1. Art and Diseño

CR
IP
TI
ON
BS
SU
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
India will work
closely with
Kuwait to
boost ties: Jain
www.kuwaittimes.net
RABI ALTHANI 8, 1436 AH
Berdych ends
8-year losing
streak to
stun Nadal
inside
NO: 16416
confiscate illegal weapons
40 PAGES
150 FILS
2Assembly
20 approves law to
MP blasts ‘criminal’ expats, demands action
Min 11º
Max 27º
High Tide
05:48 & 17:35
Low Tide
11:38
By B Izzak
Muslims first victims of ‘terror’: French FM
By Ben Garcia, Faten Omar and Agencies
KUWAIT: French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius
called yesterday for international cooperation
against extremism, saying Muslims have been the
first victims of “terrorism”. “No one fights under
the name of religion,” Fabius told journalists in
Kuwait, the first Muslim country he has visited
since last month’s deadly attack on French magazine Charlie Hebdo by Islamist gunmen. When
Kuwait and France fight “against terrorism, we
fight those who are not only liars, but also killers,”
he said. “Muslims have been the first victims of
those terrorists.” Fabius called for more solid international cooperation to rein out extremism saying
that “this is a battle we should win”.
Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah AlKhaled Al-Sabah said Kuwait and France had
“identical views on terrorism,” and reiterated
Kuwait’s strong condemnation of the “brutal
attacks in France”, a reference to Charlie Hebdo.
Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled also warned that “terrorism is a threat for all of us”, and called for greater
efforts to drain funding of radical groups and
recruitment of fighters. Fabius said France looks
to Islam as a moderate religion and stressed that
French authorities will apply the law firmly
against any acts against Islam or Muslims.
The French chief diplomat was received by HH
the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and
other senior Kuwaiti officials.
Continued on Page 13
KUWAIT: (From left) Kuwaiti Minister of Electricity, Water and Public Works Abdulaziz Al-Ibrahim, French
Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and French ambassador to Kuwait Christian Nakhle take part in the inauguration ceremony of a seawater desalination plant in Al-Zour yesterday. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat
KUWAIT: The National Assembly yesterday passed a law
giving the interior ministry the powers to collect unlicensed firearms after agreeing to increase penalties on
violators. After a brief delay to make necessary legal
changes, MPs approved the law, which will become effective after four months of publication in the official gazette
Kuwait Al-Youm. People who possess firearms without a
valid license can be jailed for up to five years and a fine not
exceeding KD 10,000. Those
caught trading in firearms
face a jail term of up to 10
years and a fine of KD 50,000
or one of the two penalties.
The passage came after
the interior ministry told the
house that regional turmoil
required legislation to ensure
that illegal firearms are confiscated. The law gives the
people four months to hand
over firearms to the interior
ministry or risk becoming
Sheikh Mohammad
violators and face the stiff
penalties. Interior Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al-Khaled
Al-Sabah vowed that the law will be implemented with full
transparency and clarity, adding that signs of success have
already started to surface after “a number of families contacted us to hand over firearms they have”. He provided no
details.
The minister also vowed not to violate Kuwaiti traditions and values while conducting house searches, saying
that a number of female staff have been trained to search
houses.
Continued on Page 13
PAGE
PAGE
9 killed as gunmen
Blizzard spares NY,
IS threatens to
attack Tripoli hotel
New England buried
kill Japan, Jordan
hostages in 24 hrs Obama meets new Saudi king
BEIRUT: The Islamic State jihadist group
threatened yesterday to kill a Japanese
journalist and a Jordanian pilot within 24
hours unless Amman frees a jailed female
militant. A video released on jihadist websites shows a picture of Japanese hostage
Kenji Goto holding a photograph of
Jordanian pilot Maaz Al-Kassasbeh. A
voiceover, purportedly by Goto, warns that
Jordan is blocking the Japanese journalist’s release by failing to free Sajida AlRishawi, a would-be suicide bomber on
death row since 2006. It follows a video
released last week in which the group
claimed to have beheaded another
Japanese hostage, Haruna Yukawa, and
said Goto would be killed next if Rishawi
was not freed.
Japan said following the new threat
that it was seeking help from Jordan. “The
government in this extremely difficult situation has been asking for assistance from
the Jordanian government towards securing Goto’s early release,” Chief Cabinet
Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters.
Moments after the new video appeared,
Goto’s mother Junko Ishido said: “I think
the government should do whatever it
can do”. “Kenji does not hold any animosity
toward the Islamic State. He went to the
Islamic State out of his extreme concern
for Mr. Yukawa,” she told Japanese media.
Earlier Tokyo said it was working with
Jordan to free both Goto and Kassasbeh.
“Both countries are closely cooperating
towards the return of each of them to their
countries,” deputy foreign minister
Yasuhide Nakayama told reporters in
Amman. Jordan’s King Abdullah pledged
full cooperation with Japan during a meeting with Nakayama to ensure Goto’s
release, Tokyo said. The new video says
Goto and Kassasbeh will be killed within
24 hours if Rishawi is not freed, and urges
the Japanese government to put pressure
on Jordan.
There was no immediate comment
from Jordan, a moderate Muslim nation
that is one of Japan’s closest diplomatic
allies in the Middle East. Kassasbeh was
captured by IS on Dec 24 after his F-16 jet
crashed while on a mission against the
jihadists over northern Syria. Rishawi was
sentenced to death by a Jordanian court in
Sept 2006 in connection with triple hotel
bomb attacks in Amman the previous year
that killed 60 people. The 44-year-old was
arrested four days after the attacks in
which her husband Ali Hussein AlShammari and two other Iraqis blew
themselves up.
Continued on Page 13
Baghdad flights
disrupted after
bullets hit jet
BAGHDAD: Bullets hit the fuselage of a flydubai airliner on its descent into Baghdad, prompting many carriers to suspend their flights to the Iraqi capital yesterday. Flight FZ215 was hit by “small arms fire” before
landing yesterday but all passengers disembarked
safely, a flydubai spokesperson told AFP. The no-frills
carrier, a sister firm of Emirates, said it was working
with Iraqi authorities to investigate the incident,
adding that it would continue to fly to its other destinations in Iraq.
Other UAE carriers, including Emirates, Etihad and
Air Arabia, suspended their flights to Baghdad, as did
Turkish Airlines, Gulf Air and Lebanon’s Middle East
Airlines (MEA). “Emirates has suspended its services to
Baghdad until further notice due to operational reasons,” the Dubai-based carrier said. The Abu Dhabibased Etihad Airways said it had “suspended all flights
to the Iraqi city with immediate effect and until further
notice”. The website of Sharjah-based budget carrier
Air Arabia also showed that flights to Baghdad were
not available.
MEA chief executive Mohammad Al-Hout said yesterday’s Beirut-Baghdad service had been cancelled,
although the airline’s flights to other Iraqi cities were
continuing as normal. “As far as tomorrow’s (flight) is
concerned, we are waiting to assess the situation and
see what steps are going to be taken before deciding,”
he told AFP.
A Turkish Airlines official told AFP its flights yesterday to Baghdad had been cancelled for “operational
reasons”, while Royal Jordanian said it was reviewing
the situation. — AFP
RIYADH: New Saudi King Salman shakes hands with US President Barack Obama
at Erga Palace in the Saudi capital yesterday. — AFP
RIYADH: US President Barack Obama led
a heavyweight delegation to Saudi
Arabia yesterday to meet new King
Salman and shore up ties that have suffered in recent years. The longstanding
allies remain bound by shared interests
in regional stability and oil. Since last
year Saudi Arabia has been part of the
US-led coalition carrying out air strikes
against the Islamic State jihadist group.
But analysts say Riyadh has also grown
dissatisfied with what it sees as a lack of
US engagement in crises elsewhere in
the region, including in Yemen and Libya,
as Washington looks to Asia.
There has also been unease in the
kingdom about Obama’s pursuit of a
nuclear deal with Shiite-dominated Iran,
the regional rival of Sunni-majority Saudi
Arabia. Members of the US delegation,
which crossed party lines and included
former Bush-era officials, said they wanted to show support for the US-Saudi relationship. “I believe it is important that we
demonstrate to the Saudis the
Continued on Page 13
Dubai overtakes Heathrow as top airport
This still image taken from a video shows Japanese journalist Kenji Goto holding
a photo of Jordanian pilot Maaz Al-Kassasbeh. Both are being held hostage by
the Islamic State militant group. The Arabic subtitle reads “I only have 24 hours
left to live”. — AP
DUBAI: Dubai airport has soared ahead of
London’s Heathrow, riding a boom in longhaul flights between Asia and the West to
become the world’s top international travel
hub, it said yesterday. Traffic at the airport
increased 6.1 percent last year to 70.47 million
passengers, Dubai Airports said, adding that it
expected a further surge in traveller numbers
in 2015. Dubai International is home to
Emirates, the Middle East’s largest carrier,
which along with Abu Dhabi’s Etihad and
Qatar Airways has seized a significant portion
of travel between the West, Asia and
Australasia. “This historic milestone is the cul-
mination of over five decades of double-digit
average growth,” Dubai Airports Chairman
Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum said in
a statement. “The shared goal is to make
Dubai a global centre of aviation and we are
nearing that goal,” he said.
Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths said
Dubai International would boost its annual
capacity to 90 million passengers this year
with the opening of Concourse D - a new hall
for arrivals and departures. Oil-poor Dubai has
spent years trying to diversify its economy
with core sectors now including trade, transport and tourism. Aided by a rapid expansion
in capacity, aviation is expected to account for
more than a third of the emirate’s GDP by
2020.
London Heathrow by contrast has struggled to grow, with a commission still studying
proposals to increase capacity there and at
Gatwick airport, south of London. The two are
among five airports serving the UK capital
that form the busiest hub in the world with
around 135 million passengers a year.
Heathrow handled 68.1 million international
passengers in 2014, according to airport figures.
Continued on Page 13
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
LOCAL
KUWAIT: Farwaniya Governor Sheikh Faisal Al-Hamoud Al-Malek Al-Sabah, Foreign Ministry Undersecretary
Khaled Sulaiman Al-Jarallah (right)and Ambassador Sunil Jain (middle) jointly cut the ceremonial cake to mark the
66th Republic Day celebrations of India. Dr Gargi Jain (left) looks on.
KUWAIT: Farwaniya Governor Sheikh Faisal Al-Hamoud Al-Malek Al-Sabah lights the lamp as Foreign Ministry
Undersecretary Khaled Sulaiman Al-Jarallah, Ambassador Sunil Jain and Dr Gargi Jain look on.
—Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat
India will work closely with Kuwait to advance ties: Jain
Indian embassy hosts reception to mark 66th Republic Day
By Sajeev K Peter
KUWAIT: Indian Ambassador Sunil Jain said on
Monday that India, as it celebrates its 66th Republic
Day, wants to reaffirm its commitment to work
closely with Kuwait in advancing the friendship and
cooperation between the two countries. The
ambassador was addressing a grand reception
hosted by the Indian embassy at the Regency Hotel
Kuwait to celebrate India’s 66th Republic Day.
Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Khaled Sulaiman
Al-Jarallah and Farwaniya Governor Sheikh Faisal
Al-Hamoud Al-Malek Al-Sabah attended the celebration as chief guest and guest of honor respectively. A host of dignitaries and guests including
Kuwaiti officials, ambassadors from various diplomatic missions in Kuwait, Indian community representatives and local media persons attended the
event. The celebration began with singing of
national anthems of Kuwait and India by the music
band of Integrated Indian School. The undersecretary Al-Jarallah and Governor Sheikh Al-Malek AlSabah joined Indian Ambassador Sunil Jain in lighting the traditional lamp to officially inaugurate the
celebration. The guests also cut a cake to mark the
66th Republic Day of India.
Tradition
Hailing the historically warm, close and friendly
India-Kuwait ties, the ambassador said, “We have
maintained a tradition of high-level visits between
our two countries. His Highness the Prime Minister
of Kuwait visited India in November 2013. Minister
KUWAIT: Dignitaries and guests during the event.
of Commerce & Industry Dr Abdulmohsen Mudeij
Al-Mudeij visited India twice in recent months, first
to New Delhi for the 4th India-Arab Conference in
November and later for the Partnership Summit in
Jaipur earlier this month,” he said.
The ambassador said that Indian companies
were awarded EPC contracts worth over $4 billion
in Kuwait. “Our annual trade remains over $18 billion,” he pointed out. “India in 2014 witnessed a 20
percent jump in issuing visas to Kuwaiti nationals
as well as expatriates residing in this country. This
reflects our growing ties between the two countries,” he said. Thanking the dignitaries and guests
for their strong presence at the celebration, Jain
said Indian community has been making remarkable contribution to nurture and nourish the growing relationship between the countries. “Their contribution, in all sectors of human endeavor, is widely recognized,” he pointed out.
Gratitude
On the occasion, the ambassador also
KUWAIT: Ambassador Jain, Dr Gargi Jain, Deputy Chief of Mission, Indian Embassy
Shubashis Goldar and Mrs Goldar with guests during the reception.
expressed gratitude to the Kuwaiti government provides to its people. “Economic progress in India
and the people. “We greatly value the benevolence is again on the upswing.
Low inflation, booming stock market, steady
bestowed upon our community by His Highness
the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al- currency, rebound in manufacturing sector and
Sabah, His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh record agricultural production are promising ecoNawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and High nomic indicators. “We are working to realize the
Highness the Prime Minister of Kuwait Sheikh Jaber economic growth trajectory of 7-8 percent in comMubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah. The people-to-peo- ing years,” he said. A cultural program of music,
ple relationship between India and Kuwait remains dance and tableau was also presented alongside
strong as ever,” he pointed out. He said India is the celebration showcasing the rich cultural herproud of its democracy and the freedom of faith it itage of India.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
LOCAL
In Brief
Sudan’s official praises Kuwait
Academic Publishing Council
issues 64 magazines in 2014
KHARTOUM: Sudanese President’s assistant Jalal
Duqair commended Kuwait’s relentless to his country,
particularly in the support of peace, stability, economic
development and active philanthropic acts Duqair
made the remarks during a meeting with Kuwait’s
Ambassador to Sudan Talal Al-Hajeri. The two discussed
ways of bolstering bilateral relations and cooperation.
Duqair, according to an official statement, appreciated
Kuwait’s support to Sudan. He said Sudan was looking
forward to creating solid economic and investment
partnerships with Kuwait. Al-Hajeri, speaking to KUNA
after the meeting, said they discussed economic,
humanitarian, cultural and media cooperation.
KUWAIT: The Academic Publishing Council at Kuwait
University (KU) has issued 64 magazines and books in
the 2013/2014 academic year in order to provide an
intellectual environment that would contribute to
shaping an academic vision about various issues.
Council Chairman Professor Hasan Al-Sanad said that
the Council issued 54 scientific journals during the period from September 2013 until the end of last August
2014. Al-Sanad explained that the Council seeks to
achieve several goals that would eventually contribute
to the enrichment of the Arabic library.
641 tenders worth KD 6.3
billion awarded in 2014
KUWAIT: The Central Tenders Committee (CTC)
announced yesterday that it had concluded 641 tenders at a total value of KD 6.3 billion in 2014. In a statistical report sent to KUNA, the CTC stated that the
awarded tenders included 43 for the petroleum sector, at a total value of KD 4.7 billion, and 598 for the
other government non-petroleum sectors at a total
cost of KD 1.6 billion. It added that the healthcare
sector topped the list of the non-petroleum sectors
for which the tenders were conducted with 45
awarded tenders at a cost of KD 548.5 million.
Photo
o f
t h e
d a y
KUWAIT: A man stands by a heritage mosque in Kuwait City. —photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat
Kuwait to name major road
in honor of late Saudi King
Ministers vow to stamp out corruption
Schoolgirls save marine life
KUWAIT: A number of pupils from Hawalli
Intermediate School recently and skillfully
took part in saving marine creatures, coral
reefs and fish caught in abandoned fishing
nets off Sharq shores opposite to the Amiri
hospital. Head of the Environmental
Voluntary Foundation’s diving team,
Waleed AL-Fadhel has stressed that the
practical training for pupils and students
taking part in the team’s campaigns were
the basis of boosting public awareness
about environmental issues and violations.
He added that the students also put 25
farmed fish presented by KISR into the sea
during the campaign.
KUWAIT: Kuwait will name a major road after
the late Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz due
to his place in the hearts of the Kuwaiti people
and his huge contributions to his nation, the
Cabinet agreed on Monday. The Municipality has
been tasked with the decision, taken under the
directions of His Highness the Amir Sheikh
Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, said State
Minister for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Abdullah AlMubarak Al-Sabah after a Cabinet session.
It comes in “appreciation of the esteemed
place the late King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz AlSaud holds in the hearts of all Kuwaitis, his huge
contributions, sacrifices and accomplishments
for his nation and people and courageous
stances over various fronts,” the Cabinet statement added after the session held at Sief Palace,
chaired by His Highness the Prime Minister
Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah. The
statement went on to wish all the best to his
newly-enthroned successor King Salman bin
Abdulaziz in continuing the development of
Saudi Arabia and in serving Arab and Islamic
causes.
Tackling corruption
Furthermore, ministers were briefed on steps
being taken to tackle corruption by representatives of the recently-formed public anti-corruption authority, headed by Justice Abdulrahman
Al-Nemash. The body outlined its recent efforts
and the legal approach being assumed to tackle
offenders employed by state institutions based
on the principles of transparency and integrity
and the directions of His Highness the Amir.
In turn, the ministers commended the body’s
role as “positive” and urged that it may be given
all the support needed for it to carry out its role
in a manner enabling it to achieve the nation’s
aspired goals of stamping out corruption and
climbing up global transparency indexes. For his
part, His Highness the Prime Minister encouraged the use of the strictest forms of accountability on offenders - either state employees or
foreign contracted parties - and for efforts to be
doubled in order to stop what he called a
“destructive plague,” and its impacts on the community.
GCC ministerial meeting
Ministers were also briefed on the recent
Riyadh-held Gulf Cooperation Council urgent
ministerial meeting on the situation in Yemen by
First Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister
Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah. They
urged the importance of Security Council resolutions on the matter to be applied, and for necessary procedures to be taken in the best interests
and for the stability of the southwestern nation
in the Arabian Peninsula. Sheikh Sabah AlKhaled also mentioned the outcomes of his
attendance of the meeting of the international
coalition against the Islamic State (ISIL) held in
London, aimed at discussing the coalition’s coordination on facing terrorism and supporting
international efforts for global security and stability. He also outlined the details of his recent
trip to Malta where he met Foreign Minister
George Vella, with discussions on both sides
focusing on means to further already existing
bilateral relations and matters of mutual interest.
Draft law
Afterwards, Minister of Finance Anas Al-Saleh
and his undersecretary Khalifa Hamada both
gave a briefing on a draft law for the 2015/16
budget of ministries and public bodies, which
received a nod from the Cabinet, and will be later referred to the parliament. The draft law highlights oil and non-oil revenue estimates and
expenditure related to public wages, incentives,
subsidies and investments - including the state
development plan. The ministers went on to witness a number of letters sent to His Highness the
Amir and His Highness the Prime Minister. A letter to His Highness the Amir from International
Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach was to
show the adoption of the 2020 Olympic Agenda,
and to invite His Highness the Amir to visit the
IOC Headquarters and its new museum in
Lausanne, Switzerland.
Another two letters to His Highness the Prime
Minister from the President of Ghana John
Dramani Mahama and the Foreign Minister of
Canada John Baird were related to bilateral relations. Furthermore, ministers approved a draft
decree to appoint Maj Khaled Al-Kharafi as
Deputy Secretary General of the Kuwait Awqaf
Public Foundation, Ali Al-Salman as Assistant
Undersecretary in the Ministry of Justice and
Abdullah Al-Maqseed as a board member of the
Public Authority for Youth and Sports. —KUNA
Health certificates a
must for fish imports
By A Saleh
KUWAIT: The Municipality’s imported
foodstuff department yesterday issued a
decision mandating all foreign fish and
seafood exporters will have to provide
health certificates for their exports to
Kuwait from the beginning of June 2015.
The decision also stressed that any violations would be subject to legal accountability.
More measures against
indebted subscribers
Ministr y of Communications
Undersecretary Hameed Al-Qattan said
that extra measures were being taken
against indebted landline subscribers
who have not been paying their bills. He
also noted that minister Essa Al-Kandari
had instructed him to take all measures
needed to collect accumulated debts
from individuals and companies in order
to protect public funds. Qattan added
that the ministry managed to collect
around KD 1 million in three months
from landlines still in service and disconnected ones with unpaid bills since
before the 1990 Iraqi invasion.
“A committee headed by assistant
undersecretary for financial affairs Adel
Dashti was formed to collect the debts,”
he underlined, pointing out that the
MoC was facing problems in collecting
some of the debts because many subscribers had disconnected their lines
without paying their bills, changed
addresses or even passed away. “Bills of
disconnected lines will remain collectable, while those of subscribers who
passed away will be transferred to heirs,”
he underlined. Qattan added that paying bills in installments has been cancelled because some subscribers asked
to do so, but stopped paying after paying one installment.
CBK celebrates with its graduating staff
KUWAIT: CBK recently celebrated with its
graduating staff who successfully passed special professional training courses at Kuwait
Institute of Banking Studies (IBS) that are
a cc re d i te d a n d ce r t i f i e d by t h e B r i t i s h
Financial Studies Institute. CBK’s HR manager,
Dr Mohammed Ameen said that the bank is
k e e n o n e n ro l l i n g i t s s t a f f m e m b e r s i n
accredited certified training courses to get
the proper training they needed in order to
develop their performance and the quality of
services.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
LOCAL
MUSCAT: The fifth general conference of the Gulf Press Association that was held in Muscat, Oman in cooperation with Oman Journalists Association was concluded yesterday, under the patronage of Chairman of the Tenders Council
Dr Rasheed Bin Al-Safi Al-Huraibi. The conference recommended the formation of a committee from the association’s secretariate general to meet the GCC secretary general to explain to him the difficulties the association is facing,
and negatively affects its activities, and reach a cooperation formula that helps the Gulf press action, so that Gulf press can contribute better to supporting Gulf causes at this period which is full with changes, being the first line of
defence. GPA Secretary General Nasser Al-Othman said there will be several activities in various member countries. Meanwhile, Chairman of Oman Journalists Accosiation Awadh Baqwair said the conference discussed challenges the
Gulf press is facing.
Kuwait targets economic
and investment forums
Arab, Int’l Relations Council to send delegation to US
Kuwait takes part in
Tourism Fair in Spain
MADRID: Kuwait will take part in an
International Tourism Trade Fair (Fitur
2015) which will be held in Madrid,
Spain today. 165 countries and 9,107
international bodies and institutions will
be participating in the event.
Kuwait is represented by the Ministry
of Commerce and Industry for the sixth
consecutive year in this event, which is
considered as one of the most important fairs in the tourism field. King of
Spain Felipe VI and his wife Queen
Letizia will inaugurate the fair which is
expected to be attended by more than
200 visitors from various parts of the
world, including 120 tourism experts
and specialists. The World Trade
Organization (WTO) in cooperation with
(Casa Arabe) will organize a seminar on
Arab tourism, titled “policies and strategies of tourism development in the
Middle East and North Africa” with the
par ticipation of a number of Arab
tourism ministers. — KUNA
SHARM EL-SHEIKH: Kuwait is keen on taking
part in regional economic forums especially
those focusing on the subject of investment, a
Kuwaiti official said yesterday. Speaking to KUNA
on the sidelines of an economic forum yesterday, Qais Al-Bader, Assistant Undersecretary for
Administrative and Financial Affairs at the office
of the state minister for National Assembly and
Cabinet affairs, said Kuwait’s participation in this
forum was to get a closer look at the experiences
of some Arab countries regarding the subject of
investment.
Al-Bader heads the Kuwaiti delegation to the
forum which is organized by the Arab organization for administrative development - itself affiliated with the Arab League. Among topics being
thrashed at this forum, he said, are defining features of investment in the Arab world; the
impact capital has on investment; privatization
and its ramifications; rules governing contracts;
the concept of national security in connection
with national economy and the relationship
between contracts and court rulings. Taking part
in the forum on investment are personnel work-
ing in the legal departments in Arab ministries
of trade and commerce and investment.
Representatives from the Arab private sectors,
courts, chambers of commerce and lawyers’
unions also are participating in the forum.
Defend Arab interests
In another development, Chairman of the Arab
and International Relations Council Mohammad
Jassem Al-Saqer said in Amman yesterday that the
council is considering sending a delegation to the
US next March to discuss Arab issues with the US
Administration and the decision makers. In a
statement to KUNA after the council’s meeting in
the Jordanian capital Amman, Al-Saqer said that
the visit aims at crystalizing unified Arab stances
to defend the interests of Arab countries and
rights of the Plantain people.
Concerning the results of the meeting, he
said that the council in its meeting concluded
with forming a comprehensive Arab vision to
protect the national issues, adding the council
stressed its support for the Palestinian people to
obtain their legal rights. The meeting, he said,
underlined the necessity of facing the regional
challenges through creating a unified Arab front,
pointing out that the gathering focused also on
a number of issues that concern the Arab region.
Asked about the meeting of the council’s members with the Jordanian King Abdullah, Al-Saqer
said the king launched before the members an
initiative to ensure harmony among countries
like Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, the GCC member
states and some Asian and African countries.
The initiative, described by Al-Saqer as a
“wise one”, aims at unifying Arab stances in the
face of terrorism, he noted. The two-day meeting discussed the latest developments of the
Arab psoition. Iraqi Vice President Ayad Allawi,
former Moroccan Foreign Minister Mohammad
Bin Isa, former Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad
Siniora, former Jordanian Prime Minister Taher
Al-Masri and former Arab League chief Amr
Moussa took part in the meeting. Also Sudanese
Minister of Investment Mustafa Osman Ismail
and former Palestinian Minister of Information
Mustafa Al-Barghouthi were present in the
gathering. — Agencies
Ooredoo names 65 applicants for
Entrepreneurs Innovation Project
KUWAIT: Ooredoo is proud to
announce that 291 applicants submitted proposals to the Industrial Project
Incubator, a training program operated by the Kuwait Industrial Union.
Ooredoo is proud that the applicant
numbers reached this level, which is
indicative of Kuwait youth’s willingness to participate in advancing the
country’s economy with their own
projects and innovative ideas. 65
lucky applicants were chosen by a
specialized committee, and started
the training program on Sunday, with
a psychometric assessment test to
define their personalities. The project,
which is also sponsored by the
Ministry of State for Youth Affairs,
aims to adopt youth innovative ideas
and help them starting up their businesses, in cooperation with a number
of esteemed industrial organizations
and training facilities.
Applicants were able to register
online since the beginning of the registration period in December until
January 14. The applicants who made
it will begin an intensive training program that lasts over the period of 4
months. Applicants will be attending
workshops, seminars, as well as infield trainings of relevance. The initiative of the Kuwait Industrial Union
and its partners aims to contribute in
the country’s efforts to vary sources of
income, especially in the current economic circumstances.
It also aims to empower youth
and encourage innovation and entrepreneurship in the field of industry.
Ooredoo’s participation comes as
part of its corporate social responsibility program, which continues to
pursue opportunities for enriching
communities.
Gang arrested with hashish, pills
By Hanan Al-Saadoun
KUWAIT: A three-member gang was arrested with 1.5 kg
of hashish, 100 gm of meth, narcotic pills and money. The
arrest was made by the Drugs Control General Department
after receiving tips about a citizen dealing with drugs. He
was arrested in his house with a bedoon. The citizen
injured himself and attacked policemen before being subdued. The drugs were found in his house. Both suspects
said they get the drugs from other citizen, who was arrested in his house with a piece of hashish. Al three were sent
to concerned authorities.
Kuwaiti killed in
horrific accident
An 18-year-old citizen was killed in a horrific car accident between Bayan and Mishref. A security source said
the youth was driving at a high speed, lost control and collided with a water tanker and a luxury car.
8 Iranians detained
The coastguards and customs stopped a boat with eight
Iranians aboard following a chase that reached Kuwait
Towers. The suspects were attempting to enter Kuwait illegally. When the boat was searched, four rare falcons were
found. They were sent to concerned authorities.
Traffic security lecture
First Lt Reem Al-Khalaf gave a traffic security lecture at
Al-Wasam kindergarten, where she said the police are an
indivisible part of the society’s fabric, and give all they have
for the sake of the society and security. She said traffic laws
should be respected to safeguard lives, adding that children below 10 should be seated in rear seats.
BSI honors NBK employees
KUWAIT: The Banking
Studies Institute (BSI)
recently honored NBK
employees who took part
in a training course on credit management - one of the
training courses BSI provides for bankers in order to
get professional accreditation certificates for 20132014. BSI held a special
honoring ceremony that
was attended by NBK’s HR
general manager, Emad
Ahmed Al-Ablani and the
training section manager,
Nahla Al-Sharrad.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
LOCAL
Soor Center to launch Autism Program
KUWAIT: The Soor Center will be launching an Autism Program in March 2015.
The program aims to improve social communication, emotional regulation,
increase social interaction and incorporate behavioral modification in children
diagnosed with Autism Spectrum
Disorder, that are between 4-12 years of
age. It will provide transactional support
through parental training and is a
research-based model that has received
international recognition and success.
Children will be placed in groups based
on assessments.
The Autism Program will be super-
vised by Dr Naif Al-Mutawa, the founder
and Clinical Director of the Soor Center,
and led by Imman Issa (MSc), who will
also have meetings with parents of children with autism to discuss program
details along with curriculum and objectives. Interested parents can contact the
Soor Center to register for a meeting.
Imman Issa holds a Master’s degree in
Health Psychology from Surrey University
and Diploma in Counseling from Central
School for Counselling & Psychotherapy
in UK and is a chartered psychologist with
the British Psychological Society. She has
over 20 years’ experience in working with
British Embassy congratulates Amir
on 9th anniversary of his accession
KUWAIT: On the occasion of the 9th anniversary of the accession of His Highness Sheikh
Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah as Amir of
the State of Kuwait, the British Embassy in
Kuwait extends its warmest congratulations
and best wishes. On behalf of the British
Embassy, Her Majesty’s Ambassador, Matthew
Lodge said: “I am delighted to offer our
warmest congratulations to His Highness
Sheikh Sabah Ahmed Al Jabber Al Sabah on
the 9th anniversary of his accession. The
United Kingdom and the State of Kuwait
enjoy a long and close relationship. Our
shared history, and the ties that it has helped
to foster and develop, gives a particular resonance to the relationship between our two
countries.
His Highness Sheikh Sabah has helped to
strengthen those bonds of friendship through
his personal engagement and commitment,
including the historic State Visit to the UK in
November 2012. In congratulating His
Highness on this happy anniversary, I am
delighted also to acknowledge once more the
role that Kuwait plays, under His Highness’s
leadership, on the world stage as a staunch
supporter of humanitarian efforts, an advocate of dialogue and mediation, and a friend
and partner of the United Kingdom.”
British Ambassador Matthew Lodge
The British Embassy in Kuwait works to
maintain and further Britain’s relationship
with Kuwait. The two countries have long
enjoyed a close bilateral relationship, with a
rich history of cooperation and friendship dating back to the eighteenth century. To this
day they maintain strong political, economic,
cultural, social and military ties. Recent years
have seen high profile exchanges of visitors,
including the visit of the British Prime Minister
in 2011, the State Visit of His Highness the
Amir to the UK in 2012.
Kuwait to establish hi-tech
traffic monitoring system
KUWAIT: The Kuwait Municipality yesterday
signed a multi-million dinars deal with a foreign company to establish a world-class,
highly sophisticated system for monitoring
traffic across the nation. “The traffic monitoring system is the first of its kind in the Middle
East region and would help create a data
base bank about the traffic across Kuwait,
“General Director Eng Ahmad Al-Subaih told
reporters on the sidelines of the contract
signing ceremony.
He added that the system will cost KD5.5
million and will start operation after 18
months. The system will monitor and provide
around-the-clock data about the traffic situation on the main roads in Kuwait, Al-Subaih
stated. He noted that monitoring and data
collection devices would be installed in more
than 200 sites on the main roads and in nearly
2,700 sites on road intersections and roundabouts. The data would be sent by wireless
means to the traffic data center at the Kuwait
Municipality to be analyzed and classified by a
specialized team. — KUNA
children and adolescents with special
needs and providing intervention plans
for schools and families. She is an expert
in psycho-educational and IQ assessments in both Arabic and English.
She runs early intervention programs
for families with infants and toddlers with
special needs as well as social skills development and behavior modification programs for children with Autism,
Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
and Asperger’s Syndrome (ASD). Under
the supervision of US educated and
licensed clinical psychologist Dr Naif AlMutawa, the Soor Center has become the
largest private psycho-educational practice in the Middle East over the past six
years. It has a range of qualified and
licensed psychologists who help clients
navigate the stresses of today’s complicated lifestyles. It provides individual,
couple, child and family counseling and
employs a wide variety of therapies for a
broad range of personal health and emotional issues including depression, anxiety, eating disorders, marital issues, phobias, obsessivecompulsive behavior,
learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders, educational problems and other
challenges of modern life.
Dr Naif
Zain takes Kuwait teams to
Arab Mobile App Challenge
KUWAIT: Zain, the leading telecommunications company in Kuwait, announced the continuation of its strategic partnership with the
Arab Mobile App Challenge (AMAC), for the
second year. The event is the largest mobile
application development competition in the
Middle East region and Zain took two of the
top qualifying Kuwaiti teams to the second
phase of the challenge; the regional finals in
Dubai. The competitors had to first successfully
complete the Kuwait phase of the competition,
and showcased their creativity by presenting
innovative mobile application ideas catering to
the community.
Zain’s support of AMAC forms part of the
company’s Corporate Social Responsibility and
Sustainability strategies, which are based on a
belief that such initiatives help strengthen its
role within society as well as advancing innovation. ATAHub, one of the winning teams in the
competition from Kuwait, and which Zain took
to Dubai, successfully passed the second phase
of the competition, where they took part alongside 21 other teams representing 11 Arab
nations in presenting their projects to a judging
panel. ATAHub is a mobile application that connects volunteers with volunteering opportunities in support of the local community.
Zain will be taking the ATAHub team to the
final stage of the challenge that will be conducted on a global level. The Kuwaiti team,
alongside other winners of the regional competition, will be sent to attend the GSMA’s
Mobile World Congress 2015 in Barcelona in
early March. At this stage, regional finalists will
be able to take part in the global challenge,
which is considered the largest and most
prominent competition in application programming in the world. Reaching this stage
will enable regional finalists to learn from some
of the world’s leading experts in the communi-
ATAHub team
cations, information technology, and software adopted by the company, most notably the
recently launched Zain Great Idea program,
development fields.
Zain also hosted the launch of the first which this year is focused on technology-relatphase of the challenge in its main headquar- ed projects that provide creative technical
ters in Shuwaikh, conducting the Live solutions such as mobile applications and
Acceleration Workshop, where participants interactive websites offering both commercial
were presented with detailed information and and social entrepreneurship services.
This is in addition to the launch of the ‘Zain
resources to guide them through starting their
projects, as well as offering them solutions and Hackathon’ challenge which involved the
answers to any problems or questions they design of a fully functional mobile app that
uses Direct Operator Billing APIs. In 2012, Zain
had.
Zain is considered one of the leading com- supported Microsoft’s Imagine Cup and called
panies in the nurturing and support of young upon students in Kuwait and from across the
talent in Kuwait, and has been trying to Gulf to participate in the competition, which
advance young people’s skills in the areas of empowered them to use their creative and
programming and information technology. technical abilities to formulate mobile applicaThis has been reflected in numerous initiatives tions and make a positive impact on society.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
LOCAL
AL-ANBA
kuwait digest
In my view
Only in Kuwait
‘The positive side’
What a mess!
By Sami Al-Kharafi
I
ncidents going on locally make an observer wonder
what is really happening. Observers of what is going
on in various diwaniyas and on various social media
networks where citizens’ concerns are being discussed
immediately get an impression that things are not very
well through the many factors and observations
summed up in the following:
Political Situations: The most common debate nowadays is when will the parliament be dissolved because it
has not risen up to voters’ aspirations, has not achieved
anything and has not reacted with the many issues and
only exist for the sake of boasting that we have a parliament. It is also strange that we sometimes hear about
some lawmakers for the first time, which indicates their
insignificance or communication with the Kuwaiti people.
Sport Situations: The repeated failures in general
and in football in particular - as the most popular game
- are usually blamed on the football federation and calls
are heard here and there to dissolve it, while some people criticize the players themselves for not having
enough spirit, fitness or skills, while a third party blames
the coach. Our real problem lies in the lack of gifted
players who make fans rush to stadiums to watch them
skillfully perform that charms them with their magical
touches. The bottom line is that we need to form teams
of various ages to be coached by international trainers
so that we can reap the fruits in the years to come. I also
hope that volunteers help to look for skillful players in
various open yards that have always thrown up lots of
skillful players.
Oil Price Drops: It is very strange that the government keeps silent about the constant drops in oil prices.
What measures have they taken so far? What do they
intend to do if oil prices dropped to $20 per barrel as
predicted by many observers? What measures do they
intend to take in case of a deficit, may Allah forbid it?
There are so many questions and inquiries are becoming very critical, so will an official explain the government’s plans for any future contingencies? The current
situations have made everybody very concerned and
worried that this may be imminent.
Economic Situations: The bourse is undoubtedly a
reflection of the national economy and it is actually in a
terrible situation with many shareholders suffering from
considerable losses, and the only way to revive it is to
have a strong economy and strong system reflected in
KSE’s performance. Many people have also lost trust in
economists. The best proof of this is the escape of a former senior official after embezzling fortunes in public
funds.
Finally, take Kuwait back to how it used to be.
Intentions must be honestly devoted to developing the
country, strict laws must be set to hold corrupt or
embezzling officials legally accountable and the government must have a futuristic vision and transparency
with citizens so that they can regain some trust in public servants who do not mislead the people.
— Translated by Kuwait Times from Al-Anbaa
E
M
E
By Talal Al-Ghannam
V
SA
[email protected]
G
DRUGS
kuwait digest
A complicated scene
By Waleed Al-Rujaib
O
ne is bewildered what to write about. Should I
write about local, Arab, regional or international concerns? The scene is very complicated
and inseparable because international problems
affect general situations both regionally and locally.
Reviewing international situations indicate desperate
situations as major countries, namely the US, are
about to realize their projects and plans that pose disastrous threats to humankind. They have policies that
cannot be deemed as innocent and wishing to
achieve international peace.
Its same old dream of the ‘New Middle East’ makes
the US only think of dominating, controlling the
whole world and looting peoples’ wealth and
resources without the least considerations for human
lives, especially in the Middle East that it is trying to
splinter in a new Sykes-Picot based on its own interests. In other words, dividing the already divided
countries according to ethnicities and beliefs, like
what it did in Iraq, Sudan, Syria, Libya, Yemen and
Lebanon, and it might be the rich-oil GCC states’ turn
now.
The West is taking part in agreements with major
international countries like Russia, China or regional
ones like Turkey, Iran and Israel despite the conflict of
interest and disagreement on sharing international
influence, which was the basic reason behind two
totally destructive world wars.
It is no longer a secret that the US created AlQaeda in the 1980s to fight Soviet influence. It is also
using the same technique in creating, supporting and
training IS. Such terrorist organizations are the tools
used to control the world and put the New Middle
East plan into action, while at the same time, it scandalously supports Zionist terrorism practiced by Israel
to divide our countries into smaller ethnic states,
which is the excuse they are using to turn Jerusalem
and all Palestinian territories to Judaism.
Creating an oil war is but part of the same satanic,
destructive plot. Yemen is entering negotiations within the framework of regional compromises and competition while the US did not mind toppling its legitimate regime. It did not even consider it a military
coup against the regime. It even announced continuing its aid, while it had considered the June 30 revolution in Egypt a military coup and threatened to withhold its aid to Egypt.
— Translated by Kuwait Times from Al-Rai
ood morning dear readers. In this article I would like to
shed some light on the “positive aspects” of Kuwait
through my famous column ‘Only in Kuwait’. It is up to
the reader to figure out if these points represent the bright
image of the country or not. My perspective may not necessarily be true but to make things readable, funny somehow
and easy to comprehend, I came up with these points to let
you figure out what I mean by yourself whether they are true
or untrue.
Only in Kuwait new tenants can find apartments easily and
at reasonable prices with no down payment.
Only in Kuwait the janitor of the building (Haris) does not
like money and is happy with only KD 5 a month for accepting
the new tenants as his monthly allowance.
Only in Kuwait when you go to the public hospital pharmacy to receive your medicine, the last thing they would give
you is that famous headache tablets.
Only in Kuwait domestic helpers get their salaries way
ahead of the due date with a kiss. (By the female employer of
course). Only in Kuwait cheap cars are chased by the police
and get pulled over while those who drive manically are left
roaming the streets bothering everyone.
Only in Kuwait most of the government hospitals’ medicines go to the trash bin. Only in Kuwait the doctors’ prescriptions are written in advance prior to your entry to see the doctor with the main course being ‘Adol’.
Only in Kuwait many patients are told by some doctors
that they are ok and sound and the next day they find out that
they have cancer. Only in Kuwait you need one week off from
work to get your hospital appointment taken care of, plus
another week to be seen and another to be diagnosed and
end up with Adol. Only in Kuwait the domestic worker dreams
of staying with her sponsor for the entire life especially those
who put extra load on her.
Only in Kuwait the phrase ‘Taal bacher’ which means ‘Come
back tomorrow’ is becoming a famous proverb used with the
expatriates by many government employees. (Do not blame
them, they are busy whatsaping). Only in Kuwait you enter
the main airport without security screening as if you are entering a mall.
Only in Kuwait many people like to keep up with the latest
technology by changing their mobile every month, thus,
encouraging the famous mobile companies to produce newer versions every two weeks to suck the consumers’ money.
Only in Kuwait you can be deported if you barbecue in the
open space. My advice to the concerned body is to collect
some sort of insurance money and give it back if the place
was kept clean.
Only in Kuwait you need to turn left and right many times
at the traffic light even if your side of the light was green as
many drivers might run you over as they break the red light
from their end of the road. (Haram they are very busy).
Only in Kuwait a ‘one-year-old’ kid can teach you how to
play games on the Smartphone.
Only in Kuwait prices in the so-called co-operative societies are different from one another where an item in the X
supermarket is KD 5 whereas in the Y supermarket is KD 7.
(Who is to blame). Only in Kuwait a destination between
Hawally to Salmiya is only 10 minutes during rush hours.
(Believe it or not). Only in Kuwait public schools are told by the
ministry not to take projects money from parents and yet the
schools threaten the kids if they abstained by yelling at them
or depriving them from attending the class. (Yet you expect
them to like school afterwards?)
Only in Kuwait you encounter the petrol station’s worker
intentionally fills up your car’s tanks up to for example kd
1.950 and struggles to get the 50 fils from his pocket as if he
was drilling oil from the ground in an insinuation to you to
give him the change. This happens at restaurants as well by
some Arab-speaking workers. Only in Kuwait you feel as if you
are riding a roller coaster when you are driving on the various
Kuwaiti roads. Until the next article Insha Allah.
In my view
Help the refugees
By Labeed Abdal
[email protected]
P
eople displaced from Iraqi governorates controlled by
the so-called IS have created problems in getting
security approvals and finding accommodation to
live north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, where refugees and
displaced people already face many problems and accusations of cooperating with IS. Such a problem raises many
regional concerns and calls for international cooperation to
fight all groups posing a threat to regional security.
Reports showing that most of the displaced people are
accused of cooperating with IS although the areas they
moved to are Sunni ones, and many of their original inhabitants are actually fighting with IS, creates concerns about
undermining international efforts needed to secure poor
and needy people who have nothing to do with extremism.
Losing source of living, jobs, normal accommodation,
children’s education and medical treatment might be the
most dangerous threats thousands of displaced people in
both Iraq and Syria are facing. Therefore, hotspots dominated by IS must be thoroughly inspected by Iraqi security
forces and the international alliance in order to clean those
cities so that the displaced can return to them and end their
suffering. Such humanitarian dilemmas need alerting global humanitarian teams to collectively act to end acts of evil
threatening the elderly, men, women and children.
It is very important that the International Organization
for Migration (IOM) exerts more efforts to help over two
million people displaced in Iraq under very critical situations. They are in bad need for immediate relief aid. The
same applies for Syrian refugees as well as millions of
refuges from both countries who were displaced to Jordan,
Lebanon and Turkey to live under very harsh conditions of
extreme cold and sickness. They are in need for effective
international justice and attention.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
France, Belgium anti-terror raids net 8 more suspects
Obama wraps up India
visit, touches
on pressing issues
Page 9
Page 10
Masked gunmen storm Libyan hotel
Attack leaves 5 foreigners and 3 guards dead
UN halting
Gaza repairs
GAZA CITY: The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said yesterday
that it cannot afford to repair Gaza homes damaged in last year’s
war with Israel because donors have failed to pay. “The agency has
exhausted all funding to support repairs and rental subsidies,” said
the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
“$5.4 billion was pledged at the Cairo (aid) conference last
October and virtually none of it has reached Gaza. This is distressing
and unacceptable. “It is unclear why this funding has not been forthcoming.” UNRWA said the homes of more than 96,000 Palestine
refugees were destroyed or damaged during the conflict. They
made up the vast majority of the more than 100,000 homes hit during the 50-day conflict between Israel and Gaza’s de facto rulers
Hamas.
The Islamist militant movement Hamas denounced the UNRWA
decision, saying it would “aggravate the plight of thousands of families” and urging it to put pressure on donors to honor their pledges.
UNRWA said: “Some funds remain available to begin the reconstruction of totally destroyed homes.” The agency said cutting subsidies
to displaced residents now renting alternative accommodation
could force large numbers back to UN schools and centers which are
already sheltering 12,000 people. “UNRWA in Gaza has so far provided over $77 million to 66,000 Palestine refugee families to repair
their home or find a temporary alternative,” it said.
‘Sleeping amid rubble’
“This is a tremendous achievement; it is also wholly insufficient...
We are talking about thousands of families who continue to suffer
through this cold winter with inadequate shelter. “People are literally sleeping amongst the rubble. Children have died of hypothermia.”
Two babies died in Gaza this month as dozens of homes were flooded in brutal storms that brought freezing rain and gale-force winds.
Gaza’s sole power station, which was damaged during the war, is
struggling with a severe lack of fuel and is only able to supply the
enclave with six hours of power per day.
A Hamas official warned recently that the coastal territory could
become a breeding ground for extremism unless promised reconstruction is accelerated. “Our message to the world, which is scared
of terrorism and extremism, is that the delay in rebuilding Gaza and
the continuing blockade against it will make it a ripe environment
for the spread of extremism and terrorism,” Khalil Al-Haya told a
Gaza City meeting of MPs of the movement. Israel and Hamas,
which the Jewish state brands a terrorist organization, fought a JulyAugust war in that killed almost 2,200 Palestinians.
‘Delay threatens ceasefire’
A UNRWA spokesman in Gaza yesterday said the ceasefire that
halted the fighting with Israel would be in jeopardy if rebuilding
work were to stall. “Halting reconstruction will have dangerous consequences,” Adnan Abu Hasna said. “By delaying payment of money
for reconstruction the donors are putting the ceasefire in danger.”
Reconstruction has barely begun, with experts saying it will take
years even if Israel significantly eases its eight-year blockade on
Gaza. Israel, which controls two of the three crossings into Hamascontrolled Gaza, maintains tight curbs on entry of building material,
fearing they could be used by militants to make weapons or attack
tunnels. — AFP
TRIPOLI: Libyan security forces surround Corinthia Hotel. — AFP
TRIPOLI: Gunmen stormed a luxury hotel in the
Libyan capital of Tripoli yesterday, killing at least five
foreigners and three guards, officials said. The
attack, which included a car bombing, struck the
Corinthia Hotel, which sits along the Mediterranean
Sea.
By yesterday afternoon, Mahmoud Hamza, commander of the so-called Special Deterrent Force,
told private satellite television station Al-Nabaa that
the situation was “under control,” though he couldn’t
confirm the whereabouts of the gunmen. He also
said five foreigners were killed, without elaborating.
Another security official earlier said the gunmen
killed three guards and took hostages, but had no
further information on the captives’ identities.
Staff fired upon randomly
The official also said that two commercial landmark towers behind the hotel were evacuated out of
security concerns. He spoke on condition of
anonymity because he was not authorized to speak
to reporters.
A hotel staffer said the attack began when five
masked gunmen wearing bulletproof vests stormed
the hotel after security guards at the hotel’s gate
tried to stop them. He said they entered the hotel
and fired randomly at the staff in the lobby. The
staffer said the gunmen fired in his direction when
he opened his door to look out. He said he joined
the rest of the staff and foreign guests fleeing out
the hotel’s back doors into the parking lot.
When they got there, he said a car bomb exploded in the parking lot, only a hundred meters away.
He said this came after a protection force entered
the lobby and opened fire on the attackers. He said
two guards were immediately killed. The staffer
spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared
being targeted later by militants. The car bomb left
at least five cars in the parking lot burned and damaged some windows in the hotel’s facade, he said.
The hotel had Italian, British and Turkish guests
but was largely empty at the time of the attack, the
staffer added. He said the militia-backed Prime
Minister Omar Al-Hassi usually resides at the hotel,
but was not there yesterday. Al-Hassi’s security
guards also weren’t there, he said. The hotel previously came under attack in 2013 when a former
prime minister was abducted there.
Since the ouster and 2011 killing of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, the country has been torn
among competing militias and tribes vying for power. Libya’s post-Gadhafi transition has collapsed,
with two rival governments and parliaments - each
backed by different militias - ruling in the country’s
eastern and western regions. Tripoli has been hit
with series of car bombs and shootings amid the
turmoil. The Malta-owned hotel is also where the
United Nations support mission in Libya holds its
meetings. The mission is currently hosting political
talks with rival Libyan groups in Geneva. — AFP
p8_Layout 1 1/27/15 9:28 PM Page 1
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
I N T E R N AT I O N A L
Iran warns of ‘consequences’ for Israeli attack
TEHRAN: Iran has told the United States
that Israel should expect consequences
for an attack on the Syrian-controlled
Golan Heights that killed an Iranian
general, a senior official said yesterday.
Revolutionar y
Guards
General
Mohammad Ali Allahdadi died alongside six fighters from Lebanon’s
Hezbollah group in the Januar y 18
attack on forces supporting President
Bashar Al-Assad in Syria’s civil war.
Israel has not officially acknowledged carrying out the attack, but was
already warned last week of an eventual
response. “We have sent a message to
the United States through diplomatic
channels telling the Americans that the
Zionist regime crossed Iran’s red lines by
this action,” said Deputy Foreign
Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.
“In this message, we said those
responsible should wait to suffer the
consequences of their act,” he added, in
remarks carried by the official IRNA
news agency. Amir-Abdollahian was
speaking on the sidelines of a memorial
service for Allahdadi also attended by
General Ghassem Souleimani, head of
the Guards’ elite Quds Force, which is
responsible for operations outside Iran.
Retaliation eventual
Last week, the defense minister,
Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan, said
“this action of Zionists will not be left
without a response. The important
thing is the question of the time and
place of this response.” And Mohsen
Rezaie, secretary of Iran’s Expediency
Council, added that Hezbollah would
eventually retaliate against “this recent
atrocity,” but that the group was “pru-
dent and has a long term plan and will
not be infuriated.”
Shiite Iran is Assad’s main regional
ally in his war against the mainly Sunni
rebels seeking to over throw him.
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television said the
group’s six fighters were killed on a
reconnaissance mission. But an Israeli
security source said the strike was on
“terrorists” who were preparing an
attack on the Jewish state. The incident
came days after Hezbollah Chief Hassan
Nasrallah threatened to retaliate against
Israel for its repeated strikes on targets
in Syria, and boasted the movement
was stronger than ever.
He touted a sophisticated arsenal,
including Fateh-110 missiles, which
have a range of 200 kilometers or more
and are capable of hitting much of
Israel. At least two rockets fired from the
Syrian side hit the Israeli side Tuesday,
prompting return ar tiller y fire, the
Israeli army said. In 2006, Israel fought a
war against Hezbollah that killed more
than 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly
civilians, and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers. — AFP
Boko Haram raids resume
killing in northeast Nigeria
KANO: Scores of people have been killed and
many others forced to flee to the mountains
following a renewed series of Boko Haram
raids in northeast Nigeria, a lawmaker and a
relief agency official said yesterday. The
reported attacks by the Islamists targeted the
Michika area in northeastern Adamawa state,
where bodies reportedly littered the streets in
several villages. The bloodshed in northeast
Nigeria has reached unprecedented levels in
recent weeks, raising questions about security for general elections set for February 14.
The head of a European Union election
monitoring mission, Santiago Fisas, said staff
deployed to observe polling in Africa’s most
populous country would not even attempt to
travel to the northeast. Separately, police in
the northeastern town of Potiskum said they
had arrested a bomb-maker linked to several
recent Boko Haram suicide attacks-a welcome
development for Nigeria’s security services
which have struggled to protect civilians.
‘Beyond insurgency’
Adamu Kamale, who represents the
Michika district in the Adamawa state government, also in the northeast, said Boko Haram
gunmen had been going “door-to-door,
killing people, including the old” for the past
two weeks. It was not immediately clear what
sparked the latest alleged atrocities.
The insurgents, who are blamed for more
than 13,000 deaths since 2009, have been in
control of Michika for roughly five months.
Women and children had been abducted and
countless homes destroyed, according to
Kamale, who said roughly 70 percent of the
population had fled their homes. Many had
escaped to Adamawa’s capital Yola, where
hundreds of thousands have previously
sought refuge, while others have been hiding
in the mountain range that borders
Cameroon.
“Dead bodies litter villages... The attackers
slaughter people like animals,” he said. In other areas under Boko Haram’s control, however, the attacks had abated and Kamale struggled to understand that latest unrest. “To us,
it has gone beyond insurgency. Something
very strange is taking place in Michika,” he
said. Mohammed Kanar, northeast coordinator for the National Emergency Management
Agency, confirmed the raids in Michika, without discussing details of the violence. “People
are trapped in the mountains but they are
inaccessible,” he told AFP. “The security situation is a challenge.”
The spike in bloodshed comes less than
three weeks before an election in which
President Goodluck Jonathan faces a tough
challenge from former military ruler,
Muhammadu Buhari. The EU yesterday said it
would deploy 90 observers across the country for the polls, excluding the northeast.
“The present situation (does not) allow us
to go to the northeast,” Fisas, the head of the
mission, told reporters. Nigerian election officials have already conceded that voting will
be impossible in much of the region, where
Boko Haram controls large swatches of territory, especially in its historic stronghold of
Borno state. — AFP
Sixth grade student killed
in Yemen drone strike
SANAA: A Yemeni rights group said yesterday a sixth grade student aged about 12
was killed in a US drone strike east of the
capital Sanaa, an assertion that could raise
fresh concern over Washington’s campaign
against suspected militants. The group said
Mohammed Saleh Qayed Taeiman was one
of three people reported killed in Monday’s
drone strike. It said his father and older
brother were killed in a 2011 drone strike,
and a third brother was wounded in another drone attack.
Yemeni officials said on Monday that
three men believed to be al Qaeda militants were killed in a car travelling in the
Hareeb region of Marib province, the first
drone strike since US-backed President
Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government quit last Thursday. Yemen is the main
stronghold of Al Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsula (AQAP), one of the Islamist militant group’s most active wings. The group
recently claimed responsibility for the
attack on French satirical newspaper
Charlie Hebdo.
The United States acknowledges using
drones to combat AQAP in Yemen but does
not comment publicly on attacks. A tribal
leader told Reuters that Taeiman was an
AQAP militant. Another tribal leader said he
was about 15 years old. But the Yemeni
National Organization for Drone Victims
(NODV) described him as “a normal kid”.
“He was in sixth grade, so his age was
between about 11-13 years old,” NODV
head Mohammed Al-Qawli told Reuters,
adding that Taeiman was recently treated
at a Yemeni government military hospital in
Sanaa after he was kicked by a camel.
NODV said that Taeiman’s 65-year-old
father, Saleh Qayed Taeiman, died along
with one of his sons called Jalal, 16, in the
2011 drone strike. A third brother, 17-yearold Ezz El-Deen, survived another drone
strike, but still has shrapnel in his body,
NODV said. NODV said that one of the other victims in Monday’s strike was identified
as Abdallah Khaled Aziz Al-Zindani, a farm
worker married to a woman from the
Taeiman clan, which was due to meet with
other tribes in the area to discuss their
response.
AQAP claimed responsibility for the
deadly Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris on
Jan 7 and American officials fear Al-Qaeda
will gain strength in Yemen’s current power
vacuum. Two US security officials had said
on Friday the collapse of Hadi’s US-backed
government left America’s counter-terrorism campaign “paralyzed”, but Monday’s
strike suggests the CIA-run drone campaign has not been dismantled. —Reuters
ADEN: Yemeni members of a local popular committee, which consists of a group of volunteers who maintain security in their region, stand in the street, some of them barefoot and one holding an anti-tank rocket launcher in the southern Yemeni city. —AFP
SURUC: Kurdish people attend a celebration rally near the Turkish-Syrian border. Kurdish fighters have expelled Islamic State group militants
from the Syrian border town of Kobanep.— AFP
Kurds push offensive
after driving out IS
Significant boost for both Kurds and US coalition
BEIRUT: Kurdish fighters expanded their offensive yesterday after driving Islamic State militants from the Syrian border town of Kobani the
previous day, to retake dozens of surrounding
villages still held by the militants, activists and
officials said. Pushing IS out of Kobani after a
bloody, four-month campaign was a significant
boost for both the Kurds and the US-led coalition, though the US Central Central Command
tempered Monday’s victory by saying it estimated that 90 percent of Kobani was now controlled
by Kurdish forces.
From Kobani, Kurdish troops took the fight
yesterday to the village of Shiran, southeast of
the town, said Mustafa Bali, a Kobani-based
activist. Earlier in the day, they captured the
nearby village of Qarah Hlanj. The Britain-based
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed
the capture of Qarah Hlanj and said the fighting
near Shiran has intensified. The victory in Kobani
came at a high cost. “The city has been fully liberated,” said senior Kurdish official Idriss Nassan,
speaking by telephone from inside the town. He
said Kobani is “nearly destroyed.”
Still no water, power
In September, Islamic State fighters captured
about 300 Kurdish villages and hamlets near
Kobani and thrust into the town itself, occupying
nearly half of it and sending tens of thousands of
residents fleeing into Turkey. The main Kurdish
militia, the People’s Protection Units, or YPG,
aims to “liberate” all villages near Kobani area
from IS fighters, the force’s commander,
Mohammed Barkhadan, told reporters yesterday.
The scope of the destruction will make it
hard for refugees to return anytime soon. “The
war in the town is over but the difficult task has
begun,” said Bali, the activist. “There is no water,
electricity or sewage system.” Across the border,
Turkish security forces fired tear gas yesterday
to prevent about 1,000 Kurds from crossing into
Kobani to celebrate, Turkey’s private Dogan
news agency reported. Earlier, several legislators from Turkey’s pro-Kurdish party traveled to
Kobani. Nawaf Khalil, a spokesman for Syria’s
powerful Kurdish Democratic Union Party,
urged the world to help. Kobani, he said,
“deserves international support for its reconstruction.” — AP
11 die in NATO training
fighter jet crash in Spain
LOS LLANOS MILITARY BASE: Officials investigated yesterday how a fighter jet crashed during
NATO training exercises at an air force base in
Spain, killing 11 military personnel leaving others with serious burns. Nine French and two
Greek personnel died and about 20 people were
injured after the two-seater F-16 crashed into
parked aircraft at the Los Llanos base in southeastern Spain.
The jet lost power as it took off and crashed
on Monday, damaging five other aircraft, the
Spanish defense ministry said. Firefighters
rushed to the scene and battled the flames as
black smoke billowed from the wreckage. Two
Greek pilots on board and eight French officers
were confirmed killed on Monday and the ministry said a ninth Frenchman died in hospital in
Madrid yesterday.
A judge in the eastern city of Valencia was
leading an investigation of the accident. A technical commission was also probing the causes
and was set to examine the wreckage and the
plane’s black box recorders, a defense ministry
source said. The base, near the city of Albacete,
hosts elite exercises run by NATO to train military
personnel from 10 nations to carry out joint
maneuvers. Two pilots, a navigator and five
mechanics were among the French personnel
killed, the head of the French air force chiefs of
staff Denis Mercier told BFM television.
Nine French personnel and 11 Italians were
injured, Spanish officials said. It was the highest
death toll in a single day for the French armed
forces since an ambush in Afghanistan in which
10 died in 2008. Of those injured, five of the
French were in “serious but stable condition” in
hospital and four had been discharged, said
defense ministry spokesman Manuel Vazquez.
French President Francois Hollande “expressed
his deep respect for the commitment” of the airmen who were preparing for air force missions
to fight “against terrorist groups” in Iraq and the
African Sahel region. Spain’s Defense Minister
Pedro Morenes and the chief of staff of Spain’s
air force, Francisco Javier Garcia Arnaiz, arrived
late Monday at the airbase, about 250 kilometers
southeast of Madrid. French Defence Minister
Jean-Yves Le Drian was expected to visit the site
of the accident on yesterday.
‘Tragedy for NATO family’
The Greek F-16 hit two Italian AMX planes
and three French jets-a Mirage 2000 and two
Alfa Jets-when it crashed. It was taking part in
NATO’s Tactical Leadership Program, which seeks
to improve multinational cooperation in air
operations. NATO Secretary General Jens
Stoltenberg said he was “deeply saddened” by
the disaster.
“This is a tragedy which affects the whole
NATO family. I express my heartfelt condolences
to the loved ones and the nations of those who
lost their lives, and I wish a speedy recovery to
the injured,” he said in a statement. Britain,
Germany, the United States and Spain were also
taking part in the exercises but none of their
nationals were reported injured. The 10 NATO
countries that take part in the program are
Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, Germany,
Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the
United States.
According to the French defense ministry’s
website, it is “the most renowned and most
demanding” program for fighter pilots. The base
has housed the training centre for NATO pilots
since 2010, according to its website. Some 750
personnel were taking part in the current course.
The F-16, manufactured by US company
Lockheed Martin, is the biggest-selling fighter
plane in the world with more than 4,500 made
for 28 countries.—AFP
ALBACETE: Captain Jose Guerreira speaks to the press outside the entrance to Los Llanos military after a Greek fighter jet crashed on takeoff yesterday. — AFP
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
I N T E R N AT I O N A L
Blizzard lashes US East Coast, blankets New York, Boston
NEW YORK: New York City blinked back
to life yesterday morning, after getting
blanketed by a massive snowstorm that
disrupted life for tens of millions of people along the US East Coast. New York
canceled its travel ban amid better-thanexpected weather conditions, while further north Boston remained shut down
as Massachusetts was pounded by snow
and lashed by strong wind.
Forecasters originally warned the
storm could be historic, bringing up to 3
feet of snow and punishing hurricaneforce winds. But early yesterday, they
downgraded most of those numbers,
saying Boston and the northeastern
New England region would fare the
worst, but even then not as bad as
expected.
As dawn broke, New York City had an
almost eerie feel to it. No airplanes in the
sky and no trains running underground
made for an unexpected quiet. Light
snow fell steadily early yesterday in midtown Manhattan as a few municipal
trucks rumbled down empty streets.
More than 7,700 flights in and out of the
Northeast were canceled, and many of
them may not take off again until today.
Schools and businesses let out early.
Government offices closed.
Airports, trains shutdown
Shoppers stocking up on food
jammed supermarkets and elbowed one
another for what was left. Broadway
stages went dark. Sections of New York
were forecast to see up to 20 inches (50
centimeters) of snow. As the storm system spun northward, conditions
improved quickly. Travel bans were lifted
before midmorning in New Jersey and
New York. New York City buses, subways
and trains were expected to restart on a
limited basis later in the morning and a
return to a full schedule was expected
today.
Total accumulation was expected to
reach or exceed two feet (half a meter)
in most of Massachusetts, potentially
making it one of the worst snowstorms
ever to hit the state. Coastal residents
braced for a powerful storm surge and
the possibility of damaging flooding and
beach erosion, particularly on Cape Cod.
The National Weather Service over the
weekend had issued a blizzard warning
for a 250-mile swath of the region,
meaning heavy, blowing snow and
potential whiteout conditions.
Life stands still
On Monday, life abruptly stopped
across the region as officials ordered
workers to go home early, banned travel, closed bridges and tunnels, and
assembled their biggest plowing crews.
Mayor Bill de Blasio urged New Yorkers
to go home and stay there, adding:
“People have to make smart decisions
from this point on.” New York City’s
entire transit system was shut down
Monday night.
In New Jersey, plows and salt spreaders remained at work on the roads
Monday night in Ocean County, one of
the coastal areas that were expected to
be among the hardest hit. There was a
coating of snow on the roads, but hardly
any vehicles were traveling on them, as
residents seemed content to stay
indoors and monitor the storm in comfort. Most businesses in the area had
gone dark, including some convenience
stores and gas stations. On Wall Street,
the New York Stock Exchange stayed
open and said it would operate normally
yesterday as well. Utility companies
across the region put additional crews
on standby to deal with anticipated
power outages. —AP
NEW YORK: Workers clear the walkways in Times Square after a snow storm hit
the US east coast early in the morning yesterday. — AP
France, Belgium anti-terror
raids net 8 more suspects
EU steps up fight against terror
VIRGINIA: Former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling leaves the Alexandria Federal
Courthouse with his wife, Holly, after being convicted on all nine counts he faced of
leaking classified details. — AP
Ex-CIA officer convicted of
leaking secrets to reporter
VIRGINIA: For years, ex-CIA case Officer
Jeffrey Sterling was the one under indictment but prosecutors’ primary focus of pursuit was journalist Jeffrey Risen.
Prosecutors believed Sterling leaked details
to Risen about one of the government’s
most closely held secrets: a secret CIA mission to derail Iran’s nuclear ambitions by
giving them deliberately flawed blueprints.
Risen, though, wouldn’t divulge his
sources. Prosecutors sought court orders
forcing Risen to testify, saying their job
would be immeasurably more difficult
without his testimony. Ultimately, though,
prosecutors won their case without Risen.
On Monday, Sterling was convicted in federal court on all nine charges he faced after
a two-week trial in which Risen never made
an appearance. Experts said the trial shows
the government can pursue leak investigations without relying on recalcitrant
reporters.
At issue in the two-week trial: Who told
Risen about the mission, one that former
national security adviser Condoleezza Rice
testified was one of America’s best chances
to derail Iran’s nuclear-weapons ambitions?
The case was delayed for years as prosecutors fought to force Risen to divulge his
sources. Risen eventually lost his legal battle to quash a government subpoena. But
prosecutors ultimately decided not to call
him to testify after the Justice Department,
bowing to pressure from free-press advocates, promised it would not ask Risen sensitive questions about his sources.
Overwhelming evidence
Lacking Risen’s testimony, prosecutors
acknowledged a lack of direct evidence
against Sterling, 47, of O’Fallon, Missouri,
but said the circumstantial evidence
against him was overwhelming. Defense
lawyers had said the evidence showed that
Capitol Hill staffers who had been briefed
on the classified operation were more likely
the source of the leak. Following the verdict, defense lawyer Edward MacMahon
said he was disappointed, but “we still
believe in Jeffrey’s innocence.” Sterling will
have the option to appeal his case after he
is sentenced in April. Motions to dismiss
the case on various legal grounds are also
still pending in front of the trial judge, US
District Judge Leonie Brinkema.
Lucy Dalglish, dean of the University of
Maryland’s journalism school and former
director of the Reporters Committee for the
Freedom of the Press, said she was not surprised by the verdict, which followed days
of testimony from CIA officials who testified
without revealing their last names and
from behind a gray screen that shielded
their faces from the public. She called it
groundbreaking in the sense that it
showed how prosecutors are willing to pursue such cases without reporters’ cooperation. “They’re going to use this case to terri-
fy federal employees. They’re going to use
this case to teach the intelligence community a lesson” about the consequences of
leaks, she said. The Obama administration
has brought more leak cases than all of his
predecessors combined. US Army Pvt.
Chelsea Manning, who leaked more than
700,000 secret military and diplomatic documents to the WikiLeaks website, was convicted at a military trial and sentenced to
military prison.
Espionage operations
Other cases were resolved before trial.
Former CIA officer John Kiriakou pleaded
guilty and was sentenced to 30 months in
prison for disclosing to a reporter the name
of an undercover agency officer. Thomas
Drake, who worked for the National
Security Agency, disclosed government
waste and fraud to a reporter. He pleaded
guilty to a minor charge and did not
receive prison time.
A former NSA contractor, Edward
Snowden, was charged with leaking to
journalists but received asylum in Russia.
Going back earlier, Pentagon analyst
Lawrence Franklin received a 12-year sentence after a guilty plea for leaking classified information to a reporter and two proIsrael Lobbyists, though his sentence was
later reduced significantly. The classified
operation at the heart of the Sterling trial
involved using a CIA asset nicknamed
Merlin, who had been a Russian nuclear
engineer, to foist deliberately flawed
nuclear-weapons blueprints on the
Iranians, hoping they would spend years
trying to develop parts that had no hope of
ever working.
Risen’s 2006 book, “State of War,”
describes the mission as hopelessly
botched. Throughout the trial, though,
numerous CIA officers testified they had
deemed the program a success, even
though the Iranians never followed up with
Merlin to get additional blueprints he had
offered to them as part of the ruse.
Prosecutors argued to the jury that the relevant chapter of Risen’s book seemed to be
clearly written from Sterling’s perspective
as Merlin’s case handler. The book describes
the handler’s misgivings about the operation while others at the CIA pushed the
plan through despite its risks.
Furthermore, Sterling believed he had
been mistreated and was angry that the
agency refused to settle his racial-discrimination complaint, prosecutors said. And
jurors were given phone and email records
showing dozens of interactions between
Sterling and Risen. But defense lawyers said
the government had no evidence that
Risen and Sterling talked about anything
classified in those phone calls and emails.
The government failed to obtain Risen’s
records to see who else he may have contacted. —AP
BRUSSELS: Anti-terror raids in France and
Belgium netted eight more suspects yesterday as
Paris urged its European Union partners to step
up the fight against terror financing with new
measures to make transactions more transparent. Interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said
that raids in southern France detained five people and broke up “one more network” in a small
town that has seen several youths leave to fight
in Syria and Iraq.
He pledged the country’s “total mobilization”
against terrorism would continue unabated after
attacks around Paris earlier this month by three
Islamic radicals left 20 people dead, including the
gunmen. In western Belgium, authorities
detained three men and found a cache of arms in
an operation linked to a terror threat, said prosecutor spokeswoman Karlien Ververken. The
detention could not immediately be linked to a
raid in the eastern town of Verviers earlier this
month that left two suspects dead and later put
seven more behind bars. Belgian authorities said
that raid had averted an imminent major terrorist
attack against police and their offices.
Increasing measures
At EU headquarters, French Finance Minister
Michel Sapin said he wants to rapidly seal a new
EU anti-money-laundering deal “and to accelerate other complementary measures to be able to
locate all these small movements that are at the
heart of terrorist financing.” France wants tighter
cooperation on sharing intelligence related to
money-laundering, tougher legislation on freezing suspects’ assets, and to improve the ability of
customs services to track gold and other assets.
Bank account registries and the control of virtual money like bitcoins could also be discussed.
The new EU money-laundering plans aim to
ensure that the real owners of companies and
trusts are listed in public registers in Europe, and
to force banks, auditors, lawyers and others to be
more vigilant about suspicious transactions.
Mindful of the attacks in France, and raids and
arrests in other EU countries including Belgium,
Germany, Greece and Spain, finance ministers
want to fast-track the package, and discuss the
new French initiatives in parallel. Dutch Finance
BRUSSELS: European Data Protection Supervisor Giovanni Buttarelli attends a meeting of the
committee on civil liberties, justice and home affairs at the European Parliament. —AP
Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem said it is “crucial to got out and smashed in the doors to the apartcut off all terrorist groups of financing means, ments in the building,” said one resident of the
and any proposal that would lead to that I would block, who said they had threatened him. “They
very much support.” “We will look very positively put a gun to my head ... in the end, they arrested
at new initiatives,” said Denmark’s economy min- my neighbor above me, Said,” said this witness.
Another witness said authorities had taken away
ister, Morten Ostergaard.
his brother. “They flattened me, got me on the
floor, hit me. Then they took away my brother,”
French operations
At least five people were arrested during an this man said.
French security sources have pointed to the
anti-jihadist operation in southern France, a security source said. The operation took place in the small town of Lunel as a “recruitment network”
small town of Lunel east of Montpellier in south- for jihadists. Some 1,400 people living in France
ern France, from where around 20 young people have either joined the jihadist cause in Syria and
have left for Syria. Six of them, aged 18 to 30, Iraq or are planning to do so, Prime Minister
have been killed since October. Crack French Manuel Valls said earlier this month. France has
security forces launched the operation at 6:00 am launched several raids targeting alleged jihadists
local time in a building in the centre of the town, after a trio of Islamist gunmen left 17 people
dead in and around Paris in a three-day rampage
according to witnesses.
“Several unmarked cars drew up. Masked men earlier in January. — Sources
Hundreds of South
Sudan child
soldiers freed: UN
JUBA: South Sudanese rebels yesterday released 280
child soldiers, the first batch of some 3,000 to be freed
but with thousands more still fighting, the UN children’s agency said. Some 12,000 children, mainly boys,
have been forcibly recruited by armed groups across
the country in the past year alone to fight, according
to UNICEF. Those freed included some as young as 11,
who had been fighting for up to four years and have
never attended school.
“The first group of 280 children were released
today, at the village of Gumuruk in Jonglei state” in the
east of the country, UNICEF said in a statement, calling
it “one of the largest ever demobilizations of children”.
The remaining children will be released in the weeks
ahead.
South Sudan, the world’s youngest nation, has been
locked in civil war since December 2013 when
President Salva Kiir accused his sacked deputy Riek
Machar of attempting a coup. The fighting in the capital Juba set off a cycle of retaliatory massacres across
the country. “These children have been forced to do
and see things no child should ever experience,”
UNICEF chief in South Sudan Jonathan Veitch said.
The children were in a rebel force led by David Yau
Yau, who heads the South Sudan Democratic Army
(SSDA) Cobra Faction insurgents, a small forced based
in the Pibor region of Jonglei. Yau Yau launched his
rebellion in 2010 after losing out on a seat in elections,
a year before South Sudan became independent from
Sudan. Children freed are being health checks, food,
clothing and education.
The UN is trying to reunify them with their families,
which it called a “daunting task” in a country where
over two million have fled their homes to escape fighting. Over a half million of those people are now
refugees in neighboring nations. South Sudan’s rival
leaders are to meet later this week in Ethiopia in the
latest push by regional nations to enforce a ceasefire
already agreed-and broken-six times. — AFP
Fidel Castro: ‘I don’t trust the
US nor have I spokenn to them’
HAVANA: Fidel Castro does not “trust the
US, nor have I spoke with them,” the revolutionary icon, 88, said in a letter attributed to him and read out on state television Monday. “That does not representfar from it-a rejection of peacefully settling conflicts,” said the letter, a week after
communist Cuba and the United States
held landmark talks in Havana as they
attempt to normalize ties.
US President Barack Obama and
Cuban President Raul Castro announced
December 17 that the Cold War rivals
would work to normalize relations that
broke off in 1961. In Washington, some
Cuban-American lawmakers slammed
Obama, saying his administration had
given up too much without securing
human rights commitments from the
Americas’ only one party Communistruled country.
Old enemies
Yet what many observers found most
stunning in so much change is that the
leader of Cuba’s 1959 revolution-a lawyer
by training famous for speaking for hours
in excruciating detail-has yet to publicly
speak about the detente that his brother
Raul, 83, has engaged with his old enemy.
Many analysts expect that Cuba’s president would not have set out on this
diplomatic route without his brother’s
approval and support. That makes it
stranger still that Fidel Castro has not
spoken about Havana’s change in course.
That led to speculation on the health
of Fidel Castro-including rumors he was
dying or dead earlier this month. Then his
longtime friend footballer Diego
Maradona announced two weeks ago
that he had received a letter from Fidel
Castro as well. “Cuba’s president has taken steps within his range of authority and
the powers granted him by the National
Assembly, and the Communist Party of
Cuba,” the letter attributed to Fidel Castro
added.
“We shall always defend cooperation
and friendship with all of the worlds peoples, among them our political adversaries,” the letter dated Monday added. It
did not address swirling rumors of his
demise, which have cropped up often
since Fidel Castro first took seriously ill in
2006. With only official state media offering Cuba’s 11 million people information,
word of mouth can be an influential factor in the economically distressed country’s everyday life.
Pope the mediator
Cuban authorities have seemed keen
to tamp down on the rumors on the
streets, which seem to have been deflated by the Maradona letter. Its contents
have not been released. Obama has
called on Congress to lift the US embargo
on Havana, and used executive powers to
ease some travel and trade restrictions.
He has also given the State Department
six months to review whether Cuba
should remain on the terror list.
Pope Francis played a central role in
mediating the secret negotiations that
led to the December announcement.
Fidel Castro stepped aside in 2006 during a health crisis. Raul Castro, the longtime armed forces chief, took his brother’s place at Cuba’s helm. The last time
Fidel Castro was seen in public was
January 8, 2014 at an event for an artist
friend, Alexis Leyva, who is nicknamed
Kcho. — AFP
p10 2_Layout 1 1/27/15 8:30 PM Page 1
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
I N T E R N AT I O N A L
Pak teachers get gun training after school massacre
PESHAWAR: Teachers in northwest
Pakistan are being given firearms training
and will be allowed to take guns into the
classroom in a bid to strengthen security
following a Taliban massacre at a school
last month. Heavily armed militants killed
150 people, 132 of them children, in a
bloody December 16 attack on an armyrun school in Peshawar, the main town in
Pakistan’s northwest.
“Carrying firearms for every teacher is
not obligatory, but all those who want to
carry firearms to schools willingly will be
provided with permits,” Atif Khan, provincial education minister for the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,
said yesterday. Provincial Information
Minister Mushtaq Ghani confirmed the
decision, adding that the province was
unable to provide police guards for all of
its government-run education institutions.
“The number of police in the province
is not enough to guard 35,000 schools,
colleges and universities-that’s why we
have allowed teachers to carry firearms,”
Ghani said. Authorities began training
teachers in how to use guns last week
and the latest batch of female trainees
started learning the ropes yesterday. “It’s
a two-day course. We are training them
on gun handling and also on (the) procedure of using it,” said Mohammad Latif, a
trainer at police headquarters in
Peshawar.
‘It’s not our job’
Pakistan has already strengthened
security for schools across the country,
including by building elevated boundary
walls with steel wire fencing and increasing the number of police. Private schools
have been ordered to deploy extra security guards. Malik Khalid Khan, the presi-
dent of the Private Schools Teachers
Association, opposed the move to arm
teachers.
“How is it possible to teach students
in a class... holding a gun in one hand
and a pen in another?” Khan said. “It’s not
our job, our job is to teach them books. A
teacher holding a gun in the class will
have very negative effect on his students,” Khan said, adding that the government should hire more police if they
are short of numbers.
The government and military promised a tough response to the Peshawar
massacre, in which heavily armed militants scaled the school walls before
going room-to-room mowing down
helpless students and staff. A six-year
moratorium on the death penalty was
ended for terror cases after the attack,
and parliament voted to set up military
courts to try terror offences. — AFP
PESHAWAR: A Pakistani teacher handles an AK-47 assault rifle during a
weapons training session for school, college and university teachers at a police
training centre. — AFP
Obama wraps up India visit,
touches on pressing issues
US looking to become India’s ‘best partner’
NEW DELHI: US President Barack Obama shakes hands with Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi as they participate in a CEO roundtable discussion.—AP
India nuke ‘breakthrough’
leaves industry skeptical
NEW DELHI : India and America’s declaration of a breakthrough in contentious nuclear energy cooperation
has been met with a lukewarm
response from industry and analysts.
Few expect the potentially lucrative
Indian market to suddenly become less
complicated for US nuclear companies.
President Barack Obama’s three-day
visit to New Delhi raised hopes for concrete plans to tackle India’s fossil fuel
dependency and to resolve a four-year
standoff over liability that prevented
US and Japanese nuclear energy development on Indian soil. Instead, there
were vague commitments and public
displays of chumminess between
Obama and Prime Minister Narendra
Modi.
The two leaders said they agreed to
advance a 2008 civil nuclear deal long
stalled by concerns about India’s reluctance to allow US tracking of fissile
material. It has also been held up by
American concerns with an Indian law
that makes US nuclear suppliers, not
operators of nuclear plants, liable for
accidents. Since India passed the liability law in 2010, only governmentbacked nuclear firms in Russia and
France have discussed entering India’s
market, annoying Washington which
brokered India’s special status as a
nuclear nation despite its refusal to
sign the global treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Narrow differences
The apparent US-India breakthrough this week was in narrowing
differences on the liability issue. US
Ambassador Richard Verma said “it’s up
to the companies what to do” after
India gave an assurance the liability
law would be interpreted consistent
with international understanding. If
anything substantive was agreed, “it’s
very unclear,” said Paris-based energy
and nuclear policy consultant Mycle
Schneider. “I don’t think there’s enough
information out there that makes it
possible to make a coherent statement.”
Modi has placed new urgency on
India’s nuclear ambitions, with the aim
of vastly expanding atomic energy
capacity to account for about half the
country’s total electricity supply by
2050. Nuclear power is one way India,
the third biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, could cut its emissions
and also reduce air pollution from coalfired power plants. But it is both expensive and water intensive, testing two
resources already in short supply in
India. In December, Modi reached a
deal for 12 new Russian reactors, and in
September secured access to
Australian uranium. He was unable,
however, to reach an agreement last
year with Japan, a US ally with decades
of nuclear energy expertise.
Indian and US officials said part of
the solution to the liability impasse
could be a $122 billion insurance
scheme proposed by India. That would
be funded by India’s government and
Indian nuclear companies, and be
managed by the state-run General
Insurance Corporation of India, according to Indian nuclear negotiator
Amandeep Gill.
Situation unclear
Analysts questioned how that
would work in practice. “If they agreed
to limit US industry liability, well how
do they do that? You can agree in
diplomatic terms, but what does that
mean in a US or an Indian court? It’s
unclear,” Schneider said. He also said
any insurance scheme would have to
be in the order of hundreds of billions
of dollars to make sense. US nuclear
suppliers welcomed the agreement,
though they said they were still reviewing the fine print.
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy said it
“applauds” efforts to resolve differences over the liability law. But it cautioned that the ultimate solution
should be India’s compliance with an
international convention on compensation, establishing a global legal
regime and compensation fund for
nuclear accidents, while requiring that
nuclear operators also maintain insurance. An earlier deal with
Westinghouse Electric Co. for a 6,600megawatt nuclear plant has languished while the liability dispute
raged. The Toshiba-backed company is
still eyeing another $50 billion contract
to build reactors in Modi’s home state
of Gujarat.
“We’ve lost some time and we’ve
fallen a bit behind” with construction
agreements with Indian builders on
hold, Westinghouse CEO Daniel
Roderick said in an interview Monday
with Indian broadcaster NDTV. “What
I’m worried about is we could lose
another two or three years if we don’t
really have a mandate from the government.” The liability insurance program would also likely mean that commercial nuclear projects become more
expensive. The US is the sixth-largest
investor in India and the two countries
want to boost their trade to $225 billion by 2025 from last year’s $62 billion.
“We’re confident the breakthrough
achieved at the summit level will lead
to more investment,” said Narendra
Taneja, an energy adviser with the governing party. —AP
NEW DELHI: US President Barack Obama urged
India to promote religious tolerance and do
more to combat global warming yesterday as he
wrapped up a visit aimed at forging a new
friendship between the world’s largest democracies. Speaking to an audience of mainly young
people, Obama said the United States could be
India’s “best partner” but put pressure on his
hosts over a range of political and social issues,
including women’s rights.
The US president also said their countries
could forge “one of the defining partnerships of
this century,” even as he warned the war against
climate change would not “stand a chance” without India. The speech was the finale of a packed
visit which has seen a dramatic upturn in an
often troubled relationship, including the signing of a new “friendship” pact between Obama
and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
India’s right-wing premier was a pariah in
Washington less than a year ago, but has since
developed a close bond with Obama, with their
two countries keen to counter-balance the rise
of China. “India and the United States are not
just natural partners-I believe that America can
be India’s best partner,” said Obama after receiving a rapturous welcome from a group of around
1,500 people. Obama, however, weighed in on
two sensitive issues in India before departing for
Saudi Arabia, saying women should not only
have equal rights but be safe to “walk the street”.
Religious freedom
“Every woman should be able to go about
her day, to walk the street, or ride the bus, and
be safe and be treated with the respect and dignity that she deserves,” he said. India was rocked
by the fatal gang-rape of a student in Delhi in
2012 that unleashed seething anger about high
levels of sexual violence and a round of soulsearching about its treatment of women.
Obama also urged respect for religion in officially secular India, where the election of Hindu
nationalist Modi has given rise to fears among
the country’s large Muslim minority. “Every person has the right to practice their faith how they
choose, or to practice no faith at all, and to do so
free of persecution and fear of discrimination,”
he said. “Nowhere is that more important than
India, nowhere is it going to be more necessary
for that foundational value to be upheld. “India
will succeed so long as it is not splintered along
lines of religious faith, along lines of anything,
and is unified as one nation.”
Modi was treated as persona non grata in
Washington for over a decade after deadly communal riots in Gujarat when he was state chief
minister in 2002. Around 1,000 people were
killed, mostly Muslims. Both Obama and Modi
NEW DELHI: US President Barack Obama folds his hands together in a traditional Indian greeting gesture at the Siri Fort Auditorium.—AP
“I know the argument made by some, that it’s
have been at pains to demonstrate their personal rapport during the visit and announced a unfair for countries like the United States to ask
breakthrough on a long-stalled nuclear power developing nations and emerging economies
deal on Sunday. Obama was also chief guest at like India to reduce your dependence on the
Monday ’s Republic Day parade-one of the same fossil fuels that helped power our growth
biggest honors that India can bestow on a for- for more than a century,” Obama said. “But here’s
the truth: even if countries like the United States
eign leader.
The US is looking to reinvigorate alliances in curb our emissions, if growing countries like
the Asia-Pacific as part of Obama’s “pivot” east, India-with soaring energy needs-don’t also
and has taken note of Modi’s more assertive embrace cleaner fuels, then we don’t stand a
stance towards China. Beijing claims sovereignty chance against climate change.”
India has balked at committing itself to major
over large swathes of the South China Sea, home
to maritime lanes that are vital to global trade, cuts in carbon emissions ahead of a major cliand is engaged in territorial disputes with a host mate summit in December, fearing they would
of nations in the region. But in his speech, Obama undermine efforts to boost living standards in a
said “the freedom of navigation must be upheld country where much of the population of 1.2 billion live in poverty. Obama and his wife Michelle
and disputes must be resolved peacefully”.
spent 10 minutes mingling after the speech,
shaking hands and posing for photographs as
Curb climate change
Speaking after their talks on Sunday, Modi the crowd chanted “Obama, Obama”. The scenes
said he would not be pressured on climate underlined the turnaround in ties after a row
change by any country-comments seen partly involving the arrest and strip-search of an Indian
aimed at China after it agreed on new carbon diplomat in New York in 2013, which saw the
emissions targets with the US. But Obama Stars and Stripes being burned on the streets of
warned the battle against global warming was Delhi. Obama had been due to visit the Taj Mahal
doomed unless developing countries reduce with Michelle yesterday, but the trip was cut
short after the death of the Saudi king. —AFP
dependence on fossil fuels.
Thousands mourn son of
Bangladesh oppn leader
DHAKA: Tens of thousands of mourners turned
out yesterday for the funeral of Bangladesh
opposition leader Khaleda Zia’s son in a massive show of support for the embattled former
premier. Arafat Rahman Koko, 44, died of a
heart attack on Saturday in Malaysia, a devastating blow to the opposition leader after she
launched fresh protests this month to try to
topple bitter rival Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Police inspector Alamgir, who uses one
name, estimated the number of mourners at
50,000 to 60,000, while another police officer
put the total at around 100,000. Traffic ground
to a halt in central Dhaka as crowds spilled onto
roads around a mosque for the funeral after
Koko’s body arrived home yesterday morning. “I
joined the funeral because I felt sorry for him.
His mother is confined in her office and his eldest brother is in exile in London,” said
Mohammad Nuruzzaman, a supporter of Zia’s
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
Koko, who was not active in politics, has
been living in exile in Thailand and Malaysia
since 2008 after the then army-backed govern-
ment launched corruption cases against him.
He was sentenced to six years in jail and fined
$2.5 million in June 2011 for laundering money
through accounts in Singapore between 2004
and 2006, when Zia was in power. Despite
Koko’s death, opposition officials said the BNP
leader was determined to maintain a nationwide transport blockade she called to force
Hasina from office.
Attempts to enforce the blockade have
sparked clashes that have left least 36 people
dead. The latest crisis began when police confined Zia to her office after she threatened to
lead a mass rally against Hasina. Zia wants
Hasina to call fresh polls after last year’s controversial general election, which opposition parties boycotted on the grounds it would be
rigged. Hasina on Saturday called on Zia to
offer her condolences, but, in an apparent
snub, the premier was left standing outside the
69-year-old’s office before being turned away.
Zia and Hasina are known for their bitter rivalry,
which has poisoned Bangladeshi politics for
nearly three decades. — AFP
Myanmar student march blocked by police forces
YANGON: Myanmar police briefly blocked
the path of a major student protest march
in a remote central region Tuesday as the
government said it wanted to prevent
“instability”. The procession of some 300
people-comprised of students, monks and
other activists-was eventually allowed to
proceed after a tense stand-off with police
trying to halt the unauthorized cross-country march calling for education reforms.
“We are trying to stop them to avoid
further tension and instability,” government spokesman Ye Htut said, adding
the strength of the security response
would be down to local authorities.
Student activism is a potent political
force in former junta-run Myanmar, with
young activists at the forefront of several
major uprisings, including a mass 1988
demonstration that ended in a bloody
military assault on demonstrators.
The group was intercepted in a
remote rural area in the Mandalay region,
around seven miles from the nearest village, and local police said they had been
asked to send personnel to reinforce the
roadblock. They added that the group had
been allowed to pass in the early evening,
but did not give a reason. Activists earlier
said that the situation was tense but calm.
“If we cannot continue we will sit and
continue our protest,” Paing Ye Thu, a student in contact with the protesters, said.
Myanmar ’s government had initially
appeared wary of acting against the rallies
for education reform, which erupted briefly
in November and started again last week
when students began a planned 14-day
march from the second city of Mandalay to
the commercial hub Yangon.—AFP
Indian army colonel
killed in border fight
SRINAGAR: Suspected militants in Indian Kashmir yesterday killed an army colonel and a police officer during a gun battle outside the restive region’s main city
of Srinagar, police said. Another police officer later
died of injuries sustained in the firefight, while two
suspected rebels were also killed during the
encounter, an officer said.
Government forces had laid siege to a house in
Hundoora village, 50 kilometers south of Srinagar, acting on information that a militant was inside, the officer said. “He (the militant) opened fire as he found
himself trapped. During the ensuing gun battle two
terrorists and an army colonel were killed,” the top
police officer said on condition of anonymity as he was
not authorized to speak to the media.
The battle occurred shortly after US President
Barack Obama left India after a three-day visit to New
Delhi. Security had been high in Kashmir and India’s
other restive areas during the visit, and for Republic
Day on Monday which marks the birth of modern
India. Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan
since the two countries won independence from
Britain in 1947. Both claim the scenic Himalayan territory in full.
Rebel groups have been fighting Indian forces since
1989 for independence or a merger of the territory
with Pakistan. The fighting has left tens of thousands,
mostly civilians, dead. Violence has abated during the
last decade but armed encounters between rebels and
government forces occur regularly and resentment
among the people of Kashmir against Indian rule is
deeply rooted. On January 15, government forces
killed five suspected rebels during a gun battle in a
forested area a few kilometers from the site of yesterday’s encounter. India regularly accuses Pakistan of
arming and training rebels, but Islamabad denies the
allegations. —AFP
10,000 top jobs daily
Sales executive \ Sales
Engineer
Al Mana Group - Kuwait
Head of Ecommerce
Fulfillment - Logistics
M.H. Alshaya Co - Kuwait
Group Technical & Quality
Assurance Director
S.O.S. HR Solutions- Kuwait
Head of Sales or Sr. Sales
Manager
IPF HR - Kuwait
You will be required to have Kuwaiti driving
license, experience not less than three years
in industrial sales, as well as, diploma or
degree holder in mechanics.
You will be responsible for developing
cross-functional operational
relationships, liaising with supply
chain and central ecommerce teams,
as well as, communicating routinely
with ecommerce managers.
You will be responsible for evaluating
adequacy of quality assurance
standards, devising sampling
procedures and directions for recording
and reporting quality data, as well as,
reviewing the implementation.
You will be responsible for handling a
reputable lubricants division through
growing volumes, developing a
customer base to ensure volume/margin
maximization at all times, as well as,
ensuring all sales are conducted.
Apply Now
JB3188341
Apply Now
JB3186819
Apply Now
JB3176844
Apply Now
JB3175803
Executive Secretary
Rapico
Kuwait
Accountant
Rapico
Kuwait
AV Technician
Ultra Vision General Trading
and Contracting - Kuwait
Sales Engineer
Shortcut
Kuwait
You will be responsible for attending
meetings in order to record minutes,
compiling, transcribing, and distributing
minutes of meetings, as well as, making
travel arrangements for the department
manager.
You will be responsible for assisting with
the calculation of the weekly funding
requirements, writing up all cheque
payments for signature, as well as,
assisting with the preparation of
subscriber payments.
You will be responsible for installation
and commissioning of automation
system and related hardware and
equipment such as controllers, keypads,
touch panels, as well as, depicting high
standard of workmanship.
You will be responsible for identifying
business opportunities by identifying
prospects and evaluating their position,
researching and analyzing sales options,
as well as, meeting with existing
customers to review product needs.
Apply Now
JB3205963
Apply Now
JB3205961
Apply Now
JB3205567
Apply Now
JB3205413
Management Consultancy - KSA
Sales and Marketing Director
IPF HR
KSA
Manager of Mechanical HVAC
Section
Merge Recruitment - KSA
Senior Architect
Saudi Labanese Tarouk
KSA
You will be responsible for developing
and directing the company’s human
resource functions, dealing with
personnel affairs, as well as,
reinforcing the company’s
organizational capabilities.
You will be responsible for monitoring
operating plans for the market
demand, leading development of
vehicle supply planning processes, as
well as, ensuring sustainable growth of
sales/ marketing.
You will be responsible for ensuring to
perform the required design within the
allocated budgeted hours, advising top
management on strategic business
developments, as well as, providing
technical assistance.
You will be responsible for planning
information architecture by studying
the site concept, envisioning
architectural scheme, as well as,
organizing information by translating
user behavior into media structure.
Director of Human Resources
and Administration - E jadah
Apply Now
JB3202787
Apply Now
JB3202666
Apply Now
JB3202307
Apply Now
JB3200394
Audit Head – Retail Banking
Axiz Consulting
UAE
Director of Revenue
Management
The Ritz-Carlton DIFC - UAE
Director – Infrastructure
Project Management - TECOM
Investments - UAE
Head of Development
Michael Page International
(UAE) Limited - UAE
You will be responsible for ensuring
full understanding of risks and
procedures, preparing report on audit
issues, as well as, training of the team
members.
You will be responsible for contributing
to sales strategy, providing critical
input to market leaders, understanding,
as well as, accurately represents
individual property sales needs.
You will be responsible for
contributing to the development of
the project management strategy,
guiding team in translating the
strategic goals into short / medium
term objectives, as well as, providing
inputs on the technical aspects.
You will be required to have +15 years
of experience in development and
property management, bachelor’s
degree preferable in real estate, as
well as, account management skills.
Apply Now
JB3202259
Apply Now
JB3201529
Apply Now
JB3194633
Apply Now
JB3194383
Director of Postgraduate
Study
Qatar Foundation - Qatar
General Sales Manager
IPF HR
Qatar
Service advisors - Heavy
Equipment
IPF HR - Qatar
Director- Security Operations
International Centre for Sport
Security - Qatar
You will be responsible for setting the
overall strategy and direction of the
Masters’ program, preparing the
academic plan and annual budget for
the Masters’ Program, as well as,
supervising PhD students.
You will be responsible for attaining
profit objectives, increasing sales and
market share, analyzing customer
base at assigned locations, as well as,
planning sales promotions.
You will be required to have Arab
nationality from West Africa, should be
graduated with a degree in
automotive engineering, as well as,
good communication skills.
You will be responsible for lead the
successful identification, developing
and delivering of quality sport event
safety, as well as, attaining
objectives/goals.
Apply Now
JB3158104
Apply Now
JB3175812
Apply Now
JB3178812
www.bayt.com
Register
Upload your CV
Apply
Apply Now
JB3129137
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
I N T E R N AT I O N A L
China’s military parade aims to ‘frighten Japan’
BEIJING: China will this year hold its first
large-scale military parade since 2009 to
mark the 70th anniversary of the end of
World War II, reports said yesterday, with
one key goal described as being to
“frighten Japan”. Communist China generally shies away from the vast annual
demonstrations of military might that
were a hallmark of the Soviet Union.
But it most recently held National Day
parades in 1999 and 2009 to mark the
50th and 60th anniversaries of the
October 1 establishment of the People’s
Republic of China. Even now the part
played by the People’s Liberation Army in
China’s earlier resistance against
Japanese invasion remains a key element
of the Communist Party’s claim to a right
to rule. On its instant messaging WeChat
account the People’s Daily newspaper,
the Party’s official mouthpiece, cited a
Hong Kong report that a parade would
be held this year to commemorate the
anniversary of the war’s end.
‘Contribution and sacrifice’
One reason for mounting the parade
was “to frighten Japan and declare to the
world China’s determination to maintain
the post-war world order”, said the article, written by Chinese financial and
global affairs commentator Hu Zhanhao.
“Only by showing its military capabilities
can (China) show Japan its attitude and
determination and let it know that whoever dares to challenge the post-war
order related to China and touch China’s
core interests is its enemy and must be
psychologically prepared for China’s
strong counterattack,” it said.
Other reasons included showcasing
China’s military strength and increasing
Chinese pride. The report did not give a
date for the event but said it would mark
the first time it was not held on National
Day. Several Chinese media outlets yesterday described the posting of the article by the People’s Daily as a confirmation.
Asked about the reports at a regular
briefing, foreign ministry spokeswoman
Hua Chunying said that China was planning a series of celebrations and commemorations related to the war, but did
not offer specific details. She stressed
that China was both a victor and a battlefield during the conflict. “We have
made a huge contribution and sacrifice
to ensure the victory in that war,” she
said.
‘Post-war order’
The commemorations were intended
“to evoke in all mankind their memory
of history”, she told reporters, and be “a
way for us to safeguard the victory and
the outcomes of the Second World War
and the post-war order”. The report
comes as Beijing has taken an increasingly hard line towards Tokyo amid disputes over territory and history.
Ties between Asia’s two biggest
economies have been soured by a tense
dispute over control of uninhabited
islands in the East China Sea, administered by Japan but also claimed by
China, and Beijing’s anger over a
December 2013 visit by Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine,
which honors Japan’s war dead including convicted war criminals from World
War II. The countries have taken tentative steps to reduce tensions, with an
agreement in November paving the way
for the first formal bilateral meeting
between Abe and Chinese President Xi
Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC
Asia-Pacific leaders’ forum in Beijing, but
it took place in a glacial atmosphere.
Beijing, which uses memories of the
war with Japan as a key tool to galvanize
nationalist sentiment and deflect any
dissatisfaction with Communist Party
rule, remains wary of moves by Tokyo to
raise its military profile and frequently
says its neighbor must face its wartime
history and not repeat it. Victory over
Japan, along with the economic development that has lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese out of poverty, are key
pillars upon which the Party asserts its
legitimacy. China is also closely watching a statement on the anniversary of
the war to be issued by Abe later this
year to see if he alters the content of
previous apologies for Japan’s conduct.
Abe said early this month that he would
release a fresh statement on World War II
this year, but would stand by previous
apologies for wartime misdeeds. —AFP
Indonesian military calls off
AirAsia wreckage recovery
PANGKALAN BUN: The Indonesian military yesterday called off efforts to recover
the wreckage of an AirAsia plane that
crashed into the Java Sea last month, after
failing to find any more bodies inside the
fuselage. Flight QZ8501 went down on
December 28 in stormy weather with 162
people on board, during what was supposed to be a short trip from the
Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.
Search and rescue teams failed repeatedly
in recent days to lift the main body of the
Airbus A320-200, where officials had hoped
to find the majority of the victims.
The navy, which has provided much of
the personnel and equipment for the rescue effort, said yesterday it was withdrawing as the badly damaged fuselage was too
difficult to lift and no more bodies had
been located. “All of our forces are being
pulled out,” said Rear Admiral Widodo, a
navy official overseeing the search and rescue operation. “We apologize to the families of the victims.”
So far just 70 bodies have been recovered, and the national search and rescue
agency said it would try to find more victims in smaller-scale operations. “We will
continue to try fulfill the hopes of the victims’ relatives, but the operation will not be
a large -scale one,” the agency ’s head
Bambang Soelistyo said. Military
spokesman Fuad Basya said that the plane’s
body was “destroyed”. “It was soaked in sea
water for a while so when we lifted it was
torn apart,” he said. “We can no longer find
any more bodies.”
International hunt
Since Saturday, salvage teams had been
using giant inflatable bags to try to raise
the fuselage, which is lying in the sea at a
depth of around 30 meters. At one point,
they managed to lift the main body to the
surface for two minutes before a sling holding it snapped. The fuselage then split in
two and sank to the seabed. There was a
huge international hunt for the AirAsia jet,
involving ships from countries including
the United States and China. But following
the discover y of the fuselage by a
Singaporean vessel, most foreign assistance was pulled out.
The jet’s black boxes-the cockpit voice
recorder and flight data recorder-have
been recovered, and investigators are analyzing them. A preliminary report into the
accident should be completed this week.
Indonesian Transport Minister Ignasius
Jonan said last week that the plane
climbed abnormally fast before stalling and
plunging into the sea. One crash investigator described how the plane’s warning
alarms were “screaming” in the moments
before the crash as the pilots desperately
sought to stabilize the aircraft.
Just moments before the plane disappeared off the radar, the pilot had asked to
climb to avoid a major storm but was not
immediately granted permission due to
heavy air traffic. Indonesia’s meteorological
agency has said weather could have
caused the accident, but only the black
boxes will be able to give definitive
answers. —AFP
TOKYO: People look at a large TV screen showing news reports about Japanese national Kenji Goto who has been kidnapped by the Islamic
State group. —AFP
Japan envoy hopeful
about hostage release
Government handling of crisis heavily criticized
INDONESIA: In this photograph taken on January 10, 2015, wreckage from AirAsia
flight QZ8501 is lifted into a ship at sea south of Borneo Island. — AFP
S Korea blocks North
bid for right of arrest
SEOUL: South Korea said yesterday it had
blocked a North Korean bid for the right to
detain South Korean businessmen working
in the Kaesong joint industrial zone in the
event of a dispute. The Kaesong complex,
which lies about 10 kilometers inside North
Korea, hosts some 100 Seoul-owned factories where 53,000 North Korean workers
produce goods from clothes to watches.
Hundreds of South Korean managers also
work in the complex, established in 2004 as
a symbol of inter-Korea cooperation.
Last September, Pyongyang drafted a
new operational regulation that would
allow the North to detain South Korean
businessmen when there is an unresolved
business dispute. “They sent us the request
to change some rules on the Kaesong complex, including making it possible to detain
our entrepreneurs,” an official from Seoul’s
Unification Ministry said. “We rejected the
request ... and there has been no word from
the North on that since then,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A precious source of hard currency for
the impoverished North, Kaesong had until
recently remained largely immune to the
volatile swings in inter-Korean ties. But in
April 2013, the North effectively shut down
the complex by withdrawing its workforce
during a spike in military tensions that followed the North’s third nuclear test.
Kaesong reopened five months later, but
the shutdown raised concerns over the
safety of South Koreans working there. In
an effort to prevent any future closures, the
North and South created a joint committee
to oversee Kaesong and deal with any
problems related to its operations.
Yoo Chang-Geun, the vice head of the
association that represents South Korean
companies operating in Kaesong, said the
fact that North Korea even proposed a regulation giving it detention rights was worrying. “A move like this unnerves companies like us. Who’s going to invest in
Kaesong if there was such a rule?” Yoo said.
Yoo’s company produces manufacturing
machinery in Kaesong, and he said businesses had been badly hurt by the 2013
closure that caused the cancellation of
numerous contracts. “We only wish we
could do business without constantly worrying about politics,” he said. —AFP
TOKYO: A Japanese envoy in Jordan expressed
hope that both Japanese hostage Kenji Goto
and a Jordanian pilot held by Islamic militants
will return home “with a smile on their faces,” as
questions rose yesterday over the government’s handling of the crisis. In the Jordanian
capital, Amman, Deputy Foreign Minister
Yasuhide Nakayama seemed determined, saying he believed there were “firm ties” between
Japan and Jordan.
“I hope we can all firmly work hard and join
hands to cooperate, and for the two countries
(Japan and Jordan) to cooperate, in order for us
to see the day when the Jordanian pilot and
our Japanese national Mr Goto, can both safely
return to their own countries with a smile on
their faces,” Nakayama, a lawmaker send to
coordinate efforts in Amman to save two
Japanese hostages of the Islamic State group,
said late Monday night.
Prisoner swap
It was the first mention by a Japanese official of Jordanian pilot 1st Lt Mu’ath AlKaseasbeh, who has been held by the extremist Islamic State group after crashing in
December. It wasn’t clear when the pilot’s possible release had entered the picture. The issue
of a prisoner swap is sensitive, given Jordanian
concern over the pilot, and Nakayama
emerged from the Japanese Embassy yesterday with no new updates. “There are other parties involved, so I don’t want to comment on
details of the negotiations,” he said.
Goto, a journalist, was seized in late October
in Syria, apparently while trying to rescue 42year-old Haruna Yukawa, an adventurer who
was captured by the militants last summer.
Over the weekend, an unverified video surfaced showing a still photo of Goto, 47, holding
what appears to be a photo of Yukawa’s body.
It included a recording of a voice claiming to
be Goto, saying his captors wanted the release
of Sajida Al-Rashawi, an Iraqi woman sentenced to death in Jordan for involvement in a
suicide bombing that killed 60 people.
The message retracted a demand for payment of $200 million in ransom for the two
Japanese, made in an earlier online message,
and said Yukawa had been killed. It threatened
to kill Goto unless al-Rashawi was released.
Japanese officials are treating the video
released over the weekend as authentic and
thus accepting the likelihood that Yukawa was
killed. However, the new message varied greatly from previous videos released by the Islamic
State group, and The Associated Press could
not verify its contents and whether they actually reflect the group’s demands.
Securing the release of Al-Rashawi would be
a propaganda coup for the Islamic State,
enabling the group to reaffirm links to AlQaeda in Iraq. Al-Rashawi fled but was captured after her explosive belt failed to detonate
in the attack in Jordan. She pleaded not guilty.
In Tokyo yesterday, an interfaith gathering of
Buddhists, Muslims and Christians holding
placards and banners reading, “Free Goto” and
“I am Kenji,” gathered outside the parliament.
“Islam is not about someone calling himself
Muslim and committing the crime of killing.
This is not Islam,” said Muhammad Yusuf
Othman, a Muslim teacher.
Weak connections
In Japan, some are critical of Goto and
Yukawa for traveling to the risky area. Some
also are criticizing Abe, the prime minister, for
pursuing a more assertive foreign policy, saying it may have contributed to the crisis.
Despite Japan’s heavy reliance on Middle
Eastern oil and gas, its diplomatic pipeline in
the region is thin, experts say. “When it comes
to Islamic affairs and Islamic law, the govern-
ment’s expertise and connections are extremely weak,” said Ko Nakata, a Muslim convert and
former Islamic expert at the Japanese Embassy
in Saudi Arabia. Last week, he offered to try to
help secure the hostages’ release but there was
no public response from the government.
Abe’s envoy Nakayama, 44, is a former advertisement agency employee with a sports science degree and hardly any experience in
Middle East; though his official profile shows
he has joined defense and national security
panels. As parliamentary debate resumed yesterday, lawmaker Seiji Maehara of the opposition Democratic Party questioned Abe on how
the government has handled the hostages’ cases since when Yukawa was seized in August. He
noted Abe’s explicit mention of the Islamic
State in an announcement of $200 million in
humanitarian aid to the nations fighting the
extremists - something also mentioned in the
videos issued by the militants.
Japan has no military role in the conflict, but
Abe has been pushing to expand the role for
Japan’s troops - one that has remained strictly
confined to self-defense under the pacifist constitution adopted after the nation’s defeat in
World War II. But Abe defended his performance. The $200 million contribution was aimed
at “providing food and medicine to save the
lives of more than 10 million people, including
refugees and children who have lost their
homes, shivering in cold and suffering from illnesses.”
“Our contribution has won high praises
from the international community,” he said. “If
we fear the risks so much that we succumb to
the terrorists’ threats, we won’t be able to make
any humanitarian contributions to countries
surrounding the area of conflict,” Abe said. “Our
country will never bow to terrorists. We will
continue our humanitarian support in our own
unique way.” — AP
‘High likelihood’ Malaysian militant killed in firefight
UNDISCLOSED LOCATION: This picture released from North Korea’s official Korean
Central News Agency (KCNA) shows a winter river-crossing attack drill of the
armored infantry sub-units of the motorized strike group in the western sector of the
front of the Korean People’s Army. —AFP
MANILA: The Philippines said yesterday there
was a “high likelihood” a Malaysian militant suspected of being behind the 2002 Bali bombings was killed in a chaotic operation in the
countr y ’s south that left 44 police dead.
Sunday’s offensive against “high-value targets”
including Zulkifli Bin Hir one of the United
States’s most wanted militants with a $5 million
bounty on his head-turned into a bloodbath,
with President Benigno Aquino ordering a
probe into the incident. Nearly 400 highlytrained Philippine policemen took part in the
operation in the remote southern farming town
of Mamasapano to arrest top militants-including Zulkifli, who is also known as Marwan-but
were ambushed by Islamist fighters.
They managed to escape but strayed into territory controlled by a different militant group,
sparking another firefight. “There is a high likelihood according to the participants that Marwan
was killed in the operations, but this needs confirmation,” Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas told a
news conference. While they failed to recover
the body of the main target, “they were able to
take pictures, and these pictures will undergo a
process to determine whether it was Marwan or
not.”
Zulkifli, among the United States’s most
wanted militants, is a bomb maker for the
Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) group which staged the
2002 bombings in Bali that claimed 202 lives,
and other deadly attacks in Southeast Asia. A
top Malaysian police official on counter-terrorism told the Malay Mail newspaper that Kuala
Lumpur was still waiting for information from
the Philippine authorities on Zulkifli’s fate.
Zulkifli, described by the US State Department
as a 48-year-old Malaysian militant and a member of JI’s central command who had trained as
an engineer in the United States, has long been
sought by the authorities. Declarations of his
death, however, have proved premature in the
past. In March 2012 Malaysian counter-terror
police denied a Philippine military claim that
Zulkifli was killed in an air strike.
CR
IP
TI
ON
BS
SU
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
India will work
closely with
Kuwait to
boost ties: Jain
www.kuwaittimes.net
RABI ALTHANI 8, 1436 AH
Berdych ends
8-year losing
streak to
stun Nadal
inside
NO: 16416
confiscate illegal weapons
40 PAGES
150 FILS
2Assembly
20 approves law to
MP blasts ‘criminal’ expats, demands action
Min 11º
Max 27º
High Tide
05:48 & 17:35
Low Tide
11:38
By B Izzak
Muslims first victims of ‘terror’: French FM
By Ben Garcia, Faten Omar and Agencies
KUWAIT: French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius
called yesterday for international cooperation
against extremism, saying Muslims have been the
first victims of “terrorism”. “No one fights under
the name of religion,” Fabius told journalists in
Kuwait, the first Muslim country he has visited
since last month’s deadly attack on French magazine Charlie Hebdo by Islamist gunmen. When
Kuwait and France fight “against terrorism, we
fight those who are not only liars, but also killers,”
he said. “Muslims have been the first victims of
those terrorists.” Fabius called for more solid international cooperation to rein out extremism saying
that “this is a battle we should win”.
Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah AlKhaled Al-Sabah said Kuwait and France had
“identical views on terrorism,” and reiterated
Kuwait’s strong condemnation of the “brutal
attacks in France”, a reference to Charlie Hebdo.
Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled also warned that “terrorism is a threat for all of us”, and called for greater
efforts to drain funding of radical groups and
recruitment of fighters. Fabius said France looks
to Islam as a moderate religion and stressed that
French authorities will apply the law firmly
against any acts against Islam or Muslims.
The French chief diplomat was received by HH
the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and
other senior Kuwaiti officials.
Continued on Page 13
KUWAIT: (From left) Kuwaiti Minister of Electricity, Water and Public Works Abdulaziz Al-Ibrahim, French
Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and French ambassador to Kuwait Christian Nakhle take part in the inauguration ceremony of a seawater desalination plant in Al-Zour yesterday. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat
KUWAIT: The National Assembly yesterday passed a law
giving the interior ministry the powers to collect unlicensed firearms after agreeing to increase penalties on
violators. After a brief delay to make necessary legal
changes, MPs approved the law, which will become effective after four months of publication in the official gazette
Kuwait Al-Youm. People who possess firearms without a
valid license can be jailed for up to five years and a fine not
exceeding KD 10,000. Those
caught trading in firearms
face a jail term of up to 10
years and a fine of KD 50,000
or one of the two penalties.
The passage came after
the interior ministry told the
house that regional turmoil
required legislation to ensure
that illegal firearms are confiscated. The law gives the
people four months to hand
over firearms to the interior
ministry or risk becoming
Sheikh Mohammad
violators and face the stiff
penalties. Interior Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al-Khaled
Al-Sabah vowed that the law will be implemented with full
transparency and clarity, adding that signs of success have
already started to surface after “a number of families contacted us to hand over firearms they have”. He provided no
details.
The minister also vowed not to violate Kuwaiti traditions and values while conducting house searches, saying
that a number of female staff have been trained to search
houses.
Continued on Page 13
PAGE
PAGE
9 killed as gunmen
Blizzard spares NY,
IS threatens to
attack Tripoli hotel
New England buried
kill Japan, Jordan
hostages in 24 hrs Obama meets new Saudi king
BEIRUT: The Islamic State jihadist group
threatened yesterday to kill a Japanese
journalist and a Jordanian pilot within 24
hours unless Amman frees a jailed female
militant. A video released on jihadist websites shows a picture of Japanese hostage
Kenji Goto holding a photograph of
Jordanian pilot Maaz Al-Kassasbeh. A
voiceover, purportedly by Goto, warns that
Jordan is blocking the Japanese journalist’s release by failing to free Sajida AlRishawi, a would-be suicide bomber on
death row since 2006. It follows a video
released last week in which the group
claimed to have beheaded another
Japanese hostage, Haruna Yukawa, and
said Goto would be killed next if Rishawi
was not freed.
Japan said following the new threat
that it was seeking help from Jordan. “The
government in this extremely difficult situation has been asking for assistance from
the Jordanian government towards securing Goto’s early release,” Chief Cabinet
Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters.
Moments after the new video appeared,
Goto’s mother Junko Ishido said: “I think
the government should do whatever it
can do”. “Kenji does not hold any animosity
toward the Islamic State. He went to the
Islamic State out of his extreme concern
for Mr. Yukawa,” she told Japanese media.
Earlier Tokyo said it was working with
Jordan to free both Goto and Kassasbeh.
“Both countries are closely cooperating
towards the return of each of them to their
countries,” deputy foreign minister
Yasuhide Nakayama told reporters in
Amman. Jordan’s King Abdullah pledged
full cooperation with Japan during a meeting with Nakayama to ensure Goto’s
release, Tokyo said. The new video says
Goto and Kassasbeh will be killed within
24 hours if Rishawi is not freed, and urges
the Japanese government to put pressure
on Jordan.
There was no immediate comment
from Jordan, a moderate Muslim nation
that is one of Japan’s closest diplomatic
allies in the Middle East. Kassasbeh was
captured by IS on Dec 24 after his F-16 jet
crashed while on a mission against the
jihadists over northern Syria. Rishawi was
sentenced to death by a Jordanian court in
Sept 2006 in connection with triple hotel
bomb attacks in Amman the previous year
that killed 60 people. The 44-year-old was
arrested four days after the attacks in
which her husband Ali Hussein AlShammari and two other Iraqis blew
themselves up.
Continued on Page 13
Baghdad flights
disrupted after
bullets hit jet
BAGHDAD: Bullets hit the fuselage of a flydubai airliner on its descent into Baghdad, prompting many carriers to suspend their flights to the Iraqi capital yesterday. Flight FZ215 was hit by “small arms fire” before
landing yesterday but all passengers disembarked
safely, a flydubai spokesperson told AFP. The no-frills
carrier, a sister firm of Emirates, said it was working
with Iraqi authorities to investigate the incident,
adding that it would continue to fly to its other destinations in Iraq.
Other UAE carriers, including Emirates, Etihad and
Air Arabia, suspended their flights to Baghdad, as did
Turkish Airlines, Gulf Air and Lebanon’s Middle East
Airlines (MEA). “Emirates has suspended its services to
Baghdad until further notice due to operational reasons,” the Dubai-based carrier said. The Abu Dhabibased Etihad Airways said it had “suspended all flights
to the Iraqi city with immediate effect and until further
notice”. The website of Sharjah-based budget carrier
Air Arabia also showed that flights to Baghdad were
not available.
MEA chief executive Mohammad Al-Hout said yesterday’s Beirut-Baghdad service had been cancelled,
although the airline’s flights to other Iraqi cities were
continuing as normal. “As far as tomorrow’s (flight) is
concerned, we are waiting to assess the situation and
see what steps are going to be taken before deciding,”
he told AFP.
A Turkish Airlines official told AFP its flights yesterday to Baghdad had been cancelled for “operational
reasons”, while Royal Jordanian said it was reviewing
the situation. — AFP
RIYADH: New Saudi King Salman shakes hands with US President Barack Obama
at Erga Palace in the Saudi capital yesterday. — AFP
RIYADH: US President Barack Obama led
a heavyweight delegation to Saudi
Arabia yesterday to meet new King
Salman and shore up ties that have suffered in recent years. The longstanding
allies remain bound by shared interests
in regional stability and oil. Since last
year Saudi Arabia has been part of the
US-led coalition carrying out air strikes
against the Islamic State jihadist group.
But analysts say Riyadh has also grown
dissatisfied with what it sees as a lack of
US engagement in crises elsewhere in
the region, including in Yemen and Libya,
as Washington looks to Asia.
There has also been unease in the
kingdom about Obama’s pursuit of a
nuclear deal with Shiite-dominated Iran,
the regional rival of Sunni-majority Saudi
Arabia. Members of the US delegation,
which crossed party lines and included
former Bush-era officials, said they wanted to show support for the US-Saudi relationship. “I believe it is important that we
demonstrate to the Saudis the
Continued on Page 13
Dubai overtakes Heathrow as top airport
This still image taken from a video shows Japanese journalist Kenji Goto holding
a photo of Jordanian pilot Maaz Al-Kassasbeh. Both are being held hostage by
the Islamic State militant group. The Arabic subtitle reads “I only have 24 hours
left to live”. — AP
DUBAI: Dubai airport has soared ahead of
London’s Heathrow, riding a boom in longhaul flights between Asia and the West to
become the world’s top international travel
hub, it said yesterday. Traffic at the airport
increased 6.1 percent last year to 70.47 million
passengers, Dubai Airports said, adding that it
expected a further surge in traveller numbers
in 2015. Dubai International is home to
Emirates, the Middle East’s largest carrier,
which along with Abu Dhabi’s Etihad and
Qatar Airways has seized a significant portion
of travel between the West, Asia and
Australasia. “This historic milestone is the cul-
mination of over five decades of double-digit
average growth,” Dubai Airports Chairman
Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum said in
a statement. “The shared goal is to make
Dubai a global centre of aviation and we are
nearing that goal,” he said.
Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths said
Dubai International would boost its annual
capacity to 90 million passengers this year
with the opening of Concourse D - a new hall
for arrivals and departures. Oil-poor Dubai has
spent years trying to diversify its economy
with core sectors now including trade, transport and tourism. Aided by a rapid expansion
in capacity, aviation is expected to account for
more than a third of the emirate’s GDP by
2020.
London Heathrow by contrast has struggled to grow, with a commission still studying
proposals to increase capacity there and at
Gatwick airport, south of London. The two are
among five airports serving the UK capital
that form the busiest hub in the world with
around 135 million passengers a year.
Heathrow handled 68.1 million international
passengers in 2014, according to airport figures.
Continued on Page 13
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
NEWS
Dubai overtakes Heathrow as top airport
Continued from Page 1
The British hub still outclassed Dubai International in
overall numbers, handling 73.4 million passengers if
travellers on domestic flights are included.
Dubai’s increase in passenger numbers comes
despite a slight fall in the number of flights taking off in
2014, due to 80-day runway refurbishment project.
Emirates Airline in particular has bought more widebodied aircraft, including the world’s largest fleet of
Airbus A380 superjumbos, helping the average number
of passengers per flight at Dubai to grow to more than
200. Dubai’s surge in traffic “is no doubt due to the massive A380 fleet at Emirates,” said aviation expert Addison
Schonland. “The airline has proven the A380 can be used
anywhere in a profitable way. If Emirates keeps growing
as it has so far, Dubai’s airport will have to keep growing
along with it,” said Schonland, a US-based consultant
with AirInsight.
Flights to and from Western Europe saw the biggest
passenger growth in Dubai, followed closely by destinations in the Indian subcontinent, Asia and North
America. European airlines, notably Air France-KLM and
Lufthansa, have voiced concern at increased activity by
Gulf-based companies, complaining of differences in
taxation that they say cause unfair competition.
Dubai’s other airport, Al-Maktoum International,
opened for passengers in 2013 and will be capable of
handling 120 million travellers when completed in 2022.
The project launched before the global financial crisis hit
in 2009, and originally planned to feature a 160-millionpassenger capacity and six runways. The ambitious plan
appeared to have been put on the backburner due to
the economic downturn, and the airport instead opened
cargo operations in 2010. A small number of passenger
flights began there in 2013 after repeated delays. — AFP
Assembly approves law to confiscate...
Continued from Page 1
He also said that the ministry has highly-advanced
devices to search houses without the need of entering
some of them, adding that he will provide the Assembly
with periodical reports on the progress of the law’s implementation. The interior ministry has been long campaigning for the approval of this legislation. The Assembly also
passed a new law regulating the affairs of families.
During the debate yesterday, MP Abdullah AlTameemi launched a scathing attack on expatriates,
alleging that they commit the majority of crimes in the
country. He also said that the numbers of only two communities exceed the number of Kuwaitis, and demanded
quick action to reform the demographic structure.
In another development, the Assembly decided to
allocate one hour in today’s session to pay tributes to
late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia who died a few days
ago. The Assembly also lifted the immunities of MPs
Abdulhameed Dashti, Saadoun Hammad and Nabeel AlFadhl to face trials and investigations in court. The criminal court meanwhile set Feb 16 as the date to start the
hearing into the case of Dashti on charges of making
statements deemed highly offensive to the Gulf state of
Bahrain and its leadership. His immunity was lifted by
the Assembly in order to enable him to face trial.
Meanwhile, the court of appeals yesterday rejected
demands for KD 1 million in damages from former
opposition MP Faisal Al-Mislem for allegedly revealing
confidential bank information. Mislem was earlier convicted of revealing confidential bank information after
he showed a cheque issued by a bank to prove corruption allegations against the government. The administrative court, meanwhile, will start hearing the case of
Al-Watan newspaper, which had its commercial license
scrapped by the ministry of commerce and industry
over financial reasons. Its media license was also cancelled a few days later.
IS threatens to kill Japan, Jordan hostages...
Continued from Page 1
Starlings fly in the sky of Rome at sunset yesterday. — AFP
Obama meets new Saudi king
Continued from Page 1
importance that they represent to us,” said James
Baker, secretary of state during the first Gulf War against
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. “This is an extraordinarily
critical and sensitive time in the Middle East when
everything seems to be falling apart. And the kingdom
in some way is becoming an island of stability,” said
Baker.
Obama and his 29-member delegation arrived for a
four-hour stop from India where he cut short a state visit following the death of Salman’s predecessor, King
Abdullah, on Friday. Saudi television showed Salman,
79, welcoming Obama and his wife Michelle at the bottom of a red-carpeted ramp before a military band
played the US and Saudi national anthems. In contrast
to Saudi women, required to dress head-to-toe in black,
Michelle Obama wore dark slacks and a blue top with
her hair uncovered. Salman’s heir Crown Prince Muqrin
and Mohammed bin Nayef, the powerful interior minister who is second in line to the throne, were among
those greeting the Americans.
The US president then boarded a black limousine
taking him for talks and dinner with Salman at central
Riyadh’s Erga Palace, the king’s private residence where
the smell of incense hung heavily in the air. “Good to
see you,” Obama repeatedly said to his Saudi hosts
before they dined on Arabic and Western dishes including shish tawook and baked lobster before leaving the
kingdom. Authorities deployed armoured vehicles,
police cars and radar throughout the city to secure
Obama’s visit, an AFP reporter observed. Obama last visited Saudi Arabia in March, when he held talks with
Abdullah.
Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said
the new trip was an “opportunity to both pay respects
to the legacy of King Abdullah, who was a close partner
with the United States and also to touch base on some
of the issues where we’re working together with the
Saudis,” which include the Islamic State group, Yemen,
and the Iranian nuclear negotiations. IS, a Sunni extremist group, released a video celebrating the death of the
King Abdullah, and said that “Allah permitting” they will
invade the Arabian Peninsula soon, SITE Intelligence
Group said yesterday.
Baker, who served under president George Bush, said
there are “some problems” in the US-Saudi relationship.
“But we will be in a hell of a lot better shape to handle
those problems if the relationship is as strong again as it
was when I was in office,” he said, adding that he has
always thought of Salman as “very pro-US” and a “no
nonsense guy”. According to Anwar Eshki, chairman of
the Jeddah-based Centre for Strategic and Legal
Studies, the Saudis would like Washington to exercise
more pressure to get the protagonists in Yemen and
Libya back to negotiations. He said Riyadh would also
like what it sees as discrimination against Sunnis in Iraq
to be addressed, to eliminate the underlying reasons for
the emergence of IS.
Former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft and
Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state under George W
Bush, joined the US contingent which included current
Central Intelligence Agency director John Brennan and
General Lloyd Austin, head of US Central Command.
They had all accompanied Obama to India but Secretary
of State John Kerry and Senator John McCain joined the
president especially for his Saudi trip. McCain, a
Republican who chairs the Senate Armed Services
Committee, said the kingdom was emerging “as the
major bulwark” against efforts by Iran to expand its
influence in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and Bahrain.
“There is no doubt that the Iranians are on the move,”
McCain said. Obama is the latest leader to visit Riyadh
since Friday. His reception was the most elaborate but
sheikhs, presidents and prime ministers from Europe,
Asia, Africa and the Americas all came to pay their
respects. Australia’s Governor General Peter Cosgrove
also arrived yesterday. — AFP
The heaviest casualties came when Shammari detonated his explosives belt at the Radisson SAS hotel as a
wedding was in full swing. Two other hotels were hit in
the coordinated attacks and most of the dead were
Jordanians.
IS apparently beheaded Yukawa, a Japanese contractor, last week after a 72-hour deadline for a $200 million
ransom passed without payment. The ransom demand
came as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged,
during a trip to the Middle East, a $200 million aid package to countries affected by the militant group’s bloody
expansion in Iraq and Syria. In response, Abe vowed to
never “give in to terrorism”. In a video released Saturday, IS
said its demand had now changed and it wanted Rishawi
released from death row in Jordan in exchange for the life
of Goto. Tokyo is likely to face resistance from Washington
over any kind of swap.
Asked about recent developments, US State
Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said a prisoner
exchange was “in the same category” as paying a ransom.
IS has seized swathes of Syria and Iraq where it has
declared a “caliphate”. It has committed atrocities including the beheadings of two US reporters, an American aid
worker and two British aid workers. — AFP
Muslims first victims of ‘terror’: French FM
Continued from Page 1
Earlier in the day, Fabius and Kuwait’s Minister of Public
Works and Electricity and Water Abdulaziz Al-Ibrahim inaugurated part of the Al-Zour North power plant, 100 km
south of Kuwait City, being built and managed by French
company GDF Suez in an alliance with Japanese and
Kuwaiti firms. The reverse osmosis water desalination plant
has a production capacity of 30 million imperial gallons per
day, boosting total water production by 15 percent.
“Kuwait was one of the first countries in the world to
use seawater desalination technology, creating opportunities for development. Our plan for the future is to double
electric power and water desalination over the next 10
years through the implementation of many projects,”
Ibrahim said during the opening of the Zour plant. “We
hope that French companies will be involved with the ministry of electricity and water or any other ministry,” he
added.
France’s Veolia and Kuwait’s Alghanim were awarded
the project worth KD 54 million with operation and maintenance for five years. The South Al-Zour station is the second reverse osmosis project in Kuwait, the first being the
Shuwaikh station that opened in 2011. These plants consume 20 percent less power. “Kuwait is an important
investor in France and we also want to invest in Kuwait,”
Fabius said. “This achievement shows the cooperation
between the two countries, and this technology is the best
in the world. I’ve seen the five-year plan of Kuwait for the
period 2015 to 2019 and I see Kuwait’s ambitions cover all
areas, so we hope that there will be greater cooperation
between the two countries in the field of health, transport,
water, energy and others,” he said.
“We also want to develop a relationship in the scientific
field. I suggest teaching French in Kuwaiti schools, and we
believe this is the best way to prepare students for a common future. To facilitate travel to France for Kuwaitis, we
have decided to make the maximum time limit for the
issuance of a visa to France just 48 hours,” Fabius added.
Later, three important agreements were signed by
Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled and Fabius, including a declaration
of intent for promoting and developing language cooperation as part of bilateral cultural relations. Both sides also
inked a memo of understanding for a water desalination
project using solar energy, together with an extended
memo of understanding in the field of personnel training.
Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled noted France is an important
economic ally of Kuwait and its 10th largest trade partner,
as the volume of trade between the two nations reached
approximately $2 billion. In the regional and international
sphere, Kuwait praised the constructive and positive role
played by France at the UN Security Council for the
resumption of the Mideast peace process and played an
important role with regards to the situations in Syria, Iraq,
Yemen and Libya. The two sides also discussed ways and
means of promoting and developing bilateral political,
economic and cultural relations. During the meeting, both
ministers reviewed the latest developments on both
regional and international arenas and key issues of mutual
interest.
ANALYSIS
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
THE LEADING INDEPENDENT
DAILY IN THE ARABIAN GULF
ESTABLISHED 1961
Founder and Publisher
YOUSUF S. AL-ALYAN
Editor-in-Chief
ABD AL-RAHMAN AL-ALYAN
EDITORIAL
: 24833199-24833358-24833432
ADVERTISING
: 24835616/7
FAX
: 24835620/1
CIRCULATION
: 24833199 Extn. 163
ACCOUNTS
: 24835619
COMMERCIAL
: 24835618
P.O.Box 1301 Safat,13014 Kuwait.
E MAIL :[email protected]
Website: www.kuwaittimes.net
Focus
IS hostage swap
demand a bid
to sow dissent
By Hiroshi Hiyama
he Islamic State group’s demand that a jihadi on
Jordan’s death row be exchanged for a Japanese
hostage is an attempt to chip away at the US-led
coalition against extremism in the Middle East, analysts say.
The militants, whose brutal rule stretches across swathes of
Iraq and Syria, is hoping to sow dissent among Jordan,
Japan and the United States by offering to spare the life of
journalist Kenji Goto. Their price, they say, is freedom for
Sajida Al-Rishawi, a woman sentenced to death for her role
in the bombing of three hotels in Amman in 2005 that
killed 60 people, an event sometimes referred to as
“Jordan’s 9/11”.
And in a chilling development yesterday, a new video
set a 24 hour deadline for her release, threatening to kill
Goto and a captured Jordanian pilot if the militants do not
get their way. For Tokyo, scarred by the apparent beheading last week of Goto’s fellow captive, Haruna Yukawa, it
appears to be an attractive offer. But it leaves Amman trying to balance the demands of a big donor while not losing
its best bargaining chip in efforts to secure the release of
Maaz al-Kassasbeh, who was captured by Islamic State
fighters after they shot his plane down over Syria.
“The Jordanian public would become extremely angry if
(Rishawi) were to be released,” said Masanori Naito, professor of Islamic studies at Japan’s Doshisha University. That
anger would be amplified if Amman played its best hand releasing Rishawi - only for Tokyo’s benefit. “That would
deal a serious blow to the Jordanian government. It is a
very difficult situation,” he added. It would also risk angering the United States, Japan’s bedrock ally and the foundation of its foreign policy, which made clear on Monday that
it considered a prisoner swap as “in the same category” as
paying a ransom. “We don’t make concessions to terrorists.
That remains the case,” State Department spokeswoman
Jen Psaki told reporters.
T
Balancing Act
Jordan, as a moderate Muslim nation, is one of Japan’s
best diplomatic friends in the Middle East. On his recent
regional tour, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met King
Abdullah II, praising the country’s efforts “on the front line
of the fight against” Islamic State militants, including its
effort to help refugees fleeing war in Syria. The Japanese
premier also announced a fresh $100 million loan to
Jordan, on top of $28 million of assistance to be given via
international organisations.
Tokyo turned to Amman when a video emerged last
week showing two Japanese men apparently kneeling in
the desert as a masked man threatened they would be
killed if Japan did not pay a $200 million ransom. Abe dispatched his deputy foreign minister Yasuhide Nakayama to
lead Japan’s emergency response team from the Jordanian
capital, in the hope of leveraging their friendship and
opening communication channels to the militants. But
when the jihadists executed one hostage and moved the
goalposts with a new demand, it added an unwelcome
complication for Amman. The IS move compromises
Jordan’s position, because it now leaves “Japan applying
pressure in the form of the calls to release the death row
inmate,” according to Japan’s biggest-selling paper, the
Yomiuri Shimbun. While Jordan’s priority is the return of
one of their own, it may quail at disappointing deep-pocketed Tokyo, wary of the possible future impact on relations.
‘Expand Negotiations’
Oraib Rentawi, the director of the Amman-based AlQuds Centre for Political Studies, said it would be unreasonable for Tokyo to expect the Jordanians to release
Rishawi to free Goto while their airman remains captive.
But they may seek to be bold and expand their demands to
both captives, he said. “Now it is an opportunity for Jordan
to expand negotiations with IS to reach a package deal to
release both the Japanese hostage and the Jordanian
pilot,” he told AFP in Amman.
The Yomiuri Shimbun said a two-for-two swap, which
could see Jordan offering another IS-related prisoner
alongside Rishawi in exchange for both Goto and
Kassasbeh, was another possibility. The danger, said the
newspaper, is that might encourage IS to up its demands.
Tokyo on Tuesday seemed to be laying the groundwork for
just such a double exchange. “The release of the Jordanian
pilot is an issue for Japan,” Nakayama told reporters in
Amman, stressing Tokyo’s stake in his well-being. Both
countries are closely cooperating towards the return of
each of them to their countries.” But within hours of
Nakayama speaking, US Secretary of State John Kerry had
telephoned his Japanese counterpart. Robert Dujarric,
director of Asian Studies at Temple University’s Tokyo campus, said it was important to remember that Tokyo does
not have a completely free hand in cajoling Jordan. “It also
depends on the US position,” he said. — AFP
All articles appearing on these
pages are the personal opinion of
the writers. Kuwait Times takes no
responsibility for views expressed
therein. Kuwait Times invites readers to voice their opinions. Please
send submissions via email to: [email protected] or via snail
mail to PO Box 1301 Safat, Kuwait.
The editor reserves the right to edit
any submission as necessary.
Energy geeks reimagining old school utility
By Nichola Groom
elcome to the utility industry’s future - or at least that’s
what Southern California Edison is hoping. Here in a
non-descript, 53,500-square-foot building, the $12 billion utility’s research team is testing everything from charging
electronic vehicles via cell phone to devices that smooth out the
power created by rooftop solar panels. Those are some of the
roughly 60 projects in the works at Edison’s Advanced
Technology division. It has a small $19 million annual budget,
but its influence far exceeds that.
The engineers from California’s largest utility are hatching
plans to insure its survival - and maybe even the survival of the
nation’s other big utilities, which are watching the project closely. The lab was formed by Southern California Edison in 2009
after California passed a landmark law to lower its greenhouse
gas emissions to 1990 levels - and source one third of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. The result has been more
electric vehicles here in the Golden State. And more solar and
wind power, which has got the state’s utilities, and those nationwide, scrambling to adapt. Unlike traditional electricity, power
from solar and wind sources fluctuates depending on the
weather, making it tricky to manage on the grid.
Also the cost of solar power has come down so much that
more homeowners are producing their own power and paying
less to their utility. Simply put: long term, utilities will need new
sources of revenue. In 2013, California’s three largest utilities
sourced nearly 23 percent of their power from renewable
sources, and Gov. Jerry Brown has called for a target of 50 percent by 2030. Twenty nine states have laws requiring more
renewables, according to North Carolina State University’s
Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency. With so
much “distributed” energy on the grid now, mainly from solar
panels, says Accenture, the utility industry could see revenues
fall by between $18 billion and $48 billion a year by 2025. That’s
why some call it the utility “death spiral”.
W
Industry Model
There’s a reason why the lab’s work is getting a lot of atten-
tion: It is producing results and they share the work with utility
officials and researchers from as far away as China. For instance,
Edison’s work designing cyber security systems and developing
uses for advanced energy meters have received high marks from
other utilities, said Mark McGranaghan, a vice president at the
Electric Power Research Institute.
Edison’s lab has emerged as a model for others, too. In 2013
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory opened its $135 million Energy Systems Integration Facility, which complements
Edison’s research. The New York Power Authority is also working
to establish a similar lab. “The concept is really built off of learnings from Southern California Edison,” McGranaghan said. “They
have taken so many people through their labs, it’s amazing.”
The Wild West
Edison is focused on energy storage, automation and digital
communications that will improve the efficiency and reliability
of the grid. That, the utility hopes, will result in new revenue as
power demand flattens (more energy-efficient homes) and
rooftop solar ramps up.
“There is only one provider of the wires, which is us,” said Ted
Craver, CEO of Edison International, the utility’s parent company.
“These new technologies are going to become much more
prevalent and we, maybe immodestly, feel we are on the cutting
edge.”
Many of those technologies have yet to be commercialized,
but the market is booming. Smart grid spending will grow to
$70.2 billion in 2023 from $44.1 billion in 2014, according to
Navigant Research. That’s why Edison built nine labs here. In one
room Edison researchers replicate a complete power grid. That
was used to troubleshoot when Edison was working on a new
transmission line to connect its grid with California’s other behemoth utility, Pacific Gas & Electric.
In another lab, “smart” inverters are being tested that are
capable of smoothing out the voltage sent to the grid by solar
panels. These devices are common in Europe, but have yet to be
rolled out widely in the United States.
“It’s a bit of the Wild West right now,” Doug Kim, director of
the utility’s advanced technology group, said of the proliferation
of new energy technologies. Every year The Advanced
Technology group solicits project proposals from the rest of the
utility. Among them: a project that studied how large amounts
of wind and solar power affect power restoration during blackouts; another tested different kinds of batteries to see how they
perform when storing energy along the grid.
Electric Guinea Pigs
Many of the new technologies are taken for a test drive at
University of California, Irvine, faculty housing. “The Irvine Smart
Grid Demonstration,” a $79 million project launched in 2010 and
funded in part by the U.S. Department of Energy, will wrap up
later this year. SCE’s take: If you can figure out ways to generate
electricity at home, and use it more efficiently, you can cut costs
related to new generation and transmission equipment. “We
threw everything in there that we could think of, thinking that
maybe someday it was going to be real,” SCE’s Kim said. “Sure
enough just about everything we are testing here is now real.”
Crista Lopes, a computer science professor, said the project cut
her electric bill to zero in the summer. The utility outfitted her
house with solar panels, about 50 LED light bulbs and new
appliances like a “smart” refrigerator whose power usage she can
track.
The Endgame
The stakes for the Irvine project are high. At the conclusion,
Edison will make recommendations on smart grid technologies
to the industry. The utility will then take the testing to a larger
area - perhaps thousands of homes. Of course, the industry will
hear about the mishaps too.
For example, Crista Lopes has a device that controls energy
consumption when demand is high. That was great until she
was without air conditioning for three hours during a heat wave;
Edison planned the outage for just 15 minutes, but a system that
worked in the lab failed to send the correct command. But those
stumbles are why the project is valuable, said Bob Yinger, the
chief engineer. “We learn about what the issues are,” he said,
“and manufacturers learn about how their products behave in
the real world.” — Reuters
Britain election could herald EU exit
By Katherine Haddon
ritain is revving up for one of the tightest and most
unpredictable elections in memory, as Prime Minister
David Cameron fights to retain power and call a referendum on European Union membership. A fragmented
vote yielding a new coalition is seen as the most likely outcome, thrusting smaller parties into the limelight in a
country that is still used to a traditional split between
Conservatives and Labour. The campaign so far has been
dominated by the rise of the anti-EU UK Independence
Party (UKIP), and peppered with debate on immigration,
health spending and economic wellbeing during a recovery following years of austerity.
If Cameron’s Conservatives win outright on May 7, the
premier has said he will seek to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with the EU before calling an in-or-out referendum on membership by the end of 2017. But as the 100day countdown to elections begins Tuesday, experts predict that neither the Conservatives nor Labour will secure a
majority in the 650-seat House of Commons. Instead
Britain could face days of uncertainty - with some experts
even warning that the result may be so unclear that new
elections will have to be held.
“The only prediction is that it’s incredibly unlikely that
any of the main parties will end up with an overall majority,” Professor Tim Bale, chair in politics at Queen Mary,
University of London, told AFP while stressing that neither
he nor anyone else could credibly forecast the outcome
now.
B
Anti-EU UKIP Surges
For the past five years, the Conservatives have governed with the centrist Liberal Democrats in Britain’s first
coalition government since World War II. Opinion polls put
the Conservatives and centre-left Labour almost neckand-neck. The Conservatives receive 32 percent voter support versus 33 percent for Labour, according to an average
of leading surveys calculated by the UK Polling Report
website. Nigel Farage’s UKIP is ranked third with 15 percent, while Cameron’s coalition partner Liberal Democrats
have plunged to eight percent, just ahead of the Greens’
seven percent.
The Scottish National Party (SNP), which wants independence for Scotland but lost last year’s referendum on
the issue, is also set to make major gains. It is thought to
be targeting between 12 and 20 seats, up from six at the
moment. Cameron is campaigning on the economy, telling
voters that they cannot afford to jeopardise Britain’s recovery - the strongest among major European nations - by
ditching the Conservatives.
However, the Conservatives have struggled to shake off
their “nasty party” label, with many voters believing austerity measures have slashed public services such as the cherished National Health Service (NHS) too harshly. Labour
says its economic plan would prove less damaging to the
NHS and other public services, while cutting a £91.3 billion
(Ä115 billion) deficit. But its leader Ed Miliband is dogged
by questions about his leadership skills and a socially awkward public image. Last year, he was photographed eating
a bacon sandwich clumsily, and a one-time colleague this
month described him as a “patronising” oddball.
The Kingmakers?
With experts predicting that neither main party will be
able to rule on its own, Cameron or Miliband will likely
have to find allies. This could either materialise in a formal
coalition, or on an informal basis where parties back a
minority government on key votes in return for policy concessions.
The Liberal Democrats and the SNP look best placed to
win enough seats to durably prop up a government.
“There’s a pretty sizeable chance of a scenario where
Labour wins the most seats, doesn’t have a majority, but
can get through a functioning governing majority with
either the Liberal Democrats or the SNP,” elections expert
Benjamin Lauderdale of the London School of Economics
told AFP.
Though support for the Liberal Democrats’ has dropped
by over two-thirds since 2010, the party could retain up to
30 seats, according to Bail, down from 56 currently. Parties
like UKIP may not win as many seats as their support in
polls suggests, because under Britain’s first-past-the-post
system, it is only the ability to win individual seats that
counts - not a party’s nationwide level of backing. Professor
Steven Fielding of Nottingham University predicted that
UKIP could win “a handful of seats, probably five to 10” in
the House of Commons. “I don’t think this election will see
UKIP gaining a lot of seats, but it may give them sufficient
influence to ensure a referendum,” he said. —AFP
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
S P ORTS
Smith marks season
with Allan Border Medal
SYDNEY: Steve Smith swept Australia’s annual awards ceremony yesterday, winning
three prizes including the Allan Border Medal for the Player of the Year.
The middle-order batsman, who captained Australia to victory in the test series
against India when regular skipper Michael Clarke was injured, also won the test and
one-day international player of the year accolades. The 25-year-old Smith became
the third player to land three awards in the same year, repeating the feats of Ricky
Ponting in 2007 and Shane Watson in 2011. “I definitely feel like I’m a lot more confident now than I was then,” Smith said, referring to his lack of runs during the 2013-14
Ashes series. “I feel as though my preparation has been really good over the last
while, like I’m hitting the ball as well as I ever have. You’ve got to try to be as
confident as you can walking out to the middle.”
In 2014, Smith scored 1,146 test runs at an average of 81.85 with five
hundreds coming against South Africa, England and India. He also
scored 541 runs in ODIs including two centuries.
He polled 243 votes to win the best player award by a big margin
ahead of opening batsman David Warner (175) and last year’s
winner Mitchell Johnson (126).
“As a kid I used to sit back and watch the Allan Border
Medal and see some of my childhood stars appear on the TV
and receive these awards,” Smith said. “To have received one
now is a pretty amazing feeling.” — Reuters
Deans to coach Barbarians
LONDON: Former Australia coach Robbie Deans will take charge of the
Barbarians for their two upcoming matches against Ireland and an
England XV in May, the club announced yesterday.
Deans, who led the Wallabies from 2008 to 2013, is assembling a high
quality side with Australia’s Berrick Barnes, New Zealand’s George
Whitelock and Argentina’s Tomas Cubelli being the first three names in
his squad. The match against Ireland will be played at Thomond Park in
Limerick on May 28 and they will play the England XV at Twickenham on
May 31.
“I count my trips back to the UK as special times in my rugby coaching career and a couple of fixtures against the third and fourth ranked
rugby nations in a World Cup year are an exciting prospect,” Deans said
in a statement from the club.
“The Barbarians are an iconic team with a special place in rugby’s history and it is a privilege to be invited to be their coach. Their performances against England and Australia last year were outstanding and that
is the standard we have to uphold.”
Last season the Barbarians defeated England 39-29, followed by last
November’s 40-36 defeat at the hands of Australia. The matches in May
come soon after the Barbarians celebrate the 125th anniversary of their
foundation on April 9. They are also playing Edinburgh club Heriot’s on
April 21 to celebrate the Scottish club’s own 125th anniversary. — Reuters
Prince Ali welcomes
Van Praag’s FIFA bid
LONDON: Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein of Jordan has welcomed Dutchman
Michael van Praag’s decision to enter the FIFA presidential race, describing
him as a “credible candidate” who will add to the debate about the future of
world soccer’s governing body. Van Praag, the 67-year-old head of the Dutch
FA, entered the race on Monday saying he had the necessary backing of five
national associations to qualify as an official candidate.
“We welcome other credible colleagues from the football family who want
to join a genuine debate about the future of FIFA,” Prince Ali said in a statement yesterday. “This election campaign is not about personalities, it is about
what is in the best interests of football and the world governing body of the
game going forward.
“It is good for democracy that Michael Van Praag has made this
announcement.” Prince Ali and Van Praag are among five men hoping to challenge incumbent Sepp Blatter when the deadline for
nominations closes tomorrow.
Former FIFA deputy secretary general Jerome Champagne, former France international David Ginola and football agent
Mino Raiola are unlikely to obtain the necessary nominations to have their names on the ballot paper for the vote
at the FIFA Congress in Zurich on May 29. —Reuters
‘F1 in Schools’ a class
act for budding teens
LONDON: When John Surtees was a boy, his
motorcycle dealer father came home one
evening with news that would change his life.
“It was just after the war and he said: ‘Lad,
I’ve sorted out those spanners for you. That’s
your set. And there’s a tea chest and if you can
put together what’s inside it you can ride it,”
the 1964 Formula One champion recalled in an
interview with Reuters.
Inside the crate was a motorcycle waiting
to be assembled and the youngster, who
remains the only man to win world championships on two wheels and four, needed no
more encouragement.
“Before that I’d been playing lots of football
and doing sports at school, but I’m afraid my
evenings rather got taken up by putting that
together,” grinned the 80-year-old as he surveyed a room full of school children engaged
in their own technical challenge.
Surtees may have been a born racer but he
was also fascinated by the engineering side
and managed his own Formula One team after
retirement.
‘F1 in Schools’, a global competition whose
London and south-east England regional finals
Surtees was attending at Chelsea’s Stamford
Bridge soccer ground, puts a gleam in his eyes.
“The technology they are having to use in
developing these cars, and the knowledge
they are gaining, is something which will stand
them in good stead throughout their lives,”
said the Briton. “Formula One bridges out into
so many areas. The technology is not just purely Formula One technology... so the opportunities there are immense. Engineering provides a
fantastic challenge.”
Now in its 12th season and featuring 42
countries, F1 in Schools offers budding boffins
a genuine taste of the sport as well as the
practical application of science, technology,
engineering and maths (STEM) related subjects. The teams must raise sponsorship, draw
up a business plan, design and make the tiny
model cars and hold presentations before
going racing on a 24-metre two-lane straight.
The stress, sleepless nights and euphoria that
Lewis Hamilton felt when he won the Formula
One title in Abu Dhabi last November were
also familiar to the British ‘Colossus’ team who
won the schools’ title there.
ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE
“For nerves it was an absolute nightmare,”
recalled 17-year-old Charlie Flynn. “Going to
sleep in the early hours because we were
working so hard, not knowing what is going to
happen the next day... it’s horrendous for
nerves. “With F1 in schools you are always
being judged. It is relentless,” he added as the
next crop of would-be finalists competed
around
him.
The
championship
(www.f1inschools.com), whose 2015 finals will
be at the Singapore Grand Prix, is aimed at
school children from nine to 19 and past winners have found placements with teams such
as champions Mercedes, Red Bull, Lotus and
McLaren.
Adrian Newey, designer of title-winning
cars for McLaren, Williams and Red Bull, is a
patron as is former Ferrari technical director
and ex-Mercedes principal Ross Brawn. Former
Jordan designer Gary Anderson is the top
judge.
“We are the miniature version of F1,”
founder Andrew Denford told Reuters as
teams put their cars through a speed test.
“Where there’s 600 in a factory, there’s six in
a (Formula One in Schools) team and you’ve
got every area in that factory covered by the
six different people-from the business and
sponsorship and marketing plan to aerodynamics and manufacturing, wheel design, CFD
and team management.”
While the cars are cut from a block of balsa
wood and powered by a gas canister, the technology applied to them is sophisticated.
In 2013 the winning car had a coating of
vaporised metal while Colossus used front and
rear aerofoils of laser sintered nylon and acetal
resin wheels accurate to one micron.
There have also been controversies on a
par with those in Formula One, with Flynn
coming up with an aerodynamic device that
nobody else had thought of in 11 years of
competition.
The resulting record times had rivals scrambling to make something similar with 3D printers before the team from Robert May’s school
in Hampshire, southern England, made a
sporting gesture and withdrew it. “I think we
had eight teams appealing against our little
device,” said team member Emma Baldry, 16. “A
lot of people didn’t like it, especially as we
were able to break the world record. “But we
still won without it because the whole competition takes in lots of aspects, it’s not just the
racing. You have presentations and portfolios,
and pressure challenges. So it all comes
together.”— Reuters
Fernandez bids for
third European title
STOCKHOLM: Spain’s Javier Fernandez will bid
for a third consecutive title at the European figure skating championships starting in
Stockholm on Wednesday as a trio of Russian
teenagers headline the women’s event.
The first big championship since last year’s
Winter Olympics in Sochi, the continental showpiece should offer some surprises in the men’s
and ice dancing events but looks destined for a
Russian winner in the women’s and pairs.
Russia could also be looking at a men’s
champion, despite Fernandez, a two-time world
bronze medallist coming to the Swedish capital
after finishing runner-up at the Grand Prix final.
His participation had been in doubt after a
painful foot interrupted his training sessions last
week, but declared himself “100 percent’ before
his journey to Sweden.
The 23-year-old will be looking to become
the first skater to win three straight men’s titles
since Alexander Fadeev skating for the former
Soviet Union from 1987 to 1989.
Fernandez’s challenges could come from last
year’s runner-up Sergei Voronov, 27, or Russian
champion Maxim Kovtun, 19. France’s Florent
Amodio, European champion in 2011, is hoping
to put his spiralling drop in form behind him in
Stockholm. “I know I can do it. The European
championships are my biggest test. I’ve built my
season around them and I want to do something big,” said Amodio. And also to watch will
be 16-year-old Russian Adian Pitkeev, a world
junior silver medallist, who will make his international debut in Sweden.
RUSSIANS STARLETS
Russia’s women have been starring in recent
international competitions. Defending women’s
champion Julia Lipnitskaia did not qualify for the
Russian team, but they have no shortage of talent.
Elena Radionova, 16, has impressed this season, as
has Anna Pogorilaya, 16. Both will be competing in
their first major competition. But the favorite will
be another teenager-Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, at 18
the winner of the Grand Prix final, who has had a
remarkable comeback this season after missing
out on the Olympics.
In the pairs, Olympic and world silver medallists Ksenia Stolbova et Fedor Klimov will be looking to keep the title in Russian hands. They will be
battling compatriots Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander
Smirnov, the 2010 European champions, who are
back after missing the Olympic season because of
injury. The two couples will be hoping to benefit
from the absence of three-time winners Tatiana
Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov of Russia. Russia
will also be hoping for gold in the ice dancing with
Elena Ilinykh and Ruslan Zhiganshin, but they are
not the favorites.
France’s Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume
Cizeron have had a impressive start to their second
senior season and will be hoping for a first
European podium ahead of defending champions
Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte of Italy, the
reigning world champions. —AFP
Javier Fernandez
LOS ANGELES: Clippers center DeAndre Jordan (left) and guard Jamal Crawford celebrate during the second half of an NBA basketball game
against the Denver Nuggets. — AP
Pelicans stretch winning streak
NEW ORLEANS: Anthony Davis had 32 points,
10 rebounds and four blocked shots as the New
Orleans Pelicans stretched their season-long
winning streak to four games with a 99-74 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday.
Ryan Anderson scored 19 points and Eric
Gordon added 13 for New Orleans, while Tyreke
Evans tied a season high - set one night earlier with 12 assists.
KJ McDaniels scored 16 points for the 76ers,
who lost their sixth straight. Henry Sims and Luc
Mbah a Moute had 14 points. Philadelphia
played without Michael Carter-Williams, who
was sidelined by an upper respiratory infection.
Davis was 12-of-19 shooting, including five
layups and five crowd-pleasing dunks, and made
all eight of his free throws as New Orleans (2421) went three games above .500 for the first
time since coach Monty Williams’ first season in
2010-11.
THUNDER 92, TIMBERWOLVES 84
Russell Westbrook scored 18 points as
Oklahoma City got the win while playing without the injured Kevin Durant. Durant sat out
after spraining the big toe on his left foot
Sunday against Cleveland. Westbrook shot just 7
for 22 from the field, but was 4 for 6 and scored
11 points in the fourth quarter to help the
Thunder remain in control. Serge Ibaka added 13
points and a season-high 19 rebounds.
Andrew Wiggins scored 23 points, Thaddeus
Young had 22 and Gorgui Dieng had a seasonhigh 18 rebounds for the league -worst
Timberwolves, who shot a season-low 34.1 percent from the field.
Anthony Morrow and Reggie Jackson each
had 14 points to help Oklahoma City’s reserves
outscore Minnesota’s 45-21.
CLIPPERS 102, NUGGETS 98
Jamal Crawford scored 21 of his 23 points in
the fourth quarter as the Los Angeles Clippers
held off the Denver Nuggets for their fifth
straight victory.
Crawford scored their final five points and
had a key save that led to a basket in the closing
seconds, when the Clippers completed their
biggest comeback of the season after being
down by 16 earlier in the game. Matt Barnes
added 18 points for Los Angeles, and Blake
Griffin had 14 points, nine rebounds and 10
assists. Chris Paul scored 15 points. Ty Lawson
led the Nuggets with 19 points and 11 assists.
GRIZZLIES 103, MAGIC 94
Zach Randolph had 24 points, 10 rebounds
and six assists in Memphis’ third straight win,
and Marc Gasol added 16 points and 10 boards.
Beno Udrih added 15 points and Jeff Green
finished with 12 for the Grizzlies. Orlando,
which dropped its sixth in a row, got 18 points
and 12 rebounds from Nikola Vucevic. Victor
Oladipo also had 18 points and Elfrid Payton
had 12 points and six assists, but shot 5 of 14
from the field. Dewayne Dedmon had 10 points
and 10 rebounds. Memphis led by as many as
20 and held a double-digit advantage through
much of the game.
CELTICS 99, JAZZ 90
Tayshaun Prince scored 19 points as Boston
held on for the road win. Tyler Zeller had 14
points and seven rebounds for the Celtics, who
grabbed control with a big second quarter.
Jared Sullinger had 12 points and nine
rebounds, and Avery Bradley also scored 12.
Prince, who was acquired from Memphis in a
three-team trade on Jan. 12, was 7 for 10 from
the field and 3 for 4 at the free-throw line.
Gordon Hayward had 26 points for Utah, and
Enes Kanter finished with 20.
Boston outscored Utah 38-14 in the second
quarter, shooting 60 percent from the field in
the period. — AP
NBA results/standings
Memphis 103, Orlando 94; New Orleans 99, Philadelphia 74; Oklahoma City 92, Minnesota 84;
Boston 99, Utah 90; LA Clippers 102, Denver 98.
Eastern Conference
Atlantic Division
W
L
PCT
Toronto
29
15
.659
Brooklyn
18
26
.409
Boston
16
27
.372
NY Knicks
8
37
.178
Philadelphia
8
37
.178
Central Division
Chicago
29
17
.630
Cleveland
25
20
.556
Milwaukee
22
22
.500
Detroit
17
28
.378
Indiana
16
30
.348
Southeast Division
Atlanta
37
8
.822
Washington
30
15
.667
Miami
20
24
.455
Charlotte
19
26
.422
Orlando
15
33
.313
GB
11
12.5
21.5
21.5
3.5
6
11.5
13
7
16.5
18
23.5
Western Conference
Northwest Division
Portland
32
13
.711
22
.511
Oklahoma City 23
Denver
18
27
.400
Utah
16
29
.356
Minnesota
7
37
.159
Pacific Division
Golden State
36
6
.857
31
14
.689
LA Clippers
Phoenix
26
20
.565
Sacramento
16
27
.372
LA Lakers
12
33
.267
Southwest Division
Memphis
32
12
.727
31
14
.689
Houston
Dallas
30
15
.667
San Antonio
29
17
.630
New Orleans
24
21
.533
9
14
16
24.5
6.5
12
20.5
25.5
1.5
2.5
4
8.5
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
S P ORTS
England face tough task
to end World Cup jinx
Mashrafe Mortaza
Tamed Tigers hope
to bite at World Cup
NEW DELHI: Bangladesh will need a dramatic
turn in fortunes to ensure another World Cup
does not cause more misery after the Tigers
endured a morale-sapping year in which they
slumped from one defeat to another.
Bangladesh failed to register wins for most
of 2014 till fellow wooden-spooners
Zimbabwe came calling at the end of the year
and were duly thrashed 3-0 in Tests and 5-0 in
the one-dayers. It was only Zimbabwe the
Tigers had beaten, but fanatical fans in the
South Asian nation celebrated as if the World
Cup itself had been won.
Bangladesh have struggled at Test levelwinning just seven of their 88 Tests since their
debut in 2000 — but have always appeared
more suited to the shorter format where they
have recorded creditable wins. A five-wicket
win over Australia at Cardiff in 2005 was their
moment of glory till they knocked India out
of the 2007 World Cup to move beyond the
first round for the only time in the tournament. Bangladesh must beat at least one of
the big four in pool A-co-hosts Australia and
New Zealand, Sri Lanka and England-and also
win against both Afghanistan and Scotland to
keep their quarter-final hopes alive. A mustwin scenario awaits them in the first match
itself-against Afghanistan in Canberra on
February 18 — because a loss like the one
they suffered against the same rivals at the
Asia Cup at home a year ago could prove
costly. “The kind of squad we have, I am confident we can reach the quarter-finals,”
Mashrafe Mortaza, who replaced Mushfiqur
Rahim as one-day captain last year, told AFP.
Former captain and current selector
Habibur Bashar wanted Bangladesh to aim
big, saying it was not enough to target just
Afghanistan and Scotland. “We should aim for
winning at least three to four matches,”
Bashar told AFP.
“ The players should believe they can
defeat any team in the group. On those true
pitches Down Under, any total can be chased
down.” The focal point of Bangladesh’s campaign will be the skillful 27-year-old allrounder Shakib Al Hasan, who has been the
team’s mainstay ever since his international
debut eight years ago.
The left-hand batsman and left-arm spinner goes into his third World Cup as the topranked all-rounder in all three formats, a tribute to his consistency with both bat and ball
over the years. Shakib is the only player in the
team who has experienced Australian conditions recently, having turned out for
Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash
Twenty20 tournament.
Another player to watch is 22-year-old
left-arm spinner Taijul Islam, who grabbed
eight for 39 against Zimbabwe in Dhaka in
only his third Test to record the best Test figures ever by a Bangladeshi bowler.
Soon after, he became the first bowler in
history to claim a hat-trick on his one-day
debut, against the same opponents at the
same venue. Competition will be tougher at
the World Cup, but the exciting young talent
could spring a few surprises. — AFP
Mohammed Tauqir
UAE old guard seek
new breakthrough
DUBAI: Skippered by a 43-year-old and with
a 15-man squad featuring nine players over
30, the United Arab Emirates believe their status as no-hopers could work in their favor at
the World Cup.
The last of the 14 finalists to book their
place at the showpiece event, the Gulf side
are playing in just their second World Cup
and first since 1996.
Now, two decades on, the expat-driven
squad hope to capitalise on their lowly status
although the odds are stacked against them
with defending champions India, 1992 winners Pakistan, two-time champions West
Indies and favorites South Africa all in their
group. Realistically, the best the UAE-whose
players are all part-time and drawn mostly
from Pakistan and India-can hope for is to try
and scratch out a result against Zimbabwe
and Ireland, their opponents in their first two
games. Mohammed Tauqir, one of just three
Emirati-born players in the squad, has been
installed as captain replacing fellow 43-yearold, Pakistani Khurram Khan who had led the
side for six years.
Tauqir has played in 50 international
matches, but just five ODIs. On his ODI debut,
in the 2004 Asia Cup against India, he scored
55 off 73 balls and claimed 1-46 with his tidy
right-arm off-spin. “If we put on a good show
against Pakistan and India, that would be the
icing on the cake,” said Tauqir, who has seen
cricket develop in the Gulf state from a sport
played on concrete wickets on waste ground
to international arenas in Dubai, Abu Dhabi
and Sharjah.
“We are also targeting one or two wins. It’s
a challenging but a realistic target. These
players are capable of causing an upset.”
Khurram Khan, who hails from Punjab and
was born on the same day in 1971 as the captain, will be key to his team’s chances.
Vice-captain Khurram has played 10 ODIs
in his 11-year career but boasts an average of
53.37, a figure boosted by his undefeated 123
in a six-wicket win over fellow World Cup
qualifiers Afghanistan in Dubai in November.
The UAE won that series 3-1. Khurram’s
score allowed him to surpass Sanath
Jayasuriya as the oldest ODI centurion in the
history of the game.
The UAE are coached by former Pakistan
fast bowler Aqib Javed, who played in the
1992 World Cup winning team. His input will
be crucial for a side expected to struggle on
the hard, bouncy pitches, particularly in
Australia.
Former Ireland captain Trent Johnston,
who knows how to engineer a World Cup
shock after his side defeated Pakistan in the
2007 tournament, believes the UAE attack will
toil. “The bowling is a concern with only one
true paceman in Mohammad Naveed,” said
Johnston. “However, Manjula Guruge will
swing the new ball and bowl well at the
death.” — AFP
LONDON: England have never won the World
Cup, despite hosting four tournaments,
including the first three editions, while it is
nearly 25 years since they last appeared in a
final. They certainly won’t be among the
favorites in Australia and New Zealand, where
they will have to conquer longstanding problems of a lack of penetration with the ball and
an inability to up the run-rate in the final
stages of an innings if they are to beat the
world’s top one-day sides repeatedly.
But thus far England’s decision to ditch Test
captain Alastair Cook, who had scored just
one fifty in his last 22 one-day innings, from
the World Cup squad on the eve of the team’s
departure for Australia, and replace him as
skipper with Eoin Morgan, appears to be
working out.
Ian Bell, who made a superb 141 in a threewicket defeat by Australia in Hobart last week,
and Moeen Ali have formed a sound opening
partnership in Cook’s absence.
Meanwhile the new captain neatly evaded
a verbal bouncer from Kevin Pietersen when
the axed England batsman-playing in
Australia’s domestic Big Bash Twenty20 tournament-said Morgan would “love to have me
in the England team”. But if Pietersen’s comments about England have a certain predictable quality, recent revelations that
Morgan had been the subject of a blackmail
attempt by the current partner of his former
girlfriend were bizarre.
The England and Wales Cricket Board following talks with British police, contacted the
potential blackmailer, who they said had
“apologised”, with ECB managing director Paul
Downton insisting the issue had been
“brought to a swift conclusion”.
Quite what it did for Morgan’s peace of
mind is another matter, with the former
Ireland batsman insisting it had no bearing on
his duck in Hobart. On the field, it appears
England are content to keep the big-hitting
Alex Hales in reserve for the time being. With
Bell and Ali putting on 113 for the first wicket
in 18 overs in Hobart, before Joe Root helped
Bell add 121 in 19 for the third wicket, the top
order looks in reasonable shape.
However, the final 10 overs yielded only 59
runs and it was in this instance that Pietersen’s
absence left some England fans thinking of
what might have been.
“We played good cricket in stages...the last
10 overs let us down a little bit,” said Morgan
afterwards in words that could be applied to
so many of England’s one-day performances.
England’s attack lacks extreme speed or
Eoin Morgan
sharp spin, although fast bowler Steven Finn
showed signs of a return to form with five
wickets in the recent Tri-Series win over world
champions India.
But that England were unable to defend a
total of over 300 against Australia in Hobart
was a concern, especially as senior pacemen
James Anderson and Stuart Broad, both
returning from injury, had a combined return
of none for 117 in 19 overs.—AFP
Lanka bank on Sangakkara
and Jayawardene hit show
NEW DELHI: Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela
Jayawardene will join hands for the last time
in their brilliant careers to plot Sri Lanka’s
World Cup campaign, hoping to make
amends for two successive heartbreaks. The
missing link in the enduring partnership
between the two 37-year-olds that started at
the turn of the century is the absence of a
World Cup triumph despite coming so near.
Jayawardene was captain when Sri Lanka
reached the final of the 2007 World Cup in the
Caribbean, only to see Australia cruise to a 53run win in near-darkness in Barbados.
Four years later in India, Sangakkara was at
the helm in the title clash when Mahendra
Singh Dhoni’s home team inflicted a six-wicket defeat despite a magnificent 103 off 88
balls by Jayawardene.
The two veterans, who go into the World
Cup as the leading run-getters in one-day
cricket among those still playing, took the setbacks in their stride and looked positively
ahead at the future.
“We may not have won those two tournaments, but reaching two successive finals
showed we played consistently well,” said
Jayawardene. “Hopefully we can cross the line
this time.” Jayawardene will hang his boots
after the World Cup, having already retired
from Test and Twenty20 cricket last year to
concentrate on his fifth appearance in the
showpiece event.
Sangakkara will also bid farewell to limitedovers cricket after the World Cup, but remains
undecided about prolonging his Test career
after enjoying a tremendous run with the bat
in recent months.
The World Cup gives both a last chance to
bow out in a blaze of glory and the signs are
already encouraging that this could be Sri
Lanka’s year in Australia and New Zealand.
In Sangakkara and Jayawardene’s final T20
appearance last April, Sri Lanka won the
World Twenty20 in Bangladesh to end a
drought of major titles since they took the
World Cup in 1996.
Angelo Mathews’ men won more one-dayers (20 out of 32) than any other team in 2014,
including the Asia Cup title that also featured
defending World Cup champions India and
Pakistan.
Sri Lankans dominate the run-getters’ list
for the year gone by with left-handed
Sangakkara leading the pack with 1,256 runs,
followed by Mathews in second place with
1,244 and opener Tillakaratne Dilshan in
fourth with 990.
Unorthodox spinner Ajantha Mendis
topped the bowling charts with 38 wickets,
but still failed to make the World Cup squad
as the selectors went with left-armer Rangana
Herath and off-spinner Sachithra Senanayake
instead.
Sri Lanka will sweat over the fitness of
Kumar Sangakkara
pace spearhead Lasith Malinga, who was history to claim three hat-tricks in one-day
picked for the World Cup in a gamble by the internationals, is expected to be fit by the
selectors despite being sidelined following tournament opener against New Zealand on
an ankle surgery in September. The devastat- February 14, but is not guaranteed a place in
ing sling-armer, 31, who is the only bowler in the side yet. — AFP
Pakistan cricketer plagued
by ghost at team hotel
WELLINGTON: Pakistan team management
says cricketer Haris Sohail was left “visibly
shaken” after a ghostly encounter in a
Christchurch hotel room.
Sohail fled what he believed was “a supernatural presence” which shook his bed at the
Rydges Latimer hotel, taking refuge in the
room of a team coach after the encounter earlier this week. Team manager Maveed Akram
Cheeva said yesterday Sohail, 26, phoned a
member of the coaching staff to say he had
been woken by his bed being shaken. The
coach rushed to Sohail’s room and found him
shaken and feverish.
Cheeva said management tried to persuade Sohail the fever may have caused a
nightmare, but the player was adamant his
experience was supernatural. The hotel’s management says it knew of “no active ghost” on
the premises.
Pakistan media reports said Sohail, an allrounder who has played nine one-dayers and
three Twenty20 internationals, was so “traumatized” by the experience he has been
unable to train and was forced to miss a oneday warmup match against a New Zealand
President’s XI.
Sohail took the field in a second warmup
game in Christchurch on Tuesday and made 6
runs from 25 balls. Cheema said Sohail was
examined by the team doctor after his
encounter and found to be in good health.
“He’s OK and he’s concentrating on cricket as
he should be,” he said. “He had a fever. We
think it was the fever that caused it but the
player still believes his bed was shaken by
something and it was a supernatural something.” Sohail joins an elite group of international cricketers who have had ghostly experiences. England fast bowler Stuart Broad
switched rooms at London’s Langham Hotel
last year after a ghostly experience. Broad told
the Daily Mail newspaper he had woken in the
night and “all of a sudden the taps in the bathroom came on for no reason. I turned the
lights on and the taps turned themselves off.
Then when I turned the lights off again, the
taps came on. It was very weird.”
Australia allrounder Shane Watson fled to
the room of teammate Brett Lee after becoming spooked in his own room at the Lumley
Castle Hotel in England in 2005. — AP
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
S P ORTS
From humble origin to king of US sports events
NEW YORK: From modest beginnings of cheap tickets and empty seats to $4.5 million for a 30-second
T V ad, the Super Bowl approaches its golden
anniversary entrenched as the undisputed king of
US sporting events.
Super Bowl 49 will pit the Seattle Seahawks
against the New England Patriots in Glendale,
Arizona, on Sunday and figures to join 21 previous
Super Bowls atop the list of most watched US TV
broadcasts. A far cry from the first Super Bowl clash
between the Green Bay Packers and Kansas City
Chiefs in 1967, according to Jerry Izenberg of the
(New Jersey) Star-Ledger, one of only two reporters
to have covered ever Super Bowl.
“ The 10 dollar ticket and it didn’t sell out,”
Izenberg, 84, told Reuters about recollections of the
first edition at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Izenberg underscored the lack of hoopla by comparing access to then-NFL Commissioner Pete
Rozelle at the 1967 showdown to the State of the
NFL news conference now held at Super Bowls,
which draw over 6,000 accredited journalists.
Rozelle, busy attending court proceedings to
defend the league’s local TV blackout policy to help
attendance at the stadium, instead met with about a
dozen reporters in his hotel suite prior to the game,
the venerable columnist said.
“I learned more from that session than all the others put together. He sat on the couch and you could
ask him anything,” said Izenberg, author of “Rozelle:
A Biography.” “The first six years of the Super Bowl, I
interviewed guys (players) in their hotel rooms. Just
call them up and ask them what would be a good
time.” Now the NFL sells tickets to thousands of fans
to watch a massive throng of reporters mill around
the combatants at Media Day as the Super Bowl has
become more than a football game.
Robert Boland, a professor at New York
University’s Sports Management program, said it
“has almost everything that attracts someone who is
not a football fan.” Bob Williams, chief executive of
Burns Entertainment and Sports Marketing of
Chicago, said: “What’s really unique about the Super
Bowl is that it caters to the casual fan.”
Former CBS Sports president Neal Pilson, noting
the ubiquitous Super Bowl parties across the United
States, told Reuters: “It’s become a national holiday ...
a gathering together of the American public.” Said
Izenberg: “Step by step they turned this thing into a
quasi-religious, all-American holiday.”
SUPER INCEPTION
What began as a transition before a merger of
the upstart AFL into the established NFL, the Super
Bowl caught the public’s fancy when quarterback
Joe Namath of the underdog New York Jets of the
AFL guaranteed victory over the Baltimore Colts and
delivered a 16-7 win following the 1968 season.
By the 1970 campaign, the Super Bowl was just
the NFL title game. The Steelers, Browns and Colts
joined AFL teams in an American Football
Conference to balance with old NFL teams in a
National Football Conference, and winners met in
the Super Bowl.
The game’s popularity exploded with glamor
teams like the unbeaten Miami Dolphins, Dallas
Cowboys, San Francisco 49ers and Steelers dominating. Over time, huge TV ratings led to more creative
commercials to win attention and tickle viewers.
Halftime shows morphed from marching band
entertainment to must-see superstar extravaganzas.
A turning point came in 1992, after a competing
network heavily promoted a special footballthemed episode of a sitcom against the halftime
show and stole substantial ratings.
“The response was, ‘all right, we have to beef up
our halftime,’” said Pilson, now a media consultant
and professor at Columbia University.
In 1993, Michael Jackson performed at halftime
and the intermission program has been star-studded since. Ad revenues continue to climb, thanks to
social media.
“Twenty years ago, no commercial was ever seen
before the game. There were no sneak peeks that
are all over the place now,” said Burns. “Now every
Super Bowl advertiser is using social media prior to
the game and after the game to promote their
brand.” Expect the Super Bowl to continue to evolve.
“It’s really becoming a festival for a week. I’m not
sure we won’t see parties televised with a number of
entertainers and concerts,” said Boland, envisioning
a week-long, pay-per-view bonanza in the future.
Williams foresees global expansion. “I think it’s
only a matter of time before we see a Super Bowl in
London or in China,” he said. “Long term we’re going
to see that.” — Reuters
Dongfeng wins 3rd leg
of Volvo Ocean Race
SANYA: Dongfeng Race Team, led by
French skipper Charles Caudrelier, claimed
a slice of Volvo Ocean Race history yesterday when it became the Chinese entry to
win a leg of offshore sailing’s most prestigious event. After more than 23 days sailing from Abu Dhabi, Dongfeng arrived at
its home port of Sanya, Hainan Island, just
after daybreak to claim the 4,670-nautical
mile third stage.
Two teams from China have previously
taken part in the 41-year-old round-theworld race, but neither seriously challenged in the 2008-09 and 2011-12 editions. Dongfeng has shown itself to be a
real contender from the outset of the 12th
edition, finishing as narrow runners-up in
the opening two legs following the race
start on Oct. 4.
The win in Sanya, with over 45 nautical
miles to spare from the rest of the fleet,
leaves Caudrelier’s eight-strong crew top of
the overall leaderboard on five points with
six legs still to complete.
Dongfeng began the leg in the joint
lead with Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing and
Dutch boat Team Brunel. Abu Dhabi finished second and US-based Team
Alvimedica was third.
The Volvo Ocean Race , covering 38,739
nautical miles, visits 11 ports and every
continent before its scheduled conclusion
on June 27 in Gothenburg, Sweden.
This third leg was among the toughest crossing the Arabian Gulf before entering
the busy shipping lanes of the Bay of
Bengal and the Malacca Strait, and concluding through the South China Sea.
“It’s the most stressful leg I’ve ever done
in my life,” a relieved Caudrelier told
reporters, minutes after crossing the line.
“But the result is fantastic!”
Team Alvimedica, based in Newport,
Rhode Island, and sponsored by a Turkish
company, earned its first podium finish.
“It feels good to just be off the boat and
in China,” said skipper Charlie Enright of
Bristol, Rhode Island. “It’s awesome. It’s the
culmination of a lot of hard work and a lot
of things cooking at the right time.”
Enright said the sailing had been close
the last several days through the Strait of
Malacca and then along the coast of
Vietnam. He called the conditions “pretty
volatile” as the fleet had to dodge commercial shipping and fishing boats as well as
dealing with changing weather.
“It was pretty sketchy sailing,” he said.
Enright, a fan of the New England Patriots,
had a question for reporters. “Did the
Patriots really cheat?” he asked, referring to
the Patriots being investigated for using
under-inflated footballs in the AFC championship game.
Enright said the crew receives regular
updates about American football while on
the high seas, and plans to watch Sunday’s
Super Bowl at a sports bar. The next leg, a
5,624 nautical mile journey to Auckland,
New Zealand, leaves Sanya on Feb. 8. — AP
SCOTTSDALE: Tiger Woods hits his approach shot on the ninth hole during a practice
round for the Phoenix Open golf tournament. — AP
Africa will have a Tour
contender says, Ryder
LONDON: Africa’s cyclists can have the same
impact on the grand Tours as its runners had
on Olympic tracks, the man behind the continent’s first Tour de France team believes.
South African Douglas Ryder formed the
MTN-Qhubeka professional team in 2007 and
has made it his mission to build a roster made
up predominantly of African riders.
The team received a wildcard for this year’s
Tour and while it would be fanciful to suggest
all those wearing the distinctive black and
white stripes at the start in Utrecht will be
Africans, it is still a breakthrough moment.
“I believe in the potential of the endurance
gene that is very prominent across this continent and we wanted to get more Africans and
South Africans on to bicycles and see how far
they can go. Can they become the best in the
world?” he told Reuters.
“I wouldn’t be surprised in the next three
years that a black African rider will be on the
podium in a Grand Tour.” Ryder believes in the
talents of Eritreans like Natnael Berhane,
Daniel Teklehaimanot and Merhawi Kudus, as
well as South African Songezo Jim and
Rwanda’s Adrien Niyonshuti.
Jim was the first black South African to
compete in a UCI World Tour event in 2013,
grimacing through the snow on the Milan San
Remo while Kudus completed last year’s
Vuelta despite a horrible first week crash.
“We are super scientific as a team and we
understand the power and data that comes
out of these guys, that’s why we believe this is
possible,” Ryder, who augments his African
contingent with seasoned pros like American
Tyler Farrar and Norway’s Edvald Boasson
Hagen, said.
“The only thing we can’t simulate is the
skills in the bunch. When you are riding in
Africa the road goes in one direction for 50
miles, you might see an ostrich or a buffalo.
“In Europe you have three-metre wide
roads, hundreds of riders, towns every 20km
with traffic furniture and roundabouts. In our
first year, five riders broke their collar bones.
You need time in the peloton to get that
rhythm.” Team sports director Jens Zemke
agrees: “We have some huge talent in our
team. The body structure. They look like long
distance runners, but it’s also about discipline,
experience, technical understanding and the
lifestyle.” Fast or slow, Ryder says his team,
that partly exists to promote the Qhubeka
Foundation’s work in giving bikes to rural villages, will not be stained by cycling’s curse,
doping. “There is no history in Africa of doping in cycling,” he said. —Reuters
BISCAYNE BAY: Stephanie Roble (right) falls into the water as she and Tripp Burd, of the USA, compete in the Nacra 17 class during the ISAF
Sailing World Cup Miami. Sailors from 63 countries are competing in the regatta featuring Olympic and Paralympic class racing. — AP
Park ‘shocked’ by
failed dope test
SEOUL: South Korean swim star Park Tae-hwan
has been left “shocked” by a failed doping test,
which local media said was a result of a local
hospital injecting him with testosterone.
Yonhap News agency quoted Seoul prosecutors as saying yesterday the hospital had testified it gave Park the shot but did not realise it
was against World Anti-Doping Agency regulations. The report said Park had already been
questioned by prosecutors, and that the doctor
who gave him the injection could face charges
of negligence.
A two-time world champion, Park became
the first South Korean to win an Olympic swimming medal when he powered to gold in the
400 metres freestyle at the 2008 Beijing Games.
His wholesome, clean-cut image and posterboy looks have made him one of the most celebrated athletes in South Korea, where he is
known affectionately as ‘Marine Boy’, and while
his performances in the pool have dipped in
recent years his popularity has never wavered.
The smiling face of endorsements for milk,
headache pills, air conditioners, and communications equipment, Park was also a goodwill
ambassador for the ‘Dynamic Korea’ promotion
aimed at boosting Korea’s image abroad.
Under the strict rules applied by doping
authorities, Park could still face punishment
even if he was unaware that he had been injected with a banned substance, and a lengthy ban
could derail his hopes of swimming at the 2016
Rio Olympics.
An official from the Korea Swimming
Federation, who asked not to be named, told
Reuters that the test had been conducted in early September, before the Asian Games.
The federation and Park had been informed
of the result in late October or early November,
the official said, adding that the swimmer would
have to attend a hearing with swimming’ s world
governing body FINA on Feb. 27 to answer the
doping charge. The official said other details
would be revealed at a news conference after
the prosecution had wrapped up its probe.
‘MORE SHOCKED THAN ANYONE’
Park’s agency, Team GMP, said the swimmer
had repeatedly asked the hospital if the injection contained illegal substances but had been
assured it was safe.
Park had been offered free treatment at a
local hospital two months ahead of the Sept. 19Oct. 4 Asian Games in Incheon, the South Korean
city west of Seoul which named its aquatics venue after the swimmer. “As a world-class swimmer
for the last 10 years, Park Tae-hwan hasn’t taken
so much as cold medicine, that’s how careful he’s
been due to concerns about doping problems
and illegal substances,” Team GMP said in a statement.
“Park is more shocked by this result than anyone else.” The statement said the 25-year-old had
passed several doping tests conducted during
the Asian Games.
South Korean athletes have been relatively
INCHEON: In this Sept. 21, 2014 file photo, South Koreaís Park Tae-hwan adjusts his goggles
after competing a menís 200-meter freestyle swimming heat at the 17th Asian Games. — AP
free f drugs scandals, though top badminton
player Lee Yong-dae was almost suspended for
the Asian Games after administrative errors led
to him missing doping tests. A one-year ban
imposed by the Badminton World Federation
was wiped out after the country’s governing
body said it had failed to keep the federation
apprised of the player’s whereabouts. The news
also comes just months after Park’s great rival,
China’s Sun Yang, was found to have failed a
doping test. Sun, winner of two gold medals at
the 2012 London Olympics, served a threemonth suspension in 2014 after testing positive
for the banned stimulant trimetazidine during
the national swimming championships last May.
The China Anti-Doping Agency could have
imposed a longer ban but said it decided on
three months because Sun had been given
medication, normally used to combat angina,
by a doctor to treat a heart issue and was
unaware it had been added to WADA’s banned
list this year. — Reuters
LPGA season opens in Florida
OCALA: Top-ranked Park In-Bee of South Korea and
second-ranked New Zealand teen Lydia Ko will try
to follow stellar 2014 campaigns with hot 2015
starts when the LPGA season begins yesterday.
The inaugural $1.5 million Coates Championship
in suburban Orlando, Florida, marks the opening of
a 33-event global calendar offering $61.6 million in
prize money.The opening tournament features a
field of 120 with a Wednesday to Saturday schedule
to avoid a final-day conflict with American football’s
Super Bowl spectacular.
Park, the 2013 Player of the Year, and Ko, whose
three wins last year included the season-ending
Tour Championship, will be joined by 91 of the
world’s 100 top-ranked players, including 2014
Player of the Year Stacy Lewis, fellow American stars
Michelle Wie-the reigning US Women’s Open champion-and Lexi Thompson, Norway’s Suzann
Pettersen and South Korea’s Ryu So Yeon.
“I feel really comfortable coming into the 2015
season,” Park said. “It was a very short off season, but
I feel like I did the things that I really needed to get
done, worked on the swing, worked on rehab, my
body, worked on a little bit of few things here and
there.” Park expects Lewis and Wie to be top rivals
again, but is very aware of a group of talented rising
young players. “Michelle played really good last year
and obviously Stacy is playing steady for last few
years and we’ve been competing for pretty much
everything for the last few years together,” Park said.
“If it’s like that this year that will be a really great
season, but I think there are a lot of new strong
players coming up to play.”
The tournament will also mark the LPGA debut
for 16 rookies trying to push their way into tour
stardom starting at the Golden Ocala Golf Club,
which features eight tribute holes to other famed
legendary courses, including Augusta National and
the Old Course at St. Andrews.
“The Coates Golf Championship has one of the
strongest playing fields the LPGA will see all season,”
said event director Lenny Francoeur.
Cheyenne Woods, the 24-year-old niece of 14time men’s major winner Tiger Woods, begins her
first LPGA campaign this week. She won her 2014
opener at the Volvik Ladies Masters on the Ladies
European Tour. “It feels great to officially finally be a
member.
I’ve had the privilege to play a few LPGA events
in the past, but to now be a member feels a little different, so I’m excited for this week and I’m excited to
finally tee it up,” Woods said. LPGA stars begin their
globetrotting next month with the Bahamas LPGA
Classic, the Women’s Australian Open and the LPGA
Thailand event plus the HSBC Women’s
Championship in March at Singapore. — AFP
S P ORTS
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
Amir shooting tourney off to golden start
By Abdellatif Sharaa
KUWAIT: The 4th HH the Amir International Grand
Prix kicked off with success yesterday as the first day
witnessed strong competition, with shooters from
Italy, Serbia and Kazakhstan bagging golds.
The women’s trap witnessed hot competition
between six shooters - three Italians, Kuwait’s Sarah
Al-Hawal, Lebanon’s Ray Basil and Slovenian Jasmina
Macek. Italy’s Federice Caporuscio won gold, followed by her compatriot Jessica Rossi. Hawal was
fourth and Basil fifth. Hungary’s Peter Sidi won gold
in the 10m rifle with a score of 8,204, ahead of
Kazakh Yuriy Yurkov, who scored 5,203, and Serbia’s
Nemanja Mirosavlev.
In the junior competition, Vadim Skorovarov from
Uzbekistan won gold, followed by Kazakh Kiril
Kuzmich, while Qatar’s Abdullah Al-Sundaidi was
third, the only Arab who won a medal during the first
day of competition. In the 50m pistol, Serbia’s Damir
Mikec won gold, while Kazakh shooter Vladimir
Issachenko won silver and Albania’s Arben Kucana
won bronze. In the junior category, Malaysia’s Eddy
Chew won gold, followed by Latvia’s Lauris
Strautmanis and Malaysia’s Abdul Hadi bin Abd
Malek. Italy topped the list with one gold and one silver followed by Serbia and Malaysia with one gold
and one bronze. Uzbekistan and Hungary have one
gold medal each, Kazakhstan three silvers, Latvia one
silver and Slovenia, Qatar and Albania one bronze.
Hungarian shooter Sidi said he was very happy
with the gold medal he won in the 10m air rifle,
which was possible with the support of his teammates and coach. It also came as a crowning of a previous period that witnessed much work and effort
that reflected the development of the sport of shooting in Hungary. He said competition in the Amir GP is
at the highest level in the presence of a large number of champions.
Meanwhile, Uzbekistan’s Skorovarov said he is
happy to be in Kuwait and participate in the grand
prix, which is of the highest standards of world competitions from all aspects, be it competition or
organization, and the continued efforts of the organizing committee to remove any obstacles to allow
shooters to concentrate on shooting. He said winning the gold medal was not easy and it was with
very little difference with the second place winner.
Italy’s Rossi who won the silver medal in the
women’s trap said this is her first time in the grand
prix and she did not expect it to be at this level with
the participation of this large number of shooters.
She said the atmosphere here is like that of the
Olympics. She said next year’s grand prix will be one
of her main targets.
Chew from Malaysia said his gold medal in the
juniors category is the start as far as Malaysia’s shooters are concerned, as they are trying to win the
largest number of medals in various events. He lauded the performance of his teammate Hadi bin Abd
Malek who won bronze.
Meanwhile, Secretary General of Jordan’s
Shooting Federation and member of the Arab
Shooting Federation Ghassan Shaaban said the
Higher Organizing Committee had amassed tremendous experience and this is very evident and notable
by all. He said this reflects well on the technical and
organizational aspects of championships it holds. He
said HH the Amir Grand Prix is no less than world
championships, and even surpasses them organization-wise.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
S P ORTS
Higuain
brace lifts
Napoli
MILAN: Gonzalo Higuain scored two
goals, both of them controversial, to
give Napoli a 2-1 win over angry Genoa
which lifted them into third place in
Serie A on Monday.
Higuain headed the hosts in front
after seven minutes from a rebound
but replays suggested he was just offside when Jose Callejon fired in a shot
which Genoa goalkeeper Mattia Perin
parried into the Argentine’s path.
Iago Falque levelled for Genoa in
the 56th minute but Napoli regained
the lead with a controversial penalty
awarded for an alleged push by Juraj
Kucka on Higuain.
Contact appeared to be minimal
but Higuain, oblivious to the Genoa
protests, fired home from the penalty
spot with 15 minutes left for his 12th
league goal of the season.
Italian football has been hit by a
rash of controversial refereeing decisions since the mid-season break and
Napoli themselves were furious after a
3-1 home defeat by leaders Juventus.
Napoli went into third place, the
Champions League playoff spot, with
36 points from 20 games, six behind
second-placed Roma.
Silvan Widmer scored an unusual
goal to give mid-table Udinese a 2-1
win at Empoli when his cross from the
right caught goalkeeper Luigi Sepe
napping and went into the goal off the
inside of the post.
Veteran Antonio Di Natale put
Udinese in front, the 37-year-old’s ninth
goal of the season, and Riccardo
Saponara levelled for the strugglers with
a penalty before halftime. — Reuters
ITALY: Napoli’s
Argentinian forward
Gonzalo Higuain (center)
fights for the ball with
Genoa’s Argentinian
defender Facundo
Roncaglia (left) during the
Italian Serie A football
match. — AFP
M’brough handed FA
Cup trip to Arsenal
LONDON: Middlesbrough were rewarded for
beating Manchester City with a trip to FA Cup
holders Arsenal while Chelsea’s conquerors
Bradford City host Sunderland or Fulham after
the fifth round draw on Monday. Third tier
Bradford and Championship (second tier)
Middlesbrough overcame the odds to register
two of the biggest FA Cup shocks in recent
memory. Bradford trailed 2-0 against Premier
League leaders Chelsea before mounting a
stunning fightback to win 4-2 while
Middlesbrough outplayed City to claim a 2-0
victory at the Etihad Stadium.
“I’d prefer (to play) Sunderland to be fair,”
Bradford co-chairman Mark Lawn told Sky
Sports. “We’re at home and I think we can win
at home. When we get this stadium bouncing I
don’t think any team will want to come here.
Whether it’s Sunderland or Fulham, they won’t
want to come to Valley Parade.” In other ties
Manchester United face a trip to Preston North
End or Sheffield United should they overcome
fourth tier Cambridge United-the lowest
ranked side still in the competition-after they
forced a heroic replay against the eleven-time
winners.
West Bromwich Albion host West Ham
United and Leicester City travel to Aston Villa
in two all Premier League ties. Seven-time winners Liverpool or Bolton Wanderers will travel
to Crystal Palace, Blackburn Rovers host Stoke
City, who cruised past third tier Rochdale 4-1
on Monday, and Derby County will entertain
Reading. — Reuters
Possible venue change
for Nations Cup q-final
EBIBEYIN: Hosts Equatorial Guinea’s quarterfinal with Tunisia at the African Nations Cup
on Saturday could be moved from the small
Estadio de Ebibeyin to a bigger venue, the
Confederation of African Football said on
Monday.
The recently-built 5,000-seater stadium is
patently too small for the expected turnout as
the small country rides a euphoric wave after
their surprise victory over their neighbours
Gabon in their last group game on Sunday.
“It’s clearly a challenge and we will be consulting all the stakeholders,” said CAF
spokesman Junior Binyam. “As things stand
the schedule stays the same but there is
nothing in the regulations that prevents a
change. We are fortunate that we have both
our executive committee and organising
committee here on the ground and they will
look at all the scenarios.”
He gave no indication of when a decision
could be announced. A heavy rain storm on
Monday during the last group match at the
venue between Cape Verde and Zambia will
have added to the dilemma, leaving the newly laid pitch in a poor condition.
Binyam said this would also be taken into
consideration but security was the primary
concern. The Nations Cup has already seen
spectators breaking through fences at the
opening game in Bata on Jan. 17 and filling
the 35,000-capacity stadium there to overflowing.
In other venues, segregated areas for VIPS
and media have also been overrun at times
by supporters, whom poorly trained police
have been unable to control.
In Ebibeyin, a small town on the eastern
border with both Gabon and Cameroon,
organisers are using recruits from a nearby
police college to provide security with assistance from police from Angola.
A force of 350 has come from Luanda to
help Equatorial Guinea, who were only
awarded the finals and reinstated in the competition two months ago after previous hosts
Morocco pulled out because of fears over the
Ebola virus. — Reuters
Cameroon, Ivory Coast
clash in tense Group D
MALABO: The old adage that everything will be
decided on the pitch may not prove to be true in
the case of Group D at this year’s Africa Cup of
Nations.
All four matches in the group have ended in
1-1 draws, leaving the Ivory Coast, Cameroon,
Guinea and Mali absolutely even ahead of the
final games in Malabo and Mongomo on
Wednesday.
Two more identical draws will mean the
drawing of lots will be required to decide who
progresses to the quarter-finals and in which
order. That would not be unprecedented, with
the drawing of lots required at the 1988 Cup of
Nations to send Algeria through to the knockout
stage at the expense of the Ivory Coast, who had
drawn all three of their matches.
The 2015 version of the Elephants will hope
to win and thereby avoid a similar fate as they
face Cameroon at the Estadio de Malabo.
Coach Herve Renard will again be without
forward Gervinho, who completes a two-match
suspension following his sending-off against
Guinea, while midfielder Cheick Tiote will serve a
one-game ban after being booked in both
matches to date. Meanwhile, Max-Alain Gradel
could start after coming off the bench to grab
the late equaliser against Mali. “Cameroon have
experienced players in every department. For us,
except for Kolo Toure, we have no other experienced defender,” said Renard.
“It is a match that will be decided by little
details. Concentration, an ability to take our
chances and defensive rigor will all be important. Whichever team shows a little less of these
things will go home.”
Salomon Kalou, who will also be hoping to be
recalled after being dropped to the bench
against Mali, called it “the final before the real
final”. “Cameroon is a great football nation and
so is the Ivory Coast. All we want is to get
through to the last eight, and now we have 90
minutes to show who wants it more.”
Recent history suggests Cameroon are best
MALABO: Cameroon’s national soccer team Coach, Volker Finke (left) and Cameroon soccer player,
Stephane Mbia, attend a press conference ahead of their final Group D Match today. — AP
Nevertheless, winger Ibrahima Traore, who
placed to win this encounter, though. After all,
the Indomitable Lions won their qualifying scored against Cameroon at the weekend and
group ahead of the Ivorians, trouncing the has been one of the players of the tournament
Elephants 4-1 in Yaounde in September before so far, said: “We are progressing.
We have played against two of the tournadrawing 0-0 in the return match in Abidjan in
November. However, Cameroon are set to once ment favourites and nobody expected us to take
again be without midfielder Eyong Enoh, who anything from them. “It’s not over, we have a
injured his left thigh in the opening match final to come and we’ll do everything to get the
three points.” Guinea coach Michel Dussuyer has
against Mali.
At the same time, west African neighbors defensive problems, however, with a calf probMali and Guinea, the supposed outsiders before lem having kept captain Kamil Zayatte on the
sidelines so far while Florentin Pogba came off
the tournament began, clash in Mongomo.
Both have impressed observers with their dis- against Cameroon with a groin injury.
Germain Berthe is set to start in goal for Mali
plays so far, although Mali have twice failed to
see out leads in their games while Guinea could after Soumaila Diakite was ruled out for the rest
live to regret not seeing off the Ivory Coast after of the competition with the groin injury that
forced him off against the Ivorians. — AFP
leading and having a one-man advantage.
Spurs seek comfort against Blades
SHEFFIELD: Tottenham Hotspur’s reputation as a club that
thrives in knockout competition was dented by an FA Cup
exit at the hands of Leicester at the weekend but Mauricio
Pochettino’s men remain close to reaching the League Cup
final, nonetheless.
Only third-tier Sheffield United stand in their way and
Spurs will arrive in Yorkshire for today’s second leg of the
semi-final with a 1-0 lead secured when the teams met in
north London.
Spurs have won the League Cup four times in all and
have reached the final three times this century alone, beating Chelsea in 2008 and then going down on penalties to
Manchester United the following year, having previously
lost in the 2002 climax to Blackburn Rovers. A Wembley
date with either Liverpool or Chelsea, who play on Tuesday,
awaits the victors at Bramall Lane and Pochettino was keen
for his players to forget about the Leicester defeat and
seize the opportunity. “It is important to keep our motivation and confidence, because we need to play on
Wednesday with our best performance,” the Argentinian
coach said. “It will be a really tough game.”
Goalkeeper Michel Vorm has been playing in the
domestic cup competitions, with Spurs first-choice Hugo
Lloris preferred for Premier League fixtures and in the
Europa League, which resumes next month. Dutchman
Vorm was guilty of a bad error that led to Leicester scoring
a late winner on Saturday, however, so it remains to be
seen whether he will keep his place, especially as the hugely-experienced Brad Friedel is another option available to
Pochettino. “I am gutted now, but you have to go on
because there is another big game ahead on Wednesday
and we have to focus on that as quickly as possible,” Vorm
LONDON: Tottenham Hotspur’s Togolese striker Emmanuel Adebayor reacts in this file photo. — AFP
said. “If that mistake happens earlier in the game, maybe
you can turn it around, but at the end makes it even worse.
When the ball goes in, it is horrible, but that is football.”
Winger Erik Lamela made his comeback from a calf
injury in the Leicester game following almost a month on
the sidelines and is expected to feature against the Blades.
“ To win a trophy here is what I want the most,” the
Argentina international said. “To win a cup is everything I
hope for.” Sheffield United will be confident of causing an
upset however as they boast a remarkable record in knockout competitions under Nigel Clough, their manager. Of
the 19 FA Cup and League Cup matches Clough has overseen, the Blades have lost only two, and neither of those
defeats have come at home.
“The tie is definitely alive,” midfielder Jose Baxter said.
“We would have liked to get a goal and bring that back to
Bramall Lane but it was a great performance from the team
and we need to bring that belief into the next game.
“It was a case of giving them the respect they deserved
and then once the game was underway thinking ‘hang on,
we can get something here’.
“They’ll probably come out all guns blazing now knowing we’re a good team.” Sheffield United are likely to name
the same starting eleven to the team that played in the
first leg, with new signing Kieron Freeman expected to feature among the substitutes.
Clough’s team are still in the FA Cup and are pushing for
promotion from League One. Both teams will be playing
their 38th fixture of the season but Baxter said the United
squad could cope with the demanding schedule. “Games
are better than training. More games is better for us,” he
said. “We want to get fitter and keep learning.” — AFP
Cameroon, Ivory
Coast clash in
tense Group D
Park ‘shocked’ by
failed dope test
19
17
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
From humble origin to king of US sports events
Page 17
AUSTRALIA : Czech Republic’s Tomas Berdych celebrates after victory in his men’s singles match against Spain’s Rafael Nadal on day nine of the 2015 Australian Open tennis tournament. — AFP
Berdych ends Nadal tyranny
Murray charges on, Sharapova thrashes Bouchard
MELBOURNE: Iron-willed Czech Tomas Berdych ended
eight years of tyranny under nemesis Rafa Nadal to
storm into the Australian Open semi-finals yesterday
before his next opponent Andy Murray restored British
colonial rule to the floodlit centre court.
Maria Sharapova inflicted another grand slam reality
check on Eugenie Bouchard and will play an all-Russian
semi-final with plucky lefthander Ekaterina Makaraova,
who thrashed third seed Simona Halep on a surprising
day at Melbourne Park.
In the evening session, Murray struck back for the old
guard, slapping down local teenager Nick Kyrgios 6-3 76(5) 6-3 to deflate home fans pumped up by the traditional sporting rivalry with former colonial masters
Britain.
But it was Nadal’s 6-2 6-0 7-6(5) humbling on an
unseasonably cold summer ’s day that rocked
Melbourne Park to its core and shook the biggest monkey in the men’s game off the back of Berdych.
The big-serving Czech’s 17-match losing streak to the
Spaniard was the equal-longest in the professional era
and snapping it was the result of a perfectly executed
plan.
“Oh, it feels great,” Berdych told reporters.
“Everything was working. I was able to execute it really
well.” In an intriguing twist, the man that helped
Berdych create the master plan was Dani Vallverdu,
Murray’s former hitting partner and assistant coach,
who parted ways with the Scot in November.
Now in Berdych’s camp, Vallverdu will provide the
intelligence for preparations against Murray. On the
strength of Berdych’s tournament, the Venezuelan has
been a roaring success, with the Czech not dropping a
set. The rangy 29-year-old was irresistible in the first two
sets against Nadal, wrapping them up in exactly an
hour and giving the 14-times grand slam champion his
first grand slam bagel since the 2006 Wimbledon final
against Roger Federer.
“It was just not my day. I didn’t play with the right
intensity, the right rhythm,” said a disappointed Nadal,
who was nonetheless content with his run after coming
back from injury and illness.
Black-clad Murray was all business against brash 19year-old Kyrgios and needed to be for much of a highquality encounter on a chilly, windy evening.
Kyrgios lifted to bring the crowd into the equation,
but Murray rose with him, closing out the match with a
barrage of scintillating winners.
“I tried to start as quickly as possible because I know
how dangerous he is,” Murray said courtside of his
opponent, who dumped Nadal from Wimbledon on the
way to the last eight. “I have seen his matches for the
last 18 months... So I wasn’t going to underestimate
him.”
DOMINATING RUSSIANS
It was a performance that Sharapova would have
approved of after her 78-minute rout of another young
upstart in Canadian Bouchard.
Bouchard claimed to have gleaned a lot from her
gutting French Open loss last year, overhauled by the
Russian from a set down, but nothing could have prepared her for the schooling that played out.
Pakistan hope to lurch
from disaster to triumph
Australia stun UAE to
reach Asian Cup final
NEWCASTLE: Australia stunned
United Arab Emirates with two
goals in the first 14 minutes to
reach a second successive Asian
Cup final with a 2-0 victory at a
rain-soaked Newcastle Stadium
yesterday. The Socceroos lost to
Japan in the final four years ago
and will now take on another East
Asian power in South Korea in
Sydney on Saturday looking to seal
a first continental title at their third
attempt. Defenders led the way for
the goal-happy hosts with Trent
Sainsbury heading them in front
after three minutes and Jason
Davidson doubling the lead 11
minutes later.
“We knew the start was going to
be really important,” coach Ange
Postecoglou told reporters. “Our
intention was, we wanted to start
really strong. Even if we didn’t score
if we could put some pressure on
without conceding, that was our
best chance.”
The UAE stunned champions
Japan in a penalty shootout to
reach the semi-finals for the first
time since 1996 but another upset
never looked on the cards after
Australia’s early salvo.
Attacking midfielder Omar
Abdulrahman did nothing to
detract from his burgeoning reputation with some delightful touches
and striker Ahmed Khalil hit the
woodwork in the first half but they
were unable to create enough
clear-cut chances.
The wet pitch probably did not
help but Australia, with Matthew
Spiranovic restored to the back four
after suspension, also defended
well
enough
to
contain
Abdulrahman and his team mates.
It was at the other end of the
pitch that the Socceroos made the
most important early impression to
the delight of the majority of the
crowd of 21,079.
Winger Robbie Kruse had his
cross blocked after a burst down
the right in the opening couple of
minutes but when the corner came
swinging into the box, Sainsbury
rose unchallenged to head the ball
into the net off the turf.
The UAE had their best chance
in the 10th minute when Abdelaziz
Sanqour broke down the right flank
and crossed for striker Khalil to hit
the ball first time against the base
of the post.
Australia were straight back on
the attack, though, and after another surge down the right the ball
was heading towards Tim Cahill in
Completely dictated, Bouchard had nowhere to hide
and the five-times grand slam champion feasted upon
her serve. She swooped in for the kill with a string of
smoking winners, sealing it with a crunching inside-out
forehand.
As Sharapova blew kisses, Bouchard headed straight
for the exit, biting her lip. “Am I happy that I was able to
lift my game after having a couple matches where I
wasn’t satisfied? Yeah, absolutely,” Sharapova told
reporters.
“But the toughest is what’s to come. I hope that I’ll be
able to take that and play even better.” Third seed Halep
had cruised into the quarter-finals by smiting lowerranked opponents but ran head-first into a brick wall in
the form of lithe left-hander Makarova. The 26-year-old
Makarova, who describes herself as shy off-court, blew
the nerve-stricken Halep away and has not lost a set all
tournament. She heads into her clash with Sharapova
fresh and in top form. “I’m not shy on the tennis court.
It’s a big stage,” she said. “I never beat (Sharapova), so it
will be tough.” —AFP
AUSTRALIA: Mathew Leckie of Australia (left) and Ismail Al
Hammadi of United Arab Emirates fight for the ball during their
AFC Asian Cup semi-final football match. —AFP
front of goal.
Cahill was dragged back as he
was attempting a shot and Mathew
Leckie then had an effort blocked
but the ball fell to Davidson, who
calmly drilled it low and hard into
the goal.
The Australians were in no
mood to sit back and protect their
lead but the UAE kept their shape
and gradually worked their way
back into the contest.
Khalil let fly with a long-range
effort that flew past Mat Ryan and
wide of the post in the 51st minute
and Abdulrahman continued to
probe for weaknesses in the
Australian defence. — Reuters
KARACHI: If there is one team among the
top eight at the World Cup which could
either crash out embarrassingly in the
first round or romp to the title, it’s
Pakistan.
The talented yet unpredictable side
are haunted by injuries to their fast
bowlers, the suspension of match-winning spinner Saeed Ajmal and a tussle for
the captaincy between Misbah-ul Haq
and Shahid Afridi. All seems to have settled down as Misbah’s men embark on a
mission to match Imran Khan’s World Cup
triumph-Pakistan’s only win-in Australia
some 23 years ago.
“This team has the spirit of cornered
tigers,” said chief selector and former captain Moin Khan, a key member of 1992
winning team. “If they play to their potential this team can surprise the world.”
Captain Misbah, who has recovered from
a hamstring injury, is also confident of the
best results. “The format of this World Cup
is such that teams have a lot of opportunities,” said Misbah, who will retire from
one-day cricket after the World Cup.
“It would be the icing on the cake if I
end my one-day career with the trophy.”
But Misbah knows his bowling will miss
Ajmal, who has single-handedly won
matches for Pakistan before being suspended for an illegal bowling action last
September.
Spinning all-rounder Mohammad
Hafeez-suspended in November last year
also over an illegal bowling action-needs
to clear a reassessment test to allow the
right combination to Misbah.
“It will be important that Hafeez clears
the test because he is two-in-one and his
bowling gives us the right combination,”
said the captain.
Lanky paceman Mohammad Irfan-the
tallest man to ever play international
cricket at 7 feet, one inch-is expected to
be the X-factor in an otherwise inexperienced pace attack which will miss Umar
Gul, not fit enough for the event after
knee and ankle problems.
“To me the X-factor in our team is
Irfan. With his height I think he can be
dangerous,” said coach Waqar Younis,
who missed Pakistan’s World Cup win in
1992 with a back problem.
In Ajmal’s absence, leg-spinner Yasir
Shah, along with all-rounder Afridi, will
handle the spin department. Afridi, who
will also quit one-day cricket after the
World Cup, will be important too as a
batsman in the slog overs as will be Umar
Akmal, Misbah and Sohaib Maqsood.
Pakistan’s top-order problem persists
and will continue to haunt them as
Hafeez opening the innings with Ahmed
Shehzad doesn’t always guarantee a trouble-free start. — AFP
Business
MENA growth to
slow amid falling oil
Page 22
Asian airlines slash fuel
surcharges but fares to rise
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
Page 23
Toyota earns 2015 ‘Top Safety Pick’ awards
Russia attacks ‘politically
motivated’ downgrade
Page 26
Page 25
RICHMOND: A flag flaps in the breeze in front of a new home for sale in Richmond, Virginia. Sales of new US homes accelerated strongly in December, a sign that home-buying may improve this year after a lackluster 2014, the
Commerce Department reported yesterday. — AP
Gulf Bank posts 10% rise in net profit in 2014
Net profit up to KD 35.5m • Operating profit reaches KD 106.8m
KUWAIT: Gulf Bank yesterday announced an
operating profit before provisions of KD 106.8
million for the year ending 2014 and a net profit at KD 35.5 million, which is a 10 percent
increase over 2013. At the end of December
2014, the Bank’s total assets were KD 5,331 million. There has been a significant gain in market
share in loans, mainly attributable to the 23 percent growth in retail loans. Overall, this resulted
in a growth of 9 percent vs. the 6 percent market growth. The growth in low cost deposits
was 16 percent increasing the total deposits at
the bank to KD 4,340 million. Total shareholders’
equity increased to KD 511 million from KD 483
million in 2013.
The bank maintained its positive trend of
reducing the non-performing loan ratio which
decreased from 6.5 percent at the beginning of
the year to 3.2 percent by December 2014 and
increased the total coverage ratio of non-performing loans to 266 percent.
The Gulf Bank’s Board of Directors have recommended a stock dividend of 5 per cent (5
shares for every 100 shares held), for approval
at the Shareholders meeting.
Clear strategy
Commenting on the results, Omar Kutayba
Alghanim, Gulf Bank’s Chairman said: “Gulf Bank
is today a great and strong bank. It has overcome the difficult times in an admirable way.
The strategy is clear and the mandate of the
Board is to grow. In wholesale, we will reinforce
our advisory and products capabilities. In Retail,
products and newer channels are being
upgraded. Everything we do will be upgraded
under strict risk criteria, as per our policies that
have helped make Gulf Bank safe and sound.”
Cesar Gonzalez-Bueno, Gulf bank’s CEO said:
“I am pleased to report that we have continued
the progress of previous years, even accelerat-
rating to Baa1 from Baa2 and the Stand Alone
Financial Strength rating to D from D-, maintaining a positive outlook. Standard Poor’s also
affirmed the Bank’s long-term credit rating at
BBB+ with a positive outlook. Both agencies, in
their assessments, affirmed the Bank’s asset
quality, capitalization, solid revenue generating
capacity and sound risk management systems
and practices.
Omar Kutayba Alghanim
ed it. The Bank’s Capital Adequacy Ratio per the
new Basel III regulations is at 15.5 percent
against the regulatory requirement of 12 percent. The bank is also strongly placed with a
leverage ratio of 8.25 percent against the regulatory minimum of 3 percent. Our network has
grown to 59 branches across Kuwait, the second largest in the country and we we’re proud
to be the first bank to open a branch in the new
areas of Jaber Al-Ahmad and Qairawan. This is
another sign of our desire to be closer to our
customers. As we move through 2015, we will
maintain financial discipline and the policy of
investing in the bank’s infrastructure to ensure
we have robust internal controls in place at all
levels of the operations.”
Cesar Gonzalez-Bueno
During 2014, the Bank continued the focus
on its core competence of commercial and
retail lending within the Kuwaiti market, and on
strengthening its domestic franchise. The strategy has shifted to risk adjusted growth following a period starting in 2009 during which the
focus was on strengthening the balance sheet
and managing down a substantial portfolio of
impaired loans. The Bank continued to make
progress during 2014 in strengthening systems,
controls, enhancing risk management, corporate governance and also in improving product
offerings and delivery channels.
This progress is also being recognized by the
international credit rating agencies. During
2014, Moody’s upgraded Gulf Bank long term
Global recognition
Significant upgrades were made within the
IT department to both improve the existing
infrastructure and upgrade the technology. A
strategic plan aimed at delivering a robust
capability in terms of Infrastructure,
Governance, Solution Delivery and Security
Framework was also launched.
Gulf bank continues to invest in youth,
entrepreneurship and talent development in
the local community through its Corporate
Social responsibility initiatives by participating
in programs such as INJAZ local and regional
competitions, the Annual gathering of National
Union of Kuwaiti Students - USA branch, as well
as a wide variety of job shadowing programs.
Our annual sponsorship of the memorial journey for pearl diving continues to strengthen
our position as an integral part of the Kuwaiti
society. Gulf Bank has numerous staff volunteers working together with our youth on various development programs throughout the
year.
With our relentless focus on talent; Gulf Bank
places great value on its Human Resources and
continuously delivers exceptional initiatives
that help the progress and development of its
staff. This was culminated with the launch of
Durrat Al-Khaleej training center early 2014 and
the recent launch of a customized Graduate
Development Program in collaboration with
Gulf states may need to rethink policy: Qatar CB
DUBAI: Gulf Arab oil states may need to rethink longstanding economic policies, including their fixed
exchange rates, over the next five to 10 years as economic cycles in the region and the United States
diverge, a senior Qatar central bank official said in a
research paper.
The six nations in the Gulf Cooperation Council
(GCC) have pegged their currencies to the US dollar or in the case of Kuwait, a peg to a basket of currencies
that is believed to be dominated by the dollar - to stabilize them.
But in recent years the GCC economies have moved
more out of sync with the United States, as the pegs
press GCC policymakers to mirror the US central bank’s
decisions even if trends at home call for the contrary.
As long as they have currency pegs to the dollar, the
Gulf States could face destabilizing capital outflows or
inflows if they allow large interest rate gaps to open up
with the United States - but raising interest rates while
Gulf economies are slowing could hurt growth further.
GCC economies performed well during much of the
global financial crisis as the US economy slumped.
Now, the US economy is expanding strongly as GCC
economies risk slowing because of the plunge of oil
prices.
Markets believe the Federal Reserve may start raising interest rates this year, and this “is coming at the
wrong time for the GCC countries. There is considerable uncertainty here with the oil price and the Fed,”
Khalid Alkhater, the Qatar Central Bank’s Director of
Research and Monetary Policy, said in a research paper
seen by Reuters.
“If the low oil price persists in the medium term and
the Fed starts to raise interest rates, that might contribute to economic slowdown in the GCC. But it
depends on the pace of the tightening process, how
fast and how persistent they will be.”
Alkhater stressed in the paper, presented at the
Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies in Doha,
that it represented his personal academic view as a
monetary policy specialist, and not the official view of
Qatar’s central bank in any way.
Rate question
The Brent oil price has tumbled nearly $70 since
June to nearly six-year lows below $50 per barrel,
clouding the outlook for the GCC states, where government income from hydrocarbon sales powers economic growth. “Low enough oil prices - below the average
break-even price for GCC budgets - for a long enough
period - spanning the medium term through 2017 or
beyond - can aggravate the status of the cycles
between the two sides i.e. widen the potential gap,”
Alkhater said.
Markets will watch the Fed’s interest rate-setting
meeting yesterday and today this week to gauge its
resolve to start raising rates mid-way through the year,
as consumer prices have dropped despite strong economic momentum.
“Qatar still has space over the short run to keep
interest rates at the current level, even after the Fed
starts to raise rates, since it kept its rate much higher
than the Fed policy rate,” Alkhater said.
Qatar’s central bank has kept its key overnight
deposit rate at 0.75 percent since August 2011, above
the Fed funds target rate of 0-0.25 percent. Alkhater
said, however, that GCC central banks would ultimately follow the Fed under any scenario, as they had
always done in the past. “ This more than fourdecades-old uni-instrument, uni-tool macropolicy
framework, in my opinion, is no longer suitable to
manage the economic c ycle in today ’s GCC
economies, because we apparently keep missing the
cycle. And it looks like the sync with the US is going to
weaken further and further.” —Reuters
the Institute of Banking Studies (IBS). The program focuses on the development of local talent and aiming at creating a pool of holistic
bankers and leaders of the future
During 2014, the bank was honored with
prestigious awards and accolades’, including
‘Bank of the Year’ award from Arabian Business,
‘Best Retail Bank in Kuwait’ award from
International Finance Magazine, the ‘Best
Domestic Payments and Cash Management
Bank in Kuwait’ by Asian Banker, ‘Best Domestic
Retail Bank’ and ‘Best Human Resources
Development’ awards for 2014 from Banker
Middle East, ‘HR Professional of the Year’ award
for the private sector at the 6th Annual MENA
HR Excellence Awards, the ‘Best Customer
Experience Overall Branch in Kuwait’ award
from Ethos Integrated Solutions (Ethos) at the
10th Annual Customer Experience
Benchmarking Index and STP Award from
Citibank.
Omar Kutayba Alghanim, Gulf Bank’s
Chairman concluded: “I can confidently say
that Gulf Bank has culminated its transition
and has started a new path after completing its
recovery. It is now time to thank our
Customers, employees, Central Bank, Board of
Directors, Shareholders and Public Authorities
for supporting this successful turnaround that
has been meticulously executed. Far seem
today the difficult times when our NPL’s
reached 30 percent. Now we have all the elements in place to grow better and faster, as we
have started to do in 2014 when we launched
significant initiatives that will mature and be
announced during the course of 2015. We have
the , governance, staff , financials, risk procedures, systems and clarity of ideas to execute.
During 2015 Gulf Bank will culminate projects
that will help us to serve our clients better, and
provide better results.”
Currency shifts eating into
fuel-cost benefits: Emirates
DUBAI: Dubai’s Emirates airline expects currency fluctuations in
Europe and Russia to limit the profitability boost from lower oil
prices, a senior executive said yesterday.
Emirates President Tim Clark was quoted this week as saying
that the drop in oil prices-down by about 60 percent since last
June-would be “a huge boost” to the airline’s 2014 earnings and
would offset disruption from runway work at its home airport
and a decline in business with Russia.
The Dubai carrier is one of the few major airlines that does
not hedge its fuel bill by buying future stocks of jet fuel to minimise the effect of price spikes, meaning that it benefits from
price falls immediately. “We don’t hedge and that’s helping us a
lot in the short term,” Sheikh Majid Al-Mualla, the airline’s divisional senior vice president of commercial operations, said at a
conference in Dubai.
However, Mualla said that the benefits will be partially offset
by currency fluctuations in the ruble and the euro over the
longer term, without offering any specific forecasts. The ruble
has almost halved against the dollar since July as oil prices fell
and the West imposed sanctions on Russia over its role in the
Ukraine crisis.
Meanwhile, the European Central Bank’s introduction of a
massive bond-buying program to stimulate the euro zone economy and worries over whether Greece’s new government will
stick to the terms of the country’s bailout, pushed the euro to an
11-year low against the dollar at $1.1098 on Monday. — Reuters
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
BUSINESS
MENA growth to slow amid falling oil
KAMCO ECONOMIC RESEARCH
KUWAIT: MENA GDP growth is
expec ted to see a slowdown and
reach 3.0 percent in 2015 as compared to 3.5 percent in 2014. With oil
prices expected to remain low during
2015-16, resulting in negative impact
on the oil exporting economies, is
somewhat offset by the positive
expected growth for oil importers
within the MENA region.
MENA economic outlook:
* Growth in the developing countries in the MENA region is projected
to pick up gradually to 3.5 percent in
2017, helped by a rebound in oil production among oil exporters and a
modest recovery among oil importing
economies.
• Following their sharp decline in
2014, oil prices are expec ted to
remain soft in 2015 but rise modestly
in the medium term.
• Among oil exporters, growth is
expected to firm to about 3.1 percent
by 2017.
• Among oil importers, the outlook
is for a gradual improvement in
growth driven to about 4.1 percent by
2017.
• A weak EU will have more impact
on the North African economies as
their growth is more tied to the EU
trade. But the reforms in these countries will support growth.
• GCC can expect a huge decline in
the current account surplus or report
current account deficit in 2015 if the
oil prices fail to see a rebound.
MENA bond market
Bonds constitute a miniscule portion of total assets in the MENA
Region as compared to other world
economies. As of 2013, total debt
securities in the MENA accounted for
7.2 percent of total securities market
capitalization whereas bank assets
accounted for 4.0 percent and equity
market capitalization accounted for
the remaining 58.8 percent. However,
in the global context, total debt securities accounted for a much larger
share, recorded at 35.3 percent followed by bank assets at 22.1 percent
and equities at 42.6 percent. In terms
with bond issuances totaling $13.7
billion in 2014 as compared to $9.4
billion during 2013. In Kuwait, which
ranked fif th on the char t, bond
issuances totaled $5.4 billion and $4.3
billion for 2014 and 2013, respectively. In line with bond issuances, the
Egypt stock exchange topped the
signs of improvement.
The slowdown in SUKUK issuances
was apparent in top two markets ie
Saudi Arabia and UAE. Saudi Arabia
saw SUKUK issuances totaling $12.13
billion during 2014 as compared to
$15.22 billion during 2013. On the
other hand, UASE witnessed SUKUK
issuances as a way of portfolio diversification and innovation.
Currently Islamic investors have little choice in fixed income products for
effective asset allocation and diversification. However, we expect this to
change with more SUKUK issuances
and SUKUK Funds.
of total debt securities as a percentage of GDP, once again the MENA
region accounted for the smallest
percentage recorded at 8 percent as
compared to much larger percentages for the regions.
Although there has been a significant growth in bond issuances in the
MENA region post the financial crisis,
the region is yet to catch up as compared to global averages. Quarterly
bond issuances in the MENA region
peaked at $27.2 billion during Q2-14
scaling back to $11.2 billion by the
four th quar ter of the year. Total
issuances during 2014 stood at a historical high level of $72.9 billion as
compared to $61.4 billion during
2013. Bond issuances have seen a
phenomenal growth after the financial crisis and have remained above
the $50 billion level since 2009.
In terms of regional breakdown,
Egypt topped the chart both during
2013 and 2014, with bond issuances
totaling $28.1 billion and $19.8 billion, respectively. UAE ranked second
chart for primary bond market. The
healthy growth in bond issuances in
the region was also reflected in the
S&P MENA Bond Index and the S&P
MENA Bond & Sukuk Index which
recorded 2014 returns of close to 7
percent.
In terms of Issuer type, sovereign
issuance accounted for 70 percent of
the total bond issuances in 2014,
whereas quasi sovereign issuance
accounted for 3 percent. Corporate
issuances accounted for the remaining 27 percent of the bond issuances
in the region.
The MENA SUKUK market has seen
significant growth after the securities
market gained traction post the Arab
Spring. Total SUKUK issuances in the
region topped during 2013 with $26.4
billion worth of issuances. There was
a slight slowdown during 2014 which
witnessed issuances totaling $23.3
billion. Quarterly issuances was highest during the first quarter of 2011
recorded at $10.8 billion after the
securities markets started showing
issuances totaling $5.72 billion in
2014 as compared to $7.12 billion
during 2013. I jarah issuances
remained the preferred choice of
SUKUK instrument during both 2013
and 2014.
I n the global SUKUK market,
Malaysia continued to rein the market
in terms of the total size and number
of issuances during 2014, followed by
a distant second Saudi Arabia and
UAE. Even on the global market,
S overeign and Quasi-sovereign
issuers dominated the market.
However, in terms of type of SUKUK
instrument, Murabaha instruments
dominated the international market
as compared to Ijarah in the MENA
region.
Following the market needs, GCC
Region is expected to take the lead in
SUKUK demand and supply in the
MENA region. There is a big
supply/demand gap in the SUKUK
market and the market is expected to
see this gap in the near term. Sukuk
issuances in the MENA region is
expected to get a major boost, especially in the oil producing GCC
economies, as the respective governments tr y to bridge the expected
budget deficits driven by historical
decline in oil prices. Moreover, these
issuances are expected to be welcomed by the local investors with adequate liquidity who are expecting stability in their portfolio risk and returns.
We expect to see more inflows into the
fixed income securities/funds of MENA
Region as the investors look at the
negative rates in the developed markets. Also most of the currencies in the
region are pegged to USD, this
reduces the currenc y risk for the
investors while investing in fixed
income securities in the MENA Region.
Gourmet date firm Bateel
to sell minority stake
DUBAI: Bateel, which makes chocolate-covered dates and other delicacies, is looking to sell a minority
stake and two international investors
are said to be interested, people
familiar with the matter said. One of
the potential bidders is L Capital, a
luxury goods-focused private equity
firm backed by LVMH MoÎt Hennessy
Louis Vuitton, according to one of
the sources.
Bateel, a Riyadh-based date
farmer, has successfully marketed
the fruit as a gourmet product by
wrapping it in chocolate or filling it
with orange or almond. It has mandated
Jeddah-based
Jadwa
Investment to manage the sale,
according to one private equity
source.
A stake of between 20 percent
and 40 percent could be sold,
according to three sources with
knowledge of the sale. The sources
spoke on condition of anonymity as
the information is not public.
Bateel did not respond to Reuters
requests for comment. L Capital
could not immediately be reached
for comment Bateel operates in 15
countries and has its own date
groves in Al Ghat, central Saudi
Arabia. The company has also
launched a chain of cafÈs and bakeries for gourmet food and beverages. The proposed transaction is
the latest example of acquisition
activity in the region’s consumer
product industry, as investors look to
tap into the Middle East’s increasingly wealthy young population.
Also, family-owned businesses are
looking to offload stakes to raise
cash and, in some cases, bring in private equity or strategic shareholders
to provide the expertise to expand.
Jordan’s Nuqul Group is selling a
25 percent stake in FINE Hygienic
Holdings, one of the Middle East’s
largest tissue and paper products
manufacturers, in a deal that could
be worth up to $200 million, sources
told Reuters earlier this month.
Lebanon-based retailer Azadea
Group, a family group which holds
franchise rights in the region for
brands including Gap , Zara and
Superdry, is hoping to raise up to
$500 million from a 25 percent stake
sale. — Reuters
The way forward...
SUKUK market is expected to show
strong growth over the medium term
as the demand for the Islamic produc ts increase across the world.
Corporates and financial institutions
are increasingly eyeing SUKUK
Kuwaiti crude price down to $40.66pb
KUWAIT: The price of Kuwaiti oil barrel
went down 85 cents on Monday, reaching
$40.66, compared to last Friday’s 41.51 per
barrel, said Kuwait Petroleum Corporation
(KPC) yesterday. Global oil prices are currently in lowest trends in six years due to
the ongoing dilemma of weak demand versus saturated markets.
OPEC Secretary General Abdullah AlBadri yesterday predic ted recover y to
include oil prices “very soon”, pointing out
that the current decline should not be
alarming. On the prospect of a change in
oil polic y in top OPEC producer Saudi
Arabia under the new king, Al-Badri told
Reuters “Saudi Arabia is a stable country, is
a stable government, and I think things will
be normal”.
Oil’s decline in 2014 was its secondbiggest ever, after the collapse in 2008
which followed the record high.
The price of OPEC’s crude basket down
by 79 cents on Monday, reaching USD 42.90
per barrel (pb), compared to $43.69pb on
Friday, said OPEC yesterday. Meanwhile, the
organization said that the annual rate for
the basket’s price of 2014 was $96.29pb.
The new OPEC Reference Basket of Crudes
(ORB) is made up of the following: Saharan
Blend (Algeria), Girassol (Angola), Oriente
(Ecuador), Iran Heavy (Islamic Republic of
Iran), Basra Light (Iraq), Kuwait Expor t
(Kuwait), Es Sider (Libya), Bonny Light
(Nigeria), Qatar Marine (Qatar), Arab Light
(Saudi Arabia), Murban (UAE) and Merey
(Venez). During their recent annual meeting, OPEC oil ministers decided to maintain
the cartel’s production level at 30 million
barrels per day. —KUNA
Tawreeq launches Islamic factoring for SMEs
DUBAI: An investment group based in Dubai
and Luxembourg has launched an Islamic
trade receivables financing platform catering
to the Gulf region’s small businesses, with
plans to tap the capital markets to fund the
venture, its chief executive told Reuters.
Tawreeq Holdings developed the concept
over the past year and a half, aiming to give
smaller firms a funding alternative to bank
loans, which can be cumbersome and costly
for most, said chief executive Haitham AlRefaie.
Besides start-up capital from regional
investors, the firm plans to raise additional
funds, he added without giving monetary figures. “We are in the process of launching our
investment funds and sukuk to attract liquidity from international investors.”
In conventional factoring, a bank takes
over a firm’s receivables and collects payments on them, while charging interest on a
loan extended to the firm.
Interest is banned in Islamic finance so other structures must be used. Sharia-compliant
factoring is rare in the Gulf, although it is
offered in Malaysia under a format that
involves the sale of debt for cash, with Islamic
banks serving as intermediaries. Many scholars outside Malaysia view the format, known
as bai al dayn, as impermissible.Tawreeq’s
platform provides sharia-compliant factoring
by connecting corporates, suppliers and
investors to securitize trade receivables, said
Al Refaie, a former head of the business banking group at National Bank of Abu Dhabi.
The system provides financing across the
entire supply chain by allowing buyers and
suppliers to transact directly with each other, he said. He declined to give more details,
saying it was a proprietar y system.
“Conventional factoring is more a form of
discounting bills, while our model is about
the collaboration of buyers and suppliers to
offer complete cash-flow solutions.” Fewer
than a third of banks in the Gulf offer shariacompliant factoring services, a study commissioned by the International Finance Corp
said last June. — Reuters
EXCHANGE RATES
Al-Muzaini Exchange Co.
ASIAN COUNTRIES
2.501
4.790
2.927
2.225
2.989
221.650
38.024
3.782
6.598
9.029
61.555
121.740
GCC COUNTRIES
Saudi Riyal
78.331
Qatari Riyal
81.022
Omani Riyal
766.310
Bahraini Dinar
766.310
UAE Dirham
81.022
ARAB COUNTRIES
Egyptian Pound - Cash
40.874
Egyptian Pound - Transfer
40.572
Yemen Riyal/for 1000
1.376
Tunisian Dinar
154.550
Jordanian Dinar
415.970
Lebanese Lira/for 1000
1.979
Syrian Lira
2.102
Morocco Dirham
31.733
EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES
US Dollar Transfer
294.800
Euro
342.850
Sterling Pound
448.540
Canadian dollar
245.260
Turkish lira
125.770
Swiss Franc
340.420
Australian Dollar
244.090
US Dollar Buying
293.600
GOLD
20 gram
238.100
10 gram
121.740
5 gram
61.560
Japanese Yen
Indian Rupees
Pakistani Rupees
Srilankan Rupees
Nepali Rupees
Singapore Dollar
Hongkong Dollar
Bangladesh Taka
Philippine Peso
Thai Baht
Irani Riyal transfer
Irani Riyal cash
UAE Exchange Centre WLL
COUNTRY
Australian Dollar
Canadian Dollar
Swiss Franc
Euro
US Dollar
Sterling Pound
Japanese Yen
Bangladesh Taka
Indian Rupee
Sri Lankan Rupee
Nepali Rupee
Pakistani Rupee
UAE Dirhams
Bahraini Dinar
Egyptian Pound
Jordanian Dinar
Omani Riyal
Qatari Riyal
Saudi Riyal
SELL DRAFT
224.63
241.04
332.53
337.65
296.00
448.97
2.54
3.797
4.816
2.226
3.004
2.931
80.43
785.62
39.71
420.58
767.63
81.51
78.85
SELL CASH
221.63
242.04
230.53
338.65
299.00
451.97
2.56
4.067
5.116
2.661
3.539
2.790
80.90
787.69
40.31
426.23
774.93
82.06
79.25
Syrian Pound
Nepalese Rupees
Malaysian Ringgit
Chinese Yuan Renminbi
Thai Bhat
Turkish Lira
Bahrain Exchange Company
CURRENCY
Belgian Franc
British Pound
Czech Korune
Danish Krone
Euro
Norwegian Krone
Romanian Leu
Slovakia
Swedish Krona
Swiss Franc
Turkish Lira
Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd
Rate for Transfer
US Dollar
Canadian Dollar
Sterling Pound
Euro
Swiss Frank
Bahrain Dinar
UAE Dirhams
Qatari Riyals
Saudi Riyals
Jordanian Dinar
Egyptian Pound
Sri Lankan Rupees
Indian Rupees
Pakistani Rupees
Bangladesh Taka
Philippines Pesso
Cyprus pound
Japanese Yen
Selling Rate
295.750
239.330
447.560
333.580
267.830
786.690
80.895
82.060
79.060
417.445
39.672
2.224
4.812
2.931
3.795
6.695
725.942
3.500
Sierra Leone
Singapore Dollar
South African Rand
Sri Lankan Rupee
Taiwan
Thai Baht
2.620
4.005
82.770
47.665
10.060
125.695
Australian Dollar
New Zealand Dollar
Canadian Dollar
US Dollars
US Dollars Mint
Bangladesh Taka
Chinese Yuan
Hong Kong Dollar
Indian Rupee
Indonesian Rupiah
Japanese Yen
Kenyan Shilling
Korean Won
Malaysian Ringgit
Nepalese Rupee
Pakistan Rupee
Philippine Peso
BUY
Europe
0.007707
0.439778
0.003945
0.040535
0.326751
0.033894
0.074079
0.008700
0.031565
0.320546
0.127214
Australasia
0.226427
0.213289
America
0.231439
0.291700
0.292200
Asia
0.003499
0.046251
0.036067
0.004466
0.000019
0.002415
0.003215
0.000263
0.079362
0.003024
0.002736
0.006558
SELL
0.008707
0.448778
0.015945
0.045535
0.334751
0.039094
0.074079
0.018700
0.036565
0.330746
0.134214
Bahraini Dinar
Egyptian Pound
Iranian Riyal
Iraqi Dinar
Jordanian Dinar
Kuwaiti Dinar
Lebanese Pound
Moroccan Dirhams
Nigerian Naira
Omani Riyal
Qatar Riyal
Saudi Riyal
Syrian Pound
Tunisian Dinar
Turkish Lira
UAE Dirhams
Yemeni Riyal
0.000068
0.216617
0.019761
0.001880
0.009333
0.008748
Arab
0.778155
0.036898
0.000082
0.000196
0.413157
1.000000
0.000145
0.022718
0.001206
0.762292
0.080538
0.078243
0.001754
0.149099
0.127214
0.079554
0.001336
0.000074
0.222617
0.028261
0.002460
0.009513
0.009298
0.786155
0.039996
0.000083
0.000256
0.420657
1.000000
0.000245
0.046718
0.001841
0.767972
0.081751
0.078943
0.001974
0.157099
0.134214
0.080703
0.001416
0.237927
0.222789
Al Mulla Exchange
0.239939
0.296400
0.296400
0.004099
0.049751
0.038817
0.004867
0.000025
0.002595
0.003215
0.000278
0.085362
0.003194
0.003016
0.006838
Currency
US Dollar
Euro
Pound Sterlng
Canadian Dollar
Indian Rupee
Egyptian Pound
Sri Lankan Rupee
Bangladesh Taka
Philippines Peso
Pakistan Rupee
Bahraini Dinar
UAE Dirham
Saudi Riyal
*Rates are subject to change
Transfer Rate (Per 1000)
294.250
348.000
448.650
247.700
4.738
41.135
2.222
3.770
6.590
2.928
783.450
80.150
78.600
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
BUSINESS
British growth slows, but
2014 still fastest in 7 years
LONDON: Britain’s economic growth
slowed more than expected in the final
three months of last year, but with annual
growth still at its fastest since 2007 the data
gave ammunition to both sides of the political divide heading into May’s election.
Yesterday ’s data showed some loss of
momentum. Growth in the third quarter
fell to 0.5 percent from 0.7 percent in the
third, slower than the 0.6 percent growth
most private -sector economists had
expected in a Reuters poll.
But for the year as a whole, the economy
grew by 2.6 percent, the Office for National
Statistics said, up from 1.7 percent in 2013
and putting it on track to have been the
world’s fastest-growing major advanced
economy last year. While most countries
have not yet reported 2014 growth data,
Britain’s is ahead of International Monetary
Fund estimates for other big developed
nations, a fillip for British Prime Minister
David Cameron who faces a national election on May 7.
“The recovery is on track and our plan is
protecting Britain from the economic
storm-now is not the time to abandon that
plan and return Britain to economic chaos,”
finance minister George Osborne said after
the data. Sterling weakened against the
dollar and the euro as the data reinforced
views that the Bank of England is unlikely
to raise interest rates this year while wage
growth stays weak. It is also unclear
whether 2014’s growth marks a temporary
high point as the economy finally started to
rebound strongly after years of sub-par
growth following the financial crisis.
The IMF forecasts growth in Britain of
2.7 percent in 2015. Economists polled by
Reuters predict a slowdown to 2.4 percent.
“Too early” to call it a slowdown
ONS Chief Economist Joe Grice said it
was “too early to say” if this slowdown
would persist. “The dominant services sector remains buoyant while the contraction
has taken place in industries like construction, mining and energy supply, which can
be erratic,” he said.
Services output grew by 0.8 percent on
the quarter, the same as in the third quarter. But overall GDP growth was held back
by the biggest quarterly falls in construction and industrial output since 2012. “The
main disappointment with growth in the
fourth quarter was that it looks unbalanced,” said IHS Global Insight economist
Howard Archer.”
Weaker gas and electricity and generation dragged on industrial output-possibly
linked to slightly warmer than usual weather over some of the quarter.
The retail sector drove services growth,
a reminder of how Britain’s recover y
remains reliant on consumers. This was
reinforced by December data from the
British Bankers’ Association which showed
unsecured lending to consumers grew at
its fastest annual rate in six years.
In the immediate future there will be
further support to household demand from
the sharp drop in oil prices. However, economists are concerned that investment may
suffer from uncertainty about May’s possibly inconclusive election.
Britain’s economy is now 3.4 percent
larger than its peak before the financial
crisis, and about 8 percent bigger than
when Cameron’s Conservative-led coalition won power in May 2010. Much of this
has been driven by a higher population
and output per head is still below pre-crisis levels. Wages are only now starting to
grow faster than inflation, prompting the
opposition Labor party to continue to
focus on a “cost of living crisis” in the runup to the election. — Reuters
Aer Lingus backs takeover,
needs Irish govt support
DUBLIN: Aer Lingus said yesterday it supports a takeover bid by British Airways parent IAG, putting the Irish national airline
with its trademark shamrock tailfins on
course for foreign acquisition nine years
after its privatization.
The 11-member Aer Lingus board said it
could recommend IAG’s latest bid of 2.55
euros ($2.85) per share, valuing the airline
at 1.36 billion euros ($1.52 billion). It
emphasized that the proposal required
backing from the two biggest shareholders: rival Irish carrier Ryanair and the Irish
government. Ryanair, which acquired a 29.8
percent shareholding as part of three failed
hostile takeover bids, declined to comment.
The government, which retained a 25.1
percent share when it privatized Aer Lingus
in 2006, opposed Ryanair’s ambitions and
has emphasized its concern that a private
owner could weaken travel connections for
Ireland, an island nation.
Aer Lingus is the fourth-largest owner of
landing slots at Heathrow, Europe’s most
strategic and crowded hub airport. Those
slots alone are valued at 400 million euros
($450 million) and could be used by new
owners for more lucrative long-haul routes.
Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe has
briefed fellow government ministers about
the takeover offer. The Aer Lingus board
said IAG executives had offered assurances
that Aer Lingus would remain “a separate
business with its own brand, management
and operations, continuing to provide connectivity to Ireland.”
Later, Madrid-registered IAG said it
intended to talk directly with Irish government leaders to explain that their takeover
plan “would secure and strengthen Aer
Lingus’ brand and long-term future.” IAG
said Ireland was geographically well positioned to handle more US-European longhaul traffic. It said Aer Lingus would benefit
from increased cooperation with IAG’s main
US partner, American Airlines, which directly competes with Aer Lingus on Chicago
and New York routes.
IAG was created in 2009 by the merger
of British Airways and Spanish airline Iberia.
Its Irish chief executive, Willie Walsh, led Aer
Lingus from 2001 to 2005. Ryanair Chief
Executive Michael O’Leary has not ruled
out making another bid for Aer Lingus,
arguing the airline’s future would be better
secured by another Irish company. Ryanair
is appealing a British competition ruling
that it must divest itself of all but 5 percent
of Aer Lingus shares. — AP
Caterpillar 4Q results mixed,
2015 outlook disappoints
PEORIA, Illinois: Caterpillar took a hit in
the fourth quarter from restructuring costs
and the heavy machinery maker issued a
weak outlook for 2015, citing the tumbling
price of commodities. Shares slumped
more than 7 percent yesterday before the
markets opened. The company is cutting
costs as it tries to offset problems that are
out of its control, like the falling price for
everything from copper to crude.
A barrel of crude oil in the US fell again
yesterday to around $45. That same barrel
cost well above $100 just last summer.
Caterpillar earned $757 million, or $1.23
per share, for the three-month period. A
year earlier the Peoria, Illinois, company
earned $1 billion, or $1.54 per share.
Earnings were $1.35 per share with onetime restructuring costs removed, but
that’s still well short of the $1.55 that Wall
Street was looking for, according to a poll
by Zacks Investment Research.
Revenue declined to $14.24 billion from
$14.4 billion due to those declining commodity prices. That was a little better than
industry analysts had expected. For the
year, Caterpillar Inc. earned $3.7 billion, or
$5.88 per share. That compares with $3.79
billion, or $5.75 per share, in the previous
year. Adjusted profit totaled $6.38 per
share. Annual revenue declined to $55.18
billion from $55.66 billion. Caterpillar anticipates a 2015 adjusted profit of $4.75 per
share on revenue of about $50 billion.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet predict fullyear earnings of $6.68 per share on revenue of $54.83 billion.
Chairman and CEO Doug Oberhelman
cited declining oil prices, which have been
halved since September. Shares of
Caterpillar fell $6.19, or 7.2 percent, to
$79.84 before the market open.— AP
BALTIMORE: Caterpillar Challenger MT765C farm tractors in Baltimore, Maryland. US
heavy equipment maker Caterpillar said yesterday that the plunge in oil prices took
a hit on the company’s earnings in the fourth quarter of 2014.—AFP
TOKYO: A man looks an electric quotation board flashing the Nikkei key index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) in front of a securities company in Tokyo yesterday. — AFP
Asian airlines slash fuel
surcharges but fares to rise
Carriers to bump up fares to maintain margins
SYDNEY/SINGAPORE: Asian airlines are slashing fuel surcharges as oil prices hover at six-year
lows, but passengers hoping for cheaper tickets
will be disappointed as carriers are likely to
bump up fares to maintain margins. Australia’s
Qantas Airways Ltd became the latest airline to
eliminate the surcharge on Tuesday, but at the
same time said it was raising base fares as oil
was not cheap enough to offset the impact of
competition on international routes.
Aviation experts say other airlines are likely
to follow suit, because any drop in ticket prices
would erode profit margins which, globally, are
as low as $6 a passenger. “During the 2008
financial crisis, for example, low demand meant
that airlines lost money despite the fuel costs,”
said Brendan Sobie of aviation consultancy
CAPA.
“Last year in Southeast Asia, airlines faced an
unsustainable situation with low fares and high
fuel prices. Fuel costs may have come down but
fares remain low. Ticket prices need to be higher
for airlines to make money.”
Airlines started adding fuel surcharges onto
fares in 2004 in response to rising oil prices.
Brent crude oil futures , however, have fallen
some 60 percent since mid-2014 and Singapore
jet fuel prices, a key regional benchmark, have
dropped by about half from a year earlier.
Cheaper oil
Cheaper oil could result in airline profits
increasing by $5 billion to $25 billion this year,
but profit per passenger will rise by just $1 to
$7, showed estimates from the International Air
Transport Association, because of intense competition.
At least two consumer groups are crying foul.
Earlier this month, the Australian Competition
and Consumer Commission said it would investigate airlines suspected of misleading consumers through fuel surcharges. Choice
Australia also criticized airlines for what it called
“dodgy surcharges”. “Most people would expect
the cost of fuel to be included in the base price
of a ticket. Stripping out part of the fuel cost
and calling it a surcharge was little more than a
communications ploy during the discounting
airfare war,” Choice Australia said.
Qantas’ decision to axe fuel surcharges came
a day after Malaysia’s AirAsia Bhd, Asia’s largest
low-cost group, said “removing fuel surcharges
and reducing travel costs will be a huge boost
to the tourism industry.” Philippine Airlines Inc
and Cebu Air Inc also removed surcharges last
month, while Taiwan’s China Airlines Ltd and Eva
Airways Corp have cut surcharges about 40 percent over the past six months.
Qatar Airways is planning to cut surcharges,
and Emirates Airline last week said it was considering likewise. Singapore Airlines Ltd (SIA),
on the other hand, said it would continue to
levy its surcharge, which is among the highest
in Asia. “It should be noted that while fuel prices
have come down in recent months, the fuel surcharge continues to provide only partial relief
against SIA’s high operating costs from the price
of jet fuel,” said the airline in a statement.
Flag carrier PT Garuda Indonesia (Persero)
Tbk is equally determined to stick to the surcharge. Its chief financial officer said there was
little incentive to cut fares when rivals like
Singapore Airlines and Korean Air Lines Co Ltd
continue to charge the same, regardless of oil
prices. “If they set a high price, why should we
reduce? We have to look at the market too,” said
Ari Askhara on the sidelines of an industry
event. — Reuters
EasyJet sees better
first half on
lower fuel bill
LONDON: British budget airline easyJet said losses
in the quieter winter season would shrink this
year, helped by a lower fuel bill and flying more
planes on popular routes such as London to
Geneva.
Europe’s second-largest budget airline by passengers after Ryanair said it expected losses of
between 10 million and 30 million pounds ($15-45
million) for the six months to the end of March,
down from a loss of 53 million pounds last year.
“We further strengthened our network in the
quarter adding around 500,000 seats, the majority
of which are from airports where easyJet has a
number one or number two position,” Chief
Executive Carolyn McCall said on Tuesday.
A 50 percent fall in the price of crude oil over
the last six months is cutting jet fuel costs for airlines, though they do not typically receive the full
benefit of lower prices because they hedge to
smooth out fluctuations. EasyJet said its jet fuel
bill will be between 30 million and 35 million
pounds lower in its first half compared with a previous forecast of 12 million to 22 million pounds
lower.
Its fuel bill for the full year, which was 1.25 billion pounds last year, would shrink by 90 to 130
million pounds, it said, adding that passengers
would see fares fall as a result.
SHARES RISE
The airline said it saw strong trading in October,
particularly from Britons flying to catch some sun
before the winter months at home, helping revenue per seat rise 3.7 percent in its first quarter to
the end of December.
The carrier also upgraded its forecast for
growth in revenue per seat for the first half to 2
percent from flat previously. Shares in easyJet rose
to a nine-month high as analysts said the outlook
was better than expected. Trevor Green, head of
equities at Aviva Investors, said the improved outlook for revenue per seat was encouraging.
“It is a better quality reason for forecasts to
move upwards than just on benefits of lower fuel
prices,” he said. The stock was trading up 3.5 percent at 1,817 pence at 1120 GMT, topping the
FTSE 100 index. “EasyJet is trading well and in the
second half should start to see the benefit of
recent expansion of capacity at London Gatwick,”
said Robin Byde at Cantor Fitzgerald.
The company, which like rivals such as Ryanair
tends to make a loss over the winter season when
fewer customers fly, posted sales in the quarter of
931 million pounds, up 3.8 percent. — Reuters
DUISBERG: Smoke rises off the illuminated ThyssenKrupp Kokerei Schwelgern steel
plant on the river Rhine in Duisburg yesterday. German business confidence rose for
the third consecutive month in January as plunging oil prices, the slump in the euro
and the European Central Bank’s announcement of a new stimulus plan boosted the
mood in boardrooms in Europe’s biggest economy. —AP
Germany raises 2015
growth forecast to 1.5%
BERLIN: The German government is
forecasting economic growth of 1.5 percent this year, higher than originally
expected, according to the economy
ministry’s annual report obtained by AFP
yesterday.
Initially, the government had been
pencilling in gross domestic product
(GDP) growth of 1.3 percent for this year
after it expanded by 1.5 percent in 2014.
“For 2015, the government is projecting
an annual average increase in GDP of 1.5
percent,” according to the report, which
the ministry is officially scheduled to
publish today. Growth will gather
momentum as the year progresses, and
by the end of the year it will be stronger
than it was at the end of 2014, the ministry said.
Last year, the German economy,
Europe’s biggest, enjoyed strong growth
in the first quarter but suffered a sharp
slowdown in subsequent quarters.
“Investment momentum, in particular,
fell short of expectations due to disappointing global growth and increased
geo-political risks,” the ministry said.
“In the last few months of last year,
however, recovery kicked in, powered
largely by a robust labour market and
strong consumer spending,” the report
said.
Rising business confidence also
reflected this, it added. —AFP
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
BUSINESS
Greek market spirals as Europe falls
LONDON: Greek markets endured a second
day of turmoil yesterday, after weekend elections resulted in an anti-bailout government
that looks set on a collision course with the
country’s creditors.
Three-year borrowing costs spiked above 14
percent, giving up over 4 percentage points
since Sunday’s vote, while a collapse in bank
stocks hauled down Athens’ main bourse.
Greece’s malaise also weighed on other low-rat-
ed bonds, although the blow was cushioned by
the prospect of the European Central Bank’s
new bond-buying scheme due to begin in
March.
“There is a general anxiety about the situation in Greece and how it is all going to play
out,” said Jakob Christensen, senior economist
at distressed debt brokerage Exotix. While only
one in four of the capital market investors surveyed by German firm Sentix see the risk of
Greece exiting the euro zone in the next year,
there is a lot of concern about how it will manage its books and keep a weak recovery on
track.
Ratings agency Moody’s said the election
outcome - a clear win against austerity - could
prolong risks to the country’s financing, liquidity and economic growth. Fears of a deposit
flight also struck Greek banks, four of which last
week applied for the right to emergency fund-
ing. An index of the country’s top bank
stocks plummeted to a record low yesterday. National Bank of Greece slumped
over 10 percent.
In debt markets, 10-year government
bond yields shot up 56 bps to a day’s high
of 9.80 percent while shorter-dated yields
were markedly higher - a sign that
investors fear the country could once
again be on the brink of default.
Shockwaves
The anti-austerity Syriza’s triumph in
Greece has sent political shockwaves
across the bloc. It is forcing mainstream
leftists who signed up to policies of fiscal
discipline during the euro-zone debt crisis
to reconsider their position. The result may
boost parties such as Spain’s new far-left
Podemos, born out of anti-capitalist street
protests by the young unemployed and
now leading both mainstream parties in
opinion polls.
Ten-year yields in Spain, Portugal, Italy
rose between 3-5 bps yesterday but strategists remained confident that the prospect
of the ECB’s quantitative easing program
would bolster support for these assets.
“While volatility in Greek bonds is expected to continue as the political landscape
evolves, we are not overly concerned
about contagion outside of Greece,” said
RBS in a note.
Stocks fell in Europe and were expected to open lower on Wall Street as
investors looked to upcoming corporate
earnings and economic data in the US
Earlier, Asian markets mostly closed
higher.
KEEPING SCORE: France’s CAC 40
slipped 1.1 percent to 4,623.57 and
Germany’s DAX was off by the same rate at
10,677.72. Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.5
percent at 6,821.23. US shares were set to
move lower - Dow futures fell 0.7 percent
and S&P 500 futures dropped 0.6 percent.
ASIA’S DAY: Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock
average jumped 1.7 percent to 17,768.30
and South Korea’s Kospi added 0.9 percent
to 1,952.40. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose
0.8 percent to 5,547.20. Hong Kong’s Hang
Seng lost 0.4 percent to 24,807.28.
Southeast Asian markets were mostly
higher. — Agencies
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
BUSINESS
US budget deficit to
shrink this year: CBO
WASHINGTON: The US budget deficit is
expected to shrink in the current fiscal
year but climb after 2017 as spending
mounts on health and retirement benefits, a government agency said yesterday.
The Congressional Budget Office, the
independent agency that provides economic and budgetary analysis to
Congress, projected the deficit in fiscal
2015, which ends September 30, would
total $468 billion, or 2.6 percent of gross
domestic product, the smallest shortfall
relative to GDP since 2007. In 2014, the
federal government deficit had hit its
lowest level in six years at $483 billion,
falling below 3.0 percent of GDP for the
first time since 2007.
The deficits have been shrinking as
the economy pulls out of the deep 20082009 recession, supported by trillions of
dollars of public aid and sharp government spending cuts. Gross domestic
product increased a robust five percent
in the third quarter, and although that
pace was expected to moderate, the US
economy remains a relative bright spot
in the slowing global economy.
The positive deficit news came as
President Barack Obama, in the final two
years of his second term, faces for the
first time a Congress controlled by opposition Republicans and a continuation, if
not escalation, of fierce budget battles.
Obama’s Democratic Party sees government spending as an engine of
growth, while Republicans want to shrink
the government and slash taxes to spur
activity.
In his State of the Union speech last
week, Obama called for more spending
on infrastructure, education and tax
credits to keep the economy on a solid
growth track, laying down a direct challenge to Republicans. Whoever wins the
2016 presidential elections will face a
steadily growing deficit from 2017
through 2025, to $1.1 trillion, or 4.0 percent of GDP, according to the CBO’s 10year budget and economic outlook
report.
The nonpartisan CBO pointed out that
its estimates are based on the assumption that current laws governing spending and taxation will remain broadly
unchanged. The reason the deficits
would swell is in large part due to the
increased spending on social safety-net
programs that eclipses the economy’s
growth pace, the CBO said. The government will have to spend more on health
care insurance, reflecting the
“Obamacare” reform that Republicans
vow to roll back.
The tidal wave of aging baby boomers
hitting retirement also will lift spending
on social security benefits. The CBO predicted that federal government debt will
rise to 74 percent of economic output by
September 30, its highest level since
1950. In a bright note, revenues were
projected to rise “significantly” by 2016
on the back of the ongoing expansion in
the economy and the expiration of several tax breaks. The economy was poised
for “a solid pace” of growth in 2015 and in
the next few years as consumer spending, business investment and home buying pick up, the agency said.
Year- over-year, GDP growth was
estimated at 3.0 percent at the end of
2015 and 2016, slowing to 2.5 percent
in 2017. —AFP
Aramco to renegotiate
some contracts on low oil
RIYADH: Saudi Aramco will renegotiate
some contracts and postpone some projects due to falling oil prices, the head of
Saudi Arabia’s state oil company said yesterday, stressing the top crude exporter
will not single handedly balance the
global oil market. Brent crude oil prices
traded near $48 per barrel yesterday,
down nearly 60 percent since last June
on ample global supplies and a decision
by OPEC to keep its production ceiling
unchanged. OPEC’s largest producer,
Saudi Arabia in November refused to cut
its output to arrest the price slide and
decided instead to focus on market
share.
Saudi Aramco Chief Executive Khalid
Al-Falih, speaking at a conference in
Riyadh, did not specify which projects or
contracts would be affected by the low
oil prices. “We will have to adjust to the
realities of today. We will push some
projects into the future, we will stretch
some of them, we will renegotiate some
contracts,” Falih said.
“I think we got spoiled with $100 oil
and we were focused on building capacity and we lost focus on fiscal discipline.”
Reuters reported last week that Aramco
had asked oilfield service companies for
discounts in the wake of the oil price
slide.
Falih said the imbalance in the oil
market had nothing to do with Saudi
Arabia, and a fair price is what would ultimately balance supply and demand, a
sign that Riyadh is sticking to its strategy
of allowing the market to stabilize itself.
“Saudi Arabia has a policy, the policy
is set by the government through the
Ministry of Petroleum, and they have
said that Saudi Arabia will not single
handedly balance the market,” he said.
“ The math will tell you that our
exports... are gradually declining. So the
reason for the imbalance in the market
absolutely has nothing to do with Saudi
Arabia.”
Saudi Arabia pumped 9.61 million
barrels per day of crude in November
and exported 7.3 million bpd. Asked
what a fair price for oil is, he said: “It will
be the price that ultimately balances
supply and demand. I don’t think anybody, no single person, can dictate what
that price is. I would be foolish if I did
that.” Aramco has already invested $3 billion in developing its unconventional gas
resources and has earmarked an additional $7 billion, he said. —Reuters
Peru lawmakers shoot down
unpopular labor law
LIMA: Lawmakers in Peru yesterday threw
out a controversial labor law that would
have given young adults fewer benefits, an
idea that had sparked huge protests
against President Ollanta Humala. The law
would have reduced benefits such as
bonuses and vacation for those aged 18-24,
but Humala said it would help move more
younger people into the work force.
However, the plan enraged even many
of his supporters and sent thousands into
the streets marching against the law and
Humala in recent months. About 4,000
people followed the voting from outside
the legislature. “They have slashed, and cut
back on, and not even recognized young
people’s rights,” lawmaker Johnny Lescano
argued. In the end, of 91 lawmakers, just 18
voted in favor of the bill and five abstained.
Humala, whose approval rating is in the
20s, cancelled a planned trip overseas after
the defeat. —AFP
LIMA: Demonstrators chant slogans during an anti-government protest in Lima. The
Peruvian Congress repealed Monday a youth labor law that since its enactment in
December, sparked mass demonstrations of protest on the grounds that this law, cut
benefits to young workers. — AFP
TEMPLE: Mike Johnson, a sales manager at a Honda car dealership, opens the hood of a Honda CRV SUV in Tempe, Arizona. The Commerce
Department releases durable goods orders for January yesterday.—AP
US durable goods data signal
weaker business spending
Core capital goods orders fall 0.6% in December
WASHINGTON: A gauge of US business investment plans fell for a fourth straight month in
December, a potential sign that slowing global
growth and falling crude oil prices were starting
to have an impact on the economy. The
Commerce Department said yesterday that nondefense capital goods orders excluding aircraft,
a closely watched proxy for business spending
plans, fell 0.6 percent last month after a similar
decline in November.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast
core capital goods orders increasing 0.5 percent
in December. “A global slowdown, strong dollar
and weakness in the oil sector all likely contributed to orders weakness in the second half of
last year,” said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN
Financial in New York.
“The drop in capex will weigh on growth,
though stronger consumer spending should
keep GDP from slowing too much.” US stock
index futures tumbled after the report, while
prices for US government debt extended gains.
The dollar fell against a basket of currencies.
While some of the declines reflect volatility
associated with the monthly data, there is little
doubt that capital spending took a step back in
the fourth quarter after two quarters of strong
back-to-back increases. A slowing global economy, strong dollar and plummeting crude oil
prices have made businesses a bit cautious
about undertaking new investments.
Shipments of core capital goods, which are
used to calculate equipment spending in the
government’s gross domestic product measurement, fell 0.2 percent last month after slipping
0.6 percent in November and dropping 0.9 percent in October. That could see economists lower their fourth-quarter GDP estimates. Business
spending on equipment was already expected
to have been a mild boost to economic growth
in the fourth quarter.
With core capital good orders falling, overall
orders for durable goods - items ranging from
toasters to aircraft that are meant to last three
years or more - tumbled 3.4 percent in
December.
That also reflected a 9.2 percent drop in
orders for transportation equipment after
Boeing received fewer aircraft orders than in
November. Automobile orders increased 2.7 percent last month.
Wall St ready
Wall Street geared up for a regular stock and
bond trading session yesterday after a storm
that had threatened to blanket New York with
up to 3 feet (0.9 meter) of snow ended up dumping just a few inches on the city.
The New York Stock Exchange, a unit of
Intercontinental Exchange Inc ; Nasdaq OMX
Group ; and BATS Global Markets all expected to
be open for business as usual, spokesmen said
separately.
The Securities Industry and Financial Markets
Association, a trade group, recommended that
bond markets open for business as usual, a
spokeswoman said. Electronic trading of US
equity index futures was under way, with about
90,000 contracts of S&P 500 e-mini futures traded by about 7 am ET (1200 GMT). US Treasury
debt futures were also trading without interruption. At least one initial public offering, Zosano
Pharma Corp, was set to make its debut.
The massive storm was still pounding much
of New England but delivered a much softerthan-forecast punch to the greater New York
area. Less than a foot of snow fell in Central Park,
versus the 2 to 3 feet predicted as the storm
advanced on the area on Monday. Transit systems in the region were shut down on Monday,
but subway service is expected to resume
Tuesday morning. With railway systems serving
the suburbs largely shut down, many employees
are still expected to work from home.
“We expect a regular open and a manageable
trading day,” said Jamie Selway, managing director and head of electronic brokerage at
Investment Technology Group. “The storm was a
bit of a bust.”
ITG had between 10 and 15 essential personnel staying in hotels in lower Manhattan
overnight Monday to make sure they would
have enough people yesterday morning.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said a
travel ban in the region had been lifted at 7.30
am ET (1230 GMT). —Agencies
Russia attacks ‘politically
motivated’ downgrade
MOSCOW: Moscow sought yesterday to dismiss Standard and Poor’s decision to downgrade Russia’s credit rating to “junk” as politically motivated, while approving part of a $21 billion anti-crisis plan to shore up its beleaguered
economy. Moscow said S&P’s downgrade to
‘BB+’ was motivated by the West’s current
standoff with Russia over Ukraine, with one foreign ministry official even claiming the ratings
agency was acting on Washington’s orders.
The Russian ruble on Tuesday was trading
flat at 67.7 to the dollar after losing ground
Monday, while the dollar-denominated RTS
index opened down by more than 3 percent
before recovering slightly in mid-day trading.
But the European Union is looking at piling further pressure on the Russian economy, with the
bloc’s leaders tasking their foreign ministers to
consider a new wave of sanctions in response
to an upsurge in fighting in Ukraine blamed on
Moscow.
A Russian deputy foreign minister, Vasily
Nebenz ya said the S&P downgrade was
“ordered from Washington” in a “new wave of
anti-Russian hysteria”.
President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry
Peskov told Russian news agencies it was a
“politicised” decision that will not sway “serious
companies” because it does not reflect the “real
state of affairs.” Finance Minister Anton
Siluanov also said the downgrade was based on
“too much pessimism” and does not take into
account the strengths of Russia’s economy such
as the size of its reserves. Nevertheless, analysts
said the downgrade would further hurt the
economy, as it would make borrowing even
more costly.
“There could be some political component
in the decision, but... one must recognize that
the situation is taking a serious turn for the
worse,” said Igor Nikolayev, an analyst who
heads the FBK Strategic Analysis Institute.
Western sanctions and plunging oil prices
have sank Russia’s economy into a contraction
expected to reach up to 5 percent in 2015.
Moscow last week announced an anti-crisis
plan amounting to 18 billion euros, part of
which was approved yesterday. As part of the
plan, the “volume of (government) spending
will be less than planned,” Siluanov said, without giving details on the planned spending
cuts. “We will carry out a reasonable budget
ST PETERSBURG: People walk past a display of a currency exchange office in St Petersburg yesterday. A day after a top ratings agency cut Russia’s rating to junk level, the government in
Moscow yesterday announced a plan that will see the economy return to a budget surplus in
2017. — AP
policy and see our goal as reaching a no-deficit
budget by 2017 with oil price predicted at $70
a barrel,” he said, according to Russian news
agencies reports.
Jobs cut, prices skyrocket
Inflation has risen sharply due to the weakening ruble, with authorities saying that checks
carried out in supermarkets nationwide show
that food prices have soared six-fold since
August. Bell peppers in Samara region are now
654 percent dearer while cucumbers were 544
percent more expensive, the regional prosecutor said on its website.
Inflation is historically one of Russians’
biggest fears following the 1990s crisis when
the ruble was so volatile that prices were frequently set in dollars.
In another sign of the struggling economy,
Russia’s biggest carmaker Avtovaz, which
makes Lada vehicles, said it will cut one in ten
executive jobs. “We expect to decrease the
number of managers by 1,100, Avtovaz
spokesman Stanislav Bereziy told AFP in an
email. The company has about 10,000 managers on its staff.
Russia’s top opposition leader Alexei
Navalny on Tuesday put concerns over the
economy on the agenda of a new “anti-crisis”
protest to be held on March 1, the first such rally focusing on economic demands. “Time has
been lost, money has been eaten up.
Yesterday ’s downgrade of Russia to ‘junk ’
returned the country to the year 2005,” he
wrote on his blog.
“Put March 1 on your calendars and don’t
plan anything else. We will be saving Russia
from crisis.” — AFP
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
BUSINESS
Toyota earns 2015 ‘Top
Safety Pick’ awards
8 Toyota, Lexus models earn IIHS’s highest top safety pick+
Hassan El Houry, CEO, National Aviation Services with Gaoussou Toure, Minister of
Transport, Government of Cote d’Ivoire at the signing.
NAS awarded ground handling
contract for Abidjan airport
KUWAIT: National Aviation Services (NAS),
the fastest growing ground handling company in the emerging markets and a subsidiary of Agility, has reached a new milestone in its expansion with its first contract
award in West Africa. With the new contract, NAS has now expanded its operational network to 16 stations in nine countries.
Under the ten year contract, NAS will
provide ground handling services at the
Felix Houphouet-Boigny International
Airport in Abidjan as a part of a public private partnership with the Government of
Cote d’Ivoire. NAS was awarded the contract based on their proven track record
and the solutions proposed to turn the airport back to a regional hub as it was in the
past.
The ground handling contract includes
passenger services, ramp handling, cargo
management and warehousing as well as
other related airport services.
The official signing ceremony took place
in Abidjan last week with Cote d’Ivoire representatives, Gaoussou Toure, Minister of
Transport, Abdourahmane Cisse, Minister
of Budget, NialÈ Kaba, Minister of Economy
and Finance and Hassan El Houry, CEO,
National Aviation Services.
Following the signing El Houry highlighted, “The Government of Cote d’Ivoire
places development of its transport sector
at the heart of its economic growth. As the
chosen ground handling partner, we can
provide them with the operational expertise, security and reliability required by the
Abidjan Airport to reclaim its position as
the aviation hub for West Africa.”
The Abidjan airport currently handles
close to 1.5 million passengers, 8,200 air-
crafts and close to 20,000 tons of cargo.
NAS Ivoire, led by newly appointed General
Manager Olivier Berni will work through a
six month transition period before taking
over complete airport operations in midJuly.
National Aviation Services (NAS) is the
fastest growing aviation services provider
in emerging markets. From our initial operations in Kuwait in 2003, NAS has quickly
transformed into a leading airports service
provider with a presence across regions:
the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. The
6,000 capable, personable employees at
the core of our worldwide network are
committed to providing aviation services
that we benchmark to the best in the
world. NAS provides services to more than
half of the world’s top ten airlines. These
carriers rely on us to work directly with passengers and behind the scenes to deliver
the services that make a difference. Our
portfolio of services includes Ramp and
Passenger Ser vices, Cargo Handling,
Engineering
Ser vices
and
Line
Maintenance, Airport Technologies, Fixed
Base Operations, Aviation Training Center,
Travel Agency and the Pearl Assist product
which includes lounges and meet and
assist services across the company’s network.
NAS prides itself in providing world class
aviation solutions and is affiliated with
leading industry organizations such as
IGHC, GASA, ACI & EASA and follows practices of ISO, EMS & OHSAS. As one of the
first ground handlers in the world to obtain
the ISAGO certification, nothing is more
illustrative of NAS’ commitment to providing the leading global practices in aviation
services.
Bumper-to-Bumper service
centers join Ooredoo’s
Nojoom loyalty program
KUWAIT: Bumper-to-Bumper (BTB) has
announced that its service centers have
joined Nojoom loyalty program, introduced
by Ooredoo telecommunications. Thanks to
this auspicious partnership, BTB customers
can now exchange their Nojoom points for
service vouchers, which can be redeemed
at any BTB branch for car services.
Founded in 1980, BTB started as quickservice shops that specialized in replacing
and repairing exhaust systems. Five years
later, in 1985, the brand BTB was created as
a unique concept in the Kuwaiti market.
Today, BTB’s clear mission is to exceed
expectations by offering the best in car
maintenance and spare-parts services, for
both individual customers and corporate
owners. But what makes BTB truly stand
out is the highly-trained crew of technicians and professionals, who collectively
provide an unprecedented level of support
through state-of-the-art equipment and
auto maintenance knowledge.
The partnership between BTB and
Ooredoo, via Nojoom, is one of the many
new benefits that the service center aims to
offer its clients. As for the unique and consumer-centric loyalty program Nojoom,
customers can enjoy exclusive perks, discounts and vouchers across a variety of
Nojoom partners such as Crowne Plaza
Hotel, Holiday Inn Hotel - Salmiya, Sultan
Center, Pronto Wash, Kuwait Finance
House, M H Alshaya, Qatar Airways and a
lot more. The Nojoom redeeming process is
simple; all customers have to do is to
exchange the Nojoom points they receive
from paying their phone bills or recharging
their lines.
As one of the strongest local brands in
the country, with more than 150,000 vehicles serviced each year, in one of 150 service platforms in 8 service centers throughout the country, Bumper to Bumper provides customers with total convenience
and peace of mind, dealing with all makes
and models of cars. At Bumper to Bumper,
the customer comes first and each center is
designed with the customer’s comfort in
mind, including free wireless access, a spacious lounge area, a cafÈ, a playroom and
much more. Indeed, choosing Bumper to
Bumper service centers means turning over
your car to a crew of specialized technicians who, in return, operates the mostadvanced equipment and analyzing tools
to produce a highly detailed report and an
accurate estimate of total cost.
To top it off, Bumper to Bumper service
centers offer genuine spare parts for all car
models as well as warranty for parts and
labor. BTB service centers also offer easy
finance solutions such as installments and
other payment plans.
BTB service centers are strategically
located throughout Kuwait including
Sharq, Fahaheel, Shuwaikh and Jahra, as
well as being integrated in various Alfa
Petrol Stations in Shaab, Agaila, Shuwaikh
and South Surra.
KUWAIT: The Insurance Institute for Highway
Safety (IIHS) has presented 12 awards to Toyota.
The leading Japanese Automotive giant won
more awards than any other automaker, including the most of the Institute’s highest honor.
Toyota Motor Corporation earned this across
different car segments, for the advanced safety
features and strict compliance to high standards
of its vehicles. Toyota and Lexus models scored
high ratings in IIHS tests which evaluates two
aspects of safety: crashworthiness - how well a
vehicle protects its occupants in a crash and
crash avoidance and mitigation - technology
that can prevent a crash or lessen its severity.
2015 Toyota / Lexus Top Safety Pick+ winners
are: Lexus CT (built after Sept. 2014), Toyota
Prius, Toyota Camry, Toyota Prius V, Lexus RC,
Toyota Highlander, Lexus NX and Toyota Sienna.
2015 Toyota / Scion Top Safety Pick Winners
are: Toyota/Scion: Scion FR-S, Scion tC, Toyota
Avalon and, Toyota RAV4 (built after Nov 2014).
“At Toyota, our focus remains on the safety
and peace of mind of our customers,” said Dino
Triantafyllos, Toyota’s North American Chief
Quality Officer. “We’re pleased the IIHS has recognized the strong and improved safety performance of our vehicles in a range of crash
tests.”
The IIHS in particular recognized the Prius V
for it’s significantly improved all round performance in the small overlap crash test, naming it a
Top Safety Pick+. The Toyota Sienna was also the
only Mini-Van which was granted the 2015 Top
Safety Pick+ award.
Qatar Airways named ‘Best
Economy Long-haul Experience’
WASHINGTON: On January 16th, Qatar Airways
was named “Best Economy Long-Haul
Experience” by SKIFT, a recognized leader in
world tavel trends and information. The study,
which included all major international airlines,
was a comprehensive evaluation of the user
experience, designed to “determine the best
cabin experiences around the world”.
This distinction joins Qatar Airways’ other
coveted titles including “World’s Best Business
Class” from Skytrax, which the World’s 5-star airline has won for the past two consecutive years.
“Having received such prestigious honors for
our Business Class, we are proud to be recognized for our commitment to allof our world
travelers,” said Qatar Airway’s Group Chief
Executive, Akbar Al-Baker,
He continued: “Our vision has always been
to create the world’s finest travel experience; in
the air and on the ground, in every seat on
every flight, for both business and leisure pas-
sengers. We are honored by this recognition
and inspired to set new standards for our hospitable, Five-star service.”
The final decision, was reached by evaluating all aspects of the airline user experience,
including website, economy cabin comfort,
inflight meals, added perks (wif-fi, in-seat power, etc.) and overall design aesthetic. While
acknowledging the quality of previous passenger rating systems, SKIFT’s ground-breaking
study set out to minimize bias and deliver a
data-driven evaluation.
“We chose a system which put the very subjective “best” in an objective context,” wrote
Marisa Garcia of SKIFT, “We also wanted to consider the overall passenger experience pointto-point, and to give ratings which, though
always subjective, could be justified as equitable.
SKIFT’s recognition comes just weeks after
Qatar Airways launched the brand-new Airbus
A350 from the manufacturer’s headquarters in
Toulouse, France. Qatar Airways is the first airline in the world to offer the state-of-the-art
aircraft, and successfully completed the inaugural passenger flight, between Doha, Qatar
and Frankfurt, Germany, on January 15, 2015.
Qatar Airways has seen rapid growth in just
18 years of operation, to the point where today
it is flying a modern fleet of 146 aircraft to 146
key business and leisure destinations across
Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific,
North America and South America.
Qatar Airways flies daily to Washington DC,
New York, Houston, Dallas, Philadelphia,
Miami* and Chicago non-stop from the airlines
hub in Doha, Qatar. All of these routes are operated with the airline’s state-of-the-art Boing
777 aircraft, the backbone of the fleet.
*Miami to be daily from November 2015;
presently Qatar Airways flies five-times-weekly
to Miami International Airport.
X-cite by Alghanim Electronics
launches ‘Crazy Prices’
KUWAIT: X-cite by Alghanim Electronics,
Kuwait’s leading retail electronics and e-commerce player, has announced the commencement of their latest2-week’Crazy Prices.. Won’t
Last’ promotion in their17 showrooms and website, bringing incredible deals to customers on
computers, tablets, mobiles, gaming consoles,
cameras and more. The website www.xcite.com
also features an online exhibition called ‘XciteConnect,’ showcasing not only these amazing
offers, but also an extraordinary collection of
new and unique gadgets and devices accessible
from the comfort of their homes. It also includes
‘One day offers’ on selected products valid only
for 24 hours. This amazing promotion is sponsored by top suppliers such as Lenovo, Huawei
and HP and will run until the 7th of February
2015.
In addition to the aforementioned exciting
deals, tech-savvy customers will want to check
out the unique gadgets like mini-drones, 3D
printing pens, wearable fitness trackers, as well
as app-controlled smart home products, which
allow users to monitor and control their home
wirelessly from their smartphones. Customers
can get their hands on those gadgets in their
showrooms orvia the ‘Xcite Mobile App’ available
on Google Play Store and iOS Apple Store and
on www.xcite.com
As the leading destination for multi-brand
consumer electronics in Kuwait, customers are
encouraged to visit X-cite showrooms and shop
to their hearts’ content for the latest technologies where they can find over 300 leading
brands and a wide range of high quality products across the world.
To stay updated on the monthly promotions
and offers visit X-cite’s ever-expanding retail network of 17 showrooms (opening soon in Cube
Shopping Mall in Salmiya and relocating in
Hawallyto Al Fadalah Tower).Customers can also
subscribe to the daily newsletter on
www.xcite.com or follow X-cite’s social media
channels on Facebook.com/XcitebyAlGhanim,
Instagram and Twitter on @xcitealghanim.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
technology
Japan turns to ‘I am Kenji’ Facebook page
TOKYO: The plight of freelance journalist Kenji Goto,
taken captive by Islamic State group militants, has
gripped Japan, and the people’s hopes for his safety
are now on Facebook with a simple, unifying plea: “I
am Kenji.” The video, posted online last week, showing Goto and another Japanese hostage, has dominated mainstream media here, a relatively crimefree nation unaccustomed to such violence.
But as government officials made stately pronouncements on TV news, regular people were taking action of their own - online, with some rallying
to Goto’s support and others mocking the terrorists
with images - in a quiet but massive show of defiance.
“We want Kenji to come home,” said Taku
Nishimae, a Japanese filmmaker living in New York,
who started the “I am Kenji” Facebook page, right
after seeing last week’s video threatening the
hostages’ lives. The page, with thousands of “likes,”
asks people to post self-portraits and other photos
with a sign that says: “I am Kenji.”
It’s a reference to the “Je Suis Charlie,” or “I Am
Charlie,” slogan showing solidarity with Charlie
Hebdo, the Paris weekly newspaper where 12 people were killed in a terrorist attack earlier this month.
“Let’s show that we’re united, and tell that it’s
unjust to kill innocent citizens and it’s meaningless
to turn entire nation against you,” the Facebook
page says in English and Japanese.
Nishimae, 52, stressed the page is not about taking political sides, or even about freedom of the
press, but a more general human statement, like a
desperate prayer.
About a thousand people have posted photos,
some of them portraits holding handwritten messages, some identifying themselves as Muslim, but
all with the same message.
The slogan has taken off. “I am Kenji” was among
the signs held up at a demonstration of about 1,000
people outside the prime minister’s office over the
weekend, demanding the government do more to
save the hostages.
“It’s great people are getting inspired,” said
Nishimae, who has known Goto, 47, for 12 years and
has worked with him on documentary movies. “Even
now, I can’t believe it. But it is Kenji. It feels so unre-
al.” They had hit it off right away, he recalled. Goto
devoted his life to telling the stories of refugees and
children in war zones, and had worked with UNICEF.
Robert Campbell, an American professor of
Japanese literature at the University of Tokyo, did
not know Goto personally and posted his “I am
Kenji” photo out of impulse. But he wanted more
people to know Goto’s work and added a translation
he did into English of Goto’s blog on the suffering of
the people of Syria, which starts: “Why did they have
to die?”
“It’s a small act that we can all do. It is important,”
Campbell, 57, said. “You feel connected to other
people. That’s all very good.”
Campbell, a 30-year resident of Japan, said he
sensed a change from the stereotype of Japanese
being standoffish, afraid to speak up and preoccupied with appearances. And “I am Kenji” highlights
that change, he said, with more Japanese “putting
down their apprehension of being judged.”
Another video over the weekend appeared to
show hostage Haruna Yukawa had been killed and
demanded a prisoner exchange for Goto. That video
had not been verified, but Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe has said it is likely credible.
A stream of doctored images from the first video
have appeared on Japanese Twitter, including
cutesy manga-like figures juxtaposed on top of the
images of the two kneeling hostages as well as the
masked man standing in the middle.
Nobuyuki Hayashi, a consultant and technology
journalist, who knew Goto in junior high school,
says he finds Twitter chatter disturbing, because of
the anonymity that allows people to voice irresponsible and sometimes hurtful views.
“We needed to avoid these Japanese netizens
cloaked under anonymity to make any constructive
discussion,” Hayashi said.
Many Japanese are worried for Goto, but don’t
know what to do and feel frustrated, he said. The
Facebook page allowed them to do something.
They can also see the concerns of others around the
world. “And that is encouraging,” Hayashi said. “And
we can all hope that, when Kenji returns to Japan
sometime soon, he would be happy to see so many
people supporting him.” — AP
The drone debate hits close
to home for White House
WASHINGTON: The drone-control debate has
hit uncomfortably close to home for the White
House, thanks to an apparently hapless operator who sent his quadcopter crashing inside
the presidential compound. Questions persist
about why the night-owl drone operator
would be flying it within range of the White
House at 3 a.m. but the Secret Service’s early
investigation suggested he meant no harm.
Even so, the crash inside the compound
Monday pointed to the risk of increasingly
commonplace drones penetrating the presidential security bubble, with more dangerous
intent. And it highlighted the challenge of setting controls on this expanding frontier.
President Barack Obama and his wife,
Michelle, were overseas when the quadcopter a two-foot-long craft with four propellers struck the southeast side of the grounds.
Officials believed the intrusion to be the first of
its kind on the highly fortified property,
although not the first in the vicinity.
Authorities locked down the White House
for several hours in a vigorous emergency
response, only to have the unidentified man
step forward to own up to a big mistake.
The episode unfolded with the Obama
administration on the verge of proposing rules
for drone operations that would replace an
existing ban on most commercial flights. Only a
small number of companies can use them for
inspections and aerial photography.
Hobbyists can fly them, but must keep
them under 400 feet in altitude, 5 miles from an
airport, always within sight and not within a
highly populated area. The drone operator
clearly violated the rules, and in a zone designated as protected air space around the White
House. Monday’s episode “complicates the
administration’s messaging that commercial
drones can be introduced smoothly without
concern over safety, security and privacy,” said
Kenneth Quinn, a former Federal Aviation
Administration general counsel. The FAA has
estimated 7,500 commercial drones will be in
the skies within five years of the coming regulations taking effect.
That does not count the increasingly inexpensive consumer drones that were a hit for
Christmas, far more sophisticated than the
remote-controlled toy and hobby airplanes out
for decades. Whether a quadcopter can carry
and fire a weapon depends upon how robust
the drone is and how lightweight the weapon.
Most commercially manufactured quadcopters
are small, weighing 2 to 5 pounds and measuring 1 to 3 feet in length.
Paul McDuffee, vice president at dronemaker Insitu, said of the one that crashed:
“Something of that size is going to be very limited in terms of what it can carry, probably
down to a few ounces in payload.” Even so, a
small drone at low altitude is hard to intercept.
“There’s probably nothing they have that
could stop it, particularly at night,” said James
Lewis of the Center for Strategic and
International Studies. “The sniper would be
shooting at the drone and his bullets would be
going past it into the buildings on Connecticut
Avenue. If it’s a crisis or emergency, sure, that
makes sense, but what goes up comes down,
and that includes bullets.”
The Federal Aviation Administration
receives reports across the country nearly every
day of drones operating near manned aircraft
and airports or over densely populated areas,
including multiple times near the White House.
In one, police arrested a man in August
who got stuck in a tree at Freedom Plaza,
several blocks from the White House, after
he climbed to retrieve his drone, according
to a compilation of recent incidents by the
FAA. In July, a Secret Service patrol detained
someone flying a quadcopter drone in
President’s Park, not far from the White
House grounds, and confiscated it. — -AP
NEW YORK: This April 9, 2012, file photo shows Instagram being demonstrated on an iPhone in New York. Social media websites Facebook and
Instagram have stopped working yesterday. The problem is affecting users in Australia but also in other countries including the United States. —AP
Facebook takes blame
for service outages
FRANKFURT: Access to Facebook, the world’s
largest social network, and its Instagram photosharing site, was blocked around the world for
up to an hour yesterday, which the company
said later was due to an internal fault and not an
outside attack.
The outage at Facebook, which started
around 0600 GMT, appeared to spill over and
temporarily slow or block traffic to other major
Internet sites, according to web and mobile user
reports from around the globe.
US-based online match-making site Tinder, a
unit of IAC/InterActive Corp, and Hipchat, the
workplace instant- messaging ser vice of
Australian enterprise software company
Atlassian, were also down around the same period, but recovered.
A hacker group associated with other recent
high-profile attacks on other online services
sought to claim responsibility for the outages,
but Facebook said the fault was its own.
“This was not the result of a third-party attack
but instead occurred after we introduced a
change that affected our configuration systems,”
WASHINGTON: This handout photo provided by the US Secret Service shows the
drone that crashed onto the White House grounds in Washington, Monday, Jan.
26, 2015. A small drone flying low to the ground crashed onto the White House
grounds before dawn, triggering a major emergency response and raising fresh
questions about security at the presidential mansion. — AP
Apple supplier Foxconn
to shrink workforce
SHENZHEN: Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology
Group, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, will cut its massive
workforce, the company told Reuters, as
the Apple Inc supplier faces declining revenue growth and rising wages in China.
Under its flagship unit Hon Hai Precision
Industry Co Ltd , the group currently
employs about 1.3 million people during
peak production times, making it one of
the largest private employers in the world.
Special assistant to the chairman and
group spokesman Louis Woo did not specify a timeframe or target for the reduction,
but noted that labour costs had more than
doubled since 2010, when the company
faced intense media scrutiny following a
spate of worker suicides.
“We’ve basically stabilised (our workforce) in the last three years,” Woo said.
When asked if the company plans to
reduce overall headcount, he responded
“yes”.
Revenue growth at the conglomerate
tumbled to 1.3 percent in 2013 and only
partially recovered to 6.5 percent last year
after a long string of double-digit increases
from 2003 to 2012.
That decade saw the firm ride an explosion of popularity in PCs, smartphones and
tablets, largely driven by its main client
Apple, but now it is feeling the effects of
falling growth and prices in the gadget
markets it supplies, a trend that is expected
to continue.
Growth in smartphone sales will halve
this year from 26 percent in 2014, according to researcher IDC, while PC sales will
contract by 3 percent.
Similarly, the average smartphone will
sell for 19 percent less in 2018 than last
year’s $297. “Even if technology is improving, the price will still come down,” Woo
said. “We’ve come to accept that, our customers have come to accept that.”
Automation will be key to keeping labor
costs under control in the long-term, Woo
said, as the company pushes to have robotic arms complete mundane tasks currently
done by workers.
But Woo noted that company chairman
Terry Gou’s previously stated goal of 1 million robots was “a generic concept” rather
than a firm target. — Reuters
Facebook said. “Both services are back to 100
percent for everyone.” Users in the United States
and many countries in Asia and Europe reported
that they were unable to log on to the websites
of Facebook, Instagram and corresponding
mobile apps including Facebook and Facebook
Messenger.
During the outages, Facebook users were
greeted with the message: “Sorry, something
went wrong. We’re working on it and we’ll get it
fixed as soon as we can.”
“If you run a service with the capacity (and
complexity) to deliver media for hundreds of
millions of users, it’s inevitable that things don’t
always go according to plan,” said Steve
Santorelli, a former London police detective and
now a researcher at U.S. threat intelligence firm
Team Cymru.
Facebook counted more than 1.35 billion
web and 1.12 mobile phone users on a monthly
basis in September, the latest date for which official figures are available.
Earlier yesterday a Twitter account that purports to speak for hacker group “Lizard Squad”
posted messages suggesting that it was behind
an attack that temporarily blocked several major
web sites, including Facebook and Instagram.
The Lizard Squad is a group of unknown
hackers that has taken credit for several highprofile outages, including the attacks that took
down the Sony PlayStation Network and
Microsoft’s Xbox Live network last month.
Santorelli said that attacking Internet sites
which operate at the size and scale of Facebook
via a classic distributed denial of service attack
would be a huge undertaking, which, while not
entirely impossible, would be “monumentally
hard.” Denial of service attacks direct thousands
of infected computers under an attacker’s control to ping a site or sites, thereby slowing or
blocking access for regular users.
Such attacks can create congestion on
branches of the Internet where the site is located, slowing Web traffic and affecting access to
unrelated services. As a precaution, Facebook
users are advised to change their passwords
and review their privacy settings, Santorelli
said. — Reuters
Call to disable popular
police-tracking app
WASHINGTON: Law enforcement is concerned
that the popular Waze mobile traffic app by
Google Inc., which provides real-time road conditions, can also be used to hunt and harm police.
Waze is a combination of GPS navigation and
social networking. Fifty million users in 200 countries turn to the free service for warnings about
nearby congestion, car accidents, speed traps,
traffic cameras, construction zones, potholes,
stalled vehicles or unsafe weather conditions.
Waze users mark police - who are generally
working in public spaces - on maps without
much distinction other than “visible” or “hidden.”
Users see a police icon, but it’s not immediately
clear whether police are there for a speed trap, a
sobriety check or a lunch break.
To some in law enforcement, this feature
amounts to a stalking app for people who want
to harm police. They want Google to disable that
feature.
The growing concern is the latest twist in
Google’s complicated relationship with government and law enforcement. It places the Internet
giant, again, at the center of an ongoing global
debate about public safety, consumer rights and
privacy.
Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck complained in a letter to Google’s chief executive on
Dec. 30 that Waze could be “misused by those
with criminal intent to endanger police officers
and the community.”
The Los Angeles Police Department said
Monday it had not heard back from Google about
whether it had addressed Beck’s concerns.
Google purchased Waze for $966 million in 2013.
There are no known connections between any
attack on police and Waze, although Beck said
Waze was used in the killing of two New York
Police Department officers on Dec. 20. The
Instagram account of the gunman in that case
included a screenshot from Waze along with other messages threatening police. Investigators do
not believe the shooter, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, used
Waze to ambush the NYPD officers, in part
because police say Brinsley tossed his cellphone
more than two miles from where he shot the officers. In his letter to Google, Beck said that Brinsley
had been using the Waze app to track police since
early December.
“I am confident your company did not intend
the Waze app to be a means to allow those who
wish to commit crimes to use the unwitting Waze
community as their lookouts for the location of
police officers,” Beck wrote.
Some officers, like Sheriff Mike Brown of
Bedford County, Virginia, think it’s only a matter of
time before Waze is used to hunt and harm
police.
“The police community needs to coordinate
an effort to have the owner, Google, act like the
responsible corporate citizen they have always
been and remove this feature from the application even before any litigation or statutory action,”
said Brown, who raised the issue at a National
Sheriffs’ Association meeting in Washington
January 23. — AP
WASHINGTON: This image taken from the the Waze
app on an iPhone, shows police at the scene on a map
on the app. Sheriffs are campaigning to pressure
Google Inc. to turn off a feature on its Waze traffic software that warns drivers when police are nearby. — AP
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
H E A LT H & S C I E N C E
BREST, France: A bearbed seal swims yesterday at Oceanopolis, an Ocean Discovery Park in this western French port city. — AFP
Uganda sued in landmark
medical ‘brain drain’ case
MONROVIA: Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, MSF) agents wearing protective gear work at the ELWA III Ebola Management Center in yesterday, the
first section of which was being decommissioned. — AFP photos
Liberia closes Ebola
centre at epicentre
of outbreak
MONROVIA: Liberia’s president on
Monday announced the closure of an
Ebola treatment facility which lay at the
epicentre of the virus’s worst outbreak in
history, as the disease’s spread has slowed
in the countr y. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
warned Liberians that while they could not
yet afford to relax, the country had made
significant progress in the fight against
Ebola, and thanked states who helped
Monrovia combat the virus. “Lofa, the epicentre of the virus, has had no new cases
for over 70 days,” she said in the speech at
the national parliament.
“The Ebola Treatment Unit in Foya is
closed,” she said, referring to an area in the
north of the country near its border with
Guinea, where the virus hit Liberia for the
first time. “Today we take pride that 13 of
15... counties have not reported new cases
for 21 days,” she said, referring to the virus’s
maximum incubation period. “Our diligent
doctors and health workers supported by
international partners have brought joy to
us. Ebola has made 3,000 orphans who
need attention. I thank all the countries
who came to our rescue when we thought
all was lost.”
However, the Liberian leader stressed,
the outbreak was not yet over. “We know
we must continue relentlessly on the practices and protocols that have brought us
this far. We must make a successful transition from treatment to prevention by
building our health system. But from now
let’s take pride and rejoice in our collective
success.” Liberia, once the country worst
hit by the Ebola outbreak, hopes to have
no new cases by the end of next month.
The virus has seen the west African nation
and its neighbors Guinea and Sierra Leone
register almost 9,000 deaths in a year.
“We think we can make it to zero by the
end of February latest,” Liberian Commerce
Minister Axel Addy told repor ters in
Geneva. “We’re quite optimistic.” According
to the latest figures, the number of registered cases in Liberia is now down to just
five against a peak of more than 300 a
week in August and September. — AFP
KAMPALA: Raymond Mwesiga’s “darling kid sister” had much to live for, but when she needed
medical help after a car crash, Uganda’s overstretched health system fatally failed her.
Distracted by her toddler while driving her new
car, 22-year-old Sandra Mbabazi had a “minor”
accident and didn’t seem to be badly hurt. A
passerby took her to a private health facility in
Buwama, some 65 kilometers (40 miles) from
Uganda’s capital Kampala. “She had internal
bleeding and needed quick attention,” Mwesiga,
34, told AFP. “But there were not enough skilled
doctors to look at her. She had already lost a lot of
time and they were still procrastinating about this
and that, so she passed away,” he said.
“She should still be alive.” In Uganda such stories of people dying because of medical neglect
are all too common. But with the country plagued
by a shortage of health workers, anger is mounting over government plans to “export” at least 241
medical workers to Trinidad and Tobago.
The medics, according to a 2014 advertisement by Uganda’s foreign ministry, were requested by the Caribbean nation to “strengthen its
health service sector”. But Ugandan activists
claim the east African nation can ill afford to lose
skilled staff and argue that more people will die
needlessly if the plan goes ahead. They point out
that Trinidad and Tobago already has a doctor to
patient ratio that is 12 times better than Uganda’s.
The Institute of Public Policy and Research
(IPPR), a Ugandan think-tank, is suing the government in what it says is one of the first ever public
interest litigation cases concerning a medical
“brain drain”. In a petition filed in the High Court
in December, the IPPR argues that government
recruitment of public health workers for another
government violates the constitutional rights of
Ugandans to access basic medical services. The
group is seeking an interim injunction to halt the
“imminent” export of the workers, with a hearing
set for this week. “Thousands of people will die,
UGANDA: Raymong Mwesiga, 34-year-old
Ugandan, poses for a photo in Kampala during an interview. — AFP
thousands die already,” IPPR director Justinian
Kateera told AFP, pointing out that already 16
women die each day through complications
related to childbirth-and that an exodus of midwives would be a disaster.
‘Important case for Africa’
The IPPR says the shortlist of health workers
set to leave includes scores of nurses and midwives as well as anaesthetists, psychiatrists, ophthalmologists, radiographers, gynaecologists,
paediatricians, pathologists and surgeons. One of
Uganda’s three neurosurgeons had also been
shortlisted, Kateera added. “Our health systems
are weak because of our inability to retain
medics,” he said, asserting that the case will “set-
tle jurisprudence on an issue that has afflicted
Africa for ages, as revealed by the recent Ebola
outbreak.”
Ghana, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia and South
Africa were also “badly affected” by medical brain
drains, he added. In Uganda, 42 percent of vacancies remain unfilled, and according to a 2012
British Medical Journal study the country has fewer than 5,000 doctors for 35 million people, with
50 specialists having left in search of better pay
overseas in the past decade, while the bulk of
new graduates prefer to look for jobs abroad too.
Many shortlisted under the latest scheme,
such as 47-year-old trauma nurse Santina Obin,
say they would prefer to remain in Uganda. But
Obin added that conditions were tough and that
her net monthly salary of 700,000 shillings ($245
dollars) was too little and often not paid on time.
Such salaries are comparable to those of other
civil servants in Uganda, which has a GDP per
capita of $572. Members of parliament, on the
other hand, enjoy wages of over $6,000 a month.
“We are underpaid, we have a lot of patients and
few personnel,” Obin told AFP.
While details of what she could earn abroad
have not been given, it is expected to be several
times more and to include a raft of benefits such
as free housing. Hence the scheme drew at least
400 applicants, the majority from public hospitals and health centers. Uganda’s attorney general has argued that it is the constitutional right of
all professionals to seek gainful employment
anywhere, while the ministry of health says it had
not been involved in the recruiting process. The
planned export has been criticized by the United
States, which gives $400 million in aid to
Uganda’s health sector every year. Mwesiga,
whose wife gave birth to a stillborn baby as well
as losing his sister in the road accident, is due to
give evidence in the case. “I want to be sure that
I’m going to get adequate and good medical
care,” Mwesiga said. — AFP
Gates, UK take lead in $7.5bn
pledge for children’s vaccines
GAVI buys vaccines in bulk for poor countries
MONROVIA: A Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, MSF) agent prepares to burn pieces of a dismantled tent after the first section of the ELWA III Ebola
Management Center in Monrovia was decommissioned.
BERLIN: International donors pledged $7.5 billion yesterday to immunize 300 million children
in poor countries against deadly diseases such
as diarrhea and pneumonia. At a Global Alliance
for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) conference in Berlin, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and
the British government topped the donations
list at $1.55 billion and $1.5 billion respectively.
German development minister Gerd Mueller
said the total reached $7.54 billion, surpassing
GAVI’s target of $7.5 billion, despite a stronger
dollar complicating funding efforts. Other
major donors included the United States,
Norway and Germany. China, a recipient of
GAVI assistance early last decade, has now
become a donor. “It was a bold ask to world
leaders but also a very compelling case,” said
GAVI chairman Dagfinn Hoybraten. “In the
course of five years from 2016 to 2020 we could
vaccinate another 300 million children and
avert 5-6 million future deaths.”
Gates, who has donated $4 billion to GAVI
since it began 15 years ago, said there had been
“amazing” progress but one in 20 children still
died before their fifth birthday. “The goal for the
next 15 years is to cut that in half again to get it
to one in 40,” he said.
GAVI has provided vaccines to about 500
million children worldwide and saved 6-7 million lives from diseases like pneumonia, hepatitis B, diarrhea and measles, working with the
World Health Organization, UNICEF, World Bank
and charities. Michael Elliott of anti-poverty
group One, calling GAVI a way for rich countries
to give “an infinitesimal part of their tax money
to save lives”. But Save the Children’s Jasmine
Whitbread said the problems were still huge: “In
some of the world’s poorest communities only
16 percent of children are reached by vaccines.”
GAVI funds immunization for countries that
cannot afford them, using its buying power to
negotiate discounts from the likes of
GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer. Medical charity
Medecins Sans Frontieres argues that it should
strike even tougher deals. Pfizer has said it
would cut pneumococcal vaccine prices by 6
percent for poor countries through 2025,
including those that outgrow their eligibility
for GAVI. GlaxoSmithKline has extended its
price-freeze commitment to 10 years for countries graduating from GAVI and Sanofi will
expand production of yellow fever vaccine. But
GAVI’s CEO Seth Berkley called the latest discount for pneumococcal vaccine “small” and
said he hoped new manufacturers would
emerge to help bring about bigger price
reductions. — Reuters
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
H E A LT H & S C I E N C E
For the 15th consecutive
year, GCI kick starts
Arab Health 2015
DUBAI: UAE’s leading source of medical
education, Arab Health 2015 begins
today. With medical as well as hospitality
professionals congregating at the fair to
check out on the latest devices and procedures that can revolutionize the world
of healthcare, the fair provides an opportunity for exhibitors from around the
world to showcase their technologically
advanced products. A common ground
for medical experts as well as business
head honchos, this fair is one of the
largest shows in the Middle East.
This year’s congress is set to be bigger
than ever and will host 40 country pavilions, taking everything from the range of
hospital equipment, medical equipment,
and medical devices to medical technology on display at Arab Health to the next
level. The new pavilions for 2015 are
Bahrain, Indonesia, Russia and Thailand.
Gulf Care International (GCI) is the
premiere provider of global patient services. It is also the Gulf region’s premier
gateway to access the very best medical
service providers in the US.
GCI facilitates two-way benefits helping patients in the Gulf region
receive world-class medical interventions
in the US, while also helping institutions
in Chicago gain access to the ever-growing global market of healthcare consumers. GCI’s success is built on its extensive collaborations with globally
renowned partners. Gulf Care
International pioneered a fully managed
international patient program called
Global Health Link. Using Global Health
Link, GCI has assisted countless international patients seeking healthcare services in the United States.
“GCI’s has constantly endeavoured to
give its patients and clients the best of
both worlds, by blending its in-depth
understanding of the Gulf market with its
unsurpassed partnerships in the US”, said
Khalid Alagel, President and founder of
GCI. “The 2015 edition of Arab Health is
the largest medical congress in the
Middle East and the second largest in the
world. And we’re excited to represent our
clients and GCI and exchanging best
practices with the world’s finest at this
prestigious event”, he added.
GCI’s participation this year will represent many of their clients including the
Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC).
Since 1953, RIC has been a pioneer in
medical care for some of the most difficult patient conditions. Some of the
finest minds in the fields of rehabilitation
medicine, biomedical engineering, neuroscience, and outcomes research can be
found at RIC today. Another client being
represented at the meet is Lurie
Children’s Hospital of Chicago, formerly
Children’s Memorial Hospital.
The hospital provides superior paediatric care in a setting that offers the latest
benefits and innovations in medical technology, research and family-friendly
design. Lurie Children’s Hospital is also
known to be the largest paediatric
provider in the world with a 130 year
legacy of excellence. Another partnering
client being represented at Arab Health
2015 is Edward Hospital, a full-service,
regional healthcare provider offering
access to complex medical specialties
and innovative programming. The hospital is the most preferred hospital in its
region
E-cigarettes would be banned in
public places under California bill
CALIFORNIA: California would ban the use of
electronic cigarettes in public places and ramp up
enforcement against selling them to minors
under a bill introduced in the legislature on
Monday. There is growing concern about the
health risks from e-cigarettes, also known as
vapor cigarettes or vapes, which are not lit or
smoked like their old-fashioned counterparts, but
do generally release nicotine in a heated liquid.
“Whether you get people hooked on e-cigarettes or regular cigarettes, it’s nicotine addiction
and it kills,” Democratic state Senator Mark Leno,
who introduced the bill, said in a telephone interview. “We’re going to see hundreds of thousands
of family members and friends die from e-cigarette use just like we did from traditional tobacco
use.”
The bill would add e-cigarettes to the list of
tobacco products regulated in the state, which
already forbids smoking in workplaces, restaurants, bars and other places. It would also ramp
up penalties for selling e-cigarettes, which come
in such flavors as bubble gum and chocolate, to
minors.
California would be the fourth US state to treat
them like regular cigarettes, and the 23rd to regulate e-cigarettes in some way. In California, the
most populous US state, 122 cities and counties
have banned the use of e-cigarettes in certain
public places.
Second-hand e-cigarette emissions contain
cancer-causing chemicals, and could put children
and others at risk if they are in proximity to users,
said Kimberly Amazeen, vice president of public
policy and advocacy for the American Lung
Association in California. The bill was criticized
Plague cases rise
in Madagascar
Canada resident tests positive
for H7N9 avian flu virus
VANCOUVER: A Vancouver area resident has
tested positive for the H7N9 avian flu virus in
the first documented case of the infection in
a human in North America, the Canadian
government said on Monday. The woman,
who is in her 50s, had returned to Canada
from China and is recovering from the illness
in self-isolation, the Public Health Agency of
Canada said in a statement. “I want to emphasize that the risk to Canadians is very low
because there is no evidence of sustained
human-to-human transmission of H7N9,”
Gregory Taylor, Canada’s Chief Public Health
Officer, said at a news conference in Ottawa.
Taylor said the woman returned to
Canada on Jan 12 after visiting numerous
locations in China and began to feel ill two
days later on Jan 14. “All evidence is indicating that it is likely the individual was infected
following exposure in China,” he said. “We
don’t know at this time how the individual
contracted the virus.” The woman’s male travel partner, also in his 50s, has symptoms and
was likely infected at the same time, although
the second case has not been confirmed,
health officials said.
The H7N9 virus passes between birds, but
experts say there is not enough evidence to
prove it passes between humans. Most cases
report contact with poultry, usually in live
poultry markets, the Canadian health agency
said.
The virus first infected three people in
China in March 2013. In 2014, it infected 453
people, killing 175 of them, according to the
World Health Organization. Two people
reportedly died of the H7N9 virus in China’s
coastal Fujian province earlier this month,
and recent human cases have been reported
in the Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces, and
Shanghai. The H7N9 virus has not been
detected in birds in Canada. — Reuters
GENEVA: Plague has killed 57 people out of
213 known cases in Madagascar and more
deaths are feared after recent flooding
forced tens of thousands of people from
their homes and set rats on the run, the
World Health Organization said yesterday.
The UN agency’s first update since late
November, when there were 119 cases
including 40 deaths, was based on new figures from the Health Ministry. The outbreak
began in August on the Indian Ocean island,
one of the world’s poorest countries, where
the disease is endemic. The bacterial disease
is mainly spread from one rodent to another
by fleas. Humans bitten by an infected flea
usually develop a bubonic form of plague,
which swells the lymph node and can be
treated with antibiotics, according to the
WHO.
However, if the bacteria reach the lungs,
the patient develops pneumonia (pneumonic plague), which is transmissible from person to person through infected droplets
spread by coughing. It is one of the most
deadly infectious diseases and can kill people within 24 hours. “Plague established a
foothold in the capital city, affecting densely
populated slums. This is alarming, as around
8 percent of cases progress to the lethal
pneumonic form,” WHO director-general
Margaret Chan said.
She said flooding from a tropical storm
and a cyclone last week displaced tens of
thousands of people and untold numbers of
rats, “raising the risk of more rodent-borne
epidemics”. Adding to the danger, the fleas
that transmit the disease from rats to
humans have developed resistance to the
first-line insecticide, Chan told the WHO
Executive Board on Monday.
Madagascar’s president announced the
replacement of eight ministers late on
Sunday, including a new finance minister,
after the government was dissolved earlier
this month amid mounting public frustration
over power cuts and social woes. — Reuters
Monday by a group calling itself the American
Vaping Association, which said it would harm
smokers who are trying to quit by switching to ecigarettes, which are marketed as a safer alternative to the combustible kind because they do not
flood the lungs with smoke.
“California smokers deserve truthful information about smoke-free alternatives, not hype and
conjecture designed to scare them away from
attempting to quit with these innovative technology products,” Gregory Conley, president of the
American Vaping Association, said in a press
release. But Leno, whose bill is backed by the
American Cancer Society, the American Heart
Association and the American Lung Association,
said the vapor released by the e-cigarettes contains carcinogens, and the nicotine in them is
addictive. — Reuters
Mexico City swaps
squats for subway rides
MEXICO CITY: There may be no such thing as a free lunch,
but the overweight in Mexico City will be glad to hear
there is such a thing as a free subway ride. Concerned
health officials in the Mexican capital hope to get residents
in shape by offering free journeys in return for them burning a few extra calories. From Monday, dozens of stations in
the city’s metro system have been equipped with special
machines that, in exchange for 10 squats, will tell passengers how many calories they burned and give them a
token for a free ride.
The so-called “health stations” are a novel way for health
chiefs to draw attention to Mexico’s dismal obesity levels.
According to official figures, 70 percent of adults and nearly a third of children are overweight or obese, surpassing
even the United States. “Levels of excess weight and obesity concern us greatly. For me, it’s the number one public
health problem,” the capital’s health secretary Jose
Armando Ahued Ortega said as he introduced the project,
devised by leftist mayor Miguel Angel Mancera.
Thirty squat-counting machines have been installed
across the city, which will also hand out pedometers to the
first 80,000 users to help them track their energy output.
With more than five million daily users, the subway is a vital
means of transport in the megalopolis. Metro tickets in
December 2013 went up from three to five pesos ($0.20 to
$0.34), generating fierce criticism from commuters in a
country where the minimum wage is 70 pesos a day. —AFP
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
W H AT ’ S O N
Focus Kuwait conducts
colors day, family meet
F
orum of CADD Users Kuwait conducted
“Colors Day” and “Family meet” celebrations on 12th December, 2014 at SMCA
hall, Abbasiya. Children of all age groups
exhibited their talents with great enthusiasm
in the coloring and painting contest. Colors
day attracted the audience including parents
and friends of participants. In the inaugural
meeting presided by FOCUS President Salim
Raj, event opened by John Arts Kalabhavan
drawing a caricature of opposition leader kerala “V S Achuthandan”. FOCUS Merit Award-
2014 was awarded to the students of FOCUS
family, who secured top marks in Class-X, CBSE
examinations. Christy Alex Sreejith (Al -Mulla
Exchange marketing manager (Kerala) pre-
sented the meritorious certificates and appreciation mementos.
KALA -Kuwait elects
new office-bearers
T
Leaders of Kuwait: Second
edition on the way
L
eaders of Kuwait, profiling business and government leaders in
Kuwait will begin interviews this
coming week. Far beyond a simple
“Who’s Who”, the Leaders profile series
of books gives investors, businessmen
and government officials alike a
chance to learn about the forces that
drive the economies around the Arab
Gulf, through personal insights, recommendations, caveats and personal
anecdotes. The books give business
and industrial sector leaders a place to
tell “war” stories, give advice, and vent
their opinions on what works and,
importantly, what doesn’t work so
investors can evaluate a marketplace
with more than just statistical data.
he 36th annual conference of
Kerala Art Lovers Association
KALA-Kuwait chose T V
Hikmath as President, Saji Thomas
Mathew as General Secretary and
Anil Kukkiri as Treasurer. The other
members in the committee are
Sajeev M George (Vice-President),
Shaju V Hanif (Jt. Secretary), C.K
Noushad, Ramesh Kannapuram,
Sugatha Kumar as area secretaries
of Abbassiya, Salmiya and Fahaheel
respectively. Michael Johnson
(Secretary-Community Services),
Jijo Dominic (Sports), Sunil Kumar
(Arts), Vikas Keezhatur (Literature)
and R Nagandhan (Media
Secretary). The conference elected T
V jayan, Roy Nelson, Rema
Ajithkumar, Nasiriya Zachariah, Arun
Kumar, Vijeesh UP, Jiji George as
central committee members.
The annual conference conduct-
ed at V R Krishna Iyer Nagar (Khaitan
Indian Community School) was
attended by delegates chosen from
three area general body meetings of
KALA. General Secretary T V Jayan
presented the annual report while
treasurer Reji K Jacob, the audited
finance report followed by the
approval of the reports by the conference.
The conference appealed
through different resolutions to the
respective governing bodies of
India for the implementation of
Comprehensive Migration Law,
Detailed survey of Diaspora of
Indian origin all over the world, to
re-constitute Welfare Board, to
make clarity on the implementation
of voting rights, To have control on
flight charges in par with lower fuel
costs, to speed up the process of
Passport Renewals etc.
Different sub-committees comprising J Saji, R Naganadhan and
Nimmy Rajesh (Presidium), Rahil K
Mohandas, Jithin Prakash, Arun
Kumar (Minutes), Regi K Jacob, M
Narayanan, Vinod K John
(Registration), Sam Pynummodu,
Vikas, Dilin Narayanan, M.P Muzfar
(Resolutions), Vijeesh (Volunteer)
and Sajeev M George (Food) regulated the agenda of the conference.
N Ajith Kumar, Albert J Pulluvila and
Santha R Nair greeted the new
office bearers and central committee members. Balagopal welcomed
the delegates of the conference
while newly elected Saji Thomas
Mathew rendered vote of thanks.
Kozhikode District Association distributes Karunyam funds
Kozhikode District Association, Kuwait distributed Karunyam fund to Muhammed. K Dasan MLA handed over the Karunyam fund in a simple function held at the residence of Muhammed and Gopalan in Kozhikode. The Organizing
Secretary Shaji K V, Joint Treasurer Muneer Marakkan, Salimya Area President Sasidharan P K and Former CEC member Sasidharan Kovileri participated in the event.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
W H AT ’ S O N
LAIF Church organizes anointing-packed seminar
The Life Abundant International Fountain Church
(LAIF) will be organizing an anointing-packed seminar
from 29th to 31st of January 2015 at Salmiya and NECK
compound in Kuwait City. Christians from all denominations are invited to celebrate His faithfulness and be
renewed in the presence of God Almighty. Special
guests include; Rev Mosis (USA), Rev Dr Elia among others. LAIF recently organized its Shiloh Hours at NECK.
The praise and worship event attracted lots of
Christians.
Artist Johnarts
Kalabhavan presents a
caricature of Indian
Ambassador Sunil Jain
during a recent function in
Kuwait.
Santhwanam 14th anniversary and annual general meeting
I
ndian socio-voluntary organization, “SANTHWANAM Kuwait” announces its 14th Annual
General Body Meeting on Friday, 30th
January 2015 at Abbasiya OLIVE Auditorium at
05:00 pm. SANTHWANAM has a strength of more
than 2800 like-minded expatriate Indians from
all walks of life, irrespective of region, religion,
cast, creed or class. Santhwanam provides direct
and indirect help to diseased, distressed, homeless, highly needy individuals and poor families
in India, particularly in the rural areas of Kerala.
In 2014 itself, it has helped more than 900 poor
and needy patients, the office bearers told.
In efforts to help the distressed members of
Indian community in Kuwait, the organization
has been attending hospitalized destitute
Indians and extending all possible assistance for
their medical treatment and facilitating their
travel to homeland. More than 40 such deserving persons were benefitted by the way of Air
travel ticket, financial support for treatment back
at home, etc.
The association was formed in 2001 with a
prime intention of providing financial aid for
medical treatment of poor patients in Kuwait
and India. Over the years, “SANTHWANAM” has
risen as a source of valuable support to large
number of helpless individuals afflicted by disease, poverty and calamities in diverse ways. It’s
noble and timely contributions to all individuals
helped them to recover safely and live more fulfilled lives.
Every year SANTHWANAM initiate Special Aid
Programs in addition to its regular philanthropic
activities. In association with Devaki Warrier
Foundation in Kerala, it continues facilitating
free accommodation for Out Patients waiting for
treatment at Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) &
Medical College at Thiruvananthapuram. Under
special projects for the year 2014, it provides
treatment aid to cancer patients in RCC, nutritional supplement program for cancer patients
at Kollam Cancer Care Centre, facilitates boiled
drinking water project for patients at Kottayam
Medical College, supports Cochin Cancer Society
for early cancer detection mobile Unit, medical
aid package for haemophilia Patients, setting up
of Physiotheraphy unit for Endosulfan victims
and shares cost of dialysis machine for LISA Pain
& Palliative Care Centre at Kozhikkode.
Prathibha Kuwait, an association of Malayalam Writers has conducted its 44th monthly literary meeting at Fahaheel. Renowned writer Babu
Kuzhimattam has released the Little magazine ìNahlaî, edited by Jawahar K Engineer by anding over a copy to the editor. Abdul Latheef
Neeleswaram, Chunakkara Rajappan, Praveen Krishna, Hari Paravur, VG Rajan, Abraham Ittikadavil, Bessy Kadavil, PN Krishnan Kutty,
Girimandiram Sasikumar, KM Reaz and Santhan Chettikad delivered literary comments.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
TV PROGRAMS
00:00 As Time Goes By
00:30 Eastenders
01:00 Doctors
01:30 Lark Rise To Candleford
02:20 Saxondale
02:50 Being Eileen
03:20 Call The Midwife
04:15 The Weakest Link
05:00 The Green Balloon Club
05:25 Mr Bloom’s Nursery
05:45 Boogie Beebies
06:00 Little Human Planet
06:05 Jollywobbles
06:15 The Green Balloon Club
06:40 Mr Bloom’s Nursery
07:00 Boogie Beebies
07:15 The Weakest Link
08:00 As Time Goes By
08:30 Being Eileen
09:00 Eastenders
09:30 Doctors
10:00 Lark Rise To Candleford
10:50 The Weakest Link
11:35 As Time Goes By
12:05 Being Eileen
12:35 The Impressions Show With
Culshaw...
13:05 Eastenders
13:35 Doctors
14:05 Lark Rise To Candleford
14:55 Rev.
15:25 As Time Goes By
15:55 Being Eileen
16:25 The Weakest Link
17:10 Eastenders
17:40 Doctors
18:10 Lark Rise To Candleford
19:00 Rev.
19:30 Saxondale
20:00 Frankie
20:50 Single Father
21:45 The Omid Djalili Show
22:15 Mad Dogs
23:00 Waking The Dead
23:50 Waking The Dead
00:00 Homes Under The Hammer
00:55 Nordic Cookery With Tareq
Taylor
01:20 Nigellissima
01:45 Home Cooking Made Easy
02:15 Masterchef: The
Professionals
03:05 Antiques Roadshow
04:00 Come Dine With Me
04:25 The Good Cook
04:50 Homes Under The Hammer
05:45 Nordic Cookery With Tareq
Taylor
06:10 Nigellissima
06:35 Home Cooking Made Easy
07:05 Masterchef: The
Professionals
08:00 Antiques Roadshow
08:50 Come Dine With Me
09:15 Homes Under The Hammer
10:05 Nordic Cookery With Tareq
Taylor
10:35 Nigellissima
11:00 The Roux Legacy
11:30 Masterchef: The
Professionals
12:25 Antiques Roadshow
13:20 Come Dine With Me
13:45 Homes Under The Hammer
14:35 Nordic Cookery With Tareq
Taylor
15:00 Nigellissima
15:25 Fantasy Homes By The Sea
16:10 Masterchef: The
Professionals
17:05 Antiques Roadshow
18:00 Come Dine With Me
18:25 Homes Under The Hammer
19:15 DIY SOS: The Big Build
20:10 Nordic Cookery With Tareq
Taylor
20:35 Nigellissima
21:00 Baking Mad With Eric
Lanlard
21:25 Masterchef: The
Professionals
22:25 Bargain Hunt
23:10 Come Dine With Me
00:20
01:10
02:00
02:50
03:15
Dive Wars Australia
Survive That!
Fast N’ Loud
Auction Hunters
The Liquidator
03:40
04:05
04:30
05:00
06:00
06:50
07:40
08:30
08:55
09:20
09:45
10:10
10:35
Grylls
11:25
12:15
13:05
13:30
13:55
14:20
15:10
16:00
16:50
17:15
17:40
18:30
18:55
19:20
20:10
20:35
21:00
21:25
21:50
22:40
23:30
23:55
00:00
00:45
00:50
01:15
01:40
01:50
02:05
02:15
02:30
03:10
03:20
03:45
04:10
04:20
04:35
04:45
05:00
05:25
05:50
06:00
06:25
06:50
07:15
07:40
08:05
08:30
08:55
09:20
09:45
10:10
10:35
11:00
11:25
11:50
12:15
12:40
13:05
13:30
13:55
14:20
14:55
15:20
15:45
16:10
17:00
18:40
19:05
19:30
20:20
20:45
21:10
21:35
22:00
22:25
22:50
23:10
23:35
What’s In The Barn?
How It’s Made
How It’s Made
Dual Survival
Outback Truckers
Classic Car Rescue
Fast N’ Loud
Auction Hunters
The Liquidator
What’s In The Barn?
How It’s Made
How It’s Made
Get Out Alive With Bear
Dive Wars Australia
Survive That!
Auction Hunters
The Liquidator
What’s In The Barn?
Outback Truckers
Classic Car Rescue
Fast N’ Loud
How It’s Made
How It’s Made
Dual Survival
The Carbonaro Effect
The Carbonaro Effect
The Big Brain Theory
The Liquidator
What’s In The Barn?
The Carbonaro Effect
The Carbonaro Effect
The Big Brain Theory
You Have Been Warned
The Carbonaro Effect
The Carbonaro Effect
Violetta
The Hive
Art Attack
Art Attack
Jungle Junction
Jungle Junction
Jungle Junction
Jungle Junction
Violetta
The Hive
Art Attack
Art Attack
Jungle Junction
Jungle Junction
Jungle Junction
Jungle Junction
Art Attack
Art Attack
Mouk
Dog With A Blog
Liv And Maddie
So Random
I Didn’t Do It
Jessie
Austin & Ally
Good Luck Charlie
Good Luck Charlie
Sonny With A Chance
Sonny With A Chance
Suite Life On Deck
Suite Life On Deck
That’s So Raven
That’s So Raven
A.N.T. Farm
A.N.T. Farm
Good Luck Charlie
Good Luck Charlie
Jessie
Jessie
Austin & Ally
Jessie
Liv And Maddie
Liv And Maddie
Violetta
Twitches Too
Gravity Falls
Spooksville
Violetta
Liv And Maddie
Liv And Maddie
Wolfblood
Gravity Falls
Suite Life On Deck
A.N.T. Farm
Shake It Up
Wolfblood
Wolfblood
00:00 Escape Club
00:55 Extreme Close-Up
01:25 Keeping Up With The
Kardashians
02:20 Giuliana & Bill
03:15 Eric And Jessie: Game On
03:40 Eric And Jessie: Game On
04:10 THS
05:05 E!ES
06:00 Keeping Up With The
Kardashians
06:55 Keeping Up With The
Kardashians
07:50 Style Star
08:20 #RichKids Of Beverly Hills
08:45 #RichKids Of Beverly Hills
09:15 Giuliana & Bill
10:15 Giuliana & Bill
11:10 Kourtney And Khloe Take
The Hamptons
12:05 House Of DVF
13:05 Extreme Close-Up
13:35 Ryan Seacrest With The
Kardashians: An E!...
14:30 Style Star
15:00 Keeping Up With The
Kardashians
16:00 Keeping Up With The
Kardashians
17:00 #RichKids Of Beverly Hills
17:30 #RichKids Of Beverly Hills
18:00 E! News
19:00 Live From E!
19:30 Live From The Red Carpet
21:30 E!ES
22:00 E! News
23:00 Live From E!
23:30 The Soup
00:05 Chopped
00:55 Amazing Wedding Cakes
01:45 Reza, Spice Prince Of
Thailand
02:10 Reza, Spice Prince Of
Thailand
02:35 Ching’s Restaurant
Redemption
03:00 Ching’s Restaurant
Redemption
03:25 Charly’s Cake Angels
03:50 Amazing Wedding Cakes
04:40 Reza, Spice Prince Of
Vietnam
05:05 Roadtrip With G. Garvin
05:30 Reza, Spice Prince Of
Thailand
05:50 Siba’s Table
06:10 Sweet Genius
07:00 Roadtrip With G. Garvin
07:25 Roadtrip With G. Garvin
07:50 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives
08:15 Chopped
09:05 Barefoot Contessa - Back To
Basics
09:30 Farm Kings
10:20 Recipes That Rock
10:45 Reza, Spice Prince Of
Vietnam
11:10 Roadtrip With G. Garvin
11:35 Grandma’s Secret Cookbook
12:00 Chopped
12:50 Siba’s Table
13:15 Jenny Morris Cooks Morocco
13:40 Mystery Diners
14:05 Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity
Cook Off
14:55 Roadtrip With G. Garvin
15:20 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives
15:45 Farm Kings
16:35 Chopped
17:25 Jenny Morris Cooks Morocco
17:50 Reza, Spice Prince Of
Vietnam
18:15 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives
18:40 Siba’s Table
19:05 Grandma’s Secret Cookbook
19:30 Mystery Diners
19:55 Burger Land
20:20 Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity
Cook Off
21:10 Amazing Wedding Cakes
22:00 Chopped
22:50 Roadtrip With G. Garvin
23:15 Roadtrip With G. Garvin
23:40 Burger Land
00:40 The Hungry Sailors
01:30 Paul O’Grady: For The Love
Of Dogs
02:00 Emmerdale
02:25 Emmerdale
02:55 Coronation Street
03:25 Midsomer Murders
05:15 Murdoch Mysteries
06:10 The Jonathan Ross Show
07:05 Paul O’Grady: For The Love
Of Dogs
07:30 Midsomer Murders
09:20 The Chase
10:15 Murdoch Mysteries
11:10 Emmerdale
11:35 Emmerdale
12:00 Coronation Street
12:30 The Hungry Sailors
13:25 The Jonathan Ross Show
14:20 Paul O’Grady: For The Love
Of Dogs
14:45
15:35
16:30
17:25
18:20
19:10
19:35
20:30
21:25
22:20
22:50
23:15
23:45
Murdoch Mysteries
The Chase
The Great Fire
Chasing Shadows
The Jonathan Ross Show
Coronation Street
The Chase
The Great Fire
Chasing Shadows
Coronation Street
Emmerdale
Emmerdale
Murdoch Mysteries
00:00
01:00
02:00
03:00
04:00
05:00
06:00
07:00
08:00
09:00
10:00
11:00
12:00
13:00
14:00
15:00
15:30
16:00
Rees
16:30
Rees
17:00
17:30
18:00
19:00
19:30
20:00
Rees
20:30
Rees
21:00
21:30
22:00
23:00
How Hard Can It Be?
Caught In The Act
Wild Australia
Ancient Secrets: The Sphinx
Chasing UFOs
Air Crash Investigation
Pirate Patrol
Megacities
How Hard Can It Be?
Caught In The Act
Wild Australia
Storm Worlds
Dangerous Encounters
Street Monkeys
Mega Factories: Supercars
Diggers
Diggers
Going Deep With David
Going Deep With David
Street Genius
Street Genius
Sea Patrol
Diggers
Diggers
Going Deep With David
Going Deep With David
Street Genius
Street Genius
Sea Patrol
Storm Worlds
00:30 The Daily Show With Jon
Stewart
01:30 Web Therapy
02:00 It’s Always Sunny In
Philadelphia
02:30 Sean Saves The World
03:00 Back In The Game
03:30 About A Boy
04:30 The Tonight Show Starring
Jimmy Fallon
05:30 My Boys
06:00 Last Man Standing
07:00 Late Night With Seth Meyers
08:30 My Boys
09:00 Back In The Game
09:30 The Simpsons
10:00 Hot In Cleveland
11:00 The Tonight Show Starring
Jimmy Fallon
12:00 Last Man Standing
13:00 My Boys
13:30 The Simpsons
14:00 About A Boy
14:30 The Simpsons
15:00 Hot In Cleveland
15:30 The Daily Show With Jon
Stewart
16:30 Last Man Standing
17:00 Late Night With Seth Meyers
18:00 Back In The Game
19:00 Melissa & Joey
19:30 Hot In Cleveland
20:00 The Tonight Show Starring
Jimmy Fallon
21:00 The Daily Show With Jon
Stewart
22:00 Brickleberry
22:30 It’s Always Sunny In
Philadelphia
23:00 Sean Saves The World
23:30 Late Night With Seth Meyers
01:00
02:00
04:00
05:00
09:00
10:00
12:00
12:30
16:00
16:30
20:00
Killer Women
True Blood
State Of Affairs
Criminal Minds
Criminal Minds
State Of Affairs
Emmerdale
Coronation Street
Emmerdale
Coronation Street
Marvel’s Agent Carter
21:00 Top Gear (UK)
22:00 Legends
00:00
01:00
05:00
07:00
07:30
10:00
10:30
13:00
15:00
18:00
19:00
22:00
23:00
Crisis
Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Emmerdale
Coronation Street
Emmerdale
Coronation Street
Crisis
Live Good Morning America
Crisis
Drop Dead Diva
Devious Maids
Justified
00:00
02:00
04:00
06:00
08:00
10:00
12:00
14:00
16:00
18:00
19:45
22:00
Hunt To Kill
The Day
Europa Report
American Warships
Recoil
Flightplan
American Warships
Hunt To Kill
Haywire
Recoil
The Rock
Star Trek Into Darkness
00:00
02:00
04:00
06:00
08:00
10:00
12:00
14:00
16:00
17:45
20:00
22:15
The Day-PG15
Europa Report-PG15
American Warships-PG15
Recoil-PG15
Flightplan-PG15
American Warships-PG15
Hunt To Kill-PG15
Haywire-PG15
Recoil-PG15
The Rock-PG15
Star Trek Into DarknessSunshine-18
00:00
02:00
04:00
06:00
08:00
10:00
12:00
14:00
16:00
18:00
PG15
20:00
22:00
It’s A Disaster-PG15
Something New-PG15
Jesus Henry Christ-PG15
Home Alone-PG
Ghost Dad-PG
It’s A Disaster-PG15
Jesus Henry Christ-PG15
Timer-PG15
Ghost Dad-PG
Hello Ladies: The Movie-
SUNSHINE ON OSN MOVIES ACTION HD
13:00 Epic-PG
14:45 The Hobbit: The Desolation
Of Smaug-PG
17:30 Captain Phillips-PG15
20:00 Last Vegas-PG15
22:00 The Counselor-18
16:00 A Common Man-PG15
18:00 The Hunger Games:
Catching Fire-PG15
20:00 The Art Of The Steal-PG15
22:00 Gangster Squad-18
BASEketball-PG15
Elektra Luxx-18
03:00
05:00
07:00
11:00
13:00
15:00
19:00
21:00
22:45
The Immigrant-PG15
Now You See Me-PG15
Grace Of Monaco-PG15
Now You See Me-PG15
Stolen Child-PG15
Straight A’s-PG15
The Letter-PG15
Hick-PG15
The Master-R
02:00
04:30
07:00
09:00
11:15
13:30
15:15
16:45
19:00
20:30
23:00
On The Road-R
Mud-PG15
Dangerous Minds-PG15
Snow Falling On CedarsDead Poets Society-PG15
Centre Place-PG15
Deadly Spa-PG15
Snow Falling On CedarsNobody Walks-PG15
The Past-PG15
Cosmopolis-18
01:00
02:45
04:45
07:15
09:00
11:15
A Case Of You-PG15
Homefront-PG15
Lincoln-PG15
No Clue-PG15
Captain Phillips-PG15
The Hot Flashes-PG15
COSMOPOLIS ON OSN MOVIES FESTIVAL HD
01:15 The Legend Of Sasquatch
02:45 Hatching
04:30 Unstable Fables: The
Goldilocks & The Three Bears
06:00 Tad, The Lost Explorer
08:00 Barbie As The Island
Princess
09:30 Speed Racer
11:45 Back To The Sea
13:30 Hatching
15:00 Unstable Fables: Tortoise vs.
Hare
16:30 Kong Return To The Jungle
18:00 Speed Racer
20:15 Unstable Fables: Tortoise vs.
Hare
22:00 Marvel’s Next Avengers:
Heroes Of Tomorrow
23:30 Kong Return To The Jungle
00:00 Madea’s Witness ProtectionPG15
02:00 Dark Tide-PG15
04:00 Peace, Love &
Misunderstanding-PG15
05:45 42-PG15
08:00 A Common Man-PG15
10:00 Marvel’s The Invincible Iron
Man-PG
12:00 Peace, Love &
Misunderstanding-PG15
14:00 Lovestruck: The MusicalPG15
00:00 Live MSNBC Now With Alex
Wagner
01:00 Live MSNBC The Ed Show
02:00 Live MSNBC Politicsnation
03:00 Live NBC Nightly News
03:30 ABC World News With David
Muir
04:00 Live MSNBC All In With Chris
Hayes
05:00 Live MSNBC The Rachel
Maddow Show
06:00 Live MSNBC The Last Word
W/ Lawrence O’Donnell
07:00 NBC Nightly News
07:30 ABC World News With David
Muir
07:57 NBC Nightly News
08:18 ABC World News With David
Muir
09:06 MSNBC The Rachel
Maddow Show
10:00 MSNBC The Last Word W/
Lawrence O’Donnell
11:00 Live ABC World News Now
11:30 Live ABC World News Now
14:30 MSNBC First Look
15:00 Live NBC Today Show
18:57 MSNBC Hardball W/ Chris
Matthews
19:38 MSNBC The Rachel
Maddow Show
20:19 MSNBC The Last Word W/
Lawrence O’Donnell
21:00 Live MSNBC Ronan Farrow
Daily
22:00 Live MSNBC The Reid
Report
23:00 Live MSNBC The Cycle
00:00
01:00
03:00
04:00
07:00
08:30
12:00
14:00
17:00
18:00
19:00
19:30
20:00
21:00
Golfing World
PGA Tour Highlights
Trans World Sport
Pool Mosconi Cup
Golfing World
HSBC Sevens World Series
Super Rugby Final Highlights
Snooker - The Masters
Super Rugby Final Highlights
Golfing World
Inside The PGA Tour
European Tour Weekly
Trans World Sport
Super Rugby Final Highlights
04:00 PGA Tour Highlights
05:00 PGA European Tour
Highlights
06:00 Trans World Sport
07:00 Top 14
09:00 Golfing World
12:00 Ryder Cup Official Film
18:00 WWE Afterburn
19:00 WWE Vintage
20:00 WWE Experience
21:00 NFL Road To The Super
Bowl XLIX
23:00 HSBC Sevens World Series
00:30 New Zealand v Sri Lanka
ODI Highlights
01:30 New Zealand v Sri Lanka
ODI Highlights
10:00 Big Bash League T20
Highlights
11:00 Live Big Bash League T20
15:00 Story of the World Cup 1992
16:30 ICC Cricket 360
17:00 Big Bash League T20
21:00 Big Bash League T20
Classifieds
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
Kuwait
SHARQIA-1
AMERICAN SNIPER
THE BOOK OF LIFE
THE BOOK OF LIFE
AMERICAN SNIPER
AMERICAN SNIPER
AMERICAN SNIPER
12:30 PM
3:00 PM
5:00 PM
7:15 PM
9:45 PM
12:15 AM
SHARQIA-2
TAKEN 3
TAKEN 3
TAKEN 3
TAKEN 3
TAKEN 3
TAKEN 3
12:45 PM
3:15 PM
5:30 PM
7:45 PM
10:00 PM
12:30 AM
SHARQIA-3
THE BOOK OF LIFE
MORTDECAI
MORTDECAI
CAIRO TIME - ARABIC
MORTDECAI
CAIRO TIME - ARABIC
MORTDECAI
11:30 AM
1:30 PM
3:45 PM
6:00 PM
8:15 PM
10:30 PM
12:45 AM
MUHALAB-1
MORTDECAI
MORTDECAI
MORTDECAI
CAIRO TIME - ARABIC
CAIRO TIME - ARABIC
MORTDECAI
MORTDECAI
11:30 AM
1:45 PM
4:00 PM
6:15 PM
8:30 PM
10:45 PM
1:00 AM
MUHALAB-2
AMERICAN SNIPER
THE BOOK OF LIFE
THE BOOK OF LIFE
AMERICAN SNIPER
AMERICAN SNIPER
AMERICAN SNIPER
12:15 PM
2:45 PM
4:45 PM
6:45 PM
9:15 PM
11:45 PM
MUHALAB-3
THE BOOK OF LIFE - 3D
TAKEN 3
TAKEN 3
TAKEN 3
TAKEN 3
TAKEN 3
TAKEN 3
11:30 AM
1:30 PM
3:45 PM
6:00 PM
8:15 PM
10:30 PM
12:45 AM
FANAR-1
MORTDECAI
MORTDECAI
MORTDECAI
STILL ALICE
MORTDECAI
STILL ALICE
MORTDECAI
11:45 AM
2:00 PM
4:15 PM
6:30 PM
8:30 PM
10:45 PM
12:45 AM
FANAR-2
AMERICAN SNIPER
AMERICAN SNIPER
AMERICAN SNIPER
AMERICAN SNIPER
AMERICAN SNIPER
AMERICAN SNIPER
11:30 AM
2:00 PM
4:30 PM
7:00 PM
9:45 PM
12:15 AM
FANAR-3
BARBIE IN PRINCESS POWER
BARBIE IN PRINCESS POWER
BARBIE IN PRINCESS POWER
CAIRO TIME - ARABIC
CAIRO TIME - ARABIC
CAIRO TIME - ARABIC
1:15 PM
3:15 PM
5:15 PM
7:15 PM
9:30 PM
11:45 PM
FANAR-4
THE SNOW QUEEN 2
TAKEN 3
TAKEN 3
TAKEN 3
TAKEN 3
TAKEN 3
TAKEN 3
11:30 AM
1:15 PM
3:30 PM
5:45 PM
8:00 PM
10:15 PM
12:30 AM
FANAR-5
BARBIE IN PRINCESS POWER
BABY - HINDI
11:30 AM
1:30 PM
KNCC PROGRAMME FROM THURSDAY TO WEDNESDAY
(22/01/2015 TO 28/01/2015)
TAKEN 3
12:15 AM
AVENUES-8
UNBROKEN
BABY - HINDI
DOLLY KI DOLI - HINDI
BABY - HINDI
UNBROKEN
12:45 PM
3:45 PM
6:45 PM
9:15 PM
12:30 AM
AVENUES-9
THE BOOK OF LIFE - 3D
THE BOOK OF LIFE
THE BOOK OF LIFE- 3D
THE BOOK OF LIFE
SEVENTH SON
TAKEN 3
12:30 PM
2:45 PM
5:00 PM
7:15 PM
9:30 PM
11:45 PM
AVENUES-10
CAIRO TIME - ARABIC
CAIRO TIME - ARABIC
CAIRO TIME - ARABIC
CAIRO TIME - ARABIC
CAIRO TIME - ARABIC
CAIRO TIME - ARABIC
11:30 AM
2:00 PM
4:30 PM
7:00 PM
9:45 PM
12:15 AM
AVENUES-11
TAKEN 3 - DOLBY ATMOS
TAKEN 3 - DOLBY ATMOS
TAKEN 3 - DOLBY ATMOS
TAKEN 3 - DOLBY ATMOS
TAKEN 3 - DOLBY ATMOS
TAKEN 3 - DOLBY ATMOS
12:30 PM
3:00 PM
5:30 PM
8:00 PM
10:30 PM
1:00 AM
360º- 1
AMERICAN SNIPER
AMERICAN SNIPER
AMERICAN SNIPER
AMERICAN SNIPER
AMERICAN SNIPER
1:15 PM
4:00 PM
6:45 PM
9:30 PM
12:15 AM
11:45 AM
2:00 PM
4:15 PM
6:15 PM
8:30 PM
10:45 PM
1:00 AM
360º- 2
CAIRO TIME - ARABIC
CAIRO TIME - ARABIC
CAIRO TIME - ARABIC
CAIRO TIME - ARABIC
CAIRO TIME - ARABIC
CAIRO TIME - ARABIC
12:00 PM
2:45 PM
5:15 PM
7:45 PM
10:15 PM
12:45 AM
AVENUES-3
MORTDECAI
MORTDECAI
MORTDECAI
MORTDECAI
MORTDECAI
MORTDECAI
1:00 PM
3:30 PM
5:45 PM
8:00 PM
10:15 PM
12:30 AM
360º- 3
STILL ALICE
STILL ALICE
STILL ALICE
STILL ALICE
STILL ALICE
STILL ALICE
1:00 PM
3:15 PM
5:30 PM
7:45 PM
10:00 PM
12:15 AM
AVENUES-4
TAKEN 3
TAKEN 3
TAKEN 3
TAKEN 3
Special Show “TAKEN 3 “
TAKEN 3
Special Show “TAKEN 3 “
TAKEN 3
11:45 AM
2:00 PM
4:30 PM
7:00 PM
7:00 PM
9:30 PM
9:30 PM
12:05 AM
AL-KOUT.1
TAKEN 3
TAKEN 3
TAKEN 3
TAKEN 3
TAKEN 3
TAKEN 3
1:00 PM
3:30 PM
5:45 PM
8:00 PM
10:15 PM
12:30 AM
AL-KOUT.2
BARBIE IN PRINCESS POWER
CAIRO TIME - ARABIC
BARBIE IN PRINCESS POWER
FROM A TO B
CAIRO TIME - ARABIC
CAIRO TIME - ARABIC
12:45 PM
3:15 PM
5:30 PM
7:30 PM
9:45 PM
12:05 AM
AL-KOUT.3
TAKEN 3
AMERICAN SNIPER
AMERICAN SNIPER
AMERICAN SNIPER
AMERICAN SNIPER
AMERICAN SNIPER
11:30 AM
1:45 PM
4:15 PM
6:45 PM
9:15 PM
11:45 PM
AL-KOUT.4
THE BOOK OF LIFE
MORTDECAI
THE BOOK OF LIFE
THE BOOK OF LIFE
MORTDECAI
MORTDECAI
MORTDECAI
11:45 AM
1:45 PM
4:00 PM
6:15 PM
8:15 PM
10:30 PM
12:45 AM
CAIRO TIME - ARABIC
BABY - HINDI
BABY - HINDI
TAKEN 3
4:30 PM
6:45 PM
9:45 PM
1:00 AM
MARINA-1
MORTDECAI
SEVENTH SON
THE WOMAN IN BLACK 2 ANGEL OF DEATH
CAIRO TIME - ARABIC
MORTDECAI
CAIRO TIME - ARABIC
MORTDECAI
11:30 AM
1:45 PM
3:45 PM
6:00 PM
8:15 PM
10:30 PM
12:45 AM
MARINA-2
TAKEN 3
TAKEN 3
TAKEN 3
TAKEN 3
TAKEN 3
TAKEN 3
12:30 PM
2:45 PM
5:00 PM
7:15 PM
9:45 PM
12:05 AM
MARINA-3
THE BOOK OF LIFE - 3D
THE BOOK OF LIFE
THE BOOK OF LIFE - 3D
THE BOOK OF LIFE
AMERICAN SNIPER
AMERICAN SNIPER
AMERICAN SNIPER
11:30 AM
1:30 PM
3:30 PM
5:30 PM
7:30 PM
10:00 PM
12:30 AM
AVENUES-1
STILL ALICE
STILL ALICE
STILL ALICE
STILL ALICE
STILL ALICE
STILL ALICE
12:15 PM
2:30 PM
4:45 PM
7:00 PM
9:15 PM
11:30 PM
AVENUES-2
BARBIE IN PRINCESS POWER
BARBIE IN PRINCESS POWER
THE SNOW QUEEN 2
BARBIE IN PRINCESS POWER
THE WOMAN IN BLACK 2 ANGEL OF DEATH
THE WOMAN IN BLACK 2 ANGEL OF DEATH
THE WOMAN IN BLACK 2 ANGEL OF DEATH
AVENUES-5
MORTDECAI
AMERICAN SNIPER
MORTDECAI
AMERICAN SNIPER
Special Show “AMERICAN SNIPER “
MORTDECAI
AMERICAN SNIPER
12:15 PM
2:45 PM
5:15 PM
7:30 PM
7:30 PM
10:15 PM
12:30 AM
AVENUES-6
AMERICAN SNIPER
AMERICAN SNIPER
AMERICAN SNIPER
AMERICAN SNIPER
AMERICAN SNIPER
12:45 PM
3:30 PM
6:15 PM
9:00 PM
11:45 PM
AVENUES-7
TAKEN 3
TAKEN 3
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING
TAKEN 3
12:00 PM
2:30 PM
5:00 PM
7:30 PM
10:00 PM
FOR SALE
Mitsubishi Lancer GLX 2010, white color, excellent
condition, km 86000, KD
1450. Tel: 66729295.
(C 4911)
27-1-2014
CHANGE OF NAME
Salina Fernandes, r/o
Mashem, Loliem Polem Goa, holder of Passport No.
H0192790, have changed
my name from Salina
Sanjay Divakar to Salina
Fernandes. Hereinafter, in
all my dealings and documents, I will be known by
the name Salina Fernandes.
(C 1912)
27-1-2014
No: 16416
Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)
Airlines
JAI
JZR
JZR
SYR
JZR
THY
FDB
QTR
DLH
PGT
ETH
MSC
GFA
UAE
JAI
FDB
RJA
CEB
MSR
ETD
KKK
OMA
QTR
MSC
THY
DHX
GFA
BAW
KAC
FDB
QTR
KAC
KAC
KAC
UAE
KAC
KAC
ABY
ETD
FDB
QTR
GFA
IRM
IRA
UAE
MSR
AXB
KAC
MSC
JZR
IRM
JZR
MEA
IAW
UAE
MRJ
MSR
CLX
IYE
IRC
KAC
KAC
QTR
Flt
574
239
267
341
539
772
069
1084
637
858
620
403
211
853
526
067
648
7694
612
305
6507
643
1076
401
770
170
058
157
412
053
1086
352
302
206
855
362
344
125
301
055
1070
943
1186
665
873
3108
889
204
405
165
1188
561
404
157
871
4815
610
792
826
526
382
672
1078
Arrival Flights on Wednesday 28/1/2015
Route
Mumbai
Amman
Beirut
Damascus
Cairo
Istanbul
Dubai
Doha
Dammam
Istanbul
Addis Ababa
Sohag
Bahrain
Dubai
Chennai/Abu Dhabi
Dubai
Amman
Manila
Cairo
Abu Dhabi
Istanbul
Muscat
Doha
Alexandria
Istanbul
Bahrain
Istanbul
London
Manila/Bangkok
Dubai
Doha
Kochi
Mumbai
Islamabad
Dubai
Colombo
Chennai
Sharjah
Abu Dhabi
Dubai
Doha
Bahrain
Tehran
Shiraz
Dubai
Alexandria
Mangalore/Bahrain
Lahore
Sohag
Dubai
Mashhad
Sohag
Beirut
Al Najaf
Dubai
Mashhad
Cairo
Luxembourg
Sanaa/Mukalla
Mashhad
Delhi
Dubai
Doha
Time
00:10
00:25
00:30
00:35
00:40
00:45
00:55
01:00
01:15
01:35
01:45
02:30
02:30
02:35
02:50
02:55
03:05
03:10
03:10
03:10
03:20
03:25
03:45
04:05
05:35
05:40
06:25
06:40
07:10
07:45
07:50
08:10
08:20
08:25
08:40
08:45
08:45
09:00
09:20
09:40
10:00
10:15
10:20
10:40
11:00
11:15
11:15
11:25
11:25
11:30
11:45
11:45
11:55
12:05
12:50
12:55
13:00
13:15
13:30
13:30
13:45
13:55
14:05
MSR
MSC
KNE
SVA
FDB
IZG
RJD
GFA
OMA
KAC
KAC
KNE
ABY
UAE
FDB
KNE
JZR
KAC
JZR
JZR
QTR
RJA
ETD
SVA
GFA
IRM1
GFA
JZR
UAE
JZR
FDB
ABY
JZR
KAC
QTR
KAC
KAC
KAC
KAC
GFA
KAC
KAC
JAI
KAC
OMA
FDB
ETD
MSR
DLH
ALK
MEA
ETD
FDB
UAE
GFA
QTR
KNE
JZR
ETD
FDB
AIC
JZR
THY
FDB
575
407
472
500
057
4167
135
221
645
284
788
462
127
857
051
460
535
562
787
357
1072
640
303
510
215
180
944
777
875
177
063
121
483
786
1080
618
774
674
542
217
166
102
572
742
647
061
919
606
636
229
402
307
073
859
219
1074
480
135
309
059
975
185
764
071
Sharm el-Sheikh
HRG
Jeddah
Jeddah
Dubai
Mashhad
Abu Dhabi
Bahrain
Muscat
Dhaka
Jeddah
Madinah
Sharjah
Dubai
Dubai
Riyadh
Cairo
Amman
Riyadh
Mashhad
Doha
Amman
Abu Dhabi
Riyadh
Bahrain
Mashhad
LCA
Jeddah
Dubai
Dubai
Dubai
Sharjah
Istanbul
Jeddah
Doha
Doha
Riyadh
Dubai
Cairo
Bahrain
Paris/Rome
London
Mumbai
Dammam
Muscat
Dubai
Abu Dhabi
Luxor
Frankfurt
Colombo
Beirut
Abu Dhabi
Dubai
Dubai
Bahrain
Doha
Taif
Bahrain
Abu Dhabi
Dubai
Chennai/Goa
Dubai
Istanbul
Dubai
14:15
14:20
14:25
14:30
14:30
14:35
14:55
15:00
15:00
15:15
15:40
15:45
15:45
15:45
16:00
16:00
16:10
16:20
16:25
16:30
16:40
16:55
16:55
17:15
17:30
17:35
17:50
17:55
18:00
18:20
18:40
18:40
18:40
18:45
18:50
19:15
19:15
19:25
19:25
19:30
19:40
19:55
20:00
20:00
20:20
20:20
20:30
20:45
20:50
21:10
21:20
21:30
21:35
21:40
21:45
21:55
22:00
22:05
22:15
22:30
22:30
23:15
23:35
23:45
Airlines
AIC
FDB
UAL
JAI
SYR
KAC
DLH
KAC
ETH
THY
PGT
MSC
KAC
UAE
FDB
ETD
MSR
KKK
OMA
QTR
CEB
MSC
JZR
QTR
THY
FDB
JAI
JZR
RJA
GFA
GFA
THY
FDB
BAW
QTR
JZR
KAC
ABY
KAC
UAE
JZR
KAC
ETD
KAC
JZR
FDB
KAC
QTR
GFA
IRM
IRA
KAC
AXB
MSR
JZR
KAC
MSC
UAE
MEA
KAC
IAW
JZR
IRM
JZR
MSR
Departure Flights on Wednesday 28/1/2015
Flt
Route
982
Ahmedabad/Hyderabad/Chennai
072
Dubai
981
IAD
573
Mumbai
342
Damascus
203
Lahore
637
Frankfurt
283
Dhaka
621
Addis Ababa
773
Istanbul
859
Istanbul
404
Sohag
381
Delhi
854
Dubai
068
Dubai
306
Abu Dhabi
613
Cairo
6508
Istanbul
644
Muscat
1085
Doha
7695
Manila
406
Sohag
560
Sohag
1077
Doha
765
Istanbul
070
Dubai
525
Abu Dhabi/Chennai
164
Dubai
649
Amman
050
Bahrain
212
Bahrain
771
Istanbul
054
Dubai
156
London
1087
Doha
534
Cairo
671
Dubai
126
Sharjah
787
Jeddah
856
Dubai
482
Istanbul
117
New York
302
Abu Dhabi
561
Amman
356
Mashhad
056
Dubai
175
Frankfurt/Geneva
1071
Doha
943
LCA
1181
Mashhad
664
Shiraz
541
Cairo
890
Mangalore
3109
Cairo
776
Jeddah
103
London
402
Alexandria
874
Dubai
405
Beirut
785
Jeddah
158
Al Najaf
786
Riyadh
1189
Mashhad
176
Dubai
611
Cairo
DIAL161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION
Time
00:05
00:45
00:55
01:10
01:35
02:00
02:15
02:25
02:45
02:55
03:25
03:30
03:40
03:50
03:55
04:05
04:10
04:10
04:25
04:30
04:40
05:05
05:10
05:15
05:40
06:30
06:35
06:55
07:05
07:10
07:15
07:30
08:25
08:45
08:50
09:15
09:25
09:40
09:50
09:55
10:00
10:05
10:20
10:25
10:30
10:35
10:40
11:00
11:00
11:30
11:40
12:05
12:15
12:15
12:20
12:20
12:25
12:30
12:55
13:00
13:05
13:10
13:10
13:45
14:00
MRJ
UAE
IRC
IYE
CLX
KAC
MSR
QTR
FDB
KAC
MSC
KNE
IZG
SVA
GFA
KAC
OMA
RJD
KAC
ABY
KNE
KNE
FDB
KAC
JZR
KAC
QTR
UAE
JZR
ETD
RJA
SVA
GFA
GFA
JZR
IRM
JZR
JZR
ABY
JZR
UAE
QTR
FDB
GFA
KAC
JAI
KAC
KAC
FDB
OMA
DLH
MSR
DHX
ALK
KAC
ETD
MEA
ETD
FDB
GFA
UAE
KNE
KAC
ETD
JZR
QTR
KAC
4814
872
527
827
792
673
576
1079
058
617
408
473
4168
503
222
773
646
136
501
128
463
481
052
741
266
545
1073
858
538
304
641
511
216
944
184
1187
238
134
122
552
876
1081
064
218
361
571
331
351
062
648
636
619
171
230
301
308
403
920
074
220
860
461
205
310
502
1075
415
Mashhad
Dubai
Mashhad
Mukalla/Sanaa
Hanoi
Dubai
Sharm el-Sheikh
Doha
Dubai
Doha
HRG
Jeddah
Mashhad
Jeddah/Madinah
Bahrain
Riyadh
Muscat
Abu Dhabi
Beirut
Sharjah
Madinah
Taif
Dubai
Dammam
Beirut
Alexandria
Doha
Dubai
Cairo
Abu Dhabi
Amman
Riyadh
Bahrain
Bahrain
Dubai
Tehran
Amman
Bahrain
Sharjah
Alexandria
Dubai
Doha
Dubai
Bahrain
Colombo
Mumbai
Trivandrum
Kochi
Dubai
Muscat
Dammam
Alexandria
Bahrain
Colombo
Mumbai
Abu Dhabi
Beirut
Dubai
Dubai
Bahrain
Dubai
Riyadh
Islamabad
Abu Dhabi
Luxor
Doha
Jakarta/Kuala Lumpur
14:10
14:15
14:30
14:30
14:45
15:00
15:00
15:05
15:10
15:15
15:20
15:20
15:35
15:45
15:45
15:50
16:00
16:05
16:15
16:25
16:30
16:50
17:00
17:00
17:05
17:30
17:40
17:45
17:45
17:50
17:55
18:15
18:20
18:35
18:40
18:45
18:50
19:10
19:20
19:30
19:40
19:50
19:55
20:15
20:50
21:00
21:10
21:15
21:20
21:20
21:35
21:45
21:50
22:10
22:15
22:15
22:20
22:25
22:30
22:30
22:50
22:50
22:55
23:00
23:05
23:05
23:25
34
stars
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
CROSSWORD 798
STAR TRACK
Aries (March 21-April 19)
An employee review is due soon and now is a good time to clearly define
your goals in writing. Two things happen when you write out your goals: crystallization and
commitment. Create one particularly important goal for yourself but then think about a
couple of short-term goals that will show success quickly. Your work is mounting but you
dive in and accomplish more than you thought you could. You may begin to seek out
friends who are unusual or unconventional in their social behavior-perhaps to experience a
change of pace from the everyday stress. You face many responsibilities in your relationships and the love you show is quickly returned. It is easy to express your desires openly to
companions at this time. You definitely feel the power of love.
Taurus (April 20-May 20)
This is one of those days where you seem to worry much about your money
and how you have invested it and future investments. You have become much more adaptable and willing to go the extra mile it may take to bring in more money. Research into
understanding better ways to invest would be wise. You are encouraged to succeed in all
your affairs. You may become concerned about the welfare of others; if you are not a counselor, you might consider further education to help you achieve that professional status.
You are certainly good at listening to the needs of others. You rely on facts rather than feelings, especially when an expensive mistake might be the outcome. You might consider
becoming a professional mentor. Your humor is contagious.
Gemini (May 21-June 20)
ACROSS
1. (computer science) The part of a computer (a
microprocessor chip) that does most of the data
processing.
4. The weather in some location averaged over
some long period of time.
11. Any culture medium that uses agar as the
gelling agent.
15. Imperial dynasty that ruled China (most of
the time) from 206 BC to 221 and expanded its
boundaries and developed its bureaucracy.
16. Someone who rows a boat.
17. (Babylonian) A goddess of the watery deep
and daughter of Ea.
18. The elementary stages of any subject (usually
plural).
19. A turner with a narrow flexible blade.
20. French filmmaker (1908-1982).
21. Smeared thickly.
23. Continued in your keeping or use or memory.
25. Having excessive asymmetrical ornamentation.
27. The time after sunset and before sunrise
while it is dark outside.
28. (British) An open river valley (in a hilly area).
30. A rare silvery (usually trivalent) metallic element.
31. Commonly the lowest molding at the base of
a column.
34. A measure of a person's intelligence as indicated by an intelligence test.
35. A hemoprotein composed of globin and
heme that gives red blood cells their characteristic color.
37. European strong-scented perennial herb with
gray-green bitter-tasting leaves.
39. Of or relating to or near the nares.
41. Any exciting and complex play intended to
confuse (dazzle) the opponent.
44. The capital and largest city of Norway.
45. The blood group whose red cells carry both
the A and B antigens.
46. A bitter tasting amino acid found in proteins
and necessary for nutrition.
49. A zodiacal constellation in northern hemisphere between Cancer and Virgo.
50. Genus of tall smooth herbs of forested mountains of Europe and Asia minor.
53. The middle of the gestation period.
55. A silvery ductile metallic element found primarily in bauxite.
56. Chiefly tropical or xerophytic woody plants.
59. Cubes of meat marinated and cooked on a
skewer usually with vegetables.
61. A loose sleeveless outer garment made from
aba cloth.
62. Greek mythology.
66. (Roman mythology) God of love.
67. A wound resulting from biting.
70. Type genus of the Ranidae.
71. Any warm-blooded vertebrate having the
skin more or less covered with hair.
74. Tropical American tree grown in southern
United States having a whitish pink-tinged fruit.
76. A port in southern Lebanon on the
Mediterranean Sea.
77. Top part of an apron.
78. A nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (trade
name Clinoril).
80. A knockout declared by the referee who
judges one boxer unable to continue.
81. A flat wing-shaped process or winglike part of
an organism.
82. Leave one's country of residence for a new
one.
83. Belonging to or on behalf of a specified person (especially yourself).
DOWN
1. Of or relating to or characteristic of the
Republic of Chad or its people or language.
2. A metabolic acid found in yeast and liver cells.
3. Move out of a curled position.
4. Ratio of the hypotenuse to the opposite side.
5. A dog small and tame enough to be held in
the lap.
6. A self-funded retirement plan that allows you
to contribute a limited yearly sum toward your
retirement.
7. Standard time in the 7th time zone west of
Greenwich, reckoned at the 105th meridian west.
8. An Asian river between China and Russia.
9. Natural qualities or talents.
10. Line of descent traced through the maternal
side of the family.
11. A protagonist who lacks the characteristics
that would make him a hero (or her a heroine).
12. Of great mass.
13. (prefix) In front of or before in space.
14. A sudden short attack.
22. German mystic and theosophist who founded modern theosophy.
24. A city in northern India.
26. Any plant of the genus Caragana having
even-pinnate leaves and mostly yellow flowers
followed by seeds in a linear pod.
29. Jordan's port.
32. 100 halers equal 1 koruna.
33. A state of partial or total darkness.
36. Any of numerous local fertility and nature
deities worshipped by ancient Semitic peoples.
38. A type of submachine gun that is designed
and manufactured in Israel.
40. A small island.
42. (of persons) Neat and smart in appearance.
43. Capital and largest city and economic center
of Peru.
48. Any place of complete bliss and delight and
peace.
51. Alternatively, a member of the family
Nymphaeaceae.
52. Fear resulting from the awareness of danger.
54. A male monarch or emperor (especially of
Russia prior to 1917).
57. A gradual decline (in size or strength or power or number).
58. A person whose occupation is making and
altering garments.
60. (computer science) A system of world-wide
electronic communication in which a computer
user can compose a message at one terminal
that is generated at the recipient's terminal when
he logs in.
63. Shaped and dried dough made from flour
and water and sometimes egg.
64. (Babylonian) Any of a group of powerful earth
spirits or genii.
65. American professional baseball player who
hit more home runs than Babe Ruth (born in
1934).
68. A village in eastern Ireland (northwest of
Dublin).
69. Expel, as of gases and odors.
72. (informal) Of the highest quality.
73. An advanced law degree.
75. Fermented alcoholic beverage similar to but
heavier than beer.
79. Being one more than one.
You take much pride in preparing yourself to meet or make presentations to
groups of people in extraordinary ways. You want to encourage others to seek information
and you want to help be informative. You have a large following and should do well in holding people’s interest at this time. You might want to swing for a new jacket or suit this
evening. Something new can do much to boost the confidence level. Obtaining and
exchanging information takes on more importance for you now. Being more involved with
neighbors or siblings satisfies a deep emotional need. Communicating feelings becomes
important. Mental endeavors are favored this afternoon, as is communication with friends
and loved ones. Relax with your feet up.
Cancer (June 21-July 22)
This is a good day to be with others, particularly in a work environment. Some may
even find you especially witty and eccentric just now. Although you have enough responsibilities,
you may want to step up and help a newcomer later this afternoon. Your directional abilities are in
high focus. You are also prone to be deluded by another person, so watch out! Many positive
insights happen as you not only work in a team this afternoon but as you observe. It’s also a good
time to think seriously about your career or work up until now and take stock of it. You are apt to
spend a great deal of time communicating with co-workers and people apart from work. Parental
instincts may become quite strong now as you make every effort to help a young person tonight.
Leo (July 23-August 22)
Today is a most favorable time for working in groups, particularly in soliciting the
aid of friends in a pet project. It is important during this time to effectively communicate your
ideas to co-workers and those who work under you. You are invigorated to work or play at an
accelerated pace. Physical activity, especially sports, is a good way to channel your energy later
this afternoon. Spiritual interests are high and if you make the effort and act selflessly, you can
be of tremendous emotional help to a friend or family member today. You may desire to take
part in different and perhaps unusual activities this evening. You may also have a chance to
meet someone new at this time-you should take it slow and steady with this new person.
Virgo (August 23-September 22)
Your mind is full of creative ideas and one of them may actually come to
fruition in a way that makes some positive changes now and far into your future. Take an honest and moral approach to a philosophical question this afternoon. You have fun helping coworker friends this afternoon. In your dealings with co-workers, be forthright. You are apt to
experience a sudden and unexpected change of scenery in the workplace. This may entail getting a new boss, new co-workers, or embarking on a totally different project or taking interest
in a new field. There are many opportunities for you to succeed. Sympathy and understanding
for loved ones is heightened at this time. Don’t be surprised if everyone in the family comes to
you for help!
WORD SEARCH PUZZLE
Libra (September 23-October 22)
Business dealings may be particularly fruitful. You have much contemplative
thinking about your work. There should also be a great deal of communication, which could
prove very helpful in getting your ideas across to others. Today you will be able to tackle tasks
that require real discipline or organization. You find yourself in a very practical mood and working with, instead of against, yourself. You may have some serious or contemplative moments.
A conference with others is very important at this time. Your mind could be quite clear and natural just now. Ideas are flowing and come with ease. There are subtle changes to your relationship with loved ones this evening. It would be a good idea to strengthen ties before they are
weakened.
Scorpio (October 23-November 21)
You almost feel that you can do no wrong these days. Whatever your goals are,
you will find yourself feeling that you have finally reached the right path. Up until now, you have
not really been working to get to those goals of yours accomplished, but now the way ahead
seems clear. You may find yourself intuitive, particularly regarding a scholarship or a new job, a
move, a new friend etc. Until the middle of february, you will find life’s puzzles have a way of
becoming crystal clear. Do not try to prove yourself when it comes to a discussion at home this
evening-the right answer in your home condition will make itself known soon. Find the optimistic in every situation. You may find yourself in a contest over musical instruments or cooking
recipes.
Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)
It may be time for an employee review. In case you were wondering, you have
nothing about which to worry. As long as you enjoy what you do, you will continuously find ways to improve and move up the corporate ladder. You have a good attitude.
Your goals and objectives are very clear and you proceed, not only with self-confidence, but
with a clear understanding of the material resources and detailed hard work necessary to
achieve them. If others are involved in your goals, you could accept a leadership role; otherwise,
you may prefer to work alone. With your concern about the future of business, it would be a
wise idea to step away from time to time and give your concerns a break. Clear your mind this
evening and enjoy your loved ones.
Capricorn (December 22-January 19)
Achievement, ambition and authority grab your attention this morning. You display an urge to be recognized for your hard work. There is a possibility that during this time your
work as a whole will come under examination. This afternoon there is a desire for outdoor, physical activity with ample opportunity to partake in it. You have expanded your technique and it is
good. However, be wise in risk taking at this time. Futuristic ideas and social reform have a way
of changing your life. Friends or groups you associate with have an element of mystery about
them-perhaps an aura of the mystical or psychic. You become involved with causes you believe
in this week. Better water, better emergency response crews, car safety, etc.
Aquarius (January 20- February 18)
Considering this is the time of the year when you concentrate on your job
goals, it is also a time you might concentrate on your physical health and physical presentation. You take inventory easily for others but at this time of the year you could also take
inventory for yourself. Going through your clothes and personal items, you may decide a
change is important. Reviving old pictures, rotating a collection display, creating a little different atmosphere in your surroundings will create a feeling of fresh beginnings as well as
remembering old friends and fun family times; old times made new again. A few new
items thrown into the overall view makes for smiles. A physical checkup is also a good
thing. Smile; there is a camera.
Pisces (February 19-March 20)
Others value you for your ability to make practical decisions concerning
group issues. You have a natural sense of what the public wants at this time. Clear decisions are easily made now. You could be in the public eye, especially with superiors or in
relation to your work. You may find that you enjoy your job or the responsibility it entails
more than usual. You have tremendous mental energy. Take care to avoid being temperamental. If you channel this energy well, you can be very influential. This is a good time to
throw yourself into your work, though you should check the desire to complain about others who do not work as hard. Your imagination soars! Insights into all sorts of shortcuts and
inventions are easy!
Yesterday’s Solution
Yesterday’s Solution
Daily SuDoku
Yesterday’s Solution
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
i n f o r m at i o n
For labor-related inquiries
and complaints:
Call MSAL hotline 128
INTERNATIONAL
CALLS
GOVERNORATE
Sabah Hospital
Ahmadi
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
PHARMACY
Jahra
Capital
Al-Razi Hospital
Physiotherapy Hospital
Farwaniya
Hawally
24846000
24874330/9
Kaizen center
25716707
Rawda
22517733
ADDRESS
PHONE
Afghanistan
0093
Luxembourg
00352
Albania
00355
Macau
00853
Algeria
00213
Macedonia
00389
Andorra
00376
Madagascar
00261
Angola
00244
Majorca
0034
Sama Safwan
Abu Halaifa
Danat Al-Sultan
Fahaeel Makka St
Abu Halaifa-Coastal Rd
Mahboula Block 1, Coastal Rd
23915883
23715414
23726558
Anguilla
001264
Malawi
00265
Modern Jahra
Madina Munawara
Jahra-Block 3 Lot 1
Jahra-Block 92
24575518
24566622
Antiga
001268
Malaysia
0060
Argentina
0054
Maldives
00960
Armenia
00374
Mali
00223
Australia
0061
Malta
00356
Austria
0043
Marshall Islands
00692
Bahamas
001242
Martinique
00596
Bahrain
00973
Mauritania
00222
Bangladesh
00880
Mauritius
00230
Barbados
001246
Mayotte
00269
Belarus
00375
Mexico
0052
Belgium
0032
Micronesia
00691
Belize
00501
Moldova
00373
Benin
00229
Monaco
00377
Bermuda
001441
Mongolia
00976
Bhutan
00975
Montserrat
001664
Bolivia
00591
Morocco
00212
Bosnia
00387
Mozambique
00258
Ahlam
Khaldiya Coop
Fahad Al-Salem St
Khaldiya Coop
22436184
24833967
New Shifa
Ferdous Coop
Modern Safwan
Farwaniya Block 40
Ferdous Coop
Old Kheitan Block 11
24734000
24881201
24726638
Tariq
Hana
Ikhlas
Hawally & Rawdha
Ghadeer
Kindy
Ibn Al-Nafis
Mishrif Coop
Salwa Coop
Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St
Salmiya-Amman St
Hawally-Beirut St
Hawally & Rawdha Coop
Jabriya-Block 1A
Jabriya-Block 3B
Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St
Mishrif Coop
Salwa Coop
25726265
25647075
22625999
22564549
25340559
25326554
25721264
25380581
25628241
Adaliya
22517144
Botswana
00267
Myanmar (Burma)
0095
Khaldiya
24848075
Brazil
0055
Namibia
00264
Brunei
00673
Nepal
00977
Kaifan
24849807
Bulgaria
00359
Netherlands
0031
Shamiya
24848913
Burkina
00226
Netherlands Antilles 00599
Shuwaikh
24814507
Burundi
00257
New Caledonia
Cambodia
00855
New Zealand
0064
Abdullah Salem
22549134
Cameroon
00237
Nicaragua
00505
Nuzha
22526804
Canada
001
Nigar
00227
Cape Verde
00238
Nigeria
00234
Industrial Shuwaikh
24814764
Cayman Islands
001345
Niue
00683
Central African
00236
Norfolk Island
00672
Chad
00235
N. Ireland (UK)
0044
00687
Qadsiya
22515088
Dasmah
22532265
Chile
0056
North Korea
00850
Bneid Al-Gar
22531908
China
0086
Norway
0047
Colombia
0057
Oman
00968
Shaab
22518752
Comoros
00269
Pakistan
0092
22459381
Congo
00242
Palau
00680
Cook Islands
00682
Panama
00507
00506
Papua New Guinea 00675
Qibla
Ayoun Al-Qibla
22451082
Costa Rica
Mirqab
22456536
Croatia
00385
Paraguay
00595
Cuba
0053
Peru
0051
Cyprus
00357
Philippines
0063
Cyprus (Northern)
0090392
Poland
0048
Czech Republic
00420
Portugal
00351
Denmark
0045
Puerto Rico
001787
Diego Garcia
00246
Qatar
00974
Djibouti
00253
Romania
0040
Dominica
001767
Russian Federation 007
Sharq
22465401
Salmiya
25746401
Jabriya
25316254
Maidan Hawally
25623444
Bayan
25388462
Mishref
25381200
Dominican Republic 001809
Rwanda
00250
22630786
Ecuador
00593
Saint Helena
00290
Egypt
0020
Saint Kitts
001869
W Hawally
Sabah
24810221
El Salvador
00503
Saint Lucia
001758
Jahra
24770319
England (UK)
0044
Saint Pierre
00508
Equatorial Guinea
00240
Saint Vincent
001784
Eritrea
00291
Samoa US
00684
Estonia
00372
Samoa West
00685
Ethiopia
00251
San Marino
00378
Falkland Islands
00500
Sao Tone
00239
Faroe Islands
00298
Saudi Arabia
00966
Fiji
00679
Scotland (UK)
0044
Finland
00358
Senegal
00221
France
0033
Seychelles
00284
French Guiana
00594
Sierra Leone
00232
New Jahra
24575755
West Jahra
24772608
South Jahra
24775066
North Jahra
24775992
North Jleeb
24311795
Ardhiya
24884079
Firdous
24892674
French Polynesia
00689
Singapore
0065
Omariya
24719048
Gabon
00241
Slovakia
00421
N Khaitan
24710044
Gambia
00220
Slovenia
00386
Georgia
00995
Solomon Islands
00677
Germany
0049
Somalia
00252
Ghana
00233
South Africa
0027
Gibraltar
00350
South Korea
0082
Greece
0030
Spain
0034
Greenland
00299
Sri Lanka
0094
Grenada
001473
Sudan
00249
Guadeloupe
00590
Suriname
00597
Guam
001671
Swaziland
00268
Guatemala
00502
Sweden
0046
Guinea
00224
Switzerland
0041
Guyana
00592
Syria
00963
Haiti
00509
Fintas
23900322
PRIVATE CLINICS
Ophthalmologists
Dr. Abidallah Al-Mansoor
25622444
Dr. Samy Al-Rabeea
25752222
Dr. Masoma Habeeb
25321171
Dr. Mubarak Al-Ajmy
25739999
Dr. Mohsen Abel
25757700
Dr Adnan Hasan Alwayl
25732223
Dr. Abdallah Al-Baghly
25732223
Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT)
Dr. Ahmed Fouad Mouner
24555050 Ext 510
Dr. Abdallah Al-Ali
25644660
Dr. Abd Al-Hameed Al-Taweel 25646478
Dr. Sanad Al-Fathalah
25311996
Dr. Mohammad Al-Daaory
25731988
Dr. Ismail Al-Fodary
22620166
Dr. Mahmoud Al-Booz
25651426
General Practitioners
Dr. Mohamme Y Majidi
24555050 Ext 123
Dr. Yousef Al-Omar
24719312
Dr. Tarek Al-Mikhazeem
23926920
Dr. Kathem Maarafi
25730465
Dr. Abdallah Ahmad Eyadah 25655528
Dr. Nabeel Al-Ayoobi
24577781
Dr. Dina Abidallah Al-Refae 25333501
Urologists
Dr. Ali Naser Al-Serfy
22641534
Dr. Fawzi Taher Abul
22639955
Dr. Khaleel Abidallah Al-Awadi 22616660
Dr. Adel Al-Hunayan FRCS (C) 25313120
Dr. Leons Joseph
66703427
Psychologists
/Psychotherapists
Paediatricians
Plastic Surgeons
Dr. Mohammad Al-Khalaf
22547272
Dr. Khaled Hamadi
Dr. Abdal-Redha Lari
22617700
Dr. Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rashed
Dr. Abdel Quttainah
25625030/60
Family Doctor
Dr Divya Damodar
23729596/23729581
Psychiatrists
Dr. Esam Al-Ansari
22635047
Dr Eisa M. Al-Balhan
DrAdrian arbe
23729596/23729581
Dr. Verginia s.Marin
2572-6666 ext 8321
25340300
Dr. Zahra Qabazard
25710444
Dr. Sohail Qamar
22621099
Dr. Snaa Maaroof
25713514
Dr. Pradip Gujare
23713100
Dr. Zacharias Mathew
24334282
Dermatology
22613623/0
Gynaecologists & Obstetricians
Endocrinologist
25665898
Dr. Mohammed Salam
Bern University
23845955
Dentists
Dr Anil Thomas
Dr. Majeda Khalefa Aliytami
25343406
Dr. Shamah Al-Matar
22641071/2
Dr. Ahmad Al-Khooly
25739272
Dr. Anesah Al-Rasheed
22562226
Dr. Salem soso
22618787
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
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
Dr. Nadem Al-Ghabra
25728004
25355515
Dr. Mobarak Aldoub
24726446
Dr Nasser Behbehani
25654300/3
Soor Center
Tel: 2290-1677
Fax: 2290 1688
[email protected]
www.soorcenter.com
Dr. Kamal Al-Shomr 25329924
Physiotherapists & VD
Dr. Deyaa Shehab
25722291
22666288
Rheumatologists:
Dr. Adel Al-Awadi
22655539
25339330
Dr. Ahmad Al-Ansari 25658888
Dr. Musaed Faraj Khamees
Dr. Fozeya Ali Al-Qatan
General Surgeons
Dr. Abd Al-Naser Al-Othman
25330060
3729596/3729581
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
Kaizen center
25716707
Noor Clinic
23845955
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
MD, PH.D, FACC
Inaya German Medical Center
Te: 2575077
Fax: 25723123
2611555-2622555
William Schuilenberg, RPC 2290-1677
Zaina Al Zabin, M.Sc. 2290-1677
Serbia
00381
Holland (Netherlands) 0031
Taiwan
00886
Honduras
00504
Tanzania
00255
Hong Kong
00852
Thailand
0066
Hungary
0036
Toga
00228
Ibiza (Spain)
0034
Tonga
00676
Iceland
00354
Tokelau
00690
India
0091
Trinidad
001868
Indian Ocean
00873
Tunisia
00216
Indonesia
0062
Turkey
0090
Iran
0098
Tuvalu
00688
Iraq
00964
Uganda
00256
Ireland
00353
Ukraine
00380
Italy
0039
United Arab Emirates 00976
Ivory Coast
00225
United Kingdom
0044
Jamaica
001876
Uruguay
00598
Japan
0081
USA
001
Jordan
00962
Uzbekistan
00998
Kazakhstan
007
Vanuatu
00678
Kenya
00254
Venezuela
00582
Kiribati
00686
Vietnam
0084
Kuwait
00965
Virgin Islands UK
001284
Kyrgyzstan
00996
Virgin Islands US
001340
Laos
00856
Wales (UK)
0044
Latvia
00371
Yemen
00967
Lebanon
00961
Yugoslavia
00381
Liberia
00231
Zambia
00260
Libya
00218
Zimbabwe
00263
Lithuania
00370
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
lifestyle
M U S I C
&
M O V I E S
Ronson to mentor emerging
acts through Grammy program
Mark Ronson poses for a photo at Jeff Bhasker Studio, in Venice, Calif. —AP
M
ark Ronson is lending his “Uptown
Funk” to budding musicians. The
Recording Academy and Hyundai
announced yesterday that Ronson will
serve as ambassador for the 2015 Grammy
Amplifier, the organization’s program for
mentoring artists. This year’s curators
include Ziggy Marley, the Band Perry and
singer-songwriter Allen Stone. Artists can
enter submissions starting Tuesday; the
program will mentor 25 finalists.
The top three will each win a recording
session with a Grammy-winning producer,
film a music video and earn a performance
spot at a music festival or as an opening
act for a top artist. The program is in its
third year. Past celebrity participants
include David Guetta, Ariana Grande,
Kendrick Lamar, Hunter Hayes and Robert
Glasper.—AP
In this April 26, 2003 file photo, the US band Dropkick Murphys pose in Bourges as part of the 27th edition of the Printemps de Bourges music
festival. — AFP
Dropkick Murphys angry as
Republican governor uses song
T
he Dropkick Murphys, the Boston rockers
known for their left-wing politics, have
voiced outrage after union-busting
Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin played their
music at a conservative forum. “Please stop using
our music in any way. We literally hate you!!! Love,
Dropkick Murphys,” the band tweeted over the
weekend. Walker, who became a national name
for stripping most public-union workers of their
collective bargaining power, took the stage to the
Dropkick Murphys’ music Saturday at the Iowa
Freedom Summit, a conservative gathering seen
as a venue for White House aspirants to test the
waters.
While it is not new for US musicians to oppose
politicians’ use of their songs, the Republican governor could scarcely have found a less sympathetic band. The Dropkick Murphys, who mix punk
elements with Irish-inspired melodies, in 2011
released the song “Take ‘Em Down” in support of
Wisconsin workers fighting against Walker’s antiunion agenda. The track played in Iowa for Walker,
“I’m Shipping Up to Boston,” was the Dropkick
Murphys’ cover of a song by Woody Guthrie, the
folk singer famous for his left-wing protest music.
With musicians often leaning left, Republican
candidates have faced particular difficulty finding
suitable music on the campaign trail. In the last
presidential race, the Somali-born rapper K’naan
protested when his music was used by
Republican candidate Mitt Romney, whose
playlist later featured musicians with conservative
views such as Meat Loaf. — AFP
Dieter Kosslick director of the International Film Festival Berlin, the Berlinale,
holds a copy of a 65 years old Golden Bear award certificate as he poses for the
media prior to the annual program press conference yesterday. — AP
Audrey Tautou, Matthew Weiner
among Berlin film fest jury
“A
melie” actress Audrey Tautou
and “Mad Men” creator
Matthew Weiner will be among
the seven jury members for this year’s
Berlin Film Festival. Festival boss Dieter
Kosslick said yesterday that “Rush” actor
Daniel Bruhl, “The Host” director Bong
Joon-ho, “Hannibal” producer Martha De
Laurentiis and Claudia Llosa, the director
of “The Milk of Sorrow,” will also be among
those deciding who gets the Berlinale’s
Golden Bear and Silver Bears awards.
The jury will be led by director Darren
Aronofsky, who was previously
announced. The Berlin event, which runs
Feb 5-15, is the first of the year’s major
European film festivals.
Terrence Malick’s new film “Knight of
Cups,” starring Christian Bale, Cate
Blanchett and Natalie Portman, will have
its world premiere in the event’s competition. An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that the total number of
jury members was eight. — AP
Actor and producer
Adrian Grenier
snowboards in
Neffland terrain
park at Park City
Mountain Resort
during the 2015
Sundance Film
Festival on
Monday. — AP
Adrian Grenier enjoys anonymity
on empty slopes at Sundance
S
Actors Ryan Reynolds, left, and Ben Mendelsohn pose at the premiere of “Mississippi
Grind” during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival on Saturday in Park City, Utah. — AP
Why Reynolds says he’s a
dangerous poker player
R
yan Reynolds and Ben Mendelsohn ventured deep into the heart of America to
film the gambling drama “Mississippi
Grind,” a gritty, 70s-style road trip movie about
two near-strangers travelling from Dubuque,
Iowa to New Orleans. The production spanned
the heartland as they drove all over
Mississippi, Missouri, Louisiana and Alabama,
going to little towns and little casinos and off
the beaten path racing tracks, often filming
the “road trip” scenes while they were also
actually travelling elsewhere.
“I got to go to place that I’d never see otherwise,” said Reynolds on Sunday. “I love the
South. I go all over the South all the time. My
wife (Blake Lively) and I are addicted to New
Orleans. But we’ve never been to those steamboat casinos or anything like that.” To prepare
for their roles as expert gamblers, the two
went out on the town with a “poker czar” a
few times before they were “thrown to the
wolves with genuine, 14-hour a day sitting at
a table grinding killers,” said Mendelsohn.
“They see us coming and they slide over to
that table,” added Reynolds. It was Reynolds,
though, that had the advantage at the tables,
mostly because he just isn’t that good at poker. “I would say that I am mediocre at best. I
noticed that they were more afraid of me. The
idiot who shows up at the table and doesn’t
know what he’s doing is the most dangerous,”
he said. Reynolds admits that he did have to
get past some initial assumptions about the
real life players he was interacting with.
“You get there and you cast all these aspersions, like ‘Oh man, these guys are the dregs.
What is this going to be like?’ And then you
fall in love with each and every one of them.
You really do. They have stories to tell and
they have lives that they’ve led. They may sit
at poker tables for 14 hours a day...,” he said.
Many of the casinos, however, would only
allow the production to shoot during off
hours. “They like having all the guys that lose
the money come in there at the prime hours.
So we would shoot from about 2 am to 1 pm
which is a terrible time to be awake,” said
Reynolds. The production was so small that
most of the time people didn’t notice that
Reynolds and Mendelsohn were sitting two
tables down from them - except when the
actors were in the way of a machine a particular customer wanted to play on. For
Mendelsohn, an Australian actor, the film,
which premiered at Sundance, was once in a
lifetime experience. —AP
tars are consistently swarmed by fans at the
Sundance Film Festival, but there’s one place
they can find anonymity: On the slopes.
Wearing a helmet and goggles, “Entourage” star
Adrian Grenier was just another snowboarder out
having fun. “I learned to board when I first came
here for the festival,” he said, strapping his boots
into the bindings. “And I’ve been back every year for
the past 10 years.”
The actor-producer came to the festival to support his latest non-”Entourage” project, a documentary called “The Lonely Whale.” He’s meeting with
potential investors and announced plans to launch
a Kickstarter campaign next month to finance the
film, which follows a solitary whale off the coast of
California who has been singing for years without a
response. “We’re looking to get as many friends
around ‘Lonely Whale’ so we can try to understand
the spirit of what he’s trying to communicate,”
Grenier said, “about the plight of whales, about our
own relationship to the ocean and ocean health in
general.” But the 38-year-old made sure to set aside
a day for snowboarding - a perfect, sunny Monday
with no crowds or lift lines at Park City Mountain
Resort. His first stop was the Neffland terrain park,
where he attempted various jumps and tricks.
“I have no business doing this,” he said before
catching air. Three ski resorts loom over Park City,
and while most out-of-towners are holed up in
movie theaters catching the Sundance offerings,
local residents and the savviest visitors -including
“Grenier - are out in the snow, catching some wideopen runs. “Everyone’s so caught up in the movies
and the dinners and the parties and the gifting
suites that I think the nature that surrounds the
event - the snowboarding, the skiing - is kind of an
afterthought,” said Shaun Neff, founder of Neff
active wear.
Neff sponsored his namesake terrain park as a
tribute to the mountain where he built his brand,
Aguilera to perform ahead
of NBA All-Star Game
A
riana Grande isn’t
the only big-voiced
singer performing at
the NBA All-Star Game:
Christina Aguilera has been
added to the lineup. NBA
announced yesterday that
Aguilera will per form
ahead of the 64th annual
game on Feb 15 at Madison
Square Garden in New York
City. She will sing a “New
York-themed medley” during player introductions and be joined by
dance troupe The Rockettes.
Grammy-winning Aguilera’s hits include “Genie in a Bottle,”
“Beautiful,” “Ain’t No Other Man” and “Say Something” with A Great
Big World. Next month she will return as a mentor on NBC’s “The
Voice” after a two-season break. The All-Star game will air live on
TNT. Grande will perform during the halftime show. — AP
and continues to support aspiring snowboarders
during the Sundance festival. Besides outfitting performers with snow-ready clothes and hats, he also
invites celebrities to learn to ride with his team of
professional boarders. With all the crowds and business deals happening on Main Street, the slopes are
a perfect escape.
“It’s very peaceful - to be one with nature, to get
up on the mountain and clear your head,” Neff said,
“and it’s a fairly easy sport to pick up.”The anonymity
for celebrities is an added bonus. Grenier said Park
City is the only place he snowboards, and it’s always
during Sundance. “It’s great riding with people from
around the world all gathering for the festival,” he
said. “And it’s the only time I get to see certain
friends.” After shredding the hill, Grenier swooped
into the Stella Artois Cafe on Main Street for a quick
lunch, then, minus the helmet and goggles, tried
unsuccessfully to blend into the festival crowd, camera-wielding fans trailing behind.— AP
Sean Penn to get French cinema honor
S
ean Penn is to get an honorary
French film award in a Paris ceremony next month in recognition of him being a cinema “living
legend”, the organizers said in a
statement. The 54-year-old is a
“mythical actor, a politically active
personality and an exceptional director,” said the French Academy of
Cinema. As “a standalone icon in
American cinema,” he will receive an
honorary Cesar award during the
academy’s annual prize ceremony in
the French capital on February 20 —
two days before the Oscars in the US.
Penn, who won Oscars for his performances in “Milk” and “Mystic
River”, has earned a strong leftwing
reputation for his public potshots at
then-president George W. Bush, support of gay marriage, and for starting
a foundation to help Haiti after its
2010 earthquake. He was married to
Sean Penn
Madonna in the 1980s, then to
“House of Cards” star Robin Wright
from 1996 to 2010. Since last year he
has been seeing actress Charlize
Theron, and is taking steps to adopt
her three-year-old son. — AFP
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
lifestyle
F A S H I O N
Models present creations by
Italian fashion designer
Donatella Versace during the
Haute Couture SpringSummer 2015 Versace collection show. — AP/AFP photos
From left, Kate Hudson, Italian fashion designer
Donatella Versace and Goldie Hawn pose as they arrive
for the show of the Atelier Versace Spring-Summer
2015 Haute Couture fashion collection presented in
Paris, France, Sunday. —AP/AFP photos
Kate Hudson reveals
derriere at
Versace, Portman hits Dior
A
t Paris’ high-octane couture week, what happens on
the catwalk is only half the story. Academy Award
winner Goldie Hawn and her daughter Kate Hudson
made a surprise appearance at Atelier Versace in an atypical family night out in Paris. But the real frenzy didn’t start
until the 35-year-old “Almost Famous” star turned her back
to the paparazzi.
What was revealed - a very daringly-placed Versace cutout - was a fashion coup Donatella could be proud of. Here
are the highlights and tidbits of the first day of haute couture collections, including show reports for Atelier Versace,
Dior and Schiaparelli.
Kate Hudson shows derriere
Underwear is so passÈ (ask Rihanna). Hudson’s was just
the latest name added to the list of stars to forgo underwear in the name of fashion. The Oscar-nominated actress
triggered hysteria by posing in a bright red cocktail dress
from the new Atelier Versace Spring 2015 Collection with a
cutout that demurely exposed her buttock. Knickers were
nowhere to be seen. Her mother dressed more prudently
in a black long sleeve cocktail dress with crystal zipper
details from this year’s Versace Resort. But Hawn didn’t let
her 69 years get in the way of a good time - and was later
seen hanging out with Donatella at the after party at which
singer Ellie Goulding performed.
Versace
Donatella Versace played it relatively safe this season
with a collection of gowns that explored primary colors
and asymmetrical circular cutouts. Knee-high stripper
boots and split leg column dresses added the necessary
dose of sexuality for the house famed for its unapologetic
celebration of the “glamazon.” Though the first looks lacked
the accustomed exuberance, Donatella found her footing
with a series of shimmering black disc gowns that seemed
to evoke the vintage ‘90s heyday of her late brother, Gianni,
who was murdered in 1997. Hudson’s favorite look? A
slinky white Seventies catsuit with flares pants worn by the
prowling feline uber-model Karlie Kloss.
Models present creations for Christian Dior during the 2015 Haute Couture Spring-Summer collection fashion show.
US actress Natalie Portman and her husband French dancer and choreographer Benjamin Millepied pose prior to attend Christian Dior 2015 Haute
Couture Spring-Summer collection fashion show.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
lifestyle
F A S H I O N
Models wear creations for designer Giambattista
Valli’s Spring-Summer 2015 Haute Couture fashion collection.
Model’s hair was collected in a chignon,
from which a hoop hung, holding in
place a disembodied cosmic fake blond
ponytail. Barbarella would be proud.
Valli’s flower women
It’s not just at Dior; Italian designer
Giambattista Valli excels in channeling
flowers. It’s dangerous ground to tread
on to compare designers to one another. Yet trans-pollination is ubiquitous in
Paris. So I’ll say it: There was more than
an echo of the age-old Parisian house in
the Italian designer’s Monday show in its
full skirts, large peplums with echoes of
the Fifties, diaphanous tulle and floral
embroideries.
But they were only echoes. Valli
owned the styles completely, and with a
more muted pastel palette - he stunned
with the most ambitious couture-work
seen all day.
Elizabethan ruffs pushed the silhouette in a northern direction from the
neck, or brought it down with net visors
that covered the top part of the face and
Fifties head bows. Skirts in incredible,
billowing, voluminous A-line white tulle
had guests audibly gasping. It’s coming
up to 4 years that 48-year-old designer
has
been
creating
couture.
Understandably his show is among the
calendar’s most eagerly awaited.
Dior’s back to the future
ith “Star Wars” actress Natalie
Portman in the front row, the
space-age theme - as imagined
from the climate of the 1960s space race
- was particularly prescient at Dior’s
show. White scaffolding held in place silver-mirrors that constricted guests like
in a spaceship, and designer Raf Simons
called his couture show “an alien journey
through the past’s ideas of the future to
reach the point of today.” It’s a common
theme in Dior’s show to anchor the present in its rich heritage. Here, guests saw
the cosmic sheen of vinyl thigh-high
boots mix with the psychedelic colors of
an acid green skirt coat with a retro
Peter Pan collar. Elsewhere, white sanitized flower women or photo-printed
plastic shifts mirrored the house’s famed
New Look silhouette.
The thickly embroidered paillette
body suits in stripes evoked how
observers in the Sixties imagined what
space-age fashions might be - as Russia
battled with the U.S. for dominance in
space during the Cold War. But there
was no nostalgia is this vibrant collection - it was replete with irony and fun.
One of the best details was the hair.
W
Schiap is back
Schiaparelli’s couture show went
back to the light artistry that the couturier, Elsa, was famed for - and improved
in focus, following the departure of the
more heavy-handed designer Marco
Zanini.
The two-piece menswear tuxedo that
opened the show - diaphanous yet
authoritative - set the period: the
Katherine Hepburn of the glamorous
Thirties. And the deceptively simple
burnt orange leather coat that exploded
on its back with a giant effervescent
bow, and 3-D heart appliques stabbed
with pins, set the tone. Carla Bruni, on
the front row, gasped in delight.
After two off-seasons, the subtle,
playfulness of “Schiap” - the formidable
rival of Coco Chanel who befriended
surrealist Salvador Dali, invented shocking pink and gave the world the lobster
dress - was truly back after her 60 year
sleep.
The design team built on the creative skeleton Zanini had started to
trace, but gave it true style. A sharp
black bolero cut a dashing silhouette,
and a Golden Oldie emerald green satin
dress featured embroidered hands on
the back, as if the model were slowly
being undressed. — AP
Models present creations for Chanel during the 2015 Haute Couture Spring-Summer collection fashion show.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
lifestyle
F A S H I O N
Models present
creations for
Chanel during the
2015 Haute
Couture
Spring-Summer
collection
fashion show.
Hudson reveals
derriere at
Versace, Portman
hits Dior
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
37
A couple dances tango as fireworks go off in La Boca neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina, late Saturday. The performance, coined ‘La vida es una milonga,’ or Life is a Milonga, was organized by artist Cai Guo-Qiang. —AP
Inspired by ‘Wild’ to tackle your first
long hike? Take into account your tootsies
A
big, bad pair of hiking boots and the
bloody hurt they inflicted on Cheryl
Strayed’s feet were co-stars in her book
“Wild,” as they were for Reese Witherspoon in
the popular movie adaptation that earned the
actress an Oscar nomination. Toenails were
taken by the too-small monsters, and both of
the boots with the flat red laces wound up at
the bottom of a cliff on the Pacific Crest Trail in
the opening scene, to be replaced later with a
brand-new proper-fitting pair at her next rest
stop. A newbie to thru-hiking, Strayed’s story
of her 1,100-mile trek has not only boosted
her profile but also reinforced the importance
to novices of protecting and supporting their
feet. Danner Boots in Portland, Oregon, created the “Wild” boots for Witherspoon, though
the company didn’t make the kind Strayed
actually wore. That honour goes to Raichle, later rebranded as Mammut. Danner certainly is
reaping the benefits. Its Mountain Light
Cascade style for women, the official name,
has enjoyed a sales boost, said company
spokesman Will Pennartz.
But uninitiated thru-hikers should tread
lightly when it comes to footwear; shoes
instead of boots might be a better choice. “You
have to respect your feet. Fit and break-in period are two of the most important aspects of
finding the right pair of hiking boots. We hope
newbie hikers not only take inspiration from
Cheryl’s story, but also learn from her initial
mistakes,” Pennartz said.
for the outdoor retail supplier REI, said a common mistake among newbies is not choosing
the right footwear for the right activity: short
hike versus backpacking trip, for instance,
along with incline, season and terrain.
“Classic and traditional styles still sell well,
but the next generation of boots offer better
comfort, lighter weight and flexibility,” she said
from company headquarters in Kent,
Washington. “These new styles require less
break-in time and are trail-ready out of the
box.” Williams put up lots of advice for the feet
on his PlanYourHike.com after he completed
his nearly three-month trek.
“The classic hiking footwear has always
been hiking boots. If you have a heavier pack
and you roll your ankle and you’re not wearing
boots, you’re screwed,” he said from
Mendocino, California. “But if you’re wearing a
really light pack, a lot of people are finding
you don’t really need boots if you’re on a trail.
If you’re going off trail it’s still good to wear
boots.” Gear tests for footwear abound if you’re
in search of recommendations. A few things to
keep in mind:
shoes, running shoes or ultralight boots will
not sap energy nearly as fast as full-blown,
clunky hiking boots.
Time: Footwear rarely lasts for more than
500 miles. You could go through six or seven
pairs by the end of a thru-hike. Budget accordingly.
Swelling: This is inevitable when you hike
for 10-plus hours a day nearly every day, week
after week, Williams said. The growth can be
Weight: What you have on your feet makes
a huge difference when you’re hiking 20 to 30
miles a day, Williams said. Lightweight trail
This image released by Fox Searchlight
Pictures shows Reese Witherspoon in a
scene from the film, “Wild.”
Different size or type
These days, footwear options for long-distance hikers abound. When choosing, consider
that your feet are not those of Strayed,
Witherspoon or your best friend who raved
about a certain brand or style. “It was painful
This image released by Fox Searchlight Pictures shows Reese Witherspoon, right, in a scene
from the film, “Wild.” — AP photos
Adjusting sizes: Wiser than buying all vent blisters. Cotton takes forever to dry and
footwear at once is leaving support people more technical smart wool socks are pricey.
with money and telling them the exact kind
Shoes versus boots: Shoes are better than
you like. When it’s time for replacements you
can tell them what size to include in your next boots when your base pack weight is less than
25 pounds, you’re hiking a maintained trail
resupply box.
and you don’t require mega-ankle support,
Socks: They fall apart fast, Williams said. Williams said.
Every single resupply box should have at least
Gaiters: These coverings that attach to
one pair of new socks. Two or three pairs in
footwear come in waterproof, lightweight vereach box would be great.
Most hikers carry three or four pairs of rea- sions. Williams is a huge proponent of gaiters
sonably fast-drying socks. Change socks at as a way to keep feet dry and debris out of
least once a day to let feet dry and help pre- your shoes. — AP
The XR Mission W running shoe displayed
at the Salomon booth.
A pair of women’s Mountain Light Cascade
boots, featured prominently in the movie
“Wild,” at the Outdoor Retailer Show.
to watch those scenes with her feet,” said
Austin Williams, who hiked 1,600 miles of the
PCT in 2008 wearing an ultralight pack and
running shoes.
Key to choosing the right footwear,
Williams and others advise, is to try on as
many different kinds as possible and to be
open to changing them up for a different size
or type as you go along. Denise Friend, a
footwear expert and merchandising manager
This image released by Fox Searchlight
Pictures shows Reese Witherspoon in a
scene from the film, “Wild.”
Durand Polar boot displayed at the Keen
booth.
from a half size to one-and-a-half sizes, especially in desert areas. If you plan to buy all your
footwear at once for resupply boxes sent to
you along the way, buy a size bigger than your
foot no matter what the salesperson tells you,
he said.
Photo shows a variety of running shoes displayed at the Salomon booth.