14 Feb

CR IP TI ON BS SU

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2011

Emirates’ exiles in spotlight after Mubarak fall

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Hasbro pushes into Lego’s land with new blocks

Women call time on Berlusconi in mass protests

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RABI ALAWAL 11, 1432 AH

Ace Quiros wins Dubai Desert Classic, Woods falls short

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Amir orders scrapping of cases against media Govt withdraws constitutional request to defuse tension

Max 19 Min 5 Low Tide 02:37 & 13:29 High Tide 10:05 & 19:03

By B Izzak conspiracy theories

Gentleman’s revolution

By Badrya Darwish

badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

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fter 18 days of intense action in Egypt and people glued to T Vs or whatever media sources they were dependent on, Mubarak stepped down and the army took over and promised the nation new reforms. Euphoria’s over...I hope Egyptians got what they want. Yesterday, things went drastically silent. As if people’s minds were newsfatigued. I am in the media line and I swear I did not want to see more news yesterday. I usually depend on Jazeera TV or BBC, my main sources for action news, but though the TV was on all day, I realized I wasn’t listening. Everybody around me does not want to listen to the drama any more.

What happened to us all of a sudden in the aftermath of toppling the regime? We just have to stand up, congratulate them and salute the Egyptian people for their peaceful revolution. In all honesty, the people in Egypt amazed me with their civilized revolution. Millions of people gathered in Tahrir Square from different sects and religions, men and women, different genders, young and middle-aged mainly.

One could feel amongst ranks of protesters strong feeling of affiliation and bonding. It was awesome!

Usually amongst crowds of that scary number, a lot of crime takes place. Not in Egypt. It was a gentleman’s revolution! There were children and women standing shoulder to shoulder with men on the square.

Imagine if this had happened in another country?

Do you think that the same respect and degree of discipline among the protesters would’ve prevailed? The only chaos with signs of anarchy took place in the first few days, which, by the way, was done on purpose by the government who wanted to spoil the demonstrations. That attempt was fast discovered by the protesters and dealt with.

What I loved most was the respect Egyptians gave to women who stood next to their brothers, fathers, husbands or friends in the square. There was no feeling of abuse or discrimination. Why not? Egypt has one of the oldest cultures on Earth. Women there share the same rights and status which men have without any question or negotiation. They did not need to be segregated. You could feel the sense of harmony prevail among these young men and women. I hope this could be a strong message to our part of the world, where segregation prevails to this day. I hope our MPs have noticed the status of women in the demonstration and how respected and efficient they were. Such culture and education do not come by segregating schools and universities. It comes when national unity stands above all.

Good luck to Egypt! I salute them!

KARZAKAN, Bahrain: An unidentified Bahraini is carried to a vehicle to be taken to hospital yesterday after being hit by birdshot when riot police opened fire on a demonstration in this village. — AP

Bahrain on alert amid demo calls DUBAI: Bahrain’s security forces set up checkpoints and clashed with marchers in at least one village yesterday as opposition groups blanketed social media sites with calls to stage the first major anti-government protests in the Gulf since the uprising in Egypt. The wide-ranging clampdown appeared directed toward Bahrain’s Shiite majority which had led the drive for today’s rallies - and reflected the increasing worries of the Sunni rulers who have already doled out cash and promised greater media reforms in an effort to quell the protest fervor.

A prominent human rights activist predicted “chaos and bloodshed” if attempts are made to crush the planned demonstrations.

The tiny kingdom of Bahrain is among the most politically volatile in the Gulf and holds important strategic value for the West as the home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet.

Bahrain’s Shiites - accounting for nearly 70 percent of the population - have long complained of systematic discrimination by the ruling Sunni

dynasty, whose crackdown on dissent last year touched off riots and clashes.

Shiite-led opposition groups and others have joined calls for the demonstrations on a symbolic day the anniversary of Bahrain’s 2002 constitution that brought some prodemocracy reforms such as an elected parliament. In Karzakan, a Shiite village in western Bahrain, riot police clashed with a small group of youths who staged a march following a wedding ceremony. An AP photographer saw several people injured and others gasping from tear gas.

Security forces set up checkpoints around the Shiite villages and throughout the capital Manama to monitor people’s movements. Units also patrolled malls and other key spots in a clear warning against holding the rallies, which have been the focus of social media appeals and text messages for more than a week. One cartoon posted on a Bahraini blog showed three arms holding aloft a mobile

phone and the symbols of Facebook and Twitter.

Bahrain’s leaders, meanwhile, have stepped in with concessions to try to defuse the protests.

Government media monitors began talks yesterday with newspaper publishers and others to draft new rules to limit state controls. The official Bahrain News Agency, meanwhile, launched a new multimedia service that includes social media applications to seek more outreach.

It’s unclear, however, whether activists and rights groups will be satisfied with the proposed changes after facing widespread blocks on websites and blogs.

Last week, Bahrain’s king, Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, granted each Bahraini family the equivalent of nearly $2,700 in an apparent bid to calm tensions. But the demands go deeper than economics. In an open letter to the king, the independent Bahrain Center for Human Rights called for wide-ranging reforms to avoid a “worst-case scenario,” Continued on Page 14

Junta dismantles Mubarak regime Parliament dissolved, constitution suspended

CAIRO: An Egyptian protester argues with a police officer in Tahrir Square yesterday. — AP

CAIRO: Egypt’s new military regime dismantled ousted strongman Hosni Mubarak’s former regime yesterday, dissolving parliament, suspending the constitution and promising a referendum on political reform. While the civilian cabinet met for the first time since Mubarak’s downfall, the generals made it clear where authority now lies, issuing a proclamation setting a six-month timetable to prepare democratic elections. The latest moves spelled the end of the political system that underpinned Mubarak’s 30-year rule which ended on Friday when he was driven from power after an 18-day pro-democracy uprising.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces’ “communique number five” said it would “run the affairs of the country on a temporary basis for six months or until the end of parliamentary and presidential elections”. The communique - read on state television - said the military would form a panel to rewrite the constitution, which effectively locked down power for Mubarak’s National Democratic Party (NDP), and submit it to a Continued on Page 14

KUWAIT: Just a few days after releasing government critic Obaid Al-Wasmi and dropping charges against three others, the government yesterday heeded demands of MPs and decided to withdraw a controversial request to the constitutional court, as the Amir ordered all lawsuits against the media be scrapped. The measures were welcomed by several MPs as “positive gestures” that could clean the air between the government and the National Assembly and defuse tension that has marred such relations for most of the past five years.

The decision to withdraw the request to the constitutional court came during the weekly cabinet meeting as opposition MPs planned to hold the first of a series of public gatherings against the measure which they described as an attempt to undermine the constitution.

The government decision also came after acting Assembly speaker Abdullah Al-Roumi held a meeting with Prime Minister HH Sheikh Nasser Mohammad AlAhmad Al-Sabah and discussed the issue.

Roumi said after the meeting that he asked the premier that it would be better to withdraw the request since it does not serve any purpose and would only raise tensions between the Assembly and the government. The constitutional court was due to meet on Feb 21 to consider the government request which called for interpreting four articles in the constitution to determine more specifically the duties and responsibilities of the prime minister. The main aim of the request was to determine whether the prime minister can be grilled by MPs on issues that come under the responsibilities of his ministers. The measure was triggered after MPs submitted to grill the prime minister eight times since early 2006, two of which led to non-cooperation votes. A number of opposition MPs welcomed the government decision as a step in the right direction that could establish better cooperation between the government and the Assembly.

The Cabinet was also informed of the Amir’s order to the government to withdraw all lawsuits filed by the Ministry of Information against the local media which include television, radio and newspapers. The Cabinet however appealed to the local media to utilize freedom guaranteed under the law but by exercising Continued on Page 14

Yemen police crack down on protesters SANAA: Anti-government protesters clashed with police blocking them from marching to Yemen’s presidential palace in Sanaa yesterday, witnesses said. The clashes occurred while President Ali Abdullah Saleh and the main opposition group were preparing for talks that the government hoped would help avert an Egyptian-style revolt in the Arabian Peninsula state, a vital US ally against AlQaeda. Saleh decided to postpone a visit to the United States planned for later this month “due to the current circumstances in the region”, the state news agency Saba said without elaborating.

About 1,000 people attended the demonstration shouting “the Yemeni people want the fall of the regime” and “a Yemeni revolution after the Egyptian revolution”, before dozens broke off to march to the Continued on Page 14

Militia says West spies concocting Iran revolt Attack survivor new atom chief TEHRAN: Western spies are conspiring to ignite an uprising in Iran by recruiting a candidate willing to set himself on fire in an anti-regime protest, the Islamic republic’s volunteer militia warned yesterday. Basij commander Mohammad Reza Naghdi’s accusation came as Washington and Tehran engage in a war of words over Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s ouster under the weight of a popular uprising. “Western intelligence agencies are searching for a mentally challenged person who can set himself on fire in Tehran to trigger developments like those in Egypt and Tunisia,” Naghdi said, quoted by Fars news agency. “They (the West) are very retarded and think by imitating such actions they can emerge victorious,” said the

powerful Islamist volunteer militia’s commander.

Tunisia’s uprising last month that led to the fall and flight into exile of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was set off by the self-immolation in December of a young student. Copycat acts of desperation followed in Egypt as well as other Arab countries in the days leading up to Jan 25, when protesters first took to the streets for daily mass protests against Mubarak. The 18-day popular uprising in Egypt ended on Friday when Mubarak handed power to the military after 30 years of autocratic rule.

Tehran has come out in support of Arab uprisings but refused to allow its domestic opposition to hold a rally Continued on Page 14

Andrews, Ramones receive lifetime Grammys

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Y an A pair of Caribbe nd te ex s flamingo their heads and necks in a heart s shape as flamingo p hi ts ur co perform dances at the n’s Saitama Childre Zoo in ma, Higashimatsuya , re Saitama prefectu sye o ky To north of terday, one day before St. Valentineís Day. —AFP

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full inventory of the Egyptian Museum has found that looters escaped with 18 items during the anti-government unrest, including two gilded wooden statues of famed boy king, Tutankhamun, the antiquities chief said yesterday. The 18-day uprising that forced out President Hosni Mubarak engulfed the areas around the famed museum, on the edge of Cairo’s Tahrir Square. On Jan 28, as protesters clashed with police early on in the turmoil and burned down the adjacent headquarters of Mubarak’s ruling party, a handful of looters climbed a fire escape to the museum roof and lowered themselves on ropes from a glass-paneled ceiling onto the museum’s top floor.

Around 70 objects-many of them small statues - were damaged, but until yesterday’s announcement, it was not known whether anything was missing. Antiquities Minister Zahi Hawass said the museum’s database

department determined 18 objects were gone. Investigators searching for those behind the thefts were questioning dozens of people arrested over several days after last month’s break-in. The most important of the missing objects is a limestone statue of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, the so-called heretic king that tried to introduce monotheism to Egypt, standing and holding an offering table. “It’s the most important one from an artistic point of view,” said museum director Tarek elAwady. “The position of the king is unique and it’s a beautiful piece of art.” During Akhenaten’s so-called Amarna period, named after his capital, artists experimented with new styles. Also gone is a gilded wooden statue of the 18th Dynasty King Tutankhamun, Akhenaten’s son, being carried by a goddess. Pieces are also missing from another statue of the boy king wielding a fishing harpoon from a boat.—-AP

ago, eler Inc in Chic ife at Leber Jew w s hi r fo ft gi e’s Day s for a Valentin Scott Baron look , February 10, 2011.—MCT sday Illinois on Thur

Jewelry sales sparkle after years of darkness

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ot to get anyone’s hopes up this Valentineís Day, or get anyone else in trouble, but giving jewelry is back in style. Jewelry sales made a big comeback this past holiday season after plummeting during the Great Recession and continue to gain steam headed into Monday’s holiday, a sign that consumers are feeling better about the economy. But don’t expect any Elizabeth Taylor-size rocks. Even as consumers return to the jewelry stores, they’re looking for a good deal, whether they’re shopping at JC Penney or Harry Winston.

‘There is a mentality of value, even in the luxury jewelry market,’ said Andrea Morante, CEO of Pomellato, an Italian luxury jewelry firm that counts Oprah Winfrey as a customer.

‘If a client is looking at a $70,000 ring, they want to know how many hours it took to produce. It’s a healthy trend for consumers to ask about value.’

US jewelry sales rose 7.7 percent, to a record $63.4 billion, in 2010, according to a new report from the Jewelers Board of Trade, based on Commerce Department data. The uptick follows two consecutive years of declines, dropping 2.7 percent in 2009 and 2.4 percent in 2008, as Americans cut back on discretionary spending.

With the price of gold up 30 percent last year and trading at more than $1,300 an ounce, jewelers have taken pains to come up with creative designs aimed at keeping price tags down, as husbands and boyfriends are finding their way back to the jewelry counters. One overarching strategy that is working so far: Designers are fashioning smaller, lighter-weight pieces that require less solid gold, relying on twists, lace designs and cutouts.

Jewelry merchants, among them Gurhan and Tiffany & Co, are combining sterling silver

and gold into a necklace or bracelet. And customers are snapping up stacking rings and necklace charms that can be purchased one at a time over several months or years.

Even the traditional single -diamond engagement ring is giving way to more affordable designs. A halo setting, typically a small center diamond surrounded by smaller diamonds or colored stones, is becoming more popular with brides-to-be as the setting gives the illusion of a big ring without the price, said Amanda Gizzi, spokeswoman for the Jewelers of America. ‘People are being smarter with their investments and are looking for items with lasting value,’ Gizzi said.

Like many consumers, Scott Baron, 33, avoided fine-jewelry purchases during the recession.

With a baby on the way and the stock market on the rise, Baron decided this Valentineís Day was a good time to ‘do something extra’ for his wife. He spent Thursday afternoon at Leber Jeweler Inc. in Chicago selecting a stone that is both meaningful to his wife and a good investment.

‘It’s not something I do every year,’ Baron said. ‘Typically, we go out to dinner.’ He isnít alone. Shoppers are expected to spend $3.5 billion on jewelry for Valentine’s Day, up 17 percent from $3 billion last year, according to the National Retail Federation, the Washington, DC -based retail trade group.

Sales have skyrocketed at luxury retailers in particular as the wealthy began to shop again. Jewelry firms Bulgari of Italy, Parisian luxury conglomerate LVMH and Switzerland’s Richemont, owner of Cartier, all reported sales gains topping 25 percent in the most recent quarter. And New York-based Tiffany, known for its little blue gift boxes, in January raised its profit forecast for the year, adding it will accelerate store openings in 2011. —MCT

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Models display the fashion of Jill Stuart on Saturday at the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in New York.—AFP

The fall 2011 collection of designer Prabal Gurung is modeled during Fashion Week in New York, Saturday.—AP

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Rebecca Taylor

The Edun Fall 2011 collection is modeled during Fashion Week.—AP

the s a long way from sweater coat. It’ d jeans Edun startEDUN ified T-shirts an 05. This seabu te d on glor de un Ed up at its launch in 20 g palette dith w ed A dr es se n io a fa ll co lle ct was a smolderin th e ca tw al k in lle rs an d Li ar s.” son, there black, with some blue, of te du bb ed “S to ry d re ta ile rs w en t of shades urple. an St yl is ts , ed ito rs to th e da rk , ca v- green andp rly ea d an br ig ht th e R se ac ro ss fro m REBECCA TAYLO ep blue, er no us w areh ou e ladylike printedde of tte le pa se She chose a Hudson River to ir isle r he r fli rt y fa fo r, e he in at w le d by an t scar f looks offse and m ag en ta Th e N ew unky-rib knits, ri nt dr es se s. shearsweaters and ch ne ck s w it h sl im , flo w er -p rn designer used le el on ga te d tu rt . Th e br an d w as Zealand-bo e and alpaca to showrs mer lo ng -li ne tr ou se an d hi s w ife Al i ling, cash in e lo ok . flo un cy fe m in no r Bo he by se ca , dy fo un de d she found ea at st backstage th ort to bring a Hewson in an eff ac turing industry Taylor said the ‘70s club scene. She uf n in sustainable man tive reins of Edun inspiratio -k nit cable ea dove gray hand ue w ra p cr a e d Th ire a. pa . to Afric ub bl ho ic tr ac el ec Sh ar on W swea te r w ith an said, was inspired e no w be lo ng to sh at th s te e her no blue, sh Wachoub said in “storytelling as it skirt. The re du rin g e in Ti m es Sq ua or ng pl ei ex “b to d by s. wante re skirts and ltu ed cu sh lli us e in vario ylor embe changes over tim ed down through storms.” Ta sparkly glitter flowers in ss ith When a story is pa mes a reflection dresses w ine-colored co blue. Another w be d it , an r ns ve tio sil ra w gene and tiered ne e a lin ps ck lo ne d de ve a halter tr es se s of th e te lle r an be seen as real or dress had Ac si de s. n ffl es w it h la ce rg and Garcelle ru is meaning that ca n io ct lle enbe of this co M ichelle Tracht ro w . fantasy.” The tale res. They wear in th e fr on t tu t ea sa cr l is na va ur ct au Be are ns a sig full of no ith de ’s w rg said Taylor ed bo m be r a cr op pe d qu ilt zip-up shirt, and Trachtenbe ant to wear on a date.” a w stripe-print scub dresses. A fringe what “you itome of girlie glam and irt ep sh e r th he ’s at he w - “S smar t le pa ire d w ith a ra she said.—AP ky elegance,” cr oc he t sk irt is un ch a d an t ir sk r he ed ge le at

Moving colorful lengths V

ionnet, launched its first boutique ever in the 360 mall on Saturday. The launching ceremony was attended by Mohammed Al-Marzouq, Chairman of 360 Style, and Matteo Marzotto, Chairman of Vionnet Paris.

A touch of chic is in the air. Tapered silhouettes of Vionnet’s Spring Summer 2011 collection come in three lengths: mini, midi and maxi. Liquid colors, twisted prints and chromatic inserts in various fabrics result in an apparent simplicity of well-studied execution. After three seasons, surprising touches seem like now familiar improvisations to Rodolfo Paglialunga’s Vionnet: accordion pleats, a scalloped hem or a sporty belt on an evening dress.

The collections core is the tunic dress with new proportions and detailing. The mini s hem is pointed at the centre or decorated with flounces. With triangular side slits, dresses move sexily about the body opening to expose a glimpse of leg. The skir t has changed, and so has the top for Spring Summer here trimmed with gold chain on silk panels, a leather lace trompe l’oeil-like necklace or a form-making bow at the yoke.

Accordion pleats on blouse sleeves and hems of mini-dresses are vivacious. A poplin

dress with jersey print sports innovative vertical draping with bands of fabric woven in and out around the waist. In cream or golden yellow for evening the belt, replaced by 60 s style resin chain, nip the waist in a contrasting colors.

Draping, braiding and pleating are signatures of the historic and new house of Vionnet. Belts cinch and pleats move creating billowing shapes in pleated chiffon.

Chromatic bands printed on silk or hemp intertwine and swing like fringe. Prominent prints create a pictorial effect when used as fan-like inserts or trimming hems or necklines. Shirt dresses are surprising. Sleek, but not tight, leather and technical climbing rope belts waists. Occasionally beaded or trimmed with accessory-like fabric and metal gold knit collars and cuffs.

Fabrics Crepe de chine, double-face silk satin, linen gazar. stretch linen, hemp combined with linen, suede and cotton poplin.

Colors Fuchsia, green, light blue, black on beige, white, black and cream plus splashes of orange, electric blue and dusty rose.

Cascading flower appliques or baguette beading.

Accessories Suede or gold-trimmed satin sandals with high heels and platforms covered with woven wicker. Flat sandals with leather fringe trimmed in contrast color. Bracelets with

golden bobbles or out of leather tubing.

Belts in leather and technical climbing rope red. Golden metallic chain collars and cuffs.

Plaited blond or brown hair with golden stars.

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Years

lifestyle Music and Movies

Bono causes stir in S Africa over ‘shoot the farmer’ song

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Singer Whitney Houston performs onstage during the 2011 Pre-Grammy Gala & Salute to Industry Icons, with Clive Davis Honoring David Geffen at the Beverly Hilton.-AP/AFP photos

Eminem hoping to avoid another Grammys shocker

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Actress and singer Miley Cyrus

Singer Lenny Kravitz

decade after Eminem found himself on the losing side of one of the biggest upsets in Grammy history, the rapper will again vie for the top prize at the music industry awards show yesterday. As was the case then he is the favorite to take the trophy for album of the year, this time for a set detailing his near-fatal addiction to prescription medications. The 12,000 music industry insiders who vote for the Grammys love to honor artists facing adversity, such as Amy Winehouse who picked up five Grammys in 2008 while battling drugs.

But she was pipped for best album by an obscure release from jazz icon Herbie Hancock, echoing Eminem’s shock loss to an equally under-the-radar set by rock duo Steely Dan. (He also lost two years later to favored newcomer Norah Jones.) If he does lose again, at least it won’t be a grizzled veteran. At 38, Eminem is the old-timer in a field that also includes country group Lady Antebellum, pop singers Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, and Canadian rock band Arcade Fire-all of whom are in the hunt with chart-topping releases.

Survival story Eminem leads the field with 10 nominations, mostly generated by “Recovery,” the biggest selling album in the United States last year. With his trademark brutal honesty, Eminem detailed his descent into madness, loss of self-esteem, and struggles with writers’ block. “He represents a bravery ... all of us, we should hope to be that brave,” urban pop singer Cee Lo told Reuters. “To be a success as a personality you first have to be a success as person. People get a kick out of seeing you crash and burn, that happens an awful lot too.

So his is a survival story because he crashed but didn’t burn.” Eminem and Cee Lo will compete against each other in the key record and song of the year races, with their respective hits “Love the Way You Lie” and “F*** You.” (The record prize goes to the artist, and the song award to the songwriter.) But Cee Lo did not see it as a rivalry. “I see it more as camaraderie than competition because we’re all on the frontline forging freedom of speech, of expression, freedom of individuality,” he said.

Probably the most important category, as far as millions of young girls are concerned, is best new artist. Pop idol Justin Bieber and hip-

Singer Katy Perry

hop star Drake, both Canadians, are front-runners for the prize. “I think Drake probably would have been the favorite and I think that Bieber is coming on,” said R&B producer Jimmy Jam, a veteran Grammys official. “Or they could split the votes and someone else could sneak in.” That could be one of two British bands, Florence & The Machine and Mumford & Sons, or American jazz singer Esperanza Spalding. In all, awards will be handed out in 108 categories, most of them during a fastpaced ceremony that precedes the main event at 5 pm PST (0100 GMT Monday). The three-hour telecast will be heavy on performances, beginning with a tribute to ailing R&B icon Aretha Franklin.

Most of the major nominees will perform, as well as veterans like Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger.—Reuters

Andrews, Ramones receive lifetime Grammys

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unk pioneers the Ramones, British actress and singer Julie Andrews and jazz drummer Roy Haynes were among the diverse musical stars who received Grammy Awards for lifetime achievement Saturday. They were honored at a ceremony alongside country music’s Dolly Parton, the Juilliard String Quartet, folk revivalists the Kingston Trio, and gospel legend George Beverly Shea, whose rich baritone is still intact at age 102. The event took place a day before the 53rd annual Grammy Awards are handed out, and the honorees will be acknowledged during the telecast. But that was not enough for the brother of late Ramones singer Joey Ramone. “ This should be televised tomorrow night, and you should bump Justin Bieber,” joked Mickey Leigh. It was a bittersweet moment for the Ramones, a group whose stripped-down, fast-paced songs such as “Blitzkrieg Bop” and “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker” paved the way for bands like the Sex Pistol and Green Day. But they never achieved commercial success, and three of the founding members died in the past decade: bassist Dee Dee Ramone and guitarist Johnny Ramone, as well as Joey Ramone. The members were not related, and took fraternal stage names.

Still recording and touring is Haynes, a seminal figure in the postwar jazz scene who played with Miles Davis, Dizz y Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and John

Coltrane. “Now that the days are short, we’re in the winter of the year, and I think of my life as vintage wine in fine old kegs,” he said, waxing poetic. “I ride in limousines, the chauffeurs they drive, now that I’m 85.”

He was a rookie compared with Shea, who

Julie Andrews

is confined to a wheelchair but full of oneliners. The Canadian native, who composed the popular hymn “The Wonder Of It All” and joined the Billy Graham Crusade in 1940, surveyed his fellow honorees and said he was reminded of the farmer who wanted to race a mule in the Kentucky Derby.

When asked why, the farmer replied, “Look at the company he’s keeping.”

Andrews, 75, used the occasion to draw attention to budget cuts affecting school music programs. She became one of Hollywood’s biggest stars by playing prim and cheery nannies in the 1960s hit movie musicals “Mary Poppins” and “The Sound of Music.” Parton, 65, was unable to attend because of a family commitment, she said in a recorded video message. Noting she had already won seven Grammys, she said she was working on new music and expected to double her collection.

The Kingston Trio, best known for “Tom Dooley,” helped lay the groundwork for the folk revival of the 1960s. Sole surviving founding member Bob Shane said an authorized group was carrying on the legacy and that would-be folkies could even attend a Kingston Trio fantasy camp. “I’m not sure what the fantasy is,” he added. The Juilliard String Quar tet has also gone through many lineup changes since it was founded in 1946. Among the recipients was Robert Mann, who was first violinist for its first 51 years.—Reuters

rish pop singer Bono caused a stir in South Africa yesterday after expressing support for the singing of an antiapartheid struggle song that includes the lyrics “shoot the farmer”. The song has been at the centre of a politically charged controversy in South Africa, where the firebrand leader of the ruling party’s youth league is locked in a legal battle with a white lobby group over whether the song should be banned as hate speech. The U2 frontman, who is in Johannesburg ahead of a last night concert for the band’s 360 Degrees Tour, said in an interview with South Africa’s Sunday Times that struggle music like the “shoot the farmer” song has a place.

“I was a kid and I’d sing songs I remember my uncles singing... rebel songs about the early days of the Irish Republican Army,” he said, proceeding to sing a song whose lyrics spoke of carrying guns and readying them for action.

“We sang this and it’s fair to say it’s folk music... as this was the struggle of some people that sang it over some time,” he told the newspaper. But the rocker went on to say such songs shouldn’t be sung in the wrong context. “Would you want to sing that in a certain community? It’s pretty dumb,” he said.

“It’s about where and when you sing those s o n g s .

There’s a rule for that kind of music.” Talk radio and the Internet burst into discussion yesterday morning of whether the comments amounted to support for Julius Malema, the outspoken leader of the ruling African N a t i o n a l Congress’s youth league, or for Afriforum, the Afrikaner lobby group seeking to have Malema banned from singing the song Bono at rallies. “That’s hate speech. They don’t know our history at all,” said one caller to Talk Radio 702. “He did not condone the singing of ‘Shoot the Boer’ in public,” said

a comment on the Times’ web site.

Afriforum has taken Malema to court for publicly singing the song, which includes the lyrics “Awudubele (i)bhulu”-”shoot the boer” in Zulu. “Boer” is itself Afrikaans, the language descended from South Africa’s Dutch colonisers, and translates as “farmer”.

But Afriforum argued in an affidavit that the song’s meaning was much broader. “The word ‘boer’, in this context, is a derogatory word referring to farmers, whites and to Afrikaners in particular,” it said. Malema’s singing of the song generated heated debate last year in the wake of the murder of Eugene Terre’Blanche, a white separatist leader who was allegedly hacked to death by two black workers on his farm. Violence on farms is a divisive issue in South Africa, where a series of racially charged rural murders, with both black and white victims, have made headlines since the end of white-minority rule in 1994. Bono, who has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his activism on behalf of developing countries, has long been involved in South African politics. U2 were part of the group Artists United Against Apartheid that raised more than $1 million for the fight against the whiteminority regime in the 1980s, releasing a song that called for artists to boycott apartheid South Africa.—AFP

‘Khodorkovsky’ director wary of showing film in Russia

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rity service could have ordered the break-ins. “I don’t have the right to say something about that because I don’t know,” he said.

“But what I know is that many people in Russia think that and that should make you think about how the people in the country trust the powers (that be) and that is scary.” The film paints a nuanced picture of the man at the heart of Russia’s most high-profile legal saga in interviews with family members, opponents, fellow travelers and, in the picture’s riveting climax, Khodorkovsky himself. Tuschi depicts the trials as a kind of tug-of-war between the country’s richest man, before he was stripped of his assets, and its most powerful, then president Vladimir Putin.

Khodorkovsky, 47, was first detained in 2003, convicted of tax evasion two years later and handed an eight-year sentence. He was jailed for the second time in December on fraud charges and is to stay behind bars until 2017. His supporters see him as a martyr punished for daring to challenge Putin while Russian authorities insist he is guilty of serious financial crimes. Tuschi, who had until now only made art films, said he was puzzled by the theft because the film is more a psychological study rather than a work of investigative journalism. He said he aimed to start a dialogue with the film. “Totally without irony, I invited the Picture taken on February 3, 2011 shows German film Russian ambassador and director Cyril Tuschi (civil name: Ilja Cyril Kade) speak- some other Russian people (to the Berlin premiere) and ing on his phone in his office in Berlin.—AFP it would be great if they came,” he said, adding that to do the premiere party near the he had received no response from the same location also as a statement, not embassy. “I don’t have anything against to let fear govern you and cancel Russia. I love Russia. That it is maybe a everything,” he said. He pointed to provocation to put up the truth in the widespread speculation in the interna- film-it’s still a wish to communicate. It’s tional and Russia press that the not meant as an insult, to nobody,” he Kremlin or Russia’s FSB domestic secu- said. —AFP he maker of a twice-stolen documentary on jailed Russian former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the hottest ticket at the Berlin film festival, is wary of showing it in Moscow for his own safety. German director Cyril Tuschi had the final edit of “Khodorkovsky” snatched in a break-in at his Berlin office this month, weeks after a hard disk with key scenes were taken from his hotel room in Bali. In both cases, the thieves left other valuables behind. He told AFP ahead of the keenly awaited premiere today that he was unsure who was behind the thefts but said they had made him extremely cautious.

“I feel more insecure and that is not a good feeling,” he said. “I wanted to show the film around May in Moscow and I might not do this personally now.” Tuschi said he was also avoiding his home and office and staying with friends until at least the end of the festival on February 20. “I don’t want to be in the office right now. But we want

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lifestyle G o s s i p

Aniston won’t rule out plastic surgery ennifer Aniston won’t rule out having plastic surgery. The ‘Just Go With It’ star has denied ever going under the knife to enhance her looks but she won’t rule out having a procedure when she reaches 50 because of the pressure to look good in Hollywood. The 41-year-old actress said: “I think there is an extreme pressure on women and men to just stay young and unfortunately men and women don’t see it to grow old gracefully.

“A lot of women go too far and end up looking a hell of a lot older than they actually are and it sort of has a reverse effect. So talk to me in 10 years.” Earlier this week, Jennifer revealed she wants to move back to New York. The actress who currently lives in Beverley Hills, California - has recently been spotted looking at a $15 million West Village condominium apartment, and has confessed she misses the city where she spent most of her childhood. She said: “I’ve been looking and looking and looking. I grew up in New York. I miss it.”There is nothing like being in the city that is just the city of Everyman. It’s all walks of life - I love that!”

J

Madison’s

Banton

amaican reggae star Buju Banton faces up to life in prison at his retrial on federal drug trafficking charges in Florida. Jury selection is scheduled to begin today in Tampa. Banton is accused of conspiring to buy cocaine from an undercover officer. The jury deadlocked in his first trial in September. The 37-year-old singer says he was entrapped by a confidential

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doesn’t

want Shore romance auly D will never fall in love on ‘Jersey Shore’.

Although the DJ had a brief romance with housemate JWoww he was put off dating girls on the MTV show after witnessing his friend Ronnie struggle to cope with volatile Sam. He explained to BANG Showbiz: “Look at Ronnie and Sam, never fall in love in ‘Jersey Shore’, that’s what Ronnie said to us, he should have taken his own advice. That was the best advice he ever gave me. He and Sam are on and off all the time, no one knows what’s going on with them. “I love everybody in the house, we’re all like really good friends now and they’re almost like sisters at this point so I love living with them. We joke around and have fun but as far as anything more than that I don’t think so, we’ll just keep it on the friend level. At the moment I’m happy to just be single and I’m enjoying having a good time.” Pauly D’s fellow housemate and budding actor Vinny has hooked up with both the departed Angelina and castmate Snooki but he has no plans for a long-term romance with any of the ‘Jersey Shore’ girls. He said: “When you live in a shore house things like [Snooki coming on to him] happens, you love these people but at the same time things do start to get weird, you’ve got a lot of drunken nights and Snooki’s not actually my family so she does sometimes end up in my bed just because you want that companionship. But it’s nothing serious.” The new series of ‘Jersey Shore’ airs every Tuesday at 10pm on MTV.

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olly Madison’s boyfriend loves her for who she is. The 31-year-old model - who has previously dated Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner insists she has never been happier in a relationship than she is with All Time Low guitarist Jack Barakat.

She told People: “He’s a really down to earth guy. I feel like he’s really real and he knows me for who I am. I can say whatever in front of him and he’s cool with it.” The couple began dating last year after meeting on micro blogging site twitter and the ‘Holly’s World’ star loves that Jack lets her be herself no matter what. She explained: “I love that Jack has a sense of humor and I can just be myself around him. I don’t need to be like Miss Priss or Betty Crocker. I feel like every guy that I dated before him expected that.” Holly has previously insisted she is not jealous of former lover Hugh’s plans to marry Playmate Crystal Harris but admitted she doesn’t trust her either. She said: “I think everyone expected me to feel one way, they expected me to be really jealous. But it’s not how I feel. We’ve been apart for two years. I just want him to be happy. “I’m more protective than anything else. I just wanted to make sure he’s making the right choice.” “I’d like to see Her settle down. I just want it to be with the right person, and I feel like he’s making a hasty decision. I’m not sure Crystal is the best thing for him.”

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Tempah

ready

informant and got in over his head while trying to impress the man, who he believed could help his music career.

The US government says Banton conspired with two associates to buy a shipment of cocaine from an undercover officer. Banton was arrested in a December 2009 sting operation. His 2010 album “Before the Dawn” is nominated for a Grammy award.

Pauly D

happier

than ever with boyfriend

Bridges

faces life in US prison

proud

of Snoop duet

for Oscar glory

inie Tempah thinks his Glastonbury duet with Snoop Dogg was a “major British musical moment”. The 22-year-old rapper - who was invited on stage by the legendary hip-hop star at last year’s Glastonbury Festival to perform his number one hit ‘Pass Out’ - believes the event signified a “bridging of a musical gap” between the UK and US. He explained: “That was amazing.

He’s a hip-hop icon and one of the reasons I wanted to start rapping. It was the first time I met him and something historical happened. “I definitely think, in all modesty, that people will look back and see that as a major British musical moment. It was the bridging of a gap as young, fresh, experimental British music met classic American hip-hop. I’ll never forget that.” The ‘Written In The Stars’ hitmaker also admitted he feels “proud” to have seen British music embraced all over the world in recent years. Tinie added: “In the past couple of years, English music has been embraced all over the world. I feel proud of that.”

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eff Bridges won’t feel guilty if he beats Colin Firth to the Best Actor prize at this year’s Oscars. The 61-yearold star triumphed over Colin - who was nominated for his performance in ‘A Single Man’ - at last year’s Academy Awards for his role in ‘Crazy Heart’ and he admits he is quite comfortable with the prospect of defeating ‘The King’s Speech’ star again. Jeff - who is nominated this year for his turn in ‘True Grit’ - said: “I don’t think I’d feel too guilty, no. Just let it fall where it may.” However, the seasoned actor has confessed he does feel guilty for not watching all of his fellow nominees’ films. Jeff - who has watched ‘The King’s Speech’ - said: “I feel bad as I haven’t watched as many of the films out this year as I should have. But the ones I’ve seen are terrific. ‘The King’s Speech’ is wonderful. And I like ‘Winter’s Bone’.” Jeff also said he doesn’t mind the endless promotion that comes with being in a film that’s nominated for an award and has found that his win last year has helped his career. He said: “It’s great to be acknowledged by the guys for what you do. There’s an element of my job that’s like being a barker at a carousel. But after you put all that energy into a film, it’s great if people come see it. “Winning the Oscar has helped me in other ways. I’m currently making an album with T Bone Burnett. That comes directly from the success of ‘Crazy Heart’.”

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Lohan

a talented designer

indsay Lohan is a talented designer, according to her 6126 fashion label co-founder Kristi Kaylor. The duo originally set up the company as a leggings brand in 2008 before expanding into apparel and accessories and while Lindsey has been in and out of rehab in recent years Kristi insists it hasn’t affected their work at 6126. She said: “Everybody wants to write a negative story about Lindsay right now, but the real story is that Lindsay is a very talented designer. The real story is that the brand is doing well. Sales have only increased.” Although the leggings brand was originally stocked at upscale US stores Nordstrom, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and Neiman Marcus they are no longer sold there but Kristi insists this is part of a new strategy to expand the line. She told WWD: “Major department stores are not our business right now. We’re looking for retail partners to represent the entire collection.”

However according to Lindsay’s blog on the company’s website, a new 6126 handbag line is to “be sold alongside 6126 apparel to better department stores and targeting retails such as Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale’s and other high-end specialty boutiques across the world. (sic)” Kristi did concede the company is undergoing changes but refused to elaborate, leaving the future direction of the company in doubt. She said: “The handbags are something different. We’re making some changes with our partners but I can’t go into that now.” —Bang Showbiz

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Lowe’s

charity purse

aisy Lowe is among a host of stars who have donated their purses to charity. The 22-year-old model - daughter of designer Pearl Lowe and rocker Gavin Rossdale - has joined celebrities such as radio presenter Edith Bowman, The Hossiers and mother Pearl to give their wallets to UK charity Oxfam, as part of its new 100 per cent giving campaign. Daisy - who gave away a Lulu Guinness sequined purse - said: “I’m thrilled to be supporting Oxfam’s 100 per cent giving campaign as it’s something I feel is very important. Every donation made can really make a difference, and by doing something so simple as donating a wallet can help boost awareness of this new scheme.” Edith - who donated a vintage coin-purse - added: “I’m delighted to be able to lend my support to 100% giving as it’s a clever but simple way of helping the public’s donations go as far as possible.” Each wallet, complete with a ‘purse-onal’ item or message from the owner, will be sold on Oxfam’s online charity shop on 20th February. 100 per cent giving is the first time ever that a major UK charity is offering a donation scheme where every penny is guaranteed to go directly to the cause. This is possible because PayPal is paying the running costs on all donations made to the charity in February via www.oxfam.org.uk/giving

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i n f o r m at i o n

FIRE BRIGADE

112

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22418714

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22545171

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24316983

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23940620

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24874330/9

Ministry of Interior website: www.moi.gov.kw For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128

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22451082

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25316254

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24892674

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24710044

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3900322

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Farwaniya

New Shifa Ferdous Coop Modern Safwan

Farwaniya Block 40 Ferdous Coop Old Kheitan Block 11

24734000 24881201 24726638

Hawally

Tariq Hana Ikhlas Hawally & Rawdha Ghadeer Kindy Ibn Al-Nafis Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Salmiya-Amman St Hawally-Beirut St Hawally & Rawdha Coop Jabriya-Block 1A Jabriya-Block 3B Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

25726265 25647075 22625999 22564549 25340559 25326554 25721264 25380581 25628241

Kuwait Airways Wataniya Airways Jazeera Airways Jet Airways Qatar Airways KLM Air Slovakia Olympic Airways Royal Jordanian Reservation British Airways Air France Emirates Air India Sri Lanka Airlines Egypt Air Swiss Air Saudia Middle East Airlines Lufthansa PIA Alitalia Balkan Airlines Bangladesh Airlines Czech Airlines Indian Airlines Oman Air Turkish Airlines Aeroflot

22433377 24379900 177 22924455 22423888 22425747 22434940 22420002/9 22418064/5/6 22433388 22425635 22430224 22425566 22438184 22424444 22421578 22421516 22426306 22423073 22422493 22421044 22414427 22416474 22452977/8 22417901/ 2433141 22456700 22412284/5 22453820/1 22404838/9

PRIVATE CLINICS Ophthalmologists Dr. Abidallah Al-Mansoor 25622444 Dr. Samy Al-Rabeea 25752222 Dr. Masoma Habeeb 25321171 Dr. Mubarak Al-Ajmy 25739999 Dr. Mohsen Abel 25757700 Dr Adnan Hasan Alwayl 25732223 Dr. Abdallah Al-Baghly 25732223 Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) Dr. Ahmed Fouad Mouner 24555050 Ext 510 Dr. Abdallah Al-Ali 25644660 Dr. Abd Al-Hameed Al-Taweel 25646478 Dr. Sanad Al-Fathalah 25311996 Dr. Mohammad Al-Daaory 25731988 Dr. Ismail Al-Fodary 22620166 Dr. Mahmoud Al-Booz 25651426 General Practitioners Dr. Mohamme Y Majidi 24555050 Ext 123 Dr. Yousef Al-Omar 24719312 Dr. Tarek Al-Mikhazeem 23926920 Dr. Kathem Maarafi 25730465 Dr. Abdallah Ahmad Eyadah 25655528 Dr. Nabeel Al-Ayoobi 24577781 Dr. Dina Abidallah Al-Refae 25333501 Urologists Dr. Ali Naser Al-Serfy 22641534 Dr. Fawzi Taher Abul 22639955 Dr. Khaleel Abidallah Al-Awadi 22616660 Dr. Adel Al-Hunayan FRCS (C) 25313120

Psychologists /Psychotherapists

Paediatricians

Plastic Surgeons Dr. Mohammad Al-Khalaf

22547272

Dr. Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rashed

Dr. Abdal-Redha Lari

22617700

Dr. Zahra Qabazard

Dr. Abdel Quttainah

25625030/60

Family Doctor Dr Divya Damodar

23729596/23729581

Psychiatrists Dr. Esam Al-Ansari

22635047

Dr Eisa M. Al-Balhan

INTERNATIONAL CALLS

22613623/0

Gynaecologists & Obstetricians DrAdrian arbe

23729596/23729581

Dr. Verginia s.Marin

2572-6666 ext 8321

Endocrinologist 25340300

25710444

Dr. Sohail Qamar

22621099

Dr. Snaa Maaroof

25713514

Dr. Pradip Gujare

23713100

Dr. Zacharias Mathew

24334282

(1) Ear, Nose and Throat (2) Plastic Surgeon Dr. Abdul Mohsin Jafar, FRCS (Canada)

Dr Anil Thomas

3729596/3729581 22641071/2

22655539

Dr. Majeda Khalefa Aliytami

25343406

Dr. Anesah Al-Rasheed

22562226

Dr. Ahmad Al-Khooly

25739272

Dr. Abidallah Al-Amer

22561444

Dr. Salem soso

22618787

Dr. Faysal Al-Fozan

22619557

Dr. Abdallateef Al-Katrash

22525888

Dr. Amer Zawaz Al-Amer

22610044

Dr. Abidallah Al-Duweisan

25653755

Dr. Mohammad Yousef Basher

25327148

Dr. Bader Al-Ansari

25620111

Neurologists

Dr. Adnan Ebil

22639939

Dr. Sohal Najem Al-Shemeri

25633324

Dr. Mousa Khadada

22666300

Dr. Jasem Mola Hassan

25345875

Gastrologists

25728004

Dr. Nadem Al-Ghabra

25355515

Dr. Sami Aman

22636464

Dr. Mobarak Aldoub

24726446

Dr. Mohammad Al-Shamaly

25322030

Dr Nasser Behbehani

25654300/3

Dr. Foad Abidallah Al-Ali

22633135

Soor Center Tel: 2290-1677 Fax: 2290 1688

info@soorcenter.com www.soorcenter.com

Dr. Kamal Al-Shomr 25329924 Physiotherapists & VD Dr. Deyaa Shehab

25722291 22666288

Rheumatologists:

Dr. Fozeya Ali Al-Qatan

Dr. Latefa Al-Duweisan

Dr. Ahmad Al-Ansari 25658888

Dr. Musaed Faraj Khamees

Dentists

Internists, Chest & Heart

25339330

25655535

Dr. Shamah Al-Matar

General Surgeons

Dr. Abd Al-Naser Al-Othman

Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa, Ph.D. 2290-1677 Susannah-Joy Schuilenberg, M.A. 2290-1677

Dr. Adel Al-Awadi

25330060

Dr. Khaled Al-Jarallah

25722290

Internist, Chest & Heart DR.Mohammes Akkad

24555050 Ext 210

Dr. Mohammad Zubaid MB, ChB, FRCPC, PACC Assistant Professor Of Medicine Head, Division of Cardiology Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital Consultant Cardiologist Dr. Farida Al-Habib MD, PH.D, FACC Inaya German Medical Center Te: 2575077 Fax: 25723123

2611555-2622555

William Schuilenberg, RPC 2290-1677 Zaina Al Zabin, M.Sc. 2290-1677

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

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

Central African 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

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

34

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2011

s ta rs CROSSWORD 229

STAR TRACK

CALVIN & HOBBES

Aries (March 21-April 19) You may be surprised this morning when you are put in a position to explain some important circumstances to one or two loved ones. This could be anything from the birds-and-the-bees to new shoes for growing feet or an answer for an old ailment. The direction of this day may become quite interesting. This would certainly be a time to not only go-with-the-flow but to research what you learn. If possible, ask for resources where information could be acquired. In most cases, you are able to cut through to the truth in order to gain an understanding.

Clear decisions affecting others can be made now. You are most persuasive with others and the situation is a natural for self-expression. Tonight is a good time to practice your story writing.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) Social get-togethers at church or perhaps a special called committee meeting will have you working for community affairs.

You can make a big difference in your community and your hard work will pay off soon. Make sure that you listen to what everyone is really saying so that you do not work against the group energy. You could find that you are appreciated or valued for your feelings or your ability to act and get things done. You are in a mood of selfenjoyment and can appreciate your own better qualities. A creative endeavor turns out positive and may bring you monetary rewards. There is a lot of contract type of stores in which you could show off your creative wares. You might want to check out some consignment stores to see the possibilities.

POOCH CAFE ACROSS 1. A health resort near a spring or at the seaside.

4. An esoteric or occult matter that is traditionally secret.

10. Wet spongy ground of decomposing vegetation.

13. The sound made by corvine birds.

14. Slender long-legged African wildcat having large untufted ears and tawny black-spotted coat.

15. A flat wing-shaped process or winglike part of an organism.

16. The month following March and preceding May. 17. Public transport provided by a line of railway cars coupled together and drawn by a locomotive.

19. Common Indian weaverbird.

21. Title for a civil or military leader (especially in Turkey).

23. Nocturnal mouselike mammal with forelimbs modified to form membranous wings and anatomical adaptations for echolocation by which they navigate.

25. Plant with an elongated head of broad stalked leaves resembling celery.

27. A large and stately mansion.

30. A midnight meeting of witches to practice witchcraft and sorcery.

34. Squash bugs.

35. A gonadotropic hormone that is secreted by the anterior pituitary.

37. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine.

38. Dried out by heat or excessive exposure to sunlight.

39. A slippery or viscous liquid or liquefiable substance not miscible with water.

42. A slight amount or degree of difference.

43. The residue that remains when something is burned.

44. A state in midwestern United States.

46. Fleshy spore-bearing inner mass of e.g. a puffball or stinkhorn.

49. The state of affairs that a plan is intended to achieve and that (when achieved) terminates behavior intended to achieve it.

52. An annual publication including weather forecasts and other miscellaneous information arranged according to the calendar of a given year.

56. 100 kopecks equal 1 ruble.

58. Any of numerous local fertility and nature deities worshipped by ancient Semitic peoples.

59. An amino acid that is found in the central nervous system.

62. A small cake leavened with yeast.

63. Morally bad or wrong.

64. Tropical American tree grown in southern United States having a whitish pink-tinged fruit.

66. A compartment in front of a motor vehicle where driver sits.

67. An informal term for a father.

68. Similar to the giraffe but smaller with much shorter neck and stripe on the legs.

69. A loose sleeveless outer garment made from aba cloth.

DOWN 1. Someone who works (or provides workers) during a strike.

2. An informal term for a father.

3. Turned or twisted toward one side.

4. Standard time in the 6th time zone west of Greenwich, reckoned at the 90th meridian.

5. Expose to fresh air, as of old clothing.

6. (informal) Exceptionally good.

7. (zoology) Pertaining to or characteristic of birds.

8. A local computer network for communication between computers.

9. A silvery ductile metallic element found primarily in bauxite.

10. Used as a Hindi courtesy title.

11. Leaf or strip from a leaf of the talipot palm used in India for writing paper.

12. A Gaelic-speaking Celt in Ireland or Scotland or the Isle of Man. 18. Jordan’s port.

20. Lower in esteem.

22. A federal agency established to coordinate programs aimed at reducing pollution and protecting the environment.

24. An early French settler in the Maritimes.

26. A very poisonous metallic element that has three allotropic forms.

28. Type genus of the Anatidae.

29. The cardinal number that is the fifth power of ten.

31. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

32. A constellation in the southern hemisphere near Telescopium and Norma.

33. (Brit) A tough youth of 1950’s and 1960’s wearing Edwardian style clothes.

36. Scottish writer of rustic verse (1770-1835).

40. The United Nations agency concerned with the interests of labor.

41. An accidental hole that allows something (fluid or light etc.) to enter or escape.

45. (of tempo) Leisurely n.

46. A small piece of cloth.

47. An indistinct shapeless form.

48. South African plant widely cultivated for its showy pure white spathe and yellow spadix.

50. Cubes of meat marinated and cooked on a skewer usually with vegetables.

51. Jordan’s port.

53. Rock that in its molten form (as magma) issues from volcanos.

54. A female domestic.

55. A metal cleat on the bottom front of a horseshoe to prevent slipping.

56. An associate degree in nursing.

57. Large burrowing rodent of South and Central America.

60. The cry made by sheep.

61. The basic unit of electric current adopted under the System International d’Unites.

65. The branch of computer science that deal with writing computer programs that can solve problems creatively.

Gemini (May 21-June 20) The ways you get around and stay in touch at the everyday level are changed by technology or social circumstances. This might also mean you have received a fascinating new piece of equipment lately and are enjoying the learning experience with this new apparatus. There are many good interactions with friends. One of your friends, who is an agreeable sort, may agree to share a ride to work. Conversations move around to the possibility of a hybrid car and who has one and how to take care of one and all sorts of questions. There could even be a trip to a car dealer just to see what it would be like to own one. Humility with a particular family member today brings forgiveness and compassion.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

NON SEQUITUR

There is a meeting of the minds today. A family gathering can clear up some strange thinking and bring closure to some misunderstanding. Family, home, relatives and real estate play a big part in your life.

There is a merge or a coming together that culminates in a tremendous amount of love, healing, education, accountability and cooperation. This could mean a marriage, a move or a birth of many children. You might want to just go with the flow as much as possible; if you are always trying to figure out the details you could become lost in the shuffle. You enjoy belonging on a private, intimate, personal level. United, you will notice that you and your family make a positive difference throughout the community.

Leo (July 23-August 22) Thinking over this past week with the challenges it presented, along with some decisions for next week, may be uppermost on your mind. With the involvement of a charity or teaching project you balance out your energies and help yourself to find peace of mind. Friendships are in a state of transformation now—old ones are either revitalized or else they come to an end; new ones are formed. Fate seems to bring you your friends or you to them—and changes your relationship with them. An organization you belong to, or a group you associate with, could blur the line between means and ends. Let yourself dream this evening. Take advantage of the opportunity to let your imagination loose. Perhaps a book or movie will be enjoyable.

ZITS

Virgo (August 23-September 22) You may be shopping today and find some special item for your house. Your house is usually full of delightful things that friends find hard to forget. You always seem to find the right piece of furniture for the right corner. Today there could be an antique store to visit. A gift or a find of some cash can be enjoyed. This is generally, a great day! Enjoy that friend who is most positive and upbeat in their thinking. Learn from their ability to stay strong in difficult situations.

You can gain a feeling of security if you learn how to ground yourself in positive and open-minded thinking. You have a clear vision into your own inner sense of values at this time. An animal may come to your attention this afternoon and you may need to become a rescuer.

Libra (September 23-October 22)

MOTHER GOOSE AND GRIMM

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) Your imagination can run wild today. Creative thoughts come from many different directions. Write them down in order to act on them and fine-tune your ideas when time permits. You could be most persuasive with others, especially your loved ones. This is a good time for conversations concerning dreams and the future. Independence, as well as anything unusual or different is valued. You may enjoy getting away from routine and doing something completely different for a change. If you do not get away from your usual activities today, at least consider getting away for part of the day—weather permitting. A walk in the park, trip to the pet store, zoo, museum or art show may do the trick, meaning rest, relaxation and a renewal of ideas and energy.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) Fondness and appreciation for the past and for your roots in life take on a greater importance for you now. Making your home situation more pleasant and attractive plays a part in this. You may be moved to appreciate and discover the beauty in your life and in those around you. At the same time, everything could take on added value and importance. Be wise that you do not overspend or indulge too much just now. Be aware of tendencies to believe too quickly, too deeply, or to become dependent on things or people that seem to offer quick and easy answers to life’s deepest yearnings. Conversations with your family, friends and neighbors will lend itself to a feeling of being in the know and in control of your life at this time.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)

To

Yesterday’s Solution

The exchange of ideas becomes a focal point in your life.

Learning and knowing a little about a lot of things satisfies a need for mental stimulation. If you like to stay on top of the latest developments, a visit to the library, exhibit or museum could be a part of this. Neighbors and brothers or sisters may also play a role in your life and young people begin to figure more prominently in your schedule. An old friend contacts you this afternoon and you may find yourself sharing stories and bragging about accomplishments. You may have some ideas on making extra money for the next few weeks. You like to feel that you have security for a rainy day and you are determined to build up your bank account. Music is very soothing tonight.

Your expertise and how you apply yourself, organize your time and concentrate on your priorities determines whether or not you feel in control. Your most outstanding opportunity to take better control of your life arises in the area of your special talents, which emerge strong at this time. Today, you attract the attention of someone that will influence your life a great deal. This could mean more money for your pocket as you set out to create a sales presentation that will be hard for them to refuse. Spend time with loved ones at a favorite restaurant this evening. Get to know what they are doing to reach their goals and encourage conversations about their dreams. Most of your conversations later tonight revolve around the subject of love and love connections.

Yesterday’s Solution Yester

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) Your creative side is showing this Sunday and you just may create a fun invention or easy solution to achieving some task that usually takes way too long to complete. Let yourself dream a little. There is a secret that will be revealed to you today and you may discover the truth if you persist with questions. Be aware of tendencies to believe too quickly, too deeply, or to become dependent on things or people that seem to offer quick and easy answers to life’s deepest yearnings. Forgiveness, compassion and understanding come naturally, particularly when you look at life from an eternal perspective—and if anyone ever does know such things, you will probably come to understand them as this cycle unfolds.

There is spiritual development.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

Word Sleuth Solution

Take a little trip, or get outside today. You may want to break that routine and try something new or different. You may discover insights into day-to-day problems that will be of great value later. You may be able to bring a group together with words or ideas that transport others. Poetry and art may be possible now. Movies, books and all forms of escape could prove very enjoyable.

This can be a phase of sublime spiritual development, to be sure. You should be aware of tendencies to believe too quickly, too deeply, or to become dependent on things or people that seem to offer quick and easy answers to life’s deepest yearnings. Lovers, children and other people or things dear to your heart are emphasized at this time in your life.

e niv rsar n

y

A

Classifieds MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2011

Years

ACCOMMODATION

Sharing accommodation is available for a decent working Indian lady in Salmiya.

Contact: 25635450 / 99838117. (C 3113) One C-A/C room with separate bathroom available for rent in Farwaniya for couples/visiting families or decent executive bachelor, to share with Keralite family in a two bedroom hall C-A/C flat. If interested please contact mob: 97508939.

(C 3116) 14-2-2011 One room available for Pilipino couples only to share with Pilipino family in Hawally behind Popeyes restaurant, interested please call: 66440968 / 66266105. (C 3110) 13-2-2011 Accommodation available for decent Keralite bachelor in Abbassiya near German Medical Care. Rent KD 37.5. Call on 66941892. (C 3106)

furnished flat with all facilities available from 01-032011 in Khaitan.

Interested please call: 99508412 / 66924510. (C 3099) Accommodation available for small family or bachelor (decent) near Hi Dine Super Market in Abbassiya. Please contact: 24312462 after 3pm.

(C 3098) Sharing accommodation available in 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom flat for single or couples.

Contact: 99358389. (C 3100) 8-2-2011

FOR SALE

One independent room in a CA/C three bedroom flat in Ashbiliya, fully furnished is available with all facilities of home. Contact Afzal Shafi. Tel: 99714430.

(C 3108) 12-2-2011

Camry 2001, excellent condition, next passing January 2012. Price KD 2,000/-, genuine buyers please contact: 99827113. (C 3105) 12-2-2011

Sharing accommodation available for bachelor in Abbassiya near Holy Sweets Restaurant.

Contact: 65129145 / 99472115.

(C 3102) 9-2-2011

An Indian MBA (Finance) having 5 years experience in Kuwait seeking suitable placement in Investment/ Auditing/ Corporate Finance. Fluent in English, Arabic & Hindi and proficient on MS-Office, Excel, Word and Power point.

Please Call: 66516791.

(C 3109)

Sharing accommodation in C-A/C, single bedroom,

Licensed practitioner of general sawing, advance diploma in Industrial Engineering, having 20 years experiences as Industrial Engineering manager in foreign countries, seeking suitable placement in garment or related industry. Contact: 66317879. Email: prabashpremasinghe@gmail.com (C 3112) 13-2-2011 A well qualified female (Indian) with several years of experience with multinational organizations in Kuwait, as Ex. Secretary/Admin.

Coordinator is looking for a full-time one shift job or part-time job. Contact: 94470318 or Email: ambilivarma@rocketmail.com (C 3107) 12-2-2011

daughter, 24 years, MSc. Chemistry, on job, tall, smart, well mannered.

Contact Email: proposal9321@gmail.com (C 3101) 12-2-2011

CHANGE OF NAME I, Derick Flaman D’Souza, holder of Indian Passport No. F 9268120, hereby change my name to Derick Flaman Souza. (C 3115) I, Susan Kurian, D/O Malamon Thomas Kurian and Achamma Kurian hailing from Ranny in Pathanmthitta District, Kerala, India has embraced the religion of holy Islam and change my name to Subeena Habeeb. (C 3117) 14-2-2011 I, Dinesh Kumar Panchal, holder of Indian Passport No. H1841172, converted to Islam hereby change my name to Dilawer. (C 3103) 9-11-2011

MATRIMONIAL SITUATION WANTED

SITUATION VACANT

Proposals invited for graduate Marthomite boy 31 years, 182cms, working in Kuwait. Looking for girls working in Kuwait. Email: kmtharakan@hotmail.com (C 3111) 13-2-2011 Seeking proposals for Pakistani Muslim family

A part time / full time livein maid Indian / Sri Lankan is urgently required for an Indian family in Salmiya.

Contact: 25635450 / 99838117. (C 3114) 14-2-2011 An Asian driver required to work for a house. Contact: 99726932. (C 3104) 10-2-2011

FLIGHT SCHEDULE FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION 161 In case you are not travelling, your proper cancellation of bookings will help other passengers to use seats Airlines

Flt

JZR KLM JZR ETH WAN WAN THY UAE QTR DHX GFA ETD BBC JZR FCX JZR BAW KAC KAC KAC FDB KAC KAC KAC KAC UAE QTR ABY ETD GFA KAC JZR JZR JZR MEA IRC MSR MSR KAC JZR FDB UAL OMA KAC SVA

481 447 205 622 646 306 772 853 138 370 211 305 45 503 201 531 157 412 352 204 53 382 302 676 362 855 132 123 301 213 344 151 121 165 404 6521 623 610 672 555 57 982 645 618 500

Arrival Flights on Monday 14/2/2011 Route SABIHA AMSTERDAM / BAHRAIN DAMASCUS ADDIS ABABA VIENNA / BEIRUT CAIRO ISTANBUL DUBAI DOHA BAHRAIN BAHRAIN ABU DHABI DHAKA / BAHRAIN LUXOR DOHA ASSIUT LONDON MANILA / BANGKOK COCHIN LAHORE DUBAI DELHI MUMBAI DUBAI COLOMBO DUBAI DOHA SHARJAH ABU DHABI BAHRAIN CHENNAI DOHA BAHRAIN DUBAI BEIRUT LAMERD SOHAG CAIRO DUBAI ALEXANDRIA DUBAI WASHINGTON DC DULLES MUSCAT DOHA JEDDAH

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

KAC KNE KAC QTR WAN KAC KAC WAN ETD UAE KAC GFA WAN SVA JZR JZR RJA JZR ABY ALK KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC IAC KAC KAC FDB OMA JAI JZR DHX VOS WAN GFA MEA QTR UAE KLM RBG JZR UAL TAR DLH RJA PIA

552 745 1284 134 110 546 550 304 303 857 118 215 402 510 213 777 800 239 127 227 502 542 786 614 744 674 575 104 774 61 647 572 179 372 81 104 217 402 136 859 445 3553 135 981 327 636 802 239

DAMASCUS JEDDAH DHAKA DOHA DUBAI ALEXANDRIA SOHAG CAIRO ABU DHABI DUBAI NEW YORK BAHRAIN BEIRUT RIYADH DEIREZZOR JEDDAH AMMAN AMMAN SHARJAH COLOMBO / DUBAI BEIRUT CAIRO JEDDAH BAHRAIN DAMMAM DUBAI CHENNAI / GOA LONDON RIYADH DUBAI MUSCAT MUMBAI DUBAI BAHRAIN BAGHDAD DUBAI BAHRAIN BEIRUT DOHA DUBAI AMSTERDAM ALEXANDRIA BAHRAIN BAHRAIN TUNIS FRANKFURT AMMAN SIALKOT

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

Airlines aAFG UAL AXB IAC PIA KLM DLH ETH KAC THY UAE ETD BBC QTR DHX JZR JZR JZR GFA JZR FDB KAC BAW KAC KAC KAC UAE ABY QTR ETD GFA KAC KAC JZR JZR KAC JZR KAC MEA KAC IRC MSR KAC MSR

Depatrure Flights on Monday 14/2/2011 Flt Route 406 DUBAI / KABUL 981 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 390 MANGALORE / KOZHIKODE 982 HYDERABAD / AHMEDABAD / CHENNAI 206 PESHAWER / LAHORE 447 AMSTERDAM 637 FRANKFURT 623 ADDIS ABABA 1283 DHAKA 773 ISTANBUL 854 DUBAI 306 ABU DHABI 46 DHAKA 139 DOHA 371 BAHRAIN 554D ALEXANDRIA 164 DUBAI 150 DOHA 212 BAHRAIN 120 BAHRAIN 54 DUBAI 545 ALEXANDRIA 156 LONDON 671 DUBAI 551 DAMASCUS 549 SOHAG 856 DUBAI 124 SHARJAH 133 DOHA 302 ABU DHABI 214 BAHRAIN 617 DOHA 165 ROME / PARIS 212 DEIREZZOR 776 JEDDAH 541 CAIRO 238 AMMAN 103 LONDON 405 BEIRUT 501 BEIRUT 6522 LAMERD 624 SOHAG 785 JEDDAH 611 CAIRO

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

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

FDB KAC OMA UAL KNE SVA JZR KAC KAC QTR KAC WAN ETD VOS GFA UAE RJA ABY SVA JZR ALK KAC WAN JZR FDB JZR KAC OMA JAI KAC DHX KAC GFA MEA JZR KAC FCX QTR KLM KAC UAE KAC JZR RBG JZR KAC

58 673 646 982 746 501 178 613 773 135 743 103 304 82 216 858 801 128 511 266 228 285 305 134 62 528 331 648 571 543 373 675 218 403 206 381 102 137 445 301 860 205 502 3554 554 411

DUBAI DUBAI MUSCAT BAHRAIN JEDDAH JEDDAH DUBAI BAHRAIN RIYADH DOHA DAMMAM DUBAI ABU DHABI BAGHDAD BAHRAIN DUBAI AMMAN SHARJAH RIYADH BEIRUT DUBAI / COLOMBO CHITTAGONG CAIRO BAHRAIN DUBAI ASSIUT TRIVANDRUM MUSCAT MUMBAI CAIRO BAHRAIN DUBAI BAHRAIN BEIRUT DAMASCUS DELHI BAHRAIN DOHA BAHRAIN / AMSTERDAM MUMBAI DUBAI ISLAMABAD LUXOR ALEXANDRIA ALEXANDRIA BANGKOK / MANILA

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

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

American Idol American Idol Good Morning America Sons Of Anarchy Kathy Griffin: My Life On The DLaw And Order Karen Sisco Good Morning America Detroit 1-8-7 Friday Night Lights The Ellen Degeneres Show Criminal Minds Friday Night Lights Law And Order Detroit 1-8-7 Live Good Morning America Criminal Minds American Idol Strong Medicine Parenthood My Generation

00:50 Untamed And Uncut 01:45 Journey Of Life 02:40 Dogs 101 03:35 Weird Creatures With Nick Baker 04:30 K9 Cops 05:25 Whale Wars 06:20 Untamed And Uncut 07:10 Project Puppy 07:35 Project Puppy 08:00 Meerkat Manor 08:25 Night 08:50 The Crocodile Hunter Diaries 09:40 Breed All About It 10:10 Cats 101 11:05 Amba The Russian Tiger 12:00 Animal Precinct 12:55 Wildlife Sos 13:20 Wildlife Sos 13:50 Animal Cops Phoenix 14:45 Rspca: On The Frontline 15:10 E-Vets: The Interns 15:40 Journey Of Life 16:30 Dogs/Cats/Pets 101 17:30 Night 18:00 Breed All About It 18:25 Project Puppy 18:50 Project Puppy 19:20 Austin Stevens Adventures 20:15 Escape To Chimp Eden 20:40 Snake Crusader With Bruce George 21:10 Dogs/Cats/Pets 101 22:05 Living With Wolves

00:20 01:10 02:00 02:50 03:40 04:40 05:00 05:20 05:40 05:50 05:55 06:10 06:30 06:50 07:10 07:20 07:25 07:40 08:00 08:20 08:40 08:50 08:55 09:10 09:30 09:50 10:10 10:20 10:25 10:40 11:10 11:40 12:40

Moses Jones The Jonathan Ross Show The Weakest Link Himalaya With Michael Palin The Weakest Link Balamory Tweenies Fimbles The Large Family Spot’s Musical Adventures Charlie And Lola Balamory Tweenies Fimbles The Large Family Spot’s Musical Adventures Charlie And Lola Balamory Tweenies Fimbles The Large Family Spot’s Musical Adventures Charlie And Lola Balamory Tweenies Fimbles The Large Family Spot’s Musical Adventures Charlie And Lola Last Of The Summer Wine Last Of The Summer Wine The Weakest Link Inspector Lynley Mysteries

13:30 14:00 14:30 15:25 16:25 17:15 18:15 18:45 19:15 20:10 20:55 21:45 22:15 22:45

Doctors Mastermind 2006 Himalaya With Michael Palin Last Of The Summer Wine Inspector Lynley Mysteries The Weakest Link Doctors Mastermind 2006 Himalaya With Michael Palin Inspector Lynley Mysteries The Weakest Link Doctors Eastenders Holby City

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

Come Dine With Me Bargain Hunt Cash In The Attic Home For Life Superhomes Daily Cooks Challenge Glamour Puds Glamour Puds 10 Years Younger Antiques Roadshow Fantasy Homes By The Sea 10 Years Younger 10 Years Younger Antiques Roadshow Fantasy Homes By The Sea Glamour Puds Daily Cooks Challenge Come Dine With Me Fantasy Homes By The Sea Home For Life Superhomes

01:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:15 13:00 15:00 PG15 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

Normal Life-R Aspen Extreme-PG15 Bottle Shock-PG15 Not Easily Broken-PG15 Finding Forrester-PG 45 R.P.M.-PG15 Living Proof-PG The Memory Keeper’s Daughter-

22:35 23:00 23:25 23:50 00:40 Mighty Ships 01:30 Mega World 02:20 The Gadget Show 02:45 The Gadget Show 03:10 What’s That About?

04:00 The Colony 04:50 The Colony 05:45 Ldrs (Large Dangerous Rocket Ships) 06:40 Cool Stuff And How It Works 07:10 The Future Of...

08:00 Scrappy Races 08:55 Sci-Fi Saved My Life 09:50 Sci-Fi Science 10:15 Sci-Fi Science 10:45 Stunt Junkies 11:10 The Gadget Show 11:40 How Stuff Works 12:30 Cool Stuff And How It Works 12:55 Scrappy Races 13:45 Patent Bending 14:15 Engineered 15:05 Nextworld 15:55 Savage Planet 16:20 Building The Future 17:10 Under New York 18:00 The Gadget Show 18:25 Cool Stuff And How It Works 18:50 Brainiac 19:40 Mighty Ships 20:30 Kings Of Construction 21:20 How It’s Made

00:00 01:00 02:00 18:00 18:50 19:20 21:20 22:10 22:35 23:00 23:25 23:50

E! News Countdown To The Red Carpet Live From The Red Carpet E!es Behind The Scenes Live From The Red Carpet Married To Rock Extreme Close-Up Style Star Fashion Police Keeping Up With The Kardashians Kourtney And Khloe Take Miami

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

Guys Big Bite Good Eats Unwrapped Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Unwrapped Good Eats Food Network All-Star Guy Off the Hook - Special Good Eats Unwrapped TEN DOLLAR DINNERS Paula’s Best Dishes Paula’s Party Barefoot Contessa - Back to Basics Chopped Guys Big Bite Boy Meets Grill Good Deal with Dave Lieberman TEN DOLLAR DINNERS Paula’s Best Dishes Barefoot Contessa - Back to Basics Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Throwdown With Bobby Flay Unwrapped Paula’s Party Good Eats Paula’s Best Dishes Throwdown With Bobby Flay Ultimate Recipe Showdown Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Unwrapped Boy Meets Grill Chopped Paula’s Best Dishes Barefoot Contessa - Back to Basics Good Deal with Dave Lieberman TEN DOLLAR DINNERS Paula’s Party Good Eats Guys Big Bite Throwdown With Bobby Flay Unwrapped Unwrapped

The Good Heart-PG15 Cabaret-PG15 Gilles’Wife-PG15 Sophie’s Choice-18

00:40 Destroyed In Seconds 01:10 Destroyed In Seconds 01:35 Battle Machine Bros 02:30 Fifth Gear 03:00 Fifth Gear 03:25 American Chopper: Senior Vs Junior 04:20 How It’s Made 04:50 How Do They Do It? 05:15 Destroyed In Seconds 05:40 Destroyed In Seconds 06:05 Heart Of The Machine 07:00 X-Machines 07:50 American Chopper 08:45 How Do They Do It? 09:10 How It’s Made 09:40 Mythbusters 10:30 Cake Boss 10:55 Border Security 11:25 Overhaulin’ 12:20 Ultimate Survival 13:15 Mythbusters 14:10 Miami Ink 15:05 Dirty Jobs 16:00 Overhaulin’ 16:55 Deadliest Catch 17:50 Mythbusters 18:45 Cake Boss 19:10 Border Security 19:40 Deconstruction 20:05 How Do They Do It? 20:35 How It’s Made 21:00 River Monsters 21:55 Extreme Fishing 22:50 Shark Bait Beach 23:45 Behind Bars

Armored on Show Movies

MONDAY, FRBRUARY 14, 2011

TV PROGRAMS Paula’s Best Dishes Throwdown With Bobby Flay Boy Meets Grill Paula’s Party

02:30 ACC Sunday Night Hoops Duke at Miami 05:00 Pac-10 Men’s Basketball Arizona at Arizona St. 07:00 Sport Express 07:30 Golf Central International 08:30 Golf Channel - TBA 10:30 Champions Tour: Allianz Championship Final Rd. Boca Raton, FL 13:00 ACC Basketball Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech 15:00 ACC Basketball North Carolina State at Wake Forest 17:00 ACC Sunday Night Hoops Duke at Miami 19:00 ARCA: Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 21:00 Pac-10 Men’s Basketball Arizona at Arizona St. 23:00 ACC Basketball Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech

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

01:00 02:45 04:10 05:45 07:40 09:00 10:20 11:55 13:30 14:55 17:25 19:00 20:30 22:00 23:40

On The Case With Paula Zahn Who On Earth Did I Marry?

Who On Earth Did I Marry?

Deadly Women Solved On The Case With Paula Zahn Dr G: Medical Examiner Black Museum On The Case With Paula Zahn Mystery Diagnosis Forensic Detectives On The Run Mystery Diagnosis Real Emergency Calls Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry?

Who On Earth Did I Marry?

Fbi Files Murder Shift Disappeared Mystery Diagnosis Real Emergency Calls Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry?

Couples Who Kill On The Case With Paula Zahn

Teachers Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings Death Wish V Lifeforce Haunted Honeymoon Movers And Shakers Making Mr. Right Mystery Date Sibling Rivalry The Group A Star For Two Sleepover Friday Foster Salt And Pepper Watch It

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

Long Way Down Banged Up Abroad Bondi Rescue Market Values Bondi Rescue Long Way Down Banged Up Abroad Bondi Rescue Market Values Banged Up Abroad Warrior Road Trip The Frankincense Trail Departures Finding Genghis Destination Extreme Bondi Rescue Banged Up Abroad Warrior Road Trip The Frankincense Trail Departures Finding Genghis Finding Genghis Destination Extreme Bondi Rescue Banged Up Abroad Warrior Road Trip

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

Swamp Men Planet Carnivore Caught In The Act Dangerous Encounters With Brady

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

Built For The Kill The Living Edens Animal Paparazzi Monster Fish Wild Freaks Hunter Hunted World’s Deadliest Animals Restless Planet The Cute Report Dangerous Encounters With Brady Wild Freaks Planet Carnivore Prehistoric Hunters Python Hunters Swamp Men Animal Paparazzi Monster Fish Planet Carnivore Prehistoric Hunters Python Hunters

Two And A Half Men Family Biz The Daily Show With Jon Stewart The Colbert Report Late Night With Jimmy Fallon Saturday Night Live South Park Entourage Cougar Town Coach Yes, Dear The Drew Carey Show Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

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 18:00 18:30 19:00 19:30 20:00 20:30 21:00 21:30 22:00 22:30 23:00 23:30

Just Shoot Me Coach Yes, Dear The Drew Carey Show According To Jim Billable Hours Coach Yes, Dear The Tonight Show With Jay Leno Just Shoot Me Coach Yes, Dear Two And A Half Men Billable Hours The Daily Show With Jon Stewart The Colbert Report The Drew Carey Show Late Night With Jimmy Fallon Just Shoot Me According To Jim Billable Hours Two And A Half Men 10 Things I Hate About You It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia The Daily Show Global Edition The Colbert Report Global Edition Comedy Central Presents Comedy Central Presents South Park Billable Hours

02:00 Chocolat-PG15 04:00 Drumline-PG15 06:30 Harry Potter And The Half- Blood Prince-PG15 09:00 Hannah Montana Movie-PG 11:00 Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time-PG15 13:00 As Good As It Gets-PG15 15:30 Four Christmases-PG15 17:00 Hannah Montana Movie-PG 19:00 Assassination Of A High School President-18 21:00 Notorious-18 23:15 Road Trip: Beer Pong-18

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

American Idol True Blood C.S.I. Miami True Blood The Simpsons C.S.I. New York The Ellen Degeneres Show Coronation Street C.S.I. New York C.S.I. Miami The Ellen Degeneres Show The Simpsons Coronation Street Criminal Minds Law And Order C.S.I. New York C.S.I. Miami The Simpsons Coronation Street The Ellen Degeneres Show American Idol The Event Desperate Housewives My Generation True Blood The Ellen Degeneres Show

00:00 01:45 04:00 06:00 08:00 10:00 PG15 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

Dolan’s Cadillac-PG15 The Vintner’s Luck-PG15 Sugar-PG15 I Spy-PG Fantastic Mr. Fox-FAM Hey Hey Its Esther Blueburger-

01:15 03:15 05:15 07:30 09:00 11:00 13:15 15:15 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:15

The International-18 XXX-PG15 Bugsy-18 Messengers-PG15 Virtuality-PG15 National Treasure-PG15 The Yards-PG15 Virtuality-PG15 Shoot The Hero-PG15 Mindhunters-18 Angels And Demons-PG15 Friday The 13th-18

Maneater: Part I-PG15 Maneater: Part II-PG15 Fantastic Mr. Fox-FAM The Box-PG15 Armored-18 Sleuth-18

00:00 Mr. Magoo-PG 02:00 Futurama: Into The Wild Green Yonder-PG15 04:00 Married To It-PG15 06:00 The Match-PG15 08:00 Adventures Of Power-PG15 10:00 My Bollywood Bride-PG15 12:00 Down To You-PG15 14:00 How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days-PG 16:00 America’s Sweethearts-PG15 18:00 The Proposal-PG15 20:00 500 Days Of Summer-PG15 22:00 He’s Just Not That Into You-PG15

00:00 Franklin And The Green Knight 02:00 Stuart Little 2-FAM 04:00 Scruff In Midsummer Night’s Dream-FAM 06:00 Wonder Woman-PG 08:00 Elias And The Royal Yacht-FAM 10:00 Scruff In Midsummer Night’s Dream-FAM 12:00 Rolie, Polie, Olie: The Movie-FAM 14:00 Stuart Little 2-FAM 16:00 Doubting Thomas: Spies And Lies18:00 Robin Hood: The Invincible Knight-FAM 20:00 Ulysses-PG 22:00 Rolie, Polie, Olie: The Movie-FAM

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

C.S.I. New York Huge The Martha Stewart Show White Collar The View The Deep End Emmerdale Coronation Street

Valhalla Rising on Super Movies 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 12:30 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 16:30 17:00 18:00 18:30 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00 23:30

White Collar The Martha Stewart Show The Deep End White Collar The View Emmerdale Coronation Street The Martha Stewart Show C.S.I. New York Huge What’s Good For You What’s Good For You The View Emmerdale Coronation Street C.S.I. Miami Desperate Housewives White Collar The View What’s Good For You What’s Good For You

01:30 Aviva Premiership 03:30 Scottish Premier League 05:30 Futbol Mundial 06:00 Brazil League Highlights 06:30 ICC Cricket World 07:00 Aviva Premiership 09:00 Super League 11:00 Super League 13:00 ICC Cricket World 13:30 PGA European Tour 18:00 Super League 20:00 Futbol Mundial 20:30 Live Goals On Monday 21:30 Scottish Premier League Highlights 22:00 Scottish Premier League

00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 07:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 13:30 15:30 16:00 19:00 20:00 22:00

Super League Super League NRL Special Pool World Cup PGA European Tour Futbol Mundial Brazil League Highlights Pool World Cup Scottish Premier League ICC Cricket World Live Snooker PGA European Tour Highlights Aviva Premiership Live Snooker

00:00 03:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 09:30 10:00 12:00 13:00 15:00 18:00 19:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

UFC 126 V8 Supercars Championship UFC Unleashed UFC Unleashed WWE Bottom Line Red Bull X-Fighters Sports Adventure Airsports World V8 Supercars Championship WWE Vintage Collection WWE SmackDown Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge WWE Bottom Line WWE SmackDown UFC Unleashed UFC The Ultimate Fighter UFC Unleashed

01:15 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:15 19:30 21:15 23:00

Valhalla Rising-18 The People Speak-PG15 Jump Tomorrow-PG15 A Number-PG15 The People Speak-PG15 The Sun Also Rises-PG15 Charlotte Gray-PG15 Carnera: The Walking Mountain Capitalism: A Love Story-PG15 Adam-PG15 44 Inch Chest-18 Saw VI-PG15

00:50 Cat On A Hot Tin Roof 02:35 Ice Station Zebra-FAM 05:00 Diner-PG15 06:50 Screening Room, The - Horror-PG 07:15 Screening Room, The - Human Rights-PG 08:00 Ice Station Zebra-FAM 10:25 The Twenty-Fifth Hour-PG 12:25 Young Cassidy-PG 14:15 The Swan-FAM 16:00 Gone With The Wind-PG 19:35 High Society-FAM 21:20 Skyjacked-PG 23:00 Doctor Zhivago-PG

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

Modern Marvels Nostradamus Effect Warriors Ice Road Truckers Ancient Aliens Ufo Files Modern Marvels Nostradamus Effect Warriors Ice Road Truckers Ancient Aliens Ufo Files Modern Marvels Nostradamus Effect Warriors Ice Road Truckers Ancient Aliens Ufo Files Modern Marvels Cities Of The Underworld Battlefield Detectives Ice Road Truckers Ice Road Truckers Pawn Stars Pawn Stars Tales Of The Gun

00:17 01:00 01:45 02:00 02:45 03:17 07:17 08:00 08:45 09:17 13:00 13:45 15:17 16:00 16:45 17:17 18:00 18:45 20:00 20:50 22:17

Playlist Africa 10 Playlist Urban Hit Playlist Playlist Playlist Sound System 10 Playlist Playlist Urban Hit Playlist Playlist Latina 10 Playlist Playlist Urban Hit Playlist Hit Us Playlist Playlist

00:00 01:00 02:00 02:30 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 11:30 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00

Globe Trekker Tall Ship Explorers Four Men And A Lady Dream Destinations Globe Trekker Indian Times Globe Trekker Tall Ship Explorers Planet Food Globe Trekker Inside Luxury Travel-Varun Sharma Tall Ship Explorers Flavours Of Peru Chef Abroad Rivers Of The World Globe Trekker Planet Food Panasia

15:30 16:30 17:00 18:00 18:30 19:00 20:00 21:00 21:30 22:00 23:00

Inside Luxury Travel-Varun Sharma Destination Art Globe Trekker Chef Abroad Flavours Of Peru Planet Food Globe Trekker Dream Destinations Travel Oz Short History Of Convict Australia Inside Luxury Travel-Varun Sharma

00:20 Replacements 00:45 Replacements 01:10 Fairly Odd Parents 01:35 Fairly Odd Parents 02:00 A Kind Of Magic 02:20 A Kind Of Magic 02:45 Stitch 03:10 Stitch 03:35 Kim Possible 04:00 Kim Possible 04:25 Emperors New School 04:50 Emperors New School 05:15 Stitch 05:35 Stitch 06:00 Phineas And Ferb 06:20 Phineas And Ferb 06:45 Fairly Odd Parents 07:05 Sonny With A Chance 07:27 Have A Laugh 07:30 Kim Possible 07:50 Wizards Of Waverly Place 08:15 Stitch 08:35 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 09:00 Handy Manny 09:25 Special Agent Oso 09:50 Jungle Junction 10:10 Imagination Movers 10:35 Special Agent Oso 10:50 Handy Manny 11:15 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 11:35 A Kind Of Magic 12:00 Good Luck Charlie 12:25 Fairly Odd Parents 12:42 Have A Laugh 12:45 Phineas And Ferb 13:10 Hannah Montana 13:30 Sonny With A Chance 13:55 Wizards Of Waverly Place 14:20 Jake And Blake 14:40 Have A Laugh 14:55 A Kind Of Magic 15:20 Hannah Montana Forever 15:40 Hannah Montana Forever 16:00 Good Luck Charlie 16:25 Good Luck Charlie 16:45 Jonas La 17:08 Have A Laugh 17:10 Jonas La 17:37 Have A Laugh 17:40 Jonas La 18:00 Sonny With A Chance 18:25 Sonny With A Chance 18:43 Have A Laugh 18:45 Starstruck 20:10 Fish Hooks Splits 20:25 Jake And Blake 20:50 Hannah Montana 21:12 Have A Laugh 21:15 Phineas And Ferb 21:35 Fairly Odd Parents 22:00 Replacements 22:25 Hannah Montana 22:50 Sonny With A Chance 23:15 Wizards Of Waverly Place 23:35 Jonas DISNEY XD 00:00 Programmes Start At 7:00am KSA 07:00 Kid vs Kat 07:25 Kick Buttowski 07:50 Pokemon 08:15 Phineas And Ferb 08:40 Phineas And Ferb 09:05 Kick Buttowski 09:30 American Dragon 09:55 Have A Laugh 10:00 Zeke And Luther 10:25 Zeke And Luther 10:50 I’m In The Band 11:15 The Super Hero Squad Show 11:40 Suite Life On Deck 12:05 Suite Life On Deck 12:30 Escape From Scorpion Island

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National, Liberation Day and HH the Amir’s assumption of Power Events

IDF inauguration of cultural program by Ira Malhotra.

IDF Dr Faud Al Ali, Dean Faculty of Medicine.

IDF Health Guide release

IDF releases health guide on diabetes mellitus

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eb 4th Friday was a red-letter day in the Calendar of the Indian doctors of Kuwait.

Milan 2011, the 2011 version of Docfest the annual program to release the health guide of the Indian Doctors Forum took place in the American International School auditorium, Maidan Hawalli, with a captivated capacity crowd.

Conceptualised, organised and executed by the members of the IDF, the event had the feel of an event conducted by a professional event management team.

The initial part of the program was the official function which began sharp on time at 6:15 pm with the Kuwaiti and Indian national anthems. This was followed by the recitation of passages from the Holy Quran by Dr Ismail Burud. The official function was anchored by the Vice-President of the forum, Dr Amir Ahmed. Dr Mural Gopal, the dynamic and diligent Gen. Secretary of IDF welcomed the august gathering of prominent Kuwaiti and Indian dignitaries, sponsors, media personnel and the IDF families. Dr. Ibrahim Abdul Hadi, Undersecretary, Ministry of Health, applauded and acknowledged the role of Indian doctors in the development and running of the health sector in Kuwait. Earlier on inaugurating the event, Indian Ambassador Ajai Malhotra, lauded the various community welfare activities done by the forum. Dr. Fuad Ali Hassan, Dean of Faculty of Medicine, recollected the pioneering role played by Indian doctors towards the establishment of the Faculty of Medicine and tutoring of many Kuwaiti doctors. In his presidential address Dr N Nampoory enumerated the work done by the Indian Doctors Forum especially for the community by means of medical camps, community outreach programs, school health initiatives etc. Dr Ahmed Murad , Honorable Treasurer - KMA graced the occasion.

Health Guide 2011 Release This was followed by the most important part of the official event, the release of the Health Guide 2011 on the topic Diabetes

Mellitus. Recognizing the fact that, the incidence of diabetes mellitus is on the rise and there is a palpable need for easily understood information on various aspects of diabetes, IDF, this year, brought together a panel of senior doctors, all experts in the field to bring out the Health Guide 2011. Written in simple language avoiding technical terms, the Health Guide attempts to cover all common aspects of diabetes mellitus and offers guidelines and advice in all aspects of diabetes care. The Health Guide 2011 was officially released by the Dr. Abdul Hadi, Undersecretary, Ministry of Health and the first copy was handed to Ambassador Malhotra to resounding applause by all present. The dais also had present all the Office bearers of the Indian Doctors forum and the editors of the Health Guide, Dr Narayanan and Dr. Arijith whose tireless efforts resulted in a publication which would be a great help to the community. The treasurer of the IDF, Dr P C Nair in his vote of thanks, expressed gratitude to the dignitaries for their support and well wishes and brought an end to the official function.

Cultural Program Milan 2011 It was time for the much awaited Cultural Program of Milan 2011. Over the past years, the annual Docfest of the IDF has become a much anticipated show. This year, the anticipation was keener, the event being conducted at a new venue, with a new theme and a variety of programs. The gracious Ira Malhotra, wife of the Ambassador, lit the lamp helped by the the first lady of the IDF, Dr Prabha and also, Dr. Kiran , Dr. Kiran Jolly and Dr. Daisy.

Dr. Sebastian Mathew, the Joint Secretary for Cultural Activities, introduced the theme of Milan 2011 to the audience. He explained that Milan 2011 was a celebration of the diversity of India coming together in artistic expression by members of the IDF family. This year’s event was unique in that all the programs were performed exclusively by members of the IDF and their family. The evening’s cultural program was initiated by a patriotic group song, “Ye jo

desh he mera...” melodiously sung by IDF members and supported by talented musicians of the IDF family. This was followed by an energetic and adorable dance by the tiny tots wishing the event all the best. The seven classical dance forms of India choreographed to fusion classical Indian music which came next presented visual poetry to the audience and was applauded vigorously. Short humorous skits presented in between the programs provided comic relief and demonstrated the acting talents of the doctors. Music included a mellifluous rendering of Carnatic vocals melding harmoniously with western rhythms which was followed by a medley of popular songs. A surprise inclusion was a unique Western Classical, Eastern percussion fusion. Mozart’s Ronda Alla Turca was played with an Indian twist accompanied by the tabla and thoroughly captivated the audience. The dances of the rest of the evening were based on the theme of the five elements which form the building blocks of the Universe. Each of the five elements Space, Wind, Water, Fire and Earth were performed to resounding applause from the audience and were much appreciated. The grand finale of the program saw dancers from each of the five elements coming together symbolically to unite and form a harmonious universe.

The final event was the grand raffle with prizes comprising of laptops, mobiles, digital camera to gift vouchers.

A fitting end to the evening was presented by the sumptuous dinner which followed. All the members and guests were then presented with a copy of the Health Guide and IDF Calendar put in an attractive bag made especially for the IDF by differently abled children as part of their vocational training. These children were felicitated by Dr Nampoory for their effort by presenting them gift vouchers gifted

by Centre Point and Gulf Mart. All in all, it was an event to remember and reflected the hard work and commitment which went into it to make the program a grand success.

It’s Valentine’s Day... Celebrate it in a special Way!

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eel the love, feel the magic as romance is in the air at the Holiday Inn this Valentine. A Valentine could be your spouse, family, friend or anyone that you really adore, which is why Holiday Inn has put in the right touch to make this day nostalgic.

You can Gift your loved one a Beautiful evening as Love has made its way over in lip smacking flavors spread to all Holiday Inn Restaurants, to make your dining a Wonderful & Exceptional Experience.

You’ll be welcomed amidst a romantic ambiance with beautiful red

roses that has always and will always be considered as a sign of love, served with a special valentine menu featuring the best delicacies prepared specially to make your romantic dining experience as special as it can get!

Holiday Inn treats you with a beautiful glass bottle filled with colorful sand of love shapes as well as your names. You can also capture your love moments at the Valentine Corner besides a classic piano dressed in stunning flower arrangements to make this day

a perfect one. Holiday Inn welcomes you and your loved ones to a classic evening. Happy Valentine’s!

Story collection released

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ell known diaspora theatre activist and writer Chunakara Rajappans’s new story collection “Unarthu Pattu “ was released at Al Dana English School, Salwa by giving a copy of the book by well known writer John Mathew to Kairali Kuwait Coordinator Thomas Mathew Kadavil. Indian Ambassador Ajai Malhothra was the chief guest of the function.

G. Sanal Kumar briefed about the book and its author. Many distinguished personalities

including writers, media persons, social and cultural activists were present in the book releasing function.

Thulunadan publications are the publishers of this book.

Chunakara Rajappan is Fahaheel Unit Convener of Kerala Art Lovers Association Kala Kuwait and hails from the Alapuzha district of Kerala. Chunakara Rajappan spoke on the occasion and expressed thanks for the organizers of the release function.

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2011

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Embassy Information EMBASSY OF SOUTH AFRICA On the occasion of the Prophet Mohammed’s (PBUH) bir thday, the South African Embassy will be closed on Thursday, 17 February 2011. The Embassy will resume its normal working hours on Sunday, 20 February 2011, from Sunday to Thursday. Please note that the working hours will be from 8:00 to 16:00 & the Consular Section operation hours will from 8:30 to 12:30.

EMBASSY OF BANGLADESH

KNES visits Dickson House Cultural Heritage Centre

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ach class in years 3, 4 and 5 visited the Dickson House armed with their worksheets and questions for the guide. We believe this house, which was built in 1870, to be a very important symbol of the relationship established

between Kuwait and Britain. We were first greeted by all the original flags of Kuwait and the Officers sword of Colonel Dickson. The students of Kuwait National English School (KNES) enjoyed seeing the photos of ‘Umm

Saud’ Mrs Violet Dixon the wife of Colonel H.R.P. Dickson, who was the first Political Agent in Kuwait, from 1929 to 1936. They also saw the original car owned by the Dickson’s, an old Humber Snipe and the well that was used for the

horses, given to them by the then King of Saudi Arabia. The stables used to be, the very first Post Office of Kuwait. All classes thoroughly enjoyed the day and discovering the Historic English links with their country.

KES Sports Day

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he weather was just perfect on Thursday morning as eager parents gathered in the brightly decorated playground at Kuwait English School Preparatory Department for KG Sports Day. The programme began with the National Anthem and an opening address by Helen Searle, Head Teacher of the Preparatory Department.

“This is probably your child’s first Sports Day of many”, Mrs Searle said.

Before the racing began, children in all 9 classes participated in a National Dress Parade. Representing dozens of different home countries, the youngsters showed†their elaborate national costumes and waved their national flags to the keen observers.

Following the National Parade, the Junior School put on†a daring display of gymnastics organised by Mrs Bowdery.

After the first running race the tiny tots hopped in a Bunny Race, bounced in a Space Hopper Race, and jumped in the Sack Race. They climbed over chairs and rolled†across mats in the Obstacle Race, crawled through the hoops in a Hoop Race,†and skipped to the finishing line in the Skipping Race.

The children cheered for their team mates who wore funny hats in the Dressing Up Race. Then the students balanced balls on bats, and quoits on their heads.

“This is a really hard one!” exclaimed Mrs Searle.† The events concluded with a Mummy’s race and a Daddy’s race . Mrs Kismet, Head of the KG Department, scattered coloured balls on the ground and the parents dashed to collect as many as they could. All of the participants were awarded a rosette.

Mrs Sarah thanked Mrs Searle and Mrs Kismet for all†of the†hard work. Both ladies were presented with flowers. “A very big thank you to everyone who was involved in this” Mrs Searle said. “I hope you have had a good day. The children certainly have”.

“It was very nice for the children and for us” said Reem mother of Leen in KGAL.

The Embassy of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in Kuwait has taken up an initiative to update the database of Bangladesh nationals residing in the State of Kuwait. For inclusion in the database all the Bangladesh nationals are requested to collect the Registration Form from the Labour Wing of the Embassy. The forms can also be collected sending request to bdoot@kems.net e-mail address.

The filled-in forms can also be submitted by hand, by email or by fax (number 2491-3204). ●●●

The Embassy of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in Kuwait will remain closed on Thursday, February 17, 2011 on the occasion of holy Eid-E M1ladun Nabi.

EMBASSY OF CANADA The Embassy of Canada is located at Villa 24, Al-Mutawakel St., Block 4 in Da’aiyah.

Please visit our website at www.Kuwait.gc.ca.

The Embassy of Canada is open from 07:30 to 15:30 Sunday through Thursday. Consular Services for Canadian Citizens are provided from 09:00 until 12:00 on Sunday through Wednesday.

Canada offers a registration service for all Canadians travelling or living abroad. This service is provided so that Consular Officials can contact and assist Canadians in an emergency in a foreign country, such as a natural disaster or civil unrest, or inform Canadians of a family emergency at home. The Embassy of Canada encourages all Canadian Citizens to register online through the Government of Canada Travel Website at www.voyage.gc.ca.

The Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi provides visa and immigration services to residents of Kuwait. Individuals who are interested in visiting, working or immigrating to Canada are invited to visit the website of the Canadian Embassy to the UAE at www.UAE.gc.ca.

Effective January 15, 2011, the only Temporary Resident Visa (TRV) application form that will be accepted by CIC is the Application for Temporary Resident Visa Made Outside of Canada [IMM 5257] form. All previous Temporary Resident Visa application forms will no longer be accepted by CIC and instead will be returned to applicants. Should old applications be submitted prior to January 15, 2011 they will continue to be processed. To ensure that the most recent version of the Temporary Resident Visa application form is being utilized, applicants should refer to the CIC website.

As of January 15, 2011, forms are to be filled in electronically. The forms are available on the internet at: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/kits/forms/IMM5257E.PDF. A guide explaining the process can be found here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/kits/guide s/5256E.PDF. EMBASSY OF INDIA

Kaippattoor releases two books

Greetings

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Many, many happy returns of the day to Jomon John who is celebrating his 12th birthday. Best wishes from your parents who want you to be as colorful as this picture, and from your brother who wants you to be as naughty as you are in the picture.

aippattoor Thankachan, a prominent author among the Indian expats in Kuwait recently released two short story collections, titled Kaalathinte Chirakati (The Flutter of Time) and Karnikkobarile Katal (The Sea at Car Nicobar), published by Indian publishers National Book Stall and Prabhath Book House respectively.

Noted Indian film personality Kollam Thulasi released both the books by giving copies to well known Indian writer and journalist Vithura Baby.

Thankachan who has been in Kuwait for the past 30 years is a constant voice as a writer and orator about topics concerning Indian expats both in Kuwait and across the world. He had been a regular contributor to the Malayalam edition of Kuwait Times and has released 15 books both fiction and nonfiction. Formerly in the Indian military, Thankachan served a few years in the Nicobar Islands. His latest book borrows its title from memories of the time he spent in the island.

The stories uphold human virtues, honesty and simplicity of life which are written in a lucid, simple and straightforward style, the blurbs of the books testify. The well-known author, friends to many and foe to gossips works for the Marafie group and lives in Ardiya Industrial area, still penning for web as well as printed periodicals and journals.

The Embassy of India has further revamped and improved its Legal Advice Clinic at the Indian Workers Welfare Center, and made the free service available to Indian nationals on all five working days, i.e. from Sunday to Thursday every week. Kuwaiti lawyers would be available at the Legal Advice Clinic daily from Monday to Thursday, while Indian lawyers would be available on Sundays. Following are the free welfare services provided at the Indian Workers Welfare Center located at the Embassy of India: [i] 24x7 Helpline for Domestic Workers: Accessible by toll free telephone no. 25674163 from anywhere in Kuwait, it provides information and advice exclusively to Indian domestic sector workers (Visa No. 20) as regards their grievances, immigration and other matters. [ii] Help Desk: It offers guidance to Indian nationals on routine immigration, employment, legal, and other issues (Embassy premises; 9 AM to 1 PM and 2 PM to 4.30 PM, Sunday to Thursday); (iii) Labour Complaints Desk: It registers labor complaints and provides grievance redressal service to Indian workers (Embassy premises; 9 AM to 1 PM and 2 PM to 4.30 PM, Sunday to Thursday); (iv) Shelters: For female and male domestic workers in distress; (v) Legal Advice Clinic: Provides free legal advice to Indian nationals (Embassy premises; Kuwaiti lawyers 3 PM to 5 PM, Monday to Thursday; Indian lawyers 2 PM to 4 PM on Sunday); and (vi) Attestation of Work Contracts: Private sector worker (Visa No. 18) contracts are accepted at the Embassy; 9 AM to 1 PM; Sunday to Thursday; Domestic sector worker (Visa No. 20) contracts are accepted at Kuwait Union of Domestic Labor Offices (KUDLO), Hawally, Al-Othman Street, Kurd Roundabout, AlAbraj Complex, Office No 9, Mezzanine Floor; 9 AM to 9 PM, Saturday to Thursday; 5 PM to 9 PM on Friday. Embassy of India

would like to inform that application forms for passport/visa services and labor contracts that are on its website, www.indembkwt.org, have been upgraded to include the facility for online data entry. Affidavit forms on the embassy website have had this facility since May 6, 2009. ●●●

The Embassy of India will remain closed on Wednesday, February 16, 2011 on account of “Milad-un-Nabi”.

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H E A LT H

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2011

Cars replace industry as main source of contamination Concern over soaring pollution levels in Spain’s big cities MADRID: The day is filled with sunlight, but the mountains near Madrid are no longer visible, having faded into the dark smog that hangs above the Spanish capital as pollution levels soar. Madrid and Spain’s second-largest city Barcelona exceed the European Union’s safe contamination limits by far, according to Paco Segura from the environmentalist group Ecologistas en Accion.

In Madrid, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels as high as 380 micrograms per cubic metre have been measured in some places over the past week, while the EU limit only allows for a maximum of 200 micrograms during 18 hours in an entire year, Segura told the German Press Agency dpa. NO2, which results mainly from car exhausts, is one of the pollutants that most worry environmentalists. But others have also increased, largely as a result of high atmospheric pressure which has prevented gases and particles from dispersing.

However, the pollution should not be

blamed mainly on the weather, air quality expert Xavier Querol said. Cars have replaced industry as the main source of contamination in Spain, but little has been done to reduce their impact on the environment, critics say.

Madrid mayor Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, for instance, promised to keep the most contaminating types of cars away from the city centre already in 2008, but the measure has not yet been put into effect.

As pollution shot up this week, the city council put signs on motorway display panels advising residents to use public transport instead of their own vehicles.

“That has no effect whatsoever,” Segura complained. “The city authorities only did it to give the impression that they were doing something about the problem.”

In Barcelona, the regional authorities are planning to cancel an earlier concession to environmentalists, which had set the speed limit on entrance roads to the city at 80 kilo-

metres per hour. That plan has now been suspended until the current pollution subsides.

“Spanish drivers are not willing to leave the car at home,” said Angel Valencia Saiz, coauthor of a study on environmental attitudes in Spain. Only 10 per cent of Spaniards would drive less in order to protect the environment, compared with an EU average of 17 per cent, the study showed.

“Pollution may cost (politicians) votes, but closing the traffic would cost even more” votes, Valencia told the daily El Pais. And Spain’s municipal elections are only three months away. Madrid officials say the pollution levels are not dangerous, but environmentalists and medical doctors distrust such statements.

The Madrid authorities have tampered with pollution data by moving sensors from areas of heavy traffic to parks, according to Ecologistas en Accion, which is preparing to challenge the city council in court. — dpa

BEIJING: A Panda bear climbs down a ladder in its snow covered enclosure at the Beijing Zoo after it snowed in Beijing yesterday. — AP

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monDAY, febrUArY 14, 2011

health & science

Proper breathing a boon to health BERLIN: To take a deep breath, to breathe a sigh or relief, to catch your breath - everyone knows expressions having to do with breathing.

“But a lot of people know little about the impor tance of proper breathing for health,” noted Gisela Schmachtenberg, chairwoman of t h e B e r lin-based Wor k ing and R e s e a rch Group on R espirator y Education and Therapy.

Someone under emotional stress o r w i t h tensed muscles usually b re at h es shallowly, high in the chest. This is no problem so long it is temporary.

“Continual shallow breathing can result in functional disorders such as digestive problems or even cardiac arrhythmias, however,” warned

Britta Jacob, a respiratory therapist in Hamburg. Respirator y therapy can help.

“A person’s breathing is as individual as his or her fingerprint,” Jacob said. What is more, one’s manner of breathing changes with the situation and circumstances.

Someone in a good mood instinctively breathes properly : deeply through the nose and with the diaphragm. This raises and lowers the lungs, which also visibly raises and lowers the abdominal wall.

“Our internal organs are literally massaged,” Jacob said. At the same time, the body takes in sufficient amounts of oxygen and metabolism is stimulated.

Respiratory therapy helps people

suffering from respiratory illnesses such as asthma or chronic bronchitis, or who have migraines or pains in joints or muscles.

In cases of severe, incurable illnesses like pulmonary fibrosis, it can ease the symptoms and improve the quality of life. Actors, musicians and teachers can strengthen their voices with respiratory therapy, which is also used to treat panic attacks, burnout and depression.

Depending on the problem, a respiratory therapist will try to help a patient with breathing massage or breathing exercises. “It’s always a matter of creating inner freedom and boosting the powers of self- healing,” Jacob said. Respirator y therapy focuses on sharpening body percep-

tion, on being better able to sense and understand one’s breathing and consequently oneself.

Respiratory therapy arose in the early 20th century from a combination of Far Eastern knowledge of breathing, Western breathing instruction and elements of gymnastics, dancing and psychotherapy.

One of the best-known respiratory therapists was Ilse Middendorf (19102009), a German who authored “Der Erfahrbare Atem,” a book known in English as “The Experience of Breath in its Substance.” Breathing also plays a large role in psychosomatics and psychotherapy.

“Breathing independently at birth is the most significant event in our lives,” remarked Wolfram Schueffel,

for many years director of the Psychosomatic Clinic at Marburg University Hospital’s Centre for Internal Medicine.

“For nine months we’ve moved without mak ing a distinction between breathing and drinking. But then we’ve got to make that distinction for the rest of our lives.”

In his private practice, Schueffel treats people whose symptoms cannot be explained by a clinical finding alone. The symptoms include rapid heartbeat, difficulty breathing, panic attacks, depression and s e r i o u s c h ro n i c p a i n . H e u s e s Functional Relaxation (FD) techniques that, just as in respiratory therapy, aim at achieving better self- perception. —dpa

Fat can be fit

WASHINGTON: In this Jan. 17, 2011, file photo First Lady Michelle Obama, 47, embracing her daughter Sasha, 9, is surprised by her husband, President Barack Obama, and everyone’s singing “Happy Birthday” to her during a community service project at a Washington middle school on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. At right is daughter, Malia, 12. Here’s Michelle Obama’s advice for couples this Valentine’s Day: Laugh with your partner. —AP

Michelle: Laughter is good for marriage ‘Got to keep the romance alive’ WASHINGTON: Here’s Michelle Obama’s advice for couples this Valentine’s Day: Laugh with your partner. She says it’s what she and President Barack Obama do, and it seems to be working. Their marriage, although tested throughout the years by his political ambitions — for the Illinois Senate, the US Senate and later the presidency — is going on 19 years.

“I think a lot of laughing,” the first lady said at a White House luncheon with reporters who asked about the Obamas’ union. “I think in our house we don’t take ourselves too seriously, and laughter is the best form of unity, I think, in a marriage.

“So we still find ways to have fun together, and a lot of it is private

and personal. But we keep each other smiling and that’s good,” she added.

It also helps that Obama is “very romantic.” “He remembers dates, birthdays,” Mrs. Obama said last week on “Live! With Regis and Kelly.

“He doesn’t forget a thing, even when I think he is. I’ll have a little attitude. I give him a little attitude, but he always comes through.” “Got to keep the romance alive, even in the White House,” she said.

As for Valentine’s Day today, the first lady said her husband would do right by giving her jewelry. “You can’t go wrong,” she said.

But Mrs. Obama also said they don’t fuss too much over the day that’s about celebrating love and

affection between couples.

Last year, the Obamas spent Valentine’s Day at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland. In 2009, their first year in the White House, they went home to Chicago and enjoyed a quiet dinner at Table 52, a traditional Southern restaurant owned by Art Smith, the former chef of Obama pal Oprah Winfrey. How will they celebrate this year? Stay tuned. “We don’t make a big deal out of Valentine’s Day because my birthday was the 17th (of January),” Mrs. Obama told Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa. She noted, too, that Christmas was just a few weeks before that. “So by Feb. 14, we’re kind of tired,” Mrs. Obama said. —AP

WASHINGTON: A lifelong acolyte of exercise and fitness, Sandy Shaffer works out three times per week, eats a diet loaded with fruits and vegetables, and somehow finds time to teach a weekly aerobics class.

At five-foot, five inches (1.65 meters) and 320 pounds (145 kilograms), Shaffer also is considered obese.

But the plus-sized sports enthusiast insists that the label says little about the generally excellent state of her health.

And that is the single biggest problem she has with Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” health initiative.

“I’m glad they encourage people to move, but it’s still a negative message,” said Shaffer, an administrator at a New York City labor union.

“You can be healthy even if you’re 300 pounds,” Shaffer said.

First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” signature initiative, which marked its one year anniversary this week, aims to help kids slim down by eating better and getting more active.

The fitness community by-and-large has embraced the first lady’s signature program, but a contingent of health experts and aficionados balk at equating improving one’s health with lowering one’s weight.

They say it is possible to be extremely fit and also “overweight” by societal norms.

“What if they end up with all the health benefits of movement, but they don’t end up losing weight? Since this is an anti-obesity thing, are they not failures?” said Shaffer.

“Ballet dancers look good, but you wouldn’t necessarily call them healthy if you look at what they have to do to keep at that weight,” she said.

“If you take weight out of the picture and take diet out of the picture, you might get people to move longer and more often,” she said.

GeMar Neloms, a physical trainer in Silver Spring, Maryland, like Shaffer has been active for decades in the realm of sports, including as a varsity lacrosse player at Oberlin College in Ohio.

She teaches a popular spinning class at Washington Sports Club in Silver Spring, Maryland where many of her students tell her that she is a role model as a “real sized” fitness instructor.

Neloms has attained an admirable level of fitness over the years in spite of a body mass index that suggests she should be considered overweight.

“I can cycle circles around a lot of thinner people. I

can hold a plank position longer than a lot of thinner people,” she said of a challenging yoga pose.

She confesses that she would like to be a bit thinner, but only if it happens organically as a result of her efforts to attain greater fitness-not as a primary goal.

“Appearance plays a part, but it’s not my priority, my priority has to be my overall health,” said Neloms, an officer at a Washington-area non-profit.

She added that as an African-American woman she felt that metrics for what constitutes thinness may be inaccurate.

“We’re built differently across cultures,” she said. “We all have different body types.”

Dr Kenneth Cooper, one of America’s leading experts on health and obesity, told AFP that the awareness that a robust body need not mean poor health is something that he has stressed for years.

“We’ve incorporated both fitness and fatness into all of our studies,” said Cooper, head of the Cooper Aerobics Center in Dallas, Texas and founder of the non-profit Cooper Institute which conducts health and fitness research.

“We look at fitness as measured by treadmill time as opposed to body mass index,” he said.

With the current thinking, he said “I think you put too much emphasis on obesity,” adding that one effective measurement of how fitness has actually improved is having a subject walk on a treadmill at 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) per hour.

“I would focus first on inactivity, then on obesity,” Cooper said. Another pet peeve he has with the “Let’s Move” program, he said, is a lack of hard metrics to determine whether participants’ fitness goals are actually attained. “I think they’re scratching the surface,” he said.

“Unless you have some measurement you don’t get anywhere. There’s no means of quantifying it.”

While Cooper would add hard numbers to the First Lady’s program, Shaffer said she would change its public face.

One of its most visible spokespeople is diminutive former Olympic gymnast Dominique Dawes. Shaffer said heavyset kids might draw more inspiration from a fleshier celebrity.

How about Mo’Nique?,” she suggested, referring to the full-figured Oscar-winning actress and comedian.

“She works out a lot,” Shaffer said, “and she also embraces her size.” —AFP

Mass cholera vaccinations beneficial post-outbreak SEOUL: Mass cholera vaccinations can be beneficial in affected areas even after outbreaks of the bacterial disease, according to two studies by researchers from the Seoul-based International Vaccine Institute (IVI).

Results of the studies recently appeared in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, a peer-reviewed openaccess online journal published by the Public Library of Science, a non-profit organization of scientists and physicians with headquarters in San Francisco.

Experts say the findings are especially significant in light of the outbreak of cholera, known as “the poor man’s disease,” in Haiti, which was hit by a massive earthquake in January 2010.

“The recent outbreaks of cholera in Haiti, Pakistan and Zimbabwe suggest that current global action plans against cholera are failing,” wrote Edward T. Ryan, a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in the United States, in an editorial accompanying publication of the studies.

“Although everyone agrees that the ultimate prevention and control of cholera will require provision of clean water and adequate sanitation to the world’s population, the simple fact is that this will not be a reality for decades for the world’s most impoverished, as well as for those affected by civil unrest and natural disasters,” Ryan said.

“Less clear is the role that cholera vaccine could play once an outbreak has started.”

Every year, between three million and five million people are infected with the Vibrio cholerae bacterium,

the causative agent of cholera. Symptoms include severe diarrhoea and dehydration. Left untreated, cholera can be fatal in hours.

In one of the studies, Dang Duc Anh, Anna Lena Lopez and colleagues at IVI and in Vietnam describe a case-control study of an oral vaccine containing killed cholera pathogens that was administered during a cholera outbreak in Hanoi three years ago. The vaccine was found to provide protective efficacy of 76 per cent.

“The findings from this study suggest that reactive use of killed oral cholera vaccines provides protection against the disease and may be a potential tool in times of outbreaks. Further studies must be conducted to confirm these,” the study’s authors wrote.

In the other study, IVI researchers including Rita Reyburn, Lorenz von Seidlein and John Clemens evaluated the potential benefit of reactive cholera vaccination campaigns.

They used existing data from cholera outbreaks to simulate the number of preventable cholera cases, assuming that 50-75 per cent of the target population would participate and that immunizing the community would take between 10 and 33 weeks following the first report of an outbreak.

“Even a delayed response can save a substantial number of cases and deaths in long, drawn-out outbreaks,” the authors of the study wrote. Most importantly, they added, decision-makers in donor and recipient countries have to be convinced of the benefit of reactive cholera vaccinations. —dpa

WASHINGTON: Women breastfeed their babies at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington on Saturday during a “nurse-in” organized after a woman was stopped from nursing in public at the museum by security guards two weeks ago. The woman was told to breast feed in the bathroom, despite a District of Columbia law stating that women can breastfeed in any private or public place. —AFP

China restricts smoking in films, TV BEIJING: China has ordered that smoking scenes in films and television series be restricted, amid concern it is failing to deliver on pledges to help its 300 million smokers kick the habit.

The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), China’s media watchdog, called for “strict control” of smoking scenes and banned minors from being present in shots involving anyone lighting up.

Cigarette brands are banned

from appearing in films and television series, and smoking scenes must be kept as short as possible, a circular posted on SARFT’s website said Saturday.

According to the official Xinhua news agency, a survey conducted among 11,000 middle school students in Beijing showed nearly 33% wanted to try smoking after seeing actors lighting up on television.

Tobacco is the top k iller in China-the world’s largest tobacco producer and consumer-and smok-

ing and exposure to second-hand smoke exact high medical and social costs.

Last month, Chinese and foreign medical exper ts issued a joint repor t warning that smok ing deaths in the world’s most populous country could triple by 2030.

The report said more than 3.5 million Chinese could die from smoking-related illnesses every year by 2030 compared with 1.2 million in 2005, if strong steps were not taken. —AFP

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TECHNOLOGY

Australia’s broadband battle gets ideological SYDNEY: The United States and Australia share a vision: To have nationwide networks providing high-speed internet coverage.

US President Barack Obama is promising his 310 million countrymen that he can do the job for 18 billion US dollars while the quote from Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard for linking up her 22 million people is a whopping 27 billion Australian dollars (27.17 billion US dollars).

Why the enormous disparity?

Obama’s money would go to incentives to get the private sector to build the infrastructure whereas Gillard envisions a government-owned network. And while Obama is relying on wireless to reach 98 per cent of customers, Gillard is committing to fibre optic cables running to 93 per cent of homes and offices.

Australia intends to spend more public money than any other nation on its broadband plan.

It is “an extreme example of government intervention,” according to the London-based Economist Intelligence Unit, an offshoot of Economist magazine. The unit estimated

Canberra would spend 7.5 per cent of annual government budget revenues on its broadband dreams. Compare that figure with South Korea, where national coverage is costing less than 1 per cent of annual government revenues.

The cost is so huge because, unlike everyone else, Australia is building a national broadband network from scratch. The network would be a government-owned monopoly provider run by state-owned NBN Co. There are those delighted their government is going for broke. “The proposal envisages the role for government to be defining the national interest, helping fund the investment and setting the regulatory rules - this is how it should be,” said Ziggy Switkowski, who used to run Telstra Corp, the former monopoly telephony provider.

Paule Budde, an independent telecommunications consultant, was also on side, praising the Labor government for eschewing the cheapest option in favour of the best one.

“Experts around the world are saying that fibre is by far the most cost-effective way of

doing that,” Budde said. “It’s not just a matter of the up-front cost but also the maintenance.”

The divide in the argument often relates to ideology with interventionists on the left cheering the government and free-marketeers on the right jeering the civil servants.

“Every major infrastructure project should ideally be funded by the private sector,” Business Council of Australia president Graham Bradley said. “Only in cases where there’s a complete failure of the market or completely uncommercial projects should the government be involved.”

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, who is in charge of the network, said detractors were motivated by the “ideological dogma” that holds that “public sector investment is bad and private investment is good.”

Conroy argued that the government is spending more than any other country on connecting households because Australia is such a big country and has relatively few people.

Grahame Lynch, the editor of the newsletter Telecommunications Day, discounted Conroy’s

arguments, noting that 99 per cent of Australians live in 25 per cent of the landmass.

“The populated areas of Australia have much more in common with densities found in other countries than it might seem looking at a blank map,” he said.

His other big gripe was that Conroy holds fast to the notion that NBN Co is a commercial venture like any other with investment, eventually to be recouped through a listing on the stock market, rather than the reality that it is a quasi-government department engaged in infrastructure spending.

No bank would cough up billions on the basis of NBN Co’s wing-and-a-prayer business plan, he said. The opposition Liberal Party is dead against the network and pledged to discontinue funding if it gets into office.

“It’s a massive, reckless waste of taxpayer funds,” opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull said. “ The government’s spending tens of billions of dollars more than it needs to spend.” — dpa

US Internet censorship fight falling short: Report ‘Such technology should be given higher priority by US govt’

BANGKOK: File photo taken on November 5, 2010 shows Prachatai web manager Chiranuch Premchaiporn searching on the Internet at her office in Bangkok. A Thai website editor facing decades behind bars over reader comments about the monarchy should “not be in the dock”, Amnesty International said recently. — AFP

THE TECH HELPER

Fixing Microsoft Word As the most-used application in the world’s most popular productivity suite, Microsoft Word presents challenges by the day for millions. While the program mostly works as expected, the word processor also consistently puzzles even veteran users with unexpected behavior. Read on to learn how to solve some of the more common annoyances with Word.

Q: When I close Microsoft Word, the program often asks me whether I want to save changes to normal.dot, even though I didn’t make any changes. How can I get rid of this prompt?

A: Normal.dot, as you probably know, is the default style sheet that is applied to every new document that you create in Word. If you - or an addin program - makes changes to Word’s built-in styles or other settings that are stored in the normal.dot style sheet, you will be prompted before closing Word.

There are several ways to prevent this prompt from appearing. First, check your Word add-ins and remove anything you don’t use. Press Alt-T, followed by I in any version of Word to bring up the Templates and Addins dialog box, where you can see add-ins.

If you never modify the template in any way, you can turn off the prompt entirely from Word’s Options menu. When you do so, any changes made by you or an add-in will be saved to normal.dot automatically. In Word 2003, the “Prompt to save Normal template” check box is in the Save tab. In Word 2007 and 2010, the check box is located in the Options panel under Advanced.

Q: My office finally upgraded to Word 2007. How can I get the menu bar back in Word 2007 and other applications?

A: Almost everyone who upgrades from Office 2003 to Office 2007 or 2010 bucks at the new ribbon bar, which makes you relearn processes for performing familiar tasks. While Microsoft does not give you an option for bringing the 2003-style menus back, there are several thirdparty tools that do, and all are available in multiple languages. A popular free option is UBitMenu (http://bit.ly/aoft3), which recreates the Office 2003-style menus in both Office 2007 and Office 2010 by adding a new Menus tab. Click the tab, and the menus appear. The addon is free for personal use.

Other options include Classic Menu UI (http://bit.ly/feBHd7) and

Classic Menu (http://bit.ly/rs8W ), which comes in versions for Office 2007 and 2010. The one downside with all of these add-ons is that they do not bring back the keyboard shortcuts (such as Alt-F for File) that open the menus using only the keyboard.

Q: I spent considerable time creating macros in my copy of Word at work. I would like to take those macros home to use them there.

How do I do that?

A: Word’s macros are kept in one of two places: either in the document that’s active at the time you created the macros or in the normal.dot default template, used whenever you create a new document. By default, macros are stored in normal.dot. You choose where they’re stored when you create a macro.

To copy macros from one installation of Word to another, therefore, you have to copy the macros either from the document in which they’re stored or from normal.dot. Word provides a convenient way for you to do this by means of the Organizer dialog box, accessible by clicking the Organizer button in the Macros window.

The Organizer dialog box is divided into two panels. In the left-hand panel, you open either the normal.dot template or the document that contains the source macros, and in the right-hand panel, you should choose either the current normal.dot template or open the file in which you wish to store the macros. Then, from the left-hand panel, just select the macros you wish to copy, click Copy, and then click Close.

On your old computer, by the way, you can find the normal.dot template by conducting a search for it using Windows’ built-in search feature.

Q: Is there a free program that will open and save Word documents natively?

A: The only program that will open and save Word documents “natively” is Word itself. But because Word’s “doc” or “docx” format has become the de facto standard in the tech world, almost any third-party word processor can open and save files of this type through a conversion process.

The most robust free word processor that handles doc or docx files is the open source OpenOffice (http://download.openoffice.org) package. During installation, in fact, you’ll be asked whether you want OpenOffice to be the default application to open Microsoft Office files. — dpa

WASHINGTON: State Department efforts to combat Internet censorship in China and other countries have fallen short and funding for the drive should be shifted to another US agency, a Senate committee report says.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee report sharply criticizes the State Department for being slow in spending money allocated

by Congress for Internet Censorship Circumvention Technology (ICCT).

The report, a copy of which was obtained

by AFP, recommends that the funding be given instead to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which oversees the Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and other US radio and TV networks.

The report is to be released tomorrow the same day Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to deliver remarks on Internet freedom at George Washington University here.

Clinton also delivered a major Internet freedom speech in January 2010, but the Senate committee report said there had been “scant follow-up” in the next 12 months.

Congress has given the State Department $50 million for Internet freedom programs since fiscal 2008, the report said, but $30 million remains unspent and little has gone to Internet Censorship Circumvention Technology.

“Such technology should be given a much

higher priority by the US government,” it said.

“US government support for ICCT development is vital, given the weak private sector market interest in funding such technologies.”

The report suggested the delays in allocating funding were partly because some of the most sophisticated ICCT software-DIT and UltraReach-was developed by two US companies founded by members of the Falungong, which is banned in China, to allow followers to break through the “Great Firewall.”

The report said DIT and UltraReach have been used to circumvent Internet censorship in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt, Myanmar and Vietnam-”countries which have looked to China for lessons in Internet control or to whom China has directly provided technologies to counter such products.”

It said the delays in allocating funding have “strengthened the hands of those governments, including China’s, who seek to restrict their citizens’ access to information.”

“The State Department is poorly placed to handle this issue due to its reliance on daily bilateral interaction with these very same governments, particularly China,” the report said. It said BBG stations, which also include Radio Marti, which targets Cuba, and the Middle East Broadcasting Network “must all work on a daily basis to ensure their radio, Internet and television programs are being

received by audiences in certain countries that try to block, jam or outlaw these efforts.”

“As such, the BBG, and not the State Department, would appear to be the logical lead agency in the federal government to focus current and future ICCT funding,” the report said.

The report also criticized what it called the “inept handling of an untested technology”ICCT software called Haystack created by the San Francisco-based Censorship Research Center to assist Iranian democracy activists.

“The Haystack team had not sufficiently tested its software nor allowed it to be submitted for independent cryptological analysis before it released a beta version to unsuspecting Iranians,” the report said.

“In September 2010, just after the beta version was released, an independent team was able to crack the code in six hours and also determined that the Iranian government would be able to manipulate the software to identify any users,” it said. “Once these weaknesses were made public, the Haystack project quickly collapsed.”

The report, which also called for the US government to increase its public diplomacy efforts to counter China’s “vigorous” moves on the outreach front, was prepared at the request of Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, the top-ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. — AFP

3D opens new vistas for art cinema at Berlin fest

SINGAPORE: IBM President and Chief Executive Samuel Palmisano gives a public lecture at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore on Feb 11. — AFP

Readers, bloggers sound off on Huff Post sale WASHINGTON: When The Huffington Post was sold to AOL last Monday for $315 million, its founder, Arianna Huffington, was feted as a new media pioneer. Not everyone is celebrating, however.

Huffington has been facing a backlash over the salefrom readers worried about what it will mean for the future of the site and from unpaid bloggers who helped make The Huffington Post such a valuable property.

Arianna Huffington’s blog post on Monday announcing the sale to AOL has attracted more than 7,500 comments as of Friday, many of them bemoaning the purchase of the left-leaning news and opinion site by AOL. “I am disappointed and expect that HuffPost will be just like any other mainstream media outlet soon enough, with advertisers and the bottom line taking precedence over exposing the truth,” wrote “Euranya.”

“Why did you sell out?” a reader going by “bart4u” asked. “Your readers have made this site too and you made this decision without our feedback. I am going to miss my morning Huffington Post.”

“I don’t think this move bodes well for progressives,” said “cclaker.” “SCnative” predicted a “slow downhill slide into corporate news mediocrity.” Others adopted a waitand-see attitude. A few welcomed the acquisition. “We will just have to see if HuffPost stays progressive,” wrote “PennsylvaniaHero.” “I would hate to see them lose their identity.” “On one hand, I want to kick my feet and scream corporate foul because I feel a certain sense of protectiveness towards this site,” said “Twinite.” “On the other hand... I get it! Very savvy move on both their parts.” A reader going by Andy Gaus raised the issue of compensating bloggers. “Now that the sale has been made, it’s time to pay writers. No excuses,” Gaus said. The Huffington Post has attracted a strong following-nearly 25 million unique visitors a month-for its lively mix of news, entertainment, opinion and blogs submitted by academics, entertainment figures and politicians. — AFP

BERLIN: Art-house cinema breaks into the next dimension at the Berlin film festival yesterday with hotly awaited 3D premieres from European veterans seeking to reclaim the format from Hollywood blockbusters.

German Oscar-nominees Wim Wenders and Werner Herzog will unveil new pictures that push the limits of 3D cinema, which until now had been a money-spinning vehicle for mass-market features such as “Avatar” and “Toy Story 3”. France’s Michel Ocelot will present “Tales of the Night”, a fairy tale in 3D based on his silhouette animation television special. The film is in the running for the festival’s Golden Bear top prize, to be awarded Saturday.

Wenders’ “Pina”, which features the work of the late German choreographer Pina Bausch, had been years in the planning. He said he had long struggled with how to bring Bausch’s trademark fluid movement and soaring grace to life on screen and found the answer when he watched a groundbreaking U2 concert film in 3D at Cannes in 2007.

“But soon it became obvious that the technology wasn’t far enough along,” the “Buena Vista Social Club” director told film industry trade paper The Hollywood Reporter. “Even when you look at the gorgeous ‘Avatar’, if you look at the original, real-life footage-not the stuff done (on a) computer-you realise it is less elegant, clunky. But for our film we had to capture natural movement. And that only became possible in 2009.”

The film was conceived as a collaboration with Bausch but her sudden death that year almost led Wenders to abandon the project. It was the dancers from her Tanztheater Wuppertal, where she worked for more than 35 years, who convinced him to press on.

Meanwhile Herzog’s documentary “Cave of Forgotten Dreams” shines a light on what are believed to be the world’s oldest cave paintings, in southern France.

The 400 haunting murals in the Chauvet Pont d’Arc cave in the Ardeche valley were only discovered in 1994 and are believed to be more than 30,000 years old. — AFP

This undated file photo courtesy of IBM shows Watson, powered by IBM POWER7, a work-load optimized system that can answer questions posed in natural language over a nearly unlimited range of knowledge. The first-ever man vs. machine Jeopardy! competition will air on February 14, 15 and 16, 2011, with two matches being aired over three consecutive days. — AFP

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business

Mood of austerity triggers frantic EU clean-up BRUSSELS: Brussels is attempting to switch into austerity mode in 2011, amid anger over EU funds that wind up in dog-fitness clubs and Elton John gigs. However, efforts to slash costs are likely to hit a brick wall-what one senior official describes as a “Rubik’s Cube” of competing interests over the lion’s share of European Union monies.

France defends farm funding, some 40 percent of all spending, tooth and nail; Poland likewise resists all moves on cohesion funding, or grants for poorer regions; while Britain jealously guards the hard-won rebate Margaret Thatcher secured in the 1980s. If only small margins remain after the three great pillars of EU spending, cost-cutting is nevertheless the talk of the town in Brussels. It was Britain’s new Prime Minister David Cameron who blew a wind of austerity into the home of the European Union last year, when he launched a

campaign to crimp the 2011 budget.

He initially wanted it frozen, but secured a 2.9 percent-increase ceiling instead of a planned six percent rise.

“The challenge for the European Union in the coming years will not be to spend more, but to spend better,” Cameron said in a letter co-signed with France and Germany, and backed by Finland and the Netherlands.

Talks for the 2012 and 2013 budgets are weeks away, with pressure already building up from member states to keep the numbers steady at this year’s 126.5 billion euros-or 246 euros per person in the bloc of half-a-billion people.

Frantic cost-cutting proposals are flying in from both the EU’s executive arm, the commission, and the 736-member parliament.

Leading Euro-MPs this week launched a drive to end the “ridiculous” dual sittings of parliament in Brussels and the French

city of Strasbourg, a post-World War Two “anachronism” estimated to cost 180 million euros ($245 million) a year-while leaving a 19,000-tonne carbon footprint. “In today’s climate the economic and environmental cost of two seats can no longer be justified,” said British MEP Edward McMillanScott, vice-president of the parliament. Britain lost no time backing

the drive to end the monthly shuttle of thousands of members, assistants, interpreters and boxes of files. France said it was out of the question and would require a change to the EU treaty-a prospect few relish.

But MEPs say real cuts in the budget, currently tantamount to 1.04 percent of EU gross national income, can only come from the

same member states critical of EU spending.

“It’s the member states who are undermining the credibility of the EU because they’re the ones who don’t monitor their own spending,” Germany’s Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, a budget rapporteur, said this week.

Mismanagement and misuse are rife, even among austerity preachers such as Britain. Among projects cited by Chatzimarkis was a 400,000-euro lifestyle centre for dogs in Hungary, that was never built, farm funds for Britain that wound up in a golf and a hunting club, and a controversial Elton John concert in Italy financed under a cultural project.

In 2010, the MEP said, 10 programs in Britain were blocked by the commission due to deficient management, 21 in Spain and seven in Germany.

Parliament, he said, wanted the commission to spell out new guidelines for funding, including

EU, IMF voice support for Greek govt World bodies monitor Greek efforts to overhaul economy ATHENS: The international organizations supervising Greece’s efforts to overhaul its debt-ridden economy have voiced support for the Greek government and its people, after Athens slammed the organizations for what it called interference in its domestic affairs.

The International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and European Commission statement, issued just before midnight yesterday, appeared designed to dampen Greek tempers that frayed following a visit by the three to review the progress toward economic reform. The three said they “recognize the difficult challenges facing the Greek economy and we have the deepest respect for the tremendous efforts being made by the Greek people.” The Greek government a day earlier reacted harshly to a news conference in which the three institutions — known collectively by Greeks as the troika — said Greece must privatize 50 billion euros ($68 billion) in state assets and speed up structural reforms in the next few months to keep the country’s troubled finances afloat. The IMF and European Union countries that use the euro rescued Greece from bankruptcy with a §110 billion bailout loan package last May that kept it from defaulting on its mountainous debts, but at a price that many Greeks consider too

ATHENS: European Commission representative Servaas Deroose (C), International Monetary Fund (IMF) representative Poul Thomsen (L) and Klaus Masuch of the European Central Bank during joint press conference in Athens on February 11, 2011. Greece will privatise state assets worth 50 billion euros (USD 68 billion) by 2015 to reduce its massive debts, EU and IMF auditors overseeing the nation’s crash austerity programme said on Friday. — AFP harsh. The three institutions, which are supervising the bailout deal, “have full respect for the prerogatives and initiatives of the government in all areas of economic decision-making,” they said.

“It is regrettable if a different impression was perceived at any time.” The reforms, which include cutting public sector salaries and pensions, increasing taxes and

opening up highly regulated professions to broader competition, have been highly unpopular, with labor unions organizing frequent demonstrations and strikes.

The first public indication of the potentially damaging spat between Greece and the troika appeared in an unusually harshly worded pre-dawn statement by government spokesman Giorgos

Petalotis, in which he described the behavior of the troika representatives at a Friday news conference as “unacceptable.” “We have needs, but we also have limits.

And we do not negotiate the limits of our dignity with anyone,” Petalotis said in the statement, issued just before 2 a.m. “We take orders only from the Greek people.” IMF chief Dominique Strauss-

Kahn phoned Prime Minister George Papandreou, who also told the IMF head that the delegates’ behavior had been unacceptable, Papandreou’s office said.

On Friday, the debt inspectors said Greece must privatize §50 billion ($68 billion) in state assets — seven times larger than a target set only three months ago — and speed up structural reforms. IMF mission chief Poul Thomsen dismissed a suggestion in a reporter’s question that Greece might sell its ancient monuments to raise money, but argued that “the mismanagement of public property is a major source of waste” in Greece.

He also said Greece’s long-term reforms were being “fiercely tested by vested interests” and that some of the frequent demonstrations against the Greek government’s reforms were being carried out by groups angry at losing their “unfair advantages and privileges,” like truck drivers and pharmacists who work in closed industries the government is trying to open up.

“We asked them to help and we are fully honoring our commitments. But we didn’t ask for anyone to intervene in our country’s internal affairs,” Petalotis said in his pre-dawn statement, adding the government would make clear that “everyone must understand their role.” —AP

Deutsche Boerse results due as it mulls merger with NYSE FRANKFURT: The German stock exchange operator Deutsche Boerse is to release 2010 results this week as it holds tie-up talks with NYSE Euronext in a bid to build the world’s biggest exchange by revenues and profit.

The talks were unveiled last week just after the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and TMX Group, which covers Toronto and Montreal, announced their merger in one of several global deals that are rewriting the book on financial markets.

Revised regulations, challengers like the US-based trading platforms BATS and Chi-X, which are also in talks, and a planned merger of markets in Singapore and Sydney underscore the pace of change in what was once a rather staid profession. “ The battle of the exchanges has intensified further,” commented Simon Denham at Capital Spreads, a financial betting firm in London.

Deutsche Boerse’s supervisory board will meet Tuesday, a day before the annual results are published, and negotiations with NYSE Euronext are on the agenda, a financial source in Frankfurt told AFP. “Such a deal will create the largest exchange in the world and will start to put pressure on the smaller exchanges to fall into line,” Denham said.

Plans call for an all-stock merger that would leave Deutsche Boerse with about 60 percent of a group registered in the Netherlands but with headquarters in Frankfurt and New York.

NYSE Euronext operates stock markets in Amsterdam, Brussels, New York, Paris and Lisbon.

The two sides are targeting synergies, or savings, of around 300 million euros ($405 million) from a tie-up, which UniCredit equity analyst Bernd MuellerGerberding said “strikes us as being rather optimistic.”

He added however that “even a much smaller synergy potential could be attractive - provided there is no offset from major regulatory burdens.” UBS analyst Arnaud Giblat noted that “historically, regulatory and political approvals have generally been benign given that local regulators retain all controls.” Authorities in Brussels, France and Germany have vowed to look closely at the details of a merger to protect local interests but French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde has said a transatlantic pole of market operators would be “a very interesting prospect.”

From their origins in clubby 18th century London coffee houses, stock exchange activities exploded fol-

Deutsche Boerse will release 2010 results this week as it holds tie-up talks with NYSE Euronext in a bid to build the world’s biggest exchange by revenues and profit. lowing deregulation there in 1986 and the LSE is “unrecognizable from the institution that existed 10 years ago, let alone 25,” author Philip Augar write in a Financial Times op-ed piece.

Now, “you have consolidation among the traditional exchanges and at the same time you have had, thanks to regulatory issues, growth in alternative carriers and hence more competitive pressure from that area,” Mueller-Gerberding told AFP. Banks and hedge funds are creating their own trading platforms to reduce costs, and bigger profits are to be had in trading of future contracts and other derivatives, relegating business models focused on equity trading to the past.

The Frankfurt market operator might also be set to shake off some dust, according to Silvia Quandt analyst Christian Muschick. “We believe that a change in man-

agement, introducing a less defensive and more customer and innovation focused mindset would be positive for Deutsche Boerse,” he said.

NYSE Euronext chief executive Duncan Niederauer has been chosen to run the new entity.

It would combine complementary activities on two continents, reduce client costs, create a more liquid pan-European market and simplify transaction settlements through Deutsche Boerse’s Clearstream unit. As for going truly global however, an extension to Asia in the near future does not appear to be in the cards.

“There are little revenue synergies to be achieved from a combination of Europe and Asia,” UniCredit’s Mueller-Gerberding said. Already, savings of the kind expected from the mooted Europe-US alliance “typically take years, and often cannot be delivered on schedule,” he noted. — AFP

performance goals and demands that finance ministers from the member states be accountable for the use of funds.

“There has to be a new philosophy,” he said. The commission meanwhile has ordered the EU’s main institutions, from its parliament to the court of justice, to cut spending.

In a document obtained by AFP, budget commissioner Janusz Lewandowski told the EU’s sprawling institutional set-up that officials “cannot ignore the broader economic and budgetary context.”

The European Commission itself would keep the increase in administrative costs below one percent in 2012 compared to this year. One area it wants to do better on is heavy transitional salary payments to departing eurocrats who turn lobbyists in breach of ethics. “The battle for the 2012 budget is going to be bloody and leave victims on the way,” a commission official said. — AFP

Irish parties pledge to re-negotiate bailout DUBLIN: As Ireland’s election campaign heats up, the prospects of success in a battle to ease the terms of a massive EU-IMF bailout have become a key issue, even as Brussels insists it is non-negotiable. Irish people are shell-shocked by the rapid boom to bust that has shattered the one-time Celtic Tiger economy and saddled the country with tens of billions of euros of debt that may take generations to repay.

To a humiliated nation, the opposition parties are holding out the hope that they can re-negotiate the terms of the 85 billion euro ($115 billion) bailout package if they gain power after the February 25 vote.

Five days before the election was called, Enda Kenny, leader of the centre-right Fine Gael and the firm favourite to be the next prime minister, travelled to Brussels.

Kenny said he told EU Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso that he planned to renegotiate the deal, particularly the interest rate, if elected to lead what in November became the second euro-zone country to accept emergency help. “Even with a very strong program for sorting out our difficulties at home, our people still face serious challenges dealing with components in this package,” Kenny said. He is rightly betting on the issue being a vote winner-a poll last month found 82 percent want the bailout renegotiated.

Parties are offering solutions to the country’s 3.2 million voters ranging from the unlikely option of ordering out the European Union and International Monetary Fund and going it alone, to seeking “a fairer deal” from its EU partners.

Prime Minister Brian Cowen’s centrist Fianna Fail government is expected to be the first administration turfed out of office as a result of the euro-zone crisis, with polls showing that Fine Gael will lead the next government. Voters are starting to feel the pinch from the tax hikes and cost-slashing measures in December’s harsh austerity budget.

Cowen’s budget adjustment this year is six billion euros-part of a four-year recovery plan which aims to save 15 billion euros.

Candidates are meeting the full force of the hostility to the bailout terms and the question of why taxpayers have to pay for the mistakes of bankers as they canvas door-to-door.

An IMF review last week appeared to recognize there are difficulties, saying that while the public response to the bailout has remained favorable “a lingering domestic perception of inequitable burden sharing persists.” There is particular anger that EU funds are being lent to Ireland at a much higher interest rate than the bloc itself is borrowing them for. The centre-left Labour party, which is expected to join a ruling coalition with Fine Gael, wants to extend the terms of the bailout by a year to 2016 and to achieve “fair and realistic terms for the Irish people”. At the launch of his party’s manifesto on Friday, Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said the bailout deal as it stands would “prevent the Irish economy from growing”.

He said there was a general consensus among international experts that the agreement would “cripple” the Irish economy.

The republican Sinn Fein is offering the most radical solutions for the economy and the bailout, although it has little chance of being elected. It wants no further drawdown of IMF/EU funding, the reversal of many budget cuts and the “burning” of bondholders who lent to reckless banks whose lending plunged Ireland into economic purgatory.

But Bloxham stockbrokers sounded a warning to politicians on Friday about their anti-European rhetoric. “Throwing down ultimatums to Brussels and rubbishing ‘Frankfurt’s way’ might win votes... but it could make life difficult for the next government and cement anti-EU sentiment as a potent political force in a country with a history of putting the brakes on EU ambitions,” its analysts said in a note.

The stockbroker said that with the interest rate on the IMF’s portion of the loan tied to a fixed formula, opposition parties are focusing their ire on the EU, which at Germany’s insistence added a threepercent margin on the rate it is charging for 45 billion euros worth of loans. “However, giving voters false hope about how much Ireland could save from a reduction in the EU bailout interest rate may come back to haunt both parties and hasten a new government’s early demise,” Bloxham said. —AFP

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business Commodity weekly update

The grain story continues

Obama struggles to balance budget cuts and investment President to unveil fiscal 2011 budget today

By Ole S Hansen lobal stocks markets finally came to a halt this week due to tensions in NA (North Africa), but this seemingly had mixed impact on commodities due to lower energy prices on profit taking after huge runs in February and hoarding of grains and softs. So the last four months of positive correlations with stock markets finally decoupled in favour of commodities, with several sectors outperforming stocks.

G

Grains The main focus this week was the bullish World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) grains global balance report: Bullish corn on lower production globally and higher ethanol grind: As expected, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) tightened US corn balances with 2010/11 stocks-to-use now seen falling to 5% which is a 15 year-low on par with the record lows set in 1995/96. We have long argued that demand needs to be rationed in this supply constrained environment - and continue to believe that corn will need to trade at least $8/bu.

The wheat balance was left unchanged this month, whilst weather is having a negative impact on wheat production with China hit by drought at the moment and hoarding in North Africa causing demand for European wheat intact.

A Soybean report was slightly bullish too with lower global carry out whilst inventories remained unchanged as the lower South American production remains supportive for soybeans. In general, the global inventory situation for corn and soybeans remains very supportive for prices, but neutral for wheat. The chart below displays corn balances in the last 20 years.

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama unveils his fiscal 2012 budget today, an election year plan forged from conflicting needs to cut spending and stoke the economic recovery.

With vast crisis payments and sharply lower tax revenues making it difficult for the government to balance its books, Obama will set out an austerity plan that will help set the tone for next year’s presidential race.

It is expected to address widespread public anger that the government is living beyond its means, detailing tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars of spending cuts, while making investments that will help “win the future.”

To square the circle, Obama has already said the budget will set in motion cuts to non-essential programs worth $400 billion over five years. It is also expected to cut $78 billion from the defense budget over five years, slash

energy subsidies for the poor and freeze public workers’ pay.

But faced with high unemployment and an economic recovery that is still struggling to escape the orbit of the 2008 economic crisis, Obama will also give states more flexibility to pay for unemployment benefits. He will also argue for an $18 billion plan to improve high speed Internet access, and $8 billion for high-speed railways in the fiscal year starting October 1.

At 2,448 pages and a weight of 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms) the budget will contain something for most members of Congress-who have to approve it-but plenty more that will be loathed.

Ahead of the budget’s publication, Republicans have been outdoing themselves in the promotion of ever-deeper spending cuts and criticizing Obama for not doing enough. Republicans argue spending cuts will help boost growth,

while the Obama administration argues cuts are needed, but should be carefully measured for fear of derailing the recovery.

Bringing the two sides together is likely to be a long process that takes up most of the year. Congress has yet to approve the fiscal 2011 budget. “There’s no limit to the amount we’re willing to cut to help get our economy moving again,” said House Speaker John Boehner, promising a $100 billion cut in spending to the 2011 budget, with more to come.

But experts say cuts in discretionary spending, like those proposed by Obama and the Republicans, are just a drop in the fiscal bucket. “ This spending accounted for just one-fifth of total outlays last fiscal year,” said Augustine Faucher of Moody’s Analytics.

“Even if it had been entirely eliminated-wiping out the budgets for running the government, education, national

parks and the like-the fiscal 2010 deficit still would have topped $600 billion.”

Fears are growing that the inability of the United States to get its budget under control could eventually lead to a debt crisis and a possible default that would plunge the globe into crisis.

This week, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke warned that dramatic change was inevitable. “The question is whether these adjustments will take place through a careful and deliberative process that weighs priorities and gives people adequate time to adjust to changes... (or) as a rapid and painful response to a looming or actual fiscal crisis,” Bernanke said.

The US budget deficit is currently at the highest levels since World War II, and is projected to hit $1.48 trillion this year, or 9.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), according to the Congressional Budget Office. — AFP

The biggest loser this week was Natural Gas Despite the continuation of a global cold spell, the previous significant rally in Natural Gas from 3.90 to 4.9, driven by speculative short-covering, came to a dramatic halt with natural gas prices dropping a further 8.1% on refreshing short selling and producer hedging. Compounding this downwards movement was also warmer European weather in the past week. The supply of natural gas remains abundant. The forward US weather forecast points towards spring. The NA tensions are not having any impact on natural gas.

The biggest gainer was Cotton No surprise following our comments in the latest weekly update with cotton futures surging to record highs on rising daily limits simply due to increased US sales boosted by demand growth. The fiber jumped 9.1% this week and since its substitution is polyester, which is made from oil, the current high oil prices give no reason for a switch to polyester. Demand for cotton is not dipping despite a 100% rally in the last quarter and the USDA report was also supportive of cotton. The higher margin requirements for cotton also did not put a lid on the market.

Precious metals The flood of Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) liquidation that characterized the gold market in January has not spilled over into February. While still in the red, ETF outflows so far this month have been relatively modest. This suggests that the bulk of the ETF holders who wanted to exit gold have already done so.

Silver come-back gaining 5.1% this week.

An article in the Financial Times this week said that as much as 100 moz of silver hedges may have gone through the market in recent weeks. This magnitude is 14% of annual supply. But we’re not altogether surprised that producers are increasingly looking to lock in a $30 silver price. First, silver has enjoyed a hugely impressive price run-up. Second, silver producers are more likely to hedge than gold producers, because most silver output is a by-product of base metal production - primary silver production representing less than 30% of annual supply - and hedging is a much more common practice amongst base metal producers.

Below is a chart indicating that gold prices relative to silver prices, which are currently trading around 45 have dipped massively during late 2010 and recovered somewhat as silver rallied this week.

BANGALORE: Suryakiran Indian airforce acrobatic team trail national colours as they fly over the crowd on the fourth day of Aero India 2011 at the Yelhanka Air Force station in Bangalore on February 13, 2011. Aero India 2011 has drawn 675 firms and around 40 official delegations from 45 countries to the southern city of Bangalore, India’s aeronautical capital. The five-day airshow comes less than a month after Indian budget carrier Indigo agreed a $15.6-billion order for 180 A320 passenger aircraft with Europe’s Airbus Industries. — AFP

Supply to further pressure Abu Dhabi rents: Report DUBAI: Office supply in Abu Dhabi is expected to jump by more than 25 percent in 2011, putting further pressure on rents, while oversupply will also push residential and retail rents down, a report said yesterday.

Vacancy rates for Abu Dhabi’s office market, currently around 8.4 percent, are expected to increase as more supply is added, property consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle said.

“Around 1.4 million square meters of office supply is expected to enter the market by 2013,” it said in the report. “While this will address the current shortage of Grade A space, it will lead to significant vacancy emerging.”

Total office space across the Abu Dhabi Metropolitan area was around 2.2 million square meters in the fourth quarter. Rents for premium office space in the United Arab Emirates’ capital fell by 9 percent in the fourth-quarter from the previous quarter and were off around 28 percent year-on-year. They have fallen 48 percent from their peaks in the fourth quarter of 2008.

The report did not say by how much further it expects rents to decline. A

property boom in Dubai collapsed at the end of 2008 when it was hit by the global financial crisis and the Gulf state’s debt crisis.

Abu Dhabi, home to most of the UAE’s oil, weathered the financial crisis better than Dubai but is suffering from oversupply. “Market conditions in Dubai continue to have a negative impact on Abu Dhabi due to the interrelationship between the two markets,” the report said.

House prices in Abu Dhabi, off some 45 percent, will fall 10 percent in 2011 and a further 5 percent in 2012 according to a Reuters poll in January. Rents in the capital are set to fall 13 percent and 5 percent in 2011 and 2012 respectively, the poll showed.

The number of residential homes is expected to rise by 23,000 to around 208,000 in 2011 but some of these projects are likely to see further delays, Jones Lang LaSalle said yesterday.

Average apartment rents were down 14 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter, with some areas falling by more than 35 percent, the report said. —Reuters

Golden opportunity or just a trend?

Oil - is oil WTI or Brent?

Combined oil prices were flat last week, but we have written several times about WTI/Brent differentials and the fairytale simply continues. While Egyptian tensions remain the oil market’s focal point, the issues are much broader and continue to revolve around the risk of contagion or regional instability. Demonstrations are being planned in major oil exporting countries. Protests continue in Yemen and rapid political reform is being seen in Jordan. In addition, Reuters has reported that in Saudi Arabia opposition activists have been unusually bold by publicly launching a political party and asking to be represented in the governance process.

The increase in risk comes at the same time that inventories have been drawn down to a lower level, leaving the buffer against disruptions dramatically lower than it was 18 months ago. That increases the potential for larger price swings, and hence volatility. It also increases the demand for inventory.

• Ole Hansen is Senior Manager, Saxo Bank.

WWW.SAXOBANK.COM

UAE’s Tamweel Q4 net profit falls 27.3% DUBAI: Dubai Islamic mortgage lender Tamweel’s fourth-quarter net profit fell 27.3 percent, Reuters calculations show, as income from Islamic financing and investment portfolio dropped.

Tamweel, in which Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) took a majority stake in September, made a net profit of 8 million dirhams ($2.18 million) in the fourth quarter, according to Reuters calculations, compared with 11 million dirhams in the same period in 2009.

Reuters calculated the quarterly net profit from the company ’s previous financial statements. Tamweel swung to a net profit of 26 million dirhams in 2010, compared with a loss of 54.4 million dirhams in 2009, it said in a statement on the Dubai bourse. “Following a period of international and regional financial

uncertainty, the global economic outlook has improved substantially, and we are witnessing signs of sustained recovery in the UAE, including in the property market,” the firm’s Chairman Abdulla Al Hamli said in the statement.

Income from Islamic financing and investing assets for 2010 fell to 553.2 million dirhams from 706.6 million dirhams in 2009, the firm said. The United Arab Emirates government said in November 2008 it intended to merge Tamweel with rival Islamic mortgage lender Amlak. Shares in the two have not traded since. Dubai Islamic Bank raised its stake in September to 57.33 percent, effectively rendering Tamweel a subsidiary of DIB, in a move that was expected to help revive lending in Dubai’s property market. — Reuters

Egypt’s Mobinil Q4 profit down CAIRO: Egyptian mobile phone firm Mobinil yesterday said yesterday its net income fell about 38 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, hit after fierce competition forced it to keep prices low and spend more on promotions. But the firm said it added 1.824 million mobile phone subscribers in the quarter, bringing its total to 30.225 million, and potentially helping it stay ahead of its main rival, the local unit of Vodafone.

Mobinil’s revenues were little changed at about 2.8 billion Egyptian pounds ($476 million) in the fourth quarter. Revenues from its mobile phone business dipped about 5 percent. “Revenue decline is the result of general market trends coupled with an intense com-

petitive environment (tariff inelasticity and aggressive promotions) leading to ARPU (average revenue per user) dilution,” Mobinil said in a statement. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amoritization fell to 1.1 billion pounds from 1.3 billion. The firm said its net income after taxes and minority interests was 347.4 million pounds, compared with 558.9 million pounds in the same quarter a year earlier.

Anti-government protests have brought much of Egypt’s economy to a standstill for nearly three weeks until President Hosni Mubarak resigned on Friday. Mobinil’s results did not reflect any of the effects of the protests, which began on Jan 25. — Reuters

S Korea household debt rises in 2010

ALLAHABAD: Indian wayside vendors sell vegetables at a market in Allahabad yesterday. India’s annual food inflation declined to a seven-week low as improved supplies eased prices of fruits and vegetables towards the end of January. —AP

SEOUL: South Korea’s household debt, a major economic risk factor, rose sharply last year, raising concerns about an increase in defaults, a private credit appraiser reported yesterday. At the end of December, financial institutions had 722.8 trillion won ($642 billion) in outstanding loans to the household sector, up 6.9 percent from a year earlier, according to the Korea Credit Bureau.

The figure included 124.1 trillion won in unsecured household loans, up 19.4 percent from a year ago, and 311.5 trillion won in mortgage loans, up 9.5 percent, it said. The bureau warned that an increase in interest rates would turn more household debts sour.

Last week the Bank of Korea left its key interest rate unchanged at 2.75 percent despite concerns about inflation.

Annual inflation reached 4.1 percent in January, prompting the finance ministry to announce a series of measures aimed at curbing price rises.

In early January, the government launched a task force involving financial regulators, government officials, bankers and experts to curb the excessive growth of household loans.

Financial regulators say excessive household loans, if unchecked, could erode economic growth potential or lead to the insolvency of financial institutions and families. — AFP

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KSE stocks bearish GLOBAL DAILY MARKET REPORT

DHAKA: Hundreds of Bangladeshi small

investors, angry at a new plunge in share prices, set fire to tyres and pelted police with bricks yesterday outside the stock exchange and demanded the resignation of the finance minister.

Police with batons dispersed the protesters in pitched battles that snarled traffic for hours. The country’s main Dhaka Stock Exchange General Index dived by more than 474.77 points or 7.27 percent to 6052.41 on Sunday, the steepest one-day fall since January 20. “Who is to blame for the continuing fall of share prices? Why haven’t they been found and punished?” shouted Shafiqur Rahman, a small investor.

Demonstrators called for the resignation of Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith.

“He assured us that the market will see an uptrend this week,” said investor Rakibul Haq. “It makes me so frustrated and angry that this has not happened.”

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina last week

KUWAIT: Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) stocks ended the first day of the trading week in negative territory. It was expected that good signs for investors to start the week with good sentiment encouraging them to put more cash in to the bourse after the tension eased in Egypt.

However, KSE so a quite day with a light trading activity. It seems that the investors are still waiting for news and more year end results that cheers up their moods.

Losses were steady throughout the session. Global General Index (GGI) closed 0.36 points down (0.16 percent), at 219.18 point as the Market capitalization decreased reaching K WD35.63bn. On the other hand, Kuwait Stock Exchange Price Index closed in the red zone as well, shedding 23.20 points (0.34 percent) from its value and closed at 6,715.7 point.

Market Breadth During the session, 108 companies were traded. Market breadth was skewed towards decliners as 50 equities retreated versus 16 that advanced. Six out of the eight indices lost ground during the day.

Trading ac tivity remained thin, with only 99.44mn shares changing hands at a total value of KD16.26mn. The Real Estate Sector was the volume leader today, accounting for 34.17 percent of total shares and the Banking Sector was the value leader, with 34.62 percent of total traded value.

Company-wise, Al-Enma’a Real Estate Company was the most actively traded stock during the day, with 15.82mn shares exchanged at a total value of KD1.71mn.

Bangladesh investors, police clash over stocks slide asked the relevant authorities to take immediate steps to stabilise markets, with about 3.3 million people, mostly small-time investors new to stock trading, relying on it to supplement meager incomes. Share prices nearly doubled in 2010, encouraging new investors into the market. But banks and other financial institutions, some of which had invested 75 percent of their deposits in the stock market in the past, are now holding back on further investments, prompting fears among individual investors.

Clashes between distraught investors and police have become regular occurrences in recent weeks. The steepest fall in the index — 660 pointstook place on January 10.

Mirza Azizul Islam, a former finance adviser to the government, said on Sunday: “The market needs long-term investment to overcome its volatility while small investors should refrain from panic buying or selling.” — Reuters

Kuwait buys two gasoline cargoes for March trade In terms of top gainers, AlEnma’a Real Estate Company was the biggest gainer for the day, adding 7.84 percent and closed at KD0.110. On the other side, Pearl of Kuwait Real Estate Company came in as the biggest decliner, dropping by 8.33 percent and closed at KD0.028.

Sectors wise Two of the big market sectors, the Investment and Services sectors, were down by 0.72 percent and 0.13 percent, respectively, to add more pressure on the market index.

However, Global Food Index witnessed the steepest decline as it lost 1.08 percent on the back of heavy weight Kuwait Foodstuff Company (Americana)’s shares

price, which lost 1.28 percent from its value and closed at KD1.540.

Selling pressure mounted on Investment stocks as well, as depicted by 0.72 percent decline in Global Investment Index.

Share price of Kuwait & Middle East Financial Investment Co and Al-Mal Investment Company recoiled by 5.71 percent and 7.02 percent respectively.

On the specialized indices side, Global Islamic Index, which contains 56 companies that work under the Islamic Sharia, witnessed a daily increase of 1.06 percent to close at 663.35 points. On the other hand, Global High Yield Index, with 20 companies, registered 0.01 percent in daily losses.

Corporate News Kingdom Holding Company said yesterday it has agreed to a request from Zain’ Kuwait, to extend its offer to buy a stake in Zain’s Saudi operations for the second time. The offer will now expire at 14:00 GMT on February 16, 2011.

Shuaiba Industrial Company has received an order to supply cement bags to a Kenya-based cement producer at a total value of KD0.460mn for 6 months.

Oil News Price of OPEC basket of twelve crudes stood at $97.59 a barrel on Thursday, compared with $96.93 the previous day, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations.

DUBAI: Kuwait has bought two cargoes of gasoline ahead of a refinery shutdown planned for April, traders said yesterday.

Kuwait, which is not a regular buyer of the motor fuel, plans to shut its ageing 200,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Shuaiba refiner y for maintenance in April.

“They’re buying to be prepared during

the maintenance time,” one gasoline trader said.

Kuwait paid Trafigura a $60-per-tonne premium to Middle East naphtha quotes on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis for the March-delivery cargoes, traders said. A standard gasoline cargo is 33,000 tons or around 280,000 barrels. — Reuters

Kuwaiti dinar at 0.279 KUWAIT: The Kuwaiti dinar stood at 0.279

fils against the US dollar, while its rate placed against the euro dropped to 0.378 fils.

The Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) said on its website, that the rate of the national currency decreased to KD 0.448 against the sterling, continued unchanged as well at KD 0.003 against the Japanese yen, and dropped against the Swiss franc at KD

0.287. The increase in US dollar against other currencies is due to investors’ interest in buying it amidst general atmosphere of optimism that dominated the market after the end of Egypt’s volatile situation. This increase was also due to the rise of inflation rates in the American economy as well as expectations that consumers trust might improve in the upcoming month. — KUNA

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ETIHAD OPENS NEW PREMIUM LOUNGE IN DUBLIN DUBLIN: Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, has officially opened its new premium lounge at Dublin Airport’s Terminal 2 (T2). Etihad became the first airline to operate its scheduled arrival and depar ture ser vices from T2 in late November 2010.

The new lounge offers Etihad’s premium customers a range of top quality facilities and services that have not been seen in Ireland before, including: l a high-tech “Business Centre”, offering Mac workstations with broadband access and printer facilities, along with free WiFi for those that prefer to work from their own laptops; l shower rooms; l a luggage room for bag storage; l a comfortable main lounge area boasting a library of books, magazines and newspapers from around the world, furnished with Italian leather chairs and soft sofas; l a full bar; l a wide variety of food for customers travelling out of Ireland, including an a la carte menu, international buffet, and a special children’s menu; and l a dedicated “family room” for younger travellers, stocked with toys, books and a TV to keep them inspired and entertained.

James Hogan, Etihad Air ways’ Chief Executive Officer, said: “Ireland is a very important market for us and one in which we have continually invested. Our commitment to Ireland was reinforced last year when we increased our services to 10 flights a week between Dublin and our home base in Abu Dhabi, and this commitment was fur-

KMEFIC FUND VIEW

Kuwait stocks may outperform in 2011 DUBAI: Increased infrastructure spending fuelled by high oil prices, regulatory reforms and largescale restructuring may provide a catalyst for beaten down Kuwaiti stocks to outperform Gulf markets in 2011, a fund manager said.

Kuwait’s flagship index dropped 0.7 percent in 2010, one of the region’s worst-performing indices as investors sold off amid worries over transparency and disclosure issues.

But that trend may change in 2011, according to Christian Shomber, chief investment officer for Kuwait and Middle East Financial Investment Co (KMEFIC). “Kuwait has the potential to be the surprise and is really the dark horse investment for this year. We are watching the market very closely and are prepared to overweight as concerns ease on the political side,” Shomber said in a telephone interview last week.

The fund manager said he currently had an “equal-weight” on Kuwait along with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The asset manager has an “overweight” on Saudi Arabia, the top oil producer and the largest Gulf Arab market. Kuwait has been beefing up spending on infrastructure and initiating regulatory reforms to bolster its image as an investment destination.

The world’s fourth-largest oil exporter ramped up spending by more than 34 percent in its budget for 2010/11, which began in April last year, partly to diversify its oil-reliant economy and increase the role of the private sector. Its cabinet appointed the director of the country’s stock exchange as the head of the new stock market regulatory body in September last year. The bourse also signed a deal with Nasdaq OMX Group Inc for a new trading system. “There are some major developments happening here. The structural issues, the transparency, this is the market we are managing in,” Shomber said.

CONSOLIDATION CALL Kuwait is home to a number of struggling investment companies largely due to a sharp fall in real estate values which led to massive erosion of their investment portfolios. Shomber expects to see consolidation in this sector.

“I believe that this market will shrink and I do believe that there will be significant consolidation which actually will be good for business,” he said.

Investment Dar , owner of half of luxury carmaker Aston Martin, reached an agreement to restructure $3.58 billion in debt, potentially ending a protracted battle with its creditors. The asset manager is also advising its clients to reduce exposure to emerging markets after a two-year rally, Shomber said.

Investors pulled out a net $3 billion from emerging market equities as well as $351 million from Pacific equity funds for the week ended Feb. 9, data from EPFR Global showed. KMEFIC is one of the largest asset management firms in Kuwait, catering to high-net-worth and sovereign clients in the country and across the Gulf. It declined to disclose current assets under management. —Reuters

Boeing to roll out new jumbo today SEATTLE/PARIS: Boeing was set to roll out a new jumbo jet later, hoping to relive the glamour surrounding the birth of the 747 over 40 years ago and use it to boost slow sales. The 747-8 Intercontinental will seat 467 passengers, 51 more than the current version of the 747, and burn less fuel while offering passengers more comfort, the US planemaker says.

The unveiling comes almost 42 years to the day since the maiden flight of the 747, which went on to be the world’s most recognised jetliner and transformed the global travel industry. It is the first appearance of a radically new version of the passenger jet since the first jumbo, with its humped two-storey cabin and 196-foot (69 meter) wingspan, took the world’s breath away on a sunny morning at Everett in September 1968. —Reuters

DUBLIN: Cormac O’Connell, Head of Aviation Business Development, Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), Lee Shave, Etihad’s Vice President, Product and Services, assisted by Etihad cabin crew representatives, officially open the airline’s newest premium lounge, (Right) in Dublin Airportís Terminal 2 (T2).

ther strengthened when we opened a Line Maintenance Facility at Dublin Airport last June. The opening of this lounge marks another stage in the development of that relationship.”

Etihad Airways is officially recognised as the ‘Best Long Haul Airline’ flying out of Ireland, having picked up the accolade last month at both the Irish Travel Trade News Awards and the Irish Travel Agents Association Awards. Late last year Etihad Airways took the top award at the World

Travel Awards, having been voted ‘World’s Leading Airline’ by more than 180,000 travel industry professionals from over 175 countries. This is the second year in a row that Etihad has won this prestigious title.

Justin Warby, Etihad Air ways Countr y Manager for Ireland, said: “Today is another milestone in Etihad Airways’ Irish operation.

The new premium lounge is a perfect reflection of the Etihad brand - modern comforts with sophisticated elegance, which will enhance our customers’ travel experience fly-

ing out of Ireland.”

The new 332m2 lounge has expansive views of the apron/taxiways and overlooks the gate where Etihad will operate many of its ser vices. Photo caption: Cormac O’Connell, Head of Aviation Business Development, Dublin Airpor t Authority (DAA), Lee Shave, Etihad’s Vice President, Product and Services, assisted by Etihad cabin crew representatives, officially open the airline’s newest premium lounge, in Dublin Airport’s Terminal 2 (T2).

Zain’s UNRWA TV Commercial recognized with 3 major prizes MENA Cristal Awards

BEIRUT: Zain’s UNRWA TV commercial produced by Lebanon based ‘City Films Production House’ won three prizes Best Production, Best Director and Best Soundtrack - at the Annual Regional Creative and Advertising Industry event ‘MENA Cristal Awards’, held recently at the Mzaar Intercontinental Hotel, Lebanon.

The prizes were for UNRWA 60 YEARS It’s a Wonderful Life, a 60 second film about Palestinian refugees, sponsored by Zain and produced by City Films.

The film was the centerpiece of a sixweek regional marketing campaign across all media in the summer of 2010 to promote the fund-raising in support of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian

Refugees. The campaign, sponsored by Zain Group, created awareness for the agency ’s humanitarian work in the region, on the occasion of its 60th anniversary, in an effort to enlist financial support for the agency’s work in the areas of health and education for the benefit of Palestinian Refugees.

“This is yet another example of our diversity outside the boundaries of our core business,” said Zain Group Chief Commercial Officer Bashar Al-Arafeh.

“The collaboration with UNRWA was a unique opportunity for us to show that we can partner one of the most respected NGOs in the world by deploying our of marketing talent and technological know-how to support the wonderful work it is doing. We have touched the

lives of so many by producing a stunning visual document that chronicles the dignity shown by the Palestinian people in the face of hardship.”

UNRWA 60 YEARS - It’s a Wonderful Life was shot in Palestinian refugee camps, capturing the real lives of Palestinians living in the area. In doing this Zain opened the world’s eyes to the unenviable conditions in the camps, and encouraged viewers to contribute

X-CITE, SAFAT HOME BRING MEGA CELEBRATIONS HALA FEB AT SAFAT ALGHANIM KUWAIT: X- cite by Alghanim Electronics and Safat Home are proud to present the most exciting Hala-Feb activities and mega-celebrations in Kuwait. Keeping alive the tradition of bringing the biggest and best entertainment events to Kuwait, X-Cite and Safat Home have arranged a 12- day entertainment marathon at the Safat Alghanim outdoor arena in Al-Rai, from Februar y 13 to February 24, 2011.

Wonderful prizes, valuable lucky draws and the most entertaining festival experience await X-cite and Safat Home guests. Daily activities include colorful traditional performances, exhilarating acrobatic and magic shows, interactive workshops for children and many other enthralling shows.

The experience will be made even more exciting by the presence of celebrity presenters who will conduct special challenging games and share non-stop surprises and gifts with the audience.

The festival is bound to attract everyone, whether young or old.

International pianists, live mimes, stilt walkers and cartoon characters are sure to fascinate everyone and make it a special event to attend

on this memorable milestone in Kuwait’s history.

The activities don’t just stop there. The first and last three days of the event will have the Hala February draw at 7 PM every night, and the lucky winners will walk away with grand prizes.

This massive enter tainment marathon will culminate on February 24 with a thrilling display

of special fireworks and a cake-cutting ceremony to celebrate Kuwait’s 50th Independence Day and 20th Liberation Day. With this mega- event lineup, X-Cite and Safat Home aim to share their passion and jubilation with the wider community.

Anyone present in Kuwait during this period would not want to miss out on entertainment at such

to a better future for all Palestinian refugees. On his part, Marc Hadife, CEO of City Films said, “Producing such a TVC really touched us emotionally on many levels, inspiring the team to deliver a final product that captured the hearts and minds of TV audiences cross the region. Earning prestigious recognition from the industry is welcomed, yet secondary to the main cause of raising funds for UNRWA.”

Mideast needs successful growth strategies after ‘the Perfect Storm’ DUBAI: There is tremendous individual wealth in the Middle East region, particularly the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), that will continue to grow in the years to come. And thanks to the financial crisis, which undercut confidence in many established private banking relationships, a significant part of this private banking business is up for grabs, revealed a recent report by Booz & Company. “We estimate the total liquid wealth in the region to be between $1 trillion and $1.2 trillion, with most of that wealth in the hands of local families. By market size, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are the largest wealth markets, with $500 billion to $550 billion and $260 billion to $280 billion, respectively,” said Peter Vayanos, partner at Booz & Company. To shape their wealth offerings appropriately and succeed, private bankers must understand how the financial crisis has altered investor behavior-at least temporarily but perhaps permanently, the report concluded.

Private banking in the GCC: opportunities and characteristics Private bankers have spent two years coping with one of the most difficult periods in modern financial history. “A global “perfect storm” of asset-price declines and the near or actual collapse of well-known financial institutions and even sovereigns have altered the private banking landscape and the behavior of wealthy clients in the GCC. Now, thanks to the financial crisis, which severely battered the reputations of some of the most well-known, established providers of wealth management services to the region, much of the wealth-advisory business is up for grabs,” said Dr. Daniel Diemers, principal at Booz & Company.

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Earnings failed to enthuse bourse in Jan KUWAIT: Better than expected FY-10 earnings announced by a majority of listed banks failed to boost investor sentiments as the political turmoil that engulfed Egypt during the latter part of the month weighed on the general sentiment and pushed regional markets to the downside. Although trading during the month remained largely subdued, escalating tensions in Egypt led the KSE Weighted Index to record its largest decline of 1.95 per cent on 30 Jan-10 and thereby weighed on the performance of the bourse during January.

As a result, the KSE Weighted Index bucked its previous month positive trend and dropped 0.67 per cent during January to end as the fourth worst performing market in the GCC region. The Real Estate sector slumped nearly 5 per cent to KD 1.9 bn (USD 6.7 bn) over investor speculations that the sector is heavily exposed to the Egyptian property market and any further escalation of the crisis would have a negative impact on the already fragile sector that was hit hard during the financial crisis. The Services sector, on the other hand, witnessed its market cap drop 3.3 per cent mainly on the losses incurred on market heavyweights ZAIN and Agility.

ZAIN continued to remain highly volatile during January over high investor speculations regarding its 46 per cent stake sale to ETISALAT and witnessed its share price drop nearly 4 per cent to close at KD 1.460. On the other hand, Agility witnessed its share price tumble 11.54 per cent to KD 0.460 over a fresh law suit filed by U.S Prosecutors. The value of shares traded during the month reached KD 844.8 mn, compared to KD 705.4 mn recorded during December representing an increase of 19.8 per cent over that traded during Dec-10.

Performance by Weeks: Trading during the first week of January remained lackluster as investors kept a close eye on developments surrounding the political arena. As a result, the KSE Weighted Index and KAMCO TRW Index gained 0.67 per cent and 0.49 per cent, respectively. Although renewed buying interest

witnessed on the banking sector over investor optimism that local banks would announce better than expected FY-10 earnings and dividends. As a result, led by gains recorded oh the heavyweight banking sector, which witnessed its market cap gain 1.8 per cent to KD 15.1 bn, the KSE Weighted Index and KAMCO TRW Index bucked its previous week negative trend and climbed a marginal 0.24 per cent and 0.21 per cent, respectively. Despite positive FY-10 earnings announced by the majority of listed banks, the

was witnessed on selected stocks in the real estate, investment and services sector during the beginning of the week, tensions in the political scenario led investors to take a backseat. News that prosecutors in U.S filed a fresh civil suit against Agility coupled with the comments by a board member of ZAIN that “no binding agreements have been assigned with any party yet concerning the selling of a strategic share in ZAIN” weighed on investor sentiments and shaped the performance of the market during the second week of trade. As a result, the KSE Weighted Index and KAMCO TRW Index bucked its previous week positive trend and shed 0.78 per cent and 0.55 per cent respectively.

Trading during the third week moved within a narrow range as investors awaited the declaration of the FY-10 results. However, renewed buying interest was

KSE Weighted and KAMCO TRW Index continued its previous week negative trend and shed 0.79 per cent and 0.58 per cent respectively during the last seven sessions of the month as the political instability in Egypt intensified amid fears that the unrest could spread to other countries in the region.

ZAIN’s Deal: In developments surrounding market heavyweight ZAIN’s 46 per cent stake sale to ETISALAT, the latter announced that it is still working to complete a deal to buy a stake in ZAIN for USD 12 bn despite missing a Jan 15 due diligence deadline and the emergence of a potential rival bid.

The firm announced that it had not made sufficient progress toward finalizing the deal by the deadline due to “unforeseen delays” by ZAIN in providing access to relevant information and that the parties are continuing to work towards the announcement of

KAMCO MONTHLY KSE REPORT

a definitive transaction. In other developments, ZAIN launched a $1.2 bn loan and is offering banks four levels of participation in the syndication, banking sources said. The financing is split between $400mn one -year term loan and an $800 mn one -year revolver with two one-year extension options at the borrowers’ option. The margin on the term loan is 100 bps over LIBOR, while on the revolver it is 160 bps undrawn and 190 bps fully drawn. The loan is being arranged by book-runners and initial mandated lead arrangers Credit Agricole CIB, BNP Paribas, National Bank of Kuwait and Standard Chartered. ZAIN witnessed its monthly share price drop 3.95 per cent to KD 1.460. Agility, on the other hand, witnessed its share price plunge 11.54 per cent to KD 0.460 over a fresh law suit filed by U.S Prosecutors. The latest civil suit appears to run in parallel with the previous indictment, which indicates that the company overcharged the US Army over 41 months on $8.5bn in contracts first signed at the start of the Gulf War in 2003.

KFH Credit Rating: In due course of the month, international rating agency, Moody ’s Investors Service affirmed Kuwait Finance House’s (KFH) Cstandalone Bank Financial Strength Rating (BFSR), but lowered the mapping into a ‘Baa2’ baseline credit assessment (BCA) from ‘Baa1’. The bank’s local and foreign-currency, long-term and short-term issuer ratings remain unchanged at ‘Aa3/Prime-1’ and the outlook on all these ratings remains stable.

The rationale for mapping KFH’s C- standalone BFSR to a ‘BCA’ of ‘Baa2’ takes into account the following factors; the difficult market conditions all local banks continue to operate in, despite heavy government spending in recent months; deteriorated asset quality and mounting provisioning needs; the bank’s declining core profitability compared with the costs of sector concentration risks that have arisen; and still significant exposures to the volatile real estate sector.

All of KFH’s other ratings remain unchanged, reflecting its structural strengths including robust capitalization, strong franchise value and ample liquidity, even during times of stress. On back of the positive rating coupled with investor speculations that the bank would announce robust FY-10 profits, KFH witnessed its monthly share price rise 5.2 per cent to KD 1.220. Banking Sector: The Banking sector which accounts for 41.2 per cent of the total market capitalization gained 1.8 per cent to KD 14.85 bn ($53 bn) up from KD 14.58bn ($52.1 bn) at the end of Dec-10.

Better than expected FY-10 earnings announced by

the majority of banks coupled with speculations that the sector would play a significant role in financing the country’s proposed development plan and that a drop in provisions during 2011 would boost profitability boosted investor sentiments and shaped the performance of the sector during the month.

Aggregate net profits of five listed banks for FY-10 rose 70.6 per cent to KD 407.5 mn as compared to KD 238.9 mn in FY-09. Sector heavyweight National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) witnessed its share price remain flat at KD 1.440 despite announcing a 13.7 per cent increase in its FY-10 net profits to KD 301.7 mn as compared to KD 265.2 mn for 2009 . In other developments, Ahli United Bank - Kuwait witnessed its share price surge 22.7 per cent to KD 0.810 mainly on the back of announcing a 92.4 per cent rise in its FY-10 earnings which recorded KD 27.4 mn as compared to KD 14.3 mn for FY-09.

Investment Sector: The Investment sector which accounts for nearly 8.3 per cent of the total market capitalization rose 1.7 per cent to KD 2.98 bn ($10.7 bn). Several investment companies are expected to face a challenging year ahead as they attempt to meet the Central Bank of Kuwait’s (CBK) new close observation strategy of financial matters on a monthly and yearly basis. This strategy has been kept in place in order to avoid the mistakes that occurred during the financial crisis. However, it is worth noting that a large segment of investment companies have proved their ability to face challenges, since they rely on robust financial and investment statuses - which strengthens the possibility that many of the companies will be able to meet the regulatory demands of the CBK. During January, Kuwait Projects Co. (KIPCO) witnessed its share price gain 3.45 per cent to KD 0.450.

During the month, KIPCO acquired 33.11 per cent of United Real Estate Co.; thereby raising its stake in the latter to 60.42 per cent. In other developments, Aref Investment Group witnessed its share price surge 14.5 per cent to KD 0.071 mainly on the back of its announcement that it had reached an agreement with Kuwait International Bank to restructure nearly $35 mn of its debt. Market Cap: Total market capitalization during the month shed 0.6 per cent to KD 36.1 bn ($128.9 bn) at the end of January, down from KD 36.3 bn ($129.6 bn) recorded at the end of December10. The Industrial sector dropped 1 per cent to KD 2.9 bn ($10.2 bn) while the Services sector incurred a loss of 3.3 per cent to record KD 10.3 bn ($36.7 bn) at the end of the month.

Indonesia Iranian tuman Iraqi dinar Japanese yen Jordanian dinar Lebanese pound Malaysian ringgit Morocco dirham Nepalese Rupees New Zealand dollar Nigeria Norwegian krone Omani Riyal Pakistani rupees Philippine peso Qatari riyal Saudi riyal Singapore dollar South Africa Sri Lankan rupees Sterling pound Swedish krona Swiss franc Syrian pound Thai bhat Tunisian dollar UAE dirham U.S. dollars Yemeni Riyal

0.033 0.262 0.252 3.450 397.650 0.190 94.910 46.500 4.390 216.900 1.906 49.200 727.830 3.360 6.640 77.510 74.810 220.230 41.070 2.718 452.300 44.300 291.700 6.100 9.490 198.263 76.460 280.600 1.350

Pakistani Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Cyprus pound Japanese Yen Thai Bhat Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees Malaysian Ringgit

10 Tola

GOLD 1,429.290

EXCHANGE RATES Commercial Bank of Kuwait US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian Dollar Australian DLR Indian rupees Sri Lanka Rupee UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi riyals Omani riyals Philippine peso Egyptian pounds

.2750000 .4440000 .3760000 .2840000 .2800000 .2770000 .0045000 .0020000 .0757290 .7378040 .3900000 .0720000 .7232850 .0045000 .0480000 CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES .2789500 .4465850 .3780050 .2866460 .2822100 .0507120 .0430200 .2796330 .0357820 .2174200 .0033430 .0000000 .0000000 .0000000 .0000000 .0759670 .7401170 .0000000 .0744070 .7247340 .0000000

US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian dollars Danish Kroner Swedish Kroner Australian dlr Hong Kong dlr Singapore dlr Japanese yen Indian Rs/KD Sri Lanka rupee Pakistan rupee Bangladesh taka UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi Riyal/KD Omani riyals Philippine Peso

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co. Japanese Yen Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar Bangladesh Taka

ASIAN COUNTRIES 3.380 6.129 3.293 2.519 3.843 218.880 35.964 3.861

.2850000 .4530000 .3830000 .2960000 .2880000 .2870000 .0075000 .0035000 .0764900 .7452190 .4100000 .0780000 .7305540 .0072000 .0570000 .2810500 .4499470 .3808510 .2888040 .2843340 .0510930 .0433440 .2817390 .0360510 .2190570 .0033680 .0062110 .0025430 .0033160 .0039870 .0765390 .7456890 .3975250 .0749670 .7301900 .0064830

Philippine Peso Thai Baht Irani Riyal - Transfer Irani Riyal - Cash

6.391 9.096 0.271 0.273 GCC COUNTRIES 74.751 77.042 728.280 744.530 76.334

Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham

Egyptian Pound - Cash Egyptian Pound - Transfer Yemen Riyal Tunisian Dinar Jordanian Dinar Lebanese Lira Syrian Lier Morocco Dirham

ARAB COUNTRIES 50.500 47.637 1.313 197.380 395.960 186.000 6.079 34.560

EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 280.280 Euro 383.140 Sterling Pound 452.120 Canadian dollar 287.200 Turkish lire 176.600 Swiss Franc 291.780 Australian dollar 280.780 US Dollar Buying 279.595 GOLD 259.000 131.000 67.500

20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

Sterling Pound US Dollar

Bahrain Exchange Company COUNTRY Australian dollar Bahraini dinar Bangladeshi taka Canadian dollar Cyprus pound Czek koruna Danish krone Deutsche Mark Egyptian pound Euro Cash Hongkong dollar Indian rupees

SELL CASH 284.300 745.180 4.230 287.100 550.300 14.100 52.000 167.800 50.530 384.200 36.660 6.400

SELL DRAFT 282.800 745.180 3.870 285.800

220.200 47.661 382.700 36.510 6.135

0.032

396.040 0.189 94.910 3.850 215.400

Kuwait Bahrain Intl Exchange Co. 727.650 3.310 6.420 77.080 74.810 220.230 41.070 2.521 450.300 290.200 6.100 9.290 76.360 280.200

Currency US Dollar Pak Rupees Indian Rupees Sri Lankan Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso UAE Dirhams Saudi Riyals Bahraini Dinars Egyptian Pounds Pound Sterling Indonesian Rupiah Nepali rupee Yemeni Riyal Jordanian Dinars Syrian Pounds Euro Canadian Dollars

TRAVELLER’S CHEQUE 450.300 280.200

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd Rate for Transfer US Dollar Canadian Dollar Sterling Pound Euro Swiss Frank Bahrain Dinar UAE Dirhams Qatari Riyals Saudi Riyals Jordanian Dinar Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupees Indian Rupees

Selling Rate 280.100 285.360 448.860 382.560 287.400 741.355 76.238 76.914 74.663 395.675 47.611 2.520 6.149

3.313 3.867 6.388 687.080 3.455 9.176 6.209 3.920 92.119

Rate per 1000 (Tran) 280.050 3.310 6.145 2.530 3.880 6.450 76.365 74.895 744.600 47.635 455.200 0.00003280 3.910 1.550 397.900 5.750 385.200 289.400

Al Mulla Exchange Currency US Dollar Euro Pound Sterling Canadian Dollar Japanese Yen Indian Rupee Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupee Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso Pakistan Rupee Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham Saudi Riyal

Transfer Rate (Per 1000) 279.750 382.500 450.100 285.400 3.375 6.125 47.600 2.518 3.835 6.385 3.287 745.000 76.300 74.780

*Rates are subject to change

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Major awards for Zain’s UNRWA TV Commercial Page 23

Kuwait business sentiment upbeat Transport and communication sectors hold out new optimism

By Ben Garcia KUWAIT: Business sentiment in Kuwait will improve in the coming quarter with hydrocarbon sectors recording a Business Optimism Index ( BOI) of 46 and the non-hydrocarbon sector at 54, disclosed financial experts. Speaking at a press conference at the JW Marriott in Kuwait City yesterday, Phil Strange, Dun and Bradstreet South Asia Middle East Limited’s (D & B) Chief Financial Officer, noted that non-hydrocarbon BOI is at its highest level since their reporting began in Q3 of 2009. He said that such an indicator is a clear suggestion that the impact of the global financial recession is now receding.

“Increased demand stimulated by private and public sector spending and robust oil price bodes well for the Kuwaiti economy,” Strange added. The D & B Q1 2011 report was presented with local media providing their results from all concerned sectors.

The Dubai based financial and credit rating firm stressed that the nonhydrocarbon sector in Kuwait has seen a considerable improvement in optimism in Q1 2011. “The composite BOI for the non-hydrocarbon sector has gained 15 points in Q1 2011 compared to Q4 2010,” he said.

The financial firm surveyed the top 500 companies in Kuwait to come up with the most vivid and accurate results. D & B asked companies about their sales volume and revenue, net profit, level of stocks and employment.

Factors impacting businesses in Q1 continue to be similar to those in the previous quarter, according to Strange.

KUWAIT: Ahmad Abu Blan, left, and Phil Strange prior to the start of Q1 2011 presentation held at JW Marriott in Kuwait yesterday.—Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Raw material cost and availability of finances are identified as the two major factors impacting business operations in Q1 2011.

“The good thing about Kuwait, even in the face of global recession, is that the economy will always be in good shape because of oil revenues. They have huge budget surplus, especially when the price of oil is at its peak. They can stimulate the economy at any given time even in a global recession.

Kuwait’s multi-billion dollar development plan is buoying the financial optimism of the countr y,” Strange explained.

Kuwait posted a budget surplus of KD 6 billion in the opening months of the fiscal year ending March 2010. IMF projected Kuwait’s economy to expand at 4.4 percent in 2011 from a 2.3 percent growth in 2010. When asked whether the political situation in the Arab world has somehow affected the

projected Q1 report, Ahmad Abu Blan, D and B’s Business Development Manager said, “No, the survey took place just before the Tunisian regime was overthrown [in December 2010].

At that time Egypt was silent. So, people here believe it was an isolated case but surely the second quarter will somehow reveal something. It’s an exciting report to deal with.”

According to the report the level of optimism in the manufacturing sector is up 17 points to 50 in Q1 2011. In the construction sector meanwhile, the positive outlook towards sales, profitability and employment have lifted the overall optimism for Q1 2011 five points higher to 51.

The D and B report also revealed that the biggest rebound was in the international transportation and logistics sector and that Middle Eastern carriers have recorded the largest capacity expansion at 13.7 percent in October 2010 compared to the same period the previous year. “The sector holds the most optimistic outlook amongst all sectors despite a slight moderation in the sales and new order and parameters,” the report read.

Even finance and real estate businesses in the country have registered a very optimistic response according to the D & B. “The sector has witnessed a steep recovery in optimism levels for sales and selling price parameter in Q1 2011. The volume of sales has gained 42 points to 69 while that for the level of selling prices parameters has gained 40 points to 45 for Q1 from the previous quarter,” the report stressed.

Egypt economy solid: PM CAIRO: The prime minister, charged with running domestic affairs by Egypt’s new military rulers, said yesterday the economy was solid and the country was being governed in the same way as under ousted President Hosni Mubarak.

Trying to reassure Egyptians who rose up against Mubarak’s rule, Ahmed Shafiq said government affairs were being presented to the higher council of the armed forces and its president, “as they were presented to the president of the republic”.

“There is no change in form, or method, or the process of work. Matters are stable completely,” he told a news conference. Mubarak appointed Shafiq after sacking his former cabinet on Jan. 29 in a vain effort to quell an uprising against his rule. Shafiq’s remarks were likely to infuriate Egyptians looking to dismantle Mubarak’s ruling system in the new era.

Mubarak stepped down on Friday, handing power to the Higher Military Council, headed by Defense Minister and armed forces commander Mohamed Hussein Tantawi. The council said on Saturday that Shafiq’s government would stay on until a new one was formed. “All matters are presented to the higher council, and the president of the higher council, as they were presented to the president of the republic,” Shafiq said, signalling no change yet to the system of rule that the protesters want to change. Egypt’s economy is “solid and cohesive”, Shafiq said. “We have enough reserves in the coming period and our situation is comforting, very comforting.”

Meanwhile, Egypt’s Central Bank yesterday offered 6.5 billion pounds ($1.1 billion) in Treasury bills, its first such auction since President Hosni Mubarak ceded control of the country to the military. Regional markets, meanwhile, posted moderate gains as Mubarak’s resignation appeared to ease some of the investor unease that had been building up during the 18-day uprising against Mubarak.—Agencies

Quiros wins Dubai Desert Classic

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2011

Soderling retains Rotterdam title

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Jackson thriller seals Bobcats win

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LONDON: Bolton’s Johan Elmander (right) jumps for the ball against Everton’s Diniyar Bilyaletdinov during their English Premier League soccer match.—AP

Sturridge seals win over Everton Bolton 2

Everton 0

BOLTON: Daniel Sturridge maintained his current hot streak as the Bolton striker sealed a 2-0 win over Everton at the Reebok Stadium yesterday.

Sturridge has been in superb form since his loan move from Chelsea on transfer deadline day and Everton were unable to stop the youngster, who was forced out of Stamford Bridge by the arrival of Fernando Torres, netting his third goal in three games.

Owen Coyle’s team had taken the lead through Gary Cahill’s first half header and Sturridge delivered the knockout blow with a fine finish as Bolton moved within one point of seventh placed Sunderland. Coyle played down talk of signing Sturridge permanently, telling Sky Sports: “That’s a discussion for May. Chelsea certainly have some of the world’s finest strikers and Daniel, I believe, can really push himself into that category if he continues to develop.”

Sturridge added: “I’m just delighted to be playing regular football. The manager’s instilled a lot of confidence in me, he’s told me to go out and play my normal game and just show everybody what I’m about.” While Wanderers are on the up, Everton continue to struggle and David Moyes’ team remain only three points above the relegation zone. Moyes conceded his side face a battle to beat the drop. “I have felt that since the third week of the season,” he said. “It’s probably the poorest per formance I can remember for a long time. “We conceded two bad goals but overall we were really

poor anyway and we never really got started.

“I am angry but I think the players know themselves that was way below the levels we have set in the last few years.” Coyle’s side had lost five of their previous seven league matches. Despite that disappointing run, the hosts looked confident enough early on and Gary Cahill was just off-target with a header from Matt Taylor’s corner.

Everton had been warned about Bolton’s ability from set-pieces but they failed to learn the lesson as Coyle’s men took the lead in the 10th minute.

Stuart Holden’s free-kick picked out Gary Cahill and the England defender powered down a header that deflected off Everton defender John Heitinga and past wrong-footed goalkeeper Tim Howard.

Everton should have equalised in the 17th minute when Tim Cahill was left unmarked at the back post, but the Australian miscued his shot woefully wide following a cross from Leighton Baines.

Bolton were forced to make a substitution when defender Zat Knight fell akwardly after tangling with Anichebe and was replaced by David Wheater.

Tim Cahill nearly took advantage of the Bolton reshuffle as he tested goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen from the edge of the area. Everton threatened at the start of the second half when Marouane Fellaini was set up by Seamus Coleman but the midfielder sent his effort high and wide of the woodwork. Tim Cahill was next to get into a good position as he volleyed over but Bolton went further ahead in the 67th minute.

South Korean Lee Chung-Yong, on as a substitute, threaded a pass through to Sturridge and he smashed his shot beyond Howard. —AFP

EPL results/standings Bolton 2 (Cahill 10, Sturridge 67) Everton 0 Played Saturday Arsenal 2 (van Persie 16, 56) Wolverhampton 0; Birmingham 1 (Zigic 90) Stoke 0; Blackburn 0, Newcastle 0; Blackpool 1 (Grandin 14) Aston Villa 1 (Agbonlahor 10); Liverpool 1 (Meireles 24) Wigan 1 (Gohouri 65); Manchester United 2

(Nani 41, Rooney 78) Manchester City 1 (Silva 65); Sunderland 1 (Gyan 11) Tottenham 2 (Dawson 44, Kranjcar 57); West Bromwich 3 (Dorrans 2, Thomas 8, Reid 32-og) West Ham 3 (Ba 50, 83 Cole 58).

Playing Monday Fulham v Chelsea

English Premier League table after Sunday’s match (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points): Man Utd 26 16 9 1 57 25 57 Blackburn 27 9 5 13 34 42 32 Arsenal 26 16 5 5 56 27 53 Fulham 26 6 12 8 28 28 30 Man City 27 14 7 6 43 24 49 Everton 26 6 12 8 33 36 30 Tottenham 26 13 8 5 37 28 47 Birmingham 25 6 12 7 25 33 30 Chelsea 25 13 5 7 46 22 44 Aston Villa 27 7 9 11 31 46 30 Liverpool 27 11 6 10 35 32 39 Blackpool 26 8 5 13 39 50 29 Sunderland 27 9 10 8 33 33 37 West Brom 26 7 6 13 34 51 27 Bolton 27 9 9 9 38 37 36 Wigan 27 5 12 10 27 45 27 Stoke 26 10 3 13 31 33 33 West Ham 27 5 10 12 30 48 25 Newcastle 26 8 8 10 40 38 32 Wolverhampton 26 7 3 16 26 45 24

Racing’s new Indian owner taking on Barcelona, Real

PERU: Brazil’s players celebrate after winning the U-20 South American Championship in Arequipa. —AP

Hercules and Levante boost survival hopes MADRID: Promoted duo Hercules and Levante did their hopes of staying in the Spanish top-flight the world of good with respective wins over Real Zaragoza and Almeria yesterday.

Levante moved out of the bottom three with a 1-0 home win over fellow strugglers Almeria, who stay second from bottom, yesterday. Ecuadorian striker Felipe Caicedo’s ninth league goal of the campaign was enough to help Levante move two points clear of the drop zone.

Hercules staged a late comeback to record a 2-1 win over Zaragoza, scoring twice in the final ten minutes to turn the game on its head. Zargoza, one point above the bottom three, led thanks to a fourth minute goal from Braulio Rodriguez, but Francisco Farinos equalised in the 80th minute and veteran French striker David Trezeguet scored an 87th minute winner.

Hercules, the only team to beat Barcelona in the league this season, move three points clear of the relegation zone.

Malaga prop up the table but are only three points from safety after a 2-2 comeback draw at home to Getafe yesterday.

Getafe were 2-0 up after 23 minutes thanks to goals from Venezuelan Miku Flores and Adrian Colunga, however, former Real Madrid player Julio Baptista scored a 79th minute penalty to pull a goal back and Jose Rondon equalised deep in stoppage time.

On Saturday champions Barcelona

dropped their first away points of the season with a 1-1 draw at Sporting Gijon which brought an end to their record run of 16 consecutive wins.

“I am not happy with the point as we always want to win, but we are not invincible and we can lose or draw as we did in Gijon,” said Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola.

Real hope to capitalise on the slip when they face Espanyol at the Cornella-El Prat stadium later yesterday. Victory would take Madrid to within five points of Barcelona as they bid to prevent their arch rivals from winning a third successive league title.

Sixth-placed Espanyol have won eight out of their 10 home matches, but Argentine coach Mauricio Pochettino is aware of the task ahead.

“Madrid don’t need the ball to cause you problems,” said Pochettino. “They have a fast game and can open you up with only three or four touches. They are at a very high level and one of the best teams in the world.” In other matches, Villarreal hope to reclaim third place from Valencia with a win at Deportivo La Coruna on Sunday.

Villarreal are a point below Valencia and goalkeeper Diego Lopez admits finishing in the top four will be an achievement in itself. “Qualifying for the Champions League will be very difficult because all the teams are fighting to the maximum,” said Lopez. “It will be tight until the end because any team can lose on any ground.”—AFP

SANTANDER: Racing Santander’s new Indian owner believes the club can one day compete with La Liga behemoths Barcelona and Real Madrid and is ready to invest whatever it takes to return the club to European competition.

Ahsan Ali Syed, the founder and chairman of investment company Western Gulf Advisory who became Racing’s majority shareholder at the end of last month, told Reuters that buying into the club had been “a dream come true” and insisted there was room for a third force in Spain.

“When La Liga is watched all across the world today the first two teams that come to mind are Real Madrid or Barca,” Ali Syed said in an interview at his luxury hotel suite in Santander on Spain’s north coast.

“As I have already said in public, I will provide everything possible to see Racing grow in the world of football,” he added, sitting in a plush armchair with his entourage and team of bodyguards looking on.

“So I am sure there is a place for a third one. It’s all about proving your talent in 90 minutes on the field.

Whoever plays best will win. —Reuters

Spanish league results/standings Levante 1 (Caicedo 52) Almeria 0; Malaga 2 (Baptista 79-pen, Rondon 90) Getafe 2 (Miku 8, Colunga 23); Hercules 2 (Farinos 80, Trezeguet 87) Real Zaragoza 1 (Braulio 4); Real Sociedad 1 (Tamudo 73) Osasuna 0.

Playing later Deportivo La Coruna v Villarreal Espanyol v Real Madrid Monday Real Mallorca v Athletic Bilbao Saturday Atletico Madrid 1 (Reyes 3) Valencia 2 (Joaquin 41, 86); Sporting Gijon 1 (Barral 16) Barcelona 1 (Villa 79); Racing Santander 3 (Christian 12, Rakitic 19-og, Arana 90) Sevilla 2 (Fazio 39, Fabiano 83-pen).

Spanish league table after yesterday’s early matches (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points): Barcelona Real Madrid Valencia Villarreal Athletic Bilbao Espanyol Getafe Sevilla Real Sociedad Atletico Madrid Real Mallorca Hercules Racing Santander Levante Sporting Gijon Real Zaragoza Osasuna Deportivo La Coruna Almeria Malaga

23 22 23 22 22 22 23 23 23 23 22 23 23 23 23 23 23 22 23 23

20 17 14 14 12 12 9 9 10 9 8 7 6 7 5 5 5 5 4 5

2 3 5 3 2 1 4 4 1 3 4 4 7 3 8 8 7 7 8 4

1 2 4 5 8 9 10 10 12 11 10 12 10 13 10 10 11 10 11 14

71 52 38 41 37 30 35 35 34 32 24 24 20 24 23 22 21 19 23 30

12 19 25 22 31 30 37 38 37 31 30 37 33 34 31 36 30 34 39 49

62 54 47 45 38 37 31 31 31 30 28 25 25 24 23 23 22 22 20 19

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Cologne out of drop zone

ITALY: Udinese’s Giampiero Pinzi (center) jumps for the ball past Cesena’s Fabio Caserta (left) during their Serie A soccer match. —AP

Lazio on title trail, Palermo slip ROME: Lazio kept their slim Serie A title hopes alive as they won 2-0 away to Brescia yesterday. Edy Reja’s team remain seven points off leaders AC Milan, who thrashed Parma 4-0 on Saturday, and well in the championship mix.

Goals from Alvaro Gonzalez on 18 minutes and Libor Kozak just before the hour mark ensure Lazio maintained their grip on a Champions Legaue place. Reja, who has recently been jeered, said he understood the fans’ frustrations.

“We were top and then second and then we lost a few places but there are times throughout a long season in which it’s normal to have a bad spell,” he said. “Sometimes I have been jeered by fans but it’s normal for fans to behave like this given they love the club.”

Udinese are not letting up in their pursuit of a top four finish as they cruised to a 3-0 win at troubled Cesena. Antonio Di Natale scored

another brace, either side of a strike

by Gokhan Inler, keeping fifth placed Udinese just two points behind third-placed Lazio.

Udinese coach Francesco Guidolin admitted it would be difficult to finish in the top four. “We’re aiming at a place in Europe but we don’t know yet which competition,” he said.

“Inter, Milan and Napoli are better than us so we have to beat all the others to finish fourth. “I think that’s a difficult task but we’ll see in a couple of months where we are.”

It wasn’t such happy news for Palermo whose hopes of securing a Champions League finish suffered a blow as they fell to a shock 4-2 defeat at home to Fiorentina.

The hosts twice took the lead through Javier Pastore and Antonio Nocerino but goals from Alberto Gilardino, Michele Camporese, a Cesare Bovo own goal and captain Riccardo Montolivo turned the game around. It leaves Palermo just out-

Italian League results/standings Palermo 2 (Pastore 7, Nocerino 48) Fiorentina 4 (Gilardino 36, Camporese 70, Bovo 78-og, Montolivo 88); Bari 0 Genoa 0; Brescia 0, Lazio 2 (Gonzalez 18, Kozak 58); Cagliari 4 (Conti 19, Canini 29, Nene 44, 71) Chievo 1 (Thereau 84); Catania 3 (Silvestre 45, Lodi 80, 85) Lecce 2 (Jeda 56, Munari 61); Cesena 0, Udinese 3 (Di Natale 41, 75, Inler 69); Sampdoria 3 (Palombo 8,

Gastaldello 11, Maccarone 15) Bologna 1 (Paponi 65).

Playing later: Juventus v Inter Milan Saturday AC Milan 4 (Seedorf 8, Cassano 17, Robinho 61, 65) Parma 0; Roma 0, Napoli 2 (Cavani 49-pen, 83)

Italian League table ahead of Sunday’s late match (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points): AC Milan Napoli Lazio Inter Milan Udinese Palermo Roma Juventus Cagliari Fiorentina Chievo

25 25 25 23 25 25 24 24 25 24 25

15 15 13 13 13 12 11 10 10 8 7

7 4 6 5 4 4 6 8 5 8 10

3 6 6 5 8 9 7 6 10 8 8

44 40 32 44 42 44 35 40 32 27 27

19 22 22 27 30 35 32 30 27 26 27

52 49 45 44 43 40 39 38 35 32 31

Sampdoria 24 7 9 8 23 26 30 Genoa 24 7 8 9 19 22 29 Bologna 24 8 8 8 26 33 29 Parma 25 6 8 11 23 34 26 Catania 25 6 8 11 22 33 26 Lecce 25 6 6 13 26 46 25 Brescia 25 6 4 15 20 33 22 Cesena 25 5 6 14 17 34 21 Bari 25 3 6 16 14 39 15 Note: Bologna deducted three points for unpaid taxes and player salaries

side the top four and they have also played a game more than their rivals.

What was all the more surprising was that until this match struggling Fiorentina had averaged less than a goal a game and hadn’t won on their travels all season.

Palermo coach Delio Rossi gave a sobre assessment of his team. “We weren’t phenomenal before and we’re not idiots now,” he said.

“Unfortunately, we conceded the equaliser straight after going ahead and we didn’t manage to get our noses back in front.

“Things went badly today, we had a chance to make it 3-1 and then we caved in to their comeback. “The lack of concentration at a corner cost us dearly.”

Palermo took an early lead on seven minutes as Josip Ilicic pulled the ball back for Argentine Pastore to send a precise finish past Artur Boruc.

However, Fiorentina pushed forward and Gilardino missed two good chances, including a one-on-one with Salvatore Sirigu before finding the net with a header from Valon Behrami’s cross.

Palermo started the second half as they had done the first with a clever chip from Fabrizio Miccoli being headed home at the far post

by Nocerino. But again back came La Viola as Camporanese finished right footed after a corner.

Montolivo then beat Sirigu with a speculative long-range effort that crashed back off the post. And substitute Adem Ljacic set up two late goals on the counter attack as Palermo crumbled.

His cross from the left was bundled past his own keeper by Bovo before he teed up Montolivo’s killer fourth two minutes from time. The action didn’t end there, though as Palermo’s Abel Hernandez shuddered the bar in injury time of a thrilling contest. —AFP

BERLIN: Germany striker Lukas Podolski struck twice yesterday to lift Cologne out of the bottom three following their 4-2 win over Mainz, as his team picked up their second consecutive league victory.

Podolski’s brace, either side of half-time, lifts Cologne up to 13th and out of the relegation zone as they backed up last week’s shock 3-2 win over current champions Bayern Munich with their third victory in four league games.

Having fired home a third minute free-kick, ‘Poldi’ scored Cologne’s third after he dribbled past two Mainz defenders and drilled his shot into the top left-hand corner of the net on 55 minutes.

Slovenia striker Milivoje Novakovic, who broke Bayern hearts with two goals last week, also scored twice to inflict a fifth defeat on Mainz from their last nine games.

Having won all seven of their opening German league games this season, Mainz are now fifth in the league. Werder Bremen drop closer to the relegation zone as they are now 14th despite their 1-1 draw with Hanover 96 late yesterday, which leaves the latter fourth behind Bayern.

On Saturday, Bayern coach Louis van Gaal insisted Dutch winger Holland’s Arjen Robben and France’s Franck Ribery are just as important to the German champions as Lionel Messi and Xavi are to Barcelona.

Dutch star Robben netted twice as he combined with Ribery to inspire Bayern’s 4-0 win over Hoffenheim at Munich’s Allianz Arena which moved Bayern up to third in the Bundesliga.

Robben and midfield maestro Ribery-dubbed ‘Robbery’ by the German media tore Hofffenheim to pieces and van Gaal insists the pair are Bayern’s answer to Argentina’s Messi and Spain’s Xavi.

“With Robben and Ribery, we have far more creativity,” said van Gaal. “They are unbelievably important to Bayern, like Messi and Xavi for Barcelona or Ronaldo and (Mesut) Ozil for Real Madrid.”

With league leaders Dortmund drawing 1-1 with Kaiserslautern, Bayern’s win leaves them 13 points from the top while Dortmund’s lead at the top of the table has been cut to 10 points.

Second-placed Leverkusen got back to winning ways after last week’s defeat shock defeat at midtable Nuremberg when they won 30 at Eintracht Frankfurt.

GERMANY: Bremen’s Marko Arnautovic (left) challenges for the ball with Hannover’s Steven Cherundolo during the German Bundesliga soccer match, —AP Ex-Germany captain Michael Ballack spent the entire game on the bench and was sent for an MRI scan on his knee on Sunday as he struggles to recover from the leg injury which has kept had kept him out for four months this season.

Bottom side Borussia Moenchengladbach took another step towards relegation when they were beaten 3-1 at St Pauli and had goal-scorer Igor de Camargo sent off for a dangerous tackle after just 21 minutes to compound their misery.

The result cost coach Michael Frontzeck his job after the 46-yearold was dismissed on Sunday

evening with no news of his replacement.

Stumbling Stuttgart also dropped further into the relegation mire when they were humbled 4-1 at Nuremberg. Schalke are up to 10th, as they prepare for next week’s Champions League Round of 16 tie with Valencia in Spain, after they beat Freiburg 1-0.

Wolfsburg were beaten 1-0 at home by Hamburg as they begin life without ex-England manager Steve McClaren, who was sacked on Monday, and Wolves are just one place above the relegation zone. —AFP

German League results/standings Cologne 4 (Podolski 3, 55, Novakovic 43, 60) Mainz 2 (Allagui 31, Sliskovic 89); Werder Bremen 1 (Mertesacker 50) Hanover 96 1 (Ya Konan 26).

Saturday Bayern Munich 4 (Gomez 2, Mueller 15, Robben 63, 81) Hoffenheim 0; Schalke 04 1 (Farfan 49) Freiburg 0; VfB Stuttgart 1 (Funk 45) Nuremberg 4 (Simons 11, Schieber 28, Chandler

51, Ekici 63); VfL Wolfsburg 0 Hamburg 1 (Petric 32-pen); Eintracht Frankfurt 0, Bayer Leverkusen 3 (Rolfes 9, Renato Augusto 32, Balitsch 84); St Pauli 3 (Kruse 38, Asamoah 53, Lehmann 58) Borussia Moenchengladbach 1 (de Camargo 9); Kaiserslautern 1 (Moravek 90) Borussia Dortmund 1 (Bender 81).

German league table after the weekend’s matches (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points): Dortmund B Leverkusen B Munich Hanover 96 Mainz 05 Freiburg Hamburg Hoffenheim Nuremberg

22 22 22 22 22 22 21 22 22

16 12 11 12 12 10 10 8 9

4 6 6 2 1 4 3 8 5

2 4 5 8 9 8 8 6 8

47 44 46 30 34 29 30 39 30

13 30 26 31 26 29 30 32 31

52 42 39 38 37 34 33 32 32

Schalke 04 Eintracht St. Pauli Cologne W Bremen VfL Wolfsburg Kaiserslautern VfB Stuttgart M’gladbach

22 22 21 22 22 22 22 22 22

8 8 7 7 6 5 6 5 4

5 3 4 4 6 8 5 4 4

9 11 10 11 10 9 11 13 14

27 24 26 29 28 26 32 38 32

26 29 35 41 44 31 38 43 56

29 27 25 25 24 23 23 19 16

Celtic extend lead at the top DUNDEE: Celtic cruised to a 3-1 win at Dundee United yesterday as the leaders moved five points clear at the top of the Scottish Premier League.

Neil Lennon’s side responded to Rangers’ 6-0 win over Motherwell on Saturday with a less emphatic but just as valuable victory thanks to goals from Anthony Stokes, Mark Wilson and Daniel Majstorovic.

David Goodwillie had given the hosts hope after Celtic took a two-goal lead but the visitors were able to earn their fifth successive league win without much fuss. That was a stark contrast to Celtic’s previous trip to Tannadice, which resulted in long-lasting controversy with referee Dougie McDonald eventually quitting amid the fallout over his false explanation of why he had rescinded a penalty award to the Hoops. The Tannadice pitch passed an early-morning inspection following continuing heavy rain and Celtic were able to take control right from the start. Charlie Mulgrew saw an early free-kick held by Dusan Pernis and Celtic soon took a 16th-minute lead.

Beram Kayal dispossessed Scott Robertson and fed Stokes, who ran into the box before firing a left-footed shot which bounced up off the backtracking Garry Kenneth and into the net.

Prince Buaben soon burst through at the other end but Celtic goalkeeper Fraser Forster came off his line to block the midfielder’s effort with his feet.

Celtic went further ahead in the 35th minute. Wilson fed Gary Hooper and continued his run before striking Scott Brown’s cutback from 14 yards and seeing it go in off Sean Dillon. Majstorovic headed a Kris Commons corner just wide as Celtic pressed for a killer third goal. United got back in the game in the 64th minute. Celtic failed to clear Conway’s free-kick and Forster parried the ball out as far as Goodwillie, who stabbed the ball into the corner from eight yards. Goodwillie came close to an equaliser when he turned inside his man after a positive run from substitute Johnny Russell, but Forster got a hand to his powerful low shot from the edge of the area.

United were pinning Celtic back but Hooper almost finished them off when he raced on to Dillon’s short headed back pass, sliding the ball past the onrushing Pernis but seeing it come off the far post.

Majstorovic did restore the two-goal cushion when he dived on the edge of the six-yard box to head home Mulgrew’s inswinging free-kick after Daniel Swanson tripped Georgios Samaras. —AFP

Maroons crowned champions Goa rolling trophy KUWAIT: In a final billed as the ‘Clash of the Titans’ two of Kuwait’s oldest and most prominent Goan football clubs, Goa Maroons and Navelim Youth Center fought tooth and nail for the ‘GOA Rolling Trophy’ sponsored by Bassem International

Trading Company, with Maroons just edging Navelim by a solitary goal.

Goa Maroons star forward John Kennedy showed once again why he is the most feared striker in Kuwait when he latched on to a pass from Terrence Carvalho in the 25th minute

Spectators

of the first half and his stinging left footer deflected off defender Johnny and went into the goal past a bemused keeper Britto to ensure Goa Maroons lifted the G.O.A rolling trophy for the third consecutive year for a second time.

The final of this prestigious tournament now into its 17th year, was played on the 4th of February at the MOH grounds, Shuwaikh and witnessed by a large crowd on a cold winter morning.

Goa Maroons adapted easily to the conditions and controlled the first 30 minutes of the game with the cross bar denying Gaby’s excellent free kick attempt from just outside the box in the 15th minute and Elvis and new signing Steven Rodrigues also failing to connect from close range.

However stung by Kennedy’s goal, Navelim came back strongly, and veteran Americo, Duarte, Seby and Simao were all over the Maroons defense right till the end of the match, but the famed Goa Maroons defense ably marshaled by Ian in the absence of James who is recovering

Winners from an injury, and well supported by Patrick, Jerry and Reji who had an excellent game, ensured goalkeeper Glen kept a clean slate. Goa Maroons did manage a few raids of their own in the second half through Philip and Everest, but Johnny and Alfred in the Navelim defense proved why they are considered the best in the business.

In a brief presentation ceremony hosted by Julio Cardoso, G.O.A President Raymond D’Sa thanked the sponsor and chief guest Charles

D’Sa of Bassem international Company for his unconditional support since the last eight years, as well as KIFF, participating teams, supporters and benefactors including John Vaz, Leo and Peter D’Souza.

The winner’s trophy was collected

by Maroons captain Ian from the chief guest amid loud cheers from the Maroons supporters. In his short address, Charles D’Sa congratulated both the teams for an excellent game of football and reemphasized

his support to GOA KIFF President Fidelis Fernandes, John Vaz, Peter D’Souza and Assumption D’Sa gave away the individual trophies while man of the match was awarded to Gaby of Goa Maroons for his stellar performance. Ian D’Souza the captain and a committee member was honored for completing fifteen years of dedicated service to the Association and in closing, V. President, Tony Correia proposed the vote of thanks.

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Jackson thriller seals Bobcats win BANGALORE: India’s Piyush Chawla, dives to stop the ball after a shot played by Australia’s Tim Paine (in yellow) as India’s captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni watches during a warm-up match. —AP

Australia crash to Chawla spin World Cup warm-up BANGALORE: Piyush Chawla spun India to a remarkable 38-run win over defending champions Australia in a high-profile World Cup warm-up match yesterday.

The leg-spinner took 4-31 as Australia collapsed to 176 chasing a modest 215run target, after being strongly placed at 118-1 in the day-night match before a sizeable crowd at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. “It will be difficult to chase anything over 230 on such kinds of tracks. I would be pleased if the wicket turns slightly less in future matches,” said India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

“Piyush has a good googly and turns the odd one. It’s not about winning these warm-up games, as the real task starts when we get into the tournament.”

Chawla, 22, also upstaged Australian paceman Brett Lee, who earlier gave a superb exhibition of fast bowling to rock India and finish with 3-35 off 10 impressive overs. Australia skipper Ricky Ponting, who missed a recent home oneday series against England due to a finger injury, top-scored with a solid 57 off 85 balls with four boundaries.

“It was hard to bat on right through the day. It spun a lot in the second innings. Hopefully, as the tournament goes on, we will get better wickets than this one. This one looked a bit underprepared,” said Ponting.

“It was nice to spend time in the middle. I had three-four training sessions before this game and it was nice to spend time there.” The tourists’ chances receded sharply after the dismissal of their captain, stumped while attempting to slog-sweep off-spinner Harbhajan Singh (3-15), who brilliantly supported Chawla. Ponting and Indian fast bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth exchanged words after an appeal for caught behind was turned down in early stages of the Australian skipper’s knock.

There was no hint of collapse following fine knocks from openers Shane Watson (33) and Tim Paine (37). Paine added 51 for the opening wicket with Watson and 67 for the next with his captain. But Chawla started the slide with Michael Clarke’s dismissal for a duck as the tourists lost their last nine wickets for 58 runs, with spinners doing the maximum damage. Lee was in the limelight in the first session, dismissing Suresh Raina (12), Harbhajan and Chawla in his second spell to prove he is bang in form for the World Cup, which starts February 19.

Lee was backed by John Hastings (224). Australia’s only bowling concern was 25 runs they conceded in wides, with offsong paceman Mitchell Johnson giving away 10. Hard-hitting opener Virender Sehwag gave a good account of himself

in India’s below-par batting performance, top-scoring with a 56-ball 54 with one six and eight fours. He fell soon after reaching his half-century with a six over longoff, inside-edging off-spinner Jason Krejza’s delivery on to his stumps. — AFP

Scoreboard BANGALORE, India: Complete scoreboard of a World Cup warm-up match between India and Australia on yesterday: India: G. Gambhir c White b Bollinger 6 V. Sehwag b Krejza 54 V. Kohli c Hussey b Hastings 21 Yuvraj Singh c Paine b Johnson 1 MS Dhoni b Hastings 11 S. Raina c Paine b Lee 12 Y. Pathan c Krejza b Hussey 32 Harbhajan Singh b Lee 4 P. Chawla b Lee 0 R. Ashwin not out 25 A. Nehra c Krejza b Hussey 19 Extras (lb3, nb1, w25) 29 Total (for all out; 44.3 overs) 214 Fall of wickets: 1-12 (Gambhir), 2-54 (Kohli), 3-63 (Yuvraj), 4-101 (Dhoni), 5-113 (Sehwag), 6-132 (Raina), 7-136 (Harbhajan), 8-138 (Chawla), 9-187 (Pathan), 10-214 (Nehra).

Bowling: Lee 10-1-35-3 (nb1, w4), Bollinger 6-0-29-1 (w2), Johnson 9-042-1 (w10), Hastings 6-0-24-2 (w4), Krejza 10-0-56-1 (w2), Hussey 3.3-025-2 (w3).

Australia: S. Watson b Chawla b Sreesanth33 T. Paine c Patel b Yuvraj 37 R. Ponting st Dhoni b Harbhajan57 M. Clarke b Chawla 0 C. White c Ashwin b Chawla 4 D. Hussey st Dhoni b Chawla 0 C. Ferguson c Kohli b Chawla 8 M. Johnson st Dhoni b Harbhajan15 J. Hastings not out 1 J. Krejza lbw b Harbhajan 0 B. Lee c Ashwin 1 Extras (b3, lb6, w11) 20 Total (for all out; 37.5 overs) 176 Fall of wickets: 1-51 (Watson), 2-118 (Paine), 3-120 (Clarke), 4-138 (White), 5-138 (Hussey), 6-148 (Ferguson), 7166 (Ponting), 8-175 (Johnson), 9175 (Krejza), 10-176 (Lee).

Bowling: Nehra 2-0-12-0, Sreesanth 5-0-21-1, Patel 2-0-22-0, Ashwin 9.50-47-1, Chawla 9-0-31-4 (w6), Yuvraj 5-0-19-1, Harbhajan 5-0-15-3 (w5).

Result: India win by 38 runs

Pakistan desperate for World Cup glory DHAKA: Pakistan must clinch the World Cup if they are to win back their fans, paceman Shoaib Akhtar said yesterday as his team try to emerge from the damaging spot-fixing scandal. Pakistan have endured a troubled build-up to the tournament after former captain Salman Butt and bowlers Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif were banned on charges of corruption relating to the Lord’s Test against England last year.

“Obviously we are very hurt inside by whatever has happened to us,” Akhtar, 35, told reporters in Dhaka.

“Pakistan need to win this World Cup at any cost. It will bring the charm back for people in Pakistan.”

The fast bowler said his team had enough bowling resources at their disposal despite the absence of the new-ball pair Aamer and Asif.

“We are unfortunate that they are not there,” he said. “But what can we do now? We have got to move on. I think whatever pace attack we have is good enough to win matches.

“We have the bowlers who can bowl at the death and we can restrict the sides. The main thing is that the ball is going to reverse swing as the match progresses. That is where I think Pakistan’s strength lies.” Akhtar said he was confident of rattling up a good pace as he used to when at his prime. “I still bowl 150 kph (93 mph).

Obviously when you are 26 and 36, it’s a bit different. I will try to do as well as I can with whatever ability I have. I am going to push my limits and give it all to the team.”

Akhtar, who missed the last World Cup in the wake of a doping ban and fitness problems, also said he was looking forward to a likely duel with India’s Sachin Tendulkar. “We all know he is a great player. Every bowler gets hit. Even Brett Lee gets hit a long way, so I am now worried about being hit for sixes by Tendulkar. I have got him off the first ball too. “Not only Sachin, we will try to get other key players early because they can single-handedly win matches. — AFP

ATLANTA: Stephen Jackson hit a last-second jump shot to complete a remarkable Charlotte Bobcats comeback beating the Hawks 88-86 on Saturday night.

Charlotte rallied after trailing by 22 points in the second quarter and were led superbly by Jackson, a former Atlanta player, who scored 32 points, including the winning shot over Maurice Evans and Al Horford.

Shaun Livingston scored a season-high 22 points as Charlotte earned its first win in Atlanta since 2007. Josh Smith scored 28 points for Atlanta, which led by 22 in the second quarter and 18 in the third period.

Knicks 105, Nets 95 In Newark, New Jersey, Wilson Chandler replaced the injured Amare Stoudemire and scored 21 points as the New York Knicks beat the New Jersey Nets. Reserve Toney Douglas added 19 points and Landry Fields had 14, making three big 3-pointers in the fourth quarter as the Knicks won for just the second time in six games and improved to 27-26.

Stoudemire missed his first game of the season with a sprained right big toe, but the Knicks overcame their All-Star’s absence by making 16 3-pointers, including Chandler’s that gave them the lead for good with 4:08 left.

Devin Harris scored 22 for the Nets, who were bidding for their first three-game winning streak in two years.

Mavericks 106, Rockets 102 In Houston, Peja Stojakovic scored 22 points and moved to fourth place in career 3-pointers as the Dallas Mavericks beat the Houston Rockets.

Stojakovic, who was 1 for 11 from 3-point range in his previous three games, went 4 for 6 from beyond the arc. He has 1,723 career 3s and trails only teammate Jason Kidd (1,756), Reggie Miller (2,560) and Ray Allen (2,562) in NBA history.

Allen passed Miller for the lead Thursday.

Dirk Nowitzki also scored 22 points and Shawn Marion had 14 points and nine rebounds for the Mavericks, who have won 12 of their last 14. Kyle Lowry scored 26 points and Kevin Martin added 17 for the Rockets.

Bulls 97, Hornets 88 In New Orleans, Derrick Rose scored 23 points as the Chicago Bulls methodically turned a 12-point third-quarter deficit into a comfortable victory over the New Orleans Hornets. Carlos Boozer had 17 points and Luol Deng 14 for the Bulls, who outscored the Hornets 25-14 in the fourth quarter to close out a five game road trip at 3-2. Marcus Thornton had a season-high 24 points and David West added 17 for the New Orleans, which has lost seven of nine.

Spurs 118, Wizards 94 In Washington, Tony Parker scored 10 of his 18 points in less than 2 minutes during the first quarter to jump-start the San Antonio Spurs to a rout of the hapless Washington Wizards.

A day after losing 77-71 at Philadelphia, San Antonio bettered that points total before halftime. The Spurs shot better than 60 percent from the field for most of the game, finishing at 58.4 percent, including 13 of 25 from 3-point range, and led by as many as 41 points.

Every available San Antonio player had scored midway through the third quarter.

Cartier Martin and Andray Blatche each scored 16 points to lead the Wizards.

76ers 107, T’wolves 87 In Minneapolis, Thaddeus Young led the 76ers with 18 points as Philadelphia cruised past the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Andre Iguodala had 15 points, seven assists and five rebounds, and Louis Williams had 13 points and five assists for the 76ers (26-28), who have won nine of their last 12 games to creep into the Eastern Conference playoff race.

Kevin Love had 16 points and 13 rebounds for the Timberwolves, his 40th consecutive double-double. But the Wolves shot just 36 percent to lose their second straight after surprising road wins against New Orleans and Houston.

Pacers 103, Bucks 97 In Milwaukee, Danny Granger scored 14 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter to help the Indiana Pacers end a six-game losing streak to the Milwaukee Bucks. Darren Collison added

SACRAMENTO: Kings center DeMarcus Cousins (right) drives to the basket against Oklahoma City Thunder Nick Collison during an NBA basketball game. —AP 22 points as the Pacers improved to 7-1 since Frank Vogel took over as the interim coach on Jan. 30, replacing the fired Jim O’Brien.

Indiana’s last victory over the Bucks was 115108 on April 15, 2009.

Roy Hibbert added 13 points and eight rebounds for Indiana, which has won three of its last four road games. Carlos Delfino, a reserve, led the Bucks with 21 points.

Thunder 99, Kings 97 In Sacramento, Kevin Durant scored 10 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter to help lead

the Oklahoma City Thunder past the Sacramento Kings.

The victory was the fourth in five games for the Thunder. Oklahoma City took the lead on Eric Maynor’s 3-pointer to end the first quarter and led the rest of the way in winning their fourth straight road game. Tyreke Evans had 30 points and nine rebounds for the Kings, who have lost five straight. The Kings have the second-worst home record (7-22) in the NBA behind the Cleveland Cavaliers. Russell Westbrook had 22 points and seven assists for the Thunder. —AP

NBA results/standings NBA results and standings on Saturday. Charlotte 88, Atlanta 86; NY Knicks 105, New Jersey 95; Chicago 97, New Orleans 88; Philadelphia 107, Minnesota 87; San Antonio 118, Washington 94; Dallas 106, Houston 102; Indiana 103, Milwaukee 97; Oklahoma City 99, Sacramento 97.

Eastern Conference Atlantic Division W L PCT Boston 38 14 .731 NY Knicks 27 26 .509 Philadelphia 26 28 .481 New Jersey 17 38 .309 Toronto 14 40 .259

GB 11.5 13 22.5 25

Western Conference Northwest Division Oklahoma City 34 18 .654 Denver 31 23 .574 Utah 31 24 .564 Portland 29 24 .547 Minnesota 13 41 .241

4 4.5 5.5 22

Pacific Division 38 16 .704 26 25 .510 23 29 .442 20 33 .377 12 38 .240

10.5 14 17.5 24

7 13 16.5 20.5

Central Division Chicago 36 16 .692 Indiana 24 28 .462 Milwaukee 20 33 .377 Detroit 20 34 .370 Cleveland 9 45 .167

12 16.5 17 28

LA Lakers Phoenix Golden State LA Clippers Sacramento

Southeast Division Miami 39 14 .736 Atlanta 33 20 .623 Orlando 34 21 .618 Charlotte 23 31 .426 Washington 14 38 .269

6 6 16.5 24.5

Southwest Division San Antonio 45 9 .833 Dallas 38 16 .704 New Orleans 33 23 .589 Memphis 29 26 .527 Houston 25 30 .455

Busch wins Shootout after Hamlin disqualified DAYTONA BEACH: It was a twocar tango at Daytona International Speedway, where the wild, pack racing was replaced Saturday night by sizzling fast speeds and a strange ending that gave Kurt Busch the win in the Budweiser Shootout.

The exhibition race was the first test on Daytona’s smooth new pavement, and speeds at times hit 206 mph (332 kph) in a race that had a record 28 lead changes among nine drivers.

The final pass, though, was ruled illegal as Denny Hamlin was disqualified for going below the out-of-bounds line. It made Busch, who actually crossed the finish line in second place, the first Dodge driver to win the nonpoints race that has opened Speedweeks for the last 33 years.

“What an unbelievable experience, this two-car draft. I had no idea what to expect going in,” Busch said. “I was just going to take it one lap at a time and see how it played out.” The ruling against Hamlin by NASCAR was not controversial. The yellow-line rule has been in effect and enforced since NASCAR returned to Daytona in July 2001, nearly five months following the last-lap accident that killed Dale Earnhardt.

“I thought it was a great, threewide finish,” said Hamlin, “but obviously I used some pavement I shouldn’t have.” It was instead the style of racing seen Saturday that created the most controversy as the opinions between drivers and fans differed greatly.

The racing at Daytona had for

so long been a white-knuckle, bumper-to-bumper mob of race cars unable to pull away from each other. Cars could shoot through the field at will, but one small bobble often created dangerous accidents.

When the track opened last month for testing, though, teams had seemingly figured out the new NASCAR rule packages and the smooth surface at Daytona had created a new strategy of two-car racing.

So from the start of Saturday’s 75-lap race, the field was quickly split into several packs of two cars.

It lasted all the way to the end, when two packs of two had pulled so far away from everyone else that they were the only four drivers in contention for the win.

Ryan Newman was leading

Hamlin around the oval, with Busch and Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray trailing close behind. Newman, as the leader, said he knew he was “a sitting duck” as he waited for Hamlin’s attempted pass. It came as they closed in on the checkered flag, when Hamlin dove low and eventually under the yellow line that circles the bottom of the track.

Busch then skirted around Newman at the top of the track, pulling McMurray with him.

Hamlin was black-flagged and fell to 12th in the final standings, while Busch was declared the winner with McMurray and Newman finishing second and third.

Hamlin understood NASCAR’s ruling. “That yellow line’s there to protect us and the fans in the stands safety. — AP

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Soderling retains Rotterdam title

PARIS: Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic poses with her trophy after she defeated Belgium’s Kim Clijsters during the final match at the Gaz de France WTA Open 2011 tennis tournament.—AP

Kvitova wins Paris Open PARIS: Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic continued her impressive season with vic tor y over Belgium’s Australian Open champion K im Clijsters in the final of the Paris Open yesterday.

World number 18 Kvitova, 20, won the match in straight sets 6-4, 6-3 to claim her third career title and add a famous scalp to her growing list.

Clijsters had a neck problem and appeared fatigued after a triumphant start to the year, but Kvitova coped admirably with the pressure of facing such an experienced opponent, who was appearing in her fifth straight final.

“I’m so happy, what more can I say?” said the left-handed Kvitova. “When you have Kim in front of you, you have nothing to lose. I had to be the first to hit the ball.”

Kvitova, who reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon last year and the quar-

ter-finals at the Australian Open, secured her first break of ser ve in Clijster’s opening service game.

The Belgian fought her way back into the first set but Kvitova broke again to go 4-2 ahead, producing 14 winners to Clijsters’ five and taking a one-set lead with a love game.

It was the same scenario in the second set, with Kvitova procuring an early break before Clijsters fought back.

Clijsters appeared less mobile and less reliable with her serve than usual, however, and when Kvitova secured another break at 3-3, there was no way back.

“She put me under lots of pressure whe she played in the middle of the court,” said Clijsters. “As a result, I wasn’t able to develop my best game.”

Despite the defeat, Clijsters will be officially named the WTA’s new world number one on Monday, with Kvitova set to move up to 14th. —AFP

ROT TERDAM: Swede Robin Soderling retained his title at the ATP Rotterdam Open yesterday with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 defeat of France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to join compatriot Stefan Edberg in lifting the indoor trophy twice.

Two-time Roland Garros finalist Soderling could barely contain his joy after making it two titles from three events so far in 2011, where he stands 13-1.

“I’m incredibly happy about my win,” said the world number four, “It’s obvious that I like Rotterdam a lot.” Soderling, the top seed who beat Mikhail Youzhny a year ago for the title when the Russian retired injured in the second set, now stands 4-0 over Tsonga after losing his first set in the series.

The Swede, retaining a title for the first time in his career, now owns eight trophys from 18 ATP finals. Soderling maintained his domination over Frenchmen as he won an eighth consecutive match against a player from France.

“I played well in the important moments,” said the winner, who also claimed honours a month ago in Brisbane as he beat holder Andy Roddick in that final to move into the Australian Open on a high.

“It was a tough match with Jo, like always, but I was able to play my best tennis and keep up my momentum. It feels great.

“When you come to a place where you’ve played well, it brings up good feelings,” said Soderling, who has enjoyed fresh success since starting with Italian coach Claudio Pistolesi in the close season.

“It’s tough to defend the title, it adds some extra pressure, but I had only positive feelings this week. I had many tough matches and I saved a match point in the second round.

“I had to fight a lot in every match but I had the margins on my side. I’ve had a great start to the season.” Tsonga, seeded eighth, was denied his sixth career title after winning his last in October 2009 in Tokyo, the venue for his last final.

The defeat was only his second in a final after losing the 2008 Australian Open trophy match to Novak Djokovic. But the Frenchman

ROTTERDAM: Sweden’s Robin Soderling holds the trophy after defeating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France in three sets, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, in the final of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament. —AP was content with his week and said he now feels that his tennis - stalled in 2010 with various injuries - has been re-born.

“I played a good match, in fact, it was my best of the week,” he said. “I got better with each match this week, I’m pleased with the state of my game.

“I played well but Robin was too strong, especially at the end of the match. I’ll take confidence form this match into Maresille next week and then hopefully into the Davis Cup (first round against Austria in Vienna).”

Soderling claimed victory in one hour 22 minutes, but was out-aced by Tsonga 20 to 12. The Swede claimed the opening set after losing an early break but getting it back in the eighth game.

Tsonga answered to level the match in the second set, carrying momentum from a 4-2 lead over Soderling. The Scandinavian top seed re-asserted his big game in the third, moving into position with a break for 5-3 and serving out his 13th win of the year from 14 matches.

Soderling began the season by winning the Brisbane title and suffered his only loss in the Australian Open fourth round against Alexandr Dolgopolov.

With the loss, the 18th-ranked Tsonga now stands 15-21 over his career against Top ten players. Soderling becomes the fourth player to win two Rotterdam titles, following the example of not only Edberg but Arthur Ashe, and Frenchman Nicolas Escude. —AFP

Hantuchova thrashes Errani to take Pattaya Open title

KUWAIT: (From left) Waleed Mihyar, Marzouq Al-Ajmi, Sheikh Duaij Al-Sabah, Anwar Bu Khamsin, Eissa Hamza and Salah Bin Eidan during a press conference. —Photo by Joseph Shagra

KT to host Kuwait International Rally

By Nawara Fattahova KUWAIT: Car racing fans can enjoy the upcoming 2011 Kuwait International Rally that will be held on March 10-12, 2011. This year the rally is being organized by the Kuwait International Automobile Club (KT), who promised to present a well organized and exciting event.

The rally will be held under the patronage of Sheikh Ahmad AlFahad, the Deputy Prime Minister for economic affairs, State Minister for Development Affairs and State Minister for Housing.

Head of the Higher Organizing Committee for the rally, Sheikh Duaij Fahad Al-Sabah appreciated the support of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah for supporting car sports in Kuwait. He also thanked the Cabinet, the KT for their efforts to organize the event and the Kuwait Quarter Mile Club (KQMC) for their participation.

“We promise to provide help and support to all the participants,” he noted during the press conference yesterday at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Salmiya.

Eissa Hamza, the rally’s executive director stressed that KT is capable of organizing the event even though the organization was

just recognized by the International Federation (FIA) in November 2010. “The KT is cooperating with only the KQMC because the Kuwait Motor Sports Club didn’t respond to our invitation to organize the event. KT employed 350 individuals to work on the event,” he pointed out.

Hamza invited all rally drivers in Kuwait to register their participation in this rally. “All competitors should participate in this rally, especially since it will be held in time for national celebrations,” he said. “We should all participate to make it a success. All those interested have a chance to register until Februar y 28, 2011.”

The main reason behind holding the second round of the Middle East rally in Kuwait is to promote the country’s reputation. “By hosting the rally we can prove that Kuwait is capable,” said Anwar Bu Khamsin, Deputy Chairman of the Organizing Committee. “We are not looking to make a financial profit from the event and we are not looking to compete with other people or organizations through this event.”

According to Bu Khamsin, the Higher Committee has enough experience to organize such an

event. “We will work hard to continue this successful organization. We hope to organize an excellent rally that suits Kuwait’s reputation. The negotiations between the FIA and KT was a great challenge for us and we promised to provide great support to make this event successful,” he added.

The Organizing Committee is cooperating with different authorities and bodies to organize the event. “We are cooperating with the Kuwait Quarter Mile Club, which will provide the technical support to organize this rally. Also, the Public Authority for Youth and Sports is supporting us by giving participants a sports leave for their absence,” Bu Khamsin pointed out.

“We hope to achieve results that reflect the experience they have gained through participating in different car races and competitions despite the tough circumstances. I believe that we will have champions capable of achieving good positions in the future,” concluded Bu Khamsin.

The event will be launched at a ceremony on March 10 at 6:00 pm at the Holiday I nn Hotel. International champions are expected to attend the rally as well.

PATTAYA: Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova clinched her first title in almost four years by trouncing Italian Sara Errani 6-0 6-2 in an anticlimactic Pattaya Open final yesterday.

Errani posed little challenge for the former Australian Open semi-finalist and the result appeared clear from the opening exchanges with Hantuchova dictating the play through solid serves and powerful groundstrokes.

The match was a stark contrast to Hantuchova’s ill-tempered but entertaining semi-final against twice-champion Vera Zvonareva as she breezed through the first set and barely gave her opponent a chance to find her feet.

Errani mustered some brief resistance early in the second set but Hantuchova soon wrestled back control and the match became one-way traffic. The Slovak clinched the title without dropping a set in the whole tournament.

“I really focused on my play, point by point, not giving away anything, I was just trying to get the job done and I was really hungry for another title,” Hantuchova told reporters.

“I just showed that I really can focus and I’m mentally physically strong.” She said her performance in the Thai beach town had come as a surprise to her.”When you least expect something, that’s when good things happen and that happened to me this week,” she said. —Reuters

PATTAYA: Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia holds the trophy after winning her final match over Sara Errani of Italy in the PTT Pattaya Open tennis tournament. —AP

Verdasco in SAP Open final SAN JOSE: Fernando Verdasco saw the way Juan Martin del Potro dismantled Lleyton Hewitt in the quarterfinals of the SAP Open and knew he’d have to be at the top of his game to make a return trip to the final.

Verdasco used another strong serving match and a powerful forehand that delivered winners at key moments to beat del Potro 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals Saturday night. “That match maybe woke me up in the sense that I said to myself, ‘I really need to go out there and give my best if I want to win this match,”‘ Verdasco said. “I started from the first point 100 percent and I broke him in the first game of the match. I was feeling pretty good in all the aspects of the game.” Verdasco will play late yesterday against unseeded Milos Raonic, who advanced to his first ATP Tour final in a walkover after second-seeded Gael Monfils pulled out of the tournament with an injured left wrist.

Verdasco improved to 9-0 at this tournament and is looking to follow up the title he won in three sets over Andy Roddick in last year’s final. He is looking to defend a title for the first time in his career and earn his sixth career championship.

“For my style of game this court is one of the surfaces that I feel better on,” Verdasco said. “It’s one surface and conditions that really help me for my game.”

Verdasco made it back to the final despite spending almost two weeks before the tournament on his couch in Madrid after having a cortisone shot in his injured left ankle and then nursing a fever.

He was tested more than he has been all week by del Potro, the 2009 US Open winner who is working his way back into form after missing almost all of last year with a right wrist injury.

Verdasco had his run of 37 straight service holds ended early in the second set but responded to the early deficit by breaking del Potro’s serve in two of his final three service games.

He got right back into the set with a nifty forehand passing shot winner on the first point on del Potro’s next service game and then earned a set point with another forehand winner. His deep return forced del Potro to hit a forehand wide and he was back on serve at 2-3.

Verdasco then withstood a three-deuce game on his own serve to get to 4-all and came through on his fourth break point attempt in the next game to take control. He hit unforced errors on the first three break chances, barely missing a forehand winner down the line.

He won it with a forehand winner and then held his final service game at love, closing the match with his fifth ace. Verdasco broke del Potro’s serve in the opening game of the match and was never threatened in the opening set, losing just three points in his five service games.

Del Potro lost his serve three times after losing it just once in his first three matches this week. “I had a bad start but it was in the beginning of the match so I had all the rest of the match to try to beat him,” del Potro said. “But he played much better than me today.”

Del Potro has fallen from fourth in the rankings after winning the 2009 U.S. Open to 484th heading into this week as he played only three tournaments last year because of the injury and did not win a match after January.

He was looking to become the second-lowest ranked player to win an ATP Tour title since the rankings began in 1973. Hewitt was ranked 550th when he won in Adelaide in 1998. Verdasco and Raonic have never played but will become quite familiar with each other in the next few days because of a scheduling quirk. After playing Sunday in San Jose, the two will meet again on Wednesday in the first round in Memphis. “I prefer to win tomorrow and lose in Memphis so I will have one more title,” Verdasco said. —AP

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Preparations underway to host Sheikh Fahad shooting tourney

By Abdellatif Sharaa KUWAIT: Two days before the late Sheik h Fahad AlSalem Al-Sabah Grand Prix Shotgun Tournament begins at Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah Olympic Shooting R anges, final preparations are underway for the opening under the patronage of Sheikha Latifa Al-Fahad Al-Salem Al-Sabah.

The Higher Organizing Committee led by President of Kuwait and Asian Shooting Federations Sheikh Salman Sabah Al-Salem AlLate Sheikh Fahad Humoud Al-Sabah is making Al-Salem Al-Sabah sure all needs to ensure the success of such an important event are met. Sheikh Salman will hold an expanded press conference at 7:00 pm at the Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad complex to speak about the event and all related issues as well as the shooting sport in Kuwait and Asia.

Meanwhile the Arab Shooting Federation will hold its meeting in Kuwait, February 18th, as Kuwait is the host of the Federation and Eng. Duaij Al-Otaibi is its President, who is also member of the ISSF Administrative Council.

Abdallah Al-Rashidi during practice Eng. Duaij Al- O taibi said the Arab Federation will discuss many issues and plans to continue the development of the Arab shooting to be able to complete regionally and globally. He said the Arab Federation used to organize one tournament every four of five years, but recently as Kuwait took over the presidency the ASF is organizing two tournaments every year, which is quite a change. He

Eng. Duaij Al-Otaibi with Kuwaiti female team at the Asian championship

said, we decided to invite the ASF to attend the meeting in Kuwait to be able to attend the Grand Prix tournament, specially that it is coinciding with Kuwait’s celebrations of its national days.

Eng. Al-Otaibi expressed appreciation of the patronage of Sheikha Latifa Al-Fahad Al-Sabah.

He said, the list of participating shooters promise to have strong competition among highly

ranked world champions. Al-Otaibi said the tournament will be technically beneficial for Kuwaiti participants particularly in organization or judging.

Al-Otaibi thanked the political leadership headed by HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah AlAhmad, HH the Crown Prince and HH the Premier for their unlimited support towards Kuwait Shooting’s achievements at all levels.

Goergl stuns favorites

DUBAI: Spain’s Alvaro Quiros (left) and Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai Deputy Ruler hold the trophy after Quiros won the final round of the Dubai Desert Classic Golf Tournament. —AP

Quiros wins Dubai Classic DUBAI: Alvaro Quiros of Spain won the Dubai Desert Classic with a wild final round yesterday that included a hole-in-one and triple bogey as Tiger Woods’ fell out of contention early and lost his bid to win his first tournament in 15 months.

On a day when the leaderboard constantly changed, the 36th-ranked Quiros shot a 68 to finish with an 11-under 277, one shot better than overnight co-leader Anders Hansen of Denmark and James Kingston of South Africa.

A shot further back were Jean-Baptiste Gonnet of France, Scott Strange of Australia and Alvaro Velasco of Spain. Woods, who started the final day a shot off the lead, began his round badly for a second straight day with two bogeys in his first three holes and never recovered.

The 3rd-ranked 35-year-old is still seeking his first tournament trophy in more than a year after falling well short with a final round 3-over 75 and ending tied for 20th with a total of 4-under 284.

“There were quite a few positives this week but a couple of glaring examples of what I need to work on,” Woods said. “It’s like anything. All my old feels (for the clubs) are out the window when the winds blow. That’s the thing when you are making change. It’s fine when the wind is not blowing.

But when you have to hit a shot when the wind blows ... the new swing patterns get exposed.” Coming into Sunday, it was still anyone’s tournament to win and several big names along with Woods seemed poised for victory.

Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy was tied at the top with Hansen and a resurgent Sergio Garcia of Spain was tied with Woods and five others a shot back. Twenty players were within three shots of the lead and many of them made runs yesterday including the 148th-ranked Kingston who was three shots off the lead.

But it was Quiros who struck early with an eagle on the second and two birdies on the next three holes to stake himself to a threeshot lead. But just as dramatically, he fell back into a tie with Hansen and several others at 8 under when he triple bogeyed the eighth hole — hitting an unplayable drive and then a second shot into a tree.

But he recovered quickly with a birdie on nine and then a dramatic hole-in-one on the 11th, hitting a wedge 145 yards that landed on the green and rolled into the hole. It gave him back the lead.

But just as quickly, Quiros gave it up to Hansen after he bogeyed the 14th and Hansen eagled the 13th. Hansen could have at least tied it but missed several birdie putts on the way in including a 30-footer on the 18th to finish the round on 2-under 70.

“It was incredible for you guys outside but for me it was a difficult situation,” Quiros said of his fifth European Tour victory that will move him up the rankings to 21st. “The beginning of the day was perfect but after the eighth hole I was shaken.” But, he added, victory was in sight after the hole-in-one. “It was the perfect shot. Once a year, it happens,” he said. “It was a big point in the round. After the 10th hole, I was second or third with some of the other guys and then after the hole-in-one I was the leader.” The 70th-ranked Hansen, who had his best finish since finishing second at last year’s Singapore Open, was left to rue his missed chances.

“Obviously, a little disappointed,” Hansen said. “I gave myself a chance after leading and got myself out of it early but brought myself back in it. Thought I played nicely but Alvaro played great.” Woods was not alone among the big names on the star-studded leaderboard to falter down the stretch. Garcia, who lost the lead Saturday after carding two bogeys and a double bogey, had similar problems yesterday.

He briefly tied for the lead after a birdie on the opening hole, but fell back with a bogey on the fifth and ended his chances on the ninth with a triple bogey when his ball ended up in the water. The former No. 2-ranked Spaniard finished with a 3-over 75 to finish in a tie for 20th.

McIlroy lost the lead early after opening with a bogey. He pulled two shots back with birdies on the third and 10th, but trailing by three shots, he fell back down the leaderboard after carding three consecutive bogeys on the back nine to finish with a 2over 74 and in a tie for 10th.

Top-ranked Lee Westwood quietly made a run on Sunday, moving to 8 under with four holes to play. But then he endured a double-bogey on 17 when his ball got stuck in a tree and ended with a bogey on 18 to finish on even par and in a tie for 15th.

“That will piss you off pretty quickly, won’t it, sticking it up a palm tree when you think you have a chance of winning,” Westwood said.

But Westwood said he took several positives away from a weekend where he initially struggled with distance and control and only started making his putts on Sunday. It was an improvement over Qatar where he missed the cut and the Abu Dhabi Championship where he finished 64th.

“Positives are I had a chance to win,” Westwood said.

“First long putt I’ve made all week was on the 14th. I haven’t played my best, and had a chance with two holes to play to post a total that would have been probably half decent, I guess 10 under, if I could have birdied the last two holes. Plenty to take out of it.” —AP

GERMANY: Elisabeth Goergl stunned favorites Lindsey Vonn and Maria Riesch for the second time at the world Alpine ski championships yesterday, winning the downhill to add to her super-G title.

The 29-year-old Austrian had never previously won a top-level downhill. Vonn, nearly free of the concussion problems which affected her in the previous few days, took silver and flu-stricken Riesch, racing in her home town, won the bronze, the same result she achieved in the super-G. It was the first time since February 2009 that a top-level women’s downhill had been won by a skier other than Vonn, the World Cup winner for the last three seasons and Olympic downhill gold medallist, or Riesch.

Since then, the great rivals have won the last 15 between them including last year’s Vancouver Olympic downhill.

Austria have taken all three golds so far in the women’s events with Anna Fenninger winning the super-combined on Friday.

“It was a tough course but conditions were perfect,” Goergl, who had only won three toplevel races before Garmisch, told reporters.

“I’m amazed by my performance.” “I liked the conditions, I liked the slope, I had great material. Everything came together.”

With colder conditions than on Saturday, the early starters did not enjoy the same advantage as in Saturday’s men’s downhill.

Goergl, the first of the big names to race, smashed the previous fastest time, set by Swiss Lara Gut, by nearly one minute as she completed the 2.9-km course, with a vertical drop of 720 metres, in one minute 47.24.

Riesch, next to race, was 0.15 seconds behind at the second intermediate time but lost time on the latter half of the course.

GERMANY: Austria’s Elisabeth Goergl competes during the women’s Alpine Skiing Championship Downhill event. —AFP Vonn made a slower start but caught up further down to take the silver, her first medal of the championships, after finishing 0.44 seconds behind Goergl.

Vonn has been suffered from the aftereffects of concussion following a training accident 10 days ago and pulled out of Friday’s super-combined after the downhill leg.

“This is the best feeling I’ve had since my injury, although I still didn’t have the same self-belief.” “It was almost the real Lindsey Vonn today but not quite. This silver today

NBK’s Vice Chairman and Chairman of the Bank & Community Committee, Nasser Musaed Al Sayer.

feels like a gold.”

Riesch, who went down with a bout of influenza last week, surpassed her expectations with a second bronze. “I didn’t think I would have a podium finish,” said the German, who has twice finished runner-up to Vonn in the overall World Cup but this year leads the season-long campaign.

Switzerland were again out of the medals, with Gut finishing fourth. Didier Cuche has provided their lone success so far, taking silver in the men’s downhill. —Reuters

Picture from last year’s Walkathon

NBK Walkathon on March 12 Registration started Sunday at NBK Walkathon Tent KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK), the best bank in the Middle East, announced the launching of its 17th Annual Walkathon on the 12th of March 2011 on the occasion of Kuwait’s celebration of 50 years of its independence, 20 years of its liberation from the Iraqi invasion and 5 years since HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah assumed his post.

The Walkathon event will also

feature a host of functions, activities and competitions with rewarding prizes and rewards awaiting the participants.

NBK’s Vice Chairman and Chairman of the Bank & Community Committee, Nasser Musaed Al Sayer said that it has been clear that NBK’s Walkathon is growing year on year, and we are extremely thrilled to take our involvement with this exciting event to new levels. This

year, we are expecting participation to be much more than previous walkathon which witnessed participation of more than 12,000 contesters”.

Al Sayer added said that NBK has set all the preparations for the launch of the Walkathon. The registration for the Walkathon has started in NBK Walkathon registration tent next to the Scientific Centre in Salmiya on Sunday, February 13 and

continues until March 11, i.e. one day before the start of the walkathon.

“It is gratifying to note that the annual walkathon event, which is a major component of NBK’s corporate social responsibility (CSR), has over the years garnered huge success and public recognition as being one of the much awaited nationwide health, sports and entertainmentrelated activities”, Al Sayer added.

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Hernandez stops Herelius BERLIN: Cuba’s Yoan Pablo Hernandez on Saturday saw off Frenchman Steve Herelius on a seventh-round knockout to win the WBA interim cruiserweight belt after a bout outside Duesseldorf.

Herelius was hampered by a self-inflicted Achilles tendon injury from the fourth round reprise and was reduced to all but fighting on one leg. Hernandez took his career record to 24 wins - 13 of them by knockout - for one defeat as he saw off his fellow southpaw. The Cuban challenger deployed greater range throughout and 1min 19sec into the seventh he was able to savour victory in front of a crowd who claimed the Latin American resident of Germany since 2005 as one of their own.—Agencies

Bid to re-stage horse race LONDON: Newbury racecourse officials are in talks to see whether Saturday’s card, abandoned after two horses were apparently electrocuted in the parade ring, can be staged later this week.

The horses collapsed and died in front of stunned onlookers in scenes unprecedented in the sport.

Newbury joint-managing director Stephen Higgins has told the course website it is a “distinct possibility” that an old electric underground cable had been disturbed.

Four horses were affected altogether. Fenix Two and Marching Song died. Kid Cassidy was withdrawn at the start. The Merry Giant

ran but tailed off badly. The two that died had steel shoes but the other two were wearing aluminium plates.

Racing was called off for the day after the first event but talks are continuing to see whether some or all of the six abandoned races can be re-staged.

The much-anticipated meeting was among the last major ones before the Cheltenham Festival in March. Higgins said: “We are in conversation with the Tote who were sponsoring the vast majority of the card and they’ve got an appetite, to some degree, to see racing re staged later in the week. —AP

Lagat breaks indoor record NEW YORK: Bernard Lagat set a new US indoor record in the 2-mile run, breaking a 21-year old mark to become the American record-holder at the five distances from 1,500 meters to two miles.

Lagat finished in 8 minutes, 10.07 seconds during a college meet at the Armor y on Saturday night, beating the mark of 8:15.02 that Doug Padilla set on Feb. 16, 1990, in Los Angeles. The 36-year-old Lagat now holds the US indoor marks in the mile and 2-mile, and 1,500, 3,000 and 5,000 meters. He is also the US outdoor record holder for the 1,500, 3,000 and 5,000. It was the first time the seven-time Olympic and world championship medalist had run 2 miles indoors as a professional. He earned a $10,000 bonus for winning the race and setting a new record. —AP

Williams scores twice as Wales end bleak run EDINBURGH: Shane Williams scored the only two tries of the match as Wales finally showed glimpses of the form that has eluded them in recent games to beat Scotland 24-6 in their Six Nations encounter at Murrayfield. It was Wales’s first win in eight games since beating Italy last March and followed defeat in the opening round against England last week. “I thought we were clinical today and defended really well. We thoroughly deserved to win the match,” said coach Warren Gatland.

“People say we haven’t won in eight games, but six of the eight were against the top three teams in the world. “The best players front up and that’s what sport is all about at the highest level. You are going to get a bit of pressure and it’s about showing character and responding to it.”

Gatland’s sense of humor was tested in the build-up to the game when the underfire New Zealander was played Queen and David Bowie’s 1981 hit song “Under Pressure” on the team coach.

“You have to rise to the challenge. It’s a test of character, but you have to show a bit of humour.” he said.

“They played the David Bowie song on the coach, so you have to smile and laugh. I haven’t been able to get that song out of my head for the last two days.” Scotland rarely threatened the Welsh apart from a spell in the first half when the visitors were reduced to 13 men as referee George

Clancy brandished two yellow cards. Andy Robinson’s team, who beat world champions South Africa last November, have now lost their opening two matches in the tournament.

Wales, in decline since they stylishly outclassed Scotland in the same fixture two years ago, soon showed their liking for Murrayfield. James Hook, playing at flyhalf in an international for the first time in two years, was the man behind their excellent start. Gatland was hoping that the Ospreys man would add some imagination to a Wales side who have been been too regimented in recent games and Hook soon justified his faith.

Neat footwork by Hook and three unconvincing Scottish tackles enabled Williams to go over for his first try after only six minutes. Hook converted and capitalised on indiscipline by the Scotland forwards to add three more penalties and give the visitors a 16-0 lead after only 22 minutes. Scotland had enjoyed little possession by this stage, but finally gained a foothold in the game thanks to Clancy. Bradley Davies went to the sin bin in the 20th minute and was soon followed by Lee Byrne, leaving Wales with 13 men for six minutes. However, the Scots failed to capitalise as handling errors robbed them twice of try chances and they managed to reduce the deficit by only three points through a Dan Parks penalty. —Reuters

GLENDALE: Jeff Taffe No. 23 of the Chicago Blackhawks passes the puck under pressure from Radim Vrbata No. 17 and Ray Whitney No. 13 of the Phoenix Coyotes during the NHL game.—AFP

Kings defeat punchless Capitals

Red Bull driver Al-Attiyah wins 2011 Hail Rally championship SAUDI ARABIA: Realizing the expectations of all desert rally experts who had already forecasted that Nasser Al-Attiyah will win the first position while other drivers will have to compete for the second position, Red Bull champion the Qatari driver Nasser Al-Attiyah has been crowned for the second time as Hail Rally 2011 champion, a title he won for the first time in 2008. Thus, Al-Attiyah has confirmed that if he happens to be at the heart of Nufud desert, gold will be his own alone.

Red Bull driver Nasser Al-Attiyah dominated the race from the very beginning as he had grabbed the first position in the demonstration stage held near AlMughwah park where he crossed the 6.8 kilometer leg in his Volkswagen Touareg car in 4.51.2 minutes ahead of Toyota Team driver Saleh Al-Saleh of Sauid Arabia who posted 5.29.6 minutes time.

On the second day, known as Nufud Hail challenge, Al-Attiyah was the first to take off from the start point located at “Jubbah” village 100 kilometers far from Hail city.

Nasser Al-Attiyah dazzled the people of Hail city with his skillful driving especially at the difficult and treacherous curbs which are considered by drivers as the most dangerous and difficult parts of the race after climbing the sand dunes which Al-Attiyah handled very easily and skillfully stirring more and more excitement for the rally local spectators who had grown up in the heart of Nufud Hail desert and know very well how difficult it is to survive the hazards of this risky desert where even if you manage to escape its sharp jaws, you will have at least some scratches left.

However, Al-Attiyah proved that he was capable of taming the wild sands and hills which seemed to him like a red carpet all along the way from the start point to the finish line. A hard task which he handled employing only the weapons he can skillfully use, that is, fast driving and phenomenal control of the car even in the hardest conditions. Thus he was the first to reach the finish line of the second stage with a significant time difference ahead of all

other racers.

On the third and final day of the rally, Al-Attiyah, who accepts no less than gold, kicked off with full confidence as if he was driving directly to the podium. He stuck to the strategy of staying in the first position all the time and to take risks sometimes by driving at incredible speed whenever he could, and at reasonable calculated speed at other times, until he reached the finish line early seizing the top position’s gold.

Commenting on this glorious victory, Red Bull driver Nasser Al-Attiyah said: “Thanks to all people involved in organizing the successful Hail Rally for their commendable efforts to make it look so prestigious. He added that the rally stages have improved a great deal compared to 2008 rally in which he had won the first position.”

He concluded his statement by presenting his victory to everybody in the race expressing his wish that Hail Rally will rank in the future among the top world rally championships.

Thus, 2011 has been the year-of-gold for the champion of gold who had scored recently an important victory for all Arabs at Dakar International Rally, his old dream that has turned into reality.

WASHINGTON: The Los Angeles Kings used a three-goal third period to beat the punchless Washington Capitals 4-1 in the NHL on Saturday.

Backup goalie Jonathan Bernier had 22 saves for the Kings after allowing Alex Ovechkin’s 21st goal of the season on the first shot of the game.

Anze Kopitar equalized in the second. Then Andrei Loktionov put in a rebound, Michal Handzus gave the Kings a two-goal cushion with 7:32 remaining, and Jarret Stoll applied the clincher less than 11/2 minutes later.

Canucks 4, Flames 2 In Vancouver, Mikael Samuelsson scored two goals in three second period minutes to help the Vancouver Canucks beat the Calgary Flames 4-2.

Tim Jackman and Curtis Glencross scored early in the second period to put the Flames ahead. But Samuelsson tied it with a perfect shot through Ryan Kesler’s screen at 10:40, and put Vancouver ahead with a powerplay strike one through Daniel Sedin’s screen less than three minutes later.

Mason Raymond added two assists as the Canucks bounced back from a 4-3 loss to Anaheim on Wednesday — just their third in regulation in more than two months. Roberto Luongo finished with 24 saves to remain unbeaten in regulation since Dec. 5 (16-0-5).

Miikka Kiprusoff made 29 saves for the Flames, who were coming off an overtime loss to Anaheim on Friday night.

Senators 5, Oilers 3 At Edmonton, Alberta, Alex Kovalev had two goals and an assist for Ottawa, which ended an 11-game losing streak and avoided falling into the NHL basement by beating last-place Edmonton.

Milan Michalek, Bobby Butler and Peter Regin also scored for the Senators, who moved four points ahead of Edmonton. Brian Elliott needed to stop only 15 shots to earn the win. Dustin Penner had a pair of goals, and Andrew Cogliano netted the other for the Oilers, who have won only two of 13 games. Nikolai Khabibulin made 20 saves, but his personal losing streak was extended to 14 games.

Canadiens 3, Maple Leafs 0 In Montreal, Carey Price made 27 saves for his sixth shutout to help Montreal end a three-game

losing streak with a win over Toronto. Benoit Pouliot and Brian Gionta scored 1:40 apart in the second period, with David Desharnais, who assisted on Pouliot’s goal, completing the scoring in a third period power play Price bounced back from the worst outing of his career and posted his 10th NHL shutout.

The 23-year-old Price, who has two shutouts in four starts, allowed a career-high eight goals in an 8-6 loss at Boston on Wednesday night. Thomas and New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist are tied for the league lead with seven shutouts. JeanSebastien Giguere stopped 36 shots in his second start in six games for Toronto.

Predators 5, Avalanche 3 In Nashville, Tennessee, Cody Franson scored with 2:30 left to earn Nashville victor y over Colorado It was the Predators second straight victory and third in four games.

The Avalanche have lost seven straight for their longest slide since the franchise relocated to Colorado for the 1995-96 season.

Martin Erat had a goal and two assists, David Legwand added a goal and an assist for Nashville, and Patric Hornqvist and Shea Weber scored a goal apiece.

Kevin Porter had a goal and an assist, while Matt Duchene and David Jones also scored goals for Colorado.

Lightning 4, Hurricanes 3 In Tampa, Florida, Marc-Andre Bergeron scored 1:32 into overtime, to save Tampa Bay after it blew a two-goal lead during the final minute of regulation against Carolina. Carolina had tied it 3-3 on late goals by Jeff Skinner and Erik Cole after goalie Cam Ward went to the Hurricanes bench for an extra skater.

Vincent Lecavalier scored his fourth goal in three games, and Dwayne Roloson made 31 saves as Tampa Bay won for the eighth time in 10 games.

Tampa Bay also got goals from Steve Downie and Bergenheim.

The Southeast Division-leading Lightning increased their cushion over second-place Washington to five points. Eric Staal also scored for the Hurricanes, who have lost five of six.

Coyotes 3, Blackhawks 2 In Glendale, Arizona, Radim Vrbata scored in his third straight game and the only goal in the shootout, to lift Phoenix over Chicago. In front of their first home sellout crowd since the opener, the Coyotes overcame a

late power-play goal by Chicago’s Duncan Keith to win their fourth straight. Taylor Pyatt scored his 14th goal, coach Dave Tippett earned his 350th NHL win, and Ilya Bryzgalov only had to make one save in the shootout —- on Jonathan Toews — as Chicago missed the net on two of its three chances. Bryzgalov stopped 31 shots through overtime. Troy Brouwer had a power-play goal in the second period, and Keith got one with 4 minutes left in regulation to tie it.

Wild 3, Blues 1 In St. Paul, Minnesota, Cal Clutterbuck scored for the third time in two nights as the Wild overcame the Blues. Goalie Jaroslav Halak was pulled for Ty Conklin midway through the second period after Kyle Brodziak’s goal made it 3-0 to Minnesota.

Antti Miettinen also scored a power-play goal for the Wild, who got another strong start by goalie Niklas Backstrom and outshot the Blues 31-25. Patrik Berglund scored for St. Louis, but that wasn’t nearly enough.

Clutterbuck, also the NHL leader in hits, leads the team with a career-high 17 goals. The Wild stretched their home winning streak to a season-high four games. St. Louis fell to 7-3-1.—AP

NHL results/standings NHL results and standings on Saturday.

Los Angeles 4, Washington 1; Ottawa 5, Edmonton 3; Montreal 3, Toronto 0; Tampa Bay 4, Carolina 3 (OT); Nashville 5, Colorado 3; Phoenix 3, Chicago 2 (SO); Minnesota 3, St. Louis 1; Vancouver 4, Calgary 2. (OT denotes overtime, SO is shootout)

Philadelphia Pittsburgh NY Rangers New Jersey NY Islanders

Eastern Conference Atlantic Division W L OTL GF 36 13 5 182 35 18 4 170 29 24 4 157 22 30 4 120 19 29 7 144

GA PTS 138 77 136 74 141 62 158 48 180 45

Boston Montreal Buffalo Toronto Ottawa

Northeast Division 31 17 7 170 31 20 6 151 26 22 5 155 23 27 6 144 18 30 8 126

131 143 155 174 186

69 68 57 52 44

Tampa Bay Washington Carolina Atlanta Florida

Southeast Division 34 17 5 172 29 17 10 151 26 22 8 165 25 22 10 165 23 24 7 143

172 140 173 185 146

73 68 60 60 53

Detroit Nashville Chicago Columbus St. Louis

Western Conference Central Division 33 16 6 183 30 19 7 150 28 22 6 177 27 23 5 150 24 21 9 145

161 133 158 167 162

72 67 62 59 57

Vancouver Minnesota Calgary Colorado Edmonton

Northwest Division 36 11 9 190 30 20 5 146 28 22 8 168 25 25 6 170 16 31 8 137

133 145 172 186 189

81 65 64 56 40

Pacific Division Dallas 31 18 6 158 156 68 Phoenix 29 19 9 162 160 67 Anaheim 31 21 4 155 157 66 San Jose 30 20 6 156 148 66 Los Angeles 30 22 3 155 132 63 Note: Overtime losses (OTL) are worth one point in the standings and are not included in the loss column (L)

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UAE’s exiles in spotlight

CAIRO: An Egyptian army soldier tries to calm down the crowd as an injured protester shouts slogans during a demonstration near Tahrir Square yesterday. — AP

Junta dismantles Mubarak regime Continued from Page 1 referendum. The dissolved legislative body was seen as illegitimate following elections last year that were marred by widespread allegations of fraud and gave the NDP an overwhelming majority.

The statement also confirmed that the chairman of the supreme military council, Mubarak’s defence minister Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, is now de facto head of state and represents Egypt on the international stage. The moves came as the famed Egyptian Museum announced that several priceless artefacts had been looted during the initial unrest sparked by the revolt and the widely hated police force marched in support of the uprising.

Zahi Hawass, minister of state for antiquities, said that several ancient treasures had been stolen from the museum, including a statue of the renowned boy king Tutankhamun.

The missing objects include “a gilded wood statue of the 18th Dynasty king Tutankhamun being carried by a goddess” and parts of another statue showing him harpooning, he said. Looters had broken into the museum off Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Jan 28, during clashes between protesters and riot police who used tear gas and water cannon to try to crush the revolt before being driven

from the streets.

Yesterday, troops fired warning shots and scuffles broke out when policemen protested to restore their reputation and win pay rises after they found themselves on the wrong side of the uprising. One policeman’s teeth were smashed in during the fight with soldiers outside the interior ministry, where around 1,500 members of the force called for the despised former interior minister Habib Al-Adly to be publicly executed. Troops had fired over the heads of the protesters, some of whom were in police uniform, as the crowd chanted at their former boss: “Habib, you know you will be executed in the public square!”

Egypt’s police are broadly despised and seen as brutal and corrupt, while the military has been embraced by the anti-regime protesters. But the police protesting yesterday insisted that had been ordered to deal harshly with the protests and were underpaid by their government masters.

Yesterday’s cabinet meeting came a day after the resignation of the highly unpopular information minister Anas Al-Fiki, who was allegedly behind a media campaign that presented protesters as foreign agents.

Fiki, Adly and sacked prime minister Ahmed Nazif have all been banned from leaving the country while they are investigated over graft allega-

tions.

A judicial source told AFP yesterday the prosecutor general would begin questioning Adly “within hours”. The dissolution of Mubarak’s regime was reflected in the empty space outside the cabinet chamber where his portrait had hung for three decades. Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq said, however, that Mubarak remained at his residence in the Sinai resort town of Sharm ElSheikh. Mubarak appointed the cabinet - made up mostly of veteran military men -in the opening days of the revolt in a failed bid to appease the protesters. Tantawi yesterday met new Interior Minister Mahmud Wagdy, in order to get the police back on the streets as quickly as possible.

In the meantime, military police were directing cars through Tahrir Square, epicentre of the revolt.

Hundreds of thousands of people who had occupied the emblematic square had returned home by Sunday after a massive volunteer clean-up effort saw people from all walks of life sweeping the streets and collecting rubbish. “All my dreams have come true,” said Nur Khersha, a 24-year-old student who slept in the square on Saturday night. “Mubarak left. We will complete our cleaning, polish the stones, and then we will leave the square as clean as it was.” — AFP

Yemen police crack down on protesters Continued from Page 1 palace. In the harshest response yet to a wave of protests in the capital, police prevented the smaller group from reaching the palace, hitting them with batons, while protesters threw rocks at the police, witnesses said. Four people were injured.

Anti-government protests have gained momentum in Yemen in recent weeks, inspired by protests in Tunisia and Egypt, and prompted Saleh to offer significant concessions to calm tensions, including a pledge to step down in 2013.

Many of the Sanaa protests, including a “Day of Rage” on Feb 3 attended by tens of thousands of opposition and pro-government demonstrators, ended peacefully. Although proand anti-government protesters have clashed in recent days, police have generally stayed out of the fray in Sanaa.

They have clamped down more firmly outside the capital.

Opposition officials said 10 protesters were briefly detained in Sanaa yesterday and 120 more were taken into custody overnight in the the city of Taiz after protests on Saturday.

Instability in Yemen would present serious political and security risks for Gulf states. The United States relies heavily on Saleh to help combat Al-Qaeda’s Yemen-based arm, which also carries out attacks in neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

In the south, where the government faces Al-Qaeda and secessionist militants, a court sentenced six men to death for kidnappings and armed attacks on police, Saba said.

US-based Human Rights Watch criticised Yemen for allowing government supporters to assault, intimidate and sometimes clash with protesters calling on Saleh to quit.

“The Yemeni authorities have a duty to permit and protect peaceful demonstrations,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

“Instead, the security forces and armed thugs appear to be working together.” There was no immediate response from Yemeni officials.

Saleh, in power for more than three decades and concerned about unrest in some parts of the Arab world, said more than a week ago he would step down when his term ends in 2013 and pledged his son would not take over the reins of government. US President Barack Obama has urged Saleh to follow up his pledges of reform with concrete action. The offer, which included an invitation to dialogue, was Saleh’s boldest gambit yet to avoid a showdown with protesters in the poverty-stricken country, where some 40 percent live on less than $2 a day, while a third suffer from chronic hunger.

“The opposition does not reject what came in the invitation by the president and is ready to sign an agreement in no more than a week,” said former Foreign Minister Mohammed Basindwa, now an opposition politician.

Another opposition official said the talks should start within days. Yemen’s opposition, which wants the talks to take place under Western or Gulf auspices, has said it is seeking assurances reforms would be implemented. Saleh, a shrewd political survivor, has backed out of previous promises to step aside. Analysts say his concessions could be a genuine way to exit gracefully but he may hope to wait out regional unrest and reassert his dominance another day. — Reuters

Bahrain on alert amid demo calls Continued from Page 1 including dismantling the security forces, prosecution of state officials for abuses and the release of 450 jailed activists, religious leaders and others. The rights center’s president, Nabeel Rajab, urged the king to “avoid the fatal mistake committed by similar regimes in Tunisia and Egypt” and not try to crush planned protests today. He warned further pressures by authorities could push the country into “chaos or bloodshed”.

On Friday, hundreds of Bahrainis and Egyptian nationals went out in the streets chanting and dancing near the Egyptian Embassy in Manama moments after Hosni Mubarak stepped down as president.

Bahraini authorities quickly set up roadblocks to contain the crowds.

The chances for confrontation in Bahrain have been further elevated by the ongoing trial of 25 Shiite activists - including two charged in absentia - accused of plotting against the state. The detainees have alleged

police torture and being made to sign forced confessions, but the court has moved ahead with the proceedings.

The next session is scheduled for Feb 24. Bahrain’s Al-Wasat newspaper reported yesterday that one of the suspects had a heart attack while in custody and was hospitalized.

Opposition groups in Kuwait had called for an anti-government protests last week, but shifted the date to March 8 after the resignation of the country’s scandal-tainted interior minister. - AP

DUBAI: For political figures in exile, the United Arab Emirates has been a luxury refuge, a base for plotting attempted comebacks and - for at least one unable to escape assassins - a final stage. There is no shortage of speculation that Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak could join the list. The Dubai-based network Al-Arabiya reported Saturday that the former Egyptian president was making plans to head to the Emirates.

Kuwait daily Al-Qabas, said Friday that UAE officials have offered Mubarak haven in Al Ain, a desert city near the Omani border.

UAE officials have made no public comment on the reports, which were so persistent that the UAE’s state news agency WAM issued a rare denial yesterday of bulletins that Mubarak’s plane had landed in the Sharjah emirate north of Dubai.

But it wouldn’t be out of character to open their doors to a former leader with few options at home just as neighboring Saudi Arabia did for toppled Tunisian ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali last month and Uganda’s Idi Amin in 1979.

The roster of Emirate exiles includes former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the late Pakistani ex-Premier Benazir Bhutto and a turncoat Chechen warlord who was gunned down by a killer with a gold-plated pistol. Just hours before stepping down, Mubarak and his family fled Cairo to a walled compound in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh. Their next move is unknown. In his last nationwide address on Thursday, the 82-yearold Mubarak said he would “die on the soil of Egypt”. But he also vowed in the same speech to remain in office until elections later this year.

Suddenly, the prospect of seeking sanctuary abroad seemed more likely and the UAE is the option most mentioned in Arab media reports. Another possibility is Germany, where Mubarak underwent gall bladder surgery last year.

“It wouldn’t be a surprise if Mubarak ends up in the UAE. They’ve taken in others before,” said Theodore Karasik, a regional security expert at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis in Dubai. “The UAE was a loyal friend of Mubarak and this would be a

reflection of that.” Yet a possible offer to host Mubarak comes with risks attached for the tightly controlled Emirates.

It could shine a harsher light on the country ’s two faces: huge wealth and ambitions in places such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but a virtually closed political system that gives no room for public protests or dissident. There are also the demands to track Mubarak’s money.

Any Egyptian investigation into allegations that state wealth was looted would likely bring scrutiny on Dubai, whose once-booming property markets and international banking hubs have been drawn into other anti-corruption investigations, including one involving Afghanistan’s Kabul Bank.

“It’s expected that Dubai would be brought into probes of Egyptian assets linked to Mubarak and his clan,” said Karasik. “Hosting Mubarak would just bring more attention to the UAE and bring it faster.” A decade ago, that would have been enough to scare off the UAE’s ruling sheiks. The UAE tried hard to make as few diplomatic ripples as possible while building its reputation as a crossroads for global aviation and commerce.

Recently, however, the Emirates has shown greater confidence. It took a prominent role in aid to Pakistan after last year’s devastating floods and has won praise from Washington for tighter enforcement of economic sanctions on Iran at the UAE’s ports and financial networks.

In a statement late Friday, the UAE said it has “confidence in the ability” of Egypt’s armed forces to manage the affairs of the country “in these delicate circumstances.” It gave no hint, though, that it could offer Mubarak haven as it’s done with others. The Pakistan links run the deepest.

Bhutto spent part of her eightyear self-exile in Dubai before she returned home and was assassinated in Dec 2007. An ex-Pakistani leader now being investigated in connection with her slaying also has a base in the UAE. Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf - who earlier this year was meeting reporters in Dubai - was named in an arrest warrant Saturday as part of

a preliminary investigation in Pakistan. Musharraf’s whereabouts were unclear, but he has repeatedly denied any role in Bhutto’s death.

Bhutto’s widower, Asif Ali Zardari, is now Pakistan’s president. He also reached out to UAE officials to allow his family long-term refuge if he died or was killed, according to a secret US diplomatic cable released

by WikiLeaks in January.

Thailand’s deposed Prime Minister Thaksin has also spent considerable time in Dubai since leaving his homeland after a military coup in 2006. Reports from Thailand - though never confirmed - said he often took part in morning walks through Dubai’s vast malls for exercise. Thaksin has been keeping a far lower profile since offering interviews in 2009 to the international media, including AP. He broke the tacit rule set by the UAE for its exiles: keep quiet. The UAE frowns deeply on any kind of political activism within its borders, including by exiles and others targeting their rivals at home.

Even the huge Iranian community in Dubai has been under a clampdown against demonstrations or rallies since the political turmoil unleashed by the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2009. Erik Prince, the founder of the former Blackwater private security firm, moved to Abu Dhabi last year and has made no public statements or appearances. Prince has been linked to militia training in Somalia, but his spokesman has said he is only providing advice to several anti-piracy operations. The speculation about Mubarak’s possible passage to the UAE was bolstered in some Arab media by the visit of the UAE’s foreign minister to Cairo just days before Mubarak stepped down.

But Christopher Davidson, an expert in Gulf affairs at Britain’s University of Durham, believes it was “a mistake for the UAE to get involved” at a time when the Arab world is basking in the power of popular protests. “Both countries, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, were identified with the old Middle Eastern order,” Davidson said. “That does not sit well with the UAE young population.” — AP

Militia says West spies concocting Iran...

Continued from Page 1 today in support of the Arab uprisings that critics say is a ploy to stage an anti-government rally in Iran. Iranian authorities crushed opposition rallies which erupted in Tehran soon after the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2009. Scores of people were killed and wounded, and thousands arrested in a crackdown by security forces and Basijis on protesters who charged Ahmadinejad returned to power through massive fraud.

Mubarak’s ouster has once again led to arch-foes Washington and Tehran locking horns. Yesterday, Iran’s parliament speaker Ali Larijani accused the United States of hijacking the Egyptian revolution to meet the demands of Israel, the regional arch-foe of the Islamic republic. “The statesmen of this country aim to seize the revolution of the Egyptians and nip it in the bud,” Larijani said on state news agency IRNA. “The Americans trampled the national dignity of Egypt, which is a great and educated country, by its cooperation with the Zionist regime,” he said, as he led a rally of Iranian MPs in support of the Egyptian uprising.

“They now cheekily say that future democratic conditions in Egypt should respect the shameful Camp David treaty,” he said, in reference to the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace accord. “What kind of democracy is this which is shaped within an illegal military council by American orders?” he said, referring to Egypt’s army which has been handed transitional power and has vowed to honour international commitments.

While Tehran criticises Washington, US officials are hoping the Arab revolts spread to Iran. “By announcing that they will not allow opposition protests, the Iranian government has declared illegal for Iranians what it claimed was noble for Egyptians,” US National Security Advisor Tom Donilon said. “We call on the government of Iran to allow the Iranian people the universal right to peacefully assemble, demonstrate and communicate that’s being exercised in Cairo.”

But Naghdi said his men, who were in the frontline of crushing Iran’s 2009 protests, were still “ready to sacrifice their lives” to defend the Islamic regime against an opposition which he likened to the “party of Satan”. Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi has also warned the opposition off from holding a rally. “Police and all of our (security) organisations have been told to confront those who do not abide by the country’s law,” he said, adding that some arrests had already been made of suspects linked to the “sedition leaders”. Opposition leaders have not reacted to the ban but their websites posted calls from several groups urging supporters to gather in the capital and other cities yesterday.

Meanwhile, Iran has appointed nuclear scientist Fereydoon Abbasi Davani, who survived a bomb attack in November, as the country’s new atomic chief, media reports said yesterday. Abbasi Davani, reportedly a veteran of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s and a target of UN sanctions, replaces Ali Akbar Salehi who was endorsed as foreign minister last month. His appointment comes at a time when talks between Iran and the world powers over Tehran’s controversial nuclear program have failed. The announcement of Abbasi Davani’s appointment was declared in an order issued by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the state television website said.

“You are hereby appointed as a vice president and head of the Atomic Energy Organisation considering the level of your commitment, piety and fruitful scientific and executive records,” Ahmadinejad said in the appointment order carried by the website and other news agencies.

Abbasi Davani, a senior figure in Iran’s nuclear program, was wounded in a bomb attack on November 29 in Tehran which the Islamic republic swiftly blamed on the CIA and Mossad. He survived the attack, but another senior nuclear scientist, Majid Shahriari, was killed in a similar assault on the same day in a separate part of the capital.

Tehran police said that the twin attacks were carried out by men on motorcycles who attached bombs to the scientists’ cars as they were driving to work.

Abbasi Davani, 52, was targeted by UN Security Council sanctions under Resolution 1747 adopted in March 2007. He was identified as a senior defence ministry and armed forces logistics scientist. The PhD holder in nuclear physics is one of the few Iranian specialists who can separate isotopes and has been a member of the elite military force the Revolutionary Guards since the 1979 Islamic revolution, media reports say. He heads the physics department at Tehran’s Imam Hossein University, which is close to the Guards, and fought in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, the ISNA news agency said.

Abbasi Davani’s predecessor Salehi was appointed atomic energy chief on July 17, 2009. Salehi was a driving force behind Iran’s atomic program, and during his tenure the country’s first nuclear power plant came on line. Iran is at loggerheads with the West over its nuclear programme of uranium enrichment, and the last round of talks between Tehran and the world powers broke down in Istanbul in January. Western powers led by the United States suspect Iran is masking a weapons drive under the guise of a civilian atomic program, a charge strongly denied by the Islamic republic. Iran is currently under four sets of UN sanctions and other unilateral punitive measures imposed by several countries, including the United States and the European Union. — AFP

Amir orders scrapping of cases against media Continued from Page 1 responsibility. Two months ago, Information Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah said that as many as 600 cases had been filed by the ministry against various media outlets in the country for violating the country’s laws.

In another business, liberal MP

Rola Dashti yesterday submitted a draft law calling to scrap a law passed by the Assembly in 1996 to enforce gender segregation at Kuwait University and other higher educational institutes. Dashti said that the practical implementation of the law proved the law is unfeasible and requires huge sums of money which involves unnecessary

squandering of public funds by having to build separate utilities for males and females. The educational committee meanwhile yesterday approved a draft law calling to increase the monthly aid for Kuwaiti university students to KD 200 from KD 100 and for married students, the aid was raised from KD 250 to KD 350.

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2011

ANALYSIS

Pirates grow bolder, world response lags

By Peter Apps ijacking oil tankers and using captured merchant vessels with hostage crews as giant motherships, Somali pirates grow bolder by the week, far outpacing a loosely coordinated global response. Somali pirates seized their second oil tanker in two days on Wednesday, capturing a Greek ship carrying Kuwaiti oil to the United States after taking an Italian oil vessel. “The piracy situation is now spinning out of control,” said Joe Angelo, managing director of industry association INTERTANKO. “If piracy in the Indian Ocean is left unabated, it will strangle... crucial shipping lanes with the potential to severely disrupt oil flows to the US and the rest of the world.”

Shippers say they may have to send ships around Africa at greater cost to minimise the risk but the growing area of pirate operations makes avoiding them altogether but impossible.

Attacks have been growing exponentially since 2007 as young Somalis in small skiffs with AK-47s and rocket propelled grenades took to the water is to seek their fortunes. Their first targets were local dhows and cargo ships, often UN World Food Programme ships delivering food to stem the humanitarian crisis fed by Somalia’s ongoing instability.

But despite a growing presence from international navies, they have since pushed further into the Indian Ocean, rendering the entire region a “war risk zone” in the eyes of insurers. “The situation is only going to worsen,” says John Drake, a senior risk consultant for London-based security firm AKE. “With rising ransoms, pirates are able to hire more men, bribe more officials and wait longer periods to negotiate.” The threat to key supply routes has

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prompted a host of powers including Russia, China, India, Japan and others to send warships, working loosely alongside Western task forces including those of the EU, NATO and United States.

Coordinated through a secure Internet chat room and meetings in Bahrain, they share some information - but largely pursue their own strategies. China, Japan, Russia and others concentrate

But that leaves precious few warships out in the wider Indian Ocean, now seen the area of greatest risk. There, any ship coming under attack is much less likely to get military support and pirates face much lower risk of interception. The EU, other navies and insurers advise shipowners to sail fast and install basic protection such as barbed wire to deter boarding or “citadels”, armoured panic rooms in which crew can

deterring the pirates of small boats. Instead, they found themselves facing a new surge with pirates for the first time using hijacked merchant ships - including giant tankers - as motherships to push further into the ocean and act as a launching pad for new attacks. Naval officers and experts say the original crews are forced to sail the ships at gunpoint. Any approach by foreign military aircraft or ships leads to

A suspected Somali pirate drinks water during a media interaction on board an Indian Coast guard ship off the coast of Mumbai on Feb 10, 2011. – AFP mainly on running convoys to protect their own national shipping, albeit often with other hangers on. Western navies tend to string their ships along with the most heavily used shipping lanes, aiming to get helicopters to any attacked ship within minutes.

The EU force frequently has ships tied up escorting WFP ships into Somali ports.

shelter from hijackers. An increasing number of ships carry private security personnel, often armed and increasingly engaging in firefights with pirates. Some firms have even floated the idea of providing their own armed vessels escort to ships for cash.

Naval commanders had expected a falloff in attacks from December with monsoon waves

the captured crews being paraded on deck and threatened with execution if forces do not withdraw.

Navies in the region do occasionally intervene, particularly when their own flagged ships are attacked. South Korean commandos retook a captured tanker last month days after her hijacked, killing eight pirates. Indian force-

salso took control of a fishing boat used as a pirate mothership close to the Indian coast. But experts say storming moving ships is fraught with difficulty and danger, and some worry over the legal complications. The ownership of many modern merchant ships is messy, with many owned in one country, registered in another and crewed by a variety of nationalities.

They are also worried about escalating violence in what has so far been a largely bloodless faceoff. Pirates threatened last month to take some of the several hundred seamen held prisoner onshore to act as hostages, threatening revenge against Korean seamen for the killing of their colleagues. Some suggest navies are secretly happy with the current situation, allowing them to justify their existence in a time of tight budgets and also carve out a permanent presence on vital supply lines at a time of heightening geopolitical rivalry.

Most agree the solution lies on the shore in stabilising anarchic Somalia and persuading authorities in the quasi autonomous regions of Somaliland and Pultland to crack down on their most profitable industry. But with memories of previous interventions in Somalia and more recent Afghan and Iraqi battles still raw, few have any appetite for onshore military action against what are effectively semi-independent pirate towns. “A concerted international effort to bolster organic development and growth in Somalia may become a more and more attractive option for governments looking to tackle the issue of piracy,” said AKE’s Drake. “ The yearly cost of piracy... is already several billion dollars and that current trend is only going to get worse.” — Reuters

US olive branch to Sudan could backfire

By Opheera McDoom ashington risks repeating an old mistake in Sudan by supporting a repressive government for the sake of regional stability, a policy which has imploded with mass protests throughout the Middle East, government critics say.

Many in Sudan say the United States is turning a blind eye to Khartoum’s crackdown on freedoms in the north and in Darfur -violence Washington was the first to call genocide - using as justification the prevention of a return to a civil war between the north and south of the country which began in 1955.

Given popular uprisings in neighbouring Egypt and Tunisia against U.S.-supported governments that have crushed opposition for decades, opposition figures in Sudan question the wisdom of rewarding Khartoum for allowing the south to secede unless it relaxes its security policies in the north. So far Khartoum has used force to suppress small anti-government protests, but as food price rises bite and it cracks down more, demonstrations could gain more support. “They are making the same mistake as elsewhere and it’s absolutely unacceptable how they can be silent on the fighting in Darfur and the violence in the capital,” said Mariam Al-Mahdi, an opposition leader and the daughter of the last democratically elected leader of Sudan.

Leading the US charge to befriend Khartoum has been presidential envoy Scott Gration, who is stepping down from the post. At a joint news conference with Foreign Minister Ali Karti this week, Gration praised government cooperation with UN peacekeepers (UNAMID) in Darfur and defended the Sudanese Humanitarian Aid Commission’s restrictions on aid agencies.

“The Government of Sudan has taken great steps to lift restrictions on UNAMID,” he said.

“We’ve seen great improvement of access for UNAMID and for the international NGOs.” This may surprise those working in Darfur. UN reports in January alone recorded 11 patrols stopped by the government and four threats of attack in the past two months. Aid agencies are still barred from much of rebel-controlled Jabel Marra.

Announcing that Gration would be nominated to become the new US ambassador to Kenya, the White House said on Thursday: “We would like to stress that his departure in no way indicates that this administration is walking away from the many challenges we still face in Sudan, particularly in Darfur.”

Aly Verjee, a researcher at the Rift Valley Institute, a regional think tank, said Washington had gone too far in rewarding Khartoum. “There’s a loss of balance,” he said.

“In Sudan they’re making the same trade off (as elsewhere in the region) that stability is important and if that comes at the cost of democracy then so be it.” The US embassy declined to comment directly, instead sending a brief by Assistant Secretary of State Philip J Crowley, who said cooperation between the two countries on counter-terrorism had improved “in recent years”. “We are certainly not ignoring the situation with respect to Darfur,” Crowley said. “That is ... of

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critical importance in terms of our ability to make the decision down the road to normalise relations with Sudan.”

Gration, along with much of the West, kept largely silent on a crackdown on three opposition parties, dozens of arrests of youths demonstrating against price rises and government policies, and the beating and tear gassing of a series of peaceful student protests throughout the north. Despite these transgressions, Sudan seems confident it has opened a new page with Washington, sparking a conciliatory attitude towards the south’s split in sharp contrast to the aggressive rhetoric ahead of the January secession referendum. “There is agreement that Darfur will not be a hindrance to the normalisation of relations between the two countries,” Karti said in the joint news conference. What Washington has offered - help with relief of Sudan’s $40 billion external debt, removal from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism or easing of a trade embargo - seems to have been sufficient for Khartoum to change its tone and stop it beating the drums of north-south war. Some analysts say removing Khartoum from the terror list should not be a political issue. “If you’re listed as a state sponsor of terror you should be delisted because you’re not supporting terrorism not as a reward for something ... political - it politicises that classification,” said Gill Lusk, a Sudan specialist at the Africa Confidential publication.

Others question if those incentives were even necessary. Khartoum is in deep economic crisis after years of over reliance on oil and decay in domestic industries and cannot afford a return to war with the oil-producing south. It is also in desperate need of large

Arab regimes must change or face revolt

By Taieb Mahjoub ithin less than a month, popular uprisings toppled the long-time presidents of Egypt and Tunisia, and revolts could spread to other Arab countries if they do not implement reforms quickly, analysts say. “The Arab leaders are in a race against time: either they quickly adopt liberal changes, or they suffer the same fate as (the leaders) of Tunisia and Egypt,” said Anwar Eshki, the director of the Middle East Institute for Strategic Studies in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Egypt’s president Hosni Mubarak, who resigned on Friday after being in power since 1981, and Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who departed after ruling for 23 years on Jan 14, both bowed to unprecedented waves of popular protests.

Angered by injustice, unemployment and corruption, “the Arab citizen is not the same as he was two months ago” and “has proven he can bring down an Arab head of state after two or three weeks of demonstrations,” said Paul Salem, the director of the Carnegie Middle East Centre. Various Arab leaders, some of whom, such as Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, have been in power for over 40 years while many of those who have ruled with an iron fist have suddenly announced social security measures and political reforms.

The popular uprisings in those two countries “will have repercussions throughout the region” and the United States, which encouraged change in Tunisia and Egypt, will try to do the same in other Arab countries, said Saleh Al-Qallab, a former Jordanian information minister. “Who is next? No one can predict,” he said, adding that this excludes Saudi Arabia, a rich oil state governed by the ultraconservative Wahhabism doctrine, where “the process of reforms initiated by King Abdullah is moving slowly due to the weight of tradition and religion”.

Eshki echoed that assessment, saying that “the United States will seek to avoid sudden change in the Gulf monarchies that could disrupt oil supplies to the world economy,” but Washington “will advise them to engage in reforms and accelerate their implementation”. But he added that “the winds of change will blow on these (Gulf ) countries. And if the leaders do not take the initiative, their people will.” The uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, which were initiated and led by young people using the social networking site Facebook and micro-blogging site Twitter, have showed the limits of Islamist activism, which Arab regimes have used as a scarecrow to ward off calls for reform, Salem said. —AFP

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Army steps out of the shadows

By Jailan Zayan gypt’s powerful military stepped out of the shadows after Hosni Mubarak’s overthrow to run the state in a constitutional vacuum, but questions still loom over its future political role, analysts say.

Mubarak resigned on Friday after a 30-year-reign and handed power to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, a body of some 20 generals who were mostly unknown to the general public before the uprising that brought him down. The council now rules outside of a constitutional framework, analysts said, in exceptional circumstances not witnessed since the 1952 military coup that overthrew a puppet king and abolished the constitutional monarchy.

“The handover to the army effectively means that the constitution has been suspended,” said Rabab AlMahdi, professor of political science at the American University in Cairo. “The council is now the executive body in the country. Each statement it issues is now the law,” she said. The new military leadership moved quickly to reassure citizens that it would respect the popular will, issuing four statements that have gradually asserted its authority.

On Saturday, in a televised statement entitled “Communique Number 4”, the council said that the current government would remain in place temporarily until a new one could be sworn in after a “peaceful transition”. It also said it would pave the way for “an elected civil authority to build a free democratic state,” although it set no timetable. “It is not a regular process. There are no classical steps you can expect them to follow,” Mahdi said.

The council does not meet regularly, but only in times of crisis. This is its third session after similar meetings during the 1967 and 1973 wars, according to the US think tank Stratfor Global Intelligence. “We don’t know them. We are slowly discovering them,” said Tewfik Aclimandos, a researcher with the Parisbased College de France. “Even if they have a common vision, there could be some disagreements,” he added.

But as the army becomes more visible, its far-reaching power in the economy and state institutions will start to come to light. “This country has been ruled by the military since 1952,” said Amr Al-Shalakany, professor of law at Cairo University. “Until now, it had remained in the background.” The army has vowed to pave the way for a peaceful transition towards full democracy, but the extent to which it will loosen its grip on the country’s affairs is yet to be determined. “Now the negotiation must begin to ensure that the army takes a traditional role, and to make sure it will not have a role in politics,” Shalakany said.

Human rights groups have accused the army of detaining anti-government protesters, some of whom have been tortured. “Army officers and military police arbitrarily detained at least 119 people since the army took up positions in Egyptian cities and towns on the night of Jan 28, 2011, and in at least five cases tortured them,” Human Rights Watch said. Nationwide protests driven by young activists erupted on Jan 25 across the country, demanding Mubarak’s overthrow and calling for political and democratic reforms. — AFP

E A Sudanse man stands and shouts with joy as Sudan’s governing body declares the final results of the southern Sudan’s independence referendum in Khartoum on Feb 7, 2011. – AFP concessional loans which can only come with the normalisation of its international status. Washington may have given rewards for nothing. “They could never go back to war. They can’t fund it,” said former finance ministry official Hassan Satti.

As President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir is the only sitting head of state to be indicted by the International Criminal Court - for war crimes and genocide in Darfur - a rapprochement with Washington will anger US activist groups. “If things continue to deteriorate in Darfur and the north, the (United)

States will be forced to take a stand,” said one Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity. Back in Sudan some analysts say Khartoum’s alignment with Washington may be unwise given the current trend of uprisings against US-supported governments throughout the region.

Watching the turmoil in Washington’s Middle East strongman Egypt, leading members of Bashir’s ruling party have said it needs to change track, open its doors to the opposition once the south secedes and widen the basis of government.—Reuters

Obama walks tightrope amid unrest

By Lachlan Carmichael he US administration has only just begun to grapple with the challenges in Egypt and in the rest of the Arab world now that Hosni Mubarak has been toppled, analysts said.

With little or no influence over popular upheavals spreading through the region, President Barack Obama’s administration must continue supporting calls for democracy while avoiding alienating allies, they said. “Tunis was a shockwave. Cairo will be the tsunami and every autocrat in the Arab world and the autocrats in (non-Arab) Iran will now have to worry what this means for their future,” analyst Bruce Riedel told AFP. “The problem for the United States is we really have very little influence over that,” said Riedel, a former CIA officer who advised three US presidents on the Middle East and Central Asia. “The genie is out of the box and the smart play now is to try to keep up with history, not hold it back, but not try to get too far in front of it either,” according to the analyst with the Brookings Institution. “The tightrope that the president has to walk is only gaining altitude and it becomes harder and harder to get this right.” For example, he said, if popular revolts challenge the kingdoms of Jordan and oil-rich Saudi Arabia, Washington must try to ensure these “allies don’t get more rattled than they already are”. Otherwise, they could become defensive and resort to violent crackdowns that would spur instability and send shockwaves throughout the region, he warned. “These are very nervous regimes, very nervous armies right now,” he added. “And we’re not out of the woods on Egypt yet by any means,” according to Riedel, who called the revolu-

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tion in Egypt the Obama administration’s “first significant foreign policy crisis”. Nathan Brown, an analyst with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said “it’s an absolutely critical time” in Egypt with Mubarak gone and power in the hands of the generals who long supported him. “It looks like a tremendous victory for the opposition but it’s not clear that they’ve won anything other than the departure of Mubarak,” he said.

The White House will have to send a message to Egypt’s new military leaders that it wants to hear how they will involve a cross-section of Egyptians in the transition toward democracy, he said. “It has to come from the White House and it has to come clearly and unambiguously and it has to come publicly and it has to come privately,” Brown told AFP. Hillary Mann Leverett, who worked in former president George W Bush’s National Security Council, told MSNBC she feared the Obama administration could repeat the mistakes of its predecessors.

She recalled how past US administrations misread Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution and the 2006 Palestinian elections that gave the Islamist Hamas a victory. Leverett said the Obama administration must be careful to back a broad array of credible opposition members in Egypt - but avoid helping the Muslim Brotherhood. And it should stop what she said has been criticism of leading dissident Mohammed ElBaradei.

“That’s a strategic mistake along the lines we saw leading up to the revolution in Iran,” she told MSNBC. “The likely outcome of Egypt is a government that is more independent in foreign policy and will not support US and Israeli policies regarding Gaza, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, everything on the US agenda,” Leverett said. —AFP

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Arab voices matter

By Dr James J Zogby f one lesson is to be learned from the remarkable events unfolding in Egypt, it is that Arab public opinion matters. For too long Arab voices have not been listened to, nor have Arab sensibilities or aspirations been respected. The Egyptian people have not only risen up, demanding to be heard, they have challenged other Arabs and the West to pay attention to what they are saying.

On Thursday night I watched a remarkable scene unfolding on television. As my dinner partner, Patrick Seale, and I sat transfixed watching the BBC, there, on one half of a split screen, was President Hosni Mubarak making a last ditch effort to save his rule. On the other half screen were throngs in Tahrir Square.

The disconnect was so real. Mubarak was talking, but he simply wasn’t listening. He played every card at his disposal: the caring father, the patriot, the xenophobe, the reformer and more. Maybe, I thought, he was reaching out beyond the Square to those he thought might also be listening. But if his imagined and hoped for audience was there, they were not responding. The crowd in the Square was listening and his lack of responsiveness to their concerns only served to inflame them and deepen their resolve. It was the immovable object squaring off against the irresistible force. In the end, the force won. The protesters rejected Mubarak’s promises and his appeals as “too little, too late,” and began to pour out beyond the Square to take new space and demonstrate their discontent. Now the president is gone. The throngs have won this round and they are empowered to seek more change. It is not the end, just the beginning of a process, the outcome of which is still uncertain. With the military in charge, it will now be up to them to listen. Questions remain. Will the military cede space and open the political process to real reform? Will they be more responsive to the growing aspirations of their young who are demanding: jobs in an expanding economy where wealth is shared; an opportunity to participate in the shaping of the future of their country; and the freedom to express their discontent with and seek to change policies they find deplorable, without fear of repression?

In some ways, after Feb 11, much has changed. In other ways, the struggle remains the same. A movement that has won a round now becomes a potentially formidable force. But a regime that fears losing control is also a force which must be reckoned with. In the weeks and months ahead we will see this drama play out in the streets and in negotiations. The constitution must be changed. President Mubarak has promised as much. The concerns of the demonstrators have been acknowledged by the military, who have said they are listening. Now we will see if they, in fact, were.

The problem of not listening to Arab voices is not only a problem for those Presidents who have fallen or those who are still at risk; it is a problem for the West, as well. For too long, the US, Great Britain, and others have ignored the concerns and sensibilities of Arab people. Arabs have been treated as if they were pawns to be moved about on the board. While we paid attention to our own needs and politics, Arabs were left to make do or accommodate themselves to realities we created for them, as we sought to protect our interests, not theirs.

This is not a new phenomenon. The cavalier dismissal of Arab voices began with Lord Balfour who famously rejected the first survey of Arab opinion, conducted for US President Woodrow Wilson at the end of World War I. While the survey found Arabs overwhelming rejecting the European powers’ plans to carve up the Arab East into British and French mandatory entities, and the creation of a Jewish National Home in Palestine, Balfour balked saying “we do not propose even to go through the form of consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants of the country... Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad...is of far greater import than the desire and prejudices of the Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land.”

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NOTE: Dr James J Zogby is the President of the Arab American Institute.

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

Revolutions don’t guarantee democracy

By Patrick Worsnip undreds of thousands of protesters have thronged public squares; slogans have been chanted, banners waved and security forces cowed into inaction; the reviled despot has stepped down or fled abroad. Now what? It’s a question not just for Egyptians who toppled President Hosni Mubarak on Friday.

It has confronted those behind people’s revolutions that have overthrown tyrannical regimes in dozens of countries in recent decades. The euphoria seldom lasts long. It is replaced by the challenge of building a fair and democratic society and meeting the expectations of supporters who may be motivated as much by economic hardship as by love of political freedom.

Studies show a decidedly mixed record of long-term success for popular uprisings like those that have just convulsed the Arab states of Egypt and Tunisia.

“Many transitions from authoritarian rule do not lead to freedom,” said a 2005 repor t by Washington-based human

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rights group Freedom House, entitled “How Freedom is Won: From Civic Resistance to Durable Democracy.” “The opportunity for freedom after a political opening represented by the fall of an authoritarian (leader) is by itself not a guarantee of an optimal outcome for freedom in the long term.”

Of 67 countries the report looked at where there had been transitions from autocratic rule over the preceding generation, 35 were “free,” 23 were “partly free” and nine were “not free” at the time of publication, it said. Factors likely to contribute to lasting democracy included a strong, cohesive civic coalition before the change, and pursuit of nonviolent tactics by the opposition, it said. Conversely, analysts say, chances of building a stable democracy can be damaged if the opposition cuts a deal with security forces to overthrow a ruler - as some suspect might have happened in Egypt.

Daniel Ser wer, a former US State Department official, said that in Serbia, demonstrators promised security services they would not be held accountable for

past actions if they helped oust Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in 2000.

“That deal has plagued Serbia’s democratic transition, which nevertheless has gone a long way in the right direction,” said Ser wer, now with the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

“The Egyptians are likely to face a similar problem: they have relied on the armed forces to evict Mubarak. The question now will be whether the armed forces will permit a thorough going revolution,” he added. Some analysts believe chances of lasting change are boosted if a country has at least some history of democracy.

This was the case with the Philippines, where dictator Ferdinand Marcos, toppled by mass unrest in 1986, had started off as elected president; and with most of the Warsaw Pact states that threw off Sovietled communist rule in 1989 and later joined the European Union. Serious violence erupted in only one - Romania. The exception that proves the rule among the European states of the former Soviet bloc is Belarus, a country with its own language but little history as an independ-

ent nation and long dominated by Moscow.

While the neighboring Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, geographically and culturally close to Scandinavia, are held up as models of democratization, Belarus’ president since 1994, Alexander Luk ashenko, has been branded by Western leaders as Europe’s last dictator.

Iran had been ruled by monarchs until it ousted the last shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in 1979 in an Islamic revolution.

By coincidence, the royal regime fell on Feb 11, exactly 32 years before Mubarak was ejected in Egypt. With violence employed by both sides in Iran, it fell into Freedom House’s category of countries at risk of forfeiting their democratic gains.

Islamic moderates were soon elbowed aside by hardliners to form a theocratic state effectively led by unelected clerics.

But David Cortright of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at Notre Dame, Indiana, says even Iran had democratic elections - at least until 2009, when opposition demonstrators charged that a presidential poll was rigged. — Reuters

Food, demography invisible drivers

By Richard Ingham uge population growth and food insecurity count among the factors that fuelled the revolution in Egypt and serve as a caution for other countries facing human and environmental overload, say analysts. Egypt - and Tunisia, Algeria and Yemen to a lesser extent - found itself in a perfect storm in which massive youth unemployment conjoined with hunger and resentment over poverty to threaten an authoritarian regime, they say. In just 25 years, Egypt’s population has risen by nearly two-thirds, from 50 million in 1985 to around 83 million today, with an average age of 24.

“The demographic change is very significant,” said Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, New York. The rise placed heavier burdens on housing and food production in a country that is mostly desert and depends almost entirely on a river that is in worrying decline, he said. It also helped created a sea of angry, jobless young people when expatriate work in the Gulf dried up after the 2008 economic crisis.

And it made the world’s No. 1 wheat importer more exposed to dissent when global food prices surged to a record high in January. After events in Tunisia, the rise fanned protest which developed into a challenge that toppled Hosni Mubarak. “It’s perfectly understandable how this spark went off, although it’s not simple to predict when it’s going to happen,” Sachs said in an interview. He added: “This is a global ecological phenomenon, of rising world populations, increasing climate unsustainability and pushing up against the barriers of food productivity in many places.”

Youssef Courbage of France’s National Institute for Demographic Studies said Egypt’s tens of millions of births in the 1980s and 1990s had heightened many of its problems in 2011. “When a population grows too swiftly, resources per habitant fall proportionately,” Courbage said. This was especially so in the labour market, where “the revolt of youth” stemmed in part from the impossibility of finding a decent job, even with a university educa-

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Egyptian anti-government protesters celebrate at Cairo’s Tahrir Square after president Hosni Mubarak stepped down on Feb 11, 2011. – AFP tion. Demographic growth in Egypt was around 2.8 percent in the mid-1980s, falling gradually to around 1.8 percent last year, according to US and UN data.

Plenty of other countries are vulnerable to unrest, especially as climate change bites, say some commentators. Risks of conflict and instability “are especially high” in Africa, South and Central Asia and the Middle East, the US National Intelligence Council said last September in a roundup of expert opinion called Global Governance 2025: At a Critical Juncture.

“My rule of thumb is the dry lands are the most combustible part of the world,” said Sachs, who pointed to “all of the Sahel to the Horn of Africa, across the Red Sea to Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan.

“This is all one vast ecological zone of extraordinary stress, with a lot of war in it already.”

Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, a US thinktank, said that “all but a few” of the top 20 countries on the list of failing states had populations growing at between two and four percent a year. “Many governments are suffering from demographic fatigue, unable to cope with the steady shrinkage in cropland and freshwater supply per person or to build schools fast enough for the swelling ranks of children,” he said last week in a newsletter.In contrast, Richard Cincotta, a US demographer who contributed to the National Intelligence Council report, downplayed these factors as a driver of uprisings.

He argued that nations with a “youth bulge” in their demographic chart face a higher risk of unrest -and the outcome too is determined by the population’s age profile. “Countries with very youthful age structures have an elevated likelihood of experiencing a civil conflict,” he said in an email. “When the age structure matures when the bulge moves into the ages of the later 20s and 30s - the probability of becoming a liberal democracy becomes more likely.”

Cincotta noted that the average age in Tunisia was 29, compared to 24 in Egypt, and this difference in maturity could be critical. “Right now, Tunisia is nearly at a 5050 chance (and) Egypt at about 70-30 for liberal democracy,” he predicted.— AFP

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Russia seeks to overcome Britain disputes MOSCOW: Russia’s top diplomat visits Britain today to improve relations still marred by a succession of Cold War-style scandals, despite a landmark oil deal that underlined the potential of economic ties. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet Prime Minister David Cameron and his British counterpart William Hague during his two-day visit, as well as speaking to university students, the Russian foreign ministry said. The trip will lay the ground for a forthcoming visit this year by Cameron to Russia, after President Dmitry Medvedev invited him in November last year, the ministry added.

It comes after the announcement in January of an unprecedented oil deal between the countries, already strong trade partners, under which state oil giant Rosneft will join forces with Britain’s BP to explore Arctic deposits. London and Moscow will probe how far relations can expand within the limits of the continuing stalemate in the dispute over the radioactive poisoning death of dissident Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006. Russia has infuriated Britain with its refusal to extradite its lawmaker Andrei Lugovoi, the chief suspect in the case, and Moscow is equally angry over London’s unwillingness to drop the demand.

Russia also resents Britain’s granting asylum to Chechen separatist Akhmed Zakayev and self-exiled billionaire Boris Berezovsky, who was convicted of theft in absentia in Russia. But with the “red lines” by now starkly clear, Russia and Britain are hoping they can agree to differ in order to boost investment as well as improve security cooperation after the recent Domodedovo airport bombing. “Both sides are united in understanding that continuing problems should not prevent progressive deepening of our dialogue,” a Russian foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement. Hague said that Britain would voice “differences” at talks aimed at “deepening our already strong trade relationship.”

Official visits between diplomats have been sparse. A visit by then British foreign secretary David Miliband to Moscow in November 2009 was the first by a top diplomat in five years and Hague visited in 2010 after the Conservatives took power. Lavrov was last in London for talks with British officials in April 2009 that year, accompanying Medvedev. In new signs of disharmony, the countries exchanged sharp remarks over the expulsion of the British Guardian newspaper’s Moscow correspondent and the case of a Russian researcher in the House of Commons who is facing deportation.

Russia this month refused entry to Guardian reporter Luke Harding, who flew in with a valid visa, in what Moscow called a bureaucratic affair, but which the newspaper linked to his coverage of the WikiLeaks scandal. Hague spoke to Lavrov by telephone and several British lawmakers responded by calling for Lavrov’s invitation to London to be revoked. Russia in turn is sore over the case of its national Katia Zatuliveter, who was arrested while working as a researcher for a British lawmaker and faces possible deportation amid murky espionage allegations. —AP

India’s census a game of numbers Results to give firm count for ‘third-gender’ NEW DELHI: Three weeks, 29 questions and more than a billion heads to count. India is busily conducting its 15th national census, with millions of government workers deploying across the country to tally its estimated 1.17 billion people and ask questions on housing, work and education that should give a clearer picture of the world’s most populous democracy and its vast needs. It’s a monumental effort. The census workers - most of them school teachers armed with clipboards and computer surveys - are out negotiating skyscrapers, navigating farm roads and forest paths, visiting village huts and knocking on slum doors to find everyone they can before the census deadline of March 1.

Anyone older than 15 must be questioned.

“There is so little time,” one census worker said, tapping his temple. “This mind will bifurcate in two pieces! But it is the national work. It must be done.”

And this year, following a decade of liberalization and unprecedented economic growth, there is an eagerness among many citizens to participate. They know the 10-year census may help authorities identify areas where neglect is high, where poverty is particularly rife and where high numbers of people are unable to read or to work. “It can lead to help for the poor and maybe help establish some reforms,” said 16-year-old Jatin Anand, who excitedly signed off on his first census survey in the cramped New Delhi neighborhood of Baljeet Nagar.

His mother, Meena, agreed.

“We also come to know about the children ... their education, services,” she said. This is the second census phase, with the first last year listing some 300 million Indian households.

Baljeet Nagar holds some 7,000 of those homes, many no wider than their front door and divided by narrow alleys strewn with garlands of laundry lines and

HYDERABAD: A census worker notes down details of a household at a slum area during an enumeration drive. Millions of census workers fanned out across India as they began a mammoth effort to document every person in the world’s second most populous country over the next three weeks. — AP loose electrical wires. Former army soldier Hira Lal, sitting on the broken concrete steps of his modest home, said he hoped the census would lead to better benefits. “The way inflation is going, maybe they will see a need to raise pensions,” the 67year-old Lal said.

Meanwhile, 41-year-old Geeta Ajmatkhan, who fully considers herself a Delhiite after 21 years in the capital, hopes the demographic information prompts more social control for cities overwhelmed by a constant influx of migrant workers.

“The census is a good way of finding out who has been staying in Delhi, who is coming from outside and who is creating a nuisance,” she said.

There are 89 teachers assigned to canvass Baljeet Nagar, and for the first time they will be considering that women may be the heads of their households, rather than just men. “It makes me happy to

participate and be counted as part of the country,” said Veena Suri, 47, smiling as she tossed the end of her woolen shawl over her thick shoulder. The census now asks for actual birth dates, to avoid respondents giving only approximate ages. If someone can remember only that they were born, say, during a certain festival in 1934, it’s up to the census worker to find out what date that is.

For the first time, the census is noting whether people live in mud huts or concrete structures, have electricity or access to toilets and if they have ever been to school even if they don’t go anymore - key questions for a country with some 800 million people living in poverty.

The millions of homeless sleeping on railway platforms, under bridges and in parks will be last counted on the evening of Feb. 28, with revisions conducted until March 5 and the

final census reports published over the next two years.

“There’s a very wide range of socio-economic data being collected,” touching on literacy and education levels, work and fertility, marriage and migration, New Delhi census director Varsha Joshi said. There are 15 official languages apart from English to note, and myriad religions represented. New categories for disability and “thirdgender” are part of an effort to make the count more accurate and culturally relevant. “All these together ... They give a complete social picture of the country,” Joshi said. The disabled now have eight cate gories to qualify their condition.

Prostitutes will be listed as having “other” employment rather than as “beggars.” The transgender community, which has long hoped for more social acceptance, is being given an “other” option under gender apart from “male” and “female.”

The results will give India a firm count for its “third-gender” hijra community - the origins of which go back millennia to a time when transsexuals, eunuchs and gays held a special place in society backed by Hindu myths of their power to grant fertility. Today, transsexuals are subjected to harsh discrimination in housing, employment and society, though last year they were granted their request to register to vote as “others.” Having a third-gender option in the census “was a demand from the community,” Joshi said. “They wanted their numbers to be counted.” India’s president, the government, religious leaders and NGOs for the homeless and disabled have all urged people to stand and be counted so their needs might be better met. Officials are even counting foreigners including sailors docked in Indian ports and inmates locked up at Indian prisons such as Pakistani Ajmal Kasab, who is sentenced to death for his role in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. But there are some who won’t make the roster - the children of unwed mothers.

Authorities deemed it too culturally insensitive to have their census workers ask unmarried women if they have kids - a situation rare enough, they say, to be numerically insignificant.

In India, arranged marriage is still largely the norm, and nearly 45 percent of girls are married by the time they’re 18, according to the last census in 2001.

Another topic deemed too sensitive for this year’s census was that of caste, which will be surveyed separately later this year as officials try to understand how deeply society still reflects the millennia-old Hindu custom dividing people in a strict social hierarchy based on their family’s traditional livelihood and ethnicity. Census officials worried the sensitive subject of caste in multicultural and secular India could upset the results of the population count. — AP

Lanka flood damage is $600m COLOMBO: The damage from monsoon flooding in Sri Lanka over the last six weeks is estimated at $600 million, a government minister said yesterday amid a slow response to an international appeal for help. Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said the government would spend 33 billion rupees ($300 million) to carry out urgent repairs to 50,000 homes damaged by the flooding. “The total flood damage bill is estimated at twice as much,” Amaraweera told AFP. “The rice crop damage alone is about 13 billion rupees.”

KABUL: An Afghan woman waits to receive alms, Saturday, Feb 12, 2011. Despite billions of dollars donated by the foreign countries, Afghanistan remains on the poorest countries in the world, 10 years after the collapse of the Taleban regime. — AP

NATO: 740 trainers still needed for Afghan forces KABUL: More nations are pledging support, yet NATO still faces a shortage of 740 trainers needed to get Afghan soldiers and policemen ready to take the lead in securing their nation, the coalition’s top training official says. Needed most are 290 police trainers, including those to work in new training centers opening in Afghanistan this year, US Lt Gen William Caldwell, the commander of NATO’s training mission, told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday. Afghan President Hamid Karzai wants his nation’s police and army to take the lead in protecting and defending their homeland by 2014, a deadline that will be reached only if the training effort - already on a fast track gets even more support from NATO and other nations. Caldwell said the coalition wants to have the additional 740 trainers in place by this summer.

“The NATO secretary-general has said, ‘No trainers, no transition,”‘ Caldwell said. “He is exactly right. If you don’t have sufficient numbers of trainers, then we can’t set the conditions for transition in 2014.” The Afghan security force added more than 70,000 police and soldiers last year and now is 270,000strong. It is well on its way to meeting Karzai’s goal of reaching 305,600 by the end of October. Karzai is expected to announce his next target for growth in coming weeks. Besides filling training slots, however, the training mission faces challenges. Corruption within the ranks has been eased, but not eliminated, by raising salaries, issuing paychecks electronically and awarding promotions

based on performance, not cronyism or favoritism. Increasing numbers of policemen and soldiers have been enrolled in literacy courses, but the inability to read and write continues to stifle efforts to professionalize the force.

The Afghan army and police still need thousands more officers trained.

And there still is a critical shortage of trainers who can teach specific skills, such as how to manage military hospitals and clinics or fly and maintain Mi-17 aircraft. At a ceremony Saturday at Camp Eggers in Kabul, Latvia and Lithuania together pledged up to 23 trainers to mentor the Afghan Air Force in southern Afghanistan. Their commitment raised to 32, the number of nations involved in the training mission.

“Down in Kandahar the Afghan Air Force has five Mi-17 helicopters and we desperately needed an air-mentoring team to work with them to help them continue to grow and professionalize the air force down there so that by December 2014 they are clearly in the lead,” Caldwell said. Capt Didzis Veidenbaums, Latvia’s senior national representative in Kabul, said that with just one rotary wing unit in all of Latvia, it was tough to find trainers to send. “It was a challenge for us just to find additional people who would be able to work here as trainers,” he said.

The 740 shortfall exists even though 764 extra trainers, pledged by countries such as Romania and Bulgaria, are already making their way to Afghanistan. Caldwell said the Netherlands and a nation in Latin

America were considering sending trainers and that he was eagerly awaiting the details of Canada’s pending commitment.

In November, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper decided with some reluctance to keep troops in Afghanistan in a noncombat training role after his nation’s combat mission ends this year. Harper said he wanted to see a complete pullout of Canada’s 3,000 troops. But he said Afghan forces needed further training and he didn’t want to risk the gains that exiting Canadian troops had fought to achieve.

William Crosbie, Canada’s ambassador to Afghanistan, said yesterday in Kabul that his country was finalizing plans to commit nearly 1,000 personnel, including 200 support staff and possibly 50 military police trainers and 45 civilian police trainers. “Canada has said we’re committed to doing it,” Crosbie said, adding that details about where the trainers will be deployed and what they will be doing will be finalized in coming weeks.

Caldwell said Canada’s contribution would be an “enormous uplift” for the training mission that would fill the need for army trainers, but would not completely satisfy the demand for police trainers. “We have had sufficient numbers of trainers to get where we are today, but we know that we need to accelerate this in 2011,” Caldwell said.

“We’re going to open up five more major police training centers in 2011 and that’s why we need those 290 more police trainers.” — AP

The unusually heavy monsoon rains left at least 64 people dead and drove more than one million people out of their homes. Most of them have returned as rains subsided, but 130,000 people still remain in state-run welfare camps, the disaster management centre said yesterday. The United Nations issued an appeal for $51 million to address immediate needs after the first round of flooding, but received only about 20 percent. It plans a fresh appeal after the second wave of floods hit the northern, central and eastern parts of the island. — AFP

Pakistan confident talks will continue ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s standoff with Washington over a jailed US Embassy worker will not thwart talks between the two countries and Afghanistan, a Pakistani government spokesman said yesterday. Tensions between the US and Pakistan have been rising over the detention of American Raymond Allen Davis for killing two Pakistani men he says were trying to rob him. In an apparent step to show its displeasure, the United States on Saturday postponed a meeting with Pakistani and Afghan officials to discuss the war in Afghanistan.

Pakistan prizes such gatherings as a way to assert influence in Afghanistan.

The meeting was to have taken place next week. The US did not directly cite Davis’ continued detention as the reason, but US diplomats have said the talks could become a casualty of the dispute. Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said he is confident the threeway talks will continue. “The trilateral talks will be rescheduled in due course of time,” Basit said. “It is important the trilateral process continues. We hope whenever held, (talks) will yield maximum results for peace and stability.” He declined comment on what the escalating diplomatic spat means for the Davis case or for relations with the United States.

State Department spokesman P J Crowley said the US hopes to reschedule the meeting soon. Police in Pakistan have accused Davis of “cold-blooded murder.”

Davis claims he shot the men in self-defense when they tried to rob him at gunpoint in the eastern city of Lahore. The US insists he has diplomatic immunity from prosecution. Pakistani officials, fearful of a backlash in a population where anti-American fervor is widespread, have referred the case to the courts. Police are pushing for murder charges against the 36-year-old Davis, a former US Army Special Forces soldier.

Pakistan’s foreign secretary has said that any US pressure on Islamabad to release David will be “counterproductive.” Pakistan is considered a key to US success in neighboring Afghanistan, making it difficult for Washington to sever ties. Pakistan relies on US aid and protection, but the government seems paralyzed in the face of public outrage over the shootings. Yesterday, the Pakistani Taleban threatened to attack any government official involved in Davis’ eventual release. “Whether he is a judge, police, lawyer, army, police maker or a politician, we will target him. We will kill him,” spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan told the AP by phone. — AP

HYDERABAD: Pakistanis hold banners and light candles during a rally calling for the release of Aafia Siddiqui, who was convicted in February 2010 on two counts of attempted murder, and who is currently being detained in the US, and against Raymond Allen Davis, a US consulate employee suspected in a shooting. —AP

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He will be replaced by Sheng Guangzu, 62, head of the General Administration of Customs. Liu is being investigated by the Communist Party’s corruption watchdog, which can remove him from his party post but not from his government job.

However, in cases like this, government officials almost always follow the party’s lead, and Liu is likely to be stripped of his minister title.

The country’s leadership has been trying to stamp out corruption - a major source of public distrust and anger - with President Hu Jintao saying in a speech to the party’s graft watchdog earlier this year that the situation is “grave” and will require long-term efforts. Last year, China punished 146,517 officials for corruption, Xinhua said. Among them were 5,098 officials at the county level or higher. The government has launched numerous anti-graft campaigns in recent years. Some have seen judges and highprofile party figures sentenced to years in prison.

Others have brought down some of China’s top corruption hunters, who were found to be lining their own pockets. There were no details about alleged wrongdoing by Liu, and the announcement of the probe was unexpected. “Liu Zhijun allegedly committed severe violations of discipline. At present, it is being investigated,” Xinhua’s report said.

The central government’s website posted a story as recently as Feb. 6 about Liu visiting a train station in the southern hub of Guangzhou, meeting with local railway officials and riding on a fast train. Hong Kong media have said that Liu’s brother is Liu Zhixiang, a former railway ministry official brought down by corruption and handed a suspended death sentence. Liu Zhixiang, the deputy chief of the railway bureau in central China’s Wuhan city, was convicted in 2006 of charges including embezzlement and taking bribes, the government-run China Court website said. He was also found to have hired thugs to beat up a man with whom he was having a business dispute. —AP

Thailand to reject UN help over Cambodia

‘reds’, ‘yellows’ rally on Bangkok’s streets ‘Yellow’ demonstrators seek PM’s resignation BANGKOK: Thousands of Thais held color-coded “red” and “yellow” protests in Bangkok yesterday, underlining persistent anti-government sentiment and deep political divisions ahead of an election planned this year. The “red shirts” called for the release of 18 of their detained leaders and their rival “yellow shirts” demanded Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s resignation over his handling of a long-running border dispute with Cambodia.

The rallies were staged ahead of an election that Abhisit says could take place in the first half of the year.

On-off anti-government campaigns since 2005 by two groups with a history of, at times, violent protests point to a rocky road for Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy. The two rallies also took place in defiance of the Internal Security Act (ISA) invoked last Tuesday and banning protests in main government and commercial areas.

There was a heavy presence of riot police, but no attempt was made to block the demonstrators, who protested peacefully. Last year saw some of the worst political violence in modern Thai history during a 10week protest and sit-in in Bangkok by “red-shirts”, most of whom support ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra. Gunmen clashed with soldiers on the streets and eventually the military crushed the protest.

Ninety-one people were killed and more than 1,800 wounded.

Eighteen “red shirt” leaders have been detained since then and their supporters massed yesterday outside the Criminal Court, which will make a ruling on a bail appeal on Feb. 21. “We are here to call for justice,” ‘red shirt’ leader Thida Thavornseth told reporters outside the court. “We’re not planning to break into the court.

We just want to show our support to all the leaders who are still in prison.”

They later moved to the Democracy Monument in the city’s old quarter, just over a kilometer (half a mile) from a small, two-week protest held by the yellow-shirted People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD). The government agreed to use the ISA following concerns the PAD might try to take over its offices. However, its support appears to be dwindling. The PAD was once an ally of

BANGKOK: A Thai anti-government ‘Red Shirts’ protester wearing a mask rides his motorcycle following a rally outside the criminal court to demand the release of their nine detained leaders yesterday. — AFP

Abhisit’s ruling Democrat Party but has turned against him in the past few months over what they see as his failure to act decisively, in particular over a border dispute with Cambodia.

Four days of clashes between Thai and Cambodian forces erupted on the border early this month. The “red shirts” are angered by the slow progress of an investigation into last year’s violence and they have submitted a petition to the International Criminal Court asking for it to intervene, concerned the inquiry will be a “white-

Taiwan’s defense compromised by agent TAIPEI: Taiwan’s ability to defend itself in

the event of a Chinese invasion has been badly compromised by the island’s worst espionage case in 50 years, an ex-spy chief has warned. Ting Yu-chou, former secretary general of Taiwan’s National Security Council, said the island’s plans for repelling invading forces needed to be entirely re-thought following the arrest of a senior communications operative on charges of spying for Beijing.

Taiwanese military brass have been scrambling to contain the possible fallout since Major General Lo Hsien-che was arrested last month.The 51-year-old was in charge of the army’s telecommunications and electronic information

department. Reports said he would have had access to highly sensitive information of great value to the mainland.

“Since I have ever served as the army commander-in-chief, military intelligence chief and National Security Bureau chief before, I fully understand the importance of Lo’s position,” Ting told the Taipei-based China Times.

“The worst damage wrought by Lo could be on the army’s defense operation plans,” he said. Ting said “Lo was deeply involved in Taiwan’s military wargames and supposed to be familiar with the island’s countermeasures against the Chinese communists”.

Although Taiwan’s defense ministry said

it was not immediately clear how much harm Lo had caused Taiwan’s military, Ting urged the defense ministry “to prepare for the worst”. “The army’s defense operation plans, from the codename to the content, must be revised.” Local media said prosecutors had seized highly confidential documents while searching Lo’s office.

Some reportedly detail the Po Sheng (Broad Victory) system, a sophisticated command, control and communications network that Taiwan is purchasing from US defense contractor Lockheed Martin at a cost of Tw$46 billion ($1.6 billion).

China is believed to be very interested in learning more about the project, which

BANGKOK: Thailand will tell the UN Security Council

there is no need for outside mediation to resolve a deadly border conflict with Cambodia, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said yesterday. He said Thailand was confident that it could make a strong case at the closed-door meeting in New York today to show that Phnom Penh sparked the standoff over disputed territory, which has left eight people dead. “We’re confident that we can explain that (Cambodia’s claims) are wrong,” he said in his weekly television address.

“Cambodia is calling for (intervention by) a third country, the UN and peacekeeping forces. Thailand will call for a return to bilateral talks on demarcation,” he said. Thailand will present evidence including pictures and media reports to support its case and show that Cambodia used an ancient temple at the centre of the dispute as a military base, he added. Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya is due to attend today’s Security Council meeting, along with his Cambodian counterpart Hor Namhong.

Thailand and Cambodia have blamed each other for the clashes around the ancient temple of Preah Vihear, which sparked four days of fighting earlier this month. Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen sought an urgent Security Council meeting and called for a UN buffer force to be put in place. Thailand has repeatedly said the dispute should settled between the two countries. — AFP

wash”. Abhisit, whose term comes to an end in December, said last week he planned to dissolve parliament and hold elections by June, if the country was peaceful.

Analysts say financial markets would welcome polls which could restore stability in Thailand and its $265 billion economy. But a big risk is that one or both of the rival main parties rejects the result and turbulence returns, bringing the possibility of more violence or even military intervention. — Reuters

gives the Taiwanese military some access to US intelligence systems, the China Times said. Other documents include the army’s procurement of 30 Boeing-made Apache AH-64D Longbow attack helicopters and the army’s underground optical fiber network system, it said.

Taiwan and China have spied on each other ever since they split in 1949 at the end of a civil war. Beijing still regards the island as part of its territory awaiting reunification, and refuses to renounce the possible use of force despite the fast warming ties between Taipei and Beijing since Ma Ying-jeou of the China-friendly Kuomintang came to power in 2008. — AFP

‘Tragic end’ for Suu Kyi?

YANGON: Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi delivers a speech during a ceremony to mark her father General Aung San’s 96th birth anniversary at the National League for Democracy (NLD) headquarters yesterday . — AFP

Manila bus hostage inquest begins HONG KONG: A Hong Kong inquest into a

MANILA: In this file photo, Philippine policemen take position as they start their attack on a hijacked tourist bus. A Hong Kong inquest into a Manila bus hijacking that left eight tourists dead is set to start today. — AFP

Manila bus hijacking that left eight tourists dead is set to start today, after the incident sparked a diplomatic meltdown over claims of shoddy police work. The 25-day inquest before Hong Kong’s Coroner’s Court is due to hear from a host of witnesses, including survivors and families of the Hong Kong hostages killed last August in a botched police rescue attempt aired on live television around the world. Officers eventually stormed the bus and shot dead the lone gunman Rolando Mendoza, a disgraced ex-cop who hijacked the coach in a bizarre bid to be reinstated after losing his job over corruption allegations.

Soon after the bungled rescue, Hong Kong issued a travel alert on the Philippines, advising citizens not to visit the popular travel destination. During the diplomatic row and with public anger running high in Hong Kong, some of the more than 100,000 Philippine maids in the southern Chinese city said they faced threats and harassment, and feared losing their jobs. In October, Philippine President Benigno Aquino called for minor criminal

charges such as “neglect of duty” to be filed against four police officers for their role in the debacle and lesser administrative charges against the mayor of Manila, Alfredo Lim, and a deputy ombudsman.

The move drew heavy criticism from Hong Kong officials, stoking calls for an inquiry in the Chinese territory. Staff from the trip’s tour operator are slated to testify at the inquest, but none of the 116 Philippine witnesses invited to attendincluding police officers, the bus driver, and a reporter who spoke to Mendozawould come, reports said Friday. A court spokeswoman declined to confirm the reports. Last month, Lim said he had declined an invitation to testify in Hong Kong over fears he could be arrested.

Manila vice mayor Isko Moreno has also said he would not attend or testify through video conferencing. Justice Minister Leila de Lima earlier said she would testify if she was called, but Hong Kong authorities did not opt to ask her to appear. Hong Kong coroner’s inquests are generally intended to probe the cause of a person’s death, rather than accuse individuals of criminal liability. —AP

YANGON: Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her party will “meet their tragic end” if they stick to their position including support for Western sanctions, state media said yesterday. In the first direct criticism of Suu Kyi since she was released from house arrest in November, days after a pro-military party swept elections widely dismissed as unfair, state media also invited Suu Kyi to cooperate “in building a democratic nation”. “If Daw Suu Kyi and the NLD keep going to the wrong way ignoring the fact that today ’s Myanmar is marching to a new era, new system and new political platforms paving the way for democracy, they will meet their tragic end,” state-run newspapers said in a commentary. “Daw” is an honorific for women.

The state-run newspapers have long been mouthpieces of th military, which ruled the country, also known as Burma, after taking power in a 1962 coup.

Myanmar held its first elections in two decades last November, but the military shows no sign of loosening its grip on power even though a new civilian-led administration is officially taking over. The warning to Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD), which won the previous election in 1990 but was never allowed to govern, comes days after the NLD said it supported Western sanctions but wanted talks on whether to modify them.

Suu Kyi, asked by Reuters at a party function on Saturday to elaborate, said she saw no reason to lift sanctions now. The newspaper commentary, titled “Sanctions, Daw Suu Kyi and NLD”, was signed Yan Gyi Aung, which means Great Victor and was apparently a pseudonym. Commentaries frequently carry such pennames in state-run newspapers. Suu Kyi, the daughter of the country’s independence hero, has been excluded from politics since 1989, when she was first detained, a year after the military crushed a student-led uprising.

She has no stake in the new army-dominated system and authorities have ignored her calls for dialogue.

Western countries including the United States and the European Union, have imposed sanctions because of Myanmar’s human rights record and its suppression of the democracy movement. There have been hopes last year’s election, and Suu Kyi’s release, would lead to the end of sanctions on the resource-rich country.

Analysts say Western governments will pay heed to Suu Kyi’s opinion when deciding whether to maintain sanctions. Critics say sanctions have not worked and they leave others such as China, India, Thailand and Singapore free to do growing volumes of business with impoverished Myanmar. The commentary author accused the 65-year-old Nobel laureate and her party of instigating the sanctions. “Her stance on sanctions has become the policy of theirs,” he said, referring to Western governments. — Reuters

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Man kills 4 in rampage in NYC NEW YORK: A graffiti artist armed with five knives went on a bloody 28-hour rampage across New York City, fatally stabbing his stepfather, ex-girlfriend and her mother, running down a pedestrian with a stolen Lexus and knifing a subway passenger before being arrested in Times Square, police said. Maksim Gelman, 23, was armed with a bloodied kitchen knife when he was taken into police custody at about 9 am local time Saturday after a nightlong manhunt from Brooklyn into Manhattan, police said. “It’s so horrendous and bizarre. We have no reason to know why he did this,” said police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, who held up a photo of the knife that he said Gelman had used to slash the subway rider on the head and neck. The man survived.

“I don’t recall seeing anything like this,” said Kelly, who has spent decades working for the New York Police Department. He said charges were pending against Gelman. The stabbing spree started just after 5 am Friday, when police say Gelman fatally knifed his stepfather, Aleksandr Kuznetsov, at their apartment in Brooklyn’s Sheepshead Bay neighborhood. Gelman had gotten into a fight with his mother after she refused to allow him to use her Lexus, and Kuznetsov intervened and was attacked, Kelly said. Police found the 54-year-old man’s body at his home in the predominantly Eastern European immigrant neighborhood. The Ukrainian-born Gelman and his mother became naturalized US citizens in 2004 or 2005, Kelly said. At about 10:30 am, several blocks away, Gelman entered the home of his ex-girlfriend and used a kitchen knife to fatally stab her mother, 56-year-old

Anna Bulchenko, Kelly said. When 20-year-old Yelena Bulchenko arrived home at about 4 pm, she found her mother dead in a pool of blood and called 911, police said.

Gelman apparently was still in the house, chasing Bulchenko as she fled outside and stabbing her 11 times as she died, Kelly said. He then sped away in the Lexus to Brooklyn’s Midwood neighborhood, rearending a Pontiac. The driver confronted Gelman and was stabbed three times in the chest but survived and was in stable condition, Kelly said. Gelman drove off in the Pontiac, hitting 62-year-old pedestrian Stephen Tanenbaum, who died of the injuries, police said. He later abandoned the car, engine running, in the driveway of a private house in Midwood, not far from a freight railroad line where “Gelman frequented as a graffiti artist,” Kelly said.

Gelman was not seen again until just before 1 am Saturday, when he confronted a livery cab driver in the Crown Heights area and stabbed him, Kelly said.

Shortly after, he approached a couple in a Nissan, stabbing the man multiple times in the hand before hijacking the car, police said. Both men survived. Just after 8 am Saturday, passengers on a southbound No 1 train in upper Manhattan noticed that a man on the train matched photos of Gelman they had seen in newspapers. One passenger on the train got off at West 96th Street, approached officers on the platform and told them that a man fitting Gelman’s description knocked a newspaper out of her hand, saying, “Do you believe what they’re writing about me?” Kelly said.—AP

6 dead in attack on Mexican nightclub GUADALAJARA: Armed men opened fire and hurled a grenade into a crowded nightclub early Saturday, killing six people and wounding at least 37 in a western city whose former tranquility has been shattered by escalating battles among drug cartels. The attack in Mexico’s second-largest municipality took place just hours after a shootout between soldiers and presumed cartel gunmen left eight people, including an innocent driver, dead in the northeastern city of Monterrey. Monterrey is Mexico’s third-largest city. In the Guadalajara attack, assailants in a Jeep Cherokee and a taxi drove up to the Butter Club, located in a bar and restaurant district popular with young people, and sprayed it with bullets.

Some of the men then got out of the taxi and threw a grenade into the night-

club entrance, said a police official, who spoke to news media at the scene and left without giving his name. The gunmen fled after the pre-dawn attack, he said. Three were killed at the scene and three more died later in hospitals, said Medical Services Director Yannick Nordin. A Venezuelan and a Colombian were among the dead. In a press conference led by state Attorney General Tomas Coronado Olmos, authorities said the attack may have been the result of a fight between two groups hours earlier in the trendy disco. Some of the people left and returned to attack the others.

State authorities said they are studying surveillance video from inside the nightclub to help determine what happened. While there have been isolated grenade attacks around the city, Saturday’s was the first to be thrown

into a crowd and cause so many injuries.

The US Consulate in Guadalajara recently warned US citizens not to drive at night in parts of the city after suspected drug-gang members burned vehicles and blocked streets. Such alerts have become common for highways in some areas of northern and western Mexico, but not for Guadalajara, which is known more for its mariachi music and tequila than as a focal point of a drug war that has claimed nearly 35,000 lives since 2006. But in recent months the picturesque colonial city has come to resemble embattled areas of northern Mexico - including the state of Nuevo Leon, where Monterrey is located. Seven presumed cartel gunmen were shot dead by soldiers near Monterrey during a chase and shootout just after midnight Friday. —AP

Ron Paul wins US conservative poll Republicans have long road to pick nominee WASHINGTON: Liber tarian Republican Congressman Ron Paul won a presidential straw poll of conservatives on Saturday in a result that showed Republicans have far to go to pick a challenger to President Barack Obama in 2012. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who in the past has drawn skepticism from conservatives, had a strong showing with 23 percent, coming in second behind Paul’s 30 percent. Other potential Republican candidates were far behind in single digits, including 3 percent for former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and 2 percent for former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. Neither attended the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

Paul, who argues the Federal Reserve has too much power and the United States should retreat from the global stage, drew on his cult-like following among conservatives to win the poll for the second year in a row.

Cheers and boos broke out simultaneously in the hotel ballroom where the results were announced. It was proof that Paul, who ran for the 2008 Republican nomination, generates strong emotions.

Political analysts say Paul has no chance to win the 2012 nomination and looked to Romney ’s secondplace showing among the 3,742 people who voted as evidence that he might be able to mount a strong campaign. Romney, who lost the nomination to John McCain in 2008, addressed the conference on Friday and accused Obama of presiding over “the greatest job loss in modern American history.” He skirted around what critics say is a major problem for him-his developing of a healthcare plan in Massachusetts not unlike the Obama overhaul, which Republicans dislike and want to repeal.

Room for others The straw poll also provided evidence that there is room for some-

WASHINGTON: Rep Ron Paul addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference at the Marriott Wardman Park. — AFP one else to come to the fore. The poll said 56 percent of those surveyed were satisfied with the names they had seen so far as possible candidates, while 43 percent said they were not. That could give hope to little-known potential candidates such as Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, who received rave reviews for a Friday night speech to the group in which he declared America’s debt crisis a “red menace” that will require people to take on a war-like footing to defeat.

Fresh from making big gains in the 2010 congressional elections, Republicans at the conference said their objective now is win the White House and Senate and use a conservative majority to tackle debt and deficits. One possible candidate, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, told the group on Saturday that winning the House of Representatives last year was “a pretty good start.”

“Our House majority only gives us

control of one-half of one-third of our national government,” Barbour said. “We can’t put America on the right track until we elect a Republican president in 2012.”

He said Obama’s policies have been hostile to job creation and that the $869 billion economic stimulus “only stimulated more government.”

“Never forget a bigger government means a smaller economy,” he said.

Whoever Republicans eventually select will face a formidable opponent in Obama in 2012, political analysts say. A Public Policy Polling this week found that Obama is leading those who are considered the main Republican contenders in eight battleground states.

“If he stood for re-election today against one of the current Republican front-runners, Obama would almost certainly win the same number of electoral votes as he did in 2008, if not more,” the survey said in a blog post.— Reuters

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Gantz appointed new Israel military chief New army head must pacify warring generals JERUSALEM: Israel’s cabinet yesterday approved the appointment of Major General Benny Gantz as next chief of staff of the armed forces, ending months of infighting for the post among top generals. A cabinet statement said Gantz had been unanimously approved for the position, which falls vacant today when the term of incumbent military chief Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi ends.

“General Benny Gantz is an excellent officer and an experienced commander,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the cabinet approved him for the job.

Gantz, 51, a former deputy chief of staff, was only named to the position after the man designated for the job was disqualified on February 1 over allegations that he had illegally grabbed land around a luxury villa he built.

The discarded candidate, Major General Yoav Galant, who was nominated for the post last year, told local media he was the victim of a conspiracy by his rivals.

The bitter infighting was dubbed the “battle of the generals” during which an allegedly forged document aimed at discrediting Galant was circulated. The turmoil also led to a deep rift between Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Ashkenazi, with the two no longer on speaking terms. Galant was seen as Barak’s candidate. “We salute General Gantz and wish him well as the next chief of staff,” Barak said at the cabinet meeting.

Netanyahu said he hoped Gantz would help heal the rifts in the military, especially at a time of uncertainty in the Middle East.

“This appointment will held stabilize the Israel Defense Forces. This is always important, but even more so at this time of deep tremors that have hit our region,” Netanyahu said. Israel has expressed deep concern at the ousting of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Friday after 18 days of nationwide protests organized by a loose conglomeration of young tech-savvy activists

NEGEV DESERT: A photo made available by the Israeli Government Press Office (GPO) shows Israeli General Benny Gantz during a state memorial for the late Prime Minister David Ben Gurion in Sde Boker. — AFP

demanding democratic change.

Massive rallies turned to a jubilant city-wide party after Mubarak handed power to the military, which has vowed to carry out a transition to a democratically elected civilian government. The military said Saturday that Cairo would respect its 1979 peace treaty with the Jewish state in a statement immediately welcomed by Netanyahu. “The longstanding peace treaty between Israel and Egypt has greatly contributed to both countries and is the cornerstone for peace and stability in the entire Middle East,” Netanyahu said in a statement Saturday.

Nevertheless Israel still fears that a future, democratically elected government, particularly one including Islamic parties, may not feel the same way. Born on June 9, 1959 in the southern village of Kfar Achim, Gantz joined the army as a conscript in 1977, completing the tough selection course for the paratroops. In 1979, he graduated officers’ school, and went on to serve as a paratroop company commander and platoon commander.

In 1989, he became head of Shaldag, the air force’s special commando unit, and in 1994 he returned to the army to command a brigade and later a division in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. He has also served as the head of the army liaison unit dealing with UN forces in Lebanon and the Lebanese army, as commander of the northern Israel region, covering the Lebanon and Syria borders, and as head of ground forces.

In 2007, he became military attache to the United States, returning to Israel and in September 2009 becoming Ashkenazi’s deputy. Gantz has a BA in history from Tel Aviv University, a masters degree in Political Science from Haifa University and a masters in national resource management from the National Defense University in the United States. He is married and a father of four. — AFP

11 dead in Nigeria rally stampede PORT HARCOURT: At least 11 people

were trampled to death on Saturday in a stampede at an election campaign rally for Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan in the southern oil city of Port Harcourt. Thousands of ruling party supporters crowded into a sports stadium to hear Jonathan speak and hundreds more gathered around the gates. There was a stampede after a policeman fired into the air to try to disperse the crush as people left, witnesses said. “I can see the bodies of three women,” one witness, Tonye Ben, told Reuters as he tried to escape the pandemonium.

The health commissioner of Rivers state, of which Port Harcourt is the capital, told reporters 11 people were killed.

Members of the security forces lifted those who had collapsed into pick-up trucks to be ferried to hospital.

Discarded shoes and pieces of clothing littered the ground where people had struggled to free themselves. Jonathan said he was shocked at the loss of life and ordered an immediate investigation.

“I am sad and heavily weighed down by this incident. It is sad, unfortunate and regrettable. I mourn with those who mourn tonight,” he said in a statement.

Police spokeswoman Rita Inoma-Abbey confirmed that several people had collapsed and been taken to hospital but could not immediately give a death toll.

“There was a huge crowd, the place was completely full,” Ken Saro-Wiwa, Jonathan’s special assistant on international affairs, told Reuters.

“As the convoys were leaving, more people were trying to come in and there was a stampede when the gates were opened ... It is a sad end to what had been a great day,” he said. The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) rally in Port Harcourt came at the end of a week-long

Swiss vote to keep their guns at home GENEVA: Swiss voters came out strongly in favor of their right to bear arms yesterday, with a clear majority rejecting a plan by churches and women’s groups to tighten the Alpine nation’s liberal gun laws.

Official results showed more than half of Switzerland’s 26 cantons (states) voted against the proposal to ban army rifles from homes and impose new requirements for buying other guns. “This is an important sign of confidence in our soldiers,” said Pius Segmueller, a lawmaker with the Christian People’s Par ty and former commander of the Vatican’s Swiss Guard.

The proposal would have abruptly ended the Swiss tradition of men keeping their army rifles at home - even after completing their military service.

Backers of the plan argued this would have reduced incidents of domestic violence and Switzerland’s high rate of firearms suicide. The government had argued ahead of the vote that existing laws were sufficient to ensure some 2.3 million mostly military weapons in a country of less than 8 million people aren’t misused.

Opposition against the proposal was strongest in rural and German-speaking parts of the country, which tend to be more conservative and where shooting clubs are popular. French-speaking cantons in western Switzerland backed the plan, but woman and young people - who according to opinion polls favor more restrictive gun laws _ failed to turn out in sufficient numbers when it counted. “Women in Switzerland have only had the vote for 40 years, and yet they aren’t engaging in politics, even when the issue concerns them,” said Martine Brunschwig-Graf, a national lawmaker with the left-of-center Social Democratic Party.

Doctors, churches and women’s groups launched a campaign four years ago to force ex-soldiers to store their military-issued firearms in secure army depots. They also want the Swiss government to establish a national gun registry and ban the sale of fully automatic weapons and pump action rifles. Gun enthusiasts say limiting the right to bear arms in the land of William Tell would have destroyed a cherished tradition and undermined the citizen army’s preparedness against possible invasion by hostile neighbors. Dora Andres, president of the Swiss Sport Shooting Association, told The Associated Press this week that the measure would have killed off many of Switzerland’s 3,000 gun clubs, which she said are a pillar of community life in many villages.

Both sides used graphic images to make their point, with proponents producing posters showing teddy bears oozing blood below the slogan “Protect families.” Opponents’ posters have featured muscular cartoon criminals threatening the nation’s law-abid-

tour by Jonathan of the six main regions in Africa’s most populous nation ahead of presidential, parliamentary and state governorship elections in April. Jonathan is the first head of state from the Niger Delta, of which Port Harcourt is the main city, and is considered the front-runner in the presidential race.

Political rallies in Nigeria often draw crowds beyond the party faithful, many attracted by the promise of free handouts such as campaign T-shirts and baseball caps, leaving the police and security forces struggling to maintain order. — Reuters

ing citizens. About a quarter of Switzerland’s 1,300 suicides each year involved a gun, according to fed eral statistics. The exact number of military-issued weapons involved is disputed, but those calling for tighter rules claim they account for between 100 and 200 suicides a year, mostly among men. Advocates for tighter gun control noted that since Switzerland cut the size of its army in 2004, the number of firearms suicides among men aged 30-40 has been cut in half.

It is not known how many military-issued guns are involved in homicides each year, though Switzerland’s gun murder rate is relatively low - just 24 in 2009, or about 0.3 firearms homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. By comparison, the US rate in 2007 was 4.2 per 100,000 inhabitants. While final results were still awaited, a majority in at least 18 of Switzerland’s 26 cantons voted against the measure.

Popular referendums in the Alpine nation require a majority of both votes and cantons to pass. — AP

KIEV: The doors of an old car fly open, and four young women with bare breasts step out with protest signs, preparing to chant slogans. It’s the latest protest by Ukraine’s Femen movement, who have become famous for using unusual and barefleshed tactics to protest against discrimination, sex tourism, prostitution, and the lack of women in government. With flower wreaths decorating their hair in the Ukrainian folk tradition, they gathered near the railway station in Kiev and shouted “Impeach (President Viktor) Yanukovych!” before the cameras.

“It’s through them that the West knows Ukraine,” said leading Ukrainian novelist Oksana Zabuzhko, whose latest work was reviewed in a German magazine next to a photograph from a Femen protest. This time, the protestors’ ire was directed at Yanukovych, for his “sexist” invitation to foreign investors at the World Economic Forum in Davos to come to Ukraine in the spring when “women begin to undress themselves.” Femen exhibit not only their breasts but also their behinds, pretending to defecate to show that the President “has crapped”.

The movement boasts some 300 young activists in Kiev alone, and has no trouble finding issues to protest via public striptease, be it the absence of female representation in the government, lack of press freedom, or even municipal water supply cuts. Among their more daring coups was a protest against “the rape of Ukraine” at the polling station where Yanukovych cast his vote during the presidential election last February.

Despite the fame brought by their nudity, their first bare-chested appearance in 2009 was accidental. The women were protesting prostitution with signs on their bare backs when a photographer made a frontal shot.

After seeing it in the press, they decided to carry on topless. “We understood that the only way to attract the maximum attention to a problem is to protest with bare breasts,” said the group’s leader Anna Gutsol. “It’s still a peaceful protest, but the most effective.” “We have minimum money to develop our organisation, but we have our bodies, our brains, and our creativity. First one looks at our breasts, then our banners,” she said. At times the banners are equally shocking: last October the Femen group said they “won’t sleep with Kremlin dwarfs”, apparently referring to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who was in Kiev on an official visit.

The protesters say their goal is to change the role of women in a patriarchical society. “In Ukraine, women don’t have the same rights as men, many marry at 20 and have neither career nor financial independence,” said Gutsol. “We would like to create a culture of defending women’s rights,” said another activist, Sasha Shevchenko. Not everyone agrees, however. “They abuse the tactic of undressing and have largely compromised it,” said Zabuzhko. “Resorting to striptease every time will eventually lead to losing sight of the political message but boil down to a show by naked girls.” Other observers have spied a commercial motivation in the movement. — AFP

Freedom and worry after Tunisia uprising TUNIS: A month after their upris-

ZURICH: In this file picture a woman passes a poster against tightening the nation’s liberal gun laws reading: ‘Weapons Monopoly for Criminals? No’. — AP

Ukrainian group makes nudity a political weapon

ing ousted strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and sent shockwaves across the Arab world, Tunisians are reveling in their new freedoms but also wary of an uncer tain future. The so called “Jasmine Revolution” saw Ben Ali flee the countr y on Januar y 14 amid an unprece dented wave of mass protests and deadly unrest that left more than 200 dead. His ouster inspired similar protest movements across the Middle East and North Africa and was the prelude to the even more dramatic toppling of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. A month on, Tunisians said they are living in a countr y transformed, where decades of fear have given way to a new sense of hope. But the transformation is far from complete and-with Tunisia’s old guard still strong and interim authorities often overwhelmedmany said they fear promised changes may be swept aside.

“The revolution was made in the hearts and minds. We discovered a free people, rid of the shackles of oppression,” said long-time opposition figure Moncef Marzouki.

“The most important thing is that I am no longer afraid,” said Azyz Amany, a 27-year-old opposition blogger arrested during the protests. Once under the iron first of a 100,000-strong police force, the country of 10 million has already made strides in breaking with the past. The interim government led by Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi has vowed to hold Tunisia’s first free elections within six months, declared full freedom of speech and adopted an amnesty law for those persecuted by the former regime. The country has joined the international conventions against torture and the death penalty, purged the top ranks of

the security forces and suspended the former ruling party, the Constitutional Democratic Assembly (RCD). “The upside is that there has not been any backsliding in freedoms and we have a government that has clearly said it wants to prepare democratic elections,” said a Western diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity. “ The downside is that we don’t yet have total stability. And there’s also the question of who is really taking the decisions,” the diplomat said. Many here are raising questions over whether the new regime truly represents a split from the past, especially with figures like Ghannouchi, the head of the government since 1999, calling the shots. “There is no clear political will to break from the past. The government’s decisions have come with delays that have damaged its legitimacy and provoked a crisis of confidence,” said Mustapha Ben Jaafar, leader of the opposition Democratic Forum for Labor and Liberties (FDTL).

With many leaders from the former ruling caste in top positions, some fear the revolution will be confiscated, its potential wasted behind a smokescreen of reforms. “The old bosses are still behind the scenes,” Marzouki said.Frustrations have already boiled over in cities like Kasserine, where protesters late last month ransacked and looted public buildings, and Kef, where at least four people were killed earlier this month in clashes between protesters and security forces. The contrast between Tunisia’s hopes and fears can be keenly felt in Entilaka, a desperately poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Tunis where police and protesters frequently clashed during the unrest. Amid burnt-out buildings that once housed state offices, many residents said they felt like

they had begun new lives. “The fear is gone, I feel like a free man,” said Mohamed Neji, 43, as he drove a tractor down the road.

Ben Ali “did nothing but steal the country,” he said, and the new authorities are a “great improvement.” “For 30 years we did not have the right to express ourselves,” Neji said. But a group of young women standing at the entrance to Entilaka were far less enthusiastic, describing continued chaos since Ben Ali’s ouster.

“We live in terror, the children are not going to school,” said one young mother. “We don’t sleep at night, there are a lot of robberies and looting.”

Meanwhile in Rome, nearly 1,000 people escaping turmoil in Tunisia landed on an Italian island overnight yesterday after the government declared a wave of illegal immigrants a humanitarian emergency. Struggling local authorities called for more support yesterday to help handle the increasing stream of migrants into Lampedusa, a Sicilian island closer to Africa than mainland Italy, after thousands of arrivals in the past week. The situation has alarmed Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government, which proclaimed a humanitarian emergency following a meeting on Saturday, giving authorities extraordinar y powers setting aside normal bureaucracy to control migrant flows, in part by blocking incoming boats offshore.

Yesterday, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini repeated calls to the European Union for help after one boat sank off the coast of Tunisia on Saturday, with at least one migrant reported dead. “We have to mobilize countries around the Mediterranean which have boats, aircraft, helicopters,” Frattini said in an interview with the Corriere Della Sera newspaper. — Agencies

International MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2011

Women up against Berlusconi

ROME: Members of the Popolo Viola (purple people), a movement against Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi hold placards during a demonstration.— AFP

Oppn puts more pressure on pm to resign ROME: Thousands of women took to the streets of Italian cities yesterday calling for “dignity” and greater rights after a series of lurid prostitution scandals involving Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. “We are defending the dignity of women,” read a placard held up at one of the rallies in Palermo, where thousands of women marched through the city. Thousands more rallied in Bari, Trieste and Venice-with men also joining. Solidarity protests by women abroad were also expected, with a small rally of around 100 women held outside the Italian consulate in Tokyo earlier yesterday.

“The importance of this rally is in the common participation of men and women, young and old, intellectuals and workers,” Naples mayor Rosa Russo Iervolino said as she marched through the southern Italian city.

The initiative has been organized by sisters Francesca and Cristina Comencini, both actresses, who argue that Berlusconi’s playboy antics and his sexist comments are part of a much wider problem in Italian society. “Neither right-wing governments, nor left-

wing ones have ever done anything,” Cristina Comencini said ahead of the protests.

She also criticized “discrimination in the job market due to a lack of day-nurseries, family helpers and parttime jobs.” In Italy, where the birth rate is one of the lowest in Europe at 1.4 children per family, only one woman in two works-compared to 59 percent in the European Union-despite women being, on average, better educated than men. The Italian leader’s scandals have added to the resentment. “Berlusconi has long shown a violent contempt for women with his misogynist remarks,” Francesca Comencini said.

The Italian leader is fighting off allegations that he paid for sex with a 17-year-old prostitute nicknamed Ruby the Heartstealer and then used the power of his office to try and cover up the crime. Berlusconi and Ruby, real name Karima El Mahroug, deny having sex but many people have been offended in the way the Italian leader has defended himself. “I have never paid a woman,” Berlusconi said in one interview last year. “I have never seen the satisfaction that there could be in it without the pleasure of conquest,” he said.

And in a speech in November he remarked: “I t ’s better to be passionate about beautiful women than to be gay.”

Berlusconi’s supporters have condemned the rallies. “The women taking to the streets today are not very numerous and are rallying only for political ends,” Education M inister Mariastella Gelmini said. Fabrizio Cicchitto, a member of Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party, said participants “belong to the leftist anti-Berlusconi movement.”

More than 50,000 women have signed the movement’s manifesto in just a week .

It denounces “the inde cent, repetitive repre sentation of women as a naked object of sexual exchange” in newspapers, advertising and on television. It also said that macho sentiment in Italy has become “intolerable”. And although those involved have been asked not to politicize the demonstration, several members of parliament who recently broke away from Berlusconi’s centre-right ruling par ty had said they would be attending. — AFP

Gantz appointed new Israel military chief Page 8

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Missing woman found in Hawally apartment 26-year-old tricks her family

Al-Babtain Foundation plays key role in spreading Arab culture MADRID: The Foundation of Abdulaziz Al-Babtain Prize for Poetic Creativity plays a leading role in spreading Arab Islamic culture, amity and cooperation among diverse civilizations, a Spanish academic said yesterday.

Through ratifying agreements with universities of Andalusia, the foundation raises awareness on Arabs contributions to Spanish history and the world in general along with clarifying distorted images of Islam President of the University of Cordova Jose Nogueras said.

Two agreements were ratified between the university and AlBabtain foundation on teaching Arabic language to foreigners along with narrating the Arab Islamic history through training tourist guides and providing them

with deepened information about the civilization, he said.

More than 1,000 students joined Arabic courses launched in 2004 in cooperation between the university and the foundation while 348 students joined the tourist guide courses, he said.

Another treaty was ratified to allocate an award in the name of “Abdulaziz Saud Al- Babtain Andalisian Prize” as an international prize, initially specialized in the role played by the villages of Andalusia which contributed to the creation of the civilization of Andalusia.

A national conference will be held in September on the Arabic language and tackling the year 711, the year when Arabs entered Andalusia, he said, adding the uni-

Kuwait stresses close, candid relationship with Egypt KUWAIT: Throughout its history, Kuwait has enjoyed a close and candid relationship with Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous and powerful state in all fields; political, economical and cultural, said the Deputy Speaker of Kuwait’s National Assembly Abdullah Al-Roumi, yesterday.

Speaking at a press conference, Al-Roumi continued, “We have followed with great interest the glorious Egyptian popular revolution due to the special place this brotherly state has in our hearts.”

He recalled Egypt’s supportive stances and policies towards all Kuwaiti causes in past decades, saying, “These supportive stances were very clear during the ordeal of the Iraqi invasion. Egypt supported Kuwait from beginning of the invasion to the liberation of all occupied Kuwaiti territories.”

Kuwait has “always close relations with Egypt at all political, cultural and economical levels,” he asserted, adding that Egypt has always backed Kuwait and her people wholly and sincerely in all fields.

Al-Roumi stated that all Kuwaitis hope for the best for Egypt and her people at this new stage in the country’s history, saying, “We hope for Egypt and her people to enjoy peace and stability” and noting that Kuwait would always stand ready to offer support to Egypt.

The Kuwaiti official also expressed confidence in the Egyptian people’s ability to get through the current critical situation, concluding, “We are confident that Egypt will maintain its leading position on the regional and international arenas.” —KUNA

versity where a number of Kuwaiti students were enrolled would continue to renew agreements signed with the foundation.

The eternal history of Andalusia as being part of the Arab world in the past contributed to development which Spain is experiencing nowadays, he said.

Arab and foreign academics and intellectuals attended the foundation’s course patronized by King Juan Carlos on the Arab Islamic civilization in the west and the transformation from Caliphate into partnership was held in October 2004. Al-Babtain was awarded the badge of commander of the Order of the Spanish Civil Merit in 2009 honoring his contributions in spreading culture and arts worldwide. —KUNA

KUWAIT: Police found a woman who was reported missing by her family and discovered that she left her family’s home to live alone, reported Al-Rai. The 26-year-old woman tricked her family into believing she was accepted into the police academy and that she was called away for a militar y course. However, after two weeks without being in touch, the father contacted the academy and discovered that his daughter was never registered. Upon making the discovery he reported to a nearby police station and filed a missing person report. Authorities located the woman in an apar tment in Hawally and issued a warrant for her arrest. When questioned, she said that she decided to rent the apartment upon reaching the legal age and refused to return to her family’s home in Sulaibikhat.

Deadly fall A Pak istani man died af ter falling from the fifth floor of a building in Salmiya, reported AlWatan. Police discovered signs of foul play and an investigation has been launched to determine the circumstances of the man’s death.

Road accident A Kuwaiti man was pronounced dead by paramedics following a ca r a cc i d e nt o n S a l m i R o a d, repor ted Al-Qabas. Authorities responded to the emergency after it was reported that a car flipped over on the road and found the man dead as a result of an head inj u r y. An i nve s t i g at i o n wa s launched to determine the cause of the accident.

Death threat A citizen filed death threat charges against his brother-in-law for threatening to shoot him with a

Farwaniya campaign Police arrested 75 Asian men and women in different areas throughout the Far waniya Governorate during a security campaign, repor ted Al-Watan.

They were held for various residency violations as well as absconding. They were referred to the proper authorities.

Fight Three Lebanese men were stabbed during a fight in the Shaab Amusement Park, reported Al-Watan. They were brought to Mubarak Hospital and an investigation was launched.

Meanwhile, two gangs clashed at a mall overlooking the Arabian Gulf where they agreed to meet in order to settle their previous disputes. While most of the gang members were able to escape from authorities one young man was found at the scene suffering from a neck and chest wound. He was admitted to a nearby hospital and an investigation was launched.

Thief caught A Syrian teenager was arrested for attempting to break inside a parked vehicle and steal its contents, reported Al-Qabas. When questioned, he admitted being responsible for 22 similar cases around the Hawally Governorate.

Au t h o r i t i e s c a u g ht t h e yo u n g man trying to break into the car while patrolling through the area.

H e w a s re fe r re d to t h e p u b l i c prosecutor.

KDT conducts oil pipeline cleanup operation KUWAIT: The Kuwait Dive Team (KDT) announced yesterday that it had succeeded in conducting a cleanup operation on pipelines 1,300 meters off the coast at Mangaf in cooperation with colleagues from the Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC).

The operation, which is part of a comprehensive program to clean up the coastal waters off Mangaf, includ-

ed conducting checks on the pipelines’ condition, said the KDT official in charge of the team’s environmental projects, Mahmoud Ashkanani.

The pipeline in question, which was first laid at the beginning of the oil exploration era in Kuwait, was damaged when some of its concrete supports were destroyed, Ashkanani explained, adding that during the

Kuwaiti-Saudi media forum forms part of national celebrations KUWAIT: The Kuwaiti Journalists Association (KJA) is organizing a two-day media forum in cooperation with the Saudi Ministry of Information on February 20-21 in Riyadh, to discuss relations between the two countries.

The event is part of the Kuwaiti Embassy’s activities marking the 50th anniversary of Kuwait’s independence, the 20th anniversary of its liberation from the Iraqi occupation of 1990-91 and the fifth anniversary of His Highness the Amir’s investiture.

Forum coordinator Mansour Al-Ajmi told KUNA that elite media and other figures will be taking part in the event, including Kuwaiti MP Mohammad AlHuwaila, KJA Secretary Faisal Al-Qinae, the

gun, reported Al-Watan. The citizen reported to the Fintas police station with a gun in his hand and explained that he took the gun away from his wife’s brother after the man forced his way into his house and threatened to kill him.

Editor-in-Chief of Kuwaiti daily AlSeyassah Ahmad Al-Jarallah, former information minister Dr. Saad Bin Teflah AlAjmi, and the Secretary General of the Abdulaziz Saud Al-Babtain’s Prize for Poetic Creativity, Abdulaziz Al-Srayye’.

Al-Ajmi revealed that the forum’s opening ceremony would include a section honoring Saudi Assistant Minister of Defense and Aviation for Military Affairs and Inspector General, Prince Khalid Ibn Sultan Ibn Abdulaziz, for his role in the liberation of Kuwait in 1991 as chief of the Arab forces in that war.

Others being honored during the event also include the late Prince Fahad Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz who was deputy Amir of Al-Sharqiya at the time, the late

Saudi diplomat and poet Ghazi Al-Qosaibi, the head of the trade chamber Abdulrahman Al-Juraisi, and the Kuwaiti Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Hamad Jaber Al-Sabah.

Discussions at the forum will touch upon a number of themes, including relations between the two countries, the role of Kuwaiti and Saudi media in bolstering relations, an economic seminar, and another seminar on a cultural theme.

The coordinator said that he believes the forum will serve as venue for discussion and the exchange of viewpoints that will help attain a more congruent media approach in the two countries regarding the most pressing regional and global issues. —KUNA

operation the team members had discovered dead fish in the surrounding waters, as well as coral reefs which had not recovered from bleaching, despite the cold temperatures.

The senior KDT member added that the team works closely with state and private sector bodies to protect Kuwait’s marine and coastal environment. —KUNA

Bulgarian Envoy hails KRCS’ role KUWAIT: Bulgarian Ambassador to Kuwait Elco Chevachev yesterday hailed the role played by the Kuwait Red Crescent Society (KRCS) in alleviating the suffering of peoples in distress worldwide.

The society provides humanitarian aid to those afflicted by natural disasters and calamities, as well as carrying out development projects in a number of countries, Chevachev said in a statement to the press issued following a meeting with KRCS Chairman Barjas Al-Barjas.

The ambassador emphasized the strong relations between the Kuwaiti and Bulgarian leaderships, adding that his country is keen to strengthen its ties with Kuwait in all fields. —KUNA

Mines detonated Bomb squads detonated two landmines that were found in Salmi and confirmed that they were remnants of the 1990 Iraqi invasion.

Authorities responded to the scene after being informed that a foreign object was found half buried in the sand. The location was swept for any additional explosives.

Sexual assault An investigation was launched by authorities in search of a young man accused of sexually assaulting a young woman, reported Al-Rai. The 20-year-old Adan resident reported that the man slept with her after fooling her into believing he was committed to being in a serious relationship with her and dated her for three months. She explained that the man lived in Naseem and that they had intimate relations twice, once in his rented apartment in Salmiya and another time in his family’s diwaniya.

She said that immediately following their intimate relations the young man told her not to call her for a week because he was going on a trip abroad. She explained that she grew suspicious of his claim and called him a few days later from a different phone. She said that the young man threatened to expose their relationship if she called him again. The report was filed by the girl’s mother soon after she learned of the story. A warrant was issued for the man’s arrest.

House robbed A colonel with the Ministry of Interior informed police that his house was broken into and that he was robbed of KD 15,000, some jewelry and his personal weapon while he was traveling abroad with his family, reported Al-Rai. An investigation was launched and evidence was gathered from the crime scene.

kuwait digest

Passport forgeries

By Dr Yaqoub Al-sharrah

orging passports is an international concern because of the serious security risks it imposes. With that in mind, most countries put specific details on their passports and maintain certain standards in order to prevent forgery.

As long as there are benefits for people to forge passports, whether financially or for political purposes, the practice is not expected to come to a near end. A recent example of the impact of this crime is the assassination by Israeli intelligence agents against Palestinian activist Mahmoud AlMabhouh in Dubai. During the assassination, passpor ts from Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia were forged to facilitate the crime.

Passport forgery isn’t something new to Kuwait either. There are various incidents in which people attempt to enter the country illegally by using forged passports. Meanwhile, the rate of traveling amongst Kuwaiti citizens increases the likelihood that passports will be lost or stolen.

Earlier this year a murder took place in Kuwait in which a female citizen was killed outside a residential complex on Gulf Road. Meanwhile, her ex-husband, the case’s main suspect, is still on the loose.

An investigation later revealed that the man is originally a bedoon resident but was able to use five forged passports to flee the country to Bahrain, Thailand, and then Canada. While the investigation is ongoing we can’t help but wonder what other crimes may have been carried out by those using forged passports or second nationalities and different names.

Hopefully passport forgery is given a great deal of consideration by the state and that authorities place extra care on the loss or theft of Kuwaiti passports. Airports and land border checkpoints must be equipped with the latest equipment to ensure that those using forged passports to enter the country are apprehended. —Al-Rai

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5,741 expats treated for Hepatitis in 10 years KUWAIT: Around KD2 million was spent on treating 5,741 expatriates diagnosed with Hepatitis between 2000 and 2010, according to a new report released by the cabinet concerning the expenses incurred in providing medical treatment to expatriates suffering from chronic diseases in the past decade.

A cabinet insider told Al-Qabas that the cabinet has instructed the Ministry of Health (MoH) to formulate solutions to the problem of immigrants arriving in Kuwait, possibly with forged medical certificates from their home countries in order to conceal their medical conditions.

The cabinet also instructed the MoH to introduce stricter procedures to monitor expatriates arriving in the country in order to detect any forgery of medical documents and ensure that stringent controls are maintained on the ingress of individuals carrying dangerous diseases, primarily Hepatitis.

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local kuwait digest

Building a new Kuwait

By Nasser Al-Abdaly

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KUWAIT: Vice chief of the national Guards, sheikh Mesh’al Al-Ahmed honoring a number of outstanding national Guards officers. — KUnA

patients to return to Egypt Health Ministry decision KUWAIT: The Ministry of Health is set to resume sending citizens for treatment at Egyptian hospitals, with the stabilization of conditions in the North African nation following more than two weeks of public protests which ultimately resulted in the resignation of the ruling regime.

The head of the MoH’s overseas treatment department, Dr. Mohammad Al-Meshan, announced the measure in a press release issued on Saturday in coordination with the director of Kuwait’s overseas treatment office in Cairo, Dr. Mansour Sarkhouh. Kuwaiti patients were evacuated from Egyptian hospitals following the outbreak of pro-freedom protests there over concerns that the unrest might spread.

In a separate communique, Dr. Al-Meshan noted that all the violations perpetrated by individuals and ministry officials in fraudulently obtaining funding for overseas treatment have been referred to Kuwait’ Public Prosecution Service.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education (MoE) announced that it has shelved plans to send recruitment teams to Egypt and Tunisia this year in order to hire new teaching staff for the 2011-2012 school year.

This was confirmed in a statement issued by MoE Assistant Undersecretary for State Education Muna AlLughani, who indicated that the ministry would instead recruit more teachers from Syria and Jordan, the other two of the four countries from which the ministry regularly recruits teaching staff.

The Assistant Undersecretary emphasized that backup plans have been put in place to avoid any shortages of teaching staff at state schools should any Egyptian staff fail to return in time for the start of this year’s second term, which began yesterday.

On another note, the regional director of Egyptair’s Kuwait offices told Al-Rai on Saturday that air traffic between Kuwait and Egypt has now returned to normal.

The senior airline official said that there has already been a huge surge in demand for flights between the two countries.

Old folks’ home suspends activities over H1N1 worries KUWAIT: The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor’s (MSAL) has suspended all activities at its residential care home for the elderly until next month in order to avoid the spread of the H1N1 (swine flu) virus in light of the current cold weather, which raises the risk of the spread of all types of flu. The move was announced by Ahmad Al-Enezi, the chairman of the programs and awareness division at the ministry’s elderly care department, who indicated that this precautionary measure was taken based on the recommendations of the ministry’s rehabilitation centers division. The activities usually held at the state’s residential care home for the elderly include hosting visits for students of all ages in coordination with the Ministry of Education (MoE), “which aims to boost social bonds and create a friendly atmosphere at the care home”, Al-Enezi told AlQabas.

The activities also include special visits by staff from local banks and private firms, as well as visits for the residents to traditional cafÈs, and camping trips. Al-Enezi also noted that the residents will be present at the celebrations set to take place in Flag Square during the upcoming national celebrations.

he mass rebellion that took place in Tunisia and Egypt, and the subsequent statement issued by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about the Arab ruling systems’ lack of safety should be seriously considered.

The ruling systems of Gulf countries like Kuwait, should give a good deal of consideration to present development ventures. This is in order to address the causes of public tension.

Kuwait has featured, in recent months, several developments that escalated to the political scene, which - regardless of true motives - caused serious damage to Kuwait’s social structure. The impact it left on the political process also stepped in the way of attempts to resolve the situation.

Among these damaging events, is the use of certain mechanisms to strike national unity, by questioning people’s loyalties. Those who utilized this approach failed to consider the repercussions of such actions, perhaps blinded by the limited positive outcomes that they receive for their actions.Eventually however, the plan backfired. They realized, albeit at a very late stage, that this approach only leads them to the abyss. It will be harder to return, the more they resort to this approach.

To save oneself from this imminent fate, a person should take up qualitative and quantitative initiatives.

What Kuwait needs today is a new structure that is established on the basis of commitment to the Constitution, as well as a reformation of the social structure in a manner in which tolerance can be boosted. Social status can be determined in accordance with a person’s ability to be productive. Kuwait needs a political project that bears in mind the social, economic as well as political changes. The individual is usually considered to be the part of a whole.

The country also needs a spirit of challenge, so that we can a new future can be shaped in line with the reality of the times.—Al-Qabas

KUWAIT: A driver that sustained serious injuries and was trapped in a wreck as a result of a car accident that took place along Jahra road was freed. Paramedical staff attended to the gravely injured man.

—Photos by Fouad Al-shaikh

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Security sector needs reforms, MoI violating human rights MP calls to ‘achieve reform’ KUWAIT: MP Saleh Al-Mulla has urged His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser AlMohammed Al-Sabah, as well as the Deputy PM and new interior minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Sabah, to “achieve reform” in Kuwait’s domestic security sector. In a statement issued on Saturday, the National Action Bloc (NAB) member said, “The pursuit of a citizen for critical comments made against those in charge of the state security service is unacceptable,” also condemning what he said are “the greater authorities held by the head of the state security service compared to those held by the interior minister.” Al-Mulla also revealed that the NAB is looking into “restrictions on freedom and human rights violations” which he said are carried out by some Ministry of Interior (MoI) On a separate issue, meanwhile, the Ministry of Education (MoE) is shortly expected to introduce pay rises for Kuwaiti and non-

Kuwaiti teachers at state schools, according to a ministry insider. Education minister Dr. Moudhi Al-Humoud and senior Civil Service Commission (CSC) officials have been working closely on putting arrangements in place, the insider revealed.

Meanwhile, the parliamentary education committee was yesterday set to discuss a bill from the Reform and Development Bloc (RDB) to increase state monthly allowances for single Kuwaiti students to KD200 and KD300 for married ones. The speculation over upcoming wage increases for teaching staff comes as previously agreed pay rises for servicemen have yet to be confirmed, with reports suggesting that these rises will see servicemen’s salaries rise by between 70 and 100 percent dependent on nationality. One Public Institution For Social Security (PIFSS) official insisted that the PIFSS’ budget would be unaffected by any increase in servicemen’s salaries,

explaining that the government is obliged to cover any budget increases.

On a separate matter, the parliamentary finance and economics committee has requested that the parliamentary executive office allocate a budget in order to recruit the necessary consultants and experts to help the panel in its ongoing work to draw up a draft bill organizing state tenders.

“We aim to come up with a comprehensive law that achieves the quantum leap anticipated for this field,’ said committee rapporteur MP Abdurrahman Al-Anjari in a press release, in which he also condemned the increasing number of wage rise demands from public sector workers. Al-Anjari asserted that these salary increase demands damage attempts to enforce the privatization laws, as well as further enhancing the public sector’s unproductive work ethos and discouraging Kuwaitis from working in the private sector.

Cabinet may back away from plan to review constitution KUWAIT: His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser AlMohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah understands the desire of Acting Speaker of the National Assembly Abdullah Al-Roumi to cancel the government plan to review some articles of the constitution, government spokesman Dr Mohammad Al-Busairi said yesterday.

“During his meeting with AlKUWAIT: Law professor Dr Obaid Al-Wasmi, recently released from jail following an Amiri pardon after months of detention on state security charges, was honored at a ceremony held by the Kuwait University’s Faculty of Law. —Photos by Fouad AlShaikh

Supporters nominate Al-Wasmi for Nobel Peace Prize, slam celebrations KUWAIT: The coordinator of the cam-

paign to nominate Kuwaiti academic Dr. Obaid Al-Wasmi for the Nobel Peace Prize said on Saturday that it is shameful to celebrate the country’s upcoming national and independence days whilst a Kuwaiti university professor can be charged and jailed for expressing his opinion.

Campaign coordinator Dr. Saad Ben Tifla said that whether one agreed or disagreed with Dr. Al-Wasmi’s opinion, he had been imprisoned for expressing his views which was wholly unjustified.

The move follows the issuing of an Amiri decree by which Dr. Al-Wasmi was ordered to be released, along with two other ‘prisoners of opinion.’

A number of prominent campaigners and human rights advocates have called

for gathering support for Dr. Al-Wasmi, forming a committee to coordinate their work, Dr. Ben Tifla told Al-Anbaa, adding that the committee’s objective is to gather international solidarity with Dr. AlWasmi and to nominate him for the prize. Dr. Ben Tifla stressed that Dr. AlWasmi is a peace-loving individual who has never used violence to express himself, but has been beaten and insulted without any legal justification.

The campaign has been successfully in gathering a sufficient number of nominations to put the prominent academic forward for the Nobel Peace Prize, with signatories including MPs, former ministers and other academics, as well as leading political and legal figures and representatives of civil society organizations, Dr. Ben Tifla added.

Roumi, HH Sheikh Nasser promised to raise the issue of backing away from the plan to interpret some stipulations of the constitution during the coming cabinet session,” Al-Busairi, also minister of State for National Assembly affairs, said. “ The meeting discussed a range of parliamentary issues with emphasis on ways to activate cooperation between the

executive and the legislature,” the minister revealed.

“HH the Prime Minister showed understanding of AlRoumi’s desire regarding the revision of the constitution as a sign of good will aimed to promote coordination vis-‡-vis all issues of national concern,” he pointed out.

He promised to raise the issue during the Cabinet meeting, due later today.

Meanwhile, Al-Roumi hailed the government tendency to give up on the interpretation of articles 50, 100, 101, 111 and 163 of the constitution as “a step in the correct direction.”

“The issue was slated for parliamentary debate on January 21.

I appreciate HH the Prime Minister ’s response to my request,” the senior parliamentarian said. — KUNA

Nick Vujicic: An inspirational man

By Abdullah Al-Qattan KUWAIT: Those of us who know Nick Vujicic through his videos know what this man is capable of and how he can encourage others to take a more optimistic view of life.

However, to actually witness him give a lecture is another thing altogether.

Having been born with no arms or legs, Vujicic adopted the slogan ‘from no limbs to no limits’ to give himself motivation. With that motto he chose to become a motivational speaker and evangelist and share his struggle with the world. Yesterday at a seminar hosted by Wataniya Telecom at the Gulf University of Science and Technology Vujicic shared his experience with students and encouraged them to never give up.

Nick Vujicic was born in 1982 in Brisbane, Australia without a medical explanation or warning that he would enter the world with neither arms nor legs. His parents worried how their son could live a normal happy life and worried about how he would live with such a massive disability?

While these questions plagued his parents, Vujicic turned into an unstoppable optimist able to inspire and motivate millions of people by reminding them to keep their faith and hope in God. He added that his family is very supportive of his calling, especially his brother and sister, who help him spread his message and reach out to as many people as possible. Nick shared how he has been able to overcame his obstacles in life by simply regarding them as chal-

KUWAIT: Nick Vujicic receives and award during the function.

lenges that will help him enhance how he looks at life. He said this perspective on life helped explain how he was able to compete with his able-bodied peers at school in every field including sports, education and every-

day situations. The inspirational motivational speaker emphasized that he never allowed himself to be limited by his disability. “I enjoy golfing, fishing, swimming and listening to music of all varieties,” he said.

Ahmadi residents demand standard rent allowance KUWAIT: A local activist demanded that a KD

1,500 rent allowance be paid to each Kuwaiti family evacuated from their homes on Ahmadi’s Block One because of the gas leak regardless of their number of family members, reported Al-Rai. Attorney Aydan Al-Khaldi, who chairs a voluntary committee established to represent the area’s residents affected by the gas leak crisis, also acknowledged the Cabinet’s decision to place the area’s residents into three categories.

He said the decision will help residents seek

compensations from the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) in the future.

Al-Khaldi further urged the KOC to make initiatives by compensating the families “affected by a problem they are responsible for.” He added that failure to do so would leave families with no other option but to continue seeking legal action.

The court is scheduled to look into a number of lawsuits filed by the committee against five governmental firms, including KOC, on Feb 20.

Charity organizations to unify accounting system KUWAIT: The Ministr y of Social Affairs and Labor’s Director of Charity Work Organizations Nasser Al-Ammar has received several replies from charity organizations concerning a proposal to unify its accounting system. The system has handled budgets that amount to KD 86,588,000.

He emphasized that each charity work organization should have a unified accounting system and that Kuwait should be able to give satisfactory answers to the questions posed by international observers. Precautionary steps taken to combat money laundering and financing terror will be reviewed, reported Al-Anbaa. Based on the aforementioned matter, he asked, “Shouldn’t those 10 organizations have a unified accounting system to which we can refer to in times of need? And these organizations can answer any question raised.” He said that Undersecretary Mohammad Al-Kandari has issued a decision that calls for abiding by regulations as per rules.

The ministry has allowed charitable organizations a grace period until the end of March to deliver records.

Vehicular accidents

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: A car accident on Sixth Ring Road resulted in the death of a 30-year-old and the injury of two citizens: a 29-year-old woman who sustained a broken leg and a 28-year-old that suffered a lacerated lip.

The injured were admitted to Farwaniya Hospital. Meanwhile, a 17-year-old citizen suffered a dislocated left shoulder during a motorcycle accident in Surra. He was brought to Mubarak Hospital.

Fight Meanwhile, a 23-year-old Bengali broke his nose during a fight near the Sahel Sports Club. He was admitted to Adan Hospital.

Insulted officer A citizen was detained in the Jahra police station after a police officer reported that the man insulted him. He also reported that the man attempted to leave the country even though he is banned from traveling.

727 fake companies receive allowances KUWAIT: There are reportedly 727 companies still receiving social care payments for Kuwaiti staff members despite being identified by the Ministr y of Interior as bogus, reported Al-Rai. According to official sources, the Public Institution For Social Security (PIFSS) has paid social and child care allowances to the companies for nearly a year after they received reports from the Civil Ser vice Commission’s (CSC) Manpower and Government Restructuring Program, with notes from the Ministr y of Interior, regarding the companies’ illegal statuses. The sources further explained that PIFSS tried to identify those companies by coordinating with super visor y bodies, including the Ministr y of Commerce and Industry but that their attempts failed because of a lack of response regarding the licenses of those companies and the nature of their activity.

Without the information, PIFSS cannot access the database required to commence legal procedures against the fake companies, the sources explained. They added that the current situation will continue unless a solution for the dilemma is found.

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Progressive reforms needed in the Arab world: Experts Jusour & Smadja holds global strategy conference

By Nisreen Zahreddine

Amir receives Bahraini FM KUWAIT: At Seif Palace yesterday, His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah received the visiting Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmad Al-Khalifa, along with an accompanying delegation.

During the meeting, the Bahraini premier conveyed a message from

Bahrain’s King Hamad Bin Isa AlKhalifa to HH the Amir lauding the distinguished fraternal relations between the two nations.

The message also touched upon proposed means of bolstering Bahraini-Kuwaiti cooperation in all fields, as well as on issues of mutual concern and recent regional and

global developments The meeting was also attended

by Kuwait’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Dr. Mohammad Sabah Al-Sabah and Deputy Minister for Amiri Diwan Affairs Sheikh Ali Jarrah Al-Sabah, as well as a number of other prominent Kuwaiti officials. —KUNA

KUWAIT: The ambassador of Japan, Yasuyoshi Komizo, visited Kuwait Times yesterday and discussed matters of mutual interest with Editor-in-Chief Abd Al-Rahman Alyan. —Photo by Joseph Shagra

KUWAIT: A group of Ministry of Electricity and Water technicians staged a protest outside the Civil Service Commission building, demanding allowances similar to those provided for certain professions at various state departments.

—Photos by Fouad Al-Shaikh

Zoor power plant under investigation KUWAIT: Upon the instructions of the Minister of Electricity and Water Dr. Bader Al-Shurai’an, the technical committee in the Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) is due to review the technical procedures which were put in place regarding a tender meant for Al-Zoor Power plant’s main transformer, reported Al-Watan.

This comes at a time when MPs are still following up on the tender and the alleged malpractices that have marred it. MP Saadoun Al-Otaibi addressed a question to the Minister of Electricity and Water asking him to ascertain the veracity of reports that the tender has been awarded without meeting the set

conditions.

The lawmaker asked whether or not the tender has been awarded after the approval of the Audit Bureau and the Central Tenders Committee (CTC). He also sought to know why the tender was awarded to a company that did not offer the least price, and inquired about the result of the “tender envelope opening” and the parties involved in the process. AlOtaibi equally asked about the legal basis for awarding the tender to the fifth bidders, while urging the minister to explain the measures he intends to put in place in order to rectify the tender’s decision and prevent its recurrence.

Subbiya Plant Ready for Summer: Director KUWAIT: In addition to the use of solar power in generating electricity, the Ministry of Electricity and Wate r a s we l l a s the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research have plans to go ahead with proje c t s to p ro d u ce elec tr icit y through steam-powered generators.

This was revealed by director of the Subbiya power generating

and water desalination plant Mohieddine Najm, who explained that the plant’s management is cooperating with the KISR in order to use the steam emitted from power plants in order to run steam turbines that will significantly help increase the state’s production capacity in both electricity and water.

And while assuring that the

plant is ready for “all kinds of challenges” posed during the upcoming summer, Najm indicated that the ministry is “relying heavily” on the inception of the first stage of the Subbiya plant’s development projec t, which will add 1200 megawatts to the country’s production capacity; enough to help the country avoid the imminent shortage problem.

KUWAIT: Jusour Arabiyah and Smadja held their eighth global strategy conference at the Marina Hotel yesterday. Both speakers at the press conference following the group conference, Shafeeq AlGhabrah and Claude Smadja, agreed that the current events are the beginning of a cultural revolution in the Arab world, which will express itself in all aspects of daily life. Shafeeq Al Ghabrah, the president of Jusour Arabia for leadership and consultancy, said that the meeting discussed the reflections of the two Arab revolutions that took place in Tunisia and Egypt and the impact of these transformations on the current situation in the region and Arab world.

“Arab legitimacy needs a serious reform or else the street will move towards this kind of reform,” he said, adding that the new generation which had taken place in the march of history in these countries is now taking the initiative overleaping the political parties and the active forces and the society elites as well, all towards a regime change and a reform on the basis of people’s empowerment and choices and participation in the political decision-making process.

Claude Smadja, the chairman of Smadja Associates, said that no government should take its legitimacy for granted since people are asking their rulers to justify their legitimacy, not only in terms of providing the natural necessities such as food and employment opportunities but for human dignity in terms of transparency and accountability. “We are witnessing the emergence of new mindsets,” he said.

Smadja described the current times to be “crucial moments” as the events which change the picture are a turning point for the Arab World

Kuwait: Claude Smadja (left) and Shafeeq Al Ghabrah speaking during the press conference at Marina hotel yesterday.

—Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat and its business sector. “ There is not a single immune regime from the major changes in the Arab world”, he said. One consensus in the discussions during the conference was on whether the demands will be met with some adjustments and reforms or through violence. He, on the other hand pointed to the fact that a new Arab world is beginning to emerge and it is still in the early stages. This brings forth the talk about a new meaning of stability in the region as the Arab citizens do not want to be objects of history anymore, on the contrary they want to be the subjects of history.

Al Ghabrah, on the other hand, emphasized the need for more progressive laws, freedom of expression and media freedom, judicial independence, and the foundation of political parties for a healthy political and social life for people.

Such changes are badly needed for the GCC states such as Kuwait for instance, he said, adding that this should be applied in all monarchic regimes in order to enable them to survive.

He added that the expectations are that Egypt will restore its image in the Arab region as a major player and will regain its influential role in regional policymaking. It will, however, have to focus on internal issues first which needs great effort to reform it before broadening its role. On foreign investments, Al Ghabrah asserted that the Arab region was not a real subject of attraction for foreign investment as corruption is deep-rooted in the regimes. Similarly, Smadja refused to link between the revolutions and requests of change and the economic situation of the countries posted in figures. He explained that both Tunisia and Egypt are doing well in terms of GDP, but the wealth distribution discrepancies are wide, with few grabbing the wealth and many deprived of it.

The eighth Global Strategy conference on the Middle East brings together top experts and participants from all around the world in order to discuss the regional and global economic, social and political realities shaping the region.

Kuwait ‘a pioneer’ in supporting culture: Lebanese intellectuals BEIRUT: Kuwait is a pioneer in supporting culture and intellectuals in the Middle East, a number of Lebanese intellectuals said yesterday. The cultural, social and scientific development which Kuwait underwent “granted Kuwait a leading position” worldwide, Vice President of the Islamic cultural center Dr Wajih Fanoos said in a statement marking Kuwait’s national celebrations. Through supporting internal affairs of Arab countries, Kuwait demonstrated a model for Arab politics in understanding the other, he said, adding that policy was boosted since the assumption of His Highness the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah of power five years ago.

Kuwait’s financial and political support for Lebanon during calamities of which the later had went through displays a “great Arab integrating action,” he said, adding that his country would always remember Kuwaiti support. He hailed Kuwait’s cultural role though its government and privately-run institutions, while noting to the

leading role of Al-Arabi magazine and Abdulaziz AlBabtain’s Prize for enriching Arab culture.

Kuwait is keen on maintaining a “serious” and “fruitful” connection with all cultural institutions in the Middle East through organizing the international book fairs and participating at Arab International Book Exhibition, President of Arab Cultural Club Fadi Tamim said. Tamim noted to the ramifications of the Iraqi invasion, adding that no country was able to rise and overcome that “difficult stage,” nut thanks to Kuwaiti leadership and the national’s unity which helped restore the country. Salim Trabi, on the other hand said that Kuwaiti support for Arab countries in all domains emphasized its keenness on holding on to Islamic and Arabic culture and desire for a “bright Arab future” built on science, culture and progress. He noted to the democracy blessed by Kuwaiti amirs throughout history as a means of progress and development. —KUNA

UK-Kuwait relations ‘deep-rooted’

Teen crimes reduce

LONDON: The State of Kuwait and the United Kingdom enjoy deep-rooted and time-honored relations on both political and public level, and this should be invested in even further in order to help with long-term development in both countries, a leading UK academician said.

Durham University Vice Chancellor Chris Higgins was speaking as a guest invited to take part in the February festivities marking the 50th Anniversar y of the Independence, the 20th Anniversar y of the Independence, and the 5th Anniversary of His Highness the Amir’s Assumption of Power.

The academician praised the achievements of the state so far and its fulfillment of its role in initiating and realizing development, compared to other states in the Gulf region. Higgins said both countries are keen on boosting relations and the UK realizes the important role Kuwait plays in securing the stability of the region.

He added the university’s Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (IMEIS) looks into the culture, language and other aspects of life of the region in order to help avoid conflict in the future and support economic growth. Cooperation between Kuwait and the IMEIS in the area of Arabic language courses in particular dates back 50 years, he said. The academician noted that a large number of Kuwaiti students, male and female, join the institute, and pointed out a plan for academic partnership soon between Durham University and a number of universities in Kuwait. Such cooperation, he remarked, would contribute to expanding the scope and quality of education, as well as develop a unique educational infrastructure. —KUNA

PAAAFR’s exit delays Mishref walkway project KUWAIT: A project to build a sophisticated walkway in Mishref has been delayed following the Public Authority for Agricultural Affairs and Fish Resources’ (PAAAFR) decision to withdraw plans to participate. According to an official, PAAAFR issued its decision during a recent meeting held for the bodies participating in the project.

It is supervised by the Ministry of Public Works.

The official further explained that the ministry proceeded with the project after completing electrification projects. It is now racing against time to finish the project, following PAAAFR’s withdrawal, reported Al-Rai.

KUWAIT: The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor’s juvenile care homes have recorded a 13 percent decrease in the number of inmates during the previous year.

This was announced by Abdullatif Al-Senan, Director of the Juvenile Care Department. He attributed this drop to “the great role played by the media in spreading awareness on teenagers’ misconduct.”

In a press statement, Al-Senan said that the number of juvenile delinquents present at care homes touch 1,527 during the past year; 1,432 males and 95 females. Also, 937 of the total number are Kuwaitis. He went on to explain that the decline is a good indicator of the department’s successful plans, especially with regard to the rehabilitation programs that were organized, reported Al-Qabas.

Care homes lodge teenagers who have been imprisoned for misdemeanor charges. They undergo rehabilitation programs that helps prepare them for release.

According to Al-Senan, physical assault from a bulk of cases committed by juveniles in 2010. This was followed by 272 theft cases, 192 traffic violations cases, and 55 cases of driving without a license.

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2011

LOCAL

Popular stars enthral audience in fourth Febrayer concert Veteran composer Ibrahim Al-Soula honored

Local Spotlight

A marriage between power and politics

Muna Al-Fuzai

muna@kuwaittimes.net hat is a common trait among politicians in the Middle East? In calculable wealth, of course. It appears as if becoming a politician is a short cut towards amassing fortunes. They have hoarded enough for their grandchildren too, we are not talking about a few thousands but billions and billions of dollars. No wonder politicians in the Middle East love to stay in power and fight for it until death nears.

While many corrupt dictators will hold on to their positions forever, the problem here is that the authority and power vested in many leaders and politicians is unlimited. They come to falsely believe that their power is above the law. So, politicians think of the public as their own property. They believe that they can steal and manipulate. Whoever dares to confront or challenge him usually spend their remaining lives in jail, if not shot dead!

While lamenting about the prevalence of so much corruption in many Arab countries, why do we give politicians so much power and expect zero accountability from their part? I think there are several reasons. Firstly, many people complain against their national representatives’ poor performance. They do not call for any actual supervision or evaluation. On the contrary, they are reelected until they are fed up after half a century or so. Look at the Egyptians for example, they waited for thirty years to see change. Even though Mubarak has stepped down now, the damage incurred is too heavy.

Secondly, I believe that rigid customs, traditions coupled with the common man’s ignorance, makes life miserable. Arabs in many countries like Egypt wish to live a decent life. I believe all people deserve to live in a healthy environment, receive an education. If these basic requirements are not met, the people will find other ways to rectify it.

Change is not accidental and I think many in the Arab world are dreamers. So, do people in the Arab world need some education and awareness on safeguarding their rights? Of course, they do.

Finally, the Arab world lags behind in terms of education. I personally think UN offices and agencies have failed to live up to their tasks. It just oversees the catastrophe unfolding around it.

Educational curriculums are left to the government. The Ministry of Education designs a tailormade syllabus that panders to the interest of the country ’s ruling power. For example, when Saddam Husain, former president of Iraq was in power, all educational curriculums glorified the man’s prowess and acts. The Arab world needs help, especially its people. The youth and children should be more aware about over how they see the future. They should be more aware about their surroundings.

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KUWAIT: A part of the audience waving with the Kuwaiti flags.

By Nawara Fattawova

KUWAIT: The fourth musical concert held as part of the Layali Febrayer musical festival featured a galaxy of big names. The Ice Skating Rink’s theater was completely occupied. Not only were 2,700 seats completely sold out, even makeshift plastic chair seating was sold for KD 10, making it the most crowded show till date.

Moroccan singer Asma Al-Minwer participated in the festival for the second time. Her songs gained popularity in Kuwait after she released her second album that included many numbers in the Khaleeji dialect. She crooned different songs in Moroccan, Khaleeji, Egyptian dialects and even in French.

Veteran composer Ibrahim Al-Soula, who composed Kuwait’s national anthem was felicitated during the

event. Also, Saudi singer Abu Baker Salem graced the stage. Owing to failing health and old age, he sang while remaining seated. Salem began his career in the 1960’s and issued several albums. He is known for his Hadrami style and performed for an hour and a half.

The audience waited with baited breath for Kuwait’s own star Abdullah Al-Ruweishid, who appeared on stage at 2:00 am. His fans welcomed him with great applause, calling out his name and chanting songs. AlRuweishid who felt the strain of arc lights that were trained on him, asked it to be turned off. The audience called out in unison “Switch off the lights.”

Al-Ruweishid began his career in the early 1980’s and has several evergreen albums to his credit. During this concert, he performed different romantic songs from old and new albums.

Letters to Muna Al-Fuzai

KUWAIT: Abdullah Al-Ruweishid singing during the concert.

KUWAIT: Asma Al-Minwer on stage.

KUWAIT: Al-Ruweishid welcoming the disabled.

CTC approves projects for 23 departments KUWAIT: The Central Tenders Committee (CTC) has recently approved tenders that pertain with at least 29 projects that were submitted by 23 government directorates. It is worth an estimated total of KD 251.591 million. The approved tenders include a request submitted to build the arts and education faculties at the Sabah Al-Salem academic zone, in addition to a request put forward by the Public Authority for Youth and Sport to build the Kuwaiti Bowling Club in Salmiya. In addition, a request submitted by the Kuwait National Petroleum Company was approved.

It dealt with improving the fire alarm system at refineries, while another request was approved to set up fire stations at Burgan as well as in the northern and western parts of Kuwait, reported Al-Qabas.

Also, the CTC has approved a request put forward by the Ministry of Communication on awarding a tender to conduct a maintenance project at the Liberation Tower. A request from the Kuwait Airways Corporation (KAC) to change the international distribution companies’ contract date to March 1, 2011 also received a nod.

Dear Muna , How are you? My name is Fatima Zameena a Sri Lankan and a mother of two children. I am deaf and dumb. I read all the articles that appear in Kuwait Times every day, with my husband’s help. I would like to ask for some information on whether I should register with a deaf club? Will it be the right move? If yes, where should I register? Where should I go?

Fatihma Hi Muna, I read your column about an incident where a policeman raped an Ethiopian girl in a prison cell in front of her inmate. Your article was sympathetic towards Ethiopian girls. Your suggestion that a camera should be installed is the best solution. Is it not possible to assign only female police personnel to the Women’s Prison Department? Aren’t there any policewomen in Kuwait? What kind of judgment will be delivered in this case, I’m curious to know. Rape permanently damages victims’ psychological health.

A reader

Kuwaiti officially requests Gitmo detainees’ release KUWAIT: The Kuwaiti government has submitted an official request to United States President Barrak Obama appealing for the release of Kuwaiti citizens Fayez Al-Kandari and Fawzi Al-Oudah from the Guantanamo Bay detention center, after the Gulf nation fulfilled all the US administrations conditions for the detainees’ release.

The move was announced by AlKandari’s attorneys, Lieutenant Colonel Barry Wingard and Lieutenant Commander Kevin Bogucki in an interview with AlQabas following their latest visit to Kuwait.

During this visit, they met with the theninterior minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Khalid AlSabah, who denied allegations that he had previously asked the US Ambassador to Kuwait, Deborah Jones, to ensure that the detainees were not returned to Kuwait.

Lt. Col. Wingard indicated that during their ten-day visit, he had also met with justice minister Rashid Al-Hamad, who is also the Deputy Prime Minister for Legal Affairs and State Minister of Awqaf and Islamic

Affairs, as well as holding talks with foreign ministry undersecretary Khalid Al-Jarallah and US Embassy officials.

The attorney said that the all the officials he had met with had assured him that coordination is ongoing at the highest levels to ensure that either the Kuwaiti detainees are returned as soon as possible or that they are given a fair trial. Lt. Cmdr. Bogucki said that the Kuwaiti government’s pressure on its American counterpart is a “huge step forward” in achieving the return of the Kuwaiti detainees at Guantanamo Bay. He also expressed hope that the human rights campaigning body Human Rights Watch would intervene in this case to end the longstanding impasse that has now persisted for over a decade.

He added that Kuwaiti Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Dr. Mohammad Al-Sabah and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are shortly set to hold talks in order to devise a workable formula to end this critical situation.