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QATAR | Official
Emir receives phone
call from UN chief
HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin
Hamad al-Thani yesterday received
a phone call from the UN SecretaryGeneral, Ban Ki-moon, during which
he thanked HH the Emir on the
constructive role played by the State
of Qatar to resolve the crisis in Libya
by seeking to bridge the gap in views
between the conflicting parties and
urging them to reach a peaceful
solution to achieve security, stability
and unity of the Libyan people and
territory. He also thanked HH the Emir
for Qatar’s support to the efforts of
the UN Special Envoy to Libya. During
the conversation, the Emir and the UN
chief exchanged views on the latest
developments in the region.
QATAR | Health
J
Maintenance work
at Hamad hospital
Essential maintenance works will
be carried out at some areas of the
Hamad General Hospital today and
tomorrow by engineering teams.
This, the officials stated, will help
the hospital continue to provide
the safest, most effective and
most compassionate care to the
patients. “All measures have been
taken to ensure minimal disruption
to our patients,” Hamad Medical
Corporation assured in a statement.
QATAR | Food
Rumours of unsafe
cheese false: SCH
The Supreme Council of Health has
clarified that rumours about the
presence of a carcinogenic material
in one type of cheese available in the
local market are false. A statement
issued by the SCH said samples
collected by its inspectors have
turned out to be safe after tests in the
government laboratories. The SCH
strives to ensure the safety of food
items sold in Qatar, the release added.
REGION | Politics
Saudi’s King Salman
reshuffles cabinet
Saudi Arabia’s new King Salman
ordered a cabinet reshuffle yesterday
but kept in place veteran Oil Minister
Ali al-Naimi, Finance Minister Ibrahim
Alassaf and Foreign Minister Prince
Saud al-Faisal. He appointed new
ministers of justice, Islamic affairs,
agriculture and information and a
new head of the intelligence services,
and replaced two of the late King
Abdullah’s sons who had held roles
as governors of top provinces. He
also merged the Education Ministry
and Higher Education Ministry and
abolished the Supreme Council for
Petroleum and Minerals Affairs,
replacing it with a new body.
Warning over
‘staggering rise’
in diabetes rate
Qatar could be one of the most
diabetes-affected countries by
2035
T
he diabetes prevalence rates in
the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region will increase
by a staggering 96.2% in the next two
decades, the International Diabetes
Federation (IDF) has cautioned.
Qatar along with UAE and Oman
will be the countries with the highest growth in diabetes prevalence between 2013 and 2035, according to a
new report from the IDF.
The ﬁndings of the report will be
presented in full at the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH),
a global initiative of Qatar Foundation (QF), to be attended by more
than 1,000 health policymakers and
specialists from around the world, in
Doha, on February 17-18.
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait already
feature on the IDF’s top 10 list of
countries with the largest comparative
prevalence rates from 2014.
The IDF report looking at the prevalence of type 2 diabetes, warns that
cases in people aged 20-39, currently
at nearly 63mn
globally, are set
to rise by 19%
to nearly 75mn
if urgent measures are not
taken to counter the disease.
This equates to
around 12mn
new cases in
Prof Stephen Colagiuri those aged 2039 by 2035.
The report warns that the health
consequences of diabetes, which include heart disease, stroke, diabetic
retinopathy, kidney disease and lower
limb amputations, are more severe
than generally recognised, and calls on
policymakers around the world to act
to prevent rising rates.
It is estimated that up to 80% of
cases of type 2 diabetes could be prevented through diet modiﬁcations, increasing physical activity and improving the living environment.
Diagnoses of type 2 in children,
which used to be rare, is increasing. In
some countries, type 2 diabetes now
accounts for almost half of new cases
in children and adolescents.
Type 2 diabetes rates are also increasing throughout the world’s adult population and experts warn that it is set to affect nearly 600 million people by 2035, at
a projected cost of $627bn globally.
WISH Diabetes Forum chair Prof
Stephen Colagiuri, professor of Metabolic Health at the University of Sydney, Australia, said: “Type 2 diabetes
is fast becoming a worldwide epidemic and it is extremely worrying that
we are starting to see it increasing in
younger generations. Our report will
aim to equip policymakers with the
information they need to assess the
health and cost impacts of the disease,
learn from interventions that work
and ultimately put in place measures
to help stem the tide of diabetes.”
Prof The Lord Darzi of Denham,
executive chair of WISH said: “Combating rising rates of type 2 diabetes
should be a worldwide priority. Often the impact of diabetes, alongside
other chronic conditions, is underestimated but the ﬁndings of this report
will highlight to both policymakers
and the public the true scale of the
problem we are facing.”
Vol. XXXV No. 9618
January 30, 2015
Rabia II 10, 1436 AH
www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals
Jordan demands
proof pilot alive
as deadline set
by IS passes
AFP
Amman
HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani honours one of the outstanding graduates of the 10th batch of officer cadets
at the graduation ceremony of the Ahmed bin Mohamed Military College in Doha yesterday. The ceremony was attended by
HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani, a number of ministers as well as
ranking armed forces and interior ministry officers, in addition to a number of heads of military colleges of other brotherly and
friendly countries. Meanwhile, HE the Minister of State for Defence Affairs Major General Hamad bin Ali al-Attiyah affirmed that
the college had become one of the best specialised scientific facilities in the world at the levels of curriculum, infrastructure,
equipment and capacities. Page 2
in
In brief
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Military college cadets graduate
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GULF TIMES
FRIDAY
ordan demanded proof yesterday
that a pilot threatened with execution by the Islamic State group was
alive, as a deadline set by the militants
to free a female militant expired.
IS had vowed to kill airman Maaz
al-Kassasbeh unless Iraqi militant Sajida al-Rishawi was handed over at the
Turkish border in return for captured
Japanese journalist Kenji Goto.
The extremist group had set a deadline of sunset yesterday for the exchange, but there was no news of the
hostages after night fell over parts of
Iraq and Syria where IS is based.
Jordan said it was still waiting for evidence that the airman is alive and well.
“At this point we want to emphasise
that we have asked for proof of life from
Daesh (IS) and we have not received
anything yet,” Jordanian government
spokesman Mohamed al-Momani said.
“Rishawi is still in Jordan and the exchange will happen once we receive the
proof of life that we asked for,” he told
reporters.
He made no mention of Goto, whose
wife Rinko broke her silence with an
emotional appeal to Tokyo and Amman
to save her husband.
“My husband is a good and honest man who went to Syria to show the
plight of those who suffer,” she said.
“I beg the Jordanian and Japanese
governments to understand that the
fates of both men are in their hands.”
Jordan has said its priority is to see
the airman return home safely.
It has offered to free Rishawi, who
was convicted for her part in triplehotel bombings in the Jordanian capital
in 2005 that killed 60 people, if IS releases the pilot.
While IS threatened Kassasbeh’s life,
it was not clear from its latest message
if the jihadist group was ready to free
him as part of an exchange.
At the Turkish border post of Akcakale, which faces the IS-held Syrian
town of Tel Abyad, dozens of journalists including some Japanese reporters
were waiting for a possible swap.
A Japanese woman working for Tokyo-based Fuji Television was killed
in a car accident near the frontier, her
employer said.
Kassasbeh was captured on December 24 after his F-16 jet crashed while
on a mission against the jihadists over
northern Syria.
“Until now we have not received
any indication that (Kassasbeh) is still
alive,” the pilot’s father Saﬁ Kassasbeh told AFP as the Thursday deadline
passed.
“The government has not told us anything about negotiations and I do not
think they are taking the situation seriously. There is nothing we can do. We
can only wait for the mercy of God and
then Daesh (IS),” he said.
Jordan is under heavy pressure at
home and from Japan - a major aid donor - to save Kassasbeh as well as Goto.
Saﬁ Kassasbeh has begged the government to save his son “at any price”.
Syria opposition ‘embassy’
renewing passports in Qatar
AFP
Doha
S
yria’s opposition “embassy” in
Qatar began yesterday to renew
expired passports for some of the
estimated 60,000 Syrians living in the
Gulf country, its chief said.
Nizar Haraki, the opposition envoy,
said this would help thousands of Syrians who ﬂed the country to escape
the conﬂict, which has killed at least
200,000 people since it erupted in
2011.
It was not immediately clear whether the service would extend to Syrians
living elsewhere.
About half the country’s people have
ﬂed their homes since the war broke
out, with the UN saying 3.8mn of them
are refugees, mostly in neighbouring
countries.
Haraki told AFP the service “removes a huge burden from the shoulders of Syrian expatriate citizens who
are deprived of having a passport or
being able to renew or extend it.”
Haraki said 52 countries had been
contacted to ask if the passports would
be accepted and that all but one, Canada, had said yes.
Syrians in Qatar have two months
from yesterday to apply for new paperwork to renew their passports.
Last year it was estimated that some
40,000 Syrians had Qatari residency,
while another 20,000 were on temporary visitors’ visas.
Haraki said he did not know how
many people would apply, but dozens
of Syrians went to the office yesterday.
“There is no speciﬁc number of beneﬁciaries of the extension of the passport service, as it is provided for the
ﬁrst time,” he said.
“This project is to break the siege of
injustice and loss imposed by the regime on the Syrian people, and allows
every citizen to move freely and to provide a decent living for himself and his
family,” added Haraki.
Diabetic kids know how to cope with the disease
By Joey Aguilar
Staff Reporter
M
any children living with diabetes in Qatar who joined
previous Al Bawasil Diabetes
Camps now know how to cope with the
disease, Dr Abdulla al-Hamaq, executive director of Qatar Diabetes Association (QDA) – Qatar Foundation, has
said.
With the right information and education given to them, these children are
now conﬁdent to properly manage their
condition.
QDA executive director Dr Abdulla
al-Hamaq stresses the importance of
educating children living with diabetes
on how to cope with their condition.
PICTURE: Jayaram
“They know how to use the blood
glucose meter, they know how to
choose healthy foods to eat and they
know what physical activities to do,” he
noted.
The QDA senior official was speaking on the sidelines of a press conference yesterday about the 15th International Al Bawasil Children with
Diabetes Camp which will open on
Sunday.
QDA and its partners also taught some
children with diabetes on how to inject
insulin by themselves, according to Dr
al-Hamaq. About 90% of them, aged 0
to 18, are suffering from type 1 diabetes.
Citing some statistics from the Hamad Medical Corporation Paediatric
Endocrine and Diabetes Unit, he said
an estimated 150 of the 1,000 children
living with diabetes in Qatar are being
injected with insulin using the insulin
pump therapy.
Since no alternative medication is
available for type 1 diabetes, he stressed
that these children need to take insulin
regularly.
QDA has been organising several
activities and events in a bid to raise
awareness about the disease and its
treatment.
Last year, an agreement was signed
to provide a post graduate continued
education for doctors across the GCC.
The three-year programme aims to
further upgrade their skills in treating
diabetes.
A programme was also launched earlier to educate and upgrade the skills of
nurses through a nine-month online
course.
Dr al-Hamaq earlier announced that
a new drug, approved in the US and Europe, is expected to be available in Qatar this year.
QDA also organised the ﬁfth Beat
Diabetes Walkathon in November last
year with more than 7,000 residents in
Qatar participating in the event, which
was part of the World Diabetes Day observation.
In a Gulf Times report published
earlier, Dr al-Hamaq pointed out
that “nearly a quarter of the population might turn diabetic by 2030 unless they are educated well and follow clear healthy practices such as
healthy eating habits and physical
activities.”
He said so far, some 22,618 schoolchildren were educated on healthy
lifestyle and 1,092 healthcare professionals were provided with diabetic
education.
2
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
QATAR
HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, HE the Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani, HE the Minister of State for Defence Affairs Maj Gen Hamad bin Ali al-Attiyah, military officers and cadet officers at
the graduation ceremony.
Emir attends
graduation
of military
college cadets
QNA
Doha
H
H the Emir Sheikh
Tamim bin Hamad alThani yesterday patronised the graduation ceremony of the 10th batch of
officer cadets of Ahmed bin
Mohamed Military College.
The ceremony was attended
by HE the Prime Minister and
Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa
al-Thani, a number of ministers as well as ranking armed
forces and interior ministry officers.
The event was also attended
by heads of military colleges of
other friendly countries.
HH the Emir then honoured
outstanding graduates of the
batch.
Earlier the Emir reviewed the
graduates’ parade which included slow normal marches.
Afterwards the flag was received and handed over to the
11th batch. The order for promotion was then read out and
the graduates took the oath.
At the outset of the ceremony, Brigadier Hamad Ahmed
al-Nuaimi, the Commander of
the Ahmed bin Mohamed Military College, delivered a speech
in which he extended his sincere thanks and appreciation
to HH the Emir for honouring
and gracing the graduation ceremony of the 10th batch of the
Qatari Armed Forces and Inte-
rior ministry’s cadets.
Al-Nuaimi regarded the
presence of the Emir at the
graduation ceremony as a clear
indication of the care and attention given by the Emir to the
Qatari youth.
Brigadier al-Nuaimi pointed
out that the college, which was
established in 1996 upon the
directives of HH the Father
Emir, aimed at qualifying police and army officer cadets in
different scientific disciplines.
“Today, we celebrate the
graduation of 92 officer cadets
of various military sectors and
brotherly and friendly states.
They are from the armed forces,
the police, the Internal Security Forces (Lakhwiya), the Emiri
Guard, the State Security, and
HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, HE the Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani and
HE the Minister of State for Defence Affairs Maj Gen Hamad bin Ali al-Attiyah watch a parade by the students.
from other countries including
the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, and Comoros.”
The university graduate
course, which was held for nine
students took nearly one year,
during which they obtained the
diploma of military science, he
added.
khwiya) and the Emiri Guard
for their continued support
and effective interaction that
significantly contributed to
the implementation of the
college’s programmes and
plans.
Meanwhile, the Emir met a
number of military colleges’
heads from Gulf, Arab and
friendly countries, who attended the graduation ceremony of the military college.
During the meeting, they exchanged views on a number of
topics of mutual interest.
HE the Prime Minister attended the meeting.
HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani is briefed about the
activities of the military college.
HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani reviews a guard of honour.
CMC panel announces voters’ list
T
he supervising committee for the fifth
Central
Municipal
Council Election has announced the initial list of voters at the headquarters of each
constituency.
The initial list includes
more than 19,600 voters.
The committee has urged all
citizens to visit the electoral
headquarters to ensure their
names are entered in the voter
list.
The committee has also
started receiving applications
for addition or deletion of voters through the headquarters
of all electoral constituencies
as well as ‘Metrash2’ service.
It is providing a chance to
the citizens who could not
Brigadier al-Nuaimi thanked
HE the Minister of State for
Defence Affairs and HE the
Chief of Staff for their unlimited support for the college.
He extended also his sincere thanks and gratitude to
the Interior Ministry, the Internal Security Forces (Le-
Qatar-Kenya ties reviewed
The supervising committee holds a meeting.
register their names in voter
list to make registration during the addition and deletion
period which concludes on
February 5.
The committee announced
that the addition or deletion
phase is the second period of
registration for the voter list
according to the system of
CMC election.
Citizens who registered but
cannot find their names on the
voter list should also approach
the electoral headquarters before February 5.
There is one committee in
each of the headquarters of
all electoral constituencies to
assist the citizens in the registration process.
Minister of Economy and Commerce HE Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohamed al-Thani yesterday
met Kenya’s Minister of Manufacturing and Projects Development Adan Mohamed. They reviewed
bilateral relations and the means for strengthening them. The two sides also explored joint cooperation between the two countries, especially in the economic, commercial and investment fields.
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
3
REGION/ARAB WORLD
Kuwait arrests
activists ‘over
Saudi criticism’
AFP
Kuwait City
K
uwait authorities have detained several online activists allegedly for comments deemed offensive
to Saudi Arabia’s late King Abdullah, activists said
yesterday. Secret police arrested online activist Mohamed
al-Ajmi on Wednesday night outside his home for “unknown reasons,” the National Committee for Monitoring
Violations, an independent rights group of which Ajmi is a
member, said on its Twitter account. Online activists and
former MPs said on Twitter that Ajmi was being held for
questioning over Tweets he made on Saudi Arabia.
Nawaf al-Hendal, a leading rights activist, said at least
four others had been detained by state security for tweets
deemed offensive to Abdullah who died last Friday. Hendal,
currently in Geneva for a UN rights meeting, also said on
his Twitter account that arrest warrants have been issued
against him and ﬁve other tweeters for the same reason.
The Gulf Centre for Human Rights, an independent body,
said Hendal was being “targeted in order to intimidate him
and others from working as defenders of human rights.”
There was no word on the arrests from the interior ministry
and the public prosecutor has not announced any charges.
Human Rights Watch said in its World Report released
yesterday that the Kuwaiti government aggressively targeted free speech throughout 2014.
Kuwait used provisions in the constitution, the national
security law, and other legislation to stiﬂe political dissent, the New York-based group said.
The authorities stripped 33 Kuwaitis of their nationality, including three apparently singled out because they
represented opposition voices, it said.
Last week, Kuwait’s appeals court lengthened a twoyear term to ﬁve years in jail against activist Abdulaziz Jarallah al-Mutairi for allegedly insulting the emir on Twitter, according to the written verdict.
A lower court, meanwhile, sentenced six stateless men
to one year in jail to be followed by deportation for allegedly taking part in an unlicensed gathering and assaulting
police.
The court asked ﬁve of them to pay $700 each to suspend the jail term but refused to extend the exemption to
the sixth - leading stateless rights activist Abdulhakim alFadhli.
Both rulings can be challenged.
Kuwait has cracked down on activists for making comments seen as critical of the ruler and other Arab leaders,
especially in the Gulf.
Former liberal MP Saleh al-Mulla was detained for ﬁve
days earlier this month for tweets deemed offensive to
Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi during a visit to
Kuwait.
He is to stand trial on February 15.
And Shia MP Abdulhameed Dashti is facing trial for
criticising Bahrain leaders, while former Islamist MP Mubarak al-Duwailah was questioned over comments critical
of Abu Dhabi’s rulers.
Since a political crisis in June 2012, Kuwaiti authorities
have ramped up efforts to curtail dissent.
Courts have sentenced politicians, online activists
and journalists to prison terms for exercising free speech
rights, HRW said earlier this month.
UN plans future
talks inside Libya
Women hold a poster of Egyptian Interior Minister, Mohammad Ibrahim, with the words written in Arabic ‘killer Shaimaa al-Sabbagh’, during a protest in Cairo yesterday.
Egypt women protest
Cairo police shooting
AFP
Cairo
D
ozens of women protested yesterday
against Egypt’s police in the central
Cairo square where a female demonstrator was shot dead on the eve of the
anniversary of the 2011 uprising. Shaima alSabbagh was killed during a leftist march on
Saturday in which participants were to place
wreaths at a memorial in honour of protesters killed during the past four years.
The government and police have said they
are investigating the shooting, which happened
ahead of the January 25 anniversary of the 2011
revolt that toppled veteran leader Hosni Mu-
barak. About 50 women, some carrying ﬂowers, demonstrated yesterday near Talaat Harb
Square chanting “the interior ministry are
thugs” and “down with military rule”.
Some held up pictures of Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim bearing the words:
“Wanted, killer of Shaima al-Sabbagh”.
On the opposite side of street, police
watched on as members of a rival demonstration chanted: “Terrorists and traitors
who want to destroy the country”.
The protests ended without incident.
At least 1,400 people have been killed in
a sweeping crackdown on dissent since the
army, led by now President Abdel Fattah alSisi, overthrew the democratically elected
Islamist leader Mohamed Mursi in July 2013.
But the death of the 34-year-old mother,
which was partly ﬁlmed, has galvanised leftists and others who oppose the new government, including Islamists.
Sabbagh’s Socialist Popular Alliance, a
small leftist party, was among the groups
that opposed Mursi’s divisive year in power
before turning against his successor Sisi
over a heavy handed crackdown.
In November 2013, the authorities banned
all but police-sanctioned protests, which
was deﬁed by some secularists who were
later arrested and jailed for up to 15 years.
One police general spoke through a megaphone to the anti-government demonstrators yesterday, saying: “This is an unlicensed
protest and we fear for your safety.
“We don’t want anyone to inﬁltrate your
group and for the scenario that happened
with Shaima to be repeated,” he added.
The interior ministry says it is investigating Sabbagh’s death and will hand over any
policeman implicated.
But police are accused of acting with
impunity, and government officials have
already said Sabbagh was not killed by police-issued birdshot rounds. Her party and
fellow protesters said she was shot when police dispersed last Saturday’s march.
Investigators have said the birdshot that
killed Sabbagh was also used by police, but
an official told AFP there were orders not to
make public any other details pending the
prosecution’s investigation.
Reuters
Geneva/Tripoli
L
ibya’s warring factions who operate rival governments have agreed “in principle” to move future negotiations on ending the crisis from Geneva back to
the war-ravaged country, the UN said yesterday.
Some of the opposing factions met in Geneva earlier this
week under UN auspices, but key representatives from the
Tripoli-based government stayed away, demanding the
dialogue be held within Libya.
“There was agreement on the principle of convening
future dialogue sessions in Libya, provided that logistical
and security conditions are available,” the UN Mission for
Libya (UNSMIL) said in a statement after another round of
talks in Geneva. It gave no date or venue.
Libya, in turmoil since a Nato-backed revolt ousted
Muammar Gaddaﬁ nearly four years ago, has two rival
governments and parliaments, each backed by armed factions which Western governments fear are dragging the
oil-producing nation into full-blown civil war.
Underlining the precarious security situation, heavily
armed gunmen on Wednesday stormed a luxury hotel in
Tripoli, killing at least nine people, including foreigners,
before blowing themselves up with a grenade.
Libya’s internationally-recognised government under
Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni and its elected House
of Representatives are now based in the east of the country
after a group called Libya Dawn seized Tripoli last summer, set up its own administration and reinstated the old
parliament.
The Tripoli-based parliament, the General National
Congress (GNC), welcomed the Geneva statement and
said it would end a boycott of the negotiations declared
after Thinni’s forces seized a central bank branch in the
eastern city of Benghazi.
Thinni’s government said it was only “securing” the
bank, which controls vital oil revenues. The GNC’s second
deputy president, Saleh Mahzoum, said each side should
now nominate four delegates for a resumption of the main
political talks which began last September.
Despite the formidable obstacles in the way of forming
a national unity government in Libya, diplomats yesterday brought members of Libyan city and regional councils together in Geneva to discuss ways to end violence on
the ground. UN Special Envoy Bernadino Leon said the
participants were working together “in very good spirits”, even though many come from areas that are ﬁghting
each other. Despite their differences, they later posed for
a group photograph and spontaneously sang the Libyan
national anthem. One delegate from Tripoli told Reuters
the meeting had agreed to set up committees to build conﬁdence by working together on abducted and displaced
people, the media, airports and borders.
South Sudan rivals meet for peace talks in Ethiopia
AFP
Addis Ababa
S
outh Sudan’s president and rebel leader
met yesterday for the latest round of
peace talks mediated by East African
leaders aimed at ending their 13-month-old
civil war. President Salva Kiir and rebel leader
Riek Machar, whose rival armies continue to
clash met face-to-face, met alongside presidents from the East African regional IGAD
bloc in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
Kiir “is doing his duties trying to restore
peace”, his spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny told
AFP, dismissing reports Kiir was unable to
attend talks because he had been sick. “The
meeting... was aimed at narrowing the gap
in the negotiations in an attempt to arrive
at ﬁnding a peaceful solution,” Ateny added.
But full talks with regional leaders, initially expected Friday, were postponed until an
African Union summit opening today in Addis Ababa ends tomorrow. Machar, asked by
AFP if there had been progress as talks broke
yesterday, replied only: “Not yet.”
South Sudan Foreign Minster Barnaba
Marial Benjamin said that peace does not
come “in an hour”, and that negotiations
would continue. The rivals last met earlier
this month in Tanzania, where they signed
a sixth ceaseﬁre deal within a year, and also
promised to “make a public apology to the
people of South Sudan for what has happened” since war broke in December 2013.
Since then, ﬁghting has continued and
diplomats have been growing increasingly
impatient with the peace talks held in luxury
hotels, with delegates accused of being out
of touch with the suffering back home.
The country divided along ethnic lines
and set off a cycle of retaliatory battles and
massacres across the country that have
left tens of thousands dead and pushed the
country to the brink of famine.
All previous agreements to end more than
a year of violence - marked by massacres,
South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir arrives for the Intergovernmental Authority on Development 29th Extraordinary Summit in Addis Ababa.
gang rape and child soldier recruitment collapsed within days if not hours.
Rebel military spokesman Lul Ruai Koang
said yesterday that government troops were
advancing in eastern Jonglei state.
He also warned that the rebel force would
create “the largest mass grave” for any troops
who continued attacking. “Any attempt... at
invading our areas will meet strong resistance,” Koang said.
Analysts warned that deals struck on paper have remained far from implementation
on battleﬁelds.
“The regional organisations that seek to
mediate have been unsuccessful, in part because members have competing interests,”
the International Crisis Group (ICG) said in
a report yesterday.
The IGAD-mediated talks have “narrowly
focused on Kiir and Machar... despite the
fragmentation and proliferation of armed
groups.” More than two dozen armed forces - including ragtag militia, rebels from
neighbouring Sudan’s Darfur region, as well
as Ugandan troops backing Kiir - are involved in ﬁghting.
South Sudan, the world’s youngest nation, has been locked in civil war since December 2013 when Kiir accused his sacked
deputy Machar of attempting a coup.
4
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
ARAB WORLD
Survivors
accuse Iraq
militia of
massacre
AFP
Baghdad
T
he Iraqi government yesterday vowed
to investigate accusations backed by
eyewitness accounts that Shia militias
massacred more than 70 Sunni villagers during an operation against jihadists in Diyala
province.
Survivors and Sunni officials say the massacre took place on Monday in Barwana as
soldiers and allied militias wrapped up an
operation to expel Islamic State (IS) jihadists
from their last urban bastion in Diyala.
Some military officials have already denied
the allegations but Prime Minister Haider alAbadi announced that an inquiry has been
opened. “The prime minister has ordered an
investigation into the matter,” his spokesman
Raﬁd Jaboori told AFP, without elaborating.
Barwana is a small village located just west
of the town of Muqdadiyah. It housed several Sunni families who had ﬂed IS rule over
neighbouring villages.
Shia militiamen entered Barwana on Monday and allegedly selected young men after
checking their IDs before lining them up to
be shot.
“Cars ﬁlled with men carrying mostly light
weapons entered the village. They gathered
all the people in one place, including some
children,” said Nahda al-Daini, a lawmaker
from Diyala.
“They executed 77 of them,” she told AFP.
“It was Shia militia who carried out this massacre with cover from the security forces.”
Ali Juburi, a 27-year-old father of one,
ﬂed to Barwana from nearby Hamada village in June, when IS jihadists swept through
swathes of Iraq.
He said that when the ﬁghters entered the
village, some men were taken to one side.
“They were still checking some names
when we heard shooting and women screaming,” he told AFP by phone.
“The mukhtar (village chief) went to a
house where killings happened. He found 35
bodies in one place and there were about 40
other bodies nearby,” he said.
“He came back and told us to leave everything behind and run because they would kill
us. So we ran to an orchard, hid and walked.
I eventually reached Muqdadiyah at 1am,”
Juburi said.
Jamal Mohamed, a teacher who has been
compiling names of the victims, said he
knew of 71 people who had been executed on
Monday but added that a few more were still
missing.
“There were four boys aged nine to 12
among the victims, but no women nor girls,”
he said.
He added that to his knowledge only 12 of
the victims had been buried, while the other
bodies had been taken by government elite
forces to an unknown location.
The teacher said Monday had started well.
“When an army commander and officials
came in the morning, they were greeted with
applause. Some women distributed sweets...
We just told them we wanted to go back to our
villages,” he said.
“They left but, later, the militiamen arrived in several vehicles. They had laptops
and started listing names.”
Several other witnesses that AFP spoke to
gave slightly different death tolls but largely
matching versions of events.
Lieutenant General Abdulamir al-Zaidi,
the officer who commanded army operations
in the Moqdadiyah area, denied the allegations. “Not a bullet was shot in Barwana,” he
told AFP, adding that 70 Iraqi forces were
killed and at least twice that number of IS jihadists in the Diyala operation.
He said his men had found evidence that IS
ﬁghters had shaved their beards in their retreat in an apparent bid to escape by blending
in with local residents.
Top UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov welcomed the investigation.
“It is the responsibility of the government
to ensure that all armed forces are under its
control, that rule of law is respected and civilians are protected in all areas of the country, including those areas recently liberated
from IS,” he said.
The government last year announced a
probe into allegations that Shia militias had
gunned down 70 men at the Sunni mosque of
Musab bin Omair in August.
The mosque is also in Diyala, an ethnically
and religiously mixed province northeast of
Baghdad, where Iran-backed Shia militias
have played a key role in the ﬁght against IS.
A Palestinian stands near a burning tyre outside a UN office during a protest against the UN decision to suspend payments for Palestinians, whose
houses were damaged during a 50-day war last summer, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. The main UN aid agency in the Gaza Strip said a
lack of international funding has forced it to suspend payments to tens of thousands of Palestinians for repairs to homes damaged in last summer’s
war.
Israel cuts electricity supply
to indebted Palestinians
AFP
Jerusalem
I
srael’s state-run electricity company is to
reduce energy supplies to Palestinians in
the occupied West Bank because of a debt of
more than $450mn, an official said yesterday.
The move comes at a time of diplomatic tensions, weeks after Israel froze the Palestinian
Authority’s (PA) tax revenues in retaliation for
joining the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“Due to a mounting debt worth nearly 1.8bn
shekels ($459mn, 404mn euros), we have decided that as of today, electrical supply (to the
West Bank) will be cut” for an hour each morning and another hour at night, an Israel Electric
Corp (IEC) official said.
The measure, which would “not cause general
power cuts, will remain in place until the Palestinian Authority begins to settle its debts,” the
official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The Jerusalem District Electricity Company, a
private Palestinian ﬁrm that distributes energy
supplied by the IEC, acknowledged the PA had
failed to make payments but condemned the Israeli move as collective punishment.
“We have repeatedly warned of the consequences of the PA not paying its dues,” JDECO
director Hisham Omari said.
“But it is an unfair decision and a form of collective punishment” he said. “The IEC is the
sole provider of electricity and we depend on it.
We’re still under occupation.”
Neither official would comment on whether
the move was a political decision.
But local media reported that enforcing it
would require the approval of Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and also have to go through
Israeli security officials. Israeli news website
Ynet said the IEC had tried to carry out the move
“several times in the past” but was prevented
Syrian rivals agree to meet again
from doing so by the premier’s office.
Israel froze tax monies it transfers to the PA
early January, after the Palestinians applied to
join the ICC, through which they threaten to sue
the Jewish state over alleged war crimes in the
Palestinian territories.
Ministers have threatened additional punitive
measures, but Israel has not explicitly carried
any out.
JDECO is a private company which purchases
electricity from Israel to supply to Israeli-annexed Arab east Jerusalem and Palestinian cities
in the West Bank.
As well as supplying electricity via JDECO,
the Israeli ﬁrm provides power to the PA, which
caters to the rest of the West Bank and also supplies power to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Both the PA and JDECO have run up debts
after failing to collect the full amount they are
owed by their own customers. The IEC is also
suing JDECO for $150mn in unpaid bills.
Gaza ﬂotilla lawyers ask
ICC to reconsider probe
Agencies
Moscow
AFP
The Hague
R
epresentatives of Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad and opposition
ﬁgures agreed yesterday to hold
another round in Moscow, Russian moderator Vitaly Naumkin said, but no date
was set. The talks, a Russian initiative
to revive stalled peace efforts in Syria’s
four-year-old civil war, were shunned by
the main Syrian political opposition, and
participants came together to adopt a series of points that largely represent Russia’s own position on the violence. Moscow is a key backer of Assad.
Naumkin, an academic, said the sides
agreed to join forces over the threat of
terrorism in Syria, where Islamic State insurgents have taken over wide swathes of
territory, though Moscow has described
numerous other anti-Assad groups ﬁghting in the country as “terrorists”.
“The issue of ﬁghting terrorism was
one of the key themes discussed. This is
exactly what brings the sides together as
a key challenge to Syria’s territorial integrity and unity,” said Naumkin.
He said the talks offered the best
chance at reaching another round of
peace negotiations between the government and opposition in Geneva. The latest round of Geneva talks, the Geneva II
conference, was held early last year.
Russia, whose stance on Syria has protected Assad from Western sanctions in
the UN Security Council, pushed through
with the conference despite a lack of support from Europe or the US, where Moscow’s ties are in tatters over Ukraine.
Naumkin said the majority of participants agreed to a series of points known
as the Moscow principles which largely
adhere to the talking points Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and other
diplomats have tirelessly adhered to during the conﬂict.
They include maintaining the sovereignty and unity of Syria, the rejection of
foreign interference, combating terrorism and settling the country’s civil war
through peaceful means.
L
Rebel fighters fire Grad rockets toward forces of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad in the Al Suqaylabiyah district, from the orchards
north of Kfar Zeita village to the north of Hama.
The main Syrian political opposition,
the Western-backed National Coalition
for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition
Forces, shunned the meeting in Moscow,
saying it would only take part in talks that
lead to Assad leaving power.
A document approved by rival sides
during the ﬁrst round of Geneva talks in
2012 called for creating a transitional governing body formed by mutual consent.
But the sides and their foreign backers, including Russia and the US, have
differed on what that means for Assad.
His fate remains a key sticking point in
the conﬂict, which has killed more than
200,000 people in almost four years.
There had never been high hopes of
a breakthrough at the Moscow talks, a
Western diplomat who tracks Syria said.
He said that a lack of a real opposition, a
lack of enthusiasm on behalf of Assad’s
government and a decision by ex-National Coalition chief Moaz al-Khatib to
shun the conference had doomed it.
“I thought - this is not happening that
well, and it went downhill from there,”
the diplomat said.
Meanwhile, Kurdish ﬁghters killed 22
jihadists around Kobane yesterday, days
after recapturing the Syrian town.
“Nineteen IS members were killed in
ﬁghting against the (Kurdish) People’s
Protection Units (YPG) in the hills surrounding Manaz to the west of Kobane,”
said Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman.
“Another three jihadists died in ﬁghting around villages to the east of Kobane,
while the YPG also took one IS member
prisoner,” he told AFP.
Kurdish forces recaptured the town
on the Turkish frontier on Monday, in a
symbolic blow to the jihadists who have
seized large swathes of territory in their
onslaught across Syria and Iraq.
The YPG had also recaptured ﬁve villages around Kobane this week, according
to Abdel Rahman, whose Britain-based
group relies on a network of sources inside Syria. “Another 350 villages remain
under IS control,” he said, referring to
settlements in the area around Kobane.
One civilian was also killed.
“IS shelling in the western countryside
of Kobane killed a civilian,” said Abdel
Rahman, who has repeatedly stressed
that the ﬁght for the Kobane area is far
from over.
AFP journalists who have entered
Kobane, which is known in Arabic as Ain
al-Arab, have seen pulverised buildings
and heavily armed ﬁghters roaming otherwise deserted, rubble-strewn streets.
awyers representing the
Comoros yesterday asked
International
Criminal
Court judges to order its chief
prosecutor to reconsider her decision not to probe Israel’s deadly
2010 raid on a Gaza-bound ﬂotilla.
The Comoros, which has referred the case to the ICC, “asks
the Chamber to request the Prosecutor to reconsider her decision
not to open an investigation,” its
lawyers said in papers ﬁled before the Hague-based court.
Ten Turkish activists died after Israeli commandos staged a
botched pre-dawn raid on the
six-ship ﬂotilla seeking to break
Israel’s blockade of the Gaza
Strip in May 2010.
The ship on which the activists sailed, the MV Mavi Marmara is registered in the tiny Indian Ocean island country, which
has been a state party to the ICC
since 2006.
ICC chief prosecutor Fatou
Bensouda however in November
said there would be no investigation leading to a prosecution,
despite a “reasonable basis” to
believe that war crimes were
committed.
Bensouda said any potential
cases arising from an investiga-
tion into the incident would not
be of “sufficient gravity” to justify further ICC action.
But the Comoros’ lawyers said
“those on the ﬂotilla are all entitled to the ICC’s condemnation
of impunity and to its sanctioning of individuals who might
have hoped to enjoy impunity.”
Bensouda failed to “take relevant matters” into consideration, including the broader context of the Israeli-Palestinian
conﬂict, the lawyers said.
“She should thus reconsider
her decision.”
Israel imposed the blockade
on Gaza in 2006 and strengthened it a year later when Hamas
took control of Gaza, then eased
it somewhat following the international outcry over the killing of
the Turkish activists.
The ICC, which was set up in
2002, tries persons accused of
the world’s worst crimes, namely
genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Bensouda earlier this month
launched a preliminary probe
into possible war crimes committed against Palestinians including during last year’s Gaza
offensive.
Her decision comes after the
Palestinians formally joined the
ICC in early January, allowing it
to lodge war crimes and crimes
against humanity complaints
against Israel as of April.
Six killed as mortar fire hits Egypt’s Sinai
Six people were killed yesterday
and at least 30 wounded in a
series of explosions in al-Arish,
capital of Egypt’s restive North
Sinai province, state television
reported. A local security official
said that three mortar shells had
hit security bases on the outskirts
of the city. Heavy gunfire could be
heard after the blasts. Egyptian
security forces have been trying to
root out militants based in Sinai’s
rugged desert terrain, with heavy
casualties reported on both sides.
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
5
AFRICA
Top job for
Mugabe ‘will
tarnish AU
reputation’
AFP
Addis Ababa
A
frican leaders are expected today to elect Zimbabwe’s President Robert
Mugabe to the 54-member African Union’s rotating chair, a
choice critics say risks tarnishing the organisation’s reputation.
Mugabe, who at 90 is Africa’s
oldest leader, is widely expected
to be anointed as successor to
Mauritania’s President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz at the start of
the two-day AU summit meeting in the Ethiopian capital.
But the veteran president has
a different reputation outside
the continent, and is subject to
travel bans from both the US and
European Union, in place since
2002 in protest at political violence and intimidation.
Mugabe, a former guerilla
leader who has ruled Zimbabwe
since independence in 1980, is
accused of crushing opponents
to ensure his ZANU-PF party
won every election for more than
three decades.
Last year Mugabe boycotted
an EU-Africa Summit in Brussels after he was given a rare invitation - but his wife was still
denied a visa.
But several African diplomats
are also uneasy.
“It’s not a very encouraging
sign,” sighed one African diplomat, who asked not to be identiﬁed. “The Mugabe style belongs
to a past generation, the one that
takes power hostage, and this is
no longer the AU creed.”
AU Commission chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma - who heads
the executive branch that directs
day-to-day work - launched the
summit earlier this week highlighting “democracy, good governance and human rights” as
core goals of the bloc.
But her deputy Erastus
Mwencha has defended
the right to choose any
leader.
“Who am I to say to
the people, you have
elected the wrong
leader?” Mwencha said.
“The people have
chosen: the important thing is that
you must follow
the constitution of your
country.”
A l though
the post of
AU chair
is largely
symbolic,
civil rights
groups are worried as to the image it will give to the organisation.
“This will send mixed signals
and an extremely awkward message on international levels on
how the AU stands on principles
of democracy and good governance,” said Jeggan Gey-Johnson,
spokesman of the pan-African
civil society coalition, The AU
We Want.
It is not the ﬁrst time an autocratic leader would take the AU’s
top post.
“There is a trend that has been
going for several years of leaders
chosen to represent the AU at the
highest level who don’t espouse
the core principles of the organisation,” Gey-Johnson added.
The previous chair, Mauritania’s Abdel Aziz, became the
north African country’s president in 2009 after leading two
coups in four years.
In the corridors of AU headquarters, diplomats say the
choice of Mugabe is an “unfortunate accident” resulting from
the tradition of rotating the post
among Africa’s regions.
The AU has faced previous
controversial choices before.
In 2007, the AU was deeply
divided over the candidacy of
Sudanese President Omar alBashir, while civil war raged in
the western region of Darfur.
Ghana’s John Kufor ﬁnally
took the post, on the grounds
that the country was celebrating
50 years of independence.
Some civil society groups also
objected when Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddaﬁ Kadhaﬁ
- who heavily bankrolled the
AU - took the post in 2009, and
in 2011 when Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema
Mbasogo, Africa’s second longest serving leader, was named.
But Mugabe also has much
support from many African
leaders, who view with deep
respect the former liberation war hero, the continent’s third-longest
serving leader.
“The AU did not
contest his election
in 2013,” said Solomon Dersso of the
Institute for Security
Studies, an African
think tank.
“Mugabe is
a
legitimate
president, and
if his people accepted
his election,
the AU has
no reason to
have a problem with his
election.”
Jonathan campaign in key region
Supporters walk past a poster of Nigerian President and presidential candidate of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Goodluck Jonathan during an election
rally in Port Harcourt in the Niger Delta region. Jonathan on Wednesday took his re-election campaign to the Niger Delta, knowing that victory in the key oil region will
help determine the winner of next month’s vote. The head of state, who is looking for a second four-year term, was in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State, which is
controlled by the opposition and seen as a pivotal election battleground.
Ebola epidemic is on
the decline, says WHO
UN cautions the epidemic is
still not totally contained
AFP
Addis Ababa
W
eekly Ebola infections in west Africa
have dropped to below 100 for the ﬁrst time in
more than six months, ﬁgures
showed yesterday, raising hopes
the worst-ever outbreak of the
virus is coming to an end.
The World Health Organisation said it had now shifted
its efforts in Guinea, Liberia
and Sierra Leone - the countries worst-hit by the epidemic
- from slowing the spread to
stamping it out completely.
The UN’s Ebola co-ordinator,
David Nabarro, nevertheless
cautioned that the epidemic
was still not totally contained.
“The number of cases is de-
creasing week by week and getting to zero in many places...
but we still see occasional ﬂareups and we still see some surprises with new cases out of our
contact lists,” Nabarro said.
“That means that the epidemic is not contained yet,” he
said at the African Union headquarters, as leaders gathered a
day ahead of a summit meeting
where Ebola is a key issue for
discussion.
According to the WHO ﬁgures released in Geneva, 99
new cases were conﬁrmed in
the week up to January 25, the
ﬁrst time the ﬁgure has dropped
below 100 since the end of June
2014.
“The response... has now
moved to a second phase, as
the focus shifts from slowing transmission to ending the
epidemic,” the WHO said in a
statement.
“To achieve this goal as
quickly as possible, efforts have
moved from rapidly building
infrastructure to ensuring that
capacity for case ﬁnding, case
management, safe burials, and
community engagement is used
as effectively as possible.”
The worst outbreak of the
virus in history has seen nearly
9,000 deaths in a year - almost
all in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra
Leone - and sparked a major
health scare worldwide.
The three nations have been
devastated by the outbreak,
which began in December 2013,
but all have seen recent signs
that the virus is on the wane,
with the number of new cases
dropping weekly.
Liberia, once the country
worst hit by the outbreak, hopes
to have no new cases by the end
of next month.
“We must maintain the effort
with even greater intensity, the
forthcoming rainy season is a
concern,” Nabarro said.
But he also said there were
key lessons from the response to
Ebola, and that a proposal to set
up an African equivalent to the
US’ Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) would be
a step forward.
“It took us too long to be
ready, we need a better response
capacity,” he said. “The African
CDC will allow the AU to be
much quicker.”
Today and tomorrow African
leaders are set to discuss the
economic recovery of countries
affected by Ebola, as well as the
setting up a “solidarity fund”
and planning the CDC centre,
which in its initial phase would
operate as an “early warning
system.”
The AU’s Commissioner for
Social Affairs, Mustapha Sidiki
38,000 Somali
children facing
starvation: UN
DR Congo declares fresh
offensive against Hutu rebels
Agencies
Kinshasa
T
he army in the Democratic
Republic of Congo announced yesterday a fresh
offensive against Rwandan ethnic
Hutu rebels after weeks of heavy
international pressure to act.
But the military operation was
being conducted without the assistance of the UN mission in the
troubled central African country.
“Today we’re launching new
operations against the FDLR
(Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda),” General Didier
Etumba said in Beni, in the north
of North Kivu province.
“This is an operation by the
FARDC (DRC Armed Forces),”
Etumba said, rather than a joint
offensive with a special UN brigade deployed in the country.
“This is not a joint FARDCMONUSCO operation,” conﬁrmed Brazilian General Carlos
Alberto dos Santos Cruz, commander of the military force
in the UN mission in Congo
(MONUSCO).
The Kinshasa government and
the international community
gave the FDLR rebels an ultimatum to lay down their arms and
surrender by January 2 or face attacks and forcible disarmament.
The rebel movement failed to
respond.
Congolese President Joseph
Kabila has been under strong international pressure to approve
plans for a joint offensive by the
FARDC and the UN’s Force Intervention Brigade, which has an
offensive mandate from the Security Council.
Charles Bambara, spokesman
for MONUSCO, said he considered Etumba’s announcement a
“green light” to begin operations.
The Intervention Brigade recorded signiﬁcant successes in
2013 when it helped Congolese
forces defeat Tutsi-led M23 rebels
who had seized swathes of North
Kivu, with the support of Rwanda,
according to UN experts.
The military announcement
came on the eve of an African
Union summit, where the matter of bringing stability to eastern
DRC is on the agenda after decades of unrest.
A multitude of armed groups is
active in the mineral-rich eastern
provinces.
Older members of the FDLR
are held responsible for taking part in the 1994 genocide in
neighbouring Rwanda, when at
least 800,000 people, mainly
from the Tutsi minority, were
massacred.
The killers ﬂed across the border when a mainly Tutsi rebel
front led by Paul Kagame, the
current president of Rwanda,
seized power after three months
and ended the genocide.
Several diplomats and regional
experts have expressed doubts
about Kinshasa’s determination
to deal with the FDLR, believed
to number between 1,500 and
2,000.
The prospects of a quick operation against the FDLR are
complicated by the rugged terrain the rebels occupy and their
past history of striking civilians
in revenge when attacked.
In other developments, Uganda has issued a three-month ultimatum to DR Congo to relocate
hundreds of ex-rebel ﬁghters or
they will be handed to the UN, an
army spokesman said.
Kaloko, said on Wednesday it
would be operational by mid2015 - although precise details
on the plan have yet to be ﬁnalised.
“We will start with a co-ordination centre within the AU and
then set up up to eight regional
centres,” Kaloko said.
Oxfam has called for a “massive post-Ebola Marshall Plan”
for affected west African nations, referring to the US aid
package to rebuild Europe after
World War II.
“It’s clear that Africa’s existing architecture for early disease detection, response and
control is wholly inadequate,”
Oxfam said in a statement on
Wednesday.
WHO admitted earlier this
month that the UN agency had
been caught napping on Ebola
and pledged reforms to avoid
similar mistakes in future.
Army chief General Didier Etumba meeting with members of the Armed Forces of the Democratic
Republic of Congo (FARDC) in Beni in North Kivu.
Over 38,000 Somali children are
at “high risk” from dying from
starvation despite hunger levels
improving by almost a third
across the war-torn nation, UN
experts said yesterday.
The grim assessment, based on
the latest data collected by the
UN, comes just over three years
since intense drought and war
sparked famine in the Horn of
Africa nation, killing more than a
quarter of a million people.
In total, over 731,000 people,
including 203,000 children who
are severely malnourished, face
“acute food insecurity,” according
to a joint report released by the
UN’s Food Security and Nutrition
Analysis Unit (FSNAU) and the
US-funded Famine Early Warning
Systems Network(FEWS NET).
But the total number affected
is a drop of 29% from last
assessments covering the past
six months, with “relatively
good rains” in late 2014 helping
farmers.
“Many children remain acutely
malnourished, despite a small
decrease in their numbers
over the past six months,” the
statement read.
“An estimated 202,600 children
under the age of five are acutely
malnourished, including 38,200
who are severely malnourished
and face a high risk of morbidity
and death.”
6
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
AMERICAS
Rights abuses fuelled rise of militants, says HRW
AFP
Washington
G
overnments increasingly
view human rights as “a
luxury” they can ill afford,
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said
yesterday, warning that abuses
fuel crises in world trouble spots
like Syria and Ukraine.
Western powers, including the
US, are far from blameless and
in some cases their wrongdoing
has fed the very climate in which
serial rights abusers like Islamic
State jihadists thrive.
“Human rights violations
played a major role in spawning
or aggravating most of today’s
crises,” argued Kenneth Roth,
director of the US-based watchdog, as HRW unveiled its annual
report.
Even as it seems that “the
world is unravelling,” he warned,
many governments “appear to
have concluded that today’s serious security threats must take
precedence over human rights”.
“In this difficult moment, they
seem to argue, human rights
must be put on the back burner, a
luxury for less trying times,” Roth
said, introducing the 660-page
HRW World Report 2015.
Such a calculation is false,
Roth insisted.
Instead, he argued that “human rights are an essential
compass for political action”
and shelving them is “not only
wrong, but also shortsighted and
counterproductive”.
From Iraq to Syria, Egypt, Nigeria and Ukraine “protecting
human rights and enabling people to have a say in how their gov-
ernments address the crises will
be key to their resolution”.
The emergence of the Islamic State (IS) group was in part
fuelled by the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, and also by the
West’s failure to address atrocities in Syria.
The Iraq invasion led to a security vacuum and abuses in Abu
Ghraib prison and Guantanamo
Bay.
Later the United States and
Britain “largely shut their eyes”
to the sectarian policies of Shia
prime minister Nuri al-Maliki
and his persecution of the Sunni
minority, and even continued to
ply his government with arms.
In Syria, the US cobbled together a 60-strong coalition to
combat the IS jihadists, but no
nations have stepped up pressure
on President Bashar al-Assad “to
stop the slaughter of civilians”.
Speaking to AFP in Beirut,
where HRW presented its report,
Roth said: “The West is not going to succeed in stopping ISIS if
it allows ISIS to say that it’s the
only one trying to stop Assad’s
barrel bombs.”
He used the acronym ISIS to
refer to the IS.
This same selectivity has been
shown in Egypt, where the global response to “unprecedented
repression” by general-turnedpresident, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi,
has been “shamefully inadequate”.
Washington shied away from
denouncing the Egyptian military’s overthrow of elected Islamist president Mohamed Mursi
a coup.
In this, it was driven by its
own concerns for the security of
Obama budget
to propose end
to spending cap
Reuters/AFP
Washington
P
resident Barack Obama’s
budget will call for an increase in domestic and
military spending that would
end spending caps known as
“sequestration”, a White House
official said, setting up a new
source of conﬂict with Republicans in Congress.
They are estimated to reduce
spending by as much as $1tn by
2021 and are described by critics as being arbitrary, job destroying and detrimental to the
country’s military.
Obama intends to announce
his plans during a meeting with
congressional Democrats in
Philadelphia.
The ﬁscal 2016 budget, which
the White House intends to unveil on Monday, would fund a
host of programmes that Republicans are unlikely to support.
It is the latest salvo by the
Democratic president lobbed
at a Congress controlled by the
opposition party and follows a
deﬁant State of the Union address last week that critics said
betrayed an unwillingness to
seek compromise.
The White House rejects that
criticism and hopes Obama
can ﬁnd common ground with
lawmakers from both parties to
prevent sequester cuts from going back into full force when the
next ﬁscal year begins on October 1.
Obama’s budget, which is as
much a political document as a
ﬁscal road map, would do that
by trimming “inefficient spending programmes” and eliminating tax loopholes, the official
said.
“The president will propose
to end the across-the-board
sequester cuts that threaten
our economy and our military,”
the official said. “The ... budget
will fully reverse those cuts for
domestic priorities, and match
those investments dollar-fordollar with the resources our
troops need to keep America
safe.”
“If Congress rejects my plan
and refuses to undo these arbitrary cuts, it will threaten
our economy and our military,”
Obama wrote in a Huffington
Post opinion article published
yesterday. “I know that there are
Republicans in Congress who
disagree with my approach, and
I look forward to hearing their
ideas for how we can pay for
what the middle class needs to
grow.”
His proposals got an early
brush-aside from Republican
Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell’s office, which noted that the administration had
tried unsuccessfully to do away
with the cuts before.
“This is not a surprise,” said
Don Stewart, McConnell’s deputy chief of staff, in an e-mail.
“Previous budgets submitted by
the president have purported to
reverse the bipartisan spending limits through tax increases
that the Congress – even under
Democrats – could never accept.”
The automatic spending cuts
went into effect in 2013 but were
lessened in 2014 and 2015 under a bipartisan bill negotiated
by Democratic Senator Patty
Murray of Washington state and
Republican Representative Paul
Ryan of Wisconsin.
That compromise bill ends
with the current ﬁscal year on
September 30.
The budget will likely propose spending increases that
would help fund infrastructure
projects as well as research and
development initiatives.
Following through on the
president’s State of the Union
address, the budget will propose
raising taxes on the wealthy to
cover tax credits and educational programmes for the middle class.
Laser co-inventor Charles Townes dead at 99
Reuters
San Francisco
C
harles Townes, who
shared the 1964 Nobel
Prize in Physics for invention of the laser, a feat that
revolutionised science, medicine, telecommunications and
entertainment, has died at age
99, the University of California
at Berkeley reported.
Townes, a native of South
Carolina, recalled that the idea
for how to create a pure beam
of short-wavelength, highfrequency light ﬁrst dawned on
him as he sat on a Washington,
DC, park bench among blooming azaleas in the spring of 1951.
The revelation led Townes
and his students to build a device in 1954 they dubbed a maser, for microwave ampliﬁcation by stimulated emission of
radiation.
Four years later, he and a
brother-in-law, Arthur Schawlow, conceived of a variation
on that invention to amplify a
beam of optical light, instead
of microwave energy, and Bell
Laboratories patented the new
idea as a laser.
Another scientist, Theodore
Maiman, was the ﬁrst to demonstrate the ﬁrst actual laser in
1960.
But four years later, Townes
shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work with two Russians, Aleksandr Prokhorov and
Nicolai Basov, who independently came up with the idea for
a maser.
Townes went on to pioneer
the use of masers and lasers in
astronomy, and with the help
the unruly Sinai peninsula and
neighbouring US-ally Israel.
Support for the Sisi leadership
is “a disaster for the Egyptian
hopes of a democratic future”
and sends “an appalling message
to the region”.
“ISIS can now credibly argue
that violence is the only path
to power for Islamists because
when they sought power through
fair elections and won, they were
ousted with little international
protest,” Roth said.
Human rights abuses in Russia, which stiﬂed critical voices
inside the country over the past
two years, and the West’s “relatively narrow reaction ... may
well have aggravated the Ukrainian crisis”.
Yet, the West has also fallen
back on “a good-versus-bad
mentality” and in its desire to
show Ukraine as a victim of Russian aggression has been “reluctant to address Ukrainian abuses”.
The need for security in the
digital age has also triggered concerns for Human Rights Watch,
alarmed by daily data snooping
by governments targeting hundreds of millions of people.
“Governments everywhere are
expanding their own mass surveillance capacity,” argued senior
HRW Internet researcher Cynthia Wong.
The United States and Britain
remain the leaders in the ﬁeld,
having “thrown away any notion
of proportionality”.
Wong said the transatlantic allies “have provided a roadmap for
governments of all political persuasions to build their own systems of mass surveillance”.
With few privacy protections
built in, the researcher warned,
“a truly Orwellian scenario could
unfold”.
A further Human Rights
Watch concern is the trampling
of human rights during megasporting events such as the Sochi
Winter Olympics, when Moscow
cracked down on civil society and
journalists.
The fact that only Kazakhstan
and China – both with terrible
rights records – are in the running for the 2022 Winter Olympics, “should be keeping the IOC
up at night”, the report says.
It proposed that the International Olympics Committee
(IOC) build human rights monitoring into the hosting process in
the same way “as they now do to
build ski jumps, swimming pools
and equestrian facilities on time”.
Romney, mulling 2016 run,
labels Clinton as ‘clueless’
AFP
Washington
M
itt Romney, considering another presidential
run, took swipes at potential 2016 rival Hillary Clinton
on Wednesday for “cluelessly”
conducting foreign policy, and
said Barack Obama’s brand of
economics is hurting Americans.
The 2012 Republican nominee,
who lost to Obama, has returned
to the political spotlight this
month after telling donors that
he remains interested in a third
shot at the White House.
In his speech at a university in
the nation’s poorest state Mississippi, Romney expanded on
campaign-style themes that will
fuel speculation about his future.
The former Massachusetts
governor and wealthy businessman recast himself as an
anti-poverty crusader critical of
Obama’s handling of the economy, and took square aim at Clinton.
The former secretary of state
“cluelessly pressed a reset button for Russia, which smiled and
then invaded Ukraine”, Romney
told students at Mississippi State
University, according to prepared
remarks.
“The Middle East and much of
North Africa is in chaos,” while
China has grown “more assertive”, Romney warned.
Obama, meanwhile, has deployed “timid” foreign policy
that left Washington “walking
away from his red line in Syria”,
slashing Pentagon spending and
“insulting friends like Israel and
Poland”.
Domestically, Romney acknowledged the economy has
been “looking up” in the short
term, with unemployment now
down to 5.6% and the creation
of millions of new jobs following
the 2007-2008 crisis.
“But it is a lot better for the
few, and pretty darn discouraging for the many,” Romney said,
adding that incomes have remained stagnant for “decades”.
“I can’t count how many re-
Romney and former Florida governor Jeb Bush (left) pose for a
photograph after a 2012 ‘Romney for President’ campaign rally in
Tampa, Florida, in this file photo taken on October 31, 2012.
cent college graduates I met
who expected a high-paying job
at graduation and instead were
waiting tables,” he said.
Clinton would be no better
at lifting Americans’ economic
prospects, Romney warned.
“How can Secretary Clinton
provide opportunity for all if she
doesn’t know where jobs come
from in the ﬁrst place?” he said,
a reference to a Clinton remark
during last year’s mid-term election campaign when she criticised the principle of trickledown economics.
The address by Romney hits
on themes similar to those that
marked his doomed 2012 campaign.
But he added a new dimension,
as champion of America’s working class, in part by co-opting
Obama’s call to reduce income
inequality.
“For 50 years and with trillions of dollars, Washington has
fought the war on poverty with
failed liberal policies,” Romney
said.
“It’s ﬁnally time to apply conservative policies that improve
America’s education system,
promote family formation and
create good-paying jobs” – policies, he said, that would “help
people get out of poverty forever”.
Romney, who guest-lectured
a university class on Wednesday
and spoke of how his loss three
years ago made him more optimistic, was dogged by criticism
in 2012 that he was an out-oftouch millionaire.
His wealth resurfaced as an inconvenient truth on Wednesday,
with reports that Romney has
built two multi-million-dollar
homes since the election, and
bought a third.
“The reason I’m Republican
is because I want to help the
poor, the middle class,” reporters
quoted Romney as saying. “The
rich in America, by the way, are
ﬁne.”
Should he announce a bid,
Romney would face stiff competition from a dozen prospective
Republican candidates, including Jeb Bush, the son and brother
of two former presidents.
In a poll of South Carolina
Republican voters published on
Wednesday, Romney led with
20% of respondents, followed by
Bush with 16%.
Clinton is the clear Democratic frontrunner, though she
has not yet formally launched a
campaign.
Canadian loses appeal on missing lotto jackpot by seven seconds
A museum employee uses laser yesterday to adjust the paintings in straight line at the Osthaus
Museum in Hagen, Germany. The exhibition ‘Hundertwasser Lebenslinien’ presents 130 paintings by
Friedensreich Hundertwasser. The co-inventor of the laser, Nobel Laureate Charles Townes, has died.
of colleagues became the ﬁrst
to detect complex molecules
in interstellar space and ﬁrst
measured the mass of the giant
black hole at the center of the
Milky Way Galaxy.
An array of laser-based infrared telescopes he built at the
Mt Wilson observatory outside
Los Angeles can measure the
diameter of stars that appear as
mere points of light in most telescopes.
“He was one of the most important experimental physicists
of the last century,” astrophysicist Reinhard Genzel, director
of the Max Planck Institute for
Extraterrestrial Physics, said in
a proﬁle of Townes published by
UC Berkeley.
A professor emeritus at Berkeley, he was a member of the
university’s physics department and Space Sciences Laboratory for nearly ﬁve decades.
Townes’ invention turned out
to have roles in a wide range of
technical applications that have
become ubiquitous ﬁxtures of
the modern world.
Incorporated into a broad
variety of consumer electronics and optical ﬁbres, lasers also
are used to cut metal, perform
surgery, trap atoms and trigger
nuclear fusion reactions.
UC Berkeley said on its website on Tuesday that he was in
failing health, and died early
that day on his way to the hospital.
A Canadian man who was denied part of a C$27mn
jackpot because he missed the deadline to buy the
ticket by seven seconds has lost his appeal to get the
money.
The Supreme Court of Canada ruling yesterday ended
a seven-year legal battle by Joel Ifergan, an accountant, to claim his share of the prize.
Ifergan went to a local convenience store just before
9pm on May 23, 2008, to purchase tickets for that
night’s “Lotto Super 7” drawing.
The store clerk told him to hurry before the 9pm deadline, according to a court summary.
While the clock on the lottery terminal read 8.59pm,
only one of the two tickets was registered in time.
The second ticket, the winning one, was printed and
registered on the Loto-Quebec computer at seven
seconds after 9pm, eligible for the following week’s
drawing.
The store clerk told Ifergan that only one ticket was
registered in time and asked if he still wanted to buy
the second ticket.
Ifergan said he did, and paid for both.
After he was denied half of the lottery jackpot, which
was awarded to another winner, Ifergan sued LotoQuebec for the processing lag.
The case has been working its way through Canada’s
courts.
The Supreme Court did not comment on the case.
Pentagon official urges Nato allies to focus on innovative weapons
US Deputy Defence Secretary Robert Work has
urged Nato allies to develop and make more
innovative weapons, and said bold action
was needed to stay ahead of rapid weapons
development by China, Russia and other
countries.
Work said the Pentagon has a new plan called
“Defence Innovation Initiative” and a separate
effort targeting longer-term projects to ensure
that the US continues to have a decisive
competitive advantage against potential foes.
“We must co-ordinate and collaborate, avoid
duplication, leverage niche capabilities,
and push our establishments to innovate in
technology, concepts, experimentation, and
war gaming,” Work told a conference hosted
by the Centre for a New American Security.
Nato members needed to make good their
vows last year to spend 2% of national output
on defence, he said.
Work said it was critical to increase
collaboration with allies in Nato, Asia and
other areas, ranging from mission planning to
investments in new weapons programmes.
General Jean-Paul Palomeros of France,
the Nato Supreme Allied Commander
(Transformation), told the conference that
Nato was looking at innovative approaches,
including increased training.
Work said concerns about advances by
other countries were a key reason that the
Pentagon’s fiscal 2016 budget plan to be
delivered to Congress on Monday will exceed
budget caps set by Congress and reverse five
years of declines in US military spending.
He gave no details, but said the budget would
include “significant” investments in nuclear
weapons, space control capabilities, advanced
sensors, missile defence and cyber, as well
as unmanned undersea vehicles, high-speed
strike weapons, a new jet engine, high-energy
lasers and rail gun technology.
Work said the plans need to address different
threats in different regions, and should
leverage work by commercial firms on
robotics, autonomous operations and other
key technologies.
Lockheed Martin Corporation, Boeing
Company, and other key weapons makers
have repeatedly urged the Pentagon to step
up investments in key technologies.
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
7
ASEAN
Malaysia declares all
aboard MH370 dead
Relatives have refused to give up
hope
AFP
Kuala Lumpur
M
alaysia yesterday formally declared the passengers and crew
of missing ﬂight MH370 to be
presumed dead, a step that it said opens
the door for compensation payments but
which was angrily rejected by distraught
relatives.
Malaysian authorities and the airline
had until now refrained from drawing ﬁrm
conclusions about the fate of the plane
and its 239 passengers and crew, as many
desperate next-of-kin continue to insist it
may have landed safely somewhere.
But Thursday’s declaration that MH370
was an “accident” was essentially a formal
announcement that the plane had indeed
crashed somewhere after its disappearance on March 8 and that all aboard had
perished.
“It is therefore, with the heaviest heart
and deepest sorrow that, on behalf of the
government of Malaysia, we officially declare Malaysia Airlines ﬂight MH370 an
accident,” civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said in a televised announcement.
“All 239 of the passengers and crew on
board MH370 are presumed to have lost
their lives,” he added.
Urging relatives to move forward, he
said it was “important that families try to
resume normal lives”.
Malaysia Airlines later said it would begin contacting families to proceed with a
“fair and reasonable” compensation process.
But Sarah Bajc, whose partner Philip
Jacquita Gonzales, wife of in-flight supervisor Patrick Francis Gomes who was aboard
Flight MH370, speaks to the media in Putrajaya.
Wood was on board the plane, was one of
several relatives who poured scorn on the
announcement.
“I think they are lying,” she said of the
Malaysian government and airline.
“It could very well be that the plane
crashed. But there is no evidence, and until there is evidence we just can’t believe
them. It is impossible to bring any closure
until we have proof.”
Many relatives have consistently accused Malaysia’s authoritarian government and its ﬂag carrier of a chaotic and
bungled response to the plane’s initial diversion that allowed the jet to disappear,
and a subsequent cover-up. Those charges
are strenuously denied.
The plane vanished en route from Kuala
Lumpur to Beijing in one of history’s great
aviation mysteries.
Malaysia’s government says satellite data indicates the plane inexplicably
detoured to the remote southern Indian
Ocean, which they suspect was due to
“deliberate” action onboard.
But no evidence has turned up as to the
fate of the plane, despite an ongoing Australian-led search of the supposed crash
region—the most expensive search and
rescue operation in history.
Whatever happened, aviation analyst
Gerry Soejatman said the declaration is
important to allow all parties to move forward in the baffling case.
“Unless the declaration is made, it will
be tough to initiate certain legal steps for
insurance matters to take place,” he said.
“It’s a hard step for (families) to accept,
but they have to bear in mind that someone has to pay them and everyone has to
move on somehow. It’s not easy but this is
a fact.”
Two-thirds of the passengers were Chinese nationals, and their furious accusations that Malaysia had concealed information drew China’s government into the
fray, straining bilateral ties when Beijing
criticised the disaster response.
Speaking after Azharuddin’s announcement, Chinese premier Li Keqiang called
the loss of MH370 a “great misfortune”.
“We also hope Malaysia can keep its
promises to continue the investigation
of the event, pay compensation and also
comfort the families. But most importantly, they should use all means to try to ﬁnd
the victims,” he said.
Malaysian authorities say they launched
investigations immediately after the disappearance, but they have so far released
no ﬁndings, infuriating families.
Bajc said she was never contacted by
Malaysian authorities, and knows nobody
who was.
Many also question the theory that the
ﬂight veered toward the Indian Ocean.
Azharuddin, however, said Malaysia would
“forge ahead” with the search effort.
The government’s awkward handling of
yesterday’s announcement also angered
relatives, who have accused authorities
and the airline of insensitivity in the past,
and drew harsh criticism on social media.
A hastily scheduled press conference to
announce the news was abruptly abandoned earlier after several family members
rushed to the venue demanding to know
why they were not briefed ahead of the
public announcement.
The government later said separate arrangements had been made to communicate with kin, but relatives who spoke to
AFP said they had not been contacted.
Elaine Chew, whose husband Tan Size
Hiang was on the missing ﬂight, said Malaysia’s declaration is a blow to suffering
families.
“I have a six-year-old daughter. I have
told her that her father is missing. She
wants him back for her birthday on March
14. How do I explain this to a six-year-old
girl, all of a sudden?” she said.
Cats seized
Co-pilot at
controls
of AirAsia
plane: probe
AFP
Sulawesi
T
he French co-pilot was
at the controls of an
AirAsia plane before it
crashed into the sea last month
after ﬂying through an area of
towering clouds, killing all 162
people on board, investigators
said yesterday.
The announcement came
as ﬁshermen found two more
bodies from the crash in waters
off Sulawesi island in central
Indonesia, around 1,000km
from where the plane crashed,
a search and rescue official
said.
Flight QZ8501 went down in
stormy weather on December
28 in the Java Sea during what
was supposed to be a short trip
from the Indonesian city of
Surabaya to Singapore. Only
72 bodies have so far been recovered.
Yesterday, Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety
Committee, which has been
analysing the plane’s black
boxes, said that prior to the
crash, the aircraft had climbed
fast in an area packed with
huge storm clouds, and the
stall alarms started going off.
They also revealed that the
Airbus A320-200’s less experienced French co-pilot, Remi
Plesel, was ﬂying the plane before it went down, rather than
Captain Iriyanto, a former
ﬁghter pilot who had around
20,000 hours of ﬂying time.
“The second-in-command
was the pilot ﬂying,” chief investigator Mardjono Siswosuwarno told reporters in Jakarta, disclosing details from
a preliminary report into the
crash.
He said the captain sat on
the left and acted as “the monitoring pilot”.
Gerry Soejatman, a Jakartabased independent aviation
analyst, said that while there
was nothing unusual about the
co-pilot being at the controls,
the question was whether the
captain took the right decision when the plane got into
trouble.
“The captain has a choice
whether to let the co-pilot
continue ﬂying and he does
the trouble-shooting, or he
takes control of the aircraft
and allows the co-pilot to do
the trouble-shooting,” he told
AFP.
He said it would not be clear
what happened until more
analysis of the plane’s black
boxes—the ﬂight data recorder
and the cockpit voice recorder—had been conducted and
made public.
Investigators’
comments
that the plane climbed sharply
before crashing echoed those
made by transport minister Ignasius Jonan last week.
In 30 seconds, it rose from
32,000 feet to 37,400 feet,
then dipped to 32,000 feet,
before descending for around
three minutes, after which the
black boxes stopped, said investigator Ertata Lananggalih.
Siswosuwarno said the
plane’s stall alarms were going
off for four minutes before the
crash. A plane suffers an aerodynamic stall when it climbs
so steeply that the ﬂow of air
around the wings is disrupted,
and they can no longer generate lift.
An investigator previously told AFP that the plane’s
warning alarms were “screaming” before it crashed, citing
data from the cockpit voice
recorder.
The transport committee
also said the storm clouds—
known as cumulonimbus—
reached heights of up to
44,000 feet at the time of the
crash, although they declined
to say whether the plane had
ﬂown directly into them.
Thais order NGO to
cancel press brieﬁng
AFP
Bangkok
A
German rights group
said yesterday that it
has been ordered by
Thailand’s junta to cancel a
brieﬁng on the health of the
kingdom’s media landscape, in
a growing clampdown on freedom of expression.
The ban came as two former
ministers from the ousted
government of ex-premier
Yingluck Shinawatra were
summoned by the military,
which is escalating its campaign to crush dissent since
seizing power last May.
The Friedrich Ebert Foundation said military officers
Thousands of live cats destined “for consumption” have been seized in Hanoi after being smuggled from China, police said.
had ordered them not to hold a
brieﬁng at a Bangkok hotel today—part of a series of annual
reports looking at the challenges journalists face in Asia.
“It’s true, sadly. We were
initially told over the phone
and then the military went to
the hotel and told them that
we weren’t allowed to hold the
event,” an employee of the foundation told AFP. The employee
added it was the ﬁrst time they
had faced such a problem.
Thailand’s generals took
over after months of often
violent street protests that led
to the ousting of Yingluck’s
elected government.
Rights groups warn that
peace has been paid for with
the curtailment of liberties.
Jakarta rejects drug convicts clemency plea
AFP
Jakarta
I
ndonesia is ready to execute seven
foreign drug convicts on death row
after their appeals for presidential
clemency were rejected, an official said,
in a move certain to set Jakarta on a collision course with international allies.
The seven include two Australian
leaders of the “Bali Nine” drug-smuggling gang, who have been on death row
for almost a decade. The pair lost their
appeals in December and earlier this
month.
A spokesman for the attorney-general’s office revealed late Wednesday
that a further ﬁve foreigners have also
lost their appeals. He said four were
from France, Brazil, Nigeria and Ghana.
Local media reported that the ﬁfth
was a Philippine woman, and the for-
eign ministry in Manila said it was
working to prevent the execution.
Four Indonesians—only one of them
convicted of drugs offences—had also
lost their bid for clemency.
“The attorney general’s office now
has 11 convicts on death row ready to be
executed,” spokesman Tony Spontana
said.
Indonesia earlier this month executed six drug offenders, including ﬁve
foreigners, prompting a furious Brazil
and the Netherlands—whose citizens
were among those put to death—to recall their ambassadors.
Drug offenders from Vietnam, Malawi and Nigeria were also among those
killed by ﬁring squad.
Despite his image as a reformist, Indonesia’s new president Joko Widodo
has been a vocal supporter of capital
punishment for drug offenders, disappointing rights activists who had hoped
Australian Raji Sukumaran, the mother of death-row prisoner Myuran Sukumaran,
leaves after visiting her son at Kerobokan Prison in Bali, Indonesia, yesterday.
that he would take a softer line on the
death penalty.
He has repeatedly vowed to show no
clemency to drug traffickers. In a CNN
interview broadcast earlier this week,
Widodo vowed: “We are not going to
compromise for drug dealers. No compromise. No compromise.”
Spontana said a decision had not yet
been made on when or where the convicts would be executed, only that more
than one would face the ﬁring squad in
the next round.
The Frenchman is Serge Atlaoui,
who has been on death row since 2007,
Spontana conﬁrmed.
In Sydney late Thursday, more than
2,000 Australians, led by local musicians, gathered in a plea for mercy for
their compatriots facing imminent
execution, Andrew Chan and Myuran
Sukumaran.
Holding candles and signs reading “I
stand for mercy”, the crowd listened to
speeches and live music.
“Don’t kill him, please don’t kill him
... please, president, please forgive
him,” Sukumaran’s grandmother Edith
Visvanathan told the crowd between
sobs.
The Australian pair were arrested in
Bali in 2005 and sentenced to death the
following year for attempting to smuggle 8kg of heroin out of the Indonesian
holiday island.
The rejection of their clemency appeals removed the ﬁnal hurdle to put
the pair to death, as Indonesian authorities said they must be executed
together as they had committed their
crime together.
Lawyers for the pair are planning a
last-ditch appeal to their convictions
but the attorney-general’s office has
said that further legal challenges are
not possible once a clemency bid has
been rejected.
The Frenchman Atlaoui was arrested
in 2005 in a secret laboratory producing
ecstasy close to Jakarta.
8
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
AUSTRALASIA/EAST ASIA
‘UNUSUAL DEATHS’
ACCIDENT
‘EARLY STAGES’
DISCIPLINE
China surveys suicides in
anti-corruption drive
Scorsese film set caves in,
killing Taiwanese worker
Signs North Korea may be
restarting nuclear reactor
Dissenting Tibet officials
face media ‘punishment’
China’s ruling Communist party has ordered
a survey of “unusual deaths” among officials,
government websites showed yesterday, after
reports that some had committed suicide to escape
a crackdown on corruption. An “urgent notice”
called on officials to provide details of “party
members who have died in unusual circumstances”
since 2012, according to posts on government
and party websites in three provinces seen by
AFP. Respected news outlet Caixin said 50 party
and government officials have been declared to
have died of “unnatural causes” since 2012. The
Communist party is calling for a tally of deaths of
officials, with details if the person committed suicide.
One person was killed and two others were
injured yesterday when part of a house caved
in at the Taipei set of Hollywood director Martin
Scorsese’s upcoming film Silence. A ceiling
collapsed on three Taiwanese construction
workers who were reinforcing an old brick-andwood house at the Chinese Culture and Movie
Centre Central Pictures during pre-production,
said the Taipei city fire department. A worker
identified as Chen Yu-lung was pronounced dead
at the hospital while the others sustained injuries
to their legs and heads, it said. “The director is
shocked,” said David Lee, a Taiwanese producer
working with Scorsese.
Recent satellite images suggest North Korea
may be about to restart the nuclear reactor,
a US think-tank said yesterday. When fully
operational, the 5MW reactor at the Yongbyon
nuclear complex is capable of producing around
6kg of plutonium a year - enough for one nuclear
bomb, experts say. The US-Korea Institute at
Johns Hopkins University said the latest satellite
images showed fresh activity at Yongbyon
suggestive of “the early stages of an effort to
restart the reactor”. Signs included steam from
a probable pressure relief valve and meltwater
running off the centre of the turbine-building
roof, the institute said in a post on its website.
China’s state media yesterday called for officials
who take an “ambiguous attitude” towards
Tibetan independence to be prosecuted,
after personnel in the region were reportedly
punished for communicating with the Dalai
Lama. A total of 15 officials of the ruling
Communist party had “violated discipline” for
activities including “providing information to the
Dalai Lama” and “participating in underground
groups”, the state-run China News Service said
this week, adding they would be punished by
party authorities. Many Tibetans resent Chinese
rule and official restrictions on their Buddhist
religion.
Sydney siege victim died
of police bullet ricochet
AFP
Sydney
A
decade-long effort to preserve three
historic huts containing over 18,000
artefacts dating back to the early
days of Antarctic exploration has been
completed, New Zealand researchers said
yesterday.
Old photographs, notebooks and even
bottles of whisky are among the items that
can be seen in the two huts used by Captain
Robert Falcon Scott and another by Ernest
Shackleton on their expeditions to the frozen continent more than a century ago.
The Antarctic Heritage Trust of New
Zealand led a team of 62 specialists from 11
countries over 10 years to protect the huts
and their contents from the harsh Antarctic
environment.
The huts are a vital part of the history of
Antarctica, offering a window into the life
of early polar explorers, said programme
manager Lizzie Meeks.
“Antarctica is the only continent on
earth where the ﬁrst buildings put up by
people are still standing,” Meeks said.
The three huts, all located on Ross Island,
can be visited by tourists from cruise ships
N Korea
demanded
$10bn ‘for
a summit’
N
Sydney siege hostage John O’Brien addresses the media at the New South Wales Coronial Inquest into the Sydney siege.
Gormly said, adding that two bullets or bullet
fragments hit the gunman in the head and 11
others hit him in his body.
Monis ﬁred a total of ﬁve rounds from his
shotgun during the stand-off, though none
of them struck any of the hostages apart from
Johnson, according to Gormly.
Huts used by early explorers
preserved on the Antarctic
DPA
Wellington
A Chinese woman rides an electric bicycle along
a street amid snowfall in Lianyungang, Jiangsu
province.
AFP
Seoul
R
icochets from police gunﬁre killed one of
the two hostages who died in a 16-hour
siege at a central Sydney cafe in December, an inquest into the deadly stand-off heard
yesterday.
In graphic details of the stand-off which
shocked Australia, the coroner was told that the
other victim was made to kneel down and shot
in the back of the head after a group of hostages
escaped from the Lindt chocolate cafe.
The shooting of cafe manager Tori Johnson
by Iran-born gunman Man Haron Monis led to
the order for police to storm the cafe in the early
hours of December 16, with the ensuing gunﬁre
leading to the death of barrister and motherof-three Katrina Dawson.
“Ms Dawson was struck by six fragments of
a police bullet or bullets which ricocheted from
hard surfaces into her body,” said the counsel
assisting the coroner’s inquest, Jeremy Gormly. “She lost consciousness quickly and died
shortly afterwards.”
Dawson, 38, and Johnson, 34, were among
17 hostages caught up in the cafe siege, which
raised questions about why Monis - who had a
history of extremism and violence - was at large
despite facing charges including abetting the
murder of his ex-wife.
Early accounts of the crisis had said Johnson
died after trying to disarm Monis, but Gormly
said he was shot by the 50-year-old attacker
with a sawn-off shotgun just moments after
several hostages escaped.
“Johnson was made by Mr Monis to kneel on
the ﬂoor of the cafe,” he said.
“After a short lapse of time, Mr Monis simply
shot him without further notice or warning in the
back of the head,” he added, noting that the barrel
of the gun was about 75cm from the cafe manager’s head when the weapon was discharged.
Outside the court, one of the hostages who
escaped in the ﬁrst few hours, 82-year-old John
O’Brien, told news.com.au it was “upsetting”
to hear about Johnson’s ﬁnal minutes.
O’Brien and other survivors are likely to be
called on to give evidence during the inquest,
which will outline what happened, hear about
the hostages’ experiences, investigate how police managed the siege, and delve into Monis’s
background and motivations.
A separate investigation commissioned by
the federal and New South Wales governments
is set to submit a report in the next few days.
The inquest will review the report’s ﬁndings.
Gormly said the killing of the cafe manager
was witnessed by a police marksman, which led
to the order for police “tactical operatives” to
storm the building.
Some 22 shots were ﬁred by the officers after
11 ﬂash bangs were thrown into the room, while
Monis ﬁred two shots, the hearing was told.
“Bullets and fragments of bullets hit Mr
Monis, who was, it seems, killed instantly,”
WINTER SHEEN
and nearby New Zealand and US bases,
with numbers capped at 2,000 visitors each
year.
The huts were built between 1902 and
1911. At the turn of the 20th century a
number of expeditions were launched to
Antarctica, which was the last unexplored
continent on earth.
Carpenters working on-site repaired
the huts to their original state, while special conservation laboratories were set up
to preserve the food supplies, clothing,
equipment and other personal items that
were left there.
“For the team it’s been tremendously
satisfying to see these huts now, compared
to how they were when we started this 10
years ago,” Meeks said.
One of the huts preserved was used by
Scott, the British naval officer, as a base for
his ill-fated expedition of 1911-12. He was
racing against Norwegian Roald Amundsen
to become the ﬁrst to reach the South Pole.
Scott reached the pole in January 1912
only to discover that Amundsen had beaten him there by ﬁve weeks. On the return
journey, Scott and his four companions
starved to death after being trapped inside
their tent for more than a week by relentless blizzards.
The inquest will look into Monis’s claims his
actions were an attack on Australia by the Islamic State group, a brutal jihadist organisation
that has captured swathes of territory across
Iraq and Syria, and whether he had any terrorist
associations.
But Gormly noted “at present it seems he had
not established any contact” with the militant
organisation.
Australia raised its threat level to high in
September and carried out a series of counterterrorism raids following a ﬂow of its nationals
to Iraq and Syria to ﬁght with Islamic State and
other jihadist groups.
orth Korea demanded an “absurd”
$10bn payoff and close to amn tonnes
in food aid in 2009 in return for a
hoped-for summit with Seoul, then-South
Korean president Lee Myung-Bak says in a
soon-to-be-published memoir.
Lee also revealed that the two Koreas kept
up negotiations for a possible summit even
after Seoul effectively froze relations in 2010
following the sinking of a South Korean naval
vessel.
Lee’s 800-page memoir of his 2008-12 term
in the Blue House is titled President’s Time
and will be published next week, although excerpts were leaked yesterday to the press.
The two Koreas held an historic summit in
2000 and again in 2007, and Lee said it started
exploring the possibility of a third when it sent
a high-powered delegation to the funeral of
former South Korean president Kim Dae-Jung
in August, 2009.
Conﬁdential negotiations then took place in
Singapore and in Kaesong, just over the border
in North Korea.
“North Korea demanded $10bn dollars to
fund the establishment of a national development bank,” Lee writes in his book.
That was on top of a demand for 100,000
tonnes of corn, 400,000 tonnes of rice,
300,000 tonnes of fertiliser, and asphalt pitch
worth $100mn.
“It was absurd for the North to call for assistance to help sweeten the atmosphere,” Lee
wrote.
The negotiations took place amid heightened tensions over the North’s nuclear weapons programme. Following a long-range missile test in April 2009, Pyongyang carried out
its second nuclear test a month later.
Then, in March 2010, a South Korean warship, the Cheonan, sank near the border, killing 46 sailors. The South pinned the blame on
the North and effectively froze all trade and
investment ties.
Nevertheless, in July the same year, Lee said
a high-ranking South Korean intelligence ofﬁcial visited the North at the invitation of
Pyongyang.
In addition to restating the South’s opposition to providing material reward for a summit, the official made it clear that the North
“should ﬁrst apologise” for sinking the naval
vessel.
The North responded by demanding half a
million tonnes of rice aid and offering to express its sympathy with the Korean people
over the loss of life on the Cheonan - a formulation Lee described as “unacceptable”.
The North has always vehemently denied
responsibility for the Cheonan incident.
China 2015 drills to focus on ‘winning local wars’
AFP
Beijing
C
hina’s military training this year will focus on “improving ﬁghting capacity” to
win “local wars”, the defence ministry said
yesterday, with Beijing embroiled in several territorial disputes.
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been
tasked with improving its ability to “win battles”
by President Xi Jinping, its commander-in-chief,
who has also pushed a high-proﬁle campaign to
root out corruption in the world’s biggest military.
“The PLA will ﬁrmly uphold the criteria of
improving ﬁghting capacity,” defence ministry
spokesman Senior Colonel Yang Yujun told reporters when asked about the military’s exercise
plans this year.
The army would also “take part in more joint
exercise training and competition with foreign
militaries so as to improve the capability of winning local wars”, he said at a regular brieﬁng.
Yang did not elaborate on the meaning of “local
wars” but China has been involved in occasionally
tense confrontations with Japan and the Philippines over maritime disputes in the East China
Sea and South China Sea respectively, amid fears
that the disputes could result in armed clashes.
Japan and China have long been at odds over
the sovereignty of uninhabited islands in the East
China Sea which Japan administers and calls the
Chinese soldiers at a winter training session in
freezing temperatures in Heihe, northeast China’s
Heilongjiang province.
Senkakus but which China claims as the Diaoyus.
The countries previously agreed in principle to
set up a maritime hotline in a bid to avoid clashes
but further discussions were suspended after relations soured in 2012 when the Japanese government angered China by nationalising some of the
islands.
Xi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in
November held their ﬁrst formal summit meeting on the heels of an agreement the two sides
reached in an effort to paper over differences on
the dispute.
Talks on the maritime issue subsequently re-
sumed earlier this month in Tokyo, and Yang yesterday reported progress.
He said that officials agreed, at China’s suggestion, to change the system of communication to
cover both sea and air.
“The change will facilitate the two sides to conduct exchanges and consultation on both maritime and air security issues,” he said.
“Both sides agreed that the mechanism should
be operative as early as possible since technical conditions for launching it have already been
met,” he added.
Asked separately about Chinese naval activities
in the Indian Ocean, including submarines, Yang
said that China has since 2008 been dispatching
different types of ships to the Gulf of Aden to carry out escort duties and international anti-piracy
operations.
“In the process we have notiﬁed relevant countries as to the escort missions of the PLA navy
ships, including the PLA navy submarines,” he
said.
“These are quite normal activities and there is
no need to read too much into them,” he added.
China has been extending its naval reach, sending more vessels further away from its shores
for operations including escort and anti-piracy
missions, humanitarian assistance, disaster and
medical relief, and search and rescue, Yang said.
“By doing so the Chinese navy is contributing
to provide more international public service and
is helping with peace and stability in the open
seas,” he said.
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
9
BRITAIN/IRELAND
More gun police to
face terrorist threat
The police are gearing for a lone wolf
attack which they feel is imminent
Evening Standard
London
S
cotland Yard is set to train hundreds
more officers as a reserve ﬁrearms
unit to deal with a possible terrorist
gun attack on London.
Met commissioner Sir Bernard HoganHowe said the force was reviewing the
number of armed officers in the wake of
the Paris outrages.
He admitted the number of police
marksmen had fallen in recent years and
said one option was to train members of
the Territorial Support Group as a ﬁrearms
reserve.
He also revealed that police were in
discussions with media ﬁrms to restrict
live coverage of terror events. Referring
to broadcasts of the Paris police operations, he said: “We want to ensure our
ability to respond is not restricted by live
coverage.”
Sir Bernard said the Met had deployed
more armed officers on London’s streets to
protect key sites. He added that there are
ongoing discussions with the Government
over more funding for counter-terror operations. Police need “tens of millions” of
pounds more, he said.
He told the Police and Crime Committee at City Hall today that the terror threat
remained “severe”, meaning an attack was
highly likely — though there was no intelligence of an imminent threat.
Bernard said counter-terrorism offic-
More armed officers are to be trained in London.
ers were dealing with a “real and present”
threat of an attack. He added: “We believe
we are coping with the threat at the moment. We are looking to increase our resources but it is an imperfect science.
“If you have multiple suspects, we can’t
follow all of them all the time.”
He said there had been “really good support” from the London community since
the Paris attacks. More parents of children
at risk of being inﬂuenced to travel to Syria
were coming forward to police, Sir Bernard
revealed.
Deputy mayor for policing Stephen
Greenhalgh repeated a call for an extra
£20mn of home office money to fund city
counter-terror operations.
Currently, 2,700 officers are authorised
to carry guns in London.
On the broadcasting problem, Met ofﬁcials are now talking to TV stations amid
fears that live coverage of police raids
could compromise operations.
In Paris there was live TV coverage as
officers engaged in near-simultaneous
raids on two terror hostage sites.
Sir Bernard said the number of
armed officers was cut in recent
years because often these were
trained for events they never attended. Specialist armed officers in
London now had more and better
ﬁre-power to deal with gun attacks
than Paris counterparts, he said.
Commuters are being issued with
a checklist on how to spot potential
terrorists at stations in London.
Passengers have been handed leaﬂets in
which they are warned to look out for people using lots of mobile phones or being
vague about where they are going.
The ﬂiers were reportedly handed out to
commuters at Waterloo during yesterday’s
morning rush hour.
They advise Londoners to call a conﬁdential anti-terror hotline if they see suspicious behaviour, adding: “Don’t rely on
others. If you suspect it, report it.”
It comes as London remains on alert for
possible lone wolf attacks in the wake of
the Paris killings.
The six point checklist for things to look
out for is: someone noticeable behaving
differently for no obvious reason; someone with a large number of mobile phones
for no obvious reason; someone with
passports or other documents in different names for no obvious reason; someone
who travels for long periods of time but is
vague about where they’re going; someone
buying or storing large amounts of chemicals for no obvious reason; someone taking
an interest in security, like CCTV cameras,
for no obvious reason.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said the
leaﬂets are part of an ongoing effort to interact with the public and do not represent
a change in approach.
Snow causes disruption
Russian
bombers
disrupt
aviation
Reuters
London
B
ritain summoned the
Russian
ambassador
yesterday and asked him
to explain why two Russian
Bear long-range bombers had
ﬂown over the English Channel the previous day, forcing
British authorities to reroute
civil aircraft.
A
British
government
source told Reuters the incident, which forced Britain
to scramble Typhoon interceptor jets, was viewed as “a
signiﬁcant escalation” and
marked a change in strategy since Russian aircraft had
previously largely conﬁned
themselves to ﬂying close to
Scotland.
“It was very dangerous. Civil
aircraft ﬂying to the UK had to
be rerouted,” the source said.
“The Russians were ﬂying with
their transponders turned off
so could only be seen on military radar. They haven’t ﬂown
this far south before.”
The Foreign Office said it
had summoned Russian ambassador Alexander Yakovenko
to account for the incident,
saying the episode was part of
an increasing pattern of “out
of area operations” by Russian
aircraft.
“The Russian planes caused
disruption to civil aviation.
That is why we summoned the
Russian Ambassador today to
account for the incident,” it
said in a statement.
Last year, Nato conducted
more than 100 interceptions
of Russian aircraft, about three
times as many as in 2013, amid
increased tensions between
the West and Moscow over the
Ukraine crisis.
British foreign secretary
Philip Hammond said in December he was concerned by
“the extremely aggressive”
probing of Britain’s airspace by
Russian military aircraft after
a spate of interceptions off the
Scottish coast.
Hammond, a former defence minister, had previously
said the sharp increase in such
activity in recent years was
because of a Kremlin military
overhaul that had been overlooked by many.
The British government
is generally unfazed by such
ﬂights, viewing them as symbolic shows of force by a resurgent Russia meant to remind
the world that it remains a global power.
But the appearance of Russian bombers in the English
Channel, a busy corridor for
civil aircraft, raised concerns
because of the risk of a collision.
In December, Swedish authorities said a Russian military jet nearly collided with a
commercial passenger airplane
in international airspace near
southern Sweden. Russia insisted its jet had kept at a safe
distance.
“It’s scary. Who does this
kind of thing?, the British
government source said of
the English Channel incident.
“Only Russia.”
Lawmakers criticise
Iraq report delay
Reuters
London
B
A farmer checks on his sheep on Slieve na Orra mountain near the village of Cargan after heavy snow led to traffic disruptions and the closure of schools across
Northern Ireland.
ritish lawmakers yesterday criticised the delay
in publishing a longawaited official report into
Britain’s role in the Iraq War
until after May’s election, describing it as “an insult” and
“an affront to democracy”.
The inquiry, headed by
former civil servant John Chilcot, was set up six years ago to
investigate the US-led invasion of Iraq and its aftermath.
Britain was Washington’s main
ally in the war despite widespread public opposition.
When it was announced in
2009, the report was expected
to take a year but last week
Chilcot said there was “no realistic prospect” of delivering
it before the May 7 election.
“It is a disgrace. It is an insult
to those who died on our behalf
in that war, it is a betrayal of the
people they died to protect,”
said David Davis, a member of
the governing Conservatives,
during a debate in parliament
which saw members of all main
political parties voice frustration at the holdup.
Conservative and former attorney general Dominic Grieve
said “growing public unease”
about the way the inquiry had
been handled would likely reduce trust in its conclusions,
while senior Liberal Democrat
Tim Farron said the delay was
“an affront to democracy”.
Chilcot has said more time is
needed to give those criticised
in the report the opportunity
to respond.
But members of parliament
passed without opposition a
motion expressing regret for
the delay and calling for an explanation and a timetable for
publication by February 12.
Critics of the process have
suggested the delay to the report has been caused partly
by sensitivities about releasing exchanges between thenleaders US president George W
Bush and British PMTony Blair.
Outcry as Dippy goes the way of the dinosaurs
AFP
London
P
lans to move “Dippy” the dinosaur
from his home in London’s Natural History Museum made national
news yesterday, triggering an outcry from
fans, an online petition and even a fake
Twitter account.
Longer than two London buses, the
cast of fossilised diplodocus bones will be
moved from the entrance hall in 2017 after
more than 30 years and replaced by a blue
whale suspended from the roof.
As the Sky News channel asked pundits
whether “whales are more relevant than
dinosaurs”, #savedippy began to trend on
Twitter and many Britons spoke of their
fond childhood memories of visiting the
skeleton.
“The blue whale is just a one-hit wonder. He’s no icon that leaves tens of thousands of children staring upward in awe.
He’s no glimpse at the past, no celebra-
tion of the future, no palaeontologist’s wet
dream,” the Metro newspaper said in an
online petition.
Hosted on campaigning website change.
org, the petition had garnered 2,000 signatures within hours of going live.
The museum says the skeleton of the
blue whale, the largest animal to have lived
on Earth and which has been hunted to
near extinction, would better raise awareness of mankind’s impact on nature.
“As guardians of one of the world’s
greatest scientiﬁc resources, our purpose
is to challenge the way people think about
the natural world,” said museum director
Michael Dixon.
“That goal has never been more urgent... The blue whale serves as a poignant
reminder that while abundance is no guarantee of survival, through our choices we
can make a real difference. There is hope.”
The 25.2m-long female whale skeleton came to the museum 10 years after it
opened in 1881.
It beached itself in 1891 at the mouth of
Wexford Harbour in Ireland and its skeleton was bought by the museum for £250.
The 1905 diplodocus cast has been on
display for 35 years and was donated to
the museum by the wealthy businessman
Andrew Carnegie, based on the original
specimen in the Carnegie Museum in the
United States.
The animal was a herbivore, weighed
up to 25,000kg and lived 155 million to 145
million years ago during the late Jurassic
period.
The museum is considering Dippy’s
next move, including the possibility of it
going on tour or being exhibited outside
the museum.
The proﬁle on the fake account @
SaveDippy read simply: “Natural History Museum dinosaur looking for work.
Forced into retirement at the young age of
150 million.”
Its tweets are an anti-whale tirade, including: “Dear Blue Whale, yes, your ***
DOES look big in that. Regards, Dippy”.
Visiting school children stream past, as others sit under Dippy, the moulded resin replica of a fossilised Diplodocus
in the main hall of the Natural History Museum in London.
10
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
EUROPE
Unicef seeking $3bn for
new generation of crises
AFP
Geneva
T
he UN children’s agency
Unicef launched a record
$3.1bn aid appeal to help
62mn children at risk from a
“new generation” of humanitarian crises.
The threats ranged from the
brutal war in Syria that shows
no sign of ending after nearly
four years to the Ebola outbreak
in west Africa and the Ukraine
conﬂict.
“From deadly natural disasters to brutal conﬂicts and fastspreading epidemics, children
across the world are facing a
new generation of humanitarian crises,” said Afshan Khan,
Unicef’s director of emergency
programmes.
“The scale of the crises, their
duration and impact are unprecedented,” she told AFP. “Conﬂicts are increasingly taking on
sub-regional dimensions.”
Khan said that although child
ﬁghters had often been recruited
for wars in poorer countries, it
was now increasingly becoming
common in middle-income nations such as Syria.
“We have information that
thousands of children, mainly
boys between the age of 13 and
18, are being recruited by armed
groups in Syria,” she said. “What
is new is also that the groups are
paying stipends to the families
of the children.”
The aid appeal is $1bn higher
than last year and targets 98mn
people – two-thirds of them
children – in 71 countries.
Khan said 20% of the total aid
appeal was aimed at investment
in education, “the bridge to the
future”.
According to Unicef, more
than one in 10 of the world’s
children – or 230mn – currently
live in countries and areas hit by
armed conﬂicts.
The largest chunk of the appeal – $903mn – is aimed at
helping children in Syria and the
sub-region.
“Half of the children in Syria
are out of schools and one-third
of the schools have been destroyed,” said Khan, who has just
returned from a tour of Syria.
According to Unicef at least
160 children died in attacks on
schools in the country last year.
More than 8mn Syrian children have been affected by the
civil war, with 1.7mn now living
as refugees, according to the latest UN ﬁgures.
The agency is also targeting
raising $500mn to help Ebola
victims in west Africa and prevent fresh outbreaks.
“Around a quarter of the
Ebola cases here have been in
children,” said Peter Salama,
Unicef’s emergency co-ordinator for the disease.
The Ebola mortality rate is
higher in children, he said, adding that 16,000 children in west
Africa had lost their parents or
guardians to the disease.
The response to the Ebola
crisis was “the biggest logistics operation in Unicef’s history with 5,000 metric tonnes of
supplies delivered in the past six
months,” Salama said.
Another major problem area
in Africa is Nigeria where attacks by the Islamist Boko Haram group have intensiﬁed, displacing more than 1mn people in
the northeast.
Human Rights Watch (HRW)
said in October that more than
500 women and girls have been
abducted since the Boko Haram
insurgency began in 2009, although other estimates put the
ﬁgure much higher.
“I don’t see the Boko Haram
menace ending in the near future
and what is very worrying for us
is that the kidnapping of chil-
dren, especially girls, is spilling
over from Nigeria to neighbouring countries,” Khan said.
Unicef is also seeking $32.5mn
for Ukraine, where about 5.2mn
people are living in war zones,
over 600,000 people have been
internally displaced and some
1.7mn children have been affected by the conﬂict.
The appeal also targets donations for hugely underfunded
crises which have fallen off the
radar such as Afghanistan (35%
funded in 2014) and Palestine
(23% funded last year).
“Afghanistan cannot afford to
be forgotten just because it is no
longer in the headlines,” Khan
said. “Severe malnutrition affects more than 30% of children
and we cannot forget that.”
Ukraine peace talks
today in Belarus
DPA
Brussels/Moscow
U
krainian President Petro
Poroshenko has announced a fresh effort
for ceaseﬁre talks, as EU foreign
ministers drafted new sanctions
against separatists in the country and their supporters in Russia.
Poroshenko told a meeting
of the Ukraine Contact Group
that consultations should be
held promptly for an immediate ceaseﬁre and heavy weapons
withdrawal.
The Belarusian foreign ministry said the group will meet
in Minsk today and separatist
leaders indicated that they will
participate.
“If the talks happen, the main
focus will be in implementing
the ceaseﬁre,” Vladislav Deinego
of the self-declared “Luhansk
People’s Republic” told Interfax.
The contact group, which
comprises Russia, Ukraine and
the Organisation for Security
and Co-operation in Europe
(OSCE), negotiated the last
ceaseﬁre with the separatists in
September.
The renewed effort comes
amid heavy ﬁghting between
government troops and separatist militias in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Security Council
said that ﬁve soldiers were killed
and 29 wounded over the past 24
hours.
More than 30 people were
killed at the weekend in an attack on the port city of Mariupol.
“More than 5,000 people have
been killed since last April, over
half a million people have been
put out of their homes, more
than 100,000 children have
been displaced,” Irish Foreign
Minister Charles Flanagan said
in Brussels. “It’s absolutely essential that the EU responds in a
ﬁrm way, with one voice.”
The ministers have been asked
by their leaders to consider new
sanctions, but they require unanimity in the European Union –
and some countries have grown
wary of further restrictive measures.
Greece raised eyebrows this
week when its new far-left government objected to a statement by EU leaders that had
ﬁrst raised the spectre of further
sanctions.
Greek Finance Minister Gian-
nis Varoufakis later said the issue
was not the sanctions, but the
lack of proper consultation.
“Greece is working for the
restoration of peace and stability in Ukraine and, at the same
time, is working to prevent a rift
between the European Union
and Russia,” the country’s new
foreign minister, Nikos Kotzias,
said.
But Germany’s Frank-Walter
Steinmeier said that the stance
of the Greek government did not
make yesterday’s debate “any
easier”.
Several ministers expressed
hope that the bloc would remain
united, and predicted that they
would manage to issue new travel bans and asset freezes.
“Today we will reinforce the
individual sanctions against
those who continue to use armed
force, to endanger peace, to
cause victims - including civilian victims,” said Harlem Desir,
France’s minister of state for European affairs.
He said the sanctions will target “separatists and those who
support them, including Russia,
because the greatest ﬁrmness is
needed to bring (people) back to
a negotiated solution”.
Child queried over
terror comments
Commuters walk along the passageways of the RER Parissuburban train network at the Chatelet-Les Halles station in Paris
yesterday during a strike on the RER A line in response to an
assault against a train driver on the line a day earlier.
1mn stuck as attack
sparks rail strike
AFP
Paris
M
ore than one million
Parisians faced commuter hell yesterday
when drivers on one of Europe’s busiest train lines went
on strike after a passenger assaulted one of their colleagues.
There were chaotic scenes
at stations across the capital
after the RER A line – which
cuts across the city and carries 1.2mn people a day – was
totally stopped.
The strike began the night
before when a passenger in
Torcy, east of Paris, got his
hand stuck in the closing doors
and hit the driver when he
came to deal with the situation.
Drivers across the whole line
then decided to go on strike in
solidarity, demanding greater
security – the ﬁrst time the
entire line has been shut down.
The line was due to resume
limited services for the evening
commute.
Secretary of State for Transport Alain Vidalies said he
sympathised with the victim of
the attack, but that the strike
“did not constitute the right
response”.
Midday in St Lazare station
in central Paris, the corridors
were already full of people
running to platforms any time
a train was ﬁnally announced.
“I’ve been stuck for an hour
in the crowd, waiting for it to
disperse,” said Eric, trying desperately to get home.
An eight-year-old boy in France
was questioned by police for
half an hour on Wednesday after
he allegedly made comments
in school in praise of terrorists,
police said.
The child triggered concern
when he refused to take part in
a minute’s silence at his school
in the southern city of Nice after
Islamist gunmen shot dead 12
people at the Paris offices of the
satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo on
January 7, according to Marcel
Authier, in charge of the region’s
public security.
“In the current context, the
principal of the school decided
to report to police what had
happened,” said Authier, who
stressed that no complaint had
been filed against the boy. “We
summoned the child and his
father to try and comprehend
how an eight-year-old boy could
hold such radical ideas.”
People wait in a shelter for the end of a round of shelling in Enakieve, southwestern Debaltseve,
yesterday. The EU prepared yesterday to expand sanctions against Russia as Ukraine’s warring parties
announced fresh truce talks after a surge in fighting between Kiev and Kremlin-backed rebels.
Expectations were also high
that the EU will extend a set of
existing sanctions coming up for
renewal in March, which targets
people deemed responsible for
destabilising Ukraine.
EU sanctions have so far had
little effect in halting the ﬁghting in Ukraine, but Lithuanian
Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius insisted that they are the
right way to go.
“Let’s be patient, let’s let
them work and I hope, I believe
that rational thinking will come
ﬁnally,” he said. Ukrainian For-
eign Minister Pavlo Klimkin,
who met with Kotzias yesterday,
said that he hopes the EU will
step up pressure on Russia.
“I understand that the ministers are ready to prepare bold and
robust statements about supporting Ukraine, about further
ideas how to increase pressure
on Russia,” he said after talks
with Nato Secretary General
Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels.
Russia, meanwhile, cautioned
Bosnia-Herzegovina
against
delivering ammunitions to
Ukraine.
“These deliveries are planned
by a country that itself experienced all the horrors of a fratricidal war from 1992 to 1995,”
foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said.
According to local media reports, two Bosnian companies
have agreed to deliver riﬂe and
pistol ammunition worth some
$5.6mn to Ukraine.
Russia itself is widely accused
of delivering arms, ﬁghters and
regular troops to the separatist militia ﬁghting in eastern
Ukraine.
EU strategises against militants
AFP
Riga
E
uropean Union interior
ministers met yesterday in Riga to ﬁnalise
a counter-terrorism strategy targeting radical Islamists
weeks after the Paris terror attacks that left 17 people dead.
The ministers recommend
more stringent controls on EU
citizens leaving and entering
the Schengen free travel zone,
an air passenger registry to
check the movement of suspected Islamist militants and
fresh cyber-security measures
aimed at intercepting suspect
traffic.
“We need ﬁrst of all to
strengthen existing instruments. We already have many
important tools in place. Now
is the moment to enhance
them even more,” said EU
Commissioner for Migration
Dimitris Avramopoulos.
Those tools include a new
understanding with “key
players of the Internet industry to discuss the challenges
posed by online terrorist
propaganda”, he added.
“It is vital that member
states work further at the national level to tackle illegal
content online,” he said, to
counter the radicalisation of
young Muslims and prevent
their recruitment by jihadists.
Other measures discussed
include better information
sharing for “identiﬁcation of
travel routes of terrorism”
“An EU passengers’ name
record directive is necessary.
It is necessary to enhance
substantially the security of
all people living in Europe,”
Avramopoulos said.
A joint statement by the
28 EU interior ministers said
the European Commission
needed to present its strategy
“by mid-April 2015 at the latest” in order to update the EU
Internal Security Strategy “by
mid-2015”.
Raids against suspected Islamic militants were staged in
several EU countries, notably Belgium, after the Islamist attacks in Paris earlier this
month.
More than 3,000 Europeans
have joined militant Islamists
ﬁghting in Syria and Iraq according to EU statistics. Thirty per cent of the recruits have
since returned to Europe.
Renzi
proposes
senior
judge as
president
Reuters
Rome
P
rime Minister Matteo
Renzi has proposed a senior judge to be Italy’s next
president in a move which may
strain his government’s alliance
on reforms with opposition rival
Silvio Berlusconi.
Though a largely ceremonial ﬁgure, the Italian head of
state wields important powers
at times of political instability,
a frequent occurrence in Italy,
when the president can dissolve
parliament, call elections and
pick prime ministers.
The result of a ﬁrst round of
voting by some 1,009 parliamentarians and regional officials
got underway yesterday.
A candidate needs a twothirds majority to win, which
looks unlikely to happen now,
but from the fourth round –
probably tomorrow – only a
simple majority is required.
Renzi proposed Sergio Mattarella, a constitutional court
judge and a former defence minister, as the candidate for his
centre-left Democratic Party
(PD) at a meeting of his party’s
electors.
They unanimously accepted
the candidacy.
Berlusconi said he would not
back Mattarella and accused
Renzi of breaking their pact
on reforms by not proposing a
jointly agreed candidate.
Mattarella, whose brother was
murdered by the Sicilian Maﬁa
in 1980, would be “capable of
guaranteeing Italy seven years of
distinguished leadership”, Renzi
said.
Mattarella’s political roots
are in Italy’s defunct Christian
Democrat party and he has never
been close to Berlusconi.
In 1990 he resigned as education minister in protest over a
decree which favoured Berlusconi’s media empire.
Renzi said he was not willing
to select a compromise candidate and his choice of Mattarella
could drive a political wedge
between the two leaders whose
alliance over electoral and constitutional reform has created
friction in Renzi’s PD.
On paper, Renzi has the numbers to get Mattarella elected
from the fourth round, but the
voting is conducted by secret
ballot and has shades of intrigue
reminiscent of the papal conclaves which take place across
Rome’s Tiber River.
Italy’s previous president,
Giorgio Napolitano, 89, who
resigned this month, used his
powers to the full, intervening in
2011 to replace a scandal-weakened Berlusconi with ex-EU
commissioner Mario Monti at
the height of the euro debt crisis.
Napolitano appointed three
unelected premiers in all.
The 40-year-old Renzi, who
has been in power for less than
a year, has a lot riding on this
presidential vote.
Failure to seat Mattarella in
the fourth or ﬁfth round would
mean his authority over his party
is wavering and put the deal on
institutional reform with Berlusconi in jeopardy, raising the
spectre of an early national election.
With newly elected Greek
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras
facing tricky negotiations with
German-led European partners
on renegotiating Greece’s debt,
a political crisis in Italy would
compound uncertainty in the
eurozone.
German carnival bans Charlie Hebdo tribute ﬂoat
AFP
Berlin
G
ermany’s biggest carnival
procession, which often
includes edgy political
satire, has banned a ﬂoat paying
tribute to the slain cartoonists of
French magazine Charlie Hebdo
due to security fears, organisers
said.
The ﬂoat design, selected in an
online popular vote, featured a
man dressed in black with an explosives belt and a drawn gun and
a jester shoving a pencil down its
barrel.
The carnival committee in
the western city of Cologne said
in a statement released late on
Wednesday that it backed the
message of the ﬂoat defending
free speech and freedom of the
press.
But it had received “messages
from concerned locals which we
take seriously”, though organisers admitted there was “no indication” from the police of a credible terror threat.
“Carnival shouldn’t make
people worry – we should be able
to have a carefree celebration together,” the statement added.
“We do not want a satirical
ﬂoat that curbs the freedom and
light-hearted style of the carnival. For this reason we decided
today to stop the construction of
the Charlie Hebdo ﬂoat and not to
allow it to join the Rose Monday
procession” on February 16, the
organisers explained.
Some have criticised the decision as a capitulation to extremists.
“I voted for the design and
don’t understand this move at
all,” the head of the state chapter
of the Greens party, Sven Lehmann, said. “How can there be
broad participation in the selection process and then the result
be summarily cancelled? If fear
overcomes carnival, terror has
won.”
Cologne’s carnival in the heart
of Germany’s predominantly Roman Catholic Rhineland is usually a potent mix of beer-soaked
revelry and elaborately decorated
ﬂoats that poke fun at political
leaders.
Previous send-ups have included then-Iranian president
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2012
slamming a nuclear missile into
the United Nations headquarters
in New York, the Pope brandishing condoms, and a scandalplagued German minister in a
ﬁghter plane crashing into Angela Merkel’s chancellery with the
words “Merkel’s September 11”.
Islamist gunmen shot dead
12 people, including some of
France’s best-loved cartoonists,
in an attack on the Paris offices of
Charlie Hebdo on January 7.
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
11
INDIA
After Vodafone, govt changes tax rules to boost investment
Reuters
Mumbai
T
he government has asked
tax officials to apply the
principle behind a tax ruling in favour of Vodafone Group
Plc to all similar cases, a major
boost to foreign ﬁrms including
Royal Dutch Shell PLC.
The order was detailed in a letter sent by the ﬁnance ministry to
all tax officials across the country
yesterday.
India’s image as an investment
destination has been tarnished
by a reputation for red tape, unpredictable rules and a tax ofﬁce long seen as over zealous in
its pursuit of foreign companies
with billions of dollars of demands.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, which stormed
to power in May on promises it
would reboot a slowing economy,
has sought to change that.
Tax lawyers said they expected
the government order to impact
Uber asked
to resubmit
application
for licence
Reuters
New Delhi
N
ew Delhi’s transport
department has written to US taxi hailing
company Uber Technologies
Inc detailing problems with its
application for a licence in the
city, further complicating the
ﬁrm’s ability to operate in India’s capital.
While the letter, or “deﬁciency memo,” is not a rejection of Uber’s application, the
company will have to resubmit
a portion of it to be granted a
licence, a government official
said.
Uber’s services have been
banned since December in New
Delhi, when one of its drivers
was accused of raping a passenger. The company restarted
operations last week after applying for a radio taxi licence,
though the government said
Uber was still blacklisted.
In new rules set by New
Delhi’s transport department
last month, taxi-hailing app
companies need to install
emergency buttons in their
cabs and have tracking devices
linked to call centres to obtain
a licence.
The memo from the transport department said Uber
did not provide details of its
call centre and its application
lacked proof of its registered
office in New Delhi.
“As an applicant, Uber has
to come back if it is interested,” said a senior transport ofﬁcial who was not authorised
to speak with media on the
matter and so declined to be
identiﬁed.
“Otherwise, the application won’t move forward... We
are not using the word rejected
anywhere.”
Similar letters were sent to
Uber’s local rivals TaxiForSure
and Ola, which is backed by Japan’s SoftBank Corp. The apps
of all three ﬁrms are currently
working in the city.
TaxiForSure did not respond
to a request for comment,
while Ola declined to comment. An Uber spokesman said
the company is working with
authorities to understand their
requirements.
Several companies in New
Delhi offer taxi services primarily via a smartphone app, but
the transport department said
some are openly ﬂouting rules
and are not registered to ply on
roads.
The rape accusation in December reignited debate about
women’s safety in India and
particularly in New Delhi,
which is often dubbed India’s
rape capital.
Uber is also ﬁghting bans in
France, Spain and South Korea
for alleged violations including
using incorrectly licensed drivers. It has also had to contend
with further rape allegations
against drivers in Chicago and
Boston.
Editor held over Charlie Hebdo reprint
Police have arrested and bailed the editor of an Urdu-language
newspaper in Mumbai for reprinting a cartoon of Prophet Muhammad
from satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo, police said yesterday.
Shirin Dalvi, editor of the Mumbai edition of the daily Avadhnama
newspaper, was arrested by police in the town of Mumbra in Thane
district. The editor was arrested under section 295A of the Indian Penal
Code, which bans malicious and deliberate acts intended to outrage
religious feelings. “She was arrested by us, produced in the court and
granted bail. We are investigating the matter,” S M Mundhe, senior
police inspector in Mumbra, said. The Indian Express said several
readers approached police in Mumbai and Thane after Avadhnama
reprinted the Charlie Hebdo cover image. Last week, tens of thousands
across Jammu and Kashmir, Afghanistan and Pakistan took to the
streets to protest against Charlie Hebdo’s cartoon.
all the past and future cases involving tax on shares issued by a
company to related entities - the
heart of the Vodafone case.
The order came a day after the
government said it would not appeal a Bombay High Court ruling
in favour of Vodafone in a longrunning dispute under which the
taxmen had accused a unit of the
British telecoms ﬁrm of underpricing shares in a rights issue.
“In view of the acceptance of
the above judgment, it is directed that the ratio decidendi of the
judgment must be adhered to by
the ﬁeld officers in all cases here
this issue is involved,” said the
letter from the ﬁnance ministry,
using a Latin phrase denoting
the rationale behind the ruling.
The decision will also bring
relief to Shell, which won a favourable ruling in the Bombay
High Court in November after it
challenged the largest-ever claim
in an Indian tax case related to
transfer pricing.
Transfer pricing is the value
at which ﬁrms trade products,
services or assets between units
across borders, a regular part of
doing business for a multinational.
The Indian government said
in 2013 that 27 companies, including units of HSBC, Standard
Chartered and Vodafone, underpaid taxes in the ﬁscal year
2011/12 after they sold shares to
their overseas arms too cheaply.
While the latest ﬁgure on the
companies facing such charges
are not available, tax lawyers
said tax demand worth billions
of dollars have been issued in the
last couple of years in transfer
pricing cases to multinational as
well as local ﬁrms.
Most of these cases are at
various stages of litigation, they
said, adding cases such as those
involving IBM, Microsoft Corp,
Sony Corp, India’s Essar Group
and others could now be resolved
instead through negotiation.
Vodafone has been involved in
a string of tax disputes in India.
The Bombay High Court in October ruled in its favour in the share
Curtains down on Republic-Day celebrations
Bands from the army, navy and air force march during the Beating Retreat ceremony at Vijay Chowk in New Delhi yesterday. The military ceremony marks the culmination
of the four-day long Republic Day celebrations. Beating Retreat owes its origins to an ancient custom when warring armies would call a halt to fighting at sundown, lower
flags to attend to the wounded, and eat and rest. The present ceremony dates to the early 1950s when Major Roberts of the Indian Army developed this unique display by
the massed bands.
No manifesto for Delhi
elections, says BJP
According to sources, the
party decided against
manifesto as there is no clarity
about the issues to be taken
up
Agencies
New Delhi
T
he Bharatiya Janata Party
said yesterday it would not
issue a manifesto for next
month’s Delhi assembly elections, adding a vision document
will be released by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi and the party’s
chief ministerial candidate Kiran
Bedi.
“The BJP will not have a manifesto for Delhi. We will have a
vision document which will be
released by the prime minister
and Kiran Bedi,” senior BJP leader
Ananth Kumar said here.
Sources said the BJP is skipping
the manifesto as there is no clarity about the issues to be taken up
in the party document, including
full statehood for Delhi. A draft
manifesto had been prepared but
it was put on hold after Bedi’s induction into the party.
Ananth Kumar also said Modi
would address four rallies in the
capital on January 31, February 1,
3 and 4.
According to the sources, BJP
president Amit Shah will review
the campaigning on a daily basis,
and also take in to account the response garnered.
The sources added that 12 MPs
would be campaigning for the
upcoming polls and 250 public
meetings would be held in the
next seven to eight days across the
70 assembly constituencies.
Ananth Kumar also said that in
each seat, more than 1,000 party
posters would be put up.
“We will do all that it takes, and
win by a two-third majority,” he
said.
Meanwhile the party has
brought in 22 of its top central
ministers to take charge of the
campaign, which has fallen into
disarray under a divided state
unit.
With just eight days of campaigning left for the February 7
elections, the central leadership
wants to quell dissenting voices,
restore order and ensure rallies
and roadshows are well attended.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley,
who is preparing the government’s ﬁrst full budget in February, visited the Delhi BJP’s Pandit
Pant Marg office on Wednesday.
Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was
also there, holding a meeting with
the party’s media and publicity
co-ordinators, the sources said.
Addressing a press conference, Meenakshi Lekhi, the BJP
MP from New Delhi, outlined
what the central government had
achieved on women’s safety and
the measures it planned to take if
voted to power.
The 22 ministers, aided by sen-
ior BJP leaders, have also been
asked to publicise eight issues
shortlisted by the party - power
and water, education, health,
skills development and IT, housing, transport, Yamuna river and
welfare measures for the Purvanchal community.
The team includes Rajnath
Singh (home), Smriti Irani (human resource development), J
P Nadda (health), Nitin Gadkari
(transport), Ravi Shankar Prasad
(telecom), Piyush Goyal (power),
Radha Mohan Singh (farm) and
Rajiv Pratap Rudy (skills development).
Besides, 17 MPs - including
Lekhi - will hit the campaign trail
and speak on various issues every
day.
BJP chief ministers including M L Khattar (Haryana) and
Shivraj Singh Chauhan (Madhya
Pradesh) and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal of the
Akali Dal will also pitch in.
A senior BJP leader said the
T
he Congress yesterday
questioned the abrupt
sacking of foreign secretary Sujatha Singh and demanded that the government explain
the reasons for replacing her.
But the ruling Bharatiya Janata
Party retorted it was well within
the government’s rights to decide
on appointments.
Congress leader Manish Tewari wondered if the decision
was a belated result of the stern
stand taken by Sujatha Singh on
the Devyani Khobragade issue.
“The foreign secretary is the
head of the foreign service... before you start gerrymandering
with seniority and ﬁxed tenure,
you need to very categorically
explain as to what is the reason
for doing so,” Tewari said.
“After all, if the government
was unhappy with the former
foreign secretary, then they
could have asked her to go earlier.
Or did something happen during
the US president’s visit...
“If not, is there a linkage between the unceremonious sacking and the Devyani issue? Everyone is aware there are a lot of
disgruntled people because the
former foreign secretary took a
calibrated position to protect a
young officer prosecuted by the
US authorities,” he said.
The BJP, however, said it was
the government’s prerogative to
decide on appointments.
“I don’t see any reason for the
hue and cry. A government is
within its rights to decide how
it would like to appoint what ofﬁcers and with what responsibilities. And this is not the ﬁrst
time... Preceding governments
have taken (such) decisions,”
party spokesman Nalin Kohli
said.
Tewari, however, asserted that
an explanation was needed.
“It may be the government’s
right to decide, but if the government decides to curtail a ﬁxed
tenure, it must provide an explanation,” he said.
Sujata Singh was replaced with
India’s ambassador to the US
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
Taking over his new job at
South Block, where the Ministry of External Affairs is housed,
Jaishankar said: “My priorities
are the government’s priorities.”
move was largely aimed at bringing back order to the Delhi ofﬁce, which saw ugly protests by
ticket aspirants and supporters
of state chief Satish Upadhyay
following Kiran Bedi’s induction
and elevation as chief ministerial
candidate.
“There is lack of co-ordination
at the state level that reﬂects in
our candidates’ rallies and roadshows. There have even been
instances when party workers
weren’t aware of the CM candidate’s programme, leading to
poor turnout. The senior leadership will plug the gaps,” said another senior leader.
The party has also decided not
to bank solely on Bedi as she has
to focus on her constituency, the
sources said. Irani and her colleagues Sushma Swaraj and Uma
Bharti have already started holding rallies in the city. Such rallies,
roadshows and public meetings
by senior ministers will pick up in
the days to come, they added.
Hazare plans
fresh protest
Congress and BJP spar over
change of foreign secretary
IANS
New Delhi
issue case, and the attorney general recommended the government refrain from appealing.
On Wednesday the government heeded the recommendation, just days after Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley reassured
investors that India would review
its past, “adversarial,” tax policy.
A spokesman for Shell declined to comment. IBM, Microsoft, Sony and Essar were not
immediately available for a comment, while Standard Chartered
and HSBC declined to comment.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj smiles as she welcomes Subrahmanyam Jaishankar as the
new foreign secretary yesterday.
Veteran Gandhian Anna Hazare
yesterday threatened to launch
another anti-corruption protest
against the central government.
He plans to launch another
movement demanding
implementation of the Lokpal
Act and recovery of black money
stashed in foreign banks.
“During the Lok Sabha elections,
people were promised that the
black money would be brought
back within 100 days of the BJP
coming to power, and Rs1.5mn
would be deposited in the
accounts of each citizen. So far,
not even Rs15 has come,” Hazare
said. However, the 77-year old
leader has not yet disclosed
any timeframe for his proposed
agitation, though he has hinted
it would start after about six
months.
Unfazed by his closest colleagues
like Kiran Bedi and Arvind
Kejriwal not being with him,
Hazare said he would not discuss
politics of any kind.
12
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
INDIA
CONVERSION
PEOPLE
CRIME
ACCIDENT
OFFBEAT
Case filed against VHP
Chief in West Bengal
Gurinder Chadha
meets prime minister
Bihar man killed over
posters defaming girl
One dead, three hurt
in building collapse
Rape accused
marries victim
A case was registered yesterday against Vishwa
Hindu Parishad (VHP) chief Pravin Togadia
and another activist for hurting the religious
sentiments following the alleged conversion of
over 100 tribals in West Bengal, police said. The
state’s ruling Trinamool Congress had alleged that
the VHP conducted a ‘ghar wapsi’ ceremony at
Kharmadanga village on Wednesday during which
nearly 150 Christians were ‘forcibly’ converted. The
VHP refuted the charges of conversion but claimed
that a Hindu religious ceremony was conducted
that was participated by over 1,000 people from the
village, including Muslims and Christians. “We have
registered an FIR (first information report) against
Togadia and Jugal Kishore,” a police officer said.
British film director of Sikh origin Gurinder
Chadha, who is in India to finalise locations
for her movie on partition, met Prime Minister
Narendra Modi yesterday. The director took
to micro-blogging site Twitter to share a
photograph of her meeting with Modi, who is
seen in a grey pant and a dark blazer. Chadha
is seen posing with the prime minister in a
yellow suit teamed up with a long blue jacket.
“Move over @BarackObama @MichelleObama
@GurinderC got an Indian film to make on the
partition of India! #tolerance,” she tweeted along
with the photograph. Chadha also thanked
Modi for taking time out for the meeting and
apologised for her weak Hindi.
A man died and two were critically injured
after being brutally beaten for allegedly
putting up posters defaming a girl in Bihar’s
Gaya district, police said yesterday. Tension
prevails in Asni village in Gaya, about 100km
from Patna where the incident occurred, the
police said. Some posters claiming that a
local man had an affair with a girl were found
plastered across the village last Monday.
Family members of both the girl and the man
assaulted Ramesh Thakur suspecting him
to be behind the posters. Thakur revealed
involvement of two other boys - Dipak and
Vikki, who were also beaten. Thakur died of
his injuries in hospital.
A 30 year-old labourer was killed and three
others were injured when a building under
construction collapsed in south Delhi,
police said yesterday. All the four labourers
were working in the basement of the under
construction three-storey government building
when one portion of it collapsed, trapping all
of them under the debris. The incident took
place in Kidwai Nagar around 9am. Police and
officials of the fire department reached the
spot and took all the injured to hospital, where
Mandal died due of his injuries. The other three
have been admitted to t the All India Institute of
Medical Sciences (AIIMS) where their condition
is said to be out of danger.
A 32-year-old prisoner in Odisha has married a
22-year-old woman whom he allegedly raped in
January last year, an official said yesterday. The
wedding was solemnised on Wednesday at the
Jharpada jail in the state capital Bhubaneswar
where the accused is lodged. Family members,
lawyers of both sides and jail officials attended
the ceremony. According to the police, Dilip
Behera, a driver, allegedly offered the woman a
lift when she was waiting for a bus on January
23 last year. He allegedly took her to a secluded
place and raped her. Behera was arrested a few
days later. The victim and the accused had filed
a joint petition in a court seeking permission to
marry.
VS: won’t
let Mani
present
budget
Cold wave grips Kashmir
IANS
Thiruvananthapuram
K
erala opposition leader V
S Achuthanandan yesterday vowed that Finance
Minister K M Mani, who faces allegations of corruption, will not
be allowed to present the budget
this year.
“You wait and see, he will
not be allowed to present it,”
Achuthanandan told reporters
here.
The government has made it
clear that Mani will present the
2015-16 budget.
Asked if preventing Mani
from presenting the budget
would not be against democratic traditions, Achuthanandan
shot back: “Let it be, you can
wait and see.”
Mani is facing the heat after bar
owner Biju Ramesh alleged the
minister was given Rs10mn as the
ﬁrst instalment of the Rs50mn he
demanded to help reopen bars in
the state.
Achuthanandan had earlier
said that Mani will not be allowed
to enter the assembly when the
upcoming session commences.
Mani, who turns 82 today, has
also gone on record that he will
present the budget.
In related developments, senior United Democratic Front
leader R Balakrishna Pillai yesterday hit back at the ruling alliance
which had asked him to mend his
way.
UDF leaders under Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had on
Wednesday expressed their displeasure in the conduct of Pillai
but decided to give him yet another chance and asked him to
work for the good of the UDF, of
which his Kerala Congress (Pillai)
party is an ally.
But yesterday morning, Pillai told reporters he had done no
wrong and hence he need not
correct himself.
“Since me and my party were
being ignored for the past four
years, it’s the UDF leadership
which should correct ﬁrst and
then tell us to mend our ways. I
have done no wrong and I do not
intend to go out of the UDF. But
I will not attend any UDF meetings,” said a deﬁant Pillai.
Govt cancels
Golf Club
membership
of officials
The membership was a perk
gifted to the officials under
urban development ministry
quotas when the Congress
was in power
Agencies
New Delhi
T
A man speaks on his mobile phone as he waits to board a bus during snowfall on a cold
winter morning in Srinagar yesterday. Temperatures in Srinagar, which received the season’s
first snowfall yesterday, dipped to -0.2 degrees Celsius (31.64 degrees Fahrenheit), according
to the Indian Metrological Department.
he
government
has
scrapped membership of
Delhi’s prestigious golf
club for serving and retired bureaucrats as part of a crackdown
on its notoriously work-shy civil
servants, a report said yesterday.
The memberships had been
awarded to a select group of
serving and retired bureaucrats
by the previous Congress government, the Hindustan Times
daily said.
But Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has now
scrapped the perk, cancelling
memberships for 27 civil servants
teeing off from the club’s plush
greens and mulling the future of
another 30.
The newspaper said the quota
scheme organised by the urban
development ministry, which
oversees the club’s land, was
ended after it was found to be in
“contravention of rules and regulations,” without elaborating.
Congress leader Kamal Nath
headed the ministry when these
bureaucrats were made members of the club - the coveted
playground for Delhi’s rich and
famous - that has a waiting period of over four decades for new
applicants.
The ministry can jump the
queue as it holds a bunch of
membership quotas for being the
custodian of the 220-acre piece
A
n army officer killed in a
gun battle in Kashmir was
given a tearful farewell
yesterday.
The top brass of the army paid
glowing tributes to Col Munindra
Nath Rai who died on January 27.
A guard of honour was accorded to Rai at the crematorium in
Brar Square, Delhi Cantonment.
Army Chief General Dalbir
Singh Suhag, Vice Chief Lt Gen
Philip Campose and other senior officers paid ﬂoral tributes to
Col Rai who was awarded a Yudh
Seva Medal on Republic Day this
year, a day before he was killed.
The army chief was seen consoling Rai’s family. He is survived
by his wife and three children
who were present at the cremation ground.
The army chief on Wednesday
lauded the officer, saying he set
an example of good leadership.
“He was a very brave officer...
It is an example of leadership
that the moment he got information about two terrorists in
that area, he immediately went
in with his team and some other
people,” Suhag said.
Col Rai belonged to the 9
Gorkha Riﬂes, and was seconded
to the Rashtriya Riﬂes. He was
commanding his soldiers in the
encounter with the militants in
Pulwama district of Kashmir
when he was killed.
Army officials said Rai was
approached by the father and
brother of one of the militants
with an offer of surrender.
While Rai was hearing them
out, the militants burst onto the
scene ﬁring indiscriminately.
In the ensuing gun battle two
militants of the Hizbul Mujaheedin were also killed.
Police Head Constable Sanjeevan Singh also died in Tuesday’s gunﬁght.
Meanwhile in Kolkata, West
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata
Banerjee offered her condolences
to Rai’s family.
“A tweet will not wipe away
tears. My condolences to family of Colonel Rai. Salutes to all
martyrs who laid down their
lives for India,” Banerjee said on
Twitter.
15, a day before the Congress was
voted out of power, escaped the
axe.
Kamal Nath’s ministry had
added an “extended tenure”
category and nominated 10
bureaucrats, three of them IB chief Ibrahim, Raajev Lakhhara (1992-batch Indian Revenue Service officer) and Atul
Chaturvedi (joint secretary in the
department of industrial policy
and promotion) - on May 15.
“It was the decision of the
ministry to nominate me and
it’s again their decision to take it
back,” Ibrahim said.
Shashi Kant Sharma, the
comptroller and auditor general,
was the lone member in this category to survive the sack. “It is
news to me. But I hardly go to the
club,” he said.
The sword hangs over all the
remaining 30 members inducted during Kamal Nath’s tenure
through “lifelong” and “limited
playing facility” slots.
Some of the top names in these
categories are former additional
solicitor general A S Chandihok,
Congress MP Deepender Singh
Hooda, former railway minister
Dinesh Trivedi, business executive Suhel Seth, former Congress
minister Jitin Prasada, fashion
designer Ritu Beri and Kamal
Nath’s former private secretary
Khalid Bin Jamal.
After his landslide election
victory last May, Modi cracked
the whip on India’s civil servants, who are notorious for arriving late, taking long lunches and
whiling away afternoons on the
golf course.
Modi said he was shocked by
what he saw in the corridors of
power after moving to Delhi.
Malayalam star couple
officially part ways
Slain army officer
given tearful farewell
IANS
New Delhi
of prime real estate on which
the 85-year-oldc club stands.
Normally, government officials
have to pay a heavily discounted
membership fee of Rs300,000.
Others pay Rs600,000.
Former Central Bureau of Investigation director Ranjit Sinha,
former Intelligence Bureau chief
Syed Asif Ibrahim, National
Commission for Minorities secretary Rajiv Takru, joint secretary in the prime minister’s office
Jawed Ashraf, joint secretary in
the women and child development ministry I S Chahal, former
parliamentary affairs secretary
Desh Deepak Verma, former additional secretary in the ministry
of personnel P K Misra and Indian Administrative Service officer
Neeraj Kumar Gupta lost their
membership on January 15.
The list has Indian Police
Service officers Aloke Prasad and
Rajesh Ranjan as well.
Kamal Nath could not be contacted. Club secretary Sanjiv
Mehra did not shed any light.
“I have joined only recently ... I
can check the details tomorrow
morning and tell you,” he said.
The membership gift came
under two slots - tenure and extended tenure. The ﬁrst category
brought membership of up to ﬁve
years for director and joint secretary-level officers; and till retirement for officers of additional
secretary level and above.
The extended tenure varied
between three to 12 years after a
bureaucrat’s retirement.
It was found that 19 serving
bureaucrats were given “out of
turn” tenure membership. Of
these, Chittaranjan Khaitan,
then joint secretary in the ministry who was nominated on May
IANS
Kochi
E
Army chief General Dalbir Singh and other officers pay homage to Col M N Rai, in New Delhi yesterday.
stranged Malayalam ﬁlm
star couple Dileep and
Manju Warrier appeared
before a family court yesterday to
formalise their divorce. All that
now stands between them is the
official order.
It was on July 24 last year that
the couple decided to split after
16 years of marriage.
They ﬁrst appeared before the
family court here and ﬁled a joint
divorce petition. According to
legal formalities, they had to wait
for a period of six months, which
ended on Wednesday.
Yesterday, they appeared before the judge along with their
lawyers and ster half-an-hour
they went their ways.
Just before entering the car,
Dileep told the waiting media
that they will continue to be good
friends.
“After all she is the mother of
our daughter,” said Dileep.
But Warrier did not say anything and her face looked sad and
grim.
Dileep and Manju
The official order from the
court is expected in the coming
days.
The two were married in 1998,
after which Warrier quit ﬁlms,
while Dileep’s career went on.
Following differences of opinion, the two have been living
separately for some time. Their
teenage daughter lives with
Dileep.
The actress began her career
in 1995, and in a short span of
four years acted in 20 ﬁlms and in
1999, she turned a homemaker.
Last year, she returned to the
ﬁlms and her ﬁrst release How
Old Are You was a smashing hit
and with that she has got numerous offers.
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
13
LATIN AMERICA
Cuba president
demands end
to US embargo
AFP
Belen, Costa Rica
C
uban President Raul
Castro has laid out conditions to normalise relations with the United States,
demanding an end to the US
embargo, the return of Guantanamo and Havana’s removal
from a terror list.
Castro issued his demands a
week after the highest-ranking
US delegation to Havana in 35
years and Cuban officials held
landmark talks aimed at reopening embassies and renewing
ties that broke off in 1961.
Cuba has long blamed the
embargo for the communist
island’s economic woes, with
billboards in the country equating the decades-old economic
sanctions to “genocide”.
Speaking at a summit of the
Community of Latin American
and Caribbean States (CELAC)
in Costa Rica, Castro said the
“main problem” remains the
“blockade” and that the road
to ending it would be “long and
hard”.
“The establishment of diplomatic relations is the beginning
of a process toward the normalisation of bilateral relations, but
this (normalisation) won’t be
possible as long as the blockade
exists,” he said.
US President Barack Obama
called on Congress last week
to put an end to the embargo,
which was imposed in 1962 and
has been a major source of tension between the Cold War-era
Castro: Normalisation won’t be possible with the US blockade
intact.
rivals since then.
Earlier this month, Obama
used his executive powers to
ease travel and trade restrictions
with Havana, putting a dent on
the embargo.
But Castro said that the US
leader should do more.
“He could use with resolve his
broad executive powers to substantially change the scope of
the blockade, even without the
Congress decision,” he said.
Members of the 33-nation
CELAC backed Castro’s call for
the embargo to be lifted.
The group, which does not
include Washington, was created by the late Venezuelan socialist leader Hugo Chavez.
“Enough with the criminal
blockade of Cuba,” Ecuador’s
leftist President Rafael Correa
said.
Venezuelan
counterpart
Nicolas Maduro added: “While
it’s true that President Obama
has taken a big step, there is a
long path ahead.”
Castro and Obama simultaneously announced on December 17 their intention to end
half a century of animosity and
normalise ties that broke off in
1961.
Some US lawmakers have
voiced concern about the rapprochement, especially those
of Cuban-American origin, who
say Obama conceded too much
to Castro without securing
guarantees of political change
on the island.
“Some forces in the US will
try to abort this process that has
started,” Castro warned.
After last week’s talks, US and
Cuban officials said their meet-
ing had been productive and
cordial but that “profound differences” remain and that the
road to normalisation would be
complex.
The United States has invited
Cuba to hold another round of
talks in the coming weeks in
Washington.
In his speech in Belen, Costa
Rica, Castro said that Havana
also wants to be removed from
a US blacklist of state sponsors
of terrorism, which has blocked
Cuba’s access to ﬁnancial institutions.
In addition, he demanded
the return of Guantanamo Bay,
where the US navy has a base
being used to jail terrorism suspects.
Another Cuban demand is
changes to US policies that allow Cubans to stay in the United
States if they step foot on US
soil and gives them fast-track
access to permanent residency.
Cuba says that the US migration policies have caused an
exodus and brain drain over the
years.
Castro said his delegation
outlined the conditions to US
officials during last week’s historic meeting, and that more
talks will take place to deal with
these issues.
“We shared with the United
States president our willingness to advance toward the normalisation of bilateral relations
once diplomatic relations are
restored, which implies taking
mutual measures to improve
the atmosphere between both
countries,” he said.
UN to probe Mexico over missing students
AFP
Mexico City
T
he UN Committee on Enforced
Disappearances
will probe Mexico for the
ﬁrst time, as the country grapples with a crisis over 43 students missing and feared dead.
The panel will hold talks with
Mexico February 2-3 in Geneva,
a UN statement said.
The commission monitors
compliance with an interna-
tional convention to protect
people against forced disappearance, which Mexico and
43 other countries ratiﬁed, the
statement said.
In September, 43 students at
a teachers college went missing
in Iguala in southern Guerrero
state after being attacked by
gang-linked police.
The government now says
they were murdered.
“I am going to make an accusation of enforced disappearance against the police who
Court freezes
assets of former
Petrobras CEO
Reuters
Rio de Janeiro
A
Brazilian state court
froze the assets of
former Petrobras chief
executive officer Jose Sergio
Gabrielli on Wednesday amid
an investigation of graft and
money-laundering in the government-run oil producer’s
contracts with construction
companies.
State prosecutors in Rio de
Janeiro suspect Gabrielli participated in a scheme to overbill Petrobras by 32mn reais
($12.4mn) for construction
projects by local company Andrade Gutierrez SA.
Gabrielli was CEO of the
company formally known as
Petróleo Brasileiro SA between
2005 and 2012.
The court also allowed
prosecutors to access Gabrielli’s tax, banking and phone
records, as well as those of
former Petrobras executives
Renato Duque and Pedro Barusco.
Efforts to contact Gabrielli were unsuccessful while
Petrobras did not respond to a
request for comment.
A press representative for
Andrade Gutierrez said in an
e-mail that the company had
not been informed by the court
and could not offer comment
on the judicial decision.
The company has no involvement in the Petrobras
scandal and all contracts with
the oil ﬁrm were carried out
within proper legal guidelines,
the representative said.
The investigation of Gabrielli is just one branch of a
spreading multibillion-dollar scandal that has weighed
heavily on Petrobras shares.
Prosecutors say engineering
ﬁrms paid bribes to win Petrobras contracts, funnelling a cut
of the overcharged projects to
executives, vendors and political parties including Brazil’s
ruling Workers’ Party.
A Reuters review of a 2009
federal investigation of Petrobras and interviews with those
who conducted it indicate that
company executives missed
opportunities to stop the graft
before it erupted into a crisis so
big it could push Brazil’s slowgrowing economy back into recession this year.
took part in the case, the mayor
of Iguala, the police chiefs and
all officials who may have had
something to do” with the case,
Mexican attorney-general Jesus
Murillo Karam told the Mexican
TV station Milenio.
Nearly 100 suspects have
been arrested in the case, including the mayor of Iguala.
Amnesty International said
one thing that remains to be
cleared up in the attack against
the students is the role of the
army, either its possible com-
plicity or failure to act.
Parents of the students, who
have led huge marches denouncing what they say is the
role of the government, said on
Tuesday that they will send a
delegation to meet with the UN
panel on forced disappearances.
The Mexican government said
on Tuesday that it was certain
the students were murdered by
hitmen working for drug trafﬁckers, even though the remains
of only one of them had been
identiﬁed by DNA tests.
Huge gas explosion
at children’s hospital
AFP/Reuters
Mexico City
A
huge gas explosion ripped
through
a
children’s
hospital in Mexico City
yesterday, killing at least three
people and injuring dozens, including 22 children, as the building partly collapsed.
Reuters reported seven dead,
including three children.
Rescuers toiled through the
rubble of the Maternity and Children’s Hospital in the Cuajimalpa
borough to look for people who
were trapped following the blast,
said civil protection chief Fausto
Lugo.
Adrian Rubalcava, the president of the Cuajimalpa borough,
reported that four babies and
three adults had died, but both
Lugo and Mexico City Mayor
Miguel Angel Mancera said the
death toll stood at three for now.
Federal civil protection coordinator Luis Felipe Puente put
the death toll at four. One of the
dead was identiﬁed as a woman
found in the rubble.
Reuters said that Felipe Puente
conﬁrmed seven deaths.
Mancera said 58 people were
transferred to other hospitals,
many for cuts due to shattered
glass. The Red Cross said nine
babies were taken to three hospitals in the capital.
Around 40% of the hospital was destroyed, officials said.
Some 100 people were believed
to be inside the building at the
time of the explosion.
Adults with bloodied faces
were rushed into ambulances.
Mancera told MVS Radio that
the area was evacuated “for safety because a lot of the people are
babies in the crib area”.
A ﬁre was still going hours later
but ﬁreﬁghters had it under control, he said.
The disaster happened when a
gas tanker truck blew up outside
the building in the morning, ofﬁcials said.
Mancera said the explosion
took place after workers were
unable to control a pipe leak, but
officials said the cause was still
under investigation.
President Enrique Pena Nieto expressed his “sadness and
solidarity” with the victims and
their families and said soldiers
were deployed to help the search
for survivors.
Mexico has been hit by other
gas explosion tragedies in recent
years.
In February 2013, 37 people
died in the headquarters of the
state energy ﬁrm Pemex in Mexico City following a gas build-up
in the skyscraper’s basement.
In May 2013, 25 people died
when a gas tanker’s container
came loose on a highway north
of Mexico City, setting nearby
homes and cars on ﬁre.
Last year, three people were
killed in the northeastern state
of Tamaulipas when a gas leak
caused an explosion in a shopping centre.
Dead Argentine prosecutor
wary even of his guards: aide
AFP
Buenos Aires
T
he prosecutor whose suspicious death set off a
crisis for Argentina President Cristina Kirchner no longer
trusted even his bodyguards at
the violent end of his life, an assistant said on Wednesday.
A tense Diego Lagomarsino,
his voice breaking at times, recounted at a news conference in
Buenos Aires how Alberto Nisman had pleaded to be given the
.22-caliber revolver that was
used to put a bullet through his
head. Who pulled the trigger is
not clear.
Nisman’s security chief has
been suspended and is under investigation along with two other
members of his guard detail, a
court source said.
The 51-year-old special prosecutor was found dead at his home
January 18, a day before he was to
go before a congressional committee to make a bombshell accusation: that Kirchner shielded
Iranian officials implicated in the
1994 bombing of a Jewish charities office, known as AMIA.
Lagomarsino, a computer expert and the last person known to
have seen Nisman alive, said that
the prosecutor was desperate
for the gun, saying: “I no longer
trust even my guards.”
“He told me that he was not
going to use the weapon,” Lagomarsino said.
The car-bombing of the AMIA
was the worst terror strike on
Argentine soil in modern history and remains a wound in the
collective history of Argentina’s
Jewish community, Latin America’s largest.
No prosecution has been completed in the case, two decades
on; 85 people were killed and 300
injured.
Kirchner denies the claims
prepared by Nisman, and alleges
that his death – which initially
was suspected suicide – was a
plot to discredit her, suggesting Nisman was manipulated by
former intelligence agents who
then killed him to smear her.
Nisman contended that the
government had agreed to swap
grain for oil with Tehran in exchange for withdrawing “red
notices” to Interpol seeking the
arrests of the former and current
Iranian officials accused in the
bombing.
According to Lagomarsino,
Nisman told him that he also
feared for that of his daughters,
who are seven and 15 years old
and were in Spain at the time.
“Do you know what it is like
that your daughters don’t want
to be with you because they are
afraid something will happen
to them?” Lagomarsino quoted
Nisman as saying.
Lagomarsino, who had been
reluctant to hand it over, said
that Nisman badly wanted the
gun to “carry it in the glove compartment in case some crazy person came by shouting, ‘You traitor!’ This was a weapon that was
truly on its last legs”.
After Nisman’s death, Lagomarsino was charged with giving
a ﬁrearm to someone other than
its registered owner. He is the
only person to be charged so far
in the murky case.
He was at the news conference with his lawyer, Maximiliano Rusconi, who said earlier he
would ask that Kirchner be called
to testify in his client’s case.
On Monday, Kirchner, 61, announced plans to disband Argentina’s Intelligence Office and
replace it with a new federal intelligence agency.
Investigators initially said they
believed Nisman committed suicide, but classiﬁed his death as
“suspicious” and said they have
not ruled out murder or an “induced suicide”.
Nisman was mourned at a
small family-only ceremony on
Wednesday at a Jewish cemetery
on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.
Some demonstrators showed
their respects outside waving
signs reading “Cristina = Killer”
and “We are all Nisman”.
Kirchner was planning to travel to key economic partner China
tomorrow despite the maelstrom.
Fidel Castro in good health: activist
Reuters
Havana
R
etired Cuban leader Fidel
Castro is in good health,
appearing skinny but lucid, a Brazilian theologian who
met with him told official Cuban
media on Wednesday.
Castro, 88, who stepped down
from power in 2008, has not been
seen in public in a year and his
photograph has not appeared in
Cuban media since August, giving rise to speculation.
“The commander (Castro) enjoys very good health is in very
good spirits,” the writer and activist Carlos Alberto Libanio
Christo, better known as Friar
Betto, told Cuban state television
after meeting Castro in Havana
on Tuesday.
The Cuban news agency Prensa Latina quoted Betto as saying
that Castro looked thin and took
copious notes during their conversation.
Castro was lucid and well-informed on national and international affairs, he said.
Though Castro periodically
writes a column, he went silent
for several weeks after his younger brother and current president,
Raul Castro, and US President
Barack Obama announced on
December 17 they would restore
diplomatic relations.
On January 12, Castro sent a
letter to retired Argentine soccer
A student holds up a photograph of Fidel Castro at the memorial of Jose Marti on Revolution Square in Havana, on Wednesday. Cuban youths
gathered at the memorial to celebrate the 162nd birthday of national independence hero and poet Marti. Marti, who was forced to live most of
his life in exile due to his opposition to Spanish colonial rule, launched an invasion of Cuba for its independence in 1895. He was killed the same
year.
star Diego Maradona to squelch
rumours that he had died.
On Monday he ﬁnally commented on US relations, offering
lukewarm support for the agreement his brother reached with
Obama.
“I don’t trust the policy of the
United States, nor have I had an
exchange with them, but this
does not mean ... a rejection of a
peaceful solution to conﬂicts or
the dangers of war,” Fidel Castro
said in a statement published on
the website of Cuba’s Communist Party newspaper Granma.
14
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
PAKISTAN/AFGHANISTAN
Punjab governor
Sarwar resigns
In mourning
AFP
Lahore
T
Relatives and supporters of Mutahida Quami Movement attend the funeral of party activist Sohail Ahmed in Karachi yesterday.
Suicide bomber hits
Afghanistan funeral
AFP
Kabul
A
t least nine people were killed yesterday when a suicide bomber detonated himself at a funeral for the
victims of a roadside bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan, provincial officials said.
“A suicide attacker detonated himself
when he was identiﬁed by the police,”
said Khawani, the deputy security chief
of eastern Laghman province where the
attack took place, who goes by one name.
“Nine people were killed - ﬁve police
and four civilians - as a result of the attack,” he told AFP, adding that 34 people
were also wounded by the bomb.
Earlier a local official, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, said at least
eight people were killed in the attack in
the city of Mehtarlam.
Laghman governor spokesman Sarhadi
Zwak placed the death toll at 16, with another 39 wounded.
No one has claimed responsibility for
the attack but suicide bombings are a
hallmark of the Taliban’s war against foreign and Afghan security forces, now in
its fourteenth year.
Afghans weep for the victims of a suicide attack that targeted funeral prayers in
Mehtarlam city in Laghman province.
The insurgents are able to mount regular attacks across swathes of the country,
particularly southern and eastern provinces.
Yesterday’s funeral was being held for a
police commander and three other people
who were killed in a roadside bomb blast,
according to Zwak.
Afghanistan saw a surge in violence
last year as international forces wound
Sindh spreading measles
to other provinces: survey
Internews
Lahore
H
olding Sindh province responsible for transmitting measles
to the rest of Pakistan, a survey has found that the province lags
well behind Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in vaccine coverage.
According to the measles supplementary immunisation activity (SIA) coverage survey, millions of children are vulnerable to the disease and, despite facing
countrywide deaths, the vaccine coverage is lower than the 95% target set by the
World Health Organisation.
“Pakistan has not been able to eradicate polio, nor adequately control measles and neo-natal tetanus. Large disparities exist in immunisation coverage
between provinces, urban-rural populations and different wealth quintiles,”
the survey report said.
It is said to be the ﬁrst comprehensive
local study carried out since a measles
epidemic hit the country in 2012-13. Earlier, there was confusion about the factors
behind the epidemics and the number of
deaths caused by the disease.
Only Sindh and KP carried out antimeasles campaigns during the past
year. Punjab kicked off a drive this
month, while Balochistan is yet to
take the initiative, which shows that
the province has learnt no lesson from
hundreds of deaths of children caused
by the 2012-13 outbreaks and is putting
the lives of millions more at grave risk.
Funded by the WHO, the survey was
conducted by the Aga Khan University’s
Community Health Sciences Department.
The third-party evaluation was carried
out and a 40-page report was prepared in
the wake of a 12-day anti-measles campaign carried out in Sindh last year.
“The outbreak started in Sindh in
2012, killing as many as 321 children
till August 2013, and later the epidemic
spread to other parts of the country and
took hundreds of more lives,” it said.
The report noted that the epidemics were occurring despite increasing
Measles Containing Vaccine coverage
over the past three decades, the highest
(88%) being reported in 2012.
“EPI Pakistan has increased the overall immunisation coverage; however,
the country has not achieved the vaccination targets that were set in 2010.”
Sindh lagged well behind both Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in overall
vaccine coverage in general and against
measles in particular, it said, adding
that as a result Sindh had been the hub
of measles outbreaks.
“A possible explanation for this could
be the fact that the coverage with the
second dose of MCV is still only 53%;
insufficient to prevent outbreaks as per
the WHO,” the report said.
It also depicted an alarming situation regarding low coverage all over the
country by quoting the recent Pakistan
Demographic and Health Survey, saying that less than 30% of children be-
tween the ages of 12 and 23 months had
received all basic vaccinations.
It revealed that children in Karachi
were still vulnerable to the diseases due
to poor coverage in the last drive.
“The measles supplementary immunisation activity carried out by the
Sindh government during May 2014
reached a vast majority of children
throughout the province, except in Karachi,” it said.
Thatta, Sujawal and Tando Muhammad Khan were the only districts in
Sindh outside Karachi that had overall
coverage of measles immunisation in
eligible children below 95%.
“The situation in Karachi is not as
encouraging as the rest of the province,” it said, adding that in half of the
towns in Karachi children between the
ages of six months and ﬁve years had
measles immunisation rates below
95% Korangi, Gadap, Gulshan, Baldia,
North Nazimabad, the Sindh Industrial
and Trading Estate, Bin Qasim, Landhi,
Orangi and Saddar.
The children in Karachi were most
likely to be missed during the supplementary immunisation because their
parents or caregivers were unaware
about the campaign or the site or timing of vaccination.
While this was also the major reason
cited by parents and caregivers in other
parts of the province; in Karachi the
impact of this factor was much greater
in terms of number of children missed
during the SIA, the study said.
down their combat mission, which began
in 2001. It has now been downgraded to
support and training duties to help the
Afghan army and police.
About 17,000 foreign soldiers, most of
them from the US, will remain in Afghanistan as part of the new mission.
But US troop numbers are set to halve
within 12 months and fall to almost nothing in two years.
Civilian casualties rose 19% from the
previous year to a record high in 2014,
with nearly 3,200 civilians killed and over
6,400 injured, according to a UN report
released in December.
Casualties among children jumped a
third and among women by 12% by the
end of November, in the deadliest year for
non-combatants, said the report.
Afghanistan is also grappling with
political instability after lawmakers
Wednesday rejected most of President
Ashraf Ghani’s nominees for the new
cabinet, a fresh setback for the newly
formed “national unity government”.
Ghani, like his predecessor Hamid Karzai, has promised to reach out to the Taliban to ﬁnd a lasting peace for his country,
without compromising on fundamental
values including women’s rights.
he governor of Pakistan’s
central Punjab province
resigned yesterday , saying the country’s political system
had failed ordinary people and
served “only the elite class”.
Mohamed Sarwar, a businessman who served as a British
member of parliament for more
than a decade, was appointed to
the largely ceremonial role in Pakistan’s most populous and inﬂuential province in 2013.
The 62-year-old’s resignation,
less than two years into the job,
comes two days after he criticised the government for failing
to persuade US President Barack
Obama to visit Pakistan.
Sarwar renounced his British
citizenship to take the role in Punjab but in his resignation speech
in Lahore voiced disappointment
at progress in the province.
“I am resigning because the
system has failed to deliver to the
masses,” Sarwar said. “The system is serving only the elite class
and the common man is deprived
of justice, rights and prosperity.”
Punjab is the main power base
of the centre-right Pakistan
Muslim League-N (PMLN) party
of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif,
which appointed Sarwar.
Sarwar, who held elected office
for Britain’s centre-left Labour
Party for more than 25 years in
the Scottish city of Glasgow, said
he was frustrated at the lack of
progress in Punjab.
“Social injustice is increasing
in the province. The system is
not delivering,” he said.
Sarwar called Pakistan’s inability to secure a visit from
Obama - who this week made his
second tour of arch-rival India –
as a “diplomatic failure”.
One of Sarwar’s senior staff
said the governor had tendered
his resignation Wednesday night
before announcing it yesterday.
“The former governor left
Governor House immediately
after the press conference as
a house was hired for him this
morning,” the staffer told AFP on
condition of anonymity.
At his press conference, Sarwar slammed the government
for failing to address a widening
poverty gap and doing more on
crime.
“I want to see a Pakistan where
the son of a farmer, a cobbler, an
ironsmith can also go to the parliament and not just the sons of
businessman and industrialists,”
he said.
Punjab Governor Mohamed Sarwar talks at a press conference in
Lahore yesterday.
Rights groups seek stay on executions
R
ights organisations yesterday called on Pakistan to
halt the execution of the
ﬁrst civilian for a non-terror related offence since 2008, saying
the move would violate its own
official policy.
Pakistan lifted a six-year moratorium on the death penalty last
month in the case of convicted
terrorists following a Taliban
attack on a school in Peshawar
which killed 150 people.
Since then it has hanged 20
people, with plans to execute up
to 500.
But a death warrant issued
this week for convicted murderer Shoaib Sarwar has raised
the prospect of executions being
resumed for the rest of the coun-
try’s almost 8,000 death row
convicts.
Rights groups have slammed
the announcement, which sets
the date of his hanging for February 3 in the city of Rawalpindi.
“The government policy on
who should be executed is very
clear it says only people who are
on terrorism,” Kate Higham of
British legal charity Reprieve told
AFP, adding the judge in this case
had misunderstood his role and
succumbed to pressure from the
victim’s family.
Analysts believe that resuming
the executions in non-terror cases could imperil a favourable trade
agreement with the European
Union which exempts Pakistan
from taxes on its textile exports.
Cattle walk!
Afghans lead cattle past a pond on the outskirts of Herat.
Poisonous fumes kill 9 near Quetta
AFP
Quetta
A
t least nine people, all women
and children, died after inhaling
noxious fumes from an electricity generator outside their house in
southwest Pakistan yesterday.
The incident happened in Killi Karbala village, 70km north of Quetta,
the capital of oil and gas rich Baluchistan province, which borders Iran
and Afghanistan.
“These people were asleep in the
same room and inhaled poisonous
gases emitted by an electricity generator installed outside their room,” senior local administration official Bashir
Ahmad Bazai told AFP. He said the
nine - three women and six children
- were found dead yesterday morning.
Frequent blackouts due to a longstanding energy crisis in Pakistan
have forced many to turn to generators to power their homes, but safety standards are generally low and
deaths due to carbon monoxide inhalation are not uncommon.
Baluchistan is Pakistan’s largest
but least developed and most sparsely
populated province, wracked for decades by a separatist insurgency.
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
15
PHILIPPINES
Philippines mourns policemen
killed in Mindanao bloodbath
The policemen’s death is likely to
cause a clamour for revenge
AFP
Manila
A
long, slow procession of cofﬁns draped in the Philippine ﬂag
poured out of military transport planes in Manila yesterday, as the
country mourned dozens of policemen
killed in a botched anti-terror operation.
Marching to muted drums, uniformed commandos bore the numbered
coffins of comrades brought home from
the southern island of Mindanao, the
scene of the worst loss of life by the
country’s police or troops in recent
memory.
President Benigno Aquino has declared a day of mourning today for the
44 men slaughtered in a cornﬁeld Sunday when their top-secret mission—to
catch or kill one of the world’s most
wanted Islamist militants—went badly
wrong.
The killings have sparked growing
calls for retribution. Analysts warn this
threatens a peace process aimed at ending the decades-long armed conﬂict
that has claimed tens of thousands of
lives in impoverished Muslim regions
of the mainly Catholic Philippines.
Relatives wept and hugged each other as a priest sprinkled holy water on
the metal caskets, which were laid at an
air base in front of a large national ﬂag
at half-mast. Cabinet ministers and
lawmakers watched from the stands.
“As president and as father of this
country, I am greatly saddened that our
policemen had to lay down their lives
for this mission. Without question,
these people are heroes,” Aquino told
the nation on television late Wednesday.
The president was absent from yesterday’s ceremony, attending another
public event. His spokeswoman Abigail
Valte denied suggestions the president
snubbed the dead, telling reporters he
was to attend memorial services at a
Manila police camp today.
Two of the slain officers have already
been buried by their Muslim kin.
Almost 400 police commandos had
swooped before dawn in the operation to hunt down Zulkiﬂi bin Hir alias
Marwan, a top suspect in the 2002 Bali
bombings and one of the United States’
most wanted militants, with a $5mn
bounty for his capture.
A woman reacts as a metal casket containing the body of her relative arrives
Members of elite Police Special Action Force carry the remains of their comrades from military planes.
But after killing a person they
thought to be Zulkiﬂi, the commandos
came under devastating ambushes by
at least two large guerrilla groups.
Aquino said most of the casualties
were sustained after they ran into the
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF),
which signed a peace treaty with Manila last year, and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, who are allied
to Islamic State ﬁghters in Iraq and
Syria.
Police say Zulkiﬂi was killed in the
operation, although there has been no
independent conﬁrmation of his death.
Police said a second target, Filipino
militant Abdul Basit Usman, escaped.
The MILF and civilians living
amongst them suffered 16 dead or
wounded in the ﬁghting, said Teresita
Deles, Aquino’s adviser on the peace
talks.
The MILF maintains that it acted in
self-defence and has vowed to pursue
the peace process.
To cement the peace, Aquino has
urged wavering legislators to pass a
proposed law granting regional selfrule to Muslim regions in time for the
end of his six-year rule in mid-2016.
But senators have warned the law is
now unlikely to be passed by March as
planned.
Deles told ABS-CBN television that
the proposed law may face delays as
“harder questions will be asked” in
parliament, but said it was crucial for
the legislation to go through.
“If you stop it now, I am sure a few
years later we will say, ‘We cannot live
this perpetual terror... our children
can’t go to school, no hospitals can be
put up there’,” she added.
Despite the bloodbath, she said the
peace process was also continuing on
other fronts, with Philippine government negotiators and MILF counterparts meeting in Malaysia on Friday to
discuss the start of decommissioning of
rebel weapons and forces.
Former president Fidel Ramos, who
is a former military chief of staff, and
top government and security officials,
most wearing black arm bands, attended the ceremony.
Aquino was absent from the event
and instead attended the inauguration
of a new production plant of Japanese
car maker Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, triggering criticism for failing to
show concern and sympathy.
“Aquino’s absence ... speaks volumes
of the president’s lack of basic respect
for his servicemen,” said representative
Terry Ridon of the Kabataan (Youth)
party-list group. “His cold, unfeeling
heart cannot even sympathize brieﬂy
with the families of the fallen officers.”
“It is truly despicable, especially for
the commander in chief,” he added
Deputy presidential spokeswoman Abigal Valte said Aquino was not
scheduled to attend the ceremony in
the ﬁrst place.
“The president did not skip the arrival honours today. It presupposes he
was originally scheduled to attend it,
which was not the case,” she said.
Valte said the president will instead
lead services for the slain police officers
today, which he had declared as a day of
mourning.
According to defence secretary Voltaire Gazmin the massacre could have
been avoided had the covert operation
been carefully planned and co-ordinated in advance with the Armed Forces of
the Philippines (AFP).
He was reacting to accusations that
the AFP did not reinforce or it took the
military quite some time before coming
to the aid of the embattled SAF team
that at the time were already at the
receiving end of the separatist MILF
rebels, who were superior in number
and masters of the terrain.
Gazmin conﬁrmed that the 6th Infantry Division had received the SAF’s
request for reinforcement but it was
made too late or some three hours after
the police commandos’ ﬁrst engagement with the group of international
terrorist Zulkiﬂi bin Hir alias “Marwan,” a Malaysian.
“Their request for assistance arrived at 6pm when their ﬁrst encounter with Marwan, which was at about
4:30pm [or] 5pm [or] thereabouts,” he
said.
“Had there been time for co-ordination, what we feared would not have
happened,” Gazmin added.
He pointed out that soldiers from
nearby units or detachments were also
securing certain areas and could not be
simply pulled out on short notice.
“Such major operation needs careful
planning because what we entered was
a big MILF and BIFF camp. You need a
bigger force,” Gazmin said.
BIFF is the Bangsamoro Islamic
Freedom Fighters, a breakaway group
of the MILF.
A military source disclosed that the
6th ID has conducted a parallel investigation of the Maguindanao clash on
orders of higher headquarters.
“There are sensitive issues, but one
of our jobs is to take a look [at such issues].
Appropriate investigation is being
conducted,” the source, who requested anonymity for lack of authority to
speak on the matter, said.
Manila, Vietnam
to upgrade ties
Corruption hearing
Reuters
Manil
T
Makati city mayor Jejomar Erwin Junjun Binay, son of Philippines vice president Jejomar Binay, is escorted by supporters after being arrested to attend the Senate inquiry into overpriced construction of a city hall, in Pasay city, south of Manila. Mayor Binay said the filing of
plunder charges against him and vice president Jejomar Binay aim to discredit his father who is a strong contender to be president.
he Philippines and Vietnam are forging
closer ties in a symbolic move after China
stepped up activities in disputed areas of
the South China Sea, raising tension in the potential ﬂashpoint.
China claims almost the entire South China
Sea, believed to be rich in oil and gas deposits and
ﬁshery resources. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan also claim parts of the
sea, crossed by ships carrying $5tn a year in cargo.
Pham Binh Minh, Hanoi’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, yesterday began a daytwo visit to Manila for talks to build a strategic
partnership and strengthen security, trade and
cultural ties.
“We believe a strategic partnership enhances
the co-operation on a comprehensive basis,” foreign minister Albert del Rosario said, adding that
the strategic partnership with Vietnam would be
Manila’s third, after the United States and Japan.
Although officials stopped short of saying
the new effort was designed to fend off China,
the Philippines and Vietnam have been growing
steadily closer in the face of China’s growing as-
Woman faces death for drug smuggling
AFP
Manila
T
he Philippines is trying to prevent the
execution of a female citizen, who faces death by ﬁring squad in Indonesia
for drug smuggling, the foreign ministry said
yesterday.
Manila’s revelation that a Filipina is on
death row, comes after recently-elected Indonesian leader Joko Widodo’s government
executed six convicted drug smugglers and
prepares to execute 11 more.
“The Philippine government is making all
the appropriate representations with the Indonesian government at all levels on our...
request for judicial review,” foreign ministry
spokesman Charles Jose said.
He said an application to review the woman’s death sentence was ﬁled at a district
court near Yogyakarta last week.
Foreign ministry officials said the woman—
whose name was not disclosed—was arrested
at Yogyakarta airport in April 2010 carrying
2.6kg of heroin on a ﬂight from Malaysia.
He pointed out that information was
deliberately withheld to maintain the
secrecy of the operation, considering
the sensitivity of the targets and situation in the area.
“But it appears that the operation
had no proper planning and they were
not able to mitigate the situation,” the
source said.
By “they,” he was apparently referring to military leaders.
The source noted that what made
matters worse was that the reinforcement team did not know the exact location of the encounter.
“I understand that we were kept in
the dark until it became something
that we did not want to happen. When
we knew [about] it, it was too late. We
didn’t know also how to address [the
situation],” he said.
Another source said the investigation would focus on circumstances
surrounding the carnage, on the role of
the AFP in the incident and on preparations for a congressional inquiry into
the bloodbath.
“We committed no lapses. We just
want to look into the gaps, the ﬂaws
committed so that it would not be repeated,” he added.
The source said the 6th ID sent six
armored personnel vehicles and the
55th Special Action Company but were
not able to enter the area because they
did not know where exactly the ﬁghting
was taking place.
“Reinforcement teams were able to
link around 10pm with the 36 SAF men
who died,” he said, adding that many
lives were saved despite hitches.
After putting ﬁve foreigners and an Indonesian to death by ﬁring squad earlier this
month, Indonesia announced yesterday it
was ready to execute 11 more people.
Among them are two Australian leaders of
the “Bali Nine” drug-smuggling gang, who
have been on death row for almost a decade.
Despite his image as a reformist, Indonesia’s new president has been a vocal supporter of capital punishment for drug offenders,
disappointing rights activists who had hoped
that he would take a softer line on the death
penalty.
Part of the Spratlys chain
sertiveness in the region.
The strategic partnership will step up highlevel contacts between the two militaries, through
joint naval patrols, training and exercises.
Beijing has started construction work on six
reefs it occupies in the Spratlys to expand the territories, building ports, an airﬁeld and communications and surveillance facilities. It has also deployed more navy and coastguard ships.
“The massive reclamation is a threat to all of
us,” Del Rosario said, adding it has fed tension.
China’s assertiveness is leading to closer cooperation among its neighbours, in some cases,
erasing old distrust.
In December, Vietnam supported the Philippines in its arbitration case against China at the
UN tribunal in the Hague. China has refused to
participate. The Philippines expects a ruling early
next year.
Last year, Vietnam and the Philippines held
their ﬁrst naval talks and their seamen played volleyball and soccer on a Vietnamese-held island,
and Vietnam’s two most powerful frigates made
port calls in Manila.
“We already have joint training and exercises
with the US military every year and we are looking forward to hold exercises with the Vietnamese
navy,” a Philippine navy officer told Reuters.
16
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
SRI LANKA/BANGLADESH/NEPAL
Army trying to create
unrest: Lanka govt
The government is trying to
demilitarise the country
AFP
Colombo
S
ri Lanka’s new government yesterday accused the military of trying
to sow unrest to sabotage its efforts
to bring about ethnic reconciliation in the
war-ravaged north of the country.
Sri Lanka has promised to give greater
autonomy to the mainly Tamil northern
peninsula, which was worst hit by the decades-long civil war, and remained heavily
militarised under the former administration.
The government said it was investigating allegations that two senior military ofﬁcers were training 400 troops to provoke
unrest in Jaffna, capital of the northern
province.
“We have information that saboteurs
are being trained in small batches of 10 at
a time and they are being deployed in Jaffna,” said government spokesman Rajitha
Senaratne.
Senaratne said the men had been ordered to carry out small-scale incidents
across the former conﬂict zone to give the
impression that the new government had
no control.
Sri Lanka’s new president Maithripala
Sirisena has moved quickly to reduce the
role of the military in Jaffna since he was
elected on January 8, sacking the retired
army general who ran the province and replacing him with a former diplomat.
The country’s Tamil minority voted in
large numbers for Sirisena, whose predecessor Mahinda Rajapakse oversaw the
brutal military crushing of a Tamil separatist insurgency.
Rajapakse’s regime won popularity for
ending the 37-year conﬂict, but he was
blamed for failing to ensure ethnic reconciliation between the Tamils and the island’s Sinhalese majority.
Senaratne, who is also health minister
in the new government, said senior military officers had been in contact with the
former president’s brother, ex-defence
secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse, about the
alleged bid to destabilise Jaffna.
He also said the new government would
return land taken from Tamil residents in
Jaffna for commercial exploitation by the
military.
He said there was no justiﬁcation for the
military to retain seized land in the area,
where it has established hotels, restaurants and farms.
An army spokesman said the complaint
had been brought to the attention of military chief Daya Ratnayake, but declined to
comment on the allegation.
The United Nations estimates that at
least 100,000 people were killed in Sri
Lanka’s Tamil separatist conﬂict between
1972 and 2009.
Senaratne said the government was
working on releasing some 275 Tamil prisoners who have been held in custody for
long periods without any charges brought
against them.
The authorities are already investigating claims that Rajapakse tried to use military force to remain in power as election
results showed he was headed for defeat.
Police have questioned several people,
including the then chief justice Mohan
Peiris, who was removed from his post on
Wednesday.
The government has already committed
to granting limited autonomy to Tamils in
line with a 1987 law that has never been
fully implemented.
Sri Lanka is planning an investigation
into accusations of human rights abuses in
the ﬁnal stages of a 26-year civil war amid
international frustration at the failure to
look into numerous civilian deaths, a government spokesman said late on Wednesday.
Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa,
who was ousted in a surprise election defeat this month, had refused to cooperate
with any UN investigation into claims the
army committed atrocities in the war that
ended in 2009.
Without some accountability for civilian deaths, the United Nations argues
there will be no lasting reconciliation to
allow Sri Lanka to move on from the war
that dragged on for decades as ethnic
Tamil rebels battled for autonomy in the
island’s north and east.
“We are thinking of having our own
inquiry acceptable to them to the international standards,” Rajitha Senaratne, a government spokesman, told
a forum of foreign correspondents in
Colombo, referring to the United Nations.
“It will be a new local inquiry. If we
need, we will bring some foreign experts.”
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in November accused Rajapakse’s government of trying to “sabotage” its own investigation and creating a
“wall of fear” to prevent witnesses from
giving evidence to its inquiry set up in
March.
About 40,000 Tamil civilians were
killed in the ﬁnal weeks of the war, most
of them by the Sri Lankan army, the United Nations estimated in a 2011 report. Sri
Lanka has rejected the accusations and
has been conducting its own investigation.
Newly elected president Maithripala
Sirisena in the run up to the vote promised a new investigation under an independent judiciary, but rejected demands
for an international inquiry.
This week, he sent his senior adviser
on foreign relations to meet U.N. officials
to discuss the investigation, government
sources said.
Senaratne also said the government
was looking at releasing political prisoners, mainly suspected members of the
defeated Tamil Tiger rebel group.
Strike in Bangladesh
Cinemas
boycott top
actor over
Hindi ﬁlm
protests
AFP
Dhaka
B
angladesh cinemas will
boycott movies starring
the nation’s top actor
after he led protests against
the ﬁrst screening of a Hindi
ﬁlm in decades in the Muslimmajority nation, an official said
yesterday.
Bollywood
blockbuster
Wanted opened in cinemas
on the weekend after Bangladesh’s censor board cleared its
nationwide release, following
a 50-year ban on Hindi-language ﬁlms.
But the screenings sparked
protests outside cinemas along
with wildcat strikes by hundreds of Dhaka actors, directors and others, who said the
release would cripple the local
ﬁlm industry, known as Dhallywood.
Bangladesh
heartthrob
Shakib Khan led the marches
on cinemas, where protesters
ripped up Hindi ﬁlm posters
and pleaded with fans queueing at ticket booths to boycott
the ﬁlm.
“We’ll stop Hindi ﬁlms at
any cost,” Khan was quoted as
saying by a local daily newspaper yesterday.
Bangladesh cinema owners
reacted sharply, saying they
would show not any movies
starring Khan and the other
protesters and defending their
decision to screen highly-popular ﬂicks from neighbouring
India on ﬁnancial grounds.
“We’ve released Hindi ﬁlms
because we’re now facing (an)
existential crisis,” said Saiful
Islam Chowdhury, president
of the Bangladesh Motion Pictures Exhibitors Association.
“It’s unfortunate that Shakib
Khan, Misha Shawdagar and
other actors and directors have
used violence to try to prevent
us from showing Hindi ﬁlms.”
Chowdhury said the country’s 350 ﬁlm theatres “have
decided not to show any ﬁlms
by Shakib Khan” along with
Shawdagar and several directors.
A court last year ruled Wanted could be shown in Bangladesh, despite a prohibition
on Hindi ﬁlms dating back to
a brief war between India and
Pakistan in 1965 when Bangladesh was part of East Pakistan.
The censor board gave
Wanted the ﬁnal go ahead in
November for screening this
year.
Although pirated CDs of Indian ﬁlms are hugely popular in
Bangladesh, the ban on Hindi
movies continued after the
country gained independence
in 1971.
The government brieﬂy lifted the ban in 2010 after caving
into pressure from struggling
cinemas, hundreds of which
have shut down in recent years
because of poor ticket sales.
But it was quickly reimposed following furious
protests by local actors and
directors, who claimed the
Bangladesh ﬁlm industry was
at risk from the imports.
Chowdhury said the government had recently lifted the
ban again under a free trade
deal between South Asian
countries.
Given the censor board’s
clearance of Wanted, he predicted that importers would
be more emboldened to start
bringing in more Hindi ﬁlms.
Khan said yesterday the ban
should remain to protect local
movie industry, which produces around 60 ﬁlms a year.
Nepal urged to act
against killers of girl
Agencies
Kathmandu
Workers during the countrywide strike called by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) at Keranigonj in Dhaka. Violence erupted in different parts of the country after
former prime minister Khaleda Zia called a nationwide transport blockade on 05 January, the first anniversary of a controversial election that her Bangladesh Nationalist
Party and allies boycotted. According to official estimates, at least 35 people have since been killed in firebomb attacks on passenger buses, cars and trucks as vehicles plied
on highways in defiance of the blockade.
T
he United Nations has
urged Nepal to prosecute the killers of a
schoolgirl during the civil war
and provide compensation to
her relatives, the Kathmandu
Post reported yesterday.
Subhadra Chaulagain, 17,
was shot dead in 2004 by security forces who suspected her
of being a Maoist rebel.
The girl’s father, assaulted
by police during the incident,
ﬁled a complaint with the UN’s
Human Rights Committee.
It is the eighth case dating
from Nepal’s 1996-2006 civil
war that the committee has
recommended for prosecution
by Nepalese authorities.
Colombo bans planned luxury casinos
AFP
Colombo
S
ri Lanka’s new government yesterday scrapped generous tax
concessions for foreign-funded
resorts and banned them from including casinos after opposition by the
country’s inﬂuential Buddhist monks.
Prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said the government would pull
with immediate effect tax breaks for
three luxury resorts that had been given
the green light to open in Colombo with
high-end gambling houses.
“We will not allow casinos on their
premises,” the premier told lawmakers.
The previous government led by Mahinda Rajapakse had introduced measures—including a 5% tax rate for the
resorts—in a bid to turn the Sri Lankan
capital into a gambling hotspot, despite
resistance from Buddhist monks.
President Maithripala Sirisena, who
swept to victory in January 8 elections
backed by the country’s main party of
monks, pledged to end the breaks during
his campaign. Yesterday’s moves place
a question mark over the future of Australian gambling mogul James Packer’s
plans to build a $350mn luxury hotel
with a casino.
The other two mega resorts are a
$650mn development by local conglomerate John Keells Holdings, which
has foreign shareholders, and a $300mn
project by local businessman Dhammika
Perera, who has sought overseas funding.
None of the proposed gambling operations have opened in Colombo yet,
but several small, local, low-key casinos
have been in operation for decades, exploiting legal loopholes.
Packer’s proposed 450-room Crown
Sri Lanka resort—which once promised on its website to offer “world-class
gaming facilities”—is yet to begin construction.
Government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said the operations of existing local casinos would also be reviewed.
“We are told there are two or more
casino licences in the country, but we
want to see the legal basis of those operations,” Senaratne said. “We will review
all this.”
Finance minister Ravi Karunanayake
said he would give existing local casinos,
thought to number about ﬁve, a deadline
of mid April to pay a ﬂat fee of 1bn rupees ($7.6mn) to remain in business.
Sri Lanka’s new government Thursday announced hefty taxes on top companies in a bid to raise revenue, accusing
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena (L) and Sri Lankan prime minister Ranil Wickremasinghe listen as a supplementary
budget is presented to parliament.
the previous regime of fudging the ﬁgures and leaving the economy in a “sad
state”.
Finance minister Ravi Karunanayake
also said prices of essential food items
would be slashed to cut the cost of living for average Sri Lankans, as he unveiled his government’s supplementary
budget.
Karunanayake said public debt had
been hidden and growth artiﬁcially
inﬂated by the regime of Mahinda Ra-
japakse, who was ousted after 10 years in
elections this month on claims of corruption and cronyism.
“The officials and economic experts
have looked into the ﬁgures and now the
economics of deceit and falsehood had
surfaced,” Karunanayake told parliament.
“The bad news is that economy is in
a sad state, and the good news it is not
beyond resurrection and is in safe and
sound hands,” he said, pledging a trans-
parent government.
Karunanayake announced a “super”
tax of 25% on companies which earn annual net proﬁt of more than 2bn rupees
($15.38mn), and a 1bn rupee ($7.56m) tax
on Sri Lanka’s handful of local casinos.
He revealed tax cuts on a dozen essential food items including milk powder
and bread, and granted a 10,000-rupee
($76) salary increase to more than 1.6mn
public servants.
A “mansion” tax of 1mn rupees
($7,700) will also be imposed annually
on owners of large homes, the minister
said.
The new government last week reduced fuel by 20% and pledged further
reductions, in populist measures ahead
of parliamentary polls.
President Maithripala Sirisena has
pledged to dissolve parliament in April,
two years ahead of time, and call an
election aimed at strengthening his hold
on power.
Karunanayake said debt was 88.9% of
GDP, sharply higher than the Sri Lankan
central bank’s ﬁgure of 74.5% given before the change of government.
Sri Lanka reported more than 8%
growth in the ﬁrst two years after the
end of a decades-long separatist war in
2009, and has recorded steady growth
since then.
But Karunanayake branded those ﬁgures highly suspect, although he did not
estimate what the actual ﬁgures were.
Karunanayake’s government has accused the former regime of stealing at
least $5.38bn in 2013 alone by inﬂating
costs of mega infrastructure projects.
Former strongman Rajapakse, who
has also been accused of stacking his
former regime with relatives, has denied
such kickbacks.
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
17
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH
The Prophet’s rights
P
senger that you were mocking?’” (9:65)
It is reported that in the course of the
campaign of Tabuk, a man came up one
day and declared, “We have seen no people
with greater appetite, more lying, or more
cowardly in battle than the Prophet of Allah and his reciting companions.” Awf ibn
Malik rose and said, “It is rather you that
are a liar. You are a hypocrite, pretending
to be a Muslim. I shall tell the Prophet of
Allah about you.”
Awf then went to the Prophet to inform
him but found that revelation had already
preceded him. (When the news reached)
the man, he mounted on his camel, sought
the Prophet of Allah and said, “But we
were only joking, trying to pass the time
while travelling.” Ibn Umar said, “He was
clinging to the saddle belt of the Prophet’s
camel as it ran, his feet and legs being battered by the rough ground and repeating,
“But we were only joking.” And the Prophet
insisting without turning his face to him,
“Joking? Joking with Allah, with His revelation? With His Prophet?”
rophet Muhammad, sallallaahu
‘alaihi wa sallam, deserves special
rights, which are due only to the ﬁnal Prophet and Messenger. These
rights have been enjoined upon us by Allah
and are part of safeguarding the perfect
religion of Islam. Unfortunately many
Muslims today have become confused with
regard to these rights and have innovated
practices that have no basis in Islam. The
Prophet himself knew that such practices
would happen and warned against them,
“Beware of newly invented matters (in religion that is) for every invented matter (in
religion) is a cursed innovation which leads
astray.” (Tirmithi and Abu Dawud)
So as Muslims we must stick to giving
our Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam,
his rights as commanded by Allah and stay
away from the innovations that either ignore these rights or take them to extremes.
Allah sent Muhammad, sallallaahu
‘alaihi wa sallam, to all of mankind, with
the divine message of la ilaha illallah (there
is no deity worthy of worship except Allah).
He brought glad tidings of Paradise to the
believers and warning of the punishment
of Hellﬁre to the disbelievers. He called
to tawheed, the belief that Allah is the
sole Creator and Lord of the universe, and
therefore He alone should be worshipped.
Believing in Allah is also believing in His
Messenger.
To believe in him
There is no doubt that the ﬁrst of our
Prophet’s rights is to believe in him and to
believe in the message he was sent with.
Allah says, “Believe in Allah and His Messenger and the light which He sent down.”
(64:8) Qadhi Eyadh said in his famous
and important book about the rights of
the Prophet, Ash-Shifaa, that, “Belief in
the Prophet Muhammad is therefore an
obligation for every individual. Belief is not
complete without it and Islam is only valid
with it.”
Allah has linked belief in Him with belief
in His Messenger. They are inseparable.
This is what shahadah, the declaration of
faith, means. Even if a person follows other
prophets like Musa and Eesa, alayhemas
salam, he is not a believer until he completely follows the teachings of Muhammad. Abu Hurairah, radhiallahu ‘anhu,
reported that the Messenger of Allah said,
“I was commanded to ﬁght people until
they testify that there is no god but Allah
and believe in me and what I have brought.
When they do that, their blood and property are protected from me except for a
right (they owe). Their reckoning is with
Allah.” (Bukhari and Muslim)
Believing in the Prophet, therefore, is
about living according to his guidance. It
is much more than just mere recognition
of the fact that he is a prophet. Allah says,
“When the hypocrites come to you, they
say, ‘We testify that you are the Messenger of Allah’ and Allah knows that you are
His Messenger and Allah testiﬁes that the
hypocrites are liars.” (63:1)
At the time of the Prophet Muhammad,
sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, the Jews who
lived in Arabia had been waiting for the
promised Prophet that they knew of from
their scriptures. But when Muhammad
came they rejected him out of arrogance
because he was not a Jew. Many of the
rabbis, however, recognised that he was a
Prophet but did not accept him or believe
in him. Allah says about them, “Those to
whom We gave the scriptures recognise
him as they recognise their sons. But verily,
a party of them conceal the truth while
they know it.” (2:146)
Ibn Ishaq reports in his biography of
the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam,
that Saﬁya bint Huyayy said, “I was the
favourite child of my father and my Uncle
Abu Yasir. When I was present they took
no notice of their other children. When
the apostle was staying in Quba with the
brother ‘Amr ibn ‘Auf, the two went to see
him before daybreak and did not return
until after nightfall, weary, worn out,
drooping and feeble. I went up to them in
childish pleasure as I always did, and they
were so sunk in gloom that they took no
notice of me. I heard my uncle say to my
father, ‘Is he the one? Do you recognise
him?’ Can you be sure?’ ‘Yes!’ ‘And what
do you feel about him?’ ‘By God I shall be
his enemy as long as I live!’”
Believing in something is more than just
recognising that it exists. Satan, as explained in the Qur’an, recognises that Allah
exists yet he is the worst of the disbelievers.
To obey him
The second right, which is due to our
beloved Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa
sallam, is that we obey him. Allah says,
“O you who believe, obey Allah and His
Messenger...” (8:20) Allah has mentioned
obedience to the Messenger in connection with obedience to Him. You cannot
have one without the other. Obeying the
Messenger means, following his commands and staying away from what he has
prohibited. Abu Hurairah narrated that the
Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, said:
“All of my ummah will enter Paradise except for those who refuse to.” They asked,
“O Messenger of Allah, who will refuse?”
He replied, “Whoever obeys me will enter
the Paradise. Whoever disobeys me has
refused.” (Bukhari)
To follow him
Allah says, “You have a good model in
the Messenger of Allah for one who hopes
for (the meeting with) Allah and the Last
Day.” (33:21) Commenting on this verse,
Imam Tirmithi said, “To take the Messenger as a model means to emulate him,
follow his Sunnah and avoid opposition to
him in either word or action.” We should
strive to follow his mode of life, his sayings,
and doings, his conduct and manners.
We can see from Prophet’s companions, the way in which they emulated the
Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam,
followed his examples, and modelled their
behaviours upon his. This is what it means
to follow the Prophet Muhammad. A man
from Khalid ibn Asid’s family asked Abdullah ibn Umar, “Abu Abdurrahman. We ﬁnd
the ‘fear salah’ and the ‘salah at home’ in
the Qur’an, but we do not ﬁnd the ‘travelling salah’.” Ibn Umar said, “My nephew,
Allah sent Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alaihi
wa sallam, to us when we did not know
anything. We do as we saw him doing.”
When Umar, radhiallahu ‘anhu, looked
at the black stone he said, “You are a stone
and can neither help nor harm. If I had
not seen the Messenger of Allah kiss you,
I would not have kissed you.” Then he
kissed it. Umar ibn Abdul Aziz said, “The
Messenger of Allah made a Sunnah and the
people in command after him made sunnahs. To adopt them is to conﬁrm the Book
of Allah and to act on them is to obey Allah
and strengthen the deen of Allah. It is not
for anyone to change the Sunnah, or alter
it, or to look into the opinion of those who
oppose it. Whoever follows it, is guided.
Whoever seeks help by it, will have victory.
Whoever opposes it and follows other than
the path of the believers, Allah will entrust
him to what he turns to and will roast him
in the hellﬁre, which is a bad ending.”
To love him
A Muslim must love the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, truthfully. Allah
says, “Say, if your fathers, your sons, your
brothers, your wives, your tribe and the
possessions you have earned, the commerce you fear may slacken, dwellings you
love – if these are dearer to you than Allah
and His Messenger and to struggle in His
way, then wait until Allah brings His command.” (9:245)
The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, said, “None of you will believe until I
am more beloved to you than your children,
your fathers and all people.” Umar ibn
al-Khattab said to the Prophet, “I love you
more than anything except my soul, which
is between my two sides.” The Prophet
replied, “None of you will believe until I
am dearer to him than his own soul.” Umar
said, “By the One who sent down the Book
to you, I love you more than my soul which
is between my two sides.” The Prophet,
sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, said, “Now O
Umar, now you have it.”
Related to this love is nasiha. Nasiha
is usually translated as good counsel and
sincere conduct. It is “used to designate
the desire for what is good for the one who
is its object.” Linguistically it means purity.
The Messenger of Allah said, “The deen
is nasiha. The deen is nasiha. The deen is
nasiha.” They asked, “To whom, Messenger
of Allah?” He said, “To Allah and His Book
and His Messenger and the imams of the
Muslims and the common people.” Nasiha
to the Messenger of Allah is conﬁrming his
Prophethood, obeying him, supporting and
protecting him, and following his Sunnah.
Abu Bakr al-Ajurri said, “Nasiha for his
sake includes two types of sincere conduct.
One is nasiha during his lifetime and the
other is nasiha after his death.” During
his lifetime it was helping, protecting,
and obeying him. After his death it is “by
maintaining esteem, respect and great
love for him. By persevering in learning his
Sunnah and understanding his Shari’ah. It
is to love for the people of his house and his
companions, avoiding things disliked in his
Sunnah and what deviates from it.”
As loving the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi
wa sallam, is an obligation, it comes with
an excellent reward. Anas, radhiallahu
‘anhu, said that a man came to the Prophet
and asked, “When will the last Hour come,
Messenger of Allah?” He said, “What have
you prepared for it?” He said, “I have not
prepared a lot of salah or fasting or charity
for it, but I love Allah and His Messenger.”
The Prophet said, “You will be with the one
you love.” He also said, “Whoever loves me
will be with me in the Garden.”
Love for the Prophet Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, manifests itself
in many ways. One will prefer what the
Prophet came with, over his own desires.
His anger against people will be for the
sake of Allah. He will mention the Prophet
often. He will have a yearning to meet him.
He will exalt and respect him and be humble when he hears his name mentioned.
He will have love for the Qur’an, which the
Prophet brought. He will have compassion
for his community, striving for their best
interests. And another sign of love for the
Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, is
that he who aspires to it, does without in
this world and prefers poverty. The Prophet
said, “Poverty for those among you who
love me comes quicker than a ﬂood from
the top of the mountain to the bottom.”
To respect him
Allah says, “O Prophet, We have sent
you as a witness and a bringer of good news
and a warner, so believe in Allah and His
Messenger and help him and respect him.”
(48:7-8) Respect for the Prophet includes
honouring him, exalting him, calling him
with the noblest title such as the Messenger of Allah or Prophet of Allah. It includes
putting his opinion over our own and
defending him if he is verbally abused.
Malik said that when he was asked about
Ayyub as-Sakhtiyani he said, “I have not
reported from anyone without Ayyub being
better than him.” He went on, “I went on
Haj twice and watched him. Whenever
the Messenger of Allah was mentioned, he
wept until his eyes were red. When I saw
him do that and the respect he had for the
Prophet, I wrote down things from him.”
Respect for the Prophet, sallallaahu
‘alaihi wa sallam, also includes respecting
his family. The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi
wa sallam, said, “Recognition of the family
of Muhammad is freedom from the ﬁre.
Love of the family of Muhammad is crossing over the sirat. Friendship for the family
of Muhammad is safety from the ﬁre.” He
also said about al-Hasan and al-Husayn,
his grandsons, “Whoever loves these two
and their father and mother will be with
me on the day of rising.” Abu Bakr said,
“Respect Muhammad by respecting the
people of his house.”
It also includes respecting his companions. Allah says about those who pledged
allegiance to the Prophet at al-Hudaybiyah, “Allah was pleased with the believers
when they gave allegiance to you under the
tree.” (48:18) The Prophet said, “Do not
curse my companions. If any of you were to
spend the weight of (mount) Uhud in gold,
it still would not reach the measure of one
of them or even one-half of it.”
Likewise, it is forbidden to curse the
Prophet Muhammad. Allah said, “Those
who harm Allah and His Messenger, Allah
has cursed them in this world and the next
world. He has prepared a humiliating punishment for them.” (33:57) The Prophet,
sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, said, “Whoever curses a prophet, kill him. Whoever
curses my companions, beat him.”
It is also not allowed to even joke about
the Prophet or the religion of Islam. Allah
said, “If you ask them, they declare, ‘We
were only talking idly and joking.’ Say,
‘Was it Allah and His ayah and His Mes-
To judge according to his Shari’ah
The sixth right of the Prophet Muhammad is to judge by him and be pleased with
his judgement. Allah said, “If you quarrel
over anything, then refer it back to Allah
and the Messenger.” (4:58) Therefore, it is
incumbent upon us to look in the Qur’an
and the hadith of the Messenger of Allah
when we have a question about something.
We must follow the laws that the Prophet
Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam,
brought and judge by them, and rule according to them.
At the time of the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, when he was once
reciting, “They took their rabbis and their
monks to be their lords beside Allah, and
the messiah, son of Maryam, while they
were commanded to worship none but One
deity, none has the right to be worshipped
but He. Praise and glory be to Him, far
above is He from having the partners they
associate.” (9:31)
A former Christian, Adi ibn Hatim, said,
“O Allah’s Messenger. They do not worship
them.” Allah’s Messenger said, “They certainly do. They (ie, the rabbis and monks)
made lawful things as unlawful and unlawful things as lawful, and they (ie, Jews and
Christians) followed them, and by doing
so, they really worshipped them.”
We cannot put our own desires above the
laws of Allah and that which the Messenger
brought. To do so essentially, is to believe
that we know better than Allah. Allah is
our Creator and He knows us better than
we know our ownselves. “Verily, he is the
All Knower of what is in the chests.” (67:13)
He knows what is best for us and He has
perfect wisdom and He is Just in all that
He decrees. Ruling by other than what
Allah revealed is therefore tantamount to
disbelief.
To send prayers and salaam
The seventh right that is due to the
Prophet Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa
sallam, is saying the salah and salaam upon
him. Allah says, “Allah sends His salah
(blessings, mercy) on the Prophet and His
angels too (ask Allah to bless and forgive
him). O you who believe, send your salah
on him and (you should) greet him with the
Islamic way of greeting (ie ‘assalamu alaikum).” (33:56) Prophet Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, said, “Whoever
blesses me once, Allah blesses him with 10
salahs and 10 wrong actions fall away from
him and he is raised by 10 degrees.” And he
said, “The nearest people to me on the Day
of Rising will be those who have said the
most salahs on me.”
The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, taught one way in which to say the
salah on him. Abu Humayd as-Saidi said
that they said, “Messenger of Allah, how
should we pray on you?” He replied, “Say,
O Allah, bless Muhammad and his wives
and his descendants as You blessed the
family of Ibrahim and grant blessing to
Muhammad and his wives and descendants
as You granted blessing to the family of
Ibrahim. You are the Praiseworthy, Glorious.’” This is the tashahud, which is said in
the sitting of the salah. Another way is to
say, ‘sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam’ when the
Prophet is mentioned.
The meaning of sending salaam upon
the Prophet is asking Allah to preserve him
from any harm coming to him and it is also
a greeting to the Prophet. Abu Hurairah
said that the Messenger of Allah said,
“Whenever anyone greets me with peace,
Allah will return my soul to me so that I
can return the greeting.” The Prophet also
said, “I will hear whoever blesses me at my
grave. If someone is far away and blesses
me, that is also conveyed to me.”
Since Allah has commanded that we
send salah and salaams upon the Prophet
Muhammad then it is a general obligation
and not restricted to a speciﬁc time. The
obligation is that we must do it at least
once. However, saying it more than once is
highly recommended and is the Sunnah.
Other times include when one is supplicating to Allah for something. Ibn
Mas’ud said, “When one of you wants to
ask Allah for something, he should begin
by praising and extolling Him as He deserves, and then by blessing the Prophet.
Then his supplication is more likely to be
accepted.” Likewise, during the Aathan,
on Friday, when entering the masjid and
leaving the masjid, at the funeral salah,
and when writing letters, are other highly
recommended times. The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, said, “Whoever
blesses me in a book or a letter, the angels
continue to ask forgiveness for him as long
as my name is on it.”
‘Whoever
turns away
from my
Sunnah is
not from me’
A
nas radhiallah ‘anhu reported that: “Three men came to
the houses of the wives of the Prophet sallallaahu ‘alaihi
wa sallam and asked how his worship was. When they
were informed, they considered their own worship to be
insigniﬁcant and said: ‘Where are we in comparison to the Prophet
when Allah has forgiven his past and future sins?’ One of them
said: ‘As for me, I shall offer prayer all night long.’ Another said: ‘I
shall observe fasting perpetually, never to break it.’ Another said:
‘I shall abstain from women and will never marry.’ The Prophet
sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam then came to them and said: ‘Are you
the people who said such things? I swear By Allah that I fear Allah
more than you do, and I am most obedient and dutiful among you
to Him, but still, I observe fasting (sometimes) and break it (at
others); I perform (optional) prayer (at night sometimes) and sleep
at night (at others); I also marry. So whoever turns away from my
Sunnah (i.e., my way) is not from me.’” [Al-Bukhari & Muslim]
Anas also reported: “A few of the companions of the Prophet sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam inquired from his wives about his worship
when he would be alone. When they found out, one of them said:
‘I shall abstain from women and will never marry.’ Another said:
‘I shall never eat meat.’ Another said: ‘I will always offer the night
prayer and shall never sleep.’ Later, the Prophet sallallaahu ‘alaihi
wa sallam ascended the pulpit, praised and thanked Allah, and then
said: ‘Why are some people saying such things? I perform (optional
night) prayers (sometimes) and sleep at night (at others); I observe
fasting (sometimes) and break it (at others); and I marry. So whoever
turns away from my Sunnah (i.e., way) is not from me.’”
“A few of the companions” in the narration means that there were
between three to nine of them, and their asking: “Where are we in
comparison to the Prophet when Allah has forgiven his past and
future sins?” means that since they did not have this assurance that
He had, then it followed that they would have to exert more effort in
order to try to attain it; however, he explained to them that one may
do the things that these men wished to refrain from and still be fearful of Allah and obtain a great reward.
The second narration of this story includes different things that
the companions stated that they will abstain from, which proves
that they were more than three in number.
Also, the speech of the Prophet sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam in
the ﬁrst narration reﬂects that he spoke to them directly, whereas
the second one indicates that he spoke generally, without directing his speech to them in particular. It may be that he ﬁrst spoke to
everybody in the congregation and explained that such abstention is
impermissible, and then spoke to the men concerned in private, addressing them personally so as not to expose their identity to others,
which may have caused them embarrassment.
The fact that the Prophet sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam took an oath
was in order to show these men that despite him being forgiven by
Allah, he did not do what they planned to do, which was to exaggerate in their worship, and that reward from Allah could be attained
without such exaggeration; this is because he who is moderate in his
worship is more likely to continue whereas those who exaggerate will
eventually become too weak to continue and give up.
His saying: “…my Sunnah…” did not refer to the Islamic categorisation which refers to recommended acts rather than obligatory ones. Rather, it refers to his complete manner in life and his
approach to every matter. He instructed them that the one who
worships in any way other than his is not from him, meaning, that
he does not follow him; here, he was alluding to the methods that
monks have, who innovated extreme ways of worship for which they
have been dispraised by Allah.
The one who worships in a way other than that of the Prophet sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam has not left the fold of Islam if he did it in
ignorance or was mistaken in his interpretation of the Sunnah, but if
he does it due to wishing to deliberately shun the way of the Prophet
and thinks that his way and method is better, then he has committed
an act of disbelief.
The following are some of many beneﬁts that we can extract from
this narration:
*The recommendation of imitating the ways of one’s seniors and
following in their footsteps, and that if one is unable to ﬁnd out
about their way of doing things by means of inquiring from men,
then it is permitted to inquire from women, provided that nobody
will be subjected to temptation.
*The virtue of marriage and an encouragement of it.
*One may do righteous deeds openly and inform others about
them, provided he feels secure from thereby becoming arrogant.
*Deeds that are Islamically permitted may become recommended,
disliked or prohibited, according to one’s intention.
*Imaam At-Tabari said: “This narration refutes the claim of those
who forbid eating lawful foods and wearing permissible clothing,
claiming that it is better to use harsh clothing and refrain from eating good food.” But, Imaam Ibn Hajar added to this saying: “The
fact of the matter is that the one who gets himself accustomed to
always consuming ﬁne things (i.e., food and clothing) may become
too habituated to them and therefore cannot live without them, and
consequently, when he is deprived from them, he may commit prohibitions in order to attain what he is accustomed to. On the other
hand, refraining from them from the perspective of prohibiting
them for oneself contradicts the saying of Allah in the verse of Surah
Al-A’raaf (which means): “Say: ‘Who has forbidden the adornment
of [i.e., from] Allah which He has produced for His servants and the
good [lawful] things of provision?...” [Qur’an 7: 32]
*The good deeds that are continuous are the dearest to Allah, even
if they are few.
*The method of the Prophet sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam is the
very best one, whereby he would sometimes eat in order to preserve
his strength, and fast at other times; he would also sleep at night
sometimes in order to have the strength to pray at night on other
occasions; also, he would marry in order to fulﬁl his desires, save
himself from following his lusts, maintain his chastity, and increasing the number of Muslims.
*A warning against exaggeration in the matters of the religion
because this leads to one stopping the deeds that he is performing.
Also, one who exaggerates in acts of worship will eventually become
apathetic, which may cause him to stop his obligatory acts of worship and not only the optional ones that he performs. Also, one who
only performs the obligatory deeds is also in great danger; if he loses
interest, he may abandon worship altogether; so the best way is to be
moderate.
*Finally, There is an indication in this narration that knowing
Allah and His rights and commandments is of a higher rank than
simply worshipping Him without it, and that the deeds of the heart
are essential for practicing servitude to Allah.
Article source: http://www.islamweb.net/emainpage/
18
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
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the decline but it
is far from over
Weekly Ebola infections in west Africa have dropped
to below 100 for the ﬁrst time in more than six months,
ﬁgures showed yesterday, raising hopes the worst-ever
outbreak of the virus is coming to an end.
The World Health Organisation said it had now
shifted its efforts in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone
- the countries worst-hit by the epidemic - from
slowing the spread to stamping it out completely.
The UN’s Ebola co-ordinator, David Nabarro,
nevertheless cautioned that the epidemic was still not
totally contained.
With 710 new cases conﬁrmed in the past 21 days,
this epidemic is far from over. But now that health
experts are easing back from crisis mode, this is a good
time for an assessment of what went wrong and how to
address the problem more effectively the next time.
There will be a next time. Ebola has surfaced in
different strains multiple times since its discovery in
1976, and the fact that the current epidemic got so
wildly out of control, with more than 8,600 deaths,
indicates ample room for improvement in how the
world responds.
WHO’s executive
board met in Geneva
this week to examine
what went wrong. As Dr
Margaret Chan, director
general of WHO, told
the board, the epidemic
“delivered some horriﬁc
shocks and surprises.
The world, including
WHO, was too slow to see what was unfolding before
us.”
Some of the problems that exacerbated Ebola’s
spread were beyond the medical community’s
control. War and political upheaval weakened local
governments’ ability to identify and contain the early
outbreak.
Cultural factors, such as traditions calling for corpses
to be washed before burial, also proved difficult to
change. Myths and rumours spread rapidly, putting
medical personnel at risk when villagers became
convinced the health workers were there not to save
them but to infect them.
First among many top international priorities should
be expanded public education. In schools, mosques and
churches across Africa, the WHO and other UN bodies
should redouble efforts to explain how to properly handle
corpses and avoid contact with people showing disease
symptoms. The best time to educate the public is not
in the throes of crisis but rather in calmer times when
people are better able to absorb the message.
West Africa’s medical community has been hit
hard by the Ebola deaths of 499 health workers.
Vulnerability to new epidemics increases dramatically
in the absence of qualiﬁed health workers to treat
the ill. International organisations such as Doctors
Without Borders and Samaritan’s Purse can lead the
way to helping ﬁll this gap as west Africa works to
rebuild its medical corps.
Finally, WHO officials should consider more nimble
responses. While poor African countries certainly
beneﬁt from having more hospitals and clinics, nearly
a third of the 64 Ebola treatment centres planned for
West Africa still remain under construction today. A
better approach might emphasis on mobile facilities
that can be deployed quickly when Ebola hot spots
develop.
The executive board’s lessons-learned examination is
a healthy one. As Chan noted, “Never again should the
world be caught by surprise, unprepared.”
This is a good
time for an
assessment
of what went
wrong
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The responsible investor’s
guide to climate change
Divestment by leading
investors sends a
powerful message to the
world that climate change
is far too dangerous
to accept further delays in
the transition to a
low-carbon future
By Jeffrey D. Sachs and Lisa Sachs
New York
A
round the world,
institutional investors –
including pension funds,
insurance companies,
philanthropic endowments, and
universities – are grappling with the
question of whether to divest from
oil, gas, and coal companies. The
reason, of course, is climate change:
unless fossil-fuel consumption is cut
sharply – and phased out entirely by
around 2070, in favour of zero-carbon
energy such as solar power – the world
will suffer unacceptable risks from
human-induced global warming. How
should responsible investors behave in
the face of these unprecedented risks?
Divestment is indeed one answer,
for several reasons. One is simple selfinterest: the fossil-fuel industry will
be a bad investment in a world that
is shifting decisively to renewables.
(Though there will be exceptions; for
example, fossil-fuel development in
the poorest countries will continue
even after cutbacks are demanded in
the rich countries, in order to advance
poverty reduction.)
Moreover, divestment would help
accelerate that shift, by starving the
industry of investment capital – or at
least raising the cost of capital to ﬁrms
that are carrying out irresponsible
oil, gas, and coal exploration and
development, despite the urgent
need to cut back. Though no single
institutional investor can make a
signiﬁcant difference, hundreds of
large investors holding trillions of
dollars of assets certainly can.
Indeed, divestment by leading
investors sends a powerful message to
the world that climate change is far too
dangerous to accept further delays in
the transition to a low-carbon future.
Divestment is not the only way to send
such a message, but it is a potentially
powerful one.
Finally, investors may divest for
moral reasons. Many investors do
not want to be associated with an
industry responsible for potential
global calamity, and especially with
companies that throw their money
and inﬂuence against meaningful
action to combat climate change. For
similar reasons, many investors do
not want handgun manufacturers or
tobacco companies in their portfolios.
Yet there is also an ethically
responsible and practical alternative
to divestment that can help steer
fossil-fuel companies toward the
low-carbon future. As active, engaged
shareholders, institutional investors
can use their ownership (and, in the
case of large investors, their public
voice) to help persuade companies to
adopt climate-safe policies.
American universities are on the
front line of this debate, pushed by
their students, who are young enough
to face the brunt of climate change
in the coming decades. The students
are right to be frustrated that most
university endowments have so far
been passive on the issue, neither
divesting nor engaging as active
investors. For example, Harvard
University President Drew Gilpin
Faust sharply rejected divestment
in 2013; the purpose of Harvard’s
endowment, she argued, is to ﬁnance
the university’s academic activities.
Though she did say that Harvard
would be an active and responsible
shareholder, she offered no details about
what such engagement might look like.
Harvard and many other
universities (including our own,
Columbia University) have long been
committed to acting as responsible
investors. Several have committees
that advise university trustees on
environmental, social, and governance
(ESG) issues in their portfolio, most
commonly when proxy votes in
support of ESG proposals are to be
held. Yet few so far have applied the
ESG principles to their endowment’s
fossil-fuel holdings.
Despite Faust’s rejection of
divestment, Harvard and other
universities have long accepted
the principle that divestment
is the correct choice in certain
circumstances. In 1990, Harvard
divested completely from tobacco
companies. Harvard’s president at
the time, Derek Bok, said that the
university’s decision “was motivated
by a desire not to be associated as a
shareholder with companies engaged
in signiﬁcant sales of products that
create a substantial and unjustiﬁed
risk of harm to other human beings.”
Many other universities, including
Columbia, have done the same.
Today’s students make cogent
arguments that the case for fossilfuel divestment looks similar to the
case for tobacco divestment. Both
represent massive risks to human
wellbeing.
Before divesting from tobacco
companies, Harvard wrote to them,
requesting that they address the
ethical issues involved in selling
tobacco and their adherence to World
Health Organisation guidelines. The
companies either were unresponsive
or challenged the evidence that
smoking was linked to disease.
Similarly, in deciding whether
to divest, responsible investors like
universities should ask four key
questions of the oil, gas, and coal
companies in their portfolio:
zHas the company publicly
and clearly subscribed to the
internationally agreed goal of limiting
global warming to 2º Celsius above
pre-industrial levels, and to the limits
on global carbon-dioxide emissions
needed to meet that goal?
zWill the company pledge to leave
business groups that lobby against
effective climate policies to achieve
the 2º limit?
zWill the company agree to end
any exploration and development
of unconventional reserves (for
example, in the Arctic and much of
the Canadian oil sands) that science
has shown to be inconsistent with the
2-degree limit?
zCan the company demonstrate
that it remains a good investment,
despite the transition to low-carbon
energy sources and technologies
(for example, by demonstrating its
own plans to make such a transition
or highlighting its contributions to
poverty reduction)?
If companies can give convincing
answers to these four questions,
they may indeed remain part of the
portfolio, and responsible investors
can work with them as part of
the climate solution, rather than
concluding that they are part of the
problem and parting ways. For those
companies that duck the questions,
including by claiming that the world
will not in fact enforce the 2-degree
limit, divestment would make sense
on both ﬁnancial and ethical grounds,
as such companies are clearly not
prepared to contribute to creating a
low-carbon economy.
Of course, the need for climate
action does not stop with investors;
sustainable consumption and
production practices by businesses
and individuals must be part of the
solution as well. The transition to a
safe, low-carbon future requires all
parts of society to act responsibly
and with foresight. As leaders in
education, research, and problem
solving, universities have a unique
responsibility and opportunity to lead,
including as responsible and ethical
investors. - Project Syndicate
zJeffrey Sachs is the Director of the
Earth Institute at Columbia University.
Lisa Sachs is Director of the Columbia
Center on Sustainable Investment.
Japan’s beheaded illusions
By Yuriko Koike
Tokyo
J
apanese Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe was on a six-day tour
of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon,
Israel, and Palestine, when the
Islamic State posted a video online
threatening to murder two Japanese
hostages, Haruna Yukawa and Kenji
Goto, if his government did not pay
$200mn within 72 hours. Abe had no
good options. Indeed, when it comes
to protecting its citizens overseas,
Japan never does.
When Abe failed to bow to its
demands, the Islamic State released a
second video claiming that Yukawa,
who was seized last August in Syria
while reportedly preparing to establish
a Japan-based private security
company, had been beheaded. Goto,
a journalist who travelled to Syria
last October to try to secure Yukawa’s
release, will supposedly be spared if
Japan secures Jordan’s release of a
convicted terrorist.
In fact, Goto’s wife had received an
e-mail demanding a ransom of ¥2bn
($17mn) in December. But it seems
that Abe’s Middle East tour presented
a greater opportunity for the Islamic
State to make the most of its Japanese
hostages.
The Islamic State’s ransom demand
was not just a bid for cash; it sent a
powerful message. Just three days
before the demand was made, Abe
pledged to provide $200mn in nonmilitary humanitarian aid to frontline
countries in the ﬁght against the
Islamic State, including Jordan, Syria,
Iraq, and Lebanon, all of which have
taken in large numbers of refugees.
The Islamic State explicitly directed
the video to both Japan’s government
and its citizens, evidently hoping that
the largely paciﬁst Japanese would
press their leaders to back down. And,
to some extent, their expectation was
met; some opposition members of
Japan’s Diet tweeted that Abe should
cancel the promised aid. Needless to
say, Abe’s government ignored their
advice.
When the ransom demand did
not work, the Islamic State shifted
its approach, but not its goal.
The prisoner whose release it has
demanded in exchange for Goto is
Sajida al-Rishawi, who faces the death
penalty in Jordan for her role in hotel
bombings in Amman in 2005. The
group seems to believe that forcing
Japan and Jordan to negotiate such a
trade could undermine the countries’
longstanding relationship.
The Islamic State probably knows
that Japan has historically placed the
safety of its own citizens above all
other considerations – even if it meant
bowing to terrorists’ demands. When
the Japanese Red Army hijacked a
Japan Airlines ﬂight to Dhaka Airport
in Bangladesh in 1977, Prime Minister
Takeo Fukuda not only paid the
$6mn ransom; he also resorted to the
“extralegal measure” of handing over
imprisoned members of the faction.
“The weight of a human life,” he
declared, “is heavier than the earth
itself.”
This response stands in stark
contrast to Israel’s behaviour a year
earlier, when the Popular Front for
the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)
hijacked an Air France ﬂight with
256 passengers. Instead of giving
the group what they wanted – the
release of 53 militants imprisoned in
Israel and four other countries – the
Israeli Army launched Operation
Thunderbolt, rescuing the hostages at
Uganda’s Entebbe Airport. Only three
hostages and one Israeli commando –
Yonatan Netanyahu, the elder brother
of current Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu – were killed in the
operation.
But Fukuda’s response was not
entirely a matter of choice. Under
Japan’s constitution, neither the
country’s self-defence forces nor the
police would have had legal grounds to
travel overseas to rescue endangered
Japanese citizens. In any case, neither
force would have had the training
necessary to pull off something like
Operation Thunderbolt.
The Dhaka episode was hardly
the ﬁrst time that threats against
Japanese citizens had exposed this
shortcoming. Seven years earlier, a
forerunner to the Japanese Red Army
hijacked another Japan Airlines ﬂight
– the “Yodogo” – and demanded to
be taken to North Korea. The Japanese
authorities got lucky: When the
pilot landed ﬁrst in South Korea, the
hijackers released their 129 hostages in
exchange for permission to continue to
Pyongyang, where they gained asylum.
Two years later, nine members of
the Japanese Red Army, recruited
by the PFLP, attacked Tel Aviv’s Lod
Airport, killing 26 people and injuring
80 others. And, in the late 1970s and
early 1980s, the wives of the Yodogo
hijackers went to Europe, where they
are suspected of abducting young
Japanese students and taking them to
North Korea.
As the Islamic State’s actions
demonstrate, Japanese are still at
risk – and their government still
lacks adequate tools to protect them.
Fortunately, Abe – whose efforts to
rescue Japanese citizens abducted
by North Korea fuelled his political
rise – seems to recognise the need for
change.
Since World War II, military
considerations have barely factored
into Japanese policy, and official
development assistance, which
began as war reparations, has placed
international imperatives above
domestic concerns. But, after playing
benefactor to the world for 60 years,
Japan’s diplomatic and crisismanagement capabilities have been
severely weakened.
It is unacceptable for a
government to be unable to protect
its own citizens. That is why Abe
is determined to amend, or at least
reinterpret, Japan’s constitution
to allow for the kinds of defence
manoeuvres that other countries,
from Israel to India, employ when
their people are threatened. As US
Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson
once put it, a constitution is not a
suicide pact. - Project Syndicate
zYuriko Koike, Japan’s former defence
minister and national security adviser,
was Chairwoman of Japan’s Liberal
Democratic Party’s General Council
and currently is a member of the
National Diet.
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
19
COMMENT
Facing down mental illness
The global economic costs of
mental illness over the next
two decades would exceed
the costs of cancer,
diabetes, and respiratory
ailments combined
By Thomas Insel
Davos
C
ontrary to common
perception, mental illness
is a problem that is neither
new nor unique to the
developed world. What we call
schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are
recognisable in literature dating back
to ancient Greece, and The Anatomy
of Melancholy, published in 1621 by
the English scholar Robert Burton,
remains one of the most astute
descriptions of depression. Today,
low- and middle-income countries
account for most of the morbidity and
75% of the suicides that result from
mental illness.
What is new, and encouraging, is
the heightened attention now being
given to the problem. Last year at
Davos, I helped launch a new Global
Agenda Council on Mental Health,
after a study by the World Economic
Forum and Harvard School of Public
Health projected that the global
economic costs of mental illness
over the next two decades would
exceed the costs of cancer, diabetes,
and respiratory ailments combined.
With the stakes so high, the human
and economic case for leaders to take
mental health seriously is clearly
compelling.
As policymakers act, they would
be wise to bear in mind that mental
disorders are brain disorders. Too
many people dismiss mental illnesses
as problems of character or lack of
will, rather than recognising them as
serious, often fatal, medical disorders.
The brain is a bodily organ just like
any other. We should no more blame a
person for a malfunctioning brain than
for a malfunctioning pancreas, liver,
or heart. People with brain disorders
deserve exactly the same level and
quality of medical care as we expect
when confronted with disorders of any
other part of the body.
Consider depression, the most
common mental illness, which must
be distinguished from the sadness,
disappointment, or frustration we
all experience in our lives. William
Styron’s 1989 memoir, Darkness
Visible, rightly calls “depression” a
weak word for a debilitating condition
that is marked by hopelessness,
helplessness, and dread.
In extreme forms, depression can
be so disabling that the thought
of getting out of bed or making a
phone call becomes overwhelming.
Functioning effectively at the
workplace can be intensely
challenging, which is reﬂected in the
growing recognition of a condition
known as “presenteeism,” a variation
on “absenteeism”: depressed
employees are physically present but
mentally absent.
Mental illnesses can often lead
to other health problems. Brain
disorders like depression and
schizophrenia greatly increase the
risk of developing chronic ailments,
such as cardiovascular and respiratory
diseases. People with mental illnesses
and substance-abuse issues are at
increased risk of infectious diseases
like HIV/Aids.
Furthermore, mental disorders have
a profound impact on the outcome of
other illnesses. After a heart attack,
for example, the prognosis depends on
the presence or absence of depression
more than on virtually any measure of
cardiac function. That is why healthcare policymakers should embrace
a simple adage: “no health without
mental health.”
Indeed, mental illnesses can be as
fatal as physical ones. Suicide causes
more deaths than homicide. Around
7% of people with major depressive
disorder will take their own lives.
Globally, more than 800,000 people
kill themselves every year. The number
of people scarred by a loved one’s
death is much greater; every suicide
has many victims.
Tackling the problem will require
innovative approaches. It is not
enough simply to make treatment
available. People with psychotic
Three global health threats
By Jaime Sepulveda
San Francisco
T
he tragic Ebola outbreak in
West Africa has underscored
the imperative of
strengthening health systems
at both the national and global
level. But, though Ebola has focused
the world’s attention on systemic
shortcomings, the goal must be to
combat the abiding epidemics that are
quietly inﬂicting suffering and death
on populations worldwide.
Ebola has undoubtedly wrought
tremendous agony. But it is not the
ﬁrst – or the most devastating –
pandemic the world has faced. In
fact, smallpox is the deadliest disease
known to humanity; until Edward
Jenner developed the vaccine in 1796,
it was the leading cause of death in
Europe. Before its eradication in 1980,
it killed an estimated 300-500mn
people.
The Bubonic plague of the
fourteenth century killed 75-100mn
people – more than half of Europe’s
population. Nearly 75mn people, or
3-5% of the world’s population, died
in just a few months during the 1918
inﬂuenza pandemic – more than twice
the number of people killed in World
War I.
The world continues to grapple with
HIV/Aids, which has already caused
more than 40mn deaths and infects
a similar number of people today,
with 95% of the epidemic’s victims
living in developing countries. Only
when HIV/Aids began to gain traction
in advanced countries were highly
effective anti-retroviral therapies
developed – therapy that most of the
poor people suffering from the disease
could not access or afford.
Similarly, the failure of
governments, multilateral
organisations, and NGOs to respond
quickly enough to the Ebola outbreak
reﬂects the fact that the disease
has ravaged poor countries. But,
at a time of unprecedented global
interconnectedness, everyone has
a stake in ensuring that adequate
health-care systems and structures are
in place to address such a pandemic.
Achieving this requires providing
the needed investment; after all,
effective national health systems and
agile surveillance are the ﬁrst lines of
defence against outbreaks of disease.
At this point, Ebola is not only a
health crisis, but also a humanitarian,
economic, and political crisis. To
be sure, some progress has been
made. The UN Mission for Ebola
Emergency Response’s “70/70/60”
plan – to isolate 70% of Ebola patients
and ensure that 70% of burials are
conducted safely within 60 days – has
largely been implemented, reducing
the number of new cases considerably.
But people are still suffering and
dying – often owing to a lack of access
to credible information or adequate
treatment.
Of course, when it comes
to safeguarding the health of
populations, there is a ﬁne line
between protecting the public and
impinging on individual rights. That
is why all public-health interventions
must focus ﬁrst and foremost on
scientiﬁc facts, and avoid emotional or
panicked responses.
In this context, the imposition of
mandatory quarantines on travelers
from Ebola-affected countries was
an obvious policy failure – just as
they were when authorities tried to
contain the Black Death of 1350 in
Europe or the Plague of London in
1665. Instead of wasting time on fearbased strategies, the international
community must leverage human and
ﬁnancial resources to ensure factbased, concerted, collective action.
Such a united approach is possible;
indeed, it has happened before.
At the turn of the century, the
establishment of institutions like
the Global Fund to Fight Aids,
Tuberculosis, and Malaria, the Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation,
and GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance,
coincided with a renewed effort to
improve global health. The UN’s
commitment to the Millennium
Development Goals – which included
four health-related targets, covering
nutrition, maternal and child health,
and infectious diseases – reﬂected
a political consensus to improve
health worldwide. This institutional
architecture has facilitated
considerable progress in many of these
areas; for example, the under-ﬁve
mortality rate has plummeted by 49%
since 1990.
But there is far more to be done. In
regions like Southeast Asia and SubSaharan Africa, maternal and child
health and infectious diseases remain
priorities. In fact, the ten countries
with the highest child mortality rates
are all located in Sub-Saharan Africa;
a baby born in West Africa is 30 times
likelier to die before the age of ﬁve
than one born in Western Europe.
Even within countries, massive
inequalities remain. For example,
there is a ten-fold difference in infant
mortality between municipalities in
the Mexican states of Guerrero and
Nuevo León.
Moreover, silent epidemics have
taken hold, particularly in lowerincome countries, as the combination
of mega-trends like urbanisation,
population ageing, obesity, sedentary
lifestyles, smoking, and alcohol
consumption has spurred the rise of
chronic non-communicable diseases
(NCDs). For adults in most countries,
cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular
disease have become leading causes of
disability and death.
Emerging infectious diseases
like Ebola may be more compelling,
but the health impact of chronic
NCDs, not to mention their high and
growing social and economic costs, is
substantially larger. There is no time
to waste. Policymakers must pursue
aggressive action to curb the spread
of risk factors like the consumption
of tobacco, alcohol, and obesogenic
foods.
The world is facing a three-prong
health challenge: We must build
sustainable national and global
health systems that can respond
quickly and effectively to crises
like Ebola; eliminate or control
infectious diseases; and address the
quietly rising epidemic of chronic
NCDs. To succeed on all three fronts,
we need sustained investment in
health infrastructure, management,
and personnel.
Equality is key. This means
improving access to healthcare
and education. But it also means
addressing the deeper social inequities
that extend beyond the public-health
agenda. In formulating the post-2015
development goals, world leaders
must remember that health is a
fundamental human right. - Project
Syndicate
disorders may deny that they are ill,
and those suffering from depression
may be too consumed by self-loathing
to feel worthy of help. Even in the
developed world, it is estimated that
only about half of all people suffering
from depression are diagnosed and
treated. According to the World Health
Organisation, in developing countries,
76-85% of people with severe mental
disorders are not treated. We need
sensitive ways to identify those at
risk and to help those who are most
disabled.
Not everybody with a mental illness
needs expensive drugs, hospital care,
or even direct access to highly trained
psychiatrists. We may not have the
equivalent of a vaccine for measles or
a bed net for malaria, but low-cost,
highly effective interventions are
possible for most people either at risk
for, or already suffering from, a mental
illness. In low-resource environments,
local residents or family members can
be trained to provide brief, effective
psychotherapies that treat moderate
forms of depression or anxiety.
Phone- or Internet-based therapy can
be used as well.
That said, it should be
acknowledged that treatments
for mental illness remain far from
infallible. Of those who get help, only
about half receive the right treatment,
and about half of those receiving
treatment regress. The only way
to improve these percentages is to
deepen our understanding of normal
and abnormal brain functioning.
We need research to develop better
treatments for brain disorders in
general, and for mental illnesses in
particular.
Fortunately, some important
initiatives launched in the last year
are moving us in the right direction.
In April, the United States National
Institutes of Health introduced a 10year BRAIN Initiative, joining similar
efforts in the European Union, Israel,
Japan, China, Australia, and Canada.
We have also seen unprecedented
levels of support from philanthropists.
In the US, for example, $650mn
was donated recently to the Stanley
Center for Psychiatric Research. In
the United Kingdom, a new charity,
MQ, is awarding funds for research on
psychological treatments.
Breakthroughs in biomedical
research offer hope that cures for brain
disorders will be found. By broadening
access to existing treatments and
investing in research to develop new
therapies, we can aspire to eliminate
one of the oldest and most widespread
causes of human misery. - Project
Syndicate
zThomas Insel is Director of the United
States National Institute of Mental
Health.
Weather report
Three-day forecast
TODAY
High: 27 C
Low: 16 C
Strong wind and high seas by
evening
SATURDAY
High: 29 C
Low : 17 C
P Cloudy
SUNDAY
High: 23 C
Low : 16 C
Clear
Fishermen’s forecast
OFFSHORE DOHA
Wind: SE-N 10-18/22 KT
Waves: 3-5/7 Feet
INSHORE DOHA
Wind: SE-S 03-10/15 KT
Waves: 1-2/3 Feet
Around the region
Abu Dhabi
Baghdad
Dubai
Kuwait City
Manama
Muscat
Riyadh
Tehran
Weather
today
Clear
P Cloudy
Clear
Clear
Clear
Clear
Clear
C Showers
Max/min
27/16
22/07
31/17
29/14
25/18
29/21
32/17
12/05
Weather
tomorrow
Clear
Clear
Clear
Clear
Clear
Clear
Clear
P Cloudy
Max/min
27/17
19/06
31/18
24/09
24/18
31/22
27/14
11/03
Weather
tomorrow
C Showers
Clear
P Cloudy
Cloudy
Clear
C Showers
C Storms
Clear
Clear
C Rain
C Storms
Clear
C Showers
Clear
Snow
Clear
Clear
C Showers
C Rain
Clear
C Storms
Clear
Cloudy
Max/min
17/14
18/11
34/23
03/-2
21/09
23/16
31/23
21/14
19/13
14/11
29/26
26/18
06/01
28/23
03/02
17/10
-5/-6
07/02
24/19
02/-8
29/25
27/17
10/00
zJaime Sepulveda is Professor
of Global Health and Executive
Director of Global Health Sciences
at the University of California, San
Francisco.
Live issues
Tethered to treadmills? Try cardio machines
By Dorene Internicola/Reuters
New York
G
ym-goers seeking to boost
their workouts might do
well to aim for the lessused equipment beyond the
busy rows of treadmills and elliptical
trainers that dominate the centre of
the cardio ﬂoor, ﬁtness experts say.
What the rower and the moving
stairs may lack in traffic, they can
make up for in effectiveness and
intensity for people willing to think
outside the box.
“What’s the best piece of cardio
equipment? My short answer is the
one no one’s using,” said exercise
physiologist Tom Holland, author of
“Beat the Gym.”
People tend to do what they’re good
at and what they see others doing,
he said. Holland’s favourite underappreciated machine is the moving
stairs.
“It’s tougher than the traditional
StairMaster, harder to cheat on, and
usually hidden away in dark recesses
of the gym,” he said.
The treadmill is the most used
machine, according to the trade
association IHRSA (International
Health, Racquet & Sportsclub
Association), followed by resistance
machines and elliptical trainers.
Stair climbers and recumbent cycles
are among the most ignored, it says.
Hayley Zawadzki, personal training
manager at the New York Health and
Racquet Club (NYHRC) ﬁtness centre
chain in Manhattan, favours the
rowing machine.
“It burns a high amount of calories
in a short amount of time, activates
large muscle groups and is also good
for training cardio endurance for
marathoners and triathletes,” she said.
Zawadzki believes the rower is not
very popular because it takes some
guidance to use properly.
“As a warm-up, it’s a great way
to loosen up the body, break a quick
sweat,” she said. “Our trainers use it
in circuit training as a cardio burst
between strength training intervals.”
Nasario Meija, vice president at
Crunch Fitness, said just as the rower
is not only for athletes, the recumbent
bike, which puts riders in a laid-back
position, is recommended mostly for
beginners.
“It does not require as much
dynamic movement as a rower or a
treadmill,” Meija said. “It’s a good
starting point into a progressive cardio
routine, or for people with lower back
or knee problems because it’s very soft
on the joints.”
Holland said it’s a mistake to always
do the same machines in the same order.
“We need mix it up,” he said.
“Start every workout with an exercise
you don’t like, or use one piece of
equipment you’re not used to, and the
body will respond.”
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Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
QATAR
Doha Dash to help fund
Shafallah playground
87 Indian
nationals
doing
time in
Qatar
T
E
he Dolphin Energy Doha
Dash 2015 will donate a
percentage of all registration fees to a new playground for
the Shafallah Centre.
The Doha Dash, now in its
third year, is taking place at Losail International Circuit on February 10, as part of Qatar National Sport Day.
It is ﬁrmly established as one
of the most popular events in the
Doha sporting calendar, offering
something for everyone.
Dolphin Energy has announced that a percentage of
each registration for the event
will be pledged towards the Shafallah Centre, and will help build
a playground for its students.
The Shafallah Centre, under
the patronage of HH Sheikha
Moza bint Nasser, is a centre
that provides comprehensive
educational, medical, rehabilitation, social, vocational and recreational services for individuals
with intellectual disabilities and
autism spectrum disorders and
their families.
Dolphin Energy general manager Adel Ahmed al-Buainain
said: “Dolphin Energy is proud
to announce that the Doha Dash
will support the Shafallah Centre
for the second year.
“The Doha Dash was created to
support the vision behind Qatar
National Sport Day, encouraging
citizens and residents of Qatar to
lead a healthy and physical lifestyle.”
The Shafallah Centre provides
services and care to both Qatari
and expatriates and currently has
around 720 students who receive
daily support free of charge.
Shafallah Centre managing
director Mohamed al-Sada said:
“The Doha Dash has chosen to
pledge a donation toward the
Shafallah Centre for the second
year.
“The 2015 event will raise
money toward a new playground
which we are building for our
children. It is a great cause and
will be a wonderful new addition
to our existing facilities.
“Thank you to everyone involved in the Doha Dash, and of
course to Dolphin Energy who
have chosen to pledge their donation to us.”
The Doha Dash aims to promote a healthy lifestyle among people in Qatar.
Limousine services know
the city better: commuters
By Ramesh Mathew
Staff Reporter
T
he familiarity of limousine drivers with roads
and locations across Qatar is slowly improving their
image in public and acceptance
among residents and visitors in
the country.
Notwithstanding complaints
of overcharging of customers
by some of the limousine operators, a cross-section of individuals told Gulf Times that
limousines are more reliable
than most taxis.
“For instance, though I
booked a limousine through the
Karwa call centre four days before my journey to the airport,
the operators there could not
conﬁrm the availability of the
service, even 24 hours before
the journey,” said a customer
who was then forced to cancel
his booking and opt for a private
limousine instead to ensure his
journey.
The customer’s complaint is
apparently not an isolated story
as some other residents have
levelled similar charges against
taxis.
Recently, a Karwa driver
transporting a European coming
from the Hamad International
Airport (HIA) was seen asking
passersby in Najma area how to
go to a location near Nuaija Signal.
When quizzed, it was determined that the African driver
had absolutely no understanding of the localities, even within
the city.
Similarly, there were complaints of customers being taken
to Old Salata instead of New
Salata and others wanting to
reach Frij al-Ghanem being ferried to the other Ghanem near
Murrah.
“It is such incidents that are
pushing more and more people to opt for limousines these
days,” said a crew member of an
airline.
Despite some of the Karwa
franchisees frequently touting
the “excellent road familiarity”
of some of their taxi drivers, the
common feeling among commuters is that only a handful of
drivers know the roads and lo-
cations in the city and adjacent
townships.
The best place to test the road
familiarity of the taxi drivers, it
is generally felt, is to travel in a
taxi to the zones in West Bay
where most embassies are located.
One should consider oneself
extremely lucky if the taxi driver
could locate any particular embassy.
Ordering taxi services from
localities off the main roads remains a daunting task, according to many city residents.
“But limousine operators
have no difficulty reaching their
customers, even in such localities,” said a French teacher who
relies on private limousines for
travelling within the city.
Major congestion seen
on February 22 road
T
he February 22 road,
which is a section of the
Express Highway, continues to witness severe traffic
congestion despite the recent
decision to reduce the speed
limit from100kph to 80kph,
according to local Arabic daily
Arrayah.
The Traffic Department has
closed the entries to the road
from the Passport Roundabout
to Al Soudan intersection to
ease the congestion.
However, this arrangement
has resulted in congestion on
the side lanes, with motorists
complaining that it takes double the time to negotiate the
road, Arrayah said.
A number of nationals told
the paper that the recent decision had not realised its objective of reducing traffic congestion on the road but has led
to slowing the traffic ﬂow not
only on the main road but also
on the side streets after the
traffic patrols closed the entries to the main road.
Citizens are calling for the
decision on reducing the speed
limit to be reconsidered.
Many suggested that the
Traffic Department restore
the previous speed limits and
increase the number of speed
radars.
Qatari Abdulaziz Ahmed
said that the problem was not
about speed but the poor design of the road as well as the
absence of emergency lanes.
Another national stated that
three lanes were insufficient
considering the heavy traffic
ﬂow on the road.
He called for the road to be
widened, with more lanes on
both sides.
ighty-seven Indian nationals are serving jail
sentences at the Central
Prison, the monthly community
house convened by the Indian
embassy was informed yesterday.
Another 113 Indians are awaiting deportation at the Criminal
Evidence and Investigation Department’s Deportation Centre,
the house was told.
Besides the Indian Ambassador to Qatar Sanjiv Arora and
Deputy Chief de Mission RK
Singh, other embassy officials
and Indian Community Benevolent Forum (ICBF) president
Arvind Patil were present.
The ﬁgures of people at the
Central Prison and Deportation
Centre were released yesterday on the basis of an embassy
team’s visit to the two places recently.
Yesterday embassy officials
listened to the grievances of
those who turned up at the session and discussed the issues
raised by them.
The complainants were also
assured of further follow-up
with the local authorities, a
statement issued by the mission
said.
So far this year, the embassy
has received 280 complaints
from Indian nationals in Qatar.
In the last three years the mission received 3,385 (2012), 3,558
(2013) and 3,943 (2014) complaints respectively, it was informed.
Similarly, until yesterday this
year, 33 Indian expatriates have
died in Qatar.
In the last three years, a total of
757 Indians died in the country.
The break-up for the three years
(in brackets) are: 237 (2012), 241
(2013), and 279 (2014).
The steep rise in the number
of deaths is believed to be due to
a sharp increase in the number of
Indians in the country.
Conservative estimates put
the number of Indians in Qatar
at more than 500,000.
Following requests from the
Qatari authorities for travel documents for the inmates housed
at the Deportation Centre, the
embassy has issued 13 Emergency Certiﬁcates (ECs) this month.
And so far this month the mission has given away nine air tickets to Indian nationals in distress
for their return to India.
1,255 beneﬁt from series of health events: QRC
T
The QRC played an active role in a number of health events organised by schools in Qatar.
he Qatar Red Crescent
(QRC) has recently participated in a number
of health events organised by
schools which beneﬁted 1,255
people of various ages.
The QRC Medical Affairs Department had an active presence
in the cultural and educational
week organised by Omar Ibn AlKhattab Independent Secondary
School for Boys.
Some 300 visitors attended
the activity, dubbed as the “Biggest Wealth”, which is aimed at
creating awareness in the ﬁght
against smoking and chewing
tobacco.
The QRC also participated in a
three-day safety and security exhibit titled “Together for a Better
Health”, organised by Abo Hanifa
Independent Model School for
Boys, which was attended by 150
visitors.
In both events, students,
teachers and staff were briefed
about the QRC’s role in society.
It trained groups of students
and teachers about ﬁrst aid, distributed health education printouts, and recruited volunteers
especially for the upcoming
Disaster Management Camp in
April.
The QRC also delivered a lecture on ﬁrst aid and its importance in saving lives and encouraged a healthy, non-smoking
lifestyle.
Besides distributing gifts to
students, it conducted networking with representatives of participating organisations to expand the scope of its community
work.
Under the QRC school programme, seven lectures on
healthy food, personal hygiene,
and ﬁrst aid applications were
held.
Some 500 students, teachers
and parents attended the lectures at ﬁve schools: Al-Andalus
Independent Primary School
for Boys, Al-Aqsa Preparatory
School for Girls, Al-Andalus Preparatory and Secondary Private
Schools for Boys, Zubaida Secondary School for Girls, and AlKhansaa Independent Primary
School for Girls.
The Qatar Red Crescent also
organised ﬁrst aid courses to
different companies and institutions in Qatar, beneﬁting 305
persons.
It was the latest of a series of
11 courses in Arabic and English
for 175 Qatar National Bank staff
members.
The trainees learned basic ﬁrst
aid, surface water rescue, and
cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Participants were taught techniques on moving injured people
and how to deal with suffocation,
bleeding, injury, fracture, burn,
epilepsy, poisoning, and heat exhaustion cases.
The QRC said they want to
create a “culture of initiative
spirit” and volunteerism besides
promoting safety and security
standards.
It prepares its personnel to
help the most vulnerable social
groups, whether in emergency management, life support,
standard of living improvement,
mainstreaming of healthy attitudes, or disease prevention.
Turkish Airline delight for two
A group of 95 workers of the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning left Doha on Wednesday for Makkah to perform Umrah. The ministry
aims to enable 1,500 of its workers to perform Umrah in batches.
Turkish Airlines, the national carrier of Turkey, has awarded two lucky winners, Myra Smits and
Willem Bark with two Business Class air tickets from Doha to any destination in Europe. The winners
received their air tickets following Turkish Airlines’ raffle draw and the Flying Chefs booth activation
during Qatar Masters golf tournament held from January 21 to 24 at Doha Golf Club.
DEC DATA | Page 5
23.2% DROP | Page 10
Japan retail
sales rise for
6th month
Samsung
profit falls
to $21.45bn
Friday, January 30, 2015
Rabia II 10, 1436 AH
SABIC DROPS 2.6% AS SAUDI RETREATS: Page 12
GULF TIMES
BUSINESS
Sheikh Dr Khalid: Strong revenue growth.
Vodafone Qatar
earns distributable
proﬁt of QR152mn
in nine months up
to December 2014
V
odafone
Qatar
has
earned a distributable
proﬁt of QR152mn in
nine months up to December
2014 even as the service provider reduced its net loss to
QR150mn, the company announced here yesterday.
The company earned a total
revenue of QR1.73bn, up 21%
on the same period in the previous year.
The mobile average revenue
per user (ARPU) remained at
QR125 for the nine-month period, Vodafone Qatar, which
also achieved full requirements
of Shariah compliance, said.
The company has seen its
earnings before interest, tax,
depreciation and amortisation
(Ebitda) scaling up to QR421mn
in nine months up to December
2014, up 22% on the same period in 2013.
Vodafone Qatar’s customer
base stood at 1.41mn in December last year, up 11% on December 2013.
The loss per share (lps) has
come down to Dh18 in December 2014 compared with Dh25
for the same period last year.
Vodafone Qatar chairman
Sheikh Dr Khalid bin Thani alThani said, “The Qatari telecom market has witnessed
some major changes in the period, in particular the prepaid
segment due to extremely competitive pressure on prices. Despite this challenging trading
environment, Vodafone Qatar
maintained strong revenue
growth by continuing to grow
its customer base.
“We intend to invest heavily in our network over the next
few months with signiﬁcant
network enhancements, which
will result in an improved customer experience and faster
Internet speeds to satisfy the
burgeoning demand for data.”
Vodafone Qatar said it successfully reﬁnanced $330mn of
conventional external borrowings with a Shariah compliant
‘Wakala’ investment agreement.
This transaction has a tenure
of ﬁve years and will be used
for working capital and capital expenditure. The reﬁnancing is unique, being Vodafone
Group’s ﬁrst Shariah compliant
inter-company ﬁnancing.
Vodafone Qatar will be declared fully compliant with
Shariah practices throughout
its business, including commercial and ﬁnancial operations with effect from April 1
this year.
Effective January 1, the company has commenced implementation of Shariah rules and
practices on all its operations,
Vodafone Qatar said.
Most Gulf markets
pull back on weak
results, dividends
Total awarded stake
in new Abu Dhabi
onshore concession
Adnoc wants other oil
firms to improve terms;
Shell gets Adnoc proposal:
spokesman; Shell, BP may
get 10% stake each if terms
agreed: source; onshore
concession dates to ’70s,
yields over half UAE oil
Reuters
Paris/Dubai
T
otal became the ﬁrst oil
major to renew a 40year onshore concession
in Abu Dhabi, putting its peers
under pressure to improve
terms after the local partner
said the French ﬁrm made the
best offer.
The state-run Abu Dhabi
National Oil Company (Adnoc)
signed an agreement yesterday
with Total giving the ﬁrm a 10%
stake in the new concession to
help operate the United Arab
Emirates’ biggest oilﬁelds.
Nine Asian and Western
ﬁrms bid for stakes in the Abu
Dhabi Company for Onshore
Oil Operations (Adco) concession after a deal with Western
oil majors dating back to the
1970s expired in January 2014.
Four oil majors — ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell , Total
and BP — had each held 9.5%
equity stakes in the Adco concession since the 1970s.
After the deal expired last
year, Adnoc took 100% of the
concession as political leaders in Abu Dhabi weighed up
whether to bring in Asian ﬁrms
or stick with old partners, industry and diplomatic sources
said.
Shell, Total and BP have
made new bids, while Exxon
has decided against bidding,
sources have told Reuters.
The concession signed with
Total was effective from Jan. 1,
2015, and covers Abu Dhabi’s 15
principal onshore oilﬁelds that
represent more than half of the
Gulf emirate’s production.
“Total is honoured to be the
ﬁrst international oil company to be chosen ... and to be
entrusted with the mission of
technical leader on two major
groups of ﬁelds,” chief executive officer Patrick Pouyanne
said in a statement.
Adnoc said in a statement
that Total “presented the best
technical and commercial offers.” More companies will be
added to the concession soon,
Adnoc said.
A Total spokeswoman said
the company’s margin on the
deal was better than the previous concession, although commercial details could not be divulged.
A Shell spokesman said the
company had received a proposal from Adnoc regarding the
company’s bid for the onshore
concession, giving no further
details. BP declined to comment.
An Adnoc source told Reuters
the ﬁrm is negotiating separately with other companies to
bring their offers in line with
Total’s.
“Shell and BP could also get
a 10% stake each as Total,” the
Adnoc source said, adding that
Korea National Oil Corp was
likely to get a 5% share, if agreed
on terms. He did not elaborate
on the remaining 5% stake.
US ﬁrm Occidental Petroleum Corp, Italy’s ENI, China National Petroleum Corp
(CNPC), Norway’s Statoil and
Japan’s Inpex have also bid.
An Inpex spokesman had no
comment yesterday.
Each company submitted
two proposals — one for a 5%
stake and another for 10%, with
a one-year validity, but bids
were later extended.
The ﬁelds produce 1.6mn
barrels per day and are expected
to reach 1.8mn bpd from 2017.
The Total company headquarters in the La Defence district of Paris. The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company
yesterday signed an agreement with Total, giving the firm a 10% stake in a new concession to help operate
the UAE’s biggest oilfields.
Qatar Chamber holds training workshop on monopoly prevention
Qatar Chamber (QC) recently held a training workshop on “compliance with competitiveness protection law and monopoly prevention”. The concluding ceremony was attended by senior officials from the Ministry of Economy and Commerce
(MEC) including HE the assistant undersecretary (Consumer protection) Sheikh Jassim bin Jabor al-Thani. Legal experts representing various local companies attended the workshop. Some of the participants said the workshop was useful in that
it provided an insight into aspects relating to the tendering process in Qatar. The workshop also focused on small and medium-sized companies and existing laws to safeguard their interests in a highly competitive market. Picture shows delegates
and officials who attended the workshop.
2
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
BUSINESS
Philippines
conﬁdent
of faster
growth
this year
AFP
Manila
P
hilippine officials voiced
conﬁdence the country
had escaped a “boom-bust
cycle” as they predicted yesterday that economic growth would
accelerate in 2015, after expansion last year beat international
expectations.
The economy grew 6.9% in
the fourth quarter of 2014, new
ﬁgures showed, offsetting weaker growth in the previous nine
months to boost full-year gross
domestic product (GDP) expansion to 6.1%, exceeding forecasts
from major international institutions.
The rebound puts the country
on a high-growth trajectory not
seen in decades that will ﬁnally
see it shake off its image as the
“sick man” of Asia, economic planning secretary Arsenio
Balisacan told reporters.
Balisacan added that the government expected the economy
to grow by between 7% and 8%
in 2015.
“We have avoided the dreaded boom-bust cycle that has
hounded our economy for decades,” he said. “What we are seeing in the last ﬁve years has never
been seen in the last 40 years.
The last time we have seen such
growth was in the mid-1970s,”
he said, referencing a period
when the Philippines saw annual economic growth rates approaching nine%.
Despite global uncertainties,
the Philippines was buoyed by
“solid” macroeconomic fundamentals including strong domestic consumption, ample foreign exchange reserves, a stable
banking sector and manageable
inﬂation, ﬁnance secretary Cesar
Purisima said.
Purisima said in a statement
that the country “has more fundamental strength than most
peers to fuel long-term growth
prospects and buttress against
vulnerabilities
to
external
shocks.”
On a full-year basis, the Philippine economy grew at a rate
second in Asia only to China’s
7.4%, and narrowly outpacing
Vietnam’s six%, Balisacan said.
“With this upbeat year-end
performance, the economy is
anticipated to gain further traction in 2015,” he said.
Balisacan however conceded
that such high growth rates must
be sustained over 20 years before
they could be felt by the poor, as
shown by the experience of other
countries.
“It’s a long way to go before we
can effectively make this growth
shared broadly. There’s so much
to do. There’s no shortcut to it. We
have to deepen reforms,” he said.
The
full-year
economic
growth rate of 6.1% exceeded
forecasts of 6% by the World
Bank and the International
Monetary Fund, but fell short of
the government’s targeted range
of between 6.5% and 7.5%.
The economy grew by an impressive 7.2% in 2013.
The 2014 fourth quarter
growth ﬁgure of 6.9% was also
an improvement from the 6.3%
growth posted in the same period in 2013.
Analysts, meanwhile, largely
echoed government conﬁdence
about the economy.
French PM seeks trade
‘rebalance’ with China
AFP
Beijing
F
rench Prime Minister Manuel
Valls yesterday called for a “rebalance” of trade with China
during his ﬁrst official visit, as he
sought to curry up investment in
France’s stalling economy.
“We hope French products will have
better access to the Chinese market,”
said the French premier after holding
talks with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang
at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
France, which is struggling with
weak growth and record high unemployment, imports two and a half
times as much from China as ﬂows in
the opposite direction. In 2013, Paris
ran a €26bn ($29bn) deﬁcit with the
Asian giant.
China’s overall trade surplus, meanwhile, rocketed by almost 50% last
year to a record $382bn, the government announced earlier this month.
Li noted what he called “common
concerns in the trade inequalities” between the two countries.
“China never pursues trade with
just one country’s trade market and
we hope to achieve equal trade so as to
make long-lasting trade,” he said.
“We all work together to oppose
trade protectionism and want to work
under the banner of free trade.”
The two oversaw the signing of 11
agreements, including a co-operation
pact between Electricite de France and
China General Nuclear Power Corp on
reactor design, and a €30mn loan from
France for works in a park in Shanxi
province.
But while a substantial French business delegation accompanied Valls –
and despite his assurances to Chinese
media that France was “more open
than ever towards China, Chinese investors, students and tourists” – no
major commercial contracts were an-
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, left, speaks to Chinese Premier Li Keqiang during a signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing yesterday.
nounced. The visit comes as France
and China celebrate 50 years of diplomatic relations.
It also comes ahead of a key UN Climate Change Conference in Paris later
this year, where it is hoped a universal
and legally binding agreement can be
forged. China “is very serious about
tackling the climate change problem”,
Valls said.
“China plays a really important role
in this because it is the world’s largest
emitter, so it’s important that they are
participating,” he added.
“Only if China participates can we
come up with a constructive agreement.”
Li stressed that China is the world’s
largest developing nation and also one
of the largest carbon emitters.
“In climate change, as a large coun-
try in the international community, it
is our duty to take responsibility for
the environment,” he said.
When US President Barack Obama
visited in November China announced
a target for its carbon emissions to
peak “around 2030”.
Thailand lowers growth forecasts to 3.9%
Reuters
Bangkok
T
Workers load a ship with 1,000 tonnes of rice bound for Africa at the Asia Golden Rice export company in Bang
Pakong, Thailand. The finance ministry again trimmed its growth forecasts for this year yesterday, when fresh
factory output data provided more evidence that the economy remains wobbly.
hailand’s ﬁnance ministry again
trimmed its growth forecasts for this
year yesterday, when fresh factory
output data provided more evidence that the
economy remains wobbly.
The ministry now sees 2015 economic
growth at 3.9%, compared to its December
forecast of about 4% and an October projection of 4.1%.
For 2014, whose full-year GDP growth rate
will be announced on February 16, the ministry reduced its projection to just 0.7%, from
1% in December.
The reduced forecasts reﬂect how two
main engines of Thai growth – exports and
domestic demand – still are in low gear eight
months after the army seized power to end
political tension and try to spur economic
recovery.
“The economy should improve this year
but may not be as good as expected, given
global risks. Much will depend on government spending,” said Pimonwan Mahujchariyawong, economist with Kasikorn Research
Center in Bangkok. “There are still many
downside risks.”
Exports, which equal more than 60% of
gross domestic product (GDP), in December rose 1.9% from a year earlier, stronger
than expected. But that wasn’t enough to
generate an annual increase in December for
factory output, much of which goes into ex-
ports. Output fell for a 21st straight month,
though by the smallest percentage during
that streak, 0.35%.
The Industry Ministry, which gave December data yesterday, said output declined
4.6% in 2014 from the previous year before
rising 3-4% this year.
On Monday, the government reported that
exports dropped 0.4% in 2014, the second
year of decline. The central bank expects a
rise of only 1% this year.
The central bank says the economy is improving – it expected 4% growth this year
– but with commodity prices expected to remain weak and soft demand seen from China
and Europe, the growth outlook for this year
remains cloudy.
Growth this year “will be mainly driven by
government infrastructure projects. We will
also have tourism, which is expected to improve,” Kritsada Jinavijarana, director-general of the Finance Ministry’s Fiscal Policy
Office, told reporters.
An illustration of growth woes is the auto
sector, as Thailand is a regional hub and export base for global automakers. Sector output in 2014 slipped 23.5%, according to the
Federation of Thai Industries (FTI).
Domestic auto sales tumbled 21.4% in December from a year earlier and were down
33.7% in 2014, hit by the slowing domestic
economy and delays in government spending.
Production is expected at 2.2mn vehicles
this year, up from about 1.88mn in 2014, according to the FTI’s Auto Industry Club.
Crude oil decline cuts both ways for miners
By Clyde Russell
Launceston, Australia
The plunge in oil prices is a doubleedged sword for many miners,
lowering the cost of production but
at the same time cutting the value of
the commodities they produce.
At first glance the 57% tumble in
Brent crude since June last year
would seem to be an unambiguous
positive for many commodity
producers, given their heavy reliance
on diesel to operate mines and
transport output to ports.
This is especially the case for
Australian coal and iron ore mines,
which use diesel not only for mining
vehicles but to generate electricity as
well, given their remote locations.
Diesel-fired train locomotives help
miners move their commodities
across hundreds of kilometres (miles)
and there may even be savings on
charter flights used to ferry workers
to and from remote mine sites, given
the lower cost of aviation fuel.
Research by Morgan Stanley,
published on January 25, said that oil
and diesel made up between 9 and
12% of the total production costs for
bulk commodities such as coal, iron
ore and bauxite, but only 3 to 5% for
metals.
The major impact of the declining oil
price is to shift the production cost
curve lower, effectively meaning
more mines will be profitable, even at
the current low commodity prices.
The spot price of iron ore in Asia
dropped to a 5-1/2-year low of $62.80
a tonne on Tuesday, and is down 67%
from its peak of $191.90 reached in
February 2011.
Spot thermal coal from Australia’s
Newcastle port, an Asian benchmark,
was at $61.97 a tonne in the week
ended on January 23, close to a
six-year low and 54% below its post2008 recession peak of $136.30 in
January 2011.
The question is whether costs
have fallen enough to offset lower
commodity prices, and the answer
is no.
But they have fallen enough to allow
some producers, who would have
otherwise been forced to shut down,
to remain in business.
This has the impact of keeping supply
in the market, which in the case of
commodities such as iron ore and
coal keeps downward pressure on
prices.
Part of the reasoning behind the
massive capacity expansion by the
big three iron ore miners was that
they would force higher-cost, smaller
producers out of the market.
And to some extent Brazil’s Vale and
the Anglo-Australian pair Rio Tinto
and BHP Billiton have succeeded,
with a spate of recent mine closures
and signs that Chinese domestic
output is declining.
But the fall in oil prices is providing
some relief to miners, allowing them
to stay in the game, thereby causing
commodity prices to drop further.
Morgan Stanley’s research paper said
that in iron ore, every $1 decline in
the price of a barrel of oil resulted
in a saving of 8 cents a tonne, while
in thermal coal it was 3 cents and 5
cents for metallurgical coal.
Nonetheless, a typical underground
thermal coal mine would now only
be $1.95 a tonne better off than
when oil prices were $115 a barrel in
the middle of last year. This is only
the benefit to the cost of production
and doesn’t take into account the
cost of transport, or any other
factors.
Over the same time period, thermal
coal has dropped by around $21 a
tonne, meaning the lower oil price
has helped, but not that much.
Of far more significance has been
the almost 17% drop in the value of
the Australian dollar against its US
counterpart since the middle of 2014.
This has had the effect of actually
increasing coal prices in Australian
dollar terms, with Newcastle prices
rising from a 2014 low of A$71.94 a
tonne in September to A$78.40 last
week.
It’s not just Australian producers
that have benefited, with Indonesian
miners enjoying a near 11%
depreciation in the rupiah against
the dollar since April last year, while
South African producers have seen
the rand drop almost 13% since last
May.
But while miners may cheer low oil
prices and a firmer US dollar, it’s
those two factors that are helping
keep supply in the global market and
preventing a recovery in commodity
prices.
Clyde Russell is a Reuters columnist.
The views expressed are his own.
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
3
BUSINESS
China PMI seen inching up
from 18-month low in Jan
Reuters
Beijing
C
hina’s factory growth likely
inched up from a 1-1/2-year low
in January, helped by a slight
pick-up in momentum the previous month, but the bounce is not expected to last due to unsteady exports
and slowing investment, a Reuters poll
showed.
The official manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index, or PMI, is forecast to inch up to 50.2 from December’s
50.1, according to the median forecast
of 11 economists in the poll.
A reading above 50-point level indicates an expansion in activity while
one below that points to a contraction
on a monthly basis.
The data, to be released on February
1 alongside the official services PMI,
will set the tone for what’s likely to
be seen in the world’s second-largest
economy this year: a contained slowdown that will show growth cooling
further from a 24-year trough.
“Although there was slight uptick
in industrial production, most of the
rest of the economy still looks pretty
weak,” said Julian Evans-Pritchard
from Capital Economics in Singapore.
“We still see the momentum of the
economy as downwards,” he said.
A housing slump, erratic growth in
exports and a state-led slowdown in
investment to help restructure China’s economy weighed on the nation
last year, dragging annual economic
expansion down to 7.4% – a level not
seen since 1990.
Despite the broad slowdown, factory
output growth ticked up to a threemonth high in December as production
of transport equipment rose at its fastest rate since August.
To reflect China’s “new normal”
of slower but better-quality growth,
economists at state think-tanks with
knowledge of policy discussions said
the government is likely to lower
its 2015 economic growth target to
Employees work at a garment factory in Shanghai. China’s official PMI is forecast to inch up to 50.2 in January from 50.1 in December.
around 7%, from 7.5% in 2014. A separate private PMI survey published
last week showed China’s manufacturing growth stalled for the second
straight month in January as compa-
Riding stimulus momentum
key to best returns this year
Bloomberg
Beijing
The best way to make money in
foreign exchange right now is to
jump on the bandwagon.
Latching onto trends as they gain
strength, or momentum trading, is
handing investors the best returns in
three years, according to a Deutsche
Bank AG index. Strategies that
exploit differences in global interest
rates and buy currencies when
they’re undervalued compared with
peers are both losing money.
A fresh wave of monetary stimulus
by central banks from Europe
to India and Canada this year is
weakening their currencies and
creating clear trends for investors
to follow.
The most profitable momentum
trade remains buying the dollar,
which has surged for seven straight
months as the US prepares to raise
interest rates. Forecasters see that
trend continuing, with more gains
versus 13 of 16 major counterparts
by year-end.
“Foreign-exchange rates are
trending in a big way,” Robin Brooks,
a strategist at Goldman Sachs Group
Inc in New York, said on January
25. “This means pushing back
against the instinct to wait for the
pullback, the positioning wash-out,
the correction.” Things haven’t
always been so good for followers
of currency trends. Deutsche Bank’s
momentum-trading index fell in
the first three quarters of last year,
before speculation picked up that
the Federal Reserve would raise its
benchmark rate from a range of zero
to 0.25% in 2015.
The surge to a decade-high by
Bloomberg’s Dollar Spot Index,
which measures the greenback
against 10 developed-nation peers,
helped push the Deutsche Bank
gauge to three successive monthly
gains from October to December,
for a total of 9%. A series of surprise
announcements by other major
central banks has extended the
advance into January and pushed
the index to its highest level since
2011.
“Central banks have been much
more active than expected,” Adam
Cole, the head of global currency
strategy at Royal Bank of Canada in
London, said by phone on January
26. As a result, monetary policy
is now driving momentum “from
both sides, rather than just from
the dollar side.” The ECB gave fresh
impetus to the euro’s slide when
its bond-purchase programme,
anticipated for months, turned out
to be bigger than investors expected
at €1.1tn ($1.25tn). The 19-nation
currency slumped to an 11-year low
of $1.1098 this week and has lost 16%
of its value in the past six months. It
was at $1.1339 at 9:18 am in London.
Canada’s dollar plunged by the most
in more than three years in just
two minutes on January 21 after a
shock cut to borrowing costs. That
extended four months of losses
caused by a slump in the price of oil,
the nation’s biggest export.
Goldman Sachs sees the euro falling
below parity with the dollar to 90
US cents by 2017, and predicts the
Canadian currency will slide to
C$1.40 per US dollar, after touching
an almost six-year low of C$1.2501 on
Tuesday.
Denmark and Turkey also
unexpectedly cut rates last week to
get more money circulating in the
economy and stave off the crippling
effects of deflation. Lower rates tend
to weaken a currency by making it
less attractive to investors.
While stimulus and speculation
about Fed tightening are boosting
momentum trades, they’re hurting
profits from two other common
foreign-exchange strategies.
Deutsche Bank’s index tracking
valuation trades, where investors
buy currencies with lower
purchasing power and sell those
worth more, has tumbled almost 3%
this year. It fell from a 4 1/2-year high
reached earlier this month as the
string of rate cuts compressed the
relative value of many of the world’s
major currencies.
Carry trades have lost investors
about 5% this year as rate reductions
lower returns on high-yielding
currencies such as India’s rupee. The
surprise nature of many of the cuts
is stoking volatility, which can upend
the profit traders get from the rate
differential.
After lagging behind both strategies
for most of 2014, momentum trades
are now back on top and poised for
their longest run of monthly gains
in six years. “Trend will do well
when all of those unexpected pieces
of information line up,” Steven
Englander, the global head of Group
of 10 currency strategy at Citigroup
Inc in New York, said by phone on
January 26. “That’s not going to be
the case every month, but it was the
case this month.”
nies cut prices at a faster clip to win
new business.
And as a string of central banks surprised ﬁnancial markets in recent weeks
by loosening monetary policy to stoke
growth and ward off deﬂationary pressures, some investors are also betting
that China may ease policy once more.
China cut interest rates for the ﬁrst
time in over two years on November
21, and some analysts believe it would
again lower rates or the reduce the
amount of deposits that banks have to
keep as reserves this year to shore up
activity.
Hedge funds
earned
$1.5tn for
investors in
last 10 years
Reuters
London
Hedge funds earned $1.5tn
for their investors over the
last ten years and more
pension funds are increasing
the amount of money they
allocate to them, trade body
Alternative Investment
Management Association
(AIMA) said yesterday.
The findings, based on data
from industry tracker HFR,
come as hedge funds face
intense scrutiny following
decisions by funds such
as the California Public
Employees’ Retirement
System and Netherlands’
PFZW to pull out of them,
citing high costs, complexity
and poor performance.
“The global hedge fund
industry has grown at
approximately 10% a year
since the financial crisis, and
much of this growth can
be attributed to increased
allocations from public and
private pensions,” AIMA Chief
Executive Jack Inglis said.
“But at the same time,
many trustees are asking
questions about their existing
or prospective hedge fund
allocations,” he said in a
statement, launching a series
of papers to help investors
assess risks and benefits of
hedge fund investing.
The trade body said that one
in every four dollars invested
in the nearly $3tn industry
is sourced from public and
private pension plans.
Hedge funds recorded
net inflows worth $76.4bn
last year, the highest since
2007. They earned investors
$140.3bn in performance gains
after fees in 2014, about 5% of
the assets they managed at
the start of last year.
Indonesia narrows auto
output gap with Thailand
Reuters
Jakarta
I
ndonesia narrowed the gap in car output with
Thailand, Southeast Asia’s automaking hub, to
its smallest ever last year in percentage terms
and is expected to overtake the Thai industry within
a decade.
Indonesian auto production grew 7% in 2014 to
1.30mn vehicles while Thai output, hit by political
turmoil, shrank 23% to 1.88mn. That put Indonesia
output at 69% of the Thai total, versus only 43%
in 2012, according to data compiled by Asean Auto
Federation, Indonesia’s industry association Gaikindo and Federation of Thai Industries.
Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, has
already surpassed Thailand as the region’s largest
auto market, and prospects for reform and stability,
bolstered under the three-month-old government
of President Joko Widodo, have lured General Motors Co, Tata Motors Ltd and others to build plants
there. That will help to push Indonesia past Thailand in output in the next seven to 10 years, says
Chukiat Wongtaveerat, consulting manager at Ipsos Business Consulting’s Bangkok Office.
For now, Thai auto production is expected to rebound: a spokesman for the Federation of Thai In-
dustries’ Auto Industry Club told Reuters last week
that output would climb 17% this year to 2.2mn vehicles. And Chukiat said Thailand would remain a
major auto industry player well into the future with
its well-developed supply chain.
“Even when Indonesia overtakes Thailand’s automotive production output, Thailand will still be
a dominant player, with its component manufacturers providing many of the parts required by the
assemblers in Indonesia,” Chukiat said. “The challenge for Indonesia is to raise the quality of its product to be suitable for the global market, and to develop its domestic supply chain to match the quality
of Thailand.”
4
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
BUSINESS
Sensex up
123 points;
rupee hits
7-week low
IANS
Mumbai
In volatile trade yesterday, a
benchmark index of Indian
equities markets closed
123 points or 0.41% up, as
investors were cautious
after the US Fed assessed a
strong economic recovery
in the US.
Profit-booking took a toll on
the 30-scrip Sensitive Index
(Sensex) of the S&P Mumbai
Stock Exchange (BSE) during
the better part of the trade.
The Sensex dipped to an
intra-day low of 29,378.30
points, down 180.88 points.
The Sensex was subdued
after the US Fed said the US
economy, fuelled by rising
employment and declining
inflation, is recovering.
However, it gained traction
in the late hours of trade and
closed at 29,681.77 points, up
122.59 points or 0.41%.
“Fed is growing confident
in its assessment of the US
economic recovery fuelled
by rising employment and
declining inflation,” said
Debopam Chaudhuri, chief
economist, ZyFin Research.
“Interestingly, the Indian
economic recovery is
following an identical trend
like that of the US. In both
nations, inflation is slowing
down along with improving
employment perception
leading to a recovery in
consumer confidence.”
Healthy buying was observed
in healthcare, oil and gas
and capital goods sector,
while metal, technology,
entertainment and media
(TECK) scrip came under
selling pressure.
The S&P healthcare index
gained 168.54 points, oil
and gas index was up 155.40
points and capital goods
index rose 140.55 points.
The wider 50-scrip Nifty of
the National Stock Exchange
(NSE) also made gains during
the day’s trade. It closed 38.05
points or 0.43% up at 8,952.35
points.
“There is wide movement to
respective stocks, volatility
is high but broad index
is rallying higher led by
FII (foreign institutional
investors) inflow,” said Vinod
Nair, head-fundamental
research, Geojit BNP Paribas
Financial Services.
“Result till date are below
expectation, and it will lead
to marginal downgrade in
earning, but it is unlikely to
impact market as outlook for
margin and earnings growth
is improving in expectation of
better demand and reduction
in cost.”
Meanwhile, the Indian rupee
yesterday slid by 45 paise, its
worst single-session drop in
nearly seven weeks, to end at
61.86 against the greenback
on month-end dollar demand
from importers and banks
amid speculation that US Fed
is considering raising interest
rates later this year.
China banks back risky
stock margin ﬁnance
Reuters
Shanghai
C
hinese banks seeking to proﬁt
from the country’s stock market
frenzy have bought into the recent
surge in margin ﬁnance, foiling regulatory efforts to reduce debt-fuelled speculation and amplifying the risk if the rally
turns into a rout.
Although regulators are cracking down
on credit ﬂows into the stock market, ﬁnancial industry insiders say they still
have not closed loopholes that allow
banks to channel credit into the stock
market via brokerages.
That exposes China’s banking system
to greater risks, even as lenders struggle with an economic slowdown that has
pushed up bad loans, but market watchers say it is not time to panic yet.
“I estimate that around 18 to 20% of
margin ﬁnance loans end up with banks,
but it varies from brokerage to brokerage,”
said a senior brokerage auditor at one of
the big-four accounting ﬁrms in China.
“It is deﬁnitely growing.”
The easiest way banks get into margin ﬁnancing is by treating margin loans
made by brokerages to investors as collateral for loans to the brokerages themselves. This creates a quick proﬁt for
banks and frees up brokerages to lend
more.
Brokerages are obligated to buy the
collateral back from the banks, but that
becomes a major problem if the market
collapses as it did in 2009, after another
liquidity-fuelled rally.
Despite a 40% jump since November,
the current rally has still not returned indexes to their 2009 peaks.
The broader impact of the 2009 implosion was limited because most of the
speculation was done with cash, not
credit. But China has lifted restrictions
on margin ﬁnancing since then.
“The economic risk to the equity market is that China’s growth is still decelerating,” wrote Jonathan Garner and Lara
Wang of Morgan Stanley in a research
note. Margin ﬁnance was another risk because it could amplify downward moves
as investors sold out to protect their collateral, they added.
The margin credit balance in Shanghai
is about 3% of total market capitalisation,
compared with the last reading of 1.8%
for the New York Stock Exchange in November.
Beijing has punished some brokerages
for bending the rules, and drafted new
rules targeting banks. But apart from a
one-day plunge the day after the announcement, from which markets have
already recovered, there has been little
sign that investors, bankers or brokerages
are intimidated.
The outstanding value of borrow-
Yuan among top 5 global payment currencies
Reuters
Hong Kong
C
hina’s efforts to raise the global status
of its currency are paying dividends,
with the yuan breaking into the top
ﬁve world payment currencies for the ﬁrst
time and offshore trading volumes catching
up with those onshore.
After nearly a year ﬁrmly positioned at the
seventh spot, the yuan ﬁnally surpassed the
Canadian dollar and the Australian dollar in
November in terms of value, according to global transaction service organisation SWIFT.
The yuan has been showing consistent
three-digit growth over the past two years
with an increase in value of payments of
321%, SWIFT said. It is only behind the US
dollar, euro, British pound and Japanese yen.
“Daily trading volume in CNH spot, forward and swap markets have already reached
$30bn, among which $10bn is from spot yuan
trading,” said Charles Feng, Greater China
head of FX, rates and credit trading at Standard Chartered in Hong Kong.
The momentum is expected to continue
this year, with daily turnover seen increasing
by 20-30%, thanks to the quick expansion of
cross-border trade settlement denominated
in the yuan, Feng said.
Yuan trade settlement has made great
strides since a landmark pilot scheme in 2009
allowed selected cities in China to settle trade
transactions in yuan with some foreign countries. It now accounts for more than 20% of
China’s total trade, compared with less than
2% in 2010.
Ben Hung, chief executive officer for
Standard Chartered’s Greater China region,
expected the yuan’s share in trade settlement
Asian shares fall on
back of US declines
AFP
Tokyo
A
ing for margin trading hit 776bn yuan
($124.30bn) on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Monday, according to exchange data, and those ﬁgures do not include other forms of ﬁnancing.
There are many variations on the
theme, however.
Some banks accepting margin ﬁnance
loans as collateral are repackaging them
as wealth management products (WMP),
which are sold to retail customers. Major banks including Agricultural Bank of
China have gotten into the act along with
smaller ones like Dongguan Bank, which
if offering a WMP with an annualised rate
of return of 5.5% and a guarantee on principal. Beijing does not want to stop margin ﬁnancing entirely, as stocks are one of
the few bright spots in China, so there is
strong political pressure not to trigger a
market collapse.
“They are still quite happy to see the
use of margin in the markets increasing
over time,” said Jonathan Garner of Morgan Stanley, who said the usage of margin
ﬁnance was healthy.
For Beijing, with an eye on the history
of other asset bubbles, the challenge will
be balancing the two.
“Anytime credit growth is excessive
and goes on for too long, there are broader
risks,” said Tim Condon, head of Asia research of ING in Singapore. “It increases
the fragility of the ﬁnancial system when
credit grows in an unbounded fashion.”
sian stock markets mostly fell yesterday,
largely on the back of declines in the US triggered by concerns over a strengthening dollar and falling oil prices.
The Federal Reserve left equity markets unnerved
on Wednesday when it did not elaborate on its
pledge to remain “patient” regarding the US’ ﬁrst
interest rate increase since 2006, traders said.
Tokyo shares dropped 1.06%, or 189.51 points, to
close at 17,606.22, while Hong Kong fell 1.07%, or
265.96 points, to 24,595.85 and Shanghai lost 1.31%,
or 43.43 points, to 3,262.31.
Seoul declined 0.54%, or 10.56 points, to ﬁnish at
1,951.02. Sydney bucked the trend, rising 0.30%, or
16.72 points, to close at 5,569.50.
“Investors are negative on the Fed comments because they were hoping for more clarity on when
they will raise rates, as proof that they see the US recovery as a genuine one,” Andrew Clarke, director of
trading at Mirabaud Securities Asia, told Bloomberg
News.
Oil prices falling below $45 a barrel – close to
their lowest level in six years – also renewed concerns about slowing inﬂation and weak crude de-
mand, both seen as important indicators of the
health of the world economy.
That has spooked investors who are already nervous about the impact of political uncertainty in
Greece on the 19-member euro area.
Oil prices were largely ﬂat in Asian trading, with
gains capped by fresh concern over the growing
global supply glut as US crude reserves soared to a
record high, analysts said.
US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for
March delivery dropped 14 cents to $44.31, after
suffering a sharp decline in New York, while Brent
crude for March gained seven cents to $48.54.
Samsung shares fell 1.31% to 1,360,000 won by
the close of trading in Seoul.
The dollar, meanwhile, was at $1.1289 against the
euro from $1.1284 in US trading, and at 117.72 yen,
from 117.53 yen.
The euro was worth 132.90 yen from 132.62 yen.
Gold fetched $1,265.97 an ounce, against
$1,287.20 late Wednesday.
In other markets, Manila fell 0.57%, or 43.88
points, to 7,617.30; Taipei fell 0.88%, or 84.02
points, to 9,426.90; Wellington fell 0.60%, or 35.01
points, to 5,759.81; Bangkok closed down 0.40%, or
6.41 points, at 1,586.40; Jakarta ended down 0.12%,
or 6.13 points, to 5,262.72 and Singapore closed ﬂat,
losing 0.10 points, to 3,419.05.
to reach 35% of the total trade in the world’s
second-largest economy by 2020.
As the offshore yuan liquidity pool continues to expand and the Chinese currency becomes more available to foreign investors, ofﬁcials in Asian and other G20 capitals believe
there will be lively debate at an IMF review
later this year to decide whether it should be
added to Special Drawing Rights (SDR).
The chief argument against its inclusion
ﬁve years ago in the SDR, a basket of yen, dollars, pounds and euro used as the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) in-house unit
of account, was that it was far from freely
“usable” or convertible.
However, the situation has been greatly
changed since the deliverable yuan market
came into being in 2010. Yuan deposits and
certiﬁcate of deposits in Hong Kong, the
world’s largest offshore yuan center, have already exceeded 1.1tn yuan ($176.20bn).
In addition to the former British colony,
China has assigned yuan clearing banks to
13 countries or regions, and signed currency
swaps with 28 countries worth more than 3tn
yuan to facilitate trade and transactions settled in the yuan.
While the offshore yuan pool is growing,
Beijing has also accelerated steps to allow
broader foreign participation in its domestic capital markets by expanding the popular Renminbi Qualiﬁed Foreign Institutional
Investor (RQFII) and launching a landmark
stock connect between Shanghai and Hong
Kong. If the IMF accepts the yuan as part of
its currency basket, it would pave the way
for the “redback” to become a global reserve
currency and reinforce investors’ conﬁdence
in the currency. So far, more than 50 foreign
central banks have started to use the yuan or
keep it as part of their foreign reserves.
Emerging markets weaker post-Fed
Reuters
London
Belarus sovereign bonds fell up to 27
cents in the dollar yesterday on fears
of debt restructuring, while broader
emerging markets also weakened
following a US Fed statement that
boosted the dollar.
Belarus yield spreads over Treasuries
widened 900 basis points to 1463 bps
and its 2015 and 2018 bonds were
sold off after President Alexander
Lukashenko said the country may have
to consider restructuring.
Analysts said the comments appeared
aimed at pressuring Russia, to which
Belarus owes the most money, with
Lukashenko also threatening to pull out
of a customs union with Moscow, a pet
project of Russian President Vladimir
Putin. Russian spreads were at 686
bps, near last month’s record highs as
the West considered another round of
sanctions that would further restrict
Russian companies’ access to foreign
capital and could push some into default.
The rouble fell 1.3% against the dollar,
hit also by oil prices near six-year lows.
Neil Shearing, head of emerging
markets at Capital Economics also cited
an escalation of violence in eastern
Ukraine. “Also, the government has
unveiled an anti-crisis plan yesterday,
which is heavy on policy, but light on
actual detail, in particular some of
the numbers. There is a sense there
are growing question marks over the
government’s response to the crisis,”
Shearing added.
Russian dollar-denominated shares
fell 1% Oil-reliant Nigeria saw its naira
currency touch a new intra-day record
low of 194.25 per dollar Emerging markets
broadly weakened, with stocks down 1%
and most currencies falling after the US
Federal Reserve’s post-meeting statement
indicated it was on track to raise interest
rates this year. The Malaysian ringgit fell
to new six-year lows and the won hit fourmonth lows, the latter also hurt by policy
easing expectations after Singapore’s
shock rate cut.
South Africa’s rand eased 0.15% before
a central bank meeting that may signal
dovishness. Bonds hovered above the
7% mark that has not been breached
since mid-2013. Turkey’s lira fell 0.7% on
speculation of an emergency rate cut
but ten-year bonds fell marginally “The
market is clearly not ready to buy lower
lira rates,” online broker Swissquote
said. “As lira denominated bond
yields are already below the inflation
breakeven, even a full percentage point
drop in (inflation) is not enough to cover
the inflation and the risk premium.”
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
5
BUSINESS
Japan retail sales rise for
6th straight month in Dec
Reuters
Tokyo
J
apan’s retail sales rose for a sixth
straight month in December, providing evidence of a gradual recovery in private consumption as the economy climbs out of recession.
The 0.2% year-on-year sales growth
fell short of a 0.9% gain seen by economists in a Reuters poll, following a revised 0.5% rise in November, data by
the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) showed yesterday.
A recovery in private consumption,
which accounts for about 60% of the
economy, is a welcome sign for Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe, who has been
struggling to get the economy back on
track after a sales tax hike in April hit consumer demand harder than expected.
Private consumption has languished
since the government raised the sales
tax hike to 8% from 5%, curbing consumers’ purchasing power as broad
price increase outpaced wage growth,
causing steady declines in real wages.
“Year-on-year growth in retail sales
eased due to effects such as falling oil
prices and pre-sales-tax buying rush a
year ago. Taking these factors into account, private consumption is on track
for recovery,” said Hiroshi Watanabe,
senior economist at SMBC Nikko Securities.
“Private consumption could accelerate ahead as cheap oil prices boost
consumers’ purchasing power and the
negative impact of the sales tax hike
fades. Strength of consumption will
depend on wages.” Policymakers expect
consumer spending to ﬁrm up this year
as the impact of the sales tax hike fades
away, and they count on wages to help
private consumption pick up pace.
The government and the Bank of Japan are urging Japanese companies to
raise wages, which are seen as crucial
for generating a sustainable growth
cycle and achieving a 2% inﬂation target. Crude oil prices below $50 a barrel
BOC Hong
Kong plans
Nanyang
Commercial
Bank sale
Bloomberg
Hong Kong
BOC Hong Kong Holdings,
controlled by China’s fourthlargest lender, is considering a
sale of its Nanyang Commercial
Bank unit, people with
knowledge of the matter said.
BOC Hong Kong has been
sounding out potential buyers
of the Hong Kong-based
lender, one person said,
asking not to be identified
because the discussions are
confidential. No decision has
been made on pursuing a
sale, the people said.
Nanyang had 42 branches
in Hong Kong and 14 in
China at the end of 2013,
with HK$280.4bn ($36bn)
of consolidated assets,
according to its annual
report. In December last
year, Moody’s Investors
Service cut the bank’s rating,
citing concerns about rising
bad-loan risks from its rapid
mainland expansion.
BOC Hong Kong will make
“very substantial progress
in improving its mainland
credit quality,” if it proceeds
with a sale, Jim Antos, a Hong
Kong-based analyst at Mizuho
Securities Asia Ltd, said by
e-mail. It would also have
extra money to meet rising
capital requirements in Hong
Kong, he said.
BOC Hong Kong said it’s
conducting a review of
operations and its assets
portfolio that may lead to the
sale of certain banking assets,
according to a statement to
Hong Kong stock exchange.
The bank didn’t give details of
the potential disposal.
A deal would add to the
$6.8bn of bank acquisitions
completed in the city last
year, data compiled by
Bloomberg show. Nanyang
offers a foothold in the
Chinese banking hub as Hong
Kong’s role in cross-border
financing expands.
Customers at a supermarket in Tokyo. Japan’s retail sales rose for a sixth straight month in December, providing evidence of a gradual recovery in private consumption
as the economy climbs out of recession.
are expected to give a boost to Japanese
households and the broader economy in
the long run as they reduce costs for resource-importing Japan, offsetting ris-
ing import costs caused by a weak yen.
But cheaper oil also compounds the
challenge for the central bank in meeting its 2% inﬂation target around the
coming ﬁscal year that begins in April,
which many investors see as impossible
to achieve.
Last week, the central bank sharply
cut its inﬂation forecast, and Governor
Haruhiko Kuroda conceded it may take
longer than expected to hit the price
target.
Nearly
100 trade
probes
against
Beijing
AFP
Beijing
China’s trade partners
launched nearly 100
investigations into its
exports last year, Beijing
said yesterday, blaming
rising protectionism due to
a lacklustre global recovery
and the country’s growing
economic clout.
China was targeted by 22
countries and regions with
97 trade probes, including 61
anti-dumping cases and 14
anti-subsidy investigations,
commerce ministry spokesman
Shen Danyang said.
“To a certain extent, the
intense trade friction is a byproduct of China becoming
the world’s biggest trading
country in goods and secondlargest economy,” he told
reporters at a briefing.
He also put it down to
governments strengthening
protection of their own
domestic industries at a time
when the world economy is
lacking momentum.
The number of trade
investigations targeting
Chinese products was
expected to “continue
to be high” this year as
manufacturers become ever
more competitive, he added.
Products affected last year
ranged from wind power
generators to mobile phones
and food, he said. A 2013
trade row with China over
solar panels sparked the EU’s
biggest-ever trade probe
covering a market worth $25bn
at its zenith. Last month, EU
trade authorities opened a
probe into alleged Chinese
dumping of solar glass, a key
component of solar panels.
China to raise oil storage over 10% in ’15
Reuters
Beijing
S
torage companies in China are
set to boost commercial oil tank
capacity by more than a tenth
this year, just in time to cash in on
speculative demand to stock up on
cheap crude, a survey of storage and
trading executives shows.
The volume of at least 42mn barrels
of crude represents about one week
of China’s net crude oil imports, and
purchases to fill the tanks could offer support global oil prices that have
more than halved since last summer
to drop below $50 a barrel as Saudiled Opec faces off with US shale producers.
Traders and producers are seeking to stash crude to sell months
down the line on expectations that
prices will possibly recover towards
late 2015. Up to 30 tankers have been
booked for such a purpose, Reuters
has reported.
Storage operators looking to meet
this demand include Dutch tank and
terminal specialist Vopak, Hong
Kong-listed Brightoil Petroleum and
little-known private companies CEFC
China Energy and Zhejiang Tianlu
Energy Group. Vopak, building an
8.8mn-barrel base in Yangpu on the
southern island province of Hainan,
is already getting enquiries for the
lease of storage space due to be ready
around April, said sources with direct
knowledge of the discussions.
“In this market, all those with
tanks are smiling,” said Cui Zhenchu,
Shanghai-based head of oil trading at
CEFC China Energy, which is building an 18mn-barrel tank farm, also at
Yangpu on Hainan island.
Most of the storage space is being added by independent companies
that have only recently been allowed
to operate crude oil storage facilities
in China. The sector has long been
controlled by state giants Sinopec
Corp and PetroChina Corp, but Beijing now intends to draw more investors to boost the supply cushion as its
import dependence surges.
The projects are in addition to the
government’s strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) plans calling for China to
expand its emergency crude reserves
to 90 days of net imports from the
currently estimated 30 days.
“While SPR is totally taboo for foreign investors, they and (Chinese)
private firms can (now) play a part in
commercial storage,” said Wu Kang,
head of Asia operations for consultancy Facts Global Energy.
The Tianlu energy group, operating in the Zhoushan islands off eastern Zhejiang province, plans to add a
terminal and another 3.5mn barrels of
crude storage near its existing 17mnbarrel storage site.
“Oil prices have not touched bottom yet, (because) the war between
US shale and Opec will last for a
while,” said a Tianlu official. “That is
why we’re rushing to add more tanks
by the end of this year.”
Samsung smartphone faces threat from Apple
Reuters
Seoul
S
amsung Electronics is closer to
losing its crown as global smartphone leader after posting a plunge
in quarterly mobile earnings yesterday,
a day after rival Apple Inc reported the
biggest proﬁt in corporate history.
The South Korean giant said earnings from smartphones and other mobile gadgets dropped 64% annually in
the October-December period to 1.96tn
won ($1.80bn), contributing to its ﬁrst
annual earnings fall in three years.
It was the mobile division’s ﬁfth consecutive quarter of decline, in contrast
to Apple’s record-breaking 74.5mn
iPhone sales in the three months to Dec
27 on the back of the success of its bigscreen iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
Analysts say Samsung is under immense pressure to hang on to its market
share, with a lot resting on the launch
of its next ﬂagship Galaxy S6 high-end
smartphone due around March.
“I think after learning a hard lesson,
we’ll see a signiﬁcant improvement in
terms of design, build quality and on
the specs. The question right now is
whether this is enough,” Maybank Kim
Eng analyst Warran Lau said.
While Samsung did not release
smartphone sales ﬁgures, it said smartphone and tablet shipments declined in
the fourth quarter, leading some analysts to declare Apple had caught up.
“Apple’s new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus
models are proving wildly popular in
China, US and Europe. Apple tied with
Samsung to become the world’s largest
smartphone vendor for the ﬁrst time
since Q4 2011,” Strategy Analytics Executive Director Neil Mawston said in a
statement.
Research ﬁrm Counterpoint said in
a separate report yesterday that Apple
overtook Samsung as the top smartphone maker during the fourth quarter.
The company expects shipments and
average selling prices for handsets to
pick up in the ﬁrst quarter following the
launch of new mid-tier models like the
Galaxy A.
“Uncertainties for global business
conditions will likely grow further
in 2015 due to the slowing eurozone
economy and ﬁnancial risks in emerging countries,” Samsung said in a statement. Samsung said it saw healthy demand for memory chips, used in servers
and handsets including Apple iPhones,
as well as improved sales from its system chips business. It expects to outpace overall industry shipments growth
for DRAM and NAND chips this year.
Even so, analysts expect Samsung to
report its second straight annual proﬁt
decline this year, unless it can reinvigorate the mobile division.
The company said it would pay an
end-2014 dividend of 19,500 won per
common share, up 41% from the end2013 dividend of 13,800 won per share,
a sign it is eager to appease shareholders amid weaker proﬁts and uncertainties about the succession plans for the
family-owned Samsung Group.
Samsung shares were down 1% as of
0552 GMT, compared with a 0.4% decline for the broader market.
6
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
BUSINESS
SAUDI ARABIA
Company Name
QATAR
Company Name
Zad Holding Co
Widam Food Co
Vodafone Qatar
United Development Co
Salam International Investme
Qatar & Oman Investment Co
Qatar Navigation
Qatar National Cement Co
Qatar National Bank
Qatar Islamic Insurance
Qatar Industrial Manufactur
Qatar International Islamic
Qatari Investors Group
Qatar Islamic Bank
Qatar Gas Transport(Nakilat)
Qatar General Insurance & Re
Qatar German Co For Medical
Qatar Fuel Co
Qatar Electricity & Water Co
Qatar Cinema & Film Distrib
Qatar Insurance Co
Ooredoo Qsc
National Leasing
Mazaya Qatar Real Estate Dev
Mesaieed Petrochemical Holdi
Al Meera Consumer Goods Co
Medicare Group
Mannai Corporation Qsc
Masraf Al Rayan
Al Khalij Commercial Bank
Industries Qatar
Islamic Holding Group
Gulf Warehousing Company
Gulf International Services
Ezdan Holding Group
Doha Insurance Co
Doha Bank Qsc
Dlala Holding
Commercial Bank Of Qatar Qsc
Barwa Real Estate Co
Al Khaleej Takaful Group
Aamal Co
Lt Price
87.50
59.20
14.90
24.11
16.40
15.32
100.00
133.00
198.00
80.40
45.70
77.50
38.40
103.00
23.40
58.90
9.57
212.00
188.50
43.70
88.00
115.00
20.60
20.12
27.30
200.00
124.00
103.50
44.80
21.73
149.20
120.00
56.00
100.00
14.51
26.00
58.50
43.00
67.50
44.05
51.80
14.55
% Chg
2.34
-0.50
-3.87
-0.94
0.00
0.13
1.32
0.00
-1.49
0.50
1.33
-1.27
-0.13
-0.19
0.04
0.00
-0.31
0.52
-2.53
0.00
0.34
0.00
-0.48
1.16
-0.18
-0.50
2.06
0.49
-0.44
-0.78
0.07
0.17
3.13
-0.30
-1.49
-0.38
-0.51
0.00
-0.30
-1.23
1.77
-0.55
Volume
40
9,873
1,100,133
74,603
86,109
11,760
75,944
12,785
199,295
14,463
5,950
221,318
91,904
75,830
196,170
2,925
15,840
12,051
48,357
367,751
190,479
202,652
710,589
269,251
5,201
44,691
15,082
401,790
76,315
206,090
102,521
30,366
209,639
2,291,573
24,251
140,176
80,007
194,275
447,119
65,032
150,705
SAUDI ARABIA
Company Name
Saudi Hollandi Bank
Al-Ahsa Development Co.
Al-Baha Development & Invest
Ace Arabia Cooperative Insur
Allied Cooperative Insurance
Arriyadh Development Company
Fitaihi Holding Group
Arabia Insurance Cooperative
Al Abdullatif Industrial Inv
Al-Ahlia Cooperative Insuran
Al Alamiya Cooperative Insur
Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Dev
Al Babtain Power & Telecommu
Bank Albilad
Alujain Corporation (Alco)
Aldrees Petroleum And Transp
Fawaz Abdulaziz Alhokair & C
Alinma Bank
Alinma Tokio Marine
Al Khaleej Training And Educ
Abdullah A.M. Al-Khodari Son
Allianz Saudi Fransi Coopera
Almarai Co
Saudi Integrated Telecom Co
Alsorayai Group
Al Tayyar Travel Group
Amana Cooperative Insurance
Anaam International Holding
Abdullah Al Othaim Markets
Arabian Pipes Co
Advanced Petrochemicals Co
Al Rajhi Co For Co-Operative
Arabian Cement
Arab National Bank
Ash-Sharqiyah Development Co
United Wire Factories Compan
Astra Industrial Group
Alahli Takaful Co
Aseer
Axa Cooperative Insurance
Basic Chemical Industries
Bishah Agriculture
Bank Al-Jazira
Banque Saudi Fransi
United International Transpo
Bupa Arabia For Cooperative
Buruj Cooperative Insurance
Saudi Airlines Catering Co
Methanol Chemicals Co
City Cement Co
Eastern Province Cement Co
Etihad Atheeb Telecommunicat
Etihad Etisalat Co
Emaar Economic City
Saudi Enaya Cooperative Insu
United Electronics Co
Falcom Saudi Equity Etf
Filing & Packing Materials M
Wafrah For Industry And Deve
Falcom Petrochemical Etf
Gulf General Cooperative Ins
Jazan Development Co
Gulf Union Cooperative Insur
Halwani Bros Co
Hail Cement
Herfy Food Services Co
Al Jouf Agriculture Developm
Jarir Marketing Co
Jabal Omar Development Co
Al Jouf Cement
Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Co
Knowledge Economic City
Kingdom Holding Co
Saudi Arabian Mining Co
Malath Cooperative & Reinsur
Makkah Construction & Devepl
Mediterranean & Gulf Insuran
Middle East Specialized Cabl
Mohammad Al Mojil Group Co
Mouwasat Medical Services Co
The National Agriculture Dev
Najran Cement Co
Nama Chemicals Co
National Gypsum
National Gas & Industrializa
National Industrialization C
Maadaniyah
National Shipping Co Of/The
National Petrochemical Co
Rabigh Refining And Petroche
Al Qassim Agricultural Co
Qassim Cement/The
Red Sea Housing Services Co
Saudi Research And Marketing
Riyad Bank
Al Rajhi Bank
Saudi Arabian Amiantit Co
Lt Price
46.90
16.43
13.50
61.98
24.33
22.82
23.61
19.01
35.85
14.99
117.25
10.13
35.04
46.43
22.81
54.80
90.88
21.75
49.37
65.97
31.28
43.17
83.95
24.30
16.97
138.87
15.72
30.76
110.38
20.28
47.00
46.12
79.33
33.60
84.98
36.06
34.67
51.71
26.99
38.21
36.99
69.75
27.61
34.80
78.07
164.87
40.29
186.86
12.66
22.86
60.75
7.04
36.99
14.86
29.13
94.09
28.90
54.14
40.25
27.50
30.48
16.03
19.46
83.27
24.89
112.42
45.08
192.96
56.01
16.07
12.25
19.72
18.11
36.32
31.29
81.98
51.40
24.98
12.55
125.98
36.70
29.05
11.42
27.99
32.87
26.70
35.15
37.80
24.76
19.50
13.22
92.25
40.43
17.51
17.53
56.83
14.01
% Chg
-0.70
2.75
0.00
-0.61
1.21
-0.35
-0.38
1.01
1.47
0.81
9.84
-0.20
0.69
-1.57
-1.60
-0.27
0.36
-1.18
-1.77
0.78
-0.79
-0.83
1.76
0.00
1.56
2.62
-2.18
0.62
0.80
0.50
-1.53
9.42
1.06
0.27
-0.05
-0.80
0.67
0.12
-0.04
1.22
0.52
0.00
-1.07
0.29
2.12
-0.39
0.05
-1.92
-0.71
-0.74
0.50
-1.95
-2.40
-0.13
0.38
0.41
0.00
0.93
1.36
-1.08
0.33
-1.60
1.88
-0.05
0.61
-0.49
-0.22
-0.15
1.95
-0.06
0.41
0.77
0.44
-0.82
3.17
0.10
0.33
1.17
0.00
-1.15
3.88
-0.85
-0.26
1.97
-0.81
0.30
-0.17
-1.38
-2.56
-2.30
4.18
0.16
-0.44
0.40
-1.07
-0.39
0.50
Volume
85,556
14,143,181
222,495
681,617
1,248,259
539,997
1,544,324
438,842
2,309,385
443,665
141,195,447
766,229
564,319
1,852,810
330,961
674,014
45,717,228
1,023,734
187,707
2,212,424
451,595
485,113
1,397,382
375,411
2,625,883
1,666,423
188,712
3,550,268
1,018,032
1,927,431
433,041
285,390
1,579,588
889,422
1,297,032
767,628
962,303
1,465,599
195,938
3,366,743
244,179
306,081
137,382
346,752
63,786
1,006,364
1,432,403
253,139
4,675,866
13,824,673
7,204,630
1,544,476
79,337
1
854,109
1,847,940
3,013
606,359
2,453,549
1,587,599
31,887
334,668
63,202
188,821
99,992
4,638,485
4,806,484
22,907,517
5,150,388
3,524,315
9,664,615
6,663,273
102,981
577,745
3,610,384
16,652
792,825
471,882
4,045,489
972,570
97,112
1,658,738
1,445,985
941,535
933,579
3,781,235
4,928,705
36,102
199,689
537,809
1,517,399
4,159,189
2,820,176
Saudi British Bank
Sabb Takaful
Saudi Basic Industries Corp
Saudi Cement
Sasco
Saudi Dairy & Foodstuff Co
Saudi Arabian Fertilizer Co
Al Sagr Co-Operative Insuran
Saudi Advanced Industries
Saudi Arabian Coop Ins Co
Salama Cooperative Insurance
Samba Financial Group
Sanad Cooperative Insurance
Saudi Public Transport Co
Saudi Arabia Refineries Co
Hsbc Amanah Saudi 20 Etf
Saudi Re For Cooperative Rei
Savola
Saudi Cable Co
Saudi Chemical Company
Saudi Ceramic
Saudi Electricity Co
Saudi Fisheries
Al-Hassan G.I. Shaker Co
Dur Hospitality Co
Arabian Shield Cooperative
Saudi Investment Bank/The
Saudi Industrial Development
Saudi Industrial Export Co
KUWAIT
Lt Price
55.11
36.07
86.29
99.07
27.37
120.75
147.55
30.84
21.78
42.24
29.79
45.87
15.23
25.67
64.19
29.10
9.65
80.78
9.98
60.25
109.64
15.65
28.27
74.49
32.80
42.45
27.00
16.77
48.12
% Chg
0.33
0.95
-2.53
-1.19
-1.30
-1.83
0.25
3.04
1.54
-0.21
2.83
-0.86
0.00
-0.66
-0.14
0.00
0.94
-1.56
0.50
2.08
2.35
-0.13
0.00
2.55
-1.00
0.88
-0.63
0.96
1.52
Volume
310,821
1,320,276
5,700,970
170,100
563,376
67,105
87,276
3,717,525
1,371,992
598,901
900,229
2,067,273
1,282,196
1,099,395
7
3,631,374
262,201
1,145,627
618,721
410,229
2,914,770
849,225
332,000
411,076
629,586
756,218
3,575,238
850,653
KUWAIT
Company Name
Securities Group Co
Viva Kuwait Telecom Co
Sultan Center Food Products
Kuwait Foundry Co Sak
Kuwait Financial Centre Sak
Ajial Real Estate Entmt
Gulf Glass Manuf Co -Kscc
Kuwait Finance & Investment
National Industries Co
Kuwait Real Estate Holding C
Securities House/The
Boubyan Petrochemicals Co
Al Ahli Bank Of Kuwait
Ahli United Bank (Almutahed)
National Bank Of Kuwait
Commercial Bank Of Kuwait
Kuwait International Bank
Gulf Bank
Al-Massaleh Real Estate Co
Al Arabiya Real Estate Co
Kuwait Remal Real Estate Co
Alkout Industrial Projects C
A’ayan Real Estate Co
Investors Holding Group Co.K
Markaz Real Estate Fund
Al-Mazaya Holding Co
Al-Madar Finance & Invt Co
Gulf Petroleum Investment
Mabanee Co Sakc
City Group
Inovest Co Bsc
Kuwait Gypsum Manufacturing
Al-Deera Holding Co
Alshamel International Hold
Mena Real Estate Co
National Slaughter House
Amar Finance & Leasing Co
United Projects Group Kscc
National Consumer Holding Co
Amwal International Investme
Jeeran Holdings
Equipment Holding Co K.S.C.C
Nafais Holding
Safwan Trading & Contracting
Arkan Al Kuwait Real Estate
Gulf Finance House Ec
Energy House Holding Co Kscc
Kuwait Slaughter House Co
Kuwait Co For Process Plant
Al Maidan Dental Clinic Co K
National Ranges Company
Kuwait Pipes Indus & Oil Ser
Al-Themar Real International
Al Ahleia Insurance Co Sak
Wethaq Takaful Insurance Co
Salbookh Trading Co K.S.C.C
Aqar Real Estate Investments
Hayat Communications
Kuwait Packing Materials Mfg
Soor Fuel Marketing Co Ksc
Alargan International Real
Burgan Co For Well Drilling
Kuwait Resorts Co Kscc
Oula Fuel Marketing Co
Palms Agro Production Co
Ikarus Petroleum Industries
Mubarrad Transport Co
Al Mowasat Health Care Co
Shuaiba Industrial Co
Kuwait Invest Co Holding
Hits Telecom Holding
First Takaful Insurance Co
Kuwaiti Syrian Holding Co
National Cleaning Company
Eyas For High & Technical Ed
United Real Estate Company
Agility
Kuwait & Middle East Fin Inv
Fujairah Cement Industries
Livestock Transport & Tradng
International Resorts Co
National Industries Grp Hold
Marine Services Co
Warba Insurance Co
Kuwait United Poultry Co
First Dubai Real Estate Deve
Al Arabi Group Holding Co
Kuwait Hotels Co
Mobile Telecommunications Co
Al Safat Real Estate Co
Tamdeen Real Estate Co Ksc
Al Mudon Intl Real Estate Co
Kuwait Cement Co Ksc
Sharjah Cement & Indus Devel
Kuwait Portland Cement Co
Educational Holding Group
Bahrain Kuwait Insurance
Kuwait China Investment Co
Kuwait Investment Co
Burgan Bank
Kuwait Projects Co Holdings
Al Madina For Finance And In
Kuwait Insurance Co
Al Masaken Intl Real Estate
Intl Financial Advisors
First Investment Co Kscc
Al Mal Investment Company
Bayan Investment Co Kscc
Egypt Kuwait Holding Co Sae
Coast Investment Development
Privatization Holding Compan
Kuwait Medical Services Co
Injazzat Real State Company
Kuwait Cable Vision Sak
Sanam Real Estate Co Kscc
Ithmaar Bank Bsc
Aviation Lease And Finance C
Arzan Financial Group For Fi
Ajwan Gulf Real Estate Co
Manafae Investment Co
Kuwait Business Town Real Es
Future Kid Entertainment And
Specialities Group Holding C
Abyaar Real Eastate Developm
Dar Al Thuraya Real Estate C
Lt Price
118.00
690.00
94.00
325.00
110.00
208.00
510.00
59.00
206.00
36.00
80.00
580.00
400.00
650.00
900.00
620.00
260.00
305.00
76.00
44.50
66.00
0.00
96.00
33.00
1.54
128.00
27.00
90.00
980.00
440.00
65.00
170.00
13.00
0.00
39.00
152.00
67.00
760.00
108.00
32.50
61.00
102.00
89.00
0.00
132.00
23.00
108.00
196.00
260.00
0.00
33.00
0.00
90.00
485.00
61.00
122.00
95.00
68.00
450.00
140.00
184.00
168.00
91.00
142.00
130.00
146.00
74.00
184.00
246.00
0.00
31.00
0.00
0.00
66.00
310.00
100.00
790.00
39.00
79.00
134.00
37.00
190.00
100.00
110.00
176.00
73.00
156.00
178.00
520.00
23.00
450.00
112.00
375.00
87.00
1,360.00
150.00
0.00
49.00
140.00
460.00
700.00
30.00
290.00
68.00
40.00
0.00
37.50
65.00
200.00
59.00
54.00
85.00
68.00
31.50
60.00
48.00
236.00
47.50
35.00
61.00
36.00
0.00
130.00
32.50
0.00
% Chg
0.00
-1.43
-1.05
3.17
0.00
1.96
0.00
7.27
-4.63
2.86
-4.76
1.75
-1.23
-1.52
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-4.30
-4.35
0.00
-2.04
-2.94
0.00
0.00
-8.47
-4.26
0.00
0.00
-1.52
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-1.47
0.00
0.00
-7.14
0.00
0.00
-1.11
0.00
0.00
-4.17
-1.82
0.00
5.69
0.00
-4.35
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
3.39
0.00
-1.45
0.00
0.00
0.00
-5.62
0.00
1.43
0.00
0.00
-3.90
0.00
0.00
0.00
-1.59
0.00
0.00
-2.94
0.00
2.04
0.00
0.00
-1.25
3.08
-6.33
0.00
0.00
-1.79
-2.22
-2.67
0.00
0.00
-1.89
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-2.25
0.00
0.00
0.00
-1.01
-2.78
-1.08
0.00
-3.23
0.00
0.00
-1.23
0.00
-11.76
-1.52
0.00
-3.28
0.00
0.00
-4.23
-7.35
-6.25
-2.04
-0.84
-3.06
-6.67
0.00
-1.37
0.00
-5.80
0.00
0.00
Volume
25
2,090,705
11,640
66,500
252,585
56,242
1,010
1,100
5,000
1,640
1,392,444
59,318
16,000
25,000
1,140,149
3,142
509,128
306,945
12,835
2,382,998
2,086,509
661,679
4,022,743
956,670
11,967
2,721,045
75,409
20,028
44,480
500
2,718,249
2,000
10
10,600
150
1,000
391,500
5,400
19,408,081
16,500
40,065
43,049,181
1,374,000
2
6,860
6,429,905
421,144
1,633
18,050
6,804,240
5,000
140,965
6,739
127,279
75,101
1,002
894,500
58,659
30,110
228,700
1,089,892
1,500
102
6,628,921
479,367
50
429,285
1,167,923
1,202
460,250
7,826
331,650
841,876
102
860
230,000
1,848,966
34,861
12,157
479,454
10,944,328
14,001
659,627
2
303,713
10,710
71
116,251
1,029,833
823,253
1,026,968
1,758,190
118,799
19,420
520,700
1,636,650
6,689,341
10,000
2,468,800
1,455,205
100
81,000
293
66,338
2,614,423
63,192
371,800
4,302,751
4
2,833,552
40,000
2,531,801
-
Company Name
Al-Dar National Real Estate
Kgl Logistics Company Kscc
Combined Group Contracting
Zima Holding Co Ksc
Qurain Holding Co
Boubyan Intl Industries Hold
Gulf Investment House
Boubyan Bank K.S.C
Ahli United Bank B.S.C
Al-Safat Tec Holding Co
Al-Eid Food Co
Al-Qurain Petrochemicals Co
Advanced Technology Co
Ekttitab Holding Co S.A.K.C
Kout Food Group Ksc
Real Estate Trade Centers Co
Acico Industries Co Kscc
Kipco Asset Management Co
National Petroleum Services
Alimtiaz Investment Co Kscc
Ras Al Khaimah White Cement
Kuwait Reinsurance Co Ksc
Kuwait & Gulf Link Transport
Human Soft Holding Co Ksc
Automated Systems Co
Metal & Recycling Co
Gulf Franchising Holding Co
Al-Enma’a Real Estate Co
National Mobile Telecommuni
Al Bareeq Holding Co Kscc
Union Real Estate Co
Housing Finance Co Sak
Al Salam Group Holding Co
United Foodstuff Industries
Al Aman Investment Company
Mashaer Holdings Co Ksc
Manazel Holding
Mushrif Trading & Contractin
Tijara And Real Estate Inves
Kuwait Building Materials
Jazeera Airways
Commercial Real Estate Co
Future Communications Co
National International Co
Taameer Real Estate Invest C
Gulf Cement Co
Heavy Engineering And Ship B
Refrigeration Industries & S
National Real Estate Co
Al Safat Energy Holding Comp
Kuwait National Cinema Co
Danah Alsafat Foodstuff Co
Independent Petroleum Group
Kuwait Real Estate Co Ksc
Salhia Real Estate Co Ksc
Gulf Cable & Electrical Ind
Al Nawadi Holding Co Ksc
Kuwait Finance House
Gulf North Africa Holding Co
OMAN
Lt Price
24.50
104.00
900.00
100.00
11.50
66.00
62.00
445.00
234.00
58.00
0.00
190.00
920.00
43.00
840.00
30.50
295.00
95.00
610.00
77.00
128.00
200.00
61.00
455.00
425.00
84.00
51.00
74.00
1,420.00
0.00
148.00
0.00
64.00
182.00
79.00
132.00
50.00
67.00
56.00
440.00
465.00
93.00
120.00
64.00
33.50
90.00
138.00
350.00
136.00
22.00
1,040.00
81.00
395.00
70.00
375.00
660.00
118.00
770.00
38.50
% Chg
-5.77
1.96
-1.10
-9.09
-4.17
-2.94
-1.59
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-3.37
0.00
-4.69
0.00
0.00
0.00
-4.94
-1.54
0.00
-3.17
1.11
6.25
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-4.48
0.00
-2.47
1.54
-3.85
-4.29
-3.45
0.00
-1.06
-1.06
1.69
-1.54
-2.90
-1.10
0.00
0.00
3.03
-6.38
0.00
-3.57
0.00
-1.41
1.35
-1.49
0.00
0.00
-3.75
Volume
14,628,868
120,427
12,000
126,695
659,100
217,811
4,548,820
672,095
1,110,050
100
205,238
105,000
2,151,200
45,000
32,552
389
300
2,000
19,304,932
11,102
500
1,166,999
10,404
4,051
10
10
45,765
9,959
50
5,463,256
1,000
572,550
10,440
8,479,251
355,413
846,199
230
82,855
298,041
132,880
883,639
189,000
295,000
12,627
280
2,654,096
6,686,684
2,000,000
1,783,612
1,100
6,149,101
10
72,000
13,500
695,629
1,210,000
OMAN
Company Name
Voltamp Energy Saog
United Finance Co
United Power Co
United Power/Energy Co- Pref
Al Madina Investment Co
Taageer Finance
Salalah Port Services
A’saffa Foods Saog
Sohar Poultry
Shell Oman Marketing
Shell Oman Marketing - Pref
Smn Power Holding Saog
Al Shurooq Inv Ser
Al Sharqiya Invest Holding
Sohar Power Co
Salalah Beach Resort Saog
Salalah Mills Co
Sahara Hospitality
Renaissance Services Saog
Raysut Cement Co
Port Service Corporation
Packaging Co Ltd
Oman United Insurance Co
Oman Textile Holding Co Saog
Oman Telecommunications Co
Sweets Of Oman
Oman Orix Leasing Co.
Oman Refreshment Co
Oman Packaging
Oman Oil Marketing Company
0Man Oil Marketing Co-Pref
Oman National Investment Co
Oman National Engineering An
Oman National Dairy Products
Ominvest
Oman Medical Projects
Oman Ceramic Com
Oman Intl Marketing
Oman Investment & Finance
Hsbc Bank Oman
Oman Hotels & Tourism Co
Oman Holding International
Oman Fiber Optics
Oman Flour Mills
Oman Filters Industry
Oman Fisheries Co
Oman Education & Training In
Oman & Emirates Inv(Om)50%
Oman & Emirates Inv(Emir)50%
Oman Europe Foods Industries
Oman Cement Co
Oman Chlorine
Oman Chromite
Oman Cables Industry
Oman Agricultural Dev
Omani Qatari Telecommunicati
National Securities
Oman Foods International Soa
National Pharmaceutical-Rts
National Pharmaceutical
National Packaging Fac
National Mineral Water
National Hospitality Institu
National Gas Co
National Finance Co
National Detergents/The
National Carpet Factory
National Bank Of Oman Saog
National Biscuit Industries
National Real Estate Develop
Natl Aluminium Products
Muscat Thread Mills Co
Muscat Insurance Company
Modern Poultry Farms
Muscat National Holding
Musandam Marketing & Invest
Al Maha Petroleum Products M
Muscat Gases Company Saog
Majan Glass Company
Muscat Finance
Al Kamil Power Co
Interior Hotels
Hotels Management Co Interna
Al-Hassan Engineering Co
Gulf Stone
Gulf Mushroom Company
Gulf Invest. Serv. Pref-Shar
Gulf Investments Services
Gulf International Chemicals
Gulf Hotels (Oman) Co Ltd
Global Fin Investment
Galfar Engineering&Contract
Galfar Engineering -Prefer
Financial Services Co.
Flexible Ind Packages
Lt Price
0.39
0.15
1.66
1.00
0.00
0.15
0.65
0.78
0.21
2.00
1.05
0.66
1.04
0.19
0.38
1.38
1.49
2.45
0.47
1.86
0.32
0.48
0.32
0.27
1.75
1.35
0.15
2.45
0.26
2.22
0.25
0.39
0.30
0.00
0.43
0.00
0.45
0.52
0.23
0.00
0.23
0.00
5.51
0.58
0.00
0.07
0.14
0.13
0.00
1.00
0.51
0.56
3.64
2.01
1.45
0.00
0.17
0.52
0.00
0.10
0.00
0.06
2.05
0.58
0.15
0.70
0.00
0.36
3.75
0.00
0.33
0.16
0.00
0.00
1.86
0.00
2.16
0.83
0.24
0.15
0.31
0.00
1.25
0.11
0.08
0.43
0.15
0.15
0.19
10.50
0.12
0.17
0.43
0.16
0.00
% Chg
0.51
2.67
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.53
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-2.89
0.00
0.00
0.00
-0.62
0.00
-1.41
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-1.02
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-0.85
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-1.43
0.00
3.31
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-3.02
0.00
0.00
0.00
2.87
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
4.81
0.00
0.00
0.00
1.32
1.58
0.00
0.00
-3.37
0.00
1.86
0.00
Volume
28,010
3,122,904
46,000
1,015
856,175
74
133,533
10,900
3,500
1,273,624
462,734
17,500
306,050
20,105
1,612,954
3,000
26,800
511,888
1,236,827
852,500
414,652
1,656,194
988,697
25,262
-
Company Name
Financial Corp/The
Dhofar Tourism
Dhofar Poultry
Aloula Co
Dhofar Intl Development
Dhofar Insurance
Dhofar University
Dhofar Power Co
Dhofar Power Co-Pfd
Dhofar Fisheries & Food Indu
Dhofar Cattlefeed
Al Batinah Dev & Inv
Dhofar Beverages Co
Computer Stationery Inds
Construction Materials Ind
Cement & Gypsum Pro
Marine Bander Al-Rowdha
Bank Sohar
Bankmuscat Saog
Bank Dhofar Saog
Al Batinah Hotels
Majan College
Areej Vegetable Oils
Al Jazeera Steel Products Co
Al Sallan Food Industry
Acwa Power Barka Saog
Al-Omaniya Financial Service
Taghleef Industries Saog
Gulf Plastic Industries Co
Al Jazeera Services
Al Jazerah Services -Pfd
Al-Fajar Al-Alamia Co
Ahli Bank
Abrasives Manufacturing Co S
Al-Batinah Intl Saog
Lt Price
0.13
0.49
0.18
0.53
0.53
0.23
1.47
0.00
0.00
1.28
0.18
0.21
0.26
0.25
0.04
0.00
0.00
0.23
0.60
0.36
1.13
0.50
5.51
0.34
0.00
0.82
0.33
0.00
0.39
0.34
0.55
0.75
0.22
0.05
0.00
% Chg
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
1.98
0.00
0.00
-5.13
0.00
0.00
-0.87
1.68
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-0.59
0.00
0.00
-3.45
0.00
0.00
Volume
1,054,515
178,000
382,000
1,076,691
8,425
155,500
18,000
201,437
-
UAE
Company Name
National Takaful Company
Waha Capital Pjsc
Union Insurance Co
Union National Bank/Abu Dhab
United Insurance Company
Union Cement Co
United Arab Bank
Abu Dhabi National Takaful C
Abu Dhabi National Energy Co
#N/A Invalid Security
Sorouh Real Estate Company
Sharjah Insurance Company
Sharjah Cement & Indus Devel
Ras Al Khaima Poultry
Ras Al Khaimah White Cement
Rak Properties
Ras Al-Khaimah National Insu
Ras Al Khaimah Ceramics
Ras Al Khaimah Cement Co
National Bank Of Ras Al-Khai
Ooredoo Qsc
Umm Al Qaiwain Cement Indust
Oman & Emirates Inv(Emir)50%
National Marine Dredging Co
National Corp Tourism & Hote
Sharjah Islamic Bank
National Bank Of Umm Al Qaiw
National Bank Of Fujairah
National Bank Of Abu Dhabi
Methaq Takaful Insurance
#N/A Invalid Security
Gulf Pharmaceutical Ind-Julp
Invest Bank
Insurance House
Gulf Medical Projects
Gulf Livestock Co
Green Crescent Insurance Co
Gulf Cement Co
Foodco Holding
Finance House
First Gulf Bank
Fujairah Cement Industries
Fujairah Building Industries
Emirates Telecom Corporation
Eshraq Properties Co Pjsc
Emirates Insurance Co. (Psc)
Emirates Driving Company
Al Dhafra Insurance Co. P.S.
Dana Gas
Commercial Bank Internationa
Bank Of Sharjah
Abu Dhabi Natl Co For Buildi
Al Wathba National Insurance
Intl Fish Farming Co Pjsc
Arkan Building Materials Co
Aldar Properties Pjsc
Al Ain Ahlia Ins. Co.
Al Khazna Insurance Co
Agthia Group Pjsc
Al Fujairah National Insuran
Abu Dhabi Ship Building Co
Abu Dhabi National Insurance
Abu Dhabi National Hotels
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank
Abu Dhabi Aviation
Lt Price
0.79
3.18
1.19
5.80
2.00
1.30
6.60
7.24
0.80
0.00
0.00
3.85
1.15
1.27
1.50
0.72
3.80
3.00
0.92
8.09
143.50
1.23
1.17
6.90
6.30
1.80
3.50
4.85
12.85
0.73
0.00
3.00
3.00
1.00
2.00
2.70
0.72
1.10
4.00
3.34
17.00
1.35
1.45
11.05
0.75
7.00
5.50
7.70
0.46
1.75
1.92
0.78
5.35
7.48
1.07
2.37
60.00
0.40
6.30
300.00
1.63
6.08
3.55
5.28
6.92
3.00
% Chg
0.00
-1.55
0.00
-0.85
0.00
0.00
0.76
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-0.66
-4.00
0.00
1.35
1.10
-1.94
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-1.10
0.00
0.00
-5.51
-1.35
0.00
0.00
7.14
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-0.87
0.00
0.00
-0.90
-1.32
-5.41
0.00
0.00
-2.13
0.00
-1.54
1.30
0.00
0.00
-1.83
-3.27
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-6.86
0.00
0.00
-0.75
-1.56
-3.23
Volume
3,931,992
6,038,980
183,260
492,131
350,000
4,700,221
157,684
74,000
234,352
390,000
865,205
2,669,918
1,026,223
8,194,784
3,200,011
14,957,737
1,338,377
9,881,376
24,000
25,000
101,542
12,365,852
75,000
13,117
21,000
2,222,958
2,506,545
146,815
BAHRAIN
Company Name
United Paper Industries Bsc
United Gulf Investment Corp
United Gulf Bank
United Finance Co
Trafco Group Bsc
Takaful International Co
Taib Bank -$Us
Securities & Investment Co
Seef Properties
#N/A Invalid Security
Al-Salam Bank
Delmon Poultry Co
National Hotels Co
National Bank Of Bahrain
Nass Corp Bsc
Khaleeji Commercial Bank
Ithmaar Bank Bsc
Investcorp Bank -$Us
Inovest Co Bsc
Intl Investment Group-Kuwait
Gulf Monetary Group
Global Investment House Kpsc
Gulf Finance House Ec
Bahrain Family Leisure Co
Esterad Investment Co B.S.C.
Bahrain Duty Free Complex
Bahrain Car Park Co
Bahrain Cinema Co
Bahrain Tourism Co
Bahraini Saudi Bank/The
Bahrain National Holding
Bankmuscat Saog
Bmmi Bsc
Bmb Investment Bank
Bahrain Kuwait Insurance
Bahrain Islamic Bank
Gulf Hotel Group B.S.C
Bahrain Flour Mills Co
Bahrain Commercial Facilitie
Bbk Bsc
Bahrain Telecom Co
Bahrain Ship Repair & Engin
Albaraka Banking Group
Banader Hotels Co
Ahli United Bank B.S.C
Lt Price
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.22
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.20
0.00
0.12
0.00
0.00
0.85
0.18
0.04
0.17
451.60
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.22
0.88
`
1.54
0.24
0.00
0.48
0.00
0.88
0.00
0.00
0.15
0.85
0.00
0.00
0.47
0.33
0.00
0.81
0.00
0.81
% Chg
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
4.35
0.00
0.00
0.00
1.15
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
Volume
25,097
10,000
37,659
10,000
10,000
100,000
90,000
10
27,934
6,000
102,460
20,000
5,200
82,534
12,016
1,882
13,346
5,000
18,295
454,785
LATEST MARKET CLOSING FIGURES
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
7
BUSINESS
DJIA
WORLD INDICES
Company Name
Exxon Mobil Corp
Microsoft Corp
Johnson & Johnson
Wal-Mart Stores Inc
General Electric Co
Procter & Gamble Co/The
Jpmorgan Chase & Co
Pfizer Inc
Chevron Corp
Verizon Communications Inc
Coca-Cola Co/The
Merck & Co. Inc.
At&T Inc
Intel Corp
Walt Disney Co/The
Visa Inc-Class A Shares
Intl Business Machines Corp
Home Depot Inc
Cisco Systems Inc
United Technologies Corp
3M Co
Unitedhealth Group Inc
Boeing Co/The
Mcdonald’s Corp
American Express Co
Nike Inc -Cl B
Goldman Sachs Group Inc
Du Pont (E.I.) De Nemours
Caterpillar Inc
Travelers Cos Inc/The
Lt Price
86.31
41.10
100.98
86.43
23.93
85.31
54.92
31.62
101.92
45.46
41.58
60.88
32.48
33.62
91.85
246.00
153.09
106.07
26.77
115.04
163.51
107.10
144.05
92.50
81.51
93.35
174.18
71.57
79.06
103.73
% Chg
-1.86
-0.22
-0.49
-0.45
0.38
0.18
0.31
-1.03
-1.73
-1.28
-0.81
-0.93
-0.62
-0.47
-0.88
-0.15
1.02
1.27
-0.14
-1.61
-0.26
-1.25
3.15
4.19
-0.27
0.04
0.65
-0.20
-1.19
-0.81
7,582,610
25,344,007
1,959,544
1,810,795
13,795,910
2,929,155
6,397,014
7,124,674
4,237,672
5,714,876
4,568,630
2,156,555
7,982,327
11,508,721
2,219,019
757,130
3,126,776
1,906,072
7,800,597
1,643,225
750,999
1,600,214
4,118,996
8,501,514
2,152,901
717,549
935,273
1,662,391
2,713,265
800,593
FTSE 100
Company Name
Wpp Plc
Wolseley Plc
Wm Morrison Supermarkets
Whitbread Plc
Weir Group Plc/The
Vodafone Group Plc
United Utilities Group Plc
Unilever Plc
Tullow Oil Plc
Tui Ag-New
Tui Ag-Di
Travis Perkins Plc
Tesco Plc
Taylor Wimpey Plc
Standard Life Plc
Standard Chartered Plc
St James’s Place Plc
Sse Plc
Sports Direct International
Smiths Group Plc
Smith & Nephew Plc
Sky Plc
Shire Plc
Severn Trent Plc
Schroders Plc
Sainsbury (J) Plc
Sage Group Plc/The
Sabmiller Plc
Rsa Insurance Group Plc
Royal Mail Plc
Royal Dutch Shell Plc-B Shs
Royal Dutch Shell Plc-A Shs
Royal Bank Of Scotland Group
Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc
Rio Tinto Plc
Reed Elsevier Plc
Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc
Randgold Resources Ltd
Prudential Plc
Persimmon Plc
Pearson Plc
Old Mutual Plc
Next Plc
National Grid Plc
Mondi Plc
Meggitt Plc
Marks & Spencer Group Plc
London Stock Exchange Group
Lloyds Banking Group Plc
Legal & General Group Plc
Land Securities Group Plc
Kingfisher Plc
Johnson Matthey Plc
Itv Plc
Intu Properties Plc
Intl Consolidated Airline-Di
Intertek Group Plc
Intercontinental Hotels Grou
Imperial Tobacco Group Plc
Hsbc Holdings Plc
Hargreaves Lansdown Plc
Hammerson Plc
Glencore Plc
Glaxosmithkline Plc
Gkn Plc
G4s Plc
Friends Life Group Ltd
Fresnillo Plc
Experian Plc
Easyjet Plc
Dixons Carphone Plc
Direct Line Insurance Group
Diageo Plc
Crh Plc
Compass Group Plc
Coca-Cola Hbc Ag-Cdi
Centrica Plc
Carnival Plc
Capita Plc
Burberry Group Plc
Bunzl Plc
Bt Group Plc
British Land Co Plc
British American Tobacco Plc
Bp Plc
Bhp Billiton Plc
Bg Group Plc
Barratt Developments Plc
Barclays Plc
Bae Systems Plc
Babcock Intl Group Plc
Aviva Plc
Astrazeneca Plc
Associated British Foods Plc
Ashtead Group Plc
Arm Holdings Plc
Antofagasta Plc
Anglo American Plc
Aggreko Plc
Admiral Group Plc
Aberdeen Asset Mgmt Plc
3I Group Plc
Lt Price
1,447.00
3,876.00
183.60
4,993.00
1,644.00
236.40
1,037.00
2,949.00
347.80
1,136.00
1,164.00
1,929.00
225.55
137.10
404.10
885.50
865.00
1,593.00
710.50
1,113.00
1,195.00
934.00
4,889.00
2,186.00
2,896.00
262.60
481.70
3,597.00
457.40
434.10
2,143.50
2,055.00
368.40
886.00
2,883.50
1,160.00
5,710.00
5,405.00
1,635.50
1,604.00
1,358.00
208.60
7,265.00
941.90
1,184.00
548.50
487.40
2,406.00
74.48
268.10
1,298.00
347.30
3,278.00
221.50
368.70
562.00
2,301.00
2,650.00
3,151.00
616.20
1,027.00
697.00
249.20
1,484.50
368.60
286.80
402.10
860.50
1,184.00
1,868.00
423.70
316.20
2,010.00
1,608.00
1,155.00
1,080.00
292.00
3,005.00
1,110.00
1,756.00
1,930.00
427.10
840.50
3,789.50
422.60
1,411.00
877.50
468.10
236.10
516.00
1,005.00
532.00
4,737.50
3,151.00
1,117.00
1,043.00
653.50
1,093.50
1,551.00
1,444.00
443.00
464.70
% Chg
-0.48
-0.26
-1.45
-0.34
-1.97
-0.36
0.48
1.79
-2.58
-1.05
-1.19
-0.21
-0.92
2.08
-0.25
-2.15
0.70
0.82
0.00
-0.27
0.34
-0.43
0.18
0.74
-0.86
-0.11
0.00
0.07
-0.44
-0.85
-4.65
-4.57
-1.73
0.40
-0.38
1.31
1.60
-3.22
-0.30
1.45
1.34
0.00
0.48
-1.00
0.59
0.92
2.05
0.92
-0.37
-0.45
0.70
-0.74
-3.16
-0.72
0.05
0.36
0.57
-0.26
1.74
-0.32
3.22
0.07
-3.39
-0.80
-0.14
-0.24
0.25
-5.44
0.00
5.72
-1.24
0.32
2.45
-0.74
0.96
0.75
1.53
-2.05
-0.72
-1.79
0.36
0.05
0.48
0.29
-2.39
-0.81
-2.26
2.27
-0.32
0.58
0.60
0.09
-0.13
0.96
-0.36
-0.57
-2.97
-1.93
1.31
-0.89
-0.43
0.13
Volume
2,369,402
348,283
7,907,219
423,044
968,170
54,592,370
1,113,142
2,336,921
4,742,934
1,065,325
503,439
297,110
16,998,180
11,410,723
2,728,713
7,958,327
730,831
1,475,319
626,047
710,945
2,107,794
3,672,017
1,089,462
938,299
203,857
4,280,213
1,990,665
1,543,996
1,886,766
1,656,322
6,694,046
9,364,859
6,803,751
3,408,815
3,303,008
2,764,487
1,249,210
401,858
2,284,335
611,013
1,772,818
4,231,956
270,790
5,804,218
1,133,567
1,465,337
4,253,828
458,144
59,332,938
5,883,489
933,269
3,677,624
727,514
7,721,146
1,784,976
6,038,395
614,701
341,710
1,881,167
11,621,493
1,049,949
1,886,251
23,081,726
4,297,486
3,557,082
1,086,872
7,672,411
1,212,847
2,060,852
2,496,946
3,646,308
2,104,532
7,938,253
1,040,109
2,288,196
488,931
11,200,433
1,411,076
896,916
1,157,704
471,411
9,184,303
1,452,182
2,040,454
29,309,309
5,502,181
8,101,568
2,863,993
17,977,802
3,733,354
1,038,527
6,641,234
1,950,754
418,622
1,642,528
2,542,506
3,514,199
3,656,318
389,003
353,958
2,421,110
1,150,022
TOKYO
Company Name
Inpex Corp
Daiwa House Industry Co Ltd
Sekisui House Ltd
Kirin Holdings Co Ltd
Japan Tobacco Inc
Seven & I Holdings Co Ltd
Toray Industries Inc
Asahi Kasei Corp
Sumitomo Chemical Co Ltd
Shin-Etsu Chemical Co Ltd
Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings
Kao Corp
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd
Astellas Pharma Inc
Eisai Co Ltd
Daiichi Sankyo Co Ltd
Fujifilm Holdings Corp
Shiseido Co Ltd
Jx Holdings Inc
Lt Price
1,291.50
2,210.00
1,520.50
1,576.00
3,213.00
4,331.00
995.80
1,155.50
473.00
7,883.00
610.70
5,031.00
5,860.00
1,823.00
5,592.00
1,675.00
3,985.00
1,823.00
435.80
% Chg
-1.15
-1.14
0.36
-0.10
-3.59
-0.67
-1.55
-0.94
-3.07
-1.49
-0.94
-0.93
0.95
0.77
1.99
-0.50
3.88
-0.52
-1.69
Indices
Volume
Volume
4,780,500
1,319,700
4,453,800
3,256,600
5,580,200
2,447,900
7,785,000
3,013,000
8,930,000
1,051,400
5,559,600
3,952,900
3,185,400
5,789,100
2,151,600
3,442,500
8,924,600
2,240,800
10,292,900
Lt Price
Change
Dow Jones Indus. Avg
S&P 500 Index
Nasdaq Composite Index
S&P/Tsx Composite Index
Mexico Bolsa Index
Brazil Bovespa Stock Idx
Ftse 100 Index
Cac 40 Index
Dax Index
Ibex 35 Tr
17,188.68
1,992.75
4,616.67
14,445.34
41,883.25
47,448.06
6,788.42
4,613.41
10,707.76
10,475.70
-2.69
-9.41
-21.32
-157.54
-274.82
-246.48
-37.52
+2.47
-3.21
+18.80
Nikkei 225
Japan Topix
Hang Seng Index
All Ordinaries Indx
Nzx All Index
Bse Sensex 30 Index
Nse S&P Cnx Nifty Index
Straits Times Index
Karachi All Share Index
Jakarta Composite Index
17,606.22
1,413.58
24,595.85
5,532.23
1,158.17
29,681.77
8,952.35
3,419.05
24,688.92
5,262.72
-189.51
-16.34
-265.96
+15.68
-6.47
+122.59
+38.05
-0.10
-36.39
-6.13
A passenger plane flies over a Shell logo at a petrol station in west London. The oil major’s shares were down 4.3% to 2,060
pence yesterday after it announced an 8% drop in annual net profit.
TOKYO
Company Name
Bridgestone Corp
Asahi Glass Co Ltd
Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Meta
Sumitomo Metal Industries
Kobe Steel Ltd
Jfe Holdings Inc
Sumitomo Metal Mining Co Ltd
Sumitomo Electric Industries
Smc Corp
Komatsu Ltd
Kubota Corp
Daikin Industries Ltd
Hitachi Ltd
Toshiba Corp
Mitsubishi Electric Corp
Nidec Corp
Nec Corp
Fujitsu Ltd
Panasonic Corp
Sharp Corp
Sony Corp
Tdk Corp
Keyence Corp
Denso Corp
Fanuc Corp
Rohm Co Ltd
Kyocera Corp
Murata Manufacturing Co Ltd
Nitto Denko Corp
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
Nissan Motor Co Ltd
Toyota Motor Corp
Honda Motor Co Ltd
Suzuki Motor Corp
Nikon Corp
Hoya Corp
Canon Inc
Ricoh Co Ltd
Dai Nippon Printing Co Ltd
Nintendo Co Ltd
Itochu Corp
Marubeni Corp
Mitsui & Co Ltd
Tokyo Electron Ltd
Sumitomo Corp
Mitsubishi Corp
Aeon Co Ltd
Mitsubishi Ufj Financial Gro
Resona Holdings Inc
Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdin
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Gr
Bank Of Yokohama Ltd/The
Mizuho Financial Group Inc
Orix Corp
Daiwa Securities Group Inc
Nomura Holdings Inc
Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Holdin
Ms&Ad Insurance Group Holdin
Dai-Ichi Life Insurance
Tokio Marine Holdings Inc
T&D Holdings Inc
Mitsui Fudosan Co Ltd
Mitsubishi Estate Co Ltd
Sumitomo Realty & Developmen
East Japan Railway Co
West Japan Railway Co
Central Japan Railway Co
Ana Holdings Inc
Nippon Telegraph & Telephone
Kddi Corp
Ntt Docomo Inc
Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc
Chubu Electric Power Co Inc
Kansai Electric Power Co Inc
Tohoku Electric Power Co Inc
Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc
Tokyo Gas Co Ltd
Secom Co Ltd
Yamada Denki Co Ltd
Fast Retailing Co Ltd
Softbank Corp
Lt Price
4,673.50
618.00
289.10
0.00
211.00
2,585.00
1,704.00
1,528.00
31,565.00
2,366.00
1,745.50
8,108.00
899.20
463.90
1,362.50
8,064.00
361.00
638.40
1,370.50
231.00
2,775.00
7,360.00
55,780.00
5,221.00
20,130.00
7,570.00
5,365.00
12,995.00
7,124.00
647.50
1,028.00
7,729.00
3,609.00
3,754.50
1,505.00
4,539.00
3,741.00
1,162.50
1,078.50
11,235.00
1,198.00
657.30
1,508.50
8,352.00
1,172.00
2,088.00
1,256.00
630.80
584.30
411.40
4,002.00
637.10
195.80
1,416.50
870.00
625.40
3,151.50
2,870.50
1,590.50
4,110.50
1,340.50
3,037.50
2,398.00
3,832.50
9,207.00
6,109.00
20,345.00
328.00
6,928.00
8,214.00
1,977.00
494.00
1,506.00
1,126.00
1,453.00
1,105.00
702.60
6,784.00
444.00
43,675.00
7,206.00
% Chg
-0.52
-0.80
-1.90
0.00
-2.76
-1.47
-0.26
0.07
-1.13
-8.54
-2.16
-1.92
-1.51
-2.21
-0.51
-0.96
-0.55
-0.84
-2.11
-2.12
-1.74
-0.94
-0.75
-2.25
-3.38
-0.92
0.09
0.12
-1.08
-0.69
-1.96
-1.14
-1.08
-1.04
-1.76
0.87
-5.11
-1.19
-1.64
-8.66
-1.64
-0.86
-1.79
-2.37
-1.68
-1.44
0.16
-1.45
-2.94
-0.87
-1.95
-1.06
-1.41
-1.05
-1.10
-1.22
0.48
-1.02
-2.84
-0.25
-1.97
-2.33
-1.66
-2.13
-0.70
-0.34
-0.22
0.89
-0.29
-1.83
-1.59
-2.18
1.76
-0.22
-0.41
1.10
-0.54
-0.96
-3.27
0.17
-3.15
Volume
3,364,400
4,302,000
54,351,000
48,167,000
3,101,000
2,954,000
4,420,700
303,600
15,263,000
4,764,000
1,647,700
16,940,000
22,774,000
9,154,000
1,447,400
12,577,000
9,366,000
5,509,300
22,332,000
10,192,400
859,100
116,200
2,423,800
1,851,400
376,600
1,105,000
808,600
1,136,500
13,951,000
9,722,000
8,845,600
6,974,500
1,696,900
4,808,900
1,763,200
10,368,200
4,138,200
2,234,000
2,245,100
5,841,400
14,691,800
11,928,600
694,400
5,468,100
4,617,200
6,284,700
41,421,800
14,748,400
19,308,000
12,262,200
3,314,000
143,828,000
7,536,600
9,476,000
20,561,500
2,347,700
1,848,600
4,760,400
2,920,600
2,052,400
5,920,000
6,168,000
2,219,000
936,600
795,900
586,300
29,839,000
2,868,800
1,941,700
6,145,500
28,264,900
4,616,400
2,766,100
1,585,800
2,779,700
6,906,000
767,000
30,660,000
648,300
8,176,300
SENSEX
Company Name
Zee Entertainment Enterprise
Wipro Ltd
Ultratech Cement Ltd
Tech Mahindra Ltd
Tata Steel Ltd
Tata Power Co Ltd
Tata Motors Ltd
Tata Consultancy Svcs Ltd
Sun Pharmaceutical Indus
State Bank Of India
Sesa Sterlite Ltd
Reliance Industries Ltd
Punjab National Bank
Power Grid Corp Of India Ltd
Oil & Natural Gas Corp Ltd
Ntpc Ltd
Nmdc Ltd
Maruti Suzuki India Ltd
Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd
Lupin Ltd
Larsen & Toubro Ltd
Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd
Jindal Steel & Power Ltd
Itc Ltd
Infosys Ltd
Indusind Bank Ltd
Idfc Ltd
Icici Bank Ltd
Housing Development Finance
Hindustan Unilever Ltd
Hindalco Industries Ltd
Hero Motocorp Ltd
Hdfc Bank Limited
Hcl Technologies Ltd
Grasim Industries Ltd
Gail India Ltd
Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories
Dlf Ltd
Coal India Ltd
Cipla Ltd
Cairn India Ltd
Bharti Airtel Ltd
Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd
Bharat Heavy Electricals
Bank Of Baroda
Bajaj Auto Ltd
Axis Bank Ltd
Asian Paints Ltd
Ambuja Cements Ltd
Acc Ltd
Lt Price
386.05
602.70
3,162.75
2,904.40
390.40
88.15
598.60
2,544.65
919.80
327.00
201.45
929.40
199.10
148.80
351.90
141.85
140.15
3,688.80
1,296.80
1,554.55
1,723.90
1,331.40
157.40
370.20
2,145.50
876.05
170.60
380.30
1,315.55
941.60
142.40
2,876.50
1,095.00
1,648.95
3,931.90
423.10
3,363.30
166.65
374.95
697.45
234.70
375.80
733.85
287.90
217.15
2,404.70
599.50
881.30
255.95
1,582.95
% Chg
-0.32
-0.75
0.73
1.08
-0.19
0.17
1.60
0.20
1.10
-2.27
0.15
2.49
-3.68
-0.43
-0.57
-0.70
-0.57
-0.99
-1.48
2.58
1.50
-1.46
1.48
2.18
0.04
0.84
-1.33
-0.98
-2.16
0.83
1.61
0.40
3.46
-0.63
0.96
1.03
3.84
2.21
-2.31
-0.87
-0.42
0.59
3.91
3.10
-2.86
0.25
1.51
-3.18
2.77
2.54
Volume
3,567,603
2,662,058
378,543
977,451
5,726,575
6,512,388
6,129,264
1,920,033
2,790,815
16,150,494
10,938,654
8,805,957
9,168,297
4,025,057
7,340,059
14,769,673
4,470,336
651,683
1,543,022
1,306,340
2,450,022
2,371,881
11,801,384
14,490,504
4,000,361
745,476
12,191,203
20,686,646
6,162,925
3,535,395
12,894,313
559,873
5,519,168
1,245,647
89,667
2,655,018
1,480,192
13,241,349
13,534,517
2,578,946
4,542,690
7,035,232
3,396,847
5,333,268
4,661,392
406,577
5,934,131
5,915,427
2,874,063
655,344
Energy companies take a
knock on Europe markets
AFP
London
S
hares in energy companies fell
yesterday after they announced
falling proﬁts on tumbling oil
prices, although European markets
were broadly steady.
London’s FTSE 100 index, home
to energy majors Royal Dutch Shell
and BP, slid 0.22% to end the day at
6,810.60 points.
Frankfurt’s DAX 30 index added
0.25% to 10,737.87 points.
While official data showing German
unemployment fell in January to the
lowest level since the country was reunited in 1990, inﬂation turned negative for the ﬁrst time in more than ﬁve
years, dropping to 0.3%.
The CAC 40 in Paris rose 0.44% to
4,631.43 points, while Madrid climbed
0.48% and Milan moved up 0.56%.
The Greek stock market ﬁnished the
day up almost 3.2% yesterday and the
country’s four main banks rose nearly
13%, recovering some of their losses
from the previous day.
The Athens stock market had
plunged over 9% on Wednesday after
Greece’s new hard-left Prime Minister
Alexis Tsipras scrapped key privatisation projects and pressed home his
demand for a renegotiated deal on the
country’s multi-billion-euro bailout.
“Despite being spooked by Syriza’s
continued faith to their pre-election
promises, the eurozone indices appear
somewhat reassured by the country’s
discourse with the region’s important
ﬁnancial ﬁgures,” said analyst Connor
Campbell at Spreadex trading ﬁrm.
Greek voters handed a decisive victory to radical left party Syriza at the
weekend, putting the country on a
collision course with its international
creditors over its bailout and giving
rise to fears that the country could exit
the eurozone – what is being dubbed a
“Grexit”.
The country’s new ﬁnance minister,
Yanis Varoufakis, will visit three European Union capitals next week to push
the government’s agenda for a renegotiated deal on its multi-billion-euro
bailout, his office said.
Yesterday, the euro jumped to
$1.1309 from $1.1284 late in New York
on Wednesday.
New York oil prices tumbled close to
six-year lows yesterday, as record-high
US crude inventories deepened worries
over the global supply glut.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for
March delivery dived to $43.57 a barrel,
a level last seen on March 12, 2009.
The contract later stood at $43.87,
down 58 cents from Wednesday’s
close.
European benchmark Brent North
Sea crude for March meanwhile rose
nine cents to stand at $48.56 a barrel in
London late afternoon deals.
The low prices weighed on energy
majors, with Shell down 4.3% to 2,060
pence and BP losing 1.9% to 424.85
pence. French oil giant Total gave up
1.4% to €44.91.
“Given the headwinds being felt
HONG KONG
HONG KONG
Company Name
Aluminum Corp Of China Ltd-H
Bank Of East Asia
Bank Of China Ltd-H
Bank Of Communications Co-H
Belle International Holdings
Boc Hong Kong Holdings Ltd
Cathay Pacific Airways
Cheung Kong Holdings Ltd
China Coal Energy Co-H
China Construction Bank-H
China Life Insurance Co-H
China Merchants Hldgs Intl
China Mobile Ltd
China Overseas Land & Invest
China Petroleum & Chemical-H
China Resources Enterprise
China Resources Land Ltd
China Resources Power Holdin
China Shenhua Energy Co-H
China Unicom Hong Kong Ltd
Citic Ltd
Clp Holdings Ltd
Cnooc Ltd
Cosco Pacific Ltd
Esprit Holdings Ltd
Fih Mobile Ltd
Hang Lung Properties Ltd
Hang Seng Bank Ltd
Henderson Land Development
by major oil companies around the
world, the share price performance
since the beginning of last year while
uninspiring has still outperformed the
oil price,” said Michael Hewson, chief
market analyst at CMC Markets dealing group.
Anglo-Dutch giant Shell announced
an eight-percent drop in annual net
proﬁt and said it would accelerate
spending cuts. Proﬁt after tax was
$15.05bn (€13.3bn).
“Compared with the fourth quarter
2013, earnings... were impacted by the
signiﬁcant decline in (the price of) oil,”
Shell said in a statement.
Russia’s gas giant Gazprom announced its third-quarter proﬁts
plunged 61% as supplies were suspended to Ukraine, one of its main
customers.
And Austrian energy ﬁrm OMV said
it would reduce by about one quarter
its programme of investments in the
medium term.
Wall Street ﬂuctuated on a heavy day
of corporate earnings reports. The Dow
Jones Industrial Average rose 0.40% to
17,259.83 points.
But the broad-based S&P 500
slipped 0.03% to 2,001.56, and the
tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index
shed 0.22% to 4,627.60.
Earnings from Colgate-Palmolive,
Facebook and Ford Motor all topped
expectations, although Chinese Internet shopping giant Alibaba reported weak sales and several other
companies offered disappointing
forecasts.
Lt Price
3.62
32.25
4.35
6.45
8.84
26.70
18.00
145.40
4.24
6.25
30.75
28.55
104.30
22.90
6.17
17.40
20.20
21.85
21.15
11.74
13.36
69.50
10.20
11.26
8.75
3.55
22.75
135.90
55.50
% Chg
-1.90
1.10
-2.25
-2.57
-1.12
-0.74
0.22
0.07
-1.17
-1.57
-1.60
0.35
0.87
-3.78
-1.12
0.35
-3.81
-4.17
-1.40
-2.17
-1.04
0.51
-2.49
-0.35
-0.11
-0.84
0.22
0.67
0.18
Volume
16,637,298
3,057,103
306,460,269
54,360,451
8,101,966
8,033,718
3,070,155
2,437,465
22,007,929
315,854,185
48,936,763
2,960,436
21,248,317
44,299,548
119,483,104
2,630,260
13,159,101
8,365,052
16,511,041
35,456,719
8,822,296
2,913,553
103,948,515
4,361,556
3,105,350
3,739,342
5,452,058
1,550,342
3,593,988
Company Name
Hong Kong & China Gas
Hong Kong Exchanges & Clear
Hsbc Holdings Plc
Hutchison Whampoa Ltd
Ind & Comm Bk Of China-H
Li & Fung Ltd
Mtr Corp
New World Development
Petrochina Co Ltd-H
Ping An Insurance Group Co-H
Power Assets Holdings Ltd
Sino Land Co
Sun Hung Kai Properties
Swire Pacific Ltd-A
Tencent Holdings Ltd
Wharf Holdings Ltd
Lt Price
17.88
178.30
72.30
101.90
5.60
7.61
34.60
9.12
8.42
82.95
82.25
13.08
128.20
104.40
134.60
62.70
% Chg
0.34
-0.61
-0.96
0.30
-2.10
-2.44
2.67
-0.55
-2.09
-2.24
0.43
-0.30
0.23
0.29
-1.68
0.32
Volume
10,022,665
3,584,635
16,334,586
4,628,145
290,652,326
14,488,031
4,429,009
16,491,060
171,948,291
29,324,976
3,194,129
4,665,318
4,353,947
851,486
14,636,100
2,379,735
GCC INDICES
Indices
Doha Securities Market
Saudi Tadawul
Kuwait Stocks Exchange
Bahrain Stock Exchage
Oman Stock Market
Abudhabi Stock Market
Dubai Financial Market
Lt Price
11,899.63
8,878.54
6,572.26
1,424.37
6,558.46
4,456.82
3,674.40
Change
-81.03
-33.96
-64.33
+0.36
-25.61
-59.30
-61.90
“Information contained herein is believed to be reliable and had been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. The
accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed. This publication is for providing information only and is not intended
as an offer or solicitation for a purchase or sale of any of the financial instruments mentioned. Gulf Times and Doha Bank
or any of their employees shall not be held accountable and will not accept any losses or liabilities for actions based on
this data.”
CURRENCIES
DOLLAR
QATAR RIYAL
SAUDI RIYAL
UAE DIRHAMS
BAHRAINI
DINAR
KUWAITI
DINAR
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
9
BUSINESS
CORPORATE RESULTS
Gazprom posts 60% slump in Q3 profits to $1.52bn
year. Revenue from voice services decreased by
7.7% to 132.7bn tenge last year, while data revenue
went up sharply by 26.3% to 33.1bn tenge.
The company’s earnings before interest, tax,
depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), excluding
non-recurring items, edged up by 0.6% to 105.3bn
tenge.
KCell’s subscriber base totalled 13.055mn at the end
of last year. Kazakhstan’s population is 17.4mn.
SK Telecom
South Korea’s top wireless operator SK Telecom
reported a 71% surge in fourth quarter net profit
yesterday, boosted by the strong performance of its
affiliates and increased subscriptions.
Net profit for October-December amounted to
503.3bn won ($465mn), while the annual profit total
was up 11.8% at 1.79tn won.
The stellar performance in the final quarter was
driven by chip-making affiliate, SK Hynix, which said
on Wednesday that its own fourth quarter net profit
soared 106% to a record high of 1.6tn won.
SK Telecom shares rose 0.53%, or 1,500 won, to
287,000 won after the announcement.
Competition is fierce in the increasingly saturated
wireless market in South Korea, which has some
37mn smartphone users, out of a total population
of 50mn.
Wireless operators have tried to boost profits by
drawing more customers to faster, higher-priced
services.
SK Telecom said 16.73mn subscribers now use LTE
services and it plans to commercialise 5G services
in 2020.
Toshiba
Russian state gas producer Gazprom suffered a
60% slump in third quarter net profit yesterday,
hurt by the weaker rouble and after exports were
halted to Ukraine over a pricing dispute.
The world’s biggest natural gas company’s third
quarter net profit fell to 105.7bn roubles ($1.52bn),
down from 276bn roubles in the same period a year
earlier though better than analysts’ predicted.
Gazprom warned lower oil prices could curtail its
investment plans.
The firm stopped supplying Ukraine with gas in
June in a dispute over pricing and debt, which hurt
its revenues. In its nine-months report, it said it has
also put aside 83.9bn roubles to cover Ukraine’s
gas debt.
As ties between Moscow and the West fell to postCold War lows over Russia’s role in the crisis in
eastern Ukraine, the rouble has plunged on weaker
oil prices and sanctions. Gazprom was hit with a
foreign exchange loss of 320.7bn roubles in the
nine-month period versus a loss of 115.4bn roubles
a year ago.
Alexander Nazarov, an analyst with Gazprombank,
said Gazprom’s third quarter results showed currency losses of 273bn roubles. The rouble plunged
more than 40% last year, with its steepest declines
in the fourth quarter.
The debt and pricing dispute with Ukraine led to
Gazprom having its lowest annual gas output of
444bn cubic metres (bcm) in 2014.
Ukraine was once Gazprom’s largest export market,
but it has cut imports from Moscow from 59 bcm in
2006 to just 14.5 bcm last year.
This year, Ukraine’s Naftogaz plans to buy around 8
bcm from Russia.
Russia and Ukraine reached an interim gas deal
agreement in October and Kiev paid off part of its
debts to Gazprom, which the Russian producer now
puts at $2.44bn.
Gazprom said that its net profit in the first nine
months of 2014 was down 35% year-on-year at
556.3bn roubles.
Oil prices have fallen 60% since June. Gas prices
usually lag oil by six to nine months. Gazprom’s
results include its oil unit as well, Gazprom Neft,
which is also drilling for Arctic and shale oil, areas
both hit by sanctions.
Nazarov cautioned against overreacting to
Gazprom’s outlook on the possible impact of lower
oil prices. “Gazprom’s short-term debt which they
should pay off by September-end of 2015 was at
331bn roubles while EBITDA generated in the third
quarter alone — 475bn roubles,” he said.
Givaudan
The world’s biggest fragrance and flavour maker
Givaudan said a challenging business environment
meant sales growth this year would likely stay on a
similar level to 2014, below the target range it has
given for 2010-2015.
The Geneva-based firm and its peers have been
benefiting from strong demand for their products
in emerging markets, where ever more consumers
can afford cosmetics and ready-to-eat dishes, but
recently growth in these markets has slowed.
Underlying sales grew 3.7% last year, below Givaudan’s mid-term target of 4.5-5.5% growth, to 4.4bn
Swiss francs ($4.84bn), the group said yesterday,
implying a slowdown in the fourth quarter.
Net profit grew 15% to 563mn francs last year, in
line with forecasts in a Reuters poll.
Givaudan will propose a dividend of 50 francs
per share, 6.4% above last year, but slightly below
expectations.
NEC
Japanese information technology firm NEC said
yesterday it swung back to profit in the nine
months to December, after exiting the smartphone
market as part of a broader restructuring.
The company said it earned ¥22.8bn ($193mn) in
the April-December period, reversing a ¥15.09bn
loss a year earlier.
Operating profit jumped to ¥35.6bn from a profit
of ¥23.7bn a year ago, after the firm cut away its
money-losing smartphone unit, but total revenue
fell 3.9% to ¥2.0tn.
NEC fell into the red in 2013 due largely to losses
stemming from the former smartphone powerhouse quitting the highly competitive sector,
ending its development, production and sales of
the devices.
It had merged its mobile phone handset operations
with those of Casio Computer and Hitachi to fight
off rising competition.
But the subsidiary still struggled in a market
increasingly dominated by Apple and South Korean
giant Samsung. Yesterday, NEC pointed to a pickup
in public-sector revenue, which rose 12% from a
year earlier thanks to “steady sales from government offices and public services”.
The company left its earnings forecast unchanged
for the full year to March, predicting a net profit of
¥35bn on sales of ¥3.0tn.
Nippon Steel
Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal said yesterday its
nine-month net profit dropped 20.3% as it slashed
its full-year profit forecast, citing the impact of
plunging oil prices on a Brazilian unit.
The Tokyo-based company, one of the world’s
biggest steelmakers, said its earnings for the April
to December period came in at ¥153.6bn ($1.3bn),
while sales rose 3.6% to ¥4.18tn.
Nippon Steel blamed part of the profit slump on a
¥68.6bn extraordinary loss that it took due to an
unexpected slowdown at its seamless pipe maker
Vallourec & Sumitomo Tubos do Brasil (VSB), which
supplies the oil and gas market.
“The recent rapid decline in oil prices is expected
to impair the business environment surrounding
the oil and gas related markets and future profits of
VSB,” the company said in a statement.
Nippon Steel also cut its net profit forecast for the
fiscal year to March to ¥180bn, from an earlier
estimate of ¥250bn.
KCell
KCell, Kazakhstan’s largest mobile phone operator,
said yesterday its net income decreased last year as
it faced intensifying market competition in Central
Asia’s largest economy.
The London-listed company, which is controlled
by Nordic parent TeliaSonera, said its net profit
declined by 8.1% to 58.3bn tenge ($316mn) in 2014.
“We have continued to roll out our 3G services
nationally and have driven acceleration in smartphone penetration with the successful launch of
the iPhone and other smartphone bundles,” KCell
CEO Arti Ots said in a statement.
In 2015 and beyond the company will focus on
boosting data revenue through the acceleration of
smartphone penetration and increasing data consumption, he said. KCell also plans to invest further
to improve the quality of its services.
KCell’s revenue was stable at 187.6bn tenge last
Toshiba said yesterday it was getting out the North
American television business and selling its brand
in the market to Taiwanese manufacturer Compal
Electronics, as the conglomerate reported soaring
nine-month earnings.
The Japanese company, which is involved in a
range of businesses from power generation,
transmission systems and medical equipment to
computer chips and laptops, pointed to slowing
TV sales for the decision to stop development and
sales of televisions in North America.
Compal would sell televisions under the Toshiba
brand, it said, adding that it was also in talks to
license its brand to manufacturers in other TV
markets outside Japan.
Japan’s TV makers, also including Sony and
Panasonic, have suffered as razor-thin margins and
fierce overseas competition dented their bottom
line. The firm has said it would focus on super highdefinition 4K TVs in Japan and the rapidly growing
emerging markets.
The announcement came as Toshiba said net profit
for the nine months to December rose 85.9% to
¥71.9bn ($611mn), thanks to strong sales in the
energy and infrastructure business, which includes
nuclear power plants, as well as electronic devices,
including memory chips.
Japanese companies with big sales outside of
Japan have also benefited from a sharp drop in the
value of the yen, which inflates the value of repatriated income earned overseas.
Operating profit rose 6.2% to ¥164.8bn, while sales
rose 4.1% to ¥4.7tn, Toshiba added.
For the fiscal year to March, Toshiba kept its forecast unchanged, expecting a net profit of ¥120bn
on sales of ¥6.7tn.
Banco Bradesco
Banco Bradesco, Brazil’s second-biggest private
sector bank, yesterday forecast lower lending
growth for this year than it estimated for 2014,
highlighting the economic headwinds facing Latin
America’s largest economy.
In a securities filing, Bradesco said its loan book
could grow 5% to 9% in 2015, compared with the
6.5% growth achieved last year. The lender had
predicted 7% to 11% credit growth for 2014.
Net interest income could grow 6% to 10%, signaling Bradesco may keep raising borrowing costs
through the year to offset slower loan volumes.
The forecasts highlight increased caution as Brazil’s
economic problems and growing skepticism over
President Dilma Rousseff ’s ability to jumpstart
growth dampen demand for credit. Last year, banks
extended loans to Brazilian consumers and companies at the slowest pace since 2007, central bank
data showed this week.
Economists and companies warn that Brazil is
faced with a second straight year of stagnation
and persistently high inflation in 2015. Falling commodity prices are a particular problem given its
dependence on commodity exports and foreign
capital inflows to fund its record current account
shortfall.
In spite of the challenging outlook, Bradesco beat
fourth-quarter estimates on the back of prudent
loan disbursements, rising interest rates on loans
and a decline in defaults that enabled management
to trim loan-loss provisions.
Bradesco posted record recurring net income, or
profit before one-time charges, of 4.132bn reais
($1.59bn), up 4.6% and 29.2% on quarterly and
annual bases, respectively. A Reuters poll expected
recurring profit at 3.971bn reais.
“Though seeing notable risks to commercial credit
quality, we continue to be encouraged by good
results,” said Saúl Martínez, an analyst with JPMorgan Securities. “Profitability will remain good and,
if Brazil risk diminishes, the profit bias over time
seems skewed to the upside.”
Shares were almost unchanged at 35.17 reais
yesterday.
Return on equity, a gauge of profitability for banks,
totaled 20.1%, above the poll’s estimate of 19.8%.
Higher rates helped boost interest income for a
third consecutive quarter. Loan-loss provisions
fell 1.2% to 3.307bn reais, well below estimates,
even after delinquencies in some corporate loans
climbed.
Rising fee and insurance income helped offset rising non-interest expenses, the filing showed.
Management will discuss results at a conference
call later in the day.
Vallourec
Steel pipe maker Vallourec plans to write down the
value of its assets by €1-1.2bn ($1.1-1.35bn), reflecting
a drop in demand from oil company customers
following the plunge in crude prices.
The one-off write-down would tip the France-based
company into a net loss for 2014, it said yesterday,
citing a change of attitude among oil firms suffering
as crude trades at six year lows below $50 a barrel,
versus more than $100 a year ago.
Vallourec confirmed its June warning that underlying profits would fall by around 10% from a year
earlier, but said the real concern lay ahead.
The company said €500-600mn of the impairment
charge related to its Vallourec Sumitomo Tubos do
Brazil (VSB) unit, which included Vallourec’s Brazilian joint operation with Nippon Steel & Sumitomo
Metal Corp, and another 500-600mn came from
Vallourec Europe CGU.
“This is an unexpected move, and now we have no
visibility on 2015,” said a Paris based trader.
“Also, Vallourec has not impaired anything in
the US, whereas (this) market’s conditions are
deteriorating rapidly as well. The consensus should
be cut substantially, and 2015 will remain difficult,
especially in the US”
Vallourec, which has been working in the past
six months on cutting costs, said it would give an
update of progress on that at its annual results next
month.
The company reported lower third-quarter profits
in November, hurt by lower orders by its troubled major customer, Brazilian state oil company
Petrobras.
Royal Caribbean
Cruise operator Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd’s
quarterly revenue fell 2% due to weak pricing in
Caribbean, its biggest market.
Royal Caribbean has been battling intense competition in the Caribbean from smaller rivals such as
Europe-based MSC Cruises, who offer cheaper
packages.
Royal Caribbean’s net income rose to $109.8mn, or
49¢ per share, in the fourth quarter ended December 31 from $7.02mn, or 3¢ per share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, the company earned 32¢ per
share.
Revenue fell to $1.82bn from $1.85bn.
10
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
BUSINESS
CORPORATE RESULTS
Samsung profit falls 23.2% to $21.45bn; first drop in 3 years
see 2015 as a year of execution.” “As we pursue ...
opportunities, we will not shy away from investing
where we need to invest.”
Nokia had net cash of €5bn at the end of 2014 after
the €5.6bn sale of the handsets business to Microsoft, which was completed in April.
Coach
Samsung Electronics posted its first drop in annual
net profit in three years yesterday and saw resurgent arch-rival Apple barge in on its pole position
as the world’s top smartphone maker.
The South Korean firm, whose key mobile phone
operations have struggled in the face of intense
competition from cut-price Chinese rivals, also
warned that it expected 2015’s “business environment... to be as challenging as 2014.”
The tech giant said yesterday it recorded a net
profit of 23.4tn won ($21.45bn) in 2014, down 23.2%
from a year ago and the first decline since 2011.
Operating profit fell 11.7% to 25tn won in the year
and sales also tumbled 10% to 206tn won.
Under growing pressure to boost shareholder
returns, the company still managed to announce an
increased dividend of 19,500 won a share, up from
13,800 won a year earlier.
Samsung’s fourth quarter net profit was down 27%
at 5.3tn won.
The fall was cushioned by a boom in high-margin
chip sales that helped offset the downturn in the
key mobile sector, with operating profit in the semiconductor division rising 35.7% to 2.7tn won in the
October-December period from a year earlier.
The annual profit figure marked a dramatic reversal
for the company, which is also facing a once-in-ageneration leadership change after several years
of stellar growth, driven by the once all-conquering
mobile division.
Samsung had held the global smartphone vendor
crown on its own since dethroning Apple in 2011.
Samsung’s flagship Galaxy phones have suffered in
the high-end market thanks to the popularity of the
iPhone 6, while its dominance of the middle- and
low-end handset segment has been challenged by
Chinese firms such as Huawei, Xiaomi and Lenovo.
Samsung plans to slash the number of smartphone
models it issues in 2015, while boosting production
of remaining models that can be sold more cheaply
to compete with Chinese rivals.
Streamlining the product mix should increase sales
in the current quarter, Samsung’s head of investor
relations Robert Yi predicted, while nevertheless
warning of a tough year ahead.
“When we look at 2015 as a whole, we fully expect
the business environment... to be as challenging as
2014,” Yi said.
Handset sales will be driven by growth in emerging
markets including China and India, said Park JinYoung, vice president of Samsung’s mobile unit.
Sales of tablet computers are expected to grow,
largely boosted by sales of mid-priced and low-end
products, Park said.
A more fundamental restructuring is assumed to
be in the pipeline, with control of the family-run
conglomerate’s main business expected to pass
from ailing patriarch Lee Kun-Hee to only son Lee
Jae-Yong.
Needing cash to pay for what will be a massive inheritance tax bill, Lee and his siblings are expected
to pare down and simplify the byzantine system of
cross-holdings that link the many branches of the
Samsung empire.
The anticipated reforms have helped keep Samsung on the “buy” list of many analysts, despite the
recent profit downturn.
Yesterday’s dividend increase will help appease
disgruntled shareholders who watched Samsung’s
stock price take a battering last year.
The company is currently in the middle of a $2.0bn
share buyback process announced in November.
With a market capitalisation of about $185bn, Samsung accounts for nearly 17% of the weighting on
South Korea’s benchmark Kospi composite index.
SEB
Swedish banking group SEB yesterday increased
fourth-quarter profits less than expected and
disappointed markets with its dividend increase as
the bank chose to put more emphasis on capital
instead.
SEB’s dividend policy contrasted with Nordea, the
Nordic region’s biggest bank by market value,
which this week proposed a 44% dividend increase.
Nordic banks are some of Europe’s more robust
lenders and were some of the first to raise capital
after the financial crisis. Investors have been hoping for share buybacks and higher dividends now
that the banks’ capital levels are solid.
SEB’s dividend policy is to pay out 40% or above of
its earnings per share and it said it would pay out
4.75 crowns a share for 2014, a 54% payout ratio.
This was up 18.75% from 4crowns per share in 2013
but below an analyst forecast for 5crowns.
The bank said it had adopted new financial targets
which meant it would aim to hold 1.50 percentage
points more core tier 1 capital than demanded by
the Swedish regulator. It is aiming for a core tier 1
capital of 17.1%, leaving less capital for dividends
than analysts had forecast.
SEB’s operating profit rose to 6.6bn Swedish crowns
($791mn), up from 5.0bn in the year-ago period but
lagging a mean forecast for 6.8bn in a Reuters poll
of analysts.
Alibaba
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba reported a 28%
plunge in third quarter net profit yesterday, missing
analysts’ estimates as earnings were hit by a oneoff financing fee and higher taxes.
Net profit for the three months ending December
reached $964mn, although earnings per share rose
13% to 81¢.
Sales soared 40% to $4.219bn as Alibaba now
counts 334mn active buyers on its e-commerce
platforms, but fell short of the $4.45bn in revenues
that analysts were expecting.
China makes up by far its biggest market with sales
of $3.429bn.
Alibaba operates the Asian giant’s most popular
online shopping platform Taobao, and has been
investing in apps to attract users of mobile devices
like smartphones.
Revenues generated from such mobile devices
leapt five-fold (448%) to $1.035bn for the third
quarter, to make up 42% of total sales. This figure
has been rising steadily, from 36% in the previous
quarter and from 20% one a year ago.
Headquartered in the eastern city of Hangzhou,
Alibaba completed the world’s biggest IPO with
its listing on the New York Stock Exchange in
September.
Its earnings also far surpass that of US e-commerce
giant Amazon, which has been posting massive
losses after a series of product launches including
phones, tablets and television programmes.
Hershey
Chocolate maker Hershey Co said it would buy
Krave Pure Foods to enter the fast-growing meat
snacks market, after higher demand for meat and
bakery snacks hurt chocolate sales in the fourth
quarter.
The maker of Hershey’s Kisses and Reese’s Peanut
Butter Cups also cut its sales and profit forecast for
2015, citing a stronger dollar and higher spending
on advertising and promotions.
Hershey’s sales have taken a hit since it raised prices by about 8% last year as cocoa and dairy prices
soared. Rivals Mondelez International Inc and Mars
Chocolate North America also did the same.
Hershey said yesterday it now expects net sales
to rise 5.5-7.5% this year, down from its previous
forecast of 7-9%. It also trimmed its adjusted earnings growth forecast to 8-10% from 9-11% expected
earlier.
The company did not disclose the price it would
pay for Krave, a maker of healthy beef, turkey and
pork jerky snacks.
Reuters reported on Tuesday that Hershey was in
late-stage talks to buy Krave in a deal valuing it at
$200mn-$300mn.
Hershey reached a settlement last week with Let’s
Buy British Imports to prevent the import of products similar to brands such as Cadbury’s Dairy Milk
and Kit Kat, which Harshey’s sells in the US.
The move has drawn criticism from British expatriates, among others.
Hershey’s net income rose to $202.5mn, or 91 cents
per share, in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, from
$186.1mn, or 82 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, the company earned $1.04 per
share.
Revenue rose 2.7% to $2.01bn.
Analysts on average had expected earnings of
$1.06 per share on sales of $2.07bn, according to
Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Nokia
Nokia yesterday reported strong profits at its core
Networks business on the back of surging North
American sales, but the shares fell back over an
uncertain outlook, higher costs in its Technologies
division and a disappointing dividend.
The Finnish company, which sold its former flagship phones business to Microsoft last year, also
increased its dividend by less than some analysts
had predicted.
Nokia’s Technologies unit, which contains its
patents, brand licensing and new product design
businesses, showed a quarterly operating profit of
€77mn, well below forecasts.
This was partly tied to the cost of developing the
Nokia N1 Android tablet, its first brand-licensed
device since selling the phone unit which was
launched in November and is designed to rival Apple’s iPad Mini.
The company repeated it expects operating margins for the Networks division to recede this year to
its long-term target range of 8 to 11%, a decline from
the 12.2% it reported in 2014.
Fourth-quarter operating profit at the company’s
mainstay networks unit, which ranks third in the
global mobile equipment market after Ericsson and
Huawei, rose to €470mn ($530mn) or 14% of sales,
a rise of 35% from €397mn in the year-ago quarter.
Analysts in a Reuters poll had on average expected
a profit of €415mn and a margin of 12.4%.
Nokia said the growth in the Networks business
was due to a surge in sales in North America, where
revenue was up 95% on a year ago on demand
from most of its US and Canadian customers,
including increased business from expanding US
network operators T-Mobile US and Sprint.
Chief executive Rajeev Suri said Nokia was focused
on growth in 2015, following years of serial restructuring: “While 2014 was a year of reinvention, we
Coach Inc posted a better-than-expected profit
for the second quarter as demand for its Poppy
handbags improved in North America, its biggest
market, from the first quarter and sales rose in
China, a key market.
The company’s shares rose 4.5% in premarket
trading.
Coach has been shifting focus to markets such
as Asia and Europe as it loses customers in North
America to fast-growing rivals Michael Kors Holdings and Kate Spade &.
Coach said this month that it would buy women’s
luxury footwear company Stuart Weitzman Holdings, as it looks to better compete in the affordable
luxury market.
Coach, founded in 1941 in a Manhattan loft, has
been offering discounts on its handbags, shoes and
apparel to attract shoppers in North America.
Sales in China rose 13% and overall international
sales increased 5% on a constant currency basis
in the quarter ended Dec. 27. China accounted
for about a tenth of Coach’s total sales in the year
ended June 28.
Holiday-quarter sales in North America rose about
24% from the first quarter to $785mn.
The company’s net income fell to $183.5mn, or 66
cents per share, from $297.4mn, or $1.06 per share,
a year earlier.
Excluding items, Coach earned 72 cents per share.
Net sales fell 14% to $1.22bn.
Analysts had expected a profit of 66 cents per
share and revenue of $1.23bn, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Coach’s shares were trading at $38.10 before the
bell.
Colgate
Colgate-Palmolive Co, the world’s largest toothpaste maker by market share, reported its second
straight fall in quarterly sales, hurt by weak demand
in markets such as Brazil and Europe and a strong
dollar.
The company also cut its 2015 earnings per share
growth forecast to “low single-digit” from “mid to
high single-digit”.
US companies with big international operations
have been hit by the rise in the dollar over the past
nearly nine months.
After hitting a six-and-a-half-month low in May, the
dollar has surged about 20% against a basket of
major currencies, making overseas sales denominated in other currencies less valuable in dollar
terms.
A stronger dollar also makes US-made products
more expensive for consumers in other currencies
and lowers demand.
Colgate, which controls nearly 45% of the global
toothpaste market, said net sales in Latin America,
its biggest market by sales, fell 6% in the fourth
quarter ended December 31.
Colgate’s organic sales, excluding the impact of
foreign exchange, acquisitions and divestments,
rose 6%. Total revenue fell 3.2% to $4.22bn.
Net income attributable to the company rose to
$628mn, or 68 cents per share, from $564mn, or 60
cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, Colgate earned 76¢ per share.
Analysts on average had expected a profit of 74
cents per share and revenue of $4.22bn, according
to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Potash Corp
Potash Corp of Saskatchewan, the world’s biggest fertilizer company by market capitalization,
reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit,
helped by strong potash sales and lower costs.
The company’s US-listed shares rose 1.3% premarket.
Potash Corp, the second-biggest potash producer
by output after Russia’s Uralkali OAO, said yesterday that improving phosphate market conditions
are expected to support better results in 2015.
The company reported a quarterly profit of 49¢
per share, beating the average analyst estimate of
46 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters
I/B/E/S.
Potash gross margin jumped 95% to $445mn in the
fourth quarter ended December 31.
Revenue rose 23.4% to $1.90bn.
Potash Corp said it expected to sell 9.2-9.7mn
tonnes of potash in 2015, compared with last year’s
7.1mn tonnes. The company expects global shipments to range between 58-60mn tonnes in 2015.
The company said it expected full-year 2015 profit
of $1.90 to $2.20 per share. Analysts on average
were expecting a profit of $2.12 per share.
Rival Mosaic Co forecast higher-than-expected
fourth-quarter profit earlier this month, while Canadian fertilizer company Agrium Inc said it would
buy back shares and pay a larger percentage of
free cash flow as dividends.
Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank, Germany’s biggest lender, said
yesterday that its net profit for 2014 more than
doubled from the previous year, to a better-thanexpected €1.7bn ($1.9bn).
The bank’s bosses, who introduced a drive to
reduce costs and boost profitability when they took
over in 2012, said they were “encouraged” by the
group’s results but would not take their foot off the
pedal.
Analysts polled by Factset had pencilled in a net
profit for last year of €1.3bn after the bank had
posted €681mn in 2013.
The Frankfurt-based banking giant’s net revenue
in 2014 remained stable at €32bn and in line with
expectations, it said.
Co-chief executives Juergen Fitschen and Anshu
Jain said that each of the bank’s four core business
divisions had, for the first time, reaped more than
€1bn in pre-tax profits.
“While we are encouraged by many of our full-year
and fourth-quarter business results, we are working
hard to further manage our cost base, maintain
our capital strength and increase our returns to
shareholders,” they said in a statement.
Costs linked to several legal cases, such as a probe
into allegations of possible manipulation by banks
in gold and silver price-fixing, have been reduced,
the bank added.
Litigation costs have weighed on the group’s results
in recent years.
Deutsche Bank also said its fourth-quarter net profit
was €441mn after losses both in the same period a
year earlier and in the third quarter.
Shell
Energy giant Royal Dutch Shell yesterday announced an eight-percent drop in annual net profits
owing to a slump in global oil prices and said it
would accelerate spending cuts.
Profit after tax dropped to $15.05bn (€13.3bn) in
2014 compared with the Anglo-Dutch company’s
performance one year earlier, slipping on plunging
earnings in the fourth quarter as the cost of crude
tumbled.
“Compared with the fourth quarter 2013, earnings...
were impacted by the significant decline in (the
price of) oil,” Shell said in a statement.
Fourth-quarter net profit plunged 57% to $773mn
compared with the final three months of 2013.
Annual profit excluding exceptional items and
changes to the value of its oil inventories rose 16%
to $22.5bn.
Shell said it would slash spending by more than
$15.0bn over the next three years, mirroring similar
moves by rivals in the energy sector which are also
reacting to slumping oil prices by cutting costs.
“The agenda we set out in early 2014 to balance
growth and returns has positioned us well for the
current oil market downturn,” Shell chief executive
Ben van Beurden said yesterday.
“We are taking a prudent approach here and we
must be careful not to over-react to the recent fall
in oil prices. Shell is taking structured decisions
to balance growth and returns,” he added in the
results statement.
Shell noted that lower prices created opportunities
for the group to cut costs.
It added that deferring spending in many areas
and driving costs down in the supply chain “should
result in reduction of potential capital investment
for 2015-17 of over $15bn”.
Earlier this month, Royal Dutch Shell and Qatar
Petroleum scrapped plans for a petrochemicals
project, worth an estimated $6.5bn.
But it is still investing in expensive projects and on
Wednesday signed an agreement with the Iraqi
government potentially worth $11bn to build a large
petrochemicals plant in the country’s south.
Oil futures have lost more than half their value
since June when crude was trading at more than
$100 a barrel, amid a supply glut that has been
boosted largely by robust US shale oil production
and weak global demand.
The falls accelerated in November after the Opec oil
cartel insisted that it would maintain output levels
despite already plunging prices. The 12-nation
group pumps about 30% of global crude.
Nomura Holdings
Nomura Holdings reported a 45% rise in thirdquarter net profits yesterday, the biggest jump in
its quarterly profits in a year, thanks to a strong
performance by its retail equity business.
Nomura, Japan’s largest investment bank and
brokerage, has benefited along with nearest rival
Daiwa Securities Group from a renewed appetite for
equities which propelled the Nikkei index to a 7-1/2
year high in the period.
Pretax profit at the retail division rose 6% to
¥50.05bn, the strongest quarterly performance in
the last six quarters and boosted by the ¥213.8bn
share sale by Recruit Holdings, which was underwritten by Nomura. Retail client assets also grew to
a record ¥104.8tn.
The rally in the stock market helped Nomura book
around ¥40bn in gains on its stakes in a regional
lender, Ashikaga Holdings, and the company’s affiliates. This compared with a loss of nearly ¥4bn on
Nomura’s other investments a year earlier.
However, Nomura’s fixed income business fared
less well, with broking revenue down 23% as traders were less active in the face of concerns over
Greece, the prospect of European deflation and the
plunge in oil prices.
The fixed income business makes up the bulk of
Nomura’s wholesale division, which in turn accounts for around 42% of the bank’s revenue.
Nevertheless the group’s net profit rose to ¥70bn
($595 mn) in October-December from ¥48.3bn,
beating analysts’ estimates of around ¥39.5bn, according to Thomson Reuters Starmine.
Wartsila
Finnish ship engine and power plant maker Wartsila
reported a smaller-than-expected quarterly profit
and warned lower crude prices were likely to curb
oil firms’ demand for vessels.
Fourth-quarter adjusted operating profit fell 7%
year-on-year to €196mn ($222mn), below analysts’
mean forecast of 209mn in a Reuters poll.
Chief executive Bjorn Rosengren said the market
outlook was uncertain.
New orders for the ship power unit fell 2% year-onyear in the fourth quarter, while overall orders were
up 14% on the back of growth in power plant and
service deals.
In 2014, 36% of Wartsila’s sales came from its ship
engine unit, while 24% came from power plants and
41% from services.
Rosengren said Wartsila was eyeing more acquisitions after agreeing to buy L-3 Marine Systems for
€285mn last year.
OMV
Austrian oil and gas group OMV will take a €700mn
($791mn) charge on the declining value of some of
its assets and warned it would fail to reach its 2016
output target on time, reflecting falling oil prices
and uncertainty in Libya.
OMV, 31.5% state-owned and Austria’s biggest company, has promised to create a new downstream
division early this year, combining weak gas and
trading operations with its traditional refining and
marketing businesses.
However, no details have yet emerged following
October’s announcement of top-level departures,
which company insiders say were due to boardroom infighting.
The group continued to keep investors guessing on
its strategic thinking yesterday but outgoing chief
Gerhard Roiss, due to leave nearly two years ahead
of schedule in June, said the company would keep
its focus on upstream activities.
OMV will take net special charges of about €700mn
in the fourth quarter, mainly due to impairments in
Turkish unit Petrol Ofisi and in the power business
of Romanian business OMV Petrom.
The charge is higher than the net profit of €665mn
after minority interests the group made in the first
nine months of the year.
OMV said it had scaled back projections for average
annual capital expenditure from 2015 to 2017 to
between €2.5bn and 3.0bn, of which the lower end
was based on an oil price assumption of approximately $50 per barrel for the next three years.
It had previously targeted 3.9bn in annual capex
until 2016 and expected an average oil price of
$100 per barrel.
As before, around 80% of investments will go into
OMV’s upstream business, which Roiss has been
pushing with big acquisitions in the North Sea.
OMV said it produced 318,000 boe/d in the quarter,
up from 311,000 in the third quarter and 277,000
a year earlier. Production growth in Norway more
than offset a decline in Libya.
Its refining margin rose to $5.19 per barrel from
$4.90 in the third quarter due to lower crude prices
and improved middle- distillate spreads.
OMV’s fourth-quarter results are due on February
19.
Facebook
Facebook said on Wednesday that profit soared on
the wings of mobile ad revenue but stressed it is
more concerned with investing in the future than
making quick cash.
While earnings figures surpassed market forecasts,
Facebook executives strived to temper expectations, while stressing they plan to continue aggressively investing to achieve long-range goals.
Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg described
2014 as a year of heavy investments, with “big
bets” placed on mobile communication and nextgeneration computing with multibillion-dollar
buys of WhatsApp and the Oculus virtual reality
startup.
Ranks of employees surged 45% last year and the
company plans to continue bringing on new talent,
executives said.
A strong showing in ads served up on smartphones
or tablet computers helped Facebook earnings
beat analyst forecasts: profit in the final three
months of last year jumped to $696mn as revenue
surged to $3.85bn.
But investors will be concerned by an 87% rise in
costs and expenses.
Zuckerberg told financial analysts the company was
focused on serving the entire world with projects
such as Internet.org, and that would require a lot of
effort and investing over a course of years.
Most of Facebook’s growth is coming from emerging markets, but many people lack the phones or
computers needed for the full-featured app.
Notably, Facebook saw its first quarter of taking
in more than $3bn overall from ads, with about
two-thirds of that coming from mobile advertising
revenue, which soared 69% from the same period
a year earlier
Facebook said that its properties Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp recently topped 300mn,
500mn, and 700mn monthly active users respectively.
For the full year, Facebook’s profit nearly doubled
to $2.9bn and revenue jumped 58% to $12.8bn.
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
11
BUSINESS
UK banks pay out less than half of swaps mis-selling pot
£1.8bn so far paid out by banks; banks
had set aside £4.4bn for compensation;
provisions include staff/admin, cost
of closing deals; regulator sets March
deadline for firms to join scheme
Reuters
London
Britain’s banks have paid out less than half
of the £4.4bn ($6.7bn) set aside to cover the
mis-selling of complex interest rate hedging
products, according to data from the ﬁnancial
regulator. The Financial Conduct Authority
(FCA) ordered banks to review nearly 30,000
cases in 2013 for possible mis-selling after
ﬁnding serious failings in the way the products were sold.
The products were meant to protect smaller
companies against rising interest rates, but,
when rates fell, the companies had to pay extra
charges, typically running to tens of thousands
of pounds. They also faced hefty penalties to
extricate themselves from the deals, which
most said they were not aware of.
The FCA said yesterday that banks had so far
paid out £1.8bn in compensation. The sums set
aside also covered the cost of having to terminate agreements early and having to employ
more than 3,000 people to review the cases.
It set a deadline for the end of March for customers who purchased cap products to claim
compensation through the scheme.
The scheme has drawn sharp criticism from
lawmakers and businesses that believe it is
loaded in favour of the banks. In a parliamentary debate last December, lawmakers said it
lacked transparency, was inconsistent and did
not give victims a proper right of appeal.
Banks dismissed more than a third of the
cases, with customers deemed sufficiently sophisticated to have understood the products.
About half of those left in the review were
then offered alternative products rather than
cash compensation. The mis-selling is one of a
number of scandals involving British banks in
the past ﬁve years, ranging from the attempted
manipulation of foreign exchange and benchmark interest rates to the mis-selling of loan
insurance.
Royal Bank of Scotland faced more claims
than any other bank in the scheme and has set
aside £1.46bn for compensation. Barclays set
aside £1.34bn while HSBC and Lloyds Banking
Group have set aside hundreds of millions.
Banks say a signiﬁcant proportion of the
provisions reﬂect the loss of fees they would
have taken from the deals if they had not been
cancelled and cover the cost of hiring staff to
assess the claims and independent assessors to
oversee the process.
Barclays reduced the amount it had set aside
for compensation by £160mn last October and
banks will give an update on their provisions
alongside full-years results in February and
March.
The FCA said £365mn had been paid out to
cover so-called consequential losses. Claims
for such losses effectively set the clock back
to the point before the products were sold and
would require banks to compensate not just the
direct cost of the mis-sold contracts but any
losses that businesses have suffered as a result
of entering the agreements.
France may tax
Netﬂix, Amazon
to fund ﬁlm and
television sector
AFP
Paris
F
A worker cleans the wall outside City Sports in Washington, DC. New claims for US unemployment insurance benefits plunged to the lowest level in nearly 15 years last week, the
Labor Department reported yesterday.
Fed cites strong gains;
upbeat on US economy
Central bank says inflation
has declined further; says
will remain ‘patient’ on
monetary policy; no dissents
on policy statement
Reuters
Washington
T
he Federal Reserve on
Wednesday said the US
economy was expanding
“at a solid pace” with strong job
gains in a signal that the central
bank remains on track with its
plans to raise interest rates this
year.
The Fed repeated it would
be “patient” in deciding when
to raise benchmark borrowing
costs from zero, though it also
acknowledged a decline in certain inﬂation measures.
After a two-day meeting of
the Federal Open Market Committee, policymakers struck
an upbeat tone on the US
economy’s prospects and held
to their view that energy-led
weakness in inflation would
dissipate.
“The committee, in fact, was
downright bullish on current
economic conditions and the
outlook,” said Paul Edelstein, di-
rector of ﬁnancial economics at
IHS Global Insight.
In making its announcement,
the Fed largely skirted slumping
economies in Europe and Asia,
saying only that it would take
“ﬁnancial and international developments” into account when
determining when to raise rates,
adding a reference to global
markets for the ﬁrst time since
January 2013.
“Economic activity has been
expanding at a solid pace,” the
Fed said in a statement that
marked an upgrade to its prior
assessment of a “moderate pace”
of growth. “Labour market conditions have improved further,
with strong job gains and a lower
unemployment rate.”
Long-term US bond yields fell
as some investors focused on the
Fed’s reference to international
developments and weak inﬂation, potentially widening the
gap between the central bank’s
language and what markets expect policymakers to do. The
dollar strengthened against a
broad basket of currencies.
“Just the inclusion of international development, that’s probably perceived as dovish and the
bond market is rallying probably
on that,” said Jim O’Sullivan,
chief US economist at High Frequency Economics. O’Sullivan
added that “at the end of the
day, the baseline is still June for
lift-off,” and said that the falling
unemployment rate remains a
key gauge for the Fed.
The Fed’s stance stands in
sharp contrast to many of its
peers in developed countries
that have recently eased monetary policy to boost struggling
economies. That was led by the
European Central Bank’s 1tn
euro bond-buying programme
to stimulate the eurozone’s
economy.
“You would have thought that
if you were going to really postpone (a rate hike) to 2016 there
would have been some more emphasis on international events
and the dollar,” said John Silva,
an economist at Wells Fargo in
Charlotte, North Carolina.
The policy divergence has
helped push the US dollar to
multi-year highs, a looming
concern for the Fed given the
move’s negative impact on US
exporters and inﬂation.
Many Fed officials have pointed to a possible rate increase
around mid-year, but they again
left the door open to a later
move. “The committee judges
that it can be patient in beginning to normalize the stance of
monetary policy,” the Fed said.
The central bank acknowledged inﬂation had declined
further below its 2% target and
that market-based price gauges
had fallen substantially — a more
negative assessment than it gave
in December.
The Fed also provided a time
frame for its inﬂation view, saying it expects inﬂation to rise
gradually toward its goal over the
“medium term.”
Fed officials have said they
could being raising rates even if
inﬂation remains stuck at a low
level, conﬁdent that economic
growth and job gains will eventually produce rising prices.
They also view the initial “liftoff ” as the start of an extended,
years-long process in which
rates will remain far below normal and continue to boost investment and spending.
The latest statement follows a
policy shift begun in December
when the Fed ﬁrst said it would
take a patient approach to raising rates. At that time, Fed Chair
Janet Yellen made clear that
“patient” meant at least two
meetings.
That statement all but ruled
out a move this month and in
March, with investors now
watching for when the ‘patient’
reference is dropped, which will
likely signal the Fed is ready to
move. While Yellen has tied any
rate hike rate to incoming economic data, the June meeting
and its scheduled press conference would appear to be the central bank’s earliest opportunity.
In December, the Fed said that
approach was consistent with
its previous guidance of keeping
rates near zero for a “considerable time.” The statement on
Wednesday removed the reference to its former guidance.
Four new regional Fed presidents — Atlanta’s Dennis Lockhart, Chicago’s Charles Evans,
Richmond’s Jeffrey Lacker and
San Francisco’s John Williams
— rotated into voting positions
for this week’s policy meeting.
With the exception of Lacker, an
inﬂation hawk, they are largely
dovish central bankers who
have favoured keeping rates low
throughout the recovery from
the 2007-2009 ﬁnancial crisis.
Wednesday’s statement was
adopted without dissent, a sign
that Yellen was able to reach
consensus with the new voting
group.
rance is looking to decide
this year on how it might
tax US online giants
Google, Amazon and Netﬂix
to help fund its heavily subsidised ﬁlm and television sector
in response to changes brought
on by Internet video streaming.
Culture Minister Fleur Pellerin told Les Echos business
newspaper in an interview
published yesterday “different
paths” were being looked at
on the French and EU levels to
make sure the Internet majors
contributed, and she wanted
“to ﬁnd a solution” by the end
of this year.
“It’s an urgent issue for the
ﬁnancing of French production, which they (the US Internet companies) proﬁt from because they are also advertisers,”
she said.
“I have no doubt the solutions France will come up with
will also interest Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain and Poland.”
The comments were the
latest sign that France is determined to protect its audiovisual sector, and will counter
any attempts by the big American companies to avoid French
taxes used to support domestic
productions.
French President Francois
Hollande said in October that
European laws on audiovisual
services should be overhauled
so that digital companies based
outside of Europe but streaming to European customers are
subject to the same taxes as European ﬁrms.
France has already taken a
ﬁrst step this year by changing
its laws to compel online companies located outside of the
country but selling to French
consumers to pay sales tax.
That measure notably hits
Netﬂix, which started streaming to French customers in
September 2014. Its European
headquarters are moving this
year from Luxembourg to The
Netherlands.
Google is increasingly making inroads into streaming
commercial movies and TV
shows through its YouTube
subsidiary, and online retail giant Amazon is also getting in on
the act with its Amazon Prime
Instant Video service, which
this month signed up Woody
Allen for his own series.
“Globally, the sector is
reconﬁguring itself and the
emergence of new actors like
Netﬂix and Amazon are shaking up the production and distribution landscape,” Pellerin
said.
France has a vibrant ﬁlm and
television sector thanks to a
system that requires television
networks to hand over a proportion of their turnover to
back domestic production, on
top of a series of public grants
and funds.
The result is a diverse ﬁeld of
many small- to mid-size production companies, unlike in
the US, where studios and listed
entertainment conglomerates
dominate.
In terms of quality, French
ﬁlms are well-regarded. In this
year’s Oscars race, 13 French
ﬁlms or co-productions with
other countries are in the running.
But Pellerin said that while
France should maintain its diversity, it also needs to restructure its audiovisual sector to
create companies “that better
perform internationally, able
to compete with the big foreign
groups like HBO”.
“It’s an urgent issue for the financing of French
production, which they (the US Internet companies)
profit from because they are also advertisers”
Belarus may seek restructuring if hard to pay $4bn debt
Bombshell triggers slide in value
of Belarussian sovereign bonds;
Lukashenko seeks to reassure
bondholders; Belarus economy
has been hit by turmoil in Russia;
finance ministry says no plans to
restructure debt
Reuters
Minsk
Belarus might seek restructuring of $4bn
of foreign- currency debt falling due this
year if repayment becomes difficult, Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko
said yesterday.
The surprise restructuring talk by the
veteran Belarussian leader triggered a fall
of 27¢ to the dollar in the value of Belarus-
sian sovereign bonds, but Lukashenko
told bondholders not to worry about
Minsk’s ability to service its debt.
Belarus’s finance ministry also said later
yesterday that the country had enough
resources to fulfil its debt obligations
in 2015 and that it was not considering
restructuring its debt .
“Some bondholders are worrying that
we are in a pre-default situation. This
doesn’t mean anything,” Lukashenko
told an annual briefing, expanding on his
earlier comment.
“Refinancing would be good for us, but
we envisage complete financing of our
debts in the budget ... Our bondholders
should not worry or find ways to sell them
(bonds)cheap.”
The first reaction from analysts was that
Lukashenko’s comments appeared aimed
at pressuring Russia, whose giant economy
dominates Belarussian markets and whose
own economic turmoil has rebounded on
its smaller neighbour this year.
Giving the figure for foreign-currency
debt repayments due this year, Lukasheno
said: “If this becomes difficult (to repay),
we will hold talks about restructuring the
debt.”
He gave no breakdown on the $4bn
due. But it should include repayment of a
$1bn eurobond, with a coupon of 8.75%,
due in August this year.
“This was very unexpected. There was
no indication earlier that they were having trouble repaying, and anyway most
of their debt is to Russia,” said one fund
manager who holds Belarus bonds and
declined to be named. “I don’t know where
this is coming from.” The Belarussian
rouble has fallen more than a third since
mid-December, caught in the economic
turmoil in Russia. That prompted Belarus
to take emergency steps to defend the
currency.
Lukashenko, who has ruled the country
of 9.5mn since 1994, dropped the bombshell at a news conference where he also
raised the spectre of the Ukrainian conflict
spreading to Belarus, re-asserted Belarus’s
independence and sought to reassure Belarussians that he would continue to bring
them stability without upheaval.
Lukashenko, whom the US once
referred to as Europe’s ‘last dictator’ and
who is shunned in the West because of
his autocratic style at home, said that if
he was “alive and healthy” he would run
again for president at the end of this year
in what will be his fifth term of office.
Belarus yield spreads over Treasuries
widened 900 basis points to 1,463 bps and
its 2015 and 2018 bonds were sold off after
he spoke.
Belarus’s $1bn bond maturing August
2015 dropped by 27¢ and its January 2018
issue with $800mn outstanding shed 26¢.
The issues traded at 65-70¢ to the dollar,
according to Tradeweb data.
Much of the $4bn due this year is owed
to Russia. But the sum should also include
repayment of a $1bn eurobond, with a
coupon of 8.75%, due in August this year.
Lukashenko said Belarus would receive
up to $1bn of further credit from Russia
this year — $440mn from the Russia-led
Eurasian Economic Union’s anti-crisis fund
and a further $500mn that Russia had earmarked for Belarus in its budget.
Referring to the conflict in neighbour-
ing Ukraine, which has cost more than
5,000 lives, he spoke of the need for
greater border protection. He said he
could not imagine “that a Russian man
could come to Belarus to fight”.
Mishandling of the economy by, say,
introducing “shock therapy” could lead to
pitched battles in the streets of Belarus, he
said. “There could be ‘Maidans’,” he said,
referring to the street protests that ousted
a Moscow-backed president in Ukraine
almost a year ago.
During his long rule, Lukashenko
has frequently sought to play off Russia
against the West. He was quick to contradict those who saw Belarus as “some sort
of part of the Russian world”. But analysts
say, despite occasional swipes at Moscow,
he rarely strays far enough in policy to
anger the Kremlin.
Friday, January 30, 2015
BUSINESS
GULF TIMES
QSE back in negative
trajectory as
foreign institutions
square off position
Most Gulf markets
pull back on weak
results, dividends
Saudi Arabia’s petchems,
banks retreat; but major
property stocks support
bourse; disappointing bank
dividends dampen Abu
Dhabi, Oman; major Omani
lenders rise on strong Q4
results; negative results,
news drag down telecoms
across Gulf
Reuters
Dubai
S
audi Arabia’s stock market
pulled back yesterday after
gaining strongly earlier in
the week, while disappointing
dividends and earnings weighed
on other Gulf markets.
The main Saudi stock index
edged down 0.4% as some of the
stocks which had driven its rally
in the last few days retreated.
Petrochemicals major Saudi
Basic Industries dropped 2.6%
and Samba Financial Group lost
1.0%.
Telecommunications operator Zain Saudi dropped 3.4% after its Kuwaiti parent Zain said
studies into the potential sale
of its transmitter towers were
in “very early stages” and no
decision had been made yet on
the matter. News of a potential
sale had lifted both stocks on
Wednesday; Zain fell 1.9% yesterday.
Another mobile operator, Mobily, fell 2.9% to a 64-month
closing low of 36.80 riyals. The
The Sabic industrial complex for research and development in Riyadh. Shares in Sabic dropped 2.6%
yesterday as Saudi stock market pulled back after gaining strongly earlier in the week.
ﬁrm widely missed analysts’
forecasts last week when it reported an unexpected net loss in
the fourth quarter.
However, the kingdom’s largest listed real estate developers,
Jabal Omar and Dar Al Arkan
gained 1.9 and 0.5% respectively.
Shares in another developer, Emaar the Economic City,
jumped as much as 3.2% during
the day after its chief executive
told Reuters on Wednesday he
expected stronger demand for
industrial and residential property this year. But the stock then
gave up all gains and closed 0.2%
lower.
Abu Dhabi’s index fell 1.3%
as major lender National Bank
of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) tumbled
5.5% despite beating estimates
with a 28% rise in fourth-quarter proﬁt.
NBAD warned investors it
was expecting a tougher 2015
Egypt widens dollar trading
band, targeting black market
Reuters
Cairo
Egypt widened the price band yesterday in which
banks can trade dollars, sending the local pound
currency to record lows in a move that seemed
to take some steam out of the country’s thriving
black market.
The central bank has let the official pound
exchange rate weaken steadily in the past two
weeks, as authorities try to wipe out the black
market as part of economic reforms designed
to reinforce a nascent recovery and burnish
the country’s image ahead of an investment
conference in mid-March.
Bankers told Reuters the central bank had given
them verbal permission to buy and sell dollars in
a range of up to 0.10 pounds more or less than
the official rate, more than tripling the previous
band of 0.03 pounds in either direction.
The move sent the pound as low as 7.59 per
dollar compared with 7.49 at a currency auction
— which determines the rate at which banks are
allowed to sell — earlier in the day.
Over the same period the black market level was
virtually unchanged, with one trader quoting a
price of 7.83 just after the auction and another
7.85 later in the day.
The widening of the official currency band
seemed to catch traders by surprise, and some
expressed concerns about the unofficial market’s
viability. “There is almost no black market... No
one is buying from me and all are going to the
banks,” said one.
The central bank has let the official
pound exchange rate weaken steadily
in the past two weeks, as authorities try
to wipe out the black market as part of
economic reforms
Previously, a run of pound depreciations that
began early last week seemed to make little
difference to the black market, which simply
weakened alongside the official rate.
Expectations that the central bank is preparing
to devalue the pound have grown since it
announced a surprise 50-basis-point cut in
benchmark interest rates earlier this month,
saying plummeting global oil prices had eased
the inflation outlook.
as lower oil prices hit economic
growth and increasing competition squeezes proﬁt margins.
Also, NBK Capital said in a note
it was disappointed with lowerthan-expected loan growth and
the dividend. NBAD board proposed a cash dividend of 40 ﬁls
per share and a stock dividend
of 10% for 2014. This compares
with a cash dividend of 36 ﬁls
per share for 2013, according to
Thomson Reuters data.
By Santhosh V Perumal
Business Reporter
Disappointment over dividends also dampened Oman’s
market, which edged down
0.4%. Ahli Bank, down 3.5%,
was the main drag as it extended
losses following a proposal on
Tuesday to pay the 2014 dividend only with bonus shares.
The lender had paid cash dividends for the two previous years.
However, Bank Muscat gained
1.7% after its board proposed
a cash dividend of 25%, an additional 15% payout through an
issue of mandatory convertible
bonds, and a 5% bonus share issue. It paid a similar dividend for
2013, but without bonus shares.
National Bank of Oman jumped
2.9% after it proposed a 2014
dividend of 17% cash and 10%
bonus shares, increasing the
cash portion from 15% a year
earlier.
Telecommunications
ﬁrm
Ooredoo Oman fell 1.7% after
posting a 17% fall in fourthquarter proﬁt.
Egypt’s bourse slipped 0.2%
as most property stocks pulled
back after rallying this week because of the pound’s gradual depreciation which, some analysts
say, may boost demand for real
estate.
Medinet Nasr Housing and
Development fell 1.9% and
SODIC lost 1.4%.
Elsewhere in the Gulf, the
Kuwait index slid 1.0% to 6,572
points, the Oman index edged
down 0.4% to 6,558 points and
the index was ﬂat at 1,424 points.
Foreign institutions hurriedly
squared off their position
yesterday to steer the Qatar
Stock Exchange back into
negative trajectory.
Local retail investors’ net
buying support and domestic
institutions’ lower net selling
notwithstanding, the 20-stock
Qatar Index (based on price
data) fell 0.68% to 11,899.63
points as trade volumes also
sunk.
Islamic stocks were seen
melting slower in the bourse,
which is, however, down 3.14%
year-to-date.
Non-Qatari retail investors
sought to buy stocks, amid an
overall bearish overhang in
the market, where real estate,
banks, telecom and industrials
stocks cornered about 90% of
the total trading volume.
Market capitalisation eroded
0.66% or more than QR4bn to
QR648.79bn with mid, large
and small cap equities melting
0.92%, 0.64% and 0.58%
respectively; even as micro
caps soared 1.09%.
The Total Return Index shed
0.68% to 17,748.18 points,
All Share Index by 0.58% to
3,062.23 points and Al Rayan
Islamic Index by 0.43% to
4,038.35 points.
Realty stocks plummeted 1.26%,
banks and financial services
(0.93%), telecom (0.88%) and
industrials (0.34%); whereas
transport gained 0.86%,
consumer goods (0.59%) and
insurance (0.31%).
Major shakers included QNB,
Vodafone Qatar, Ezdan, Barwa,
United Development Company,
Qatar Electricity and Water,
Masraf Al Rayan, Al Khaliji,
Doha Bank and Commercial
Bank; even as Gulf Warehousing
notably bucked the trend.
Foreign institutions turned
net sellers to the tune of
QR52.92mn against net buyers
of QR42.52mn the previous day.
However, Qatari retail investors
turned net buyers to the extent
of QR57.19mn compared with
net sellers of QR11.25mn on
January 28.
Domestic institutions’ net profit
booking sunk to QR14.83mn
against QR35.56mn on
Wednesday.
Non-Qatari individual investors’
net buying strengthened to
QR10.56mn compared to
QR4.29mn the previous day.
Total trade volume fell 28% to
8.48mn shares, value by 26% to
QR374.5mn and transactions by
20% to 4,815.
The industrials sector’s trade
volume plummeted 50% to
1.01mn stocks, value by 33% to
QR77.48mn and deals by 35% to
991. The real estate sector saw
its trade volume plunge 36% to
3.52mn equities, value by 40%
to QR69.46mn and transactions
by 33% to 992.
The banks and financial services
reported 30% shrinkage in trade
volume 1.71mn shares, 32% in
value to QR126.21mn and 28% in
deals to 1,319.
The consumer goods sector’s
trade volume tanked 19% to
0.17mn stocks, value by 10% to
QR11.23mn and transactions by
17% to 187.
There was 10% slippage in the
insurance sector’s trade volume
to 0.47mn equities and 13% in
value to QR37.79mn but on a
marginal rise in deals to 306.
The transport sector’s trade
volume was down 3% to
0.3mn shares, value by 8% to
QR13.78mn and transactions by
12% to 166.
However, the telecom sector’s
trade volume surged 72% to
1.29mn stocks and value more
than doubled to QR38.55mn on
75% jump in deals to 854.
In the debt market, there was
no trading of treasury bills and
government bonds.
Iraq’s southern oil exports slip in
January from record rate: source
Reuters
London
I
raq’s southern oil exports have slipped in
January from a record high, according to
loading data and an industry source, as
shipping delays put a brake on the expansion of supplies from Opec’s second-largest
producer.
Despite the dip, Iraq is still targeting
an expansion of supplies in 2015, a prospect that has caused unease for some other
members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries given ample supply and oil prices at their lowest levels since
2009.
Exports from Iraq’s southern terminals
have averaged 2.67mn barrels per day (bpd),
according to shipping data for the ﬁrst 28
days of January tracked by Reuters and an
industry source, down from a record rate of
2.76mn bpd in December.
The southern oilﬁelds produce the bulk of
Iraq’s oil and the terminals are its main outlet to world markets. Located far from the
parts of the country controlled by Islamic
State, they have kept pumping despite the
unrest.
But loadings at one of Iraq’s single-point
moorings were disrupted in January by a
problem with a valve, an industry source
said, slowing exports.
Flows of Kirkuk crude from the Turkish
port of Ceyhan have continued in January
after returning in December following a deal
between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government, although the ﬂow has
declined in January, sources said.
Traders estimated Kirkuk exports from
Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organisation
(SOMO) have averaged 150,000 bpd in January. This, plus the southern exports, would
bring pipeline exports of Iraq’s main crudes
to 2.82mn bpd. That is lower than December’s 2.94mn bpd, a record high.
Iraq’s total northern exports may be higher if crude produced in Kurdistan and being
shipped to Ceyhan is included, the sources
said. One source said total shipments from
northern Iraq in January — SOMO plus KRG
volumes — have averaged 310,000 bpd,
down from 360,000 bpd in December.
“Around 150,000 bpd of Kirkuk is being
pumped over as SOMO equity,” said an industry source. “The remainder is KRG oil.”
Kirkuk exports had been shut since March
by a bomb attack, restraining total shipments in 2014. Still, Kurdistan began independently exporting crude to Ceyhan in
May, angering Baghdad which claimed sole
authority to ship oil from the country.
Iraq aims to push exports even higher in
2015. A loading programme schedules record
southern exports in February.
Smooth progress is not certain. Iraq has
missed targets in the past and bad weather,
technical problems and unrest can disrupt
supplies.
Misrata feels economic pinch as Libyan inﬁghting spreads
Steel production hit as fighting
takes toll; Misrata port forced
to restrict operations; city had
avoided effects of infighting until
now
Reuters
Misrata, Libya
A
power struggle between two rival governments that threatens
to tear Libya apart has started
to take its toll on Misrata, an important
shipping and industrial hub that had
shrugged off the turmoil until now.
Production at the country’s biggest
steel works has been cut and the port of
Misrata has been forced to restrict operations.
Armed factions allied to the competing governments — one has set up shop
in Tripoli after forcing the internationally recognised administration to ﬂee
to the east — are ﬁghting for control of
the oil producing nation four years after the civil war that ousted Muammar
Gaddaﬁ.
Oil production has collapsed to a ﬁfth
of what Libya used to pump before the
NATO-backed uprising, while wheat
imports and other activity at seaports
have been disrupted by clashes in the
east of the country.
Misrata had so far not been affected
by the unrest, since its port serves much
of the country and it became a major air
gateway to Libya when ﬁghting forced
Tripoli’s main airport to close in the
summer.
The country’s third largest city is
also home to the biggest free trade zone
and the largest dairy products company, making it the only place with signiﬁcant non-oil industrial activity in
a country that relies on petroleum for
most of its revenues.
But Misrata is also a power base of Libya Dawn — the faction that seized Tripoli
in summer by expelling armed rivals in a
month-long battle. After Libya Dawn set
up its own rival government, Misrata became part of the front line.
War planes allied to the recognised
government, holed up in the east since
losing the capital, have bombed Misrata’s steel plant, the port and the airport.
Little was hit, but the campaign has
scared away shippers as well as Turkish
Airlines, the last foreign carrier to serve
A ship unloads cargo at a port in Misrata. At Misrata’s commercial port, container
volumes fell last year to 174,340 twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs) from 225,929
in 2013, the latest data shows, ending years of steady growth.
Libya. Forces from Misrata once formed
a major rebel brigade battling alongside
ﬁghters from Zintan to topple Gaddaﬁ.
But since then Libya has descended into
factional ﬁghting as regions and cities
turn against one another.
In Misrata, the Libyan Iron and Steel
Company, one of Africa’s largest steel
ﬁrms, is facing gas shortages and will
have to cut production this year by
shutting down two of its three direct
iron reduction plants, its chairman
said.
“We agreed with the electricity ﬁrm,
as instructed by the government, to reduce production to 33% due to gas sup-
ply problems to save natural gas and
power,” chairman Mohamed Abdelmalik al-Faqih told Reuters in an interview.
Output of direct reduced iron, a key
steel-making ingredient, would be
just 550,000 tonnes in 2015, a further
decrease from last year when it had
planned to produce 1.6mn tonnes, but
achieved only about 60% of the target
due to power shortages.
The cutbacks would affect steelmaking operations and two of the company’s six furnaces would shut down.
Libya’s gas production has fallen
since a group allied to Libya Dawn
launched an offensive to take control
of the Es Sider oil terminal in the east.
Forces from the eastern government
still hold the facility but it became
damaged and had to close. The Tripoli
government says it was also forced
to lower gas output at the Mellitah
plant in the west due to the risk of air
strikes.
Though security in Misrata is still
better than in Benghazi or Tripoli,
where gunmen killed nine people in an
attack on a hotel on Tuesday, Turkish and Austrian steel contractors have
pulled out staff due to the air strikes,
Faqih said. He said ships importing raw
materials or fuel were increasingly reluctant to dock at Misrata, though marketing manager Ali Darrat said one ship
had just arrived.
At Misrata’s commercial port, container volumes fell last year to 174,340
twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs)
from 225,929 in 2013, the latest data
shows, ending years of steady growth.
Some foreign shippers have diverted
cargo to smaller Libyan ports such as
Khoms, west of Misrata, after a warplane hit a quayside warehouse, an industry source said.
On Monday, warplanes deployed by
the official government forced a Libyan fuel tanker sailing from Greece to
Misrata to divert to Tobruk, an eastern city that is home to the elected
parliament.
It was allowed to go back to Misrata
after troops searched it for weapons.
Earlier this month, a Greek-owned
oil tanker was hit by an air strike that
killed two crew members, and a ﬁshing
vessel carrying fuel was also bombed by
war planes from the forces of a former
Libyan general now allied with the recognised government.
FOOTBALL | Page 5
NFL | Page 7
MOTORSPORT | Page 9
Neymar
brace puts
Barcelona
in semis
Fun-loving
‘Gronk’ a
serious
threat
Alonso ready
to write a new
chapter at
McLaren
Friday, January 30, 2015
Rabia II 10, 1436 AH
GULF TIMES
PREVIEW
QATAR VS POLAND 6:30PM
Qatar coach Rivera wants the dream
run to continue
‘For most people seeing Qatar playing for a medal would have
looked like an illusion, but due to our hard work we made it a reality’
By Yash Mudgal
Doha
W
hen Qatar reached quarterﬁnals of the 24th Men’s
World Handball Championship after a hard-fought
victory over Austria their coach Valero
Rivera said, “it is dream come true for us.”
Now, on the eve of their semiﬁnals
against an ‘experienced’ Poland side,
Rivera wants the dream to continue for
a couple more days.
“It is much more than ambition to
reach the semiﬁnals. It is like a dream
come true for everybody who is involved with the national team of Qatar,”
Rivera said yesterday.
“My challenge is the same as that
of my players. For most people seeing
Qatar playing for a medal would have
looked like an illusion, but due to our
hard work we made it a reality,” he said.
Qatar created history when they became the ﬁrst Asian side to enter the
last four after beating Germany 26-24.
To enter their ﬁrst-ever ﬁnal, the
hosts need to overcome a Polish side,
who have six players having taken part
in the 2007 world championship ﬁnal.
But they will have the support of a
capacity crowd cheering for the home
side at the Losail Multipurpose Hall.
“Poland is a very strong team and
had the opportunity to prove it in an
impressive way here, especially in the
knock-out stage. Although they have
not won a medal since the 2009 world
championship, it is a great team. I have
a lot of respect for Poland and I don’t
consider their success as a surprise,”
Rivera said.
“We worked hard to reach the lastfour stage and I am not talking only
about the games we have played here. It Qatar coach Valero Rivera.
has been a long journey to the top four
including the preparation, the friendly
games and the whole effort of building a
competitive team that might be a medal
contender at Qatar 2015. We played
tough games, including the one against
Belarus and regardless of the results,
our team is still learning how to play the
big games and beat great opponents,”
the Spaniard said.
Poland defeated Croatia 24-22 in
quarter-ﬁnal and is also a surprise
semiﬁnalist like the hosts and earned
their rival coach’s admiration.
“They are good in every position and
every aspect. We have to keep our concentration for sixty minutes and not allow them to ﬁnd their tempo. There is
not a speciﬁc issue that we have to pay
attention to. In a game like that, everything has to be taken under consideration, especially the small details which
are always decisive,” Rivera said.
Once again Qatar will depend on its
big game players — Zarko Markovic,
Rafael Capote, Danijel Saric and Borja
Vidal, who dominated and helped the
hosts into the last four.
“We prefer to go step by step. First,
we have to give everything we have left
to our tank in the semi-ﬁnal against a
very experienced team,” said Markovic,
who is now the tournament’s top scorer
with 55 goals.
Polish coach Michael Biegler expects
equal chances for both teams as he said:
“I see it as a surprise that Qatar have
reached the semi-ﬁnals, but it is just as
big a surprise that we have got that far, I
think. Our semi-ﬁnal against the hosts
will be decided in defence and by the
goalkeepers.”
CLASH OF TITANS
The second ﬁnalist will be decided in a
‘clash of handball titans’. France will play
their tenth world championship semiﬁnal in history while Spain are looking to
earn the right to defend their title.
“We are sure we have a chance
against Spain,” French coach Claude
Onesta said. His team defeated Spain
one year ago in the semi-ﬁnal of the
European Championship in Denmark to
later take the gold. He has the greatest
respect for his opponents.
“Spain is a world class team with
players of the highest calibre. We are
totally prepared to deal with it. Playing
against Spain is a great moment for us.”
His counterpart, Spanish coach
Manuel Cadenas, hopes to enjoy another great moment with his team after winning European bronze in 2014
in this, his ﬁrst big event as successor
to Valero Rivera. “We are the only team
that won all seven previous matches.
Though it will be hard - why should we
not manage to beat France?”
2
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
24TH MEN’S HANDBALL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
SPOTLIGHT
We aren’t ready to wake up,
says Qatar star Mallash
‘The past few days are like a dream. We aren’t ready to wake up just yet at least not before Monday. We have prepared
hard for this tournament. We spent together last six months practicing all the time. Now, we are in the semi-final of the
World Championship. I hope that we won’t stop here. The match against Germany showed our top form’
FOCUS
Playing and training is
the best part of my day,
says Qatar’s Borja Vidal
Qatar’s Borja Vidal reacts during the Qatar 2015 24th Men’s Handball World
Championship quarter-final match between Qatar and Germany at the Lusail
Multipurpose Hall outside Doha.
By Sports Reporter
Doha
I
Qatar’s Kamalaldin Mallash reacts during Qatar 2015 24th Men’s Handball World Championship quarterfinal between Qatar and Germany at Lusail Multipurpose Hall.
By Sports Reporter
Doha
T
he hosts of the 24th Men’s
Handball World Championship, Qatar, wrote a new
chapter in handball history by
reaching the semi-ﬁnal stage in Doha.
However, the ﬁrst ever Asian team who
will ﬁght for the medal on the major
handball event, doesn’t plan to end
their dream before the ﬁnal match. After all no one expected them to progress
so far into the tournament and now
that they have shown the world what
they are capable of, whatever happens
from here on is only icing on the cake.
One of the most important members
of the Qatari team, the real future of
the Valero Rivera’s squad, playmaker
Kamalaldin Mallash believes that they
still have a lot of energy for their semiﬁnal clash against Poland today.
How do you feel after this amazing
achievement?
Kamalaldin Mallash: The past few
days are like a dream. We aren’t ready
to wake up just yet at least not before
Monday. We have prepared hard for
this tournament. We spent together
last six months practicing all the time.
Now, we are in the semi-ﬁnal of the
World Championship. I hope that we
won’t stop here. The match against
Germany showed our top form.
Did you expect to go so far at Qatar
2015?
KM: Actually, almost all the teams
are on the same level. The situation in
world handball isn’t like what it used to
be like in the past, when you had only
5-6 dominant teams who could ﬁght
for medals.
It looks like you play without pressure. That wasn’t the case at the start
of the tournament when you played
against Brazil, right?
KM: Yes, we had problem in the opening match. The start was stressful, but
it got easier and easier in every match.
Now, we are ﬂying and feel like nothing
can stop us. The team spirit is fantastic.
We have become really close friends.
How do you see your next rival – Poland?
KM: To be honest, I don’t know too
much about them. But I am sure that
our coach will prepare everything we
need to know. We are in good shape
and also playing in front of home
crowd, so my only aim is to win that
match.
What do you think of Valero Rivera
as a coach? Is he one of the greatest
handball coaches of all the time?
KM: He is like a father for us. Valero
is very proud on everything we have
achieved in previous year.
Who is the first favourite to take gold
on Sunday?
KM: France and Spain are the best
teams in the world. Of course, we are
dreaming about it. Inshallah.
t is equally unlikely that Qatar national team line player Borja Vidal
Fernández, would, at 34, be playing handball at a World Championship at all, given that he was a professional basketball player until 2006,
the year he decided to make a switch in
sporting direction.
“There wasn’t any special reason for
my change from basketball to handball,” Vidal says.
“I tried to play handball, I liked it
more than basketball and I changed.
The change wasn’t really a hard situation. However it was difficult to adapt to
handball, to the training sessions and to
the differences between the two sports.”
It was none other than Valero Rivera,
Qatar’s current national team coach,
who persuaded Vidal to shift his sporting focus.
At the time, Vidal was playing in
Spain’s ﬁrst basketball league with
CAI Zaragoza, after stints with Melilla,
Bilbao and some teams in the Italian
league. Rivera was the team manager of
Balonmano Aragon.
At 191 cm tall and weighing in at
120 kg, Rivera saw in him some special
physical characteristics.
“From the ﬁrst moment, Valero was
an important person in my career and
remains so now,” Vidal says. “He is a
guarantee of success. I can’t say anything bad about him.”
FEELING AT HOME
Vidal feels at home on a handball court
and is especially please for the chance
to play in a world championship with
Qatar. Particularly in a situation in
which the coach who introduced him
to the handball world is the same person who has helped provide a world
championship experience.
“It’s a great situation,” Vidal says.
“With handball, to go and train and
play is the best part of the day for me.
“That’s something that I didn’t feel
as a basketball player. The only thing
is that when I started to play handball, the economic crisis was going on
in Spain and it was difficult because
sometimes we didn’t earn money.”
Vidal knows that way ahead is going
to be a difficult one for Qatar. But it has
been an enjoyable journey so far. And
he has good reason as this is just the
beginning of his dream, one that has
come true.
BOTTOMLINE
The four semi-finalists broken down by numbers
By Sports Reporter
Doha
Q
atar vs Poland and France vs
Spain are the pairings for the
semi-ﬁnals at the 24th Men’s
Handball World Championship at Lusail Multipurpose Hall today.
France and Spain are the only preliminary round group winners to make
their way to the semis.
Here are the most important facts
and ﬁgures of the four semi-ﬁnalists:
QATAR
Competition records:
World championship campaigns:
2003: 16, 2005: 21, 2007: 23, 2013: 20
Asian championship campaigns:
1991: 4, 2002: SILVER, 2004: BRONZE,
2006: BRONZE,
2012: SILVER, 2014: GOLD
Qualiﬁcation for Qatar 2015: Hosts
Coach: Valero Rivera
Key players: Zarko Markovic, Danijel Saric
The road to the semi-ﬁnals: ranked
second in Group A after the preliminary
round, 29:27 (13:14) against Austria in
the eighth-ﬁnals, 26:24 (16:14) in their
Qatar’s goalkeeper Danijel Saric is one of the key reasons for his team’s progress.
quarter-ﬁnal against Germany
Semi-ﬁnals at World Championships: 1 (2015)
Best scorers after seven matches:
Zarko Markovic 55 goals, Rafael Capote
36 goals
Goals and points after seven match-
VER, 2009: BRONZE, 2011: 8, 2013: 9
Olympic campaigns: 1972: 10, 1976:
BRONZE, 1980: 7, 2008: 5
European championship campaigns:
2002: 15, 2004: 16, 2006: 10, 2008: 7,
2010: 4, 2012: 9, 2014: 6
Qualiﬁcation for Qatar 2015: Winners of the play-off matches against
Germany (25:24, 29:28)
Coach: Michael Biegler
Key players: Slawomir Szmal, Bartosz Jurecki
The road to the semi-ﬁnals: ranked
third in preliminary round Group D,
24:20 (10:11) against Sweden in the
eighth-ﬁnals, 24:22 (12:10) against
Croatia in their quarter-ﬁnal
Semi-ﬁnals at World Championships: 4 (including 2015)
Top scorers after seven matches:
Michal Jurecki 26 goals, Kamil Syprzak
24 goals
Goals and points after seven matches: 183:153 goals, 5 wins, 2 defeats
es: 192:173 goals, 7 wins, 1 defeat
POLAND
Competition records:
World championship campaigns:
1958: 5, 1974: 4, 1978: 6, 1982: BRONZE,
1986: 14, 1990: 11, 2003: 10, 2007: SIL-
FRANCE
Competition records:
World championship campaigns:
1954: 6, 1961: 8, 1970: 12, 1990: 9, 1993:
SILVER, 1995: GOLD, 1997: BRONZE,
1999: 6, 2001: GOLD, 2003: BRONZE,
2005: BRONZE, 2007: 4, 2009: GOLD,
2011: GOLD, 2013: 6.
Olympic campaigns: 1992: BRONZE,
1996: 4, 2000: 6, 2004: 5, 2008: GOLD,
2012: GOLD
European championship campaigns:
1994: 6, 1996: 7, 1998: 7, 2000: 4,
2002: 6, 2004: 6, 2006: GOLD, 2008:
BRONZE, 2010: GOLD, 2012: 11, 2014:
GOLD
Qualiﬁcation for Qatar 2015: European Champions
Coach: Claude Onesta
Key players: Thierry Omeyer, Nikola Karabatic
The road to the semi-ﬁnals: winners
of preliminary round Group C, 33:20
(16:6) against Argentina in the eighthﬁnals, 32:23 (18:10) against Slovenia in
their quarter-ﬁnal
Semi-ﬁnals at World Championships: 10 (including 2015)
Top scorers after seven matches
Michael Guigou 28 goals, Guillaume
Joli 27 goals
Goals and points after seven matches: 208:171 goals, 6 wins, 1 draw
SPAIN
Competition records:
World championship
campaigns:
1978: 10, 1982: 8, 1986: 5, 1990: 5, 1993:
5, 1995: 11, 1997: 7, 1999: 4, 2001: 5,
2003: 4, 2005: GOLD, 2007: 7, 2009:
13, 2011: BRONZE, 2013: GOLD
Olympic campaigns: 1972: 15, 1980:
5, 1984: 8, 1988: 9, 1992: 5, 1996:
BRONZE, 2000: BRONZE, 2004: 7,
2008: BRONZE, 2012: 7
European championship campaigns:
1994: 5, 1996: SILVER, 1998: SILVER,
2000: BRONZE, 2002: 7, 2004: 10,
2006: SILVER, 2008: 6, 2012: 4, 2014:
BRONZE
Qualiﬁcation for Qatar: Defending
World Champions
Coach: Manuel Cadenas
Key players: Joan Canellas, Julen
Aguinagalde
The road to the semi-ﬁnals: winners
of preliminary round Group A, 28:20
(18:9) against Tunisia in the eighthﬁnals, 25:24 (11:11) in their quarter-ﬁnal
against Denmark
Semi-ﬁnals at World Championships: 6 (including 2015)
Top scorers after seven matches:
Valero Rivera jun. 39 goals, Joan Canellas 27 goals
Goals and points after seven matches: 215:171 goals, 7 wins.
Now to see how they do on the court.
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
3
24TH MEN’S HANDBALL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
PREVIEW SPAIN VS FRANCE 9:00PM
FOCUS
Ready to repeat the
dream, says Spain
centreback Canellas
‘France are reigning Olympic and European champions, a team of high quality and of
outstanding class. You try to find some weaknesses and probably you fail to find one’
We’ve more options
than Qatar: Szmal
Poland goalkeeper Slawomir Szmal.
By Sports Reporter
Doha
to playing for this great chance
to ﬁght for a medal at the World
Championship.
lawomir
Szmal
was
named IHF World Handball Player of the Year
in 2009, he was a World
Championship silver medallist
in 2007 and bronze medallist in
2009. And in Doha goalkeeper
Szmal has been an important key
on Poland’s road to today’s semiﬁnal match against host Qatar.
In this interview Szmal, nicknamed ‘Kasa’ talks about his expectations, experience and his
keys for success.
S
What might be the advantages
of the Polish team?
SS: We have more rotation
options and alternatives coming from the bench. Qatar played
almost the whole tournament
with only eight players — we
have a deeper squad. And in addition our performance level has
improved from match to match
after a shaky start in the preliminary round. So we are conﬁdent and I suppose we have more
power left compared to Qatar.
When you left from Poland to
Doha, did you already dream of
reaching the semi-final?
Slawomir Szmal: Every team
which arrived here had its hopes
and dreams. You are not going
to Doha because of the sun and
to have a nice holiday. It was our
goal to get closer to the Olympic
Games here, and by reaching the
semi-ﬁnal we already qualiﬁed
for the Olympic Qualiﬁcation
Tournament. And now we even
hope for hosting this tournament
in Poland.
You already played in the
World Championship semi-finals in 2007 and 2009 – might
this experience be another advantage for your team?
SS: Six players from our current squad have already been in
the 2007 ﬁnal against Germany.
But the rest of our team lacks this
experience. Our squad is a mixture of young and experienced
players. So deﬁnitely playing a
semi-ﬁnal is not a routine for
Poland, it is routine for teams like
France and Spain.
What do you expect from the
semi against the host Qatar?
SS: It will be a really tough
challenge for us, they have a
great team with strong players
like their goalkeepers and Markovic – and they will be supported
by a full arena. So we should only
focus on us and on our performance, not on the atmosphere.
But we are all looking forward
In exactly one year Poland will
host the European Championship. Does the success of Doha
boost the interest in this event
in your country?
SS: Deﬁnitely we have gained
conﬁdence from our performances here, and I hope of a positive effect for 2016. Mainly our
younger players will proﬁt from
this experience in Doha.
STILL TO PLAY FOR
Spain’s Joan Canellas in action during the Qatar 2015 24th Men’s Handball World Championship quarter-final match between Denmark and Spain at the Lusail Multipurpose Hall.
By Sports Reporter
Doha
W
hen Joan Canellas was walking from the locker room
to the ﬁeld of play, the ﬁrst
person he met was Valero
Rivera – and that may be proved a good
sign for both of them.
The Spanish coach of the national team
of Qatar was the one who led ‘La Roja’, including Canellas, all the way to win the
gold medal at the 2013 World Championship, held on their home soil. Here in
Doha the centre back of THW Kiel and his
camaraderie are trying to defend the title
won at the Barcelona’s Palau Sant Jordi,
while Rivera has achieved a kind of miracle
by taking the hosts to the top four.
What did your former national coach
tell to you, while embracing each
other?
Joan Canellas: A few typical things. I
love him and he loves me and all of us. We
have had great success together and these
memories will last forever. We congratulated each other, wished each other good
luck for the semi-ﬁnals and might meet
again in the ﬁnal on Sunday.
To advance to the final and have the
chance to defend the title, you will
have to beat France…
JC: They are a tremendous team, who
have dominated the last decade. France
are the reigning Olympic and European
champions, a team of high quality and of
outstanding class. You try to ﬁnd some
weaknesses and probably you fail to ﬁnd
one.
What do you consider the key points
to defeat them tomorrow?
JC: Play better in offence than we did
in the previous games. We must move the
ball well and read the situations in order
to score. Of course, defence is always
needed, especially in a game which will
be probable decided by a few details. We
played defence aggressively versus Denmark and it was a key factor for us to survive and win it.
Is it Joan Canellas vs Nikola Karabatic?
JC: It is mainly Spain vs France. Yesterday it was Mikkel Hansen, tomorrow will be Nikola Karabatic, the other
day might be another big player. But
we are playing a team sport, in which
the so called superstars have emerged
throughout the success of their teams.
However if I have to talk about Nikola,
there is no doubt that he is one of the
best players in the world and I have lots
of respect for him.
How do you deal with the extra motivation to defend the world championship title from 2013?
JC: This is our target. We lived a dream
two years ago in Barcelona and now we
have come here to repeat it. This is a very
difficult task, but we trust each other and
I hope to go all the way to the top.
Spain vs France, it is a like ﬁnal game?
JC: Spain vs Denmark was a like ﬁnal
game too. When you reach the top eight
there are no easy games. You have to take
them all serious and pretend that even a
quarter-ﬁnal was the gold medal match.
This is the mentality as we approach it.
Denmark, Slovenia,
Croatia & Germany
motivated to fight
for an Olympic spot
Fixtures
What do you think is the biggest
weapon against France?
JC: They have the ‘know-how’, due to
their class, experience and conﬁdence.
As Gary Lineker said once, the French are
like the Germans in football. We can say
that handball is a game in which fourteen
men chase a ball for 60 minutes and at
the end, the French always win.
Let’s see what happens today.
Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiyah Arena
Placement Round 5-8
4:00pm - Croatia vs Germany
6:30pm - Denmark vs Slovenia
Ivan Cupic of Croatia
BOTTOMLINE
We’ve reached our goal, says
Karabatic, France’s biggest star
play better, and actually I think
we will need that in our semi-ﬁnal against Spain, if we are going
to have a chance to win that one.
By Sports Reporter
Doha
I
t will be a meeting of the
only two undefeated teams
at these 24th Men’s Handball World Championship
when France and Spain take to
the court in their semi-ﬁnal
match today.
While Spain have won all their
matches so far, France have lost a
single point on the way, against
Iceland in the preliminary
round.
Ahead of the semi-ﬁnal, one
of France’s greatest stars, Nikola
Karabatic, tries to put the pressure of the favourites role on
Spain.
What do you think of your
team’s performance in the
tournament this far?
Nikola Karabatic: I think we
Nikola Karabatic celebrates after France defeated Slovenia.
have been doing okay so far. We
have been playing very well and
got our game going, I think.
Now we are in the semi-ﬁnal,
and that was our ﬁrst aim.
We aimed to qualify for the
Olympics, and that objective is
still within reach, so I think we
can be content.
Can you still improve?
NK: Yes, I still think we can
Does it surprise you that your
team has been so convincing
with your star on the right win,
Luc Abalo who has missed the
entire tournament due to an
injury?
NK: No, this does not really
surprise me. Of course, Luc is
important to our team, and he
brings a lot to our game, but we
have very good players to replace
him, and I think that Portes and
Jolie have both done very well in
his absence, so the handicap did
not become that big.
You said that have reached
your first goal. What is the
next?
NK: Of course, we would like
very much for be world champi-
ons, but ﬁrst we have a very difﬁcult semi-ﬁnal against Spain,
and I actually see Spain as favourites.
They have beaten Qatar, and
they have beaten Denmark, two
of the strongest teams at this
tournament so far, and in general
they have played a great tournament, so I expect a very difficult
game for us.
That semi-final will be a remake of your semi-final from
the European Championship
in Denmark a year ago. What
will be the deciding factor this
time, do you think?
NK: I think pretty much the
same things will be deciding this
time that decided the game a
year ago.
The defences, the goalkeepers and counter attacks will play
a deciding part, but as I said,
Spain are favourites this time.
By Sports Reporter
Doha
T
he four teams which
were defeated in the
quarter-ﬁnals of the
24th Men’s Handball
World Championship in Qatar
were Croatia, Germany, Slovenia
and Denmark. However, despite
being defeated they still have to
remain focused right up until the
end of the tournament. In order
to snatch a place at the Olympic
qualiﬁcation tournaments which
will be held from 8 to 10th April
next year each team will want to
at least win one of the last two
last matches at Qatar 2015.
Winning one of two games will
be enough to take at least seventh place, which will be the last
ticket from the tournament in
Doha to Rio 2016.
In total, six teams ranked 2 to 7
at the World Championships in
Qatar will qualify for the Olympic
Games qualiﬁcation tournament.
“It was our main goal to get a
ticket for the Olympic Qualiﬁcation Tournaments. This is our
only goal from now on and I hope
we can do that. Two matches
are still there to be won,” commented Croatian right wing Ivan
Cupic, despite being hugely disappointment after their defeat
against Poland 22:24.
German left wing Uwe Gensheimer whose team lost against
Qatar 24:26 shares this opinion:
“We will rest and re-group on
Thursday because we still have
one goal left - to ﬁnish inside the
top seven and clinch a place for
the Olympic qualifying tournament.”
Slovenian playmaker Sebastian Skube wants to win both
matches:
“We have two more games to
play and we will give it our best
to take ﬁfth place, which would
be a great result for us. Our main
target was to ﬁnish among the
top eight and take an Olympic
Qualiﬁcation berth. If we manage that I think that ﬁfth place is
not bad.”
The Danish left wing, Casper
Mortensen, believes that his
team is capable of winning every
match:
“Now we are looking ahead to
our next game as we want to win
every time we play.”
All the teams can qualify directly for the Rio 2016 by winning
their continental championships.
The World’s best team from Qatar 2015, European, Pan American
and the African champions, as
well the Champions of Asia, will
join the host nation – Brazil.
The others six teams will be
known after qualification tournaments.
4
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
FOOTBALL
PREVIEW/ ASIAN CUP
Aussies eye maiden
crown, Korea hope
to end title drought
‘It is a massive game. We made the final four years ago which was great for our nation.
We have been in Asia for a while now and we haven’t won anything in the men’s
game, but this gives us an opportunity at a national level to achieve something’
Blatter submits bid for fifth
term as FIFA president
Zurich: FIFA boss Joseph Blatter yesterday submitted his
candidature for a fifth term as president of world football’s
governing body.
“Today (Thursday) is a key date in the electoral calendar. I’ve
made my submission, now the electoral committee follow a
process,” the 78-year-old Swiss wrote on his Twitter account.
Blatter, who has held the post since 1998, had already indicated his intention to seek another term, and has wide support
in Asia, Africa and Oceania. Among his challengers are former
Portugal and Real Madrid winger Luis Figo, Dutch football
boss Michael Van Praag, Asian Football Confederation vicepresident Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, ex-FIFA executive Jerome
Champagne and former France winger David Ginola.
“It’s very difficult to beat Blatter, I know, but I think the
world of football is with me,” said Ginola, 47, who is being paid
£250,000 by betting company Paddy Power to throw his hat
into the ring.
Ginola said the challengers were looking for “more democracy and more transparency” in football’s world governing
body. “It can’t be that football is the most popular sport, but
the most inaccessible politically speaking,” Ginola told Spanish
sports daily Marca.
Candidates must have played an active role in football
administration for two of the past five years and be publicly
nominated by five of FIFA’s 209 member associations.
The election will take place in Zurich on May 29.
SPOTLIGHT
Laudrup eyeing
retirement despite
success in Qatar
Reuters
Dubai
M
Australian striker Tim
Cahill (left) and goalkeeper Mat Ryan arrive
for a press briefing
ahead of their AFC Asian
Cup final against South
Korea, to be played in
Sydney tomorrow. (AFP)
Reuters
Sydney
T
he ﬁrst Asian Cup held in Australia has already exceeded expectations and now the stars have
aligned to produce what promises
to be a classic ﬁnal.
Both sides will feel conﬁdent of emerging victorious in tomorrow’s clash between the host nation and South Korea
at Sydney’s Olympic Stadium when the
best attack in the tournament comes up
against the best defence.
The delicious contrast in styles is the
perfect ending to a tournament that has
been full of unexpected twists and turns
from the world’s most populated and diverse region.
For the Australians, the ﬁnal represents a chance to ﬁnally win a major international soccer title, an anomaly for a
sports-mad country that has succeeded in
almost every other sport in the world.
“It is a massive game. We made the ﬁnal
four years ago which was great for our nation,” Australian coach Ange Postecoglou
said. “We have been in Asia for a while now
and we haven’t won anything in the men’s
game, but this gives us an opportunity at a
national level to achieve something.”
Victory for South Korea would give the
Taegeuk Warriors their ﬁrst Asian Cup title since 1960 and the country something
to celebrate after a grim year on and off the
sporting ﬁeld. “The players are desperate to
win this tournament,” defender Park Jooho said. “A lot of people at home really want
us to win this tournament after 55 years.”
Despite reaching the semi-ﬁnals of the
World Cup in 2002, South Korea have
struggled to reproduce that sort of form
since. They were eliminated in the group
stage at two of the last three World Cups
and before this year, had not made an
Asian Cup ﬁnal since 1988.
However, with the recently recruited
Uli Stielike now in charge of an ambitious
team, things are starting to look up.
The former German international is
looking at a longer-term goal of restoring
South Korea as Asia’s best team and has
started by plugging up holes in the defence. In their ﬁve matches at the Asian
Cup, South Korea have yet to concede a
goal, with ﬁrst-choice keeper Kim Jinhyeon keeping four clean sheets.
They won each of their three group
games, against Oman, Kuwait and Australia by a solitary goal but found their
range in the knockout matches, beating
Iraq 2-0 in the semi-ﬁnals after star forward Son Heung-min netted twice in the
2-0 quarter-ﬁnal win over Uzbekistan.
Stielike, in an attempt to reduce the
pressure on his young squad, said Australia were favourites, playing down the signiﬁcance of their pool match win because
both teams had already qualiﬁed and the
Socceroos rested several key players.
“We will have to work to be the same
Korea. This is our target,” he said. “For the
rest, we have to take whatever is coming
and try our best. We are realistic enough to
understand that in the ﬁrst game we didn’t
play the best Australia team.”
Australia’s goals are more immediate.
For all the progress they have made since
ditching Oceania and joining Asia in 2006,
the trophy cabinet remains bare.
They’re also trying to win over an Australian public that mostly prefers other
football codes, so have adopted an all-out
attacking style.
With Tim Cahill leading from up front,
the Socceroos have piled on 12 goals in the
tournament, four each in the group matches against Kuwait and Oman then two more
in the quarter-ﬁnal against China and
semi-ﬁnal with United Arab Emirates.
“It’s going to be special moment for all
of us,” Cahill said. “But the mindset is to
win, and to win the right way and by playing football and what we believe in. It’s
going to be a big night.”
Golden boot glitters
as UAE size up Iraq
Sharpshooter Ali Mabkhout can win a
tight race for the Asian Cup’s golden
boot when the United Arab Emirates face
Iraq for the consolation prize of ﬁnishing
today. The UAE went down 2-0 to Australia this week and Iraq lost by the same
scoreline to South Korea, as their dreams
of Asian Cup glory were shattered in the
semi-ﬁnals.
Both teams must now pick themselves
up for an unwanted third-place play-off in
Newcastle, although Mabkhout has more
motivation than most.
Deeply in tune with playmaker Omar
Abdulrahman, the striker has already
grabbed four goals, placing him joint top
of the scoring charts alongside Jordan’s
Hamza Aldaradreh.
Among his strikes are the fastest goal
in Asian Cup history—after just 14 seconds against Bahrain—and the volley that
put UAE 1-0 up against Japan before they
shocked the holders on penalties.
Another goal against 2007 champions
Iraq would take the Al Jazira marksman
clear on the scorers’ list and help him towards his aim of securing a big-money
move to Europe.
ichael Laudrup
could quit coaching in a year, with
the Dane reluctant to grow old on the bench
after turning 50 last June, the
former Barcelona and Real
Madrid playmaker has said.
Laudrup enjoyed a dazzling
playing career for club and
country, his honours including
Italy’s Serie A championship,
ﬁve consecutive Spanish La Liga
titles and the European Cup.
For Denmark, he was the
balletic genius in the country’s
joyous 1986 World Cup team
that beat former champions
Uruguay and West Germany
6-1 and 2-0 respectively before losing in the last 16.
After hanging up his boots
in 1998, Laudrup embarked on
a coaching career that included stints at Spain’s Getafe and
Mallorca, Spartak Moscow and
Swansea City of the English
Premier League, where he won
the League Cup in 2013.
“If I am a coach for one, two or
ﬁve years more, I don’t know yet,
but I turned 50 this (past) summer and don’t want to become
old on the bench,” Laudrup said
in an email interview.
The nomadic Dane is now
coach of Qatar’s Lekhwiya,
signing a one-year contract
last June after refusing offers
from England and Spain.
“Because I already had that
experience, I preferred something different in this last
part of my coaching career,”
Laudrup added. “I don’t have
a long-term plan because I will
not be a coach for that long.
“I was offered a longer contract in Lekhwiya but I wanted
to see what it was like in Qatar,
on and off the pitch.”
Laudrup has a tough act
to follow after ex-coach Eric
Gerets led Lekhwiya to their
third title in four seasons last
term. Those are the club’s only
championships and historically Qatar’s biggest club is Al
Sadd with 13 titles.
The rivals are ﬁghting it out
again this season and are jointtop on 36 points, 11 clear of
third after 15 matches.
“I think we can be very
pleased with our season so far,”
Laudrup said.
He said success would constitute winning the league or
domestic cup, plus qualiﬁcation for the knock-out stages of the Asian Champions
League, which is played over
the calendar year.
“Regarding my coaching philosophy, I think it is
important to adapt to the
team/players and the culture
in the country where you are
coaching, but to keep possession is a key issue wherever
you are,” he said.
“Every player can be a good
player in this aspect if practising enough—my results at
Getafe and Swansea, especially, conﬁrm this.”
PREMIER LEAGUE
No love lost as managers face title showdown
Reuters
London
I
Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho (left) and Man City’s Manuel Pellegrini
t is hard to imagine two more different characters than Jose Mourinho and Manuel Pellegrini, so it is
no surprise that the Chelsea manager and his Manchester City counterpart seem to rub each other up the
wrong way.
Their simmering rivalry is set for
another chapter in tomorrow’s topof-the-table Premier League clash at
Stamford Bridge, with a potentially
pivotal three points on offer.
Should Chelsea claim the spoils,
they will lead the champions by eight
points, while a City success would
leave them just two points adrift with
15 games to play.
The bragging rights, however, also
count double in battles between two
coaches whose spiky relationship
stretches back to their stints in charge
of Real Madrid.
Pellegrini had only one season as
coach at the Bernabeu, where, having
failed to come out on top in the habitual two-horse race with Barcelona, he
was replaced by Mourinho.
The Chilean joined Malaga and
Mourinho taunted him on the way out.
“If Madrid were to ﬁre me, I wouldn’t
go to Malaga. I’d go to a top-level team
in Italy or England,” he said.
The normally unshakeable demeanour of Pellegrini, one of football’s most sombre coaches, is clearly
ruffled by the in-your-face ebullience
of the self-styled “Special One”.
The corresponding ﬁxture at Stamford Bridge last season ended with
Fernando Torres scoring a late winner, Mourinho diving into the crowd
and Pellegrini refusing to carry out the
usual post-match etiquette.
“I didn’t want to shake his hand,”
he said tersely when asked whether
he had gone to Mourinho at the ﬁnal
whistle.
While that battle went Mourinho’s
way, the war was won by Pellegrini,
who claimed the Premier League title and League Cup as the Portuguese
ended the campaign empty-handed.
Tomorrow’s game, however, could be
decided by which players are absent as
much as who is on the pitch.
After a gruelling League Cup semiﬁnal against Liverpool, Chelsea are
likely to be without injured midﬁelder
Cesc Fabregas and defender Filipe
Luis, while league top scorer Diego
Costa faces suspension after being
charged by the FA for stamping on an
opponent.
City, who have not won in the league
since Jan. 1, will have to discover how
to beat teams without midﬁelder Yaya
Toure whose involvement in the African Nations Cup has hit them hard and
he will again be missing on Saturday.
Among the weekend’s other ﬁxtures, Manchester United take on
Leicester City and Liverpool play West
Ham United tomorrow. Arsenal host
Aston Villa on Sunday.
Ice-man Eriksen sends
Spurs into League Cup final
Christian Eriksen was Tottenham Hotspur’s ice-man
as they suppressed a late revival from third-tier
Sheffield United to reach the League Cup final 3-2
on aggregate on Wednesday. Tottenham, who will
face Chelsea in the final at Wembley on March 1, appeared to be cruising when they took a first-half lead
through Eriksen’s stunning free kick which took their
aggregate advantage to 2-0.
Sheffield United teenager Che Adams came off the
bench, however, to turn the tie on its head with two
goals in two minutes, giving his team a 2-1 lead and
levelling the aggregate score.
Eriksen ensured four-times winners Spurs avoided
playing extra time when he found space on the edge
of the lower league side’s box with two minutes
remaining and calmly slotted home.
Eriksen’s opener on 28 minutes was a moment
of supreme quality. The Dane whipped a stunning
free kick from the right side of the area into the far
top corner off the post with the hosts’ keeper Mark
Howard rooted to the spot.
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
5
FOOTBALL
FOCUS
Old Firm derby: Rangers meet Celtic for 400th time
Reuters
London
C
eltic and Rangers have played each
other 399 times in competitive
matches but their 400th Old Firm
duel in the Scottish League Cup
semi-ﬁnal on Sunday will have a special
place in their shared history no matter the
outcome.
For the ﬁrst time since they ﬁrst met
in 1890, the two clubs, who have won
99 Scottish titles between them, are not
meeting as equals separated by a few points
in the same division.
Instead, Premiership leaders Celtic go
into the ﬁrst Old Firm derby for almost
three years as overwhelming favourites,
while Rangers, battling their way back from
meltdown in the Championship (second
tier), are clear underdogs.
The two biggest clubs in Scotland, who
used to meet four or more times a season,
are re-engaging for the ﬁrst time since
Rangers were demoted to the bottom tier
following their ﬁnancial collapse in 2012.
Celtic’s Norwegian manager Ronny
Deila (pic right) says the match at neutral
Hampden Park will be one of the biggest of
his life. “It’s a ﬁrst meeting with Rangers
for me,” he said. “I’ve played in big games
and ﬁnals before but this is going to be a
very big one. “You can feel the atmosphere
in the city. Right now it feels like the most
important thing in the world.
“There is a lot of emotion. It means a lot
to people, the whole city. Football needs
derbies like that.”
Rangers manager Kenny McDowall
(pic left) added: “We’ve waited nearly three
years for an Old Firm game so never mind
the eyes of the world being on us, I expect
the people in Pluto will be watching it. Seriously, the most important thing is the
game and that it’s a good spectacle.”
Police are taking precautions to stop any
crowd disorder between the two ﬁercely
partisan sets of supporters.
“I just hope the football comes out on
top and there’s nothing on the outside that
tarnishes it,”, added McDowall. “It’s been a
long time coming and we need to make sure
football is the winner.”
Rangers, once home to players like Brian Laudrup and Paul Gascoigne, were in
the UEFA Cup ﬁnal seven years ago. But
spending more on wages than they could
afford in order to rival Celtic and ensure
qualiﬁcation for the lucrative Champions
League led to their downfall.
Their demise was sealed with spiralling
debts, a tax battle and a series of ownership tussles. Now reformed and rising up
the leagues, things off the pitch remain
dire due to high costs, more overspend and
smaller crowds than they would get in the
Premiership.
Riddled with boardroom inﬁghting, various backers have failed to seal rescue deals,
including US ﬁnancier Robert Sarver who
saw two takeover moves rebuffed this year.
KING’S CUP
BUNDESLIGA
Neymar brace puts
Barcelona in semis
‘I told them not to take risks and concentrate on not conceding goals. I thought it
was the best decision for the team and the club after the way the first half went’
Ribery to sit out
as leaders Bayern
meet Wolfsburg
Reuters
Munich
B
ayern Munich will be
without Franck Ribery when the Bundesliga resumes after the
winter break with the champions taking on second-placed
VfL Wolfsburg today.
Ribery suffered a muscle injury in training on Wednesday
and defender Raﬁnha injured
ligaments with both ruled out
for two weeks.
But even without the pair,
coach Pep Guardiola can
choose from a growing squad
with Holger Badstuber, Mehdi Benatia and David Alaba,
among other, returning to full
ﬁtness after their injuries.
The Bavarians are unbeaten
in the league this season and
have conceded just four goals in
17 games so far to carve out an
11-point lead over Wolfsburg.
Guardiola is eager for his
team to shoot out of the blocks
with a win that would take them
14 points clear as they chase a
third straight Bundesliga title, a
second under the Spaniard.
“I think it is good to take
on the second-placed team
straightaway as it forces us
to step on the gas,” Guardiola
said. “I repeat that for us the
Bundesliga is the most important aim of the season.
“Only then it is a successful
one. Wolfsburg have played an
outstanding season so far so it
will be tough.”
But Bayern remain the odds-
on favourites with Wolfsburg
still coming to terms with the
death of their player Junior
Malanda.
The Belgium youth international was killed when the car
he was a passenger in went off
the motorway and ﬂipped over
several times on Jan. 10 as the
team prepared to leave for a
training camp in South Africa.
“We will be well prepared,”
said sports director Klaus
Allofs with the team offering continuous psychological
support to the players, who
also travelled the Brussels for
the funeral last week.
At the other end of the table,
former champions Borussia
Dortmund are hoping they can
ﬁnally start turning around
their dismal domestic season
and move out of the 17th spot,
level on points with last placed
Freiburg.
With winger Marco Reus
back from injury, Dortmund
will need all hands on deck
against third-placed Bayer
Leverkusen, six points off
Wolfsburg and eager to stay
within striking distance of
second place.
“We are not naive and optimistic and we know full well
the pressure will not ease any
time soon,” said Dortmund
coach Juergen Klopp, who led
them to the Bundesliga title as
recently as 2011 and 2012.
“But we look at our prospects and know that we can
do this. To end the year in 17th
place felt like a holiday on a
bed of nails.”
SERIE A
Vultures circling as
crisis clubs Milan
clash with Parma
Reuters
Milan
Barcelona forward Neymar (right) celebrates with teammates Andres Iniesta (left) and Lionel Messi after scoring during their Spanish Copa del Rey (King’s Cup) quarter-final
second leg match against Atletico Madrid, at the Vicente Calderon stadium in Madrid on Wednesday. (AFP)
Reuters
Barcelona
N
eymar struck twice as Barcelona came from behind to seal
a 3-2 victory over nine-man
Atletico Madrid and reach the
King’s Cup semi-ﬁnals 4-2 on aggregate
on Wednesday.
Fernando Torres put Atletico ahead inside the ﬁrst minute with a precise strike
from the edge of the area but Barca have
clicked into form recently and hit back
quickly through Neymar.
Atletico were awarded a penalty when
Javier Mascherano was adjudged to have
fouled Juanfran Torres on the half-hour
mark, though television replays appeared
to show the incident occurred outside the
area. Raul Garcia made no mistake from
the spot to restore Atletico’s advantage.
Miranda put the ball into his own net as
he attempted to clear a corner which had
been ﬂicked on by Sergio Busquets and in
a lightning attack from Barca Jordi Alba
found Neymar in the area and the Brazilian ﬁnished clinically.
There were heated exchanges throughout the match with plenty at stake and it
boiled over at halftime with Atletico midﬁelder Gabi Fernandez sent off following a
confrontation in the tunnel.
Mario Suarez was also dismissed six
minutes from the end after receiving his
second yellow card.
The Atletico players were angry with
the performance of the referee but Busquets felt that neither side beneﬁted from
his decisions.
“I’ve also been told that the penalty
conceded by Mascherano shouldn’t have
been given. There were mistakes made
against both teams,” he told reporters.
“There was little control in the game in
the ﬁrst half. It was a good half for the fans
and we took advantage of the openings
that we had.”
Despite the fact they were chasing the
game, Atletico coach Diego Simeone said
he asked his players to show more restraint at half time.
“I told them not to take risks and concentrate on not conceding goals,” he told
a news conference. “I thought it was the
best decision for the team and the club after the way the ﬁrst half went.”
Barca will face the winners of Getafe
and Villarreal game, with the latter leading 1-0 from the ﬁrst leg.
Improving Neymar key
to Barca’s pursuit of Real
Neymar took time to settle but is ﬁnally
shining in Barcelona’s devastating attacking trident with Villarreal the next La
Liga opponents in their sights on Sunday
as the Catalans continue their pursuit of
Real Madrid. The pressure of expectation and scandal over the true cost of his
transfer fee from Santos in 2013 led former
president Sandro Rosell to resign and appeared to weigh heavily on Neymar during
his ﬁrst season at the Nou Camp.
He also found it difficult to adapt to the
physical demands of the Spanish league
and picked up a series of injuries.
The Brazilian took a share of the blame
for Barca ﬁnishing last season without
a major trophy but helped by the media
glare turning towards controversial signing Luis Suarez, Neymar is realising his
true potential on European soil.
The return to form of Lionel Messi has
also played a part, while Suarez, although
yet to show the lethal ﬁnishing he possessed at Liverpool, is linking up well.
Messi has more goals this season but
Neymar has developed a habit of scoring
in crucial matches, including his double
as Barca twice came from behind to knock
Atletico Madrid out of the King’s Cup.
Surprisingly, as the Catalan side are
renowned for their short passing game
through midﬁeld, both goals came from
rapid counter-attacks.
The ﬁrst saw the forward trio combine
to tear Atletico’s defence apart with Messi
ﬁnding Suarez, who in turn set up Neymar
to ﬁnish clinically.
Neymar’s over-exuberant celebrations
and posturing on the pitch seemed to
agitate the Atletico players and coach Luis
Enrique felt it wise to take him off for the
ﬁnal 15 minutes.
“Neymar was his usual conﬁdent self
and he gave us a lot in attack as well as defence. His game is about beating players
and he did very well,” the Barca coach told
reporters.
“The game was getting a bit ugly and
so we took Neymar off so that it didn’t get
any worse.”
Real Madrid, a point clear of Barca at
the top, take on Real Sociedad tomorrow
without the suspended Cristiano Ronaldo, while Atletico, four points off the
pace, aim to bounce back from their cup
defeat when they travel to Eibar.
P
arma coach Roberto
Donadoni says the
vultures are circling
his stricken Serie A
side but he has no intention of
resigning.
Bottom-of-the-table Parma,
mired in both ﬁnancial problems and surrounded by a continuing mystery over their new
owners, visit AC Milan on Sunday in a meeting of crisis clubs.
Milan, who like Parma were
knocked out of the Coppa Italia in midweek, have dropped
to joint 10th after failing to win
a match since the Christmas
break, although the club have
dismissed suggestions that
coach Filippo Inzaghi’s job is
in danger.
Their problems pale into insigniﬁcance compared to Parma,
however, who have nine points
after losing 16 out of 20 games
and lost a key relegation match
at home to Cesena last week.
Parma’s troubles were exposed on Monday when they
parted company with volatile striker Antonio Cassano
who said he was owed several
month’s wages.
“Every time they told us we
would be paid tomorrow and
the next day it was tomorrow
again. Enough is enough. I
couldn’t take it anymore, this
agony was dragging on,” he
told Italian media.
In December, Parma, who
missed out on the Europa
League this season for failing
to meet UEFA licensing criteria, were deducted one point for
breaching ﬁnancial regulations.
Shortly afterwards, the club
was sold to Dastraso Holding
although little is known about
the new owners other than
that they are based in Cyprus.
Ermir Kodra, a 29-year-old
Albanian, was named club
president last week. The club
said he had previously worked
at BKT Bank di Tirana and
ARMO reﬁnery, although there
was no mention of any previous experience in football.
Cassano said, however, that
little had changed under the
new ownership.
“I don’t know who the new
owners are,” he said. “In 20
days we have seen four different presidents walk past. The
new owners arrived 15 days
ago, but nothing changed.
Donadoni said he would stay
and dismissed suggestions
that defender Gabriel Palletta
was on his way to Sampdoria.
6
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
FOOTBALL
Iraq coach Shenaishil in
talks over permanent deal
Palace sign ex-Newcastle
French court invalidates
striker Ameobi, QPR’s Mutch Lens’s promotion to Ligue 1
Striker Destro set to move
from Roma to AC Milan
No contract renewal for
Senegal coach Giresse
Caretaker boss Radhi Shenaishil yesterday said
he was in talks with Iraq’s football association
over a permanent deal after their success at the
Asian Cup. Qatar Sports Club loaned Shenaishil
to Iraq for the tournament and despite arriving
just weeks ago, the former international defender
led his country to the semi-finals. “I have had talks
with the Iraqi FA but there has been no pen to paper yet,” Shenaishil said ahead of Iraq’s third-place
play-off against the United Arab Emirates. “It’s a
pleasure to serve my country and hopefully I’ll be
talking more with them in the days to come.”
Crystal Palace yesterday announced the signings
of midfielder Jordon Mutch from struggling Premier
League rivals Queens Park Rangers and former
Newcastle United striker Shola Ameobi. Mutch, 23,
has signed a four-and-a-half-year contract, while
33-year-old Ameobi, who was a free agent after leaving Turkish side Gaziantep in December, has signed
a short-term deal until the season’s end. Palace
did not disclose how much they had paid to sign
Mutch, but British media reports claimed the initial
transfer fee was around £4.75 million ($7.2 million,
6.3 million euros).
Striker Mattia Destro has said that he is about to
join struggling giants AC Milan on a transfer deal
from Roma. “Thanks Roma. I was a young boy
and you made me grow up,” Destro wrote on his
Facebook page yesterday. “And now on to (Milan
camp in) Milanello for a new challenge, focussed
and determined. The countdown towards (Milan
stadium) San Siro has begun.” Destro, 23, is to sign
at Milan for reportedly 2 million euros (2.25
million dollars) per season until 2019. Milan are
expected to pay Roma about 17 million euros at
the end of the season.
Alain Giresse will not have his contract renewed as
Senegal coach in the wake of a group stage exit
at the Africa Cup of Nations, the country’s football
federation said. “We will continue to work without
Alain Giresse; his contract will not be renewed,”
Augustin Senghor, president of the Senegalese
Football Association, said. The former France
international was in charge of the 2002 World Cup
quarter-finalists since 2012. His contract was to expire on February 8. Senegal failed to qualify for the
2013 Afcon and the 2014 World Cup, and exited at
the group stage in Equatorial Guinea.
The French football federation (FFF) is appealing
against a local court’s decision to invalidate the
promotion to Ligue 1 of cash-strapped RC Lens
after a complaint from rivals FC Sochaux. “The
FFF has learned the decision of the Besancon
administrative court following FC Sochaux’s complaint after Lens’s promotion to Ligue 1,” the FFF
said in a statement. “It has decided to immediately appeal.” If the decision stands, Lens would be
relegated at the end of the season whatever their
ranking. They are currently 19th in the 20-team
Ligue 1 table.
AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS
Ivory Coast advance
to QFs, draw of lots
sends Guinea through
‘The gods of football fortune smiled on us. It has been a long road up to now’
DPA
Malabo
I
vory Coast advanced to the quarterﬁnals of 2015 Africa Cup of Nations
with a 1-0 victory over Cameroon,
while Guinea and Mali drew 1-1, with
Guinea qualifying instead of Mali by the
drawing of lots at a ceremony yesterday.
Lots were drawn to determine second
place in Group D after both countries
ﬁnished level after their three openinground matches. Ivory Coast won the
group.
Three successive 1-1 draws for both
teams meant they could not be separated
by points, their head-to-head result, goal
difference or goals scored. Guinea will
now play Ghana in Sunday’s quarterﬁnal in Malabo.
“The gods of football fortune smiled
on us. It has been a long road up to now,”
Amara Dabo, ﬁnancial director of the
Guinea Sports Ministry, who participated in the draw, said.
A representative from both countries
drew a ball each from a bowl with Mali’s
football association president Boubacar
Diarra going ﬁrst and pulling out the one
that placed them third in the group and
out of the running.
Dabo then drew the ball that conﬁrmed his side in second place behind
group winners Ivory Coast.
“Unfortunately we have to split up two
teams that are even, perfectly joined, but
we had no other choice but to proceed to
the drawing of lots,” said CAF president
Issa Hayatou at the draw in Equatorial
Guinea.
It was only the third time in African
Nations Cup history that a draw had to
be conducted to separate two teams after
the group phase.
Previous drawing of lots in 1972 and
1988 favoured Congo and Algeria.
Max Gradel gave Ivory Coast the winner in the 35th minute as the Elephants
ﬁnished atop Group D with ﬁve points
and a ﬁnal-eight showdown with Algeria
on Sunday. Cameroon were eliminated
with two points.
Kevin Constant converted a penalty in
the 15th minute to give Guinea the lead.
Mali veteran Seydou Keita saw his penalty attempt stopped in the 17th minute
before Modibo Maiga equalized after 47
minutes.
The ﬁrst two quarter-ﬁnals will be
played tomorrow with Congo playing DR
Congo and Tunisia taking on Equatorial
Guinea.
In Malobo, Cameroon keeper Joseph
Ondoa made a strong save after just ﬁve
minutes, sweeping Wilfried Bony’s attempt wide.
Ivory Coast threatened again in the
19th minute as Gradel’s header was
turned away by Ondoa.
Gradel had a superb individual effort
to give Ivory Coast the lead in the 35th
minute, blasting home about 20 yards
out from the left side.
Cameroon ﬁnally had a good chance
into ﬁrst half stoppage time but Edgar
Salli’s strike blazed over the bar.
Even though just one score would have
kept them in the running to advance,
Cameroon seemed to lack the push in
a second half which didn’t have many
highlights.
The Guinea-Mali showdown in Mongomo certainly started with a bang. Mali
thought they would take the lead after
ﬁve minutes but Abdoulay Diaby’s attempt is deﬂected wide from seven yards
out.
Mali wanted a penalty seven minutes
later but the referee Mohamed Said Kordi
did not call a foul on Fode Camara for his
push on Mustapha Yatabare.
Guinea were awarded a penalty a
minute later when Salif Coulibaly handled Ibrahima Traore’s shot. Constant
came in and coolly chipped it down the
middle to make it 1-0 after 15 minutes.
The Tunisian referee Kordi pointed to
the spot just a minute later for Mali as
Baissama Sankoh was adjudged to have
handled Maiga’s shot in the box. But the
most experienced player on the pitch,
Seydou Keita, struck a weak left footer
and Guinea keeper Naby Yattara goes to
his right to stop the shot.
Mali were close after 34 minutes but
Maiga’s blast was tipped over by Yattara.
Henryk Kasperczak’s team equalized 1-1
two minutes into the second half as Diaby
sent a ﬁne cross to the far left post where
Maiga headed home from ﬁve yards out.
Mali were close after 53 minutes but
Yattara did well to get low and save
Mamoutou N’Diaye’s attempt.
Both sides pushed forward looking for
the winner—and avoid the drawing of
lots—but neither defense would let them
get through.
Max Gradel of Ivory Coast
celebrates his goal against
Cameroon in their Africa Cup
of Nations Group D clash, in
Malabo on Wednesday. (EPA)
Foggy outlook on
potential Cup of
Nations winners
Reuters
Mongomo, Equatorial Guinea
A
t the outset of the African
Nations Cup finals in Equatorial Guinea there were no
favourites and after the first
round of the tournament there is still a
foggy outlook.
Not a single side advanced through
the group phase with a 100 percent
record, reflecting both the fact there
was little to choose between the 16
teams. Thirteen draws in 24 first-round
matches over the opening 12 days
spoke of evenly matched duels and a
dearth of game-winning talent among
the 368 players.
Not even a handful of established
African stars like Yaya Toure, Seydou
Keita and new pretenders like PierreEmerick Aubameyang, Yacine Brahimi
and Sadio Mane have been able to
impose themselves on the competition.
But the real first round success
has come from the small host
nation who have galvanised
a tide of support to earn an
unlikely quarter-final berth...
The end of the group-phase round on
Wednesday not only provided no clarity
on the identity of potential champions
but also left the quarter-final line-up
incomplete. Draw of lots, for only the
third time in the tournament’s 58-yearhistory, favoured Guinea to take the
runners-up berth in Group D and make
it to the quarter-finals.
There are six former winners in the
last eight with Tunisia the last of the
surviving field to be crowned champions in 2004. The Democratic Republic
of Congo won the last of their two titles
in 1974 and Ghana the last of their four
in 1982. Ivory Coast’s sole success came
in 1992, Algeria two years before that
and Congo way back in 1972.
The Ivorians have earned the mantle
of chokers in recent tournaments
where they were regularly favourites
only to fall disappointingly short.
This time, after a poor qualifying campaign, there is no burden of
expectation, although they did send
Cameroon home early after beating
them 1-0 in Malabo on Wednesday.
Algeria, the top-ranked country on
the continent, were the most prolific in
front of goals with five in the first round
but even then had an own goal and a
goalkeeping howler, both against South
Africa, among their tally.
Ghana’s fighting spirit allowed them
to turn a desperate situation just 20
minutes from time into top place in
Group C in a rare example of the rousing passion usually associated with
African football.
But the real first round success has
come from the small host nation who
have galvanised a tide of support to
earn an unlikely quarter-final berth.
Equatorial Guinea had little time to
prepare after taking over as emergency
hosts and changed their coach two
weeks before kick off. But they have
conceded only a single goal and are
in exulted company as they seek to
continue a fairytale run.
BOTTOMLINE
Cameroon’s new generation fails to deliver
AFP
Malabo
C
ameroon came into the 2015 Africa Cup
of Nations with hope that a new-look
young side could make an impression
in Equatorial Guinea and put their disastrous World Cup behind them.
But the Indomitable Lions leave prematurely
after failing to win a game in a tough group and
with tensions appearing to have reached boiling
point between veteran coach Volker Finke and
the local media.
Simply qualifying for the ﬁnals was an improvement on 2012 and 2013, when they missed
out altogether, and yet there had been quiet optimism that they could emerge as genuine contenders to win the Cup of Nations for the ﬁrst
time since 2002.
After all, Cameroon were strong in qualifying at the tail end of last year and looked to have
turned the page following the World Cup, when
they bowed out with no points, one goal scored
and nine conceded in three matches.
Benoit Assou-Ekotto’s headbutt on Benjamin
Moukandjo during the 4-0 loss to Croatia in
their second game in Brazil highlighted the dis-
harmony in the camp at the time.
But German Finke undertook an overhaul of
the squad after that and appeared conﬁdent on
the eve of the Cup of Nations.
“The spirit, the mentality has changed. The
last two or three months there has been a closed
dressing room,” he said.
The likes of Assou-Ekotto, Alex Song, Landry N’Guemo, Jean Makoun, Pierre Webo, Joel
Matip and the legendary Samuel Eto’o were
dropped or retired from international football,
and the Cameroon squad in Equatorial Guinea
featured 10 players aged 23 or under.
Stephane Mbia was promoted to the role of
captain and warned before the opening match
against Mali that the “most important thing is
to prepare for 2019”, when Cameroon will host
the Cup of Nations.
A squad with new faces such as 19-yearold Barcelona B goalkeeper Fabrice Ondoa,
Ambroise Oyongo, who scored against Mali,
midﬁelder Raoul Loe and young Lyon forward
Clinton Njie was therefore perhaps a little too
inexperienced to come through the group stage.
Draws with Mali and Guinea piled pressure on
the Indomitable Lions before Wednesday’s decisive ﬁnal group game against the Ivory Coast,
in which a narrow 1-0 loss sealed their fate.
Their struggles in front of goal only accentuated frustrations among supporters and local
media who could not understand why Njie was
not given more of a chance.
So impressive in qualifying, Njie only got a
brief run out in the second half of the Ivory Coast
encounter, and even then it may have been a case
of Finke giving in to popular demand.
No love has been lost between the coach and
the Cameroonian media, with Finke on one occasion being made “aware that the majority
of people in Cameroon hate you”, before being
asked: “Are you going to step down or wait until
you are chased out of the job?”
In the end Cameroon’s brief Cup of Nations
campaign has all been a world away from the
impressive performances in qualifying, when
they went unbeaten and conceded just one goal
in six games, in a 4-1 win against the Ivorians.
“It’s another context. This is not the qualiﬁers now,” Mbia said after Wednesday’s loss to
the same opponents.
“The team is being rebuilt. The most important thing is to look forward and prepare as well
as possible for what is to come next.”
Next is the 2017 Cup of Nations qualiﬁers,
which begin later this year, although whether
Finke will still be there remains to be seen.
Cameroon captain Stephane M’bia (centre) reacts with teammates Nicolas N’Koulou (right) and Eric Maxim
after losing their African Cup of Nations Group D match against Ivory Coast on Wednesday. (Reuters)
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
7
SPORT
NFL
Once struggling Seahawks,
Pats surging into Super Bowl
‘We played a tough team in Kansas City and we lost a tough game we felt like we should have won’
AFP
Phoenix, Arizona
T
he top two teams from
each conference will
duel in Super Bowl 49,
but for a time this season the championship chances
of both Seattle and New England
seemed slim.
After a lacklustre 3-3 start to
the season, the Seahawks fell to
6-4 after a 24-20 loss at Kansas City in November—a defeat
that dropped them three games
behind Arizona in the NFC West
division with six games to play.
They won them all, starting
with a triumph over the Cardinals the following week, and after two playoff victories will take
on the Patriots riding an eightgame winning streak.
“We played a tough team in
Kansas City and we lost a tough
game we felt like we should have
won,” Seahawks quarterback
Russell Wilson recalled.
At a players’ only meeting
they discussed what needed to
be done to salvage their bid for
a second straight Super Bowl
crown.
Swagger and unselfishness
“We had to take away any selfishness, worrying about stats,
worrying about this or that,”
Wilson said. “We had to focus on
being selﬂess for one another, to
play for each other.
“Across the board, the togetherness that we have and just the
swagger, the ﬁght that we play
with, the energy level that we
play with, it’s tough to beat.”
In the latter stages of the season, the vaunted Seahawks defense reasserted itself.
Over the ﬁnal six games the
regular season Seattle allowed
just 6.5 points and 202 yards per
game while collecting 24 sacks.
And the Seahawks offense outscored their opponents 134-39.
Now they’re poised to become
the ﬁrst team in a decade to win
back-to-back Super Bowls, and
the only thing standing in their
way is the last team to repeat—
the New England Patriots.
New England will play in the
eighth Super Bowl in franchise
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson talks to reporters during the Seattle Seahawks press conference at Arizona Grand on Wednesday.
history and Tom Brady will become the ﬁrst quarterback to
start six Super Bowls, but the
dynasty appeared to be on shaky
ground with an ugly 41-14 loss at
Kansas City in September that
dropped them to 2-2.
Brady was limited to 159 passing yards and intercepted twice
by the Chiefs, sparking sugges-
tions that the 37-year-old signal caller, winner of three Super
Bowl titles, was in decline.
But like the Seahawks the Patriots struck back.
Brady threw for 292 yards
and two touchdowns as they rebounded with a win over Cincinnati that launched a seven-game
winning streak. They became
the ﬁrst team in league history to
win three straight games by 20
or more points and each of those
games came against a team with
a winning record.
Tight end Rob Gronkowski,
limited to seven games in 2013 by
a troublesome knee, played a key
role in the offensive surge, once
he and Brady began to click.
Sticking together
Gronkowski ended the regular season with 1,124 yards on
82 catches with a dozen touchdowns in 15 games.
“This year we stuck together
as a team,” Gronkowski said.
“We fought all year long.”
The battles haven’t come only
on the ﬁeld.
SAFETY MEASURES
Security officials
confident in Super
Bowl safety
AFP
Phoenix, Arizona
S
uper Bowl fans will face
tight security checks at
the stadium on Sunday,
but US officials say they
are conﬁdent the game—one
of the world’s biggest annual
sports spectacles—will be safe.
All those involved in the
massive security operation
are on alert for possible terror
threats, but nothing speciﬁc
has been detected, Homeland
Security Secretary Jeh Johnson
said Wednesday.
“We have no speciﬁc credible threat associated with the
Super Bowl,” Johnson told reporters. “I think the key is vigilance,” said Johnson, who met
with local law enforcement ofﬁcials in Phoenix.
He was scheduled to tour
the University of Phoenix Stadium in suburban Glendale,
where the Seattle Seahawks
and New England Patriots will
meet in the NFL’s championship showcase.
Johnson said that all agencies involved in anti-terror
efforts have taken note of the
rise in “lone-wolf” attacks by
independent actors.
“We continually evaluate
how to style our security around
current world threats, current
threat streams,” Johnson said.
“They change from year to year,
from month to month, from
week to week even.
“So we continually try to
fashion a level of security around
the world situation, and I believe
we’ve done that this year.”
Customs and immigration
officers, the Secret Service
and the Federal Bureau of Investigation showed off this
week a Black Hawk helicopter and truck-sized X-ray
machines that will be used in
Arizona.
The Federal Emergency
Management Agency has
trained 85 responders who
will be on standby in case
of a mass casualty incident,
and FEMA is also providing equipment to coordinate
communications between local and federal responders in
the event of an emergency.
The Federal Aviation Administration has reminded the
public that the Super Bowl is
“strictly a ‘No Drone Zone,’”
and that airspace over the stadium will be closed.
Heavily armed patrols at the
Phoenix airport and other locations around the city are part of
an “enhanced security posture”
designed to act as a deterrent.
The NFL has hired 4,000
private security guards, but
much of the actual policing
on the day will fall to local and
state departments.
Strict screening at stadium
Both the Phoenix and Glendale police departments are at
full strength for the week, and
fans will be facing tight controls on what they can take into
the stadium.
Ticket holders are being advised to arrive hours before
kickoff for strict screening including metal detectors and
pat-down searches.
“Most items cannot be carried into the stadium,” the
NFL’s chief security officer Jeffrey Miller said.
Clear plastic or vinyl bags
measuring 12 inches by six
inches by 12 inches, or onegallon freezer bags, will be
permitted, as will small clutch
bags, about the size of a hand.
Weapons, knives and explosives are all banned, as are
coolers, backpacks, computer
and camera bags, bottles and
beverages of all kinds.
Fireworks, camcorders, umbrellas and baby strollers also
make the NFL’s list of prohibited items, as do laser lights and
pointers.
After they romped to the AFC
title, the Patriots were embroiled
in “Deﬂategate” and the NFL is
still investigating how the footballs they used in the 45-7 win
over Indianapolis came to be improperly inﬂated.
Brady and the rest of the Patriots say they are putting the
matter aside until the Super
Bowl is over, but the whispering
and ﬁnger-pointing goes on.
“We just come here to work,”
Patriots safety Patrick Chung
said. “We can’t really worry
about what everybody is saying.
We can’t worry about things we
can’t control. We are just going to
keep working like we did all season. It’s the best stage to do it.”
America’s most
popular sport gains
ground globally
New England Patriot’s Rob Gronkowski
SPOTLIGHT
Fun-loving ‘Gronk’
a serious threat
AFP
Phoenix, Arizona
D
on’t let the party
bus fool you, New
England’s
Rob
Gronkowski takes his
role as one of the NFL’s premier tight ends seriously.
And you can be sure, the
Seattle Seahawks will be taking
him seriously, too, when they
line up against him on Sunday
in Super Bowl 49.
Big, powerful yet deceptively elusive, Gronkowski has
bounced back from injury to
become a key target for quarterback Tom Brady, and a man
Seahawks defenders know
they’ll have to stop.
“That’s their playmaker,”
Seattle safety Kam Chancellor said of Gronkowski, who
had 82 catches for 1,124 yards
and 12 touchdowns in his most
productive season since 2011.
“That’s their go-to guy.”
His performance is a testament to his determination,
since he’s rehabbed injuries in
each of the past three seasons,
including a slow return from
the knee injury that halted his
2013 campaign.
“I deﬁnitely don’t take the
game for granted anymore,”
Gronkowski said. “It’s an honor to be out there on the ﬁeld
with my teammates and all.
“Throughout the whole year,
especially this time of the year,
going to the Super Bowl, being out
on the practice ﬁeld, helping my
team do its job and just going out
and practising hard. I’m super excited for this game Sunday.”
But unlike many of his colleagues, Gronkowski seems
excited by the whole Super
Bowl package.
He’s happy to hold court for
the media, just as he’s happy
to take the ribbing that ensues
in the locker room after high
proﬁle photo shoots—whether
they include cuddly kittens or
more racy shots involving a
strategically placed smiley face.
“There have deﬁnitely been
some blown-up shots posted in
the locker room—posted in his
locker—of him, usually not with
many clothes on,” Patriots running back Shane Vereen said.
The NFL, which will crown its
champion Sunday in the quintessential American sporting
spectacle of Super Bowl 49, is
gaining fans globally with China
leading the way.
That’s one of the findings in a
study released on Wednesday
by sports marketing research
firm Repucom, which found that
since 2013 interest in the NFL
among the Chinese population
has jumped from 1.7% to 7.9%.
The jump of just over six percentage points represents an
extra 31mn people saying that
they are now NFL fans.
That’s no surprise to Richard
Young, managing director of
NFL China, who has worked in
recent years to introduce the
complicated game to potential
Chinese fans who have already
embraced such sports imports
as NBA basketball and English
Premier League football.
“We are growing strongly in
China, and I think it’s a direct
result of having boots on the
ground over the past few
years,” Young told AFP.
NFL initiatives in China include
a non-tackle flag football league
involving 36 universities, a
giant 18-wheeler lorry that last
year toured nine cities offering
videos showcasing the drama
of the NFL, and for the past two
years events where enthusiasts
can get the feel of the “pigskin”
as they test themselves catching passes and kicking field
goals.
Developing a deep understanding of the game among non-US
fans is a challenge, even in
Europe where American foot-
ball has had a solid fan base for
some time.
“It’s not an easy sport to learn
quickly,” said David Tossell, the
NFL’s director of public affairs
for Europe. “Our approach is
to give people enough hooks
to actually want to make that
journey by themselves.”
The “hooks” in Europe have included regular-season games in
London, but for reasons of cost
the NFL pulled the plug on NFL
Europe, a professional league
where both US and European
players once honed their talent.
Without it, Tossell acknowledged,
“We don’t have a clear pathway
for a young, talented European
player to go off into the NFL.”
That’s unfortunate, since the experience of the NBA has shown
that an increased number of international players in the league
in turn fuels interest overseas.
“We’re lucky that there have
been a few players in the last
few years who have made that
journey,” he added, pointing to
Germany’s Sebastian Vollmer,
who will suit up for New England on Sunday when they take
on Seattle for the NFL title.
“If you can say to kids ‘look at
Sebastian Vollmer, you could
be playing in the Super Bowl in
10 years’ time,’ that makes a big
difference,” Tossell said.
“Look at China and the way the
NBA exploded there with Yao
Ming. We haven’t had our Yao
Ming moment in Europe yet.”
Nevertheless, Repucom found
interest in the United Kingdom
has grown from 8.1% in 2012 to
12.3%, defining the increase as
1.86mn NFL fans.
8
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
SPORT
NFL
Super Bowl QBs Wilson, Brady a study in contrasts
AFP
Phoenix, Arizona
Q
uarterbacks
Russell
Wilson and Tom Brady
make the Super Bowl
49 clash between the
Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots a duel of contrasting styles.
New England’s Brady, of
course, is already guaranteed
his spot in the Hall of Fame. A
three-time Super Bowl winner,
the 37-year-old Brady will be the
ﬁrst quarterback to start six Super Bowls.
Playing the game’s marquee
position in classic style, Brady
won titles in 2002, 2004 and
2005, but since then has twice
fallen to the New York Giants
in the Super Bowl, in 2008 and
2012.
With a victory over the Sea-
Bryant out
for season
after surgery
LOS ANGELES: Los Angeles
Lakers star Kobe Bryant
had successful shoulder
surgery on Wednesday, the
third-straight year he has
undergone a season-ending
procedure, the National Basketball Association team said.
The two-hour surgery, to
repair a torn rotator cuff in
his right shoulder, was performed by doctors Neal ElAttrache and Steve Lombardo
at the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedic Clinic in Los Angeles.
The 36-year-old Bryant is expected to be out nine months
and doctors said with proper
rehabilitation he would be
able to return to the Lakers in
time for his 20th season.
“I expect Kobe to make a full
recovery and if all goes as
expected, he should be ready
for the start of the season,”
ElAttrache said.
For the last three years Bryant has endured a seasonending injury, after a torn
Achilles tendon in April 2013
and a broken bone in his knee
last season.
The 19-year veteran and fivetime NBA champion suffered
the injury in last Wednesday’s
96-80 loss at New Orleans.
Bryant, a five-time NBA champion, is the league’s highestpaid player at $23.5mn.
The Lakers made a point of
giving a specific timeline for
Bryant’s expected return
Wednesday to reiterate that
they don’t expect him to
retire.
He injured his shoulder while
dunking the ball against the
Pelicans and on Monday
the team announced he had
opted for surgery.
“In my mind right now, he’s
coming back next year, unless he tells me something
different,” said Lakers coach
Byron Scott on Wednesday.
“But I think the biggest thing
with Kobe, as long as [people]
are saying that he’s done, he’s
going to come back.
“I think he proved his point
this year that he still has a lot
left in the tank.”
Bryant averaged 22.3 points,
5.7 rebounds and 5.6 assists
in 35 games this season.
hawks, Brady would match his
boyhood idol Joe Montana and
Terry Bradshaw as starting
quarterbacks with four rings.
Wilson, 26, recalls watching
as a teenager when Brady won
his ﬁrst Super Bowl crown.
Small for an NFL quarterback
at 5 ft 11 inches (1.80 metres),
Wilson has deﬁed expectations
with a strong arm and running
ability and will be the youngest
quarterback in league history to
start two Super Bowls.
“Russell and Tom Brady are
both great winners,” Seahawks
coach Pete Carroll said. “Tom
has had a long time to prove that.
Russell is at the early stages of
proving that to the world. But
he’s got a chance to be similar.”
Similar someday in accomplishment, perhaps, but not in
style.
“He throws the ball kind of
like a baseball, so at times it is a
New England Patriot’s quarterback Tom Brady
little bit more difficult to catch
because he puts a lot of velocity on it,” Seattle wide receiver
Doug Baldwin said of Wilson,
who is adept at throwing on the
run, but can just as easily take off
with the ball.
“However, it is very accurate
and it is a tight spiral. When you
pick it up in it’s trajectory it is
pretty much going to where it is
going to go.”
Patriots wide receiver Julian
Edelman calls a ball thrown by
Brady, a ﬁeld general most at
home passing from the pocket “a
pretty ball”—as he’d expect from
a veteran who never stops trying
to improve.
“He still has a quarterback
coach come out and coach him
up all the time,” Edelman said.
“He’s always working on his
fundamentals.”
Competitive mindset
Even after his precocious Super Bowl success last year, in
which his Seahawks routed future Hall of Famer Peyton Manning’s Denver Broncos 43-8,
some critics dismissed Wilson
as a “game manager” a quarterback of pedestrian talent who
succeeded through minimizing
risk and making use of the tools
available such as spectacular Seahawks running back Marshawn
Lynch.
Carroll said that if any proof
was needed that Wilson is an
athlete of elite stature, not only
in his skills but in his mindset,
it was evident in the Seahawks’
stunning overtime victory over
Green Bay in the NFC championship game.
Wilson had thrown four interceptions and Seattle trailed by
double digits late in regulation.
But Wilson kept his faith and
his focus, guiding three touchdown drives for the win.
“He’s got a tremendous competitive mindset,” Carroll said.
“You saw a tremendous illustration of that. I don’t think you
could hope an athlete at this
level could have a more clear
mindset of what it takes to come
through and get it done more so
than what Russell has.”
Brady was in his ﬁrst year as a
starter, his second in the league,
when he won his ﬁrst Super Bowl
title in 2002, leading the Patriots
over the St. Louis Rams.
He admits now that he didn’t
understand the magnitude of
lifting two more titles in the next
three years.
“That happened so fast,”
Brady said. “I didn’t even understand what was happening.”
Since then he’s endured two
Super Bowl disappointments,
one of those defeats coming at
the same University of Phoenix Stadium where he’ll play on
Sunday.
Brady says that coincidence
won’t weigh on him.
“It’s not where you play, it’s
how you play,” he said. Against
Wilson and the Seahawks, “if we
want to win this game, we’ve got
to play really well.”
NBA
Red-hot Irving scores
55 as Cavs beat Blazers
‘I’ve seen a lot of great performances, but something quite like that? No’
utive victory, a 113-102 triumph
over the Brooklyn Nets.
Atlanta (38-8) has now won
31 of the last 33 games and improved to 15-0 in January. The
Hawks also got 20 points and 10
rebounds from center Al Horford.
Brooklyn (18-27) was led by
guard Joe Johnson, who scored
26 points against his former
team mates.
The San Antonio Spurs used a
12-0 run in the fourth quarter to
overcome Charlotte 95-86.
Tony Parker scored 17 points,
Danny Green added 16 and San
Antonio (30-17) prevailed despite nearly losing an 18-point
lead before rebounding in the
fourth.
Dallas Mavericks center Tyson Chandler missed two free
throws with 16.3 seconds remaining, stalling a failed comeback in the Houston Rockets’
99-94 win over Dallas.
Chandler went to the line
in the ﬁnal minute with Dallas
(30-17) trailing by three, but
was unable to deliver.
Monta Ellis had 33 in the defeat while Josh Smith led Houston (32-14) with 18.
AFP
New York
T
he Cleveland Cavaliers, who were playing
without injured superstar LeBron James,
beat Portland 99-94 to extend
their win streak to eight games
behind an electric performance
from Kyrie Irving.
Irving tallied a career-high
55 points which included a
team-record 11 three pointers
in front of a crowd of 20,500
at the Quicken Loans Arena
on Wednesday. His final dagger from beyond the arc came
with just six seconds left and
gave the Cavaliers the lead for
good.
“He delivered,” said Cavaliers coach David Blatt. “I’ve
seen a lot of great performances, but something quite like
that? No.
“I’ve never seen that. And
I’ve been coaching a long time.”
With James out because of a
sprained right wrist that could
keep him sidelined for at least
one more NBA contest, Irving
missed his ﬁrst seven ﬁeld goal
attempts but went 17-of-29 after that.
He scored 28 points in the
ﬁrst half and had 16 in the
fourth quarter to keep the Cavs
from blowing a game they led by
as much as 14 points.
LaMarcus Aldridge paced
the Trail Blazers attack with 38
points, including a pair of free
throws that tied the score with
27 seconds remaining.
Following a timeout, Irving
drained his ﬁnal shot from the
left side over Nicolas Batum
BASEBALL
New recruit Ichiro
Suzuki keen to
repay Marlins faith
NEW YORK: Future Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki said he wanted
to return the faith shown by Miami Marlins executives after they
ﬂew to Japan to convince the veteran to sign for the Florida ball
club. The 41-year-old outﬁelder agreed a one-year contract on
Tuesday with the Marlins after his two-and-a-half year stay with
the New York Yankees ended last year.
“I am humbled that they ﬂew 18 hours to get here, this is something that just doesn’t happen,” Suzuki was quoted as saying by
Kyodo News on Thursday after signing up for a 15th year in MLB.
“The club exhibited such a strong desire to sign me, and I am
motivated to repay their desire. As a player, it’s something I’ve
been looking for the past two years.”
Ichiro moved to Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Seattle Mariners in 2001 before joining the Yankees in 2012. He is a
10-times All Star who has stolen 487 bases and is 156 hits shy of
reaching the golden mark of 3,000.
“Milestones and records are important, and to some degree the
pursuit of records keeps players going, but I can say clearly that
they are not the only factor,” Ichiro said. “Playing for a championship is also big. Numbers are easy to see and people are going to
talk about that, but it’s not everything for me.”
Results
Atlanta Hawks forward Paul Millsap drives against Brooklyn Nets center Brook Lopez and guard Jarrett Jack in the fourth quarter of their
game at Philips Arena on Wednesday. The Hawks won 113-102.
to give Cleveland the lead and
break CJ Miles’ franchise record
for three pointers in a game.
Irving grabbed the rebound
after Damian Lillard was short
on a three from the right corner
at the other end and made two
foul shots for the last of his 55
points.
His 55 points bettered his previous career high of 44 points
which he posted in an overtime
loss to Charlotte last season.
It was also just one short of
James’ franchise record set in a
game against the Toronto Raptors in 2005.
Portland had an extra day off
after Monday’s scheduled game
in Brooklyn was postponed
because of a snow storm that
hammered parts of the US eastern seaboard.
Elsewhere, Paul Millsap
scored 28 points and grabbed
15 rebounds to lead the Atlanta Hawks to their franchise
record-extending 17th consec-
Cleveland
Philadelphia
Toronto
Houston
Minnesota
Denver
NY Knicks
Atlanta
San Antonio
LA Clippers
Phoenix
99
89
119
99
110
93
100
113
95
94
106
Portland
94
Detroit
69
Sacramento 102
Dallas
94
Boston
98
New Orleans 85
Oklahoma City 92
Brooklyn
102
Charlotte
86
Utah
89
Washington 98
NHL
Toffoli, Muzzin score late, LA Kings rally past Chicago
Agencies
Los Angeles
J
ake Muzzin scored the
tiebreaking goal with 3:37
to play, Jeff Carter had two
goals and an assist, and
the Los Angeles Kings roared
back in the ﬁnal minutes to snap
their four-game losing streak
with a 4-3 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday.
Tyler Toffoli tied it with 6:11
left for the defending Stanley
Cup champions, who made a
dynamic rally in their ﬁrst game
back after stumbling into the
break in ninth place in the Western Conference after losing seven of eight.
Andrew Shaw scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third
period for the Blackhawks, who
had won four straight regularseason games over Los Angeles.
Jonathan Quick made 26
Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Jonathan Bernier makes a save while New
Jersey Devils right wing Steve Bernier looks for the rebound during
the second period at Prudential Center on Wednesday.
saves, thwarting a huge Blackhawks surge in front of Los Angeles’ net in the ﬁnal minute.
Patrick Kane and Patrick
Sharp had a goal and an assist
apiece in the ﬁrst period for the
Blackhawks, who opened a sixgame road trip with just their
second loss in 10 games at Staples Center. Corey Crawford
stopped 23 shots.
Shaw slipped a quick shot past
Quick for his ninth goal of the
season 2:25 into the third. Toffoli eventually answered with his
13th goal, scoring from the slot
to highlight a strong ﬁrst game
back from a six-game absence
with mononucleosis.
Moments later, Muzzin got
a shot from the blue line past
Crawford with an apparent deﬂection off the stick of Chicago’s
Niklas Hjalmarsson.
These franchises have won the
last three Stanley Cup titles and
four of ﬁve. The Kings eliminated the Blackhawks in an epic
conference ﬁnals last summer,
winning Game 7 in overtime in
Chicago with Alec Martinez’s
deﬂected goal off Nick Leddy.
Elsewhere, Jacob Josefson and
Patrik Elias scored in the shootout to lead the New Jersey Devils
to a come-from-behind 2-1 win
over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
With the win, New Jersey (1822-8) have won three of their last
ﬁve, while Toronto (22-23-4) are
mired in a season-high sevengame losing streak.
Toronto’s James van Riemsdyk
and New Jersey’s Adam Larsson
scored in regulation.
Alex Ovechkin became the
league’s top goalscorer with his 28th
and 29th goals of the season and
goaltender Braden Holtby turned
aside all 27 shots he faced to lead the
Washington Capitals to a 4-0 win
over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
In his last 24 games Ovechkin
has cranked out 17 goals and the
Capitals have gone 15-4-5 to
move into playoff position in the
Eastern Conference.
Results
New Jersey
Washington
Los Angeles
2 Toronto
4 Pittsburgh
4 Chicago
1
0
3
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
9
SPORT
FORMULA ONE
Alonso ready to write a new chapter at McLaren
Reuters
London
F
ernando Alonso said he
was ready to write a fresh
chapter at McLaren as
his new Formula One
team unveiled their 2015 car yesterday at the start of a new era
with engine partners Honda.
“My motivation could not be
stronger for the new season,”
said the double world champion,
who has returned to McLaren
from Ferrari, after the MP4-30
car was revealed in an online
presentation.
EXTENSION
Wallabies
sign up
Horne,
McMahon
for two
more years
AFP
Melbourne
A
ustralia, facing a star
player exodus postWorld Cup, have signed
two-year contract extensions with 20-year-old backrow forward Sean McMahon and
winger Rob Horne, who had been
linked with a big money move to
Europe.
Both men will now remain in
Australian rugby for the next
three seasons, Australian Rugby
Union (ARU) said in a statement
yesterday.
McMahon, who made his Wallabies debut in 2014, stays at the
Melbourne Rebels and Horne at
the Waratahs, who kick off the
defence of their Super Rugby title on February 13.
Rebels coach Tony McGahan
praised
McMahon—Australian Super Rugby rookie of the
year—noting, “Sean has made a
wonderful impact at the Rebels,
despite still being just 20.”
Horne, aged 25 and with 25
caps, featured in the 2011 World
Cup in New Zealand and the
British and Irish Lions series in
2013.
“Rob’s been an invaluable asset to the Waratahs over the
last two years since I’ve had
the pleasure of coaching him,”
Wallabies and Waratahs coach
Michael Cheika said.
“The next two years of his career here will see him become a
real leader within our squad.”
Horne and McMahon are expected to feature in the Wallabies
squad for the World Cup in September and October.
The ARU announcement came
after Cheika backed mid-contract sabbaticals for Australia’s
elite.
Stars such as Adam AshleyCooper, former skipper James
Horwill, Will Genia and Sekope
Kepu are due to leave Australia
after the World Cup. Many more
have been made tempting offers.
“We have to be more creative
around our contracting,” Cheika
said Wednesday and suggested
progress had been made on the
issue in recent meetings.
ARU chief executive Bill Pulver
however repeated his backing for
contract rules that prevent overseas-based stars from playing for
the Wallabies.
“I still retain the view that if
you open that up, you risk having a Super Rugby competition with no proﬁle players and
not a lot to offer fans,” he said
at the official season launch on
Wednesday.
“We’ll look at all the options,
we’ll try to be as creative as we
can but with the basic position
that we want to protect the quality of player we have for Australian rugby fans.”
Meanwhile, England lock
Geoff Parling will join Exeter
from English Premiership rivals
Leicester on a two-year contract at the end of the season,
the Chiefs announced yesterday.
Parling, 31, has spent six years
at Leicester, during which time
he has won two Premiership titles and made three appearances
for the British and Irish Lions,
against Australia in 2013.
“I’ve done a lot of training during the winter break, to
reach my peak physical ﬁtness,
and I’ve been working hard in
preparation for this new era of
McLaren-Honda,” added the
Spaniard in a team statement.
“I’ve never felt better, or more
ready for a new season.”
McLaren, who have used
Mercedes engines since 1995,
last won a race in 2012 and will
start testing with the new car in
Jerez, southern Spain, on Sunday.
The second most successful
team after Ferrari in terms of total titles won and race victories,
McLaren have gone through a
major restructuring with former
principal and group chairman
Ron Dennis back in overall control.
The return of Honda, who
left Formula One in 2008 when
their own team became Brawn
and then Mercedes, reunites
McLaren with a partner from
their glory years with Ayrton
Senna and Alain Prost in the late
1980s and early 1990s.
The new car appeared in a red,
black and silver livery. There was
still no sign of any title sponsor,
with Honda branding appearing on the engine cover, and the
Fernando Alonso
team set no speciﬁc targets.
“Of course, we’re prepared
for a steep learning curve,
but it’s clear to see that inside McLaren-Honda there’s
total commitment, and a real
change in feeling, as we start
this new partnership,” said
Alonso.
“We’re all focused on the
challenge ahead, and I feel extremely honoured to be part of
a relationship that has shared so
much history together,” added
the Spaniard, whose one previous season at the team ended in
acrimony in 2007.
“My aim is to help write a
new chapter in the history of
McLaren-Honda. We understand the effort and teamwork
required to take McLaren-Honda back to where it should be, at
the front of the grid, and all our
energy as a team is focused on
that goal.”
Team mate Jenson Button, the
2009 champion, said there was
a “feeling of reignited optimism
and positivity” around the factory.
“There’s a huge challenge
ahead of us to try to pull back
the gap to our rivals, but we’re
certainly up for it,” added the
Briton.
RUGBY
Proud Parisse confident
of Italy revival
‘I’m confident, because after six difficult months we showed in November that we’re back to our old selves’
AFP
Rome
I
taly captain Sergio Parisse
expects his side to more
than justify their place in
the forthcoming Six Nations Championship following a lacklustre campaign last
year.
Since becoming the ‘sixth’
nation in 2000, Italy have repeatedly found themselves battling, often along with Scotland,
to avoid the indignity of ﬁnishing bottom of the table among
Europe’s elite rugby union nations.
However, 2013 saw real signs
of progress with the Azzurri
beating both Ireland (22-15) and
France (23-18).
But last year they ﬁnished
with the dreaded ‘wooden
spoon’ after losing all their Six
Nations matches.
There were some encouraging
signs in November, with Italy
defeating Samoa 24-13 before
losing narrowly to Argentina
(20-18) and going down 22-6
against the Springboks.
“There’s a lot of talk about
the quality of our opponents,
but we’re a quality side too
and we have top level players,”
Parisse said Wednesday.
“I’m conﬁdent, because after
six difficult months we showed
in November that we’re back
to our old selves. I’m disappointed about the defeats to
South Africa and Argentina, in
which we lacked efficiency, but
we had the right spirit. And we
still have it.
“They’ve written us off, but
that’s ﬁne. It will be great to
surprise everybody,” added
Parisse, regarded as one of the
best No 8 forwards currently in
the game.
Italy welcome champions
Italy captain Sergio Parisse
Ireland to Rome’s Olympic
Stadium for their Six Nations
opener on February 7, having
suffered a chastening 46-7 loss
in Dublin last year.
Toulon’s Armitage to appear
in court over fight
PARIS: Toulon ﬂanker
Steffon Armitage will appear in court on February 10 over a ﬁght in a
restaurant last month as
teammate Xavier Chiocci
was cleared of involvement, judicial sources said
yesterday.
Armitage, last season’s
European player of the
year and capped five
times by England, and
France international
Chiocci were alleged to
have struck a 31-year-old
man on December 13 in a
Toulon restaurant where
they had spent an evening
drinking after their
side’s 23-8 victory over
Leicester in the European
Champions Cup.
According to witnesses, a
ﬁght broke out and the two
players felled the restaurant
goer before striking him,
injuring his eye.
Both Armitage and Chiocci told investigators they
could remember nothing of
what happened.
Police found that Chiocci
was “not implicated” in the
incident and released the
24-year-old late Wednesday.
But Armitage, 29, was
placed on probation until
the hearing, banned from
returning to the restaurant
and contacting witnesseses,
and released on EUR5,000
($5,655) bail.
When contacted by AFP,
outspoken Toulon president
Mourad Boudjellal said
that he “had nothing to say
for the moment” and was
awaiting “more information”.
Toulon said in a statement
they would “take, where
appropriate, the necessary sanctions to preserve
values which are dear” to
the team.
Both Armitage and Chiocci
have been named in Toulon’s 25-strong squad for
Friday’s Top 14 home match
against Bayonne.
The two sides are in the same
pool at this year’s World Cup
in England and Parisse, speaking at the Six Nations launch in
London, conceded: “As Italians,
we are not at the same level as
Ireland.
“We beat them two years ago
but last year they won by 40
points in Dublin.
“It is important for us to be
competitive and see if we are
really, really far from them or if
we are able to play a full match
at our best and beat a team like
Ireland,” the back-row forward
added.
“It is important because we
are going to play them in a few
months’ time at the World Cup.
“It is important for us mentally to know we can beat these
teams.
“If we play 100 games against
Ireland we would probably lose
98 so we have a small opportunity to beat them but we have to
play every match with this ambition.
“We have to try to be competitive against every team we play
at the Six Nations.”
“We have shown we can be
competitive and we can win like
when we beat very good teams
in 2013,” Parisse said.
“But last year we played a
poor Six Nations and that is the
difference between a great team
and a team who can get a great
result, but do not have the same
consistency.
“That is the target this year—
to have more consistency, especially in the three matches we
play at home.”
Italy coach Jacques Brunel, in
charge since 2011, said the team
hadn’t made the progress he
would have liked.
“When I took up the post
I said I’d like, in three or four
years, for us to be able to say we
could be challenging to win the
tournament.
“Right at this moment, I’m
not able to say that.”
However, the Frenchman
added: “In the last two training
camps I’ve been encouraged by
the team’s condition, ambition
and their commitment.
“In November, we worked
on our defence because we had
taken a step back in that department and if we manage to
ﬁnd the right balance and quality, we’ll be a match for anybody.”
BOTTOM LINE
Schmidt success no
surprise to Cotter
AFP
Glasgow
S
cotland coach Vern Cotter has said the success
of his one-time protege
Joe Schmidt was no surprise to him.
Cotter is now preparing for
his ﬁrst Six Nations Championship and his presence means
that 50% of the head coaches
involved are from New Zealand,
with Schmidt in charge of defending champions Ireland and
Warren Gatland at the helm
with Wales.
Cotter’s time at Clermont
also saw Schmidt on the backroom staff of the French Top 14
club.
Schmidt, 49, sealed his
coaching reputation with Leinster, guiding the Irish province
to back-to-back European Cup
triumphs.
He took over as Ireland coach
two years ago and the side have
since won an impressive 10 out
of 13 Tests under Schmidt, with
one of those defeats a last-gasp
loss to New Zealand in November 2013 when they were on the
verge of beating the All Blacks
for the ﬁrst time in their history.
“He’s much better than me!”
Cotter, 53, jokingly said of
Schmidt at the 2015 Six Nations
launch in London on Wednesday.
“This is what’s good about
the games: we have a very solid
friendship based on good and
bad times we’ve had together.
“We like to have a beer and
talk about what our families
are doing, but then I know he’s
preparing his team to give us
a tough time and obviously
he knows I’m doing the same
thing.
“So it’s done with utmost respect but within that there’s a
very competitive nature.
“It’s nice to catch up with
him, and then I know Gatland
as well so it’s good to see him
too, and it’s something unique
we have in rugby.”
Cotter added: “I’m not surprised at all to see Joe do so well
with Ireland: he’s a smart man
and he’s done very well.
“He’s brought that team together and got some great results so all credit to him,” said
the Scotland boss, whose side
don’t play Ireland until the ﬁnal
day of the Six Nations at Murrayﬁeld on March 21.
Scotland produced several
encouraging
performances
during the November internationals, beating Argentina and
Tonga before only losing narrowly to New Zealand, albeit
the world champions were not
at full strength.
Schmidt, who worked under
Cotter at Clermont from 20072010, has a reputation for being
a tough coach, but he insisted
he had nothing on his old boss.
“I wouldn’t want to physically lock horns with him,” said
Schmidt, looking to guide to
back-to-back titles for the ﬁrst
time since 1949. “He’s a big,
strong man and I think his nickname in France was ‘les yeux de
glace’, the eyes of ice.”
10
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
TENNIS
SPOTLIGHT
FOCUS
Murray grinds
down Berdych to
make Aussie final
The tournament has been a heartbreak for the Scot with three runner-up finishes, but
he has given himself another chance to break through and add to his Grand Slam tally
Hewitt likely to quit
after next Oz Open
DPA
Melbourne
L
leyton Hewitt ﬁnally
revealed the scenario for
the end of his career yesterday as Patrick Rafter
stepped down as Australian Davis Cup coach for the tennis-mad
nation.
Hewitt, who turns 34 in a
month, will play through to the
end of the Open next year, marking his 20th appearance at his
home grand slam since qualifying as a 15-year-old in 1997.
He will then be in pole position
to take over one of his true tennis
loves, the Davis Cup team.
Meanwhile, Aussie stalwart
Wally Masur will serve as interim
coach while Rafter moves on as
performance director for Tennis Australia. Masur has Davis
experience after working as assistant coach to John Fitzgerald
in the last decade.
Australia won its last Davis
trophy in 2003 with a defeat of
Spain.
“I’m officially stepping down
from Davis Cup captaincy,” said
Rafter, one of the nation’s most
popular players, at the Australian Open. “Wally Masur will
take over as interim Davis Cup
captain. Lleyton will then ﬁll the
spot when the time is right and
ready.”
Hewitt said that playing a
last Open and then moving on
to the Davis job is important for
him.
“Davis Cup is something
we’ve worked extremely hard
to put ourselves in a position in
the World Group where we have
a genuine shot. I believe with the
guys now we have a lot more options, a lot more depth.
“I can still put my hand up as a
player and help the boys get over
the line. Whether that’s singles,
doubles, whatever is needed.
Right at the moment that’s the
main focus for us.
“Personally I’ll be looking
towards the grass court season
and most likely ﬁnishing here in
Melbourne, which for me would
obviously be special to play 20
Australian Opens.”
Rafter hinted that the Davis
captaincy might have been more
of a challenge than he would have
imagined from his days as a player and double grand slam winner.
“The ﬁrst few years were certainly a learning curve, trying to
get a relationship with the guys.
Stepping back into the game was
interesting. It’s had its ups and
downs just with the different
players and me trying to stamp
some sort of authority, which sort
of backlashed on me a little bit.
“I always expected the guys to
work hard, train hard, and then
we can play hard after, as well,
and enjoy it, because Davis Cup
should be enjoyed. You also play
in a team environment.
“I felt all the guys put in pretty
well. I formed some really good
relationships and friendships
with the guys. I got to know them
very well, on a level some good
and some bad. At the end of it, I
can sit down and have a beer with
the guys in 10 years’ time.”
Fairytale end for Keys but hunger grows
Andy Murray of Britain jubilates after beating Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic in their semi-final match at the Australian Open yesterday. At bottom, his fiancee Kim Sears
applauds.
AFP
Melbourne
B
ritain’s Andy Murray will play in
his fourth Australian Open ﬁnal
in six years after a commanding
and tension-ﬁlled four-sets win
over Czech Tomas Berdych yesterday.
The dual Grand Slam champion, seeded
six, beat the seventh seed 6-7 (6/8), 6-0,
6-3, 7-5 in 3hr 26min and will play either
four-time winner Novak Djokovic or defending champion Stan Wawrinka in Sunday’s decider.
The tournament has been a heartbreak
Grand Slam for the Scot with three runner-up ﬁnishes, but he has given himself
another chance to break through and add
to his Wimbledon and US Open titles.
“Obviously losing in the ﬁnals is disappointing. But making four ﬁnals is a very
difficult thing to do,” Murray said.
“I played very well tonight and to be
in the ﬁnal four times here because I’m
surrounded by guys like Roger (Federer),
Novak and Rafa (Nadal), doesn’t look like
much, but that doesn’t happen that often.
So I’m very proud of that.
“I’ll try my best on Sunday. I’ll go in
with best tactics possible, prepare well,
couple days’ rest, recover as best as I can.
All I can do is give my best.”
The world number six had too much
variety in his play for Berdych, who was
nowhere near the composed player that
eliminated Rafael Nadal in the quarterﬁnals.
After losing a marathon 76-minute
opening set in a tiebreaker, Murray ﬁnished strongly to clinch the match and
claim his eighth Grand Slam ﬁnal appearance.
“At the start I felt like I was on the back
foot a little bit. Towards the end of the ﬁrst
set I started to come into it more, be more
aggressive,” he said.
“Then in the second set I just picked up
from how I was playing at the end of the
ﬁrst. I felt like I could have won the ﬁrst
set, had some chances there.
“I was extremely aggressive in the second set. Managed to run away with it.”
There was plenty of friction between
the two and a few glares at each other
at changeovers during the opening set
sparked by Berdych’s decision to hire
former Murray team member Dani Vallverdu as his coach.
Murray blamed the media for stirring it
up. “You (media) wanted there to be tension. Because of everything that’s gone on
it’s kind of a natural thing to happen. So I
kind of expected and had planned for that
to be the case as well,” he said.
“A lot was made of Dani working with
him. Me and Dani have been friends since
we were 15 and I felt that was a little bit
unfair and unnecessary. There is more to
life than sport,” he said.
Murray broke Berdych’s serve six times
and hit 40 winners, while Berdych served
more double-faults than aces.
The Czech broke the Scot in the eighth
game but was himself broken as he served
for the set at 5-3. Berdych fought off break
points in the 11th game but prevailed in
the tiebreaker after Murray had set point
at 6-5.
It was a psychological lift for the Czech
but the dual major champion raced
through the second set with a triple service break over disengaged Berdych in just
30 minutes.
Murray went on the offensive and broke
Berdych after trailing 0-40, hitting a forehand winner to the corner on break point.
Berdych was making more errors as the
Scot stormed to a two sets to one lead.
Murray got the decisive break of serve
in the 11th game, clinching the match with
an ace in his next service game.
Melbourne: Making the semifinals of the Australian Open
gave Madison Keys belief she
could contend with the best
players in the women’s game,
but also made the hard-hitting
19-year-old more determined to
take an extra step at the grand
slams.
Keys’ fairytale run at Melbourne
Park ended with a fighting
7-6(5) 6-2 loss to top seed Serena Williams at Rod Laver Arena,
a performance that underlined
her claim as a future standardbearer for American tennis.
As with her quarter-final defeat
of Williams’ older sister Venus,
Keys betrayed no nerves in the
biggest match of her life and
easily matched her opponent’s
firepower from the baseline, if
shaded by her serve and guile.
Instead, Keys flashed her toothy
grin repeatedly in the contest,
as if going toe-to-toe with the
world number one on centre
court was just another new and
exciting thing in the life of a
teenager.
Trailing 5-1 in the second set,
she saved seven match points
to hold serve in an enthralling
24-point game and an eighth
in the next before Williams
blasted an ace to put their first
ever encounter to bed.
“I think I handled the moment
pretty well,” Keys told reporters
breezily. “I definitely had a good
start, so nerves didn’t totally
play into that.
“I think in that situation you can
almost get overwhelmed if you
start focusing on Serena being
on the other side of the court.
So I really just tried to focus on
myself and play within myself. I
thought I did a pretty good job.”
Williams was quick to ordain
Keys, the hardest hitter in the
women’s game according to
WTA data, a future grand slam
champion and even a world
number one.
“For me, even this week, as
great as it is, I still want more,”
Keys said. “I think I will forever
be that way. So I think for me it’s
just never being satisfied with
what I’ve done and always just
wanting more and more.
BOTTOMLINE
Serena awaits Sharapova in grudge clash
AFP
Melbourne
S
erena Williams and
Maria Sharapova set
up a grudge Australian Open ﬁnal between
the world’s top two players
Thursday, with the Russian
desperate to break 10-year
jinx against her arch-rival.
Williams had to quell a
determined challenge from
unseeded fellow American
Madison Keys, 19, to make her
sixth Australian decider, while
Sharapova crushed 10th seed
Ekaterina Makarova in her allRussian last four clash.
The result renews an intense rivalry between two of
the great of the modern era,
with 23 Grand Slams between
them -- 18 for Williams and
ﬁve for Sharapova.
The statistics heavily favour Williams, 33, who has
a daunting 16-2 record over
Sharapova, with the Russian
failing to defeat her American
The result renews an
intense rivalry between
two of the great of the
modern era, with 23
Grand Slams between
them
rival for more than a decade.
“I’m excited. I love playing
her. I look forward to it,” said
Williams, who will keep her
world number one ranking
simply by making the ﬁnal,
regardless of the result.
A win would take her Grand
Slam tally to 19, overtaking Chris Evert and Martina
Navratilova on the all-time
Open-era list to out her within striking distance of Steffi
Graf’s 22. At 33, she said she
had nothing to prove after a
glittering career and was approaching the ﬁnal relaxed
and determined to have fun.
Williams has made the
Australian Open ﬁnal ﬁve
times previously and won
every time, including a 2007
victory over Sharapova.
She faced a tough work-
out against Keys, going down
a break before surging home
7-6 (7/5), 6-2 and said that
gainst Sharapova she needed
to avoid the slow starts that
have dogged her tournament.
“It’s going to be important
for me to get off to a good
start, I think. With that being said, if not, I’m going to be
ready to ﬁght,” she said.
Sharapova, 27, dismissed
Williams’
psychological
stranglehold.
The reigning French Open
champion said she was concentrating on her form during
this year’s tournament, eliminating four seeds including
rising star Eugenie Bouchard,
rather than past losses to Williams.
“I think my conﬁdence
should be pretty high going
into a ﬁnal of a Grand Slam
no matter who I’m facing and
whether I’ve had a terrible
record, to say the least, against
someone,” she said.
“It doesn’t matter. I got
there for a reason. I belong in
that spot. I will do everything
I can to get the title.”
Sharapova was at her intense
best
demolishing
Makarova 6-3, 6-2 to make
the ninth major ﬁnal of her
career, overcoming her opponent’s early resistance then
ruthlessly pressing home
her advantage. Quizzed on
why her record against Williams was so poor, given her
strength against other players
on tour, Sharapova said she
probably over-reacted to the
American great’s power and
aggression.
“I think that’s always made
me a little bit too aggressive,
maybe going for a little bit
more than I had to,” she said.
“She’s great at making
players hit that shot that you
don’t necessarily have to go
for—maybe going for a little
too much, going on the line.
“It’s been a really difficult
match-up for me, but I’m a
competitor... I’ll go out and
do everything I can to try to
change that result around.”
Gulf Times
Friday, January 30, 2015
11
SPORT
GOLF
CRICKET
Wiesberger leads
by one in Dubai as
McIlroy lurks
‘It was a special back nine today. Played really well from the ninth onwards. I hit a lot
of birdies. I didn’t quite jump off that train really and it was nice to get to 8-under par’
Amla, Rossouw
set up big win for
South Africa
AFP
Centurion
H
ashim Amla and Rilee
Rossouw both hit centuries for the second
time in the series to
set up a 131-run win for South
Africa in the fifth and final ODI
against the West Indies at SuperSport Park on Wednesday.
Amla made 133 and Rossouw powered his way to 132 in
a South African total of 361 for
five in an innings reduced to 42
overs because of rain.
West Indies were bowled out
for 230 in reply with left-arm
pace bowler Wayne Parnell taking four for 42.
The win completed a 4-1 series victory for South Africa in
the last match both teams will
play before travelling to Australia and New Zealand for the
World Cup.
Amla and Rossouw punished
a lacklustre West Indian bowling attack as they equalled their
own South African record for
any wicket by putting on 247
for the third wicket.
They set the mark with a
first wicket stand in the second
match in Johannesburg when
both also hit hundreds and provided a platform for AB de Villiers to hit the fastest century in
one-day international history.
De Villiers was rested for
Wednesday’s game, along with
all four of South Africa’s firstchoice specialist bowlers.
“While batting we were only
trying to hit every ball for a
boundary and it turned out
well,” said Amla.
“There was time in the series
when we were under pressure
but having everyone in good
nick is good for our chances in
the World Cup.”
West Indian captain Jason
Holder sent South Africa in
to bat and initially it seemed
a good move as the batsmen
struggled to time the ball on
a pitch which had spent most
of the day under the covers as
steady drizzle delayed the start
by two-and-a-half hours.
“We just let it slip in the middle and we didn’t really bowl
well,” admitted Holder.
“We were’t consistent and
lost wickets at regular intervals. Our batsmen need to take
responsibility and they need to
bat till the end.”
Amla took his total for the series to 413 for twice out, scoring
his 133 runs off 105 balls with 11
fours and six sixes.
The left-handed Rossouw
took 60 balls to reach his fifty
but then cut loose, needing
only another 23 balls to post
his second international century and only 15 more before he
was caught on the boundary off
Andre Russell after an innings
which included nine fours and
eight sixes.
Andre Russell took three
wickets but conceded 85 runs in
eight overs, including 28 in one
over during the batting power
play.
Russell sent down three
no-balls and five wides, two
of which were out of reach of
wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin
and went to the boundary.
The West Indies got off to the
worst possible start when Kyle
Abbott had Chris Gayle caught
behind off the first ball of the
innings, with Gayle chasing
a delivery which was initially
called wide by umpire Sundaram Ravi.
Yuvraj added to MCC squad
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland hits the ball on the first hole during the Dubai Desert Classic yesterday.
AFP
Dubai
A
ustrian
Bernd
Wiesberger
emerged the sole leader at
Omega Dubai Desert Classic
after yesterday’s ﬁrst round featuring a deluge of birdies at the Emirates
Golf Club.
The 29-year-old Wiesberger appeared
to be struggling on the greens as he did
not make a single birdie in his ﬁrst ﬁve
holes, but warmed up his putter nicely,
needing just 25 putts to complete a round
of eight-under par 64.
It kept him one ahead of American Peter Uihlein, Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts
and the English duo of Lee Westwood and
Andy Sullivan and gave him a two-shot
advantage over the world number one
Rory McIlroy and the defending champion Stephen Gallacher, who both shot
matching 66s.
Westwood, who closed his 2014 season
with a win in the Thai Golf Championship, started his year well, and two huge
birdie putts in his last ﬁve holes - one
was from 35 feet on the ﬁfth hole and the
other from 18 feet on the ninth - saw him
close on a 65.
McIlroy also ﬁnished on the tough par4 ninth, but he made his only bogey of the
day there after struggling to ﬁnd fairways
off the tee.
Colsaerts met with a similar fate as
McIlroy, and having started from the
10th tee and making eight birdies, he too
closed with a bogey on the ninth for a 65.
Wiesberger, who ﬁnished inside the
top-six in the previous two events, could
have closed his round with six straight
birdies, but missed a chance on the par-5
18th for his 64.
“Just a bit disappointed to miss that
last birdie. It would be my ﬁrst 63 out
there but still a great day,” said Wiesberger, who could move into the top-50
of the world ranking with a good result
this week.
“It was a special back nine today.
Played really well from the ninth onwards. I hit a lot of birdies. I didn’t quite
jump off that train really and it was nice to
get to 8-under par.
“I had a bit of problem with the pace of
the greens early on and I left a lot of good
chances short, which I didn’t like really.
It was all right after I started getting the
pace right.”
Westwood said he did not feel rusty at
all despite this being his ﬁrst start of the
year.
“No, there wasn’t any. That’s one of
the joys of living in Florida. You get to
play a lot of winter golf and remain sharp
and I just tried to keep myself at the level I
was when I ﬁnished up in Thailand at the
end of last year, and obviously working on
a few things as well.
McIlroy did not have the best driving
day of his life - he just found ﬁve out of
14 fairways - but he still managed to hit
14 greens in regulation and made his only
bogey on his closing hole with another
errant tee shot.
Defending champion Gallacher joined
McIlroy on 66, while Martin Kaymer and
Graeme McDowell were among a group
on 67. World number two Henrik Stenson
could not get enough birdies in his twounder par 70, while number ﬁve Sergio
Garcia was one of the few who struggled
on the course, making a 75.
Orlando: Stacy Lewis, Jessica Korda
and Azahara Munoz carded matching,
six-under 66s in Wednesday’s ﬁrst round
of the season-opening LPGA Tour’s
Coates Golf Championship, which was
suspended due to darkness.
There were 21 players still on the course
when play was halted at the Golden Ocala
Golf course.
Lewis, the number three player in the
world, has won 11 times on the LPGA
Tour, including three victories last season.
“I just stayed patient out there. Finally
on the back nine I kind of got more comfortable and started hitting golf shots,”
Lewis said.
“Had a couple birdies that were just
tap-ins, which helped, and rolled a few
putts in so it was a good day. I almost wish
we didn’t have darkness and could keep
going, I ﬁnally got into a rhythm there.”
Korda, a three-time winner on tour,
won twice last year at the season-opening Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic and
the Airbus LPGA Classic. Munoz has one
victory at the 2012 Sybase Match Play
Championship.
POWERBOATS
Qatar set for 4-day racing fest
By Sports Reporter
Doha
T
he Qatar Marine Sports
Federation (QMSF) is
making its ﬁnal preparations for the largest
power boat racing festival ever
to be staged in the Middle East.
Under the presidency of
Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor al-Thani, the QMSF has joined forces
with Offshore Powerboat Grand
Prix (OPGP) to run the 2015 Qatar Cup in Doha Bay on February
3-7.
Months of hard work and
planning by officials in Qatar
and the United States of America have now come to fruition and
race craft from the USA have already safely arrived in Qatar and
will be joined by boats from Turkey, Australasia and the Middle East to take part in a series
of races and qualifying sessions
over four days next week.
Topping the ﬁeld are the ﬂag
ship race boats in the SuperCat
and SuperVee classes, but they
will be joined on the Doha Bay
course by racers entered in the
C1, C2, SuperCat Lite and C225
classes. There will also be a Pro
Marathon class race for local
competitors next Friday.
Spirit of Qatar 20 tops the
list of entrants in the SuperCat
class. Local driver Ali al-Neama and American throttle man
Billy Moore have been competing in Super Boat International
(SBI) for the last two years in the
USA, but their MTi has returned
to Qatar and they will line up
alongside the likes of Randy
Sweers’s Racing for Cancer MTi
and Ron Roman’s Motley Crew
Skater.
Other boats to make the trip
across the Atlantic Ocean in the
class include Peppers, Pro Floors
Racing and Persu Cat Racing.
An impressive list of SuperCar Lite boats were on the ship
that arrived in Doha on January
17 and include The Hulk, Smart
Marine and Gary Ballough’s
Doug Wright-built BG Racing.
Qatar’s XCat star Mohamed alNasser and two race boats from
Dubai and Abu Dhabi are also on
the provisional list of entries.
Billy Glueck’s Twisted Metal
Fountain and Dan Kleitz’s Outerlimits 43 top the SuperVee
class before official registration
and technical inspections get
underway on Tuesday, February
3rd.
“One of our visions at the
QMSF was to stage an event of
this nature and to attract some
of the ﬁnest racers from all over
the world to come here and take
part,” said His Excellency Sheikh
Hassan bin Jabor al-Thani.
“We have achieved that in a
short space of time. Through the
hard work of every member of
my team in Qatar and the efforts
from the staff at OPGP it has
been possible to stage the Qatar Cup. On behalf of everyone
at the QMSF, I take this opportunity to welcome our overseas
visitors, media, television personnel, team members and competitors to what we hope will be
four days of safe and spectacular
racing on Doha Bay.”
Timetable of events
Tuesday, February 3: 09.00 17.00
Technical inspections
and registration
Wednesday, February 4:
09.00 – 10.00
Inshore time
testing (C1 and C2)
10.00 - 11.00
Offshore time
testing (SuperCat Lite)
11.00 – 12.00
Offshore time
testing (SuperVee and SuperCat)
13.00 - 14.00 Inshore time test-
ing and pole position (C225)
14.00 - 15.00
Offshore pole
position (SuperCat Lite)
15.00 – 16.00 Offshore pole position (SuperVee and SuperCat)
Thursday, February 5:
09.00 - 09.45 Inshore race 1
(C2)
10.00 – 10.45 Inshore race 1 (C1)
11.00 - 11.45 Inshore race 1
(C225)
15.00 - 15.45 Offshore race 1
(SuperCat Lite)
16.00 – 16.45 Offshore race 1
(SuperVee and SuperCat)
Friday, February 6: 13.00
- 13.30
Practice Pro Marathon
13.45 - 14.15 Offshore race 1
(SuperCat Lite)
14.30 – 15.30 Inshore testing
Saturday, February 7: 09.00 09.45
Inshore race 2 (C2)
10.00 – 10.45
Inshore race
2 (C1) 11.00 - 11.45 Inshore race
2 (C225)
14.30 - 15.15 Offshore race 2
(SuperCat Lite)
15.30 – 16.15 Offshore race 2
(SuperVee and SuperCat)
16.45 Awards ceremony
Dubai: India batsman Yuvraj
Singh has been called up to
play for Marylebone Cricket
Club (MCC) in March’s Emirates Twenty20 tournament in
Dubai, the invitational team
announced yesterday. He joins
Alastair Cook, Michael Carberry
and Nick Compton in the MCC
squad for the tournament,
which also features English
county sides Lancashire, Yorkshire and Sussex.
Singh, who most recently played
for Punjab in the Ranji Trophy,
played against the MCC last
year, scoring 132 for the Rest
of the World XI in the Lord’s
Bicentenary match.
“I am very excited about being
part of the squad for this tournament, and I’d like to thank MCC
for offering me the chance to
play in Dubai again,” Singh said
in a statement.
“There are some great players
in the squad so we stand a
good chance of winning the
competition.” The Emirates T20
tournament precedes the daynight Champion County match
between MCC and Yorkshire,
which acts as a curtain-raiser for
the new English season.
OBITUARY
Australian golfer Kel
Nagle dies aged 94
Reuters
Sydney
A
ustralia’s former British Open winner Kel
Nagle died yesterday,
aged 94.
Tributes began flowing in
after the PGA of Australia released a statement saying golf’s
oldest-living major winner had
passed away at a Sydney hospital.
“I heard the news this morning...and it’s always very sad
when one of the legends of
the game passes away,” world
number one Rory McIlroy told
Reuters at the Dubai Desert
Classic.
“I do know a little bit of his
Open win at St. Andrews in 1960
when he beat Arnold Palmer so
it will be sad occasion this year
for everyone heading back to the
Old Course,” added McIlroy, who
won last year’s British Open at
Hoylake.
“But then I’m sure there will
be a few glasses raised in Mr.
Nagle’s memory at the Former
Champions Dinner.”
Brian Thorburn, chief executive officer of the PGA, said golf
had lost a “champion of our
game.”
Nagle was one of Australia’s
most successful and popular
golfers, winning 81 professional
titles in his long career, including
at least one every year between
1949 and 1975.
His ﬁnest moment came in
1960 when he won the Centenary
British Open at age 39, beating
Arnold Palmer by a stroke at St.
Andrews.
He also ﬁnished runner-up at
the 1965 U.S. Open, beaten by
Gary Player in an 18-hole playoff
and was inducted into golf’s Hall
of Fame in 2007.
“His name was one of the ﬁrst
I remember seeing when I was
handed the Claret Jug in 2010 at
St. Andrews,” recalled South African Louis Oosthuizen.
“Then when I had time to look
more closely at all the names of
those who won the trophy at St.
Andrews there was Mr. Nagle’s
name, so it’s kind of special to
me, even though it is very sad, to
know he and I both won on the
Old Course.”
Double Open Champion Ernie
Els also expressed his condolences.
“I’m sorry to hear Kel passed
away as he was one of the legends of the game and what he
achieved at St. Andrews in 1960
was remarkable given Arnold’s
(Palmer) reputation at the time,”
he said in Dubai.
“He was a great champion and
I’m sure Australian golf, and golf
in general, is poorer for his passing.”
Friday, January 30, 2015
CRICKET
GULF TIMES
ON THE COMEBACK TRAIL
SPOTLIGHT
Aamer: I promise to be
a better man and player
ICC allows Pakistan pacer to play domestic cricket paving the way for his international return
AFP
Lahore
D
isgraced Pakistani fast bowler
Mohamed Aamer yesterday
vowed to prove himself a “better player and better human”
after his spot-ﬁxing ban was relaxed,
allowing him to play again in domestic
matches.
The International Cricket Council
(ICC), the sport’s governing body, gave
permission yesterday for the 22-yearold to return to the game in Pakistan
with immediate effect.
The move brings Aamer a step closer
to a return to international competition
and a measure of redemption for his
part in one of the most scandalous episodes in modern cricket.
Aamer was one of three Pakistani
players handed bans of at least ﬁve years
for arranging no-balls to order in a Test
against England at Lord’s in 2010.
His ban was due to expire on September 2, but the ICC’s Anti-Corruption
and Security Unit (ACSU) used discretionary powers to allow him to return to
domestic cricket early.
“The ACSU Chairman, Sir Ronnie
Flanagan, with the prior approval of
the ICC Board and the PCB (Pakistan
Cricket Board), has exercised his discretion to allow Aamer to return to domestic cricket played under the auspices of
the PCB with immediate effect,” the ICC
said in a statement.
Aamer said he was overwhelmed by
the announcement, the fruit of two
years of efforts by the PCB.
“It’s the biggest news of my life,” he
told AFP by phone. “It was the most difﬁcult phase of my life but I am sure it’s
over now and I am keen to return to international grounds.”
Aamer, along with captain Salman
Butt and new-ball partner Mohamed
Asif were found guilty of orchestrating
deliberate no-balls in the Test against
England.
The three players and their agent
Mazhar Majeed were jailed by a British court after the now-defunct tabloid
News of the World exposed them in a
sting operation.
At the time of the incident, left-
armer Aamer was regarded as one of
the hottest young bowling prospects in
world cricket and there was some sympathy for him, given his young age—he
was 18 at the time.
The ACSU said it was satisﬁed Aamer
had shown remorse and co-operated
in the ﬁght against ﬁxing by recording
messages for education sessions.
Cricket, and Pakistani cricket in particular, has struggled with the scourge
of corruption in recent years and there
has been some disquiet about Aamer’s
return to the game.
Some former professionals have said
he should not be allowed back into international cricket, but Aamer vowed to
win over the naysayers with his bowling—and promised to behave from now
on.
“If anyone has any problems with my
return I am sure he will change his views
with my character and good performances,” he said.
“My job is to play and do well and I am
sure that I will return to international
cricket as a better player and better human being and that’s my aim.”
PCB lawyer Tafazzul Rizvi said Aamer
will be monitored closely during his return to domestic matches.
“The ICC code was followed in
the process and now PCB will monitor Aamer’s behaviour in the next few
months and only after that will he be eligible to return to international cricket,”
Rizvi told AFP.
Aamer said that even at his lowest
points he never thought of giving up
cricket.
“I have not forgotten how to bowl but
now my focus on cricket will be more
than before as I have to prove myself
again,” he said.
Legendary Pakistani left-arm quick
Wasim Akram, to whom Aamer was
compared, said it was right to give the
youngster a second chance.
“A young boy committed a blunder
and for that he has been punished,”
Wasim told AFP by phone from Australia. “As a nation we must forgive as he
has completed the rehab mandatory for
banned players.
“We must adopt a ‘forget and forgive’
policy and Aamer should also show that
he is now a better human being.”
Banned Pakistani paceman Mohamed Aamer (C) arrives for a press conference in Lahore yesterday.
England, India in knockout battle
I
ndia and England clash today in
Perth with the winners taking their
place in the tri series ﬁnal against
Australia in the shadow of the
looming World Cup.
The hosts are enjoying extra time to
prepare for Sunday’s ﬁnal at Perth’s
WACA ground while the tourists go at
each other again.
England thrashed India by nine
wickets in their last encounter and ran
Australia close in their second meeting
last week in Brisbane.
And that has put captain Eoin Morgan in conﬁdent mood ahead of the
World Cup which England kick off
against Australia in Melbourne on February 14.
Morgan says he fancies another crack
at Australia before the big event.
“The opportunity to play Australia
on Sunday is huge,” he said yesterday.
Learning how to live with lengthy
breaks before important matches could
AFP
Dubai
T
PREVIEW
AFP
Perth
World
Cup final
to have
a Super
Over
prove critical for the World Cup, which
carries on till March 29, Morgan added.
“Having too much cricket on your
mind can sometimes create an issue.
“The less guys have to think about it,
the better.
“And the more we can get used to
time off going into the World Cup, it
would be really useful.
“I mean we’ll have stages like this
throughout the World Cup that we’ll
need to get ourselves ready for.”
For India, hamstrung batsman Rohit
Sharma, who hasn’t played since scor-
ing 138 against Australia at the MCG on
Jan 18, will again be missing.
But Sharma, who trained in Perth on
Thursday, could be ﬁt for the ﬁnal if India get through.
India are winless in the series so far,
but skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni
feels his team are slowly building after
comprehensively losing the Test series
to Australia.
Opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan
has suffered a poor tour and is under
pressure to hold his place for the World
Cup after averaging just 17 across 11 in-
nings in Test, one-day and warm-up
matches.
But Dhoni is backing the 29-year-old
to ﬁnd some form on Friday.
“Form is something people don’t
really see - it’s an abstract,” Dhoni
claimed.
“You can come into form and go out
of form very quickly.
“You just have to spend that 10 to 12
minutes of quality time in the middle,
and everything will fall into place.
“What’s important for him will be to
be himself, and bat to his strength.”
he upcoming cricket
World Cup final will
be decided by a Super
Over in the event of a
tie, the sport’s governing body
announced yesterday. The
move is a return to the playing
condition in force at the last
World Cup in 2011, abandoning a proposal to have “joint
winners”, made by the International Cricket Council (ICC)
last year.
“The ICC Board reinstated
the use of a Super Over in the
event of a tie in the ICC Cricket
World Cup 2015 final,” an ICC
release said.
The ICC said a Super Over—
in which both teams play one
over of six balls—was the best
way to decide the winner if the
sides cannot be separated by
the regulation 50 overs each.
“This now replicates the arrangements for the World Cup
2011 final and other recent ICC
events where a winner will be
determined on the day of the
final (weather permitting),
and a Super Over was the most
credible way to separate the
two sides,” the statement said.
Last year the ICC in its playing conditions for the 2015
tournament, co-hosted by
Australia and New Zealand and
starting on February 14, had
decided to have a joint winner in case the final was tied or
abandoned due to bad weather. The ICC also approved a
change to the application of
code of conduct offences relating to slow over-rates, so
that captains do not carry any
prior minor over-rate offence
“strikes” or suspensions from
other series into a major tournament.
The board also reiterated its
support for umpires clamping
down on poor player behaviour, after a number of ugly incidents in the past year.
Safety measures were also
under discussion, following the
tragic death of Australian batsman Philip Hughes last year.
Hughes died on November
27, two days after being hit by
a bouncer on an unprotected
area at the back of his head
during an Australian domestic
first-class game. The board
was briefed on an ICC-backed
research project aimed at improving helmet safety, which
resulted in a new British Safety
Standard being introduced recently.
“It was noted that helmet
manufacturers have now introduced a number of new helmet
models that comply with the
updated British Standard, and
that an increasing number of
international players have been
choosing to wear the helmet
models that comply with this
new safety standard,” the ICC
said.
ALL-ROUND SHOW
Sangakkara lifts Sri Lanka to win over Kiwis
AFP
Wellington
K
umar Sangakkara’s masterful double of a century and a
world-record wicketkeeping
performance inspired Sri Lanka to a 34-run win over New Zealand in
their one-day series ﬁnale in Wellington yesterday.
Even though it was a dead rubber,
with New Zealand going into the match
holding an unbeatable 4-1 lead in the
seven-match series, it was a morale
boosting win for Sri Lanka who had underperformed in the earlier matches.
They posted their highest total of the
series with 287-6 from 50 overs, with
Sangakkara contributing an unbeaten
113, and New Zealand were all out for
253 in the 46th over.
When Corey Anderson threatened to
blast New Zealand into contention with
29 off 20 deliveries, Sangakkara’s diving
one-handed catch to remove him made
him the most successful ODI keeper.
It was his 473rd dismissal, one more
than the previous record set by Australian Adam Gilchrist.
Although the victory restored some
Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara belts the ball during the seventh and final One-Day
International match against New Zealand in Wellington yesterday.
conﬁdence to Sri Lanka they still have
concerns about their batting depth with
only Tillakaratne Dilshan and Lahiru
Thirimanne contributing decent partnerships with Sangakkara.
Sangakkara put on 71 for the ﬁrst
wicket with Thirimanne (30) and 104
for the second wicket with Dilshan (81)
who was caught behind off Tim Southee
with Sri Lanka looking strong at 175-2
and 17 overs remaining.
But as has been the pattern in their
previous innings, they were unable to
accelerate the scoring despite having
wickets in hand.
Only Thisara Perera, with 20 off 12
offered late lusty hitting while Mahela
Jayawardene, who opened with a century in game one of the series, went for
14.
In contrast New Zealand fell well behind in the run chase and appeared on
the ropes when the required rate ballooned to 8.33 after the 35th over and
only four wickets in hand.
But they showed their batting depth
going into the World Cup next month
with Luke Ronchi scoring 47 off 42 deliveries, Daniel Vettori 35 off 30 and Kyle
Mills 30 but as the gap narrowed they
ran out of wickets.
Fittingly, Sangakkara ended the
match when he whipped off the bails to
run out Mills.
At the top of the New Zealand innings
Martin Guptill was removed ﬁrst ball for
the second time in the series.
It offered an opportunity for Tom
Latham, deputising at the top of the order for rested skipper Brendon McCullum, to prove himself but he only lasted
nine deliveries before he was bowled for
six and New Zealand were 11-2 in the
fourth over.
Dushmantha Chameera made a
SCORECARD
Sri Lanka
L. Thirimanne lbw Anderson .......................30
T. Dilshan c Ronchi b Southee .....................81
K. Sangakkara not out ..........................................113
M. Jayawardene c Ronchi b Southee ..14
S. Prasanna lbw Mills ................................................... 1
D. Chandimal c Ronchi b Anderson......... 5
T. Perera c Mills b Anderson ...........................20
N. Kulasekara not out ................................................12
Extras (lb 2, wd 9) .......................................................11
Total (for 6 wickets, 50 overs) ................287
Fall of wickets: 1-71 (Thirimanne), 2-175
(Dilshan), 3-203 (Jayawardene), 4-209
(Prasanna), 5-231 (Chandimal), 6-253
(Perera, 45.4)
Bowling: Mills 8-1-42-1 (2w) Southee
10-0-50-2 (1w), McClenaghan 9-0-47-0,
Vettori 8-0-52-0 (1w), Anderson 9-0-59-3
(2w), Elliott 4-0-24-0 (2w), Williamson
2-0-11-0
New Zealand
M. Guptill lbw Kulasekara .....................................0
T. Latham b Eranga .....................................................6
dream start to his international career
claiming the wicket of New Zealand’s
K. Williamson c Jayawardene b Dilshan .
............................................................................................................54
R. Taylor b Chameera ...............................................11
G. Elliott c Chandimal b Chameera .......24
C. Anderson c Sangakkara b Eranga.. 29
L. Ronchi b Kulasekara ........................................47
D. Vettori b Prasanna ............................................. 35
K . Mills run out ............................................................30
T. Southee c Sangakkara b Perera ..............1
M. McClenaghan not out ......................................5
Extras (lb 5, wd 6) ...................................................... 11
Total (for 10 wickets, 45.2 overs) ..........253
Fall of wickets: 1-0 (Guptill), 2-11
(Latham), 3-42 (Taylor), 4-101 (Elliott),
5-121 (Williamson), 6-141 (Anderson), 7-215
(Ronchi), 8-218 (Vettori), 9-225 (Southee),
10-253 (Mills)
Bowling: Kulasekara 9-0-55-2 (3w),
Eranga 9-1-34-2 (1w), Prasanna 9.2-0-30-1
(1w), Chameera 8-0-60-2, Perera 5-0-42-1
(1w), Dilshan 5-0-27-1
Toss: Sri Lanka
Result: Sri Lanka won by 34 runs
senior batsman Ross Taylor with his
sixth delivery.

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