KT 6-5-2013_Layout 1 - Kuwait Times

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Four dead as
B’desh Islamists
protest 8for
blasphemy law
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013 JAMADA ALTHANI 26, 1434 AH www.kuwaittimes.net
Malaysian
regime retains
56-year
12
hold
on power
India cements
position as
pharmacy
25
of
the world
Ten-man
Juventus
secure
20
29th
Italian title
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Tensions spiking after
Israel hits Syria again
Raids target Iranian missiles bound for Hezbollah
KUWAIT: Lightning strikes the sky over Salmiya during a thunderstorm early yesterday. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat
Grads preferred
to grandmas in US
immigration bill
WASHINGTON: US immigration authorities would
give preference to better-educated and trained visaseekers
who can contribute to the American economy
under a less-noticed provision of the immigration
bill in the US Congress. The bi-partisan bill in the US
Senate would rewrite the half-century-old standards
that control legal immigration to favor skills over
family ties. The winners of this proposed “meritbased”
system, experts say, would be primarily from
Asia, particularly from India, China and the
Philippines, whose citizens are more likely to have
attended college or have on-the-job training in
skilled occupations such as engineering and technology.
The losers are likely to be Mexicans and Central
Americans.
The new system, long advocated by economists
and politicians who believe the main purpose of
immigration laws should be to serve economic
growth, would replace one geared mainly to reuniting
families. As an example, an engineering graduate
from India would have a better chance of immigrating
to the United States than the grandmother
Continued on Page 13
By B Izzak
KUWAIT: The opposition held a meeting
Saturday night and decided to stage a
number of activities including a public
rally on the Gulf Road, former opposition
MP Khaled Al-Sultan said after the meeting.
Sultan described the meeting as the
most important for the opposition which
prepared a program of protests until June
16 when the constitutional court is
scheduled to issue its verdict regarding
the single-vote law which was ordered by
HH the Amir late last year and triggered
one of the most bitter political crisis in
Kuwait.
The former lawmaker described the
court ruling as “the most decisive event”
in Kuwait’s constitutional history, adding
that if the court rules in favour of the
amendment, it means the death of the
constitution. Ahead of the Dec 1 general
MOGADISHU: A victim of a suicide attack is on a stretcher yesterday after a suicide
attacker rammed a car laden with explosives into a convoy at a busy junction
yesterday. — AFP
election, the government under instructions
of the Amir amended the electoral
constituency law by reducing the number
of votes a Kuwaiti voter can cast from four
to one. The opposition has claimed that
the amendment allowed the government
to elect a rubberstamp Assembly.
Separately, the National Assembly’s
financial and economic affairs committee
yesterday approved a proposal to allow
female Kuwaiti government employees to
go on retirement only after 15 years of
service without any age restrictions. At
present, Kuwaiti women can seek retirement
with full benefits after they complete
at least 15 years in service provided
they reach 40 years of age. The government
had in the past rejected similar proposals
because of the financial cost as the
measure overburdens the country’s pension
system which is facing a huge deficit.
The proposal is expected to be rejected
MOGADISHU: Around 11 people were killed in
Somalia’s capital yesterday when a suicide attacker from
the Al-Qaeda linked Shabab insurgents rammed a car
laden with explosives into a convoy carrying officials
from Qatar, police said. “Several people have been
killed, the blast was big ... the number of those killed is
around 11,” police official Mohamed Adan said. Four
government officials visiting from Qatar were travelling
in armoured vehicles belonging to the interior ministry
when the convoy was attacked, but were unharmed.
“The convoy was escorting a delegation from Qatar, the
police escorted them to a safe area after they survived
the attack,” General Garad Nur, a senior police commander,
told reporters.
The blast is the latest in a string of bloody attacks in
the seaside capital, where Al-Qaeda linked Shabab
insurgents have vowed to topple the government and
have set off several bombs and launched guerrilla-style
strikes. “The mujahedeen have today carried out the
first of a series of attacks,” the Shebab said in a message
on Twitter. The car exploded close to a police station at
the central K4 roundabout, a busy part of Mogadishu
where many people gather to drink tea at roadside
stalls. Other police officials said that at least 10 people
had been killed.
Continued on Page 13
again by the government when it goes to
the floor for discussion. The government
can also reject the move even if MPs pass
it in a law.
The committee also approved proposals
to increase the salaries of active and
retired policemen. Rapporteur of the
committee MP Safa Al-Hashem said the
committee also discussed a government
draft law to tackle the problem of hundreds
of stock market dealers who were
severely impacted by the 1982 Manakh
(secondary stock market) crash. The dealers
were included under the landmark difficult
debt settlement program law which
was passed by the Assembly in 1993.
Thousands of dealers joined the program
and repaid their debts but some dealers
have failed to pay. Hashem said the government
told the committee the interest
on the remaining debt is around KD 400
million but added that the government
Max 34º
Min 19º
High Tide
09:27 & 21:59
Low Tide
03:05 & 15:46
BEIRUT: Israeli jets devastated Syrian targets near
Damascus yesterday in a heavy overnight air raid that
Western and Israeli officials called a new strike on
Iranian missiles bound for Lebanon’s Hezbollah. As
Syria’s two-year-old civil war veered into the potentially
atomic arena of Iran’s confrontation with Israel and the
West over its nuclear program, people were woken in
the Syrian capital by explosions that shook the ground
like an earthquake and sent pillars of flame high into
the night sky. “Night turned into day,” one man told
Reuters from his home at Hameh, near one of the targets,
the Jamraya military base.
But for all the angry rhetoric in response from Tehran
and from the government of Syrian President Bashar Al-
Assad, it was unclear whether the second such raid in
48 hours would elicit any greater reaction than an Israeli
attack in the same area in January, which was followed
by little evident change. The Syrian government
accused Israel of effectively helping Al-Qaeda Islamist
“terrorists” and said the strikes “open the door to all possibilities”;
but Israeli officials said that, as in January,
they were calculating Assad would not pick a fight with
a well-armed neighbour while facing defeat at home.
Denying it was weighing in on the rebel side on
behalf of Washington - which opposes Assad but is hesitating
to intervene - officials said Israel was pursuing its
own conflict, not with Syria but with Iran, and was acting
to prevent Iran’s Hezbollah allies receiving missiles
that might strike Tel Aviv if Israel made good on threats
to attack Tehran’s nuclear program. What Israel was not
doing, they stressed, was getting drawn into a debate
that has raged in the United States lately of whether the
alleged use of poison gas by Assad’s forces should
prompt the West finally to give military backing to oust
him.
Israel was not taking sides in a civil war that has pitted
Assad’s government, a dour but mostly toothless
adversary for nearly 40 years, against Sunni rebels, some
of them Islamist radicals, who might one day turn Syria’s
armoury against the Jewish state. It is a mark of how
two years of killing in which at least 70,000 Syrians have
died has not only inflamed a wider, regional
Continued on Page 13
Oppn plans protests until verdict
Panel approves early retirement for women
Bomb hits Qatari convoy in Somalia
DUBAI: Islamist-ruled Egypt is open to
visitors who drink alcohol and wear
bikinis as it sets out to boost numbers
by at least a fifth this year, the tourism
minister said yesterday. Tourism is a pillar
of the Egyptian economy but has
suffered since a popular uprising toppled
President Hosni Mubarak in 2011
and set off two years of periodic rioting
and instability. The minister, Hisham
Zaazou, said the government had “optimistic
goals” for the sector, and played
down comments from radical Salafi
Muslim groups who have called for a
ban on alcohol and women wearing
swimsuits.
“Bikinis are welcome in Egypt and
booze is still being served,” Zaazou,
speaking in English, told a news conference
during a visit to the United Arab
Emirates. “We had talks with these Salafi
groups and now they understand the
provided no details about the cost of the
draft law.
Chairman of the Foreign Relations
Committee MP Saleh Ashour said the
committee yesterday discussed the Gulf
Cooperation Council (GCC) joint security
pact which has come under fire from the
opposition and even some MPs. Ashour
said the committee discussed the agreement
in details and decided that certain
provisions must be discussed with the
interior and foreign ministers and invitations
have been sent out to the two ministers.
Several opposition members have
said certain provisions of the pact are in
breach of the constitution. The Assembly’s
human rights and bedoons committee
yesterday discussed a government-sponsored
draft law calling to establish a
National Committee for Human Rights
and a number of issues relating to
bedoons, or stateless people.
Booze and bikinis
welcome in Egypt
importance of the tourism sector, but
still you have some individuals that are
not from the leadership saying these
things,” added the minister, an independent
who is not a member of the
ruling Muslim Brotherhood. Islamist
President Mohamed Morsi’s government
increased taxes on alcohol in
December but backed down after the
move was criticized by the tourism sector
and by liberals.
Before the uprising, tourism was
worth more than a tenth of Egypt’s economic
output. In 2010, 14.7 million visitors
came, generating $12.5 billion in
earnings, but arrivals slowed to 9.8 million
the following year and income to
$8.8 billion. According to Zaazou, 2012
saw a recovery as 11.5 million tourists
came and revenues rebounded to
about $10 billion.
Continued on Page 13

LOCAL
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
Free medical check-up, medicines for Sri Lankans
Charity event at embassy
By Ben Garcia
KUWAIT: A charity event organized by the Al-
Rahma Committee for Medical Services, in
conjunction with the Embassy of Sri Lanka,
was held recently at the embassy compound.
Hundreds of Sri Lankan runaway housemaids
and other members of the Sri Lankan community
participated in and benefited from this
event, in which free medical check-up and
medicines were distributed.
Speaking with the Kuwait Times, C.A.H.M.
Wijeratne, Sri Lankan Ambassador to Kuwaitstated
that 60-70 deaths annually was “a high
number” for a population of 130,000 Sri
Lankans in Kuwait, and he attributed the high
mortality rate to lack of regular medical checkup.
“The problem with us Sri Lankans is that
we normally don’t go to the doctors unless we
have health complaints,” he said.
He said patients were wary about doctors
detecting some dreadful disease. “It’s normal, I
think, and not peculiar to people of our
nationality. So, such medical outreach is really
very beneficial not just for our runaway housemaids
at the embassy but also for the entire
Sri Lankan community in Kuwait. This one-day
charity event has been organised with the
help of Indian Youth as well,” Wijeratne added.
The envoy admitted that the Sri Lankan
community has the highest mortality rate
among all other communities in Kuwait. “We
thank them for their generosity and kind
assistance. What I know is that their services
are not just limited to us or the Sri Lankan
community; they are conducting this program
for other needy communities as well,” he
pointed out.
Besides free medical check-up, the charity
organization also distributed some free medicines
to their patients, along with free medical
consultation. “I appreciate their help and hope
that this will not be the last,” Wijeratne said.
Al-Rahma Committee for Medical Services
brought along some Kuwaiti, Indian and Sri
Lankan doctors and nurses to assist participants
of the one-day event. According to Dr
Saleh Malallah, Al-Rahma Committee
Executive Manager, serious cases will be sent
over to the hospital for follow-up treatment.
“While we have doctors here right now, some
of the serious cases found here will be sent to
government hospitals,” he added. The charity
organization holds at least two medical outreach
programs per month. These are mostly
organised for poor communities, with free
check-up and free food provided during a usually
one-day event.
KUWAIT: Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Kuwait C.A.H.M. Wijeratne (right) poses here with one doctor
attending to patients at the embassy. —Photos by Ben Garcia
KUWAIT: Some patients waiting for their turn at the embassy.
Co-education ban
to be canceled?
KUWAIT: The government is gradually
taking certain steps in cooperation with
some MPs to amend the ban on coeducation
and tweak certain other controversial
laws, a local newspaper reported
yesterday quoting a cabinet insider.
Some lawmakers had previously proposed
an amendment to the law that
mandates that separate schools and university
classes must be allocated for
male and female students in the public
and private sector, said the source who
spoke to Al-Qabas on the condition of
anonymity.
“The proposal was not forwarded in
coordination with the government,
which negatively affected the government’s
serious attempts to amend the
law,” the source added. He also indicated
that the majority support that the government
enjoys in the parliament should
be used to scrap the coeducation ban as
soon as possible. Furthermore, the
source said that the “current cooperation
between the legislative and executive
authorities” has brought positive results
“including the fact that MPs have not
responded to labor strikes and financial
demands as opposed to their predecessors,
which was in line with the state’s
financial directions.”
Meanwhile, Al-Rai reported that the
Public Institution for Social Security “cannot
accept” parliamentary demands for
increasing children allowances, pensions
and early retirement pensions due to
their projected financial cost. A letter
signed by the institution’s General
Manager, Fahad Al-Rajhan, and quoted
in the report, explains that the proposed
early retirement program leads to “actuarial
deficit, especially if the retirement
age was not determined because that
would lead to the fund going bankrupt.”
A study conducted within the institution
also indicates that the parliamentary
proposal costs KD2.1 billion for
166,000 women under insurance, and
KD4.5 billion for 143 million men under
insurance.
‘Too much exercise
counter-productive’
KUWAIT: Excessive physical exercise may
turn in some cases into obsession and lead
to negative physical and psychological
effects, experts warn.
The experts advise persons seeking better
health and look to resort to balanced
diet, moderate exercise and diverse activities.
Excessive athletic activity is one form of
“addiction that must not be ignored,” said
Manar Abdul Nabi, a PhD-level physical
exercise teacher.
Motives for practicing sport differ from
one person to another. Some desire to shed
weight or maintain it and others seek competition.
A lot of free time, particularly
among teen-agers and failure to invest it in
something useful constitute some of the
motives for getting involved in some activity
in an obsessive manner for a long period of
time, such as being glued in front of television
for long hours, surfing the Internet aimlessly
or getting involved in insensible shopping,
Dr Abdul Nabi said, advising persons
prone to “such addiction” to get involved in
diverse activities.
Exercise is good for human health but
over-doing it is counter-productive, she said,
warning that such “addicts” may suffer from
lack of self-esteem, social life as well as turning
prone to injury. Normal physical activity
should be in the range of three times per
week (40-90 minutes each time), and excessive
exercise may result in injury to body
joints, nausea and fatigue. Citing a tangible
example, the expert mentioned that she had
tried to help a 17-year-old girl, weighing 140
kg. The girl sought to lose weight with intensive
exercise, but the heavy activity nudged
her to eat excessively, “Although I had
advised her to exercise and eat with moderation
and drink a lot of water and abstain
from monitoring early results.” — KUNA
Burgan Bank marks 2012 successful achievements
KUWAIT: Burgan Bank recently held its
yearly gathering event at the Salwa Sabah
Al Ahmad Al Sabah hall with an objective
to recognize the efforts of its employees,
and reward them for contributing to the
bank over the years. The event was attended
by Burgan Bank’s Chairman, Majed Essa
Al-Ajeel, staff members, senior executive
management, as well as representatives
from the bank’s regional subsidiaries.
During the event, employees were
engaged by receiving latest updates on the
bank’s strategic objectives by the CEO
along with the key highlights of the bank’s
performance over the course of the year
2012 and general direction in the near
future. Burgan Bank Group now includes
more than 3,000 employees across a wide
network of 216, all of whom are the driving
force of the bank’s business .
The event celebrated the diverse cultural
range found within Burgan Bank’s local
and regional markets, and included a broad
range of cultural activities from Kuwait,
Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Algeria, Tunisia as
well as Iraq. During the event, staff members
were delighted and entertained to a
number of exciting activities, quiz games,
as well as raffle draws.
Employee communications is a core
component of Burgan Bank’s overall
approach. The bank has taken a number of
measures that highlight the importance of
engaging with its internal audiences, which
aim to nurture a culture of open dialogue,
harnessing skills, and creating credible
brand ambassadors.
Established in 1977, Burgan Bank is the
youngest commercial Bank and third
largest by assets in Kuwait, with a significant
focus on the corporate and financial
institutions sectors, as well as having a
growing retail and private bank customer
base. Burgan Bank has five majority owned
subsidiaries, which include Gulf Bank
Algeria - AGB (Algeria), Bank of Baghdad -
BOB (Iraq & Lebanon), Jordan Kuwait Bank -
JKB (Jordan) Tunis International Bank - TIB
(Tunisia), and fully owned Burgan Bank -
Turkey, (collectively known as the “Burgan
Bank Group”).
The Bank has continuously improved its
performance over the years through an
expanded revenue structure, diversified
funding sources, and a strong capital base.
The adoption of state-of-the-art services
and technology has positioned it as a
trendsetter in the domestic market and
within the MENA region.
Burgan Bank’s brand has been created
on a foundation of real values - of trust,
commitment, excellence and progression,
to remind us of the high standards to
which we aspire. ‘People come first’ is the
foundation on which its products and services
are developed. Earlier this year, ‘Brand
Finance’ - the international brand valuation
company- rated Burgan Bank brand as AA
with positive outlook. The rating places
Burgan Bank Brand at 2nd amongst the
most valuable banking brands in Kuwait.
Excellence is one of the Bank’s four key
values and Burgan Bank continually strives
to maintain the highest standards in the
industry. The Bank was re-certified in 2010
with the ISO 9001:2008 certification in all
its banking businesses, making it the first
bank in the GCC, and the only bank in
Kuwait to receive such accreditation. The
Bank also has to its credit the distinction of
being the only Bank in Kuwait to have won
the JP Morgan Chase Quality Recognition
Award for twelve consecutive years.
Burgan Bank won the prestigious
“Banking Web Awards” prize in the commercial
and corporate Category for Kuwait.
In 2010 Burgan Bank was awarded with the
“Best Internet Banking Service award” from
Banker Middle East Awards. Burgan Bank
was recognized in 2011 as Kuwait’s “Best
Private Bank”, by World Finance.
The bank also won, in 2011, the coveted
“International Platinum Star for Quality”
award from Business Initiative Directions,
and “The Best Technical Award” from
Banking Web Awards. In 2012, Global
Banking and Finance Review online magazine
recognized Burgan Bank as the “Best
Banking Group in the MENA” as well as the
“Best Corporate Bank in Kuwait”. The bank
also won the coveted “Best Bank Branding”
award by the Banker Middle East. For the
second consecutive year in 2012, Burgan
Bank also won World Finance’s “Best Private
Bank” award, as well as the “Best Private
Bank in Kuwait 2012” award from Capital
Finance International. The bank recently
won the “Best Bank in Kuwait” award from
EMEA Finance.
Burgan Bank, a subsidiary of KIPCO
(Kuwait Projects Company), is a strongly
positioned regional Bank in the MENA
region.
Kuwait, Morocco
discuss ways to boost
bilateral cooperation
KUWAIT: Kuwait’s Minister of Information, State Minister
for Youth Affairs Sheikh Salman Sabah Al-Salem Al-
Humoud Al-Sabah yesterday met with Morocco’s ex-
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Mohamed Benaissa and
discussed ways to activate and strengthen bilateral
cooperation.
During the meeting, Sheikh Salman lauded Kuwaiti-
Moroccan ties and expressed his gratitude to the invitation
directed to him by the former Moroccan minister to
take part in the Asilah Cultural Forum, to be held in
forthcoming July.
For his part, bin Essa expressed his hope for participation
by Sheikh Salman in a symposium during the
forum, entitled “Media Scene in GCC Countries in light of
Changes”, praising at the same time Kuwait’s pioneering
democratic and media experience.
Meanwhile, the Minister of information received
today Astronomer Dr. Saleh AL-Ajairi and praised his distinctive
efforts and role in Kuwait’s renaissance, as well
as his creativity and talent in the science of Astronomy.
Also, Sheikh Salman received today with the media coordinator
for TV Asia channel, who is visiting the country
to prepare a documentary on Kuwait, which is to be
aired by the channel in 10 different languages. In addition,
he met today with Mwongola Leoni, Editorial
Manager at Oxford Business Group in Kuwait, and
Carolyn Fung, editor of Report journal who are preparing
reports on Kuwait in next editions of their journals.
Meanwhile, President of State Audit Bureau of Kuwait
Abdelaziz Al-Adsani held talks with visiting Jordanian
counterpart Mustafa Al-Barari over bolstering bilateral
cooperation in audit work aiming to control public
funds. In a press statement, the State Audit Bureau quoted
the Jordanian guest Al-Barari as saying that that an
agreement to foster audit cooperation between Jordan
and Kuwait is in the pipeline. Al-Barari underlined the
importance of strengthening mutual cooperation in
public fund control among the audit agencies in the
Arab region. He also spoke highly about Kuwait’s presidency
of the 11th session of the Arab Organization of
Supreme Audit Institutions. — KUNA
Health Ministry plans to
hold lecture on AIDS
KUWAIT: The Health Ministry will hold a lecture on AIDS
next Wednesday, discussing the latest means to counter
the disease and how to deal with those infected.
Health Ministry official Dr. Hind Al-Shumar told the
press that the lecture would be held under the ministry’s
media strategy to spread awareness on AIDS and
means to prevent people from getting infected.
The latest treatments and means of prevention will
be discussed during the lecture, said the official, adding
that pamphlets in both Arabic and English will be distributed
during that day to spread awareness amongst
the masses.
The Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is
a disease of the human immune system caused by infection
with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
During the initial infection, a person may experience
a brief period of influenza-like illness. This is typically followed
by a prolonged period without symptoms. As the
illness progresses, it interferes more and more with the
immune system, making the person much more likely to
get infections, including opportunistic infections and
tumors that do not usually affect people who have
working immune systems. — KUNA
KUWAIT: The Touristic Enterprises Company organized a training program on ‘new methods in auditing and warehouse
monitoring’ featuring eight employees, in cooperation with the World Advisors Company for Administrative
and Economic Consultations.

LOCAL
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
KUWAIT: HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah and Acting Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Jaber Al-
Sabah receive the President of Tanzania Dr Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete at the airport yesterday.
Tanzanian president arrives in Kuwait
KUWAIT: The President of Tanzania Dr Jakaya Mrisho
Kikwete along with his accompanying official delegation
arrived here yesterday for a three-day official visit, during
which he is to hold official discussions with His Highness the
Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.
Upon his arrival at the airport, President Kikwete was
received by HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber
Al-Sabah, His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-
Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, Deputy National Assembly
Speaker Mubarak Al-Khurainij, Acting Prime Minister and
Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Jaber Al-
Sabah, Deputy Minister of Amiri Diwan Affairs Sheikh Ali
Jarrah Al-Sabah, senior state officials, and senior army,
police, and national guards personnel.
The accompanying mission of honor for President
Kikwete is headed by the Advisor at the Amiri Diwan
Mohammad Abdullah Abu Al-Hassan.
The official accompanying delegation of the Tanzanian
President consisted of MP Bernard Kamillius Membe,
Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation,
MP William Augustao Mgimwa, Minister for Finance and
Economic Affairs, MP Abdallah Omar Kigoda, Minister for
Industry and Trade, MP Sospeter Muhongo, Minister for
Energy and Mineral Resources, Nassor Ahmed Mazrui, the
Zanzibar Minister for Trade, Industry and Marketing, Omar
Yussuf Mzee, the Zanzibar Minister in the President’s Office
of Finance, Economy and Development Planning, and number
of senior officials in the Tanzanian government. — KUNA
KUWAIT: Dr. Riccardo Cappato, Dr. Mousa Akbar, Dr. Anthonie W.A.Lesing and Dr. Faisal Al-Sayegh — Photos by
Yasser Al-Zayyat
Kuwait campaign to raise
awareness about stroke
Bayer unveils oral anti-coagulant
By Nawara Fattahova
KUWAIT: Bayer Healthcare launched a
campaign in Kuwait to raise awareness
about stroke and the latest remedies
developed to prevent and cure this
lethal disease that kills more people in
Europe each year than breast cancer,
prostate cancer, HIV/AIDS and road traffic
accidents combined.The campaign
started with a press conference held at
Movenpick-Al Bidaa Hotel on Saturday,
where Bayer Healthcare apprised the
media about the causes, risk factors and
the available healthcare to deal with
strokes, besides the economic burden
that it places on victim’s families.
Bayer also unveiled a breakthrough
oral anti-coagulant, Rivaroxaban, which
has been approved and registered by
the Kuwaiti Ministry of Health as a treatment
for Atrial Fibrillation (AF), a main
condition of stroke. The new anticoagulant
potentially prevents and treats AFrelated
stroke and overcomes the limitations
of earlier available treatments,
ushering in a new era in the fight
against the disease.
Clots are a devastating threat that
affects millions globally and protection
against dangerous clots is important
both for stroke prevention and treatment.
“Reports indicate that every 13
seconds, someone in the world suffers
an AF-related stroke and that Venous
Thrombo embolism (VTE), another
major condition of stroke, is the immediate
cause of death of 10% of the
patients who die in hospitals,” said Dr.
Faisal Al-Sayegh, Associate Professor of
Medicine and Head of the Clinical
Hematology Unit at Mubarak Al-Kabeer
Hospital during the press conference.
“A majority of patients suffering
from a venous blood clot will experience
a DVT alone, but in around onethird
of the patients, it will progress to a
potentially fatal PE. The new generation
of oral anti-coagulants provides clinicians
and patients with a simple, singledrug
approach for treatment of acute
DVT and PE,” he added.
During his presentation Dr. Mousa
Akbar, Consultant Cardiologist, Head of
Cardiology Unit at Al-Sabah Hospital
said, “Patients with AF are five times
more likely to have a stroke compared
with the general population. Reports
indicate that one in six strokes occurs in
patients with AF, and these are typically
more severe than strokes due to other
aetiologies, but the good news is that
the new anticoagulants have made it
possible to protect against AF.”
“Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is
the third most common cardiovascular
disease worldwide, after ischemic heart
disease and stroke, and is the most
common avoidable cause of hospital
death. VTE encompasses two serious
conditions, Deep Vein Thrombosis
(DVT) and Pulmonary Embolism (PE)
which is responsible for about a third
(34%) of VTE deaths,” he further said.
Xarelto Rivaroxaban is an anti-coagulant
drug. “Deep Vein Thrombosis
(DVT) is a clot in the veins of the legs
and the Pulmonary Embolism (PE) is a
clot in the lungs. Both are very common
and serious conditions, since any clot
reaching the lung might be fatal. We
Dr. Anthonie W.A.Lensing
need to treat patients who have these
conditions with anti-coagulants that
dissolve the clot in the legs and in the
lungs. This has to be done in therapeutic
dosages and it needs to start at the
time when the disease is recognized by
the doctor. There is no time for waiting.
We have been treating for about five
decades patients with these diseases
with the anti-coagulant warfarin, which
is very effective but had certain disadvantages
as it needs weeks for the drug
to be effective, and it is strong enough
to stop coagulation, but the drug is
unreliable as the effect may change by
the day,” Dr. Anthonie Lensing, Global
Clinical Leader Rivaroxaban, Bayer
Healthcare, Germany told the Kuwait
Times.
Comparing new anti-coagulants to
old ones, he said, “The standard of care
for AF-related stroke prevention has
relied mainly on VKAs, including warfarin,
since the 1950s. Though effective,
warfarin comes with a lot of drawbacks,
including unpredictable levels of anticoagulation,
the need for frequent
blood monitoring and dose adjustments,
drug interactions and dietary
restrictions.” “This is a lot of work, and
patients may have bleeding and new
episode of blood clots. So there is a
great need for a drug that can be taken
orally, if active from the beginning, and
does not dissolve on overdosing or
under dosing. So we have developed
Xarelto, which has a very strong anticoagulant
quality.
It is very predictable, and we do not
need to check the effect by taking a
blood sample and run it through laboratory
tests. Compared to an extended
healthcare through a combination of
warfarin and heparin, the Xarelto has
proven itself as effective and associated
with major bleedings. It is also associated
with less mobility, less bleeding, and
takes away the burden of extended
healthcare needed for laboratory and
monitoring. For instance, if the patient
is treated with warfarin for six months,
he has to go back to the hospital and
give his blood sample. Then the dose is
adjusted for each patient to ensure
safety,” stressed Dr. Anthonie.
“The new drug, however, brings
optimum convenience and control to
both patients and doctors; it simplifies
protection with a simple fixed once daily
dosing, rapid onset of action without
the need for routine coagulation monitoring
or frequent dose adjustment, low
risk of drug-drug interactions and limited
potential of dietary restrictions. The
drug will be available for more people.
For example, the people who live far
from the hospital, and cannot come for
monitoring as often as they should will
benefit. So this will improve patient
care, and make the treatment of the
very common disease simple,” added
Dr. Lensing. “This disease is very dangerous.
For every 1000 inhabitants in
Kuwait, we expect one or two to develop
this condition,” he concluded.
The new anti-coagulant has so far
been registered in 116 countries worldwide,
including the UAE, Lebanon and
Jordan. It has been developed to prevent
and treat dangerous blood clots,
and holds a promise for millions of
patients around the world who are
afflicted with, or are under threat from
venous or arterial blood clots. The medicine
has been approved by leading
international medical agencies such as
the Food and Drug Association in the
US (FDA) and European Medicines
Agency (EMA).
Bayer Healthcare’s awareness campaign
in Kuwait will continue for
months and will involve several other
educational activities targeting the
media, the public, medicine students
and health professionals.
Hawally tops list in anti-drug fight
KUWAIT: Security sources revealed
that Hawally governorate security
administration arrested suspects in
largest number of drug-related cases. A
total of 12 cases were sent to the concerned
authorities during the past six
weeks in which suspects were either
using the drugs or intended to sell
these. A total of 20 persons hailing
from different nationalities, including
Kuwaitis and Europeans, were arrested
in these cases. Sources said that coordination
between Hawally security director
Brig. Ghloom Habeen and acting
director of operations Col Nasser Al-
Adwani made the Hawally governorate
achieve this distinction.
Sources said that operations director
Nasser Al-Adwani reviewed the
Hawally area carefully which enabled
him to identify certain locations in the
governorate frequented by drug dealers
and addicts. He also marked certain
apartments as suspect. Based on this,
the apartments were kept under watch
and surprise inspection campaigns
were carried out in the neighborhood
which made it easier for security personnel
to arrest the drugs dealers and
KUWAIT: Chairperson of the Kuwait
Women’s Sports Federation Sheikha
Naeema Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah
said she was “optimistic” over the
success of the Women’s Games, due
on May 9.
The event, which will host several
local clubs, is set to include basketball,
table tennis and athletics, and
Sheikha Naeema regards its organisation,
in itself, a major success for
women and sports. The games will
pit female athletes from six local
sports clubs - the Girls’ Club, Al-
users alike. Both Brig. Ghloom Habeen
and Colonel Nasser Al-Adwani do not
accept mediations and all arrested persons
are routinely referred to the concerned
authorities without exception.
Stage ready for Women’s Games
Oyoun Club, Salwa Club, Qadsiya SC,
Yarmouk SC and Jahra SC - for the
local competition, held for the first
time. Also, “the games will push forward
steps to encourage a well-cultured
generation of sports spectators,”
in all three sports. Sheikha
Naeema proceeded to express gratitude
for the efforts of the
Information Minister and State
Minister for Youth Sheikh Salman
Sabah Al-Salem Al-Humoud Al-
Sabah, in supporting women’s sports
in the country. —KUNA

LOCAL
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
kuwait digest
Collapse of
foundation
Local Spotlight
Syria: Where
should we stand?
By Waleed Al-Rujaib
Senior Ministry of Education officials admitted
that the level of education in schools in Kuwait is
low. There are several reasons for it, including a
poor education system and worn-out infrastructure.
Their admissions adding to the worries triggered by
TIMSS and PIRLS tests’ results in which Kuwaiti students
were ranked 48 out of 50 participants in mathematics
and 46 out of 49 in literacy. This further confirmed
Kuwait’s status as the worst in education worldwide.
Educational services in Kuwait were also
described in a recent World Economic Forum report as
‘very poor’. The Global Information Technology Report
2013, meanwhile, ranks Kuwait at 104th out of 144
countries as far as the quality of mathematics and science
curricula was concerned, and 102nd out of 144 in
the quality of school management.
These low and shameful levels mean the very foundation
of development has collapsed, that is if there
was ever a true intention to achieve development in
Kuwait. We cannot talk about development that is not
centered around human beings. The education system
is the factory which transforms human beings from
being just ‘raw material’ to productive people capable
of building civilization and a future for their country.
There are many stories in Kuwait involving parents
complaining of mistreatment they say their children
are subjected to at the hands of school administrations
and teachers. Violence, deviant behavior, poor
education services and other problems are things that
we come across while dealing with our children’s
schools, on a regular basis. The main question here is:
Does the government have any serious plans to
reform the educational system? I believe that the
answer is no, and that this answer also applies to
health, electricity, roads and all other public services.
Kuwait has transformed from being a state which
provides social security to all, to becoming a state that
favors a single class of people with influence who are
not interested in seeing the large oil incomes utilized
to improve the quality of services. All laws, legislations
and behavior of the political administration go in favor
of this class of people which seeks to control the
wealth and power of the Kuwaiti people. In the meantime,
laws are approved against the public interest as
people continue to suffer inflation, increased rents
and property prices, as well as increasing unemployment
rate, while the government is entertaining the
idea of enforcing income tax.
This class is not interested in freedom, democracy
and a constitution which gives the people the ability
to demand better living conditions and using public
funds to provide a better life for them and their children.
Development costs money that is taken away
from the amount that the corrupt class wants to steal.
They don’t care about educational or health services,
people’s living conditions, freedoms and the law as
long as they can continue stuffing their pockets with
money. —Al-Rai
W
Contradiction, improvising
kuwait digest
By Dr Shamlan Yousif Al-Essa
e are totally convinced now that what has been delaying
Kuwait becoming a regional commercial and financial hub
are the impulsive government decisions that were neither
a result of any study, nor of any scientific insight or vision. These decisions
mainly depend on the moods and wishes of the ministers, their
advisors and their Diwaniyas.
Before someone jumps to accuse me of being anti-government,
let us review a decision made by the Minister of Social Affairs and
Labor, Thekra Al-Rasheedi, to deport one million expatriates over the
next ten years, with plans to deport 100,000 expats every year. The
minister has not justified her decision, nor explained how she would
be able to put it into practice. Also, she still has to explain what kind
of labor would be subjected to the decision and why. The minister
apparently wants to balance Kuwait’s demography and ensure that
Kuwaiti citizens form a majority, or are equal in number to the expat
population. On the face of it, it seems an impossible target, considering
that citizens form only 31 per cent of the population currently.
What is even more embarrassing is the fact that the citizens form
only 15 per cent of the workforce.
Citizens are stacked in unproductive government jobs and
offices while the majority of the productive activity happens in the
private sector. There are only a few Kuwaitis in the public sector. All
the previous governments’ attempts in Kuwait and other GCC states
have failed to arrive at an acceptable population mix for one simple
and obvious reason: the economies dependent on just a singleresource,
oil, have been flourishing without producing enough qualified
citizens that the emerging labor market requires. So, the problem
is not with the foreigners who the ministry wishes to deport. The
problem is that we are short of citizens who are qualified enough to
meet the demands of the local labor market. Again, this is simply the
result of a poor university system and failure to produce well trained
manpower or graduates. Therefore, no one hires Kuwaiti citizens
except the public sector and the government, where ‘disguised’
unemployment prevails, thanks to the government and the MPs.
The minister’s contradictory policy also advocated a ban on the
entry of foreigners on visitor’s visa unless they showed copies of their
university degrees. She wanted to restrict the jobs available to expatriates
to the major discipline in which they are academically qualified.
She even linked the renewal of expats’ driving licenses or work
permits to degree certificates. What is the point of all this? Will this
apply to everyone? What is the relation between a university degree
and a driving license? I personally know that Kuwait University has a
huge army of employees doing back end service jobs such as in the
security services. They are mainly from Egypt and have university
degrees while they are in jobs that do not match their qualifications.
Will the law be applied to those and the illiterate and semi-literate
citizens working as guards, drivers or even clerks who will then be
discarded? Come on, people, have the fear of Allah and spare us such
“brilliant” decisions.
Many domestic laborers, largely those from India and the
Philippines, have university degrees in certain rare specialties, such as
math, science and nursing whereas their government-employed
women bosses might not even have a school-leaving certificate.
Why don’t we treat productive and qualified foreigners in a fitting
manner instead of in such a shoddy way?
There are major companies which are owned by citizens but all
the manpower working there comprises of Arabs or expats from
elsewhere. Why should we punish those who work hard and instead
reward lazy ones?
The real question is why should we be so strict and shut out people
from a certain country even though they are productive? The
answer is that the government is incapable of solving economic
problems and thus cannot ensure the development we have been
talking about for long. The MSAL failed in fighting highly influential
visa traffickers and is now letting out its anger against citizens and
businessmen. This will render the market short of skilled hands. This
way, everyone will be left with no alternative but to hire those
brought in by visa traffickers and left astray in local markets.
The minister started her tenure by launching a war against visa
traffickers and has now turned towards pursuing technical labor,
making university degrees an excuse. All of these merely look like
new methods to enhance a culture of bribery and sycophancy and
endless armies of corrupt employees. We are back to the same old
story. —-Al-Watan
E
kuwait digest
Violation of
constitution
By Nawaf Al-Fuzai
veryone in Kuwait, and those in the public sector in particular,
love their jobs, and all claim that they really do not want
it, and if it were not for the country’s sake, they would have
left the jobs and enjoyed life with their families.
In Kuwait, everyone is against negativity and silence, but if
someone came forward and took a stand, the conspiracy theory
breaks out about the ostensible real reasons behind such a person
while no one makes an honest evaluation of his stand, except for a
few, and no one attempts to understand. Objectivity sorely lacks in
this country. We live with contradictions and adapt to them
because we feel that there is a sincere minority in the country, and
if it was defeated or gave up, the country would be lost.
The latest crises, and the clear greed displayed by some who
are interested in taking over the regime, even if indirectly, is strong
evidence of the opportunism of some individuals who were raised
and made bigger by the regime in an irresponsible fashion until
they started to believe themselves as being actually bigger than
the regime. We are talking about a regime whose foundation was
laid by Sabah I as the first ruler of the country and which was confirmed
by a constitution that all Kuwaitis accepted. As for the talk
about encroaching upon the constitution, those who actually did
so were the ones raising hue and cry about it.
That is because when he attacks the principle of separation of
authorities and demands for the appointment of a popularly elected
Prime Minister as head of the executive authority, he is committing
that violation of the constitution. Such a premier is not sought
to be elected under a party system, but rather through a sectarian
system. So, it is a violation of the constitution.
When someone says that he is addressing the authorities,
knowing fully well that authorities are not supposed to be
addressed except through departments, and when statements are
made against the judiciary to influence its ruling, although there is
no authority above the judge, that someone is violating the constitutional
principles.
When the head of the state exercises his authority, as he deems
fit, but they want to decide the level of urgency on their own and
want to arrogate that right to themselves instead of recognizing
the ruler’s idea of urgency, is that not a violation of the constitution?
We are following the efforts of members of the facilities committee
to approve the transportation authority law, which will
include all those concerned with transportation affairs - starting
with the driver’s license all the way to constructing a road - under
the umbrella of an independent body fully authorized to come up
with solutions to the traffic problem instead of state ministries
hurling accusations at each other.
This is an effort to run the country properly, and members of
the legislative committee will approve the state council law and
boost the administrative judiciary which is among the most crucial
cog in any successful government.
As for the housing problem, we think that after the outstanding
efforts by the municipal council to allocate huge areas of land,
the burden now stands shifted on the public authority for housing.
Shortage of electricity is responsible for slow pace of development
and endless corruption was throwing a spanner in the ministry’s
wheels. It will not only prevent these new housing cities
from coming up, but will affect the entire development plan. The
decision must be taken, but what we suggest is that the mega
projects authority be restored to ensure the electricity problem is
resolved. Let each sector bear its own responsibility.
It is our right to ask about the performance of the most important
minister in the development plan. When the housing minister
announced the availability of 175,000 housing units, did he ask his
colleague, the minister of electricity and the power, to plan for
these new 175,000 units? We will not remain silent towards laxity,
and will continue to raise a voice that many may find disturbing.
The country was established by men, not by jokes that some
clown cracks about an assembly to describe it as “the one vote
assembly,” as if the previous assemblies did not include MPs who
were taxi drivers. This assembly has engineers, doctors and
lawyers. — Al-Watan
By Muna Al-Fuzai
muna@kuwaittimes.net
It is surely an unpleasant and uncomfortable situation in
which the state of Kuwait finds itself right now, along
with other Gulf countries, as far as the complex Syrian
condition is concerned. The question that we have been
facing consistently is whether we as a nation are supposed
to be supporting the rebel army or the incumbent regime,
and why?
Kuwait borders the Persian Gulf between Iraq and Saudi
Arabia. If you travel by air from Syria to Kuwait, it takes
approximately two hours. So, we are not as far as some may
think. For many years, the two countries have had excellent
relationship with nothing that could possibly affect these
ties. That was until recently till an opposition group fuelled
by Muslim Brotherhood and inspired by the so called Arab
disease - Arab Spring - decided to rebel against the ruling
system and called for either the ouster of the president or
dared to face the consequences. Worrying reports about
the possible use of chemical weapons have added to further
worries. What led the situation to this pass and what
may happen later should not be our concern but when
things go out of control and the news about daily killings
on both sides became staple front page headline, the world
understood that we are facing a very complicated problem.
Clearly, the international attempts at peace made by the
Kofi Annan and Al-Akhdar Al-Ibrahimi , which did not surprise
me. I do not know if they ever achieved much in the
past when it came to complex missions such as this one. So,
who will be the next mediator? Perhaps one of their former
staff? I hope not.
I think it is about time we seek out an American leader
or a German one. Both have had good ties with Syria for so
long and I guess it would make sound sense to find someone
who can bring new ideas to the table that can help
save lives. Otherwise, we will lose Syria forever and the virus
of rebellion and confusion will not remain limited to countries
next door like Iraq but will travel further.
Right now, the situation in Iraq is not improving. In fact,
far from being more secure, it is becoming more worrying
than ever. The question here is that if the situation continued
to linger, or worsened even more, are we in Kuwait in a
position to receive an unexpected and ill defined, possibly
unlimited, number of refugee families fleeing from it? How
are we supposed to handle this possible condition? Do we
have a plan for that?
We are an open country with more than a million and a
half expats of all nationalities. So we have to take into consideration
the possible reaction by the many Arab expats
here, as also from the bedouns who are originally from
Syria or Iraq. Where do we stand on this issue if they rebel
or support the chaos?
Kuwait is a very small and peaceful country and there is
no way we can afford to become a battlefield, neither
should we try to become one. So, the best way out is to call
for international intervention, that only the United Nations
can do best. No more pleas and no more interviews. What
is needed now is action, and a good plan of action can stop
the killings. Such a plan should not be a hostage to any hidden
agenda of any powers. Is that possible?
I think it is possible and I do not want to see the US rush
into a military solution like an air power display or anything
like that. That will be a worst case scenario that can happen
at this time in this region.
Certainly, we cannot afford another military intervention.
I believe this will create a big mess and will open the
door for further trouble, particularly if Iran becomes part of
this target. The Gulf countries can suffer heavy damages.
I wish the US State department issues lesser number of
threats and instead comes up with an action plan to bring
on board new allies and lobby for the Syrian case. I think
the US can play a role in this to save many lives.
kuwait digest
Give respect
to others
By Iqbal Al-Ahmad
Many people are confused between hate and love,
respect and disrespect, as well as immoral
behavior during conflicts triggered by people
having different opinions and expressing these through
words or behavior.
Respect is never an indication of love, nor is lack of
love an indication of disrespect. Respect is an indication
of good upbringing, first and foremost. Having a different
opinion than someone else’s for example does not give
me any right to respect him or her any less, let alone
resort to offensive language.
A society can never be without its share of people
sharing different opinions. In Kuwait, however, difference
in opinion has unfortunately turned into a situation
where people act in undesirable ways while making a
choice of phrases to express disagreements and criticize
the opponent’s opinion. Many newspaper columns
nowadays contain harsh words that imply skepticism,
mockery and contempt towards a certain person or opinion.
This is unacceptable for the simple reason that every
person should respect the other regardless of their ideas
or beliefs, because while you can disagree with another
person’s opinion, you certainly cannot reject that person
as a human being.
This can also be seen in conversations among the
young people, especially on Twitter where some youngsters
hide behind fake identities to make harsh comments.
Unfortunately, the more disrespectful they are,
the more they are regarded as ‘bold’ and ‘influential’.
In reality however, these people ignore the fact that
respect is, in the most part, a reflection of one’s upbringing.
This is what differentiates a person who expresses a
different opinion in an acceptable way, and someone
who does that in a provocative manner. Debates can
reach very heated levels yet remain respectful, or in some
cases cross the line of respect. The difference between
the two depends on upbringing and notions of morality.
Criticizing a person does not mean that you hate
them, and respecting them does not necessarily mean
that you like them. — Al-Qabas

KUWAIT: The Kuwait National Assembly’s Financial
and Economic Affairs Committee has approved a
draft law proposing an exceptional rise to the pension
of armed forces and fire service retirees. “The
committee agreed the bill to increase the monthly
pension of officers, who served for more than 25
years, by KD 400 and to soldiers by KD 300 at a
total cost KD of 3.626 million,” Committee
Chairwoman Safaa Al-Hashim said.
Al-Hashim revealed that committee members
also discussed a bill on amending the law of insolvency
settlement.
As for the early retirement bill, Al-Hashim noted
that the government had promised to present the
estimates of the total cost of the bill implementation.
Meanwhile, the National Assembly’s Foreign
Affairs Committee Chairman MP Saleh Ashour
announced that the committee has sent invitations
to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of
Interior Sheikh Ahmad Humoud Al-Jaber Al-Sabah
and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister
Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah to
attend the coming session to discuss the security
cooperation agreement among Gulf Cooperation
Council member states.
He pointed out that the committee members
seek clarifications about some provisions of the
agreements before voting on it.
On the other hand, the Public Utilities
Committee decided Sunday to adjourn the deliberations
about the establishment of a transport
authority.
The decision was taken because the government
has no clear vision about the role of the new
body, whether it supervisory or executive,
Committee Rapporteur Adnan Al-Mutwaa said.
Al-Mutwaa noted that the committee has
held a meeting with Minister of Commerce
and Industry Anas Al-Saleh to mull pollution
LOCAL
NA panel approves pay rise for
military, fire service pensioners
Gulf security cooperation to be discussed
of Um Haiman area.
Several studies have recommended the re-distribution
of nearby factories to cut pollution in the
area, he said.
Meanwhile, National Assembly Human Rights
Committee for Illegal Residents discussed yesterday
the proposal of performing a local body tasked
with human rights.
Chairman of the committee MP Khalid Al-Adwa
said in a press release that the meeting aims to
performing a national committee that will put an
end to the illegal residents situation.
Al-Adwa added that the committee discussed
the security restrictions to the category of illegal
residents and referred the complaints to the
Central Agency of Illegal Residents and to the higher
committee for nationalization.
The committee will hold another meeting next
Sunday with Zakat House to discuss charity for the
illegal residents. —KUNA
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
KUWAIT: The First Lady of Tanzania Salma Kikwete, along with her accompanying
delegation, paid a visit to the Scientific Center of the Kuwait
Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences yesterday. During the visit, the
Tanzanian Frist Lady viewed through facilities of this civilized monument
that carries a clear message about spreading knowledge and developing
consciousness on importance of environment preservation.
Kuwait charity to offer
medical care for Syrian
refugees in Jordan
AMMAN: The Kuwaiti Al-Islah Society-affiliated Al Rahma
International charity is continuing its humanitarian efforts to
alleviate the sufferings of Syrians displaced in neighboring
Jordan.
In this regard, Al Rahma charity signed an agreement with
a Jordanian hospital to rent a whole floor with a capacity of
35 beds and an intensify care section with three beds to offer
medical care services to Syrian refugees.
The signing ceremony was attended by Kuwait ambassador
in Amman Dr. Hamad Al-Duaij who lauded the Kuwaiti
relief organizations’ support to Syrian people in their distress.
In statements to KUNA, Head of Al Rahma charity’s delegation
Dr. Musaad Mandani revealed that Al Rahma has also
distributed 50,000 Jordanian dinars as cash aid to 350 Syrian
families in northern Jordanian cities to help them pay the
rent of their residency places.
The charity also distributed books and toys to the displaced
children, Al-Mandani added.
Anther Al Rahma team, headed by Abdullah Al-Ajmi, visited
the Syrian refugees in the Jordanian capital of Amman.
During its tour, the team distributed 21000 Jordanian
dinars as cash aid to 210 Syrian families to help them pay
their rents.
The team also donated 100 dinars to 40 injured Syrians.
Head of Al-Islah Society Office in Amman Bassel Shahada
said that the charity has also distributed several kinds of relief
and humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees.
For their part, the Syrian refugees expressed gratitude for
Kuwait’s leadership and people’s non-stop support to them
in their plight.
Around two million Syrian refuges currently reside in
Jordan as a result of an ongoing political conflict between
the government and local opposition in their country that
began in March, 2011. —KUNA
Kuwaitis’ properties in
Basra ‘in safe hands’
KUWAIT: Kuwaitis were known to own real
estate all over the world and despite the
danger that their properties could be confiscated
by the governments of those countries,
or taken over by people during wars
and catastrophes, Kuwaitis continued to
buy real estate starting with GCC countries
and Iraq, in addition to other Arab countries
such as Syria, Jordan, Egypt and before
that, the Palestine. They also went as far
Europe, Asia and the Americas.
Al-Watan local newspaper focused on
Kuwaiti property in Iraq estimated by an
investor to make up for between eight and
twelve percent in Basra governorate , five
CAIRO: The Arab league yesterday called
for ‘immediate action’ from the UN Security
Council to stop the Israeli attacks on Syria, a
position that was also taken by member
nation, Egypt.
Arab League Secretary General Nabil Al-
Araby was referring to two recent consecutively-conducted
attacks on Syria, in a statement.
He warned of ‘severe consequences’
resulting from such actions, which he
described as ‘blatant’ and as ‘a dangerous
breach of the sovereignty of an Arab nation,
which could increase complications in Syria
and could put the security and stability of
the surrounding region at a grave risk.’
to ten percent in Najaf, four to nine in
Karbala and one to three percent in
Baghdad.
Meanwhile, director of real estate registration
in Basra Majeed Hameed said
property owned by Kuwaitis was in good
hands and very much in the records. He
said the city of Basra council arrested several
people trying to take advantage of
the circumstances to usurp the Kuwaitis’
property by forging ownership contracts.
These scammers were sent to the Iraqi
courts for further action. He said the Basra
governorate will restore the property to its
rightful owners.
League condemns Israel
Israel’s direct Arab neighbor, Egypt, was
another to condemn the latest escalations.
Egypt’s presidential office mirrored the
statements, describing Israel’s actions as ‘a
breach of international legitimacy and principles.’
‘Despite its extreme opposition to the
bloodshed and the government’s use of
military warfare against its own people in
Syria, amid its efforts to find a peaceful
solution to the Syrian crisis, Egypt rejects
any aggression on Syrian interests or any
breach of its sovereignty, while making
use of its internal struggle for a specific
motive - whatever that may be,’ added the
statement. —KUNA

LOCAL
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
News
in brief
New residence strategy
KUWAIT: Social Affairs and Labor Ministry (SAL) is planning
to allow the conversion of domestic help visa into one for
employment in the private sector. Informed sources at SAL
said a decision has already been taken to that effect, but SAL
officials are postponing its implementation until SAL minister
Thekra Al-Rashidi declares her new strategy on regulating
expat labor, which involves a reduction in their numbers,
as well as getting rid of marginal workers, as per the latest
labor law rules. The new strategy is also aimed at dealing
with a flaw in the population structure in order to better regulate
the marketplace.Meanwhile, the same sources pointed
out that the number of registered expat workers employed
across various sectors in the Kuwaiti labour market reached
1,200,000 last year, down 100,000 from 2010 figures.
NG promotion policy
KUWAIT: Sources at the National Guards (NG) revealed that
the top brass at the NG has asked the leaders there to prepare
a memorandum to be submitted to the Supreme
Council of National Guards in the next few days for amending
the existing promotion policy.One of the conditions for
promotion was that an officer should have spent four years
in the same rank, but now the Supreme Council found it better
to reduce this period to three years. Thus, it will be ensuring
parity with the Army and the Police and adherence to
the principle of justice and equality. Sources added that the
top leaders at the NG have agreed to the recommendations
of the scholarship committee to grant requests from officers
to complete their higher studies in recognized universities
abroad while drawing full salary during the period of their
study.
Govt ‘official spokesperson’
KUWAIT: In a bid to cope with the rapidly developing media
world and fast-moving information, which if not handled
properly may result in misreporting, the cabinet has
approved a proposal to create the position of an “Official
Spokesperson”, said well-informed sources. The sources
added that the new position’s responsibility and holder
would be determined this month. While some suggest that
the government’s official spokesperson should report to the
cabinet, others suggest that the position should report to
the Ministry of State for Cabinet Affairs. Some even suggest
that the spokesperson should report either to the information
ministry or to Kuwait News Agency. Further, the sources
revealed that the names of many academics and media figures
had been short-listed for the new post that would be
mainly entrusted with responding to various local political
incidents.
New MPW projects
KUWAIT: Sources at the Ministry of Public Works said that
the ministry was handling ten projects including those pertaining
to road construction and delivery of services to new
residential areas and these projects were currently nearing
the phase of delivery and execution. Sources revealed that
the projects included the development of sewage system
for Mohammad Ben Al-Qasem St. and Airport Road, Saad Al-
Abdullah and Jaber Al-Ahmad Area. Pointing out that these
projects will be completed shortly, he said nearly 75 percent
of the work has been finalized. In respect to the roads under
construction, he said these included the road stretch
between King Fahad Road and Wafra besides one between
Subhan Area and Central Jail, in addition to providing services
in Al-Mahboula area, South Al-Sabahiya and Abu Al-
Hasayneh.
‘Stray bullets’ send
teenager to hospital
KUWAIT: A male driver who fired gunshots
in Sulaibiya that left a teenager
critically wounded was arrested. Police
launched efforts to arrest the suspect
after two separate complaints of a man
firing from a vehicle were reported at
the Sulaibiya police station. In the first
complaint, a stateless resident claimed
that a man driving an American made
red SUV showered his vehicle with bullets.
The second complaint was by a
Syrian man who said his 16-year-old
son was hospitalized with gun wounds
on his back and left hand. The teenager
was rushed to the Jahra Hospital
where he underwent an emergency
surgery. In the meantime, police managed
to arrest the suspect, a Saudi
national, and recovered a machine gun
from his possession.
Inmate suicide
A woman inmate was found dead in
her cell on Saturday, with the police
classifying the death as a suicide.
Police and crime scene investigators
headed to the Central Jail after the suicide
was reported. The Nepalese
Woman found dead in cell
woman was pronounced dead on the
scene while preliminary investigations
revealed no evidence of foul play. The
body was taken to the forensic department
after investigators examined the
scene. A case was filed.
Meanwhile, an Asian woman committed
suicide by jumping from a
fourth floor apartment in Al-Fahaheel.
According to preliminary investigations,
the woman, who worked as a
domestic helper, jumped from the
apartment’s window. Paramedics pronounced
the victim dead on the scene
and the body was taken to the coroner
after criminal investigators examined
the scene. A case was filed for investigations.
‘Friend in need’
A man who committed theft in
order to help his friend who was in
desperate need of money landed in
jail, a case filed recently in Jahra said.
Investigations went underway after a
Saudi national filed a case of forgery at
the Taima police station when he
learned that KD300 have been mysteriously
deducted from his bank account.
Investigations eventually revealed that
the money was transferred online, and
detectives were able to identify the
person into whose account it was
deposited. The Egyptian man was
detained and admitted during investigations
that his compatriot gave him
the money to help him with his financial
troubles. Police verified the suspect’s
identity and discovered that he
was a coworker of his compatriot. The
man was detained and explained that
he was able to transfer the money
using credit card information that the
Saudi man had previously disclosed to
him in order to purchase a product
online. The man claimed that the money
was only a loan as his friend had
promised to pay him back after returning
from a trip to Egypt. The man
remains in custody pending further
action. (Rai)
Drunk man
A drunken man brutally assaulted a
man, leaving him critically injured,
before he was arrested. The victim was
hospitalized. Police and paramedics
rushed to a location in Khaitan where
two people were reported fighting,
and one attacked the other with a
knife. The victim, an Indian man in his
forties, was rushed to the Farwaniya
Hospital with several stab wounds in
the abdomen and thigh. The assailant,
a Pakistani man in his thirties, was
reportedly heavily intoxicated and was
taken into custody to face charges. A
case was filed.
Freak accident
In a freak accident, a man died
when he was struck by a diabetic coma
while driving at the Kabad Road on
Friday morning, and as a result met
with an accident. Police and paramedics
rushed to the scene of the accident
after a minibus and a truck collided.
The bus driver, an Indian man, was
pronounced dead on the scene while
medical tests revealed that he fell
unconscious before the accident happened.
The body was taken to the
forensic department and a case was
filed for investigations.
Security raids in Mina Abdullah
By Hanan Al-Saadoun
KUWAIT: Illegal residents were arrested during
security raids at Mina Abdullah scrapyard, Wafra
Road, Mina Abdullah Industrial Area and Ali Sabah
Al-Salem Area on Saturday. The raids resulted in the
arrest of 56 persons, of whom 30 did not have identification,
10 were daily wage laborers, and 16 were
found to be in violation of the labor law, who also
had been issued 11 traffic citations.
Meanwhile, Farwaniya municipality said raids
were carried on vendors at Jleeb Al-Shoyoukh,
Reqie, Al-Ardiya Industrial Area, Farwaniya and
Khaitan. The raids led to the issuance of 154 citations,
of which 137 were for vendors and 17 for
those who illegally occupied road side areas.
Director of cleaning department Bader Al-Qattan
said the department has developed a program to
trace all violations and enforce rules and regulations
in different sectors, with focus on cleaning and illegal
occupation of roadsides. Monitoring vendors
and tracking violations is a priority for department
officials, he added.
Potential suspect
An Indian man who reported to the police about
a Sri Lankan woman committing self-immolation is
currently under suspicion himself, even though he
claimed he was actually the one trying to save the
woman and suffered burn injuries in the process.
Security sources said the man informed the
police about the suicide but when the police
arrived, they found the woman burnt to death on
her bed and covered with burnt blankets.
The Indian man, when quizzed by the police, said
he tried to rescue her by throwing blankets on her
and suffered burn injuries on his arms.
He was rushed to the Babtain Hospital and admitted
to its intensive care unit but the police also kept
him under watch, and posted a guard over him since
he is a potential suspect. Meanwhile, medical examiners
were analyzing the woman’s body.
Carlos Ribeiro, Chief Financial Officer and General Manager Finance Support, Khaled Al-Mutawa,
General Manager International Banking and Investments at Gulf Bank, Mona Mansour, Deputy
General Manager, Operations at Gulf Bank, Faisal Al-Marzouq, Assistant General Manager,
International Banking accepting the award from Deutsche Bank senior representatives.
Gulf Bank receives
Deutsche Bank Award
KUWAIT: Gulf Bank has announced
that it has been awarded Deutsche
Bank’s prestigious ‘EURO Straight-
Through Processing (STP) Excellence
Award’ for 2012 for its swift payments
in Euros. This award, which is
made annually, highlights the exceptional
quality of the Bank’s commercial
and treasury payment systems.
This is the fourth consecutive
year Gulf Bank has won the award,
and it confirms that measures taken
by the Bank in the payments area
have met the recognition of associates
such as Deutsche Bank, one of
KUWAIT: The Ministry of Social Affairs
and Labor seems helpless when it
comes to violations being committed by
various charity organizations, the
MSAL’s own ninth annual report said.
The report said the violations peak
usually as the holy month of Ramadan
approaches when charity collection and
donations increase (KD 12 million were
collected last year). It said despite the
the world’s largest financial institutions.
Euro Straight-Through
Processing (STP) standardizes financial
transactions and electronic payments,
starting with the transaction
initiation and ending with the final
settlement.
The award was presented by senior
executives from Deutsche Bank,
including Wolfgang Wagner - MD &
Region Head for CMFI (EEMEA),
Sumit Roy, Director - Head of Cash
Management Financial Institutions -
GCC Region, along with Sorab Khan,
Director - Cash Management
fact that some serious violations were
detected, they were either filed or ended
up with a ‘gentle warning’ to the violator.
According to the report, the Social
Reforms Society (SRS) and the Islam
Heritage Revival Committee (IHRC) led
the violators’ list.
The report that covered the period
over the past one year stressed that the
SRS, the IHRC, the Social Solidarity
Financial Institutions - GCC Region.
The award was jointly received by
Khaled Al-Mutawa, General Manager,
International Banking and
Investments, Mona Mansour, Deputy
General Manager, Operations, Faisal
Al-Marzouk, Assistant General
Manager, International Banking and
Investments and respective senior
management at Gulf Bank. Deutsche
Bank gives awards annually to banks
around the world that pass criteria
based on in-depth evaluation of the
quality and level of accuracy of specific
banking services.
SRS, IHRC record highest
charity violations rate
Society, the Fahad Al-Ahmed
Humanitarian Society and the
International Islamic Charity
Organization had repeatedly committed
serious violations with regards to collecting
donation money without prior
authorization or permission. The report
also showed that some charities had
been using their headquarters for commercial
activities.

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
Malaysians vote in polls for stability or change
Page 12
30 wounded in blast
at Tanzanian church
Page 9
RIYADH: In this photo, Mawada Chaballout, a 27-year-old American member of a Saudi female soccer team practices at a secret location in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. — AP
Saudis allow girls’ schools to offer sports
RIYADH: Saudi Arabian girls will be
allowed to play sports in private schools
for the first time, according to a decision
announced on Saturday, the latest in a
series of incremental changes aimed at
slowly increasing women’s rights in the
ultraconservative kingdom. Saudi
Arabia’s official press agency, SPA,
reported that private girls’ schools are
now allowed to hold sports activities in
accordance with the rules of Shariah, or
Islamic law. Students must adhere to
“decent dress” codes and Saudi women
teachers will be given priority in supervising
the activities, according to the
Education Ministry’s requirements.
The decision makes sports once
again a stage for the push to improve
women’s rights, nearly a year after two
Saudi female athletes made an unprecedented
appearance at the Olympics. “It’s
about time,” said Aziza Youssef, a professor
at King Saud University. “Everything
is being held back in Saudi Arabia as far
as women’s rights.”
Youssef said she sees the decision to
allow sports for girls in private schools
as part of package of wider reforms targeting
women, but that continued
restrictions on sports is a discrimination
that negatively impacts women’s health.
Education Ministry spokesman
Mohammed Al-Dakhini was quoted in
SPA saying that the decision to allow
girls to play sports in private schools
“stems from the teachings of our religion,
which allow women such activities
in accordance with Shariah.”
The government had previously quietly
tolerated physical education in
some private schools, but there is no set
curriculum. The decision, which also
orders private girls’ schools to provide
appropriate places and equipment for
sports, is a monumental step that will
likely soon affect public schools and
universities, which are also gender segregated,
Youssef said.
The Saudi government plays a role in
private schools, providing text books
and directors. Deputy Minister of
Education for Women’s Affairs, Nora al-
Fayez, was quoted in local press saying
recently that there is a plan in place to
expand sports education in public
Women’s sports remain underground activity
schools. It remains unclear if girls would
have access to the same level of physical
education as boys.
Sports for women in Saudi Arabia
have been largely a pastime of elites
who can afford expensive health club
memberships. They are often attached
to hospitals since women’s gyms were
closed in 2010 on grounds they were
unlicensed.
Saudi Arabia allowed two female
athletes to compete in last summer’s
Olympics only after the International
Olympics Committee had put intense
pressure on the kingdom to end its
practice of sending only male teams to
the games. Their participation was not
shown on Saudi TV stations.
Women’s sports remain nearly an
underground activity in the kingdom,
which is home to Islam’s holiest site in
Mecca. Only the largest female university
in the kingdom - Princess Nora Bint
Abdul Rahman Unviersity - has a swimming
pool, tennis court and exercise
area for its students. No other university
in Saudi Arabia has sports facilities for
its female students and staff.
Women are also bound by strict rules
when it comes to their attire, so they
cannot, for example, be seen by men
while jogging in sweat pants. Almost all
women in Saudi Arabia cover their face
with a veil known as the “niqab,” and
even foreigners are obliged to respect
local culture and wear a loose black
dress known as the “abaya.”
Female athletes cannot register for
sports clubs or league competitions.
They are banned from entering national
trials, which makes it impossible for
them to qualify for international competitions.
The government has turned a
blind eye, though, to tournaments
where all female teams play against one
another.
Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah is seen
as pushing for these reforms. Other
Saudi rulers have also quietly tried to
modernize the country, with King
Faisal’s wife opening the first school for
girls in the late 1950s. But the monarch
is facing edicts from powerful and influential
senior Saudi clerics who are
against all types of sporting activities for
women. They argue that in order for a
woman to remain protected from
harassment, she must avoid public roles.
Despite such rhetoric, thousands of
women work as doctors and professors
in Saudi Arabia. Women will be allowed
to run for office and vote for the first
time in the 2015 municipal elections.
There have also been a number of incremental
and significant changes that
have afforded women new roles in
recent months.
A law was implemented last year to
allow women sales clerks’ jobs, and
women now have seats on the country’s
top advisory council. A woman was
licensed to practice law for the first time
last month, and a ban was lifted on
allowing women to ride motorbikes and
bicycles.
But with each move comes restrictions.
Women are only allowed to sell at
female apparel outlets, such as lingerie
stores. The 30 women who now serve
on the country’s Shura Council, which
advises the king, were segregated from
the 130 men in the chamber, and plans
for a proposed barrier that would separate
the genders remains under discussion.
Moreover, there are no guarantees
that women who become licensed
lawyers will not face discrimination in
the courtroom. Lastly, women may be
allowed to ride bikes in parks, but they
have to be accompanied by a male relative
and dressed in the “abaya.”
In other areas, women’s freedoms are
still severely limited. They are not
allowed to drive nor are they allowed to
travel or attend school without the permission
of a male guardian. A 52-page
report on women’s sports in Saudi
Arabia issued by Human Rights Watch
last year urged the government to set
benchmarks for physical education, to
set a curriculum to follow and to launch
a public outreach campaign about girls’
rights to physical education. “Although
religious views opposing prohibition on
women’s participation in sport are less
frequently pronounced than those in
favor, government policy is only inching
toward realizing women’s right to sport
rather than taking bold steps to realize
it,” the report said. — AP
Anger in Abyei over dead chief
KHARTOUM: Tension and anger yesterday
gripped the Abyei region disputed
by Sudan and South Sudan
after the killing of a tribal chief and
at least one peacekeeper, residents
said, as the UN boosted security. The
Sudanese foreign ministry condemned
the “isolated incident”
which killed Kual Deng Majok, the
top Ngok Dinka leader in Abyei.
Khartoum said members of the
Misseriya tribe, the other dominant
group in the area, also died in
Saturday’s incident, along with three
peacekeepers from the UN Interim
Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA).
The United Nations earlier said
one Ethiopian peacekeeper died and
two other Blue Helmets were seriously
wounded in the “attack by a
Misseriya assailant on a UNISFA convoy”.
The foreign ministry expressed
hope that the killings will not affect
improving relations with South
Sudan, whose army spokesman also
condemned the violence. “It looks
like Dinka are very angry,” one local
resident told AFP. He reported fire
burning in Abyei’s town centre,
where Misseriya run small shops.
A curfew was in effect, with UNIS-
FA setting up extra checkpoints trying
to restrict movement and prevent
gatherings, the resident said on
condition of anonymity. The resident,
who is familiar with the incident,
said five Misseriya died in
Saturday’s skirmish. “There is high
tension and all sides are alert, ready
for anything,” but no new fighting
occurred yesterday, Mohammed Al-
Ansari, a Misseriya chief in Abyei,
told AFP.
The UN humanitarian coordinator
for South Sudan, Toby Lanzer, said
on Twitter that UNISFA was “expanding
patrols with (the) aim of maintaining
calm”. —AFP

INTERNATIONAL
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
Bahrain hands 31 long jail terms over police attack
DUBAI: A Bahraini court jailed 31
people for 15 years yesterday after
convicting them of attacking a police
patrol in the Shiite village of Sitra, a
lawyer said. The group was accused
of attempted murder and setting a
police car ablaze, in addition to rioting
and possessing petrol bombs,
said the lawyer who requested
anonymity. Fourteen of the defendants
remain at large. Another lawyer
said the defendants had denied the
charges and claimed that they had
been tortured into making confessions.
The interior ministry said in March
that police arrested a group of people
who attacked a patrol in Sitra with
Molotov cocktails, wounding four
officers. Sunni-ruled Bahrain has continued
to witness sporadic demonstrations
in Shiite-populated villages
surrounding the capital Manama
after security forces crushed a monthlong
protest movement in March
2011. The International Federation for
Human Rights says about 80 people
have been killed in the Gulf archipelago
since the violence first broke out
on February 14, 2011.— AFP
BADIA: An image grab taken from a video uploaded on YouTube yesterday shows a
body lying in the Syrian village of Baida, south of the coastal city of Banias, after
reports said that the Syrian army and regime militias killed scores of residents. — AFP
Brahimi’s ‘mission
impossible’ in Syria
BEIRUT: Veteran Algerian diplomat Lakhdar
Brahimi, the UN-Arab League envoy for Syria,
has insisted throughout his career that there
is no “hopeless situation”, but he has not managed
to find a magical solution to end Syria’s
civil war. And the 79-year-old Brahimi, who
took on the job last August after predecessor
and former UN chief Kofi Annan threw in the
towel, is now ready to give up too. Annan
resigned on August 2, frustrated by the division
between supporters in the West and the
Arab world of those fighting to oust Bashar
al-Assad and traditional backers of the Syrian
president, principally Russia and China.
“The decision has been taken, but we
don’t know when it will be formalised,” one
UN diplomat said of Brahimi on Saturday,
speaking on condition of anonymity. Earlier in
the week, a senior aide to Brahimi told AFP he
“thinks of it (resigning) every day” but would
not decide until at least the middle of May.
“He thinks that every step he takes is countered
with 10 steps backwards by the Arab
states. And now it looks like the Americans
will increase their military support (to the
rebels), so he feels that he is useless in his
role,” the aide said.
If Brahimi quits, UN Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon is unlikely to appoint a replacement
quickly and could even take on the job himself,
a UN diplomat said on Thursday. Indeed,
Brahimi could keep a role as an advisor to Ban
on Syria or the Middle East, according to
envoys. “He will resign and will remain as a
special adviser to the secretary general on the
Middle East,” said the UN diplomat. “Ban will
not rush to appoint a third person,” added
another Security Council diplomat. “You have
had Annan, you have had Brahimi-are you
going to get someone who can do better
than them?” Nikolaos Van Dam, a former
Dutch diplomat specialising in the Middle
East, told AFP that “Brahimi had the additional
advantage of being an Arab personality
with enormous political experience”.
“His mission was made a kind of ‘mission
impossible’... I do not know of any potential
successor to Mr Brahimi who could as yet succeed
in this extremely difficult job, certainly
not as long as the UN and Arab League parties
only theoretically support the Geneva
principles, but do not do so in practice,” Van
Dam said. The Geneva principles were adopted
on June 30, 2012 by the Syria action group
made up of the five permanent UN Security
Council members, the Arab League, Turkey,
the United Nations and the European Union.
They seek an immediate end to the bloodshed
in Syria and urge establishment of a
transitional governing body, but do not call
for Assad to step down.
Brahimi, who played a key role as an Arab
League emissary in the 1989 agreement that
ended the civil war in Lebanon and has carried
out various UN missions around the
world, has tried everything to resolve the
Syrian conflict. It has been a rough ride for
him. Soon after his appointment, the opposition
demanded he apologise for saying he
did not know if the time had come to
demand that Assad resign.
Then, during his third visit to Damascus
last Christmas Eve, his talks with the Syrian
president broke down when he asked Assad if
he intended to run for the presidency in 2014.
Three days later Brahimi drove in the nail.
“Change should not be cosmetic; the
Syrian people need and require real change,
and everyone understands what that means,”
he said. “We need to form a government with
all powers... which assumes power during a
period of transition. That transition period will
end with elections,” Brahimi added. He has
faced the wrath of the Syrian press which
strongly criticised his efforts, even calling him
a “false mediator”. —AFP
3 dead as Bangladesh Islamists
protest for anti-blasphemy law
DHAKA: Hundreds of thousands of hardline
Islamists demanding a new blasphemy law
blocked highways and fought running battles
with police, leaving three people dead in the
Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka yesterday. Police
officials told AFP that about 200,000 people
had marched to central Dhaka, where fierce
clashes erupted between thousands of rockthrowing
protesters and security officials. “At
least 100,000 protesters” blocked the road at
Tongi town, which connects Dhaka with the
northern region, local police chief Ismail
Hossain told AFP.
Witnesses said rioting broke out after
police tried to intercept stick-wielding protesters,
most travelling from remote villages, in
front of the country’s largest mosque. Trouble
then spread to central districts of Dhaka. “This
government does not have faith in Allah. This
is an atheist government, we will not allow
them to live in Bangladesh. Muslims are brothers,
we must protect Islam,” one protester,
filmed by AFP, was seen chanting.
Live television footage showed police firing
from armoured vehicles at protesters, who in
retaliation went on the rampage, torching
vehicles and shops, attacking government
offices and beating policemen with sticks.
Dozens of small bombs exploded, leaving
smoke hanging in the air around the mosque.
“At least three were killed, including one who
was shot,” police inspector Mozammel Haq
told AFP, adding almost 100 more had been
injured. A senior police officer who declined to
be named told AFP between “150,000 and
200,000 demonstrators” marched to Motijheel,
Dhaka’s main commercial district, where they
rallied until 7 pm (1300 GMT). Deputy
Commissioner of Dhaka police, Sheikh Nazmul
Alam, said police fired rubber bullets to disperse
unruly demonstrators. The protest was
staged as the country was recovering from its
worst industrial disaster, which saw at least 620
people killed when a factory building collapsed
just outside the capital on April 24.
Hefajat, a newly created radical Islamist group,
is demanding the death penalty for all those
who defame Islam. It said it staged the mass
protest to push a 13-point list of demands,
which also include a ban on men and women
mixing freely together and the restoration of
pledges to Allah in the constitution. Hefajat
leaders have threatened to launch a campaign
to oust the government unless their demands
are met. Marchers blocked highways at
Jatrabari and Demra, cutting the city off from
the northeast and southeast, including from
the main port of Chittagong.—AFP
DHAKA: Civilian people carry an injured Islamist protestor during clashes with police
yesterday. — AFP
Egypt oppn can’t harvest
Brotherhood unpopularity
Secular parties split on Morsi, elections, IMF
CAIRO: It’s harvest time in Egypt but the secular
opposition is reaping scant benefit from the
Muslim Brotherhood’s difficulties in government,
two years after an Arab Spring uprising swept
away President Hosni Mubarak. Many Egyptians
are looking to the army, or to more radical Salafi
Muslim groups, rather than to liberal or leftist
parties as Islamist President Mohamed Morsi
and his cabinet struggle to revive a sick economy,
restore security and build institutions.
Perhaps the greatest threat to Egypt’s faltering
transition to democracy may come not from
what the Brotherhood’s critics regard as its
attempts to grab as many powers as possible,
but from the inability of a weak and fragmented
secular opposition to offer a coherent alternative.
“I recognise that the opposition has not
lived up to the expectation of the people,” said
Amr Moussa, 76, a former Arab League secretary-general,
who is one of the leaders of the
opposition National Salvation Front (NSF).
“But I also recognise that there are lots of possibilities
for the opposition to rise to the challenge,
especially as the government is not really
offering much,” the conservative told Reuters in
an interview. Six secular parties and a cluster of
democracy activists and intellectuals are loosely
allied in the Front, created last November to
resist a decree issued by Morsi under which he
temporarily took sweeping powers to push
through an Islamist-tinged constitution.
Like the battered vehicles on Egypt’s roads,
the NSF often seems held together by desperation
alone. “What keeps us together is the dire
situation of Egypt,” said Moussa, a foreign minister
under Mubarak for 10 years. Mohamed
ElBaradei, leader of the liberal Constitution party,
said the Front “doesn’t really have the luxury
right now to say ‘this is the left, and this is the
centre-left or centre-right’ because what we are
opposing is... almost a fascist system”. He sees
the NSF as representing a silent majority of 60 to
70 percent of Egyptians who reject Brotherhood
rule and are in “a national state of depression”.
“Battle of the egos”
Yet the opposition alliance is hobbled by
what one NSF aide calls a “battle of the egos”
among its leaders, and its component parties
agree on few policies. Should the opposition
engage and compromise with Morsi for the sake
of national unity, or boycott and try to weaken
him to make it harder for the Brotherhood to
control the country? Should they participate in
parliamentary elections that many believe will
be skewed towards the Brotherhood, as they say
all post-revolution votes have been, or stay away
at the risk of being marginalised and looking like
bad losers?
And should they back a proposed loan from
the International Monetary Fund as essential to
pull the economy out of crisis despite the tough
terms that would be attached, or oppose it on
grounds of national sovereignty and social justice
- or just sit on the fence? Each time it looks
as if the Front is about to break up over one of
these issues, the Brotherhood makes another
move that reunites the opposition in shared
indignation. The latest was a clumsy attempt in
April to purge the judiciary, which Islamists
believe is riddled with corrupt former Mubarak
loyalists bent on obstructing elections and laws
put forward by elected bodies that the
Brotherhood dominates. By trying to force more
than 3,000 judges into retirement at a stroke, the
Brotherhood galvanised the judiciary, the NSF,
the Salafis and most of the media against itself,
prompting Morsi to beat a tactical retreat and
seek a compromise.
Political analysts say the president could pick
the secular opposition apart if only he accepted
some of its demands to appoint a national unity
government, replace a widely reviled prosecutor
general and pass a more even-handed election
law. “That would pose a real dilemma for the
opposition. But mutual suspicion and the
Brotherhood’s feeling of being under siege are
so strong that I don’t expect Morsi will do that,” a
senior European diplomat said.
Betrayed
Many opposition activists feel they gave
Morsi decisive help to win the presidency by
backing him in a run-off against former Mubarak
Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik last June, only to
be shut out of influence by the Brotherhood.
They feel betrayed on issues such as the constitution,
the rights of women and religious minorities,
judicial independence, and laws regulating
elections, demonstrations and non-government
organisations.
“We were betrayed by the Muslim
Brotherhood, we were cheated by the Muslim
Brotherhood. Now they make the same propaganda
against us as the old regime did,” said
Khaled Dawoud, a spokesman for the NSF and
ElBaradei’s Constitution Party. Aside from the
NSF, the opposition also features a range of
TRIPOLI: Libyan protesters hold placards and banners during a demonstration in support
of the “political isolation law” in Libya’s landmark Martyrs Square yesterday. —AFP
Libya Congress debates
law amid high tensions
TRIPOLI: Libya’s General National Congress
met Sunday ahead of a vote on a controversial
law to exclude former Gaddafi-era officials
from government posts amid pressure from
armed militias to pass the bill. “The bill on
political exclusion is on today’s (Sunday’s)
agenda. Depending on how the sitting goes,
we will decide whether the vote goes ahead or
not,” independent GNC member Abdelfattah
Sheloui told AFP. “They are leaning towards a
vote today.” The GNC, Libya’s highest political
authority, has been studying proposals for a
law that would see top figures from the regime
of late dictator Muammar Gaddafi sacked from
their posts in government.
Gunmen in Tripoli have encircled the foreign
ministry for a week and the justice ministry
since Tuesday, to demand the speedy
adoption of the bill, stepping up pressure on
the GNC. Proposals for the law have caused a
stir among Libya’s political elite, as several current
senior members of the government could
be affected, including Prime Minister Ali
Zeidan and president of the GNC Mohamed
Megaryef, who were diplomats under Gaddafif
before joining the opposition in exile.
According to the text of the law, all those who
occupied key official posts from September 1,
1969, when Gaddafi took power, until the fall
of the regime in October 2011 would be
excluded from government for five years.
Human Rights Watch condemned the way in
which the law is being pushed through.
“The GNC should not allow itself to be railroaded
into making very bad laws because
groups of armed men are demanding it,” Sarah
Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director
at Human Rights Watch said in a statement
Saturday. “Libya’s long-term prospects for
peace and security will be seriously diminished
if the congress agrees to nod through this law.”
The GNC has debated the law in several
sessions, but has failed to reach an agreement,
as it proved particularly controversial with the
National Forces Alliance, the liberal coalition
that dominated elections in July, who feared
the law was aimed at their leader, Mahmud
Jibril.
Vice president Salah al-Makhzum said a
compromise had been reached among the
political blocs by adding “exceptions” in the bill
in order to retain key individuals. But militia
leaders warned that they would not accept
any exceptions to the law. In April, under pressure
from supporters of the law, the GNC made
an amendment to the provisional constitutional
declaration exempting the law from judicial
review even before it was voted on. Some
Libyans have objected to the gunmen’s siege
of the ministries pushing for the exclusion law,
and on Friday, demonstrators against the militias
clashed with a rival protest in support of
the law in Tripoli.
Zeidan said Saturday that the government
preferred using “patience” and dialogue over
force to resolve the sieges. Since the fall of
Gaddafi’s regime, militia groups, mostly exrebels,
have managed border controls, prisons,
strategic facilities in the country and
vital institutions. They received salaries and
other perks from the authorities, and benefitted
from smuggling and extortion.
Gathered in Tripoli, leaders of the ex-rebel
militias said on Saturday that the government
had agreed to give five ministries over
to their members.—AFP
Islamist parties of different shades, including
two ultra-conservative Salafi groups, as well as
rebranded survivors of Mubarak’s outlawed former
National Democratic Party (NDP).
The Salafi Nour Party appears to be the
fastest growing, although its claim to 800,000
members - more than the entire membership of
all political parties in Britain or France - sounds
optimistic. Nour led an alliance of Islamic purists
that won 27.3 percent of the vote in 2011-12
parliamentary elections and has the second
largest bloc of lawmakers.
Nader Bakkar, 29, the party’s spokesman who
has an MBA degree from Alexandria University,
says Egyptians are flocking to Nour because,
while it has strict Islamic principles, it does not
seek to monopolise power or behave like a
closed family. It is also untainted by the burdens
of trying to make government work in a chaotic
post-revolutionary environment.
Like the Brotherhood, Nour activists run
social and medical services for the poor, distributing
free or cheap food. That could pay off at
election time in a nation where 40 percent of the
population lives on less than $2 a day.
But unlike the Brotherhood’s Freedom and
Justice Party, which propelled Morsi to power,
Nour supports a national unity government that
would include liberal opposition figures. The
party has its headquarters in a refurbished Nileside
apartment that could be home to an advertising
agency but for the Koranic chanting coming
from a TV screen on a wall in the soft pink
spotlit reception area.
“The most likely probability is that we will run
in the elections alone. It is almost decided that
we will not ally with the Freedom and Justice
Party,” Bakkar said in an interview. He said Nour
wanted to avoid a dangerous polarisation on
Egyptian streets into Islamists and non-Islamists,
and left the door slightly ajar to a pact with
some secular parties, although such a marriage
of convenience looks improbable. While the
Nour party eschews strict public enforcement of
Islamic behaviour as contrary to Egyptian tradition,
Bakkar drew the line at wishing Coptic
Christians a happy Easter. The Copts, who comprise
up to 15 percent of the 84 million population,
celebrate the most important festival of the
Christian calendar on May 5 this year. The NSF’s
leaders meet weekly on Wednesdays to try to
thrash out their many differences and take joint
positions that are sometimes a tortured lowest
common denominator. — Reuters
PLO slams Israel
for ‘countless
difficulties’
JERUSALEM: The Palestine Liberation Organisation
denounced Israel for causing “countless difficulties” for
Palestinian Christians and Muslims to reach their holy sites
as Orthodox Christians held the “Holy Fire” ceremony in
Jerusalem Saturday on the eve of Orthodox Easter. “It is not
only that Israel has isolated our occupied capital from the
rest of our country - forcing our people to apply for special
military permits to access their families and holy places for
religious occasions - but even Palestinians from Jerusalem
were beaten when trying to reach the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre,” said Hanna Amireh, a member of the PLO
Executive Committee and Head of the Presidential
Committee on Church Affairs.
Throngs of Orthodox Christians filled Jerusalem’s
ancient Church of the Holy Sepulchre and surrounding
streets for the ceremony for which thousands of Israeli
police officers were deployed. Police said tens of thousands
of faithful gathered in the streets around the site where
Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected,
causing huge delays at dozens of checkpoints.
“The Israeli forces turned a religious occasion into a battle
camp scenario,” said Amireh. “This is part of Israel’s plan
to turn Jerusalem into an exclusive Jewish city. “Palestinian
Christians and Muslims face countless difficulties in order
to reach their holy sites and conduct their celebrations,
while Jews from anywhere are allowed to freely pray at
their holy places.
“It is time for the international community to take real
action,” he added. “What was witnessed in Jerusalem was
an attempt to cancel a tradition of 700 years. “The Israeli
government is doing everything possible in order to
achieve its goal of changing Jerusalem’s landscape, by
building more settlements, demolishing more Palestinian
homes, revoking more IDs and by attempting to prevent
the normal celebration of Christian and Muslim religious
events...”
The PLO said Israeli police stopped a visit organised by
Palestinian Christian groups with foreign diplomats and
Adnan Ghaleb Al-Husayni, the governor for Quds
(Jerusalem) Governorate, as they tried to enter the Old City
of Jerusalem. “Even praying has become an act of resistance
for Palestinians,” said Amireh.
Believers hold that a divine fire from heaven ignites candles
held by the Greek Orthodox patriarch, in an annual
rite dating back to the 4th century AD symbolising the resurrection
of Christ. The event, the highlight of the Eastern
Christian calendar, was attended by pilgrims from around
the world-predominantly Eastern Europe-as well as Arab
Israelis, all carrying unlit candles.
Greek Patriarch Theophilos III made his traditional grand
entry at the head of a procession of monks, chanters and
dignitaries with red and gold banners bearing icons. After
circling the shrine in the heart of the church three times, he
entered along with the Armenian Patriarch what Orthodox,
Roman Catholics and many other Christians believe is
Jesus’s burial site, emerging minutes later with a lit candle.
The holy flame was swiftly passed from candle to candle
between ecstatic believers, most of whom had waited for
several hours for the ceremony which filled the air with
light and smoke.— AFP

INTERNATIONAL
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
30 wounded in blast
at Tanzanian church
JHANG: In this photograph, a Pakistani man stands beside an electoral poster of former
Pakistani member of parliament Sheikh Waqas Akram, the rival of Maulana
Ahmad Ludhianvi the head of hardline Sunni Muslim party Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat
(ASWJ), in Jhang in the central Punjab province. — AFP
Ambitious mullah spotlights
Pakistan’s sectarian menace
JHANG: Hardline Sunni Muslim cleric
Maulana Ahmad Ludhianvi may have been
defeated in polls five years ago but he’s
confident of winning a seat in Pakistan’s
election on Saturday, furthering his bid to
oppress Shiites. A terrorist to his enemies, a
man of peace to his supporters, Ludhianvi
heads the country’s largest anti-Shiite
group, which has been described as the
political wing of terror group Lashkar-e-
Jhangvi.
He is part of a coalition led by cleric
Sami ul-Haq, nicknamed Father of the
Taliban, having said he was dumped by
election frontrunners the Pakistan Muslim
League-N (PML-N) in favour of his arch
rivals, the local feudal Akram family. Sheikh
Waqas Akram narrowly defeated Ludhianvi
in 2008 but after he was exposed for faking
his degree his father is standing in what
will be a tight race between the old power
of the feudals and the rising threat of sectarianism.
“At the moment I can raise a voice for
my anti-Shiite mission only at a local level
and from my local mosque. But when I get
the microphone in the assembly, the whole
nation and the whole world will listen,”
Ludhianvi told AFP. His Ahle Sunnat Wal
Jamaat (ASWJ) movement denies any link
to violence, despite being known as the
political arm of LeJ, one of the most active
terror groups in Pakistan, bent on exterminating
the 20 percent Shiite minority.
LeJ claimed responsibility for the two
worst bomb attacks so far this year, killing
182 people in Shiite areas of southwestern
city Quetta. It is also linked to Al-Qaeda.
Rights groups say attacks on Shiites hit a
record high in 2012. Jhang, one of the most
important towns in central Punjab
province, elects four seats to the national
assembly and is the birthplace of the sectarian
terror.
LeJ precursor, extremist group Sipah-e-
Sahaba (SSP), was founded in the town in
1985 and the head of ASWJ always lives in
Jhang. Ludhianvi was formerly a SSP leader.
PML-N, the biggest party in the province,
has long been accused of aligning with
hardliners as a way of cementing their
power.
The PML-N is tipped to win Saturday’s
elections and form a national government.
Ludhianvi says the party has cut him off
and backed Akram’s father, Sheikh
Muhammad Akram. But PML-N senator
Mushahidullah Khan told AFP: “Ahle Sunnat
Wal Jammat has never been our ally. We
never wanted to give them tickets. It is all
propaganda that they are our allies.”
The narrow streets outside Ludhianvi’s
home are filled with posters and graffiti
supporting him, exhorting strict Muslim
laws and denouncing Shiites. Long-bearded
and soft-spoken, Ludhianvi goes
nowhere without gun-toting bodyguards
clad in black shalwar kamizes.
He calls on religious groups to unite to
“save” Pakistan as an Islamic (Sunni) republic.
His supporters liken their struggle to
that against Ahmadis, a minority community
in 1974 declared non-Muslim and
stripped of other rights. The Akrams, who
made their vast wealth in transportation,
talk of a progressive, tolerant Pakistan, of
the economy not sectarian hatred.
Although Maulana Azam Tariq, the thenhead
of SSP, won the seat in 2002 from jail,
when he was assassinated a year later
Sheikh Waqas Akram won the by-election.
Waqas, 39, won again in 2008. But both victories
were narrow and the constituency
remains hotly contested. Waqas claims to
have survived 12 assassination attempts in
the past 10 years, including four suicide
attacks.
He is accompanied everywhere by four
to five gunmen. “There are only two types
of votes in Jhang: Sipah-e-Sahaba and anti
Sipah-e-Sahaba,” Waqas told AFP at his
fortress-style home. “I still remember in the
late ‘80s and early ‘90s when they were the
biggest dons of this area. They used to kill
people and string up their bodies on the
road to give a message to others. They used
to extort money from everybody.
“The only way to put an end to extremism
in Pakistan is to exclude these elements
from mainstream politics and political influences.”
But the competition is tough and
analysts say it will be a close race. Zargham
Abbas, 35, a former local councillor, said
“most sensible” people support the Akram
family because of their moderate view.
“There has been peace in this town for the
last 10 years,” he said. “People want a balanced
society and to get rid of fanaticism”.
But grocer Muhammad Nadeem Qasmi, 43,
is a die-hard Ludhianvi supporter. “The
agenda of the ASWJ to bring Islamic legislation
to defend the dignity of Islamic figures
is quite justified. We are hoping for victory,”
he said. — AFP
Vatican ambassador at church opening
ARUSHA: At least 30 people were injured, three
seriously, in a suspected bomb attack yesterday
at a packed new Catholic church in the northern
Tanzanian city of Arusha, police said. Witnesses
said at least one person had been trampled to
death in the stampede after the blast. The
Vatican’s ambassador to Tanzania, Archbishop
Francisco Montecillo Padilla, was attending mass
at the church but was not harmed, officials said.
“There have been 30 people wounded, three in a
serious condition, and one person has been
arrested,” said regional police chief Liberatus
Sabas.
It was not immediately clear what caused the
explosion. “This is a sad day, our security forces
are mobilised, and the culprits will be arrested
and brought to justice,” said Arusha’s commissioner
Magesa Mulongo. “For the time being we
don’t know if it is a bomb,” he added. However,
tensions have been high between Tanzania’s
Christian and Muslim communities in recent
months, and local member of parliament
Godbless Lema condemned the blast as the
work of “criminals”.
“Religious fundamentalism is a reality in this
country, but the government does nothing,” he
said angrily outside the church, as police cordoned
off the area and ordered people away
from the building. The blast took place outside a
Roman Catholic church in Arusha, a town popular
with tourists visiting the nearby Serengeti
national park and snowcapped Mount
Kilimanjaro. The newly built church, in the Olasti
district on the outskirts of Arusha town, was celebrating
its first ever mass when the blast took
place, and people were squeezed into the
church building as well as sitting on benches
outside.
“When it exploded there was a stampede,
people running in all directions, walking on each
ARUSHA: Wounded churchgoers lie on the ground as Roman Catholic nuns run for cover after a
blast at the St Joseph Mfanyakazi Roman Catholic Church in Arusha, Tanzania yesterday. — AP
other, children were screaming and women crying,”
said Viviana, who was helped out of the
church by her son. “I saw a dead woman trampled,
I think even her two children were killed in
the same way,” said a woman, who gave her
name only as Mariana. An AFP reporter said that
several wounded people were taken to hospital,
and that police had closed off roads around the
church.
Worshippers angrily accused the police and
the government of failing to properly protect
them. “There were so many people, the church
was full, and the faithful were sitting on benches
outside - it was a great day of celebration,” said
Jacob, a motorcycle taxi driver, who had been at
the mass. In February, a Catholic priest was shot
dead outside his church on the largely Muslim
archipelago of Zanzibar, the second such killing
in recent months. A church was also set on fire
on Zanzibar in February.
Last month, in the far south of Tanzania,
police fired tear gas to disperse around 200
Christian rioters attempting to torch a mosque
over an argument over who should be allowed
to slaughter animals. Tanzanian Foreign Minister
Bernard Membe said in a message on Twitter
that he was “greatly shocked” at the news of the
blast. — AFP
Russian marchers remember
bloody anti-Putin protest
MOSCOW: About a thousand
Muscovites rallied yesterday in memory
of a bloody protest one year ago
in which more than 400 were
detained after showing their frustration
with Vladimir Putin’s return to
the presidency. The “Spring March of
Freedom” was held almost a year to
the day since Russian authorities
deployed baton-wielding interior
ministry troops to disperse a crowd
of tens of thousands on the eve of
Putin’s May 7 swearing-in ceremony.
Dozens of demonstrators and several
police officers ended up in hospital in
the ensuing clashes. More than two
dozen people now face years in
prison on disturbance of order
charges. Several have been jailed
already.
“I came out to protest against the
dictatorship that was installed under
the Putin regime and against the
political repressions,” a Muscovite
named Oleg said as people of all
ages around him unfurled banners
reading “Freedom to political prisoners”
under the heavy grey sky. But the
protest movement has grown fractured
since its heyday in the winter of
2011-2012 — a time when discontent
was at a peak over what were
seen as stacked December 2011 parliamentary
elections and Putin’s decision
to return to the Kremlin after
completing two terms in 2000-2008.
Activists can now barely agree on
how they should proceed or reconcile
views that range from the far leftsome
even openly embracing the
late Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin-to
those who support a Western-style
democracy. Those fissures were
embarrassingly laid bare when opposition
leaders failed to agree on a
date to mark the first anniversary of
the now infamous protest. A much
smaller group marched yesterday
instead of the actual anniversary
today because they believed that
most of its supporters work during
the week. “I am disappointed with
the numbers-I thought there would
be more people,” said a 39-year-old
woman who identified herself only as
Marina. “The opposition has grown
more quiet,” she said.
The thousand or so people in
attendance were surrounded by
what Moscow city authorities said
was a police presence of 4,000 officers.
Yet a much larger section of the
protest movement that includes
opposition figureheads such as the
corruption fighter Alexei Navalny and
novelist Boris Akunin decided to go
ahead with their event. Observers
say large numbers are expected then
amid growing anger over a widening
crackdown on dissenting voices in
the country. Putin’s thumping March
2012 presidential victory with 63.6
percent of the vote at first seemed to
take all the air out of the opposition
movement. Some decided to abandon
periodic demonstrations altogether
in favour of a focus on municipal
elections through which they
could build their ranks from the bottom
up. But Putin-an ex-KGB spy who
spars often with the West and supports
a strictly hierarchical political
system for Russia in which all major
decisions are made by the Kremlinhas
once against shown his authoritative
streak. He has openly blamed
the winter demonstrations before his
election on funding from the United
States.
That message has been echoed in
this year’s campaign against nongovernmental
organisations that
receive funding from the West. These
groups will now be forced to declare
themselves as “foreign agents” a
derogatory term that in Russian
essentially means the group is run by
spies. The authorities have also
opened a series of trials against
opposition leaders that could land
people such as the popular Navalnyby
far the most dangerous figure
from the Kremlin’s perspectivebehind
bars for 10 years. —AFP
Nigeria’s civilians bear
brunt of Islamist conflict
MAIDUGURI: This relic of a medieval African
empire, streets that were once lively markets
for silk and perfumes now trade gunfire
between Islamist insurgents and the Nigerian
military. Army checkpoints at intervals of 300
metres choke the roads through parts of
Maiduguri, capital of northeast Nigeria’s Borno
state and epicentre of Boko Haram’s fight for
Islamic rule.
Residents of Borno, for centuries the seat of
one of West Africa’s oldest Islamic empires,
then called Bornu, feel trapped in the middle,
targets for both sides in a more than three
year old conflict they fear only a negotiated
settlement can end. Along the bullet-pocked
slums of Gwange and Kofa Biyu, on
Maiduguri’s outskirts, bearded members of
Boko Haram hide amongst civilians in rubblestrewn
streets that are largely deserted, save a
few young children playing on sandy pavements.
Grandfather Muazu Kalari said most of
the adult males in his family-the ones most at
risk of being killed by one side or the otherhad
fled since the Islamists moved in. “My
three sons abandoned their children and
wives, and so I’m left to fend for my grandchildren,”
he said, arranging tomatoes on a table
for sale on an otherwise empty street.
The unrest has its origins in 2009, when a
cleric called Mohammed Yusuf led an uprising
against the government, triggering a security
crackdown in which 800 people died, including
Yusuf, who was in police custody. Far from
crushing Boko Haram, it triggered an angry
backlash, transforming a clerical movement
opposed to Western education into a violent
jihadist sect that has since forged ties with Al-
Qaeda-linked groups in the Sahara. Thousands
have died in a conflict that has destabilised
Africa’s top energy producing nation. The
Islamists, who frequently target the security
forces, Christian worshippers or politicians,
have shown no sign of giving up and no interest
in an amnesty offer floated by President
Goodluck Jonathan last month.
In Maiduguri, people say a political settlement
may be the only hope. “No one believes
that the military with all their big guns can
stop Boko Haram attacks,” said Islamic cleric
Maha Lawali. “They need to arrange a peace
deal with these people.” An army raid two
weeks ago killed dozens of people in the market
town of Baga, on Lake Chad too the north,
prompting calls for an investigation. Western
powers, fearing that Nigerian jihadists are tilting
more towards targeting their interests,
have urged Nigeria to discipline its troops and
address the underlying causes of the insurgency,
which stem from the north’s economic
decline. — Reuters
MOSCOW: Russia’s opposition supporters take part in a rally in memory of a bloody protest
one year ago in which more than 400 were detained after showing their frustration with
Vladimir Putin’s return to presidency. — AFP
Burundi media in the
cross-hairs of govt
BUJUMBURA: Burundi’s journalists are bracing for tough
times after parliament passed a restrictive draft media law
that rights groups fear is designed to silence critical voices
ahead of a general election in two years. The law, prepared
amid great secrecy last year, was adopted by parliament last
Monday. Giving the government extra powers, it strips from
journalists the ability to protect their sources, restricts
reporting on topics deemed sensitive and sharply raises the
fines courts can impose.
While the legislation must still be passed by the president,
journalists are worried. “We are fighting against this
bill since we learned about it several months ago,” said
Alexander Niyungeko, president of the Burundian
Journalists Union. “We sensed from the beginning a desire
to rein in the independent press of the country... We now
know that this bill was prepared by the ruling party to take
revenge on the journalists who are accused of having given
their microphone to be the voice of the opposition.” The former
secretary general of the ruling party (CNDD-FDD),
Gelase Ndabirabe, now a senator, recently said the motivation
for the law was to curb the enthusiasm of journalists,
who, since the opposition boycotted politics three years
ago, have taken on the role of “politicians”. Many opposition
leaders have fled the country since their boycott of the 2010
presidential and parliamentary elections. —AFP

INTERNATIONAL
NYC’s bike share, largest
in the country, to begin
6,000 bikes docked at 330 stations in Manhattan, Brooklyn
NEW YORK: New York City, with its constant
hum of subways, buses, cabs and ferries, has
long had one glaring exception to its many
transportation options: bicycles for the masses.
But bike sharing is finally coming to the Big
Apple, which could help the city overcome its
reputation as a commuter obstacle course of
speeding cabbies, horn-honking drivers and
sharp-elbowed pedestrians who treat crossing
signals as a mere suggestion.
City officials say the nation’s largest bikesharing
system will begin sometime this month
with 6,000 bikes at 330 stations in Manhattan
and parts of Brooklyn, with plans to expand
eventually to 10,000 bikes and 600 docking stations
in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.
“When you talk about scale, no other US city
comes close,” says Jon Orcutt, policy director at
the city’s Department of Transportation, which
is overseeing the launch of the program.
Officials hope the privately funded bikesharing
program, dubbed Citi Bike after a $41
million sponsorship from Citibank and an additional
$6.5 million from MasterCard, will add
riders to the more than 700 miles of bike lanes
throughout New York and will be used by oneway
commuters and round-trip tourists alike.
The idea is that bike-sharing programs
decrease the number of drivers on the road
and encourage healthy lifestyles, a particular
policy goal of Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The
city expects the system to turn a profit, which
will be split evenly between the city and the
operator.
Thousands of people already have signed up
as Citi Bike founding members, paying the $95
annual fee for unlimited rides of 45 minutes.
And supporters say New York has no choice but
to join the ranks of cities such as London,
Barcelona and Paris, all of which have successful
programs. As of last month, there were a
total of 534 bike-sharing programs worldwide,
according to Russell Meddin, a Philadelphiabased
bike-sharing advocate who tracks and
maps the programs. (The world’s largest public
NEW YORK: In this photo, docks for a new bike share program stand empty on
MacDougal Street in New York. —AP
bike-sharing system is in Hangzhou, China,
where it’s estimated there are 69,500 bikes and
close to 3,000 docking stations.)
New York’s system, which is designed for
short trips, works like this: Riders 16-years-old
and up who don’t have a membership can use a
credit or debit card to get a multi-digit code to
unlock a bike from a station. A $101 hold will be
put on the card but not charged. Riders can
then purchase a 24-hour pass that costs about
$10 - a seven-day pass costs $25 - and allows for
an unlimited number of 30-minute trips. Riders
can return the bikes to any station.
By renting bike time, a rider is agreeing to
the terms of use of the program, consenting to,
among other things, taking responsibility for
damaging the bright blue, three-gear bikes. The
JORK: The new ‘blossom queen’ Carolina Sofia Wolf poses for photographers
during a ‘blossom event’ yesterday in Jork, northern Germany. For 30 years,
the blossom queen is elected for representative duties of the so called ‘Altes
Land’ region which is the biggest contiguous fruit-producing region in
Central Europe. —AFP
Venezuela govt slams
Obama’s comments
CARACAS: Venezuela’s government on
Saturday angrily rejected comments made
by US President Barack Obama about the
South American country’s political crisis
and accused Washington of being behind
violence that has followed its recent presidential
election. A foreign ministry statement
said that Obama’s “fallacious, intemperate
and interventionist declaration” will
lead toward deteriorating relations
between the countries and “confirms to the
world the policy of aggression his government
maintains against our country.”
The statement read by Foreign Minister
Elias Jaua on state television referred to
comments the US president made to
Spanish-language television network
Univision during his trip to Mexico and
Costa Rica. In the interview that aired
Friday, Obama wouldn’t say if the United
States recognizes Nicolas Maduro as
Venezuela’s new president following elections
that have been disputed by the opposition.
When asked, he replied that it’s up to
the people of Venezuela to choose their
leaders in legitimate elections. He also
said that reports indicate that basic principles
of human rights, democracy, press
freedom and freedom of assembly were
not observed in Venezuela following the
election.
“Venezuela rejects with all the force of
its Bolivarian dignity the declaration by
United States President Barack Obama
which again attacks the legitimate
Venezuelan government,” the foreign ministry
statement said. Maduro, the handpicked
successor to late Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez, narrowly won April
14 presidential elections. But opposition
leader Henrique Capriles contends the
election was stolen from him and has challenged
the result.
Tensions between supporters on both
sides remain high, with tens of thousands
of Venezuelans protesting in the streets.
Lawmakers even brawled on the floor of
the National Assembly last week. In another
interview with Spanish-language network
Telemundo that’s set to air on Sunday,
Obama described as “ridiculous” the idea
that an American filmmaker detained by
Venezuela’s government is a spy.
Thirty-five-year-old Timothy Tracy, of
West Hollywood, California, was formally
charged last week with crimes including
conspiracy, association for criminal purposes
and use of a false document. Obama says
Tracy’s case will be handled like every other
in which a US citizen gets into a “legal tangle”
while abroad. The president also said
the US hasn’t tried “in any way” to interfere
with Venezuela’s recent Elections —AP
program recommends helmets but does not
require them. General liability, Orcutt says,
depends on the situation. If a rider isn’t following
city rules, such as riding against traffic, a
resulting injury might be his or her fault; if the
front wheel is loose during a ride, that might be
the bike share’s fault; and if a rider falls into an
open pothole, that could well be the city’s fault.
It has been a long road for New York City’s
bike share, which has had to overcome the perception
that the city’s bustling streets are too
dangerous and its residents too uncompromising.
(Think Dustin Hoffman’s famous crosswalk
retort - “I’m walkin’ here!” - from the movie
“Midnight Cowboy.”) But the city has added 300
miles (500 kilometers) of new bike lanes in the
past five years, plus 200 more miles (300 more
kilometers) of greenways and routes in parks.
Long stretches along the Westside Highway and
the Brooklyn waterfront have been redone with
bikes in mind. And officials spent nearly two
years and had 400 community meetings to pick
docking station locations.
Still, many residents are giving voice to notin-my-backyard
arguments against the program,
taking aim specifically at the large gray
docking stations that have sprouted in city
neighborhoods in recent weeks, taking up parking
spaces and crowding entranceways. At a
raucous community board meeting this past
week in Greenwich Village, about 200 residents
gathered to complain about the stations.
“I don’t care what they do in Paris: I live in
New York City,” Deborah Stone said to thunderous
applause. The launch of the program has
been delayed twice - most recently during
Superstorm Sandy, when the storm damaged
much of the equipment, including bikes.
Susan Shaheen, a professor of civil and environmental
engineering at the University of
California, Berkeley, says research shows bike
shares decrease accidents, giving credence to
the strength-in-numbers theory pushed by bike
share advocates, who suggest drivers adjust
their behavior and become more cautious when
more bikes are on the road.
Her research has found that bike share operators
with more than 1,000 bicycles had an average
of 4.33 accidents reported per year - with
no fatalities reported. In New York City, there
were 369 severe injuries for bicyclists reported
in 2011, with 22 fatalities, according to city data.
Washington, DC’s program, which began in
2010, now has 1,100 bikes but also had to overcome
some opposition early on, mostly about
the docking stations.
“Basically, they just kind of disappear into the
landscape,” says DC’s Capital Bike Share project
manager Chris Holben. “You know, there’s your
bus shelter, there’s your trash can, there’s your
bike station.” —AP
Middle-aged
suicide rates rise
sharply in US
NEW YORK: The suicide rate among middle-aged Americans
climbed a startling 28 percent in a decade, a period that
included the recession and the mortgage crisis, the government
reported Thursday. The trend was most pronounced
among white men and women in that age group. Their suicide
rate jumped 40 percent between 1999 and 2010. But the
rates in younger and older people held steady. And there was
little change among middle-aged blacks, Hispanics and most
other racial and ethnic groups, the report from the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention found.
Why did so many middle-aged whites - that is, those who
are 35 to 64 years old - take their own lives? One theory suggests
the recession caused more emotional trauma in whites,
who tend not to have the same kind of church support and
extended families that blacks and Hispanics do. The economy
was in recession from the end of 2007 until mid-2009. Even
well afterward, polls showed most Americans remained worried
about weak hiring, a depressed housing market and other
problems.
Pat Smith, violence-prevention program coordinator for
the Michigan Department of Community Health, said the
recession - which hit manufacturing-heavy states particularly
hard - may have pushed already-troubled people over the
brink. Being unable to find a job or settling for one with lower
pay or prestige could add “that final weight to a whole
chain of events,” she said.
Another theory notes that white baby boomers have
always had higher rates of depression and suicide, and that
has held true as they’ve hit middle age. During the 11-year
period studied, suicide went from the eighth leading cause of
death among middle-aged Americans to the fourth, behind
cancer, heart disease and accidents.
“Some of us think we’re facing an upsurge as this generation
moves into later life,” said Dr Eric Caine, a suicide
researcher at the University of Rochester. One more possible
contributor is the growing sale and abuse of prescription
painkillers over the past decade. Some people commit suicide
by overdose. In other cases, abuse of the drugs helps put
people in a frame of mind to attempt suicide by other means,
said Thomas Simon, one of the authors of the CDC report,
which was based on death certificates.
People ages 35 to 64 account for about 57 percent of suicides
in the US The report contained surprising information
about how middle-aged people kill themselves: During the
period studied, hangings overtook drug overdoses in that
age group, becoming the No. 2 manner of suicide. But guns
remained far in the lead and were the instrument of death in
nearly half of all suicides among the middle-aged in 2010.
The CDC does not collect gun ownership statistics and did
not look at the relationship between suicide rates and the
prevalence of firearms.
For the entire US population, there were 38,350 suicides in
2010, making it the nation’s 10th leading cause of death, the
CDC said. The overall national suicide rate climbed from 12
suicides per 100,000 people in 1999 to 14 per 100,000 in
2010. That was a 15 percent increase.
For the middle-aged, the rate jumped from about 14 per
100,000 to nearly 18 - a 28 percent increase. Among whites in
that age group, it spiked from about 16 to 22. Suicide prevention
efforts have tended to concentrate on teenagers and the
elderly, but research over the past several years has begun to
focus on the middle-aged. The new CDC report is being
called the first to show how the trend is playing out nationally
and to look in depth at the racial and geographic breakdown.
—AP
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
HOUSTON: A woman tries to sell raffle tickets to win a gun from the “Wall of
Guns” during the 2013 NRA Annual Meeting and Exhibits at the George R
Brown Convention Center. —AFP
NRA seeks to highlight
‘armed, fabulous’ women
HOUSTON: The National Rifle Association
is showcasing women members and
emphasizing that increasingly it’s not just
men who own firearms and oppose guncontrol
efforts. Female membership is up,
the nation’s leading advocate for gun ownership
says, and its revamped website features
profiles of “armed and fabulous”
women and describes how women are
bringing “new energy” to the NRA.
“This is the National Rifle Association
catering to demand,” NRA spokesman
Andrew Arulanandam said. “We’ve seen in
the last few years an increase in women
buying guns, joining the National Rifle
Association, enrolling in personal safety
classes and going out and organizing
women’s-only hunts.” A number of the 550
vendors at the 142nd NRA Annual
Meetings & Exhibits this weekend in
Houston also have women in mind. Some
are selling pink NRA T-shirts, and companies
such as Concealed Carrie and Urban
Moxy are offering handbags designed for
concealed handguns.
Saleswomen for Urban Moxy - which
describes itself as “loaded with style” -
demonstrate how a gun can slide into a
purse’s lockable, neoprene-lined pocket.
The meeting of some 70,000 members
comes less than a month after the NRA
scored a major victory in Congress when it
beat back a proposal to expand background
checks for gun buyers.
The proposal, which supporters have
vowed to revive, is a key part of President
Barack Obama’s gun-control effort sparked
by the December school massacre in
Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children
and six adults were killed. An online
Reuters/Ipsos poll released in January
showed that 86 percent of Americans surveyed
favored expanded background
checks of all gun buyers. A CBS News/New
York Times poll released on Wednesday
showed that 88 percent of Americans support
background checks for all gun buyers
and that 59 percent are disappointed or
angry about the recent Senate vote on gun
legislation.
NEW YORK: Three weeks after the deadly Boston
Marathon bombings, questions linger about 19-
year-old suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a seemingly
normal teenager. His older brother, 26-year-old
Tamerlan, had raised red flags, including with
Russian authorities, over his apparent radicalization.
But there never were similar suspicions
about Dzhokhar-called “Jahar” by his friends-who
remains locked up under strict security at a prison
hospital and stands accused of carrying out with
his brother the bombings that killed three people
and wounded 264 last month.
To his father, he was “an angel.” To those who
knew him at school, he was “cool,” “sweet” and
“smart.” All signs pointed to the ethnic Chechen
teen with the tussled hair being nothing more
than an ordinary student. He had a car, liked to
listen to loud music, had enough money to take
a few trips to New York City with his friends. On
scholarship at the University of Massachusetts
at Dartmouth, Tsarnaev lived on campus and, in
addition to attending the gym, he was known
for smoking pot, drinking beer and partying. By
his own admission, he was not a stellar student:
his grades were poor in most subjects. His
Twitter feed is a digest of the daily mundanities
of student life, recounting sleep-deprivation,
videogames and laundry. He wrote that he
loves peanut butter and Nutella, that he found
Miss America sexy, and, two days before the
attack, that he got a haircut.
On Russian social network VKontakte, he
described his worldview as “Islam,” but he also
said that “career and money” mattered most. He
was rarely seen at the mosque. But Dzhokhar
admired his older brother, and he seems to have
been deeply influenced by his family history. A
Muslim of Chechen origin, Dzhokhar was born
in Kyrgyzstan, a member of the Chechen diaspora
created from deportations in the 1940s
under Russian leader Joseph Stalin. He spent his
early childhood in Kyrgyzstan before his family
moved to Dagestan, and then, when he was
eight years old, to the United States, where his
Taking away freedoms?
The NRA works assiduously to defend
the Second Amendment to the US
Constitution that sets out the right to bear
arms. NRA member Cindy Chambers of
Houston said the background-check proposal
targets law-abiding gun owners, not
criminals. “We take our freedoms seriously,”
said Chambers, who owns a travel company.
“I’m just right of center, but when the
government decides to take away freedoms
given to us by law, we are re-energized
to defend those rights.”
Chambers attended the 7th Annual NRA
Women’s Leadership Forum Luncheon &
Auction on Friday at River Oaks Country
Club. “It was so empowering today to walk
into a room full of an array of women with
the same mindset,” said another lunch
attendee, Houston culinary instructor Molly
Fowler.
There was also an NRA Women New
Energy Reception on Friday evening, and
the NRA this weekend was offering a threeday
pistol instructor training course for
women. The NRA will not say how many of
its 5 million members are women. But
Arulanandam said the NRA’s women’s-only
hunts had grown from only two or three
sparsely attended events each year to
dozens across the world. Men typically buy
guns for recreational purposes, while
women tend to get them for self-protection,
then later use them for other purposes,
Arulanandam said.
‘Fear and paranoia’
For Fowler, it was an intruder on her
property that prompted her to get a concealed
handgun license, she said. “Owning
guns is made into such a heinous, horrible
thing, and it’s not,” Fowler said. “My dad had
a gun case that wasn’t locked, but we were
educated from an early age. We knew they
were dangerous, we knew right from
wrong, we knew they weren’t toys.”
Kellye Bowman, co-leader of the
Houston chapter of Moms Demand Action,
a group formed after the Connecticut
school shooting to push for gun control,
said the NRA was “trying to terrify women
with misinformation about crime.” “They
create fear and paranoia,” Bowman said.
This week the NRA Women’s Network
announced a new and improved NRA
Women website, sponsored by the gun
manufacturer Smith & Wesson Corp. “Our
mission is to expose the public to the
female face of the NRA,” the group said in a
Facebook posting.
In a video on the NRA Women site,
champion pistol shooter Julie Golob says
she has been sending letters and emails to
elected officials to tell them gun owners
come from all walks of life. The video also
features advocate Natalie Foster, who says
authorities do not understand what it is like
to be a woman who needs protection from
an abusive ex-spouse. “I don’t think you can
overstate how critical it is for women to get
engaged with what’s going on right now,”
says Foster, founder of the website Girl’s
Guide to Guns. —Reuters
Boston bomb suspect a
seemingly ordinary teen
father was a mechanic in the Boston suburb of
Cambridge. He was naturalized as an American
citizen last year.
A student routine
On March 14, 2012, he tweeted, “a decade in
America already, I want out.” A month later, he
wrote that he was “proud to be from Chechnya.”
And on New Year’s Eve, after spending the day
with a Muslim convert, he wrote: “my religion is
the truth.” Yet in February 2012, he had been in
New York, tweeting “NY was rockin’.” A month
before the attacks, Tsarnaev bragged to two
Kazakh friends that he knew how to make a
bomb. The two friends, who have since recounted
the events to investigators, did not raise any
alarms. Tsarnaev has reportedly told investigators
that he watched videos online with his brother of
American-born Al-Qaeda preacher Anwar al-
Awlaki, who was killed in September 2011 by a US
drone. The brothers also turned to the Internet for
instructions on how to make the bombs they
used to attack the marathon finish line. And then,
after the attack, Dzhokhar slipped back into his
routine, without attracting the least suspicion.
He went back to the gym. He kept tweeting.
“Ain’t no love in the heart of the city, stay safe people,”
Tsarnaev wrote the evening after the attack.
And, in his last tweet, on April 17, he declared: “I’m
a stress free kind of guy.” So unstressed, or oblivious,
that the FBI found the shirt and the hat
Tsarnaev wore the day of the attack in his dorm
room. He spent the whole evening of the 17th at
the home of Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat
Tazhayakov, his Kazakh friends. On the 18th, he
went back to his place in Tazhayakov’s car, around
4:00 pm. When the FBI published the photos of
the suspected attackers an hour later, Dzhokhar,
who had left campus shortly before, responded
calmly to text messages from Kadyrbayev: “lol,”
“you better not text me” and “come to my room
and take whatever you want.” Accused of using a
weapon of mass destruction, Tsarnaev faces the
death penalty if convicted. -—AFP

NEW DELHI: Rajesh Kumar Sharma, the founder of a free school for slum children,
teaches a class at a free school for impoverished children under a mass transit bridge
in New Delhi. — AP
For India’s poor, a school
under a railway bridge
NEW DELHI: Their classroom is a flattened
patch of dirt and rocks under the elevated
rail tracks. Their blackboards are rectangles
painted on a chipped concrete wall. Their
teacher is a shop owner with no formal
training, but a conviction that education is
their only hope. For some of these dozens
of children of poor migrant workers in
India’s capital, this makeshift, open-air
school under the rumble of mass transit is
the only school they have. Others who
attend overcrowded and dismal government
schools come here as well - to actually
learn.
India’s Right To Education Act promising
free, compulsory schooling to all children
ages 6 to 14 was supposed to take full
effect March 31, but millions of children
still don’t go to school and many who do
are getting only the barest of educations.
So every morning, more than 50 children
gather under the bridge for two hours of
lessons at Rajesh Kumar’s informal school.
They sweep the dirt flat and roll out foam
mats to sit on, just meters (yards) from the
bushes were several men had been squatting
and defecating minutes earlier.
The students, ages 4 to 14, study everything
from basic reading and writing to the
Pythagorean Theorem. Those who also
attend government schools say classrooms
there are packed and that teachers, when
they show up, just come in, write a problem
on the board, and leave. “They teach
much better here,” said Raju, 12, the child
of flower pickers. He also attends fifth
grade at a government school in a class
with 61 other students. There “they hardly
teach anything,” he said.
Under the Right to Education Act,
passed in 2010, enrollment has increased
from 193 million to 199 million, and the
government has invested more than $11
billion extra dollars in upgrading the
school system. Still, about 3 million children
remain out of school, according to
the government; Private groups put that
number at about 8 million. There also
remain at least 700,000 teacher vacancies,
and many of those who are employed
don’t have the proper training, according
to the government.
Despite the new investments, schools
appear to be getting worse. According to
the 2012 report by the non-profit education
group Pratham, nearly 68 percent of
third graders in government schools can’t
read at a first-grade level, up 10 percent
from two years ago. Math proficiency had
similarly plummeted, according to the
report, which is based on assessments of
about 700,000 children across the country.
The government needs to focus not just
on hiring new teachers and building new
schools but on providing a good education
to Indian children, said Rukmini
Banerji, a Pratham official. “It looks like we
are far from getting there,” she said.
Government officials say their own surveys
show some improvement, though overall
learning levels remain low.
“The rapid expansion of primary education
and introduction of a large number of
first-generation learners in the school system
has posed a major challenge for learning
outcomes,” India’s Human Resource
Development Minister M Mangapati
Pallam Raju told Parliament last month.
Kumar’s school under a bridge stands as
proof of the hunger for learning among
those either left out of the system or disappointed
by it. One day in 2008, Kumar said,
he spotted children playing in the dirt as
he walked to the train station and asked
their parents why they weren’t in school.
They complained the school was too far
and their children would have to cross a
dangerous highway to get there. If he was
concerned about their education, he
should teach them, they said.
The next morning, he came back to
teach his first lesson to five excited children.
Within six weeks, there were 140, he
said. They were the children of construction
workers and bicycle rickshaw drivers,
of farm laborers and roadside vendors, the
poorest of migrant workers who came to
the capital because opportunities in their
villages were even worse. Many of the parents
were illiterate and couldn’t even sign
their names, he said. “To change the future
of these children, education is the only
weapon,” Kumar said. “If they go anywhere
in the world, if they have education, they
can achieve anything. And without education,
they can do nothing.”
An Indian donor, seeing an Associated
Press photo essay on the school, gave the
children socks, shoes and Angry Birds
backpacks. He hired workers to level the
ground under the bridge and bought the
foam mats the pupils sit on. On a recent
spring day, the kids sat attentively, practicing
reading and writing with workbooks.
A second volunteer teacher whom Kumar
recruited chalked algebra equations on a
blackboard. A college student on break
helped tutor the children.
Kumar, 42, who teaches Monday
through Saturday and gives no vacations,
stood at the blackboard and in a singsong
voice led the younger children in math
problems. He called students up to the
wall to do simple subtraction and gently
patted one girl on the cheek when she got
an answer right. She ran back to her seat,
beaming. Every few minutes a train passed
overhead, largely ignored by the school
below.
Pammi, a 12-year-old girl who, like
many of India’s poor, uses only one name,
was illiterate and had never been to school
until she came here six months ago. Now,
she can read and write, she said. Nishu, 5,
went to a government school for one
month, but cried all the time and told her
family the teacher beat her. Her family,
unhappy that the little girl had to cross a
highway to get to school, pulled her out,
said her grandmother, Rekha, 60, who sells
vegetables from a basket she carries on
her head.
“My granddaughter is very, very smart,”
Rekha said as Nishu practiced writing her
ABCs on a slate. “I don’t want her to go
anywhere else. I want her to stay and read
and write here.” Kumar works to enroll the
students in government schools and said
he got 130 into the state education system.
“They can get a degree there. I can’t
give them that,” he said.
But many of those kids come back to
study with him as well. Bharat Mandal, 15,
wakes up at 3 a.m. to help his parents farm
roses for four hours, and he goes to government
school in the afternoon, but he
still attends Kumar’s school in the morning
because “I get to learn,” he said. “I get
answers to my questions here. In school
there are too many students and the
teachers just come and then leave, so my
questions aren’t answered,” he said.
Noorbano, 32, had no idea how to register
her four children in school when her
family moved from the state of Uttar
Pradesh to a shack surrounded by a sea of
orange marigolds and pink roses near the
banks of Delhi’s fetid Yamuna River.
Noorbano, a flower picker, sent them to
Kumar’s school in 2008 and a year later he
got them into an official school. Their
mother was not impressed.
One day, she brought her son to school
and the teacher yelled at her for not sending
him before. He’s here every day, she
responded, it’s you who are never here,
Noorbano recounted. She still sends her
children to Kumar, and now has dreams
almost unthinkable for the offspring of
manual laborers attending government
schools. One son will be an engineer,
another will be a police officer, a third will
be a doctor and so will her daughter, she
said.
“For my children, there’s God, and there
is him,” she said, pointing to Kumar. But
Kumar fears his project is precarious. He
needs more volunteer teachers because of
the mass of students, but doesn’t know
where to find them. And his unregistered
school is squatting on railroad property.
“Whenever I am asked to leave this place, I
will have to,” he said. “Right now, the children
are studying. We will take each day as
it comes. As long as it remains possible,
let’s take advantage of it.” —AP
INTERNATIONAL
DHAKA: More than 600 bodies
have been recovered from the
garment-factory building that
collapsed well over a week ago,
police said yesterday as the
grim recovery work continued
in one of the worst industrial
accidents ever. Police said yesterday
evening that the death
toll had reached 610. More
than 200 bodies have been
recovered since Wednesday,
when authorities said only 149
people had been listed as missing.
The stench of decomposing
bodies remains amid the
broken concrete of the eightstory
Rana Plaza building, and
it is anyone’s guess how many
victims remain to be recovered.
The April 24 disaster is likely
the worst garment-factory
accident ever, and there have
been few industrial accidents
of any kind with a higher death
toll. It surpassed long-ago garment-industry
disasters such
as New York’s Triangle
Shirtwaist factory fire, which
killed 146 workers in 1911, and
more recent tragedies such as
a 2012 fire that killed about
260 people in Pakistan and one
in Bangladesh that same year
that killed 112.
An architect whose firm
designed the building said yesterday
that it had never been
designed to handle heavy
industrial equipment, let alone
the three floors that were later
illegally added. The equipment
used by the five garment factories
that occupied Rana Plaza
included huge generators that
were turned on shortly before
the building crumbled.
Masood Reza, an architect
with Vastukalpa Consultants,
said the building was designed
in 2004 as a shopping mall and
not for any industrial purpose.
“We designed the building to
have three stories for shops
and another two for offices. I
don’t know how the additional
floors were added and how
factories were allowed on the
top floors,” Reza said.
“Don’t ask me anything else.
This is now a sensitive issue,”
Reza said before hanging up.
Government officials say substandard
building materials,
combined with the vibration of
the heavy machines used by
the factories, led to the collapse.
The building developed
cracks a day before the collapse
and the owner,
Mohammed Sohel Rana, called
engineer Abdur Razzak Khan to
inspect it. Khan appeared on
television that night and said
he told Rana the building
should be evacuated.
Police also issued an evacuation
order, but witnesses say
that hours before the collapse,
Rana told people that the
building was safe and garment
factory managers told their
workers to go inside. Rana has
been arrested is expected to
be charged with negligence,
illegal construction and forcing
workers to join work, crimes
punishable by a maximum of
seven years in jail. Authorities
have not said if more serious
crimes will be added.
Khan was arrested as well.
Police said he worked as a consultant
to Rana when the three
illegal floors were added. The
government promised to make
the garment industry safer
after the November garment
factory fire that killed 112 people,
saying it would inspect
factories for safety and pull the
licenses of those that failed.
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
Bangladesh building
collapse toll tops 600
Bangladesh building owner faces murder complaint
Pak forces
kill 11 gang
members
QUETTA: Pakistani security
forces killed 11 people yesterday
in a gunbattle with a
criminal gang in the restive
southwest in which two soldiers
also died, officials said.
Police and paramilitaries
raided a house in Kachhi district,
120 kilometres (75
miles) southeast of Quetta in
Baluchistan province, and
gunned down gang members
including the ringleader,
said local administration
chief Waheed Shah.
Gang members were
wanted in about a dozen cases
of highway robbery,
abduction, extortion and
murder in the southern
province of Sindh and the
port city of Karachi, he said.
The raid was launched following
an intelligence report
that they were hiding in
Kachhi. “The criminals, who
were armed with automatic
weapons opened, fire on
security forces and killed two
soldiers,” said Shah.
Police and paramilitaries
retaliated and killed 11 criminals
including their leader
Gulbahar Mughairy, he said.
Senior government official
Asif Durrani confirmed the
clash and the casualties. The
raid came just days before
national and local elections
on May 11. The general election
will mark the first democratic
transfer of power from
a civilian government that
has served a full term to
another one in a country
with a history of military
coups. Campaigning has
been marred by Taleban
threats and attacks which
have killed 66 people since
April 11, according to an AFP
tally. — AFP
DHAKA: A woman is comforted as she grieves after identifying the body of her daughter, a victim of the
garment factory collapse yesterday. — AP
That plan has yet to be implemented.
Bangladesh’s $20 billion garment
industry supplies retailers
around the world and
accounts for about 80 percent
of the impoverished country’s
exports. The collapse has
raised strong doubts about
retailers’ claims that they could
ensure worker safety through
self-regulation. Bangladesh is
popular as a source of clothing
largely because of its cheap
labor. The minimum wage for a
garment worker is $38 a
month, after being nearly doubled
this year following violent
protests by workers. According
to the World Bank, the per
capita income in Bangladesh
was about $64 a month in
2011.— AP
German death in Afghanistan caps bloody week
BERLIN: A member of Germany’s
special forces has been killed in
Afghanistan, the army said yesterday,
the first German soldier to die
in the country in almost two years
and capping off one of the bloodiest
weeks for international troops
this year. Violence is intensifying
across Afghanistan before the
planed withdrawal of foreign combat
troops by the end of next year,
and there is growing concern over
how Afghan security forces will
manage once they leave. In the
seven days to Saturday, when the
German soldier was killed by
insurgents in Baghlan province, 22
foreign troops died in Afghanistan
and three American soldiers died
supporting the Afghan mission in
Kyrgyzstan.
The toll included the deaths of
seven US soldiers in Afghanistan
on Saturday in two separate
attacks. Almost 4,200 German soldiers
are still serving in
Afghanistan as part of the NATOled
International Security
Assistance Force. The latest death
brought the number of German
soldiers killed in the country to 53.
The last German soldier to die was
in June 2011. —Reuters

INTERNATIONAL
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
Australians on Indonesia death row plead for lives
SYDNEY: Two Australian drug smugglers
on death row in Indonesia have made a
desperate plea for their lives, insisting
they are reformed characters and
deserve a second chance. Andrew Chan
and Myuran Sukumaran, part of the “Bali
Nine”, were convicted and sentenced to
death for their role in an attempt to
smuggle eight kilograms (18 pounds) of
heroin into Australia from the resort
island in 2005.
The rest are serving lengthy sentences,
including life terms. Both men
have lost their final appeals, with their
fate now in the hands of President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono, who can grant
clemency. But with Indonesia in
February announcing it planned to put
to death some convicts for murder and
drugs offences in 2013 after not carrying
out an execution for several years, concerns
about their fate are growing.
Sukumaran and Chan told Sydney’s
Sunday Telegraph newspaper they were
having nightmares involving being shot
dead by a firing squad. “That scenario,
being lined up, having a thing tied over
your face and seeing these people in front
of you with guns. That is the image that
comes to my mind,” said Sukumaran, 32.
He said execution would end their
lives just when they were achieving good
for others, pointing to their part in running
computing, English, and art workshops
for prisoners in Kerobokan jail. “We
are sorry for what we did. We were young
and stupid. I would ask, please forgive us
and give us a second chance, a chance to
make up for what we have done,” he said.
“I want to become a better person
and I want to help everybody else
become a better person as well.” Chan
also said he was a changed man.
“Sincerely I am sorry for the crime that I
did commit and I apologise to the
Australian public for that,” he said.
Indonesia has stiff penalties for drug trafficking,
including life imprisonment and
death. There is no time frame for
Yudhoyono to grant clemency. —AFP
Malaysians vote in polls
for stability or change
Anwar faces last, best shot in Malaysia vote
KUALA LUMPUR: Millions of
Malaysians voted yesterday with
one of the world’s longest-serving
governments under serious threat
from an upstart opposition that
pledges sweeping reform. Eager
voters queued at polling stations
across the multi-ethnic country,
but the process was marred by
controversy from the start. Voters
took to the Internet in droves to
accuse Prime Minister Najib
Razak’s government of trying to
steal the election, as indelible ink
that he touted as a guarantee
against voter fraud was found to
easily wash off.
The complaints added to other
allegations of irregularities that
have raised the spectre of a possible
disputed result. Polls closed at
5:00 pm (0900 GMT), with first
results expected within hours. The
Election Commission estimated
about 80 percent of 13 million voters-or
more than 10 million people-turned
out, which it called a
record high. The figure compared
to eight million people voting in
2008. Malaysia has a total population
of 28 million people.
Until yesterday, the supremacy
of the ruling bloc dominated by
the United Malays National
Organisation (UMNO), and now led
by Najib, had been unthreatened
since independence in 1957. But
the diverse Pakatan Rakyat
(People’s Pact) opposition alliance
captained by charismatic former
UMNO star Anwar Ibrahim stunned
the country with historic gains in
2008 polls and is gunning for a
landmark victory yesterday.
“There is clearly, undeniably, a
major ground swell and a major
shift among the population across
ethnic lines,” Anwar, 65, said after
he cast his ballot in a polling centre
in his constituency in the northern
state of Penang. “Inshallah (God
willing), we will win.” Najib’s 13-party
Barisan Nasional (National Front)
coalition is widely given the edge,
but Anwar has been feted by massive
crowds on the stump and
recent opinion polls have suggested
a race too close to predict.
Pakatan has gained traction
with pledges to end ruling-party
corruption and authoritarianism,
and to reform controversial affirmative-action
policies for majority
Malays. Anwar says they are abused
by a corrupt Malay elite. His back to
the wall, Najib has offered limited
political reforms but a largely staythe-course
vision for the Muslimmajority
nation, while touting solid
economic growth.
PEKAN: Rosamah Mansor wife of Malaysian Prime MInister
Najib Razak shows her inked finger while casting her vote at a
polling station in Pekan yesterday. —AFP
The ink was introduced for the
first time and touted by Najib and
the Election Commission-widely
viewed as Barisan-controlled-as
proving their commitment to fair
polls. It is applied to a person’s finger
to show they have voted. But
voters like Halim Mohamad, 77,
said the ink, supposed to stain the
bearer for several days, washed
right off.
“This is cheating. I was shocked
when it came off,” he told AFP after
voting at the same polling centre as
Anwar, showing his cleaned index
finger. “I complained to an Election
Commission official and he just
laughed.” The opposition had
already alleged numerous irregularities
including a charge that tens of
thousands of “dubious” and possibly
foreign voters were flown to key
constituencies to sway results.
The government has said the
flights were part of a voter-turnout
drive but has provided no details,
while Najib tweeted yesterday that
no foreigners were drafted in. “We
are committed to a fair election,” he
said. But videos, pictures and firsthand
accounts of purportedly foreign
“voters” being turned away
from polling centres went viral
online. Anwar was a former deputy
premier until his ouster in a 1998
power struggle and six-year jailing
on sex charges widely viewed as
trumped up.
He later brought his pan-racial
appeal to the once-divided opposition,
dramatically reversing its fortunes.
Najib has warned of chaos
and racial strife under the occasionally
fractious Pakatan, which
includes Anwar’s multi-racial party,
one led by ethnic Chinese, and
another representing conservative
Muslim Malays. Najib’s ethnic
Malay-dominated regime retains
powerful advantages, including
control of traditional media, key
institutions and an electoral landscape
critics say is biased. “It’s a
tight run. But I’m not scared, I’m
excited,” retiree H.Y. Ong said of the
race before voting in the capital
Kuala Lumpur. “The times have
changed, they (the government)
need to change. Money politics
should be controlled,” he added,
while not divulging his voting preference.
—AFP
Everest brawl exposes
mountaineering’s rifts
KATHMANDU: A brawl on Mount Everest last weekend
that shocked the mountaineering community
stems from tension between elite climbers and growing
commercial expeditions on the world’s highest
peak, experts say. Italy’s Simone Moro and Ueli Steck
of Switzerland, two of the world’s top mountaineers,
accompanied by top British alpine photographer
Jonathan Griffith, were involved in a fight with a
group of Nepalese Sherpas on Saturday.
While there are many views on who was to blame,
all agree the spark was a decision by the Europeans to
climb the Lhotse Face, a steep ice wall, while the
Nepalese guides were rigging up ropes for their commercial
clients. Last year, hundreds of commercial
climbers were famously photographed as they
queued to reach the summit, illustrating the huge
number of people who flock to the 8,848-metre
(29,029 ft) peak each year.
Expecting similar crowds this season, the
Expedition Operators’ Association of Nepal recommended
before the start of the 2013 summit season
that Sherpas be sent to fix two sets of ropes-one for
ascent and one for descent. “This year the tensions
occurred while the Sherpas were beginning to implement
that plan,” Mohan Krishna Sapkota, a
spokesman in the Tourism Ministry, told AFP.
Moro, Steck and Griffith say they did not interfere
with the rope-rigging and they deny as “highly
unlikely” allegations that they dislodged ice that hit
the rope-fixing Sherpa team. Other climbers say they
were either unaware or did not feel bound by an
agreement that no-one else should climb while the
Sherpas were busy. “I know that on the day the ropes
are fixed, nobody should hang on the fixed ropes,”
Moro told National Geographic. “This doesn’t mean
that nobody is allowed to climb the mountain.” The
spat comes as mountaineers mark the 60th anniversary
of the first Everest summit on May 29, 1953, by
Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. About 10,000
people have attempted to climb the ultimate peak,
MOUNT EVEREST: In this photograph, climbers Ueli Steck (left) of Switzerland and
Simone Moro (right) of Italy, accompanied by British alpine photographer Jonathan
Griffith are pictured in a tent immediately after an altercation with Nepalese Sherpas
took place at the 6,500 metres (21,300 ft) ‘Camp Two’ on Everest. —AFP
almost 4,000 successfully.
Freddie Wilkinson, a US mountaineer and Everest
veteran, told AFP that the disagreement highlighted
rising friction caused by the competing interests of
elite climbers and commercial adventurers. “Elite
climbers think ropes detract from the sport. On the
other side are the commercial climbing operators
who say it’s their right to do business,” he said in an
interview. “But the assertion that the route is closed to
all climbers while the Sherpas fix the ropes shows a
seismic shift in mountaineering etiquette. It means
the climbing companies are determining the rules
now,” he said. Witnesses say the parties exchanged
blows for approximately 20 minutes. While the details
of the drama remain murky, the increased crowding
on the peak has raised questions about the safetyand
meaning-of expeditions. “Something like this has
been coming for a long time,” said Sumit Joshi, owner
of Himalayan Ascents, who saw the brawl take place.
“For anyone on the mountain, it’s obvious who is
working the hardest. It’s the Sherpas doing so much
work and they never get any recognition,” he said.
Everest is no stranger to controversy and as technology
and ambitions have advanced, crowding on
the mountain has increased. The stage was set for
this year’s disagreement in some ways by German
mountaineer Ralf Dujmovits’ photograph depicting a
queue of hundreds of summit hopefuls ascending at
once during the 2012 climbing season. In an interview
last week with Outside Magazine, Dujmovits
said the image may have had the opposite effect of
his intent: “People may start thinking, ‘if there are so
many people, I can also queue up.’”
Wilkinson told AFP the recent brawl exposed “the
socioeconomic reality of what it means to climb
Everest”, calling the tension a “symptom of the fundamental
Everest conundrum” over commercial climbing.
Last Monday all parties signed a peace accord at
base camp. But the trio has cancelled their trip and
won’t say whether they will ever attempt the world’s
highest peak again. Moro said the incident killed his
“climbing spirit”, and promises of safe passage from
Nepalese authorities did not outweigh the trust the
men had lost in Everest and the Sherpas. The tourism
ministry in Kathmandu says the government will
launch a formal investigation into the incident. But
Wilkinson believes any probe will yield few results.
“The common bond among these disparate groups
on the mountain may indeed be that they all have a
vested interest in sweeping this under the rug so they
can continue climbing and working,” he said. —AFP
PEKAN: Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak shows his finger marked with
indelible ink after casting his ballot in the general elections at a polling station
yesterday. —AP
Malaysia’s election a
balancing act for Najib
KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Najib Razak
has walked a tightrope between voters
demanding change and hardliners resisting
reform in Malaysia’s decades-old regime, a balancing
act that will be tested in elections
Sunday. The UK-educated economist with a
patrician air took office after the ruling party
dumped his predecessor over a 2008 parliamentary
election performance that was the
government’s worst in its now-56 years in power.
He now confronts a multi-ethnic opposition
that smells blood and has gained ground with
promises to end rampant corruption and
reform controversial policies that favour majority
ethnic Malays. The mild-mannered Najib, 59,
has the advantages of incumbency, solid personal-approval
ratings, control of traditional
media, and his own pedigree as he seeks his
first mandate from voters.
He is the son of a Malaysian founding father,
hails from the Muslim-majority nation’s revered
ethnic Malay nobility, and has served three
decades in the United Malays National
Organisation (UMNO), the country’s dominant
party. With pressure rising for greater political
space, the UMNO lifer has sought to cast himself
as an agent of change through limited
reforms including replacing some security laws
widely criticised as tools to stifle dissent.
But these moves are dismissed by the opposition
as electoral window-dressing and viewed
with distaste by UMNO conservatives. Caught in
the middle, Najib has avoided deep reform and
opinion polls suggest he has failed to alter his
regime’s image as an arrogant, corrupt, statusquo
force. “On reforms, he is the emperor without
any clothes,” said Bridget Welsh, a Malaysian
politics expert at Singapore Management
University.
Sunday’s vote pits the Barisan Nasional
(National Front) coalition, one of the world’s
longest-serving governments, against a threeparty
alliance led by former UMNO star Anwar
Ibrahim. A thin Barisan victory has been widely
predicted, but even that could imperil Najib-
UMNO is used to thumping majorities and is
keen to recover ground lost in 2008.
If that fails, analysts and UMNO insiders say
Najib could face a party leadership fight just like
that which brought him to office in 2009. Najib
has seemed destined for Malaysia’s political
summit. His father was Razak Hussein,
Malaysia’s second prime minister and a key figure
in securing independence from Britain in
1957. Najib studied economics in England and
in 1976 at age 23 won the parliamentary seat
made vacant by his father’s death.
He later took high positions at Malaysia’s
central bank, the state oil firm and in the cabinet,
including the defence portfolio. He is also
currently the finance minister. Najib has moved
to water down policies that give Malays advantages
in business and education but which irk
minorities, and claims to have shielded the
economy from the global woes with huge public
spending and cash handouts to citizens.
“While some may have voiced concerns, ultimately
the party has delivered a bold and wideranging
set of reforms, which have expanded
civil liberties and made this government the
most open and transparent in its history,” Najib
said in emailed comments to AFP. But the prime
minister’s own reputation has been threatened.
He has been linked to allegations of huge kickbacks
in a 2002 purchase of French submarines
while defence minister, a case later connected
to the gruesome 2006 murder of a beautiful
Mongolian woman involved in the deal. Najib
denies wrongdoing, but the episode-one of a
litany of UMNO graft scandals-has never been
fully explained, and an ongoing probe by
French justices threatens to revive it. Najib’s wife
Rosmah Mansor is also widely seen as a liability,
ridiculed for an imperious demeanour, a reputation
for meddling in Najib’s work, and allegations
of high-ticket overseas shopping forays,
which she denies. —AFP
BEIJING: A couple chats at a residential area yesterday. Much of the country has
been on holiday the past few days after celebrating Labor Day on May 1. —AFP

NEWS
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
Bulgarians walk with candles near the golden-domed Alexander Nevski cathedral after an Easter service in Sofia yesterday. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church celebrates Easter according to the Julian
calendar. — AFP
Grads preferred to grandmas in US ...
Continued from Page 1
of a naturalized US citizen who does not speak English.
The best known provisions of the Senate bill would provide
a path to legal status for roughly 11 million undocumented
immigrants currently living in the United States, reinforce
US borders to control the flow of future illegal immigrants,
and establish a new system for temporary “guest
workers” to meet the needs of employers seeking lowerskilled
workers. So far, those are the most controversial elements
of the bill, which is scheduled for consideration next
week in the Senate Judiciary Committee, the first step in a
prolonged debate in the Senate and the US House of
Representatives.
The merit-based approach may provoke a fight as well.
Currently, most foreigners can only get a green card - which
allows them to stay and work in the United States - if an immediate
family member or company sponsors them. Cubans and
refugees are admitted under different programs. The bill proposed
by four Democrats and four Republicans would make it
harder for the siblings and adult children of US citizens to get
permanent residence visas, or green cards. The legislation would
also eliminate “diversity” green cards, which has helped Africans
immigrate to the United States.
But the bill would create another way to get a green card,
where immigrants would be awarded the most points based on
their level of education, employment experience, entrepreneurship
in business, English language proficiency and family ties.
“Our immigration system has been holding us back,” said Lanae
Erickson Hatalsky, social policy director with the centrist Third
Way think tank. “It has not been set up to make US economic
growth our priority and this is a huge step in that direction.”
Foreigners would be awarded 15 points for a doctorate
degree and another 10 points if they had a full-time job in
the United States, according to the bill. They could also score
two points for every year they were lawfully employed in the
United States and another 10 points for speaking and writing
English fluently. Merit-based visas would go first to applicants
with the highest number of points. “People are going to
rack up a lot of points through education and employment,”
said Jen Smyers, associate director for immigration and
refugee policy with humanitarian group Church World
Service. “What does that mean for someone who needs their
sibling to be here because they are facing trauma? What
does it mean for a woman in Iran who does not have education
opportunities?” Church World Service, the AFL-CIO union
and other groups are urging senators not to reduce family
reunification visas.
If enacted, the bill would align the United States with
countries like Canada and Australia that use a points system
to attract skilled, educated workers. The Republican administration
of George W Bush seized on the idea of using immigration
as an economic policy tool. But it failed in 2007 to
pass a broad immigration bill that would have provided a
path to citizenship for illegal immigrants and would have
shifted the bulk of future immigrants to a points system. At
the time, President Barack Obama, who was then a freshman
Democratic senator, said it did not “reflect how much
Americans value the family ties that bind people to their
brothers and sisters or to their parents”. Obama has so far
praised the Senate bill and has not taken a position on the
merit-based system.
The last time the US immigration system was changed
substantially was in 1986. The legislation legalized the threeto-five
million illegal immigrants in the country, the majority
from Mexico. But it failed to create new avenues for foreigners
to come to United States legally. One concern about the
new approach is that the country could find itself unintentionally
leaving gaps in low-skilled jobs. By 2020, the US
economy will need at least three million additional workers
to care for the elderly, do construction jobs, and prepare
food, among other lower-skilled jobs, according to data from
the Department of Labor.
As the US population ages, demand for home health and
personal care aides is expected to increase considerably, the
department said in its occupational outlook. “The number of
authorized migration slots doesn’t come close to meeting
the needs of the economy,” said Michael Clemens, an economist
and senior fellow with the Center for Global
Development think tank. “Employers will once again be
forced to resort to black-market employment to fuel the
economy.”
The new system could also favor men over women. “The
point system favors people who have had access to education
and work in the formal labor sector,” said an analysis by
the National Immigration Law Center. “Many women - who
are often caregivers and caretakers for family members - and
low-wage workers will have difficulty qualifying for a visa.” It
is difficult to gauge at this stage the extent to which the merit-based
system might complicate passage of the bill.
Industry and organized labor have so far focused most of
their attention on guest-worker provisions and increases
under the bill in allocations of so-called non-immigrant H-1B
visas for specialty occupations. — Reuters
Booze and bikinis welcome in Egypt
Continued from Page 1
In the first quarter of 2013 about 3 million tourists
visited, a 14.6 percent rise from the same period last
year, he said. Egypt’s long term target was to reach 30
million tourists and revenues of $25 billion by 2022.
Zaazou said rebuilding tourism was a national priority.
To help meet the goal of increasing visitor numbers
by 20 percent this year, his ministry has installed cameras
in major resorts which feed live video onto its website.
“We want to show people that Egypt is safe, and
the best way to show this is by live streaming. The next
Continued from Page 1
“I saw eight bodies including a
woman, some of them were
burned very badly by the fire from
the explosion,” said eyewitness Ali
Yusuf. “It was a terrible sight.” An
AFP reporter on the scene said
that the armoured car hit in the
attack had been damaged with its
back windows blasted out. Body
parts were strewn around the blast
site, where fire trucks sprayed
water on the smouldering wreckage
of the vehicles while several
wounded were taken to hospital.
A second bomb hidden by the
roadside and remotely detonated
was set off around the same time
in the Daynille district of
Mogadishu targeting passing security
forces, but injured no one,
police added. The attacks come
just ahead of a conference in
London tomorrow to draw up
plans to boost security and
increase development in conflicttorn
Somalia. More than 50 countries
and organisations are due to
take part in the talks, co-hosted by
Somali President Hassan Sheikh
Mohamud and British Prime
Minister David Cameron.
The United Nations special representative
to Somalia, Augustine
Mahiga condemned the attack as
“cowardly and senseless”, but said
that such “acts of violence will not
undermine the remarkable
progress Somalia has made in the
past months”. The attack comes a
day after senior Shabab commander
Ahmed Abdi Godane released
an audio message in which he
urged “the mujahedeen to increase
the number of martyrdom operations,
so as to permanently cripple
the weak apostate regime”.
Last month, the Shabab
launched a show of force in a complex
coordinated attack, killing at
least 34 as suicide commandos
stormed the main courthouse
while a car bomb was set off elsewhere
in Mogadishu. While riven
by infighting and hunted by US
step will be to have these images shown on big screens
in public squares in Paris or New York.”
Seeking a way into new markets, Egypt tried to open
its doors to Iranian tourists this year after 34 years of
frozen diplomatic relations. But the move ran into
protests from hardline Sunni Islamists in Cairo who
accused Iran of trying to spread the Shiite faith, leading
to the halting of all commercial flights from Iran in April.
“This is just a temporary halt, tourism will resume again
and we are currently in talks with these groups who
objected,” said Zaazou, who said he hoped the issue
would be resolved within two weeks. — Reuters
Bomb hits Qatari convoy in Somalia
drones, the extremists remain a
potent threat, launching car
bombs and assassinations, and are
still powerful in rural areas as well
as reportedly infiltrating the security
forces. The insurgents recently
released a series of photographs of
masked gunmen flying black flags
in front of machine guns mounted
on trucks around the southern
Somali port of Barawe, one of their
few remaining strongholds.
The attack yesterday comes
after a week-long major security
operation in the capital, with
police closing down roads and
searching cars for explosives. A
force of some 17,000 African Union
troops are fighting alongside
Somali government forces against
the Shabab, forcing them from a
series of key towns. The AU force
has played a key role in propping
up the government, viewed by
many as the first credible administration
in the lawless country since
the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad
Barre in 1991. — AFP
Tensions spiking after Israel hits Syria again
Continued from Page 1
confrontation between Shiite Iran and Sunni Arabs,
some of them close Western allies, but have also left
Israel and Western powers scrambling to reassess where
their interests lie.
Egypt, the most populous Arab state and flagship of
the 2011 Arab Spring revolts where elected Islamists
have replaced a Western-backed autocrat, has no love
for Assad. But yesterday it condemned Israel’s air strikes
as a breach of international law that “made the situation
more complicated”. A diplomatic source in Beirut told
AFP the three sites attacked were the Jamraya military
facility, a nearby weapons depot and an anti-aircraft
unit in Sabura, west of the capital.
Israel does not confirm such missions explicitly - a
policy it says is intended to avoid provoking reprisals.
But an Israeli official told Reuters on condition of
anonymity that the strikes were carried out by its forces,
as was a raid early on Friday that US President Barack
Obama said had been justified. A Western intelligence
source told Reuters: “In last night’s attack, as in the previous
one, what was attacked were stores of Fateh-110
missiles that were in transit from Iran to Hezbollah.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his aim for
Israel was to “guarantee its future” - language he has
used to warn of a willingness to attack Iran’s nuclear
sites, even in defiance of US advice, as well as to deny
Hezbollah heavier weapons. He later flew to China on a
scheduled trip, projecting confidence there would be
no major escalation - though Israel has reinforced its
anti-missile batteries in the north.
Syrian state television said bombing at a military
research facility at Jamraya and two other sites caused
“many civilian casualties and widespread damage”, but
it gave no details. The Jamraya compound was also a
target for Israel on Jan 30. Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television
showed a flattened building spread over the size of
a football pitch, with smoke rising from rubble containing
shell fragments. It did not identify it. Syrian state television
quoted a letter from the foreign minister to the
United Nations saying: “The blatant Israeli aggression
has the aim to provide direct military support to the terrorist
groups after they failed to control territory.”
Obama defended Israel’s right to block “terrorist
organisations like Hezbollah” from acquiring weapons
after Friday’s raid, and a White House spokesman said
yesterday: “The president many times has talked about
his view that Israel, as a sovereign government, has the
right to take the actions they feel are necessary to protect
their people.” It was unclear that Israel had sought
US approval for the strikes, although the White House
spokesman said: “The close coordination between the
Obama administration, the United States of America, is
ongoing with the Israeli government.”
Obama has in recent years worked to hold back
Netanyahu from making good on threats to hit facilities
where he says Iran, despite its denials, is working to
develop a nuclear weapon. Yesterday, some Israeli officials
highlighted Obama’s reluctance to be drawn into
new conflict in the Middle East to explain Israel’s need
for independent action. Syria restricts access to independent
journalists. Its state media said Israeli aircraft
struck three places between Damascus and the nearby
Lebanese border. The city also lies barely 50 km from
Israeli positions on the occupied Golan Heights.
Tehran, which has long backed Assad, whose Alawite
minority has religious ties to Shiite Islam, denied the
attack was on armaments for Lebanon and called for
nations to stand firm against Israel. A senior Iranian
commander was quoted, however, as saying Syria’s
armed forces were able to defend themselves without
their allies, though Iran could help them with training.
Hezbollah, a Shiite movement that says it is defending
Lebanon from Israeli aggression, declined immediate
comment.
Analysts say the Fateh-110 could put the Tel Aviv
metropolis in range of Hezbollah gunners, 100 km to
the north, bolstering the arsenal of a group that fired
some 4,000 shorter-range rockets into Israel during a
month-long war in 2006. “What we want is to ensure
that inside the Syrian chaos we will not see Hezbollah
growing stronger,” Israeli lawmaker Tzachi Hanegbi, a
confidant of Netanyahu, told Army Radio. “The world is
helplessly looking on at events in Syria, the Americans
in particular, and this president in particular,” he added
of Obama. “He has left Iraq, Afghanistan and has no
interest in sending ground troops to Syria ... That is why,
as in the past, we are left with our own interests, protecting
them with determination and without getting
too involved.”
Video footage uploaded onto the Internet by Syrian
activists showed a series of blasts. One lit up the skyline
of Damascus, while another sent up a tower of flames
and secondary blasts. Syrian state news agency SANA
said Israeli aircraft struck in three places: northeast of
Jamraya; the town of Maysaloun on the Lebanese border;
and the nearby Dimas air base. “The sky was red all
night,” one man said from Hameh, near Jamraya. “We
didn’t sleep a single second. The explosions started
after midnight and continued through the night.”
Central Damascus was quiet on the first day of the
working week, and government checkpoints seemed
reinforced. Some opposition activists said they were
glad strikes might weaken Assad, even if few Syrians
have any liking for Israel: “We don’t care who did it,”
Rania Al-Midania said in the capital. “We care that those
weapons are no longer there to kill us.” — Agencies

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What does
Muslim-West
ties mean?
Issues
By Michael Young
It is a fact that the notion of a clash of civilisations, first
popularised by the American academic Samuel
Huntington, is more relevant than ever in the minds of
many people. Especially when it concerns Muslim-Western
relations, there is a view that Muslim and Western values
are incompatible. And yet Huntington’s argument that
after the Cold War conflict would be defined not by ideology
or economics, but by cultural differences, was indeed
prophetic since culture has become the principle basis for
differentiation, even if culture itself is often viewed in far
too static a way.
The reaction to Huntington’s conclusion was generally
one of unease. If what he said was true, then the future of
the world could be very bleak indeed. Cultural differences
would be regarded as sinister rather than as foundations
of invigorating diversity. For many, Huntington seemed to
be looking at the glass half empty, when the very concept
of global interaction, and globalisation in general,
imposed a far more heartening reading of the situation.
Both sides had a point. Huntington was prescient for
realising that the causes of conflict would shift away from
ideological antagonism (though the argument with
respect to economics was less persuasive), even if they
remained firmly in the realm of ideas. However it is also
true that, in his rendering, global relations seemed to
reflect an apocalyptic vision - that of perennial discord and
enmity. There is nothing wrong with discussing the disparities
between Western and Muslim values, but to lend to
the discussion unchangeable qualities on both sides is to
miss the adaptable nature of culture and the ability of
humans to modify cultural reactions in changing environments.
If one wants to question Huntington’s paradigm, it is in
the sphere of perceptions where that has to be done. For
many people in the West, the Arab uprisings since 2011
have been a case in point. These people have come to
believe that what began as a yearning for democracy and
freedom has ended up favouring Islamist groups (groups
that believe there is a role for Islam in politics) that are neither
particularly democratic nor tolerant of freedom, and
who have usually sought restrictive legislation against
women, a substantial portion of their populations.
But the reality lies in the nuances. For example, in
Egypt and Tunisia, the Muslim Brotherhood and Ennadha
parties have taken over major state institutions. While they
have allowed behaviour unheard of under the old regimes,
they have also become increasingly contested as they
have retained powers allowing them to restrict certain
freedoms, such as freedom of expression, while riding
roughshod over representative bodies.
Acknowledging the complex undercurrents of the Arab
revolts is necessary in order to grasp what is going on. The
notion that there is something irreconcilable between the
aspirations of Arab societies and those of western societies
is simplistic, and often wrong, just as it is equally naÔve to
expect that Arab societies in ebullition will wholeheartedly
embrace Western values, such as secularism, the primacy
of the individual at the expense of the group, and so on.
To demand such an embrace, no less than declaring it
impossible, is to believe that culture talks in absolutes. In
the last 12 years since the 9/11 attacks, familiarity has led
to a better Western understanding of the complexities in
the Muslim world, while far-reaching changes in the
Muslim world have undermined a black and white view of
the region in the West. When Syrians revolted two years
ago, they had no hesitation in asking for Western help, just
as the overthrow of pro-Western autocrats was regarded
favourably in the United States and Europe.
A Syrian or Egyptian still regards freedom much as a
Frenchman or an American does, even if the preferred
social contract each will favour to protect those freedoms
differs. Perhaps some will want more secularism, others
more religion. But if the preferred social contract ends up
undermining those same freedoms, then the chances are
that new rebellions will occur at some stage.
Huntington was correct in looking toward culture as
the boundary between Western and Eastern societies. But
boundaries are ever-changing and values cross over
between cultures by osmosis. To assume cultures are
autarkic and unchanging is as erroneous as to assume that
cultural distinctions are invariably resolvable. The truth
about culture lies in the middle; values are transposable,
which is why identity is most enthralling when they are
tethered the least.
Michael Young is opinion editor of the Daily Star newspaper
in Lebanon. — CGNews
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any submission as necessary.
Law enforcement and Muslims should partner
By Rabia Chaudry
The horrific Boston Marathon bombings on April 15, and
the outstanding questions regarding the alleged perpetrators
ties to violent extremist movements abroad, is a
reminder that the fight against terrorism is on-going.
Introduced in 2010 by President Barack Obama’s
Administration, “Countering Violent Extremism” (CVE) is the
latest incarnation of this fight against terrorism. Utilising soft
and hard power, development, education and other preventative
measures, it is a shift from the reactive and militarised
response to terrorism in the past decade.
A core aspect of CVE is empowering and partnering with
local Muslim communities, as formalised in the White House’s
2011 Strategic Implementation Plan for Empowering Local
Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism. Though many experts
agree that this strategy will be effective over time, an elephant
in the room remains: mistrust and misinformation between
Muslim communities and government agencies.
Several US government agencies are working to put into
practice the White House’s emphasis on community empowerment
and engagement. The Department of Homeland
Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties actively
meets with local Muslim leadership around the nation to build
relationships, provide information about government
resources and accept feedback or concerns. The Department
of Justice employs the Community Relations Service to
engage at the local level to address tensions arising from differences
of race and national origin. But neither of these
agencies have the manpower or resources to connect with the
thousands of Muslim communities across the country. It falls
Internet in Egypt: First revolution, now jobs?
By Mohamed El-Sayed
Today, well over two years into the Egyptian revolution,
increased numbers of Egyptian youth are still struggling
to find jobs. With political instability looming large, the
economy receives one blow after another. Unemployment has
hit new highs - 13 per cent according to the Central Agency
for Public Mobilisation and Statistics - and businesses have
suffered. However, just as the Internet was used to stage the
“e-revolution” in which social networking sites like Facebook
and Twitter were used as megaphones for young activists, it is
now being utilized to unlock Egypt’s untapped markets and
youth potential.
E-commerce (buying and selling products using the
Internet) is gradually becoming a means to provide new jobs
for fresh graduates. According to participants in a regional e-
commerce conference held last month in Cairo, Internetbased
marketing in Egypt is growing by 25 per cent monthly
thanks to increased access to Internet - and social networking
sites in particular - since the revolution. Currently around 31
million Egyptians (39 per cent of the population) have access
to the Internet according to the Ministry of Communications
and Information Technology.
Today, websites such as Souq.com, Jumia.com, Nefsak.com
and Deal’N’Deal, to name a few, have become familiar names
for Egyptian shoppers. A quick glance at the demographics of
these companies’ offices in Cairo reveals that the majority of
employees are fresh graduates. Many of the young e-commerce
specialists have received training upon joining these
companies which are looking to grow and keen to help their
employees acquire the necessary skills.
To capitalise on this opportunity for growth, Souq.com, the
largest Internet-based marketing platform in the Arab world,
championed the creation of a training academy for young
people working in Internet-based commerce. Established in
cooperation with the Education for Egyptian Employment
(EFE-Egypt), the academy ran its first e-commerce training
program for 120 students in February of this year.
Souq.com officials see the training as a way to address a
severe shortage in young, qualified specialists. “The partnership
with EFE-Egypt on this strategic initiative will serve as a
catalyst for skills development and job creation for the next
generation of Egyptian technology professionals,” said
Souq.com General Manager Omar Soudodi. The program, in
fact, was specifically tailored to address a chronic lack of the
skill-sets needed in the Egyptian job market, given that none
of the Egyptian universities currently provide specialised e-
commerce courses.
“Roughly 80 per cent of Egyptians aged 15 to 29 already
suffer from unemployment, while the market is lacking qualified
e-commerce specialists,” says EFE-Egypt CEO Shahinaz
Ahmed. “The training program is meant to provide qualified e-
commerce specialists to cater to the country’s growing
appetite for everything online,” she added. The program,
explains Ahmed, is “a clear win-win scenario for everyone -
employers, employees and the Egyptian economy as well.”
Trainees gained expertise in marketing, logistics, Google
AdWords, supply chain management, relationship management,
social media, order fulfilment and packing. Having
obtained the necessary skills through the course, Souq.com
hired top students who passed it successfully. Other similar
initiatives have recently spread e-commerce learning in different
parts of the country. For example, an e-commerce club
opened branches under the umbrella of Cairo University in
three governorates - Cairo, Alexandria and Assiut - to provide
specialised training for fresh university graduates.
“I’m now receiving training at the club so that I can join an
Internet-based marketing company,” said Mohamed Shawqi, a
fresh university graduate taking specialised courses in the
club in the coastal city of Alexandria. “With unemployment
By Sophie Anmuth and Marwa Nasser
Clashes in Egypt between Muslims and Copts last
month have sparked fears of further sectarian violence
for the Egyptian Copt minority, which makes up
approximately 10 per cent of Egypt’s population of 90 million.
As a foreigner and a native Egyptian living in Cairo, we
have both heard first-hand the stereotypes about faith relations
in Egypt. For example, the one of us who grew up here
remembers being five, in a middle-class neighbourhood in
Cairo, and overhearing two schoolmates whispering and
pointing at another girl: “She’s Christian”.
They probably didn’t even understand what that word
means exactly but they knew it meant different. At the time
I didn’t understand why these two girls were doing this. I
only understood later. The other one of us, a foreigner, has
been told exaggerated narratives on both sides: “in Egypt
there is no discrimination and has never been against
Copts”, or “there has always been discrimination and Copts
are suffering constant abuses”.
Both of us believe that these stereotypes don’t reflect
the nuances that exist in the country. Discrimination exists,
but so do instances of Muslims and Christians working
together to stop it. Egyptian civil society is taking matters
into its own hands. One example of this is Salafyo Costa, a
group that strives to bring together Egyptians of different
faiths, sects and political orientations. Salafyo Costa was
originally created to show that Salafis are not the frightening
“backward extremists” the media often depicts them as.
Instead they are a broad group of conservative Muslims
who have a literal understanding of Islam’s scriptures and
seek to emulate the traditions of the earliest followers of
Islam. Copts and other Muslim groups also make up a big
part of Salafyo Costa membership. In Salafyo Costa,
then to local agencies, specifically local law enforcement, to
be that bridge-builder. The gap between law enforcement
and Muslims is no joke. According to a research brief by the
National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and the
Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland, 89 per
cent of state law enforcement agencies agree or strongly
agree that “Islamic jihadists” (a problematic term given jihad
simply means “struggle” in Arabic) pose a serious threat to the
country, while 62 per cent say that “Islamic jihadi groups” exist
in their states. On the other hand, Muslim communities themselves
are largely suspicious of law enforcement due to the
kinds of surveillance tactics used by the New York Police
Department (NYPD) as well as reports of officers being trained
using bigoted, anti-Muslim materials and trainers. The fear
and suspicion on both sides poses a tremendous hurdle for
CVE work. A meeting of these two communities has to be
predicated on sound information about the other.
Conducting trainings for local law enforcement agencies,
I’ve learned that the fear of widespread bigoted training of
officers is a misconception. Rather, there is almost no training
given to them at all. At least 90 per cent of police officers,
including outreach officers, intelligence analysts and correctional
officers who attend our trainings say they have never
received training - cultural competency or otherwise - on
Islam or how to engage Muslims. The lack of formal training is
often a result of budget issues.
When questioned about how they get information on
Islam and Muslims, one intelligence officer told me she “used
Google”. This accounts for the discrepancy between the perception
law enforcement has of the danger of Muslim extremism
and the actual statistical threat, reflecting a similar misperception
among the general public. In Muslim American
communities, the only programming that has consistently
been given since 9/11 is “know your rights” trainings, which
are important in terms of protecting the civil liberties of
Muslims, but also reinforce the narrative that Muslims and the
government are opposing forces.
There are two simple but effective partial solutions to
these issues. First, as part of annual in-service training, a basic
introduction to Islam and cultural competency must be implemented
for law enforcement in regions where large Muslim
populations exist. In-service requirements exist for all law and
correctional officers, and including components on working
with Muslim communities would help counter existing negative
perceptions of officers and officials.
Second, law enforcement leadership must engage in consistent
outreach to local communities on a diverse array of
issues - this builds a relationship through which Muslim communities
can provide resources on Islam and cultural competency
to their local law enforcement agencies, overcoming
funding issues. In the wake of the attack in Boston and the
ensuing suspicion of Muslims reflected in debates on immigration
and prosecution policies, the need for consistent
engagement between law enforcement and Muslim communities
is more important than ever. And while CVE is a relatively
new effort that is still being fleshed out, it would be remiss
not to fully commit the resources needed to succeed.
NOTE: Rabia Chaudry is an attorney and the President of the
Safe Nation Collaborative, a CVE training firm providing
resources to law enforcement and Muslim American communities
— CGNews
among fresh graduates on the rise, I believe e-commerce will
help the economy get back on its feet,” he added. “Since e-
commerce is still in its infancy in Egypt, it has a great potential
for growth”. For e-commerce to become more established in
Egypt, additional training initiatives are needed. According to
leading market strategy research firm Euromonitor
International, the size of e-commerce in Egypt is expected to
hit the $446.4 million mark by 2016. And as the sector grabs
more shoppers from the grey market that, according to estimates
by business experts, currently makes up 40 per cent of
the Egyptian market, Internet-based marketing and expanded
trainings for youth to develop required skills could be a
springboard for economic growth and development in Egypt.
Mohamed El-Sayed is an Egyptian journalist. — CGNews
Egyptian Christians and Muslims
Egyptian Muslims and Copts are working together to ease
tensions between both groups, through collaborative activities
geared at ending misconceptions. A Coptic friend of
ours was moved to see Muslim Salafyo Costa members taking
to the streets to defend Copts during the tragic events
of Maspero 2011, a march for Coptic rights that was crushed
by the army. Mohamed Tolba, the co-founder of Salafyo
Costa, explains that the group is “a model for Egypt that
suits us all no matter what our religion, race or political ideology
is”. For Bassem Victor, a Copt and also a co-founder of
the group, the main problem causing the tension is ignorance.
“Fifty per cent of the Egyptian people cannot read or
write. How do you expect them to know what their religious
books say? They trust the local priest or sheikh, who might
well look for personal or political benefits.”
Egyptian children from some Muslim families might say
Christians don’t worship the same God and cannot be their
friends, or that it is impure to shake their hands. These attitudes
might have been influenced by the rising popularity
of extremist preaching on television over the last twenty
years. For their part, Copts often view Salafis as hostile to
them, their religion and their presence in the country.
But the mere act of getting to know each other is often
enough to put a stop to prejudices and fear. In places where
such stereotypes are an issue, demonstrating harmonious
collaboration between people of different religions can shift
attitudes. For example, Salafyo Costa organised a Salafi-
Copt football match last year. “Participants were wary at
first, but ended up as friends, thanks to football,” says Tolba.
“Now we know that it’s wrong to be afraid of each other. We
lost our prejudices.” explains Victor.
Sophie Anmuth and Marwa Nasser are freelance journalists
in Egypt.— CGNews

SPORTS
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
Bravo to lead West Indies
MUMBAI: All-rounder Dwayne Bravo has replaced Darren Sammy as West
Indies’ one-day international captain and will lead the team in next month’s
Champions Trophy in England.
Sammy, who led the Caribbean team to the World Twenty20 title in Sri
Lanka last year, would continue to captain the test and T20 teams, the West
Indies Cricket Board (WICB) said in a statement yesterday.
“Our results in tests and T20s have been showing consistent improvement
and Sammy deserves every kudos for the work he
has done in leading and moulding the team in these
formats,” Clyde Butts, the chairman of selection panel,
said. “We remain confident in his leadership in these
formats and will recommend that he continues as
the captain for test and T20 cricket.
“However, our ODI results have not been as
strong and we believe that it is best that we freshen
the leadership of the team in this
format.” A medium-pace bowler
and a hard-hitting batsman down
the order, Bravo, led the side
when Sammy was rested for the
home one-dayers against
Zimbabwe. —Reuters
Whistles for Mourinho,
cheers for Casillas
MADRID: Real Madrid fans appeared to give their backing to Iker Casillas
over Jose Mourinho on Saturday when they cheered their benched goalkeeper
and captain and whistled the Portuguese coach before the 4-3 win
at home to Real Valladolid in La Liga.
A hero to Real fans and club captain for more than a decade, Casillas
has barely featured since recovering from a broken hand, with Mourinho
preferring to stick with Diego Lopez, who was brought in as cover from
Sevilla in January. Mourinho has hinted he may leave at the end of the
season and he appeared to confirm reports his relationship with Casillas
had broken down with a series of barbed comments in a news conference
on Friday. He said he regretted not buying Lopez earlier in his three-year
stint in the Spanish capital and that he could not work with players who
“think they are above the rest”.
Fans at the Bernabeu on Saturday made their feelings clear when
Casillas’s name was roundly cheered when it was read out among the list
of substitutes, while Mourinho was whistled by a significant section of the
crowd. The sense that all is not well at the club following Tuesday’s elimination
from the Champions League was heightened after the game when
Pepe, Mourinho’s Portuguese compatriot, criticised the coach in a television
interview. Pepe’s comments were particularly surprising given that he
and Mourinho share the same agent. —Reuters
Haas wins Munich title
MUNICH: Evergreen German Tommy Haas beat defending champion
Philipp Kohlschreiber in straight sets yesterday to win the Munich claycourt
title for the first time at the 10th attempt, 13 years after his first appearance
in the final.
Haas needed just 82 minutes to seal his 6-3, 7-6 (7/3) win over compatriot
Kohlschreiber and pick up the 14th title of his career to become the first
35-year-old to win an ATP tournament since 2008.
Haas in enjoying an Indian summer and today will be
ranked 13th in the world, having reached a career-high
of second back in 2002. “It means a lot to win here, it’s
hard to put it into words, but it’s a great feeling,”
Haas, who lives in Florida, but said it had been
good to spend some time with his family in
Germany this week. “I just came here wanting to
play well and try to win the title. “The fact that it
has worked out is unbelievable. “I have to pay credit
to Philipp, he played really well. He took a few
risks and was aggressive, he made it a good fight.”
Having struggled with injuries in recent years,
Haas’ is yet to win a Grand Slam, but
reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon
back in 2009 and beat Roger Federer in
last year’s grass-court final at Halle. —AFP
MLB results/standings
Marlins win over Phillies
Cleveland 7, Minnesota 3; NY Yankees 4, Oakland 2;
Cincinnati 6, Chicago Cubs 4; Seattle 8, Toronto 1;
Baltimore 5, LA Angels 4 (10 innings); St. Louis 7,
Milwaukee 6; Washington 5, Pittsburgh 4; Miami 2,
Philadelphia 0; Kansas City 2, Chicago White Sox 0;
Detroit 17, Houston 2; Texas 5, Boston 1; Colorado 9,
Tampa Bay 3; Arizona 8, San Diego 1; San Francisco 10,
LA Dodgers 9 (10 innings).
American League
Eastern Division
W L PCT GB
Boston 20 10 .667 -
NY Yankees 18 11 .621 1.5
Baltimore 18 13 .581 2.5
Tampa Bay 13 16 .448 6.5
Toronto 10 21 .323 10.5
Central Division
Detroit 18 11 .621 -
Kansas City 16 10 .615 0.5
Cleveland 14 13 .519 3
Minnesota 12 14 .462 4.5
Chicago White Sox 12 16 .429 5.5
Western Division
Texas 19 11 .633 -
Oakland 17 14 .548 2.5
Seattle 15 17 .469 5
LA Angels 11 19 .367 8
Houston 8 23 .258 11.5
National League
Eastern Division
Atlanta 17 12 .586 -
Washington 16 15 .516 2
Philadelphia 14 17 .452 4
NY Mets 12 15 .444 4
Miami 9 22 .290 9
Central Division
St. Louis 19 11 .633 -
Pittsburgh 17 13 .567 2
Cincinnati 17 14 .548 2.5
Milwaukee 14 15 .483 4.5
Chicago Cubs 11 19 .367 8
Western Division
Colorado 18 12 .600 -
San Francisco 18 12 .600 -
Arizona 16 14 .533 2
LA Dodgers 13 16 .448 4.5
San Diego 12 18 .400 6
PHILADELPHIA: Jose Fernandez pitched one-hit ball and
struck out nine in seven dominant innings, getting his first
major league win in the Miami Marlins’ 2-0 victory over the
Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday night.
Marcell Ozuna hit his first career homer and Chris
Valaika connected for the first time in three years to stop
Cole Hamels (1-4). Fernandez (1-2) allowed just a single by
Freddy Galvis up the middle in the first. He then retired the
next 17 batters. Fernandez walked Galvis in the seventh,
and followed that up by striking out Chase Utley, Ryan
Howard and Delmon Young. The 20-year-old Fernandez
was lifted after throwing 82 pitches. Mike Dunn worked a
perfect eighth and Steve Cishek finished off the one-hitter
to get his fourth save in five tries.
GIANTS 10, DODGERS 9
In San Francisco, pinch hitter Guillermo Quiroz homered
with one out in the 10th inning, lifting San Francisco to its
second straight walkoff win.
The Giants blew a 5-0 lead and wasted a bases-loaded
opportunity in the ninth before Quiroz hit an 0-2 pitch
from Dodgers closer Brandon League (0-1) into the left
field stands. Quiroz is 4 for 6 this season as a pinch hitter.
The teams combined for 19 runs and 30 hits, and
stranded 24 runners in a game that lasted 4 hours, 11 minutes.
AJ Ellis homered and was one of six Dodgers with two
hits as Los Angeles lost for the fifth time in seven games.
It was San Francisco’s fourth straight win over its NL
West rival. Buster Posey’s homer lifted the Giants to a 2-1
win Friday night.
NATIONALS 5, PIRATES 4
In Pittsburgh, Stephen Strasburg struck out eight in seven
innings and Washington won a game he started for the
first time since opening day.
Tyler Moore hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the top of the
ninth inning off Tony Watson (1-1). Wilson Ramos’ RBI single
in the sixth tied the game at 4 after Pittsburgh built a tworun
lead. A day after striking out four times upon being
activated from the disabled list, Ryan Zimmerman scored
three runs. Starling Marte and Clint Barmes each hit tworun
homers for the Pirates.
Strasburg remained winless since his first start, allowing
four runs and five hits. Tyler Clippard (2-1) pitched a scoreless
eighth and Rafael Soriano got his 10th save.
DIAMONDBACKS 8, PADRES 1
In San Diego, Patrick Corbin pitched seven solid innings
and Arizona snapped its season-high four-game losing
streak. Corbin (4-0) gave up one run and five hits while
striking out seven. He walked three while his ERA dropped
to 1.80. Corbin has opened the season by pitching at least
six innings and allowing two or fewer runs in his six starts -
all Arizona victories. He lost his shutout bid with two out in
the seventh when Chris Denorfia hit his second homer into
PHILADELPHIA: Pitcher Jose Fernandez No. 16 of the Miami Marlins delivers a pitch against the Philadelphia
Phillies in an MLB baseball game. —AFP
the second deck in left field. Denorfia also had a double.
The D-Backs touched up Padres starter Clayton Richard (0-
4) for six runs on five hits in the second.
CARDINALS 7, BREWERS 6
In Milwaukee, Jon Jay homered and drove in the goahead
run in the ninth, and Allen Craig and Daniel
Descalso each hit home runs to power St. Louis.
Shane Robinson singled to center off Jim Henderson (2-
1) and took second on center fielder Carlos Gomez’s fielding
error. Robinson stole third and scored when Jay singled
up the middle. Jay hit a three-run home run in the second,
Craig connected for a solo shot in the sixth and Descalso
put the Cardinals ahead with a two-run homer in the seventh.
The Brewers trailed by one in the eighth when they
got one-out singles that put runners on the corners.
Norichika Aoki dropped a perfect bunt as pinch-runner Jeff
Bianchi raced home and slid feet first, avoiding catcher
Yadier Molina’s tag. Seth Maness (1-0) came on and got the
Cardinals out of the jam, getting Jean Segura to hit into a
double play.
REDS 6, CUBS 4
In Chicago, Todd Frazier and Devin Mesoraco each had a
sacrifice fly in a four-run eighth inning, and Cincinnati rallied
for the victory over Chicago.
Cincinnati had just one hit in the decisive rally, but took
advantage of another woeful outing by reliever Carlos
Marmol to secure its first winning road series of the season.
The Reds held on for a 6-5 victory in the opener on Friday
when Darwin Barney struck out with the bases loaded to
end the game. Alfonso Soriano hit a pair of two-run
homers for the Cubs, who have lost four of five. It was
Soriano’s 31st career multihomer game.
Shin-Soo Choo homered on the first pitch of the game.
Jeff Samardzija went on to pitch six effective innings for
Chicago. James Russell got three outs before Marmol (2-2)
came on to begin the eighth with a 4-2 lead. It was
Marmol’s 453rd relief appearance with the Cubs, snapping
a tie with Lee Smith for the franchise record.
ROCKIES 9, RAYS 3
In Denver, Carlos Gonzalez hit a go-ahead homer in the
fifth and rookie Nolan Arenado added a grand slam, lifting
Colorado over Tampa Bay in David Price’s first start since his
run-in with umpire Tom Hallion.
Jon Garland (3-2) threw five solid innings and surrendered
three runs to help the Rockies snap an 11-game
home skid in interleague play.
Arenado broke open a tight game when he lined a
curveball from Price (1-3) into the left field seats in the
seventh. It was his first career grand slam. Price didn’t
Tigers maul Astros
CHARLOTTE: Phil Mickelson hits a tee shot during the final round of the Wells
Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club. —AFP
Mickelson, Watney stumble
but share Quail Hollow lead
CHARLOTTE: Phil Mickelson and Nick
Watney survived some late-round misadventures
to emerge from Saturday’s third
round tied for the lead in the Wells Fargo
Championship at Quail Hollow in
Charlotte, North Carolina.
Mickelson topped the leaderboard for
most of the day and Watney took his turn
alone in first place during the final stretch
before both players fell back with doublebogeys
to head into Sunday’s final round
knotted at eight-under-par 208. Watney
shot a one-under 71 and Mickelson a 73.
Fellow-American George McNeil bogeyed
the 18th to fall out of a three-way tie for
the lead and was alone in third place on
seven-under 209. The stumbles by the
leaders brought a slew of other contenders
into the frame.
Two strokes off the pace at six-underpar
210 were Britons Lee Westwood (72)
and David Lynn (71), Australian John
Senden (67), Robert Karlsson of Sweden
(69) and Americans Ryan Moore (68) and
Derek Ernst (72).
Five players were another shot away,
including world number two Rory McIlroy
of Northern Ireland, who struggled with
his putter on the way to posting a oneover
73 for 211. A gamble that backfired, a
shanked tee shot and an approach that
bounced off the head of a spectator highlighted
a comedy of errors over the last
holes. Mickelson, the overnight leader by
two strokes, led by one shot heading to
the par-five 15th.
After a pulling a drive just outside the
cart path and behind a tree on the right
side of the fairway, the big left-hander
decided to steer a metal-wood shot
around the tree but it took off straight out
of bounds. “The second shot should not
have been a problem,” explained
Mickelson after the double bogey. “If I had
pulled (out) the driver like I did the second
time, then it would have cut around, no
problem. “But I tried to do it with a threewood
and it shot straight and went out of
bounds. I thought the driver might go in
the bunker and I wanted to play it short.”
A bogey at the par-four 16th cost
Mickelson another stroke. Mickelson was
set up perfectly in the fairway but hit his
second shot left of the green and off the
head of a spectator down onto the 17th
tee. He tried to run the ball through thick
grass over a hill back to the green but got
caught in the rough. —Reuters
HOUSTON: Miguel Cabrera hit two home runs
and tied a career high with six RBIs, leading the
Detroit Tigers over the Houston Astros 17-2 on
Saturday night. Cabrera went 4 for 4 with a walk.
Last year’s Triple Crown winner is hitting .390
this season. The Tigers have won eight of nine.
Houston has lost five in a row.
Max Scherzer (4-0) gave up one run and three
hits while striking out eight in eight innings.
Lucas Harrell (3-3) gave up eight runs in 4 1-3
innings.
MARINERS 8, BLUE JAYS 1
In Toronto, Dustin Ackley hit his first career
grand slam, Michael Saunders homered twice
and the Seattle Mariners roughed up reigning
NL Cy Young winner R.A. Dickey, beating the
struggling Toronto Blue Jays.
Pitching on an extra day of rest as he tried to
overcome neck and back soreness, Dickey (2-5)
lost his third straight start. He allowed six hits,
including a season-high three home runs.
Saunders homered on Dickey’s second pitch.
The knuckleballer was booed by the crowd of
35,754 after Raul Ibanez hit a one-out triple in
the sixth and scored on Kelly Shoppach’s double.
Hisashi Iwakuma (3-1) allowed one run and five
hits in seven innings.
ORIOLES 5, ANGELS 4
In Anaheim, Steve Pearce’s RBI single with
two outs in the 10th inning lifted the Baltimore
Orioles over the Los Angeles Angels.
Baltimore also got homers from Manny
Machado, J.J. Hardy and Nolan Reimold. Freddy
Garcia dazzled in his Orioles’ debut, holding the
Angels hitless until Erick Aybar had a leadoff single
in the seventh.
Garrett Richards (1-3), making his first relief
appearance after five starts in place of the
injured Jered Weaver, gave up a leadoff single to
Adam Jones. Pearce later singled to right.
Tommy Hunter (1-1) pitched one inning to get
the win.
RANGERS 5, RED SOX 1
In Arlington, Craig Gentry had an infield hit
that produced two runs and later hit a two-run
homer in Texas’ victory over Boston.
The Rangers broke a 1-1 tie and went ahead
to stay on the speedy Gentry’s infield hit in the
fourth. He added his first homer in the eighth.
Alexi Ogando (3-2) pitched into the seventh
inning for his first victory in five starts and the AL
West-leading Rangers (19-11) clinched the series
against the Red Sox (20-10), who still have the
best record in the majors even after losing the
first two games.
Ian Kinsler hit the first pitch thrown by John
Lackey (1-2) into the left-field seats for his sixth
homer this season, and 28th career leadoff shot.
INDIANS 7, TWINS 3
In Cleveland, Scott Kazmir earned his first victory
in three seasons, Nick Swisher homered in
his first at-bat since missing three games with a
sore shoulder and the Cleveland Indians beat
Minnesota for their sixth straight victory.
Kazmir (1-1), a two-time AL All-Star who
pitched in an independent league last season,
allowed two runs in six innings. It was his first
win since beating Tampa Bay on Sept. 19, 2010,
while with the Angels. The left-hander, who
allowed eight earned runs in 8 1-3 innings in his
first two starts, struck out seven. Swisher, who
hadn’t played since Monday, homered off Kevin
Correia (3-2) in the first.
YANKEES 4, ATHLETICS 2
In New York, Phil Hughes pitched eight
shutout innings of four-hit ball for his first win of
the season, and the New York Yankees beat the
Oakland Athletics.
Chris Stewart and Lyle Overbay homered
against Bartolo Colon (3-1), sending the A’s to
their only loss in the right-hander’s six starts this
year. Hughes (1-2) struck out nine and outpitched
his former New York teammate for his
first victory since Sept. 20 against Toronto.
Oakland has dropped 10 of 15.
ROYALS 2, WHITE SOX 0
In Kansas City, Jeremy Guthrie ran his unbeaten
streak to a club-record 17 consecutive starts with a
four-hitter in the Kansas City Royals’ win over the
Chicago White Sox. Guthrie is 9-0 in the 17 starts,
which started Aug. 8, 2012, against the White Sox.
Paul Splittorff held the Royals’ record with 16
straight undefeated starts in 1977-78. It was first
shutout and fifth complete game for Guthrie (4-0).
Dylan Axelrod (0-1) gave up a two-run triple to
Lorenzo Cain in the first inning. —AP
HOUSTON: Matt Dominguez No. 30 of the Houston Astros dives but can’t reach a line drive hit
by Matt Tuiasosopo No. 18 of the Detroit Tigers in the ninth inning. —AFP

Williams steers
Zimbabwe to victory
BULAWAYO: Sean Williams hit a careerbest
78 not out as Zimbabwe beat
Bangladesh by six wickets in the second
one-day international in Bulawayo yesterday
to set up a series decider.
Playing in only his second one-day
match since the 2011 World Cup, Williams
was aided by Malcolm Waller’s unbeaten 39
as he calmly saw Zimbabwe to their target
of 253 with 13 balls to spare.
Abdur Razzak’s maiden half-century in
international cricket had hauled
Bangladesh to a competitive total as
Zimbabwe were made to regret four
dropped catches, but Williams’ sensible batting
won the day and squared the threematch
series at one apiece.
Razzak arrived at the crease with the
tourists struggling on 185 for seven in the
44th over after they had been asked to bat
first, and duly clubbed a 21-ball fifty to take
them to 252 for nine.
The 30-year-old’s previous highest score
in ODIs was 35, but the left-hander made
the most of a dropped catch to give
Bangladesh the impetus at the halfway
stage of the match.
Kyle Jarvis was responsible for the drop
off his own bowling, and suffered the consequences
as he conceded two of Razzak’s
five sixes - and 17 runs off the final over of
the innings.
“Guys weren’t too happy with the last
two or three overs,” said Waller. “We were
looking at about 220 and they ended up
getting 252, although that was about par
on this wicket so we knew that if we batted
properly we should get across the line.”
Vusi Sibanda returned to form with a
solid 49 as Zimbabwe made a confident
start to their chase, while Sikandar Raza
and Brendan Taylor also contributed without
going on to a big score.
Taylor’s 73-run partnership with Williams
stabilised the innings after Zimbabwe lost
both Sibanda and Raza with the score on
94, but when Taylor gifted his wicket away
for 37 the match was still in the balance.
However Williams moved to his halfcentury
and took on the bulk of the scoring
duties while Waller found his feet, and the
pair went on to add the remaining 85 runs
needed for victory without any unnecessary
drama.
“I’m ecstatic,” said Williams, who was
named man of the match. “It was tough to
lose a few wickets and they had us under
the crunch, so I had to keep my composure
and bat through the whole innings, which
worked out really well for me in the end.”
Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim
said his team’s total was around 30 runs
short. “We did not bat well, a couple of
guys got starts. 270-280 would have been a
better total,” he said.
“At one stage we were looking at 180 all
out, but all credit to Razzak. We took a few
wickets, but did not bowl well throughout.”
Bangladesh won the first match of the
series by 121 runs on Saturday. The third
and final match of the series is at the same
Queen’s Club venue on Wednesday. —AFP
SPORTS
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
WASHINGTON: Rick Nash No. 61 of the New York Rangers shoots the puck against John Erskine No. 4 of the Washington Capitals in Game Two of
the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals during the 2013 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. —AFP
Capitals sweep Rangers
BULAWAYO: Zimbabwe’s captain Brendan Taylor bats during the second of the three
ODI cricket series matches between Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. —AFP
SCOREBOARD
Scoreboard at the end of the second one-day international between Zimbabwe and
Bangladesh in Bulawayo yesterday:
WASHINGTON: Henrik Lundqvist and Braden
Holtby kicked, swiped, caught and otherwise
kept getting in the way of the puck, matching
each other save-for-save for a second shy of 68
minutes, until Mike Green scored the power-play
goal in overtime that gave the Washington
Capitals a sweep at home to open their playoff
series against the New York Rangers.
Green nailed a one-timer from high in the
slot on a feed from Mike Ribeiro precisely at the
eight-minute mark of the extra period, Holtby
made 24 saves for his first career playoff shutout,
and the Capitals beat the Rangers 1-0 Saturday
to take a 2-0 series lead in the Eastern
Conference playoffs.
With Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh
in the penalty box for delay of game, having lifted
the puck over the glass in New York’s defensive
zone, the Capitals took advantage of their
first power play since the first period. Ribeiro
faked a slap shot, and then pushed the puck to
Green, who beat Lundqvist to the glove side.
Game 3 is today in New York.
Henrik Lundqvist made 37 saves for the
Rangers. Holtby has saved 59 of 60 shots in the
series, including 35 of 36 in Thursday’s 3-1 victory
in Game 1.
MAPLE LEAFS 4, BRUINS 2
In Boston, Joffrey Lupul scored two goals and
Toronto got a win over Boston that evened the
first-round series at one game.
The Maple Leafs played aggressively from the
start after a weak performance in a 4-1 loss in
which the Bruins were much more physical. But
that changed early in Game 2 as Toronto delivered
22 hits in the first period to just 10 for
Boston.
Nathan Horton gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead at
1:56 of the second period, but Lupul scored at
5:18 on a power play and at 11:56 with the
teams at even strength.
Phil Kessel made it 3-1 on a breakaway 53
seconds into the third period. Johnny Boychuk
cut the lead at 10:35 before James van Riemsdyk
scored for Toronto at 16:53. Game 3 of the bestof-seven
playoff series is tonight in Toronto.
DUCKS 4, RED WINGS 0
In Detroit, Nick Bonino scored for Anaheim
on a second-period power play - 18 seconds
after Detroit’s Justin Abdelkader was ejected for
a violent hit on Toni Lydman - and the Ducks
went on to a victory to take a 2-1 series lead over
the Red Wings in the Western Conference playoffs.
Abdelkader appeared to catch Lydman
square in the side of the head with his left shoulder,
and he was given a major penalty for charging
and a game misconduct with 4:49 remaining
in the second.
The Ducks immediately took advantage
when Bonino backhanded a shot past goalie
Jimmy Howard from point-blank range.
Ryan Getzlaf, Emerson Etem and Matt
Beleskey scored in the third period for the
Ducks. Jonas Hiller made 23 saves for Anaheim.
KINGS 1, BLUES 0
In Los Angeles, Jonathan Quick made 30
saves in his fifth career playoff shutout, leading
Los Angeles over St. Louis, trimming the Blues’
series lead to 2-1.
Slava Voynov scored in the second period for
the defending Stanley Cup champions, who got
a brilliant performance from their Conn Smythe
Trophy-winning goalie in a tight defensive
game. Los Angeles will attempt to even the
series in Game 4 tonight. After making selfdescribed
mistakes that led to both of the Blues’
winning goals in St. Louis, Quick won his duel
with Brian Elliott, who stopped 20 shots.
St. Louis has allowed just three goals in the
series, but Quick kept the Kings unbeaten at
home since March 23. —AP
Bangladesh innings
Tamim Iqbal c Taylor b Chatara 6
Mohammad Ashraful c Taylor b Jarvis8
M’ Haque c Jarvis b Chigumbura 24
Mushfiqur Rahim lbw b Chigumbura 26
Shakib Al Hasan lbw b Utseya 34
Nasir Hossain c Taylor b Chatara 36
Mahmudullah c Jarvis b Chigumbura 31
Ziaur Rahman c Taylor b S. Masakadza 12
Abdur Razzak not out 53
Shafiul Islam run out 4
Robiul Islam not out 0
Extras (b-4, lb-6, w-7, nb-1) 18
Total (for nine wickets, 50 overs) 252
Fall of wickets: 1-10 2-16 3-60 4-88 5-124
6-160 7-185 8-213 9-224
Bowling: T. Chatara 10-2-33-2 (w1, nb1),
K. Jarvis 10-0-52-1, S. Masakadza 10-0-
64-1 (w1), E. Chigumbura 10-0-39-3 (w1),
P. Utseya 8-0-47-1 (w3), H. Masakadza 2-
0-7-0.
STOCKHOLM: Russia’s Ilya Kovalchuk
scored one goal and made another as the
defending champions hammered Latvia 6-
0 in their opening group game of the ice
hockey world championship in Stockholm.
The Russians were ruthless in disposing
of the Latvian challenge, scoring three
goals in the second period to take a 4-0
lead.
Two further goals in the final period put
the champions out of sight and into second
place behind Finland with a game in hand.
Finnish goalkeeper Antti Raanta registered
a shutout on his international debut
as the co-hosts beat a strong Slovakia side
2-0 in Helsinki to top their group on five
points after two games.
“I couldn’t have wished for any more,”
Raanta told Finnish TV. “The guys did a
Zimbabwe innings
H. Masakadze b Shafiul Islam 15
V. Sibanda lbw b Shakib Al Hasan 49
Sikandar Raza c Shakib Al Hasan b
Shafiul Islam 23
B. Taylor c Mominul Haque b Ziaur
Rahman 37
S. Williams not out 78
M. Waller not out 39
Extras (lb-5, w-7) 12
Total (for four wickets, 47.5 overs) 253
Fall of wickets: 1-29 2-94 3-94 4-167
Did not bat: E. Chigumbura, P. Utseya, S.
Masakadza, K. Jarvis, T. Chatara
Bowling: Shafiul Islam 9-0-51-2 (w2),
Robiul Islam 9.5-0-51-0 (w3), Abdur
Razzak 9-0-44-0, Ziaur Rahman 7-0-42-1,
Shakib Al Hasan 9-0-42-1, Mahmudullah
4-0-18-0.
Result: Zimbabwe won by six wickets
Three-match series level at 1-1.
Third ODI in Bulawayo on May 8.
Russia thrash Latvia,
US and Canada win
great job in front of goal. We improved our
play in the second period and Slovakia didn’t
get any more good chances.”
Co-hosts Sweden recovered from an
embarrassing 3-2 loss to Switzerland in
their opening game as they squeezed out
Czech Republic 2-1 in the late game in
Stockholm.
Canada and the United States got off to
winning starts in their group games. The
Canadians came back from a goal down to
beat Denmark 3-1 in Stockholm, while two
goals from Erik Johnson helped a jittery
U.S. side overcome Austria 5-3 in Helsinki.
In the day’s other game in Stockholm,
Norway took the lead after a minute
against Slovenia and never looked back,
running out 3-1 winners to join Canada at
the top of the group. —Reuters
Pedrosa triumphs in Spain
JEREZ: Dani Pedrosa streaked away to win the
Spanish MotoGP yesterday but it was rookie
Marc Marquez’s aggressive manoeuvre to deny
Jorge Lorenzo second place on the last bend
which was the main talking point of the race.
In dry, sunny conditions, Honda rider Pedrosa
cut inside pole holder Lorenzo with 22 laps to go
and steadily pulled clear to win his first race of
the season.
The 20-year-old Marquez fought an
enthralling battle with Lorenzo for second place,
finally braking inside the champion on the newly-named
‘Lorenzo corner’ and barging him out
of the way to sneak through. Italy’s Valentino
Rossi was fourth, ahead of Britain’s Cal Crutchlow
and another Spaniard, Alvaro Bautista.
Spaniard Marquez pulled clear at the top of
the world championship with 61 points from
three races, ahead of compatriots Pedrosa and
Lorenzo who are three and four points behind
him respectively. “I’m very tired. It’s been a race
right to the limits chasing Jorge and Dani,”
Honda’s Marquez told Spanish broadcaster
Telecinco, after becoming the youngest debutant
to achieve three consecutive podium finishes.
“I tried to give 100 percent and in the last lap
I gave it all.” Marquez tried to speak to Lorenzo
in the paddock after the race but the champion
brushed him away. Later, on the podium, the
Yamaha rider congratulated Pedrosa, patting
him on the back, but ignored the youngster. “I
went to apologise to Jorge, but, well, I think it
has been one of things that happens in a race,”
Marquez added. “The positive thing is neither of
us fell. “It has been a great end to the race for the
fans.”
Lorenzo was still fuming when he was asked
about the incident. “I prefer not to talk about
what happened on the last curve because I am
still very angry,” Lorenzo said. “What I would say
would be very negative.
“Our race has been very consistent with a lot
of focus. With the bike and the tyres we had, it
was a very good race. We have points and a
podium finish.”
A number of riders have fallen over the weekend
in practice sessions and during the races,
with tyres being an issue for many including
race-winner Pedrosa.
“Jorge started very quickly in the first few
laps. I tried to stay in touch with him. I was able
to catch and pass him,” Pedrosa said.
“I didn’t go at it 100 percent to preserve the
tyres. I felt comfortable but despite that near the
end the bike was slipping a lot. It is magnificent
to win again here.”
Spaniards completed a clean sweep in front
of their own fans with Esteve Rabat and
Maverick Vinales winning the Moto2 and Moto3
races to top the world championships in their
respective categories. Rabat rode to a career-first
victory from pole position, moving one point
ahead of second-placed finisher Scott Redding
in the standings. Another Spaniard Pol
Espargaro was third.
Vinales won a red-flag interrupted Moto3
race to move ahead of compatriot Luis Salom,
who came in second. Germany’s Jonas Folger
was third. —Reuters
SPAIN: Yamaha Factory Racing motoGP’s Spanish rider Jorge Lorenzo (left) vies ahead of
Repsol Honda Team MotoGP’s Spanish rider Marc Marquez during the Spanish Grand Prix at
the Jerez racetrack. —AFP
Crusaders stifle high-flying Brumbies
CANBERRA: The inconsistent
Canterbury Crusaders were back to their
efficient best yesterday as they recorded
a 30-23 win over the Super Rugby-leading
ACT Brumbies in Canberra.
Scrumhalf Andy Ellis, winger Zac
Guilford and replacement Israel Dagg
grabbed the tries, while Dan Carter was
imperious as ever with his kicking as the
Crusaders forced numerous turnovers
with some tough tackling.
After disappointing losses to the
Hurricanes and the Western Force, the
Crusaders sixth win in 10 matches this
season proving a watershed moment for
captain George Whitelock.
“We thought this game would be season
defining and we got there and have
done the job so now after 10 rounds we
get the bye and can freshen up,” the
flanker said in a pitchside interview.
“We knew we had to front up tonight
and get physical and I’m pretty pleased
with the way the boys did it. “We talked
about it all week that that was going to
be the winning of the game and the
guys got off the line and made some big
hits and made the tackles count tonight
so that was pretty pleasing.” The
Crusaders dominated possession and
territory early on but it was the Brumbies
who produced the opening points in the
seventh minute when flyhalf Matt
Toomua intercepted a pass from Carter
just outside his 22 and sprinted clear for
a try.
Christian Lealiifano converted and
added a penalty before the Crusaders
were able to turn their strong start into
points, Carter kicking a goal before
scrumhalf Andy Ellis sprinted off the
back of a five-metre scrum to touchdown
for a 21st minute try.
Carter converted from near the
touchline to tie the scores at 10-10 with
some careless knock-ons and lousy lineouts
ensuring neither side added to their
total before halftime.
The Brumbies started the second half
brightly, going through the phases as
they probed for another score but good
pilfering work at the breakdown helped
the Crusaders force a turnover and break
for a try of their own.
Zac Guilford finding space down the
left to scuttle in to the corner after more
hard yards were gained by the visitors’
impressive front five.
Carter’s kicking stretched the lead to
23-10 with the conversion and two
penalties as Lealiifano was wayward with
a penalty of his own.
However, Lealiifano was successful
with a 67th minute kick to cut the deficit
to 10 and the Brumbies were back in
Crusaders territory five minutes but
another costly turnover resulted in a
third try for the visitors.
Replacement fullback Dagg opted
against kicking away the ball near his
own tryline and instead led a swift
counter-attack past tired Brumbies forwards
which he finished off after good
work by centre Robbie Fruean.
Brumbies number eight Ben Mowen
eventually found a rare hole in the
Crusaders backline to break through for
a second try in the 76th minute with a
quick conversion from Toomua and a
late penalty from Lealiifano ensuring a
losing bonus point.
“Our execution was off early and a
team like the Crusaders, you give them
half chances and they are tries,” skipper
Mowen said. —Reuters

MANNHEIM: Ukrainian Heavyweight Champion Wladimir Klitschko (left) and Italianborn
challenger Francesco Pianeta exchange punches during their IBO, IBF, WBO,
WBA title fight. —AFP
Klitschko retains titles
MANNHEIM: Vladimir Klitschko stopped
former sparring partner Francesco Pianeta
inside six rounds in Mannheim on Saturday
to retain his four world heavyweight title
belts.
The Italian-born challenger briefly ruffled
the champion by landing a couple of
punches in the second round but apart
from that appeared out of his depth.
Klitschko twice sent his opponent to the
canvas in the fourth round before the referee
called a halt to proceedings eight seconds
from the end of the sixth as Pianeta
took a pounding.
The 37-year-old Ukrainian extended his
unbeaten run to 18 fights, his last defeat
coming when he challenged Lamon
Brewster for the WBO title in 2004.
Overall, he has won 60 of his 63 fights,
including 52 within the distance. Klitschko
holds the IBF, IBO, WBO and WBA crown
and his older brother Vitali holds the WBC
crown. The two have pledged not to fight
each other.
Pianeta, who at 1.93 metres is five centimetres
shorter than his opponent, was
previously undefeated with 28 wins and
one draw. “He started well and he tried to
take the fight to me, he fought with great
courage,” said Klitschko. —Reuters
Serena battles
past qualifier
Li crashes in Madrid
MADRID: World number one Serena
Williams got her Madrid Open title defence
off to a battling start yesterday, beating
Kazakh qualifier Yulia Putintseva 7-6 (7/5),
6-1 but China’s Li Na fell at the first hurdle.
Putintseva had come through two
rounds of qualifying and seemed to handle
the warm conditions better early on in an
extremely tight first set.
Both women broke each other once and
Putintseva managed to save another three
break points to force the set into a tiebreak.
However, the world number 88 finally
crumbled at 5-4 in the tie-break as she fired
long and Williams served out the set before
taking control in the second, breaking four
times to close out the match.
“I felt a little sluggish at the beginning,
but happily I was able to win,” said the 15-
time Grand Slam winner. “I know I will need
to play better as each match goes on.”
Williams believes the warm conditions
in the Spanish capital should be to her
advantage as the tournament progresses. “I
have been training in Europe for a little
more than a week, but long enough. I
trained in Paris for a few days and then I
came here.
“I think these clay courts are really good,
they are a little bit quick which is really
good for me and it’s also a lot warmer here
so overall its really good.”
China’s world number five Li Na, the
2011 French Open champion, was the
biggest name to fall when she was taken
apart by American Madison Keys 6-3, 6-2.
Keys had only got into the tournament
as a lucky loser thanks to the withdrawal of
Tamira Paszek after being beaten by compatriot
Bethanie Mattek-Sands in the qualifiers.
But she dominated from the off with
her heavy groundstrokes producing a
series of errors from the Chinese.
World number 10 Caroline Wozniacki
was the other major name to be eliminated
as the former world number one was beaten
in straight sets by Yaroslava Shvedova of
Kazakhstan, 6-2, 6-4.
Venus Williams was forced to pull out of
the tournament with a back injury. The
world number 21 had been due to open
play on the main showcourt against Spain’s
Anabel Medina Garrigues.
“I was desperate to play in the Madrid
Open this year, but unfortunately due to
the pain in my back I cannot compete,” she
said in a statement.
Eighth seed Petra Kvitova was forced to
go the distance against Yanina Wickmayer.
The world number 36 took the first set 6-4,
but former Wimbledon champion Kvitova
bounced back to take the next two sets 7-5,
6-4. Sixth seed Angelique Kerber also took
three sets to beat Su-Wei Hsieh 3-6, 6-3, 6-2
and 16th seed Ana Ivanovic came from a
set down too as she overcame Mattek-
Sands 6-7 (10/12), 6-3, 6-2.
Agnieszka Radwanska, the fourth seed,
had a comfortable afternoon as she saw off
Tsvetana Pironkova 6-2, 6-4 to set up a
meeting with Britain’s Laura Robson and
Marion Bartoli is also safely through after
her opponent Elena Vesnina retired with
the score 6-3, 3-0 in the Frenchwoman’s
favor. —AFP
SPORTS
LAS VEGAS: Floyd Mayweather showed little
sign of ring-rust after a year out of the sport as
he used sublime defense and a steady parade of
right hands to dominate fellow American Robert
Guerrero and retain his WBC welterweight
championship on Saturday.
One day short of 12 months since his last
bout, Mayweather, who also spent two months
in jail in 2012 for a domestic abuse offence, landed
an astonishing 60 percent of his power
punches en route to a unanimous 12-round
decision.
All three judges scored the fight 117-111 in
favour of the undefeated Mayweather, who
admitted that a damaged hand had prevented
him from ending the fight early.
“I really was looking for a knockout, but I hurt
my right hand,” he revealed. “After that, I just had
to box smart. “Robert Guerrero was a tough warrior.
He was trying to press the attack. But I got
really good work in the gym and I felt comfortable
in the ring. My defense was on point.”
After an opening two rounds in which the
southpaw Guerrero (31-2-1, 18 KOs) had some
success, Mayweather (44-0, 26 KOs) seemed to
slip into his comfort zone from the third.
Although the challenger’s game plan seemed
to be to back Mayweather to the ropes with his
jab and then land punches to the body, the
champion repeatedly slipped under his opponent’s
left, landed one or more right hands and
moved out of danger.
After being hit with several rights in the
third, Guerrero appeared more hesitant to commit
to his attack, giving Mayweather yet more
time to slip in and out of range and land his key
punches.
“I thought Floyd did an excellent job tonight,”
OEIRAS: Stanislas Wawrinka won his first title
since 2011 when he upset top seed David Ferrer
6-1, 6-4 to claim the Portugal Open title yesterday.
The Swiss claimed his fourth career trophy,
three of which have come on clay. The 28-yearold
last won a tournament at Chennai in January
two years ago. Ferrer, ranked fourth in the world,
was burdened by 31 unforced errors in the 64-
minute loss.
The win was the second for Switzerland at the
tournament after Roger Federer lifted the 2008
title and played the final two years later.
“I’ll have to tell Roger to come back and play
here again, everyone seems to want him to
return,” joked Wawrinka. “As for me, I’m happy to
be back here, I’ve had a good week on the clay.”
said the 36-year-old’s father and trainer Floyd
Mayweather Sr.
“There was nothing he couldn’t do in there
tonight. I told him to steal it with the right hand.
That was a punch (Guerrero) couldn’t see and
wasn’t expecting each time he threw it.”
By the eighth round, Mayweather was stepping
up his assault, landing right hands with
greater force and mixing in left hooks as he
opened up a cut over a clearly hurt Guerrero’s
left eye.
The world number 16 was playing in Portugal
for a second straight year after losing in the 2012
semi-finals to Juan Martin Del Potro, the defending
champion whom Ferrer replaced in the draw
after the South American fell ill with a virus.
“It was the perfect match for me,” said
Wawrinka, whose picturebook backhand served
him well on a sunny afternoon. “It’s so tough to
play David, he’s a big champion.”
Wawrinka used his most lethal stroke to best
advantage in an opening set in which he kept
Ferrer under the cosh throughout.
The top-seeded Spaniard did not even get
onto the scoreboard until the 25th minute of the
29-minute opener but made it more of a contest
in the second set.
His rally, however, came to an end as
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
Mayweather stops Guerrero
LAS VEGAS: World Boxing Council champion Floyd Mayweather (right) and Robert Guerrero
exchange punches during their fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. —AFP
At that stage, it appeared that Mayweather
would stop Guerrero inside the distance and
although he continued to paint his opponent
with right hands and left hooks, the champion
remained content to focus on coasting toward
the finish.
“Floyd was tricky with his punches,” Guerrero
said in a post-fight interview. “He’s a great fighter.
He’s slick and he’s quick. He’s better than I
thought. He was definitely on his game
tonight.” —Reuters
OEIRAS: Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka (left) and Spain’s David Ferrer pose with their trophies after playing the Portugal Open final tennis
match. —AP
Wawrinka clinches Portugal title
Wawrinka secured a break for 5-4 and served out
the victory a game later. The Swiss won with
three breaks of Ferrer while never facing a break
point on his own serve. “Stan played a great
match, he deserved to win,” said Ferrer.
“There have been a lot of Spanish champions
here and I wish I could have been one of them.
“But I still had a good week, especially after coming
in on the wild card. It was all positive. I had
hoped to win but I still made the final and got
matches on the clay.”
Ferrer stood 5-1 on clay against Wawrinka
and had beaten the Swiss in February for the
Buenos Aires title. Ferrer’s loss still keeps him
atop the ATP with 28 match wins this season.
Wawrinka earned his 20th victory of 2013 as he
played his 11th career final. —AFP
MADRID: Serena Williams from US celebrates defeating Yulia Putintseva from
Kazakhstan during the Madrid Open tennis tournament. —AP
Federer raring to go
after two-month break
MADRID: Roger Federer believes
his two-month break from competing
on the ATP Tour will help
him as he prepares for a hectic
few months between now and the
US Open in September.
The 17-time Grand Slam winner
last played in Indian Wells
where he was hampered by a
back injury as he went out to
Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals.
“It took me a little time to get
over my back issue from Indian
Wells, but at the same time, that
clashed with my vacation anyway,
which was okay,” he told a press
conference yesterday ahead of
defending his Madrid Masters
title. “Now I feel good. Obviously
extremely excited about being
back on tour and entering all the
tournaments from here through
to the US Open really, so it’s going
to be a long stretch and you want
to be ready for it.”
Federer seemed to be the least
affected by the controversial blue
clay used at last year’s event
where he went on to win for a
record third time in Madrid.
But he welcomed the change
back to the traditional red clay
and joined Nadal in describing the
surfaces at the Caja Magica as the
best they have ever been.
“There was a lot of criticism
about the colour, about the quality
of the court as well, being
extremely slippery,” said the world
number two.
“I don’t know if that was due to
the colour, but this tournament
has in the past had issues with the
quality of the court. I think
through what happened last year
with the controversy around the
blue clay, it was a big eye opener
to have a proper court here now.
“I think this year, from what I’m
hearing from the players, it’s a
good quality court and the players
are happy. In the process,
hopefully we’ll see better tennis
this year.”
World number one Novak
Djokovic joined in the praise of
the new courts, but refused to get
drawn into a debate over whether
he was favourite to lift the title in
the Spanish capital or at the
French Open next month.
The Serb dethroned Nadal
after an eight-year reign at his last
outing in Monte Carlo, prompting
many to believe he could complete
the career Grand Slam at
Roland Garros where his Spanish
rival is a record seven-time champion.
“The court is great. The one
where I practiced is great. I
haven’t practiced on the centre
court yet, but I’ll try to do that
tonight to get a little feel about it,”
said Djokovic.
“But also from the opinions of
the other players I can hear only
positive comments, so it’s great to
see that.” First up though Djokovic
could face a tricky first round
opponent in Grigor Dimitrov who
took a set off Nadal before losing
in the Monte Carlo quarter-finals
last month.
The world number 29 faces
Spanish qualifier Javier Marti in
the first round, and Djokovic
expects a tough test should the
Bulgarian get through.
“I’ve played him in Indian Wells
and he’s very talented player. He
has the capacity to play at a very,
very high level. He’s an all-round
player, and he has showed it,” said
Djokovic.
“There is an altitude here, 500,
600 meters, which helps the
servers and more aggressive players.
The ball travels through the air
faster, so that can make Dimitrov
very dangerous.”
World number three Andy
Murray had a disappointing start
to his claycourt season in Monte
Carlo as he was swept aside by
Stanislas Wawrinka in the third
round.
“On grass and hard courts I’ve
played very well over the last
year,” said US Open and Olympic
champion Murray, who has never
won a claycourt title.
“The clay has been still the
most challenging surface for me,
but I’ve played some good matches
and beaten some tough players;
at the French Open I made the
second week there a few times;
made the semis.
“I feel like I’m a better player
now than I was then.” —AFP

Orb wins muddy Kentucky Derby
LOUISVILLE: Orb, ridden by Joel
Rosario and prepared by homebred
trainer Shug McGaughey, won the
139th Kentucky Derby at a wet and
muddy Churchill Downs on Saturday.
After settling near the rear of the
field in the sloppy conditions, Orb
steadily worked his way into contention,
then pinned back his ears and
sprinted to the front at the iconic Twin
Spires and kicked clear to win the $2
million, 1-1/4 mile classic.
Golden Soul, a long shot who
enjoyed a trouble free journey along
the rails, finished gamely to grab second
while Revolutionary was third in
the 19-horse field.
“It’s awesome, to win the Derby, it’s
like a dream,” said Rosario, who had
never won the Derby before but won
this year’s $10 million Dubai World
Cup, the world’s richest race, on
Animal Kingdom.
“I was so far behind I just let (Orb)
be calm and relaxed, then I steered
him to the outside because I didn’t
want to get blocked. He did the rest.”
Normandy Invasion finished fourth
after leading the field into the final
stretch while Mylude was fifth under
the guidance of Rosie Napravnik,
marking the best finish in the revered
race by a female jockey. Orb, who was
bred and trained in Kentucky,
LOUISVILLE: Joel Rosario atop Orb celebrates with the trophy after winning
the 139th running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. —AFP
emerged as the horse to beat in the
annual Run for the Roses after winning
his four previous races, including
the $1 million Florida Derby, one of
the key lead-up events.
He was initially installed as the 7-2
favorite despite drawing gate 16 at
Wednesday’s post-position draw but
began to drift in the betting as the
race approached.
Only a late surge of money saw
him retain his place as outright
favorite, at odds of 5-1, just a point
ahead of Revolutionary, the Louisiana
Derby winner. “Obviously it’s a huge,
huge thrill for me,” said McGaughey, a
62-year-old trainer who was born and
raised in Kentucky.
“It’s a race I’ve always wanted to
win, a race I’ve always wanted to compete
in if I thought I had the right
horse, and finally today we had the
right horse.”
McGaughey had already won most
of America’s biggest races and been
inducted into the Hall of Fame almost
a decade ago, but the Kentucky Derby
had always eluded him.
“I don’t know what it will be like
tomorrow morning when I pinch
myself and figure all this out,” he said.
“The way it’s going to change my life
is I’m not going to have to worry
about it anymore, because I’ve worried
about it for a while.” Rosario, a 28-
year-old jockey born in Dominican
Republic, patiently held his mount
back in the early stages of the race,
which was held on a track drenched
by hours of heavy rain.
He resisted the temptation to look
for a shortcut on the fence, opting
instead to keep Orb on the outside,
where he continued to make ground.
It was a tactic that paid off when
the early leaders, who had set off at a
cracking pace, started to fade, Orb
was perfectly positioned to make his
charge.
Orb swept past a dozen rivals on
the back straight and was within sight
of the leaders round the final turn. As
the crowd of 151,616 let out a deafening
roar, he made his move, charging
down the center of the track and
holding off all his challengers.
Golden Soul, a 31-1 chance ridden
by Robby Albarado, also came from
behind to take second for his owner,
Canadian diamond magnate Charles
Fipke.
Revolutionary was one of five runners
in the race trained by Todd
Pletcher. He was ridden by Calvin
Borel, a three-time winner of the
Kentucky Derby, who stuck to the
fence but could catch the winner. The
lone international entrant, Irish galloper
Lines of Battle, finished seventh,
while Goldencents (7-1), prepared by
last year’s winning trainer Doug
O’Neill, weakened badly to cross the
line 17th under jockey Kevin Krigger,
who was bidding to become the first
African-American jockey to win the
race in more than a century.
In keeping with tradition, the race
was preceded by the singing of “My
Old Kentucky Home” as a huge crowd
packed into the Louisville course,
dressed in an array of outfits and sipping
on mint julep drinks. But no
sooner had Orb, who paid $12.80 for a
$2 bet, been draped in the traditional
garland of red roses, than talk turned
to the future.
The bay colt now has the chance to
win the coveted Triple Crown. The second
leg, the Preakness Stakes, will be
held at Maryland later this month followed
by the Belmont Stakes, in New
York in June.
The last horse to win the Triple
Crown was Affirmed in 1978. “I still
think there’s something more there,
I don’t think we’ve bottomed out,”
said McGaughey. “I think we’ve got
our hands on a pretty special
horse.” —Reuters
Smith snatches wreck-fest race
TALLADEGA: Regan Smith thought he’d won at Talladega
before, only to have a NASCAR ruling go against him.
So there was no rush to celebrate Saturday night as
Smith waited for NASCAR to review videotape and scoring
loops to determine the winner of the crash-filled
Nationwide Series race. He thought he was out front when
the final caution flew - after all, it was dark enough that he
could clearly see the glaring yellow lights - but experience
taught Smith to stay calm.
After a few anxious minutes the word came down:
Smith was going to Victory Lane. “I was having flashbacks
sitting on pit road, I’m not going to lie, when they were
making the decision,” said Smith, who crossed the finish
line first of the 2008 Sprint Cup race but wasn’t awarded
the win because NASCAR said he went below the yellow
line to pass Tony Stewart.
“I was thinking ‘Man, I hope we got it. I’m pretty sure we
got it when the flag came out and I saw the lights come on.’
I knew we were ahead. I don’t know if it’s vindication, but I
definitely wanted to win and it certainly wipes that bad
memory away.”
The race was delayed three hours by rain and slowed by
seven cautions, and as darkness closed in on Talladega
Superspeedway, NASCAR cut the race distance by 10 laps.
Then Joey Coulter brought out a caution one lap shy of the
new scheduled finish and NASCAR decided it would make
one attempt at a green-white-checkered finish.
At least 10 cars were jockeying for position in packs of
two on the final lap when Brian Vickers was spun hard into
the outside wall. Smith, Joey Logano and Kasey Kahne
raced three-wide all the way to the finish line and Kahne
actually crossed it first.
“As soon as they started wrecking, I saw the caution, I
still raced to the line. I had a good enough run to get there
and be first there, and I was kind of surprised the caution
came out,” Kahne said. “I knew I was third when the caution
came out and I knew I was first at the line. I actually
thought maybe Joey had won.”
NASCAR needed several minutes to review video to see
who won the race. The win went to Smith over Logano
under caution with Kahne in third.
“I was really surprised they threw that caution, so many
times they wouldn’t in that situation,” Kahne said. “NASCAR
always switches it up, you never know what’s going to happen.”
The win moved Smith into the points lead for the first
time in his career, and for the first time for JR Motorsports.
Brad Keselowski had the team second in points for nine
weeks in 2008, but the team struggled after his departure
and team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. began making wholesale
changes last fall that culminated with Smith’s hiring
and then the November addition of crew chief Greg Ives, a
longtime crew member from Jimmie Johnson’s Cup team.
Smith won the Homestead season finale, and has his
first win of the 2013 season. “We’ve been working real hard
as a race team to try to get to Victory Lane,” Earnhardt said.
“I’m real happy for Regan and the whole group, really.
They’ve been working so hard, so many late nights, trying
to get faster and trying to find that little bit of extra speed,
to be as good as they can be. You can really see the effort
between Greg and the whole group ... they are trying to
gel as fast as they can because they know they’ve got a
great opportunity this year.
“This is just a result of all that hard work, a result of all
that effort they’ve put in, a result of the talent Regan’s got,
the ability he’s got. We’re just thrilled that we’re in this position
and we’ve put the pieces of the puzzle together to be
able to accomplish this.” —AP
SPORTS
Photo of the day
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
Red Bull BC One All Stars Lilou and Pelezinho pose for a photo at Al Zumoroda Hall one day before Red Bull
BC One Cypher Kuwait. www.redbullcontentpool.com
Puccio in pink at Giro d’Italia
ISCHIA: Italian Salvatore Puccio took possession of the Giro
d’Italia pink jersey from overnight leader Mark Cavendish
yesterday as Team Sky and race favorite Bradley Wiggins
claimed their maiden team time trial win on a Grand Tour
on the island of Ischia.
Cavendish had sprinted to victory in the opening stage
of the three-week race on Saturday to pull on the race
leader’s pink jersey for the third time in his career.
But despite their best efforts, Cavendish and his Omega-
Pharma team were no match for Team Sky over the winding
17.4 km course on the scenic island which sits off the
coast of Naples.
Cavendish, a 23-time stage winner on the Tour de
France, won his 11th Giro stage on Saturday and said his
team would do their best to protect the race lead when the
Giro visited Ischia for the first time in 54 years.
However Omega-Pharma could finish only 17th in the
23-team field in a time of 22min 53sec that was 48sec
behind Team Sky.
“I’m a little disappointed in myelf not to have held on to
this beautiful pink jersey,” said Cavendish. “But it was a very
technical course.”
Puccio was Team Sky’s best placed rider after the opening
stage, handing him the race’s top prize-which team
leader Wiggins is hoping to secure at the end of the race
on May 26.
Puccio - born and raised in Sicily - admitted that being
overall leader had come as something of a surprise. “Today
was an incredible result and it is a huge surprise. I could
never have thought this morning that I would be pulling
on the pink jersey. It is incredible!
“Once again the team showed how strong we are.
Everyone put in a huge effort and it is very satisfying to be
part of a big team result like this.
“For an Italian rider the pink jersey is one of the best
things that can happen to you.” Team Sky topped the times
in 22min 05sec, nine seconds ahead of Movistar and 14
ahead of the Astana team of overall victory contender
Vincenzo Nibali.
Nibali has been touted as the man most likely to stand
in the way of Wiggins following his 2012 Tour de France triumph
with victory in stage racing’s second most prestigious
race.
Despite losing time to the Briton, the Sicilian was philosophical
about his team’s performance on a “hard and fast”
course where he said Astana hit speeds of 70km/h on the
small downhill sections.
“For me it was a very good performance,” said Nibali.
We’re not a specialist time trial team, we’re a team composed
mainly of climbers.” Astana were far from the worst
team containing overall victory contenders. The Garmin
team of defending champion Ryder Hesjedal trailed in in
seventh place at 25sec behind Sky and Wiggins.
Former Tour de France champion Cadel Evans, is even
further off the pace. The Australian was the fourth of the
five BMC riders who crossed the finish line in 12th at 37secs
behind Sky.
BMC’s assistant director Max Sciandri said the team had
been let down on the hillier sections. “I think if you look at
the winning team, it is more of an imprint of a climber
team.
“We had some really good guys who can go on the flats
like a regular time trial. But we struggled a little bit with
some guys on the climbs. But I don’t think we could have
given anything more.”
Evans added: “Thirty-seven seconds is a little bit below
what I had hoped or expected, but that’s the way it is. The
guys put in everything. Someone like Klaas Lodewyck - he
really gave it absolutely everything he had today, so I’m
certainly not going to ask anything more of him.” —AFP
ISCHIA: Italian Salvatore Puccio celebrates on the podium
after winning the pink jersey on the podium of the
second stage of 96th Giro díItalia Team Time Trial. —AFP
O’Sullivan dominates
LONDON: Defending champion Ronnie O’Sullivan
stormed back against first-time finalist Barry Hawkins
to establish a 5-3 lead in the first session of the snooker
World Championship final yesterday.
O’Sullivan trailed for the first time in the tournament
after Hawkins overcame an unsteady start to the
match to move 3-2 ahead. But the four-time champion
roared back in stirring style, assembling successive
breaks of 76, 113 and 100 to move two frames in front
ahead of the second session later yesterday.
Each of O’Sullivan’s centuries took less than nine
minutes to construct and took him level with Stephen
Hendry’s record of 127 century breaks at the Crucible
Theatre in the northern English city of Sheffield. With
O’Sullivan having hinted yet again he may retire after
the tournament, although on Saturday he suggested
he may have to rethink that as he is heavily in debt, the
37-year-old will hope to claim the record outright as
the best-of-35 frames match plays out. O’Sullivan is
making his comeback after nearly a year out of the
sport and is appearing in his fifth World Championship
final. —AFP
TALLADEGA: Drivers are involved in a wreck during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Aaron’s 499 at Talladega
Superspeedway. —AFP
Loeb bags Rally of Argentina
ARGENTINA: French driver Sebastien Loeb jumps with his Citroen DS3
WRC with his co-driver Daniel Elena from Monaco during the Rally of
Argentina. —AFP
ARGENTINA: France’s Sebastien Loeb
won the Rally of Argentina for the
eighth year in a row in a Citroen on
Saturday.
The nine-times world champion,
who is not defending his title this season
as he is competing in only a limited
programme of events, beat
Volkswagen-driving compatriot
Sebastien Ogier into second place by
55 seconds.
Finland’s Jari-Matti Latvala finished
third for Volkswagen. Ogier had won
the last three rallies but retained the
championship lead after five of the 13
rounds with 122 points to Loeb’s 68.
Citroen’s Mikko Hirvonen, Ogier’s closest
real rival for the crown, has 57.
“It’s great emotion to win here,” the
champion said. “After so many months
since my last gravel rally it was difficult
to find the feeling in the first
stage and to get the car working for
me. But it was the perfect drive.”
The rally, based in Villa Carlos Paz
near Cordoba to the north of Buenos
Aires, was Loeb’s first since Sweden in
February, and third of the season, and
he will not compete again in the
championship until France in October.
The next rally is in Greece at the
end of May. Loeb has an unprecedented
career tally of 78 world championship
rally wins and Saturday’s was
likely to be his last on gravel, with
France being an asphalt event.
The official wrc.com website said
an estimated 80,000 spectators lined
the roadside on the final El Condor
stage to see Loeb’s Argentine farewell.
Ogier had won five of the first six
stages of the event but handed Loeb
the lead when he went off the road on
Friday. “It’s a good result for us,” the
title favourite said. “We had a lot of
problems this weekend but we’re happy
to be at the end ... we had a few
problems even this morning.”
Russian driver Evgeny Novikov finished
fourth with Belgian Thierry
Neuville fifth, both in Ford Fiestas.
Hirvonen was sixth. —Reuters

SPORTS
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
Chelsea defeat United to
close on Champions League
Man United 0
Chelsea 1
LONDON: Liverpool’s Daniel Agger (second left) attempt a header on the Everton
goal during their English Premier League soccer match at Anfield. —AP
Everton hold Liverpool
Liverpool 0
Everton 0
LIVERPOOL: Everton’s winless run at
Anfield continued as the Toffees played out
a 0-0 draw against Liverpool yesterday to
edge closer to ensuring they will finish
above their Merseyside rivals in the Premier
League.
Sylvain Distin’s disallowed goal was the
closest to a breakthrough in the 220th
meeting of these sides, but the point
ensures Everton remain five points clear of
Liverpool with two games remaining.
However, it effectively ends Everton’s
hopes of earning a Europa League spot as
they sit five points behind fifth-place
Tottenham Hotspur, who have played a
game less.
Liverpool may have gone into the game
five points behind their rivals, but having
not lost to their neighbors at home since
1999, they will have still remained confident
of ceasing talk of a power shift in the
city.
After the Kop displayed a mosaic to
thank Everton fans for their support in the
bid for justice for the 96 Liverpool supporters
killed in the 1989 Hillsborough disaster,
the pleasantries were put aside for a feisty
start.
Liverpool were the first to create an
opening, but Daniel Sturridge failed to get
his shot on target after opening space for
himself.
Everton responded, but Steven Pienaar
also failed to hit the target as the ball sailed
into the Kop with Pepe Reina untroubled in
the hosts’ goal.
Rumours had circulated before the
game that Steven Gerrard might miss out
through injury, but those fears proved to
be unfounded.
The Liverpool skipper played a delightful
50-yard pass to Sturridge, but he could
not get his shot on target. The best chance
of the half fell to Everton midfielder
Marouane Fellaini after Liverpool gave
away a needless free-kick on the edge of
the area.
Leighton Baines swung in the dead ball
and Fellaini stuck a boot out but could not
direct it goalwards, much to the relief of
Reina, who looked beaten.
Phil Jagielka then made the first of two
very good blocks to deny Liverpool. Jordan
Henderson cut the ball back for the onrushing
Gerrard, who hit a fierce low effort,
but Jagielka managed to get his body in
the way, before the Reds captain curled a
free-kick just over.
Jagielka was alert again before the
break to deny Philippe Coutinho, who was
about to fire the ball home after it broke to
him in the area, but the Everton defender
scrambled to get across and stick his leg
out.
After the break it was goalkeeper Tim
Howard who came to the Toffees’ rescue,
blocking from Sturridge as the Liverpool
striker tried to round him after a superb
through ball from Coutinho sent him clear.
As the action continued, Coutinho teed
up Sturridge again, but this time the
England forward fired into the side netting.
The sun was causing problems for the
Liverpool defence and Distin rose to head
in a Baines corner, but the Everton celebrations
were short-lived as referee Michael
Oliver had already blown for a free-kick.
The Everton defender had pushed Jamie
Carragher in the back when climbing for
the ball, while Victor Anichebe also
appeared to block Reina.
Distin showed his defensive skills with
17 minutes to go after Sturridge played in
Gerrard. The England skipper rounded
Howard, but his scuffed shot allowed Distin
the time to get back and clear the ball
away. Liverpool came close again when
Gerrard swung in a dangerous free-kick,
but Daniel Agger’s header whizzed by the
post.
Reina was almost caught out by a
deflected Anichebe effort that spun high
into the air, but the Liverpool goalkeeper
managed to palm it onto a post in what
was the last chance of the game.—AFP
Match on TV
(Local Timings)
English Premier League
Sunderland v Stoke City 22:00
Abu Dhabi Sports HD
MANCHESTER: Juan Mata’s dramatic late goal
earned Chelsea an unlikely three points in their
quest for Champions League football as they
secured a 1-0 victory at Premier League champions
Manchester United yesterday.
The Chelsea midfielder struck at the end of a
rare flowing move in the 87th minute-Ramires’
back-heel finding Oscar, whose pass to Mata
allowed his team-mate to drive the ball home
via a deflection-to lift his team into third place
in the table.
To add to United’s dissatisfaction, substitute
Wayne Rooney claimed he had been brought
down just outside the Chelsea penalty area in
the seconds leading up to the goal.
It was a rare moment of memorable attacking
play in an otherwise forgettable contest and
a goal that ensured an ill-tempered conclusion
to the game, with United defender Rafael da
Silva shown a straight red card two minutes later.
The Brazilian hacked at the ankles of countryman
David Luiz as the pair tussled for the ball
near the corner flag, and players from both
sides engaged in a subsequent shoving match.
There had been pre-game speculation over
whether United manager Alex Ferguson would
shake the hand of opposite number Rafael
Benitez, with whom he has a frosty relationship,
but the veteran manager went out of his way to
seek out the Chelsea interim coach on his way
to the bench. Ferguson had taken the controversial
step of resting key personnel and handed
starts to reserve goalkeeper Anders
Lindegaard and midfielders Anderson and Tom
Cleverley.
It was a selection that will have raised eyebrows
at Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal, the
clubs in direct competition with Chelsea for
Champions League places.
United’s performance will have done little,
therefore, to allay fears that this is a United side
that is far from firing on all cylinders.
After just three minutes, Mata picked out
Demba Ba at the far post and the forward heading
just wide while off-balance.
The Senegalese striker then miskicked horribly
from a promising position, the chance created
after Lindegaard had flapped at a Mata cross
unconvincingly.
Errors by Patrice Evra and Phil Jones then
handed the visitors two more promising openings.
First, Lindegaard did well to turn a shot
from Oscar onto his post before smothering the
rebound, then Mata laid the ball off for Victor
Moses, whose 18-yard shot rose harmlessly over
the United goal.
Robin van Persie just failed to make clean
contact as he ghosted in to meet a superb
through-ball from Ryan Giggs and shot wide,
but moments of quality such as that displayed
LONDON: Manchester United’s Ecuador midfielder Antonio Valencia controls the ball during
the English Premier League football match between Manchester United and Chelsea at Old
Trafford. —AFP
by United’s Welshman were few and far
between. Before the interval, Oscar rifled wide
from just inside the area, Giggs volleyed an
Antonio Valencia cross over, and Van Persie
headed a Nemanja Vidic cross directly at
Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech.
The attacking quality scarcely improved after
the restart as Ba slid in and turned a Moses cross
wide, while Mata won a free-kick in a promising
position after being brought down by Evra, but
succeeded only in placing the dead ball directly
into the wall.
Man Utd 36 27 4 5 79 37 85
- champions
Man City 35 21 9 5 61 31 72
Chelsea 35 20 8 7 69 35 68
Arsenal 36 19 10 7 67 36 67
Tottenham 35 19 8 8 61 43 65
Everton 36 15 15 6 52 38 60
Liverpool 36 14 13 9 67 42 55
West Brom 35 14 6 15 48 47 48
Swansea 35 10 13 12 43 44 43
West Ham 36 11 10 15 41 49 43
Stoke 35 9 13 13 31 41 40
Fulham 36 10 10 16 46 57 40
Somehow, the second half produced even
fewer chances than the first, with Mata underlining
the point when he narrowly avoided connecting
with Frank Lampard’s cross from close
range after 77 minutes. Branislav Ivanovic,
meanwhile, was required to perform a rare
piece of defending for Chelsea as he intercepted
a dangerous Rafael cross. Belatedly, the
game burst to life at the death, with Mata’s shot,
which took a deflection off Phil Jones, condemning
United to defeat, as the hosts failed to
score for the first time in 67 home games.—AFP
EPL results/standings
Liverpool 0, Everton 0; Manchester Utd 0, Chelsea 1 (Mata 87).
Played Saturday:
Fulham 2 (Ruiz 70, 77) Reading 4 (Robson-Kanu 12-pen, 62, Le Fondre 75, Karacan 83); Norwich 1 (Holt 74-pen)
Aston Villa 2 (Agbonlahor 55, 89); QPR 0, Arsenal 1 (Walcott 1); Swansea 0, Manchester City 0; Tottenham 1
(Bale 86) Southampton 0; West Brom 2 (Long 29, McAuley 50) Wigan 3 (Kone 39, McArthur 58, McManaman
80); West Ham 0, Newcastle 0.
English Premier League table after yesterday’s matches (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against,
points):
Aston Villa 36 10 10 16 44 65 40
Southampton36 9 12 15 47 58 39
Norwich 36 8 14 14 34 56 38
Newcastle 36 10 8 18 43 66 38
Sunderland 35 9 10 16 39 51 37
Wigan 35 9 8 18 42 64 35
Reading 36 6 10 20 41 67 28
- relegated
QPR 36 4 13 19 29 57 25
- relegated
Note: Top four teams qualify for Champions League;
bottom three clubs relegated
Referee punched
by player dies
MURRAY: A soccer referee who slipped
into a coma after being punched by a
teenage player during a game a week
ago died Saturday night, police said.
Ricardo Portillo, 46, of Salt Lake City
passed away at the hospital, where he
was being treated following an assault,
police said. Police have accused a 17-
year-old player in a recreational soccer
league of punching Portillo after the
man called a foul on him and issued him
a yellow card.
“The suspect was close to Portillo and
punched him once in the face as a result
of the call,” spokesman Justin Hoyal said
in a press release.
The teen has been booked into juvenile
detention on suspicion of aggravated
assault. Hoyal said authorities will
consider additional charges since Portillo
has died. Hoyal said an autopsy is
planned. No cause of death was released.
Portillo suffered swelling in his brain
and had been listed in critical condition,
Dr. Shawn Smith said Thursday at the
Intermountain Medical Center in the Salt
Lake City suburb of Murray.
The victim’s family, which publicly
spoke of Portillo’s plight this past week,
has asked for privacy, Hoyal said. Johana
Portillo, 26, said last week that she wasn’t
at the April 27 game in the Salt Lake City
suburb of Taylorsville, but she said she’s
been told by witnesses and detectives
that the player hit her father in the side
of the head.
“When he was writing down his notes,
he just came out of nowhere and
punched him,” she said. Accounts from a
police report, Portillo’s daughter and others
further detail what occurred.
The teenager was playing goalie during
a game at Eisenhower Junior High
School in Taylorsville when Ricardo
Portillo issued him a yellow card for
pushing an opposing forward trying to
score a goal. In soccer, a yellow card is
given as a warning to a player for an
egregious violation of the rules. Two yellow
cards lead to a red card and expulsion
from the game.
The teenager, quite a bit heavier than
Portillo, began arguing with the referee,
then punched him in the face. Portillo
seemed fine at first, then asked to be
held because he felt dizzy. He sat down
and started vomiting blood, triggering
his friend to call an ambulance.
When police arrived around noon, the
teenager was gone and Portillo was laying
on the ground in the fetal position.
Through translators, Portillo told emergency
workers that his face and back
hurt and he felt nauseous. He had no visible
injuries and remained conscious. He
was considered to be in fair condition
when they took him to the
Intermountain Medical Center.
But when Portillo arrived to the hospital,
he slipped into a coma with swelling
in his brain. Johana Portillo called detectives
to let them know his condition had
worsened. That’s when detectives intensified
their search for the goalie. By
Saturday evening, the teenager’s father
agreed to bring him down to speak with
police. Portillo’s family said he had been
attacked before, and Johanna Portillo
said she and her sisters begged their
father to stop refereeing because of the
risk from angry players, but he continued
because he loved soccer. “It was his passion,”
she said. “We could not tell him
no.”—AP
AMSTERDAM: Ajax Amsterdam’s players celebrate after winning the Dutch Eredivsie soccer match against Willem II Tilburg in Amsterdam. —AFP
Ajax crowned Dutch champions
ROTTERDAM: Ajax Amsterdam clinched their
32nd Dutch soccer league title yesterday after
first-half goals by Kolbeinn Sigthorsson and
Christian Eriksen set up a comfortable 5-0 home
win over bottom side Willem II Tilburg.
With one match remaining, Ajax have 73
points, four more then PSV Eindhoven who
stayed on track for a Champions League qualifying
berth with a 4-2 win over NEC Nijmegen.
Tilburg were relegated after suffering their
21st defeat. Iceland’s Sigthorsson opened the
scoring after 12 minutes with a well-executed
diving header following a fine cross from Ryan
Babel. A blunder from Tilburg keeper David
Meul, who let a long drive from Eriksen slip
through his hands, allowed Ajax to double the
lead after 25 minutes.
Viktor Fischer, Siem de Jong and Danny
Hoesen scored after the interval as the capacity
home crowd of 50,000 celebrated.
“A good result for a championship match
though we should have rewarded ourselves earlier
as the chances were there already in the first
half,” said Ajax coach Frank de Boer.
“We deserved this title despite the fact that
we dropped points but we showed the most
consistency and also played the best football.”
After a third straight crown Ajax will now
want to focus on winning the Champions
League, but fear they could lose players such as
De Jong, Eriksen and Toby Alderweireld to foreign
clubs. “This feels great but it would be perfect
if this team sticks together for another year
so we can try to survive the (Champions League)
group stage,” said left back Daley Blind, who
signed a three-year deal last month.
PSV virtually secured a spot in the Champions
League preliminary round when they cruised to
victory over NEC Nijmegen to lift their total of
goals scored to 102. The win put them three
points clear of Feyenoord who suffered a humiliating
2-0 defeat at ADO Den Haag. Feyenoord
can still pull level on points with Dick Advocaat’s
team but a far inferior goal difference will make
it impossible to leapfrog them.—Reuters

Mayweather
stops Guerrero
17
Loeb bags Rally
of Argentina
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
18
Federer raring to go after two-month break Page 17
TURIN: Juventus’ midfielder of Chile, Arturo Vidal celebrates after defeating Palermo to win the Scudetto, the Italian Serie A title. — AFP
Vidal fires Juventus to 29th title
ISCHIA: Arturo Vidal’s 10th league goal of the
season was enough to secure a 1-0 win over
Palermo and help ten-man Juventus to their
29th Serie A title yesterday.
Juve, however, courted controversy when
several players brandished giant shields in the
colours of the Italian flag and adorned with ‘31’.
The number was a reference to Juve’s belief
that they have won 31 titles, despite being officially
stripped of two league crowns several
years ago due to their implication in a matchfixing
affair.
“We’ve taken a weight off our shoulders,”
said goalkeeper and captain Gianluigi Buffon.
“After winning the title last season, to finish second
would have been a huge disappointment.”
Juventus now have a 14-point lead over second-placed
Napoli, who, even in the event of a
win over Inter Milan later yesterday, cannot
overtake the Turin giants in the final three
games of the season.
Juve coach Antonio Conte spent the first
four months of the season in the stands serving
a ban for his alleged implication in a match-fixing
affair at his former club, Siena.
He said all the credit went to the players
who, while defending the title, also made it to
the quarter-finals of the Champions League
where they were ousted by Bayern Munich.
“We are very happy. The credit must go to
this extraordinary group of players who
endured a tough and tiring season,” Conte told
Sky Sport Italia.
“I am proud of them because despite us
being favourites, the Champions League added
an extra layer of pressure.” Chilean international
Vidal had been Juve’s top scorer this season,
the attacking midfielder scoring nine in the
league and 14 in all competitions prior to
Sunday’s encounter at Juventus Stadium. When
Lyon stay on
track for Europe
PARIS: Lyon remained on track to qualify for next season’s Champions League
after cruising past relegation-battling Nancy 3-0 yesterday.
Bafetimbi Gomis struck two second half goals to take his season’s tally to 16,
while Yoann Gourcuff was also on target as Lyon recorded their third victory in
four to take a three-point lead in the race for the third and final Champions
League place.
Nancy remain one point clear of the drop zone with three games remaining
after their six-game unbeaten streak came to an end. A relatively uneventful
first half in Nancy saw visiting goalkeeper Anthony Lopes, making just his second
start in the French top-flight in the absence of long-term injury casualty
Remy Vercoutre, produce a smart low save to deny Benjamin Moukandjo on the
quarter hour.
Lisandro Lopez then fired just wide from distance for Lyon before Paul Alo’o
Efoulou sent an acrobatic effort narrowly over Lopes’ crossbar just prior to halftime.
Gomis replaced Lisandro after the break, making an immediate impact as he
escaped Jordan Loties inside the box and drilled past Damien Gregorini from
close range three minutes after his introduction.
Yassine Benzia almost doubled Lyon’s advantage as he ran onto Maxime
Gonalons’ clever through ball and rounded Gregorini, only for Vincent Muraroti
to make a fine sliding intervention to turn the ball behind.
Lopes then made a sharp stop to thwart Moukandjo as Gourcuff eventually
put the game beyond Nancy’s reach on 80 minutes as he drilled home Gueida
Fofana’s pass from the edge of the box. Gourcuff turned provider for Gomis’ second,
Lyon’s third, a minute from time as he picked out the France striker in the
area for Gomis to shrug off Sebastien Puygrenier and place a crisp finish
beyond Gregorini.
Earlier, Nice strengthened their quest for European football next season,
climbing to fourth, three points behind Lyon, following a 3-0 victory at slumping
Rennes.
Dario Cvitanich netted two second-half goals, the second of which came
from the penalty spot, to take his haul to 17 for the campaign, while Eric
Bautheac added a late third for Claude Puel’s side.
Defeat for Rennes means they’ve now just won once their last 11 outings, a
slide that has seen the League Cup runners-up drop from fifth down to a disappointing
11th.
Paris Saint-Germain can move to within a point of their first Ligue 1 crown
since 1994 later on Sunday if they beat mid-table Valenciennes at the Parc des
Princes. — AFP
the hosts were awarded a penalty just before
the hour after midfielder Massimo Donati
fouled Bianconeri striker Mirko Vucinic in the
area, Vidal stepped up to beat Stefano
Sorrentino in the Palermo goal.
Vidal was cautioned for over-exuberant celebrations
but the goal sent Juventus Stadium
into raptures. Juve’s title celebrations were
tinged by the late sending-off of French midfielder
Paul Pogba, who saw red seven minutes
from the final whistle after spitting at Salvatore
Aronica following a shouting match with the
defender.
Juventus, who won the title in 2012 after
being unbeaten in the league the entire season,
have lost only four times this campaign.
The Turin giants have now secured one of
two spots in Serie A which offer direct qualification
for next season’s Champions League, with
Napoli poised to claim the runners-up spot.
FRANCE: Nancy’s Cameroonian forward Paul Alo’o Efoulou (right)
fights for the ball with Lyon’s French defender Samuel Umtiti (left)
during their French League football match. — AFP
AC Milan, currently third, boosted their
chances of claiming the last Champions League
spot after an 84th-minute winner from Mario
Balotelli secured a 1-0 home win over Torino.
Milan now have a four-point lead over
Fiorentina with three games remaning. If
Napoli lose to Inter, Allegri’s side could realistically
hope to close the four-point gap to second.
Elsewhere Lazio made up for their rollercoaster
end to the season with a 6-0 rout of
hapless Bologna, who saw veteran German
striker Miroslav Klose hit the net five times to
take his tally to 15 for the season.
Lazio remain seventh, two points behind
Udinese and three adrift of Roma who occupy
the final qualifying spot in the league for next
season’s Europa League.
Klose was not the only veteran striker to hit
form yesterday. Antonio Di Natale scored a
brace for Udinese in a 3-1 win over Sampdoria
BERLIN: The battle to stay in the Bundesliga is
set to go to the wire after relegation-threatened
Augsburg lost 2-0 at Freiburg yesterday.
Augsburg are one of four teams fighting to
stay in Germany’s top tier with just two games
left. Goals by Congo’s Cedrick Makiadi and
Jonathan Schmid left Freiburg sixth, good
enough to qualify for next season’s Europa
League, but leaves Augsburg deep in the relegation
mire.
The Bavarians are 16th in the league, which
means a relegation/play-off clash over two
legs against the team who finish third in the
second division at the end of the season.
Bottom side Greuther Fuerth, who earned a
shock 2-0 win at VfB Stuttgart on Saturday,
have already been relegated, but will be joined
by one more team, either Hoffenheim,
Augsburg, Fortuna Duesseldorf or Werder
Bremen.
Hoffenheim, second from bottom, are two
points from safety after substitute Sven
Schipplock scored twice in the last six minutes
to rescue a point in the 2-2 draw at Werder
Bremen, who are three points above the danger
zone.
Duesseldorf, 15th, are level with Augsburg
on points after their 3-1 defeat at Eintracht
Frankfurt. Augsburg have the unenviable task
of playing at Bayern Munich next Saturday,
when the champions will lift the Bundesliga
shield, before hosting Fuerth.
Next weekend, Hoffenheim host Hamburg,
then travel to Dortmund on the final matchday,
while Werder are home to Frankfurt, who
are bidding for a Champions League place,
then travel to Nuremberg. Duesseldorf have
arguably the easiest run in as they face midtable
opposition in Nuremberg away, then face
Hanover 96 at home. Later Hamburg stayed
three-points shy of the Europa League places
which boosted the northern side’s Europa
League hopes and left him just three goals
short of Serie A’s leading scorer Edinson Cavani.
Uruguayan international Cavani has topped
the Serie A goal charts since mid-season when he
overtook Stephan El Shaarawy of AC Milan.
However, the Napoli striker has been served
notice that it could be a duel to the end for the
‘Capocannoniere’ - the league’s top goal scorer’s
prize. Gonzalo Bergessio, meanwhile, hit a hattrick
for Catania in a 3-0 win over Siena which
has left the latter in dire need of points from
their last three matches if they are to avoid relegation.
That was a fate that basement side
Pescara could not avoid, the Adriatic coast
side suffering a 4-1 defeat away to Genoa
which sent them straight back to Serie B.
Pescara are 10 points adrift of Palermo, who
are third from bottom and occupy the final relegation
place. — AFP
Bundesliga relegation
battle to go to the wire
with a 1-1 draw at home to mid-table
Wolfsburg after Heiko Westermann’s first-half
header was cancelled out by Wolves’ Japan star
Makoto Hasebe on 65 minutes.
On Saturday, Borussia Dortmund ended
ten-man Bayern’s 14-match winning streak as
the warm-up for the Champions League final
ended in a 1-1 draw.
Both sides fielded just a handful of firstchoice
players set to start the Wembley final
on May 25 — six from Dortmund and four
from Bayern. Bayern had already been
crowned Bundesliga champions four weeks
ago and the point confirmed Dortmund finish
second.
An early goal by Dortmund wing Kevin
Grosskreutz was cancelled out when Mario
Gomez was left unmarked at the far post on 23
minutes and the Germany star headed Munich
level. Dortmund had a second-half penalty
saved when Robert Lewandowski’s shot was
blocked by Manuel Neuer with an hour gone,
but Bayern were reduced to 10 men for the
final 25 minutes when right-back Rafinha was
sent off.
During his tussle down the right with
Dortmund midfielder Jakub Blaszczykowski,
the Brazilian thrust his elbow up into the
Poland captain’s face for a straight red.
Blaszczykowski was also shown a yellow for
remonstrating with the referee, while a heated
discussion flared up on the sidelines between
Bayern’s director of sport Matthias Sammer
and Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp.
Third-placed Bayer Leverkusen sealed automatic
qualification for the Champions League
with a 2-0 win at Nuremberg.
Schalke 04 closed in on the Champions
League qualifying rounds with a 1-0 victory at
Borussia Moenchengladbach on Friday which
kept them fourth. — AFP

Business
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
India: Pharmacy of the world
Oman plans dollar bond
for first time in 17 years
Page 22
Stalemated WTO nears
choice for new leader
Page 23
Page 25
Al-Mazaya reports 92%
rise in net revenues
Page 26
BEIJING: People walk past a group of bulbs on display in front of a shopping mall in Beijing yesterday. Manufacturing activity in China slowed slightly in April from the previous month, official data showed on May 1, in a sign of further
weakness in the world’s second-biggest economy. —AFP
UAE, Kuwait markets rise, Saudi slips
DUBAI: Most Gulf markets rose yesterday
as upbeat sentiment in local fundamentals
encouraged renewed buying, while Saudi
Arabia’s bourse slipped from a three-week
high as investors book gains.
UAE bourses rallied, with Dubai’s measure
up 1.9 percent to end at a fresh 41-
month high. The number of shares changing
hands - at 547.9 million - is the highest
one-day volume on the index in 14
months. Air Arabia and Dubai Investments
jumped 5.8 and 5.7 percent respectively.
Sentiment has improved in the emirate
as Dubai successfully restructured some of
its maturing debts and repaid others, and
the two main sectors present on the
exchange - real estate and banks - have
somewhat recovered from the 2008 financial
crisis.
Dubai’s government said yesterday it
had fully repaid 3.34 billion dirhams ($909
million) of bonds which were due on April
MIDEAST STOCK MARKETS
Banks paint wider targets after early misses
LONDON: It has taken banks years to rein in their optimism
and start setting targets they have some chance of
meeting, finally chastened by conspicuous failure in
meeting the unrealistic expectations they touted.
After the collapse of investment bank Lehman
Brothers in 2008, industry survivors reacted to the crisis of
confidence in the sector by reassuring shaken investors
with a raft of promises to show they were ahead of a perilous
game. But new research by Cambridge-based consultancy
Tricumen shows the capital markets units of
eight of the world’s biggest investment banks have, so far
at least, met less than a third of the close to 80 targets
they have cited in investor presentations since late 2008.
In 2009/10, they promised revenue growth, job cuts,
lower cost-income ratios and better profit margins. “I
would characterize a lot of those targets as aspirational,”
said the CFO of one major bank of its 2009 aims.
A source at another said their financial targets were
“swept away by the crisis”, while a third said, “Of course
we didn’t make our pretax profit targets. Nobody did.”
Banks met most of their ‘firm’ cost/headcount reductions
and funding targets but “largely missed their revenue/profitability
targets”, Tricumen said.
The section on Deutsche Bank shows that in late 2009
Germany’s biggest bank unveiled eye-catching 2011
earnings targets for its investment bank, including pretax
income of 6.4 billion euros for its corporate banking and
securities unit, when analysts had pencilled in 4.5 billion
euros. Ultimately, it managed just 2.9 billion euros.
French bank Societe Generale (SocGen) wowed
investors with medium-term targets’ for return on equity
(ROE) in May 2009, which Tricumen said it missed.
Deutsche Bank and SocGen declined to say why, but for
most of the sector it’s no mystery. “Growth recovered in
2009, and management teams were far too bullish - headcount
increased in 2010 as investment banks targeted
revenue growth, a clear mistake, with hindsight,” said
Deutsche Bank analyst Matt Spick, speaking about banks
in general, not his own institution.
The quickening pace of regulation also played a part.
Though new Basel III rules on capital requirements don’t
fully come into play until 2019, many banks are already
being measured against them and so have modified their
businesses. “There was a sense of denial about the impact
23. “Despite the rally, valuations in the
UAE are still attractive,” said Rami Sidani,
head of investment at Schroders Middle
East. “Yields are compelling with as much
as 5-6 percent in the main Abu Dhabi
banks. This will keep driving interest.”
Abu Dhabi’s index advanced 0.8 percent,
extending year-to-date gains to 25.7
percent. Energy firm Dana Gas was the
main support, rising 7.7 percent on market
talk it may spin off operations in
Kurdistan into a new listed company. The
company denied the speculation.
National Bank of Abu Dhabi shed 2 percent
but the stock is still up 28.2 percent
in 2013.
JP Morgan cut its rating on NBAD to
‘neutral’ in a May 3 note, saying the share
price is trading at a premium level of 10.9-
times estimated 2013 earnings.
“In the current low yield environment
with limited domestic lending growth
opportunities, we believe that the best
way ahead for banks like NBAD - with
higher than required Tier 1 in our view - to
enhance underlying return on equities is
by optimizing (the) capital structure,” it
said, pointing towards higher dividends,
share buybacks and acquisitions as ways
to do this. The US investment bank
upgraded Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank to
overweight and retained its overweight
rating on First Gulf Bank, it said in the
same note.
Qatar’s bourse gained 0.4 percent to a
fresh 11-week high, and Oman’s index rose
0.5 percent. Kuwait’s benchmark climbed
1.6 percent, extending its 2013 advance to
30 percent.
In Saudi Arabia, the kingdom’s benchmark
slipped 0.1 percent, trimming yearto-date
gains to 5.9 percent.
Petrochemical shares declined, with the
sector’s index losing 0.3 percent. Saudi
of Basel III and how quickly it would come,” the CFO said.
Beyond the unpredictable revenue line, which many
bankers privately admit they were foolish to target so
publicly, progress on absolute costs has also been slow.
Tricumen doesn’t include much detail on banks that
missed cost-cutting targets, but equally finds few that
clearly met them. This is partly because absolute cost targets
were embraced by banks relatively recently, so many
stretch beyond 2013.
In the broader universe of European banks, the 39 that
Deutsche covers are expected to have 292 billion euros of
operating costs this year, almost identical to 2010. Spick
said banks faced a major costs challenge as they migrate
from traditional to electronic trading. “Going electronic
sounds more headcount efficient, but banks initially have
to run dual systems,” he said.
“Take cash equities; the majority by volume is electronic
execution, yet as an industry we still have 70 percent
of the workforce from the old ‘high touch’ business,
which has meant that net headcount reductions in cash
equities have been far too small to maintain profits.”
“Despite running very fast, banks are standing still,”
said Matthieu Lemerle, a London-based partner at
McKinsey, which advises banks on cost cutting. Ajay
Rawal, a managing director with Alvarez & Marsal’s financial
industry practice, said IT savings often took longer
than expected, while staff cuts were “a bit more predictable”.
In a March 2009 presentation Credit Suisse promised it
would cut investment banking headcount from 21,300 at
end-September 2008 to 17,500 by the end of 2009, which
Tricumen says it missed based on detail in Credit Suisse’s
2009 accounts. Credit Suisse says some targets Tricumen
shows as missed were achieved but offset by new hires as
it invested in IT infrastructure, grew its fixed income sales
force and upped numbers in prime services and cash
equities. Cost cuts were also obscured by investment,
Credit Suisse added.
More recent industry targets are noticeably different.
Several banks, including Switzerland’s UBS, have moved
the message away from revenue and net income towards
absolute cost reduction, which are more within banks’
control but could take years to show as redundancy and
other one-off costs bite. New costs such as regulation and
Basic Industries Corp (SABIC), the world’s
largest chemicals company, dipped 0.5
percent.
“Fund managers and analysts are
assessing the first-quarter earnings and I
don’t think anyone has taken a strong
direction yet,” said Abdullah Alawi, assistant
general manager and head of
research at Aljazira Capital.
The market is at the mercy of retail
speculative trading, he added. Such a
trend usually means focus is on small and
mid-cap stocks, which can be moved easier
for a quick profit.
National Agriculture Marketing Co, one
of the smallest stocks on the index by
market capitalization, dipped 3.3 percent.
The number of shares changing hands
yesterday was the highest in a single session
for the firm in over two years.
Egypt’s exchange was closed yesterday
due to a public holiday. — Reuters
litigation have also blunted the net effect of even successful
cuts programs. Another favorite goal is cutting
risk-weighted assets (RWAs), against which a bank’s capital
adequacy is measured, by selling assets or changing
the business model. “Banks can decide how much asset
risk they want to take into the balance sheet quite easily.
It’s hard to control how much revenue they make,” said
Spick.
In Barclays February 2013 strategic review management
targeted “single digit growth” for its investment
bank from 2012 to 2015, said RWA would fall between 27
and 47 billion pounds and the ratio of compensation to
income would drop from 39 percent to the “mid 30s”. The
2015 ROE target is 14 to 15 percent, against 13.7 percent
in 2012. Others, like SocGen, are moving from hard figures
to more general aims. Its latest presentations on corporate
and investment banking goals “targeted strategic
development” where it will “selectively expand to better
serve our clients” and invest “to increase profitability and
capture market share”. “We will communicate on financial
targets once we have the definitive rules of the game. I
think it is premature today,” SocGen CEO Frederic Oudea
said in February. Part of the reason the targeting is getting
better is that banks are now five years into the costcut
cycle, and the low-hanging fruit has long been
plucked, peeled and swallowed. The changes banks are
contemplating now are far more fundamental, as revenue
settles at a ‘new normal’, well below pre-crisis levels.
“It’s not about removing flowers in the lobby or
restricting access to certain classes of travel,” said
McKinsey’s Lemerle. “(For some) the underlying complexity
of the platform is too high for the new revenue-generating
capability of the platform.”
Some are introducing solutions like LEAN manufacturing
techniques to the trading floor so traders work across
a wider range of assets and have less slow time in a day.
“The widget I’m selling is a derivative trade. I have to
apply industrial discipline to that product,” said Lemerle.
Selling widgets might be lightyears from the self-image
of investment banking’s erstwhile ‘Masters of the
Universe’, but after too many broken promises, the pressure
is on to deliver. “We just want to be known as the
management team that does what we’ve said we’ll do,”
said the CFO.— Reuters
Dubai repays
$910m matured
bonds: Govt
DUBAI: The Dubai government said yesterday it has
repaid in full $910 million of maturing bonds, declaring
it reflected a commitment of the indebted Gulf
emirate to honour its obligations.
“All the outstanding notes were redeemed in full,”
upon maturity on April 23, the government said in a
statement referring to the bond issue valued at 3.34
billion dirhams ($910 million).
The bonds were issued under the government’s 15-
billion-dirham Medium Term Note Program dated April
14, 2008, it said, adding repayments included all outstanding
notes and accrued interest.
“This repayment reaffirms Dubai government’s
commitment to deal with its repayment obligations in
a proactive manner,” said Abdulrahman Saleh Al-Saleh,
head of the finance department. “It also strengthens
the government’s resolve to honor all its financial obligations
on time,” he was quoted as saying in the statement.
Dubai rocked global markets in 2009 when its
largest group Dubai World signalled a need to freeze
payments on debt exceeding $26 billion, before getting
government help and reaching an agreement
with lenders to restructure $14.7 billion.
The emirate’s economy contracted 2.4 percent in
2009, but it has since made a comeback, growing 2.8
percent in 2010 and 3.4 percent in 2011, as tourism,
trade and transport keep expanding. — AFP
US economy coming
out of its long funk
WASHINGTON: A stronger-than-expected April rebound in
job creation and recent dramatic discoveries of vast US oil and
gas reserves are helping to lift the American economy out its
long funk.
The economic good news is also drawing attention to the
importance of private-sector innovation rather than government
policy in fostering growth. The Labor Department’s
report that payrolls expanded by 165,000 jobs last month and
the unemployment rate declined to a four-year low of 7.5 percent
does not represent explosive job growth by any measure.
Yet the report offered a big sigh of relief to President
Barack Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress. It also
may help blunt Republican criticism of Obama’s policies and
make it easier for him to give more attention to other issues
on his agenda, including immigration, gun control and global
warming. At the same time, it provided the GOP with more
support for their call for a smaller government and fewer regulations
on business. The recent jobs improvements were
mostly driven by private-sector gains independent of action
by the president and Congress.
Most legislative fiscal stimulus programs, begun in 2008
under President George W Bush and expanded under Obama,
have run their course. The Federal Reserve, however, continues
to stimulate the economy by holding down interest rates
and effectively printing money to buy government and mortgage-related
bonds. In fact, the report showed employer confidence
about the economic outlook even in the face of new
federal budget cuts. Economists widely agree that job gains
would have been bigger were it not for the automatic acrossthe-board
cuts that are beginning to take an $85 billion bite
out of government spending.—AP

BUSINESS
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
News
in brief
ADCB buys back shares
DUBAI: Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, the United
Arab Emirates’ third-largest lender by market value,
bought back shares worth 1.15 billion dirhams
($313.1 million) at the end of last week, the bank
said in a statement yesterday. The trade of 261.87
million shares represented 4.68 percent of the
lender’s total share capital and is by far the largest
transaction completed by the bank since the regulator
gave it permission in January to purchase up to
10 percent of its share capital. The shares were
bought at 4.40 dirhams each, the statement added,
equivalent to a 5.6 percent discount to Wednesday’s
closing share price. ADCB’s shares hit a 4-1/2 year
high on Wednesday; the bank posted a 5 percent
increase in first-quarter net profit. United Arab
Emirates stocks, in particular banks, have benefited
in recent months from renewed optimism toward
the local economy. The Abu Dhabi index was up 24.4
percent in the first four months of this year, while
ADCB jumped 52.8 percent in the same period.
Dana Gas denies asset sales
DUBAI: Speculation that Dana Gas is poised to spin
off its assets in the Kurdistan region of Iraq are baseless,
the company said in a statement yesterday.
Shares in Abu Dhabi energy firm Dana jumped 8
percent to a 17-month high earlier in the day on
market talk that it might spin off its operations in
Kurdistan and list them on a stock market. “There is
absolutely no basis to rumors of spinning off or selling
Kurdistan or any other assets, and the fact that
the company has been studying options for an international
listing was announced over a year ago,” a
spokesman said.
Gulf Capital gets $120m
loan for Saudi project
ABU DHABI: Abu Dhabi-based private equity firm Gulf
Capital signed a 450 million riyals ($120 million) loan facility
with Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank to finance
its first real estate project in the kingdom, it said yesterday.
Gulf Capital announced plans to enter the Saudi property
market last year with a $1 billion project in Riyadh to tap
growing demand for residential units in the country.
The ten-year loan facility will be used to develop the
650 million riyals first phase of a residential compound
comprising 525 units, Gulf Capital said. The remaining 200
million riyals will be raised through equity funding from
Gulf Related, the real estate arm of Gulf Capital.
Gulf Related is a joint venture between Gulf Capital and
New York-based Related Companies, a privately owned real
estate firm. Construction for the project will start next
week and completion is scheduled for May 2015. The second
phase of the project will be developed after two years.
“The size of our new project in Saudi Arabia and the
extent of our financial commitment reflect our strong
belief in the residential sector in the Kingdom,” Emile
Habib, managing director, Gulf Related, told reporters.
Demand for housing units in Saudi Arabia is projected at
1.3 million residential units over the next seven years, he
said. — Reuters
DAMAC to build
Trump-branded
golf course in Dubai
DUBAI: DAMAC Properties, a privately held developer, said
yesterday it would work with American real-estate mogul
Donald Trump to build a new golf course in Dubai, adding
to a growing list of project announcements in the emirate.
Developers in Dubai are reviving stalled projects and
announcing new ones as the emirate’s property market
recovers gradually after prices tumbled by 50 percent in
2008.
The Trump International Golf Club Dubai will be at the
centre of DAMAC’s 28 million square foot development
called ‘Akoya by DAMAC’, it said. Construction is already
underway and the course will be ready next year. DAMAC
said it will be the owner and developer of the property and
will use the “Trump” name under the terms of a management
agreement.
Oman plans dollar bond
for first time in 17 years
High oil prices limited need to issue debt
MANAMA: Oman is considering whether to issue a US
dollar-denominated sovereign bond, its first international
bond since 1997 and its second ever, to facilitate debt
sales by its private sector, finance minister Darwish Al-
Balushi told Reuters.
“This year we do not plan but maybe for next year,
and this is not because of our immediate borrowing
requirements but because we want to pave the way for
the private sector,” Balushi said late on Saturday. “We
want to establish a benchmark,” he said on the sidelines
of a meeting of Gulf Arab finance ministers in Bahrain.
Oman last tapped the international bond market with
a $225 million eurobond in March 1997, when oil prices
stood at around $20 per barrel. It sold a five-year bond at
a premium of just 73 basis points over US Treasuries.
Since then, oil prices have risen sharply, to above $100 at
present, so the country - which currently depends on oil
for 86 percent of its budget income - has not needed to
issue much debt. With the exception of 2009, it has posted
budget surpluses every year since 1998.
In recent years it has sold small issues of local currency
development bonds, but the ratio of its gross government
debt to gross domestic product was just 6.1 percent
in 2012, the second lowest in the Gulf after Saudi
Arabia, compared to a peak of 38.6 percent in 1998.
Balushi said his ministry had not yet decided on the
parameters of the new dollar bond but it would be at
least of benchmark size; typically, that means $500 million.
“We will see. It should be something reasonable to
attract investors because if it is too small, investors will
not be (interested) - we want to also attract a variety of
investment.”
Since the uprisings elsewhere in the Arab world in
2011, pressure on Oman’s budget has increased as it has
spent more to ensure social peace. Balushi estimated in
January that the government would need an oil price
averaging $104 to balance its budget this year. The
International Monetary Fund presented a bleak outlook
for Oman’s public finances last month, predicting the
budget could slip into a deficit of 3.8 percent of GDP as
soon as 2015, with the gap widening to as much as 13.3
percent in 2018.
By reestablishing Oman’s presence in the international
bond market, a sovereign issue could pave the way for
regular deficit financing through bond issues several
years from now.
Balushi said last month that spending policy would
BRUSSELS: There are significant opportunities to serve a
growing number of individual and institutional clients in
the Middle East, particularly those based in the Gulf
states, according to a top European banker. “Despite
impact of the global financial crisis and events of the
Arab Spring, the Middle East remains a young, vibrant
region with dynamic, increasingly diversified national
economies, especially in the Gulf,” according to Jacques
Peters, Group Chief executive officer at KBL European
Private Bankers, a leading Luxembourg-headquartered
private banking group with operations in nine European
countries.
Last year, KBL European Private Bankers was acquired
by Precision Capital, a Luxembourg company representing
the business interests of Qatar.
“We have the skills and expertise to serve those
clients, including staff who are specialized in structuring
become more conservative in coming years. He insisted
on Saturday that any forthcoming sovereign bond issue
would not be in response to an urgent need, and he disputed
the IMF’s analysis. “This is based on a scenario
that oil prices will come down from their level today and
expenditure will take the same trend as in 2011, 2012
and 2013,” he said.
“We do not agree with this because we think that the
trend of expenditure will not rise, because in 2011, 2012
there was some reason, but this reason will not continue
and therefore expenditure will not go at the same level
higher going forward.”
To diversify its economy beyond crude oil and gas
production, Oman is spending heavily on industrial projects,
including a multibillion-dollar scheme to transform
the southern coastal town of Duqm into an industrial
centre. Creating a benchmark for Omani corporations to
issue bonds could help them finance some of this construction.
In March, partially state-owned Bank Muscat, Oman’s
largest lender, priced a $500 million, five-year bond in its
first dollar debt issue in nine years. The Omani government
has also said it plans its first-ever issue of rialdenominated
sukuk (Islamic bonds) next year, and outlined
issuance of 200 million rials ($519 million) worth of
local currency bonds in its 2013 budget. — Reuters
JALALABAD: Afghan farmers work in a wheat field on the outskirts of Jalalabad yesterday. Only about 15 percent
of Afghanistan’s land, mostly in scattered valleys, is suitable for farming with about 6 percent of the land actually
cultivated with wheat being the most important crop. — AFP
Gulf economies remain
Dynamic, says banker
Sharia-compliant solutions,” he said in an interview with
the latest Newsletter of the ‘Luxembourg for Finance,’ the
agency for the development of the financial centre in
Luxembourg. It published a special edition titled
“Luxembourg Meets the Middle East.”
Peters said that like many of the Gulf states,
Luxembourg is a diverse country that welcomes anyone
from outside its borders who is keen to contribute to economic
growth.
“Today, about 40 percent of our total resident population
is foreign and that doesn’t include the hundreds of
thousands of so-called frontaliers, those who commute
here on a daily basis from neighboring countries like
Belgium, France and Germany,” he noted.On his part,
Rachid Ouaich, head of European operations at Wafra
Capital Partners, a company that only offers sharia-compliant
products, told the newsletter that most of their
clients are located in Kuwait.
“If you look at the growth of Islamic finance compared
to conventional finance in the Middle East or South-East
Asia, Islamic Finance is the sector that is growing the
fastest,” he said. He said that as an important entry to the
Middle Eastern market, Turkey plays a significant role.
“This country has one of the fastest growing
economies worldwide. There is a natural link between the
Middle East and Turkey, a cultural link”, noted Ouaich.
“People see Turkey as a market with a bright future. Now
that the environment is more and more investor friendly
they all want to invest there; it’s a natural attraction,” he
added. On her part, Valerie Mantot, head of Luxembourg
office of the law firm Loyens&Loeff said “most countries of
the Middle East are growing rapidly; the key to success is
to be able to identify for each of them the value that can
be added by Luxembourg.” — KUNA
EXCHANGE RATES
Commercial Bank of Kuwait
US Dollar/KD .2770000 .2880000
GB Pound/KD .4310000 .4470000
Euro .3680000 .3760000
Swiss francs .3020000 .3170000
Canadian Dollar .2780000 .2920000
Australian DLR .2940000 .3020000
Indian rupees .0040000 .0069000
Sri Lanka Rupee .0020000 .0035000
UAE dirhams .0771240 .0778990
Bahraini dinars .7513970 .7589480
Jordanian dinar .3930000 .4110000
Saudi riyals .0720000 .0770000
Omani riyals .7366120 .7440150
Egyptian pounds .0370000 .0440000
CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES
US Dollar/KD .2841000 .2862000
GB Pound/KD .4338920 .4370990
Euro .3707360 .3734770
Swiss francs .3043390 .3065880
Canadian dollars .2795430 .2816100
Danish Kroner .0497330 .0501010
Swedish Kroner .0443660 .0446940
Australian dlr .2963730 .2985640
Hong Kong dlr .0365940 .0368650
Singapore dlr .2291130 .2308060
Japanese yen .0029600 .0028810
Indian Rs/KD .0000000 .0052870
Sri Lanka rupee .0000000 .0022880
Pakistan rupee .0000000 .0029190
Bangladesh taka .0000000 .0036810
UAE dirhams .0773800 .0779520
Bahraini dinars .7538810 .7594530
Jordanian dinar .0000000 .4048090
Saudi Riyal/KD .0757800 .0763400
Omani riyals .7382100 .7436660
Philippine Peso .0000000 .0069870
Al-Muzaini Exchange Co.
ASIAN COUNTRIES
Japanese Yen 2.917
Indian Rupees 5.294
Pakistani Rupees 2.892
Srilankan Rupees 2.246
Nepali Rupees 3.297
Singapore Dollar 231.870
Hongkong Dollar 36.748
Bangladesh Taka 3.651
Philippine Peso 6.927
Thai Baht 9.728
Malaysian ringgit 94.221
Irani Riyal 0.271
Irani Riyal 0.273
GCC COUNTRIES
Saudi Riyal 76.084
Qatari Riyal 78.395
Omani Riyal 741.070
Bahraini Dinar 757.810
UAE Dirham 77.690
ARAB COUNTRIES
Egyptian Pound - Cash 39.950
Egyptian Pound - Transfer 40.618
Yemen Riyal/for 1000 1.331
Tunisian Dinar 177.970
Jordanian Dinar 402.291
Lebanese Lira/for 1000 1.914
Syrian Lier 3.100
Morocco Dirham 34.238
EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES
US Dollar Transfer 285.200
Euro 374.750
Sterling Pound 443.340
Canadian dollar 282.940
Turkish lira 158.720
Swiss Franc 306.010
US Dollar Buying 284.000
GOLD
20 Gram 298.000
10 Gram 150.000
5 Gram 77.500
UAE Exchange Centre WLL
COUNTRY SELL DRAFT
SELL CASH
Australian Dollar 299.45 298.000
Canadian Dollar 285.97 285.000
Swiss Franc 306.21 307.000
Euro 376.06 374.500
US Dollar 284.60 285.500
Sterling Pound 444.81 449.000
Japanese Yen 2.98 3.300
Bangladesh Taka 3.675 3.720
Indian Rupee 5.263 5.450
Sri Lankan Rupee 2.245 2.430
Nepali Rupee 3.313 3.400
Pakistani Rupee 2.896 2.953
UAE Dirhams 77.55 78.000
Bahraini Dinar 757.78 756.800
Egyptian Pound 40.62 40.500
Jordanian Dinar 405.45 410.000
Omani Riyal 740.69 743.000
Qatari Riyal 78.59 78.500
Saudi Riyal 76.02 76.400
Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd
Rate for Transfer Selling Rate
US Dollar 285.000
Canadian Dollar 286.360
Sterling Pound 444.895
Euro 374.265
Swiss Frank 305.150
Bahrain Dinar 754.545
UAE Dirhams 77.570
Qatari Riyals 78.230
Saudi Riyals 75.965
Jordanian Dinar 401.755
Egyptian Pound 40.465
Sri Lankan Rupees 2.254
Indian Rupees 5.294
Pakistani Rupees 2.894
Bangladesh Taka 3.652
Philippines Pesso 6.952
Cyprus pound 699.120
Japanese Yen 3.875
Thai Bhat 9.680
Syrian Pound 4.060
Nepalese Rupees 3.395
Malaysian Ringgit 93.855
Bahrain Exchange Company
COUNTRY SELL CASH SELLDRAFT
Europe
British Pound 0.4370972 0.4460972
Czech Korune 0.0061567 0.0181567
Danish Krone 0.0460968 0.0510968
Euro 0.3689556 0.3764556
Norwegian Krone 0.0451451 0.0503451
Scottish Pound 0.4332070 0.4407070
Swedish Krona 0.0397769 0.0447769
Swiss Franc 0.2996574 0.3066574
Australasia
Australian Dollar 0.2842247 0.2962247
New Zealand Dollar 0.2355748 0.2455748
Uganda Shilling 0.0001114 0.0001114
America
Canadian Dollar 0.2758529 0.2848529
Colombian Peso 0.0001450 0.0001630
US Dollars 0.2829000 0.2850500
Asia
Bangladesh Taka 0.0036104 0.0036654
Cape Vrde Escudo 0.0031600 0.0033922
Chinese Yuan 0.0451557 0.0501557
Eritrea-Nakfa 0.0164700 0.0195700
Guinea Franc 0.0000442 0.0000502
Hg Kong Dollar 0.0341806 0.0372806
Indian Rupee 0.0052168 0.0052808
Indonesian Rupiah 0.0000243 0.0000294
Jamaican Dollars 0.0028477 0.0038477
Japanese Yen 0.0027972 0.0029772
Kenyan Shilling 0.0033500 0.0035800
Malaysian Ringgit 0.0889109 0.0959109
Nepalese Rupee 0.0031537 0.0033537
Pakistan Rupee 0.0028706 0.0029106
Philippine Peso 0.0065243 0.0069943
Sierra Leone 0.0000728 0.0000758
Singapore Dollar 0.2269659 0.2329659
Sri Lankan Rupee 0.0022139 0.0022559
Thai Baht 0.0092294 0.0098294
Arab
Bahraini Dinar 0.7496745 0.7581745
Egyptian Pound 0.0385342 0.0405642
Ethiopeanbirr 0.0128902 0.0193902
Ghanaian Cedi 0.1483801 0.1501701
Iranian Riyal 0.0000793 0.0000798
Iraqi Dinar 0.0001734 0.0002334
Jordanian Dinar 0.3964753 0.4039753
Kuwaiti Dinar 1.0000000 1.0000000
Lebanese Pound 0.0001748 0.0001948
Moroccan Dirhams 0.0220208 0.0460208
Nigerian Naira 0.0012114 0.0018464
Omani Riyal 0.7293790 0.7403790
Qatar Riyal 0.0776409 0.0784239
Saudi Riyal 0.0754800 0.0761200
Sudanese Pounds 0.0463475 0.0468975
Syrian Pound 0.0031807 0.0034007
Tunisian Dinar 0.1754013 0.1814013
UAE Dirhams 0.0761813 0.0776313
Yemeni Riyal 0.0012859 0.0013859
Al Mulla Exchange
Currency Transfer Rate (Per 1000)
US Dollar 284.700
Euro 376.250
Pound Sterling 445.900
Canadian Dollar 284.650
Japanese Yen 2.950
Indian Rupee 5.275
Egyptian Pound 40.570
Sri Lankan Rupee 2.252
Bangladesh Taka 3.650
Philippines Peso 6.905
Pakistan Rupee 2.893
Bahraini Dinar 758.000
UAE Dirham 77.500
Saudi Riyal 76.000
*Rates are subject to change

BUSINESS
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
Dwindling returns jack up
race between CBs, SWFs
By Hayder Tawfik
Signs of more competition between
Central banks and Sovereign
Wealth Funds are becoming more
apparent as they both are chasing investment
returns. They both have similar
investment strategies and that is to maximize
returns. Central banks usually favorer
short dated government bonds i.e.
maximum maturity of 5 years. However,
with yields falling to way below 1 percent,
the pressure is rising on them to
look for other assets. They do have the
mandate to invest in equities same as
Sovereign Wealth Funds.
In recent years more and more central
banks have begun to invest in domestic,
foreign equities and corporate bonds to
enhance their own investment returns.
Some central banks in Asia have started
adopting portfolios similar to the Swiss
National bank. These central banks have
more advantages over the Sovereign
wealth Funds. They have the skilled managers
and the long experience. The
young Sovereign Wealth Funds rely on
outside managers to enhance their
investment returns. Over the last few
years, central banks have raised the hurdle
for the Sovereign Wealth Funds needed
to compete and to justify further fund
transfers from their governments.
This kind of aggressive competition
By Ole Hansen
KUWAIT: The cut in interest rates by the
European Central Bank to an all-time low,
together with the US Federal Reserve
maintaining its asset purchase program,
has been the main supporting features
this week ahead of the monthly US job
report. Earlier in the week, a worse-thanexpected
manufacturing PMI from China
and a record weekly build in US crude
inventories had the markets reeling, at
least for while. In the agriculture space,
wet and cold conditions in the US
Midwest have lent support to the price of
key crops, especially corn and wheat, as
the planting progress is running much
behind the normal pace.
As seen below, the laggard was the
industrial metal sector, which did not
find much to cheer about considering
the softness seen in Chinese economic
activity. The energy sector also suffered
losses primarily driven by natural gas and
gasoline. Precious metals continue their
tentative recovery, led by palladium but
also gold, which, at the time of writing, is
on track for its second week of gains as
the tug-of-war between buyers in the
physical market and sellers in the paper
market (Exchange Traded Products and
futures) continues.
US corn and wheat futures were the
best performing commodities this week
as the above mentioned wet spring
weather has made it increasingly difficult
for growers to get into the fields with
their heavy machinery. Any further delay
to the corn planting carries the potential
of growers switching to soybeans, especially
after mid-May, and this could alter
the projection for corn inventories this
autumn and help support the price further.
As a result of this, the ratio between
November soybeans and December corn
has contracted from 2.31 to 2.16 as soybeans,
which have a shorter growing season,
could benefit from higher production
and see the price lag behind that of
corn.
Natural gas is the worst-performing
commodity this week after the price
dropped the most in nine months on
Thursday, at least temporarily halting a
may lead to investment in the wrong
assets or overpaying for some investments.
Central banks around the world
have $12 trillions of free reserve between
them, far more than Sovereign Wealth
Funds. For the central banks liquid investments
such as bonds and equities are at
the top of their investment priorities.
Since 2008 the yields on good quality,
liquid bonds have fallen sharply prompting
central banks to start looking at
investing in equities hence competing
with Sovereign Wealth Funds. This may
fundamentally alter the investment strategy
of central banks and Sovereign
Wealth Funds. Rather than competing
against one another, that is having
increasingly similar investment strategies,
they both could have more complementary
investment strategies going forward
with each specializing in different
asset classes. Central banks focusing
more on preserving liquidity and security
of their assets and Sovereign Wealth
Funds concentrating on enhancing
investment returns. Unfortunately, I cannot
see how they could work together at
a time when short and long term interest
rates are falling sharply and may end at
zero or even negative.
I expect that central banks will move
more aggressively into equities and clash
head on with Sovereign Wealth Funds.
This will create even more problems for
the traditional equity investors such as
pension funds, insurance companies,
mutual funds and worse retail equity
investors. Any move by the central banks
into equity investment will benefit big
multinational companies that are either
listed in their domestic market or abroad.
International companies listed in the US,
Japan and Europe will see their equity
valuations expanding more than the
markets.
This is all good news for international
equity investors who have a much longer
time horizon and the stamina to stand
day-to-day market volatility.
—Hayder Tawfik is Executive Vice President
of Asset Management, at Dimah Capital-
HT@dimah.com.kw
Weekly commodities update
CB action off-setting
sluggish growth data
rally that had been ongoing since mid-
February. The 7 percent sell-off was triggered
by a bigger-than-expected build in
weekly stockpiles following a prolonged
period of where consumption often
exceeded expectations thereby helping
drive the price higher. Momentum,
which had been slowing for the past
week, turned negative and traders may
want to look for support down towards
$3.85 per therm from the current level of
about $4 per therm.
Crude oil markets recovered strongly
from a mid-week sell-off following the
biggest weekly build in US crude inventories
on record. Increased imports saw oil
flood into the Gulf coast area, while the
bottleneck problems in the US Midwest
around the Cushing, the delivery hub for
WTI crude, saw a decent reduction, helping
the discount to Brent crude contract
further. WTI’s discount to Brent has contracted
rapidly since February and this
week it reached 8.7 USD/barrel, the lowest
level since December 2011. Having
once again found support below 100
USD/barrel Brent crude has been looking
for resistance and this has the potential of
carrying it as high as 106.50 over the
coming weeks. Demand is expected to
pick up in the autumn and current lowerthan-average
price levels are only being
maintained by OPEC’s continued production
above its stated target of 30 million
barrels per day. Any moves below $100,
therefore, has the potential of being
short-lived.
Gold survived a mid week sell-off and
is on track to record a second week of
gains following the dramatic sell-off that
hit the market back in April. An interest
rate cut in Europe and continued asset
purchase by the US Federal Reserve
together with weak macroeconomic data
lend support. Physical buying has been
another strong feature lending support,
but up against this the world of
Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) continue
to see gold holdings being reduced.
This is probably driven by institutional
accounts, which accounts for about half
of the investments in the SPDR Gold
Trust, the world’s largest. Hedge funds
have also been selling into the recent rally
resulting in the second-biggest short
position on record as they shift their
focus, at least for now, towards other
asset classes in the belief that renewed
upside is limited.
The combined selling from ETPs and
the reduction in net-long futures positions
held by hedge funds since the
beginning of the year amounts to almost
1,000 tons of gold. Unless we see these
two segments return to the buy side, further
upside seems limited at this stage.
However, should we manage to reclaim
the 1,525 USD/oz area, hedge funds
would probably begin to reduce short
position and that has the potential of carrying
gold higher, potentially as high as
1,585 USD/oz, which we believe could be
the near-term peak.— Saxo Bank
Stalemated WTO nears
choice for new leader
Mexican, Brazilian in race
GENEVA: The World Trade Organization
has overseen a 12-year stalemate in
global trade talks. On Wednesday, it will
decide whether an insider or an outsider
is better placed to break the deadlock.
In Mexico’s Herminio Blanco and
Brazil’s Roberto Azevedo, the WTO has
a choice between two highly qualified
Latin American trade diplomats who
would bring very differing approaches
to the job of replacing veteran WTO
head Pascal Lamy. Azevedo, Brazil’s
WTO ambassador and chief trade
negotiator, has been closely involved
with the trade body for almost its
entire history since its creation in
1995.
Blanco, a former trade minister
who negotiated the North American
Free Trade Agreement with the United
States and has spent the last 12 years
in business, sits on the boards of a
Mexican bank and a chemicals firm
and advises companies on international
trade. The two are the last of a
field of nine candidates hoping to succeed
Lamy as director general (DG) on
Sept 1.
As one of only two non-ministers
in the race, Azevedo began as a relatively
junior contender. But he was
admired for his diplomatic skill, such
KUWAIT: Two major events took place last week, the
FOMC statement, and the highly anticipated
European Central Bank press conference. The Federal
Reserve said that it would keep buying bonds at a
monthly pace, adding that “the Committee is prepared
to increase or reduce the pace of its purchases
to maintain appropriate policy accommodation as the
outlook for the labor market or inflation changes”. On
the other side of the Atlantic, the ECB have cut their
benchmark interest rate, in order to get credit flowing
through the European monetary union. Moreover,
Draghi argued that structural reforms are needed, and
that inflation risks are balanced, whereas linking some
upside risk to commodity prices seems misplaced.
The euro started the week on a positive note,
opening at 1.3020, following contradicting data from
the manufacturing sector, which pushed the single
currency higher against its American counterpart to
1.3116. The euro continued its climb against the US
dollar, as bad figures from the US continued to weigh
on the greenback. Furthermore, ahead of the FOMC
rate decision, the US currency extended its losses
against the euro after an industry report showed
America’s private employers added fewer jobs in April
than forecasted, leaving the euro to peak at 1.3243.
The euro then collapsed after the ECB rate cut, falling
to 1.3036. The euro closed the week at 1.3114. Cable
opened the week at 1.5473, only to rise following a
report that showed that British banks granted more
loans for homes in March than analysts expected,
adding signs that the economy is improving. The
Pound reached a high of 1.5606 as the USD tumbled
midweek. The Sterling Pound dropped against the US
dollar, following the ECB’s rate cut, and gaining dramatically
against the EUR. The Pound closed the week
at 1.5574. The Japanese Yen opened the week at
98.05, strengthening against a weaker US dollar
throughout the week, to touch a low of 97.01 on
Tuesday. The Japanese Yen then weakened against
the greenback on Thursday, as the USD strengthens
across the board. The JPY closed the week at 98.99.
The Swiss Franc strengthened against the US Dollar
since the beginning of the week. The CHF opened the
week at 0.9426, strengthening to a low of 0.9247
against the USD. The Swiss Franc closed the week at
0.9354.
Manufacturing industry in the United States
expanded at the slowest pace in 2013 last month, but
came better than forecasted; weighing on demand for
labor, adding signs that world’s largest economy is in a
slow-down. The Institute for Supply Management’s
factory index slipped to 50.7 in April, versus 51.3 the
previous month. As the number above 50 signals
expansion, the index surpassed the expected 50.5.
While factories are pulling back as the need to rebuild
fades, higher payroll taxes restrain consumer spending,
which counts for 70 percent of the US economy.
Unemployment
US private employers added fewer workers than
forecasted last month, signaling that the labor market
in the world’s largest economy has lost its heat.
American employers added 119,000, well below the
expected 150,000, the smallest increase since
September. The figure came short of being close to the
revised number of March, which came at 131,000. By
hiring fewer employees, companies are signaling they
expect demand will deteriorate as reductions in the
Federal Budget and higher taxes weigh on the US economic
expansion.
as his success in getting the body to
discuss currencies as a factor in trade -
a toxic topic for some because it
threatened to throw a slough of new
disputes into the WTO, including simmering
suspicions of China in
Washington and criticisms of the US
policy of “quantitative easing”.
Creativity is what the WTO needs from
its new chief, trade experts say,
because the job comes with little
executive power and the director general
must be able to make things happen
without being able to tell the
WTO’s 159 members what to do.
Lamy has been unable to break the
impasse in global trade talks during
his eight-year tenure.
While Azevedo has pitched himself
as a listener who will earn the trust of
member countries by understanding
their negotiating standpoints, Blanco
says an outside force is needed to persuade
governments to show flexibility.
The catalyst, he says, is business.
“One of the first targets has to be the
United States,” he told Reuters in an
interview in February. “The private
sector of the United States has to tell
the government: You have to move in
Geneva ... you have to be more reasonable
in your positions, you have to
get to the table and you have to
negotiate.”
The global trade talks that began in
Doha in 2001 reached deadlock in
2011, forcing the WTO to focus on a far
smaller package of trade reforms and
prompting many countries to pursue
bilateral and regional trade deals
instead, such as the US-led Trans-
Pacific Partnership (TPP). Even the
smaller package of reforms - widely
seen as a crucial first step - is proving
hard to agree on. At the same time the
WTO’s global rules risk getting
drowned out by the plethora of
regional deals now being negotiated.
“Each candidate must give the
impression that Doha is fixable, even
though the post they seek can’t deliver
that,” said Simon Evenett, professor
of international trade at St Gallen
University in Switzerland. “Both must
will the end without the means.”
Richard Baldwin, a professor at the
Graduate Institute of Geneva, said the
United States was unlikely to be interested
in any Doha deal until it was
clear that TPP had either succeeded or
failed, which was likely to take years.
“Thus one interesting question is
what can the next DG do to keep the
lights on in the organization and to
On the other hand, fewer Americans filed for firsttime
claims for unemployment last week to reach the
lowest level in more than 5-years, indicating that companies
are retaining its employees even as the economy
slows. The number of Americans filing applications
for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell by 18,000
to 324,000, the lowest since January 2008. The figure
came lower than the expected 345,000. Moreover, the
employment rate unexpectedly dropped to a four-year
low to 7.5 percent, showing that the budget cuts failed
to shake the labor market. US payrolls increased by
165,000, versus a forecasted 146,000, following a
revised increase in March by 138,000. The increase in
payrolls is projected to cool down this quarter before
picking up again as the cuts continue, consumer
spending eases and companies pull back.
FOMC
The Federal Reserve said that they will keep buying
bonds at a monthly pace of $85 billion while standing
ready to raise or lower purchases as economic conditions
evolve. The Federal Open Market Committee stated
that they are “prepared to increase or reduce the
pace of its purchases to maintain appropriate policy
accommodation as the outlook for the labor market or
inflation changes”. The FOMC meeting concluded, “The
economic activity has been expanding at a moderate
pace,” and that the “labor market conditions have
shown some improvement in recent months, but the
unemployment rate remains elevated,” as 11.7 million
Americans remain jobless. Moreover, the FOMC stated,
“housing sector has strengthened further, but fiscal
policy is restraining economic growth”.
ECB cut rate
The ECB lowered its benchmark interest rate on
Thursday by 0.25 percent, as expected, bringing the
rate to a record low of 0.50 percent. The euro
responded negatively, dropping over a cent on
Thursday. European Central Bank President, Mario
Draghi, signaled that ECB officials might take further
steps to fight the battle against the debt crisis in the
euro-zone. Draghi seemed wary of the situation in
the European economy, as he indicated that a further
cut in the main interest rate is a possibility.
maintain the WTO’s reputation - to
avoid it sliding into obscurity and irrelevance
for anything other than dispute
settlement,” he said. But Blanco
believes the attitude towards trade
has changed since Doha’s demise and
many countries now see it as a lever
for economic growth, as shown by the
ambitious plan for a transatlantic
trade deal unveiled by the European
Union and the United States earlier
this year.
However such deviations from
Doha remain contentious for many
countries and if the European Union
and United States are seen as backing
Blanco, other WTO members are likely
to organize in opposition, said
Evenett. “My money is on Azevedo
winning. Azevedo has marinated in
the juices of recent Brazilian protectionism,
so can relate better to other
WTO foot-draggers,” he said. “Blanco is
a true believer in liberalization, which
most WTO members give only lip
service to.”
But Baldwin said Blanco’s fresh perspectives
made him a better candidate.
“The WTO needs someone to
think outside the box to keep the
institution alive while waiting for TPP
to finish or die,” he said. —Reuters
Draghi: Negative deposit
rates are a possibility
KUWAIT: Commercial Bank of Kuwait held
the Al-Najma Account Daily draw on 5th May
2013. The draw was held under the supervision
of the Ministry of Commerce & Industry
represented by Abdulaziz Ashkanani.
The winners of the Najma daily draw are:
June Mari Almeida -KD 7000, Ahmed Faisal
Oqab Al-Mutairi —KD 7000, Mosaed Mansour
Marzouq Al-Azmi —KD 7000, Ali Hussain
Ramathan Jummah —KD 7000, Meshal Bader
AbdulRahman Al-Khuder —KD 7000.
NBK MONEY MARKETS REPORT
The Commercial Bank of Kuwait
announces the biggest daily draw in Kuwait
with the launch of the new Najma account.
Customers of the bank can now enjoy a
KD7,000 daily prize which is the highest in
the country and another 4 mega prizes during
the year worth KD100,000 each on different
occasions: The National Day, Eid Al-Fitr,
Eid Al-Adha and on the 19th of June which is
the date of the bank’s establishment.
With a minimum balance of KD500, customers
will be eligible for the daily draw
Furthermore, Draghi said that the ECB would consider
an unprecedented step of taking the deposit rate
to the negative from its current level of zero “with an
open mind”. The single currency dropped significantly
on the prospect of a negative deposit rate. Draghi
said that the ECB “will continue to lend banks as
much money as they need at least through 2014”,
extending the policy by more than a year. “All the
options are still very open here, our thinking is very
much in a preliminary stage given the complexity of
the issue,” Draghi said at the press conference on
Thursday. Moreover, Draghi said “to ensure adequate
transmission of monetary policy, it is essential that
the fragmentation of Euro-area credit markets continue
to decline further”. While the ECB maintained its
assessment that risks to the price outlook are broadly
balanced, inflation slowed to 1.2 percent in April, well
below the central bank’s 2 percent limit.
Italian bond auction
Italy’s five and 10-year borrowing costs fell to their
lowest level since October 2010, as new Prime
Minister Enrico Letta named a coalition government,
ending two months of political gridlock. The treasury
sold all of its planned EUR 3 billion ($3.9 billion) of 10-
year bonds at 3.94 percent, well below the yield of
4.66 percent paid at an auction a month previously.
UK’s manufacturing production contracted less
than expected in April, with house prices showing the
biggest rise in more than a year, signaling that the an
economic recovery is at sight. The manufacturing PMI,
which accounts for a tenth of Britain’s GDP, came really
close to the 50 mark that separates expansion from
contraction, at 49.8, against a forecast of 48.6. British
construction output, the main constraint on the country’s
economic growth, showed the best performance
in six months. Construction PMI climbed to 49.4,
against an expected 48.0, and way ahead of March’s
figure of 47.2. Construction was the biggest hindrance
on the country’s GDP in the first quarter of this year.
Kuwait
Kuwaiti dinar at 0.28440
The USDKWD opened at 0.28440 yesterday
morning.
Al-Tijari announces winners of Najma Account daily draw
provided that the money is in the account
one week prior to the daily draw or 2
months prior to the mega draw. In addition,
for each KD25 a customer can get one
chance for winning instead of KD50.
Commercial Bank of Kuwait takes this
opportunity to congratulate all lucky winners
and also extends appreciation to the
Ministry of Commerce and Industry for their
effective supervision of the draws which
were conducted in an orderly and organized
manner.

NEW DELHI: A lady shops at a supermarket in New Delhi. India is the next great frontier
for global retailers, a $500 billion market growing at 20 percent a year.
BUSINESS
MUMBAI: Hong-Kong entrepreneur
Ramesh Tainwala spent 18 months operating
branded clothing retail stores in
India before deciding it was impossible
to succeed without paying bribes.
Tainwala, a 55-year-old expatriate
Indian, owns Planet Retail, which held
the India franchise rights for US fashion
labels Guess and Nautica as well as UK
retailers Next and Debenhams. He sold
the brands last September to various
Indian businesses. “Right now it’s not
possible to do business in India without
greasing palms, without paying bribes,”
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
‘Speed money’ puts brakes
on India’s retail growth
India’s $500bn retail market growing at 20% a year
said Tainwala, who is also luggage maker
Samsonite’s president for Asia Pacific and
West Asia. Tainwala said he himself
refused to pay bribes to licensing officials,
though that could not be independently
confirmed.
India is the next great frontier for
global retailers, a $500 billion market
growing at 20 percent a year. For now,
small shops dominate the sector. Giants
from Wal-Mart Stores Inc to IKEA AB have
struggled merely for the right to enter,
which they finally won last year.
But a daunting array of permits - more
than 40 are required for a typical supermarket
selling a range of products - force
retailers to pay so-called “speed money”
through middlemen or local partners to
set up shop.
In interviews with middlemen and
several retailers, Reuters found the official
cost for key licenses is typically
accompanied by significant expenses in
the form of bribes.The added cost erodes
profitability in an industry where margins
tend to be razor-thin. It also creates
risk for companies by making them complicit
in activity that, while commonplace
in India and other emerging markets, is
nonetheless illegal. That creates a handicap
for foreign operators such as USbased
Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest
retailer, and Britain’s Tesco Plc and Marks
and Spencer Plc, which must comply
with anti-bribery laws in their home
countries even while operating abroad.
A Wal-Mart spokesperson said the
company is strengthening its compliance
programs, part of a global compliance
review that has cost more than $35 million
over the last 18 months. IKEA, which
is awaiting final approval to enter India,
has started assessing the market, a
spokeswoman said, adding the group
has “zero tolerance” for corruption in any
form. Retail is especially prone to bribery
because stores sell multiple types of merchandise,
which in India increases the
number of licenses and permits needed -
a legacy of the so-called “Licence Raj”
that was largely dismantled during the
country’s early 1990s economic reforms.
The World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business
survey ranks India 173rd out of 185
countries when it comes to starting a
business, behind Malawi, Niger, Sudan
and Guatemala. Transparency
International in 2012 ranked it 94th out
of 174 countries on its corruption table -
a fall from 72nd five years earlier.
“Even for a simple thing like putting
up signage in front of your store you are
harassed for money,” said Tainwala.
“There are many bodies regulating that
and the permits needed to set up one
shop are baffling.”
The License Raj, he said, substantially
increases costs in a market where sluggish
consumer demand, high rentals and
a depreciating currency for over a year
have made it hard for retailers like him to
operate profitably. He plans to return
when there is more order in the way
business is done.
Ais Kumar, head of the western region
for the Food Safety & Standards
Authority of India (FSSA), acknowledged
that graft exists across government ranks
and departments. Many government
departments also have staff shortages
that cause delays.
“These licenses are required for compliance
and safety and not because the
government wants to delay or complicate
things for anyone. It’s the law of the
land and it must be followed,” he said,
adding the government is striving to put
licensing systems online to streamline
the process and make it more transparent.
Checks with three retailers, however,
showed the online forms still need to be
physically delivered to the respective
licensing departments.
Permits needed to open a store range
from the mundane, such as a trade
license, to the petty: lighted shelves
require a separate permit, and even a
shop window needs a license.
Want to play music in the store? That
requires a license. So does selling cosmetics
or providing valet parking.
A convenience store that sells basics
such as milk, vegetables, cereal, bread,
eggs, meat and baby food will require a
minimum of 29 licenses from nearly 20
different authorities, according to a list of
licenses compiled by the Retailers
Association of India and obtained by
Reuters. Those include a food license; a
license for sale, storage and distribution;
a food-handler’s certificate; a license for
milk products and another for frozen
non-vegetarian food. All those licenses
comes from the state-level FSSA, but
require separate applications.
But the FSSA does not give permission
for operating freezers and chillers.
That requires a separate license from a
municipal body. Selling baby food
requires a permit from a state Controller
of Food and Supply. The state Agriculture
Produce Marketing Committee must give
permission to sell vegetables; the central
Directorate of Marketing and Inspection
gives permission to grade and sort those
vegetables; the Controller of Rationing
grants licenses for selling essential commodities
like rice.
All those licenses need to be renewed,
sometimes annually. The Directorate of
Marketing and Inspection declined comment,
while the other departments were
not available. Most of the licenses
required can either be done away with
completely or combined into one, said
Lalit Agarwal, chairman of V-Mart Retail.
“Every day, you have new licenses added
to the list, but nothing ever gets deleted.”
It’s not just the red tape of getting
those licenses, it’s also the under-thetable
money that retailers typically have
to pay on top of the official fees.
In Bandra, a high-end suburb of
Mumbai, a state-issued trade license for a
10,000-square-foot (930 square-meter)
store - very large by Indian standards -
officially costs 100,000 rupees ($1,825).
But there is an “additional charge” of 1.25
million rupees ($22,800), according to
documents obtained by Reuters from the
Employee State Insurance, Provident
Fund and Industrial Law Practitioners
Association of India (EPILPA), which assist
retailers in obtaining permits.
EPILPA said their members, who are
consultants, collect the “speed money”
from retailers and pass it on to the government
officials. They act as middlemen
who do not take a cut and hence should
not be held responsible for the bribes
being paid. “In India, you don’t need to
ask retailers if you need to pay bribes,”
said Punit Agarwal, CEO of Promart, a
mid-sized multi-brand clothing retailer.
“It’s known. Here you have a price tag for
everything.” He said his company hires
middlemen and pays their fees because
he knows bribes have to be paid, but
does not want his company to get directly
involved.
Take the case of British footwear
retailer Clarks. It entered India through a
partnership with Future Group, which
runs the country’s largest listed retail
entity, Future Retail . Clarks has hired
consultants and, according to one of
them, is negotiating with municipal officials
for a 365-day license that would
allow it to open three of its five stores in
Mumbai every day of the year.
For each of the three stores, the company
was asked to pay 60,000 rupees
($1,100) per officer for the eight officers
involved in its case - a total of 500,000
rupees ($9,100) per store, said Oovesh
Sarabhai, of Atlas AVA Consultants, who
is working with Clarks to secure the
licenses. The official fee is about 6,000
rupees ($110) per store, he said. The government
officials involved in issuing the
license declined to comment when contacted
by Reuters. Future and Clarks
declined to comment.
A senior Clarks official, who declined
to be identified, confirmed the company
had applied for a 365-day license for the
three Mumbai stores in January 2012 and
received notifications from the government
related to this, but has so far failed
to receive the licenses. “It’s stuck because
of the bureaucracy,” the official said.
No high-level official dealing with
licenses ever accepts a bribe directly, said
Raichand Jiwani, owner of Emkay
Consultancy Services, who is a member
of EPILPA and helps several top Indian
retailers to procure licenses. Officials use
subordinates to collect the money and
only from trusted people. The payment is
then shared by junior and senior officers
and up the bureaucratic chain.
“The nexus runs far deeper than just a
few corrupt officials at the local level,”
said Jiwani, noting that if a retailer
approaches an official directly he will not
be told about the bribe, but his papers
will take months to be approved.
While India holds vast promise for
retailers, with its growing spending power
and rising middle class, most local
supermarket chains lose money due to
low prices, poor supply chains and high
rents. Wal-Mart has said it aims to turn a
profit in 10 years, something it hasn’t
managed in China after 12 years.
Tainwala thinks India offers miniscule
retail returns for the massive investment
of time and energy that is needed. Fast
expansion requires paying speed money,
he said. Tainwala recalls he was asked to
pay either a 22,000 rupee ($400) monthly
fee to have signage outside his store in
Mumbai’s plush Atria mall, or a 2,000
rupee ($36) bribe every month to circumvent
it. He said he chose to pack up
rather than bribe the municipal officials
needed to get his signs approved.
“My people said we have to close the
stores, and we decided to do that,” he
said. “You get excited about the Indian
middle class but then you wonder - is it
really worth it?” — Reuters

BUSINESS
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
A traditional Indian dance and music troupe welcomes visitors and delegates. Exhibitors at iPHEX 2013.
India: Pharmacy of the world
Exhibitors, buyers and regulators
get together to make iPHEX 2013 a grand success
Maharashtra state Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, Ministry of Commerce and Industry Additional Secretary Rajeev Kher, Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) Dr G N Singh, Pharmexcil Director General Dr P
V Appaji and other officials inaugurate iPHEX 2013 on April 24, 2013. —Photos by Shakir Reshamwala
By Shakir Reshamwala
MUMBAI: The Indian pharmaceutical industry is the
largest exporter of generic formulations in volume
terms globally. India is the third largest player in the
world with 500 different active pharmaceutical ingredients
(APIs), and its pharma industry ranks 4th globally in
terms of production volumes. The country’s outsized
role in providing cheap and effective medicines to the
world was highlighted last month at an exposition that
brought together Indian pharma companies and international
buyers under one roof in the first-of-its-kind
event in India, realizing business of over 10 billion
rupees.
Around 250 local exhibitors showcased their products
at iPHEX 2013, organized by the Pharmaceuticals
Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) at the
Bombay Exhibition Centre from April 24-26 2013 in
Mumbai, and over 500 overseas delegates from 104
countries were invited with the support of the Indian
Ministry of Commerce and Industry. iPHEX 2013 was
held alongside Pharma Pro & Pack Expo 2013, a show for
pharmaceutical machinery manufacturers aimed at displaying
India’s expertise in the drug manufacturing and
machinery sector. To round off this major gathering of
the pharma fraternity, over 40 senior regulators from 20
countries were also present.
But while Indian APIs and formulations are exported
around the world, the Gulf remains a tough market to
crack. Dr P V Appaji, Director General, Pharmexcil, told
Kuwait Times the mindset in the region has to change.
“Some vested interests have labeled generics as counterfeit.
They cast doubt on the quality of our drugs. But
55 percent of our exports go to highly regulated markets,
and 33 percent to the US alone. Most global pharma
giants also source their APIs from India. So what is
holding them back?” he asked. Abhay Sinha, Regional
Director, Pharmexcil, concurred. “Indian drugs comply
with all international regulatory standards, and are
accessible and affordable too,” he told Kuwait Times,
adding that Pharmexcil is focused on the Gulf and the
Middle East despite initial setbacks.
There are over 10,500 manufacturing units and over
3,000 pharma companies in India, growing at an exceptional
rate. Leamak International, an Indian pharma
company, makes brand name cough lozenges and calcium
supplements for multinational drug giants. It also
markets similar products under its own brands too.
“These branded cough lozenges sell for $5 a pack, while
our own brand sells at a tenth of that price for just 50
cents,” Tushar Patel, Director, told Kuwait Times. “Big
companies have big stomachs, while we have small
ones,” he guffawed, holding on to his ample waistline.
Finished generics supplied from India account for 20
percent of the global generics market. Nikhil Deva, Sr
Manager API Marketing at Ranbaxy, one of India’s
largest producers of generics, said business was strong
and the effects of the financial recession on the Indian
pharma market were minimal. India’s role in supplying
cheap drugs around the world was not only motivated
by financial gains but had a social impact too, he told
Kuwait Times. “There’s no reason why companies and
governments in the Gulf shouldn’t buy Indian drugs.”
Earlier, Maharashtra state Chief Minister Prithviraj
Chavan inaugurated iPHEX 2013 with a call to the pharma
sector to display its technology and expertise to the
world. “This sector has a huge potential with its export
rate currently worth $13 billion, which is expected to
double in the next two years. I would like to stress that
to further the growth story, Indian companies should
also focus on innovation along with expanding their
business through exports of generics to make us allrounders,”
he said. The Maharashtra government is also
planning to create a world class warehousing zone near
Mumbai to facilitate the growing needs of the industry.
Rajeev Kher, Additional Secretary, Ministry of
Commerce and Industry, said the government is taking
all the requisite steps to help the industry face the
growing challenges of increasing market share in existing
and new markets and countering negative publicity.
The Commerce Ministry has launched a Brand Pharma
India Campaign through Pharmexcil globally, which
Kher stressed was an extremely important event
announcing the coming of age of the Indian pharma
industry in the global market.
Dr G N Singh, Drug Controller General of India
(DCGI), reiterated the commitment of the drug regulatory
system to ensure that all the drugs manufactured in
the country are of the highest quality. “There is a lot of
untapped potential in this sector which can be finetuned
to ensure growth of the pharma sector. Most
importantly, I can assure you that the government is fully
committed towards ensuring that all the patients
have access to only the highest quality of drugs,” he
vowed.
“The kind of response we are getting from the event
shows that there is a lot of interest across the business
community globally to work closely with the Indian
manufacturers. Especially, since we have been successfully
able to set up a benchmark for ourselves through
our ‘Brand India’ initiative for being manufacturers of
highest quality drugs,” added Appaji.
at a glance
• The Indian pharmaceutical industry
is the largest exporter of generic
formulations in volume terms globally.
• India is the third largest player in the
world with 500 different active pharmaceutical
ingredients (APIs)
• India’s pharma industry ranks 4th
globally in terms of production volumes.
• There are over 10,500 manufacturing
units and over 3,000 pharma companies
in India, growing at an exceptional
rate.
• Finished generics supplied from
India account for 20 percent of the
global generics market.
• Fifty-five percent of India’s exports
go to highly regulated markets; 33
percent to the US alone.
Exhibitors at Pharma Pro & Pack Expo.
A B2B meet in progress.

BUSINESS
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
Lexus 2013 - the most trusted brand
Kelley Blue Book announces 2013 Brand Image Award winners
Kelly BLUEBOOK has spoken, and the trophies
have been engraved: “ With the most proven
and celebrated record of dependability and
reliability in the entire industry, it would only be a
surprise if Lexus didn’t win the award for Most
Trusted Luxury Brand”.
The sixth annual Brand Image Awards recognize
what KBB.com shoppers perceive to be the most
outstanding automakers in a number of categories.
2013 Lexus The Most
Trusted Luxury Brand
This award, is based on an entire year’s worth of
consumer perception data from the company’s
Brand Watch study, honor the automotive brands
that have most successfully captured positive consumer
attention.
The 2013 Brand Image Awards, are based on
consumer automotive perception. The key research
vehicle for the Brand Image Awards is Kelley Blue
Book Market Intelligence’s Brand Watch study -
Brand Watch is an online study that taps into tracking
study tapping into 12,000+ in-market newvehicle
shoppers annually on Kelley Blue Book’s
KBB.com. Those shoppers who do their research at
KBB.com. Representing the combined wisdom of
the American car-buying public, the Kelley Blue
Book Brand Image Awards recognize automakers’
outstanding achievements in creating and maintaining
brand attributes that engender enthusiasm
among new-vehicle buyers.
The highly comprehensive Brand Watch study
offers insight into in-market new-vehicle shoppers’
perceptions of brands and models, including
important factors driving their purchase decisions
while they are in the midst of the shopping
process. The Kelley Blue Book Brand Image Awards
recognize automakers’ outstanding achievements
in creating and maintaining brand attributes that
capture the attention and enthusiasm of the newvehicle
buying public. Award categories are calculated
among luxury shoppers, non-luxury shoppers
and truck shoppers.
This marks the sixth consecutive year that Kelley
Blue Book has presented auto manufacturers with
the Brand Image Awards, and this year among luxury
shoppers, Lexus leads for the most Trusted
Luxury Brand.
Al-Mazaya reports 92%
rise in net revenues
KUWAIT: Dr Hamad Al-Hasawi addresses the Doha Bank Economic summit in Kuwait.
Doha Bank hosts
economic
summit in Kuwait
KUWAIT: Doha Bank, which has a full branch
in Kuwait and is one of the leading banks in
the region with operations in the GCC, hosted
the second of its latest series of summits on
Real Estate, Infrastructure And Urban
Planning, held at the JW Marriott, Kuwait, on
May 1, 2013.
The summit brought together some of the
region’s leading consultants and advisory
firms in their specific sectors discussing
opportunities and trends in Kuwait’s real
estate, construction and infrastructure development
sectors. The participating presenters
were from The Kuwait Banking Association,
The Boston Consulting Group, KEO
International Consultants, and PKF-TCH
Group.
Doha Bank Group CEO Dr R Seetharaman
started his inaugural address with insights on
the global economy. He said “In April, the IMF
said it was lowering its outlook for world economic
growth this year to 3.3 percent, down
from its forecast in January of 3.5 percent. It
expects US economic growth of 1.9 percent
this year, down from its January estimate of
2.1 percent. It expects that the combined
economy of the 17 euro countries will shrink
0.3 percent in 2013. The recent IMF meeting
emphasized policies to boost growth and
employment worldwide. Sluggish global economic
recovery, increasing energy production
in the US and slightly slower growth in China
had put pressure on oil prices recently. Gold
prices had fallen recently on reports Cyprus
could sell a significant volume of gold. Gold
and industrial metals fell hard after China
reported that economic growth slowed unexpectedly
in the first three months of the year.”
Dr Seetharaman also highlighted the
trends impacting infrastructure development
in the region: “With the implementation of the
four-year plan in Kuwait in financial year 2012-
2011, Kuwait is firmly positioned at the business
end of completing its current strategic
plan which will contribute to meeting the
goals and objectives of the vision for 2035.
Government expenditure continued to rise in
FY 2011-12, with an increase of 8 per cent
according to the IMF. The budget expansion
was more than offset by an increase in oil revenue
of an estimated 35 per cent. Non-oil
growth of the economy in 2011 was calculated
by the IMF at around 4.5 per cent with
investment and real estate sector firms registering
a somewhat subdued period. However
real estate transactions recovered in the residential
segment, outperforming commercial
property. The IMF predicts the government
will have a positive approach and expects an
increase in government spending of around
15%. Non-oil activity will, as per the same calculations,
be around 5.5% in 2012 and fiscal
and external surpluses are expected to remain
strong for the period. The IMF update issued
in April this year forecast 4 per cent growth in
non-oil GDP in 2013 as the development plan
is expected to be implemented more rapidly.
This is a very positive sign for all players in
these markets seeking long-term opportunities
in Kuwait.”
Doha Bank Group CEO, Dr R Seetharaman
said that one of the key considerations Doha
Bank Kuwait Branch makes when establishing
partnerships with clients is bringing
together a core team of experts as part of
knowledge sharing process. This knowledge
sharing session will enable our customers to
be abreast of the significant developments in
property and infrastructure development in
the country.
Dr Hamad Al-Hasawi, Secretary General of
the Kuwait Banking Association, also spoke at
the summit: “Major real estate projects
improve the competitiveness of the overall
economy, expand the absorptive capacity of
the country, create new jobs and increase
employment levels. They also increase the value
added in the overall economy, support
growth in non-oil GDP and improve the overall
welfare of the society. There are many positive
contributing factors that can lead to a
positive outlook for real estate and infrastructure
projects in Kuwait. These include the
structural disequilibrium of the housing sector
in Kuwait, high population growth and the
abundant liquidity in the market that will promote
investment. Hareer City, for example, is
primed to house more than 700,000 inhabitants
in a 250 sq. km area, with a budget of
around KWD 25 billion ($ 88 billion) in direct
costs envisioned for this project alone.” Dr Al-
Hasawi also highlighted the need for greater
public private partnerships to make such
mega projects possible.
Sven P Gade, Group Chief Executive Officer
of PKF-The Consulting House, had some interesting
insights into project efficiency: “The
majority of project failures are due to incomplete
development program definitions. We
believe in “Business-led Design” which
requires a solid Business case first before
green lighting any design activities. The business
case is best established by independent
business advisors covering Highest & Best
Land Use Assessments (HBU), a land assessment
and destination program, followed by a
fully-fledged Market & Financial Feasibility
Study (MFFS).To avoid financial failure or failure
because of incomplete project definition,
sufficient time between HBU and creation of
concepts by designers should be allowed.
Based on target markets and product positioning,
it is essential to reach a fact based
consensus with the designers on development
program - including budgets. This
should encompass every planned structure
and land use intended for the site. The key
take away is that designers cannot develop
concepts or components without program
definition.”
Massoud Bafti, a senior member of KEO’s
PMCM International Division who is the Senior
Risk and Opportunity Facilitator within the
project control department of the consultancy
said “ For companies seeking to be competitive
and effective in a lucrative and competitive
marketplace, it is also imperative to
understand and manage risks and opportunities.
This can decrease the probability or
impact of negative events and increase the
probability or impact of positive events. The
commitment was essential as risks and opportunities
need to be addressed proactively and
consistently so that companies can communicate
them openly and honestly. This is a multiple
stage process and involves planning the
risk management process, identifying risk and
opportunities, performing specific qualitative
and quantitative analysis, followed up by
planning risk responses, and live monitoring
and administration of controls to manage it
properly. In such programs, a standard scoring
system is utilized that ranks risk by likelihood
and impact to deliver targeted solutions. “
Ganesh Mohan, Partner and Managing
Director at the Abu Dhabi office of The Boston
Consulting Group who was also present at the
summit in Doha said “The secret to superior
economic performance is a combination of
establishing and building on a sustainable
competitive advantage and having a motivated
and energized organization that is capable
of going beyond the base essentials. Research
suggests that benchmarked fortune 1000
companies demonstrate that economic factors
contribute just 18% of actual profitability
at these companies as opposed to a comparatively
large 38% of various organizational factors
that contribute directly to company profitability.
“
Doha Bank Group CEO, Dr Seethraman
concluded the summit by thanking the guests
that had attended and by also thanking the
guest speakers for demonstrating the key synergies
that exist between Doha Bank and their
respective organizations that can prove
extremely beneficial to Doha Bank’s corporate
clients.
KD1.3 million Q1 gross profit for 2013
KUWAIT: After the meeting of the Al-Mazaya
Holding Company Board of Directors held on
May 2nd and headed by Chairman Rashid Al-
Nafisi, the company announced its financial
results for the 1st quarter of 2013.
Rashid Al-Nafisi said that the company
achieved a gross profit of KD1.3 million for the
first three months of 2013, a total income of
KD7.2 million divided into operating income of
KD5.9 million and other income of KD1.3 million,
resulted in net profit for the first three months of
KD213,800.
Al-Nafisi said that the size of the company’s
assets as at end March 2013 reached KD218 million,
with a total real estate assets of KD166 million.
With regard to the company’s results, Al-
Nafisi said that 1st quarter profits are the result
of a set of operational activities, projects delivery,
and adjustment completion, during which
the company managed to achieve a leap in project
management net revenue of 92%, resulting
from managing projects in Dubai and Qatar for
the benefits of investors and companies under
its management. This came alongside an
increase in rental revenue by 49%, which reflects
the real growth in the activities of operating
income, with the chairman adding that the
delivery of residential units in the VILLA projects
and the delivery of offices units in the “business
avenue” project have had the greatest effect on
Rashid Al-Nafisi
increasing the revenue of the company. The Al-
Mazaya plan is moving ahead in executing and
delivery of its sold out projects at earlier stages
on the blueprints, which will serve as a secure
shield in reducing liabilities and increasing revenues.
Al-Nafisi went on to say that the debt of Al-
Mazaya to banks has reached KD47.6 million,
and the company is now studying options for
rescheduling credit facilities and converting
KUWAIT: Warba Bank announced yesterday the
acquisition of a commercial office building in
Oman, as it continued with its strategy of capitalizing
on unique investment opportunities in the
region and the world. The bank has purchased the
Muscat office of Weatherford Middle East, an affiliate
of Weatherford International, an oilfield services
company with more than 50,000 employees
worldwide.
The new property is one of the notable successful
investments made by Warba bank in various
sectors proving the bank’s investment team ability
to grasp regional and international opportunities
Warba Bank invested in Muscat through acquiring
this high quality, newly built office building
ideally located in the north of Azaiba, just a few
minutes from Muscat International Airport.
Hosam Nasser Al-Muzaiel, Investment Manager,
Warba Bank, said: “The real estate sector in Muscat
has seen strong growth since the end of last year,
which shows that the investors have overcome the
psychological effects of the economic crisis that
overshadowed the Omani real estate market post-
them into long term facilities, and the company
was recently able to sign an agreement to renew
the credit limit in the form of “Tawaroq” for 5 million
dinar with one of the local Islamic banks, in
order to reschedule the repayment of the debt
and reducing the rate of profit (cost of funding),
which will lead to lower financial expenses in the
second quarter of FY 2013, as well as the lowering
of short-term obligations of the 5 million
dinar, being converted into long-term liabilities.
Al-Nafisi also pointed to one of the most
important steps carried out by Al-Mazaya in the
1st quarter of FY 2013, which is the conclusion
of a swap deal with National International
Holding Company, through the acquiring by Al-
Mazaya Holding Company of a third tower in the
Kuwait Business City project in the heart of the
capital of Kuwait, in addition to the two new
plots under development in “Q point LIWAN” in
the emirate of Dubai for the sale of 101,000m2
of office units in Jumaira towers owned by Al-
Mazaya.
Al-Nafisi concluded by saying that Al-Mazaya
has managed to maintain its financial entity,
operational performance, and its market capitalization
within the framework of its careful and
well thought-out strategic plan, and conservative
policy that were set for the year 2013, and
the company took into account the general economic
situation, and financial developments in
the global markets.
Warba Bank acquires new
office building in Oman
Hosam Nasser Al-Muzaiel
KUWAIT: VIVA, Kuwait’s fastest-growing telecom
operator, announced yesterday the launch of its
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) focused portal,
a platform within its website at
https://www.viva.com.kw/csr that offers a description
of each CSR initiative that VIVA has supported,
or taken on since its inception. This portal falls in
line with VIVA’s commitment to the Kuwaiti community
and aims to further enrich it by reporting
the company’s ongoing CSR initiatives, which are
focused on supporting and developing different
areas and segments of the Kuwaiti community
such as youth, sports, technology and environment.
Earlier this year, VIVA published its first CSR
booklet in which it explained its CSR direction and
focuses for 2013, and provided a brief description
of the CSR initiatives it took on in 2012. This new
booklet is VIVA’s first step towards sharing its CSR
success stories with its customers and the general
public.
VIVA’s pledge to support the Kuwaiti community
has been in action since the company was established
in 2008. Since that time it has demonstrated
its CSR commitment through a wide range of innovative
initiatives, including the VIVA Oasis project;
the largest oasis of Buckthorn and Willow trees that
was implemented in Nuwaiseeb Desert, South of
Kuwait, the distribution of 265 wheelchairs across
the different health facilities in Kuwait that were in
need of this device in collaboration with the
Ministry of Health, and the rewarding act of providing
Ramadan Iftar meals every day to fasting
Muslims in the areas of Jahra and Jleeb Al-
Shuyoukh, as part of its Ramadan program.
Other initiatives include VIVA’s two year sponsorship
of the Kuwait Dive Team, an agreement to
support the environmental initiatives of the team,
the honoring of the distinguished memorizers of
the Holy Quran competition which was held by the
General Secretariat of Awqaf, and VIVA’s sponsorship
of Kuwait’s Second International Conference
on Learning Difficulties organized by the Kuwaiti
2008. Added to this, the latest study issued by the
National Statistics Council of the Sultanate of
Oman indicated that GDP grew by 13.1 per cent in
the third quarter of 2012, which will have a positively
impact on the Sultanate’s real estate sector.
Against the backdrop of a recovering real estate
market in the region, Warba Bank has acquired a
high quality property in Oman, building on a number
of recent successful investments by the bank.”
.”This property has a several advantages, including
its strategic location, strength and solvency of
its tenant, high quality of finishing and modern
construction, and a 10-year lease in place ensuring
stable cash inflow over the long-term,” added Al-
Muzaiel.
Concluding Al-Muzaiel said: “The bank’s diversified
investment strategy looks at a range of geographies
and categories to take advantage of distinctive
investment opportunities to deliver returns
while taking into consideration a relatively conservative
approach to risk by adopting global standards
and adhering to the well-established principles
of Sharia.”
VIVA shares CSR success stories
through its new online portal
Association for Learning Differences (KALD), which
was held to raise awareness of the most effective
methods to follow in support of young students
with learning difficulties.
VIVA’s most recent initiative has been the sponsorship
of the “Guests of the Merciful” Umrah
Pilgrimage which was organized by the Kuwaiti
Cancer and Anti-Smoking Society. VIVA will continue
to offer its support and work towards developing
its active role in the society.

technology
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
Kaspersky Lab: Ferrari’s Choice for IT Security
DUBAI: Kaspersky Lab, an official sponsor
of Scuderia Ferrari, is pleased to announce
that it is becoming the IT security provider
of choice to the world-renowned brand.
Kaspersky Lab has been sponsoring
Ferrari since 2010. With each year the partnership
has grown, and Kaspersky Lab’s
branding has appeared on Ferrari’s F1 cars
for three consecutive seasons. 2013brings
a new strategic level to the partnership
between the two companies: following a
new 5-year commercial agreement signed
in April 2013, Ferrari is now a customer of
Kaspersky Lab, receiving total endpoint IT
security from the protection specialists.
In cooperation with the Ferrari ICT
department, Kaspersky Lab has tailored an
endpoint solution that meets Ferrari’s specific
needs. This solution has been developed
after six months of rigorous compliance
testing and benchmarking against
other IT Security providers. The Kaspersky
endpoint solution is being installed on
around 4,000 computers and a further
installation will be rolled out over the next
year to further additional devices to cover
in effect, Ferrari’s entire application landscape.
“Although from a very different industry,
Kaspersky Lab is linked to Ferrari by
two key things - a quest for maximum
speed and the drive to find synergies.
We’re like the Ferrari of our field - fast to
react to immediate threats and provide
solutions to them, and fast to stay ahead of
the pack and come up with new and original
approaches to the security paradigm in
general,” said Eugene Kaspersky, CEO and
co-founder of Kaspersky Lab. “And like the
synergies found in Ferrari’s Scuderia racing
team, where the best pioneering automotive
engineering is combined with the
world’s very best Formula One drivers and
support teams, we too find synergies in
the combination of our world-leading
technologies and our elite team of ‘drivers’
- expert developers, analysts and all those
who support them.”
The project is a unique benchmark for
the industry as Ferrari has special needs in
terms of security. The Kaspersky Lab solution
will be installed not only on office
computers but also on computers controlling
production lines as well as on employees’
tablets and smartphones. Ferrari has
imposed more stringent IT security
requirements to protect its production
processes, and to ensure the safety of its
drivers during races. Kaspersky Lab has
produced a solution which combines easy
manageability with total control over complex
systems.
Vittorio Boero, Ferrari Chief Information
Officer, commented: “As we look for perfection
in all areas of our business, we
decided to improve Ferrari’s overall ICT
security situation. To protect our sensitive
intellectual property we needed a strong
technological partner with a complete,
cutting-edge IT security solution. We have
chosen Kaspersky Lab for the quality of
their endpoint product and because they
had special customized options that could
be developed specifically to meet our
needs. We’re looking forward to further
develop our partnership in the technological
field and hope that this 5-year deal is
just the first stage.”
Alexander Erofeev, Chief Marketing
Officer of Kaspersky Lab, said: “Growth in
the B2B sector is currently one of
Kaspersky Lab’s key strategic goals.
Kaspersky Lab is developing both its client
base and corporate solutions. Thanks to
our best of breed technologies and expertise,
we have been named B2B market leaders
by several highly reputable analytics
agencies. Moreover in January 2013 we
launched our new flagship B2B solution,
Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business.
This solution provides the industry’s best
defense against advanced malware and
cybercrime. Its high levels of efficiency and
seamless manageability make it an ideal
way to protect business-critical data.”
PHOENIX: Solar Impulse, the Swiss solar-powered airplane, piloted by
Bertrand Piccard (below), is shown at Sky Harbor International Airport in
Phoenix, early Saturday after completing the first leg of its coast-to-coast
flights across the USA. It is the first time that a solar airplane capable of flying
day and night without fuel, will attempt to fly across America. —AP
Solar plane lands at night
on cross-country US trip
MOFFETT AIRFIELD, California: The
first-ever manned airplane that can fly
by day or night on solar power alone
landed in the dark at a major southwestern
US airport, a live feed from the organizer’s
website showed early Saturday.
Solar Impulse, piloted by Swiss adventurer
Bertrand Piccard, touched down at
the Sky Harbor International Airport in
Phoenix, Arizona at 0730 GMT after
departing from California more than 18
hours earlier on the first leg of a crosscountry
journey.
A ground crew met the plane as it
landed and pushed it to a safe area
where Solar Impulse co-founder Andre
Borschberg, a Swiss engineer and exfighter
pilot, climbed up to the cockpit
on a ladder to greet Piccard, who raised
his arms in triumph.
“I’m happy to be here, happy to have
landed in Phoenix,” a visibly elated
Piccard told reporters, as a small crowd
assembled on the tarmac cheered his
arrival.
Piccard said he was impressed by the
scenery as he overflew the western
United States, starting in San Francisco
and heading south over California, then
east over the Arizona desert and his
nighttime approach to Phoenix. When
he landed he said he still had threequarters
of his battery power left.
The US journey is being billed as the
plane’s first cross-continent flight.
The plane, which has a slim body and
four electric engines attached to an
enormous wingspan, flew quietly at an
average speed of about 30 miles (49
kilometers) per hour. Energy provided
by 12,000 solar cells powered the plane’s
propellers. The project aims to showcase
what can be accomplished without fossil
fuels, and has set its “ultimate goal” as
an around-the-world flight in 2015.
The plane can fly at night by reaching
a high elevation of 27,000 feet (8,230
meters) and then gently gliding downward,
using almost no power through
the night until the sun comes up to
begin recharging the aircraft’s solar cells.
The US itinerary allows for up to 10 days
at each stop in order to showcase the
plane’s technology to the public. Other
stops are planned for Dallas, Texas, and
the US capital Washington, before wrapping
up in New York in early July.
That will allow Piccard and Borschberg
to share duties and rest between flights.
A dashboard showing the live speed,
direction, battery status, solar generator
and engine power, along with cockpit
cameras of both Piccard and his view
from the plane, were online at
live.solarimpulse.com.
The aircraft completed its first intercontinental
journey from Europe to
Africa in June on a jaunt from Madrid to
Rabat. Longer trips have already been
successfully completed by the plane,
which made the world’s first solar 26-
hour day and night trip in 2010.
However, the cockpit has room for
just one pilot, so even though the plane
could likely make the entire US journey
in three days, Piccard decided it would
be easier to rest and exchange flight
control with Borschberg at the stops.
Solar Impulse was launched in 2003. The
slim plane is particularly sensitive to turbulence
and has no room for passengers,
but Piccard has insisted that those
issues are challenges to be met in the
future, rather than setbacks.
“Instead of speaking of the problems,
we want to demonstrate solutions,”
Piccard said earlier as he was flying
toward Phoenix, stressing that renewable
technologies already exist and are
well known to science.
“Now we need to put them on a big
scale everywhere in our daily life.”
The well-funded effort includes a
ground crew and logistics teams, a mission
control team, and a state-of-the art
communications and multimedia team
with in-house “reporters” providing live
coverage and interviewing the two
pilots. Sponsors include the Solvay
Chemical Group, Omega watches and
the Swiss elevator and escalator company,
The Schindler Group. —AFP
New technology propels
‘old energy’ revolution
NEW YORK: Technology created an
energy revolution over the past
decade - just not the one we expected.
By now, cars were supposed to be
running on fuel made from plant
waste or algae - or powered by hydrogen
or cheap batteries that burned
nothing at all. Electricity would be
generated with solar panels and wind
turbines. When the sun didn’t shine or
the wind didn’t blow, power would
flow out of batteries the size of tractor-trailers.
Fossil fuels? They were going to be
expensive and scarce, relics of an earlier,
dirtier age. But in the race to conquer
energy technology, Old Energy is
winning. Oil companies big and small
have used technology to find a bounty
of oil and natural gas so large that
worries about running out have melted
away. New imaging technologies
let drillers find oil and gas trapped
miles underground and undersea. Oil
rigs “walk” from one drill site to the
next. And engineers in Houston use
remote-controlled equipment to drill
for gas in Pennsylvania. The result is
an abundance that has put the
United States on track to become the
world’s largest producer of oil and gas
in a few years. As domestic production
as soared, oil imports have fallen
to a 17-year low, the US government
reported on Thursday. And the gushers
aren’t limited to Texas, North
Dakota and the deep waters of the
Gulf of Mexico. Overseas, enormous
reserves have been found in East and
West Africa, Australia, South America
and the Mediterranean.
“Suddenly, out of nowhere, the
world seems to be awash in hydrocarbons,”
says Michael Greenstone, an
environmental economics professor
at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. The consequences are
enormous. A looming energy crisis
has turned into a boom. These additional
fossil fuels may pose a more
acute threat to the earth’s climate.
And for renewable energy sources,
the sunny forecast of last decade has
turned overcast.
Technological advances drove a
revolution no one in the energy
industry expected. One that is just
beginning. The new century brought
deep concerns the world’s oil reserves
were increasingly concentrated in the
Middle East - and beginning to run
out. Energy prices rose to record
highs. Climate scientists showed that
reliance on fossil fuels was causing
troubling changes to the environment.
“The general belief was that the
end of the oil era was at hand,” says
Daniel Yergin, an energy historian and
author of “The Quest: Energy, Security
and the Remaking of the Modern
World.”
As a result, Wall Street, Silicon
Valley and governments were pouring
money into new companies
developing alternative forms of energy
that promised to supply the
world’s needs without polluting.
But while the national focus was
on alternatives, the oil and gas industry
was innovating too. New technology
allowed drillers to do two crucial
things: find more places where oil
and gas is hidden and bring it to the
surface economically.
Large oil companies such as
Exxon, Chevron, Shell and BP turned
up huge discoveries offshore in ultradeep
water with the help of faster
When looming crisis turns into a boom
WASHINGTON: NASA and private sector
experts now agree that a man or woman could
be sent on a mission to Mars over the next 20
years, despite huge challenges.
The biggest names in space exploration,
among them top officials from the US space
agency and Buzz Aldrin, the second man to
walk on the moon, will discuss the latest projects
at a three-day conference starting Monday
in the US capital. Renewed interest in the red
planet has triggered the launch of several initiatives
in recent months, including one proposing
a simple one-way trip to cut costs.
The American public also favors sending
astronauts to Mars, according to a survey by
computers and better sensors that
allowed them to see once-hidden oil
deposits. Onshore, small drillers
learned how to pull oil and gas out of
previously inaccessible underground
rock formations. For most of the oil
age, drillers have looked for large
underground pools of oil and gas that
were easy to tap. These pools had
grown over millions of years as oil and
gas oozed out of what is known as
source rock. Source rock is a wide,
thin layer of sedimentary rock - like
frosting in the middle of a layer cake -
that is interspersed with oil and gas.
An engineer named George
Mitchell and his company, Mitchell
Energy, spent years searching for a
way to free natural gas from this
source rock. He finally succeeded
when he figured how to drill horizontally,
into and then along a layer of
source rock. That allowed him to
access the gas throughout a layer of
source rock with a single well. Then he
used a process known as hydraulic
fracturing, or “fracking,” to create tiny
cracks in the rock that would allow natural
gas to flow into and up the well.
The United States, which was facing
a gas shortage five years ago, now
has such enormous supplies it is looking
to export the fuel in large volumes
for the first time. The common
wisdom in the industry was that the
process Mitchell had invented for natural
gas wouldn’t work for oil. Oil molecules
are bigger and stickier than
gas molecules, so petroleum engineers
believed it would be impossible
to get them to flow from source rock,
even if the rock were cracked by
fracking. But Mark Papa, the CEO of a
small oil and gas company called EOG
Resources, didn’t accept that.
“The numbers were too intriguing,
the prize was so big,” he remembered.
He thought there could be as much
as a billion barrels of oil within reach
in Texas, North Dakota and elsewhere
- if only he could squeeze it out. In
2003, he had a “eureka!” moment
while poring over pictures of rock.
Sections of a 40-foot-long column of
source rock had been run through a
CT scanner, the same type used to
peer into the human body.
He saw something in the source
rock sections the rest of the industry
didn’t know was there: a network of
passageways big enough for oil molecules
to pass through. Papa believed
the passageways could act like rural
roads for the oil to travel through.
Fracking could then create superhighways
for the oil to gather and
feed into a pipe and up to the surface.
EOG began drilling test wells, and
in 2005, Papa got some results from
one in North Dakota that made him
realize oil could flow fast enough to
pay off. “It was kind of like holy cow,”
he says. “My first thought was we
need to replicate this, make sure it’s
not a freak result.”
It wasn’t. Papa thought the Eagle
Ford might hold 500,000 barrels of oil.
The Department of Energy now predicts
it holds 3.4 billion. Some even
expect 10 billion, which would make
it the biggest oil field in US history.
But even after drillers figured out how
to find oil and gas deep offshore and
in onshore source rock, they still
needed to develop technology that
would make it economical.
At the tip of every oil or gas drill is
a rotating mouth of sharp teeth that
chews through rock. In the past, these
drill bits could only dig straight down.
Now they are agile enough to find
and follow narrow horizontal seams
of rock.
And behind the drill bit, attached
to a long line of steel known as the
“drill string,” is an array of sensors that
collect data about the rock and
underground fluids. The data, which
is sent to engineers via fiber-optic
cables, is run through supercomputers
as powerful as 30,000 laptops to
create a picture of the earth thousands
of feet below the surface.
“To the layman, it looks like dumb
iron, but you’d be shocked about
what’s inside,” says Art Soucy, president
of global products and services
at Baker Hughes. When the drilling is
done, the rig itself can “walk” a hundred
feet or so to another location
and start drilling again. In the past,
rigs had to be taken down and
reassembled, which could take days.
“It has made possible things that
were unthinkable 10 years ago,” says
Claudi Santiago, managing director at
First Reserve Corp., a private-equity
firm that invests in energy companies.
Renewable technologies have had
their successes. Solar now generates
six times more electricity in the U.S.
than it did a decade ago, and wind
HOUSTON: Sensors, housings, couplings, and cable are shown at OYO Geospace Company, at
company headquarters in Houston. Engineers have developed increasingly sophisticated sensors
that follow drill bits and measure physical characteristics of the rocks and fluids underground.
—AP
non-profit group Explore Mars and aerospace
giant Boeing. The poll in March of more than a
thousand people published in March found
that 71 percent of Americans expect that
humans will land on Mars by 2033.
Seventy-five percent say NASA’s budget
should be doubled to one percent of the federal
budget to fund a mission to Mars and other
initiatives. NASA receives only 0.5 percent of
the US federal budget, compared to four percent
during the Apollo project to conquer the
moon in the 1960s.
The US space agency’s chief Charles Bolden
has stressed that “a human mission to Mars is a
priority.” But the US financial crisis is a major
produces 18 times more. Most major
automakers offer some type of electric
vehicle. But the outlook for wind,
batteries and biofuels is as dim as it’s
been in a decade. Global greenhouse
gas agreements have fizzled. Dazzling
discoveries have been made in laboratories,
and some of these may yet
develop into transformative products,
but alternative energy technologies
haven’t become cheaper or more
useful than fossil fuels.
It’s certainly possible the world will
change direction again in the next
five years. After all, experts didn’t see
the oil and gas boom coming five
years ago. There are hundreds of
companies, including fossil fuel
giants, working on renewable-energy
projects. And despite growing supplies
of oil, prices remain high
because developing nations are consuming
more. But EOG’s Papa says oil
and gas companies will just invest in
even more sophisticated technology.
He estimates that current techniques
pull only 6 percent of the oil trapped
in source rock to the surface. Learning
to double that would yield yet another
enormous trove of hydrocarbons.
“Now we go into the next phase of
technology,” he says. “How are we
going to get the rest of it out of the
ground?” —AP
Dream of Mars exploration achievable: Experts
obstacle to such a project. “If we started today,
it’s possible to land on Mars in 20 years,” said G
Scott Hubbard of Stanford University.
“It doesn’t require miracles, it requires money
and a plan to address the technological
engineering challenges,” added Hubbard, who
served as NASA’s first Mars program director
and successfully restructured the entire Mars
program in the wake of mission failures.
Placing a mass of 30-40 tons-the amount
estimated to be necessary to make a habitat on
the red planet-would be one of the greatest
challenges, along with the well-known problem
of carrying or producing enough fuel to
get back, Hubbard stressed.—AFP

NORTH KOREA: A pharmacist at the Kaeson Clinic in the Moranbong District
of Pyongyang, gathers traditional “Koryo” medicine for a patient waiting at
the window.—AP
Ginseng, bear bile:
North Koreans
look to old cures
NORTH KOREA: The Man Nyon Pharmacy is
lined with rows of colorful packages containing
everything from dried bear bile and deer
antler elixir to tiger bone paste and ginseng.
But the ancient “Koryo” medicine provided at
this popular dispensary isn’t just for minor
aches and pains. It has been integrated into
the health system from the smallest village
clinic all the way up to the nicest showcase
hospitals in the privileged capital of
Pyongyang. Both modern and traditional
styles of healing have long been uniquely
intertwined nationwide with doctors from
both schools working in tandem under one
roof. North Korean physicians say many
patients prefer traditional medicine to the
Western kind, but it’s difficult to determine
the true situation in this closed and impoverished
society where access is limited.
Defectors, foreign aid workers and North
Koreans agree that many Western drugs are
scarce and say villagers still forage for plants in
some areas to make their own herbal concoctions.
With the UN Security Council imposing
its toughest-ever sanctions following North
Korea’s third nuclear test in February, patients
may become even more dependent on these
home-grown remedies in a country of 24 million
people where government health spending
ranks among the world’s lowest.
“Doctors are more interested in Koryo
medicine rather than Western medicine
because they can get it more easily,” said Ri
Hye Yong, who manages the frigid concrete
pharmacy opened by the government nearly
three decades ago. “It’s much cheaper.” The latest
restrictions are meant to squeeze new
young leader Kim Jong Un and the ruling class
by clamping down on access to foreign travel
and luxury goods. North Korea has responded
with tirades that include threatening nuclear
attacks against the U.S. and its allies.
The resolution is not supposed to block
donor aid to those who need it most, including
the two-thirds of the population who
don’t have enough to eat. But foreign aid
workers say years of limitations have created a
maze of red tape and approvals needed to
ship in medical supplies and equipment.
Some countries refuse to process payments
for anything involving North Korea because of
restrictions placed on banks, while some foreign
companies and organizations simply do
not want to be involved once they learn
where the materials are headed. But once the
goods arrive, they say the process becomes
fairly simple.
“Even though the imposed sanctions clearly
exclude humanitarian assistance, a negative
impact on the levels of humanitarian funding
has been experienced,” the UN Resident
Coordinator’s Office in Pyongyang said in a
statement April 29, adding nearly three-quarters
of the $147 million needed this year has
not been received.
The World Health Organization is lacking
an estimated 60 percent of the drugs it needs
for at risk kids and pregnant women, while the
UN Children’s Fund is struggling to get vaccines
and medicines to prevent the biggest
killer diseases among children, it said. In addition,
the WHO says the process of importing
essential equipment and medicine has also
grown lengthy at all levels, and those involved
have become over cautious in clearing materials
to ensure they could not be classified as
dual purpose or luxurious items.
International efforts to help boost the
country’s ability to produce its own vaccines
and medicines were earlier affected when
some technology and seed microbes were
halted over concerns they could potentially
be used by Pyongyang for malicious purposes,
WHO said. Despite these challenges, it’s difficult
to understand the full picture within
North Korea where outsiders are banned from
traveling freely and data are lacking or unreliable.
Suspicion of the outside world is reinforced
by huge hospital propaganda paintings
depicting Americans and Japanese as the
country’s “sworn enemies.”
Jang Jun Sang, a department director at
the Ministry of Public Health, said in an interview
in February that sanctions have cut
imports of medical equipment and supplies.
But he said North Korea was used to sanctions.
“If we receive medical aid, that’s good,”
he said. “But if we don’t, that’s fine, too. We’re
not worried.” North Korean factories have limited
ability to produce pharmaceuticals, and
many rural clinics lack electricity, running
water and heating. By the government’s own
account, more than 80 percent of village clinics
suffer from “chronic shortages of medicines
and supplies at all levels of the system.”
According to defectors such as Kwon Hyojin,
some drugs are smuggled in from neighboring
China and marketed while others are
taken from hospitals and sold illegally. All
health care is supposed to be free in North
Korea. Kwon said he was forced to buy an IV
drip as well as antibiotics, painkillers, and other
Western medicines from China after suffering
bouts of food poisoning and later while
hospitalized with a broken leg in 1997 in the
northeastern city of Chongjin. He recalled a
hospital bed swarming with lice and a tap that
spewed muddy water and worms.
The 52-year-old, who defected to South
Korea in 2009 and now works at the Seoulbased
Committee for the Democratization of
North Korea, said he tried to avoid hospitals in
the North altogether. Instead, he visited Koryo
doctors usually for upset stomach, back pain
and insomnia.
Traditional medicine is cheaper and easier
to find. Walls of tiny wooden drawers similar
to a library card catalog fill one vast room at
Pyongyang Medical College, each containing
hundreds of tiny paper triangles stuffed with
dried herbs. “I think Koryo medicine has mysterious
characteristics,” said Dr. Ryu Hwan Su,
the hospital’s deputy chief, who proudly displayed
a jar filled with a fat ginseng root
believed to be more than a century old. “It
heals illnesses that Western medicines can’t
treat.”
Traditional medicine is used widely in
many Asian countries, including China, Japan
and South Korea, where there is no shortage
of modern treatment and equipment. And
while scientific research regarding the benefits
of some age-old treatments is lacking,
therapies such as massage and acupuncture -
which can also serve as a local anesthetic - are
now widely used in the West. Some North
Korean clinics have their own greenhouses,
and herbs are harvested every year in the wild
to be processed into teas and other concoctions.
The government says Koryo medicine is
used to treat more than half the patients in
rural clinics. But shortages exist too.
Patients are often prescribed a simple herb
they are expected to get themselves, said Dr.
Byungmook Lim, a professor at South Korea’s
Pusan National University School of Korean
Medicine, who co-authored a study comparing
traditional medicine in the two Koreas.
The country began marrying traditional
medicine with modern practice in the 1950s
after the Korean War. Doctors were given
training in Koryo medicine and each hospital
was set up with a department devoted to it,
with prevention as the guiding concept
behind the socialized health plan. Unlike in
other Asian countries where the two practices
are typically kept separate, traditional practitioners
in North Korea can prescribe modern
drugs and assist during surgeries, while
Western doctors can use Koryo treatments.
“We kept talking to each other and consulting
each other,” said Kim Jie-eun, who
graduated from a Koryo school with some
modern training, and practiced in North Korea
as a pediatrician and internal medicine doctor
before defecting in 1999. She now runs a traditional
clinic in Bucheon, South Korea, and
recalls that even acupuncture needles were
reused in the North. She said frequent shortages
of antibiotics meant high-level officials
got treated first, while ordinary patients struggled
to find medicines. “I was really angry.
They were the same human beings,” she said.
“How this could happen?”
But she believes combining the two types
of treatment was actually better for patients.
She said Koryo medicine - taken from the old
name for Korea - was often used alone or in
combination with Western drugs to treat a
variety of health problems including stroke,
hepatitis, high blood pressure, kidney disorders
and diabetes. And it’s still done today. At
the new Breast Cancer Research Center at the
Pyongyang Maternity Hospital, a showcase
institution where The Associated Press was
recently taken on a tour, patient Ri Jong Suk
said she was set to be released after having a
mastectomy and reconstruction surgery.
She said during her one-month stay she
was given Western medicine along with Koryo
treatment, including massage and acupuncture,
to help strengthen her immune system,
decrease swelling and circulate blood after
surgery. The Health Ministry also cites hot
springs, mineral water and mud among successful
treatments. Cupping is another popular
therapy believed to stimulate blood flow
by using heated glass jars to create a vacuum
on the skin.
Many of these healing techniques are also
commonly used in South Korea, which is rooted
in the same ancient traditional medicine as
its northern counterpart. But in that country,
modern and traditional medicines typically
operate independently, each with its own
licensing and education system. North Korea
was once dependent on the Soviet Union to
keep its medical system running. —AP
HEALTH & SCIENCE
WASHINGTON: Healthcare reform should be the
signature Democratic achievement of President
Barack Obama’s presidency. But with “Obamacare”
five months from show time, Democrats are worried
about whether enough Americans will sign up
to make the sweeping healthcare overhaul a success
- and what failure might mean for Congress
heading into the 2016 presidential race. Some of
the law’s main advocates fear that not enough of
America’s 49 million uninsured will know about
health coverage offered in their own states. Even if
they do, new insurance plans may not be attractive
to young, healthy consumers needed to offset an
expected influx of older and sicker patients.
Only a handful of states are beginning campaigns
to promote the online health insurance
marketplaces created by the law. Known as
exchanges, the markets will offer private coverage
at federally subsidized rates to individuals and families
with low-to-moderate incomes, with enrollment
set to begin Oct 1. The federal government
has kept quiet about its promotion plans, which
are expected to begin in earnest over the summer.
While Obama and his administration say they
are working nonstop on reform, analysts believe a
poor performance could make the Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act a big enough
campaign issue in 2014 to jeopardize Democratic
control of the Senate - particularly if insurance
costs rise sharply. “There is reason to be very concerned
about what’s going to happen with young
people. If their (insurance) premiums shoot up, I
can tell you, that is going to wash into the United
States Senate in a hurry,” said Senator Ron Wyden,
an Oregon Democrat.
Some Democrats are frustrated about the lack
of details surrounding administration plans to promote
the exchanges. Senator Max Baucus, a chief
architect of the reform law, said federal outreach
efforts deserve a failing grade so far and could be
heading for a “huge train wreck.” He criticized
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen
Sebelius for the scant information her department
has provided.
Funding embargo
“Why in late April can’t they show us any of
what they’ve got planned? The rollout plan should
already be in existence,” an exasperated
Democratic Senate aide said separately. The law is
expected to cover 15 million Americans next year
through the exchanges and an expansion of
Medicaid. The overall number is forecast to jump to
38 million by 2022.
Reform is facing challenges on several fronts.
Big insurers appear wary of participating, raising
questions about how competitive the exchanges
will be. Businesses are mounting a new legal effort
to stop the use of federal subsidies in exchanges
run by Washington. And most states have balked at
the exchanges and the Medicaid expansion.
Meanwhile, the enrollment effort is under threat
from months of delay, a congressional Republican
embargo on new funding and worries about how
affordable the new plans will be, according to analysts,
lawmakers, congressional aides and former
officials.
“I don’t see how what they’re planning to do is
going to be adequate. The resources are too limited,
the (law’s) penalties are too weak and elite
opposition in much of the country will undermine”
enrollment, said Paul Starr, a Princeton professor
and former health adviser to President Bill Clinton.
Add to that the challenge of reaching a public that
is highly skeptical and often misinformed about
the most complex social legislation since Medicare
and Medicaid in the mid-1960s.
A Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 77
percent of Americans know little or nothing about
exchanges, while 40 percent erroneously think
reforms create a government panel to make endof-life
decisions for people on Medicare. An April
survey of 1,003 people by HealthPocket, an online
company that helps consumers find insurance, also
found that the law’s penalty for not buying coverage
would not induce most 25-to-34-year-olds or
18-to-24-year-olds to purchase it.
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
Obamacare is on the horizon,
but will enough people sign up?
Frustration over lack of details on public outreach
CHICAGO: File photo shows members of Progressive Change Campaign Committee
upset over potential cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security walk to
President Barack Obama’s campaign headquarters in Chicago, to deliver 200,000 signatures
from people who are refusing to donate or volunteer for his re-election campaign
if Obama cuts entitlement programs.—AP
Glitches and bumps
Obama this week defended the pace of implementation,
telling reporters that the government
was working hard to “make sure that we’re hitting
all the deadlines and the benchmarks” even with
the challenge of building the new online
exchanges. “That’s still a big, complicated piece of
business,” Obama said, adding the task was made
harder by a dedicated Republican opposition still
determined to block the law’s implementation.
“Even if we do everything perfectly, there’ll still
be, you know, glitches and bumps,” he said. The
administration is building exchanges in 33 states
that are unwilling or unable to do so on their own,
and has limited funds for marketing. The remaining
17 states are building their own and have received
sizable budgets for outreach. Among states taking
the lead, Vermont has launched radio advertising
to raise public awareness. Colorado begins its public
outreach this month, while California, Maryland
and the District of Columbia will hold off until later
in the year. For the federal exchanges, HHS has a
contract worth at least $8 million with public relations
firm Weber Shandwick and $54 million to
train and pay “navigators,” or counselors who will
help consumers choose a health plan. It also has a
$28 million contract with General Dynamics to set
up a call center and will make its Healthcare.gov
website consumer-oriented. The administration is
seeking help from major U.S. insurance providers
to market aggressively to consumers on the federally
run exchanges and help convince healthy citizens
between 26 to 45 to pay for insurance instead
of a first-year penalty amounting to $95 per person
or 1 percent of household income.
Blowing up
But reform advocates worry that the HHS budget
is too small and the spigot for new funding from
Congress is shut off by partisan politics. The “navigator”
program allocates just $600,000 each for 13
states including Delaware, Iowa, Kansas and New
Hampshire. “There’s a limited amount of money
that should be increased. But that’s subject to
appropriations and Congress is not likely to appropriate
additional money,” said Ron Pollack of the
advocacy group Families USA. “It’s going to require
a very robust effort in the private sector.”
Analysts say reform could be as big an issue in
next year’s congressional midterm elections as it
was in 2010, when dislike for the law among senior
citizens helped install a Republican majority in the
House of Representatives. This time, failed implementation
could end Democratic hopes of recapturing
the House and leave enough Senate
Democrats vulnerable to give Republicans an edge
in that chamber. —AP
Feds: Hepatitis B no barrier
to health practice
NEW YORK: Peter Nguyen was a promising
medical student when his school learned that
he had tested positive for the hepatitis B virus.
He said he was blackballed by school administrators
and forced to halt his studies. “I knew the
stigma” that came with a hepatitis diagnosis,
Nguyen said. But he thought that a medical
school, of all places, would understand. “I came
there expecting help. Instead, I was greeted
with discrimination.”
Nguyen’s prospects of becoming a physician
are a lot brighter today. The US Department of
Justice recently declared in a legal settlement
that hepatitis B patients are protected by federal
disability law. And, separately, federal health
officials have issued a revised set of guidelines
that make it clear that health care workers and
students who carry the hepatitis B virus - HBV
for short - generally pose little or no risk to
patients. Taken together, advocates say, the new
health guidelines and the Justice Department
settlement remove barriers to practice, handing
HBV-positive health professionals and students
a pair of powerful tools to combat discrimination.
“It gives us so much more leverage. We no
longer have to wring our hands,” said Joan
Block, executive director and co-founder of the
Hepatitis B Foundation, a nonprofit in
Doylestown, Pa. She said Nguyen was among
several students who contacted the foundation
in 2011 to report they’d either been forced out
of school, or had their admissions rescinded,
because of an HBV diagnosis.
Hepatitis B is a contagious and potentially
fatal liver disease spread through blood and
other bodily fluids. The virus that causes it is
most commonly transmitted through unprotected
sex. Intravenous drug use is another
major risk factor. It can also be passed from an
infected mother to her baby at birth, which is
how Nguyen contracted it. Even though he’d
been vaccinated as a child, the virus was already
in his body. As many as 1.4 million Americans
have chronic hepatitis B. It’s not clear how many
of them are health practitioners. But some 25
percent of medical and dental students - and
many practicing doctors, surgeons and dentists
- were born to mothers from countries in Asia
and other regions of the world where the virus
is endemic, according to the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC last issued guidelines for management
of health workers and students with hepatitis
B in 1991. A lot had changed in two
decades. Universal infant vaccination had
slashed the number of new cases by more than
MUMBAI: Indian women attend a laughter yoga session at a park during a World
Laughter Day event yesterday. World Laughter Day which is celebrated on the first
Sunday of May was the brainchild and created in 1998 by Indian physician Dr Madan
Kataria, founder of the worldwide Laughter Yoga movement. The first World
Laughter Day gathering took place in Mumbai, in 1998 with close to 10,000 people
coming together in a mega laughter session.—AFP
80 percent. New drug therapies had proved
effective at reducing the amount of virus in a
carrier’s blood to very low or undetectable levels,
greatly minimizing the risk of transmission.
And there had been only a single case of
hepatitis B transmission from a health provider
to a patient at least since 1991 - an orthopedic
surgeon who was unaware of his hepatitis infection
and had a very high amount of the virus in
his body. He infected two to eight patients,
according to the CDC.
While the old guidelines stated that a hepatitis
B diagnosis by itself shouldn’t preclude doctors,
dentists, nurses and other health professionals
from seeing patients, “we were concerned
that with a 20-year-old set of guidance,
it was not really considered as relevant as it
could be,” said Dr. John Ward, director of the
CDC’s Division of Viral Hepatitis. He said the new
guidelines offer a “powerful message that in the
great majority of clinical encounters between a
health care provider and a patient, there is minimal
or no risk of hepatitis B virus transmission.”
Released last summer, the updated CDC
guidelines were cited by the Justice
Department in March as the agency announced
a settlement with a New Jersey medical school
over claims it violated the Americans with
Disabilities Act by excluding two applicants
with hepatitis B. While the state-run University
of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey denied
liability, it agreed to admit qualified HBV-positive
students and provide training to staff.
It was the first case in which the Justice
Department pursued an ADA complaint on
behalf of people with hepatitis B. “This is a historic
decision,” Block said. “We can now pull out
the DOJ settlement and really guide these people:
‘What you’re facing is discrimination, and
here are the tools to help.’ That’s powerful.”
Nguyen said he had no idea he was a carrier
until he started medical school. That’s when he
began to feel persistently tired and lost the ability
to concentrate. Given a family history of liver
cancer - of which hepatitis is the leading cause -
his doctor had him tested. It came back positive.
Nguyen alerted the school and said he was
told by an administrator that he would never be
able to complete the required surgical rotation
because “no operating room in the country will
let you in.” “That’s when I started almost panicking,”
Nguyen said. “To this point I had been a
good student. All the sudden my world was
crashing, with all this debt and all the things I
had worked for in jeopardy.” He said the school
began making life more difficult for him, to the
point where he felt he had no choice but to
leave.—AP

NEW YORK: Allison Guarino understands
the controversy over new rules
allowing 15-year-olds to buy the morning-after
pill without a prescription. But
as someone who teaches pregnancy prevention
to ninth-graders in Boston, she
thinks lowering the age will “help the
girls who need the help the most.” “Some
girls might not have a good relationship
with their parents,” she said, “or they had
unprotected sex and they don’t know
what to do.”
On the other side of the issue are folks
like Brenda Velasco Ross, who says the
new rules infringe on her rights as a parent.
“It breaks my heart and saddens me
and really angers me,” said Ross, stepmom
of four, including 12- and 13-yearolds
in Fullerton, Calif. “If you have to buy
Sudafed, you have to show ID. When I
buy spray paint for a project for my
daughter, I have to show my ID. It just
baffles me that, with this, which has to
do with pregnancy and being sexually
active, I don’t have to be involved. That
to me just violates my rights as a parent
to have guidelines and parameters for
my children.”
The two opinions reflect some of the
HEALTH & SCIENCE
Debate over morning-after pill for 15-year-olds
issues in the debate over new rules
issued last week by the US Food and
Drug Administration, which lowered the
age for buying the drug without a prescription
from 17 to 15. In April, a federal
judge, Edward Korman, said there should
be no age restrictions at all. The Obama
administration said it wants to maintain
the prescription requirement for those
under 15 and will appeal the judge’s ruling.
Guarino, 19, a college freshman
majoring in public health and political
science at Boston University, said she
encounters a lot of ignorance on issues
related to sex and pregnancy. “I would
encourage any young person to go talk
to their parents or a doctor, but that’s not
the reality,” she said. Jennifer Morgan, 18,
a native of Somerville, Mass., who
attends college in Pennsylvania, said
she’s not sure she supports eliminating
the age limit entirely, but “I think it’s fine
for a 15-year-old. Not every girl has the
privilege of being able to go talk to her
mother in a crisis like that. Because time
is of the essence, and if a girl in that situation
and that age doesn’t have any other
support, I feel like it’s OK.” Morgan
recently completed a stint on a leadership
team for the National Campaign to
Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy
and added that while abstinence is an
ideal, “not every teen is going to stay
abstinent.” Samantha Bailey-Loomis, 16,
who recently founded a Students For Life
chapter at her high school in Branford,
Conn., opposes the concept of the morning-after
pill in the same way that she
opposes abortion. “My mom had me
when she was 17,” she said. “If this was
available when she was young, I
wouldn’t exist. I wouldn’t be able to
make the difference I am in the community
today.” Loomis said girls who are
worried they might be pregnant should
talk to their parents about it, and if they
can’t, should seek help from organizations
that can provide the support they
need. Dianne Sikel, who volunteers in a
juvenile probation program in Phoenix,
said dropping the age limit is “a move in
the right direction.” She added that it’s
easy to tell kids to use condoms, “but it
doesn’t always work out that way.”
“These pills being available to teens
are far better of an option than having a
young couple being forced to become
parents, for a young girl, who made a
bad choice one evening, who may be
forced to abort, or ultimately having to
give up a child for adoption,” said Sikel, a
parent of two boys, 13 and 16.
Sophia Martin, who teaches at a high
school in Northern California where
many students continue their education
after being expelled from other schools,
said she “can understand how upsetting
it is to think your kid might engage in
unprotected sex and then get the morning
after pill without your knowledge.
But to me the core reason to abolish any
kind of age limit is that there are young
people who are in situations in their families
where they can’t turn to their parents.”
Martin said some girls become
“pregnant not because they chose to
have sex. It’s such a hard situation for
them to talk about.” But Andrew Bay, 19,
who’s finishing up his freshman year at
Oklahoma State University in Stillwater,
Okla, says he thinks making the morning-after
pill so easily available “almost
encourages even younger children to
have unprotected sex.” If he had to put
an age limit on getting the drug without
a prescription, “It should probably be 18.
At least at 18 you’re considered mature
enough to make medical decisions on
your own.”
Denny Pattyn, founder of Silver Ring
Thing, which promotes chastity until
marriage and encourages young people
to wear purity rings to symbolize their
commitments, said he worries that allowing
younger teens to get the morningafter
pill without a doctor or parent’s
knowledge is going to increase the incidence
of sexually transmitted diseases.
“It’s incredibly irresponsible,” he said.
“These kids are getting these diseases
and they don’t even know they’re getting
them.” Dr Cora Breuner of the
American Academy of Pediatrics said
headlines about the age limit have
prompted some families to broach the
topic of safe sex. Even if parents don’t
bring it up, teens are hearing about it via
social media. “I know this in my own
practice, there are a lot more conversations
between parents and their children
about this decision,” said Breuner, an
adolescent health specialist at Seattle
Children’s Hospital. “This will prompt a
conversation nationally that can help at
so many levels.”—AP
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

WHAT’S ON
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
FAIPS expedition to NASA: A euphoric mission
SEND US YOUR
INSTAGRAM PICS
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other people see the way you see
Kuwait - through your lens. Friday Times will
feature snapshots of Kuwait through Instagram
feeds. If you want to share your Instagram photos,
email us at
instagram@kuwaittimes.net
Announcements
The TIES Center’s ‘trip’
The TIES Center cordially invites those who are
interested in its trip to the Historical, Vintage and
Classic Car Museum, which is the first museum in
Kuwait specializing in old cars on May 30th at 6:00 pm.
Revisit past memories or learn something new. If you
love cars then this is the trip for you. Even if you don’t
love cars, come anyway; you will enjoy the trip. For
more information/registration, log onto: www.tiescenter.net.
GRAMOLSAV on May 10
Kottayam Association, Kuwait is conducting
Malayalam Arts competitions - Gramolsav’ 2013
on 10th May 2013 at United Indian School by
4:00pm. The winners of this prestigious competition will
be awarded with trophies and medals. The competitions
are for Solo Nadan Pattu, Poetry Recitation and
Kadaprasamgam. The competitions are meant for children
as well as adults. The group is divided as Sub-
Junior, Junior, senior and Super Senior where as
Kadaprasamgam is only for Junior and Senior groups.
The closing date of receiving entry forms is 7th May,
2013. For entry forms please email to
gramolsav2013@gmail.com and the entry forms are
available at Family Super Market and Al-Watan
Restaurant, Abbassiya.
NAFO ‘Samanwayam’
The 10th anniversary of NAFO Kuwait will be
celebrated on May 10 at the American
International School Auditorium from 6pm
onwards. Indian Ambassador Satish C Mehta will
inaugurate the event. Former Indian Ambassador
to the US and the United Nations T P Sreenivasan
and NSS Director Board Member Pandalam
Sivankutty will be guests of honor. NAFO will also
present an eclectic dance drama ‘Krishna’ which is
conceived and choreographed by Padmashri
Shobana. She will be accompanied by a 15-member
troupe from Kalarpana Chennai and supported
by Oscar winner Rasool Pookkutty. It has voiceovers
in English by film personalities such as Irrfan
Khan, Konkonasen, Shabaana Azmi, John Abraham,
Prakash Raj, Stephen Devassy and P Rajeevan.
The education value of travel is
undisputable!! Once a wise man
said, “the pulse of learning in
another world creates appreciation in a
way a book cannot...”Keeping this ideology
as a backdrop, on April 1, 2013, a
group of 25 students from Fahaheel Al-
Wataneih Indian Private School set out
on their much coveted expedition-NASA-
Kennedy Space Centre, Florida, USA
under the able guidance of their teachers-
Theo Rodrigues and Sindhu John.
This stimulating tour offered an
opportunity for a rich immersion experience
and a tremendous way to facilitate
contemporary learning. The students
had a chance to experience a culture first
hand, connecting with the people and
place on a much deeper level than they
ever could in the classroom! Their innovative
minds, during the 3 day camp,
under the guidance of a team of NASA
engineers build parachutes, bridges and
launched a self-designed paper rocket
to name a few. The students also experienced
firsthand an exposure to simulators
and zero gravity, a small taste of the
rigorous training astronauts go through
before being launched into space.
The students had the privilege to
dine, interact and have a photograph
with Sky-Lab Astronaut, Ed Gibson. These
enriching, informative sessions opened
the eyes of the children, who were hitherto
ignorant about the intense training,
teamwork, sacrifice, single minded devotion
and focus that goes into becoming
an astronaut. It opened their minds to
one of life’s irrefutable fact that, one
needs to go beyond the comfort zone to
follow a passion.
The FAIPS students were applauded
for being the most disciplined team at
NASA Camp. A definite feather in their
cap! The educational tour also included
Disney World, Universal Studios and Sea
World in Orlando, Florida. Besides learning
the students also gained in self-confidence
and being responsibly independent.
This group travel enhanced the communication
skill for even the most introvert
student... they were not only learning
facts, but alongside, also learning life
skills. The children grew as individuals
and receive a global education that is
increasingly more important in the connected
world of today. Such experiences
have a huge impact on a student’s life by
expanding their horizons and changing
the way they see the world.
Over the years, FAIPS under the able
guidance of the school Principal Anju
Dheman have grown beyond the boundaries
of the classroom.
GUST welcomes and supports Dinarain Project
Konkani musical show
United Friends Club - Kuwait presents Kuwait
Trio’s Konkani Songit Sanz (a Konkani musical
evening) with fun filled comedy and
songs, starring: Gracy Rodrigues, Clemmie Pereira,
Irene Vaz, Lucy Aranha, Espy Crasto, Bab. Agnel,
Katty de Navelim, Salu Faleiro, Gasper Crasto, Braz
de Parra, Anthony D’Silva, Agnelo Fernandes, Seby
& Seby, Zeferino Mendes, Lopes Bros., Comedian
Nelson, Laurente Pereira & Cajetan de Sanvordem-
Michael D’Silva-Mario de Majorda (Kuwait Trio). The
show will be held on Friday, 10th May 2013 at 4 pm
at the Indian Community School (Senior), Salmiya,
Kuwait. Music will be provided by Maestro Shahu.
IMAX film program
Monday:
** 9:30am Showtime Available for Groups
Flight of Butterflies 3D 10:30am, 8:30pm
Tornado Alley 3D11:30am, 5:30pm, 7:30pm
To The Arctic 3D 12:30pm, 9:30pm
Born to be Wild 3D
6:30pm
Tuesday:
** 9:30am Showtime Available for Groups
Tornado Alley 3D10:30am, 6:30pm, 8:30pm
Flight of Butterflies 3D 11:30am, 9:30pm
To The Arctic 3D 12:30pm, 7:30pm
Born to be Wild 3D
5:30pm
Wednesday:
** 9:30am Showtime Available for Groups
To The Arctic 3D
10:30am
Tornado Alley 3D 11:30am, 6:30pm, 9:30pm
Flight of Butterflies 3D 12:30pm, 7:30pm
Journey to Mecca
5:30pm
Born to be Wild 3D
8:30pm
Write to us
IMAX
Send to What’s On
upcoming events, birthdays or
celebrations by email:
local@kuwaittimes.net
Fax: 24835619 / 20
From cutting edge surgeries and routine
ones to traditional therapies like
Ayurveda and yoga for all-round wellness,
the Indian healthcare system offers it
all at a fraction of what it would cost in
many countries. Little wonder then that
India has emerged as a leading healthcare
destination with thousands of ‘medical
tourists’ reaching its hospitals for complex
surgeries and not-so-major treatments.
With some of the most skilled doctors in
the world and the most modern medical
equipment, hospitals, both government
and privately owned, provide comprehensive
packages at one-tenth of the cost anywhere
abroad. Industry estimates peg the
market size of medical tourism in India,
which is growing at over 25 percent annually,
at over $2.5 billion with over 100,000 foreign
patients coming to the country each
year. India’s choice as a preferred destination
for medical tourism has been helped
by the government offering the special ‘M’
visa to medical tourists - the visas can be
issued up to a maximum duration of one
year. Visas can also be issued to attendants
(maximum 2) for accompanying the medical
tourist.
India’s efforts to promote medical
tourism took off in late 2002, when the
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) produced
a study on the country’s medical
tourism sector, which outlined immense
potential for the sector.
The following year, then finance minister
Jaswant Singh urged measures such as
The Gulf University for Science and Technology
(GUST) opened the Dinarain Project on its campus
in collaboration with the International Islamic
Charitable Organization, with the official opening
attended by theHead of the Board of Trustees at GUST,
Dr Abdulrahman Al-Muhailan, where he noted that
GUST actively supports projects like Dinarain because,
like Kuwait, it believes in the solidarity among its people
about the work of goodness and charity.
Al-Muhailan added during his speech at the opening
that the aim of this project is to supportand try to
instill values ??of volunteering and charitable work and
giving to others within the GUST community and
encouraging projects like this is is part of the continuity
of the university’s community outreach programs
and helping in the success of these projects as was
done in last year’s trip to China to implement a range
of projects and charity programs for the Muslims of
China’s most prominent educational centers and
orphanages in the name of Kuwait and its people.
improvements in airport infrastructure to
ensure smooth arrival and departure of
medical tourists. Analysing the reasons for
India’s popularity as a medical destination,
leading cardiac surgeon Naresh Trehan says
India has the ability to provide the best in
western and eastern healthcare systems.
“People are skilled in India and there is
no waiting queue for patients in the hospitals.
India provides value for money and the
cost of treatment is lower,” added Trehan,
managing director of Medanta-The
Medicity hospital in Gurgaon, adjoining the
Indian capital New Delhi.
There is almost no waiting time for surgeries
in India, a boon for patients from
countries like the US and Britain where the
queues are long. Though the maximum
medical tourists to India are from the US,
Africa is catching up fast. In 2011, for
instance, more than 30,000 patients came
from Kenya and about 10,000 from
Tanzania.
Costs are a key factor. Stem cell transplant,
a process by which new cells are
introduced into damaged tissue in order to
treat diseases or injuries, has shown promise
in treating various kinds of diseases,
including some cancers.
Outside India, a stem cell transplant
could cost up to Rs.1 crore (approx
$223,000) abroad, depending on the type
of procedure, and the patient is asked to
deposit the full amount before the procedure.
In India the same procedure in a private
hospital would cost between Rs.10-20
lakh (approx $18,500-37,000) in private hospitals.
Canadian Doug Antoniak, who
underwent a successful spinal surgery in
2007 in the south Indian city of Chennai,
was amongst those who benefited.
Recounting his ordeal, he had said: “I had
two failed surgeries in Canada, but my pain
didn’t go. It was getting worse all the time.”
The Apollo Hospital in Chennai came to his
help. The package was $40,000 for the surgery,
airfare, five-star accommodation and
45-day after-care.
“Had we gone to the US, it would have
cost us $250,000. We got world-class medical
care for a lot less. I will go to India in a
minute,” Antoniak’s wife Cathy said.
Uniquely Indian treatments like ayurveda
and yoga for rejuvenation and wellness
are helping states like India’s southern
Kerala state, famed for its Kerala massages.
According to a CII-McKinsey report, the
medical tourism industry in Kerala is
expected to be worth $4 billion by 2017.
There are other treatments too. Like a
comprehensive rehab policy for ‘narcoticsinduced
psychotics’. A recent group in New
Delhi included people from the US, Canada,
Oman as well as from Southeast Asia. The
three-month work-up at the Tulasi
Healthcare Centre includes intense group
discussions after weeks of detoxification
and psychiatric treatment and costs about
$3,500-5,500.
“In Bangkok, a 28-day treatment programme
costs $10,000,” Gorav Gupta, senior
psychiatrist and the force behind Tulasi, told
In his turn, the Director General of the International
Islamic Charitable Dr Suleiman Shams Al-Din noted
that the upcoming project has received greater attention
with increasedyouth presence than last year,where
44 young men and women laid the foundation stone
for two schools for orphans. The next trip is being
planned to Uganda and Kenya, where help will be
directed towards African countries and Muslims there
and laying the foundation for an educational project
development.
Get well soon: India rolls out red carpet for foreign patients
IANS. With these competitive prices, growth
is the only way to go. Though Thailand is at
present dominating the medical tourism
market in Asia followed by Singapore, India
is expected to substantially increase its
medical tourism share.
With the promise being shown by the
medical tourism sector, hospitals are also
cashing in on the trend sprucing up facilities
available on their premises. A fullfledged
movie lounge, a spa, a gym and fast
food outlets are just some of the facilities
on offer for patients and their attendants at
corporate hospitals in Indian cities.
The Gurgaon-based Fortis, for instance,
has a huge shopping arcade, a bakery, a
spa, gym, a host of fast food outlets and
also a 36-seater movie theatre to screen free
film shows for the patients and their attendants.
“During long surgeries, the stressed
out attendants of patients don’t wish to
leave the premises of the hospital and at
that moment watching a movie or having
some good food without having to step out
can be a positive distraction,” said Dilpreet
Brar, regional director of Fortis Hospital in
Gurgaon. Then, Columbia Asia Hospital in
Gurgaon has started its own chain of cafes
rather than giving space to an outsider. The
sprawling Columbia Cafe at the Columbia
Asia Hospital also conducts cooking classes
and regular food festivals along with food
promotion activities. Get healthy, the Indian
way, is what the medical fraternity and the
government seem to be telling patients the
world over. And many are listening.

IKEA Kuwait celebrates Earth Day
As observed every year, IKEA Kuwait,
in collaboration with the Junior
Engineer Academy recently celebrated
‘Earth Day’ with its customers to highlight
the importance of preserving the
planets ecosystem and well-being. In an
effort to strengthen the brands resolution
to be environmentally responsible, a series
of green initiatives were held in-store to
enlighten the customers on ways to protect
and nurture the Earth. IKEA Kuwait and
worldwide stores offer a wide range of
environmentally friendly products that
include solar lights, recycled bags and
much more that are affordable to the many.
Through such initiatives, IKEA is urging its
shoppers to participate, learn more, and
have a positive effect on the earth in their
own little ways.
WHAT’S ON
Sebamed on
Instagram
We are glad to inform you that we launched our site on instagram.
Follow us on @sebamedkuwait and (hashtag)#sebamedkuwait and
send us your shots involving all family members and be the lucky
winner of a valuable prize from Sebamed products.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts opens first
Four Points by Sheraton in Saudi Arabia
Starwood Hotels & Resorts
Worldwide, Inc yesterday
announces the debut of the Four
Points by Sheraton brand in the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with the new
Four Points by Sheraton Riyadh
Khaldia. Owned by Khaldia Towers
Company, a partnership between Al-
Jedaie Group and Al-Hokair Group, the
hotel is conveniently located 20 minutes
from Riyadh’s business district and
45 minutes from the King Khalid
International Airport, making it an ideal
choice for today’s business traveller.
“We are delighted to partner with
Khaldia Towers Company as we mark
the entry of the Four Points by
Sheraton brand into Saudi Arabia,” said
Roeland Vos, President Starwood
Hotels & Resorts, Europe, Africa &
Middle East. “This project further
underlines our commitment to continued
expansion in Saudi Arabia, an
important business and outbound
travel destination.”
Othman S Abahussain, General
Manager of Khaldia Towers Company
continued, “We are excited about the
opening of the Four Points by Sheraton
Khaldia in partnership with Starwood.
Four Points by Sheraton is a solid
brand and we believe Four Points by
Sheraton Riyadh Khaldia will be the
ideal destination for business travellers
in Riyadh.” Starwood’s Four Points by
Sheraton brand’s ‘best for business’
approach provides travellers with
everything that matters the most with
stylish design and an uncomplicated
friendly approach to hospitality and
service - all at a great value.
Four Points by Sheraton Riyadh
Khaldia will feature 376 guest rooms
including 138 suites, all fitted with the
brand’s signature Four Comfort Bed
and modern bathrooms with a separate
walk-in shower. The suites are
equipped with extra space, including a
large sitting area and separate kitchenette.
For guests who want to relax
and refresh, the hotel will feature a fully-
equipped fitness centre and spa,
both available later this year.
Four Points by Sheraton Riyadh
Khaldia currently operates two convenient
dining venues, including Al-
Nakheel, the hotels all-day dining
restaurant serving international cuisine
and Khaldia Lounge, offering
refreshments and snacks in the lobby
area. Early 2014, the hotel will open
Panorama which will serve the finest
local flavours and offer spectacular
views over Riyadh from the 26th floor.
The hotel features all of the brand’s
defining elements, including free Wi-Fi
in all public areas, reflecting the
brand’s promise and insight into the
needs of today’s traveller. To cater to
business travellers, Four Points by
Sheraton Riyadh Khaldia also offers
ultra-modern meeting and event
space, including 18 purpose-built
meeting rooms.
Starwood today operates close to
50 hotels and resorts across the Middle
East under eight of the company’s nine
distinct lifestyle brands including: The
Luxury Collection, St Regis, Sheraton,
Westin, W Hotels, Le MÈridien, Four
Points by Sheraton and Aloft.
GUST IFC concludes Certificate of Islamic Banking Course
The student-run Islamic Finance Club at the
Gulf University for Science and Technology
(GUST) concluded a training course in
Certificate of Islamic Banking (CIB) in cooperation
with Raqaba for Islamic Financial Consultations.
The goal of this course was upgrading the knowledge
and capabilities of the financial system and
Islamic banking staff. This certificate is available to
all employees working at banks, financial companies
and Islamic investment professional at various
levels. This certificate represents the core of the
work in these institutions which are identified as
Certified Islamic Banks.
Certificate of Islamic Banking is not limited to
workers in banks and financial institutions, but also
it is one of the best basic certificates that help
graduates to enroll in these institutions in a much
better way. One of the best features in the
Certificate of Islamic Banker that it is characterized
by a certificate approved from the General Council
for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions (CIBAFI)
and is an international professional body non-profit
organization, represents the umbrella for all the
official Islamic financial institutions in the world.
HSBC staff volunteers support in beach clean-up
Embassy
Information
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
EMBASSY OF AUSTRALIA
The Australian Embassy Kuwait does not
have a visa or immigration department.
All processing of visas and immigration
matters in conducted by The Australian
Consulate-General in Dubai. Email: info.ausdxb@vfshelpline.com
(VFS)
immigration.dubai@dfat.gov.au (Visa Office); Tel:
+971 4 355 1958 (VFS) - +971 4 508 7200 (Visa
Office); Fax: +971 4 355 0708 (Visa Office). In
Kuwait applications can be lodged at the
Australian Visa Application Centre 4B 1st Floor,
Al-Banwan Building Al-Qibla Area, Ali Al-Salem
Street, opposite the Central Bank of Kuwait,
Kuwait City, Kuwait. Working hours and days:
09:30 - 17:30; Sunday - Thursday. Or visit their
website www.vfs-au-gcc-com for more information.
Kuwait citizens can apply for tourist visas
on-line at www.immi.gov.au/e visa/e676.htm.
n n n n n n n
EMBASSY OF CANADA
The Embassy of Canada in Kuwait does
not have a visa or immigration department.
All processing of visa and immigration
matters including enquiries is conducted
by the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi,
UAE. Individuals who are interested in working,
studying, visiting or immigrating to Canada
should contact the Canadian Embassy in Abu
Dhabi, website: www.UAE.gc.ca or www.goingtocanada.gc.ca,
E-mail: abdbi-imenquiry@international.gc.ca.
The Embassy of
Canada is located at Villa 24, Al-Mutawakei 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. The reception is open from 07:30 to
12:30. Consular services for Canadian citizens
are provided from 09:00 until 12:00, Sunday
through Wednesday.
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EMBASSY OF CYPRUS
In its capacity as EU Local Presidency in
the State of Kuwait, the Embassy of the
Republic of Cyprus, on behalf of the
Member States of the EU and associated
States participating in the Schengen cooperation,
would like to announce that as from
2nd October 2012 all Schengen States’
Consulates in Kuwait will use the Visa
Information System (VIS). The VIS is a central
database for the exchange of data on shortstay
(up to three months) visas between
Schengen States. The main objectives of the
VIS are to facilitate visa application procedures
and checks at external border as well
as to enhance security. The VIS will contain all
the Schengen visa applications lodged by an
applicant over five years and the decisions
taken by any Schengen State’s consulate. This
will allow applicants to establish more easily
the lawful use of previous visas and their
bona fide status. For the purpose of the VIS,
applicants will be required to provide their
biometric data (fingerprints and digital photos)
when applying for a Schengen visa. It is a
simple and discreet procedure that only takes
a few minutes. Biometric data, along with the
data provided in the Schengen visa application
form, will be recorded in the VIS central
database. Therefore, as from 2nd October
2012, first-time applicants will have to appear
in person when lodging the application, in
order to provide their fingerprints. For subsequent
applications within 5 years the fingerprints
can be copied from the previous application
file in the VIS. The Cypriot Presidency
would like to assure the people of Kuwait and
all its permanent citizens that the Member
States and associated States participating in
the Schengen cooperation, have taken all
necessary technical measures to facilitate the
rapid examination and the efficient processing
of visa applications and to ensure a quick
and discreet procedure for the implementation
of the new VIS.
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EMBASSY OF VATICAN
The Apostolic Nunciature (Embassy of
the Holy See, Vatican in Kuwait presents
its compliments to Kuwait Times
Newspaper, and has the honor to inform the
same that the Apostolic Nunciature has moved
to a new location in Kuwait City. Please find
below the new address: Yarmouk, Block 1,
Street 2, Villa No: 1. P.O.Box 29724, Safat 13158,
Kuwait. Tel: 965 25337767, Fax: 965 25342066.
Email: nuntiuskuwait@gmail.com
n n n n n n n
EMBASSY GREECE
The Embassy of Greece in Kuwait has the
pleasure to announce that visa applications
must be submitted to Schengen Visa
Application Centre (VFS office) located at 12th
floor, Al-Naser Tower, Fahad Al-Salem Street, Al-
Qibla area, Kuwait City, (Parking at Souk Watia). For
information please call 22281046 from 08:30 to
17:00 (Sunday to Thursday). Working hours:
Submission from 08:30 to 15:30. Passport collection
from 16:00 to 17:00. For visa applications
please visit the following website
www.mfa.gr/kuwait.
HSBC staff volunteers recently
teamed up with Al-Yaal, a marine
conservation program developed
by The en.v Initiative (en.v) and implemented
byte Kuwait Society for the
Protection of Animals and Their Habitat
(K’S PATH), to clean Sulaibikhat beach.
More than 200 kgs of waste was collected
in two hours by 16 HSBC staff volunteers
and their families, together with representatives
from the two civil society organisations.
This was the first event of the year
and will be followed by a similar activity
later in the year.
Simon Vaughan Johnson said: “HSBC in
Kuwait has partnered with Al-Yaal for the
second consecutive year in the drive to
clean some of the most important beaches
and water areas in the country. As part
of our corporate citizenship we recognise
that we have responsibilities not only
towards our customers, employees and
shareholders but also to the countries and
communities in which we operate. Our
staff volunteers take pride in these activities
and we were very encouraged to see
the positive impact that this initiative has
had on Sulaibikhat beach over the past 12
months.”
Before taking part in the beach cleanup,
HSBC staff volunteers attended an
educational presentation on marine conservation
and waste management to gain
a better understanding of how human
activity can damage the environment.
Armed with this understanding, they are
further committed to implementing best
practices in their daily activities.
“We value and appreciate the support
we receive from international corporates
such as HSBC. With the assistance of volunteers
from the local community, we
have been able to restore some of the natural
habitats in Kuwait - witnessing new
plant life in areas we have cleared from
waste that had accumulated over the
years,” said Zahed Sultan, Managing
Director of The en.v Initiative.
The Al-Yaal marine conservation program
was first launched by en.v in April
2011,in collaboration with its implementing
partner K’SPATH. Al-Yaal’s main objectives
are to preserve Kuwait’s coastal habitats
and marine ecosystems, promote
environmental awareness amongst the
country’s youth and foster the development
of a new generation of Kuwaitis who
have a thorough understanding of sustainable
practices and environmental responsibility.
To date, Al-Yaal has engaged over
1,000 volunteers and partners for a total of
80 beach clean-ups, educated over 3000
students and has removed over 19 tons of
waste from Kuwait’s shores.
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EMBASSY OF SOUTH KOREA
The Embassy of the Republic of Korea in
Kuwait will organize 2013 K-POP Contest on
Thursday, June 6, 2013 at 6:00 pm. The aim
of the contest is to provide an opportunity to the
participants to showcase their exciting talents to the
audience. Everyone is encouraged to participate in
the contest. Application forms can be downloaded
from the Embassy’s website: http://kwt.mofa.go.kr
(Select English from the menu at the top of the
page then Bilateral Relations) or visit the “Korean
Culture Diwaniya” Facebook Group. Interested applicants
must send their application forms to
Kuwait@mofa.go.kr by 24 May 2013.

TV PROGRAMS
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
00:45 Tigers Attack
01:35 Animal Cops Philadelphia
02:25 Wildest Arctic
03:15 Wildest Islands
04:05 Into The Pride
04:55 Animal Cops Philadelphia
05:45 Wildest Arctic
06:35 Wildlife SOS
07:00 The Really Wild Show
07:25 My Cat From Hell
08:15 Dogs 101
09:10 Panda Adventures With Nigel
Marven
10:05 Animal Cops Houston
11:00 Wildest Africa
11:55 Call Of The Wildman
12:20 Wildlife SOS
12:50 Wild Africa Rescue
13:15 Wild Africa Rescue
13:45 Animal Precinct
14:40 Wildest Africa
15:30 Baboons With Bill Bailey
16:00 The Really Wild Show
16:30 Cats 101
17:25 Dick ‘n’ Dom Go Wild
17:50 Dick ‘n’ Dom Go Wild
18:20 Must Love Cats
19:15 Monkey Life
19:40 Rescue Vet
20:10 Call Of The Wildman
20:35 Cheetah Kingdom
21:05 Roaring With Pride
22:00 Karina: Wild On Safari
22:55 My Cat From Hell
00:20 Cash In The Attic
01:10 Gok’s Fashion Fix
02:00 DIY SOS
02:25 Daily Cooks Challenge
03:20 Celebrity MasterChef
04:15 Vacation Vacation Vacation
04:40 Bargain Hunt: Famous Finds
05:25 DIY SOS
05:50 Antiques Roadshow
06:45 Daily Cooks Challenge
07:15 DIY SOS
07:40 Cash In The Attic
08:30 Homes Under The Hammer
09:25 Bargain Hunt
10:10 Antiques Roadshow
11:00 Extreme Makeover: Home
Edition
11:40 Celebrity MasterChef
12:35 Vacation Vacation Vacation
13:00 Come Dine With Me
13:50 Bargain Hunt: Famous Finds
14:40 Gok’s Fashion Fix
15:25 Antiques Roadshow
16:15 Extreme Makeover: Home
Edition
17:00 Homes Under The Hammer
17:55 The Good Cook
18:20 Baking Mad With Eric Lanlard
19:10 New Scandinavian Cooking
19:40 Come Dine With Me
20:35 Extreme Makeover: Home
Edition
21:20 Antiques Roadshow
22:15 Bargain Hunt
00:15 Duck Dodgers
00:45 Wacky Races
01:30 What’s New Scooby-Doo?
02:20 The Flintstones
02:45 Tom & Jerry Tales
03:00 What’s New Scooby-Doo?
03:20 Taz-Mania
03:45 The Looney Tunes Show
04:10 Tom & Jerry Tales
04:35 Johnny Bravo
05:00 Bananas In Pyjamas
05:25 Jelly Jamm
06:00 Ha Ha Hairies
06:25 Bananas In Pyjamas
06:50 Lazytown
07:15 Krypto: The Super Dog
07:40 Baby Looney Tunes
08:05 Gerald McBoing Boing
08:30 Cartoonito Tales
08:55 Ha Ha Hairies
09:20 Lazytown
09:45 Baby Looney Tunes
10:10 Krypto: The Super Dog
10:35 Cartoonito Tales
11:00 Jelly Jamm
11:25 Gerald McBoing Boing
11:50 Lazytown
12:15 Baby Looney Tunes
12:40 Jelly Jamm
13:00 Tom & Jerry Kids
13:25 A Pup Named Scooby-Doo
13:50 Moomins
14:20 Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries
14:45 The Looney Tunes Show
15:10 The 13 Ghosts Of Scooby-Doo
15:35 Taz-Mania
16:00 Tiny Toon Adventures
16:25 Moomins
16:50 Tom And Jerry Tales
17:15 What’s New Scooby Doo
17:40 The Looney Tunes Show
18:05 The Garfield Show
18:30 Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries
18:55 The 13 Ghosts Of Scooby-Doo
19:20 Tom And Jerry Tales
19:45 What’s New Scooby Doo
20:10 Tiny Toon Adventures
20:35 Puppy In My Pocket
00:30 Grim Adventures Of...
01:20 Johnny Test
02:10 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien
02:35 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien
03:00 The Amazing World Of
Gumball
03:25 Regular Show
03:50 Ben 10: Omniverse
04:15 Scooby-Doo! Mystery
Incorporated
04:40 Powerpuff Girls
05:05 Evil Con Carne
05:30 Cow & Chicken
06:00 Casper’s Scare School
06:30 Angelo Rules
07:00 Dreamworks Dragons: Riders
Of Berk
07:25 The Amazing World Of
Gumball
07:45 Scooby-Doo! Mystery
Incorporated
08:10 Evil Con Carne
08:55 Adventure Time
09:45 Regular Show
10:35 Angelo Rules
11:25 Ben 10: Alien Force
12:15 Hero 108
13:05 Mucha Lucha !
13:30 Angelo Rules
14:20 Evil Con Carne
15:10 The Amazing World Of
Gumball
15:35 Adventure Time
16:00 Regular Show
16:30 Johnny Test
17:00 Ben 10 Omniverse
17:25 Dreamworks Dragons: Riders
Of Berk
17:50 Gormiti New
18:15 Young Justice
18:40 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien
19:05 Total Drama: Revenge Of The
Island
19:30 Total Drama: Revenge Of The
Island
19:55 Mucha Lucha !
20:20 Ben 10: Omniverse
00:15 Crash Course
07:00 Mythbusters
07:50 Soul Food Family
08:45 Flying Wild Alaska
09:40 Border Security
10:05 Auction Hunters
10:30 Auction Kings
10:55 How Do They Do It?
11:25 How It’s Made
11:50 Crash Course - Season 2
Special
12:45 Overhaulin’ 2012
13:40 Fifth Gear
14:35 Border Security
15:05 Auction Hunters
15:30 Auction Kings
16:00 Robson Green’s Extreme
Fishing Challenge
16:55 Flying Wild Alaska
17:50 Mythbusters
18:45 Sons Of Guns
19:40 How Do They Do It?
20:05 How It’s Made
20:35 Auction Hunters
21:30 Gold Rush - Season 3 Specials
22:25 Jungle Gold
23:20 One Car Too Far
00:05 How Tech Works
00:30 Patent Bending
01:00 Ecopolis
05:15 The Gadget Show
05:40 How Tech Works
06:05 Storm Chasers
07:00 X-Machines
07:50 Things That Move
08:40 The Gadget Show
09:05 How Tech Works
09:30 Punkin Chunkin 2010
10:25 Ecopolis
11:20 Man-Made Marvels Asia
12:10 Race To Mars
13:00 Things That Move
13:50 Patent Bending
14:20 The Gadget Show
14:45 How Tech Works
15:10 X-Machines
16:00 Da Vinci’s Machines
16:55 Ecopolis
17:45 Superships
18:35 Prophets Of Science Fiction
19:30 X-Machines
20:20 Things That Move
21:10 The Gadget Show
21:35 How Tech Works
22:00 X-Machines
22:50 The Colony
23:40 The Gadget Show
00:00 Stitch
00:35 A Kind Of Magic
01:25 Replacements
02:15 Emperor’s New School
03:05 A Kind Of Magic
03:55 Replacements
04:45 Emperor’s New School
05:35 A Kind Of Magic
06:00 Prankstars
06:25 Suite Life On Deck
06:45 Cory In The House
07:10 A.N.T. Farm
07:35 Austin And Ally
07:55 Jessie
08:20 Good Luck Charlie
08:45 Doc McStuffins
09:05 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
09:30 A.N.T. Farm
09:55 Jonas
10:15 So Random
10:40 Hannah Montana
11:05 Sonny With A Chance
11:25 Kim Possible
11:50 Shake It Up
12:35 Wizards Of Waverly Place
13:25 Austin And Ally
13:45 Jessie
14:10 A.N.T. Farm
14:35 So Random
14:55 The Adventures Of Disney
Fairies
15:20 Good Luck Charlie
15:45 Jessie
16:10 Shake It Up
16:35 A.N.T. Farm
17:00 Austin And Ally
17:20 Suite Life On Deck
18:10 Cory In The House
18:30 Jonas
00:00 Special Agent Oso
00:15 Imagination Movers
00:40 Jungle Junction
01:10 Handy Manny
01:30 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
01:54 Winnie The Pooh: Tales Of
Friendship
02:00 Little Einsteins
02:25 Special Agent Oso
02:50 Imagination Movers
03:20 Handy Manny
03:40 Special Agent Oso
04:00 Timmy Time
04:10 Imagination Movers
04:35 Little Einsteins
05:00 Jungle Junction
SAVING PRIVATE RYAN ON OSN ACTION HD
05:15 Jungle Junction
05:30 Little Einsteins
05:50 Special Agent Oso
06:15 Jungle Junction
06:45 Handy Manny
07:00 Special Agent Oso
07:15 Higglytown Heroes
07:45 Handy Manny
08:00 The Hive
08:10 New Adventures Of Winnie
The Pooh
08:35 Jake & The Neverland Pirates
09:05 Doc McStuffins
09:35 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
10:00 Art Attack
10:30 Mouk
10:45 Art Attack
11:10 Imagination Movers
11:35 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
12:00 Winnie The Pooh: Tales Of
Friendship
12:10 Doc McStuffins
12:40 Higglytown Heroes
12:55 Timmy Time
13:05 The Hive
13:15 Mouk
13:30 Little Einsteins
13:55 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
14:20 New Adventures Of Winnie
The Pooh
14:45 Jake & The Neverland Pirates
15:00 The Little Mermaid
15:25 Doc McStuffins
15:40 Higglytown Heroes
15:55 Zou
16:05 Zou
16:20 Art Attack S1
16:45 Doc McStuffins
17:00 Art Attack S1
17:25 Doc McStuffins
17:40 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
18:05 Art Attack
18:35 New Adventures Of Winnie
The Pooh
19:00 Animated Stories
19:05 Timmy Time
19:15 Pajanimals
19:25 Doc McStuffins
00:00 Chelsea Lately
00:30 Opening Act
01:25 E! Investigates
04:10 THS
05:05 Extreme Close-Up
06:00 THS
07:50 Style Star
08:20 E! News
09:15 Married To Jonas
10:15 THS
12:05 Ice Loves Coco
13:05 Keeping Up With The
Kardashians
15:00 Style Star
15:30 THS
16:30 Extreme Close-Up
17:00 Fashion Police
18:00 E! News
19:00 THS
20:00 Ice Loves Coco
21:00 Chasing The Saturdays
22:00 Kourtney And Kim Take Miami
23:00 E!es
00:05 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives
00:30 Heat Seekers
00:55 Outrageous Food
01:20 Unwrapped
01:45 Iron Chef America
03:25 Unique Eats
03:50 Food Crafters
04:15 United Tastes Of America
04:40 Chopped
05:30 Iron Chef America
06:10 Unwrapped
07:00 Guy’s Big Bite
07:50 Reza’s African Kitchen
08:15 Kid In A Candy Store
08:40 Unique Sweets
09:05 Barefoot Contessa - Back To
Basics
09:30 The Next Food Network Star
10:45 Extra Virgin
11:10 Cooking For Real
11:35 Food Crafters
12:00 Ultimate Recipe Showdown
12:50 Grill It! With Bobby Flay
13:15 Barefoot Contessa - Back To
Basics
13:40 Barefoot Contessa - Back To
Basics
14:05 Food Wars
14:30 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives
15:20 Guy’s Big Bite
15:45 Chopped
16:35 Barefoot Contessa - Back To
Basics
17:25 Food Wars
17:50 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives
18:40 Guy’s Big Bite
19:05 Reza’s African Kitchen
19:30 Chopped
21:10 Amazing Wedding Cakes
22:00 Reza’s African Kitchen
22:50 Andy Bates American Street
Feasts
00:05 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives
00:30 Heat Seekers
00:55 Outrageous Food
01:20 Unwrapped
01:45 Iron Chef America
03:25 Unique Eats
03:50 Food Crafters
04:15 United Tastes Of America
04:40 Chopped
05:30 Iron Chef America
06:10 Unwrapped
07:00 Guy’s Big Bite
07:50 Reza’s African Kitchen
08:15 Kid In A Candy Store
08:40 Unique Sweets
09:05 Barefoot Contessa - Back To
Basics
09:30 The Next Food Network Star
10:45 Extra Virgin
11:10 Cooking For Real
11:35 Food Crafters
12:00 Ultimate Recipe Showdown
12:50 Grill It! With Bobby Flay
13:15 Barefoot Contessa - Back To
Basics
14:05 Food Wars
14:30 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives
15:20 Guy’s Big Bite
15:45 Chopped
16:35 Barefoot Contessa - Back To
Basics
17:25 Food Wars
17:50 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives
18:40 Guy’s Big Bite
19:05 Reza’s African Kitchen
19:30 Chopped
21:10 Amazing Wedding Cakes
22:00 Reza’s African Kitchen
22:50 Andy Bates American Street
Feasts
23:15 Andy Bates American Street
Feasts
00:30 The Haunted
01:20 Dr G: Medical Examiner
02:05 Who On Earth...
02:55 Couples Who Kill
03:45 Scorned: Crimes Of Passion
04:30 The Haunted
05:20 Dr G: Medical Examiner
06:10 Disappeared
07:00 Mystery Diagnosis
07:50 Street Patrol
08:40 Real Emergency Calls
09:05 Who On Earth Did I Marry?
09:30 On The Case With Paula Zahn
10:20 Murder Shift
11:10 Disappeared
12:00 Mystery Diagnosis
12:50 Street Patrol
13:40 Forensic Detectives
14:30 On The Case With Paula Zahn
15:20 Real Emergency Calls
15:45 Who On Earth Did I Marry?
16:10 Disappeared
17:00 Murder Shift
17:50 Forensic Detectives
18:40 On The Case With Paula Zahn
19:30 Disappeared
20:20 Nightmare Next Door
21:10 Couples Who Kill
22:00 Deadly Sins
00:00 BBC World News
00:10 Indian Ocean With Simon
Reeve
01:00 Newsday
01:30 Our World
02:00 Newsday
02:30 Asia Business Report
02:45 Sport Today
03:00 Newsday
03:30 India Business Report
04:00 BBC World News
04:30 Asia Business Report
04:45 Sport Today
05:00 BBC World News
05:30 Asia Business Report
05:45 Sport Today
06:00 BBC World News
06:30 Hardtalk
07:00 BBC World News
07:30 World Business Report
07:45 BBC World News
08:30 World Business Report
08:45 BBC World News
09:30 World Business Report
09:45 BBC World News
10:30 World Business Report
10:45 BBC World News
11:30 Hardtalk
12:00 BBC World News
12:30 World Business Report
12:45 Sport Today
13:00 BBC World News
14:00 GMT With George Alagiah
15:00 BBC World News
15:30 World Business Report
15:45 Sport Today
16:00 Impact With Mishal Husain
17:30 Hardtalk
18:00 Global With John Sopel
19:30 World Business Report
19:45 Sport Today
20:00 BBC World News
20:30 BBC Focus On Africa
21:00 World News Today With
Zeinab Badawi
22:30 World Business Report
22:45 Sport Today
23:00 Business Edition With Tanya
Beckett
00:15 Market Values
00:45 Finding Genghis
01:40 Wild Rides
02:35 Travel Madness
03:30 Travel Oz
03:55 Geo Sessions
04:25 A World Apart
05:20 Departures
06:15 Food Lover’s Guide To The
Planet
06:40 Food School
07:10 Market Values
08:05 Finding Genghis
09:00 Wild Rides
09:55 Travel Madness
10:50 Travel Oz
11:15 Geo Sessions
11:45 A World Apart
12:40 Departures
13:35 Food Lover’s Guide To The
Planet
14:00 My Sri Lanka With Peter
Kuruvita
14:30 Market Values
15:25 Living With The Amish
16:20 Wild Rides
16:45 Into The Drink
17:15 Travel Madness
18:10 Travel Oz
18:35 Deadliest Journeys
19:05 A World Apart
20:00 Market Values
21:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The
Planet
21:30 My Sri Lanka With Peter
Kuruvita
22:00 Departures
22:55 Food Lover’s Guide To The
Planet
23:20 Food School
23:50 Food Lover’s Guide To The
Planet
00:00 Ultimate Animal Countdown
01:00 World’s Weirdest
01:55 Monster Fish
02:50 Ultimate Animal Countdown
03:45 Amazonia’s Giant Jaws
04:40 World’s Deadliest
05:35 The Real Serengeti
06:30 Monster Fish
07:25 Ultimate Animal Countdown
08:20 Amazonia’s Giant Jaws
09:15 Built For The Kill
10:10 World’s Weirdest
11:05 Predator CSI
12:00 I, Predator
13:00 Monster Fish
14:00 Dangerous Encounters With
Brady Barr
15:00 Built For The Kill 5
16:00 Fish Warrior
17:00 Salmon Wars
18:00 World’s Weirdest
19:00 Monster Fish
20:00 Dangerous Encounters With
Brady Barr
21:00 Built For The Kill 5
22:00 Fish Warrior
23:00 Salmon Wars
01:30 Saving Private Ryan-18
04:15 True Justice: Lethal Justice
06:00 Secret Window-PG15
07:45 The Stool Pigeon-PG15
09:45 X-Men: First Class-PG15
12:00 Legendary Assassin-PG15
13:45 The Stool Pigeon-PG15
15:45 Justice League: Doom-PG15
17:15 Legendary Assassin-PG15
18:45 Covert One: The Hades Factor
21:45 Nowhere To Run-18
01:00 Ceremony-PG15
03:00 Madea’s Big Happy Family
05:00 Once Brothers-PG15
06:45 Battle For Terra-PG
09:00 Ceremony-PG15
11:00 Madea’s Big Happy Family
13:00 No Surrender-PG15
15:00 B-Girl-PG15
17:00 The Game Of Their Lives-PG15
18:45 The Best Exotic Marigold
Hotel-PG15
00:00 The Cleveland Show
00:30 The Daily Show With Jon
Stewart
01:00 The Colbert Report
01:30 Saturday Night Live
02:30 The Ricky Gervais Show
03:00 Guys With Kids
03:30 1600 Penn
04:00 Seinfeld
04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay
Leno
05:30 Til Death
06:00 Arrested Development
06:30 Samantha Who?
07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon
08:00 Seinfeld
08:30 Til Death
09:00 Guys With Kids
09:30 Two And A Half Men
10:00 The Office
10:30 Samantha Who?
11:00 The Tonight Show With Jay
Leno
12:00 Arrested Development
12:30 Seinfeld
13:00 Til Death
13:30 Samantha Who?
14:00 1600 Penn
14:30 The Office
00:00 Breakout Kings
01:00 Scandal
02:00 Grimm
03:00 Treme
04:00 Necessary Roughness
05:00 Grimm
06:00 Breakout Kings
07:00 Emmerdale
07:30 Coronation Street
08:00 C.S.I. New York
09:00 Scandal
10:00 Burn Notice
11:00 Necessary Roughness
12:00 Emmerdale
12:30 Coronation Street
13:00 The Ellen DeGeneres Show
14:00 C.S.I. New York
15:00 Breakout Kings
16:00 Emmerdale
16:30 Coronation Street
17:00 The Ellen DeGeneres Show
18:00 C.S.I. New York
19:00 Alphas
20:00 Revenge
00:00 Paintball
01:45 Botched
03:30 Saving Private Ryan
06:15 True Justice: Lethal Justice
08:00 Secret Window
09:45 The Stool Pigeon
11:45 X-Men: First Class
14:00 Legendary Assassin
15:45 The Stool Pigeon
17:45 Justice League: Doom
00:00 Old School-18
02:00 The Janky Promoters-18
04:00 Mrs. Miracle-PG15
06:00 Just Crazy Enough-PG15
BATTLE FOR TERRA ON OSN CINEMA
08:00 Elf-PG
10:00 Men In Black-PG15
12:00 Mrs. Miracle-PG15
14:00 Police Academy 3: Back In
Training-PG15
16:00 Men In Black-PG15
18:00 The Winning Season-PG15
20:00 Dazed And Confused-PG15
01:15 Dead Again-PG15
03:00 Vincere-18
05:15 Route Irish-PG15
07:15 I’ve Loved You So Long-PG15
09:15 Every Jack Has A Jill-PG15
10:45 Terms Of Endearment-PG15
13:00 Tora! Tora! Tora!-PG15
15:30 Every Jack Has A Jill-PG15
17:00 Honey 2-PG15
19:00 Yelling To The Sky-PG15
21:00 Money For Nothing-PG15
23:15 Shadows & Lies-18
01:00 The People vs George Lucas
03:00 Outlaw Country-PG15
05:00 Flower Girl-PG15
07:00 Black Forest-PG15
09:00 I Don’t Know How She Does
It-PG15
11:00 Tower Heist-PG15
13:00 Perfect Plan-PG15
15:00 Rising Stars-PG15
17:00 I Don’t Know How She Does
It-PG15
19:00 What’s Your Number?-PG15
20:45 Margaret-18
01:00 Easter Egg Escapade
02:45 Supertramps
04:30 Problem Child
06:00 Free Birds
08:00 Princess Sydney: The Legend
Of The Blue Rabbit
09:30 Rio
11:15 Alpha And Omega
12:45 Zathura: A Space Adventure
14:45 Free Birds
16:15 Princess Sydney: The Three
Gold Coins
18:00 Rio
20:00 Hugo
22:15 Zathura: A Space Adventure
00:00 Jesse Stone: Innocents Lost
02:00 Why Did I Get Married Too?
04:00 The Pirates! Band Of Misfits
06:00 12 Dates Of Christmas-PG15
08:00 Last Holiday-PG15
10:00 Dead Lines-PG15
12:00 Why Did I Get Married Too?
14:00 Alvin And The Chipmunks:
Chipwrecked-PG
16:00 Last Holiday-PG15
18:00 Seeking Justice-PG15
01:00 Futbol Mundial
01:30 ICC Cricket 360
02:00 PGA Tour
06:00 Trans World Sport
07:00 Snooker World Championship
11:00 Futbol Mundial
11:30 ICC Cricket 360
12:00 Live NRL Premiership
14:00 WWE Bottom Line
15:00 Trans World Sport
16:00 Live Snooker World
Championship
19:30 ICC Cricket 360
20:00 Super Rugby Highlights
01:00 Super League
02:30 Snooker World Championship
06:30 ICC Cricket 360
07:00 PGA Tour
12:00 Futbol Mundial
12:30 Trans World Sport
13:30 PGA European Tour
18:00 PGA Tour Highlights
19:00 PGA Tour Players Champions
20:00 PGA European Tour
Highlights
21:00 AFL Premiership Highlights
22:00 NRL Premiership
01:30 NRL Premiership
03:30 NRL Premiership
05:30 Super League
07:00 Golfing World
08:00 Top 14 Highlights
08:30 Super Rugby
10:30 World Pool Masters
11:30 World Cup Of Pool
12:30 Golfing World
13:30 Top 14 Highlights
14:00 Premier League Darts
17:30 NRL Premiership
19:30 Super League
21:00 ICC Cricket 360
21:30 Golfing World
22:30 PGA Tour Highlights
23:30 PGA European Tour
Highlights
01:00 UAE National Race Day Series
02:00 European Le Mans Series
03:00 UIM Powerboat Champs
03:30 UIM Aquabike Champs
04:00 US Bass Fishing
05:00 NHL
07:00 WWE Bottom Line
08:00 WWE Experience
09:00 Ping Pong World
10:00 US Bass Fishing
11:00 NHL
13:00 Mass Participation Ironman
14:30 Mobil 1 The Grid
15:00 WWE SmackDown
17:00 Ping Pong World
18:00 US Bass Fishing
19:00 UFC
22:00 UFC
00:00 Big Rich Texas
01:00 Fashion Police
01:55 Big Rich Texas
03:45 Videofashion Daily
04:40 Videofashion Specials
05:10 Videofashion News
05:35 Videofashion Collections
06:05 Open House
07:00 Videofashion News
08:00 Videofashion Daily
09:00 Open House
09:30 Dress My Nest
10:00 Built
10:55 Tia And Tamera
11:55 Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane
12:50 Videofashion Specials
13:20 Videofashion Collections
13:50 Chicagolicious
14:45 How Do I Look?
16:35 Giuliana & Bill
18:25 Tia And Tamera
20:20 Kimora: House Of Fab
22:10 Built
23:05 Tia And Tamera
00:00 World Report
00:30 Mainsail
01:00 CNN Newsroom Live From
Hong Kong
02:00 CNN Newsroom Live From
Hong Kong
03:00 Backstory
03:30 Talk Asia
04:00 Fareed Zakaria GPS
05:00 CNN Newsroom
06:00 Business Traveller
06:30 News Special
07:00 World Sport
07:30 Inside Africa
08:00 World Report
10:00 World Sport
10:30 News Special
11:00 World Business Today
12:00 World One
12:30 African Voices
13:00 Backstory
13:30 CNN Newscenter
14:00 Fareed Zakaria GPS
15:00 News Stream
16:00 World Business Today
17:00 International Desk
18:00 Global Exchange
19:00 World Sport
19:30 African Voices
20:00 International Desk
21:00 Quest Means Business
22:00 Amanpour
22:30 CNN Newscenter

Classifieds
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
Kuwait
KNCC PROGRAMME FROM THURSDAY TO
WEDNESDAY (02/05/2013 TO 08/05/2013)
SHARQIA-1
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG)
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG)
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
12:45 PM
2:45 PM
4:45 PM
6:45 PM
8:45 PM
10:30 PM
12:30 AM
SHARQIA-2
TAD, THE LOST EXPLORER (DIG-3D) 12:30 PM
IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)
2:30 PM
SPIDERS (DIG-3D)
5:00 PM
IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)
7:00 PM
IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)
9:30 PM
IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)
12:05 AM
SHARQIA-3
OBLIVION (DIG)
FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG)
THE CALL (DIG)
THE CALL (DIG)
THE CALL (DIG)
OBLIVION (DIG)
MUHALAB-1
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG)
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG)
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
1:45 PM
4:15 PM
6:15 PM
8:15 PM
10:15 PM
12:15 AM
12:45 PM
2:45 PM
4:30 PM
6:45 PM
8:45 PM
10:45 PM
MUHALAB-2
THE CALL (DIG)
2:00 PM
OBLIVION (DIG)
4:00 PM
GREEKU VEERUDU (DIG) (TELUGU) 4:00 PM
THE CALL (DIG)
7:00 PM
THE CALL (DIG)
9:00 PM
THE CALL (DIG)
11:00 PM
MUHALAB-3
IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)
12:30 PM
TAD, THE LOST EXPLORER (DIG-3D) 3:00 PM
IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)
5:00 PM
IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)
7:30 PM
IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)
10:00 PM
FANAR-1
THE CALL (DIG)
OBLIVION (DIG)
THE CALL (DIG)
THE CALL (DIG)
THE CALL (DIG)
OBLIVION (DIG)
1:30 PM
3:30 PM
6:00 PM
8:00 PM
10:00 PM
12:05 AM
FANAR-2
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
12:45 PM
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
2:30 PM
THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 4:15 PM
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
6:15 PM
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
8:00 PM
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
9:45 PM
THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 (DIG)
11:45 PM
FANAR-3
THE COMPANY YOU KEEP (DIG)
WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG)
WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG)
WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG)
WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG)
THE COMPANY YOU KEEP (DIG)
2:00 PM
4:30 PM
6:30 PM
8:30 PM
10:30 PM
12:30 AM
MARINA-1
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
1:30 PM
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
3:30 PM
THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 (DIG)
5:15 PM
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG)
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
MARINA-2
THE CALL (DIG)
OBLIVION (DIG)
FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG)
THE CALL (DIG)
THE CALL (DIG)
THE CALL (DIG)
7:15 PM
9:00 PM
11:00 PM
12:45 AM
1:45 PM
3:45 PM
6:15 PM
8:15 PM
10:15 PM
12:15 AM
MARINA-3
TAD, THE LOST EXPLORER (DIG-3D) 2:00 PM
IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)
4:00 PM
IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)
6:30 PM
IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)
9:00 PM
IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)
11:45 PM
AVENUES-1
WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG)
WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG)
WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG)
WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG)
WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG)
WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG)
1:15 PM
3:30 PM
5:45 PM
8:00 PM
10:15 PM
12:30 AM
AVENUES-2
OBLIVION (DIG)
12:45 PM
OBLIVION (DIG)
3:15 PM
OBLIVION (DIG)
5:45 PM
THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 (DIG)
8:15 PM
OBLIVION (DIG)
10:30 PM
THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 (DIG)
1:15 AM
AVENUES-3
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
360º 1
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
360º 2
FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG)
FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG)
FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG)
FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG)
FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG)
360º 3
EMPEROR (DIG)
EMPEROR (DIG)
EMPEROR (DIG)
EMPEROR (DIG)
EMPEROR (DIG)
EMPEROR (DIG)
2:15 PM
4:15 PM
6:15 PM
8:15 PM
10:15 PM
12:15 AM
1:15 PM
3:15 PM
5:15 PM
7:15 PM
9:15 PM
11:15 PM
1:15 AM
2:30 PM
4:45 PM
7:00 PM
9:15 PM
11:30 PM
1:00 PM
3:15 PM
5:30 PM
7:45 PM
10:00 PM
12:15 AM
AL-KOUT.1
TAD, THE LOST EXPLORER (DIG-3D) 1:00 PM
SPIDERS (DIG-3D)
3:00 PM
IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)
5:00 PM
IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)
7:30 PM
IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)
10:00 PM
IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)
12:30 AM
NO SUN+ TUE+WED
AL-KOUT.2
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
12:45 PM
THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 (DIG)
2:45 PM
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
4:45 PM
THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 (DIG)
6:30 PM
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
8:30 PM
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
10:15 PM
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
12:15 AM
NO SUN+ TUE+WED
AL-KOUT.3
OBLIVION (DIG)
THE CALL (DIG)
OBLIVION (DIG)
THE CALL (DIG)
THE CALL (DIG)
THE CALL (DIG)
BAIRAQ-1
IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)
IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)
IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)
IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)
IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)
1:45 PM
4:15 PM
6:15 PM
8:45 PM
10:45 PM
12:45 AM
1:30 PM
4:00 PM
6:30 PM
9:15 PM
12:05 AM
BAIRAQ-2
WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) 12:45 PM
THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 (DIG)
3:00 PM
WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) 5:15 PM
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
7:30 PM
WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) 9:30 PM
NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)
11:30 PM
BAIRAQ-3
THE CALL (DIG)
THE CALL (DIG)
OBLIVION (DIG)
THE CALL (DIG)
THE CALL (DIG)
THE CALL (DIG)
1:45 PM
3:45 PM
5:45 PM
8:15 PM
10:30 PM
12:30 AM
PLAZA
SHADOW (DIG) (TELUGU)
7:00 PM
SHADOW (DIG) (TELUGU)
10:00 PM
GREEKU VEERUDU (DIG) (TELUGU) 4:00 PM
GREEKU VEERUDU (DIG) (TELUGU) 7:00 PM
NO THU
GREEKU VEERUDU (DIG) (TELUGU) 10:00 PM
LAILA
IRON MAN 3 (DIG)
NO MON+TUE+WED
IRON MAN 3 (DIG)
NO MON+TUE+WED
IRON MAN 3 (DIG)
NO MON+TUE+WED
AJIAL.1
SHADOW (DIG) (TELUGU)
SHADOW (DIG) (TELUGU)
GREEKU VEERUDU (DIG) (TELUGU)
GREEKU VEERUDU (DIG) (TELUGU)
GREEKU VEERUDU (DIG) (TELUGU)
AJIAL.2
SOODHU KAVVUM (DIG) (TAMIL)
SOODHU KAVVUM (DIG) (TAMIL)
AJIAL.3
ETHIR NEECHAL (DIG) (TAMIL)
FRI+MON
ETHIR NEECHAL (DIG) (TAMIL)
ETHIR NEECHAL (DIG) (TAMIL)
5:45 PM
8:15 PM
10:45 PM
6:45 PM
9:45 PM
3:45 PM
6:45 PM
9:45 PM
6:00 PM
9:00 PM
4:00 PM
7:00 PM
10:00 PM
FOR SALE
Nissan Infiniti G37, 2009
model, 6 cylinder, automatic,
6 CD changer, mobile
connectivity, rear view camera,
sunroof, sand color,
GPS, excellent condition,
60,000 Kms. KD 7,000.
Contact: 99742340.
(C 4394)
4-5-2013
For sale car Corolla model
2000, price KD 700/-. Contact:
99017342. (C 4402)
2-5-2013
CHANGE OF NAME
Rajaraman Sundarraj son
of Sundarraj and Janaki
bearing an Indian Passport
No. K2091792 and having
an address No. 4A-1,
Moongikollai Street,
Kumbakonam PO, Tanjore
DT, Tamilnadu 612001 -
had embraced Islam and
changed the name as Raja
Mohammed. (C 4401)
4-5-2013
SITUATION WANTED
Storekeeper, experience 4
years, Civil ID expiry
4/8/2013. Contact: sanalkumartm12@gmail.com
/
69966306. (C 4403)
MATRIMONIAL
Proposals invited for a
Jacobite Christian girl, 27
years, 160cm, massager in
occupational therapy, from
parents of professionally
qualified boys working in
India or Abroad. Contact:
lalu@kic.com.kw (C 4404)
5-5-2013
27 year Roman Catholic
girl, 158cms, BSN MOH
invites proposals for a suitable
groom - Male nurses
expetional. Email:
rosammaantony72@gmail.com
(C 4400)
2-5-2013
No: 15800
Prayer timings
Fajr: 03:36
Shorook 05:02
Duhr: 11:45
Asr: 15:20
Maghrib: 18:26
Isha: 19:51
112
DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION
Arrival Flights on Monday 6/5/2013
Airlines Flt Route Time
QTR 148 DOHA 00:15
JZR 267 BEIRUT 00:20
JZR 539 CAIRO 00:40
THY 764 SABIHA 01:40
ETH 620 ADDIS ABABA 01:45
GFA 211 BAHRAIN 01:55
AFG 416 JEDDAH 02:15
UAE 853 DUBAI 02:25
ETD 305 ABU DHABI 02:30
FDB 67 DUBAI 03:10
RBG 555 ALEXANDRIA 03:15
MSR 612 CAIRO 03:15
QTR 138 DOHA 03:30
DHX 170 BAHRAIN 04:20
THY 770 ISTANBUL 04:35
FDB 69 DUBAI 05:50
KAC 412 MANILA/BANGKOK 06:15
BAW 157 LONDON 06:30
KAC 206 ISLAMABAD 07:25
JZR 503 LUXOR 07:40
FDB 53 DUBAI 07:45
KAC 302 MUMBAI 07:50
UAE 855 DUBAI 08:25
ABY 125 SHARJAH 08:50
QTR 132 DOHA 09:00
FDB 55 DUBAI 09:15
ETD 301 ABU DHABI 09:30
KAC 344 CHENNAI 09:35
KAC 352 COCHIN 09:55
GFA 213 BAHRAIN 10:40
IRC 6521 LAMERD 10:50
MEA 404 BEIRUT 10:55
MSC 403 ASSIUT 11:35
JZR 165 DUBAI 11:35
JZR 561 SOHAG 12:00
KAC 284 DHAKA 12:05
UAE 871 DUBAI 12:45
MSR 610 CAIRO 13:00
THY 766 ISTANBUL 13:10
KNE 480 TAIF 13:25
KAC 672 DUBAI 13:40
QTR 140 DOHA 13:45
FDB 57 DUBAI 13:50
KAC 546 ALEXANDRIA 14:15
SVA 500 JEDDAH 14:30
KNE 472 JEDDAH 14:35
OMA 645 MUSCAT 14:40
KAC 788 JEDDAH 15:00
RJA 640 AMMAN 15:55
KAC 118 NEW YORK 16:00
QTR 134 DOHA 16:15
ETD 303 ABU DHABI 16:35
UAE 857 DUBAI 16:55
ABY 127 SHARJAH 17:10
GFA 215 BAHRAIN 17:20
SVA 510 RIYADH 17:20
UAL 982 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 17:25
JZR 177 DUBAI 17:30
JZR 777 JEDDAH 17:50
KAC 542 CAIRO 18:15
QTR 144 DOHA 18:25
KAC 786 JEDDAH 18:30
KAC 104 LONDON 18:45
FDB 63 DUBAI 18:55
GFA 219 BAHRAIN 19:05
KAC 618 DOHA 19:10
MSC 405 SOHAG 19:15
KAC 774 RIYADH 19:25
KAC 674 DUBAI 19:25
KAC 742 DAMMAM 19:30
JAI 572 MUMBAI 19:35
OMA 647 MUSCAT 20:00
FDB 61 DUBAI 20:00
ABY 129 SHARJAH 20:05
MEA 402 BEIRUT 20:15
MSR 618 ALEXANDRIA 20:30
AXB 489 COCHIN/MANGALORE 20:35
MSC 401 ALEXANDRIA 21:05
ALK 229 COLOMBO 21:10
UAE 859 DUBAI 21:15
ETD 307 ABU DHABI 21:30
QTR 136 DOHA 21:35
GFA 217 BAHRAIN 21:45
QTR 146 DOHA 22:00
FDB 59 DUBAI 22:20
AIC 975 CHENNAI/GOA 22:25
JZR 239 AMMAN 22:30
JZR 185 DUBAI 22:40
UAL 981 BAHRAIN 22:40
TAR 327 TUNIS 22:55
JZR 135 BAHRAIN 23:00
DLH 636 FRANKFURT 23:10
PIA 205 LAHORE/PESHAWER 23:15
JAI 574 MUMBAI 23:20
KLM 411 AMSTERDAM/DAMMAM 23:40
THY 772 ISTANBUL 23:45
Departure Flights on Monday 6/5/2013
Airlines Flt Route Time
AIC 982 AHMEDABAD/AHMEDABAD 00:05
JAI 573 MUMBAI 00:20
UAL 981 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 00:25
DLH 637 FRANKFURT 00:30
PIA 206 PESHAWER/LAHORE 00:55
JZR 502 LUXOR 01:30
THY 773 ISTANBUL 02:20
THY 765 SABIHA 02:40
ETH 621 ADDIS ABABA 02:45
AFG 416 KABUL 03:15
UAE 854 DUBAI 03:45
FDB 68 DUBAI 03:50
RBG 556 ALEXANDRIA 03:55
MSR 613 CAIRO 04:15
ETD 306 ABU DHABI 04:20
QTR 139 DOHA 04:25
QTR 149 DOHA 05:15
JZR 560 SOHAG 05:35
FDB 70 DUBAI 06:30
GFA 212 BAHRAIN 07:00
THY 771 ISTANBUL 07:10
KAC 545 ALEXANDRIA 07:20
JZR 164 DUBAI 07:25
BAW 156 LONDON 08:25
FDB 54 DUBAI 08:25
KAC 671 DUBAI 09:25
ABY 126 SHARJAH 09:30
KAC 787 JEDDAH 09:35
UAE 856 DUBAI 09:50
FDB 56 DUBAI 09:55
QTR 133 DOHA 10:00
ETD 302 ABU DHABI 10:15
GFA 214 BAHRAIN 11:25
KAC 541 CAIRO 11:30
KAC 165 ROME/PARIS 11:45
IRC 6522 LAMERD 11:50
MEA 405 BEIRUT 11:55
JZR 776 JEDDAH 12:25
KAC 103 LONDON 12:30
MSC 406 SOHAG 12:35
KAC 785 JEDDAH 13:00
JZR 176 DUBAI 13:20
MSR 611 CAIRO 14:00
THY 767 ISTANBUL 14:10
KNE 481 TAIF 14:15
UAE 872 DUBAI 14:15
FDB 58 DUBAI 14:30
Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)
QTR 141 DOHA 14:55
KAC 673 DUBAI 15:05
KNE 473 JEDDAH 15:30
OMA 646 MUSCAT 15:40
KAC 617 DOHA 15:45
SVA 501 JEDDAH 15:45
KAC 773 RIYADH 16:00
KAC 741 DAMMAM 16:30
RJA 641 AMMAN 16:55
JZR 238 AMMAN 17:05
QTR 135 DOHA 17:15
ETD 304 ABU DHABI 17:20
JZR 538 CAIRO 17:40
ABY 128 SHARJAH 17:50
UAE 858 DUBAI 18:15
GFA 216 BAHRAIN 18:20
SVA 511 RIYADH 18:20
JZR 184 DUBAI 18:30
JZR 266 BEIRUT 18:40
UAL 982 BAHRAIN 18:40
QTR 145 DOHA 19:25
FDB 64 DUBAI 19:35
GFA 220 BAHRAIN 19:50
JZR 134 BAHRAIN 20:05
MSC 404 ASSIUT 20:15
JAI 571 MUMBAI 20:35
FDB 62 DUBAI 20:40
ABY 120 SHARJAH 20:45
KAC 331 TRIVANDRUM 20:50
OMA 648 MUSCAT 20:55
KAC 351 COCHIN 21:05
MEA 403 BEIRUT 21:15
MSR 619 ALEXANDRIA 21:30
DHX 171 BAHRAIN 21:50
MSC 402 ALEXANDRIA 22:05
ETD 308 ABU DHABI 22:15
ALK 230 COLOMBO 22:20
UAE 860 DUBAI 22:25
QTR 137 DOHA 22:35
KAC 301 MUMBAI 22:40
GFA 218 BAHRAIN 22:45
FDB 60 DUBAI 23:00
KAC 205 ISLAMABAD 23:00
DHX 373 BAHRAIN 23:00
QTR 147 DOHA 23:05
KAC 411 BANGKOK/MANILA 23:40
TAR 328 DUBAI/TUNIS 23:45
KAC 283 DHAKA 23:45

34 stars
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
CROSSWORD 181
STAR TRACK
Aries (March 21-April 19)
Early this morning, your mind tends to settle on issues of security—home,
family and such. You may have decided on an alarm system and a variety of
options are available. You may be happier with the end result if you could talk to people that
have an alarm system. Review a few reports on alarm systems before you talk to any of the
owners of alarm companies. You are driven to excel in some creative expression this evening—
sports, theatrics, arts and crafts, whatever. This urge to express yourself, to speak out and be
heard, propels you into some wonderful interaction with others. Remember, it is important to
nourish those that depend on you so that a trust in you is strong. If you made a promise, you
must make good on that promise.
Libra (September 23-October 22)
Religion, philosophy and higher knowledge will be the base of most conversations
today. You are mentally and physically willing to meet the demands that this day
holds. You are helpful to all who need your assistance. You are able to be adaptable to another
person’s moods and may find yourself moving to music this evening. This is a good time to
begin to think of ways to expand your social circle. Networking will help you in business, but
communication with neighbors and others will help enlarge your support group and give you
a good foundation for the future. Social windfalls will be coming your way during this time.
Reach out to make the contacts, instead of waiting for others to come to you. Your home is a
great place to relax.
Taurus (April 20-May 20)
Scorpio (October 23-November 21)
You have a natural aptitude for describing the most sensitive areas of
the mind—a practical psychologist of the first order. Now you must use this talent in your
own life. If you find your time is no longer your own, particularly if you are in your own
business, work to bring a balance to the way you use your time. Your ambitions go hand in
hand with your communication skills and using the mind. Someone complains of physical
pain and it is important to encourage him or her to see a physician. Start a dream diary
and encourage others in your family to do the same. You will find some interesting conversations
along the spiritual lines today. You and a group of your friends may enjoy dinner
away from home this evening.
Your vanity and your pride may come between clear understandings
between friends today. Think before becoming too involved in some sort of bragging competition.
Create a feeling of self-confidence and people will follow you anywhere. This can make a
big difference when you want support in accomplishing a group project. Positive interaction
with neighbors is hopeful for future gatherings. You may be thinking about a fishing trip that
could supply the food for a fun backyard gathering. A young person may need your guidance
this afternoon. This young person will know the right answer—you can encourage him or her
to think independently. There is a chance to understand those around you and to have a special
time with someone you love.
ACROSS
1. An early form of modern jazz (originating
around 1940).
4. Cocked hat with the brim turned up to
form three points.
11. Make anew.
15. A flat wing-shaped process or winglike
part of an organism.
16. Evergreen shrubs with intricately twisted
wiry stems that in summer are smothered in
small yellow flowers.
17. The twelfth month of the civil year.
18. A summary that repeats the substance of
a longer discussion.
20. A manner of speaking that is natural to
native speakers of a language.
21. Flat surface that rotates and pushes
against air or water.
22. Any of numerous local fertility and
nature deities worshipped by ancient
Semitic peoples.
23. Any place of complete bliss and delight
and peace.
24. Any plant of the genus Eryngium.
26. A state in midwestern United States.
28. Red pear-shaped tropical fruit with poisonous
seeds.
30. Resembling or characteristic of or appropriate
to an elegy.
34. United States historian (born in 1908).
38. Distinctive and stylish elegance.
40. (used informally) Very small.
41. A unit of power equal to 1 joule per second.
42. A gradual decline (in size or strength or
power or number).
44. (Babylonian) A demigod or first man.
46. Title for a civil or military leader (especially
in Turkey).
50. To go back over again, as of a route or
steps.
52. Point of contact between two objects or
parts.
53. Depressing in character or appearance.
55. The fifth day of the week.
56. A soft silvery metallic element of the
alkali earth group.
57. Having or resembling a lobe or lobes.
61. A tricycle (usually propelled by pedalling).
65. Make use of.
68. A port city in southwestern Iran.
71. A column of light (as from a beacon).
72. A former monetary unit in Great Britain.
73. The amount of electromagnetic radiation
leaving or arriving at a point on a surface.
75. An independent agency of the United
States government responsible for collecting
and coordinating intelligence and counterintelligence
activities abroad in the
national interest.
76. (Irish) Mother of the ancient Irish gods.
77. A fibrous amphibole.
78. Thickening of tissue in the motor tracts
of the lateral columns and anterior horns of
the spinal cord.
DOWN
1. An aggressive remark directed at a person
like a missile and intended to have a telling
effect.
2. Evergreen trees and shrubs having oily
one-seeded fruits.
3. Large burrowing rodent of South and
Central America.
4. A protocol developed for the internet to
get data from one network device to another.
5. An artificial language for international
use that rejects rejects all existing words
and is based instead on an abstract analysis
of ideas.
6. Of or containing iridium.
7. A set of rules or principles or laws especially
written ones.
8. The largest island of the central Ryukyu
Islands.
9. The former capital and 2nd largest city
of Brazil.
10. One of the most important fungi cultivated
in Japan.
11. A new appraisal or evaluation.
12. A feeling of strong eagerness (usually
in favor of a person or cause).
13. Fecal matter of animals.
14. A spread made chiefly from vegetable
oils and used as a substitute for butter.
19. Lighted up by or as by fire or flame.
25. A draft for the amount of a dishonored
draft plus the costs and charges of drafting
again.
27. The branch of computer science that
deal with writing computer programs that
can solve problems creatively.
29. An informal conversation.
31. (South African) A camp defended by a
circular formation of wagons.
32. Everything you own.
33. An administrative unit of government.
35. (sometimes followed by `of') Having or
showing realization or perception.
36. Turn away from sin or do penitence.
37. A severe shortage (especially a shortage
of food).
39. A small pellet fired from an air rifle or
BB gun.
43. A fatal disease of cattle that affects the
central nervous system.
45. A young unmarried woman.
47. Any of various long-legged carrioneating
hawks of South and Central
America.
48. A city in east central Texas.
49. A member of the Mayan people of the
Yucatan peninsula in Mexico.
51. Marked by excessive enthusiasm for
and intense devotion to a cause or idea.
54. A silvery ductile metallic element
found primarily in bauxite.
58. Ruined by overcooking.
59. The circumstances and ideas of the
present age.
60. Deciduous shrub of North America.
62. Very dark black.
63. A Chadic language spoken south of
Lake Chad.
64. Type genus of the Anatidae.
66. A large piece of fabric (as canvas) by
means of which wind is used to propel a
sailing vessel.
67. An unfledged or nestling hawk.
69. Step on it.
70. An associate degree in applied science.
74. A logarithmic unit of sound intensity.
Yesterday’s Solution
Gemini (May 21-June 20)
You are intense, passionate and very personal today. You will find yourself
rushing past the superficial—right to the heart of any subject. Careful, not
everyone likes to have someone ask all the questions that you can ask. Communication is
high and you may enjoy some good solid gossip. Home, family and security have been on
your mind lately and you may find yourself teaching young people about fairness, evenhandedness,
goals, roots and the importance of family. You have clearheaded and practical
insight for most anything you choose to do. This is a time of good fortune when things
open up in a very natural way. You may find yourself most intrigued with the things that
come to your attention at this time.
Cancer (June 21-July 22)
Your mind may be very clear now and your thoughts brought into sharp focus. It
will be wise to create a list of things you want to accomplish. Your analytical powers
are superb and you will enjoy finding new avenues of inner growth. Remembering a class which you
would like to retake or review may call for you digging around to find your notes or the class book. A
friend or family member may be taking this class soon—memories. Close personal friendships bring
satisfaction for you. Friends, group projects and community concerns play a key role in this day. In
particular, you will do well in activities that include children, young people and your home and surroundings.
A choir may be made up of the above people, making beautiful sounds.
Leo (July 23-August 22)
An important luncheon is successful and more enjoyable that you
thought it would be. This could mean you are meeting new people or reuniting with old
friends. You may find yourself more than a little eager while you are out shopping later
today. Your current appreciation for just about everything may lead you to indulge too
much. You will eventually make some good choices but it will take time to think through
your options. An important relationship, perhaps with a young person or someone in your
near environment, may come into focus this evening. You may gain a better understanding
of how he or she came to believe some of the things he or she believes. This also may
require some flexibility and patience on your part.
Virgo (August 23-September 22)
You will find that your mind and thoughts will be focused this morning.
There could be a lot of pressure to make decisions and you do not like regrets. You
are sensitive and may be careful before expressing yourself. After you give an answer, do
not go back and forth questioning yourself. This is the perfect time to let go and trust in
the positive. Periods of intense creativity enable you to go through changes and inner
growth. Give yourself time to think and plan. This creative intensity may take the form of
music, poetry or art. Your friends, partners and close associates mean a lot to you. You are
indeed a social being and will no doubt weave this fact into your lifestyle. Let peace follow
you wherever you go.
Word Search
Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)
Orange is a wonderful color this spring. Look . . . The color matches most
everything else you have. You may find an orange sundial or orange stepping
stones or of course . . . Marigolds. Take time to present yourself to the world this morning—you
will enjoy a leisure morning under the orange sun. You have a fruitful imagination that can be
helpful in many circumstances, particularly with children, which means you may be babysitting
this afternoon. You enjoy this because you feel that you have some act in the shaping and
molding of someone’s future. This evening is a good time to relax and be with loved ones and
friends. A variety of conversations help to guide your understanding and appreciation in the
thinking of others.
Capricorn (December 22-January 19)
CAPRICORN
You are ready to begin a home project or to help someone with his or
her errands. Your energies continue to support you throughout the day and
you may be encouraged to just relax sometime this afternoon. Your attention moves to
friends or family. You could find yourself solving puzzles and problems, finding solutions,
etc. You feel a love of order and law—an appreciation for responsibilities and duty. To you,
problems may be valued for the lessons they represent, rather than perceived as obstacles.
Sympathy and understanding are emotional qualities that take on greater importance.
Your creative skills count this evening. You may quickly invent a method to make life easier
for an elderly person tonight.
Aquarius (January 20- February 18)
If you attend a spiritual gathering today, you will enjoy the emotional
satisfaction as well as the communication with others. After a noon meal you and a friend
or neighbor may get outside to walk or bicycle. Later, being lazy is important. You may
want to catch up on reading and just soak in the good energies that are present. Rest and
relaxation along with the importance of some personal quiet time are good. Law, politics,
education, travel, religion or perhaps a good story may be where your interest is later
today. Tonight you may enjoy communicating with family members. Clear thoughts
about the past may also be flowing in this day. You express your optimism to people and
they in turn become optimistic.
Pisces (February 19-March 20)
If you attend a spiritual gathering this morning, you will find some in-depth
discussions that may cause you to think about your beliefs and urge your contribution in a
group discussion. You may find yourself enjoying an afternoon book signing, art show or a
small gathering of friends. You will have a grasp for the abstract and will be able to express your
views to others. Obtaining and exchanging information takes on more emotional significance
for you. This could all mean a very busy day involved in some convention or group session.
Being more involved with neighbors this evening satisfies that need to be up-to-date with the
happenings around you. Others could seek you out for your insight and understanding concerning
an animal.
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lifestyle
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
Knightley
says oui to
rocker Righton
Aerosmith cancels Jakarta concert
US rock band Aerosmith has cancelled a concert
scheduled this week in Jakarta on safety concerns,
a concert promoter said yesterday, following
threats to bomb the Myanmar embassy in the Indonesian
capital. “We received the official confirmation yesterday
from the Aerosmith management cancelling the May 11
concert in Jakarta over safety concerns,” said Sarah
Deshita, spokeswoman for co-promoter Ismaya Live.
“They gave no specific reasons for the cancellation. We
are sad and disappointed over the decision. We did all we
could to ensure security was tight and even engaged the
marines but it’s not enough,” she told AFP. She said 85
percent of the 15,000 tickets to the concert had been
sold. The band had apologized in the letter of cancellation,
which was posted on the promoter’s website.
“Aersomith have been forced to cancel concert... due to
safety concerns,” the statement said. “We want to apologise
to all our fans who were expecting to see us and
hope that one day we can make it up to them,” it added.
Officials on Friday said two Indonesians have been
detained over a plot to bomb the Myanmar embassy in
Jakarta as radicals rallying in the city called for “jihad in
Myanmar” to avenge the death of Muslims in clashes with
Buddhists.
AFrench mayor says Oscar-nominated actress
Keira Knightley has said “oui” to rocker James
Righton in a small wedding ceremony in
southern France. Aime Navello said yesterday that the
couple followed French tradition when he married
them at the Mazan town hall Saturday. Navello read
the service in French and the couple responded in
French and English. He said about 10 people were
present. Righton is keyboard player for the rock
group Klaxons. He and Knightley got engaged a year
ago. Knightley first won notice for her role as a soccer-playing
teenager in “Bend It Like Beckham.” She
went on to star in the first three “Pirates of the
Caribbean” movies and was nominated for an Oscar
for playing Elizabeth Bennet in an adaptation of Jane
Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice.”
Shakira
worries about
regaining figure
Payne splits from Peazer
Liam Payne has split from his long-term girlfriend
Danielle Peazer. The One Direction
heart throb had been in a relationship with
the dancer-and-model since the met on ‘The X
Factor’ UK in 2010, but his increasing work load
put a strain on their romance. This comes after
they broke up in September because of the difficulties
of a long-distance relationship, although
they reconciled in December before mutually
agreeing it was over after a two-hour chat last
month. An insider revealed: “They have been trying
for months to make it work but it just hasn’t.
“They had a big chat last month and decided
there wasn’t any point dragging it out. “Liam’s on
tour until November and Danielle’s very busy so
they basically never see each other.” The break up
is said to be “amicable” and there is still a possibility
she could feature in One Direction’s upcoming
3D film. The source told The Sun on Sunday newspaper:
“It was extremely amicable ... which is
good because there’s a strong chance Danielle
will still be in the lads’ upcoming 3D film. “The
boys are still filming it and editing is going to go
right down to the wire. “But she’s been there for
most of the filming so it’ll be tough to cut her out,
and Liam wouldn’t want that anyway.”
Prince Harry
reveals gender of
William and Kate’s baby
Gemma Arterton
keeps fit via Skype
Shakira worries about getting her pre-pregnancy
figure back. The ‘Voice’ coach welcomed son,
Milan, in January with soccer star Gerard Pique
and while she loves being a mom, admits she has
fears about losing her baby weight. She told Us
Weekly magazine: “You wonder if you’ll ever get your
body back. I’m still a few pounds over. But I do
Zumba. Even during pregnancy, I did it almost to the
end. But now with ‘The Voice’, I don’t have time. When
I have a day off I want to be with Milan.” The
‘Underneath Your Clothes’ singer added she is finding
motherhood tough but loves the challenge. She said:
“Nobody told me it would be this hard. It takes a lot of
energy but I love it. There’s a lot of joy and fear. “Being
a mother is surreal. It’s a whole new experience to me,
and I’m just discovering it second by second. “And
having him here, it’s great, it’s a new thing, it’s another
part of me and my loved one. He’s accompanying me
so I don’t feel alone.”
Prince Harry has reportedly revealed
the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge
will welcome a baby boy into the
world. The British royal couple are expecting
their first child - due in July - and although
they are remaining tight-lipped about its
gender, William’s brother is said to be openly
“thrilled” Kate Middleton will give birth to his
first nephew. An insider told the Sunday
People newspaper: “Harry has been telling
everyone Wills and Kate are having a boy
and how thrilled he is at the prospect of having
a little nephew. “He said the whole family
were excited about it. Apparently Kate has
always wanted a boy ... The close inner circle
all know that it’s a boy and they’re busily
buying girls with a boy theme.” Kate and
William are staying tight-lipped about the
gender - as well as any potential baby names, although it is reported they have one
“sorted”. The source added: “They’re really working hard on baby names now and
think they have it sorted. “But they won’t reveal anything to anyone - not even Harry.
Of course, Harry’s been making up crazy suggestions and winding them up too.”
Saldana snooted
by shooting
Zoe Saldana finds shooting a gun “very
soothing”. The ‘Star Trek: Into Darkness’
actress enjoys the power kick she gets
from holding a lethal weapon and loves how
spot on her aiming is at the shooting range. She
said: “It’s very soothing. You’re releasing a lot of
power. But it’s also... You’re testing yourself
because you’re holding in your hand something
that’s so powerful it can end anything in seconds
and you want to know you are OK to handle
it. “And, as a woman, I like knowing that I
have a good aim.” Alongside her risque comments,
Zoe - who previously dated her ‘The
Words’ co-star Bradley Cooper - has attracted
controversy after it was claimed she wasn’t
black enough to play the late singing legend
Nina Simone in an upcoming biopic. She added
to InStyle magazine: “In order for me to be darker
or lighter than anything, I would need to be
comparing myself to that and I don’t compare
myself. I am me. “There’s only one of me in this
universe. Why I am I going to spend the only 60
years I have on this earth comparing myself to a
blonde girl or a black woman?”
The 27-year-old actress underwent exercise routines with a personal trainer over the
internet video communications software six days a week while shooting forthcoming
film ‘Byzantium’ because she can’t bear to set foot inside a gym. She said: “It’s the
new thing, we’ve decided, because I was filming in Ireland. I hate working out in gyms,
and I don’t like the way they make your body look.” While Gemma was keen to get in
shape for the movie - in which she plays Clara, a vampire prostitute and mother who is
protective of her daughter, played by Saoirse Ronan - she insists too many “intelligent
actresses” are slimming down in excess. She added to Marie Claire magazine: “I saw an
actress I know and she’s lost so much weight. She’s gone from a size 12 to a size four within
two months. “There are so many good, intelligent actresses doing this, and I just think,
‘Why does that go hand in hand with the acting profession?’ It shouldn’t. It lets the side
down. It lets down team woman.”
Minaj is
planning children
Nicki Minaj wants to have kids “in five years”.
The ‘Super Bass’ hitmaker - who is dating
rapper Safaree ‘SB’ Samuels - loves the idea
of motherhood and would like to have two or
three little ones in the future. She said: “In five
years, perhaps, I’d like to have children. I love children
- I’m a children freak. I’d like two, maybe
three.” While the 30-year-old singer has set her
sights on starting a family, she is also keen to
ensure she career as a musician continues and she
has more hits. She explained to Marie Claire magazine:
“I can’t predict my life, but there’s always
more left to achieve. More albums, outdoing your
own expectations, but, most of all, proving to
yourself that no one else can box in.” Despite the
‘Starships’ singer’s ambition, she enjoys having
some time off now and again, when she stays in
and looks “really horrible”. —Agencies

37 LIFESTYLE
F e a t u r e s
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
This July 13, 2010 shows Stephanie Lesire, of Albany, smelling a rose as she walks through the International Rose Test Garden in
Portland, Ore. —AP photos
People perusing books in the Rose Room at Powell’s Bookstore in downtown
Portland.
5 free things in Portland, from parks to markets
Two decades ago, the city of Portland’s Yellow Bike
Project put hundreds of canary-colored two-wheelers
on the streets for public use. It was an earnest effort,
utterly without bashfulness or diffidence. Then, of course,
human nature took over and the bikes were variously vandalized,
stolen whole or chopped up and sold for parts.
Today - earnest, still - the city is making plans to relaunch
a version of the bike-share program. In the meantime, you’ll
have to shell out as much as $25 per day to wheel around
Stumptown (one of Portland’s nicknames, evoking a
bygone era of rapid land development and tree-cutting),
but don’t fear. There’s much to do on the cheap in a city
where living thrifty is living well.
actually part of the Tualatin Mountains. And the park does
its own self-preservation: The silt-basalt soil creates a
foundation that’s too unstable to build on, thwarting any
number of development plans. Only a short drive away is
Washington Park, home to the International Rose Test
Garden, with more than 10,000 rose plants. Peak blooming
season is late spring through early fall and there’s a great
view of the city from the garden on clear days.
Hotel, a reputed brothel. The highlight is the antique 30-
foot (9-meter) cherry wood bar, made in the late 1800s and
shipped around most of two continents to arrive in the
Pacific Northwest.
Stuff other people used to own
Buffalo Exchange, the used clothing store chain? At
THOSE prices? Never. The most Portland part of Portland,
A large pile of carrots on display at the farmers
market.
Farmers markets
For the daring, the curious and the shameless, Portland’s
farmers markets mean one thing: Free tastes. Perhaps it’s
the Rogue River Blue Cheese at the Thursday market in
Northwest. Or perhaps the carnivores in your group will
make for the beef and chicken of Viridian Farms, darlings of
the local restaurant scene. Samples of almost everything
are made bite-sized and jammed on a toothpick, and markets
can be found nearly every day of the week, anchored
by the massive Saturday Market downtown. For a city that
prizes that which is made nearby and without a lot of
chemical help, the farmers markets spread through all four
quadrants are the heart of Portland.
The farmers market in Portland, Ore.
A window-shopper looking at merchandise on
display in a store on Hawthorne Boulevard.
Powell’s city of books
Step back into the foggy mists of yesteryear - OK, maybe
just a decade or two - when bookstores were still a viable
enterprise. If Portland, as television’s “Portlandia” suggests,
does keep alive the dream of the ‘90s, then Powell’s is its
muse. People-watch, browse away or curl up in one of the
comfy chairs: The staff is too busy, the store too massive to
worry about lingering readers. Color-coded by room, the
block-long bookstore is a mainstay on tourism guides, and
with good reason. It’s a haven for used, out-of-print, rare or
autographed books. And if you end up looking for that collection
of Salman Rushdie essays on post-colonialism, they
probably know which stack and shelf.
Forest park
Five thousand acres (2,023 hectares) of rolling hills, fire
lanes and the simple stillness of the Oregon wild are within
city limits, less than a 10-minute drive from downtown
Portland. Sure, you’ll see committed joggers pounding up
hills, rain or shine, but the park is best enjoyed by a slow
amble up the Wildwood trail, with creeks bubbling and
chipmunks chittering under a shady conifer canopy. There
are pioneer ghost stories, a species of cutthroat trout only
found here and occasionally stunning views from what is
This undated image provided by Travel Portland shows the Pioneer Courthouse in Portland, Ore., lit up
at night during a free movie screening event called Flicks on the Bricks.
Old west
With all the flannel, unicycles and pour-over coffee
(made by hand instead of a machine), it’s easy to forget
that Portland was once an Old West town, a fact reflected
in its architecture if you’re willing to look hard enough. The
best example is the Pioneer Courthouse downtown, the
oldest federal building in the Pacific Northwest. The dark
wood of its halls, constructed in 1869, make it a quiet
refuge from the busy, adjacent courthouse square. Six
blocks east bring you to The Lotus, opened as a “soda bar”
during Prohibition (yeah, right) built underneath the Lotus
the one that inspires the jokes, is on Hawthorne
Boulevard, where you’ll find House of Vintage, Red Light
Clothing Exchange and half a dozen others. But it’s not
just recycled clothing that sets this city apart. Looking for
a 1920s antique black glass door knob? Hippo Hardware.
Eyeglass frames from Season Four of Mad Men?
Hollywood Vintage. You won’t necessarily find the cheapest
options here - because if it’s not low-cost, it is, at least,
weirdly authentic. But you don’t have to spend anything
to take in the scene: Browsing is free and people-watching
is a sport. —AP
Owners of world’s top restaurant in Spain look to mum’s cooking
Three brothers in Spain’s northeastern
Catalonia region who
snatched the title for the world’s
best restaurant, the Celler de Can Roca,
humbly trace their inspiration to their
mum’s cooking. The Roca brothers, Joan,
Jordi, and Josep, had already wowed
critics and diners worldwide with a cutting
edge technique and cooking rooted
in Spanish and Catalan traditions,
earning them three Michelin stars. But
four years after fellow Catalan restaurant
El Bulli, since closed, was recognized
as the best in the world, their
Celler de Can Roca this week took the
same spot in a vote of food critics and
industry leaders organized by British
magazine Restaurant.
“The best restaurant in the world
does not exist, each one has its own
thing, so you have to look at it with a bit
of perspective,” said Joan Roca, the 49-
year-old chef who founded Celler 26
years ago, in an interview with AFP after
returning from the awards in London.
Joan has worked for the past 16 years
with his brothers, 35-year-old pastry
and desert chef Jordi, who is renowned
for surrealist culinary creations, and 47-
year-old Josep, chief sommelier in
charge of a cellar of 35,000 bottles sheltering
behind a facade of wooden
drinks crates.
The three make a “formidable team”,
Restaurant magazine said. The brothers’
restaurant, with its clean lines and large
glass walls, boasts a vast kitchen where
35 cooks from around the world prepare
dishes for 45 diners. The tantalising
menus on offer come in at 135 euros
and 165 euros ($175 and $215), accompanied
by drinks at 55 euros and 85
euros. But it is nestled in a working-class
district of Girona just down the road
from the Can Roca restaurant-bar run by
their parents Josep Roca and Montserrat
Fontane, both pensioners, where the
brothers first learned their trade. There,
a handful of staff cook up a menu of the
day for just 10 euros.
“Cooking will be good if it comes
from the heart. At the end of the day
what my mother does is not so different
from what we do,” said Joan, wearing his
Chefs Joan Roca, Jordi Roca and Josep Roca’s mother Montserrat Fontane talks with employees of ‘El-Cellerde-Can
Roca’ in the restaurant’s kitchen in Girona. —AFP
white chef’s tunic. The difference
between the two establishments is the
“complexity”, he said. “People come here
to live experiences,” Jordi added. “It is a
cuisine that aims to pay homage to this
land but which is also open to dialogue
with science, technologies,” he said of El
Celler’s cooking, which is famously
based on perfumes. In the kitchen, a
glass apparatus containing earth from a
nearby forest is extracting the “active
aromas” for a dish of morel mushrooms.
Meanwhile pastry chef Jordi tastes
each of his team’s plates before serving:
tiny Bergamot orange macaroons, limescented
apples, and cocoa and ginger
biscuits. On his workbench you can see
flasks of the perfumes the brothers use
as inspiration, including the scent
Shalimar de Guerlain, which produced a
tea, rose and fruity mix, and a lemon
perfume, which forms the base of his
star desert, Lemon Cloud, made with
Bergamot orange cream, lemon and
madeleine cakes. “We created it thinking
of children, of the family,” Jordi said.
It is this mix of culinary daring and family
tradition that has won over critics
worldwide.
“El Celler believes in free-style cooking,
with a commitment to the avantgarde,
but remaining faithful to the
memory of different generations of the
family’s ancestors, all dedicated to feeding
people,” the contest organisers said
in announcing the restaurant’s world
number-one spot after two years as runners-up.
“Its philosophy is one of ‘emotional
cuisine’, with ingredients chosen
to take diners back to childhood memories
and a specific place in their past,”
they said. —AFP

CEO of ‘ABBA’ The Museum’ Mattias Hansson and the curator, Ingmarie Halling pose with
items from the exhibit. — AFP
Dancing Queens
rejoice: First ABBA museum
to open in Sweden
The world’s first museum dedicated to Sweden’s iconic
disco group ABBA is set to open in Stockholm tomorrow,
offering visitors a chance to get up close and personal
with the 1970s foursome with a little help from modern
technology. Fans have been eagerly awaiting the opening,
with many sharing their excitement on the museum’s
Facebook page: “I’ll be there,” vowed Bea Schroeer of Berlin,
while Alexander Kossovsky of Saint Petersburg wrote: “Can’t
wait to go!! Hurray! After all this time!!”
In Stockholm, rental bikes and cars brandishing the
museum’s logo have been criss-crossing the city for weeks.
Ads have been running in newspapers and on television,
and some of the band’s costumes are even on display at
Stockholm’s Arlanda airport arrivals hall to promote the
capital’s newest cultural institution. At “ABBA - The
Museum”-a wink to the title of the 1977 film “ABBA - The
Movie”-visitors can pretend to be the fifth member of the
band, appearing on stage with the quartet and recording a
song with them thanks to a computer simulation.
Another room dedicated to the song “Ring, Ring” features
a 1970s telephone, to which only four people have the
phone number: ABBA members Agnetha Faeltskog, Anni-
Frid (Frida) Lyngstad, Benny Andersson and Bjoern Ulvaeus.
They are expected to occasionally call to speak live with
museum visitors. The group dominated the 1970s disco
scene with their glitzy costumes, kitsch dance routines and
catchy melodies such as “Voulez Vous”, “Dancing Queen”
and “Waterloo”, the song that won the 1974 Eurovision
Song Contest and thrust the band onto the international
scene. They have sold some 378 million albums worldwide,
outdone only by Elvis Presley and the Beatles. Their popularity
has continued to grow over the years, with the 1999
hit musical “Mamma Mia” and the 2008 film of the same
name starring Meryl Streep bringing their music to a whole
new generation of fans. ABBA aficionados are not expected
to tour the museum to hear the band’s songs, which most
of them know by heart, though there will of course be plenty
of music on offer.
Rather, the focus will be on letting visitors “experience
Crosby, Stills and Nash
get jazzy with Marsalis
how the ABBA members’ lived their lives”, museum curator
Ingmarie Halling, who was the band’s stylist from 1976 to
1980, told AFP in a recent interview. The four will recount
their stories in the museum’s audio guide. All the band
members participated in the creation of the museum,
donating items and working closely with Halling. Ulvaeus,
68, has been the most active, serving as financial guarantor
for the project and as chairman of the board. “I had my
doubts about becoming a museum relic before my death...
but now I understand that... together we created a lot,” he
told reporters in October when plans for the museum were
revealed.
“This is a Cinderella story worth telling.”In an interview
with Kupe magazine this month, he added: “I said to myself:
why not? Who is better placed to make this come true, if
not me!” Today, the museum will be unveiled to the press
and officially opened by Ulvaeus, Lyngstad and Anderssonor
Bjoern, Frida and Benny, as they’re better known. The
doors will open to the public from tomorrow. Agnetha
Faeltskog told Swedish television SVT recently that she will
be in London promoting her latest solo album and will not
attend the opening. ABBA last appeared on stage in 1982,
and split a year later. While they have appeared in public
together on rare occasions, they have never reunited to
perform as a group, and have vowed that won’t ever happen.”There
is simply no motivation to regroup. Money is not
a factor and we would like people to remember us as we
were,” Ulvaeus said in a 2008 interview. The museum will
feature five floors of band memorabilia, including costumes,
instruments, gold records and recreations of their
recording studios and dressing rooms. The state-of-the-art
museum, located on Stockholm’s leafy island of
Djurgaarden, will be cashless, requiring visitors to pay for
purchases by credit or debit card. “‘Money, Money, Money’ is
what the headlines are going to read,” laughed Ulvaeus in
an interview with daily Aftonbladet, citing the title of one of
the band’s biggest hits. The museum says it expects to
attract a quarter of a million visitors in 2013, who it hopes
will “walk in and dance out”. — AFP
lifestyle
M U S I C & M O V I E S
Awhite Steinway grand piano
salvaged from musician Fats
Domino’s home after
Hurricane Katrina has had its classic
looks restored and will be the centerpiece
of an exhibit in New
Orleans’ French Quarter. The piano
was damaged after water poured
through a broken levee during the
August 2005 storm, flooding
Domino’s home in the Lower 9th
Ward. Its restoration came through
$30,000 donated to the Louisiana
Museum Foundation. The largest
gift of $18,000 came from Allan
Slaight, a retired music producer in
Miami. Other donations came from
Sir Paul McCartney, the Rock & Roll
Hall of Fame and the Tipitina’s
Foundation.
Greg Lambousy, director of collections
for the Louisiana State
Museum, described the restoration
of Domino’s piano as “painstaking”
and a years-long process. “It was in
really bad shape,” he said. “It had
been submerged in water for
weeks.” The piano was unveiled
Thursday at the Old US Mint, now a
museum in the French Quarter. It
will be part of the Louisiana State
Museum’s music exhibition opening
in 2014 but separately will go on display
at the Mint in June.
A second Steinway piano
belonging to Domino is on permanent
display at the Presbytere museum
in the exhibition “Living with
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
Fats Domino’s Katrina-damaged
grand piano restored
A white Steinway grand piano is salvaged from the flooded Lower 9th
Ward home of legendary musician Fats Domino after Hurricane Katrina.
Workers set up a white Steinway grand piano, salvaged from the flooded
Lower 9th Ward home of legendary musician Fats Domino.
In this two-picture combination, a heavily damaged Steinway grand
piano is moved from the destroyed home of legendary musician Fats
Domino, on March 14, 2006 after Hurricane Katrina, left, and the newly
restored piano is prepared before its unveiling at the Old US Mint in the
French Quarter. — AP photos
Hurricanes: Katrina and Beyond.” The
white Steinway has been restored to
look as close to its original shape as
possible, Lambousy said. However,
neither of the Domino pianos is
playable. Still, Lambousy said,
they’re important to have. “Fats
Domino is a seminal figure in
American music, and he will have a
prominent place in the coming
Louisiana music exhibit,” said Lt.
Gov. Jay Dardenne, who oversees
the Louisiana State Museum. “His
beautiful grand piano, fully restored,
will serve as the perfect symbol for
Louisiana’s resilient nature and everevolving
musical heritage.”
Born in New Orleans in 1928,
the pianist, singer and songwriter
sold more than 65 million records
between 1950 and 1963, made
Billboard’s pop chart 77 times and
its rhythm and blues chart 61 times.
Katrina tore into Louisiana and
Mississippi on Aug. 29, 2005.
Flooding from storm surge and broken
levees washed over an estimated
80 percent of New Orleans. — AP
Antoinette Smith, daughter of legendary
musician Fats Domino,
poses with a white Steinway grand
piano.
Sigourney Weaver having
In this June 27, 2010 file photo, Stephen Stills, from left, David Crosby and
Graham Nash, from the band Crosby, Stills and Nash perform in Hyde Park,
London. —AP
Crosby, Stills and Nash surprised the
audience with a new look when they
walked onstage dressed in dark gray
Brooks Brothers suits for a benefit concert
with Wynton Marsalis’ Jazz at Lincoln Center
Orchestra. “If you laugh at our suits, you’re
getting thrown out of here,” quipped Graham
Nash. “My first pair of grown-up shoes,” David
Crosby added, without skipping a beat. “They
have laces and everything.” Nash admitted to
some uncertainty about whether the languages
of rock and jazz “would blend” at
Friday night’s concert in Jazz at Lincoln
Center’s Rose Theater.
But such concerns were quickly dispelled
once the folk-rock trio’s trademark intricate
vocal harmonies and acoustic and electric
guitar parts were enhanced by the JLCO’s
tight ensemble playing and skilled soloists
such as saxophonists Sherman Irby, trumpeter
Marcus Printup and trombonist Vincent
Gardner. The jazz arrangements, mostly written
by JLCO members, reimagined a dozen
tunes from the Crosby, Stills and Nash songbook,
and the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers
were clearly thrilled with the results on songs
such as “Love the One You’re With.”
“It’s like getting to play with the bigger
kids,” Crosby said. He later added that they
were having so much fun it felt “like three
children being let loose in NASA.” The jazz
orchestra added a chugging rhythm to
“Marrakesh Express” from CSN’s 1969 debut
album, while the anti-war tune “Military
Madness” got a big-band swing arrangement
that opened with a brassy fanfare and closed
with a military-style drum roll and the trumpets
playing “Taps.”
The rock trio drew inspiration from the
jazz orchestra’s soloists. Stephen Stills played
a hot acoustic guitar solo in “Suite: Judy Blue
Eyes,” even quoting Beatle George Harrison’s
“Within You Without You.” And Nash couldn’t
resist throwing in a harmonica solo on “Deja
Vu.” Another highlight came when Marsalis,
playing a muted trumpet, went to the front
of the stage to play alongside Crosby and
Nash on a tender, intimate trio version of
Crosby’s folk ballad “Guinnevere,” which
trumpeter Miles Davis covered in a 1970
recording.
Marsalis, JLCO’s music director, said he
was impressed by the amount of time the
rock trio spent rehearsing the complex
arrangements in order to master material
outside their comfort zone. “They embody
the spirit of collaboration because it’s easy to
just say, ‘Here, I’m used to doing stuff a certain
way and you have to do it this way,’”
Marsalis told the audience. “They came here
and were dealing with swing grooves, all
kinds of changes, and things coming in on
different beats.” Marc Quinones of the Allman
Brothers Band made a guest appearance to
play Latin percussion on several numbers.
Crosby’s son, James Raymond, who plays
keyboards in the CSN band, conducted the
performance. On Wednesday, Crosby, Stills
and Nash performed with the jazz orchestra
at a private gala. The two performances were
the latest in an annual series of benefit concerts
with pop-rock performers to support
Jazz at Lincoln Center, which in previous
years has featured Eric Clapton, Willie Nelson
and Paul Simon. After Crosby declared, “We
need you to sing, not just rattle your jewelry,”
the concert closed with a sing-along version
of “Teach Your Children,” which was followed
by an extended standing ovation until the
trio reappeared onstage. Instead of an
encore, Marsalis and other members of the
JLCO returned to usher Crosby, Stills and
Nash offstage in a lively New Orleans-style
Second Line march. — AP
The good news for Sigourney Weaver was
that her friend, the playwright Christopher
Durang, had a juicy part for her in a new
play. It wouldn’t even be too much of a stretch -
she’d be playing a movie star. The sticky part:
This movie star was overindulgent, self-centered
and unaware she’s on the decline. She also at
one point dons an unflattering old Disneyinspired
Snow White costume and insists her
friends dress as dwarfs to complement it.
It gets worse: Durang had Weaver in mind
when he wrote it. Perhaps only a friendship and
collaboration that has lasted more than 40 years
could result in Weaver happily playing Masha
these days in the brilliant “Vanya and Sonia and
Masha and Spike” on Broadway, a play likely to
score at least a few Tony Award nominations
next week. Weaver, 63, never hesitated about
doing the role: “I didn’t,” she says laughing over
coffee at a midtown cafe. “I guess I thought I was
different enough from Masha, that I would be
fine. And I’m very fond of her.”
The play, which played off-Broadway last year
and recently made the jump to the Golden
Theatre, centers on three middle-aged siblings.
Two of them - Vanya, played by David Hyde
Pierce, and Sonia, portrayed by Kristine Nielsen -
have been sitting around their Pennsylvania
home and bickering for years. The sibling who
escaped, Masha, has become an insufferable
movie star and has returned with a 29-year-old
boy-toy - that would be Spike - to sell the house
and pitch her siblings out onto the street.
“Sweetest Vanya, dearest Sonia,” Masha says
to them when she arrives, looking great, of
course. “How I’ve missed you. You both look the
same. Older. Sadder. But the same.” Masha had
initially wanted to become the American Judi
Dench but got waylaid in a lucrative franchise
playing a nymphomaniac serial killer and went
through several husbands. “I’m talented, charming,
successful - and yet they leave me. They
must be insane,” she muses. Masha, whom
Weaver calls a “great peacock of a person,” needs
to be taken down a few pegs and it finally happens,
with Weaver slowly coming to the realization
that her fussy Hollywood queen act can’t
last forever.
“It has to be over-the-top at the beginning.
It’s a performance that she utterly believes,” she
says. “I feel like an exhausted bird. I think it takes
a lot of effort to manifest that kind of persona.
When she gives it up, I think she feels better.”
Durang, by phone from his Pennsylvania home,
quickly makes it clear that Masha was written
with Weaver in mind - Masha’s franchise “Sexy
Killer” is a joke on Weaver’s “Alien” movies - but is
not based on the actress. He just hoped she’d be
Sigourney Weaver
available. “I thought that if, for any reason,
Sigourney was free, it would be fun to have her
play this self-centered actress,” he says. “She
doesn’t always get to play these grandiose roles.
She has such a sense of intelligence to her.”
Durang and Weaver met in the fall of 1971 as
they entered the Yale School of Drama, he as a
playwright who sometimes acted and she as an
actress. They had lunch together often, and she
appeared in one of his first plays “Better Dead
Than Sorry.” “I found that Sigourney in my early
stuff tended to be very simple with it,” Durang
says.
“Sometimes it would be very funny because
she would say something very sincerely as if it
was the most normal thing in the world, but the
Hong Kong film director Wong Kar-wai has
been given France’s highest cultural honor.
Wong was named a Commander of the
Order of Arts and Letters by French Foreign
Minister Laurent Fabius yesterday. Fabius
bestowed the medal on Wong in a ceremony at
the French consul-general’s official residence in the
southern Chinese city. The filmmaker said the
award is “in a way, a tribute to Hong Kong cinema,”
and that France is cinema’s “spirit home.”
Fabius said French artist Jean Cocteau might
have called Wong Kar-wai “the calligrapher of light.”
Wong’s movies include “Chungking Express” and
“In The Mood For Love.” His most recent film, “The
Grandmaster,” was released this year. It recounts
the life story of Chinese martial arts legend Ip Man,
famous for having trained Bruce Lee. — AP
line would be shocking.” Both graduated in 1974
and two years later reunited for his one-act play
“Titanic,” with Weaver playing the Captain’s
daughter. When it moved off-Broadway, the
hourlong work was augmented by a cabaret act
performed by Durang and Weaver, “Das
Lusitania Songspiel,” which parodied plays and
movies in the style of Bertolt Brecht.
The cabaret on its own became a cult hit and
was revived in 1980. In 1986, when Weaver was
invited to host “Saturday Night Live,” she
requested that Durang co-host and they did a
little of the cabaret act at the end of the show. “It
is fun to have a friendship that has lasted so
long,” he says. She’s also been in his play “Beyond
Therapy,” and they combined to send up selfcongratulatory
celebrity interviews in an Esquire
story in the 1980s that has some kernels of what
would later become Masha in “Vanya and Sonia
and Masha and Spike.”
“He’s such a wonderful, sweet, funny man,
and we hit it off right away,” says Weaver. “I’m
very grateful to Chris. I always love doing his
plays, I understood them, and I’ve felt he had
such a distinctive voice.” That might explain why
Weaver would jump at playing Masha, who says
onstage at one point, with a straight face, “I feel
the public doesn’t know how heartbreaking I
can be. Oh, missed opportunities! Regret, regret,
regret!” “It’s so light but it’s very demanding,”
says Weaver of the role. “It’s a high-wire act. It’s
very good for you as an actor but somewhat terrifying.”
— AP
HK director Wong Kar-wai
gets top French honor
Chinese film director Wong Kar Wai poses
with French Foreign Minister Laurent
Fabius in Hong Kong yesterday. — AFP

lifestyle
M U S I C & M O V I E S
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
Karen Fairchild, right, and Kimberly Schlapman, members of the band Little Big Town, perform at the
New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans, Saturday. — AP photos
Members of the Brazilian dance group Male Dembale perform at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage
Festival.
Little Big Town, Fleetwood Mac at Jazz Fest
Little Big Town says that some networking
they did is paying off with a chance to
cross a couple of items off their “bucket
list.” After playing Bayou Country SuperFest in
Baton Rouge last year, group member Karen
Fairchild said they talked to festival producer
Quint Davis about other things they hoped to
accomplish. They mentioned that they’d one
day like to perform at the New Orleans Jazz
and Heritage Festival. Davis was in a position
to help since he also produces Jazz Fest.
Known for its trademark four-part harmonies,
Little Big Town performed in New Orleans on
Saturday.
“Can you believe we’re opening for
Fleetwood Mac?” said Kimberly Schlapman,
another group member. “We’ve wanted to play
Jazz Fest forever and now we’re opening for
Fleetwood Mac and can mark off two big
things from our list.” Schlapman said early in
their career they had the chance to meet
Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, which
she described as an “amazing harmony band.”
“Being able to share a stage with them is
one of our greatest wishes,” she said. Fairchild
said they’ve watched Jazz Fest from afar for
years. “The who’s who of music shows up year
after year at the festival. Who wouldn’t want to
play there?” Flags flying amid a cool breeze,
music fans packed the festival grounds by the
stage where Little Big Town and Fleetwood
Mac performed. Some put down tarps over
the muddy infield. Others sat in chairs, wore
rubber boots or stood barefoot to hear the
bands. “Once you’re in it, it kind of feels good,”
said Mary Kathryn Gatlin, of Greenville, S.C.,
who danced shoeless in the mud, the muck
covering her feet past the ankles.
Gatlin was taking in her first Jazz Fest with
her sister, Frances Gatlin. The pair had been at
the stage since noon, about an hour after the
gates opened. “We love country, bluegrass,
just easy-listening music that’s fun to dance
to,” Gatlin said. Many danced as Fleetwood
Mac performed such hits as “Dreams,”
“Rhiannon,” “Gypsy,” “Tusk” and “Landslide,”
Little Big Town performs at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans.
which drew huge roars from the crowd when
Stevie Nicks introduced it. Nicks also delivered
her tribute to the host city, singing a portion
of her song, “New Orleans,” which she said she
wrote after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. “I wanna
get a room in New Orleans, I wanna sing in the
streets of the French Quarter,” she sang. The
band also performed a new song, “Sad Angel,”
testing it out with the crowd. Toward the end
of their set, they played an old favorite, “Go
Your Own Way” at the end of which
Buckingham shouted to the crowd, “New
Orleans, we love you!”
They left the stage briefly before returning
for an encore performance of “The World Keep
On Turning,” a song from their self-titled first
album released in 1968 and “Don’t Stop.” Other
Saturday headliners included Phoenix, Frank
Ocean, Los Lobos, Terence Blanchard, Davell
Crawford and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.
Sunshine and blue skies were welcomed by
fans of the outdoor festival, which had been
drenched by rain in previous days. Despite the
mud, the field in front of the festival’s largest
stage was packed hours before Fleetwood
Mac’s performance. Little Big Town’s Fairchild
said she hoped their festival appearance
would help boost their fan base.
“This is a great chance for longtime fans to
come out and see our set and a chance for us
to discover and be introduced to new fans,”
she said. Phillip Sweet and Jimi Westbrook
make up the rest of Little Big Town, which
recently won two Academy of Country Music
awards for their latest album “Tornado.” They
go on tour with Keith Urban in July. “I like
them,” said Monique Powell, of Lafayette.
“They’ve got three big hits out right now,
‘Tornado,’ ‘Pontoon,’ and ‘Little White Church.’
We came in to hear Maroon 5 yesterday. This is
just a bonus.”
Powell and her friend, Matt Chaisson, also
of Lafayette, said Saturday’s sunny weather
made the trip worthwhile. “Even though it’s
nasty out here with all the mud, we’re making
the best of it,” she said, adding that she should
have packed her rain boots. “I should know
better,” she said, laughing. “I’m from here!” The
festival ends Sunday, with closing performances
by Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue,
Willie Nelson performs at the New Orleans
Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans.
Aaron Neville, Maze featuring Frankie Beverly,
and Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz
Orchestra with special guest Dee Dee
Bridgewater. — AP
Minaj rips Carey
After ratings drop;
Cites Lopez in Tweet
Idol contestant Sanchez
is not idle post-show
Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey
As the ratings for “American Idol” fall, it seems the animosity
between “Idol” judges Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey
increases. Minaj ripped open the scab on her feud with
Carey on Thursday, referring to her television cohort as “insecure”
and “bitter,” after Carey tweaked Minaj over her lack of No. 1 singles
on Wednesday night’s “Idol.” The spat was also revived, coincidentally
or not, after hitting a Wednesday night low in the
advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic.
The latest chapter in Nicki and Mariah’s Big Book of Suspect
Controversies was written during Wednesday night’s episode,
when Carey took a not-terribly-veiled poke at Minaj while critiquing
a contestant.
“Again, back to the Billboard Hot 100, No. 1 song, which you just
performed - which is difficult to get; not everybody has that,” Carey
cracked, with her talons extended in Minaj’s general direction.
Responding to a post on gossip website PerezHilton on
Thursday morning - which declared “Mariah Carey BURNS Nicki
Minaj on ‘Idol’” - “Starships” singer Minaj tweeted to the site’s
namesake, “Bwaha! Burn? Shes sad i tied her record for Hot 100
entries in only 3 years of being in the game. Yep, a black female
rapper @perezhilton.”
And then it got real - or manufactured, depending on one’s
viewpoint - as Minaj wrote Carey off as insecure and bitter. “What
u SHOULD be doing is asking why a woman SO successful at her
age, is still so INSECURE, and bitter @perezhilton,” Minaj tweeted.
So there you have it: Mariah Carey is insecure and bitter.
Also, according to Nicki Minaj, Perez Hilton apparently has a
messy backside. Minaj also used former “American Idol” judge
Jennifer Lopez who producers reportedly tried to woo back to
the show, in light of this season’s low ratings - as a crowbar with
which to further bludgeon Carey’s dented ego. “All dem #1s but
JLo phone ringin? Lol. I guess having a personality, being a
secure woman, and giving genuine critique still trumps that,”
Minaj wrote. — Reuters
Petite powerhouse Jessica Sanchez enjoyed singing
ballads on last season’s “American Idol,” where she
placed second. But the 17-year-old says ballads
aren’t her only interest: Sanchez is hoping to capture a new
- and younger - audience with her debut album, “Me, You &
the Music,” released this week. “People don’t know me as
the Jessica that I want to show. They know me as balladeer
Jessica, which is shy, sweet, just like standing-there Jessica,”
she said. “And now I have to really make a mark and show
people that I have fun and I’m 17 and I’m ready to be out
there and just, you know, be young.”
Sanchez lost to bluesy guitar player Phillip Phillips on
the 11th season of the Fox singing competition, but many
doors have since opened for the California native. In a
recent interview with The Associated Press, the singer discussed
life after “Idol,” her debut album, performing with
Ne-Yo and landing a guest role on “Glee.”
AP: Talk about mixing the sound that helped you
excel on “Idol” with a more playful one on your album.
Sanchez: Music, it just runs in my blood and I love
music. So I’m trying to bring the tone of my voice and trying
to mix it with the genre, the generation of music now.
So that you get the feel of the real voice, the real grittiness
that you got back in the day, and bring it to the pop-club
mix.
AP: What was it like when you returned to the “Idol”
stage recently to perform with Ne-Yo?
Sanchez: Seeing the stage, it was like my second home,
Singaporean singer
JJ Lin, right, US actor
Jaden Smith, second
right, and their trade
copartners, from center
to left, Moises
Arias, Mateo Arias
and Brandon Chang
pose for the media
during a promotion
event of their casual
wear in Taipei,
Taiwan, yesterday.
(Left) US actor and
MSFTS REP brand
founder Jaden Smith
sings. —AP photos
and it’s like I’ve been away from home for so long. That’s
where I experienced everything - the stress, the love, the
tears, everything with the other nine people that I spent
the year with. And it all came back to me and it hit me and
I was like, ‘I don’t want to be here right now!’ I was like tearing
up and everything, but it was so much fun, and it was a
big difference going onstage and performing with Ne-Yo.
AP: What were your first thoughts when you were
offered a role on “Glee”?
Sanchez: Oh, I freaked out. Ryan Murphy called me in
for a meeting ... and he asked me, ‘Have you ever acted
before?’ And I said, ‘No. I’ve never acted before. I’m not
going to lie to you, I’ve never acted.’ I walked out and then
a couple days later I get a call from my manager and she
said that ‘he wants you to be in the show,’ and I’m like,
‘What? I’ve never acted before. That’s crazy!’ But ever since
then, and that was like right after (‘Idol’), I’ve been taking
acting classes and I’ve been really, really working on it. So
hopefully it all pays off.
AP: You’re of Mexican and Filipino descent. What’s
your fan following like in those countries?
Sanchez: Being on the show I had so much support
from the Filipino crowd and the Latin crowd. Going to the
Philippines was insane. I am like J.Lo over there! Like, I got
off the plane and (security) were like, ‘No, you have to
come over here.’ And I had to stay in a room because people
were trying to take pictures, there was paparazzi. I was
like, ‘What the heck? This is weird.’
AP: As a young person in the entertainment industry,
do you worry about falling into the wrong crowd or
getting involved with drugs or partying?
Sanchez: I’ve had bad influences. I’ve had friends that
backstabbed me. I’ve had no friends at all at certain times. I
mean, I’ve been offered substances of drugs and I just told
myself it’s not worth it because in the future I have so
many bright things ahead of me. ... I’ve always said ‘no’ and
I’ve always stuck my mind to family, school, music and just
what I love and what’s positive. — AP

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
Dancing Queens
rejoice: first
ABBA
39
museum to
open in Sweden
People look at an art installation displayed during a “Le Vieux Port entre flammes et flots” (The Old-Port, between flames and waves) lighting night on May 3, 2013, at the Port of Marseille as part of the Marseille-
Provence 2013 European capital of culture. The entire Vieux-Port will be under the spell, illuminated as if by candles and presenting a mobile sequence of living flames on both harbor and quayside.—AFP
Soutine, Cezanne to star at New York auctions
Works by Soutine, Cezanne,
Picasso and Modigliani were
expected to shine this week
at red-hot spring auctions of
Impressionist and Modern art in New
York. Rivals Christie’s and Sotheby’s say
the market, long recovered from the
“Les Pommes” by Paul Cezanne is on display during a preview
of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art sales in
New York.
tomorrow, with an estimated value of
$165 million. “Les Pommes,” a landmark
still life of apples on a table, is estimated
to fetch between $25-35 million.
“Les Pommes is one of Cezanne’s most
perfect still lifes” said Charles Moffett,
vice chairman of Sotheby’s
Impressionist and Modern Art. “These
moving compositions, which explore
the paradoxes of forms in space,
inspired the Cubism of Picasso and
Braque and signal the birth of modern
art.” Modigliani’s “L’Amazone,” estimated
at $20-30 million, was painted early
in his career in 1909 and shows the
glamorous Baroness Marguerite de
Hasse de Villers.
The works are from the collection
of philanthropists Alex and Elisabeth
Lewyt and will fund a foundation set
up in their honor, with a focus on animal
welfare and others of their
favored causes. Picasso’s statue
“Sylvette,” estimated at $12-18 million,
is expected to get attention, given
what Simon Shaw, head of the
Impressionist and Modern department,
called the “increasing sophistication
of sculptures buyers.” It’s
Picasso’s interpretation of his young
neighbor in Vallauris, in the south of
France, in 1954 and is made of metal.
Sotheby’s will also be selling three
Rodin bronzes, including a version of
“Le Penseur,” or “The Thinker,” estimated
at $8-12 million. The Christie’s sale
on Wednesday will be led by Soutine’s
“Le Petit Patissier,” (“The Little Pastry
Chef”), estimated at $16-22 million,
and Andre Derain’s 1905 “Portrait de
Madame Matisse au kimono,” estimated
at $15-20 million. Christie’s says it
hopes Soutine’s pastry chef, the sixth
of a renowned series, will set an auction
record for the Russian-born
French artist. Derain’s painting of
Matisse’s wife is “the most important
portrait” ever auctioned by the cofounder
of Fauvism, said Brooke
Lampley, head of the Impressionist
and Modern department at Christie’s.
“To have a large-scale portrait of
this exceptional caliber and with such
a celebrated muse as its subject makes
this an unparalleled collecting opportunity
for fine art connoisseurs worldwide,”
she said. Christie’s will feature
some 50 works, including 11 Picassos,
and Chagall’s unusual “Three
Acrobats.” —AFP
“Buste d’homme” by Pablo Picasso is on display.
“Sylvette”
“L’Amazone” by Amedeo Modigliani is on display during a
preview of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art sales in
New York.
post-2008 financial crisis slump, is in
better than buoyant mood. Last year,
Sotheby’s Modern and Impressionist
auction notched up a record-setting
$119.9 million sale of a version of
Edvard Munch’s “The Scream.” This
time, the main stars are expected to be
Paul Cezanne’s “Les Pommes,” along
with Amedeo Modigliani’s “L’Amazone,”
and sculptures by Rodin and Picasso.
A total of 70 works are up for sale
“Sylvette” by Pablo Picasso is on display.
“Le Penseur” by Auguste Rodin is on display. —AFP photos