s biggest economy exported goods and services worth €808.2 billion (a little over $1.1 trillion) last year. It initially reported a figure of €803.2 billion last month.

The revision doesn’t change the fact that Germany lost its crown as the world’s leading exporter to China last year. Beijing has put its 2009 exports at more than $1.2 trillion.

Germany’s economy returned to growth last year after a deep recession. The statistical office said fourth-quarter exports were down only 6.4 percent on the year at 216.7 billion euros.—AP

BERLIN: German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble delivers a speech during a debate about the budget at the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament yesterday in Berlin. — AFP

Finance, strategy ministers add to pressure on CB

Japan govt prods BOJ for action, yen fall in doubt TOKYO: J apanese cabinet ministers pressed the Bank of J apan to ease monetary policy in its tw o-day meeting that started yesterday, but the government may be disappointed by the outcome. The central bank is expected to loosen policy but that might not have the market impact some analysts believe the government is hoping for. A boost to the economy w ould be w el-

NEW DELHI: In this file picture, visitors inspect Tata Motor’s cheapest car ‘Nano’ at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi during the 10th Auto Expo 2010. — AFP

Tata Nano likely to lose much-hyped price tag MUMBAI: India’s Tata Nano was launched with great fanfare as a 100,000-rupee ($2,200) vehiclea round number that neatly encapsulated its status as the world’s cheapest car.

But analysts say parent group Tata and its chairman Ratan Tata will struggle to keep the jellybean-shaped vehicle on sale at this level due to the rising costs of raw materials, labor and new higher taxes.

Described as India’s “People’s Car,” the Nano is pitched at the country’s aspiring middle-classes, many of whom currently travel on two wheels but are looking to upgrade. “The Nano is Ratan Tata’s dream project. But as costs rise, the Nano will not remain a 100,000-rupee car,” said Vaishali Jajoo, from Mumbai-based Angel Broking. Tata faces the same problems as other car manufacturers, such as Japan-owned Maruti Suzuki and its rival Hyundai Motors, which have hiked their prices this year.

Steel in most forms has seen an average price rise of 25 percent since April 2009, Jajoo said, while the prices of tyres and auto accessories are rising as demand for copper, aluminum, plastics and rubber picks up.

The increase in commodity prices can be attributed to rising global demand following the end of the financial crisis and deep recessions in developed countries, analysts say.

Tata Motors has guaranteed that the first 100,000 cars will be delivered “price protected” to owners, which means they get the vehicle at the promised price, regardless of rising costs.

At least 26,500 Nanos have been sold since its launch in July last year, with the basic model priced at 100,000 rupees from the factory floor, while the popular, high-end version, the Nano LX, sells for 172,360-185,375 rupees. When a second round of bookings opens-seen as likely in the last quarter of the year-the cost of an LX could rise to nearly 200,000 rupees, while the basic model could be about 130,000, analysts say.

Tata Motors was coy on a possible price rise.

“What happens in the future is difficult to say,” a

company spokesman said.

But while announcing its previous quarter earnings, the company admitted it faced challenges from the rising cost of raw materials, withdrawal of government stimulus and a possible hike in interest rates. The Nano has sparked a race to create other ultra-low-cost cars for the Indian and other emerging markets.

India and its 1.2-billion-strong population is a huge draw because of the low number of car owners. Car penetration is just eight per 1,000 people, compared with 550 per 1,000 in Germany and 495 in France. French automaker Renault and its Japanese partner Nissan plan to launch a car to rival the Nano in 2012 in partnership with scooter and three-wheel specialist Bajaj Auto.

Ford, Toyota and Honda are also poised to launch small cars in India in the next two years.

Nevertheless, analysts said the Nano would still hold its place. The basic Nano is on average about 1,300 dollars cheaper than its nearest rivals, the Maruti five-seater Omni at 200,000 rupees and the Maruti-800 at 210,000 rupees.

“The Nano has a first-mover advantage (in India).

Rural demand will offset any impact of lower demand due to a price rise,” said analyst Gaurang Shah, from Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.

The car’s novelty value is also a big advantage, with the Nano still getting second looks on busy Indian roads eight months after its launch. “It has that toy-like, cuddly, safe feeling,” said Sunaina Kakkad, a Mumbai call-centre worker, who is looking to buy her first car.

The company is also looking to sell it in the United States, but it could be years before the car hits US showrooms, as the company re-designs to incorporate a larger engine and meet higher safety standards. Last year, Tata unveiled a European version of the Nano sporting airbags and leather trim, with more stringent safety and emissions standards. The Nano Europa will hit the market in 2010-11 at a price near 5,000 euros ($6,390). — AFP

DUESSELDORF: An airplane of Germany’s airline AirBerlin takes off from the airport in Duesseldorf, Germany. German airline Air Berlin Plc will cut back its order of Boeing Co 787 aircraft to 15 from 25 and reduce its option for additional 787 aircraft to five aircraft from 10, Air Berlin said yesterday. —AP

The yen fell after the BOJ introduced a three-month funding operation at an emergency meeting in December, but this week’s meeting lacks the ability to surprise unless the central bank produces a shock decision, dealers said.

“The BOJ thinks they have to come up with something, but what they may come up with will be quite limited ,” said Shinichi Takasaka, manager of FX and financial products trading at Mitsubishi UFJ Trust” Banking Co. “People have had such a long time to price this in. It won’t be a real surprise like the emergency meeting last year.” What the BOJ might decide this week For more stories on Japan’s economy click QCan the BOJ beat deflation?

The central bank is leaning towards easing monetary policy, sources said, following government calls to beat long-running deflation. The most likely option is for the BOJ to expand the funding operation it launched in December. That offers banks up to 10 trillion yen (110.5 billion) in three-month loans at the central bank policy rate of 0.1 percent.

After the emergency meeting in December, the yen pulled back from a 14year high against the dollar of 84.82. It trended lower after the meeting to hit close to 94 per dollar in January, a five-month low.

Analysts say the government may be hoping for a similar drop this month to protect exporters’ earnings and lift corporate sentiment before the fiscal year ends on March 31.

But, should the BOJ expand the funding operation as expected, yen declines are likely to be limited, traders said. The government concern over the currency may be because of signs it could strengthen again.

It hit a three-month high early in March of close to 88 per dollar. It has since pulled back, to around 90 on Tuesday, but speculators have built long positions to signal expectations for the currency to rise.

Traders also said purchases of dollar/yen call options with strikes around 92 yen have slowed compared with last week, a sign expectations for the yen to fall back to that sort of level have faded.

Japanese Finance Minister Naoto Kan, who can influence monetary policy by sending a representative to sit in on BOJ meetings, said yesterday he was closely watching the outcome of the BOJ meeting this week.

Speaking to lawmakers in parliament, he also said markets should set currency rates but added that the government would need to act if moves were abnormal.

“The yen is relatively stable now but concerns remain that the euro’s fall could affect the yen in the near future,” Kan said.

“I think that’s a risk factor.”

The euro has fallen more than 7 percent against the yen so far this year, part of a broad-based decline reflecting concerns about the debt woes of some euro-zone countries, including Greece.

Japan emerged from its longest recession in decades in the second quarter of last year following the global credit crunch. Exports are recovering, but domestic demand remains weak partly because the country has been in deflation for more than a year.

Spare industrial capacity means that capital spending is weak. A stronger economy could help government ratings, which have halved since it took power six months ago, putting at risk its ability to win a majority in upper house elections expected in July.

“We would like the BOJ to steer monetary policy to help boost production, corporate capital spending and personal consumption and help energize the nation,” National Strategy Minister Yoshito Sengoku told a news conference after a cabinet meeting.

“The BOJ’s monetary policy has a major impact on people’s mindset,” Sengoku said.

Kan has gradually increased the pressure on the BOJ in recent weeks by saying he wants deflation to end this year and that inflation of 1 percent is desirable. The BOJ sees deflation lasting for a few more years. The government has prodded the BOJ to loosen policy even though it says the economy is steadily picking up because it wants to prevent a strong yen from derailing the export-driven recovery, analysts said. — Reuters

come new s for the government, w hose opinion ratings are slipping ahead of upper house elections this year. Analysts suspect the government is prodding the BOJ to ease its already ultra-loose policy to w eaken the yen, hoping that w ill boost exports and offset deflation, but markets have had time to price in the expected outcome of the meeting.

SHANGHAI: Passengers prepare to check in at a new terminal at Hong Qiao airport, which opens ahead of the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai yesterday. Shanghai opened a new terminal at its domestic airport, as China’s second-largest city prepares to welcome tens of millions of visitors to the Expo 2010 starting on May 1.—AFP

Shanghai opens new airport terminal SHANGHAI: Shanghai inaugurated a massive new airport terminal and transport hub yesterday meant to help the city handle the 70 million or more visitors it expects to attend the upcoming World Expo.

The new Hongqiao terminal is part of a sweeping upgrade of the transport system for Shanghai, a city of about 20 million people. Hongqiao Airport’s new second terminal, located west of the current terminal building, will handle almost all domestic flights from the airport, though some charter and international flights will still use the older facility. In 2009, Hongqiao handled 25 million passen-

gers. The 15.3 billion yuan ($2.2 billion) expansion will raise its capacity to 40 million passengers. The hub, which will connect directly to the country’s railway and subway systems, will have a daily capacity of 1.1 million, the government says.

Shanghai’s larger, newer international airport in Pudong, on the opposite side of the city, handles most of the city’s international flights as well as many domestic routes.

The Expo, which begins May 1 and will run for six months, may attract as many as 800,000 visitors a day at peak times, stretching even the new transport systems to their limits.

Rio ‘in talks’ with Chinalco over huge Africa ore field SYDNEY: Rio Tinto is in talks with China’s Chinalco on a massive mining project in Guinea, reports said yesterday, raising hopes of a rapprochement which could unlock one of the world’s biggest iron ore fields.

The mining giant is in “advanced” discussions with its former Chinese suitor, the Wall Street Journal and Australia’s Fairfax media group both said without giving sources. Rio did not make any comment when contacted by AFP. The reports follow last year’s collapse of a $19.5 billion Chinalco cash injection for debt-strapped Rio, and China’s arrest of four Rio employees during unsuccessful iron ore contract talks.

Analysts said Rio wanted to tap state-owned Chinalco’s vast wealth and influence in the West African country to push forward development of the $12 billion Simandou field, which has been stymied by political upheaval.

“It shows that the bridges between the two have not been burned and they can strike a relationship where they both bring something unique to the table,” said Tim Schroeders of funds manager Pengana Capital. “It’s encouraging in terms of China’s access to Rio Tinto’s technical expertise and Rio Tinto’s access to Chinalco’s access to capital and ability to do business in difficult places.”—AFP

Almost all are expected to be Chinese, many of them traveling from the densely populated Yangtze River Delta region that surrounds Shanghai.

The smaller, older terminal operated at about three times its intended capacity, but was managed very efficiently. A passenger often could arrive, check in and be on a plane in a half-hour or less.

The new, bigger terminal will require walks of nearly 20 minutes from security for some of its most distant gates, but will have 80 checkin counters and 47 security gates for fast service, officials say. — AP

Bipartisan jobs bill advances in Senate WASHINGTON: A bipartisan bill that would provide tax cuts for businesses that hire unemployed workers cleared Republican delaying tactics in the Senate Monday, opening the way for final congressional approval. The Senate voted 61-30 to end debate on the measure, eliminating the possibility of Republican-led delays. The Senate is expected to vote on final passage today, sending the bill to President Barack Obama for his signature.

Passage would give Obama a much-needed victory while highlighting Democratic efforts in Congress to address unemployment in the run-up to midterm elections this fall. “We need to help people to get jobs,” said Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. “We need to do more to help businesses to hire more workers.” The $35 billion bill blends $15 billion in tax cuts and subsidies for infrastructure bonds issued by local governments with $20 billion in federal transporta-

tion money.

The Senate passed a similar version of the measure in February. The House made minor changes when it passed the bill, requiring its return to the Senate for approval. The bill contains two major provisions. First, it would exempt businesses hiring the unemployed from the 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax through December and give employers an additional $1,000 credit if new workers stay on the job a full year.

The Social Security trust funds would be reimbursed for the lost revenue. Second, it would extend highway and mass transit programs through the end of the year and pump in $20 billion in time for the spring construction season. The money would make up for lower-than-expected gasoline tax revenues. The Senate vote came the same day House Democrats unveiled a new bill designed to help small businesses that could be voted on as early as this week.—AP

26

BUSINESS

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Fresh push for Obama’s Wall Street reforms WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama’s stuttering bid to rein in Wall Street got a shot in the arm on Monday, as a key Senate ally unveiled a reform described as the most sweeping in 80 years.

Senate Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd outlined plans to toughen regulation of the massive US financial sector, which has been blamed for dragging the global economy to the edge of collapse. Speaking two years after the investment bank Bear Stearns collapsed-a starting point for the crisisDodd said a rapid overhaul was needed to prevent another large-scale crisis.

“If there was a watchdog on duty, it did not bark,” Dodd said announcing the Democrats’ plan. “We need to strengthen not only its bark but also its bite.”

The package’s highlights include the creation of a consumer protection agency and a powerful committee with the power to break up “too-big-to-fail”

banks and other financial institutions.

The bill would also clamp down on hedge funds and other risky investment instruments accused of fueling the crisis, and give shareholders a say on big executive bonuses.

Obama vowed to fight for the proposals, which he said would forge “a strong foundation to build a safer financial system.” Coming to office with the economy in meltdown, Obama took over a program that pumped $700 billion into the financial sector, a deeply unpopular bailout for banks, insurers and government-backed mortgage firms.

Fastening on to that popular anger, Obama on Monday demanded Wall Street be held to account.

“We cannot wait any longer for real financial reform that brings accountability to the financial system and makes sure that the American taxpayer is never again asked to bail out the irresponsibility of our largest banks and

financial institutions,” the president said.

But the reforms have been the subject of fierce lobbying in Washington, with some of the city’s biggest political hitters scrapping over what the rules should be, and who should enforce them. News that Dodd would place the consumer protection agency at the Federal Reserve has been met with barely concealed fury by his Democratic allies, who accused him of rewarding an entity that failed to prevent the worst financial crisis in decades. In a bid to address some of those criticisms, Dodd said the agency would be headed by a director appointed by Obama, and would have the power to write rules governing all financial entities.

Today Americans face an alphabet soup of financial regulators. Depending on the complaint, redress might be found through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal

Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the National Credit Union Administration or the Treasury’s Office of Thrift Supervision. Supporters say a new, powerful, independent consumer agency could transform policing of everything from mortgages, to credit cards to banking fees.

But in private, those close to the discussions accuse Dodd of watering down reforms, pandering to Republicans and the banking lobby in order to strike a deal before he retires later this year.

The powerful US Chamber of Commerce said meanwhile the bill took “three steps backwards” and threatened the economy’s long term recovery, attack it as a “federalization of corporate governance.”

“The Chamber will continue to oppose a new independent consumer financial regulator that will reduce access to credit for businesses and consumers” it said in a statement. — AFP

Politicizing FX rates will do harm: Commerce ministry

China says yuan is not to blame for trade surplus BEIJING: China yesterday again turned a deaf ear to US demands for a stronger yuan, saying the currency is not the cause of its trade surplus and pledging to keep the exchange rate stable to help its exporters.

Beijing and Washington appear to be locked in a dialogue of the deaf in the run-up to a determination by the US Treasury Department due on He described two-way trade ties as very important and said Beijing was willing to enhance cooperation with Washington. But he rejected the argument that China’s hefty trade surplus with the United States was due to the yuan, also called the renminbi, which some US economists judge to be 25 percent or more undervalued.

“The trade surplus is not caused by the renminbi exchange rate. The trade surplus is an outcome and phenomenon of globalisation. It will exist for a time,” he said.

Yao was speaking a day after 130 US lawmakers demanded that President

Barack Obama get tough with China over its currency practices. “The impact of China’s currency manipulation on the US economy cannot be overstated. Maintaining its currency at a devalued exchange rate provides a subsidy to Chinese companies and unfairly disadvantages foreign competitors,” the legislators said in a letter.

Yao asked rhetorically whether China, which has a trade deficit with Japan, South Korea and some developing countries, should emulate the United States and pass a law to deal with those countries.

“So we hope that in surmounting the

April 15 as to whether China is manipulating its exchange rate. “If the exchange rate issue is politicized, then in coping with the global financial crisis this will be of no help in coordination between the parties involved,” Commerce Ministry spokesman Yao Jian told a regular news conference. crisis and reviving its economy, the United States should be a promoter of free trade, not an obstacle to it,” he said.

If the Treasury does rule that China is manipulating its exchange rate, the US government would be required in principle to start “expedited negotiations” on the issue.

Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday dismissed US complaints about China’s exchange rate, calling them counterproductive and saying he did not believe the yuan was undervalued. But Wen also recommitted China to pushing ahead with reform of the yuan’s

Slim a maverick tycoon in Mexico’s business elite MEXICO CITY: Carlos Slim, the world’s richest man according to Forbes, has created hundreds of thousands of jobs in Mexico, but he also is seen to typify a business elite that amassed fortunes by exploiting the poor.

Slim, whose Telmex and America Movil companies dominate Mexico’s telephone industry and have helped him build a $53.5 billion fortune, was named the world’s wealthiest tycoon by the business magazine last week.

In a country where homes made of sheet metal and cardboard sit in the shadows of flashy apartment buildings, Slim, 70, personifies the yawning gap between Mexico’s small wealthy class and its millions of impoverished residents.

“He owns Telmex, he’s the owner of all of Mexico. It’s very ironic that as a country we don’t have the same economic growth,” said Veronica Delgado, an architect shopping at one of Slim’s gift stores in a well-to-do Mexico City neighborhood.

Like many developing nations, Mexico suffers from a weak education system, shoddy healthcare services, rampant corruption and a shortage of high-quality jobs. One in five Mexicans does not earn enough to eat properly, and half of all adults never progress beyond primary school.

But Mexico also boasts a significant upper class that drives flashy sports cars, lives in swank neighborhoods and sends its children to the United States to be educated.

The gap between rich and poor is wider in Mexico than in more developed countries like the United States and Canada, although it has narrowed slightly over the past decade, according to data from the World Bank and United Nations.

While Mexicans joke that it is impossible to go a day without paying Slim, his companies have grown over decades to employ 270,000 people, including 35,000 jobs created last year as the economy battled the worst recession since the 1930s.

Slim’s far-flung business empire includes some of Mexico’s best-known department stores, hotels, restaurants, oil drilling, building firms and the Inbursa bank.

Since acquiring Mexico’s state telephone company in a 1990 privatization, he has been accused of trying to maintain a monopoly and of charging unreasonably high prices that have made it harder for small companies to expand.

“He’s a businessman with a lot of vision ...

Good for him, but the fact that he’s the world’s richest man doesn’t help me,” said Heriberto Gonzalez, a taco seller paying his monthly phone bill at a Telmex store in Mexico City.

A poll published on Monday by the newspaper Milenio showed Mexicans were divided on whether Slim deserved his fortune, with about a third saying he had earned it and slightly fewer saying it was due to connections with powerful officials.

Mexico’s rich fawn over Slim, but his fortune contrasts with a low-key lifestyle.

He has lived in the same house for about 40 years and drives an aging Mercedes Benz, while eschewing private jets, yachts and the other lux-

This recent file photo shows the world’s richest billionaire Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim.—AFP uries popular among Mexico’s super-wealthy.

At the end of a recent glitzy event in Mexico City he was seen strolling away with a bodyguard while other wealthy attendees waited for their chauffeured automobiles.

But the heyday of Slim’s telecommunications empire is passing as competition in the industry slowly picks up due to improving technologyTelmex controls 80 percent of Mexico’s fixed lines and America Movil has more than 70 percent of the wireless market.

Slim was not the only Mexican to make the Forbes list of billionaires.

Also on it was Ricardo Salinas, who built his fortune selling furniture and appliances to lowincome Mexicans, offering credit at interest rates above 60 percent and sending motorcycle couriers to their homes to collect weekly payments.

Other Mexican billionaires include German Larrea Mota, owner of copper miner Grupo Mexico, Televisa broadcasting tycoon Emilio Azcarraga, supermarket operator Jeronimo Arango and banker Roberto Hernandez.

To the ire of Mexico’s government, the country’s No 1 drug lord fugitive, Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman, is also on the list. In recent years, Slim has become more involved in combating poverty, illiteracy and poor healthcare in Latin America, while promoting soccer, boxing and other sports projects for the poor. His foundations donated more than $600 million in 2009.

Slim, who is far less charitable than Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates or billionaire investor Warren Buffett, has said that creating jobs is the best way for businessmen to combat poverty. Gates’ $53 billion fortune would be worth more than $80 billion if he had not given much of his money to charity, according to Forbes. — Reuters

exchange rate mechanism-leaving the door open to reintroducing exchange rate flexibility if it suits Beijing.

China has kept the yuan pegged around 6.83 per dollar since July 2008 to help its exporters, and Yao, the Commerce Ministry spokesman, said stability would remain the watchword in 2010.

“We have no reason at all to view the future market with unfettered optimism,” he said of the outlook for exports. “So we will keep our economic and trade policies, including exchange rate policies and export tax rebates, stable this year,” he added. — Reuters

InfoGroup’s ex-CEO paying $7.3m to settle with SEC WASHINGTON: The founder and former CEO of database provider InfoGroup Inc agreed on Monday to pay more than $7.3 million to settle federal regulators’ charges he siphoned off nearly $9.5 million from the company to finance a lifestyle that included jet travel to Africa and Europe, homes around the US and 20 automobiles. Vinod Gupta also was accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of putting Omaha, Nebraska-based InfoGroup Inc into $9.3 million of undisclosed transactions with other companies in which he held a personal stake.

He agreed to the settlement announced by the SEC without admitting or denying the agency’s allegations but did agree to refrain from future violations of securities laws.

Gupta was the chief executive and chairman of the company, known as Info, from 1992 through August 2008, when he stepped down as part of a proposed settlement of a shareholder lawsuit. The lawsuit alleged that Info misspent millions of dollars, some of it on domestic and international air travel for former President Bill Clinton and his wife, then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Gupta has been a major donor to Democrats and gave at least $1 million to Bill Clinton’s presidential library in Arkansas. He also took part in a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton in New York in June 2007. A spokesman for Hillary Clinton said that year that all flights she took at Info’s expense were reimbursed and disclosed in accordance with Federal Election Commission and Senate ethics rules. Bill Clinton had a six-year, $3.3 million consulting contract with the company, which sells business and consumer databases used for sales leads, mailing lists and direct marketing.

The SEC also said it reached a settlement with the former chairman of InfoGroup’s audit committee, Vasant Raval, who is paying a $50,000 civil fine. Raval, without admitting or denying the allegations, also agreed to a five-year bar from serving as an officer or director of any public company.

Two former chief financial officers, Rajnish Das and Stormy Dean, are still facing charges. The SEC says the two rubber-stamped hundreds of Gupta’s requests to have his expenses reimbursed by the company. An attorney for Dean, David Zisser, disputed the SEC’s charges and said his client would contest them at trial. “We think that the SEC is wrong on the facts and the law, and that’s the position we’re going to be pursuing in court,” Zisser said by telephone from Denver. A lawyer representing Das didn’t immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.

“Gupta stole millions of dollars from Info shareholders by treating the company like it was his personal ATM,” SEC Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami said in a statement. “Other corporate officers also abused their positions of trust by looking the other way instead of standing up for investors and bringing the scheme to a halt.”

The SEC’s civil lawsuit against Gupta, filed in federal court in Omaha, alleged that from 2003 to 2007, he improperly tapped company funds to pay for more than $3 million of personal jet travel for himself, family and friends to destinations such as South Africa, Italy and Mexico’s resort city of Cancun. Gupta, 63, is a resident of Las Vegas.

He also, according to the SEC, used investor funds to pay: $2.8 million in expenses related to his 80-foot (24.38-meter) yacht; $1.3 million in credit card bills and other expenses stemming from 28 country club memberships; and the costs of 20 automobiles, homes in Omaha; Aspen, Colorado; Washington, DC; Miami, California and Hawaii; and three personal life insurance policies. In the August 2007 words of the Delaware judge who presided over the shareholder suit, Gupta’s collection of luxury cars “would leave James Bond green with envy.”

Gupta failed to inform the other members of InfoGroup’s board that for his own financial benefit he had bought shares of a company that was an acquisition target of Info, the SEC said.

He has agreed to pay $4.04 million in restitution plus about $1.1 million in interest and a $2.2 million civil fine. Gupta also consented to an order barring him from serving as an officer or director of any public company and putting restrictions on the voting of his Info stock. As for Info, it paid Gupta about $9.5 million in perks that weren’t disclosed to shareholders and enabled his personal use of the corporate jet and other accoutrements of a luxury lifestyle, the SEC alleged. The company agreed in a settlement to refrain from future violations of the securities laws. It neither admitted nor denied the allegations.

Attorneys for Gupta, Raval and the company didn’t immediately return telephone calls seeking comment. — AP

SAN FRANCISCO: Union workers hold signs during a rally in support of a proposed stimulus reform package for the City of San Francisco in San Francisco, California. Hundreds of union workers held a rally on the steps of San Francisco City Hall in support of a proposed stimulus reform package that would bring millions of dollars to the city to fund construction projects and create new jobs. — AFP

Recession left ‘walking wounded’ workers: Study NEW YORK: Many workers around the world have given up hopes of advancing in their jobs, but the bad economy is keeping them from finding new ones. Such “walking wounded” workers are increasingly exchanging ambition for job stability, which now even trumps pay as a consideration, according to a biennial survey by the human resources consultancy Towers Watson Co. People are becoming “nesters,” who prefer to stay in one career or with one employer for their entire career.

The report highlights a disconnect between what such “nesters” want and the growing trends that are shaping the global workforce: an increasing emphasis on flexible staff and short-term employment, more offshoring and part-time work. “People are increasingly wanting things that are harder to get,” said Max Caldwell, a leader of Towers Watson’s talent and reward business. “They’d like to settle into one or two companies for life. What people want is security, stability and a long-term employment relationship, (which are) increasingly out of reach.”

Globally, a third of workers prefer to work for one organization their whole life, according to the study, while another third want to work for just two or three employers.

That preference for “nesting” reflects anxiety about jobs prospects and about factors like healthcare costs and retirement planning, expenses that are increasingly being shifted onto workers rather than carried by employers.

In the United States, almost twice as many workers expect continued deterioration in the jobs picture as those who expect improvement. A majority — 51 percent-say there are no career advancement opportunities at their jobs, but nonetheless 81 percent are not actively looking for a new position.

Among the study’s other findings: • 30 percent of US workers plan to work past age 70.

• About half of US workers feel unprepared for planning or managing their retirement.

• 56 percent of US workers expect little change in the job market this year.

• Workers in developing economies like India and China are far more willing to jump from job to job than their counterparts in countries like Germany and the United States.

The study adds to recent data that indicates a high level of uncertainty about the shape and duration of the economic recovery. Global staffing services firm Manpower Incsaid last week its quarterly measure of hiring intentions dipped slightly, suggesting US employees are less willing to hire in the second quarter than in the first.

‘WALKING WOUNDED’ Workers are more risk-averse because the recession has shown them how quickly jobs can disappear, and have become discouraged since a tentative economic recovery has not yet produced significant jobs gains.

“This notion of a jobless recovery is a very relevant trend, creating an environment with greater risk of disengagement. In some organizations, you have a walking wounded syndrome,” Caldwell said.

Employers are still focused on managing compensation costs and they are cautious about staffing back up as demand increases, he said.

That may leave more room for companies to hold down compensation costs. The study, based on a survey of 20,000 workers in 22 countries, hints wage growth for the next few years may be flat or at least less robust than in previous recoveries. For employers, the key challenges of managing through the next year or two include motivating workers, by creating an appealing work environment with room to advance or develop new skills, according to the study. Employees, meanwhile, may need to reset expectations lower. Still, the recession’s effect on workers was not as profound as that of the Great Depression in the 1930s, Caldwell said. But it was the first deep downturn for an entire generation and is likely to leave a lasting impression, likely making people take on less risk and become less ambitious about their careers. — Reuters

South Korea wants fast US free trade ratification SEOUL: South Korea’s industry minister called on the United States to quickly ratify a bilateral free trade agreement that has languished in limbo for nearly three years after being signed. The two countries finished negotiations for the ambitious accord to cut tariffs and other barriers to commerce in April of 2007 and signed it three months later. There has been little progress since amid changes in government in both countries, the global financial crisis, declining trade and US demands that South Korea address its wide surplus in auto trade.

“I would like to ask the US Congress to develop the momentum for having the Korea-US FTA ratified as soon as possible,” Choi Kyung-hwan, who heads the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, said yesterday. He was speaking at a question and answer session with US business executives also attended by the US ambassador to Seoul. Choi said South Korea “would do its best” to ensure passage of the accord.

South Korea has continued to aggressively pursue other free trade agreements. Seoul has pacts in force with Chile, India, Singapore, the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the European Free Trade Association, which comprises Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

South Korea has also concluded negotiations with the European Union, though the agreement must still be signed and ratified. Seoul is also negotiating deals with Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Peru and Colombia. Choi said the US remains a significant force in South Korea’s economy despite being eclipsed by China, the European Union and Japan in overall bilateral trade rankings.

“Currently, China is seen as Korea’s biggest trade partner, but you should take note that many Korean products go through China before arriving in the US and this also goes for Mexico as well,” he said. “In terms of final destination this means that the US is Korea’s biggest trade partner.” In 2009, the US ranked as South Korea’s fourth-largest trading partner behind China, the European Union and Japan, according to figures posted on the Ministry of Knowledge Economy website.

Bilateral trade between South Korea and the US totaled $66.7 billion in 2009, down from $84.7

Taken, Feb. 10, 2008, Kim Choongsoo speaks to the media at the presidential house in Seoul, South Korea.

South Korean President Lee Myungbak has nominated the Paris-based diplomat to be the next governor of the Bank of Korea, the presidential office announced yesterday, as the central bank debates when best to raise interest rates from a record low. —AP billion in 2008. South Korea’s trade with China totaled $140.9 billion last year, down from $168.3 billion the year before. “Foreign investment and advanced technology from the United States into Korea is very vital for Korea’s economy,” Choi said. “So the current relationship between Korea and the US should continue to grow.” In a speech earlier to the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea, Choi said that even as overall foreign investment into South Korea fell 2 percent last year, that from the US grew 10 percent. — AP

TECHNOLOGY

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

27

China tells Google to obey rules even if it withdraws China’s commerce ministry not notified of shutdown

TOKYO: People rent power assisted bicycles at a “solar parking lot”, a new initiative set up by Tokyo’s Setagaya ward with Japanese electronics company Sanyo, near the railway station in Setagaya ward yesterday. —AFP

Sanyo sets up solar parking lots TOKYO: Japanese electronics giant Sanyo said yesterday it had opened two “solar parking lots” in Tokyo where 100 electric hybrid bicycles can be recharged from sunlight-powered panels. The system uses lithium-ion batteries to charge 100 of Sanyo’s “eneloop” bikes, with enough power left over to also illuminate the parking lot with LED lights at night. The concept is a “completely independent and clean system eliminating the use of

fossil fuels”, said Sanyo Electric Co, which has emerged as a leader in solar and other alternative energy technologies.

The two lots, which also feature electric outlets to power external equipment in an emergency, were set up near commuter train lines in Tokyo’s Setagaya ward, where the cycles will be parked for community use. The charging points rely on rooftop photovoltaic panels, and Sanyo said

the system also works on rainy days. The eneloop “peddleassist” bike features a “dynamotor” built into the hub of the front wheel, which charges a battery when the bicycle is cruising downhill or a rider is braking. The bicycle’s electric motor kicks in when a rider peddles, providing a virtual wind at one’s back and making inclines feel more like flat terrain. There is a power boost mode for particularly steep climbs. —AFP

Twitter working on Chinese entry page NEW YORK: Twitter is working on a way to allow Chinese users to sign up to the social networking site in their own language, a co-founder of the site said Monday night, but access to the popular site remains blocked in the country. Jack Dorsey said at a panel that Twitter is “hard at work” on allowing users to register in Chinese. Dorsey was responding to a question from Chinese avantgarde artist Ai Weiwei. Ai has been an outspoken critic of Chinese authorities and their continuing efforts to impose censorship. He said he spends about eight hours a day on Twitter. “I need a clear answer, yes or no?” he said to Dorsey, who joined the conversation via satellite. “Yes, it’s just a matter of time,” Dorsey responded, citing limited staff and technical constraints as challenges for setting up the Chinese registration page.

Dorsey, Ai and Richard MacManus, founder of technology blog ReadWriteWeb, were part of a discussion on digital activism at the Paley Center for Media. People from all over the world also participated via Twitter, with their tweets displayed on a large screen behind the panelists. The conversation came only a couple of days after it was reported that Google was “99.9 percent sure” to close its search engine in China because of stalled negotiations over censorship. Google has about 35 percent of the Chinese search market. The

panelists praised the decision, calling it courageous and inspiring.

Ai said he wants Chinese translation on Twitter so users who are able to get past the firewall can read tweets. Since it was founded in 2006, Twitter has emerged as a tool for digital activism in messages of no more than 140 characters. Ai has used it to demand answers about the number of young children who were killed in the Sichuan earthquake.

Last April, protesters in Moldova used Twitter when mobile phones and news television stations went down, rallying as many as 10,000 people to one demonstration. And tech-savvy Iranians turned to Twitter to protest the disputed presidential election. Dorsey said he has no idea how Twitter would get around the firewall. He admitted he didn’t know the site was blocked in the country until three weeks ago when he was prepping for the event.

When asked whether he would give user information to the Chinese government, he said he hoped the company could work with the US government to make sure that doesn’t happen. “Step one is translation, getting the site accessible in a Chinese version,” said Dorsey. “That’s something the company is really pushing to do.” But moving into the country is something “that’s very difficult to do,” he said. —AP

Twitter meshes into websites with @Anywhere AUSTIN: Twitter on Monday began letting its hot microblogging service be integrated into websites such as YouTube and Microsoft’s Bing with a new “@Anywhere” feature. “This is not an ad platform, it is an ‘at’ platform,” Twitter co-founder Evan Williams said while announcing @Anywhere during an on-stage chat at a South By South West Interactive gathering here. “It should result in more followers for a site and more fans talking on Twitter,” Williams said.

The feature lets websites have Twitter dialogue boxes popup on-screen so visitors can fire off or read messages without having to go to the microblogging service’s website. @Anywhere also allows for names on Web pages to be highlighted and used to link to an individual’s Twitter stream.

Bing, YouTube, Amazon and Yahoo! were among the major

Web properties that integrated Twitter in time for the @Anywhere launch, according to Twitter. “We’re excited to support @Anywhere, allowing our users to authorize Twitter data sharing with their Yahoo! ID in a way that empowers them to consume their Twitter feeds on Yahoo! and to share Yahoo! content to Twitter,” Yahoo! executive Cody Simms said in a release. @Anywhere is free for publishers interested in weaving Twitter into their websites, according to the San Franciscobased firm. “Hopefully, they will embrace the new platform and see it as a way to integrate Twitter and disseminate what is good,” Williams said of online news services and other websites that thrive on providing fresh information.

“If they are breaking news it is going to spread faster on

Twitter and they are adding value.” Twitter has become an Internet Age superstar since it was created in 2006 as a way for people to share their thoughts, observations and activities in the form of mobile phone text messages of no more than 140 characters. While Twitter has yet to disclose how it is going to make money, Williams repeated that the company’s energy now is focused on making the service more valuable by “expanding the Twitter ecosystem” to more users.

Forrester Research social media analyst Augie Ray said @Anywhere “will further cement Twitter’s place as the place where information is shared and discovered in real time.” “The name they’ve chosen is an obvious sign of what Twitter has in mind: They intend to be anywhere you are,” Ray said. —AFP

BEIJING: China yesterday again warned Google not to stop filtering its also says it no longer wants to bow to the Chinese government’s web cenweb search engine results, as speculation mounted about the company’s sors. “We have all along maintained a policy of opening-up and welcome plans following its threat to leave over censorship and cyberattacks. The foreign investments in China. But the prerequisite is they should respect US Internet giant has said it could abandon its Chinese-language search and abide by Chinese laws,” commerce ministry spokesman Yao Jian told engine and possibly pull out of China altogether after the hack attacks. It reporters.

“We hope Google will abide by the law, no matter whether it continues to do business in China or makes other choices.” Yao said if Google were to decide to shut down its businesses registered in Beijing, it would have to notify the commerce ministry — and so far, no such notice had been received.

The spokesman also said Beijing was “opposed to politicizing business issues”-an apparent jibe at the US government and lawmakers who have spoken out on behalf of Google and against Internet censorship in China.

Beijing tightly controls online content in a vast system dubbed the “Great Firewall of China”, removing information it deems harmful — including pornography and violence, but also politically sensitive material. Google threatened in January to abandon google.cn and perhaps leave China altogether over what BEIJING: In this file picture, the Google China headquarters is seen. —AFP it said were cyberattacks aimed at its source code and at the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. The company has since continued to filter results on google.cn, but says it will not do so forever.

“Google is firm in its decision that it will stop censoring our search results for China,” Google and private sectors. Some US telecom giants WASHINGTON: US regulators have chairman Julius Genachowski said. vice president and deputy “It’s an action plan, and action is neces- and cable television companies-the main unveiled details of an ambitious plan general counsel Nicole designed to vault the United States into the sary to meet the challenges of global com- Internet Service Providers in the United Wong told the US House of ranks of world leaders in high-speed petitiveness, and harness the power of States-have also been wary of the broadband Representatives Foreign Internet access over the next decade. The broadband to help address so many vital plan and what they see as too much governNational Broadband Plan, which was to be national issues,” Genachowski said in a ment intervention.

Affairs Committee last The call for greater competition was welpresented to Congress yesterday by the statement. According to the FCC, 93 million week. “If the option is that Federal Communications Commission, sets Americans-a third of the US population-cur- comed, however, by Ed Black, president of we’ll shutter our .cn operaa 10-year goal of connecting 100 million US rently lack home broadband service and 14 the Computer & Communications Industry tion and leave the country, households to affordable 100-megabits-per- million Americans do not have access to Association. “The FCC plan recognizes that we are prepared to do broadband even if they want it. The FCC while the biggest network operators are second Internet service. that.”

President Barack Obama has pledged to plan calls for providing ultra high-speed investing billions, we have too few network China’s minister of indusput broadband in every American home and broadband of at least one gigabit per second operators,” Black said. “That is, there’s not try and information technolhis administration designated more than to schools, hospitals and military installa- enough competition, and we’re stuck with ogy, Li Yizhong, warned local market duopoly unless new entrants seven billion dollars in economic stimulus tions.

Google last week that it It proposes more competition among can break through with next generation money to expand broadband access in underwould face “consequences” served communities. The United States lags broadband providers and to make 500 mega- mobile broadband.” Some companies have behind many other countries in high-speed hertz of spectrum available for broadband, expressed support. Google chief executive if it were to violate Chinese Internet penetration and connection speeds, including 300 megahertz for wireless mobile Eric Schmidt, in a blog post Monday, comlaw by ending its filters, sayand the FCC plan proposes broadband broadband. That FCC proposal is likely to pared broadband deployment with the USing such a move would be speeds 25 times faster than the current meet with resistance from the broadcast Soviet space race. “irresponsible”.

The “Networks in many countries, from television stations that currently own the national average.

Financial Times reported at US connection speeds average less than rights to 120 megahertz of that spectrum. Western Europe to East Asia, are faster the weekend that Google 4.0 mbps according to the latest report by “We are concerned by reports today that and more advanced than our own,” Schmidt was “99.9 percent” certain Web analytics firm Akamai, placing the suggest many aspects of the plan may in fact said. “This broadband gap will be a dead to move forward with plans United States 18th in the global rankings not be as voluntary as originally promised,” weight on American businesses and workto abandon google.cn, citing behind leaders South Korea (14.6 mbps) and Dennis Wharton, executive vice president of ers, unless we act now. “As with the space an unnamed source. But Japan (7.9 mbps). The United States ranks the National Association of Broadcasters, race in the 1960s, America needs a nationGoogle China spokeswoman al effort by our scientists, engineers, com12th in terms of broadband connectivity with said.

“As the nation’s only communications panies, educational institutions and gov24 percent of the population enjoying averMarsha Wang said yesterday age speeds of over 5.0 mbps compared with service that is free, local and ubiquitous, we ernment agencies,” he said. Google that, for now, no changes 74 percent in South Korea and 60 percent in would oppose any attempt to impose oner- announced plans last month to build and had been made. “Google has Japan, according to Akamai. “The National ous new spectrum fees on broadcasters,” test one-gigabit-per-second broadband netnot stopped censorship.

Broadband Plan is a 21st century roadmap to Wharton said. Full implementation of the works that would allow streaming of 3-D This is a rumor. We do not spur economic growth and investment, cre- plan, which is estimated to carry a price tag medical imaging over the Web or downhave any update to share,” ate jobs, educate our children, protect our as high as 350 billion dollars, would require a loading of a full high-definition movie in she told AFP. —AFP citizens and engage in our democracy,” FCC substantial commitment from both the public less than five minutes. —AFP

Ambitious plan to make US a broadband leader

Technology helps Liberia overcome ‘blood timber’ MONROVIA: Liberia’s rainforests, once ravaged for blood timber sold to fund one of Africa’s bloodiest civil wars, are being primed as a lucrative and legal industry using cutting-edge tracking technology.

One by one an electronic tagsimilar to bar codes used on consumer products-is attached to trees in the thick woodlands

covering 45 percent of the West African nation, a painstaking process that will allow consumers to trace the end-product right back to the stump.

While the use of “blood diamonds” to fund wars in the region is better known, it was timber that propped up armed factions, notably those of former president Charles Taylor,

during 14 years of Liberian conflict that left over 250,000 dead.

Before a United Nations ban on timber exports in 2003, the timber industry brought in a quarter of Liberia’s gross domestic product (GDP), and its revival is key to boosting government coffers in one of the world’s poorest countries.

In 2006, President Ellen

BUCHANAN: An employee of the Swiss monitoring company SGS registers a tree trunk. —AFP

Johnson Sirleaf enacted a new forestry law to protect the tropical forests which contain more than 59 species of trees —- and the UN ban was lifted. The continent’s first female president cancelled all previous concessions and put Swiss monitoring company SGS in charge of managing the forests using intelligent tracking software from the Britain-based firm Helveta.

“Liberia is the first country in the world where we have reached this level of the tracking system,” said SGS operations manager for Liberia, Thomas de Francqueville, comparing the process to that in supermarkets. “We start the checking in the forest by making sure that only trees to be cut are cut, we follow the logs on the field, and we check the logs at the port until they are put in the ship.” A report by the International Tropical Timber Organization in 2005 showed that prior to the industry collapse, the sector generated up to 20 million dollars (14.6 million euros) a year in government revenue and 100 million dollars in exports.

As the country, left in tatters by its successive civil wars, builds its economy and infrastructure from scratch,

the forests could prove extremely valuable-if they are properly managed. Illegal logging has wreaked havoc on wildlife and communities, while properly managing resources could provide sustainable income and keep the forests in good shape. “Those trees in a protected area cannot be extracted and so all of these are for conservation-so it’s obvious that the forest will always be replenished, because it’s not all trees that are cut,” said Eric Gayleh, SGS field officer team supervisor.

Moses Wogbeh, managing director of the Liberian Forestry Development Authority FDA, said parliament had introduced a reforestation policy and companies given licenses to operate were “very carefully” chosen.

The government will have earned 12 million dollars since it started re-issuing licenses in the beginning of 2009 by the end of March, De Francqueville said. The first seven containers were exported in November, another six are currently ready for export and the first largescale shipment is expected some time this month, according to SGS. —AFP

HEALTH & SCIENCE

28

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Arteries get better after smokers quit, says study ATLANTA: Quitting smoking can turn back time. A year after kicking the habit, smokers’ arteries showed signs of reversing a problem that can set the stage for heart disease, according to the first big study to test this. The improvement came even though smokers gained an average of 9 pounds (4 kilograms) after they quit, researchers found.

Their levels of so-called good cholesterol improved, too. “A lot of

people are afraid to quit smoking because they’re afraid to gain weight,” said the study’s leader, Dr James Stein, a University of Wisconsin-Madison cardiologist.

The new research shows these people gain a health benefit even though they pick up pounds that hopefully can be shed once they’ve gotten used to not smoking, he said.

Smoking is one of the top causes of heart disease, and about one third of

smoking-related deaths in the US are due to heart disease. A heart attack often motivates longtime smokers to give it up. Quitting is known to lower the risk of developing or dying of lung cancer. This is the first major clinical trial to show it quickly improves artery health. Results were published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and presented at the group’s annual conference on Monday.

In the study, 1,500 smokers were given one of five methods to help them quit - nicotine patches; nicotine lozenges; the drug bupropion, sold as Wellbutrin and Zyban; or a combination of patches and lozenges or the drug and lozenges.

A sixth group received a dummy treatment. After one year, 36 percent had quit, and it made no difference which method they used, Stein said. Before the study started

and one year after smokers quit, doctors did ultrasound tests to see how well blood vessel linings relaxed and handled blood flow.

Hardening of the arteries is an early step to heart disease. Using a tourniquet, they stopped blood flow in the forearm for a few minutes, then measured how a major artery responded when the flow was restored.

“It’s a valid test” and is consid-

ered a good sign of how healthy the heart arteries are, said Dr Alfred Bove, a Temple University heart specialist and president of the cardiology group. Doctors found that artery function improved 1 percent in the quitters. “That may not sound like much,” but research shows that translates to a 14 percent lower risk of developing heart disease, Stein said.

“It’s a small improvement at

one year. The question is, do these folks keep getting better?” Bove said. The study is continuing another two years to give an answer, Stein said. London-based GlaxoSmithKline PLC provided smoking cessation medicines for that part of the study, and several authors have research funding from the company. Federal government grants paid for the artery study. —AP

Sex: Nerds lose out when women judge on microbes Preference for hunky types evident PARIS: What gives a guy the best chances of attracting a girl? Should he be meterosexual or macho? Before reaching for the moisturizer or working on his abs, a man may be advised to head for an unusual source of guidance: the UN’s

databank of national health statistics. In a study published today, scientists report that women living in countries with worse rates of disease and ill health are far likelier to plump for “masculine”-looking men than “feminine”-looking rivals.

Psychologists from Scotland’s University of Aberdeen tested a theory that masculine traits in men are a sign of genetic health. If true, this should also have an effect on women, whose choice of a mate is influenced by the chances of their offspring’s survival, according to the hypothesis. The team recruited more than 4,500 women in their early twenties in 30 countries via the Internet.

They asked the volunteers to decide which of two faces of the same man was more attractive. Twenty pairs of photos had features morphed to look either square-jawed and masculine, or slim-jawed and feminine. Preference for hunky types rose sharply as the country’s “national health index” (NHI) fell, the investigators found.

The NHI is a basket of eight World Health Organization (WHO) indices covering mortality rates, life expectancy and communicable diseases. “Our prediction was correct,” lead researcher Lisa DeBruine told AFP. “Women from countries with poorer health did prefer masculine men more.” The An image released by the Royal Society in London shows two pictures of the same person with their features finding shows that mating choices may differ according to morphed to look either square-jawed and masculine (right) or slim-jawed and feminine. —AFP country and culture, but this is only because of variations in the local environment, said DeBruine.

Underneath, women share a similar biological drive.

In previous research, DeBruine found that women who were more easily disgusted by cues of pathogens (such as men with open sores) were also likelier to prefer masculine-type fellows. Butchness, WASHINGTON: Michelle Obama has talked other sweetened drinks to help pay for over- ways to produce healthier foods. though, is only part of a comto schools and nutrition groups across the hauling health care. That tax did not make it “Consumers are demanding more and more plex equation when it comes to US in her effort to reduce childhood obesity. into the health care bill, but it could be seen healthy choices,” he said. “Our industry will mating. A woman in an Yesterday the first lady was set to face the as an opening shot in a quietly growing effort do our part by changing the way we make unhealthy, germ-laden envifood companies that make the snacks and to target food companies, especially as local, and market our foods, but government has a ronment may prefer a macho junk food that stuff grocery aisles and school state and federal governments scrounge for big role to play as well.” This approach is a man as a sign of genetic wellfar cry from the fights consumer groups had vending machines. Not that the companies revenue in a tight fiscal environment. being-but she may not see him Michelle Obama has not previously with food companies a decade ago, said mind. The Grocery Manufacturers as a good bet for bringing up Association - which counts Kraft Foods Inc, taken her anti-obesity campaign directly to Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy her children.

Coca Cola Co and General Mills Inc among the large food companies. She said recently, at the Center for Science in the Public “Indeed, there is comits members - invited her to speak at its sci- however, that she would like to see more Interest. pelling evidence that women “When I first started working on junk ence forum. Welcoming the first lady and customer-friendly food labels “so parents ascribe antisocial traits and embracing her campaign for healthier kids, won’t have to spend hours squinting at food in schools, it was a very contentious behaviors to masculine men,” launched earlier this year, could have advan- words that they can’t pronounce to figure issue where we regularly did battle with says the study, published in out whether the foods that they’re buying junk and snack food companies,” she said. tages. the journal Proceedings of the The industry is positioned to take some are healthy or not.” She has also said she “Now it’s a whole new world, and many of Royal Society B. “Women perblows in the coming year, including a child will push companies that supply foods to them are supporting updating standards.” ceive masculine men as disnutrition bill about to move through schools to improve nutritional quality. Her Wootan said she believes that embarrasshonest, uncooperative, more Congress that could eliminate junk food in campaign is largely focused on school lunch- ment is in part fueling the companies’ push, interested in short-term than schools, digging into some companies’ prof- es and vending machines, along with making as more attention has been placed on foods’ long-term relationships, and its. The Food and Drug Administration is healthy food more available and encouraging nutritional values or lack thereof. More unieven as ‘bad parents’.” Other form federal standards could also be helpful also beginning to crack down on misleading children to exercise more. factors add to the complex matScott Faber, a lobbyist for the grocery to food companies, she said, as some states labeling on food packages, saying some ing mix. During the most feritems labeled “healthy” are not, and the association, said the industry is open to and localities are creating their own stantile, hormone-laden phase of Senate last year mulled a tax on soda and working with the government on finding dards for marketing and making foods. —AP her menstrual cycle, a woman is more likely to prefer masculine men. Social equality and control of resources can also shape perceptions about male attractiveness.

The study participants came from countries in which Caucasians are in the majority, ranging from low-income economies in eastern Europe such as Russia and Romania, to Canada and the United States.

Participants gave their ethnicity as White, as were the faces that were shown to them. The researchers said they chose a single ethnicity in order to get a clearer signal from the respondents.

“Sexually dimorphic (distinct) facial cues have greater effects when women judge own-race faces than other-race faces,” the paper said.

DeBruine said she hoped to extend the research to countries with very poor national health. This was hard to do at present as these countries tend to have poor Internet TOKYO: A 3-year-old toy poodle Mizuho sits in “Dog Wash Machine,” ready for shampooing at a pet shop access, which made it hard to named Pet World Joyful Honda yesterday. Inside the closed machine, a dog receives a service that includes tear- get a representative cross-section of the population. —AFP free shampoo, rinsing and blow dry in the 30-minute course. It costs 1,000 yen (about US$11). —AP

Michelle Obama wages war on obesity through food giants FDA cracks down on misleading labels

WEST ORANGE, New Jersey: This photo provided by Carol Filak shows Joseph Hoffman with his daughter Carol Filak. —AP

Heart-shock device could upset quiet hospice death WASHINGTON: If you have a heart-zapping defibrillator implanted in your chest but now are dying of something else, when do you have it turned off? Carol Filak had heard about painful, repeated shocks that people sometimes experience from those implants in their final days. So when her father, Joseph Hoffman, was diagnosed with terminal cancer, she asked at his cardiologist’s office: What about the defibrillator he’d had implanted years earlier? It’s too soon to worry about, she was told.

Two months later, Hoffman, 81, entered hospice care in his home and still Filak had to make numerous calls to the cardiologist before someone arrived to deactivate the defibrillator. “You need to be told that this is something that’s not going to prolong his life,” says Filak. “When he died, it was a very peaceful death.” It is not unusual for health professionals to avoid the topic, says Dr Nathan Goldstein of New York’s Mount Sinai Medical Center. His research, published this month in Annals of Internal Medicine, suggests most hospices - expert in end-of-life care - are not making defibrillator decisions part of their routine.

Nearly 60 percent of hospices he examined had at least one patient shocked within the past year, sometimes multiple times at once. Yet just one in 20 hospices had a method even to identify who harbored the implant when they entered the program. But with more than 100,000 implantable cardioverter-defibrillators, or ICDs, inserted every year, more and more families like Filak’s will face the question. “We’re trained to save, save, save, cure, cure, cure,” says Goldstein, who has studied end-of-life defibrillation since seeing a dying lung cancer patient brought to the emergency room because his implant kept firing.

“There are some folks we can’t cure. We have to make them as comfortable as possible.”

Defibrillators are implanted to prevent sudden death from a particular irregular heartbeat, by constantly checking heart rhythm and automatically sending an electrical shock to short-circuit that arrhythmia as it forms. Some patients feel a twinge while others describe the shock as a kick in the chest, usually well worth it. But when death is inevitable, defibrillator shocks that sometimes occur from the final days to final moments of life can cause unnecessary pain and anxiety.

Deactivating the shocking function is easy and

noninvasive, done via computer at the patient’s bedside.

It is not clear how often ICDs cause distress at the end of life. But the American Heart Association in 2008 guidelines declared deactivating a defibrillator an ethical end-of-life decision, similar to withholding other treatments in favor of comfort care. The same year, the National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization issued guidelines urging identification of patients with an ICD as they enter hospice care, and explaining that deactivating the device does not cause immediate death but could prevent unneeded shocks so that patients can make an informed decision to deactivate or not.

While the heart association says deactivation is fairly common, a series of studies published over the last few years suggests many doctors don’t routinely bring up the option, and that patients may view their implant somewhat differently than the decision to, say, stop chemotherapy.

Goldstein, who conducted several of those studies, looked next at hospice practices. His survey of 414 hospices around the US found that 42 percent of patients had their ICDs deactivated while receiving hospice care. Only 10 percent of hospices had a deactivation policy as recommended by the national guidelines, so Goldstein’s team then wrote a model policy for hospices to consider adapting or adopting.

The policy states deactivation is not a requirement for admission to a hospice but may be in line with the hospice care goal of a peaceful death. “If it isn’t done, then we probably need to do a better job of teaching and informing people that it really is an important option to make end-of-life care the way it should be,” says American Heart Association spokesman Dr Kenneth Ellenbogen, cardiology chief at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine.

Ellenbogen notes that often, non-cardiologists with little ICD experience are the doctors involved with hospice admission. An internist recently called him to ask if it was even possible to stop a defibrillator’s shocks in a hospice patient.

Ellenbogen sent someone to do the job. “It would make a big difference to families if they knew this ahead of time,” says Filak, a college nurse who says she learned about deactivation thanks to both a Ph D adviser and physician friend. —AP

US utilizes shopper-card data to trace salmonella CHAMPAIGN: As they scrambled recently to trace the source of a salmonella outbreak that has sickened hundreds around the US, investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention successfully used a new tool for the first time - the shopper cards that millions of Americans swipe every time they buy groceries. With permission from the patients, investigators followed the trail of grocery purchases to a Rhode Island company that makes salami, then zeroed in on the pepper used to season the meat.

Never before had the CDC successfully mined the mountain of data that supermarket

chains compile. “It was really exciting. It was a break in the investigation for sure,” CDC epidemiologist Casey Barton Behravesh said. At least 245 people in 44 states have been sickened in the outbreak. That includes 30 in California, 19 in Illinois, 18 in New York and 17 in Washington state. The victims included Raymond Cirimele, a 55-year-old Chicago man. He said no one asked for his shopper-card data, but he would have provided it if someone had. “I don’t have any secrets, so I’m not worried about it,” he said. “It’s kind of like the whole airport security and all that. I’d rather fly on a

safe plane.”

Shopper cards have been around for more than a decade, offering customers discounts in exchange for letting supermarkets track their buying habits.

The cards are used to build customer loyalty and help stores market their products. The first case in this salmonella outbreak was reported last summer, and

by November, CDC investigators were examining a multistate cluster of cases. Through interviews and questionnaires, investigators suspected some kind of Italian meat was the culprit, but people couldn’t remember what brand they bought, Behravesh said. —AP

WHATʼS ON IN KUWAIT

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010

ICS CELEBRATES KUWAIT NATIONAL DAY & LIBERATION DAY

AMIE SUMMER 2010 EXAMINATION he AMIE Summer 2010 examination will be held between June 5-11, 2010. The last date of submission of examination application forms will be February 15 to March 22, 2010, for candidates who did not appear for Winter 2009 examination and March 22 to April 19, 2010 for candidates who appeared the Winter 2009 examination. Candidates intending to appear for the Summer 2010 examination must apply directly to Kolkata by filling the prescribed application form along with requisite amount of demand draft in favour of The Institution of Engineers (India), payable at Kolkata. The details of the examination is available at the website www.ieindia.org .

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Indian classical dance program Nritta Dhyana, The school for Indian classical dance: students of Sujitha Rajendran, director, Nritta Dhyana will present an evening of Indian classical dances on 16th April, 2010 at 6 pm.

The program will be inaugurated by the Ambassador of India to Kuwait. Admission free, all are welcome.

Venue: American International School, Maidan Hawally.

IEI, Kuwait Chapter “VALEDICTORY FUNCTION” he Institution of Engineers (India), Kuwait Chapter shall organize Valedictory function on 26th March, 2010 at Carmel School, Khaitan, Kuwait.

The function will be marked by a scintillating dance performance on a medley of numbers by the Ballerine’s Kittens.

Also showcased will be Kathak by Ms. Piyali Gupta and her troupe. The Science club booklet “SPANDAN” will be formally released on the day. The Executive Committee members of the IEI, Kuwait Chapter invite all IEI members with the family to attend the function. Please register yourself by sending mail to ieikwt@hotmail.com.

For further queries please feel free to contact Engr.

Sushant A. Chakravarty-65987313/ Engr. V.P. Tewari99560784

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uwait National Day and Liberation Day was celebrated at Indian Central School by the Lower Middle Wing.

To grace the occasion, Mona Sulaiman Al Fariha, the Director of Activities from the Ministry of Education was present as the Chief Guest of the function. The highlights of the function were - an Indian Cinematic dance, a docu-

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mentary on the Invasion and Liberation of Kuwait and a PowerPoint presentation on Sheikh Sabah Al Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah, which touched the chords of patriotism among the Kuwaiti guests, students, staff and all present.

The school choir rendered a Hindi song composed by two Hindi teachers on Kuwait - Indo relations. It was a

great hit and was duly appreciated by the Principal Shantha Maria James. The grand finale was a Kuwaiti dance bringing out the traditional and modern aspects of Kuwait.

Certificates and trophies for various art and sports competition were given away by the guest, who also appreciated the program.

Spring 1 Arabic course at AWARE he AWARE Center is glad to announce that the Spring 1 Arabic course began and will end on April 22nd, 2010 (Introductory Arabic began on March 14th and will end on April 15th, 2010). The AWARE Center offers Arabic classes on a regular basis from Introductory Arabic to level 4. AWARE Arabic classes are designed with the Expat in mind. Our Arabic Language courses offer a relaxed approach to communicating in basic Arabic for those who

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wish to learn Arabic for travel, for better understanding the Culture of the Arabs, for conducting business or for simply feeling more involved while residing in Kuwait. Whether you are a teacher, a traveler, or work in the private business sector, AWARE Arabic courses introduce Arabic language basics that will offer you a start into the skills that will better prepare you for speaking, reading and writing Arabic.

• AWARE Arabic courses combine

Aboon Mor Baselious Thomas I to visit Kuwait is Beatitude Aboon Mor Basalious Thomas I, the Catholicose of Jacobite Syrian Church is scheduled to arrive in Kuwait tomorrow. His Beatitude will lead the Holy Week Services of St Mary’s Jacobite Syrian Church, Salwa, Kuwait. The Catholicose will also preside over the Parish Day to be held at St Paul’s Church Ahmadi, on April 4, 2010, before returning to India the next day. For more information contact Tel: 99150614 (Vicar Fr Paulson Keerikkattil).

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language learning with cultural insights.

All courses are taught in group settings which provide additional opportunities to interact with other Western expatriates studying the language.

NOTE that seats are still available, especially for those willing to join Thursday classes.

For more information, call 25335260/80 ext 105 or e-mail: Htaware.hassan@gmail.com

British Business Forum March dinner meeting he British Business Forum will be holding regular monthly meeting every month. This month we are additionally pleased that the Chairman of The Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, Abdlatif Al Hamad, has very generously agreed that we can hold this meeting in the very beautiful Arab Fund Building located on the Airport road in Shuwaikh. The Board of British Business Forum is delighted to advise that the US Ambassador to Kuwait, HE Deborah Jones, has kindly agreed to be

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our guest speaker for the meeting to be held today.

The Doors open at 6:30pm and close at 7:30pm at the Arab Fund Building. Members are very much encouraged to attend and to bring guests. Interested Members are asked to contact the BBF Office for more details at Tel: 22322038 Mob: 66841114 Fax: 22322040 Email: rose.william@bbfkuwait.com. For more information about the BBF please visit our website at www.bbfkuwait.com.

Exhibition showcases young Kuwaiti entrepreneurs Start Time: Today 10:00am End Time: Friday, March 19, 2010 at 8:30pm Location: Kuwait International Fairgrounds, Hall 8, Mishref

Description P2bK 2010 is an annual forum that helps support and promote small Kuwaiti Businesses, Kuwaiti achievements, Kuwaiti Talents, and help enrich the youth with aspects of our culture increasing the patriotism amongst them of our beloved Kuwait.

Indian Lawyers Forum conducts annual get-together function he Professional association of Indian Lawyers and Law Graduates working in Kuwait conducted its annual function at Hi-Dine Auditorium Abbassiya. The function was presided over by the President Advocate Palavilayil Thomas Panicker. President in his speech welcomed everybody to the function. The President while highlighting the activities of the unique Forum emphasized the necessity and utility of the Forum’s activities to the members & local Indian Community in Kuwait and reiterated that the Forum would continue its endeavor to provide legal advice/guidance to the needy members of the Indian Community. He highlighted the importance of having a legal fund with the community/Embassy to meet the expenses

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towards helping the laborers who are facing legal problems.

Narasingha Rao First secretary of Indian Embassy was the Chief Guest. Rao in his speech appreciated the activities of the Forum. He offered all the support for the Forum’s Endeavour to help the Indian Communities by giving them legal aid.

The function was inaugurated by lighting the Traditional lamp by Narasingha Rao , President Thomas Panicker , Office Bearers, and the guests.

The function began with the rendition of Kuwaiti and Indian National anthems and Prayer song sung

by Meenakshi Vijaya Kumar.

Adv Sunil Jose welcomed the guests. Adv Sunil Jose described the achievements of the association

in Kuwait and its services to the Indian Community.

He observed that the FORUM enjoys the membership of Indian lawyers who are working for high profile legal firms and holding key legal positions in various companies in Kuwait and who has more than 10 Years legal practice in India also. Forum is well equipped to deal with any sort of legal and business consultations pertaining to Kuwait as well as India.

General Secretary, Ad. Suresh Pulikkal presented report for the year. He said Forum is planning to arrange Legal seminar and get together on a monthly basis, of all Indian Lawyers in Kuwait. He enumerated the Legal awareness seminar conducted

by Forum in association with Risala Study Circle

recently. Advocate Rajesh Sagar, made a professional presentation on new Kuwaiti Labor laws, and highlighted the differences the law will bring forth.

Adv. Mathew Daniel, proposed a vote of thanks.

Adv Mathew Daniel said the main aim of the Forum is to unite all Indian lawyers in Kuwait and present a Forum for sharing their ideas and help each other. The forum acts as the binding force among Indian Lawyers and Law Graduates working in Kuwait. He said in this way the Forum is functioning very successfully.

The cultural programs started with the Dance by Nayanthara Suresh & Saumya Ajith Panicker.

Orchestra was presented by Melody Organza organized by Reni and party. Adv Anas Puthiottil,

Master Shivnandan Sagar Sajitha KunjuMohammed and other singers entertained the Lawyers.

Adv Anjana Sanjay ably compeered the programme. Adv Shivadas, Adv Anas Puthiottil, Adv Sudhir, Adv. Mini Shivadas were the Conveners for the function. New Members, Adv Balu, Adv Divya George, Adv Krishnanunny, Adv Lalji George, Adv Ranganath KG were inbtroduced to the Forum

by President Thomas Panicker. The function was sponsored by Gulf Mart, UAE exchange, Bahrain Exhcange, Parakkat Jewellwers and Vefsa Water purifying systems.

Those who are interested in touch with the Forum may contact: 97203939/24346934/97260159 or by email: advpanicker@gmail.com.

WHATʼS ON IN KUWAIT

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

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General managers of Safir Hotels celebrated in Kuwait afir International Hotel hosted a special gala dinner for the general managers of Safir Hotels in the Middle East and North Africa. They arrived to attend the annual conference which was held in Kuwait and discussed the achievements of Safir International Hotel Management Company during the year

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2009, in addition to the future plans and regional developments and growth.

Helmut Meckelburg the CEO attended the function as well as Nabil Hammoud the Group Director of Operation. All attendees enjoyed the outstanding and elegant dinner with the live

fancy music. They expressed their appreciation and gladness for such activity that combined work with fun. The marvelous ambiance was full of enthusiasm and optimism for achieving the future goals. Meckelburg announced the appreciation of the company for all employees who put lots of efforts to achieve the

good results wishing them great future in terms of achievements and development.

Kifah Melhem the General Manager of Safir International Hotel-Kuwait accompanied the department heads in welcoming the delegation and expressed his best wishes to every one.

Run for Haiti round 1000 people ran for the Annual Fun Run - Run for Haiti on March 12th 2010 in Gulf Medical University campus, Ajman which was organized by Body & Soul Health Club Dubai. This initiative was taken in association with GMC Hospital and Gulf Medical University Ajman both of which are a Thumbay Group ventures.

Professor Gita Ashok Raj, Provost of Gulf Medical University flagged off the race starting point and finishing point at the Gulf

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Medical University Campus, Ajman.

Professor Mohammad Arifulla along with Professor Gita Ashok Raj distributed the prizes to the various winners.

Kempinski Hotel took away the 1st prize for the corporate runners, and Emirates Techno Casting were the runners up. In the 8K run, Farhanaz Kazmean took away the 1st Prize and Nada was the runners up.

Prizes were given to special needs winners from Ajman Rehabilitation Centre for Disabled and participation certificates to

various schools and certificate of appreciation to the various sponsors were also distributed. The organizers of the Fun Run, Body and Soul Health Club, are delighted with the response. “With the introduction of a family run, this event was the best sporting events on the Ajman calendar .There were corporate runners, students, doctors and general public that participated in this joyful Race. Free entry to all race goers who received a free t-shirt and certificate of participation

Greetings

Hot Stepper announces Indian carnival 2010

ot Stepper, the entertainment wing of Creative Indians Association are back with the Indian Carnival on April 9, 2010 at the Kuwait Entertainment City Doha from 2 pm till 10 pm. The Hot Stepper group needs no introduction and are acclaimed with shows like Indian Fiesta 09, 08, 07, Indian Carnival 09, 08, 07, DJ Akbar Sami’s Nite, DJ Aqeel’s Nite and others to provide the Indians in Kuwait with a day filled with tons

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of free rides, games, discount stalls, Indian delicacies, dance competitions and melodious live music sung by our very own stars.

Watch this space to find out ‘who’ will be entertaining you this year. The Hot Stepper group invites dance groups and sponsors to be part of this Grand Indian Carnival. Call 22455818. Visit and register on our website www.hot-stepper.com for timely updates on the event.

Kerala Association to hold drama contest teams to participate in the Kerala Association drama contest that will be held full day long this Friday, March 19 at Kheitan Indian Community School. The drama festival named Kampisery Drama

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Fest will be the biggest Indian drama event in Kuwait this year. The judges of the competition are well known Indian dramatists namely Pramod Payyannur and Purushu Kozhikode. All are welcome.

Happy birthday Ambassador of the Republic of Benin Tnero Abdo Kbasi and his wife who celebrated their daughter-in-law’s birthday who became 28. The celebration was at Kuwait Towers.

New general manager of the ‘Safir’ Marina Hotel Kuwait he Safir International Hotel Management, Kuwait, announced yesterday the appointment of Jan Marie - Roger Verduyn as General Manager of The “Safir” Marina Hotel Kuwait. Verduyn brings over three decades of international experience in the hospitality and hotel management industry to his post at The “Safir”

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Marina Hotel.

Commenting on Verduyn’s appointment, Mr. Helmut H. Meckelburg, Chief Executive Officer, Safir International Hotel Management, said, “We are very pleased to have a hotel veteran like Jan joining us at The “Safir” Marina Hotel Kuwait. His appointment reinforces our commit-

ment to delivering the best service to our customers by hiring qualified personnel in key positions”.

Verduyn has previously worked as the General Manager for several international hotel companies in Belgium, Egypt, Thailand, Cyprus, South Korea, Vietnam, Cameroon, Kenya and Sri Lanka.

TV PROGRAMS

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Orbit / Showtime Listings

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14:20 NEXT X U.S SHORTS 14:30 Jimmy Two-Shoes 15:00 American Dragon 15:30 Yin Yang Yo 16:00 The Suite Life of Zack & Cody 16:30 Kid vs Kat 17:00 Power Rangers Jungle Fury 17:30 American Dragon 18:00 The Suite Life of Zack & Cody 18:30 The Suite Life of Zack & Cody 19:00 Iron Man: Armoured Adventures 19:25 Kid vs Kat 20:00 Zeke & Luther 20:30 K9 ADVENTURES 21:00 The Suite Life of Zack & Cody 21:30 Pokemon DP: Battle Dimension 22:00 Phineas & Ferb 22:25 Iron Man: Armoured Adventures

ER In Plain Sight Inside the Actors Studio Murdoch Mysteries In Plain Sight Burn Notice Damages ER Dollhouse Flash Forward Inside the Actors Studio Murdoch Mysteries Damages Burn Notice Inside the Actors Studio In Plain Sight Dollhouse Flash Forward ER Damages Lie to Me Law & Order Burn Notice True Blood

00:50 Surviving Sharks 01:45 Animal Cops Phoenix 02:40 Untamed And Uncut 03:35 Cell Dogs 04:30 Animal Cops Phoenix 05:25 Animal Precinct 06:20 Monkey Life 06:45 Shamwari: A Wild Life 07:10 Vet On The Loose 07:35 Rspca: Have You Got What It Takes?

08:00 Wildlife SOS 08:25 Pet Rescue 08:50 Surviving Sharks 09:45 The Jeff Corwin Experience 10:40 Britain’s Worst Pet 11:05 The Planet’s Funniest Animals 11:30 The Planet’s Funniest Animals 11:55 Monkey Life 12:20 Shamwari: A Wild Life 12:50 Miami Animal Police 13:45 Vet On The Loose 14:10 Pet Rescue 14:40 Animal Cops Phoenix 15:35 Wildlife SOS 16:00 Aussie Animal Rescue 16:30 Surviving Sharks 17:25 The Planet’s Funniest Animals 17:50 The Planet’s Funniest Animals 18:20 Britain’s Worst Pet 19:15 Journey Of Life 20:10 Living With Wolves 21:10 Animal Cops Phoenix 22:05 Untamed And Uncut 23:00 Journey Of Life 23:55 Animal Cops Phoenix

01:05 Life In The Undergrowth 01:55 Paradise Or Bust 02:50 The Inspector Lynley Mysteries 03:40 Freezing 05:10 Life In The Undergrowth 06:00 Cash In The Attic 06:35 Bargain Hunt 07:20 Balamory 07:40 Fimbles 08:00 The Roly Mo Show 08:15 Tikkabilla 08:45 Yoho Ahoy 08:50 Little Robots 09:00 Balamory 09:20 Fimbles 09:40 The Roly Mo Show 09:55 Tikkabilla 10:25 Yoho Ahoy 10:30 Little Robots 10:40 Bargain Hunt 11:30 Life In The Undergrowth 12:25 Paradise Or Bust 13:15 The Weakest Link 14:00 Eastenders 14:30 Doctors 15:00 Bargain Hunt 15:45 Cash In The Attic 16:15 Red Dwarf 16:45 Red Dwarf 17:15 The Weakest Link 18:00 Doctors 18:30 Eastenders 19:00 The Inspector Lynley Mysteries 20:00 Antiques Roadshow 21:00 The Weakest Link 21:45 Doctors 22:15 Eastenders 22:45 Love Soup 23:15 Love Soup 23:45 Casualty

00:05 Ching’s Kitchen 00:30 Gary Rhodes’ Local Food Heroes 01:20 Cash In The Attic Usa 02:00 Hidden Potential 02:30 Antiques Roadshow 03:30 Antiques Roadshow 04:30 10 Years Younger 05:15 Cash In The Attic Usa 05:45 Hidden Potential 06:15 Living In The Sun 07:10 10 Years Younger 08:10 Antiques Roadshow 09:00 Cash In The Attic Usa 09:25 Hidden Potential 09:45 Gary Rhodes’ Local Food Heroes 10:30 Gary Rhodes’ Local Food Heroes

The Forbidden Kingdom on Show Movies 11:30 Living In The Sun 12:20 Antiques Roadshow 13:10 10 Years Younger 14:00 Gary Rhodes’ Local Food Heroes 15:40 Daily Cooks Challenge 16:30 Cash In The Attic Usa 16:50 Hidden Potential 17:15 10 Years Younger 18:05 Antiques Roadshow 19:45 Daily Cooks Challenge 20:40 Masterchef Goes Large 21:10 Come Dine With Me 22:00 Fantasy Homes By The Sea 22:45 The Clothes Show 23:30 The Naked Chef

01:15 03:15 05:30 07:30 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

The Innocent-R Bridges To Madison County Land Of Plenty-PG15 Unspoken Love-PG15 Ensemble C’est Tout-PG15 Class Action-PG15 Pearl Diver-PG Janis-PG Gone For A Dance-PG15 The Hi-Lo Country-18 Intersection-PG15 Big Night-PG15

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Untamed & Uncut Miami Ink Street Customs Berlin American Chopper Beetle Crisis Beetle Crisis Mythbusters How Do They Do It? Dirty Jobs Man Made Marvels Asia Beetle Crisis Beetle Crisis Street Customs Berlin How Do They Do It? Mythbusters Ultimate Survival Extreme Loggers How Do They Do It? How Do They Do It? American Chopper Miami Ink Mythbusters Dirty Jobs Extreme Loggers Street Customs Berlin Destroyed In Seconds How Do They Do It? How Do They Do It? Smash Lab Breaking Point Mythbusters

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Green Wheels Extreme Engineering Japanese Schoolgirls Ecopolis Green Wheels Beyond Tomorrow Nasa’s Greatest Missions How Stuff’s Made Mean Green Machines One Step Beyond Japanese Schoolgirls Thunder Races Cosmic Collisions Space Pioneer How Stuff’s Made Stunt Junkies Japanese Schoolgirls Mean Green Machines One Step Beyond Cosmic Collisions Space Pioneer Engineered

16:25 16:55 17:50 18:45 19:40 20:30 21:20 22:10 23:00 23:50

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

How Stuff’s Made Thunder Races Brainiac Extreme Engineering How It’s Made What’s That About?

How It’s Made Mythbusters How It’s Made What’s That About?

My Friends Tigger And Pooh Handy Manny Special Agent Oso Imagination Movers Lazytown Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Handy Manny Special Agent Oso Brandy & Mr Whiskers Fairly Odd Parents Hannah Montana I Got A Rocket Wizards Of Waverly Place Phineas & Ferb Higglytown Heroes My Friends Tigger And Pooh Handy Manny Special Agent Oso Imagination Movers Lazytown Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Handy Manny Special Agent Oso Brandy & Mr Whiskers Fairly Odd Parents Hannah Montana I Got A Rocket Wizards Of Waverly Place Phineas & Ferb Suite Life On Deck Replacements American Dragon Kim Possible Famous Five Fairly Odd Parents Phineas & Ferb Replacements I Got A Rocket Wizards Of Waverly Place Hannah Montana Sonny With A Chance Fairly Odd Parents Phineas & Ferb Suite Life On Deck Wizards Of Waverly Place Hannah Montana The Replacements Jonas Suite Life On Deck Sonny With A Chance Hannah Montana Wizards Of Waverly Place The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody The Replacements American Dragon Kim Possible Famous Five

07:00 Yin Yang Yo 07:25 Iron Man: Armoured Adventures 07:50 Kid vs Kat 08:15 Power Rangers Jungle Fury 08:40 The Suite Life of Zack & Cody 09:05 American Dragon 09:30 Kid vs Kat 10:00 Pokemon DP: Battle Dimension 10:30 The Suite Life of Zack & Cody 11:00 Phil Of The Future 11:30 Jimmy Two-Shoes 12:00 Kid vs Kat 12:30 Phineas & Ferb 13:00 Aaron Stone 13:25 Power Rangers Jungle Fury 13:50 Pokemon DP: Battle Dimension

00:15 Streets Of Hollywood 00:40 E!es 01:30 Extreme Hollywood 02:20 Sexiest 03:15 Fatal Beauty 05:05 Dr 90210 06:00 Ths 07:45 Style Star 08:35 E! News 09:00 The Daily 10 09:25 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 09:50 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 10:15 Ths 12:00 E! News 12:25 The Daily 10 12:50 Leave It To Lamas 13:40 15 Most Infamous Child Star Mugshots 15:25 Behind The Scenes 16:15 E!es 17:10 Kendra 18:00 E! News 18:25 The Daily 10 18:50 Streets Of Hollywood 19:15 Battle Of The Hollywood Hotties 19:40 E! Investigates 20:30 Ths 21:20 Bank Of Hollywood 22:10 E! News 22:35 The Daily 10 23:00 Dr 90210 23:50 Wildest Tv Show Moments

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

01:00 03:10 04:45 06:15 08:05 09:35 11:10 14:00 17:00 18:45 20:25 22:00 23:30

Dr G: Medical Examiner Fbi Files A Haunting Deadly Women Undercover Forensic Detectives Crime Scene Psychics Dr G: Medical Examiner Ghosthunters Ghosthunters Forensic Detectives Fbi Files Fugitive Strike Force Diagnosis: Unknown Forensic Detectives Fbi Files Solved Real Emergency Calls Royal Inquest Forensic Detectives Fbi Files Fugitive Strike Force Diagnosis: Unknown Forensic Detectives Fbi Files

Year Of The Dragon A Woman’s Tale Masquerade Youngblood Fast Food Parker Kane Little Dorrit Part 1 Little Dorrit Part 2 Great Balls Of Fire Pascali’s Island Mr. Wonderful Vigilante Force The Chocolate War

00:00 Scrubs 00:30 Will and Grace 01:00 The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 01:30 The Colbert Report 02:00 Late Night with Jimmy Fallon 03:00 Reno 911 03:30 State of the Union 04:00 The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson 05:00 Scrubs 05:30 Late Night with Jimmy Fallon 06:30 Tyler Perry’s House of Payne 07:00 Home Improvement 07:30 Malcolm in the Middle 08:00 Coach 08:30 The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 09:00 The Colbert Report 09:30 Drew Carey 10:00 Everybody Loves Raymond 10:30 Frasier 11:00 Til’ Death 11:30 Eight Simple Rules 12:00 The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson 13:00 Will and Grace 13:30 Tyler Perry’s House of Payne 14:00 Home Improvement

14:30 Malcolm in the Middle 15:00 Coach 15:30 The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 Drew Carey 17:00 Everybody Loves Raymond 17:30 Frasier 18:00 Eight Simple Rules 18:30 Til’ Death 19:00 Community 19:30 10 Things I Hate About You 20:00 Best of Late night with Jimmy Fallon 21:00 The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

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

The Martha Stewart Show 10 Years younger S3 Eat Yourself Sexy The Ellen DeGeneres Show The Monique Show Never Trust A Skinny Cook Fresh GMA (repeat) GMA Health What’s the Buzz The Martha Stewart Show Never Trust A Skinny Cook Fresh Jimmy Kimmel Live!

The View The Ellen DeGeneres Show The Martha Stewart Show GMA Live GMA Health What’s the Buzz The Tonight Show with Jay Look A Like S2 10 Years younger S3 The View The Ellen DeGeneres Show Jimmy Kimmel Live!

The Tonight show with Jay The Monique Show

00:00 Man On Wire-PG15 02:00 Saving God-PG15 04:00 Not Easily Broken-PG15 06:00 Quid Pro Quo-PG15 08:00 The Bucket List-PG15 10:00 Chasing The Horizon-PG15 12:00 Pink Panther 2-PG15 14:00 The Forbidden Kingdom-PG15 16:00 The Bucket List-PG15 18:00 Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix-PG 20:30 Semi-Pro-PG15 22:00 Eagle Eye-PG15

01:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 PG15 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

Doomsday-18 Solstice-18 Franck Spadone-PG15 Solo-PG15 Street Fighter Alpha-PG The Last Drop-PG15 Resident Evil: DegenerationStreet Fighter Alpha-PG Elsewhere-18 Vacancy 2: The First Cut-18 Blood : The Last Vampire-18 It’s Alive-R

00:00 Futurama: Beast With A Billion Backs-PG15 02:00 National Lampoon’s One Two Many-18 04:00 Doctor Dolittle 4: Tail To The Chief-PG 06:00 The Broken Hearts Club-PG 08:00 The Odd Couple 2-PG15 10:00 Short Track-PG 12:00 Life Or Something Like It-PG 14:00 High Heels And Low LifesPG15 16:00 Futurama: Beast With A Billion Backs-PG15 18:00 All Night Long-18 20:00 Car Babes-PG15 22:00 The Birdcage-18

01:30 Scooby-Doo And The Reluctant Werewolf-FAM 03:10 Little Giants-FAM 05:00 Gnomes And Trolls: The Secret Chamber-FAM 06:30 The Trumpet Of The SwanFAM 08:00 Felix 2-FAM 10:00 Little Giants-FAM 12:00 Batman And Mr. Freeze: Subzero-PG 14:00 Scooby-Doo And The Reluctant Werewolf-FAM 16:00 Andre-PG 18:00 Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home-FAM 20:00 The Jungle Book III : Mowgli’s Adventure-FAM 22:00 Batman And Mr. Freeze: Subzero-PG 23:30 Felix 2-FAM

00:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00

C.S.I: NY Janice Dickinson Smallville Law & Order Fraisier

05:30 06:00 06:30 07:00 08:00 08:30 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 12:30 13:00 13:30 14:00 16:00 17:00

Coach Emmerdale Coronation Street Sons of Anarchy Frasier Coach Smallville (TBA) Law & Order Emmerdale Coronation Street Frasier Coach C.S.I: NY Sons of Anarchy Smallville

01:00 Premier League 03:00 Premier League 05:00 Fut Brasil 05:30 Barclays Premier League Review Show 07:00 Portugol 07:30 Fut Brasil 08:00 Premier League 10:00 Portuguese Liga 12:00 Goals Goals Goals 12:30 Portugol

00:00 ICC Cricket World 00:30 Mobil 1 01:00 Futbol Mundial 01:30 Super League 03:30 Scottish Premier League Highlights 04:00 Super 14 06:00 World Sport 06:30 Futbol Mundial 07:00 Scottish Premier League Highlights 07:30 Portuguese Liga 09:30 Goals On Monday 11:00 Weber Cup Bowling 12:00 Super League 14:00 Super 14 16:00 Premier League Classics 16:30 Futbol Mundial 17:00 Weber Cup Bowling 18:00 Barclays Premier League Highlights 19:00 World Hockey 19:30 European Tour Weekly 20:00 Mobil 1 20:30 Portugol 21:00 Premier League Classics 21:30 Premier League World

00:00 Premier League Classics 00:30 Goals Goals Goals 01:00 Portugol 01:30 Weber Cup Bowling 02:30 Premier League Darts 06:30 Premier League Classics 07:00 World Sport 07:30 Super 14 09:30 Fut Brasil 10:00 Futbol Mundial 10:30 World Sport 11:00 Premier League Classics 12:00 Barclays Premier League Highlights 13:00 Portuguese Liga 15:00 Futbol Mundial 15:30 Premier League Darts 19:30 Futbol Mundial 20:00 Angelo Welsh Cup 22:00 Mobil 1 22:30 Premier League World

00:00 03:00 04:00 07:00 08:00 08:30 09:30 11:00 12:00 13:00 15:00 15:30 16:30 18:30 20:30 21:00

UFC 110 UFC Unleashed UFC - The Ultimate Fighter WWE Vintage Collection UAE National Race Day Drambuie Pursuit NCAA Basketball Bushido WWE Vintage Collection FIA GT FIM World Cup Drambuie Pursuit NCAA Basketball V8 Supercars FIM World Cup UFC - The Ultimate Fighter

01:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

Street Kings-18 Sicko-PG15 Racing Daylight-PG15 Frame Of Mind-PG15 Custody-PG15 The Good Heart-PG15 Iron Road Part 1-PG15 It’s A Free World-PG Custody-PG15 The Duchess-PG15 The Last Station-PG15 Saw V-R

01:00 02:35 05:00 05:30 07:30 08:00 09:30 12:10 13:55 15:45 17:25

Hotel Paradiso Ice Station Zebra The Screening Room Cannery Row The Screening Room Boys’ Town Where Eagles Dare 3 Godfathers Young Cassidy Hotel Paradiso North By Northwest

19:40 Sunday In New York 21:25 On The Town

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

Shootout!

Dogfights Ice Road Truckers 2 Deep Sea Detectives The Korean War The American Revolution The Battle for Rome Shootout!

Dogfights Ice Road Truckers 2 Deep Sea Detectives The Korean War The American Revolution The Battle for Rome Shootout!

Dogfights Ice Road Truckers 2 Deep Sea Detectives The Korean War The American Revolution The Battle for Rome Shootout!

Dogfights Ice Road Truckers 2 Deep Sea Detectives Dead Men’s Secrets The True Story Of Troy

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

Clean House Peter Perfect Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane Dallas Divas And Daughters How Do I Look?

Split Ends Dr 90210 Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane Area How Do I Look?

Style Star Style Her Famous My Celebrity Home Style Star Dress My Nest Peter Perfect Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

Ruby Giuliana And Bill Clean House Clean House Comes Clean Dress My Nest How Do I Look?

Split Ends Dallas Divas And Daughters Growing Up Fabulous Running In Heels Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane Split Ends Clean House Dress My Nest Style Her Famous

01:04 01:45 02:00 02:45 05:04 06:04 08:04 09:00 09:24 13:04 13:50

French Only Playlist Urban Hit Playlist Focus Playlist Hit US Code Compilation Playlist Urban Hit Playlist

16:04 16:45 18:00 18:45 19:00 20:04 20:45

Sound System Playlist Urban Hit Guest Star Playlist RNB Playlist

00:00 Globe Trekker 01:00 Angry Planet 01:30 The Thirsty Traveler 02:00 Floyd On Africa 02:30 Chef Abroad 03:00 Chef Abroad 03:30 Essential 04:00 Inside Luxury Travel-varun Sharma 05:00 Globe Trekker 06:00 Swiss Railway Journeys 07:00 The Thirsty Traveler 07:30 Angry Planet 08:00 Globe Trekker 09:00 Essential 09:30 Dream Destinations 10:00 Distant Shores 10:30 Distant Shores 11:00 Chef Abroad 11:30 Entrada 12:00 Planet Food 13:00 Globe Trekker 14:00 Chef Abroad 14:30 The Thirsty Traveler 15:00 Feast India 15:30 Entrada 16:00 Chef Abroad 16:30 Chef Abroad 17:00 Globe Trekker 18:00 Essential 18:30 Hollywood And Vines 19:00 Chef Abroad 19:30 The Thirsty Traveler 20:00 Globe Trekker 21:00 Inside Luxury Travel-varun Sharma 22:00 Planet Food 23:00 Intrepid Journeys

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

Lonely Planet Lonely Planet Bondi Rescue Destination Extreme Surfer’s Journal Treks In A Wild World Madventures Chasing Time Don’t Tell My Mother...

Lonely Planet Lonely Planet Bondi Rescue Destination Extreme Surfer’s Journal Treks In A Wild World Madventures Chasing Time Departures Jailed Abroad Jailed Abroad Bondi Rescue - Bali Destination Extreme Surfer’s Journal Treks In A Wild World Madventures Chasing Time Departures Jailed Abroad Jailed Abroad Bondi Rescue - Bali Destination Extreme Surfer’s Journal Treks In A Wild World Madventures

Street Kings on Super Movies

Star Listings (UAE Timings) STAR Movies 20:50 Rocketman 22:25 Sand Serpents 23:55 C.I. Frank Mcklusky 01:15 Wargames: The Dead Code 03:00 Spy Hard 04:20 Rocketman 05:55 Sand Serpents 07:25 C.I. Frank Mcklusky 08:45 Wargames: The Dead Code 10:30 No Bad Days 12:05 Carny 13:35 Hey Hey It’s Esther Blueburger 15:25 Keeping The Faith 17:30 Alien Resurrection 19:15 High Plains Invaders STAR World 20:00 American Idol 21:00 Australia’s Next Top Model 21:50 Different Strokes 22:00 Boston Legal 22:50 Married With Children 23:00 American Idol 00:00 Australia’s Next Top Model 00:50 Different Strokes 01:00 Boston Legal 01:50 Married With Children 02:00 Grey’s Anatomy 03:00 [V] Tunes

04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 07:30 08:00 09:00 10:00 10:50 11:00 12:00 12:50 13:00 13:30 14:00 14:50 15:00 15:50 16:00 17:00 18:00 18:30 19:00

[V] Tunes [V] Tunes 7th Heaven Scrubs The King Of Queens Stone Undercover American Idol Grey’s Anatomy Different Strokes American Idol Australia’s Next Top Model Married With Children The King Of Queens The Bold And The Beautiful 7th Heaven Different Strokes Grey’s Anatomy Married With Children [V] Tunes American Idol Scrubs The King Of Queens Stone Undercover

Granada TV 21:00 Dentists From Hell 22:00 Emmerdale 22:30 Coronation Street 23:00 Dentists From Hell 00:00 Parkinson (Series 7)

01:00 The Crunch 02:00 Romance Wednesday: Bob (Double Bill) 04:00 ...And Proud 05:00 Emmerdale 05:30 Coronation Street 06:00 Parkinson (Series 7) 07:00 The Crunch 08:00 Romance Wednesday: Bob (Double Bill) 10:00 ...And Proud 11:00 Emmerdale 11:30 Coronation Street 12:00 Parkinson (Series 7) 13:00 Coach Trip (Series 1) 14:00 Romance Wednesday: I (Double Bill) 16:00 Emmerdale 16:30 Coronation Street 17:00 Parkinson (Series 7) 18:00 Coach Trip (Series 1) 19:00 Romance Wednesday: I (Double Bill) Channel [V] 22:00 Double Shot 22:30 The Playlist 23:00 Loop 00:00 Backtracks 01:00 Double Shot

And Rose

And Rose

Saw You

Saw You

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 [V] Countdown [V] Tunes Double Shot Backtracks Loop [V] Plug Double Shot Backtracks [V] Tunes [V] Plug The Playlist Loop Parental Control Double Bill [V] Tunes Backtracks [V] Tunes [V] Plug The Playlist Loop Parental Control Double Bill [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 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 18:00

Glenn Beck with Glenn Beck Special Report with Bret Baier The FOX Report with Shepard Smith The O’Reilly Factor Hannity On the Record with Greta Van Susteren The O’Reilly Factor Hannity On the Record with Greta Van Susteren Glenn Beck with Glenn Beck Fox Report Special Report with Bret Baier The O’Reilly Factor FOX & Friends First Live FOX & Friends Live America’s Newsroom

National Geographic Channel 20:00 Inside -Rio Carnaval 21:00 Long Way Down -Scotland To Italy 2 22:00 Cruise Ship Diaries -Magic And Mayhem 3 23:00 Theme Week -Seconds From Disaster : Kobe Earthquake S2-6 00:00 Seconds From Disaster -Crash Landing At Sioux City S2-7 01:00 ABOUT ASIA -Megastructures : Kansai International Airport 02:00 Carrier -Rites Of Passage S1-7

03:00 Deep Jungle : The Beast Within 3 04:00 Lizard Kings 05:00 ABOUT ASIA -Megastructures : Kansai International Airport 06:00 Lockdown -Women Behind Bars 07:00 The Living Edens -Patagonia: Life At The End Of The Earth 08:00 Carrier -Rites Of Passage S1-7 09:00 Wild Detectives -Blue Whales 09:30 Food Lovers Guide To The Planet Digital Critics 6 10:00 Theme Week -Seconds From Disaster : Asian Tsunami S3-6 11:00 Seconds From Disaster -Crash Landing At Sioux City S2-7 12:00 ABOUT ASIA -Megastructures : Kansai International Airport 13:00 Wild Wednesday -Fishzilla 14:00 Wild Wednesday -Monster Fish : Sawfish 15:00 Theme Week -Seconds From Disaster : Asian Tsunami S3-6 16:00 Inside -Inside Afghan Heroin 17:00 Seconds From Disaster -Crash Landing At Sioux City S2-7 18:00 Wild Wednesday -Fishzilla 19:00 Wild Wednesday -Monster Fish : Sawfish

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

33

ACCOMMODATION Sharing accommodation available in old Khaitan for three decent Muslim Indian/Pakistani bachelors.

Contact: 99845247.

Sharing accommodation available for couples in Abbassiya with Keralite family, near Hi-Dine supermarket. Contact: 65139705.

(C 20465) Furnished sharing accommodation available for a small family or an executive bachelor in Sharq, near Amiri hospital. Contact: 66232892. (C 20461) Sharing available in a furnished Mulhaq room (kitchen room and bathroom attached) to share with Mangalorean Catholic bachelor close to Khaitan cinema, rent KD 25. Call: 66036893. (C 20444) Furnished accommodation available for a single executive bachelor in a window air-conditioned flat to share with a small family, hailing from Kerala, next to Salmiya church, behind Woodlands restaurant (from 1 April 2010) rent KD 70. Contact: 65890532 or 25657681 after 2:30pm.

17-3-2010 Sharing accommodation available for a Christian bachelor at Abbassiya near Neethi store from 1st April, rent KD 25. Contact: 66063182. (C 20451) Fully furnished bedroom with separate bathroom in a 2 bedroom flat including kitchen facilities available with Keralite family, in new Viji studio building near United Indian school at Abbassiya for couple or working ladies from 16th March. Contact: 97841925.

(C 20454) 15-3-2010 Sharing accommodation available in Abbassiya near German Clinic, with Keralite family 2 bed 2 bathroom CAC flat. Please contact: 66877073. (C 20442) One room in 3 bedroom

CAC flat with 2 baths, fully furnished with complete household facilities in Ashbiliya Opp Farwaniya. Contact 99714430. (C 20448) Accommodation available for non-smoking couples/ working ladies/executive bachelors in a 2 bedroom CAC flat in Abbassiya near Integrated School. Contact: 97199124. (C 20446) Sharing accommodation availale for bachelors with Keralite family, near Classic typing center, Abbassiya.

Call: 66829585. (C 20447) 14-3-2010 Sharing accommodation available for a family in a new building with two rooms and two toilets behind United Indian School, Abbassiya from April 1st onwards.

Please contact: 66772421, 66552412. (C 20431) Sharing accommodation available for Indian working ladies, couple, family, in a 2 bedrooms, CA/C flat in Maidan Hawally opp 4th Ring Road. Call: 99325130, 25649970. (C 20435) Abraq Khaitan, single room available for executive bachelor/lady. Opp Kuwait clinic beside the main road, new building. Contact: 97523316/ 24745162 from 1st April.

(C 20411) One furnished room with separate bath in a new building flat for a family/working ladies/ bachelors with another family in Abbassiya close to Paradise hotel from April first. Contact: 99698501, 66558927, 66720897. (C 20433) 11-3-2010

FOR SALE Hummer-H2, 2003, brown, very good condition, price KD 5,400 (negotiable). Tel: 97487676. (C 20466) 17-3-2010 Corolla 2005, 1.8 Xli, red color, 12,000 km, Mazda box delivery van 2006 model. Phone: 66052331.

(C 20459)

Household items for sale, furniture, double bed, bunk bed, study table, chairs, cabinet, fridge, dining table, sofa set, washing machine, airconditions, near to Untied Indian School Abbassiya.

Contact: 97645193.

(C 20458) 16-3-2010 Toyota Corolla model 2006 1.8, white, color low mileage very god condition, price KD 2,700. Call: 99891838.

(C 20453) 15-3-2010 Mitsubishi Pajero 2006 V6, golden color, option, DVD, alloy wheels, run 87,000 km, price KD 3,500. Contact: 99881982. (C 20450) Dell desktop PC in box, HD 80, DVD RW Intel Pentium with 2CPU 1.8 GHz, 19 inch LCD, RAM 1MB, original XP, Price KD 75. Call: 65099674. (C 20443) Contents of fully furnished two bedroom central A/C flat for immediate sale at reasonable price in city. Contact: 66651954, 22414365, 22415701. (C 20441) Pentium 4, Intel, 3 GHz, 1GB DDR RAM, 60 GB HDD, DVD combo, 56k modem, sound card, USB speakers, 17� CRT monitor, ready for internet, KD 55.

P4, Intel, 40 GB HDD, 256 MB RAM with 17� CRT monitor, KD 35. Contact: 66244192. (C 20449) 14-3-2010 Hummer H2, 2003, brown, very good condition. Price KD 5,900. Tel: 97487676.

(C 20440) 13-3-2010

tact: 99928863, 55824279.

(C 20434) Household items for immediate sale, with or without flat, close to Carmel school and in front of bus stop.

(Bedroom set, dining table with 6 chairs, sofa set, refrigerator & ACs). Contact: 55863074. (C 20436) 11-3-2010 Toyota Corolla 1.6, white color, 2009 model, very low mileage, excellent condition, wanted price 3,750 KD. Contact 66050484 (interested person call only).

(C 20428) 10-3-2010

MATRIMONIAL Inviting proposals for a Keralite RC boy, 31 years, fair, 155cms, diploma in electronics engineering, working as sales coordinator with family status, in a well reputed company in Kuwait. Email: jogijosephk@yahoo.com (C 20445) Financially sound, Orthodox NRI parents invite proposal for their son 26/180, MBA finance, God fearing, handsome, bank employee in Kuwait. Contact email: Kuruvilla26@yahoo.com (C 20462) 17-3-2010 Sunni Muslim parents from Hyderabad (India) seeks alliance for their daughter very fair 20 years, BA, boys should be well settled in Kuwait and well educated.

Only Hyderabad boy contact by email: shaikh_750@yahoo.com (C 20457)

Furnished double bedroom flat in Jleeb near Integrated Indian School with or without household goods rent KD 135 (including water and electricity).

Contact: 99763183.

(C 20438) 12-3-2010

Proposals are invited from parents of qualified boys for an RCSC girl, 27 years, 157 cm, B.Com, GNM practicing in a famous hospital in central Kerala. Contact email: vincentanila@yahoo.com (C 20460) 16-3-2010

Mitsubishi Magna 2002 model, excellent condition, owner leaving Kuwait. Con-

Proposals invited for Orthodox girl, MBA (Fin), 27/160, working as business devel-

opment executive in a reputed firm in Kuwait. Contact: gegekutty@hotmail.com (C 20432) Keralite Jacobite boy, 28/172, B.Com working as Junior Accountant, invites proposals from parents of girls working in Kuwait. Contact email: babypaily@hotmail.com (C 20437) 11-3-2010

SITUATION WANTED Looking a suitable job as sales/ marketing executive.

I have a valid Kuwaiti driving license and car, could also handle recovery and banking related issues, qualification is MBA (Marketing). Mob: 55355954. (C 20464) 17-3-2010

Malaysian, PhD holder looking for IT/Academic job in Kuwait. Prefer consultant, middle management, teaching or research-oriented job.

Contact dhaneshr@gmail.com (C 20456) 16-3-2010

10 years experience in HR/administration, specializing in recruitments, PMS, MIS reports & overall Admin functions. Proficient in MS Office. Good communication skills. Contact: 66634322.

(C 20439) 12-3-2010

SITUATION VACANT

Wanted full-time live-in maid for an Indian family (one child) in Mahboula.

Contact: 66781734.

(C 20455) 16-3-2010 Required English speaking maid for a family living in Mangaf. Preferably Indian. If interested, please contact 60055305 or 23741548.

11-3-2010

No: 14670

Indian female, electronics and communication engineer, experienced in software field with standard chartered bank, India, seeking for job, proficient in Oracle, MS Office, Java, Unix, holding valid transferable visa. Contact: 67050674, email: pritymary.Mmathew@gmail.com

(C 20452) 15-3-2010 Indian female (MBA in HR),

Flight Schedule Arrival Flights on Wednesday 17/03/2010 Airlines Flt Route Jazeera 0263 Beirut Gulf Air 211 Bahrain Kuwait 544 Cairo Ethiopia 620 Addis Ababa Ethiopian 3406 Addis Ababa DHL 370 Bahrain Turkish A/L 1172 Istanbul Emirates 853 Dubai Etihad 0305 Abu Dhabi Qatari 0138 Doha Air France 6782 Paris Jazeera 0503 Luxor Jazeera 0527 Alexandria Kuwait 416 Jakarta / Kuala Lumpur Jazeera 0529 Assiut British 0157 London Kuwait 412 Manila/Bangkok Falcon 201 Bahrain Kuwait 204 Lahore Kuwait 382 Delhi Kuwait 302 Mumbai Kuwait 332 Trivandrum Kuwait 676 Dubai Kuwait 284 Dhaka Emirates 855 Dubai Arabia 0121 Sharjah Qatari 0132 Doha Etihad 0301 Abu Dhabi Jazeera 0691 Shiraz Wataniya Airways 1121 Bahrain Gulf Air 213 Bahrain Iran Air 605 Isfahan Jazeera 0447 Doha Jazeera 0165 Dubai Jazeera 0425 Bahrain Jazeera 0113 Abu Dhabi Wataniya Airways 1021 Dubai Airquarius 061 Baghdad/Basrah Egypt Air 610 Cairo Lufthansa Cargo 8292 Frankfurt Kuwait 572 Dubai Syrian Arab A/L 341 Damascus Wataniya Airways 2301 Damascus Jazeera 0525 Alexandria Jazeera 0257 Beirut Wataniya Airways 2001 Cairo Saudi Arabian A/L 500 Jeddah Kuwait 562 Amman Kuwait 744 Dammam Jazeera 0457 Damascus Qatari 0134 Doha

Time 00:05 01:05 01:15 01:45 01:45 02:15 02:15 02:35 03:00 03:25 04:25 05:35 06:10 06:25 06:30 06:40 06:45 07:00 07:35 07:50 07:55 08:05 08:10 08:15 08:30 06:55 09:00 09:35 10:40 10:45 10:45 10:50 11:00 11:05 11:10 11:20 11:20 12:00 12:55 13:20 13:25 13:30 13:35 13:45 14:10 14:20 14:30 14:35 14:40 14:45 15:00

Kuwait Royal Jordanian Jazeera Mihin Lanka Emirates Gulf Air United A/L Saudi Arabian A/L Etihad Jazeera Jazeera Jazeera Arabia Tahi Jazeera Wataniya Airways Sri Lankan Wataniya Airways DHL Wataniya Airways Kuwait Kuwait Kuwait Kuwait Rovos Kuwait Kuwait Kuwait Kuwait Kuwait Kuwait Singapore A/L Kuwait Oman Air Jazeera Jazeera Indian Gulf Air Middle East Qatari Emirates KLM Wataniya Airways Jazeera Jazeera Global Jazeera Jazeera India Express Lufthansa Wataniya Airways Pakistan

546 Alexandria 800 Amman 0173 Dubai 403 Colombo/Dubai 857 Dubai 215 Bahrain 982 Washington DC Dulles 510 Riyadh 0303 Abu Dhabi 0493 Jeddah 0239 Amman 0217 Isfahan 0125 Sharjah 519 Bangkok 0367 Deirezzor 2101 Beirut 227 Colombo/Dubai 2003 Cairo 473 Baghdad 1025 Dubai 502 Beirut 542 Cairo 618 Doha 674 Dubai 093 Kandahar/Dubai 166 Paris/Rome 786 Jeddah 614 Bahrain 774 Riyadh 104 London 552 Damascus 458 Singapore/Abu Dhabi 512 Tehran 0647 Muscat 0459 Damascus 0343 Sanaa/Bahrain 993 Chennai/Mumbai 217 Bahrain 402 Beirut 0136 Doha 859 Dubai 0443 Amsterdam 1129 Bahrain 0449 Doha 0429 Bahrain 091 Baghdad 0117 Abu Dhabi 0185 Dubai 389 Kozhikode/Mangalore 636 Frankfurt 1029 Dubai 205 Lahore/Peshawar

15:30 15:40 16:05 16:40 16:55 17:05 17:15 17:15 17:15 17:30 17:35 17:40 17:40 17:45 17:45 17:50 18:05 18:20 18:30 18:40 18:45 18:50 18:55 18:55 19:00 19:00 19:10 19:20 19:30 19:35 19:40 19:45 20:05 20:20 20:40 20:55 21:00 21:05 21:20 21:35 21:40 21:55 22:00 22:10 22:15 22:20 22:25 22:40 23:15 23:30 23:45 23:55

Departure Flights on Wednesday l7/03/2010 Airlines Flt Route Tunis Air 328 Dubai/Tunis Jazeera 0528 Assiut Pakistan 240 Sialkot Indian 576 Goa/Chennai Lufthansa 637 Frankfurt Ethiopian 620 Bahrain/Addis Ababa Turkish A/L 1173 Istanbul DHL 371 Bahrain Ethiopian 3407 Beirut/Addis Ababa Emirates 854 Dubai Etihad 0306 Abu Dhabi Qatari 0139 Doha Air France 6782 Dubai/Hong Kong 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 Jazeera 0690 Shiraz Wataniya Airways 1120 Bahrain Jazeera 0422 Bahrain Rovos 094 Dubai/Kandahar Wataniya Airways 2300 Damascus Kuwait 545 Alexandria Jazeera 0256 Beirut British 0156 London Kuwait 671 Dubai Kuwait 561 Amman Jazeera 0456 Damascus Arabia 0122 Sharjah Kuwait 101 London/New York Emirates 856 Dubai Qatari 0133 Doha Etihad 0302 Abu Dhabi Wataniya Airways 2002 Cairo Gulf Air 214 Bahrain Kuwait 165 Rome/Paris Iran Air 604 Isfahan Jazeera 0342 Bahrain/Sanaa Kuwait 743 Dammam Kuwait 541 Cairo Jazeera 0172 Dubai Wataniya Airways 2100 Beirut Jazeera 0492 Jeddah Jazeera 0366 Deirezzor Jazeera 0238 Amman Kuwait 501 Beirut Airquarius 060 Basrah/Baghdad Kuwait 785 Jeddah

FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION 161

Time 00:01 00:05 00:35 00:50 01:20 02:30 03:15 03:15 03:15 03:50 04:10 05:00 06:10 07:00 07:00 07:00 07:30 07:35 07:40 07:45 07:50 07:50 07:55 08:00 08:10 08:30 08:35 08:55 09:00 09:15 09:25 09:35 09:35 09:40 10:00 10:20 11:30 11:40 11:45 11:50 11:50 11:55 12:00 12:00 12:05 12:15 12:20 12:25 13:00 13:30 13:40

Egypt Air Kuwait Wataniya Airways Syrian Arab A/L Kuwait Jazeera Lufthansa Cargo Jazeera Kuwait Kuwait Saudi Arabian A/L Kuwait Kuwait Royal Jordanian Qatari Mihin Lanka Gulf Air Etihad Emirates Arabia Jazeera Saudi Arabian A/L Jazeera Jazeera Global Jazeera Jazeera Thai Sri Lankan Wataniya Airways Wataniya Airways Kuwait Kuwait Kuwait Kuwait Oman Air Singapore A/L Gulf Air DHL Kuwait Kuwait Middle East Kuwait Falcon Qatari Kuwait Emirates KLM Jazeera United A/L Jazeera Kuwait

611 551 1024 342 673 0216 8292 0458 617 5111 501 773 613 801 0135 404 216 0304 858 0126 0262 511 0184 0116 092 0448 0428 520 228 1128 1028 283 361 343 351 0648 457 218 171 801 675 403 381 102 0137 301 860 0443 0526 981 0502 411

Cairo Damascus Dubai Damascus Dubai Isfahan Sharjah Damascus Doha Tehran Jeddah Riyadh Bahrain Amman Doha Dubai/Colombo Bahrain Abu Dhabi Dubai Sharjah Beirut Riyadh Dubai Abu Dhabi Baghdad Doha Bahrain Bangkok Dubai/Colombo Bahrain Dubai Dhaka Colombo Chennai Cochin Muscat Abu Dhabi/Singapore Bahrain Bahrain Cairo Dubai Beirut Delhi Bahrain Doha Mumbai Dubai Bahrain/Amsterdam Alexandria Washington DC Dulles Luxor Bangkok/Manila

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

SPECTRUM

34 CROSSWORD 930

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Calvin Aries (March 21-April 19) You will benefit from a

new, long-term project; not only in the work place but in your home. You are the only one that can persuade the group to expand their thinking—you improve the finances. Change can be hard to contend with but sometimes it is absolutely necessary. Today is one of those days. To ignore the unexpected events of today is to open yourself up for disruptions you cannot control. It is better to control change than to have change control you. A relationship has you on a major high this afternoon. So—much of you is reflected back to this other person. You are in the mood for intimate talks. The future has possibilities of moving into areas of opportunity regarding marriage and some positive marriage plans are easy to create.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) Expect significant

slowdowns today. Even if you push with might and main, you might end up with little to show for it except high blood pressure. It is a good time to lay back and let a subject or matter rest a bit. Your emotions are clear and calm. You work to remove any obstacles that might occur but you may be surprised at how things work out on their own.

Remember, the obstacles are important but temporary. There is some time later today to sit down and take stock of how things develop and to perhaps, learn from the process. If there is a problem that should surface in the future, you will have some good insight. Your understanding of the needs of others is in perfect balance with your own knowledge. Enjoy friends this evening.

Pooch Cafe

ACROSS 1. The elementary stages of any subject (usually plural).

4. Seed of a pea plant.

7. Open-heart surgery in which the rib cage is opened and a section of a blood vessel is grafted from the aorta to the coronary artery to bypass the blocked section of the coronary artery and improve the blood supply to the heart.

11. An informal term for a father.

12. An ugly evil-looking old woman.

13. Small buffalo of the Celebes having small straight horns.

14. The blood group whose red cells carry both the A and B antigens.

16. A gradual decline (in size or strength or power or number).

17. Tall perennial herb of tropical Asia with dark green leaves.

18. Primitive chlorophyll-containing mainly aquatic eukaryotic organisms lacking true stems and roots and leaves.

19. A loose sleeveless outer garment made from aba cloth.

21. Light informal conversation for social occasions.

24. (folklore) Fairies that are somewhat mischievous.

26. Type genus of the Anatidae.

30. (informal) Exceptionally good.

32. An edge tool used to cut and shape wood.

34. Top part of an apron.

35. A river that rises in central Germany and flows north to join the Elbe River.

37. The capital and largest city of Yemen.

41. A rare silvery (usually trivalent) metallic element.

44. A Turkish unit of weight equal to about 2.75 pounds.

45. The habitation of wild animals.

49. A light touch or stroke.

50. (of a young animal) Abandoned by its mother and raised by hand.

51. The 7th letter of the Greek alphabet.

52. (Babylonian) The sky god.

53. An Arabic speaking person who lives in Arabia or North Africa.

54. A metric unit of volume or capacity equal to 10 liters.

55. A soft silvery metallic element of the alkali earth group.

DOWN 1. The sixth month of the civil year.

2. A small cake leavened with yeast.

3. Being one hundred more than three hundred.

4. The cardinal number that is the sum of four and one.

5. (Akkadian) God of wisdom.

6. Advanced in years.

7. An esoteric or occult matter that is traditionally secret.

8. A blue dye obtained from plants or made synthetically.

9. Ring loudly and deeply, as of bells.

10. Mentally or physically infirm with age.

15. An independent agency of the United States government responsible for collecting and coordinating intelligence and counterintelligence activities abroad in the national interest.

20. By bad luck.

22. A colorless and odorless inert gas.

23. A soft silvery metallic element of the alkali earth group.

25. A federal agency established to regulate the release of new foods and health-related products.

27. The compass point that is one point east (clockwise) of due north.

28. The branch of computer science that deal with writing computer programs that can solve problems creatively.

29. A metallic element having four allotropic forms.

31. Aircraft landing in bad weather in which the pilot is talked down by ground control using precision approach radar.

33. The capital of Croatia.

36. A white soft metallic element that tarnishes readily.

38. A Kwa language spoken in Ghana and the Ivory Coast.

39. (Babylonian) God of wisdom and agriculture and patron of scribes and schools.

40. Type genus of the Alcidae comprising solely the razorbill.

42. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

43. Any of numerous local fertility and nature deities worshipped by ancient Semitic peoples.

46. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine.

47. An agency of the United Nations affiliated with the World Bank.

48. A piece of furniture that provides a place to sleep.

Gemini (May 21-June 20) This is a go-to-it day! You feel as though you have the world on a string and that string is quite securely tied around your finger! A day like this comes only a few times during the year, so make the most of it now. There is no need to prove you to anyone. The only thing is to be careful about today and unrealistic expectations. Unrealistic expectations may lead you away from progress.

Think through the outstanding opportunities that are present in your life now and bring them into reality. The urge for self-indulgence and personal pleasure is strong. Do not restrain yourself but do not over-indulge either.

Keep a balance in everything you do and you will be happy, healthy and wise. A feeling of having stability is present this evening.

Non Sequitur

Cancer (June 21-July 22) Group meetings, whether you are the teacher or the student is enlightening this morning. You are in a good position to communicate.

If you are asked to contribute information, you will be clearly understood. There could be an occasion to brain storm with each other in new and interesting ways. With all the wonderful motivational speakers in the market place, you and your co-workers are in for a treat. Someone new to your group may need some guidance after the lunch break. You can demonstrate great understanding and sensitivity to the needs of others—particularly just now. This evening you may only be interested in entertaining your lover. Being unpredictable is one of the things that attract your lover. Exercise will help you to relax tonight.

Leo (July 23-August 22) You are enthusiastic to begin your day! You feel good and you feel in harmony with yourself, the entire world and everybody in it. Others can feel this as well and are drawn to you, making this a successful day for any kind of group endeavor. Best of all, relations with the opposite sex are at a peak. This is a super day to go on a date, be married or be in love. You concentrate now on purposeful work with plenty of possibilities for growth. You seem to get the attention and interest of powerful people and moreover, to persuade them to give you a break. You can also see that you have made some great strides in achieving your goals.

The dreams of the past are now within your reach. Diet, exercise and work somehow mean more to you now.

Zits

Virgo (August 23-September 22) Be your usual friendly self today, it is who you know that will help you in your professional life. This may mean better sales for this week or a word to some higher up that you would be the best for a particular job. As you help someone, you will be helping yourself. If you keep a note pad near you while you sleep at night, you will be able to jot down your dreams. You will be gaining some insights that will help you to contemplate your future. Don’t be too surprised to find helpful information for your friends as well. Your ability to visualize new directions will help you realize your dreams. A physical attraction could turn into a lasting soul mate partnership. If you are already married, now the relationship will deepen.

Libra (September 23-October 22) Two-way communication should be the accent of this mentally stimulating day. Your mind is alive and curious and your lucidity will lead to easy understanding by others.

Everyone in your work place seems agreeable and willing to meet on common ground in order to come up with some kind of new working code or guidelines. This is an excellent day for group discussions that lead to good decision. Limit your options and focus on the important ones.

Don’t focus simply on immediate interests, but take a disciplined approach to your search for long-term success. Map out your contingencies. This is a busy time; business travel is possible. Enjoy the evening with friends. A faraway lover misses you and may contact you. Relax and enjoy reminiscing.

Mother Goose and Grimm

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) Finish rather than

start. Today you have the mental concentration and discipline to work out the final details of a past project, but you are not up to blocking out the broad borders of a new project. You may find yourself drawn more inward than outward these days. You might do better in service capacities than in leadership for now. Now and over the next few years— you have the power to influence people—no matter what position you play. Special people just stand out in special ways and you are as you appear—honest, intelligent and willing to help others. If you are single, think about inviting yourself to a gathering or set up a little party of your own. Perhaps a group of your friends are meeting on the boardwalk or in town.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) It is good to watch your work commitments. While it is true that you have much to offer to others at work, it is also true that if you offer your assistance twenty-four hours a day you can exhaust yourself needlessly. A little tempering of your need to be helpful would help your stress level. Your goals and objectives are very clear today and you proceed, not only with self-confidence, but with a clear understanding of the material resources and detailed hard work necessary to achieve them. If others are involved in your goals, you could accept a leadership role; otherwise, you prefer to work alone.

Jazz may be your choice of music and with a special group in town you may enjoy inviting some old friends to enjoy the evening with you.

Yesterday’s Solution

Capricorn (December 22-January 19) This is

yester

Yesterday’s Solution

to

INTERNATIONAL CALLS Kuwait Qatar Abu Dhabi Dubai Raas Al Khayma Al-Shareqa Muscat Jordan Bahrain Riyadh Makkah - Jeddah Cairo Alexandria Beirut Damascus Allepo

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

Word Sleuth Solution

a good day to sit down at your desk and get all those papers organized and all those pesky details out of the way. Your patience is stronger than usual, so take advantage of your methodical mood. It is a very practical day! Remind yourself that projects can be completed in their own time and try to persuade co-workers and supervisors that the end result will be better if the approach they are taking is modified a bit. Use your intuition and take very good care of some important documents. This is a very nice day, there is an appreciation for all that is beautiful and fine. A sense of value and valuing that may find you lavishing affection on those near you. Consider growing a flower or herb garden; you will find that gardening is most relaxing.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) Your approach to a pressing business matter this morning is quite impressive. A number of business communications requires your attention. Despite all odds and detractors, you could be a conquering hero today. Do not rest on your laurels; however, your climb to the top is nearing completion. The way you handle things today could be significant to the future. Later this afternoon you can relax and enjoy the game of life as well as time away from the work place. This is a pretty good time for your socializing in your personal life. Before setting off on a get-together with friends or family, be sure that you have not overlooked some detail, or your part of a deal within the work place. A dinner or some fun activity can be enjoyed this evening.

Pisces (February 19-March 20) Matters concerning a budget are on your mind today. Be patient with yourself. A plan and some patience are necessary ingredients to success. You may have trouble trying to express yourself to someone today—there is little logic and much emotion. This situation, however, makes you an excellent listener to all that seek your counsel. You not only can hear their words but you can empathize with their feelings. There is an increased desire to succeed in the world. You are full of wit and sharp insights. This could be a time for real breakthroughs in the idea department. You are in top form when it comes to mental activity. Remember your friends and family; try to include them in any of your good fortune.

INFORMATION

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

35 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

Maternity Hospital

24843100

Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital

25312700

Chest Hospital

24849400

Farwaniya Hospital

24892010

Adan Hospital

23940620

Ibn Sina Hospital

24840300

Al-Razi Hospital

24846000

Physiotherapy Hospital

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

24874330/9 CLINICS

Roudha

22517733

Adhaliya

22517144

Khaldiya

24848075

Keifan

24849807

Shamiya

24848913

Shuwaikh

24814507

Abdullah Salim

22549134

Al-Nuzha

22526804

Industrial Shuwaikh

24814764

Al-Khadissiya

22515088

Dasmah

22532265

Bneid Al-Ghar

22531908

Al-Shaab

22518752

Al-Kibla

22459381

Ayoun Al-Kibla

22451082

Al-Mirqab

22456536

Sharq

22465401

Salmiya

25746401

Jabriya

25316254

Maidan Hawally

25623444

Bayan

25388462

Mishref

25381200

W.Hawally

22630786

Sabah

24810221

Jahra

24770319

New Jahra

24575755

West Jahra

24772608

South Jahra

24775066

North Jahra

24775992

North Jleeb

24311795

Al-Ardhiya

24884079

Firdous

4892674

Al-Omariya

4719048

N.Kheitan

4710044

Rabiya

4732263

Fintas

3900322

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

EMERGENCY 112

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

Dr. Abidallah Al-Amer

22561444

Dr. Faysal Al-Fozan

22619557

Dr. Abdallateef Al-Katrash

22525888

Dr. Abidallah Al-Duweisan

25653755

Dr. Bader Al-Ansari

25620111

Neurologists:

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

22433377 24379900 177 22477631 22423888 22425747 22434940 22420002/9 22418064/5/6 22433388 22425635 22430224 22425566 22438184 22424444 22421578 22421516 22426306 22423073 22422493 22421044 22414427 22416474 22452977/8 22417901/2433141 22456700 22412284/5 22453820/1

INTERNATIONAL CALLS Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Anguilla Antiga Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Congo Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Cyprus (Northern) Czech Republic Denmark Diego Garcia Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador England (UK)

0093 00355 00213 00376 00244 001264 001268 0054 00374 0061 0043 001242 00973 00880 001246 00375 0032 00501 00229 001441 00975 00591 00387 00267 0055 00673 00359 00226 00257 00855 00237 001 00238 001345 00236 00235 0056 0086 0057 00269 00242 00682 00506 00385 0053 00357 0090392 00420 0045 00246 00253 001767 001809 00593 0020 00503 0044

Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guinea Guyana Haiti Holland (Netherlands) Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Ibiza (Spain) Iceland India Indian Ocean Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Italy Ivory Coast Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Liberia Libya Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Macedonia

00240 00291 00372 00251 00500 00298 00679 00358 0033 00594 00689 00241 00220 00995 0049 00233 00350 0030 00299 001473 00590 001671 00502 00224 00592 00509 0031 00504 00852 0036 0034 00354 0091 00873 0062 0098 00964 00353 0039 00225 001876 0081 00962 007 00254 00686 00965 00996 00856 00371 00961 00231 00218 00370 00352 00853 00389

36

SPECTRUM

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

ate Winslet and Sam Mendes have split.

The 34-year-old actress split from the ‘American Beauty’ director earlier this year after six years of marriage. A statement from law firm Schillings said: “Kate and Sam are saddened to announce that they separated earlier this year. The split is entirely amicable and is by mutual agreement. “Both parties are fully committed to the future joint parenting of their children. They ask that the media respect their privacy at this time.” The pair have one child together, six-year-old Joe Alfie Winslet Mendes.

It is the second marriage for Oscar-winner Kate, who wed film assistant Jim Threapleton in 1998 before divorcing in 2001 - the couple had one child, nine-year-old Mia. Kate admitted last year she decided to lay low following her Best Actress Oscar win for ‘The Reader’ in order to spend time with her family. The ‘Titanic’ star who also won the Best Actress and the Best Supporting Actress awards at the Golden Globes in 2009 for her roles in ‘Revolutionary Road’ and ‘The Reader’ respectively - said: “I was in hiding a little bit, just doing family stuff and very little work. “To be honest, I felt so over-exposed this time last year with the Golden Globes and the Oscar. It was fantastic and everything, but I was sick of me, let alone what other people must have felt.”

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Michaels’ deep admiration

Kate Winslet splits from husband ret Michaels admires Miley Cyrus for not taking “any s**t”. The Poison singer who has collaborated with the ‘Hannah Montana’ star on their new single ‘Nothing to Lose’ - is in awe of the 17-year-old singer-andactress because she stands up for what she believes in. He said: “Does she stir s**t up? No. What I think that she does is she doesn’t take any s**t. I love that about her.

I’ve seen it. I’ve seen people come at her, come at me, and we’re both the same. I set them straight. A lot of times when you live in that Hollywood limelight, speaking your piece or doing your thing is organic and more controversial than people trying to be controversial. I think the trying stuff - I’m bored of it.

You’re like, ‘Oh God, someone told them to go there and do that.’ “ The 47-year-old rocker - who dated Pamela Anderson and

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appeared in a sex tape with the blonde beauty - has defended the outspoken teenager and doesn’t think Miley deliberately sets out to cause problems in her personal and work life. Discussing whether or not Miley likes to create scandals, he added to America’s OK! magazine: “I think the exact opposite. I think she’s got a strong backbone. I don’t think she takes s**t from people. She’s unpredictable and that’s natural.” Miley has been involved in a number of controversies since she found fame. When she was just 15, the starlet posed topless for fashion photographer Annie Leibovitz in a shoot which appeared in Vanity Fair magazine.

Last year, Miley shocked fans again when she pole danced in a skimpy pair of shorts during her performance of ‘Party in the USA’ at the Teen Choice Awards.

Sheen denies attacking wife harlie Sheen has pleaded not guilty to assaulting his wife on Christmas Day. The ‘Two and a Half Men’ actor faces three charges - felony menacing, misdemeanor third degree assault and misdemeanor criminal mischief - stemming from allegations made by his wife Brooke Mueller that he held her down and put a knife to her throat during an argument. The cause of the furious row is believed to be Brooke threatening to divorce Charlie. The actor’s representative Stan Rosenfield said: “Charlie is looking forward for this opportunity to clear his name.” The not guilty plea was entered in court at Aspen, Colorado, where the family - which includes the couple’s twin sons, one-year-old Bob and Max - were on a skiing holiday at the time. Charlie, 44, stopped filming ‘Two and a Half Men’ to enter rehab on February 23, as a “preventative measure”, and is receiving treat-

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ment for alcohol and cocaine problems. Brooke has also been undergoing rehab separately at the couple’s home for alcoholism and crack cocaine abuse. The couple’s children are being cared for by nannies while their parents are away. This week, however, Charlie is planning to return to the ‘Two and a Half Men’ set to finish filming the current series, although it has been reported he will still attend rehab at night. The show’s executive producer Mark Burg said: “Charlie is looking forward to going back to work for the final four episodes. “He’s also looking forward to clearing his name, putting all of this behind him and spending time with his kids during his hiatus.” A trial date has been set for July 21 and Charlie’s next hearing date is April 19, although he’s not required to be in court in person.

Stiller’s relationship secret en Stiller claims laughter is the best way to a successful relationship. The 44-year-old actor admits his relationship with wife of nine years Christine Taylor works because the pair share a sense of humour. He said: “For me, laughter is such a huge part of a relationship. My wife has a great sense of humor. What I like is to try to make her laugh. “Sometimes she laughs at things that I take too seriously, which I find helpful in keeping me grounded. I used to be a workaholic, but now I’m happy at home. For the first time I’m beginning to feel grown up.” Ben also admits the followup to comedy movie ‘Zoolander’ has

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Shields’ furious neighbors

been worked on for some time because he wants to make sure the sequel is as funny as the first film.

According to Parade.com, he said: “We’ve been working on it on and off over the last six or seven years. The biggest hurdle for me personally was that Drake Sather, who created the character, passed away. He was a good friend and the lump for me was it’s hard to imagine doing it without him. “Now my buddy, Justin Thoreau, has committed to directing and writing it. So I’m excited and I think it’s going to happen. I want to be able to do something that lives up to the first one. That’s the challenge.”

rooke Shields has infuriated her neighbors with renovation work on her New York home. The ‘Lipstick Jungle’ star has commissioned extensive changes to be made to her $5.6 million home in the city’s West Village area, but builders are said to be making so much noise and mess, other residents are threatening to move out. One tenant who lives near the actress said: “They start construction at 6am every morning, and people are outraged. This has been going on for months, and people in surrounding buildings are threatening their property managers that they’ll move out if it doesn’t stop.” The tenant added complaints to construction workers have been dismissed. A group of residents reportedly confronted the renovation team but were told: “If you have a problem, take it up with Brooke Shields.”

BLDG management, which leases many local apartments, has refused to comment on the troubles reported by the residents, includ-

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Minogue’s pregnancy cravings annii Minogue has been craving fish ‘n’ chips since she got pregnant. The Australian star admits she can’t get enough of the classic deep fried British dish since she found out she is expecting her first child with her England rugby player boyfriend Kris Smith. Dannii said: “As for British cuisine favorites fish ‘n’ chips and sticky toffee pudding! Baby ‘Smithogue’ has been enjoying them too much.” The brunette beauty - who is a judge on Simon Cowell’s British TV talent show ‘The X Factor’ - is a self-confessed Anglophile and has been dividing her time between London and her hometown of Melbourne for almost 20 years. Dannii whose sister is pop superstar Kylie Minogue - added in an interview with Britain’s OK! magazine: “Can you believe I have been living between Melbourne and London since 1991? It is so nice to feel adopted by the country you live in. My mum is Welsh so I have had dual passport and citizenship for a while now.” The 38year-old star’s other favorite thing about the UK is the public transport system. Dannii - who has been dating Kris since September 2008 - said: “You can’t beat a double-decker bus, but I miss the old ones you could jump on and off easily. And black taxis are the best in the world - the driver always knows where they are going.”

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ay adopting an w a h t a H o e the n An rd og he ‘Alice in Wonderland’ actress who already has a much-loved chocolate Labrador called Esmeralda - went to Molly’s Mutts and Meows volunteer animal rescue centre in West Hollywood on Saturday with her partner Adam Schulman where they were seen looking at a number of mutts, including a medium-sized terrier mix named Chuck. A source revealed: “She said she had one dog and was looking to adopt a second one. Most of the conversation was about Chuck, and whether he’s good with other dogs, house-trained, mellow, things like that.” The 27-year-old star - who has been dating Adam since November 2008 - took down information regarding the purchase of Chuck before leaving,

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and seemed keen on giving the pooch a home. The rescue centre has refused to comment or confirm the adoption of Chuck. Anne has previously credited Esmeralda for helping her land the part of classic English novelist Jane Austen in ‘Becoming Jane’, because she hardly slept a wink the night before her audition because her dog was so ill. She said: “I slept maybe an hour. When I arrived at the interview, I was tired and wasn’t in a very good mood. I guess Julian Jarrold realized that I wasn’t the bright, happy, smiley, untroubled girl from ‘The Princess Diaries’. He offered me the role after that.”

— Bang Showbiz

ing that the renovations have caused the sidewalk near the star’s home to be closed. Despite their problems with their famous neighbor, residents admit they were initially pleased when the star moved into the area in 2008 - reportedly at the suggestion of her ‘Lipstick Jungle’ co-star Lindsay Price - but the recent developments have made them rethink their view. The source said: “A lot of people around here were happy that those two were in the neighborhood. It’s a pretty close-knit environment around here, and it’s always nice to see a famous face. Now people definitely have strong feelings about Brooke disrupting the normally peaceful atmosphere.” Despite the complaints, Brooke - who has two daughters, Rowan, six, and Grier, three, with husband Chris Henchy has defended herself, saying she has a permit and the works are legal and are “up to code every step of the way.” Her representative told the New York Daily News newspaper: “They truly apologize about the noise or any inconvenience and hope more than anybody to have it finished as soon as possible.”

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010

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Fashion

China fashion show

Models parade creations by a local designer at a show in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei province.

Women have become a major driving force behind China’s economic growth, as the country’s overall retail sales rose 15 percent in the first half of 2009, driven in large part by women under the age of 35. —AFP

Hilfiger to be bought by the owner of Calvin Klein ommy Hilfiger is to be bought by the owner of Calvin Klein, creating one of the world’s largest clothing companies. The Hilfiger label will be purchased by Philips-Van Heusen for $3 billion, creating a company with $4.6bn revenue. Tommy

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Hilfiger - the man behind the label said: “I look forward to remaining actively involved in the business. This is the next phase in the global evolution and expansion of the Tommy Hilfiger brand.” Hilfiger was sold by private equity firm Apax partners, who origi-

nally bought it for $1.6bn in 2006.

Other clothing lines under the PhilipsVan Heusen business include Calvin Klein, Van Heusen, Arrow, IZOD and Bass and they expect to save $40m of cost synergies through the new deal.

Tommy Hilfiger began in 1985 with a

Gallagher is to launch a womens wear range

men’s clothing line, and has since expanded the brand to include shoes, perfumes and women’s and children’s clothing. The brand’s performance dipped at the beginning of last decade, but had turned around under Apax, which has expanded the brand from 574

stores to over 1,000 outlets. Meanwhile, another fashion brand, Nicole Fahri, will be sold by its owners, French Connection, which is also closing most of its US operations. The Fahri brand is expected to raise around $7.5 million for the group, which posted losses of $13.6

million over the last year. Despite closing its operations in Japan and Scandinavia and announcing the closure of its US operation, the company made a strong sales performance in Europe and said its restructuring will return it to profitability. —Bang Showbiz

Bundchen’s ET changes

he former Oasis singer has his own label Pretty Green, which is currently for men, but he is keen to expand his collection once the male clothes are more established. He said: “A lot of girls are asking if we will be doing a range for them, and the answer to that is YES once we have got rid of all the lads stuff.” As well as womens’ wear, Liam is also keen to bring out a range of accessories for men. He said: “We will be adding to the range, ie accessories - belts, sunglasses, wallets etc.” Liam is very proud of his menswear range especially as he knew many people wanted it to fail because he was involved in it.

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He told Oasis fansite StopCryingYourHeartOut.com: “Its success does surprise me considering I’ve got something to do with it, there are a lot of people who try to kill things before they even become alive. “In this range, the camouflage parka stands out to me personally and the button down shirts. Everyone comments on the quality and the fit of the clothes.” While the range is a success of the UK, Liam is keen to launch the brand worldwide. He said: “We have just got back from Japan, and will be heading to New York this month and Europe after that.” —Bang Showbiz

isele Bundchen has “changed” since having her first child. The 29year-old model had baby Benjamin - her first child with husband Tom Brady - in November 2009, and admits she found it hard to get back to work. She said: “I got to the studio and I felt like I was ET whoa, what’s going on? Hair and makeup? “I’d been in my house, in a cocoon with my kids, my husband, my dogs.

Usually, as I walk through the door into that atmosphere, I already feel different.

There’s a button that goes On and I’m On. “This time it wasn’t like that. I’ve been really inside with my husband and my baby, and everything is changed. But the client still deserves respect and professionalism, and I got a little bit concerned because I wasn’t feeling it.” However, the Brazilian-born beauty claims she did look after her body while she was pregnant. She said to Vogue magazine: “I did kung fu up until two weeks before Benjamin was born, and yoga three days a week. “I think a lot of people get pregnant and decide they can turn into garbage disposals.” —Bang Showbiz

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Models display a creation from a ready to wear collection by Ukrainian fashion designer Elena Burenina during Ukrainian Fashion Week in Kiev on March 15, 2010. —AFP photos

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Music & Movies

ABBA, Hollies, Genesis, Iggy Pop enter Rock Hall n English band steeped in harmony, a reggae pioneer, progressive rockers who thrived despite a defection, four Swedes who combined their nation’s traditions with their rock heroes and a man who prowled a ballroom floor singing “I Wanna Be Your Dog” wouldn’t seem to have much in common. For a night they did, as The Hollies, Jimmy Cliff, Genesis, ABBA and Iggy Pop’s Stooges accepted induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Monday-a ceremony almost as notable for who wasn’t there as who was. ABBA sold some 100 million records with hits such as “Waterloo,” “Dancing Queen” and “Knowing Me, Knowing You” before disbanding in 1982. Songwriter Benny Andersson described how the melancholy of the “vodka belt” so far north, the pre-rock era music they heard on Swedish radio and the songs of their rock ‘n’ roll heroes all found their way into ABBA’s material.

Andersson and ex-wife AnniFrid Lyngstad attended the ceremony at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Agnetha Faltskog, who has a fear of flying, and Bjorn Ulvaeus, who had a family commitment, did not. “I’m old enough to admit to the fact that I think we did a great job,” Lyngstad said. Keep that in the past tense: Lyngstad told the audience that ABBA would never perform again. She brought along her grandson, a heavy metal musician who nonetheless appreciates grandma’s music. Actress Meryl Streep, who was in the “Mamma Mia” movie that introduced ABBA’s music to a new generation and older ones that didn’t pay attention at the time, was also there.

The audience at the Waldorf and watching on the Fuse TV network got one-fourth of ABBA on stage. Andersson played piano as country star Faith Hill sang “The Winner Takes It All.” Backstage, Lyngstad feigned anger that it had taken so long for ABBA to

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(Left) Inductees Anni-Frid Princessan Reuss and Benny Andersson of ABBA speak onstage. (Right) Jimmy Cliff raises his trophy. —Photos by AP/AFP frowning every time cameras caught him, didn’t seem to miss Gabriel. “We’ve played without him for 30 years,” he said backstage. “We’re used to not having him around.” The Hollies also had two lives. Music historian and Bruce Springsteen guitarist Steve Van Zandt said singers Allan Clarke and Graham Nash’s “exquisite English harmonies were second, or shared only by the Beatles. Clarke and Nash harmonized again on two of their best-known early hits, “Bus Stop” and “Carrie-Anne.”

“The Hollies, after I left in 1968, had the audacity, the gall, to have three No. 1 records after I left,” Nash joked. “Thanks a lot, guys.” Those 1970s standards were “The Air That I Breathe,” “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” and “Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress).” “We started out in the

after a recording session, Cliff accepted his invitation to stay over in his New Jersey apartment. “When we saw Jimmy Cliff, we saw ourselves,” Jean said. “Meaning, coming from Haiti and the Caribbean, you have to see someone do it for you to be inspired to think you could do it. When I saw Jimmy Cliff, I could see my face.” The Michigan-based Stooges never sold many records. But the brutal force of their 1973 album “Raw Power” influenced the punk movement to come, and the rubber-limbed Pop was an electric frontman.

Pop delivered middle-finger salutes to his audience and, at the black-tie affair, had his shirt off even before performing “Search and Destroy.” He prowled through the audience for “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” and the Stooges were joined onstage

Otis Blackwell, represented by family members. “You made it, dad,” Otis Blackwell Jr said, looking skyward.

Songwriter Jeff Barry had the most tragicomic reason for missing his big night: He couldn’t catch a flight to New York.

“They delayed his plane, delayed it, delayed it and then canceled it. It’s an unbelievable drag,” said Van Zandt, who read Barry’s speech from his smart phone. Songwriter Carole King inducted old colleagues from an era (the 1950s and early 1960s) when performers largely left songwriting to others. They included Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil (“You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” “On Broadway”), Greenwich & Barry (“Leader of the Pack,” “Be My Baby”), Blackwell (“All Shook Up,” “Don’t Be Cruel”), Mort Shuman (“Save the Last Dance for Me,” “This Magic Moment” with Doc Pomus) and Jesse Stone (“Sh-Boom,” “Shake, Rattle and Roll”). Another nonperforming inductee was David Geffen. Before he spread his influence to other parts of the entertainment business, Geffen started the Asylum and Geffen record labels. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is in Cleveland. —AP

Sony, Jackson estate inks 250-million-dollar deal

Inductees Mike Rutherford, Steve Hackett, Phil Collins and Tony Banks of Genesis.

Iggy Pop, right, performs with Billy Joe.

Musician Eric Burdon be voted in.

“I’m very angry that Madonna got in before us,” she joked. Genesis had two distinct incarnations. They were a fixture of Britain’s progressive rock scene in the 1970s, known as much for lead singer Peter Gabriel’s theatricality as the music. When Gabriel quit, the band put drummer Phil Collins in front of the microphone and they became regulars on the pop charts. Phish singer and childhood Genesis fan Trey Anastasio said Collins showed hints of his unexpected later role in his musicianship.

“Phil’s drums were the only thing that could hold those disparate elements together,” Anastasio said. “He always seemed to be aware that the song came first.” Phish paid tribute to both Genesis generations, performing the meandering “Watcher of the Skies” and

The Hollies appear in the press room after being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

the pop hit “No Reply At All.” Gabriel was missing from the ceremony. Former bandmate Mike Rutherford said Gabriel sent his apologies, but he was preparing for a tour.

Collins, who seemed to be

‘60s,” band member Terry Sylvester said. “Now we’re in our 60s.” Jamaica’s Cliff was among the first to export reggae. His best-known songs include “You Can Get It If You Really Want,” “The Harder They Come” and “Many Rivers to Cross,” and he energetically performed each of them on Monday.

Haiti’s Wyclef Jean recalled loving Cliff’s songs so much he translated some of them into hymns so his father would allow them to be sung in church. One of his biggest thrills came when,

by inductor Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day and Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam. “Roll over Woodstock,” Pop said. “We won!” For all their toughness, the Stooges seemed genuinely touched by the honor. Scott Asheton paid tribute to his brother and bandmate Ron Asheton, who died last year. Pop choked back tears in thanking his colleagues for getting back together and working. Besides Ron Asheton, some of Monday’s inductees died before their special night. They included songwriters Ellie Greenwich and

Iggy Pop, right, performs with Billy Joe Armstrong.

ony and the estate of late music legend Michael Jackson have signed a recordbreaking 250-million-dollar deal for distribution rights through 2017, US media said yesterday. The blockbuster deal involving as many as 10 new Jackson projects may include computer video games as well as music and film releases, the Los Angeles Times said. “The audio rights span across different projects,” said Rob Stringer, chairman of the US label Columbia Epic, a division of Sony, reported the Times. “There may be theater. There may be films and movies. There may be computer games-or multimedia platforms that I don’t know about today that will happen in 2015.”

Described by Sony and Jackson’s estate as the most lucrative music contract on record, the deal would guarantee the late singer’s heirs at least 200 million dollars, the Wall Street Journal said. The deal would go a long way to easing burdens lef t behind by Jackson, whose lavish lifestyle and spending sprees marked up hundreds of millions of dollars of debt. After his death, a Los Angeles court named Jackson’s mother, Katherine Jackson, 79, guardian of his three children, Prince Michael, 12, Paris, 11 and Prince Michael II, 7, as well as of his estate, which includes his Neverland ranch and rights he held to songs by The Beatles.

Sony’s contract “exceeds all previous industry benchmarks,” entertainment lawyer John Branca, one of the estate’s executors, told the New York Times. The closest comparable contracts would be rapper Jay-Z’s 2008 accord with Live Nation worth 150 million

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dollars for recordings and concerts. Since his death on June 25 last year, Sony has sold some 31 million Jackson albums worldwide and his estate, by the first anniversary of his death, is expected to have made 250 million dollars from the sale of music, merchandise and tickets to the posthumous concert movie “This Is It,” the Journal said.

Jackson died at his rented mansion in Los Angeles after an overdose of powerful prescription drugs, as he was preparing to perform a series of comeback concerts in London. The star’s doctor Conrad Murray last month pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter in connection with the sudden death, but has admitted administering the drugs to the singer. The first recording under the new contract, according to the New York Times, will be the soundtrack for “This Is It”-which showed Jackson rehearsing his comeback concerts in the weeks leading up to his death-and by November a new album of unreleased recordings.

Branca told the LA Times that a look at other high-earning careers held by dead music legends indicated the value of Jackson’s brand. “If you look at Elvis and the Beatles, and how their brands are thriving, they only hint at what the future holds for Michael,” Branca said.

In October, Forbes Magazine named Jackson as number three in its annual Top-Earning Dead Celebrities list, earning 90 million dollars in the months af ter his death.

Fashion legend Yves Saint L aurent topped the list with 350 million dollars in posthumous earnings, while Elvis Presley came just behind Jackson with 55 million dollars. —AFP

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Music & Movies

China star Zhang offers mea culpa in ‘Donationgate’ hinese film starlet Zhang Ziyi has taken the blame for an earthquake donation scandal in her first comments on a flap that sparked a firestorm of Internet criticism and questions about her honesty. Fighting back tears, Zhang told the China Daily in an interview published yesterday that she failed to follow up with her staff after telling them to transfer money she had promised to victims of China’s huge May 2008 earthquake. “I take the main responsibility for the lapse and causing my staff to mix it up,” said the 31-year-old Zhang, the star of films such as “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “Memoirs of a Geisha”.

“Donationgate,” as China’s state media dubbed the row, surfaced in January when a popular Chinese website said Zhang had given only 840,000 yuan (124,000 dollars) of a promised one million yuan. The donations were eventually made. The 8.0-magnitude quake devastated parts of southwestern China, leaving at least 87,000 people dead or missing.

Zhang has long been a lightning rod for criticism in her home country, but came under intense fire on the Chinese Internet and media

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over the donations. Even normally staid state television, whose typical fare consists of reports praising government leadership, ran a talkshow segment implying Zhang had not come clean.

In the interview, Zhang also denied widespread allegations of missing funds in a foundation she set up for quake victims, saying: “We have never done anything illegal.” Zhang said she had remained mum on the issue up until now on the advice of lawyers, but admitted the attacks on her character had taken a toll. “Of course there were moments when I felt bad,” she said. “I wanted to do something good, but we had our problems, such as my lack of experience, my failure to disclose to the public, my limited knowledge about philanthropy and other reasons.”

Zhang has come under attack before in China, where fans often savage entertainment stars online for actions deemed shameful to the country. She has been criticized for having a foreign boyfriend- Israeli billionaire Vivi Nevo-and for playing a Japanese woman in “Geisha”.

In 2008, actress Gong Li’s decision to become a Singapore citizen sparked a similar outcry, with many branding her a traitor. —AFP

In a file picture taken on May 23, 2009 Chinese actress and member of the jury Cinefonfation, Zhang Ziyi, arrives for the screening of ‘Visage’ directed by Malaysian Tsai Ming-Liang presented in competition at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival. —AFP

ʻAliceʼ still earning strongly at UK box office isney’s 3D version of “Alice in Wonderland” retained its position at the top of the British box office over the weekend, easily holding off challengers like Matt Damon’s new film “Green Zone.” Director Tim Burton’s version of the classic Lewis Carroll fantasy, with Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter and Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, made 7.3 million pounds ($11 million) in its second week, according to Screen International. Last week it beat Avatar’s record for a UK 3D opening by 26 percent, taking 10.5 million pounds.

Martin Scorsese’s psychological thriller “Shutter Island” was new at two with Leonardo DiCaprio investigating the disappearance of a murderess from an offshore asylum. The critically acclaimed Green Zone, featuring Damon searching for

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In this file film publicity image released by Disney, Helena Bonham Carter is shown in a scene from the film, ‘Alice in Wonderland’. —AP

OUCH! Oscar-winner Cotillard stuck with award pin

Studio chief hankers for healthy movie food opcorn and soda has filled the stomachs of generations of moviegoers, but with childhood obesity on the rise one studio head has a hankering to see yogurt and veggies at the concession stand, too. The message came on Monday from Sony Pictures Entertainment chairman and CEO Michael Lynton, who addressed theater owners on the first day of their ShoWest convention in Las Vegas. “I suggest you consider adding a few healthier items to your existing menu,” Lynton said in prepared remarks.

“I believe it’s the right thing to do for your industry, for our audiences ... and for America,” he said. A representative from the National Association of Theater Owners, which represents the men and women who own movie theaters, could not be reached for immediate comment. ShoWest is the largest gathering of

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scar winner Marion Cotillard gasped in pain after France’s culture minister accidentally stuck a pin into her chest as he decorated her with the Order of Arts and Letters on Monday. Cotillard has spent much of her time in Hollywood since winning the Oscar for her performance as the singer Edith Piaf in “La vie en rose” in 2008 but she was back in Paris to receive the decoration from Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand.

Mitterrand, who praised Cotillard’s “charm, natural grace and beauty”, inadvertently skewered the actress as he pinned the medallion naming her as “Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” on to her blouse. She appeared to suffer no damage however and burst out laughing as Mitterrand hastily apologized. In the same ceremony, he also decorated US director Tim Burton, whose latest film “Alice in Wonderland” comes out in France next week and who will head the jury at this year’s Cannes film festival. —Reuters

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weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, could only manage third place on its UK debut with a 2 million pound take.

Avatar was down two places to four, now having taken 89.8 million pounds in its 13-week UK run, just above newcomer “Hachi: A Dog’s Tale,” with Richard Gere, which came in at five.

Swedish murder thriller “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” made its debut at six while Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz were down three spots at seven with “The Lovely Bones.” Biggest faller of the week, down five places to eight, was “The Crazies,” a rehash of a littleknown 1970s zombie-horror tale. Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog” fell to ninth from fifth while High school movie “Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief,” was down at 10 from seven. —Reuters

movie theater owners in the United States and vendors come from around the country to sell items ranging from snacks to seats to projection systems.

The studios show up to give early glimpses of their upcoming movies, but Lynton clearly had snacks on his mind. He cited a study from US group the Alliance for a Healthier Generation that said nearly one in three young Americans is obese or at risk to become overweight. Lynton said theater owners should keep mainstays such as buttered popcorn, candy and soda, but he suggested they also make room for items like: fruit, veggies with dip, yogurt, granola bars, baked chips and unbuttered, air-popped popcorn. He also played theater owners a video address about health from television talk-show star Dr Mehmet Oz. —Reuters

Wife of Panahi says unable to meet him in Iran jail

September 3, 2004 file photo shows Iranian director Jafar Panahi during an interview with AFP at his house in Tehran. —AFP he wife of top Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi told AFP yesterday that she has been unable to see her husband in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison since his arrest earlier this month. Fifty Iranian filmmakers and artists, in a signed letter released on Tuesday, urged the authorities to release Panahi, a news agency reported.

“Ever since he was apprehended, I have managed to talk to him twice. I went to Evin to meet him last Thursday, but was not allowed to meet,” Tahereh Saeedi said of the Tehran jail where her husband is being held.

Media reports have said Panahi was arrested for making a film about the unrest which rocked the Islamic republic after last year’s disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

But his wife denied these reports, saying “the film was being shot inside the house and had nothing to do with the regime.”

Saeedi also said that the authorities had still not filed any charges against her husband. “I spoke to (Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari) Dolatabadi yesterday, but he did not give me any precise answer. But I sensed that he has a positive approach to the case.” According to opposition websites, Panahi was arrested along with 16 other people, including Saeedi

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and the couple’s daughter and six human rights activists. Fourteen of those detained have been freed so far.

Panahi, a vocal backer of the opposition movement, was arrested when security forces raided his Tehran home on March 1.

Soon afterwards, Dolatabadi said Panahi was not arrested for political reasons or because he is an artist. He was “accused of some crimes and arrested with another person following an order by a judge.” Panahi, 49, is known for his gritty, socially critical movies such as “The Circle,” which bagged the 2000 Venice Golden Lion award, “Crimson Gold” and “Offside,” winner of the 2006 Silver Bear at the Berlin film festival.

In February, the authorities banned Panahi from leaving the country to attend the Berlin film festival. In a signed letter released by the ILNA news agency on Tuesday, 50 Iranian filmmakers and artists called for Panahi to be set free. They said the country’s film industry has been Iran’s “cultural ambassador and representative to the world over the past 30 years since the Islamic revolution.” “We ask the ministry of culture, intelligence and head of judiciary to take measures to release” Panahi, the letter said. —AFP

US actress Angelina Jolie and US actor Johnny Depp (on boat) pose during the filming of ‘The Tourist’ yesterday in Venice. The film is directed

by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.

—AFP Film director, Atom Egoyan, is flanked by actresses, Julianna Moore, left, and Amanda Seyfried during red-carpet arrivals to the New York premiere of the film Chloe, Monday. — AP

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Armenian-Egyptian artist Chant Avedissian’s work.

World’s shortest man dies in Italy

“Whispers” by Iranian artist Shirin Neshat.

A woman looks at ‘After Rachel’s Lament’ an art work by Indian artist Vivek Vilasini at Art Dubai yesterday one day before the event’s opening. Art Dubai is the biggest contemporary art event in the Middle East. — AFP photos

Aga Khan's Islamic treasures go on show in Berlin M

ore than 200 items from the Aga Khan's collection of Islamic treasures are going on show in Berlin in an exhibition spanning a millennium and covering half the globe. A chestnut leaf delicately inscribed with golden calligraphy greets visitors at the start of the show of works collected by the billionaire philanthropist and illustrating the breadth of Islamic culture. Dating back to the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century, it is one of the newest pieces presented Tuesday at the Martin Gropius Bau gallery. Exhibits date back as far as a green-glazed pilgrim's flask from the 7th or 8th century. Organizers hope "to present to our western public the pluralism of the Islamic cultures," Luis Monreal, the managing director of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, told reporters.

"We in general view Islam as a single cultural identity and this is simply a wrong perception, because Islam over 13 centuries has been a religion practiced by a great diversity of people," he said. At the western end of the Islamic world, the exhibition showcases artifacts such as an inlaid scribe's cabinet and an astrolabe from "al-Andalus," the area of Spain ruled by the Moors until 1492. It also includes pages from the "blue Quran," inscribed in gold on blue-dyed parchment, from North Africa.

At the other end, an 18th-century Quran inscribed in tiny lettering on green cloth from India occupies part of a wall, contrasting with a geometrically styled edition of the Quran from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. The exhibition also includes 19th-century Chinese pilgrim Ma Fuchu's illustrated report on his pilgrimage to Mecca; a well-preserved Mongol robe from the 13th or 14th century; and illustrations of the epic Persian poem "Shahnama" or "Book of Kings." Organizers sought to highlight the importance of the written word and the Quran, while also following the routes of travelers, both those making the haj-the pilgrimage to Mecca-and adventurers and explorers, curator Benoit Junod said.

The show, titled "Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum-Arts of the Islamic World," opens to the public on Wednesday and runs through June 6. The Aga Khan is spiritual leader of 20 million Shia Ismaili Muslims. The exhibition includes 215 items out of a collection totaling roughly 1,000 pieces, whose permanent home in Toronto should be ready in mid-2013. "We're trying to perhaps make people discover things, and with discovery comes understanding," Junod said. "And understanding is something which is much needed nowadays."--AP

An illustrated manuscript of the ‘Dala’il al-khayrat’, from the Ottoman Empire.

A manuscript of the Mughal Quran from India 1682 AD. In this Sept 16, 2008 file photo, the world’s smallest man, He Pingping, and the woman with the longest legs in the world, Svetlana Pankratova, pose together in London’s Trafalgar Square. — AP production company says the world’s shortest man has died in Italy, where he was to take part in a TV show. He Pingping, of China, who was 74.6 centimeters (2 feet, 5.37 inches) tall, died Saturday in Rome, according to the TV production company Europroduzione.

Guinness World Records says in a press release He was born in 1988 with a form of primordial dwarfism. He was officially measured in March 2008. Marco Fernandez de Araoz of Europroduzione said Tuesday that He was taken to a hospital March 3 after he fell ill while rehearsing the Italian program “The Record Show.” He died at the hospital.

Fernandez de Araoz says the hospital discovered He had a heart condition and high cholesterol. The man’s body will be flown to China soon. — AP

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An illuminated double page of the Quran, possibly Jemen, circa 1300-1350AD with ink, opaque watercolor and gold on paper.—AP photos

Centuries later, lost Shakespeare ‘found’? s this love’s labor no longer lost? A scholar says a play written in the 18th-century is very likely based on a missing work by William Shakespeare. After years of literary investigation, a professor at the University of Nottingham said Tuesday he’s certain “Double Falsehood, or the Distressed Lovers” was born out of “Cardenio,” a play Shakespeare scholars believe existed. Some scholars believe Lewis Theobald’s “Double Falsehood,” first performed in London’s West End in December 1727, was based substantially on the Bard’s “Cardenio.” “There is definitely Shakespearean DNA,” said English literature professor Brean Hammond, who has worked since 2002 to determine if “Double Falsehood” has Shakespearean roots. Arden Shakespeare, an authoritative publisher of the Bard’s works, has released an edition of the play edited by Hammond-a decision the publisher acknowledges is controversial.

Arden’s general editor, Shakespeare scholar

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Richard Proudfoot, agrees with Hammond and says there is no absolute way of knowing if “Double Falsehood” is based on Shakespeare’s work, but he argues it is a “sufficiently sustainable position” that it represents the play in some form. “My position is one of fairly confident-but cautious-acceptance,” he said. “Double Falsehood” is inspired by Don Quixote, and features two female protagonists, dashing leading men, and an aristocratic villain. “An interrupted marriage, a series of mad scenes and a near-rape ensure that the play does not lack incident,” Arden Shakespeare said in statement.

Theobald said at the time he’d based his work on Shakespearean manuscripts. But few believed him, and Theobald was considered a fraud by many. There is strong evidence “Cardenio” existed: records showed the actors in Shakespeare’s company were paid for acting in it. And Hammond said Theobald claimed he had used three of the Bard’s manuscripts when he wrote “Double

Falsehood,” which opened to positive reviews in London’s West End. “The first 10 days, when it was running in the theater at Drury Lane, were good,” Hammond said. “It got a good reception.” But people began to wonder. It was missing some Shakespearean hallmarks, like lengthy soliloquies. Then, cultural grandees began weighing in, and not in a positive way. “That was embarrassing for Theobald because he was trying to make his reputation as the great Shakespearean scholar of the day,” Hammond said. Prof Tiffany Stern, a professor of early modern drama at Oxford University, said that Theobald could have published the manuscripts he claimed to have as proof that he’d been working with Shakespeare’s material.

“Everyone at the time assumes he is lying, and everyone at the time says, ‘if they are genuine, publish them,”‘ she said. Alexander Pope, who had feuded with Theobald, chose the playwright as the focus of “The Dunciad” — a work in

which a dunce replaces the Iliad’s hero. And Pope’s work is what brought Hammond from the 18th century to Shakespeare. He was working on Pope in the 1980s, and decided to investigate “Double Falsehood” further.

“I thought, I’ll dig this out and read it, and I thought that this certainly has something behind it,” he said. “It’s not a forgery.”

But it was 2002 before Hammond returned to the Bard. Proudfoot said he was willing to consider the evidence Hammond turned up, which the scholar considered “a huge boost.”

Hammond’s analysis turned up strong links to Shakespeare in elements like spelling, imagery and syntax. Stern agrees there’s a very real possibility that the play contains the bones of Shakespeare’s work-but also believes there are strong reasons why it may not, citing Theobald’s obsessions with both Don Quixote and the Bard.

“Theobald was repeatedly writing plays in imitation of Shakespeare, poems in imitation of

Shakespeare,” she said. “He was fascinated with Shakespeare, and he was always trying to write in a Shakespearean style.” Scholars are keen to find another Shakespearean play, she said, and so want to believe that “Double Falsehood” is that work.

“You can put forward a real argument to say it’s a fraud,” Stern said, “and you can put forward a real argument to say there’s a play in there somewhere.” In “Double Falsehood,” Hammond said he found the presence of three writersTheobald, Shakespeare, and John Fletcher.

Shakespeare and Fletcher had collaborated on two other plays: “Henry VIII” and “Two Noble Kinsmen.” Proudfoot said that in recent years, opposition to the suggestion that Shakespeare worked with other writers has faded, which helps their belief that “Double Falsehood” had its genesis in “Cardenio.” “It all depends on your take on Theobald-whether he’s a great scholar and an honest man, or a hoaxer,” Proudfoot said. “We believe the former is the truth.”—AP