WASHINGTON: US President BarackObama criticized Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu over his warningthat Arab Israeli voters would vote “indroves”. In his first public commentsabout Tuesday ’s elections that sawNetanyahu score a surprise third term,Obama told The Huffington Post he had“indicated that that kind of rhetoric wascontrary to what is the best of Israel’s tra-ditions”. The White House said earlier thisweek that Obama had warnedNetanyahu on Thursday that his last-minute campaign pledge to oppose thecreation of a Palestinian state and hiscomments about Israeli Arab voterswould force a rethink in Washington.

“Although Israel was founded basedon the historic Jewish homeland and theneed to have a Jewish homeland, Israelidemocracy has been premised on every-body in the country being treated equal-ly and fairly,” Obama said. “And I thinkthat that is what’s best about Israelidemocracy. If that is lost, then I think thatnot only does it give ammunition to folkswho don’t believe in a Jewish state, but italso I think starts to erode the meaningof democracy in the country.”

The interview, which took placeFriday, was published in full Saturday.Obama also criticized the Israeli leader’stough stance on the Palestinians after his

election win, saying the United States is“evaluating” options for peace in theregion. “We take him at his word whenhe said that it wouldn’t happen duringhis prime ministership, and so that’s whywe’ve got to evaluate what other optionsare available to make sure that we don’tsee a chaotic situation in the region,”Obama said.

Even as Netanyahu scrambled to denyhe had ruled out the creation of aPalestinian state - long the starting pointfor Middle East peace efforts and a cor-nerstone of US policy - the White Houseindicated it could withdraw its unwaver-ing support for Israel at the UnitedNations. The US president vowed to keepcooperating with the Israeli governmenton military and intelligence operations,but stopped short of confirming whetherWashington would continue to blockPalestinian efforts to obtain statehoodthrough the United Nations.

The United States - a veto-wieldingmember of the UN Security Council - hasopposed moves at the United Nations torecognize a Palestinian state, saying thatmust be part of a negotiated peace deal.It has also shielded Israel from oftenArab-led UN votes castigating the Jewishstate for various actions, includingalleged human rights abuses.

Continued on Page 13

20Suarez scores as Barca beat Madrid 2-1 to extend lead4

Kuwaiti farmer succeeds in growing white strawberries

SUBSCRIPTIO

N

MONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015 JAMADA ALTHANI 3, 1436 AH www.kuwaittimes.net

Min 14ºMax 24ºHigh Tide01:35 & 13:50Low Tide07:55 & 20:3040

PA

GES

NO

: 164

6815

0 FI

LS

Kuwait striving to meet drinking water demand

Calls for conservation as World Water Day markedKUWAIT: Assistant Undersecretary for Planning andDevelopment at the Ministry of Electricity and Water DrMashaan Al-Otaibi said yesterday that the Ministry isfacing various challenges in its endeavor to meet thegrowing demand and achieve self-sufficiency ofpotable water. “On top of the challenges are the grow-ing population, urban communities’ expansion and thehighly water-consuming lifestyle,” Otaibi said in aspeech on behalf of Minister of Electricity and WaterAhmad Al-Jassar at a function held yesterday to markWorld Water Day.

He estimated the per capi-ta of drinking water for peo-ple living in Kuwait at 70 cum a year. “This is much belowthe international waterpoverty line of 500 cubicmeters per person a year,” heregretted. “To fill this gap andmeet the growing demandfor potable water, Kuwait hasestablished a number ofhighly sophisticated waterdesalination stations nationwide,” he said. Otaibirevealed that the total production of Kuwaiti desalina-tion plants is about 530 million imperial gallons. “Thereare plans to increase water production up to 900 millionimperial gallons in the coming seven years,” he added.

He clarified that the under-construction Al-ZourNorth project will produce nearly 100 million imperialgallons per day by 2020. Furthermore, Doha and Khirandesalination plants will produce 60 million imperial gal-lons and 125 million imperial gallons respectively.“Kuwait also plans to increase potable water reservoirsto 5,000 million imperial gallons,” he noted. Otaibistressed on the importance of changing people’slifestyle to conserve water.

Continued on Page 13

Mashaan Al-Otaibi

KUWAIT: A man runs for cover during heavy rain yesterday, continuing a trend of scattered rain that has hit Kuwait since Wednesday. The weather changes are a fea-ture of the Sarayat season, which continues until mid-May. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat (More pics on Page 3)

Obama rips Bibi over commentsIsrael vote won’t affect Iran nuclear talks

SANAA: Yemeni students hold posters yesterday bearing portraits of victims ofseveral suicide bombings claimed by the Islamic State group as they demon-strate outside a university in the capital. — AFP

ADEN: Houthi fighters opposed to Yemen’spresident took over the central city of Taiz inan escalation of a power struggle diplomatssay risks drawing in neighbouring oil giantSaudi Arabia and its main regional rival Iran.Residents of Taiz, on a main road from thecapital Sanaa to the country’s second city ofAden, said that Houthi militias took over thecity’s military airport without a struggle fromlocal authorities late on Saturday.

Security sources told AFP some 300 men,including Houthi fighters dressed in militaryuniforms and allied forces, had deployed atthe airport and reinforcements were arrivingfrom Sanaa by air and land. Security sourcessaid Houthi militiamen were also patrollingparts of Taiz and had set up checkpoints inRaheda, some 80 km south of the city on theroad to Aden. A military source said troopsloyal to Hadi and southern paramilitary

forces had meanwhile deployed in Lahjprovince north of Aden, in anticipation of apossible Houthi advance. Houthi militiamenkil led one protester in Taiz when theyopened fire to disperse thousands of peopledemanding that the rebels withdraw,activists said. A few dozen were choked bytear gas.

Eyewitnesses in the central province ofIbb reported seeing dozens of tanks and mil-itar y vehicles headed southward fromHouthi-controlled areas toward Taiz. Conflicthas been spreading across Yemen since lastyear when the Houthis seized the capitalSanaa and effectively removed PresidentAbd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who now seeks acomeback from his base in Aden.

The advance of the Iranian-backed grouphas angered Sunni Gulf Arab states led bySaudi Arabia. The Houthi spread into mostly

Sunni areas in the centre and west have ledto months of clashes with local tribes and Al-Qaeda, raising fears that the poor and heavi-ly armed country at the base of the Arabianpeninsula might descend into civil war. TheUnited Nations Security Council was set todiscuss Yemen after Hadi, a US ally, accusedthe Houthi militia of staging a coup andappealed to the UN for “urgent intervention”.

Iran yesterday called for dialogue, butsuggested that Hadi should leave to sparethe country further bloodshed. “The expecta-tion is that President ... Hadi will resign ratherthan repeat mistakes, to play a constructiverole in preventing the break-up of Yemenand the transformation of Aden into a terror-ist haven,” said Iran’s deputy foreign ministerHossein Amir Abdollahian, according to statenews agency IRNA.

Continued on Page 13

Houthis seize strategic Yemeni city

ABU DHABI: Despite campaigns on therisks of smoking, teenagers in theUnited Arab Emirates are turning to alittle-known tobacco product five timesmore potent than cigarettes and said tocause seizures. Omar, an 18-year-oldSudanese student in Abu Dhabi,describes how each hit of medwakh - alegal product inhaled from a small pipe- makes him feel. “It’s a horrible habit.But if I don’t do it my head hurts,” hesaid. “I feel I need it.”

Omar is not alone in smoking med-wakh, which means “dizziness” in Arabic;the product is reportedly popularamong young people throughout theUnited Arab Emirates. One puff isenough to make the smoker light-head-ed, or as one 17-year-old ex-smokerwho identified himself as “Clique-C”described the feeling, “relaxed”. Basedon 2013 statistics from the AmericanCancer Society and the World LungFoundation, 15.6 percent of maleteenagers smoke tobacco daily in theUAE, as do 18.1 percent of men.

And while there are no official statis-tics on the use of medwakh amongyoung people, researchers say the habitis widespread. “We did a study in (theemirate of ) Ajman on schoolchildrenand we found that 36 percent of them

were doing medwakh,” RizwanaBurhanuddin Shaikh, associate profes-sor at the department of communitymedicine at the Gulf Medical University,told AFP. Then there is its potency.According to Palat Menon, a researcherat the Centre for Advanced BiomedicalResearch and Innovation in the GulfMedical University, each gram of med-wakh contains around 44 milligrams ofnicotine - the equivalent to four or fivecigarettes. “In an average pipe, six mil-ligrams of nicotine get inhaled in 15 to20 seconds, and that is what gives you ahead spin,” he said.

Shereena Al-Mazroui, section headof non-communicable diseases at theAbu Dhabi Health Authority, said thatalthough little is known about the prod-uct, preliminary research suggests a linkbetween medwakh and seizures. “Someusers, after they take the puff, they suf-fer from seizures, dizziness and faint,”she said. “This phenomenon has spreadmore within the last 10 years. Thetragedy is that it has begun with chil-dren.”

Medwakh is usually sold cheaply intobacco shops and grocery stores nearschools, in small glass bottles with nopackaging or content details.

Continued on Page 13

WASHINGTON: The US Marine Corps yesterdayurged “vigilance” after a group claiming to beIslamic State hackers published what they said werethe names and addresses of 100 military personneland urged supporters to kill them. The warningcame after a group calling itself the Islamic StateHacking Division posted information about mem-bers of the air force, army and navy, including pho-tos and ranks, on the Internet, according to moni-toring group SITE Intelligence.

The US Marine Corps said it was visiting all affect-ed staff, and urged caution online. “Vigilance andforce protection considerations remain a priority forcommanders and their personnel,” US Marine CorpsLieutenant Colonel John Caldwell said in a state-ment, adding that the threat remained “unverified”.“It is recommended Marines and family memberscheck their online/social footprint, ensuring privacysettings are adjusted to limit the amount of avail-able personal information.”

The Pentagon regularly tells service members tobe careful about what they post online.

Continued on Page 13

US Marine Corps urges ‘vigilance’

‘Dizziness’ tobaccohooking UAE teens

L O C A LMONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah meetsMinister of Communications Essa Al-Kandari and officials from the DirectorateGeneral of Civil Aviation (DGCA). — KUNA photos

His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah meetsMinister of Communications Essa Al-Kandari and officials from the Kuwait PortsAuthority (KPA).

KUWAIT: Minister of State for Municipal Affairsand Minister of Communications Essa AhmadAl-Kandari introduced the newly-appointedsenior officials at Kuwait Ports Authority (KPA)to His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, and to HH theCrown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber

Al-Sabah. Kandari is also the chairman of KPA.Both meetings took place at Seif Palace

yesterday. The officials include KPA DirectorGeneral Sheikh Yusuf Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah Al-Nasser Al-Sabah; Assistant Director General forPlanning Affairs and Shuwaikh Port WaleedKhaleel Al-Toum; Assistant Director General for

Administrative and Financial Affairs YahiyaKhedr Abdal and Assistant Manager ofOperations and Port of Shuaiba Adnan JawadAl-Sayegh.

Kandari, who is also head of the SupremeCouncil of Civil Aviation (SCCA), meanwhileintroduced a number of Directorate General

of Civil Aviation (DGCA) officials to HH theAmir and HH the Crown Prince. The officialsinclude DGCA Chairman Fawaz AbdulazizAl-Farah; Director General Yusuf SulaimanAl-Fawzan and four deputies ; FahdSulaiman Al-Woqeyan, Khaled Al-MubarakAl-Shuaibi, Emad Faleh Al-Jluwi and Ahmad

Essa Al-Quoud.Also yesterday, HH the Amir and HH the

Crown Prince separately received Minister ofHealth Dr Ali Al-Obaidi, who introduced tothem the ministry’s newly-appointed AssistantUndersecretary for Public Health Affairs DrMajda Al-Qattan. — KUNA

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-JaberAl-Sabah meets Minister of Health Dr Ali Al-Obaidi andAssistant Undersecretary for Public Health Affairs DrMajda Al-Qattan.

Amir, Crown Prince receive newly-appointed officials

KUWAIT: His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah reads a letter from his Armenian counterpart Hovik Abrahamyan, presentedby Ambassador of Armenia Fadi Sharshogliyan. — KUNA

KUWAIT: Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah and senior ministry offi-cials are seen during the videoconference. — KUNA

KUWAIT: His Highness the Prime MinisterSheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah received at Seif Palace yesterday theAmbassador of Armenia FadiSharshogliyan. The diplomat handed to HHthe Prime Minister a letter from hisArmenian counterpart Hovik Abrahamyan,

including an official invitation to visit thecountry, to boost bilateral ties in variousfields. HH the Prime Minister also receivedJamaica’s Ambassador to Kuwait on theoccasion of ending his tenure. He alsoreceived the Ambassador of Oman Hamidbin Said bin Salim Al-Ibrahim. — KUNA

Prime Ministerreceives envoys

KUWAIT: Kuwait has committed itself on theofficial and non-government levels to easing theburden on Syrians displaced as a result of theconflict in their country which started just overfour years ago.

Humanitarian campaigns launched byKuwaiti charity organizations only a few monthsafter the start of the conflict, focused on neigh-boring countries which started to host fleeingrefugees like Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. Theyprovided families with food, education for theirchildren, healthcare and shelter.

One of these is the Kuwait Red CrescentSociety (KRCS) which stands tall amongst itspeers through the assistance it provides torefugees as well as its coordination with localand international relief bodies. Amongst KRCS’main campaigns it has launched in these neigh-boring countries are the loaf of bread, foodvouchers and kidney dialysis campaigns, along-side seasonal campaigns like breakfast inRamadan and new clothing in Eid holidays. Italso continues to provide refugees with food,medicine, children’s milk and blankets so thatmay benefit from the basic necessities for life.

Islamic CharityAnother of these organizations is the

International Islamic Charity Organization whichhas had a huge impact on these efforts, mostprominently after collecting donations worth$11.75 million from the public amid a local cam-

paign.IIICO played an effective role in the con-struction of two model villages in refugee campsin Turkey and Jordan, both funded by HisHighness the Amir, and a physiotherapy centrein Lebanon, funded by the Kuwaiti public for$320, 000. These efforts were followed by theIICO calling for a pledging-conference of NGOsat the second such event held for governments,with some 70 attending.

Kuwaiti charities pledged donations worth atotal $142 million. The IICO called for contribu-tions to build 10 residential cities for Syrians atthe neighboring refugee camps worth $142 mil-lion. This time around things will not changemuch, as a third international aid-pledgingevent in Kuwait will aim to seek similar successeson gaining as much financial support as couldbe for the Syrian refugees.

Humanitarian endeavorsMeanwhile, Spain praised Kuwait’s humani-

tarian endeavors at the international level ingeneral and towards alleviating the suffering ofmillions of Syrians in specific. Kuwait is set tohost the third International Pledging Conferencefor the Syrian people on March 31, after hostingthe first and second meetings in 2013 and 2014,all aimed at helping some 12.5 million Syrianpeople who are either internally displaced or liv-ing in neighboring countries as refugees.

Kuwait’s hosting of the third conference, alsoknown as Kuwait III, “is a proof of its full commit-

ment to its humanitarian values which are inte-gral parts of its foreign policy,” said ManuelGomez Acebo, Director of Africa, Arab Maghreband Middle East Department at the ForeignMinistry.

Acebo said these endeavors led to the UNhonoring of His Highness the Amir Sheikh SabahAl-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah as a HumanitarianLeader, and Kuwait as a Humanitarian Center. Hesaid Kuwait showed leadership in humanitarianwork worldwide, and added that Spain wouldparticipate in Kuwait III like it did in the first andsecond meetings.

Key roleAcebo, who said Spain and Kuwait were

“allies,” noted that Kuwait was the rotating presi-dent of the Arab League and has been playing akey role within the Gulf Cooperation Council(GCC) in the region. Acebo admired Kuwait’s bal-anced foreign policy and the country policy,which has been always about moderation andattempting to address any conflict peacefully.

Kuwait hosted the first and second aid pledg-ing conferences for Syria in 2013 and 2014. Theevents successfully raised $3.9 billion in aidpledges, $1.5 billion in the first and $2.4 billionin the second. Kuwait donated a total of $800million in the two conferences, $300 million inthe first and $500 in the second. Kuwait III is setto host 78 countries and more than 40 interna-tional organizations. — KUNA

Kuwaiti charities practiceaffective roles on Syrians

KUWAIT: First Deputy Prime Minister andForeign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-KhaledAl-Hamad Al-Sabah held a videoconferencewith Kuwait’s chiefs of mission (COMs) inthe Arab and GCC countries yesterday.

The meeting focused on discussing thelatest developments on both regional andinternational arenas. It is part of a numberof regional gatherings made by Sheikh

Sabah Al-Khaled with the country’s diplo-matic missions.

Senior ministry officials including KhaledSuleiman Al-Jarallah, the ministry’sUndersecretary, Ambassador Abdelhamid Al-Failakawi, the Director of the Arab WorldDepartment, and Ambassador Nasser Hajji Al-Muzain, the Director of the GCC AffairsDepartment, attended the meeting. — KUNA

FM holds videoconferencewith Kuwaiti envoys

KUWAIT: Minister of Justice and Awqaf andIs lamic Affa i rs Yaqoub Al-Sane said thatKuwait Constitutional Court, since its founda-tion in 1973, has played a significant role indefending the constitutional legitimacy andoverseeing lawmakers’ abidance by constitu-tional provisions.

Speaking at the Union of Arab ConstitutionalCourts and Councils (UACCC) meeting whichkicked off in Kuwait yesterday, Sane also praisedthe great efforts of Kuwait’s constitutional courtand other Arab constitutional courts and coun-cils in promoting justice and safeguarding free-doms. He underscored that the rule of law is themain driving force for nations’ progress anddevelopment.

For his part, Chief of Kuwait’s ConstitutionalCourt and the conference’s President Yusuf Al-

Mutawa said that the meeting focuses on theprotection of the constitutional legitimacy andthe rule of law. He emphasized the importanceof the meeting in exchanging expertise, unifyingstances of the contemporary constitutionalissues for the ultimate goals of guaranteeingpeople’s freedoms and rights and establishingthe rule of law.

The four-day event is attended by represen-tatives of 14 Arab constitutional courts andcouncils and the Venice Commission which isan advisory body of the Council of Europe,composed of independent experts in the fieldof constitutional law. The conferees will tacklevarious key issues relevant to the role of consti-tutional courts in developing constitutionaland political systems and safeguarding consti-tutional rights. — KUNA

Minister lauds constitutionalcourt’s ‘impressive’ role

Minister of Justice, Awqaf and Islamic AffairsYaqoub Al-Sane

ROME: Kuwait pays great attention towardsthe environmental development and themanagement of power sources, Kuwait’sAmbassador to Italy Sheikh Ali Al-Khalid Al-Jaber Al-Sabah said yesterday. The diplomat’sremarks were made in his speech at an envi-ronmental forum titled ‘the development ofinternational energy scenario and its effectson environmental policies,’ held in Italy.

Kuwait is adopting plans to develop andrely mainly on ‘green’ renewable and environ-ment-friendly energy, Sheikh Ali said. Thecountry is also conducting research and stud-ies in the field, in order to protect the environ-ment against pollution and limiting the emis-sion of harmful gases, he added.

Meanwhile, the Ambassador mentionedKuwait’s struggle to regain environmentalstability after the 1990 oil wells’ fires, startedby the Iraqi occupation forces. He also notedthat all GCC countries are working on usingrenewable energy, adding that the UAE hasbecome the headquarters of theInternational Renewable Energy Agency (IRE-

NA), located in Abu Dhabi. Kuwait’s participa-tion in the event aims at presenting itsachievements in the field, and is also a prepa-ration to take part in the upcoming ExpoMilano 2015 next May, under the theme“Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”, SheikhAli told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).

Managing Director of Kuwait PetroleumItalia (Q8) Alessandro Gilotti, on his part, saidthat fossil fuel is considered as the mostimportant source for energy in the nextdecades. Member states of the Organizationof Petroleum Exporting Countries will ownbulk of oil reservoirs around the world until2040, despite the expected changes indemography and development, said Gilotti.

Moreover, the official noted Kuwait ’sefforts to develop its oil industry raise the pro-duction rate up to four million barrel per dayand play a bigger role in the international oilmarket. Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC),which owns (Q8), is one of the top interna-tional companies in developing the produc-tion levels, he said. —KUNA

Kuwait eager to developrenewable energy: Envoy

AMMAN: Kuwait has offered the UNR-WA $2 million as part of the country’sannual support to the agency.Kuwait’s ambassador to Jordan HamadAl-Duaij handed over the contributionto UNRWA Deputy Commissioner-General Sandra Mitchell during ameeting at the embassy building inAmman.

This is part of Kuwait’s efforts tosupport Palestinian people and allevi-ate their suffering, at the behest of HisHighness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, ambassador

Duaij said. He commended theUNRWA’s hard efforts to provide thebasic needs of the Palestinian people.

For her part, the UNRWA’s senioroff ic ia l expressed grat itude toKuwait for the contribution thathelps the agency carry on offeringservices to Palestinian refugees. Shesaid that Kuwait is among thebiggest contributors to the agency,saying it has also hosted internation-al conferences for Syria donors. HHthe Amir offered $35 million to theUNRWA in 2009. — KUNA

MANAMA: Kuwait Journalists Association (KJA) members Faisal Al-Qana’ie and Adnan Al-Sayyed received the 2014 Kuwait PressAward in recognition of their long careers in journalism field. Thehonoring ceremony took place during the Middle East Conferencefor Media Strategies, which took place recently in Manama,Bahrain.

Kuwait offersUNRWA $2 million

AMMAN: Kuwait’s Ambassador to Jordan Dr Hamad Al-Duaij hands overthe contribution papers to UNRWA Deputy Commissioner-GeneralSandra Mitchell. — KUNA

L O C A LMONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

CrimeR e p o r t

Two killed inKabd road accidents

By Hanan Al-Saadoun

KUWAIT: A 31-year-old bedoon man was killed after hissports vehicle collided with a truck on Kabd road. Thebedoon man lost control over his vehicle while driving onthe slippery road, and crashed into a truck that was parkedon the side of the road, according to investigations. In aseparate accident that happened on the same road, aKuwaiti man who works for the fire department was killed-while another person was injured. The injured man wastaken to hospital, while criminal investigators moved thebody to the forensic department. An investigation wasopened to determine the circumstances behind the acci-

Policemen offendedTwo police officers filed a case against a Kuwaiti manin Ahmadi, saying that he offended them with anobscene gesture and escaped after they pulled himover for committing a traffic violation.

Bootlegger caughtDrugs Control General Department officers arrested aRussian man on charges of trading in liquor. Officers found345 imported liquor bottles after they obtained a warrantto search his house and car based on earlier informationregarding his activity. The man was sent to concernedauthorities for further action.

By Meshaal Al-Enezi

KUWAIT: Electricity and water reserves forthe upcoming peak consumption period dur-ing the summer are satisfactory, Minister ofElectricity and Water and Minister of PublicWorks Ahmad Al-Jassar said.

Speaking to reporters during a receptionheld to receive congratulations on his newposts, Jassar said that all units that had beenout of order last summer were completelyrepaired and would be reconnected to thenational grid before the summer. This wouldhelp the total grid output to reach theplanned 16,500 megawatts, he added. Healso noted that total water production wouldbe 400 million imperial gallons per day. “This

does not mean squandering either of thesupplies because subsidizing them costs thestate fortunes every year,” Jassar said.

Conditional freedomThe Interior Ministry recently warned both

citizens and expatriates against overusingtheir ‘freedom of expression’ in ways thatmight cause them trouble. The ministry alsostressed that freedom of expression was con-ditional and some comments could bedeemed a criminal offence committedagainst others.

Sick leavesIn a bid to limit faking sick leaves where

some employees actually purchase them in

return for money, the health ministry recentlybanned doctors working in various polyclin-ics from signing more than 3 sick leaves.

Office closedThe Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor’s

family care department yesterday banned thepublic from entering its offices at the min-istries complex, which creates huge crowdsand long queues and delays many people’stransactions on the first day of the week,when many people prefer submitting them.

Taxi driver molests childA Yemeni taxi driver was arrested in

Khaitan while attempting to rape a 10-year-old Egyptian child, said security sources.

Electricity, water reservessatisfactory: Minister

Minister Ahmad Al-Jassar

KUWAIT: From 6 April, nationals from outsidethe EEA, coming to the UK for longer than sixmonths will be required to pay a ‘health sur-charge’ when they make their immigrationapplication. Migrants coming to work, studyor join family members currently receive freemedical treatment under the UK’s NationalHealth System (NHS) in the same way as apermanent resident. The changes willensure that migrants make an appropriatefinancial contribution to the cost of theirNHS care. Non-EEA nationals visiting the UKon a tourist visa or any other visit visa will not

be required to pay the health surcharge, butwill continue to be fully liable for the costs ofany NHS treatment at the point they receiveit. The surcharge also does not apply to thosemaking applications for settlement andthose who are not subject to UK immigrationcontrol such as accredited diplomats andtheir dependants, who will continue to enjoyfree access to the NHS.

The health surcharge will be £200 peryear and £150 per year for students, payableup-front and for the total period of time forwhich they are given permission to stay in

the UK. In setting the surcharge levels, theUK Government has considered the widerange of free health services available tomigrants alongside the valuable contribu-tion they make and the need to ensure theUK remains attractive to the brightest andthe best from around the world.

The money collected by the UK HomeOffice will be passed to the health depart-ments in England, Wales, Scotland andNorthern Ireland. The surcharge levels arelower than the cost of medical insurancerequired in some of our competitor nations

and, for overseas students, the surchargerepresents only 1% of the total cost of study-ing in the UK for a three year undergraduatecourse. Having paid the surcharge, migrantswill have the same access to the NHS as a UKpermanent resident while their stay in theUK is lawful. The surcharge will apply toimmigration applications where payment ismade on or after 6 April and is made at thesame time as the immigration application.Please visit our website for further details:https://www.gov.uk/government/organisa-tions/uk-visas-and-immigration

Migrants to the UK to payHealth Surcharge from April 6

KUWAIT: The Ministry of Commerceand Industry organizes today aninternational conference on anti-money laundering and illicit fundingof terrorism.

The two-day event, themed ‘con-fronting terrorism between legisla-tion and the effectiveness of imple-mentation,’ will be held under thepatronage of Deputy Prime Ministerand Minister of Commerce andIndustry Dr Abdulmohsen Al-Mudej,

the ministry said in a statement yes-terday. Some regional and interna-tional organizations as well asexperts in this field will discussthrough four sessions several work-ing papers presented by experts andspecialists, the statement added.

The first session will discuss theview of the international law and theIslamic Sharia about the concept ofterrorism, while the second one willfocus on the impact of ideology of

terrorist organizations on globalpolitical and economic situations, itadded.

The third session will tackle therole of international and regionalorganizations as well as civil soci-eties in combating terrorism on alllevels, it noted. The fourth one willbe on confronting crimes of moneylaundering and illicit funding of ter-rorism in light of the Kuwaiti Law No106 of 2013, it pointed out.— KUNA

Anti-money launderingconference starts today

New system promises payhike for 12,000 employees

By A Saleh

KUWAIT: The Civil Service Commission (CSC) announcedthat it would soon finish the legislations needed toapprove the payroll strategic alternative project. It also not-ed that the new system would result in immediate payhikes to over 12,000 employees, and that the salarieswould annually increase by 8-10 percent.

The new alternative system would save KD 15-19 billionover ten years, the CSC stressed. Furthermore, it noted that30-40 percent of government employees would get 20-25percent pay hikes, while 25-35 percent, who already arepaid suitable salaries according to regulations, would get 5percent increases. “The project will start this month andwill be completed by the end of 2017 with a total cost ofKD 350 million,” the CSC explained in a statement.

DHAKA: Members of the Kuwaiti delegation led by Interior Ministry’s Undersecretary Lieutenant GeneralSulaiman Al-Fahad in a group photo with Bangladesh’s Army Chief of Staff General Iqbal Karim Bhuiyan andBangladeshi officials. — KUNA

DHAKA: The visiting Kuwait’s InteriorUndersecretary Lieutenant GeneralSulaiman Al-Fahad met yesterday withBangladesh’s Army Chief of StaffGeneral Iqbal Karim Bhuiyan and hisassistant for administrative affairs andman force, Major General MuhammadMahfouz el Rahman.

Lt Gen Al-Fahad and the accompa-

nying delegation also met with theArmed Forces Director of thePremiership, Abu Bilal MohammadShafi. The meeting was followed witha visual presentation about theBangladeshi Armed Forces. TheKuwaiti and Bangladeshi sides dis-cussed means of cementing coopera-tion, boosting exchange of informa-

tion and security expertise.During the five-day visit, the Kuwaiti

delegation aims to exchange expertiseand information with the local authori-ties, as well as enhancing mutual secu-rity cooperation. The Kuwaiti officialsare due to meet with Prime MinisterSheikh Hasina Wajed and a number ofsenior officials. — KUNA

Kuwait, Bangladeshhold security talks

KU’s CGAPS tacklesviolence causes

KUWAIT: Causes of violence and how to counter the phenome-non in the Gulf society is the major topic on the agenda of aconference that kicked off yesterday, and is organized by KuwaitUniversity’s Center for Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies(CGAPS).

The Arab society, families and social centers are sufferingfrom the phenomenon, KU’s Acting Rector Professor Hayat Al-Haji told the opening session. “This prompts us to work hard forcombating such negative phenomenon that strange to the Arabsociety,” Haji added at the ceremony, which was attended byCGAPS Director Suad Abdulwahab Al-Abdurrahman and a hostof professors, academics and specialists.

Rigidity and intellectual and psychological violence top thecauses of the phenomenon, Haji noted. The major goal of theconference is to identify the causes behind the spread of vio-lence, bodily, intellectual or psychological, as well as the meansto eradicate the phenomenon in Kuwait and other Arab coun-tries, through scientific and applicable frameworks, she said. Shecalled for submitting the recommendation to be made by theconference to the Ministry of Education, in a bid to see themimplemented on the ground.

The CGAPS focuses its activities on the Gulf and the ArabPeninsula, but this phenomenon extends to the entire Arabregion, neglecting limits of geography and history, Director Al-Abdulrahman said. — KUNA

Petroleum MediaForum kicks off

RIYADH: Riyadh hosted yesterday a workshop for mediamen on oil markets and the regional and internationalpower organizations, ahead of the official launch of the2nd Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Petroleum MediaForum.

The 2nd Forum, sponsored by Saudi King Salman benAbdulaziz, is held under the title ‘GCC Petroleum Media:Topics and Challenges.’ Yesterday’s workshop featuredtwo papers, the first by Saudi governor to theOrganization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)Dr Mohamed Al-Mady, on oil marketing and theincreased demand due to rising world’s population.

It is hard to enjoy life without oil, Mady said in hispaper, noting that the sector is sensitive for both pro-ducers and consumers, as a major source of income. Heexpected demand on power to soar over the comingyears, saying investments in the sector would hit $40trillion. The second paper tackled the basic and minorfactors affecting the oil market and the role of SaudiArabia on the international oil scene. It also highlightedthat the kingdom has been the most important oil pro-ducer since 1970 and is expected to continue so.Riyadh has worked in cooperation with producing andconsuming countries to stand in the face of any inter-ruption of oil supplies and reduce sharp price fluctua-tions, it said. — KUNA

L O C A LMONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

Goodwill ambassadorKUWAIT: Global Tolerance and Peace Organizationappointed Director of Al-Sabah Health Area Dr AdelAl-Asfour as the Ambassador of Peace andTolerance for 2015-2016, for the third consecutivetime - the first such record at the regional level. DrAsfour will be honored in a ceremony to be held inKuwait in the end of March. — KUNA

4.5-degree earthquakeKUWAIT: Kuwait National Seismic Network (KNSN)registered a 4.5-degree earthquake southwest ofKuwait on Saturday, Kuwait Institute for ScientificResearch (KISR) said. There were no reports of casual-ties. The earthquake’s epicenter was five kilometersunderground, said Dr Abdullah Al-Enezi, KNSN super-visor. The earthquake took place at 14:23 hours localtime (11:23 GMT), he added. — KUNA

White strawberriesKUWAIT: Kuwaiti farmer Yousef Al-Kraibani has suc-cessfully grown white strawberries. He says that hehas prepared air-conditioned greenhouses for theunique fruit plant to grow in hot summer condi-tions. — KUNA

In Brief

Photoo f t h e d a y

KUWAIT: Heavy rain hit Kuwait yesterday, continuing a trend of scattered rain that hit the country since last Wednesday. The unstable weather conditions resulted from the Sudanese low-pressure sys-tem which affected Kuwait, according to the meteorological department at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. The weather changes are also a feature of the Sarayat season, which continues untilmid May. —Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

KUWAIT: NoufEXPO and KuwaitAdvancement for Conference andExhibition ManagementFoundation (KADCEM)announced that KuwaitConference and Exhibition onNational Health Economics willinclude the participation ofworld-class industry andRegulatory leaders. The confer-ence, due to be held from 10-12May 2015 at Al-Baraka Ballroomof Crowne Plaza hotel, will beconvened under the patronage ofthe Prime Minister of Kuwait, HisHighness Sheikh Jaber MubarakAl-Hamad Al-Sabah. HisExcellency the Minister of HealthDr Ali Saad Al-Obaidi will be theChairman of the conference.

In a press release, ProfessorStuart Walker, Professor ofPharmaceutical Medicine, WelshSchool of Pharmacy, University ofWales, and Founder of The Centrefor Innovation in RegulatoryScience, said “I am delighted tohave been invited to lead theconference’s Scientific Committeeand to work closely with Dr ReemAl-Essa, Executive Director ofKADCEM, the conference’sScientific Rapporteur, in design-ing a scientific program that willbe of considerable value toKuwait and all other Gulf States”.

Careful evaluationIn a press release issued by the

two organizing companies,Professor Walker said, “SelectingHealth Economics as the topic ofthe conference is as a result of acareful evaluation of the currentinternational trends that high-light three important issues.Firstly, that value based pricing,rather than InternationalReference Pricing, is the way for-ward and is currently adopted bymany countries around the worldto ensure that patients gainaccess to innovative medicines.Secondly, an overall assessmentof the total impact of new medi-

cines on healthcare system needsand costs should be consideredrather than reviewing medicinesin isolation. Thirdly, any systembeing implemented, should be“Fit for Purpose” taking intoaccount available resources, andutilizing other health technologyappraisals where possible whileensuring that evaluations are rel-evant to local healthcare systemstructure, funding and settings.”

This topic is comparatively

new in Kuwait and therefore,such a conference represents aparadigm shift in the field ofhealth technology assessment inthe Gulf Region. It is important ina world where new medicinesmay well be effective, but notnecessarily priced according totheir value. Under such circum-stances, it is crucial to be able todetermine a medicines overalleffectiveness as well as its valueto patient populations and thehealthcare system as a whole.Professor Walker, according to theorganizing companies, expressedhis view that “The GCC countriesare facing various challenges thatimpact the quality of healthcareservices provided to the public.Such challenges will encouragethe adoption of health economicsand Health Technology

Assessment as an inevitable eval-uative methodology that can beapplied to all high cost interven-tions, not only new medicines, tosupport the delivery of moreeffective and efficient healthcare.The growing size of the popula-tion, the rising median age, theincreasing awareness of societalimpact, the demands for highquality care, the rising costs ofnew health technologies togeth-er with increasing hospitalizationcosts, means that a move fromreference pricing to HealthTechnology assessment is theway forward.”

Growing requirementOver the past few years there

has been a growing requirementfor health economics and out-comes research activities to meetthe demands of healthcare pro-fessionals, health insurers, policyand decision makers, in collec-tively challenging the trends ofincreasing healthcare spendingacross the Gulf region.” ProfessorWalker added that, “This confer-ence is considered a major steptowards emphasizing the impor-tance of these issues and embrac-ing methods for assessing thefinancial burden caused by thehigh costs of healthcare services,new health interventions andmedical technologies.”

Professor Walker also statedthat it is vital to incorporateHealth Technology Assessmentinto every aspect of health policyplanning to allow for the system-atic and rigorous examination ofthe problems faced in promotinghealth for all. By applying eco-nomic models to healthcarechoices it is possible to under-stand the behavior of individuals,health care providers, public andprivate organizations as well asthe role of governments in deci-sion-making. He went on to saythat many institutions are nowcarrying out research on a wide

variety of topics including theimpact of healthcare, healthinsurance and preventative serv-ices on health lifestyles, the roleof patients in the decision-mak-ing processes as well as providingrobust research and advice togovernments to enable a moreeffective and equitable allocationof resources. In view of the factthat this topic has beenaddressed since the 1980’s by theUnited States, European and oth-er developed countries, it is nownecessary to determine howthese issues will impactapproaches in the Gulf Region.

The organizing companiesconcluded their press release bysaying, “We are pleased to hostProfessor Stuart Walker as thePresident of the ScientificCommittee in addition to manyindustry and agency leaders andexperts. We are confident thattheir participation will contributeto the development of strongerHealthcare Systems in Kuwait andthe Gulf Region”.

Short BiographyProfessor Stuart Walker BSc

PhD (Lond) MFPM FRSC FIBiolFRCPath, is an IndependentConsultant in PharmaceuticalMedicine and Founder of bothCMR International and the Centrefor Innovation in RegulatoryScience. For the past thirty yearshe has also held the position ofProfessor of PharmaceuticalMedicine, University of Wales,Cardiff, and he is a Fellow of theSchool of Pharmacy, LondonUniversity. He is frequentlyinvolved in the organization ofnational and international meet-ings on key issues that concernthe pharmaceutical industry andRegulatory and ReimbursementReviews and he has lecturedextensively throughout Europe,the United States, Japan and theAsia-Pacific Region as well as LatinAmerica and the Middle East.

Professor Walker leads healthconference’s scientific committee Kuwait Conference on National Health Economics

Professor Stuart Walker

KUWAIT: KSIF President Sheikha Fraiha Al-Sabah awards one of the mothers honoredin this year’s event. — Photos by Joseph Shagra

Ideal family societyhonors eight mothers

By Nawara Fattahova

KUWAIT: The Kuwait Society for the IdealFamily (KSIF) held a concluding ceremonyof the ‘Ideal Mother of the OutstandingFamily 2015’ on Saturday at Dasma Theatre.The ceremony was held to coincide withMother’s Day, so participating motherscould be honored. This was the 11th edi-tion of this contest, and four Kuwaiti andfour expat mothers were awarded.

President of KSIF Sheikha Fraiha Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah welcomed theaudience, who completely filled all seats ofDasma Theatre, adding that she is pleasedto award the winning mothers in this year’scontest. Dr Sheikha Maymouna Al-KhalifaAl-Athbi Al-Sabah and Saleh Al-Nahham,Deputy and First Consultant at KSIF, alsoaddressed the audience. The speecheswere followed by poems proclaiming lovefor Kuwait by poet Musaed Al-Suweirij.

Musical performancesStudents from the Shamiya Elementary

School for Girls and Mohammed Al-ShayeaSchool for Boys presented folk dances andsongs on the mother and national songs.Kuwait Television’s musical orchestra pre-sented an operetta on GCC countries,accompanied by lights and flags of eachcountry. Two Chinese students presentedtheir appreciation for mothers - Abdullahon the organ and Kim on the violin. Then agroup of personalities who made greatachievements were awarded as the person-alities of the year 2015, followed by theeight mothers. The event was sponsored byvarious institutions including private hospi-tals, which provided gifts for the mothers inaddition to free blood sugar and bloodpressure tests for the attendees.

The ceremony concluded with a musicaland dance performance by a group of stu-dents from public schools and the KuwaitTV band.

Author and columnist Abdullah Buwair presents a memento to Sheikha Fraiha Al-Sabah.

L O C A LMONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

By Labeed Abdal

local@kuwaittimes.net

Focusing on quality

Ministers of higher education and scien-tific research in the Gulf CooperationCouncil (GCC) countries met recently in

Muscat in a step that underlines the importanceof joint GCC work in this field and effortstowards meeting the public’s future expecta-tions. It is important for GCC government toencourage all efforts in the educational field andimprove the quality of education, bearing inmind that creating qualified and trained humanresources is the basis for development.Innovation and scientific research also needs tobe focused on in order to help meet GCC coun-tries’ ambitions.

What we need in the region is a change fromthe spending culture and adopting a newapproach that focuses primarily on quality. Wealso need more focus on GCC countries’ needswhen it comes to joint projects in educationalfields in order to achieve self sufficiency inindustrial and technology fields. Meanwhile, thepopulation growth in GCC countries requiresestablishing a joint network for quality control inorder to prepare fresh graduates and help themovercome difficulties while dealing with thechanges imposed by the move towards betterquality.

In the meantime, it is important to seek coop-eration with leading universities worldwide, sothat universities and colleges in GCC states regaintheir glory and become beacons of educationalexcellence for the region and the world.

And while discussing this subject, it is worthmentioning the recent announcement by theEmirates Institute for Advanced Science andTechnology (EIAST) to launch Khalifasat, the thirdsatellite to be launched by the institute. The proj-ect is slated for a 2017 launch, and stands as anexample of the results gained from exertingefforts and funds on development projects andutilizing the efforts of qualified young nationals.

In my view

By Faten Omar

KUWAIT: The working women’s com-mittee in the Kuwait Trade UnionFederation held a seminar on vio-lence against women yesterday.“Violence against women is the reali-ty we live in - husbands beat theirwives and children every day, andthis has become a big issue in ourKuwaiti society, and we are here todeal with this phenomenon,” saidSabah Al-Eqab, Director of theInstitute of Labor Culture.

Prof Dr Adel Shukri MohammedKarim, a psychology professor at theUniversity of Alexandria, praised themale audience at the seminar. “Thismeans they believe in women andtheir role in our lives,” he said.“Violence against women is a seriousphenomenon that should bestopped. The woman is the mother,sister, wife and daughter, so how can

we treat her cruelly? Some people saythat violence is only physical, but psy-chological violence is the most vio-lent and leaves a lasting effect unlikethe bruises on the body,” he added.

Karim said that before the adventof Islam, women were servile, butIslam honored women and “we cansee this through how ProphetMuhammad (PBUH) treated his wives,his family members and women inhis society”.

CausesKarim spoke about causes of vio-

lence toward women. “The first isthat the woman remains silent andwill not talk about it, and this makeshim insult her more. The other rea-son is that some women insult theirhusbands, so they beat them,” hesaid.

About the cultural reasons, Karimsaid “ignorance and a lack of knowl-

edge on how to deal with others andhow to respect them and not know-ing their rights begets violence, andwhen the woman does not know herrights or if the husband is unenlight-ened”. On the way boys are broughtup, Karim said “sometimes the son israised in a violent family, so when hegrows up, he will be a violent hus-band”.

Customs and traditions have arole in violence against women. “Themale-dominated society preventswomen from being creative, becausepower is for men only, along withsayings that are spread by people inthe community. For example, whenthe mother tells her daughter thatwhen her husband hits her, ‘theshadow of the man is better than thewall’s shadow’,” Karim said.

LawsEven governments and authori-

ties are being violent toward womenby laws that support violence againstwomen and discrimination inemployment between males andfemales and what they can do andwhat they cannot. Karim pointed outthat the causes of sexual violenceinclude delay in marriages, themedia that incites men to sexuallyabuse women and the upbringing ofmen.

The solutions - in Karim’s opinion -are that there should be more semi-nars and religious guidance over vio-lence against women. The media hasa big role in turning away fromstereotypical images of women,while the social affairs ministry musthave a hotline and marital counsel-ing. The ministry of interior shouldpunish anyone who beats a womanor sexually harasses her, and the min-istry of justice must issue laws safe-guarding women’s rights, he said.

Trade union hosts seminar

on violence against women

KUWAIT: (From left) Prof Dr Adel Karim, head of the working women’s com-mittee Sana’ Al-Asfour and Director of the Workers Cultural InstitutionSabah Al-Eqab. —Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Local writer pens

novel on Kuwait

By Sunil Cherian

KUWAIT: Sara Mohammed, a Jahra-based writer, is shyabout holding a press conference to publicize her newnovel on Kuwait, expected to be completed later this year.Last year, she published her debut novel in Arabic - Tikrit - arealistic story set in Saddam Hussein’s birthplace where jus-

tice has no face. Hernew book, also inArabic, “will mirrorour society, espe-cially the communi-ty in Jahra,” she said.

“I wanted to tell astory that reallydepicts what’s hap-pening around us,”Mohammed said.“Lots of youngwomen who havethe habit of readingtend to escape witha book with itsthoughts and fan-tasies. But I see reali-

ty around us has more fantasy than fiction,” she said. Tikrittells the story of Mariam, the young sister of a terrorist whokidnaps a US journalist, Daniel. Mariam, who is assigned tofeed the captive, releases him on a humanitarian basis. Thenovel ends tragically as Mariam is executed by US forceswhile Daniel publishes his scoop.

“No, the pessimism in the end is not to make the readersdepressed,” the young novelist said. “I wanted to say that thefate of women is in a sorry state. In the novel, both Mariamand Daniel are given their due. I’ve done justice, you see. Thesociety hasn’t.” Mohammed is reluctant to reveal about hernovel set in Jahra. “Let it be a surprise. I can tell you it’s ananalytical look at the Kuwaiti society,” she said.

Sara Mohammed with a copy of her novel Tikrit.

F r o m t he A r a bic pr e s sMONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

New Middle East

Al-Jarida

By Dr Hassan Jouhar

Al-Jarida

YEMEN News reports are many and rumors are ram-pant, but the strange thing nowadays is thatbefore we read or hear anything, we find it

proceeded with the two words ‘latest news.’ Andbecause of the amount being dealt with either byhearing or reading, we do not distinguish betweenwhat is true and what is false. This is the state of oursociety and others.

When someone wanted to spread a rumor ordeliver true information in the past, he used to do sothrough the diwaniya, women’s gatherings or othermeetings, and it was done during certain and shortperiods, but today in the era of technology and mul-timedia in the atmosphere of scientific advance-ment, rumors and news no longer have a certaintimeframe - rather they have become particles in thefree air and captured by anyone who wants to untilthe majority of societies became preoccupied in fol-lowing the ‘latest news.’

I was talking one day to my teacher and mentor,and I told him about something that concerns a gov-ernment department. He asked me: This informationis from Twitter? I laughed and asked him how did heknow? He said I was in the diwaniya and one mansaid it in front of us, and we discussed it with him,then called the concerned person, who denied therumors, so I apologized to him. He said the problemnow is not the current generation, rather some peo-ple of the previous generation who got affected bybelieving everything without making sure about theauthenticity of the news item or information.

In the past, when the societies were closed andgatherings were limited, the majority, when theysaid something, used to mention the source orwhere they read it. Any information should be in abook by a trusted writer, or a well-known newspaperor official, not a tabloid as it is called today. All infor-mation that is mentioned in your media is false, withregret. Your media are false, with regret, rather yourdevices became ‘yellow’ tabloids just to get the latestnews.

‘Yellow’ media

Al-Anbaa

By Nermin Al-Hoti

George Orwell marvelously wrote his creativenovel ‘Animal Farm’, which was later consid-ered one of the most influential books in con-

temporary political thinking. The novel tells the storyof how a group of animals revolt against the tyrant ina hypothetical farm (the Manor farm) which was runby Mr Jones. The revolution sage, the old pig OldMajor, was very decisive in setting the revolutionprinciples and antagonizing the tyrannical and para-sitic human beings and achieving justice and equali-ty to all winged creatures and all that walk on fourlimbs.

By the time the rebellion succeeds under the lead-ership of the young pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, MrJones is removed from the farm and the revolutionsage Old major dies, the revolution’s principles startto fade away one by one and the new animal-domi-nated community is not in any better condition asNapoleon excludes his comrade Snowball and takesthe leadership all for himself with the help of a num-ber of puppies he had raised and trained to grow upinto being his own faithful security guards.

He then appoints a young pig named Squealer touse the media and publicity to promote and justify

his (Napoleon’s) actions and convince other animalsof his wisdom and decisions’ soundness. Thus, thenew regime turns into one worse than that of thetoppled man and eventually, pigs become the newtyrannical humans on the farm and Napoleon startsadapting human lifestyles.

Carrying on with his tyranny, Napoleon starts play-ing the same old game of interests with M rPilkington, a man who owns a nearby farm and theyboth agree to go back to adopting the same old prin-ciples - absolute power, tyranny and corruption.Towards the end of the novel, Orwell sums up therepeated sad scene by writing: “The creatures outsidelooked from pig to man, and from man to pig, andfrom pig to man again; but already it was impossibleto say which was which.”

Yes, indeed. I t i s becoming hard for normalhumans to tell the difference in view of all the fraud,disfiguration, deception and dispossession going on.It no longer makes any difference if pigs die becauseof humans or humans die because of pigs. The sameold story keeps recurring and it seems that tyranny,suppressing others and liberties are becoming innatetools in the hands of those with power and influence.

Pigs’ revolutionAl-Jarida

By Prof Ghanim Al-Najjar

CrimeR e p o r t

Thief lures victimswith feminine voice

Soldier’s car stolenA soldier told Ahmadi police that two unidentified

people beat him and stole his car. He said he was driv-ing in Mubarak Al-Kabeer when a motorist asked himto stop. He said he obliged because he thought hewanted to inquire about an address, but two personscame out of the car, beat him up and pointed sharpobjects at him. One of the men then got into his carand drove away. He said his car had his military ID, civilID and ATM cards. The car the two suspects were inwas reported stolen. Detectives are working on thecase.

Thief in police netInterior Ministry Assistant Undersecretary for

General Security Maj Gen Adbelfattah Al-Ali sent aJordanian man to criminal detectives for his involve-ment in several robberies. Ali also sent a pistol,machinegun, car tools and women’s purses in additionto a large quantity of stolen material. A security sourcesaid a patrol in Andalus had suspicions over a car, sothey asked the driver to stop. When asked about whyhe was in Andalus, he said he was waiting for a friend,then changed his story and said he was waiting for hiscousin. Mobile phones, currencies and women’s purseswere in the backseat, so he was asked to step out ofthe car. When policemen searched it, they found theweapons. The suspect said he stopped expats andthreatened them with the weapons and robbed themof what they had. He admitted committing more than70 thefts in various areas of Kuwait.

Adultery charges An Ethiopian woman returned home to find her

American husband with her best friend. The womanleft the flat and called the police. When policemenknocked at the door, he opened it, pulled his wifeinside and closed it. His wife then opened the door,and police arrested the man and her friend. His wifeinsisted on filing adultery charges against both ofthem.—- Al-Anbaa and Al-Rai

Shopper muggedA Swedish woman told Reqqa police that a young man

snatched her bag at a mall’s parking lot. She said that herpassport and KD 150 were inside the bag. She said passers-by responded to her screams and caught the thief, whowas driving a luxury car.

Woman attackedAn American soldier accused an Egyptian man of

attacking her in Fahaheel. The woman told Fahaheel policethat while she was in the area, she was surprised by a per-son approaching and grabbing her hand in an attempt toattack her. She said he fled after she screamed. The suspectis being questioned about the incident.

NewsI n b r i e f

123,000 paid visa finesKUWAIT: Security sources said the number of expats whomissed the grace period to update their passport informa-tion was only 19,000 out of 123,000 who paid fines totalingKD 6.19 million by last Thursday. He said the majority of the19,000 are Syrians, and they are about to go to the immi-gration department after renewing their passports fromtheir embassy in Kuwait. He said the mechanism is slow,but it is moving with ease and expected to be completedduring the next four months. Meanwhile, sources said theimmigration department began implementing severaldecisions such as instant deportation of article 18 and 20holders who are reported absconding by their sponsorswithout exception. Also, the passport must be valid for twoyears for a family visa seeker, while the passport should bevalid for at least six months for various visits. They said thegoal behind these measures is to confront visa trade andbribery. The sources revealed that a decision was made tohave an automated link with hotels and companies in thecountry in order to issue visas. They said that amendmentsover visas and applications related to visa are to avoid sev-eral drawbacks in the old applications. The sources expect-ed approval of an amendment proposal to a ministerialdecree regarding expats’ visa that was presented to theminister next month. They said the amendments agreewith the developments of the laws and go along with workdynamics and fees that were not changed for years. Thesources said the proposed amendments include increasingthe salary condition for family visas and visits, allowing pri-vate universities to issue visas to students and grant thosewith expired passports a grace period of two months forrenewal and visa transfer. — Al-Rai

KUWAIT: Mubarak Al-Kabeer detectives solved several rob-bery cases with the arrest of a man who confessed to begood at imitating women’s voices. He befriended youngmen on social media and asked them to meet him in darkplaces, then robbed them at knifepoint.

Parliamentary inquiries KUWAIT: Undersecretary of the Ministry of State forAssembly Affairs Ahmed Al-Marshad stressed that therelations between the government and the parliamentwere currently going through their best times, show-ing unprecedented understanding. “Such cooperationdoes not mean cancelling the parliament’s monitoringof the government’s performance. Contrarily, this stateof relations resulted in effective parliamentary moni-toring and governmental keenness on boosting anddeveloping it,” he underlined, attributing the currentstate of harmony to the fact that both powers’ mem-bers were highly cultured and what he described asthe ‘youth spirit’ and real wish to achieve and reform.Nevertheless, Marshad released the government fromblame concerning delays in responding to parliamen-tary inquiries, and rather blamed MPs for the delay,because many of them do not file inquiries with theparliament’s office so that they could get responses tothem, as many of them wish to personally and directlyfile them at relevant ministries. “The government hasno objection to setting a certain mechanism to receiveMPs’ transactions and coordinate with the parliament,”he underlined. — Al-Jarida

Misprint causes delayKUWAIT: A misprint at Kuwait Municipality caused thedelay of connecting power to a secondary school inSalem Al-Mubarak School in Reqqa for seven months.Assistant Undersecretary for Educational Facilities andPlanning Yusra Al-Qahtani said the school is in direneed for holding classes, especially since the file of theschool is complete and it was inspected by the wiringdepartment at the ministry of electricity and water, butwhen it was time to finish the transaction and receivethe meter, it was halted by the department because ofa misprint in the block number in the Municipality’sletter.— Al-Rai

The New Middle East project is a joint Zionist-American idea that started to develop with thebeginning of the third millennium by three basic

advocators. The first is the British-born Jew andAmerican citizen Bernard Lewis, the second is US presi-dent George W Bush (whose administration was domi-nated by Jews and radical rightists) and the third isShimon Peres (the Israeli PM and later president ofIsrael). This triangle is more than enough to realize theimplications and applications of the New Middle Eastthat targets reshaping Arab states’ geopolitical maps andadding Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkey to the new sys-tem in addition to fragmenting major Arab countries likeIraq, Syria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Libya.

Following the rapid, complicated regional changesover the past two decades, one can clearly notice thatthe new ‘Middle East powers’ referred to, namelyAfghanistan and Turkey, staged many dramatic regionalincidents before ‘internal’ conflicts erupted in the coun-tries targeted with division plans - Syria, Iraq, Yemen andLibya. He who wishes to review the proof of this cancheek Bernard Lewis’ books since 2000, where thisJewish thinker described what is going on today in detailand presented his schemes to Bush’s administration forexecution on the ground.

Well, real facts have shown the absolute failure of thisZio-American scheme, though signs and indicators ofbuilding a new Middle East still exists, but unlike whatthe Lewis-Bush-Perez trio looked forward to. The threeseemed so thrilled with the quick military victory the USachieved in Afghanistan and Iraq that they failed to takenotice of the history of nations’ fall and rise. They miscal-culated about the return of the Russian giant, the rise ofChina and the appearance of regional political powerscapable of rubbing American and Israeli noses in dirt!

Bush’s concepts, Lewis’ theories and Israel’s ambitionsseem to be fading away, because on the one hand, allregional power equations were reversed to the benefit ofanti-US alliance led by Russia and China in collaborationwith Iran and its political ‘backyard’ in Syria, Iraq andYemen. On the other hand, president Obama blew allBush’s foreign policy tactics and started using soft diplo-macy, which undermined US’ prestige and this endedunipolarization.

Despite internal devastation and civil wars started byradical religious powers that are accused of being sup-ported by US and Israel and their regional allies, the ‘ArabSpring’ countries are rapidly heading east towardsMoscow as a new international ally. It also seems thatcurrent regimes are heading towards achieving militaryand political victory over IS and its sisters and once this isachieved, the Middle East will have already changed.However, no matter how the new map looks, it is surelynot what the Lewis-Bush-Perez trio had wished for. This iswhy Netanyahu is crying day and night because the‘magic has turned against the magician.’

Students’ public transport KUWAIT: Minister of Education Bader Al-Essa disclosedthat the ministry intends to apply the students’ publictransport system with the beginning of next year, especial-ly for students studying in remote new residential areassuch as the Sabah Al-Ahmad City where many new schoolswould open by the beginning of the next school year. Essaadded that using the buses would be optional and up tostudents’ parents because many of them do not favorsending their kids by school buses. — Al-Anbaa

Beep it! Bans fuel fears of intolerance in India

Page 11

US evacuates as Yemen on brink of civil warPage 8

MONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

TUNIS: Tunisian medics carry the body of a Japanese, killed in an attack on the Museum of Bardo. — AFP

TUNIS: A third attacker in the mas-sacre of tourists in Tunisia’s nationalmuseum is on the run, President BejiCaid Essebsi said yesterday, vowingto track him down. “Definitely therewere three,” Essebsi told France’s iTeletelevision and Europe 1 radio. “Twowere killed, but there is one who isnow on the run,” he said. “In any case,he will not get very far.”

The attack on the Bardo museumin Tunis on Wednesday killed 21 peo-ple, all but one of them foreigntourists, and was claimed by theIslamic State group. It came asTunisia-the birthplace of the ArabSpring that held its first free electionslast year-struggles with rising Islamicextremism. Authorities on Saturdayreleased CCT V footage from theattack showing two black-clad gun-men with automatic weapons walk-ing unimpeded though a large lobby,

with a time stamp showing just afternoon. The grainy black-and-whitefootage then shows the gunmenpassing an unidentified male. Theypoint an automatic weapon at himbriefly before allowing him to flee asthey make their way up a staircase.

After rampaging through themuseum for several hours, the twogunmen were killed in an assault bysecurity forces. Essebsi on Saturdayadmitted that more could have beendone to prevent the attack, whichraised fears for the future of Tunisia’svital tourism industry. “There werefailures” which meant “the police andintelligence were not systematicenough to ensure the safety of themuseum”, Essebsi told weekly ParisMatch weekly in an interview. But hesaid security forces “responded veryeffectively to quickly put an end tothe attack at the Bardo, certainly pre-

venting dozens more deaths if theterrorists had been able to set offtheir suicide belts”.

Calls for action Officials had earlier admitted that

guards supposed to be protectingthe museum and the nearby parlia-ment were having coffee at the timeof the assault. Tunisian authoritieshave arrested more than 10 peoplebelieved to be directly or indirectlyinvolved in the attack, including rela-tives of one of the gunmen.

An arrest warrant was also issuedfor a Tunisian named Maher BenMouldi Kaidi for suspected involve-ment. The dead tourists were fourItalians, three Japanese, three French,two Spaniards, a Colombian, anAustralian-Colombian, a Britishwoman, a Belgian woman, threePoles and a Russian. A Tunisian

policeman was also killed.In its first claim of a major attack in

Tunisia, the Islamic State group said itwas behind the assault and threat-ened more. Authorities said the gun-men had trained in neighbouringLibya, where IS is believed to havecamps. Tunisia has seen an upsurgein Islamist extremism since the 2011revolution that ousted dictator ZineEl Abidine Ben Ali and sparked theArab Spring. The country has takenpride in forming a democratic gov-

ernment and achieving stability sincethe Arab Spring-in marked contrastto nations such as Egypt and Libya.But dozens of police and military per-sonnel have been killed in attacksblamed on Islamist militants. Themuseum attack has left Tunisia reel-ing, with newspapers yesterday call-ing for authorities to do more tocombat extremism.

“What’s essential now is to reallytake action,” French-language dailyLe Quotidien wrote, calling for more

state oversight of mosques, especial-ly those “under the influence ofuncontrollable religious fanatics”.Newspaper Le Temps called for“urgent draconian measures” includ-ing withdrawing Tunisian citizenshipfrom “terrorists who pledge alle-giance to the enemy”. Authorities sayas many as 3,000 Tunisians have goneto Iraq, Syria and Libya to join IS andother jihadist groups, raising fears ofreturning battle-hardened militantsplotting attacks. — AFP

Third Tunisia museum attacker ‘on the run’‘Under the influence of uncontrollable religious fanatics’

TUNIS: An image grab taken from a closed circuit television footage released by the Tunisian interior ministry onits Facebook page reportedly shows the two gunmen (right) who attacked Tunisia’s National Bardo Museum hold-ing their guns in a room as a man (left) runs out of the museum. — AFP

I N T E R N AT I O N A L

MONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

ISTANBUL: A group of British medical stu-dents of Sudanese origin who went miss-ing after travelling to Turkey are feared tohave crossed into Syria to join the IslamicState (IS) group as doctors, reports andsources said yesterday. The families of thestudents have travelled to the Turkey-Syriaborder in a desperate appeal for them toreturn home before it is too late, a Turkishopposition MP said. According to reportsin Britain’s The Guardian newspaper andthe BBC, the nine young British medicalstudents flew to Istanbul from the

Sudanese capital Khartoum on March 12and then overland towards Syria.

They have been joined by two othermedics from the United States andCanada, also of Sudanese origin, the BBCsaid. A Turkish MP from the RepublicanPeople’s Party (CHP) Mehmet Ali Ediboglu,who represents the Hatay region border-ing Syria, wrote on his Facebook page thathe was helping the families in their search.

“Eleven doctors-nine British and twoSudanese-came to Turkey a week ago tojoin ISIS,” he said, using another name for

IS. “The families of the young people havebeen in Turkey to search for them andbring them back,” he added. “Our greatesthope is to save the doctors from ISIS andreunite them with their families.”

Ediboglu said the families had travelledto the city of Gaziantep, which has beenseen as a key gateway for militants travel-ling to Syria. He posted photographs ofthe nine British citizens-five men and fourwomen-some proudly posing in academicdress on graduation day. Ahmed Babikir,students’ dean at Khartoum’s private

University of Medical Sciences said fivestudents university were missing aftertravelling to Turkey.

“They all have British passports and areof Sudanese origin,” he said. “Their familieshave travelled after them to stop themfrom joining IS. We are not able to confirmthey have crossed into Syria”. The BritishForeign Office meanwhile said: “We areproviding consular assistance to their fam-ilies and we have informed the Turkishpolice to try and ascertain their where-abouts.”

Turkey has repeatedly been accusedby its Western partners of not doingenough to halt the flow of extremistsaiming to join IS jihadists, who have cap-tured swathes of Iraq and Syria. It wassharply criticized over the failure to stopthree British teenage girls who crossedthe Turkey-Syria border to join IS inFebruary. However in the last week it hasdeported back to Britain a young Britishwoman and three male British teenagerswho were suspected of trying to travel toSyria. —AFP

British medical students feared to have joined IS

TIKRIT: In this Saturday, March 21, 2015 file photo, a volunteer fighter with aShiite militant group known as ‘Jihad Brigades,’ fires his weapon duringclashes with Islamic State group militants. —AP

ADEN: The United States said ithad evacuated all its staff fromYemen, whose embattled presi-dent has appealed for “urgentintervention” by the UN SecurityCouncil as attacks by Iran-backedrebels bring his country nearer tocivil war. “Due to the deterioratingsecurity situation in Yemen, the USgovernment has temporarily relo-cated its remaining personnel outof Yemen,” State Depar tmentspokesman Jeff Rathke said in astatement.

The evacuation comes afterseveral suicide bombings claimedby the Islamic State group killed142 people in Sanaa on Friday,with the j ihadists seek ing toexploit the chaos gripping the

country. The impoverished nationis torn between a north controlledby Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebelsand a south dominated by allies ofPresident Abedrabbo MansourHadi, who fled house arrest inSanaa to Aden in February.

The UN Security Council is tohold an emergency meeting yes-terday following Hadi’s appeal. Inhis letter to the Council , Hadidenounced “the criminal acts of

the Huthi militias and their allies,”saying they “not only threatenpeace in Yemen but the regionaland international peace and secu-rity.” “I urge for your urgent inter-vention in all available means tostop this aggression that is aimedat undermining the legitimateauthority, the fragmentation ofYemen and its peace and stability,”Hadi wrote.

Yemen has been torn by unrestsince ex-strongman Ali AbdullahSaleh stepped down in early 2012after a year-long popular uprisingagainst him, with powerful armedgroups sidelining the governmentsince. The country is now on thebrink of civil war, with a deepen-ing polit ical impasse and an

increasingly explicit territorialdivision along sectarian lines, withrising violence between the Huthiand Sunni tribes and Al-Qaeda.

‘Two sides of same coin’ Washington late Friday pulled

out troops from the Al-Anad air-base in southern Yemen amidfighting involving Al-Qaeda mili-tants nearby which left at least 29dead. The US would “continue to

actively monitor terrorist threatsemanating from Yemen and havecapabilities postured in the areato address them,” Rathke said.

Yemen has acknowledged thatUS personnel gathering intelli-gence for drone str ikes on Al-Qaeda are deployed at Al-Anad.Hadi pledged Saturday to fightIranian influence in his country,accusing the Huthis of importingTehran’s ideology. The Huthis, whoseized Sanaa in September, vowedto take fur ther “revolutionar ysteps” following Friday’s blasts.

In his f irst televised speechsince he fled to Aden from housearrest in Sanaa, Hadi said hewould ensure that “the Yemenirepublic flag will fly on the Marran

mountain in (the Huthi militia’snor thern stronghold) Saada,instead of the Iranian flag”. “TheIranian Twelver (Shiism) patternthat has been agreed uponbetween the Huthis and thosewho suppor t them wil l not beaccepted by Yemenis, whetherZaidi (Shiites) or Shafite (Sunnis),”he said.

The Huthis belong to the Zaidioffshoot of Shiite Islam. They are

believed to have converted toTwelver Shiism, which is followedby Iran, but insist that Tehran doesnot meddle in Yemeni affairs. In aletter to relatives of the mosquebombings vict ims, Hadi con-demned the attacks as “terrorist,cr iminal and cowardly ”. “Suchheinous attacks could only bedone by the enemies of life,” whowant to drag Yemen into “chaos,violence and internal fighting”, hesaid. “Shiite extremism, represent-ed by the armed Huthi militia, andSunni extremism, represented byAl-Qaeda, are two sides of thesame coin, who do not wish goodand stability for Yemen and itspeople.” Hadi has declared Adenthe country’s temporary capital.Friday ’s bombings came a dayafter clashes in the southern citybetween Hadi loyalists and forcesallied with the Huthis.

‘Tip of the iceberg’ Since taking Sanaa the Huthis

have tightened their grip on gov-ernment institutions, aided by loy-alists of former president Saleh.But in their push to widen theircontrol to the south, they havefaced fierce resistance from Sunnitribes allied with Al-Qaeda.

Al-Qaeda distanced itself fromFriday’s bombings, insisting it doesnot target mosques. In an onlinestatement claiming responsibility,the Sanaa branch of IS said theattacks were “just the tip of the ice-berg”. Iran “strongly condemned” thebombings. MohammedAbdulsalam, spokesman for theHuthis’ Ansarullah party, called theattacks part of a “clear war againstthe Yemeni people and its popularrevolution”-a reference to Sanaa’stakeover.

“It is now imperative that we com-plete the revolutionary steps to pro-tect the people and their revolution,”he said in a statement. The threatcame as reinforcements from theSpecial Forces, accused of links to theHuthis and Saleh, were sent to thecity of Taez, which is just 180 kilome-ters north of Aden and seen as astrategic entry point to Hadi’s refuge.“The bombings in Sanaa will now betaken as an excuse to open newfronts by attacking Taez and Marib (inthe east),” said Yemeni youth activistBassem Al-Hakimi. —AFP

US evacuates as Yemen

on brink of civil warJihadists seeking to exploit the chaos

SANAA: Yemeni students hold posters bearing portraits of victims of several suicide bombingsclaimed by the Islamic State (IS) group. —AFP

CAMP ASHRAF: The head of a powerfulShiite militia yesterday criticized “weak-lings” in the Iraqi army who want US-ledair strikes to support the massive opera-tion to retake Tikrit from jihadists. Theremarks by Hadi Al-Ameri point to a possi-ble divide between the Iraqi army andallied paramilitaries known as “PopularMobilization” units, which are dominatedby Shiite militia forces, over the now-stalled Tikrit drive.

“Some of the weaklings in the army...say we need the Americans, while we saywe do not need the Americans,” Ameritold journalists at Camp Ashraf, north ofBaghdad, when asked about US-led airsupport for Tikrit. Army Staff LieutenantGeneral Abdulwahab Al-Saadi, a top com-mander in Salaheddin province, of whichTikrit is the capital, told AFP that he hadrequested such strikes against the IslamicState jihadist group and that they wereneeded.

But the Pentagon said that the Iraqigovernment has not made any request forair support for the Tikrit operation, whichbegan on March 2. Forces from the army,the police and a number of different mili-tias are taking part in the operation,bringing different tactics, skill levels andwillingness to take casualties to the fight.It is unclear who if anyone has overallcommand of the operation, and disputesbetween the forces involved would ham-per an effort that has already becomebogged down by the huge number ofbombs planted by IS in the city’s streetsand houses. While pro-government forceswere able to take control of towns nearTikrit and then surround it, fighting toclear the city itself proved much more dif-ficult, and the operation has been haltedand the IS fighters besieged.

‘Destabilizing’ efforts Having the leader of Iran’s elite Quds

Force direct Iraqi forces battling theIslamic State group is complicating theUS mission against terrorism and is con-tributing to the destabilization in Iraq,

the director of the Central IntelligenceAgency said Sunday. The comments byJohn Brennan on “Fox News Sunday” areamong the strongest yet voiced byAmerican officials about the involve-ment of shadowy Gen QassemSoleimani in the war against the extrem-ist group.

Brennan described Soleimani asbeing “very aggressive and active” as headvises Shiite militias battling theextremists, mostly recently in the ongo-ing offensive targeting Tikrit, SaddamHussein’s hometown. Nonetheless,Brennan said he “wouldn’t consider Iranan ally right now inside Iraq.” The chair-man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen.Martin Dempsey, testifying at a congres-sional hearing this past week, said thatthe US worries that Shiite militiameneventually might turn against Sunni andKurdish Iraqis, further destabilizing thecountry.

But Brennan said he didn’t believe thepresence of Soleimani and his adviserspointed to Iran having a larger role inIraq and its future. However, he acknowl-edged it ’s not for lack of trying.Baghdad’s Shiite-led government hasforged closer ties with Iran, its one-timeadversary in a bitter 1980s war.

“We’re not letting them play that role.I think they’re working with the Iraqis toplay that role,” the CIA head said. “We’reworking with the Iraqis, as well.” Brennanpointed to the Iraqis themselves for thecountry’s instability, rather than the pull-out of US troops. Iraqi security forcescrumbled in the wake of the Islamic Stategroup’s lightning offensive last summer.The militants now holds a third of Iraqand neighboring Syria in its self-declaredcaliphate. “I think the fault really lies witha number of the Iraqis who wasted andsquandered the opportunity they hadafter the government was reconstitutednot to put at rest some of these sectariantensions and not to be more inclusive asfar as bringing the Sunni community in,”Brennan said. —Agencies

Iraq militia chief slams army

‘weaklings’ over Tikrit strikes

RIYADH: The US Embassy in Riyadhand two other diplomatic missions inSaudi Arabia resumed consular serv-ices yesterday after closing all of lastweek due to secur i t y concerns.However, the embassy sa id in astatement that US citizens should“continue to be aware of their sur-roundings and take extra precau-tions when travelling throughout thecountry.” The US Embassy did notimmediately respond to anAssociated Press request for details.

The diplomatic facilities in Riyadh,Jiddah and Dhahran closed last weekafter the embassy warned citizensthat individuals associated with aterrorist organization could be tar-geting Westerners, including US citi-zens, working for oil companies inthe Eastern Province. The warningsaid officials received information

about a threat to kidnap and attackworkers.

Also yesterday, the state-linkedSaudi Okaz newspaper’s website wastemporari ly hacked, al legedly byIslamic State group supporters. Amessage appeared on the paper ’swebsite encouraging Saudi citizens torevolt against their government andjoin the group. It also said the groupwas expanding. Saudi Arabia is partof the US-led coalition bombing theextremist group in Iraq and Syria. TheIS group has called on its supportersto launch attacks inside Saudi Arabia.Last year, a Saudi man stabbed aCanadian citizen while he shopped ina mall with his family in the EasternProvince. Also last year, IS group sup-porters shot a Danish citizen in his carin Riyadh as he left work. Both mensurvived the attacks. —AP

US Embassy opens in

Saudi after concerns

AL-BAIDA: The battle for Libya’s oil wealth has taken onnew dimensions as rival governments lay claim to theNational Oil Company, further deepening divisions in thevolatile North African nation. The latest row erupted thisweek as UN envoy Bernardino Leon, who is mediatingbetween Libya’s warring factions, warned the country washeading towards destruction unless a political deal isfound. It also comes as the jihadist Islamic State group,which has made huge profits from illegal oil sales in Syriaand Iraq where it has seized chunks of territory, has gaineda foothold in Libya. The once lucrative oil industry has fall-en victim to the unrest that has gripped the country sinceDictator Moamer Kadhafi was toppled and killed in the2011 NATO-backed uprising.

Militants have stepped up attacks on the industrywhich had a pre-revolution output of about 1.6 millionbarrels per day (bpd), accounting for more than 95 per-cent of exports and 75 percent of revenues. The economyhas been reeling since December, when production fell toaround 350,000 bpd as the Fajr Libya militia alliance,which includes Islamists, attacked oil terminals in the east.

Fajr Libya seized Tripoli in the summer and installed agovernment and parliament opposed to the internation-ally recognized government and legislature elected inJune. On Monday, the recognised government, whichsits in the remote east between the cities of Tobruk andBaida, severed ties the Tripoli-based National OilCorporation. “The legitimate Libyan government... is the

only legitimate channel that has the right to deal and tocontract companies to authorize gas and oil sales,” it saidin a statement.

‘A messy situation’ To be valid, such sales must be made via the new NOC

headquarters in the eastern city of Benghazi andapproved by company chairman Al-Mabrook Abu Seif, itsaid. The statement, published on its Facebook page, didnot elaborate on how new contract payments should bemade, but anyone who violates its decisions will be prose-cuted.

On Thursday, the NOC board in Tripoli hit back. “TheNOC’s position is neutral and receives no directives fromeither the Tripoli- or Baida-based governments and oper-ates in complete independence from both sets of authori-ties,” it said in a statement in English. The NOC said itwould continue to operate from Tripoli, where it wasfounded in November 1970, and would “remain an inde-pendent institution that operates outside political dis-putes”.

Libya slid into chaos after the 2011 revolt, with formerrebels and powerful tribes vying for power in a statewhose oil reserves are estimated by OPEC at around 48billion barrels. “It really is a messy situation, with two gov-ernments, two parliaments, two heads of the same centralbank, and now two NOCs!” said Valerie Marcel, an associ-ate fellow at London’s Chatham House. The expert on oiland energy issues noted that “the two governments andtheir militias were already battling it out for control overoil production and export infrastructure”.

‘New level of complexity’ “Creating a rival NOC in Benghazi creates a whole new

level of complexity and uncertainty for oil buyers,” shesaid. But Abu Seif, chairman of the Benghazi-based NOC,disagreed. “We sought to run the NOC in a neutral fashionbut we have failed since Fajr Libya seized Tripoli and putthe headquarters under its control,” he said.

Abu Seif said he would respect the terms of contractswhich have already been struck with the Tripoli headquar-ters-but stressed that new ones must get his approval.Marcel said the internationally recognized governmenthas a clear advantage over its Tripoli rival because it con-trols export terminals. —AFP

Libya rivals fight for control of oil wealth

BIR AL-GHANAM: Fighters from the Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn), an alliance of Islamist-backed militias, take position during clashes with an opposing militia. —AFP

I N T E R N AT ION A LMONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

KABUL: A US solider stands guard at the site of a suicide attack near a US militarycamp. —AP

WASHINGTON: The pace of US troop withdrawals fromAfghanistan will headline Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’svisit to Washington, yet America’s exit from the warremains tightly hinged to the abilities of the Afghan forcesthat face a tough fight against insurgents this spring.

President Barack Obama has promised to end thelongest US war - it began in the aftermath of the Sept 11,2001, terror attacks - and get the remaining troops out ofAfghanistan by the end of his presidency. Deficiencies inthe Afghan security forces, heavy casualties in the ranks ofthe army and police, a fragile new government and fearsthat Islamic State fighters could gain a foothold inAfghanistan have combined to persuade Obama to slowthe withdrawal.

Instead of trimming the current US force of 9,800 to5,500 by the end of the year, US military officials say theadministration now might keep many of them there wellinto 2016. Obama had said that after that, the US wouldonly maintain an embassy-based security force in Kabul ofperhaps 1,000 troops. But on Friday, Jeff Eggers of theWhite House’s National Security Council said that too couldbe changed. He said the post-2016 plan will be consideredon an on-going basis.

60$bn investment At stake is the US taxpayers’ more than $60 billion

investment - so far - in the Afghan forces. The 327,000-member force performs much better than before, but stillneeds work. While praising their ability to operate mostlyindependently and securing the nation during a protractedelection, US military officials say the Afghan forces still suf-fer from a host of problems: attrition, drug abuse, deser-tions, illiteracy, poor record-keeping, a lack of managementand logistical skills, intelligence, a shortage of top-notchleaders and less-than-optimal cooperation betweenpolicemen and soldiers.

They also are suffering massive casualties as they rampup operations. More than 1,300 members of the Afghanarmy were killed in action and another 6,200 were wound-ed in action between October 2013 and September 2014,according to a report this month from the special inspectorgeneral for Afghan reconstruction. Casualties in the ranksof policemen are even higher. In nearly 14 years of fighting,at least 2,200 US military service men and women havebeen killed.

“They are now leading the fight, but they still need oursupport, and that support is critical to enabling them tohold the key cities ... and to hold off a still bubbling insur-gency, particularly in the rural areas,” Michele Flournoy, for-mer undersecretary of defense for policy, said last week atan event organized by the Alliance in Support of theAfghan People.

Afghan leaders also worry that Islamic State militantscould push into the region and bring guns and money thatwould spark competition among insurgents disenchantedwith the Taliban leadership and eager to prove theirprowess with heinous acts of violence. Afghan and US offi-cials say some Afghan militants have rebranded them-selves with IS, raising its black flag and even clashing withTaliban fighters.

Army Gen John Campbell, the top US commander inAfghanistan, told a congressional panel recently that theAfghans repeatedly ask the US for close air support, whichhas been critical in their ability to fend off Taliban fightersbattling to capture territory. “What I tell the Afghans is,‘Don’t plan your operation wholly dependent upon closeair support. The Taliban doesn’t have close air support. TheTaliban doesn’t have up-armored Humvees. The Talibandoesn’t have D-30 Howitzers. The Taliban doesn’t have, youknow, the weapons that you have,’” Campbell said.

‘Rat-hole’ The Afghan Air Force, which currently has about 100 air-

craft, is slated to receive 20 light-attack aircraft used forcounterinsurgency, close air support and aerial reconnais-sance, but more than half aren’t slated to arrive until 2017and 2018. “That’s another reason we need to continue tohave this train, advise and assist (mission) for the next sev-eral years,” Campbell said. Nearly 14 years after the USinvaded after 9/11 to root out al-Qaida and oust its host,the Taliban, Afghanistan remains a dangerous country.

The United Nations reports that 3,700 Afghan civilianswere killed and another 6,850 were injured in the conflictlast year, more than any year since it started documentingcivilian casualties. Going forward, lawmakers must weighthe risks that come with cutting the purse strings amidreports of wasteful spending, fraud and corruption. Rep.Walter Jones, R-NC, suggested at a House committee hear-ing that the US might want to “stop pounding moneydown the rat hole.” — AP

US exit from Afghan tied to helping army forces

A tough fight against insurgents

NEW YORK: The tightknit Orthodox Jewish communityin New York City where seven siblings died in a housefire during the Sabbath was reeling yesterday as funeralservices for the children were being prepared. “I call thisnot a tragedy but an absolute disaster,” said stateAssemblyman Dov Hikind, who represents the Brooklynneighborhood of Midwood where the fire broke out ear-ly Saturday. The blaze killed three girls and four boysages 5 to 16, leaving their mother and another child criti-cally injured.

“Everyone’s in utter shock,” Hikind said. Funeral planswere tentatively set for late yesterday afternoon.Investigators believe a hot plate left on a kitchen count-er set off the blaze that sent flames up the stairs, trap-ping the children in their second-floor bedrooms as theyslept. Many religious Jews who observe the Sabbathrefrain from working, in all forms, from sundown Fridayto sundown Saturday - including using electricity.

Authorities identified the Sasoon family victims asgirls Eliane, 16; Rivkah, 11; and Sara, 6; and boys David,12; Yeshua, 10; Moshe, 8; and Yaakob, 5. Authorities saytheir father was at a nearby conference at the time of thefire. Neither his name nor those of the survivors werereleased. “They were beautiful little children,” said a tear-ful neighbor Rose Insel, remembering how she rewardedthe kids with lollipops after voluntarily shoveling herwalk. “It’s unbelievable. It doesn’t seem possible.”

Another neighbor, Agit Abeckaser, called them an“amazing family.” “It’s very hard,” she said as her husbandprayed for the Sasoons at a nearby synagogue Saturdaynight. Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro called it the city’sworst fatal fire in recent memory and Mayor Bill de Blasio,after touring the charred home, called the blaze atragedy for the family, the community and the city. — AP

QUITO: Ecuador’s leftist President RafaelCorrea on Saturday accused the UnitedStates of trying to destabilize his govern-ment, by infiltrating it with spies. The 51-year-old economist trained in the US hasfaced opposition protests as he seeksconstitutional changes that would allowhim to seek re-election next year toanother four-year term.

“There has been infiltration here, bythe CIA (US Central Intelligence Agency)to wear down the government,” Correa, aclose ally of Venezuelan President NicolasMaduro, said in his weekly address.Maduro has repeatedly claimed that theUnited States is trying to topple his gov-ernment. Analysts say Maduro makes thecharge, denied by Washington, to deflectattention from economic crisis there.While Ecuador’s growth has slowed, it isnot in crisis like Venezuela. Maduro hasmoved toward a centrally planned sys-tem increasingly similar to that of its topregional ally, communist Cuba.Opposition forces took to Ecuador’sstreets starting Thursday over Correa’s

policies and his bid for another term,which would have to be approved by thelegislature controlled by his supporters.

Correa has been president since 2007.His constitutional reforms would allowunlimited re-election, setting him up torun again next year. Irate union support-ers say his plans would not respect work-ers’ right to unionize, and indigenouspeople say his land legislation woulderode their rights over traditional landuse.

The demonstrations are “a strategy towear us down,” the president said Friday.“If they can destabilize us, they will. If theycan’t, they know how much popular sup-port we have. So all they can do is try tokeep wearing us down ahead of theupcoming elections.” On Saturday, Correasaid he was victim of an “ambush” by a“mob” of demonstrators at an event inRiobamba. In February, Correa had a 55percent approval rating, and 81 percentsaid unlimited re-election should be vot-ed on in a referendum, not by the legisla-ture, pollsters Cedatos found. — AFP

Ecuador’s Correa accuses US of destabilizing government

Community reelsafter 7 siblings

perish in fire

I N T E R N AT ION A LMONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

DAKAR: Karim Wade, the son of a formerSenegalese president and currently ontrial for corruption, was chosen Saturdayto be the former ruling party’s candidatein the next presidential election. “KarimWade was chosen by 257 of the 268 dele-gates” to be the Democratic Party ofSenegal’s presidential candidate, leadingparty member Tafsir Thioye told AFP.

No date has yet been set for theupcoming election. The announcementcomes as Senegal’s anti-corruption courtis expected to deliver its verdict in thecase against Wade-son of the country’slongtime leader Abdoulaye Wad. He isaccused of corruption and illegallyamassing a multi-million dollar fortunewhile a minister. Saturday’s decision wasmade at a party congress that wasattended by 88-year-old AbdoulayeWade, who is the secretary general of the

opposition Democratic Party of Senegal(PDS). He later praised the transparencyof the vote saying it had been “conduct-ed publicly in front of party activists andeven the press”. The younger Wade, whohas been in custody since April 2013 andon trial since July last year, beat at leastseven other candidates to become thePDS’s presidential hopeful. He is allegedto have illegally acquired companies andreal estate worth almost $240 millionduring his time as a minister and anadviser to his father, who was presidentof Senegal from 2000 to 2012.Prosecutors have called for a seven-yearprison sentence. Wade himself denies thecharges and his supporters claim thecase against him is politically motivated.

Wade junior was an extremely divisivefigure in Senegalese politics in the run-up to the last presidential election in

2012, with many believing his father wastrying to line him up as his successor. Hewas often criticized for alleged misman-agement of public finances and was nick-named “super minister”, and “the ministerof the Earth and the sky”, after his fatherplaced him in charge of the internationalcooperation, air transport, infrastructureand energy portfolios. The 2012 pollswere won by Macky Sall, who is expectedto seek re-election.

Tension as verdict looms Sall on Saturday insisted he had noth-

ing to fear from a potential face-offagainst another member of the Wadefamily. “If a candidate stronger thanmyself is appointed by the Senegalese,we will take note,” he told reporters.Tension has been mounting ahead ofMonday’s trial verdict, with local media

reporting a heightened security pres-ence in the capital Dakar.

The country’s main opposition coali-tion, which includes the PDS, on Fridayurged sympathisers to rally at the courton Monday in a show of support forKarim Wade. The PDS has said thatAbdoulaye Wade is expected to make astatement after the ruling is handeddown. The former leader said last monththat he was prepared to “give his life” toprevent his son being convicted.

Adding fuel to the fire, oppositionlawmaker Mamadou Diop Decroix onSaturday told reporters that “if the coun-try swings towards violence, it won’t bethe fault of the opposition but of thosewho put people in prison.” JusticeMinister Sidiki Kaba sought to calm tem-pers, saying the state would maintainpublic order. “Freedom of expression will

be respected but within the context ofthe law. The decision that will be handeddown by the court will be an independ-ent one,” he told the pro-governmentdaily Le Soleil. — AFP

Graft-accused son of Senegal ex-leader runs for president

Karim Wade

LUGANSK: Members of the Donbass Night Wolves motorbike club, including local president Vitali “Prokuror” (“Prosecutor”) (center), pose infront of the gate of the club’s base. — AFP

ODESSA: When Andrei Krasilnikov hugged hiswife good-bye last week and climbed onto a busto take him back to the frontline in easternUkraine, his motive was typical of those fightingfor Kiev — to defend his family and future fromwhat he perceives as Russian aggression.

What sets him apart from his brothers-in-arms is his Russian citizenship. Krasilnikov, 48, isone of several Russians fighting as a volunteeragainst the pro-Moscow insurgency in theDonetsk and Lugansk regions. Like manyUkrainians he views the conflict as “a war byRussia against Ukraine” rather than a home-grown uprising. “The thing is, we are not fightingagainst Russians but against (President Vladimir)Putin’s army,” he said. “Not everyone in Russiasupports Putin and his regime... a regime that ismilitarized, a police regime that can do whateverit wants with its own people.” Though he haslived in Ukraine’s southern Russian-speaking cityof Odessa for a decade and has a Ukrainian wifeand son, the Moscow-born Krasilnikov still holdsa Russian passport.

His friends in the pro-Kiev Aydar battalionview that “completely normally,” he said,recounting taking heavy artillery fire with themin the Lugansk region in February, shortly beforethe latest ceasefire came into effect. “Theyshook my hand and said that I was a true Russianwho understands everything.”

Back in the land of his birth, however, he hadto break off ties with friends who started callinghim a “fascist” after he took part in protests lastyear that ousted the Kremlin-backed leaderViktor Yanukovych. “They got it in their headsthat Ukraine has a fascist regime and a junta,”Krasilnikov said, using the terms employed by

Russian state media to describe the country’snew pro-Western government.

Fear of deportation Despite risking his life for Ukraine, the irony

for Krasilnikov and other Russians opposingPutin here is that they still face suspicion fromKiev even though going back home may meantime in a Russian jail. Krasilnikov has had anapplication to renew his residency permit reject-ed by suspicious authorities and he says one rea-son for staying at the frontline is that immigra-tion officials won’t go looking for him there.

“I cannot go outside Ukraine to Russiabecause I am more than sure that I will getarrested there,” he said in an interview in Odessaa few hours before heading to the front. Thesense of limbo was echoed by other Russiansinterviewed by AFP.

Despite opposing Putin, they said that theyare often likely to be stonewalled by authoritiesin Ukraine, especially low-level officials who areoften pro-Moscow. Pyotr Lyubchenkov, an oppo-sition activist from Russia’s Krasnodar, had hisrequest for political asylum last year denied inOdessa. The file that the immigration serviceshad on him “even used descriptions from pro-Kremlin websites,” he said.

Lyubchenkov, a 40-year-old psychologist,opposed the annexation of Crimea last year andis wanted in Russia after trying to organise anopposition rally. He is the subject of a probethat has already seen two people arrested. “Ihope I don’t get deported,” he said. “It was a sim-ple idea, coming here,” Lyubchenkov said,describing how he had expected his support forKiev’s pro-Western ideas would meet a sympa-

thetic ear.He joined up with pro-Western protestors in

Odessa and helps the local group opposing sep-aratist activity in the Russian-speaking city.These days he is even putting together freeUkrainian language lessons in a local library. Butdespite his expectations, “the reality turned outvery different,” he lamented: even Russians whosupport Ukraine’s cause-in battle or not-are side-lined by its rank and file bureaucracy.

‘I fight for my land’ One of the few exceptions is Ilya Bogdanov, a

far-right Russian nationalist who has been fight-ing in pro-Kiev battalions since last summer. “Iam fighting against Putin’s regime, for a free,white Ukraine that is pro-European,” he said byphone from the village of Pisky near the Donetskairport-one area which continues to take firedespite the month-old truce.

The fighter in the extreme Ukrainian national-ist Right Sector group chronicles the conflict onhis Facebook page and regularly gets into argu-ments with Russians fighting on the oppositeside on social media. “It’s a lot of Russians, prac-tically only Russians” fighting on the separatistside, he said, having made a complete breakfrom his past in Russia’s far-eastern city ofVladivostok, including his pro-Putin mother. Amonth ago, he received Ukrainian citizenship-after a lengthy process that was resolved onlythrough the personal intervention of Ukraine’stop leadership. “It was extremely difficult, atevery level they tried to block it,” he said. “I amcitizen of Ukraine now, I fight for my land,” hesays with a laugh. “Everything I have is righthere.” — AFP

In Ukraine, Russians take up arms against the insurgency

Defending their land, family and future

LONDON: Dug out of a municipal car parkfive centuries after his mutilated body wasunceremoniously interred, England’sRichard III will finally be given a burial fit fora king this week. Some 530 years on fromhis violent death in 1485, the last Englishmonarch killed in battle will be laid to reston Thursday in Leicester Cathedral, acrossthe street from where his remains werelocated in 2012. Their discovery was con-firmed by a DNA match with Richard’s clos-est living relative-Canadian carpenterMichael Ibsen, who fittingly has now madethe monarch’s oak coffin.

In an unprecedented event, themedieval king will be reinterred in the pres-ence of royalty and England’s highest cleric,in a solemn service broadcast live onnational television. “The story of the king ina car park (is) now so familiar around theworld to many who had heard little ofRichard III,” said Tim Stevens, the bishop ofLeicester in central England.

“Now we look forward to welcomingpeople from around the world to becomepart of... our task of laying the king to restwith dignity and honor.” Richard, the last ofthe Plantagenet dynasty, ruled Englandfrom 1483 until his death at the Battle ofBosworth near Leicester in 1485. It was thelast major conflict in the Wars of the Rosesand Richard’s defeat saw the crown passfrom the Plantagenets to the opposingTudors. “We’re looking forward to theopportunity to remind people of theextraordinary moment in English historythe death of Richard III marks,” said Stevens.The slain 32-year-old was swiftly buriedwithout fanfare at Greyfriars monastery inLeicester. Greyfriars was demolished in the1530s during Tudor king Henry VIII’s disso-lution of the monasteries and Richard’sremains were thought lost.

Mind blowing coincidence But members of the Richard III Society of

enthusiasts teamed up with LeicesterUniversity archaeologists to excavate thesite, rightly predicting whereabouts in the

old church he would have been buried.They found a skeleton consistent with con-temporary descriptions of the king, notablyhis curved spine, and battle injuries.Radiocarbon dating showed the man diedbetween 1455 and 1540. “It is incrediblylucky anything survived at all,” saidGreyfriars Project site director MathewMorris, explaining that Victorian buildingwork had come within a centimeter ofRichard’s skull.

By coincidence, the remains werebeneath a letter R indicating a reservedspace in the car park. “Skeleton 1” had eighthead wounds, including a brutal slash tothe base of skull which cleaved away bone.Another blow had pierced his skull. DNAtesting on Ibsen and Wendy Duldig, bothdescendants of Richard’s eldest sister Anneof York, confirmed they were both relatedto “Skeleton 1”. The tests also threw up amystery with a “false paternity” finding thatthere was no match through the male lineof the family, indicating an illegitimatechild in the royal line.

With no precedent to consult, findingRichard’s remains triggered impassionedwrangling over what to do next. Followinga judicial review, his bones are being rein-terred in Leicester rather than York, hisnorthern stronghold. Cynics said the rivalcities had one eye on creating a visitorattraction. London’s Westminster Abbeywas also sidelined. A week of events lead-ing up to the reburial begins Sunday whenthe coffin will be taken outside Leicester toFenn Lane Farm, the closest place to thesite of his death.

Villainous image The cortege returns to Leicester for a

horse-drawn procession through the city tothe cathedral, where Cardinal VincentNichols, the leader of England’s Catholics,will preach a sermon. Richard was aCatholic but will be reburied in the tradi-tions of the Church of England, althoughthere will be Catholic elements in servicesthroughout the week.— AFP

Last English king Richard III found in municipal car park

LEICESTERSHIRE: The oak coffin with the remains of King Richard III, the last of thePlantagenet dynasty, is placed for a service outside the University of Leicester.—AFP

French far right looks for gains in regional polls PARIS: France’s National Front, one of the mostpowerful populist far right parties in Europe, eyedsignificant gains against President FrancoisHollande’s ruling socialists in regional elections yes-terday. The party appeared set to capitalise on ahigh abstention rate, as well as on a search by somevoters for radical solutions to France’s economicwoes.

“I feel confident,” Marine Le Pen, the controver-sial National Front leader said as she cast her vote ata school in northern France. With turnout at justover 18 percent by midday, Hollande called on theFrench to vote as he cast his own ballot in centralFrance. “Today, the (key) issue is abstention,” he said.The elections are being held across 101 “depart-ments”, which control issues such as school andwelfare budgets. Some 43 million people are eligi-ble to vote.

For the National Front, or FN as it is known inFrench, it was a chance to punish the Socialists andbuild up a head of steam for presidential elections in2017 that some analysts believe could see Le Penoust the unpopular Hollande. Earlier this week, LePen declared her party would “invade the Elysee(presidential palace)”. Yesterday, she told reporters:“The goal is to show the FN is a great local force, notjust one that is able to bring together millions ofFrench in a national election.” The FN has capitalisedon anger over France’s lackluster economy, as wellas the politically explosive issues of immigrationand the integration of Islam into French society.

Opinion polls showed the far right with about30 percent of the overall vote, close to levels for the

conservative UMP led by former president NicolasSarkozy. Ultimately, the UMP was expected tomake the biggest gains, benefiting from the likeli-hood that Socialist voters would make a strategicswitch in second-round run-offs on March 29 justto keep the far right out of power. Sarkozy predict-ed a “wave” of departments falling to his UMP,while the FN was forecast to gain no more thanfour departments. That same tactic could berepeated on a bigger scale in the presidential poll,

with the traditional left and right in a marriage ofconvenience in a second round to block Le Pen’scandidacy.

‘A radical solution’ Yesterday’s vote seemed sure to underline

Hollande’s bleak fortunes. His Socialists and otherparties in the French left were expected to loseabout half of the 61 departments they currentlycontrol. — AFP

TULLINS: Election poster of Secretary of State AndrÈ Vallini (left) is seen during the first roundof the French departementales elections yesterday. —AFP

Polls open in Spain’s most unpredictable elections

SEVILLE: Polls opened yesterday inAndalusia, one of the poorest parts ofSpain, in a regional vote that will be a keytest of anti-austerity party Podemos aheadof the country’s most unpredictable gener-al election in decades. “Everything is readyto fill the ballot boxes with mauve!” the left-wing Podemos, said on its Twitter account,referring to the party color, as voting gotunderway.

The election is an important warm-upfor contender Podemos-which is looking tomatch the feat of its ally Syriza in Greece-and also another upstart contender, thecentre-right Ciudadanos. “Everyone is wait-ing to see if the emerging forces are goingto get a very good result. This will be thetest,” a well-placed member of the conser-vative Popular Party, which currently gov-erns Spain, said.

Recent years of recession and corrup-tion scandals make the southern region offarms and tourist beaches a prime testingground for Spain’s new political dynamic,transformed by the economic crisis andensuing budget austerity measures. Nowthe two parties that have taken turns togovern Spain since the 1980s face the rivalpair of surging protest movements in adress rehearsal for the national polls duearound November.

Greece’s Syriza won elections in Januaryon a wave of discontent about economiccuts imposed during an economic crisis-thesame trend that has pushed Podemos to

the top of the polls in Spain. Podemos wasbuoyed by Syriza’s victory, but was givenpause for thought by the tense ongoingsquabbles between Syriza and Europeanpowers over Greece’s debt.

Upstart contenders In Andalusia, “everyone will interpret the

results as if it were a first round in the gen-eral elections,” said Anton Losada, a politi-cal scientist at Santiago De CompostelaUniversity. “That is going to happen withthe Andalusian election and will happenagain with the other local and regionalelections in May.”

The main opposition Socialist Party, inpower in Andalusia since 1982, is seekingre-election against the Popular Party. Pollsindicate neither of the giants will win anabsolute majority in the regional parlia-ment from Andalusia’s 6.5 million voters.The winner may have to strike an alliancewith Podemos or Ciudadanos. That couldforeshadow what coalitions may later beforged to govern Spain, since polls indicatethe national election may also fail to handone party an absolute majority.

Andalusia was among the regions hard-est hit by the collapse of Spain’s housingmarket in 2008. Its regional unemploymentrate is the highest in the country at 34.2percent. Socialist leaders there, along withcertain labor union representatives, havebeen hit by a series of corruption scan-dals.— AFP

I N T E R N AT I O N A LMONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

ISLAMABAD: On any given day in thePakistani capital, a group of young peo-ple can be seen gathered outdoors in anopen field, books open and looking atmakeshift blackboards attached to metalpipes in an open-air school. The school isthe product of years of effort byMohammed Ayub, a Pakistani man ofhumble origins who turned a promise tohis dying father to make sure his siblingsgot an education into a life dedicated toteaching the less fortunate of this city.For three decades, children who mightotherwise have gotten no education satthrough his classes.

“I really don’t remember how manyhave passed through (the school). Theymust be in thousands,” Ayub, who is tobe honored Monday at a ceremony inthe eastern city of Lahore, told TheAssociated Press at the field where class-es are held. “What I know is that I willcontinue this mission until my lastbreath.”

Promise to his father Ayub, a 57-year-old government

worker, came to Islamabad in 1976 fromhis hometown of Mandi Bahauddin,about 170 kilometers from the capital tofind a job so he could take care of hisseven siblings after his father died. Backhome, he had struggled through a num-ber of menial jobs. In Islamabad, he

eventually found a low-level position inthe city’s emergency services. He workedhard to learn new skills such as first aidand firefighting - he even studied how todefuse bombs - and was eventually pro-moted to a full-fledged firefighter. Neverforgetting his promise to his father, healways sent money home to his siblings.One day in 1985, he saw a boy about 12years old busing tables at a restaurant,and that sparked an idea that eventuallychanged his life, Ayub said.

“I thought, ‘He is no different than myyounger brother.’ At that moment Idecided to teach him, and that was thestart of my open school mission,” he said.Ayub convinced other boys working inshops and food outlets in the neighbor-hood to study with him in the middle ofthe market for an hour or two. But theshopkeepers - upset that he was takingup too much space - pushed him out.After moving multiple times, he eventu-ally settled in an open field near thecity’s Kohsar market. City officials haveagreed not to bother him as long as hedoesn’t try to set up a permanent struc-ture.

He taught students math, Urdu andsome basic English - though he had notraining in teaching. He was always goodat math, he says. When he started, mostof the students were children who livedin the streets or worked during the day

instead of going to school. Now aboutthree-quarters of his roughly 170 stu-dents go to government-run schools butsome to his classes afterward for extratutoring. The rest aren’t in school at all.

That so many students would sit out-side, sometimes until late in the evening,speaks to the abysmal shape ofPakistan’s education sector. Large num-bers of students are out of school. Manyschools don’t have running water, elec-tricity or functioning bathrooms.Analysts have also say schools often relyon rote learning that does little to pre-pare students.

A legend among his students Over the years, Ayub has been joined

by a small army of volunteers, includinga retired school principal, a doctor, a fire-man and several older students whoteach the younger ones. “I used to walkthrough here and noticed this activity,”said Faiqa Haroon, a doctor, who volun-teers for the school. “You can’t imaginethe satisfaction I get by teaching theseunderprivileged kids.”

Ayub is gradually becoming a legendamong his students, part of the dedica-tion that led Irfan Siddiqi, a senior advis-er to the prime minister, to nominatehim for the ‘Pride of Performance’ award,which is given to Pakistanis for contribu-tions in various fields. Siddiqi, who is

chairman of the awards committee, saidhe had read stories about Ayub andwent unannounced to see the schoolhimself.

“He is rendering a great service tothis society,” Siddiqi said. Students lovehim so much that they have markedout a corner of the land where theyplan to bury him when he dies so theywill continue to feel his influence even

after he is gone. Farhat Abbas, a formerstudent who has come back to tutorothers, stil l remembers when Ayubfound him cutting down wood in aneighborhood forest to make moneyfor his family and persuaded him tocome and study. “I want to become ateacher l ike him and do the same,”Abbas said. “Had I not met him, I wouldhave remained illiterate.” — AP

Pakistani teaches impoverished kids in outdoor school

ISLAMABAD: Mohammed Ayub, a 57-year-old government worker, sits amongstudents from poor families at a makeshift school set up in a park. — AP

A screenshot from the viral spoof song ‘Beep It. Ban It.’ by Enna Da Rascalas.

NEW DELHI: “Don’t eat it, read it, see it, feel it,”sings the Michael Jackson impersonator as sheraps her way through a list of pleasures bannedby India’s conservative government before cho-rusing: “Just beep it!” As the world’s largestdemocracy, India has long been proud of its tradi-tion of artistic, cultural and religious freedoms.But a series of bans, ranging from eating beef towatching the “Fifty Shades of Grey” movie, hassparked accusations of a growing climate of intol-erance under Hindu nationalist Prime MinisterNarendra Modi.

Critics say the bans show how “thin-skinned”their politicians have become in the Internet agewhere attempts to put a lid on offending materialare likely to backfire. The spoof of Jackson’s classic“Beat It”, which was made by the Indian comedytrio Enna Da Rascalas, has gone viral since beinguploaded on YouTube last week, reflecting thebacklash against blacklists.

Announcing a ban earlier this month on aBritish-made documentary about an infamous2012 gang-rape in Delhi, Home Minister RajnathSingh said the comments by one of the rapistscould fuel public anger. Days later, a government-appointed board of censors blocked the releaseof the erotic movie “Fifty Shades of Grey” in cine-mas, despite being shown a toned-down version.And a comedy “roast” show that featured severalBollywood stars has fallen foul of the authoritiesafter being uploaded on the Internet and is nowat the centre of an obscenity investigation oversome of its sexually explicit jokes. “For this gov-ernment, it seems a ban becomes the quickestway to eliminate a problem,” Shiv Visvanathan, asociologist based in Haryana state, told AFP.

“Bans do not tolerate disorder but without

debate and disorder, you can’t have a free democ-racy. It is just making life complex.” Historianspoint out that the centre-left Congress partywhich has ruled India for most of the post-inde-pendence period has its own track record of bans,particularly during the 1975-77 “Emergency”under Indira Gandhi. British author SalmanRushdie’s 1988 book “The Satanic Verses” was forexample banned here for allegedly insultingIslam. But the last two decades has seen a generalrelaxation on the part of the watchdogs with TVchannels able to air shows like “Sex and the City”that would have once been considered too racy.Even the Rushdie novel “Midnight’s Children”-which is scathing about the Emergency-wasreleased in Indian cinemas in 2013, albeit withoutthe nudity.

‘Climate of intolerance’ Shashi Tharoor, a best-selling author who is

also a Congress lawmaker, says the cultural cli-mate has definitely changed since Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party came to power lastMay. “Our mounting concern is that there is a cli-mate of intolerance that has unfortunately beengiven free rein,” Tharoor said.

“Positions which had always struck the Indianmainstream as being fringe positions have sud-denly become acceptable to the powers thatlead.” The former diplomat made his name with“The Great Indian Novel”, a satire that came out in1989 and is based on the epic Sanskrit poemMahabharata. Were it to be published today,Tharoor suspects it would be banned.

Acclaimed Tamil-language author PerumalMurugan quit writing altogether in January fol-lowing protests by Hindu and caste groups who

felt insulted by one of his books. Pressure fromHindu activist groups was also instrumental in thepassing of a ban on beef earlier this month in thewestern state of Maharashtra, which encompass-es the largest city Mumbai. Cows are sacred toHindus. The move has been interpreted in somecorners as another sign of growing intolerance ina country that is overwhelmingly Hindu but alsohas sizeable Muslim, Christian and Buddhistminorities. But Pavan Verma, who has writtenextensively about cultural and religious history inIndia, said a certain amount of censorship wasunderstandable in order to avoid causing offencein such a diverse country.

Co-existence “India is a country of wide social discrepan-

cies... that try to coexist with each other and it’snot an easy job to keep everyone happy all thetime,” Verma, a former head of the Indian Councilfor Cultural Relations, told AFP. There was wide-spread condemnation in India of January’s mur-derous attack on the satirical magazine CharlieHebdo in Paris which had printed cartoons of theProphet Mohammed.

But when the editor of a Mumbai-based Urdumagazine reprinted one of the cartoons as a ges-ture of solidarity, she was arrested under lawsagainst insulting religion. Tanmay Bhat, one of theAIB comedy team at the centre of the obscenityrow, said the wave of bans made little logicalsense but did reflect a general intolerance. “We(Indians) tend to have... an ostrich kind of mentali-ty,” he said at a New Delhi event last week. “Wewant to put our heads into the ground and belike, ‘if I don’t like something then it’s got to goaway’.” —AFP

Beep it! Bans fuel fears of intolerance in India

‘Ban becomes a way to eliminate problems’

KABUL: An Afghan woman who was beat-en to death by a mob was buried in Kabulyesterday, her coffin carried aloft bywomen’s rights activists. Hundreds of peo-ple gathered in northern Kabul for thefuneral of 27-year-old Farkhunda, who likemany Afghans is known by only one name.She was killed late Thursday by a mob ofmostly men who beat her, set her body onfire and then threw it into the Kabul River,according to police accounts. Police are stillinvestigating what prompted the mobassault.

President Ashraf Ghani condemnedFarkhunda’s killing as a “heinous attack”and ordered an investigation. Followingallegations that police stood by and didnothing to stop the fatal attack, Ghani saidit revealed “a fundamental issue” - thecountry’s police were too focused on thefight against the Taliban insurgency to con-centrate on community policing.

His comments followed widespreadcondemnation of the kill ing. InAfghanistan, women are generally treatedas inferior, despite constitutional guaran-tees of equality. Violence against womenoften goes unpunished. Some Afghan offi-cials and religious leaders sought to justifyFarkhunda’s killing, alleging that she hadburned a Quran. But at her graveside, thehead of the Interior Ministry’s criminalinvestigation directorate, Gen.

‘She is completely innocent’ Mohammad Zahir, said no evidence had

been found to support thoseallegations.”We have reviewed all the evi-dence and have been unable to find anysingle iota of evidence to support claimsthat she had burned a Quran,” Zahir said.“She is completely innocent.” He said that13 people had been arrested in connectionwith her killing. Hundreds of people gath-ered at a graveyard in the middle-class sub-urb of Khair Khana, near Farkhunda’s home.

Unusually for Afghanistan, women’srights activists wearing black and with the

permission of Farkhunda’s father, carriedher coffin from an ambulance into amosque for prayers, and then from themosque to her grave.

The city’s head of criminal investigation,Mohammad Farid Afzali , has saidFarkhunda suffered an unspecified psychi-atric i l lness, but a neighbor told TheAssociated Press that she was nearing theend of a religious studies course andpreparing to become a teacher. “Everyonerespected her, she was very religious andnever left her home without covering herface with a hijab,” said Mirwais Afizi, 40,who said he had lived on the same lane asFarkhunda’s family all his life. “We neverheard anything about her being mentallyill. She was about to graduate,” he said.

An Interior Ministry spokesman said ear-lier that Farkhunda’s family was staying inprotective care. Ghani put women’s rightsand equality at the heart of his presidentialcampaign last year and has given his wife,Rula, a high public profile. A Christian ofLebanese descent, she has spoken forwomen’s rights in Afghanistan - a countryroutinely named by international rightsgroups as one of the world’s worst placesto be a woman.

Under the harsh Islamic rule of theTaliban, who were ousted by a US-led inva-sion in 2001, women were not permitted towork, study or leave their homes without amale relative. The new Afghan constitutionguarantees women equal rights and pro-tection from violence but these standardsare still enforced haphazardly. The NewYork-based Human Rights Watch issued astatement on what it called “the brutalmurder of a vulnerable woman by a mobon Kabul’s streets” and called for the pun-ishment of police officers who took noaction to stop the killing. “The authoritiesneed to prosecute those involved in thisterrible crime and take action against anypolice officers who let the mob have itsway,” said Patricia Gossman, HRW’s seniorAfghanistan researcher. — AP

Afghanistan buries woman beaten to death by mob

KABUL: Afghan women rights activists carry the coffin of 27-year-old Farkhunda, anAfghan woman who was beaten to death by a mob, during her funeral. — AP

Modi appeals to farmers on controversial land reforms

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime MinisterNarendra Modi appealed to farmers yes-terday to support his planned changes torules on land purchases, amid rising oppo-sition to a key reform of his right-winggovernment. Modi, who swept to power ingeneral elections last May, has madechanging the rules a major part of hisplans to kick-start industrial projects andaccelerate growth to create much-neededjobs. But opposition parties joined forceslast week to march on parliament againstthe proposed legislative changes in a rareshow of unity, saying India’s millions ofpoor farmers will be hard hit in favour ofbig business.

On his monthly radio show on yester-day, Modi urged farmers not to be “misledby the lies and rumors” spread by his polit-ical opponents, saying “I will not breakyour trust”. “Rumors were spreading thatModi is bringing in a law that is unfair to

farmers. My farmer brothers and sisters, Icannot even think of committing such asin,” he said. During the 30-minuteaddress, Modi also said the government’sdoor was open to more changes to thebill, which aims to make it easier for busi-nesses to acquire land for important infra-structure projects. He repeatedly assuredfarmers that the law did not favor indus-tries and that acquiring their land would“only be the last resort”. “This (bill) isn’t forindustries, not for corporates but it is forfarmers’ rights, for your benefit, your chil-dren’s benefit and the betterment of yourvillages.”

The government issued a temporaryorder in December making it easier to buyland for projects. But the order lapses inApril, and the government has so far failedto get a bill passed in both houses of par-l iament to make the changes perma-nent.—AFP

Fearing IS, Afghan’s Shiites seek help from enemiesKABUL: Even by Afghanistan’s standards ofoften-shifting alliances, a recent meetingbetween ethnic Hazara elders and local com-manders of the Taliban insurgents who havepersecuted them for years was extraordinary.The Hazaras - a largely Shiite minority killed inthe thousands during the Taliban’s hard-lineSunni Islamist rule of the 1990s - came to theirold enemies seeking protection against whatthey deemed an even greater threat: maskedmen operating in the area calling themselves“Daish”, a term for Islamic State in the region.

In a sign of changing times, the Talibancommanders agreed to help, said Abdul KhaliqYaqubi, one of the elders at the meeting heldin the eastern province of Ghazni. The unusualpact is a window into deepening anxiety in

Afghanistan over reports of Islamic State (IS)radicals gaining a foothold in a country alreadyweary of more than a decade of war with theTaliban.

Back-to-back kidnappings within a monthof two groups of Hazara travelers - by menwidely rumored, though far from proven, toclaim fealty to IS - have many spooked. Thecurrent threat IS poses in Afghanistan,observers say, is less about real military mightthan the opportunity for disparate insurgentgroups, including defectors from an increas-ingly fractured Taliban, to band together underthis global “brand” that controls swathes ofIraq and Syria. The fear is especially keenamong religious minorities like the Hazaras,who worry the influence of the fiercely anti-

Shiite IS could introduce a new dimension ofsectarian strife to the war. “Whether Daishexists or not, the psychological impact of it isvery dangerous in Ghazni, which is home to allethnicit ies,” Ghazni ’s deputy GovernorMohammad Ali Ahmadi told Reuters. “Thiscould easily stir up tensions.”

‘Moving target’Unlike in Iraq or Syria, IS controls no Afghan

territory and operational links between localfighters and the group’s leadership are murky.But reports of self-proclaimed IS fighters havebeen growing since last summer. In Kandahar,the Tal iban’s bir thplace, armed clashesbetween alleged IS fighters and local Talibanhave been reported.—Reuters

I N T E R N AT ION A LMONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

RIKUZENTAKATA: A Shinto shrine gate remains standing on a hill as sea walls are being built in the waterfront area in Iwate Prefecture, north-eastern Japan. —AP

SENDAI: Four years after a towering tsunamiravaged much of Japan’s northeastern coast,efforts to fend off future disasters are focusingon a nearly 400-kilometer chain of cement seawalls, at places nearly five stories high.Opponents of the 820 billion yen ($6.8 billion)plan argue that the massive concrete barrierswill damage marine ecology and scenery, hindervital fisheries and actually do little to protect res-idents who are mostly supposed to relocate tohigher ground. Those in favor say the sea wallsare a necessary evil, and one that will providesome jobs, at least for a time.

In the northern fishing port of Osabe,Kazutoshi Musashi chafes at the 12.5-meter -high concrete barrier blocking his view of thesea. “The reality is that it looks like the wall of ajail,” said Musashi, 46, who lived on the seasidebefore the tsunami struck Osabe and has movedinland since. Pouring concrete for public works isa staple strategy for the ruling LiberalDemocratic Party and its backers in big businessand construction, and local officials tend to goalong with such plans.

Grave risks The paradox of such projects, experts say, is

that while they may reduce some damage, theycan foster complacency. That can be a grave riskalong coastlines vulnerable to tsunamis, stormsurges and other natural disasters. At least someof the 18,500 people who died or went missingin the 2011 disasters failed to heed warnings toescape in time. Tsuneaki Iguchi was mayor ofIwanuma, a town just south of the region’sbiggest city, Sendai, when the tsunami triggeredby a magnitude-9 earthquake just off the coastinundated half of its area.

A 7.2-meter -high sea wall built years earlierto help stave off erosion of Iwanuma’s beachesslowed the wall of water, as did stands of tall,thin pine trees planted along the coast. But thetsunami still swept up to 5 kilometers inland.Passengers and staff watched from the upperfloors and roof of the airport as the waves car-ried off cars, buildings and aircraft, smashing

most homes in densely populated suburbs notfar from the beach.

The city repaired the broken sea walls butdoesn’t plan to make them any taller. Instead,Iguchi was one of the first local officials to back aplan championed by former Prime MinisterMorihiro Hosokawa to plant mixed forests alongthe coasts on tall mounds of soil or rubble, tohelp create a living “green wall” that would per-sist long after the concrete of the bigger, man-made structures has crumbled.

“We don’t need the sea wall to be higher.What we do need is for everyone to evacuate,”Iguchi said. “The safest thing is for people to liveon higher ground and for people’s homes andtheir workplaces to be in separate locations. Ifwe do that, we don’t need to have a ‘Great Wall,’”he said. While the lack of basic infrastructure canbe catastrophic in developing countries, tooheavy a reliance on such safeguards can leadcommunities to be too complacent at times,says Margareta Wahlstrom, head of the UN’sOffice for Disaster Risk Reduction.

“There’s a bit of an over belief in technologyas a solution, even though everything we havelearned demonstrates that people’s own insightsand instincts are really what makes a difference,and technology in fact makes us a bit more vul-nerable,” Wahlstrom said in an interview aheadof a recent conference in Sendai convened todraft a new framework for reducing disasterrisks.

In the steelmaking town of Kamaishi, morethan 1,000 people died in the 2011 tsunami, butmost school students fled to safety zones imme-diately after the earthquake, thanks to trainingby a civil engineering professor, ToshitakaKatada. The risk is not confined to Japan, saidMaarten van Aalst, director of the Red Cross/RedCrescent Climate Center, who sees this in theattitudes of fellow Dutch people who trust intheir low-lying country’s defenses against thesea.

‘Save your life’ “The public impression of safety is so high,

they would have no idea what to do in case of acatastrophe,” he said. Despite pockets of opposi-tion, getting people to agree to forego the seawalls and opt instead for Hosokawa’s “GreatForest Wall” plan is a tough sell, says TomoakiTakahashi, whose job is to win support for theforest project in local communities.

“Actually, many people are in favor of the seawalls, because they will create jobs,” saidTakahashi. “But even people who really don’t likethe idea also feel as if they would be shunned ifthey don’t go along with those who support theplan,” he said. While the “Great Forest Wall” beingplanted in some areas would not stave off flood-ing, it would slow tsunamis and weaken theforce of their waves. As waters recede, the vege-tation would help prevent buildings and otherdebris from flowing back out to sea. Such proj-ects would also allow rain water to flow backinto the sea, a vital element of marine ecology.

Some voices in unexpected places are urginga rethink of the plan. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’swife, Akie, offered numerous objections tocementing the northeast coast in a speech inNew York last September. She said the walls mayprevent residents from keeping an eye out forfuture tsunamis and would be costly to maintainfor already dwindling coastal communities.

“Please do not proceed even if it’s alreadydecided,” she said. Instead of a one-size-fits-allpolicy, she suggested making the plan moreflexible. “I ask, is building high sea walls to shieldthe coast line really, really the best?”Rikuzentakata, a small city near Osabe whosedowntown area was wiped out by the tsunami,is building a higher sea wall, but also movingmany tons of earth to raise the land well abovesea level.

Local leader Takeshi Konno said no construc-tion project will eliminate the need for coastalresidents to protect themselves. “What I want tostress is that no matter what people try to cre-ate, it won’t beat nature, so we humans need tofind a way to co-exist with nature,” Konno said.“Escaping when there is danger - the mostimportant thing is to save your life.” — AP

Japan opts for massive sea wall to fend off tsunamis

People divided over enormous undertaking

MANILA: Some of the 120,000 people dis-placed by the Philippine army’s offensiveagainst Muslim insurgents will soon beallowed to return home now that violencehas eased, a spokeswoman said yesterday.“We will determine which areas will be safefor evacuees to go back, areas alreadycleared of the Bangsamoro IslamicFreedom Fighters (BIFF),” said the regionalmilitary spokeswoman Captain JoanPetinglay.

The military in the troubled southernprovince of Maguindanao on Mindanaoisland in February launched an all-outoperation against the BIFF, a small insur-gent group fighting to set up an Islamicstate in the south of the largely ChristianPhilippines. It rejects a peace pact signedby the much larger Moro Islamic LiberationFront (MILF) from which the BIFF split.

The UN refugee agency has warned thatmore than 120,000 people have fled theirhomes in the south due to the fighting. Thegovernment has housed many of them inschools, hampering educational activities.Since the operation began, the BIFF-whichoriginally numbered about 300 — has lost

an estimated 140 of its fighters althoughthe military has only recovered five of theirbodies, Petinglay said. Six soldiers have alsobeen killed, she added.

There has been no new fighting sinceMonday, possibly indicating the BIFF hasbeen weakened by its losses, Petinglay said.Petinglay said the government and privaterelief organizations had enough suppliesfor displaced people, but some of themwould soon be allowed to return homenow that the situation was stabilizing.

Islamic separatist insurgencies in thesouth have claimed tens of thousands oflives since the 1970s. Although the MILFhas signed an initial peace deal, a bungledpolice raid has left the peace process injeopardy A total of 44 police commandoshunting some of the country’s most want-ed extremists were killed on January 25when they entered a Maguindanao strong-hold of the BIFF and other Muslim armedgroups. The incident has become anembarrassment to President BenignoAquino, who has been blamed for poorleadership and coordination of the opera-tion.—AFP

Philippines to let residents return after fighting eases

NEW DELHI: Police have detained morethan 1,000 people in eastern India over acheating scandal that saw relatives scalethe walls of a school exam centre to helpstudents, a senior officer said yesterday.Images last week showed dozens ofpeople clinging to the windows of afour-storey building to pass cheat sheetsin the state of Bihar, where more than1.4 million teenagers are sitting theirschool-leaving exams.

Other images broadcast on localtelevision showed school staff andarmed police officers standing by aspeople smuggled in study aids to can-didates inside examination centers.Bihar additional director general ofpol ice Gupteshwar Pandey sa idupwards of 1,000 people have beenrounded up and put in jail, but havenot been formally charged with acriminal offence. Instead, they arebeing made to pay fines ranging from2,000 rupees ($32) up to tens of thou-sands of rupees, depending on theirinvolvement in the cheating, to securetheir release from lock up. Pandey saidparents and teachers were among themain culprits “who were found cheat-ing or cooperating with the cheating

in school exams across the state”.“More than 1,000 people were

detained, half of them were parents andteachers while the other half consistedof friends and relatives,” Pandey said.“Fifty percent have been released but Ibelieve that the others are still probablyin jail,” he added. “We don’t treat them ashardened, professional criminals. That’swhy we release them. Our purpose is tolet them know that they have commit-ted a serious offence,” Pandey said. Headded that two policemen have beenarrested and ten others have been dis-missed from the force for their connec-tion to the cheating. The images wentviral on Twitter and made national head-lines late last week, stirring Bihar ChiefMinister Nitish Kumar and his govern-ment into action.

“Reports of cheating in examinationshas drawn a bad name to Bihar... I haveissued a strict order to stop rampantcheating in ongoing examinations,”Kumar said on Saturday, according tothe Press Trust of India news agency. It isnot the first time that exam cheating hasbeen exposed in Bihar-more than 1,600students were disqualified in 2013 aftersimilar videos emerged. —AFP

1,000 detained inexam cheating

INCHEON: South Korean honor guards stand as they wait for the arrival of NewZealand Prime Minister John Key at Incheon International Airport. Key arrived yes-terday in South Korea for a three-day visit to discuss ways to strengthen cooperationin a wide range of issues, including trade and economy. — AP

TOKYO: Indonesian President Joko Widodowill arrive in Tokyo late today, kicking off aweek-long tour of Japan and China aimedat attracting investment and boostingdefense co-operation. “We want to develop(infrastructure) with particular focus onelectric power plants, railways and expressways. I would like to ask Prime MinisterShinzo Abe for co-operation on this issue,”Widodo said in footage aired by Japan’spublic broadcaster NHK.

Widodo, who took office in October, willbe in Japan until Wednesday and will meetAbe as well as Japanese businessmen.Widodo told the Yomiuri Shimbun that heand Abe would sign a memorandum onboosting defense co-operation. He saidthat China’s claim to virtually all of theSouth China Sea “has no legal foundationsupported by international law”. “We wouldabsolutely like to learn Japan’s excellent

experiences in protecting its waters,” hetold the Yomiuri. China has had occasional-ly tense confrontations with Japan andSoutheast Asian countries-the Philippinesand Vietnam in particular-over maritimedisputes in the East China Sea and theSouth China Sea, respectively.

Indonesia “is ready to play a role ofmediator”, Widodo told NHK. Widodo hasvowed to boost Indonesia’s economicgrowth, which slipped to its slowest pace infive years in 2014, and is seeking newinvestment. The president, nicknamedJokowi, will also meet Emperor Akihito dur-ing the trip, which is his first as leader out-side Southeast Asia. Widodo, in China fromMarch 26 to 27, will meet President XiJinping and Chinese businessmen. He willalso participate in the Boao Forum for Asia-an annual gathering of political and eco-nomic leaders. — AFP

Indonesia leader eyes defense on Japan trip SAAMA: Celine Jimmy prayed three times

before running out of a clubhouse into the dark-ness to a family home as Cyclone Pam roaredthrough her village in Vanuatu, her four childrenclose by her side. “The trees were falling downand we jumped over them,” Jimmy, 42, said inSaama village some 76 kilometers north of thecapital Port Vila, of her race to move to a build-ing with more shelter. “The next morning, wethanked God because he protected us.” Morethan a week after the maximum category fivestorm destroyed the crops she grew to feed herfamily, Jimmy’s neighbor Glenes Lulu is alsopraying, asking God for rain to help seeds growand so she can have clean water to drink.

Religion is important in Vanuatu, whose pop-ulation is largely Christian, with the majorityProtestants and about 12 percent Catholic.There are also so-called cargo cults, which most-ly sprang up during World War II, when hun-dreds of thousands of American troops pouredinto the islands, bringing supplies.

Most have fizzled out although the JohnFrum movement on Tanna Island, badly-hit bythe cyclone, continues to have a significant fol-lowing, with believers expecting the mythicalFrum to return bearing loads of cargo fromAmerica. Tanna is also home to the Prince PhilipMovement, which reveres Queen Elizabeth II’shusband, worshipping him as a divine being.Since the cyclone hit on March 13 — affectingabout half of Vanuatu’s 267,000-strong popula-tion, according to the United Nations-faith-based organizations have joined humanitarianagencies in rushing to the Pacific nation to help.

Sermons to preach In Saama, Christianity plays a central role in

the village’s activities. Two small, unfinishedconcrete churches-one Presbyterian and theother Assemblies of God-stand out between thewooden and metal sheeting homes, painstak-ingly built slab by slab over several years fromvillagers’ donations. Standing beside theAssemblies of God church, which had been

under construction for two years but collapsedduring the storm, Pastor Jimmy Obas lookedexhausted but struck a positive note.

“I’m thinking about what sermons I shouldpreach on how to help them,” the 52-year-oldsaid. His wife, Leah Obas, has already decidedwhat to tell the children who attend her Sundayschool church classes. “I will tell them that Godcared for them,” she said. “We did not have any-one lose their lives. None of us died.”

The death toll from the tempest, according tothe UN, is currently 16, although the govern-ment insists it is only 11. Despite the low num-ber of deaths, the government and aid agencieshave warned of a food crisis, with many peoplefast running out of crops to eat and fresh drink-ing water sources.

Large packages of food, water and otherbasic supplies are being brought into the coun-

try, with planes, helicopters and ships mobilizedto deliver them to the far flung islands of thearchipelago. But for some villages such as Saamathat have yet to receive any government aid,support has come through donations from otherchurches or individual Christians.

One batch of food came from a visitingAustralian psychiatrist, Colin Kable, who hasbeen supporting the village’s school set up by aChristian organization several years ago. Kablearrived at Saama Saturday with more than 50kilograms of rice, mineral water, canned tuna,medical supplies and balloons for the children.Watching the food being distributed, EuanChuck, 49, said he had been attending the daily7pm devotion in the Presbyterian Church’s oldbuilding to pray for other villages across theislands. “We pray for them-we are just the same.Everyone needs something,” he said. —AFP

Religion helps Vanuatu through cyclone shock

PORT VILA: People take shelter at the Apostolic Church of Tagabe, a district of Port Vila, onMarch 20, 2015, after Cyclone Pam devastated Vanuatu. -—AFP

Police embarrassed after raid on brothels finds colleagues

NEW DELHI: Police in eastern Indian wereleft red-faced when a raid on a sex districtdiscovered four of their own along with aconvicted murderer whom they were sup-posed to be guarding, a report said yester-day. The four constables had been taskedwith transporting the murderer from a jailin the underdeveloped state of Jharkhandto hospital for a check-up, the HindustanTimes reported.

But the officers decided to make a 206-kilometer detour to visit the red-light areain the town of Asansol across the border inWest Bengal state, the newspaper said.West Bengal police rounded up the four aspart of the raid although the murderer

managed to escape-and then made hisown way back to jail in Koderma city inJharkhand, the paper said.

“We have ordered a probe and suspend-ed the four policemen until further notice,”Jharkhand director general of police DKPandey told the newspaper. Jharkhand,one of India’s poorest states which aregrappling with a Maoist insurgency, hasseen several security lapses in recent years.Thirteen prisoners escaped from custody inDecember in Jharkhand by throwing chillipowder at their guards. Police shot deadtwo more of the prisoners during the get-away, staged as they were being transport-ed back to a jail. — AFP

N E W SMONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

Continued from Page 1

Meanwhile, the Deputy Director of the UnitedNations Development Program (UNDP) in Kuwait DimaAl-Khatib lauded Kuwait’s mega projects which aim tomeet the growing demand for drinking water. She alsohighlighted various challenges facing Kuwait’s plans toproduce and achieve self-sufficiency of high-qualitypotable water. Several keynote speeches were alsodelivered at the event, which included a variety of activ-ities such an exhibition as well as an awareness per-formance by school students.

World Water Day aims to increase people’s awarenessof water’s importance in all aspects of life. It is held onMarch 22 each year. The international observance ofWorld Water Day is an initiative that grew out of the1992 United Nations Conference on Environment andDevelopment (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro. World Water

Day was first observed in 1993, in conformity with therecommendations of the United Nations Conference onEnvironment and Development contained in chapter 18(Fresh Water Resources) of Agenda 21.

Each year, one of various UN agencies involved inwater issues take the lead in promoting and coordi-nating international activities for World Water Day. Anumber of NGOs promoting clean water and sustain-able aquatic habitats have used World Day for Wateras a time to focus public attention on the criticalwater issues of our era. World Water Day activitiesinclude visual art, theatrical and musical celebrationsof water, educational events on the importance ofclean water and protecting water resources, cam-paigns and events to raise money for access to cleanand affordable water, special broadcasts on televisionand radio and the Internet, walks, runs and swimmingcompetitions. — KUNA

Kuwait striving to meet drinking water... Continued from Page 1

Such a move would represent a major inflection point forUS-Israeli relations, the likes of which has not been seen inyears, or perhaps decades.

It is now more than 30 years since former presidentRonald Reagan allowed anti-Israel resolutions to pass at theUN after Israel bombed Iraq’s nuclear facilities. During theirphone call, Obama said he told Netanyahu that “it is going tobe hard to find a path where people are seriously believingthat negotiations are possible”.

Netanyahu’s reelection will also not greatly affect Obama’sdefense of any deal reached with Iran, the US president said.“I don’t think it will have a significant impact,” Obama told TheHuffington Post. Iran and six world powers are in negotia-tions to clinch a landmark deal that would have the countryscale back its controversial nuclear program in return forrelief from sanctions. Western powers in London affirmedtheir “unity of purpose” in Iran nuclear talks Saturday, urgingthe Islamic Republic to take “difficult decisions.”

The Israeli leader opposes any accommodation withTehran and came to Washington during his election cam-paign to address US lawmakers, denouncing the agree-ment under negotiation as a “bad deal”. Obama, however,was cautiously optimistic about the progress of the nucleartalks while acknowledging the bitterness between Iran andIsrael. “Obviously, there’s significant skepticism in Israelgenerally about Iran, and understandably. Iran has madevile comments, anti-Semitic comments, comments aboutthe destruction of Israel. It is precisely for that reason thateven before I became president, I said Iran could not havea nuclear weapon,” Obama added.

“What is going to have an effect on whether we get adeal done is, number one, is Iran prepared to show, toprove to the world that it is not developing a nuclearweapon, and can we verify that in an intrusive, consistentway,” Obama said. “Frankly, they have not yet made thekind of concessions that are I think going to be needed fora final deal to get done. But they have moved, and sothere’s the possibility.”— AFP

Obama rips Bibi over comments

Continued from Page 1

The self-proclaimed IS Hacking Division claimed ittook the information from government servers, data-bases and emails and called on its followers to mountattacks. A defense source, however, told The New YorkTimes most of the information was in fact available inpublic records and did not appear to have been hackedfrom government servers. The IS Hacking Division saidthe 100 military staff had targeted the Islamic Stategroup in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

“With the huge amount of data we have from variousdifferent servers and databases, we have decided toleak 100 addresses so that our brothers residing inAmerica can deal with you,” the group wrote. “Now wehave made it easy for you by giving you addresses, allyou need to do is take the final step, so what are youwaiting for?”

NATO commander Philip Breedlove called the publi-cation an attempt by IS to divert attention from militarysetbacks. “What we have seen across the last severalmonths is that every time they take a defeat on the bat-tlefield, or every time they are under great pressure onthe battlefield, they come out with kind of some bigsplash like this,” he said at a conference in Brussels. “Thiscaliphate, I think, is under great pressure and so they tryto divert attention from what is happening on the bat-tlefield,” he added.

A defense department official told AFP they wereinvestigating the posting. “I can’t confirm the validity ofthe information, but we are looking into it,” the officialsaid. “The safety of our service members is always a con-

cern.” The United States is leading an international coali-tion targeting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria,where the Islamist militants have taken over swaths ofterritory. IS has claimed responsibility for hackingattacks in the United States in the past, includingagainst Central Command, which oversees the air waragainst the IS group.

In January, the hacked Centcom Twitter feed postedwhat appeared to be an office phone directory of offi-cers that was slightly out of date, forcing the militarytemporarily to take down the command’s Twitter feed.The words “CyberCaliphate” and “I love you ISIS”replaced Central Command’s usual logo on Twitter andYouTube before the pages were suspended. This month,the FBI said it was investigating a string of hacks thatdefaced US websites with imagery from the IslamicState jihadist group.

Websites including a racecar speedway in the stateof Ohio, a used-clothes store in Missouri and a church inCanada were defaced with the radical group’s black flag.Attacks against similar low-profile websites were alsorecorded in Montana, New York, Massachusetts andMinnesota. The Islamic state group has relied on anaggressive propaganda campaign online to appeal topossible recruits to join and support the violentIslamists in Iraq and Syria. US commanders and seniorofficials have previously said the IS group has shown agreat acumen for propaganda and for promoting itselfto potential jihadist recruits. The group has called for so-called lone wolf, or freelance, attacks in coalition coun-tries, including the United States, Canada, Japan andItaly. — AFP

US Marine Corps urges ‘vigilance’

Continued from Page 1

But Gulf Arab leaders and security officials on Saturday saidHadi was Yemen’s legitimate ruler and they were ready to make“all efforts” to defend the country’s security. “Yemen is sliding intoa dark tunnel which would have serious consequences not onlyon Yemen but on security and stability in the region,” the officials,who included Saudi Interior Minister Prince Mohammed binNayef, said. “The security of Yemen and of the GCC countries is anindivisible whole,” it added.

Yemen’s struggle for power intensified on Thursday, when loy-alists and opponents of Hadi fought gun battles in Aden. Thefighting paused by nightfall, but suicide bombings against aHouthi mosque claimed by Islamic State militants killed nearly

140 worshippers, raising tensions and leading the Houthis toannounce a military mobilisation against the militants. Yesterday,anti-aircraft guns opened fire at an unidentified plane flying overHadi’s compound in Aden and appeared to force it away, witness-es said, in the third incident of its kind since last Thursday.

US officials said Washington had evacuated its remaining per-sonnel from Yemen, including around 100 special operationsforces, because of worsening security, marking a setback in USefforts against a powerful Al-Qaeda branch. The Houthis areallied with former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, still influential inthe military despite having given up power in 2011 after massprotests against his rule. The Yemeni army has varied loyalties,with most units being controlled by the Houthis or Saleh, whilesome are loyal to Hadi. — Agencies

Houthis seize strategic Yemeni city

Continued from Page 1

“Smoking medwakh is mainstream here,” said Omar (not hisreal name). “Almost everyone” he knows at his Abu Dhabischool smokes it, mainly the boys, he added. Its appeal haseven become international, with one Emirati expatriate familysetting up a medwakh import business in the United States,according to Alan Blum, a tobacco expert at the University ofAlabama.

Omar appears to know little about the tobacco he smokesthree to four times a day and which leaves him dizzy for a fewseconds each go. Asked what he thinks it may contain, hereplied: “It’s tobacco with spices maybe? It’s not as bad as ciga-rettes. I don’t know if it’s addictive.” His 17-year-old Lebaneseclassmate - Clique-C - said he stopped smoking medwakh

three months ago “with the help of a close friend”, after he wassuspended from school for a few days. “When I first stopped, Istarted getting a need to use it,” he said, but now he feels “freshand healthy”. When he smoked it, Clique-C says medwakh gavehim “comfort”. “It was like a pain-reliever. It made my head feelso light.”

Although some schools carry out random bag searches formedwakh, Emirati authorities appear to be looking the otherway for now. “I have many times seen cases where police carswould pass by with obviously small kids standing at the cornerand smoking it,” Omar said. “But they just pass by, look at them,and don’t even stop.” The teenager says he is struggling to stopsmoking medwakh as “it’s everywhere and legal”. “I hate myselffor it,” he said, fearful of what his mother might do if she foundout about the habit. “I definitely want to quit.” — AFP

‘Dizziness’ tobacco hooking UAE teens

A squirrel, silhouetted against the morning sky, walks on an overhead telephone cable in Managua, Nicaragua, yesterday. — AP

By Hamza Hendawi

This port city, perched on an extinct volcanoprotruding into the Arabian Sea on Yemen’sfar southern edge, has become perhaps the

last refuge of the country’s embattled president,and it feels like now all his enemies are bearingdown on it. Driven out of the capital, Sanaa, byShiite rebels who have taken over much of thenorth, President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and theremains of his government have made Aden theirprovisional capital. If they lose here, Hadi - the manthe US had hoped would stabilize the chaoticnation and fight Al-Qaeda’s powerful branch - likelywill fall, plunging Yemen into a civil war.

In his first speech since fleeing Sanaa, Hadi onSaturday denounced the rebel takeover as “a coupagainst constitutional legitimacy” and declaredAden the country’s “temporary capital”. The city isvisibly expecting assault, whether from the forces ofHadi’s rival, ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh,who has allied himself with the Shiite rebels, or fromAl-Qaeda militants. Army and police forces loyal toHadi and their allied militiamen patrol Aden’s streetsand man checkpoints at key locations. Tanks guardroads leading to the city and children are largelystaying home from school.

“There are great fears that plans are underwayfor Aden to meet the same fate as Sanaa,” Nayef Al-Bakry, Aden’s deputy governor, told AP. Referringto Saleh and the Shiite rebels, “they want to extendtheir reach on both the ground and on the coast”.Early this week, Hadi’s forces fended off an attemptby police commandos loyal to Saleh to capture theairport. But there are still two army units loyal toSaleh in the city. And on Sunday, the Shiite rebels,backed by forces loyal to Saleh, seized Yemen’sthird largest city, Taiz, 140 km to the northwest ofAden. Officials here fear it is a prelude to an attackon Aden.

The takeover of Taiz, known as the “gatewayto the south,” followed the arrival there two daysago of a column of 20 armored fighting vehiclesand 30 truckloads of Shiite rebel fighters andpro-Saleh troops. Equally worrying, Al-Qaedamilitants on Friday took a city on Aden’sdoorstep, Al-Houta, capital of neighboring Lahjprovince. Al-Qaeda fighters now have positionsonly 20 km from Aden. Hadi on Saturdayaccused Saleh’s forces, which had held Al-Houta,of intentionally surrendering it to the militants tocreate even more chaos, and he sent a force led

by his defense minister, Maj-Gen Mahmoud Al-Subaihi, to retake the city.

TurmoilThe drama in the south is just one part of

Yemen’s turmoil. Around the country, Al-Qaedamilitants have been battling the Shiite rebels,known as Houthis, and in some places Sunnitribesman have allied with the militants. A newalarming sign came Friday when suicide bombershit two mosques in Sanaa controlled by theHouthis, killing more than 130 people in a devas-tating attack that may signal the emergence of anew branch of the Islamic State group, theextremists who are seeking to supplant Al-Qaedaregion-wide as the flagship for Islamic militants.

Hadi fled Sanaa last month after escaping

house arrest under the Houthis, who took overthe capital in September. Aden is Yemen’s secondmost important city and the country’s economichub, and as long as Hadi was here he could rea-sonably claim to still be president. Moreover, hechose Aden because as a southerner he has con-siderable support in the region. Aden has been atthe center of trade in the Indian Ocean for cen-turies. Its populace has long seen itself as moresophisticated and distinct from mountainous,

tribal, inward-facing Sanaa.Aden was the capital of an independent South

Yemen for decades until unification in 1990.Today, secessionist sentiment remains strong -many pro-Hadi militiamen in the streets wave thered, white, black and blue flags of the formerSouth Yemen. Billboards welcoming Hadi to thecity hang on many streets, along with pro-Hadigraffiti on the walls. Since he arrived, Hadi hasissued calls for volunteers to join the army, a movehis camp depicts as an attempt to build a militarythat stands above tribal, personal or regional loy-alties. So far an estimated 20,000 men in Adenalone have volunteered.

“The protection of Aden is a task the presi-dent must prioritize,” Hadi adviser Sultan Al-Atwany told the AP. “We need to build a new

army, one that owes allegiance to the countryand not anyone else.” But the bulk of Aden’s secu-rity is in the hands of pro-Hadi militiamengrouped in what are officially known as the“Popular Committees,” a rag-tag army of southerntribesmen who took part in the military cam-paign against Al-Qaeda in nearby Abyan andShabwa provinces in 2012.

Hadi came to office in the aftermath of the2011 Arab Spring uprising against Saleh, the auto-

crat in power since 1978. An accord brokered in2012 by US-allied Gulf nations removed Saleh andinstalled Hadi, but Saleh remained in the countryand his loyalists continued to hold powerful posi-tions in the government, the military and the secu-rity forces. Saudi Arabia and the US stronglybacked Hadi, and the new president proved astauncher ally to the US than Saleh in the fightagainst Al-Qaeda’s branch in the country.

Ever since, Hadi has accused his ousted pred-ecessor of undermining him. Saleh is widelythought to be seeking to avenge his ouster andto ensure that his son, career army officer Ahmed,is Yemen’s next president. Now Saleh has openlyallied himself with the Houthis, using his influ-ence in the military to facilitate their expansion.Like the Houthis, Saleh follows the Shiite Zaydisect which exists almost exclusively in Yemen.Hadi’s forces were able to fend off the airportassault by the pro-Saleh police commandos onThursday and even subsequently took the com-mandos’ base. But the extended public gunbattleunderlined the fragility of the city’s defenses.During the fighting, a warplane flown by Saleh’sloyalists attacked Hadi’s residence. The threebombs missed the palace, and Hadi was notthere at the time. But the raid signaled that hisopponents are aiming to kill him - or at leastshow him they can.

ThreatMeanwhile, Aden also faces a looming threat

from Al-Qaeda. The group’s capture of nearby al-Houta is its first major seizure of territory since2011, when it held parts of nearby Abyan andShabwa provinces for more than a year untilHadi’s forces drove them out with US backing.Aden has since 2011 seen an uptick of suicidebombings, assassinations and attacks targetingintelligence and military officials - mostly blamedon Al-Qaeda. The security and military officialssaid Aden has in recent months seen a steadyinfiltration of Al-Qaeda fighters.

On Thursday, at least 300 inmates in Aden’smain jail - including several Al-Qaeda fighters andleaders - were freed by forces loyal to Saleh, saidofficials, who spoke on condition of anonymitybecause they were not authorized to speak tojournalists. The officials said Al-Qaeda in Yemenwas weakened since its expulsion from Abyan andShabwa but has been regrouping, in part ener-gized by opposition to the Shiite Houthis. —AP

By Guillaume Lavallée

For Shayaan Tahir, it all began when anorder he placed on Amazon for a newiPod was rejected because the online

giant would not deliver electronics toPakistan. Frustrated, he decided to takematters into his own hands and foundedone of Pakistan’s first e-commerce ventures- a sector that today is booming. That wasseven years ago. Like thousands of otheryoung Pakistanis, Tahir was working at acall centre in the city of Karachi, the coun-try’s violent, freewheeling economic hublocated on the Arabian Sea.

He had saved hard to buy himself aniPod - only to have his purchase blocked.He enlisted a cousin in the United States tosend him three of Apple’s music players.Tahir kept one and sold the other two viaclassified ads. And that was when the ideahit him: to create his own Amazon-like sitefor Pakistan, a country of almost 200 mil-lion people that has been all but forgottenby the web giants ubiquitous in the West.

Amazon, for example, can only sell limit-ed products to Pakistan via its British site, ata hefty mark-up. “Once I realised I cannotbuy anything from Amazon... I realised thatif I cannot get it and I want something fromAmazon then there might be others like mewho want the same product,” said Tahir, 29.

He launch Homeshopping.pk, an onlinecommerce site that today deals with 500transactions per day and employees 65people.

Products are delivered within 24 hours

inside Pakistan, and the business primarilytakes cash on delivery because most peopledo not have credit cards. More recently thesite began accepting online bank transfers.Despite some security concerns and ahandful of customers who refused to payfor an item once it had been delivered, it’s aformula that has so far worked. Otheryoung entrepreneurs have followed Tahirand today there is a host of online shopsselling everything from consumer goods -shophive.com and daraz.pk - to real estate -zameen.com - and even cars -pakwheels.com.

Target: 100 Million Customers Pakistan is better known abroad for its

violent attacks by Taleban militants, butthese entrepreneurs are more focussed onits 30 million Internet users, roughly 15 per-cent of the population. The total volume ofonline sales was around $35 million lastyear, according to industry officials-a tinyfraction of the sales seen by global giantAmazon, Alibaba in China or Flipkart inneighbouring India. But experts agreethere is potential.

The arrival last year of 3G and 4G mobilenetworks - years behind other emergingmarkets - has proved a further boon toonline commerce in the country. “Basicallythe 30 million could be 100 million in thenext few years,” said Shaun Di Gregorio,

CEO of Frontier Digital Ventures, a venturecapital fund based in Malaysia that recentlyinvested in Zameen.com andPakwheels.com. “In order to surf, you needa wave, and the wave is here,” addedFrenchman Gilles Blanchard, co-founder ofthe site Seloger.com who has invested inPakistani startup Zameen.com.

Di Gregorio and Blanchard are amongthe foreign investors who are hoping tocash in ahead of any move by the globalgiants to acquire local companies. “WhenAmazon and Alibaba come in ... they wouldnot want to build anything from scratch. It’sgoing to take too much time,” said MuneebMaayr, co-founder of the site Daraz.pk,which sees around 1,000 sales per day. Hisgoal is for his firm to one day be acquiredby one of the foreign behemoths.

For now, young Pakistani entrepreneursare battling among themselves for marketshare, said Maayr, a former investmentbanker at Bear Stearns. The rivalry is push-ing sites to offer better services and drivingup the number of customers, observers say.Before he invested in Zameen.com,Blanchard admits that he knew “nothingabout Pakistan”. “I had heard talk on the TVabout the Taleban, tribal zones and stuff,and I thought to myself, why not?” theFrenchman said, eying its large populationand little-known local talent. —AFP

THE LEADING INDEPENDENTDAILY IN THE ARABIAN GULF

ESTABLISHED 1961

Founder and Publisher YOUSUF S. AL-ALYAN

Editor-in-ChiefABD AL-RAHMAN AL-ALYAN

EDITORIAL : 24833199-24833358-24833432ADVERTISING : 24835616/7FAX : 24835620/1CIRCULATION : 24833199 Extn. 163ACCOUNTS : 24835619COMMERCIAL : 24835618

P.O.Box 1301 Safat,13014 Kuwait.E MAIL :info@kuwaittimes.netWebsite: www.kuwaittimes.net

All articles appearing on thesepages are the personal opinion ofthe writers. Kuwait Times takes noresponsibility for views expressedtherein. Kuwait Times invites read-ers to voice their opinions. Pleasesend submissions via email to: opin-ion@kuwaittimes.net or via snailmail to PO Box 1301 Safat, Kuwait.The editor reserves the right to editany submission as necessary.

A N A L Y S I SMONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

In this photo taken on Saturday, children play football in an open field inAden. —AP

The surging value of the US dollar may be posing thebiggest threat to US corporate earnings since the 2008financial crisis, hurting results at most US-based multina-

tionals. Some on Wall Street are even talking about an earningsrecession. The dollar’s gain of 22 percent in the past 12 monthsagainst a basket of major currencies has landed a double wham-my on US companies with big sales abroad. Revenue and earn-ings from foreign markets are worth less when translated intogreenbacks and their costs become relatively less competitiveagainst rivals producing in countries with declining currencies.

Dollar moves of this magnitude in the past have resulted inwhat Bank of America/Merrill Lynch strategists term an “earningsrecession,” which is generally defined as at least two successivequarters of declining earnings from the year-earlier quarters. Thebrokerage says that a 25 percent gain in the US dollar in a 12-month period has historically coincided with a 10 percentdecline in the market’s earnings per share.

That hasn’t happened yet - but the downward trend is clear.Wall Street analysts currently estimate earnings growth of 1.3percent for 2015, down from a forecast of 8.1 percent at thebeginning of the year, according to Thomson Reuters data. TheS&P 500’s earnings per share are expected to drop 3.1 percent inthe first quarter and 0.7 percent in the second quarter beforerecovering modestly in the second-half of the year.

Nearly one-fifth of S&P 500 companies have warned on earn-ings for the first quarter, with at least 49 companies mentioningthe effects of the dollar on results, according to ThomsonReuters. “This is just the beginning,” said Richard Bernstein, veter-an Wall Street strategist and now CEO of Richard BernsteinAdvisors in New York. “This impact of the dollar on US earningscould last for three to seven years. It may not happen every quar-ter but there’s a secular risk to US earnings, primarily to multina-tionals, as the dollar appreciates.”

Expectations for S&P 500 earnings are expected to keepfalling as companies tally the dollar impact on results in the nextfew weeks. Take chemicals producer DuPont, for example. On Jan27, the company forecast full-year earnings of $4.00 to $4.20 for2015 after a 60-cent negative drag from the dollar, based on itslevel on Jan 23. Since that time, the dollar index, which measuresthe dollar against six different major currencies - the euro, yen,pound, Swiss franc, Swedish krona and Canadian dollar - hasgained nearly 3.5 percent. Jefferies analyst Laurence Alexanderestimated in a March 11 note that DuPont’s currency hit for 2015earnings will be an additional 5 to 10 cents. Dupont, whose quar-terly results are due on April 21, declined to comment.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday lowered its expectationsfor US economic growth and inflation over the next two years inwhat was widely seen as an acknowledgment that the soaringdollar has stalled its plan to start raising interest rates. That tem-porarily arrested the dollar’s sharp gains, but many strategists seethe greenback continuing to rally, with Goldman Sachs predict-ing the euro will fall more than 10 percent in the next 12 monthsto $0.95 from $1.082 late on Friday. International revenuesaccount for about one-third of S&P 500 sales, according toGoldman Sachs data, and more than 40 percent for technology,materials, energy and industrial companies. The dollar’s gains area boon for rivals in Europe and elsewhere that have more of theircosts in currencies, such as the euro, that have declined and willget the translation benefits from dollar sales.

For instance, European aircraft maker Airbus Group NV couldeventually see an improvement in margins as it translates dollarrevenues back into euros. Its hedging of sales at a much lowerdollar exchange rate will, though, delay the full impact for years.The company may also have room to price more competitively towin major contests against rival Boeing , though it may prefer tofocus on boosting profits rather than increasing market share.

Big Companies WarnNorth American public companies could give up more than

$25 billion in revenues in the first quarter alone, because of cur-rency-related volatility, said Wolfgang Koester, chief executive ofFiREapps, a foreign exchange data analytics firm in Phoenix,Arizona. The fourth-quarter effect was about $18.66 billion,according to Koester. Among those that have warned are tech-nology giant IBM , semiconductor maker Intel Corp, apparelretailer Michael Kors, fashion accessories company Fossil Group,and industrial conglomerate Honeywell , all of which have saidresults would be hit by currency issues.

Companies have been rushing to increase their protectionagainst further dollar strength through increased hedging, thoughthat adds to costs and if mismanaged can create risks of its own.“We have seen a huge increase in the number of our clients thatare hedging - they have doubled or tripled. We have also seen ahuge increase in the percentage of their exposure that they’rehedging,” said David Pierce, director of business development atGPS Capital Markets, a Salt Lake City-based corporate FX broker-age firm that helps clients hedge currency exposure. —Reuters

Issues

US MNCs set to

face pain from

strong dollar

No Amazon? No problem for Pak pioneers

Aden: Refuge of president and target

By Sinead Carew

In this photo taken on March 14,2015, Shayaan Tahir, CEO ofHomeshopping.pk, poses at his callcentre in Karachi. —AFP

S P O RT SMONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

GERMANY: Formula One world champions Mercedes have revealed thatthey tried to keep the German Grand Prix on this year’s calendar but anoffer of financial assistance was rejected and the race was struck off. “TheGerman GP is a core race on the Formula One calendar and we have a sig-nificant interest in this race taking place,” the German carmaker said in astatement. “Mercedes-Benz has participated in discussions and offered asignificant contribution to support a successful German GP, at theHockenheimring, in 2015. This offer was unfortunately not accepted.”

Media reports indicated Mercedes had been willing to cover half of anypotential losses and to pay for a significant amount of promotion.

Formula One’s governing body, the International AutomobileFederation, issued a revised calendar on Friday with Germany absent forthe first time since 1960. The Nuerburgring had been due to host the July19 race under an alternation agreement but a change of ownership andfinancial difficulties left Hockenheim as the only option.

However, with low attendances at that circuit last year, organisers wereunwilling to risk a further loss with so little time to sell tickets and get ready.It still has a contract to host the race in 2016. Mercedes said the calendarwas a matter for the FIA, commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone andindividual promoters. “In principle, we do not believe it is the job of thecompeting teams to provide financial support for individual events and wedo not believe this is a sustainable model for the future,” it said. — Reuters

German GP offer rejectedBAY HILL: Four-times major winner Ernie Els was questioned by officials for apossible rules violation before being cleared at the Arnold Palmer Invitational onSaturday. Television showed Els touching his wedge in long grass in a hazard atthe par-five sixth hole during the third round at Bay Hill in Florida.

However, tour rules official Steve Rintoul could not determine from watchingthe video whether the South African grounded his club, which would haveresulted in a two-stroke penalty.

“The tape didn’t show that the club was grounded, even though the clubheadwas in the grass,” Rintoul told Reuters. Head rules official Mark Russell spoke toEls after the round, but the player said he had not soled his club, sono penalty was assessed.

Els, who triple-bogeyed the hole, carded a 72 to trail Swedishleader Henrik Stenson by 10 strokes. Thesixth hole was kinder to American DanielBerger, who recorded a rare albatross(double eagle) when he canned his sec-ond shot from 236 yards at the par-fivehole. His ball landed softly about 20 feetshort of the hole and trickled in for the firstalbatross at Bay Hill since the PGA Tour begankeeping such records in 1983. Berger shot a 68to trail by nine shots. — Reuters

LONDON: Video technology should be introduced to English football to help ref-erees avoid errors after West Bromwich Albion defender Gareth McAuley wassent off in a case of mistaken identity on Saturday, referees’ chief Mike Riley said.McAuley was shown the red card after 90 seconds against Manchester City whenreferee Neil Swarbrick failed to identify Craig Dawson as the culprit in bringingdown Wilfried Bony when he was through on goal. Manchester City went on towin the game 3-0.

“We need to see what technology we can use to help get referees’ decisionsmore accurate,” Riley, head of the Professional Game Match Officials Ltd (PGMOL),

told BBC radio. “Football as a whole has to look at it.” “Neil hadfour or five elements to judge in half a second and it is thattype of situation that would lend itself to technology.” Rileysaid that he had spoken to Swarbrick after Saturday’s matchat the Etihad Stadium. “All referees want to make correct deci-sions and when you don’t do that, you feel you’ve let yourself

and your colleagues down,” he said. “We need to make sure thenext time Neil referees, he has learned from the experience and

will be a better referee because of it.”Sunderland defender Wes Brown had his red card against

Manchester United rescinded earlier this month after refereeRoger East dismissed him for a foul on Radamel Falcaodespite replays suggesting team mate John O’Shea com-mitted the offence. —Reuters

Calls for video technology Els cleared of violation

ST. PAUL: Justin Fontaine had a goal and twoassists, and linemate Thomas Vanek also scoredas the Minnesota Wild breezed by the St. LouisBlues with a 6-3 victory on Saturday.

Chris Stewart, Zach Parise, Jonas Brodin andMikko Koivu contributed goals, too, andCharlie Coyle and Ryan Suter each had twoassists for the Wild, who improved to an NHL-best 22-6-2 since trading for goalie DevanDubnyk on Jan. 14. Dubnyk, acquired fromArizona for a third-round draft pick, has startedall 30 of those games. He made 26 saves tobeat the Blues on a second straight weekend.Vladimir Tarasenko and Jaden Schwartz eachhad a goal and an assist and Paul Stastnyscored late for the Blues, who stayed threepoints behind Anaheim for first place in theWestern Conference. The Blues have playedone fewer game.

CANUCKS 4, KINGS 1Radim Vrbata set up the equalizer by Nick

Bonino in the second period and scored thego-ahead goal during a 5-on-3 power play inthe third, leading Vancouver over Los Angeles.

Eddie Lack made 25 saves for Vancouver.The Kings, who have 11 games left, could havetied Vancouver for second place in the PacificDivision with a regulation win. Daniel Sedinand Bo Horvath scored empty-net goals in thefinal minute. Vrbata put the Canucks ahead 2-1at 4:31 of the third with his 27th goal, playingthe puck off the end boards after a long slapshot by Alex Edler and putting it past JonathanQuick while he was out of position. Quick fin-ished with 38 saves.

BLUE JACKETS 3, FLAMES 2Rene Bourque scored his second of the

game at 4:01 of overtime to give Columbus awin over Calgary. With prolonged pressure inthe Flames end, Kevin Connauton’s shot wasstopped but Bourque slipped the rebound pastKarri Ramo’s outstretched pad.

Artem Anisimov also scored for Columbus,which has won six of seven overall including itsfirst sweep of Western Canada. Sean Monahanand Jiri Hudler scored for Calgary. The Flamesremain in third place in the Pacific Division,two points back of Vancouver and two pointsup on Los Angeles. The Canucks and Kingshold a game in hand.

RANGERS 3, HURRICANES 2Jesper Fast and J.T. Miller scored, and Mats

Zuccarello had the lone goal in the shootout asthe New York Rangers edged Carolina.

Cam Talbot shook off a 1-0 home loss toChicago and made 28 saves to lift the Rangersto their NHL best 23rd road victory this season.Talbot made two saves in the shootout, andCarolina’s other attempt went high. Fast’s goalat 12:59 of the second gave the Rangers a 2-1lead after Miller had tied it 3:39 into the period.

Carolina struck first as Elias Lindholm scored2:01 in, but the Rangers swept the five-gameseason series. New York improved to 16-3-3since No. 1 goalie Henrik Lundqvist by a neckinjury - 14-3-3 with Talbot in goal.

PANTHERS 2, BRUINS 1Brandon Pirri scored the winning shootout

goal to lead Florida past Boston. Pirri beatTuukka Rask in the second round of theshootout. Roberto Luongo turned aside allthree of Boston’s shooters.

The Panthers won their second in a row andbeat Boston for the first time since a 6-2 homevictory on March 15, 2012 - a span of 10games.

Jimmy Hayes scored in regulation for thePanthers, and Luongo made 26 saves in hissecond start since returning from a shoulderinjury.

Patrice Bergeron scored, and Rask stopped24 shots in the Bruins’ fourth straight loss.Boston is one point ahead of Ottawa in therace for the eighth playoff spot in the EasternConference. The Panthers are four pointsbehind the Bruins, and three points behindOttawa.

CANADIENS 2, SHARKS 0Tomas Plekanec scored in the first period and

Carey Price made 29 saves for his secondshutout in a row and ninth of the season asMontreal beat San Jose. Price, coming off a 4-0win over Carolina on Thursday, earned his NHL-leading 40th victory to become the thirdCanadiens goalie to reach that milestone - fol-lowing Jacques Plante and Ken Dryden, whoshare the team record with 42 wins. BrendanGallagher had an empty-net goal with 14 sec-onds left as Eastern Conference-leadingMontreal won its third game in a row. AnttiNiemi made 27 saves for the Sharks, whosechase for a Western Conference playoff spottook a hit.

ISLANDERS 3, DEVILS 0Jaroslav Halak made 26 saves in his return

to the lineup as the New York Islanders ended aseason-high, four-game losing streak with avictory over New Jersey.

Recently benched Ryan Strome scored agoal and set up another by Travis Hamonic.Kyle Okposo added an empty-net goal with 38seconds left. Halak, who missed the Islanders’previous game with a lower-body injury, wasoutstanding in recording his fifth shutout ofthe season. Strome, a healthy scratch twogames earlier, scored in the first period for hisfirst goal in nine games. Hamonic added his inthe third after a power play ended. CorySchneider made 27 saves for the Devils, whosethree-game winning streak was snapped.

SENATORS 5, MAPLE LEAFS 3Kyle Turris scored the winning goal, and

Ottawa extended its winning streak to sixgames by topping Toronto. Turris added anempty-net goal with 46.6 seconds remaining.

Mike Hoffman, Erik Karlsson and CurtisLazar also scored for the Senators. AndrewHammond, making his sixth straight start,improved to 13-0-1 in his first 14 NHL starts ashe stopped 22 shots. Joakim Lindstrom, LeoKomarov and Tim Erixon scored for the MapleLeafs, who have lost five straight. James Reimerallowed three goals on 18 shots before beingreplaced by Jonathan Bernier, who allowedone goal on 23 shots.

JETS 3, CAPITALS 0Ondrej Pavelec made 27 saves as Winnipeg

beat Washington for its fourth consecutive win.Mark Stuart, Mark Scheifele and Adam Lowryscored for Winnipeg, which extended its leadto four points over Los Angeles in the chase forthe final Western Conference wild card. TheJets finished a perfect three-game homestand.It was the fourth win in a row for Pavelec, whorecently reclaimed his starting job from rookieMichael Hutchinson. The Capitals lost for thefirst time in four games.

PREDATORS 3, SABRES 0Pekka Rinne made 24 saves to lead

Nashville over Buffalo. Taylor Beck, CraigSmith, and Mike Fisher scored for Nashville,which snapped a two-game losing streak.Rinne earned his third shutout of the seasonand 36th of his NHL career. Matt Hackettmade 40 saves for Buffalo, which has lost nineof 10. Beck gave the Predators a 1-0 lead at

14:52 of the second period.

STARS 4, BLACKHAWKS 0Kari Lehtonen stopped 33 shots, including a

penalty shot, for his fifth shutout this seasonand 32nd of his NHL career, as Dallas routedChicago.

Patrick Eaves, Tyler Seguin, Shawn Horcoffand Jason Spezza scored for Dallas. AlexGoligoski set up two of the Stars’ goals as theywon their second straight and seventh in ninegames. The Blackhawks had been 6-0-1 in theirprevious seven games. Lehtonen turned awayBrandon Saad’s backhander on a penalty shot7:13 into the third period. The penalty shot wasthe first Lehtonen faced this season and cameafter Jordie Benn tripped Saad. Corey Crawfordmade 25 saves for the Blackhawks.

PENGUINS 3, COYOTES 1Arizona goalie Mike Smith inadvertently

banked a clearance pass off Pittsburgh’sBrandon Sutter’s backside and into his ownnet, sparking the Penguins from a dreadfulstart to a victory that snapped a four-game los-ing streak.

Daniel Winnik’s redirect over Smith’s headand under the crossbar 4 minutes later in thesecond period put the Penguins ahead to stay.

Sidney Crosby scored his 23rd goal into anempty net with 12 seconds left and earned his50th assist on Winnik’s goal. Marc-Andre Fleurystopped 30 shots.

Tobias Rieder’s short-handed goal 1:34 inwas the lone offense for the Coyotes, who havelost 17 of 18. Smith stopped 34 shots in his36th loss. He is the first to lose that many in aseason since Marc Denis for Columbus in 2003-04.

OILERS 5, FLYERS 4Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored two goals,

including the winner 2:46 into overtime asEdmonton beat Philadelphia. Teddy Purcell,Matt Hendricks and Jordan Eberle scored inregulation for the Oilers (20-39-13), who havewon two of three. Claude Giroux netted twogoals, and Ryan White and Michael Raffl alsoscored for the Flyers (29-29-16), who have lostfour in a row and eight of nine. Edmontonstarted the scoring just 51 seconds in. — AP

Wild breeze past Blues

Western ConferencePacific Division

W L OTL GF GA PTS Anaheim 46 20 7 214 199 99 Vancouver 41 26 4 203 192 86 Calgary 39 27 6 211 189 84 Los Angeles 34 23 14 189 179 82 San Jose 35 29 8 199 201 78 Edmonton 20 39 13 172 247 53 Arizona 21 43 8 148 239 50

Central DivisionSt. Louis 45 21 6 222 178 96 Nashville 44 21 8 208 176 96 Chicago 43 22 6 203 162 92 Minnesota 40 25 7 207 181 87 Winnipeg 37 23 12 201 189 86 Colorado 33 26 12 191 198 78 Dallas 34 28 10 224 230 78

Eastern ConferenceAtlantic Division

Montreal 46 20 7 193 159 99

Tampa Bay 44 21 7 233 185 95 Detroit 38 21 11 202 189 87 Boston 36 24 12 190 185 84 Ottawa 36 24 11 207 188 83 Florida 33 25 14 177 197 80 Toronto 27 40 6 192 235 60 Buffalo 20 45 7 135 241 47

Metropolitan DivisionNY Rangers 45 18 7 210 161 97 NY Islanders 44 25 4 225 203 92 Pittsburgh 40 22 10 200 178 90 Washington 39 24 10 212 180 88 Philadelphia 29 29 16 192 215 74 New Jersey 31 30 11 163 183 73 Columbus 33 35 4 193 225 70 Carolina 26 35 10 164 196 62 Note: Overtime losses (OTL) are worth onepoint in the standings and are not included inthe loss column (L).

NHL results/standings

Minnesota 6, St. Louis 3; Columbus 3, Calgary 2 (OT); Vancouver 4, Los Angeles 1; Montreal 2, SanJose 0; Ottawa 5, Toronto 3; Florida 2, Boston 1 (SO); NY Islanders 3, New Jersey 0; NY Rangers 3,Carolina 2 (SO); Winnipeg 3, Washington 0; Nashville 3, Buffalo 0; Dallas 4, Chicago 0; Pittsburgh 3,Arizona 1; Edmonton 5, Philadelphia 4 (OT).

VANCOUVER: Goalie Jonathan Bernier No. 45 of the Toronto Maple Leafs stops Bo Horvat No.53 of the Vancouver Canucks in the NHL action. — AFP

KUWAIT: GulfRun, powered by Zain, inauguratedits first annual 12 Hour Karting Endurance Raceover the weekend at Sirbb Circuit in Shuwaikh. 16teams consisting of over 70 drivers took part in thepractice sessions and the highly competitive andchallenging 12 hour endurance race.

After 12 hours of racing, in the Elite classQ8Racing 2 finished in first place with a total of1018 laps completed, followed by Drag965 andOvertake Racing team. In the Silver class AKSimulations team finished in first place with a totalof 999 laps completed, followed by Aston MartingRacing and NARCO Racing Team.

Ahmed Al-Mudhaf of GulfRun said, “This is ourfirst 12HR Endurance Race, and after the success-ful event and feedback - we look forward toadding this to our annual season of events.”Ahmed Almajed of Pro-Vision SportsManagement added, “We have witnessed anexciting race with many returning teams whichhave improved their efforts tremendously overthe years. We now have over 10 professionalteams from the Endurance Karting Series whichare capable of competing on an international lev-el.” The GulfRun 12HR Endurance Karting Race is

organized by GulfRun and Pro-Vision SportsManagement. The race follows international regu-lations and certified marshals fly in from the UK toregulate the race in accordance to FIA regulations.The 16 teams comprise of 2 to 6 drivers per teamwho drive a maximum stint time of roughly 2hours, after which they switch drivers, and keepgoing for 12 hours of non- stop racing. TheGulfRun Karting Endurance Race was firstlaunched in 2011 to create an exciting competitionin Kuwait that aligns with GulfRun’s objective topromote automobile racing and training in a safeand secure environment and karting is one of thepillars of motorsports. GulfRun’s and Pro-VisionSport Management team extend their gratitude tothe continuous support by Kuwait’s private sector,which acknowledges the important role sport playsamongst Kuwait’s youth. GulfRun 12HR KartingEndurance Race is supported by a wide range ofsponsors: Title sponsorship by Zain; GR Karting PaceCar: Aston Marting; Strategic Partner: Alfa FuelStation; Platinum Sponsors Burgan Bank; Gold spon-sorship by Slider Station, Costa Coffee, Nestle PureFitness and Quest Bar; Dealership sponsors: AstonMartin, Honda and Payment Partner, Tap.

Q8Racing wins first GulfRun

12HR Karting Endurance Race

ALICANTE: Volvo Ocean Race crews are speed-ing through the Southern Ocean toward CapeHorn in the fifth leg yesterday after organizersguided them clear of a 1-kilometre (0.6-mile)wide iceberg that was blocking their path.

The massive iceberg was spotted on the RaceHQ satellite screens at the end of last week andhas led to a hasty change in the positioning ofice gates in the toughest of all nine stages in thenine-month offshore marathon. The ice limitswill force the boats to sail clear of the iceberg’spassage in the Southern Ocean. Crews will bepenalized if they sail over these boundariestoward hazardous areas. The iceberg itself is notthe major hazard. Growlers - or chunks of icethat have broken off it - are a more potent threatas they can be unseen by the crews until the lastminute.

The fleet had already been delayed threedays in the previous port of Auckland, NewZealand, to avoid the worst of Cyclone Pam,which has claimed at least 16 lives in the SouthPacific archipelago of Vanuatu. The six boatsnevertheless made the most of high winds onthe tail of the cyclone after setting off lastWednesday, and made quicker progress through

the South Pacific than anticipated.Organizers to bring forward the expected

time of arrival in leg five’s destination port ofItajai, Brazil, to April 4 from April 7.

Meanwhile, one of the sailors, Swede MartinStromberg of Dongfeng Race Team, has toldhow he narrowly avoided losing several fingersof his right hand when he trapped it in a winchblock on Saturday. “I could easily have lost a fewfingers,” he wrote in his regular blog from theboat. “My hand went into the block and wasstuck for a while by the rope until I got help.

“I thought I would lose some fingers, but Iwas lucky with some flesh wounds and blue fin-gers. It will hurt for the rest of the leg.”

Team Brunel of the Netherlands currentlylead the leg from Turkish-U.S. entry TeamAlvimedica, with overall race leaders, Abu DhabiOcean Racing, Team SCA of Sweden, Spain’sMAPFRE and the Dongfeng Race Team of Chinaclosely bunched behind them. In all, the boatswill cover 38,739 nautical miles (71,745 kilome-ters, 44,642 miles), visit 11 ports and every conti-nent. The nine-month event, held every threeyears, concludes on June 27 in Gothenburg,Sweden. —AP

Iceberg forces detour

of Volvo Ocean Race

S P O RT SMONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

MEMPHIS: Grizzlies guard Beno Udrih (center) fights for a rebound against Portland Trail Blazers guard Steve Blake (left) and guard CJ McCollum(3) in the first half of an NBA basketball game. — AP

MEMPHIS: Jeff Green had 23 points and MikeConley scored 21 with nine assists to lead theMemphis Grizzlies to a 97-86 victory over thestruggling Portland Trail Blazers on Saturdaynight. Zach Randolph added 17 points forMemphis, which won its second straight. MarcGasol had 13 points, and Tony Allen finishedwith 10 points and 11 rebounds.

Damian Lillard led the Trail Blazers with 27points and seven assists. LaMarcus Aldridge had16 points, but didn’t play in the second halfbecause of an injury to his left hand. C.J.McCollum finished with 13 points, and DorellWright scored 10.

The Trail Blazers also played the second halfwithout starting forward Nicolas Batum, side-lined with lower back pain. The team said X-rayson Aldridge’s hand were negative.

The loss was the season-worst fourth straightfor Portland, which was creeping up the WesternConference standings a week ago. The defeatdropped the Trail Blazers four games behind theGrizzlies for the second playoff seed in the West.

SUNS 117, ROCKETS 102Eric Bledsoe had a career-high 34 points and

Phoenix withstood a fourth-quarter charge byHouston. Bledsoe scored 23 by halftime and sur-passed his previous career best of 33 points, setearlier this season, on a free throw with about aminute remaining. Phoenix led by 15 early in thefourth quarter when Houston used a 14-4 run tocut it to 105-100 with 5 minutes left. Neitherteam had scored for about 2 1/2 minutes whenP.J. Tucker made a 3-pointer that started a 12-0spurt by the Suns that secured the victory.

Donatas Motiejunas had 18 points for theRockets and James Harden added 16 after scor-ing a career-high 50 in Thursday’s win overDenver. Phoenix’s victory snapped a three-gamewinning streak for Houston and allowed theSuns to avoid a season sweep by the Rockets.

NETS 123, PACERS 111Brook Lopez had 26 points and four blocked

shots to lead Brooklyn over slumping Indiana.Bojan Bogdanovic added 21 points and fiverebounds off the bench, and Deron Williams

scored 17 for the Nets, who have won four offive. George Hill had 18 points and nine assistsfor the Pacers (30-39), who lost their fifthstraight. Brooklyn pulled away for good whenJoe Johnson converted a three-point play andBogdanovic made a 3-pointer to put the Netsahead 109-100 with 4 minutes remaining.

A win for the Pacers would have put them insole possession of eighth place in the EasternConference. Instead, the Nets (29-39) closed thegap in a crowded race for the final playoff spot.

PISTONS 107, BULLS 91Reggie Jackson had 22 points, including 17 in

the third quarter as Detroit came back from a19-point deficit to beat Chicago.

The Pistons trailed 72-53 with 7 minutes leftin the third quarter, but got a combined 27points and 13 assists from Jackson and fellowpoint guard Spencer Dinwiddie in the secondhalf. Detroit had already taken an 80-79 lead by

the start of the fourth. In all, the Pistonsoutscored the Bulls 47-11 in a 16-minute stretchspanning the final two quarters. Pau Gasol had27 points and 10 rebounds for Chicago.

WARRIORS 106, JAZZ 91Stephen Curry bounced back from his worst

shooting performance of the season to score 24points, and Leandro Barbosa added a season-high 19 off the bench as Golden State pulledaway late to beat Utah.

One day after shooting 4 of 17 in a win overNew Orleans, Curry went 8 of 18 from the flooragainst a Utah defense that had been the NBA’sstingiest over the past three weeks.

Draymond Green added 15 points, sixrebounds and seven assists for the Warriors (56-13), who have the best record in the NBA.Derrick Favors had 21 points and 11 reboundsfor the Jazz. Utah lost for only the fourth timesince the All-Star break. — AP

Grizzlies and Suns advance

NBA results/standings

Brooklyn 123, Indiana 111, Detroit 107, Chicago 91; Phoenix 117, Houston 102; Memphis 97,Portland 86; Golden State 106, Utah 91.

Eastern ConferenceAtlantic Division

W L PCT GB Toronto 41 28 .594 - Boston 30 38 .441 10.5 Brooklyn 29 39 .426 11.5 Philadelphia 17 52 .246 24 NY Knicks 14 55 .203 27

Central DivisionCleveland 45 26 .634 - Chicago 42 29 .592 3 Milwaukee 34 35 .493 10 Indiana 30 39 .435 14 Detroit 25 44 .362 19

Southeast DivisionAtlanta 53 16 .768 - Washington 40 29 .580 13 Miami 32 36 .471 20.5 Charlotte 29 38 .433 23 Orlando 22 49 .310 32

Western ConferenceNorthwest Division

Portland 44 24 .647 - Oklahoma City 39 30 .565 5.5 Utah 31 38 .449 13.5 Denver 26 44 .371 19 Minnesota 15 53 .221 29

Pacific DivisionGolden State 56 13 .812 - LA Clippers 45 25 .643 11.5 Phoenix 37 33 .529 19.5 Sacramento 23 45 .338 32.5 LA Lakers 17 50 .254 38

Southwest DivisionMemphis 49 21 .700Houston 46 23 .667 2.5San Antonio 43 25 .632 5Dallas 44 26 .629 5New Orleans 37 32 .536 11.5

PHOENIX: A couple of things stood outwhen Stacy Lewis glanced at a scoringmonitor Saturday night at the JTBCFounders Cup. For one, the leaderboardwas packed on a Desert Mountain courseknown for low scores and yesterdayshootouts. And at 30, she’s a lot older thanthe other leaders.

“I do feel old, yes,” Lewis said. “We knewit was coming. A lot of the young Koreanswere coming out, so it’s not surprising. Imean, they are fearless. They don’t have theexperience, so that ’s hopefully to myadvantage. “But it is a little strange to be 10years older than some of these girls.”

Hyo Joo Kim, at 19 already a majorchampion, finished off a 6-under 66 in thedark to take a two-stroke lead over Lewis.The South Korean player holed her 1 1/2-foot par putt on the final hole at 6:51 p.m. -11 minutes after sunset.

“Been really good with the driver, sec-ond, third (shots), totally all the clubs,” Kimsaid. “If I miss, I save, so I’m playing good.All the putts feel good.”

Kim made three straight birdies - the lastwith a 25-foot putt on the par-4 16th - andfinished at 16-under 200. She won theEvian Championship last year in France.

“I’ve won before and I’ve been playingfour or five times a year on the LPGA,” Kimsaid. “So I have experience, but not muchlike this in the States.”

Lewis shot a 67. After birdieing six of thefirst 11 holes to take the lead at 15 under,she had six pars and a bogey - on the par-314th - on the final seven holes.

“I feel like I played a lot better than thescore,” Lewis said. “Had a bunch of putts,especially early, that I thought I made. Thehole locations coming in were prettytough, so I think to make some birdies, youreally had to hit some good shots.”

The 11-time tour winner was relieved tofinish the round Saturday in the event thatfinally caught up after falling behindThursday when rain delayed the start.

“The worst part is going to sleep think-ing about that one shot or that one puttyou have to hit,” Lewis said. “Just being ableto do the normal stuff in the morning andnot having to worry about going to bed so

early. You can watch some basketball.”Alison Lee and second-round leader Kim

Kaufman were third at 13 under. The 20-year-old Lee matched the course recordwith a 63, and the 23-year-old Kaufmanhad a 70. Top-ranked Lydia Ko was 12under after a 69. The 17-year-old NewZealander has broken par in her last 23LPGA Tour rounds and 26 worldwide, astreak that started in the first round of hervictory last year in the season-endingevent.

Ko won the Women’s Australian Openand the Ladies European Tour ’s NewZealand Women’s Open in consecutiveweeks this year. She tied for second lastyear at Desert Ridge, finishing a strokebehind Karrie Webb. Mi Hyang Lee and HaNa Jang also were 12 under, and six moreplayers were 11 under.

“I think it almost makes things easierbecause you have to just go out there andplay and see what happens,” Lewis saidabout the packed leaderboard. “You can’twatch one person or the people in yourgroups. You’ve just got to go play golf.”

Lee, still a student at UCLA after turningpro in December, tied the course record setby Ai Miyazato in 2013 and matched lastyear by Webb, Cristie Kerr and Hee-WonHan. Lee also matched the best score of hercareer. “I kind of played my own game,” Leesaid. “I really didn’t even realize that I wasplaying that well until the last hole when Ifinally looked at the scoreboard.”

She finished on the par-4 ninth, hitting a9-iron to 1 1/2 feet. “I was hitting all myapproach shots really well,” Lee said.Making her third LPGA Tour start as a pro-fessional, Lee won the Pac-12 title last yearas a freshman and was co-medalist at Q-school. She finished finals last week andplans to take more classes in the fall

Webb came from six strokes back ineach of her two victories in the event, clos-ing with a 66 in 2011 and the 63 last year.The Australian had a 73 on Saturday, leav-ing her 10 strokes behind Kim.

“It’s going to be a shootout,” Lewis said.“It’s going to be what this golf course setsup for and the leaderboard this year sets upfor it even more.” — AP

SYDNEY: The New South Waratahs beat theACT Brumbies 28-13 yesterday to get theirSuper rugby title defence back on track in amatch that shone a light on the best andworst of Australian rugby. Matches betweenthe Waratahs and Brumbies are always bruis-ing, physical battles and yesterday’s clash atthe Sydney Football Stadium kept faith withthat tradition.

Tensions were high throughout. Therewere no fist fights but the ACT Brumbies’flanker David Pocock, a vocal supporter ofsame sex marriages, complained to the refer-ee about homophobic slurs being made bythe Waratahs players. Waratahs coach MichaelCheika said he was reluctant to comment onthe issue because he hadn’t heard what wasalleged to have been said on the field.

“The way I see it is like this: if there’s anissue, it will come to light,” Cheika said. “Whenit comes to light, I’ll make my position clear onit.” The ACT Brumbies coach Stephen Larkhamwas also tightlipped when asked about theincident at the post match news conference.

“We haven’t had a chance to chat to every-one about everything that happened outthere but we will investigate it further,” hesaid. “But I didn’t hear it and I wasn’t on thefield... and I certainly didn’t hear it. “It wasreported as that. We’ll have to talk to individu-als and see what the process is.” The Waratahstook the spoils in the match, thanks in part tosome brilliant individual performances, nonebetter than Israel Folau.

The NSW fullback scored one try, threw thefinal pass for two others and looked danger-ous every time he got his hands on the ball.

Bernard Foley, at flyhalf, also played wellfor the Waratahs, scoring a try and kicking twopenalties and two conversions while KurtleyBeale made some strong runs from centre.

The Brumbies had good some performerstoo. Matt Toomua scored a fine solo try in thethird minute and Henry Speight was a con-stant threat on the wing. Flanker DavidPocock also made a successful comeback afterbut overall, the Waratahs defended better andwere more disciplined and got the rewards.

The win lifted the Waratahs to eighth placein the standings after six rounds and in posi-tion to challenge for the playoffs. TheBrumbies missed their chance to remain thetop of the table, slipping to second spotbehind the unbeaten Wellington Hurricanes.This was arguably their worst performance of

the season but hardly fatal.With the Waratahs and Brumbies likely to

provide the bulk of Australia’s squad for theWorld Cup later this year, yesterday’s clashwas also a chance for the players to press theirclaims with the NSW and Australian coachCheika watching from the stands.

His biggest concern would have been withthe set-pieces, particularly the scrums. Timeand time again, the scrums collapsed, forcingre-sets and resulting in free-kicks. There wasalso some concern about the Wallabies centreTevita Kuridrani after he left the field with anapparent shoulder injury. — Reuters

Waratahs beat Brumbies

David Pocock

Kim leads Founders Cup

PHOENIX: Hyo Joo Kim hits a tee shot on the sixth hole during the third round of theLPGA Tourís JTBC Founders Cup. — AP

KUWAIT: Kuwait Shooting Sports Clubannounced that preparations for KuwaitOil Tankers Company championshipwhich will be held at Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Olympic Shooting Complex fromMarch 26-28, have begun.

Competition will be in the followingevents: 10m air pistol and rifle, 50m threepositions, 50m free pistol, 25m pistol formen, women and juniors.

Secretary General of Arab and KuwaitShooting Federations said KOTCChampionship is among the events onKuwait Shooting Sports Club agendaannually as it is distinguished andattracts many shooters. He said KOTCholds the tournament to encourage andsupport shooters, and he thanked thecompany on behalf of the chairman and

board members for their efforts to helpand support the shooting sport to con-tinue their achievements, and wished thecompany all success.

KOTC shooting tourney

Obaid Al-Osaimi

LEEDS: Scott Grix scored a hat-trick inside theopening nine minutes as Huddersfield Giantsmoved up to fourth place in the Super Leaguewith a 44-14 victory over Wakefield TrinityWildcats at Belle Vue yesterday. The full-back gotthe visitors off to the perfect start with his quick-fire treble - the 30-year-old’s third a stunningsolo effort from 80 metres.

Wakefield fought back with Dean Collis andDanny Kirmond efforts, coupled with JordanCrowther’s converted try just after half-time,reducing the deficit to 18-14.

But second-half tries from Brett Ferres,Danny Brough - who finished with 16 points intotal - Leroy Cudjoe and Ukuma Ta’ai eased anyGiants nerves, and Wakefield’s fourth successiveloss left them bottom of the table.

Elsewhere yesterday, Danny Galea scored atry to help Widnes Vikings emerge 20-16 win-ners against Hull KR. Paddy Flynn also bagged adouble for the Vikings who claimed just theirsecond win of the season to leapfrog Rovers inthe table.

Leeds Rhinos kept up the pace with leadersSt Helens following a 26-14 victory over WiganWarriors on Friday - but the big surprise came inthe team selection as the Rhinos handed a startto full-back Zak Hardaker. Hardaker had admit-ted an assault on a student earlier in the weekafter Leeds had reported the 23-year-oldEngland international to police, but it didn’tseem to affect the hosts. Matty Smith did openthe scoring for Wigan before former NewcastleKnight Adam Cuthbertson, teenage debutant

Ash Handley and Brad Singleton hit back for theRhinos. Joe Burgess’ try for the Warriors made it16-14 at half-time but further scores from LiamSutcliffe and Rob Burrow ensured Leedsremained second.

At the other end of the table Hull FC movedoff the bottom with a 33-22 win at home toCatalans Dragons. Catalans’ Vincent Duportopened the scoring, but Hull eased into a leadthanks to tries from Marc Sneyd, 23-year-oldAustralian Jordan Rankin, Steven Michaels andTonga international Fetuli Talanoa. Thomas Boscgrabbed the Dragons’ second try to make it 22-10 at the interval but Tom Lineham added twotries for the hosts before Morgan Escare andNew Zealander Zeb Taia reduced the deficit forFrench side late on. Catalans lost ground on thechasing pack and they are now just a pointahead of Castleford following the Tigers’ 30-16win against Salford Red Devils on Friday.

Justin Carney was among the Castlefordscorers as they entered the break 22-12 to thegood - Weller Hauraki one of two try-scorers forthe Red Devils in the first half.

But both sides finished the opening 40 min-utes with 12 men as Carney and Salford’s RangiChase were sin-binned. Carney went on to grabhis second try of the evening as the Tigersearned their second successive home win incomfortable fashion.

On Thursday, reigning champions St Helensmaintained their 100 per cent start to the SuperLeague season with a hard-fought 32-24 successat home to Warrington Wolves. —AFP

Grix hat-tricktames Wildcats

MERIBEL: Anna Fenninger of Austria holds up the alpine ski, women’s World Cupgiant slalom discipline trophy at the World Cup finals. — AP

S P O RT SMONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

NEW YORK: Two down, four to go for the KentuckyWildcats as they try to become the first unbeatennational champion since Indiana in 1976. Villanovabecame the first top seed out as it lost to NorthCarolina State, while UCLA came up with a second winin the tournament, not bad for a team that many saiddidn’t even belong in the field of 68.

The Atlantic Coast Conference continued its so-farperfect tournament run with wins by NC State, NorthCarolina and Notre Dame.

EAST REGIONNC STATE 71, VILLANOVA 68

NC State is back in the Sweet 16, attacking one ofthe top teams in the nation for 40 minutes and stun-ning Villanova 71-68 on Saturday night. The Wolfpackwent wild as the final horn sounded and dancedaround the court in celebration.

No, it wasn’t quite Jim Valvano’s mad dash after theWolfpack won the 1983 national championship. But theWolfpack (22-13) have designs on their own big Marchrun. They will move on to Syracuse, New York to playthe winner of the Louisville-Northern Iowa game. N.C.State guards Cat Barber and Desmond Lee shared along embrace after buzzer. Barber pounded his chestand said, “all heart!”

Lacey led them with 17 points and Barber had 13,each coming with big buckets to hold off a lateVillanova charge. The Wildcats saw a 16-game winningstreak end and have not reached the second weekendsince 2009.

SOUTH REGIONUTAH 75, GEORGETOWN 64

Brandon Taylor scored 14 points and Delon Wrightadded 12 and the fifth-seeded Utah beat No. 4Georgetown 75-64 on Saturday night.

The Utes (26-8) will travel to Houston to play thewinner of Sunday’s game in Charlotte, North Carolina,between top-seeded Duke (30-4) and No. 8 San DiegoState (27-8). Utah hasn’t advanced to the Sweet 16since 2005, when the Utes fell as the No. 6 seed to No. 2Kentucky. The Utes are making their first tournamentappearance since 2009.

UCLA 92, UAB 75LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (AP) - Tony Parker led five

Bruins in double figures with a career-high 28 pointsand grabbed 12 rebounds for 11th-seeded UCLA onSaturday to advance to its second straight Sweet 16.The Bruins (22-13), the team many thought shouldn’thave even been in the field of 68, have won six of theirlast seven games in earning their first consecutiveSweet 16 berths since reaching the Final Four threestraight seasons between 2006 and 2008. They will playeither Gonzaga or Iowa on Friday in the South Regionalsemifinal in Houston. Kevon Looney had 10 points and11 rebounds for UCLA. Bryce Alford had 22 points,Norman Powell 15 and Isaac Hamilton 13.

The 14th-seeded Blazers (20-16) missed out on theirfirst regional semifinal since 2004 coming off their bigupset of No. 3 seed Iowa State on Thursday. RobertBrown led the Blazers with 25 points and William Leeadded 10.

MIDWEST REGIONKENTUCKY 64, CINCINNATI 51

Aaron Harrison scored 13 points and Trey Lylesadded 11 points and 11 rebounds and top-rankedKentucky outworked eighth-seeded Cincinnati toremain undefeated and reach the Sweet 16 for the sec-ond straight season.

Despite the Wildcats’ sixth straight double-digit win,they faced their toughest test in a while and didn’tseem totally in control until the final minutes. The phys-ical, pesky Bearcats made Kentucky work hard for everyshot and rebound in an intense contest.

But the Wildcats (36-0) succeeded by making life dif-ficult on both ends for Cincinnati, holding the Bearcatsto 32 percent shooting including just 24 percent in thesecond half. Kentucky blocked six shots after halftimeand Willie Cauley-Stein had a highlight-reel slam dunkthat may be the play of the tournament. The Wildcatsmove on to face the Maryland-West Virginia winner inthe Midwest Regional on Thursday in Cleveland.

NOTRE DAME 67, BUTLER 64Brian Grant scored 16 points, including the clinch-

ing layup with 18 seconds left in overtime, and thethird-seeded Notre Dame edged the Butler 67-64.Notre Dame (31-5) moved on to the Sweet 16 for thefirst time since 2003 and will play Kansas or WichitaState in the Midwest Regional semifinals on Thursdayin Cleveland. Steve Vasturia led Notre Dame with 20points. Demetrius Jackson added 13 points, and ZachAuguste had seven points and 13 rebounds for theIrish, which beat the Bulldogs for the first time in 26years. Roosevelt Jones played through an injured leftknee while scoring 23 points for Butler (23-11), butanother this NCAA run ended abruptly in the extrasession.

WEST REGIONARIZONA 73, OHIO ST. 58

Gabe York made five 3-pointers and finished with 19points and T.J. McConnell also scored 19 points as sec-ond-seeded Arizona advanced to the Sweet 16 for thethird straight year. The Wildcats (33-3) overcame a slug-gish start until their outside shooting busted theBuckeyes’ zone defense, which they rarely used during

the regular season but broke out for the NCAATournament. The Pac-12 champions went ahead by 15points with 6:34 remaining and held off 10th-seededOhio State (24-11) in the closing minutes.

Arizona will face the winner of Xavier-Georgia Statein the West Regional semifinals Thursday in LosAngeles. The Buckeyes gave the Wildcats all they couldhandle, even with standout freshman D’Angelo Russellstruggling with his shot.

Russell scored nine points and made just 3 of 19shots after going for 28 points in Ohio State’s overtimewin over VCU in its tournament opener. He had sevenrebounds and six assists. Sam Thompson added 18points and Shannon Scott scored 10 for the Buckeyes,who led by six points in the first half but never couldmatch Arizona’s size. The Wildcats won the reboundingbattle 43-26.

XAVIER 75, GEORGIA STATE 67Jalen Reynolds and Myles Davis came off the bench

for a combined 38 points as sixth-seeded Xavier endthe biggest feel-good story of the NCAA Tournamentwith a 75-67 victory over Georgia State on Saturdaynight. The Musketeers (23-13) advanced to the Sweet16 for the third time in six years under coach ChrisMack. They’ll face No. 2 seed Arizona - a 73-58 winnerover Ohio State - in the West Regional semifinals in Los

Angeles. No. 14 seed Georgia State (25-10), whoseinjured coach Ron Hunter worked the sideline in arolling chair, upset No. 3 seed Baylor Thursday. Hunter,who tore his Achilles tendon celebrating his team win-ning the Sun Belt Conference title, and his son and starplayer, RJ, became the darlings of the tournament.

NORTH CAROLINA 87, ARKANSAS 76Marcus Paige scored 22 points, including 20 in the

second half, as North Carolina beat Arkansas 87-78 inthe NCAA Tournament on Saturday and advanced tothe Sweet 16 for the first time in three years. Paigemissed seven of eight shots in the first half, including allthree from 3-point range, and was pretty much a non-factor as the Tar Heels let the Razorbacks keep thingsclose. But the junior guard took over in the second half,scoring 13 of his team’s 17 points during a 5-minutestretch that helped North Carolina build a double-digitlead. The Tar Heels held on from there, thanks partly toPaige closing things out from the free-throw line andwith his ball-handling skills.

UNC advanced to play either No. 1 seed Wisconsinor eighth-seeded Oregon in the West Regional nextweek in Los Angeles. It will be Carolina’s 26th appear-ance in the Sweet 16. Michael Qualls led Arkansas with27 points and 10 rebounds. Bobby Portis finished with18 points and 14 boards. — AP

Kentucky stay unbeaten

PITTSBURGH: Villanova’s Dylan Ennis (31) shoots over North Carolina State’s Ralston Turner (frontleft) during the first half of an NCAA tournament third-round college basketball game. — AP

MERIBEL: Austria’s Anna Fenningersnatched the overall women’s World Cuptitle for the second year in succession in anail-biting finale to the Alpine skiing sea-son yesterday.

For the first time in the history of theWorld Cup, the overall title was decided onthe very last run of the last race of the sea-son. Fenninger had been fastest in the firstleg of the closing giant slalom and handledthe pressure, winning with a 0.38 secondslead over team-mate Eva-Maria Brem.

Slovenia’s Tina Maze, the 2013 overallchampion who had led Fenninger by 18points in the standings before the race, fin-ished third and 0.46 seconds short of hersecond World Cup title.

Maze ultimately lost out by 22 points.”Ihad to find some extra strength to win thisrace and everything that went along withit. It’s over at last and the pressure eases off.I don’t really know what to think just yet,”Fenninger said.

“I had so much pressure. I’m glad thingsworked out well again but I’m as much

tired as I’m happy. I can imagine how disap-pointed Tina must be but in a few daysshe’ll realise what a great battle thatwas.”For me, it was the craziest experience Iever had.” The men’s World Cup showdownwas also a tight one but the outcome wasthe same as last year with Austria’s MarcelHirscher bagging his fourth big globe insuccession.

Maze, who led the way for most of theseason, ended the winter with the consola-tion of the downhill and super-combinedworld championship golds while Fenningertook the giant slalom and Super-G inBeaver Creek a month ago.

Lindsey Vonn, the other star of 2014-2015 who bagged the downhill and Super-G crystal globes, finished off with a promis-ing fifth place in yesterday’s giant slalom.

It was also a season of farewells as Swissdownhill Olympic champion DominiqueGisin announced her retirement along withSpain’s Carolina Ruiz-Castillo andFrenchwomen Marion Rolland and MarieJay-Marchand-Arvier. — Reuters

ERFURT: Overall World Cup winner Martina Sablikova of Czech Republic (right) celebratestogether with the second placed Claudia Pechstein of Germany (left) during the women’s3,000 meters flower ceremony at the Speedskating World Cup. — AP

ERFURT: Brittany Bowe of the UnitedStates, Nao Kodaira of Japan and MartinaSablikova of the Czech Republic all wonspeedskating World Cup titles at the lastmeet of the season yesterday.

Sablikova, the world champion, clinchedthe women’s 3,000-meter title, clocking 4minutes, 4.06 seconds in the race to edgeDutch skaters Marije Joling and DianeValkenburg by 1.58 and 3.79 seconds,respectively.

Sablikova finished with 580 points,ahead of Germany’s Claudia Pechstein on360 and Dutch skater Ireen Wust on 350.The 43-year-old Pechstein was fourth in therace. Wust didn’t compete at Erfurt.

Kodaira came third in the second 500 ofthe weekend which was enough to winthat distance title with Olympic championLee Sang-hwa of South Korea not compet-ing. Heather Richardson of the UnitedStates won the race ahead of compatriotBowe for the second day in a row, finishingin 37.97 seconds to edge Bowe by twotenths of a second and Kodaira by 0.72.

Kodaira finished the 500 World Cup with926 points, beating Lee by 46 and

Richardson by 216. Bowe later pippedMarrit Leenstra of the Netherlands to the1,000 title by just three points.

Leenstra had been leading the stand-ings going into the final race, but Bowe ledanother American 1-2, clocking 1:14.61 tobeat Richardson by 0.52 and Leenstra by1.17. Bowe’s first place earned her 150points for a total of 510. Leenstra earned106 points and finished with 507. With justthe mass start scheduled for later Sunday,Richardson - who celebrated her 26thbirthday on Friday - was leading the overallWorld Cup standings with 1,105 points,ahead of Bowe on 1,045. Sablikova had946. Ruslan Murashov of Russia won thesecond men’s 500 of the weekend, clocking34.97 to edge both Laurent Dubreuil ofCanada and Michel Mulder of theNetherlands by 0.13.

Pavel Kulizhnikov of Russia didn’t raceafter claiming the distance and overallWorld Cup titles on Saturday. Bart Swingsof Belgium won the men’s 1,500 by clock-ing 1:46.81, beating Poland’s KonradNiedzwiedzki by 0.30 and China’s Li Bailinby 1.49. — AP

Sablikova, Kodaira

and Bowe win titles

Fenninger retains

World Cup

MERIBEL: Marcel Hirscher completed a clean sweepat the Alpine skiing World Cup Finals yesterday whenhe added the slalom crystal globe to his fourth suc-cessive overall title.

The Austrian, crowned overall World Cup champi-on after Saturday’s giant slalom, dominated the finalrace of the season to topple Germany’s FelixNeureuther from the top spot in the discipline.

Hirscher clinched his eighth victory of the winter ina combined time of one minute and 33.53 seconds,0.83 ahead of former slalom Olympic championGiuliano Razzoli of Italy while Russia’s AlexanderKhoroshilov was third, 1.09 adrift.

He beat Neureuther by 23 points to end the seasonwith three crystal globes-overall, giant slalom andslalom-and a sweep of the technical disciplines. “I did-n’t have the choice. I needed to finish first or second tobeat Felix. So the tactics were pretty simple,” saidHirscher. “Felix and I are very good friends and that’swhy I can’t rejoice completely. It’s the third time I tookthe cup away from him under his nose,” he added.

“Marcel, when he skis like that, and it’s the finalsand it’s about the globe, he’s difficult to beat,” saidNeureuther, who cited lingering back problems toexplain his disappointing 12th place in Sunday’sslalom. In the final overall standings, the best skier ofthe last four seasons eventually left closest rival KjetilJansrud of Norway 160 points behind. Jansrud haddecided not to take part in Sunday’s slalom, effectivelyhanding Hirscher the season’s overall title, but tookthe downhill and Super-G crowns. — Reuters

Hirscher sweeps World Cup

season with slalom globe

MERIBEL: Marcel Hirscher of Austria competes during the men’s World Cup slalom race, at theWorld Cup finals. — AP

KNOXVILLE: Chattanooga’s Moses Johnson (23), Jasmine Joyner (center) and Pittsburgh (cen-ter) Cora McManus (51) battle for a rebound in the first half of an NCAA women’s college bas-ketball tournament game. — AP

MONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

WELLINGTON: Members of the New Zealand team leave the field after defeating the West Indies by 143 runs during their Cricket World Cupquarterfinal match in Wellington, New Zealand on Saturday. — AP

AUCKLAND: New Zealand will hope it’s a case ofseventh time lucky when they face South Africa atAuckland’s Eden Park tomorrow, as all six of theirprevious World Cup semi-finals have ended indefeat. Below AFP Sport looks back at the BlackCaps’ litany of last-four woes:

1975, The Oval: New Zealand 158 (G Howarth51; B Julien 4-27) lost to the West Indies 159-5 (AKallicharran 72, G Greenidge 55) by 5 wkts One-dayinternationals were still in their infancy when acrack West Indies side with plenty of limited oversexperience in English county cricket proved toostrong in the last four of the inaugural World Cup.

Left-arm paceman Bernard Julien’s haul wasmainly responsible for New Zealand batting fewerthan 53 of their then scheduled 60 overs, with GeoffHowarth-who played at The Oval for Surrey-top-scoring with 51. A second-wicket stand of 125between Gordon Greenidge and Alvin Kallicharranthen took the West Indies, the eventual champions,to the brink of victory.

1979, Old Trafford: New Zealand 212-9 (JWright 69) lost to England 221-8 (G Gooch 71, MBrearley 53) by 9 runs. The closest New Zealandhave yet come to a World Cup final saw them justedged out in a match that went the distance.

New Zealand great Richard Hadlee took a miser-ly one for 32 in 12 overs but fifties from GrahamGooch and England captain Mike Brearley saw the

hosts to a decent total. Opener John Wrightanchored New Zealand’s chase until he was run outby Derek Randall and, as wickets kept falling, a tar-get of 14 off the last over, bowled by Ian Botham,proved just beyond New Zealand.

1992, Auckland: New Zealand 262-7 (M Crowe91, K Rutherford 50) lost to Pakistan 264-6(Inzamam-ul-Haq 60, Javed Miandad 57 no) by 4wkts New Zealand captain Martin Crowe led fromthe front but suffered a pulled hamstring and a mix-up with his runner saw him run out nine runs shy ofa hundred. But with Ken Rutherford making 50,New Zealand set Pakistan a stiff chase by the stan-dards of the time. However, Crowe-in a bid to be fitfor the final-wasn’t on the field when Pakistan bat-ted and, as a result, a series of elaborate bowlingchanges he had planned were not carried out byacting skipper Wright.

Pakistan were 140 for four after 35 overs, need-ing 123 from the last 15. But Inzamam-ul-Haqannounced himself to the world with a brilliantinnings and, with veteran batsman Javed Miandad,he shared a match-changing stand of 87.

1999, Old Trafford: New Zealand 241-7 lost toPakistan 242-1 (Saeed Anwar 113 no, WajahatullahWasti 84) by 9 wkts New Zealand, despite fastbowler Shoaib Akhtar taking three wickets, stillmanaged what seemed a decent total.

But they were undone by a superb opening

stand of 194 between Saeed Anwar andWajahatullah Wasti. The match ended in chaoswhen, with Pakistan needing two runs for victory,Roger Twose abandoned an attempt to catchAnwar as spectators charged on to the field, withthe runs awarded later by the umpires.

2007, Kingston: New Zealand 208 (MMuralitharan 4-31) lost to Sri Lanka 289-5 (MJayawardene 115 no, U Tharanga 73) by 81 runsNew Zealand were rarely in this contest at Jamaica’sSabina Park.

Sri Lanka piled up an imposing total on the backof a brilliant hundred by Mahela Jayawardene and afifty by opener Upul Tharanga. In reply, no NewZealand batsman made more than opener PeterFulton’s 46, with off-spin great Muttiah Muralitharantaking four wickets after Sri Lanka’s new-ballbowlers had made early inroads.

2011, RPS Colombo: New Zealand 217 (S Styris57) lost to Sri Lanka 220-5 ( T Dilshan 73, KSangakkara 54) by 5 wkts. New Zealand struggledfor runs, with Scott Styris playing largely a lonehand in an innings where the next best score was39, while paceman Lasith Malinga and spinnerAjantha Mendis took three wickets each.

Fine fifties from Tillakaratne Dilshan and KumarSangakkara meant that, although Sri Lanka lostthree wickets in the 160s, they inflicted anothersemi-final defeat upon New Zealand. — AFP

New Zealand’s W Cup semi-final heartbreak

SYDNEY: By his own lofty standards, ViratKohli has had a modest World Cup so far. Buthis Indian teammates all think the elegantstroke-maker will live up to his reputation as abig-match player when it matters. And fewgames matter more than Thursday’s semi-finalagainst Australia. For Kohli, it ’s a goldenopportunity to get back amongst the runs.

“I don’t think he has batted badly. When hehas got an opportunity he has scored runs,”India’s World Cup captain Mahendra SinghDhoni said.

“It’s not that he has scored a century everytime he has gone out to bat. But everybodyrelating his performance with the test seriesand expecting a hundred in every inningsfrom him.”

Kohli’s lean run at the World Cup has beenpuzzling, partly because of his great recordrecord in One Day Internationals and his greatform this summer.

He has scored 22 ODIs, averages almost 52from 157 matches in the format and is amongIndia’s best batmen. He replaced Dhoni as testcaptain for India’s last match against Australiain Sydney in January and scored four hun-dreds in the series and averaged over 86.

But his form in ODI has fallen away. Hemade a century in India’s opening World Cupmatch against Pakistan but hasn’t made a fiftysince. Known equally for his silken touch withthe bat and a penchant for run-ins with oppo-sition players, Kohli also found himselfembroiled in controversy after swearing at ajournalist over a story about his personal life.The batting mainstay was censured by theIndian board for his ugly outburst against thetravelling Indian journalist in Perth andadvised to maintain his cool.

After his 107 against Pakistan in Adelaide,he has scored 46, 33 not out, 33, 44 not out,38 and 3 and Dhoni backed him for a big onesoon. “I don’t think there has been any poorshot selection. He is a dominant batsman wholikes playing his shots when he goes in to bat,”Dhoni said. “It’s quite difficult but at the sametime I feel it is important to keep focussing onthe process. It’s just around the corner and bigplayers always score in big games.” — Reuters

India hoping Kohli will deliver against Aussies

AUSTRALIA : Indian batsman Virat Kohli walks out to bat during a training session. — AFP

ADELAIDE: Pakistan will pin their hopes onthe next generation after their World Cupcampaign ended with a quarter-final exit toAustralia but with departing skipperMisbah-ul-Haq warning the team is not upto international scratch.

Pakistan, the 1992 champions, lost theirfirst two matches to India and the WestIndies before staging a comeback with fourconsecutive wins to earn a berth in thequarter-finals.

But Pakistan went down by six wicketsagainst Australia in Adelaide, a defeatwhich critics argue exposed the weakness-es of the players and system.

None of Pakistan’s younger batsmen-Ahmed Shehzad, Umar Akmal and SohaibMaqsood-could match the guile of 40-year-old Misbah who was the main run-getterwith 350 in seven matches.

“It’s necessary that the younger bats-men take responsibility,” said Misbah, whoquit ODI cricket after Friday’s defeat. “Theyare talented players but maybe they werenot made responsible enough to help theteam.” Akmal is the most talented of themall but he failed to turn his full potentialinto performances, scoring only 164 runs inseven innings.

His dismissal on Saturday, giving a sim-ple catch to Aaron Finch off part-timerGlenn Maxwell, highlighted his shortcom-ings. Shehzad managed 222 at the tourna-ment while Maqsood scored 124 in fiveinnings.”If our cricket is to match interna-tional standards then our youngsters haveto work hard,” said Misbah. “They are thebest performers in domestic cricket so theyhave to take the mantle from us.

“Besides batting, fitness and fielding aretwo key areas where our players have towork very hard because they are not up tointernational standards,” said Misbah.

Pakistan’s preparations for the World

Cup were badly hit by the suspension oface spinner Saeed Ajmal for an illegal bowl-ing action and injuries to pacemen UmarGul and Junaid Khan and spinning all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez (also suspend-ed for his action).

Former captain Wasim Akram said thesystem is so faulty that there are no back-ups. “When Ajmal and Junaid were out, wedid not have back-up bowlers and that hitPakistan badly,” said Wasim.

“Until and unless we put our house inorder we are not going to stand up and becounted against top teams like Australia,India and South Africa.”

The return of Junaid and possibly ofMohammad Aamir, who started playingdomestic cricket last week after his five-year ban for spot-fixing was relaxed, willstrengthen the bowling.

But it ’s the batting woes that needattention, a problem Misbah hoped wouldbe solved sooner rather than later. “Maybethe lack of international exposure was hurt-ing the batsmen so I have suggested to thePakistan Cricket Board that they arrangemore and more cricket for these youngstersbecause batsmen can only get better withexposure,” said Misbah.

Pakistan’s most pressing task will be topick up a new captain for the one-dayteam. Hafeez would be one contender as isShehzad but both have their problems oftheir own.

Hafeez’s bowling action was deemedillegal in November while Shehzad has ahistory of disciplinary problems. Formercaptain Shoaib Malik and senior batsmanYounis Khan have also shown desire to leadPakistan’s one-day team but the PCB lastyear said it wanted a young leader to followMisbah. “I think Pakistan should start build-ing a team for the next World Cup now,”said Misbah. — AFP

Pakistan pin hopes on next generation

WELLINGTON: Chris Gayle intends to keepplaying international cricket with his eyeson the 2016 World Twenty20 but admittedhis back injury will sideline him from nextmonth’s Test series against England. The 35-year-old Jamaican hit a typically flamboy-ant 33-ball 61 as West Indies slumped to acrushing 143-run defeat to New Zealand inthe World Cup quarter-finals on Saturdaywith many in the game expecting Gayle toend his rollercoaster relationship with thenational team.

But the veteran of 103 Tests and 269ODIs intends to keep playing and is keen tohelp West Indies to the World T20 in Indianext year where they’ll look for a secondtitle to add to their 2012 triumph.

“Definitely want to play the T20 WorldCup next year for West Indies, there’s nodoubt about that,” Gayle toldwww.ESPNcricinfo.

“I ’ve got a few concerns and a fewinjuries to try and solve. I’ll give myselfsome time and hopefully look back at itand see how well I can actually progress forWest Indies cricket at this point in time.”

Bu the left-handed opener, who hit aWorld Cup record score of 215 at the WorldCup until it was bettered on Saturday byNew Zealand’s Martin Guptill with 237, willnot play in the three-Test home seriesagainst England in April and May to rest his

back injury. “I’m actually out of the Testseries, the back won’t hold up for that for-mat at this point in time. But I haven’tretired from any format as yet. As I go on Iwill keep informing the West Indies CricketBoard about my progress in the future withWest Indies cricket.”

On Saturday, and with the West Indieshaving to chase 394 at the Westpac, Gaylehit 56 of his 61 runs in boundaries, includ-ing eight sixes, as he was reduced to walk-ing pace between the wickets.

But he put that down to a groin strainrather than his troublesome back. “Theback actually held up well, to be honestwith you, in the outfield for 50 overs andthen opening the batting,” he said.

“It wasn’t too bad, slight scare againwith a niggle in the groin, so all that washappening, and you have to take the con-ditions into consideration, it was a bit coldand you’re feeling some pain.”

Gayle said he was looking forward toworking with former international all-rounder Phil Simmons, who will take overas West Indies coach next month after sign-ing a three-year deal with the WICB. “I knowPhil well,” Gayle said. “He’s a good man, hehas done well with Ireland and he’s one ofus as well, so there’s no doubt about it. Weknow how we can actually become astronger unit.” — AFP

Gayle rules out retirementNEW ZEALAND: West Indies’ batsman Chris Gayle is bowled out in this file photo. — AFP

S P O RT SMONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

LIVERPOOL: Liverpool’s Emre Can (bottom) fights for the ball against Manchester United’s Marouane Fellaini during the English Premier Leaguesoccer match. — AP

LIVERPOOL: Steven Gerrard’s last game againstManchester United ended with an ignominiousred card as Juan Mata’s superb double con-demned Liverpool to a 2-1 defeat at Anfield yes-terday.

In his final appearance against his club’s eter-nal foes before leaving for the Los AngelesGalaxy, Liverpool captain Gerrard came on athalf-time, only to be sent off after 43 seconds fora crude stamp on Ander Herrera, who had creat-ed Mata’s 14th-minute opener.

Mata added a glorious, volleyed second goaland despite Daniel Sturridge’s reply and WayneRooney seeing a late penalty saved, United heldon to condemn Liverpool to a first league defeatsince their 3-0 loss at Old Trafford in December’sreverse fixture.

Liverpool’s run of 13 games without defeathad given them an opportunity to knock Unitedout of the Champions League places, butinstead Louis van Gaal’s side remain fourth, ahealthy five points above their rivals with eightgames of the season remaining.

Gerrard’s moment of madness proved the

game’s major talking point, but there was no dis-guising United’s superiority as they confirmedthe return to form sparked by last weekend’s 3-0defeat of Tottenham Hotspur.

After a fourth consecutive league win-andonly a second success at Anfield in eight visits-United will now anticipate forthcoming gamesagainst Aston Villa, Manchester City and Chelseawith something approaching the confidence ofold. Brendan Rodgers’s Liverpool players, mean-while, head into the international break hopingto find a second wind when they return.

With Pele and United greats Alex Fergusonand Bobby Charlton in the directors’ box, therewas no shortage of football royalty in atten-dance as the two teams-both unchanged-tookto the field beneath warm spring sunshine.

Visiting goalkeeper David de Gea had to slideout and foil Raheem Sterling early on, but it wasUnited who took control, patiently stringingpasses together in defence and probing for gapsin a Liverpool side who displayed uncharacteris-tic carelessness with the ball.

Following a spell of possession, Herrera creat-ed the opener with a fine, piercing through ballto his Spanish compatriot Mata, who assuredlyfound the bottom-left corner with his weakerright foot. By way of response, Sturridge lashedan audacious volley wide from JordanHenderson’s lofted pass, but with the Unitedsupporters behind De Gea’s goal in full, crowingvoice, the home side seemed cowed. It was notuntil 10 minutes before half-time that Liverpool

created a chance of note, but when JordanHenderson’s superb right-wing cross was teedup for Adam Lallana by Sturridge, the formerSouthampton man could only shoot wide withDe Gea rooted to the spot.

Rodgers took decisive action at half-time byintroducing Gerrard in place of Lallana, but itwas a move that would back-fire spectacularly.

Seconds after coming on, Gerrard clatteredinto Mata and when Herrera then returned thefavour, the Liverpool skipper reacted with acrude stamp on his opponent’s left calf that leftreferee Martin Atkinson with no option but tosend him off. Philippe Coutinho attempted tosound the revolt, shooting narrowly over fromwhat has become trademark long range, but justbefore the hour, United doubled their lead witha sumptuous goal.

Four minutes after replacing Ashley Young,Angel di Maria clipped a pass into the box toMata, who catapulted a sensational scissors kickpast Simon Mignolet.

There seemed no way back for the home side,but 10 minutes later Coutinho freed Sturridgewith a pass down the inside-right channel andthe England striker rattled a right-foot shotinside De Gea’s near post. After Emre Can washarshly adjudged to have bundled Daley Blindto the ground, Rooney saw his spot-kick parriedby Mignolet, but it was United’s day andLiverpool’s match ended on a sour note withMartin Skrtel appearing to stamp on De Gea ashe chased a through ball. — AFP

Mata ends Reds runLiverpool 1

Man United 2

QPR 1

Everton 2

LONDON: Loic Remy scored within two min-utes of coming on as a substitute as Chelseabattled to a 3-2 victory against Hull thatmoved them six points clear at the top of thePremier League yesterday. Goals from EdenHazard and Diego Costa put Jose Mourinho’sside in command

in the first nine minutes at the KC Stadium,but Hull showed admirable determination todraw level with two goals in quick successionfrom Ahmed Elmohamady and AbelHernandez before half-time.

Mourinho had warned his side againstcomplacency as they bid to finish ahead ofsecond placed Manchester City and earn theirfirst title since 2010, so there was a real senseof relief among Chelsea’s players and sup-porters when French striker Remy came offthe bench to score with 13 minutes left. It wasBlues’ first win in three games in all competi-tions. Hull know as well as anyone just howincisive Hazard can be after the Belgian hadscored twice in the last two Premier Leaguemeetings between the teams and it took himjust 78 seconds to make it three in three.

Costa displayed trademark strength toreceive Nemanja Matic’s pass and turn AlexBruce, laying the ball off to Hazard in theprocess. Hazard’s shot from 20 yards arrowedbeyond Allan McGregor and into the cornerof the net. Uruguay striker Hernandez squan-dered a good chance to level in the fifthminute. David Meyler’s pass was flicked on byDame N’Doye to Hernandez, but the Hullstriker rushed his shot and fired directly intothe chest of Thibaut Courtois.

As if to highlight Hull’s lack of cuttingedge, Costa doubled the visitors’ advantagefour minutes later. Hazard dropped deep totake control of the attack and fed the ball toCesc Fabregas, who supplied Costa in the left

channel.Michael Dawson made the mistake of

allowing the Spain striker to carry the ballinto the 18 yards box and the result was acurling shot for his 19th club goal of the sea-son. Even at that early stage, the gamelooked lost for Hull and credit must go tomanager Steve Bruce for a tactical switch-from 3-5-2 to 4-2-3-1 — that allowed his side

to apply more pressure on the visitors anddraw level with two goals in 74 seconds.

Andy Robertson was moved to left-backfrom left wing-back but the Scotland interna-tional’s strength is getting forward.

The 21-year-old set up Hull’s first goalwhen he showed good strength to break intothe penalty area before delivering a perfectlow cross for Elmohamady to finish as he slidin. Courtois had no chance on that occasionbut the Belgium goalkeeper was highly cul-pable for Hull’s second from the subsequentattack.

Branislav Ivanovic’s pass put him underpressure as Gaston Ramirez closed the balldown but the goalkeeper tried to beat himrather than hack clear, only his touch was tooheavy and it allowed Hernandez to slide inand force the ball into the empty net. For theremainder of the half, the buoyant hosts tookthe game to Chelsea, who looked anythingbut a side in control of their destiny at the topof the table.

Mourinho, unsurprisingly, did not lookpleased. Few Costa performances would becomplete without at least one moment ofcontroversy and the Chelsea striker appearedto elbow the jaw of Hull midfielder JakeLivermore as the hosts defended a set-piece.

Courtois was at fault for Hull’s equaliserbut he went a long way to atoning for his mis-take with three brilliant saves in quick succes-sion to deny Elmohamady, Livermore andRamirez as Hull enjoyed their best spell of thesecond half.

Remy’s introduction came in the 74thminute, in place of Costa, and 92 seconds lat-er, he scored the winner. Fabregas’s passallowed Willian to cross from the right. Remy’sshot hit McGregor but squirmed through thegoalkeeper’s legs and across the line. — AFP

LONDON: Everton recovered from their Europa Leagueembarrassment as Aaron Lennon’s strike secured a 2-1win at QPR that pushed the hosts another step closerto Premier League relegation yesterday. RobertoMartinez’s side had become the final English side tocrash out of European competition this season after a5-2 thrashing by Dynamo Kiev in Ukraine on Thursday.The dismal nature of that performance, coming duringa disappointing league campaign, prompted someToffees fans to turn on the Everton manager, whoawoke to ‘Martinez out’ graffiti sprayed on a wall out-side Goodison Park yesterday morning But this victory,secured by on-loan Tottenham winger Lennon afterQPR’s Eduardo Vargas had cancelled out SeamusColeman’s opener, moved Everton nine points clear ofthe bottom three and restored morale at Goodison.

QPR manager Chris Ramsey had claimed a heatedhalf-time team-talk during last weekend’s defeat atCrystal Palace would prove the catalyst for improvedperformances in the final weeks of the season.

But his side look on course for relegation to theChampionship as they sit second bottom, four pointsfrom safety with only eight games remaining. Evertonwere first to threaten when Leon Osman hooked nar-rowly over from a Leighton Baines corner. AntolinAlcaraz had been replaced by John Stones after hiswoeful performance played a significant role inEverton’s European exit.

And Stones played an important role in snuffingout a couple of promising moments from QPR strikerBobby Zamora in the early stages.

The visitors were beginning to hit their stride andwent in front in the 18th minute when Coleman tookOsman’s pass and side-footed a cool finish past RobertGreen.

QPR would have been level before half-time ifZamora, with the goal at his mercy, had been able tokeep his header on target from Charlie Austin’s cross.Ramsey’s team thought they had equalised in the firstminute of the second half after Junior Hoilett hit thebar from 25 yards and Zamora bundled in the rebound.

However, their celebrations were curtailed by thelinesman’s flag for offside. Martinez’s team were backon the offensive as Darron Gibson smashed a fierceshot wide from Osman’s pass.

But the hosts snatched an equaliser in the 65thminute when Chilean substitute Vargas fired into theroof of the net from close-range after Austin andSandro unhinged the Everton defence.

To make matters worse for Martinez’s men, Belgianstriker Romelu Lukaku limped off injured soon after. ToEverton’s credit they kept plugging away and took thepoints in the 77th minute when Lennon lashed in aftera poor QPR clearance.

Chelsea scrape to victory

Hull 2

Chelsea 3

Everton see off QPR

Chelsea 29 20 7 2 61 25 67Man City 30 18 7 5 62 28 61Arsenal 30 18 6 6 58 31 60Man Utd 30 17 8 5 52 27 59Liverpool 30 16 6 8 44 32 54Southampton 30 16 5 9 42 21 53Tottenham 30 16 5 9 50 45 53Swansea 30 12 7 11 34 38 43West Ham 30 11 9 10 40 37 42Stoke 30 12 6 12 34 37 42

Crystal Palace 30 9 9 12 36 41 36Newcastle 30 9 8 13 33 48 35Everton 30 8 10 12 38 42 34West Brom 30 8 9 13 27 39 33Hull 30 6 10 14 28 40 28Aston Villa 30 7 7 16 19 39 28Sunderland 30 4 14 12 23 44 26Burnley 30 5 10 15 26 49 25QPR 30 6 4 20 31 54 22Leicester 29 4 7 18 27 48 19

EPL results/standingsHull 2 (Elmohamady 26, Hernandez 28) Chelsea 3 (Hazard 2, Costa 9, Remy 77); Liverpool 1(Sturridge 69) Manchester United 2 (Mata 14, 59); QPR 1 (Vargas 65) Everton 2 (Coleman 18,Lennon 77).

Played SaturdayA s t o n Vi l l a 0 S w a n s e a 1 ( G o m i s 8 7 ) ;Manchester City 3 (Bony 27, Fernando 40,S i l v a 7 7 ) We s t B r o m 0 ; N e w c a s t l e 1(Sissoko 48) Arsenal 2 (Giroud 24, 28) ;Southampton 2 (Long 37, Shackell 58-og)

B u r n l e y 0 ; S t o k e 1 ( D i o u f 1 4 ) C r y s t a lPa l a ce 2 ( M u r r ay 4 1 - p e n , Z a h a 4 5 + 2 ) ;Tottenham 4 (Kane 6, 13, 64-pen, Schlupp85-og) Leicester 3 ( Vardy 38, Morgan 50,N u g e n t 9 0 ) ; We s t H a m 1 ( S a k h o 8 8 )Sunderland 0.

English Premier League table after yesterday’s matches (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goalsagainst, points):

LONDON: Everton’s Romelu Lukaku (centre) is surrounded by Queens Park Rangers playersduring the English Premier League soccer match. —AP

INDIAN WELLS: Roger Federer roared into thefinal of the ATP Indian Wells Masters Saturdaywhere he will face Novak Djokovic in a block-buster showdown between the world’s top twoplayers. Federer’s remarkable run at Indian Wellscontinued with a 7-5, 6-4 demolition of Canada’sMilos Raonic in the semi-finals. Defendingchamp Djokovic was equally dominant earlier inthe day with a convincing 6-2, 6-3 win overworld number four Andy Murray.

“It is going to be quite physical out there,”Federer said of Sunday’s final. “I think we playedfive times last year and then now this would bethe second time this year. We have played eachother a bunch now.”

The two also met in last year’s Indian Wellsfinal which Djokovic won 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/3). Theageless Federer has been in top form the pasttwo weeks in the California desert and a win onSunday would avenge last year’s heartbreakingloss. “I think last year’s final was great,” saidFederer. “We both played very well. Came downto the wire. I didn’t get off to a good start to thebreaker and then he ran away with it. “After los-ing by so little last year I was quite disappointed,even though I was happy with how I was play-ing. “So I couldn’t wait until I got a chance toplay him again here.”

This will be the 38th career meeting betweenthe two with Federer holding a 20-17 edge.Their most recent meeting was in the final lastmonth in Dubai where Federer won in straight

sets 6-3, 7-5.Serb Djokovic says facing a red-hot Federer

so soon in the final of another big tournamentis what he craves.’The ultimate final’ - “It’s theultimate final that right now I can have,”Djokovic said. “Probably the player that is in thebest form. “In the last 12 months he’s been play-ing some of his best tennis.” If Djokovic winsSunday he will equal Federer for the most IndianWells men’s titles with four. “It doesn’t play adecisive role on how I’m going to approach thematch, but it does motivate me,” said Djokovic oftrying to add to the titles he won in 2008, 2011and last year. “It does give me this positive windin the back that I can maybe use and manifeston the court.”

The 33-year-old Federer won in 2004, 2005,2006 and 2012. Federer improved to 16-1 thisyear with his only loss coming against AndreasSeppi at the Australian Open in January. Heavenged that defeat in the third round at IndianWells this year, spanking Seppi 6-3, 6-4. He alsotook just 69 minutes to reach the semis by

ousting in straight sets Czech TomasBerdych, who has been a particularly troublingopponent for Federer over the years.

Federer is out for more revenge in the finalagainst Djokovic. “He’s tough, as we know. Hebarely misses. He moves great. He makes you gofor the extra shot,” he said of Djokovic. “This isone of the great hardcourt players we have seenin tennis.” — AFP

Federer, Djokovic in

blockbuster final

INDIAN WELLS: Simona Halep claimed thebiggest win of her career yesterday, liftingthe Indian Wells WTA trophy with a 2-6, 7-5,6-4 victory over former champion JelenaJankovic.

The hard-fought triumph over the for-mer world number one from Serbia madeRomaniaís 23-year-old Halep the first playerto win three WTA titles this year.

Halep, ranked third in the world, wonfour of the final five games in the third setto earn the marathon victory in two hours,

37 minutes. Halep broke Jankovic for theninth and last time in the final game as sheclinched the premier level title with cross-court forehand winner that Jankovic hadno chance on. Both players had difficultyholding their serves throughout as therewere a total of 18 breaks.

Jankovic looked dominant in winningthe final five games to take the first set butthen her serve let her down in the secondand third as she won just 12 points in totalon her second serve. — AFP

INDIAN WELLS: Simona Halep of Romania embraces the trophy after her win overJelena Jankovic, of Serbia, in the final match at the BNP Paribas Open tennis tourna-ment. — AP

Halep lifts Indian Wells title

17Fenninger retains World Cup

MONDAY, MARCH 23, 201519

Halep liftsIndian Wells title

Chelsea scrape to victory against Hull Page 19

SPAIN: Barcelona’s Gerard Pique kicks the ball with Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos (left) and Barcelona’s Lionel Messi (right) during a Spanish La Liga soccer match. — AP

BARCELONA: Barcelona moved fourpoints clear at the top of La Liga as LuisSuarez’s brilliant individual effort handedthem a 2-1 win over Real Madrid yester-day.

Jeremy Mathieu headed Barca in frontearly on from Lionel Messi’s free-kick, butCristiano Ronaldo hit back at his critics inrecent weeks with a deserved equaliserbefore the break.

Suarez was to have the final say,though, as he registered his first goal in ElClasico by controlling Dani Alves’s longball before turning to strike into the farcorner.

A third defeat in four games for Madridwill see coach Carlo Ancelotti come underincreasing pressure to hold onto his job,but it was Madrid who posed the greaterdanger early on.

Karim Benzema pulled a shot wide ofthe far post before his teasing cross wasvolleyed onto the bar at the back post byRonaldo. However, it was Barca who wentin front on 18 minutes when Mathieuheaded home Messi’s in-swinging free-kick from the left for his first league goalfor the club.

Neymar should have doubled the hosts’advantage on the half hour when he firedstraight at Iker Casillas with the goal gap-ing after a mishit Suarez shot rolled acrossgoal.

Seconds later Real were level thanks toa lovely move as Benzema backheeledLuka Modric’s pass into Ronaldo’s path andhe poked the ball past Claudio Bravo onthe stretch.

The visitors then went on to end thehalf the stronger as Gareth Bale had a goal

ruled out for offside, whilst Bravo tipped apiledriver from Ronaldo over and Balestabbed inches wide from the resultingcorner. Madrid also had the first opportu-nity of the second-half as lovely link-upplay between Benzema and Ronaldo thistime put the Frenchman through on goal,but Bravo did just enough to parry his shotto safety.

And they were again caught by a suck-er punch when Alves’s ball over the topwas brilliantly controlled and finished bySuarez on the turn.

Ronaldo, who had been booked in thefirst-half for diving, was then fortunate notto see red when he appeared to kick outafter being fouled by Javier Mascherano.

The cautions continued to mount as 11players were booked in all. Neymar nearlymade amends for his miss in the first peri-

od with an incredible run from inside hsown half past numerous Madrid players,but again his finishing was wayward as heblasted over.

Messi had been very quiet given hisstunning performances of late, but he wasinches away from sealing the points 17minutes from time as his shot curled justwide. Neymar then blazed wide againfrom a Messi pass as space began to openup for Barca. Those wasted opportunitiesnearly came back to haunt the Catalans asBravo had to produce a brilliant save toturn Benzema’s deflected effort behind fora corner.

Casillas kept Madrid in the game at theother end with a pair of fine saves to denyJordi Alba and Messi, but it was to no availas Barca racked up their 18th win in 19games. — AFP

Suarez hands Barca victory over Real

Barcelona 28 22 2 4 80 17 68Real Madrid 28 21 1 7 78 26 64Valencia 28 18 6 4 52 22 60Atletico 28 18 5 5 53 23 59Sevilla 28 17 4 7 51 33 55Villarreal 28 14 7 7 43 26 49Malaga 28 13 5 10 31 31 44Bilbao 28 11 6 11 27 33 39Sociedad 28 9 9 10 33 37 36Celta Vigo 28 9 8 11 29 31 35Rayo 28 11 2 15 33 50 35Espanyol 28 9 7 12 32 37 34Getafe 28 8 5 15 24 39 29Eibar 28 7 7 14 26 38 28Elche 28 7 6 15 23 52 27Deportivo 28 6 8 14 23 44 26Almeria 28 6 7 15 21 42 25Levante 28 6 7 15 23 52 25Granada 28 4 11 13 18 43 23Cordoba 28 3 9 16 20 46 18

Spanish La Liga table after yesterday’s matches (played, won,drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points):

Spanish League results/standings

BERLIN: Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munichsuffered only their third defeat of the sea-son yesterday as they lost 2-0 at home toBorussia Moenchengladbach, whoseBrazilian striker Raffael scored twice.

It was Bayern’s first home defeat of theseason and was only Gladbach’s third win inMunich in 47 league games, lifting LucienFavre’s side back to third in the table.

Following a defeat to Manchester City inthe Champions League’s group stages inNovember and a 4-1 thrashing at Wolfsburgin the Bundesliga in January, it was onlyBayern’s third defeat in all competitions thiscampaign.

Despite the loss, Champions Leaguequarter-finalists Bayern still hold a ten-pointlead at the top of the table and are oncourse for a third straight league title.

“They barely got into our half beforethey scored their first goal and it’s not easyto break down a side who pack theirdefence,” said Bayern coach Pep Guardiola.

“We failed to break down their defenceand they counterattacked superbly. “We stillhave a 10 point lead, but we must fight untilthe end to defend our title.”

Raffael, who turns 30 next Saturday,profited from a rare mistake by Germanygoalkeeper Manuel Neuer, who failed toblock the Brazilian’s long-range shot whichrolled into the Munich goal with half anhour gone.

Gladbach claimed their second on 77minutes when Germany midfielderChristoph Kramer squared for Raffael to firehis second past Neuer.

There was more bad news for Bayerncoach Pep Guardiola as Dutch winger Arjen

Robben was forced off in the first-half andtaken to hospital-he also missed last week’swin at Werder Bremen with a trapped nerve.

Earlier, second-placed Wolfsburg wereheld to a surprise 1-1 draw at mid-tableMainz after the hosts took a shock seventh-minute lead when defender Niko Bungertout-jumped the visiting defence to headhome from a corner.

Wolfsburg made their possession countas Brazil midfielder Luiz Gustavo hit thepost, then scored their equaliser on 61 min-utes.

On Saturday, Germany winger KarimBellarabi kept Bayer Leverkusen fourth inthe table with a 1-0 win at Schalke 04.Bellarabi, who has been linked to Arsenal,grabbed the 35th-minute winner from thetightest of angles with a superb shot acrossgoal. Schalke coach Roberto di Matteo wasbitterly disappointed as the defeat left hisside five points from a possible ChampionsLeague place for next season.

Borussia Dortmund bounced back fromtheir midweek Champions League exit witha 3-2 win at 10-man Hanover to earn theirfirst victory in four games.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang nettedtwice as Dortmund picked up valuableleague points after goalless draws againstHamburg and Cologne.

The win left Borussia tenth with Hanover14th and two points from relegation.Bremen stay ninth after being held to a 1-1draw at mid-table Cologne as a first-halfgoal by Germany Under-19 striker DavieSelke for the visitors was cancelled out by an88th-minute penalty from Cologne midfield-er Matthias Lehmann. — AFP

Gladbach shock Bayern

MILAN: Carlos Tevez took his Serie A goals tallythis season to 16 as Juventus opened up a 17-point gap on closest challengers Roma thanks toa hard-fought 1-0 win over Genoa yesterday.

Genoa travelled to Turin with faint hopes oftaking a share of the spoils from the league lead-ers having handed Juve their only defeat of theseason last October.

However Genoa goalkeeper Mattia Perincould do little to stop Tevez’s 25th minute strikefrom inside the area and despite stand-in keeperEugenio Lamanna later stopping Tevez’s spot-kick, the hosts held on to record their 20th win ofthe campaign.

Tevez now leads fellow Argentinian MauroIcardi of Inter Milan and AC Milan’s French wingerJeremy Menez in the race for Serie A’s capocan-noniere (top scorer) award.

Icardi and Menez have both scored 15 goals,with the Inter striker in action later Sunday whenthe struggling Nerazzurri visit high-flyingSampdoria.

Less than a week after securing their place inthe Champions League quarter-finals and a two-leg tie with Monaco, Juventus moved a step clos-er towards their fourth consecutive and 31stscudetto. But coach Massimiliano Allegri told SkySport his season would only be complete if hesteered the Turin giants into the last four inEurope’s premier club competition.

“Hats of to the lads, and to everyone at theclub. We’re having a fantastic season. I want to fin-ish it off in the best possible way by qualifying forthe semi-finals,” said the Italian.

“That would be extraordinary, but football isfull of surprises. “Monaco are a side that areunderestimated by everyone, so we’re expectingtwo totally different games to the ones we playedagainst Borussia Dortmund (in the last 16).”

Rudi Garcia’s crisis-hit Roma side travel toCesena later on Sunday looking to record onlytheir second win in 11 games. A slip-up couldadd significantly to Garcia’s woes, especially ifcity rivals Lazio-in third at only a point adriftahead of their late home game with Verona-leapfrog them into second place. After Roma’s2-0 defeat at home by Sampdoria last week,dozens of the club’s hardline ‘ultra’ supporterssurrounded players and demanded theyremove their shirts because they were ‘unde-serving’. Several of Roma’s players, includingMiralem Pjanic and Radja Nainggolan, were tak-en to task by disgruntled fans while walking inthe Italian capital earlier this week.

Napoli, in fourth at three points behindLazio, host Atalanta while Sampdoria andFiorentina, one point further adrift in fifth andsixth, respectively host Inter and travel toUdinese.

On Saturday, Menez hit a brace including acontroversial penalty as Milan broke a three-game winless run thanks to a 3-1 victory overCagliari in a half-empty San Siro.

Milan hosted Zdenek Zeman’s league strug-glers looking to get back to winning ways fol-lowing draws with Chievo and Verona and a 2-1defeat away to Fiorentina last week.

The pressure eased on embattled Rossoneri

coach Filippo Inzaghi as Milan’s ninth win of thecampaign moved them up to seventh placeahead of the remainder of the weekend fix-tures.

“I’m happy for the team, we got less than wedeserved from our performances againstVerona and Fiorentina,” said Inzaghi. “I was con-fident that if we played the way we did atFiorentina, we would be rewarded. “Now, wehope to keep on like this.” — AFP

Sweet 16 for Tevez as Juve down Genoa

ITALY: Juventus’ Carlos Tevez (left) chal-lenges for the ball with Genoa’ DiegoPerotti during a Serie A soccer match. — AP

BusinessMONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

Depreciation no threatfor emerging Asia

Page 22

India’s banking industry facesnear-term challenges: Banker

Page 23Toyota opens newparts and accessories center in Qurain

Page 25Challenges of Islamic financing

Page 26

Saudi extends rebound; Arabtec dampens Dubai

MIDEAST STOCK MARKETS

DUBAI: Saudi Arabia’s bourse rebounded further yester-day after oil prices mounted an end-of-week rally, whileother Gulf markets were steady although Arabtecweighed on Dubai following the builder’s poor quarter-ly results. Brent oil rose 1.6 percent to $55.32 per barrelon Friday while US crude futures for April deliveryjumped 4 percent to settle at $45.72 as the dollar post-ed its biggest weekly decline against the euro in morethan three years.

Saudi Arabia’s main stock index added 1.5 percent, aspetrochemical giant Saudi Basic Industries (SABIC)climbed 1.1 percent and other sectors, such as banksand property firms, were also strong.

Real estate developer Dar Al Arkan jumped 2.8 per-cent and was the most traded stock, while EmaarEconomic City climbed 2.2 percent. Top lender NationalCommercial Bank surged 4.2 percent.

Local and regional investors are accumulating Saudiequities as the kingdom prepares to allow direct foreignshare ownership in the first half of 2015. A similar phe-nomenon helped Dubai’s index more than double in2013 when index compiler MSCI said it would upgradeit to emerging market status. Savola Group stabilized,falling 1.1 percent. It dropped by its daily 10 percentlimit on Thursday after the firm halved its outlook forfirst-quarter profit before capital gains because of suf-fering retail sales and exports. Yanbu NationalPetrochemicals Co and Southern Province Cement fell1.8 and 2.4 percent respectively as they went ex-divi-dend.

UAE, EGYPTDubai’s index was the weakest in the Gulf, falling 1.4

percent because of builder Arabtec which tumbled itsdaily 10 percent limit. The company posted an unex-pected fourth-quarter loss of 94.4 million dirhams($25.7 million), blaming non-recurring general andadministrative expenses.

Arabtec reorganized itself and laid off some execu-tives and staff after the abrupt departure in June lastyear of former chief executive Hasan Ismaik, whoresigned after differences of opinion with AabarInvestments, a key shareholder. The construction firm,whose shares are among the most traded on Dubai’sbourse, also proposed no cash dividend for 2014, butoffered a 5 percent bonus share issue.

Other Gulf markets consolidated. Abu Dhabi slipped0.3 percent and Qatar eased 0.05 percent.

Telecommunications firm Ooredoo fell 1.1 percentafter it warned investors last week it expected revenueto fall by as much as 3 percent in 2015 and core earn-ings to drop by a similar margin.

Commercial Bank of Qatar jumped 3.7 percentdespite going ex-dividend after its shareholdersapproved the issue of up to $1 billion in capital-raisinginstruments.

Egypt’s index fell 1.7 percent as all of its constituentsdeclined. One reason for the market’s weakness couldbe investors cashing out to take part initial public offerof Misr Fertilizers Production Company (MOPCO), whichannounced its intention to list at the end of last week.

The listing is part of a flurry of initial public offerings,mergers and rights issues that have boosted marketactivity. Egyptian food maker Edita will put up shares ina secondary offering in April and Orascom Constructioncompleted a secondary offer this month. — Reuters

KUWAIT: Burgan Bank’s Chairman Majed Essa Al-Ajeel addresses the annual general assembly meeting yesterday. — Photos by Joseph Shagra

KUWAIT: Burgan Bank held its annual generalassembly meeting and Al-Shafafiya Investor’sforum at the Burgan Bank Tower yesterday.

General assemblyDuring the general assembly meeting, the

Bank’s board members presented the Bank’sfinancial earnings report for the year endedDecember 31, 2014 and agreed to a pay of 15percent cash dividends while also distributingbonus shares of 5 percent to registered share-holders.

Shafafiya forumFollowing the annual general assembly meet-

ings, Burgan Bank held its annual Shafafiya forumwhich serves as a platform for the bank’s man-agement to present the main events for 2014 aswell as its outlook for 2015 to shareholders, part-ners, as well as institutional investors.

The strong operating performance during thefinancial year 2014 delivered a faster than marketgrowth almost on all indicators. Compared to lastyear, Operating income grew by 9 percent fromKD253.6 million to KD 275.7 million whileOperating Profits before provisions soared to reg-ister KD 153.5 million also reflecting a growth of9 percent. The Group’s net profit for the year

2014 reported at KD 61.8 million while earningper share (EPS) reported at 37.6 fils.

Burgan Bank’s Chairman, Majed Essa Al-Ajeelsaid: “In 2014, Burgan Bank Group has managedto achieve another year of solid financial per-formance. Sustainable growth inertia and diversi-fication of revenue streams are the main charac-teristics that describe the Group’s performance.We definitely generated returns for all our stake-holders: shareholders, customers, employees andcommunities”.

“During 2014 the Group implemented anoptimized new capital plan that puts the Groupin compliance with Basel III requirements and tosupport its further growth plan. The plan includ-ed the issuance of AT1 bonds in 3Q-2014 -thefirst of its kind in Kuwait and worth $500 million;closed through a robust demand from local andinternational investors which reflected their trustin the Group’s performance and prospects,”added Al-Ajeel.

“In addition to the AT1bond issuance, BurganBank Group has successfully raised capitalthrough a rights issue with the total proceeds ofKD102.6 million. The Group has adequate andefficient capitalization levels combined withimproved asset quality and liquidity and the riskto return architecture has played an efficient role

in managing and shaping its growth; its balancesheet remains healthy with sound liquidity levelsat 30 percent and with Capital Adequacy ratio at13.5 percent as the end of December 31, 2014.,”he said.

Burgan Bank’s Group Chief Executive OfficerEduardo Eguren said, “On a Group level, 2014 canbe described as a year of optimization and align-ment to new regulations. The group continued toreap the benefits of its resilient business model,its performance culture and its focused execu-tion. Our core strategy has not changed through-out the year; we have managed to expand oncalculated growth plans, adapt to change,remain resilient to a less favorable operatingenvironment and markets volatility, and to deliv-er; our promises of growing our market share inthe core market with profitability, revamping ourretail bank, growing our cross business origina-tion and build capabilities have been met.”

The Shafafiya Forum is an annual event that isheld amongst Kuwait Projects Company’s (KIP-CO) subsidiaries, and reflects a strong corporategovernance practice, which promotes corporatefairness, transparency and accountability. Theforum provides an ideal platform to discussfinancial reports and outlook as well as marketpredictions openly with shareholders.

Burgan Bank operating income KD 275.7m in 2014Bank holds annual general assembly and Shafafiya Investors Forum

KUWAIT: Burgan Bank’s Group Chief Executive Officer Eduardo Eguren addresses theannual Shafafiya forum.

BEIJING: China received critical support from theInternational Monetary Forum and Asian DevelopmentBank yesterday for its goal of establishing a newChinese-led multilateral lender, adding to a growingwave of endorsements that has worried the UnitedStates. Leaders of the IMF and ADB, speaking at a con-ference in Beijing, said they were in talks with or happyto cooperate with the Asian Infrastructure InvestmentBank (AIIB), a $50 billion lender to be majority fundedby China that is seen by some as a rival to these estab-lished international financial institutions. The UnitedStates, concerned about China’s growing diplomaticclout, has urged countries to think twice about signingup and questioned whether the AIIB will have sufficientstandards of governance and environmental and socialsafeguards.

Some 27 countries have already signed up to partici-pate in the AIIB, China’s Finance Minister Lou Jiwei toldChina National Radio on Saturday. It will provide projectloans to developing countries and is slated to beginoperations at the end of 2015.

The United States’ key strategic allies in the region,Australia, Japan and South Korea, are also consideringjoining the proposed Beijing-based bank. Early opposi-tion to the AIIB from Western countries partially dis-solved after Britain said this month it would join, withFrance, Germany and Italy swiftly following suit.Canberra could formally decide to sign up to the AIIBwhen the full cabinet meets on Monday, Australianmedia have said.

At least eight more countries may join the lender bythe March 31 deadline, Jin Liqun, secretary-general ofthe interim secretariat that is establishing the AIIB, tolda panel at the conference yesterday.

The fund will have approval from its shareholders atthe start to double its capitalization to $100 billion, hesaid. “China will follow the rules of the internationalcommunity and will not bully other members but worktogether with them and try to reach consensus in all thedecisions we make without brandishing the majorityshareholder status,” he said.

BANDWAGONIn an editorial published on the same day, China’s

official Xinhua news agency suggested that the UnitedStates might be embarrassed that many of its allies hadnot heeded its warnings. “For decision-makers in theUnited States, they really have to be reminded that ifthey do not jump on the bandwagon of change in time,they will soon be overrun by the bandwagon itself,” itsaid.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said yester-day that the fund would be “delighted” to cooperatewith the AIIB. China’s Lou and ADB President TakehikoNakao said at the conference they had held discussionson possible cooperation, with the Chinese finance min-ister adding that topics discussed included safeguardstandards. Lou has previously said AIIB would comple-ment rather than compete with other institutions suchas the ADB, the Manila-based multilateral lender domi-nated by Japan and the United States.

The AIIB’s Jin said developing countries in Asia wouldreceive the bulk of loans for infrastructure projects,which could be co-provided with commercial banksand pension funds.

Non-Asian countries would also only hold 25 percentof the AIIB’s shareholding, lower than their stakes at thefounding of the ADB, he said. — Reuters

IMF, ADB join supporters for Chinese-led lender

EXCHANGE RATES

Bahrain Exchange Company

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co.

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd

ASIAN COUNTRIESJapanese Yen 2.502Indian Rupees 4.812Pakistani Rupees 2.947Srilankan Rupees 2.247Nepali Rupees 3.014Singapore Dollar 219.490Hongkong Dollar 38.722Bangladesh Taka 3.861Philippine Peso 6.704Thai Baht 9.203

GCC COUNTRIESSaudi Riyal 80.139Qatari Riyal 82.561Omani Riyal 780.770Bahraini Dinar 798.190UAE Dirham 81.831

ARAB COUNTRIESEgyptian Pound - Cash 41.435Egyptian Pound - Transfer 39.296Yemen Riyal/for 1000 1.402Tunisian Dinar 155.650Jordanian Dinar 424.170Lebanese Lira/for 1000 2.016Syrian Lira 2.142Morocco Dirham 30.684

EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIESUS Dollar Transfer 300.400Euro 328.790Sterling Pound 452.850Canadian dollar 241.290Turkish lira 116.800Swiss Franc 311.300Australian Dollar 236.720US Dollar Buying 299.200

GOLD20 gram 231.02010 gram 116.2005 gram 58.530

COUNTRY SELL CASH SELLDRAFTEurope

Belgian Franc 0.007831 0.008831British Pound 0.443400 0.452400Czech Korune 0.003871 0.015871Danish Krone 0.039721 0.044721Euro 0.320515 0.328515Norwegian Krone 0.033544 0.038744Romanian Leu 0.086141 0.086141Slovakia 0.008909 0.018909Swedish Krona 0.030922 0.035922Swiss Franc 0.302548 0.312748Turkish Lira 0.115919 0.122919

AustralasiaAustralian Dollar 0.225988 0.237488New Zealand Dollar 0.221696 0.231196AmericaCanadian Dollar 0.234106 0.242608US Dollars 0.296200 0.300900US Dollars Mint 0.296700 0.300900

AsiaBangladesh Taka 0.003560 0.004160Chinese Yuan 0.046901 0.050401Hong Kong Dollar 0.036633 0.039383Indian Rupee 0.004539 0.004940Indonesian Rupiah 0.000018 0.000024Japanese Yen 0.002419 0.002599Kenyan Shilling 0.003315 0.003315Korean Won 0.000257 0.000272Malaysian Ringgit 0.077858 0.083858Nepalese Rupee 0.003033 0.003203Pakistan Rupee 0.002766 0.003046Philippine Peso 0.006691 0.006971

Sierra Leone 0.000067 0.000073Singapore Dollar 0.215208 0.221208South African Rand 0.018965 0.027465Sri Lankan Rupee 0.001878 0.002458Taiwan 0.009390 0.009570Thai Baht 0.008888 0.009438

ArabBahraini Dinar 0.790090 0.798090Egyptian Pound 0.038995 0.042095Iranian Riyal 0.000083 0.000084Iraqi Dinar 0.000190 0.000250Jordanian Dinar 0.419533 0.427033Kuwaiti Dinar 1.000000 1.000000Lebanese Pound 0.000150 0.000250Moroccan Dirhams 0.021475 0.045475Nigerian Naira 0.001234 0.001869Omani Riyal 0.773985 0.779665Qatar Riyal 0.081774 0.082987Saudi Riyal 0.079443 0.080143Syrian Pound 0.001272 0.001492Tunisian Dinar 0.152684 0.160684Turkish Lira 0.115919 0.122919UAE Dirhams 0.080779 0.081928Yemeni Riyal 0.001357 0.001437

UAE Exchange Centre WLL

COUNTRY SELL DRAFT SELL CASH Australian Dollar 226.55Canadian Dollar 240.82Swiss Franc 305.96Euro 323.18US Dollar 300.60Sterling Pound 447.65Japanese Yen 2.53Bangladesh Taka 3.859Indian Rupee 4.801Sri Lankan Rupee 2.248Nepali Rupee 3.007Pakistani Rupee 2.953UAE Dirhams 81.73Bahraini Dinar 797.85Egyptian Pound 39.28Jordanian Dinar 427.11Omani Riyal 779.58Qatari Riyal 82.78Saudi Riyal 80.08

Rate for Transfer Selling RateUS Dollar 300.350Canadian Dollar 239.250Sterling Pound 444.335Euro 321.480Swiss Frank 297.320Bahrain Dinar 798.955UAE Dirhams 82.150Qatari Riyals 83.325Saudi Riyals 80.275Jordanian Dinar 423.940Egyptian Pound 39.288Sri Lankan Rupees 2.249Indian Rupees 4.805Pakistani Rupees 2.943Bangladesh Taka 3.858Philippines Pesso 6.692Cyprus pound 737.245Japanese Yen 3.485

Syrian Pound 2.590Nepalese Rupees 4.000Malaysian Ringgit 81.630Chinese Yuan Renminbi 48.900Thai Bhat 10.175Turkish Lira 115.790

Al Mulla Exchange

Currency Transfer Rate (Per 1000)US Dollar 298.850Euro 323.750Pound Sterlng 452.450Canadian Dollar 239.000Indian Rupee 4.775Egyptian Pound 39.150Sri Lankan Rupee 2.240Bangladesh Taka 3.842Philippines Peso 6.750Pakistan Rupee 2.942Bahraini Dinar 795.750UAE Dirham 81.600Saudi Riyal 79.800*Rates are subject to change

Ajman Bank agrees on $155m syndicated loan

DUBAI: Ajman Bank, the United Arab Emirates’ lender,has secured a $155 million syndicated Islamic loan forgeneral business purposes, according to a statementfrom the arranger of the deal yesterday. Dubai-basedNoor Bank acted as the sole arranger and bookrunnerfor the deal, while Emirates Islamic Bank, First Gulf Bank,United Arab Bank and Warba Bank participated in theloan. The deal consisted of a hybrid murabaha andwakala structure with a two-year lifespan, Noor said inthe statement. Murabaha is a cost-plus-profit arrange-ment where one party agrees to buy merchandise foranother, which promises to buy it at an agreed mark-up.In wakala, one party acts as agent for another.

Bahrain Q4 GDP growth eases to 4.0 pct y/y

MANAMA: Bahrain’s real gross domestic productgrowth slowed to 4.0 percent year-on-year in thefinal quarter of 2014, the weakest rate since 3.2 per-cent in the first quarter of the year, preliminary datafrom the Central Informatics Organization showedyesterday.

Newsi n b r i e f

Dubai’s DHCOG 2014 profit rises 42%

DUBAI: Dubai Holding Commercial Operations Group(DHCOG), part of a conglomerate owned by the emirate’sruler, reported a 42 percent increase in 2014 net profityesterday as property and land sales boosted earnings.The company made a net profit in 2014 of 4.68 billiondirhams ($1.27 billion) last year, up from 3.30 billiondirhams in 2013, according to an emailed statement.Driving the higher profit was a 13.6 percent rise in totalrevenue to 13.23 billion dirhams, which Chief ExecutiveAhmed bin Byat said was aided by a 5.6 billion dirhamcontribution from higher property and land sales and 8.5percent growth in recurring revenues. DHCOG is part ofDubai Holding, which runs multiple businesses includinghotel group Jumeirah, business park TECOM Investmentsand Dubai Properties Group. Among its units is EmiratesInternational Telecommunications (EIT ), which hasinvestments in Dubai-listed du, Tunisie Telecom andMalta’s GO.

APICORP inks $950m Islamic loan to fund investments

DUBAI: Arab Petroleum Investments Corp (APICORP)has signed a two-part sharia-compliant facility worth$950 million that it will use to finance investments inregional energy projects, it said in a statement yes-terday. The bulk of the financing consisted of a 3 bil-lion Saudi riyal ($800 million) Islamic loan of fiveyears duration that was provided by five Saudibanks: Banque Saudi Fransi, National CommercialBank, Riyad Bank, Samba Financial Group and SaudiBritish Bank. The remainder was provided on a threeyear basis by First Gulf Bank, HSBC and National Bankof Abu Dhabi , the statement added.

Egyptian pound steady on official market

CAIRO: Egypt’s central bank kept the pound steadyat 7.53 pounds to the dollar at a foreign exchangeauction yesterday, while the domestic currencyweakened on the black market. The central bank hasnow kept the official exchange rate steady for morethan a month after letting the pound weaken in anattempt to wipe out black-market trading. The banksaid it had offered $40 million at auction and sold$38.4 million at a cut-off price of 7.5301 pounds perdollar , unchanged from its last auction on Thursday.Black-market traders said volumes have fallen dra-matically since the central bank allowed the poundto weaken and imposed a cap in February on theamount of dollars that can be deposited in banks.The limit discourages use of the black marketbecause those who exchange dollars outside officialchannels are deprived of a place to keep their funds.

B U S I N E S SMONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

By Camille Accad

KUWAIT: The US dollar continues tostrengthen against world’s major cur-rencies. Since July 2014, the reservecurrency appreciated around 25 per-cent. The dollar index, which measuresthe US dollar’s performance against abasket of major currencies, reached100, a level not reached in over adecade. The rally in the currency in thelast three quarters is the result of themarket anticipating a rate hike in theUS. As a consequence, currenciesaround the world have lost significantvalue against the US dollar. The euroand the Japanese yen weakened con-siderably against the US dollar in thelast nine months, but this is in line withtheir policy objectives. The EuropeanCentral Bank (ECB) and the Bank ofJapan (BoJ) are both undertaking anultra-loose monetary policy in order tostimulate their stagnating economiesand reverse the deflationary pressuresthey are facing.

The deceleration in prices is a globalphenomenon, and is mostly attributedto the sharp decline in the price of oil,which is now trading at half its mid-2014 value. Headline inflation in Asiaex-Japan, with the exception ofIndonesia, is on a clear declining trend,with more downward pressure expect-ed in the next few months as lower fuelprices spill over onto other productsand consumer and corporate deflationexpectations intensify. Headline infla-tion is well below most central banks’targets, and monetary policy across theregion is already being loosened. So farthis year, seven Asian central banks -China, India, Indonesia, Austral ia ,Thailand, Korea and Singapore - havealready eased policy. The global disin-flationary environment will continue toencourage more monetary and fiscalexpansionary policies, which shouldput fur ther downward pressure onthese economies’ currencies.

Compared to last July, emergingAsian currencies are already muchweaker against the US dollar. This has

helped keep upside pressure on pricesas impor ted goods become moreexpensive. However, the impact of low-er oil prices is more than offsetting theeffect of the broad-based currencydepreciation. In theory, more expan-sionary policies could be introduced.However, the Federal Reserve looksincreasingly likely to raise interest ratesas the economy recovers. Last week,the US central bank removed the word“patient” from their statement whenreferring to when to raise interest ratesfrom the current record low. Higherinterest rates in the US would fuel fur-ther money outflows from emergingAsia, thereby putting additional down-ward pressure on their foreignexchange.

Central banks in emerging Asia are ina tr icky position, having to decidebetween loosening policy in order tostimulate inflation and tightening policy

in anticipation of a prospective US Fedinterest rate hike. The direction in policyin the region will depend heavily on thetiming of when the Fed will raise inter-est rates and the level of oil prices, andwill vary across countries. Economicactivity in the US is expanding at a sta-ble pace, but is far from overheating:manufacturing is in contraction, thehousing market is still lethargic andinflation is at a five year low. Hence,although some analysts expect interestrates to be raised as soon as June, it isunlikely that the Fed would sacrifice anygrowth potential in exchange for lowerrisk of overheating in the near term. Thisbecomes even more evident when thelow oil price projections are taken intoaccount. The expansion in US oil supply,the key factor behind the global supplyglut that pushed oil prices down, con-tinued to hit new record highs after ris-ing for the tenth consecutive week.

Additionally, the potential US-Iran deal,which could potentially reduce sanc-tions on Iran’s economy, could furtherbloat the supply glut.

Given the extended period of lowinterest rates and weak oil prices, cen-tral banks in emerging Asia will main-tain their loose policy stance. The weak-ening currency trend however createsaddit ional r isk to emerging Asianeconomies with large financial sectors.Those include South Korea andMalaysia, who already suffered largecurrency depreciations; Hong Kong andSingapore would lead the list howevertheir fixed foreign exchange systemsprotect them from major currency fluc-tuations. Overall, this year remains apositive year to invest in Asia, prefer-ably in countries less vulnerable tochanges in oi l prices and currenc yvolatil ity, such as Thailand and thePhilippines.

Depreciation no threat for emerging AsiaKCIC WEEKLY ANALYSIS ON ASIA

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s OPEC governorMohammed Al-Madi said yesterdaythat he believed it would be difficult foroil to reach a price range of $100-120per barrel again. “$100-120 - I think it’sdifficult to reach 120 another time...Weunderstand that all countries needhigher incomes...We want higherincomes, but we want higher incomesfor us and future generations,” Maditold an energy conference in Riyadh.Brent crude is currently around $55 perbarrel.

He also repeated that Saudi Arabiahad no political motives in its oil policy.“There isn’t any political dimension inwhat we do at the oil ministry - ourvision is commercial and economic...Wedidn’t mean to hurt anybody, our visionis simply the following: the producerswhich have low costs have to have thepriority to produce, but those whohave high costs have to wait for theirturn to produce,” he said.

“We are not against anybody oragainst the (production of US shaleoil)...On the contrary we welcome it, asit balances the market in the long run.”Some producers such as Iran, a diplo-matic rival of Saudi Arabia, have sharplycriticized Riyadh for its decision to letoil prices slide rather than trying tosupport them with an OPEC productioncut.

But Madi said yesterday that theprice drop was because of fundamentalsupply and demand factors, not anynon-economic policies.

“Was OPEC able to control prices?The answer is, if OPEC could have con-trolled the prices it would have doneso, but it is not in the interest of OPECto control the prices.

“It is OPEC’s interest to achievebalance in the market. The price �isdecided by the market, and the mar-ket i s subjec t to supply anddemand.” —Reuters

Hard to reach $100-120 oil again: Saudi OPEC governor

JUBA: Hit by falling oil revenues, SouthSudan’s economy is also troubled by aviolent conflict that looks set to continue.It could get worse in this young country,with the UN warning that South Sudan’seconomy is now threatened by rampantinflation as the central bank is allegedlyprinting money to meet a budget short-fall. Since December South Sudan’s gov-ernment has resorted to the “old trick” ofprinting money, said Toby Lanzer, theUN’s top humanitarian official in SouthSudan, at a news conference on Tuesday.

“Printing money when there is noth-ing to back the value of that currencyusually leads to hyperinflation,” Lanzersaid in the capital Juba. South Sudan’seconomy has suffered since the outbreakin December 2013 of fighting betweensupporters of President Salva Kiir andrenegade troops loyal to his formerdeputy. Several peace agreements havecollapsed. Oil production facilities havebeen damaged in the fighting and some

have fallen under rebel control.Oil production has been cut by 60

percent, Finance Ministry DirectorGeneral Philip Ajack Boldit told TheAssociated Press. Boldit denied the gov-ernment is printing money, saying doingso requires approval by parliament, buthe acknowledged that inflation is under-way and that the government does nothave enough dollar reserves to bring itunder control.

Already, the downturn has forced thegovernment to delay salaries of civil ser-vants. President Salva Kiir last weekacknowledged South Sudan’s economicwoes in a public rally in Juba.

“Even if we were to sign peace today,the economic conditions in our countrywould not improve automatically becauseit will take some time to reach the level ofoil production before the war and the oilprices are likely to remain low for sometime as the supply of oil in the world ishigh and demand is low,” he said. —AP

S Sudan economy on edge amid war, low oil output

MONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

B U S I N E S S

India’s banking industry facesnear-term challenges: Banker

Federal Bank aims to become No 1 among NRIs

By Sajeev K Peter

KUWAIT: The Indian banking industry isexpected to post a 10 percent growth in thecurrent financial year given the challengesthe industry faces today, a top banker fromIndia said Saturday. Giving a broad outlook ofthe Indian banking sector in the near-termand long term, Varghese K I, GeneralManager, Federal Bank, one of the leadingprivate sector banks in India, said the prof-itability of traditional Indian banks is understrain today with their non-performing assets(NPAs) growing at alarming rates.

Addressing a press conference, Varghese,who recently took charge as the head ofoverseas operations of the bank, said, “FromApril onwards, a new provision on restructur-ing loan accounts will come into effect inIndia. As a result, if an account is restructured,no matter if it is an NPA asset or a standardasset, the account will continue to be treatedas an NPA account, piling pressure on theprofitability of the banks. Consequently,around 10 percent of the accounts of thebanking sector will come under the restruc-tured category and banks will have to make aprovision of 15 percent instead of five per-cent.”

Silver liningHowever, Varghese remained bullish

about the long-term outlook of the bankingindustry. “We see a silver lining on the hori-zon. The government has attached impor-tance to infrastructure development,” he said.Now with the ‘Making India’ concept and oth-er policy initiatives, the growth momentum is

expected to pick up from the second half ofthe next financial year. The drop in oil prices isalso a boon for the Indian economy. Similarly,a renewed spurt in investment inflow into thecountry is another positive sign signaling areasonably good growth for the banking

industry in longer term, he said.“Interest rates on NRI deposits vary from

bank to bank and they currently range from8.50 percent to 8.75 percent,” he said,responding to a concern over a drop in inter-est rates on deposits. “The current trend is fora downward revision of rates. In March, theReserve Bank of India reduced the repo rate

by 0.25 basis points, giving an indication thatthe rates on advances will also come downsoon. So, Indian banks are waiting for areduction in base rate in May,” Varghese said.

Federal Bank, headquartered in Aluva inKerala, is the fourth largest private sector

bank in India with a customer base of six mil-lion people across the world. Federal Bank’sfixed deposit and certificate of depositsenjoy A1+ of CRISIL ratings, the highest rat-ing in that class. Federal Bank was oneamong the first to take technology-enabledstate-of the-art services and products torural and semi-urban areas, reaching out to

the common man at almost free of cost or ataffordable cost, he said.

Presently, Varghese is the overseeingauthority of Network 1 that covers allbranches of the bank in Kerala. Currently, thebank has 1,225 branches and 1,479 ATMsspread across 25 states and union territoriesof India.

NRI servicesVarghese said Federal Bank is aiming to

become number one among non-residentIndian customers. “We want to become themost preferred bank among NRIs by offeringthem a range of distinct and unique prod-ucts and services,” he said.

Outlining the products and services fornon-resident Indian customers, DeepakGovind, AGM and Chief RepresentativeOfficer, who heads the operations of FederalBank in GCC, said, “The bank offers its NRIcustomers various remittance products suchas Fedfast, Express remittance, Fed Flash andalso various cash payment products.”According to Govind, around 9 percent ofthe total NRI remittances to India are chan-neled through Federal Bank. Around 35 per-cent of total deposits to the bank come fromNRIs, of which 70 percent are from the GCCcountries, he informed.

Federal Bank has a representative office inAbu Dhabi and also has 18 officers in fivecountries viz, UAE, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain andKuwait. It has rupee drawing arrangementwith six banks and 71 exchange houses. JojinJose, the Federal Bank’s representative officerin Kuwait, was also present at the press con-ference.

BERLIN: The leaders of debt-wracked Greece and eco-nomic powerhouse Germany meet in Berlin yesterdayafter weeks of bad feeling over Athens’ debt woes, bitterwartime memories and an offensive hand gesture.German Chancellor Angela Merkel will receive Greece’sradical left-wing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who hasblamed her insistence on tough austerity for his coun-try’s “humanitarian crisis” of poverty and mass unem-ployment.

Merkel, for her part, maintains that if cash-strappedGreece wants more international bail out loans, of whichGermany stumps up the biggest share, it must acceptthe bitter medicine of cuts and reforms.

Talking to the Greek newspaper Kathimerini ahead ofthe visit, Tsipras said the meeting with Merkel would bean opportunity to talk “without the pressure of anynegotiation. It’s important because we will be able totalk about topics which are damaging Europe, and abouthow to improve relations between our two countries.”

“In this meeting two worlds will collide,” said HajoFunke, political scientist with Berlin’s Free University.“There is the political world of Greece, where a left-winggovernment faces a society in collapse, (of ) societaldecay... as grave as anything we have seen in westernEurope since 1945,” he told AFP. “The other world is acontent country that is dominant in Europe, Germany,which worries about maintaining its economic happi-ness, and which is now being asked to help the other,under conditions it doesn’t fully understand.”

WWII memories As tensions have flared, bitter historical memories

have resurfaced, with Tsipras’ government reviving repa-ration claims for the Nazi occupation of Greece in WorldWar II-an issue which Berlin considers settled. WhenTsipras took power in January he lost no time before lay-ing flowers at a memorial near Athens for dozens ofGreek leftists executed by the German occupationtroops in 1944.

The two months since have seen a war of words esca-late between Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakisand Germany’s Wolfgang Schaeuble, who has been cari-catured in Nazi garb in a Greek newspaper. This monththe Greek embassy launched a formal complaint aboutdisparaging comments it said Schaeuble had madeabout Varoufakis.

The latest flare-up was sparked by a video clip osten-sibly showing Varoufakis in 2013 making the middle-fin-ger gesture to Germany in footage he has vehementlylabelled a fake.

Seeking to overcome the tensions, Merkel said lastweek she was looking forward to in-depth talks withTsipras, who would be received with military honors at1800 GMT.

“We will have some time to talk in detail, and perhapseven argue,” she said last week, while quashing expecta-tions that a solution to the Greek debt crisis would befound quickly.

She reiterated her opposition to a “Grexit” of Greeceleaving the currency union, saying that “if the euro fails,Europe fails,” and insisting a solution could only bereached at the European level.

To pave the way for the summit, German ForeignMinister Frank-Walter Steinmeier will meet his Greekcounterpart Nikos Kotzias in Berlin yesterday.

‘Grexit’ fears Greece’s creditors agreed in February to extend its

$240-billion euro ($255 billion) bailout by four months inexchange for promises of further reforms. At an EU sum-mit last week, Greece lobbied Brussels to release vitalfunds to help it make payments to creditors in comingdays, and avoid bankruptcy and a possible exit from theeuro. The ongoing negotiations have fuelled popularopposition in Germany to the new Greek government,as many voters fear public funds are disappearing into abottomless well.

Mass-circulation daily Bild last month asked readersto send in selfies holding up “Nein” (no) signs it hadprinted to protest against the German parliamentapproving emergency aid for Greece.

Some German lawmakers have openly mused abouthow the euro-zone could survive a “Grexit”-an outcomethat more than half of Germans would welcome, accord-ing to a recent poll.

Funke said many German taxpayers have a distortedview of Greece, in which “the new government is doingwhatever it wants, the Greeks are lazy... and now they’regiving us the finger.” Despite such “rampant prejudice”and ill-will on both sides, said Funke, “the hope is thatthere can be a historical compromise, which presuppos-es that the partners trust each other.” —AFP

Weaker euro worksin ECB’s favor, but

for how long?FRANKFURT: The weaker euro, which couldapproach parity with the US dollar, is making theEuropean Central Bank’s task of kickstarting the euro-zone economy easier. But the feel-good effects couldturn sour if the euro’s decline in value becomes toopronounced too quickly, analysts said.

Officially, the ECB has no exchange rate target. Butby making euro-zone goods cheaper to export andpushing up prices of imports, the weaker euro is posi-tive for the single currency area’s economy.

“In the current context, pushing down the euro isprobably the only means the ECB has for pushing upinflation,” Natixis economist Sylvain Broyer said.

The ECB has rolled out a series of unprecedentedmeasures in recent years to try to prevent the euroarea from slipping into deflation, a dangerous down-ward spiral of falling prices that is difficult to breakonce it has set in. But the euro has fallen by nearly 20percent against the dollar in the past six months andcentral banks start to feel uncomfortable whenchanges in the exchange rate are too rapid and toovolatile.

For the moment, the ECB does not appear to bealarmed. President Mario Draghi recently estimatedthat the euro’s decline should contribute “significant-ly” in bringing area-wide inflation back up towardsthe ECB’s target of just below 2.0 percent. InFebruary, consumer prices in the 19-country bloc fellby 0.3 percent. But in a scenario drawn up by theECB’s team of economists, an excessively weak eurocould push euro-zone inflation back above the 2.0-percent target by 2017. Such a scenario is all the morerealistic because it was calculated using an exchangerate of $1.04 per euro.

Caught off guard The extent of the euro’s recent decline appears to

have caught the ECB off guard: its most recent officialforecasts were compiled using an average exchangerate of $1.14 this year and $1.13 in 2016 and 2017.

Nevertheless, the euro could fall even furtheragainst the dollar as a result of the ECB’s policy ofquantitative easing, or widescale bond purchases,said Commerzbank economist Joerg Kraemer.

At the beginning of this month, the ECB embarkedon a massive 1.14-trillion-euro bond purchase pro-gram, at a rate of 60 billion euros per month untilSeptember 2016. The idea is to pump liquidity intothe financial system. “The debt purchase program isessentially a program of currency devaluation,” saidKraemer.

By purchasing euro-zone sovereign bonds enmasse, the securities become less attractive forinvestors in other regions, who divert their money toother countries, driving down the euro. The merespeculation that such a QE program might be in theoffing set the euro on its downward path as long agoas last summer.

Credibility at stake Nevertheless, “it’s important for the ECB to pre-

serve its currency’s credibility” in the eyes of investors,said Broyer at Natixis. With QE only having just start-ed, it is premature to start talking about when theprogram might begin to be phased out again, saidone central bank official, speaking on condition ofanonymity.

But internal debate within the ECB’s governingcouncil could become fierce in the future, especiallyas the most recent economic indicators suggest thatrecovery is already beginning to regain momentum.

Powerful ECB governors, such as the head of theGerman central bank or Bundesbank, Jens Weidmann,view the QE program as unnecessary or even danger-ous. “If at the start of next year, growth is on track andinflation is rising again, the ECB’s biggest difficulty willbe to resist pressure for an early end to QE or a scalingdown of the bond purchases,” said Gilles Moec of Bankof America-Merrill Lynch. —AFP

ATHENS: A homeless person sleeps outside the entrance of a building in Athens yesterday. TheGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel will receive Greece’s radical left-wing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras,who has blamed her insistence on tough austerity for his country’s “humanitarian crisis” of povertyand mass unemployment. —AFP

Left-wing Greek PM to visit austerity champion Merkel

Lufthansa services back to normal

after strikeFRANKFURT: German airline Lufthansa said yesterday thatits services were more or less back to normal after a four-daywalkout by pilots, but unions warned of further disruptions,possibly over the Easter holidays. A Lufthansa spokesmansaid short and medium haul flights were back to normal onSunday, but a small number of long-haul flights were stillcancelled.

However, a spokesman for the pilots’ union VereinigungCockpit warned of further action in the coming weeks asthere was no sign of an agreement. “There’s been no move-ment so far,” the spokesman said, refusing to rule out furtherstoppages at just 24 hours’ notice, and possibly over theEaster break in April. Management and unions areembroiled in a bitter dispute over pilots’ early retirementprovisions. Originally, Vereinigung Cockpit had called for a24-hour walkout last Wednesday, but subsequently extend-ed the industrial action over four days.

Short and medium haul services were cancelled onWednesday and Friday, and there were no long haul and car-go flights on Thursday and Saturday. In all, around 220,000passengers were hit by the four-day walkout, Lufthansa said.It has been the 12th and longest stoppage since the pilotsbegan their industrial action last April. The dispute hinges onLufthansa’s plans to scrap an arrangement under which pilotscan retire at 55 and receive up to 60 percent of their pay untilthey reach the statutory retirement age of 65. —AFP

Abe-Kuroda honeymoon soured

by fiscal frictionTOKYO: A rift is emerging between Prime Minister ShinzoAbe and his hand-picked central bank boss on how to fixJapan’s tattered finances, which could blunt the impact of the“Abenomics” stimulus policies they have worked together toprosecute. Two years into Bank of Japan Governor HaruhikoKuroda’s tenure, the cracks are becoming hard to conceal andcould affect the timing of any further monetary easing and aneventual end to the massive money-printing program he setin train. Their differences over fiscal policy needed to cutJapan’s staggering public debt, which at 230 percent of GDP istwice the U.S. figure and about 50 points higher than perilousGreece, have so far been masked by their shared determina-tion to end deflation.

The perception of common purpose is critical to givingbusinesses, markets and consumers the confidence to changebehavior and ensure that the stimulus measures and inflationtargets are effective. But the mask began to slip last yearwhen Abe decided to delay a sales tax hike, making Japan’sprimary fiscal goal harder to achieve.

“The honeymoon days are over,” said Izuru Kato, chiefeconomist at Totan Research. “Kuroda must be frustrated overa lack of progress in structural reform and fiscal consolidation.”A former finance ministry bureaucrat, Kuroda feels Japan can-not afford to delay tax hikes and spending cuts given its direfiscal state, while Abe prefers to focus more on boostinggrowth to raise tax revenues. Last month a key policy panelrun by Abe’s right-hand man, Economics Minister Akira Amari,began debating proposals that could water down Japan’s fis-cal target of returning to a primary budget surplus, excludingdebt servicing costs and income from bond sales, in fiscal2020. Abe has not resiled from that target, but the panel is lay-ing the ground for him to add other goals that give him morewiggle-room on spending, government officials say.

BREACH OF ETIQUETTEHis favourite idea, floated at the panel, is to add a goal

on the ratio of debt to GDP. This ratio falls without deepspending cuts, as long as the BOJ maintains both low inter-est rates and solid economic growth with its massive stim-ulus. Defying central bank etiquette, Kuroda spoke againstthe proposals at a panel meeting on Feb. 12 in front of Abe.

He returned to the theme two weeks later, despiteraised eyebrows in government. “Achieving the primarybalance target is just a first step. Only through this wouldJapan think about gradually reducing the debt-to-GDPratio,” he told reporters. Behind his concern is that Japan’shuge public debt could lead to cuts in its sovereign debtratings, which in turn would hurt Japanese banks withhuge bond holdings. Delays in fiscal reform are also likelyto leave the BOJ with a bloated balance sheet, alreadyequal to 60 percent of GDP, for longer than it wants.

Government officials admit they are counting on the BOJto keep borrowing costs low for as long as possible, even ifthat means delaying an exit from the radical stimulus meas-ures that have led to that unwieldy balance sheet. “The BOJ’sstimulus is crucial in keeping borrowing costs low, which is aprerequisite for fiscal reform to proceed,” one governmentofficial said on condition of anonymity. “There’s no doubt ithas become very hard for the BOJ to end its quantitativeeasing program” during Kuroda’s five-year term ending inApril 2018, a ruling party official said. —Reuters

NEW DELHI: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor,Raghuram Rajan (left) and Indian Finance MinisterArun Jaitley address a joint press conference aftera meeting with the Central Board of Directors ofthe Reserve Bank of India in New Delhi yesterday.Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said there is no ‘dis-connect’ between the government and the RBIand hoped banks would follow the central bank inreducing interest rates. —AFP

MADRID: Demonstrators take part in an anti-aus-terity demonstration dubbed “the Marches forDignity 22-M” in Madrid on Saturday. Tens of thou-sands of people from all over Spain rallied yester-day in Madrid, many of them after several daysmarch to demand “Bread, work, housing and digni-ty” on the eve of regional elections in Andalusiaconsidered a test to social unrest. —AFP

KUWAIT: Federal Bank General Manager Varghese K I addresses a press con-ference in Kuwait on Saturday. Deepak Govind, Asst General Manager andChief Representative Officer, looks on.

B U S I N E S SMONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

NEW YORK: Investors enjoying near-record lev-els for major stock indexes will scrutinize hous-ing data and other economic indicators in thecoming week for hints about the timing of USinterest rate hikes to see if the rally will continue.Concern about the Federal Reserve’s path of rateincreases and the soaring US dollar have result-ed in big swings in the S&P 500 on a daily basis,even though overall expectations for volatilityremain low. Bolstered by reduced expectationsof approaching rate hikes, the S&P 500 and

Nasdaq Composite came close to record closinghighs on Friday.

“Any piece of economic data that speaks tothe pace of job creation or inflation will bewatched very closely. That’s the driver,” said ArtHogan, chief market strategist at WunderlichSecurities in New York. That makes economicupdates due in the next few days all the moreimportant, strategists say, including Februarynew home sales on Tuesday and Februarydurable goods orders on Wednesday.

With Wall Street bracing for the first Fed ratehike since 2006, the S&P 500 on average thisyear has fluctuated 24 points per session, itsmost volatile since December 2011, according toThomson Reuters data.

After US consumer prices in January fell theirfurthest in six years due to low gasoline prices,Tuesday’s February Consumer Price Index isexpected to be up 0.2 percent, according to aReuters poll.

The US economy’s growth prospects and the

Investors eye data as stocks reach recordsWALL STRRET WEEK AHEAD

outlook for rate hikes have also beenclouded by the strong dollar. The green-back’s 20 percent surge over a year hascaused about 50 companies to reduceearnings expectations for the first quarter,and more could be on the way.

On Friday, the dollar was off 1.5 percentagainst a basket of major currencies andregistered its biggest weekly decline since2011. Expectations for first-quarter earningsare already off to a poor start. For everycompany that has pre-announced earningsabove Wall Street’s expectations, 5.5 othershave pre-announced below expectations,according to Thomson Reuters data. That’sthe worst ratio since the same point of time

in the first quarter of 2014, when the ratiowas 7.2 to 1. Investors also worry aboutfalling oil prices and how much of therecent drop is attributable to global eco-nomic weakness as opposed to oversupply.Energy companies account for 8 percent ofthe earnings of S&P 500 companies butvolatile crude prices reverberate across theeconomy. Some investors worry that con-sumers are not spending money freed upby lower gasoline prices on more goodsand services. “They’re saving it or payingdown debt,” said Bucky Hellwig, senior vicepresident at BB&T Wealth Management inBirmingham, Alabama. “That’s why every-one is nervous.” — Reuters

B U S I N E S SMONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

KUWAIT: Mubarak Naser Al-Sayer, Paul Reynolds, Mohamed Hilal, representatives from the Senior Management of the Group and guests attend the inauguration of Toyota Parts and Accessories outlet in Al-Qurain. — Photos by Joseph Shagra

KUWAIT: Mubarak Naser Al Sayer CEO, Al SayerGroup Holding inaugurated one of the Al-SayerGroup Holding Companies the ‘MohamedNaser Al-Sayer & Sons (MNSS)’ a new fully oper-ational Toyota Parts and Accessories outlet atAl-Qurain.

The opening of a new outlet is part of theirongoing network expansion plan. The inaugu-ral ceremony was attended by Paul Reynolds

COO and Mohamed Hilal Business DirectorGroup Parts Division. Representatives from theSenior Management of the Group, guests andmembers from media were invited to the cere-mony.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony,Mubarak Naser Al-Sayer, CEO Al-Sayer GroupHolding said “Al-Sayer takes great pride inexcelling continuously by providing the highest

levels of Customer Satisfaction. Al-Qurain facili-ty will be Group Parts Division’s 19thoutlet inthe region, to offer an enhanced customerexperience through better accessibility, con-venience. The newly opened outlet is located atthe major commercial center for customers toexplore, get inspired and demonstrate the lat-est technology in the real world of Auto acces-sories”. Customers are interested to buy

renowned brands from MNSS, for the goodprices and quality assured products to retaincustomer loyalty through such hi-tech partsand accessory center. All Toyota Genuine Partsare made to the same standards as our vehicleswhich mean each part will fit your vehicle’sexact specifications perfectly and meet thehigh quality standards of your Toyota as theyare built to the highest standards of quality,

durability and performance. Al-Sayer Groupstrives to achieve continuous growth by sellingonly quality products supported by outstand-ing service and being acknowledged as thebest in the business by Customers, Principals,Employees and the Community.

The new Qurain outlet will operate fromSaturday to Thursday, 9:00 am - 1:00pm and3:30 pm - 7:30 pm.

Toyota inaugurates new parts and accessories center in Al-Qurain

KUWAIT: Last week, the market revolvedaround the Federal Reserve’s MonetaryPolicy meeting. As widely expected, theFED dropped the “patient” pledge from itsstatement, opening the door to a possiblerate hike in June. However, the FED down-graded the expected pace of growth andinflation dividing views on whether a ratehike will occur in June or later. The Fed ispreparing to tighten even as stagnantgrowth in major economies continues topressure global central banks to ease poli-cy. That has put upward pressure on thegreenback, which has jumped more than 4percent since the Fed meeting in January,posing a potential challenge to growth asUS exports become more expensive.

On the foreign exchange side, the USdollar started the week on a strong noteagainst its major counterparts as the indexbroke the 100 barrier and peaked at 100.37,a level not seen since 2003. However, aseries of mixed data from the housing andmanufacturing markets combined withinvestors positioning themselves ahead ofthe FED meeting helped push the currencylower. On Wednesday, Fed Chair JanetYellen also warned that the stronger dollarwas acting as a drag on US exports and waspushing down inflation. That fuelled thebelief in the markets that rates will likely beraised at a slower-than-expected pace,which pushed the US dollar to record itsbiggest one-day drop against the Euro inalmost 6-years. The index dropped to athree-week low of 95.00 and then regainedsome of its losses to close the week at97.80.

The Euro traded close to 12-year lows atthe 1.0500 levels at the beginning of theweek. Then the currency found support fol-lowing the Federal Reserve’s Policy state-ment, which pushed investors to sell thegreenback pushing the Euro to a short-lived high of 1.1030. The move quickly lostmomentum as the greenback managed torecoup some of its losses and close theweek at 1.0826.

The euro has dropped dramatically sincethe latest release of a better-than-expectedNonfarm payroll figure earlier in March.That coincided with the beginning of theEuropean Central Bank’s EUR60 billion amonth bond buying program in the sameweek. In spite of Wednesday’s rally, theEuro is still down against the dollar bymore than 10 percent since the end of2014.

Similarly, Cable opened the week at the1.4700 levels. Sterling then dropped toalmost a 5-year low of 1.4668 as datashowed that UK’s unemployment rateremained unexpectedly unchanged inJanuary and that average UK earnings roseless-than-expected. Additionally, minutesof the Bank of England’s most recent policy

meeting showed that all nine members ofthe Monetary Policy Committee were infavor of leaving the key interest rate at arecord low of 0.5 percent and making nochanges to the central bank’s GBP375 bil-lion asset-purchase program. The poundthen followed suit, and gained dramaticallyagainst the US dollar following the FED pol-icy statement. Cable continued to dropagainst the greenback amid remarks by theBoE chief economist that the central bankshould consider cutting interest rates ifinflation threatens to fall further below theexpected target. Sterling closed the weekat 1.4962.

The Japanese yen opened the week atthe 121.40 level against the US dollar. Thecurrency then had a muted response afterthe Bank of Japan kept its monetary policyunchanged. The BoJ Governor HaruhikoKuroda said lower energy costs may pushconsumer prices into negative territory butit will not derail a pick-up in inflation as theeconomy recovers, signaling that he seesno immediate need to expand stimulus.The Yen then followed the market reactiontowards the dovish comments by the Fedand appreciated to reach 119.38. The USdollar then recouped its gains against theYen to close the week at 120.05.

Fed Drops ‘Patient’ Pledge The Federal Reserve dropped its stance

to be “patient” in raising interest rates, end-ing a period in its communications policyand opening the door for higher borrowingcosts as early as June. “An increase in thetarget range for the federal funds rateremains unlikely at the April” meeting, theFederal Open Market Committee said in astatement last week. However, markets areexpecting a September hike after the FEDdowngraded the expected pace of growthand inflation. In its statement following atwo-day meeting, the committee repeated

its view that job market conditions hadimproved. Although the statement put aJune rate increase on the table it alsoallowed the Fed enough flexibility to movelater in the year, stressing that any decisionwould depend on incoming data. “Thecommittee anticipates that it will be appro-priate to raise the target range for the fed-eral funds rate when it has seen furtherimprovement in the labor market and isreasonably confident that inflation willmove back to its 2 percent objective overthe medium-term,” the Fed said in its state-ment. Investors and economists are dividedover whether the initial hike will come in

June, or in September. Trading in federalfunds futures contracts point to aSeptember hike, while a recent Reuters pollof 70 economists indicated an even splitbetween June and later in the year.

Unemployment claimsThe number of Americans filing new

claims for unemployment benefits rosemarginally last week, indicating the labormarket remained on solid footing despiteslowing economic growth. Initial claims forstate unemployment benefits increased1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 291,000 forthe week ended March 14, the LaborDepartment said. The increase was broadlyin line with economists’ expectations.Claims have bounced around for much ofthe winter as harsh weather caused a swingin filings. But through the volatility, thetrend remained consistent with a strength-ening jobs market.

Manufacturing dataUS manufacturing output fell in

February for the third straight month as theproduction of automobiles and a range ofgoods dropped, the latest indication ofslower economic growth in the first quar-ter. Activity has slowed down in recent

months, constrained by a harsh winter,strong Dollar and lower crude prices, whichhave forced companies in the oil field toeither postpone or cut back on capitalexpenditure projects. Factory productionslipped 0.2 percent last month after declin-ing 0.3 percent in January. Similarly, manu-facturing activity in the Philadelphia-regionexpanded at the slowest pace in 13 monthsin March, fuelling concerns over the USeconomic outlook. The Federal ReserveBank of Philadelphia said that its manufac-turing index deteriorated to a reading of5.0 this month from February’s reading of5.2. Analysts had expected the index to riseto 7.1 in March.

German investor confidence German investor confidence rose for a

fifth month in March, supporting astrengthening recovery in Europe’s largesteconomy. The ZEW Center for EuropeanEconomic Research in Mannheim said itsindex of investor and analyst expectations,which aims to predict economic develop-ments six months in advance, climbed to54.8 from 53 in February. Economists hadforecast an increase to 59.4. German eco-nomic growth accelerated in the fourthquarter as lower oil prices and a weakereuro supported consumption and bol-stered business confidence.

The Swiss National Bank kept a chargeon some cash deposits steady at -0.75 per-cent on Thursday, but said it would remainactive in foreign exchange markets toweaken what it sees as a “significantly over-valued” franc. The central bank kept its tar-get range for the three-month Libor at -1.25 to -0.25 percent, as per market expec-tations. The SNB said it would continue totake account of the strong franc and itspotential effect on inflation and economicdevelopments in steering monetary policy.

BoJ monetary policy The Bank of Japan maintained its mas-

sive stimulus program and signaled itsbelief that a steady economic recovery willhelp achieve its ambitious price targetwithout immediate, additional monetaryeasing. The central bank, however, offereda slightly more downbeat view on the priceoutlook, though it stressed the slowdownin inflation was due to temporary declinesin oil prices. BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kurodaacknowledged that the oil drop couldbriefly pull Japan’s consumer prices backinto negative territory but insisted the cen-tral bank’s policy is on track to ending near-ly two decades of deflation.

KuwaitKuwaiti dinar at 0.29945The USDKWD opened at 0.29945 yester-

day morning.

ABIDJAN: Across Africa, where many nations showhigh economic growth rates but with little benefit totheir populations, the notion of social and economic“emergence” is taking hold as a remedy for perennialpessimism. The term has become a buzzword amonginternational donors and African politicians who take itto mean a fairer distribution of wealth and other meas-ures that benefit society at large. About 30 countrieson the continent have signed up to the doctrine,according to the United Nations. Ivory Coast ’sPresident Alassane Ouattara, who hosted a regionalconference on the theme this week, has grabbed on tothe promise of economic emergence as he plans toseek re-election in October.

Emergence, modelled on the success of the “babytigers” of Asia-Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam-as wellas Brazil, Chile and Colombia in South America, is pre-sented as the opposite of a capitalist and dehuman-ised economic vision. “For me, the goal of emergenceis not GDP (gross domestic product) growth per se: it isthe pursuit of greater human health and happiness sothat each one of us can fulfil our potential and partici-pate fully in our societies,” said Helen Clark, administra-tor for the UN Development Program.

Ivory Coast, the world’s leading cocoa producer,barely four years ago came out of a political and mili-tary crisis after a bloody decade. It has since achievedan annual growth rate of 9.0 percent and is due to bean “emerging” economy by 2020, Ouattara told theconference, though the Ivorian opposition considersthat goal far-fetched.

Leaders elsewhere in Africa are less ambitious butequally determined. Chad was aiming to emerge in2020 but has revised the date to 2030, like Togo. Morecautiously, Senegal’s rulers are looking to 2035 toattain key goals. “In addition to being strong and sus-tainable, the growth that leads us to emerge shouldgenerate jobs, force down unemployment and reducesocial inequalities,” Senegalese President Macky Sallsaid during the forum. The UN’s Clark envisaged that“by 2050, an ‘emergent Africa’ would have tripledAfrica’s share of global GDP, enabled 1.4 billionAfricans to join the middle class, and reduced tenfoldthe number of people living in extreme poverty. Theseare exciting prospects.”

Investment in health and education and reducinginequalities between cities and the countryside andbetween men and women, along with diversifying theeconomy and appropriate infrastructure projects, areamong means cited by experts to reach emergent tar-gets.

‘Bet on the future’ On a continent where 300 million inhabitants were

considered middle-class citizens by the AfricanDevelopment Bank (ADB) in 2011, out of an overallpopulation of around one billion, “Afro-pessimism isnow giving way to optimism,” Ivory Coast’s PlanningMinister Albert Toikeusse Mabri asserted.

“The African narrative has changed. Just a while ago,Africa was a place which was exceptional, but for nega-tive reasons. It was a place where there was no growth,no law,” said ADB vice-president Steve Kayizzi-Mugerwa. “People would say, ‘Yeah, that’s Africa’, wherethere was war, quick death, no accountability,” he said,before adding how things have changed. —AFP

Fed statement fuels FX market volatilityNBK MONEY MARKETS REPORT

‘Economic emergence’: The potential of fair African development

B U S I N E S SMONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

Jacob Zachariah Karuvelil, ‘ExecutiveVice President’ at Path Solutions, inthe second part of the interview,

spoke about the different modes ofIslamic financing and the growing chal-lenges it faces today. He also gave amessage to the Kuwait’s working com-munity. Excerpts:

Kuwait Times: What are the equity-based modes of financing?

Answer: Mudharaba Contract ofFinancing - A Mudharaba is a contractbetween two parties where by one part,the financier (Sahib al-Mal), entrustsfunds to another party, while the entre-preneur (Mudarib) provides the work.The profit is shared in a pre-agreed ratio.

b. Musharaka Contract of Financing -Musharaka is a joint venture agreementbetween two or many parties(bank/client) engaging in a specificbusiness activity while each of themprovides part of the capital. They mayparticipate in the management of theventure.

What are the debt modes of financ-ing?

Jacob: a. Murabaha - Refers to a con-tract in which the Islamic financial insti-tution purchases goods upon therequest of a client, who makes paymentthat covers costs and an agreed-uponprofit margin for the Islamic financialinstitution. The majority of car financingis done via Murabaha deals.

b. Murabaha to Purchase Orderer - Itis a sale whereby two parties or morenegotiate and promise each other toexecute an agreement according towhich the orderer asks the purchaser topurchase an asset of which the purchas-er will take legal possession. Then theorderer promises the purchaser to pur-chase the asset from him and give thepurchaser the profit therein.

c. Salam - Salam is a type of sale andit can be defined as a purchase of com-modity for deferred delivery inexchange for immediate paymentaccording to specific conditions, or saleof a commodity for deferred delivery inexchange of immediate payment.

d. Istisna’a- Istisna’a is a sale of con-tract between the ultimate purchase(Al-Mustasni) and the seller (Al-Sani)whereby the seller, based on an orderfrom the ultimate buyer, undertakes tohave manufactures or otherwiseacquires the subject matter (Al-Masnoo)

according to specification and sell it tothe ultimate purchaser for an agreedprice and method of payment.

e. Ijara - An Ijara is a lease purchasecontract in which the Islamic financialinstitution purchases capital equipmentor property and leases it to an enter-prise. In other words, Ijara is the transferof ownership of a service for an agreed-upon consideration.

KT: Growth of Islamic bankingJacob: Global Islamic banking assets

witnessed a compounded annualgrowth rate (CAGR) of around 17 per-cent from 2009 to 2013. Islamic bankingassets in six core markets Qatar,Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, UAE,Turkey are about to touch USD 1.8Trillion by 2019. Islamic banks in SaudiArabia, Kuwait and Bahrain representmore than 48.9 percent, 44.6 percentand 27.7 percent market share respec-tively. Positive progress has been madein Indonesia, Turkey and Pakistan, with43.5 percent, 18.7 percent and 22.0 per-cent CAGR respectively from 2009-2013.Iran accounts for nearly half of the bank-ing assets in Islamic banks worldwide.

(Source: E&Y, World Islamic BankingCompetitiveness Report 2014-15).

Islamic banking is projected toexceed $2.5 trillion of assets by end of2015 according to Al-Huda CIBE, and toreach $6.5 trillion by 2020 according toKFH Research. The growth of the Muslimpopulation will be double the rate ofnon Muslims in the period to 2025 andthe world’s Muslim population is fore-cast to expand by a third (600 millionpeople) by 2030 as per PWC October2014 Report.

KT: What are the challenges of Islamic banking?

Jacob: Islamic banking has still notbeen defined by regulatory authoritiesin most of the Islamic countries - IFC(World Bank Group) Report 2014. Lackof awareness and understanding ofIslamic banking products are anotherissue. High expectations vs. low cus-tomer knowledge is usually experi-enced. Wrong belief - Islamic finance isless profitable than conventionalfinance. Using the word Islamic is some-times misleading, that Islamic banking isonly for Muslims.

Shortage of skilled professionals -One million professionals will be need-ed to fill in the gaps as the industry is

set to reach $6.5 trillion by 2020. Size ofthe total Islamic banking industry assets($1.383 Trillion) compared with the top50 conventional banks ($65.507 trillion)is sti l l insignificant - The BankersDatabase. E&Y analyzed the sentimentof over 2.2 million customers’ socialmedia posts on their banking experi-ence with Islamic banks in Saudi Arabia,Bahrain, Kuwait, UAE, Malaysia,Indonesia, Turkey, Qatar and Oman. Theresults showed that customer satisfac-tion is mediocre at many Islamic banks.(Source: E&Y World Islamic BankingCompetitiveness Report 2014-15).

Islamic banks need to strengthencustomer experience through the use ofdigital technology. Those that do notkeep pace with technological advancesare expected to face serious pushback

from conventional players who candeliver on digital - E&Y World IslamicBanking Competitiveness Report 2014-15. Islamic banks are relatively poor atcross-selling with an average of 2.1products per customer compared to 4.9products per customer in conventionalbanks.

KT: How will you define customer sat-isfaction?

Jacob: “Achieving and SustainingCustomer Satisfaction” is the mostimportant aspect behind the success ofany business. Serving its niche market,Islamic banks have a key role to playproviding excellent services and sup-port to their clientele. Many simple con-cepts are implemented successfully forenhancing the customer satisfactionlevels. One such implemented in some

countries is where Islamic banks haveseparate counters for ladies customers.While there are others who have alsoopened dedicated branches to supportladies customers. Similarly, some Islamicbanks are offering decentralized servic-es to their customers. This will help cus-tomers to carry out the service they mayrequire from the branch close to them.The Account Manager concept is wellimplemented in many new Islamicbanks for their high net-worth as well aseven retail customers, hence providingmore personalized services to their valu-able customers. Banks can jointly oper-ate some of their branches under oneumbrella i.e. share one big space andwork different banks together.

A solid, stable and scalable bankingsoftware system plays a significant rolein assisting banks to actualize objectivesachieving customer satisfaction. Havinga strategic IT partner is key to success..

KT: How organizations can handleemployee job satisfaction and reten-tion?

Jacob: Each employee is the compa-ny’s best ambassador and promoter. Thegrowth and reputation of the companywill be dependent on how efficientlyand effectively each employee manageshis/ her jobs and responsibilities whichcontribute collectively to achieving thecompany’s mission and vision. As theorganization’s most valuable asset,keeping Employees happy is key for acompany to succeed.

Staff retention is one of the majorchallenges in IT and banking sector.Competitors are always targeting thetop per formers. To overcome this,Organizations have to shortlist their topperformers every year, have an Actionplan. For one, we have to ensure thestars are happy and will remain to bepart of the Organization. Share options,profit share, good salary commensurateto market standards, better incentivesbased on performance, Award like bestper former, etc. can be some of theoptions to retain top performers. Onthe other side, we need to ensurethrough proper Skil ls Assessment,Training Needs Analysis and accordinglyconducting Trainings, KnowledgeTransfer sessions periodically, a plan forbuilding more than a ‘key minimum’number of Experts in each area of busi-ness handled is very important. This waythe business would not be interrupted

and/ or continuity is maintained, even ifan employee decides to leave abruptly.

KT: As an IT Executive, what messagewould you like to convey to Kuwaitworking community?

Jacob: My message would be thatone should be 100 percent sincere toone’s work. If we are sincere in our work,we will be sincere in life too. With allbeing sincere to their duties andresponsibil it ies, productivity isimproved. With proper monitoring, asystem of guidance being in place andaccountability established, I believemuch can be achieved

Work is great human function. If youare poor, work to survive. If you are rich,work and continue working. If you areburdened with seemingly unfair respon-sibilities, work to thrive. If you are hap-py, keep right on working. If disappoint-ments come, work to overcome them. Ifyour health is threatened, work to cleanup yourself. When dreams are shatteredand hope seems dead, work. Work as ifyour life were in peril. No matter whatails you, work. Work faithfully, work withpassion. Work is the greatest remedyavailable for afflictions, both mental andphysical. Job security and continuity isvery important. But I feel it is not advis-able to move from one company toanother for nominal financial benefits. Ifit is inevitable, while changing job, wehave to take in to consideration aboutseveral risk factors and due to that Iwould recommend to accept offers onlyif able to get minimum 50 percentsalary increase.

KT: Public activities you are involvedJacob: A member of MCA, Kuwait a

forum of some of the like-minded peo-ple living in Kuwait, whose interestsrange from promotion of Education, Art,Culture and other socially supportiveactivities. Also a member of IOMF,Kuwait an organization having a view togive a helping hand to socially back-ward, sick and homeless people in thecommunity, irrespective of cast, creedor religion. We believe in helping thesick and needy, in whatever way it ispossible. As a proof, to say the worldthat we do care, several of our membersare registered postmortem organdonors or even living organ donors. Weencourage and promote organ dona-tion and plan to pursue a campaign inthis regard.

Challenges of Islamic financing

HSBC appoints new Chief Executive Officer in Kuwait

KUWAIT: Roger Winfield is the newlyappointed Chief Executive Officer forHSBC Kuwait, succeedingSimon Vaughan Johnson whohas moved on to a new role inHSBC France.

Winfield, with over 30years’ experience in Banking,joins the team in Kuwait afterspending eight years inPrivate Banking based in theUAE of which the last twoyears as the Market Head forthe Lower Gulf in GPB MENA.His experience covers nineother countries with seniorroles in Commercial Banking,Credit Risk , FinancialInstitutions and PrivateBanking.

Roger Winfield, newlyappointed CEO of HSBC in Kuwait said:“Kuwait remains an important market for

HSBC in the Middle East and offers manyopportunities for the Bank to support the

country’s development ambi-tions. With our unique globalfootprint, knowledge of thelocal market and internationalbanking expertise we will con-tinue to connect our cus-tomers to business opportuni-ties and support them in theirambitions to grow and thrive.”

HSBC, since re-establishingin Kuwait in 2005, will this yearcelebrate its 10th anniversary.The bank offers a full range ofproducts and services for localand international corporatesthat include payments andcash management, trade andreceivable finance, investmentbanking and HSBC Securities

Services. The Bank also offers global pri-vate banking services.

Roger Winfield, CEOHSBC in Kuwait

Kuwait: Warba Bank has launched a new pro-motional campaign, “Transfer Your Salary”, pro-viding customers with an opportunity to receivea prepaid card with a value reaching up to KD150 immediately when the customer transfershis/her salary to Warba Bank. in addition to thisexciting offer, customers will enjoy wide rangeof quality banking services provided by theBank.

Warba Bank’s new campaign, “Transfer YourSalary”, aims at fulfilling customer’s financialbanking requirements and providing them withthe best services through the innovative prod-ucts and offers fulfilling local market require-ments. The campaign also aims at attractingnew customers.

The new campaign allows customers whotransfer their salaries to Warba Bank during theperiod from 10th March 2015 to 30th July 2015to receive a prepaid gift card up to KD 150,

whereby customer salary segment from KD 500to KD 999 will receive a gift card of KD 100 andcustomers with salaries ranging between KD1,000 -KD 1499 will receive KD 125. Al Safwaaccount special customers with salaries thatexceed KD 1,500 will receive KD 150 gift cards.

Warba Bank continues to differentiate itselffrom peers by providing its customers with a setof services that include immediate issuance ofthe ATM card with a free SMS service and spe-cial benefits to card holders enabling them toenter VIP lounges at most international airportsfor free. In addition customers will receive a pre-paid card from “My Box” which provides the cus-tomer with a local P.O Box in United States ofAmerica, United Kingdom, and United ArabEmirates.

“Transfer Your Salary” campaign from WarbaBank targets all employed and retired Kuwaitinationals with salaries exceeding KD 500, newly

hired Kuwaitis entering the workforce both atthe public and private sector for the first time.And residents expatriates in the State of Kuwaitreceiving salaries of KD 1000 and above.

It is worth noting that Warba Bank providesLamar account targeting working women in thepublic and private sectors with salaries rangingbetween KD 500 and KD 1499. In addition to allthe advantages of possessing this account, cus-tomers can also enjoy private and exclusiveservices and promotional offers that fulfill theirrequirements and satisfy their expectations.Warba Bank also provides a range of servicesincluding the Saving Investment accountthrough which customers receive competitivequarterly profits directly transferred to theiraccounts. For more information about “TransferYour Salary” campaign, customers are invited tocontact our Customer Service Center on1825555, or visit any of the Bank branches.

Al-Tijari announces winners of Al-Najma Account draw

KUWAIT: Commercial Bank of Kuwait heldthe Al-Najma Account draw yesterday. Thedraw was held under the supervision of theMinistry of Commerce & Industry repre-sented by Abdulaziz Ashkanani.

The winners of the Al-Najma daily draware :-Khaled Ahmad Bu Abbas — KD 7000, Zainab Nael Al-Abdullah— KD 7000, Anwar Motlaq Al-Sawwagh — KD 7000, Sheikha Masayel Abdullah Al-Sabah— KD 7000, Khamees Mohsen Al-Ajmi — KD 7000,

The Commercial Bank of Kuwaitannounces the biggest daily draw inKuwait with the launch of the new Najmaaccount. Customers of the bank can nowenjoy a KD 7,000 daily prize which is thehighest in the country and another 4 mega

prizes during the year worth KD 100,000each on different occasions: The NationalDay, Eid Al-Fitr, Eid Al-Adha and on the 19thof June which is the date of the bank’sestablishment.

With a minimum balance of KD 500, cus-tomers will be eligible for the daily drawprovided that the money is in the accountone week prior to the daily draw or 2months prior to the mega draw. In addi-tion, for each KD 25 a customer can get onechance for winning instead of KD 50.

Commercial Bank of Kuwait takes thisopportunity to congratulate all lucky win-ners and also extends appreciation to theMinistry of Commerce and Industry fortheir effective supervision of the drawswhich were conducted in an orderly andorganized manner.

Air India manager bids adieu to KuwaitKUWAIT: Air India country manager Ajai Sinhaand his wife Preeti Sinha bid adieu to theirfriends and well-wishers in a gala reception atthe Crowne Plaza Hotel on Friday.

Sinha completed a successful tenure inKuwait having improved the airline’s services

and connections for the Indian community inKuwait. During his tenure, Sinha earned the trustand confidence of the airline fraternity with hishard work and dedication which helped toregain lost market share.

Indian ambassador to Kuwait Sunil Jain, in his

farewell speech applauded and congratulatedSinha for a job well done and for his service tothe airline and the community.

Hirak Mukhopadyay, airport manager of AirIndia will be acting country manager until thenew manager arrives to take charge.

Warba Bank launches ‘transferyour salary’ campaign

Tawasul Telecom meets int’l, regional industry leaders

KUWAIT: Tawasul Telecom, the leadingprovider of MPLS Networking Services (Multi-Protocol Label Switching) in the GCC and theMiddle East sponsored the 10th annual net-working event for the Middle East and inter-national carrier communities: Capacity ME2015. The event was held in Dubai fromMarch 10th - 12th at Grand Hyatt Dubai hotelhosting 1,200 senior executives who havejoined from all around the world.

The region’s largest telecom event is theultimate meeting point that unites all leadersin the telecom sector to exchange ideas andaddress various trends in the developing tele-com market in the Middle East. It has provid-

ed a unique opportunity for industry leadersto network, share information, as well as gaininsight into innovative telecom services whileexploring new business opportunities.

“ The pioneering position of TawasulTelecom as the/a leading provider of MPLSconnectivity services in the MENA region, andour desire to create global awareness of therapidly growing telecom sector in the MiddleEast, are the key reasons for us to sponsor theindustry’s premier event in the region,” saidSalem Almulaifi, Chief of Marketing andStrategy Officer at Tawasul Telecom, whoattended the event along with a delegationrepresenting the Company.

t e c h n o l o g yMONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

WASHINGTON: A US-subsidized advoca-cy group that helps Internet users insideChina bypass blockages on censored con-tent says it is suffering a mysteriousdenial-of-service attack disrupting itsoperations.

Greatfire.org says the attack startedtwo days ago and Internet traffic is 2,500times above normal. It says the attack hasaffected “mirror,” or duplicate, websitesthat it has set up via encrypted web serv-ices offered by companies like Amazon.

Greatfire.org said the attack has inter-

fered with visitors to sites with materialfrom news sites including Boxun.com,which publicizes allegations of corruptionand human rights abuses inside China;German provider Deutsche Welle, andGoogle.

The statement from a co-founder ofthe group, who goes by the pseudonymCharlie Smith, said it’s not clear who isbehind the attack, but it coincides withincreased pressure on the organizationover the last few months and public criti-cism from Chinese authorities.

Zhu Haiquan, spokesman of theChinese Embassy in Washington, said: “Aswe have always stated, Chinese laws pro-hibit cyber crimes of all forms. The Chinesegovernment is making great efforts tocombat cyber crimes and safeguardcybersecurity. Jumping to conclusionsand making unfounded accusations is notresponsible and is counterproductive.”

The Chinese government blocks thou-sands of websites to prevent what itdeems politically sensitive informationfrom reaching Chinese users, an effort

dubbed the Great Firewall.According to the free-expression watch-

dog Freedom House, since late 2013Greatfire.org has been hosting content ondomains owned by Amazon and othermajor companies, which officials cannotrisk censoring because of their large com-mercial footprint within China.

Smith said the current denial-of-serviceattack that is flooding the mirror websites iscosting the group up to $30,000 per day inbandwidth. He told The Associated Press byphone that Greatfire.org is in contact with

Amazon about how to deflect the attack.He said the company has not yet con-firmed whether it will forgo the inflatedcharges.

An Amazon spokesman did not imme-diately respond to an email seeking com-ment. The Open Technology Fund, a US-government-backed initiative to supportInternet freedom, says on its website it pro-vided Greatfire.org with $114,000 in 2014.Greatfire.org says it gets its funding from avariety of sources, including from peopleand organizations inside China. —AP

China web freedom group faces online disruption

SAN FRANCISCO: This photo provided by Sony Computer EntertainmentInc., Sony Computer Entertainment showcased new tech demos for their VRsystem, Project Morpheus, at 2015 Game Developers Conference, including‘The London Heist.’ —AP

SEOUL: Mickey Mouse, Hello Kitty:Move over. And make way for laid-back Brown bear and his irrepress-ible girlfriend Cony the bunny.

Once just digital stickers thatusers of mobile messaging app Linesend to each other like emoticons,the bear, the bunny and their sevenfriends will soon be unleashedthrough stores, virtual reality andpossibly an animated film.

For smartphone users in Asiawhere most of Line’s 181 millionmonthly users are located, the char-acters are as familiar as old schoolicons such as Hello Kitty andDisney’s animated stars. They arenot well known in America orEurope but owner Line Corp. hopesto change that.

It plans to open 100 stores sell-ing Brown dolls and other cute“Line Friends” paraphernalia world-wide over the next three years. Ithas already opened two stores inSeoul and its first Shanghai andNew York stores will open this year.

Though partly an accidentalstrategy, the company says thebricks-and-mortar presence willdraw more users to the app andhelp replicate its rapid Asian suc-cess in other regions. It will also givethe company a backdoor intoChina, where Line is blocked alongwith other foreign messaging appsand social media sites.

“We never intended to do acharacter business,” Yoon Sunmin,who oversees Line’s character busi-ness, said in an interview that wasthe first time the company has out-lined its merchandizing plans indetail. “It exploded by accident,” hesaid, drinking coffee from a papercup emblazoned with the dazedface of Brown.

VisitorsVisitors to the newly opened

flagship shop in Seoul’s trendyGangnam district screamed withdelight when they saw an outsizedBrown bear greeting them near theentrance of the three-storey store.Locals and tourists from Vietnam,China and Hong Kong queued totake a picture with Brown and oth-er human-size cutout Line charac-ters, as if they were pop stars.

Evelyn Tan, a 27-year-old fromnorthwestern China, and her friendKeira Yi, 23, from Beijing, said theydon’t use Line in China but came tolook at Brown and other cute dolls.“I have some friends from Taiwanand they use Line,” said Tan. “Thestickers. They are so cute.”

Larger and more expressivethan emoticons, the stickers havebeen a draw card for Line whoseusers are mostly in Japan, Thailand,Indonesia, India and Spain. Theyalso set Line apart from the barebones interface of rival WhatsApp,which was bought by Facebook forabout $22 billion. Line is worthabout $18 billion based on revenuefrom monthly users, according toMarcello Ahn, a fund manager atQuad Investment Management.The popularity of the Brown andCony stickers has also shaped anew trend in mobile communica-tion.

Instead of typing messages,many users simply tapped a stickershowing a coy-looking Brown sit-ting on a toilet or eating a bowl oframen. Users began to associatethemselves with certain charactersand the lineup now includes abespectacled middle-aged mannamed Boss and James, a blondnarcissist.

“People express their emotionwith the characters so the depth ofthe interaction is different,” Yoonsaid.

Stickers also made Line the raremobile messenger that rakes incash, first by selling stickers for $2 a

pack to mobile phone users andlater by adding new businessessuch as games and a taxi hailingservice. Users can now sell stickersthey make themselves to otherLine users. There are more than200,000 people around the worldwho do that.

Line Corp.’s net profit jumped 50percent in 2014 to 126 billion won($112 million) on revenue of 670billion won ($594 million), accord-ing to its parent, South Korea’sNaver Corp. The app was launchedin June 2011.

Line also cashed in on the rockstar popularity of its animal charac-ters through mobile games and ananimated TV show in Japan.

New venturesIn China, the company hopes

the stores and other ventures willput it in a strong starting positionin case authorities ever relent ontheir blocking of the app.

The first Line Friends store inChina will open in Shanghai’sXintiandi shopping district in May,selling Brown dolls, Cony pens,Sally mugs and other goods suchas kitchen utensils, stationary, jew-elry and toys.

“We hope to resume the Line

app service someday” in China,Yoon said. “If the Line app isresumed at a time when our char-acters are well known, it would bea powerful launch. We hope that inthe countries where the Line app isnot used actively, Line characterswould promote the app.”

Apart from stores, Line is in talksto open a virtual reality amusementpark in China. The first such park,where visitors can explore a virtualspace with Line characters, willopen in Bangkok this summer.

Line is also negotiating withHollywood producers to turn itscute characters into an animatedfilm for theaters or series for TV. Linespun off Line Friends earlier thismonth to operate the character-related business independentlyfrom the company’s app business.

Though analysts are skepticalabout the app’s future in Chinawhere Tencent’s WeChat is domi-nant, they say the merchandizingbusiness could be effective in theUS and in Latin America.

“There is clearly an opportunity totake existing mobile properties toother channels and generate rev-enues,” said Jack Kent, director ofmobile media research at IHSTechnology. —AP

Big in Asia, Line app hopes cute factor will win worldwide

LAUSANNE: Persons watch a solar eclipse, at the Swiss Federal Institute of technology (EPFL), inLausanne, Switzerland, March 20. An eclipse is darkening parts of Europe on Friday in a raresolar event that won’t be repeated for more than a decade. —AP

BEIJING: Yahoo is closing its research anddevelopment center in China as CEO MarissaMayer tries to placate shareholders pressur-ing the Internet company to cut costs whileit struggles to bring in more revenue.

The Beijing operation’s responsibilitieswill be shifted to other Yahoo Inc. offices,according to a company statement releasedlate Wednesday. Yahoo didn’t specify howmany people will lose their jobs in China,but pledged to treat all the workers “withrespect and fairness.”

The closure will mark Yahoo’s exit fromChina, where the Sunnyvale, California, com-pany has been winding down since turningover its operations to Alibaba Group in 2005.

That $1 billion deal gave Yahoo a lucra-tive stake in Alibaba that is currently worth$33 billion. Yahoo is preparing to spin off itsAlibaba holdings into a separately tradedcompany later this year, removing an assetthat deflected attention from the challengesfacing Yahoo’s own businesses.

Yahoo hired Mayer in July 2012 to engi-neer a turnaround, but so far she hasn’tbeen able to boost the company’s revenueeven though advertisers have been shiftingmore of their spending to the Internet and

mobile devices. Yahoo’s revenue declined by1 percent to $4.6 billion last year.

New York hedge fund Starboard Value, anactivist investor that owns a 0.8 percentstake in Yahoo, is among the shareholderswho believe Mayer needs to trim expenses.In an open letter released earlier this month,Starboard Value Managing Member JeffreySmith urged Mayer to cut costs by about$450 million annually. Smith is also amongthe Yahoo shareholders who called uponMayer to spin off the Alibaba stake to avoidtriggering a huge tax bill from sale of thestake.

In a January conference call, Mayeremphasized that Yahoo’s payroll hasremained roughly the same size since shearrived, even though the company hadinherited more than 1,000 employeesthrough acquisitions completed during herreign. She also pointed out that Yahoo hadclosed about a dozen offices while phasingout about 75 products during her tenure.

“We will continue to seek and execute onefficiencies that we find on an ongoing basisas an effort to better align our resourceswith our strategy and growth opportunities,”Mayer pledged. —AP

Yahoo shutting down China office in cost-cutting move

DUBAI: Avaya Technology Forum (ATF)2015, the first of its kind to be held inthe Middle East,is being supportedbyseveral leading technology players.More than 500 technology profession-als and engineers from around theworld are expected to participate inthe forum to be held from March 30 toApril 1, and large IT firms have joinedwith Avaya to create an innovationplatform to deep-dive into the nextgeneration communications and net-working technologies.

Partners who have signed-on aspresenting sponsors of AvayaTechnology Forum Dubai 2015 includeOracle, Almasa Value Distribution,Plantronics, Siemon, Nutanix, AxisCommunications, Senetas, Riverbed,and ITP.

Mohammed Areff, Avaya’s manag-ing director for the GCC, Levant, Iraqand Pakistan, said: “ The AvayaTechnology Forum is a popular interna-tional platform for the IT industry andit is an honor to have the support ofsuch a strong contingent of partners,

who will join us in delivering value tothe region’s technology scene. By look-ing at the range of partners, we cansee that the topics that we will befocusing on are timely and relevant toIT professionals across all segments.We are happy to bring this globally-acclaimed conference to Dubai, andhelp transform the IT landscape in ourmarkets.”

The Avaya Technology Forum Dubaiis a rare opportunity to hear fromAvaya experts, channel partners andcustomers on strategies for migrating,designing and implementing innova-tivecustomer and team engagementsolutions. More than 70sessions willtake place over the three-day event,covering a number of topics such ass-mart cities, public safety, software-defined networking, cloud-based serv-ices, virtualization, security, and mobili-ty, among others.

Hein van der Merwe, ChiefTechnologist, Middle East and Africa, atOracle, said: “We support bringingglobal innovation to a dynamic andcompetitive MENA region and eventssuch as ATF 2015 can serve to signifi-cantly raise the bar in terms of cus-tomer solutions and local deliverycapabilities.”

At the event, Avaya’s residentexperts in unified communications andcontact center operations will discusstransformative technologies andtrends, from BYOD and mobility to fab-ric networking and next-generationWLAN.

Roger El Tawil - Executive Director,Almasa Value Distribution, said:“Distributors face some unique chal-lenges in the fast-paced tech industry.When majors such as Avaya invest increating platforms for knowledge- andexperience-sharing, it is a matchlessopportunity for us to elevate our skill-sets. We are happy to partner withAvaya and be present at the AvayaTechnology Forum 2015. This is aninvestment in our team and capabili-ties as much as in the event itself.”

IT majors join hands with Avaya to bring Tech

Conference to the region

PARIS: France’s government pressed to legal-ize broad surveillance of terrorism suspectswith a measure that would allow intelligenceservices to vacuum up metadata in hopes ofpreventing imminent attacks.

The measure prompted outcry from someprivacy advocates, human rights groups andthe Paris bar association, despite the govern-ment’s efforts to distance itself from U.S.-stylemass surveillance in updating a law left essen-tially untouched since 1991.

In the United States, Internet and communi-cations companies are pushing to encrypt traf-fic and keep metadata private. Governmentofficials are resisting, seeking “back door”means for guaranteed access. France’s measureappears to be demanding similar access, put-ting the companies under intense pressure onboth sides of the Atlantic.

“Vague laws are really problematic when itcomes to this sort of surveillance practice,especially when it comes to weak or nonexist-ent oversight,” said Joshua Franco, who ana-lyzes technology law for AmnestyInternational.

The measure presented Thursday was pro-posed long before the deadly Paris attacks byIslamic extremists earlier this year, but the gov-ernment says it takes on added urgency witheach person who is radicalized and turnsagainst France.

It would force communications firms toallow intelligence services to install electronic“lock-boxes” to record metadata, which would

then be subject to algorithmic analysis forpotentially suspicious behavior. The metadatawould be anonymous, but intelligence agentscould follow-up with a request to an independ-ent nine-person panel for deeper surveillance.

Either the panel or people who believe theyare unfairly under surveillance - how theywould know is unclear - could appeal toadministrative judges. The timeframe for datastorage was murky and likely to be fiercely con-tested in parliament.

Power struggleInterior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve went to

San Francisco last month to discuss the meas-ure with Internet giants including Google,Facebook and Twitter. A French official whowas not authorized to speak about the talkssaid he expected “a power struggle” with thecompanies in coming months.

French lawmakers start debating the bill inApril. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls saidthe data gathering would be restricted underthe law, that its execution will be monitored bythe independent panel, and - in the case ofmetadata - would not include personal infor-mation.

“These are legal tools, but not tools ofexception, nor of generalized surveillance ofcitizens,” Valls said in a news conference follow-ing a Cabinet meeting.

The prime minister stressed that only half ofFrench citizens who left for Syria were flaggedbeforehand. “Facing increasing jihadist threats,

we must strengthen the effectiveness of thesurveillance of terrorists,” he said.

The bill also aims to give French intelli-gence services a legal framework for usinghigh-tech tools - already in operation - such aslocation trackers for cars or devices that inter-cept nearby mobile phones. The country’s pre-vious surveillance law was passed in 1991,before mobile phones and the Internet, Vallsrecalled.

But Sophie in ‘t Veld, a Dutch member ofthe European Parliament, said a general pushthroughout the 28-nation European Union toexpand the authority to collect and stockpilecitizens’ data hands too much power to policeand politicians.

“We are destroying all the legal safeguards,and by doing that, we are not only destroyingthe privacy and freedom of our citizens butdestroying the fabric of our societies them-selves,” In ‘t Veld said.

French officials said Internet companiessuch as Facebook and Google already keep -and analyze - far more information about theircustomers than the government is proposing.

In ‘t Veld also questioned the effectivenessof vacuuming up mass quantities of data. In2011, she said, the European Parliamentpassed a resolution she had drafted calling onmember states and the EU’s executive arm toevaluate the effectiveness of counter-terrorismtools. Since then, she said, the agencies con-cerned have never been able to show the ben-efits of data collection. —AP

After years in shadows, France wants legal data monitoring

Mohammed Areff

H E A LT H & S C I E NC EMONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

MAJURO: A tiny central Pacific commu-nity, forced to evacuate their homesbecause of US nuclear testing, are nowdemanding refuge in the United Statesas they face a new threat from climatechange.

“We want to relocate to the UnitedStates,” Nishma Jamore, mayor of theatoll of Bikini, said on the weekend asPacific waters continued to eat away atthe small Kili and Ejit islands in the far-flung Marshall Islands archipelago.

Jamore heads a community of about1,000 islanders who have lived in exileon the islands for decades because theiroriginal homeland of Bikini remains tooradioactive for resettlement.

There were 24 nuclear tests conduct-ed on the atoll in the 1950s, including“Bravo”, the largest hydrogen bomb det-onation conducted by the United States.

Unable to return to Bikini, theislanders are now faced with increasinglyheavy flooding from high tides andstorms hitting Kili and Ejit with waveswashing over the islands and wiping outfood crops. Jamore voiced their concernsto US Assistant Secretary of InteriorEsther Kia’aina during her visit to theMarshall’s capital of Majuro this month.

“We want to relocate to the UnitedStates,” Jamore said. “Kili has beenrepeatedly flooded since 2012 and we’veasked the Marshall Islands government

for help with no response.” There is alsoserious concern over a recent legislativemove by the Marshall ’s parliament,known as the Nitijela, to take authorityfor Ejit Island away from the Bikinians.

The latest flooding at Kili hit lastmonth during annual high tides, andJamore described the island’s airportrunway as like “the Nile River” as waterflooded over it.

Runway flooded -As the floods damaged houses and

damaged crops, the 1.6 kilometre (onemile) long runway, which is 2.5 metres(8.2 feet) above sea level, disappearedbeneath about 25 centimetres of saltwa-

ter. This is the second time BikiniIslanders have called to be resettled inthe United States.

In the 1980s, following an abortedresettlement on Bikini atoll that endedwith the islanders exposed to high levelsof radiation, they attempted to buy atract of land on Maui in the state ofHawaii for resettlement.

The plan was vetoed when it ran intoconsiderable opposition from Maui resi-dents, but it is gathering steam againbecause of the damage to homes andagriculture caused by repeated floodingof Kili and Ejit in recent years.

“We’re going to Washington nextmonth,” Jamore said, insisting he would

take the plan to the US government.Arkansas, Oklahoma and Hawaii have

been identified as ideal locations as theyare already home to significant popula-tions of Bikini islanders.

Jamore and other Bikini Council exec-utives want to use the US-funded BikiniTrust Fund to purchase property for theresettlement.

Currently the Fund allows for proper-ty purchase only in the Marshall Islands,but Jamore said they have asked theInterior Department to change theagreement so they can buy land in theUnited States.

“This will give the people options foreducation and jobs,” he said.—AFP

Radiation, climate force Bikini Islanders to seek US refuge

LIMA: Peruvians carry placards during the “March for Life,” calling for the banning of abortion, organized by the Catholic Church in Lima onMarch 21. The Peruvian government is attempting to regulate therapeutic abortion, which has been legal in Peru for the last 80 years. — AFP

WASHINGTON: The Senate’s 100 membersdon’t agree on much. They agreed they wantedlegislation to help the victims of sex trafficking.Then the bill got caught up in the emotional anduncompromising politics of abortion.

Now the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Actis stalled, its outlook uncertain. Democrats areinsisting Republicans remove an abortion fund-ing provision. Republicans are refusing to do soand demanding that Democrats back down.

President Barack Obama’s attorney generalnominee, Loretta Lynch, is caught in the cross-fire, since Republican leaders decided to hold offher confirmation vote until the situation withthe sex trafficking bill is resolved. That might nothappen for the better part of a month or more,with senators set to vote on the budget nextweek before leaving town for a two-week recess.

The stalemate over a bill meant to help someof the most vulnerable members of society isembarrassing and disappointing to all involved.Senators of both parties say they want to breakthe impasse and move the legislation forward,and negotiations are ongoing.

Yet at least so far, neither side has beenmoved enough by the plight of tens of thou-sands of trafficking victims to bend and find anacceptable compromise. The situation illustratesthat when it comes to abortion, other considera-tions can get sidelined as even the most prag-matic lawmakers get pushed into ideologicalcorners with no easy way out.

“ The longer these things go, the moreentrenched people become,” said Sen. HeidiHeitkamp, D-N.D., who has been working withSen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, to try to find a com-promise. “Our problem right now is that whenthings get polarized it’s always difficult to putthem back together.” The trafficking bill lookedprimed for quick passage earlier this month,after clearing the

Senate Judiciary Committee without opposi-tion. It aims to boost the tools available to law

enforcement to go after people involved in sextrafficking, and creates a fund for helping victimsthat’s paid for with criminal fines.

Spending billsBut just as floor debate was to begin,

Democrats raised alarms about a provisionblocking money in the victims’ fund from payingfor abortions except in cases of rape, incest ordanger to the life of the mother. Similar prohibi-tions on taxpayer dollars have been included inCongress’ annual spending bills for decades, butDemocrats said they couldn’t agree to extendthem to a new pot of money.

They also complained that the abortion fund-ing prohibition in existing law, called the Hydeamendment, must be renewed annually, where-as the restriction on the victims’ fund would lastfive years. Democrats claimed that they had notknown about the abortion provision andaccused Republicans of sneaking it in, eventhough the language had been in the bill since itwas introduced in January, and one Democraticsenator’s office did concede an aide was awareof it.

Abortion rights groups like PlannedParenthood and National Organization forWomen jumped in, pressuring Democrats not toyield, and the issue quickly became personal forsome. In a remarkable exchange on the Senatefloor, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., related herown personal history on a prison board sentenc-ing providers before abortion became legal andencountering victims of back-alley abortions.

Feinstein told Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, thelead GOP sponsor, that women have lost toomany fights over abortion and would not backdown.

“It is our reproductive system. In a sense thishas been a battle for our identity,” Feinstein said.“There are many of us who believe this is onesmall step for womankind.”

Looking for solutionIn the wake of that exchange, Cornyn, too,

started sounding unwilling to budge. He pro-posed routing the victims’ fund throughCongress’ regular annual appropriations process,but maintained language specifically referenc-ing an abortion exception, and Democratsrefused. Heitkamp and Collins offered a similarproposal, but their amendment dropped theabortion reference, and Cornyn said no. He toldreporters that, Democrats “now having madethis the focal point,” he was unwilling to give in.

“By striking any reference to the Hyde provi-sions it looks like we are not maintaining the sta-tus quo, it looks like it’s an erosion,” Cornyn saidlate Thursday of the Heitkamp-Collins plan.“People like Sen. Feinstein, I think she would tellyou she would consider that a victory.”

On Friday, lawmakers and aides involvedwere still looking for solutions, but it was uncer-tain if they’d succeed. And at the same time,abortion was beginning to look like an obstacleto a deal on an unrelated issue - changing howMedicare reimburses doctors - as Democraticsenators raised concerns that a tentative Houseagreement would write restrictions on abortionsat community health centers into law.

In January, the issue showed it could compli-cate even internal GOP politics as objectionsfrom female and more centrist GOP House mem-bers forced House leaders to pull a bill criminal-izing virtually all late-term abortions. Together,they’re just the latest skirmishes in an ongoingbattle that almost sunk Obama’s health care lawand has reared up time and again to complicateone debate after another.

“In my years in the Senate, very few issueshave been more politically charged and oremotional than abortion-related debates,” saidJim Manley, a former longtime staffer forDemocratic leader Harry Reid and the late Sen.Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts. “It’s veryintense.” —AP

Divisive issue of abortion stalls human trafficking billRepublicans demanding Democrats to back down’

WASHINGTON: The Obama administrationsaid Friday it’s making progress trying tocorrect a tax-form error that affected820,000 customers of HealthCare.gov.

Administration officials said 740,000 cor-rected forms have gone out to consumersin the federal insurance marketplace, andanother 80,000 will be mailed next week.

State-run insurance exchanges, includ-ing Covered California, have also sent formswith incorrect information to some cus-tomers. The Treasury Departmentannounced Friday that taxpayers who gotincorrect information from state exchangeswon’t be required to submit correctedreturns if they have already filed their taxes.

Treasury had previously offered thesame leeway for consumers in the 37 statesserved by HealthCare.gov, the federal mar-ketplace. The Treasury action amounts to areprieve from paperwork headaches for

early tax filers.The issue involves a new government

form called a 1095-A. It’s like a W-2 form forhealth care for people who got subsidizedprivate insurance under President BarackObama’s law. Consumers who got healthinsurance tax credits need the informationon the 1095-A to file their taxes.

Last month, federal officials said morethan 800,000 consumers had gotten thewrong details on premiums.HealthCare.gov CEO Kevin Counihan saidsome customers may still have other errorson their forms, like the wrong coveragedates. He urged them to callHealthCare.gov at 800-318-2596.

Counihan estimated that 3 percent to 4percent of customers may have some ofthese other errors on their 1095-A forms.That translates to between 120,000 and160,000 households. — AP

HealthCare.gov sending out corrected tax forms

WASHINGTON: A budding bipartisan dealto shelter physicians from Medicare cuts,championed by the House’s two top lead-ers, is drawing powerful allies including theAmerican Medical Association and a rain-bow of conservative and liberal groups.

House aides released an outline of theemerging measure late Friday, and it con-firmed what lawmakers, aides and lobbyistshave described for days. The package isstudded with provisions that draw manyDemocrats, including two more years ofmoney for the Children’s Health InsuranceProgram and community health centers,plus language boosting Medicare costs forsome beneficiaries that appeals toRepublicans eager to retool the costly pro-gram’s finances.

The effort to resolve a problem that hasexasperated Congress for years has beenpressed by House Speaker John Boehner,R-Ohio, and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi,D-Calif. Their rare alliance has given theproposed deal momentum among law-makers of both parties eager to be rid ofthe issue.

The proposal is also attracting powerfulfoes and its fate is not guaranteed. A Housevote seems likely late next week, shortlybefore Congress begins a two-week springrecess, but what will happen in the Senateis less clear.

Citing the plan’s increased Medicarepremiums for high earners and otherincreased costs for beneficiaries, AARP - thesenior citizens’ lobby - said the package “isnot a balanced deal for older Americans.”With most of the measure financed withdeeper federal deficits, the conservativeClub for Growth urged lawmakers to vote“no” because it “falls woefully short” ofbeing paid for.

Some House liberals and SenateDemocrats have criticized the measure fornot extending the children’s health pro-gram for four years, raising Medicare premi-ums and restricting abortions at communi-ty health centers.

Strengthen MedicareThe measure got a boost Friday from the

liberal Families USA, which cited the impor-tance of financing the children’s health pro-gram and providing for the 8 million chil-dren it serves. “Keeping the program’s fund-ing extension is essential so we don’t movebackwards,” said Ron Pollack, the group’sexecutive director.

Also voicing support was Robert Wah,president of the American MedicalAssociation, who said it was time for

Congress “to seize the moment and finallyput in place reforms” that would end theconstant threatened cuts and strengthenMedicare.

At its core, the plan would block a 21percent cut in doctors’ Medicare fees loom-ing April 1. It would replace a 1997 law thathas threatened similar reductions for years- which Congress has repeatedly blocked -with a new formula aimed at prodding doc-tors to charge Medicare patients for thequality, not quantity, of care.

In a first hint of some of the measure’sfine print, Friday’s summary said it wouldlet the government withhold 100 percentof any delinquent taxes providers owe fromtheir Medicare reimbursements.

As for winners, the agreement wouldprolong federal payments to Tennesseehospitals that treat low-income peoplethrough 2025.

It would also help major producers ofdurable medical goods and prostheticdevices by penalizing low-ball bidders forMedicare business. That provision comesfrom a House-passed bill sponsored byRep. Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, whose state is hometo Invacare Corp., one of the country’slargest makers of home medical deviceslike wheelchairs.

The one-page document provides noprice tags and few specifics. But as lawmak-ers, congressional aides and lobbyists havesaid for days, it would cost roughly $210billion over a decade, with around $140 bil-lion financed by adding to federal deficits,aides said Friday. The remaining $70 billionwould be split about evenly betweenMedicare providers and beneficiaries.

In a letter to House Democrats on Friday,Pelosi hailed the measure for “providingcertainty to our seniors and stability toproviders.” On Thursday, Boehner said itwas a chance to “solve this problem onceand for all.”

According to the summary and aidesfamiliar with details:

About 2 percent of the country’s high-est-earning Medicare recipients would facehigher premiums for doctor and prescrip-tion drug coverage. The higher premiumswould apply to individuals earningbetween $134,000 and $214,000 and cou-ples earning between $267,000 and$428,000.

Starting in 2020, some people buyingMedigap plans - they insure expensesMedicare does not cover - would pay high-er out-of-pocket costs up to the Medicaredeductible for doctors’ coverage, currently$147 annually.—AP

Potent groups take sides on bipartisan House Medicare plan

ZAGREB: A photo shows eight white-tailed eagle talons and an associated phalanx,found at the famous Krapina Neanderthal site and kept at the Croatian NaturalHistory Museum in Zagreb. An international research, published earlier this month,showed that they were part of the world’s earliest jewellery made some 130,000years ago and far before appearance of modern humans in Europe. The researchgives another important evidence — contrary to long-held beliefs — thatNeanderthals possessed the capacity for a complex cognitive thinking. — AFP

AUSTIN: When Texas officials launched a mas-sive public high school steroids testing pro-gram over fears of rampant doping from thefootball fields to the tennis courts, they prom-ised a model program for the rest of the countryto follow.

But almost no one did. And after spending$10 million testing more than 63,000 studentsto catch just a handful of cheaters, Texas law-makers appear likely to defund the program thissummer. If they do, New Jersey and Illinois willhave the only statewide high school steroidstesting programs left.

Even those who pushed for the Texas pro-gram in 2007 now call it a colossal misfire, eithera waste of money or too poorly designed tocatch the drug users some insist are slippingthrough the cracks.

“I believe we made a huge mistake,” said DonHooton, who started the Taylor HootonFoundation for steroid abuse education after his17-year-old son’s 2003 suicide was linked to the

drug’s use, and was one of the key advocates increating the Texas program.

Hooton believes the low number of positivetests doesn’t mean Texas athletes are clean, onlythat they’re not getting caught because of inad-equate testing and loopholes that allow themto cheat the process.

“Coaches, schools, and politicians have usedthe abysmal number of positive tests to provethere’s no steroid problem,” Hooton said. “Whatdid we do here? We just lulled the public tosleep.”

Texas wasn’t the first state to test highschoolers. New Jersey and Florida were first andIllinois started about the same time as Texas.But the Lone Star State employed its typical big-ger-is-better swagger by pumping in millions tosweep the state for cheaters. At the time, Texashad more than 780,000 public high school ath-letes, by far the most in the nation. A positivetest would kick the star quarterback or pointguard out of the lineup for at least 30 days.

Schools across the country closely watchedTexas, said Don Colgate, director of sports andsports medicine at the National Federation ofState High School Associations.

“Texas was going out in front in a big way,”Colgate said. “(But) it’s not a cheap process andthey knew there were not going to do it on thescale of what Texas did.”

New Jersey and Illinois each spends about$100,000 annually testing a few hundred ath-letes. Florida folded its $100,000 program in2009. There were questions from the startwhether Texas should go so big. The UniversityInterscholastic League, the state’s governingbody for high school sports, surveyed its mem-ber public schools in 2002 and the vast majoritysaid testing should be a local decision. By 2007,headlines of performance-enhancing drugabuse in professional sports and a push fromadvocates like Hooton prodded lawmakers toforge ahead and they pumped in $6 million forthe first two years.—AP

Texas to dump high school steroids testing program

H E A LT H & S C I E NC EMONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

HONOLULU: Hawaii’s green sea turtlesshould continue to be classified asthreatened because its population issmall and nearly all of them nest at thesame low-lying atoll, federal wildlifeagencies said Friday.

The Association of Hawaiian CivicClubs petitioned the government in2012 to study whether Hawaii’s greensea turtles might have recovered to thepoint where they no longer needEndangered Species Act protections.

But Patrick Opay, the endangeredspecies branch chief of NOAA’s FisheriesPacific Islands Regional Office, saidHawaii has fewer than 4,000 nesting

green sea turtles, and 96 percent ofthem nest at French Frigate Shoals inthe Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

This makes them vulnerable to out-breaks of disease, rising sea levels andother threats, Opay said. “You have all ofyour eggs in one basket, so to speak,” hesaid.

Green sea turtles nest on beachesand feed in the ocean, eating mostlyseagrass and algae. Adult femalesreturn to the same beaches where theywere born every two to four years to layeggs, sometimes migrating hundreds orthousands of miles.

The Association of Hawaiian Civic

Clubs said at the time of its petition thatdelisting Hawaii’s turtles would returnmanagement of the animals to the stateand allow more people in the islands totake an active role in taking care ofthem.

The association cited 2007 datashowing Hawaii’s population of greensea turtles had been growing at anannual rate of 5.7 percent for threedecades. The latest review showed a 4.8percent annual growth rate.

Annelle Amaral, the association’spresident, said the group is disappoint-ed the agencies aren’t proposing todelist the population.

She said people who fish, harvestseaweed and otherwise rely on theocean to feed their families tell her num-ber of turtles has grown so much theanimals are moving inland - to placeslike the Hanalei River - to forage forfood. She’s heard some areas are over-populated with turtles, known as honuin Hawaiian.

NOAA and the U.S. Fish and WildlifeService studied green sea turtle popula-tions around the world as part of thereview. The research prompted them topropose designating 11 distinct popula-tions of the animals, including one inHawaii.

They found separate populations ofturtles in Florida and Mexico have recov-ered to the point

that they proposed categorizingthem as threatened instead of endan-gered.

But the agencies believe turtles inAmerican Samoa and the NorthernMariana Islands, which were consideredthreatened before, should now be clas-sified as endangered.

The agencies will be accepting publiccomment on their proposals for the nextthree months. They are scheduled tohost a public hearing in Honolulu onApril 8. —AP

US agency: Keep threatened status for green sea turtles

BOGOTA: New labeling on the world’s mostpopular weed killer as a likely cause of cancer israising more questions for an aerial sprayingprogram in Colombia that underpins US-financed efforts to wipe out cocaine crops.

The International Agency for Research onCancer, a French-based research arm of theWorld Health Organization, on Thursday reclassi-fied the herbicide glyphosate as a carcinogenthat poses a greater potential danger to industri-al users than homeowners. The agency citedwhat it called convincing evidence that the her-bicide produces cancer in lab animals and morelimited findings that it causes non-Hodgkin’slymphoma in humans.

The glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup isa mainstay of industrial agriculture worldwide,and it’s a preferred weapon for killing Colombiancocaine harvests. More than 4 million acres ofland have been sprayed over the past twodecades to kill coca plants, whose leaves pro-duce cocaine.

The fumigation program, which is partly car-ried out by American contractors, long has pro-voked hostility from Colombia’s left, which likensit to the US military’s use of the Agent Orangeherbicide during the Vietnam War. Leftist rebels,currently in negotiations with the governmentto end a half-century conflict, are demanding an

end to the spraying as part of any deal.Daniel Mejia, a Bogota-based economist who

is chairman of an expert panel advising theColombian government on its drug strategy,said the report is by far the most authoritativeand could end up burying the fumigation pro-gram.

Health risks“Nobody can accuse the WHO of being ideo-

logically biased,” Mejia said, noting that ques-tions already had been raised about the effec-tiveness of the spraying strategy and its poten-tial health risks.

Mejia’s own research published last yearfound higher rates of skin problems and miscar-riages in districts targeted by herbicides. It wasbased on a study of medical records from 2003to 2007. Colombia’s ombudsman office said itwould seek suspension of the spraying programif the WHO results prove convincing. But US andColombian government officials argue thatcocaine does more health damage than aerialspraying.

“Without a doubt this reopens the debate onfumigation and causes us to worry,” ColombiaHealth Minister Alejandro Gaviria told TheAssociated Press on Saturday, referring to theWHO findings.

But Gaviria argued that the need to suppresscocaine harvests “transcends” other considera-tions. Monsanto and other manufacturers ofglyphosate-based products strongly rejectedthe WHO ruling. They cited a 2012 ruling by theUS Environmental Protection Agency that theherbicide was safe.

Colombia already has scaled back use of aeri-al herbicides in favor of more labor-intensivemanual eradication efforts, partly in response tocriticism by farmers. Colombian officials say aeri-al spraying last year covered 55,000 hectares(136,000 acres), down from a 2006 peak of172,000 hectares (425,000 acres).

Critics of the program concede that the gov-ernment has improved safety standards, such asby avoiding herbicide flights during strongwinds, and installing GPS devices on fumigationaircraft that keep records of plane movementsand help investigators to determine the validityof farmers’ compensation claims.

In 2013, Colombia agreed to pay Ecuador $15million to settle a lawsuit over economic andhuman damage linked to spraying along theircommon border. Gen. Ricardo Restrepo, com-mander of the anti-narcotics police, said he hadnot seen the WHO warning, and Colombia’s her-bicide spraying was proceeding as usual. “My jobis to carry out the strategy,” he said. —AP

US anti-drugs work in Colombia uses cancer-linked herbicide

New labeling on world’s most popular weed killer

ANTARCTIC: This handout photo released yesterday by the Australian Antarctic Division shows the Australian icebreaker Aurora Australis return-ing to Australia’s Davis station to retrieve an ill expeditioner off the coast of Antarctica. An Antarctic expeditionary team were working round theclock yesterday to refuel the Australian icebreaker forced to turn back to its frozen base to pick up a seriously ill worker.—AFP

NEVADA: Nevada wildlife managers onFriday voted down a proposal that wouldhave banned hunts offering cash andprizes for slaughtering coyotes in com-petitions across Western states that con-servationists decry as “killing contests.”

In December, California became thefirst U.S. state to prohibit inducementslike money and merchandise for huntingevents of wild animals including coyotes,foxes, bobcats and other creatures classi-fied in the state as fur-bearers and non-game mammals.

The recent push by wildlife advocatesto outlaw hunting contests for wild ani-mals like coyotes, which are considerednuisances allowed to be shot on sight inmost of the West, comes as increasingnumbers of competitions are held instates such as Nevada, California, Idaho,New Mexico and Oregon.

The Nevada Board of WildlifeCommissioners rejected banning thehunts in a 7-1 vote during a meeting inReno that heard several hours of emo-tional testimony, mostly from animalactivists, said Commissioner Karen Layne.

Layne, who said her seat on the com-mission obliges her to represent the gen-eral public rather than sportsmen, saidshe voted in support of the prohibition

because her constituents oppose thetournaments.

But she said her vote was largely sym-bolic, because the proposal from wildlifeadvocates was awkwardly worded andlikely would not have passed legalmuster in a state where coyotes are not aprotected species subject to huntingrestrictions.

Fauna Tomlinson, spokeswoman forthe conservation group, Project Coyote,spoke in support of the ban.

She said that in some cases the con-tests have killed hundreds of coyotes perevent, and she faulted sportsmen forencouraging young people to join in the“fun.”

“That tells children that wildlife has novalue, that committing mass slaughter ofanimals is acceptable,” Tomlinson toldReuters by telephone.

Jason Schroeder, organizer of a coy-ote-hunting tournament that took placeoutside Reno in December, said theevents allow sportsmen to keep coyotepopulations in check while celebratingthe West’s time-honored tradition ofhunting. “Any time someone tries to stophunting, it ’s so totally ridiculous,”Schroeder said of the proposal to banthe contests. — Reuters

Nevada wildliferejects ban on

coyote-hunting

Australian icebreaker in Antarctic mercy dash

SYDNEY: An Antarctic expeditionaryteam were working round the clockSunday to refuel an Australian icebreak-er forced to turn back to its frozen baseto pick up a seriously ill worker. TheAurora Australis, with 114 people onboard, left the Davis station on Tuesdayfor its two-week journey to Hobart inAustralia but got an emergency call toreturn two days later with the workergravely i l l . The ship battled backthrough heavy sea ice to arrive lateSaturday. Australian Antarctic Divisionoperations manager Robb Clifton saidthe team on the ship and at Davis wereworking in shifts to get fuel transferredin the current calm weather conditions.

“At the moment the temperature ishovering around minus 10 degrees(Celsius) with only five knots of wind, so

we are trying to get as much fuelpumped aboard as possible,” Clifton said.

“As the ice in the harbour was quitethick we decided to use a helicopter,rather than a barge, to drag the fuelhose ashore and connect to the Davissupply.

“We are hoping we will have enoughfuel aboard by late Sunday and can thentransfer the patient later this evening orMonday morning,” he added. The shipdoctor was flown ashore to assess the illworker, whose condition has not beenrevealed other than that he is serious butstable. He faces two weeks at sea beforebeing transferred to a hospital. Davis is apermanent Australian base supporting awide variety of scientific research. It ishome to about 120 people over summerand 18 during winter. — AFP

W H AT ’ S ONMONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

All photos submitted for What’s Onshould be minimum 200dpi.Articles must be in plain text andshould include name and phonenumbers. Articles and photos thatfail to meet these requirements willnot be published.

Please send them tonews@kuwaittimes.net

What’s On - Submission Guidelines

By Faten Omar

Expo-Tag for organizing exhibitions and conferencesorganized the 3rd ‘I love you Mom’ festival onSaturday at the Salwa Al-Sabah Ballroom at Marina

Hotel under the patronage of Col Stephen Kilpatrick OBE,the Deputy Commander of the British military mission inKuwait. The event was held over 2 days, with many compa-nies and agencies specializing in maternal and child prod-ucts and health under one roof.

Executive Director of the Premier Sport Academy Baker

Al-Nazer said: “The academy started 7 years ago and thisis our third time participating in the ‘I love you Mom’ festi-val. The academy aims through its sponsorship and par-ticipation in the festival to help the mother in modernphysical education to raise the capacities of the child anddevelop his intelligence and motivate him by daily andweekly exercises.”

He added that the Premier Sport Academy is Kuwait’scentre of excellence and provides the Premier Leagueexperience for players aged 3 to 18 years old to enjoy anddevelop their football skills and experience. The academy

is affiliated with top English Premier League side EvertonFC, and youngsters in the academy have the opportunityto follow a proven coaching program that has developedsome of the finest young players in England, includingWayne Rooney. Players will follow the Everton Way onlinecoaching program and receive coaching sessions fromfully qualified and experienced English FA and UEFAcoaches, all certified by Everton FC.

Zainab Al-Shammari, Director of Monaco Clinic forplastic surgery, said Monaco Clinic, which is the goldsponsor, presented during the festival valuable gifts

including cosmetic services to care more about the beau-ty and health of the mother. She pointed out that theclinic has the latest techniques to tighten sagging facialand neck skin and a French youthfulness program with 53vitamins per session. She explained that Monaco Clinichas participated in conferences outside Kuwait onwomen’s health, noting that the clinic is looking for newdevelopments in the beauty and health of women underthe supervision of skilled doctors from Italy and Franceand under the guidance and expertise of top cosmeticsurgeons.

‘I love you Mom’ festival

Colonel Stephen Kilpatrick honors Baker Al-Nazer. Colonel Stephen Kilpatrick during the festival. Monco Clinic —Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

The sponsors

To beat the seasonal heat in theupcoming months, McDonald’sKuwait introduces two new

fruity choices for its customersacross all restaurants in the country:pineapple sticks as an alternative toFrench fries in the Happy Meal, aswell as the addition of the all newMinute Maid Mango Pineapple juiceto its beverage line-up. The newchoices will be available starting21st March for a limited time.

The addition of the two newrefreshing choices will enhance

McDonald’s current menu for thespring and summer months. Thepineapple sticks offer a healthiereating option for kids, and promot-ing an active lifestyle. In addition,the tasty tropical fusion ofPineapple and Mango joins theMcDonald’s much-loved Apple andOrange flavours for the ultimaterefreshing experience.

Sherif Coutry, Marketing Directorat McDonald’s Kuwait, said: “We arevery pleased to offer these two newrefreshing treats to our customers

just in time for the warmer monthsof spring and summer. Late lastyear, with the launch of HAPPYcharacter, the Happy Meal ambassa-dor, we have stepped up our effortsto offer healthier choices for chil-dren as well as to promote an activelifestyle. Additionally, atMcDonald’s, we are committed tocontinuously offering a variety offlavours to meet our customers’evolving tastes, and to introducingnew products that keep our menufresh and exciting.”

CRYcket 2015 tournament

Calling all cricket lovers....its here...the much anticipated“CRYcket 2015” cricket tournament for boys and girlsunder 14 (born on or after 01.01.2001). Friends of CRY

Club (FOCC) announces the 18th “DNVGL-CRYcket” tourna-ment, to be held at the Fahaheel Sports Club on Friday, 10thApr 2015 from 6:30 a.m to 6 pm. So come on, get yourselvesand your teams ready for the cricket event of the year. Theone day “CRYcket” cricket tournament is open to all childrenunder 14. The children are grouped into teams in two agecategories and play softball cricket while spectators, parentsand well-wishers enjoy a carnival atmosphere. 12 teamseach are set to participate in the Under-12 and Under-14divisions. “With CRY, Everybody Wins”. For more details &game rules, visit the FOCC website http://www.focckwt.org.For further info, contact: Abu Halifa: 66204295; Ahmadi:23985216/ 9578073; Fahaheel: 99364073; Jleeb Shuyoukh -97226589; Kuwait city 22437684; Salmiya: 66810338.

McDonald’s Kuwait introduces new fruitier choices for the spring and summer months Kayamkulam

NRIs elects new committee

At the general bodymeeting convened onlast Friday at Mangaf,

Kayamkulam NRIs Kuwaitelected its new committeemembers for the next term.Sirajudeen A, former vice-president was elected asadviser.

Office-bearers:BS Pillai (President),

Premsan (General Secretary),Mathai Tharakan (Treasurer),Tom Jacob, Anil Kumar (Vice-Presidents), Abdul Wahab,Sunil (Secretaries).

Executive committee:Safeer P Hariz, Khaleel,

Sreekumar, Gopalakrishnan,Hassan Kunju, Krishnakumar,Harisoman, Biju, Satheesh,Rudran, Hari, Saji George,Vipin Mangattu, Renjith,Salim, Sudheer and Firoz. Theentire General Body members,who were present, congratu-lated the newly elected Teamand extended full support inaccelerating its social, culturaland welfare services.

W H AT ’ S ONMONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

Sebamed participated in the Jabriya polyclinic awareness health day, along with several health ministry departments and other private companies.

Ateam from the Kuwait National Commission of the UNESCO with their special visitor from UNESCO Headquarters Paris, Ms Fouzia Belhami visited Kuwait National English School to observe theprogramme and activity done in supporting the aims of UNESCO and its programme in this occasion. The school choir performs for these special guests appropriate songs promoting friendship,cooperations, peace and environmental awareness. Kuwait National English School was congratulated for its effort in these fields.

UNESCO team visits KNES

00:50 Gator Boys01:45 Gator Boys02:40 Tigerfish: Africa’s Piranha03:35 River Monsters04:25 Tanked05:15 Alaskan Bush People06:02 Tigerfish: Africa’s Piranha06:49 River Monsters07:36 Steve Irwin’s WildlifeWarriors08:00 Steve Irwin’s WildlifeWarriors08:25 Too Cute!09:15 Tigerfish: Africa’s Piranha10:10 Call Of The Wildman10:35 Call Of The Wildman11:05 Gator Boys12:00 Too Cute!12:55 Tigerfish: Africa’s Piranha13:50 Treehouse Masters14:45 River Monsters15:40 Tanked16:35 Tigerfish: Africa’s Piranha17:30 Gator Boys18:25 Treehouse Masters19:20 The Wild Life Of TimFaulkner19:50 The Wild Life Of TimFaulkner20:15 Tanked21:10 Secret Creatures Of Jao21:40 Secret Creatures Of Jao22:05 Treehouse Masters23:00 The Wild Life Of TimFaulkner23:30 The Wild Life Of TimFaulkner23:55 Blood Lake: Attack Of TheKiller Lampreys

T V PR O G R A M SMONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

00:00 Antiques Roadshow00:50 Come Dine With Me01:40 New Scandinavian Cooking02:05 New Scandinavian Cooking02:30 Bargain Hunt03:15 Bargain Hunt04:00 Bargain Hunt04:45 Come Dine With Me:Supersized06:15 New Scandinavian Cooking06:45 New Scandinavian Cooking07:15 Bargain Hunt08:00 Fantasy Homes By The Sea08:45 Come Dine With Me09:10 Beat My Build10:00 Antiques Roadshow10:50 Come Dine With Me11:40 Masterchef: TheProfessionals12:35 Fantasy Homes By The Sea13:20 Come Dine With Me13:45 Beat My Build14:35 Antiques Roadshow15:25 Come Dine With Me16:15 Masterchef: TheProfessionals17:10 Fantasy Homes By The Sea17:55 Come Dine With Me18:20 Beat My Build19:10 Beat My Build19:55 Food Glorious Food20:40 Come Dine With Me21:30 Masterchef: TheProfessionals22:20 Antiques Roadshow23:10 Come Dine With Me23:35 Rachel’s Favourite Food ForLiving

MISSION TO MARS `ON OSN MOVIES ACTION HD

2 FAST 2 FURIOUS ON OSN MOVIES ACTION HD

00:00 Violetta00:45 The Hive00:50 Art Attack01:15 Art Attack01:40 Jungle Junction01:50 Jungle Junction02:05 Jungle Junction02:15 Jungle Junction02:30 Violetta03:10 The Hive03:20 Art Attack03:45 Art Attack04:10 Jungle Junction04:25 Jungle Junction04:35 Jungle Junction04:45 Jungle Junction05:00 Art Attack05:25 Art Attack05:50 Mouk06:00 Kim Possible06:25 Binny And The Ghost06:50 Girl Meets World07:15 H2O: Just Add Water07:40 Jessie08:05 Wizards Of Waverly Place08:30 Austin & Ally08:55 Dog With A Blog09:20 Binny And The Ghost09:45 Girl Meets World10:10 Liv And Maddie10:40 Pixel Perfect12:15 Jessie12:40 Austin & Ally13:05 Good Luck Charlie13:30 I Didn’t Do It13:55 Austin & Ally14:20 H2O: Just Add Water14:55 Liv And Maddie15:20 Binny And The Ghost15:45 Girl Meets World16:10 Violetta17:05 Pixel Perfect18:40 Austin & Ally19:05 H2O: Just Add Water19:30 Violetta20:20 Binny And The Ghost20:45 H2O: Just Add Water21:10 Austin & Ally21:35 Jessie22:00 Gravity Falls22:25 Sabrina: Secrets Of ATeenage Witch22:50 Sabrina: Secrets Of ATeenage Witch23:10 Wolfblood23:35 Wolfblood

00:45 American Muscle01:35 American Muscle02:25 American Muscle03:15 American Muscle04:05 American Muscle05:00 Chaos Caught On Camera05:30 Chaos Caught On Camera06:00 Yukon Men06:50 Fifth Gear07:40 Fast N’ Loud08:30 Auction Hunters: Pawn ShopEdition08:55 Garage Gold09:20 Backroad Bounty09:45 How It’s Made10:10 How It’s Made10:35 Fast N’ Loud11:25 Misfit Garage12:15 Philly Throttle13:05 Auction Hunters: Pawn ShopEdition13:30 Garage Gold13:55 Backroad Bounty14:20 Yukon Men15:10 Fifth Gear16:00 Fast N’ Loud16:50 How It’s Made17:15 How It’s Made17:40 River Monsters (Best OfSeries 1-5)18:30 Gold Rush19:20 Gold Divers: Under The Ice20:10 Garage Gold20:35 Storage Wars Canada21:00 Gold Rush21:50 Gold Divers: Under The Ice22:40 Alaska: The Last Frontier23:30 River Monsters (Best OfSeries 1-5)

00:40 How It’s Made01:05 How It’s Made01:30 Curiosity: How Do DrugsWork?02:20 Through The Wormhole WithMorgan Freeman03:10 How Do They Do It?03:35 How Do They Do It?04:00 Man vs The Universe04:48 The World’s Strangest UFOStories05:36 Close Encounters06:00 Close Encounters06:24 Alien Encounters07:12 How The Universe Works08:00 Bang Goes The Theory08:25 How Tech Works08:50 X-Machines09:40 Food Factory10:05 How It’s Made10:30 How Do They Do It?10:55 How Do They Do It?11:20 Joe Rogan QuestionsEverything12:10 How Do They Do It?12:35 How Do They Do It?13:00 Bang Goes The Theory13:25 How Tech Works13:50 X-Machines14:40 Food Factory15:05 How It’s Made15:30 How Do They Do It?15:55 How Do They Do It?16:20 Joe Rogan QuestionsEverything17:10 How Do They Do It?17:35 How Do They Do It?18:00 Through The Wormhole WithMorgan Freeman18:50 How It’s Made19:15 How It’s Made19:40 Food Factory20:05 Food Factory

20:30 Invent It Rich21:20 Invent It Rich22:10 How Do They Do It?22:35 How Do They Do It?23:00 Invent It Rich23:50 Invent It Rich

00:00 The Soup00:30 The Drama Queen01:25 The Drama Queen02:20 E! News03:15 #RichKids Of Beverly Hills03:40 #RichKids Of Beverly Hills04:10 E!ES05:05 THS06:00 Kourtney And Kim TakeMiami06:55 Keeping Up With TheKardashians07:50 Style Star08:20 E! News09:15 Giuliana & Bill10:15 Giuliana & Bill11:10 Eric And Jessie: Game On11:35 Eric And Jessie: Game On12:05 E! News13:05 Extreme Close-Up13:35 THS14:30 Style Star15:00 Kourtney And Khloe TakeThe Hamptons16:00 Kourtney And Khloe TakeThe Hamptons17:00 Christina Milian Turned Up17:30 Christina Milian Turned Up18:00 E! News19:00 Keeping Up With TheKardashians20:00 House Of DVF21:00 Fashion Bloggers21:30 Fashion Bloggers22:00 #RichKids Of Beverly Hills22:30 #RichKids Of Beverly Hills23:00 THS

00:05 Chopped SA00:55 Siba’s Table01:20 Siba’s Table01:45 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives02:10 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives02:35 Best In Chow03:00 Best In Chow03:25 Chopped04:15 Chopped05:05 Barefoot Contessa - Back ToBasics05:30 Barefoot Contessa - Back ToBasics05:50 Siba’s Table06:10 Sweet Genius07:00 Roadtrip With G. Garvin

07:25 Roadtrip With G. Garvin07:50 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives08:15 Chopped SA09:05 Barefoot Contessa - Back ToBasics09:30 Farm Kings10:20 Roadtrip With G. Garvin10:45 Easy Chinese11:10 Reza, Spice Prince Of India11:35 The Big Eat...12:00 Chopped12:50 Siba’s Table13:15 Guy’s Big Bite13:40 Guy’s Big Bite14:05 Guy’s Grocery Games14:55 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives15:20 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives15:45 Rachael vs. Guy: CelebrityCoo16:35 Chopped SA17:25 Jenny Morris Cooks TheRiviera17:50 Guy’s Big Bite18:15 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives18:40 Siba’s Table19:05 The Big Eat...19:30 Chopped20:20 Guy’s Grocery Games21:10 Rachael vs. Guy: CelebrityCoo22:00 Barefoot Contessa - Back ToBasics22:25 Barefoot Contessa - Back ToBasics22:50 Jenny Morris Cooks Morocco23:15 Jenny Morris Cooks Morocco23:40 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives

00:35 Mr Selfridge01:30 Come Dine With Me Ireland02:00 Emmerdale02:25 Emmerdale02:55 Coronation Street03:25 Who’s Doing The Dishes04:20 The Chase: CelebritySpecials05:15 Lewis06:10 Take On The Twisters07:05 Come Dine With Me Ireland07:30 Who’s Doing The Dishes08:25 The Chase: CelebritySpecials09:20 The Jonathan Ross Show11:10 Emmerdale11:35 Emmerdale12:00 Coronation Street12:30 Ade In Britain13:25 Take On The Twisters14:20 Come Dine With Me Ireland14:45 Above Suspicion15:35 Coach Trip16:00 Coach Trip16:30 The Doctor Blake Mysteries17:25 The Doctor Blake Mysteries18:20 Take On The Twisters19:10 Coronation Street19:35 Coach Trip20:00 Coach Trip20:30 The Doctor Blake Mysteries21:25 The Doctor Blake Mysteries22:20 Coronation Street22:50 Emmerdale23:15 Emmerdale23:45 Above Suspicion

00:00 Apocalypse: The SecondWorld War01:00 Aftermath02:00 Situation Critical03:00 Air Crash Investigation04:00 Killer Shrew05:00 Swamp Men06:00 America’s Lost Treasures07:00 Last War Heroes08:00 Apocalypse: The SecondWorld War09:00 Aftermath10:00 Situation Critical11:00 Killer Shrew12:00 Wild Russia13:00 Animal Intervention14:00 Armageddon Outfitters15:00 Aftermath16:00 Money Meltdown16:30 Money Meltdown17:00 Alaska Wing Men18:00 Doomsday Preppers19:00 Aftermath20:00 Money Meltdown20:30 Money Meltdown21:00 Alaska Wing Men22:00 Doomsday Preppers23:00 Killer Shrew

00:30 The Daily Show With JonStewart01:00 The Nightly Show With LarryWilmore01:30 Married02:00 Married02:30 Web Therapy03:30 Melissa & Joey04:30 The Tonight Show StarringJimmy Fallon05:30 My Name Is Earl06:00 Til Death06:30 My Boys07:00 Late Night With Seth Meyers

08:30 My Name Is Earl09:30 Brooklyn Nine-Nine10:00 Men At Work10:30 My Boys11:00 The Tonight Show StarringJimmy Fallon12:00 Til Death13:00 My Name Is Earl13:30 My Boys14:00 Melissa & Joey14:30 Brooklyn Nine-Nine15:00 Men At Work15:30 The Daily Show With JonStewart16:00 The Nightly Show With LarryWilmore16:30 Til Death17:00 Late Night With Seth Meyers18:00 Hot In Cleveland18:30 Melissa & Joey19:00 Two And A Half Men19:30 Two And A Half Men20:00 Mulaney21:00 The Daily Show With JonStewart21:30 Last Week Tonight With JohnOliver22:00 Girls22:30 Silicon Valley23:00 Web Therapy23:30 Mulaney

01:00 Better Call Saul02:00 House Of Cards04:00 Scandal05:00 Castle08:00 White Collar09:00 Castle10:00 Scandal12:00 Emmerdale12:30 Coronation Street14:00 White Collar16:00 Emmerdale16:30 Coronation Street17:00 The Ellen DeGeneres Show18:00 White Collar19:00 Red Band Society20:00 Revenge21:00 Helix22:00 Game Of Thrones23:00 Hemlock Grove

02:00 Good Morning America03:00 Supernatural04:00 Defiance06:00 Good Morning America07:00 Emmerdale07:30 Coronation Street10:00 Emmerdale10:30 Coronation Street12:00 Rake13:00 Twisted14:00 Live Good Morning America17:00 Rake18:00 Twisted19:00 Parenthood20:00 Rake21:00 Twisted22:00 Supernatural23:00 Defiance

00:00 Sunshine02:00 The Quiet Ones04:00 The Sanctuary06:00 Hunt To Kill08:00 Mission To Mars10:00 2 Fast 2 Furious12:00 Hunt To Kill14:00 Appleseed: Alpha16:00 Fatal Instinct18:00 2 Fast 2 Furious20:00 Mission To Mars22:00 R.I.P.D.

00:00 The Quiet Ones-PG1502:00 The Sanctuary-PG1504:00 Hunt To Kill-PG1506:00 Mission To Mars-PG1508:00 2 Fast 2 Furious-PG1510:00 Hunt To Kill-PG1512:00 Appleseed: Alpha-PG1514:00 Fatal Instinct-PG1516:00 2 Fast 2 Furious-PG1518:00 Mission To Mars-PG1520:00 R.I.P.D.-PG1522:00 Lone Survivor-PG15

01:30 Vamps-PG1503:30 The Big Wedding-PG1505:30 Straight Talk-PG1507:30 It’s A Disaster-PG1509:30 Blazing Saddles-PG1511:30 Austenland-PG1513:30 Surviving Christmas-PG1515:30 It’s A Disaster-PG1517:30 The Life Aquatic With SteveZissou-PG1520:00 Last Vegas-PG1522:00 Welcome To The Jungle-18

02:00 Knife Fight-PG1503:45 Collaborator-PG1505:15 Almost Christmas-PG1507:15 Grace Of Monaco-PG1509:00 Step Up Revolution-PG1511:00 Almost Christmas-PG1513:00 Now You See Me-PG1515:00 Atlas Shrugged-PG1517:00 Step Up Revolution-PG1519:00 Suspension Of Disbelief21:00 Devil’s Knot-PG1523:00 Cosmopolis-18

01:30 Kandahar Break: Fortress OfWar-PG1503:15 Up Close And Personal-PG05:30 Promised Land-PG1507:30 Searching For Sugar Man-PG1509:00 Salinger-PG1511:15 Kandahar Break: Fortress OfWar-PG1513:00 Sense And Sensibility-PG15:15 Promised Land-PG1517:15 Salinger-PG1519:30 I, Anna-PG1521:00 Ray-PG1523:30 Cadillac Records-18

01:00 Ice Soldiers-PG1503:00 Return To Nim’s Island-PG05:00 Tinker Bell And The PirateFairy-FAM07:00 The Way Way Back-PG1509:00 Good Deeds-PG1511:00 Lovestruck: The Musical-PG1513:00 Saving Santa-PG15:00 The Magic Of Belle Isle-PG1517:00 Good Deeds-PG1519:00 Ain’t Them Bodies Saints-PG1521:00 Parts Per Billion-1823:00 Machete Kills-18

01:15 Barbie As The IslandPrincess02:45 The Happets04:30 The Ugly Duckling And Me06:00 Luke And Lucy: The TexasRangers08:00 The Happets10:00 Princess And The Pea11:30 Free Birds13:00 The Happets14:30 Barbie In The 12 DancingPrincesses16:00 Titeuf, Le Film18:00 Princess And The Pea20:00 Barbie And The DiamondCastle22:00 Barbie In The 12 DancingPrincesses23:30 Titeuf, Le Film

00:00 Riddick-1802:00 Summoned-PG1504:00 Legendary Amazons-PG1506:00 Marvel’s The Invincible IronMan-PG08:00 Vehicle 19-PG1510:00 Lakeview Terrace-PG1512:00 Legendary Amazons-PG1514:00 Planes-PG16:00 Vehicle 19-PG1518:00 Thor: The Dark World-PG1520:00 The Art Of The Steal-PG1522:00 The Counselor-18

07:00 Golfing World11:00 Live NRL Premiership 14:00 Champions Tour18:00 Golfing World19:00 PGA Tour Highlights20:00 PGA European TourHighlights

00:00 Live LPGA Tour07:00 PGA Tour 15:00 Golfing World16:00 NHL 19:00 WWE Experience20:00 WWE Afterburn21:00 WWE This Week21:30 PGA Tour Highlights22:30 PGA European TourHighlights23:30 Golfing World

00:20 Cake Boss00:45 Bakery Boss01:35 Extreme Couponing02:00 Mob Wives02:50 Say Yes To The Dress ‚ÄìBridesmaids03:15 Little People, Big World03:40 Super Saver Showdown04:30 Cake Boss05:00 Sister Wives06:00 17 Kids And Counting06:25 World’s Worst Mum07:15 Say Yes To The Dress ‚ÄìBridesmaids07:40 Little People, Big World08:05 Say Yes To The Dress: TheBig Day (Specials)08:55 Sister Wives09:45 Cake Boss10:10 Sister Wives11:00 Super Saver Showdown11:50 Cake Boss12:15 Cake Boss12:40 World’s Worst Mum13:30 Cake Boss13:55 Cake Boss14:20 Bakery Boss15:10 Cake Boss15:35 Little People, Big World16:00 Hoarding: Buried Alive16:50 Say Yes To The Dress ‚ÄìBridesmaids17:15 17 Kids And Counting17:40 Sister Wives18:30 Super Saver Showdown19:20 Sneak Peek: The Next GreatBaker20:10 World’s Worst Mum21:00 Breaking Amish21:50 Secret Eskimo Escape22:40 Extreme Couponing23:05 Mob Wives23:55 Breaking Amish

17:30 ICC Cricket 36018:00 ICC World Cup H/L: QuarterFinal 119:00 ICC World Cup H/L: QuarterFinal 220:00 ICC World Cup H/L: QuarterFinal 321:00 ICC World Cup H/L: QuarterFinal 422:00 ICC Cricket 360

00:40 Extreme Forensics01:30 Solved02:20 Most Evil03:10 Devil In The Details04:00 Blood Relatives04:45 Extreme Forensics05:30 Solved06:20 Forensic Detectives07:10 Forensic Detectives08:00 Nightmare Next Door08:50 Fatal Encounters09:40 Murder Shift10:30 I Was Murdered10:55 Stalked: Someone’sWatching11:20 Forensic Detectives12:10 American Greed13:00 Disappeared13:50 On The Case With PaulaZahn14:40 Who On Earth Did IMarry?15:05 Who On Earth Did IMarry?15:30 American Greed16:20 I Was Murdered16:45 Stalked: Someone’sWatching17:10 Murder Shift18:00 Disappeared18:50 Fatal Encounters19:40 Forensic Detectives20:30 On The Case With PaulaZahn21:20 The Will: Family SecretsRevealed22:10 Who On Earth Did IMarry?22:35 Who On Earth Did IMarry?23:00 True Crime WithAphrodite Jones23:50 Extreme Forensics

00:10 Zou00:25 Mouk00:35 Jungle Junction00:50 Art Attack01:15 Julius Jr.01:25 Calimero01:40 Henry Hugglemonster01:50 Zou02:05 Mouk02:15 Jungle Junction02:25 Art Attack02:50 Julius Jr.03:00 Calimero03:15 Henry Hugglemonster03:25 Zou03:40 Mouk03:50 Jungle Junction04:00 Art Attack

04:25 Julius Jr.04:35 Calimero04:50 Henry Hugglemonster05:00 Zou05:15 Mouk05:25 Jungle Junction05:35 Art Attack06:00 Julius Jr.06:10 Calimero06:25 Henry Hugglemonster06:35 Zou06:50 Mouk07:00 Jungle Junction07:10 Art Attack07:35 Julius Jr.07:45 Calimero08:00 Jungle Junction08:10 Zou08:25 Henry Hugglemonster08:35 Julius Jr.08:50 Calimero09:00 Limon And Oli09:15 Jake And The Never LandPirates09:40 Doc McStuffins10:05 Art Attack10:35 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse11:00 Sofia The First11:25 Sheriff Callie’s Wild West11:50 Calimero12:05 Jake And The Never LandPirates12:30 Limon And Oli12:40 Henry Hugglemonster12:55 Handy Manny13:05 Justin Time13:20 Sofia The First13:45 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse14:10 Sheriff Callie’s Wild West14:35 Julius Jr.14:45 Jake And The Never LandPirates15:15 Doc McStuffins15:40 Limon And Oli15:55 Zou16:05 Justin Time16:20 Sofia The First16:50 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse17:15 Lilo & Stitch17:40 Adventures Of TheGummi Bears18:05 Chip n Dale RescueRangers18:30 Ducktales19:00 Art Attack19:25 Sofia The First19:55 Calimero20:10 Limon And Oli20:25 Jake And The Never LandPirates20:50 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse21:20 Minnie’s Bow-Toons21:25 Sofia The First21:50 Adventures Of TheGummi Bears22:20 Chip n Dale RescueRangers22:45 Ducktales23:15 Art Attack23:40 Limon And Oli23:55 Henry Hugglemonster

00:00 Programmes Start At7:00am KSA07:00 Phineas And Ferb07:25 Phineas And Ferb07:50 Supa Strikas08:15 The 7D08:40 Ultimate Spider-Man09:05 Lab Rats09:30 Kickin’ It09:55 Kickin’ It10:20 Kickin’ It10:45 Kickin’ It11:10 Lab Rats11:35 Phineas And Ferb12:00 Pair Of Kings12:25 Supa Strikas12:50 Kickin’ It13:15 Jumping Ship14:55 Star Wars Rebels15:20 Ultimate Spider-Man15:45 Phineas And Ferb16:10 Supa Strikas16:35 Pair Of Kings17:00 Lab Rats17:30 Mighty Med18:00 Mighty Med18:50 The 7D19:15 Cars Toons19:20 Supa Strikas19:45 Kickin’ It20:10 Kickin’ It20:35 Kickin’ It21:00 Kickin’ It21:25 Lab Rats21:55 Ultimate Spider-Man:Web Warriors22:20 Hulk And The Agents OfS.M.A.S.H.22:45 Japaneezi Going GoingGong23:10 Pair Of Kings23:35 Phineas And Ferb

ClassifiedsMONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

Kuwait

Prayer timings

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

DIAL161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION

Arrival Flights on Monday 23/3/2015Airlines Flt Route TimeJAI 574 Mumbai 00:10JZR 239 Amman 00:25JZR 267 Beirut 00:30JZR 539 Cairo 00:40THY 772 Istanbul 00:45FDB 069 Dubai 00:55QTR 1084 Doha 01:00RJA 642 Amman 01:05DLH 637 Dammam 01:15PGT 858 Istanbul 01:35ETH 620 Addis Ababa 01:45GFA 211 Bahrain 02:30UAE 853 Dubai 02:35JAI 526 Chennai/Abu Dhabi 02:50FDB 067 Dubai 02:55ETD 305 Abu Dhabi 03:10MSR 612 Cairo 03:10CEB 7694 Manila 03:10OMA 643 Muscat 03:25QTR 1076 Doha 03:45MSC 401 Alexandria 04:05JZR 503 Luxor 05:25THY 770 Istanbul 05:35DHX 170 Bahrain 05:40BAW 157 London 06:40KAC 412 Manila/Bangkok 07:10FDB 053 Dubai 07:45QTR 1086 Doha 07:50KAC 352 Kochi 08:10KAC 302 Mumbai 08:20KAC 206 Islamabad 08:25UAE 855 Dubai 08:40KAC 344 Chennai 08:45KAC 362 Colombo 08:45ABY 125 Sharjah 09:00ETD 301 Abu Dhabi 09:20KAC 282 Dhaka 09:20FDB 055 Dubai 09:40GFA 047 Bahrain 09:40IRA 667 Esfahan 09:45QTR 1070 Doha 10:00GFA 213 Bahrain 10:40UAE 873 Dubai 11:00AXB 889 Mangalore/Bahrain 11:15MSC 405 Sohag 11:25JZR 165 Dubai 11:30JZR 561 Sohag 11:45IRC 6521 Lamerd 11:50MEA 404 Beirut 11:55UAE 871 Dubai 12:50MSR 610 Cairo 13:00ICV 792 Luxembourg 13:45KAC 672 Dubai 13:55QTR 1078 Doha 14:05

KNE 472 Jeddah 14:25SVA 500 Jeddah 14:30FDB 057 Dubai 14:30KAC 538 Sohag 14:50GFA 221 Bahrain 15:00KAC 788 Jeddah 15:10OMA 645 Muscat 15:25ABY 127 Sharjah 15:45UAE 857 Dubai 15:45KNE 460 Riyadh 16:00FDB 051 Dubai 16:00KAC 562 Amman 16:20QTR 1072 Doha 16:40RJA 640 Amman 16:55ETD 303 Abu Dhabi 16:55SVA 510 Riyadh 17:15GFA 215 Bahrain 17:30JZR 777 Jeddah 17:55UAE 875 Dubai 18:00JZR 177 Dubai 18:20KAC 118 New York 18:30FDB 063 Dubai 18:40ABY 121 Sharjah 18:40KAC 786 Jeddah 18:45QTR 1080 Doha 18:50GFA 048 Istanbul 19:10KAC 774 Riyadh 19:15KAC 618 Doha 19:15KAC 542 Cairo 19:25KAC 674 Dubai 19:25GFA 217 Bahrain 19:30KAC 104 London 19:55KAC 614 Bahrain 20:00JAI 572 Mumbai 20:00OMA 647 Muscat 20:05FDB 061 Dubai 20:20DLH 634 Frankfurt 20:50ALK 229 Colombo 21:10MEA 402 Beirut 21:20ETD 307 Abu Dhabi 21:30FDB 073 Dubai 21:35UAE 859 Dubai 21:40GFA 219 Bahrain 21:45QTR 1074 Doha 21:55SYR 341 Damascus 22:00KNE 480 Taif 22:00JZR 135 Bahrain 22:05ETD 309 Abu Dhabi 22:15AIC 975 Chennai/Goa 22:30FDB 059 Dubai 22:30BBC 043 Dhaka 23:10JZR 185 Dubai 23:15THY 764 Istanbul 23:35PIA 205 Lahore 23:40FDB 071 Dubai 23:45

Departure Flights on Monday 23/3/2015Airlines Flt Route TimeUAL 981 IAD 00:05AIC 982 Ahmedabad/Hyderabad/Chennai 00:05BBC 044 Chittagong/Dhaka 00:40PIA 206 Lahore 00:40FDB 072 Dubai 00:45JAI 573 Mumbai 01:10DLH 637 Frankfurt 02:15ETH 621 Addis Ababa 02:45THY 773 Istanbul 02:55PGT 859 Istanbul 03:25UAE 854 Dubai 03:50FDB 068 Dubai 03:55ETD 306 Abu Dhabi 04:05MSR 613 Cairo 04:10OMA 644 Muscat 04:25QTR 1085 Doha 04:30CEB 7695 Manila 04:40MSC 406 Sohag 05:05JZR 560 Sohag 05:10QTR 1077 Doha 05:15THY 765 Istanbul 05:40FDB 070 Dubai 06:30JAI 525 Abu Dhabi/Chennai 06:35JZR 164 Dubai 06:55RJA 643 Amman 07:05GFA 212 Bahrain 07:15THY 771 Istanbul 07:30KAC 415D Kuala Lumpur/Jakarta 08:00KAC 537 Sohag 08:20FDB 054 Dubai 08:25BAW 156 London 08:45QTR 1087 Doha 08:50KAC 671 Dubai 09:25KAC 787 Jeddah 09:25ABY 126 Sharjah 09:40UAE 856 Dubai 09:55ETD 302 Abu Dhabi 10:20KAC 561 Amman 10:25GFA 047 Istanbul 10:25FDB 056 Dubai 10:35IRA 666 Esfahan 10:45QTR 1071 Doha 11:00KAC 165 Rome/Paris 11:15GFA 214 Bahrain 11:25KAC 541 Cairo 12:05AXB 890 Mangalore 12:15JZR 776 Jeddah 12:20KAC 103 London 12:20MSC 402 Alexandria 12:25UAE 874 Dubai 12:30IRC 6522 Lamerd 12:50MEA 405 Beirut 12:55KAC 785 Jeddah 13:00JZR 176 Dubai 13:45

MSR 611 Cairo 14:00UAE 872 Dubai 14:15KAC 673 Dubai 15:00QTR 1079 Doha 15:05FDB 058 Dubai 15:10KAC 617 Doha 15:15KNE 473 Jeddah 15:20SVA 501 Jeddah 15:45GFA 222 Bahrain 15:45KAC 773 Riyadh 15:50OMA 646 Muscat 16:25ABY 128 Sharjah 16:25KAC 613 Bahrain 16:35KNE 481 Taif 16:50FDB 052 Dubai 17:00JZR 266 Beirut 17:05QTR 1073 Doha 17:40JZR 538 Cairo 17:45UAE 858 Dubai 17:45ETD 304 Abu Dhabi 17:50RJA 641 Amman 17:55SVA 511 Riyadh 18:15GFA 216 Bahrain 18:20JZR 184 Dubai 18:40JZR 238 Amman 18:50JZR 134 Bahrain 19:10ABY 122 Sharjah 19:20UAE 876 Dubai 19:40QTR 1081 Doha 19:50FDB 064 Dubai 19:55GFA 048 Bahrain 19:55GFA 218 Bahrain 20:15KAC 281 Dhaka 20:55JAI 571 Mumbai 21:00OMA 648 Muscat 21:05KAC 331 Trivandrum 21:10KAC 351 Kochi 21:15FDB 062 Dubai 21:20DHX 171 Bahrain 21:50KAC 381 Delhi 22:00ALK 230 Colombo 22:10ETD 308 Abu Dhabi 22:15KAC 301 Mumbai 22:15MEA 403 Beirut 22:20FDB 074 Dubai 22:30GFA 220 Bahrain 22:30UAE 860 Dubai 22:50KNE 461 Riyadh 22:50KAC 205 Islamabad 22:55SYR 342 Damascus 23:00ETD 310 Abu Dhabi 23:00QTR 1075 Doha 23:05KAC 411 Bangkok/Manila 23:30FDB 060 Dubai 23:55

SHARQIA-1CINDERELLA 1:15 PMCINDERELLA 3:30 PMCINDERELLA 5:45 PMCINDERELLA 8:00 PMCINDERELLA 10:15 PMCINDERELLA 12:30 AM

SHARQIA-2THE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 12:00 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT- 3D 2:30 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 5:00 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT- 3D 7:30 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 10:00 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 12:45 AM

SHARQIA-3THE GUNMAN 12:15 PMTHE GUNMAN 2:30 PMRUN ALL NIGHT 4:45 PMTHE GUNMAN 7:15 PMRUN ALL NIGHT 9:45 PMTHE GUNMAN 12:15 AM

MUHALAB-1CINDERELLA 12:45 PMCINDERELLA 3:00 PMCINDERELLA 5:30 PMCINDERELLA 7:45 PMCINDERELLA 10:00 PMRUN ALL NIGHT 12:30 AM

MUHALAB-2THE GUNMAN 1:00 PMRUN ALL NIGHT 3:15 PMTHE GUNMAN 5:45 PMRUN ALL NIGHT 8:00 PMTHE GUNMAN 10:30 PMTHE GUNMAN 12:45 AM

MUHALAB-3THE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 11:30 AMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT- 3D 2:00 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 4:30 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 7:00 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT- 3D 9:30 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 12:05 AM

FANAR-1SUITE FRANCAISE 1:00 PMSUITE FRANCAISE 3:15 PMRUN ALL NIGHT 5:45 PMSUITE FRANCAISE 8:15 PMRUN ALL NIGHT 10:30 PMRUN ALL NIGHT 1:00 AM

FANAR-2CINDERELLA 12:30 PMCINDERELLA 2:45 PMCINDERELLA 5:00 PMCINDERELLA 7:15 PMCINDERELLA 9:30 PMCINDERELLA 11:45 PM

FANAR-3THE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL 11:45 AMTHE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL 2:15 PMDEMONIC 4:45 PMTHE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL 6:45 PMTHE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL 9:15 PMTHE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL 12:05 AM

FANAR-4THE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT- 3D 12:45 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 3:15 PMTHE GUNMAN 5:45 PMTHE GUNMAN 8:00 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT- 3D 10:15 PM

THE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 12:45 AM

FANAR-5THE GUNMAN 12:15 PMTHE GUNMAN 2:45 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 5:00 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 7:30 PMTHE GUNMAN 10:00 PMTHE GUNMAN 12:15 AM

MARINA-1CINDERELLA 12:30 PMCINDERELLA 3:00 PMCINDERELLA 5:30 PMCINDERELLA 7:45 PMCINDERELLA 10:00 PMCINDERELLA 12:15 AM

MARINA-2RUN ALL NIGHT 12:45 PMTHE GUNMAN 3:15 PMRUN ALL NIGHT 5:30 PMTHE GUNMAN 8:00 PMRUN ALL NIGHT 10:15 PMTHE GUNMAN 12:45 AM

MARINA-3THE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 11:45 AMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT- 3D 2:15 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 4:45 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT- 3D 7:15 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 9:45 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 12:30 AM

AVENUES-1THE GUNMAN 1:15 PMYOUM MALOUSH LASMA (Arabic) 3:45 PMYOUM MALOUSH LASMA (Arabic) 6:15 PMYOUM MALOUSH LASMA (Arabic) 8:45 PMYOUM MALOUSH LASMA (Arabic) 11:15 PM

AVENUES-2SUITE FRANCAISE 11:30 AMSUITE FRANCAISE 1:45 PMSUITE FRANCAISE 4:00 PMSUITE FRANCAISE 6:15 PMSUITE FRANCAISE 8:30 PMSUITE FRANCAISE 11:00 PMSUITE FRANCAISE 1:15 AM

AVENUES-3RUN ALL NIGHT 12:45 PMRUN ALL NIGHT 3:15 PMRUN ALL NIGHT 5:45 PMRUN ALL NIGHT 8:15 PMRUN ALL NIGHT 10:45 PMRUN ALL NIGHT 1:00 AM

AVENUES-4THE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 12:00 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 2:30 PMRUN ALL NIGHT 5:00 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 7:30 PMRUN ALL NIGHT 10:00 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 12:30 AM

AVENUES-5CINDERELLA 12:30 PMCINDERELLA 3:00 PMSpecial Show “CINDERELLA” 3:00 PMCINDERELLA 5:30 PMCINDERELLA 8:00 PMTHE GUNMAN 10:30 PMTHE GUNMAN 1:00 AM

AVENUES-6CINDERELLA 11:30 AMCINDERELLA 2:00 PM

CINDERELLA 4:30 PMCINDERELLA 7:00 PMCINDERELLA 9:30 PMCINDERELLA 12:05 AM

AVENUES-7THE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 12:30 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 3:00 PMAL TIJARA SHATARA (Kuwaiti Film) 5:30 PMAL TIJARA SHATARA (Kuwaiti Film) 8:30 PMAL TIJARA SHATARA (Kuwaiti Film) 11:15 PM

AVENUES-8DEMONIC 1:00 PMDEMONIC 3:15 PMFOCUS 5:30 PMDEMONIC 7:45 PMDEMONIC 10:00 PMDEMONIC 12:15 AM

AVENUES-9THE GUNMAN 11:45 AMTHE GUNMAN 2:15 PMTHE GUNMAN 4:45 PMTHE GUNMAN 7:15 PMTHE GUNMAN 9:45 PMTHE GUNMAN 12:15 AM

AVENUES-10THE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL 12:15 PMTHE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL 2:45 PMTHE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL 5:15 PMTHE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL 7:45 PMTHE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL 10:15 PMTHE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL 12:45 AM

AVENUES-11THE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 1:30 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT- 3D 4:00 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 6:30 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT- 3D 9:00 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 11:30 PM

360º- 1CINDERELLA 12:30 PMCINDERELLA 3:00 PMCINDERELLA 5:30 PMCINDERELLA 8:00 PMCINDERELLA 10:30 PMFOCUS 1:00 AM

360º- 2THE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL 1:15 PMTHE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL 3:45 PMTHE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL 6:15 PMTHE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL 8:45 PMTHE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL 11:15 PM

360º- 3CINDERELLA 1:30 PMAL TIJARA SHATARA (Kuwaiti Film) 4:00 PMAL TIJARA SHATARA (Kuwaiti Film) 6:45 PMAL TIJARA SHATARA (Kuwaiti Film) 9:30 PMAL TIJARA SHATARA (Kuwaiti Film) 12:15 AM

AL-KOUT.1THE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 12:00 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT- 3D 2:30 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 5:00 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT- 3D 7:30 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 10:00 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 12:30 AM

AL-KOUT.2THE GUNMAN 12:15 PMTHE GUNMAN 2:45 PMTHE GUNMAN 5:15 PMTHE GUNMAN 7:45 PM

AL TIJARA SHATARA (Kuwaiti Film) 10:00 PMTHE GUNMAN 12:45 AM

AL-KOUT.3CINDERELLA 11:45 AMCINDERELLA 2:15 PMCINDERELLA 4:45 PMCINDERELLA 7:15 PMCINDERELLA 9:30 PMCINDERELLA 11:45 PM

AL-KOUT.4THE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL 12:30 PMRUN ALL NIGHT 3:00 PMTHE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL 5:30 PMTHE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL 8:00 PMRUN ALL NIGHT 10:30 PMRUN ALL NIGHT 1:00 AM

BAIRAQ-1CINDERELLA 11:30 AMCINDERELLA 1:45 PMCINDERELLA 4:00 PMCINDERELLA 6:15 PMCINDERELLA 8:30 PMCINDERELLA 10:45 PMTHE GUNMAN 1:00 AM

BAIRAQ-2THE GUNMAN 1:15 PMRUN ALL NIGHT 3:30 PMTHE GUNMAN 5:45 PMRUN ALL NIGHT 8:00 PMTHE GUNMAN 10:15 PMRUN ALL NIGHT 12:30 AM

BAIRAQ-3THE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 11:45 AMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 2:15 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 4:45 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 7:15 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 9:45 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 12:15 AM

PLAZATHE GUNMAN 3:30 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 5:45 PMCINDERELLA 8:15 PMTHE GUNMAN 10:30 PM

LAILATHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 3:45 PMCINDERELLA 6:15 PMTHE GUNMAN 8:30 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 10:45 PM

AJIAL.1THE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 4:45 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 7:15 PMTHE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT 9:45 PM

AJIAL.2THE GUNMAN :30 PMTHE GUNMAN 5:45 PMTHE GUNMAN 8:00 PMTHE GUNMAN 10:15 PM

AJIAL.3DILLIWAALI ZAALIM GIRLFRIEND -HINDI 4:30 PMDILLIWAALI ZAALIM GIRLFRIEND -HINDI 7:00 PMDILLIWAALI ZAALIM GIRLFRIEND -HINDI 9:30 PM

AJIAL.4THE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL 3:30 PMCINDERELLA 6:00 PMTHE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL 8:15 PMCINDERELLA 10:45 PM

KNCC PROGRAMME FROM THURSDAY TO WEDNESDAY(19/03/2015 TO 25/03/2015)

Fajr: 04:31

Shorook 05:50

Duhr: 11:55

Asr: 15:23

Maghrib: 18:00

Isha: 19:17

ACCOMMODATION

MATRIMONIAL

CHANGE OF NAME

I, Thiru SenthilVenkatagalam, holder ofIndian Passport No.L2554748, native districtThanjavur, No. 127Natarajapuram colony, 8thStr. Medical college road,Thanjavur, 613007, herebychange my name toMuhammaed Shaliq. (C 4952)21-3-2015

I, Ashpaq Ahamad Ibrahim,holder of Indian PassportNo. H1510685 issued atKuwait and having Indianresidency at 272Kannukere, Tekkatte Post,Kundapur Tq, herebydeclare change my name toSheikh Ashfak Ahamad.(C 4951)17-3-2015

Sharing accommodationavailable in Salmiya near AlRashid hospital for anIndian small family orworking lady. Separateroom and bathroom isavailable in a good loca-tion. Available from March22nd onwards. Contact:99315825, 99838117.(C 4953)21-3-2015

Alliance invited for hand-some, god-fearing,Orthodox boy of reputedfamily in central Travancore,31/180, fair, BCom and MBA(Finance), bank employeein Kuwait, from god-fearing,well-educated girl. Contact:tvarughese555@gmail.com22-3-2015

This should be one of those feel-good days. You make your way now byusing practical vision and common sense. This could be some kind of high-water mark foryour career recognition. You may be operating a popular restaurant or in hotel manage-ment. A gathering of friends this afternoon has a relaxing effect and you embrace this timeand find the air filled with laughter and good times. There is an opportunity for each per-son to comment on where they might want to be in five years and you may be surprisedat some of the ideas your friends have. If you have thought about where you want to be infive years it may include taking on a special talent that you want to perfect. Your charm isshowing this evening-there is an opportunity for romance.

This is a successful workday and some of the co-worker friends and you mayget together for a special gathering this afternoon. Later today you may join in with someof your friends to join a volunteer group. You will find your time and your talents wellused. You will be able to change what could be a difficult day for a few people, into a mostmemorable, positive time. Your sense of humor is contagious and your ability to find theright words will be of benefit to all around you. The people you care about are grateful foryour nurturing and kind ways. A new exercise plan that a friend might have suggested willhelp you relax in the evening and you are encouraged to keep a good exercise routine.You enjoy quiet time this evening. Keep a diary.

Planning and goal setting seem to be the thought process for this morning.Financial matters are definitely getting better! Some sort of financial windfall

is in the cards for this next week-possibly in real estate. Think about a plan for investing thismoney now. There is growth and gain through these things. This afternoon is a great timefor artistic endeavors. You may find yourself dreaming and wishing you could be surround-ed by only beauty today. Hopefully, all the practical, mundane stuff has a different place inyour life and this afternoon you can laugh and forget your cares. Perhaps a movie or agood book can help sweep you away and hold your attention. This evening you areinspired! Expressing affection may be an easy effort tonight.

Everything’s coming up roses and optimism rules this day. Life is for livingand you cannot wait to partake in all those new and rewarding experiences that are wait-ing to welcome you! Do not go overboard, but have fun! Your positivism is contagious andtypical of your general outlook. You may find that you are appreciated or valued for yourfeelings as well as your ability to act and get things done. Plato said, “a person is effective,only when he has the separate parts of himself properly linked together in well-temperedharmony-when he is one man instead of many.” concentrate on what you want to accom-plish and stay focused. Today is a good day to put your skills to good use. Use that opti-mistic side of you to encourage a young person.

Projects you have worked on for many months will probably reach comple-tion at this time. Be sure to check if these activities produce the results you expect and thatthose results are as important to you as you thought they would be. Be your own judge!Money comes into play today when another person has none and you have some. If youhave paid this person’s admission before, don’t do it now. If you have never helped thisperson, trust that they will return the favor. Don’t be afraid to move forward. Make all youractivities come into balance in order to lessen the stress. Sympathy and understandingtoward friends and loved ones are emotional qualities that take on a greater importance.It’s an attitude of gratitude that counts most.

Communication is the key for this day. What a day to charge your batterieswith a two-way flow of ideas and information! You are eager for others to hear your pointof view and just as eager to hear others. You teach and enjoy being taught. This is a primeday for conferences and negotiations. If nothing else, write those letters and make thosephone calls. There is an opening in which you may choose to join a club today-new friendsand new opportunities are waiting! You appear perhaps more charming and refined thanusual at this time and may find an opportunity to ask someone for a date or otherwisemake yourself known. You can be assured that you will be welcomed and entertained-youwill enjoy a social gathering.

You become engrossed in your projects, yet there are many ideas movingaround in your head that will help you plan some moneymaking opportunities for anothertime. You like to plan ahead. Consider gathering the family or a group of your friends andclean houses for real-estate showing. Call the real-estate offices around your city and findout about their open house shows. If this does not work-a big garage sale or flea marketsale could be beneficial. You will be tending to the chores early in order to make your ownsurroundings as pleasant as possible. You are looking forward to fun around water thissummer and for now you might consider joining an aerobics exercise group or a sportsgroup.

A light heart begins the day. This may be from reading poetry or watching abeautiful sunrise. Memories come back to you and it is hard to get them out of your mind.Consider writing a poem about particular memories. At this time, you may be busy think-ing and working at pulling in extra finances. Sensible thought must be given to the practi-cal use of money. Complaints or your recognition of things out of balance will keep you onyour toes. Patience and attention to details all afternoon will put you out in front of peopleas you work to sell some artwork or help with coordinating some group activity. Beingmore involved with neighbors or sibling satisfies a deep emotional need. The next fewdays bring opportunities for extra money.

You may decide that it is time to involve yourself with a few different piecesof literature to update and improve your business knowledge. You may have been thinkingabout teaching. This is a good time to be in charge of some project that requires a conser-vative mind. Everything seems to be working together and you may find yourself expres-sive and able to communicate well. Your timing should be perfect and those around youshould find you most captivating. You have needs and you sense the needs of others. Youare likely to hear some good news today regarding some matter of importance. You maygain insight through some conversations with legal types. Your desire to succeed isstrengthened and you do well with your endeavors.

You may find some books and theories on a few problem-solving techniquesthat would be helpful in the workplace. Let’s face it, you have been thinking of better waysto handle business problems and now may be a good time to gear up for a change. Takingnotes may be all that is necessary. Intense work or concentration with little time for breaksover these past few weeks can cause anyone to become frustrated. Concentrate on creatinga balance. This afternoon would be a wonderful time to spend with friends or with neigh-bors. This interaction is one of the better ways you have to let go of the stress that may haveaccumulated lately without you realizing it.

MONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

Aries (March 21-April 19)

STAR TRACK

Taurus (April 20-May 20)

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

Leo (July 23-August 22)

Virgo (August 23-September 22)

Libra (September 23-October 22)

Scorpio (October 23-November 21)

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

Aquarius (January 20- February 18)

CROSSWORD 850

ACROSS1. (military) Signal to turn the lights out.5. Difficult or labored respiration.12. A condition (mostly in boys) characterizedby behavioral and learning disorders.15. Widely cultivated in tropical and subtropi-cal regions for its fragrant flowers and colorfulfruits.16. Island country in the Atlantic east ofFlorida and Cuba.17. A flat wing-shaped process or winglikepart of an organism.18. Deciduous South African tree having largeodd-pinnate leaves and profuse fragrantorange-yellow flowers.20. A man who is much concerned with hisdress and appearance.21. Having corresponding sounds especiallyterminal sounds.22. An associate degree in nursing.23. An early form of modern jazz (originatingaround 1940).26. A loose sleeveless outer garment madefrom aba cloth.28. A victory cheer.31. A city in northwestern Somalia.34. A landlocked republic in eastern Africa.38. Belonging to or on behalf of a specifiedperson (especially yourself).39. A hard brittle blue-white multivalentmetallic element.40. Any strong feeling.41. A city in southeastern Spain.45. A long noosed rope used to catch animals.46. A soft white precious univalent metallicelement having the highest electrical andthermal conductivity of any metal.47. According to the Old Testament he was apagan king of Israel and husband of Jezebel(9th century BC).49. A crosspiece between the legs of a chair.51. A Chadic language spoken in northernNigeria.52. A self-funded retirement plan that allowsyou to contribute a limited yearly sum towardyour retirement.53. A river that rises in Russia near Smolenskand flowing south through Belarus andUkraine to empty into the Black Sea.57. A stock or supply of foods.60. A genus of temperate and arctic evergreentrees (see spruce).62. Amino acid that is formed in the liver andconverted into dopamine in the brain.64. An amino acid that is found in the centralnervous system.67. An anti-TNF compound (trade nameArava) that is given orally.71. American prizefighter who won the worldheavyweight championship three times (bornin 1942).74. A design fixed to some surface or a paperbearing the design to be transferred to thesurface.75. A fractional monetary unit of Japan andIndonesia and Cambodia.76. A river in central Brazil that flows generallynorthward (with many falls) to join theTocantins River.78. Step on it.79. An ugly evil-looking old woman.80. A subfamily of Indic languages.81. The compass point midway betweennortheast and east.

DOWN1. The basic unit of money in Bangladesh.2. Similar or related in quality or character.

3. Seed of a pea plant.4. A cylindrical drawstring bag used by sailorsto hold their clothing and other gear.5. A logarithmic unit of sound intensity.6. A port in western Israel on theMediterranean.7. An ancient musical horn made from thehorn of a ram.8. Worthless or oversimplified ideas.9. A metric unit of length equal to one bil-lionth of a meter.10. The membrane in the ear that vibrates tosound.11. The residue that remains when somethingis burned.12. Informal terms for a mother.13. (pathology) An elevation of the skin filledwith serous fluid.14. An informal term for a father.19. (Judaism) Not conforming to dietary laws.24. The Tibeto-Burman language spoken inthe Dali region of Yunnan.25. A colorless and odorless inert gas.27. The template for protein synthesis.29. 100 agorot equal 1 shekel.30. A person who hates.32. A gun that propels a projectile by com-pressed air.33. Someone who works (or provides workers)during a strike.35. A B vitamin essential for the normal func-tion of the nervous system and the gastroin-testinal tract.36. An oldster in his dotage.37. A genus of tropical American plants havesword-shaped leaves and a fleshy compoundfruits composed of the fruits of several flowers(such as pineapples).42. Small genus of Asian evergreen trees hav-ing columnar crowns and distinguished byleaves lacking a midrib.43. An official prosecutor for a judicial district.44. The United Nations agency concernedwith civil aviation.48. A river in northwestern Russia flowinggenerally west into the Gulf of Finland.50. Capable of wounding.54. A small digital computer based on a micro-processor and designed to be used by oneperson at a time.55. The branch of engineering science thatstudies the uses of electricity and the equip-ment for power generation and distributionand the control of machines and communica-tion.56. A motley assortment of things.58. A large Yoruba city in southwesternNigeria.59. A river in north central Switzerland thatruns northeast into the Rhine.61. A region of Malaysia in northeasternBorneo.63. Evergreen trees and shrubs having oilyone-seeded fruits.65. Primitive chlorophyll-containing mainlyaquatic eukaryotic organisms lacking truestems and roots and leaves.66. (computer science) A data transmissionrate (bits/second) for modems.68. A dull persistent (usually moderatelyintense) pain.69. Characteristic of false pride.70. On or toward the lee.72. A rapid escape (as by criminals).73. A constellation in the southern hemi-sphere near Telescopium and Norma.77. A state in midwestern United States.

Yesterday’s Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

34s t a r s

Daily SuDoku

It is possible that you can come to an understanding between friends orfamily members about important matters today. People are willing to bring unsolved prob-lems to an end and most of what you hear will be a compromise-including your own. Yourmind is alert, your objectives are clear. Your buoyant optimism will help win your way.There are wonderful opportunities for you to help guide others today. For you, success is inthe recognition of some discovery or insight. Medicine and research, science, technologyand psychology are worth considering when it comes to a vocation. You may, in fact, wantto study later this evening. Whether you are working on a thesis, a report or studyingyoung children, your future work is important.

You may be prone to impulsiveness today. If you plan to shop, you might dobest if you make out a list and stick to it; otherwise, there are temptations. Another good idea isto take just enough cash for what is on your list. Self-discipline and a sense of self-worthbecome important issues. Happily, an urge to be a couch potato is short-lived. You read, watcha movie or sew while sitting and can never really seem to be still enough to end up with thepotato-shaped body that comes with this sort of living; thank goodness. A little walking orbicycling exercise this afternoon will help you to regain some focus and feel refreshed. Youhave the ingredients to cook a new recipe and this evening is a good time to experiment.

inf or m at ionMONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

Ahmadi Sama Safwan Fahaeel Makka St 23915883Abu Halaifa Abu Halaifa-Coastal Rd 23715414Danat Al-Sultan Mahboula Block 1, Coastal Rd 23726558

Jahra Modern Jahra Jahra-Block 3 Lot 1 24575518Madina Munawara Jahra-Block 92 24566622

Capital Ahlam Fahad Al-Salem St 22436184Khaldiya Coop Khaldiya Coop 24833967

Farwaniya New Shifa Farwaniya Block 40 24734000Ferdous Coop Ferdous Coop 24881201Modern Safwan Old Kheitan Block 11 24726638

Hawally Tariq Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St 25726265Hana Salmiya-Amman St 25647075Ikhlas Hawally-Beirut St 22625999Hawally & Rawdha Hawally & Rawdha Coop 22564549Ghadeer Jabriya-Block 1A 25340559Kindy Jabriya-Block 3B 25326554Ibn Al-Nafis Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St 25721264Mishrif Coop Mishrif Coop 25380581Salwa Coop Salwa Coop 25628241

OphthalmologistsDr. Abidallah Al-Mansoor 25622444Dr. Samy Al-Rabeea 25752222Dr. Masoma Habeeb 25321171Dr. Mubarak Al-Ajmy 25739999Dr. Mohsen Abel 25757700Dr Adnan Hasan Alwayl 25732223Dr. Abdallah Al-Baghly 25732223

Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT)Dr. Ahmed Fouad Mouner 24555050 Ext 510Dr. Abdallah Al-Ali 25644660Dr. Abd Al-Hameed Al-Taweel 25646478Dr. Sanad Al-Fathalah 25311996Dr. Mohammad Al-Daaory 25731988Dr. Ismail Al-Fodary 22620166Dr. Mahmoud Al-Booz 25651426

General PractitionersDr. Mohamme Y Majidi 24555050 Ext 123Dr. Yousef Al-Omar 24719312Dr. Tarek Al-Mikhazeem 23926920Dr. Kathem Maarafi 25730465Dr. Abdallah Ahmad Eyadah 25655528Dr. Nabeel Al-Ayoobi 24577781Dr. Dina Abidallah Al-Refae 25333501

UrologistsDr. Ali Naser Al-Serfy 22641534Dr. Fawzi Taher Abul 22639955Dr. Khaleel Abidallah Al-Awadi 22616660Dr. Adel Al-Hunayan FRCS (C) 25313120Dr. Leons Joseph 66703427

For labor-related inquiries and complaints:

Call MSAL hotline 128

Sabah Hospital 24812000

Amiri Hospital 22450005

Maternity Hospital 24843100

Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital 25312700

Chest Hospital 24849400

Farwaniya Hospital 24892010

Adan Hospital 23940620

Ibn Sina Hospital 24840300

Al-Razi Hospital 24846000

Physiotherapy Hospital 24874330/9

Kaizen center 25716707

Rawda 22517733

Adaliya 22517144

Khaldiya 24848075

Kaifan 24849807

Shamiya 24848913

Shuwaikh 24814507

Abdullah Salem 22549134

Nuzha 22526804

Industrial Shuwaikh 24814764

Qadsiya 22515088

Dasmah 22532265

Bneid Al-Gar 22531908

Shaab 22518752

Qibla 22459381

Ayoun Al-Qibla 22451082

Mirqab 22456536

Sharq 22465401

Salmiya 25746401

Jabriya 25316254

Maidan Hawally 25623444

Bayan 25388462

Mishref 25381200

W Hawally 22630786

Sabah 24810221

Jahra 24770319

New Jahra 24575755

West Jahra 24772608

South Jahra 24775066

North Jahra 24775992

North Jleeb 24311795

Ardhiya 24884079

Firdous 24892674

Omariya 24719048

N Khaitan 24710044

Fintas 23900322

GOVERNORATE PHARMACY ADDRESS PHONE

Plastic Surgeons

Dr. Mohammad Al-Khalaf 22547272

Dr. Abdal-Redha Lari 22617700

Dr. Abdel Quttainah 25625030/60

Family Doctor

Dr Divya Damodar 23729596/23729581

Psychiatrists

Dr. Esam Al-Ansari 22635047

Dr Eisa M. Al-Balhan 22613623/0

Gynaecologists & Obstetricians

DrAdrian arbe 23729596/23729581

Dr. Verginia s.Marin 2572-6666 ext 8321

Dr. Fozeya Ali Al-Qatan 22655539

Dr. Majeda Khalefa Aliytami 25343406

Dr. Ahmad Al-Khooly 25739272

Dr. Salem soso 22618787

General Surgeons

Dr. Amer Zawaz Al-Amer 22610044

Dr. Mohammad Yousef Basher 25327148

Internists, Chest & Heart

Dr. Adnan Ebil 22639939

Dr. Mousa Khadada 22666300

Dr. Latefa Al-Duweisan 25728004

Dr. Nadem Al-Ghabra 25355515

Dr. Mobarak Aldoub 24726446

Dr Nasser Behbehani 25654300/3

Paediatricians

Dr. Khaled Hamadi 25665898

Dr. Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rashed 25340300

Dr. Zahra Qabazard 25710444

Dr. Sohail Qamar 22621099

Dr. Snaa Maaroof 25713514

Dr. Pradip Gujare 23713100

Dr. Zacharias Mathew 24334282

Dermatology

Dr. Mohammed Salam Bern University 23845955

Dentists

Dr Anil Thomas 3729596/3729581

Dr. Shamah Al-Matar 22641071/2

Dr. Anesah Al-Rasheed 22562226

Dr. Abidallah Al-Amer 22561444

Dr. Faysal Al-Fozan 22619557

Dr. Abdallateef Al-Katrash 22525888

Dr. Abidallah Al-Duweisan 25653755

Dr. Bader Al-Ansari 25620111

Neurologists

Dr. Sohal Najem Al-Shemeri 25633324

Dr. Jasem Mola Hassan 25345875

Gastrologists

Dr. Sami Aman 22636464

Dr. Mohammad Al-Shamaly 25322030

Dr. Foad Abidallah Al-Ali 22633135

Endocrinologist

Dr. Abd Al-Naser Al-Othman 25339330

Dr. Ahmad Al-Ansari 25658888

Dr. Kamal Al-Shomr 25329924

Physiotherapists & VD

Dr. Deyaa Shehab 25722291

Dr. Musaed Faraj Khamees 22666288

Rheumatologists:

Dr. Adel Al-Awadi 25330060

Dr. Khaled Al-Jarallah 25722290

Internist, Chest & Heart

DR.Mohammes Akkad 24555050 Ext 210

Dr. Mohammad Zubaid MB, ChB, FRCPC, PACC Assistant Professor Of Medicine Head, Division of Cardiology Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital 25339667

Consultant Cardiologist

Dr. Farida Al-Habib 2611555-2622555 MD, PH.D, FACC Inaya German Medical Center Te: 2575077 Fax: 25723123

Soor CenterTel: 2290-1677Fax: 2290 1688

info@soorcenter.comwww.soorcenter.com

Psychologists/Psychotherapists

PRIVATE CLINICS

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

Kaizen center25716707

Noor Clinic23845955

INTERNATIONALCALLS

Afghanistan 0093

Albania 00355

Algeria 00213

Andorra 00376

Angola 00244

Anguilla 001264

Antiga 001268

Argentina 0054

Armenia 00374

Australia 0061

Austria 0043

Bahamas 001242

Bahrain 00973

Bangladesh 00880

Barbados 001246

Belarus 00375

Belgium 0032

Belize 00501

Benin 00229

Bermuda 001441

Bhutan 00975

Bolivia 00591

Bosnia 00387

Botswana 00267

Brazil 0055

Brunei 00673

Bulgaria 00359

Burkina 00226

Burundi 00257

Cambodia 00855

Cameroon 00237

Canada 001

Cape Verde 00238

Cayman Islands 001345

Central African 00236

Chad 00235

Chile 0056

China 0086

Colombia 0057

Comoros 00269

Congo 00242

Cook Islands 00682

Costa Rica 00506

Croatia 00385

Cuba 0053

Cyprus 00357

Cyprus (Northern) 0090392

Czech Republic 00420

Denmark 0045

Diego Garcia 00246

Djibouti 00253

Dominica 001767

Dominican Republic 001809

Ecuador 00593

Egypt 0020

El Salvador 00503

England (UK) 0044

Equatorial Guinea 00240

Eritrea 00291

Estonia 00372

Ethiopia 00251

Falkland Islands 00500

Faroe Islands 00298

Fiji 00679

Finland 00358

France 0033

French Guiana 00594

French Polynesia 00689

Gabon 00241

Gambia 00220

Georgia 00995

Germany 0049

Ghana 00233

Gibraltar 00350

Greece 0030

Greenland 00299

Grenada 001473

Guadeloupe 00590

Guam 001671

Guatemala 00502

Guinea 00224

Guyana 00592

Haiti 00509

Holland (Netherlands) 0031

Honduras 00504

Hong Kong 00852

Hungary 0036

Ibiza (Spain) 0034

Iceland 00354

India 0091

Indian Ocean 00873

Indonesia 0062

Iran 0098

Iraq 00964

Ireland 00353

Italy 0039

Ivory Coast 00225

Jamaica 001876

Japan 0081

Jordan 00962

Kazakhstan 007

Kenya 00254

Kiribati 00686

Kuwait 00965

Kyrgyzstan 00996

Laos 00856

Latvia 00371

Lebanon 00961

Liberia 00231

Libya 00218

Lithuania 00370

Luxembourg 00352

Macau 00853

Macedonia 00389

Madagascar 00261

Majorca 0034

Malawi 00265

Malaysia 0060

Maldives 00960

Mali 00223

Malta 00356

Marshall Islands 00692

Martinique 00596

Mauritania 00222

Mauritius 00230

Mayotte 00269

Mexico 0052

Micronesia 00691

Moldova 00373

Monaco 00377

Mongolia 00976

Montserrat 001664

Morocco 00212

Mozambique 00258

Myanmar (Burma) 0095

Namibia 00264

Nepal 00977

Netherlands 0031

Netherlands Antilles 00599

New Caledonia 00687

New Zealand 0064

Nicaragua 00505

Nigar 00227

Nigeria 00234

Niue 00683

Norfolk Island 00672

N. Ireland (UK) 0044

North Korea 00850

Norway 0047

Oman 00968

Pakistan 0092

Palau 00680

Panama 00507

Papua New Guinea 00675

Paraguay 00595

Peru 0051

Philippines 0063

Poland 0048

Portugal 00351

Puerto Rico 001787

Qatar 00974

Romania 0040

Russian Federation 007

Rwanda 00250

Saint Helena 00290

Saint Kitts 001869

Saint Lucia 001758

Saint Pierre 00508

Saint Vincent 001784

Samoa US 00684

Samoa West 00685

San Marino 00378

Sao Tone 00239

Saudi Arabia 00966

Scotland (UK) 0044

Senegal 00221

Seychelles 00284

Sierra Leone 00232

Singapore 0065

Slovakia 00421

Slovenia 00386

Solomon Islands 00677

Somalia 00252

South Africa 0027

South Korea 0082

Spain 0034

Sri Lanka 0094

Sudan 00249

Suriname 00597

Swaziland 00268

Sweden 0046

Switzerland 0041

Syria 00963

Serbia 00381

Taiwan 00886

Tanzania 00255

Thailand 0066

Toga 00228

Tonga 00676

Tokelau 00690

Trinidad 001868

Tunisia 00216

Turkey 0090

Tuvalu 00688

Uganda 00256

Ukraine 00380

United Arab Emirates 00976

United Kingdom 0044

Uruguay 00598

USA 001

Uzbekistan 00998

Vanuatu 00678

Venezuela 00582

Vietnam 0084

Virgin Islands UK 001284

Virgin Islands US 001340

Wales (UK) 0044

Yemen 00967

Yugoslavia 00381

Zambia 00260

Zimbabwe 00263

36L I F E S T Y L EMONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

G o s s i p

Ian McKellenisn’t ‘top choice’

Sir Ian McKellen doesn’t think he’s “top choice” for directors. The ‘Lord of the Rings’ actor admits there aremany movies he would have loved to have starred in but was never approached by the filmmakers. Hesaid: “I don’t think I’m top choice. In theatre - for Shakespeare - I’m quite near the top, but not for all direc-

tors. “In film I’m way, way down.”Spielberg’s never asked to work with me, Tarantino has never asked, SamMendes has never asked. “It isn’t as if there’s a long list of films I’ve turned down but there are plenty I wish I’dhad a go at. That’s the truth.” The 75-year-old actor admitted he finds it harder to learn lines now because thelure of the Internet is so distracting. Speaking to Esquire’s Big Black Book magazine, he said: “How do I kill time?Oh don’t. Internet. “I’ve always loved Dictionaries and encyclopaedias. Now you get all that on your computer.It’s fantastic. “You’re looking up something about Dickens and you’re invited to explore more and more andmore.”I don’t know if that’s wasting time or not but it doesn’t help me to learn lines.”

Morricone didn’t approve of scenes in Django Unchained

Ennio Morricone didn’t approve of the graphic scenes in ‘Django Unchained’. The prolificcomposer and conductor wrote the soundtrack to the award-winning movie, directed byQuentin Tarantino, but admitted he wasn’t pleased by a gruesome plot in the 2012 film, and

ordered the 51-year-old filmmaker to remove it. Speaking in the spring/summer The Big BlackBook issue of the UK’s Esquire magazine, he said: “In ‘Django Unchained’, there’s that sequencewhere a dog attacks and eats a man. That was too much. I sent a message to Quentin Tarantinoand told him that was too strong.” However the scene remained in the movie, and added toEnnio’s disappointment about the placement of his music, which he has previously admittedmade him decide never to work with him again. He said he “wouldn’t like to work with him again,on anything,” adding he “places music in his films without coherence” and “you can’t do anythingwith someone like that”. And the 86-year-old star revealed in 2013 he had stuck to his promise,but his refusal to work with the star meant he used one of the tracks he had previously penned.He added: “He said last year he wanted to work with me again ever since ‘Inglourious Basterds’,but I told him I couldn’t, because he didn’t give me enough time. So he just used a song I hadwritten previously.”

Russell Crowe’s eight-year-old son was convinced not tojoin the army after watching ‘The Water Diviner’. Theactor - who stars as an Australian farmer who travels to

Turkey to find his three missing sons after the Battle of Gallipoli- says his new movie had a profound impact on his sonTennyson, causing him to rethink his career plans. The 50-year-old star said his son told him: “Dad, we’re not joining the armyany more.” Previous to that, however, Tennyson said that “afteruniversity, I’m going to do a couple of battles” and speculatedthat a soldier might be paid “a million”. But Russell is thrilledthat the movie - which also stars Olga Kurylenko - has con-vinced his son to consider the pitfalls of war and change hisattitude completely. He told The Times newspaper: “The entireeffort of three years of making the movie is worth it just to haveput that in my son’s heart.” Meanwhile, Russell - who also has an11-year-old son, Charles - recently said having children haschanged his outlook on life. He said: “Once you have childreneverything you do and how you see the world is done throughthe prism of having kids.”

Crowe’s new film convincedhis son to not join the army

Grainger defends Cinderella co-star

Lily James

Holliday Grainger thinks less attention shouldbe paid to what actresses look like. The 26-year-old stage and screen star - who appears

alongside Lily James in the new Disney movie of theclassic fairytale‘Cinderella’ -says it’s a“shame” peo-ple judgefemale per-formers bytheir appear-ance ratherthan theirtalent.Respondingto claims herco-star’swaist wasphoto-shopped inthe film,Holliday toldBANGShowbiz atlast night’sLondon pre-miere inLeicesterSquare: “Lily’sgot a smallwaist - whatis she goingto do aboutit? Thecorsets makeit look small-er. “I thinkthe movie isso muchabout what’s on the inside is what matters - and whoyou are as a person. “I just think it’s a shame. Really,there are lots of strong female leads and we’re focus-ing on what they’re wearing and what they look like.”The remarks came shortly after Lily, 25, urged peopleto show more interest in Cinderella’s morals than herwaist. She said: “Why on earth are we focusing onsomething so irrelevant? “I’ve had friends’ kids and alittle boy called Daniel, who’s nine, who said ‘it’samazing how you promised your mum to be kindand good and you remembered it’. That’s the mes-sage [of the movie].” —Bang Showbiz

Reeves andCarrey cast inThe Bad Batch

Keanu Reeves and Jim Carrey have been cast in new dystopian movie ‘The Bad Batch’. Theduo have been cast alongside Suki Waterhouse, Diego Luna and Jason Momoa in the AnaLily Amirpour-directed film, which is a cannibal love story set in a post-apocalyptic Texas

wasteland. The film’s lead, Miami Man, is played by Momoa, while Waterhouse will play femalelead Arien. Reeves and Carrey will play The Dream and The Hermit respectively, according toTheWrap. Reeves’ casting in the new movie comes shortly after it was revealed that he “startedwatching the earliest cuts” of ‘Bill & Ted 3’ more than 12 months ago. The third installment of thecomedy franchise has been years in the making, and according to Reeves’ co-star Alex Winter -who played Bill S. Preston Esq. in the original movies - it is close to a reality. Speaking of his co-star - who appeared as Ted ‘Theodore’ Logan - Winter said: “He started watching the earliest cutsof this movie a year ago, and was just super into it. “It’s really funny, because I asked him and Icould tell he was waiting for me to ask. Because he was like, ‘Yeah. Duh.’”

Lopez wants Rihanna duet

Jennifer Lopez would “absolutely” duet with Rihanna. The 45-year-oldsinger has revealed she would love to sing with the ‘We Found Love’hitmaker, having recently starred in the animated movie ‘Home’ with

her. When asked if she would work with her co-star, she said: “Absolutely!Who wouldn’t?!” The chart-topping mother-of-two went on to explain she issuch a fan of the Bajan beauty because she is both edgy and feminine. Shetold E! News: “I’m a huge Rihanna fan ... and I feel like she’s such a girl’s girl,which I love, because I’m a girl’s girl and she seems very sweet.”And I lovethe edginess about her and I think she did a really great job in this film.” Thecomments come just days after 27-year-old star also expressed her wish towork with the ‘Booty’ singer, but confessed she would have to add paddingto her derriere if they shot a video together so she could compete withJennifer’s round butt. She said: “I would need some butt pads for that videothough.” Continuing to praise the star - who released her debut single ‘IfYou Had My Love’ in 1999 - she gushed over how successful she continuesto be, despite being older than most pop stars. She added: “I mean, really?She’s shutting down 20-year-olds at forty-something. It’s unheard of.”

Will Ferrell can’t predict success Will Ferrell doesn’t think anyone can predict how well their movies will do at the box office. Will Ferrell has

“no sense” of how successful his movies will be. The 47-year-old actor insists stars who claim they knewtheir work would bomb or be a box office smash are “lying” because there are a number of random factors

to consider. Asked if he has an idea of how his work will fare, he said: “Sadly no. I have still no sense whatsoever. Mybarometer hasn’t gotten any sharper. “I think anyone who says they know right away, they’re lying.”When you seethe edited film, you just have to feel, ‘We made something that feels different, fresh and new and it has a strongpoint of view.’ It’s up to the gods at that point. “You never know when a movie is going to hit the zeitgeist for what-ever reason, whether it’s release date, what’s out there at the same time, are people in the mood to see a comedy ata certain point? All those factors you really aren’t in control of. I don’t feel like my gauge is sharpened in any way.” The‘Get Hard’ actor believes the most important thing to consider with his movies is whether making them “feels good”or not. He told the Independent newspaper’s Radar magazine: “We did this movie ‘Casa de Mi Padre’ which wasentirely in Spanish. That is an example of, ‘Really! An American comedy star does an entire movie in Spanish, whodoesn’t speak Spanish, and all the studios go, ‘Hmmm... we don’t know how to distribute it.’ That’s one where you go,‘That seems weird especially when a lot of the statistics say the Hispanic audience is one of the largest movie-goingaudiences in America.’ You just have to feel good about what you’re making and truck along.”

Joseph Gordon-Levitt to star in Fraggle Rock

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is to star in the ‘Fraggle Rock’ movie. Jim Henson’s hit1980s children’s TV show about a group of carefree creatures known as Fraggleswho live in caves beneath a lighthouse is finally being turned into a film The

‘Inception’ actor has committed to be the lead star and is also set to work as a pro-ducer on the movie, according to Entertainment Weekly. Joseph has admitted‘Fraggle Rock’ was one of his favourite ever shows and he is confident he and pro-ducer Lisa Henson - the CEO of The Jim Henson Company and the late puppeteer’sdaughter - can do the series and Jim proud. In a statement, Joseph said: “The firstscreen personas I ever loved were Henson creations, first on ‘Sesame Street’, andthen on ‘Fraggle Rock’. Jim Henson’s characters make you laugh and sing, but they’realso layered, surprising, and wise. From Oscar the Grouch, to Yoda, to the Fraggles.I’ve never stopped loving his work, even as a young frisky man, and on into adult-hood. Collaborating with Lisa Henson makes me confident we can do somethingthat Jim would have loved.” The news is a huge boost to the project which has beenin development since 2006.

37L I F E S T Y L EMONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

M u s i c & M o v i e s

Think of “Kahlil Gibran’s TheProphet” as a gift: a work ofessential spiritual enlighten-

ment, elegantly interpreted by nineof the world’s leading independentanimators, all tied up and wrappedin a family-friendly bow by “The LionKing” director Roger Allers. A long-time passion project for producerSalma Hayek-Pinault, Lebanesephilosopher-poet Gibran’s belovedguide to life, death, love, art and soforth doesn’t naturally lend itself tobigscreen interpretation, and at first,the pic’s framing device seems toosilly for such soulful subject matter,but the freshly scripted wraparounddoesn’t shy away from grown-upconcerns, while potentially broaden-ing the book’s reach to youngeraudiences as well. Although Hayekhad hoped to land a higher-profiledistrib, she will probably have betterluck with the toon champs at GKids,whose white-glove release effortshave netted six Oscar nominationsso far.

Visual stylesIn Gibran’s book, after spending a

dozen years in a foreign land, a wiseteacher offers 26 sermons on sub-jects essential to leading a fulfilledand meaningful existence, then setssail for his home country-a formatrich with enlightenment, but dan-gerously thin on dramatic incident.For the film, Hayek selected eight ofthe most beloved chapters and dele-gated each to a different toon talent,inviting the various artists to findinterpret Gibran’s sentiments accord-ing to their distinctive visual styles.In order to flesh out the narrativeconnecting these vignettes, directorAllers devised a more elaboratebackstory, inventing a mischievousyoung girl whose name, Almitra, heborrows from the book.

The feisty young lady seldomspeaks (when she does, it’s “Annie”star Quvenzhane Wallis who deliversAlmitra’s lines), but runs around thetown of Orphalese causing havocwhile her harried mother (Hayek)tends to the prophet character,Mustafa (Liam Neeson). For dramaticpurposes, Mustafa has been promot-ed to a dangerous dissident: Keptunder house arrest, he’s perceived asa threat to the local government. Theauthorities announce their inten-tions to send him home, but appearto have more sinister plans in store,and Mustafa’s lessons take on a newimportance: quite possibly the finalwords of a condemned man.

Beautiful aphorismsThat’s a heavily politicized parable

within which to present teachingsthat don’t feel all that subversive tobegin with, especially for youngeraudiences who might not be com-fortable with the idea that someideas can be dangerous enough tocarry death sentences, although thetactic elevates Mustafa’s character toa sort of martyr, making every wordcount-not that his beautiful apho-risms need the help, thanks to thealready intoxicating combination ofNeeson’s mellifluous delivery andGabriel Yared’s score.

If only Allers’ in-between portionswere as engaging as Mustafa’sspeeches. As fruit carts spill andopinionated seagulls take aim atauthority figures, both the actionand animation of the main storyleave something to be desired-atleast in contrast with the calmingartistic interludes that break up suchbuffoonery. Designed to mimic thelook of classic hand-drawn cartoons,Allers’ scenes actually seem to havebeen achieved through some sort ofnot-yet-perfected rotoscope process,except that instead of tracing live-action footage (the way Disney

made Snow White dance so realisti-cally 77 years earlier), his crew flat-tens computer-animated modelsinto 2D-style characters with some-times awkward results: a too-fluidsense of movement, coupled with asplit-second delay as the animationlags ever so slightly (at least thebackgrounds appear lovingly home-made).

Visually mesmerizingChalk that up as a small technical

quibble-or perhaps a necessary con-cession given the challenge of pro-ducing hand-drawn animation in thenew digital era-although several ofthe other contributors seem deter-mined to keep the bespoke traditionalive. For example, the astoundinglyprolific Bill Plympton still sketchesevery frame by hand, interpreting“On Eating & Drinking” with col-ored pencil (but none of his usualhumor, alas). Emirati animatorMohammed Saeed Harib stunninglycombines watercolor elements for“On Good & Evil’s” nature-cen-tric montage, while award-winningItalian twins Paul and Gaetan Brizzi(who worked for Disney on the stu-dio’s final non-CG toons, includingthe Firebird sequence from “Fantasia2000”) not only brought old-schooldrawing skills to the final chapter,“On Death,” but storyboarded all ofAllers’ material as well.

“Work is love made visible,”Mustafa preaches in “The Prophet’s”most awe-inspiring segment, “OnWork.” The sequence, overseen byclay-painting pioneer Joan Gratz (anOscar winner for her short “MonaLisa Descending a Staircase”) provesas visually mesmerizing as it is pro-found: Hands, bodies and the cos-mos themselves swirl and transformbefore our eyes as Neeson sharesGibran’s insights on labor and thecreative impulse itself. Thoughinevitably uneven in places, the filmundeniably reflects this idea of aproject boosted by the passion of allwho participated.

Addition of musicFor Hayek, whose star persona is

so indelibly linked to her Mexicanheritage, this project represents anlong-overdue chance to share herlesser-known Lebanese background(on her father’s side). As producer,she not only enabled the first Arabiccharacter in her filmography, butalso hand-selected an internationalroster of independent animators towith whom to collaborate, choosingartists who’ve maintained their inde-pendence in a medium that tends tomerchandize everything. That’swhere Allers proves such an impor-tant collaborator, steering Gibran’sesotericism back toward the main-stream and giving the project a formthat feels orderly and unified.

The final delight arrives in theform of music-a natural complementto the film’s already poetic sourcematerial-not just Yared’s alternatelypoignant and playful accompani-ment, but also two original songswhose lyrics quote “The Prophet”directly: Damien Rice’s “On Children,”which rescues Nina Paley’s otherwisedisappointing (albeit trippily kaleido-scopic) contribution, and Irish sirenLisa Hannigan and Glen Hansard’sduet, “On Love,” which “The Secret ofKells” animator Tomm Moore trans-forms into a radiant Art Nouveauwhirl, as vibrant as a Gustav Klimtpainting come to life. As if it weren’tspecial enough to hear Neeson reciteGibran’s sentiments amidst suchstriking visuals, the addition of musicfurther elevates verses that so manyhave already committed to memoryand which a whole new audience cannow discover for the first time. —Reuters

Review

‘Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet’

Celine Dion to return to Vegas residency Canadian singer Celine Dion will return to her resi-

dency in Las Vegas in August after taking an indefi-nite break last year to care for her cancer-stricken

husband, People magazine reported. On her website, thestar from French-speaking province Quebec hinted at thenews on Saturday, exclaiming “Good news on the hori-zon!” showing her husband and one-time manager ReneAngelil, 73, watching television footage of Dion. Dion, 46,will be resuming her residency at Caesars Palace’sColosseum in late August with a new show, according toPeople.

“It is very emotional for me and I’m anticipating theemotions to grow even more as the date gets closer,” Diontold the magazine. Fans reacted with glee. “I am superexcited I have been waiting for this moment for a verylong time!! I love you Celine and I am so excited for yourreturn!” one wrote on her website. The five-time Grammywinner performed in Sin City full-time for more than threeyears, wowing crowds with her biggest hits that includethe theme song for the 1997 Hollywood blockbuster“Titanic” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet-”MyHeart Will Go On.”

In 2014, the international sensation suffered from acondition that caused her throat muscles to becomeinflamed, forcing her to cancel her scheduled shows inLas Vegas since her last performance on July 29 of thatyear. —AFP

Canadian singer Celine Dion performs during her first of seven shows sched-uled until December 5 at the Bercy’s Palais Omnisports in Paris. —AFP

The director of an ill-fated movie about singer Gregg Allman saidFriday that it’s “ultimately my responsibility” that his crew ended upon a Georgia railroad bridge in the path of a freight train that killed a

camera assistant. “Midnight Rider” director Randall Miller issued a state-ment to The Associated Press less than two weeks after he pleaded guiltyto charges of involuntary manslaughter and criminal trespassing. A judgesentenced him to two years in jail in rural Wayne County, where 27-year-old Sarah Jones of Atlanta died in the train crash Feb 20, 2014. Six othersalso were injured.

“It was a horrible tragedy that will haunt me forever,” Miller said in astatement provided to The AP by a publicist. “Although I relied on my team,it is ultimately my responsibility and was my decision to shoot the scriptedscene that caused this tragedy.” Miller said he hoped his guilty plea hadspared Jones’ family from the anguish of having to relive the crash at a trial.But he also denied he alone was to blame. He said “a great number of mis-takes were made” by his assistants on the film crew, but acknowledgedthat he had failed to ensure “every safety measure was in place.” “I have tak-en responsibility because I could have asked more questions and I was theone in charge,” Miller said.

Prosecutors said they had emails from CSX Transportation, which ownsthe railroad bridge spanning the Altamaha River, showing Miller’s crewhad twice been denied permission to film a scene on the tracks where thecrash occurred.

Pleaded guiltyMiller pleaded guilty March 9, the day a jury was to be selected for his

trial. Assistant District Attorney John B. Johnson said Miller and othersknew they had been denied permission to access the railroad trestlebecause they attempted to rewrite the script to drop the scene theyplanned to shoot with actor William Hurt - in the role of Allman - in a hos-pital bed placed on the tracks.

Miller decided to shoot the scene anyway, Johnson said, after the own-er of the property surrounding the tracks said the movie crew could accessits land. He said Miller and his crew went onto the railroad bridge after mis-takenly thinking no more trains would pass that day. Jay Sedrish, themovie’s executive producer, also pleaded guilty and assistant director

Hillary Schwartz was convicted after opting for the judge to decide hercase in a short bench trial. Both were sentenced to 10 years on probationfor the same charges Miller faced. Miller also was sentenced to serve eightyears on probation following his jail term and was ordered to pay a$20,000 fine.

He said he pleaded guilty in part to protect his wife and business part-ner, Jody Savin, and their children. Charges against Savin were dropped asa condition of her husband’s guilty plea. “Our children and I love Randy somuch and are trying to be strong for him as he has been so strong andbrave for us,” Savin said in a brief statement. Miller’s previous films included“Bottle Shock” and “CBGB.” The “Midnight Rider” project has been in limbosince the train crash. Allman sued Miller last year to prevent the directorfrom reviving the movie. They settled out of court and terms were not dis-closed. —AP

Allman director: Ga t ra in c rash ‘my re spons ib i l i ty’

Film director Randall Miller, left, takes the witness stand dur-ing a hearing before Chatham County Superior Court, JudgeJohn Morse. —AP

J Cole shines like true star at SXSW

JCole helped close the annual South bySouthwest festival with a top notch performancethat proved he’s not just one of rap’s best per-

formers, but of music in general. Cole was a crowdfavorite at ACL Live at the Moody Theater in Austin,Texas, delivering his smart rhymes like they wereclub anthems.

Entering the stage, Cole paused to take in loudcheers from the audience. Cole’s performance start-ed Saturday and ended early Sunday morning. Hekicked off his set with “Nobody’s Perfect” from his2011 debut album, but switched to tracks from hiscritically-acclaimed third release, “2014 Forest HillsDrive.” The Grammy-nominated performer, whosewas mentored by Jay Z, has launched his own labelcalled Dreamville. Cole’s signees, Bas, Cozz andOmen, also performed Saturday. —APJ Cole

Beginning today, WWE Network willbe available in the Middle East andNorth Africa exclusively through

OSN, the leading pay-TV network in theregion, as a premium, linear channel co-branded as OSN WWE Network HD. Thelaunch of the channel, included in OSN’sPlatinum HD package,comes just beforeWWE’s biggest event of the year,WrestleMania, which airs live on Monday,March 30, at 3am GST.

OSN WWE Network HD offers one-of-a-kind programming including all 12 WWEpay-per-view events live at no additionalcharge, groundbreaking original series,including Legends’ House and MondayNight War and reality shows including TotalDivas. Additional programming includes-documentaries, classic matches and exclu-sivecoverage of special events.

“OSN has a long-standing relationshipwith WWE, and we are now expanding thatrelationship furtherby launching OSN WWENetwork HD exclusively in the region,” saidAndy Warkman, OSN Vice President, Sport

and Production. “This is great news for WWEfans in the Middle East and North Africa.”

“As WWE’s popularity continues to soar,we have expanded our footprint in theregion, adding more live events, televisionprogramming and now, OSN WWE NetworkHD,” said Gerrit Meier, WWE Executive VicePresident, International. “WWE is committedto growing our brand globally and bringingthe WWE experience to our many passion-ate fans around the world.”

The all-new OSN WWE Network HDchannel will be available free of chargebeginning today through Sunday, March 29,via OSN. On Monday, March 30, subscribersto the OSN Platinum HD package will auto-matically receive the channel. Non-PlatinumHD package subscribers will have theoption to upgrade to the package to enjoythe channel, or they can select it as an add-on for only US$9.99 per month.In addition,all subscribers to OSN WWE Network HDwill have access to special WWE video-on-demand programming in their OSN Plus HDBox.

New OSN WWE Network HD launches today

MONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

T R A V E L

l if e s t y l e

Planning a trip to Southern Californiabut don’t want to fight LA’s traffic? Ormaybe when you hear the word

Disneyland you think, “Been there, donethat”? Check out the city of Santa Monica inall its picture-postcard beauty. From a funkyold pier surrounded by some of the world’sbest beaches to its upscale shopping dis-trict, scores of art galleries, top-ratedrestaurants and bountiful nightlife, thereare enough things to do in this little oasisjust 12 miles (19 kilometers) west of down-

town Los Angeles to keep you not onlyoccupied but enthralled.

What’s newSanta Monica Place: This rather mun-

dane looking 1980s shopping mall wastransformed in 2010. It ’s now a bright,open-air gathering spot of upscale restau-rants and stores that connects directly withthe city’s pedestrian-friendly Third StreetPromenade, forming the heart of SantaMonica’s downtown. The mall not only

rivals Beverly Hills’ Rodeo Drive in offeringhigh-end, celebrity-frequented brand-nameoutfits like Kitson, Burberry, Louis Vuittonand Barneys, but also provides an abun-dance of relatively reasonable parking with-in walking distance of the beach. A new-oldaddition to that beach is the AnnenbergCommunity Beach House. Built in the 1920sby William Randolph Hearst for his compan-ion, actress Marion Davies, it was acquiredby Santa Monica and opened to the publicin 2009. Tours of the guest house and its artgallery are free.

Classic attractionsStart by making a beeline to Santa

Monica Pier, the 99-year-old landmark withan entrance sign proclaiming it as the finalstop on Route 66, the historic highway JohnSteinbeck declared America’s Mother Road.(Fact check: Route 66 actually ended a

block to the north, but the sign still makesfor a nice photo opp.) Here you’ll find every-thing from musicians, snake handlers,artists and other street performers, to quietareas set aside for fishing. In the middle of itall is an amusement park with dozens ofrides and attractions, including a solar-pow-ered Ferris wheel that carries riders 130 feet(40 meters) up. The wheel providesarguably the best panoramic views of thePacific Ocean, its beaches, SouthernCalifornia’s mountains and urban skylinefound anywhere. Near the pier’s entrance isthe Hippodrome, built in 1916 and home toa vintage carousel with hand-carved hors-es, only $2 to ride ($1 for kids).

One caveat, the food on the pier is noth-ing special. For a better dining experience,go south of the pier, past SouthernCalifornia’s original Muscle Beach wherebodybuilders still work out. There is OnePico, which offers Mediterranean foodserved at tables almost literally on the sand.Or head inland a few blocks. Zagat rates theFrench restaurant Melisse “No 1 for food inLos Angeles,” but, really, it’s in Santa Monica.

As for the beach, there is 3 miles (5 kilo-meters) of it, plenty to go around forsurfers, swimmers, sunbathers and the like.You can check it all out by biking, rollerskating or walking the boardwalk (actuallymade of concrete) that parallels the sand.

If there isn’t a concert you want to see at

McCabe’s Guitar Shop (Christine Lavin andHolly Near will be there later this month),the nighttime destination is the Third StreetPromenade. It rejuvenated Santa Monica’saging, moribund downtown when it wasclosed to cars in the late 1980s and remainsthe city’s signature downtown area withupscale shops, restaurants, bars, boutiques,yoga studios, art galleries and the like.

TipsSanta Monica may give off a small town

vibe, but it still covers more than 8 squaremiles (21 square kilometers) in a part of thecountry where the automobile is the pri-mary means of transportation, traffic jamsare common and road construction proj-ects seemingly never end.

That said, the city’s Big Blue Bus systemcovers Santa Monica pretty well. Basic one-way fares are $1 with multiple-ride passesavailable at discounted prices. Severalhotels also provide shuttle service to thepier, and bicycle rentals can be a handyalternative. If you do want to drive, bewarned that street parking is difficult tofind in most tourist areas and restricted tolocals in most residential areas.

Hanging outOn the way into town check out

Bergamot Station Art Center. A collection ofmodest buildings near a maintenance yard

in the section of town farthest from thebeach, it’s easy to overlook. But inside this19th century rail yard you’ll find a small artmuseum and more than a dozen contem-porary galleries displaying photos, sculp-tures, paintings and more. There’s also agood, reasonably priced restaurant with anoutside dining area. Or ask for directions to“Food Truck Alley,” a nearby street on theedge of the city’s high-tech district where adozen or more food trucks congregateevery weekday lunch hour. — AP

Visitors to museums are long used tofeasting their eyes on sumptuous worksof art-but having to resort to little better

than snack food for sustenance between gal-leries. Now, though, the temples of culture areincreasingly turning attention to their eateries,looking to lift the fare on their tables to thesame level as what’s hanging on the walls. TheGuggenheim in Spain, New York’s Museum ofModern Art and the Lu.C.C.A. contemporary artmuseum in the Italian town of Lucca have takenthe lead by starting luxury restaurants thathave earned one star each in the MichelinGuide.

“The Guggenheim needed an avant-gardeapproach, an identity, a style-and that’s whatwe did,” Josean Alija, the chef at the FrankGehry-designed museum in the Spanish townof Bilbao, told AFP. Alija was just 19 when theGuggenheim opened in 1997 with him at thehead of its Basque-flavored bistro. In 2011, themuseum decided to step things up a notch byopening Nerua, its high-end restaurant whichwon its Michelin star under Alija just a year later.“It was an unprecedented gamble to join amuseum to a first-class gastronomic restaurant,”taken by museum director Juan Ignacio Vidarte,explained spokeswoman Begona Martinez.

‘Competition between museums’ That movement towards better food and a

real dining experience is taking hold else-where. Paris’s Louvre, Musee d’Orsay andRodin Museum are listening harder to visitors’

culinary expectations.”There is competitionbetween the museums, between countries,and the quality of their restaurants now is partof the criteria of fame or quality of a museum,”Jean-FranÁois Camarty, the head of the big

French company Elior Concessions that runseateries for museums and companies, toldAFP. “As with all restaurants, there is a bigjump in quality in terms of expectations andservice,” he said.”But there also has to be out-lets for all tastes and budgets,” Camarty added.He pointed to the example of the Quai BranlyMuseum of ethnic art in Paris, which hostsboth a less-costly cafe and a 50-euro-($55-) a-head restaurant with a view of the Eiffel Tower.

Part of the visitors’ experience Ratcheting up the quality, and therefore

prices, of some of their restaurants also addsto revenues for museums. “Of course there is afinancial interest,” admitted MarjoriesLecointre, events and operations director atthe Grand Palais in the French capital. “But it’snot just that. We want people to feel good inthemselves and to come back. It is part of thevisitors’ experience.” The Grand Palais, a vastand ornate, 19th-century glass-roofed eventshall just off the Champs-Elysees, in 2009opened its adjacent Minipalais restaurant,managed by the group Luderic.

The outlet offers a fixed-price menu of 29euros, as well as other dishes conceived underan accomplished chef, Eric Frechon. An annual

international contemporary art show in theGrand Palais, FIAC, brings crowds to therestaurant, “but even when there are noevents we have a Parisian customer base, com-ing from around the neighborhood,” saidFrechon, who also heads the kitchen at thethree-star Epicure restaurant in the luxuryParis Hotel Bristol.

For another three-Michelin-star chef,Gerald Passedat, who has branched out intoseveral eateries and a cooking school in the

MuCEM museum of European andMediterranean civilizations in Marseille, it isimportant for a top museum restaurant toecho its identity or location. He carefully stud-ied what the Guggenheim was doing beforehe started his MuCEM school, which he wantsto make “a catalyses for gastronomicMediterranean cuisine”. In that vein, thismonth he invited a two-star chef from Rome,Anthony Genovese, to participate in an eventpresenting refined Italian cooking. — AFP

French chef Gerald Passedat posing in his restaurant, Le Mle Passedat, at the MuCemmuseum in Marseille. — AFP photos

Museums may be a feast for theeyes - but what about the belly?

French chef Eric Frechon poses in the restau-rant of le Grand Palais, “le Mini Palais”.

Architects Greg Lebon, left, and Kent Trollen sculpt a sand castle on the beach. — AP photos A view of the Pacific Park in Santa Monica.

Essentials for visiting

Santa Monica - more than just ocean

A white 1986 Lamborghini Countach joins a convoy of 30 Lamborghinis leaving Santa Monica Beach.

Hailey James, front, and Alexander Bosdachin swing-ing on the beach in Santa Monica.

The new solar powered Santa Monica Ferris stands over Pacific Park amusement park.

Santo Plescia looks at the ‘End of theTrail’ sign for Route 66 on the SantaMonica Pier.

MONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

F E A T U R E S

l if e s t y l e

ONTIME today announced the launch of thelatest DKNY 2015 spring watch collection,‘City Energy’, now available across ONTIME

stores. The DKNY 2015 collection was firstdebuted during a special event held on 18 March,2015 at ONTIME - The Time stylists, 360 Mall.

Event was attended by the famous Kuwaiti make-up artist Sondos Al-Qattan.

The collection is inspired by New York City’svibrant spirit and energy, and features sleek clas-sic styles with colorful dials and digital watches inbright shades, making the collection suitable for

any time of day or night. The new Slim Stanhopestyle features sophisticated geometric elements;whereas the SoHo’s slender metal wristlet adds atouch of elegance and bright sunray wristlets andcolorfully stitched white leather straps give off afresh new look to the classy SoHo watch. The col-

lection also features the Tompkins style, whichintroduces an attractive update with new digitalmovements and silicone straps that add a freshcolor to the design. The DKNY 2015 ‘City Energy’collection is available across all ONTIME stores inKuwait. ONTME invites you to come enjoy this

elegant range of watches and start this warm sea-son with a fresh new look by visiting the nearestONTIME store near you at The Avenues Mall,Marina Mall, Bairaq, Gate Mall, Awtad Jahra, Al-Kout, 360 Mall, and The Airport branch, Mohalab,Fanar and Discovery Mall.

ONTIME features latest DKNY 2015 spring watch collection

Filipina maidcaptures dreams

through photography

From her poverty-stricken roots in a Philippinebackwater, via domestic service in Hong Kong toacclaim in New York, Xyza Cruz Bacani’s inspira-

tional journey started with a camera bought with bor-rowed money. The 28-year-old came to Hong Kongnine years ago to join 300,000 other women workingas maids in the city, hoping to earn enough money tohelp fund her brother’s education.

But photography has transformed her life, herimages of everything from trips to the supermarket toscenes of abuse at a refuge for domestic workers earn-ing laudatory spreads in international media and atexhibitions. Bacani was recently named as one of therecipients of a fellowship by the Magnum Foundation,a prestigious scholarship that will allow her to study inNew York for six weeks.

With that in mind, just a week ago, she quit domes-tic service to pursue her passion for photography. Butwhen she first came to Hong Kong, survival was herfirst priority. “The urge to survive is much bigger thanthe urge to do art,” she told AFP in Macau where herphotographs are on show as part of the city’s LiteraryFestival. A self-professed dreamer, she said she alsosaw the move to Hong Kong as an opportunity toleave her home village, nine hours’ drive from thePhilippine capital Manila.

“It was a big contrast when I arrived at the airport, Iwas very excited because everything is moving fast,and the lights are wonderful, it looks so alive com-pared to my village,” she said. Her passion for photog-raphy really took off four years ago, when her employ-er-whom she describes as a “great lady”-lent her themoney to buy her first camera, a Nikon D90. “When Ihad (the camera), I shot landscapes to flowers to (por-traits of ) my mom, and then I did street photography.”

From that point on Bacani took photographs atevery opportunity she had, whether out buying dailyproduce for her employer or ranging across Hong Kongon Sundays off work. At first she only shared her pic-tures with friends on Facebook-mostly shot in grainyblack and white, capturing street moments in classicreportage style. A Filipino photographer based in SanFrancisco saw them on Facebook and was intrigued bytheir originality and quality. From there she came to theattention of the New York Times Lens blog and then ofacclaimed photographer Sebastiao Salgado, whopraised her work at an exhibition in Hong Kong late lastyear. Reflecting on her journey thus far, she marvels:“Right now it’s changed my life 180 degrees, here I amhaving a show in Macau, going to places.”

A voice for the unheard With increasing concerns over the treatment of

domestic helpers in Hong Kong and the region, Bacaniis now turning to documentary photography to try todraw attention to abuses. “That’s what I want my pho-tography to do, to be able to help people ... to me pho-tography is a very powerful tool to change someone’sperspective towards an issue,” she said. In the summerof 2014, Bacani documented migrant workers who hadtaken shelter at a refuge after suffering abuse at thehands of their employers, an experience she describedas “life-changing”.

“I was angry at first, it was a roller-coaster of emo-tion when I saw this kind of situation. “I think I wasthere to be the voice of those domestic workers whoremain unheard, whose voices have been muted.” Justlast month a judge sentenced a Hong Kong woman tosix years in jail for beating and starving her Indonesianmaid in a case that made global headlines. Bacani’sown employer could not be more different, she says,offering support and encouragement to pursue herplans of becoming a photographer full-time.

“She said my domestic worker duties... are restrictingme from growing up as a person, it’s a chain that holdsme,” Bacani said, after stopping her domestic work lastweek. Bacani’s story has inspired many other helpers inthe city, and she is urging them to pursue their dreamstoo. “They keep on telling me... now that they’ve seenme, I made them realise that it’s possible to do thethings that you really want to do outside your job. “Iwant people to see that your job, your work, it doesn’tdefine who you are,” she added. “The dreams that I hadwhen I was young, I’m having them now.” — AFP

Feminine glamour may turn the most heads at fashionweeks in New York or Paris, but in Tokyo it is the style-conscious men who set the sartorial trends. From

sharp futurism to wool-and-denim casuals, the finale ofTokyo Fashion Week put the spotlight largely on menswear,aiming to promote the most dynamic area of Japaneseclothes design. “What happens here is probably the futureof men’s fashion,” said Antonio Cristaudo from PittiImmagine, a collection of fashion industry events in Italy.

“There’s individuality, they want to be different,” he toldAFP. “It’s important for all the fashion world to see what’shappening in Japan.” Such innovation is nowhere more evi-dent than on the streets of Tokyo, from the vintage andskater styles of Ura-Hara to the slick suits of theMarunouchi business district. With sharp tailoring and eye-catching accessories, from hats and bags to shiny shoes,the get-up of Tokyo gents is striking to the first-time visitor.

“The menswear is just so much more exciting thanwomenswear here,” said Misha Janette, an American fash-ion journalist based in Tokyo, who suggested the tendencyfor women to cover up meant their clothes could be “a bitshapeless”. For the men, meanwhile, “it’s ok to do your hair,be into fashion, use skincare,” Janette said. “They like to beproper in Japan.” Although Tokyo’s dandies shine at homeand start trends that travel abroad, the success of Japan’sown designers has been limited overseas.

International growth The industry is now trying to change that with the new

Tokyo Fashion Awards, backed by the city government,which push homegrown brands to emulate their leadinglights such as Junya Watanabe and Rei Kawakubo, founderof Comme des Garcons. The awards jury chose six brands,predominantly menswear-focused, which were seen tohave international potential. The winners held a showroomat Paris Fashion Week this year and presented theirautumn/winter collections in Tokyo on Saturday.

They ranged from the “sheep boy” theme of the brandFactotum, designed by Koji Udo and inspired by a HarukiMurakami novel, to the futuristic color-popped creations ofJohn Lawrence Sullivan, a label by Arashi Yanagawa namedafter the 19th century American boxer. “These are brandsalready very popular in Tokyo but they now have to startgoing overseas,” said Akiko Shinoda, director of interna-tional affairs at Japan Fashion Week Organization, who cit-ed a lack of focus on sales and few English-language speak-ers as barriers to success.

Winning designer Udo was frank about Japan’s need to“develop designs beyond street fashion”, but he expressedconfidence in his clothes’ practical appeal.”The special fea-ture of men’s fashion in Japan is that it’s actually wearable

on the streets, in contrast to fashion coming fromAmerican and European fashion houses,” he told AFP afterhis show.

Motofumi “Poggy” Kogi, a buyer for local retailer UnitedArrows and a fashion awards judge, said strong collabora-tion with craftsmen and textile producers was also a crucialpart of Japanese fashion. “Japan has embraced mass pro-duction but has stayed true to the importance of smalldetails,” Kogi said.

That attention to detail was praised by internationalbuyers visiting Tokyo, who said the city’s pioneering styleswere becoming all the more important as men worldwidetake greater interest in dress and grooming. Eric Jennings,vice president and fashion director in menswear, home andbeauty at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York, said there hadbeen “unprecedented growth” in the sector in the UnitedStates. “For the first time probably ever, men are embracingfashion, upgrading their wardrobes. They’re now outper-forming woman consistently coming out of the recession,”he said on his first visit to Tokyo. “The trends start in Japanand then they migrate to Europe and then the US. So this isgetting one step ahead for me.” — AFP

A model displaying a creation by Japanese designerTakeo Kikuchi.

Tokyo menstay one step ahead

in style

Models display creations by Japanese designer HirokoKoshino during her 2015-16 autumn/winter collectionin Tokyo. — AFP photos

39Filipina maid capturesdreams through photography

MONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

By Nawara Fattahova

The second musical concert ‘Febrayer AlKuwait’ (February of Kuwait) by Rotana washeld on Thursday night at the Ice Skating

Rink. Four singers performed during the eventthat started at 10:00 pm with the young Kuwaitisinger Abdulsalam Mohammed, who performedfor about 40 minutes. After a short pause, anotheryoung Kuwaiti singer Musaed Al-Blushi cameonstage and also performed for about 45 minutes.

Popular Egyptian star Amro Diab was nextand his fans welcomed him warmly. He is themost popular singer in Egypt and many of hissongs have been translated into different lan-guages including English, Russian, Turkish andothers. He has also been awarded internationallyduring his long career that started in 1983. Heperformed for about 90 minutes.

The concert concluded with veteran Kuwaitistar Nawal. She is the most popular femaleKuwaiti singer with a career spanning more three

decades. On this night, her fans awarded herwith a trophy for passing the 30-year milestoneof her career. She faced some problems with thesound system, but she commented that she willcontinue singing even if the problem persists.She performed for almost two hours.

The third musical concert was held on Fridaynight with only two singers. It started early at9:30 with Egyptian singer Amaal Maher. She isnot very popular outside Egypt, although shehas nice voice and sings in the classical style. She

started her career when she was 13, and releasedher first album in 2000. But she stopped singingfor few years due to marriage and children. Sheconcluded at 11:15 pm, with about three quar-ters of theatre occupied.

At 11:40 pm, veteran Saudi singerMohammed Abdou came onstage, but not allseats were occupied in the family section,although the men’s side was full. The organiz-ers decided to provide more seats in the fami-ly side of the theatre for the youths, the

majority of whom came from Saudi Arabia toattend his concert.

At 12:15 am, Maher joined Abdou onstage tosing with him one of his songs. As he is knownfor his long classical songs, Amaal’s style is simi-lar to his classical style. Abdou did not interactwith the audience, and after repeated requestsby his fans to perform some particular songs, hesaid he has to follow the program that he hadpreviously prepared. He concluded his perform-ance at 2:00 am.

Artists shine in‘Febrayer Al Kuwait’ concerts

Perched on a shelf, the “Little Kabila” withthe mysterious eyes greets visitors to theKivu Museum, housed in a Catholic mission

but aimed at safeguarding endangeredCongolese traditional artefacts some might con-sider “satanic”. The statuette showing a womansitting on her heels and holding a jar in herhands used to feature on all Congolese 10-francnotes, but is no longer in circulation.

Laurent-Desire Kabila himself, the father ofCongolese President Joseph Kabila, had insistedshe be represented in this way, according toguide Barthelemy Kayumba. The museum lieshidden behind the walls of the mission of theXaverian Fathers (Catholic missionaries of Jesuitinfluence) in Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu, ineastern Democratic Republic of Congo. In Lubalanguage, “kabila means to share or distribute”,said Kayumba.

For the Luba, an ethnic group from the coun-try’s southeast where the head of state was born,the statuette fulfils “a function of mutual aid andsolidarity”, he added.It also held a “symbolic val-ue” for Kabila senior, the rebel chief who in 1997put an end to Mobutu Sese Seko’s 32-year dicta-torship: “The chief, or the mother, has to takecare of the weakest and watch over theyoungest,” said Kayumba. Like many items in themuseum, the “Little Kabila” is a copy. But theXaverian Fathers, who first arrived in the countryin 1954, have also amassed a lot of authenticpieces, often created for the initiation or nomina-

tion ceremony of a “mwami” (chief ), explainsFather Italo.

Having lived in the Congo for nearly 40 years,the Italian priest closely knew Father Andre, themuseum’s founder who is currently undergoingtreatment in Europe. The museum opened itsdoors to the public in 2013 but the hunt for arte-

facts began 10 years earlier, at the end of theSecond Congo War (1998-2003).

‘Satanic objects’ For South Kivu, the end of this African regional

war, which took place solely on DRCongo soil, didnot bring peace. Like its Northern Kivu neighbor

and other parts in the country’s east, the provinceremains torn by violence and armed conflictsfuelled by Congolese or foreign militias. Themuseum has managed all the same to gather animpressive collection of several hundred stat-uettes, masks and idols thanks to the cooperationof the village chiefs of South Kivu’s main tribes

(Lega, Bembe, Shi and Buyu), who provided themajority of the authentic pieces.

Because of their symbolic value, these artefactshave been handed down from chief to chief, someof whom now have real treasures in their posses-sion. One object is thought to be at least 100 yearsold, said Kayumba. The items had to be hiddenfrom armed groups trying to steal them, he added.Under Belgian colonization (1908-1960) and withthe arrival of Catholic missionaries, the traditionwas quickly denounced as “witchcraft” and theCongolese were told to “leave it behind eventhough this was their way of life and there was areal school of wisdom behind it”, says Father Italo.

In the Lega tribe, for instance, a chief ’s sondoes not automatically follow in his father’s foot-steps; instead, the council of elders choses thecontender with the “highest moral values”,Kayumba said. The museum’s role is to “preservethe endangered collective memory of a people”,adds Father Italo. Outside the Xaverian covent,nothing hints at the existence of the little-knownmuseum. Today, it attracts several thousand visi-tors per year, most whom come as a part of toursorganized by schools or parishes.

“Many people are surprised that the Fatherswho came to evangelize have ended up shelter-ing satanic objects,” notes Father Italo. In the faceof this deep-seated spirit, the museum’s missionis to get visitors to “become aware” of their rootsand “understand the sense and values of theirculture”. — AFP

Father Italo, an Italian catholic missionary points on a map how to find the Shi tribe.

Hidden DR Congo museum safeguards endangered tradition

Wooden statuettes of the Buyu tribe. — AFP photosMuseum guide Barthelemy Kayumba shows an old 10-Congolese-Franc banknote displaying the ‘little kabila’.