BUSINESS | Page 1 INDEX QATAR 2 – 8, 28 9 REGION ARAB WORLD 10, 11 INTERNATIONAL 12 – 25 26, 27 COMMENT BUSINESS 1 – 7, 13 – 20 CLASSIFIED 8 – 12 SPORTS 1 – 12 SPORT | Page 12 Qatar Insurance Company profit jumps 33% to QR1bn QATAR | Aviation QA cancels NY and Philadelphia flights Qatar Airways cancelled its New York and Philadelphia flights yesterday as a major winter storm swept the northeast United States, throwing normal life out of gear. Flight QR701 to New York, which was scheduled to leave Doha at 8.05am yesterday was cancelled, the airline said in its website. Similarly, QR727 to Philadelphia, which was scheduled to leave Doha at 1-05pm, was also cancelled yesterday. As per the website, these two flights are on schedule today. Various airlines reacted to the snowstorm by cancelling more than 7,500 flights through Wednesday, reports from the US said. Page 13 Gunmen stormed a hotel in Tripoli popular with diplomats and officials yesterday in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group, killing at least nine people, including five foreigners, before blowing themselves up. Page 11 11,920.48 46.12 -330.70 -1.87% +84.41 +0.71% +0.97 +2.15% Latest Figures WEDNESDAY www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals Civic council urges solution to sewage seepage By Ayman Adly Staff Reporter T HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani presenting the sword of honour to outstanding graduate Mubarak Abdurrahman Mohamed al-Hemaidi during the passing-out ceremony of the second batch of students of the Leader Mohamed bin Abdullah al-Attiyah Air College at Al-Udeid Air Base yesterday. The ceremony was attended by HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani and senior armed forces and interior ministry officers. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the ceremony, HE the Minister of State for Defence Affairs Major General Hamad bin Ali al-Attiyah said that work was underway for the establishment of two naval and military technical colleges in Qatar. Page 2 Free long-term parking at HIA may be over soon By Joey Aguilar Staff Reporter T he Hamad International Airport (HIA) may start imposing charges for its long-term parking in the coming months, it is learnt. Spots for building the payment booths have been earmarked. For now, a large number of passengers and travellers are benefiting from HIA’s free long-term parking, which can accommodate some 2,400 vehicles including those for people with disabilities. Since it is free of charge, many passengers find it more convenient to leave their cars for several weeks when they are away from the country. HIA employees also have a separate designated parking area with more than 1,000 slots. A bus comes to the long-term parking area every 15 to 20 minutes to pick up passengers from six designated air-conditioned kiosks and it takes less than 10 minutes to reach the terminal. Smoking, sleeping, drinking and eating are prohibited in these kiosks. The daily fee at the long-term parking at the old Doha International Airport used to be QR50. On its website, the HIA noted that its Vol. XXXV No. 9616 January 28, 2015 Rabia II 8, 1436 AH The municipal council demands that a comprehensive study should be conducted to identify the quality of plots before any building activity takes place LIBYA | Unrest Gunmen assault luxury Tripoli hotel 17,348.00 in InIn brief Brief NYMEX d Graduation ceremony QE he R is bl TA 978 A 1 Q since GULF TIMES DOW JONES pu Australia set up Asian Cup final with South Korea he Central Municipal Council (CMC) yesterday urged the authorities to find solutions to problems caused by the high levels of groundwater and the leakage of sewage water seeping into the basement and foundation of homes across Qatar. The issue was originally raised almost three years ago by CMC members based on public complaints that several house owners are sustaining great losses due to damages caused by this problem. The municipal council yesterday demanded at its regular bi-weekly session that a comprehensive study should be conducted to identify the quality of plots before any building activity takes place. The council hosted senior officials from the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning (MMUP), the Ministry of Environment, the Public Works Authority (Ashghal), and Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) to discuss the issue with them. The council also issued a number of recommendations for competent entities to address the issue as soon as possible with both temporary and long-term solutions. The problem is cropping up in various parts of the country, such as Doha, Al-Wakrah, Al-Wukair, Ain Khalid, CMC and government officials during yesterday’s session. Abu Hamour and many other areas that still lack a proper and effective network of underground sanitary drainage system. “It is the first time at the council that we revert to an issue in this way; out of our keenness on public good and to respond to the demands of the residents who are suffering daily from this issue, we hosted you today to work out some effective solutions,” CMC chairman Saud al-Hinzab told the officials. CMC member Mohamed bin Saleh al-Khayarin was of the view that this problem was the result of defects in strategic planning. He suggested that local house owners, who sustained losses and damages due to sewage leak or high levels of groundwater, should be allocated an annual budget by the government to compensate them for the damages. There should also be stricter penalties for building contractors that execute poor quality buildings or infrastructures and force them to repair the damages, he demanded. “The Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning has already made a blacklist of such contractors and they would not be able to take new assignments,” said Abdulaziz al-Ubaidan, director of MMUP’s technical affairs department. “People should also report to us any violations or issues that need to be fixed,” he urged. Nasser Yousef Fakhro, director of Ashghal’s Department of Sanitary Drainage networks designs, gave a comprehensive presentation on Ashghal efforts and plans to address the issue of high levels of groundwater around the country. Comprehensive geological surveys and studies on the issue have been conducted throughout the country, including the coastal areas and the outskirts of the country, he explained. “Besides, there are scheduled projects to permanently resolve the issue of sanitary drainage and sewage systems in the country, but this would entail some time. Accordingly, temporary solutions are being adopted to decrease the adverse consequences and ease the suffering of people,” the official added. Jassim al-Mansouri, director of Kahramaa’s Department of Water Supervision, stressed that the agency owned and employed the most sophisticated technology in the world to detect leaks in water pipe connections and responded quickly to any such reports to avoid adverse outcomes. Eventually, both CMC members and the officials agreed that people should assume more responsibility in addressing such issues through close and regular follow-up of the sewage reservoir tanks at their homes and immediately report any leaks to the authorities. In addition, they should inquire about the nature of land before undertaking any private building projects. Page 7 A large number of passengers benefit from the free long-term parking at HIA. short-term car parks offered a covered and easy access to the passenger terminal via dedicated walkways. The first 30 minutes of parking is free while QR5 fee is charged for the first and succeeding hours. A lost ticket will cost QR35. It is pointed out that the east shortterm car park is more convenient for passengers flying with Qatar Airways while the west short-term car park is suited for passengers travelling with other airlines. Parking payment machines have been set up on the bridge connecting the Passenger Terminal Complex and shortterm car park. One passenger who just arrived from a holiday praised HIA’s long-term parking, saying it was more convenient to leave his vehicle there. “It is safe. I hope HIA will offer affordable rates and give discounts to regular customers when a parking fee is levied,” he suggested. Consumer protection issue taken seriously, says Vodafone Qatar V odafone Qatar has said it “takes the issue of customer protection seriously” and does not consider the “3 Months Free” promotion or associated media to be “confusing or misleading”. “To date, feedback received on this promotion has been overwhelmingly positive,” Vodafone Qatar said in a statement yesterday. Earlier, the Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) had found Vodafone Qatar’s “3 Months Free” marketing campaign to be “in breach of” the Code on Advertising, Marketing & Branding, and issued an order to the service provider to remove all its advertisements related to this promotional campaign. According to CRA, the advertisement included “inaccurate and misleading” messages for customers, leading them to believe that customers subscribing to this offer would receive three months’ worth of subscription for free. In response to the CRA order, Vodafone Qatar said: “It understands that the CRA has investigated this matter on the basis of a complaint from its competitor. Vodafone has had no input into the complaint review process to date despite its request for involvement. Vodafone is surprised at the approach taken to this matter as it is not in accordance with the normal approach taken by the CRA.” Vodafone Qatar said that it intended “to pursue the matter further with the CRA through appropriate channels”. Qatar specialist wants Gulf states to rethink economic policy By Martin Dokoupil Dubai/Reuters G ulf Arab oil states may need to rethink longstanding economic policies, including their fixed exchange rates, over the next five to 10 years as economic cycles in the region and the US diverge, a senior Qatar central bank official said in a research paper. The six nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) have pegged their currencies to the US dollar - or in the case of Kuwait, a peg to a basket of currencies that is believed to be dominated by the dollar - to stabilise them. But in recent years the GCC economies have moved more out of sync with the US, as the pegs press GCC policymakers to mirror the US central bank’s decisions even if trends at home call for the contrary. As long as they have currency pegs to the dollar, the Gulf states could face destabilising capital outflows or inflows if they allow large interest rate gaps to open up with the US - but raising interest rates while Gulf economies are slowing could hurt growth further. GCC economies performed well during much of the global financial crisis as the US economy slumped. Now, the US economy is expanding strongly as GCC economies risk slowing because of the plunge of oil prices. Markets believe the Federal Reserve may start raising interest rates this year, and this “is coming at the wrong time for the GCC countries. There is considerable uncertainty here with the oil price and the Fed,” Khalid al-Khater, the Qatar Central Bank’s director of research and monetary policy, said in a research paper seen by Reuters. “If the low oil price persists in the medium term and the Fed starts to raise interest rates, that might contribute to economic slowdown in the GCC. But it depends on the pace of the tightening process, how fast and how persistent they will be.” Al-Khater stressed in the paper, presented at the Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies in Doha, that it represented his personal academic view as a monetary policy specialist, and not the official view of Qatar’s central bank in any way. The Brent oil price has tumbled nearly $70 since June to nearly six-year lows below $50 per barrel, clouding the outlook for the GCC states, where government income from hydrocarbon sales powers economic growth. “Low enough oil prices - below the average break-even price for GCC budgets - for a long enough period - spanning the medium term through 2017 or beyond - can aggravate the status of the cycles between the two sides i.e. widen the potential gap,” al-Khater said. Markets will watch the Fed’s interest rate-setting meeting this week to gauge its resolve to start raising rates mid-way through the year, as consumer prices have dropped despite strong economic momentum. “Qatar still has space over the short run to keep interest rates at the current level, even after the Fed starts to raise rates, since it kept its rate much higher than the Fed policy rate,” al-Khater said. Qatar’s central bank has kept its key overnight deposit rate at 0.75% since August 2011, above the Fed funds target rate of 0-0.25%. Al-Khater said, however, that GCC central banks would ultimately follow the Fed under any scenario, as they had always done in the past. “This more than four-decades-old uni-instrument, uni-tool macropolicy framework, in my opinion, is no longer suitable to manage the economic cycle in today’s GCC economies, because we apparently keep missing the cycle. And it looks like the sync with the US is going to weaken further and further.” Al-Khater added: “The solution is to rethink how to reform the macro policy framework in the region over the medium term to the next decade. That is to adopt a more flexible monetary policy framework to allow for a more appropriate policy mix of fiscal, monetary and exchange rate policies.” He did not give details of policy reforms that he would like to see. In 2013, al-Khater cited Singapore’s currency regime as an example which Gulf states could consider adopting. The Qatar central bank governor told Reuters at the time that the country might change its dollar peg in the longterm future, when the economy had become less dependent on hydrocarbons and local financial markets had deepened. 2 Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 QATAR HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani with ministers, military officials and graduates after the ceremony yesterday. Emir attends Air College convocation QNA Doha H H the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad alThani yesterday attended the passing out ceremony of the second batch of students of the Leader Mohamed bin Abdullah al-Attiyah Air College at AlUdeid Air Base. The ceremony was attended by HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa alThani, a number of ministers as well as senior armed forces and interior ministry officers. The Emir reviewed a parade by the graduating students. The Emir then honoured the outstanding graduates of the batch. The sword of honour was awarded to Mubarak Abdurrahman Mohamed al-Hemaidi, who was the overall topper. The second and third toppers were Abdullah Mohsen Andilah al-Marri (aviation) and Talah Khalid Surour al-Abdullah (military competence and discipline). Afterwards the flag was received and handed over to the third batch. The order for promotion was then read out and the graduates took the oath. At the outset of the ceremony Commander of the Air College Brigadier (Pilot) Salim Hamad al-Nabit gave a speech. “Today we celebrate the graduation of the second batch of Leader Mohamed bin Abdullah al-Attiyah Air College after they were awarded the Bachelor Degree in air sciences and the military diploma armed with knowledge and defence of the beloved homeland,” he said. The Commander of the College underlined that the armed forces, thanks to the policies of HH the Emir and the efforts of the personnel of the forces, is witnessing a remarkable progress in all fields in terms of qualifications, training and arming. This development includes introduction of the best training aircraft and the most advanced in the world as the college began effectively to implement the constituent and advanced training programme on training combat aircraft. Al-Nabit thanked HH the Emir for the unlimited support and also thanked all bodies of the state for their support which contributed to the growth of Leader’s College. At the close of the ceremony HH the Emir attended an air show of a number of the Emiri Air Force and the Leader’s Air College aircraft. HH the Emir then inspected the cockpits of PC 21 aircraft. Qatar, Guinea sign pact The Emir inspects a guard of honour on his arrival at the college. Individuals with ideas invited to visit Challenge 22 Roadshow T HE the Minister of Transport Jassim Seif al-Sulaiti and his Guinean counterpart Aliou Diallo, yesterday signed an aviation agreement. The agreement gives the national carriers of the two countries the right to operate an unlimited number of passenger and cargo flights. After signing the agreement, the two ministers discussed means of enhancing co-operation in transport and communications. Surge in international calls O oredoo has reported a surge in the number of international calls made so far this month, driven by the popularity of its latest Hala TopUp promotion as well as the high number of visitors in town. In December, Ooredoo launched a new promotion for Hala, Qatar’s most popular prepaid service, which enables customers to use the free bonus Ooredoo local minutes they get when the top up for international calls also. Customers enjoy up to 120 local Ooredoo minutes when they top up their Hala account with QR30 and above. With this current promotion, Hala customers can now use these local Ooredoo minutes for up to two hours’ worth of international calls also. The call minutes, which are added based upon the amount that customers top up for, are valid for ten days. Each denomination enables different amounts of bonus minutes, with top-ups of QR200 earning two hours’ call time. The Hala top-up promotion is valid until March15. Qatar has seen a high number of international visitors in Jan- uary, drawn by major sporting events such as the 24th Men’s World Handball Championships and Qatar ExxonMobil Open 2015. Ooredoo sponsored both events, and had a presence at each to enable visitors to purchase Hala services and Mobile Broadband for the Internet. Hala services are designed to be easy to sign up for, with all new customers enjoying 250 local Ooredoo call minutes and 250MB data valid for seven days, as well as a three months free subscription to the Hala International Saver Key. he Challenge 22 Roadshow will visit Qatar for two days starting today. Initiated by the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC), Silatech and Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), Challenge 22 is an innovation award that was borne out of a desire to celebrate the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar as a regional event. Innovators, entrepreneurs and individuals with ideas are invited to visit the Roadshow and learn more about the competition. Challenge 22 is seeking applicants within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), with solution based proposals related to three key themes that address challenges faced by Qatar and the world, when hosting major sports events. The three themes for the inaugural launch of the award are Sustainability, Event Experi- ence, and Sports and Health. Successful applicants have the opportunity to win a cash prize of $20,000 during Phase 1 of the competition and a grant to further develop their idea into a proof of concept during Phase 2 of the competition. While in Qatar the Challenge 22 Roadshow will organise information sessions at Hamad Bin Khalifa University today and tomorrow between 12 noon and 1pm in order to meet with potential applicants and to provide more information about this new initiative. Challenge 22 Ambassadors, the Kuwaiti entrepreneur Areej al-Khrafi, well-known Emirati animation director Mohamed Saeed Harib and Qatari inventor Mohamed al-Hossani, will share their inspirational stories and explain how they overcame the challenges they faced on their journey to success. Fatma al-Nuaimi, Social and Human Legacy Manager at the SC spoke about the Challenge 22 Roadshow. “We’re delighted to be here in Qatar to inform people about this wonderful opportunity. We are proud to be supporting innovation and we know there are many innovators in Qatar and the region waiting to be discovered. The enthusiasm and interest we have received so far has been overwhelming. We’d like to encourage more people to attend and find out how they can be part of Challenge 22.” The Challenge 22 Roadshow commenced on January 25 in Kuwait and will conclude on February 17 in the UAE. The next stop on the Challenge 22 Roadshow will be Saudi Arabia from February 1 to 5. A full schedule of Challenge 22 activities and more information about the award are available on www.challenge22.qa HBKU hosts Colorado students Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), a member of Qatar Foundation (QF) for Education, Science and Community Development, hosted 25 faculty, staff and graduate students from Colorado State University from January 4 to 16. It was part of HBKU’s Qatar Study Tour (QST) and Young Professionals Institute (YPI) programmes. These programmes, which are based on a partnership with graduate institutions in the US and which are delivered by HBKU Student Affairs’ staff, serve to showcase how student affairs ideas transform education in Qatar. Since their inception in 2010, the QST and YPI programmes have enabled participants to broaden and exchange their knowledge, while extending their professional network and enhancing intercultural competence. QST participants gain insight into higher education and student affairs in Qatar by engaging with senior administrators from HBKU, its partner universities in Education City, and Qatar University. Participants are also invited to explore Education City as well as visit many of the cultural sites in Doha during their stay. The YPI programme, an intensive four-day learning experience, encourages graduate students from the collaborating institution in the US to engage with an equal number of stakeholders from institutions in Qatar. Minister invited to South Korea HE the Minister of Municipality and Urban Planning Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz al-Thani yesterday met Kim Kyung Sik, South Korean Vice Minister for Land and Infrastructure and Transport, and his accompanying delegation. The two sides discussed ways to enhance co-operation between the two countries, notably in infrastructure and development projects. They also reviewed South Korean companies’ contribution to state projects. Kim Kyung Sik invited the minister to visit his country to learn about Korean companies’ contribution in construction of modern cities. Al-Kuwari meets Turkish official HE the Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage Dr Hamad bin Abdul Aziz al-Kuwari yesterday met with Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry Undersecretary Professor Ahmet Haluk Dursun who is currently visiting Qatar at the head of a cultural delegation to attend the opening ceremony of the 2015 Qatar-Turkey Year of Culture. During the meeting they discussed aspects of cultural co-operation between the two friendly countries. Service centre in Al Shahaniya HE Minister of Administrative Development Dr Issa Saad al-Jafali al-Nuaimi yesterday inaugurated a centre for government services in Al Shahaniya. Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 3 QATAR HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani met yesterday with the City of London Mayor Lord Alderman Alan Yarrow. During the meeting they discussed means of enhancing economic and investment relations between the two countries. HE the Minister of Economy and Commerce Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohamed al-Thani met yesterday with the City of London Mayor Lord Alderman Alan Yarrow, and his accompanying delegation. British chamber offers to support Qatar SME sector By Peter Alagos Business Reporter T he newly-launched British Chamber of Commerce in Qatar (BCCQ) aims to strengthen the country’s entrepreneurship and small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) sector to help Qatar diversify away from the hydrocarbon industry, the City of London’s Lord Mayor Alderman Alan Yarrow said yesterday. “While Qatar has vast resources of hydrocarbons, they’ve got to develop their other industries, particularly SMEs and entrepreneurship. Majority of companies in the UK are SMEs so we have a very strong entrepreneurial culture and we’re very big on driving forward interest in putting up businesses in Qatar. “Most of the companies the chamber has spoken to come from almost all sectors but they are very interested in pouring their investments here. This is also reflective of the chamber’s role in helping Qatari SMEs and entrepreneurs get in touch with their UK counterparts,” he said. The Lord Mayor added: “It could not be a better time to begin exporting and to open up new businesses with Qatar. Not only is the economy booming here, but the prospects for British firms are excellent with the most recent trade figures showing UK trade with Qatar up 40% on the previous year.” Cook said trade volume between Qatar and the UK small companies because they are the ones who employ people,” the Lord Mayor said after the official launch of the BCCQ at the HSBC Building in Doha. The Lord Mayor added that compared to large firms, entrepreneurship and SMEs have a direct role in increasing the employment statistics of countries. “And that’s what we need out here, we need better employment. So, that’s why we’ve come here to support Qatar to look at various issues where we in the UK have vast experiences that we could share with the government,” he said. This was reiterated by BCCQ managing director Peter Cook, who said that the chamber has already spoken to 35 UK-based companies that expressed last year has reached around $4bn, $2.5bn of which was derived from goods and another $1.5bn from services. “Establishing a British chamber in Qatar to focus on supporting UK businesses could not be more important or urgent. With the extensive backing of the British and Qatari governments and the British Chambers of Commerce in the UK, the chamber in Qatar intends to become one of the leading business support organisations in the country. “Any UK or Qatari business, but especially SME businesses, can look forward to a new organisation focused on their needs and able to deliver a wide suite of business services to smooth and speed up their path to business success in Qatar,” Cook stressed. Traffic diversion at Umm Slal Mohamed Public Works Authority (Ashghal) has announced a temporary traffic diversion on 1.4km-stretch of the south-bound side of Shamal Expressway near Interchange N12 at Umm Slal Mohamed. The traffic diversion, which will be in place for six months, will become effective from January 30, Ashghal said. It said the temporary diversion has become necessary for carrying out the construction of a bridge deck over the proposed N12 interchange and also as part of the ongoing work to improve Shamal Expressway. After work is completed the present three-lane traffic in the area will be turned to four-lane traffic as on the opposite side of the road now. Ashghal will install road signs for the attention of the motorists. QA introduces QVoucher for Dubai flights Q atar Airways is introducing a new scheme today that will allow travellers on the popular Doha to Dubai route to save 20% on the economy class fare price, with the use of QVoucher. Available from the Qatar Airways website, travel agents, or at any of the airline’s sales offices, a booklet of two vouchers cost QR200 and could be redeemed for a 20% discount off the total fare. The offer runs until February 3. Passengers will be able to avail of the 20% discount for travel on flights up until February 28. Qatar Airways flies to Dubai 18 times daily, comprising 14 flights to Dubai International Airport and four to Dubai Al Maktoum International Airport. QVoucher may be redeemed on both the routes. Privilege Club members also have the additional benefit of being able to utilise the discount vouchers purchased for redemption on any tickets for family members who are listed under their Privilege Club membership scheme. Qatar Airways senior vice president commercial (Qatar) Ehab Amin, said: “We continually look for ways to respond to regular travel patterns and provide unique solutions and offers to them.” Ethiopia seeks Qatari investment E thiopia is exploring the possibility of attracting investments from Qatar in diverse areas of activities in the mainland East African nation. A delegation, comprising Ethiopia’s minister Shibru Mamo Kedida and Ambassador Mesganu Arga Moach in Doha, called on Barwa Group acting CEO Ahmad Abdullah al-Abdulla. The Barwa Group said the delegation’s visit was aimed at strengthening the economic and investment ties with Qatar represented by one of its biggest real estate and investments companies. Discussions were held on the group’s future plans and the potential of studying the investment environments in Ethiopia for future business opportunities. Ahmad Abdulla al-Abdulla said: “Ethiopia is one of the most developing countries in Africa in such areas as industry, agriculture, economic and hospitality fields. The country maintains an annual growth rate that has been increasing for the past many years, which makes it a promising business environment for foreign investors. Although, we at Barwa are focusing on domestic development projects at the moment, we realise the importance which lies in the investment environment in Ethiopia, and promise to explore the chances of doing business there.” Ethiopian Ambassador Mesganu Arga Moach and minister Shibru Mamo Kedida with Barwa Real Estate acting CEO Ahmed Abdulla al-Abdulla at his office. Yarrow and Qatari and British dignitaries at the official launch of the BCCQ in Doha. PICTURE: Thajudheen 4 Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 QATAR Students seen during an outdoor activity at the camp. School pupils attend Winter Career Camp Q atar Career Fair (QCF), a member of Qatar Foundation (QF), has launched its first Winter Career Camp at the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC) with 30 preparatory school students. The one-week programme runs until January 29. Designed to engage Qatari preparatory school students, the camp is providing participants with a range of practical skills and tools to help them choose the academic path that best suits their interests and capabilities. Through this event, the Qatar Career Fair supports QF’s mission of providing world-class education, work experience, and career opportunities to help the nation’s drive towards creating a knowledge-based economy. The camp also features a variety of stimulating career-oriented workshops that have been tailored to inspire a strong career culture and help students discover their skills and talents early on. The camp also provides students with a great experience through which they are able to acquire multiple skills in a fun, entertaining and interactive way. They are also visiting different local companies to gain first hand insight into their operations and work culture and help them think about specific careers after academic life. Maryah al-Dafa, acting director of communications, Qatar Foundation, said that numerous opportunities and tools are available for the present generation to achieve success for themselves and their country. “Success only comes before work in the dictionary, but the reality is very different. Success can only be achieved by working hard and persevering through all challenges,” she said. Abdulla al-Mansoori, director, Qatar Career Fair, said: “Our programmes and initiatives aim to provide the Qatari youth with multiple career development skills, as well as instil in participants a strong career ethic. This will help them face the challenges of the competitive Qatar labour market. “The primary aim of the workshops is to hone talents and develop personal skills. Also, the students will be directly exposed to different types of work environments through various site visits, ultimately providing them a clearer vision of their future career path.” Every student that successfully completes the programme, will be awarded with a participation certificate. Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 7 QATAR CMC calls for greater safety on school buses P riority should be given to Qatari women for the job of local Independent School bus attendants, followed by other Arabs, the Central Municipal Council (CMC) recommended yesterday at its regular biweekly session. The Council approved a number of recommendations aimed at enhancing safety and security of school buses. Bus attendants should be given special training to ensure students’ safety and deal with emergencies, it was stressed. The CMC recommended that school buses should be equipped with equipment to show educational movies and presentations to benefit students. Mowasalat should introduce more small buses to allow easy movement in crowded areas and roads. The Council highlighted the need to provide more shaded public areas by shopping malls, public services organisations and huge construction projects. There should be chairs for the convenience of both the public and workers, who need to rest during their duties and more trees ought to be planted in the open areas. However, signs in Arabic, English and Urdu should be posted at such places saying workers should not gather there during weekends. The CMC also reviewed and approved the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning’s response to its recommendation on parking and banning of trucks on Doha roads during busy hours. Interior Ministry’s fingerprints database ‘reaches 5mn’ The number of fingerprints in the main database of the Ministry of Interior’s electronic archives have reached 5mn, according to a report published by local Arabic daily Arrayah, quoting Director of Criminal Investigation Brigadier Khalifa Abdullah al-Nuami. The Criminal Evidence and Investigation Department will execute a plan to develop the fingerprint section through the expansion of the database, so that it could reach the 7mn mark soon. Eventually, it will house 10mn imprints, he said. Brigadier al-Nuaimi also confirmed in an interview with the Police Magazine recently that the Criminal Evidence and Investigation Department is working under a plan to reduce the crime rate. Brigadier al-Nuami said the strategy also aims at the security enhancement and strengthening of the capabilities of the policemen in detecting crimes. The MoI’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations includes four departments namely the criminal investigations, the criminal laboratory, narcotic combating, apart from the Criminal Evidence and Information, he said. The team members during their inspection. Field tour of eateries held to ensure health standards T he rehabilitation team of the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning (MMUP) joined the food inspectors in a field tour, that covered many restaurants and hotels across the country. The tour targeted specification of the health requirements to be met by the restaurants, hotels as well as food preparation and handling venues. The tour included briefing of the eateries’ health requirements, and ways to ensure compliance, the inspection methods to be followed and adopted. It also included the steps to be initiated by a food inspector as soon as he steps into a restaurant, hotel or any other food establishment and what he needs to do until he completes the inspection process. The food workers were also acquainted with the hygiene requirements stipulated by the guidelines of the department concerned. The field tour was part of the institutional qualification programme, organised by the MMUP in order to help improve the food inspection system. 8 Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 QATAR ITMA Congress website launched T The Trump Home collection being launched in Qatar by City Lifestyle customer Fatima as marketing manager Rajgopal, concept manager Gaurav Kaushik and others look on. Trump Home debuts in Qatar D T Home Marks International and City Lifestyle have announced a new partnership to introduce the Trump Home brand exclusively across stores in Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The collection will include room décor, bath accessories, lighting, decorative mirrors, and jewellery boxes inspired by the luxury and sophistication of the Trump brand. “We are excited to be expanding the Trump Home global footprint and to be collaborating with City Lifestyle,” said Donald J Trump, chairman and president of The Trump Organisation. “We chose to collaborate with Trump Home for an exclusive Middle East launch keeping in mind the growing demand of the region’s style conscious consumer’s need for premium and be- spoke brands,” said Sachin Mundhwa, the CEO of Lifestyle. Highlights of the assortment include bath accessories with mother of pearl and chrome detailing, along with luxurious, fashion forward jewellery boxes made of leather. The collection was unveiled at a launch event on Monday at City Lifestyle at Centrepoint, Al Asmakh Mall. he website of the 24th International Traffic Medicine Association (ITMA) Congress, to be held later this year in Doha, was launched at a ceremony yesterday by Secretary General of National Traffic Safety Committee, Brigadier and senior engineer Mohamed Abdullah al-Malki. Brigadier al-Malki is the president of organising committee for hosting the Congress, slated for November 16-18, under the patronage of HE the Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani. ‘Traffic Medicine and Road Safety in Fast Developing Countries’ is the theme of ITMA 2015 Congress and it is expected to provide a multi-disciplinary network and forum for scientists and practitioners involved in the traffic safety to interact with each other and exchange ideas and information on the latest issues in this field. Al-Maliki said the importance of the Congress stems from the Congress’ title itself as it is a global scientific congress to discuss all issues concerning traffic medicine including healthcare services, rescue services, security, legal measures and educational programmes integrated into traffic medicine system. The senior traffic official added the newly launched website will be considered as a gate through which the outside world overlooks to get out and recognise the efforts of Qatar in various fields, particularly in the areas of traffic medicine and safety as issues of concern and care of the authorities in the state. Al-Malki said the website provides necessary information about Qatar, the 24th ITMA Congress and its related services such as participation, registration, visas and hotel bookings and other services. Brigadier al-Malki launching the website of the ITMA Congress. Dr Wafa al-Yazidi, Director of Medical Rehabilitation at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) and member of Congress Organising Committee said the Ministry of Interior, National Traffic Safety Committee, General Directorate of Traffic, HMC, Public Works Authority (Ashghal), Ministry of Transport, Qatar University all are working together for the Congress where 300-500 experts are expected to present their papers to bring out best results in the field of traffic medicine and safety. Senior engineer Jamal Sharaida alKaabi, director of Central Planning Office at the Ministry of Municipalities and Urban Planning, said the Congress is unique as it will cover the topics of engineering, medicine and its relations with road safety and accidents which will further boost efforts in the field of traffic medicine and road engineering. The ITMA Congress covers all areas of traffic medicine and its associated disciplines. Delegates to the event include medical doctors, physiologists, psychologists, traffic safety experts, vehicle designers and manufacturers, engineers, policy makers, police officers, and insurance experts. The Congress will focus on the progress in traffic safety, injury prevention, improvement in treatment methods in recent years, and will also bring some well-known traffic medicine experts together to share the most advanced concepts, theories and techniques. Their deliberations are expected to promote traffic crash prevention, traffic safety, first-aid, medical treatment, and reducing the mortality and disability resulting from traffic injury to raise the road users health standards and the quality of life. Domestic and international manufacturers from the field of traffic safety and injury treatments will participate in an exhibition to be held as part of the Congress. The newly launched bilingual English/Arabic website (http://www. itma-congress-2015.com) provides l information on the Congress including registration, participation, paper presentation, travel, lodging and visa to Qatar. TAMU-Q research highlighted in journal A research paper written by a team of Texas A&M University at Qatar ( TAMU-Q) chemical engineers has been featured on the cover of the Journal of Chemical Physics. The paper, ‘Prediction of the Phase Equilibria of Methane Hydrates Using the Direct Phase Coexistence Methodology’, describes the naturallyoccurring problem of gas hydrates in natural gas pipelines and was published in the latest issue of the journal. The authors of the paper are postdoctoral research associate Dr Vasileios Michalis, master student Joseph Costandy, visiting researcher Dr Ioannis Tsimpanogiannis, Prof Ioannis Economou from TAMU-Q Chemical Engineering Programme; and Dr Athanassios Stubos from the National Centre for Scientific Research “Demokritos” in Greece. “Gas hydrates such as methane hydrates are solids that form naturally in water and can block fluid flow in hydrocarbon pipelines during transportation”, Economou said. The featured research paper discusses a method to predict the pressure and temperature conditions under which methane hydrates form , which is common in the natural gas industry. “It’s a flow assurance problem,” he said. “To deal with gas hydrates, producers can either operate in different conditions or add chemicals such as glycols or alcohols to prohibit formation of hydrates. But these chemicals add to the cost.” Knowing exactly how hydrocarbon and water molecules interact under different pressure and temperature conditions to form gas hydrates can help industry better deal with blockages. The problem of gas hydrates is also an environmental issue. Melting hydrates in the world’s ocean floor has led to the release of methane,which is one of the most important greenhouse gases. In addition, gas hydrates can also be used in water desalination to separate salt and other impurities from seawater to produce fresh water. The research project began in December 2013 and is funded by a cycle-6 award from Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) National Priorities Research Programme (NPRP). The goal of the project is to model and simulate how gas hydrates form so that industry can transport natural gas more safely and efficiently.The research can have significant impact in Qatar and in the oil and gas industry worldwide. Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 9 REGION Houthis free top aide of president Obama, Saudi king discuss IS fight, Iran nuclear issue A senior US official says Obama and Salman discussed “the campaign against the Islamic State... the need to continue providing support to the opposition in Syria (and) the need to promote unity in Iraq” AFP Riyadh U S President Barack Obama led a heavyweight delegation to Saudi Arabia yesterday to meet new King Salman and discussed the two countries’ ongoing fight against the Islamic State group. The leaders also tackled the issue of Iran’s nuclear programme and human rights in the kingdom, a senior US official said. Riyadh has been part of the US-led coalition carrying out air strikes against IS since last year and is a long-time regional ally of Washington. Members of the 29-member bipartisan US delegation, which included former Bush-era officials, said they wanted to show support for the US-Saudi relationship. “I believe it is important that we demonstrate to the Saudis the importance that they represent to us,” said James Baker, secretary of state during the first Gulf War against Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussain. “This is an extraordinarily critical and sensitive time in the Middle East when everything seems to be falling apart. And the kingdom in some way is becoming an island of stability,” said Baker. The Americans arrived for a four-hour stop from India, where Obama cut short a state visit following the death on Friday of Salman’s predecessor, King Abdullah. Saudi television showed Salman, 79, welcoming Obama and his wife Michelle at the bottom of a red-carpeted ramp before a military band played the US and Saudi national anthems. Crown Prince Muqrin and Mohamed bin Nayef, the interior minister who is second in line to the throne, were among those greeting the Americans. The US president then boarded a black limousine taking him for talks and dinner with Salman at central Riyadh’s Erga Palace, the king’s private residence. “Good to see you,” Obama repeatedly said to his Saudi hosts before they dined on Arabic and Western dishes including shish tawook and baked lobster, before leaving the kingdom. Obama last visited Saudi Arabia in March, when he held talks with Abdullah. A senior US official said Obama and Salman discussed “the campaign against the Islamic State... the need to continue providing support to the opposition in Syria (and) the need to promote unity in Iraq”. Several other topics, including Riyadh’s human rights record and Iranian nuclear talks, were also broached during yesterday’s visit. The US official said Obama discussed human rights “in broad terms”, but did not raise with Salman the case of blogger Raef Badawi, who was sentenced to 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam and whose case has attracted international concern. Former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft and Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state under George W Bush, joined the US contingent, which included current Central Intelligence Agency director John Brennan and General Lloyd Austin, head of US Central Command. They had all accompanied AFP Sanaa S Obama stands beside King Salman shortly after his arrival in Riyadh yesterday. Obama to India but Secretary of State John Kerry and Senator John McCain joined the president especially for his Saudi trip. McCain, a Republican who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the kingdom was emerging “as the major bulwark” against efforts by Iran to expand its influence in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and Bahrain. The senior US official, who spoke anonymously, said that while Salman had not raised the topic of nuclear talks, he “did say Iran should not be allowed to build a nuclear weapon”. Obama is the latest leader to visit Riyadh since Friday. His reception was the most elaborate but sheikhs, presidents and prime ministers from Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas all came to pay their respects. Australia’s Governor General Peter Cosgrove also arrived yesterday. hia militiamen freed yesterday a top aide to Yemen’s president, whose kidnapping deepened the country’s crippling political crisis, said a person who helped mediate the release. President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s chief of staff Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak was handed over to a committee of mediators, 10 days after he was abducted, Hussam al-Shargabi said. Mubarak was later taken to the Sanaa residence of a tribal chief from Sabwa, the same southern province from which he hails. The Shia militia, known as Houthis, have controlled most of the Yemeni capital since September 21. After they seized the presidential palace last week, Hadi tendered his resignation, saying he could not stay in office as the country was in “total deadlock”. In a televised speech yesterday, militia chief Abdulmalik alHouthi described Hadi’s resignation as a manoeuvre aimed at imposing certain conditions on the ground. He did not elaborate. He also called for an “extraordinary and historical” meeting on Friday of all political, social, and tribal forces in Yemen “to review the political and security situation and come up with important decisions”. Mubarak’s release comes a day after UN envoy Jamel Benomar met with Houthi leaders, as he sought to broker an agreement following Hadi’s offer to resign. In a statement on Facebook, Benomar voiced his happiness at Mubarak’s release. 10 Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 ARAB WORLD UN halts Gaza house repairs, lacking funds AFP Gaza City Iraq’s Transport Minister Bayan Jaboor speaks to media at Baghdad airport yesterday. Shooting disrupts Baghdad flights Reuters Baghdad S ix airlines from the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Lebanon suspended flights to Baghdad yesterday after bullets hit an airplane operated by budget carrier Dubai Aviation Corp, known as flydubai, as it was landing at Baghdad airport. Iraqi Transport Minister Bayan Jaboor said the plane was hit at an altitude of 600m by gunfire from what he judged was a light machinegun. He did not rule out that Monday’s shooting could be a militant action but said security forces had identified the source. A security official said authorities had rounded up suspects in farmlands south of the airport, which lies on the city’s western outskirts. An aviation official said Iraq had briefly suspended air traffic on Monday following the incident but permitted it to resume yesterday morning. However, flydubai, Emirates Airlines, Sharjah’s Air Arabia and Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways suspended flights yesterday, in line with a directive from the UAE civil aviation authority. The UAE’s state Wam news agency reported that the foreign ministry had summoned the Iraqi ambassador to Abu Dhabi to express serious concern about the incident. Turkish Airlines and Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines (MEA) also suspended flights without citing the shooting incident. It was not clear when the airlines would resume service. Company officials said Iraqi Airways and Iran’s Caspian Airlines were operating flights to Baghdad on a normal schedule. Jaboor said those airlines had operated nearly 40 flights in and out of Baghdad yesterday. T he UN agency for Palestinian refugees said yesterday that it cannot afford to repair Gaza homes damaged in last year’s war with Israel because donors have failed to pay. “The agency has exhausted all funding to support repairs and rental subsidies,” said the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa). “$5.4bn was pledged at the Cairo (aid) conference last October and virtually none of it has reached Gaza. This is distressing and unacceptable. “It is unclear why this funding has not been forthcoming.” Unrwa said the homes of more than 96,000 Palestine refugees were destroyed or damaged during the conflict. They made up the vast majority of the more than 100,000 homes hit during the 50-day conflict between Israel and Gaza’s de facto rulers Hamas. Hamas denounced the Unrwa decision, saying it would “aggravate the plight of thousands of families” and urging it to put pressure on donors to honour their pledges. Unrwa said: “Some funds remain available to begin the reconstruction of totally destroyed homes.” The agency said cutting subsidies to displaced residents now renting alternative accommodation could Men work next to destroyed buildings in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighbourhood yesterday. force large numbers back to UN schools and centres which are already sheltering 12,000 people. “Unrwa in Gaza has so far provided over $77mn to 66,000 Palestine refugee families to repair their home or find a temporary alternative,” it said. “This is a tremendous achievement; it is also wholly insufficient... We are talking about thousands of families who continue to suffer through this cold winter with inadequate shelter. “People are literally sleeping amongst the rubble. Children have died of hypothermia.” Two babies died in Gaza this month as dozens of homes were flooded in brutal storms that brought freezing rain and gale-force winds. An Unrwa spokesman in Gaza yesterday said the ceasefire that halted the fighting with Israel would be in jeopardy if rebuilding work were to stall. “Halting reconstruction will have dangerous consequences,” Adnan Abu Hasna said. “By delaying payment of money for reconstruction the donors are putting the ceasefire in danger.” Reconstruction has barely begun, with experts saying it will take years even if Israel significantly eases its eight-year blockade on Gaza. Israel, which controls two of the three crossings into Gaza, maintains tight curbs on entry of building material, fearing they could be used by militants to make weapons or attack tunnels. Kurds expand fight against IS AFP Beirut K urdish fighters battled the Islamic State group in villages around Kobane yesterday, a day after expelling the militants from the strategic Syrian town on the Turkish border. The news prompted celebrations among residents who fled across the frontier into Turkey, with thousands gathering at the border and hoping to return, more than four months after the fighting began. The town’s recapture marked a key symbolic and strategic blow against IS, but officials warned massive reconstruction was needed and the fight would continue for the surrounding villages. The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) announced the “libera- tion” of Kobane on Monday, depriving IS of a strategic prize to add to its territory in Syria and Iraq. “Our forces fulfilled the promise of victory,” the militia said, cautioning that fighting was not over yet. “The process to ultimately liberate Kobane canton (region) is ahead of us. We pledge that we will successfully carry out this promise as well.” There was fighting in villages around the town yesterday, both to the southeast and the southwest, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor. Kobane activist Mustafa Ebdi said the US-led coalition fighting IS carried out fresh air strikes around the town on Monday evening and yesterday morning. In Turkey, thousands of Kurds among the 200,000 who fled Rockets fired from Syria hit Israeli-occupied Golan: army At least two rockets fired from Syria hit the Israelioccupied Golan Heights yesterday prompting Israeli forces to return fire, the army said. There were no immediate reports of casualties on the Israeli side. Israeli army spokesman Peter Lerner said in a text message the Syrian fire was “intentional, not spillover from the Syrian civil war” as has sometimes been the case in the past. In September the army fired at a Syrian military position in response to what it said was stray fire from fighting between soldiers and Islamist rebels close to the armistice line on the Golan. There has been repeated fire across the ceasefire line since the uprising in Syria erupted in March 2011, not all of it stray. In August, five rockets fired from Syria hit the Israelioccupied sector of the Golan Heights and, in July, Israel shelled Syrian army positions when a rocket struck its territory. Kobane and the surrounding area flocked to the border. Most went to celebrate, but some tried to cross the frontier, which remains officially closed. Turkish security forces used teargas and water cannon to push back those who approached the barbed wire separating the two countries. Only a handful of people were able to cross, including Idris Nassan, deputy foreign minister for the Kobane regional government. “People are very glad. They are celebrating. Morale is very high,” he told AFP from the town. He said the regional government was urging residents not to return yet. “There is massive destruction. At least 50% of the city is destroyed,” he said. “We are asking them to wait and not come immediately because we don’t have basic necessities for them. There is no food, no medicine. We don’t have electricity or water.” Nassan said the regional government would now appeal to the international community for help. “We need aid. We need experts for reconstruction. We also need weaponry to continue to fight,” he said. “This is the first stage, the liberation of Kobane. The next stage is the liberation of the villages.” As the Kurdish militia raised their flags over Kobane, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country opposed the idea of a Kurdish-controlled autonomous government in northern Syria. “We do not want a new Iraq. What’s this? Northern Iraq,” Erdogan told Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper. Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 11 ARAB WORLD Hundreds of child soldiers released Nine killed as gunmen storm Tripoli hotel The Tripoli branch of the Islamic State militant group claims responsibility for the attack AFP Tripoli G unmen stormed a hotel in Tripoli popular with diplomats and officials yesterday in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group, killing at least nine people including five foreigners before blowing themselves up. After setting off a car bomb outside the luxury Corinthia Hotel in Libya’s capital, three armed militants rushed inside and opened fire, Issam al-Naass, a spokesman for the security services, said. They made it to the 24th floor of the hotel, which is a major hub for diplomatic and government activity in Tripoli, before being surrounded by security forces and blowing themselves up, he said. The dead included three security guards killed in the initial attack, five foreigners shot dead by the gunmen and a hostage who died when the attackers blew themselves up, he said. At least five people were also wounded during the assault, including two Filipina employees hurt by broken glass from the car bomb explosion, he said. The nationalities of the for- eigners killed and the person taken hostage were not immediately known, but Naass said two of the foreigners were women. The hotel’s 24th floor is normally used by Qatar’s mission to Libya but no diplomats or officials were present during the assault, a security source said. The head of Libya’s self-declared government, Omar alHassi, was also inside the hotel at the time of the attack but was evacuated safely, Naass said. In a brief statement on Twitter, the Tripoli branch of the Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, the SITE Intelligence monitoring group said. It said it was carrying out the attack in honour of Abu Anas alLibi, an Al Qaeda suspect who died in the United States earlier this month, days before facing a trial for bombing US embassies. Several militant groups in Libya have pledged allegiance to IS, the extremist organisation that has seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq and declared an Islamic “caliphate”. Security forces loyal to Hassi’s government, which is jostling for power with the internationally backed authority of Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni, surrounded the building during the assault. The government in Tripoli said the attack was an assassination attempt on Hassi it blamed on “enemies of the revolution and the war criminal Khalifa Haftar”, a former general who last year spearheaded an operation against Islamist militias in second city Benghazi. Ambulances, armoured vehicles and pick-up trucks with mounted artillery could be seen around the hotel during the assault. Security forces prevented journalists from entering the hotel after the assault, saying work was needed inside to ensure the assailants had not left behind booby traps. EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini condemned the attack, calling it “another reprehensible act of terrorism which deals a blow to efforts to bring peace and stability to Libya”. She expressed “solidarity with the victims and their families” but made no mention of the nationalities of the dead. “Such attacks should not be allowed to undermine the political process,” Mogherini said in a statement. A new round of UN-mediated peace talks between Libya’s rival factions kicked off in Geneva on Monday as they seek to implement a road map on forming a unity government. The nation has been wracked by conflict since the overthrow of dictator Muammar Gaddafi in a 2011 uprising, with rival governments and powerful militias battling for control of key cities and the country’s oil riches. AFP Juba S Security forces surround the Corinthia hotel in Tripoli yesterday. The Islamist-backed Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn) militia alliance took control of Tripoli last summer, forcing Thinni’s government to flee to the remote east. The luxurious Corinthia was long considered a haven in a city Jail terms for top Egypt liberal activists upheld Agencies Cairo A n Egyptian court upheld threeyear jail sentences yesterday for three prominent liberal activists, judicial sources said, after days of violence around the anniversary of the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak. In 2013, a court handed down the sentences against Ahmed Maher, Ahmed Douma and Mohamed Adel— leading figures of the pro-democracy revolt—for protesting without permission and assaulting police, under a new law suppressing demonstrations. A car bomb killed one person and wounded two near a police station in Egypt’s second largest city Alexandria yesterday, and police discovered three other explosive devices, security sources said, blaming militant Islamists. Assailants hurled Molotov cocktails at another police station in Alexandria, setting fire to part of the building. There were no casualties. Two bombs planted in front of a courthouse in Cairo’s Heliopolis district were defused while a bomb in front of another courthouse in Fayoum province exploded without causing injuries, the security sources said. Militants have stepped up attacks against soldiers and police since the army toppled president Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013 following mass protests against his rule. Critics accuse Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former army chief who was elected president last year, of returning Egypt to authoritarian rule. Sisi says he is committed to democracy. Security forces have mounted the biggest crackdown against Islamists in the country’s history on Sisi’s watch and liberal activists have also been jailed. The UN human rights chief said yesterday he was “deeply disturbed” over the killing of 20 protesters by security forces in clashes over the past few days. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein also demanded in a statement that Cairo “take urgent measures to bring an end to the excessive use of force by security personnel”. Zeid’s comments came after 20 protesters were killed since Friday, including leading left-wing female activist Shaimaa al-Sabbagh, said to have been hit in the back by buckshot. Two members of the security forces have also been killed. Zeid said “hundreds of people have died during protests against successive governments since January 2011, and there has been very little in the way of accountability”. “The lack of justice for past excesses by security forces simply encourages People walk past police standing guard in central Cairo yesterday. them to continue on the same path,” he warned, pointing out that this was “leading to more deaths and injuries, as we have seen in recent days”. The statement said Sabbagh’s death was caught “on video and in photographs posted on the Internet after she had apparently been shot from behind during a peaceful protest in central Cairo”. Zeid’s condemnation came after the United States, Britain and Human Rights Watch denounced protesters’ killings. Egypt brushed off the criticism, saying it was “unbalanced... and far from reality”. “These statements overlook acts of murder, arson and terrorism that supporters of the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood have carried out,” a foreign ministry statement said. Zeid also decried numerous arrests over the weekend. Authorities said more than 500 backers of the blacklisted Brotherhood were arrested, in the biggest daily sweep since Sisi came to power. “All those who have been detained for protesting peacefully must be released,” Zeid said, insisting that the long-term stability of Egypt is only possible if fundamental human rights are respected. “Otherwise people’s grievances will fester and feelings of injustice will grow, creating fertile ground for further social and political unrest.” beset by unrest, with officials, diplomats and foreign businessmen crossing paths in its lavish reception area. In October 2013, then prime minister Ali Zeidan was seized by gunmen from the hotel, where he was residing. He was released after several hours. British Prime Minister David Cameron and then French president Nicolas Sarkozy held talks with top officials at the hotel in September 2011, when they were the first foreign leaders to visit Libya after Gaddafi’s ouster. outh Sudanese rebels yesterday released 280 child soldiers, the first batch of some 3,000 to be freed but with thousands more still fighting, the UN children’s agency said. Some 12,000 children, mainly boys, have been forcibly recruited by armed groups across the country in the past year alone to fight, according to Unicef. Those freed included some as young as 11, who had been fighting for up to four years and have never attended school. “The first group of 280 children were released today, at the village of Gumuruk in Jonglei state” in the east of the country, Unicef said in a statement, calling it “one of the largest ever demobilisations of children”. The remaining children will be released in the weeks ahead. South Sudan has been locked in civil war since December 2013 when President Salva Kiir accused his sacked deputy Riek Machar of attempting a coup. The fighting in the capital Juba set off a cycle of retaliatory massacres across the country. “These children have been forced to do and see things no child should ever experience,” Unicef chief in South Sudan Jonathan Veitch said. The children were in a rebel force led by David Yau Yau, who heads the South Sudan Democratic Army (SSDA) Cobra Faction insurgents, a small forced based in the Pibor region of Jonglei. Yau Yau launched his rebellion in 2010 after losing out on a seat in elections, a year before South Sudan became independent from Sudan. 12 Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 AFRICA Plague cases on the rise in Madagascar Reuters Geneva P Chan: around 8% of cases progress to the lethal pneumonic form. lague has killed 57 people out of 213 known cases in Madagascar and more deaths are feared after recent flooding forced tens of thousands of people from their homes and set rats on the run, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said. The UN agency’s first update since late November, when there were 119 cases including 40 deaths, was based on new figures from the health ministry. The outbreak began in August on the Indian Ocean island, one of the world’s poorest countries, where the disease is endemic. The bacterial disease is mainly spread from one rodent to another by fleas. Humans bitten by an infected flea usually develop a bubonic form of plague, which swells the lymph node and can be treated with antibiotics, according to the WHO. However, if the bacteria reach the lungs, the patient develops pneumonia (pneumonic plague), which is transmissible from person to person through infected droplets spread by coughing. It is one of the most deadly infectious diseases and can kill people within 24 hours. “Plague established a foothold in the capital city, affecting densely populated slums. This is alarming, as around 8% of cases progress to the lethal pneumonic T hree people were killed in northern Mali yesterday after a second day of demonstrations against the United Nations military mission in the restive west African nation, government and hospital sources said. Witnesses described how a huge crowd of angry youths threw stones and attempted to storm the MINUSMA headquarters in Gao in protest at the UN taking control of a troubled area north of the city. “Here in the morgue in Gao we have at least three dead protesters, some killed by gunshot wounds ... there are also several serious injuries,” a hospital official told AFP. An official in the ministry for security and civil protection confirmed the deaths, adding that the situation remained “very tense”. “Our officers were besieged by protesters this morning, but I can tell you that no one from MINUSMA fired on the demonstrators. Absolutely no order was given to use weapons,” Arnaud Akodjenou, deputy representative of the MINUSMA force told AFP. “We are in very close contact with the Malian authorities,” he added. An independent source contacted by AFP described how youths had climbed onto MINUSMA vehicles while others threw petrol bombs at MINUSMA soldiers. “It was on the verge of a riot. It’s very tense, I heard gunshots,” the source said. Another witness at the protest said UN troops started shooting after initially using tear gas to try to disperse crowds. He said he saw a dead protester who had been shot in the face. One witness said he saw four dead and four others who had been injured taken into Gao hospital. “UN forces panicked and they opened fire on the protesters,” a Malian military source in Gao told Reuters. The crowd was protesting against an agreement concluded at the weekend to create a “temporary security zone” in the Tabankort district of the Gao region. The area is controlled by progovernment militias who have clashed over recent weeks with rebels, leading to the deaths of both fighters and civilians. The creation of the zone “will force loyalist armed groups to disarm or abandon their posts”, a local government source told AFP. Loyalist armed movements “strongly encouraged” the demonstration, the source said, referring to the Imghad and Allies Tuareg Self-Defence Group, as well as a pro-government wing of the Arab Movement of Azawad (MAA) and various vigilante groups. The agreement between MINUSMA and three rebel groups – the High Council for the Unity of Azawad, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad and an anti-government wing of the MAA – places the zone under exclusive control of UN troops and guarantees “the free movement of people and goods”. The bloodshed comes after MINUSMA helicopters destroyed a rebel vehicle near Tabankort, north of Gao, in “self-defence” on January 20 following what it described as “direct fire with heavy weapons” on its peacekeepers. resistance to the first-line insecticide, Chan told the WHO Executive Board on Monday. Madagascar’s president announced the replacement of eight ministers late on Sunday, including a new finance minister, after the government was dissolved earlier this month amid mounting public frustration over power cuts and social woes. Risk of Burundi poll violence ‘mounting’ Three killed in Mali protest against UN AFP/Reuters Bamako form,” WHO director-general Margaret Chan said. She said flooding from a tropical storm and a cyclone last week displaced tens of thousands of people and untold numbers of rats, “raising the risk of more rodent-borne epidemics”. Adding to the danger, the fleas that transmit the disease from rats to humans have developed AFP Addis Ababa B Rebel groups said the action violated UN neutrality, adding that seven militants had been killed and 20 wounded. The strikes sparked demonstrations hostile to MINUSMA in the northeastern rebel stronghold of Kidal. Algeria and the UN, who are leading mediation talks between the government and rebels, said the violence in Tabankort threatened to jeopardise the peace process. UN spokesman Olivier Salgado said that according to information available to the mission headquarters in Bamako, UN troops fired only warning shots after the protesters threw rocks and lobbed petrol bombs at the base. “We are trying to understand why the Malian security detail that was with the protest withdrew,” he said, adding two UN police officers were injured. urundi is facing a mounting risk of unrest ahead of key elections and African leaders should stop President Pierre Nkurunziza from running for a third term, human rights groups warned yesterday. Burundi, a small nation in central Africa’s Great Lakes region, emerged in 2006 from a brutal 13-year civil war and its political climate remains fractious ahead of the polls. “The situation in Burundi is spiralling out of control, with hundreds of civilians killed or disappeared, due to the ongoing political impasse over moves by President Nkurunziza to run for a third term,” said a grouping of civil society organisations from across the continent, who signed under the banner “The AU We Want Coalition”. “Burundi’s path toward conflict and chaos has been deliberate, and gone unquestioned by the African Union,” said the statement, released ahead of a summit meeting of the leaders of the 54-member African Union (AU) bloc on Friday. “Evidence that Burundi will revert to atrocities and ethnic violence is glaringly present,” the statement said, and repeated warnings by opposition politicians and critics that claim that the government is doing all it can to sideline political challengers ahead of the elections. Measures include a wave of arrests, harassment and a clampdown on free speech. Elections in Burundi, slated for May and June, will be discussed at the summit along with more than a dozen other polls expected across Africa this year, many of them considered to be at high risk of possible violence. “It is critical that the AU acts with urgency, considering that Burundi is at the heart of the fragile Great Lakes region, and conflict in the country could create turmoil across the region,” the statement added. Nkurunziza, in power since 2005, is expected to run for a third term in office despite opponents’ claims that a new mandate would violate Burundi’s constitution. Ex-Shebaab chief tells others to surrender AFP Mogadishu A former top commander from Somalia’s Al Qaeda-affiliated Shebaab rebels, Zakariya Ismail Ahmed Hersi, called on his former comrades yesterday to follow his lead and surrender to the country’s internationally-backed government. “I call on and encourage all my friends to seek out a peaceful way of resolving all conflicts and towards reconciliation, as ... the Shebaab is now in total collapse,” Hersi said in his first public appearance since his surrender last month. Hersi, who was the subject of a $3mn bounty under the US State Department’s “Rewards for Justice” programme, spoke to reporters from the information ministry in Mogadishu, where he appeared without guards. It is not clear if Hersi – described as a former Shebaab intelligence chief – will face trial, but Somalia’s government said in a statement that it had offered surrendering militants the “opportunity to reintegrate with Somali Hersi: the Shebaab is now in total collapse. society, and guarantees their safety”. It added that it hoped Hersi’s surrender would “inspire others to follow his example and join the peace process”. Tanzania suspends major East African newspaper AFP Arusha T anzania has suspended the publication of a major regional newspaper, the East African, with diplomats voicing concern at a possible crackdown on press freedom ahead of elections in October. The Nairobi-based weekly, part of the regional Nation Media Group, has been sold in Tanzania for 20 years, but earlier this month the government ordered its printing and publication be stopped as it was not officially registered. European Union nations, along with Canada, Norway and Switzerland, said in a statement yesterday that they were “concerned” by the decision. “It is the duty of the media to work within the law and to make every effort to adopt and adhere to professional standards,” the statement read. “But press freedom and freedom to express opinions are fundamental rights of the people, which call for circumspection and proportionality in the application of the law.” Tanzania is due to hold parliamentary and presidential elections in October. The newspaper’s Tanzanian chief, Christopher Kidanka, was questioned by senior information ministry officials, and the Nation Media Group said he had been accused of “having a negative agenda against Tanzania”. The government reportedly also objected to a recent cartoon that portrayed Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete reclining on a sofa being fed grapes from scantily clad women labelled “cronyism, incompetence and corruption”. The Nation Media Group has protested against the closure. “Surely they can’t just wake up now and declare us illegal,” Nation Media Group chairman Wilfred Kiboro said, in a statement printed in Kenya’s Daily Nation yesterday. The Shebaab are fighting to overthrow Somalia’s internationallybacked government, but have also carried out a string of revenge attacks in neighbouring nations. Hersi surrendered in late December in the southern Gedo region, where Somalia borders Kenya and Ethiopia. He was reportedly once close to former Shehaab chief Ahmed Abdi Godane, who was killed by a US air strike in September. But Hersi suggested he was among a group of commanders who had already fallen out with Godane prior to his death – some of whom were killed in a purge. “There were a number of us who opposed the leadership’s approach and its flawed doctrine,” Hersi said. He said current Shebab leadership, under Godane’s successor Ahmad Umar Abu Ubaidah, is carrying out a “distorted form of the holy jihad, which has resulted in countless innocent Somali citizens being killed”. Hersi also said his appearance yesterday in public was to put to rest those who said he had been tortured in government custody, or had been handed over to “foreign countries”. ‘Bomb maker’ for Boko Haram held A man suspected of being behind the manufacture of explosives used in a series of Boko Haram suicide attacks has been arrested in northeast Nigeria, a senior police officer told AFP yesterday. The man, identified only as Ba’na, was held in the Arikime area of Potiskum after several weeks of surveillance, said the officer, who was involved in the Sunday arrest. Potiskum, the commercial capital of Yobe State, has been hit by a wave of bombings in recent months, including a suicide attack on a secondary school in November 10 in which 58 people were killed. The police officer, who asked not to be identified because he is not authorised to speak to the media, said Ba’na was in his thirties and had admitted making the bombs. “He confessed to being responsible for the manufacture of the explosives used in at least three suicide attacks and the car explosion outside the divisional police station,” he added. Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 13 AMERICAS INTELLIGENCE NUCLEAR JUSTICE EMERGENCY ASTRONOMY FBI arrests alleged Russian spy in NY Senator changes course on Iran sanctions push Exonerations of criminals hit record in 2014: study Stricken plane safely parachutes into sea Asteroid that skimmed Earth has its own moon Federal agents on Monday arrested an alleged Russian spy in New York accused of trying to recruit sources and collect economic intelligence while working as a Manhattan banker, officials said. US prosecutors named the alleged covert intelligence agent as Evgeny Buryakov, 39. He appeared before Judge Sarah Netburn in a Manhattan federal court on Monday, a court official said. Prosecutors said he was assisted in covert espionage by Russian spies Igor Sporyshev, 40, and Victor Podobnyy, 27, who had been attached to the Russian trade and UN missions in New York. Meanwhile, Russia’s foreign ministry yesterday dismissed charges against the three men. A key US senator who had been pushing for fresh sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme has said he will no longer seek the measures while negotiations with Tehran remain underway. Senator Bob Menendez, a Democrat who has led the charge for new sanctions along with opposition Republicans, said at a congressional hearing yesterday that he will not support passage of a sanctions bill until after a deadline to reach a deal with Iran has passed. The move by Menendez, who authored the sanctions legislation along with Republican colleague Senator Mark Kirk, will make it more difficult for Republicans to press forward with the sanctions. The number of US criminals exonerated in 2014 climbed to a record high of 125, in part because of efforts by prosecutors willing to admit their offices made mistakes, according to a report released yesterday. The states with the most exonerations last year were Texas, New York and Illinois, according to the National Registry of Exonerations, a project of the University of Michigan Law School. Evidence that frees a prisoner may include DNA linking another person to the crime and evidence of perjury. In one case, Ohio native Ricky Jackson spent 39 years in prison for murder - making him the longest-held US prisoner to be exonerated. He was freed last November. Video from a US Coast Guard aircraft released on Monday captured the drama of a single-engine airplane and its pilot splashing safely onto the Pacific Ocean thanks to a parachute inside its fuselage. The factory-new Cirrus SR22 was en route to Hawaii on Sunday afternoon on a ferry flight from the San Francisco area when it “ran out of fuel,” the Coast Guard said in a press release. Video from the C-130 Hercules rescue plane showed the ill-starred aircraft deploy its airframe parachute - standard equipment on the five-seat aircraft that sells for $725,000 in its turbocharged version - an estimated 6,000ft (1,800m) above the sea. An unusually large asteroid that just skimmed by Earth had its own moon, Nasa said yesterday as the US space agency released its first radar images of the flyby. The asteroid known as 2004 BL86 made its closest approach late Monday at a distance about three times further than Earth’s own Moon. Radar images from Nasa’s Deep Space Network antenna in Goldstone, California show that the asteroid itself was about 500ft (150m) smaller than expected, and measured about 1,100ft (325m) across. The asteroid’s small moon was approximately 230ft (70m) across. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield called the discovery “strangely delightful.” Blizzard hits US northeast, NY is spared storm’s brunt Reuters Boston/New York A blizzard swept across the northeastern US yesterday, closing schools, cancelling thousands of flights and leaving residents in the hardest-hit parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut digging out as much as 2ft (60cm) of snow, though New York City was spared the storm’s brunt. The governors of New York and New Jersey lifted travel bans they had imposed a day earlier and New York City’s subway system restarted after being closed for 10 hours, but officials urged people to stay off snow-covered roadways. The snow was forecast to continue into early this morning in eastern New England, which could set a new snowfall record in Boston, where 18in (46cm) of snow was already on the ground by midday, often piled higher by strong winds. “There are drifts now of four, five and six feet in some places,” Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker told reporters. Boston-area subways would remain closed for at least the rest of the day, Baker said. Police said a teenager died late on Monday when he crashed into a lamppost on a street where he was snow-tubing on Long Island, one of the hardest hit areas in New York state. The National Weather Service lifted its blizzard warning for the New York City area, but throughout the region offices were closed, schools were shut, some roads remained impassable, and thousands of flights were cancelled or delayed. A blizzard warning remained in effect for much of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, where snow was expected to fall throughout the day at a rate as high as 2 to 3in (5 to 8cm) an hour. Boston could receive up to 25in (64cm) of accumulation, approaching the record of 27.5in (69.85cm) set in February 2003. Some in New York criticised the aggressive warnings of officials including Mayor Bill de Blasio, who for the first time in history ordered the city’s round-theclock subways to close for a snowstorm. Officials with vivid memories of disasters including 2012’s Superstorm Sandy defended their actions. Stuck at home, Northeasterners spent their energy on social media, filling Twitter and Facebook with photos of snow drifts covering the doors of their homes and what appeared to be a person in Boston dressed as the Yeti, a mythical abominable snowman, on hashtags including “#snowmaggeddon2015” and “#blizzardof2015.” New Jersey Governor Chris Christie joked with Twitter followers that it was “too cold” to wear the fleece jacket he had sported in photos after Sandy. Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker broke with his predecessor’s tradition of wearing a fleece vest bearing a state emergency management agency logo, opting instead for a business suit he called his work uniform. Some cab drivers in New York doubled fares and sought to pack additional passengers into their vehicles as office workers headed to their jobs. The New York Stock Exchange, owned by Intercontinental Exchange Inc, opened as usual. Nasdaq OMX Group , and BATS Global Markets also expected to stay open for normal operating hours yesterday. New Yorkers were divided on whether officials had over-reacted in ordering dramatic shutdowns ahead of the storm. “The mayor might have blown it this time but he was probably just playing it safe,” said Manny Martinez, 55, as he salted his driveway in New York’s Brooklyn borough. Others were frustrated that de Blasio had pre-emptively shut the subway and ordered cabs off the roads. “This made it a little difficult to go to my job. I usually take a taxi, but no taxis today,” said Greg Noble, 29, as he walked briskly to his maintenance job some 30 city blocks from his Manhattan home. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo defended the decisions, which had included a driving ban in New York City and its surrounding counties overnight. “I would rather, if there is a lean one way or another, lean towards safety because I have seen the consequences the other way and it gets very frightening very quickly ... we have had people die in storms,” Cuomo told reporters. “I would rather be in a situation where we say ‘We got lucky.’” Christie, his New Jersey counterpart, was less sanguine about the dire forecasts that preceded the storm. “I wasn’t thrilled on my 5:30am phone call, but it’s the way it goes,” Christie told Philadelphia’s WTXF television. Some of the heaviest snowfall was recorded in parts of Connecticut and Massachusetts, with about 20in (50cm) reported around Worcester, well over the 6in (15cm) reported in New York City’s Central Park. Fewer Massachusetts residents and businesses lost power than was expected, Governor Baker said, adding that temperatures well below freezing had resulted in light snow. High winds could yet result in additional outages, he said. Obama: Drone that landed at White House available at RadioShack Reuters Washington T Snow plows clear Riverside Drive after a blizzard dumped nearly a half of foot of snow yesterday in New York City. The city is in the process of cleaning up following the storm which turned out not to be as severe as predicted. A man uses a snow blower near Park Avenue after a snowstorm hit New York yesterday. A boy helps his dad clean snow off their car the morning after a snowstorm yesterday in New York City. Koch brothers plan to spend $889mn for 2016 elections Former CIA officer is convicted in leak case Reuters Washington A former CIA officer was convicted in federal court in Virginia on Monday of leaking classified information to a New York Times reporter about a failed US effort to undermine Iran’s nuclear weapons programme, the US Justice Department said. Jeffrey Sterling was found guilty of nine counts, including six counts of unauthorised disclosure of national defence information and one count of obstruction of justice, the department said. Sentencing for Sterling, who was indicted in 2010, is scheduled for April 24. “This is a just and appropriate outcome,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement. “The defendant’s unauthorised disclosures of classified information compromised operations undertaken in defence of America’s national security,” Holder said. “The disclosures placed lives at risk. And they constituted an egregious breach of the public trust by someone who had sworn to uphold it.” The trial came after the reporter, James Risen, fought for years to avoid testifying in the case as prosecutors had sought. Risen appeared in court earlier this month before the trial began and answered a few basic questions about his book that discussed the program, but he declined to discuss specific information about his sources. The conviction is a victory for the Justice Department, which under the Obama administration has prosecuted a record number of unauthorised leaks by government employees. Holder came under fire in 2013 over the Justice Department’s decision to seize telephone records of the Associated Press, a move denounced by critics as a gross intrusion into press freedom. he type of small drone that crashed on the White House grounds on Monday is available at a chain like RadioShack Corp and illustrates the need for more regulation over such new technologies, US President Barack Obama told CNN. In an interview broadcast yesterday, Obama said he had asked the Federal Aviation Administration to examine how the US is managing the influx of flying devices “because the drone that landed in the White House you buy in RadioShack.” The device known as a “quad copter” crashed at the White House early on Monday without endangering anyone. Obama is travelling overseas with his wife, Michelle. Asked by CNN if he was confident that another drone that was armed could not land at his residence in the future, Obama demurred. “This is a broader problem,” he said. “I’ll leave the Secret Service to talk about this particular event.” Obama said companies such as Amazon.com Inc were looking at using drones to deliver packages. The devices can I am also help farmers manage crops and conservationists take stock of wildlife, he said. He said government agencies were looking at putting a system in place to make sure such drones were not dangerous and not violating people’s privacy. “We don’t yet have the legal structures and the architecture both globally and within individual countries to manage them the way that we need to,” Obama said. “Part of my job over the past several years and over the next couple of years that I’m still in office is seeing if we can start providing some sort of framework that ensures that we get the good and minimise the bad.” White House and Secret Service officials have said the drone was used for recreational purposes and did not appear dangerous, and that the person who flew it had come forward. Reuters Washington C onservative political advocacy groups supported by the billionaire Koch brothers plan to spend $889mn in the 2016 US elections, more than double what they raised in 2012, the Washington Post reported on Monday. The newspaper said the goal was announced to donors at a weekend meeting in Rancho Mirage, California, hosted by Freedom Partners, a business lobby at the centre of the Koch brothers’ political operation. The Post cited a person who attended the gathering. The money will be doled out by a network of 17 organisations funded by industrialists Charles and David Koch, who have become a major force in conservative politics in recent years, and other wealthy donors. The network raised $407mn for the 2012 campaign. During the 2012 election cycle, the national Republican Party collectively spent about $675mn, according to election data com- Democrats block immediate vote on Keystone New York Times investigative reporter James Risen, who has fought for years to avoid testifying in the leaks case as prosecutors had sought. US Senate Democrats blocked immediate consideration of a Republican-favoured bill on Monday that would permit the construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline between the US and Canada. In the latest episode of partisan bickering triggered by the controversial project, Democrats rallied to obstruct a procedural vote that would have shortened the debate on the bill. Fifty-three senators voted for the motion and 39 voted against. Sixty votes were required to move the motion forward. piled by the Center for Responsive Politics. The Post said the $889mn would be spent on field operations, technology, policy study and other expenses. The Freedom Partners network spent almost $300mn on November’s congressional elections, in which Republicans won control of the Senate and retained their majority in the House of Representatives. The potential field for the Republican presidential nomination is fairly crowded and the Post said the Koch group was still considering whether it would support candidates in the Republican primaries, which could dramatically shape the campaign and possible lead to intraparty conflict. Senators Rand Paul, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, all of whom are mentioned as possible presidential candidates, took part in the Rancho Mirage meeting, the Post said. 14 Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 ASEAN Police briefly block Myanmar student march to prevent ‘instability’ AFP Yangon M yanmar police briefly blocked the path of a major student protest march in a remote central region yesterday as the government said it wanted to prevent “instability”. The procession of some 300 people — comprised of students, monks and other activists — was eventually allowed to proceed after a tense stand-off with police trying to halt the unauthorised cross-country march calling for education reforms. “We are trying to stop them to avoid further tension and instability,” government spokesman Ye Htut said, adding the strength of the security response would be down to local authorities. Student activism is a potent political force in former juntarun Myanmar, with young activists at the forefront of several major uprisings, including a mass 1988 demonstration that ended in a bloody military assault on demonstrators. The group was intercepted in a remote rural area in the Mandalay region, around 11 kilome- tres from the nearest village, and local police said they had been asked to send personnel to reinforce the roadblock. They added that the group had been allowed to pass in the early evening, but did not give a reason. Activists earlier said that the situation was tense but calm. “If we cannot continue we will sit and continue our protest,” Paing Ye Thu, a student in contact with the protesters, said. Myanmar’s government had initially appeared wary of acting against the rallies for education reform, which erupted briefly in November and started again last week when students began a planned 14-day march from the second city of Mandalay to the commercial hub Yangon. But Ye Htut said authorities Nature’s bounty moved in response to continuing protests despite a statement from the president last week calling for parliament to rethink aspects of a controversial new education bill — a move protesters said fell short of their demands. State-backed media yesterday reported that some students were wanted in connection with an incident at nearby Myingyan Junta chief defends controversial cyber law plans AFP Bangkok T A worker talks on his phone in a nursery selling mandarin orange trees ahead of Chinese New Year in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. Chinese around the world will celebrate the Year of the Goat on February 19. Indonesian military calls off jet wreckage recovery AFP Pangkalan Bun T he Indonesian military yesterday called off efforts to recover the wreckage of an AirAsia plane that crashed into the Java Sea last month, after failing to find any more bodies inside the fuselage. Flight QZ8501 went down on December 28 in stormy weather with 162 people on board, during what was supposed to be a short trip from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore. Search and rescue teams failed repeatedly in recent days to lift the main body of the Airbus A320-200, where officials had hoped to find the majority of the victims. The navy, which has provided much of the personnel and equipment for the rescue effort, said yesterday it was withdrawing as the badly damaged fuselage was too difficult to lift and no more bodies had been located. “All of our forces are being Indonesia soldiers and rescue personnel prepare to put a coffin of a passenger of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 into the cargo compartment of a Trigana airplane at Iskandar airbase in Pangkalan Bun yesterday. pulled out,” said Rear Admiral Widodo, a navy official overseeing the search and rescue operation. “We apologise to the families of the victims.” So far just 70 bodies have been recovered, and the national search and rescue agency said it would try to find more victims in smaller-scale operations. “We will continue to try fulfil Lawyer hopeful of new appeal for Australians on death row AFP Jakarta A lawyer for two Australian drug smugglers facing imminent execution in Indonesia said yesterday there were “serious mistakes” in their convictions that he hoped to challenge in a fresh legal appeal. His comments came as Indonesian President Joko Widodo again insisted he would not grant clemency for drug traffickers on death row. Jakarta earlier this month executed six drug offenders, including five foreigners, sparking a diplomatic storm. Myuran Sukumaran and An- drew Chan, the leaders of the so-called “Bali Nine” drugtrafficking gang, were arrested in 2005 for attempting to smuggle eight kilograms of heroin out of Indonesia. Chan’s appeal for presidential clemency, typically a death row convict’s last chance to avoid the firing squad, was rejected earlier this month, removing the final hurdle to putting him to death alongside Sukumaran. Sukumaran’s clemency appeal had been rejected earlier. Authorities had insisted that both men had to be executed together, since they committed their crimes together, and had been waiting for the result of Chan’s appeal. Degree College, where activists removed the national flag and replaced it with that of the student protest group. The students say the new law curbs academic freedom and want it altered to include free and compulsory education until children reach their early teens, permission to form student and teacher unions, and teaching in ethnic minority languages. the hopes of the victims’ relatives, but the operation will not be a large-scale one,” the agency’s head Bambang Soelistyo said. Military spokesman Fuad Basya said that the plane’s body was “destroyed.” “It was soaked in sea water for a while so when we lifted it, it was torn apart,” he said. “We can no longer find any more bodies.” Despite the military’s withdrawal from the operation, Shukor Yusof, founder of aviation research firm Endau Analytics, said it would be surprising if authorities did not continue to salvage the aircraft. “I think it would be very surprising if the salvage was not continued, knowing in fact that it’s there,” he said. “I can’t think of any previous aircraft incidents where they haven’t tried to retrieve everything.” Since Saturday, salvage teams had been using giant inflatable bags to try to raise the fuselage, which is lying in the sea at a depth of around 30 metres (98 feet). At one point, they managed to lift the main body to the surface for two minutes before a sling holding it snapped. The fuselage then split in two and sank to the seabed. There was a huge international hunt for the AirAsia jet, involving ships from countries including the US and China. But following the discovery of the fuselage by a Singaporean vessel, most foreign assistance was pulled out. The jet’s black boxes — the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder — have been recovered, and investigators are analysing them. A preliminary report into the accident should be completed this week. Indonesian Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan said last week that the plane climbed abnormally fast before stalling and plunging into the sea. One crash investigator described how the plane’s warning alarms were “screaming” in the moments before the crash as the pilots desperately sought to stabilise the aircraft. Just moments before the plane disappeared off the radar, the pilot had asked to climb to avoid a major storm but was not immediately granted permission due to heavy air traffic. Indonesia’s meteorological agency has said weather could have caused the accident, but only the black boxes will be able to give definitive answers. hailand’s junta chief yesterday defended proposals for a cyber law that critics say will grant the government unprecedented surveillance powers with little judicial oversight. A new law granting authorities the right to access e-mails, telephone records, computers and postal mail without court approval — if they suspect national security is at risk — is tabled for discussion by the country’s rubber-stamp parliament. The draft wording of the legislation has alarmed Internet rights groups in a country which has already seen press freedom and free speech severely restricted since the military imposed martial law and took over last May after months of street protests. But junta chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha, appointed as premier three months after the coup, insisted the National Cyber Security Bill was a necessary tool to protect the nation. “We need to have national security otherwise everybody does what they want,” he told reporters in Bangkok yesterday when asked about the bill. “If there is a threat to national security — a violation, or someone committing a crime — we need to empower state officials to investigate,” he added. Thailand’s government has yet to publically publish a draft of the bill. But Internet freedom groups have obtained a copy and published it online. “What I am concerned about is Section 35, which says there is no need to ask a court for a warrant. It will just be up to the authorities to decide,” Thitima Urapeepathanapong from the Thai Netizen Network said. “It will destroy our rights and freedoms — when we know someone can watch our communications and chats, we will not feel safe,” she added. Dhiraphol Suwanprateep, an Internet law specialist at the law firm Baker and McKenzie, said the current bill “is very broad, vague and too permissive”. “There is no balance between the national security and data privacy as the government may exercise its discretion without having judicial review,” he said. Earlier this week government officials admitted that they may have rushed the wording of Section 35 in an indication that the controversial elements might be rewritten. But yesterday Prayut said investigators would not overstep their authority without giving details on what, if any, checks and balances would be put in place. “The authorities must have a reason to obtain the information. It would violate someone’s human rights to intrude into personal data (without reason),” he said. The junta leader has previously reacted testily to scrutiny of the bill. Last week he abruptly ended a press conference when a journalist asked how the law would affect press freedom. Journalist shot dead on Sumatra island DPA Jakarta A newspaper editor on Indonesia’s Sumatra island was shot dead by an unknown assailant, local media reported yesterday. Benny Faisal, chief editor of the weekly Fokus Lampung, was killed late Sunday in Bandar Lampung, the capital of Lampung province, the Tempo.co news website said. Benny, 42, had complained about pressure against him related to his work uncovering corruption in government projects, said Juniardi, chief of the provincial Information Commission, according to news reports. “I suspect the incident was related to his journalistic work,” Juniardi, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, was quoted as saying by Tempo.co. Bandar Lampung chief police investigator Deri Agung Wijaya said the motive was still unknown. HK ‘drug lord’ forced to burn meth stash AFP Jakarta H andcuffed and wearing black masks, a Hong Kong man accused of being a drug lord and his gang were yesterday forced to publicly burn a $136mn stash of crystal methamphetamine after their arrests in Indonesia. Wong Chi-ping and several other suspects were paraded in front of the media, before throwing packets of the drugs into the flames of a giant incinerator in a town just outside the capital Jakarta. “The drugs are garbage, that’s why we are burning them,” national narcotics agency chief Arrested members of the international drug syndicate led by major Hong Kong drug lord Wong Chi-ping (front row, left ) wearing masks sit next to boxes containing some of the 862 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine in Tangerang, on the outskirts of Jakarta yesterday. Anang Iskandar told reporters. A total of 862 kilograms of drugs were burnt. The man alleged to be the gang’s kingpin, along with three other Hong Kong residents, a Malaysian and four Indonesians, were arrested earlier this month, following a three-year investigation into a global syndicate. They could all be sentenced to the death if found guilty of drug trafficking. Indonesia enforces some of the world’s toughest anti-drugs laws and has been stepping up its campaign against narcotics under new President Joko Widodo, who is a strong supporter of capital punishment for traffickers. Earlier this month, six drugs offenders — including five foreigners — were put to death by firing squad. “Indonesia has declared war on drugs. We want to save the future generation, our children and grandchildren,” said Security Minister Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno at yesterday’s event. The drugs — concealed in coffee packets — were around 97% pure, and the syndicate was wanted in more than seven countries, including China, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore, said Indonesian narcotics agency official Deddy Fauzi Elhakim. Describing the capture of the drugs gang as “really spectacular”, he said authorities had enough evidence to charge all nine men with drug smuggling. “(Wong) will definitely be sentenced to death. This is an extraordinary crime,” he added. Indonesian authorities had been monitoring Wong since 2012. He was caught after a fishing boat brought the drugs to Jakarta, and he tried to sell them on. Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 15 AUSTRALASIA/EAST ASIA Play time! Australians slam Abbott over royal ‘knightmare’ AFP Canberra A Lion cubs play at Hangzhou Safari Park in eastern China. China military parade to ‘frighten Japan’ South Korea, China warn Japan not to backtrack on apology AFP Beijing C hina will this year hold its first largescale military parade since 2009 to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, reports said yesterday, with one key goal described as being to “frighten Japan”. China generally shies away from the vast annual demonstrations of military might that were a hallmark of the Soviet Union. But it most recently held National Day parades in 1999 and 2009 to mark the 50th and 60th anniversaries of the October 1 establishment of the People’s Republic of China. Even now the part played by the People’s Liberation Army in China’s earlier resistance against Japanese invasion remains a key element of the Communist Party’s claim to a right to rule. On its instant messaging WeChat account the People’s Daily newspaper, the Party’s official mouthpiece, cited a Hong Kong report that a parade would be held this year to commemorate the anniversary of the war’s end. One reason for mounting the parade was “to frighten Japan and declare to the world China’s determination to maintain the postwar world order”, said the article, written by Chinese financial and global affairs commentator Hu Zhanhao. “Only by showing its military capabilities can (China) show Japan its attitude and determination and let it know that whoever dares to challenge the post-war order related to China and touch China’s core interests is its enemy and must be psychologically prepared for China’s strong counterattack,” it said. Other reasons included showcasing China’s military strength and increasing Chinese South Korea and China yesterday warned Japan not to backtrack on its apology issued 20 years ago over its wartime past when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe makes a statement on the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. Japan’s ties with South Korea and China have worsened sharply as Abe has adopted a conservative agenda, including a less apologetic tone toward the wartime past and bolstering Japan’s defences. Abe has said he intends to express remorse over the war in his statement and his cabinet upholds past apologies, including the landmark 1995 remarks by then-premier Tomiichi Murayama but suggested he was not going to stick with the original wording. “I would like to issue a statement with the focus not on whether the same terms will be used but on the Abe government’s thought on the occasion,” Abe said on public broadcaster NHK at the weekend. The anniversary of Japan’s defeat falls on August 15, but no date has been set for the release of the Abe statement. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Noh Kwang-il has already accused Japan of trying to “undermine” a separate 1993 apology to Asian women it forced to work as wartime sex slaves in Japanese brothels by conducting a review of it last year. The Japanese government must remember “the historic significance of every single pride. The report did not give a date for the event but said it would mark the first time it was not held on National Day. Several Chinese media outlets yesterday described the posting of the article by the passage” used in past apologies by former premiers, Noh told a news briefing yesterday. “It should reflect carefully, looking squarely at history how the international community and neighbouring countries will react if it takes key parts out from statements by Murayama on the 50th anniversary and (Junichi) Koizumi on the 60th.” Koizumi issued a similar statement in 2005. Noh added Japan should take lessons from the consistent position of remorse and responsibility taken by German leaders about the Nazi past. China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Monday Beijing was concerned about “what type of attitude the Japanese government and leaders adopt with respect to the past period of aggression and the type of information it sends out to the outside world”. “Will it play down the history of aggression and continue to carry that negative asset? Or will it show profound and sincere remorse over its history of invasions and travel lightly forward? The international community waits and sees,” she told a media briefing in Beijing. Abe has questioned the 1993 statement in the past and in what many saw as a nod to his conservative base, asked a panel of experts to review it. However, mindful of the potential diplomatic fallout, he has said he would not revise it. People’s Daily as a confirmation. Asked about the reports at a regular briefing, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that China was planning a series of celebrations and commemorations related to the war, but did not offer specific details. She stressed that China was both a victor and a battlefield during the conflict. “We have made a huge contribution and sacrifice to ensure the victory in that war,” she said. The commemorations were intended “to evoke in all mankind their memory of history”, she told reporters, and be “a way for us to safeguard the victory and the outcomes of World War II and the post-war order”. The report comes as Beijing has taken an increasingly hard line towards Tokyo amid disputes over territory and history. Ties between Asia’s two biggest economies have been soured by a tense dispute over control of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, administered by Japan but also claimed by China, and Beijing’s anger over a December 2013 visit by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, which honours Japan’s war dead including convicted war criminals from World War II. The countries have taken tentative steps to reduce tensions, with an agreement in November paving the way for the first formal bilateral meeting between Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Apec Asia-Pacific leaders’ forum in Beijing, but it took place in a glacial atmosphere. Beijing, which uses memories of the war with Japan as a key tool to galvanise nationalist sentiment and deflect any dissatisfaction with Communist Party rule, remains wary of moves by Tokyo to raise its military profile and frequently says its neighbour must face its wartime history and not repeat it. Victory over Japan, along with the economic development that has lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese out of poverty, are key pillars upon which the Party asserts its legitimacy. Thousands sue Japan paper over sex slavery reports AFP Tokyo M ore than 10,000 people are suing Japan’s leading liberal newspaper over stories on Tokyo’s system of wartime sex slavery, which they say have stained their reputation as Japanese nationals. The move is the latest salvo in the battle over Japan’s history, which pits an increasingly aggressive revisionist right wing against an ever-more cowed mainstream that accepts the country’s guilt over World War II atrocities. The group of plaintiffs, led by Sophia University professor emeritus Shoichi Watanabe, is demanding 10,000 yen ($85) in apparently symbolic compensation each, describing themselves as “Japanese citizens whose honour and credibility were damaged by the false reports made by the Asahi Shimbun”, according to court documents. They argue that Asahi reports on the so-called “comfort women” system “have imposed indescribable humiliation not only on former soldiers but also on honourable Japanese citizens... who are labelled as descendants of gang rapists.” Despite a dearth of official records, mainstream historians say up to 200,000 women, many from Korea but also from China, Indonesia, the Philippines and Taiwan, served Japanese soldiers in military brothels called “comfort stations”. Most agree that these women were not willing participants and that the Imperial Japanese Army and wartime government were involved in their enslavement, tacitly or explicitly. Right-wingers, however, say the women were common prostitutes engaged in a commercial exchange, and are fighting a vigorous rearguard battle to alter the narrative. The Asahi has become the focus of their ire because it published a series of articles in the 1980s based on the nowdiscredited testimony of a Japanese man who said he had rounded up Korean women to work in military brothels. After years of pressure, the paper retracted the articles, and apologised. The company’s president also resigned. Conservatives leapt on the Asahi’s climbdown, and nationalist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who wants a more sympathetic telling of Japan’s history, took the move as proof of a smear. “In the post-war period, the Asahi Shimbun has consistently been haunted by socialistic fantasies, infected by anti-Japanese, self-degrading ideologies,” the lawsuit alleges. The paper “never hesitated to humiliate (the men) who so selflessly staked their lives for Japan’s independence and modernisation. “The Japanese military complied with international law and maintained high moral standards, with the world’s strictest military discipline,” the document says. Revisionists typically do not believe the well-documented “Rape of Nanking”, in which tens of thousands of Chinese died in a six-week orgy of rape and violence when the Japanese Imperial Army over-ran China’s then-capital in 1937. Nor do they accept that their military carried out experiments, including vivisection, on live prisoners in China. The Asahi said it would study the court document before responding. ustralia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott was yesterday facing a backlash over his surprise move to knight Britain’s Prince Philip which has prompted ridicule and questions about his leadership even from conservative supporters. Abbott, whose personal approval rating has plunged in recent opinion polls, said the decision to make the Duke of Edinburgh - the 93-year-old husband of Queen Elizabeth II - a knight of Australia was his own initiative for Australia Day on Monday. But it provoked anger within Abbott’s Liberal-National coalition, with unnamed politicians reportedly describing the move as “stupid” and “near impossible” to explain to ordinary Australians. Liberal-National parliamentarian Warren Entsch said: “For the life of me, I can’t understand why” Abbott would knight a British royal. Entsch said he was “not pushing for a change in leader, I’m looking for significant change in leadership”. Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, which dubbed the story “Abbott’s Knightmare”, quoted a government politician as saying “the feedback is horrendous”. Another unnamed MP said the move was “a stupid announcement” and “manifestly amazing in the worst possible way”, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported. Government frontbencher Michaelia Cash yesterday defended the call, saying Prince Philip was “extremely deserving” for the contributions he had made to Australia over many years. “The backlash will be the backlash. Some people don’t agree with the decision,” she said. Finance Minister Mathias Cormann agreed Philip had made significant contributions but did not want to be drawn on the issue. “I’m not a commentator,” he said. “That was a decision that was made by the prime minister.” Those outside conservative politics spoke freely. “This is a bit like giving Bill Gates an abacus,” independent Senator Nick Xenophon said of the award to the Duke who already boasts a long list of titles. “I don’t know what he’s going to do with it.” Abbott, a life-long admirer of British royalty, faced accusations of being in a “time warp” when he reintroduced the titles of dame and knight in Australia last year and has struggled to get his message out and backtracked on several policies. “Already vulnerable over his idiosyncratic revival of British imperial honours... Abbott can ill-afford to alienate his colleagues right now,” wrote The Sydney Morning Herald’s chief political correspondent Mark Kenny. “Yet his bizarre selection of the husband of the British monarch for Australia’s top civic award has done just that. Ridicule abounds.” The Australian newspaper said in an editorial that the decision lacked leadership and gave those who would lampoon Abbott a “right royal charter”. The fact that Abbott made the announcement on Australia’s national day stoked emotions further. “It’s Australia Day, we are not a bunch of tossers, let’s get it right,” Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles said. Australia temperatures rising faster than rest of the world A ustralia faced a rise in temperature of potentially more than five degrees Celsius by the end of the century, an increase that would outpace global warming worldwide, the country’s national science agency said yesterday. In its most comprehensive analysis yet of the impacts of climate change, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) painted a worst-case scenario of a rise of up to 5.1 degrees Celsius by 2090 if there are no actions taken to cut greenhouse emissions. “There is a very high confidence that hot days will become more frequent and hotter,” CSIRO principal research scientist Kevin Hennessy said. “We also have very high confidence that sea levels will rise, oceans will become more acidic, and snow depths will decline.” The new research by CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology, using some 40 global climate models, has Australia warming at a greater rate than the rest of the world. The 5.1 degree Celsius projection for 2090 is at the top end of a range starting at 2.8 degrees Celsius and is dependent on how deeply, if at all, greenhouse gas emissions are cut. The world average is for an increase of between 2.6 degrees Celsius and 4.8 degrees Celsius. The report said the annual average temperature in Australia would likely be up to 1.3 degrees Celsius warmer in 2030 than the average experienced between 1986 and 2005. Drenched! A bus drives through a puddle past pedestrians in Sydney’s central business district yesterday as heavy rains caused disruptions in ferry services along the Parramatta River and flooded roads around the city. 16 Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 BRITAIN Ambulance boss in warning to public The strike is likely to hit vulnerable sections the hardest Evening Standard London A mbulance chiefs yesterday warned Londoners that a NHS pay strike tomorrow will be “much more disruptive” than before - with thousands of people not getting emergency help. Car crash victims, people with broken bones, pregnant women in labour and pensioners who have fallen and cannot get up will not get a response if their condition is not life-threatening. This goes well beyond restrictions introduced during previous walkouts as the latest dispute is scheduled to last for 24 hours - six times longer than before. The action, due to start at midnight today, will place the London Ambulance Service (LAS) under unprecedented pressure, with soldiers and police driving ambulances and nurses and doctors volunteering as stand-in paramedics. Its effects are expected to continue well into Friday. LAS chief executive Dr Fionna Moore said: “We will be unable to send an ambulance response to some patients with broken bones, some older people who may have fallen and cannot get up and some people in road traffic collisions where their Patients with non-life threatening injuries will not get a response from ambulance services due to strike action. life is not immediately at risk. “We’d encourage Londoners to plan ahead, be sensible about their activities and be prepared should they need medical help on Thursday.” The action is in response to health secretary Jeremy Hunt’s refusal to implement the findings of an independent pay review panel for a 1% rise for all NHS staff. GMB members will be on strike for 24 hours, with Unison and Unite members protesting for 12 hours, starting at midday tomorrow. The LAS advised friends and family of vulnerable people to be ready to take them to hospital or use other options such as Urgent Care Centres, pharmacies, their GP and NHS 111. People have been told not to wait to get help if they are feeling unwell before Thursday, do, but to seek advice from GP or pharmacist beforehand. People with a long-term or chronic condition have been advised not to be alone on the day. People on regular medication have been told to collect prescriptions. Moore said: “Those looking after vulnerable groups - such as older people, children and people with long-term conditions - should be prepared to make alternative arrangements to get medical help or transport those in their care to hospital.” Talks aimed at averting the strike by health workers are “ongoing”, officials said. A two-day strike that threatened to cause misery for Docklands Light Railway passengers has been suspended. Talks between union bosses and operators Keolis/Amey have secured an agreement, the Rail and Maritime Transport union said. Members had been due to walk out from 4am today in a dispute over outsourcing and new human resources policies. RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “RMT is delighted to be able to announce that the determination and solidarity of our members across Docklands Light Railway has forced the pace in head-to-head talks with the operators, Keolis/Amey, and as a result we have secured agreement on all of the issues the union had put into dispute. “That means that the union has been able to suspend the strike action, action that would have led to a total shutdown of the Docklands Light Railway from tomorrow morning. “RMT members voted overwhelmingly for strike action and have proved that unity and organisation in the workplace can deliver positive outcomes that protect staff and their working conditions.” Keolis/Amey Docklands said the agreement followed a number of “productive” meetings Managing Director Kevin Thomas said: “We are pleased to have reached agreement with the RMT to avoid this strike action. “During the dispute all parties have worked tirelessly to address employees’ concerns and business needs to prevent unnecessary disruption for our passengers. “We will continue to work the union to ensure we provide our passengers with the best possible travel experience, as well as continuing our preparations to deliver even further improvements in this new franchise.” State-owned French company Keolis and Amey took over running the DLR last month after Serco lost the contract. Bafta masks Molds of masks for the British Academy of Film and Television Awards (BAFTA) are pre-fired at the New Pro Foundries in west London yesterday. Designed by US sculptor Mitzi Cunliffe in 1955, the bronze casts have been made at the foundry since the ceremony began in 1975. The BAFTA’s will be presented in London on February 8,. UK’s Black Friday genie now out of the bottle Reuters London B ritons literally fell over themselves for ‘Black Friday’ bargains in November, so retailers need to make the discount day imported from across the Atlantic work for the industry. Black Friday took hold in Britain in a major way for the first time last year, as store groups sought to match the promotions of big US online retailers such as Amazon and use the event to kick-start interest in Christmas shopping. But many were not prepared for the level of demand on November 28, which saw shoppers queuing overnight, scuffles breaking out in stores, websites crashing and delivery operations overloaded. Not only did that frustrate customers, but it also left many store groups selling more stock at a discount than they intended, and then finding there was less demand for full-price goods in the following weeks, hitting their profit margins. Industry data showed the extent to which the traditional build up of sales ahead of Christmas was skewed. While Black Friday drove November retail sales growth to a three month high of 2.2% year-onyear, December’s rise of 1.0% was the weakest outcome for that month since 2008. With customers’ expectations raised, and online retailers likely to keep up the pressure, there seems little prospect of Black Friday—named after the day of the year when US retailers traditionally become profitable—fading away. “We do not believe that the genie can be put back in the bottle,” said retail researcher Conlumino. So Britain’s stores are going to have to do better, and that may mean learning from those that coped well, such as electrical goods chain Dixons Carphone. It carefully planned targeted promotions with global suppliers on goods such as Samsung TVs, De Longhi coffee machines and Bose speakers, allowing it to achieve a sales boost while maintaining profit margins. “I think it’s here to stay. It’s something that we need to plan for and get used to,” said Dixons Carphone finance director Humphrey Singer of Black Friday. “We pretty much start planning now for this year.” Dixons Carphone’s success was in contrast to the experi- ence of many other general merchandise retailers on Black Friday. “It caused a huge pull-forward of sales, it strained distribution networks, it undermined consumers’ willingness to pay full-price at Christmas and it ruined perceptions of online delivery reliability,” said independent retail analyst Nick Bubb. While Black Friday drove November retail sales growth to a three month high of 2.2% year-on-year, December’s rise of 1.0% was the weakest outcome for that month since 2008. Marks & Spencer, Britain’s biggest clothing retailer, was the highest profile casualty, with its huge distribution centre in Castle Donington, central England, thrown into chaos. Unable to cope with the spike in demand, automated picking and packing failures delayed the delivery of goods ordered online. Disappointed customers lambasted the firm on social media and a subsequent loss of sales was a major factor in the firm missing forecasts. Chief executive Marc Bolland lamented that at any other time of year “you don’t get that artificial Christmas tree, wrapping paper and a dress together in one order”. But he knows it’s the company that must adjust. “If consumers like to shop in that way more, then as retailers we need to find answers to it,” he said. Analysts say this year retailers may put more focus on spreading the home delivery of goods ordered on Black Friday over a longer period and on increasing the appeal of “click and collect” services, where ordered goods are picked-up in store. Household goods chain Argos missed Christmas sales forecasts after reining in promotions in the wake of Black Friday. That protected profit margins but hurt sales. Chief executive John Walden, who as an American is a veteran of Black Friday, reckons retailers will be more selective about what they put on sale this year—“balancing the things that make money versus the things that may not.” Black Friday delivered the biggest week of sales in department store John Lewis’ 150year history. Its boss, Andy Street, says the event will stay but reckons it may be tempered this year, perhaps more focused around its traditional electricals heritage. Boris clears ‘Crossrail’ bicycle superhighway Evening Standard London B oris Johnson yesterday confirmed he would build Europe’s longest segregated urban cycle lane through central London after delays likely to be suffered by motorists were reduced. The mayor approved the “Crossrail for bikes” protected route through Parliament Square and along the Victoria Embankment and Upper Thames Street after it won overwhelming public support. A total of 84% of the 21,500 responses backed the plans for the east-west route that will eventually link Barking and Acton, and a linked north-south route between King’s Cross and Elephant and Castle. Amendments to the scheme mean that “worst case” delays of 16 minutes have been cut to six minutes for morning rush-hour motorists driving from Limehouse Link to Hyde Park Corner. Johnson said: “We have done one of the biggest consultation exercises in TfL’s history. We have listened, and now we will act. Overwhelmingly, Londoners wanted these routes, and wanted them delivered to the high standard we promised. I intend to keep that promise. “But I have also listened to those concerned about the eastwest route’s impact on traffic. Thanks to the skill of TfL’s engineers and traffic managers, we have made changes to our original plans which keep the whole of the segregated cycle track and junctions, while taking out much less of the route’s motor traffic capacity – and so causing much shorter delays.” TfL board papers being published this afternoon confirmed that the proposals are set to be ratified at a meeting next week, with “spades in the ground” from April. The £41m central part of the route, between Tower Hill and the A40 Westway flyover at Paddington, is scheduled to be completed by April 2016 - making good the Mayor’s pledge to deliver a safer cycling infrastructure in the wake of a series of cycle fatalities. TfL board members will next week also approve an upgrade of the CS2 cycle superhighway between Whitechapel and Bow, with work beginning on February 9, and the £17mn north-south new superhighway linking Elephant and Castle and King’s Cross. Construction will start on this on March 2. Seven cyclists have been killed in the last 18 months on roads due to be improved. The east-west route attracted objec- tions from the Canary Wharf Group, the London Chamber of Commerce and the City of London Corporation but was supported by hundreds of major employers such as RBS and Unilever. The NHS trusts running London’s four major trauma centres backed the routes on safety grounds. Projected traffic delays were reduced by up to 60% by retaining two westbound lanes at three “pinch-points”. This will be done by narrowing the “both ways” cycle lane from 4m to 3m for short sections, at Temple, Tower Hill and in the Blackfriars underpass. Eastbound traffic will be reduced from two lanes to one lane as originally planned. Johnson was keen to reallocate space on central London roads in response to their changing use - the amount of vehicle traffic has fallen by 25% in the last decade while the number of cyclists has doubled. Cyclists now account for a quarter of all traffic in central London in the morning rush hour. Plans to extend the cycle superhighway between Paddington and Acton by removing an east-bound lane on the six-lane A40 Westway will be subject to a separate consultation later this year. Crossrail for bikes is the central plank of the Mayor’s £913mn “cycle revolution for London”. Mr Johnson said: “I now look forward How Parliament Square will look. to the transformation that these routes will bring – not just for people who cycle now, but for the thousands of new cyclists they will attract. “Getting more people on their bikes will reduce pressure on the road, bus and rail networks, cut pollution, and improve life for everyone, whether or not they cycle themselves.” Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 17 BRITAIN Litvinenko may have been poisoned twice Russian president Putin’s name keeps cropping up in the case AFP London A n inquiry into the radiation poisoning of a former Russian spy opened yesterday with claims that there may have been an earlier assassination bid in the most sensational tale of espionage since the Cold War. Alexander Litvinenko was killed—apparently via a cup of green tea laced with hard-to-detect polonium-210 -- in an upmarket London hotel in 2006. The inquiry will look into claims of Russian state involvement and yesterday it heard chilling extracts from Litvinenko’s interviews with police conducted at his hospital deathbed. Russia has refused to extradited the two men identified by British police as the chief suspects—Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun—who drank tea with Litvinenko on November 1, 2006. Counsel to the inquiry Robin Tam said yesterday that traces of polonium found from a previous meeting between the three on October 16 in the offices of a London security firm may indicate a previous poisoning attempt. “One of the most significant things that the evidence suggests is that Litvinenko was poisoned with polonium not once but twice,” he said. Tam also revealed that a friend of Kovtun from Germany will testify that the Russian told him he had poison and needed a contact for a cook to kill Litvinenko. Marina Litvinenko and a solicitor arrive outside the Royal Courts of Justice, in London. “Kovtun said that he had a very expensive poison and that he needed the cook to put the poison in Litvinenko’s food or drink,” Tam said. Litvinenko, who was doing work for Britain’s MI6 foreign intelligence service, died on November 23, 2006 -- three weeks after the poisoning. A deathbed statement in his name accused president Vladimir Putin directly, saying that “the howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Mr Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life”. The inquiry’s chairman Robert Owen said at the start of yesterday’s hearing that closed-doors hearings would examine intelligence material on “the issue of Russian state responsibility”. Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper reported at the weekend that communications between London and Moscow intercepted by the US National Security Agency pointed to Russian state involvement. At the time, Putin rejected the accusa- tions as a “political provocation”. There are other theories about who may have killed him, given Litvinenko’s investigative work in other European countries including Italy and Spain and his specialisation in researching organised crime. Owen was the coroner in a previous inquest into the death but did not have the power to examine intelligence documents. He lobbied for an inquiry to be able to do so. Under English law, such inquiries establish the facts of a case in public but do not result in convictions. Britain announced the inquiry in July 2014, just days after the downing of a Malaysian passenger jet over eastern Ukraine— a tragedy blamed on Russia’s involvement in the conflict in the region—in what was seen as a way of punishing Moscow. Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned on the direct orders of Russian president Vladimir Putin - “a common criminal dressed up as a head of state”, the widow’s lawyer told the public inquiry this afternoon. Putin brought “nuclear terrorism to the streets” of London out of political revenge, the hearing was told. In an act of “unspeakable barbarism” Litvinenko was silenced to prevent him exposing Putin and “his odious and deadly corruption”. It was a “message of lethal deterrence to others” before Litvinenko could give evidence to a criminal trial in Spain. The death sentence on the man who fled Moscow to become a British citizen, could not have been passed “without the personal knowledge and permission of Putin,” said Ben Emmerson QC. “Putin should be unmasked by this inquiry as nothing more or less than a com- mon criminal dressed up as a head of state.” He considered Litvinenko such a traitor that Russian special forces used an image of him for target practice. But far from treachery, Litvinenko was a whistleblower and patriot to his final day, said Emmerson. The QC described the scene in November 2006 as “the haunting and iconic image” went round the world of Mr Litvinenko dying in a green UCH gown over 23 days of agonising pain as “his strength slowly left him and his organs began to fail.” “It was the calculated, pre-planned murder of a British subject on the streets of our capital city,” he said. “He had to be eliminated because he had become an enemy of the close-knit group of criminals who surround Putin. “The startling truth which will be revealed by this inquiry is that a significant part of Russian organised crime is organised directly from the offices of the Kremlin - Putin’s Russia is a Mafia state.” Litvinenko’s body tissue was so riddled with radiation he had to be buried in a lead-lined coffin in Highgate Cemetery. One of Litvinenko’s books, The Gang from Lubyanka, named Putin as having links with the Tambov-Malyshev gang which dominated the St Petersburg underworld in the 1990s, the court heard. As an expert on organised crime and the Kremlin, Litvinenko passed information to British Intelligence. “His MI6 handler, who was codenamed Martin, arranged for regular payments to be made into his bank account,” said Mr Emmerson. Polonium can only be produced in an industrial setting involving a nuclear reactor. PM Cameron, deputy PM and Liberal leader Nick Clegg, Labour Party leader Ed Miliband and UKIP leader Nigel Farage. UK braces for election that may see EU exit AFP London B Scotland’s Labour Party leader Jim Murphy is heckled by a Yes voter while campaigning in Dundee. Scottish nationalists tilt at Labour party for Westminster glory Reuters Dundee, Scotland A mong the social housing estates of Scotland’s fourth largest city, Ed Miliband’s bid to unseat prime minister David Cameron is in trouble: His opposition Labour party is haemorrhaging support to nationalists. Though Scots voted to stay part of the United Kingdom in a September 18 referendum, support for the Scottish National Party has since soared amid mistrust the London government won’t deliver to Scotland’s parliament the extra powers it promised to swing the poll result. Capitalising on that, the nationalists now aim to turn defeat into victory by usurping Labour in Scotland and winning the ultimate triumph—the balance of power after Britain’s May 7 national election, that will decide who rules the world’s sixth-largest economy and whether voters will get a referendum by 2017 on membership of the EU. The battle for Scotland comes down to just Labour and the SNP; Cameron’s Conservatives currently hold only one seat while Labour won 41 out of 59 seats at the 2010 election. Polls now indicate the SNP could take most of Labour’s seats, tearing up the pattern of the last 50 years to become Britain’s third largest party by lawmakers in what is likely to be the closest general election for a generation. Labour’s unpopularity is not just linked to a resurgence of nationalism, however. Former supporters say they have been put off by an impression the party is increasingly right-wing and London-based, cosy with bankers and city slickers where once it spoke to the working class across the United Kingdom. “My mother and father were both card-carrying members of the Labour party, socialists to their bones,” Morag Lennie, a 70-yearold SNP supporter and retired social care manager, told Reuters in Dundee. “I’m glad they’re dead because it would break their hearts to see (Labour’s) besuited career politicians who haven’t got the first clue what most people are struggling with,” she said. To pull off the promised rout of Labour, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon must turn seats such as Dundee West which is nestled on the estuary of the River Tay on Scot- land’s North Sea coast. Dundee’s once mighty shipyards are now closed, and the city has Scotland’s lowest employment rate. Besides economic decline, Dundee tells another story: How the SNP has been stalking the Labour party over four decades. The SNP held Dundee East, one of the city’s two Westminster seats, between 1974 and 1987. In 2003 it won one of the city’s Scottish parliamentary seats. In 2005 it recaptured the Dundee East Westminster seat and kept it in 2010. In 2007 and 2010, it won the most local council seats in Dundee. Now it is gunning for Labour’s 7,000 majority in the other Westminster seat, Dundee West, Labour’s since 1950. Labour’s main defence is its new Scottish leader Jim Murphy— parachuted in after former leader Johann Lamont quit, accusing the party of trying to run Scotland “like a branch office of London.” As Murphy visited Dundee’s Ardler social housing estate this month, one man screamed “Red Tories” from a car as it sped past, a reference to Labour’s support for the union with England in the referendum. Later, SNP activists shouted he was a ‘traitor’. The 47-year-old, who was raised on a council estate in Glasgow, was calm about the insults. Against a backdrop of Scottish flags and blue ‘Yes’ to independence stickers in many windows on the housing scheme, he insisted Labour would hold all its Scottish seats. “The polls are there to be confounded. The Labour party is behind in the polls. Of course we are behind,” said Murphy. “But I am determined to win because coming second is coming last. And I have no intention of coming last.” He will have to persuade the likes of Jacqueline Kerr, 45, who lives on the Dundee estate and believes Labour has turned away from its traditional supporters. “I am not a member of SNP; I am a member of my class. I am not a member of any political parties but I want independence and I am totally against the Red Tories,” she said. Murphy rose to national prominence in 2013 when he helped injured people at the scene of a shocking helicopter crash onto a Glasgow pub. During the referendum campaign, he toured 100 towns to give an impassioned defence of the union while standing on an upturned crate of Irn-Bru - the bright orange beverage known as Scotland’s other national drink after whisky. Campaign chief for the failed attempt by Ed Miliband’s brother David to win the Labour leadership, Murphy must rebuild Scottish Labour for Ed by both outmanoeuvring the SNP’s attack on its leftist principles and striking a nationalist chord. In the words of John Curtice, professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, the SNP’s bid for the mantle of social justice in Scotland means Murphy has to “win over voters who perceive themselves as being to the left of his party, and.. certainly as being more Scottish than the party.” While some Scottish voters traditionally used their SNP vote for local elections and saved Labour for their general election vote, SNP activists say that is changing as their party looks increasingly like a candidate for the British political stage. If the SNP wins the balance of power in Westminster, it is certain to demand more powers for Scotland—overturning prime minister David Cameron’s assertion that September’s referendum result had settled the issue of independence for a generation. ritain yesterday marked 100 days until one of the most unpredictable elections in memory, as prime minister David Cameron fights to retain power and call a referendum on European Union membership. A fragmented vote in which no party wins an overall majority is seen as the most likely result, meaning smaller parties will probably have to prop up either Cameron’s Conservatives or the main opposition Labour party. If the Conservatives win outright on May 7, Cameron has said he will seek to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with the EU before calling an in-or-out referendum on a “Brexit” by the end of 2017. But experts predict that neither the Conservatives nor Labour will secure a majority in the 650-seat House of Commons. “Like everyone else, I have no idea,” professor Tim Bale, chair in politics at Queen Mary, University of London, told AFP. “The only prediction is that it’s incredibly unlikely that any of the main parties will end up with an overall majority.” Instead, Britain could face days of uncertainty, potentially unsettling financial markets, as the parties hold talks on how to stitch together a government. For the past five years, the Conservatives have governed with the centrist Liberal Democrats in Britain’s first coalition government since World War II. Opinion polls currently put the Conservatives and centreleft Labour almost neck-andneck. The Conservatives are on 32% voter support versus 33% for Labour, according to an average of leading surveys calculated by the UK Polling Report website. Nigel Farage’s anti-EU United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) is ranked third with 15%, while the Liberal Democrats have plunged to 8%. Cameron is campaigning on the economy, telling voters they cannot afford to jeopardise Britain’s recovery—the strongest among major European nations—by ditching the Conservatives. Figures out Tuesday showed that the economy grew by 2.6% last year and Cameron insisted this showed that “our long-term economic plan is working.” “In 100 days, the country faces a choice between competence and chaos,” he added on Twitter. However, the Conservatives have struggled to shake off their “nasty party” label, with many voters believing austerity measures have slashed public services such as the state-run National Health Service (NHS) too harshly. Labour says its economic plan would prove less damaging to the NHS and other public services, while still cutting a £91.3bn deficit. Miliband said in a speech yesterday that Conservative policies had helped “an evershrinking circle of people do well while everybody else is forced to work harder and harder”. But he is dogged by questions about his leadership skills and an awkward public image. With experts predicting that neither main party will be able to rule on its own, Cameron or Miliband will likely have to find allies to form a government. This could either materialise in a formal coalition or on an informal basis where parties back a minority government on key votes in return for policy concessions. The Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party (SNP) look best placed to play kingmaker. Though support for the Liberal Democrats has dropped by over two-thirds since 2010, the party could retain up to 30 seats, according to Bale, down from 56 currently. Meanwhile the SNP, which wants independence for Scotland but lost a referendum on the issue last year, is set to make major gains as its membership surges. It is thought to be targeting between 12 and 20 seats, up from six at the moment. “There’s a pretty sizeable chance of a scenario where Labour wins the most seats, doesn’t have a majority, but can get through a functioning governing majority with either the Liberal Democrats or the SNP,” elections expert Benjamin Lauderdale of the London School of Economics told AFP. Parties like UKIP may not win as many seats as their support in polls suggests, because under Britain’s firstpast-the-post electoral system, it is only the ability to win individual seats that counts— not a party’s nationwide level of backing. Professor Steven Fielding of Nottingham University predicted that UKIP could win “a handful of seats, probably five to 10” in the House of Commons. “I don’t think this election will see UKIP gaining a lot of seats, but it may give them sufficient influence to ensure a referendum,” he told AFP. 18 Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 EUROPE Leaders vow ‘never again’ at Auschwitz DPA/Reuters/AFP Berlin W orld leaders appealed against anti-Semitism yesterday as they marked UN Holocaust Remembrance Day, which this year coincides with the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi-operated Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Addressing the German parliament in Berlin, German President Joachim Gauck said: “The memory of the Holocaust remains an issue for all Germans.” There is no German identity without Auschwitz. It belongs to the history of this country,” Gauck told the Bundestag. Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans not to forget and hailed the fact that more than 100,000 Jews now live in Germany. During a meeting with Auschwitz survivors, Merkel said it was “a disgrace that people in Germany are harassed, threatened or attacked if they somehow identify as Jews or if they take the side of the state of Israel.” This year’s anniversary comes as Germany’s political leaders struggle to deal with anti-Islam and anti-refugee protests. In her speech, Merkel said Auschwitz was a warning that people should not support hateful slogans against refugees and migrants. Speaking in Paris before attending remembrance ceremonies in Poland, French President Francois Hollande lamented the growing frequency of anti-Semitic acts as “an intolerable reality”. A study released yesterday in France showed that anti-Semitic acts in France doubled last year compared to 2013, and violent acts increased by 130%. France has Europe’s largest Jewish population. Hollande said the government will next month unveil a plan to fight anti-Semitism and racism. The plan would include maintaining heightened security and cracking down on digital misinformation and propaganda. Some 76,000 French Jews were deported – mostly to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death and labour camps – under the Vichy regime, which collaborated with Germany’s Nazis. Speaking nearly three weeks after a series of terrorist attacks sharpened social and religious tensions in France – the gunmen and two of the victims were of Muslim background, while four Jews were shot dead when one of the gunmen targeted a kosher market – Hollande decried divisions. Above: Survivors, officials and other guests sit by the glass-covered railtracks during the main ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp yesterday, at a tent built in front of the entrance of the former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in Oswiecim, Poland. Left: Putin lighting a candle during a ceremony at the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Centre in Moscow. Right: Flowers are seen on one of the concrete steles of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, in Berlin, yesterday. Below: Rabbis lead a prayer during the main ceremony at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Oswiecim. “France is your country,” Hollande told French Jews amid reports that the country is experiencing a record exodus of Jewish people. US President Barack Obama, in a statement, said that the Paris attacks were a “painful reminder of our obligation to condemn and combat rising anti-Semitism in all its forms, including the denial or trivialisation of the Holocaust”. Reinhard Buetikofer and Monica Frassoni, the co-chairs of the European Green Party, made a direct link between this month’s terrorist attacks in France, the arrest of Islamic terrorists in Belgium, and the Shoah, another word for the Holocaust. “Anti-Semitism, racism and xenophobia are not dead in Europe. The killing of Jews in Paris and Brussels reminds us of this dark side of European reality. We pledge to continue fighting against it and against all types of prejudice. By doing that we honour the memory of the millions of victims of the Shoah,” they wrote in a joint statement. In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin marked the liberation of the Nazi camp by Soviet troops with a tribute to Soviet Jews who fought in the Red Army, 200,000 of whom were killed. “Such crimes do not and cannot have an expiry date,” Putin said of the Holocaust during a memorial ceremony at Moscow’s Jewish Museum. He added that any attempts to suppress or distort the memory of the Holocaust are inadmissible. In the run-up to the ceremony Poland angered Moscow when its foreign minister, Grzegorz Schetyna, said it was Ukrainian soldiers – rather than the Soviet army – who liberated the camp. Moscow blasted Warsaw for twisting history for political ends. Putin has repeatedly condemned the West for what he calls attempts to belittle the Soviet army’s role in the victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 and to glorify Nazi collaborators in eastern Europe and ex-Soviet republics such as Ukraine. At the ceremony, Putin also drew parallels with the current Ukraine crisis which has sent Moscow’s ties with the West to post-Cold War lows and seen imposition of punishing Western sanctions against Russia. “We all know how dangerous and destructive are double standards, indifference to and disregard for another man’s fate as is the case with the current tragedy in eastern Ukraine,” the Kremlin strongman said at the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Centre. Putin’s absence at the ceremony at Auschwitz-Birkenau, which is now a museum, raised eyebrows at home since the camp was liberated by the Soviet Red Army on January 27, 1945. British Prime Minister David Cameron also stressed the importance of remembering the Holocaust as a means of fighting discrimination. “Part of why remembering the Holocaust matters so much is that it reminds people where anti-Semitism, prejudice and hatred end. The two things are very much linked,” he said. In addition to the commemorations taking place in Poland, the UN is to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day with a series of initiatives in New York attended by, among others, UN Secretary General Ban KiMoon and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. However, the UN events had to be postponed to Wednesday due to heavy snow in New York City. In Oswiecim, Poland, world leaders joined around 300 Auschwitz survivors at the site of the former Nazi death camp to mark 70 years since its liberation by Soviet troops, an anniversary held in the shadow of war in Ukraine and a rise in antiSemitism in Europe. Yesterday’s gathering in southern Poland marks perhaps the last major anniversary that survivors of the camp will be able to attend in numbers, given the youngest are now in their 70s. Some 1,500 attended the 60th anniversary. Around 1.5 million people, mainly European Jews, were gassed, shot, hanged and burned at the camp in southern Poland during World War II, before the Red Army entered its gates in winter 1945. It has become probably the most poignant symbol of a Holocaust that claimed 6mn Jewish lives across Europe. The presidents of Poland, Germany, and France were among hundreds attending the commemoration in a giant tent erected over the brickwork entrance to the Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp, part of the complex that is now a museum. The railway tracks that bore Jews in wagons from all across Europe to their deaths were lit up gold, the countryside around covered in deep snow. The camp’s victims also included, among others, Roma, homosexuals and all shades of political opposition to the Nazis. Notable for his absence was Putin, whose backing of proRussian rebels in Ukraine has helped drive West-Russia relations to their lowest ebb since the Cold War. Poland has been one of the most vociferous critics of Russia’s March annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and its support for rebels in eastern Ukraine. Wary of the domestic political consequences, Poland did not send a full diplomatic invitation to Putin, sources have told Reuters. “It would be hard to imagine, in this situation, hosting Russia’s president. Albeit informally, Russia is taking part in this con- flict,” Polish Justice Minister Cezary Grabarcyk told Polish ZET radio. Nato says Russia has sent men and armour to aid the separatists. Putin denies this, but risks new sanctions when European Union foreign ministers meet tomorrow. Russia was represented at the commemoration by Putin’s chief-of-staff, Sergei Ivanov. David Wisnia, an 88-year-old survivor of Auschwitz, said on Monday that the Holocaust was “almost impossible for a human mind to comprehend”. A choir boy as a child at Warsaw’s Great Synagogue, which was blown up by Nazi forces in 1943, Wisnia sang a memorial prayer in Hebrew yesterday. “I pray to God that we as human beings are able to learn something from it,” he said. Rebels say Ukraine forces pushed back near Donetsk Reuters Kiev/Moscow U A relative mourns Sergey Lobov, who was killed during shelling in Mariupol, during his funeral yesterday. Kiev-controlled Mariupol is seen as a strategically important link between separatist-occupied territory in eastern Ukraine and the Black Sea region of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia last year. krainian separatists said yesterday that they had pushed government troops out of two districts on the outskirts of their main stronghold Donetsk and their aim was to expand their control to the entire region. A rebel advance launched last week has dashed a five-month truce, reignited a war that has killed 5,000 people and brought threats of new sanctions on Moscow, which Nato accuses of backing the separatists with money, arms and troops. The separatists say their initial aim is to drive back government forces to push artillery out of range of their cities and improve their grip on their strongholds. Eduard Basurin, deputy commander of rebels in their main stronghold Donetsk, said that fighters had pushed government troops out of the suburb of Maryinka and the centre of the town of Pesky near Donetsk’s airport, a constant battlefield. “They had fully controlled Maryinka before. Now it is neutral. They are only on the outskirts,” he said by telephone. The goal would eventually be to capture the entire Donetsk region, Basurin said. That would include major population centres in government hands, like the Black Sea port of Mariupol, a city of 500,000 where Kiev says rebel shelling killed 30 people on Saturday. Basurin said there was nevertheless no offensive on Mariupol under way at present. Asked if rebels were advancing on Debaltseve and Vuhlehirsk, two other government garrisons where Kiev has reported fighting, he said: “Why should we have to advance? It is our land. They should withdraw.” Both sides say the rebels are fighting to encircle Debaltseve, a small town between the two main rebel strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk which straddles key road and rail routes linking them. “The enemy is trying to carry out an offensive on Ukrainian units and occupy strategically advantageous positions for further military operations,” government military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said in a televised briefing. Nine Ukrainian servicemen were killed and 30 wounded in the past day, he said. He said Debaltseve, Vuhlehirsk and Mariupol were bearing the brunt of the offensive. Shelling has continued all along the frontline, which weaves through Donetsk and neighbouring Luhansk provinces. “They’ve been shooting heavily for 10 days. You sit there and have no idea who is in control of the town, who is shooting and when it will end,” said 60-yearold pensioner Vladimir Saakyan, who fled his home in the town of Avdiivka, north of Donetsk, for Kiev-held territory. The head of the Kiev-run re- gional police said three civilians had been killed in Avdiivka and nearby overnight. The new rebel advance has brought calls from the United States and Europe for tighter sanctions against Moscow, which Kiev and Nato say has sent thousands of troops to fight on behalf of the rebels. President Barack Obama has said Washington would consider all steps short of military action to isolate Russia. European Union leaders asked their foreign ministers to consider possible new sanctions on Russia in response to the rebel offensive. A final decision to impose them is likely to be left to a summit next month. The separatists, fighting for the independence of an area dubbed “New Russia” by the Kremlin, now control the capitals and around half of the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk provinces, together known as the Donbass region. Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 19 EUROPE Protest party M5S suffers defections DPA Rome T en lawmakers defected from Italy’s biggest opposition party yesterday, dealing a blow to the 5-Star Movement’s (M5S) chances of influencing this week’s election of a new head of state. The M5S is protest party led by a former comedian, Beppe Grillo, which surprised the pundits by winning around 25% of the votes in the 2013 general elections. However, it has since struggled to make an impact on national politics, amid a background of internal revolts against Grillo’s autocratic style. In a long statement, nine members of the lower house of parliament and one senator said that they were leaving the M5S because it had become “a sterile and purely destructive opposition force” led by “a narrow oligarchy which, besides, was never chosen nor voted by anybody”. In February 2013, the M5S elected 109 lawmakers to the Chamber of Deputies and 54 to the upper house, the Senate. With yesterday’s defections, its parliamentary representation has shrunk to 91 deputies and 36 senators. The M5S leadership had refused to meet with the Democratic Party (PD) of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to discuss candidates for Italy’s presidency. Both houses of parliament will start voting to fill the position tomorrow. PD deputy leader Lorenzo Guerini said his party would meet with the outgoing M5S lawmakers after holding talks with the conservative Forza Italia party of former premier Silvio Berlusconi. As the largest group in parliament, the PD is leading efforts to find a consensual candidate for the presidency. Analysts expect Renzi to strike a deal with Berlusconi. However, being able to count on a handful of M5S dissenters would widen his options. On Monday, Italian media quoted the prime minister as predicting in a closed-door party meeting that the new president would be elected in the fourth round of voting, expected to take place on Saturday morning. In the first three rounds, the winning candidate has to clear a two-third majority, but the requirement falls to a simple majority of 50%-plus-one in subsequent rounds. The presidential election follows the January 14 resignation of Giorgio Napolitano, an 89-year-old who said he was too tired to go on. Former premier Giuliano Amato and Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan have been mentioned as possible successors, but experts say the race remains wide open. Premier Tsipras unveils anti-austerity cabinet Reuters Athens G reek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras unveiled a cabinet of anti-austerity veterans yesterday, signalling that he has no intention of backing away from election pledges despite various warning shots from the eurozone and financial markets. Greek markets endured a second day of turmoil yesterday, with bank shares diving and investors fearing the anti-bailout government might be set on a collision course with the country’s European Union and International Monetary Fund (IMF) creditors. Promising to reverse budget cuts and renegotiate Greece’s huge debts, Tsipras’s leftist Syriza party stormed to power in Sunday’s snap election on a wave of anger against the German-backed austerity policies that have driven up poverty and left one in four Greek workers out of a job. Among a team spanning the radical and more pragmatic wings of Syriza, Tsipras named academic economist Yanis Varoufakis as his finance minister. The defence portfolio went to Panos Kammenos, leader of the right-wing Independent Greeks party which is the junior partner in the Tsipras coalition. Varoufakis, who left a position at the University of Texas to enter Greek politics only in the run-up to the election, stressed Members of the newly formed government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras are sworn in at the Presidential Palace in Athens yesterday. ued access to ECB funding, with an extension to the country’s bailout deal with the eurozone due to expire at the end of this month. Bank of Piraeus, Alpha Bank and National Bank of Greece all fell between 10% and 12%. Moody’s credit rating agency said uncertainty created by the Syriza victory is negative for Greece’s credit rating, adding that it “undermines depositor confidence and has an adverse effect on economic growth prospects”. The government’s plan to negotiate a new debt deal has already run into resistance from its eurozone peers, which fear allowing Athens to write off some of its obligations would encourage other troubled countries to seek similar relief. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Dijsselbloem would visit Athens, but he would do so without a mandate from his peers. Europe has shown a willingness to give Athens more time to pay its debts, but has stressed it AFP Los Llanos Military Base, Spain O People work yesterday near the wreckage of a Greek F-16 fighter plane that crashed after taking off, inside the Los Llanos military base. French motorway row escalates Reuters Paris he French government has postponed an increase in road tolls due on February 1, moving closer to a showdown with toll-road operators over the future of motorway concessions. France’s socialist government wants to revise the motorway operators’ contracts which it regards as too generous, and also plans to create a new regulator to oversee highway tolls. Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the increase would be postponed to give politicians time to evaluate discussions between the state and the motorway operators, whose owners include Australia’s Macquarie, France’s Vinci and Eiffage, and Spain’s Abertis. The French motorway operators’ association ASFA immediately threatened legal action against the state. It said the state’s decision would increase uncertainty for companies on international markets. ASFA said it was up to its members to decide whether to seek legal action to preserve their rights. The politicians will look at two main scenarios, a renegotiation of the concession contracts or their cancellation, according to the statement from the prime minister’s office. Valls reiterated that the government was determined to start from scratch on the concessions to re-balance relations between the state and the motorway operators. France’s competition watchdog released a report in September saying the motorway operators’ profitability rates of 20-24% could not be justified by the costs they have to bear or the risks they face. The operators have denied overcharging. They also say their returns are not as high as the competition authority claimed. The government’s room for manoeuvre is limited as operators are protected by agreements stipulating they must be compensated for any change in contracts, which in some cases do not expire until 2035. France sets toll increases each year based on discussions with operators, also taking inflation and investment levels into account. Turkey detains 26 police officers Turkish authorities have detained at least 26 police in the latest nationwide swoop over the alleged wiretapping of top officials including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, state media said. Police conducted raids in the western city of Izmir and 12 other provinces and detained suspects, including high-ranking officers, accused of wiretapping key figures including businessmen, academics and government officials, Anatolia news agency reported. The suspects were facing a series of charges from forming a crime ring to forging official documents and violation of privacy. It was the latest in a series of raids since July last year when dozens of police officers were arrested on suspicion of wiretapping Erdogan and other officials. Jean-Marie Le Pen hurt in house fire Belgium arrests three suspected militants AFP Brussels B elgian security forces arrested three suspected militants in fresh counterterror raids after foiling a major plot to attack police earlier this month, officials said yesterday. The three arrests were made in the western town of Harelbeke, close to the French border, will not yield to the demands for debt forgiveness. On Monday Dijsselbloem warned Greeks against excessive expectations following their empathic vote against austerity. “We all have to realise and the Greek people have to realise that the major problems in the Greek economy have not disappeared and haven’t even changed overnight because of the simple fact that an election took place,” he said. The new cabinet includes a number of lawyers, professors and some former journalists. Former Communist politician Yannis Dragasakis – who in the run-up to the vote demanded an investigation into Greece’s bailout – took the deputy prime minister’s role that is expected to oversee economic issues. The government, installed within 48 hours of Sunday’s win, is expected to pursue social welfare policies such as handing out free electricity and food stamps to the poor and cutting heating oil prices, alongside a crackdown on tax evasion. On the labour front, Tsipras is expected to reverse a cut to the minimum wage and restore collective bargaining agreements abolished under the bailout out deal, as well as instituting a €5bn plan of incentives for firms to hire workers. Privatisation plans are expected to be reconsidered. Syriza officials have also promised to take on business tycoons, though in the run-up to the vote they said little about whether they will implement earlier pledges to slap new taxes on big Greek shipowners. Tsipras has also promised that he will scrap unpopular crisisera taxes, prompting critics to question how he will be able to afford his lavish social spending while battling depleting cash coffers and exasperated foreign lenders. Syriza is also expected to freeze public sector layoffs as demanded under the bailout, and stop an unpopular evaluation process for civil servants. Probe after 11 die in Nato training jet crash in Spain T Grillo: His M5S has been riven by opposition to his autocratic leadership style. that he would keep writing a blog which he has used to denounce the austerity policies demanded by Greece’s creditors in return for €240bn in bailout loans. “The time to put up or shut up has, I have been told, arrived,” he wrote on his blog. “My plan is to defy such advice.” Varoufakis has railed against the bailouts of struggling eurozone states as “fiscal waterboarding” that risked converting Europe into a “Victorian workhouse”. But speaking to Irish radio, he said yesterday that he planned to negotiate a solution with lenders, and that he had already had an “encouraging and inspiring” chat with the head of the eurozone finance ministers, Jeroen Dijsselbloem. “Make no mistake: what is beginning today is a process of deliberation with our European partners,” he said. On the financial markets, yields on Greek three-year bonds jumped above 14%. This was up four percentage points since Sunday’s vote although down from 16% at the beginning of the year, before the European Central Bank (ECB) announced plans to stimulate the eurozone economy by buying debt issued by the bloc’s governments. A collapse of banking stocks pushed the Athens bourse down by 3.69%. Investors are worried about Greek banks’ liquidity and whether they will have contin- the Belga news agency reported, citing the prosecutor’s office in nearby Courtrai. Belgium has been on high alert after two suspected militants were shot dead on January 15 in a series of anti-terror raids carried out in the wake of the Paris terror attacks. The prosecutors gave no details of those arrested or of their possible ties to jihadi groups, Belga said, adding that reports of weapons being found could not be confirmed. Officials in Courtrai were not immediately available while in Brussels, the federal prosecutors office declined to comment. Flemish-language daily Het Laaste Nieuws said the three men from the Courtrai region had gone to fight in Syria and that two had made threats against Belgium on social media. Belgium was one of a series of European countries that has made arrests in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo and Jewish supermarket attacks in France, which left 17 people dead. Two suspected militants who had just returned from Syria were killed in a raid in the eastern Belgian town of Verviers, sparking a nationwide alert which saw the Belgian government put troops on the streets to guard sensitive sites. French far-right leader JeanMarie Le Pen was slightly injured on Monday in an accidental fire at his house outside Paris, a police source told AFP. The fire at Le Pen’s house in Rueil-Malmaison is thought to have started in a chimney where work was being carried out, the source said. “The house burned, my father was inside,” said Marine Le Pen, who now leads the National Front party that her 86-year-old father founded. “His face was injured, but it is not serious, nothing to worry about.” fficials investigated yesterday how a fighter jet crashed during Nato training exercises at an air force base in Spain, killing 11 military personnel and leaving others with serious burns. Nine French and two Greek personnel died and about 20 people were injured after the two-seater F-16 crashed into parked aircraft at the Los Llanos base in southeastern Spain. The jet lost power as it took off and crashed on Monday, damaging five other aircraft, the Spanish defence ministry said. Firefighters rushed to the scene and battled the flames as black smoke billowed from the wreckage. Two Greek pilots on board and eight French officers were confirmed killed on Monday and the ministry said a ninth Frenchman died in hospital in Madrid yesterday. A judge in the eastern city of Valencia was leading an investigation into the accident. A technical commission was also probing the causes and was set to examine the wreckage and the plane’s black box recorders, a defence ministry source said. The base, near the city of Albacete, hosts elite exercises run by Nato to train military personnel from 10 nations to carry out joint manoeuvres. Two pilots, a navigator and five mechanics were among the French personnel killed, the head of the French air force chiefs of staff Denis Mercier told BFM television. Nine French personnel and 11 Italians were injured, Spanish officials said. It was the highest death toll in a single day for the French armed forces since an ambush in Afghanistan in which 10 died in 2008. Of those injured, five of the French were in “serious but stable condition” in hospital and four had been discharged, said defence ministry spokesman Manuel Vazquez. French President Francois Hollande “expressed his deep respect for the commitment” of the airmen who were preparing for air force missions to fight “against terrorist groups” in Iraq and the African Sahel region. Spain’s Defence Minister Pedro Morenes and the chiefof-staff of Spain’s air force, Francisco Javier Garcia Arnaiz, arrived late on Monday at the airbase, about 250km southeast of Madrid. French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was also expected to visit the site of the accident. The Greek F-16 hit two Italian AMX planes and three French jets – a Mirage 2000 and two Alfa Jets – when it crashed. It was taking part in Nato’s Tactical Leadership Programme, which seeks to improve multinational co-operation in air operations. Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he was “deeply saddened” by the disaster. “This is a tragedy which affects the whole Nato family. I express my heartfelt condolences to the loved ones and the nations of those who lost their lives, and I wish a speedy recovery to the injured,” he said in a statement. Britain, Germany, the United States and Spain were also taking part in the exercises but none of their nationals were reported injured. The 10 Nato countries that take part in the programme are Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United States. According to the French defence ministry’s website, it is “the most renowned and most demanding” programme for fighter pilots. The base has housed the training centre for Nato pilots since 2010, according to its website. Some 750 personnel were taking part in the current course. 20 Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 INDIA SOCIETY TOURISM FASHION CRIME ACCIDENT Celebrity chef treats Dabbawalas to lunch SRK may feature in Bengal’s new campaign SA website to retail Being Human clothes Woman, 4 children murdered in Meerut MiG 27 crashes, pilot ejects safely Celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor, who treated Mumbai’s famous Dabbawalas to a special lunch, says their work begins where his work as a kitchen king ends. “I only make food but the other part of my job is done by these Dabbawalas who take our food to the mouths of people. They don’t just do the role of delivery, they take the food out of the kitchen and make it reach the stomach,” Kapoor said. The Dabbawalas have gained fame globally for delivering lunch boxes, colloquially known as dabbas, to over 200,000 customers across Mumbai everyday. As a gesture of gratitude, Kapoor arranged lunch for them in Dadar on Republic Day on Monday. With West Bengal ambitiously gearing up to promote tourism in the state with the creation of five distinct tourism circuits, Bollywood heartthrob Shah Rukh Khan may feature in the upcoming new tourism campaign of the state, a senior official said. “We are working on new advertisements to promote tourism in the state and attract both domestic and foreign tourists and may feature Shah Rukh Khan in this,” tourism department principal secretary A R Bardhan said. Khan is the brand ambassador of the state and also co-owns the Kolkata-based IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders. According to Bardhan, the proposed new ad campaign will cost about Rs100mn without any endorsement from any brand ambassador. Superstar Salman Khan’s Being Human clothing brand will now be retailed through South Africa’s online fashion shop Zando. “#BeingHumanClothing now available on the South African website zando.co.za,” Khan tweeted yesterday. Besides its presence in India, the brand is also available in Europe and the Middle East. It has stores in cities like Kolkata, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Varanasi, Guwahati, Delhi and Mumbai. The Being Human foundation was created in 2007 by the star to support the underprivileged in India. In 2012, Khan launched Being Human clothing with Mandhana Industries to finance and develop the foundation’s activities. Then, Being Human became both a charitable trust and a clothing brand. A woman and her four children were among six people hacked to death in Meerut, police said yesterday. The murders took place on Monday. Police said the victims were identified as Rukhsana, the mother, and her children - Rinsha, 20, Julie, 8, Goongie, 6, and Suhail, 12. The bodies of the children were found in pools of blood inside a house. An unidentified man was also killed. Police said all the six were murdered by sharp edged weapons. Police first found the bodies of the man and Rukhsana at Gujjar chowk after which they went to her house to seek more details. The team was shocked when they found the bodies of her four children inside the house. A MiG 27 aircraft of the Indian Air Force yesterday crashed in Rajasthan’s Barmer district, but the pilot ejected safely, an official said. Defence spokesman Lt Col Manish Ojha said the aircraft crashed at 3.10pm in a village in Barmer. He said the plane had taken off from Jodhpur on a routine sortie to the Uttarlai air base in Barmer. Police sources in Barmer said that the aircraft hit a motorcycle that caused injuries to the rider, who was admitted to a hospital. The motorcycle was destroyed. The defence spokesman, however, said he had no information about this accident. “A court of inquiry has been ordered to investigate the cause of the crash,” he added. Cartoonist Laxman to get a memorial Bedi sends legal notice to Kejriwal over poster IANS Pune M aharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis yesterday said the state government would construct a memorial in honour of legendary cartoonist R K Laxman who died in Pune aged 94. “Laxman was not just a cartoonist - what he said through his cartoons will inspire future governments...Though he is no more, The Common Man he created will live forever,” Fadnavis said yesterday while paying homage to Laxman who died on Monday. In a rare honour, the Maharashtra government accorded a state funeral to Laxman. With his body draped ceremoniously, the last rites were performed with full state honours at Vaikuntha Crematorium here in the afternoon. Top political leaders, media personalities, industrialists, film personalities and others expressed condolences. There was also an outpouring of grief, affection and love for him on various social networking sites. Besides Fadnavis, several of his cabinet colleagues, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray and commoners from different walks of life attended an event here to pay tributes to Laxman. The brother of late English novelist R K Narayan, Laxman is survived by his writer wife Kamala, retired journalist son Srinivas and daughter-in-law Usha. Srinivas said that Laxman’s 89-year old wife took the news of her husband’s demise stoically. Laxman is renowned for his creation of The Common Man, which ran for several decades in The Times of India under the title “You Said It”. IANS New Delhi T A mourner puts a garland on the statue of Common Man, the iconic creation of Laxman, as he pays tributes to the legendary cartoonist in Mumbai yesterday. he Bharatiya Janata Party’s chief ministerial nominee Kiran Bedi yesterday sent a legal notice to Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal for using her photograph in his party’s poster campaign without her permission. “She has sent a notice to Kejriwal. He has been asked to ensure that the posters are removed,” BJP media convener Praveen Shankar Kapoor said. The AAP has recently put up posters on numerous auto-rickshaws plying in the national capital, asking the people of Delhi to choose between Kejriwal and Bedi for the post of chief minister. In the posters, the picture of Kejriwal has the word “imandar” (honest) printed below it while that of Bedi has “avsarvadi” (opportunist). BJP Delhi unit chief Satish Upadhyay slammed Kejriwal, saying he had no right to call Bedi opportunist. “Who is he to say that Kiran Bedi is an opportunist? Who has given him the right to decide?” Upadhyay told reporters here. Earlier, BJP leader Jagdish Mukhi, too, had sent a notice to Kejriwal for using his photograph in similar posters, before the party declared Bedi as its chief ministerial candidate. The AAP pitted Kejriwal against Mukhi, even though the BJP had said it would contest the Delhi election under Prime Minister Narendra Modi without naming a chief ministerial candidate. The BJP, however, later named Bedi for the post soon after she joined the party earlier this month. Reacting to the notice, AAP leader Yogendra Yadav said the BJP had a problem with everything that his party was doing. “When we used Jagdish Mukhi’s photo, they raised an objection. Now that we have pasted their official chief minister’s photo then again they have sent us a notice. The BJP has a problem with everything that we do,” he said. Also yesterday, the BJP urged the Elecdtion Commission to cancel Kejriwal’s candidature and ban him from addressing public gatherings, alleging that he has violated the model code of conduct. “He has been making frivolous accusations against other parties and individuals so that he can mislead the people. We have urged the EC to take immediate action against him and to cancel his candidature as well as ban him from addressing public rallies,” Upadhyay said. Kapoor said the complaint to the Election Commission consisted of “four to five violations” of the code of conduct that Kejriwal has committed. “It includes him asking voters to accept the alleged bribes given by the BJP and Congress as well as his pasting pictures of Kiran Bedi without her permission,” Kapoor said. Upadhyay also said the prime minister would address four rallies in the national capital between January 31 and February 4 ahead of the February 7 assembly elections. Modi ‘deserted’ wife: Congress leader Congress leader and former federal minister Gurudas Kamat yesterday made a scathing attack on Narendra Modi, saying the prime minister was “still married” and had “deserted” his wife. The Bharatiya Janata Party promptly hit back, saying he had “lost his mental balance.” Kamat termed it “a shame” that Modi had deserted his wife of over four decades. “He is still married, they are not divorced... he has deserted her. Jashodaben is a great woman. She is praying for him in temples,” he said. Kamat said Modi fought many elections but kept his marital status secret. For the first time in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he admitted he was married. The comments evoked sharp reactions from various BJP leaders, with legislator Atul Bhatkalkar ticking him off for losing his “mental balance.” It’s not too late for Congress to mend its ways I t is an accepted fact that democracy is not the best form of government. But given the diversity of history, culture, language, religion, genetics and a host of other imponderables, a country like India is best served by democracy. Despite being poor, the civil liberties, an independent judiciary and a free press, among other things, that are enjoyed by Indians are the envy of people in many other countries, foremost among them China. Or even Singapore, for that matter. There are many imperfections in the democratic system, but Indians accept them with equanimity and a live-and-let-live attitude. To paraphrase what a not-so-famous Western tourist said, somewhat tongue-incheek, during a recent interaction: “Traffic in India is the best advertisement for democracy in action. It’s all a matter of adjustment. Everywhere you see violations, but everyone adjusts. So the horse-drawn carriage mingles with the overloaded handcart and the latest Mercedes and all of them give way to the helmetless motorcyclist with three or more pillion riders heading the wrong way. It is chaos to begin with, but slowly a pattern begins to emerge. There is individual assertion in the beginning, but in the end collective adjustment prevails.” The tourist in question, who reiterated he would never want to drive on Indian roads, had lit- tle interest in India’s politics and, therefore, was blissfully unaware of the fact that while there may have been adjustment on India’s roads, there is little of that in evidence in the nation’s parliament. Instead, what you get is demonstrations in the well of the house, shouting matches, disruptions and walk-outs. All in the name of democracy, of course. The government that was in opposition a few months ago did it then. The opposition that was the government then is doing it now in return. Arun Jaitley, the all-powerful finance minister in the present government and the leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha till May 2014, is on record saying that though he did not like it, disrupting parliament is a “legitimate weapon” for the opposition in a democracy. (He said this at the height of the agitation in the wake of what has come to be known as the “2G scam”). Anand Sharma, minister for commerce till May 2014, is now leading the pack of disrupters in his new avatar as the Congress Party’s chief crusader in the Rajya Sabha. Nobody has yet asked Sharma but he would also say that he would not like to disrupt parliament. But they all do. And they all claim to be using a “legitimate weapon” in the larger interest of democracy. Caught in between is the hapless Indian who has learned and practised democracy day in and day out on the streets Delhi Diary By A K B Krishnan of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkatta and what have you. The Congress knows that what it is doing is wrong. Having been in power for most of the postindependence period, it is aware that governance in a democracy is a matter of co-operation and adjustment with the opposition. It also knows that a “responsible” opposition should never be swayed by silly, inflated egos, but should always serve the larger interests of the nation. But in the scheme of things that is peculiar to India, the opposition’s main, nay, one and only, job is to try and topple the government at any cost. There is little chance of that happening any time in the near future. So the Congress will do the next best thing - obstruct governance and spoil the government’s image. Disrupting parliament any which way is one way of obstructing governance. And if in the process the country is the ultimate sufferer, it’s just bad luck. Try telling an Anand Sharma or an Ajay Maken that two wrongs do not make a right and all you get will be blank stares. There were many key bills that should have been cleared in the winter session of parliament that ended just before Christmas. Curiously enough, some of these like the insurance bill which hikes foreign participation to 49% were, in fact, the brainchildren of the Manmohan Singh government. With the world showing renewed interest in India’s growth story, these were mainly aimed at bringing the much-needed foreign investment into the country that could create more jobs and, in turn, more prosperity. But the Congress is in no mood to co-operate or adjust. The obvious conclusion is it doesn’t want to be seen as facilitating India’s progress because, for some strange reason, it thinks it won’t get any credit while Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take away everything. So you rake up any small issue and blow it out of proportion with the help of a sensation-mongering 24X7 television. This is narrow-mindedness of the worst kind. It is also the mindset of an era long gone. With 50% of Indians below the age of 25, and a good majority of them skilled and educated, at- titudinal changes are the need of the hour for every political party if it wants to survive. Revolution as a way of change was never going to be sustainable. If there is any doubt, ask the communists. They refused to change with the times and now find themselves almost irrelevant in countries where they once held sway. In India they are now relegated to the status of a regional party. If it does not change, and change quickly, the Congress too will be looking down that same barrel very soon. Rahul Gandhi is being pushed and prodded to take over the reins of the Congress from his mother. But he has been an on-againoff-again Congressman throughout his short political career. He promised changes that “you cannot even imagine” that will reenergise the Congress. That was in December 2013 when the Congress was pushed to a distant third by a fledgling Aam Aadmi Party in the Delhi assembly elections. But that was it. Either Indians have very poor imagination that they have not seen what Gandhi has done to his party or Gandhi has simply not delivered on his promise. Subsequent elections to the Lok Sabha and a series of state assemblies have only proved that Gandhi’s was a vain boast. Yes, it could have been unimaginable change if the Congress were to co-operate with the government and help it pass these important legislations. If Gandhi were to direct his partymen that all forward-looking laws that could help improve the economic situation of the nation must be supported inside and outside parliament, Indians would have noticed that he is reforming the party in ways they had not imagined. They would have then supported him and his party if and when the government were to attempt to bring in controversial legislation like the introduction of a uniform civil code or abolition of Article 370 and such. It is not too late for the Congress to mend its ways. Like a new party in government needs time to get accustomed to the power equations, a party that had been in power for long takes time to get used to being in the opposition. Democratic evolution too takes time to mature, as has been proved in many western democracies. Only, with the advent of the Internet, the sense of urgency has hit a peak. The budget session of parliament beginning next month will give Gandhi and his party a rare opportunity to show their maturity. If it’s important for Modi to prove his pro-reform agenda, it is perhaps more important for Gandhi to tell Indians that the Congress will not stand in the way of India’s progress. Indians are watching! The bear-hug that Prime Minister Modi and President Obama exchanged was as spontaneous as it was mutual as they seemed to think that a mere handshake and elbow-touching was inadequate. And strangely enough it may have never taken place had not Modi taken the initiative to personally receive the American president at Delhi airport. Of course, it could not have come as a surprise to Obama to see the Indian prime minister waiting for him at the bottom of the staircases as he alighted from Air Force One. That scenario must have been relayed to him well in advance. But what was surprising was how some television channels went overboard describing Modi’s “gesture” of going to the airport to receive a foreign head of state as “unprecedented.” In their hurry to score brownie points over their rivals, these channels either forgot or decided to forget that Modi’s predecessor Manmohan Singh had done precisely the same thing not just once, but three times! Singh had travelled to the airport to receive Obama when he came to India in 2010 and also his predecessor George Bush. Singh had also met King Abdullah at the airport when the Saudi monarch came visiting in 2006. But for the TV channels that wanted “breaking news” by the minute such details were of no consequence. Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 21 INDIA ‘At times I am treated differently’ IANS New Delhi T he rise of a cook’s grandson to the presidency of the United States and being questioned about his religious beliefs - this and some other vignettes from his personal life and history were related by US President Barack Obama in his public address yesterday as he narrated, with a little anguish, on how he is sometimes “treated differently” because of the colour of his skin. Obama, addressing a townhall meeting at the 2,000-seating capacity Siri Fort Auditorium, one of the largest in the capital that is the venue for large concerts, said his grandfather “was a cook for the British army in Kenya” and that “distant branches of Michelle’s family were slaves.” “When we were born people who looked like us still could not vote in some parts of the country,” said Obama. Referring to the colour prejudice that continues to exist in some parts of the US, he said: “Even as America has blessed us with the extraordinary opportunity (to be president), there are moments when I am treated differently because of the colour of my skin.” Parts of the US have been rocked by anger over the fatal shootings of unarmed black teens and young men by white policemen. The incidents, including in Ferguson, have led to loud protests, especially with no action being taken against the erring policemen. Obama said that both he and Michelle follow the Christian faith but there have been times when people have questioned his faith. “I am also proud to live in a country where the grandson of a cook can be president” and also referred to the opportunities in India where “a Dalit can write the constitution and a tea seller can be prime minister,” referring to Dalit icon B R Ambedkar, who is known as father of the Indian Constitution, and to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is known to have sold tea in his youth on the railway platform in his hometown in Gujarat. “The aim of our work must be that everybody has the chance to dream big and reach those limits,” he said, to loud claps. Obama struck a personal chord with the mainly youthful crowd, saying he was very impressed with the daredevilry of the motorcycle contingent riding Royal Enfield bikes and wished he could ride a bike too. “But the Secret Service does not let me ride motor cycles.” He said that on his last visit to Mumbai he and Michelle had danced with a group of young people, and that the next day newspapers had praised her dancing. But, he said “unfortunately, we were not able to schedule any dancing on this visit.” Speaking on women’s rights, he referred to Michelle, who was in the audience, and said: “Michelle is a strong and intelligent woman. She is not afraid to speak her mind or tell me when I am wrong, which happens very frequently,” to loud cheers from the invited audience that comprised youths, students, NGOs and diplomats. Obama said he was the proud father to two strong and beautiful girls, who the couple have been raising with strong values. The US first couple later held hands and walked down and met the ecstatic audience and shook hands with them for close to 10 minutes. zA sense of relief spread like crisp mountain air among security personnel in the national capital, snapping the tension and fatigue of the past several days as Obama rounded up his three-day visit. Obama and the First Lady reached the VVIP terminal of Indira Gandhi Airport around 1.45pm in his official car, The Beast, and took off at 1.55pm in his Air Force One plane. India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Intelligence Bureau, Special Protection Group (SPG), National Security Guard (NSG) and paramilitary forces along with over 20,000 Delhi police officers worked together to ensure Obama’s safety by maintaining a tight vigil and a multilayer security ring around him during his visit. Special forces such as the quick response teams and fire service officials were also placed on high alert through the Obama visit. “The capital city is already on high alert following terror threats. But, yes, there is a sense of relief now that the US president’s visit is over,” an official said. Obama speaks with children’s rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi in New Delhi yesterday. Also seen are Satyarthi’s wife Sumedha, First Lady Michelle Obama and children with whom Satyarthi works — 8-year-old Deepak and 12-year-old Payal Jangid. Obama prods India on religious tolerance US president wraps visit with pleas on religion, climate Agencies New Delhi U S President Barack Obama weighed in on one of India’s most sensitive topics as he wound up a visit yesterday, making a plea for freedom of religion to be upheld in a country with a history of strife between Hindus and minorities. Hours before boarding a flight to Saudi Arabia, Obama warned India not to stray from its constitutional commitment to allow people to freely “profess, practice and propagate” religion. “Every person has the right to practice their faith how they choose, or to practice no faith at all, and to do so free of persecution and fear of discrimination,” he said. “Nowhere is that more important than India, nowhere is it going to be more necessary for that foundational value to be upheld. “India will succeed so long as it is not splintered along lines of religious faith, along lines of anything, and is unified as one nation,” he said in a townhall address to mostly young Indians. Obama’s speech, after three days in New Delhi aimed at cementing a strategic partnership, was widely interpreted as a message to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), whose rise to power emboldened activists to declare India a nation of Hindus. He made no direct reference to Modi, who was banned from US travel for nearly a decade until last year after deadly HinduMuslim violence in Gujarat he ruled in 2002. Lately, religious conversion has again become a divisive political issue, after hardliners with links to the BJP claimed Hinduism was under threat and started a campaign to convince Christians and Muslims to change their faith. About a fifth of India’s 1.27bn people identify themselves as belonging to faiths other than Hinduism. “The message is that India is a democratic country, it is not a Hindu country or a Christian country, it is all together, India has respect for all religions,” said Imam Umer Ahmed Ilyasi, a Muslim priest who heads the All India Imam Organisation, after the speech. He was standing with a Hindu holy man from one of India’s pilgrimage towns, Rishikesh. Modi has warned lawmakers from his own party to stop promoting controversial issues such as religious conversions and to focus on economic reforms, but Obama’s message was quickly seized by political opponents of the prime minister. “I do hope that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was listening to the speech carefully,” said Manish Tewari of the opposition Congress Party, criticising Hindu activists for promoting a “majoritarian ethos that goes against the grain of liberal democracy.” Obama and Modi’s relaxed manner together during the visit was dubbed a “bromance” in India media, after the two men shared tea in a lotus garden, re- Army officer killed in Kashmir a day after getting medal Agencies Srinagar A n army officer died battling militants yesterday in Jammu and Kashmir, a day after winning an award for gallantry. Colonel Munindra Nath Rai was killed along with Kashmir police head constable Sanjeev Singh, while two other soldiers were injured during an encounter with militants in Pulwama district, police sources said. Two militants including the alleged district commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen militant group were also killed in the gunfight, police said. The colonel is the highest ranking military officer to die in fighting in Kashmir in more than a year. Rai and his joint team of soldiers and policemen had converged on a village near Tral town after receiving information that militants were visiting their homes in the area. While talking to villagers, Rai, the policeman and the other soldiers were ambushed by the militants, police said. “The militants opened fire. They were neutralised but the colonel, the head constable and the two soldiers were also injured,” a police official said. “The injured colonel and head constable were airlifted to the Army hospital in Srinagar, where they breathed their last,” the official said. Rai of 9 Gorkha Rifles, seconded to the Rashtriya Rifles, was awarded a Yudh Seva Medal on Monday when India celebrated its Republic Day for his operations against militants in Kashmir. Tens of thousands of troops are deployed in Kashmir to put down an insurgency which began in 1989 and has weakened over the past several years. India worries that militant groups based in Pakistan will turn their attention to Kashmir as foreign forces complete their withdrawal from Afghanistan. This month alone, 10 militants have been killed in violence. corded a radio show together, and spent two hours chatting at a rain-splashed Republic Day military parade. In between, they sealed deals to unlock billions of dollars in nuclear trade and deepen defence ties, and Obama pledged $4bn in financial backing to release the “untapped potential” of a partnership between the world’s largest democracies. Some of that financing is to help Modi meet his own ambitious goals to use more renewable energy, especially solar, as fast-growing India’s carbon emissions rise. However, during the visit, India did not commit to a peak emissions target of the kind China and the US agreed to in November. “Here’s the truth: even if countries like the US curb our emissions, if growing countries like India - with soaring energy needs - don’t also embrace cleaner fuels, then we don’t stand a chance against climate change,” Obama said. On Monday, he became the first US president to attend In- dia’s annual Republic Day parade, a show of military might long associated with Cold War anti-Americanism. Obama’s presence at the parade signalled Modi’s willingness to end India’s traditional reluctance to get too close to any big power. Instead, he is seeking close ties with them all, even as he pushes back against a more assertive China and take sides on other global issues. A joint US-India policy statement that focused on free navigation in the South China Sea highlighted this more muscular diplomacy. Obama said the US would stand first in line for the trade and investment opportunities that will spring from the economic reform drive under Modi. “America wants to be your partner in igniting the next wave of Indian growth. As India pursues reforms to encourage more trade and investment, we’ll be the first in line,” he told the townhall, attended by Michelle Obama and Nobel peace laureate Kailash Satyarthi. 22 Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 LATIN AMERICA Fidel breaks silence on US-Cuba dialogue Fidel has chosen to let Raul do the talking on this issue AFP Havana C uban leader Fidel Castro has broken his silence on a historic rapprochement between Washington and Havana, implicitly endorsing it even as he expressed an abiding distrust of his old foe. The 88-year-old revolutionary icon had said nothing since last month’s surprise agreement, raising questions not only about where he stood on mending relations with Washington, but also about his health and political status. But late Monday, Castro appeared to answer some of those questions with a letter read out on state television that reflected both his skepticism and tacit support for the decision by his brother Raul to normalise ties. “I don’t trust in the policy of the United States, nor have I exchanged one word with them, without this representing—far from it—rejection of a peaceful solution to conflicts,” he said. He refrained from criticising the agreement, and said Raul Castro had acted in keeping with his powers as president. “We will always defend cooperation and friendship with all the peoples of the world, among them our political adversaries. It’s what we are calling for on everyone’s part,” he said. The text of the letter, which was addressed to the Federation of University Students, was published yesterday in the official Communist Party newspa- Cuba’s president Raul Castro with Costa Rica’s vice president Ana Elena Chacon after arriving at the Juan Santamaria international airport in Alajuela. Castro is in Costa Rica for the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) summit. per Granma and other state publications, under headlines that did not highlight his comments on the US-Cuba rapprochement. In his typically loquacious manner, Castro covered a range of topics in the letter, touching on Ancient Greece and Cuba’s military campaigns in Africa in the 1970s and 1980s before coming around to his comments on the rapprochement with the United States. The agreement to begin normalising ties after more than 50 years of enmity stunned the world when it was announced December 17 by US President Barack Obama and Raul Castro, who succeeded an ailing Fidel as Cuba’s president in 2006. Last week, the highest-ranking US delegation in 35 years began negotiations with Cuban officials in Havana on reopening embassies in their respective capitals. The agreement will ease trade and travel restrictions to open the flow of contacts between the two countries separated by 145km of water but an enormous political gulf. It has been criticised by some US lawmakers and Cuban Americans for not gaining concessions on human rights and democratic reforms. But Latin American leaders across the political spectrum have hailed it as a long- overdue end to the US-imposed isolation of Havana. What has been missing was word from Fidel who—though retired—remains the embodiment of the one-party communist state he erected in defiance of Washington after Cuba’s 1959 revolution. His silence had raised doubts about whether he was even alive, until visiting Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona made public a letter he had received from Fidel. The latest letter from “El comandante” including the comments on Washington was read by student federation leader Randy Perdomo, on the eve of an annual march by thousands of university students. This year’s march will commemorate the 70th anniversary of Castro’s matriculation in the University of Havana, from which he graduated as a lawyer in 1950, three years before launching his revolutionary movement with a failed assault on an army barracks. Castro, who did not comment on the rumours about his health in the letter, was last seen in public more than a year ago, when he attended a friend’s art gallery opening on January 6, 2014. Fidel had been a frequent contributor to Cuba’s state-run newspapers, but published his last column in mid-October, when he proposed that Cuba and the United States co-operate in fighting the Ebola epidemic in west Africa. His absence was especially noted on the return of three Cuban spies, celebrated as heroes in Havana, as part of the agreement with Washington. They were swapped for a Cuban imprisoned as a US spy. Jailed US contractor Alan Gross also was freed at the same time. Labour in pain Former employees of the Itaipu dam, with their hands nailed to wood, take part in a rally in Asuncion, Paraguay. Four former workers and a mother and wife of one of the workers of the Itapu dam, shared between Paraguay and Brazil, marched in Asuncion to protest for their labour rights. President Fernandez speaking during a national broadcast in Buenos Aires. Argentina to disband intelligence service AFP Buenos Aires P resident Cristina Kirchner on Monday said that she will disband Argentina’s intelligence service after a prosecutor was found dead just hours before he was to make explosive allegations against her. Alberto Nisman, 51, was found in his Buenos Aires home with a gunshot to the head on January 18, the day before he was to go before a congressional hearing to accuse Kirchner of obstructing his investigation into a 1994 bombing at a Jewish charities federation office. She denies the claims and says Nisman’s death—which initially was suspected suicide—was a plot to discredit her. Kirchner, who is scrambling to protect her record and legacy, said Monday: “The plan is to dissolve the Intelligence Secretariat, and create a Federal Intelligence Agency.” The leadership of the agency will be chosen by the president but subject to senate approval. Kirchner had removed the leadership of the current intelligence service as recently as December. She said she would send her intelligence system reform bill to Congress before she leaves for China next week, and swiftly scheduled special congressional sessions for it to be taken up. Kirchner also took aim at Diego Lagomarsino, a Nisman colleague who lent Nisman the pistol with which the prosecutor was killed. Lagomarsino on Monday was charged with giving a gun to someone who is not its registered owner, officials said. “Lagomarsino is not just a staunch opponent of the government,” Kirchner said suggesting his brother’s work on behalf of Clarin newspaper, in her view, raised red flags. She has had a long-running feud with the paper. The 1994 attack, which killed 85 people, has never been solved. Nisman had accused Kirchner and her foreign minister Hector Timerman of shielding Iranian officials implicated in the bombing of the ArgentineJewish Mutual Association. After his death, Kirchner suggested Nisman had been manipulated by former intelligence agents who then killed him to smear her. Kirchner has offered no evidence to support her theory, and did not say who she thought was behind Nisman’s death. But aides in recent days have pointed to former intelligence officials who were recently fired, including the former chief of operations of the Intelligence Secretariate, Antonio Stiusso, who worked closely with Nisman. Investigators have said Nisman’s death appeared to be suicide, but it has been classified as a “suspicious” death and homicide or an “induced suicide” have not been ruled out. 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 case. A top Kirchner aide meanwhile offered assurances that journalists enjoy “full security” in Argentina, after a reporter who revealed the Nisman death fled to Israel saying he feared for his safety. Damian Pachter left Argentina on Saturday, saying he had received threats and was being followed. “In Argentina, there is full security for all journalists,” cabinet chief Jorge Capitanich said. “There is no obstacle for any journalist to express whatever he thinks.” Pachter, a journalist for the English-language Buenos Aires Herald who holds dual Argentine-Israeli citizenship, told colleagues his phones had been tapped. In a column published by Israel’s Haaretz daily entitled ‘Why I fled Argentina after breaking the story of Alberto Nisman’s death’, Pachter recounted the intimidation that led him to leave Argentina. Cubans look to US detente for better Web access AFP Havana A lfredo Castellano travels half an hour to Havana twice a week to write e-mails in a computer centre with a Fidel Castro poster outside and aging machines inside. Like most Cubans, he lacks Internet access at home, but many hope this will change after the United States offered to bolster the communist island’s tightly-controlled telecommunications as part of a historic diplomatic detente. “I’m very excited because it would mean lots of changes. What we don’t know is how long this will take,” said Castellano, 28, after sending birthday wishes to a friend in Winnipeg, Canada. Wearing a baseball cap and sleeveless shirt, the aspiring tour guide sat in front of a screen in a stuffy room in Old Havana with a dozen computers that only offer e-mail service. Other locations offer Internet connection but it costs $4.50 per hour, three times more expensive that the email-only stations in a country where people earn around $20 per month. “Technology here is a little behind,” said Castellano, who did not have Internet when he studied computer science 10 years ago and comes to Havana because service is too slow in his Havana suburb. “People are very frustrated. There are a lot of things we don’t know because we lack Internet.” Cubans are starved for information in a country where only 3.4% have Internet service at home, which arrives via a fibre-optic cable from Venezuela, according to the International Telecommunications Union. But crafty Cubans have found ways to skirt the prohibitive prices and restrictions. They stand outside hotels with smartphones to sneak into their Wi-Fi network. Others sell hours of films, television shows and computer games that buyers download into memory sticks for as little as $0.20 for four gigabytes of entertainment. Young computer whizzes have built their own intranet network by installing Wi-Fi routers across Havana to US flags adorn a pedicab in Havana. share movies and play video games together online. This month, the US government eased trade restrictions to allow firms to export telecommunications technology to Cuba following the rapprochement announced by US President Barack Obama and Cuban leader Raul Castro. But Castellano’s question—when will US tech companies arrive—is something US and Cuban officials were unable to answer after historic talks last week aimed at normalizing relations. Cuba’s chief negotiator Josefina Vidal indicated that her country is “willing to receive US telecommunications companies” to explore business opportunities. But US assistant secretary of state Roberta Jacobson said Vidal was short on specifics and that experts from both countries would hold further talks. “Access and the ability for the Cuban people to get information is really critically important,” Jacobson said in Havana on Friday. Analysts say foreign firms eyeing Cuba face many challenges. Authorities may be reluctant to allow too much access to information, the state telecommunications company ETECSA may resist opening its monopoly and the government may simply not have enough cash. “If Cuba really wants to move forward and ETECSA doesn’t want to block it, they still have the problem that they don’t have much money,” California State University computer science professor Larry Press told AFP. Cuba, Press said, should improve access right now but also start preparing for the next generation technology that will inevitably appear in five years. After visiting Cuba in June, Google chairman Eric Schmidt said the country’s Internet was “trapped in the 1990s,” and the US embargo would make it “much harder” to displace the island’s Asian-built infrastructure. The authorities tightly control access, which is mainly available to companies, universities and government institutions. Few individuals are autorised to have expensive home connections. Some dissident blogs are blocked. The government slightly increased access in June 2013 when the state telecom firm Etecsa opened around 100 Internet “navigation” rooms, but people would prefer to connect at home. “It limits my business,” said Belkis Basail, 45, who runs a bed and breakfast she opened under 2011 reforms allowing small private entrepreneurship. She wants Internet for her clients and to create a webpage to advertise her rooms abroad. Standing in line to get e-mail service installed on her phone, she said the rapprochement with the United States would be good for Cubans. “It’s better to have friends than enemies,” she said. Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 23 PAKISTAN/AFGHANISTAN Smaller parties to play key role in Senate elections Internews Peshawar P olitical parties with fewer lawmakers in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province Assembly are likely to become a liability for their allies, in opposition and treasury benches alike, in the upcoming Senate elections. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is the largest party in the provincial assembly with 56 lawmakers in the 124-member house. Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) follows with 17 members, Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) with 16, Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) with 10 while PTI’s coalition partner Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) has eight seats. The other coalition partner, Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan (AJIP), occupies five seats while opposition parties Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Awami National Party (ANP) have five seats each. The two remaining seats are held by independent MPAs supporting the government. It seems smaller parties are likely to play a crucial role in the Senate polls as all of them have ambitions to send their representatives to the Upper House of Parliament. With a total of 71 provincial seats, PTI and its allies can win around seven seats in the Senate, including four general and one technocrat, women and minority seat each. Meanwhile, the opposition also has enough strength to win three general seats, a seat for women and a seat for technocrats. In case of a disagreement in one or both camps (treasury and opposition), smaller parties can switch sides, bolstering the other group’s chances to win more Senate seats. If opposition parties reach an agreement, the larger members PML-N, JUI-F and QWP can each win a general seat; they can also help their smaller allies ANP and PPP win a technocrat and women’s seat. In the case that larger parties decline help, ANP and PPP can extend their hand to the coalition, increasing its chances of winning another general seat. The treasury benches can also suffer a similar dilemma if they deny a Senate seat to AJIP; the coalition partner might decide to side with the opposition, giving it an upper hand. JI is also desirous of sending its chief Sirajul Haq to the Upper House from the provincial legislature and can rebel if its plans are interrupted. However, there seems to be a general agreement to avoid backdoor dealings in the polls. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have hinted that there is nothing wrong with both sides working out a mutual adjustment in order to discourage purchasing of votes. “The opposition does not want any horsetrading to take place,” said PML-N parliamentary leader Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha. He added his party would win two general seats from the provincial assembly, while joint candidates will contest for the reserved seats for women and technocrats. Reports about possible contact between opposition parties and the government to reach an adjustment are also doing the rounds. However, PTI’s Shaukat Yousafzai denied these reports. “PTI chief Imran Khan will decide on the matter,” said Yousafzai, adding his party has agreed not to allow corruption in the polls. On the other hand, QWP senior leader Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli acknowledged some informal communication has taken place between the government and opposition through intermediaries. However, she said nothing has been formalised yet. Tahirkheli was hopeful that the opposition would remain united over the Upper House polls as it has managed to do in the provincial assembly so far. Confirming that QWP was hoping to win a Senate seat, Tahirkehli said, “We want elections to take place in a transparent manner and do not want a repetition of the unsavoury episodes of the past.” Taliban rejects China role in talks DPA Kabul T he Taliban yesterday confirmed reports that a delegation travelled to China for “expanding relations and shedding light on its policies,” but rejected a mediatory role for China in any future peace talks. “The Islamic Emirate is still firm on its previous stance and has not travelled to any country for it to act as a mediator for peace talks and neither has it responded positively to requests of mediation by the said country,” the Taliban said in a statement. It said it has “always had links with world, regional and especially neighbouring countries, carries out trips every now and then as needs arise and neighbouring China is also a country among this group.” Last month, Afghan media reported that a two-member delegation of Taliban led by Din Mohamed Hanif held talks with Chinese officials to share the group’s stance and to explore China’s role in possible negotiations. Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said that “the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has wanted and continues to want good and beneficial relations with regional and especially its neighbouring countries ... Therefore the rumours swirling around the media have no basis.” Afghan president Ashraf Ghani, who visited China in October, has said the country’s role is crucial in helping peace negotiations. China said it was prepared to mediate in the Afghan peace process and assist the government in it. Pakistani Islamists carry placards during a protest against satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo in Lahore yesterday. Protesters storm Christian school AFP Karachi H undreds of Pakistani students protesting against a French magazine for publishing cartoons of the Prophet stormed a Christian boys’ school demanding it close, officials and police said yesterday. Four students were slightly hurt in the incident in the northwestern town of Bannu on Monday, which happened as students from local colleges and schools demonstrated against the cartoons printed in French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. “A group of some 200 to 300 protesting students entered Panel High School after jumping its out- Teachers get gun training after Peshawar massacre AFP Peshawar T Pakistani teachers handle firearms during a weapons training session at a police training centre in Peshawar. Malik Khalid Khan, the president of the Private Schools Teachers Association, opposed the move to arm teachers. “How is it possible to teach students in a class... holding a gun in one hand and a pen in another?” Khan told AFP. “It’s not our job, our job is to teach them books. A teacher holding a gun in the class will have very negative affect on his students,” Khan said, adding that the government should hire more police if they are short of numbers. The government and military promised a tough response to the Peshawar massacre, in which heavily armed mil- itants scaled the school walls before going room-to-room mowing down helpless students and staff. A six-year moratorium on the death penalty was ended for terror cases after the attack, and parliament voted to set up military courts to try terror offenses. the incident and will re-open today. District police officer Abdul Rashid Khan confirmed the incident but said it was not thought to be an anti-Christian attack. Under Pakistan’s strict blasphemy laws, insulting the prophet can carry the death penalty, and the country’s prime minister and parliament have strongly condemned the publication of the cartoons. Pakistan, Afghanistan open border security discussions Agencies Islamabad T eachers in northwest Pakistan are being given firearms training and will be allowed to take guns into the classroom in a bid to strengthen security following a Taliban massacre at a school last month. Heavily armed militants killed 150 people, 132 of them children, in a bloody December 16 attack on an army-run school in Peshawar, the main town in Pakistan’s northwest. “Carrying firearms for every teacher is not obligatory, but all those who want to carry firearms to schools willingly will be provided with permits,” Atif Khan, provincial education minister for the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, told AFP. Provincial Information Minister Mushtaq Ghani confirmed the decision, adding that the province was unable to provide police guards for all of its government-run education institutions. “The number of police in the province is not enough to guard 35,000 schools, colleges and universities that’s why we have allowed teachers to carry firearms,” Ghani told AFP. Authorities began training teachers in how to use guns last week and the latest batch of female trainees started learning the ropes yesterday. “It’s a two-day course. We are training them on gun handling and also on (the) procedure of using it,” said Mohamed Latif, a trainer at police headquarters in Peshawar. Pakistan has already strengthened security for schools across the country, including by building elevated boundary walls with steel wire fencing and increasing the number of police. Private schools have been ordered to deploy extra security guards. er walls and forcibly opened the gates,” said school principal Fredrick Farhan Das. He said the students who wanted the school to be shut damaged the property and smashed windows. “This caused kind of a stampede, which slightly injured four students,” Das said. He said the school remained closed yesterday in protest against op Pakistani and Afghan commanders have opened talks on security issues, focusing on border management amid growing anti-terror co-operation. Commander of the Afghan Border Police Shafiq Fazli is leading a 10-member delegation in talks with Pakistani counterparts. Fazli, along with his deputy Sher Ali Shahryar and eight other border police officials, arrived in Pakistan for a fiveday official visit on Sunday. “Issues related to border security will be discussed during the ABP delegation’s visit to Pakistan,” Xinhua quoted a Pakistan army statement as saying. The Afghan security officials are also scheduled to visit some Pakistani military areas. The Afghan security officials arrived in Islamabad just days after the visits of two top Pakistani military commanders to Afghanistan who had discussed co-operation between the security forces to effectively manage the border. Pakistan and Afghanistan have nearly a 2,500km porous border and militants routinely take advantage of the difficult terrain to cross the border whenever security forces of either country launch any operation against them on their respective side of the border. Both countries have now decided to co-ordinate with the other if they start security operation on their side of the border to frustrate attempts by the militants to escape to the other side. The Pakistani army is presently battling the Taliban and other militant groups in North Waziristan tribal region and Afghan forces are fighting the Taliban in Dangam district in eastern Kunar province, bordering Pakistan. Afghanistan’s ambassador to Pakistan Janan Mosazai said last week that Afghan forces have killed nearly 200 militants in Kunar. Pakistani officials said Pakistani Taliban fighters have taken shelter in Kunar and other Afghan border areas and launch attacks from there. The Afghan authorities also complain that Afghan Taliban also cross into Pakistan whenever they start action against them. In a sign of growing military-tomilitary co-operation, the two neighbours have now decided to open two co-ordination centres along the border to share intelligence and closely monitor the illegal cross-border movement of the Taliban and other militants. The savage December 16 attack by Taliban bombers at the Army Public School in Peshawar in which over 140 students and teachers were massacred has led to closer co-operation between the two countries on tackling terrorist threats. The Afghan Taliban have also carried out several deadly attacks in Kabul and other areas following the inauguration of President Ashraf Ghani late September. They launched a major offensive in Kunar’s Dangam district last month. Dangam borders Pakistan’s northwestern Dir district. The two countries have also increased co-operation following the withdrawal of most of the foreign troops from Afghanistan and end to the Nato combat mission to avoid any instability. 24 Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 PHILIPPINES ‘High likelihood’ Malaysian militant killed in police raid AFP Manila T he Philippines said yesterday there was a “high likelihood” a Malaysian militant suspected of being behind the 2002 Bali bombings was killed in a chaotic operation in the country’s south that left 44 police dead. Sunday’s offensive against “high-value targets” including Zulkifli bin Hir - one of the US’ most wanted militants with a $5mn bounty on his head turned into a bloodbath, with President Benigno Aquino ordering a probe into the incident. Nearly 400 highly-trained Philippine policemen took part in the operation in the remote southern farming town of Mamasapano to arrest top militants— including Zulkifli, who is also known as Marwan —but were ambushed by fighters. They managed to escape but strayed into territory controlled by a different militant group, sparking another firefight. “There is a high likelihood according to the participants that Marwan was killed in the operations, but this needs confirmation,” Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas told a news conference. While they failed to recover the body of the main target, “they were able to take pictures, and these pictures will undergo a process to determine whether it was Marwan or not.” Zulkifli, among the US’s most wanted militants, is a bombmaker for the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) group which staged the 2002 bombings in Bali that claimed 202 lives, and other deadly attacks in southeast Asia. A top Malaysian police official on counter-terrorism told the Malay Mail newspaper that Kuala Lumpur was still waiting for information from the Philippine authorities on Zulkifli’s fate. Zulkifli, described by the US State Department as a 48-year-old Malaysian militant and a member of JI’s central command who had trained as an engineer in the US, has long been sought by the authorities. Declarations of his death, however, have proved premature in the past. In March 2012 Malaysian counter-terror police denied a Philippine military claim that Zulkifli was killed in an air strike. The potential success of targeting Zulkifli was blighted, though, by the police casualties, and the controversy is already testing the 10-monthold accord intended to end a 40-year insurgency that has claimed tens of thousands of lives. Out of 392 “special action force” police commandoes who took part in the mission, 44 were killed and 12 others wounded, Roxas said. The MILF said police did not co-ordinate the operation as required under the ceasefire accord. Aquino has ordered an investigation into the Mamasapano incident, and Roxas said the head of the force was relieved of his post pending an inquiry. According to Roxas, the Philippine police were leaving the area where the operation was taking place when they were ambushed by the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a group accused of sheltering Zulkifli. The police escaped but then strayed into territory controlled by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), sparking another firefight, the interior secretary said. Regional military spokeswoman Captain Joan Petinglay confirmed press reports that US servicemen aboard a helicopter were seen helping evacuate the wounded police. But she denied that the Americans had any part in planning the operation. “They were on the scene on humanitarian grounds,” she said. Small groups of US troops have been rotating through the southern Philippines for years, helping train local forces to hunt extremists. Philippine authorities have alleged that some of the Bali bombers had fled to the southern Philippines and sought refuge with rebels waging decades-old armed campaigns against the Manila government. Protest over hiding poor during papal visit Militant groups protest near the Department of Social Welfare and Development head office in Quezon City, to protest against the six-day stay at a resort given to street dwellers of Manila during the recent papal visit. The “holiday” was allegedly a misuse of government funds to conceal poverty in the country. Govt won’t dismiss US Marine’s murder case US Marine Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton is accused of murdering Jennifer Laude, 26, in the port city of Olongapo in October AFP Manila A request by a US marine accused of murdering a Filipino transexual that the case against him be thrown Philippines says it was on guard against Pope ‘suicide attack’ AFP Manila T he Philippines investigated a report that a Malaysian suicide bomber was planning to try to kill Pope Francis during the pontiff’s visit to Manila this month, Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas said yesterday. Filipino police and soldiers threw up a massive operation involving nearly 40,000 personnel to protect the Pope during the January 15-19 visit, which went off without any reported security incidents. “Around the time of the papal visit, there was unsubstantiated intelligence about a Malaysian national who supposedly had a plan, either through a backpack or a vest, to be a suicide bomber,” Roxas told reporters. “But we followed all the leads and we found no substantiation,” he said without elaborating. “Around the time of the papal visit, there was unsubstantiated intelligence about a Malaysian national who supposedly had a plan, either through a backpack or a vest, to be a suicide bomber” The Pope’s visit to Asia’s Catholic bastion saw the pontiff draw massive crowds at every public appearance despite tight security. Authorities had previously said his visit was a “security nightmare”. He shunned the armoured “Popemobiles” used by his predecessors, preferring to use an open vehicle that out was dismissed yesterday, with the Philippine justice ministry saying there was sufficient evidence to try him. US Marine Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton is accused of murdering Jennifer Laude, 26, in the port city of Olongapo in October. “There is no reason to alter, modify or reverse the resolution” of the charges, said Jose Vicente Salazar, justice ministry undersecretary. “The convergence of foregoing circumstances all taken together, leads to the fair reasonable inference that (the) respondent is probably guilty of killing Laude, through treachery, abuse of superior strength, and cruelty,” Salazar said in a 12-page resolution. Pemberton’s lawyers have argued that the evidence linking him to the killing is “based on nothing but conjectures and speculations”. But Salazar cited closed-circuit TV footage of Pemberton and Laude leaving a club together before the murder, testimony Polluted river allowed him to reach out and touch the masses that thronged to see him. Despite the challenges, including an open-air mass in Manila that drew a record 6mn people on January 18, the visit went off without any serious incident. The Philippines, which has suffered bomb attacks blamed on armed rebel groups of the country, has now been visited four times by three Popes. On the first papal visit to the Philippines in 1970, Bolivian painter Benjamin Mendoza donned a fake priest’s cassock and wounded Pope Paul VI with a knife as he arrived at Manila airport. And one week before John Paul II’s second visit in 1995, police uncovered a plot by foreign extremists to kill him by bombing his Manila motorcade route. Eight prisoners escape provincial jail DPA Manila E ight prisoners including a rebel escaped from a jail in the southern Philippines, police said yesterday. The escape was discovered during a check on the inmates at the jail in Isabela City of Basi- lan province, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila, municipal police chief Superintendent Albert Larubis said. “The inmates managed to escape by climbing through the ceiling of their cell and jumping to the concrete fence,” he said. One of the inmates was identified as Said Usman, a member of the Abu Sayyaf rebel group who is facing kidnapping charges, Larubis said. Children walk beside a river filled with garbage in Manila yesterday. by hotel personnel, and physical evidence allegedly backing up the prosecutor’s decision to charge the US serviceman. Laude’s body was found at a cheap hotel in Olongapo’s red light where police say she had checked in with Pemberton. The murder case against Pemberton was filed with an Olongapo court which issued a formal arrest warrant for him in December. The decision by the department now paves the way for his trial in Olongapo to resume, though it was unclear yesterday when hearings would begin. The high-profile case has inflamed anti-US sentiment in the Philippines and strained relations between the longtime allies. Pemberton is currently under US military guard at a Philippine military base in Manila and the US government has refused to hand over custody to Philippine authorities. However he has appeared in court for the booking process. Chicken-wrapped hot dog of KFC causes stir KFC’s currently running a special creation in the Philippines that is stirring interest stateside: The Double Down Dog is a cheesecovered hot dog wrapped in fried chicken in the shape of a bun. Each Philippine location only sells 50 Double Down Dogs a day. Americans on social media caught wind of the creation Monday, many demanding that KFC introduce the Double Down Dog in their US locations, and others wondering if KFC’s mission is to ruin the health of its patrons. Blog sites from Gawker to Perez Hilton, as well as news outlets such as the Los Angeles Times and USA Today, have further fuelled the conversation. The LA Times headline says, “Just stop it,” while Gawker called it, “KFC’s latest depraved assault on your digestive track.” Meanwhile, Foodbeast says, “KFC has a Double Down Dog, and it’s as terrifying as it sounds.” Time.com points out that KFC Korea has its own bread-free diet crusher: The Zinger Double Down sandwiches a bacon cheeseburger between two pieces of fried chicken. Sources say KFC has no plans to introduce the foreign concoctions to America, though in 2010 the restaurant chain did offer a Double Down Sandwich in the United States that included bacon, cheese and chicken -- but no burger or hot dog. Seems like it’s just a matter of time before some KFC somewhere offers a hamburger topped with hot dog, bacon and cheese sandwiched between layers of fried chicken. Chili on the side? — Tribune News Service Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 25 SRI LANKA/BANGLADESH/NEPAL Top banker calls for overhaul of tax system Ex-PM charged in arson attack AFP Dhaka B angladesh police said yesterday they have charged opposition leader Khaleda Zia with “abetting” an arson attack during a period of deadly political unrest in the country. At least 36 people have died in anti-government protests unleashed by Zia’s January 4 call for a nationwide transport blockade to try to topple the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Hundreds more have been injured and more than 750 vehicles firebombed or vandalised to keep them off the road, prompting international concern over the country’s stability. Zia was one of 32 people accused in the firebombing of a van on Sunday in the southeastern town of Chouddogram, local police chief Uttam Chakraborty said. “She is the accused number 32 in the case. Initial charges have been filed against her for abetting the crime,” he said. Police also described Zia as an “instigator” in another arson case in the capital Dhaka in which dozens of people were wounded, although her name has not appeared on a list of those formally accused. Nearly 10,000 opposition activists have been detained since Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its 19 allies launched the blockade. The crisis began when police Furore over European envoys’ meet with activist Ambassadors of some European countries in Kathmandu have triggered a diplomatic storm in Nepal following their meeting last week with controversial Nepalese activist C K Raut. The meeting which took place at a Kathmandu-based European diplomatic mission, has drawn flak from multiple quarters in Nepal. Terming the EU ambassadors’ meeting with Raut as a breach of diplomatic practice, the Nepalese government has warned the envoys against any kind of talks with activists in separatist movements. Foreign Minister Mahendra Bahadur Pandey reminded the EU envoys that the diplomatic community should conduct their activities and show the diplomatic etiquette under the Vienna Convention. “I also urged the ambassadors to maintain diplomatic decorum while working in Nepal in line with the Diplomatic Code of Conduct issued by the Nepalese government,” Pandey told Xinhua yesterday. The EU envoys made it clear that they met Raut over certain human rights issues. “The ambassadors conveyed to me that their meeting with Raut took place at Raut’s request and they never approached him earlier,” Pandey said. Raut, who is known as a “secessionist leader”, has been spearheading a movement to create a separate country in the southern regions of the Himalayan nation since 2011. According to his personal website ckraut.com, Raut got a PhD degree from the US and worked as a scientist there. He has been carrying out the separatist movement especially in southern Nepal after returning to his home country four years ago. Raut, co-ordinator of the Alliance for Independent Madhes (AIM), has been arrested by the police several times for the antinationalist movement and was last released on December 29. confined Zia to her office after she threatened to lead a mass rally against her political rival Hasina. She wants Hasina to call fresh polls after last year’s controversial general election, which opposition parties boycotted on the grounds it would be rigged. The boycott meant most members of the 300-seat parliament were returned unopposed, handing Hasina another five years in power. Zia denies the BNP and its Islamist allies were responsible for firebombings, and has demanded the release of opposition officials and leaders detained over the violence. “BNP chief Khaled Zia is the accused number 32 in the case. Initial charges have been filed against her for abetting the crime” Hasina has accused Zia of trying to trigger “anarchy” and ordered the security agencies to hunt down the protesters. Zia and Hasina are known for their bitter rivalry, which has poisoned Bangladeshi politics for nearly three decades. The renewed political turmoil could cause a delay in shipments by the country’s $24bn garment industry, already under pressure after a string of fatal accidents. The EU, the nation’s biggest export destination, has urged Hasina’s government and the opposition to hold talks to resolve the crisis. Reuters Colombo A A crowd including Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) supporters gather to offer funeral prayers for Arafat Rahman Koko, son of former Bangladeshi president Ziaur Rahman and former prime minister Khaleda Zia, in Dhaka yesterday. Tens of thousands mourn Zia’s son AFP Dhaka T ens of thousands of mourners turned out yesterday for the funeral of Bangladesh opposition leader Khaleda Zia’s son in a massive show of support for the embattled former premier. Arafat Rahman Koko, 45, died of a heart attack on Saturday in Malaysia, a devastating blow to the opposition leader after she launched fresh protests this month to try to topple bitter rival Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Police inspector Alamgir, who uses one name, estimated the number of mourners at 50,000 to 60,000, while another police officer put the total at around 100,000. Traffic ground to a halt in central Dhaka as crowds spilled onto roads around a mosque for the funeral after Koko’s body arrived home yesterday morning. “I joined the funeral because I felt sorry for him. His mother is confined in her office and his eldest brother is in exile in London,” said Mohammad Nu- Khaleda Zia, right, mourns over the mortal remains of her son Arafat Rahman Koko lying in state at the BNP office in Dhaka yesterday. ruzzaman, a supporter of Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). Koko, who was not active in politics, has been living in exile in Thailand and Malaysia since 2008 after the then army- backed government launched corruption cases against him. He was sentenced to six years in jail and fined $2.5mn in June 2011 for laundering money through accounts in Singapore between 2004 and 2006, when Zia was in power. Despite Koko’s death, opposition officials said the BNP leader was determined to maintain a nationwide transport blockade she called to force Hasina from office. Rajapakse’s son denies mother’s role in gold scam IANS/AFP Colombo T he son of former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse yesterday strongly rejected allegations that his mother was involved in a gold scam and urged the newly elected government to “leave them alone”. Namal Rajapakse, the elder son of the former president and a member of parliament, said his mother and former first lady Shiranthi Rajapakse was not involved in any crime and the accusations levelled against her were politically motivated. “If political revenge is the main objective, attack my fa- ther and myself, and stop making false allegations against my mother and brothers,” Xinhua quoted the former president’s son as telling reporters. A complaint was lodged with the Bribery and Corruption Commission on Monday against Shiranthi Rajapakse for her alleged involvement in a Sri Lankan Rs500mn ($3.79mn) gold scam. The complaint was lodged by the wife of a former senior police officer, who alleged that her husband was arrested under false charges because he spearheaded an investigation into a conspiracy to sell 100kg of gold belonging to the treasury. “Army Intelligence Unit had informed my husband, when he was in the service, that 100kg of gold worth Rs500mn had been swindled from the treasury and Shiranthi Rajapakse was involved in it,” Shayamali Perera, wife of a former police deputy inspector general, said outside the commission premises. However Namal Rajapakse dismissed such allegations as completely false, saying the whole purpose was to sling mud at his family. PROBE INTO DRUG KINGPIN’S LINKS: Sri Lanka’s police said yesterday they were investigating whether a man who confessed to smuggling over 1,000kg of heroin to the island over three years had political protection. Samantha Kumara Vithanage was arrested in Paki- Runway view stan earlier this month and taken back to Sri Lanka, police spokesman Ajith Kumara said. He told detectives he had imported about 1,000kg (2,200 pounds) of heroin worth a total of $75mn since 2012 to Colombo, a key hub for the narcotic originating in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Kumara said investigations showed he had links to lawmaker Duminda Silva, who was attached to the defence ministry under former president Mahinda Rajapakse. “We have information that MP Duminda Silva received large sums of money from Samantha Kumara Vithanage, alias Wele Sudha,” Rohana told reporters. “We secured a court order today to check all banks and financial institutions to track down his money.” Silva was a key financier of the former governing coalition under Rajapaske. Rohana said the Central Bank of Sri Lanka had been asked to track down any foreign assets of Silva’s in Pakistan and Dubai. Silva, who could not be contacted for comment, cannot leave the country because his passport has already been impounded in connection with an unrelated murder case, Rohana said. Rajapakse and his powerful family are accused of largescale corruption during his decade in office, which ended earlier this month. Nepal opposition invited for talks IANS Kathmandu I Nepalese army soldiers stand inside the Tribhuvan International Airport as Air China Airbus A319 passenger jet lands near the runway where expansion of Nepal’s only international airport is underway, in Kathmandu yesterday. day after taking over as governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Arjuna Mahendran said interest rates can be reduced below current record lows once inflationary expectations flatten out, and called for an overhaul of the tax system to help businesses. Mahendran was appointed by the new government of President Maithripala Sirisena’s New Democratic Front, which won an election on January 8, and has taken over an economy that is growing strongly, though fuelled by worrying levels of debt. Sri Lanka’s economy has been growing over 6.5% under previous government since 2005 and has kept key policy interest rates at record low since January last year to spur growth. Following Mahendran’s maiden policy meeting, the central bank opted to leave its policy interest rates unchanged, but the new governor was optimistic that inflation would ease, and the economy would show a “robust performance” in the period ahead. Economic growth was estimated at 7.8% last year, up from 7.3% in 2013, and Mahendran expected 2015 to be another strong year. “I think we can easily maintain the stable 7.5% growth rate this year,” Mahendran said in an interview after policy rate announcement yesterday. Mahendran said the focus should be shifted to private investment and job creation and away from government spending. “The government had grabbed all the activities and as result, there is no space for private sector to grow,” he said, criticising the strategy of the previous government, led by president Mahinda Rajapakse. He expected the new government of Sirisena to exert more prudence. Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said on Monday that the new government has inherited a “scary” economic situation, with large amounts of debt that has not been properly accounted for. “The government this year will practice very strong austerity. Then the whole government sector becomes manageable. Then the private sector will automatically grow.” Mahendran said he advocated reducing the number of taxes from more than 20 to around five, and would pursue policies that would encourage private sector investments and create jobs. “To me that is the main pillar,” Mahendran said. “You have to make taxes simple for the private sector, so that they can understand and pay easily and carry out their businesses. At the moment, they are trying spend more time to avoid taxes.” Regarding monetary policy, the central bank is hopeful that inflation will moderate in the months ahead. The central bank hopes last week’s fuel price cut and expected reductions in administered prices of some key commodities in the new government’s supplementary budget, due to be presented tomorrow, will help reduce inflation pressures. Annual inflation jumped to 2.1% in January, after hitting a more than five-year low of 1.5% in December. n a bid to end the stalemate in the constitution drafting process in Nepal, the country’s 10-party ruling alliance yesterday appealed to the opposition parties to come for talks. The ruling alliance, in a press statement, said there was no alternative to consensus and urged the opposition front to be part of the questionnaire committee, Xinhua reported. The constituent assembly on Sunday formed a 73-member questionnaire committee to prepare the questionnaire on the disputed issues of the constitution making process amid ongoing agitation from opposition parties. So far, the lawmakers of ruling Nepali Congress, CPN (UML), RPP-Nepal, CPN (ML), RPP, Nepal Pariwar Dal, Bahujan Party and two independent lawmakers have joined the Committee. However, the 19 political parties, including the main opposition UCPN (Maoist), have not submitted the names of their lawmakers in the committee. The opposition bloc, led by UCPN-M, said it would not sit for talks until the ruling parties agreed to dismantle the questionnaire committee which, they said, was formed with the aim of initiating a voting process on contentious issues concerning the new constitution. There has been no dialogue between the ruling and opposition parties since Sunday. “We always try to resolve the problems through dialogues and consensus. We are work- ing to draft the new constitution through unanimous consensus, if not through enough consensus,” the statement said. The opposition alliance, however, has announced street protests, saying that there was no meaning of talks with the ruling parties. After Nepal missed the January 22 constitution promulgation deadline, there have been no talks among the political parties. The ruling parties are threatening to move ahead on the basis of their majority strength, while the opposition parties have said that the constitution should be drafted on the basis of consensus. With the constituent assembly missing the self-imposed deadline of January 22, the prospects of a new constitution being drafted in Nepal have become uncertain. 26 Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 COMMENT Chairman: Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Attiyah Editor-in-Chief : Darwish S Ahmed Production Editor: C P Ravindran P.O.Box 2888 Doha, Qatar [email protected] Telephone 44350478 (news), 44466404 (sport), 44466636 (home delivery) Fax 44350474 GULF TIMES Stakes are already high for GCC from eurozone debt crisis The European single currency plunged to an 11-year low against the dollar on Monday after the anti-austerity, neo-Marxist party Syriza won the Greek election. The possibility of the country defaulting on its debt repayments sparked renewed fears Greece could be forced to leave the eurozone. Here’s the important question: What is at stake for the Gulf? All the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries, except Kuwait, have their currencies pegged to the US dollar. The eurozone crisis, Japan’s stagnation and the expected rise in US interest rates have worked to strengthen the greenback against the euro of late. As the European Union and Japan together account for an estimated 50% of the total GCC imports, a strong-dollarweak-euro regime can work in GCC’s favour in cheaper imported goods. A weakening euro is also good news for GCC holidaymakers in Europe, who will get more euros/pounds for their dollars. In a wider sense, a weaker euro can make European assets look cheaper for GCC investors. But here are the larger issues. Riding on the back of consistently higher oil prices over the last decade, Gulf countries have built massive fiscal reserves estimated at $2.45tn by the International Institute of Finance. This financial cushion has allowed GCC sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) to invest heavily in Europe. The peculiar investment pattern of Gulf SWFs makes it difficult to take updated stocks of the assets under their management. But between 2002 and 2006, close to $100bn of the $642bn surplus in these funds was invested in EU countries, especially in the financial sector, according to a December 2012 estimate. Gulf SWFs provided emergency financing with a number of European banks after the crisis in 2008. Between 1995 and 2010, an estimated 30% of their cross-border investment was made in the EU. As per latest available data, the total assets acquired by GCC private investors and SWFs in the EU is estimated at more than €400bn, making them one of the largest foreign investor groups in Europe. The Gulf investments in Europe are mainly keeping line with the futuristic strategy of economic diversification. GCC policy makers are envisaging a non-oil scenario for future generations and returns from overseas assets are meant to sustain their economies during the rainy days. Longer term, to be sure, a consistently weaker euro, will weigh on the valuation of Gulf assets in Europe as well as capital returns. Oil, the main stay of Gulf economies, has fallen over 40% since the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries maintained its production target at the November 27 meeting. The Gulf’s fiscal cover will start shrinking if oil stays low for long, a most likely scenario. The Syriza party’s victory in Greek elections is seen by some experts as a welcome snub for the EU and successive governments in Athens for the way they mishandled the country’s $240bn debt crisis. Despite growing fears of a worst-case crisis, it may be too early to conclude that the country will opt out of the euro. The Syriza does not have a mandate to leave the euro as three quarters of the Greeks still want to stay within the currency union. Whether Greece does it or not, stakes are already high for the Gulf. And GCC policy makers need to plan for any crisis arising out of Europe/eurozone to protect their investments and trade interests. Politics must replace the glib triumphalism of economics If politics is to retake the field of values from the fanatics, the charlatans and the economists, it must be rebuilt from the ground up By Jean-Marie Guéhenno Davos T hroughout the world, it seems, crisis is gripping national politics. In election after election, voter turnout has hit historic lows. Politicians are universally reviled. Mainstream parties, desperate to remain relevant, are caught in a vice, forced to choose between pandering to extremism and the risk of being overwhelmed by populist, anti-establishment movements. Meanwhile, not since the end of World War II has money played such an important role in politics, trumping the power of ideas. In the US, for example, the sound of billions of dollars flowing into election-campaign coffers is drowning out the voices of individual voters. In parts of the world where the rule of law is weak, criminal networks and corruption displace democratic processes. In short, the pursuit of the collective good looks sadly quaint. The trouble began at the end of the Cold War, when the collapse of a bankrupt communist ideology was complacently interpreted as the triumph of the market. As communism was discarded, so was the concept of the state as an agent around which our collective interests and ambitions could be organised. The individual became the ultimate agent of change – an individual conceived as the type of rational actor that populates economists’ models. Such an individual’s identity is not derived from class interests or other sociological characteristics, but from the logic of the market, which dictates maximisation of self-interest, whether as a producer, a consumer, or a voter. Politics begins where contemporary economics ends Indeed, economics has been placed on a pedestal and enshrined in institutions like central banks and competition authorities, which have been intentionally separated and made independent from politics. As a result, governments have been confined to tinkering at the margins of markets’ allocation of resources. The 2008 global financial crisis, the resulting recession and rapidly widening income and wealth inequality have punctured the glib triumphalism of economics. But politics, far from rising to take its place, continues to be discredited, as mainstream leaders – particularly in North America and Europe – call on economic theories to justify their policy choices. The pursuit of individual attainment is the hallmark of our time, eclipsing the collective dimension of human destiny. And yet the deep human need to be part of a group has yet to disappear. It lingers, but without a credible outlet. National projects ring hollow, and the so-called international community remains an abstraction. This unfulfilled desire for community may be felt particularly acutely by young people – including, for example, young militants. Indeed, nationalist politicians and religious leaders have been the first to spot the vacuum, and they are rapidly filling it. Pope Francis, Vladimir Putin, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and Marine Le Pen have little in common. But they share one insight: There is a deep longing for the creation of communities defined by shared values, not functional needs. The crisis of national politics has consequences that echo far beyond the borders of individual countries. National chauvinism and religious fundamentalism are here to stay, and with them the terrorism that extremists of all stripes embrace, because both phenomena are ideally suited to the age of the individual: they provide imaginary answers to personal angst, instead of political answers to collective challenges. These movements’ amorphous nature – often channelled through charismatic leaders – allows each individual to project onto them his or her dreams, making them difficult to counter within the framework of traditional politics. But this strength can also be a weakness. When tasked with managing territories and governing populations, these movements begin to face the same bothersome logistical and organisational constraints as their rivals. As a result, bureaucracy is constantly at their heels, leaving them in perpetual need of upheaval and renewal. If politics is to retake the field of values from the fanatics, the charlatans and the economists, it must be rebuilt from the ground up. More than half of the world’s population now lives in cities and any political renaissance must counterbalance the appeal of vast virtual communities with resilient urban societies. Citizens must become re-engaged with the political process, educated in public affairs and provided with real (not merely virtual) platforms to air their differences and debate alternative views. Furthermore, institutions that provide bridges between states and the global community, such as the European Union, must be strengthened and refocused. In particular, their technical functions must be clearly distinguished from their political roles. But, above all, politicians must stop trying to shore up their diminished credibility with the pretense of economic science. Politics begins where contemporary economics ends – with ethics and the attempt to create a justly ordered society. - Project Syndicate zJean-Marie Guéhenno, former under-secretary-general for peacekeeping at the UN, is president and CEO of the International Crisis Group and the author of the forthcoming book The Fog of Peace: A Memoir of International Peacekeeping in the 21st Century. GCC policy makers need to plan for any crisis arising out of Europe/ eurozone To Advertise [email protected] Display Telephone 44466621 Fax 44418811 Classified Telephone 44466609 Fax 44418811 Subscription [email protected] 2014 Gulf Times. All rights reserved A Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, MSF) agent preparing to burn pieces of a dismantled tent yesterday after the first section of the ELWA III Ebola Management Centre in Monrovia was decomissioned. Liberia’s president on Monday announced the closure of an Ebola treatment facility which lay at the epicentre of the virus’s worst outbreak in history, as the disease’s spread has slowed in the country. Scientists ask if Ebola immunises as well as kills By Kate Kelland and Emma Farge London/Dakar/Reuters A recent sharp drop in new Ebola infections in West Africa is prompting scientists to wonder whether the virus may be silently immunising some people at the same time as brutally killing their neighbours. So-called “asymptomatic” Ebola cases - in which someone is exposed to the virus, develops antibodies, but doesn’t get sick or suffer symptoms are hotly disputed among scientists, with some saying their existence is little more than a pipe dream. Yet if, as some studies suggest, such cases do occur in epidemics of the deadly disease, they may be a key factor in ending outbreaks more swiftly by giving secret protection to those lucky enough to be able to bat the infection away. “We wonder whether ‘herd immunity’ is secretly coming up when you get a critical mass of people who are protected, because if they are asymptomatic they are then immune,” Philippe Maughan, senior operations administrator for the humanitarian branch of the European Commission, told Reuters. “The virus may be bumping into people it can’t infect any more.” Latest World Health Organisation data show new cases of infection in West Africa’s unprecedented Ebola epidemic dropping dramatically in Guinea, Sierra Leone and particularly in Liberia. Most experts are sure the main driver is better control measures reducing direct contact with contagious patients and corpses, but there may also be other factors at work. “The virus may be bumping into people it can’t infect any more” So-called herd immunity is a feature of many infectious diseases and can, in some cases, dampen an outbreak if enough people get asymptomatic, or “sub-clinical” cases and acquire protective antibodies. After a while, the virus - be it flu, measles, polio can’t find non-immune people to be its hosts. But some specialists with wide experience of disease outbreaks are highly sceptical about whether this phenomenon happens in Ebola, or whether it could affect an epidemic. “There is some suggestion there may be cases that are less severe... and there may even be some that are asymptomatic,” said David Heymann, an infectious disease expert and head of global health security at Chatham House. “But herd immunity is just the wrong term. There could be household immunity developing, but even that is only hypothesis.” Others are more hopeful and are urging researchers in West Africa to seek out and test possible asymptomatic cases with a view to using the secrets of their silent immunity. Steve Bellan of the University of Texas in the US argues that if scientists can reliably identify asymptomatic people, they could help with disease-control tasks like caring for patients and conducting burials, reducing the number of non-immune people exposed in these risky jobs. Bellan points to two studies in particular. One, conducted after an Ebola outbreak in Gabon in 1997, found that 71% of “seropositive” people - those with traces of the Ebola virus in their blood - did not have the disease. The other, published in April 2002, found 46% of asymptomatic close contacts of patients with Ebola were seropositive. With the largest Ebola epidemic on record raging through three of Africa’s most under-resourced countries, scientists and medics have, understandably, focused all efforts on the sick and dying and not on testing people with no symptoms. If they do, however, and if they were to find what Bellan and some others suspect, it could prompt a reappraisal of what jolted a relatively sudden downturn in new cases. Some researchers say they have identified a few cases in the current outbreak with mild symptoms and low concentrations of Ebola virus in the blood. One was a Guinean student who travelled to Senegal and is not known to have infected anyone else, despite having contact with dozens of people. Ian MacKay, a virologist at Australia’s University of Queensland, agrees that possible sub-clinicallyacquired immunity is one of many unexplored mysteries of the Ebola virus. “One thing that this particular outbreak shows is that we really don’t know an awful lot about these kinds of infectious diseases,” he said. “We tend to think we can answer all the questions, but this is one of those things we may end up being taught by the virus itself.” Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 27 COMMENT Breaking barriers to Internet adoption The imperative to address the formidable challenges to further expansion of Internet usage is clear By James Manyika and Helen Margetts Oxford O ver the last decade, the number of new Internet users tripled. But, though a large majority of the world’s population remains offline, the pace of expansion has slowed sharply in recent years. Is the Internet revolution losing steam? From 2005 to 2008, the number of Internet users increased at a compound annual rate of 15.1%, bringing the number of people online to some 2.7bn. But, according to a new report by the McKinsey Global Institute, the growth rate fell to 10.4% in 2010-2013. Given the enormous economic benefits of connectivity, finding ways to provide Internet access to the world’s remaining 4bn people should be a high priority. Of course, that is easier said than done. Around three-quarters of the unconnected – 3.4bn people – live in just 20 countries. In 2012, about 64% lived in rural areas, compared with only 24% of Internet users, while about half live below their country’s poverty line and median income. Some 18% are older than 54, compared with about 7% of the online population, and roughly 28% are illiterate, whereas the literacy rate for Internet users is close to 100%. Finally, women comprise 52% of the offline population and only 42% of the online population. These groups face particularly high barriers to Internet connectivity, beginning with inadequate infrastructure, including poor mobile Internet coverage or network access and unreliable electricity supply. Indeed, 1.1-2.8bn people cannot get online via a mobile network, because their area lacks sufficient coverage. Another barrier is affordability: Internet access is simply too costly for many low-income people. Beyond the need to address insufficient competition, inadequate regulation, and high taxes on Internet-enabled devices and service plans, there is the fundamental challenge of supplying cost-effective access to the most remote regions. In 10 countries, largely in Africa and the Asia-Pacific region, fixed broadband prices exceed per capita GDP. The third major barrier to Internet adoption is user capability. The high level of illiteracy among those who remain offline often implies an inability not only to read and write, but also to use digital technology. An estimated 43% of India’s unconnected citizens are illiterate. Without technological solutions, such as user interfaces that feature text-to-speech and voice-recognition capabilities, people who have not attained basic language proficiency will struggle to engage with Internet content. The lack of relevant locallanguage content may also limit use. Making matters worse, misperceptions of the Internet – for example, that it is a security risk or solely for the wealthy – mean that many people will remain reluctant to use it, even if affordable access becomes available. In many emerging economies, a lack of trust in the system has fuelled resistance to doing business online. The final barrier to Internet adoption is a lack of incentives. As research by the Oxford Internet Institute on broadband in East Africa has shown, many poor people in rural areas may know little, if anything, about the Internet, or may not be offered it. Given that tailoring content to such potential customers is expensive, Internet service providers are unlikely to do so without clear incentives like government support or high profit margins. Advertisers are not interested in reaching such markets. McKinsey has developed a new Internet Barriers Index that ranks 25 developed and developing countries on their performance in the face of these challenges. The top five countries are the US, Germany, South Korea, Japan and Spain. The bottom five are Nigeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. Nearly half of the world’s offline population lives in 10 countries that face a significant struggle to overcome all four barriers. In the bottom five countries in the McKinsey index, the average Internet penetration rate was only 15% in 2013. The offline population was largely young and rural, with low literacy rates. Five other countries – Egypt, India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand – face medium to high barriers across the board, especially when it comes to infrastructure and incentives. With an offline population of more than 1.4bn people, these countries had an average Internet penetration rate of 19% in 2013. Another 1.1bn people live in countries where a single barrier – especially a lack of awareness of the Internet, weak purchasing power, or low levels of digital literacy – dominates. Identifying the particular barriers affecting a country or region enables the development of effective solutions – not least because some barriers, such as awareness, are far cheaper to tackle than others, like infrastructure. That is the purpose of the Internet Barriers Index. By mapping the major social, political and economic obstacles to Internet adoption, the index can help make efforts by governments and network and service providers as targeted and efficient as possible. The imperative to address the formidable challenges to further expansion of Internet usage is clear. Doing so would create considerable potential for economic growth. Many governments have recognised this to some extent, setting ambitious goals for mobile Internet coverage, broadband infrastructure and public Wi-Fi access. But investment in infrastructure is not enough. Only comprehensive, targeted and nationally tailored strategies, backed by a strong commitment from policymakers, can bring the next 1bn people online. Project Syndicate zJames Manyika is a director of McKinsey and the McKinsey Global Institute. Helen Margetts is director of the Oxford Internet Institute. Weather report Letters Three-day forecast Slow changes Dear Sir, It is great to know that Aslam Ali (“Regular updates on rule changes”, Gulf Times, January 27) and many others like him are really keeping a close watch on updates of the proposed changes in Qatar’s sponsorship rule. But Ali seems to have misread my earlier letter, “Right time for rule changes” (Gulf Times, January 25). I was not complaining about the lack of coverage in Gulf Times at all. I was writing about the apparent delay in unveiling the changes by the authorities after their original announcement in May last year. Almost eight months have passed since then. One just wants to know the progress made in the proposals so far. Proposals to change rules are fine but if they are not implemented, they are of no benefit to the community at large. The question is: can an employee change jobs freely in Qatar now? The answer today is: no MH (Full name and address supplied) Days of strife and violence Dear Sir, The Middle East region is being wracked by civil wars and sectarian strife. Ever since Saddam Hussain’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, guns never fell silent in this historically rich part of the world, it seems. The economic progress in the Middle East is being severely affected by the ongoing violence in many countries. Civil wars and naked power struggles are having their impact on the young generation. Women and children are the most affected. There has been a massive flood of weapons to several countries into the region, disturbing the peaceful atmosphere in the region. It is sad that there have been no serious efforts on the part of countries that have influence in the region and the United Nations to bring about amity and peace in the strife-torn countries in the Middle East. Ramachandran Nair PO Box 740 Ruwi 112 Sultanate of Oman TODAY High: 26 C Low: 15 C Please send us your letters Poor visibility by early morning at places due to fog By e-mail [email protected] Fax 44350474 Or Post Letters to the Editor Gulf Times P O Box 2888 Doha, Qatar THURSDAY High: 25 C Low : 18 C P Cloudy FRIDAY High: 25 C Low : 18 C Clear All letters, which are subject to editing, should have the name of the writer, address and phone number. The writer’s name and address may be withheld by request. Fishermen’s forecast OFFSHORE DOHA Wind: SW-SE 03-12/15 KT Waves: 1-3/4 Feet INSHORE DOHA Wind: SE-SW 03-14 KT Waves: 1-2 Feet Around the region Abu Dhabi Baghdad Live issues Dubai Kuwait City Manama Muscat When process matters more than the outcome By Oliver Burkeman London W hen I realised, the other day, my bank had charged me an utterly outrageous £20 fee for something that wasn’t my fault, I did what any sensible person would do: spent half the morning raging inwardly, composing the monologue, polite yet unyielding, with which I’d make my case. I pictured myself fighting my way up the bank’s bureaucracy, even into the courts, before finally achieving justice, all the sweeter for being hard won. Then I rang my bank. They immediately removed the charge. “Is there anything else I can help you with?” the friendly woman asked. Perhaps I should have demanded that she tell me what to do with all the righteous indignation now surplus to requirements. Instead, I said no and hung up in a disoriented daze. One interpretation of this is that I’m an irritable bastard who should spend less time in imaginary disputes. Another – the one I’m going with – is that I’d run into what psychologists call the fair process effect. I’d got what I wanted, but not because the bank judiciously weighed my arguments. Their response seemed capricious, or just part of a policy to placate moaners like me. The standard assumption among economists is that people seek certain outcomes in life – money, power, opportunity – and don’t much care how they get them. But modern research shows that process matters, too. One rather obvious consequence is that we’re more easily reconciled to not getting our way when we feel that a decision has been reached fairly and transparently. A less obvious one is that we’re liable to feel annoyed by opaque or arbitrary processes, even when the result’s in our favour. This isn’t news to political scientists, who know people respect legal and electoral systems they consider legitimate, even when rulings or elections go against them. But it’s surprisingly relevant to anyone who makes decisions affecting others – bosses, people in customer services, teachers, parents, maybe all of us. The management scholars W Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne tell the cautionary tale of Elco, a US elevator maker that nearly destroyed itself by bungling fair process. The chief executive brought in consultants, who wore dark suits, “spoke in low tones to one another” and steered clear of employees. The changes that followed triggered mutiny, even though they involved no cuts and gave workers more autonomy – because almost no one had a clue how they’d been arrived at. This reaction isn’t just a needy desire to feel involved. It’s concretely rational: if decisions seem flung down from on high, how can you trust that the next one won’t be “You’re fired”? Similar effects crop up in unlikely places. When a misbehaving public figure gives an apology that feels a little too abject and rapid, or when someone you’re arguing with suddenly concedes your point, there’s a palpable sense that something’s amiss: a crucial process has been skipped. I don’t really think the woman at the bank should have argued with me more. Yet I suspect if she’d listened to my points, put me on hold, checked Facebook for three minutes, then returned, I’d have gone off happier. Honestly, sometimes I even exasperate myself..- Guardian News and Media Riyadh Tehran Weather today P Cloudy P Cloudy P Cloudy Clear Clear Clear Clear C Rain Max/min 25/14 23/10 26/14 27/13 23/16 25/20 28/13 11/04 Weather tomorrow Clear P Cloudy Clear P Cloudy Clear Clear Clear M Cloudy Max/min 26/15 20/12 29/15 28/12 24/17 25/21 31/16 13/06 Weather tomorrow C Rain Clear P Cloudy Snow Clear Clear C Storms Clear P Cloudy P Cloudy C Storms Clear C Showers P Cloudy Cloudy Clear C Snow C Rain C Storms Cloudy C Storms P Cloudy Clear Max/min 13/07 18/12 34/23 04/-1 19/08 32/19 31/24 24/16 19/15 09/07 29/26 26/13 06/02 29/22 -2/-3 16/07 03/-2 07/02 31/22 04/-6 31/25 24/15 07/00 Around the world Athens Beirut Bangkok Berlin Cairo Cape Town Colombo Dhaka Hong Kong Istanbul Jakarta Karachi London Manila Moscow New Delhi New York Paris Sao Paulo Seoul Singapore Sydney Tokyo Weather today P Cloudy Rain Clear Cloudy Clear Clear T Storms Clear P Cloudy C Rain T Storms Clear C Rain Clear Cloudy Clear P Cloudy C Rain T Storms Clear P Cloudy C Showers Cloudy Max/min 14/08 17/11 34/23 04/01 19/09 32/21 31/24 25/16 19/14 08/05 29/25 25/12 11/02 29/22 -3/-7 15/07 00/-9 10/04 31/22 02/-6 30/24 23/15 09/-1 28 Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 QATAR Qatari team begins visit to US QNA Washington H E Sheikh Mohamed bin Hamad bin Khalifa alThani visited the venue of the city centre project in Washington DC and was given a detailed explanation by the officials of Qatari Diar in the US. HE Sheikh Mohamed, who is leading a Qatari delegation currently paying a visit to the US, was accompanied during the visit by the CEO of Qatar Investment Authority, HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohamed bin Saud al-Thani. HE Sheikh Mohamed also paid a visit to Georgetown University, where he met the president of the university. The meeting was attended by HE the Minister of Finance Ali Sherif al-Emadi, HE the Governor of Qatar Central Bank Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud al-Thani and Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohamed bin Saud al-Thani. HE Sheikh Mohamed along with the Qatari delegation also attended a dinner hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce and the US-Qatar Business Council with more than 250 guests in attendance, including members of the US Congress, senior business officials and Qatar’s Ambassador to the US Mo- HE the Governor of Qatar Central Bank Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud al-Thani and CEO of Qatar Investment Authority HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohamed bin Saud al-Thani (right) speak at the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington, DC, yesterday. hamed bin Jaham al-Kuwari. In a welcome speech, HE alEmadi stressed Qatar’s keenness on establishing strong partnerships with US companies to enhance the implementation of a range of development projects in Qatar. HE the Minister of Finance noted Qatar’s commitment to the implementation of development goals in infrastructure, education and health sectors, saying: “Despite the decline in oil prices, Qatar will continue the path of development and there will be no change in fiscal policy on spending or investment in infrastructure”. Nearly $200bn have been approved for various development projects until 2022, he added. He explained that these allocations would focus on transportation projects and infrastructure, including the railway network, the new port, health, education and sports facilities, including the establishment of 2022 FIFA World Cup stadiums. HE Sheikh Mohamed bin Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani during his visit to the US. Qatar has important investments in the US and has plans to increase these investments over the next five years to exceed $35bn, HE al-Emadi said, adding that these investments are aimed at various economic fields such as energy, technology and real estate. In the meantime, HE the Minister of Finance met a number of students and officials at Georgetown University and the American University in Washington, where he provided an overview of the future vision of the State of Qatar as well as answered their queries. Maersk Oil funds ‘Action on Diabetes’ screening bus S All-new BMW models will be unveiled at the fifth edition of the Qatar Motor Show next month. Regional debut of new BMW models at Qatar Motor Show A lfardan Automobiles, the official BMW Group Importer in Qatar, is set to unveil the all-new BMW X6M and X5M at the fifth edition of the Qatar Motor Show taking place from February 6 to 10 at the Qatar National Convention Centre. Besides the regional debut of the two high-performance vehicles, the all-new BMW 2 Series Convertible will also be launched during the event. Regardless whether the location is a racetrack, city street or a desert road, the X6M and X5M, the newest additions to the BMW M GmbH stable, set the benchmark in terms of driving dynamics and outstanding efficiency in the high-performance Sports Activity Vehicle (SAV) and Sports Activity Coupé (SAC) segment. Armed with a striking M design and distinctive high-class interior for a potent and dynamic presence, both the X6M and X5M are powered by the latest-generation 4.4-litre V8 M TwinPower Turbo engine, using innovative M TwinPower Turbo technology to push torque and output to even higher performance levels, with both the X5M and X6M sprinting from 0 to 100 km/h in 4.2 seconds. “Thanks to their superior power and precision, the all-new BMW X6M and all-new X5M deliver an unprecedented level of performance in every situation. I am confident that they will stand out from the crowd,” said Mohamed Kandeel, chief operating officer, Alfardan Group – Automotive Operations. The Qatar Motor Show will also highlight some of BMW Group’s other models. The X5M and X6M have been designed for use on the road, combining the raised seating position of an all-wheel-drive X model with the sporting appeal of the BMW M automobile. These elite sports machines cut a low-slung figure on the road, while mixed tyres showcase their sporty track width. The X6M and X5M hold high-quality interior combining sporty features, exclusive materials and flawless workmanship. With the new M TwinPower Turbo engine, the X5M and X6M have the most powerful unit ever developed by BMW for an allwheel-drive vehicle. Boasting innovative M TwinPower Turbo technology with a pair of TwinScroll turbochargers, cross-bank exhaust manifolds, VALVETRONIC and High Precision Direct Petrol Injection, the 4.4-litre V8 produces maximum output of 423 kW/575 hp. From 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 4.2 seconds through the standard eight speed M Steptronic transmission with Drivelogic, top speed is limited to 250kmph (155mph). At the same time, the fuel consumption and CO levels of both models has been cut by 20%. The Qatar Motor Show will also be the venue for the unveiling of the all-new BMW 2 Series Convertible. Offering an ultra-intense opentop driving experience, its sporty and elegant lines outstrip that of its premium compact rivals. The 2 Series will be available in three engine variants including the BMW 220i, two-litre four-cylinder petrol engine, and BMW 228i Convertible two-litre four-cylinder petrol engine. The third model is the first open-top M performance automobile the M235i Convertible, with a 326 hp six-cylinder in-line M Performance TwinPower Turbo engine delivering a 0 to 100kmph in just 5.2 seconds. The Qatar Motor Show will also highlight some of BMW Group’s other models, including the BMW M3, M4 and M6 Gran Coupé from the M model lineup, in addition to the BMW 5 Series, X4 and 7 Series Pearl. Another model present at the Motor Show that is sure to turn heads is the world’s most progressive 2+2 seater sports car, the BMW i8. ports fans from around the world have been screened for diabetes at the Action on Diabetes (AoD) screening bus, which is funded by Maersk Oil Qatar and stationed at the Lusail Multipurpose Hall during the 24th World Men’s Handball Championship in Qatar. Lewis Affleck, managing director of Maersk Oil Qatar, said: “With operations in more than 130 countries, Maersk is proud to sponsor an important local event that will be seen globally. We are also pleased to use the event to spread local awareness about diabetes, which is one of Qatar’s greatest health challenges. Maersk Oil Qatar – one of five Maersk businesses in Qatar – supports Action on Diabetes through its local social investment programme.” Maersk Oil, Maersk Line, Safmarine, Svitzer and Damco are all part of the Maersk Group with operations in Qatar, dating back 22 years when Maersk Oil first began operations in the country. The bespoke AoD screening A sports fan in the Action on Diabetes (AoD) screening bus. bus, is the only one of its kind in Qatar and is staffed by healthcare professionals from Hamad Medical Corporation and the Qatar Diabetes Association. The bus is fitted with a range of testing equipment to facilitate the analysis of random blood glucose, HBA1C, cholesterol, BMI, and blood pressure. Herluf Nis Thomsen, senior project manager at AoD, said: “The World Men’s Handball Championship is an important milestone for Qatar and illustrates the power of physical exercise and sport in encouraging a healthy population. A healthy lifestyle is a key factor in avoiding diabetes and young people are encouraged by successful sports people.” Diabetes is one of Qatar’s greatest health challenges. According to a recent Qatar STEPwise report, the proportion of people with diabetes in Qatar is among the highest in the world – 16.7% of Qataris have the condition. Six falconers winners of Dau event A total of six winners emerged from the final rounds of the Dau event yesterday at the sixth Qatar International Falcons and Hunting Festival at Sabkhet Marmi near Sealine, Mesaieed. The winners were Ali Rashed Abdullah al-Nuaimi (UAE), Team Marmi (a group of Qatari competitors), Mohamed Ibrahim Abdullah al-Oyouni al-Bouanain and Rumaizan al-Dosari (Saudi Arabia), and Khaled Rashed Aba al-Zamat and Mohamed Saleh al-Qumra al-Marri (Qatar). The Dau event serves to showcase the falconer’s skill at training his falcon for speed. A falcon is required to cross, in the shortest time, a distance of 400m toward its owner, who is signalling to approach at the event’s finish line. The 16th round of the Hudud Al Tahaddi challenge, which includes 33 participants and is the last round before the finals, is set for today. The Hudud Al Tahaddi challenge is a competition in which falcons seek to obstruct the flight of homing pigeons which are trained to fly to another point, many kilometres away. The Emirati winner al-Nuaimi said the current edition of the Qatar Falcons and Hunting Festival has been enjoyable A section of spectators at the festival yesterday. across all its events. “I wanted to compete this year hoping to gain some valuable experience in falconry, to get a feel of how such competitions are today,” he added. One of the Qatari winners, alZamat, dedicated his victory to the festival’s patron, HE Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad bin Khalifa alThani and the organising committee for their contributions toward making the festival such a resounding success. “I’ve been competing in falconry events for some time now, and I’ve participated in a number of local and international championships, but this edition of the festival has a special place for me, as it was Khaled Rashed al-Zamat Ali Rashed Abdullah al-Nuaimi very competitive, featuring some of the finest falconers in the Gulf region,” he added. The festival, organised by the Gannas Society, runs until Saturday. FARES RISE | Page 13 INVEST GAUGE | Page 19 Asian airlines slash fuel surcharges US goods data signal weaker business spend Wednesday, January 28, 2015 Rabia II 8, 1436 AH VITAL SEGMENTS: Page 20 GULF TIMES Commercial Bank gains market share, sees ‘substantial growth’ across all the units in 2014 BUSINESS QIC ’14 profit jumps 33% to QR1bn D QIC has grown its asset base to QR16bn from QR11.6bn in 2013. iversification of underwriting and strong investment earnings helped Qatar Insurance Company (QIC) report 33% jump in net profit to QR1bn in 2014. The country’s dominant risk cover provider also recommended distribution of cash dividends of 25% (QR2.5 for each share) and bonus shares of 15% (three new shares for each 20 shares held), which will have to be approved by shareholders at the annual general assembly scheduled to be held on February 17. “This impressive result reflects the group’s continued growth and stability, arising from ongoing diversification of its underwriting operations, and the strong investment performance achieved in 2014,” according to Khalifa Abdulla Turki al-Subaey, QIC Group President and CEO. The group aims to capitalise on this excellent result and the momentum achieved in 2014 to further its goal of becoming one of the world’s leading insurance groups, he said. Gross written premiums grew 59% year-on-year to QR5.61bn, net underwriting by 37% to QR664mn and invest- ment income and other revenues by 43% to QR1.03bn. The year 2014 was marked by the successful expansion of the group’s international business, which currently accounts for approximately 60% of its overall gross written premiums. QIC has grown its asset base to QR16bn from QR11.6bn in 2013, while maintaining robust levels of profitability, liquidity and market capitalisation. Through the acquisition of Antares Holdings, specialist insurance and reinsurance group operating in the Lloyd’s insurance market, and the establishment of a fully-owned Malta-based subsidiary, QIC Europe, the insurance group expanded its global footprint. QIC Europe is also well-poised to become a strategic platform for the group for the underwriting of risks situated throughout the European Economic Area. In 2014, global credit rating agencies Standard & Poor’s and A M Best reaffirmed QIC’s ratings of ‘A/Stable’ and ‘A (Excellent)’, reflecting the insurer’s well established presence in the Gulf Co-operation Council region and wider Middle East and North Africa and its expanding international operations. QIC has recommended cash dividends of 25% (QR2.5 for each share) and bonus shares of 15% (three new shares for each 20 shares held). 2 Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 BUSINESS Dubai ousts Heathrow as the busiest global air hub Emirates warns of currency shifts eating into fuel-cost benefits Bloomberg Dubai/London Reuters Dubai D Dubai’s Emirates airline expects currency fluctuations in Europe and Russia to limit the profitability boost from lower oil prices, a senior executive said yesterday. Emirates President Tim Clark was quoted this week as saying that the drop in oil prices—down by about 60% since last June—would be “a huge boost” to the airline’s 2014 earnings and would offset disruption from runway work at its home airport and a decline in business with Russia. The Dubai carrier is one of the few major airlines that does not hedge its fuel bill by buying future stocks of jet fuel to minimise the effect of price spikes, meaning that it benefits from price falls immediately. “We don’t hedge and that’s helping us a lot in the short term,” Sheikh Majid al-Mualla, the airline’s divisional senior vice president of commercial operations, said at a conference in Dubai. However, al-Mualla said that the benefits will be partially offset by currency fluctuations in the rouble and the euro over the longer term, without offering any specific forecasts. The rouble has almost halved against the dollar since July as oil prices fell and the West imposed sanctions on Russia over its role in the Ukraine crisis. Meanwhile, the European Central Bank’s introduction of a massive bond-buying programme to stimulate the eurozone economy and worries over whether Greece’s new government will stick to the terms of the country’s bailout, pushed the euro to an 11-year low against the dollar at $1.1098 on Monday. “We’ve definitely been hit by the rouble, hit by the euro as well. Now we expect the euro might go lower than the dollar in the coming weeks or months, which would be a huge impact for us,” al-Mualla said. The lower oil price wasn’t a complete boon for Emirates either, al-Mualla said, because it reduces the money going into the Gulf economies, which could hold back consumer spending. “It’s good, but we won’t get the passengers,” he said. “We would like to keep oil in the $60 to $70 range, which will be reasonable for both us and economic growth.” ubai ended London Heathrow airport’s decades of dominance as the world’s top international air hub last year, buoyed by surging passenger numbers at local carrier Emirates with its record-breaking fleet of wide-body jets. Dubai International Airport boosted passenger numbers 6.1% to 70.5mn in 2014, almost all of them travelling to or from locations outside the UAE, according to a statement yesterday. That took it past Heathrow, which attracted 68.09mn international travellers in 2014. Dubai has used its location at a geographical crossroads between Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East to establish itself as a base for inter-continental transfer flights, with Emirates already the world’s No 1 carrier by international traffic. Dubai is building a new hub at Al Maktoum airport which could one day handle 240mn passengers, just as growth at Heathrow is stymied by the constraints of its two runways and political wrangling over whether to add a third. “We’re planning to overtake ourselves,” Paul Griffiths, chief executive officer of Dubai Airports, which owns both bases, told Bloomberg Television, adding that the bigger challenge may be to carry on growing volumes while providing “the level of service on the ground that passengers on Emirates experience in the air.” Emirates has transformed Dubai’s role in the aviation industry with the world’s biggest twin-aisle fleet, built around orders for 140 Airbus Group A380 superjumbos. Still, runway repairs clipped A plane is seen beside the new terminal dedicated for A380 aircraft at the concourse in Dubai International Airport (file). Dubai airport boosted passenger numbers 6.1% to 70.5mn in 2014, almost all of them travelling to or from locations outside the UAE, according to a statement yesterday. That took it past Heathrow, which attracted 68.09mn international travellers in 2014. Dubai International’s capacity by about one-quarter for 80 days last summer, limiting expansion to the extent that the airport failed to overtake Heathrow’s overall tally of 73.4mn passengers, including 5.3mn who travelled on domestic flights. That should be rectified this year, Griffiths said in an interview, with an anticipated passenger total of 79mn eclipsing Europe’s busiest airport by all metrics. The opening of Concourse D later this year will lift Dubai International’s capacity to 90mn people, allowing for further growth before the main expansion of the Al Maktoum site. Measured by total customers, the two hubs continue to lag behind Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson, home base to Delta Air Lines Inc, which recorded 96.2mn travellers in the 12 months through November, based on the latest figures on its website, and Beijing Capital, which lured 86.1mn in 2014. The US and Chinese airports get most passengers from domestic flights. Heathrow, where British Airways is based, ranked third in the world behind Atlanta and Beijing in 2013, according to Airports Council Inter- national, with Dubai seventh after Tokyo Haneda, Chicago O’Hare and Los Angeles International. ACI has yet to publish a full set of data for 2014. At Dubai’s neighbour Abu Dhabi International airport, home base to Etihad Airways, the third-biggest Gulf carrier, passenger numbers rose 20% last year to 20mn, with a total of 24mn projected for 2015. Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 3 BUSINESS Saudi stocks jump on bets crude prices have bottomed out; other markets down Reuters Dubai S audi Arabia’s petrochemicals sector surged yesterday after Opec’s secretarygeneral said oil prices might have bottomed out and warned of a jump to $200 a barrel if invest- ment in new supplies became too low. The main Saudi stock index jumped 2.4% in the heaviest trade this month, as shares in petrochemicals giant Saudi Basic Industries surged 6.4% to 84riyals. All other stocks in the beaten-down sector also rose. Banks also did well after Ku- wait’s Global brokerage issued a bullish report on the Saudi banking sector on Monday, saying recent regulations restricting consumer-related fees would have only a short-term negative impact on banks’ profitability. Other Gulf markets were weaker. Kuwait edged down 0.7% after the country’s finance ministry revealed a draft budget for the next fiscal year starting in April, which projects a big deficit and a 17.8% drop in spending from the original plan for the current 2014/15 year. Bourses in Dubai and Abu Dhabi slipped 0.1% each. Dubai developer Union Properties tumbled 5.8% after its 2014 profit fell 45.6% and revenues more than halved. Egypt stocks rose 1.1% to a fresh 6-1/2-year closing high of 9,947 points. Property firms Medinet Nasr Housing and Development and Heliopolis Housing led gains, surging 4.7% and 3.9% respectively as Egypt’s central bank continued its grad- ual depreciation of the pound. The pound slipped to 7.43 per dollar from 7.39 at a central bank auction on Monday, to the weakest level it has been allowed to reach since auctions began in December 2012. It was the sixth consecutive official depreciation in the past week, prompted by the gap between the black market and the official rate. Investors are betting that Egyptians will turn to property as a hedge against a weaker currency, analysts have said. Elsewhere in the Gulf, Oman’s index fell 0.8% to 6,592 points, while Bahrain’s measure fell 0.8% to 1,417 points. Qatar shares eye 12,000 mark on foreign buying interest By Santhosh V Perumal Business Reporter Al-Mansoori addresses the seminar in the presence of other officials from QSE, QFMA and QCSD. QSE calls for technology edge to ease information access to companies By Santhosh V Perumal Business Reporter T he Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) has asked the country’s corporate sector to further embrace technology in its social media and website to enhance smooth flow information as part of the concerted efforts to instil investor’s confidence in the financial market. “What matters to investors primarily is the access to information, and the best way to do that is to invest in modern technology through developing the websites and social media outlets of listed companies in order to achieve their corporate objectives in the long term and enhance confidence in the financial market among the various categories of investors,” QSE chief executive Rashid bin Ali al-Mansoori said. Addressing a seminar jointly organised by the QSE, the Qatar Financial Market Authority (QFMA) and the Qatar Central Securities Depository (QCSD), al-Mansoori stressed on the importance of disclosure and transparency in the financial market and considered them a vital necessity on which investors build their investment decisions. Highlighting the support of the bourse to the companies in their efforts to develop the services provided to investors, he asked the corporate sector to take advantage of modern technology of websites and social networks to gain access not only to their existing investors, but also to reach and attract new investors. The clarion call to instil more investors’ confidence comes in the wake of Qatar being upgraded by both Morgan Stanley Composite Index and Standard & Poor’s-Dow Jones to emerging market from the frontier status. The companies listed on the QSE have made great strides in the implementation of international standards in terms of disclosure and transparency and the development of dedicated investor relations departments and websites, al-Mansoori said, noting that such measures have great impact on the companies’ success in gaining investors’ confidence and ensuring healthy, trans- parent and fair trading environment. “The best way to reach this objective is through exchanging views and listening to suggestions from the participants in order to overcome the difficulties encountered in the application of the best disclosure practices in the market,” according to Nasser Abdul Ghani, QSE market and operations control director. A representative of the regulatory authority responded to some queries from the communication officers representing the participating listed companies and listened to their recommendations and suggestions to promote the disclosure practices and strengthen cooperation among listed companies, the QFMA, the QCSD, and the QSE for the best interest of investors. Egypt subsidy cut ‘first step’ in broader strategy: UAE Bloomberg Cairo T he UAE, which is backing Egypt with billions of dollars in aid, said Egypt’s decision to raise fuel prices is the “first step” in a broader energy strategy to reduce subsidies and the budget deficit. Sultan al-Jaber, the UAE minister overseeing assistance to Egypt, said the government of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi was also seeking to expand “the tax base and the reduction in wasteful expenditure, while protecting spending on social sectors.” The government is planning to introduce value-added taxes before June, he said in an emailed answer to questions. El-Sisi, a former army chief who was elected after leading the ouster of his Islamist predecessor, is struggling to reduce one of the highest budget deficits in the Middle East and revive an economy battered by more than three years of turmoil. He raised the prices of fuel and natural gas by more than 70% last year, going a step further than previous governments, which had shied away from tackling subsidies to avoid a public backlash. The UAE, the second-biggest Arab economy, stepped in to back El-Sisi, spending about $10bn on projects from schools to wheat silos as well as supporting the central bank’s foreign-currency reserves. Al-Jaber urged the government in June last year to shore up public finances while investing in in- A man carries a cooking gas cylinder at a selling depot in Cairo. President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is struggling to reduce one of the highest budget deficits in the Middle East and revive an economy battered by more than three years of turmoil. He raised the prices of fuel and natural gas by more than 70% last year, going a step further than previous governments, which had shied away from tackling subsidies to avoid a public backlash. frastructure to boost economic growth. “On the fiscal side, the government has taken courageous actions to reduce fiscal imbalances, and in particular reform energy pricing, as a first step in implementing a broader energy subsidies reform,” al-Jaber said last week by e-mail. El-Sisi inherited an economy stuck in the worst slowdown in two decades. The budget deficit is expected to widen to more than 11% of economic output in 2015, according to the median estimate of eight economists on Bloomberg. Al-Jaber said that UAE’s aid to Egypt has helped to create more than 900,000 jobs in little over a year. Signs of economic recovery are in the offing. Gross domestic product may expand 3.4% in 2015, according to the median estimate of nine economists on Bloomberg, compared with 2.2% in 2014. Fitch Ratings raised the country’s credit worthiness one level in December to B, five levels below investment grade. The government said it plans to tap the international bond market in the first quarter this year for the first time since 2010. Low global borrowing costs as well as “Egypt’s improving credit story and a very low stock of ex- ternal debt will be sufficient for the country to regain access to international capital markets at affordable interest rates,” al-Jaber said. The UAE is also helping Egypt prepare for an investment conference in March to mobilise aid needed to stem the decline in currency reserves and lure foreign investments. Reserves fell to $15.3bn in December as the pick-up in economic activity boosted demand for imports. The conference shouldn’t be viewed as a “silver bullet” for the economy, al-Jaber said. “It is part of a multi-year” process to ensure sustainable recovery, he said. Foreign institutions’ strong buying interests overcame the selling pressure from local retail and institutional investors as the Qatar Stock Exchange inched towards the 12,000 mark. Industrials stocks largely propelled the 20-stock Qatar Index (based on price data) 0.71% to 11,920.48 points amid fall in trade volumes. Islamic stocks were seen gaining faster in the bourse, which is, however, down 2.97% year-to-date. Non-Qatari retail investors were marginally bullish in the market, where telecom, banks, industrials and realty stocks cornered more than 93% of the total trading volume. Market capitalisation rose 0.6%, or about QR4bn, to QR650.14bn with mid, small, large and micro cap equities gaining 0.68%, 0.61%, 0.46% and 0.37% respectively. The Total Return Index gained 0.71% to 17,779.29 points, the All Share Index by 0.65% to 3,064.68 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.9% to 4,052.12 points. Industrials stocks appreciated 1.42%, followed by real estate (0.66%), banks and financial services (0.46%), consumer goods (0.42%), transport (0.33%) and insurance (0.18%); while telecom fell 0.47%. As much as 65% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being Industries Qatar, Aamal Company, Gulf International Services, Ezdan, Mazaya Qatar, Barwa, Commercial Bank, Doha Bank, Vodafone Qatar and Nakilat; but Ooredoo, Alijarah Holding and Islamic Holding Group bucked the trend. Foreign institutions’ net buying soared to QR33.77mn against QR15.38mn the previous day. Non-Qatari individual investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR2.65mn compared with net sellers of QR17.18mn on Monday. However, Qatari retail investors turned net profittakers to the extent of QR11.47mn against net buyers of QR4.22mn on Monday. Domestic institutions’ net selling surged to QR24.95mn compared to QR2.47mn the previous day. Total trade volume was down 8% to 8.02mn shares, value by 9% to QR378.63mn and transactions by 14% to 5,314. The transport sector’s trade volume plummeted 67% to 0.14mn stocks, value by 65% to QR4.71mn and deals by 48% to 155. The insurance sector saw its trade volume plunge 60% to 0.04mn equities, value by 44% to QR2.87mn and transactions by 60% to 44. The real estate sector’s trade volume tanked 57% to 1.26mn shares, value by 57% to QR35.1mn and deals by 47% to 618. The market witnessed a 55% decline in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 0.35mn stocks, 63% in value to QR10.66mn and 49% in transactions to 232. The industrials sector saw its trade volume fall 12% to 1.3mn equities but value was up 1% to QR103mn. Deals were down 10% to 1,286. However, the telecom sector’s trade volume more than tripled to 2.08mn shares and value more than quadrupled to QR43.04mn on more-than-tripled transactions to 914. The banks and financial services reported an 18% surge in trade volume to 2.85mn stocks and value by 1% to QR179.26mn but on 17% fall in deals to 2,065. In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds. 4 Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 BUSINESS Iraq lowers oil price forecast in budget proposal Reuters Baghdad F alling oil prices forced Iraq’s cabinet yesterday to revise its draft 2015 budget, trimming its forecast for oil to $55 a barrel from $60. It trimmed spending to 119tn Iraqi dinars ($105bn) for 2015. Even so, the budget deficit will rise to 25tn dinars. The decision to lower the forecast oil price may satisfy some MPs who saw the previous estimate as unrealistic, but Brent crude is trading still lower at under $50, down from $115 in June. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said last week he feared lower revenues from falling global oil prices could hurt Iraq’s military campaign against Islamic State, which swept across northern Iraq last summer. Speaking after a meeting of the US-led coalition which has launched air strikes against IS in northern Iraq and Syria, alAbadi said allies could help by potentially allowing Baghdad to defer payment for ammunition and weapons. It was not immediately clear what areas would be affected by spending cuts in the revised budget, which still needs to be approved by parliament. A vote is expected on Thursday. The government of former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki failed to pass a 2014 budget. The 2015 budget has become a measure of growing goodwill between Baghdad and the Kurdish region as they both fight Islamic State militants. The budget has been delayed for months by sliding oil prices; it originally assumed an average oil price of $70 a barrel. The drop in oil prices will curb investment in the industry worldwide, says Khalid al-Falih, chief executive officer of Saudi Aramco. Saudi will not ‘singlehandedly’ balance crude market: Aramco Bloomberg Riyadh/Dubai S audi Arabia won’t balance global crude markets on its own even as prices fall “too low for everybody” and threaten the investment needed to meet long-term demand, the head of Saudi Arabian Oil Co said. The world’s biggest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia has the most spare capacity in Opec and has historically played the role of swing producer, cutting its output to raise prices and pumping more barrels to lower them. Oil prices have dropped 55% in the past year as rising production from the US and Russia helped global output exceed demand. “Supply and demand and the rules of economics will govern. It will take time for the current glut to be removed,” chief executive officer Khalid al-Falih said at a conference in Riyadh. “Saudi Arabia will not singlehandedly balance the market in a downturn,” he said, reiterating government policy. The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries kept its production target unchanged at a November 27 meeting, seeking to defend market share rather than support prices as it keeps pumping close to 30mn bpd. Saudi Arabia resisted calls from fellow Opec members Venezuela and Iran to trim output. Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi has said producers outside of the group should trim their output first. Brent crude has averaged at least $99 each year since 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Oil at close to $100 a barrel brought new production sources, like shale oil, to the market, pushing supply ahead of demand as growth in developing countries slowed, al-Falih said yesterday. The country is maintaining its output capacity while its exports are declining, so “imbalance in the market absolutely has nothing to do with Saudi Arabia,” he said. Saudi Aramco is producing 9.8mn bpd, he said. That’s the most since at least October, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The drop in prices will curb investment in the industry worldwide, al-Falih said. Saudi Aramco, as his company is known, will cut planned spending this year to less than its initial target, he said. State-owned Aramco plans to invest $30bn to $50bn a year to maintain crude output, transform itself into the world’s largest refiner and expand its trading and chemical businesses, al-Falih said. “To do that we need a price that is very, very healthy,” al-Falih said. “It’s not a matter of recov- CORPORATE RESULTS Gulf Bank profit climbs, recovers from crisis Kuwait’s Gulf Bank, the country’s fourth-largest lender by assets, reported a 10.7% rise in fourth-quarter net profit yesterday, and said it had recovered from the global financial crisis. The bank received a 375mn dinar ($1.27bn) emergency capital injection from the Kuwait Investment Authority in January 2009 after a derivatives loss of the same amount, one of the only occasions that a Gulf government had to step in with direct support for a bank due to the financial crisis. Gulf Bank undertook a major restructuring and its profits have strengthened in recent quarters, helped by a more buoyant local economy that has replenished deposits and bolstered lending growth. “Gulf Bank has culminated its transition and has started a new path after completing its recovery,” chairman Omar Kutayba Alghanim said in the bank’s 2014 earnings statement. “Far seem today the difficult times when our NPLs (non-performing loans) reached 30%. Now we have all the elements in place to grow better and faster.” The bank’s NPL ratio—the amount of bad loans as a percentage of its total lending—dropped to 3.2% at the end of 2014 and its coverage ratio, which signifies how much cash the bank set aside to cover those bad loans, stood at 266%, the statement said. Net profit for the three months to the end of December was 8.97mn dinars ($30.4mn), compared with 8.1mn dinars in the year-earlier period, according to Reuters calculations. Gulf Bank did not provide a quarterly break down so Reuters calculated the figures based on the bank’s financial statements. Net profit for 2014 was 35.5mn dinars, up 10% from the previous year, a statement from the bank said. Union National Bank Union National Bank, 50% owned by the Abu Dhabi government, posted a 42% rise in fourth-quarter net profit yesterday, just missing analysts’ forecasts. The fifth-largest lender in the emirate by assets reported a net profit of 436mn dirhams ($118.7mn) in the final three months of 2014, up from 306mn dirhams a year earlier, a bourse filing said. Four analysts polled by Reuters forecast an average profit of 442.7mn dirhams. Full-year net profit for 2014 was 2.02bn dirhams, a rise of 16% from 2013. ering what we spent. It’s a matter of fuelling an investment plan.” Saudi Aramco’s cost to produce a barrel of oil is in the low single digits, he said. “Whether the price is $40 or $100, we’re not only covering our costs. We’re recovering the capital we invested.” Opec and the International Energy Agency, an adviser to 29 nations on energy policy, warn that a sharp decline in oil-industry investment will leave supply insufficient to meet demand. Opec secretary general Abdalla El-Badri said on Monday that crude prices could reach $200 a barrel if spending dries up. IEA executive director Maria Van Der Hoeven said last week that producers must invest more to satisfy a forecast need for 14mn barrels a day of additional crude by 2040. Abu Dhabi in the neighbouring UAE is spending $90bn to boost crude production and increase natural gas output. Both the UAE and Saudi Arabia need more gas to meet industrial demand and burn as fuel in power plants. Saudi Aramco plans to more than double investment in unconventional sources of natural gas, which are harder to find and extract than more typical deposits of the fuel, al-Falih said. Aramco has invested $3bn to develop unconventional gas and plans to spend an additional $7bn, he said, without specifying dates for the actual or planned spending. Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 5 BUSINESS Dubai house prices to fall 10% in 2015, says JLL Reuters Dubai Dubai house prices will fall by up to 10% in 2015 after rising almost 60% in two years, with the emirate’s robust economy helping it avoid a repeat of a crash in 2008-09 despite a slump in oil prices, property consultants JLL said yesterday. The real estate sector in Dubai, one of seven emirates in the UAE, has been among the most volatile globally over the past decade as it turned from boom to bust to boom again. Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL) estimates house prices rose 56% in the two years to June 2014, but have since stabilised and now face a relatively minor correction this year. “This time we think it will be more of a measured downturn,” Craig Plumb, JLL head of research for the Middle East and North Africa, told a news conference. He forecast Dubai house prices on average will decline by up to 10% in 2015. Rents will fall in parallel. About 25,000 residential properties will be ready in 2015, equivalent to about 7% of Dubai’s present housing stock. “It’s manageable - with the population and incomes growing you’d expect to absorb (that),” said Plumb. “It’s not supply that’s causing the correction, it’s more that prices got a bit too high.” Dubai’s economy likely grew about 4.5% in 2014 and growth will rise above that level in the coming years, a senior government official said in December. The UAE is a major oil exporter, but Dubai itself is a negligible producer, and JLL said the slump in crude prices would have scant direct impact on the emirate’s property sector, at least for now. But Dubai’s stock market slump — the index has fallen 30% from June’s 2014 high — would have dented investors’ confidence, Plumb said. The oil price fall has coincided with the dollar strengthening against major currencies. The UAE dirham is pegged to the greenback, so Dubai has become more expensive for many foreign visitors and investors. “That could have a small impact on the make-up of foreign property buyers in the UAE, but the bigger picture won’t change,” Plumb said. Buyers from India, Britain and Pakistan were the biggest purchasers of Dubai property last year, official data shows. Turkey bank signals early policy meet, rate cut plan Reuters Ankara T Investors monitor stocks at the newly opened exchange market department at the National Commercial Bank (NCB) in Riyadh in this November 12, 2014 file picture. Opening the market may prompt MSCI to include the bourse in its emerging market gauge by 2017, luring as much as $40bn of foreign cash, Schroders said in July. Saudi stock market set to open to foreigners in first half as planned Bloomberg Riyadh/London S audi Arabia said it’s on track to open the Arab world’s biggest stock market to foreigners in the first half of the year, confirming no change of policy since a the new king ascended to the throne following King Abdullah’s death. The Capital Markets Authority has issued draft laws and is assessing investor feedback before it approves the regulations and sets an official date for the lessening of restrictions on the about $485bn exchange, governor Mohammed al-Sheikh said at a conference in Riyadh yesterday. King Salman pledged on Friday to maintain the oil-rich nation’s current policies and asserted all ministers will stay in their posts. Abdullah, who on January 23 passed away aged about 90, helped drive a 27% stock rally in the past four years with a $130bn spending plan. The market regulator’s comments yesterday underscore the kingdom’s commitment to its economic plans as it seeks to boost non-oil industries amid plunging crude prices. The Tadawul All Share Index rose 0.7% in its first day of trading following the late king’s death, the largest increase among Gulf stock markets. The feedback process “indicates that there is genuine and significant demand and interest in the Saudi market,” al-Sheikh said at the Riyadh conference. Investors from outside the sixnation Gulf Cooperation Council aren’t allowed to invest directly in stocks and have to get access to the market through equity swaps and exchange-traded funds. Saudis accounted for 95.05% of the value of Saudi shares traded in December, with other GCC nations at 2.08% and others 2.87%, according to bourse data. The largest Arab economy is seeking to open the stock exchange in April, three people briefed on the country’s plans said in December. Opening the market may prompt MSCI to include the bourse in its emerging market gauge by 2017, luring as much as $40bn of foreign cash, Schroders said in July. “Markets can hence expect continuity from Saudi Arabia in the near term,” VTB Capital said in an e-mailed note on January 23. LVMH’s private equity arm said to seek stake in Bateel Bloomberg Dubai L VMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton’s private-equity arm is in talks to acquire a stake in Saudi Arabian gourmet confectionery producer and restaurant chain Bateel, four people with knowledge of the matter said. L Capital, backed by LVMH Group and billionaire chairman Bernard Arnault’s family holding company, is seeking a minority stake in the Riyadh-based firm, the people said, asking not to be identified as talks are private. Bateel has a presence in 14 countries across Africa, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Accelerating economic growth and a rising population in the Gulf region is driving increased investment in the consumer industry from companies and private-equity firms. KKR & Co is teaming up with Dubai-based Fajr Capital to bid for a 25% stake in Azadea Group, the franchise operator of clothing chain Zara in the Middle East, people with knowledge of the matter said earlier this month. L Capital, based in Paris, was formed in 2001 and focuses on investments in retail and luxury industries among others. Ata Atmar, managing director of Bateel International, declined to comment when contacted by phone. L Capital didn’t return calls seeking comment. Samba proposes 8bn riyal bonus share issue Saudi Arabia’s Samba Financial Group said yesterday its board had proposed increasing the bank’s capital by 8bn riyals ($2.13bn) through issuing bonus shares to help support future growth. The kingdom’s fourth-largest lender by assets will increase its capital to 20bn riyals from retained earnings by issuing two shares for every three shares held, the lender said in a bourse statement, subject to the approval of shareholders and regulators. urkey’s central bank may hold an early monetary policy meeting next week and discuss an interest rate cut if inflation continues to fall sharply, Governor Erdem Basci said yesterday. Basci, under pressure from the government to lower rates ahead of a June parliamentary election, said the bank could act as early as February 4 if data due a day earlier show January inflation slowing by more than 1 percentage point. The lira weakened to 2.36 against the dollar on his comments, reversing earlier gains after he announced a cut in the bank’s forecast for inflation this year to 5.5% from a previous 6.1%. “We could hold a meeting to take a rapid decision,” Basci told a news conference called to announce the bank’s quarterly inflation report. “If January inflation falls more than one (percentage) point and core (inflation) is good, we could even make an assessment on February 4,” he added. The next monetary policy committee meeting is scheduled for February 24. UBS strategist Manik Narain said Basci’s comments were “very dovish” and called talk of an emergency meeting “premature” with inflation still above the bank’s 5% target. “It does create some medium-term risks,” he said. The central bank cut its main one-week repo rate last week by 50 basis points but drew a rebuke from government ministers who said it was not enough to support growth. President Tayyip Erdogan, a vociferous advocate of lower rates, kept up the pressure, yesterday reiterating his assertion that high interest rates cause high inflation. “Look at the world’s developed countries. There’s no rates policy like ours. In Japan interest rates are negative and inflation very low. If we want investment we must achieve this,” he said. The central bank cut its main one-week repo rate last week by 50 basis points but drew a rebuke from government Basci said inflation could drop to its lowest in 45 years this year and said the decline was expected to accelerate from this month, approaching the 5% target by mid-year. He said the midpoint of the bank’s 2016 year-end inflation forecast was 5%. The lira initially firmed to below 2.34 against the dollar following Basci’s comments on inflation, from 2.3520 beforehand. But it eased back to 2.3600 by 1203 GMT after he raised the possibility of an early policy meeting. Consumer prices fell 0.44% month-on-month in December for an annual rise of 8.17% and are expected to end this year at 6.82%, according to the latest central bank survey of business leaders and economists. 6 Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 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 85.50 60.20 15.00 24.15 16.40 15.27 97.70 133.80 200.00 80.00 44.60 77.70 39.00 103.40 23.29 58.80 9.65 211.90 190.00 36.20 84.00 117.00 21.70 19.60 27.15 200.00 121.00 103.10 44.00 21.60 146.50 121.10 55.00 95.80 14.60 26.15 58.20 43.00 65.90 44.75 51.00 13.80 % Chg 1.54 -1.15 -0.40 -0.21 -0.06 0.46 -0.51 -0.07 1.27 0.00 -0.89 -0.89 -2.62 0.10 0.09 0.00 -0.31 -1.67 -2.01 -9.73 0.00 0.52 0.00 -1.80 -0.18 -1.91 -1.14 -0.77 -1.12 1.79 0.00 5.21 1.29 -0.21 0.34 -2.06 0.34 -4.44 -1.49 -0.56 -0.78 1.69 Volume 1,300 67,520 588,787 157,422 611,634 20,872 14,210 15 169,451 700 11,557 67,488 263,474 111,410 315,586 20,975 43,529 160,745 164 35,223 14,516 481,647 996,259 89,490 13,473 20,281 21,107 462,339 93,830 242,054 563,085 86,274 132,888 767,741 45,917 75,178 93,997 269,739 1,021,034 16,928 547,352 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 Cement 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 Al Mouwasat Medical Services 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 45.50 16.07 13.50 63.13 23.43 21.89 22.67 18.49 33.56 14.53 97.03 9.10 32.43 43.57 21.09 53.55 87.67 20.12 50.90 64.80 30.27 40.95 80.94 24.30 16.16 130.00 15.81 29.03 109.49 19.20 43.43 41.52 76.74 31.88 79.46 35.41 33.36 50.67 25.99 37.13 36.02 69.75 26.49 32.11 76.50 157.37 38.50 190.15 12.08 21.87 59.11 6.77 38.50 14.29 28.76 86.65 28.90 51.13 37.34 25.20 30.74 14.80 18.61 83.15 24.18 108.05 43.37 190.00 53.00 14.77 11.13 19.13 17.59 33.63 29.62 80.00 51.70 22.90 12.55 128.00 33.19 28.32 10.70 25.10 31.97 25.32 33.41 38.26 23.45 18.67 12.23 91.26 37.65 16.90 16.97 54.09 13.29 % Chg 1.13 0.69 0.00 3.39 1.25 3.16 0.93 0.38 -0.59 1.25 9.19 9.64 -0.12 0.11 1.98 3.40 -2.13 0.55 3.62 -0.64 1.34 2.63 2.46 0.00 1.06 0.67 8.66 1.11 2.21 1.37 0.05 0.61 -0.96 0.41 1.91 0.80 -0.36 -0.12 2.73 0.35 0.70 0.00 0.57 -1.20 4.88 0.76 1.26 0.28 1.17 1.44 0.61 3.52 -9.84 7.61 3.68 2.03 1.05 2.46 2.92 0.00 4.38 1.37 1.53 -0.12 0.96 2.97 0.86 0.36 -1.06 2.93 0.54 4.82 0.40 3.51 0.82 0.31 0.62 4.38 0.00 0.39 0.88 0.07 2.79 1.62 -0.09 0.76 2.80 3.57 -0.09 0.86 2.51 -0.53 1.59 9.74 0.53 0.43 1.14 Volume 71,128 7,619,436 236,989 469,116 2,496,766 317,662 698,190 785,935 1,655,576 432,671 140,716,251 1,233,408 1,071,765 2,303,918 596,449 641,291 41,686,173 1,037,614 287,938 1,801,044 401,751 462,473 628,838 138,445 5,672,412 639,262 109,789 1,121,179 1,109,654 375,773 558,288 555,187 689,591 147,660 597,882 383,002 1,027,427 772,018 104,348 2,801,426 425,212 341,136 235,646 401,094 30,075 645,120 838,539 78,763 4,445,904 1,164,798 9,836,214 2,286,112 94,028 2,024 549,559 1,101,955 10 1,542,138 426,456 573,130 24,186 390,001 239,642 85,099 51,826 1,405,046 5,697,032 7,477,137 3,996,765 779,198 10,407,641 1,446,507 53,859 579,493 4,979,677 41,721 138,184 180,435 2,797,306 596,665 157,558 1,076,608 995,802 2,359,676 81,927 1,998,948 1,209,314 65,683 238,753 860,871 1,031,266 4,512,241 1,418,175 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 52.77 34.04 78.98 99.16 26.53 120.68 142.00 29.51 20.44 40.35 28.94 41.19 15.23 23.86 63.11 28.00 9.20 78.16 9.56 52.90 101.33 15.25 27.17 69.43 31.38 39.75 26.80 16.00 48.75 % Chg -0.28 1.13 -0.18 0.55 1.26 0.98 1.43 2.36 1.14 1.64 2.05 0.98 0.00 1.92 1.66 0.00 1.66 4.23 0.63 -0.19 1.06 1.67 0.97 1.06 3.80 1.92 -0.22 1.65 6.23 Volume 264,284 508,713 4,492,273 96,355 669,259 25,247 163,884 2,523,838 719,476 328,544 588,479 744,408 1,907,955 763,727 10 1,696,684 271,120 829,435 465,739 145,701 2,373,311 533,446 144,692 494,777 478,712 827,626 1,680,067 1,376,978 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 95.00 310.00 108.00 204.00 480.00 62.00 200.00 39.00 81.00 580.00 405.00 660.00 910.00 620.00 260.00 295.00 79.00 48.00 72.00 0.00 97.00 34.00 1.54 130.00 34.50 93.00 990.00 440.00 67.00 170.00 13.00 0.00 39.00 152.00 65.00 760.00 108.00 37.00 61.00 100.00 89.00 0.00 136.00 25.00 104.00 206.00 250.00 0.00 34.50 0.00 90.00 485.00 61.00 116.00 95.00 72.00 450.00 138.00 190.00 198.00 92.00 140.00 130.00 146.00 73.00 184.00 246.00 0.00 32.50 0.00 0.00 68.00 310.00 99.00 770.00 43.50 80.00 132.00 40.00 192.00 102.00 112.00 180.00 75.00 154.00 178.00 530.00 24.50 450.00 110.00 380.00 90.00 1,360.00 148.00 0.00 49.50 146.00 465.00 700.00 32.50 290.00 70.00 41.50 0.00 45.00 67.00 200.00 63.00 55.00 85.00 73.00 34.00 64.00 50.00 238.00 50.00 39.00 61.00 38.00 0.00 132.00 33.50 0.00 % Chg 5.36 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.99 0.00 3.33 0.00 0.00 2.53 3.57 1.25 1.54 0.00 -1.59 0.00 -1.67 -5.95 0.00 -2.70 0.00 0.00 -4.23 0.00 0.00 -1.43 0.00 1.02 3.53 0.00 0.00 4.00 0.00 -1.27 0.00 -4.41 0.00 0.00 1.37 1.67 -1.96 0.00 0.00 0.00 -3.85 0.00 0.00 -3.85 0.00 -4.17 0.00 0.00 0.00 -1.61 9.43 0.00 2.86 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1.10 1.45 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 -1.52 0.00 0.00 -2.86 0.00 0.00 1.32 2.35 2.56 -1.49 0.00 0.00 -5.56 1.82 -2.17 -2.60 0.00 0.00 0.00 -5.77 0.00 -3.51 1.33 0.00 3.03 0.00 0.00 1.02 0.00 -1.06 -1.41 0.00 -6.45 0.00 -2.35 0.00 34.33 1.52 0.00 1.61 -1.79 0.00 0.00 4.62 3.23 0.00 0.85 1.01 1.30 0.00 0.00 0.00 3.13 0.00 0.00 Volume 50 1,629,488 10,575 19,700 36,000 38,100 1,000 10,100 50,440 40 2,664,715 65,559 36,398 313,469 1,770,994 3,142 272,811 730,293 1,063,292 931,277 1,846,514 40,010 6,557,142 1,123,281 13,800 1,258,161 41,221 135,101 31,000 500 4,097,301 3,950 17,000 63,500 150 1,000 4,000 25,500 886,270 45,000 2,000 64,039,621 21,002 100 352 10,544,891 421,144 1,633 293,500 5,610,926 5,000 2,429,553 6,739 175,203 200,000 2,500 852,622 76,101 30,110 15,907 1,527,510 1,500 102 22,165,384 669,369 50 228,523 975,536 28,000 1,448,220 24,326 396,888 239,831 34,970 4,055 264,631 510,000 8,766 12,157 4,352,199 5,889,401 36,000 306,049 37,957 62,110 38,902 5,000 49,120 4,363 836,342 1,695,170 3,014,600 118,799 7,500 1,089,901 60,475 4,053,045 10,000 1,861,333 1,031,501 100 513,200 12 226,999 3,706,131 19,650 384,067 1,162,161 102 5,340,707 5,454 3,743,627 - 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 26.50 106.00 910.00 116.00 11.50 68.00 61.00 450.00 236.00 58.00 0.00 192.00 920.00 45.50 810.00 33.50 300.00 97.00 610.00 77.00 124.00 200.00 64.00 440.00 400.00 84.00 58.00 75.00 1,420.00 0.00 148.00 0.00 70.00 182.00 82.00 142.00 51.00 72.00 58.00 440.00 470.00 95.00 110.00 62.00 37.00 93.00 142.00 350.00 134.00 24.00 1,020.00 84.00 380.00 74.00 370.00 670.00 118.00 770.00 40.50 % Chg -5.36 1.92 0.00 0.00 -4.17 0.00 0.00 -2.17 0.00 0.00 0.00 -1.03 0.00 1.11 -3.57 3.08 0.00 0.00 0.00 1.32 0.00 0.00 1.59 6.02 -2.44 0.00 1.75 0.00 1.43 0.00 0.00 0.00 2.94 0.00 1.23 2.90 -1.92 7.46 0.00 0.00 2.17 1.06 0.00 1.64 0.00 -2.11 1.43 0.00 0.00 0.00 -1.92 1.20 0.00 0.00 0.00 1.52 0.00 -2.53 0.00 Volume 13,444,650 253,960 4,500 353 3,105,319 661,415 2,571,026 1,102,262 990,768 135,000 179,097 105,000 5,050,287 350,000 55,560 5,700 100 2,000 828,987 81,462 500 737,893 14,994 2 110 3,000 534,261 13,789 100 12,456,850 1,000 231,551 16,010 4,563,969 2,845,913 166,000 230 293,825 136,157 105,500 1,724,000 2,262,950 4,564,220 67,370 280 99,915 5,550,724 2,013,050 603,192 5,000 546,658 27,000 14,296 13,500 3,889,219 1,769,440 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 0.38 0.14 1.66 1.00 0.00 0.15 0.65 0.78 0.21 2.00 1.05 0.66 1.04 0.17 0.38 1.38 1.49 2.45 0.50 1.86 0.36 0.48 0.33 0.27 1.79 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 0.24 0.00 0.23 0.00 5.51 0.58 0.00 0.07 0.14 0.13 0.00 1.00 0.52 0.56 3.64 2.01 1.45 0.00 0.17 0.52 0.00 0.10 0.00 0.06 2.05 0.60 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 0.11 0.18 0.43 0.16 0.00 % Chg -1.04 -1.41 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 -1.71 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 -0.61 0.00 0.56 0.00 1.35 0.00 0.00 -0.89 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 -0.41 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 -5.63 0.00 -0.76 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 -0.33 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 -2.94 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 -0.65 -1.55 0.00 -4.20 0.55 0.00 0.00 0.00 Volume 7,200 23,600 9,000 9,166 113,300 4,220 463,178 150 176,082 10,000 5,500 51,444 232,001 52,800 200 17,490 644,838 4,940 2,300 44,526 15,000 9,100 155,500 24,000 7,330 184,000 - 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 0.20 0.26 0.25 0.04 0.00 0.00 0.23 0.61 0.35 1.13 0.50 5.51 0.33 0.00 0.82 0.33 0.00 0.39 0.34 0.55 0.75 0.24 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 1.53 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 -1.17 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 Volume 427,190 198,000 805,940 8,000 68,260 103,504 - 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 3.03 1.19 5.60 2.00 1.16 6.55 7.24 0.77 0.00 0.00 3.90 1.15 1.27 1.51 0.74 3.60 2.96 0.91 8.25 143.50 1.23 1.17 6.90 6.30 1.82 3.50 4.85 13.45 0.73 0.00 3.00 2.80 1.00 2.00 2.70 0.79 1.08 4.00 3.34 17.40 1.35 1.45 11.10 0.75 7.00 5.50 7.70 0.47 1.75 1.98 0.77 5.35 6.81 1.19 2.44 60.00 0.40 6.16 300.00 1.89 6.08 3.60 5.85 7.12 3.05 % Chg 0.00 -1.30 0.00 2.94 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 -3.75 0.00 0.00 0.00 -0.86 0.00 0.00 -2.63 0.00 -1.33 -2.15 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 -4.21 -5.41 0.00 -1.10 0.00 0.00 0.00 1.82 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 -6.09 0.00 0.00 0.58 0.00 0.00 0.45 -3.85 0.00 0.00 0.00 -2.08 0.00 0.00 -3.75 0.00 -9.92 0.00 -4.31 0.00 0.00 2.33 0.00 11.18 1.33 0.00 -10.00 -1.39 -1.61 Volume 2,690,072 2,052,419 30,498 10,451 7,090,426 348,297 45,000 558,548 30,000 254,015 1,095,343 20,000 5,000 6,598,095 2,348,456 15,893,859 6,775,825 200,000 13,000 3,500 28,924,424 27,131 369 10,000 4,047,632 4,500,118 92,902 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 0.13 0.00 0.00 0.85 0.18 0.05 0.18 451.60 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.21 0.88 ` 1.54 0.23 0.00 0.48 0.00 0.87 0.00 0.00 0.15 0.85 0.00 0.00 0.47 0.33 0.00 0.82 0.00 0.80 % 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 9.57 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 Volume 25,097 324,374 160,000 49,616 19,000 266,459 601,381 10 19,760 6,000 102,460 40,000 5,200 110,000 12,016 1,882 13,346 17,528 11,900 73,005 LATEST MARKET CLOSING FIGURES Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 7 BUSINESS DJIA WORLD INDICES Company Name Microsoft Corp Exxon Mobil 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. Intel Corp At&T Inc Walt Disney Co/The Visa Inc-Class A Shares Intl Business Machines Corp Cisco Systems Inc Home Depot Inc United Technologies Corp Unitedhealth Group Inc 3M Co 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 46.63 91.69 101.99 89.13 24.55 89.01 56.99 32.64 108.60 46.90 43.05 62.83 35.75 33.20 94.56 256.76 158.29 27.99 105.85 119.05 111.59 162.07 134.51 90.22 84.06 96.24 180.70 74.35 86.14 107.08 % Chg -1.18 0.88 -0.21 0.70 0.27 -1.19 0.55 0.59 1.64 -0.54 -0.61 0.54 -1.91 -0.51 -0.17 -0.59 1.55 -0.78 0.46 -0.78 -0.37 -1.19 -0.08 0.74 -0.08 0.08 0.12 0.76 0.62 0.07 9,944,102 3,497,010 2,408,096 1,602,501 14,890,198 2,881,048 4,172,423 8,256,259 2,568,863 5,491,693 2,847,288 1,576,772 11,246,033 7,020,780 2,040,137 737,931 3,666,454 6,816,257 751,533 1,221,738 1,177,159 1,277,928 1,112,286 2,190,126 1,305,602 818,467 922,470 916,859 2,682,331 468,705 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 1,467.00 3,963.00 196.00 5,060.00 1,690.00 238.25 994.00 2,879.00 368.70 1,170.00 1,198.00 1,937.00 229.95 135.10 404.20 949.60 858.00 1,509.00 717.00 1,132.00 1,186.00 936.00 4,876.00 2,144.00 2,907.00 267.00 479.90 3,460.00 464.00 449.50 2,295.50 2,202.50 382.50 902.00 2,888.00 1,155.00 5,505.00 5,440.00 1,613.50 1,563.00 1,339.00 205.10 7,150.00 929.40 1,173.00 538.50 474.00 2,396.00 75.78 265.60 1,282.00 347.10 3,559.00 230.80 367.30 550.00 2,319.00 2,744.00 3,090.00 625.20 1,008.00 692.50 252.50 1,493.50 377.00 287.00 408.90 898.50 1,173.00 1,753.00 430.50 312.40 1,959.50 1,655.00 1,131.00 1,077.00 271.00 3,103.00 1,092.00 1,762.00 1,921.00 423.60 832.00 3,764.00 436.65 1,426.00 914.70 456.10 240.25 511.00 1,030.00 539.00 4,687.00 3,104.00 1,116.00 1,050.00 696.50 1,115.00 1,523.00 1,431.00 448.80 458.40 % Chg -0.81 -0.90 -1.56 -0.59 0.90 -0.69 -0.15 0.88 -0.70 0.43 0.08 0.21 -2.27 1.50 0.10 -0.16 -0.41 1.14 -0.55 1.07 -0.34 -0.43 1.25 -0.14 1.82 -0.34 0.25 0.68 -0.15 1.93 0.95 0.80 0.63 0.00 0.17 -0.43 -0.99 0.37 -0.86 2.36 -0.74 0.24 0.00 -0.80 2.00 -0.46 -0.32 0.93 0.33 -0.11 -0.16 0.90 0.76 0.52 -0.05 2.61 -0.39 -0.36 -0.03 0.06 -1.37 0.36 1.24 -0.43 0.45 -0.03 0.47 0.17 0.95 1.04 1.32 0.35 -0.51 -1.49 -0.09 -3.15 0.37 -0.74 0.92 -0.73 0.42 -1.74 -0.18 -0.71 0.98 0.07 2.58 1.33 -1.19 -1.54 -2.18 0.47 -0.98 0.78 2.10 -0.38 1.75 1.04 -1.30 -0.83 1.08 -0.91 Volume 1,737,247 592,468 9,936,546 185,606 520,696 29,649,134 1,003,411 2,838,130 4,805,568 469,584 456,013 325,005 23,040,951 12,735,048 2,542,942 5,128,990 2,046,868 2,502,891 766,037 725,625 1,845,159 2,147,366 1,508,693 243,550 233,566 6,906,243 1,771,487 1,328,671 1,472,262 1,732,721 3,912,785 5,425,138 4,216,005 3,069,259 3,048,810 2,057,772 835,237 474,703 1,744,764 768,882 1,396,242 3,166,852 222,982 4,238,855 891,798 522,659 1,806,945 223,455 61,012,535 5,078,495 859,860 5,140,835 292,916 6,799,175 931,746 11,342,448 373,685 306,667 1,244,609 10,216,106 1,868,404 1,437,557 27,579,760 4,663,252 2,181,552 930,216 2,904,286 2,238,024 1,306,591 2,111,210 3,050,820 1,364,208 2,531,507 1,917,384 1,694,849 833,125 6,554,483 346,865 837,962 857,368 292,111 9,589,384 1,833,472 2,252,118 27,403,950 6,711,306 6,788,734 2,783,667 19,583,094 5,579,187 1,054,920 6,041,373 1,258,739 348,444 1,366,451 1,724,383 2,112,559 3,672,350 490,440 295,025 3,004,968 748,133 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 1,321.00 2,183.00 1,554.50 1,536.00 3,329.00 4,236.00 988.00 1,147.50 460.00 7,913.00 593.70 5,100.00 5,627.00 1,767.00 5,220.00 1,637.50 3,780.50 1,776.00 443.60 % Chg -1.42 -1.02 -0.29 1.12 -0.36 -0.59 0.18 -0.09 -1.71 0.51 0.78 0.63 1.75 -0.95 1.14 0.92 0.41 -1.14 -0.87 Indices Volume Volume 4,994,600 1,018,100 3,209,800 2,718,500 3,642,200 1,773,100 6,321,000 3,370,000 7,271,000 795,700 4,915,900 1,277,800 3,265,900 4,873,900 980,500 2,980,000 1,613,200 1,242,500 8,823,200 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 17,663.93 2,052.55 4,761.78 14,782.66 42,638.40 48,472.79 6,833.38 4,669.77 10,798.72 10,696.30 -8.67 +0.73 +3.91 +3.31 -11.32 -302.51 +0.55 +29.08 +149.14 +114.80 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 17,468.52 1,402.08 24,909.90 5,468.19 1,147.00 29,278.84 8,835.60 3,398.52 24,788.56 5,260.02 -43.23 -1.14 +59.45 +77.72 +5.18 +272.82 +74.20 -12.98 +243.69 -63.86 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 4,666.50 607.00 287.70 0.00 207.00 2,498.00 1,724.00 1,515.00 31,490.00 2,628.00 1,782.50 8,314.00 917.70 475.20 1,384.00 7,976.00 362.00 640.50 1,329.00 223.00 2,754.50 7,310.00 55,240.00 5,369.00 20,665.00 7,390.00 5,235.00 12,805.00 7,153.00 645.40 1,030.00 7,725.00 3,635.00 3,750.50 1,518.00 4,298.50 3,884.50 1,177.00 1,063.00 12,095.00 1,209.00 671.20 1,562.00 8,518.00 1,190.50 2,124.50 1,244.00 622.70 581.80 416.30 4,049.00 623.40 196.40 1,392.00 877.60 626.00 2,975.00 2,773.50 1,635.50 3,995.50 1,341.00 3,079.00 2,389.50 3,844.50 9,132.00 5,969.00 19,405.00 309.20 6,723.00 8,225.00 1,977.50 473.00 1,363.00 1,088.00 1,357.00 1,055.00 692.50 6,767.00 421.00 42,340.00 7,335.00 % Chg 2.90 -0.49 -1.74 0.00 -1.43 -0.70 -2.30 0.60 1.30 -0.40 0.51 1.68 1.35 -0.67 -0.29 -0.88 0.28 1.20 -0.34 -1.33 0.64 -0.14 1.17 -0.33 -0.31 -0.27 -0.10 -0.93 -0.36 -1.99 -0.48 0.52 -1.36 0.67 -1.36 1.42 -0.40 -0.25 0.38 0.62 -0.08 -4.74 -0.70 -2.39 -1.53 -1.80 -0.24 0.08 0.02 -0.45 -0.88 1.25 -0.56 -1.59 -0.54 -0.79 -1.33 0.07 -2.18 -0.20 -1.58 -1.35 -1.55 -2.06 -0.26 0.74 1.94 0.52 0.24 -0.83 -0.23 -0.63 -1.77 -0.68 -0.80 -1.31 0.93 -1.47 5.78 -0.72 -0.27 Volume 3,962,000 2,683,000 32,643,000 22,926,000 2,874,300 4,192,000 2,147,300 195,700 2,610,300 3,929,000 1,574,600 18,640,000 10,705,000 4,562,000 1,780,600 12,136,000 10,481,000 6,468,900 21,389,000 13,713,000 761,700 120,900 879,000 1,069,400 378,600 1,192,900 1,123,000 906,000 16,080,000 8,659,900 7,739,200 5,233,100 895,300 2,489,700 1,074,300 2,578,400 3,215,900 1,093,000 455,300 10,343,200 23,133,000 9,274,300 636,300 4,711,700 5,099,100 2,755,500 39,829,800 7,377,000 26,138,000 5,605,300 3,783,000 107,156,400 6,989,700 5,607,000 19,924,100 1,214,200 1,428,600 4,024,800 3,437,400 2,162,600 3,110,000 3,472,000 2,429,000 747,300 620,500 387,500 11,556,000 2,166,700 1,459,000 4,626,400 9,249,100 1,315,300 2,791,800 857,500 2,338,100 6,859,000 736,100 15,048,400 384,200 6,356,800 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 390.75 601.80 3,147.90 2,780.75 403.10 88.85 588.45 2,503.60 926.80 327.45 205.40 886.90 207.15 149.55 348.80 141.90 139.30 3,606.70 1,361.90 1,489.45 1,711.30 1,385.30 158.40 349.45 2,215.05 857.35 174.30 370.70 1,290.10 965.30 144.80 2,862.80 1,042.80 1,646.65 3,793.05 422.95 3,349.60 156.70 394.70 677.65 248.35 384.10 674.75 279.10 223.10 2,441.50 565.15 862.10 252.50 1,542.05 % Chg 0.32 1.22 0.82 0.82 -0.07 6.66 3.87 -0.40 0.73 0.86 2.14 0.36 -2.66 0.81 -1.16 1.21 1.68 0.26 2.40 -0.93 2.89 -0.17 3.09 -0.34 0.85 1.31 -0.29 0.24 0.82 2.19 0.94 0.84 2.11 -1.14 -0.43 -1.88 -0.35 5.45 -0.43 3.49 4.13 3.81 2.69 -1.88 -0.34 -0.11 0.07 -0.58 1.41 -1.07 Volume 1,434,754 3,804,828 425,234 520,672 5,272,278 9,075,640 8,321,942 1,633,092 3,129,705 18,910,069 5,721,711 4,538,345 6,575,687 2,898,213 4,603,643 7,759,195 2,264,330 379,745 2,367,119 671,472 3,258,707 831,987 7,173,476 11,675,522 2,477,494 1,264,330 9,074,855 12,823,942 4,324,017 2,705,264 7,715,538 637,719 2,933,438 1,219,302 110,196 1,973,935 452,726 16,419,613 2,040,738 2,556,056 4,918,721 6,246,402 1,572,976 5,570,347 4,715,231 382,380 5,466,367 1,833,705 3,039,333 446,886 Employees pass share prices on display in the reception area of the Athens Stock Exchange (file). The market plunged more than 6% yesterday before recovering slightly at the close. Greek fears, US data dampen Europe stocks AFP London A nxiety over Greece’s new antiausterity leadership and unexpectedly poor US performance data weighed down European stock markets yesterday, analysts said. Frankfurt’s DAX 30 index sank 1.57% to close at 10,628.58 points, while in Paris the CAC 40 shed 1.09% to 4,624.21 points. London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index of top companies edged down 0.6% to end the day at 6,811.61 points, as investors also digested data showing Britain’s economic growth slowed to 0.5% in the fourth quarter of 2014. The Athens stock market plunged more than 6% before recovering slightly at the close as investors fretted over whether the new radical left government will renege on Greece’s international bailout. The main Athex index had tumbled 3.2% the previous day on news that anti-austerity party Syriza had won the Greek election. “Gravity took hold... after several days of huge gains inspired by the beginning of a quantitative easing program by the European Central Bank,” said Jasper Lawler, an analyst at CMC Markets UK. “Banking stocks led the declines in a delayed reaction to the risk posed by their Greek counterparts on a possible Grexit,” he added, referring to the spectre of Greece being forced to leave the eurozone. Shares in Germany’s Deutsche Bank plunged 3.39%, while in France Societe Generale lost 2.3% and Britain’s RBS was off 1.77%. New Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras unveiled his anti-austerity coalition administration, bringing together his radical left-wing party with a small party on the nationalist right, after a stunning election win that sent shockwaves through Europe. The appointment of radical leftwing economist Yanis Varoufakis as his finance minister was seen as a signal that the new government will take a hard line in haggling over Greece’s €240bn ($269bn) EU-IMF package. Tsipras declared on Sunday that Greece is “leaving behind disastrous austerity” and the so-called troika of creditors “is finished”, in reference to the country’s international lenders the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank. Syriza are the first anti-austerity party to govern in Europe, but they fell 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 two seats short of a 151-seat majority in parliament and were thus forced to forge the coalition with the small nationalist Independent Greeks (ANEL) party. In New York, the Dow slumped more than 2% in mid-morning trade following a raft of mostly weak earnings reports from big companies and a surprising drop in durable goods orders. Near 1600 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 17,320.29, down 2.03%. The broad-based S&P 500 sank 1.60% to 2,024.24, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index plummeted 2.09% to 4,671.83. New orders for long-lasting industrial goods fell 3.4% in December, signalling some persistent weakness in the manufacturing sector, according to Commerce Department data. “A Greek election was supposed to cause market ructions but as usual it was an entirely unforeseen development—namely a slump in US economic performance—that has created greater excitement,” said Chris Beauchamp, a market analyst with IG. In foreign exchange activity yesterday, the European single currency bounced to $1.1368, having hit Monday an 11-year low of $1.1098 on fears that Greece could leave the eurozone. Lt Price 3.77 31.55 4.53 6.87 9.00 26.90 18.12 145.40 4.36 6.43 32.55 28.75 103.90 24.30 6.26 17.48 21.00 20.95 21.40 11.98 13.40 69.00 10.54 11.54 8.54 3.57 22.15 133.50 56.00 % Chg -2.33 -0.47 0.22 -0.43 -1.75 0.56 -0.88 -0.27 -1.80 -0.92 0.31 2.13 -0.57 -1.02 -1.11 -3.53 -1.18 -0.71 -0.93 -0.50 -0.89 0.36 -1.31 1.05 1.43 1.42 1.14 0.45 2.00 Volume 26,652,173 1,017,398 247,947,393 21,041,653 13,733,871 6,596,818 4,092,451 5,339,470 34,070,000 177,015,086 30,807,068 6,092,728 15,183,137 11,715,460 76,798,471 10,573,512 6,657,606 3,187,449 13,776,036 27,100,692 17,585,989 1,832,658 62,506,316 4,118,800 3,628,560 2,383,524 8,602,783 1,590,406 3,308,273 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 17.68 181.80 72.60 101.30 5.83 7.77 33.50 9.20 8.83 87.65 80.50 13.12 126.10 103.30 137.00 61.25 % Chg -0.79 1.39 -0.68 0.10 -0.17 4.72 -0.15 0.11 -1.01 0.57 0.75 1.71 1.69 -0.19 3.24 -0.73 Volume 5,380,593 8,691,249 22,321,051 5,821,598 169,470,466 74,921,427 1,642,590 13,569,218 69,026,993 18,399,699 2,234,065 7,511,360 6,331,610 388,268 34,952,624 1,790,596 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 11,836.07 8,480.10 6,659.26 1,428.59 6,644.92 4,534.51 3,723.21 Change -11.41 +58.37 -3.55 -0.06 +0.41 -35.71 -139.04 “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 Wednesday, January 28, 2015 13 BUSINESS Asia will be resilient to external shocks, says Moody’s IANS Chennai Global credit rating agency Moody’s Investor Services yesterday said Asia will be resilient to global macroeconomic challenges in 2015. In a statement, Moody’s said Asia was less vulnerability to external shocks than other emerging economies and with sound fundamentals that compare well with many regions in the world. “As global growth remains subdued with brighter prospects in the US offset by lacklustre growth in the Euro Area and Japan, and China’s ongoing slowdown, Asia’s resilience will become increasingly evident,” said Michael Taylor, a Moody’s chief credit officer. Moody’s views were presented at Moody’s 2015 Outlooks for Asian sovereigns, corporates and banks briefing held yesterday in Hong Kong. According to Moody’s, global challenges for 2015 include the US Federal Reserve taking the first steps to normalise monetary policy, sustained low commodities prices and China’s rebalancing. But Asia is supported by healthy external vulnerability metrics and the policy space to support growth through accommodative domestic monetary and fiscal policies, said Moody’s. While Moody’s expects capital inflows to Asia Pacific to moderate in 2015, offshore borrowing costs will remain below historical norms, reflecting Asia’s sound fundamentals. “The region’s status as a net oil importer and the opportunity for governments to pare back subsidies mean that falling crude prices will be credit positive for much of the region,” the rating agency said. However, Moody’s identifies four key risks for the year ahead; a deeperthan-expected property downturn in China, high leverage in certain sectors, renewed eurozone concerns and a spike in global financial market volatility. A 10% fall in property sales volumes, accompanied by a 10% fall in prices, could shave up to 2.25 percentage points off Moody’s baseline growth assumptions for China, said the rating agency. Elevated household debt to GDP ratios in certain areas in AsiaMalaysia, Thailand, and Singapore, among others – could become a concern if interest rates spike during the year, notes Moody’s. The ratings agency also points to the rising leverage in the corporate sector throughout much of the region. Asian airlines slash fuel surcharges, fares to rise Reuters Sydney/Singapore A sian airlines are slashing fuel surcharges as oil prices hover at six-year lows, but passengers hoping for cheaper tickets will be disappointed as carriers are likely to bump up fares to maintain margins. Australia’s Qantas Airways became the latest airline to eliminate the surcharge yesterday, but at the same time said it was raising base fares as oil was not cheap enough to offset the impact of competition on international routes. Aviation experts say other airlines are likely to follow suit, because any drop in ticket prices would erode profit margins which, globally, are as low as $6 a passenger. “During the 2008 financial crisis, for example, low demand meant that airlines lost money despite the fuel costs,” said Brendan Sobie of aviation consultancy CAPA. “Last year in Southeast Asia, airlines faced an unsustainable situation with low fares and high fuel prices. Fuel costs may have come down but fares remain low. Ticket prices need to be higher for airlines to make money.” Airlines started adding fuel surcharges onto fares in 2004 in response to rising oil prices. Brent crude oil futures , however, have fallen some 60% since mid-2014 and Singapore jet fuel prices, a key regional benchmark, have dropped by about half from a year earlier. Cheaper oil could result in airline profits increasing by $5bn to $25bn this year, but profit per passenger will rise by just $1 to $7, showed estimates from the International Air Transport Association, because of intense competition. At least two consumer groups are crying foul. Earlier this month, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said it would investigate airlines suspected of misleading consumers through fuel surcharges. Choice Australia also criticised airlines for what it called “dodgy surcharges”. “Most people would expect the cost of fuel to be included in the base price of a ticket. Stripping out part of the fuel cost and calling it a surcharge Qantas Airways became the latest airline to eliminate the surcharge yesterday, but at the same time said it was raising base fares as oil was not cheap enough to offset the impact of competition on international routes. was little more than a communications ploy during the discounting airfare war,” Choice Australia said. Qantas’ decision to axe fuel surcharges came a day after Malaysia’s AirAsia Bhd, Asia’s largest low-cost group, said “removing fuel surcharges and reducing travel costs will be a huge boost to the tourism industry.” Philippine Airlines Inc and Cebu Air Inc also removed surcharges last month, while Taiwan’s China Airlines Ltd and Eva Airways Corp have cut surcharges about 40% over the past six months. Qatar Airways is planning to cut surcharges, and Emirates Airline last week said it was considering likewise. Singapore Airlines Ltd (SIA), on the other hand, said it would continue to levy its surcharge, which is among the highest in Asia. “It should be noted that while fuel prices have come down in recent months, the fuel surcharge continues to provide only partial relief against SIA’s high operating costs from the price of jet fuel,” said the airline in a statement. Flag carrier PT Garuda Indonesia (Persero) Tbk is equally determined to stick to the surcharge. Its chief financial officer said there was little incentive to cut fares when rivals like Singapore Airlines and Korean Air Lines Co Ltd continue to charge the same, regardless of oil prices. “If they set a high price, why should we reduce? We have to look at the market too,” said Ari Askhara on the sidelines of an industry event. Foxconn to shrink workforce Reuters Shenzhen, China T aiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, will cut its massive workforce, the company told Reuters, as the Apple Inc supplier faces declining revenue growth and rising wages in China. Under its flagship unit Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, the group currently employs about 1.3mn people during peak production times, making it one of the largest private employers in the world. Special assistant to the chairman and group spokesman Louis Woo did not specify a timeframe or target for the reduction, but noted that labour costs had more than doubled since 2010, when the company faced intense media scrutiny following a spate of worker suicides. “We’ve basically stabilised (our workforce) in the last three years,” Woo said. When asked if the company plans to reduce overall headcount, he responded “yes”. Revenue growth at the conglomerate tumbled to 1.3% in 2013 and only partially recovered to 6.5% last year after a long string of double-digit increases from 2003 to 2012. That decade saw the firm ride an explosion of popularity in PCs, smartphones and tablets, largely driven by its main client Apple, but now it is feeling the effects of falling growth and prices in the gadget markets it supplies, a trend that is expected to continue. Growth in smartphone sales will halve this year from 26% in 2014, according to researcher IDC, while PC sales will contract by 3%. Similarly, the average smartphone will sell for 19% less in 2018 than last year’s $297. “Even if technology is improving, the price will still come down,” Woo said. “We’ve come to accept that, our customers have come to accept that.” Automation will be key to keeping labour costs under control in the long-term, Woo said, as the company pushes to have robotic arms complete mundane tasks currently done by workers. India, US to resume bilateral investment treaty IANS New Delhi I Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama shake hands during the India-US Business Summit in New Delhi on Monday. According to various Indian industry bodies and trade estimates, Indian-American bilateral trade is poised to reach the $100bn mark by 2018. ndia and US will resume dialogue on a bilateral investment treaty as the economic growth in both countries is becoming stronger and their economic partnership had strengthening, announced Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama. “President Obama and I have agreed that a strong and growing economic relationship is vital for the success of our strategic partnership. Economic growth in our two countries is becoming stronger,” Modi said at a joint press meeting with Obama after their talks. “Our business climate is improving. In addition we have established a number of effective bilateral mechanisms to identify opportunities and also help our business, trade and investments more. “We will also resume our dialogue on bilateral investment treaty. We will also start discussions on social security agreement that is so important for the hundreds and thousands of Indians professionals working in the US,” Modi added. Obama said: “Our economic partnership has grown and our economic partnership will improve daily lives of our people. We have identified the bilateral investment treaty to discuss further.” “The prime minister has informed me about his missions of economic prosperity to improve the lives of rural Indians with bank accounts, clean water and clean air. We are working on providing assistance to all these,” he added. Obama welcomed Modi’s recent reforms to ease doing business in India. “Since my last visit here and the address made to your parliament, trade has increased and we are cooperating on key global challenges. In the last few years the trade between our countries have increased by some 60% and it is going towards $100bn and we want to trade even more,” he said. In a press briefing later, Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh said: “We have agreed to resume talks on high standard bilateral investment treaty.” According to various Indian industry bodies and trade estimates, Indian-American bilateral trade is poised to reach $100bn mark by 2018. Commerce ministry data shows that India’s exports to the US have risen from $9bn in 2001-02 to around $39bn in 2014-15, with the US remaining India’s top export destination throughout the years. Import-wise, the US has registered a steep rise from $3bn in 2001-02 to $22bn in 2014-15. Overall, bilateral trade between India and the US rose five-fold from $12bn in 2001-02 to $62bn in 201415. During 2000 to 2013, the cumulative foreign direct investment (FDI) flows from the US to India were estimated at $14bn – constituting nearly six% of the total FDI into India. The foreign secretary also said three MoUs (memorandum of understanding) signed between US Trade and Development Agency and the governments of Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. “These include building of smart cities in Ajmer, Allahabad and Vishakhapatnam. The US is also cooperating with us on Digital India programme.” Asked about cooperation on liquified natural gas with the US and gas imports from Iran, she said: “All issues of regional and mutual interest have been discussed.” It was also mentioned that the US side has shown extreme keenness in partnering, collaborating and financing India’s goal of 100 GW solar energy initiative. 14 Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 BUSINESS Winklevoss twins expect Q1 debut of bitcoin exchange Reuters Florida W inklevoss Capital, the firm run by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, expects to get regulatory approval to launch a US exchange for investors to buy and sell the virtual currency bitcoin in the first quarter, the twins told Reuters on Monday. “The information coming out of the DFS (Department of Financial Services) is that Q1 is their goal. And we will be ready by then,” Cameron Winklevoss, a principal at New York-based Winklevoss Capital, said in an interview at ETF.com’s Inside ETFs Conference in Hollywood, Florida. Any firm seeking to launch a financial exchange needs the approval of the state it wants to operate in. On Monday, Coinbase Inc launched the first regulated US exchange for bitcoin. The twins want to launch a regulated US exchange because so many bitcoin exchanges are offshore and unregulated. “With a bitcoin exchange you have to build it like you are a real financial institution,” said Tyler Winklevoss. The Winklevoss twins are creating the exchange while they seek approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a bitcoin exchange-traded fund. The agency has been review- ing their filing since 2013. The twins anticipate that institutional investors, like mutual funds and pension plans, will be interested in a bitcoin ETF since they are not permitted to buy the currency itself. They also believe mom and pop investors who do not want to store a large amount of bitcoin would be interested in the ETF. “Most bitcoin losses have not been due to theft or hacking,” Tyler Winklevoss said. “It has been due to user error. It is people forgetting their passwords or losing their keys.” Still the twins noted that security is a big issue for bitcoin, as a few exchanges have been hacked over the years. Some of the firm’s first hires for its exchange were security professionals. And they insist that security at exchanges has gotten much better over time. “Security shouldn’t be with this guy in the back office,” said Cameron Winklevoss. “He should be the most important person in the organisation.” Despite bitcoin’s huge drop since its high of $1,163 in December 2013, the Winklevoss brothers still think the currency will hit $40,000 per unit in the future. On Monday, bitcoin traded at $274.39, up 7.47% on the day. “We have never sold a bitcoin,” Cameron Winklevoss said. DuPont plans $4bn share repurchase Reuters Bangalore D uPont, under pressure from activist investor Nelson Peltz to improve shareholder returns, said it plans to buy back up to $4bn of its stock using a dividend expected from a spinoff of its performance chemicals business. The company, which has a $5bn repurchase programme, also raised its cost reduction target by $300mn to at least $1.3bn, expected to be realised by 2017. DuPont forecast 2015 operating earnings of $4.00-$4.20 per share, including the performance chemicals unit. Analysts on average were expecting $4.46 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Shares of the company, which reported a fourth quarter profit that was in line with the average analyst estimate, were down 1.5% at $73 in light premarket trading yesterday. DuPont’s actions come after Peltz nominated himself and three other members of his Trian Fund Management LP to DuPont’s board earlier this month, stepping up pressure on the company to break itself up. Trian wants DuPont to separate its agriculture, nutrition and bio-sciences businesses from its slower-growing Kevlar body armour, Tyvek construction materials and other chemical divisions. DuPont, which bought back $2bn of its stock in 2014, is spinning off the performance chemical business, which makes materials such as Teflon. But DuPont has highlighted the “competitive advantages” in keeping its units together. The company, which bought back $2bn of its stock in 2014, is spinning off the performance chemical business, which makes materials such as Teflon. The business named Chemours Co is expected to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ‘CC’. The share repurchases announced yesterday will be made over 12 to 18 months following the separation of Chemours Co, American Airlines for $2bn stock buyback Bloomberg New York A merican Airlines Group plans to buy back an additional $2bn of stock after tumbling fuel prices helped produce a fourth quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates. The world’s largest carrier is expanding its repurchase programme after completing the initial $1bn effort a year ahead of schedule. Yesterday’s earnings announcement capped the first full year of the merger between former Ameri- can parent AMR Corp and US Airways Group. “It definitely signals their confidence,” said Savanthi Syth, a Raymond James Financial Inc analyst in St. Petersburg, Florida, who rates American as outperform. “It’s a positive surprise that they announced it today, although given how management has been showing they support shareholder value creation, it’s not surprising from them.” The new buyback is targeted to be finished by the end of 2016, American said in a statement. The Fort Worth, Texas-based air- line, which doesn’t use contracts to protect against swings in jet kerosene, said it paid 17% less for fuel in the quarter than a year earlier. American reversed an earlier gain before regular stock trading, falling 1.8% to $54.43 at 8:17 am in New York. US stock-index futures declined amid weaker-than-expected sales from DuPont Co and Microsoft Corp. Quarterly profit excluding some items was $1.1bn, or $1.52 a share, American said. That exceeded the $1.51-a-share average of 18 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Airlines are benefiting amid a rout in global crude markets that sent jet fuel plunging 43% in 2014. Carriers including American, Delta Air Lines Inc and United Continental Holdings Inc have used repurchases, dividends or both since 2013 to share cash with investors after bankruptcies, consolidation and nine years of losses through 2009 that totalled $58bn. American’s board approved its first buyback plan in July, as financial benefits accrued faster than expected after the US Airways tie-up in December 2013. The airline also said then that it would pay a dividend, its first since 1980. American Airlines said yesterday it is expanding repurchase programme after completing the initial $1bn effort a year ahead of schedule. DuPont said. Net income attributable to DuPont rose to $683mn, or 74 cents per share, in the quarter ended December 31, from $185mn, or 20 cents per share, a year earlier. Operating earnings were 71 cents per share, matching the average analyst estimate. Net sales fell 5% to $7.38bn, missing the average analyst estimate of $7.80bn. Up to Monday’s close of $74.11, DuPont’s shares had risen nearly 24% in the past 12 months on the New York Stock Exchange. Sensex scales new highs IANS Mumbai P ositive global and domestic cues led the two major indices of the Indian equities markets to scale new highs in yesterday’s trade session. Bullish sentiments prevailed, a day after US and India reaffirmed to take the economic partnership further and announced key initiatives. Last week’s European Central Bank (ECB) bond buying programme too had a positive effect on the markets. The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Mumbai Stock Exchange (BSE) touched a new high of 29,618.59 points in the intra-day trade yesterday – surpassing its previous high of 29,408.73 points touched on January 23. The Sensex closed the day’s trade up 292.20 points or 1% at 29,571.04 points. The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) too scaled a new high in the day’s trade. It touched 8,925.05 points during the day’s trade surpassing its previous record of 8,866.40 points reached on January 23. It closed higher by 74.90 points or 0.85% at 8,910.50 points. The S&P BSE Sensex which opened at 29,451.65 points closed the day’s trade 29,571.04 points, up 292.20 points or 1% from the previous day’s close at 29,278.84 points. The Sensex touched a high of 29,618.59 points and a low of 29,286.09 points in the intra-day trade. “Sensex ended at record high led by mainly banks. Strong global cues also aided the investor sentiment,” said Sanjeev Zarbade, vice president, private client group research, Kotak Securities. The S&P BSE Bank index was up 527.76 points, followed by capital goods index which rose 312.95 points and automobile index which gained 249 points. However, IT index was down 186.02 points, TECK index was lower by 66.28 points and metal index slipped by 62.97 points. Meanwhile, the rupee depreciated by 9 paise to 61.51 in early trade yesterday at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market on fresh demand for the American currency from importers. Dealers said fresh demand for the American currency from importers mainly put pressure on the rupee. Asia stocks gain on Greece deal hopes AFP Tokyo The euro extended its gains against the dollar yesterday while most Asian equities climbed on hopes Greece’s new government will be able to negotiate a bailout deal that will stop it leaving the eurozone. Regional dealers were given a lift from advances in Europe and New York, where news of Sunday’s Greek election win for antiausterity party Syriza had been largely factored in, analysts said. However, Hong Kong and Shanghai suffered heavy losses as traders booked profits after a rally over the past week. Tokyo rallied 1.72%, or 299.78 points, to 17,768.30, Sydney added 0.82%, or 45.38 points, to close at 5,547.2 and Seoul rose 0.86%, or 16.72 points, to close at 1,952.40. But Shanghai fell 0.89%, or 30.22 points, to 3,352.96 and Hong Kong eased 0.41%, or 102.62 points, to 24,807.28. Shanghai had rallied more than 8% since last Monday, when it posted its biggest loss since mid-2008 in response to a government crackdown on margin-trading. Markets have been buoyed by rhetoric coming out of Athens and from Greece’s EU and IMF creditors that raised hopes the two sides can reach an agreement over repaying its €240bn ($270bn) bailout. Syriza had campaigned on renegotiating terms of the lifeline – which included spending cuts and painful tax hikes – and there are concerns it will default on its repayments, potentially forcing it to exit the eurozone. But International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde said she was prepared to continue financial support to the country, while some European finance ministers suggested they were willing to talk – as long as Syriza did not demand its debt be wiped out. The euro plunged to $1.1098 at one point in Asia on Monday, the lowest level since September 2003, before recovering later in the day to close out in New York at $1.1234. Yesterday in Asia it bought $1.1250. It also sank to 131.55 yen Monday in Asia before bouncing to end the day at 133.12 yen. It bought 132.90 yen in Tokyo yesterday. The dollar edged down to 118.11 yen from 118.49 yen in US trade. Oil prices slipped despite a warning from the Opec that prices could punch $200 owing to shrinking investment in exploration. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for March delivery fell 10 cents to $45.05, while Brent crude for March eased 12 cents to $48.04. Gold fetched $1,280.38 an ounce, against $1,281.39 late Monday. In other markets, Taipei added 0.46%, or 43.92 points, to 9,521.59;Wellington was up 0.69%, or 39.08 points, at 5,737.74; Manila closed 0.58% higher, adding 43.90 points to 7,630.57; Bangkok closed flat, edging up 0.09%, or 1.50 points, to 1,589.81; Jakarta ended up 0.33%, or 17.13 points, at 5,277.15; Kuala Lumpur gained 6.73 points, or 0.37%, to close at 1,803.17 and Singapore climbed 0.40%, or 13.68 points, to close at 3,412.20. A businessman walks past an electronic quotation board flashing the Nikkei key index in front of a securities company in Tokyo. Tokyo stocks closed 1.72% higher yesterday. Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 15 BUSINESS After half a decade apart, global gas prices converge Attention fired bankers in Hong Kong: Haitong wants you Reuters Singapore Bloomberg Hong Kong G t’s not all doom and gloom for people who lost their jobs at financial firms in Hong Kong this year. Haitong International Securities Group, a unit of China’s third-biggest brokerage by market value, is talking to workers in the city who were dismissed by global banks including Standard Chartered. “Those who have been fired by foreign firms recently are the people that I need for different business lines,” Lin Yong, deputy chairman and chief executive officer of Haitong International, said in an interview on January 22 in Hong Kong. “We could take 100 people if they’re the best, but we may not increase our headcount if none of them is suitable for us.” A profit jump of at least 50% last year is giving Lin the opportunity to add investment bankers and research analysts as stricter capital rules prompt some competitors to retrench. Chinese securities firms are taking advantage of their dominance in the world’s second-largest equities market to raise money in Hong Kong that they can use for expansion. “We’re interested in talking to almost all of the finance professionals available in the market,” Lin, 45, said. “We are very active.” Haitong International added about 20 employees last year for operations excluding the brokerage division, spokeswoman Mimzy Si said. It now employs about 120 in those businesses, which are corporate finance, asset management, fixed income, currencies and commodities, structured finance and equity derivatives, she added. Andrew Sullivan joined the firm last week as managing director of sales trading, he said by e-mail on Monday. Sullivan previously worked at Espirito Santo Securities Inc in Hong Kong. Haitong International’s 2014 profit may have increased at least 50% because of growth in its corporate-finance, derivatives and margin-financing businesses, the company told the Hong Kong stock exchange on January 21. Shares of the company, created after Haitong Securities Co bought Hong Kong’s Taifook Securities Co in 2009, climbed 25% last year. The stock slipped 0.8% to HK$4.95 at 11:53 am local time. Chinese investment banks are expanding in Hong Kong after dominating the mainland market. Among underwriters of share offerings in China last year, local firms held the top 16 spots, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Haitong Securities is among Chinese brokerages that are selling shares in Hong Kong, saying December 21 it plans to raise HK$29.9bn ($3.9bn) in a private placement, mainly to develop its short-selling and marginfinancing operation. Lin said he wants to advise on more large initial public offerings in Hong Kong, after Haitong’s ranking slipped to 11th last year from ninth in 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. I lobal benchmark prices for natural gas have converged to their closest in five years, a trajectory created by a supply glut and an oil rout. That spells trouble for US and Australian projects coming online this year. Prices in the natural gas hubs of Europe and Asia are at their closest to the US benchmark since 2010 after oil plunged below $50 a barrel and gas supplies from Australia and the US created a surplus of cargoes. Asian prices may fall further as new projects come online in Australia and the US, adding to the glut and depressing markets to the point that some of the facilities may not be able to export profitably. “Spreads in gas prices between Asian LNG and US gas have fallen by 50% from $12 to $6 (permn British thermal units). With liquefaction and shipping costs of $6.50, arbitrage margins are now negative,” Alliance Bernstein said in a report. Global prices were all around $5 per mmBtu before prices started to diverge five years ago. In North America, the shale gas boom led to a glut, pulling prices there to less than $2 per mmBtu. In Europe, dwindling supplies and unstable flows from a volatile North Africa pushed prices to $8-10 per mmBtu. The most dramatic moves were in Asia, where the closure of Japan’s nuclear reactors following the Fukushima meltdown resulted in a surge in LNG demand. With Chinese consumption also growing, Asia prices rose to more than $20 per mmBtu. Itochu’s $5bn China bet doubles default risk Bloomberg Tokyo I tochu Corp’s $5bn purchase of a stake in China’s Citic Ltd has almost doubled the Japanese trading house’s default risk amid threats of a rating downgrade. Itochu’s credit-default swaps jumped to 79.5 basis points yesterday from 47 in early-December, when reports appeared on talks to invest in the Chinese conglomerate with Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand Group. Yen corporate credit-default swaps cost 66.5 basis points on average yesterday, down from a two-month high of 76.5 in mid-December, according to the Markit iTraxx Japan index. Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s last week placed Itochu on review for a possible downgrade, saying they may lower its rating by one level on the increasing debt load as exposure to the Chinese market rises to a fifth of equity. Details remain scant on how Itochu and its Thai partner will make a return on their 20.6% stake in Citic, built on the base of a Hong Kong unit that has suffered derivatives losses and business disputes on Australian iron ore investments. “The worsening debt-to-equity ratios, uncertain business investment strategy going forward, and the record outlay for a single investment may cause some negative sentiment,” said Hiroki Shibata, an analyst at Standard & Poor’s in Tokyo. “We still cannot determine if the companies’ synergies and profit projections through this equity investment will be realized.” A failure to reap timely return on profit will also raise Itochu’s borrowing costs, affecting future deals, he said. Wagering the equivalent of a quar- Itochu’s credit-default swaps jumped to 79.5 basis points yesterday from 47 in early-December. ter of Itochu’s capital in the biggest outlay for the 157-year-old company, President Masahiro Okafuji has said the investment is key to accessing Chinese food, water and new energy markets. Citic Group will sell a 50-50 venture between Itochu and Charoen 20.6% of its Hong-Kong listed unit in two stages, at a total cost of HK$80.3bn ($10.4bn). The unit bought $38bn of assets from the parent company last year and now commands China’s biggest securities firm, trust company, construction equipment manufacturer and real estate operations in 29 cities among other assets. For Itochu, that will mean an outlay of ¥600bn ($5.1bn) in investments and loans, according to a presentation by the Tokyo-based company. The transaction will make it difficult for Itochu to have positive free cash flow in the next three years, and will push its net debt-to-equity ratio to 1.3 times from about 1 as of September 30, it said. The purchase, which will be its biggest in China, will be financed only through borrowed funds, Itochu said. “Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” Okafuji said in a briefing in Tokyo last week. While Japan’s top five trading houses have been shifting focus into food, retail and transport business and away from raw industrial materials in recent years, they are still challenged by falling commodity prices. The five could face as much as $13bn in writedowns on mining and energy assets, according to Daiwa Securities Group Inc Itochu’s bigger competitor, Marubeni Corp on Monday halved its forecast for net income this year to 110bn yen after flagging about ¥95bn in writedowns on oil and gas assets, including in the North Sea, and about 50bn yen on goodwill at its grain unit. Not all agree that the deal will weigh on Itochu’s finances. The ability to strike a partnership with such a company as Citic is about as good as you can hope for in China, and Moody’s and S&P’s concerns may be overstated, said Fumihiko Tsuchida, a credit analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. The deal will help Itochu book about 70bn yen in additional net income a year, equal to 23% of the trading house’s net income forecast for this fiscal year ending March 31, Tsuchida said in a report on January 21. “We can probably expect Itochu also to boost asset sales in order to recycle cash and control further investments to keep net outlay in check,” he wrote. The extra yield on Itochu’s 0.785% notes due in 2024 has risen five basis points since early-December to 26 basis points more than sovereign debt. Japan’s 10-year government bond yield has dropped 21 basis points during the period to 0.23%, while the yen has gained 1.3% to 118.29 per dollar as of 12:33 pm in Tokyo. The investment was announced on the same day Citic said it will write down as much as $1.8bn on an investment in an Australian iron ore mine that’s over-budget and was subject to a royalties dispute with local tycoon Clive Palmer. The Hong Kong firm, formerly known as Citic Pacific, had to be bailed out by parent Citic Group after wrongway currency bets led to a 2008 annual loss of HK$12.7bn. Hong Kong’s security regulator last year sued Citic Ltd and five former directors for allegedly disclosing false or misleading information over the 2008 losses. “Concerns could take precedence in the short term considering Citic’s volatility from a high weighting for financial services, the large size of the investment, slow cash recovery pace based on Citic’s dividend payout ratio of 20% to 30%, and time needed for measures to achieve synergies,” Kazuhisa Mori and Shogo Umeda, analysts at JPMorgan Securities Japan Co, said in a January 20 report. China commodity trade data show winners are scarce By Clyde Russell Launceston, Australia China’s detailed commodity trade figures for 2014 do much to confirm that the trend has changed to higher import volumes being dependent on lower commodity prices, but there are a few notable exceptions. Major commodities such as crude oil, iron ore and copper all showed increased imports on the back of falling prices, illustrating the changed dynamic in commodity markets whereby supply became the dominant driver of prices. Taking away the temporary impact of the 2008 global financial crisis on China’s commodity demand, the trend for the last 10 years had been demand-led increases in both prices and volumes of imports. In 2014 that changed as many commodities moved into structural oversupply, meaning prices fell even as Chinese demand increased. China imported 13.7% more refined copper in 2014 from a year earlier, with prices being 8% lower in December 2014 than the same month in 2013, according to customs data. In crude oil, China brought in 9.5% more in 2014, and iron ore imports jumped 13.9%, with the prices of both these commodities plunging during the year. Only coal among major commodities saw falling imports amid lower prices, with inbound volumes dropping 14.7% in 2014 from a year earlier. Coal’s woes are probably related to China’s efforts to clean up pollution and new regulations aimed to improve the quality of imported coal. However, while there were a few commodities where volumes increased as did prices, and these are the real winners in the story of Chinese demand for natural resources. After several years in the doldrums, last year was a strong one for the raw materials used to make aluminium, namely bauxite and alumina. Alumina imports surged 37.7% to 5.27mn tonnes in 2014, while the price reported by Chinese customs in December last year was $382.34 a tonne, up from $364.97 in December 2013. Bauxite imports dropped by 48.3% to 36.28mn tonnes, but this has to be viewed in the context of the massive 78.7% jump in 2013 as Chinese aluminium smelters stocked up ahead of Indonesia’s ban on exports, instituted in January 2014. The price paid for bauxite in December 2014 was $58.57 a tonne, up from $55.32 in the same month a year earlier. What alumina and bauxite also show is that the relative winners in the commodity space can also shift quite quickly. The major beneficiary from Indonesia’s decision to ban the export of raw ores would appear to be Australia, which boosted exports of bauxite to China by 9.5% to become China’s top supplier. For nickel ore, another commodity affected by the Indonesian ban, the big winner was the Philippines, which overtook its Southeast Asian rival as China’s biggest supplier, boosting its exports by 22.7%, while also receiving higher prices. Another winning commodity was coffee, with Chinese imports growing by 36.5% in 2014 from 2013, and the price paid in December last year jumping almost 15% from the same month a year earlier. The strong gain in imports came despite China’s domestic coffee output also rising, although much is exported to Europe for use in blending. While coffee prices may decline this year on improved crops from major producers such as Brazil, the outlook for Chinese demand remains robust as the beverage becomes more popular in the traditionally tea nation, and as the emerging middle class seeks better quality coffee. Coffee, along with bauxite, alumina and nickel show that the place to be in meeting China’s commodity needs is where there is strong demand growth coupled with constrained supply. This is a better position than most of the major commodities are in, where demand remains robust, but only because prices are low. If crude oil suddenly jumped from its current levels around $48 a barrel for Brent to closer to $80, then it’s likely that Chinese imports would soften, as much of the current demand is heading into storage tanks. It’s the same story for iron ore, any significant rise in price will bring about a concomitant drop in Chinese demand. While bauxite’s and alumina’s strong run of 2014 may be repeated again, the trick will be to find the next commodities where Chinese demand will increase, even if prices go up as well. Clyde Russell is a Reuters columnist. The views expressed are his own. 16 Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 BUSINESS Asia’s rich show less love for Aussie dollar, says UBS Bloomberg Beijing Asia’s wealthy are falling out of love with the Aussie dollar as record-low yields and sustained declines persuade them to look elsewhere, according to UBS Group. Many of the bank’s wealthiest clients in the region began to abandon the currency as Australia’s bond yield premium over the US slid and the Federal Reserve discussed raising interest rates, said Simon Smiles, Zurich-based chief investment officer for ultra-high-net-worth individuals. The 10-year yield is 74 basis points above that of the US, down from 130 a year ago. “Two years ago when I came to the region, in most client meetings, people were asking about Aussie assets, the Australian dollar, yield play; when you talk about it now, there’s almost no interest,” Smiles said in an interview on Monday. “From the third quarter of last year, there’s a growing belief that the US dollar would start a sustained appreciation trend.” The Aussie has tumbled 16% in the past six months to the weakest level since 2009 and Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens has said he expects it to extend declines. The local dollar has fallen less than the euro and the currencies of Denmark, Canada and Norway this year and “should be the next domino to fall,” said Olivier Korber, a strategist at Societe Generale SA in Paris. Australia has been struggling with the end of a once-in-a- century resources boom and a slowdown in China, which buys more than 35% of the South Pacific nation’s exports. A Deutsche Bank index tracking the prices of commodities important to Australia has tumbled 30% in the past 12 months with iron ore and thermal coal sliding to multi-year lows. China’s economy grew 7.4% in 2014, the slowest pace in 24 years. The expansion will weaken to 7% this year, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. “The biggest structural concern for Australia and the currency is probably the landing of the Chinese economy amid falling commodity prices,” Societe Generale’s Korber said in an e-mail interview on January 23. Australia’s dollar is set to end the year at 77 US cents, he said. An earlier-than-expected decline below this level may accelerate its descent toward 70 cents, he said. The Aussie was little changed at 79.24 cents at 12:42 pm in Sydney after declining on Monday to 78.55 cents, the weakest since July 2009. Forecasters see it ending the year at 78 cents, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. The Bank of Canada’s unexpected decision to cut interest rates last week and the European Central Bank’s announcement of a bond-purchase program have spurred traders to increase bets the RBA will also loosen monetary policy. There’s a 40% chance it will lower borrowing costs on February 3, up from about 25% odds on January 16, interest-rate swaps show. China firm to invest $1bn in Sydney Thailand exports fall in 2014, adding pressure for rate cut Reuters Hong Kong Reuters Bangkok D T alian Wanda Group, China’s biggest commercial real estate conglomerate, said on Monday it is investing $1bn in a prime property development close to Sydney Harbour, its second large investment in Australia. The amount includes A$415mn ($327mn) paid to US private equity firm Blackstone Group for office building Gold Fields House, an undisclosed sum for an adjacent building, Fairfax House, as well as the cost to construct a complex that will consist of a hotel, apartments and retail projects. The purchase adds to a string of deals as Wanda diversifies away from a weak domestic market and highlights growing Chinese investment in Australia’s red-hot property market. Australia was the third top destination for Chinese property investment after the US and Britain in the first eleven months of 2014, with around $2.1bn in inbound investment, according to real estate consultancy firm Savills. China’s Country Garden Holdings and state-backed Greenland Group have also made large investments in Australia. Wanda is backed by China’s fourth-richest man Wang Jianlin and last year a group company Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties Co raised $3.7bn through a Hong Kong listing. Shares in the Dalian Wanda Commercial were up 3.5% in morning trade after the news. “We look forward to creating a new Sydney landmark,” Wanda said in a separate statement from Blackstone, adding that the complex will include a 185-metre tall building. The investment is the first in Sydney for Wanda. The group announced in August it would invest $900mn in a joint venture project on the Gold Coast and develop a luxury hotel and service apartments. hai exports fell for a second straight year in 2014, a blow for the military government as it struggles to get the economy growing and possibly increasing pressure on the central bank to cut interest rates today. Exports are worth more than half of the country’s gross domestic product. For 2014, exports were 0.4% lower than the previous year, the commerce ministry reported yesterday. The rate of decline was slightly steeper than the previous year, when exports contracted 0.3%. For December, exports rose 1.9% from a year earlier, well above the 0.5% gain seen in a Reuters poll. Imports in the last month of 2014 were down 8.7%, much lower than poll’s projected fall of 2.45%, while for the full year they tumbled 9%. Gundy Cahyadi, economist with DBS Bank in Singapore, said the “surprisingly” soft imports reflected lower oil prices but also that domestic demand remains weak. The Bank of Thailand’s monetary policy committee holds its first meeting of the year today. Sixteen out of 20 economists polled by Reuters the policy interest rate to be held at 2%. Four predict a 25 basis point cut, which would be the first change since March. Finance Minister Sommai Phasee said on Friday it was up to the central bank, but added he felt there “must” be a cut to help the sputtering economy. Santitarn Sathirathai, senior economist from Credit Suisse in Singapore, said it’s tough to call but he expects a cut today. “If they don’t do it tomorrow, we expect them to do it next time, so I think it will be delaying the inevitable,” he said. Others say cutting the rate won’t help growth, and could bring rises in Thailand’s already-high levels of household debt, which are curbing consumption. Exports and domestic demand are the two main engines of Thai growth, and neither fired well last year. On February 16, the government is expected to announce the economy grew by only around 1% in 2014, the weak- Workers assemble a car at a Mitsubishi Motors plant in Laem Chabang, Thailand. The country’s exports in 2014 were 0.4% lower than the previous year, the commerce ministry reported yesterday. est since flood-hit 2011. In May, after political tensions that began in late 2013, the military took power, saying this was needed to restore order and spark a recovery for Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy. The coup restored some confidence, but domestic consumption has remained tepid at best, and government spending has not gotten firmly on track. At the start of 2014, authorities expected exports to increase at least 5% that year. Yesterday, the commerce ministry reiterated its view that exports can rise 4% in 2015. The central bank forecasts a 1% increase. The ministry said shipments to China were down 19% in December, and off 8% for 2014. Exports to the US rose 4.1% last year. Kuroda remarks open possibilities for shift in BoJ stimulus Bloomberg Tokyo Kuroda: Confident of achieving 2% inflation target. Governor Haruhiko Kuroda says the Bank of Japan may need to get creative in any further monetary stimulus. Among options analysts highlight: regionalgovernment bonds, a type of security that could aid public support. Kuroda, speaking in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Friday in Davos, Switzerland, said “there are many options and I don’t think it’s constructive to say this or that could be done.” He reiterated that if inflation expectations are “seriously” affected by disinflation, policy can be changed. The bulk of the central bank’s record asset buying is currently concentrated in debt issued by the national government, yields on which have been pulled down toward zero, even on 10-year notes. BoJ officials had different views on how much capacity there was to expand the purchases, people familiar with the discussions said last month. “This could be a reflection of his thoughts that bond purchases are coming close to their limit because it’s buying almost all of the newly issued bonds each month,” Takahiro Sekido, a strategist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ who used to work at the BoJ, said after Kuroda’s remarks. “Options he could take include derivatives and regional bonds. By buying regional bonds, the BoJ could say it’s supporting the government’s efforts to revitalise regional economies.” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, facing local elections in April, has sought to spread the benefits of the Abenomics programme to regions that have borne the brunt of Japan’s population decline and aging. The initiatives so far have brought the biggest positive impact to exporters, whose profits have climbed with a weakening yen, and to investors in stocks, which have soared. Exports climbed 12.9% in December from a year before, a government report showed on Monday, with shipments to the US jumping almost 24%. Kuroda said on Friday that exports should accelerate in coming months. Japan still posted a record annual trade gap for 2014, thanks to purchases of energy and an increase in imports before a sales-tax hike in April. Lawmakers last year began questioning the wisdom of driving down the yen and making the cost of living more expensive for households, amid continued stagnation in wages. Spreading the BoJ’s asset purchases to securities issued by prefectures and municipalities would raise the potential for added backing for the central bank’s efforts to spur inflation toward 2%. The amount of regional bonds outstanding may reach ¥200tn ($1.7tn) at the end March, according to a finance ministry report released in October. The BoJ could buy shares from banks directly, or equity in commodity funds and real estate funds, according to Izumi Devalier, an HSBC Holdings economist in Hong Kong. Zaito bonds, used to raise money for projects at state-run companies, could be something to look at, said Yuji Shimanaka, an economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co While Kuroda said he was open to considering derivatives in March 2013, they may be too complicated, according to Mari Iwashita, a market economist at SMBC Friend Securities Co. The purchase is too hard to understand for people outside the market and that complexity was a source of US financial crisis in 2008, she said. Buying foreign bonds, an idea that’s come up from time to time stretching back to the BoJ’s first quantitative-easing experiment at least early last decade, are probably less likely. Kuroda said in March 2013 buying foreign bonds would be like currency intervention and that foreign exchange rates should be determined by the market. Kuroda’s remarks followed repeated a proposal from former deputy governor Kazumasa Iwata for a ¥50tn fund to buy the bonds from overseas. Among other central banks, the US Federal Reserve bought mortgage securities as a significant part of its asset purchases. The European Central Bank, which unveiled its quantitative easing programme on Thursday, will buy government bonds, securities issued by public agencies and asset-backed securities, according to a euroarea official last week. The ECB action would be “beneficial to the world economy including the Japanese economy,” Kuroda said in the interview. “We very much welcome this action.” The BoJ’s record purchases of Japanese government bonds have contributed to the biggest price swings in this market in a year and a half. The 10-year yield was ended at 0.225% on Monday, after touching a record low of 0.195% last week. A majority of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News expect the BoJ will step up easing by October. Much of the difference in the outlook between the central bank and private economists, along with the International Monetary Fund, may hinge on the impact of oil on the economy. Kuroda in the interview repeated his confidence that over the long run, the slump in oil would strengthen economic growth and push up consumer prices. “In the short run, oil price declines tend to reduce inflation all over the world,” Kuroda said. In the medium to long run, lower oil prices could raise the “real growth rate, and that would eventually raise the inflation rate gradually.” If oil falls by 50% from a peak in June last year, it would boost nominal gross domestic product by 1.2 percentage points, or ¥5.6tn, according to a government estimate cited by Kyodo News. Japan imports almost all of the oil it consumes and the price has declined about 60% since June. “Concerns among households and companies will be alleviated,” said Yoshiki Shinke, chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute. “Together with the fading impact of April’s sales tax hike, spending by consumers and business will pick up and Japan’s economy will return to a gradual recovery trend.” Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 17 BUSINESS CORPORATE RESULTS Siemens profit falls as price pressures hurt power and gas Siemens missed first-quarter profit forecasts and announced management overhauls at its power and gas and healthcare divisions, putting pressure on chief executive Joe Kaeser ahead of a shareholder meeting yesterday. Kaeser, a former Siemens finance chief who ousted Peter Loescher as CEO in a 2013 boardroom coup, is also expected to come under fire from shareholders over the decision to spend $7.6bn on US oilfield equipment company Dresser-Rand last year, just before a steep slide in the oil price. Siemens, one of Germany’s biggest firms by market value, said profit from its industrial businesses was €1.82bn ($2bn) in the first quarter of its financial year through the end of December, down 4% from a year earlier. That missed the €1.87bn average forecast in a Reuters poll of analysts, pushing Siemens’ stock 3.1% lower to €99.67. Siemens, whose products range from trains to turbines, is undergoing the latest in a series of transformations under Kaeser, a company veteran who wants to make his mark on the engineering conglomerate. He has launched a programme called “Vision 2020” to focus on electrification, automation and digitalisation, and get rid of more consumer-oriented businesses. The results unveiled yesterday disappointed investors. Quarterly profit at the power and gas division slumped 39% on price pressures for turbines while healthcare profit fell 13% on weak orders in Asia. “There is no other business in the house with a greater need for action than power and gas,” Kaeser told reporters. Siemens announced late on Monday that the chief of its power and gas business, Roland Fischer, was leaving the company at the end of January at his own request, and named a new team to lead the healthcare business. Management also defended the Dresser-Rand deal, with finance chief Ralf Thomas saying: “There’s no reason to think there’s a different valuation now than at the time we agreed it.” Siemens new orders fell 13% on a comparable basis to €18.0bn in the quarter, missing the lowest estimate in a Reuters poll. Sales fell 3% to €17.4bn while net profit fell 25% to €1.10bn. Siemens said it still expected basic earnings per share to rise at least 15% in its financial year ending in September, but warned that the business environment would be “complex” due to geopolitical tensions, among other things. P&G US consumer products giant Procter & Gamble yesterday reported a sharp drop in quarterly earnings and warned of a tough year due to the strengthening dollar. P&G, which sells Bounty paper towels, Gillette razors and other consumer staples, said secondquarter earnings were $2.4bn, down about 31% from last year. Results, however, were hit hard by the strength of the dollar. The US currency has hit multi-year highs against other major currencies during the quarter, increasing the price of US goods in foreign countries. Net sales dropped 4% in raw dollars. But when currency effects were stripped out, sales gained 2%. “The October-December 2014 quarter was a challenging one with unprecedented currency devaluations,” said P&G chief executive A G Lafley. “Virtually every currency in the world devalued versus the US dollar, with the Russian Ruble leading the way.” Lafley said the outlook for the rest of the year “will remain challenging” due to the lofty dollar, with foreign exchange reducing fiscal sales by 5% and net earnings by 12%, or at least $1.4bn. P&G’s net earnings for the quarter translated into $1.06, with the foreign exchange hit at 16 cents per share. The company had been forecast by analysts to notch $1.13 per share. Quarterly revenues were $20.16bn, down 4.4% from last year. P&G shares fell 2.5% to $87.25 in pre-market trade. Novartis Swiss drug maker Novartis forecast sales and profits to grow at a faster pace this year as recent drug successes and its portfolio overhaul help it weather the impact of generic competition. Excluding currency moves, the Basel-based firm yesterday said it expected mid-single digit sales growth and core operating income to increase at a high-single digit rate in 2015. Still, a surge in the Swiss franc following a shock move by the Swiss central bank to scrap its policy of capping the currency’s value may complicate Novartis’ efforts to improve margins. Novartis, which generates just 2% of sales but has around 13% of its costs in Switzerland, said it expected the stronger franc to knock about 12 percentage points off core operating income this year and 7 percentage points off sales. Chief executive Joe Jimenez sought to reassure investors that the franc’s surge would not derail efforts to increase margins, saying the company would take a hard look at procurement and other services that it has in Switzerland. To eke out further savings Novartis has consolidated some back-office functions, which were spread across all divisions and account for over $6bn in expenses, into one shared service organisation. Shares in Novartis, which slumped as much as 16% on the day the SNB scrapped the cap, were trading up 0.7% at 0835 GMT at 87.60 francs, while the European healthcare sector slipped 0.1%. Novartis unveiled a series of deals last year which will see it focus on a smaller number of highermargin businesses once it concludes a $20bn asset swap with GlaxoSmithKline in the first half. The company hopes the restructuring as well as the recent approval of its new psoriasis drug Cosentyx, which could bring in annual sales of more than $1bn, will help it buffer cheaper copycat competition to blood pressure medicines Diovan and Exforge. The anticipated launch of heart failure treatment LCZ696 should also generate multibn-dollar revenues. Analysts expect the drug to gain approval in the US by the middle of this year. Net sales fell 2% in the fourth quarter to $14.63bn, slightly ahead of the average forecast for $14.6bn in a Reuters poll. Core net income rose 1% to $2.9bn in line with forecasts. The company said it would raise its dividend to 2.60 Swiss francs per share for 2014, compared to the 2.45 francs it paid out last year. This was below the average forecast for 2.67 francs in a Reuters poll. for the current quarter in line with expectations, helped by growing demand for chips from the auto industry. The company posted fourth-quarter revenue of $3.27bn, up 8% from the year-ago period and slightly above Wall Street forecasts as it deepened its focus on analog and embedded chips. The company benefited last year from growing demand from automakers, telecom companies and industrial customers. “We’ve seen increasing penetration of electronics into automobiles worldwide. That’s a theme you’re going to hear from us and others for several years to come,” Texas Instruments chief financial officer Kevin March told Reuters in a phone interview. While TI is better known to many consumers for its calculators, the Dallas-based company is regarded as a barometer of the chip industry because it makes components for a variety of markets, including industrial, automotive, consumer electronics and communications. Revenue from Texas Instruments’ largest market, “industrial,” grew a bit in 2014, while revenue from its communications market expanded as wireless carriers installed next-generation base stations, March said. TI has been winding down its unprofitable wireless business and refocusing on analog and embedded chips. Factories that Texas Instruments bought at relatively attractive prices in recent years and the chipmaker’s robust sales force give it an advantage over smaller competitors. Along with steady stock buybacks and dividends, that strategy has pushed shares of Texas Instruments 29% higher over the past year, compared with a 15% increase in the S&P 500 Index. The company’s fourth-quarter net income rose 61% to $825mn. Earnings per share were 76¢, the company said in a statement. Subtracting 7¢ in one-time benefits, the fourthquarter’s EPS was in line with analysts’ expectations of 69¢. Texas Instruments forecast first-quarter revenue of between $3.07bn and $3.33bn. The midpoint of TI’s revenue guidance is about $3.20bn. Analysts on average had expected revenue of $3.26bn for the fourth quarter and $3.19bn for the first quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The chipmaker said its first-quarter earnings per share would range from 57¢ to 67¢. the average analyst estimate of $1.50 per diluted share, also excluding special items, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. American along with the rest of the US airline industry are poised to save hundreds of millions of dollars from falling fuels costs, with global crude prices down about 58% since June. Fort Worthbased American has reported the highest net income among US carriers so far this quarter in part because it did not hedge its fuel consumption. American reported its fuel expenses dropped by 17.3% last quarter, year over year. Excluding fuel and special charges, American’s mainline cost per available seat mile rose 1.1% last quarter, year over year. American declared a new quarterly dividend of 10¢ per share to be paid on February 23, 2015. Lockheed Martin Lockheed Martin Corp, the Pentagon’s largest arms supplier, reported a better-than-expected 8.6% rise in quarterly revenue, helped by higher demand for its F-35 fighter jets. The company said strong growth in its international businesses also boosted results in the fourth quarter. US weapons makers have increased their exposure outside the US to offset a drop in spending by the US military. The Pentagon is trying to cut about $1tn in projected spending from its budget over a decade as required by a 2011 law. Lockheed, which also makes satellites and coastal warships, announced in October a $1bn contract from General Dynamics Corp to provide turrets for tanks ordered by Britain’s armed forces. The company, which got about 17% of its revenue from international markets in 2013, did not break up sales by geography yesterday. Revenue at the company’s aeronautics division increased 6% to $4.14bn. The business, Lockheed’s largest, makes the F-35 fighter jets, which is the world’s most expensive defence programme with an estimated cost of $400bn. F-35 production contracts rose by about $260mn in the quarter ended Dec. 31, the company said. Total revenue rose to $12.53bn from $11.53bn. Analysts on average expected revenue of $11.89bn, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Net earnings jumped 85% to $904mn, or $2.82 per share, from $488mn, or $1.50 per share, a year earlier. Nucor Corp Nucor Corp, the No 1 US steelmaker by market capitalization, reported a 23% rise in quarterly profit as it increased production and shipments grew 2%. Net profit attributable to Nucor rose to $210mn, or 65¢ per share, for the fourth quarter ended December 31 from $170mn, or 53¢ per share, a year earlier. Sales increased 2.2% to $5.0bn. Vienna Insurance Group Vienna Insurance Group wrote gross premiums of €9.37bn ($10.5bn) in 2014, down just 0.1% from 2013 despite a hit from the strength of the euro, it said yesterday, meeting market expectations. Underlying growth was 2.6% without “special effects”, it said in a statement. Analysts polled by Reuters had on average expected gross written premiums of €9.31bn. The company’s direct unconsolidated premiums stood at €9.39bn in 2013. Property and casualty premiums fell 1.3% to €4.72bn amid a €105mn hit from foreign exchange rates and a sharp drop in Italy, where the firm is scaling back after a disastrous foray into car insurance. Life insurance premiums rose 1.4% to 4.27bn thanks primarily to its “remaining markets” segment, which includes Georgia, Albania, Serbia, Macedonia and Bosnia. Health premiums dipped 2.9% to €386mn. “Although the market environment continues to be difficult in Romania, the measures taken there began to show an effect. For the first time in years, the property and casualty business showed a slight increase of 0.3% in local currency terms,” it said. In Ukraine, its four units boosted premiums nearly 16% in local currency terms despite a civil war. The company said its 2014 growth underscored the opportunities in Austria and in central and eastern Europe despite a difficult market environment. “Vienna Insurance Group has strengthened its major lead over its competitors with a market share of around 20% in its core markets,” it said. PZ Cussons PZ Cussons, the maker of Imperial Leather soaps, said first-half profit fell 8.2%, hurt by continued unrest in northern Nigeria and devaluation of the currency Naira. Cussons said it saw continued “challenging trading conditions” in Nigeria, hurting its revenue from Africa, which fell 6% to £156.2mn. Unrest in northeast Nigeria, scene of numerous attacks by Islamist militants, has made distributors and customers there more cautious. Nigeria is Cussons’ biggest market, though it also sells in Ghana and Kenya. Africa accounted for about 42% of Cussons’ total revenue in the year ended May 31. “There are few indications of a short-term improvement in the environment, with potentially some further disruption around the forthcoming presidential elections,” Investec Securities analyst Nicola Mallard writes in a note. The brokerage has a “hold” rating on the stock with a target price of 357 pence. The British soap and shampoo maker said profit before tax and exceptional items fell to £43.7mn ($65.95mn) for the six months to November 30, from £47.6mn last year. The company, which also sells Carex handwash, Charles Worthington shampoos and St Tropez spray tan, said revenue fell 10.4% to £386.7mn in the first half. PZ Cussons raised its interim dividend to 2.61 pence from 2.53 pence a year earlier. Texas Instruments Texas Instruments reported higher fourth-quarter results on Monday and gave a revenue outlook Ericsson Caterpillar Swedish telecoms giant Ericsson said yesterday its net profit plunged by over a third in the fourth quarter, dragged down by falling demand in its key market North America. Profits slumped 35% to 4.17bn crowns (€447mn, $503mn) in the last three months of 2014 as currency hedge losses further eroded earnings. Net profit for the full year was down 4% to 11.57bn kronor. The group said demand slowed particularly towards the end of the year in North America, where telecommunications operators invested at a “slower pace”. Other regions like the Middle East, Europe and Asia however showed “strong sales growth”, helping to offset the poor showing in North America. In the fourth quarter, sales rose by 1% to 67.99bn kronor, although annual sales slid 2% from 2013 adjusted for comparable units and currency. Stocks in the telecoms group fell 2.14% at open before recovering by mid-morning. The overall Stockholm market was trading down 0.30%. US heavy equipment maker Caterpillar said yesterday that the plunge in oil prices took a hit on the company’s earnings in the fourth quarter of 2014. It also said it did not expect much of an upturn this year, with mining commodities still in a slump as the global economy grows slowly and with sweeping cutbacks in investment by the oil industry. The company reported a slight decline in fourth quarter revenues from a year earlier and a sharper drop in profits, falling short of its own forecasts. Total revenues were down 1.1% from the fourth quarter of 2013 to $14.2bn, and net profits dropped by nearly a quarter to $757mn. Earnings per share fell to $1.23 from $1.54; EPS stripped of extraordinary items, like restructuring costs, were $1.35, down from $1.68. Analysts had expected adjusted EPS to come in at $1.55. Chairman and chief executive Doug Oberhelman said that despite the profit miss in the fourth quarter, the company had a better year than originally predicted, and improved on 2013. “Our emphasis on cost management, operational execution and cash flow helped us deliver better profit per share than both 2013 and the 2014 outlook we provided at the start of the year,” he said in a statement. For the year, Caterpillar’s revenues came in at $55.2bn, down just 0.8% from 2013, and broad profits per share rose 2.3% to $5.88. The company said it expected revenues in 2015 to fall 10% to $50bn, for profits of $4.60 a share. “We expect world economic growth to only improve modestly in 2015. The relatively slow growth in the world economy and continued weakness in American Airlines American Airlines Group yesterday reported a fourth-quarter profit that topped estimates and announced a new share buyback program and quarterly dividend, as the carrier saved hundreds of millions of dollars from tumbling oil prices. American, the world’s largest airline by passenger traffic since its 2013 merger with US Airways, said it earned $597mn in the fourth quarter. Excluding $507mn in special costs largely from merger and bankruptcy-related expenses, it had a profit of $1.1bn, or $1.52 per diluted share. The result beat commodity prices — particularly oil, copper, coal and iron ore — are expected to be negative for our sales,” the company statement said. “The recent dramatic decline in the price of oil is the most significant reason for the year-over-year decline in our sales and revenues outlook,” said Oberhelman. “We’ve also lowered our expectations for construction equipment sales in China,” he added. Microsoft Microsoft on Monday reported that its quarterly profit dipped but revenue increased in a sign that it is adapting to lifestyles centred on mobile devices and cloud services. Bright spots during the three-month period ending December 31 included rising sales of Microsoft devices such as Surface tablets, Lumia smartphones, and Xbox One video game consoles. Meanwhile, money made from licensing Windows software to computer makers and businesses slipped as revenue from subscriptions in the cloud jumped. “The overall goal of having more customers every quarter moving to the cloud is actually a structural guide post we have on a multi-year journey,” Microsoft chief financial officer Amy Hood said. People and businesses renting Microsoft programs as online services instead of buying software outright means less money up front but the potential to make more profit over time through subscriptions and sales of premium features. The US technology titan’s overall quarterly earnings were in line with expectations, but shares lost ground. Chief executive Satya Nadella touted the quarterly results as evidence Microsoft is on course in adapting to “cloud first, mobile first” lifestyles after building its empire on selling packaged software for computers. “I am encouraged by the progress we are making in our transformation,” Nadella said during an earnings call. Profit fell 10% from a year ago to $5.9bn while revenue hit $26.5bn in the quarter ended on December 31. Microsoft noted that earnings in Japan and China fell particularly short of expectations. Challenges in Japan centered on economic conditions there. Microsoft said it was working through “a set of geopolitical issues” in China but had pockets of growth in that country. Microsoft executives forecast that this year it would see revenue declines in China, Japan, and Russia. In the recently ended quarter, revenue from business cloud services including Office 365 and Azure more than doubled to hit an annualised rate of $5.5bn. Meanwhile, subscriptions to home versions of Office 365 and Personal climbed more than 30% to 9.2mn. “We again saw enthusiasm and demand around our cloud offerings,” said Microsoft chief operating officer Kevin Turner. “Our sales engagement worldwide continues to focus on helping customers and partners transition to the cloud.” Microsoft’s Bing saw its share of the US online search advertising market grow to just shy of 20%, and sales of Xbox video game consoles climbed to a total of 6.6mn units due to strong performance during the year-end holiday season, according to Microsoft. Revenue from sales of Surface tablets and accessories rose 24% to $1.1bn in the quarter. The gains helped offset a 13-percent drop in revenue from licensing of the Windows operating system, which has long been a mainstay at Microsoft. Microsoft pulled back the curtain last week on the upcoming Windows 10 operating system focused on seamlessly connected devices such as computers, tablets and smartphones. “We are taking bold steps forward across our business, and specifically with Windows 10, to deliver new experiences, new categories, and new opportunities to our customers,” Nadella said. Microsoft hopes Windows 10 will renew its relevance in an age of mobile computing dominated by Apple and Google-backed Android software. And in order to boost its take-up by the approximately 1.5bn people around the world who use Windows-powered computers, Microsoft will in a change of policy allow free upgrades. The broad vision, Nadella explained, is to make sure people can get to Microsoft cloud services from whatever gadgets they wish. Microsoft also unveiled its virtual reality headgear called HoloLens that will debut with Windows 10 later this year. HoloLens was touted as an entry to “the world’s first holographic computing platform” which enables users to place three-dimensional holograms in the physical world. 18 Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 BUSINESS Aston Martin’s plans to overhaul car lines get cash backing Bloomberg Milan Ground crew are seen parking an Aer Lingus Airbus A320 away from the passenger terminals at Dublin Airport. The board of Aer Lingus has recommended a new offer from International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG) worth €2.55 per share that includes a cash offer of €2.50 per share and a dividend of €0.05. Board of Aer Lingus recommends new $1.5bn offer from IAG Subject to how shareholder interests addressed; IAG would operate Aer Lingus as separate brand; government faces calls not to sell ahead of election; Ryanair CEO says will examine competition proposals Reuters Dublin T he board of Irish airline Aer Lingus has recommended a raised €1.36bn ($1.5bn) takeover offer from the owner of British Airways, which must now soothe Irish government concerns to win approval. The new offer from International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG), its third in six weeks, is worth €2.55 per share, up from €2.40, and includes a cash offer of €2.50 per share and a dividend of €0.05. Aer Lingus said its recommendation is subject to being satisfied with how IAG proposes to address the interests of relevant parties, including its main shareholders budget airline Ryanair and the Irish state. The Irish government had sought to sell its 25% stake as part of the country’s 2010 bailout by the European Union and International Monetary Fund but postponed the plan. It now faces mounting political pressure not to sell from the two main opposition parties and the airline’s trade unions, raising the stakes just over a year before national elections. IAG said it intends to operate Aer Lingus as a separate business with its own brand, management and operations. “IAG recognises the importance of direct air services and air route connectivity for investment and tourism in Ireland,” IAG said in a statement. Shares in Aer Lingus were 1.2% higher at €2.40 at 1400 GMT. IAG rose 2.4% to 562 pence in early trade, the highest level since the group was formed four years ago. “IAG has outlined plans for Aer Lingus which we believe are logical, attractive and will likely alleviate the concerns of the Irish government,” said David Holohan of Merrion Stockbrokers. “Our view is that this news paves the way for the Irish government to support the deal.” Dublin-born IAG chief executive Willie Walsh started his career as an Aer Lingus pilot before eventually running the airline, and is also chairman of Ireland’s debt agency. Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe, who briefed cabinet on the offer yesterday, has said they will look at how a merger would affect Aer Lingus workers, its brand and both connectivity and competition for air routes out of the island nation. The airline’s main trade unions IMPACT and SIPTU called on the government to block the sale unless job guarantees are secured. IMPACT has said a takeover could lead to the loss of up to 1,200 jobs, close to a third of the workforce. Any sale would also have to be have approved by parliament. The two-party coalition government has a large majority but a vote could nevertheless put pressure on backbench lawmakers, some of whom want similar job guarantees to be provided. A successful takeover would give IAG more take-off and landing slots at London Heathrow Airport, BA’s home base and a major European hub for international flights. It said Aer Lingus would join the joint business that IAG operates over the North Atlantic with American Airlines, leveraging traffic flows between Ireland and the US. Ryanair, which holds 29.8% after its own takeover attempts were blocked and faces a regulatory order to cut its stake to 5%, said it would make up its mind on any formal offer once it’s had time to consider the price, and whatever proposals IAG makes to “get past” competition regulators. “You can’t address different issues for different shareholders. Maybe they’re trying to come up with things designed to satisfy the Irish government. I don’t know,” Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary told a news conference in Rome. Aston Martin Lagonda is considering its first crossover as the maker of the $184,000 DB9 sports car plans to refresh its lineup in the biggest investment plan in the British marque’s history. Investindustrial, which bought a 37.5% stake in the British manufacturer in 2012, has pledged the resources to carry out a growth push that could double Aston Martin’s sales to as many as 8,000 vehicles a year from about 4,000 now. “Aston has an industrial plan which is growing in its ambitions and we have always planned to participate in all funding needs that Aston has,” Investindustrial chairman Andrea Bonomi said yesterday in Milan. “If Aston needs capital, we’re there.” Bonomi helped recruit Andy Palmer, the former chief planning officer at Nissan Motor Co, to take over as CEO after Aston Martin went a year without a top executive. The Gaydon, England-based manufacturer is the only global luxury-auto brand that’s not part of a larger group. That makes it tricky for Aston Martin to fund the research and development needed to compete with Volkswagen’s Bentley and Fiat Chrysler’s Maserati. Still, Investindustrial has no plans to sell its holding anytime soon. Bonomi said the investment was made with the intention of keeping it for seven to 10 years, which would give the brand time to develop a new generation of vehicles. More details on Aston Martin’s plans will be revealed at the Geneva motor show in March. There, Palmer “will give a clear indication of where the brand is going,” including the potential for an Aston Martin sport-utility vehicle, Bonomi said. “We’re at the beginning of the revamp plan.” A crossover could help Aston Martin broaden its appeal in markets like China, where models aside from sports cars are in demand, Bonomi said. Bentley and Maserati are also developing SUVs. Buoyed by Investindustrial’s commitment, Aston Martin’s £304mn ($458mn) of 9.25% notes due July 2018 rose for a 12th day, climbing 0.6 pence on the pound to 99.9 pence, the highest since November 21, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Aside from the Italian privateequity firm, Aston Martin’s other main shareholders are Kuwaiti companies Investment Dar and Adeem Investment Co Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz has an agreement to acquire a 5% stake in Aston Martin in exchange for providing the sports-car producer with components such as engines and automotive electronics. SMA Solar to cut 1,600 jobs as European demand slides Reuters Frankfurt S MA Solar, Germany’s biggest solar company, is to cut about 1,600 jobs, or about one-third of its workforce, as it expects no relief in the short-term from an industry-wide demand slump, sending its shares to a record low. SMA’s core European market has come under pressure over the past two years as governments have pared back support payments on which solar energy still depends. In addition, Asian rivals have made inroads into SMA’s markets, putting pressure on equipment prices and profit margins. “We expect to see high price pressure on the global photovoltaic market still in the coming years and a further decline in demand in Europe, particularly in Germany,” chief executive Pierre-Pascal Urbon said in a statement on Monday. The company, which in December had cut its full-year forecast for sales and profits for the second time within five months, said it would probably not return to profit in 2015. About 1,300 of the planned job cuts, which are to be completed by the end of June, will be in Germany, SMA said. The company had said last year it would cut 600 jobs around the world. At end December, SMA had 4,667 employees. Urbon said SMA would discuss its plans with workers’ representatives in the coming weeks but warned that it could not rule out compulsory redundancies. It said it would provide details of the planned restructuring and its expectations for 2015 at a capital markets day on Friday. The company said it would be able to finance its restructuring without outside help thanks to a net cash position of about €220mn ($248mn). It still expects to achieve 2014 sales of about €790mn and a loss of up to €115mn, excluding provisions for the planned job cuts. It is due to publish its 2014 financial results on March 26. Apple CEO poised to parry questions over iPhones, currency moves Bloomberg San Francisco A pple Inc chief executive officer Tim Cook was facing some extra pressure yesterday. Apple posts earnings for its quarter that ended in December today, which is typically the most lucrative period for the company because of the holiday shopping season. This year, the scrutiny is even higher given that the earnings will provide the first official indicator of how a slew of new products — from largerscreened iPhones to slimmer iPads — have performed. “People are looking for a blowout iPhone quarter,” said Alex Gauna, an analyst at JMP Securities. “They need to come in above the high-end of guidance on revenue and they need to have that driven to a large degree by iPhone success.” In October, Cook forecast the fiscal first quarter would be the best ever, with revenue of $63.5bn to $66.5bn. On average, 38 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg predict an even higher $67.5bn, as well as a record profit of $15.4bn. Kristin Huguet, a spokeswoman at Apple, declined to comment. Here are five things to watch for in Apple’s results: 1) iPhone 6 versus iPhone 6 Plus Demand in China for the larger- Cook: Tough task ahead. screened iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus may have helped increase Apple phone sales 27% to 64.9mn units during the quarter compared with a year ago, according to the average estimate of 10 analysts. Last quarter was the first full period of sales for the iPhone 6 with a 4.7-inch display and the 5.5-inch 6 Plus, which costs $100 more. While UBS had calculated that 20% of sales would be the 6 Plus, Steve Milunovich, an analyst at UBS, is now estimating it’s more like 30%. The average selling price of iPhones may have risen to $668 per unit, according to the survey of analysts, from $637 during the same quarter a year ago, according to Bloomberg data. The increase should help profit — Apple forecast gross margins would widen to 37.5% to 38.5% from 37.9% during the same period a year ago. Analysts predict 38.5% for the quarter. 2) Apple versus Russia: Chief financial officer Luca Maestri warned in October that the strengthening US dollar posed a challenge. In December, Apple briefly halted online sales in Russia on the day the country’s currency lost as much as 19%. Worldwide, the net average selling price of iPhones may have been hurt by 2.8% because of the stronger US dollar during the quarter, according to estimates by Milunovich, though that was probably outweighed by other factors, including a more expensive iPhone 6 Plus. This month, in one of the company’s broadest global responses to currency fluctuations in recent years, Apple changed the prices of software applications from Canada to Europe. “It’s a fact of life if the US dollar strengthens, that creates a headwind for us both in revenue and margins for our business outside of the US,” Maestri has said. More than half of Apple’s revenue during the past fiscal year came from outside of the US. In the current quarter, currency changes provide a “bigger headwind than recent quarters,” Katy Huberty, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, said in a note to investors. 3) Mac versus iPad During the fiscal fourth quarter last year, Apple garnered more revenue from Mac computers and laptops than iPads for the first time since mid-2011. Mac unit sales rose 19% on the strength of college students buying computers, while iPad sales fell for the third straight quarter as the tablet market became more saturated. The trend may have continued into the final three months of 2014. Mac unit sales may have risen 14% while sales of the iPad, which were updated to be thinner and faster, may have fallen 15%, according to the average estimates of analysts as compiled by Bloomberg. 4) Apple Pay versus CVS Apple in October rolled out its bid to replace the consumer wallet with a new mobile-payment system called Apple Pay — which hit immediate controversy. CVS Health Corp and Rite Aid Corp blocked the technology in their drugstores, underlining a struggle over who controls the mobile-payment world. Apple has teamed up with major banks and credit card companies on Pay, which helps turn the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus into a payment device. CVS, Rite Aid, Wal-Mart and other retailers have worked together to create CurrentC, which offers branded mobile wallets linked directly to shoppers’ checking accounts. So far, Apple has indicated it’s pleased with Pay’s progress. Cook in October said the rollout looked “fantastic” and said more than 1mn activations occurred in the first 72 hours. In December, researcher ITG said Apple Pay captured 1% of digital-payment dollars in the first six weeks of operation. It took Google Wallet three years to get to 4%. 5) Apple versus expectations for Apple Apple continues to be caught in a trap of having to outdo itself each time it reports earnings. Among those putting on the pressure: Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn, who has argued that Apple shares are undervalued and should be trading at $203 a share, which would value the company at more than $1tn. The anticipation may intensify as Apple’s first all-new gadget under Cook’s leadership as CEO gets closer to showrooms: the Apple Watch. Revealed in September and designed to appeal to both luxury-watch buyers and fitnessdevice enthusiasts, the smartwatch will go on sale in the US early this year, Apple has said. That means all eyes will be on Apple’s forecast. For the fiscal second quarter, which ends in late March, analysts project revenue may rise to $53.7bn from $45.7bn a year ago and that the quarter’s gross margins may be 38.6%. Apple’s projection could fall short of estimates because of challenges from currency and slipping iPad sales and the smartwatch’s introduction, Huberty said. Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 19 BUSINESS EU bank-separation push falters as lawmakers split on bill Bloomberg Brussels European Union plans to ban proprietary trading and break up the bloc’s biggest banks are faltering as lawmakers clash over fundamental principles of the bill. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, presented its bank-structure overhaul a year ago to address the threat posed by too-big-to-fail banks. The bill has proven divisive in the European Parliament and among national governments, leading some legislators to say its days may be numbered. “The chances of any serious progress on the proposal for structural reform of the banks are diminishing rapidly,” Richard Reid, a research fellow for finance and regulation at the University of Dundee in Scotland, said by e-mail. “In part it’s because quite a few governments see no real need to substantially reshape their banking systems.” The push for an EU-wide law lags behind the UK, whose so-called Vickers rule will force Britain’s biggest lenders to split off core consumer banking from trading activities. Other countries such as France, Germany and Belgium have also developed their own measures. The bill would cover banks that have assets exceeding €30bn ($34bn) in three consecutive years and trading activities of more than €70bn or 10% of assets. It specifically captures the European banks labelled as globally systemic by the Financial Stability Board, including HSBC Holdings and Deutsche Bank. The commission’s blueprint sought to ban the lenders from certain activities, such as proprietary trading and investing in hedge funds, while also forcing supervisors to assess whether the banks should have to separate off some trading activities into separately capitalised units. This separation would take place if the investment banking surpassed certain thresholds and if the lender couldn’t demonstrate that the move was unnecessary. The bill requires approval from the EU parliament and the Council of the European Union, the institution that represents national governments. Both bodies are currently trying to settle on their negotiating positions on the draft law. The lead lawmaker on the file in parliament, Sweden’s Gunnar Hoekmark, has put forward an amended version of the law that faced pushback during a debate last week. In the council, nations have called for further explanation of proposals put forward by Latvia, which holds the bloc’s revolving presidency. Hoekmark, a member of the assembly’s largest centre-right group, proposed giving supervisors more freedom to decide if separation is necessary, and to focus the legislation more narrowly around making sure a bank can be wound down if it fails. This approach ran into opposition from lawmakers seeking more far-reaching measures. Focusing the legislation solely on whether a bank is resolvable is “problematic,” Jakob von Weizsaecker, who represents the parliament’s Socialist group in the discussions, said in the public debate. Even if a bank can, on paper, be safely wound down if it fails, this might still “cause a lot of collateral systemic damage,” he said. “If we end up with a hung parliament, 50-50, and a hung council, don’t forget what happens then, and the commission has already said it — they will withdraw the proposal,” said Philippe Lamberts, co-leader of the assembly’s Green group. Jonathan Hill, the member of the EU commission responsible for financial-services policy, said last year in a private letter that “withdrawal could be an option” if support from national governments doesn’t pick up. Hill later said publicly that he supports EU legislation in this area and urged quick progress in adopting it. The Commission will continue talks with the EU parliament and nations on the law “in order to fully address the systemic risks of large European banks,” Vanessa Mock, a spokeswoman for the institution, said in an e-mail. “Although differences in views exist, the Commission trusts that a compromise on the main issues will be found under the Latvian presidency,” she said. Latvia is currently steering discussions on the draft law among national governments, as it holds the EU’s rotating presidency for the first half of 2015. As one of its first steps on the draft law, Latvia has put forward a plan to national governments that would replace the ban on proprietary trading with a mandatory separation requirement, according to documents dated January 19 and obtained by Bloomberg News. The revised plan would require further separation measures at banks that are so systemically important that their risks place them in a “red zone,” while handing supervisors more discretion over others. “Member states’ views on the separation process differ,” according to the document. “But all agree that the proposal cannot be accepted unless the separation process, as elaborated in the commission’s proposal, is changed.” EU nations are broadly divided into two camps, according to the document, with one side backing wide discretion for supervisors and others seeking a more constraining approach. A spokesman for Latvia’s EU presidency declined to comment. Given that some other EU and international regulation projects, such as centralized oversight of euro-area banks and global standards on loss absorbency, are still being put in place, a positive case can be made for delaying work on the structure rules, Nicolas Veron, an economist at the Brusselsbased Bruegel research group, said in an interview. “Having EU legislation on separation makes lots of sense, but it would make a lot more sense to have it joined up with all these other initiatives,” he said. “In any case, it’s not urgent. The US did the Volcker Rule around five years ago, so it’s not like Europe is in some kind of a race against time.” US durable goods data signal weaker spending Fed looks set to stay course in policy meeting Core capital goods orders fall 0.6% in December; shipments slip 0.2%; consumer confidence highest since 2007 in January; new home sales surge AFP Washington T Reuters Washington A gauge of US business investment plans fell for a fourth straight month in December, a potential sign that slowing global growth and falling crude oil prices were starting to weigh on the economy. Other data yesterday, however, suggested the economy remained on solid footing. Consumer confidence vaulted to a near 7-1/2 high in January and new home sales in December hit their highest level since June 2008. “The drop in capex will weigh on growth, though stronger consumer spending should keep GDP from slowing too much,” said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial in New York. The Commerce Department said non-defence capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, fell 0.6% last month after a similar decline in November. Economists, who had expected a 0.5% gain, said weak overseas demand for capital equipment as well as declining domestic demand for energyrelated equipment were likely to blame. They also said a strong dollar was a factor. The report came as construction and mining equipment maker Caterpillar yesterday reported a nearly 25% decline in fourth-quarter profit and warned that falling oil prices would hurt its business in 2015. Chemicals company DuPont also forecast lower operating earnings for 2015. Weak capital goods spending is likely to catch the attention of Federal Reserve officials, who started a two-day policy meeting yesterday. “This is ... evidence that the dollar’s strength is starting to show up in terms of weaker orders, a new soft spot for A factory worker installs components for a forklift at the Toyota Industrial Equipment Manufacturing facility in Columbus, Indiana. The Commerce Department yesterday said non-defence capital goods orders excluding aircraft fell 0.6% last month after a similar decline in November. manufacturing that perhaps will give some of the policymakers pause if not worry as they meet today,” said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG Union Bank in New York. The report and Caterpillar’s weak earnings helped to knocked down US stocks. The dollar fell against a basket of currencies while prices for US Treasury debt rallied. Shipments of core capital goods, which are used to calculate equipment spending in the government’s gross domestic product measurement, fell 0.2% last month after slipping 0.6% in November and dropping 0.9% in October. That suggested a downside risk to the fourth-quarter GDP estimate, currently around a 3% annual pace. There is little doubt that spending on equipment took a step back in the fourth quarter after two quarters of strong back-to-back increases. Still, the economy remains on firmer ground. In a separate report, the Con- ference Board said its consumer sentiment index jumped to 102.9 in January, the highest reading since August 2007, from 93.1 in December. “It supports our view of continued strong job growth into the New Year and that rising wealth levels and lower gas prices are boosting household purchasing power,” said John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics in New York. In another report, the Commerce Department said new home sales jumped in December to their highest level since 2008. A strengthening jobs market is expected to stimulate the housing market this year after the sector lagged growth in the overall economy last year. A fourth report showed a deceleration in house price gains. The S&P/ Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas rose 4.3% in November from the prior year, the slowest since October 2012 Greece’s new finance minister says euro is like ‘Hotel California’ Bloomberg Athens Greece’s newly appointed finance minister Yanis Varoufakis walks along a street in Athens yesterday. Greece should have never joined the euro area, but now that it’s in, a departure would be like falling from a cliff, he said on his personal blog yesterday. It’s no secret what Yanis Varoufakis thinks Greece should do with its debt. The economics professor at the University of Athens, who announced his appointment as the country’s finance minister in a posting on his personal blog yesterday, has been arguing since the beginning of the crisis that Greece should default while staying a member of the euro area. As well as on his website, Varoufakis shares his opinions with 128,000 Twitter followers. Greece should have never joined the euro area, but now that it’s in, a departure would be like falling from a cliff, he said. “The last line in Hotel California explains where we are: you can check out any time, but you can never leave,” he told Bloomberg Radio in May 2012. Now he gets to take demands for a radically different approach to Greece to European capitals as the new government in Athens tries to implement its pre-election pledges. At the core of them is to rewrite the agreements with the euro area and the International Monetary Fund for the country’s €240bn ($271bn) financial rescue program, though Syriza’s official party line is not to default. “The problem with the bailout is that it wasn’t really a bailout,” Varoufakis, 53, said in a Bloomberg Television interview on January 26. “It was an extend and pretend, it was a vicious cycle, a debt-deflationary trap, which not only destroyed our social economy but also showed that the cost of our so-called bailout for the average German, the average Italian, the average Slovak was maximised.” Greek stocks and bonds tumbled before the cabinet was officially named yesterday. Alpha Bank fell as much as 19%, while the yield on three-year government bonds surged almost two percentage points to 13.9%. Also a visiting professor at the University of Texas in Austin, where Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras pledged allegiance to the euro in a November 2013 speech, Varoufakis is a career academic. He started as a teaching and research assistant at the University of Essex in England, where he earned his doctorate. One of his research interests is game theory, and he later worked as a consultant for a video game company. When it comes to politics, Varoufakis was an adviser to former Prime Minister George Papandreou before the Pasok leader assumed power and took Greece into its bailout in 2010. A staunch opponent of spending cuts and tax increases and an advocate of a “haircut” on Greek public debt, he is a relative newcomer to Syriza. In 2012, he urged readers of his blog to vote for the party, while also telling them its manifesto was “not worth the paper it is written on.” “Just ignore it,” he wrote on June 3, between the two elections in six weeks that propelled Syriza into the international spotlight that year. “While replete with good intentions, it is short on detail, full of promises that cannot, and will not be fulfilled,” he continued, adding that “the greatest one is that austerity will be cancelled.” Spin forward two and a half years and he ended up getting more votes than any other candidate in last Sunday’s election. Like Tsipras, Varoufakis also says that Syriza’s opposition to austerity and vows for debt relief won’t lead Greece out of the euro, known as “Grexit,” because the cost for region would be too much to bear. Greece already executed the largest writedown of debt in history. “It takes a degree of silliness, which is unprecedented to believe that you can talk about Grexit and then contain the after effects, as if this is something which can be done in an orderly way,” Varoufakis told Bloomberg in a January 13 interview. As well as his blog, Varoufakis has Twitter followers including economist Nouriel Roubini and David Blanchflower, a former member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee now in the US In a post dated January 27, Varoufakis said he would continue to air his views, albeit less frequently. he Federal Reserve today begins its first monetary policy meeting of the year to take the pulse of the US economy as it mulls an interest rate hike. The Federal Open Market Committee, the central bank’s policy arm, is widely expected to signal no significant policy changes after it wraps up the meeting tomorrow. But the FOMC post-meeting statement will be pored over for clues to the central bank’s thinking on the timing for the first interest rate hike since 2006. The Fed has kept its key federal funds rate pegged between zero and 0.25% since late 2008 to support the economy’s recovery from the deep 2008-2009 recession. In October, the Fed ended its massive asset-purchase programme, or quantitive easing, and has signalled that a rate hike would be coming this year. Most analysts expect the increase will arrive by June. Since the December FOMC meeting, the rapid slide in oil prices has pulled weak inflation even lower, corporate earnings season has gotten off to a bumpy start, and the ailing eurozone was dealt a blow by Sunday’s resounding victory of a leftist, anti-austerity party in Greece. The European Central Bank’s announcement last week of fullscale QE to stimulate growth and avert deflation in the 19-nation eurozone, was expected to at least help the huge US trade partner in the short term. After months of mostly positive data — in December, the US unemployment rate fell to 5.6% and consumer confidence rebounded — some weak spots have emerged. Job growth slowed but remained solid; wages sagged, barely keeping up with inflation; and retail sales plunged broadly in a critical month for stores in the holiday shopping season. Data released yesterday sent mixed signals on the health of the US economy. Consumer confidence, an indicator of how willing consumers are to opening their wallets, soared in January to its highest level since 2007, according to the Conference Board. In the housing sector, the Commerce Department reported new-home sales picked up sharply in December from November, and were up 8.8% from a year ago. The underlying trend in the housing market, however, pointed to a continued slowdown in price gains. The Case-Shiller 20-city price index rose 4.3% year-over-year in November, compared to 4.5% in October. A steep, broad fall in new orders for long-lasting manufactured goods in December signalled weakness. Durable goods orders fell 3.4%, and November’s revised decline was more than double the prior estimate. Wednesday, January 28, 2015 BUSINESS GULF TIMES Qafac to launch world’s largest CO2 capture facility on Feb 9 Q atar Fuel Additives Company (Qafac) will formally launch the world’s largest commercialscale carbon dioxide (CO2) capture facility on February 9. The state-of-the-art plant in Mesaieed is capable of recovering and reprocessing about 500 tonnes of carbon dioxide a day, which will be a major “environmental achievement” for Qatar’s energy sector. The facility will capture carbon dioxide from combustion exhaust gas emitted from the methanol reformer process, and inject it into its existing methanol plant to enhance the production capacity. As a result, the plant will reprocess the equivalent of CO2 emitted from 32,000 cars a year, on a daily basis. HE the Minister of Energy and Industry, Dr Mohamed bin Saleh al-Sada, and Qafac chairman Hamad Rashid al-Mohannadi will be among the dignitaries who will attend the celebrations marking the formal launch of the Qafac facility at Katara Village on February 9. On the significant milestone, Qafac chief executive officer Nasser Jeham al-Kuwari said: “We remain steadfast in achieving the sustainable development goals as outlined in the Qatar’s National Vision 2030 (QNV 2030) and Qatar’s National Development Strategy. “Through pursuit of excellence in technology and innovation, we are proud to launch our state-of-the-art carbon dioxide recovery plant. This achievement will advance the country’s development in the energy sector while providing a sustainable environment for future generations to thrive.” Established in 1991, Qafac continues to “uphold its mission” to be an international producer of methanol, its high-value derivatives and butane sub-products, in a “safe and environmentally friendly” manner. Qafac is a joint venture among Industries Qatar, OPIC Middle East Corporation, International Octane and LCY Middle East Corporation. The Qafac plant is designed to produce 982,350tonnes per year of methanol and 610,000tpy of Methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE). Qatar’s producer price index plummets 18.3% in November Al-Raisi (third right, front row) and members of the Commercial Bank’s Executive Committee following their strategy meeting in Doha. Commercial Bank sees ‘substantial growth’ in ’14 C ommercial Bank has seen “substantial growth” across various business units and gained market share in vital segments such as Retail Banking and Enterprise Banking for SMEs in 2014, Qatar’s first private bank said after the Executive Committee strategy meeting here. The meeting discussed the bank’s three to five year strategy and reviewed 2014 achievements. Led by Commercial Bank CEO Abdulla Saleh al-Raisi, the meeting explored opportunities inherent within the context of Qatar’s robust economic growth and focused on local market sectors experiencing rapid development such as infrastructure, education, healthcare and telecommunications. The Executive Committee also reflected on Commercial Bank’s success in 2014, with growth and significant improvements on several key financial indicators despite a fiercely competitive market. Al-Raisi said, “Commercial Bank performed strongly in 2014 and I would like to thank the Executive Committee and all our staff for their notable contributions to a successful year. Commercial Bank’s Executive Committee meetings are important for the coherent and efficient implementation of our strategy across all business units to maximise opportunities for the current year and the medium term. As a Qatari bank, Commercial Bank will continue to support the development of the economy and the National Vision 2030 across all our business units, from financing large-scale projects to supporting SMEs.” Commercial Bank has a range of diverse business units and regular Executive Committee strategy meetings allow these units to collectively work together to assist the overall growth of the Bank in a unified and effective way. The meetings provide an opportunity for the entire full executive team to share updates on recent performance, identify business opportunities and debate emerging issues. Made in Qatar exhibition to be held from May 19 to 22 The “Made in Qatar” exhibition will be held from May 19 to 22 at the Doha Exhibition Centre, with free stalls of space up to12 sqm for local producers and manufactures, Qatar Chamber (QC) said here yesterday. The 4th edition of the exhibition is being organised by the Qatar Chamber under the patronage of HH the Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, and in co-operation with the Ministry of Energy and Industry. QC will provide local industrial companies free stalls of up to12 sqm, which, however, can be extended when needed to display their locally made products. “The exhibition is aimed at attracting more investments in the manufacturing sectors and boost the locally produced products to ease dependency on imported items. It would be also a good opportunity to encourage local companies to do their best to improve and develop their products, which would in turn Sheikh Khalifa (centre) and others at the press conference. Right: The logo of ‘Made in Qatar’ exhibition. make Qatari products able to be more competitive globally,” QC said. “Throughout the previous three years, the ‘Made in Qatar’ exhibition has gained a special importance and it’s a good model of collaboration with other entities in the country that we hope to be emulated by other,” said Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassim al-Thani, QC chairman. He also thanked Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) and Qatar Development Bank for their great support to make the previous three editions of the exhibition a great success. He stressed that with the falling oil prices, the need for more and diversified economic alternatives has become more pressing. Small- and medium-sized projects could be an ideal option in this respect, he pointed out. On the sidelines of the exhibition, a market for the sale of Qatari products will be held, where local companies only would be allowed sell their products to the visitors. Sheikh Khalifa further affirmed that QC would assume its responsibility in boosting local production and trade and encourage Qatari business community to invest more in this vital and important sector. P ersistent weakness in crude oil painted a gloomy picture for domestic producers in Qatar with the country’s producer price index (PPI) plummeting 18.3% year-on-year (y-o-y) in November 20014, according to official figures. Substantial fall in the price of crude, refined petroleum products, basic chemicals and utilities dragged the PPI for the industrial sector, which is calculated using the average of 2006 prices as base. The latest figures were yesterday released by the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics. The PPI, which measures average changes in prices received by domestic producers for their output, fell 5.3% against October 2014 on lower prices for refined petroleum goods, basic chemicals and crude. The PPI for mining, which carries the maximum weight of 77% in the basket, tanked 19.8% y-o-y in November due to a similar decline in the price of crude petroleum and natural gas; while that of stone, sand and clay was up 0.4%. The mining sector PPI reported 5.1% shrinkage month-on-month due to a similar fall in the prices of crude petroleum and natural gas. The manufacturing sector, with a weight of 21% in the PPI basket, reported 13.3% plunge y-o-y in November 2014, explained by a 18.9% decline in the price of refined petroleum goods, 7.4% in basic chemicals and 1% in beverages; whereas dairy products became costlier by 5.3%, basic metals by 1.6%, grain mill and other products by 0.6% and cement and other non-metallic products by 0.1%. The manufacturing sector witnessed 7% decline on account of 8.9% fall in the price of refined petroleum products, 7.3% in basic chemicals, 1.9% in cement and other non-metallic products and 0.1% in dairy products. The electricity and water group, which has a 2% weight in the PPI basket, saw its index fall 2.9% y-o-y in November with electricity and water prices falling 3.8% and 1.5% respectively. The index had, however, risen 1.8% against the previous month mainly on 2.9% increase in the price of electricity. Qatar Airways chosen ‘Business Airline of the Year’ at UK Business Travel Awards Q atar Airways has been awarded ‘Business Airline of the Year’ for the second consecutive year at the UK Business Travel Awards 2015 held in London last week. The 20th annual Business Travel Awards, hosted by Buying Business Travel, celebrated the achievements of travel industry leaders. Over 70 companies, teams and individuals were shortlisted across 21 categories. In May 2014, Qatar Airways became the first carrier to fly an allBusiness Class service from London Heathrow. The daily Airbus A319 service to Doha is configured with a single aisle, 2-2 seating configuration offering 40 seats. The service departs from Terminal 4 at 21:55, arriving into Doha at 6.40am the following day. The A319 Business Class seat has one of the highest specifications for business class travel of any airline with wide seats that recline into fully flat beds. Also in May, Qatar Airways moved to its new home and hub, Hamad International Airport, the aviation industry’s latest greenfield airport showcasing marked features, including the acclaimed 10,000sqm Al Mourjan Business Class lounge. Qatar Airways Group chief executive Akbar al-Baker, said: “It has been an incredible year for Qatar Airways, with not only a number of new routes but the expansion of our fleet to include the A350 and A380, both of which represent the latest in aviation engineering and technology. This award reiterates the quality of our renowned 5-star service and it is an honour to have been recognised in this category again.” The airline celebrated a dramatic increase to its fleet in 2014, taking delivery of three new aircraft types: the A319 all-Business Class; the Airbus A380, and was the Global Launch Customer of the A350. In addition to the 80 A350s it has on order, the airline has a current Airbus fleet comprising of the A320, A330 Freighter, A319LR, A321, A330, A340 and A380 families. With a modern fleet of 146 aircraft, Qatar Airways connects businesses and travellers to more than 146 destinations across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and The Americas. In the past 12 months Qatar Airways has welcomed its first A380 to its fleet, followed by its first A350 as the global launch customer and begun services between Heathrow and Doha on an all-Business Class A319 aircraft. In 2014, Qatar Airways also launched services to Sharjah International Airport, Al Maktoum International Airport, Dubai World Central, UAE; Philadelphia, US; Larnaca, Cyprus; Sabiha Gokcen, Istanbul; Edinburgh, UK; Miami International Airport and Dallas Fort Worth, US. From May this year, Qatar Airways will operate 63 direct services a week from the UK to Doha, with 42 from Heathrow, seven from Edinburgh and a further 14 departing from Manchester. Qatar Airways country manager UK & Ireland Richard Oliver receiving the ‘Business Airline of the Year’ award on behalf of the airline. TENNIS | Page 5 NBA | Page 8 SWIMMING | Page 9 Sharapova defeats Bouchard with ease Kobe Bryant set for shoulder surgery Korean star Park ‘shocked’ by failed dope test Wednesday, January 28, 2015 Rabia II 8, 1436 AH GULF TIMES FOCUS Qatar 2015 ‘huge step’ for country: Sheikha Asmaa W ith the Preliminary Round and Eighth-Finals finished, Qatar 2015 has already had its fair share of surprises. Qatar 2015 threw-off not only with a win for the hosts but with a spectacular opening ceremony at the Lusail Multipurpose Hall featuring breath-taking lighting displays, the Qatar Army Military Sport Parachute Team, fireworks, a live performance of the official song of the Championship ‘Live It’ by 24 artists representing each of the participating countries, and much more. “Timing – making sure things happening on time,” replies Sheikha Asmaa Thani al-Thani, Head of Marketing and Communications, when asked if there were any challenges during the ceremony. “It was just these little things that happen at the last minute, but we were all ready for it. “Throughout the whole ceremony, we were micro-scanning every move, every single segment that took place to make sure we were working to plan and on the right track. It was great for me to see the long hours and the hard work come to life. But to tell you the truth, what was more amazing for me was to see people’s smiling faces during the ceremony; it was an unforgettable experience.” Yet, it is not all bright lights and fireworks for Sheikha Asmaa. She is quick to praise her team: 45 people spread across three venues and one main office, who work “24 hours, with a little rest to keep going”. They are responsible for ticketing, branding, sport presentation, shows, fan zones, entertainment and everything else that completes the Qatar 2015 ‘experience’ for the fans. “We didn’t want to go through the traditional marketing and promotional ways to attract people to come to the Championship. We wanted it to be something for the long-term, a legacy that we could draw upon for future events,” explains Sheikha Asmaa. Part of the marketing and promotion included developing the Qatar 2015 mascot, Fahed, who Sheikha Asmaa describes as the “cheeky little kid within all of us - a leader in his own nature”. Fahed has been the focal point of the Qatar 2015 Education Programme, which worked with 53 schools in Qatar. “It was very important to get the community involved and to engage children to whom the Championship has been dedicated to,” she explains. Sheikha Asmaa Thani al-Thani, head of Marketing and Communications Qatar 2015. “By community, we mean everyone living in Qatar. We already have the handball community but we also have a wider range of people who might not have experienced the game before, yet they might be interested about the championship or they might be interested to support their team. “We didn’t want to use a traditional campaign that just tells people to go buy their tickets. We wanted people to show their support for their teams, to show how proud they are of their nations and that was where Fahed stepped in.” “We travelled around different schools with Fahed and introduced handball to the children. We created mini-tournaments and competitions where each school was given one of the participating countries to represent and compete with. “We wanted to create a cross-cultural engagement with children. We wanted them to learn more about the 24 participating countries. It was spectacular to see Qatari kids supporting different teams in addition to the Qatari team. We had different schools who actually wanted to attend the games for the teams they learnt about,” she said. One of the most satisfying aspects of the Championship so far has been the diverse mix of spectators in the crowds and Qatar 2015’s success in reaching out to families and young people in particular. “We’ve had everyone at the venues – mums, dads, kids and grandparents. It’s been great to have such a multicultural mix of people enjoying the matches together. It’s created a wonderful atmosphere for everyone. “Seeing the range of people who’ve attended the games gives us a lot of optimism for the future. Qatar loves sport, and we’ve shown that when we host these events, people will come and cheer – particularly the children, who will be the fans of the future.” Many of the visiting fans have been surprised and delighted by the range of performers who have appeared during the Championship. From the ‘Live It’ signers on the opening night, to popular Arab artists such as Kadim al-Sahir and Fahad al-Kubaisi, and through to internationally-renowned acts Pharrell Williams and Gwen Stefani, the Organ- ising Committee has arranged a run of incredible “surprises” for fans. “Once the singers knew that the ticket sales were going to “Educate a Child,” a charity that helps educate kids around the world, they were more than happy to be part of the Championship.” For Sheikha Asmaa, the whole experience has been a great opportunity to show that Qatar can organise worldclass events, and a chance for everyone to develop their professional skills. “Working together as a team, we’ve been able to achieve wonders over the past few months, and the results have shone through at the Championship. I think we’ve all learned from each other, and grown and developed together,” she says. So, following such a grand opening ceremony, how can Sheikha Asmaa and her team top that experience when Qatar 2015 closes on Sunday? “Before the closing ceremony, we may have a couple more surprises,” she says with a smile. “However, the closing ceremony is our last opportunity to make sure people leave with a positive impression, both locally and internationally, so we are planning something spectacular.” 2 Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 24TH MEN’S HANDBALL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW SPOTLIGHT Proud Qatar hungry for success against Germany It’s the character that counts, says Croatian veteran Igor Vori ‘We are all proud of what we have achieved so far’ Croatian player Igor Vori (left) in action against Brazil in Doha on Sunday. (EPA) W Qatar is only the second Asian team ever to reach the quarter-finals of the handball Worlds after South Korea in 1997; (below) Qatar coach Valero Rivera. PICTURES: Anas Khalid By Yash Mudgal Doha H osts Qatar need to master the art of overcoming the odds as they lock horns with former champions Germany in the quarterfinals of the 24th Men’s World Handball Championship at the Lusail Multipurpose Hall today. Victory over Austria in the prequarterfinals and a superb show in the group matches must have rejuvenated the Asian Games champions as they are keen to see off the strong German side, which only made it to the championships via a wildcard, in order to make their maiden semifinals entry in the championship. The 2007 world champions Germany had initially failed to qualify for this year’s tournament but were given a reprieve after the Oceania region failed to send a team. Germany is one of just five unbeaten teams left in the competition, along with Spain, France, Croatia and Denmark, while Qatar is the last non-European team in the competition. Guided by coach Valero Rivera, Qatar has lost only once in the championship — a close affair against defending champions Spain. Qatar defenders would need to keep their nerves to stay unruffled till the end against Germans, who are capable of forcing their way into the rival half at an alarming pace with amazing consistency. Germany’s 30-year-old keeper Carsten Lichtlein, who was adjudged man-ofthe-match after an inspired display against Egypt in the pre-quarterfinals, will test the hosts’ attack. However, the Germans admit that it will be difficult to beat Rivera boys in front of a huge excited crowd. “The Qatar fans will be even louder than the Egyptian fans. I hope that we take the lead very fast so that the superiority of the other fans won’t be a decisive factor,” said German team captain Uwe Gensheimer. Since winning the 2007 World Championship on home ground, his team never made it to world championship’s last four stage. Qatar have already reached their main goal of finishing among the best 16 teams, their best finish at the world championships, but backed by their fans and fantastic goalkeepers Danjel Saric and Goran Stojanovic, the hosts hope to continue flying on the wings of success. “We are all proud of what we have achieved so far. It is a tournament that will always be remembered. Now we want to go on fighting with the same hunger against Germany also,” said Qatar’s top scorer (49 goals) Zarko Markovic, who stands second in the overall scorers’ tally. After the victory over Austria in pre- quarters, Qatar’s coach Valero Rivera said the result made him “very happy for all the people of Qatar”. Asked which team he would prefer to face in the last eight, Germany or Egypt, Rivera said he had no preference but would concentrate on his own team. “Qatar is doing well so far. You have to have a good team to reach the quarterfinals. I believe the chances are 50-50 and hopefully we will be the winners,” Germany’s right back Steffen Weinhold said. Qatar is the second Asian team to reach world championships quarterfinals after South Korea (in 1997) and will be meeting Germany for the first time in an international competition. Defending champions Spain will take on twice runners-up Denmark at Lusail, while at Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiya Arena Olympic champions France will meet Slovenia and Poland will lock horns with Croatia. TODAY’S SCHEDULE QUARTER-FINALS At Lusail Multipurpose Hall 6:30pm: Qatar vs Germany 9pm: Denmark vs Spain At Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiya Arena 6:30pm: Croatia vs Poland 9pm: Slovenia vs France hen Croatia won its only world title after beating Germany back in 2003 in Portugal, Igor Vori was already on the court. When the Croats battle Poland for a semi-final spot at the 24th Men’s Handball World Championship in Qatar a dozen years later, the 34-year-old line player is still part of the squad as the “last survivor” of the “Golden Generation”. After gaining his biggest club level success ever by winning the EHF Champions League in June 2013 with HSV Hamburg, Vori took his fifth individual “country point” by transferring to French champions PSG Paris after playing in Croatia (RK Zagreb), Italy (Conversano), Spain (FC Barcelona) and Germany (Hamburg). And despite becoming world champion in 2003 and Olympic champions in 2004, Vori is still missing one major medal: gold from the European championship. Since Slovenia hosted the continental championship in 2004, the Croats (along with Vori) have advanced to the Euro semi-finals and for three World Championship semis (2005, 2009, 2013), but never celebrated later on the winners’ podium. After their lucky eighth-final win on Sunday against Brazil, Vori talked about his expectations in Doha and his future. Did you expect such a close eighth-final against Brazil? Igor Vori: Yes, it was a really tough job, but in the end it was an awesome feeling to celebrate the victory. We have made it, that’s all that counts after a really strange match. We missed so many chances, we failed four times from the penalty line, but in the end we were through to the next round. But winning matches like those often end in trophies. IV: Yes, indeed. On dark days the true character of a team appears. And we showed character, we acted as a team in the crucial moments, we have the experience to finish even a weak match successfully. What are your expectations for the quarter-final? IV: We will face a tough opponent, this is for sure. But we have this great objective in our heads to make it to another semi-final, to get closer to the Olympic Games, to fight for a medal. Croatia have won all six matches in Qatar – how many more victories will follow? IV: (Smiling) It’s three, or? I hope for three yes. But in this tournament anything can happen. So how high do you estimate the chances to be part of the Olympic handball tournament in Rio de Janeiro? IV: I have no idea at the moment. We are in Qatar, we have a quarter-final ahead, so I think that it’s too early to start talking about Rio. BOTTOMLINE Zorman wants to pay respect to his country and jersey B ack in 2004, Slovenia hosted the 6th Men’s European Handball Championship and managed to reach the final, where they lost 30-25 to Germany. This has been and still is a historical moment for the whole country having never managed to reach the podium before this in any major handball event. Because of this monumental medal, and, in addition to the fourth place they got at the 2013 World Championship in Zaragoza, Slovenian handball has been the breadwinner for team sports in Slovenia. Thus their celebrations and how they spoke about what it means to them and their country to beat FYRO Macedonia (30-28) are reasonable. While entering the mixed zone, Uros Zorman howled, “Come on, how could I stay cool, after such a great victory? It was the most important game up until now and it has opened our path to the quarter-finals. It is all about redemption which we were searching for after a couple of bad games like our losses to Qatar and to Spain, and also we wanted to get over the negative comments from the media.” The Slovenian centre back who turned 35 in January is the long-time teammate of Vid Kavticnik and Gorazd Skof; they are the only three survivors from that 2004 team. Four games away from reaching 200 international caps, Zorman is the captain of the team and has a special reason to play at full strength. “As a captain I don’t have the right to deny my responsibilities,” he said. “I was feeling guilty about our performances here and I had the duty to play better and lead my teammates. Fortunately, it has worked out and I am very happy and proud of what we have done here today.” Not only Zorman, who is now playing for KS Vive Targi Kielce in Poland, but the whole team was playing under huge pressure before this “do-or-die” match against Macedonia. “For various reasons we had lots of pressure and this affected our performance. Maybe we feared something; I don’t know what that was exactly. The day before the game we all sat together at the hotel and had a long conversation about what we were going to be facing. It was an extremely useful talk which helped us to play much better and make it to the quarter-finals.” Apart from the tactics, the quality and the experience of their side, Zorman believes that they had other “weapons” at their disposal in this crucial battle against Macedonia. “Hot hearts, clear minds, fighting spirits, good egoism and pride all helped us and they came from deep inside of us. I would say that rather than being a team victory, it was a family victory!” From the tactical point of view, Zorman pointed out that “we played a very effective defence, scored with fast breaks and since we are a short team, we got great help from the previously injured Klemen Cehte, who is a very good shooter from the back court and has recently come back into the team”. After beating FYRO Macedonia, the Slovenians are looking forward to playing France. “We have accomplished our first objective, to play in the quarter-finals, but this is not enough. Probably France will be the team to beat and I strongly believe that we can give them a surprise. Right now our self-confidence and optimism are at the highest point. We feel that we can enter the court and fly.” After all, Zorman feels that he needs to pay respect not only to his 16-year career with the national team, but to his jersey number as well. The so-called “Zut” wears number 23, “so I can stand next to Michael Jordan, Lebron James and David Beckham” he said with a laugh. Slovenia’s Uros Zorman in action against Macedonia during their Eighth-Final match in Doha on Sunday. (AFP) Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 24TH MEN’S HANDBALL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP REPORT Czechs lift President’s Cup in shootout thriller ‘It was a really interesting and dramatic game. I think we were a little bit luckier’ By Yash Mudgal Doha T he Czech Republic won the President’s Cup after defeating Belarus 32-31 in the final at Duhail Sports Complex yesterday. The match was only decided in a shootout, as both the teams had ended regulation time at 28-all. With the victory, the Czechs finished 17th in the overall ranking at the 24th Men’s World Handball Championship. “It was a really interesting and dramatic game. I think we were a little bit luckier,” Czech Republic coach Jan Filip said. Belarus started with a 5-1 defence, pushing left wing Ivan Brouka forward to the right side, almost in a man-to-man formation against the Czech left back Pavel Horak. It was the Czech Republic who got the better start going ahead 3-1, 4-2 and 6-3. Belarus managed to catch up at (6-6) mainly due to four goals from Siarhei Rutenka. It was Rutenka who also benefited from a penalty shot taking the Belarusians into lead at 7-6 a few minutes later. Belarus went two up at 8-6 and 9-7, but despite Rutenka’s eight goals in the first half alone, the Czechs got back into the driver’s seat and went ahead by two again. At half-time, the Czech Republic were leading by one (14-13). In the second half, Brouka moved further towards the centre of the court, but that did not stop the Czechs from going three goals ahead. Even as Rutenka’s scoring frequency went down — he even missed two penalty shots — Belarus kept fighting back. In the last 15 minutes, there was never more than one goal separating the two teams. And when it came to the shootout, the Czechs scored four out of five attempts from the seven-meter spot, while Belarus only managed to score thrice. Rutenka was the top-scorer for Belarus in the match with 12 goals, while Filip Jicha, Jakub Hrstka and Ondrej Zdrahala scored six each for the Czech Republic. “I am happy because I helped my team to win a trophy, but I don’t feel like a hero. I have to remind everybody that my teammate Martin Galia made three extraordinary saves during the regular match. Both of us made our contributions,” Czech goalkeeper Petr Stochl said. “For me it was the best world championship ever. I really enjoyed it. I have never experienced such high quality of services. You could call it an Olympic-style organisation. I would like to thank the people of Qatar 2015 for all they have provided us with over the past few weeks and months,” Belarus’ left back Rutenka said. In the earlier match, Russia defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina 42-28 to finish 19th and Iran finished in 21st spot after defeating Saudi Arabia 26-22. “I see a bright future for handball in my country. We showed that we have the talent to progress and we are looking forward to taking part at other major international events,” Saudi Arabia’s left back Mohamed Alzaer said. Chile defeated Algeria 30-28 to clinch their third-ever win in history of world championship to finish in 23rd place. Jason Derulo is the latest international music star to perform at Qatar 2015 Doha: The Qatar 2015 Organising Committee has announced that American singer-songwriter Jason Derulo is the next big act to hit the stage as part of the post-match entertainment lined up at the 24th Men’s Handball World Championship. The performance is set to take place today at the Lusail Multipurpose Hall following the final match of the evening between Denmark and Spain at 9pm and is free for all match ticket holders. For those without tickets, venue passes for the performance can be purchased, at the ticket box office, from 8pm onwards, based on available seating for the night. The Florida-born artist has sold over 30 million copies as a solo recording artist and has produced records and written songs for several others as well. He has achieved six Top 5 singles which include his popular debut single ‘Whatcha Say’. Derulo’s performance is the latest in an amazing line-up of regional and international artists that have delighted handball fans with their performances at the 24th Men’s Handball World Championship. Czech Republic players celebrate with the winner’s trophy after beating Belarus in the President’s Cup final in a penalty shootout in Doha yesterday. (EPA) Czech player Filip Jicha receives the President’s Cup trophy from IHF president Dr. Hassan Moustafa after winning the final against Belarus at the Duhail Handball Sports Hall. (EPA) BOTTOMLINE Germany’s Drux is a star to watch out for Czech Republic goalkeeper Petr Stochl receives the man of the match award yesterday. (EPA) Tonino Lamborghini Lounge launches at Qatar 2015 T he French may have brought three of their 2001 world champions (Daniel Narcisse, Jerome Fernandez and Thierry Omeyer) to Doha, but one can barely find a player from the 2007 gold medal-winning German team: the lone exception is then back-up goalkeeper Carsten Lichtlein. The Germans opted to invest in a new generation of players and fielded a renewed team which hit the headlines with their impressive group stage run. One of the players who surprised the specialists with his performance during the opening stage was 19-year-old Paul Drux, the youngest member of the nationalmannschaft. The Fuchse Berlin left back was Dagur Sigurdsson’s regular choice, staying on the court for almost three hours in the first five games, fourth among the Germans. He found the net nine times and served six assists. Everyone who saw the youngster from Gummersbach in action offered words of praise for his talent and potential. Drux began playing handball at age five in SSV Marienheide, joined giants VfL Gummersbach in 2007 and made a huge leap in 2011 when he signed a contract with Berlin’s ‘Foxes’. Following his heroics with Germany’s youth team which won gold at the 2012 European Championship and a DHB Cup with Fuchse, he surprisingly received a call-up by Sigurdsson for the first time last September for a friendly game against Switzerland, after only 21 Bundesliga appearances to his tally. “I was surprised as well, I didn’t expect to play that soon for the national team,” Drux admits. “I said to myself though, ‘here is your chance’, and I promise do my best to help our national team rise again.” Drux, who studies industrial engineering, believes that there is life besides sports and Paul Drux (left) of Germany attempts to score past of Mahmoud Khalil of Egypt during their round of 16 match in Doha on Monday. (Reuters) holds that although handball at that level is very demanding and competitive, one will never enjoy it if he never tries to discover its joyous side as well. Germany’s mostly young players are surely having the time of their life in Doha and enjoying early success, although few expected them to reach that level of play. “I don’t know what people believed, but we came here counting that we would definitely beat Argentina and Saudi Arabia and that we would have serious chances to defeat Russia and Poland. The game in which we pushed ourselves beyond our limits was that against Denmark.” After four wins and a draw at the group stage, Drux is longing for the start of the next challenge, the knock-out games. “I feel really excited with what I have seen so far. I will try my best to help my team progress and reach the highest possible ranking.” The first obstacle for Germany at the knock-out stage were the Pharaohs, who despite finishing fourth in their group, held off Sweden and had a large contingent of fans cheering for them every game. Germany got past them 23-16 to set up a clash with hosts Qatar in the quarter-finals. GulfSTAR Group of companies - exclusive dealers for Tonino Lamborghini Officina Gastronomica luxury products, Italy, in Qatar and the UAE - as official sponsors of the 24thMen’s World Handball Championship Qatar 2015, introduced the exclusive Tonino Lamborghini Lounge at the event through STAR Hospitality (a subsidiary of the GulfSTAR Group). The prototype and Premium Lounge are located in the VIP areas at the three stadia. “The launch of the Lounges for us is very timely considering the 24th Men’s World Handball Championship is the first ever world sporting event to be hosted in Qatar after the World Cup announcement,” said Naveed Abdulla, business director of GulfSTAR Group. The Lounges have been well received by participants, spectators and VIPs alike and have their own Italian baristas, Italian service crew, products and merchandise of Tonino Lamborghini on display. “With the success of the Lounge, the GulfSTAR Group hopes to introduce this luxury concept to Qatar and the UAE, partnering with different hotels,” said Abdulla. GulfSTAR Group subsidiary Doha Rocks Cafe (DRC), which recently celebrated its 40th anniversary in Qatar, was also present at the Handball Championship with nine DRC outlets – one in each stadium, and six outlets in the fanzone – providing international as well as Arabic healthy cuisine to fans at the event. “Our aim is to continue supporting sporting events in Qatar and in keeping with this, over the last two years Doha Rocks has signed contracts with several internationally recognized brands to introduce new and notable products to all our clients,” said Abdulla. Doha Rocks Café is associated with many of the sporting events in Qatar, including the IHF 2014 Super Globe Qatar, the 2014 Qatar National Sports Day celebration at Aspire Park, the Female University Football tournament 2014, the Middle East Shuttle Badminton tournament 2014, the Gulf Cricket tournament 2014 and the Rugby Ramadan League 2014. 3 4 Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 TENNIS SPOTLIGHT / AUSTRALIAN OPEN POSITIVE THINKING Berdych ends his eight-year losing run to stun Nadal Nadal disappointed with exit but content with his comeback ‘We set up the right tactics. Then I was able to execute that on the court. That’s what I’m really happy about... I need to look forward. The tournament is still long way to go’ Rafael Nadal reacts after losing to Tomas Berdych yesterday. Reuters Melbourne A Czech Republic’s Tomas Berdych celebrates after victory in his men’s singles match against Spain’s Rafael Nadal on day nine of the 2015 Australian Open in Melbourne. AFP Melbourne C zech Tomas Berdych ended a demoralising run of outs to dump a struggling Rafael Nadal out of the Australian Open in a straight sets triumph to reach the semi-finals yesterday. The seventh seed finally mastered the Spanish 14-time Grand Slam champion 6-2, 6-0, 7-6 (7/5) in 2hr 13min and will face Britain’s Andy Murray for a place in the final. It ended a record-equalling 17-match winning run Nadal had over Berdych, who claimed his second consecutive semi-final appearance in Melbourne after losing to Stan Wawrinka last year. Only Bjorn Borg over Vitas Gerulaitis and Ivan Lendl against Tim Mayotte had chalked up 17-match head-to-head winning streaks on the ATP Tour. “I was definitely ready for it and set up my plan pretty well and I stuck with that through those three sets,” Berdych said. “I was expecting a very tough battle but I was ready for everything and I think that was the biggest thing from the past matches with Rafa. “I started pretty well, but you are playing Rafa and you have to keep going until the last point.” Nadal’s miserable performance was just statistically better than his worst Grand Slam result. He won only eight games, two more than the six games he took off Juan Martin del Potro in the semi-final at the 2009 US Open. The world number three also failed to win a game in the second set for his first ‘bagel’ at a Grand Slam since against Roger Federer in the 2006 Wimbledon final and Andy Roddick in the second round at the 2004 US Open. It was a big start to the new season for Berdych and his new coach Dani Vallverdu, who formerly was part of the Andy Murray team. “We set up the right tactics. Then I was able to execute that on the court. That’s Collated Results Collated results from day nine of the Australian Open at Melbourne Park yesterday: MEN’S SINGLES Quarter-finals Tomas Berdych (CZE x7) bt Rafael Nadal (ESP x3) 6-2, 6-0, 7-6 (7/5) Andy Murray (GBR x6) bt Nick Kyrgios (AUS) 6-3, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 WOMEN’S SINGLES Quarter-finals Ekaterina Makarova (RUS x10) bt Simona Halep (ROU x3) 6-4, 6-0 Maria Sharapova (RUS x2) bt Eugenie Bouchard (CAN x7) 6-3, 6-2 what I’m really happy about,” said Berdych, who hit 46 winners and won 82 percent of his first serves. “I was playing a really good game. But I just need to look forward. The tourna- ment is still long way to go.” Nadal, who won the Australian title in 2009 and was a beaten finalist last year, looked out of sorts and his serve was broken five times to fall behind two sets to love. Berdych swooped on the misfiring Spaniard, reeling off a backhand return winner for the second set after just one hour on court. Nadal lost nine straight games before he held service in the second game of the third set, with plenty of concerned looks in his player box courtside as the errors kept flowing off his racquet. “I am feeling okay, it was just not my day. I didn’t play with the right intensity, with the right rhythm, and the opponent played better than me,” Nadal said. “I helped him a lot in the beginning. It’s easier to play well when you are up in the score, one break up, two breaks up from the beginning of every set. That’s a big deal, big difference.” Nadal competed more in the third set which went to a tiebreaker but Berdych’s sledgehammer forehand was decisive. fourth-round thrashing of big-serving South African Kevin Anderson had given Rafa Nadal hope he might be back to his best, but the Spaniard’s limited preparations came back to haunt him against Tomas Berdych at the Australian Open yesterday. The rangy Czech played majestically to reach his second semi-final at Melbourne Park, upsetting Nadal 6-2 6-0 7-6(5) to snap a record 17-match losing streak against the 14-times grand slam champion. Nadal battled hard to keep in touch in the third set and nervelessly saved two match-points to take the decider into a tiebreak. But the horse had well and truly bolted when Berdych wrapped up the first two sets in a breathtaking hour of clean hitting. “The third was the right set, the right game that I have to play. But it is obvious that before I didn’t play with the right confidence, with the right intensity, losing court, playing very short,” Nadal told reporters. “I make him play very easy. So you cannot expect to win matches in quarter-finals of grand slams helping the opponent to play well. That’s what I did.” Nadal played only seven matches in the second half of 2014 after being dumped out of Wimbledon by Australian teenager Nick Kyrgios as he struggled to recover from a wrist injury and then appendicitis. His one lead-up match to his four at Melbourne Park was a first-round loss to German journeyman Michael Berrer at the Qatar Open. Following a straight sets win over first-round opponent Mikhail Youzhny, Nadal suffered heavy cramping in his body against American Tim Smyczek, needing to summon every ounce of his will to get through the fivesetter. Against Berdych, he appeared to be troubled by a leg problem early and was seen taking a pill in the third set. He refused to blame fitness problems for his slow start, however, with the Czech having kept him pinned behind the baseline and outpointed with a series of imperious winners. “As I said when I arrived here, the process always is not easy,” said Nadal, who wrote off his chances of winning the tournament in the leadup. “When you have injuries, it’s difficult the comebacks. There are so many examples around the world of sport that have been tough to be back. “For me, I’m not an exception on that, no? I have to take the positive things. Without being at my top level of tennis I was able to be here in quarterfinals. “It’s not a bad result at all for me arriving here the way I arrived: only with one match, only with five matches in seven months. So taking the positive part, that’s the thing that I have to take.” LESSONS LEARNT Kyrgios bows out with good memories BOTTOMLINE Calm Murray ends Kyrgios run AFP Melbourne A ndy Murray’s used his greater experience to master exciting Australian teenager Nick Kyrgios and reach the Australian Open semi-finals yesterday, with the Scot content with where his game is at. The British sixth seed, a three-time runner-up, downed the unseeded 19-year-old 6-3, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 in 2hr 5min and will face seventh seed Czech Tomas Berdych for a place in Sunday’s final. The Scot was far too composed and steady for the mercurial Kyrgios and took his record over Australian players to 11-0 before a partisan home crowd. Murray grabbed three service breaks and only conceded a service break deep in the final set to underline his dominance over the 53rd-ranked Kyrgios. He hit 48 winners and just 28 unforced errors, while serving 13 Andy Murray of Britain celebrates his victory over Nick Kyrgios of Australia in their men’s singles match on day nine. aces and winning 80 percent of his first serves. Kyrgios played at his usual high tempo and made 38 errors, 22 of them off his forehand, while winning 65 percent first serves. “It was a tricky match in windy conditions and I tried to start as quickly as possible because I know how dangerous Nick is,” Murray said. “Against Nick he is a huge hitter of the ball so I tried to keep it out of his strike zone as much as possible, but in the wind if you can use the slice and keep the ball low it is difficult to control. “I played a slightly different style tonight and thankfully it worked.” Murray reached the semifinals of the Australian Open for the fifth time where he will take on Berdych, who holds a 6-4 winning record over the Scot. “It’s nice to be in the latter stages of a slam again,” Murray said. “I’m happy with that. All you can do is prepare as best you can, which I certainly did over the last few weeks and months, and have given myself an opportunity.” Murray, who also dealt with the enormous pressure of home expectation when he was a younger player, spoke highly of Kyrgios. “I’ve spent a little bit of time with him and I think he’s a good person,” Murray said. “I don’t think he’s a bad guy. He’s nice. He’s always been polite and respectful. “Maybe he does the odd thing on the court that might annoy some people, but I don’t think he does anything with bad intent. “He’s only going to continue to mature and improve in that respect as he gets older. He just needs to be allowed to grow up. Everyone makes mistakes when they’re that age.” Kyrgios, who received a code violation warning from the chair umpire for an audible obscenity in the eighth game of the opening set, relished the chance to play on the big stage at the Australian Open. “It was a really good experience. That was my first Aussie Open Grand Slam match playing on Rod Laver, so that was really cool,” Kyrgios said. Reuters Melbourne T eenager Nick Kyrgios bowed out of the Australian Open yesterday having shown further proof of his prodigious talent but he leaves Melbourne Park with three smashed racquets, code violations and concerns about his on-court histrionics. The 19-year-old Australian was handed a code violation for an audible obscenity in his 6-3, 7-6(5), 6-3 quarter-final loss to Andy Murray and was lucky not to receive another when he smashed his racquet during the second set tiebreak. A second code violation would have meant a docked point, handing Murray the set, but it went unpunished like a number of transgressions during Kyrgios’s tense five-set win over Andreas Seppi in the previous round. Though officials were slack, Australian media were less forgiving, criticising the mohawked player for swearing at fans, abusing linesmen and show-boating after outrageous shots. Murray appeared irked by the Australian at times, and wore a face of thunder when Kyrgios, nicknamed ‘Wild Thing’, stuck his racquet over the net in a mock attempt to block a smash from the Scot. The sixth seed was far more magnanimous in victory, however, urging the Rod Laver Arena crowd and Australia, desperate for a new men’s champion but intolerant of ‘show-offs’, to cut the player some slack. “I actually think he’s quite respectful on the court in many ways,” Murray told reporters. “Yeah, he gets frustrated with himself and sometimes says things he shouldn’t, but everyone, I would think, has done that in some way when they’re 19. “It just happens that when he’s doing it he’s playing in front of a large audience and it gets picked up on.” The match against Murray was a wake-up call for Kyrgios. “They all have their positives. Murray, it’s incredible how many balls he gets back into play,” said Kyrgios, who upset Rafa Nadal at Wimbledon last year on the way to the quarter-finals. “There were points I’d be winning five times over, he’d be making me play an extra ball. Those guys are unbelievable athletes. They’re another level. I think that’s what stands out most.” Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 5 TENNIS SPOTLIGHT WHAT IFS... Sharapova defeats heir apparent Bouchard with ease Bouchard full of regrets as Grand Slam chance goes begging ‘I felt pretty good from the start. I kept my focus throughout the whole match’ Eugenie Bouchard reacts during her match against Maria Sharapova. AFP Melbourne C anadian seventh seed Eugenie Bouchard admitted she was full of regrets yesterday after blowing the chance to make a Grand Slam statement against second seed Maria Sharapova at the Australian Open. The 20-year-old, hyped as the rising star of a new generation destined for glory at the majors, was seeded seventh at Melbourne Park but looked outclassed in her quarter-final against the Russian five-time Slam champion. Bouchard lost 6-3, 6-2 in her fourth straight defeat to Sharapova, including a semi-final loss at the French open last year. She went into the match vowing to take the fight to the world number two but made too many mistakes going for big winners, conceding a break in the first game from which she never recovered. “I felt under pressure the whole time, a bit on my back foot,” she said “I mean, that’s not how I want to play. I feel like I didn’t start well, and it kind of all went downhill from there. “It’s definitely easier when you have a good start to the match.” Bouchard insisted she had chances to win the match, including two break points in the first set, but failed to seize them. “I know I could have done better for sure, so I’m disappointed with that, with not taking the few chances I got here and there,” she said. “Against great players, you have to take every little chance you can get. Disappointed I couldn’t do better with those.” Bouchard was the most consistent player at Grand Slams last year, making the Australian and French semis along with the Wimbledon final. She said her dream of a maiden Grand Slam was still alive. “I’m never happy with losing. I wanted to obviously win today, win the tournament,” she said. “I always want to do better, especially than the year before. I’m always trying to aim for that.” FOCUS Russia’s Maria Sharapova celebrates after victory in her women’s singles match against Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard on day nine of the 2015 Australian Open. AFP Melbourne T ennis’ reigning superstar Maria Sharapova flicked aside heir apparent Eugenie Bouchard in the Australian Open quarter-finals yesterday, hitting peak form as the tournament progresses. The Russian five-time Grand Slam champion, seeded second, crushed the Canadian seventh seed 6-3, 6-2 to see off the challenge from a new generation and sound a warning to rivals at Melbourne Park. The win sets up an all-Russian final four clash tomorrow with Ekaterina Makarova, the 10th seed. Sharapova, 27, won the Australian title in 2008 and can seize the world number one ranking off arch-rival Serena Williams if she repeats the feat this year. She was never troubled against Bouchard, 20, the photogenic rising star who has constantly been compared to Shara- pova and touted as the leading light of a group of young guns destined for Grand Slam success “I felt pretty good from the start. I thought I had a really good start. I kept my focus throughout the whole match,” the Russian said. “I didn’t feel that I had too many let downs, which is important. When I did have a few slips I was able to come out with great first serves or really powerful returns. Overall really happy with the way the match went.” Bouchard conceded an early break in her quest for big winner and never recovered, admitting: “I didn’t start well and it kind of all went downhill from there.” Sharapova said she was steadily improving after surviving a major scare in the second round, when she was one point away from an early cab to Melbourne airport. “Am I happy that I was able to lift my game after having a couple of matches where I wasn’t satisfied? Yeah, absolutely,” she said. “But the toughest is what’s to come. I hope that I’ll be able to take that and play even better.” TRICKY LEFTY Sharapova has a 5-0 record over the lefthanded Makarova, whose previous best results in Australia came when she reached the quarter-finals in 2012 and 2013. “I’m also facing an opponent that wasn’t necessarily a favourite coming into that stage. That’s always a tricky situation because she’s going to come into that match free and almost happy to be in that situation, and that’s dangerous. “I haven’t faced a lefty in this tournament yet. She’s been using her lefty serve extremely well from what I’ve seen.” Sharapova drew first blood against Bouchard with a break in the opening game as the Canadian fired a backhand wide, with the Russian going on to easily hold serve. Bouchard, playing her childhood idol, looked nervous and was in danger of conceding another break when she double faulted in the fifth game before steadying and forcing a mistake from Sharapova. She went into the match vowing to play her shots and was true to her word, putting the pressure on with two break points in the next, only to overcook her backhand both times and send both chances long. Sharapova’s composure never wavered and she brought up two set points on Bouchard’s serve at 5-3, hitting the first in the net but clinching the second when the Canadian’s attempt to go down the line went wide. Bouchard’s error rate continued to climb as she went for big winners in the second set and Sharapova seized a decisive break in the fourth game. The seventh seed never recovered, burying her head in her hands at the changeover before her misery ended after one hour 17 minutes. Venus Williams of USA celebrates her win against Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland during the Australian Open at Melbourne Park. Reuters Melbourne S BOTTOMLINE Dark horse Makarova into semis sitting here and you’re asking me questions. “But over there, yeah, I’m showing my best tennis. That’s what I’m really love to do and for what I’m living actually. It’s really enjoyable time out there.” AFP Melbourne A ustralian Open dark horse Ekaterina Makarova of Russia raced into the semifinals yesterday as opponent Simona Halep admitted she was stressed and froze on the big stage. Makarova, seeded 10, easily overcame the Romanian third seed 6-4, 6-0 to set up an allRussian final four showdown with world number two Maria Sharapova. The 26-year-old has made the quarter-finals at Melbourne Park twice previously but never before advanced to the semis in seven attempts. “I love it, it’s a great feeling that I came through,” she said. “She’s a tough opponent. I lost to her two years ago (in New Haven). I’m used to being in the quarters, so now I have to get used to being in the semis.” Halep, renowned as one of the Williams sisters look to turn back clock in quarter-finals today Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova celebrates after defeating Romania’s Simona Halep in their quarter-final match at the Australian Open. toughest fighters on tour, admitted she froze when it mattered most, allowing Makarova to serve up a dreaded 6-0 “bagel” to the world number three. In contrast, Makarova said she was uncomfortable with the media hype that surrounds some players but felt at home on centre court. “I’m not shy on the tennis court. It’s a big stage,” she said told reporters. “It’s a different situation, maybe, to when I’m SOFT HANDS Halep made a nightmare start, trailing 3-0 on the back of two early breaks, thanks to two double faults and a rash of unforced errors. She broke back in the fourth game and had her chances in the eighth but struggled as the taller Makarova went for tight angles, forcing Halep wide of the baseline. “I was expecting she would hit more stronger, but she didn’t. She played very soft tennis today,” Halep said. “She opened the angles very well, so was a different game. She played well. She served very well. Her lefty slice is not easy to give the ball back.” The nuggety Romanian said she was not herself on court. “It was not really pressure, just a little bit stressed. I don’t know why,” she said. She survived one set point with an ace at 5-3 and another with a blistering forehand return as Makarova served in the next game, but the Russian took it on the third attempt after 39 minutes. Makarova, her right thigh heavily strapped, showed no sign of impaired movement, pouncing on a weak Halep return to pressure her opponent in the opening game of the second set. Halep double faulted again, going on to lose her third service game of the match. She again had chances with four break points in the next game but Makarova held on and proceeded to score another break of her own as Halep’s returns failed to find their mark. By this stage Halep’s trademark fighting qualities had deserted her and the world number three meekly handed Makarova another break to concede the match. erena and Venus Williams will be looking to turn back the clock almost six years when they play their quarter-finals at the Australian Open today. The American sisters face the possibility of meeting each other in a grand slam for the first time since the 2009 Wimbledon final if they can first overcome tricky opponents on Rod Laver Arena, with Venus having the toughest challenge. The 34-year-old will have to deal with teenage compatriot Madison Keys, who is widely considered one of the cleanest strikers of a tennis ball in both the men’s and women’s game. Keys blasted the hard-hitting two-times Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova off the court in the third round, with the Czech stating she had been under immense pressure from the Lindsay Davenport-coached 19-year-old. “Yeah, definitely some similarities,” Venus said when asked about the influence Davenport may be having on Keys. “Madison hits a clean ball, goes for it. “Lindsay used to hit a clean ball. She was so fun to watch play. I loved watching her play. Of course, didn’t love watching her hit those clean balls against you. “So it looks like it’s a good match.” Serena, who had a shaky start to her fourth round match with Garbine Muguruza will need to be at her best from the start against last year’s beaten finalist Dominika Cibulkova, who beat two-times champion Victoria Azarenka. Men’s top seed Novak Djokovic, will also be on court in the last match of the day on Rod Laver Arena against Canada’s Milos Raonic. Djokovic, who is yet to drop a set during the tournament, met Raonic three times on tour last year and during the Davis Cup with the Serb winning each match. Raonic, however, has improved his fitness and Djokovic said the Canadian’s big serve would be a concern. Men’s champion Stan Wawrinka will also face a stiff challenge against Japan’s Kei Nishikori in the other match. Today’s order of play Order of play on the main showcourt on day nine of the Australian Open today (prefix denotes seeding; play begins at 0000 GMT). Rod Laver Arena Madison Keys (U.S.) v 18-Venus Williams (U.S.) Not before 0130 1-Serena Williams (U.S.) v 11-Dominika Cibulkova (Slovakia) Not before 0300 4-Stan Wawrinka (Switzerland) v 5-Kei Nishikori (Japan) From 0815 1-Novak Djokovic (Serbia) v 8-Milos Raonic (Canada) 6 Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 CRICKET SPOTLIGHT Pakistan player hit for six by ghost sighting AFP Christchurch A Pakistani cricketer on tour in New Zealand was hit for six when he saw what he believed was a ghost haunting him in his hotel room, the team manager said yesterday. Haris Sohail was convinced a “supernatural” presence was haunting him when he awoke Saturday night to find his bed moving, team manager Naveed Akram Cheema said. Cheema told Fairfax media that Sohail called a member of the coaching staff who arrived to find the 26-year-old all-rounder “visibly shaken”. Sohail, a left-arm spinner and middle-order batsman, spent the rest of the night in the coach’s room at the Rydges Latimer hotel in Christchurch before being moved to another room. The cricketer tweeted on Sunday, “Allah always answers your duas”. A dua is a form of Muslim prayer. One of his followers tweeted back: “It’s nice to hear that you recovered from that incident in New Zealand. May Allah protect you.” Another replied: “You’ve faced down Shaitaan (the devil), the Kiwis should be easy. Best wishes.” The hotel’s management declined to comment on the incident, referring enquiries to Pakistan team officials who explained that the cricketer was suffering from a fever at the time. “We think it was the fever that caused it (but) the player still believes his bed was shaken by something and it was a supernatural something,” Cheema said, adding that Sohail had been examined by the team doctor and was found to be in good health. Sohail was reportedly unable to train for two days after the incident and scored six when batting at number four Tuesday against a New Zealand President’s XI. The 4.5-star Rydges Latimer has been rebuilt since the 2011 earthquake that devastated Christchurch and claimed 185 lives. There have been no overnight earthquakes recorded in Christchurch since the Pakistan team arrived. It is not the first time an international cricketer has complained of ghostly goings-on in the night. In 2005 several of the Australian party complained of paranormal activity at Lumley Castle hotel, which looms over Durham county’s Riverside ground. The 600-year-old castle is rumoured to be haunted by Lily, an aristocratic lady murdered in the 14th century. Watson to raise money for charity during World Cup Apart from winning the World Cup, star Australian all-rounder Shane Watson has added motivation to be fit for the One-Day International (ODI) showpiece, where he’ll be raising money for research into motor neuron disease (MND). Watson has pledged to donate $200 for every boundary he hits, $300 for each six and the same amount per a wicket, reports news.com.au. “No extra motivation is needed during a World Cup but this certainly provides it, to know that every time I find the middle of the bat and score runs ... means I continue to raise money for such an important cause,” he said. The 33-year-old said he was inspired by MND sufferer and founder of Cure 4 MND, Dr Ian Davis, whom he met a few months ago. “From that day onwards, (I was) blown away by Ian’s courage and how tireless he’s working to try and make a difference,” he said. “After talking to him I realised this was a way I could have some impact in a worldrenowned tournament so hopefully we can continue to get (the message) out there.” MAJOR BLOW Pietersen’s England hopes hit again as Surrey rule out return ‘I think playing once a week doesn’t work in the UK, especially if you want to get good players in the teams’ By Chris Stocks The Guardian K evin Pietersen’s hopes of playing Test cricket for England again have been handed another major blow after Surrey decided not to re-sign the controversial batsman. The county de-registered Pietersen just days before the release of his controversial autobiography last October. Now the Guardian understands Surrey have completely ruled out bringing him back. Speaking last October, Pietersen said: “I am in contact with Surrey because I love Surrey and Graham Ford, my mentor, is the coach there.” Surrey’s recent recruitment of the Sri Lanka great Kumar Sangakkara for next summer indicated there would be no way back for Pietersen. And his high market value combined with the recent reduction in the salary cap for counties from £2.19mn to £1.97mn has killed off any prospect of a return. It brings to an end Pietersen’s four-year association with Surrey and, unless another county offers him a deal, raises the very real prospect that he will have no future involvement in English cricket. Without a county deal, it is unlikely Pietersen would play any red ball cricket, making a Test return all but impossible. Pietersen was sacked by England last February in the aftermath of the team’s humiliating Ashes whitewash in Australia. But his return to Australia in the past few weeks to play for Melbourne Stars in the Big Bash League has been an unbridled triumph. Improved form, including three half-centuries, and a well-executed charm offensive has seen Pietersen win over team-mates and a previously sceptical Australian public. His involvement in the T20 Kevin Pietersen’s four-year association with Surrey comes to an end. competition came to an end at the semi-final stage on Sunday when the Stars lost by 18 runs at Perth Scorchers, leaving the 34-year-old’s immediate future in limbo. Although he has another year to run on his Big Bash deal, Pietersen’s playing com- mitments elsewhere appear thin on the ground. As well as Surrey, Delhi Daredevils, the Indian Premier OPINION England are steadily improving: assistant coach League franchise who paid him £880,000 last year to captain the side, released him in December. Somerset, coached by Pietersen’s good friend Matthew Maynard, are one English county who could offer him a home. Yet the reduced salary cap, which put off a far wealthier county in Surrey, and Pietersen’s reluctance to base himself away from his west London home for any prolonged period would make that move appear a long-shot. Instead, he is more likely to continue attempting to play as a T20 gun for hire. Pietersen has the option of putting himself forward in this year’s IPL auction and if he were not to commit to an English county, could play a full season in the Caribbean Premier League following his brief spell with the St Lucia Zouks last year. Speaking before Sunday’s Big Bash semi-final, Pietersen did not endear himself to any potential county employer when he advocated the adoption of a franchise system for English cricket and when criticising the salary cap, branded jobbing professionals on the domestic circuit “muppets”. “They can learn because the franchise system does work,” he said. “Everybody has made it work. I think playing once a week doesn’t work in the UK, especially if you want to get good players in the teams. I tried it last year and found it very hard playing once a week. “What’s frustrating is they say they want to help homegrown players. But the best way to make them become better is to play against better players. Find a way to franchise county cricket. You would have 10 counties or franchises who play each other in Twenty20 or oneday cricket. “All the muppets who are on £18 grand, £15 grand, either you become better or you go and do something else. The best players would play against each other week in week out. That’s how you become better. You don’t do that by reducing salary caps.” Spinner Narine withdraws from Windies World Cup squad IANS Perth E ngland cricket team’s assistant coach Paul Farbrace yesterday said the Eoin Morgan-led team is working hard and improving all the time to give themselves the best chance of winning the World Cup which has eluded them from the beginning. The Englishman who was instrumental in Sri Lanka’s success last year, when they clinched both the Asia Cup and World Twenty20 titles, said anything was possible if they make it through to the knockout stages of the quadrennial tournament. “I wouldn’t sit here now and say we’re going to win the World Cup. What I would say is if you get through to the knockout stages anything is possible,” Farbrace was quoted as saying by bbc.com. “The aim is to get to the quarter-final and once you do then literally anything can happen. We know we’re improving all the time, we know we’re working really hard and we want to give ourselves the best chance we possibly can.” England cricket team’s assistant coach Paul Farbrace The 47-year-old also added that the team’s progress is exciting and they would be treating the knockout game against India this Friday in the tri-series as a great opportunity to test the squad in a pressure game. “I’d be foolish to say we’re developing that well we’re going to win the World Cup. But I do think there’s a lot of signs of really exciting progression,” he pointed out. “There are three games of knock-out [in the World Cup] once you get to that quarterfinal. That’s why Friday’s such a great opportunity to put the boys under real pressure in a semi-final game,” he added. Off-spinner Sunil Narine has withdrawn from the West Indies World Cup squad while he continues to work on his controversial bowling action, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) said yesterday. Narine was reported for a suspect action twice during the Champions League Twenty20 tournament in September and was unable to play in the final for his team Kolkata Knight Riders. Although not banned from international competition he was withdrawn from the West Indies squad for their tour of India and is not with the team currently playing in South Africa. He was named as part of the 15-man World Cup squad however and has been playing in regional cricket. “Narine has undergone intense remedial work on his bowling action and preliminary tests have shown him bowling all his deliveries under the 15 degrees flexion allowance,” the WICB said in a statement. “However, he requires more time to be able to confidently bowl for a sustained period in international cricket with his new action.” Narine indicated he needed more games and practice to get fully adjusted to his new action. “Going in to the World Cup is a little too much too soon and, after consulting the WICB, for both West Indies and my sake we have decided to delay my return to international cricket until I am 100% confident in all that I do,” Narine said. Narine would have been West Indies’ main spin bowler in the tournament. Slow left-armer Sulieman Benn is also in the squad and the WICB is expected to name a replacement for Narine soon. Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 7 CRICKET SPOTLIGHT Sri Lanka bank on Sanga-Mahela hit show AFP Colombo K umar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene will join hands for the last time in their brilliant careers to plot Sri Lanka’s World Cup campaign, hoping to make amends for two successive heartbreaks. The missing link in the enduring partnership between the two 37-year-olds that started at the turn of the century is the absence of a World Cup triumph despite coming so near. Jayawardene was captain when Sri Lanka reached the final of the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean, only to see Australia cruise to a 53-run win in neardarkness in Barbados. Four years later in India, Sangakkara was at the helm in the title clash when Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s home team inflicted a six-wicket defeat despite a magnificent 103 off 88 balls by Jayawardene. The two veterans, who go into the World Cup as the leading run-getters in one-day cricket among those still playing, took the setbacks in their stride and looked positively ahead at the future. “We may not have won those two tournaments, but reaching two successive finals showed we played consistently well,” said Jayawardene. “Hopefully we can cross the line this time.” Jayawardene will hang his boots after the World Cup, having already retired from Test and Twenty20 cricket last year to concentrate on his fifth appearance in the showpiece event. Sangakkara will also bid farewell to limited-overs cricket after the World Cup, but remains undecided about prolonging his Test career after enjoying a tremendous run with the bat in recent months. The World Cup gives both a last chance to bow out in a blaze of glory and the signs are already encouraging that this could be Sri Lanka’s year in Australia and New Zealand. In Sangakkara and Jayawardene’s final T20 appearance last April, Sri Lanka won the World Twenty20 in Bangladesh to end a drought of major titles since they took the World Cup in 1996. Angelo Mathews’ men won more one-dayers (20 out of 32) than any other team in 2014, including the Asia Cup title that also featured defending World Cup champions India and Pakistan. Sri Lankans dominate the run-getters’ list for the year gone by with left-handed Sangakkara leading the pack with Mahela Jayawardene (left) and Kumar Sangakkara. 1,256 runs, followed by Mathews in second place with 1,244 and opener Tillakaratne Dilshan in fourth with 990. Unorthodox spinner Ajantha Mendis topped the bowling charts with 38 wickets, but still failed to make the World Cup squad as the selectors went with left-armer Rangana Herath and off-spinner Sachithra Senanayake instead. Sri Lanka will sweat over the fitness of pace spearhead Lasith Malinga, who was picked for the World Cup in a gamble by the selectors despite being sidelined following an ankle surgery in September. The devastating sling-armer, 31, who is the only bowler in history to claim three hat-tricks in one-day internationals, is expected to be fit by the tournament opener against New Zealand on February 14, but is not guaranteed a place in the side yet. WORLD CUP 2015 AWARDS Smith wins Allan Border Medal AFP Sydney S teve Smith yesterday capped a remarkable season by sweeping the main awards at the annual Allan Border Medal ceremony, including Australian player of the year. The prolific batsman, who was promoted to national captain in the absence of the injured Michael Clarke, also took out the one-day and Test player awards. He was a runaway winner for the Allan Border Medal—judged on performances in Tests and one-dayers throughout the season—by polling 243 votes, ahead of David Warner (175) and Mitchell Johnson (126). He is only the third player to win the trifecta in the 10 years it has been running, following in the footsteps of Ricky Ponting in 2007 and Shane Watson in 2011. Other Allan Border Medal winners include Glenn McGrath, Steve Waugh, Adam Gilchrist, and Clarke. The 25-year-old smashed 1,756 runs in 22 matches last year at an average of 67.54 including eight 50s and seven hundreds. He narrowly held off Warner as Test player of the year and Aaron Finch for the one-day honour. Glenn Maxwell was rewarded for his efforts with bat and ball to win Twenty20 player of the year. The emotional high-point of the night came when Sean Abbott was named the Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year. The New South Wales allrounder has shown courage and maturity to bounce back from the tragic death of Phillip Hughes during a Sheffield Shield match in November. Abbott bowled the ball that killed Hughes and there were initially fears that the 22-year-old may be too traumatised to continue his career. But he quickly returned to play a key role for his state team and also performed well for the Sixers’ in the domestic Big Bash Twenty20 competition. “I feel privileged to receive such an award, especially after a couple of good seasons in a row on the field and some tough off seasons pushing myself to continually improve,” Abbott was quoted as saying by the Cricket Australia website Tuesday. The 22-year-old added that the prize was a reward for his hard work and that he was hopeful of a place in the Australian squad in the future. “I feel that this is a reward for a lot of good work and finally putting some consistent good performances together,” added Abbott. Pakistan hope to lurch from disaster to triumph ‘It would be the icing on the cake if I end my one-day career with the trophy’ AFP Wellington I f there is one team among the top eight at the World Cup which could either crash out embarrassingly in the first round or romp to the title, it’s Pakistan. The talented yet unpredictable side are haunted by injuries to their fast bowlers, the suspension of match-winning spinner Saeed Ajmal and a tussle for the captaincy between Misbah-ul Haq and Shahid Afridi. All seems to have settled down as Misbah’s men embark on a mission to match Imran Khan’s World Cup triumph— Pakistan’s only win—in Australia some 23 years ago. “This team has the spirit of cornered tigers,” said chief selector and former captain Moin Khan, a key member of 1992 winning team. “If they play to their potential this team can surprise the world.” Captain Misbah, who has recovered from a hamstring injury, is also confident of the best results. “The format of this World Cup is such that teams have a lot of opportunities,” said Misbah, who will retire from oneday cricket after the World Cup. “It would be the icing on the cake if I end my one-day career with the trophy.” But Misbah knows his bowling will miss Ajmal, who has single-handedly won matches for Pakistan before being suspended for an illegal bowling Pakistan cricket team captain Misbah-ul Haq will retire from one-day cricket after the World Cup. action last September. Spinning all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez—suspended in November last year also over an illegal bowling action—needs to clear a reassessment test to allow the right combination to Misbah. “It will be important that Hafeez clears the test because he is two-in-one and his bowling gives us the right combination,” CONFIDENCE BOOSTER Victory shows Windies can stack up: Holder IANS Port Elizabeth, South Africa C aptain Jason Holder believes the West Indies’ triumph in the fourth One-Day International (ODI) against South Africa was a reminder it can compete strongly with top sides in the world. Trailing 0-3 in the series, the West Indies Sunday bounced back to beat the Proteas by one wicket at St. George’s Park, after chasing down 263 with nine balls to spare, reports CMC. “We have known it from the start, that we have the ability to win cricket games. It’s just one or two mistakes that have cost us games - losing wickets in clusters, a dropped chance or even one or two big overs when we bowled,” said Holder Monday. “We just had a little blemishes in the field here and there but apart from that, I thought we played a really good game of cricket” “It’s all about putting together the complete game. Fortunately … we were able to get over the line even though I don’t think we played the complete the game in that we let it get down to number 11. “Having said that, it’s just good to get across the line, it does a lot for our morale.” Holder was the best bowler with four for 53 as the West Indies strung together a disciplined performance to limit the Proteas to 262 for eight, despite David Miller’s splendid unbeaten 130. The West Indies then fought their way out of trouble thanks to half-centuries from Andre Russell (64 not out), Marlon Samuels (68) and Darren Sammy (51). “I’m obviously very pleased. It’s been a tough tour so far and we’ve already lost the series but as I said before, it’s just about salvaging some pride and I was just very pleased to see how the guys came out and won this game …,” Holder pointed out. “Being three-nil down is not a good note but it was very fitting how the guys came out to this game and performed. They were always up for it, the attitude was very good. “We just had a little blemishes in the field here and there but apart from that, I thought we played a really good game of cricket.” said the captain. Lanky paceman Mohammad Irfan—the tallest man to ever play international cricket at 7 feet, one inch—is expected to be the X-factor in an otherwise inexperienced pace attack which will miss Umar Gul, not fit enough for the event after knee and ankle problems. “To me the X-factor in our team is Irfan. With his height I think he can be dangerous,” said coach Waqar Younis, who missed Pakistan’s World Cup win in 1992 with a back problem. In Ajmal’s absence, leg-spinner Yasir Shah, along with allrounder Afridi, will handle the spin department. Afridi, who will also quit one-day cricket after the World Cup, will be important too as a batsman in the slog overs as will be Umar Akmal, Misbah and Sohaib Maqsood. Pakistan’s top-order problem persists and will continue to haunt them as Hafeez opening the innings with Ahmed Shehzad doesn’t always guarantee a trouble-free start. They will hope experienced the Younis Khan and Misbah provide stability to the batting, for which the main problem lies in playing too many dot balls. Pakistan has the worst run-rate among the top ten teams in playing dot balls from over 11 to 40. Pakistan must win one of their first two matches—against arch-rivals India and the West Indies—in order to have easier passage into the last eight. If not, their qualification will rely on their last group B match against a dangerous Ireland team, the same opponents who ousted them in the first round of the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean. Defeat no reason for panic, assures de Villiers South African captain AB de Villiers has downplayed the significance of the defeat against the West Indies, as the side gears up for next month’s ICC World Cup. “It’s certainly not a wake-up call. We were wide awake and there is no doubt about the fact that we weren’t complacent,” de Villiers was quick to point out Monday, reports CMC. “We were on the money the whole time, we were fighting. After every wicket we spoke about being humble and working hard. “It came down to a bit of pressure towards the end and we lost. It’s a painful affair but we move on and we will try and finish on a high at Centurion.” South Africa Sunday rattled up 262 for eight after they were sent in, with David Miller slamming an unbeaten 130 - his maiden ODI century. In reply, the West Indies recovered from 73 for five in the 21st over, to chase down their target with nine balls to spare, thanks to Andre Russell’s unbeaten 64 from 40 deliveries. De Villiers said, however, there were areas were South Africa needed to improve going forward to the final ODI in Centurion starting today. “There were too many extras … which hurt me quite a bit,” he noted. “It was unfortunate that we leaked the extras; the no-balls and wides. If you are going to play close games of cricket it comes down to the little things like that. The one dropped catch by me, a couple of fumbles in the field. “All in all it was a great fight by us and I’m proud of the way we stuck to our plans and fought back.” South Africa lead the five-match series 3-1. 8 Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 SPORT NBA Thunder roll over struggling T-Wolves ‘Our second unit was good tonight. They were attacking and making plays’ Kobe Bryant has opted to have surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder that is expected to sideline him for the rest of the season. INJURY WOES AFP New York R Bryant set for torn rotator cuff surgery DPA Los Angeles L os Angeles Lakers star guard Kobe Bryant Monday, opted to have surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder that is expected to sideline him for the rest of the season, the club announced. Surgery is set for Wednesday, and a firm timetable will not be provided until after the procedure. Bryant made his decision after meeting on Monday with sports-medicine specialist, Dr Neal ElAtrache of the Kerlan Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic, who advised the surgery. On Friday, Bryant visited with team doctor Steve Lombardo who confirmed the earlier torn rotator cuff diagnosis. The Lakers star weighed his options over the weekend. Bryant’s last three seasons have been cut short by injuries. The banged up 36-yearold tore an Achilles tendon in April 2013. He then fractured NHL Rinaldo banned eight games for illegal hit his left knee last season before suffering the most-recent shoulder tear Wednesday following a dunk against New Orleans. Voted a Western Conference All Star starter last Thursday for a record 17th consecutive year, Bryant finished his 19th campaign averaging 22.3 points on a career-low 37.3% shooting in 35 games. Bryant has financial incentives to return. He earned 23.5mn dollars this season, and the future Hall of Famer has one more year left on his contract with the Lakers for 25mn dollars for the 201516 campaign. Meanwhile, Charlotte Hornets star guard Kemba Walker is to have surgery in New York to repair a torn lateral meniscus in his left knee, the club announced Tuesday. A timetable for his recovery will be determined following the procedure for the Hornets’ top scorer, who has missed three of the last five games with a cyst on the knee. In his fourth NBA season, Walker is averaging 18.8 points, 5.2 assists and 3.8 rebounds. ussell Westbrook drove the lane for some huge field goals and Reggie Jackson nailed key second half free throws as the Oklahoma City Thunder easily beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 92-84 on Monday. The Thunder cruised to the victory despite missing superstar forward Kevin Durant, who sat out with a sprained toe. Durant injured his left big toe in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s NBA contest against Cleveland. This was the 24th game Durant has missed this season after not playing in just 16 contests over his first seven seasons. Westbrook tallied 18 points and five assists and Serge Ibaka had 13 points and pulled down 19 rebounds as the Thunder won for the fourth time in their last six contests. Westbrook shot just seven-of-22 from the field in front of the crowd of 18,200 at Chesapeake Energy Arena but he battled through his shooting difficulties. Thaddeus Young finished with 22 points and eight rebounds, Andrew Wiggins provided 23 points and Gorgui Dieng snatched 18 rebounds for Minnesota, which has dropped five consecutive games. The Thunder led 21-19 late in the opening quarter before creating some breathing room following a 17-5 surge that stretched into the second. Anthony Morrow and Jackson jump-started the run with baskets and Oklahoma City led 2519 after the first quarter. Dion Waiters banked in a fadeaway jumper and then drained a thee-pointer before finding Jackson on an alley-oop dunk to cap the run and give the Thunder a 38-24 cushion half- Oklahoma City Thunder guard Dion Waiters dribbles the ball as Minnesota Timberwolves guard Zach LaVine defends during the third quarter at Chesapeake Energy Arena on Monday. way through the second quarter. Perry Jones’ reverse layup at the first half buzzer gave the Thunder a 48-40 lead at halftime. Consecutive Young baskets finished off a 10-2 flurry to help Minnesota pull within 57-54 midway through the third quarter. Oklahoma City answered by closing the third on an 8-2 run. Jackson sank three free throws to help extend the lead and give the Thunder a 65-56 margin after three. Minnesota never got closer SPOTLIGHT P hiladelphia Flyers forward Zac Rinaldo has been slapped with an eight-game suspension for a check from behind on Pittsburgh star defenceman Kris Letang, the National Hockey League announced Monday. Rinaldo, of Canada, was given a five-minute penalty on the play after he charged towards and then jumped in the air before hitting an unsuspecting Letang who was trying to make a play along the side boards. Rinaldo was also thrown out of the game. Letang left last week’s contest and did not return. He also sat out the Penguins’ game Wednesday against Chicago. Rinaldo is a repeat offender. He was handed a four-game ban last April for an illegal check on Buffalo defenceman Chad Ruhwedel. Rinaldo was also suspended two games in 2012 for an illegal check on Detroit defenceman Jonathan Ericsson. power the New Orleans Pelicans to an easy 99-74 home victory over the lowly Philadelphia 76ers. It was the 12th time this season Davis has scored at least 30 points, and his 12-of-19 shooting sparked the Pelicans (24-21) to a fourth consecutive win and elevated them to three games above .500 for the first time since the 2010-11 season. Forward Zach Randolph and center Marc Gasol combined for 40 points, 20 rebounds and 10 assists as the Memphis Grizzlies beat the Orlando Magic 103-94. Randolph notched his ninth consecutive double-double with a game-high 24 points and 10 rebounds. Gasol finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds as the Grizzlies (32-12) earned their eighth consecutive victory over Orlando. Results Memphis 103 New Orleans 99 Oklahoma City 92 Boston 99 LA Clippers 102 Orlando Philadelphia Minnesota Utah Denver 94 74 84 90 98 NFL/SUPER BOWL Pats owner defends Impartial staff Brady, coach Belichick to handle AFP Los Angeles N AFP Toronto than seven points in the final quarter. “Our second unit was good tonight,” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. “They were attacking and making plays.” Elsewhere, Jamal Crawford led a fourth quarter comeback as the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Denver Nuggets 102-98. Crawford scored 21 of his 23 points in the final period as the Clippers recovered from a 10-point deficit to post their fifth consecutive victory. Forward Anthony Davis scored a game-high 32 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to ew England Patriots owner Robert Kraft defiantly defended his team, coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady on Monday as they opened Super Bowl week amid the football deflating controversy. Kraft said that if the NFL’s investigation into the affair clears the Patriots of wrongdoing, the league will owe the team, and in particular Brady and Belichick, an apology. “I’m disappointed with the way this entire matter has been handled and reported upon,” Kraft said. “We expect hard facts as opposed to circumstantial, leaked evidence to drive the conclusions of this investigation.” Kraft said he composed his unexpected statement on the flight from Massachusetts to Phoenix, where the Patriots will take on reigning NFL champions Seattle in Super Bowl 49 on Sunday. As the team traveled, Fox Sports reported that the NFL had obtained surveillance video of a Patriots locker room attendant, who took the Patriots’ footballs from the officials’ locker room to another room before bringing them onto the field for the AFC Championship game, in which the Patriots routed Indianapolis 45-7 to book their Super Bowl berth. Belichick and Brady have insisted they have no idea how footballs used by the team in the first half of the game New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft came to be under-inflated after meeting league inflation requirements in a pre-game inspection. Less inflated balls in cold and wet conditions such as those during the game with the Colts could make the “pigskin” easier to grip, throw and catch. Person of interest According to the Fox Sports report, citing an unnamed league source, the league was trying to determine if there was wrongdoing by the locker room attendant, who is considered a “person of interest.” But Ted Wells, the lawyer hired to lead the probe along with NFL executive vice president Jeff Pash, on Monday warned against jumping to conclusions during an investigation he expects to take several more weeks. “We are following customary investigative procedures and no one should draw any conclusions about the se- quence of interviews or any other steps, all of which are part of the process of doing a thorough and fair investigation,” Wells said in a statement. Wells added that in the meantime “it would be best if everyone involved or potentially involved in this matter avoids public comment concerning the matter until the investigation is concluded.” That was just the tack that Belichick and Brady took, after both fielded questions about the matter back in Foxborough last week. “I’ve spent quite a bit of time and had two lengthy press conferences about that,” Belichick said. “My attention has turned now to the Seattle Seahawks and our game Sunday. And that’s where it’s going to stay this week.” Twice more Belichick was asked about the affair dubbed “Deflategate” and both times he politely declined to discuss it. Brady said he had moved past his initial feelings of hurt at the suggestion he cheated. Now, the three-time Super Bowl winner, who will become the first quarterback to start six Super Bowls, said he hopes the team can focus on “important things” and “eliminate the distractions.” Locker room worker eyed in ‘Deflategate’: report The NFL is looking at a New England Patriots locker room attendant as it probes improperly inflated footballs used by the team in their playoff victory over Indianapolis, a report said. Fox Sports reported Monday on the latest twist in the scandal dubbed “Deflategate” even as the Patriots were flying into Phoenix for the Super Bowl, where they will face reign- ing champions Seattle on Sunday in the 49th edition of the NFL’s championship spectacular. According to the report, the NFL has interviewed the “person of interest” and is “trying to determine whether any wrongdoing by this individual occurred” after surveillance video showed the attendant taking the footballs from the officials’ locker room to another room before bringing them onto the field. game-day balls AFP Los Angeles L ike nearly everyone else in America, Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll knows more about footballs than he did a week ago as a controversy over deflated balls continued to dominate the Super Bowl buildup on Monday. Until the New England Patriots’ blowout victory in the AFC championship, game-day balls were seldom given a second thought but are now the subject of an NFL investigation. Everything from who has access to the balls, to the process for selecting them and the inflation figures have been debated. “Maybe everyone would think you should have seen it before but I never checked on how the whole process of how our footballs were handled until this week,” Carroll told reporters. “This one has not been looked at as maybe intently as it is now. I know every step of it now. ... So my awareness is up. It will never be the same because of what just happened.” Each year, 700,000 footballs are produced for official NFL use, including 72 that will be used in Sunday’s Super Bowl in Glendale, Arizona, between New England and Seattle. Given the current scandal, those 72 balls are likely to come under intense scrutiny. As is custom, the NFL’s pro- cedure for selecting Super Bowl balls, which must be inflated to between 12.5 and 13.5 pounds per square inch, will differ from other games during the season. Both teams’ quarterbacks will still be allowed to select the balls they want to use but, after that, independent equipment managers and ball attendants will handle the footballs. “Like many aspects of our policies and procedures, there are modifications for the Super Bowl,” NFL spokesman Michael Signora said in a statement. “Maybe everyone would think you should have seen it before but I never checked on how the whole process of how our footballs were handled until this week “At the Super Bowl, the equipment manager of another team (Bears, Tony Medlin) is in charge of the game balls and arranging for the ball attendant crews, which are hired before the Super Bowl teams are determined. “The officials will maintain strict control of the game balls for the Super Bowl.” Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson only concerns when it comes to footballs is that he has one to throw. “In terms of the football pregame, I just want to have a football out there to throw. That’s all I look forward to,” said Wilson. Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 9 SPORT SPOTLIGHT / SWIMMING STEP FORWARD Korea’s star Park left ‘shocked’ by his failed dope test ‘As a world-class swimmer for the last 10 years, Park Tae-hwan hasn’t taken so much as cold medicine, that’s how careful he’s been due to concerns about doping problems’ China’s anti-graft unit pledges to drop gold medal fever Reuters Beijing C hina’s sports regulator has pledged to drop the nation’s obsession with gold medals after the ruling Communist Party’s antigraft watchdog warned of the damaging extent of match-fixing and cheating in sports. China’s General Administration of Sport said the desire for gold medals has led to “a small number of athletes and coaches who will stop at nothing to achieve good results in competitions”. “The unscrupulous, illegal and fraudulent pursuit of gold medals not only distorts the spirit of sport, but also hurts career development and national interests, the agency said in a statement issued on Monday. “It undermines the image of sport and is contrary to its value. We must resolutely oppose this and effectively eliminate it,” it said. The sports regulator compiled the report in response to findings made by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the party’s anti-corruption agency, which had discovered fraud and match-fixing. China will scrap awards to provinces whose athletes win Olympic and Asian Games gold medals, as well as the ranking of provinces and cities by golds won at National Games that are held every four years, the agency said. Chinese sport, in particular soccer, has long been beset by corruption and match-fixing scandals. The anti-corruption drive since 2009 has jailed or punished at least nine officials, four judges, 13 footballers or coaches and 17 club workers. President Xi Jinping, an avid football fan, has bemoaned the corruption-blighted game in China as a national embarrassment. Last year, news emerged that Sun Yang, China’s most successful male swimmer, had been secretly banned from swimming after he tested positive for the stimulant trimetazidine, sparking an outcry. During the London Olympics in 2012, Chinese bloggers expressed their disgust after media reported that the parents of Olympic diver Wu Minxia had concealed her mother’s long battle with breast cancer for fear of disturbing her training. GOLF / RYDER CUP Clarke or Jimenez for captain’s role Reuters Dubai T In this file photo, South Korea’s Park Tae-hwan prepares to compete in the final for the men’s 400m freestyle event during the 17th Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea. Reuters Seoul S outh Korean swim star Park Taehwan has been left “shocked” by a failed doping test, which local media said was a result of a local hospital injecting him with testosterone. Yonhap News agency quoted Seoul prosecutors as saying yesterday the hospital had testified it gave Park the shot but did not realise it was against World Anti-Doping Agency regulations. The report said Park had already been questioned by prosecutors, and that the doctor who gave him the injection could face charges of negligence. A two-time world champion, Park became the first South Korean to win an Olympic swimming medal when he powered to gold in the 400 metres freestyle at the 2008 Beijing Games. His wholesome, clean-cut image and poster-boy looks have made him one of the most celebrated athletes in South Korea, where he is known affectionately as ‘Marine Boy’, and while his performances in the pool have dipped in recent years his popularity has never wavered. The smiling face of endorsements for milk, headache pills, air conditioners, and communications equipment, Park was also a goodwill ambassador for the ‘Dynamic Korea’ promotion aimed at boosting Korea’s image abroad. Under the strict rules applied by doping authorities, Park could still face punishment even if he was unaware that he had been injected with a banned substance, and a lengthy ban could derail his hopes of swimming at the 2016 Rio Olympics. An official from the Korea Swimming Federation, who asked not to be named, told Reuters that the test had been conducted in early September, before the Asian Games. The federation and Park had been informed of the result in late October or early November, the official said, adding that the swimmer would have to attend a hearing with swimming’ s world governing body FINA on Feb. 27 to answer the doping charge. The official said other details would be revealed at a news conference after the prosecution had wrapped up its probe. ‘MORE SHOCKED THAN ANYONE’ Park’s agency, Team GMP, said the swimmer had repeatedly asked the hospital if the injection contained illegal substances but had been assured it was safe. Park had been offered free treatment at a local hospital two months ahead of the Sept. 19-Oct. 4 Asian Games in Incheon, the South Korean city west of Seoul which named its aquatics venue after the swimmer. “As a world-class swimmer for the last 10 years, Park Tae-hwan hasn’t taken so much as cold medicine, that’s how careful he’s been due to concerns about doping problems and illegal substances,” Team GMP said in a statement. “Park is more shocked by this result than anyone else.” The statement said the 25-year-old had passed several doping tests conducted during the Asian Games. South Korean athletes have been rela- tively free of drugs scandals, though top badminton player Lee Yong-dae was almost suspended for the Asian Games after administrative errors led to him missing doping tests. A one-year ban imposed by the Badminton World Federation was wiped out after the country’s governing body said it had failed to keep the federation apprised of the player’s whereabouts. The news also comes just months after Park’s great rival, China’s Sun Yang, was found to have failed a doping test. Sun, winner of two gold medals at the 2012 London Olympics, served a threemonth suspension in 2014 after testing positive for the banned stimulant trimetazidine during the national swimming championships last May. The China Anti-Doping Agency could have imposed a longer ban but said it decided on three months because Sun had been given medication, normally used to combat angina, by a doctor to treat a heart issue and was unaware it had been added to WADA’s banned list this year. he captain of the European side that will defend the Ryder Cup against the United States in Minnesota in 2016 will be Darren Clarke or Miguel Angel Jimenez, two stalwarts of the team said yesterday. World number two Henrik Stenson and sixth-ranked Sergio Garcia both believe it will be a straight fight between the Northern Irishman and the Spaniard over who replaces 2014 skipper Paul McGinley. “Most likely we’re going to see a race between Darren and Miguel,” Stenson told reporters on Tuesday ahead of this week’s Dubai Desert Classic. “That’s the beauty of being part of the Tournament Players Committee that no longer votes for it. I don’t have to put any thought into it, I just have to wait like everybody else until the result comes out.” The captain used to be decided by the players but it is now down to a five-man panel that includes former skippers McGinley, Jose Maria Olazabal and Colin Montgomerie. “They have got enough experience between them to come up with a good decision,” said Swede Stenson who has played in the biennial team event three times. “I believe they haven’t met yet. They haven’t managed to get that meeting together so I don’t know when it’s scheduled to happen.” Asked if Clarke or Jimenez would be the next captain, Garcia replied: “It looks like that. “I think those are the two big candidates and I think we are all excited to see how it turns out,” added Garcia who has made seven Ryder Cup appearances. RUGBY / ENGLAND Burgess could benefit from injury crisis AFP London BOTTOMLINE Armstrong says he would race R clean now but not back in 1995 Reuters London B anned cyclist Lance Armstrong says he would not have needed to resort to doping in the sport’s current era and what happened years ago should be seen in the context of the times. “If I was racing in 2015, no, I wouldn’t do it again because I don’t think you have to,” the Texan told the BBC in an interview on Monday. “If you take me back to 1995, when doping was completely pervasive, I would probably do it again.” A cancer survivor and once a hero to millions, Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France victories and banned for life from racing in 2012 by the US Anti-Doping Agency af- File picture of Lance Armstrong. ter it accused him in a report of engineering one of the most sophisticated doping schemes in sports. Following his return from cancer in the late 1990s, Arm- strong was regularly subjected to claims of doping, which he stoutly refuted until the release of USADA’s “reasoned decision”. The 200-page document— supported by a further 1,000 pages of evidence—finally led to Armstrong’s confession in an interview with US chat-show host Oprah Winfrey in January 2013. “When I made the decision (to dope in 1995), when my team made that decision, when the whole peloton made that decision, it was a bad decision and an imperfect time,” he said. “But it happened. And I know what happened because of that. I know what happened to the sport, I saw its growth.” Armstrong said he regretted the “unacceptable and inexcusable” behaviour with which he subjected other riders and figures within the sport during numerous attempts to rubbish their allegations of doping. “I would want to change the man that did those things, maybe not the decision, but the way he acted,” he continued. “The way he treated people, the way he couldn’t stop fighting. It was unacceptable, inexcusable.” His seven Tour victories between 1999 and 2005 have been rescinded but not assigned to anyone else because of the prevalence of doping at the time. The American was resolute when asked about the titles. “I think there has to be a winner, I’m just saying that as a fan. I don’t think it sits empty... I feel like I won those Tours,” he said. He is pondering reengaging with the cancer charity he stepped away from at the height of the scandal and is still lobbying to have his ban decreased so he can compete in sports like triathlon. Asked if people were ready for his return to public life, he said: “Selfishly, I would say ‘yeah, we’re getting close to that time’. ugby League convert Sam Burgess could see his bid to gain a place in England’s World Cup squad given a boost by the injury crisis engulfing Stuart Lancaster’s back division just weeks before the Six Nations starts. Now at English Premiership side Bath, where he has been played at centre, Burgess is set to play for the reserve England Saxons against the Irish Wolfhounds in Cork on Friday. Burgess, who returned home from Australia with the aim of being selected for the hosts’ World Cup squad, has made only a handful of first-team appearances for Bath since his switch from National Rugby League champions South Sydney Rabbitohs. However, the senior England midfield is struggling with several injury problems. Saracens centre Brad Barritt has a knee injury while Northampton counterpart Luther Burrell suffered concussion in the Saints’ 32-8 European Champions Cup thrashing by Racing Metro last weekend. Meanwhile, Burgess’s Bath colleague Kyle Eastmond (shoulder) and fly-half/centre Owen Farrell (knee) are also battling to be fit for England’s Six Nations opener against Wales in Cardiff on February 6. Jonathan Joseph and Billy Twelvetrees are the only fit centres currently in the England senior squad and while Lancaster has said it would be a “big, big ask” for the 26-year-old Burgess to feature in the Six Nations, a few more injuries could change the picture significantly. “Sam is certainly more than capable, his performance against Wasps at The Rec (Bath’s home ground) suggests he’s more than capable of playing international rugby,” said Saxons coach Jon Callard. “We’ll know probably a little more after Friday night. “I would have thought if I was a betting man, the seniors would want him to start (against the Wolfhounds).” 10 Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 FOOTBALL Ivorian striker Ya Konan returns to Hanover Eto’o signs two-and-a-half year deal with Sampdoria Milan’s Mexes banned for 4, Udinese’s Kone for 3 games Arsenal forward Campbell joins Villarreal on loan Rayo mourn death of former goalkeeper Wilfred Hanover 96 have re-signed Didier Ya Konan until the end of the season, with the option of an extra 12 months at the club beyond that, after the striker spent a short spell in Saudi Arabia. “I am coming home,” a beaming Ya Konan told reporters. “It is a great feeling, I am proud to be wearing the Hanover shirt again and playing in front of such fans.” The 30-year-old Ivorian, who scored 45 goals in 153 games in all competitions for the German club between 2009-14, left for Al-Ittihad last summer. Hanover are eighth in the Bundesliga which restarts on Friday after a winter break. Cameroonian striker Samuel Eto’o has joined Serie A side Sampdoria from Everton, the Premier League club said yesterday. The four-times African Footballer of the Year, who moved to Everton in August and scored four goals in 20 appearances, has signed a two-and-a-half year contract with Sampdoria. Eto’o, 33, helped Barcelona win the Champions League in 2009 and lifted the trophy again as an Inter Milan player the following year. He moved to Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala in 2011 in a deal that reportedly made him the highest paid footballer in the world before joining Chelsea in 2013. AC Milan defender Philippe Mexes has been handed a four-game ban over his assault on Lazio captain Stefano Mauri during a weekend game, the Lega Serie A said yesterday. Mexes was redcarded on Saturday in Rome for grabbing Mauri by the neck after a collision. He repeated his assault before leaving the pitch as other footballers intervened in the brawl. Greek forward Panagiotis Kone of Udinese was suspended for three games for pushing the referee in the chest after a second booking he received on Monday in a game against Empoli. Arsenal forward Joel Campbell has joined Villarreal on loan for the rest of the season, the Spanish club said yesterday. The Costa Rican’s move to Spain is part of a deal in which Arsenal are set to sign Villarreal’s Brazilian defender Gabriel Paulista, who has passed a medical in London. “Thanks to the whole family of Arsenal for their messages. I hope to make them proud,” Campbell said on Twitter alongside a photograph of him wearing a Villarreal scarf. The 24-year-old Paulista is poised to become Arsenal’s second signing of the January transfer window after Polish teenager Krystian Bielik. Rayo Vallecano’s former Nigerian goalkeeper Wilfred Agbonavbare passed away yesterday at the age of 48, the Spanish Liga club said. He died in hospital in the town of Alcala de Henares, close to Madrid, after a long battle against cancer. Wilfred started his career at Nigerian clubs New Nigeria Bank and BCC Liones, then played for Rayo between 1990 and 1996 before winding down his career with Spanish third division side Ecija. He was reserve goalkeeper for Nigeria at the 1994 World Cup. His most recent work was as a porter at Madrid’s Barajas airport. AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS Tunisia, Congo make quarter-finals; 2012 champs Zambia out Tunisia finish on top of Group B with five points, while Congo advance on goal difference Ahmed Akaichi of Tunisia celebrates his goal against the Democratic Republic of Congo during their 2015 African Cup of Nations Group B match, in Bata on Monday. (Reuters) DPA Bata, Equatorial Guinea T unisia and Democratic Republic of Congo both advanced to the quarter-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations on Monday with a 1-1 draw while 2012 champions Zambia and Cape Verde were eliminated after their 0-0 draw. Tunisia finished top of Group B with five points as Ahmed Akaichi scored for the 2004 champions in the 31st minute and Congo DR substitute Jeremy Bokila equalised after 66 minutes at the Estadio de Bata. Congo DR grabbed second place in the group with three and advanced on goal difference. Cape Verde picked up their third draw for three points in playing to a scoreless draw in Ebebiyin against Zambia, who finished last with two points. But both teams needed a victory to advance. In Saturday’s quarter-finals, Group A winners Congo will face off against Congo DR and Tunisia will play hosts Equatorial Guinea. Senegal face Algeria and South Africa take on Ghana in what are the final round of Group C matches. Tunisia missed two golden chances after 10 minutes as Ferjani Sassi had his QUARTER-FINAL MATCHES MOVED OVER PITCH CONCERNS This weekend’s African Nations Cup quarter-finals have been moved away from the small Equatorial Guinea towns of Ebebiyin and Mongomo due to concerns over the pitches. Saturday’s quarter-final between the host nation and Tunisia, scheduled for the 5,000-capacity Estadio de Ebebiyín, has been shifted to Bata, the Confederation of African Football said yesterday. It will be played as the second match in a double-header also involving the derby between Congo and Democratic Republic of Congo. Sunday’s quarter-final in Mongomo between the winners of Group C and runners-up in Group D, will now be played as the opening match of two at the Estadio de Malabo. The first games will kick off at 1600 GMT with the second moved 30 minutes later than originally scheduled at 1930 GMT. CAF cited concerns that the pitches in Ebebiyin and Mongomo would struggle to hold up beyond the pool phase, especially after torrential rain in the country on Monday. “The newly-installed pitches in Ebebiyin and Mongomo have been very satisfactory, allowing free flowing play during the group stages, and this despite having been installed only about one month ago,” a CAF statement read. “However, these two pitches have been adversely affected by a combination of wear and tear from the six games played or to be played in each of them and the unstable weather conditions seen lately. “Consequently, the CAF Executive Committee feels that the eight teams qualified for the quarter-final stages onwards should be given the opportunity to play on grounds that provide the highest standards, specifically those of Bata and Malabo, to ensure the quality of play remains shot cleared at the line by Congo DR’s Joel Kimwaki, and Yassine Chikhaoui shot the rebound wide from six yards out. Congo DR finally threatened in the 28th minute but Tunisia keeper Aymen Mathlouthi did a good job saving Jean Kasusula’s curling free kick over the wall from 20 yards out. Tunisia jumped ahead after 31 minutes with Chikhaoui chipping the ball over the backline to Akaichi, who headed home. at the highest possible level.” CAF had said it would discuss a change of venue when it became clear that hosts Equatorial Guinea would play their quarter-final in Ebebiyin. The recently-built stadium there is patently too small for the expected turnout as the country rides a euphoric wave after their surprise victory over their neighbours Gabon in the last group game on Sunday. Spectators broke through fences at the opening Nations Cup game in Bata on January 17. In other venues, segregated areas for VIPS and media have been overrun by supporters with poorly trained police unable to control them. Equatorial Guinea stepped in to host the tournament after Morocco was ruled out in November because it called for the tournament to be postponed over fears about the spread of the deadly Ebola virus. Georges Leekens’ team nearly doubled the lead just two minutes later but Chikhaoui’s goal was disallowed as the Zurich midfielder was ruled offside. Chikhaoui scored again a minute after the re-start but again was ruled offside. Wahbi Khazri should have doubled the advantage in the 64th minute but blasted it well over the bar with plenty of space. Congo DR made Tunisia pay for their inefficient play and scored the equaliser two minutes later. A long ball went to Dieumerci Mbokani for a header to the charging Bokila, who needed one touch before firing past Mathlouthi. Congo DR keeper Robert Kidiaba made a great save with 15 minutes left as Ali Maaloul crossed from the left side to Hamza Younes, whose shot was deflected over the bar. Heavy rains in Ebibeyin kept both Cape Verde and Zambia from creating a lot of chances. Zambia were close after 22 minutes but captain Rainford Kalaba had his shot deflected wide while Garry Rodrigues’s attempt went wide of the near post in the 35th minute for Cape Verde. The islanders had another opportunity just before the break but Toni Varela’s header went just over the bar. Zambia keeper Kennedy Mweene made a fine save against Djaniny in the 66th minute. Knowing that one goal would be enough to advance, Zambia pressed forward looking for the winner and missed a great chance with 12 minutes left as Evens Kangwa sliced his attempt wide from 10 yards out. Renard plays down Toure expectations Getting Yaya Toure to reproduce his club form at international level is a near impossible task, Ivory Coast coach Herve Renard admitted yesterday. The reigning African Footballer of the Year was deployed deep in midfield in the Elephants’ 1-1 draw with Mali in Malabo at the weekend, far away from the position in which he so often hurts opponents when starring for English champions Manchester City. The younger of the Toure brothers has not had the hoped for influence on the Ivory Coast side so far at this Cup of Nations, leaving the Elephants to contemplate a decisive match against Cameroon today in which qualification for the quarter-finals is at stake. But when asked about the positioning of his captain, Renard said: “The team of Ivory Coast is not Manchester City. The potential of the player is not the same. “At City there are a lot of players able to defend very well and bring the ball and build the game, notably Fernandinho who works like a madman alongside him. “For us it is a bit different, which is why we ask him to do a different job, although he was very comfortable because he was used to doing that earlier in his career, especially at Barcelona.” However, Renard insisted that there have been no disagreements within the camp about how best to approach a match in which a defeat will see them eliminated, and a draw may not be enough either depending on the result of the other Group D game between Mali and Guinea. “Players like him and Kolo (Toure) are not difficult to manage. You ask them to play somewhere and they do it, because they are thinking about the team,” added the Frenchman. “Other players who don’t have the same experience think they know it all and won’t understand.” Renard has brought a young squad to these finals in Equatorial Guinea, albeit one that includes a sprinkling of more established European-based stars. But he has continually insisted that there can only be modest expectations of a team that scraped through qualifying behind a Cameroon team also in transition. “Even if you are in a transition situation it is very important for the likes of the Ivory Coast and Cameroon to reach the quarterfinals,” the former Zambia coach said while preaching patience. “But Nigeria and Egypt are not even here. Cameroon were not there in 2012 and 2013 but life went on. In football you can’t panic when something is not very good. “I was lucky in Zambia because I had a fantastic president. If you are under pressure and want to change coach every three months I don’t think you can achieve something very good.” Of the game itself he added: “It might not be the most beautiful spectacle at a Cup of Nations, but it’s always easier to play against Cameroon than to go to a country who are not so renowned on a difficult pitch.” Gulf Times Wednesday, January 28, 2015 11 FOOTBALL FIFA ELECTIONS African countries to overwhelmingly back Blatter Reuters Mongomo, Equatorial Guinea A frican countries will vote overwhelmingly for Sepp Blatter (pictured right) in this year’s FIFA elections, senior officials said yesterday. “Africa is solidly behind Blatter. You will find he is very popular on the continent,” said Kwesi Nyantakyi, president of Ghana Football Association and a Confederation of African Football executive committee member. Blatter faces four challengers in his bid for re-election on May 29, when he seeks a fifth term as president that will take him past his 80th birthday. Dutch football association (KNVB) president Michael van Praag announced on Monday his intention to run following similar moves by former FIFA deputy secretary general Jerome Champagne and Prince Ali Bin al-Hussein of Jordan. Former France international David Ginola is also standing in what is widely regarded as being a publicity stunt. But Blatter’s prospective opponents are likely to get little support from the 53 African voters. “The continent is united behind him,” added former South African Football Association president Molefi Oliphant, who still serves on the CAF executive. “We made a formal endorsement of his candidacy last year at our meeting in Rio de Janeiro already.” Previous endorsements from CAF, however, have not necessarily translated into votes. African football’s controlling body promised Lennart Johansson a block of votes in 1998 but member associations took no heed and helped Blatter to victory. In 2002, CAF president Issa Hayatou failed to muster significant support from his own continent and lost heavily by 139-56 votes at the FIFA Congress in Seoul. Affection for Blatter stems from the generous financial assistance he has given Africa during his 17-year tenure. “He has done a lot for the continent. It is he who has set up the financial assistance programmes and who through the Goal project has built infra structure in all of the countries,” added Nyantakyi. “The Europeans don’t understand that. They say it is not his own money but FIFA’s but that’s not the point. He is the one who set up all the assistance programmes that have helped boost African football.” Goal is Blatter’s pet project, inaugurated not long after he came to power in 1998 that has built training centres, accommodation, pitches and offices for cash-strapped associations. Under FIFA’s Financial Assistance Programme, introduced in 2001, each of the ruling body’s 209 member associations receive generous grants with more than $1 billion paid out during Blatter’s tenure. Prince Ali welcomes van Praag’s FIFA bid Prince Ali Bin al-Hussein of Jordan has welcomed Dutchman Michael van Praag’s decision to enter the FIFA presidential race, describing him as a “credible candidate” who will add to the debate about the future of world soccer’s governing body. Van Praag, the 67-year-old head of the Dutch FA, entered the race on Monday saying he had the necessary backing of five national associations to qualify as an official candidate. “We welcome other credible colleagues from the football family who want to join a genuine debate about the future of FIFA,” Prince Ali said in a statement yesterday. “This election campaign is not about personalities, it is about what is in the best interests of football AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS and the world governing body of the game going forward. It is good for democracy that Michael van Praag has made this announcement.” Prince Ali and van Praag are among five men hoping to challenge incumbent Sepp Blatter when the deadline for nominations closes tomorrow. Prince Ali, who is currently a member of the FIFA executive committee and is FIFA’s Asian vicepresident, declared his candidacy this month and although he does not have the full support of his own Asian confederation he does have backing elsewhere which should enable him to stand. Blatter, 78, who has been president since 1998, remains the overwhelming favourite to win a fifth term. FOCUS Cameroon take on Ivory Coast in tense Group D tie ‘It is a match that will be decided by little details. Concentration, an ability to take chances and defensive rigour will all be important. Whichever team shows a little less of these things will go home’ Talks over transfer system break down Reuters Berne T alks aimed at reforming football’s transfer system have broken down after European clubs and leagues refused to accept proposals to protect unpaid players, the players union FIFPro said yesterday. The negotiations, which opened last March, have come to a standstill and FIFPro has called an extraordinary meeting of its Europe division in Athens today to further discuss the issue. FIFPro said the European Clubs’ Association (ECA) and the European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL) had failed to accept four key proposals to ensure contractual stability. These included a proposal to allow a player to terminate his contract at 10 days’ notice if he is unpaid for more than 30 days, and another entitling the player to financial compensation if his contract is terminated without just cause. In such cases, players should be allowed to join another club without the restriction of any transfer window, FIFPro said. ECA and the EPFL were not immediate available for comment. “These reforms would make the contract of a professional player a two-way street,” FIFPro secretary general Theo van Seggelen said in a statement. “The situation can be contrasted to the rights of a club where a player breaches a contract, which would see him often responsible to pay his own transfer value and subject to a mandatory ban. “Transfer values have, of course, spiralled out of control and can see players liable for the payment of millions of dollars, something no other employee would have to bear. The transfer system is failing football and its players.” Van Seggelen described the issue as the biggest problem in professional football. “Every year, around 4,000 players file cases with FIFA either because their club has not paid them or the club has unjustly terminated the contract,” he said. “Due to the volume of cases, players have to wait several years for a hearing which, in over 90 percent of matters, is decided in favour of the player. “Given the short-term and precarious nature of a player’s career, these delays cannot be tolerated. Clubs have now taken to exploiting the delays through tactics such as heavy handedness and vexatious litigation to ensure that compensation payments are avoided or minimised.” SERIE A More controversy as Higuain brace lifts Napoli to third Reuters Milan G Ivory Coast have scored in 13 of their previous 14 Cup of Nations matches. The only time they drew a blank was when losing the 2012 final to Zambia on penalties after a goalless draw. AFP Bata, Equatorial Guinea T he old adage that everything will be decided on the pitch may not prove to be true in the case of Group D at this year’s Africa Cup of Nations. All four matches in the group have ended in 1-1 draws, leaving the Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Guinea and Mali absolutely even ahead of today’s final games in Malabo and Mongomo. Two more identical draws will mean the drawing of lots will be required to decide who progresses to the quarter-finals and in which order. That would not be unprecedented, with the drawing of lots required at the 1988 Cup of Nations to send Algeria through to the knockout stage at the expense of the Ivory Coast, who had drawn all three of their matches. The 2015 version of the Elephants will hope to win and thereby avoid a similar fate as they face Cameroon at the Estadio de Malabo. Coach Herve Renard will again be without forward Gervinho, who completes a two-match suspension following his sending-off against Guinea, while midfielder FACTFILE: CAMEROON vs IVORY COAST Cameroon have won five of the seven previous Cup of Nations match-ups with Ivory Coast and drawn the other two. The widest winning margin was 3-0 in a 2000 group game. The Ivorian Elephants are ranked third in Africa by FIFA and the Cameroonian Indomitable Lions eighth. The gap between the nations in the world rankings is 14 places. While the Ivory Coast squad includes four English Premier League stars—broth- ers Kolo and Yaya Toure, Cheick Tiote and Wilfried Bony—Cameroon do not have any. Ivory Coast have scored in 13 of their previous 14 Cup of Nations matches. The only time they drew a blank was when losing the 2012 final to Zambia on penalties after a goalless draw. Cameroon have won seven, drawn six and lost two of 15 matchday 3 group games at the Cup of Nations with the most decisive victories being 3-0 against Togo in 2002 and Sudan six years later. Cheick Tiote will serve a one-game ban after being booked in both matches to date. Meanwhile, Max-Alain Gradel could start after coming off the bench to grab the late equaliser against Mali. “Cameroon have experienced players in every department. For us, except for Kolo Toure, we have no other experienced defender,” said Renard. “It is a match that will be decided by little details. Concentration, an ability to take our chances and defensive rigour will all be important. Whichever team shows a little less of these things will go home.” Salomon Kalou, who will also be hop- ing to be recalled after being dropped to the bench against Mali, called it “the final before the real final”. “Cameroon is a great football nation and so is the Ivory Coast. All we want is to get through to the last eight, and now we have 90 minutes to show who wants it more.” Recent history suggests Cameroon are best placed to win this encounter, though. After all, the Indomitable Lions won their qualifying group ahead of the Ivorians, trouncing the Elephants 4-1 in Yaounde in September before drawing 0-0 in the return match in Abidjan in November. However, Cameroon are set to once again be without midfielder Eyong Enoh, who injured his left thigh in the opening match against Mali. At the same time, west African neighbours Mali and Guinea, the supposed outsiders before the tournament began, clash in Mongomo. Both have impressed observers with their displays so far, although Mali have twice failed to see out leads in their games while Guinea could live to regret not seeing off the Ivory Coast after leading and having a one-man advantage. Nevertheless, winger Ibrahima Traore, who scored against Cameroon at the weekend and has been one of the players of the tournament so far, said: “We are progressing. We have played against two of the tournament favourites and nobody expected us to take anything from them. It’s not over, we have a final to come and we’ll do everything to get the three points.” Guinea coach Michel Dussuyer has defensive problems, however, with a calf problem having kept captain Kamil Zayatte on the sidelines so far while Florentin Pogba came off against Cameroon with a groin injury. Germain Berthe is set to start in goal for Mali after Soumaila Diakite was ruled out for the rest of the competition with the groin injury that forced him off against the Ivorians. onzalo Higuain scored two goals, both of them controversial, to give Napoli a 2-1 win over angry Genoa which lifted them into third place in Serie A on Monday. Higuain headed the hosts in front after seven minutes from a rebound but replays suggested he was just offside when Jose Callejon fired in a shot which Genoa goalkeeper Mattia Perin parried into the Argentine’s path. Iago Falque levelled for Genoa in the 56th minute but Napoli regained the lead with a controversial penalty awarded for an alleged push by Juraj Kucka on Higuain. Contact appeared to be minimal but Higuain, oblivious to the Genoa protests, fired home from the penalty spot with 15 minutes left for his 12th league goal of the season. Italian football has been hit by a rash of controversial refereeing decisions since the mid-season break and Napoli themselves were furious after a 3-1 home defeat by leaders Juventus. Napoli went into third place, the Champions League playoff spot, with 36 points from 20 games, six behind secondplaced Roma. Silvan Widmer scored an unusual goal to give mid-table Udinese a 2-1 win at Empoli when his cross from the right caught goalkeeper Luigi Sepe napping and went into the goal off the inside of the post. Veteran Antonio Di Natale put Udinese in front, the 37-year-old’s ninth goal of the season, and Riccardo Saponara levelled for the strugglers with a penalty before halftime. Wednesday, January 28, 2015 FOOTBALL/ASIAN CUP GULF TIMES REPORT SPOTLIGHT Australia set up Asian Cup final with South Korea Hosts end UAE’s title hopes with 2-0 win in semi-final DPA Newcastle, Australia A ustralia proved way too strong for the United Arab Emirates in the Asian Cup semi-final yesterday and a comfortable 2-0 win booked the host nation a place in Saturday’s final against South Korea in Sydney. There was no question of the UAE producing a repeat of their quarter-final shock against Japan as they fell behind to defender Trent Sainsbury’s header after only three minutes. Though Ahmed Khalil smacked the post as the UAE looked for an equalizer, Jason Davidson struck in the 14th minute to double the Australian advantage. And despite occasional resistance, Australia had few problems in seeing out the victory. “In big games such as semifinals, it’s not good to concede two goals by mistakes in the first 15 minutes, especially against the host team with fans behind them,” UAE coach Mahdi Ali said. “It was very difficult to come back, this affected us a lot.” The Socceroos, runnersup in 2011, are looking to win the region’s top honour for the first time after joining the Asian confederation from Oceania in 2006. South Korea, who have already defeated Australia in the group stage, hope to end a drought dating back to 1960. “It was a semi-final with everything on the line,” coach Ange Postecoglou said. “You get to this point and you know one moment could change everything and deny you the opportunity to play for the title. We had a great start, I thought we were dangerous at set pieces all night, and followed it up with a second.” And man of the match Massimo Luongo said the team could be thrilled with their progress so far. “We’re over the moon and really proud of everyone,” he said. “It was not our best performance but each and everyone worked so hard so deep down we know we deserve to be in the final. AFP Sydney “I think that’s behind the celebration in changing room.” Finishing second in the group meant Australia were playing the semi-final at the small stadium in Newcastle rather than the 84,000-capacity ground in Sydney where South Korea beat Iraq 2-0 Monday. But though the setting was somewhat quaint for such a tie, Australia’s performance was extremely professional. A quick start provided an immediate opener as Luongo’s corner was met by Sainsbury who directed a powerful header into the corner of the net to delight the majority of the sell-out crowd of just over 21,000. Moments later the UAE had their best chance in the game as Abdelaziz Sanqour hit the byline and crossed for Khalil but, with keeper Mat Ryan completely beaten, his shot struck the outside of the post and went wide. It proved to be a crucial miss as Australia soon increased their lead with Luongo again the provider. The Swindon midfielder was alert in a scramble to poke the ball on to Davidson who finished sweetly beyond Majed Naser. The goals from Sainsbury and Davidson were their first for the national team and they became the ninth and 10th Australia scorers at the tournament. The UAE looked to inspirational midfielder Omar Abdulrahman to create a way back into the game but the Australian defence worked diligently to cut out his delicate chips and flicks. Instead it was the more direct Khalil who was the danger, flashing a powerful shot over early in the second period and being half a step shy of turning in Ali Mabkhout’s cross. But despite the UAE enjoying an increased share of possession, Ryan was never tested and the referee waving away Walid Abbas’ optimistic penalty shout confirmed they would be remaining in Newcastle to meet Iraq in the third-place match on Friday. Australia, who substituted a quiet Tim Cahill midway through the second half, missed a half-chances to increase their lead late on. PRAGMATIC AFP Newcastle A ustralia boss Ange Postecoglou said the Socceroos were not popping champagne corks yet after they sank United Arab Emirates 2-0 yesterday to set up an Asian Cup final against South Korea. “In the dressing room now there are no champagne corks being popped,” Postecoglou told reporters after the match. “The players are already in recovery mode. Staff are already planning for the next step. “That part of my job is really easy. I have good people around me and the players are absolute professionals,” added the 49-year-old. Postecoglou added that the players needed to quickly “erase” the semi-final victory and concentrate on Saturday’s final against Uli Stielike’s men in Sydney. Australia narrowly lost to Japan 1-0 in the final four years ago and have another shot at their securing their first Asian Cup title. But they will also be wary of the threat posed by South Korea after they lost 1-0 to the Taeguk Warriors—who have yet to concede a goal in the tournament—in the group stage. South Korea saw off Iraq 2-0 in the first semifinal on Monday. Australia’s Massimo Luongo contests a header during his team’s Asian Cup semi-final against the United Arab Emirates at the Hunter Stadium in Newcastle yesterday. Socceroos talisman Tim Cahill echoed his coach’s comments that the squad’s focus was already fixed on tackling the steadfast Koreans. “It wasn’t too upbeat,” the former Everton star said of the atmosphere in the changing rooms after the game. “No one is really getting carried away. “We were straight on the massage tables and in the ice baths and focusing now on one of the biggest games in Australian soccer history.” I raq icon Younis Mahmoud dismissed speculation over his retirement and said he was targeting a “dream” World Cup spot after their Asian Cup campaign came crashing to a halt. Mahmoud, famed for his winning goal in the 2007 final, said he was hoping to lead Iraq’s young players to the 2018 World Cup in Russia and end an absence of 32 years. The 31-year-old striker remained upbeat despite Iraq’s 2-0 semi-final defeat to South Korea, who swamped the Lions of Mesopotamia at a wet Stadium Australia in Sydney. “I know they won and went to the final but we won also, we won 20 players—they will benefit the national team for the next 10 years,” Mahmoud told Arabic press late on Monday. “I think if the same group stays together then our dream will come true and we’ll qualify for the World Cup.” Iraq have only ever played one World Cup, in 1986, and qualification for Russia 2018 would go down as a major success for the war-weary country. Despite going clubless for a year, Mahmoud starred with two goals at the Asian Cup and a cheeky ‘panenka’ penalty under intense pressure in the quarterfinal shoot-out with Iran. Mahmoud said he had no thoughts of retirement, adding that he had several club offers on the table and also wanted to help groom Iraq’s new generation. “I’m not retiring after this Cup. We’re now building a new generation and we need to have experienced players with them in the national team,” Mahmoud said. “The World Cup qualifiers start in four or five months. Hopefully I’ll be with the team in the World Cup qualifiers.” “I have several offers, seven in fact, I’m studying them and one of them is from Al Wakrah,” he added, referring to his former club in Qatar. Whether Iraq retain the services of temporary coach Radhi Shenaishil, who has worked miracles since being loaned for the Asian Cup by Qatar Sports Club, remains to be seen. But the 45-year-old, brought in as a stop-gap after the axing of Hakim Shakir in November, did not rule out taking up a permanent role after his club stint finishes. “After my contract ends with the club, I can’t predict my future, so after that I can sit down and discuss my future,” said the Iraqi. He added: “It’s a young group and we have some talented players. The guys outside of Iraq and the guys playing in Iraq all have bright futures and I’m excited to see what this young group can do.” Younis Mahmoud (L) celebrates one of his goals in the Asian Cup. PRAISE No celebrations yet, says Aussie boss Postecoglou Iraq icon Mahmoud targets ‘dream’ World Cup Lee salutes Stielike AFP Sydney S outh Korea striker Lee Jeong-Hyeop has credited coach Uli Stielike for his rapid rise to fame after helping his country reach the Asian Cup final. The 23-year-old, a shock call-up for the tournament, has gone from rough diamond to polished gem in less than a month, scoring in South Korea’s group stage win over Australia and heading the team’s first in Monday’s 2-0 semi-final victory over Iraq. “The coach told me to just play my game and relax when we arrived in Australia,” Lee told Korean reporters, after netting his third goal in six internationals. “(Stielike) told me that he would assume the responsibility for my performance—good or bad. He always helps me to play with a relaxed mind, which makes it easier for me to play.” With big-name forwards Lee Dong-Gook and Kim ShinWook struggling for fitness, Lee’s cool reaction to his baptism of fire has given Stielike a huge boost. WARNING We have won nothing yet, says South Korea’s Son AFP Newcastle T he Korean pin-up’s sparkling performances have put his country within touching distance of a first Asian Cup title since 1960 and after Monday’s 2-0 win over Iraq, the pressure will be on them to finish the job. With hosts Australia heavy favourites to beat the United Arab Emirates in the second semi-final, however, Son knows it will be a tough ask, despite having beaten the Socceroos in the group stages. “It’s far too early for us to be talking about the title,” the jetheeled Bayer Leverkusen star told reporters in fluent German. “Every game has such a different complexion that you just can’t say. “We still have a massive game to play in the final so we can’t afford to be talking about lifting the trophy.” Son, who struck twice in extra-time to sink Uzbekistan 2-0 in the quarter-finals, tormented Iraq in rainy Sydney as goals from Lee Jeong-Hyeop and Kim Young-Gwon swept South Korea into their first Asian Cup final since 1988, when they lost to Saudi Arabia. “I felt we dominated the game,” said Son, thanking the vocal “Red Devils” fans for their support. “We certainly gave it everything we could in order to get the victory. Our supporters were amazing and gave us that extra power to see the game through.” South Korea have yet to concede in five games on their way to the final, but coach Uli Stielike—nicknamed the “stopper” during his playing days for his dogged defensive qualities— acknowledged his side’s stinginess could come back to haunt them in the final. “This situation can be very dangerous,” said the former West German international, ‘We still have a massive game to play in the final so we can’t afford to be talking about the trophy’ who spent eight years at Real Madrid as a player after joining the Spanish giants in 1977. “It’s what happens when you concede a goal and how you react that is important. You can’t let the players get their heads down. You have to be prepared for that and have a reaction.” South Korea captain Ki Sung-Yueng admitted it was difficult for the players not to dream of winning the Asian Cup after more than half-acentury of bitter disappointment. “Some parts of the game were a little bit sloppy from us but it was an amazing win,” the Swansea City midfielder said after seeing off Iraq. “This is a great opportunity to become champions. As captain I want to lead my team up to lift the trophy.”
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