21 May - Friday Times

Kuwait Times

May 21, 2010

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North vs South N Korea threatens S Korea with war over torpedoed battleship TEHRAN: Kuwait’s National Assembly Speaker Jassem Al-Khorafi (right) met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his official visit to the country. — KUNA

A daring project cares for desert plants

Kuwait holds ‘frank’, ‘clear’ talks with Iran

PAGES 6 & 7

Al-Khorafi concludes Iran visit

Pakistan blocks YouTube over unIslamic content PAGE 15

Paintings worth millions stolen in Paris PAGE 54

Sevilla crowned Spanish Cup kings PAGE 64

SOUTH KOREA: South Korean Marines stand guard on Baengnyeong Island, South Korea, near the border with North Korea yesterday. — AP SEOUL: South Korea accused North Korea yesterday of torpedoing a warship near their disputed border, sending regional tensions rising as the North responded with threats of war. The South’s President Lee Myung-Bak promised “resolute countermeasures” after a multinational investigation team said there was overwhelming evidence a North Korean submarine sank the ship on March 26 with the loss of 46 lives.

The United States, Britain, Australia, Japan and France strongly condemned Pyongyang. But China, whose backing would be crucial in any attempt to penalize the North, appealed for restraint and did not criticize its ally.

The North said the investigators’ report was based on “sheer fabrication” and threatened “allout war” in response to any attempt to punish it.

“The evidence points overwhelmingly to the conclusion that the torpedo was fired by a North Korean submarine,” the investigators said in a report. “There is no other plausible explanation.”

The White House called the attack “a challenge to international peace and security and a violation of the armistice agreement” which ended the 1950-53 war. British Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned a “callous act” while Japan said the North’s action was “unforgivable” and soured hopes of restarting six-party nuclear disarmament talks.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon described the facts in the report as deeply troubling while NATO said North Korea’s action “constitutes a clear breach of international law.” France offered South Korea “full solidarity” and called on North Korea “to abandon the path of murderous violence.”

The sinking caused outrage in South Korea, which declared five days of national mourning last month. Cross-border relations, which have been frosty for months, went into a deep chill.

But Seoul has apparently ruled out a military counter-strike for fear of igniting all-out war and is instead likely to ask the United Nations Security Council to slap new sanctions on its neighbor. This would need agreement from China, a veto-wielding member.

“All parties should stay calm and exercise restraint,” foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in Beijing, adding that China would be making its own assessment of the investigation results.

Japan’s Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada told reporters that “we would like China to take concerted action as much as possible.”

President Lee told Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in a phone conversation: “Resolute countermeasures will be taken against North Korea.”

South Korea, through strong international cooperation, “should make North Korea admit its wrongdoing and return as a responsible member of the international community”, added Lee, whose National Security Council will meet Friday to weigh its reaction.

The sinking of the Cheonan near the Yellow Sea frontier flashpoint was the worst inter-Korean incident since the North’s downing of a South Korean airliner in 1987 with the loss of 115 lives.

But Kim Yong-Hyun, of Seoul’s Dongguk University, said the South has “not that many effective options” for a response if China fails to support UN action.

The 1,200-tonne corvette was split apart by a shockwave and bubble effect produced by a 250 kilogram homing North Korean torpedo, the report said.

It said parts salvaged from the Yellow Sea “perfectly match” a type of torpedo that the North has offered for export and at a press conference investigators showed evidence that included torpedo parts with two propellers.

The report said the attack was likely carried out by a small submarine which infiltrated from international waters to avoid detection. “We confirmed that a few small submarines and a mother ship supporting them left a North Korean naval base in the West (Yellow) Sea 2-3 days prior to the attack and returned to port 2-3 days after the attack,” the report said.

The North’s top organ, the National Defense Commission, said it would send its own investigators to the South to check the purported evidence.

“Our army and people will promptly react to any ‘punishment’ and ‘retaliation’ and to any ‘sanctions’ infringing upon our state interests with various forms of tough measures including an all-out war,” the North said. It threatened in future to respond to any small border incident with a “merciless strong physical blow”. — Agencies

TEHRAN: Kuwait’s National Assembly Speaker Jassem AlKhorafi left Tehran to return to Kuwait yesterday after concluding a three-day official visit.

Earlier in the day, Al-Khorafi expressed his deep appreciation for the warm welcome and hospitality he enjoyed during the visit.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lauded yesterday his country’s “excellent and model” relations with Kuwait.

Speaking at a meeting with Kuwait’s National Assembly Speaker Jassem Al-Khorafi, Ahmadinejad said that Tehran “has an excellent and model relationship with the State of Kuwait, and we aspire to have excellent relations with the rest of the countries of the region.”

He lauded the visit that AlKhorafi was currently making to Iran and the outcomes of the “brotherly” talks held with Iranian Parliament Speaker Dr. Ali Larijani.

The Iranian president hoped that His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah would visit Tehran soon, while commending Kuwait’s role and stances on regional issues. Ahmadinejad also highlighted the region agreement reach by his country with Brazil and Turkey for nuclear fuel exchange, saying that “Tehran has adopted a new approach of cooperation and diplomatic dialogue to resolve pending issues related to its nuclear program.” Al-Khorafi lauded this diplomatic approach, saying that “Kuwait supports this method, which is based on diplomacy and dialogue over Iran’s peaceful nuclear program.”

At the conclusion of the meeting, Al-Khorafi presented Ahmadinejad with a commemorative plaque.

Speaking at a joint press conference held with Iranian Parliament Speaker Dr. Ali Larijani at the conclusion of his visit, Al-Khorafi said, “I would like to thank you all, on behalf of my colleagues - the MPs and members of the delegation here, for your hospitality and warm

welcome ... which is not new for Iranian people, government, president, and its supreme leader.” He underlines the strong relationship between the two countries, and recounted “with appreciation and love” the Iranian stance in support of Kuwait during the 1990 invasion of the Gulf state by Saddam Hussein.

Al-Khorafi said his talks with Larijani had been “excellent and successful...we discussed many bilateral matters, as well as regional and international issues of mutual concern, and we agreed to continue to discuss matters of interest to the two sides.”

Al-Khorafi added, “Based on the credibility that the two sides enjoy, the talks were frank, clear and sincere.” He added that the two sides are keen on continuing to hold such meetings, given their positive results, as well as “focusing on the positives and the agreements that bind us, and to tackle any issues that may emerge. We may be different, but we must not give way to those who wish to instigate strife between us and hinder the development of our countries.”

He also congratulated Iran on its “good” diplomatic stance regarding tackling its nuclear issue. “I congratulate [Iran] on its recent agreement with Brazil and Turkey for exchanging nuclear fuel, and I hope that such dialogue continues so as to reaffirm Kuwait’s view that such matters can only be resolved through dialogue and respecting the sovereignty of nations and each other,” he said.

On his part, Larijani thanked Al-Khorafi for accepting the invitation and visiting the country, adding, “We hope that such visits to Iran will be repeated.” He continued, “This visit was very effective for parliamentary cooperation, as well as for bilateral cooperation between our two countries. We held good discussions over bilateral matters, and on regional and international affairs. Our views were similar to a great extent on important regional affairs.” — KUNA

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Friday, May 21, 2010

The gulf widens between Kuwaitis, expats

By Ben Garcia ou’ve probably visited a market place, schools, diwaniyas, cinemas, malls or even government agencies? You don’t need to go far; observe your respective workplaces, your neighborhood and read your local dailies. What have you noticed? Yes, the social disparities between Kuwaitis expatriates are and extremely wide and unprecedented.

This circumstantial evidence is supported by the observation of a local councilor. Amna Al-Mousawi, a known Kuwaiti family councilor, says that the social disparities between Kuwaitis and expatriates are now in the chronic and indeed alarming level and that this situation needs proper attention and correction.

Here’s is how Al-Mousawi provides the reasons why Kuwaitis and expatriates are experiencing such massive social disparities: “We [Kuwait] are a small country.

This is where we are born and raised by our parents. We are small in number compared to expatriates. The subconscious tendency for us Kuwaitis is to stay close to each other - that is of course un-intentional - but the fact is we are closing doors to others,” she said. AlMousawi further explained that financial or economic background is another reason for social inequality. “The fact is we get more privileges than the expatriates,” she said. Culturally speaking, AlMousawi said, Kuwait have their own culture to preserve. When it comes to the amount of time to spend with their families; they have more time than expatriates.

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“So in reality, Kuwaitis believe (to be) superior than the expats, but this needs to be corrected.”

Social imbalances Al-Mousawi blamed all the parties involved for not doing enough to address social imbalance. Expats, Kuwaitis and particularly their governments have a duty to cooperate to prevent a continuing deterioration in one of the crucial pillars of human existence.

“While I fervently believed that individual behavior is influenced largely by the way they are brought up or raised in the family, our government (Kuwaiti), and of course their governments (expats) have enormous role to play in addressing social

imbalance,” she said.

For Kuwaitis, Al-Mousawi suggested that an ongoing weakening of family values and a complete disregard for the emotional feelings of others are among the reasons for the gap between expats and locals. The reason why many Kuwaiti children don’t behave well, she observes, (compared to their expatriate peers) is because they aren’t raised properly, the way they should be raised. “Whatever situation or treatment they see from their parents especially of their maids, most likely they would imitate this. So when they go out anywhere, they’ll display the same behavior,” she explained.

Another underlying factor for local citizens’ hostile feelings to expatriates, according to Al-Mousawi, is the Kuwaitis-only schools system.

The Kuwaiti government provides free education to all its citizens at both elementary and highschool level, making their experience of early education exclusive only to Kuwaitis.

Al-Mousawi argued that this system is not only harmful but an unrealistic reflection of the genuine state of the country.

“We know for the fact that non-Kuwaitis have lived here with us for decades, I have been a vocal and a complete advocate of mixing

expatriates with our local students. I am not saying that they should be paid for by our government. What I am trying to say is to allow expatriate students to enter and study at Kuwaiti schools.

To mingle with expats, we have to be realistic; when these children come out from their schools, they’re meeting expatriates. What attitude do you expect from our children with their expatriate counterparts?” she asked. Early exposure to expatriates can change the attitude or behavior of our children towards expatriates, she argued. “Personally, what I used to tell my children is that they are not superior; we are all human being and same people. I told my children that expats are here to help us; we need them, that is why they’re here with us.”

The word from the street The Friday Times examined the issue of social disparity in Kuwait, talking to citizens and expatriates to understand the undercurrent issues behind it.

A Kuwaiti university student held a slightly different view to AlMousawi. “There are lots of countries even in the West and the Eastern world who are not open to mingling with other nationals,” he told the Friday Times, and refused to

Expats should not have the same rights as we do, whether in education or financial rewards. You have your own government to help you, our government are here doing just the right thing for its people.’ provide his name because of the sensitivity of the question. “You can’t just point fingers at us. The privileges we get from our government are just part of our rights as citizens of this country.

So, I don’t think expatriates should have the same rights as we do, whether in education or financial rewards. You have your own government to help you, our government are here doing just the right thing for its people.”

Ahmad, a Palestinian born and raised in Kuwait, says that he tends to avoid locals in order to save himself any aggravation.

“I stay away from Kuwaitis because I don’t want to encounter any trouble. Whatever happens, even though I was born here, if I commit any wrongdoing, I could be deported, so in order to avoid mistakes, I keep my distance from locals,” he said.

Rowena, a Filipina, who has lived in Kuwait for ten years did not have any

Kuwaiti friends, male or female, although she did try at one time.

“I once tried making friends with a Kuwaiti man, but it was interpreted as I was just hanging out with him for something indecent. I was really shocked because I just wanted a friendship, but my intention was interpreted otherwise, so since then, I have been trying to keep my distance away from any Kuwaiti man,” she mentioned.

Asked about female Kuwaiti friends, Rowena said, “Kuwaiti ladies don’t hang around with Filipinas. They look on us as being housemaids all the time.”

Sabita, an Indian nurse who has lived in Kuwait for the past five years, said she didn’t come to Kuwait to make friends with locals. “No I don’t have any Kuwaiti friends,” she said. “I see them as my employers; I live here and get paid for what work I do, so I believe, they can’t be friends with their employees.

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Friday, May 21, 2010

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HalluciNations

Fearsome politics

By Ahmad Saeid hen I was a child, I used to be afraid of the dark because I thought demons might attack me. As I grew up, I started to realize how ridiculous our fears can sometimes be. As we get older, we make better sense of the context and the actual limits of this emotion known as ‘fear’. We also begin to appreciate the great impact it has on humanity.

Fear has been used since the dawn of history in many situations. Just now, as I was driving to the newspaper, I was listening to a radio program on the BBC World Service about the panic over swine flu, and how it was channeled to drive billions of dollars into pharmaceutical companies’ bank accounts. Fear is also deeply embedded in the daily operation of stock markets, therefore, it has a great impact on the functioning of economies all over the world.

Fear is a mighty instrument, and whoever learns to use it properly for his benefit, will have indisputable power over the world.

This article is about the utilization of fear in politics, and the relation between them.

Two weeks ago, when Britain was still wondering who would be the next Prime Minister, I found myself having an incredibly ridiculous question in

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mind: “Why doesn’t Gordon Brown just announce himself winner, and remain the ruler of the UK?” I know how absurd that sounds, but just think about it - what’s stopping him? I mean why can dictators all over the world, including in the Arab world, do that, and Gordon Brown can’t?!

If Brown had the courage to consider this possibility, having ensured that no microphones are still

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switched on, this time inside his scalp, then he would have immediately shaken the idea out of his head because it sounds impossible.

However, if he were to pronounce these thoughts to anyone,

including his closest friends, they would think he is insane, and probably report him to MI5, 6 or even 7.

All of that is because the possible reaction to such a step would be gigantic. British people would never allow something like that to happen, no matter how many government officials might love the fantasy. The power is in the hands of people and that is unquestionable.

Under dictatorships, the people fear the regime and comply with its rulings out of fear.

In democracies, leaders fear the public, and try to satisfy them in order to continue enjoying the power granted to them by the public. In both cases, the fear factor is a major player in the political relation between rulers and nations. Without fear, there won’t be stability, only conflict, until one party wins, and the other starts to fear questioning

SATIRE WIRE

Respecting time

To niqab or not to niqab

By Muna Al-Fuzai

B y Sa wsan Kazak

f someone agrees to meet with you at an appointed time and fails to do so without offering a proper excuse, would you take this as a sign of disrespect or lack of appreciation? How would you perceive this matter in the Arab world and how would you handle it?

Cultural differences play an important role here. In the West, time is essential.

They can make or lose money with respect to time. It could also be owing to the fact that time there is associated with human values such as respect to others which we do not assess as much as they do!

Arabs, in general, do not think time is precious. ‘What is the point of trying to be on time. Half an hour is nothing great!’

This is the general prevalent mentality. If the appointment is between two friends, the delay is longer. You will be forgiven in all cases!

What is worse is that the late-comers are rewarded, while the punctual get punished. Let me explain how that happens. At any public meeting, workshop or a seminar, it is common practice to never start on time. They are presumably waiting for a VIP or for more people to show up. You end up wondering why the audience is asked to sit and wait while stage is being decorated and displayed. By the way, I always wonder why the technical aspects are not taken care of a day prior to the event? I have seen many seminars in which they ask the technician to adjust the wires when the meeting is ongoing.

What about wasted time? Time is not of any value at all.

This is why a delay set in the beginning of a public function is taken for granted! I believe that in the Arab World, people get rewarded for putting on a late show.

If someone told you that time is valuable, you may agree with them depending on your cultural background. It is a different story here in the Arab world. There is nothing in their life that truly reflects this meaning.

Here it is common practice to not adhere by time. If meeting has been arranged at a cafÈ at a certain time, he or she would show up half an hour late. A word of apology is enough.

However, if you have a lot to do rather than wait for the person to show up, it is better to attend to daily errands and check routine e-mails.

In fact, that is one of the habits that really annoy me here. It is when I see people who do not abide by time. They even think it is okay to justify their tardiness by claiming that nothing would happen!

I think that being on time means that you respect others and their presence. Time helps organize our priorities in life and if we neglect its importance, we devalue ourselves. It also alters the manner in which the public perceives you. muna@kuwaittimes.net

ecently there has been a lot of attention paid to France’s decision to ban niqabs in their country. On Wednesday, the French Cabinet approved a law to ban the Muslim fullface cover in public places. As expected, there has been much backlash to this decision from people in France and around the world. The issue being thrown around here is ‘freedom of choice’.

It is argued that women should have the right to choose what to wear and that the French government should get out of their closets. On the flip side, France believes it has the right to choose what to ban from its citizens and people who enter their country. Both sides want to practice their freedom of choice.

The term ‘freedom of choice’ is great in theory, but when one side’s choices infringes on someone else’s freedoms; what then is the solution? Whose ‘freedom of choice’ trumps? Choosing to wear a niqab and choosing to ban it are both choices, each of which encroaches on the

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its authority.

Conflicts occur when a leader of a democratic country decides to go against the will of the nation, or when a nation decides to go against the will of a dictator. In some of these cases, fear works as the catalyst which starts the conflict. In many cases fear is deployed as a tool in the conflict. This deployment can be direct, like the use of political assassinations and other measures used to gag voices of opposition, or indirect, like generating fear among the populace of an external threat in order to have more power over them. The brightest example of that is the adoption of the ‘Patriot Act’, a freedom-limiting legal statute passed in the US after the attacks of September 11th.

So, fear is always present in politics, and the answer to the question ‘Who fears who?’ can pretty much determine the status of a regime, whether it is a dictatorship, or a democracy.

Now there are cases where it’s not a clear-cut dictatorship, nor a clear cut democracy, and this is where fear game becomes really dangerous.

Wherever there is a fragile balance of fear between the regime and the people, then whoever starts changing things loses the most. In these cases, trust is the major stabilizing force and if it is lost or compromised, the unleashed fear could have devastating effects on the life of any person or society. saeid@kuwaittimes.net

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IN MY VIEW

By Hussain Al-Qatari enowned writer, columnist, and former parliament candidate Mohammad Abdulqader AlJassem has been summoned by the National Secret Service numerous times in the past few months. The reason is columns he wrote, opinions he expressed, views he shared with his readership, a substantial slice of society that protested his recent arrest and demanded that he is released.

A country that boasts of being a democracy is obliged to give its people their full rights. At the core of democracy is freedom of expression, which entails that a writer for the Press must

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other.

The country chooses to ban many items and practices that they feel harm the population such as drugs for example. This is a choice they have made in order to protect their people; a choice they feel, they had the right to make.

Every country adapts their laws and regulations to suit the lifestyle and beliefs of the majority.

However, the argument can be made if you are not harming anyone. Who is the government to choose what you can and can’t ingest; or in this case, what you can and cannot wear.

Where does the government’s choice to protect people end and personal choice begin? What will happen when it’s cold and people decide to wear scarves over their faces to protect themselves from the cold? Will this mean a law is broken? Will the government move from dress code to health issues and start dictating what people should eat and how much they should exercise.

The debate over freedoms can become a slippery slope down a steep hill. It’s a fine line between protection and control. More debate needs to take place before any side is awarded the right to choose. sa ws ank @kuw aitt imes .n et

Policing opinions not be arrested for doing his job - writing. Our problem here is that we refuse to accept anything foreign to us.

We are xenophobic towards foreign people, foreign ideas, foreign investments, foreign movies and books. It is a shame that we fail to realize that the ‘foreign’ can be part and parcel of our culture. The foreign, the ‘other’, the many different others are the components that has made Kuwait what it is.

To shun any idea that disagrees with our beliefs is very immature, closeminded, and should be unacceptable.

To think of the state of Kuwait now, I feel sad when I see the amount of policing that goes into any movement of new thoughts and values. Whether

it is manifested in censoring books, newspaper articles, television programs or school text books, the amount of dictating what we should know and what we shouldn’t know has reached an alarming level that we are unaware of. The idea of a liberal state that respects all religions and faiths, all races and ethnicities and all differences is something that might seem to be a far-fetched fantasy, especially when bearing in mind the situation in our region. Kuwait has many privileges that other nations don’t have, but is it too greedy to want more freedom, more tolerance, more co-existence? hussain@kuwaittimes.net

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Friday, May 21, 2010

Kuwait’s tee time has come

By Ahmad Saeid

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uwait’s golfing history goes back to 1948, when the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) was established, and British officials established the Ahmadi Golf Club to play their favorite game.

“At that time, Kuwaitis used to be caddies for the British players,” said one of Kuwait’s most prominent golfers. 62 years later, this sport is still widely unrecognized locally, and Kuwaiti golfers representing their country abroad have to depend on their own resources or turn to the private sector for sponsorship.

A number of Kuwaiti golfers and golf fans talked to Kuwait Times about the current status of the sport in the country, and what’s needed to raise the level of the sport in Kuwait.

Mazen Al-Ansari, the head of the Kuwait Golf Committee, said that it took a great deal of effort and persistence to come up with a committee for golf in Kuwait.

“It took us almost eight years to establish the committee, from the year 2000, to January 2008 when the committee was finally established,” he said.

Although the golf committee’s establishment didn’t solve the numerous challenges faced by Kuwaiti golfers, it did make a positive change to the golf scene.

“Now we have an official body that is responsible for golf in the country; we also have a budget that allows us to travel and represent Kuwait in international golf tournaments,” said Al-Ansari.

Bader Al-Bannay, the captain of the Kuwaiti golf team, said that the formation of the committee allowed Kuwait to hold qualifying tournaments in the country, from which teams of Kuwaiti golfers can be chosen to represent Kuwait.

“The next step will be to have our own golf club, where our future champions can train,” he said, adding that there is still a long way to go until they reach that point.

KUWAIT: Bader Al-Bannay (left) and a member of Kuwaiti team celebrate the victory of friendship tournament, held in Kuwait in 2009.

Al-Bannay believes that other GCC countries are ahead of Kuwait in this sport.

“If you look at Bahrain for example, they offer paid leave periods for professional sportsmen aged up to 25 years, where they get paid to attend training and take part in championships instead of going to work,” he said, adding, “Other GCC countries provide golfers with everything they need, from equipment to trainers, to golf courses. In the UAE they hold three international golf tournaments annually, and they have many golf courses. In KSA they have highly qualified trainers, and they are now beginning to have good golf players as well, and that’s why Kuwait is lagging behind, because this sport is still relatively ignored.”

The Kuwait Golf Committee

Julia Al-Humoud, a young Kuwaiti player taking a swing.

initiated a youth program in December 2009, where young kids from 10 to 16 years old are trained to play professional golf.

“Golf was recognized as an Olympic sport in October 2009, and that was one of the reason why we decided to start the youth program. Currently we have five or six promising kids who might take part in the Olympic Games in golf,” AlAnsari said.

Al-Ansari added, however, that one of the most essential components in raising the level of golf in Kuwait is to have qualified coaches for the young generation of golfers.

“Training is probably the most important factor in this game, and that’s the most urgent and pressing thing we need now in Kuwait, because we have the team, we have the desire and the commitment to achieve,” he

explained.

Al-Bannay said that it is important to have a Kuwaiti Golf Federation, but in order to have a federation the law stipulates that at least five golf clubs should exist.

“We currently have four clubs, and we hope that a new one will open soon, or that the Kuwaiti Olympic Committee would give us an exception, and allow us to form a federation,” he noted. Al-Bannay believes that one of the reasons why golf is not a popular sport in Kuwait is because of the climate.

“It’s hot in Kuwait, and you need to really love the game to handle the hot weather in the summer and the cold weather in the winter; that is not to mention that golf is really an expensive sport,” he said. “I would also say that we’ve become more lazy - we don’t

One of the most advanced Kuwaiti golfers, Qatami Al-Qatami, takes a swing.

Bader Al-Bannay putting the ball in Sahara Kuwait Golf Course. want to go out in the sun, we want to hold onto the remote controls at home, and watch football on television,” he added.

Kuwaiti golfers say that the game is also not well perceived by the public, with many people believing that it’s a game for elderly people, or that it’s slowpaced and boring.

Yousef Bahman, a young Kuwaiti golfer, is in the 8th grade at school and has been playing for five years. Yousef, who’s the winner of the first prize in the Kuwaiti Juniors League, told the Kuwait Times that he was encouraged by his father to play golf, and then began to love the game.

“I love wining,” he said, adding, “I love to play the game, and I want to be the champion of Kuwait and inshallah one of the world champions.”

Bahman said that his

classmates laugh at him when they know he plays golf.

“They tell me are you serious?! Why do you play this silly game? And I always tell them to try it before judging it, and there was one of my friends who actually tried it and liked it a lot,” he said.

While the young champions are struggling to find a decent place in the world of professional golf, the head of the Kuwait Golf Committee believes there is a chance for Kuwaiti golf to move forward.

“All it takes is one golfer to succeed, and then the whole country’s perception of the game will change positively, and the game will have a new start in Kuwait,” Mazen Al-Ansari said.

“We are not going to give up; golf taught us stubbornness and determination and we will follow through in this.”

Yousef Bahman playing during youth championship.

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Friday, May 21, 2010

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Double trouble: Bigotry weds complacence 'The situation at present is as if every day you walk on eggshells to avoid a fight that might break out with anyone you run into.'

By Hussain Al-Qatari

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specter of negativity seems to haunt every aspiration one has in Kuwait, leading to the demise of what was and could be again a prominent nation in the region, believes 41-year-old Dana Al-Marshoud, a mother and schoolteacher. Getting her kids into a good school, obtaining decent medical care for them and even grocery shopping have become an unbearable chore, she believes.

"I have come to the conclusion that running a life here in Kuwait has become a very stressful task. There are days when I feel like I can't do it any longer," she says.

Dana believes that this goes beyond things that the government can facilitate, beyond schools and hospital buildings, infrastructure and road networks. "This is not about shabby hospitals and old school buildings. It is about people, the negative vibes you get just by walking between grocery aisles or driving your car from home to work," she says and adds, "Something is wrong, and I feel like this can't be fixed with legislations and government decisions; it is beyond that. It's our society."

The turnaround In the past several months, especially before the beginning of this year, a number of incidents took place that stirred the current situation. Last December, a Shiite-Sunni conflict materialized due to a statement made by wellknown Sunni figure Fouad AlRefaei. The conflict started with statements from MPs to the press, but soon turned into angry posts on the Internet that almost led to riots in the streets.

A number of gatherings were held by both Sunnis and Shiites and, although the issue seems to have cooled off on the surface, the divide between Shiites and Sunnis in Kuwait still remains present.

Furthermore, comments made by former parliamentary candidate Mohammad AlJuwaihel on his private TV channel, also in late December, led to a number of conflicts arising.

The controversial figure openly questioned the national origins and political sympathies of some MPs, and even described them using vile words. His later flight from the country led to MPs' questions, interpellation threats and demands that the government resign.

Adding more fuel to the fire, the issue of dual citizenship created another

split in the Kuwaiti community. Communities like the tribal and Shiite were accused according to their tribe and faith of holding from other passports countries. Different forms of media were employed as a warzone for this: Internet, newspapers and TV, columns, blogs and television programs were used to express contempt and resentment.

Ahmad Al-Houli, a 27-yearold history graduate, believes that amongst all this chaos and with the awareness of these conflicts, it is near impossible to feel joy.

"These issues are present everywhere we go. At work, at home, in the diwaniya, on TV, everywhere.

They are determining factors for some people in choosing who to promote at work, who to marry and who to start a business with," says Ahmad.

There are no equal opportunities, he believes, with everything runs by wasta and everything going wrong as a result.

Boredom, censorship and mood "There are no activities you can enjoy here in Kuwait. The theme parks are terrible, the movies are censored, the malls are crowded with people who have attitude problems. It is as if every day you walk on eggshells to avoid a fight that might break out with anyone you run into," says Ahmad.

The only thing a young man his age can do, he says, is get into debt in order to have enough money to travel at any chance he gets. The 27-yearold says he gave up on his job long ago. "I started working for the ministry five years ago, I brought bright ideas and wanted to make a change, but whenever you make such an attempt you are smacked on your head with the reality that this field is not for you to be creative; just a silent follower who does as he is asked," he laments.

The expert opinion Dr Khaled Al-Mohannadi, a psychiatrist who works in the field of social development says that the tense, charged atmosphere in Kuwait kills all manifestations of creativity.

"As long as there is racism, sectarianism and the likes of these dangerous issues in a society, then there is never going to be a single sign for development," he muses.

But who is to blame for this? Who can fix this issue and solve this dilemma? Dr AlMohannadi believes that the government is to blame. Even though a government is supposed to protect the people from these divisions, the

government is complicit in creating issues that divide the people, he says.

"The government has created what might seem like a successful development plan, but I can tell you from this day that this plan will fail," he claims.

The government promises to build skyscrapers, better infrastructure, big hospitals,

universities, a Silk City and a regional business center in Kuwait, says Al-Mohannadi, but the government doesn't realize that Kuwait lacks a key component to achieve all of this in not having a society that is able to build the development projects the government plans for.

"You can't have a healthy community if your people are

divided amongst each other.

There is no concept of coexistence any more; people don't understand that we can be different, but not divided," notes Al-Mohannadi.

The problem with Kuwaiti society, he believes, is that people refuse to admit their mistakes.

"Government officials, politicians, individuals, they all

throw the blame someone else. They live in continuous denial, and that is dangerous," he asserted. "If people don't take responsibility for their actions, no one can ever solve any of the problems. How can you fix something when you deny that it exists? There is an urgent need for admitting our mistakes and starting to fix the issue."

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Jose Kaitharath (left) and Mahmoud Nammas in front of the Faisaliya farm.

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By Sunil Cher ian otanist Jose Kaitharath, a PhD holder in Spice Science Technology and who serves as a Technical Manager at Faisal Sultan Al-Essa Al-Faisaliya farm in Wafra, contacted me a couple of weeks ago, detailing ardently about their establishment’s ‘Protect Our Desert’ program.

It was conceived by Faisal Sultan Al-Essa, a Kuwaiti entrepreneur who is genuinely interested in preserving endangered desert plants.

Al-Essa has spent millions of dinars on this particular project without expecting any monetary return.

The project is dedicated to the well-being of the desert and its ecosystem.

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“Damaging the desert and its life-forms is a kind of entertaining activity in Kuwait,” he wrote to me in a cordial email message. Last weekend’s sandstorm had put my plans to visit Wafra on hold. “Through methods as varied as desert camping, off road driving, grazing, farming, urbanization, new constructions, oil exploration, waste dumping, excess use of ground water, to introduction of non-native species, he argued, we spoil the desert’s eco system.”

He had another point to mention: One of the major reasons of unpredictable climate and weather fluctuations in Kuwait and also in the rest of the world is the cause of destruction of natural ecosystem.

S ustainability The 30-hectare Wafra farm is a dream come true. Jose and his team travel to designated areas in Kuwaiti deserts, collect seeds or sometimes whole plants, bring them to Wafra farm, treat and propagate them. The seeds and seedlings are then ready for sale. At present, there are 50,000 plants on sale.

Almost half of them are the Arfaj variety (Kuwait’s national flower).

“We started the project in 2006 aiming to produce Kuwaiti native plants massively with the technical collaboration of KISR (Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research). Now, we are in a position to carry out all research and development

Faisal Sultan Al—Essa, the brain behind the farm.

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Arfaj

aspects of mass production of Kuwaiti native plants and re-vegetating damaged deserts.

Our company is exclusively meant for mass production of desert plants in the private sector. The production center is in Wafra and the administrative office is located at AlShaab.

The farm’s facilities include more than 50,000 fully grown mother plants of different native plant varieties that fall under 25 species like Arfaj, Labana, Artha, Rhimth, Tumam and all other desert plants of Kuwait.

The production center includes a propagation lab, greenhouses and shade houses. The farm has a seed production unit too which is composed of a collection center, a processing room equipped with imported machines to clean the seeds and a cold storage room which is completely climate-controlled.

In addition, the Faisaliya farm is comprised of a tissue culture facility. The native plant production center always goes in hand with the normal agriculture production where constant support is provided by agricultural engineer Mahmoud Nammas.

We have expertise not only in plant production sector but also the re-vegetation of damaged deserts, Jose said, as he was explaining the features of the farm.

Colonel Dickson’s famous book ‘The Arab of the Desert’ mentions pre-oil era of Kuwait where many plants and animals of the desert ecosystem were highly productive. Now that we are in iPad era, the importance of ecological restoration was diminished. The desert can now listen to a caring voice.

Why native plants he native plant species itself is an excellent example of restoration success. However, native plants are sometimes difficult to cultivate, especially since they suffer from distinct growth conditions.

This depends normally on climatic conditions.

Production of key species from locally collected seeds and cloned cuttings is the ideal method. This will retain the genetic diversity of the location.

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• Native plants are defined as indigenous species that have been evolved naturally into an ecosystem • They are highly adapted to the local environmental conditions and are fundamental to sustain healthy ecosystems • Native plants have the priority in any restoration projects • Kuwaiti native plants have high potential to be used in landscaping and re-vegetation programs. Importance of native plants in re-vegetation projects • In order to maintain the genetic variability of local plant communities • To minimize the danger of importing diseases, viruses etc • Native plants are best adapted to the prevailing local environmental conditions • It conserves Kuwait’s native flora L andscaping sector •Landscaping sector - exotic plants use huge quantity of water and affect natural ecosystem • Fodder production- many native plants are excellent forages Some advantages: • Highly adapted to the local environmental conditions

Salvia Spinosa

• Genetically and physiologically capable of producing high forage yields • Readily consumed by the grazing animal and of good nutritive value • Low irrigation water requirements, and respond extremely favorably to low levels of irrigation • Persistent and tolerant to grazing pressure for a reasonably long periods • Capable of good re-growth after cutting for sustained season-long production • Capable of being readily established using suitable practices and equipment • Compatible with other species when used in a mixture Water issue The water shortage is severe due to the limited availability of rain water and high ground water depletion rates.

Kuwait’s soil is characterized by high infiltration rates, sandy soil with low water holding capacity, lack of organic matter content, poor fertility and high evaporation rates. Water-use efficiency (WUE) of introduced forages is very low.

The Successes • Standardized germination and growth requirements of selected native species • Established the production unit with all facilities under a solid research base - capacity of 1 million seedling per year • Irrigation water usage is reduced from 50 to 90 % • Many native plants have been profitably demonstrated as high potential forages • Several grasses can be effectively used in garden and landscape designs.

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Friday, May 21, 2010

Iran renews denial of any link to spy network in Kuwait

By B Izaak

Ahmadinijad.

But Kharafi was also quoted as

KUWAIT: The National Assembly Speaker Jassem Al-Kharafi said from Tehran yesterday that his Iranian counterpart Ali Larijani assured him that Iran has no links whatsoever with a spy network dismantled by Kuwaiti security agencies earlier this month.

Kharafi, on a three-day official visit to Tehran, hailed the IranianKuwaiti relations after he held talks with Larijani and after meeting Iranian President Mahmoud

arrested including Kuwaitis, Arabs and Iranians.

Human rights body to visit Jassem in jail calling on Iran to also investigate the issue separately since some members of the alleged network were Iranian nationals.

The alleged spy network was dismantled in coordination with the army intelligence and the State Security Department and local media said that at least 11 people were

Kuwait helps reduce poverty KUALA LUMPUR: Inspired by the Islamic teaching, the State of Kuwait is trying to alleviate the suffering of the poor worldwide regardless of their backgrounds, an official at the Kuwait Foreign Ministry said yesterday.

Kuwait used to be a country of very limited resources prior to the discovery of oil,” said Mohammad Al-Roumi, the director of the foreign ministry’s Asia department. However, he continued, it had utilized this resource to guarantee its people’s welfare in the present day.

Addressing a seminar on Theory and Practice of International Development, Al-Roumi said that Kuwait provides its citizens with free health care service, housing, and education.

During his speech at the seminar, being held in China’s Chongqing City by the International Poverty Reduction Center in China (IPRCC) between May 16-23, the Kuwaiti official recalled the initiative of the late Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and his call for writing off interest on loans to poor countries, as well as recollecting another proposal to establish a fund to help poor countries issued by the current ruler, His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah AlAhmad Al-Sabah.

The resulting Kuwait Fund for Arab and Economic Development (KFAED) presents countries with loans to fund infrastructure projects, while Kuwaiti investments abroad also help reduce poverty in foreign countries, Al-Roumi said.

Kuwait’s state and private charitable bodies, such as the Zakat House, the Ministry of Awqaf, and others, play a great role in empowering the poor around the world by providing them with development projects and humanitarian aid as required, he added. —KUNA

in the news Measures to improve govt performance KUWAIT: The development of the government’s work systems and performance is ongoing as part of the state’s development plan, said Minister Mohammad Al-Baseeri on Wednesday. Dr Al-Busairi, the country’s Communications Minister and Minister of State for National Assembly Affairs was speaking as he opened the new center for government services in the Jahra Governorate, Government Mall. He said that the government has been making great efforts to improve the performance of all its bodies and to develop services. Opening government service centers, known as ‘government malls,’ is an initiative designed to develop performance standards and levels, he explained. He added that the new centers are part of the e-government projects listed in the development plan. The head of the construction and management committee for the services centers Abdullatif Al-Suraye, said that the use of modern technology to develop services is a priority at present. The new government services center in Jahra contains offices for 14 government bodies, he noted. The Cabinet had previously issued a decision entrusting the communications minister with the establishment of government services centers in all governorates. The new center is not the first ‘government mall.’ However, with another having been inaugurated in Ahmadi in March.

MoI warns sailors KUWAIT: The Ministry of Interior’s (MoI) Security Media Department on Wednesday called on all of Kuwait’s residents to be cautious over setting out to sea owing to bad weather and protecting their own safety. In a press release, the department called on all residents to contact the emergency line (112) or the Coast Guard for help and assistance if they run into trouble while out at sea. Also, it reminded them to check the weather forecast before setting sail. It also called on all sailors to inform the Coast Guard of their departure and return.

The government has confirmed that security agencies were questioning suspects in connection with a spy cell but declined to provide any further details.

The attorney general has slapped a total ban on publishing news on the alleged spy network.

It was reported that the alleged

network was operating for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

Tehran and the Iranian embassy in Kuwait have repeatedly denied any link to the alleged network.

In another development, Kuwait Human Rights Association said yesterday it had obtained a permit to visit writer Mohammad Abdulqader Al-Jassem in jail, adding the visit will be coordinated with the prison authorities.

Jassem is serving a 21-day detention in connection of a lawsuit in which he is accused of instigating

to overthrow the regime, undermining the status of the Amir and instigating to dismantle the foundations of the society.

Jassem, who was arrested on May 11, was only visited by his lawyers earlier this week. In the meantime, the public prosecution yesterday released MPs Mohammad Hayef and Mussallam Al-Barrak without bail after interrogating them on two separate lawsuits filed by the local private satellite channel Scope. The channel has alleged that it was slandered by the two lawmakers.

CRIMES

Schoolgirl abducted, raped A suicide in Khaitan

KUWAIT: An expatriate Special Forces officer who abducted and sexually assaulted a 15-year-old schoolgirl was caught by Jahra patrol officers during his attack. The patrol officers became suspicious of the man’s activities after spotting his vehicle parked in a deserted area of Waha used by oil tankers. When they approached the vehicle, they found the man sexually assaulting the girl, who told officers that the man had abducted her, telling her he would take her home but instead driving to the scene and carrying out his attack.

The man, a Gulf expatriate, has been taken into custody and is awaiting trial.

Sponsors abuse chauffeur An Asian man working as a chauffeur lodged a complaint against his sponsors, two brothers, who he said had beaten him severely. The accused men have been summoned for questioning.

Amghara mugging An Afghan expatriate in his 30s was beaten and robbed in the Amghara Scrapyard area by unknown muggers, who stole KD 800 from him. A search is underway for the attackers.

Gun cr azy A Kuwaiti woman was astonished when she heard gunfire smashing a window of her home in Sabah Al-Salem.

When the gunfire stopped, she rushed into the room which the shooter had targeted, finding that two bullets had hit a cupboard there. The woman immediately called police to report the incident, telling officers that she had no idea who the shooter was and had no disputes with anyone that might explain what had taken place. An investigation is underway to apprehend the person responsible.

In another case, Hawally detectives arrested a drunken Kuwaiti man who fired a few rounds of bullets into the air to scare his friends after they threw him out of their home.

The man was taken into custody and an investigation is

The General Department for Drug Control (GDDC) Director General Major General Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: The body of an Asian expatriate was found hanging from a ceiling fan in his accommodation in Khaitan.

Crime scene officers took evidence from the scene and the body was removed for autopsy.

Father jailed over mar riage scam A father has been jailed for 10 years for marrying his daughter to two men, one in Kuwait and the other in Saudi Arabia. The Public Prosecution Service referred the case to court, charging the defendant with providing false information in order to marry his daughter to two men, which is not allowed in Islam.

Three dr ug dealers caught Three drug dealers have been arrested in a General Department of Drug Control (GDDC) operation.

The operation was launched after the GDDC Director General Major General Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah received a tip-off that a man recently released from Central Prison where he had served a sentence for drugs offences had returned to his previous trade, with an

KUWAIT: The three drug dealers who were recently arrested are pictured here with some of the seized drugs. undercover team of GDDC officers covertly monitoring the man’s movements for some time. After an undercover officer’s attempt to buy drugs from the man failed, GDDC personnel stormed the dealer’s house in Reqqa, capturing him red-handed and confiscating heroin, hashish and narcotic tablets from the property.

Another man in the house admitted to being his accomplice. The two men told officers that the source of their drugs was a bedoon (stateless) man living in Salmiya. When GDDC officers arrived at this man’s house shortly afterwards, he attempted to pull out a gun but was quickly restrained and taken into custody. Officers also recovered other firearms, as well as further narcotics from the property.

All three men are in custody, facing charges of drug possession and trading.

Columnist’s sentence upheld The Appeals Court has upheld the six-month jail sentence imposed on columnist

Nabil Al-Fadhli for insulting lawyer Tamer Al-Jadee over his representation of MP Musallam Al-Barrak. The court ordered that the sentence be suspended for three years, placing the columnist on probation and ordering him to pay a KD 5,000 bond. Al-Jadee has stated that he will sue Al-Fadhli for a further KD 50,000 in compensation.

Grenade find After a passerby discovered a live hand grenade behind the Boubyan Club in Salwa, police and bomb squad officers were quickly at the scene, dealing with the device accordingly.

Bootlegger busted An Asian expatriate who was arrested in the Mangaf area in possession of 60 bottles of liquor has been referred to the relevant authorities.

37 cars confiscated Thirty-seven cars were confiscated over motorists’ violations of traffic regulations and reckless driving, in a crackdown in various areas of Ahmadi governorate.

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Kuwait showcases achievements in children’s healthcare

KUWAIT: HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah is welcomed upon his return to Kuwait after completing a trip around the Middle East. —KUNA

GENEVA: Kuwait confirmed yesterday its commitment to achieving the Millennium Development Goals related to child nutrition for infants and youth, and is moving steadily towards the goals set by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations (UN) Director of Department of Nutrition at the Kuwaiti Health Ministry Dr Nawal AlHamad, explained during the Kuwaiti presentation at the WHO General Assembly.

Kuwait seeks to declare all the country’s hospitals as ‘child-friendly,’ adding that the experience was good so far in Jahra, Maternity and Mouwassat hospitals.

She confirmed that the percentage of breastfeeding has increased in Kuwait from 8 percent to 15 percent over the past five years, while worldwide rates decreased significantly.

Dr Al-Hamad said that “the reasons behind the success of the Kuwaiti experience goes back to the application of

EP praises Kuwaiti efforts to stress inter-parliamentary ties STRASBOURG: Vice President of the European Parliament (EP) Gianni Pittella has expressed his appreciation of Kuwait’s efforts in fostering cooperation between the European Union (EU) countries and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states. Pittella’s statement came on Wednesday evening during a meeting with a delegation from the Kuwaiti Parliament headed by MP Ali Al-Deqbasi.

Pittella expressed gratitude to His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad AlSabah for his efforts to strengthen relations with the EU countries, praising HH the Amir’s recent visits to a number of European countries and emphasizing that the EU is keen on signing a free trade agreement with the GCC. The senior European official also hailed the Kuwaiti Parliament, describing it as an active and powerful body. For his part, Al-Deqbasi pointed out

that the delegation had delivered an invitation from Kuwait’s National Assembly (parliament) Speaker Jassem AlKhorafi to EP President Jerzy Buzek to visit Kuwait.

Kuwaitis would not forget the support of European countries to their state during the Iraqi occupation, said AlDeqbasi, adding that all the GCC states, and especially Kuwait, are keen to sign a free trade agreement with the EU. During their visit, the members of the Kuwaiti delegation have held talks with members of the EP’s Committee for European relations with the Arabian Peninsula.

During the meeting, the Kuwaiti MPs called for easing the regulations governing the issuing of visas for Kuwaitis wishing to visit Europe. The delegates and the committee members also discussed boosting the levels of trade exchange between the EU and Kuwait, the newly approved

Kuwaiti law on foreign employees and the status of women in the Gulf state. In addition, the delegates called on the EU to contribute towards resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict and to support the Middle East peace process.

On Wednesday, the delegation also attended an EP session and a banquet held in their honor by head of the EP’s delegation for Relations with the Arab Peninsula, Angelika Niebler. The Kuwaiti MPs also met with the leader of the EP’s Group of the European People’s Party Joseph Daul and discussed bolstering relations among parliamentarians. The Kuwaiti delegation’s three-day visit, which began on Monday, aimed to strengthen coordination and cooperation between the NA and EP. Besides Al-Deqbasi, the delegation also included MPs Saleh Ashour, Hussein Mizyed, Dulaihi AlHajri, Shuaib Al-Muwaizri, and Ghanim Al-Maei. —KUNA

preventative measures through banning the promotion of mother’s milk substitutes at hospitals and health centers, holding training courses for health workers and specialist doctors and gynecologists, as well as nurses.” Many delegations said that the experience of Kuwait was consistent with the priorities of the global agenda for childcare and that it has made achievements in multiple areas within short periods of time, compared with other countries.

Dr Al-Hamad, meanwhile, told KUNA that this shows that healthcare is of great importance worldwide and that the experience of states has become the focus of attention.

“The attention is now turning to measure the success of medical success through prevention, treatment or rehabilitation after it was earlier confined to the evolution of clinical research,” she said. —KUNA

Kuwait warns of rise in chronic diseases in GCC GENEVA: Kuwait’s Assistant Undersecretary of Health Dr. Yousef Al-Nisif on Wednesday reviewed the efforts of Kuwait and the other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states to face the spread of non-communicable chronic diseases in the region.

Addressing the General Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Al-Nisif noted that the GCC countries have started to take various measures in this regard, including the Kuwait Declaration on Diabetes and the Riyadh Declaration for Cardiovascular Disease.

The senior health ministry official noted that the strategic directions of the GCC include the application of the Network Initiative, “faith” of the Regional WHO Office in the region, the Gulf plan to raise awareness of chronic non-infectious disease, the conducting of the World Health Survey and the adoption of the Global Strategy for Health, Food, and Movement.

He also explained that the GCC is seeking to update the operational plan for combating the spread of diabetes and has now entered its third phase.

He also noted Kuwait’s participation

in the global survey of the rates of tobacco consumption among young people and in the Cancer Registry’s programs.

On the sidelines of the meeting, Dr. Al-Nisif told KUNA the smoking rates in Kuwait currently stand at 20.6 percent of the population, while the proportion of inactivity and lack of exercise stands at 57.2 percent.

Some 39.6 percent of the country’s population suffer from high cholesterol levels, while the levels of those classified as overweight or obese stand at a remarkably high 75.4 percent, with 20.5 percent of the population suffering from high blood pressure.

He added that in the GCC, rates of addiction to smoking range between 16 and 46 percent, while high blood pressure is between 15 and 35 percent.

Obesity meanwhile ranges between 40 to 70 percent, and physical inactivity and lack of movement between 80 to 90 percent. Dr. Al-Nisif added that Kuwait follows the WHO recommendations to tackle problems caused by chronic and infectious diseases, and has implemented a treatment program for diabetes. —KUNA

KUWAIT: The first and second special protection courses concluded yesterday at the officers club of the general directorate of the special security forces. The event was held under the patronage of Assistant Undersecretary for Special Security Maj General Suleiman Al-Fahad. —KUNA

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Friday, May 21, 2010

Russian confirms Iran set to open long-delayed nuclear reactor

Iran may cancel atom swap deal over sanctions move TEHRAN: Iran could cancel an accord with Turkey and Brazil to transfer some of its enriched uranium abroad if the UN Security Council approves a fourth round of sanctions against it, a member of parliament said yesterday.

A Russian official confirmed yesterday that Iran is set to open a long-delayed nuclear reactor built by Russia, a step likely to fan Western fears that the Islamic republic could one day become a nuclear weapons power.

Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom Corp, told journalists the reactor at the Bushehr plant would begin to operate in August. Russia is one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council who have given their approval to a draft resolution on a new round of sanctions against Iran that Washington circulated at the United Nations this week. Iran could scuttle the deal to part with 1.2 tons of its enriched uranium if the sanctions resolution is approved, prominent

lawmaker Mohammad Reza Bahonar was quoted as saying by Iran's Mehr news agency.

"If (the West) issues a new resolution against Iran, we will not be committed to Tehran's statement and despatching fuel outside Iran will be cancelled," he said. The draft resolution appeared to brush aside as too little and too late the surprise deal brokered by Brazil and Turkey the day before for Iran to send 1,200 kg of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) -potential nuclear bomb fuel-abroad in return for fuel rods to keep a Tehran medical research reactor running. The first batch would arrive in Turkey within a month. Such an arrangement was first hatched last October as a way, in Western eyes, to cut Iran's LEU stockpile below the minimum that would be needed for a nuclear weapon, if it were enriched to a high fissile purity, and buy time for more negotiations. Turkey, Brazil and Iran have urged a halt to talk of further

sanctions because of the deal. But Western critics have described it as only a tactic to avert or delay sanctions. This is because the amount of LEU Iran would give up- 1,200 kg, the same as what was originally negotiated under UN nuclear watchdog aegis-would still leave Iran with enough for one bomb, since it has produced more LEU day by day since then.

In a possible effort to get Iran to prove it was serious about a pact it backed out of earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged Tehran yesterday to send the details to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Iran has said it will get in touch with the IAEA by May 24. The new, extended sanctions would target Iranian banks and call for inspection of vessels suspected of carrying cargo related to Iran's nuclear or missile programs.

Lavrov was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying he hoped for a

consensus in the Security Council on the fourth sanctions resolution against Iran since 2006. "Major powers along with the UN Security Council have reached consensus about Iran and it is highly probable that in the near future the fourth round of resolutions becomes operational against Iran," Bahonar added.

Iranian officials earlier dismissed the draft resolution as lacking legitimacy and unlikely to come to pass, and they again rejected international demands to suspend enrichment. Tehran says it is refining uranium only for civilian nuclear energy plants. Western powers suspect Iran wants to "weaponise" enrichment technology because it restricts UN nuclear inspections and has stonewalled a UN inquiry into intelligence allegations that it has studied ways to make a nuclear warhead.

In February, Iran began refining uranium to a higher degree still well

short of bomb grade but increasing concern abroad. "The Americans will take their wish to harm the Iranian nation to their graves," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted as telling military officials yesterday by state news agency IRNA. Washington has spent much diplomatic effort in persuading Russia and China, also a permanent Security Council member, to back sanctions and a tougher line on Tehran.

Both are keen to maintain trade relations with Iran, a major energy producer. Iran hopes to buy S-300 air defence missiles from Russia but it is not clear yet if Russia will deliver.

Moscow says the Bushehr plant is purely civilian and cannot be used for any weapons programme as it will come under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) supervision.

Iran will have to return all spent fuel rods to Russia, a requirement meant to ensure no reprocessing into bomb fuel.— Reuters

Israel releases Hamas MP held for nearly four years

ASHKELON: Utra-Orthodox Jewish men, wrapped in prayer shawls, protest against the removal of ancient tombs in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon on May 16, 2010. —AFP

Israel's ultra-Orthodox relocate bones from hospital project JERUSALEM: Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews demonstrated in Jerusalem yesterday to protest the exhumation of bodies from ancient graves as part of a project to build an emergency room.

The remains were relocated from the site near the Barzilai hospital in the southern town of Ashkelon so that an emergency ward designed to resist rockets can be built to serve residents living near the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

But the ultra-orthodox, decked out in black suits and wide-brimmed hats, denounced the project, which they said desecrated Jewish graves.

As they marched to the new burial site they waved banners saying "We ask forgiveness from the dead whose graves have been desecrated." "The bones have been given to the (religious) undertaker to be buried in a Jewish cemetery, since there is a possibility they are Jewish," a spokesman for the religious

affairs ministry told AFP. The planned relocation has provoked the fury of the ultra-Orthodox community for whom the removal of Jewish remains is forbidden under religious law. However, archaeologists say there are no ancient Jewish graves at the site, which dates back to the Byzantine era. Two months ago, the government decided to shelve its construction plans following huge pressure from the ultra-Orthodox, among them Deputy Health Minister Yaacov Litzman, whose United Torah Judaism party holds five seats in parliament.

The decision, which would have meant relocating the new wing elsewhere at a cost to taxpayers of at least 100 million shekels (21 million euros, 26 million dollars), caused an outpouring of public fury. The government was then forced to perform a swift U-turn and give the go-ahead for construction at the contested site.— AFP

JERUSALEM: Israel yesterday released a Hamas lawmaker arrested nearly four years ago following the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Gaza militants in a deadly cross-border raid, prison authorities said.

Mohammed Abu Teir, a senior Hamas leader known for his bright orange beard dyed with henna, was welcomed by dozens of family members and supporters at his home in annexed east Jerusalem.

Abu Teir was jailed after being found guilty of "membership in an illegal organisation and hostile and terrorist activities," a spokeswoman for the Israeli prison service said. He was among more than 60 Hamas elected officials arrested after the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, then 19, was captured in June 2006 in an attack claimed by Hamas and two smaller groups. Many have since been released, and at present Israel is holding 10 Hamas MPs, as well as two from the secular Fatah movement led by Mahmud Abbas and one from the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Hamas has demanded the release of hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli jails, including several top militants convicted of deadly

attacks, in exchange for Shalit, who is being held in a secret location in Gaza. The last round of talks over Shalit, mediated by Egypt and a German diplomat, ground to a halt late last year when Israel presented an offer to which Hamas has not yet officially replied. Israel and Hamas

have each blamed the other for failing to reach a deal.

Hamas won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections in January 2006, the first it contested, securing 74 seats in the 132-member legislature and routing longdominant Fatah, which won just 45.—AFP

JERUSALEM: Senior Hamas leader Mohammed Abu Teir, 58, talks on the phone as he is welcomed by family and friends following his release from an Israeli jail yesterday in the east Jerusalem district of Sur Baher. —AFP

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Turkey bombs Kurdish rebel targets in Iraq ANKARA: Turkish warplanes yesterday bombed dozens of rebel targets in Kurdish neighboring northern Iraq, in one of the biggest raids in recent years, Turkish media reports said. About 20 fighter jets took part in the operation that targeted positions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Zap-Khakurk region of the Kurdish-held autonomous north of Iraq, the NTV news channel reported.

Nearly 50 targets were hit in day-long missions carried out mainly on intelligence passed on by the Unites States, it said. The Anatolia news agency reported that the strikes were ordered after a group of PKK rebels were detected on their way towards the Turkish border from their mountainous hideouts in northern Iraq. NTV said the operation, the second this month, was believed to be a success although there was no

immediate confirmation of possible losses to the rebels.

There was no immediate statement from the army on the raid. Yesterday’s strikes followed a series of daring attacks in recent weeks by PKK rebels on Turkish military targets in the country’s southeast, which left several soldiers dead. The earlier raid took place on May 7 when warplanes bombed and destroyed PKK positions across the Iraqi border

from which the rebels were firing on Turkish helicopters, according to the army.

The PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist organization by Ankara and much of the international community, picked up arms for selfrule in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives. The arrival of spring usually brings a resurgence of violence as the rebels move out

from their mountain hideouts in Turkey and neighboring Iraq when the snow melts. The Turkish army has staged a series of air raids against PKK bases in northern Iraq since December 2007, often with the help of US intelligence, and in February 2008 carried out a weeklong ground incursion. Ankara says about 2,000 PKK rebels are holed up in the mountains of northern Iraq, from where they launch attacks on Turkish territory. —AFP

Iraqi premier says rivals can’t form government BAGHDAD: Iraq’s prime minister said yesterday his Sunni-backed rivals, who narrowly won the March election, were wasting their time trying to form a new government, a remark sure to raise tensions.

Shiite Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki accused the winning Iraqiya list of delaying the political process, even though it was the premier himself who mounted a series of challenges to the results postponing the final tally. “I say to our brothers in Iraqiya list: You are wasting your time and delaying the political process,” Al-Maliki was quoted as saying by the independent daily Al-Mada.

Iraqiya won 91 of 325 seats in parliament over 89 for alMaliki’s bloc.

Because neither has a majority, they need coalition partners to form a government. AlMaliki has already formed an alliance with another Shiite bloc that came in third in the election, and together they are just four seats short of a majority.

Iraq’s constitution says the bloc with the most seats should get the first crack at

forming a government, which Iraqiya leader Ayad Allawi believes gives him the mandate. Al-Maliki claims that his post-election alliance gives him the largest bloc and the right to form the government. Sunni anger over being largely excluded from government after the US-led invasion was seen as a key reason behind the insurgency and subsequent sectarian violence that brought Iraq to the brink of civil war. Now many fear that if Allawi’s Sunni-backed bloc is largely excluded from government the violence could return. While violence has fallen dramatically in Iraq since the height of the insurgency, a spate of attacks, including one last week that killed 119 people, has heightened fears that insurgents are regrouping.

In the northern city of Mosul, a suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt at a police checkpoint yesterday, killing one policeman and wounding 12 people, police and morgue officials said on condition anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. —AP

BAGHDAD: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri AlMaliki speaks to the press during a reopening ceremony for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday. —AP

TEHRAN: Cindy Hickey, mother of Shane Bauer, right, Nora Shourd, mother of Sarah Shourd, 2nd left, hug their children at the Esteghlal hotel in Tehran, Iran yesterday. —AP

Three Americans jailed in Iran reunite with their moms Trio accused of entering from Iraq to spy TEHRAN: Three Americans jailed in Iran for 10 months hugged and kissed their mothers in an emotional reunion yesterday after the women arrived on a mission to secure the release of their children. One of the prisoners said they all hoped to go home together in the trio’s first public comments since their arrest.

Nora Shourd, Cindy Hickey and Laura Fattal threw their arms in the air and rushed to embrace their children as they entered the room at the Esteghlal Hotel in north Tehran, in footage aired on Iran’s state-run Press TV. They hugged the three and kissed them on the cheeks as they embraced, some rocking back and forth together with tears in their eyes. The group later ate an abundant lunch together at a feast of rice, kebabs and other traditional Middle Eastern dishes.

Iran detained the three Americans, Sarah Shourd, 31; her boyfriend, Shane Bauer, 27; and their friend Josh Fattal, 27, along the Iraqi border in late July and have accused them of entering from Iraqi territory and spying. Their relatives reject the accusation and say the three were hiking in Iraq’s scenic and largely peaceful northern Kurdish region.

Their lawyer said it was doubtful they would be allowed to leave with their mothers but he wouldn’t rule anything out.

Masoud Shafii said that from a legal point

of view, “this possibility is very unlikely because the file is still in the investigation stage and a courts verdict can allow them to go, but speaking out of a legal context, anything can happen.” He stressed that the three have not formally been charged with espionage and such allegations have come only from “non-judicial officials,” such as the intelligence minister.

“Basically, remarks made by non-judicial persons are pre-judgmental,” he said.

The mothers, who were wearing long black robes and holding bouquets of flowers during the meeting, arrived in Tehran on Wednesday to visit their children and try to secure the their release. Iran granted the women visas to visit their children in what it said was an Islamic humanitarian gesture and the Americans appealed to them to release the three on the same grounds.

“We hope we’re going home soon, maybe with our mothers,” Josh Fattal said as the group was interviewed while seated together on a low-slung couch afterward.

Relatives have had little news on the three Americans since their arrest, and their mothers were eager to talk with them and gauge where their health stands after some 10 months in captivity in Iran’s Evin prison. Their lawyer said the six would stay together at least until evening, but it was not clear whether the three detainees

would have to return to the prison for the night. The mothers are hoping to meet with officials involved in the case, and ideally with top Iranian leaders, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in all state matters, the lawyer has said.

Sarah Shourd said it has been “terrible to be away from our families for this long.”

“We’ve only received one phone call and it was five minutes long and that was amazing , we waited and prayed for that every day,” she said. “This (the meeting) is something obviously we’ve been praying for and it makes a huge difference.” She said the their treatment by the Iranian authorities has been “decent” and loneliness has been the hardest part of her detention. “Shane and Josh are in a room together but I’m alone and that’s the most difficult thing for me,” she said. She added that she’s allowed to see Bauer and Fattal twice a day.

Hickey, the mother of Shane Bauer, said the parents are “very grateful to the Islamic Republic of Iran and the authorities for granting us a visa” to visit their children.

“We know that this is a great humanitarian act that they have given to us. Our reception was wonderful when we came into Iran,” she said in comments aired on English-language Press TV. —AP

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Somali prez reinstates prime minister, cabinet Lawyers advised sacking cabinet unconstitutional MOGADISHU: Somalia’s president reinstated Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke and his cabinet yesterday after days of uncertainty following a parliamentary vote of no confidence in them.

MOGADISHU: Somalia’s Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke speaks during a press conference at his office in Mogadishu on May 18. —AFP

Suspected ETA military chief arrested in France BAYONNE: French antiterrorist police yesterday arrested Mikel Karrera Sarobe, alleged to be the most senior commander of the armed Basque separatist group ETA still at large.

Police commandos raided a residential block in the southwestern French city of Bayonne before dawn and arrested Sarobe, a woman and a militant suspected of involvement in the murder of a French policeman, officers said.

Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said 37-year-old Sarobe is the armed group’s “most senior” leader and the “most wanted”.

This makes him the fifth ETA military chief to be arrested in just two years.

“He is currently the most senior leader of the terrorist group, the head of its military operations, the one who gives orders to ETA commandos,” he said. The minister named the second male suspect as Arkaitz Aguirregabiria del Barrio and described him as the group’s number two. Aguirregabiria is wanted in France for his alleged role in the March 16 shooting of a policeman.

The third suspect, also a Spanish national, is Maite Aranalde Ijurco. She is also a known ETA militant, the minister said. Two French citizens were arrested in a

second raid as part of the same operation. “We have two people, one the most wanted by Spanish police and the other the most wanted by French police. It is a great step forward,” said Rubalcaba. For the past four decades ETA has been fighting a bloody campaign for an independent Basque homeland in the area populated by Basque speakers in a corner of northern Spain and southwest France.

It is listed as a banned terrorist group by the European Union and has been held responsible for the deaths of 829 people during its on-again off-again campaign of gun and bomb attacks on mainly Spanish targets. Traditionally, ETA used France as a safe rearbase for attacks on Spain, but in recent years the two EU allies have strengthened cross-border police cooperation and cracked down hard on the group.

So, while ETA has not carried out any attacks on Spanish soil since August 2009, its cells are under increasing pressure in France. In March, Basque gunmen killed a French policeman for the first time, gunning down 52-year-old Jean-Serge Nerin in a shootout that erupted during a routine identity check in the Paris suburbs. French and

Spanish official sources said that the alleged ETA number two, Aguirregabiria, was thought to have been involved in that shooting.

The officers who carried out yesterday’s raiddetectives from France’s DNAT anti-terrorist squad and a special weapons team from the RAID police commando unit-seized weapons, cash and computer equipment at the scene. At the same time as the three Spanish suspects were being picked up in Bayonne, two French suspects were arrested in the nearby town of Urrugne as part of the same inquiry, French officials said.

The Spanish minister Rubalcaba identified this pair as Benoit Aramendi and Laetitia Chevalier and hailed the operation as “a magnificent example of police cooperation”.

Karrera Sarobe, alias Ata or “duck” in the Basque language, was identified as ETA’s new military leader on a revised most-wanted list issued by Spanish police on March 16 in their pursuit of ETA militants.

More than 30 suspected ETA members have been arrested in 2010, including ETA’s new leader Ibon Gogeascoechea Arronategui, who was captured in February in northwestern France. —AFP

President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed asked Sharmarke and his ministers to step down after the vote on Sunday. A total 280 MPs had chosen to sack them, according to former speaker Sheikh Aden Madobe, who has since resigned.

“Why I replaced the prime minister was because I was referring to a letter from the former speaker, but I have ordered the government to continue its duties because when I discussed with lawyers, they said it was unconstitutional,” Ahmed said in a statement.

Sharmarke refused to leave his position and maintained that parliament’s move was unconstitutional.

The chamber, whose business has been paralyzed because many legislators live in Kenya, Europe and America because of security fears in the war-riven country, met for the first time on Sunday, since December.

The Horn of African country has been deprived of effective central government for nearly 20 years and Ahmed’s We s t e r n - b a c ke d administration controls no more than a few blocks of Mogadishu, with the help of African Union troops. It is beset by near-daily attacks from the Islamist al Shabaab group, which Washington terms as Al-Qaeda’s proxy in the region, and Hizbul Islam, another hardline group.

The AU AMISOM peace mission bolstering it in Mogadishu has just under 7,000 troops, according to the United Nations, and its soldiers are also under frequent attacks from roadside bombs and rebel artillery.

One such attack killed a Ugandan soldier on a foot patrol yesterday. “We have lost one soldier after a roadside bomb blast struck our foot patrol,” AMISOM spokesman Major Barigye Ba-hoku told Reuters. “It was a barbaric attack by the anti-peace elements who don’t like peace for Somalia.” The African Union has asked its member states to boost the troops numbers but only Uganda and Burundi have done so.

In a separate attack, two children were killed when a mortar fired in the direction of the parliament landed on a house. — Reuters

CAPE TOWN: Women protest against a sentence given to two men in Malawi, in the city of Cape Town, South Africa yesterday. —AP

Gay couple sentenced to max 14 years in Malawi A judge BLANTYRE: sentenced a couple to the maximum 14 years in prison with hard labor under Malawi’s anti-gay legislation, and crowds jeered the two men as they were driven from the court house to jail yesterday.

The harsh sentence for unnatural acts and gross indecency had been expected after the same judge convicted Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza earlier this week under laws dating from the colonial era. The case has drawn international condemnation and sparked a debate on human rights in this conservative southern African country.

Chimbalanga, a 20-yearold hotel janitor, and his unemployed partner were arrested Dec. 27, the day after they celebrated their engagement with a party at the hotel where Chimbalanga worked, an apparent first in Malawi.

“Maximum sentences are intended for use for worst cases,” Magistrate Nyakwawa Usiwa Usiwa said as he delivered his sentence. “We are sitting here to represent the Malawi society which I do not believe is ready at this point in time

to see its sons getting married to other sons or conducting engagement ceremonies.” The lawyer for the two, Mauya Msuku, said they would appeal.

Chimbalanga remained composed as armed police officers handcuffed him to Monjeza. “I am not worried,” he told reporters as they were taken to a police vehicle.

Monjeza broke down upon hearing the ruling and was still sobbing as he was helped into the van. Hundreds of onlookers inside and outside the court house showed little sympathy. There were shouts of “You got what you deserve!” and “Fourteen years is not enough, they should get 50!” Michelle Kagari, deputy Africa director of Amnesty International called the sentence “an outrage.”

Her rights watchdog has adopted Chimbalanga and Monjeza as prisoners of conscience, and would “continue to campaign on this matter and to work tirelessly to see that they are released unconditionally as soon as possible,” Kagari told The Associated Press by telephone from her office in Kampala, Uganda. — AP

Britain condemns North Korea over ship sinking LONDON: Britain yesterday slammed North Korea’s “blatant disregard of international obligations” after an investigation concluded one of its submarines sank a South Korean warship with the loss of 46 lives. Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain was awaiting proposals from the South Korea on how to respond to the findings.

“The attack demonstrates a total indifference to human life and a blatant disregard of international obligations,” he said in a statement. “The DPRK (North Korea)’s actions will deepen the international community’s mistrust.”

British experts, who formed part of the multinational investigation team, were “in no doubt” that the findings of the investigation into the March 26 sinking were correct, said Hague.

“They have been impressed with the objectivity and rigour of the investigative work,” said the foreign minister.

“The UK experts are in no doubt as to the veracity of the investigation’s findings.” The investigators concluded that a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine sank the South Korean warship near the disputed maritime border, in their report released yesterday.

Hague said he had spoken to South Korean Foreign Minister, Yu Myung-hwan, and expressed his condolences for the lives lost in the sinking. Britain “and international partners are committed to working closely with the Republic of Korea (South Korea) as they consider an appropriate multilateral response to this callous act,” he added. — AFP

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Chavez: Dissident party has joined opposition CARACAS: President Hugo Chavez lashed out Wednesday at former political allies who have distanced themselves from him, accusing them of joining Venezuela’s opposition ahead of September congressional elections.

Chavez harshly criticized Fatherland For All, a leftist party that had traditionally supported the president’s socialist government, calling its leaders traitors and predicting its candidates will be defeated in the Sept. 26 vote.

“They are allied with the

right wing,” Chavez said, speaking to members of his ruling party. “The reformists can stay behind. Here we have true revolutionaries.” The falling out between Chavez and Fatherland For All began months ago. But the breakup appeared definitive Wednesday after Chavez condemned the party’s decision to not form an alliance with his Unified Socialist Party of Venezuela ahead of the elections.

Chavez also seemed irritated by the party’s criticism of what it called his uncompromising

attitude and authoritarian tendencies. Political analyst Ricardo Sucre said he believes the rupture “could have an impact in some states,” but that candidates fielded by Fatherland For All are not going to receive significant backing from the majority of Chavez’s supporters.

Sucre noted Fatherland For All appears to have gained strength in some regions since Lara state Gov. Henri Falcon broke ranks with Chavez’s party in March and joined its former allyturned-rival. Falcon is popular in Lara, where he served two

consecutive terms as the mayor of the state capital and was elected governor by a comfortable margin in 2008.

Chavez has repeatedly warned his allies that an opposition victory in September’s elections would be a devastating blow to his efforts to transform Venezuela into a state, because socialist adversaries could veto bills proposed by his party. The president’s supporters currently have an unbeatable majority in the National Assembly after most opposition

parties boycotted Venezuela’s last legislative elections in 2005. The opposition is competing this time, though, and aims to field a single candidate for each seat up for grabs. Chavez’s antagonistic comments Wednesday came just hours after Fatherland For All presented its candidates.

One of its hopefuls, Margarita Lopez Maya, said the party hopes to win enough seats in the National Assembly to help regain the institution’s independence. She noted the assembly’s majority of pro-

Chavez lawmakers has done Chavez’s bidding for years.

“The National Assembly must be a counterweight to the executive branch,” Lopez Maya, a history professor, said in a telephone interview. The party’s other candidates include former guerrilla leader Rafael Uzcategui, professional basketball player Ricardo Lugo, union leader Jose Bodas and Yoel Acosta Chirinos, a former military officer who joined Chavez in a failed 1992 coup attempt but later split with the president. — AP

Tighter security this time at Obama’s state dinner Improved security due to Obama’s first state dinner incident

WASHINGTON: Mexican President Felipe Calderon(C) addresses the US Congress yesterday at the US capitol in Washington, DC. Looking on are Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. —AFP

Cuban lawmakers denounce Arizona immigration law HAVANA: Cuban lawmakers have passed a resolution denouncing Arizona’s new immigration law as “racist and xenophobic,” recalling an old dispute in the process: the argument that the United States’ purchase of Arizona from Mexico in the 19th century was tantamount to theft. The Arizona law has caused controversy since it was signed by Gov Jan Brewer on April 23.

It requires police to question people about their immigration status if there is reason to suspect they are in the country illegally. Several US cities including Seattle, Los Angeles, San Diego and Austin, Texas, have passed resolutions against the law or urged outright boycotts, and President Barack Obama has denounced it as “a misdirected expression of frustration.” But the denunciation of the law by Cuban lawmakers, who called it a “brutal violation of human rights,” is sure to raise anger among US backers of the law.

The tightly controlled, communist-run island has long been criticized for its human rights record, which includes the jailing of 200 political prisoners, the banning of a free press and the outlawing of opposition political parties. Cuban citizens are required to carry identification with them wherever they go, and can be stopped by police and sent home if they are found in a part of the island where they don’t belong.

Havana bristles at criticism of its human rights record, saying its system provides deep food and housing subsidies, as well as free health care and education to all citizens, while capitalist countries are in the thrall of powerful corporations.

It considers the dissidents to be paid mercenaries of Washington. —AP

WASHINGTON: The White House promised tighter security for Wednesday’s state dinner, and it delivered.

Among the hundreds who lined up to get in, at least one woman was turned away for lack of proper ID. Kathryne Mudge said her husband, Arturo Valenzuela, an assistant secretary of state, was supposed to bring the necessary identification.

“We tried to be extra careful, but my husband is the absent-minded professor,” Mudge said. Their evening wasn’t spoiled, however.

Mudge and her husband returned about an hour later and were allowed into the affair that President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama held for their Mexican counterparts, Felipe Calderon and his wife, Margarita Zavala.

The White House promised to improve security after Obama’s first state dinner was overshadowed by an uninvited husband-and-wife couple who somehow slipped through security and got close enough to the president to shake his hand.

As about 200 guests streamed in through one door of the White House, the Obamas greeted Mexico’s first couple on the North Portico.

Mrs Obama wore a oneshoulder, shimmery, cobalt blue floor-length gown, with a wide silver belt and dangling silvery earrings. Zavala wore a plum-colored, sleeveless gown with an Aztec-inspired blue border around the square neckline.

Among those with coveted invitations for the four-course dinner in the East Room were a celebrity contingent that included Whoopi Goldberg, Eva Longoria Parker, George Lopez and Olympic speedskater Shani Davis.

Goldberg said it felt like she was “coming home after a long drought.” She said she’d been a frequent visitor during Bill

WASHINGTON, DC: US First Lady Michelle Obama and US President Barack Obama wait on the red carpet for the arrival of the Mexican President and his wife May 19, 2010 on the North Portico at the State Dinner for Mexico at the White House in Washington, DC. —AFP Clinton’s years, but not at all during George W. Bush’s presidency. “I wasn’t here,” she said. Lopez, a comedian, joked when asked about the security.

“The guy with the glove was nice,” he said. Longoria Parker talked policy, saying it was an important time to be holding such a dinner with Mexican leaders, given the hot temperatures over immigration right now. “You can’t have these states doing their own punitive laws,” she insisted, referring to Arizona’s tough new immigration law.

Obama and Calderon launched the dinner with a toast to the friendship between their nations. Obama, in toasting Mexico’s

contributions to the world, singled out “some very good food, including the food of the gods , chocolate.” Calderon, for his part, congratulated the American people “for having a president like Barack Obama,” and Obama “for having a wife and first lady like Michelle Obama.” Another 100 or so guests arrived later in the evening for after-dinner entertainment inside a white tent on the South Lawn, where the Mexican duo of Rodrigo y Gabriela strummed acoustic guitars. They were followed by Grammy Award winner Beyonce.

“Today is a celebration of the bonds between the United States and Mexico, including the music that brings us

together and moves us a little bit and hopefully gets us literally moving on the dance floor at some point,” Obama said after the party moved outside.

The dinner was a comingout party of sorts for new White House social secretary Julianna Smoot, who waved quickly and sprinted away when reporters watching the guests arrive called out for her to stop and chat. Smoot’s predecessor, Desiree Rogers, resigned earlier this year; she’d been criticized for her high-profile approach to the job. For their second state dinner, Mrs. Obama recruited Chicago chef Rick Bayless, one of the couple’s favorites, to prepare the meal. —AP

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Nighttime curfew extended

Thai govt declares protest violence mostly quelled BANGKOK: The Thai government declared yesterday it had mostly quelled 10 weeks of violent protests in the capital as buildings still smoldered, troops rooted out small pockets of Troops and die-hard anti-government protesters exchanged sporadic fire in parts of the city after the military operation the day before cleared most of a protest encampment in the center of the capital, leaving 15 dead and 96 wounded. A special police unit yesterday led more than a thousand people , many of them women and children, away from a Buddhist temple in the heart of the former "Red Shirt" protest zone. Six bodies were found on its grounds. The police had the approval of the temple's abbot, but many of the women feared they would be jailed or abused by police and cried or clung to each other as they were led out. Others remained defiant.

"We won. We won. The Red Shirts will rise again," shouted one woman. Three more Red Shirt leaders surrendered to authorities yesterday. Five leaders gave themselves up the day before and were flown to a military camp south of Bangkok for interrogation.

"I'd like to ask all sides to calm down and talk with each other in a peaceful manner,"

resistance and residents attempted to return to normal life.

But a nighttime curfew was extended in Bangkok and 23 other provinces for three more days.

said Veera Musikapong after being taken into custody yesterday. "We cannot create democracy with anger." Army spokesman Col. Sansern Kawekamnerd said the situation in the capital was mostly under control. But a branch of Siam City Bank was set afire, the first reported arson attack after 39 buildings were torched the day before.

According to state-run television, a firefighter was shot and wounded yesterday while trying to put out the flames at a shopping center.

The situation was also volatile outside Bangkok. Nation Television reported one person was killed and 14 wounded in the northeastern province of Khon Kaen, one of several provinces where protests erupted Wednesday. Among the torched buildings in Bangkok were Thailand's stock exchange, main power company, banks, a movie theater and one of Asia's largest shopping malls.

The government described the mayhem as organized terrorism. Sansern said police and army units found a cache of explosives and

BANGKOK: Firemen work to put out a fire that arsonists set to a major shopping mall yesterday, in Bangkok, Thailand.—AP

assault rifles during their sweep against the Red Shirts.

Troops in the central business district exchanged fire yesterday morning with holdouts as locals in the area looted a vast tent city the activists had cobbled together.

Since the Red Shirts began their protest in mid March, at least 83 people , mostly civilians , have been killed and nearly 1,800 wounded. Of those, 51 people have died in clashes that started May 13 after the army tried to blockade their 1-square-mile (3square-kilometer) camp. City workers yesterday removed debris and collected piles of garbage left in the streets. With military checkpoints coming down, residents in protest areas were able to leave home to shop. Electricity was restored to some.

Sansern said the arson and looting were "systematically planned and organized" by Red Shirt leaders before they surrendered.

He said the military showed restraint. "If we had the intention to attack civilians, the death toll would have been much higher," he said. Government spokesman Panithan Wattanayagorn said the rioting was sparked by disappointment, hopelessness and anger, but was only as large as it was because of "prior organized planning." While many of the rioters were believed to be members of the Red Shirts, there also was an element of criminals and young hoodlums involved.

It was unclear what the next move would be for the protesters who had demanded the ouster of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's government and new elections. The protesters, many of them poor farmers or members of the urban underclass, say Abhisit came to power illegitimately and is oblivious to their plight.

The crackdown should silence the large number of government supporters who were urging a harder line, and the rioting that followed may extinguish some of the widespread sympathy for the protesters' cause. But that same violence also showed a serious intelligence lapse by the military, and the failure to secure areas of the capital raised doubt over the government's ability to still unrest in the protesters' heartland of the north and northeast. — AP

Professor given 3 1/2 years in China swingers case BEIJING: A college professor accused of organizing a swingers club and holding private orgies in China was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison, officials said, in a case that touched off national debate about sexual freedom. Ma Yaohai, 53, was convicted and sentenced on charges of group licentiousness for participating in group sex parties, said an official from the Qinhuai District Court in southeastern Nanjing. The official, who declined to give his name, refused to answer further questions. Ma, along with 21 other people, was arrested and charged last year, the first time anyone has been charged under a 1997 law in a case that has snagged huge public interest with its titillating details. It also generated debate about sexual freedom in a nation trying to reshape its own modern morality.

Ma's attorney Yao Yong'an said his client, who was the only one to plead innocent, plans to appeal the verdict. "It's definitely not a fair case. It's not based on the law ... We can understand the reason

behind it, but we can't accept it," he said.

Three of the other defendants were acquitted with no penalties because they turned themselves in, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, while the remaining 18 received jail sentences up to 2 1/2 years. One report said they had gotten lighter sentences than Ma because they demonstrated "good attitudes" by pleading guilty.

The maximum sentence for the crime was five years in prison. Prosecutors had accused Ma, a computer science professor at Nanjing University of Technology, of organizing a swingers club, where members met online and gathered in private homes or hotels for group sex parties. But Ma maintained he committed no crime, arguing his activities involved consenting adults meeting in nonpublic places.

His defiance seemed to strike a chord in an era of relative sexual freedom, where extramarital affairs and prostitution are common, drawing support from those who

believe the Chinese government should stay out of the bedroom.

Chinese have debated whether the country's laws on sexual behavior were outdated in a society that had undergone stark changes in its attitudes toward sex.

Sociologist and sex expert Li Yinhe, who was among the most vocal public defenders of Ma, said she was disappointed in the court's ruling, adding, "Ma Yaohai shouldn't be sentenced at all."

She acknowledged the sentence marked an improvement compared with 20 years ago, when displays of public affection and even dancing with members of the opposite sex could be punished. "He could have been sentenced to death then. But the real improvement should be the complete abolishment of this crime," she said. With rising prosperity and an easing of government controls on personal freedoms, China has moved toward a more progressive view on sex, though attitudes remain more traditional in the countryside than in urban centers.—AP

MANILA: Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jnr, newly elected Philippine Senator and son of the late president Ferdinand Marcos, gestures during an interview with AFP in Manila Wednesday. —AFP

Ferdinand Marcos back in Philippines MANILA: His name used to be poison in the Philippines but Ferdinand Marcos Jnr is now talking about becoming president after elections showed him to be one of the nation's most popular politicians. The dictator's son also insists his family has nothing to apologize for in regards to his father and namesake's 20-year rule of the country that ended in 1986 with a "people power" revolution and a humiliating escape into exile.

"My father doesn't need me to vindicate him," a relaxed Marcos told AFP on Wednesday in his first major interview since last week's national elections that saw him secure more than 13 million votes and a seat in the Senate. "What will vindicate my father will be the academics and the historians who will look back on his time in the cold light of day and see his administration for what it was."

To many, Ferdinand Marcos Snr's reign was dominated by widespread human rights abuses, the family stealing billions of dollars from state coffers and the wholesale slaughter of a fledgling democracy aimed at holding on to power. But Marcos Jnr said his father, who died in 1989 in US exile and now lies embalmed in the family home in the northern Philippines, committed no major crimes and was a superior president to those who succeeded him.

"To compare between him and the presidents since, he was a much better president than they have been," the 53-year-old said as he sipped on a fruit juice in an upscale Manila cafe. He dismissed charges that his father cheated to win the 1986 elections, one of the key moments in modern Philippine history as it triggered the socalled "people power" revolution led by the democracy heroine Corazon Aquino. Marcos was similarly black-and-white when asked if the family stole even just one dollar while in power.

"Good Lord no, of course not," he said, then emphasized that hundreds of cases had been lodged against the Marcosos in an attempt to recover alleged ill-

gotten wealth, but none had succeeded. On human rights abuses, Marcos initially said that some minor incidents-such as a drunken soldier beating someone up-may have occurred while his father was in power. "But it was not part and parcel of government. It was not national policy to commit human rights abuses," he said.

Pushed further, however, on issues such as the detention of journalists, newspapers being closed and the imposition of martial law, Marcos said such measures were needed to contain "wars" against Muslim and communist rebels. "So the war rules applied, I suppose, in that regard," he said. Further boosting his confidence that his family will fall on the right side of history were parallel victories in the national elections by his famously flamboyant mother, Imelda, and sister Imee.

With Imelda, 80, winning a seat in the nation's lower house of parliament, and Imee the governorship of Ilocos Norte province that is their family stronghold, the clan is at its strongest politically since being overthrown. "It's a result that we all wanted. You can't do better than that," he said. Marcos said the trio's victories showed that ordinary Filipinos had never abandoned the family, and that its downfall was only because it fell victim to a plot by the United States and powerful local oligarchs.

"The EDSA (people power) revolution was Americaninspired. "It was a regime change... and although they'll deny it and swear on everything that's holy that they weren't involved, its very clear that they were," he said of the US government. "In the family, we always knew that, but it's very gratifying to see that other people have come around to that way of thinking."

Marcos said he had decided to step up to the Senate-after serving for nine years as Ilocos Norte governor and three as a lower house member-purely to give ordinary Filipinos a voice on the national stage. —AFP

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Move comes a day after the govt blocks Facebook

Pakistan blocks YouTube over unIslamic content JALALABAD: Afghan policemen look at the wreckage after a suicide attacker targeted an international military convoy near Nangarhar air base, in Jalalabad, Afghanistan yesterday. —AP

Wreckage of airliner seen on Afghan mountainside KABUL: Search craft yesterday spotted the tornapart wreckage of a commercial airliner that disappeared Monday while flying over Afghanistan's Hindu Kush mountains with 44 people on board, officials said. Photos supplied by NATO forces show the plane broken into four pieces strewn across a steep mountainside suggesting survival is unlikely.

It's not clear if any of the helicopters flying over the crash site for much of the day have been able to land on the rugged terrain. The Antonov24, operated by Pamir Airways, was flying from the northern city of Kunduz to Kabul when air traffic controllers lost track of it north of the capital. Three British citizens and an American were among those on board.

Poor weather and the rugged mountain terrain hampered searches but aircraft confirmed the tail section had been found in mountains about 24 miles (38 kilometers) north of Kabul, acting Aviation Minister Mohammadullah Batash said.

Searchers identified the blue Pamir Airways logo on the tail, he said.

NATO, which aided the search, said in a statement that the crash site is about 13,500 feet (4,100 meters) high in Shakar Darah district of Kabul province. Kabul-based Pamir Airways, whose name honors the Pamir mountain range of Central Asia, started operations in 1995. It has daily

flights to major Afghan cities and flies to Dubai and Saudi Arabia for the hajj pilgrimage.

Pamir's chief executive officer, Amanullah Hamid, said the plane was last inspected about three months ago in Bulgaria.

The An-24 is a medium-range twin-turboprop civil aircraft built in the former Soviet Union from 1950 to 1978. A modernized version is still made in China. It is widely used by airlines in the developing world due to its rugged design, ease of maintenance and low operating costs.

Also, the Pentagon reported that one full colonel and two lieutenant colonels were among the five US soldiers killed Tuesday by a suicide car bomber in Kabul. A Canadian colonel also died in the blast.

Casualties among the ranks of senior officers are uncommon.

A statement on the Pentagon website identified the dead Americans as Col. John M. McHugh, 46, of New Jersey, assigned to the US Army Battle Command Training Program at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; Lt. Col. Paul R. Bartz, 43, of Waterloo, Wisconsin, assigned to the 10th Mountain Division; Lt. Col. Thomas P. Belkofer, 44, of Perrysburg, Ohio, assigned to the 10th Mountain Division; Staff Sgt. Richard J. Tieman, 28, of Waynesboro, Pennsylania and Spc. Joshua A. Tomlinson, 24, of Dubberly, Louisina, both assigned to Special Troops Battalion, V Corps based in Heidelberg, Germany. — AP

PURI: A young fisherman runs past fishing boats anchored on the shore after a cyclone alert, on the Bay of Bengal's Orissa coast in Puri, India, Wednesday. —AP

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani government blocked came a day after the government blocked access to access to YouTube yesterday because of "sacrilegious" Facebook amid anger over a page on the social content in a growing Internet crackdown against sites networking site that encourages users to post images of deemed offensive to the country's majority Muslim Islam's Prophet Muhammad. Islam prohibits any images population. The move against the video-sharing website of the prophet.

Pakistan The Telecommunications Authority did not point to specific material on YouTube that prompted it to block the site, only citing "growing sacrilegious contents." The government acted against both Facebook and YouTube after it failed to persuade the websites to remove the "derogatory material," the regulatory body said in a statement.

It welcomed representatives from the two websites to contact the Pakistani government to resolve the dispute in a way that "ensures harmony and religious respect." The regulatory body said it has blocked more than 450 Internet links containing offensive material, but it is unclear how many of the links were blocked in the last two LAHORE: Pakistani Islamist women set a US national flag alight during a days. protest in Lahore yesterday, against the published caricatures of Prophet Access to the online Mohammed on Facebook. —AFP encyclopedia site Wikipedia also was restricted yesteray, to block the the company said in a (PBUH) in a bear suit during an country but it was not clear if the controversial page Tuesday. statement. "In cases like this, episode earlier this year. government had intended to do The page sparked protests But members of the Islamic the approach is sometimes to so. The head of the Pakistani from radical students in Lawyers Forum asked the restrict certain content from telecommunications company Pakistan, with some holding Lahore High Court on being shown in specific Nayatel, Wahajus Siraj, said the signs urging Islamic holy war Wednesday to order the countries." Online reaction to restriction resulted from a against those who blaspheme government to fully block the Facebook ban was technical glitch.

The the prophet. "Public sentiment Facebook because it allowed supportive in the initial hours government blocked Facebook has been growing," said Siraj, the page to be posted in the after it was implemented. But on Wednesday after a group of comments on Twitter, which the Nayatel CEO. "The first place.

Islamic lawyers won a court "Such malicious and was still unblocked yesterday government was monitoring it order requiring officials to and there seemed to be public insulting attacks hurt the and drawing new users thanks restrict access to the site until unrest, so it had to take a sentiments of Muslims around to bans on other sites, showed May 31. It was unclear if the decision." A series of cartoons the world and cannot be many Internet users were ban against YouTube also of the prophet published in a accepted under the garb of angry about the wide-ranging would be temporary. The of expression," restrictions.

Danish newspaper in 2005 freedom Facebook page "Everybody "Sad and embarrassing day sparked violent protests by Foreign Ministry spokesman Draw Mohammed Day!" Muslims around the world, Abdul Basit said yesterday, in the history of Pakistan. encourages users to post including in Pakistan, and death referring to the images of the Tough times to be a Pakistani. images of the prophet Questionable decisions in a so threats against the cartoonists. prophet on Facebook. yesterday to protest threats Facebook said Wednesday it called 'democracy,"' one user In an attempt to respond to made by a radical Muslim public anger over the Facebook was investigating. "While the tweeted. Pakistan blocked group against the creators of dispute, the Pakistani content does not violate our access to YouTube for two days the animated American government ordered Internet terms, we do understand it may in 2008 because of what it said television series "South Park" service providers in the not be legal in some countries," was unIslamic content. — AP for depicting Muhammad

Cyclone Laila hits southeastern India HYDERABAD: A powerful cyclone slammed into southeastern India yesterday, toppling power lines, damaging electrical installations and plunging a large swath of coastal Andhra Pradesh state into darkness. Waves as high as 9 feet (3 meters) lashed the coast, and torrential rain fell in coastal districts, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah said.

There were no immediate reports of casualties, although heavy rains and strong winds in the run-up to the cyclone killed at least 15 people over the past 24 hours, officials said. The cyclone, packing strong winds of 60 miles (100 kilometers) per hour and heavy rain, hit the coastal town of Bapatla, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of Hyderabad, the state capital.

State welfare agencies evacuated more

than 50,000 people from low-lying villages as it braced for its worst storm in 14 years. They were put up in temporary shelters in schools and government buildings, said state revenue minister Dharmana Prasad Rao. At least 55 fishermen were reported missing, although officials ordered fishing vessels to stay in port. "We are making all-out efforts to prevent the loss of human lives and to minimize damage to public and private property," Rosaiah told reporters. Even before the cyclone hit, some parts of the state had been hit by up to 1 foot (32 centimeters) of rain, officials said. "We are fully geared to face this natural calamity," he said before the cyclone hit.

The state government set up control rooms in the nine coastal districts to

coordinate any rescue missions, and helicopters and buses were on standby to evacuate more areas and deliver relief supplies, he said. Strong winds uprooted trees, power lines and billboards, blocking roads in many places. Nearly a dozen towns and more than 1,400 villages in six districts were hit by power outages, state officials said.

Authorities on Wednesday decided to open 120 relief camps in Machlipatanam, a town near the cyclone landfall point, said Piyush Kumar, the district administrator.

Kumar said people were being moved to high ground from 83 villages in the area, about 215 miles (350 kilometers) east of Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh state. More than 10,000 people died when Andhra Pradesh was struck by its worst cyclone in 1977.—AP

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Friday, May 21, 2010

UAE markets in weary welcome to Dubai deal DUBAI: Markets in the United Arab Emirates gave a weary welcome to a long-awaited Dubai World debt deal yesterday, with investors worried about a sluggish economic recovery and fallout from Greek debt woes. Volatile global markets weighed on sentiment, while investors remain unsure whether local banks will take provisions on Dubai World and resume lending despite Thursday’s agreement.

Dubai’s benchmark is the worst performing Gulf Arab index in 2010, falling 6.2 percent this year, as the emirate’s estimated $101 billion debt burden and troubled property sector weigh.

House prices are down 60 percent from 2008 peaks. “As global volatility increases, we become more correlated to global moves and we need more clarity on the euro zone before we can start outperforming on the back of the restructuring,” said Matthew Wakeman, a EFG-

Hermes managing director.

A Dubai World deal was widely expected.

“The whisper numbers were pretty much accurate, so it was the worst kept secret in town,” Wakeman added. Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank gave up initial gains to dip 0.5 percent, but Emirates NBD added 0.7 percent. This duo are the two domestic lenders on a Dubai World creditors’ committee. The conglomerate has agreed a deal in principle with core creditors to restructure $23.5 billion in debt. The proposal covers $14.4 billion owed to the bank lenders and offers repayment over a five- or eight-year period.

“As far as stock markets are concerned, the most important factor is that banks may not need to book provisions now,” said Yazan Abdeen, a fund manager at ING Investment Management. “But the loans will not be repaid

immediately so the question of liquidity in the banking system still remains.”

Dubai’s index ended 0.4 percent higher, but is down 10 percent since surging 6.3 percent in two days after Dubai World made its first offer to creditors on March 25. Abu Dhabi’s benchmark rose 0.2 percent. Dubai’s five-year credit default swaps eased to 466.8 basis points from its previous close of 470 bps. “Most of the positive sentiment was priced in February and March,” said Robert McKinnon, ASAS Capital chief investment officer. “The market will look for what the follow-on effects for specific companies like Arabtec and Drake & Scull will be and for general liquidity in the economy. The market wants to see if this will re-grease the system.”

Arabtec climbed 1.3 percent, a day after saying it had signed onto Dubai World property

KAC incurs big loss KUWAIT: State-owned Kuwait Airways incurred a KD 55 million ($189 million) loss last year due to stiff competition and high fuel prices, its chairman said in comments published

yesterday. Al-Qabas newspaper quoted Hamad Al-Falah as saying that $65 million were lost due to stiff competition in the local market and $20 million due to higher fuel prices.

SEPANG, Malaysia: A picture taken on Nov 1, 2006 shows a ground crewmember taking a peek inside the cabin of a Kuwait Airways Airbus A340 at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. — AFP

The privatisation-bound airline has posted a loss in all but one of the past 20 years, accumulating losses of more than $2.5 billion. Kuwait has two private airlines, Wataniya Airways and the low-cost Jazeera Airways.

In March, the government formed a committee to probe allegations of widespread corruption in the state-owned carrier and vowed to refer the findings to the public prosecutor.

Under a privatisation law, KAC will be transformed into a private company with a 35-percent stake to be sold at auction to foreign or local investors and 40 percent to be sold to Kuwaiti citizens in an initial public offering. Twenty percent will be reserved for state-run institutions and the remaining five percent will be distributed for free to the Kuwaiti employees. The airline has a fleet of 15 Airbus and two Boeing aircraft which it bought in the early 1990s. — AFP

Faysal wins bid for RBS Pakistan KUALA LUMPUR/MANAMA: Faysal Bank won a bid for Royal Bank of Scotland’s Pakistan operations, a source said yesterday, allowing its Bahrainbased parent Ithmaar to expand its retail presence in the area. Pakistan lender Faysal, which is 68 percent owned by Ithmaar, beat Egyptian bank EFGHermes for the deal, the source with direct knowledge of the matter said, but declined to give its value. The purchase would nearly double Faysal’s branch base and help grow its business in Pakistan, said the source. “The deal is done,” the source said, adding that an announcement was expected next week.

Faysal Bank Chief Executive Naved Khan was not available for comment, while RBS declined to comment.

Pakistan’s central bank said in March it had allowed Faysal Bank and EFGHermes to conduct due diligence on

Royal Bank of Scotland’s Pakistani operations, which comprise conventional and Islamic banking. The planned sale of RBS Pakistan is part of a move by British government-controlled RBS to sell assets globally as it tries to exit from up to 36 countries and focus on its core domestic businesses.

“Faysal Bank has submitted a bid among other bidders to buy RBS Pakistan. This is in the final stages of being awarded to the winning bidder,” an Ithmaar spokesman said in response to Reuters’s queries. “The funding of this acquisition will be done completely internally and domestically arranged by Faysal Bank if this bid is awarded to Faysal Bank.”

MCB Bank said in January its bid for RBS’s Pakistan operations had lapsed because it had failed to get regulatory approval. MCB Bank had agreed in August to buy 99.37 percent of RBS

Pakistan for about $87 million. RBS Pakistan had over 117 billion Pakistan rupees ($1.39 billion) of assets as at March 31, 2008, about 5,000 employees and over 75 branches in 24 cities, according to its website.

Gulf Arab banks are eying expansion in Pakistan to tap the country’s Islamic finance industry and to expand their retail footprint outside their limited home markets. Ithmaar has just completed its transformation into a retail bank by integrating its fullyowned retail unit Shamil to improve its funding position after it posted 2009 losses of $235 million. Bahraini investment houses are seeking to enter retail banking after being badly hit by a regional property crunch that swept away their business model of earning fees on investor money raised for private equity and property projects. — Reuters

unit Nakheel’s debt repayment offer to trade creditors. Emaar Properties, Dubai’s bellwether developer, rose 0.8 percent, but is down more than 75 percent since January 2008 and analysts said a Dubai World deal would do little to kickstart lending in the emirate’s property market, or ease the main concern of chronic oversupply.

Middle East stocks have fallen in recent weeks, tracking declines on international markets and oil prices as Greece’s debt crisis and a plunging euro currency spurred investors to dump riskier assets. Oil was down 2.8 percent at $67.29 at 1150 GMT, taking its losses to 22 percent since May 3 on concerns about the impact of the European fiscal crisis on fuel demand. Oman slumped to a 14-week low yesterday, while Qatar and Kuwait fell for a fourth day in five. The Saudi bourse is closed on Thursdays. — Reuters

Food drives UAE, Bahrain inflation DUBAI: Consumer price increases in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in April were driven by higher food prices, official data showed yesterday. Price pressures in the Gulf Arab region are expected to increase this year as economies recover from the downturn, with inflation in the region’s largest economy Saudi Arabia hitting a 10month high this month.

Inflation is expected to stay in low single digits across the Gulf, but food prices in particular are in the spotlight as the region relies on imports for much of its food supply. Consumer prices in the UAE climbed 0.78 percent year-on-year in April, led by rising food costs

in the second consecutive month of increases.

In Bahrain, annual inflation rose to 2.7 percent year-onyear in April from 1.8 percent in March on higher food prices, data showed. Inflation in Bahrain reached a low of 1.1 percent in November last but has since year, accelerated. The month-onmonth increase was mostly driven by higher food prices, which rose 3.3 percent from March, while housing and utilities costs were stable. In the UAE, an ongoing debt restructuring in emirate Dubai is expected to keep price pressures in the secondlargest Arab economy muted this year as it continues to recover from last year’s downturn.—Reuters

Lebanese economy strong, inflation stable BEIRUT: Lebanon’s economy is expected to grow by 7-8 percent this year while inflation remains stable as capital keeps pouring into the Arab country, central bank governor Riad Salameh said yesterday.

Capital inflows, especially from Lebanese expatriates, contributed to 9 percent growth last year, with Lebanon shrugging off the effects of the global financial crisis.

Inflation is expected to remain at 45 percent this year, Salameh said, adding that deposits in the banking system rose 2.5 percent from January to March to $105 billion. A 2011 draft budget circulated by the finance ministry earlier this week saw gross domestic product (GDP) growing by 4 percent in 2011.

The ministry also expected inflation to ease to 3.2 percent by the end of 2011. The inflation rate rose to 4.5 percent year-on-year in March largely due to increases in transportation and utility charges.

Inflation peaked at 14 percent in 2008 and remained between 1.5 and 4 percent in 2009. Salameh forecasts deposits to rise by 10 percent over the whole of this year because confidence in Lebanon’s banking system remains high.

Over last two years Lebanon, a country of around 4 million people living under a sectarian political system, has been regaining its reputation as the Middle East’s playground, attracting Gulf capital to its real estate market and banking sector, which has a tradition of strict banking secrecy.

The country’s current account surplus “has expanded to $978 million in the first three months of 2010 compared with the corresponding period last year,” Salameh told an economic conference in Beirut. He did not give a figure for the year-ago period.

Finance Minister Rayya Hassan has said economic growth could be as high as 8 percent in 2010 if structural reforms and longstalled privatisation plans are implemented. Lebanon is one of the most highly indebted countries in the world with public debt expected to rise to $55 billion in 2010 from $51 billion in 2009.

Privatisation is a bone of contention in Lebanon with government plans to liberalise the telecoms and electricity sectors long opposed by some powerful political leaders. — Reuters

Friday, May 21, 2010

Oil self-regulates around the globe STOCKHOLM: The US government is not alone in ceding responsibility to the oil industry for the design of key safety features on offshore rigs, a trend coming under scrutiny worldwide following the deadly blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.

Across the globe, industry-driven regulation is the norm, not the exception - and critics are calling for a re-examination of a system that puts crucial safety decisions into the hands of corporations motivated by profit.

An Associated Press investigation shows other nations harvesting oil and gas from offshore fields, including Britain, Norway, Australia and Canada, have moved in the same direction: Governments set the general safety standards that must be met, but leave it to rig operators to work out the details.

The shift away from more heavy-handed regulation started about two decades ago and was based on the notion that oil companies best know the risks of offshore operations - and how to minimize them.

But the Deepwater Horizon explosion on April 20 and another platform incident in the Timor Sea off Australia last year have raised concerns that Big Oil has been given too much leeway to police itself. “Safety is a combination of regulation and compliance and both clearly need to be reviewed and tightened across industry everywhere in light of these respective blowouts,” said Gilly Llewellyn of the World Wildlife Fund.

While the cause of the latest disaster remains unclear, US lawmakers and President Barack Obama have vowed to reform the federal agency that oversees the offshore industry.

Congressional hearings have revealed a lack of regulation covering safety aspects from cement casing surrounding well pipes to blowout preventers, the undersea safety mechanism that failed on the Deepwater Horizon. The absence of detailed regulation is not unique to the US, officials said.

“When it comes down to it, this kind of drilling is done in the same way more or less everywhere,” said Per Holand, a Norwegian expert on offshore blowouts. He added that some practices and standards are stricter outside the US. For example, Norway requires an acoustic backup system to trigger the blowout preventer remotely with sound pulses if the regular switch fails. “That’s also true in Brazil and off the east coast of Canada,” Holand said, adding acoustic triggers are not widely used on American rigs. It’s unclear whether such a device would have made a difference in the April 20 incident.

Another difference is that Britain, Norway and Australia have separate agencies overseeing the revenue and safety aspects of the oil industry to avoid conflict of interest. In the US the federal Minerals Management Service oversees both, something White House officials have vowed to change following the Gulf of Mexico blowout. However, the practice of letting industry select the best safety measures is widespread.

The system is referred to as “performance-based” in some countries and “goal-oriented” or “goal-setting” in others. It comes down to granting flexibility for oil companies to select the best technology and practices to ensure safety on their offshore installations, as long as they meet the regulator’s minimum standards.

“Generally, goal-setting allows you to make improvements as technology develops without having to change the legislation,” said Robert Wine, a spokesman for BP PLC, the company that owns the ruptured well that is releasing millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. “So it makes it a more flexible way of improving standards, improving performance.”

Britain’s offshore regulations require the operator to make sure that a well is built and maintained to ensure that there are no spills and that health and safety risks to workers “are as low as is reasonably practicable.” It also requires the operator to ensure that suitable control equipment, including blowout preventers, is provided to protect against accidents, but doesn’t get into details.

Norway has a similar system, focusing on the integrity of the company’s overall safety plans, rather than specifics. “Our supervisory activity is not to inspect the steel or the hardware.

It’s to inspect how the companies inspect themselves,” said Ole-Johan Faret, a spokesman for Norway’s Petroleum Safety Authority. The Nordic country had a more prescriptive approach 20 years ago, with very specific regulations, he said. “This part has to be this thick and that long and made of this kind of material,” Faret said. “We realized that the industry developed so fast that (such stringent) regulations were a setback to the development of safety standards. It would take a lot of time to change regulations.”

Britain moved away from prescriptive government regulations after a 1988 fire on the Piper Alpha platform in the North Sea killed 167 workers. It also moved oversight of safety for the offshore oil and gas industry from the Department of Energy to the Health and Safety Executive, or HSE. Canada last year changed its Oil and Gas Operations Act to make it less prescriptive and more goal-oriented, National Energy Board spokeswoman Sarah Kiley said. Australia also uses a “performance-based” system in which operators must submit plans detailing its safeguards for approval. The offshore regulator then conducts inspections and audits to verify that operators are adhering to their commitments. —AP

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Proposal offers various options for lenders

Dubai World reaches agreement over debt DUBAI: Dubai’s embattled group Dubai World, whose default fears had rocked global markets, yesterday said it reached agreement “in principle” with most of its bank lenders to restructure some $23.5 billion in debt. The agreement still needs the backing of other lenders but appears to give the heavilyindebted Dubai some breathing space in dealing with the obligations of its state firms.

“Dubai World is pleased to announce that headline economic terms have been agreed in principle with the Coordinating Committee” representing 60 percent of the group’s bank lenders, the company said in a statement.

According to the agreement, the company will divide $14.4 billion of debt into two tranches, maturing in five and eight years respectively, while the government will convert $8.9 billion of aid to the company into equity. The first tranche of debt will be valued at $4.4 billion and will bear 1.0 percent interest with no government shortfall guarantees, while the second will be worth $10 billion, bearing also 1.0 percent interest plus varying options of payment in kind and shortfall guarantees, it said.

It also said that the government was committing up to $500 million of Selling, General and Administrative (SG&A) expenses, in addition to an interest facility of up to $1.0 billion. The government will maintain 100 percent ownership of the company, it added. “We are pleased that we have received unanimous support in principle of the CoCom on the headline economic terms to our restructuring proposal,” said Chief Restructuring Officer of Dubai World, Aidan Birkett.

“This is an important milestone and reflects our efforts to achieve the best possible solution for all stakeholders,” he added. The company said, however, that the proposal requires the agreement of the remainder of Dubai World’s financial creditors.

The government of Dubai and Dubai World had tabled this offer to bank lenders in March after three months of negotiations. At the time, the government offered to inject $9.5 billion into the Dubai World group and its most-troubled subsidiary, property giant developer, Nakheel. But the offer also stipulated that Nakheel will become a separate entity, owned fully by the government. Sheikh Ahmad bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, a brother of the ruler of Dubai and head of the emirate’s Supreme Fiscal Committee, welcomed the agreement. “The government of Dubai welcomes this important milestone, which is the result of considerable efforts from a large number of stakeholders who all share a common interest in Dubai’s future,” he said in a statement.

—Agencies

DUBAI: A picture taken on Jan 3, 2010 shows an Emirati woman and her children walking past Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower.

Dubai’s debt-laden group Dubai World said yesterday it has reached an agreement “in principle” with most of its bank lenders to restructure some $23.5 billion in debt. – AFP

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Friday, May 21, 2010

UK govt puts deficit cutting at heart of program LONDON: Britain's new coalition government pledged yesterday to make cutting a record deficit its priority, saying it would also introduce a banking levy and rein in bonuses in the financial sector. Detailing a program first sketched out in haste last week after an inconclusive election, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat alliance said an independent commission would look into the separation of retail and investment banking.

Needing to reassure markets, the agreement said that reducing a deficit running at more than 11 percent of GDP was its overriding concern.

"The deficit reduction program takes precedence over any of the other measures in this agreement, and the speed of implementation of any measures that have a cost to the public finances will depend on decisions to be made in the Comprehensive Spending Review," the

document said. The government plans an emergency budget on June 22, to be followed later this year by a detailed review of spending plans for the coming three years.

"We will significantly accelerate the reduction of the structural deficit over the course of a parliament, with the main burden of deficit reduction borne by reduced spending rather than increased taxes," the document said. Finance minister George Osborne confirmed he would give details on Monday of plans for an initial 6 billion pounds in cuts to start paring a deficit that is forecast to reach £163 billion ($234 billion) this year.

Speaking later in Northern Ireland, Prime Minister David Cameron pointed to the experience of indebted Greece, where a deficit approaching 14 percent of GDP has sparked deadly riots, prompted emergency IMF and

European assistance and undermined the euro currency. "This idea that somehow you can do nothing about the deficit, hope that everything will get better and go away is, as you can see in Greece and potentially in other European countries, a very dangerous idea indeed," Cameron said.

The coalition accord also adopted Conservative plans to cut running costs at the Defence Ministry by 25 percent. It further proposed injecting private capital into stateowned Royal Mail, setting up a potential clash with unions. The alliance of the centre-right Conservatives and smaller, centre-left Liberal Democrats took office last week after an election in which no party won an outright majority. It is Britain's first coalition government since 1945.

Cameron brushed aside suggestions that he and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, the

Ministries shut, ports closed, air traffic disrupted

Greek strikers march on parliament against cuts ATHENS: Thousands of striking Greeks marched peacefully to parliament yesterday in a protest against government austerity measures that was much smaller than a huge rally that led to rioting on May 5. Anger may have receded since the shock of big government wage cuts and tax hikes that came in an agreement with the EU and

IMF immediately preceding the last big protest. Many Greeks also said they had been put off by the raw violence of the May 5 march when three bank workers, including a pregnant woman, were killed after rioters smashed windows and lobbed petrol bombs into the branch where they worked.

ATHENS: Riot police try to move people away from a sit-down protest on a main street after the end of a demonstration in central Athens yesterday. – AP

US jobless claims jump WASHINGTON: The number of US workers filing new applications for unemployment insurance unexpectedly rose last week for the first time since early April, suggesting the labor market recovery has hit a stumbling block. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 25,000 to a seasonally adjusted 471,000 in the week ended May 15, the highest level since the week ended April 10, the Labor Department said yesterday. The surprise jump took a toll on US financial markets, already reeling on concerns Europe's debt crisis could put a damper on the US economic recovery.

"It raises the risk that non-farm payrolls might slow down from some of the recent strength. Given the reduced confidence people are having in the economic outlook it just adds to those fears," said David Sloan, an economist at 4CAST in New York.

The claims data fell in the survey week for the government's closely watched employment report

for May, which will be released on June 4. US stock index futures extended losses after the data, while government debt prices rallied, with the benchmark 10-year note up a full point. The US dollar dropped to session lows versus the yen.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected claims to fall to 440,000. A Labor Department official said there was nothing unusual in the state level data.

The four-week moving average of new claims, which is considered a better measure of underlying labor market trends, rose 3,000 to 453,500. New applications for unemployment benefits had been grinding lower even though payrolls have now grown for four straight months.

Analysts believe the elevated level of initial claims indicates the unemployment rate, which hit 9.9 percent in April, will remain high for a while and only come down gradually as small businesses are still struggling. — Reuters

Some 25,000 people marched through central Athens and gathered in front of parliament, about half the number of those who turned out for the previous big demonstration. "Thieves come out", and "bring back the stolen money and get out of there", protesters chanted outside parliament as riot police carrying batons and shields ringed the steps of the neo-classical building. But after an hour most of the crowd melted away and riot police filed off soon after.

The strike was called by unions representing 2.5 million workers, half the country's workforce, who want the government to withdraw austerity measures agreed with the EU and IMF in return for a 110 billion-euro ($137 billion) emergency loan.

Schools and government offices were shut and hospitals were operating on skeleton staff. Tourist sites such as Athens' ancient Acropolis were also closed, ships were kept in port or prevented from docking, and domestic flights were disrupted.

Protesters said the austerity measures only hurt the poor. "They have cut my monthly salary by 300 euros and I raise two children on my own. It's very difficult. The money is not enough anymore," said ministry employee Paraskevi Zisi.

"They should tax those who have money, those who owe them. I never stole anything from them. I will continue protesting for as long as I can because hope dies last," she said as she marched to parliament. — Reuters

deputy prime minister, were more comfortable with the alliance than many of their lawmakers.

"The more I see this coalition in action, the more I see its potential," Cameron said, adding he believed it could bring stable government for a full five-year term. In a sign of the compromises from a coalition agreement, Osborne said details of reform of financial regulation were still being worked out, although he confirmed the Bank of England would take the lead role.

The Conservatives had previously vowed to abolish the Financial Services Authority (FSA) regulator, part of a tripartite system set up by the previous Labour government when it took power in 1997. "We are discussing exactly how that is delivered through the institutions and the impact that has on the future of the FSA and indeed a consumer protection agency," he said. — Reuters

Merkel leads charge for tax on markets BERLIN: Germany called yesterday for tough financial market regulation, France took a hard line on its huge overspending and Greece faced more street protests, as the eurozone struggled with crisis and division. With stocks already reeling from a surprise and unilateral move by Germany to curb speculative trading, Chancellor Angela Merkel pressed the case for a global tax on financial markets to help tame excesses blamed for the global economic slump.

"We have now stated that we will campaign for a tax on the financial markets and we will campaign for that at our (G20) summit in Canada," she told a conference on financial regulation.

As for the under pressure euro, put at risk by the eurozone debt crisis, Merkel said "you need stricter rules than other governments that just decide for their own currency. "We need to tighten up the (EU) Stability and Growth Pact," she insisted, ahead of a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels today.

Merkel, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, who is among those critical of the German trading curbs, and EU economic affairs commissioner Michel Barnier were at the conference.

Merkel caused widespread consternation on Wednesday when Berlin banned so-called naked short selling - the sale of bonds or shares by market players who neither hold the security nor have borrowed it to make their trade. If the ban was meant to halt the slide, it failed, instead rocking the global markets and pushing the euro down to fresh four-year low points as investors feared that Europe's spreading debt crisis could force the region's and even the world economy back into deep recession.

Yesterday, sentiment stabilised to a degree but dealers said investors were dismayed by what they saw as an unnecessary, harmful and worst of all, uncoordinated

German decision.

"The day will be a roller coaster, no doubt," said Credit Agricole CIB analyst David Keeble. "The German short ban has emphasised that Europe is not unified and this is at a juncture when it really, really needs to be." Altium Securities analyst Ian Williams said "Merkel, if anything, intensified her rhetoric even as her eurozone partners remained unimpressed with Germany's unilateral actions.

"The lack of co-ordination across the supposed partners within the single currency zone is especially damaging to investor confidence," Williams said.

French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde told RTL radio that France would not follow Germany's lead and distanced France from Merkel's warning that the euro was in danger. The German decision "should have been taken in concert" with other European nations and was in itself "open to debate," Lagarde said. The crisis in Europe is being driven by debt and public deficit levels which have soared way above EU rules as governments increased spending to get their economies through the worst recession in decades.

Now the bill is coming home to roost, with markets demanding ever higher rates of interest to provide money to such governments. That in turn makes the state finances worse and eventually led Greece to call in the EU and IMF to organise a Ä110billion bailout earlier this month. Yesterday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy also took up the fiscal cudgels, saying France's constitution should be altered to compel new governments to sign up to a timetable to balance their budgets.

And he said he wanted to freeze public spending for three years. "The restoration of public finances should not just be an undertaking of the government, but of the nation. — AFP

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Friday, May 21, 2010

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Frustrations fail to deter investors in India MUMBAI: Who needs reforms? A year into office, India's government has disappointed on hopes it would usher in a new wave of economic liberalisation. Foreign firms and investors, however, are getting on with business undeterred. Despite the dimming of reform expectations, India's long-term potential is too compelling to ignore. The economy is booming, funds are pouring in, and overseas firms from Toyota Motor Corp to Standard Chartered and WalMart Stores are investing to tap surging demand, cheap labour, a 300 million-strong middle class and a demographic outlook more attractive than China's.

"Lots of companies want to be in India now, so they don't really have to open up new sectors to attract money," said Andrew Holland, CEO for equities at Ambit Capital in

Mumbai. "It could be a lot quicker if they opened up a bit like China, but they obviously want to control it a lot more." Freed from its alliance with the communists, the Congress government led by Manmohan Singh was re-elected last year amid high expectations for reforms but has refrained from liberalising foreign investment in retail and financial services. The window to do so will narrow as state elections approach.

Still, the economy is poised to grow 8.5 percent this year and 9 percent the next, behind only China.

Cellular carriers are adding 16 million users a month and April car sales rose 40 percent year-on-year - growth trajectories that exceed China's. A young population - nearly 31 percent of Indians are under 15, compared with 20 percent in China - and a much lower level of urbanisation mean that

China tells US to put fiscal house in order BEIJING: Europe's debt crisis has laid bare the fragility of global finances and the United States, too, must tame its fiscal deficit, a senior Chinese official said yesterday, spelling out Beijing's concerns before talks with Washington. With China facing US criticism for yoking its currency to a de facto dollar peg, Assistant Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao shifted attention to Beijing's own worries about the euro zone's woes and Washington's rising indebtedness, ahead of the two countries' Strategic and Economic Dialogue next week.

China wants "quiet discussions" about exchange rate issues, and loud lobbying will only delay movement on the yuan, Zhu told a news conference. "External pressure and noise will do nothing but slow the reform process," he said of the yuan exchange rate.

The global economy's priority should be to steady financial conditions in Europe after Greece's debt crisis, Zhu said.

The United States also needs to control its fiscal settings, he said. "The European sovereign debt crisis is a challenge not just for the countries that are party to it, such as Greece. In fact, it is a challenge to the stability of the entire international financial market," he said.

"We have noted that President (Barack) Obama and Treasury Secretary (Timothy) Geithner have stressed they are paying attention to the problem of the excessively high US fiscal deficit", Zhu said, noting that it was also "a matter of concern to China". "We hope that the US fiscal deficit will fall as a proportion of GDP as the economy recovers and reach a sustainable level," said Zhu. The US budget deficit hit $1.4 trillion in 2009, roughly 10 percent of the economy. The White House projects the deficit this year will reach $1.6 trillion. Chinese Vice Premier

Wang Qishan, a leading economic decision-maker, has had many "frank exchanges" with Geithner about the US debt burden, said Zhu. Wang and Geithner will lead the economic discussions at the US-China dialogue in Beijing on Monday and Tuesday. Zhu has been heavily involved in preparations for the talks.

China wants to improve coordinating economic policies with the United States as a buffer against global turbulence and would like the G20 group of nations to play a role in strengthening the global response, Zhu said.

China is the world's largest holder of US Treasuries with $895.2 billion. It added to its stockpile in March for the first time in seven months. Chinese officials, including Premier Wen Jiabao, last year prodded the Obama administration to avoid pursuing fiscal policies that could erode the value of those treasury holdings.

Geithner will tell Chinese officials that the United States intends to get its deficits down but only after recovery is fully established, a Treasury official said on Wednesday.

China has held its currency at about 6.83 to the dollar since mid-2008, trying to insulate its economy from the ravages of the global financial crisis, and drawing an outcry from US Congress members and manufacturing groups, who say Beijing is unfairly tilting global trade flows in its favour. Just one month ago, it looked as if the yuan would be the dominant issue at the strategic and economic dialogue between the world's biggest and third-biggest economies.

The US Treasury postponed a report on currency practices of key trade partners past a scheduled April 15 release, saying it wanted to explore the yuan issue further at the Strategic and Economic Dialogue and at G20 meetings next month. — Reuters

even though China is a larger and richer economy, India arguably offers more upside for investors.

To exploit that potential, automakers such as Volkswagen are investing a combined $5 billion in India, while Wal-Mart and Tesco are working around restrictions through wholesale outlets and joint ventures to access a market where organised retail makes up just 6 percent of the total. Foreign direct investment in the first 11 months of the fiscal year that ended in March was $33 billion, which if the trend holds would be an all-time high. Overseas portfolio investors, who must be selective in a market that tends to be expensive, poured nearly $24 billion into India in the same period, also on track for a record. Indian stocks trade at nearly 15 times forward earnings, the second-highest in Asia after Sri

Lanka, but UBS expects returns on equity (ROE) to improve, helped by domestic consumption. UBS expects the ROE for Sensex index firms to rise to 17 percent in this fiscal year and 17.5 percent the year after from 15.8 percent last year, driven largely by manufacturers.

While China awes by doing big things quickly, change in the largest democracy moves at the proverbial elephant's pace. In the most recent parliamentary session, the government was bogged down by a no-confidence motion, a cricket scandal, and the embarrassing realisation that it lacks the cohesion or muscle to push through even modest legislation without a struggle.

"Quite a bit of the political capital is being deployed on what I might call the social agenda ... because that is seen to be politically kind of popular,"

said Suman Bery, director general of the National Council of Applied Economic Research.

Plans to build much-needed roads and power plants miss targets, corruption and red tape remain endemic, and state and local decisionmaking adds layers of complication.

Much of the vibrancy of India's economy stems from 1991 when a group of top officials, including thenFinance Minister Singh, threw off the crippling "Licence Raj" and opened up the economy. Subsequent reforms have been incremental and uneven.

China, by comparison, has been more broadly welcoming of overseas investment, using inflows and foreign technology to build itself into an economic juggernaut even as key sectors such as telecoms remain state-run and off-limits to foreign players. — Reuters

Recovery accelerates, but risks remain

Japan's economy grows for fourth straight quarter TOKYO: Japan's economy gathered pace in the first three months of the year but missed forecasts, data showed yesterday, illustrating that an accelerating export-driven recovery remains threatened by deflation. In a fourth straight quarter of expansion, gross domestic product grew by an annualised 4.9 percent in the January-March period While the expansion was applauded by Finance Minister Naoto Kan, who said it reflected "a steady recovery", he warned that Japan remained mired in deflation and called on the Bank of Japan to do more to tackle falling consumer prices. Exports, particularly to emerging Asian markets such as China, are driving what the International Monetary Fund has called Japan's "tentative" recovery from recession, encouraging companies to increase capital spending. Booming demand for new cars, high tech products and factory parts have combined with a stimulus-driven domestic picture, helping Japan's biggest companies return to profit in the past fiscal year. "The headline figure was slightly weaker than the market had expected but it is nonetheless high growth," noted Naoki Murakami, chief economist at Monex Securities. Illustrating how the health of corporate Japan is trickling through the wider economy, exports of goods and services were up 6.9 percent onquarter while household and private consumption gained 0.3 percent. The data "confirms the Vshaped recovery in exports for the past year has led to a recovery in domestic demand such as capital spending", said Murakami.

However, the soaring welfare costs of a greying population and deflation continue to burden Japan, as falling consumer prices encourage consumers to defer purchases in the hope of further price drops. And after decades of heavy stimulus spending and declining tax revenue, Japan has a public debt mountain bigger than any other industrialised nation, expected to hit 200 percent of gross domestic product in the next year. — AFP

and 1.2 percent compared to the previous quarter, the fastest pace since the second quarter of 2009. But the rate of growth was lower than forecast, as a Dow Jones Newswires poll of 11 economists had predicted 5.9 percent annualised growth in the period. A Nikkei poll of 26 companies put growth at 5.4 percent.

TOKYO: Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith speaks during a press conference at Japan National Press Club yesterday. Smith is in Japan with Australian Defense Minister John Faulkner to attend talks with their Japanese counterparts. On Wednesday, Japan and Australia signed a bilateral defense agreement that will enable the two countries to share fuel, water and other logistics. – AP

Aussie miners unhappy SYDNEY: Australian mining companies yesterday blasted talks being held on a controversial new tax as the government failed to quell an industry rebellion over the measure. Anglo-Australian giant Rio Tinto described the consultations as too narrow after meeting officials in Canberra, while Fortescue Metals billionaire Andrew Forrest called them futile. "They said 'if you want to get rid of this tax, you have to change the government'," said Forrest, a day after putting two massive iron ore projects worth a combined US$15 billion on hold. "They said to us 'we can't change the tax, the 40 percent rate, the six percent (profit threshold), the retrospectivity, we can't change it'," he added. David Peever, Rio's managing director for Australia, said the government should scrap plans to make the tax retrospective as a "top order issue" and told reporters he had "outlaid a

number of serious concerns". "The consultation process isn't broad enough, the parameters are too tight," Peever said after the panel meeting. "The panel's hands are tied because we are unable to discuss many of the substantive issues that have prompted concerns right across the sector. It is disappointing that we can't have full and proper consultations," he added. "This is too serious to get it wrong."

Peever said uncertainty over the tax was hurting business confidence and "full and open dialogue" was required to address concerns that the tax would hit Australia's competitiveness, discourage investment and limit jobs growth. The planned 40 percent "super tax" has drawn a furious response from resource companies, with global giants Rio and BHP Billiton reviewing their Australian operations, and other firms suspending projects. — AFP

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Google to polish Chrome with Web apps store SAN FRANCISCO: Google Inc will open a Web applications store later this year in an attempt to make it easier to find and set up programs within the Internet search leader's Chrome browser.

The online store, previewed Wednesday during a Google conference for software programmers, appears to be ideally suited for the lightweight laptops called "netbooks" that will rely on an operating system revolving around the Chrome browser. The Chrome OS netbooks won't have hard drives and will need Internet access to run applications. These inexpensive computers are scheduled to be on store shelves in time for the holiday shopping season.

Google didn't specify a precise date for the

opening of its new applications, or "apps", store, saying only that it will be accessible to the more than 70 million users of the Chrome browser before the end of the year. The company already operates an apps store for its Andriod software that powers a wide variety of smart phones.

Bigger news was likely to come yesterday at Google's developers conference. That's when the company is expected to announce it is working with Sony Corp, Intel Corp and Logitech International to make it easier to search and view the Web on flat-panel televisions.

The Internet-connected televisions are expected to rely on Android as an operating

system and use Chrome as its browser. Although it has steadily grown in popularity since its 2008 debut, the Chrome browser still ranks far behind Microsoft Corp's Internet Explorer and also trails Mozilla's Firefox. Google's Web apps store also could provide fodder for a tablet computer to compete with Apple's iPad. Verizon has acknowledged it is working with Google on an iPad alternative, although Google has said little about that effort. Apple says iPad users have downloaded more than 12 million apps from its store since that computer's early April debut.

Like the Apple store, Google will offer free applications while other programs may charge a fee. In Wednesday's preview, Sports Illustrated

Symantec buying VeriSign's Web-security arm for $1.3bn SAN FRANCISCO: Symantec Corp's decision to pay $1.28 billion to buy a division of VeriSign Inc that sells security technology to websites highlights how quickly the companies are moving in opposite directions.

Symantec, best known for its antivirus software for personal computers, wants to secure more things. With the VeriSign deal, announced Wednesday, Symantec will

have spent nearly $3 billion in two years acquiring technologies that make it a bigger player in other parts of the security market, such as protecting data on mobile phones and delivering software over the Internet.

Meanwhile, VeriSign, whose brand is ubiquitous on the Web for protecting online transactions, wants to secure fewer things.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California: In this file photo taken July 20, 2005, an exterior view of VeriSign Inc offices is seen. – AP

US green execs in red China BEIJING: US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke began three days of meetings in Beijing yesterday to push open doors for American clean energy companies looking to cash in on China's fast growing renewables market.

Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang met with Locke's delegation of business executives from 24 clean energy companies and sounded a positive note, despite US concerns about Chinese policies that favour domestic firms. "I'm sure the visit will lay the foundation for the possibility of winning a big deal in the clean energy field and securing market proportions in China," Li said.

While legislation aimed at cutting US greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on fossil fuels is mired in Congress, China's central planners are pushing ahead with projects to expand solar and wind power, lay thousands of miles of new transmission lines and adopt "Smart Grid" technology to distribute power more efficiently. "I would have to say that China is leading us in that effort," said Martha Duggan, vice president of United Solar Ovonic.

The Michigan-based manufacturer, a unit of Energy Conversion Devices, has a joint venture with an electricity provider in Tianjin to convert solar cells manufactured in the United States to solar modules for use in China. "We're really just getting started here. But we see a lot of opportunity," Duggan said, adding that her

company planned to sign "a fairly significant order" tomorrow. The diverse group trade group includes major firms like General Electric, which has already sold over 800 wind turbines to China, and First Solar Inc, the world's leading and lowest-cost producer of solar photovoltaic cells.

Less well-known firms include Principle Power, based in Locke's home state of Washington, which is pitching a floating support structure that would allow off-shore wind farms to be placed in previously inaccessible locations where water depths exceed 50 m. Locke, who began the trade mission Monday in Hong Kong, touts such joint ventures as "win-win" opportunities to create new jobs in both countries and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. "When climate change starts creating more deserts and less water in northwest China and in the southwest United States, and when rising sea levels flood Manhattan or Pudong in Shanghai, you had better believe climate change is going to be bad for business," he said on Wednesday in Shanghai. He has twinned his optimism about the opportunities for U.S. clean energy exports to China with warnings about Beijing policies that appear to be aimed at keeping out foreign firms. At nearly every event, he has argued it is in China's long-term interest to use "the best technology", no matter if it is foreign or home grown. — Reuters

It wants to focus instead on a lesser-known but more robust part of its business: managing traffic to websites with addresses ending in ".com" and ".net", and collecting fees for registering those domain names. VeriSign has been purging divisions for the past three years, after realizing it was spread too thin following a buying binge designed to insulate it from the kinds of problems it had after the dotcom collapse a decade ago.

Prior to Wednesday's deal with Symantec, VeriSign had sold more than a dozen businesses since 2007 for a total of nearly $1 billion. Some were curious choices for VeriSign to have in the first place, such as a division that did billing services for telecommunications companies and another that sold ring tones and insurance for mobile phones.

What Symantec gets out of the VeriSign deal is one of the Web's best-known brand names for security. VeriSign's logo - a check mark and the tag "VeriSign Secured" - is ubiquitous on websites that have bought its security technology. The VeriSign division that Symantec is buying sells "certificates" to websites that want protection for their customers' data. The Secure Sockets Layer, or SSL, certificates allow data to be encrypted between a user's browser and a website's servers. A padlock icon appears on a user's browser when that technology is being used.

The certificate business has long been a cornerstone for VeriSign, but has come under pressure in recent years. In part, that's because cheap SSL certificates sold by other companies are easy to come by.

The competition has forced VeriSign to sell more of its cheaper SSL certificates, too, even though their security measures are weaker. — AP

magazine showed why people may want to download an app from Google's store instead of visiting a website. The Sports Illustrated app replicates the look of the print magazine while offering a variety of interactive features. Among other things, the application enables readers to rearrange the pages to suit their tastes, call up statistics and click on videos amplifying on subjects covered in the articles without leaving a page. Like many magazines and newspapers, Time Warner Inc.'s Sports Illustrated is hoping that smart phones, tablet computers and other mobile gadgets will spur more sales of subscriptions and advertising to help offset dwindling revenue from print editions. — AP

Vietnam launches social network site Vietnam's HANOI: communist government has launched its own social networking site, after allegations that it restricted Facebook and hacked numerous websites with political content. A pilot version of the go.vn site (www.goonline.vn) was launched Wednesday and is the country's biggest-ever IT project, a notice on the website said. "Several people said I ordered the launching of the Vietnamese network to eliminate others like Google or Yahoo. It's not true," Minister of Information and Communication Le Doan Hop said in comments posted on the site. "We are ready to have clean competition. People will come to places where there is culture, value and benefits."

The government says about 25 percent of Vietnam's population use the Internet, and a top United Nations communications official said last year that the country's development of Information and C o m m u n i c a t i o n Technologies (ICT) including mobile and fixedline telephones as well as Internet and broadband was outpacing other Asian nations.

A variety of content from the political to the risque has flourished in Vietnamese cyberspace because traditional media are all linked to the state.

Western donors said in December that Vietnam's restrictions on news media and websites such as Facebook threatened the country's rapid economic progress. Vietnamese users of Facebook, the world's most popular social networking website, continue to say they must use alternative means to access it. The slick-looking go.vn website yesterday

featured celebrity and lifestyle news, much of it from overseas, as well as links to games, music, email, nightclubs and other activities.

The front page carried historical briefings about founding president Ho Chi Minh, the April 30, 1975 communist victory in Saigon, and legendary General Vo Nguyen Giap.

Go.vn can serve more than four million users at once, and aims to attract up to 50 percent of social network users by 2015, Hop said.

Some Facebook users dismissed the new network as a Facebook imitator. One said Facebook will have to be blocked for go.vn to reach its user targets. "Go will go away," said another posting.

Vietnam last month rejected accusations by USbased Internet giant Google that Vietnamese computer users have been spied on and political blogs hacked into. Perpetrators of the Vietnamese attacks "may have political motivations and may have some allegiance to the government", George Kurtz, the chief technology officer of major Internet security firm McAfee, wrote in late March.

A Western diplomat told AFP that about 25 websites which included political content had been hacked in the first three months of the year. He had no doubt authorities were behind the attacks.

The government appears to have set up go.vn for people just interested in networking on "non-sensitive issues, as an alternative to Facebook that has been used for other purposes", a second Western diplomat said yesterday. Hop did not give the cost of the website, which he said must be a "trustworthy address" for net users and a rich source of knowledge. — AFP

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Horticulturist Steve Fox uses a leaf blower to ready Storybook Land at Disneyland on April 14, 2010.— MCT

Dark side of Disneyland

W

hen the last Jungle Cruise boat docks for the night and lights fade to black on Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, the real work begins. At lush Pixie Hollow, gardeners don miner’s headlamps as they begin uprooting stubborn weeds.

On Main Street, custodians scrape chewing gum off the sidewalk. And over at Mickey’s Toontown, painters sand and recoat chipped handrails. Few see it happen, except perhaps for the dozens of feral cats that emerge from their hiding places to prowl the park after hours, stalking rodents.

Welcome to the dark side of Disneyland. Gone are Mickey and his friends. In their place are about 600 custodians, painters, gardeners and decorators, working to ensure that the 85-acre park meets the squeaky-clean ideals that Walt Disney himself extolled even before he launched the park 55 years ago.

During a recent overnight shift, Disneyland provided a rare glimpse into the work that goes into maintaining the world’s second-most-popular theme park. Though park officials wouldn’t divulge how much money is spent on Disneyland’s overall upkeep, they said most is spent on the night shift.

And although most guests will never witness the after-hours work, theme park experts credit the park’s continued success to its cleanliness and tidy conditions.

“Disney and many other parks recognize that keeping it clean and refreshed, with all of those little details that you don’t notice until they are missing, are important to the park’s success,” said Gene Jeffers, executive director of the Themed Entertainment Association, a nonprofit organization of designers and builders of theme parks and attractions.

It’s one of the many reasons attendance at Disneyland jumped 8 percent last year despite the economic downturn, while the crowd numbers dropped at Southern California competitors like Universal Studios Hollywood, Six Flags Magic Mountain and Knott’s Berry Farm, according to a recent estimate.

To keep the park in good order, it takes a crew that works 365 nights a year, toiling under portable floodlights. “It’s a city that never sleeps,” said David Caranci, the manager of resort enhancement and decorating. “There is something always

When sun goes down, Disney’s army of overnight workers come out happening.” And for nearly every nighttime task, there is a specific worker.

Three workers are responsible solely for repairing and replacing the 800 umbrellas, 25,000 chairs and about 7,000 tables in the restaurants and snack bars in Disneyland and neighboring California Adventure Park. Four certified divers collect submerged trash and make repairs on water attractions like “Finding Nemo” and the “Jungle Cruise.”

The work can often be tedious and occasionally bizarre. At the Enchanted Tiki Room, a 17-minute musical show features 225 robotic birds, plants and singing tikis. Patrick Pendleton, the show’s primary mechanic, has seen it more times than he can count.

To make sure the characters work properly, he plays the show repeatedly, watching each closely. “It’s hard to catch everything in one show,” he said.

Sometimes, the jobs require ingenuity, even for some of the more distasteful chores. For example, the Indiana Jones Adventure ride relies on nearly 1,000 black lights that shine on painted mesh screens to create floating ghost images. But the effect is marred when guests sometimes spit at the ghosts, and the saliva ends up on the screens, where it glows under black lights. Because typical cleaning products bleach the screens, David Graefen, the ride’s service manager, said his crew created a special saliva-cleaning solution.

Park workers have also found a resourceful way to remove other unwanted guests - rodents.

Years ago - no one seems to know when - feral cats began to sneak into the park, living among the park’s trees and shrubs during the day. At night, they venture out, and an estimated 200 cats now prowl through Disneyland and neighboring California Adventure Park. But instead of evicting the cats, Disneyland’s animal wranglers work to control the feline population by spaying and neutering the adult cats and finding homes for all kittens born in the resort. The cats eat at five permanent feeding stations installed throughout the two parks.

“We are not trying to get rid of them,” said Gina Mayberry, manager of Disneyland’s Circle D ranch, where the park’s animals are housed. “They keep the rodent population down.” Other nighttime visitors are not so welcome. Before maintenance crews take over, security workers sweep through the park to find guests hoping to spend the night.

(Don’t even try hiding on Tom Sawyer’s Island park security knows all the hiding places.)

“If someone tried to hide, they would not stay hidden for long,” said Disneyland spokeswoman Suzi Brown. The primary goal of the after-hours crew is to pursue Disney’s vision of an immaculate land, free of the litter and grime of the outside world.

Walt Disney himself led early efforts, insisting that attractions, gates and benches be repainted on schedule, even if a touch-up would suffice. He made sure light bulbs were replaced even before they burned out and trash cans were emptied before they were full.

“When I started on Disneyland, my wife used to say, ‘But why do you want to build an amusement park? They’re so dirty.’ I told her that was just the point; mine wouldn’t be,” the founder said at the time.

Longtime park fans say Disneyland hasn’t always sparkled. In the mid-1990s, they say, park managers turned away from Disney’s emphasis on cleanliness to save on maintenance costs. “For 10 years or so, it was horrible,” said Al Lutz, founder of MiceAge, a fan website. “That wasn’t Disneyland.”

But with the 50th anniversary of the park approaching in 2005, Disneyland officials renewed the push to operate a spotless park. And they turned, of course, to the night crew to make it happen. Beginning after midnight, about 300 gardeners work to give the park its trademark manicured look.

Spotting tiny pests like aphids and spider mites can be difficult for nighttime gardeners. But Disneyland horticulturalist Steve Fox said his biggest fear was tripping or falling in the dark. “We try not to hurry and try to do the work that is

needed as best we can,” he said.

Meanwhile, the paint crews search for gates, fences, benches or buildings that have become faded, chipped or scratched. But they must use special paint that will dry before guests enter the park in the morning.

Some areas such as Mickey’s Toontown require special attention. To reverse the effects of thousands of climbing, scampering children, the crews run through gallons of paint a year on the brightly painted cartoonish village. “It’s a pretty tough location,” Caranci said.

Other overnight workers specialize on repairing damage caused by vandalism. Recently, park decorator Frank Franco worked for several hours at the Indiana Jones Adventure, replacing rope that someone had pulled free from the ride’s scenery. On a regular basis, Franco said, he finds that visitors have stolen or damaged fake skulls, lengths of bamboo, rope, nets and other props that create the ride’s jungle ambience. Armed with epoxy glue and screws, Franco tries to ensure that the props stay in place. “Every day is something different,” he said.

As dawn breaks near Disneyland’s Main Street, two custodians complete the final job of the night: scraping dried chewing gum from the pavement with metal blades attached to long poles. Gum is not sold in the park, but the sticky leftovers often end up on sidewalks, benches and tables.

Nearby, a crowd has gathered at the park’s entrance, waiting to pass through the turnstiles.

Park greeter Bob Daisey stands just inside the park and raises his arms to get the visitors’ attention.

“We are about to open the original and most famous theme park in the world,” he calls out, igniting cheers from throngs of fidgeting children.

Meanwhile, night custodian Steve Tomatis cleans up the last of the chewing gum on Main Street. It’s dirty work, but he knows it’s essential to preserving Walt Disney’s ideals. “We take care of this when everything else is done,” he says.

“It’s a constant, ongoing problem, but it has to be done.” — MCT

What your desk says about you CAREERs

Page 22

Friday, May 21, 2010

Is a cluttered desk a sign of productivity or laziness?

F

or many people, a desk is much more than just a place to sit and do work. It is quite common for workers to spend more time at their desks in their office than sleeping in their bed at home, so it is inevitable that a desktop eventually starts to resemble the person who sits there. However, this tell-tale information could be defining who you are to your clients, coworkers, and your bosses, and not necessarily in a good way. Decide whether or not your desktop needs a makeover with these examples of what your desk decoration may be saying about you.

Desk Description: Gadgets Galore

What it says about you: Lots of gadgets express that the individual is curious, up for a challenge, and quick to pick up new tasks and technology. Anything that adds spice to your everyday life is welcomed with open arms. However, if you’re constantly playing with your gadgets or inviting coworkers to come play, you and your gadgets may be seen as an office distraction.

Jobs that gel with your style: Technologyoriented or computer-driven jobs will keep your creative side satisfied.

Desk Description: Covered in Post-It Notes

Desk Description: Filled with Photos

What it says about you: Trying to stay organized isn’t quite the same as doing it, and an addiction to Post-It Notes represents someone who is a hard worker but could use a couple of classes on time management, organization, and working smart and not hard.

Jobs that gel with your style: Anything streamlined and with a predictable routine that won’t have you reaching for your pad of Post-Its to jot down any caveats, like being a medical technician or a bank teller.

Desk Description: Bare Bones

Desk Description: Full of Flowers and Plants What it says about you: Being able to keep green things alive under the harsh florescent office lights is a sign of being very nurturing and attentive to detail.

Jobs that gel with your style: Positions where you’re able to take advantage of your comforting capabilities, like as a social services worker or as a daycare professional, will fit your personality well.

What it says about you: Being family-oriented is a positive personality trait, but a desk covered with dozens of reminders of what awaits the worker after hours might make the worker appear less dedicated to his job and anxious to get home.

Jobs that gel with your style: Companies that are very flexible when it comes to family obligations and that offer the option to telecommute at least a day or two each week are ideal for you if you’re a family man or woman.

What it says about you: People with empty desks often aren’t satisfied until a project is complete and off of their desks. Extremely interested in order, workers with bare bones desktops pride themselves on their clarity and efficiency. Unfortunately, without anything personal on the desk it may seem to others that the worker isn’t committed to staying long enough to make personalizing their desk worthwhile.

Jobs that gel with your style: Personality-driven professions like being a pharmaceutical rep or counseling would work well for you because being surrounded by a minimalist desk will enhance your pizzazz and allow the focus to stay on you.

Desk Description: Candyland

What it says about you: A never-ending dish of candy is always an office favorite, and the provider is seen as welcoming, giving, and appreciative of friendship. Usually a team player, the candy giver can also be thought of as the office chatterbox, which may or may not be a good thing.

Jobs that gel with your style: Your personality is as fantastic as the candy you conveniently leave out for anyone to grab, so communications is the perfect field for someone like you who would like to share their sweet tooth and their sweet personality with the world.

Desk Description: Potpourri Paradise

What it says about you: Desktops full of fragrant bowls and sprays are usually created by people who believe themselves to be thoughtful and considerate people by sharing their smells with the office, but this practice usually stems from the opposite personality type. If you’re a potpourri queen, you probably have a tendency to not be considerate of your clients and coworkers’ opinions and desires, which frequently include a fragrance-free environment.

Jobs that gel with your style: If you need to be surrounded by scents, go straight to the source and work for the parent company of your favorite fragrance in any capacity, from sales to marketing. Or, perfume counters at department stores are excellent places to indulge and have career paths for management. Your obsession is sure to be appreciated by your bosses!

Desk Description: Full of Organizational Files and Folders

What it says about you: Having information accessible in seconds is crucial for the organized worker, who loves control, order, and who also efficiently prioritizes everything until the job is done.

Jobs that gel with your style: Bookkeeping, auditing, or anything else where you’re crunching numbers, compartmentalizing everything, and staying on track of tons of tiny pieces of information is an excellent option for you.

Desk Description: Inspirational and Motivational

What it says about you: People who surround themselves by lots of positivity are often aspiring to be leaders and tend to be more productive due to their positive attitude.

Jobs that gel with your style: Look into upper management positions or consider teaching to take full advantage of your healthy outlook on life and ability to encourage others.

Desk Description: Decorated with Accolades and Awards What it says about you: Being proud of past achievements is one thing, but a desktop covered with them is a bit much. Lots of personal awards may come across as braggadocios and aloof, even if the awards are related to the field.

Jobs that gel with your style: Some professions are based off of the fact that you must prove yourself worthy to the client, so for places that may encourage you to flaunt your accomplishments consider sales, legal fields, and perhaps the entertainment industry.

— www.jobs.aol.com

TECHNOLOGY

Friday, May 21, 2010

Page 23

Office 2010: Did Microsoft get it right?

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features remain intact and are located where you’d expect them.

The many interface enhancements focus on making Outlook feel lighter weight and more responsive while adding a level of customizability that was never present in Outlook before.

It’s easy, for example, to hide the ribbon bar, folders, and other interface elements of Outlook 2010, retaining just the message list and preview pane. Bringing back interface elements you’ve hidden is simple, too, by clicking an unobtrusive left or right arrow icon along the top edges.

Of more interest, though, is a new “conversation view,” which aggregates and tracks multiple messages belonging to one conversation. A conversation cleanup feature can pare down a conversation involving many email participants to just those involving selected people. It’s easy, too, to ignore or remove a conversation altogether with context-sensitive options that appear when you right-click a conversation thread.

ill Office 2010 rescue Microsoft’s ubiquitous productivity suite in the same way that Windows 7 resuscitated the reputation of Windows? That’s the billiondollar question. And this week, with the official unveiling of Office 2010, answers begin to emerge. Boasting a host of collaborative features, interface improvements, and seamless integration with the new, free Office 2010 Web Apps, Office 2010 is Microsoft’s best attempt to redress the complaints that users had about Office 2007 while not throwing out the 2007 experiment entirely.

At the same time, with Office 2010 Microsoft attempts to fend off the advances of Google with its free, web-based Google Docs viewed by some as a legitimate threat to the desktop-based application model. There’s no doubt that the challenges for Office 2010 were great. Here is an overview of the result.

Collaboration With Office 2010, Microsoft hopes to lure back lucrative corporate customers, who largely took a pass on Office 2007, with enhancements that take collaboration and mobility to a new level. Word, PowerPoint, and Excel now allow co-authoring a document in real-time, for instance.

Rather than being locked out of a document when it’s open on someone else’s computer, you’ll see a tiny “toast” icon in the status bar, indicating that the document is being worked on, and a pop-up will tell you who else is reviewing the document.

Gone are lockouts and confusing “merge” messages resulting from others having edited a document you need to update.

To get this level of collaboration, though, you’ll have to employ one of two technologies: SharePoint 2010, which Microsoft released concurrently this week with Office 2010, or SkyDrive (http://skydrive.live.com), the free online storage space offered on Windows Live, Microsoft’s set of online services and applications that’s largely aimed at individuals.

Many companies that have deployed Office have adopted SharePoint, the document storage and management tool, so Microsoft hopes to capitalize on the collaboration enhancements offered in Office 2010 by prompting an upgrade of both Office and SharePoint.

The good news for businesses that take the bait is that SharePoint 2010 has plenty to offer in addition to support for real-time collaboration.

Among the headline features are the ability to take SharePoint content offline; personal user

profiles that mimic what can be done on popular socialnetworking sites; social bookmarking, which provides a way for network users to rate content; people search; and access to the new FAST search service for SharePoint, which provides advanced filtering options for searches.

Interface Microsoft spent considerable time polishing the look and feel of Office 2010 apps, as well. The “ribbon bar” - Office 2007’s most controversial feature - has been revamped in response to user complaints. In Office 2007, the ribbon bar did away with conventional menus in favor of a tabbed, context-specific top row that grouped functions that you were likely to need or want. The idea was to unearth the many features of Office applications that many never found because those features were buried deep within menus or dialog boxes.

Menu addicts will be disappointed to hear that the

ribbon bar is not gone in Office 2010, but it has been enhanced.

You now have the ability to customize the ribbon bar by adding the tabs that you think should appear, and you can add or remove functions or features within tabs. There’s still no option to bring back classic menus, but the improvements will be welcome to those who don’t mind the change.

The round Office button that appeared on ribbon-enabled applications in Office 2007 has been replaced by a tab labeled File at the far left of the ribbon bar.

Click it, and you’ll see a new feature that Microsoft calls Backstage View. Occupying the entire application window, Backstage View gathers together all of the operations you’re likely to need when readying a file for distribution, including “checking for issues” (spelling and grammar checking), establishing read and write permissions, turning on change tracking, and previewing how the file will appear when it’s printed. The traditional Save, Save

As, Share, and other file-related activities are also included.

Clicking the File tab again takes you back to the open document.

Paste Preview is another suitewide enhancement that attempts to address Microsoft’s finding that many people undo a paste operation once they see how the text or object actually looks in the document. As its name implies, Paste Preview gives you a preliminary look at how something pasted from the clipboard will appear. To use Paste Preview, you’ll first right-click and let your mouse hover over the Paste Preview options, seeing in real-time how the material will look.

Outlook improvements Many people spend their entire day in Outlook, office’s e-mail program - or at least have it open the entire time. For them, Microsoft has managed to introduce fairly dramatic changes to Outlook 2010 without making the changes a drag on productivity. Most of the essential

Take to the web You don’t have to stay tied to one computer to work with Office 2010 documents, thanks to the still-in-beta Office Web Apps (http://bit.ly/6JKlAh). These online versions of Word, PowerPoint, and Excel will be free to Windows Live members - a direct result, no doubt, of the competition offered from Google Docs.

Not as robust as the desktopbased versions, Web Apps will nevertheless allow Office 2010 owners to work, store documents, and collaborate directly online.

Owners of Office 2010, in fact, won’t even have to sign up for Web Apps - they’ll just choose Save to Web from any Office 2010 app, visit SkyDrive, and follow the instructions to get started. Others can start using Office Web Apps beginning June 15, the official launch date.

Bottom line So is Office 2010 a suite you’ll feel compelled to run out and buy?

Certainly, if you’re still happily producing documents with Office 2003 or 2007, you can stay put without penalty. But for those who want or need to be on the vanguard of computing, there’s little doubt that Office 2010 is more than a routine upgrade to the world’s most popular productivity suite.

Office 2010 spearheads the roll-out of a suite of technologies desktop-based, server-based, and web-based - which, taken together, provide a compelling bridge from the static computing environments of yesterday to the amorphous workplaces of tomorrow. And it’s a bridge that, sooner or later, most will want to cross. —dpa

Beauty

Page 24

Friday, May 21, 2010

Once the blockage begins, it’s just a matter of time before acne causing bacteria take over and completely clog the pore resulting in either a whitehead or a blackhead.

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don’t know how many hours I’ve spent in front of a mirror squeezing one blackhead after another out of my big nose. If you’re anything like me, and a little OCD (that rhymes!), then you’ve spent some time in front of the mirror wondering just what the hell is so wrong with your pores that they can’t manage to do their job and drain that junk. Blackheads, after all, are a failure on the part of your follicles (aka. pores) to properly drain the Sebum, oil that naturally accumulates in them. Once the blockage begins, it’s just a matter of time before acne causing bacteria take over and completely clog the pore resulting in either a whitehead or a blackhead. Below is some advice about how to get rid of blackheads and avoid the ghastly things altogether.

Oil based makeup If you want to get rid of blackheads you’re going to stop using oil-based makeup and skin treatments. These oil-based skin products will ensure that your pores get clogged on a regular basis because oil-based skin products, as compared to water-based products, are near impossible for your body to break down naturally. There are non-comedogenic (“clog-free” for us lay people) skin products available that should be used instead.

Harsh scrubbing If you’re going to get rid of blackheads you’re going to stop scrubbing your face with harsh abrasives. Irritating your skin with harsh chemicals and special skin scrubbing cloths actually causes

more acne problems because your skin reacts to these chemicals by trying to repair the damage you’ve done, clogging your pores with puss and naturally occurring oils.

Moisturizing your face with a damp, warm cloth in the evening can help get rid of blackheads. Simply put the damp cloth over your face for a period of 15-25 minutes each night, to help loosen and dissolve dead skin, dirt, and other pore clogging particles. It has been suggested that boiling the wash cloth first will ensure that you are not introducing additional bacteria to the surface of your face. Please allow the cloth to cool properly.

Beta hydroxy Applying beta hydroxy acid to the face on a regular basis has been shown to help get rid of blackheads.

Beta hydroxyl acid (Salicylic acid) is an organic acid that exfoliates the skin, allowing dead and dying skin cells to slough off more readily, thus opening the pores. Opening your pores allows the comedones (blackheads) to come to the surface for easier blackhead removal.A 2.5% Benzoyl Peroxide facial cleanser will help get rid of blackheads. Benzoyl Peroxide is a chemical most teenagers should be familiar with, seeing as how it’s the main antibacterial agent in many acne treatment products. The key to a good facial cleanser though, is a sufficient percentage of Benzoyl Peroxide. Don’t go for anything less than 2.5% if you really want to get rid of blackheads.Blackhead Removers or Extractors A lot of us either don’t have the patience to follow through with a

blackhead treatment regiment or don’t need it because we only need to remove the occasional blackhead.

This is where cosmetic companies like Simco, Revlon, and Pfeilring come in. These companies make a number of different blackhead removers, and for a reasonable price too-sometimes less than $3.00. A blackhead remover works by using a circular pressure pad to apply, well, pressure to the areas directly surrounding the blackhead, pushing the comedone toward the surface for safe removal. You may want to opt for the Revlon Stainless Steel black head remover because they’re easier to clean and keep sterile, something you’ll want to make sure of considering the leading role bacteria plays in the creation of blackheads. (www.getridofthings.com)

Beauty

Friday, May 21, 2010

Page 25

Almonds A Treatment for Hands Soft kid gloves 1 C Almond meal 1 T Comfrey root, PO (Powdered) 1 T Parsley, PO Some Honey Some raw Egg 1 tsp. Tincture of Benzoin (known to be STRONG sensitizer) Quantity: Makes about 12 beautifying hand treatments.

To Make: Mix the herbs and Almond meal together and store away. When your hands need care, take about 2 tablespoons of the herbal mixture and mix in a small bowl with a bit of the morning’s egg (before it is cooked of course), the Benzoin, and enough Honey to make a thick but non-drippy goo.

To Use: About once a month when your hands get dry and chapped or red and rough, pat a thick layer of the goo all over your hands, massaging around each and every finger and then ask someone to put on the gloves for you. Go to bed.

Why: During the night the Almond will smooth, the Comfrey heal, the Benzoin protect, the Parsley medicate and the Honey will soothe all those problems that your hands have accumulated during the month. Kid gloves are important because they do not absorb the mixture, whereas with cotton gloves the cotton itself absorbs, leaving very little for your hands. The gloves can be washed by hand or in the washing machine after each use.

Keep hands looking youthful

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hough we all spend a lot of time obsessing about how to stop crow’s feet and facial wrinkles, we can’t forget about the rest of the body.

One of the places that can really show age is the hands.

These helpful tips will help you keep your hands feeling soft and looking young.

Lip care tips

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he moist and smooth lips not only look healthy but also contribute in enhancing your looks. No doubt the lips are an integral part of your make up.

The moist lips hold the lipstick color best and also look beautiful. The makeup of the lips keeps changing with the mood of the time and occasion. Here are few guidelines in this regard: Morning lips Make your lips soft and smooth by giving dry, flaky lips the brush-off. Every morning ‘brush your lips ‘ with a soft baby toothbrush and then apply some lip balm to your lips.

Bed time lips Before going to bed you should apply the moisturizing cream on your lips. Do so regularly every night and you will wake up every morning with softer lips.

Every day lips You should try to avoid over exposure to the sunrays as they can absorb moisture of your lips and make them dry. If you have to spend a lot of time outdoors, then you should go for ‘triple lipstick,’ with moisturizers and

sunscreen built right in.

Party lips Time for party means time for high profile lips, which are possible through those fruitflavored lip-glosses. For that ultra-gloss look you should apply a dash of metallic lipgloss over the lipstick in the center of your lips.

Shimmer lips The application of shimmer lip colors in golden shades and iced pastels make your lips look sweet along with the moisturizing lipsticks or glosses in pearly nude, candy pink, lilac, silver and gold shades.

Glossy baby lips The lip-gloss is more fashionable as compared to the lipstick. And it is applicable at all the occasions. It can help you get those baby lips with a hint of pink and a natural shine.

Kissable lips Only soft and smooth lips could be pretty enough and inviting to kiss. So if you want to be owner of those lips then make your lips kissable by applying lip balm to them every day. (www.womanjunction.com)

Exfoliate once a month Just like your face and body, your hands need to be exfoliated too. Use a sugar or salt scrub every two to three weeks to slough away the dead skin cells. Your hands will be smoother and softer. You can make your own salt scrub at home.

Moisturize after washing your hands Use a moisturizing soap and make it a habit to immediately put on hand lotion after washing your hands. If you keep a pump bottle of lotion next to your sink in the bathroom and kitchen, you can easily apply your moisturizing lotion and keep skin hydrated.

When spending time in the sun, don’t forget to apply sunscreen to your hands too!

Take a multivitamin Healthy doses of Vitamins A, B complex, C and E can all improve your skin. Vitamins C and E are particularly important in counteracting the effects of sun exposure.

Vitamin A helps maintain and repair skin tissue, while B complex vitamins are essential for healthy skin, nails and hair. You can also use these vitamins topically on your hands.

Consider fish oil supplements If you eat a lot of oily fish or take fish oil supplements, your hands will feel softer and smoother. Sardines, mackerel, fresh tuna and other oily fish contain essential fatty acids

(EFAs) - the good fats. EFAs keep your skin moisturized and reduce inflammation. They also do double duty because they’re great for your heart!

Get a manicure regularly Whether you do it at home or head to the salon, a manicure will keep your cuticles moisturized and your nails healthy. Healthy, well manicured nails will make your hands look younger too.

Don’t forget your gloves In the wintertime, gloves are essential. But cold weather isn’t the only thing that can damage your hands. When washing dishes, cleaning your bathroom and working in the garden, you should always wear gloves.

Latex or rubber gloves can protect your hands from chemicals and hot water which can dry and damage your skin. When gardening, gloves can protect your hands, cuticles and nails.

Treat your hands at night Coat your hands with a thick moisturizing cream or petroleum jelly before going to bed.

Cover them with white cotton gloves or even socks. In the morning, your hands will look and feel softer and younger. (www.sheknows.com)

HEALTH

Page 26

Friday, May 21, 2010

How to vary your training

Steady running teady running, at a comfortable pace, builds your aerobic base - the foundation for the rest of your training, as well as burning calories, strengthening your muscles, ligaments and tendons and helping your body become more efficient at taking in and using oxygen. You should be able to hold a conversation at this pace.

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Easy runs/recovery running An easy run is a slow run or jog during which you feel relaxed and can breathe easily. As a beginner, many of your first runs will be easy runs (although they might not always feel like it!), but they will continue to play an important part in your overall programme for two reasons: firstly, it’s not possible to run hard all the time and secondly, easy running serves as active recovery.

Threshold running Threshold or tempo runs are the best way of improving your running economy - your energy expenditure and heart rate at any given effort level. A more efficient economy will enable you to run faster for the same investment of effort.

The way to run these sessions is to find the pace that is just beyond your comfort zone, but not flat out.

You will only be able to utter a couple of words at a time, and you’ll need to stay 100% focused. Over time and with the right training, your threshold level will get higher and you will be able to run for longer.

The threshold referred to is the lactate threshold - the pace at which lactic acid builds up in the muscles faster than it can be flushed out, typically at around 85% of your maximum heart rate.

Long runs Long runs are all about distance and building stamina or endurance.

The idea is to gradually extend the duration, (rather than the speed) at which you cover distance. Your pace should be entirely comfortable. The duration varies according to your level of fitness and your goals. Start by adding between five and 10 minutes to your steady run distance, and gradually build up from there.

Interval training Interval training entails running fast for relatively short bursts of time or distance on a pre-set schedule. The fast bit (effort) can vary from a few seconds to a number of minutes and you can change the amount of recovery, the pace of the efforts and the number of reps you do.

Fartlek Fartlek means “speed play” in Swedish, and is a way of injecting variety into a training session by varying the pace at will, or in accordance with the terrain or your surroundings. For example, you could run fast between one park bench and the next and then jog to the next one. You could power up the hills, but take it easy on the flats.

While fartlek is similar to interval training in that it intersperses hard efforts with recovery, it is much less structured.

Hill training Hill training builds leg strength as well as stamina. It can either involve running repeats up a particular hill and jogging back down again or running continuously over hilly terrain. The length and gradient of the hill or hills, or the total run time will determine the intensity of the session. —Guardian

HEALTH

Friday, May 21, 2010

Page 27

10 fun moves to reshape your body with an exercise ball workout Remember how much fun it was to play with a ball when you were a child? A simple sphere was an endless source of inspiration and activity. And it still is. Using an exercise ball can be a challenging way to add variety and fun to your workout. xercise balls-also known as physioballs, Swiss balls, or fit balls-are large, vinyl balls you can use to strengthen and stretch your body, improving core stability and balance.

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Squats with an exercise ball Stand with the exercise ball propped between your lower (lumbar) spine and a wall, pressing slightly into the ball. With hands at your sides or on hips, check that your feet are hip-width apart and slightly in front of you.

Bending at your knees and hips, slowly move into a sitting position with your knees over your ankles.

Keep the ball in contact with your back as you move. Return to standing position, keeping the ball in contact with your back as you move.

Repeat 8-15 times.

Challenge: Lift one foot 1 or 2 inches off the floor and try doing the exercise with one leg at a time.

Switch and repeat with the other leg.

Birddogs with an exercise ball Get on your hands and knees with the exercise ball under your abdomen.

Lift and extend your opposite arm and leg off the floor at the same time.

Reach away from the center of your body while balancing on the ball and keeping your hips stable.

Repeat 8 times on each side.

Challenge: Hold the position longer.

Supine bridges with an exercise ball Sit on the exercise ball with your hands on your hips or crossed on your chest.

Walk forward, gradually rolling the ball out until it supports your head and shoulders, instead of your buttocks. As you roll out, be sure to keep your weight on top of the ball.

Form a flat “tabletop” with your hips, shoulders, and knees alignedand your feet flat on the floor, directly under your knees. Without moving the ball, lower and lift your hips, tightening muscles in your buttocks and backs of your thighs.

Repeat 8-15 times.

Challenge: Lie on your back with the ball under your feet and your arms on the floor, palms down.

Gradually lift your back off the floor, then return to the floor with control.

Advanced challenge: Repeat the challenge, but with your arms off the floor.

Push-ups with an exercise ball Lie face down with the exercise ball underneath your belly and your palms flat on the floor.

Use your hands to walk out to a plank position, resting the ball anywhere from your hips to your ankles. (This should be a position that provides for a challenging pushup, but allows your spine to stay

aligned - with ears, shoulders, and hips in a line.)

Bend your elbows to lower your upper body toward the floor, keeping your shoulders away from your ears and your abdominal muscles engaged.

Repeat 8-10 times.

Challenge: Move the ball closer to your ankles.

Advanced challenge: Perform the push-ups with your hands on the ball and toes on the floor.

Abdominal Tucks With an Exercise Ball Get into a push-up position with the exercise ball under your knees and your palms flat on the floor.

Tuck your knees in toward your chest as the ball rolls toward your ankles. Return to the starting position, staying balanced on the ball.

Repeat 8-10 times.

Note: Use caution if you have high blood pressure or if this exercise causes wrist pain.

Challenge: Alternate rotating your hips right and left as you tuck.

Advanced challenge: Keeping your legs straight, move your hips toward the ceiling until the ball is at your ankles.

Hamstring curls with an exercise ball Lie on your back with the exercise ball under your heels and your palms flat on the floor. Lift hips slightly and bend your knees to

draw the ball toward your buttocks, without moving your hips.

Repeat 8-15 times.

Challenge: Raise your hips higher as you pull the ball toward you.

Advanced challenge: Keeping it straight, lift one leg toward the ceiling, and try single leg curls.

Keep your hips stable throughout.

Crunches with an exercise ball Lie with your middle back on the exercise ball, feet flat on the floor shoulder-width apart, and hands behind your head.

Lift your upper body up, using your abdominal muscles, not your neck. Do not pull with your hands.

Repeat 8-15 times.

Challenge: Begin with the ball lower on your back, which puts more body weight into your abdominals.

Advanced challenge: Lift one foot off the ground and try the crunches.

Switch and repeat with the opposite foot off the ground.

Walk-outs with an exercise ball Rest your belly on the exercise ball and hands and toes on the floor.

Walk out your hands to a plank position with the ball under your ankles. Then walk back, trying to keep the ball under your body.

Repeat 6-8 times.

Challenge: Hold the plank position for a few breaths before

returning

Balance with an exercise ball Sit on the exercise ball, with your hands on your hips. Lengthen your spine as you imagine a string pulling the top of your head up. Plant your feet together on the ground in front of the ball. Lift one foot off the floor and hold for 3 to 5 seconds. Switch legs.

Repeat 8 times with each leg.

Challenge: Position toes on the ground and heels up. Slowly lift the toes on one foot off the ground.

Repeat with the other foot.

Advanced challenge: Lift both feet off the floor. Sit with only the ball touching the floor.

T, Y, I with an exercise ball Get on your hands and knees with the exercise ball pressing into your hips and thighs. Keep toes down and knees bent, but lift your knees slightly off the floor.

Tightening your abdominal muscles, try to lift your arms out to the sides of your body (into a T position).

Then slowly move your arms forward (into a Y position) and then straight out overhead (into an I position). Maintain a neutral spine with strong abdominals and shoulders out of the ears.

Repeat 4 times in each T, Y, and I position.

Challenge: Repeat the exercise with one leg lifted up.

Advanced challenge: Repeat the exercise with both legs lifted up or use hand weights. — WebMD

pets

page 28

Friday, May 21, 2010

Saving lives in a pinch Blood banks for dogs fill a crucial need, with retired racing greyhounds often taking the lead as universal donors

Oliver, a 4-year-old greyhound, wears a bandage on his neck after donating blood at a bloodbank for dogs in Chicago, Illinois. — MCT

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f your dog has ever received a life-saving blood transfusion, turn in the direction of Garden Grove, California, and give a nod of thanks to Jean Dodds. Dodds - veterinary hematologist, researcher, lecturer and animal advocate - is the founder of Hemopet, the first nonprofit animal blood bank in the world. That makes her, she says, “sort of the grandmother of blood banking for animals.”

In the 1980s Dodds was executive director of the New York State Council on Human Blood and Transfusion Services. After one of her regular meetings with the Red Cross, she had an idea: “I thought, ‘Why the heck don’t we have blood banks for animals like we have for people? Like an animal Red Cross?’” she said recently by phone. “Wow, of course. And who would do it better than me, since I’d already been doing blood banking?”

That was the start. It would be several years - planning, paperwork, drumming up interest all took time (in addition to marrying and moving to California) - before Hemopet got rolling in early 1991, “and we’ve never looked back,” she said. Today, Hemopet has about 50 employees and provides about 14,000 units of blood product over the course of a year (each donation can be broken down into several units). The blood, which has a shelf life of about a month, is banked at repositories around North

America for dogs that suffer a traumatic injury, have blood-destroying diseases or will be undergoing surgery during which there will be excessive bleeding.

A unit (about 7 ounces of blood) costs between $85 and $95, Dodds said, with the money going to keep the program running.

Dodds said there are five other commercial blood banks in the country, and several university vet schools have their own small operations. Some veterinary practices also have small blood programs for their own use.

Cadre of canines Hemopet’s blood comes from a colony of 200 donor greyhounds kept at its facility. The animals, former racing dogs that Dodds has rescued, donate about twice a month for a year before going into Hemopet’s adoption program (www.hemopet.org/adoption.html), which places dogs in California only. There’s currently up to a two-month wait for people seeking to adopt them. “We’re making a social statement about the inappropriateness of using animals to gain financially or prestige and then dumping

Why greyhounds?

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here are two major blood types for dogs, 1.1 positive and 1.1 negative. The 1.1 positive dogs can donate only to other 1.1 positive animals; the 1.1 negative blood can go to any other dog, said Kate Gallagher, blood bank coordinator at Chicago Veterinary Emergency Services. Because 70 percent of greyhounds are 1.1 negative, they’re high on the donor list.

Another reason greyhounds are great donors, she said, is “because they have a high metabolism and are athletic. Their red blood cell count is higher than other animals.”

Um... cats?

Feline blood donations are not as common. Cats do donate, but they need to be sedated.

Generally the donor animals are pets belonging to staff members, rather than clients, although if a client has a cat in need of a transfusion and has another cat at home that fits donor criteria (age, weight, blood tests, etc), that cat may be used as a donor.

them when they don’t serve your needs anymore,” she said. “That’s unacceptable.”

Roll up your sleeve Getting a blood donation from a dog isn’t as difficult as one might think. For example: Oliver.

A 4-year-old former racing greyhound, he came to Chicago Veterinary Emergency Services to make his first blood donation. The process was quick and uneventful. Oliver was lifted to the table and placed on his side. A needle, about an inch long, was inserted into his jugular and the blood was drawn into a bag sitting on a small scale. Because of the breed’s short hair, shaving isn’t necessary. In keeping with the breed’s temperament, Oliver was the picture of tranquility. When the bag was full, the puncture mark was wiped and gauze was applied, and Oliver got a colorful wrap to cover the bandage.

Then, for him, the best part: a traditional treat of meat-flavor baby food. The benefit for Oliver’s owner: The dog gets a free general blood screening, heartworm testing and medication, and flea and tick medication.

Oliver will donate again in a couple of months. As for immediate aftereffects, “I don’t know if our owners would notice,” said Kate Gallagher, the blood bank coordinator at CVES. “Most of our donors are greyhounds, so, ‘Oh my God, he slept 19 hours today instead of only 18!’” — MCT

relationship

Friday, May 21, 2010

page 29

Kim Yong-sook, 58, a former airline attendant and businesswoman, is the founder of a group called Ajumma are the Pillars of the Nation, which seeks to boost the image of often-maligned middle aged Korean women. — MCT

South Korea’s homemakers come into their own K

im Yong-sook is fed up and she’s not going to take it anymore. She’s weary of women between the ages of 30 and 60 being ridiculed as selfish and unstylish - bossy, gossiping magpies with bad perms who pinch pennies and hog seats on the subway. They’re known as ajumma, a word long applied to married women with children but which in recent years has taken on a pejorative connotation that irks Kim. Among many South Koreans, it’s now often used to conjure an image of homemakers who disdain full-time jobs to while away afternoons on park benches, in coffee shops and at social clubs, bragging about their children and, if they’ve got the money, go on shopping sprees.

At 58, Kim has empathy for her fellow ajumma, who she insists have too long been misunderstood and ridiculed. Ajumma are not deadbeats, cracks in Korea’s economic engine. “Actually, we’re running the nation,” says the mother of one, a son. “We’ve got one foot in the house and one foot in society.” A decade ago, Kim formed a support group called “Ajumma are the Pillars of the Nation.” Since then, she has attracted thousands to her

declaration of independence. She’s written a book and consults with business and government.

Her message: Ajumma unite!

Don’t take the snickers, behindthe-back finger-pointing and jibes lying down! Kim figures there are more than 10 million ajumma, married women with children.

She sees them not as being forgotten or overlooked women but as a force that can be harnessed to make their own individual statement. Kim, a petite woman with black swept-back hair, has become a role-model for South Korean mothers in search of a new

none of it. “I gained my financial independence from my husband,” she says. “He didn’t fight me. He knows I’m stubborn. Even if he had demanded that I stay at home, he knew I wouldn’t.” She worked as a flight attendant and television actress and later started her own clothing manufacturing business.

But the business went bankrupt.

She was sued for back taxes, and, without money for a lawyer, she says, she was forced to represent herself.

“I was like a child in court. I wasn’t prepared for the challenge,” she recalls. “Half the time I didn’t

Ajumma are not deadbeats, cracks in Korea’s economic engine cultural identity. When she married decades ago, Kim says, wives in the then-more-conservative culture were expected to bear children, cook and keep the house clean, nothing more.

Leave the important work, like earning a living, to us, husbands would say. But Kim was having

even understand what the judge was saying to me.” Despite the disadvantage, she won her case.

But another, more personal, verdict hit hard.

“I thought I was successful, but I realized that I just didn’t have the modern social or survival skills to make it in this society.” Kim saw

that the world had changed. Young men no longer wanted their partners to do nothing more than stay home and bear children. Now they expected double incomes to survive the roller-coaster South Korean economy.

Young women might be going to work, but their mothers seemed trapped in another time. Many didn’t even realize that the times had left them so far behind, she says. Convinced that women of her generation needed a lightning rod, Kim began organizing. For the 2002 World Cup in Seoul, she solicited volunteers to host foreign families without charge, a way for the women to stand up and serve as national ambassadors. She also organized teams to help make garbage a green energy source and started a consulting service for middle-aged women. Yoo Eun-hee is one of her proteges. The 50year-old former homemaker watched Kim and asked, why can’t I do that? Always a good cook, she took her talents out into the job market and was hired as a chef.

“Working with this group gave me confidence,” Yoo says. “It made me see that I could do something for myself. I could see a wider world out there.”

Kim’s mantra is not that every Korean mother and homemaker

should go to work to find an identity. She just wants to help women who seek to shake off stereotypes she says are still reinforced both inside the home and out. Lee Jiwon has also learned from Kim. “I’m still one of those coffeehouse women,” she says.

“But I understand myself better.

Meeting with my friends is a way to blow off steam. I live this life because I chose it. It’s not a sentence.” But Kim knows that some women cling to home and family as a refuge, out of fear, and she says they often become defensive and selfish as a result.

“I think trying to reason with these women would be a waste of words,” she says. “I do it through action, creating jobs, breaking down barriers and providing more channels for their success.” Yoo also sees the ones left behind. And it makes her sad. “They’re afraid to take the chance to try to be innovative. Deep down inside, it’s not that they don’t want to get a job, they just don’t know how to go about it.” Kim knows the biggest obstacle for many ajumma is not their husbands, parents or even their culture, but themselves.

“That’s the lesson we try to teach women,” she says. “You don’t need anyone’s permission to follow your dreams.” — MCT

FOOD

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Friday, May 21, 2010

Everyday cooking

By Sawsan Kazak omatoes come in a variety of shapes, sizes and tastes. They freshen up a salad, add flavor to savory dishes and thanks to canning, they are available all year long. I feel sorry for people who cannot eat tomatoes as not only is their flavor distinctively delicious, they are a great source of vitamins and help combat diseases.

The following recipes highlight tomatoes’ sweet flavors while accenting the other ingredients in the dish.

Send your suggestions or opinions to sawsank@kuwaittimes.net

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Nutritional facts about tomatoes s a tomato a vegetable or is a tomato a fruit? Although the facts about tomatoes put them in the fruit category, it is a food that we commonly think of and use as a vegetable. A sure sign of summer, ripe red tomatoes with their juicy subtle sweetness enhance the flavor of many dishes. And, unlike many foods, some aspects of the nutritional value of tomatoes actually improve with cooking. So summer or winter, raw, canned or cooked, any time is a good time for this versatile super food.

Read about the goodness of tomatoes and you will want to add them to your diet on a regular basis.

Tomatoes are a rich source of several nutrients. They are well known for their high vitamin C content, but also contain significant amount of vitamin A, B vitamins including niacin and riboflavin, magnesium, phosphorous and calcium. Tomatoes are also a good source of chromium, folate and fiber. In recent years a particular nutrient found in abundance in tomatoes, lycopene, has made many headlines for its disease fighting abilities.

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Lycopene is well known as a preventer of prostate cancer, which makes tomatoes high on the healthy food list for men. Lycopene is not just important for men though. It is a powerful antioxidant and as such helps to protect the cells in our bodies from damage.

Studies in humans have shown that lycopene is protective against a variety of cancers including prostate of course, but also colorectal, breast, lung, endometrial, pancreatic, bladder, cervical and skin cancers.

Lycopene has also been shown to

help prevent heart disease and may slow the development of cataracts and macular degeneration, an age related vision problem that can lead to blindness.

More facts about tomatoes?

The vitamin B6, niacin, potassium and folate found in abundance in

tomatoes are potent protectors against heart disease.

Niacin can lower high cholesterol levels and potassium has been shown to lower high blood pressure and to reduce the risk of heart disease. Vitamin B6 and folate also work to convert the homocysteine in our bodies into harmless molecules. High levels of homocysteine are associated with an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.

The fiber in tomatoes also helps lower cholesterol levels, helps prevent colon cancer and helps to keep blood sugars at a low level.

Tomatoes are a source of riboflavin which has been shown to be helpful for migraine sufferers by reducing the frequency of their headaches.

A helpful note about tomato nutrition is that lycopene is actually more available to the body when tomatoes are cooked, so cooked or canned tomatoes are just as nutritious for you as raw. The facts about tomatoes definitely point to this fruit/vegetable as a nutrient powerhouse and a super food to be enjoyed as often as possible.

FOOD

Italian stuffed tomatoes

Friday, May 21, 2010

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6 med tomatoes (not too ripe) 3 pkgs frozen chopped spinach, thawed & drained 1 med. onion, diced 2 cloves garlic minced 1 beaten egg 1/3 cup romano or Parmesan cheese 1/4 cup dry bread crumbs 1/2 cup or so shredded mozarella 1 tbs Italian seasonings (basil, thyme, oregano) red pepper flakes to taste salt and pepper to taste Topping: seasoned bread crumbs shredded mozzarella diced butter ut tops off tomatoes and scoop out seeds. Season insides of tomatoes with salt and pepper. Mix all remaining ingredients and pack tomatoes tightly. Place in a greased casserole.

Sprinkle seasoned bread crumbs, shredded mozzarella and diced butter on top.

Bake uncovered 25-30 minutes. broil 2 min to allow tops to slightly brown.

These are actually good cold or at room temperature as well as hot.

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Best fried green tomatoes 4 large green tomatoes 2 eggs 1/2 cup milk 1 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 cup cornmeal 1/2 cup bread crumbs 2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 quart vegetable oil for frying Slice tomatoes 1/2 inch thick. Discard the ends.

Tomato soup 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 1 cup chopped onion 2 cloves garlic, minced 1/2 cup chopped carrot 1/4 cup chopped celery 2 (28 ounce) cans crushed tomatoes 3 1/2 cups vegetable broth 1 tablespoon vegetarian Worcestershire sauce 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 4 drops hot pepper sauce eat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat.

Saute onion and garlic until onion is tender. Add carrot and celery; cook 7 to 9 minutes until tender, stirring frequently. Stir in tomatoes, broth, Worcestershire sauce, salt, thyme, pepper and hot pepper sauce. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer 20 minutes, stirring frequently.

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Chunky marinara sauce 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 onion, chopped 1 clove garlic, chopped 1 (14.5 ounce) can peeled and diced tomatoes 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce 1 teaspoon white sugar 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 1/4 teaspoon salt eat olive oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat.

Add onion and garlic and cook 2 to 4 minutes until crisp-tender, stirring frequently.

Mix in diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, sugar, oregano and salt. Bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to low and simmer 15 to 20 minutes or until flavors are blended, stirring frequently.

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hisk eggs and milk together in a medium-size bowl. Scoop flour onto a plate. Mix cornmeal, bread crumbs and salt and pepper on another plate. Dip tomatoes into flour to coat. Then dip the tomatoes into milk and egg mixture. Dredge in breadcrumbs to completely coat. In a large skillet, pour vegetable oil (enough so that there is 1/2 inch of oil in the pan) and heat over a medium heat. Place tomatoes into the frying pan in batches of 4 or 5, depending on the size of your skillet. Do not crowd the tomatoes, they should not touch each other. When the tomatoes are browned, flip and fry them on the other side. Drain them on paper towels.

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THEY ARE THE 99!

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

THE STORY SO FAR : While returning home to the 99 Steps Foundation, Executive Director Buran Shirazi is trapped aboard a runaway high-speed train!

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

www.the99.org

TRAVEL

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Friday, May 21, 2010

Ten affordable places to stay in Ubud ali is on the up again, but the hot address is no longer the luxury villas and nightclubs of Seminyak beach, but the cultural capital Ubud, right in the centre of the island. The place has been buzzing since Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem based themselves here last year to film Eat, Pray, Love, and then the fickle readers of American Conde Nast Traveler decided to vote Ubud as Asia’s Best City Destination 2010. Despite all this hype (and a host of ultra-expensive luxury hotels lining the nearby Sayan valley), there are still some very reasonably-priced places to stay in Ubud, from traditional homestay B&Bs with Balinese artists to small local hotels with beautiful pools, tropical gardens, family temples and romantic rooms.

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1. Puri Saren Agung This is where Ubud’s long tradition of homestays all began, right in the Royal Palace of the King of Ubud, more than 80 years ago, when Bali first started to attract bohemian artists from around the world. It is still going strong today, though prices have gone up. To rent one of the seven traditional stone bungalows in the sumptuous royal courtyard is still quite an experience, and every night this magical palace comes alive with the sound of Gamelan music as Balinese dances are performed just across the wall from this unique B&B. 2. Fibra Inn The Fibra first opened 30 years ago, when Monkey Forest Road was not much more than a dirt track, and today it is still difficult to find a more friendly place to stay in Ubud. A rambling compound of traditional Balinese houses, the gardens are a riot of exotic flowers and tropical vegetation, while the swimming pool is small but utterly romantic. Owned by one of the island’s most famous dancers, Sri, guests can can see her perform every Friday in the artist’s hamlet of Peliatan, while on Sundays there are concerts of her own all-woman Gamelan orchestra. At the back of the hotel is an excellent spa.

Bali’s cultural capital is enjoying a moment in the spotlight, having recently been voted Asia’s best city destination.

Here’s our pick of the best-value homestays and hotels 3. Jati Home Stay Parallel to the busy Monkey Forest Road, Hanoman Street is a lot quieter, and both sides are lined with budget homestay accommodation, hidden away inside traditional Balinese walled compounds. Fortunately Jati’s homestay is well signposted as you weave left and right through a labyrinth of family temples, houses filled with noisy kids, artists studios, and an assortment of animals wandering around. Dewa Nyoman Jati is a well-known artist himself, and he opened his B&B 20 years ago to allow him to paint and also build up an important collection of works by contemporary Ubud artists, which is on show in his gallery. The accommodation is basic but comfortable.

4. Oka Wati Hotel Oka Wati is a feisty Balinese lady, one of the pioneers of Ubud’s homestays. When she first started taking guests in, her house was all alone in the middle of padi fields, and over the years, she has built up a comfortable nine-room hotel with swimming pool and restaurant. Once you’ve traversed the maze of narrow lanes that lead to the hotel, the location is perfect for exploring the centre of Ubud. Breakfast is copious, and in her restaurant Oka Wati still makes delicious gado-gado salad, a classic dish that strangely seems to be disappearing from restaurants here. She also serves the best

Brem rice wine.

5. Warsi’s House Warsi has a tiny boutique specialising in Balinese textiles, right opposite Ubud’s soccer pitch. You have to make your way through a chaotic passage filled with junk before coming out in an idyllic oasis where her four bungalows sit next to a holy temple and lotus-filled pond, looking out over a dreamy landscape of rice fields and coconut trees. Don’t expect luxuries like a swimming pool or aircon, but the breakfast of banana pancakes is delicious, while Warsi and her nephew Nyoman are always on hand to spoil their guests.

8. Tiing Gading Bungalows With no namesign, this is not the easiest place to find, but guests are rewarded by discovering a tranquil hideaway surrounded by thick bamboo groves, tall palm trees and a small river. The pool is to-die-for, and with a spa and restaurant it is easy to just relax here rather than going into Ubud in the evening. There are just 10 rooms, with aircon inside and cool terraces to sit out in the evening and enjoy an ice-cold Bintang beer.

6. Rona Located right at the entrance to Ubud, a walk down Tebesaya Road is like stepping back 10 or 15 years, when this was still a sleepy village. Rona is owned by an eccentric local known as Mr Chicken, who has turned traditional Balinese bungalows into a funky cafe, bookshop and hotel, decorated in very un-Balinese purple.

Although there is an inviting pool, the rooms don’t have aircon, though a fan is adequate considering the low-cost rates.

9. Ubud Inn A host of chic boutique hotels have opened up on Ubud’s main drag, Monkey Forest Road, but the trademark “tropical Bali” design is all pretty similar, and prices can be surprisingly expensive. The Ubud Inn was one of the first places to offer more luxurious accommodation, and although this may not be the hippest place to stay, it is difficult to find better value. There is a huge swimming pool, surrounded by lush jungle vegetation, bar, restaurant and spa, free Wi-Fi, while the spacious rooms come with a four-poster bed complete with mosquito nets.

7. Putu Putera Homestay It is difficult to know just how much longer there will still be authentic homestays such as Putu Putera in Ubud, where for a minimal fee, guests can share the house of a local artisan, experience family life in a traditional compound, and learn directly from the craftman himself about the skills in painting, wood carving, stone masonry, dance or music that Ubud is so famous for. The owner here has converted the top floor of his house into five no-frills B&B rooms. His wife prepares breakfast, while guests are welcome to accompany him to his workshop where he creates wood and stone ornaments for gardens.

10. Family Guest House In the quiet artist’s hamlet of Peliatan, this friendly homestay lives up to its name as the rambling compound is a great place for families to base themselves. The bungalows are simple and basic, but with large verandahs, and visitors are free to wander round the family temple and sumptuously decorated pavilions - just don’t expect to find a swimming pool at this price. There is free WiFi, though, a copious breakfast famed for its brown bread, and just outside on the street is a fun “mini-bar”, perfect for a late-night drink before going to bed. — Guardian

Friday, May 21, 2010

TRAVEL

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Things to do in the Washington, DC capital region There is so much to see and do in Washington, DC that you can’t see it all in just one visit. A well-rounded trip should include exploring the National Mall and some other activities too! Here are some tips to help you get around the popular attractions and some suggestions of fun and more relaxing things to do in the region.

Visit the Smithsonian Start at the Smithsonian Institution Building where you can pick up a map and information on all of the museums. These national treasures cover a wide range of subjects from art to space exploration. Plan to explore those you are most interested in, but don’t try to see everything at once. Be sure to save time to see an IMAX movie at the Natural History Museum or the National Air and Space Museum.

Tour the National Monuments and Memorials Our national monuments are truly spectacular. The best time to see them is at night when they are illuminated, less crowded and parking is easier. During daytime visits, take a tour bus. Listen to informative park ranger talks and you won’t have to negotiate congested city traffic.

Tour the Three Houses of Government Explore the US Capitol Building, the White House and the U.S. Supreme Court and you will gain a fuller understanding of the division of power within our democratic government. Plan ahead and note that some tours must be scheduled in advance through your Congressional Representative.

Take a Walk Through Georgetown Georgetown is the capital’s historic waterfront that today is bustling with activity.

The area is a shopper’s paradise and the streets are lined with restaurants of every nationality.

Take a tour of historic sites, do some shopping and enjoy a meal at a local restaurant.

Ride a Bike Along the C & O Canal The Washington DC region is lucky to have

wonderful bike trails. Jump on a bicycle and you’ll quickly feel a relief from hectic city life.

Take the whole family and explore the historic C & O Canal.

See a Show or Concert at the Kennedy Center Listen to all types of music at this national park dedicated to the performing arts. Outdoor concerts are featured in the summer and indoor performances are held the rest of the year. The park is located in Vienna, Virginia, just 20 minutes from Washington, DC. Take a Hike at Great Falls Park Take a picnic and enjoy spectacular views of the Potomac River at this 800 acre park, located just 14 miles from Washington DC. Explore Mount Vernon With the recent addition of the new museum and education center, Mount Vernon is now a full day excursion. Explore the state of the art galleries and theaters, visit the 500-acre estate of George Washington and his family, tour the 14-room mansion that is beautifully restored and furnished with original objects dating back to the 1740’s. Be sure to plan enough time to tour the outbuildings, including the kitchen, slave quarters, smokehouse, coach house and stables.

The estate is located in Northern Virginia, just minutes from Washington, DC. Take a Walking Tour of Old Town, Alexandria Explore a quaint historic town just over the Potomac River from Washington, DC. Visit colonial houses, churches, and museums and shop for antiques.

—About

BOOKS

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Friday, May 21, 2010

A complex and puzzling relationship:

Books about mothers

In a Country of Mothers

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

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his week’s five books speak of the complex relationship a mother has to her child - or a child to its mother. While some of them are quite dramatic in their plot, these books paint a picture of the complexity of this relationship, the

‘fierce attachment’ that is perhaps a love-hate relationship. They also, paradoxically, depict this warm feeling of being at home, of being safe around one’s mother.

Pl eas e s end y o ur s ug g es ti o ns to hus s ai n@kuwai tti mes . net

Missing Mom

Compiled by Hussain Al-Qatari

Joyce Carol Oates

By A M Homes

By Rebecca Wells

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hen Vivi and Siddalee Walker, an unforgettable motherdaughter team, get into a savage fight over a New York Times article that refers to Vivi as a ‘tap-dancing child abuser,’ the Ya-Yas, sashay in and conspire to bring everyone back together. In 1932, Vivi and the Ya-Yas were disqualified from a Shirley Temple Look-Alike Contest for unladylike behavior. Sixty years later, they’re ‘bucking 70’ and still making waves. With passion and a rare gift for language, Rebecca Wells moves from present to past, unraveling Vivi’s life, her enduring friendships with the Ya-Yas, and the reverberations on Siddalee.

The collective power of the Ya-Yas, each of them totally individual and authentic, permeates this story of a tribe of Louisiana wild women who are impossible to tame.

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o relationship is more charged than that between a psychotherapist and her patient-unless it is the relationship between a mother and her daughter. This disturbing literary thriller explores what happens when the line between those relationships blurs.

Jody Goodman enters psychotherapy with questions of career and love on her mind. But Claire Roth, her therapist, keeps changing the focus of their sessions to Jody’s parentage-Jody was adopted; Claire gave up a baby for adoption who would now be exactly Jody’s age. As the two women become increasingly involved, speculation turns into certainty, fantasy into fixation. Until suddenly it is no longer clear just which of them needs the other more-or with more terrifying consequences.

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icole, 31, is living an extended adolescence, still in rebellion against her parents’ suburban middle-class, do-the-right-thing lifestyle. Her father has recently died; her older, domestic diva sister is prone to histrionics. Nicole herself is involved with a married man and does not have a clue how her actions may impact other people. Everything changes in an instant when Nicole’s mother, Gwen, dies in a violent assault. After the ensuing investigations and memorials, everyone is surprised when Nicole steps into her mother’s shoes and gradually begins to adopt aspects of Gwen’s personality. Within this transformative process, hidden details of Gwen’s life come to light; we learn that this cheerful, perhaps overzealous woman who was called “Feather” in high school had some ghosts of her own. This time around, Oates, one of America’s greatest writers, has not written one of her “broad views” into American society, but rather one of her intimate portraits of family relationships.

The Color of Water

The Joy Luck Club

By James McBride

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s a boy in Brooklyn’s Red Hook projects, James McBride knew his mother was different. But when he asked about it, she’d simply say, “I’m lightskinned.” Later he wondered if he was different too, and asked his mother if he was black or white. “You’re a human being,” she snapped. “Educate yourself or you’ll be a nobody!” And when James asked what color God was, she said, “God is the color of water.”

As an adult, McBride finally persuaded his mother to tell her story-the story of a rabbi’s daughter, born in Poland and raised in the South, who fled to Harlem after encountering anti-Semitism in her small town. Upon marrying a black man, her family promptly disowned her, causing her to launch a second existence as (to quote her son) “a flying compilation of competing interests and conflicts, a black woman in white skin.” The Color of Water is a poignant exploration of race, family, and identity, juxtaposing the author’s experiences with his mother’s stories.

By Amy Tan

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our mothers, four daughters, four families whose histories shift with the four winds depending on who’s “saying” the stories. In 1949 four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, begin meeting to eat dim sum, play mahjong, and talk. United in shared unspeakable loss and hope, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Rather than sink into tragedy, they choose to gather to raise their spirits and money. “To despair was to wish back for something already lost. Or to prolong what was already unbearable.”

Forty years later the stories and history continue.

With wit and sensitivity, Amy Tan examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between mothers and daughters.

As each woman reveals her secrets, trying to unravel the truth about her life, the strings become more tangled, more entwined. Mothers boast or despair over daughters, and daughters roll their eyes even as they feel the inextricable tightening of their matriarchal ties. Tan is an astute storyteller, enticing readers to immerse themselves into these lives of complexity and mystery.

BOOKS

Friday, May 21, 2010

Page 37

Author spotlight

Colum McCann, bestselling author of Let the Great World Spin Q: What’s the strangest or most interesting job you’ve ever had?

A: Back in the mid-1980s, over the course of two years, I worked with a group of juvenile delinquents in Texas. Tough kids who’d been in and out of various prisons, institutions, and broken homes. I ran the wilderness camp where I looked after six boys for three months. It wasn’t a boot camp, but it certainly wasn’t Camp Paradise, either. We built our own treehouses, gravity-fed shoulders, outdoor latrines. We even cultivated a little plot of land. It was an extraordinary adventure, dealing with tough kids, some of whom had been in gangs, others who had committed serious crimes. I was with them morning, noon, and night. All sorts of extraordinary things happened. Sometimes at night - with coyotes in the fields nearby - I would read them to sleep. Honestly! They allowed me to read to them! There wasn’t any TV, after all. One of their favorite books was The Catcher in the Rye. Another was a little fable called Fup by Jim Dodge. Fup was about a duck - there’s an anagram there, of course. They were two fascinating years, working with various groups. I still get phone calls from these kids - most of whom got out okay, and some of whom really thrived. But every now and then the call or letter comes from a prison block.

Q: Introduce one other author you think people should read, and suggest a good book with which to start.

A: There are so, so many. I don’t suppose he needs any introduction at all, but I adore John Berger. He’s a hero of mine. So I would begin at his beginning, with the novel A Painter of Our Time. And then I would move on to To the Wedding. Then I would jump back to G. And then I would go to Ways of Seeing. And then I would hopscotch all over one of the most glorious minds of our time. In terms of younger writers, I’m very fond of Marlon James, who just came out with The Book of Night Women, a glorious novel about a Jamaican slave revolt. Marlon’s the real deal: the prose is intense and intricate and (though he hates the word) lyrical. Marlon also happens to be a good friend, but I see no harm in shouting out for him. This spring, a former student of mine, Jeff Rotter, published his first novel, The Unknown Knowns. A hard time to bring out a novel, but he has suceeded wonderfully.

Hallelujah. I look forward to his next.

Q: Offer a favorite sentence or passage from another writer.

A: “No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” -Samuel Beckett Q: Why do you write?

A: Thomas Berger has the most beautiful answer to this question. “Why do writers write? Because it isn’t there.” Enough said.

Or almost enough said. Vallejosaid that mystery joins us together. And Joyce said that he wanted to create life out of life.

About the author

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olum McCann is the internationally bestselling author of the novels Zoli, Dancer, This Side of Brightness, and Songdogs, as well as two critically acclaimed story collections. His fiction has been published in 30 languages. He has been a finalist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and was the inaugural winner of the Ireland Fund of Monaco Literary Award in Memory of Princess Grace. He has been named one of Esquire’s “Best and Brightest,” and his short film Everything in This Country Must was nominated for an Oscar in 2005. A contributor to the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic Monthly, and the Paris Review, he teaches in the Hunter College MFA Creative Writing Program.

He lives in New York City with his wife and their three children.

ends up becoming a professor of the Classics in a Midwestern university. He fights no obvious wars, nor wins any grand intellectual battles, except that with poetry. The book is so beautifully paced and cadenced that it deserves the status of classic. It was also a favorite of the late John McGahern. So, McGahern to Williams. One profound craftsman to another.

Q: If you could have been someone else, who would that be and why?

A: “I teach at Hunter College in New York and recently had Don DeLillo come to class. It was an extraordinary day. He was incredibly profound and moving and gracious and just plain honest with the students. I was also stunned by his humility. At one stage he said to us, “I seem to be the beneficiary of an occasional revelation.” This is the man who wrote Underworld, one of the best novels of the last 25 years. We went out afterwards with a couple of students and had dinner, and a few drinks, and I watched him climb into a cab, and I thought that I would like to be that mind, I would like to sit inside that mind, if even just for a while, traveling home to Bronxville on a March night in 2009. I would very much like that indeed, to be going in that direction.

Q: Recommend five or more books on a single subject of personal interest or expertise.

A: Five Great Books about Literary Figures Fall of Frost by Brian Hall One of the most stunning books I read this year. He brings Robert Frost alive in the most stunning way. A tour de force. Hall is one of the quieter geniuses in American fiction. There’s not all that much noise made about him, but I love his work and it will last.

Stoner by John Williams A book, largely forgotten, that was published in the ‘70s, I believe. The opening page declares the main character John Stoner to be more or less a non-entity, his name becoming to older colleagues “a reminder of the end that awaits them all, and to the younger ones a sound which evokes no sense of the past.” He

Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man by James Joyce A beautiful portrait of an evolving consciousness.

Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels A book of memory to be remembered.

Nobody writes like Anne Michaels. Such care is taken with each sentence, each sound, each bump of a letter against another letter. A poet lives at the book’s very heart. Fugitive Pieces begins with a stunning image from the Holocaust and moves ever outwards.

The Winner of Sorrow by Brian Lynch Lynch is an Irish poet/novelist recently published by Dalkey Archive. The book gets into the muck and the tar and the petalwork of the poet William Cowper. He is indeed the “monarch of all that I survey.” It is a stylistic masterpiece and one of the best contemporary novels about a literary figure.

— Powells

children

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Sudoku for Kids

Friday, May 21, 2010

Solution

children

Friday, May 21, 2010

Mr Sticky

By Mo McAuley

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o one knew how Mr. Sticky got in the fish "He's very tank. small," Mum said as she peered at the tiny water snail.

"Just a black dot." "He'll grow," said Abby and pulled her pyjama bottoms up again before she got into bed. They were always falling down.

In the morning Abby jumped out of bed and switched on the light in her fish tank. Gerry, the fat orange goldfish, was dozing inside the stone archway. Jaws was already awake, swimming along the front of the tank with his white tail floating and twitching. It took Abby a while to find Mr. Sticky because he was clinging to the glass near the bottom, right next to the gravel.

At school that day she wrote about the mysterious Mr. Sticky who was so small you could mistake him for a piece of gravel. Some of the girls in her class said he seemed an ideal pet for her and kept giggling about it.

That night Abby turned on the light to find Mr. Sticky clinging to the very tiniest, waviest tip of the pond weed. It was near the water filter so he was bobbing about in the air bubbles.

"That looks fun," Abby said.

She tried to imagine what it must be like to have to hang on to things all day and decided it was probably very tiring. She fed the fish then lay on her bed and watched them chase each other round and round the archway. When they stopped Gerry began nibbling at the pond weed with his big pouty lips. He sucked Mr. Sticky into his mouth then blew him back out again in a stream of water.

The snail floated down to the bottom of the tank among the coloured gravel.

"I think he's grown a bit," Abby told her Mum at breakfast the next day. "Just as well if he's going to be gobbled up like that," her Mum said, trying to put on her coat and eat toast at the same time."But I don't want him to get too big or he won't be cute anymore.

Small things are cute aren't they?" "Yes they are. But big things can be cute too. Now hurry up, I'm going to miss my train."

At school that day, Abby drew an elephant. She needed two pieces of expensive paper to do both ends but the teacher didn't mind because she was pleased with the drawing and wanted it on the wall. They sellotaped them together, right across the elephant's middle.

In the corner of the picture, Abby wrote her full name, Abigail, and drew tiny snails for the dots on the 'i's The teacher said that was very creative.

At the weekend they cleaned out the tank. "There's a lot of algae on the sides," Mum said. "I'm not sure Mr. Sticky's quite up to the job yet." They scooped the fish out and put them in a bowl while they emptied some of the water. Mr. Sticky stayed out of the way, clinging to the glass while Mum used the special 'vacuum cleaner' to clean the gravel. Abby trimmed the new pieces of pond weed down to size and scrubbed the archway and the filter tube. Mum poured new water into the tank.

"Where's Mr. Sticky?" Abby asked. "On the side," Mum said.

She was busy concentrating on the water.

"Don't worry I was careful."

Abby looked on all sides of the tank. There was no sign of the water snail. "He's probably in the gravel then," her mum said. "Come on let's get this finished. I've got work to do."

She plopped the fish back in the clean water where they swam round and round, looking puzzled.

That evening Abby went up to her bedroom to check the tank. The water had settled and looked lovely and clear but there was no sign of Mr. Sticky.

She lay on her bed and did some exercises, stretching out her legs and feet and pointing her toes. Stretching was good for your muscles and made you look tall a model had said on the t.v. and she looked enormous. When Abby had finished, she kneeled down to have another look in the tank but there was still no sign of Mr. Sticky.

She went downstairs.

Her mum was in the study surrounded by papers. She had her glasses on and her hair was all over the place where she'd been running her hands through it. She looked impatient when she saw Abby in the doorway and even more impatient when she heard the bad news.

"He'll turn up." was all she said. "Now off to bed Abby. I've got masses of work to catch up on."

Abby felt her face go hot and red. It always happened when she was angry or upset."You've hoovered him up haven't you," she said. You were in such a rush you hoovered him up."

"I have not. I was very careful. But he is extremely small." "What's wrong with being small?"

"Nothing at all. But it makes things hard to find." "Or notice," Abby said and ran from the room.

The door to the bedroom opened and Mum's face appeared around the crack.

Abby tried to ignore her but it was hard when she walked over to the bed and sat next to her. She was holding her

glasses in her hand. She waved them at Abby.

"These are my new pair," she said. "Extra powerful, for snail hunting." She smiled at Abby. Abby tried not to smile back."And I've got a magnifying glass," Abby suddenly remembered and rushed off to find it.

They sat beside each other on the floor. On their knees they shuffled around the tank, peering into the corners among the big pebbles, at the gravel and the pondweed. "Ah ha!" Mum suddenly cried.

"What?" Abby moved her magnifying glass to where her mum was pointing.

There, tucked in the curve of the archway, perfectly hidden against the dark stone,

sat Mr. Sticky. And right next to him was another water snail, even smaller than him. "Mrs Sticky!" Abby breathed. "But where did she come from?"

"I'm beginning to suspect the pond weed don't you think?"

They both laughed and climbed into Abby's bed together, cuddling down under the duvet. It was cozy but a bit of a squeeze."Budge up," Mum said, giving Abby a push with her bottom.

"I can't, I'm already on the edge." "My goodness you've grown then. When did that happen? You could have put an elephant in here last time we did this." Abby put her head on her mum's chest and smiled. www.eastoftheweb.com

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Friday, May 21, 2010

When brothers fall out Nick Duerden and his brother stopped speaking 10 years ago. They will probably never speak again, he thinks.

Heartbreaking or perfectly normal sibling rivalry?

By Nick Duerden

I

n the full decade since I last saw my brother, he has had children, changed jobs, moved house, survived 9/11 (he worked nearby) and, by my grandmother's reckoning, has at last grown into the beard he started nurturing in his early 20s. In the meantime, I have progressed comparably throughout the course of my own adult life (albeit without the facial hair), though he, like me, wouldn't know this directly but rather secondhand, our respective lives separated by the Atlantic ocean and an altogether different kind of divide that, I think I can now confidently predict, shall never be breached again.

While this is an admittedly regrettable state of affairs, two grown men incapable of behaving like, well, two grown men, it isn't a particularly unusual one. Sibling rivalry is as old as the hills, and you need only alight upon the films of Mike Leigh to be reminded that familial strife of some kind is, if not quite mandatory, then at the very least expected of us all.

A recent story in the Psychology Today journal suggests that more than a third of us have a distant relationship with our brothers or sisters as adults because of a childhood rivalry that never fully dissipated, while any hopes of an ultimately long-term ceasefire tends to arrive only in our dotage, when all the fight has finally deserted us.

According to Karen Doherty, who, with Georgia Coleridge, has just written Sibling Rivalry: Seven Simple Solutions to Stop Fights, Prevent Jealousy and Help Your Children Get On Better, it is virtually the rule, not the exception. "Four out of five siblings will torment, kick, punch, fight and annoy one another at some point during childhood," Doherty, a sunny Californian living in London, tells me. I ask her why, and she smiles. "Ah. Well, there are 101 answers to that question."

Hatred The overriding one, it seems, is that the arrival of a younger sibling very often brings with it a brand new sensation for the elder: hatred. This is, after all, the point at which we, the senior, learn that life isn't fair after all, and very likely won't be ever again. A potential usurper has arrived; cunning is required. And if we are then subsequently treated differently by our parents, however unwittingly, with different ideals and perhaps even preferential treatment, that hatred can be expected to run deep.

Jonathan Self, the older brother of the British writer Will Self, knows the feeling well. "I have to say that Will was actually incredibly sweet and loyal to me throughout childhood," he begins, "but, yes, there was an awful lot of rivalry between us. Why? Well, my parents favoured him in a way that was impossible to miss."

He explains that his parents considered their younger son a genius

by the age of three, and that theirs was a family that prized intellect above all else. "To their credit," Jonathan says, "they weren't wrong.

Will did have an unusually smart mind. Still does." If their rivalry continued into adulthood it was largely because both shared similar ambitions: to write. But Will was, frankly, by far the better writer, prompting Jonathan to give up on his dream (he eventually turned to the world of business). Now 51, and with three children to Will's four, they enjoy a mostly harmonious relationship these days, specifically, he suggests, because of the children.

"We've discussed this at length, as it's important to us. We know that it really upsets our children if he and I fight, and so we don't, mostly. If they see us not getting on, then it is effectively like saying it's OK to give up on your brother. And neither of us wants that," says Jonathan.

My own experiences differ from the Selfs' not only because there were, sadly, no such flashes of brilliance within my family, but also because my brother and I were never as closely competitive. Instead, we were poles apart, so comprehensively different in character and temperament that we could rarely find common ground. I'm two and a half years older than him. We had different friends, different interests. Rarely did they appear compatible.

We both hoped that things would improve as we got older, but they didn't. I finally came of age with an overwhelming sense of relief. I was 18. I had a girlfriend, a driving licence and I was gone. My relationship with

my brother gradually frittered away to nothing, and though this brought the pair of us some much-needed respite, for my mother, who blamed herself, it brought only lasting sadness.

Rivalry So why does sibling rivalry occur, and how do we so effortlessly perpetuate it? Doherty's book gives us almost 300 pages of possible reasons; but in my own case, being brought up by parents destined to divorce acrimoniously didn't exactly help matters. Neither did the fact that my poor brother, who resembled my father so much more than I did, became a painful reminder for my mother of the husband who was no longer around. If she treated us differently, she certainly didn't mean to, but I felt she expected more of me than she did of him. I became in many ways her ally, and a co-parent whether I wanted to or not.

Little wonder, then, that we became such enemies: we represented different sides entirely, and uneven ones at that. My mother, after all, was still around; my father wasn't. We also responded to our parents' divorce very differently. I internalised everything; he mostly externalised. This meant that while I remained unerringly - or, the way I saw it, necessarily - calm, he was quick to lose his patience, and frequently did so at school, resulting in me being called to the headmaster's office for "consultation". We were now the product of a broken family, he told me, and so such behaviour was only to be expected. Slack was cut, the headmaster indicating that I should be grateful. But all I felt was the burden

of even greater responsibility. I didn't want any such responsibility. At home, though each of us became expert at giving each other dead arms, we bickered far more than we actually fought, though we did so endlessly and, as we got older, our warring became more psychological, and ugly with it. I know now that all he really wanted from me was friendship, but as the older sibling, friendship was the last thing I needed from him, my overbearing anchor.

Summer holidays were the worst.

While my working mother left us home alone during the day - as did all the parents of all my friends, au pairs conspicuous by their absence in our corner of southeast London - the days dragged on interminably, she imploring me to keep an eye on him, to make sure he didn't get up to mischief, when mischief was all I really wanted to get up to myself.

Amnesties There were intermittent amnesties, of course, periods when we managed to put our differences aside and come together in something approaching harmony. These occurred during my mother's frequent bouts of depression. We knew that she was depressed when the housework went ignored (she was ordinarily a cleanliness freak), and so in these times we became a fully functioning unit, working in tandem for our mutual benefit. It was the only way we knew to try to bring back a smile to our mother's face. But it didn't last and we soon fell back into our by now habitual ways. Doesn't everyone?

In adulthood, something curiously distinct happened to us. I entered into

a kind of second childhood, vigorously embracing the sudden absence of familial responsibility, while he had his career in place by the age of 21, and also a mortgage. He would go on to marry his childhood sweetheart, and become a decent, respectable citizen.

Every so often we would, at my mother's behest (read: pleading), all meet up in a restaurant, amid the safety of other people - in the hope that grown-up harmony had at last found us, but by now we were to one another the kind of people we would cross the road to avoid. At best, we had nothing to say to one another; at worst, there were all manner of disagreements to enter into, and so we did. My mother grew dispirited; respective girlfriends were not impressed.

The last time I saw him was in Nov 1999, when my mother died of cancer.

By now living in America and working in IT, he had flown over for the funeral and stayed on in London for a week afterwards while we went about the protracted business of tying up her affairs. If a week is a long time in politics, then for unloving brothers it's a hellish eternity. This final amnesty lasted for the day of the funeral itself, by which time we had exhausted one another's mettle, leaving us only with tiresomely old hostilities, and a shared sense of shock over who we had become in the intervening years.

He was by now a successful professional who smoked cigars and couldn't believe I didn't know which version of Microsoft Word my computer ran on. He considered me irresponsible and foolishly carefree, a 30-year-old without a pension. His last day in London was a memorable one, my then girlfriend (now wife) holding us apart as we squared up to each other, fists raised. If we'd been looking for a fitting final curtain, we'd just found it.

A decade on, I am now a father myself. And though geography saves my family from coming into further conflict with his, I do worry that I shall pass these miserably dysfunctional behavioural patterns down to my two daughters, aged four and two, something I desperately want to avoid.

I asked Karen Doherty how likely it is, and this energetic woman with her can-do attitude admitted that though 80 percent is hardly good odds, it can be avoided "with effort".

She ran me through a succession of bullet points that are expounded upon in her book. They are bullet points I may well follow to the letter, for I want my girls to be allies in life, not enemies. So far, they seem actively to like one another. Well, mostly they do.

I sincerely hope this continues because I know I would be distraught if they ever fell out, when it is clear to me at least that there is so much in both of them to like, and also to love.

NOTE: Sibling Rivalry by Karen Doherty and Georgia Coleridge is published by Bantam Press

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Friday, May 21, 2010

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Grassroots jihadism

By Scott Stewart

I

n the wake of the botched May 1 Times Square attack, some observers have begun to characterize Faisal Shahzad and the threat he posed as some sort of new or different approach to terrorism in the United States. Indeed, one media story quoted terrorism experts who claimed that recent cases such as those involving Shahzad and Najibullah Zazi indicate that jihadists in the United States are "moving toward the "British model." This model was described in the story as that of a Muslim who immigrates to the United Kingdom for an education, builds a life there and, after being radicalized, travels to a terrorist training camp in Pakistan and then returns to the United Kingdom to launch an attack.

A close look at the history of jihadist plots in the United States and the operational models involved in orchestrating those plots suggests that this so-called British model is not confined to Great Britain. Indeed, a close look at people like Shahzad and Zazi through a historical prism reveals that they are clearly following a model of radicalization and action seen in the United States that predates jihadist attacks in the United Kingdom. In fact, in many UK terrorism cases, the perpetrators were the children of Muslim immigrants who were born in the United Kingdom, such as suicide bombers Mohammad Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer and Hasib Hussain and cyberjihadist Younis Tsouli, and were not first-generation immigrants like Faisal Shahzad.

Now, this observation does not mean that we're trying to take a cheap shot at the press. The objective here is to cut through the clutter and clearly explain the phenomenon of grassroots jihadism, outline its extensive history in the United States, note the challenges its operatives pose to counterterrorism agencies and discuss the weaknesses of such operatives. It is also important to remember that the proliferation of grassroots operatives in recent years is something that was clearly expected as a logical result of the devolution of the jihadist movement, a phenomenon that Stratfor has closely followed for many years.

A Long History of Plots Not long after it began, when the jihadist movement was beginning to move beyond Afghanistan following the Soviet withdrawal, it quickly appeared in the United States. In July 1990, influential jihadist preacher Sheikh Omar AbdulRahman ("the Blind Sheikh") moved to New York and began speaking at mosques in Brooklyn and Jersey City.

After a rival was murdered, Rahman assumed control of the al-Kifah Refugee Center, an entity informally known in US security circles as the "Brooklyn jihad office," which recruited men to fight overseas and trained these aspiring jihadists at shooting ranges in New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut before sending them to fight in Afghanistan and elsewhere. The center also raised money to help fund these jihadist struggles.

However, for the Blind Sheikh, jihad wasn't an activity confined to Muslim lands. He issued fatwas authorizing attacks inside the United States and encouraged his followers to act locally. He didn't have to wait long.

In November 1990, one of the Blind Sheikh's followers, ElSayyid Nosair, gunned down Jewish political activist Meir Kahane in the ballroom of a Manhattan hotel. Nosair, an Egyptian with a engineering degree, had moved to the United States in 1981 in search of a better life. He married an American woman, had

A sign warning of New York Police Department security cameras in the area is seen across Seventh Avenue from a mobile NYPD observation tower May 13, 2010 in New York’s Times Square. – AFP children and became an American citizen in 1989. Several other men associated with the Brooklyn jihad office would go on to conduct the 1993 bombing attack on the World Trade Center. The following men had profiles similar to Nosair's, ie, they first came to the United States, established themselves and then became radicalized: • Nosair's cousin, Ibrahim Elgabrowny, was born in Egypt, married an American woman and was in the process of being naturalized at the time of the first World Trade Center bombing.

• Nidal Ayyad was a Palestinian born in Kuwait who immigrated to the United States in 1985 to study chemical engineering at Rutgers. Shortly after he graduated from Rutgers in 1991, he began working for AlliedSignal and became an American citizen.

• Mahmud Abouhalima was an Egyptian citizen who entered the United States on a tourist visa in 1985 and overstayed. He applied for amnesty and was granted permanent resident status in 1986. Abouhalima traveled to Afghanistan in 1988 to receive military training.

• Ahmed Ajaj was a Palestinian who entered the United States on a political asylum claim. He left the country under a false identity and traveled to Afghanistan where he received advanced training in bombmaking. He traveled back to the United States with Abdul Basit (also known as Ramzi Yousef) to provide leadership and bombmaking skill to the cell of men associated with the Blind Sheikh who would go on to bomb the World Trade Center. Ajaj was arrested as he tried to enter the United States using an altered Swedish passport.

The following are some of the other notable jihadists involved in the long history of plots against the United States who have profiles similar to those of Zazi and Shahzad - and this list is by no means exhaustive: • Sgt Ali Mohammed, an Egyptian who immigrated to the United States in 1984 and received his citizenship after marrying an American woman.

Mohammed enlisted in the US Army and served as an instructor in Arabic culture at the Special Warfare Center at Fort Bragg, NC. While serving in the US Army, Mohammed traveled to Afghanistan

where he reportedly fought the Soviets and trained jihadists. Mohammed also reportedly helped conduct surveillance of the US embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi that were bombed in August 1998, and he pleaded guilty to his involvement in that plot in October 2000.

• Wadih El Hage, a Lebanese who immigrated to the United States in 1978 to study urban planning. El Hage married an American woman and became a naturalized citizen in 1989. He also traveled to Afghanistan for extended periods to participate in the jihad there, then in 1992 went to Sudan to work with Osama bin Laden. In 1994 El Hage moved to Nairobi, Kenya where he opened an Islamic charity (and Al-Qaeda branch office). El Hage was convicted in May of 2001 for participation in the East Africa embassy-bombings conspiracy.

• All six of the convicted Fort Dix plotters were foreign born. Agron Abdullahu, born in Turkey, and Serdar Tatar, born in Jordan, were naturalized US citizens. Mohamed Shnewer and the three Duka brothers - Dritan, Eljvir and Shain - were ethnic Albanians who apparently entered the United States illegally over the Texas-Mexico border.

The men became radicalized while living in the United States and were convicted in Dec 2008 for plotting to attack US military personnel at Fort Dix, New Jersey.

• Syed Haris Ahmed, a naturalized American citizen born in Pakistan. In 1996, his parents immigrated to the United States, where Ahmed became a student at the Georgia Institute of Technology, majoring in mechanical engineering. He reportedly traveled to Canada in March 2005 with a friend, Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, to meet with a group of other aspiring jihadists to plan attacks. Sadequee is a native-born American citizen whose parents came to the United States from Bangladesh. The two were convicted in 2009 for providing material support to terrorists. Ahmed received a 13-year prison sentence and Sadequee was sentenced to 17 years.

A Well-Established Pattern Clearly, the pattern exhibited in recent cases by suspects such as Shahzad and Zazi is nothing new to the United States.

It has been around since 1990, long before similar cases began to appear in the

United Kingdom. Indeed, as we have discussed for several years now, an increase in the number of such operatives was to be anticipated as the jihadist movement devolved from a phenomenon based upon Al-Qaeda the group (which we call Al-Qaeda prime) toward one based on the wider jihadist movement. As AlQaeda prime was battered by efforts to destroy it, the group lost its place at the vanguard of jihadism on the physical battlefield. This change means that the primary jihadist threat to the West now emanates from regional jihadist groups and grassroots operatives and not AlQaeda prime.

Of course, while this devolution is a sign of success, it also presents challenges for counterterrorism practitioners.

Grassroots operatives are nothing if not ambiguous. They are decentralized, can be insular, and they might not be meaningfully connected to the command, control and communication mechanism of any known militant groups or actors. This makes them exceedingly hard to identify, let alone pre-empt, before they carry out an attack. Government bureaucracies do not do well in dealing with ambiguity, and it is common to see grassroots operatives who had received some degree of government scrutiny at some point but were not identified as significant threats before they launched their attacks. This problem is even more pronounced if the grassroots operative is a lone wolf who does not seek any type of outside assistance or guidance.

But the security provided by this ambiguity comes at a price, and this is what we refer to as the grassroots paradox. The paradox is that decentralization helps conceal militant actors, but it also frequently results in a diminished attack capability. Traditionally, one of the biggest problems for small cells and lone-wolf operatives is acquiring the skills necessary to conduct a successful terrorist attack. Even though many websites and military manuals can provide instruction on such things as hand-tohand combat and marksmanship, there is no substitute for hands-on experience in the real world.

This is especially true when it comes to the more subtle skills required to conduct a complex terrorist attack, such

as planning, surveillance and bombmaking. Many grassroots operatives also tend to lack the ability to realistically assess their low level of terrorist tradecraft or understand the limitations their lack of tradecraft presents. Because of this, they frequently attempt to conduct ambitious attacks that are far beyond their limited capabilities. These factors help explain why so few lone wolves and small cells have been able to pull off spectacular, mass-casualty attacks.

In recent months we have seen a message from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula urging grassroots jihadists to conduct simple attacks. This call was echoed by Al-Qaeda prime in a message from Adam Gadahn released on March 7.

The message from Gadahn counseled jihadists against traveling to training camps in places like Pakistan or Yemen and advised them not to coordinate their attacks with others who could prove to be government agents or informants.

Now, neither Zazi nor Shahzad heeded this advice, and both reportedly attended some sort of training courses in Pakistan.

But while these training courses may have taught them some basic concepts, the training clearly did not adequately prepare them to function as bombmakers upon their return to the United States. It is doubtful that self-trained operatives would be much more effective - there are subtle skills associated with bombmaking and preoperational surveillance that simply cannot be learned by watching or reading manuals.

YouTube Nevertheless, while the threat posed by grassroots jihadists and lone wolves is less severe than that posed by highly trained militant operatives from the core Al-Qaeda group or its regional franchises, lesser-trained operatives can still kill people - remember Maj Nidal Hasan and Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad.

And they also will most certainly continue to do so. Given the large number of grassroots plots that have emerged over the past two years, it is very likely that there are several individuals and groups working on attack plans in the United States and elsewhere at this very moment and some of these plots could prove more successful than Shahzad's illfated attempt. As in the failed Christmas Day airliner bombing, the only thing that kept Shahzad from succeeding was his own lack of ability, not any sort of counterterrorism operation.

This grim truth illustrates the pressing need for law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the West to focus on identifying potential attackers before they can launch their attacks. The good news for security personnel is that grassroots operatives, whether they are lone wolves or part of a small cell, often lack street skills and tend to be very haphazard while conducting preoperational surveillance. While these individuals are in many ways more difficult to identify before an attack than operatives who communicate with, or are somehow connected to, jihadist groups, their amateurish methods tend to make them more vulnerable to detection while conducting operational activities than more highly skilled operatives.

Therefore, a continued, proactive focus on identifying the "how" of attack planning such as looking for preoperational surveillance - is of vital importance. This increase in situational awareness should extend not only to protective intelligence and counterterrorism professionals but also to street cops and even civilians (like the street vendor who brought Shahzad's device to the attention of authorities).

Sometimes, a grassroots threat can be most effectively countered by grassroots defenders. — Stratfor

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SPOTLIGHT

Until recently, things weren’t looking so good for Nicolas Cage. In the 90s he transformed from a geeky, twitchy presence in soft dramas like Moonstruck and Peggy Sue Got Married into the oddest action hero of all time. Unlike Stallone and Schwarzenegger, Cage was a true livewire, a psychotic, tender presence who could kick ass even while being a doting father; who could forget him

A

fter his Academy award nomination for Adaptation in 2002, however, the oncemeaty action roles had begun to reek of ham. He made poor dramatic choices - Lord Of War, The Weather Man and the ghastly Wicker Man - and even his fans began to see the funny side. Websites such as niccageaseveryone.blogspot.com reimagined him as everyone from Batgirl to Hugo Chavez, while his gaudy taste in knick-knacks became as pilloried as Michael Jackson’s, the latest being a nine-foot pyramid tomb.

In October last year things turned uglier, with the death of his father, to whom he was close. This came at the height of Cage’s public problem with the IRS, which itself

Friday, May 21, 2010

brawling to the death for the sake of his son’s soft toy in 1997’s Con Air (“Put the bunny back in the box!”). Cage was something mainstream moviegoers and indie mavens could agree on, a soldier for hire who could be put to service by David Lynch in one of his dark, individualist fantasies or drafted in by Jerry Bruckheimer to serve time in a tour of blockbuster duty.

Back on a roll following Kick-Ass and now Bad Lieutenant, few actors have had as many ups and downs as Nicolas Cage. ‘People who do the wrong thing win,’ he tells Damon Wise

resulted in a feud with his financial advisor, who, in response to a lawsuit from Cage, painted his ex-client as a wastrel who frittered all his A-list cash on haunted houses and dinosaur bones.

He has been known to cancel interviews on a whim and his media silence around the release of Kick-Ass, the film that redelivered the old Cage to the audience that grew up with him (in the likes of Con Air and Face/Off), suggested that maybe he was backing away from public life. But then, Cage has never been one to conform to expectations. This, after all, is the actor who switched on the Christmas lights in his newly adopted hometown of Bath (“I’m feeling kind

Friday, May 21, 2010 of ELECTRIC right now!” he roared), and anyone who doubts that Cage can still cut it should pay a visit to Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant, in which he not only raises the bar for extreme, envelope-pushing acting, he nukes it.

When we catch up with him Cage, now 46, is in good spirits. In Herzog, 67, he has found the perfect collaborator, a Bavarian soulmate and a great respecter of the berserk, the ideal director for this tale of squalor and redemption in which Cage, as gambling, drugaddled cop Terence McDonagh, battles a spinal injury, gangs and his beautiful, highclass hooker-girlfriend’s vermin clients while trying to solve a murder in post-Katrina New Orleans. Until his 90s switch into documentaries, Herzog was known for his arthouse collaborations with his barking-mad star, the late, much-missed Klaus Kinski, and Cage openly admits that part of the attraction was trying to emulate that creative chemistry.

Nic Cage and Eva Mendes in Bad Lieutenant. “I very much wanted to work with Werner,” he drawls. “I wanted to have ...” He corrects himself. “Well, I wanted to see if I could have that relationship, in a positive way as opposed to a negative way, that Werner had with Kinski.” The two first met at his uncle Francis [Ford Coppola]’s house, when Cage was eight and more interested in the director’s tattoo of a skull wearing a top hat. Later, back in the early90s, there was a chance that they’d work together on a movie about Hernan Cortes, the Spanish dictator-explorer who brought mayhem and murder to South America. “But I was living in Los Angeles at the time,” says Cage, “and I just didn’t wanna play Cortes, because I grew up around that area, y’know, which has a lot of Mexican, uh, folks there.”

He laughs. “I didn’t want to be the face of Cortes in LA.” But when they did finally work together, the results were dynamic. And just as Herzog’s work with Kinski became clouded with myth, rumour and counter-rumour, so has his one and only film with Cage. Herzog, for example, as well as claiming that the movie is about “the bliss of evil”, has said this: “On the second day of shooting [Cage] asked me, ‘Why is he so bad? Is it the drugs?

Is it the destruction of the city? Is it the corruptness of the police?’” The actor wishes to differ. bliss of evil “I remember him saying the movie was about the bliss of evil,” he says warily, “but I don’t remember me questioning him: why is this guy so bad? That’s not something I’d say.

Although I must say that Werner’s point of view on the bliss of evil is what makes the film work. Because it’s so delicious for audiences to enjoy vicariously this cop doing all the things that we know we shouldn’t do.

And the presentation that Werner particularly as encapsulated by those three words, ‘bliss of evil’ - is what gives the movie its marvellous tone.

“Now,” he continues, “I was going at it from another perspective. I was having fun with it; I was laughing on my way home from work sometimes but I also felt ... that I also wanted to show the ugliness of the drugs, and that I didn’t want to glamorise it. I wanted Terence to be kinda hard to watch at times, and my face would get screwed up at time from the grimaces from the coke and from the ... the ... whatever else he was putting in his body, and the exhaustion from lack of sleep.

So it was important for me that he became almost grotesque, like a modern but degenerated Richard III of New Orleans, the twist in his back, was just trying to call up a little bit of Richard III.” And just as he fearlessly addressed alcoholism with his Oscar-winning turn in Leaving Las Vegas, so Cage dove headlong into the murky mindset of a man on coke, crack and smack. “That was really difficult,” he says. “I mean, I didn’t know that I could do it, so it was a huge challenge for me. Uh, I ... I ...” Untypically, he starts to reach for the words. “I guess I thought of it as an impressionistic point of view, like a recall. Of

SPOTLIGHT

Page 43

After his Academy award nomination for Adaptation in 2002, however, the once-meaty action roles had begun to reek of ham. He made poor dramatic choices - Lord Of War, The Weather Man and the ghastly Wicker Man - and even his fans began to see the funny side. whatever may have happened in my past from 25 years ago, where maybe I had, like, a lost weekend, and then I tried to recall that. But that was pretty distant, and a very faint memory. So I decided to meet with different drug counsellors and addicts and just ask them questions about behaviour. So then I carefully graphed out where the more speedlike substances, like coke, would give Terence that feeling of invincibility, and that fast talking, and those sort of lip-smacking sounds, and tics, and swallowing, with the dry mouth. And then when the heroin, or the downer drugs, came into the body, the speech became slower, and the blinking became slower.”

Cage plays down Herzog’s claims that his improvising terrified the cast, notably two old ladies who were threatened with a .44 Magnum and treated to the C-word in an improvised scene that takes an already insane film to crazy new heights. “They’re actresses,” he demurs, “so they like to play scared.”

The end result is a film that couldn’t be further from its origins: Abel Ferrara’s 1992, in-name-only original (“a very powerful, original film,” says Cage), a harrowing Catholic guilt-trip orgy, in which Harvey Keitel wallows in self-abasement and bliss is never on the map, even though plenty of evil is. “That’s a perfect example of a film being more of a Judeo-Christian programme,” notes Cage, “where a man is dealing with enormous amounts of guilt and seeing visions and trying to cope with his wrongdoing. Whereas in our film, it’s an existential experience, where people who do the wrong thing get rewarded.

And, in this case, win.”

He pauses, perhaps thinking of his own opportunity for a reversal of fortune: “And that also happens in life.”— Guardian

Page 44

Friday, May 21, 2010 CROSSWORD 995

Word Sleuth Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

ACROSS 1. A short piece remaining on a trunk or stem where a branch is lost.

5. An associate degree in applied science.

8. A metric unit of length equal to ten meters.

11. A local and well-defined elevation of the land.

12. An independent agency of the United States government responsible for collecting and coordinating intelligence and counterintelligence activities abroad in the national interest.

13. A strong emotion.

14. Muslim name for God. 16. Greek mythology.

18. A linear unit of length equal to 12 inches or a third of a yard.

19. (Akkadian) God ruling with his consort Ereshkigal the world of the dead.

20. A bachelor's degree in religion.

21. A case or sheath especially a pollen sac or moss capsule.

22. Lower in esteem.

24. An organization of countries formed in 1961 to agree on a common policy for the sale of petroleum.

27. Counting the number of white and red blood cells and the number of platelets in 1 cubic millimeter of blood.

29. Feline mammal usually having thick soft fur and being unable to roar.

31. Lacking in light.

32. The blood group whose red cells carry both the A and B antigens.

34. (British) A waterproof raincoat made of rubberized fabric.

36. Cubes of meat marinated and cooked on a skewer usually with vegetables.

39. The 10th letter of the Greek alphabet.

43. A flat wing-shaped process or winglike part of an organism.

44. Title for a civil or military leader (especially in Turkey).

47. Aromatic bulb used as seasoning.

48. An adult male person (as opposed to a woman).

49. Not only so, but.

50. Resinlike substance secreted by certain lac insects.

51. (Irish) Mother of the ancient Irish gods.

52. (prefix) In front of or before in space.

53. A master's degree in fine arts.

DOWN 1. A line that forms the length of an arrow pointer.

2. The state of aggregation of soil and its condition for supporting plant growth.

3. (Norse mythology) One of the Aesir known for his beauty and skill with bow and skis.

4. Whiten with Blanco.

5. A radioactive element of the actinide series.

6. The branch of computer science that deal with writing computer programs that can solve problems creatively.

7. The capital and largest city of Yemen.

8. A depression in an otherwise level surface.

9. English biochemist (born in Germany) who discovered the Krebs cycle (1900-1981).

10. English economist noted for his studies of international trade and finance (born in 1907).

15. A collection of objects laid on top of each other.

17. A white linen liturgical vestment with sleeves.

23. A condition (mostly in boys) characterized by behavioral and learning disorders.

25. An international organization of European countries formed after World War II to reduce trade barriers and increase cooperation among its members.

26. A rotating disk shaped to convert circular into linear motion.

28. A small tent used as a dressing room beside the sea or a swimming pool.

30. Flightless New Zealand birds similar to gallinules.

33. A soft silvery metallic element of the alkali earth group.

35. A white metallic element that burns with a brilliant light.

37. A feeling of strong eagerness (usually in favor of a person or cause).

38. Common Indian weaverbird.

40. The inner surface of the hand from the wrist to the base of the fingers.

41. French cabaret singer (1915-1963).

42. Type genus of the Alcidae comprising solely the razorbill.

45. (British) Informal term for information.

46. Headdress that protects the head from bad weather.

Yesterday’s Solution

Page 45

Friday, May 21, 2010

COUNTRY CODES

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY A r i es ( M ar ch 21 - A pr i l 19 ) All of us have gaps in our education. You and I and everyone else alive have dank pockets of ignorance that diminish our humanity and musty pits of naivete that prevent us from seeing truths that are obvious to others. We all lack certain skills that hold us back from being more fulfilled in our chosen fields. That's the bad news, Aries. The good news is that the gaps in your education will be up for review in the coming weeks -- which means that it'll be an excellent time to make plans to fill them. Here's a good way to get started: Be aggressive in identifying the things that you don't even know you don't know.

Libra (September 23- October 2 2 ) All 26 of Edgar Rice Burroughs' stories about Tarzan are set in Africa, but he never once visited that continent. And Bram Stoker didn't feel the need to travel to the Transylvanian region of Romania in order to write about it in his novel Dracula. But I don't recommend this approach to you in the coming weeks, Libra. If you want to cultivate something new in your life by drawing on an exotic influence, I think you should immerse yourself in that exotic influence, at least for a while. If you want to tap into the inspiration available through an unfamiliar source, you need to actually be in the presence of that unfamiliar source.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) You don't have to answer to anybody this week, Taurus. You don't have to defend yourself, explain yourself, or compromise yourself. I mean, you can do those things if you want to be super extra nice, but there won't be any hell to pay if you don't. It's one of those rare times when you have more power than usual to shape the world in accordance with your vision of what the world should be.

I'll go so far as to say that the world needs you to be very assertive in imposing your will on the flow of events. Just one caveat: Mix a generous dose of compassion in with your authoritative actions.

S co r pi o ( O c t obe r 23 - N ov em b er 21) Why would you choose this bright, sunny moment to descend into the dark places and explore the fermenting mysteries? What renegade impulse would move you to turn away from the predictable pleasures and easy solutions, and instead go off in quest of more complex joys and wilder answers? Here's what I have to say about that: I think you long to be free of transitory wishes and fleeting dreams for a while so that you can get back into alignment with your deeper purposes. You need to take a break from the simple obsessions of your grayish, poker-faced ego, and re-attune yourself to the call of your freaky, evergreen soul.

Ge min i (May 2 1-J une 2 0) When Paul McCartney first got the inspiration to write the song "Yesterday," he had the melody and rhythm but couldn't get a feel for what the lyrics should be. For a while, as he was waiting for the missing words to pop into his brain, he used nonsense stand-in phrases. The dummy version of the first line was "Scrambled eggs, oh my dear, you have such lovely legs." This approach could be useful for you in the coming weeks, Gemini. As you create a fresh approach or novel departure in your own life, you might want to show the patience McCartney did. Be willing to keep moving ahead even though you don't have the full revelation quite yet.

S agittarius (No vemb er 22-December 21) Sufi holy man Ibn 'Ata Allah was speaking about prayer when he said the following: "If you make intense supplication and the timing of the answer is delayed, do not despair of it. His reply to you is guaranteed; but in the way He chooses, not the way you choose, and at the moment He desires, not the moment you desire." While I don't claim to be able to perfectly decipher the will of the divine, my astrological research suggests that you will soon get a definitive answer to a question you've been asking for a long time. It may come softly and quietly, though, and from a direction you don't expect, and with a nuance or two that'll test your reflexes.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) I suspect you're going to feel a bit constrained in the coming weeks, Cancerian -- maybe even imprisoned. I suggest you make the best of it. Rather than feeling sorry for yourself and spiraling down into a dark night of the soul, try this: Imagine that you're a resourceful hermit who's temporarily under house arrest in an elegant chalet with all the amenities. Regard this "incarceration" as a chance to start work on a masterpiece, or upgrade your meditation practice, or read a book you've needed an excuse to lose yourself in. Believe it or not, your "deprivation" could be one of the best things that has happened to you in a while.

L eo ( Jul y 2 3- Aug us t 2 2 ) I won't be surprised if people begin to compete for your attention. There may even be some pushing and shoving as they jostle to get closer to you. At the very least, you can expect a flurry of requests for your time and energy. What's this all about? Well, your worth seems to be rising. Either your usefulness is flat-out increasing or else those who've underestimated you in the past are finally tuning in to what they've been missing. So here's my question and concern: Will you get so seduced by what everyone asks you to give them that you lose sight of what you really want to give them? I suspect there will be a difference.

Virg o ( Au gu st 2 3 - Se pt em b er 22) I'm not saying that you should create a superhero identity for yourself and embark on a campaign to combat injustice. But if you've ever wondered whether the life of a costumed crusader is right for you, it's an excellent time to experiment. Your courage will be expanding in the coming weeks. Your craving for adventure will be strong, too. Even more importantly, your hunger to do good deeds that reach beyond your own self-interest will be growing.

Interested? Check out the Superhero Supply website to get yourself operational.

C ap ric orn (D ec emb er 22 Januar y 19) "Is Fast Food Too Tempting?" read a headline in The Week magazine. The accompanying article discussed whether people have the right to blame and even sue McDonald's and Burger King for their health problems. In my opinion, we might as well add other allegedly appealing poisons to the discussion. "Is heroin too tempting?"

"Is cheating on your lover or spouse too tempting?"

"Is watching TV five hours a day too tempting?" I hope you're seeing where I'm going with this, Capricorn. The coming weeks will be a good time to take personal responsibility for any supposedly fun activity you're doing that warps your character or saps your energy. It's prime time to end your relationship with stuff that's bad for you.

Aquarius (January 20Fe br ua r y 1 8 ) "The mind loves order, the heart loves chaos, and the gut loves action," says my astrological colleague Antero Alli. The ideal situation is to honor each of these needs, keeping them in a dynamic balance. But now and then, it's healthy to emphasize one over the other two.

According to my astrological analysis, you're entering one of those times when the heart's longing for chaos should get top priority. But if you do choose to go this way, please promise me one thing: Do your best to tilt toward the fascinating, rejuvenating kind of chaos and tilt away from the disorienting, demoralizing kind.

Pisces (Febr uary 19-March 2 0 ) When people are truly dehydrated, the impulse that tells them they're thirsty shuts down. That's why they may not know they're suffering from a lack of water. In a metaphorically similar way, Pisces, you have been deprived so long of a certain kind of emotional sustenance that you don't realize what you're missing. See if you can find out what it is, and then make measured (non-desperate!) plans to get a big, strong influx of it. The cosmic rhythms will be on your side in this effort!

Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Anguilla Antiga Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Congo Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Cyprus (Northern) Czech Republic Denmark Diego Garcia Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador England (UK) Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guinea Guyana Haiti Holland (Netherlands) Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Ibiza (Spain) Iceland India Indian Ocean Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Italy Ivory Coast Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait

0093 00355 00213 00376 00244 001264 001268 0054 00374 0061 0043 001242 00973 00880 001246 00375 0032 00501 00229 001441 00975 00591 00387 00267 0055 00673 00359 00226 00257 00855 00237 001 00238 001345 00236 00235 0056 0086 0057 00269 00242 00682 00506 00385 0053 00357 0090392 00420 0045 00246 00253 001767 001809 00593 0020 00503 0044 00240 00291 00372 00251 00500 00298 00679 00358 0033 00594 00689 00241 00220 00995 0049 00233 00350 0030 00299 001473 00590 001671 00502 00224 00592 00509 0031 00504 00852 0036 0034 00354 0091 00873 0062 0098 00964 00353 0039 00225 001876 0081 00962 007 00254 00686 00965

Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Liberia Libya Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Macedonia Madagascar Majorca Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar (Burma) Namibia Nepal Netherlands (Holland) Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Nigar Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Ireland (UK) North Korea Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russian Federation Rwanda Saint Helena Saint Kitts Saint Lucia Saint Pierre Saint Vincent Samoa US Samoa West San Marino Sao Tone Saudi Arabia Scotland (UK) Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Korea Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tanzania Thailand Toga Tonga Tokelau Trinidad Tunisia Turkey Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay

00996 00856 00371 00961 00231 00218 00370 00352 00853 00389 00261 0034 00265 0060 00960 00223 00356 00692 00596 00222 00230 00269 0052 00691 00373 00377 00976 001664 00212 00258 0095 00264 00977 0031 00599 00687 0064 00505 00227 00234 00683 00672 0044 00850 0047 00968 0092 00680 00507 00675 00595 0051 0063 0048 00351 001787 00974 0040 007 00250 00290 001869 001758 00508 001784 00684 00685 00378 00239 00966 0044 00221 00284 00232 0065 00421 00386 00677 00252 0027 0082 0034 0094 00249 00597 00268 0046 0041 00963 00886 00255 0066 00228 00676 00690 001868 00216 0090 00688 00256 00380 00976 0044 00598

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WHAT’S ON

Friday, May 21, 2010

Scientific Center’s ‘Space Day’

T

he Scientific Center will be celebrating Space Day today.

Since its launch in 1997, Space Day educational initiative has evolved into a massive grassroots effort dedicated to the extraordinary achievements, benefits and opportunities in the exploration and use of space. The ultimate goal is to promote math, science, technology and engineering education by nurturing young peoples’ enthusiasm for the wonders of the universe and

Indoor picnic

K Everton Academy emerge winners Everton Academy under 16 team won the GOAL World Cup Competition held at the Discovery Mall over the last three days. Despite a narrow defeat in their opening group match they responded with three victories, followed by outstanding performances in the semi final and final matches on day three to finish well deserved champions.

uwait Kannada Koota invites all its members with their family to the Indoor Picnic today at Carmel School Khaitan from 4 pm onwards. There will be plenty of fun with games and activity stalls. The highlight of the evening will be Karnataka cuisine prepared and served for dinner by KKK members at nominal charges. For details please call up 99637545, 97330120, 55866840 and 66257910.

inspiring them to continue the stellar work of today’s space explorers. We have planned a variety of activities including making your own rocket car, contacting a space station with the Amateur Radio team and star-gazing with the Al-Marzam team. We will also conduct challenging and educational competitions for participants. Activities will be from 4:00 pm-8:00 pm. For more information visit our website at www.tsck.org.kw or call 1848 888.

AUK concludes soccer tourney

T

he Student Government Association at the American University of Kuwait successfully concluded their soccer tournament offering trophies, medals and prizes for first, second and third place winners.

The tournament commenced from April 27 and concluded on May 13 with 18 teams participating from the AUK student population. The tournament was held on AUK’s soccer field. SGA worked in co-operation with the Campus Activities Board who sponsored the event and made every effort to ensure the success of this event.

Carmel School soars high

C

armel School had a triadic celebration, to felicitate their students for their outstanding performance. The junior recipients were 341 in numbers. They inspired us with “pointers to success”.

The function was graced by Zeeshan Ullah Khan (Brand Manager for Sadia, Al-Yasra food Co).

The middle school followed suit with 77 awardees climbing the “ladder of success”. The program was graced by Clement Fernandes - Senior Manager, Gulf Trading & Refrigerating Company. On May 13, 2010 the high school students, 77 in strength, reached the height of the pinnacle through hard work, perseverance and deep faith in God. The ‘O-Grade Ceremony’ was graced by Petar Rajic, the Vatican Ambassador to Kuwait and the school sponsor Hamad Al-Ateeqi.

The high school students inspired the audience with their message “To soar high” and reach for the impossible dream through an array of songs, dances and a musical called “Joseph and his Technicoloured Dream Coat”.

The Carmel Band entertained the audience and was highly appreciated.

Carmel over the years has displayed immense capability and has soared way beyond the horizon. The students’ academic performance was true to their motto “Excelsior”.

Friday, May 21, 2010

WHAT’S ON

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Page 48

Friday, May 21, 2010

FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION 161

FLIGHT SCHEDULE

IN CASE YOU ARE NOT TRAVELLING, YOUR PROPER CANCELLATION OF BOOKINGS WILL HELP OTHER PASSENGERS TO USE SEATS. Airlines Wataniya Airways Tunis Air Wataniya Airways Kuwait Gulf Air Wataniya Airways Pakistan Jazeera Turkish Wataniya Airways Ethiopian Jazeera Jazeera DHL Emirates Etihad Qatari Air France Jazeera Jazeera British Kuwait Jazeera Kuwait Kuwait Fly Dubai Kuwait Kuwait Kuwait Kuwait Emirates Arabia Kuwait Qatari Etihad Iran Air Wataniya Airways Gulf Air Middle East Wataniya Airways Jazeera Yemenia Jazeera Egypt Air Jazeera Kuwait Jordanian Wataniya Airways United Jazeera Fly Dubai Jazeera Wataniya Airways Kuwait Kuwait Qatari Kuwait Bahrain Air Mihin Etihad Jazeera Emirates Gulf Air Wataniya Airways Saudia Arabia Jazeera Jazeera Srilankan Jazeera

Arrival Flights on Friday 21/05/2010 Flt Route 188 Bahrain 327 Tunis/Dubai 306 Cairo 544 Cairo 211 Bahrain 408 Beirut 215 Karachi 241 Amman 772 Istanbul 322 Sharm El Sheikh 620 Addis Ababa 267 Beirut 513 Sharm El Sheikh 370 Bahrain 853 Dubai 305 Abu Dhabi 138 Doha 6770 Paris 503 Luxor 527 Alexandria 157 London 416 Jakarta/Kuala Lumpur 481 Sabiha 206 Islamabad 302 Mumbai 053 Dubai 676 Dubai 352 Cochin 284 Dhaka 362 Colombo 855 Dubai 121 Sharjah 286 Chittagong 132 Doha 301 Abu Dhabi 619 Lar 182 Bahrain 213 Bahrain 404 Beirut 102 Dubai 165 Dubai 825 Sanaa 171 Dubai 610 Cairo 457 Damascus 672 Dubai 800 Amman 432 Damascus 982 Washington Dc Dulles 525 Alexandria 057 Dubai 257 Beirut 422 Amman 552 Damascus 744 Dammam 134 Doha 546 Alexandria 344 Bahrain 403 Colombo/Dubai 303 Abu Dhabi 427 Bahrain 851 Dubai 215 Bahrain 402 Beirut 510 Riyadh 125 Sharjah 367 Deirezzor 239 Amman 227 Colombo/Dubai 497 Riyadh

Time 00:30 00:35 00:50 00.50 01:05 01:05 01:15 01:15 01:15 01:20 01:45 01:55 02:00 02:15 02:25 02:55 03:25 03:25 05:30 06:10 06:30 06:35 06:40 07:15 07:50 07:55 08:00 08:05 08:10 08:20 08:25 08:40 08:45 09:00 09:25 10:40 10:45 10:45 10:50 11:05 11:15 12:00 12:50 12:55 13:10 13:15 13:35 13:35 13:35 13:50 13:50 14:10 14:10 14:35 14:40 15:05 15:30 16:40 16:40 16:50 16:50 16:55 17:15 17:15 17:20 17:40 17:40 17:45 18:00 18:05

Wataniya Airways Kuwait Wataniya Airways Kuwait Kuwait Kuwait Jazeera Kuwait Kuwait Kuwait Kuwait Indian Kuwait Fly Dubai Oman Air Middle East Wataniya Airways Jet A/W Rovos Saudia Wataniya Airways Jazeera DHL Gulf Air Kuwait Qatari Jazeera United Emirates Jazeera Lufthansa Jazeera Egypt Air Shaheen Air KLM Egypt Air Wataniya Airways

304 Cairo 166 Paris/Rome 106 Dubai 542 Cairo 502 Beirut 618 Doha 177 Dubai 614 Bahrain 674 Dubai 774 Riyadh 102 New York/London 575 Chennai/Goa 562 Amman 061 Dubai 647 Muscat 402 Beirut 612 Sabiha 572 Mumbai 081 Baghdad 506 Jeddah 404 Beirut 459 Damascus 372 Bahrain 217 Bahrain 786 Jeddah 136 Doha 693 Shiraz 981 Bahrain 859 Dubai 429 Bahrain 636 Frankfurt 185 Dubai 612 Cairo 441 Lahore/Karachi 0447 Amsterdam/Bahrain 606 Luxor 108 Dubai

Departure Flights on Friday 21/05/2010 Airlines Flt Route Bangladesh 044 Dhaka 390 Mangalore/Kozhikode India Express 637 Frankfurt Lufthansa Indian 982 Ahmedabad/Hyderabad/Chennai Pakistan 206 Lahore Tunis Air 328 Tunis 773 Istanbul Turkish 216 Karachi Pakistan 620 Bahrain/Addis Ababa Ethiopian DHL 371 Bahrain Emirates 854 Dubai Etihad 306 Abu Dhabi 139 Doha Qatari 6770 Dubai/Hong Kong Air France Wataniya Airways 101 Dubai Jazeera 524 Alexandria Jazeera 164 Dubai Gulf Air 212 Bahrain Wataniya Airways 181 Bahrain Jazeera 456 Damascus Wataniya Airways 431 Damascus British 156 London Jazeera 256 Beirut Kuwait 545 Alexandria Fly Dubai 054 Dubai Jazeera 170 Dubai Kuwait 177 Frankfurt/Geneva Kuwait 671 Dubai Kuwait 551 Damascus Wataniya Airways 421 Amman Arabia 122 Sharjah Emirates 856 Dubai

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

Qatari Kuwait Etihad Wataniya Airways Gulf Air Iran Air Middle East Wataniya Airways Kuwait Kuwait Wataniya Airways Jazeera Jazeera Kuwait Kuwait Yemenia Jazeera Egypt Air Jordanian Wataniya Airways Fly Dubai Kuwait United Jazeera Jazeera Wataniya Airways Kuwait Kuwait Kuwait Jazeera Kuwait Qatari Kuwait Rovos Bahrain Air Etihad Minin Emirates Wataniya Airways Gulf Air Jazeera Arabia Saudia Jazeera Jazeera Srilankan Jazeera Wataniya Airways Kuwait Kuwait Fly Dubai Kuwait Kuwait Oman Air Middle East Jet A/W Wataniya Airways Gulf Air Saudia DHL Kuwait Qatari Kuwait Kuwait Jazeera Emirates Jazeera Jazeera United Kuwait Gulf Air

133 117 302 401 214 618 405 303 743 541 611 366 238 103 501 825 426 611 801 105 058 561 982 176 496 403 673 617 785 458 773 135 613 082 345 304 404 858 305 216 262 126 511 184 692 228 428 107 283 361 062 331 343 648 403 571 187 218 507 373 675 137 203 301 612 860 526 636 981 411 613

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

Doha New York Abu Dhabi Beirut Bahrain Lar Beirut Cairo Dammam Cairo Sabiha Deirezzor Amman London Beirut Doha/Sanaa Bahrain Cairo Amman Dubai Dubai Amman Bahrain Dubai Riyadh Beirut Dubai Doha Jeddah Damascus Riyadh Doha Bahrain Baghdad Bahrain Abu Dhabi Dubai/Colombo Dubai Cairo Bahrain Beirut Sharjah Riyadh Dubai Shiraz Dubai/Colombo Bahrain Dubai Dhaka Colombo Dubai Trivandrum Chennai Muscat Beirut Mumbai Bahrain Bahrain Jeddah Bahrain Dubai Doha Lahore Mumbai Lahore Dubai Alexandria Aleppo Washington Dc Dulles Bangkok/Manila Cairo

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

CLASSIFIEDS

Friday, May 21, 2010 (C 2272)

ACCOMMODATION Semi-furnished single room available in Sharq near Amiri hospital for a single bachelor. Contact: 66562488, 22428159.

(C 2295) Accommodation available for Christian bachelors near United Indian school.

Contact: 97695791. (C 2289) Sharing accommodation available in Abbassiya for a couple/ small family/ bachelor in a C-AC building, with 2 spacious bedrooms, 2 bathrooms & a big hall, kitchen facility, ready to occupy, ideal location 24 hr security. Call 66752359 or 97635928. (C 2292) Flat (mulhaq) for rent in Farwaniya 2 rooms water, electricity and A/C, Indian family only, no children, Call 97409556. (C 2293) 20-5-2010 Sharing accommodation available in a fully furnished 1 BHK flat for small Muslim family (Indian) from 25th June to 10 September in Abbassiya, opp German clinic. Contact: 97834504.

(C 2286) 19-5-2010 Separate room available for decent bachelor close to Maidal Hawally bridge and 15 bus route. Contact: 97804854. (C 2282) 18-5-2010 Available room for rent for Mangalorean or Goan family opp. Jabriya bridge, near Al-Bahar complex, Hawally.

Contact: 22662734.

Sharing accommodation available for Christian couples/working ladies with Keralite family, fully furnished, from end May ‘10.

Contact: 66743956, 24318478. (C 2271) Sharing accommodation available in Abbassiya for visiting family or two working ladies or couples in new CAC fully furnished two bedroom, two bathroom (attached) flat from 7th June 2010.

Contact: 99494359.

(C 2268) Sharing accommodation available in Farwaniya for couples (Indians only) to share with a Keralite family in a 2 BHK CA/C building, near Mughal Mahal restaurant, close to jamiya and bus stops. If interested contact 97508939, 66786103.

(C 2266) Fully furnished family accommodation available in Salmiya near Bestow supermarket from 20th May to 2nd July. Contact: 25620547, 66737466.

(C 2273) 17-5-2010 Accommodation available for non-smoking executive bachelor in a 2 bedroom CA/C flat near Integrated School, Abbassiya.

Contact: 60049556. (C 2265) Sharing accommodation available for a non-smoking Keralite bachelor in Abbassiya, rent KD 40.

Contact: 66577233.

(C 2263)

FOR SALE

Page 49

SITUATION VACANT

Toyota Corolla, model 2006, 1.8 XLi, color white, 76,000 km, price KD 2,550.

Tel: 55107856. (C 2294) 20-5-2010

Urgently required housemaid for Indian family in Abbassiya. Please call 99509436. (C 2279)

Toyota Corolla, model 2010, color white, price KD 3950 only. Tel: 66050484.

(C 2284)

Required live-in maid for an Indian family, please contact: 24764736 or 66527975 between 5 pm to 11 pm.

(C 2277) 18-5-2010

Toyota Corolla, model 2005, color white, price KD 2450 only. Tel: 60951195.

(C 2285) Toyota Camry Grande, model 2005, 6 cylinders, done 62,000 kms only, white color, excellent condition, cash price KD 2,850.

Contact: 66211779. (C 2287) Audi A8 2002 in good condition, silver color, leather interior, KD 2500 obo. Call 99786814. (C 2283) 19-5-2010 i-mate Jama 201 phone, KD 35.

Tel: price 55451465/66451465.

(C 2281) 1 year Internet subscription card, price KD 15 (original price KD 55).

Tel: 55451465/66451465 (C 2280) 18-5-2010 Toyota Corolla, model 2006, 1.8 XLi, color white, km 76.

Price KD 2,500. Tel: 55107865. (C 2270) PC IBM P4 2.4, Intel original, RAM 256, HD 40 GB with 15” LCD monitor, price KD 50 & Laptop IBM Centrino with basic specifications, price KD 60, all in excellent condition, call 99322585.

(C 2267) 17-5-2010

CHANGE OF NAME Busam Aswani holder of Indian Passport No. H 2028715, issued in Hyderabad, hereby change my name to Fatima Riaz.

(C 2290) 20-5-2010 I, Alen John Karikunnel, holder of Indian Passport No. G 3928384, hereby change my name to Allen John Karikunnel. (C 2274) 17-5-2010

SITUATION WANTED A Pakistani male, M.Com having 3 years experience in Kuwait, computer knowledge, seeks a job in accounts or stock. Visa 18.

Contact: 55241688.

(C 2291) 20-5-2010 Experienced secretary is looking for immediate placement. 12 years Kuwait experience, complete secretarial works/office administration & coordination/independent correspondence/ local purchase/quantity survey

works.

Please call 66597087/24349364.

(C 2288) 19-5-2010 I need full-time job as sales executive, my qualification is B.Com + MBA, valid driving license. I can also handle bank and payment recovery related issues.

Call: 55355954. (C 2276) 18-5-2010

MISCELLANEOUS Join an interesting “vegetable carving” classes, for beginners, both for teenagers and ladies, starting every Sunday at Shaab for more details contact: 97886119, 22616532.

(C 2278) 18-5-2010

PRIVATE CLINICS Ophthalmologists: Dr. Abidallah Al-Mansoor 5622444 Dr. Samy Al-Rabeea 5752222 Dr. Masoma Habeeb 5321171 Dr. Mubarak Al-Ajmy 5739999 Dr. Mohsen Abel 5757700 Dr Adnan Hasan Alwayl 5732223 Dr. Abdallah Al-Baghly 5732223 Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT): Dr. Ahmed Fouad Mouner Dr. Abdallah Al-Ali Dr. Abd Al-Hameed Al-Taweel Dr. Sanad Al-Fathalah Dr. Mohammad Al-Daaory Dr. Ismail Al-Fodary Dr. Mahmoud Al-Booz

4555050 Ext 510 5644660 5646478 5311996 5731988 2620166 5651426

General Practitioners: Dr. Mohamme Y Majidi Dr. Yousef Al-Omar Dr. Tarek Al-Mikhazeem Dr. Kathem Maarafi Dr. Abdallah Ahmad Eyadah Dr. Nabeel Al-Ayoobi Dr. Dina Abidallah Al-Refae

4555050 Ext 123 4719312 3926920 5730465 5655528 4577781 5333501

Urologists: Dr. Ali Naser Al-Serfy 2641534 Dr. Fawzi Taher Abul 2639955 Dr. Khaleel Abidallah Al-Awadi 2616660

Dr. Adel Al-Hunayan FRCS (C) 5313120 Plastic Surgeons: Dr. Mohammad Al-Khalaf Dr. Abdal-Redha Lari Dr. Abdel Quttainah

2547272 2617700 5625030/60

Family Doctor: Dr Divya Damodar

3729596/3729581

Psychiatrists Dr. Esam Al-Ansari Dr Eisa M. Al-Balhan

2635047 2613623/0

Gynaecologists & Obstetricians: Dr Adrian Harbe Dr. Verginia s.Marin Dr. Fozeya Ali Al-Qatan Dr. Majeda Khalefa Aliytami Dr. Ahmad Al-Khooly Dr. Salem soso

3729596/3729581 572-6666 ext 8321 2655539 5343406 5739272 2618787

General Surgeons: Dr. Abidallah Behbahani 5717111 Dr. Amer Zawaz Al-Amer 2610044 Dr. Mohammad Yousef Basher 5327148

Dr. Latefa Al-Duweisan Dr. Nadem Al-Ghabra Dr. Mobarak Aldoub Dr Nasser Behbehani

5728004 5355515 4726446 5654300/3

Paediatricians: Dr. Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rashed Dr. Zahra Qabazard Dr. Sohail Qamar Dr. Snaa Maaroof Dr. Pradip Gujare Dr. Zacharias Mathew

5340300 5710444 2621099 5713514 3713100 4334282

(1) Ear, Nose and Throat (2) Plastic Surgeon Dr. Abdul Mohsin Jafar, FRCS (Canada) 5655535 Dentists: Dr Anil Thomas Dr. Shamah Al-Matar Dr. Anesah Al-Rasheed Dr. Abidallah Al-Amer Dr. Faysal Al-Fozan Dr. Abdallateef Al-Katrash Dr. Abidallah Al-Duweisan Dr. Bader Al-Ansari

3729596/3729581 2641071/2 2562226 2561444 2619557 2525888 5653755 5620111

Internists, Chest & Heart: Dr. Adnan Ebil Dr. Mousa Khadada

2639939 2666300

Neurologists: Dr. Sohal Najem Al-Shemeri 5633324 Dr. Jasem Mola Hassan 5345875

Gastrologists Dr. Sami Aman 2636464 Dr. Mohammad Al-Shamaly 5322030 Dr. Foad Abidallah Al-Ali 2633135 Endocrinologist: Dr. Abd Al-Naser Al-Othman 5339330 Dr. Ahmad Al-Ansari 5658888 Dr. Kamal Al-Shomr 5329924 Physiotherapists & VD: Dr. Deyaa Shehab Dr. Musaed Faraj Khamees

5722291 2666288

Rheumatologists: Dr. Adel Al-Awadi 5330060 Dr. Khaled Al-Jarallah 5722290 Internist, Chest & Heart: DR.Mohammes Akkad 4555050 Ext 210 Dr. Mohammad Zubaid MB, ChB, FRCPC, PACC Assistant Professor Of Medicine Head, Division of Cardiology Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital Tel: 5339667 Dr. Farida Al-Habib MD, PH.D, FACC Consultant Cardiologist Tel: 2611555-2622555

Page 50

Friday, May 21, 2010

TV Listings Orbit /Showtime Channels

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

Inside the Actors Studio Life Life on Mars ER Life Sons of Anarchy CSI New York Inside the Actors Studio Without a Trace Ghost Whisperer Life on Mars ER CSI New York Sons of Anarchy Life on Mars Life Without a Trace Ghost Whisperer Inside the Actors Studio Beauty and the Geek The Pacific Survivor tbc The Closer Rescue Me

00:15 Dark Days in Monkey City 00:45 Animal Cops Houston 01:40 Untamed & Uncut 02:35 Going Ape 03:00 Going Ape 03:30 Animal Cops Miami 04:25 Animal Precinct 05:20 Deep Into the Wild with Nick Baker 05:45 Monkey Business 06:10 E-Vets: The Interns 06:35 Aussie Animal Rescue 07:00 Wildlife SOS 07:25 Pet Rescue 07:50 Orangutan Island 08:15 Dark Days in Monkey City 08:45 In Search of the Giant Anaconda 09:40 Monkey Business 10:05 The Planet’s Funniest Animals 10:30 The Planet’s Funniest Animals 10:55 Monkey Life 11:20 RSPCA: Have You Got What it Takes?

11:50 Animal Precinct 12:45 E-Vets: The Interns 13:10 Pet Rescue 13:40 Animal Cops Miami 14:35 Wildlife SOS 15:00 RSPCA: Have You Got What it Takes?

15:30 Orangutan Island 15:55 Dark Days in Monkey City 16:25 The Planet’s Funniest Animals 16:50 The Planet’s Funniest Animals 17:20 Monkey Business 17:45 Monkey Life 18:15 Safari Sisters 18:40 Safari Sisters 19:10 Orangutan Island 19:40 Dark Days in Monkey City 20:10 Animal Cops Houston 21:05 Untamed & Uncut

00:15 00:45 01:15 01:45 02:30 03:05 03:30 03:50 04:10 04:35 04:55 05:15 05:40 06:00 06:20 06:45 07:05 07:25 07:50 08:10 08:30 08:55 09:15 09:40 10:25 11:15 11:45 12:15 13:00 13:30

The Fast Show Saxondale Carrie And Barry The Weakest Link Last of the Summer Wine Teletubbies Me Too Tweenies Teletubbies Me Too Tweenies Teletubbies Me Too Tweenies Teletubbies Me Too Tweenies Teletubbies Me Too Tweenies Teletubbies Me Too Tweenies Bargain Hunt The Life Of Mammals Last of the Summer Wine Last of the Summer Wine The Weakest Link Eastenders Doctors

14:00 14:30 15:15 15:45 16:15 17:00 17:30 18:00 19:05 20:00 20:45 21:15 22:15 22:45 23:30

Cash In The Attic Bargain Hunt Last of the Summer Wine Last of the Summer Wine The Weakest Link Doctors Eastenders A Thing Called Love The Inspector Lynley Mysteries The Weakest Link Doctors Red Cap Love Soup Robin Hood Model Gardens

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

Indian Food Made Easy Ching’s Kitchen Colin And Justin’s Home Show Little Angels Little Angels Come Dine With Me Daily Cooks Challenge Cash In The Attic USA Hidden Potential Little Angels Little Angels MasterChef Goes Large MasterChef Goes Large Cash In The Attic USA Bargain Hunt Antiques Roadshow Antiques Roadshow Cash In The Attic USA Hidden Potential Indian Food Made Easy Ching’s Kitchen Colin And Justin’s Home Show Little Angels Little Angels Come Dine With Me Bargain Hunt Antiques Roadshow Cash In The Attic USA Hidden Potential Indian Food Made Easy Ching’s Kitchen Colin And Justin’s Home Show Antiques Roadshow Come Dine With Me MasterChef Goes Large The Naked Chef The Naked Chef Living In The Sun What Not To Wear Come Dine With Me MasterChef Goes Large

01:15 Wonderland-18 03:00 Letters From Iwo Jima-18 05:30 Roman Polanski: Wanted And Desired-PG15 07:30 Dragon Hunters-PG 09:00 All Hat-PG15 11:00 Class Action-PG15 13:00 It Might Get Loud-PG15 15:00 Field Of Dreams-PG 17:00 Grace Is Gone-PG15 18:30 Meet Joe Black-PG15 21:30 Civilization Of Maxwell Bright-18 23:30 Days Of Glory-PG15

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

Border Security Destroyed in Seconds Miami Ink Overhaulin’ World’s Toughest Tools Extreme Engineering Mythbusters How Does it Work?

Dirty Jobs Extreme Engineering Mean Machines Overhaulin’ Mythbusters Ultimate Survival World’s Toughest Tools Border Security How It’s Made How Does it Work?

American Chopper Miami Ink Mythbusters Dirty Jobs Deadliest Catch Border Security Overhaulin’ Destroyed in Seconds How It’s Made How Stuff Works

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

Perfect Disaster Science of the Movies I, Videogame Beyond Tomorrow Scrapheap Challenge How Stuff’s Made Weird Connections One Step Beyond Perfect Disaster Scrapheap Challenge Race to Mars Science of the Movies Stuntdawgs Weird Connections Perfect Disaster How Stuff’s Made Extreme Engineering One Step Beyond Science of the Movies NYC: Inside Out How Stuff’s Made Race to Mars Brainiac Extreme Engineering The Gadget Show The Gadget Show Space Pioneer How It’s Made How It’s Made Mythbusters The Gadget Show The Gadget Show

00:00 00:20 00:45 01:10 01:35 02:00 02:25 02:50 03:10 03:20 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 08:35 09:00 09:20 09:35 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 20:35 21:00

Jungle Junction Special Agent Oso Handy Manny Imagination Movers Jungle Junction Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Handy Manny Jungle Junction Special Agent Oso Fairly Odd Parents Phineas & Ferb Suite Life On Deck Wizards Of Waverly Place Hannah Montana Jonas Handy Manny Jungle Junction Special Agent Oso Handy Manny Imagination Movers Jungle Junction Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Handy Manny Jungle Junction Special Agent Oso Brandy & Mr Whiskers Fairly Odd Parents A Kind Of Magic I Got A Rocket Wizards Of Waverly Place Phineas & Ferb Suite Life On Deck Replacements Hannah Montana Kim Possible I Got A Rocket Fairly Odd Parents Phineas & Ferb Replacements A Kind Of Magic 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 Mulan 2 Wizards Of Waverly Place The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody

00:15 00:40 01:30 02:20 03:15 05:05 06:00 Feuds 07:45 08:35 09:00 09:25 09:50

Streets of Hollywood E!ES Extreme Hollywood Sexiest E! Investigates Dr 90210 30 Most Outrageous Celebrity 25 Most Stylish E! News The Daily 10 Keeping Up with the Kardashians Keeping Up with the Kardashians

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

THS THS E! News The Daily 10 Bank of Hollywood Dr 90210 THS Tempted Behind the Scenes Behind the Scenes Pretty Wild Pretty Wild E! News The Daily 10 Streets of Hollywood Battle of the Hollywood Hotties THS THS Kendra Kendra E! News The Daily 10 Dr 90210 Wildest TV Show Moments

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 04:30 05:00 05:30 06:00 06:30 07:00 07:50 08:40 09:30 10:30 11:30 12:00 12:30 13:00 13:30 14:00 14:30 15:00 15:30 16:00 16:30 17:00 17:30 18:00

Chopped Food Network Challenge Food Network Challenge Iron Chef America Teleshopping Teleshopping Teleshopping Teleshopping Teleshopping Teleshopping Food Network Challenge Food Network Challenge Iron Chef America Iron Chef America Chopped Tyler’s Ultimate Great British Menu Daily Cooks Challenge 30 Minute Meals 30 Minute Meals Barefoot Contessa Barefoot Contessa Nigella Express Daily Cooks Challenge Barefoot Contessa Barefoot Contessa Grill It! with Bobby Flay Grill It! with Bobby Flay Tyler’s Ultimate

01:00 Inside the PGA Tour 01:30 World of Athletics 02:00 MLB: Minnesota Twins at Boston Red Sox 05:00 NHL Playoffs - Tentative Date and Time, Teams TBA 08:00 Golf Central International 08:30 The Golf Channel - Programming TBA 11:00 PGA Tour: HP Byron Nelson Championship Rd. 1 Irving, TX 14:00 MLB: Minnesota Twins at Boston Red Sox 17:00 European Tour BMW PGA Championship Rd. 2 Sevilla, 20:00 NHL Playoffs - Tentative Date and Time, Teams TBA 22:30 PGA Tour: HP Byron Nelson Championship Rd. 2 from Irving, TX

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

A Haunting FBI Files On The Case With Paula Zahn Disappeared Forensic Detectives Real Emergency Calls Dr G: Medical Examiner Ghosthunters Ghosthunters Forensic Detectives FBI Files CSU Diagnosis: Unknown Forensic Detectives FBI Files Diagnosis: Unknown Solved Mystery ER Forensic Detectives FBI Files CSU Diagnosis: Unknown Forensic Detectives FBI Files

Pink Panther 2 on Show Movies 19:30 20:20 21:10 22:00 22:50 23:40

Diagnosis: Unknown Solved Mystery ER Extreme Forensics Extreme Forensics Dr G: Medical Examiner

01:40 03:35 05:35 07:00 08:30 10:10 11:35 13:05 15:05 16:55 18:40 20:10 22:00 23:30

Scandal Madonna; Truth Or Dare Hi Mom Sensations I Could Go On Singing Sticky Fingers Ski Patrol Topkapi Alice’s Restaurant Legend Of The Lost Outback Queen Of Hearts Behind Enemy Lines The Cutting Edge

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

Bondi Rescue Lonely Planet Bondi Rescue Bondi Rescue The Best Job In The World Weird And Wonderful Hotels Jailed Abroad Odyssey:Driving Around The Amazing Adv Of Nobody Europe Word Travels Bondi Rescue Lonely Planet Bondi Rescue Bondi Rescue The Best Job In The World Weird And Wonderful Hotels Jailed Abroad Odyssey:Driving Around The Amazing Adv Of Nobody Europe Word Travels Bondi Rescue - Bali Lonely Planet Don’t Tell My Mother...

4Real First Ascent Jailed Abroad Odyssey:Driving Around The Amazing Adv Of Nobody Europe Word Travels Bondi Rescue - Bali Lonely Planet Don’t Tell My Mother...

4Real First Ascent Jailed Abroad

22:30 Odyssey:Driving Around The World 23:00 Amazing Adv Of Nobody Europe 23:30 Word Travels

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

Family Guy Late night with Jimmy Fallon Everybody Loves Raymond Just Shoot me!

Simpsons Frasier Tyler Perry’s House of Payne Married with Children Drew Carey Everybody Loves Raymond Just Shoot me!

Frasier Hope & Faith Saturday Night Live New adventures of old Christine Tyler Perry’s House of Payne Married with Children Three sisters Modern Family The Daily Show with Jon Stewart The Colbert Report Family Biz Everybody Loves Raymond Frasier The Bernie Mac show Dharma & Greg Kath & Kim Two and a half men Late night with Jimmy Fallon The Daily Show with Jon Stewart The Colbert Report Cougar Town American Dad Saturday Night Live

00:00 01:00 01:30 02:00 03:00 04:00 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

What’s Good For You 10 Years Younger Look A Like The Ellen DeGeneres Show The Monique Show The Tonight show with Jay Leno GMA (repeat) GMA Health What’s the Buzz What’s Good For You Look A Like 10 Years Younger Jimmy Kimmel Live!

The View The Ellen DeGeneres Show What’s Good For You GMA Live GMA Health What’s the Buzz The Tonight show with Jay Leno

Page 51

Friday, May 21, 2010 18:00 18:30 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

Look A Like 10 Years Younger The View The Ellen DeGeneres Show Jimmy Kimmel Live!

The Tonight show with Jay Leno The Monique Show

07:00 Special Agent OSO 07:25 Handy Manny 07:50 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 08:15 Imagination Movers Yr 2 (Scandi Dubbed) 08:40 Lazytown (Scandi) 09:05 Handy Manny 09:30 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 09:50 Special Agent OSO 10:15 Imagination Movers 10:40 My Friends Tigger And Pooh 11:05 Lazytown (Scandi) 11:30 Little Einsteins 11:55 Handy Manny 12:05 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 12:30 Little Einsteins 12:50 Imagination Movers 13:10 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 13:30 Special Agent OSO 13:55 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 14:20 Jo Jo’s Circus 14:45 Jo Jo’s Circus 15:10 Higglytown Heroes 15:35 Higglytown Heroes 16:00 Happy Monster Band 16:05 My Friends Tigger And Pooh 16:30 Handy Manny 16:55 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 17:20 Special Agent OSO 17:45 New Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh 18:10 Imagination Movers Yr 2 (Scandi Dubbed) 18:35 Handy Manny 19:00 Special Agent OSO 19:10 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 19:35 Handy Manny

00:00 Nick And Norah’s Infinite Playlist-PG15 02:00 Cass-18 04:00 Keith-PG15 06:00 Valkyrie-PG15 08:00 The Promotion-PG15 10:00 Igor-PG 12:00 The Pink Panther 2-PG15 14:00 Skin-PG 16:00 The Promotion-PG15 18:00 Ocean’s Thirteen-PG15 20:00 I Love You, Man-18 22:00 Prom Night-PG15

01:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

It’s Alive-R The Purifiers-PG15 Spiderwick Chronicles-PG House Under Siege-PG15 Road Of No Return-PG15 Underground-PG15 Mercury Man-PG15 Road Of No Return-PG15 Star Trek 10: Nemesis-PG15 Conspiracy-18 Psycho-PG15 Final Destination 3-PG15

00:00 Futurama : Into The Wild Green Yonder-PG15 02:00 Lonely Street-PG15 04:00 Orange County-PG15 06:00 Down To You-PG15 08:00 Blonde And Blonder-PG15 10:00 Good Burger-PG15 12:00 The Broken Hearts Club-PG 14:00 Committed-PG15 16:00 Futurama : Into The Wild Green Yonder-PG15 18:00 Kids In The Hall: Brain Candy-18 20:00 South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut-18 22:00 Jackass: The Movie-18

00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00

Space Buddies-PG Clockstoppers-FAM The Ant Bully-FAM That Darn Cat-PG Barbie Magic Of The Rainbow The Ant Bully-FAM Dark Crystal-PG

14:00 Clockstoppers-FAM 16:00 The Wild Thornberrys MoviePG 18:00 Gladiator Academy: The MovieFAM 20:00 The Jungle Book IV : Hate And Love-FAM 22:00 Dark Crystal-PG

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 04:30 05:00 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 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 18:30 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

05:00 Planet Food 06:00 World’s Greatest Motorcycle Rides 07:00 Globe Trekker 08:00 Inside Luxury Travel-Varun Sharma 09:00 Top Travel 09:30 Culture Shock 10:00 Planet Food 11:00 World’s Greatest Motorcycle Rides 12:00 Globe Trekker 13:00 Chef Abroad 13:30 The Thirsty Traveler 14:00 Hollywood and Vines 14:30 Entrada 15:00 Top Travel 15:30 Culture Shock 16:00 Globe Trekker 17:00 Travel Today 17:30 Chef Abroad 18:00 Planet Food 19:00 Globe Trekker 20:00 Globe Trekker 21:00 Down the Line 22:00 Essential 22:30 Culture Shock 23:00 Globe Trekker

Heroes Hotel Babylon Cold Case Lipstick Jungle Every Body Loves Raymond Home Improvement The Unusuals Emmerdale Huey’s Cooking Adventure Cold Case Every Body Loves Raymond Home Improvement Lipstick Jungle The Unusuals Cold Case Emmerdale Huey’s Cooking Adventure Every Body Loves Raymond Home Improvement Heroes Hotel Babylon The Unusuals Lipstick Jungle Better off Ted Billable Hours “24” “24” Flash Forwards The Unusuals Lipstick Jungle

00:00 00:30 01:00 02:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

01:00 Premier League Golas Of The Season 02:00 Premier League Classics 05:00 Premier League 07:00 Premier League Classics 10:00 Premier League Season Review 11:00 Premier League Golas Of The Season 12:00 Premier League 14:00 Premier League World 14:30 Live Tennis Masters Guinot Mary Cohr 16:30 Premier League Classics 17:00 Live Tennis Masters Guinot Mary Cohr 19:00 Barclays Premier League Review 21:00 Tennis Masters Guinot Mary Cohr 23:00 Tennis Masters Guinot Mary Cohr

01:00 01:30 05:00 05:30 06:00 06:30 07:00 10:00 10:30 12:30 13:00 15:30 17:30 18:00 18:30 19:00 21:30 22:00

01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:30 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 12:30 14:30 15:30 16:00 16:30 17:00 20:00 22:00 23:00

European Tour Weekly PGA European Tour World Sport Total Rugby Futbol Mundial Mobil 1 The Grid Live AFL Premiership ICC Cricket World Live Super 14 NRL Full Time AFL Premiership Super 14 ICC Cricket World Total Rugby V8 Supercars AFL Toyota Premiership World Sport Live Super League

UFC The Ultimate Fighter WWE NXT AFL Premiership Highlights NCAA Basketball UFC All Access UFC Unleased WWE NXT WWE Vintage Collection PGA European Tour Live NRL Premiership WWE NXT Mobil 1 The Grid ICC Cricket World European Tour Weekly Live PGA European Tour WWE Smack Down WWE Bottom Line UFC The Ultimate Fighter

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor on SuperMovies

01:00 Alatriste-PG15 03:30 Tribute-PG15 05:00 High School Musical 3: Senior Year-PG 07:00 Grey Gardens-PG15 09:00 Son Of The Mask-PG 11:15 Hancock-PG15 13:15 Australia-PG 16:15 Son Of The Mask-PG 18:30 Happy Go Lucky-PG15 21:00 Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor-PG 23:15 The Reader-PG15

01:50 04:00 07:00 09:05 10:40 11:05 13:00 15:15 16:55 18:40 20:40 22:00

Wild Rovers Raintree County The Unsinkable Molly Brown On The Town The Screening Room Beau Brummell Anchors Aweigh Elvis: That’s The Way It Is Sunday In New York Little Women Bad Day At Black Rock Cannery Row

00:30 01:20 02:10 03:00 03:55 04:50 05:40 06:30 07:20

The Universe 3 Human Weapon Ice Road Truckers, 3 How the Earth Was Made Evolve Dinosaur Secrets Prehistoric Mega Storms The Universe 3 Human Weapon

08:10 09:00 09:55 10:50 11:40 12:30 13:20 14:10 15:00 15:55 16:50 17:40 18:30 19:20 20:10 21:00 21:55 22:50 23:40

Ice Road Truckers, 3 How the Earth Was Made Evolve Dinosaur Secrets Prehistoric Mega Storms The Universe 3 Human Weapon Ice Road Truckers, 3 How the Earth Was Made Evolve Dinosaur Secrets Prehistoric Mega Storms The Universe 3 Human Weapon Ice Road Truckers, 3 The Crusades Dead Men’s Secrets The Universe Extreme Trains

00:00 01:00 01:30 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 05:30 06:00 07:00 07:30 08:00 09:00 09:30 10:00 11:00 12:00 12:30 13:00 14:00 14:30 15:00 16:00 17:00

Dr 90210 Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane Dallas Divas & Daughters Whose Wedding Is it Anyway?

How Do I Look?

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 Whose Wedding Is it Anyway?

How Do I Look?

Ruby Giuliana & Bill Clean House Clean House Comes Clean Dress My Nest What I Hate About Me Whose Wedding Is it Anyway?

How Do I Look?

18:00 18:30 19:00 20:00 21:00 21:30 22:00 23:00

Dallas Divas & Daughters Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane Jerseylicious Clean House Clean House Comes Clean Dress My Nest Peter Perfect How Do I Look?

01:00 01:04 02:00 02:45 05:00 05:04 08:00 08:04 08:45 13:00 13:04 13:50 16:00 16:04 16:45 18:00 18:45 19:00 20:00 20:04 20:45 23:00 23:45

Code Hit Us Urban Hit Playlist Code Playlist Code French Only Playlist Code Urban Hit Playlist Code Africa 10 Playlist Urban Hit Playlist Trace Video Mix Code New Playlist Club 10 Playlist

00:00 Rides 01:00 01:30 02:00 02:30 03:00 04:00

World’s Greatest Motorcycle How To Holiday Greener Culture Shock Distant Shores Wild At Heart Inside Universal Studios - Japan Globe Trekker

VH1 Rocks So 80’s Greatest Hits Vh1 Music Chill Out Vh1 Hits Vh1 Music Aerobic Top 10 Mutya Buena&Sugababes Music For The Masses Vh1 Pop Chart Vh1 Music Music For The Masses Vh1 Music VH1 Viewer’s Jukebox Rock VH1 Viewer’s Jukebox Rock Top 10 Mutya Buena&Sugababes Vh1 Pop Chart Boogie Night

00:00 Camp Lazlo 00:25 Samurai Jack 00:50 Megas Xlr 01:15 Out Of Jimmy’s Head 01:40 Chowder 02:05 Cow & Chicken 02:30 Cramp Twins 02:55 George Of The Jungle 03:20 Adrenalini Brothers 03:45 Eliot Kid 04:10 Ed, Edd N Eddy 04:35 Class Of 3000 05:00 The Powerpuff Girls 05:15 Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends 05:40 The Secret Saturdays 06:05 Codename: Kids Next Door 06:30 Ben 10 06:55 Best Ed 07:20 Samurai Jack 07:45 Cramp Twins 08:10 Eliot Kid 08:35 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack 09:00 Codename: Kids Next Door 09:25 Chowder 09:50 Best Ed 10:15 Chop Socky Chooks 10:40 Ben 10: Alien Force 11:05 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 11:30 Foster’s 60 12:30 Squirrel Boy 12:55 Robotboy 13:20 Camp Lazlo 13:45 The Powerpuff Girls 14:10 Class Of 3000 14:35 Ed, Edd N Eddy 15:00 Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends 15:25 Codename: Kids Next Door 15:50 Ben 10 16:15 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey 16:40 Squirrel Boy 17:05 Eliot Kid 17:35 Casper’s Scare School 18:00 Skunk Fu! 18:25 Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes 18:50 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 19:15 The Secret Saturdays 19:40 Star Wars: The Clone Wars 20:05 Star Wars: The Clone Wars 20:30 Star Wars: The Clone Wars 21:00 Star Wars: The Clone Wars 21:25 Chop Socky Chooks 21:50 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey 22:05 The Powerpuff Girls 22:30 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack 22:45 Ben 10: Alien Force 23:10 Ed, Edd N Eddy 23:35 Robotboy

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Friday, May 21, 2010

Jonas Brothers want to star in video with Beckham’s kids B

rooklyn, Romeo and Cruz met the squeaky clean pop stars at a concert in Los Angeles after the boys watched their live show from a balcony with parents David and Victoria. A source said: “Kevin, Joe and Nick were really pleased to meet the Beckhams and they invited the children to be part of their new video.” The trio will be filming the clip for the latest single next week in Malibu, and the offer thrilled Cruz and Romeo - though 11-year-old Brooklyn was less impressed. The sources added to The Sun newspaper: “The younger ones were

T

T

he 16-year-old singer reportedly had a small bird inked onto his hip shortly after his 16th birthday in March, at the Son of a Gun tattoo parlour in Toronto, Canada. According to gossip website bestweekever.tv, having the design marked a family tradition, and Justin was accompanied to the tattoo parlor by his father Jeremy, who “showed his approval by giving a thumbs-up when they posed for a photo with staff.” The site also published pictures of the ‘Baby’ hitmaker on the tattooist’s table, though a clear image of the completed design could not be seen. However, photographs of him topless on a beach in Sydney, Australia, show the artwork visible on his pelvis. Fans have already taken to twitter to express their views on the teenager’s inking. StopJBFanWar wrote: “Justin Bieber has a tattoo? That’s hot.” glass_passenger tweeted: “Whenever my dad tells me I’m a disappointment for having a tattoo, I will remind him that Justin Bieber, 16, has one.” treasure_girl8 added: “OMG!!

U cant believe what I just read!! Justin Bieber has a tattoo on the left hip?!?!?! WHAT?? Is that true?? (sic)”

Megan Fox can survive a week without food

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he ‘Transformers’ actress - who is engaged to Brian Austin Green - claims her culinary skills are so bad, she would rather “starve to death” than attempt to make herself a meal.

She said: “I’ll starve to death before I’ll cook for myself. I think I could survive a week without eating.” As well as claiming she can cope without food, Megan also insisted she wouldn’t mind going for lengthy periods of time without any human contact as she prefers her own company. She said: “I could go days, weeks, without talking to another human being. I hate receiving compliments; I hate being told I’m talented or people think I’m going to be a movie star. I always feel that it’s forced and fake.” The 24-year-old star also claimed she suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), which

prevents her from using cutlery in restaurants or using public toilets. She explained in an interview with Allure magazine: “This is a sickness, I have an illness - this is not OK anymore. “Every time someone uses a bathroom and they flush, all the bacteria is shot into the air.

“Putting my mouth where a million other mouths have been, just knowing all the bacteria that you carry in your mouth? Ucch!”

Demi Moore is writing her autobiography

Justin Bieber gets himself inked

really excited about it but Brooklyn decided to play it a bit cooler.” The Jonas Brothers would certainly be a positive influence on the growing Beckham boys - the band famously vowed they would remain virgins until they were married. David and Victoria are very protective of their boys and have deliberately kept them out of the limelight as much as possible, so it is not yet known if they will let Cruz, five, Romeo, seven, and Brooklyn to appear in the promo. The Christian band has sold more than eight million albums since they found fame in 2005.

he 47-year-old actress is reportedly undertaking a series of meetings with publishers in New York to sell the rights to the tome, her agent Luke Janklow has confirmed. However, her representative had no further information on the project, including title or expected release date. This is not the ‘Ghost’ actress’ first foray into the literary world. Demi - who is married to Ashton Kutcher and has daughters Rumer, 21, Scout, 18, and Tallulah, 16, with ex-husband Bruce Willis - was one of many famous faces who recently contributed to ‘That’s What She Said: Women Reveal What Men Really Need To Know’, a book which offers dating tips to men trying to woo women. In the book - which also features advice from Madonna and Cameron Diaz, among others Demi wrote: “If you want to get our clothes off focus on what you’re giving, not on what you can get! You may be able to score once but we can smell the stink of selfish desires a mile away and are not interested.”

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Friday, May 21, 2010

Page 53

Claudia Schiffer enjoys taking it all off for camera

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he German supermodel - who gave birth to her third child with British film director Matthew Vaughn is happy to bare all because she feels more confident now she’s an older woman. The 39-year-old - who appears nude and pregnant on the June 2010 cover of German Vogue - said: “I’m a lot more self-confident than I used to be. To some extent I owe that to my children and my husband. I know what I’m doing and what I want. I have control over myself and that feels good. “I’ve never hidden the fact that I used to be shy, even when I was 30.

However, I might have been self-conscious on the inside, but I was never inhibited about my body. I never had a problem with stripping in front of the camera. Maybe that’s

e en mor p at ings ev se I’m tied u he h t e iz organ usly becau d to be.” T e lo i, meticu ore than I us s she and es L en ir it m del rais an, three, em d o a m m o y r ith the h t e n beau both busy w ay from he sup ry, four, Joh Lou with a m r e e G n Seal ar o be aw six, He en-month-old r big singer but try not t ildren for too v e e h s e d il n h h s a dw she career er and the c agazine: “I Seal an hard work said: d h n t m a o b hus Gala e can’t seem ough. She ea c h t might he told n tour and h to S . g n brood ’s not that t eal does a lo r o lo S it u in him e used insists a lot of help. house and fo can’t jo as often as h to keep e e e e y v nd th r to manag “I ha join m e. But we tr as short as es arou ie h r of chor actually eas ey keep eac anymo of separation e or I come h e eriods Whenever h corate the kids ar only child. T need grownp il de le. than an sy and don’t to do. “Unt possib me the kids nd ‘Welcome t u a b o h s r h toon a othe ing them w ok the back ith fes o t ll w t e s t u e y s b s a u , p u lw ls ho r trave signs.” ly we a recent along on ou uring their Home’ n d childre only do that I have to we can now. So now s holiday

Robert Pattinson ‘doesn’t understand girls’

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Four is better than one for Heidi Klum

Lindsay Lohan

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he 24-year-old actor’s ‘Twilight’ co-star Ashley Greene claims the heartthrob - who first found fame playing Cedric Diggory in ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’ - is constantly bemused by the attention he receives from women. She told Seventeen magazine: “He doesn’t understand girls. He gets a lot of attention from them, but he doesn’t quite understand it because before ‘Twilight’, he was just a guy from ‘Harry Potter’.” Despite his sex symbol status, Ashley has never had a crush on Robert - who is dating his other ‘Twilight’ costar Kristen Stewart - because they lacked “chemistry”, though she thought about

has a new girlfrien d

he 23-year-old actress - who previously dated DJ Samantha Ronson - has grown close to photographer 36-year-old Indrani since they met on a photo shoot last autumn. Indrani - also known as Julia I PalChaudhuri - told the New York Post newspaper: “We have been spending a lot of time together. I have never had a relationship with a woman before, but Lindsay is just somebody who I find fascinating, gorgeous and extremely smart, as well as super-hot. “Lindsay gets a lot of bad press, but she’s a really strong, creative woman and is trying really hard to get her life in a good, positive place.” The couple have been on a series of

because of how I grew up. Back home we never used to knock at the bathroom door. No, I’ve never been prudish.”

Claudia hopes her children - son Caspar, seven, daughter Clementine, five, and her as-yet unnamed newborn - will grow up seeing her modeling work and be proud of her willingness to bare her body. She said in an interview with German newspaper Welt am Sonntag: “Caspar goes to school and his mum goes to photo shoots. If he sees the Vogue he will probably think ‘Oh, look at mummy. You can still see her big tummy with the baby inside.’ “My daughter Clemmie is more interested in this whole stuff, the new bags and couture dresses that arrive for fittings or the new make-up. She wants to try it all.”

dates in Los Angeles and recently spent the night together at the actress’ hotel. Indrani’s photography partner, Markus Klinko, thinks the pair are good for each other. He said: “Lindsay and Indrani have been seeing each other since we shot her last fall. I’ve seen them on dates, I have seen them making out. “Indrani is a good influence on Lindsay. She is the opposite of a party girl - a Princeton graduate, she’s into art and is a philanthropist - not what you’d expect the typical girl for Lindsay to go out with. “When they are together, they talk about art and the deeper meaning in life.”— Bangshow biz

dating the franchise’s Kellan Lutz. The 23-year-old screen beauty added: “When I met Rob, I didn’t think twice about him.

He’s really attractive, but that chemistry wasn’t there. “Have I hooked up with Kellan? I’ve definitely thought about it. But he’s one of my best friends, but if we were going to be romantic, we would have done it years ago. I like having him to talk to about other guys to get that male perspective. I really cherish our relationship, so I wouldn’t want to mess that up by dating.” Meanwhile, Robert claims he has cut off his long locks because he had head lice.

He joked: “I got a terrible infestation of nits and I had to shave it all off.”

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Friday, May 21, 2010

Paintings worth millions stolen in Paris

By Angela Charlton

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lone thief stole five paintings possibly worth hundreds of millions of euros, including major works by Picasso and Matisse, in a brazen overnight heist at a Paris modern art museum, police and prosecutors said yesterday.

The paintings disappeared early yesterday from the Paris Museum of Modern Art, across the Seine River from the Eiffel Tower. Investigators have cordoned off the museum, in one of the French capital’s most touristfrequented neighborhoods.

The museum’s security system was disabled, and a single masked intruder was caught on a video surveillance camera, according to Christophe Girard, deputy culture secretary at Paris City Hall.

Investigators are trying to determine whether the intruder was operating alone, Girard told reporters. He said three guards were on duty overnight but “they saw nothing.” The intruder entered by cutting a padlock on a gate and breaking a museum window, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. The prosecutor’s office initially estimated the five paintings’ total worth at as much as §500 million ($613 million).

This file picture shows an employee at the Cantini museum in Marseille, southwestern France, looking at the painting “L’Olivier pres de l’Estaque” (The Olive tree near l’Estaque) by French painter Georges Braque during the exhibition “Braque and landscape, from l’Estaque to Varengeville”. —AFP Girard, however, said the total value was “just under 100 million euros.” He said “Le pigeon aux petits-pois” (The Pigeon with the Peas) an ochre and brown Cubist oil painting

by Pablo Picasso, was worth an estimated §23 million, and “La Pastorale” (Pastoral), an oil painting of nudes on a hillside

by Henri Matisse about §15 million. The other paintings

stolen were “L’olivier pres de l’Estaque” (Olive Tree near Estaque) by Georges Braque; “La femme a l’eventail” (Woman with a Fan) by Amedeo Modigliani; and “Nature-mort aux chandeliers” (Still Life with Chandeliers) by Fernand Leger. Alice FarrenBradley of the Art Loss Registry in London said the Paris theft “appears to be one

of the biggest” art heists ever, considering the estimated value, the prominence of the artists and the high profile of the museum.

She added, however, that the value of the paintings would have to be confirmed, as museums and art dealers often value paintings differently.

Interpol did not immediately respond to calls seeking

comment on the theft or its possible role in the investigation. The police organization has coordinated international searches for stolen masterpieces in the past. Red-and-white tape surrounded the museum, where investigators were studying surveillance video.

Paper signs on the museum doors said it was closed for

technical reasons.

On a cordoned-off balcony behind the museum, police in blue gloves and face masks examined the broken window and empty frames. The paintings appeared to have been carefully removed from the disassembled frames, not sliced out. A security guard at the museum said the paintings were discovered missing by a night watchman just before 7 a.m. (0500 GMT, 1 a.m. yesterday EDT). The guard was not authorized to be publicly named because of the museum policy.

Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe said in a statement that he was “saddened and shocked by this theft, which is an intolerable attack on Paris’ universal cultural heritage.”

The director of the neighboring modern art museum Palais de Tokyo, Pierre Cornette de Saint-Cyr, called the thief or thieves “fools.” “You cannot do anything with these paintings.

All countries in the world are aware, and no collector is stupid enough to buy a painting that, one, he can’t show to other collectors, and two, risks sending him to prison,” he said on LCI television. “In general, you find these paintings,” he said. “These five paintings are un-sellable, so thieves, sirs, you are imbeciles, now return them.” —AP

Glacier Park:

The next 100 years

By Nicholas K Geranios

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lacier National Park just marked 100 years as crown jewel of the parks system, but questions dot its spectacular landscape as its next century begins. Will the park’s 2 million tourists still come when the glaciers are gone? Is the nation willing to spend $200 million to repair the cliff-hugging Going-to-the-Sun Road? Will climate change destroy the habitat of grizzly bears, bighorn sheep and other iconic animals? The first question is perhaps easiest to answer. “Beauty is beauty,” said Jamie Yuke of Missoula, Montana, one of about 750 people who attended Glacier’s 100th anniversary celebration on Monday. The majestic scenery will always lure visitors, she said. The 25 or so remaining glaciers in the park are mostly located in the back country, and many tourists never see them. What they do see are the jagged, snowcapped peaks that were carved by those glaciers, along with blue lakes, alpine meadows and hiking trails.

There are those who worry, however, that tourism may drop once the glaciers disappear in the next decade or so. A recent report by the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization and the Natural Resources Defense Council said climate change threatens the nearly $1 billion a year tourism business in Glacier, the 11th most visited national park. Nearly three-

quarters of its visitors are from out of state, and 56 percent are returnees, the report said. “I have been coming to Glacier ever since my parents came here on their honeymoon,” Steve Doherty, senior adviser to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, joked during the anniversary celebration.

Glacier supports more than 4,000 Montana jobs, the report said. “All the available research tells us that visitors come to Montana primarily for its spectacular unspoiled natural beauty,” Rhonda Fitzgerald, owner of The Garden Wall Inn in Whitefish, said in the report. The park will inevitably be changed as average temperatures in Glacier have climbed 2 degrees (1 degree Celsius) compared to what they were in 1979, double the national average.

“A loss of wildlife in Glacier could result from human-caused climate change,” the report said. Glacier is the best place in the Lower 48 states to see the full range of mammal predators present at the time of European settlement of America, including bears, wolves, lynx, wolverines and mountain lions, along with mammals such as mountain goats, bighorn sheep and elk.

Glacier has five different life zones, at elevations from 3,000 to 10,000 feet (915 to 3,050 meters), which support different species of animals and plants.

Rising temperatures are pushing the tree line, above which trees cannot

grow, higher up the epic peaks, altering the terrain that animals use for food and cover. “You can start reshaping animal communities with fairly small changes,” said Dan Fagre, a US Geological Survey scientist. “It’s hard to make clear predictions, other than there will be change.” A warmer climate is also expected to reduce snowfall. Another recent study projected that before the end of this century, peak snowpack levels in the park may be reached 41 days earlier than in mid-20th century, and that snow could cover the ground for about 70 fewer days a winter.

Forests will become drier as summer progresses, leading to bigger wildfires, said Jack Potter, chief of science at the park.

Less moisture also means lower stream flows, which endanger fish species, he said. While the climate may be beyond the immediate control of humans, Glacier’s budget is not, and the park faces a huge backlog of repairs, said Glacier spokeswoman Amy Vanderbilt. The rebuilding, already under way, of the Going-to-the-Sun Road alone is budgeted at some $200 million, but future funding is uncertain.

The landmark road bisects the park from east to west by snaking through the towering mountains.

The road, which is closed all winter and into the spring each year because of snowfall, is worth about $1 million to the local economy each day it is open, past studies have shown. The number of visitors to Glacier Park remains steady at about 2 million a year, nearly all of them jammed into the summer months. That is up from about 4,000 visitors in 1911. The park first topped 1 million annual visitors in 1969, and 2 million in 1983. —AP

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Friday, May 21, 2010

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Fewer stars at Cannes but celebrity business goes on

By James Mackenzie

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o one knows if it’s the rain, volcanic ash hanging over Europe, the lack of blockbusters or the financial crisis but everyone seems to agree there has been a shortage of stars at this year’s Cannes film festival. Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett led the festival opener “Robin Hood” but there is no Angelina Jolie or George Clooney to keep the buzz going, leaving paparazzi and video interviewers to chase the likes of Hollywood bad girl Lindsay Lohan. “There’s more star power in the jury than in any of the films,” complained one industry publicist.

Kate Beckinsale, Benicio del Toro and director Tim Burton are all on the panel that will decide the competition winner, adding some glamour to the trademark Cannes mix of celebrity glitter and highbrow film artistry. There have been sightings of big movie names like Johnny Depp and Michael Douglas but they have kept a lower profile than in other years and studios have cut back on the lavish parties used to generate excitement about films launched at Cannes.

Everything is relative and fewer Hollywood Alisters doesn’t mean that the glamorous partying has entirely dried up along the palm-lined Croisette that fronts the Cannes bay. Assorted celebrities from supermodel Naomi Campbell and party girl Paris Hilton to Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger have all put in appearances either to push new projects or luxury products or simply to enjoy the atmosphere.

“Cannes is always a bit of a laugh, you don’t quite know what you are going to get, but I always enjoy the week,” said Jagger, who has been spending time on software billionaire Paul Allen’s yacht while promoting a new documentary on the band. “I’ll be dancing away, drinking champagne or whatever they throw at me I should imagine,” he told Reuters Television.

Business of celebrity Although the cinephiles and purists may disapprove, behind the glitter and the DJs, the stars play an important economic role at the world’s biggest film festival. At the Terrazza Martini, one of a row of sponsored party marquees set up along the beach, waiters are preparing cocktails in time for the arrival of Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson, in Cannes to promote her planned film on Winnie Mandela.

Without her there to add glamour and name recognition, it could be hard to rouse media interest in the project and she does her part, chatting amiably and posing for pictures, one of which ends up on the cover of People magazine. Similar operations have been underway across Cannes all week, sometimes to promote new films and sometimes to advertise luxury products like jewelry or fashion labels, and many celebrities charge large sums to lend their cachet to an event.

Singer Cheryl Cole, a big name in Britain who is trying to further a fledgling solo career, gave a short performance at a party for luxury jeweler Grisogono at the exclusive Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc a short drive from Cannes. “I just feel I have to be part of it, I suppose,” she said. “It’s very glamorous and beautiful and you just want to be a part of it.” But this year, the threat to flights posed by the ash clouds spewed from an Icelandic volcano, unusually cold and wet weather and the menacing state of the world economy have all contributed to a less lavish outlay than in previous years. One beach party ran out of champagne half way through and not because there were too many people trying to drink it. Some parties have had to be cancelled or pushed back because the promised stars bailed out at the last minute.

There has been a downbeat mood among event organisers and publicists although some have tried to look on the bright side. “There’s been far fewer people trying to crash the parties this year. That’s one good thing,” said one. — Reuters

Actress Elizabeth Banks arrives for the screening of the film “Poetry”, at the 63rd international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Wednesday, May 19, 2010.

— AP

Curtains for Shrek marks challenge for DreamWorks

By Alex Dobuzinskis

is to be very profitable and so the baseball analogy is hit lots of singles and doubles and then occasionally hit a home run,” he said. “If you try to hit a home run every (time) at bat, you’re going to strike out a lot.”

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hrek has done a lot for DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc and as the lovable ogre undergoes a midlife crisis in his latest movie outing, the studio is looking for ways to replicate his success. “Shrek Forever After,” which opens today, is billed as the fourth and final film in the animated Shrek franchise.

If the green ogre voiced by comedian Mike Myers is showing any signs of wear, it may be reflected in forecasts from some analysts that the movie might open below expectations. DreamWorks is as dependent on franchises as any Hollywood studio in this age of big budget movies and, with the curtain coming down on Shrek, the company increasingly will have to rely on its three other franchises to keep growing.

In a conference call with analysts last month, DreamWorks chief executive Jeffrey Katzenberg called “Shrek Forever After” one of the “most highly anticipated movies of 2010.” He added that the company’s “growing stable of franchises will continue to generate value at the box office and beyond for many years to come.” But so far, those franchises — “Kung Fu Panda,” “Madagascar” and “How to Train Your Dragon”-have failed to match Shrek, with its

stellar DVD sales, merchandise licensing, touring stage show and California theme park attraction.

“Shrek made DreamWorks. You might think that DreamWorks made Shrek, but it’s really the other way around,” said analyst Barton Crockett of Lazard Capital Markets. The Shrek franchise has already generated more than $1 billion in profit for DreamWorks since the first film came out in 2001, Crockett said. By comparison, “Kung Fu Panda” and “Madagascar” have shown only about two-thirds that revenue generating power, said Michael Pachter, analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities. But Pachter said not every franchise will hit the jackpot. “The goal

Ogre angst In the latest film, Shrek suffers a mid-life crisis. He ducks out of the obligations of family life and makes a deal with the evil Rumpelstiltskin to trade a day from his past, in exchange for being able to run free and scare villagers. But the day that Shrek gives upunbeknownst to him-is the day he was born. Even though he still exists, his wife Fiona does not know him and Shrek must fight to win her love and overthrow Rumpelstiltskin.

If the movie has elements of angst, some investors this week displayed similar concerns about DreamWorks. The company’s stock fell 5.9 percent Tuesday after Benjamin Mogil, an analyst at Thomas Weisel Partners, said in a note he expects “Shrek Forever After” will have a lower than expected opening weekend of between $75 million and $90 million at US and Canadian box offices. Crockett told Reuters he expects the film will make $100 million to $120 million during its opening weekend, which matches what other analysts expect. —Reuters

Rolling Stones’ party aboard Paul Allen yacht

R The Rolling Stones’ British singer Mick Jagger (left), US stylist L’Wren Scott (second left) and US designer Tommy Hilfiger (right) arrive for the screening of “Stones in Exile” during the 63rd Cannes Film Festival on May 19, 2010 in Cannes. — AFP

ocker Mick Jagger and a host of celebs rolled up for one of the Cannes film festival’s most exclusive parties, held aboard billionaire philanthropist Paul Allen’s luxury yacht. Allen, who cofounded Microsoft with Bill Gates and is one of the wealthiest people in the world, hosted some 200 to 300 people Wednesday aboard his superyacht, moored off the Cannes coast and fitted out with

helipads. Held to launch a film about the drug-fuelled sessions that yielded the Rolling Stones’ classic album “Exile on Main Street”, celebrities included Adrian Brody, Naomi Campbell, Ryan Gosling and Natalie Imbruglia. A Middle East filmmaker was overheard in a luxury hotel lobby saying “it was the most extraordinary party” he’d ever seen. “It was like being in a giant bubble outside the real world.” — AFP

Woman claims ‘Avatar’ lifted from ‘Warrior’ novel

By Eriq Gardner

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San Diego woman is the latest to challenge James Cameron’s authorship of “Avatar.” Kelly Van filed a lawsuit in California district court against Cameron, Fox and producers of the blockbuster film, claiming it infringes the copyright on her 2003 book “Sheila the Warrior: The Damned.” The complaint, filed Monday, doesn’t indicate how producers got access to her work, but it alleges substantial similarity in characters, setting, plot, visual effects, scenes, concept and feel. Van’s “Sheila” novel details two women who travel to another “breathtakingly beautiful” planet, full of peace and a nice ecosystem, fall in love with the locals and deal with “bloodsuckers” intent on destroying the planet if they can’t get control of valuable minerals.

Sound familiar?

The alleged similarities, notwithstanding that both films featuring characters with “long braided hair growing beyond the buttocks,” are about as blurry as watching the 3D version of “Avatar” without the 3D glasses. Regardless, Van wants an injunction and maximum statutory damages. She’ll have to get in line with others who have questioned Cameron’s sui generis. “This suit is absolutely baseless,” a Fox spokesperson said. “Jim Cameron’s treatment for Avatar was written before Ms. Van alleges she even started to write her book.” — Reuters

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Crystal to battle Lee for ‘American Idol’ identity rystal Bowersox and Lee DeWyze will battle each other for the “American Idol” title next week after guitarist Casey James was voted off by viewers on Wednesday. Bowersox, a 24-yearold dreadlocked mom, had for months seemed certain to win the top-rated TV singing show. But DeWyze, 23, who worked as a paintshop clerk in Chicago before auditioning for the show last year, has gained steadily in confidence.

His performance of Leonard Cohen’s classic “Hallelujah” on Tuesday stunned the judges and brought the “Idol” studio audience to its feet.

Judge Randy Jackson said on

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Wednesday that DeWyze had “blossomed beyond belief” during the five month-long season. “I’ve never wanted to win more than I do right now,” DeWyze said. Bowersox, who a year ago was playing guitar and singing in small-town Ohio bars, also impressed with her version of Paul McCartney’s “Maybe I’m Amazed.”

But she seemed amazed when told on Wednesday that she was through to the finals. “I’m safe?” she asked in disbelief. Bowersox, whose voice has been compared to Janis Joplin, is the first woman to make it to the “Idol” finale since 2007 when Jordin Sparks went on to win the title. The expected elimination of

blond, blue-eyed James followed his lackluster rendition of John Mayer’s “Daughters” on Tuesday.

“I’m so thankful for the opportunity and it’s been an amazing, amazing journey,” James said. “I’m so honored that I’m here.”

Wednesday’s show included emotional footage of the three contestants visiting their home towns for the first time since they became national media stars, and a performance by 16 year-old Canadian teen idol Justin Bieber.

The 2010 “American Idol” will be crowned live on Fox television on May 26 after a two-part finale, and will win a recording contract. The Fox TV show has launched the

Boyzone singer Keating splits from wife

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announce their separation,” the Irish singer and songwriter said on his website. “The separation is amicable and they will continue to work together in order to provide the best for their children. The

Octuplets mom Nadya Suleman unveils an advertising banner reading, “Don’t Let Your Dog or Cat Become an Octomom. Always Spay or Neuter” outside her home in La Habra, California on Wednesday, May 19, 2010. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, PETA is paying Suleman $5,000 to display the sign in her front yard. As an added incentive, the animal rights group is providing in a month’s supply of vegetarian burgers and hot dogs for Suleman’s 14 children.

Suleman has been facing possible home foreclosure. — AP

family ask for privacy at this difficult time.” Keating, 33, found fame with Boyzone, which had a string of hits in the 1990s. The band reformed in 2007 and 2008, and the following year group member Stephen Gately

Michaels gets headaches after brain hemorrhage

careers of Grammy winners Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson and Jennifer Hudson, as well as that of best-selling band Daughtry. But after nine seasons, audiences have slipped about nine percent this year.

In recent weeks, less than 20 million viewers have been watching per episode, compared to almost 30 million in 2006.

Next week also sees the departure of abrasive British judge Simon Cowell from the show.

Cowell is planning to launch a US version of his own “The X-Factor” talent show on Fox in the fall of 2011. No replacement has yet been announced for role on “American Idol”. — Reuters

A Christie’s employee holds a photograph of Diana Princess of Wales by Mario Testino, dated 1997, at Christie’s auction house in London, Wednesday, May, 19, 2010. The photograph which is due to be auctioned today, is valued at 18,000-22,000 pounds ($26,00031.900/21,00025,700 euro). — AP

oyzone singer Ronan Keating announced yesterday he had separated from his wife of 12 years Yvonne. The couple have three children. “With great sadness Ronan and Yvonne Keating today

Friday, May 21, 2010

died suddenly aged 33 while on holiday on the Spanish island of Majorca. The remaining members of Boyzone released studio album “Brother” in March which topped the British charts. — Reuters

Bret Michaels ock singer Bret Michaels said on Wednesday he was still suffering from headaches and having trouble moving after surviving a near fatal brain hemorrhage last month. The frontman of glam rock band Poison, who last week announced a May 28 comeback performance, told Oprah Winfrey in a TV interview that he has increased his therapy to twice a day and was just happy to be alive.

“I’m having a little trouble moving ... the lower extremities.

It’s to be expected. I have a little bit of trouble. The neck is very stiff. The headaches are still there. They said this is to be expected for at least a month after this happens, and each day, it gets better,” Michaels, 47, told Winfrey in an interview via video from his home. “I am so happy to be sitting here talking to you, to be alive, and, you know what, just to enjoy every second of my life,” he added.

Michaels was released from the hospital just over two weeks ago. Famous for his colorful bandannas and long blond hair.

Michaels told Winfrey he had insisted on wearing the headgear while his life was in the balance in intensive care. “I said, ‘If I’m going out, I want to go out rocking, all right?’ ‘If I got to go,’ I said, ‘leave the boots on, some form of the bandanna, and a cape.” If I could go out right, not in that hospital gown, no way, no matter what happens,” he explained.

Michaels is planning to take part in the May 23 live finale of NBC TV reality show “The Celebrity Apprentice”. The singer is still in the running to win the competition, which was filmed earlier this year. He said last week he would perform live for the first time since the emergency on May 28 in Biloxi, Mississippi and will kick off a tour with Lynyrd Skynyrd on June 10 in Florida. — Reuters

R

SPectrum

Friday, may 21, 2010

T

hree Australian muggers who struck near a martial arts school got the fright of their lives when five black-clad ninjas foiled their attack.

The trio, who were beating and kicking a trainee medic from Germany, fled in panic when the student ninjas aged 18 to 47 raced out of the nearby hall where they had been training.

“They all just froze,” said Kaylan Soto, 42, who was training the students. “Then they just took off. I’ve never seen guys running that fast.

They should have been in the Olympics-they would have won gold.” Soto said the ninjitsu class was wrapping up late on Tuesday when one of his students went outside and saw the men attacking the 27-yearold German, who was near the end of an eight-week exchange visit.

“He’s called out to me, ‘Sensei (teacher), someone’s

getting mugged on the road outside!’” Soto told AFP. “We just ran outside and started running at them, yelling and everything.

These guys have turned around and seen five ninjas in black ninja uniforms running towards them. They just bolted.”

Police said two men aged 16 and 20 had been arrested over the attack and released a picture of a third aged between 15 and 17. Soto said the German, who had his mobile phone and iPod stolen, could have escaped the beating with training in ninjitsu-a Japanese martial art focusing on stealth, pressure points and weaponry. “For the attackers it was a very unlucky place to do it-somewhere where you’ve got a martial arts ninja school up the road,” he said.

“You read stories like this but you would think it never happens. They just picked the wrong spot.” —AFP

Green belt ninjas (left to right) Victor Le, Anj Taylor and Brendan Martin-Wein practice dive rolls at the Ninja Senshi Ryu (Ninja Warrior School) near Sydney yesterday. —AFP

Rare Tintin artifacts to go under the hammer

By John Irish

F

inding a safe investment in crisis times may be tough, but just a year before Hollywood takes Tintin to the big screen, collectors are vying for rare memorabilia of the cub Belgian cartoon hero at a Paris auction. The Tintin series-created by Georges Remi under his pen name Herge-has become one of the most popular comics in the world with translations in more than 50 languages

and 200 million copies of the 24 books sold.

There is huge appetite for collectors of anything related to the diminutive investigative journalist and adventurer. In 2008, the original cover of “Tintin in America” sold for about 750,000 euros ($931,200).

Last year, a lot of almost 600 items, including handdrawn original cartoon strips, raised nearly 1.2 million euros with buyers from as far away as China and Lebanon.

“There’s been a huge

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explosion of strip cartoons over the last 10-15 years and with that a secondary market has developed,” said Alexis Velliet, director of auctioneers Piasa.

“This generation is now looking at original drawings ... the true creators and if we go back then Herge is one of them.” The Paris auction on May 29 includes 230 items from about 70 collectors that even Herge’s foundation Moulinsart, a partner in the sale, never knew

existed.

A Belgian museum owns about 80-85 percent of Herge’s work, but the scale of pieces ranging from original sketches, antiques and first edition covers, has surprised potential investors. The sale-with articles worth from 3,000 euros to as much as 250,000 eurosincludes one of just four bronze statues in circulation depicting a bequiffed tintin with his trusted fox terrier sidekick Snowy valued at between 100,000-120,000 euros.

“What has created the biggest surprise is a gouache of Captain Haddock (known for his colourful curses such as “blistering barnacles!”), Tintin and Professor Calculus with sea shells of disproportionate sizes that

A woman (left) walks past a model with a breathing apparatus, which forms part of the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition Da Vinci Secrets ‘Anatomy to Robots’ at the Sydney Town Hall yesterday. The exhibition which runs until August 2, features in excess of 90 exhibits including life like anatomical models and body parts, interactive automatons and robotics all based on his drawings, as well as reproductions of his masterpieces. —AFP

nobody knew about,” said Velliet. “It goes beyond the realm of the comic book ... it’s a perfect drawing of Tintin, but yet a little surrealist.” The painting up for grabs for between 50,000-70,000 euros was offered to a friend of Herge who collected sea shells.

The auction is timely. A movie, “The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn,” directed by Stephen Spielberg will give a Hollywood spin to the intrepid reporter next year.

Likewise, a civil case in Belgium launched earlier in May against the publishers of “Tintin in Congo” over the portrayal of Africans in the book has kept the series in the media.

Despite the case, one of the items that has caught the eye of collectors is a

“silent” version of the Congo book. Copies were made with speech bubbles left blank to convince publishers from other countries to take on the cartoon in their language.

“It’s hard to find originals in a great state and these silent books are very rare ... maybe just tens of these were printed,” said Velliet.

Tintin made his first appearance in 1929 heading to the Soviet Union in a supplement for the Roman Catholic Brussels weekly Le Petit Vingtieme and is still going strong. His travels took him from China to Latin America and even former French president Charles de Gaulle acknowledged Tintin’s fame. “Deep down, my only international rival is Tintin,” he said. —Reuters

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Friday, May 21, 2010

Lakers fend off Suns to stretch series lead LOS ANGELES: The Los Angeles Lakers resisted a spirited second half fightback by the Phoenix Suns to increase their lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference finals with a 124112 Game Two victory Wednesday. The visiting Suns were crushed 128-107 in Monday’s series opener and trailed by 14 points shortly after half-time, before they raised hopes of an upset win on the NBA champions’ home court by tying the game at 90-90 going into the final quarter.

However, the bigger Lakers coolly increased the tempo with their powerful inside presence and Spanish forward Pau Gasol, the dominant player in the fourth period with Kobe Bryant’s assistance, finished with a game-high 29 points. “That was a good way to finish a ball game for us,” Lakers head coach Phil Jackson told reporters after his team won their eighth successive game in the playoffs. “In the second and third quarters, they (the Suns) got their offensive machine rolling. We had to find a way to buckle down and get our game going for us in the fourth quarter.”

In front of a capacity Staples Center crowd of 19,000, All-Star guard Bryant weighed in with 21 points and a playoffhigh 13 assists while forward Ron Artest contributed 18 points on six-fornine shooting. Lamar Odom made a huge impact for the Lakers off the bench for the second game in a row as he added 17 points and 11 rebounds.

Guard Jason Richardson led the Suns with 27 points and forward Grant Hill delivered 23.

WANTING BOSTON The Lakers shot better than 57 percent against the Suns and the sellout crowd began to chant ‘We want Boston’ as the game ended, referring to the Celtics who lead the Orlando Magic 2-0 in the Eastern Conference finals.

Gasol’s rousing display in the fourth quarter to finish the night with 11-for19 shooting earned the athletic Spaniard fulsome praise from his facilitator Bryant. “Pau was great,” Bryant said. “He really took advantage of the defense tonight and he played huge for us. He’s just making all the right reads and all the right plays.”

The Suns began promisingly, racing two points ahead early on before the Lakers, helped by an unanswered 10point run ending with a Gasol fadeaway shot on the turn, led 36-24 after the first quarter. Although Phoenix hit back in the second with Jared Dudley landing three three-pointers to trail by only three, the Lakers regained control to grab a 65-56 advantage by half-time.

Again the Suns clawed their way back, Richardson and Hill setting the tone in the third quarter before a Steve Nash running jump shot pulled them level at 90-90.

With Hollywood actors Danny DeVito, Tom Cruise, Hillary Swank and Jack Nicholson among the fans watching the action, the Lakers were in no mood to fluff their lines and made sure they retained home court advantage with a solid late display. Bryant continued to focus on assisting and the seven-foot Gasol took full advantage, dominating the smaller Suns players in the paint to score 14 points in the final quarter. The series shifts to Phoenix for Game Three on Sunday. — Reuters

LOS ANGELES: Phoenix Suns guard Jason Richardson (left) and forward Amare Stoudemire get tangled up while defending Los Angeles Lakers forward Pau Gasol during the second half of Game 2 of the NBA basketball Western Conference finals on Wednesday, May 19, 2010. — AP

Russian billionaire bets big on making NBA history in US NEW YORK: Hapless US basketball team the New Jersey Nets needs money and charm-and its colorful new owner, Russian oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov, is unloading Siberia-sized amounts of both.

Prokhorov, a lanky fitness fanatic measuring an NBA-worthy six-and-ahalf feet plus (more than two meters), announced an ambitious transformation of the Nets Wednesday at his first press conference since taking over.

Speaking in heavily accented English, the 45-year-old metals magnate promised that the team, which last season went an NBA-worst 12-70, will reach the playoffs next year and win a championship soon after. Along the way, the ramshackle outfit will move to a planned arena in Brooklyn for the 2012 season, becoming the more glamorous New York Nets, recruit the best coaches and players, and develop a global brand.

“If everything goes as planned, we plan to build a championship team in minimum one year, maximum five,” he said, predicting the team, which reportedly lost 64 million dollars this year, will be in the black by the move to Brooklyn. Prokhorov’s 200-million dollar purchase made him the first foreign owner of an NBA franchise and he’s fitting right in in New York, home both to a large Russian diaspora and an army of super-wealthy celebrities.

The unmarried former owner of Norilsk Nickel shot from the business pages to tabloid covers in 2007 when he was detained for several days in France on suspicion of arranging prostitutes for his friends at a Courchevel ski chalet.

He was eventually released without charge but the incident confirmed his public image as Russia’s biggest playboy bachelor. He said he’s been working too hard to enjoy New York’s nightlife and is not yet thinking about whether to buy an apartment.

But he breakfasted earlier Wednesday with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, joking afterwards that he’d offered the billionaire media mogul a job as the Nets’ coach. He also says he’s “looking forward to hanging out” with rapper Jay-Z, who owns a minority share and is considered to be an important part of the Nets’ image-remake. What will that image be? Prokhorov announced that he had a plan, then dead-panned: “If I tell you, I will have to kill you.”

His one-liner brought the roof down in the Park Avenue hotel facility where journalists were fed dainty refreshments from gold-rimmed plates-a far cry from the doughnuts usually seen at such media events. The charm offensive could prove as vital as Prokhorov’s huge bank account in luring the top names he needs to create a new team. — AFP

Horse racing Cash-strapped NY race under threat NEW YORK: The operator of New York state’s three largest thoroughbred horse-racing tracks says its financial situation is so dire it may be forced to close operations this summer unless it gets state assistance. “(The New York Racing Association’s) current cash position will not allow us to make it through the entire Belmont Park race meet,” the multi-track operator said in a statement. “We are in discussions with the state regarding potential avenues for us to acquire funding,” it added.

New York governor David Paterson has promised the state’s racing season would not close. “That’s not going to happen,” the governor told reporters this week. “We have a plan to loan NYRA, in the short term, money to get through Saratoga (the track’s late summer racing program), and we’re working on a long-term plan to help beyond that.” His plan would provide NYRA between $15 million and $25 million in loans.

NYRA, which runs the Aqueduct, Belmont Park and Saratoga tracks, is facing about a $20 million shortfall for the summer, US Representative Scott Murphy, whose district includes the Saratoga race course, told Reuters on Wednesday.

“The state has not lived up to its obligations,” he said in a telephone interview from Washington. “It would be a real disaster for all of New York’s economy if we didn’t have racing.” He said New York State had not paid about $55 million due the not-for-profit NYRA from various sources. The shortfall comes as Belmont Park prepares for the June 5 Belmont Stakes, the third leg of the Triple Crown.

Murphy said NYRA’s problems were two-fold and both state-related, Murphy said. First, the state had promised NYRA operating money from April 2009 if video lottery terminals were not in operation at Aqueduct by that date. But a vendor for the facility had not yet been determined, leaving NYRA short about $35 million in anticipated revenue, the congressman said. — Reuters

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Friday, May 21, 2010

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Federer braces for rejuvenated Nadal PARIS: Roger Federer will confront one of his biggest challenges when a rejuvenated Rafael Nadal, written off as an injury-cursed, spentforce earlier this year, attempts to reclaim his French Open title. World number one Federer, the holder of a record 16 majors and widelyregarded as the greatest player of all time, completed a career Grand Slam at Roland Garros in 2009 with a first Paris title.

But Nadal, who had won four straight French Opens, had lost in the fourth round, his crumbling knees conspiring with Robin Soderling’s match of a lifetime to sensationally engineer a first Roland Garros defeat. Federer, defeated by his great Spanish rival in the 2006, 2007 and 2008 finals, stormed into the power vacuum to take the crown. Critics, however, claimed it was a victory by default leaving the world number one, despite all his achievements, with a point to prove in 2010.

The statistics make uncomfortable reading for the Swiss. Nadal holds a staggering 14-7 lead in career meetings with Federer, having won six of the last seven match-ups.

The Spanish world number two has claimed 10 of their 12 claycourt meetings, including reclaiming his Madrid Masters title last weekend.

But 28-year-old Federer insists he is neither concerned by Nadal’s record nor his own patchy claycourt form where his run to the Madrid final was preceded by a second round exit in Rome and a semi-final loss in Estoril. “The claycourt season will not be judged here, but in Paris,” said Federer after his 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) defeat to Nadal in Madrid.

“We will see what happens. I feel I’m ready for Paris.” The 23-year-old Nadal’s form this spring has been breathtaking.

His win in Madrid gave him a record 18th Masters title, surpassing the previous mark of Andre Agassi, and making him the first man to win all three Masters claycourt events (Monte Carlo, Rome, Madrid) in the same year. His form has also allowed him to regain the world number two spot, ensuring that the only way he and Federer can meet in Paris is in the final.

Nadal is desperate to prove he is once again a genuine Grand Slam force, having been unable to defend his Wimbledon title last year while limping out of Janaury’s Australian Open quarter-final against Andy Murray.

“I’m only motivated by tournaments, being ranked number two means nothing to me,” he said. “My aim is to be at my best in each tournament, both technically and physically.

“I’ve been at my best throughout the season and this has been a great satisfaction for me after all the work. “I’m almost 24 (June 3) and I trust I’ll be able to play many more matches and win many more tournaments. You never know when it will all end.” Between them, Federer and Nadal have won 18 of the last 20 Grand Slam events.

That staggering statistic, coupled with an injury-depleted and under-cooked chasing pack, should guarantee a fourth Federer-Nadal final in five years. World number three Novak Djokovic, twice a semi-finalist, skipped Madrid after suffering an allergic reaction in Belgrade, the latest health scare for the Serbian whose fragile physical condition has prompted regular dismay. Murray, who made the semifinal in 2009, has slipped back to world number four after a promising start to 2010 which saw him reach the Australian Open final.

The Scotsman’s best claycourt effort this year was a last-eight appearance in Madrid.

Missing from the tournament will be Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko and US Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina. World number six Davydenko, a semi-finalist in 2005 and 2007, has not played since midMarch because of a wrist problem while Del Potro has a similar, but more worrying injury.

The giant 21-year-old hasn’t played since making the fourth round of the Australian Open in January. Federer was given a major scare by the Argentine in 2009 when he had to come back from two sets to one down to make the final. — AFP

Americans seek first 2010 LPGA victory GLADSTONE: Americans have gone winless in seven LPGA events this season and will have some work to do if they intend to end the skid at this week’s 1.5 milliondollar Sybase Match Play Championship.

World number one Jiyai Shin of South Korea and Japanese second-seed Ai Miyazato, who has won three of this season’s six LPGA events, lead a field of 64 players into Hamilton Farm for the first time since 2006.

The first two rounds will be staged Thursday and Friday with the third round and quarter-finals set for Saturday and the semi-finals and finals to be played on Sunday.

South Koreans Se Ri Pak and Hee Kyung Seo and Taiwan’s fourth-seeded Yani Tseng also have victories this year. The top US hope could be Brittany Lincicome, who lost to Pak in a playoff last week in Alabama and who won this event in 2006, the last time the match-play tournament was contested at Hamilton Farm.

Lincicome beat Michelle Wie, justretired former world number one Lorena Ochoa of Mexico and US veteran Juli Inkster in her final three 2006 matches to collect her first of three LPGA triumphs.

“I’m doing pretty well,” Lincicome said. “If I keep driving it well and make some putts, we’ll see what happens this week.”

Lincicome drew Spain’s Beatriz Recari for her first-round foe in a blind draw Tuesday.

Shin drew South Korean compatriot Kyeong Bae and looks forward to backing up the top spot she took three weeks ago from Ochoa.

“Match play is fun, but if you lose, you go home,” Shin said.

Miyazato, a runner-up in 2007 in the most recent LPGA match-play event, will open against Korean Jeong Jang. “I love match play,” Miyazato said. “I’m really happy that I have played so well so far. I’m just trying to do my best this week to keep it going.” Norwegian third seed Suzann Pettersen will open against Inkster, 50, who was glad to have an early showdown against a top foe. “You’re going to have to beat them sometime, so you might as well start off with a tough one,” she said. “She’s a hell of a player, so I’m going to have to play great and not make any mistakes.”

Michelle Wie, whose first LPGA title last November is the most recent by a US player, opens against compatriot Stacy Prammanasudh. “I’ve definitely gained a lot of confidence,” Wie said. “I’m focusing on getting the second win. —AFP

Golf

Spain’s Rafael Nadal

Serena set for French Open bid PARIS: Serena Williams rates Paris as her favorite city and that sentiment will be all the stronger should she win a second French Open title, eight years after her first. On the face of it, the American diva is facing an uphill battle as she has played just two tournaments since winning the Australian Open in January, losing to Jelena Jankovic in Rome and Nadia Petrova in Madrid.

But the signs are there that she is out to re-establish her claycourt credentials with several factors whetting her appetite. Firstly, the French Open is the only one of the four majors that she has not won more than once and a triumph on June 5 would give her a 13th major title, taking her one past her

childhood idol Billie Jean King. It would also leave her halfway to achieving the fabled calendar year Grand Slam, last achieved by Steffi Graf in 1988, with her two favorite events - Wimbledon and the US Open to come.

And if that was not enough, sister Venus is back up to number two in the world, the first time the two sisters have filled the top two spots since May 2003, and they could meet in the final as they last did here in 2002. Williams, who will turn 29 in September, arrived at her Paris apartment early after her Madrid exit and has been hard at practice on the Roland Garros courts. Her early exits in Rome and Madrid, she said, were to be expected given her inactivity, but

the matches she played during those tournaments were enough she feels to set her up for a strong run in Paris.

“When you play matches, it’s totally different than practice,” she said after Madrid. “Getting that match play, you put your body under different levels of stress. “I feel like I’ve been under different levels of stress, and hopefully within the next week and a half I’ll be better.” Also in her favor is the fact that currently the competition is in disarray. The Russians are struggling, with the two finalists from last year, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Dinara Safina badly short of form.

Title-holder Kuznetsova is in free-fall having won just four matches in total at her past five

tournaments, while Safina, who was world number one a year ago, has played barely a half dozen games since returning from a serious back injury.

Glamour girl Maria Sharapova is also taking it one match at a time as she struggles to bounce back from yet another injury - this time to her elbow.

World number three Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark has yet to show any real form on clay, while Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic, although playing well of late, still has to produce her best at a Grand Slam tournament. The big question mark will surround the form of four-time champion Justine Henin as she continues with the comeback she launched at the start of the year. —AP

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Friday, May 21, 2010

Red Knights insist United takeover bid still on track LONDON: The Red Knights' bidding to buy consortium Manchester United from the Glazer family insisted yesterday that their plans remain on course despite reports of rifts within the group.

According to reports in England, senior figures involved with the

group of wealthy United fans have hinted that internal divisions have sprung up amid fears they are fighting a losing battle to match the Glazers' price for United.

The Red Knights had hoped fans' protests against the Glazers, who have saddled the club with debts of

over 700 million pounds (one billion dollars), allied to a call not to renew season tickets, would persuade the Americans to sell up.

But there has been no sign that the group, led by leading investment banker and former United director Jim O'Neill, have

forced the Glazers to consider their position.

A report in the Guardian said one 'Red Knight' believed a bid would be only for "face-saving" purposes, while it was also suggested that the businessmen involved have struggled to agree on the right

vision for United's future. Yet there is still a determination to go through with the takeover bid and, reacting to reports of disunity in the group, a Red Knights source was quoted as saying: "Talks have been going better than ever and are progressing very positively." — AFP

Delivery time for Spain in S Africa

GENOA: In this file photo Sampdoria coach Luigi del Neri shouts directions to his players during the Serie A soccer match between Sampdoria and Napoli. Luigi Del Neri is set to take over as coach of Juventus, days after leading Sampdoria to Champions League qualification. — AP

Delneri vows to justify Juve faith

ROME: New Juventus coach Luigi Delneri yesterday vowed to justify the club's faith in him as he takes over possibly the toughest job in Italian football. Speaking at his official unveiling the 59-year-old, who has only been given a two-year deal, said he wanted to turn the club into a winning outfit to bring joy to the fans. That is something they had very little of last season as the club set a new record for their most defeats in a season (15) and most number of goals conceded (56) while finishing a lowly seventh and only just scraping into next season's Europa League.

"I want to thank Juventus for the opportunity, I will be committed to giving the team the right face, I want a compact formation and I want results," he said.

"It's a tough job but I have the desire. I'll give it my all, I want results and fan satisfaction. "I need to convince the club that they have made the right choice, Juventus have decided to put their faith in staff that have succeeded in the past.

"When you're asked to coach Juventus it's normal that you feel a bit emotional in the beginning but I assure you I know what I'm doing.

"This is an important challenge, the most important of my career." Delneri arrives on the back of his best season as a coach having just guided Sampdoria to fourth place and Champions League football next season. He takes over from interim boss Alberto Zaccheroni who replaced the sacked rookie Ciro Ferrara at the end of January. Delneri, a former

midfielder, is one of Italy's most respected coaches. He spent 15 years coaching in the Italian lower divisions before finally coming to prominence at Chievo.

The small and unfashionable team from Verona were in Serie B at the time he joined in 2000 and he not only took them into the top flight but also led them into the UEFA Cup in their first season in Serie A. That earned him the dubious honor of replacing Jose Mourinho at then Champions League holders Porto in 2004, although he never even took charge of a single match, having been fired before the new season began. A brief and unsuccessful spell at AS Roma followed before Delneri moved on to Palermo, back to Chievo and then Atalanta. — AFP

MADRID: Spain have a justified reputation for being underachievers on the big stage and have never won the World Cup but the feeling is that the 2010 finals in South Africa offer their best chance of finally winning football's ultimate prize. After 44 years without a trophy Spain defeated Germany 10 to win Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland and that win appears to have given them the extra selfbelief that was perhaps missing in the past.

Spain had a flawless 10 wins in the qualifying campaign and also made history by equaling Brazil's record of 35 consecutive games unbeaten - including 15 straight wins as part of a sequence that stretched from February 2007 to June 2009 - before losing 2-0 to the United States in the 2009 Confederations Cup semi-finals. The confidence from the European championship triumph and current form - which saw them go top of the world rankings for the first ever time - means Spain go to the World Cup as one of the major favorites for the title along with Brazil.

It is seen as Spain's golden generation of players and the sheer strength in depth gives coach Vicente del Bosque pleasant selection headaches all over the pitch. In goal captain Iker Casillas is viewed as one of the best goalkeepers in world football and has 102 caps despite being just 28.

Barcelona duo Gerard Pique and Carles Puyol form a formidable central defense pairing in front of Casillas and Spain have a miserly defense conceding just five goals in qualifying.

It is in midfield where Spain are particularly blessed with the pin-point passing of Real Madrid's Xabi Alonso and Barcelona star Xavi while Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas and Andres Iniesta of Barcelona provide the cutting edge with their incisive slide-

rule passes. In attack they have two of the best strikers on the planet in Barcelona's new signing David Villa and Liverpool marksman Fernando Torres. Villa was the Golden Boot winner at Euro 2008 with four goals while Torres scored the winning goal in the 1-0 final win over Germany. follow the Spain Barcelona blueprint of a possession game to dominate and frustrate their opponents while also possessing the firepower to hurt the opposition where it counts. In del Bosque, 59, they have a proven manager at the highest level with the Spaniard winning two La Liga titles (2001, 2003) and two Champions League crowns (2000, 2002) with Real Madrid. Del Bosque took over from Luis Aragones following the Euro 2008 success and has not had done much tinkering with his main movements being the introduction of Barcelona duo Pique and Sergi Busquets into the first team following their brilliant performances at club level.

The only major concern for del Bosque is injuries to key players with Torres, Fabregas and Iniesta all missing the latter part of the season through injury. Spain are a seasoned World Cup team and have not missed a finals since failing to qualify for Germany in 1974 although their best finish was fourth place at the 1950 finals in Brazil.

Spain have not managed to go past the quarter-final stage ever since, even when they hosted the tournament in 1982, and lost 3-1 to eventual finalists France at the last 16 stage at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

Unfortunately for Spain the draw has not been kind and if, as expected, they come through a group of Switzerland, Chile and Honduras, del Bosque's side could run into Portugal, Ivory Coast or worse still, Brazil at the last 16 stage.— AFP

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Dutch bid to shake off chokers tag BERLIN: The Oranje of Holland will be bidding to reach their first final in 32 years in South Africa and shake off their image of group-stage giants, knock-outphase chokers at the World Cup. The last time Holland reached a World Cup final was in 1978 when hosts Argentina captured their first world title with a 31 win as the Netherlands suffered final heartache for the second-tournament running.

Holland tend to come to major championships with form players and flowing football: setting a breath-taking pace in the group stages, only to freeze in the knock-out stages. In their eight World Cup appearances, the Oranje have reached the showpiece match twice, falling narrowly short in both 1974 and 1978.

Their best recent effort was fourth at France 1998. Often seen as spectacular, but mentally fragile, the Dutch made a Last 16 exit at the hands of Portugal in a bruising match four years ago in Germany. They also had a disappointing Euro 2008 after blasting both 2006 World Cup finalists France and Italy off the park in the group stages, only to lose to Russia in the quarter-finals. In the wake of the disappointment, Bert van Marwijk took over as coach from Marco van Basten and the Oranje have set themselves lofty targets for South Africa.

The current squad have made no secret of their ambition to reach the final and they were impressive in qualifying with eight wins from eight games, conceding just two goals in the campaign to minnows Iceland and FYR Macedonia. Van Marwijk has kept the 4-2-3-1 formation favored by Van Basten and was rewarded with a flawless qualification campaign with a two-year contract extension. Both goalkeeper Edwin van der Saar and striker Ruud van Nistelrooy have retired, but Van Marwijk has inherited a key core of players.

With the likes of Arjen Robben, Rafael van der Vaart, Robin van Persie, Nigel De Jong and Wesley Sneijder playing well, the Oranje are in form.

Real Madrid’s loss could well be Holland’s gain in South Africa with Sneijder and Robben both prospering after two inconsistent years in the Spanish capital. Robben has been a revelation in the Bundesliga since swapping Madrid for Bayern Munich and having scored twice on his arrival in the Bundesliga as Bayern won their 22nd German league title.

He also played a huge role in putting Bayern in their first Champions League final since 2001. Sneijder completed his transfer to Inter desperate to prove his worth as soon as possible, and he made a stunning start to the 2009/10 campaign with a role in the 4-0 derby win over neighbors AC Milan. Thanks to his reading of the game and pinpoint passing, not to mention his powerful shooting and deadly free-kicks, he has since become one of the most influential playmakers in Serie A. “The arrival of a player of his class changes the whole team,” said Chelsea’s Michael Ballack, who has kept a close eye on the Bundesliga.

“Arjen is quick and he’s a great dribbler.

I don’t see any other players like him in Germany today.” The Netherlands were the first side from Europe to book their ticket to South Africa. This year’s tournament could allow Robben, who boasts 11 goals from his 45 appearances, and Sneijder, scorer of 12 in 58, the platform to show the world what they can do. — AFP

SEEFELD: Dirk Kuyt (left) does exercises during the Dutch national football team’s first practice on the opening of their training camp in Tyrolian village yesterday, prior to the FIFA World cup 2010 in South Africa. —AFP

Resilient Australians look to beat the odds SYDNEY: Australia have named 14 players from the last World Cup in an experienced but ageing squad for South Africa 2010 and are rated an outside chance of getting through Group D. The Lucas Neill-led Socceroos face the opening obstacle of three-time champions Germany in Durban before a more odds-friendly contest with Ghana in Rustenburg and a potential all-or-nothing showdown with Serbia in Nelspruit.

The Australians, under conservative Dutch coach Pim Verbeek, qualified top of their Asian group, five points ahead of Japan, and are the toprated regional team at 20 on the FIFA world rankings.

Under another Dutchman Guus Hiddink, they surprised by reaching the second round at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, coming from behind to beat Japan and drawing with Croatia in their group.

It took a disputed last-minute penalty by eventual champions Italy to knock them out the tournament after they were moments

away from forcing extra-time against the 10-man Azzurri. To reach Germany, Australia had to beat South Americans Uruguay on penalties after strolling through Oceania qualifying.

Now Australia are officially part of the Asian Football Confederation, they have been steeled under Verbeek through 14 regional qualifiers, losing just twice and conceding only four goals.

The team to face Germany on June 13 will probably be the same line-up, minus retired Mark Viduka, that downed Japan 3-1 in Kaiserslautern four years ago. Nine of those players are aged 30 or more with a total of 484 international caps, so matchhardened experience will be one of the strengths of the Australians this time round. They will be relying on the influential spine of their team, from Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, through to Galatasaray central defender Lucas Neill, Everton midfielder Tim Cahill and Galatasaray

attacker Harry Kewell.

There have been suggestions that the injuryprone Kewell may shift from the left to play as the lone striker, instead of the towering Nagoya Grampusbased Josh Kennedy, but he has only played two minutes for his Turkish club this year and his match stamina may be lacking. While the Socceroos are tight at the back and function well as a defensive unit headed by the outstanding shot-stopper Schwarzer, just who will

score the goals to get them through to the knockout stage is the big question.

Cahill is coming off an outstanding English Premier League season and is one of the game’s leading headers, but the way the Socceroos are set up in a 4-5-1 formation, only 19 goals came in 14 Asian qualifiers with 10 of them in three games against Qatar.

Cahill has proven to be a lucky charm for his team and they haven’t lost in 13 of his 37 internationals when he

has scored. The Socceroos, under Verbeek, have proved a resilient outfit, losing only four times in 27 internationals since 2008, and with the significant scalps of the Netherlands, Ghana and the Republic of Ireland.

If Verbeek can get his first-choice 11 players on the field in South Africa and keep them there during the group stage they are experienced and cohesive enough to cause problems to their opposition. — AFP

Eriksson: Watch out for N Korea MONTREUX: Ivory Coast coach SvenGoran Eriksson said yesterday that his team would be facing three “difficult” matches in the first round of the World Cup, warning that North Korea could turn out to be a dark horse. “Pay attention to North Korea. Nobody speaks about North Korea but they play good football. Physically they are better than anyone because they have been in the training camp for six months,” he said.

“I think we are going to have three very difficult games, and we have to be very organized,” said Eriksson. Ivory Coast are in Group G at the June 11-July 11 World Cup finals in South Africa. They will play their first game against Portugal, before meeting Brazil and then North Korea.

Eriksson pointed out the first game is “very important... it’s like the final for us.”

Portugal, he said, is “always difficult” as they are “technically very good, tactically good.”

Meanwhile, he also noted that Brazil is touted as one of the likely contenders for the cup. But besides the big teams, North Korea could not to be minimized, he warned. Eriksson said from the two tapes he has viewed of international games played by North Korea, it was clear that “they are very lively.” “They are organized.

Running all the time. And you can’t see in the second half that they are getting tired.

They are going on all the time,” he added.

The former England coach pointed out that unlike players in the European leagues, the North Koreans have the advantage of managing to “finish the league when they want because of the World Cup.” “That’s a great advantage,” he said.

“World Cup is very much about fitness as well,” stressed Eriksson. Part of the Ivory Coast team has arrived at their training camp in Switzerland, while the rest, including captain Didier Drogba, will arrive on Monday. — AFP

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Friday, May 21, 2010

Sao Paulo ease past Cruzeiro

BUENOS AIRES: Three times Libertadores Cup champions Sao Paulo eased to a 2-0 home win over 10man Cruzeiro on Wednesday to advance to the semi-finals with a 4-0 aggregate victory in the all-Brazilian clash.

Cruzeiro, already 2-0 down following a first-leg defeat at home in Belo Horizonte last week, suffered a further setback when striker Kleber was sent off in the opening minute for elbowing Sao Paulo’s Richarlyson.

Sao Paulo took the lead when Brazil midfielder Hernanes volleyed superbly into the top corner from Junior Cesar’s left cross midway through the first half. They went further ahead eight minutes into the second half when another Junior Cesar cross was headed down by man-of-thematch Fernandao to fellow striker Dagoberto, who lobbed keeper Fabio.

Hernanes and Dagoberto also scored the goals in the first leg for a side who last won South America’s top club competition in 2005.

The semi-finals will be played after the World Cup in South Africa, which ends on July 11.

Estudiantes, who beat Cruzeiro in last year’s final to lift their fourth title, hosted Brazil’s Internacional yesterday 1-0 down from the first leg in Porto Alegre.

They play at Quilmes in Buenos Aires due to refurbishments at their ground in La Plata. In the other quarter-final, Flamengo visit Universidad de Chile at the Monumental in Santiago trailing 3-2 after the Chileans secured a shock first leg victory at the Maracana.

Mexico’s Guadalajara advanced on Tuesday despite a 2-0 defeat away to Libertad of Paraguay at the Defensores del Chaco in Asuncion, having won the home leg 3-0 last week. — Reuters

Libertadores Semis

Best-ever Mexican squad confident for World Cup

SAO PAULO: Brazil’s Cruzeiro’s Leonardo Silva (front) fights for the ball with Brazil’s Sao Paulo FC’s Fernandao during a Copa Libertadores soccer match in Sao Paulo. — AP

Robinho’s Santos storm into 2nd final of season RIO DE JANEIRO: Robinho’s Santos reached their second final of the season when they beat Gremio 3-1 at home on Wednesday for a 6-5 aggregate victory in an exciting Copa Brasil semi-final tie. Santos’ opener six minutes into the second half, a superb goal by 20-year-old Ganso from outside the box into the top corner of Victor’s net, calmed their anxious fans at the Vila Belmiro by putting them level 4-4 on aggregate. Robinho scored the second with a fine lob over Victor 20 minutes from time and after defender Rafael Marques pulled one back, midfielder Wesley secured victory by dribbling past the keeper to score the third five minutes from time.

In the dying minutes both teams were left with 10 men when Santos defender Edu Dracena and Gremio striker Jonas were sent off for fighting. Gremio then had Marques dismissed for a second booking after a violent foul on substitute Marcel. Santos, who won the Paulista (Sao Paulo) state championship earlier this month, will meet Vitoria in the Copa Brasil final. Vitoria beat Atletico Goianiense 4-0 at home on Wednesday and 4-1 on aggregate. The final, with a Libertadores Cup berth at stake, will be played after the World Cup, the first leg on July 28. The second leg on Aug. 4 is the final day of Robinho’s loan from Manchester City. — Reuters

WASHINGTON: Mixing talented newcomers and crafty veterans, Mexico’s team is confident of a bestever World Cup showing at South Africa by reaching the semi-finals of the global football showdown. “We have the best Mexican team ever,” Mexican manager Javier Aguirre said. “We’re not scared of anything. We’re prepared for this challenge. Our intention is to have an historic World Cup.” No member of El Tricolores is more excited about their chances than two-time World Cup standout Cuauhtemoc Blanco.

“We’re going for it all,” he said. “We have the capacity to beat any team we play.”

The Mexicans have never moved past the quarter-finals and have only gotten that far only twice and both times on home soil, most recently in 1986 when Aguirre was a midfielder. Since replacing former England manager Sven Goran Eriksson in April of last year, Aguirre has formed a solid team from an under-achieving Mexican side. “I asked the players, ‘Do you want to make history? It’s in your hands,’” Aguirre said. “I want to drill in their head that the World Cup is the pinnacle in terms of aspiring to represent your country.”

South Africa, France and Uruguay will join Mexico in Group A for the opening round. Mexico could make history by keeping a host out of the last 16 for the first time in Cup history, but the team has far more in mind. The Mexicans prepared for the World Cup

with four wins and two draws on US soil before large supportive crowds, not surrendering a goal to help build a fever pitch that has Mexican fans excited in a way seldom seen before.

“This is the moment to do something big, something historic,” said Rafael Marquez, the Barcelona defender who captained the past two Mexican World Cup squads.

After building such emotion, Aguirre’s hopes of diminishing expectations are about as great as a sand castle holding back the tide.

“There’s a lot of pressure.

Millions of eyes are watching the Mexican team,” Aguirre said. “The pressure is beginning to build. The Mexican people are starting to go crazy over their national team.

“The Mexican team is very talented. It has all the ingredients. But it’s not going to be easy. We’re in a tough group. And there are six or seven rivals who also want to win the World Cup. Brazil, Argentina, England, Spain, Germany, Italy.

“I just want people to see the reality and not say we should be champion because we have the best team in the world. Yes, we have the best Mexican team ever. Yes, we’re prepared for this challenge.

But it’s not easy.” El Tri has three contenders at goalkeeper - young star Memo Ochoa, newcomer Luis Ernesto Michel and two World Cup veteran Oscar Perez - in a fight for the starting job that could go into the final days before the Mexicans face South Africa in the June 11 opener. — AFP

Blanc to become next France coach, says FFF PARIS: Laurent Blanc will replace the controversial Raymond Domenech as France coach after the World Cup, the French Football Federation (FFF) said yesterday. A prominent member of France’s 1998 World Cup-winning squad, although he was suspended for the final, Blanc will take over from Domenech after the June 11-July 11 World Cup in South Africa.

The 44-year-old took over as coach of Girondins Bordeaux three years ago, leading them to a Ligue 1 and League Cup double last season. The FFF “confirmed the choice of Laurent Blanc as national team coach after the 201O World Cup”, the ruling body said in a statement issued after a council meeting in Paris. The Federation said it would make no further comment until Blanc officially signs his contract and did not specify when that would happen.

The last significant hurdle was cleared yesterday when the FFF said they had reached an agreement with Girondins,

meaning there should be a financial compensation for the club, Blanc having a year left in his contract. Blanc told Bordeaux on Sunday he wanted to leave the club to take the France job. Girondins

Former world champion still to sign contract had reacted by saying they would expect financial compensation for letting him go.

Blanc, who also won the European Championship with France in 2000, played for several leading clubs including Barcelona, Olympique Marseille, Inter Milan and Manchester United.

‘THE PRESIDENT’ An elegant sweeper in his playing days, he has been dubbed “the President” for his leadership skills since then. Unlike Domenech, who has never won anything as coach, Blanc has put his hands on

plenty of silverware and should be much more popular than his predecessor at first, although he is sometimes perceived as distant and cold, if not arrogant. Blanc had been considered for the top job in 2004 but the FFF ruled he was not experienced enough and instead opted for Domenech, formerly the coach of France’s Under-21 side.

The stubborn Domenech’s six-year tenure started rather well, the coach convincing Zinedine Zidane, Lilian Thuram and Claude Makelele to come out of retirement and help the team qualify for the 2006 World Cup, in which they reached the final. Domenech, however, has faced criticism ever since France’s Euro 2008 flop, after which the FFF surprisingly left him in charge.

France, whose fans have been booing Domenech at every game lately, needed that infamous Thierry Henry handball to qualify for the World Cup through a playoff at the expense of Ireland. —Reuters

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Robben takes swipe at Mourinho's tactics LONDON: Bayern Munich winger Arjen Robben has taken a swipe at Inter Milan boss Jose Mourinho's negative tactics ahead of tomorrow's Champions League final. Robben, who will face Inter in the final in Madrid this weekend, played under Mourinho for three years at Chelsea and grew tired of his safety-first

philosophy.

The Holland international believes Mourinho was too concerned with winning at all costs and didn't let his players express themselves.

"He puts out a winning team, it doesn't matter if it's done with nice football or not," Robben told BBC Sport. "The philosophy at Bayern is

the coach (Louis van Gaal) wants to win games by playing nice football."

The 26-year-old added: "As a player you want to play and enjoy the game, that's also an important part."

Robben gradually fell out of favor with Mourinho at Chelsea because the Portuguese coach was unimpressed with his player's poor

injury record and switched to a formation that made less use of wingers.

"I was working with him three years at Chelsea. It was a successful time, he's a big personality and as a coach of a top team you need to be," Robben said. "He knew how to work with big players and put them

together and let them work together. "He certainly knew what he was talking about and had the respect of every single player. "But we started to play more in this diamond without wingers, which is not good for me. The system changed a bit so I made my decision and left." — AFP

Inter and Bayern chase treble in 'final of wonder' Game crucial for Champions League slots for 2011/12 MADRID: Tomorrow's Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Inter Milan is so much more than just one game of soccer with a myriad of intertwined storylines promising an intriguing night whatever happens on the field. The first final to be played tomorrow brings together two teams gunning for trebles and is crucial to whether Germany or Italy have four Champions League qualifying berths from 2011.

The future of Inter's largerthan-life coach Jose Mourinho, who learnt part of his trade under Bayern boss Louis van Gaal when they were at Barcelona, will also be decided after the game with the Portuguese tempted to quit for Real Madrid.

If he does leave after taking 1964 and 1965 winners Inter to their first final since 1972, it will be because of his hatred of the Italian press and soccer establishment rather than any problems he has with the club or his beloved players. "I love everybody. From the first to the last they give everything. They are great the way they have survived this incredible season playing a match every three days," Mourinho said.

The irony of the final being played in Real's Bernabeu stadium will not have been lost on the savvy Mourinho, who will take two or three days after the game to mull his options whether or not Inter complete an unprecedented Italian treble.

Van Gaal's future appears to be more clear cut after the Dutchman said he would stay even if Bayern seal a treble, reversing a decision he took some months ago. "A defeat can happen in the final... but it would be unbelievable if you won the treble with a new team and a new coach in the first season,." Van Gaal told Reuters.

BIG EARS Many German football

fans are viciously envious of the four-times winners but most will be rooting for them tomorrow given a win for Bayern or a draw after 120 minutes would mean four Bundesliga clubs will enter the Champions League pots for the 2011/12 season at the expense of one Italian team.

Under UEFA's coefficient rules, Inter need to win without penalties to keep the status quo of Serie A having four Champions League slots, one a qualifying round berth. The match itself is struggling to avoid becoming a side issue with neutrals moaning that a Bayern v Inter final is one of the most boring they could have imagined.

Both coaches have hit back, saying their sides can put on a great show despite their tough-tackling traits.

Some flair will be missing, though, given Bayern winger Franck Ribery and Inter's stylish midfielder Thiago Motta are suspended after being dismissed in the semifinals. Apart from Ribery, Van Gaal has a full squad to chose from with Hamit Altintop the likely replacement for the Frenchman while Mourinho's only variable is whether to play 4-3-1-2 or a 4-2-3-1 with Goran Pandev or Mario Balotelli on the wing.

Bayern's Mark van Bommel will clash with fellow tough guy Esteban Cambiasso in midfield with the Dutch captain eager for a second Champions League winners' medal after clinching the title with Barcelona four years ago.

"This team has grown together and everything works," Van Bommel told Reuters, donning an expensive watch given to him by the Catalan club after their victory in 2006.

"We will be ready and we should not change a thing from what we have been doing because we want to win this thing with the big ears (the trophy)." — Reuters

APPIANO GENTILE: Inter Milan's Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho attends a training session of his team at the Inter Milan training center in Appiano Gentile. — AFP

Mourinho looking to put one over his old master

MADRID: Far more unites Bayern Munich manager Louis Van Gaal and his Inter Milan counterpart Jose Mourinho than their mutual desire to win the Champions League final yesterday. The 58-year-old Dutchman and 47-year-old Portuguese share a friendship dating back to when Mourinho was Van Gaal's assistant at Barcelona in the late 1990s, and Van Gaal still regards his young protege as a soulmate. Whatever the outcome tomorrow, their friendship will remain intact, even though Mourinho would love nothing more than to put one over on his old Dutch master.

Van Gaal, speaking to reporters in the build-up to the final, said: "Jose is my friend. He was a scout and interpreter at Barcelona and I made him my assistant. "In

some things we are soulmates. We send each other text messages often. I'm looking forward to seeing him in Madrid.

I'd like us to give a joint press conference to show everyone how well we get along.

Of course I know he wants to beat me tomorrow, but I want to beat him just as much." Mourinho initially worked under Bobby Robson at Barca as translator and assistant before Van Gaal gave him greater responsibilities.

NO-NONSENSE A decade on from leaving Barca in 2000, he retains his admiration for the nononsense Dutchman, who has overcome a tough start in his first season in Germany to lead them to the League and Cup double this season. "Bayern have a great team with a lot of quality. They have a great tradition in the Champions League and a

great coach," Mourinho said. "I learned a lot from Bobby Robson and a great deal from Louis Van Gaal as well. Nothing was left to chance, everything was programmed in great detail."

Both men approach the game with a rare chance of joining exclusive company because one of them will become only the third coach since the competition began in 1955-56 to win the trophy with two different clubs.

Van Gaal guided Ajax Amsterdam to victory over AC Milan in 1995, while Mourinho took Porto to the pinnacle of the European game with their 3-0 victory over Monaco. Only Ernst Happel (Feyenoord 1970 and SV Hamburg 1983) and Ottmar Hitzfeld (Borussia Dortmund 1997 and Bayern Munich 2001) have achieved the feat. — Reuters

BARCELONA: Sevilla players celebrate after beating Atletico de Madrid to win the Copa del Rey soccer final at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona.

Sevilla won the game. — AP

Sevilla crowned Spanish Cup kings Andalucian club win fifth King's Cup

BARCELONA: Sevilla claimed their second King's Cup triumph in four years when Diego Capel's early strike and a late breakaway goal from Jesus Navas fired them to a 2-0 win over Atletico Madrid on Wednesday. In a bad-tempered match at a rowdy Nou Camp stadium in Barcelona, winger Capel pounced on a loose ball on the edge of the penalty area in the fifth minute and smashed a left-foot shot past David De Gea. Atletico forwards Diego Forlan and Sergio Aguero went close to equalizing before Navas skipped past several lunging tackles, took the ball round De Gea and finished into the empty net in the 91st minute. It was a fifth domestic cup success for the Andalucian club, winners in 2007, and ended their season on a high after they finished fourth in La

Liga and qualified for the Champions League.

Atletico, who have won the cup nine times, were denied a second trophy of the campaign after last week's 2-1 victory over Fulham in the Europa League final. Sevilla coach Antonio Alvarez dedicated the cup win to the fans and defender Antonio Puerta, who died in 2007 after collapsing during a La Liga match.

"Antonio Puerta was with us tonight," Alvarez said in a television interview. "You couldn't tell that our fans were in the minority and they helped us as if it were our own stadium," he added. "All these people who have travelled more than 1,000 kilometers to get here on a work day. It's incredible."

PARTY MOOD On a balmy evening in the

BARCELONA: Sevilla's midfielder Jesus Navas celebrates with teammates after winning the King's Cup final match against Atletico Madrid at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona.— AFP

Catalan capital, the match kicked off after enthusiastic singing along to the wordless Spanish national anthem, in contrast to last year's final between Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao when it was roundly booed. In the festive atmosphere, many Sevilla fans were sporting sombreros in homage to club president Jose Maria del Nido and vast swathes of the giant arena were decorated in the red and white of Atletico.

The party mood in the crowd failed to rub off on the teams and the match boiled over with around 20 minutes left when a crunching tackle by Luis Perea on Capel prompted pushing and shoving between players and staff next to the technical areas. Atletico coach Quique Sanchez Flores and Alvarez had a heated exchange before match officials restored

calm. Atletico pressed forward desperately as the clock ticked down, leaving holes at the back that Navas was able to exploit to kill the game off.

The last time Barca's Nou Camp stadium hosted a cup final was in 1970, during the Francisco Franco dictatorship when the competition was called the "Copa del Generalisimo". Real Madrid beat Valencia 3-1 to win the trophy and Franco was in the stadium to present the cup to Real captain Gento. This time it was the Prince of Asturias who handed over the trophy to an ecstatic Sevilla captain Andres Palop. "It was an emotional match and we could have equalized right up until the last minute," Sanchez Flores said in a television interview. "But Sevilla won the game and they have to be congratulated."— Reuters