NEWS
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Sunday, April 11, 2010
Hybrids eclipsed at Lebanon car fest BEIRUT: Eco-friendly or petrol-head? Lebanon’s government would prefer to go green, but market forces dictate otherwise in a country where glitz and glam take front seat for many a prospective car buyer. Lebanon’s Motor Show opened this week with manufacturers showcasing their latest models and hybrids making a shy entry into a tough market. The show, which opened on Friday and runs to April 18, is one of the year’s largest in the Middle East with some 400 models on display, from cost-friendly Kias and Toyotas to ultimate luxury by Maserati and Bentley. “We are hoping to encourage the Lebanese to turn towards eco-friendly four-cylinder hybrid cars, out of which they can get much more mileage anyway,” Environment Minister Mohammed Rahhal told AFP. The finance and environment ministries recently decided to waive customs and tariffs on hybrids in a bid to put more on the roads, but the measure will only come into effect once the pending budget is adopted by the cab-
inet. Customs duties on imported cars currently range from 20 to 50 percent of their landing price, plus 10 percent valueadded tax as well as registration fees. “If we manage to waive customs for these cars, at least half of the next Motor Show will be dedicated to hybrids,” Tourism Minister Fadi Abboud told AFP while touring the biennial expo. But experts say that in Lebanon when car owners think green, they want their friends and onlookers to go green with envy. “Buyers here are generally looking to purchase cars to be seen in,” said Riyadh Abi Habib, a Lebanon manager for Toyota and Lexus. While hybrids target less affluent buyers in Western markets, manufacturers say that in Lebanon, where GDP per capita is $6,500, they will sell only if marketed as status symbols. “Hybrids like the Prius don’t currently sell like other cars here, primarily because they are pricier than your average small car and yet are not considered status sym-
bols,” Abi Habib told AFP. “What we hope to do is market the hybrid as a status symbol for Lebanon’s young, educated, career-oriented group.” For the time being, luxury cars are the most popular attractions at the Lebanon Motor Show. Among the stars is a limited edition Maserati, the MC Sport Line, emblazoned with a Lebanese flag on a silver plaque. The car, one of only 12 models available worldwide, has a sticker price of around $300,000. “In these areas customers are crazy about limited edition cars,” said Umberto Maria Cini, Maserati’s managing director for the Middle East and Africa. “Lebanon is one of our most historic and loyal partners, so it’s kind of a reward, a thank you,” he told AFP. Tareq Saadeh, a 25-year-old engineer, says he is aware of the benefits of hybrids but nonetheless would remain loyal to his preferred make: Germany’s BMW. “A Prius? Of course not,” he sniffed. “I would prefer a BMW, a new coupe, a fast sports car for my age,” he said. — AFP
Dead Yemeni child bride tied up, raped SHUEBA, Yemen: A 13-year-old Yemeni child bride who bled to death shortly after marriage was tied down and forced to have sex by her husband, according to interviews with the child’s mother, police and medical reports. The girl’s mother, Nijma Ahmed, 50, told the AP that before her daughter lost consciousness, she said that her husband had tied her up and forced himself on her. “She looked like she was butchered,” she said about her daughter’s injuries. Elham Assi, 13, bled to death hours after she spoke to her mother and just days after she was married to a 23-yearold man. She died on April 2 in the deeply poor Yemeni village of Shueba, some 200 km northwest of the capital. Her husband, Abed Al-Hikmi, is in police custody. The practice of marrying young girls is widespread in Yemen where a quarter of all females marry before the age of 15, according to a 2009 report by the country’s Ministry of Social Affairs. Traditional families prefer young brides because they are seen as more obedient and are expected to have more children. Legislation to ban child brides has been stalled by opposition from religious leaders. There has been no government comment over the case. The girl - one of eight siblings - was pushed into marriage after an agreement between her brother and her future-husband to marry each other’s sisters to avoid having to pay expensive bride-prices - a common
arrangement in Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East. According to police notes from the interrogation of the husband, he was upset because he could not consummate their relationship and felt under pressure to prove his manhood. Assi’s mother said she also tried to persuade her daughter to have sex with her husband so as not to shame the family. Al-Hikmi took his young bride to a nearby medical clinic, asking a doctor there to administer her tranquilizers so she would not resist his advances. The clinic said it refused. Al-Hikmi then obtained performance enhancing pills, according to the police interrogation, and that night completed the act while she screamed. The next day, he returned to the same medical clinic carrying Assi because she could not walk. “I told him not to go near her for at least ten days,” said Dr Fathiya Haidar. She said Assi’s vaginal canal was ripped. A forensic report obtained by the AP showed that Assi’s injuries were much more extensive, including extensive tearing around the vagina and rectum, suggesting that there might have been additional intercourse after the clinic visit. Her mother said she visited Assi later that day, where she found her daughter fading in and out of consciousness. “She whispered in my ear that he had tied her up and had sex with her violently,” she said. “I said to her husband, what have you done, you criminal?” She said Al-
Hikmi told her that the young bride was just possessed by spirits and said he would take her to a folk healer to cast them out. Hours later, Assi was dead. “She asked me to stay beside her,” her mother said. The practice of marrying young girls is widespread in Yemen and has drawn the attention of international rights groups seeking to pressure the government to outlaw child marriages. “Early marriage places girls at increased risk of dropping out of school, being exposed to violence, abuse and exploitation, and even losing their lives from pregnancy, childbirth and other complications,” said UNICEF’s regional director Sigrid Kaag, in a statement Wednesday condemning the death. A Feb 2009 law set the minimum age for marriage at 17, but it was repealed and sent back to parliament’s constitutional committee for review after some lawmakers called it un-Islamic. The committee is expected to make a final decision on the legislation this month. The issue of Yemen’s child brides received widespread attention three years ago when an 8-year-old girl boldly went by herself to a courtroom and demanded a judge dissolve her marriage to a man in his 30s. She eventually won a divorce. In September, a 12-year-old Yemeni childbride died after struggling for three days in labor to give birth, a local human rights organization said. — AP
BEIRUT: A model leans on the side of a Dodge Challenger at the Lebanon Motor Show 2010 on April 8, 2010. – AFP
15 dead in fierce Bangkok clashes Continued from Page 1 The Red Shirt protesters are demanding that Abhisit dissolve Parliament and call new elections. Their demonstrations are part of a long-running battle between the mostly poor and rural supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and the ruling elite they say orchestrated the 2006 military coup that removed him from power. The Red Shirts see the Oxford-educated Abhisit as a symbol of an elite impervious to the plight of Thailand’s poor and claim he took office illegitimately in Dec 2008 after the military pressured Parliament to vote for him. The government’s Erawan emergency center said tallies from four Bangkok hospitals showed the death toll early today had risen to at least 15 - four soldiers and 11 civilians. Among them was Japanese cameraman Hiro Muramoto who worked for Thomson Reuters news agency. In a statement, Reuters said he was shot in the chest while covering the fighting. The protesters marched the body of a man they said was killed in the fighting to one of their encampments. They carried the man who had part of his head blown off - on a stretcher. The injury toll for the day rose to 678, according to the Erawan emergency center. The army said any live rounds were fired only into the air, but confirmed that two of its soldiers had been shot. Government spokesman Panithan
MOSCOW: Russia threatened to suspend all child adoptions by US families after a 7-yearold boy adopted by a woman from Tennessee was sent alone on a one-way flight back to Moscow with a note saying he was violent and had severe psychological problems. The boy, Artyom Savelyev, was put on a plane by his adopted grandmother, Nancy Hansen of Shelbyville. “He drew a picture of our house burning down and he’ll tell anybody that he’s going to burn our house down with us in it,” she told AP in a telephone interview Friday. “It got to be where you feared for your safety. It was terrible.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the actions by the grandmother “the last straw” in a string of US adoptions gone wrong, including three in which Russian children had died in the US. In an exclusive interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the boy “fell into a very bad family.” “It is a monstrous deed on the part of his adoptive parents, to take the kid and virtually throw him out with the airplane in the opposite direction and to say, ‘I’m sorry I could not cope with it, take everything back’ is not only immoral but also against the law,” Medvedev said. The cases have prompted outrage in Russia, where foreign adoption failures are reported prominently. Russian main TV networks ran extensive reports on the latest incident in their main evening news shows. The Russian education ministry immedi-
ately suspended the license of the group involved in the adoption - the World Association for Children and Parents, a Renton, Washington-based agency - for the duration of an investigation. In Tennessee, authorities were investigating the adoptive mother, Torry Hansen, 33. Any possible freeze could affect hundreds of American families. Last year, nearly 1,600 Russian children were adopted in the United States, and more than 60,000 Russian orphans have been successfully adopted there, according to the National Council For Adoption, a US adoption advocacy nonprofit group. “We’re obviously very troubled by it,” US State Department spokesman P J Crowley said in Washington when asked about the boy’s case. He told reporters the US and Russia share a responsibility for the child’s safety and Washington will work closely with Moscow to make sure adoptions are legal and appropriately monitored. Asked if he thought a suspension by Russia was warranted, Crowley said, “If Russia does suspend cooperation on the adoption, that is its right. These are Russian citizens.” “Child abandonment of any kind is reprehensible,” said Chuck Johnson, acting CEO of the National Council For Adoption. “The actions of this mother are especially troubling because an already vulnerable, innocent child has been further victimized.” The boy arrived unaccompanied in Moscow on a United Airlines flight on
Thursday from Washington. Social workers sent him to a Moscow hospital for a health checkup and criticized his adoptive mother for abandoning him. The Kremlin children’s rights office said the boy was carrying a letter from his adoptive mother saying she was returning him due to severe psychological problems. “This child is mentally unstable. He is violent and has severe psychopathic issues,” the letter said. “I was lied to and misled by the Russian Orphanage workers and director regarding his mental stability and other issues. ... After giving my best to this child, I am sorry to say that for the safety of my family, friends, and myself, I no longer wish to parent this child.” The boy was adopted in September from the town of Partizansk in Russia’s Far East. Nancy Hansen, the grandmother, told AP that she and the boy flew to Washington and she put the child on the plane with the note from her daughter. She vehemently rejected assertions of child abandonment by Russian authorities, saying he was watched over by a United Airlines stewardess and the family paid a man $200 to pick the boy up at the Moscow airport and take him to the Russian Education and Science Ministry. Nancy Hansen said a social worker checked on the boy in January and reported to Russian authorities that there were no problems. But after that, the grandmother said incidents of hitting, kicking, spitting began to escalate, along with threats. — AP
Robo-suit promises farmers new powers Continued from Page 1 ageing farmers harvest their fruit and vegetables while avoiding backaches and nasty cramps, its developers say. Japan, with a low birthrate and a high life expectancy, is facing a demographic crisis as its population rapidly ages and shrinks. Industrial robots have long been common in Japan, and robo-suits are making inroads in hospitals and retirement homes, where they can help carers lift patients or aid in physical rehabilitation exercises. But with two thirds of the country’s farm-workers already over 65 years old, the agriculture sector is a potentially lucrative untapped market. The suit should hit the Japanese market in 2012,
when it will initially retail for about one million yen ($11,000), a price tag its makers hope to halve if the device is massproduced, the team said. There are however no plans so far to sell the suits overseas. “I doubt that the suit would sell in Europe and in America, where foreign migrant workers often perform farmrelated tasks,” Toyama said. The team has developed a heavy-duty 30 kg model, for lifting big loads and pulling vegetables out of the ground, and a 23 kg version designed for lighter tasks such as picking grapes. The robo-suits can reduce the user’s physical effort by 62 percent on average, the inventors say. When bending knees the muscular activity is reduced by half, and the suit can also take most of the strain out of crouching.
“We conducted a survey of 102 people for the latest model, asking what part of the body hurt when they picked grapes,” Yamamoto said. “Most farmers complained about aches in their arms, necks and lower backs.” The suits are already tough, but soon they will also become smarter. By the end of the year Toyama plans to start working on augmented reality goggles on which useful information could be displayed for the farmer, in much the same way as data is projected onto the inside of a fighter jet’s cockpit. Useful information might include how ripe the grapes are, or the user’s heart rate and calorie consumption, said Toyama. “The goggles would tell you for instance how long you’ve been working and when you should rest.” — AFP
Thailand’s military has traditionally played a major role in politics, staging almost a score of coups since the country became a constitutional monarchy in 1932. Yesterday afternoon, army spokesman Sansern said the military planned to clear out the protesters from their original rally site in the old section of Bangkok by dusk. More troops were also sent to the second rally site in the heart of Bangkok’s upscale shopping district. The city’s elevated mass transit system known as the Skytrain, which runs past that site, stopped running and closed all its stations. The deployment came after protesters were pushed back by water cannons and rubber bullets from the headquarters of the 1st Army Region. Although they have two main rally sites, the Red Shirts use trucks and motorcycles to send followers all over the city on short notice. Arrest warrants have been issued for 27 Red Shirt leaders, but none is known to have been taken into custody. Merchants say the demonstrations have cost them hundreds of millions of baht, and luxury hotels near the site have been under virtual siege. Washington urged both sides in the conflict to show restraint. “We deplore this outbreak of political violence in Thailand, our long-term friend and ally, and urge good faith negotiations by the parties to resolve outstanding issues through peaceful means,” White House spokesman Mike Hammer said. — Agencies
Plane crash kills Polish prez Continued from Page 1
Moscow furious after boy sent back alone from US
Wattanayakorn said more than 60 troops had been injured. Most of yesterday’s fighting took place around Democracy Monument, which is near one of the encampments of the Red Shirt protesters. But it spread to the Khao San Road area, a favorite of foreign backpackers. Soldiers made repeated charges to clear the Red Shirts, while some tourists stood by watching. Two protesters and a Buddhist monk with them were badly beaten by soldiers and taken away by ambulance. A Japanese tourist who was wearing a red shirt was also clubbed by soldiers until bystanders rescued him. Red Shirt leaders at the second rally site in the capital’s main shopping district said they were leading followers to reinforce their comrades at the site of the fighting. Government forces have confronted the protesters before but pulled back rather than risk bloodshed. On Friday, the army failed to prevent demonstrators from breaking into the compound of a satellite transmission station and briefly restarting a pro-Red Shirt television station that had been shut down by the government under a state of emergency. The humiliating rout of troops and riot police raised questions about how much control Abhisit has over the police and army. To effectively confront the protesters, Siripan Nogsuan Sawasdee of Chulalongkorn University said the government needs the cooperation of the military, but the army may be reluctant to use force against the protesters.
The 89 passengers included General Franciszek Gagor, chief of Poland’s armed forces and the heads of all the main armed forces, central bank governor Slawomir Skrzypek, deputy foreign minister Andrzej Kremer, deputy defence minister Stanislaw Jerzy Komorowski, Kaczynski’s wife Maria, and scores of MPs, historians and other officials. “This kind of dramatic tragedy is unheard of in the modern world,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said after an emergency cabinet meeting. He later headed to the crash site. Former Polish president Lech Walesa, who headed the Solidarity movement, called the disaster “inconceivable”. “The Soviets killed Polish elites in Katyn 70 years ago. Today, the Polish elite died there while getting ready to pay homage to the Poles killed there,” a shaken Walesa told AFP. Bronislaw Komorowski, head of Poland’s lower house, took over as interim head-of-state. He ordered a week of official mourning, declaring: “We are united - there is no left or right - we are united in national mourning,” There was no immediate word from the president’s identical twin brother, Jaroslaw, who previously served as prime minister. But thousands descended on the presidential palace in Warsaw to lay a sea of red and white flowers. Many people hung national flags from their windows. A party official told Reuters Jaroslaw Kaczynski had left for Smolensk. World leaders expressed shock and dismay at the death of Kaczynski and many of the country’s top officials. HH the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah AlAhmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah sent a cable of condolences to Komorowski, expressing profound grief over the tragedy and sincere sympathy with the people and government of friendly Poland. HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah also sent similar cables. The Polish delegation was travelling to Russia to attend a memorial service in the Katyn Forest, near Smolensk, for the 22,000 top Polish officers and troops killed by Soviet troops 70 years ago. The event had been intended to help reconciliation between Poland and Russia. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev appointed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to head an inquiry commission and sent Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu to the site. Putin later arrived to inspect the crash site, where Shoigu informed him that all
of the bodies had been recovered and were being transported to Moscow for identification. “Everything must be done to establish the reasons for this tragedy in the shortest possible time,” Putin was quoted as saying Russian news agencies. The two “black box” flight recorders have also been found, news agencies reported. The jet had been repaired and refurbished in December, said Alexei Gusev, the director of its manufacturer, Aviakor. Russian officials pointed at pilot error. Some 1.5 km from the airport, air traffic controllers noticed the jet was below the scheduled gliding path, the air force deputy chief said. “The head of the group ordered the crew to return to horizontal flight, and when the crew did not fulfil the instruction, ordered them several times to land at another airport,” said Alyoshin. “Nonetheless the crew continued to descend. Unfortunately this ended tragically,” he added. The plane tilted to the left before crashing, eyewitness Slawomir Sliwinski told Russia-24. He said there were two loud explosions when the aircraft hit the ground. Russia-24 showed footage from the crash site, with pieces of the plane scattered widely amid leafless trees and small fires burning in woods shrouded with fog. A tail fin with the red and white national colors of Poland stuck up from the debris. Kaczynski and his twin brother formed a formidable dual leadership of Poland’s nationalist right wing, stubbornly taking on other European leaders at EU summits to defend his country’s cause. The crash occurred three days after Putin and Tusk attended a joint memorial for the Katyn victims. The event was seen as a huge symbolic advance in Russia’s often thorny relations with Poland. Medvedev ordered a day of national mourning in Russia tomorrow. Kaczynski’s death, along with that of many senior members of Law and Justice who also were on board, at a stroke changes the Polish political scene by wiping out much of the opposition. “The political consequences will be long term and possibly will change the entire future landscape of Polish politics,” said Jacek Wasilewski, professor at the Higher School of Social Psychology in Warsaw. While the president’s role is largely symbolic, the holder can veto government legislation. Lech Kaczynski infuriated Tusk’s government several times by blocking legislation including health sector reform. World leaders expressed shock at the disaster. US President Barack Obama hailed the late president as “a distin-
guished statesman who played a key role in the Solidarity movement, and he was widely admired in the United States as a leader dedicated to advancing freedom and human dignity.” He praised those killed in the crash as “many of Poland’s most distinguished civilian and military leaders who have helped to shape Poland’s inspiring democratic transformation”. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was “shocked to hear the news of the plane crash in which Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and many other people, including senior officials, were killed,” his office said. “On behalf of the United Nations, the secretary general expresses his deep and heartfelt condolences to the people and government of Poland and to the families of those who perished.” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was “deeply shocked”, adding, “It is a human and political tragedy for our neighbour Poland. French President Nicholas Sarkozy said he was deeply moved and very sad at the death of a man “driven by ardent patriotism, who dedicated his life to his country.” Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II sent her “deepest sympathy” to the Polish people and Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Kaczynski would be mourned across the world and remembered as a passionate patriot and democrat.” Eurosceptic Czech President Vaclav Klaus, the conservative Kaczynski’s closest ally among European politicians, said he had lost “a real friend”. “The tragic death of Polish President Lech Kaczynski ... is an absolutely terrifying event that has shaken me, shocked me, made me sad and touched me personally,” Klaus told reporters. Pope Benedict XVI also said he felt “deep pain” at the death of the head of state of strongly Catholic Poland, expressing condolences and calling for special blessings on the Polish people. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso called Kaczynski “a very determined Polish patriot”. Others who expressed their shock and sympathy included leaders of Bulgaria, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Romania, Switzerland, Ukraine, Balkan countries, Turkey, Georgia and Iran. China’s President Hu Jintao said he was “deeply saddened” while President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan said his heart went out to the Polish people and the families of those killed. Similar messages came from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Council of Europe. — Agencies