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L o c a lFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

By Priyanka Saligram

[email protected]

In my view

Saying goodbye is always the hardest thing. Afterspending six years in Kuwait, the time has come for meto go back to Bangalore in India. While I feel over-

whelmed with sorrow at the thought of leaving a place Ihave grown to love more than home, I am also very excitedto be marrying the love of my life next month. I can think ofmany things - big and small - that I adore in Kuwait and havetaken for granted over time. But here are some things thatI’m going to think of often and miss terribly no matterwhere I head next in my life.

1. Kuwait Times: Kuwait means Kuwait Times newspaperto me. I have been with Kuwait Times for almost six yearsnow (it was my first job) and I can honestly say that I don’tfeel like I have gone to “work” a single day. Being a part of anewsroom can be one of the most exciting experiencesthanks to the dynamic work environment but throw in agreat boss, a bunch of fun-loving colleagues with a wackysense of humor and you’re back in college once again.

2. Avenues Mall: Shopping at Avenues Mall is a lovelyexperience and almost feels therapeutic. It’s easy to spend awhole day lazing around doing nothing except shoppingand taking a break from time to time to check out a newmilkshake or cupcake. The place has a wonderful sense ofspace (except on weekends or public holidays when all ofKuwait descends on it). It’s easy to find a mall anywhere, butin my opinion, there will always be only one Avenues.

3. The weather: Most people don’t like Kuwait’s weatherbecause it can get too hot or too cold but I really like itbecause more often than not, it’s dry! Germs are known tobreed in humid conditions, especially during the monsoonseason. Since Kuwait doesn’t really have rain or snowfall,incidents of viral flu or cold are few and far between.

4. Car watching: Kuwait has the coolest cars. Much hasbeen said and written about the traffic issue here but I find itenjoyable to be stuck in a jam sometimes where I have thetime to admire a swanky sports car on my left, a glamoroussedan on my right and a rare monster truck in front. Youcould have the most expensive car in the world, but ironical-ly, traffic jams are a great leveler because everyone moves ata snail’s pace and the speedometer has no value at thatpoint!

5. Different nationalities: I think one of the best thingsabout Kuwait is that you get to mingle with different peoplefrom various nationalities and learn more about their cul-tures and how they do things back home. It’s also a greatchance to learn their language and I know that if I everdecide to travel to Lebanon or the North Pole (just saying!),I’ll know someone who would know someone there to hostme and ensure I have a great time. This is where networkingbegins, methinks.

6. Arabic food: I’m a big fan of falafel, hummus, taboulehand khubs, and dates with tahina sauce is stuff that dreamsare made of. Just thinking of warak enab makes me droollike a St Bernard and is a celebration ever complete withoutthe sweet-smelling and even better-tasting kanafa?

7. My gym: I’ve spent every morning these few yearsworking out religiously at a local popular gym and madesome wonderful friends in the bargain. My weekends andpublic holidays have all been about squash and sweating itout and honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.Everybody knows that working in Kuwait translates to hav-ing time to pursue anything you want and if someone isserious about their health and fitness, this is the most idealplace to do it. Of course, having a million lip-smackingplaces to eat from doesn’t quite help your case but you can’tgive the ubiquitous “I don’t have time to work out” excusewhen you live here.

Kuwait and its people have been very kind to me andtreated me like family with a lot of love and affection (ham-dulillah), and this is something I will carry in my heart forever.

Goodbye Kuwait,you will be missed!

By Sahar Moussa

[email protected]

Just kiddin’, seriously

Ihave been working with Kuwait Times for approxi-mately nine years now. Out of this, I have spent sixyears with my friend and colleague who is set to

leave this week to get married in India next month.When she joined as an intern, it didn’t occur to me thatshe was going to be my co-worker and friend and sitnext to me for six years, sharing my space and so muchmore.

This young, tall, athletic girl with long, black curls,cute dimples and a tomboyish walk and I spent moretime at work than we probably spent with our own fam-ilies. Now she is ready to leave and saying goodbye toher might be a hard thing to do but I cannot be any-thing but thrilled and happy for the new life that isawaiting her.

For some reason, I have always considered her myyounger sister. This may be because when she came,she was young and naive, and didn’t stop asking me foradvice. I really had the pleasure of watching her growinto a confident, strong woman in every aspect of herlife. You might think I’m exaggerating but I’m not,because these words are my genuine feelings.

We learned a lot from each other over the past fewyears and shared a lot of secrets too. I know that she is avegetarian, her favorite color is pink, she has a strongwill and forbids herself from eating sweets, which sheloves. I know that a compliment makes her blush, shehas amazing taste in music and is very loyal towards

people and things she loves - like her Sony Ericssonphone for instance. I also know that squash is herfavorite sport, she is obsessed with gold and has a nicesense of humor. I know that she loves wearing jeans anddefinitely surprises everyone when she wears feminineclothes during special occasions.

She is the first person I see when I enter the office,slouching in her chair and greeting me with a smilewhich is something I will miss a lot. A lot of peoplemight come and go in our lives without leaving anyimpact, but our long conversations, debates, rare fightsover silly misunderstandings, laughs and tears arethings I won’t forget. They always say that people comeinto our lives for a reason. I think the reason that we metwas to support and be there for each other and despiteour differences, we always managed to meet in the mid-dle.

My last bit of advice to her is to always be happy,cherish the things she has, face her new life with anopen heart and positivity and enjoy discovering the hid-den treasures of the future with open arms.

And Pinky, it is an honor to attend your weddingsoon and be there for you as your older sister.Congratulations and best of luck!

Farewell, my friend

Local Spotlight

By Muna Al-Fuzai

[email protected]

In a dispute, many words can come out and amongthem are “Ana Kuwaiti! Ana Kuwaiti!” If you ever comeacross this phrase by a Kuwaiti, don’t panic - he or she

is trying to scare you. This is a common way to intimidateothers, especially expats and less-fortunate Kuwaitis. Itshows how some people, especially the youth, utter thisterm in public to confirm their superiority in front of oth-ers. The hidden meaning is that I’m above the law and youcan do nothing to me.

It is the ugly translation of a very racist term becausebeing a Kuwaiti means nothing when you break the law.Who cares if you are a Kuwaiti or not? You will not shareyour life’s benefits with others and they will get nothingout of your identity. In fact, as a Kuwaiti citizen, this shouldimply that you are a role model for others.

Unfortunately, we are not. Here is how things go here.When an expat comes to Kuwait for the first time, heexpects to follow the rules, but when he lives here for awhile and sees how easily rules are broken while driving orgoing about his daily business by wasta, then he alsostarts to adopt the same attitude into his life here as aneasy way to fix things. Whose fault is it? I believe it is oursas citizens because we have not been true models for oth-

ers to follow.Another incident happened recently that was carried

by the local media. When a Kuwaiti woman was stoppedby the police because she was wanted on a legal case, sherefused to enter the police vehicle, saying “Ana Kuwaiti”,insisting that she is above the law! She was stopped fordriving a car which she allegedly rented and never tookback to the rental office, so they filed a case against her.The fact that she is a Kuwaiti is irrelevant. And yet shefights over her identity as a shield to protect her fromobeying police orders. Eventually, they had no otherchoice but to escort her in her own vehicle!

When you travel to a country like Germany or Japan forexample, you don’t find anyone who says “Watch out, I’mso and so” because it is in no one’s interest. Some parentsare to be blamed for the way they bring up their kids - asbetter than others - and some national songs enhance thiskind of thinking and acts. They disregard the fact that yougain people’s respect by your actions and not origin.

Ana Kuwaiti!

Afriend of mine invited me to lunch and God blessher she’s one of those people who travel a lot toSpain so naturally she’s influenced by the Spanish

cuisine. So she invited me to try one of their famous dish-es, paella.

It didn’t go so smooth with her to get the ingredientsfor the famous paella. Paella, to my knowledge, containsmany season including shrimp, fish, mussels, calamari. Soshe sent her driver to Sultan Center to get some calamari.

Unfortunately her driver did not speak English so sheasked him on the phone to pass her to any clerk in thestore so that she could ask them for guidance. Her luckcame that her driver chose an Egyptian salesman in SultanCenter who also did not speak English. So when she spoketo him and asked if he had calamari, the poor guy pan-icked an instead of telling her he didn’t understand, saidthat “Calamari finished her shift and went home.”

Of course, my friend broke out laughing and askedher driver to go to someone who spoke English. Find aFilipino in the store and they would know what iscalamari.

Her driver panicked again, and the woman could hear

him on the phone asking the clerk in the store: Do youhave carigari?

So she had him pass the phone once more and sheexplained to the Filipina that she wanted calamari and sothe Filipina burst out laughing at the ‘carigari’?

This was the hilarious part of my paella dish. So neverforget calamari and caligari and Calamari went home.Either way, I enjoyed my lunch.

As I was telling my American editor the story, she said Ihave a worse story even than this. She was taking herdaughter to the doctor and the nurse was very impressedby the daughter’s bright blue eyes. The nurse said she’sso beautiful, she looks just like a cat. Of course myAmerican friend wasn’t so pleased. It took me some timeto convince her that when we say in the Arab world thatif a woman looks like a cat, she is beautiful.

I’m sure all of you have experienced miscommunica-tions of language. They can create situations that areeither hilarious or otherwise.

Have a nice weekend.


KUWAIT: With the temperature finally coming down, more peopleare using their free time on the weekend for more outdoor activitieslike fishing, jogging etc. — Photo by Joseph Shagra

Conspiracy Theories

[email protected]

By Badrya Darwish

Calamari calagari ...

Badryad


By Nawara Fattahova

Yoga lovers and all those who like totry new activities will definitely enjoythe new ‘Stand Up Paddle’ yoga ses-

sions held at Messila Beach. It was a greatexperience to exercise on a board facingthe water in the summer breeze.

Currently, two sessions are held on theweekends. Each class can take five partici-pants at a time, as there are five boats avail-able. More classes will be available soonduring the weekdays. Each class is an hourlong - 10 minutes workout on the beachand 50 minutes exercising in the sea. Thesessions are held at 8:00 am and 9:00 am.

As the weather is still hot, the classesstart early. “When the weather gets cooler,we may hold the sessions at 10 or 11 am.Today was our second class, and we plan tooffer this joyful activity till December. It’s agreat exercise for various muscles and itdemands extra balance on the boat. Theparticipant uses more skills during this kindof yoga, which is more fun than the classicone. You can feel the breeze touching theskin and see the water instead of the mat.It’s a great way to start the week,” instructorMaya Wimbury told Kuwait Times.

Maya is based in Dubai, and she comesevery weekend to conduct the sessions. “Ifirst learnt SUP yoga in Hong Kong, where Ialso started holding my first classes. Then Imoved to Dubai, and I wasn’t able to offerthis training for long, as there are not manyplaces to do it, as they keep changing therules there. I’m glad to be here and give theclasses, and I hope more people will join,”she added. “This activity provides peace ofmind and also makes the participant usevarious moves that strengthens differentmuscles. Also, this kind of yoga is combinedwith paddling, which strengthens the mus-cles of the arms and is fun,” concludedMaya.

Ragad Al-Khudhairi, co-owner of SUO

Serenity, the organizer of these sessions,said she is happy to bring this new activityto Kuwait. She is a triathlete, and SUP yogawas a new experience for her. “We are threepartners - me, Nada and Saleh, whoapproached Maya in Dubai and arrangedher working with us in Kuwait. BesidesMaya, we will have other instructors for SUPyoga, so we will be able to provide classesduring weekdays too,” she pointed out.

The Kuwait Seas Sport Club (KSSC) provid-ed the place for SUP Serenity to hold theclasses. “I appreciate the support of KSSC,who always encourages Kuwaiti youth tostart new activities to be able to participatein the future in world competitions. Also dur-ing summer in Kuwait, we don’t see manyactivities, so we aimed to start somethingnew,” explained Khudhairi. SUP yoga classesare open for all ages from both genders.

Serenity by the sea

KUWAIT: The ‘Stand Up Paddle’ yoga session in process on Mesila beach.


KUWAIT: A mix of residentialand commercial buildings inSalmiya.

By Ben Garcia

KUWAIT: The haris is called the king of thebuilding for many reasons. They are enviedfor their free accommodation, but mostly forthe huge amounts of money they make fromtheir tenants. Raj was a haris for over fiveyears in Salmiya. An Indian from Kerala, Rajmaintained several buildings owned by aKuwaiti, where he learned some of the uglytricks practiced by some harises in Kuwait. “Iwas told by some of my colleagues here thatif some tenants are not desirable enough -probably not paying on time - they can easilypressure them and within a month, they willvacate the building,” he said. “One trick wasto make their life miserable by switching onand off their electricity,” he said.

According to Raj, this way they makemoney accepting new tenants. Nowadays,reserving a flat will cost a new tenant fromKD 80-KD 250 or even more depending onthe location and place you want. Harises callthe term ‘arboon’, which is actually a bribe.‘Arboon’ in Arabic means reservation fee, butapparently this is not the meaning of arboonfor some harises in Kuwait. “If we see a ten-ant really likes the flat, we ask them to paymore. They will readily pay because probablytheir job is closer or the school of their chil-dren is down the corner. The amount paidwill be mine alone because the only concernof my boss is the rent of the flat, and what

they like is for their flats to be fully occu-pied,” Raj added.

Kuwait Times spoke to a Filipino familythat has shifted four times in one year.Gerronimo earns little more than KD 200 amonth, which is frequently late, while hiswife earns the same, but their rent eats uphalf of their combined salary. Once when hehad a family emergency back in thePhilippines, he skipped paying a month’srent and was forced by the haris to vacatethe flat. “We left because we were asked todo so - I had to borrow money from a friendto pay and get a new place,” he said. “Thenew haris demanded KD 80 as ‘arboon’ andwe had to pay KD 240 in rent for the newplace. Again I asked my company to sparemoney so I could pay that amount. But afteronly five months, I got a notice that the rentwill increase to KD 300 - the owner personal-ly came and told us that if we can pay, weshall stay, if not, we’ll have to vacate or we’ll

be dragged by the police out of the build-ing, so we left and looked for a new place,”he said.

An Indian family in Khaitan also experi-enced harassment from the haris when theywere asked an additional amount in rent.“The building is only for families, but therewere Filipinos using some flats with multiplepeople in it. One day the owner found thathe was paying extra for their water and elec-tricity, so they told us to pay an additionalKD 40 in rent. We were obl iged to paybecause we don’t want to leave the placesince we are close to the school of my kids,but after a few months, the haris told us topay an additional KD 20 again. I refused topay this amount. But we experienced sever-al forms of harassment from the haris, likeswitching off our water and electricity. Iremember two nights we didn’t have AC inthe middle of summer, so we looked foranother place, only to pay arboon of KD

100,” he said. But if you are a bit generous to the haris,

the story will be different. For some families,since the rent is high, they will rent a flat butwill sublet rooms to other people. Josie forexample has been renting her flat for yearsnow in Maidan Hawally, but sublets tworooms of her flat. “I know what the hariswants - money - so whenever my tenantsleave, I immediately inform the haris aboutit and I pay him a bribe like KD 10 so he isaware that I am accepting a new tenant.From the new tenant, the haris will also getan extra amount for garbage or sometimesjust to allow him to place a satellite dish. Iknow this is a bribe, but this is the way itnow works in Kuwait, so we have to dealwith it,” she said.

Raj, the former haris, also reveals uglysecrets of some buildings in Kuwait alleged-ly being used for prostitution and somerented by Kuwaitis for their mistresses. “Thelocals will rent a flat for their other women.The haris knows about the activities butthey are quiet about it because they arebeing bribed,” he said.

While some dirty tricks are being playedby some harris in Kuwait, there are prevail-ing laws regarding the issues mentioned.Concerned individuals can certainly file caseat the Ministry of Justice; in fact, many areresorting to paying or settling their houserental problems in the local court.

The king of apartments Harises call the term ‘arboon’, which is actually

a bribe. ‘Arboon’ in Arabic means reservation

fee, but apparently this is not the meaning of

arboon for some harises in Kuwait.

8L o c a lFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

Electronics thief caught

Nugra detectives caught an Egyptian trying to sell stolengoods worth KD 5,000. He was caught red handed trying tosell the items in an electronics store in Nugra. Police found 19fingerprint systems, three recorders and three far-ranged sur-veillance cameras.

Car jacking in Saad Al Abdallah

KUWAIT: Two thieves stole a car in Saad Al-Abdallah area.After choking the driver, the two men threw him on the streetbefore escaping. The driver told his sponsor that the incidenttook place while he was on his way to the store. Detectives areworking on the case.

Enraged lover attempts break-in

A citizen failed to storm the flat of his former girlfriend inMaidan Hawally, as she ignored his strongly worded mes-sages, he then escaped. The woman called the police say-ing that the man was trying to break into her flat becauseof problems between the two. The woman gave thedetectives information on the subject and they are cur-rently looking for him.

Newsi n b r i e f

Car stolen in front of home

An Iranian expat saw someone steal his own car whichwas parked in front of his house in Sabahiya. The Iraniansaid he didn’t know the thief, but he saw the man get inand drive away. Police are working on the case.

NEW YORK: His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh JaberMubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah has expressed his support to thesecurity and stability of Egypt and Iraq, during a meeting withthe two countries’ leaders in New York late on Wednesday, asenior government official said.

HH the Prime Minister held an “important” meeting withhis Iraqi counterpart Haidar Al-Abadi, the first since the forma-tion of the new Iraqi government, First Deputy Prime Ministerand Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabahsaid in a statement to KUNA and Kuwait TV late last night.

“It was important for us to re-affirm Kuwait’s support to thesecurity and stability of Yemen, and to work together to buildon what we have achieved over the past years,” he added.Prime Minister Al-Abadi expressed “sincere desire to pursue

with the files that were discussed and to exchange high-levelvisits to strengthen the good relations between Kuwait andIraq,” noted Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled.

HH the Prime Minister also met with Egyptian PresidentAbdel Fattah Al-Sisi, the first between the two leaders. “Wereaffirmed Kuwait’s keenness on security and stability ofEgypt, and to back the (Egyptian) economy,” said SheikhSabah Al-Khaled. The Kuwaiti side informed Al-Sisi of their par-ticipation in the investment conference next Feburary, whichwas called by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, he said. “Kuwaitis ready to do whatever it can for its Egyptian brothers”. HHthe Prime Minister is representing HH the Amir Sheikh SabahAl-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah in the UN General Assembly’s(UNGA) 69th session.

PM supports stability in Egypt and Yemen ‘Kuwait ready to do whatever it can for Egyptian brothers’

Drug traffickers arrested

Narcotics authorities arrested two Bangladeshis with nearly750 grams of marijuana, 250 grams of ICE and 100 gramsheroin. The arrest was made in their residence and the twoconfessed to planning to sell the drugs.

Traffic campaign issues violations

Hawally traffic department issued 120 violations including35 direct, 85 indirect citations for use of phone while driv-ing, driving the wrong way and not carrying a driver’slicense during a recent crackdown. Along with these viola-tions, 20 vehicles were impounded.

Illegal dairy plant shut

Ahmadi Municipality with the help of police discovered anunlicensed dairy in Juwaihel desert area Wednesday morning.More than 500 liters of milk and 100 kilos of butter weredestroyed in addition to additives that sped up the fermenta-tion process. The plant was immediately shut down.

Girl escapes kidnapping attempt An under-age girl escaped an attempt by a man in a sportscar to kidnap her in Sabah Al-Salem. Her mother reportedthe incident to police. A security source said the 17 yearold was returning from her friend’s house nearby whenthe driver harassed her, then when she ignored him hegot out of the car and tried to push her into the car to takeher by force, so she screamed, and that made him escape.

Addict handed to police

A citizen handed his addict son to police after an episode inwhich the boy destroyed the furniture in his home. The Jahraresident took his son by force to the police station and toldthem he was under the influence of drugs. He will be handedover to narcotics authorities for further action.

By Nawara Fattahova

KUWAIT: The first Chinese bank tolaunch a branch in Kuwait, the Industrialand Commercial Bank of China (ICBC)announced the opening of its Kuwaitibranch on Wednesday, during the galaceremony held at the Jumeira BeachHotel. ICBC Kuwait Branch is not only thefirst but also the only Chinese bank tooperate in Kuwait, marking a historicstart of Chinese bank’s presence in thecountry. Meanwhile, ICBC Kuwait Branchis the fourth branch of ICBC in theMiddle East region after Dubai, AbuDhabi and Doha.

The opening ceremony was attendedby the under-secretary of the Ministry ofCommerce and Industry of KuwaitAbdulaziz Al-Khaldi, the Chairman ofICBC Jiang Jianqing, the ChineseAmbassador to Kuwait Cui Jianchun, theKuwaiti Ambassador to China Saleh Al-Thuwaikh, and other officials and VIPguests.

Chairman Jiang Jianqing said at theceremony that Kuwait and China are dif-ferentiated in resource endowment yetare complementary to each other ineconomy, thus the two countries havegreat potential for bilateral cooperation.“The successful visit to China by Kuwait’s

Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al- MubarakAl-Sabah in June this year brought thebilateral economic and trade relation-ship to a new level. The increasingly fre-quent trade, the construction of the NewSilk Road Economic Zone, railway, 21stcentury Ocean Silk Road, and personnelexchange between the two countrieshas laid solid foundation for China-Kuwait financial cooperation, and alsoraised higher demand for cross-borderbanking services,” he added. “The newlyestablished ICBC Kuwait Branch will playa role of a financial bridge betweenKuwait and China, and strive to be anexcellent bank that enjoys satisfaction bylocal government, confidence by thepublic, recognition by customers andgood reputation in the society,” Jianqingfurther said.

ICBC is not only the first Chinese bankto set up operating branch In the MiddleEast, but also the first Chinese bank inthis region in terms of total number ofbranches and total assets. The establish-ment of ICBC Kuwait Branch is a newmilestone of ICBC’s globalization strate-gy by further optimizing the bank’s net-work in Middle East. ICBC Kuwait Branchhas the full banking license offeringhigh-quality financial products anddiversified, comprehensive financial

service to cater to customers’ require-ments. At the same time, the branch willcontinue the cooperation with otherinstitutions in Middle East to upgrade itscomprehensive service capability.

From his side Abdulaziz Al-Khaldi,Undersecretary of the Ministry ofCommerce said that launching ICBC isgreat opportunity to strengthen the rela-tions between the two countries. “I thinkthat having this bank in the Kuwaiti mar-ket will definitely help the businessmen.This launching also encourages busi-nessmen in both Kuwait and China toestablish more economic partnerships inKuwait. This is great chance for theChinese investors to invest in Kuwait andexploit the free tax law,” he pointed out.

ICBC is the largest commercial bank inChina and currently maintains the lead-ing position among global peers interms of deposits, loans, total assets, tierone capital, operating income and brandvalue. Nowadays ICBC has an extensivenetwork of 331 overseas branches andaffiliates covering 40 countries andregions across Asia, Africa, Latin America,North America, Europe and Australia.And its share-holding in the StandardBank in South Africa enables the bank toindirectly extend our presence to 18African countries.

Commercial Bank of China opens first Kuwait branch

KUWAIT: (From left) The Chairman of ICBC Jiang Jianqing, Abdulaziz Al-Khaldi, the Kuwaiti Ambassador toChina Saleh Al-Thuwaikh and the Chinese Ambassador to Kuwait Cui Jianchun.

9L o c a lFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

KUWAIT: The annually-held 10thTheatre Days for Youth local festivalcame to a close in a ceremony, attendedby the Information Minister and Ministerof Youth at Dasma Theatre onWednesday. In addition to the Minister,Sheikh Salman Sabah Al-Salem Al-Humoud Al-Sabah, the event wasattended by the Chairman and DirectorGeneral of the Public Authority for Youthand Sports Sheikh Ahmad Mansour Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.

The event’s chief organizer AbdullahAbdul Rasool began by congratulatingthe young participants on their “ideas,presentation and works” which he saidwere characterized by “sincerity andtotal commitment to theatrical princi-ple.” “Youth are the ones who carry thetrue meaning of the role of the theatrein building the society, and maintain thelegacy of pioneers of the movement andits disciplines”. The organizing commit-tee was thanked for its role, along with

Minister Sheikh Salman, for his sponsor-ship, and Sheikh Mansour, for his sup-port of the event. Renowned local actorMohammad Al-Mansour remarked thatthe theatre represents “a message ofenlightenment for the public.”

“Theatre performers are creative andmature,” he said, adding that “the com-plete components of a play representtrue integration through the produc-tion of a ‘complete play’ that raiseseveryone’s expectations. Text and dia-

logue are two of the main pillars of thecredibility of an artist, as they representthe integrity and inner emotions of theartist and it is these deep meaningsthat express the inner feelings andemotions of a human being”. On this,he urged youngsters to maintain thishonesty in their works - which hedefined as “theatrical principles.” At theconclusion of the event, awards werehanded out by Sheikh Ahmad to thewinning troupes. —KUNA

Youth theater festival comes to a close

By B Ishaq

KUWAIT: The administrative court yes-terday declined to rule in a petition chal-lenging the government for revokingthe citizenship of Ahmad Jabr Al-Shemmari, the owner of pro-oppositiontelevision station and newspaper, sayingit is not authorized to rule on such cases.

According to a copy of the decision,the court said that a decree issued in1981 for the establishment of theadministrative court banned the courtfrom dealing with citizenship issuesbecause it is a sovereign issue. Thecouncil of ministers in July revoked thecitizenship of Shemmari and all his fam-ily members in addition to formerIslamist MP Abdullah Al-Barghash, hisbrothers, sister and children. Three

weeks later, it revoked the citizenship of10 other people including well knowncleric Nabil Al-Awadhi.

The court said that defense lawyerAl-Humaidi Al-Subaie last month sub-mitted a petition on behalf of Shemmariand attached a large number of docu-ments with it. Based on the lawsuit, itwas indicated that Shemmari’s fatherobtained Kuwaiti citizenship in 1962and that Shemmari was born threeyears later and thus was automaticallygranted the nationality based on hisfather. The lawsuit added thatShemmari obtained his nationality cer-tificate in 1981 and 10 years later he gotmarried with a Kuwaiti woman and hada number of children.

In his arguments, AL-Subaie stressedthat the government action in revoking

Shemmari citizenship breached article27 of the constitution because hesecured his nationality by birth and so itcannot be withdrawn. But the court saidthat it is not authorized under the lawto tackle nationality cases and accord-ingly it cannot deal with the lawsuiteven if the government action violatedthe law and the constitution.

Subaie however said that the court’sdecision failed to address his main argu-ment that the court of cassation had inthe past tackled citizenship cases likethis one. The lawyer said that he is con-fident that the court of appeals and thecourt of cassation will overturn theadministrative court decision and lookinto the lawsuit. Subaie is expected tochallenge the decision before the courtof appeals soon.

Court declines rule on TV owner citizenshipNo authority to pass verdict on such cases

Fire in Jleeb Al-ShuyoukhBy Hanan Al-Saadoun

KUWAIT: A fire broke out in a house in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukharea. The fire was said to have started in the bachelors’ roomand was put out quickly. No injuries were reported.

KUWAIT: An Egyptian expat was arrested with 200kilograms of dead animal meat while he was on hisway to stores in Hawally.

Preps conclude formilitary exercisehosted by Kuwait

KUWAIT: Preparatory meetings for the upcoming military exer-cise codenamed Eagle Resolve 2015, to be hosted by Kuwaitnext March and with the participation of 30 Arab and foreigncountries, ended yesterday after five days of the exercise. Lt ColMohammad Al-Kandari, chief of Kuwait’s joint military opera-tions and head of the committee tasked with preparing theexercise, said member countries of the Gulf CooperationCouncil (GCC) together with friendly countries will participate inthe exercise which is aimed at developing their defense cooper-ation. Eagle Resolve 2015 will be the 13th edition of the militaryexercise since its introduction in Bahrain 14 years ago. LtColonel Al-Kandari said that more than 30 Arab and foreigncountries are expected to participate and that the US, theUnited Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar,Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, France, Italy, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Japanand Argentina have already confirmed their participation.

The Head of the US Military Cooperation Office Gen RickMatson said the military exercise will strengthen mutual rela-tions and boost military capabilities between participatingnations while Britain’s representative in the exercise looks for-ward to a prosperous and successful training. The military exer-cise will be held on Kuwaiti soil, territorial waters as well as ahost of territories designed for training across GCC countries.Kuwait believes that hosting the exercise is a strategic boost tothe country both regionally and internationally. The exercise isgeared towards exchanging expertise in managing joint mili-tary operations in coordination with the US Central Command.Egypt could also be joining the countries that will participate inthe military exercise after it concluded a bilateral agreement onmilitary training with Kuwait on the sidelines of the 8th meetingof the Joint Kuwaiti-Egyptian Military Committee. —KUNA

12Hamas andFatah agree on return of unitygovt in Gaza 13 15

Hajj ‘dream’ nears for world’sMuslims

Cyprus cruise liner rescues 300 refugees

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

DAMASCUS: The United States and its Arab allies bombed oil facilitiesoperated by jihadists in Syria to choke off their funding, killing morethan a dozen militants and several civilians. France meanwhilelaunched new air strikes yesterday in neighboring Iraq and pledgedmore support for Syrian opposition forces, upping its fight againstextremists following the beheading of a French hostage.

American, Saudi and Emirati warplanes hit oil installations in east-ern Syria controlled by the Islamic State (IS) group, broadening thecampaign they launched this week beyond military targets to eco-nomic assets. IS, which has imposed its brutal rule over large parts ofSyria and Iraq, has been using such small-scale mobile refineries togenerate up to $2 million (1.6 million euros) in revenues per day,Washington said.

The Pentagon meanwhile it will investigate reports that civilianswere killed in US-led air strikes in Syria this week but insisted the raidswere carried out with precision. The US military said its bombing raidsthis week were carefully calibrated to avoid civilian casualties andtouted the role of coalition partners from Saudi Arabia and the UnitedArab Emirates in the latest strikes carried out on Wednesday.

“We don’t have credible operational reports” that civilians werekilled in three days of air strikes, spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirbytold reporters. But “we are taking a look at that,” Kirby said, describingthe media reports and video as “allegations.”

Recounting the details of Wednesday’s round of strikes, Kirby saidSaudi and UAE warplanes played the leading role in the attack, devot-ing more planes and dumping more bomb tonnage than Americanforces. Ten warplanes from the two Arab states flew with six US air-craft in Wednesday’s raids on oil refineries held by the IS group. And80 percent of the bomb tonnage was delivered by the Saudi and UAEplanes, Kirby said. The strikes against 12 targets hit the majority of IS-held refineries but the extremist group still controlled several otherrefineries as well, he said. Jihadists seized and set fire to a cement fac-tory in Syria owned by French construction giant Lafarge near theTurkish border, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said yester-

day. The strikes against the oil refineries killed 14 jihadists but also leftfive civilians dead, including a child, according to the Britain-basedmonitoring group. It said foreigners from Europe, Arab nations,Chechnya and Turkey made up the vast majority of the more than 140jihadists killed since the US-led raids began in Syria.

The latest strikes came as US President Barack Obama urged lead-ers gathered at the UN General Assembly to join the coalition andconvinced the Security Council to back a resolution aimed at stem-ming the flow of foreign fighters joining IS. Belgium and TheNetherlands committed warplanes to Iraq and Britain said its parlia-ment would vote today on following suit.

“The United States of America will work with a broad coalition todismantle this network of death,” Obama told the UN.

“Today I ask the world to join in this effort.” Iranian PresidentHassan Rouhani said the West was responsible for “strategic blunders”

that had created terror havens. The IS group has seized large parts ofIraq and Syria, declaring a Muslim “caliphate” imposing its harsh inter-pretation of Islamic law.

It has committed widespread atrocities including mass execu-tions of captured Iraqi soldiers, forced conversions of non-Muslimsand the on-camera beheadings of Western hostages including twoUS journalists and a British aid worker. Late on Wednesday an IS-linked group in Algeria which had demanded France halt its partici-pation in strikes in Iraq posted video footage of the execution of anabducted Frenchman, Herve Gourdel. President Francois Hollandepledged “determination, composure and vigilance” in the face ofjihadi threats. The Philippines said it would not negotiate with a mili-tant group threatening to behead one of two German hostagesunless a huge ransom is paid and Berlin halts support for the cam-paign against IS. —AFP

US-led strikes hit IS oil sites in SyriaUS, Saudi, Emirati warplanes broaden anti-jihadists war

Major Mariam Al-Mansouri (right), the first female pilot to join the Emirates Air Forces, walking alongside her comrades at an air force base. Mansouri, 35, “led the squadron” of UAE fighter jetsthat participated in raids targeting Islamic State jihadists in Syria as part of the US-led campaign against extremists. — AFP (See Page 12)

NEW YORK: Iraq’s prime minister said yesterday his country’sintelligence operation has uncovered a plot for an attack onsubway systems in the United States and Paris. Prime MinisterHaider Al-Abadi said he was told of the plot by Baghdad, andthat it was the work of foreign fighters of the Islamic Stategroup in Iraq. There was no immediate comment fromWashington or Paris, and Al-Abadi’s assertion could not beindependently confirmed.

Asked if the attacks were imminent, he said, “I’m not sure.”Asked if the attacks had been thwarted, he said, “No.” Al-Abadisaid the United States had been alerted, and that the suspectsincluded extremists from the United States and France whowere fighting for the Islamic State group in Iraq.

“Today, while I’m here I’m receiving accurate reports from

Baghdad that there were arrests of a few elements and therewere networks from inside Iraq to have attacks ... on metros ofParis and US,” Al-Abadi said, speaking in English. “They are notIraqis. Some of them are French, some of them are Americans.But they are in Iraq.” He made the remarks at a meeting withjournalists on the sidelines of a gathering of world leaders atthe United Nations General Assembly.

The Islamic State extremists’ blitz in Iraq and Syria prompt-ed the United State to launch airstrikes in Iraq last month, to aidKurdish forces who were battling the militants and to protectreligious minorities. In addition to the brutality Islamic State hasvisited on the people in Iraq and Syria, western leaders havevoiced concern that the group would move its terror opera-tions outside the region. — AP

Plot to attack US, Paris subways: Iraqi PM

I n t e r n a t i o n a lFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

LONDON: The head of a British Muslimgroup praised by US President BarackObama is an ex-jihadist in a gritty Londonneighborhood who tries to sway youngminds against radicalism by whatevermeans possible-including Twitter.

In his speech at the United Nations,Obama highlighted the Active ChangeFoundation’s popular #notinmynamesocial media campaign which includes avideo of young Muslims speaking outagainst the Islamic State group.

“Look at the young British Muslimswho responded to terrorist propagandaby starting the Not in My Name cam-paign declaring: ‘ISIL is hiding behind afalse Islam,’” Obama said Wednesday incomments seeking to highlight growingopposition to Islamic State (IS) jihadistsfrom within the Muslim community.

The foundation’s director Hanif Qadir

said in an interview that he himself wasonce won over by extremist ideology-likethe estimated 500 British jihadistsbelieved to be fighting in IS group ranksin Iraq and Syria. “I was involved with vio-lent extremist groups linked to Al-Qaedaand the Taliban in 2001 and 2002 and Itravelled to go to Afghanistan in 2002 —a similar situation we face now with ouryoung men,” he said.

“I have a full understanding of what itfeels like, what the drivers are, but I havealso an understanding of what the reali-ties are when you arrive on the ground,”said Qadir, who set up his anti-extremismgroup in 2003. “The reality is that you aregiven a different picture when you arehere and when you arrive there... What Isaw there is the people I wanted to helpwere actually part of the problem,” hesaid, referring to Afghanistan. “I wanted

to help remove the suffering, not be partof the suffering.”

‘No compassion’ Active Change’s video, which has

been watched more than 170,000 timeson YouTube, begins with a youngwoman in a colourful headscarf saying:“ISIS do not represent Islam or anyMuslim.” It follows with responses from avariety of young people including oneman in a suit and tie saying, “Becausewhat you’re doing is inhumane,” andanother man in a T-shirt saying, “Becausethey’re killing innocent people.” “Becauseyou have no compassion,” Qadir himselfsays. The video was shot in the associa-tion’s offices next to a mosque inWalthamstow in northeast Londonwhere young people regularly meet upfor a game of pool or a heated conversa-

tion about Middle East politics.Trying to convince young Muslims not

to go and fight is a daily struggle forQadir, who during a visit by AFP wasmeeting with a father whose son hadgone to Syria. Qadir said the man’s sonhad been “brainwashed” and the boy’smother had subsequently left the father“because she now believes that he’s not agood enough Muslim”.

Qadir said Islamic State fighters hadshown themselves to be “barbarians”,adding: “The people who are doing thisin the name of Islam, they are represent-ing themselves and their own objective.”

But he admitted they had been suc-cessful at persuading angry youngMuslims to join them. “They are attract-ing young minds that are angry. They areattracting young Muslim men who wantto get involved to kill,” he said. — AFP

British Muslim group hailed by Obama battles for hearts and minds

CAIRO: Rival Palestinian factions Hamasand Fatah said they reached an agree-ment yesterday for the return of their uni-ty government in Gaza ahead of crucialnegotiations with Israel next month.

The Palestinian rivals had set up a uni-ty government of independents in Junebut it never took hold, with Palestinianpresident Mahmud Abbas accusingHamas of running a “parallel” administra-tion as de facto ruler in the Gaza Strip.Hamas in turn accused Abbas’sPalestinian Authority, headquartered inRamallah, of not paying its 45,000employees in Gaza.

“Fatah and Hamas have reached acomprehensive agreement for the unitygovernment to return to the Gaza Strip,”Jibril Rajoub of Fatah said. Senior Hamasofficial Mussa Abu Marzuk and Fatah’shead of delegation, Azzam Al-Ahmad,confirmed that an agreement had beenreached after two days of talks in Cairo.

The talks were crucial for internalPalestinian divisions to be set aside and toagree on a unified strategy during talkswith Israeli negotiators in October.

The October talks, under Egyptianmediation, are aimed at reaching adurable ceasefire between Israel and thePalestinians after the 50-day war betweenIsrael and Hamas. The war killed morethan 2,140 Palestinians, most of themcivilians, and 73 on the Israeli side. It end-ed on August 26 when the two sidesagreed in Cairo on a ceasefire and to holdfuture talks on Palestinian demands toend an eight-year blockade of Gaza andexchange prisoners in Israeli jails for theremains of Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza.

Hamas and Fatah talks were also cru-cial ahead of an international donor con-ference on October 12, to be hosted byCairo, on the reconstruction of Gaza. TheJuly-August war caused a vast amount ofdestruction to homes and infrastructure

in densely populated Gaza, leaving morethan 100,000 Palestinians homeless in thelong term, according to the UnitedNations. A reconciliation deal was inkedin April to end years of bitter rivalrybetween the Fatah faction of Abbas, thatdominates the West Bank-basedPalestinian Authority, and the Islamistmovement Hamas, which has ruled Gazafor the past seven years. Following thedeal, the rivals set up a government ofindependents, the first united administra-tion in seven years, which took office inearly June.

But sharp divisions quickly emergedover the control of Gaza, where theHamas government formally steppeddown on June 2 but remained the de fac-to power. Abbas accused Hamas of oper-ating a “shadow government” and threat-ened to end the unity deal unless theIslamists allow the new government tofunction properly there. — AFP

Hamas and Fatah agree on return of unity govt in Gaza

Agreement ahead of talks with Israel

GAZA CITY: A Palestinian boy sits inside the ruins of his family house which was destroyed during the 50 days of conflictbetween Israel and Hamas, in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City, on Wednesday. — AFP

Female UAE pilot ‘leads strikes’ on jihadists

DUBAI: A female pilot has led United Arab Emirates air strikesthat targeted Islamic State jihadists in Syria as part of the US-led campaign against extremists.

Major Mariam Al-Mansouri, 35, “led the squadron” of UAEfighter jets that participated in raids Tuesday against theextremists, an Emirati source familiar with the matter said. Thesource said a “coalition Western officer was surprised whenshe called in to refuel from aerial tanker.”

The UAE did not confirm officially that a woman wasamong the pilots that conducted the raids. Mansouri is report-edly the UAE’s first female jet fighter pilot. She graduatedfrom Abu Dhabi’s Khalifa bin Zayed Air College in 2007 and isveteran pilot of F-16 warplanes.

Washington has said the United Arab Emirates, SaudiArabia, Bahrain and Jordan, took part in the strikes on theIslamic State, which has seized swathes of Iraq and northernSyria. Saudi Arabia released photographs Wednesday of eightairmen it said were involved in Tuesday’s US-led operations,with the Saudi press saying one of the pilots was a son ofCrown Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz. Mansouri’s participationin the raid stirred a debate on social media networks, withsupporters posting her picture on Twitter and commendingher service.

“She is taking part in crushing the dens of Daesh,” wroteone woman on Twitter, using an Arabic acronym for IS. Butangry Islamist sympathisers denounced what they said wasMansouri’s “criminal” act. In a past interview with Abu Dhabitelevision, Mansouri spoke of equality between men andwomen. “Men and women have the right to practice any pro-fession, with dedication and determination... to reach thehighest positions possible to serve this homeland,” she said.The UAE is a largely conservative Gulf state, where women cit-izens wear the traditional Islamic head cover and loose blackabaya (cloak). But authorities in the oil-rich state have madeefforts to put pioneering women forward and many womenhave assumed top government positions. — AFP

People stand around the new experimental aircraft “SolarImpulse 2” during the first exit for solar generator tests atthe airbase in Payerne, Switzerland. — AP

I n t e r n a t i o n a lFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

RIYADH: From war-ravaged Iraq and Syria to Ebola-hit Nigeria anddozens of other nations, pilgrims are converging on Saudi Arabia forthe annual hajj, the world’s largest Muslim gathering.

From early October, close to two million believers will congregateto follow the 1,400-year-old tradition of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH).“This is like a beautiful dream. I will never forget these moments,” Iraqipilgrim Kazim Ibrahim, 69, said after reaching the holy city of Makkah.While Ibrahim and other pilgrims are united by a common religiousbond, this year’s Hajj comes with Muslim nations drawn together bywidespread revulsion toward the Islamic State group jihadists.

Saudi Arabia and four other Arab states have joined Washington inlaunching air strikes in Syria against the militants, who have declared a“caliphate” straddling Iraq and Syria and committed brutal atrocities.Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal has branded IS “evil” andsaid the jihadists have distorted the image of Islam and Muslims.

Oil-rich Saudi Arabia is home to Islam’s holiest sites, where it iswaging a different kind of battle to protect pilgrims from two deadlyviruses, Ebola and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus(MERS-CoV). The deadliest Ebola epidemic on record has infectedmore than 6,200 people in west Africa and killed nearly half of them,according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Saudi Arabia is the country hardest hit by MERS, which last week-end claimed the life of a 27-year-old Saudi man in Taif, about 80 kilo-metres (50 miles) east of Makkah. This brought to 317 the number ofMERS deaths in Saudi Arabia since it first appeared in September2012.

‘Isolation rooms’ Research by Saudi scientists indicates that camels play a role in the

transmission of the virus to humans. In June the WHO said a surge inMERS cases had receded but countries should remain vigilant aheadof pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia. With such a large group of people con-centrated in a limited area for a short time, “the Hajj season consti-tutes a factor increasing the likelihood of outbreaks or epidemics ofinfectious diseases,” acting Health Minister Adel Fakieh said in a state-ment. The ministry has created a “command and control centre” todirect its Hajj health operation.

The centre assigned eight emergency consultant doctors to standby for treatment of newly landed pilgrims’ heart attacks and other crit-ical illnesses, said Fouad Hussain Sindi, the medical director at KingAbdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah.

In another first, the command centre ordered 15 “isolation rooms”established at the airport, Sindi said. Fewer than 30 people, includingsome with severe respiratory symptoms and

Nigerian pilgrims with fever, were sent to isolation as a precautionand then released, Sindi told AFP in a telephone interview. There havebeen no suspected cases of Ebola or MERS among pilgrims, he said.

Saudi Arabia has not allowed pilgrims to come from three WestAfrican nations hardest-hit by Ebola-Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.Every hajj visitor is given a health-screening card which must be filledin. It asks whether the traveller has been to an Ebola-infected countryor had contact with an Ebola patient.

“As of now, we received around 500,000 or 600,000 cards,” saidSindi, describing the pilgrims as “very cooperative, all of them.” Sindiheads a team of 640 doctors, technicians and other medical staff atthe airport. Among their tools are thermal cameras that detect highbody temperatures.

Instructions not followed The ministry advised elderly people and those with heart,

kidney and other chronic diseases not to make the pilgrimage.“But they come... The kingdom gives them instructions butunfortunately in some countries they are not following theinstructions.”

The biggest challenge is posed by pilgrims who do not washhands or take other preventative health measures as advised, Sindisaid. “We are worried” about the spread of infection, Sindi said, but aslong as his team continues to follow WHO standards “we can preventthe spread of any disease” including Ebola. Marred by stampedes,fires and other deadly incidents in the past, the hajj has in recent yearsbeen almost incident-free thanks to multi-billion-dollar safety projectsby the authorities.

Saudi media said 85,000 security and civil defense officers will beon duty for the hajj, which lasts five days. It is among the five pillars ofIslam and all capable Muslims must perform the Hajj at least once, thehigh point of their religious life. After landing in Jeddah many gratefulpilgrims prostrate themselves in a gesture of thanks to God, whilesome of the women ululate in a noisier expression of happiness thattheir dream has been realized. — AFP

BEIRUT: Lebanese Muslims sit near their luggage at Beirut International Airport as they head to perform the annual hajj pil-grimage in Saudi Arabia yesterday. — AFP

Hajj ‘dream’ nears for world’s Muslims‘This is like a beautiful dream, I will never forget these moments’

15I n t e r n a t i o n a lFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

NICOSIA: A cruise liner returning fromGreece was pressed into action in roughseas off Cyprus yesterday to rescue some300 people thought to be Syrian refugeeswhose trawler had run into trouble. Therefugees, mostly women and children,were loaded aboard the Salamis Filoxeniacruise liner and were in “good health”,according to George Ppouro, the harbormaster in the Cypriot port of Limassol.

The vessel was expected to dock ataround 9:00 pm (1800 GMT) in Limassol,where the interior ministry said themigrants would be given health checks.The liner had been en route from theGreek island of Syros to Limassol when itreceived a call to assist in the rescue oper-ation. The trawler sent out a distress signalat 6:25 am (0325 GMT) when it was about50 nautical miles southwest of the touristhub of Paphos, the Cypriot governmentsaid. “On board the ship are about 300people (mostly women and children) thatrequire recovery and rescue because ofbad weather conditions in the area,” thedefense ministry said after the operationwas launched. “The ship probably comesfrom Syria with civilian refugees,” a state-

ment added. Aerial photographs releasedby the ministry showed a large fishingtrawler overloaded with people in heavy

seas. State radio said two police patrolboats had been dispatched and the cruiseliner diverted after a warning that the boat

was in danger of sinking.The director of Limassol General

Hospital, Chrysostomos Andronikou, saidmedical teams would be at the port toreceive the migrants and to hospitalizeany needing treatment.

The interior ministry said the migrantswould be bused to the Pournara armycamp in the small town ofKokkinotrimithia, about 10 kilometers (sixmiles) west of the capital Nicosia.

In August 2012, seven Syrians, includ-ing two children, drowned when the boatthey were sailing to Cyprus to escape theconflict in their homeland sank off theisland’s northern coast.

Cyprus is located about 100 kilometers(62 miles) from the shores of war-ravagedSyria. The Mediterranean has beenplagued by shipwrecks in recent monthsinvolving migrants trying to reach Europefrom Africa and the Middle East. In one ofthe deadliest wrecks on record, a ship car-rying some 500 migrants includingSyrians, Palestinians and Egyptians-wasdeliberately sunk by traffickers off Maltaearlier this month, leaving just 10 knownsurvivors. — AFP

Cyprus cruise liner rescues 300 refugees

A handout image released by the Cyprus Defense Ministry yesterday shows alarge fishing trawler overloaded with people in the Mediterranean Sea.Cypriot emergency services launched a rescue mission yesterday for about300 people thought to be Syrian refugees — mostly women and children — ona boat stricken in rough seas, the government said. — AFP

KIEV: President Petro Poroshenko yester-day ordered a temporary closure ofUkraine’s porous border with Russia andvoiced plans to apply for EU membershipin 2020 as part of his ex-Soviet country’sWestward shift. A senior Ukrainian securitysource said that the border security meas-ures was designed to halt the allegedsmuggling of weapons into the separatisteast and would enter into force “soon”. Thetwo steps underscore the extent of Kiev’salienation from its historic master and deala further blow to Russian PresidentVladimir Putin’s dream of folding Ukraineinto a Kremlin-led alliance that could rivalNATO and the European Union.

The plunge in the neighbors’ relationscomes in the wake of the February ousterin Kiev of a Moscow-backed leader and theKremlin’s subsequent annexation ofCrimea and alleged backing of a bloodypro-Russian revolt. But the announce-ments also threaten to further devastateUkraine’s imploding economy by haltingtrade between the mutually dependentnations and increasing the likelihood ofRussia adopting retaliatory steps.

A decree published on the presidentialwebsite ordered the government “to set-tle... the issue of temporarily closing check-points on Ukraine’s state border with theRussian Federation to cars, sea and pedes-trian traffic.” It added that the 2,000-kilo-metre (1,200-mile) land frontier withUkraine’s giant northeastern neighbor maybe closed “to other forms of traffic” if nec-essary. The presidency said Poroshenkoalso told a meeting of judges that Ukrainewould make a formal EU membership bidin 2020 that was made possible by thisyear’s signing of a landmark political andeconomic association pact. Poroshenkosaid his “Strategy 2020” plan “envisions 60reforms and social programs whose adop-tion will prepare Ukraine to apply for mem-

bership in the European Union in six years,”his press service said.

‘Very serious decision’ Ukraine has already infuriated Russia by

announcing plans to seek future NATOmembership-a step the Kremlin views as adirect national security threat. Poroshenkoreaffirmed those intentions yesterday bytweeting that he had just “instructed thecabinet minister to revoke Ukraine’s non-aligned (nation) status”.

There was no immediate reaction toPoroshenko’s various decisions fromMoscow. Both Kiev and its Western alliesaccuse Russia of sending elite forces andheavy weapons such as surface-to-air mis-siles into eastern Ukraine to help the sep-aratist uprising that pro-Kremlin gunmenlaunched in April . Russia denies the

charges and dismisses NATO satelliteimagery purporting to show its troops inUkraine as fabrications designed to backthe military alliance’s expansion towardits border.

A senior security source said the borderclosure instructions were originally draftedby Ukraine’s National Security and DefenseCouncil in order to limit future cross-bor-der travel to rail service and passengerflights. “Air and rail traffic would be sub-stantially easier to control than automobileand pedestrian traffic,” the source said.“This is a very serious social decision, butone we were forced to adopt.” Aspokesman for Ukraine’s state border serv-ice said no additional security measureshad yet been taken and that cars were stillallowed to pass along the dozens of bordercrossings linking the two countries. —AFP

Ukraine to shut border withRussia, seek EU membership

Security measures designed to halt arms smuggling

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (center) and Ukraine Prime MinisterArseniy Yatsenyuk wait for official to change a flag before they pose for a pho-to after their bilateral meeting on the sideline of the 69th Session of the UNGeneral Assembly at the United Nations in New York yesterday. — AFP

KIEV: A sign indicating the distance between Donetsk andKiev (777km) stands in front of the headquarters of theself-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) inDonetsk yesterday. — AFP

Italy fights mafia with new strategy: Banish sons

LOCRI, Italy: First Italy fought its mafia mobsters by confis-cating their wealth. Now judges are taking away somethingmore precious: their sons. Riccardo Cordi’, a shy 18-year-oldscion of one of Italy’s most notorious mob families, is a pio-neer in a new strategy to fight the mafia by exiling crime clansons from their homes and families. Riccardo is the first ofabout 20 sons sent into a kind of rehab away from the mobby juvenile courts in the southern region of Calabria, home tothe dangerous ‘ndrangheta syndicate.

By age 16, Riccardo seemed destined to go the way of hisfather, a reputed boss gunned down in a turf war, and threeelder brothers in prison on mafia-related convictions. Theirphotos line the wall of the fortress-like Cordi’ home inCalabria, seen in an exclusive visit by The Associated Press, ina testimony to the rule of blood in the powerful ‘ndrangheta.But when Riccardo was charged with attempted theft anddamage to a police car, judge Roberto Di Bella followed uphis acquittal with a startling order: The ‘ndrangheta familyprince would be sent away to Sicily until he turned 18.

Di Bella had sent Riccardo’s three brothers to prison andwanted to spare the last son a similar fate. He cited legal pro-visions that allowed courts to remove minors from familiesincapable of properly raising them. Riccardo’s motherseethed, but there was nothing she could do.

“If you don’t like it, we’ll take him away anyway,” the judgetold her. Riccardo was placed in a Sicilian facility for troubledyouths where nobody cared that he was a Cordi’. Rules wererigid, including no going out at night. —AP


NEW YORK: US President Barack Obama speaks alongside US National Security Adviser Susan Rice (right), US Secretaryof State John Kerry (second left) and US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power (left) during a meeting with EthiopianPrime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn in New York yesterday. — AFP

GALVESTON, Texas: A man charged withabducting a missing University of Virginiasophomore has been captured in Texas andis awaiting extradition - but there is still nosign of the student, authorities said.Yesterday morning, Jesse Leroy Matthew Jr,32, appeared briefly before a GalvestonCounty judge via a video link from jail tohear the charges against him. In Texas, he’scharged with being a fugitive from justiceand with giving false information to an offi-cer, in addition to a count of abductionwith intent to defile in Virginia. Judge MarkHenry set bond at $1,500 on the false infor-mation charge but held Matthew withoutbond on the fugitive count. Matthew - in adark green jumpsuit, with his hands cuffed- signed several papers and told Henry thatbefore his arrest in Texas he was not out onbond on any other charges.

Matthew asked the judge a few shortquestions and expressed concern that hisclothes were taken from him when he wasbooked into the Galveston County jail. “Ishould be able to have some kind of cloth-ing,” he said.

Henry told him that his jumpsuit wassufficient clothing and that his personalitems would be returned later. After theappearance, Henry told KPRC-TV that heexpected Matthew would be extradited toVirginia within a day or two. Officials havenot released any details about an extradi-tion. Matthew was arrested on Wednesdayafternoon on a beach in the sparsely popu-lated community of Gilchrist by GalvestonCounty Sheriff’s authorities, CharlottesvillePolice Chief Timothy Longo said. The cap-ture came less than a full day after policeannounced they had probable cause toarrest Matthew on charges of abductionwith intent to defile Hannah Graham, an18-year-old sophomore who went missingon Sept. 13 in Charlottesville.

Police received a call reporting a suspi-cious person and a responding deputyfound a man who had pitched a tent on thebeach with his car parked nearby, theGalveston County Daily News reported.Galveston County Sheriff Henry Trochessettold the newspaper that a check of the car’splates revealed it was the vehicle sought inconnection to the case. Authorities weretrying to get a warrant to search the car, headded.

In Charlottesville, police say an intensesearch for Graham continues. “This case isnowhere near over,” Longo told a newsconference late Wednesday. “We have aperson in custody, but there’s a long road

ahead of us and that long road includesfinding Hannah Graham.”

The search is focusing on rural andwooded areas around Charlottesville,Longo said Thursday on NBC’s “Today”show. According to authorities, Grahammet friends at a restaurant for dinner Sept12 before stopping by two parties at off-campus housing units. Officials said she leftthe second party alone and sent a text mes-sage to a friend saying she was lost.

Surveillance videos showed her walking,and at some points running, past a pub anda service station and then onto theDowntown Mall, a seven-block pedestrianstrip where police believe she entered a barwith Matthew. The video that has beenpublicly released does not show the twoentering the bar together.

The university said Matthew had beenemployed at the University of VirginiaMedical Center since Aug. 12, 2012, as apatient technician in the operating room.The charges against the 6-foot-2, 270-pound Matthew surprised Dave Hansen,who first met him about 11 years ago whenHansen served as an assistant pastor at anarea church.

“I always thought he was a gentle giant,just a nice guy,” Hansen said. “He seemedgenuine with his faith and spirituality. ... Idon’t see him doing this at all, but that’susually the case, I guess.”

Hansen said he’s only kept up withMatthew through Facebook but ran intohim at the university’s medical center with-in the last year. He said the soft-spokenMatthew greeted him in an elevator with ahigh-five. Matthew attended LibertyUniversity from 2000 to 2002, said officialswith the Lynchburg school founded by thelate Rev. Jerry Falwell. The school’s athleticswebsite listed him as a defensive linemanon the football team. —AP

Suspect held, but UVa student still missing

Fugitive waiting to be extradited to Virginia

GALVESTON: This undated image pro-vided by the Galveston CountySheriffís Office shows a booking photoof Jesse Leroy Matthew Jr. Matthew Jrwas arrested on a beach in the Texascommunity of Gilchrist by GalvestonCounty Sheriff’s authorities,Charlottesville Police Chief TimothyLongo announced. — AP

US to undertake review of Wal-Mart shooting

CINCINNATI: The US Justice Department has begun its latestreview of police department practices following a grand jury’sdecision not to indict officers in the fatal shooting of a man at aWal-Mart in Ohio. The Justice Department has opened civil rightsinvestigations into the practices of some 20 police departmentsin the past five years, with the latest in Ferguson, Missouri, whichdealt with days of disturbances after police shot an unarmedblack man. The federal government said its investigation of theOhio shooting will be “thorough and independent” and it wouldtake appropriate action if evidence was found that civil rightslaws were broken.

A special Greene County grand jury in Xenia on Wednesdayopted not to issue any indictments in the Aug. 5 death of 22-year-old John Crawford III in Beavercreek, Special Prosecutor MarkPiepmeier said. Crawford was black. An emergency caller report-ed Crawford was waving what appeared to be a rifle in the store.

Police said he didn’t obey commands to put down whatturned out to be an air rifle taken from a shelf. Crawford’s family,which called for a federal investigation to see if race was a factor,said it was “incomprehensible” that police were not indicted.Crawford was black and the officers are white.

“The Crawford family is extremely disappointed, disgustedand confused,” the family said in a statement. “They are heartbro-ken that justice was not done in the tragic death of their onlyson.” Family members are planning a news conference Thursdaymorning at their attorney’s office in Dayton “to specificallyaddress what’s next in this case.”

Store surveillance video shown during the prosecutor’sannouncement shows Crawford walking in the aisles whileapparently talking on a mobile phone. Crawford picks up the airrifle - which Piepmeier said had apparently been taken out of abox and left on a shelf - and continues walking through the store.A short time later, police arrive and Crawford is shot twice whileholding the air rifle. Beavercreek’s per capita income of $37,987 iswell above the state average. About 2.5 percent of residents areblack, well below the state average of 12.5 percent. The Crawfordfamily accused Piepmeier and Ohio Attorney General MikeDeWine of not attempting to get an indictment. They also saidthe store surveillance tape proves that Crawford’s death was notjustified. Prosecutor Stacey DeGraffenreid, who assistedPiepmeier, said Crawford was shot twice by one officer, once inthe elbow and once in the side under the rib area slightly fromthe front to the back. DeGraffenreid says Crawford was shot whileholding the rifle, then dropped it, falling to the floor. She says noother shots were fired. “This was a real tragedy,” DeGraffenreidsaid in a telephone interview. But she said that based on whatinformation the officers had when they entered the Wal-Mart,they were doing what they were trained to do. —AP

Immigrant who hid in US church

gains supportPORTLAND, Oregon: As an immigrant activist’s stay at achurch to avoid deportation nears a week, he’s gaining sup-porters, including the mayor of Portland, and the churchplans a rally for him. In recent years, as immigration reformhas stalled in Washington, churches around the US haveoffered sanctuary to immigrants who lack legal statusbecause federal officials generally don’t make arrests at sensi-tive locations such as churches.

Francisco Aguirre, 35, who came to the US from ElSalvador nearly two decades ago, is facing removal to hisnative country because of an old drug conviction and a previ-ous deportation.

Aguirre - who has two children who are US citizens and isnow the coordinator of a Portland nonprofit that runs a daylabor center - disputes the criminal prosecution on drug-deal-ing charges 15 years ago and says he was innocent. He hasvowed to remain at Augustana Lutheran Church in Portlanduntil he’s able to resolve his immigration case. “I’m a part ofthis community, and this is where I belong,” Aguirre said.Portland-area churches and local leaders support Aguirre,pointing to his contributions during the past decade as alabor and immigrant rights’ organizer and a family man.“Francisco Aguirre has been a community leader in Portlandand an important voice on issues of equity and immigrantrights ... I believe Francisco should remain in the UnitedStates, and in Portland, until his case can reach a humaneconclusion,” Mayor Charlie Hales said in a statement. —AP


ISLAMABAD: Pakistani students shout slogans during a protest against the police outside their college inIslamabad. Islamabad’s students are growing frustrated with tens of thousands of armed police who have puttheir education on hold by converting schools into makeshift barracks, as a protest movement outside parlia-ment enters its second month. —AFP

India’s spacecraft beams back first Mars photosIndia basks in glory as it joins super exclusive Mars club

Briton on death row shot in

Pakistan prisonISLAMABAD: A 70-year-old Scottish man sentenced to death inPakistan for committing blasphemy was shot and wounded inprison yesterday, officials said, and was being treated in hospital.

Mohammad Asghar was convicted in January for claiming to be aprophet of Islam, moving British Prime Minister David Cameron tosay he was “deeply concerned” about the issue. Asghar, who wasdiagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in Britain in 2010, haddeclared his ‘prophethood’ in court and included a reference to it onhis business card, a government prosecutor said at the time of his tri-al. Abdul Majeed, a police official at the Saddar police station inRawalpindi said: “A prison official in his early twenties transported anillegal weapon inside the prison this morning and shot an inmate.”Majeed added that the accused was in custody and would facecharges for attempted murder and possession of an illegal weapon.A doctor at the hospital where Asghar was first brought said: “Onepatient was brought here who had been shot from the back and thebullet has crossed his body affecting his ribs and lungs.” “He is out ofdanger now,” he added.

The British High Commission in Islamabad-the de facto embassy-confirmed the prison shooting of a national and said it was provid-ing consular assistance. The attack took place around 8:30 am (0330GMT), a member of his legal team told AFP.

Family pleas It is unclear what led to the attack, but blasphemy is an extremely

sensitive issue in Pakistan, where 97 percent of the population isMuslim and insulting the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) can carry thedeath penalty. Even unproven allegations can provoke a violentresponse. In 2012, a young Christian girl was forced to flee to Canadaafter being accused of blasphemy, even though the charges wereeventually thrown out. There have also been several cases wheremobs have attacked the mentally ill. Asghar’s family in January urgedthe British government to intervene to bring him home, saying hehad attempted suicide in jail. They also said the allegations againstAsghar stemmed from a property dispute with one of his tenants.Last week, gunmen shot dead a university professor in Karachiknown for his liberal views on Islam who had been labelled a “blas-phemer” in a text message campaign.

Adiyala jail also houses Mumtaz Qadri, the former bodyguard ofPunjab provincial governor Salman Taseer whom he gunned downin 2011 over the politician’s call for the blasphemy laws to bereformed. Qadri was feted by a wide segment of the populationincluding many lawyers, while a mosque named in his honour wasrecently built in the capital Islamabad. Though Asghar was on deathrow, Pakistan has had a de facto moratorium on civilian hangingssince 2008. Only one person has been executed since then, a soldierconvicted by a court martial and hanged in November 2012. —AFP

BANGALORE: India’s spacecraft has beamed back its first photosof Mars, showing its crater-marked surface, as the country glowedwith pride yesterday after winning Asia’s race to the Red Planet.

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) uploaded oneof the photos to its Facebook page, showing an orange surfacewith dark holes, taken from a height of 7,300 kilometers (4,536miles). ISRO also posted the photo on Twitter, with the caption“The view is nice up here”. The organization’s senior scientist VKoteswara Rao said the spacecraft, called the Mars Orbiter Mission,has taken a dozen photos and that everything was working well.

“The Mars color camera on board started working soon afterOrbiter stabilized in the elliptical orbit of Mars and has taken adozen quality pictures of its surface and its surroundings,” Raosaid. “The camera will also take images of the Red Planet’s twomoons and beam them to our deep space network centre,” headded, referring to the base near the southern city of Bangalore.

“Health and other parameters of the spacecraft are fine and allthe essential functions are performing normally.”

Supremacy in AsiaIndia became the first Asian country to reach Mars on

Wednesday when the unmanned Mangalyaan spacecraft enteredthe planet’s orbit after a 10-month journey, all on a shoestringbudget.

The mission, which is designed to search for evidence of life onthe planet, is a huge source of national pride for India as it com-petes with Asian rivals for success in space.

India beat rival neighbor China, whose first attempt flopped in2011 despite the Asian superpower pouring billions of dollars intoits program. At just $74 million, India’s mission cost less than theestimated $100 million budget of the sci-fi blockbuster “Gravity”. Italso represents just a fraction of the cost of NASA’s $671 millionMAVEN spacecraft, which successfully began orbiting the fourthplanet from the sun on Sunday.

India now joins an elite club of the United States, Russia andEurope who can boast of reaching Mars. More than half of all mis-sions to the planet have ended in failure. No single nation had pre-viously succeeded on its first go, although the European SpaceAgency, which represents a consortium of countries, pulled off thefeat at its first attempt.

Scientists presented the Mars photos yesterday to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi who was on hand in the command centreto witness the achievement. “The success of our space program isa shining symbol of what we are capable of as a nation,” a jubilantModi said on Wednesday.

The mission’s success received front-page coverage in Indiannewspapers yesterday, with the Hindustan Times declaring “MAR-TIAN RACE WON” and the Times of India, “India enters super exclu-sive Mars club.”

Indians, from government ministers to office workers and crick-eters poured onto Twitter to show their national pride, whileschool students celebrated by eating traditional Indian sweets.

“The space exploration arena is getting crowded and it isimportant to be ahead of your competition,” the Hindustan Timessaid in an editorial. —AFP

This image provided by the Indian GovernmentPress Information Bureau shows what the agencysays is one of the first images of the surface of Marstaken by India’s Mars Orbiter Mission satellite, yes-terday. The image was taken while the MartianOrbiter Mission, or MOM, was about 7,300 kilome-ters (4,536 miles) from the planet’s surface, accord-ing to the ISRO. It took at least 12 minutes for thedigital data to reach Earth. —AP

‘First Pakistani in space’

congratulates India ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani explorer expected to becomeher country’s first person in space congratulated India yes-terday on reaching Mars on its maiden attempt. India wonthe Asian space race to the Red Planet on Wednesdaywhen its unmanned Mangalyaan successfully entered theRed Planet’s orbit after a 10-month journey on a budget ofjust $74 million.

Despite having a space agency since 1961 Pakistanhas not yet launched a satellite into orbit. But NamiraSalim, the first Pakistani explorer to reach both poles saidIndia’s achievement had made the region proud. “The suc-cess of the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), Mangalyaan, is agiant leap for South Asia,” said Salim, who has booked aticket on Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic space projectplanned for 2015. “I commend the Indian Space ResearchOrganization (ISRO), and all its scientists and researchersfor not only achieving this astronomical feat, but also forachieving it in the most cost-effective manner.”

Pakistan has not yet officially congratulated India. Theneighbors have fought three wars, two of them over thedisputed territory of Kashmir. Relations between the twocountries have taken a turn for the worse after Pakistan’stop envoy met Kashmiri separatist leaders in August, withIndia responding by calling off talks between the coun-tries’ foreign secretaries. —AFP


GUAM: Chad DeSoto, in orange, showed no outward emotion as he is handed down three life sentences withoutthe possibility of parole at the Superior Court of Guam in Hagatna, Guam, yesterday. —AP

US man’s N Korean prison life: Digging, isolation

Guam killer gets life for Japanese tourist attack

HAGATNA, Guam: A Guam man who killed three Japanesetourists and wounded 11 more during a frenzied knife attack onthe Pacific island was jailed for three life terms yesterday.

Superior Court judge Anita Sukola said that Chad Ryan DeSoto had shown no remorse over the brutal attack in Februarylast year and would spend the rest of his life in jail without theprospect of parole.

“In your own statement to the court your remorsefulness didnot come out, you were more concentrating about mental ill-ness,” Sukola told the court. She said De Soto, who was convict-ed last month after a jury rejected his insanity plea, was likely tocommit more crimes unless he was incarcerated.

The 22-year old ploughed his car into a group of people whowere enjoying an evening stroll in the tourist district of Tumon,and then leapt from the vehicle and attacked bystanders at ran-dom with a knife in each hand. All of the victims were Japanese,including an eight-month-old baby and three-year-old toddler,who both survived. The toddler’s mother Rie Sugiyama, 29, diedas she desperately tried to shield her daughter from the knife-man. Another relative, 81-year-old Kazuko Uehara, was alsokilled. They had been in Guam for a family wedding.

Hitoshi Yokota, 51, died from injuries sustained when DeSoto’s car crashed into him. Sugiyama’s father Masao Ueharaaddressed the court during the sentencing hearing, recountinghow “heaven turned to hell in one day”. Uehara, who was one ofa number of relatives who signed a letter to the judge asking forthe maximum penalty, told the court De Soto would have facedthe death penalty had the crimes occurred in Japan.

Sugiyama’s mother, Miho Uehara Tamara, said: “My familywill never forgive the defendant.” De Soto’s father, Christopher,also addressed the sentencing hearing, saying he felt he hadfailed his son. “He was trying hard to remain faithful to God buthe lost his battle,” he said. De Soto broke down sobbing in thedock when his father said he still loved him. De Soto had plead-ed not guilty by reason of insanity to three counts of murder and11 of attempted murder, but a jury convicted him after a seven-week trial that included two weeks of deliberations involvingmore than 100 witnesses. The deadly incident shocked Guam, anation of about 180,000 people and known as an idyllic tropicaldestination. Tourism is a key industry for the US territory andJapanese make up about 80 percent of visitors. —AFP

PYONGYANG, North Korea: An Americanman recently sentenced by North Korea tosix years of hard labor says he is digging infields eight hours a day and being kept inisolation, but that so far his health isn’tdeteriorating. Under close guard and withonly enough time to respond to one ques-tion, 24-year-old Matthew Miller spokebriefly to an AP Television News journalistat a Pyongyang hotel, where he had beenbrought to make a phone call to his family.It was his first appearance since he wasconvicted Sept. 14 of entering the countryillegally to commit espionage.

“Prison life is eight hours of work perday. Mostly it’s been agriculture, like in thedirt, digging around,” Miller said whenasked if he was in prison and if so whatconditions were like.

“Other than that, it’s isolation, no con-tact with anyone. But I have been in goodhealth, and no sickness or no hurts,” hesaid, showing little emotion. Wearing aprison-style gray uniform and cap, Millerwas filmed sitting down at a phone boothat the hotel and pressing the buttons on aphone while a North Korean guard stoodbehind him. Officials said Miller spoke tohis father, but the APTN journalist was notallowed to hear the conversation. Millerdoes not have routine access to phonecalls home.

The Bakersfield, California, nativeshowed several letters he had writtenpleading for help from influentialAmericans, including first lady MichelleObama, US Secretary of State John Kerry

and former US Secretary of State HillaryClinton. Miller then enclosed them in a let-ter he mailed to his family from the hotel.

Wild ambitionAt Miller’s 90-minute trial, North

Korea’s Supreme Court said he tore up

his tourist visa at Pyongyang’s airportupon arrival on April 10 and admitted tohaving the “wild ambition” of experienc-ing prison life so that he could secretlyinvestigate North Korea’s human rights

situation. Miller is one of three Americansdetained in North Korea. Jeffrey Fowle,who was arrested in May for leaving aBible at a sailor’s club, is expected to betried in court soon. Kenneth Bae was sen-tenced in 2013 to 15 years of hard labor.

Last week, Robert King, the US specialenvoy for North Korean human rightsissues, said Pyongyang has not acceptedAmerican offers to send a high-levelenvoy to seek release of the three men.

King said that freeing the detaineescould provide a diplomatic opening inties between the two countries, but thatWashington would not give intoattempts to “extort” political gain fromthe detentions.

King would not specify whom theObama administration was willing tosend. But Scott Snyder, senior fellow forKorea Studies at the Council on ForeignRelations think tank, said he was told bythe administration that it has offered inrecent weeks to send Glyn Davies, wholeads US diplomacy on North Korea’snuclear weapons program, and thatPyongyang had not responded favorably.In 2009, North Korea detained twoAmerican journalists, Laura Ling andEuna Lee, who were later freed after for-mer US President Bill Clinton visitedPyongyang. In 2011, former PresidentJimmy Carter visited North Korea to winthe release of imprisoned AmericanAijalon Gomes, who had been sentencedto eight years of hard labor for crossingillegally into the North from China. —AP

China defends life sentence for Uighur scholar

BEIJING: China’s state media released the first comprehensive report onevidence used to convict a prominent ethnic minority scholar of sepa-ratism and send him to prison for life, as top officials defended the harshsentence amid criticism abroad. In an account released a week after theclosed-door trial, the official Xinhua News Agency said prosecutors hadmarshalled 210 pieces of evidence against Ilham Tohti, including a videoof one of his lectures in which he purportedly said that the restive west-ern Xinjiang region belongs to the Muslim Uighur people, not theChinese majority Han. The report late Wednesday also quoted the schol-ar as telling his students “I am not Chinese because I am a Uighur. Mypride is that of greater Turkestan.” Xinhua reported that prosecutors alsosaid the scholar publicized a fake opinion poll showing 12 percent ofUighurs supported separating from China and that his students had tes-tified that he had forced separatist teachings on them.

Defense lawyer Li Fangping disputed the evidence cited in theXinhua report and said some of it, including the quote about not beingChinese, was not even presented during the trial’s two days of pro-ceedings. Regarding the poll, he said his client had only referred tosomeone else’s survey. Foreign reporters were not allowed to attendthe Beijing economics professor’s trial in Xinjiang, where he wasaccused of fomenting separatist unrest. He was sentenced Tuesday tolife in prison. Known to many as a moderate mediator between theUighur minority group and the ruling Han Chinese majority, Tohti’sharsh sentence drew condemnation from rights groups and some gov-ernments abroad. President Barack Obama cited Ilham Tohti amongseveral people rights groups call political prisoners and said theydeserved to be freed. Some foreign media cited a comparison originallymade by a Chinese microblogger equating Ilham Tohti with NelsonMandela, South Africa’s long-imprisoned civil rights activist and laternational leader. —AP

This image taken from video showsMatthew Miller in North Korea,Wednesday. —AP

Screen siren BrigitteBardot turns 80

Page 21

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 www.kuwaittimes.net

A May 1956 file photo shows French actressBrigitte Bardot posing with a parrot duringthe Cannes film festival. — AFP

L i f e s t y l eFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

Carefree sensuality oozed from every pore asBrigitte Bardot, who turns 80 on Sunday,mamboed her way to fame, leaving men

weak at the knees and drawing a generation of lib-erated young women in her wake. Half a centuryon, the big wispy hair and hourglass silhouetteimmortalized by the 1950s sex symbol still inspiredesigners the world over, though the real-lifeBardot has long abandoned the limelight in favorof animal rights activism. “She was an idol for ageneration of women,” said Marie-DominiqueLelievre, author of a recent biography on “BB”, asBardot became known.

“She was monstrously famous, and the mythonly grew bigger since she ended her career beforeshe was even 40.” In 1956, Bardot set the screenalight in “And God Created Woman”, shot by herthen husband Roger Vadim and the best-known ofthe 50-odd movies-many of them flops-of her shortcareer. The classic scene in which she dances animpassioned Mambo in a flowing skirt slit to thewaist brought onto the big screen a new level ofunbridled sexual energy — and quickly earned thewrath of US censors.

For defenders of the strict morals of the 1950s,Bardot, with her babydoll face, pouty lips, hour-glass figure and liberated attitude, was a threat. “Agirl of her time, free of any sense of guilt, of anysocial taboo,” was how Vadim described her.

Lurch to far-right With age, Bardot has lurched to the far-right,

increasingly prone to illiberal remarks on gays,

Muslims and immigrants that have led to five con-victions for inciting racial hatred. At 80 she keepsherself busy with her animal rights activismthrough high-profile campaigns to save seals, ele-phants or stray dogs. She described retirement as“dreadful” in a recent interview with AFP. “One getsbored stiff. That is why people die of boredom,” shesaid. But Bardot’s modern-day persona belies herfame as an icon for a free-thinking, free-lovingyoung generation. Invited to meet then president

Charles De Gaulle, she turned up in pants and ajacket-unheard of in bourgeois French circles at thetime. Bardot herself was raised in a traditionalCatholic household-but her good-girl upbringinggave way well before 1968 to a “Bohemian”lifestyle that was to include four husbands, assort-ed lovers, and a dress code far from the sophistica-tion of Hollywood stars of the time.

‘Does what she wants’ “She goes barefoot, and turns her back on ele-

gant grooming, jewels, perfumes, make-up, on allthese tricks,” the French feminist icon Simone deBeauvoir noted with approval. “She does what she

wants, and that is what is so troubling.” Saint-Tropez, the quiet French fishing village

that Bardot adored and where she still lives, mush-roomed into a jet-set hub. Bob Dylan is said to havewritten his very first song about Bardot as a teen,and John Lennon is said to have suffered so badfrom jitters that he took LSD before meeting her.

Bardot’s fame saw contemporaries adopt herstyle en masse, and the way she was hounded bypaparazzi inspired Louis Malle’s film “Private Life”.The Bardot style “remains widely copied,” said herbiographer, who believes Kate Moss, ClaudiaSchiffer, Kylie Minogue and Madonna all borrowedfrom her seductive wiles at one point or another.Bardot refused to allow Madonna to adapt hermemoirs for the big screen however, because thestar would not give up wearing fur. Her fashionlegacy was on display again this month at DianeVon Furstenberg’s show in New York, completewith blue-and-white striped fishermen’s tops, bal-lerina shoes, checks and bee-hives.

These days Bardot shuns the fashion and filmworlds, and proudly refuses to resort to plastic sur-gery. “A myth? That is a word I have been stuckwith but which means nothing,” Bardot told themagazine Marie-Claire in 2010. Two years laterhowever, she was asked in an interview whichFrench actress could play her in a film. “No one. Notone could do it. What do they lack? My personali-ty,” was the stinging reply. — AFP

Screen siren Brigitte Bardot

turns 80A file photo taken in April 1959 shows French

actress Brigitte Bardot posing in London where shehas arrived to film ‘Babette s’en va-t-en guerre’

(Babette Goes to War). — AFP photos

A December 17, 1971 file photo showsFrench actresses Brigitte Bardot andClaudia Cardinale, attending the Premiereof the film ‘Les Petroleuses’ (The Legend ofFrenchie King), in Paris.

An April 8, 1976 file photo shows Frenchformer actress Brigitte Bardot stroking ababy seal in fecamp, northern France.

A photo taken on December 16, 1965shows French actress Brigitte Bardot wav-ing as she boards a plane at Orly airportnear Paris en route to New York.

A December 9, 1992, file photo shows formerFrench actress Brigitte Bardot flanked by heradopted daughter Mylene de Muygdler, asthey leave the Brigitte Bardot Foundation inSaint Tropez (South of France) for the startingup of ‘A Christmas for the animals’.

A June 4, 1977 file photo shows Frenchactress Brigitte Bardot attending the inter-national feline exhibition in Saint-Tropez,southern France.


Paris Fashion Week

Models wear creations by Indian fashiondesigner Manish Arora’sSpring/Summer 2015 ready-to-wearfashion collection presented in Paris,France yesterday. — AFP photos


Russians are being urged by apro-Kremlin group to trashWestern T-shirts and put on

new ones flaunting anti-sanctionsslogans such as “We can get ourkicks without your Coca-Cola.” Thegroup has set up street exchangepoints where Muscovites can handin old T-shirts with English logosand get free T-shirts with belliger-ently pro-Russian wording. “I justwant to show my support for mycountry as it is being treatedinjustly by the West,” said studentSergei Seryogin after handing overfour old T-shirts decorated withthe emblems of US states.

“We have to show that we livewell without the West,” said DenisGolovin, an accountant who hadjust pulled on a new T-shirt withthe Coca-Cola slogan. Other slo-gans riff unsubtly on Russia’s pow-erful missile capability. “Don’tmake my Iskanders laugh,” readsone, while another says: “Topolsaren’t scared of sanctions.” “Thesesanctions have sparked a newpatriotic spirit. Russia needs toshow its strength,” said 23-year-

old Archil Beniya.The stunt seemed to score a hit

with young Muscovites, whohanded in more than 3,000 old T-shirts bearing slogans such as “Ilove NY” on the first day, Monday,said Ksenia Melnikova, one of theorganizers from fundraising groupSodeistviye, or Cooperation. Twoconstruction firms paid to producethe 30,000 T-shirts, while a fashiondesigner helped to create them,Melnikova said on Wednesday.

Russians have previouslyflaunted their support forPresident Vladimir Putin with T-shirts praising the Russian forceswho annexed Crimea and evenskimpy knickers saying “Vova, I’mwith you,” using a pet name forthe Kremlin leader. Successiverounds of Western sanctions pun-ishing Moscow for its role in theUkraine crisis have not dampenedRussians’ support for Putin, who isstill enjoying record approval rat-ings. Experts caution, however,that the effects of reciprocal sanc-tions have not yet hit home withthe Russians. — AFP

Russians urged to binWestern T-shirts

in pro-Kremlin stunt

F o o dFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

Meals on the goQuick and healthy office lunches

We all have our office routines. We know exactly when the alarm will ring in the morning, how long the shower will take to get hot and how long it will take to beat theafternoon rush hour traffic. In all this hurry, most of us forget that solely having a cup of coffee with toast is not the most healthiest or filling of meal options’. To helpout, we have created a handy list of easy to make and quick to prepare office lunches that almost anyone can make. No matter what your work timings, youíll alwayshave a tasty meal waiting for you.

Ingredients• 1 teaspoon mustard• 2 slices rye bread• 2 ounces salami (about 6 slices), thinly sliced• 1/2 small bunch arugula, trimmed and washed• 1 tablespoon cream cheese

Preparation• Spread mustard on one slice of bread; top with salami and arugula. • Spread cream cheese on the other slice of bread; close sandwich. • Serve, or refrigerate, wrapped tightly in wax paper or plastic, up to overnight. Cut in half.

Salami and CreamCheese Sandwich

Ingredients • 6 ounces small pasta shells• 1 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into thirds• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard• 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil• 1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained• 5 stalks celery, thinly sliced

Preparation• In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta 3 minutes less than pack-

age instructions. Add green beans and cook 3 minutes more. Drain andrinse with cold water.

• In a medium bowl, combine mustard, vinegar, honey, and oil. Add pastamixture, pinto beans, chickpeas, scallions, and celery; toss gently. Seasonwith salt and pepper.

Three-Bean Pasta Salad

F o o dFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

Ingredients• 1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise• 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice• 1 dash Worcestershire sauce• 2 slices multigrain bread• 1 ounce thinly sliced smoked turkey

Preparation• In a small bowl, combine Parmesan, mayonnaise,

lemon juice, and Worcestershire sauce; seasonwith salt and pepper. Spread on both bread slices.

• Break lettuce into large pieces; layer half on 1 sliceof bread. Top with turkey, remaining lettuce, andbread.

Ingredients• One 5-ounce can tuna, drained• 2 cups finely chopped green or red cabbage, • 1/4 cup minced chives, from about 1/4 ounce chives• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise• 3 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt

Preparation• Shred the tuna with a fork and mix thoroughly with the cabbage. • Stir in the chives, mayonnaise, and yogurt. • Taste and add salt and pepper to taste. Eat immediately or else refrig-

erate for up to two days.

Crisp Tuna-Cabbage SaladTurkey CaesarSandwich

Ingredients • 1/2 pound whole-wheat bread• 2 pounds broccoli• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil• 1/2 teaspoon red-pepper flakes• 1/4 cup rice vinegar• 3 tablespoons soy sauce• 1/2 cup roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped

Preparation• In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta until al dente according to package instructions.

Drain, and rinse under cold water; set aside.• Meanwhile, trim 1 inch from the stem end of broccoli stalks. Using a vegetable peeler or paring knife,

peel outer layer of stalks; thinly slice crosswise. Separate florets into bite-size pieces.• Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium. Add pepper flakes, broccoli, and 3/4 cup water;

cover and cook until broccoli is crisp-tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Uncover and cook until liquid has evap-orated and broccoli is tender, 2 to 4 minutes.

• In a large bowl, whisk together remaining 2 tablespoons oil, vinegar, peanut butter, and soy sauceuntil smooth. Add cooled pasta, broccoli, scallions, and peanuts; toss to combine. Serve immediate-ly, or refrigerate and serve chilled.

Pasta Salad with Broccoli and Peanuts

Green beans with tomato & fetaIngredients

• 300g green beans, trimmed• 6 large tomatoes, roughly chopped• 100g feta, cubed• 1 tbsp olive oil

Preparation• Boil a pan of water. Once boiling, add the beans and cook for 4 minutes until

tender. • Drain the beans, and then mix with the tomato and feta. • Drizzle over the olive oil and season generously with black pepper.

— www.marthastewart.com

T r a v e lFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

The cultural

wonders of ArabiaWorld heritage sites in the Gulf

With Kuwait placing the Kuwait Towers as a cultural nomination to the WorldCultural Heritage Committee, we wanted to look at other great cultural land-marks in the region. The Arabian Peninsula has been a thriving civilization withcenturies of history embedded into the very land itself. Take a look at some of theregion’s most famous World Heritage sites.

Tyre is a city in the South Governorate ofLebanon juts out from the coast of theMediterranean and is located about 80 km

(50 mi) south of Beirut. The name of the citymeans “rock” after the rocky formation on whichthe town was originally built. Tyre is an ancientPhoenician city and the legendary birthplace ofEuropa and Elissa (Dido). Today, it is the fourthlargest city in Lebanon and houses one of thenation’s major ports with tourism being a majorindustry. The city has a number of ancient sites,including its Roman Hippodrome which wasadded to UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites in1979. Tyre was founded around 2750 BC accord-ing to Herodotus and was originally built as awalled city upon the mainland.

City of Tyre (Lebanon)

Madain Saleh, also called Al-Hijr orHegra, is a pre-Islamic archaeologi-cal site located in the Al-Ula sector,

within the Al Madinah Region of SaudiArabia. A majority of the vestiges date fromthe Nabatean kingdom (1st century CE).Thesite constitutes the kingdom’s southern-most and largest settlement after Petra, itscapital. Traces of Lihyanite and Romanoccupation before and after the Nabateanrule, respectively, can also be found.

The Holy Quran places settlement of thearea by the Thamud people after Noah butbefore Moses, which can be interpreted asthe 3rd millennium BC. According to theIslamic text, the Thamudis, who carved out

homes in the mountains, were punished byAllah for their practice of idol worship,being struck by an earthquake and light-ning blasts.

Thus, the site has earned a reputation asa cursed place - an image which the nation-al government is attempting to overcomeas it seeks to develop Madain Saleh for itstourism potential. In 2008 UNESCO pro-claimed Madain Saleh as a site of patrimo-ny, becoming Saudi Arabia’s first WorldHeritage Site. It was chosen for its well-pre-served remains from late antiquity, especial-ly the 131 rock-cut monumental tombs,with their elaborately ornamented faÁades,of the Nabatean kingdom.

Madain Saleh (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)

T r a v e lFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

Bahla Fort is one of four historic fortress-es situated at the foot of the DjebelAkhdar highlands in Oman. It was built

in the 13th and 14th centuries, when the oasisof Bahla was prosperous under the control ofthe Banu Nabhan tribe. The forts ruinedadobe walls and towers rise some 165 feetabove its sandstone foundations. Nearby tothe southwest is the Friday Mosque with a14th-century sculpted mihrab. The fort wasnot restored or conserved before 1987, andhad fallen into a parlous state, with parts of

the walls collapsing each year in the rainy sea-son. The fort became a UNESCO WorldHeritage Site in 1987. It was included in theList of World Heritage in Danger from 1988.Restoration works began in the 1990s, andnearly $9m were spent by the Omani govern-ment from 1993 to 1999. It remained coveredwith scaffolding and closed to tourists formany years. It was removed from the list ofendangered sites in 2004. The fort of Bahlahas been semi-reopened to the public sinceSeptember 2012.

Baalbeck, is a town in the Beqaa Valley ofLebanon situated east of the Litani River.Known as Heliopolis during the period of

Roman rule, it was one of the largest sanctuar-ies in the empire and contains some of the bestpreserved Roman ruins in Lebanon. The godsthat were worshipped at the temple - Jupiter,Venus, and Bacchus - were grafted onto theindigenous deities of Hadad, Atargatis, and ayoung male god of fertility. Local influences areseen in the planning and layout of the temples,which vary from the classic Roman design.

In 1984, UNESCO declared it a WorldHeritage site stating that Baalbeck’s colossalstructures, is one of the finest examples ofImperial Roman architecture at the very peak oftheir civilization. It expressed the wish that theprotected area include the entire town withinthe Arab walls, as well as the southwesternextramural quarter between Bastan-Al-Khan,the Roman site and the Mameluk mosque ofRas-Al-Ain. Lebanon’s representative gaveassurances that the committee’s wish would behonored.

Bahla Fort (Oman)

Bahrain Pearling Trail (Bahrain)

Baalbeck (Lebanon)

The Bahrain pearling trail is a 3.5km trail located in the island ofMuharraq, in Bahrain, that was

used by pearl divers during much ofBahrain’s history until the early1930s. Pearling in Bahrain hasoccurred since 2000 BC. The pathwayconsists of 17 buildings in Murharraq,3 oyster beds located in the nearbysea, a segment of the coast and theseafront Bu Mahir fortress in thesouthern tip of Muharraq. TheUNESCO World Heritage Committeeinscribed the site in 2012 stating thatthe trail was the last remaining com-plete example of the cultural tradi-tion of pearling and the wealth itgenerated at a time when the tradedominated the Gulf economy. It alsoconstituted an outstanding exampleof traditional utilization of the sea’sresources and human interactionwith the environment, which shapedboth the economy and cultural iden-tity of the island’s society.

Abu Simbel Temples (Egypt)

The Abu Simbel temples are two mas-sive rock temples in Abu Simbel inNubia, southern Egypt. They are situ-

ated on the western bank of Lake Nasser,about 230 km southwest ofAswan (about 300 km by road).Along with the great pyramidsof Giza, the temples were oneof the earliest sites to beinscribed by the UNESCOWorld Heritage Committee.The twin temples were origi-nally carved out of the moun-tainside during the reign ofPharaoh Ramesses II in the13th century BC, as a lastingmonument to himself and hisqueen Nefertari, to commemo-rate his alleged victory at theBattle of Kadesh. However, thecomplex was relocated in itsentirety in 1968, on an artificial hill madefrom a domed structure, high above theAswan High Dam reservoir. The relocationof the temples was necessary to avoid their

being submerged during the creation ofLake Nasser. Construction of the templecomplex started in approximately 1264 BCand lasted for about 20 years, until 1244 BC.

Known as the “Temple of Ramesses,beloved by Amun” it was one of six rocktemples erected in Nubia during the longreign of Ramesses II.

Petra (Jordan)

Petra is a historical and archaeological cityin the southern Jordanian governorate ofMaan that is famous for its rock-cut archi-

tecture and water conduit system. Another namefor Petra is the Rose City due to the color of thestone out of which it is carved.

Established possibly as early as 312 BC as thecapital city of the Nabataeans, it is a symbol ofJordan, as well as Jordan’s most-visited touristattraction. It lies on the slope of Jebel Al-Madhbah (identified by some as the biblicalMount Hor) in a basin among the mountains

which form the eastern flank of Arabah (WadiAraba), the large valley running from the DeadSea to the Gulf of Aqaba. Petra has been aUNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985. The siteremained unknown to the Western world until1812, when it was introduced by Swiss explorerJohann Ludwig Burckhardt. It was described as“a rose-red city half as old as time” in aNewdigate Prize-winning poem by John WilliamBurgon. UNESCO has described it as “one of themost precious cultural properties of man’s cul-tural heritage”.

Old city of Sanaa (Yemen)

The old city of Sanaa has a distinctivevisual character due to its unique archi-tectural characteristics, most notably

expressed in its multi-storey buildings deco-rated with geometric patterns. The old forti-fied city has been inhabited for more than2,500 years and contains many intact architec-tural gems. It was declared a World HeritageSite by the United Nations in 1986. Efforts areunderway to preserve some of the oldestbuildings some of which, such as the Samsarhand the Great Mosque of Sana’a, are more

than 1,400 years old. The city contains morethan 100 mosques, 12 hammams (baths) and6,500 houses. Many of the houses resembleancient skyscrapers, reaching several storieshigh and topped with flat roofs. They are dec-orated with elaborate friezes and intricatelycarved frames and stained-glass windows. The7thcentury Jami Al-Kabir (Great Mosque) isone of the oldest mosques in the world. TheBab Al-Yaman (Yemen Gate) is an iconic entrypoint through the city walls and is more than1,000 years old. — http://whc.unesco.org

28T r a v e lFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2014

For a keen traveler, Oman offers a whole spectrum ofexperiences, from risky climbing or paragliding toscuba diving, camping under the stars in the desert,

sightseeing or simply strolling the vast, empty beachesscattered between rocky cliffs. We take a look at some ofthe things we were lucky to experience. From toweringmountains growing straight from the Arabian Sea to palmgroves, huge desert dunes, deep ravines and rocky desertscres-crossed by shiny asphalt of new highways - the unfor-gettable natural beauty makes Oman a great destination inany holiday season.

1) Surf the Wahiba desertThe rolling sand dunes of The Wahiba Sands, varying

from deep red to rich honey color, stretch as far as the eyecan see. This is the traditional home of the Bedouin, hardyspirited people who know how to survive in these harshdesert conditions. Witness the amazing desert sunset fromthe top of a dune, followed by a traditional Omani dinner,in the tranquility of the desert. Choose one of the manytourist companies to take you on a 4◊4 Dune Bashingexcursion. Enjoy the roller-coaster ride of creeping upsteep sand dunes to go plummeting down them much toyour thrill and excitement - hold on tight! You can also gosand boarding. This is a whole new kind of workout - climbup the dunes with your board to go whizzing down a massof deep-orange, rippling hills.

2) Trek in the Wadi ShabLocated along the coast road Wadi Shab is a gorge

carved by thousands of years of natural erosion. Huge rockboulders, cliffs, waterfalls and natural pools of intensely

Discover Oman: The pearl in the desert

Discover Oman: The pearl in the desert


turquoise water combine to form one of a kind attraction.The trek is only for the able however: it’s hot and the pathis difficult, but there is a reward at the end: a set of inter-connected pools with a cool grotto awaits the adventurer.If your are up for it, embark on 3km of swimming throughor jumping in to bright green pools and water-filled caves,climbing up waterfalls, sliding down natural water-slidesand scrambling over boulders. This is all through a narrowdramatic canyon cutting snake-like in to the rugged land-scape. This certainly feels like you’ve been transported in toan Indiana Jones movie or a thrilling water-park ride.

3) Shop at Nizwa marketNear the Nizwa Fort is the Nizwa Souk, a market that is

still very much in use by locals and therefore not yet flood-ed with products made in China. On Fridays, Omanis comefrom many miles away to visit the so-called “Cattle Market”,actually more of a general livestock market. In addition tocows, you’ll see flat-bed trucks filled with camels, and plen-ty of goats. The cattle market is a round space, allowingsellers to lead their animals for sale in a slow circular walk,where buyers sit in the middle and along the edges, shout-ing out a price as they feel moved to do so. If a deal isreached, the transfer is made immediately - the animal iseither led away via a rope, or in the case of a pair smallgoat kids, scooped up one other each arm. The rest of thesouk is mostly dedicated to the needs of locals during theirmarketing. Even on a busy day, the vibe is calm - there arevirtually no aggressive merchants and touts trying torelieve you of your money.

4) Swim in Bimah sinkholeBimah sinkhole is beautiful natural landmark - a place of

refreshment at the long coastal road of Oman. Bimah sink-hole was formed in limestone by a collapse of large cavechamber. Earlier locals believed that this hole was formedby meteorite (“piece of Moon”). The sinkhole is approxi-mately 50 by 70 m large, 20 - 30 m deep. At the bottom islocated deep blue-green lake with a heap of rock - rem-nants of the collapse. Municipality has developed a parkaround the sinkhole, there is built concrete stairway lead-ing to the lake. Locals and tourists often enjoy a refreshingbath in the lake. It’s usually deserted, with occasionaltourist popping in for a swim. It’s bliss in a hot day.

5) Hike through the Musandam MountainsThe starkly beautiful and desolate Musandam Peninsula

is an exclave separated from the rest of Oman by theUnited Arab Emirates. Some of the most memorable vistas,some wildest and most spectacular landscapes in Omancan be found here: rugged peaks and massifs rising straightfrom the sea, deep ravines and mountain ledges that use tosupport small-scale barley plantations. These days they lieabandoned, together with dozens of stone-house villages,whose inhabitants moved to cities after the oil boom.

6) Plummet into Majlis Al Jinn CaveOut of sight in the heart of brown hills located at the

foothills of the eastern Al Hajar Mountains hides one of the


relieve you of your money.

4) Swim in Bimah sinkholeBimah sinkhole is beautiful natural landmark - a place of

refreshment at the long coastal road of Oman. Bimah sink-hole was formed in limestone by a collapse of large cavechamber. Earlier locals believed that this hole was formedby meteorite (“piece of Moon”). The sinkhole is approxi-mately 50 by 70 m large, 20 - 30 m deep. At the bottom islocated deep blue-green lake with a heap of rock - rem-nants of the collapse. Municipality has developed a parkaround the sinkhole, there is built concrete stairway lead-ing to the lake. Locals and tourists often enjoy a refreshingbath in the lake. It’s usually deserted, with occasionaltourist popping in for a swim. It’s bliss in a hot day.

5) Hike through the Musandam MountainsThe starkly beautiful and desolate Musandam Peninsula

is an exclave separated from the rest of Oman by theUnited Arab Emirates. Some of the most memorable vistas,some wildest and most spectacular landscapes in Omancan be found here: rugged peaks and massifs rising straightfrom the sea, deep ravines and mountain ledges that use tosupport small-scale barley plantations. These days they lieabandoned, together with dozens of stone-house villages,whose inhabitants moved to cities after the oil boom.

6) Plummet into Majlis Al Jinn CaveOut of sight in the heart of brown hills located at the

foothills of the eastern Al Hajar Mountains hides one of thegreatest and most beautiful natural wonders. It is the MajlisAl Jinn Cave, or Salma Plateau as it is commonly known,and is considered one of the largest underground caves inthe world. The area of this enormous cave is 58 thousandsquare meters and its capacity is 4 million cubic meters.The length of Majlis Al Jinn Cave is 310 meters and itswidth is 225 meters. A dome-shaped ceiling tops the caveat a height of 120 meters. Despite the enormity of thiscave, it is difficult to detect it from the outside in this vastarea, as the only evidence of its existence is a scant threeopenings that seem of no importance to the viewer.Reaching the Cave opening requires strenuous physicaleffort, since you must traverse a distance of 1,300 meters toreach the cave opening through rugged mountain terrain.This trip takes about five hours. The only way to descendinto the cave is by ropes. Geologists put the age of thiscave (Majlis Al Jinn, or Salma Plateau as some like to call itowing to the area where it’s located) at fifty million years.The cave is considered a repository of natural life treasures.

7) Explore Jebel Akhdar This is one of the most beautiful and scenic places to see

in Oman. Discover valleys, plunging canyons, plateaus,mountain cliffs and fantastic hiking trails through JebalAkhdar (‘Green Mountain’), part of the Al Hajar Mountainrange. Extending about 300km wide, the highest point ofeastern Arabia lies here, called Jebal Shams around 3000mhigh. This is a treat for hikers who can soak in spectacularviews while embarking on a mix of challenging and moder-ate trails. Many tourists and locals will reach this mountainby 4◊4 car through rocky terrain, for day or overnightcamping trips. The area is known for its Mediterranean cli-mate. Temperatures drop during winter to below zeroCelsius, with snow falling at times, and rise in summer to 22degrees Celsius. Due to its location and unique weather, itproduces a variety of fruits, such as apricots, plums, figs,grapes, apples and pears, as well as almonds, walnuts andsaffron. The pomegranate that grows here is classifiedamong the finest of its kind in the world.

8) Turtle watching at Ras Al JinzThe beaches of Ras Al Had, Ras Al Junayz and Masirah

island are just some of the areas where several species ofmarine turtles come to lay their eggs. Green turtles, logger-heads, Hawksbill and leatherbacks live for over 100 yearsand swim the length and breadth of the Indian Ocean onlyto return every year to the same sites to lay their eggs.Many tour operators and hotels in the town offer turtle visi-tation packages. It is necessary to acquire a permit to visitthe official nesting sites as the turtles are protected asendangered species. Once again, local tour operators willprovide full details.

9) Unwind on the beaches of DhofarThe Dhofar district is characterized by attractive and rich

beaches. There are plenty of lagoons crowded with flamin-gos, as well as caves with winding entrances. Oman’s mostimportant beaches are Al Maghsayl, Raysut, Al Hafah, and

L e i s u r eFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

ACROSS1. (computer science) A standardized language for the descriptive markup of documents.5. The dry dusty pulp that remains after juice is extracted from sugar cane or similar plants.12. A number of sheets of paper fastened together along one edge.15. Wild sheep of northern Africa.16. Feeling or caused to feel uneasy and self-conscious.17. Fermented alcoholic beverage similar to but heavier than beer.18. A large oven for firing or burning or drying such things as porcelain or bricks.19. Type genus of the Caviidae.20. The capital and largest city of Bangladesh.22. A medicinal drug used to evoke vomiting (especially in cases of drug overdose or poi-soning).24. A metrical unit with unstressed-stressed syllables.26. A flat-bottomed volcanic crater that was formed by an explosion.27. A member of the Siouan people formerly living in the Missouri river valley in NENebraska.29. Suggestive of the supernatural.30. The activity of persuading someone to buy.33. A white linen liturgical vestment with sleeves.34. Remove with or as if with a ladle.38. A mountain range in China.43. The bureau of the Treasury Department responsible for tax collections.44. Half the width of an em.45. The 19th letter of the Greek alphabet.47. (Assyrian) Chief god of the Assyrians.48. Domination of a political organization by a party boss.51. A state in southeastern United States between the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico.52. The state prevailing during the absence of war.53. An organization of countries formed in 1961 to agree on a common policy for the sale ofpetroleum.54. Sole genus of the family Naiadaceae.57. Having any of numerous bright or strong colors reminiscent of the color of blood orcherries or tomatoes or rubies.58. Any of several tropical and subtropical treelike herbs of the genus Musa having a termi-nal crown of large entire leaves and usually bearing hanging clusters of elongated fruits.61. A unit of resistance equal to one million ohms.64. Least expensive statin drug (trade name Lescol).65. The 3 goddesses of fate or destiny.69. United States naval officer and historian (1840-1914).72. At or constituting a border or edge.73. Any of a group of Indic languages spoken in Kashmir and eastern Afghanistan andnorthern Pakistan.74. A cut of pork ribs with much of the meat trimmed off.77. Treat or speak of with contempt.78. The sense organ for hearing and equilibrium.79. Pacific newts.82. A distinct part that can be specified separately in a group of things that could be enu-merated on a list.83. A byproduct of inflammation.84. Specify as a condition.85. A small cake leavened with yeast.

C R O S S W O R D 6 7 9DOWN

1. British writer of short stories (1870-1916).2. The act of grasping.3. Sterile offspring of a male donkey and a female horse.4. 16th President of the United States.5. An indehiscent fruit derived from a single ovary having one or many seeds within a fleshywall or pericarp.6. A loose sleeveless outer garment made from aba cloth.7. Large fish-eating Indian crocodilian with a long slender snout.8. The largest continent with 60% of the earth's population.9. A painful emotion resulting from an awareness of inadequacy or guilt.10. A toxic nonmetallic element related to sulfur and tellurium.11. A doctor's degree in education.12. Large burrowing rodent of South and Central America.13. Type genus of the Alcidae comprising solely the razorbill.14. Dearly loved.21. Any of a group of proteins found in saliva and pancreatic juice and parts of plants.23. Before noon.25. English monk and scholar (672-735).28. Imperial dynasty that ruled China (most of the time) from 206 BC to 221 and expandedits boundaries and developed its bureaucracy.31. The 4th largest of Jupiter's satellites.32. Decrease in size, extent, or range.35. Essential oil or perfume obtained from flowers.36. Make or become free of frost or ice.37. Worn or shabby from overuse or (of pages) from having corners turned down.39. Flower arrangement consisting of a circular band of foliage or flowers for ornamentalpurposes.40. A transuranic element that has not been found in nature.41. A Russian prison camp for political prisoners.42. The upper side of the thighs of a seated person.46. Far away from home or one's usual surroundings.49. Of or relating to a directionless magnitude.50. A hard brittle gray polyvalent metallic element that resembles iron but is not magnetic.55. Pertaining to or resembling amoebae.56. Some unspecified time in the future.59. A Uralic language spoken by a Samoyed people of northern Siberia.60. A very poisonous metallic element that has three allotropic forms.62. A trivalent metallic element of the rare earth group.63. The vein in the center of a leaf.66. An Indian side dish of yogurt and chopped cucumbers and spices.67. A unit of dry measure used in Egypt.68. Swelling from excessive accumulation of serous fluid in tissue.70. South American armadillo with three bands of bony plates.71. A chordophone that has a triangular frame consisting of a sounding board and a pillarand a curved neck.75. A reproach for some lapse or misdeed.76. A strong emotion.80. Being one more than one hundred.81. A gray tetravalent metallic element that resembles zirconium chemically and is found inzirconium minerals.

Yesterdayʼs Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

Daily SuDoku

T V l i s t i n g sFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

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00:25 Eastenders00:55 Doctors01:25 Life On Air02:15 The Suspicions Of Mr Whicher03:45 Absolutely Fabulous04:15 The Weakest Link05:00 Nuzzle & Scratch: Frock n Roll05:20 Boogie Beebies05:35 The Green Balloon Club06:00 Nina And The Neurons06:15 Nuzzle & Scratch: Frock n Roll06:35 Boogie Beebies06:50 The Green Balloon Club07:15 The Weakest Link08:00 My Family08:30 Absolutely Fabulous09:00 Eastenders09:30 Doctors10:00 Life On Air10:50 Hotel Secrets With Richard EGrant11:35 The Weakest Link12:20 Absolutely Fabulous12:50 Walk On The Wild Side13:20 Eastenders13:50 Doctors14:20 Life On Air15:10 Hotel Secrets With Richard EGrant15:55 My Family16:25 The Weakest Link17:10 The Impressions Show WithCulshaw...17:40 Doctors18:10 Casualty19:00 Friday Night Dinner19:30 Little Britain20:00 Hotel Secrets With Richard EGrant20:45 Hebburn21:15 Live At The Apollo22:00 Sherlock Holmes23:35 The Weakest Link

00:00 Royal Pains01:00 The Fosters02:00 Survivor: San Juan Del Sur03:00 American Horror Story: Coven

00:30 The Daily Show With JonStewart01:00 The Colbert Report01:30 Louie02:30 South Park03:00 Hot In Cleveland03:30 The Michael J. Fox Show04:30 The Tonight Show StarringJimmy Fallon07:00 Late Night With Seth Meyers09:00 Hot In Cleveland11:00 The Tonight Show StarringJimmy Fallon14:00 The Michael J. Fox Show15:30 The Daily Show With JonStewart16:00 The Colbert Report17:00 Late Night With Seth Meyers18:00 Hot In Cleveland18:30 The Michael J. Fox Show19:00 Friends With Better Lives20:00 The Tonight Show StarringJimmy Fallon21:00 The Daily Show With JonStewart21:30 The Colbert Report22:00 Mixology23:00 South Park23:30 Late Night With Seth Meyers

00:20 Americarna00:45 Americarna01:10 Amish Mafia02:00 Fast N’ Loud02:50 Storage Hunters03:15 American Diggers03:40 The Liquidator04:05 How It’s Made04:30 How Do They Do It?05:00 Gold Divers06:00 Classic Car Rescue06:50 Deadliest Catch07:40 Fast N’ Loud08:30 Storage Hunters08:55 American Diggers09:20 The Liquidator09:45 How It’s Made10:10 How Do They Do It?10:35 Hardcore Heroes11:25 Sons Of Guns12:15 Sons Of Guns13:05 Storage Hunters13:30 American Diggers

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Kardashians01:25 E!ES02:20 E! News03:15 Giuliana & Bill04:10 E!ES05:05 THS06:00 THS07:50 Style Star08:20 E! News09:15 Giuliana & Bill10:15 THS11:10 E!ES12:05 E! News13:05 Fashion Police13:35 #RichKids Of Beverly Hills14:05 #RichKids Of Beverly Hills14:30 Style Star15:00 Keeping Up With TheKardashians16:00 Keeping Up With TheKardashians17:00 The Drama Queen18:00 E! News19:00 E!ES20:00 Eric And Jessie: Game On20:30 Eric And Jessie: Game On21:00 Giuliana & Bill22:00 Fashion Police22:30 E! News23:30 #RichKids Of Beverly Hills

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00:00 Violetta00:45 The Hive00:50 Art Attack01:15 Art Attack01:40 Jungle Junction01:50 Jungle Junction02:05 Jungle Junction02:15 Jungle Junction02:30 Violetta03:15 The Hive03:20 Art Attack03:45 Art Attack04:10 Jungle Junction04:20 Jungle Junction

04:35 Jungle Junction04:45 Jungle Junction05:00 Art Attack05:25 Art Attack05:50 Mouk06:00 Jessie06:25 Liv And Maddie06:45 Dog With A Blog07:10 I Didn’t Do It07:35 Sabrina: Secrets Of A TeenageWitch07:55 Win, Lose Or Draw08:20 Suite Life On Deck08:45 A.N.T. Farm09:05 A.N.T. Farm09:30 Sonny With A Chance09:55 Sonny With A Chance10:15 Suite Life On Deck10:40 Suite Life On Deck11:05 That’s So Raven11:25 That’s So Raven11:50 A.N.T. Farm12:15 A.N.T. Farm12:35 Good Luck Charlie13:00 Good Luck Charlie13:25 Jessie13:45 Jessie14:10 Austin & Ally14:35 Win, Lose Or Draw15:00 Mako Mermaids15:25 I Didn’t Do It15:50 Liv And Maddie16:10 Violetta17:05 Honey, I Shrunk The Kids18:30 Win, Lose Or Draw18:55 Liv And Maddie19:20 Violetta20:05 Austin & Ally20:30 Austin & Ally20:50 Austin & Ally21:15 Austin & Ally21:40 Austin & Ally22:00 Good Luck Charlie22:25 A.N.T. Farm22:50 Shake It Up23:10 Wolfblood23:35 Wolfblood

00:20 Nordic Cookery With TareqTaylor00:45 Cash In The Attic01:35 Cash In The Attic02:05 Cash In The Attic02:50 Bargain Hunt

03:35 Beat My Build04:25 Valentine Warner EatsScandinavia04:50 Nordic Cookery With TareqTaylor05:15 A Taste Of My Life05:40 Cash In The Attic06:30 Cash In The Attic07:00 Cash In The Attic07:45 Bargain Hunt08:30 Beat My Build09:15 Valentine Warner EatsScandinavia09:45 Nordic Cookery With TareqTaylor10:15 Cash In The Attic11:05 Cash In The Attic11:35 Cash In The Attic12:20 Bargain Hunt13:05 Beat My Build13:50 Valentine Warner EatsScandinavia14:20 Nordic Cookery With TareqTaylor14:50 Cash In The Attic15:45 Cash In The Attic16:15 Cash In The Attic17:00 Valentine Warner EatsScandinavia17:30 Bargain Hunt18:15 The Planners19:10 Valentine Warner EatsScandinavia19:40 Come Dine With Me: SouthAfrica

00:40 The Hungry Sailors01:30 Coach Trip02:00 Emmerdale02:55 Coronation Street03:25 Tom Daley Goes Global04:20 Harry’s South Pole Heroes05:15 The Chase

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T V l i s t i n g sFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

WATERWORLD ON OSN MOVIES ACTION HD

00:00 Passion Fish-18

00:00 WWE NXT01:00 WWE Main Event02:00 Sydney Darts Masters05:00 NRL Premiership07:00 Golfing World08:00 European tour weekly08:30 Ryder Cup Opening Ceremony09:30 Live Ryder Cup20:30 Golfing World21:30 NFL Gameday22:00 Live top 14

00:00 Indycar Highlights01:00 Currie Cup 02:00 World Match Racing Tour03:00 World Match Racing Tour04:00 World Match Racing Tour05:00 V8 Supercars Highlights06:00 V8 Supercars Highlights07:00 Super League 09:00 ICC Cricket 36009:30 TOP 1410:00 Total Rugby10:30 Live ITM Cup12:30 Live NRL Premiership

00:30 Champions League T20Highlights01:30 ICC Cricket 36002:00 England Women v South AfricanWomen T20I Highlights03:00 England Women v South AfricanWomen T20I Highlights04:00 England Women v South AfricanWomen T20I Highlights05:00 Caribbean Premier LeaueHighlights06:00 Champions League T20Highlights07:00 Champions League T20Highlights08:00 Champions League T20Highlights09:00 Champions League T20Highlights10:00 ICC Cricket 36010:30 Champions League T20Highlights11:30 Champions League T20Highlights12:30 Champions League T20Highlights13:30 Live Champions League T2017:00 ICC Cricket 36017:30 Live Champions League T2021:00 ICC Cricket 36021:30 Champions League T20Highlights22:30 Champions League T20Highlights23:30 Champions League T20Highlights

00:00 Bones01:00 Good Morning America03:00 Banshee04:00 True Detective05:00 Good Morning America07:00 Emmerdale09:00 Once Upon A Time InWonderland10:00 Emmerdale12:00 Chicago Fire13:00 Bones14:00 Live Good Morning America16:00 Once Upon A Time InWonderland17:00 Chicago Fire18:00 Bones

00:00 The Marine02:00 Skyline04:00 Flight Of The Intruder06:00 Maximum Conviction08:00 Skyline09:45 Waterworld12:00 The Marine14:00 The Grandmaster16:00 Skyline18:00 Summoned19:45 Waterworld22:00 Haywire

00:00 The Dream Team-PG1502:00 Splash-PG04:00 Fred 2: Night Of The Living Fred-PG05:30 Sabrina-PG08:00 Something New-PG1510:00 Undercover Brother-PG1512:00 4 Wedding Planners-PG1514:00 Ski Patrol-PG1516:00 Something New-PG1518:00 Father Of The Bride-PG1520:00 Bernie-PG1522:00 Here Comes The Boom-PG15

01:00 The Music Never Stopped-PG1503:00 Ain’t Them Bodies Saints-PG1505:00 Centre Place-PG1507:00 Grand Piano-PG1509:00 Darling Companion-PG1511:00 Centre Place-PG1513:00 Grand Piano-PG1515:00 Someday This Pain Will BeUseful To You-PG1517:00 Darling Companion-PG1518:45 Silver Linings Playbook-PG1521:00 End Of Watch-1823:00 Hick-PG15

01:30 The Colony-PG1503:15 G.I. Joe: Retaliation-PG1505:15 There Be Dragons-PG1507:15 Stuck In Love-PG1509:00 Superman: Unbound-PG10:45 G.I. Joe: Retaliation-PG1512:45 The Wolverine-PG1515:00 Battle Of The Year-PG1517:00 Superman: Unbound-PG18:30 The Lone Ranger-PG1521:00 Frozen-PG22:45 About Time-PG15

01:15 Cher Ami02:45 Marvel’s Ultimate Avengers II04:15 The Missing Lynx06:00 Shark Bait08:00 Barbie As The Island Princess10:00 Madagascar11:30 Lego Batman: The Movie - DCSuper Heroes Unite12:45 Back To The Sea14:30 The Ugly Duckling And Me16:00 Open Season18:00 Madagascar20:00 Home Alone: The Holiday Heist22:00 The Ugly Duckling And Me23:30 Open Season

00:15 Phantom-PG1502:00 Gambit-PG1504:00 Lovestruck: The Musical-PG1506:00 The Croods-PG08:00 The Trial-PG1510:00 Snowflake , The White Gorilla-PG12:00 Gambit-PG1514:00 Disturbia-PG1516:00 The Trial-PG1518:00 The Worricker: Turks & Caicos-PG1520:00 Colombiana-PG1522:00 The Call-PG15

04:00 C.S.I.05:00 Killer Women06:00 Royal Pains08:00 Criminal Minds09:00 The Fosters10:00 C.S.I.11:00 Killer Women12:00 Emmerdale13:00 The Ellen DeGeneres Show14:00 Criminal Minds15:00 Royal Pains16:00 Emmerdale17:00 The Ellen DeGeneres Show18:00 Criminal Minds20:00 Grey’s Anatomy21:00 Crisis23:00 American Horror Story: Coven

19:00 Once Upon A Time InWonderland20:00 Chicago Fire21:00 Bones22:00 Banshee23:00 True Detective

00:00 Skyline-PG1502:00 Flight Of The Intruder-PG1504:00 Maximum Conviction-PG1506:00 Skyline-PG1507:45 Waterworld-PG1510:00 The Marine-PG1512:00 The Grandmaster-PG1514:00 Skyline-PG1516:00 Summoned-PG1517:45 Waterworld-PG1520:00 Haywire-PG1522:00 2 Fast 2 Furious-PG15

02:30 Cocktail-PG1504:30 Emperor-PG1506:30 Mud-PG1509:00 Blackfish-PG1510:30 Meet Joe Black-PG1513:30 Mud-PG1515:45 Veronica Guerin-PG1517:30 Blackfish-PG1519:00 Wrecked-PG1520:45 The Firm-PG1523:30 Prisoners-PG15

14:30 Top 14 Highlights15:00 Total Rugby15:30 Trans World Sport16:30 NFL19:00 WWE Superstars20:00 WWE Smackdown22:00 Live Super League

00:10 Hoarding: Buried Alive01:00 Oprah’s Master Class01:50 Oprah’s Next Chapter02:40 I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant03:05 Secretly Pregnant03:55 Long Island Medium04:20 Say Yes To The Dress04:45 Say Yes To The Dress05:10 Toddlers & Tiaras06:00 Oprah: Behind The Scenes07:00 Oprah: Behind The Scenes07:50 Cake Boss08:15 Cake Boss08:40 Cake Boss09:05 Cake Boss09:30 Hoarding: Buried Alive10:20 Secret Eaters11:10 Brides Of Beverly Hills11:35 Brides Of Beverly Hills12:00 Brides Of Beverly Hills12:25 Brides Of Beverly Hills12:50 Brides Of Beverly Hills13:15 Oprah’s Master Class14:05 Oprah’s Next Chapter14:55 Little People, Big World15:20 Little People, Big World15:45 Little People, Big World16:10 Little People, Big World16:35 Little People, Big World17:00 The Next Great Baker17:50 17 Kids And Counting18:15 17 Kids And Counting18:40 17 Kids And Counting19:10 17 Kids And Counting19:40 Here Comes Honey Boo Boo21:00 Little People, Big World: BigChanges21:55 Alaskan Women Looking ForLove22:50 Long Island Medium23:15 Secretly Pregnant

Proposal: Medianeeds permit to

film in wilderness

The US Forest Service is proposing permanent newrules that would require media organizations to obtaina permit to film and shoot photographs in more than

100 million acres of the nation’s wilderness. Under the plan,the Forest Service would consider the nature of a proposedproject before approving a special use permit then chargefees of up to $1,500 for commercial filming and photogra-phy in federally designated wilderness areas.

Mickey H. Osterreicher, general counsel for the NationalPress Photographers Association, said such rules would be aclear violation of the First Amendment and raises concernsabout press freedom, including whether denying a permitwould amount to prior restraint. “What if they deny you apermit because they don’t like the story you’re working on?”he asked.

Liz Close, the Forest Service’s acting wilderness direc-tor, said the Wilderness Act of 1964 prohibits commercialenterprise in wilderness. The rules exclude breaking newssituations, defined as “an event or incident that arises sud-denly, evolves quickly, and rapidly ceases to be newswor-thy.” But Osterreicher said the agency ignores big distinc-tions between editorial and commercial use and alsoshould not be allowed to define what constitutes break-ing news.

“We’re headed down a really slippery slope if we allowedthe government to include editorial and news gatheringactivities in commercial use,” he said. Close said the currentrules have been in place for 48 months, and the proposalreleased this month would make those guidelines perma-nent. Public comments are due by Nov 3. “This is the oppor-tunity for the public and news organizations to work with usto make sure that our directive is the way we want it,” shesaid.—AP

S t a r sFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

Afghanistan 0093Albania 00355Algeria 00213Andorra 00376Angola 00244Anguilla 001264Antiga 001268Argentina 0054Armenia 00374Australia 0061Austria 0043Bahamas 001242Bahrain 00973Bangladesh 00880Barbados 001246Belarus 00375Belgium 0032Belize 00501Benin 00229Bermuda 001441Bhutan 00975Bolivia 00591Bosnia 00387Botswana 00267Brazil 0055Brunei 00673Bulgaria 00359Burkina 00226Burundi 00257Cambodia 00855Cameroon 00237Canada 001Cape Verde 00238Cayman Islands 001345Central African Republic 00236Chad 00235Chile 0056China 0086Colombia 0057Comoros 00269Congo 00242Cook Islands 00682Costa Rica 00506Croatia 00385Cuba 0053Cyprus 00357Cyprus (Northern) 0090392Czech Republic 00420Denmark 0045Diego Garcia 00246Djibouti 00253Dominica 001767Dominican Republic 001809Ecuador 00593Egypt 0020El Salvador 00503England (UK) 0044Equatorial Guinea 00240Eritrea 00291Estonia 00372Ethiopia 00251Falkland Islands 00500Faroe Islands 00298Fiji 00679Finland 00358France 0033French Guiana 00594French Polynesia 00689Gabon 00241Gambia 00220Georgia 00995Germany 0049Ghana 00233Gibraltar 00350Greece 0030Greenland 00299Grenada 001473Guadeloupe 00590Guam 001671Guatemala 00502Guinea 00224Guyana 00592Haiti 00509Holland (Netherlands)0031Honduras 00504Hong Kong 00852Hungary 0036Ibiza (Spain) 0034Iceland 00354India 0091Indian Ocean 00873Indonesia 0062Iran 0098Iraq 00964Ireland 00353Italy 0039Ivory Coast 00225Jamaica 001876Japan 0081Jordan 00962Kazakhstan 007Kenya 00254Kiribati 00686

Kuwait 00965Kyrgyzstan 00996Laos 00856Latvia 00371Lebanon 00961Liberia 00231Libya 00218Lithuania 00370Luxembourg 00352Macau 00853Macedonia 00389Madagascar 00261Majorca 0034Malawi 00265Malaysia 0060Maldives 00960Mali 00223Malta 00356Marshall Islands 00692Martinique 00596Mauritania 00222Mauritius 00230Mayotte 00269Mexico 0052Micronesia 00691Moldova 00373Monaco 00377Mongolia 00976Montserrat 001664Morocco 00212Mozambique 00258Myanmar (Burma) 0095Namibia 00264Nepal 00977Netherlands (Holland)0031Netherlands Antilles 00599New Caledonia 00687New Zealand 0064Nicaragua 00505Nigar 00227Nigeria 00234Niue 00683Norfolk Island 00672Northern Ireland (UK)0044North Korea 00850Norway 0047Oman 00968Pakistan 0092Palau 00680Panama 00507Papua New Guinea 00675Paraguay 00595Peru 0051Philippines 0063Poland 0048Portugal 00351Puerto Rico 001787Qatar 00974Romania 0040Russian Federation 007Rwanda 00250Saint Helena 00290Saint Kitts 001869Saint Lucia 001758Saint Pierre 00508Saint Vincent 001784Samoa US 00684Samoa West 00685San Marino 00378Sao Tone 00239Saudi Arabia 00966Scotland (UK) 0044Senegal 00221Seychelles 00284Sierra Leone 00232Singapore 0065Slovakia 00421Slovenia 00386Solomon Islands 00677Somalia 00252South Africa 0027South Korea 0082Spain 0034Sri Lanka 0094Sudan 00249Suriname 00597Swaziland 00268Sweden 0046Switzerland 0041Syria 00963Taiwan 00886Tanzania 00255Thailand 0066Toga 00228Tonga 00676Tokelau 00690Trinidad 001868Tunisia 00216Turkey 0090Tuvalu 00688Uganda 00256Ukraine 00380United Arab Emirates00976

Have you been going crazy with all the demands placed on you?Don't despair. Reflect on all that's been going on. Think aboutwhere you want to make changes. Once you've come to a deci-sion, don't hesitate to implement it. This is easier than waiting forone big opportunity and doing it all at once. That chance maynever come. The step-by-step approach can bring satisfyingresults.

Aries (March 21-April 19)

If you're currently romantically involved, Taurus, your lovercould well go from what appears to be utter lassitude tototal passion. This could throw you for a loop, and youmight not know exactly how to deal with it. If you're single,you could meet someone you find attractive but forget toget his or her contact information! Keep paper and penhandy. You don't want to miss anything!

Taurus (April 20-May 20)

Have you made plans to have a romantic interest come to yourhome, Gemini? If so, don't rush to get ready. Your friend isprobably going to be late. Events beyond anyone's controlhave interfered, and you might have to wait. Don't make your-self crazy over it. Don't imagine all kinds of horrible scenarios.Your friend will show up even if later than planned. Have fun!

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

A visitor to your house may have some juicy gossip for you,Cancer. Perhaps someone is getting married. You aren't thetype to put too much stock in gossip, but your guest could beso convincing that you believe everything. Be skeptical! Whatyou're hearing may not be outright lies, but it could be exag-gerated. Wait until you see the people in question beforeaccepting it as truth.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

A last-minute gift that you've wanted to buy for someonespecial might elude you today, Leo. You could go to severalstores and find the item sold out. This could be disappointing,but don't despair. There are other options. You could order itonline or find something else and save this particular item fora birthday. Relax and enjoy your shopping.

Leo (July 23-August 22)

Everything may look wrong to you today, Virgo. The housedoesn't look right, the furniture needs adjusting, and youprobably aren't happy with the way you look either. Your per-fectionism could kick in and you might plunge into action,determined to make it all right. Don't bother! There's probablynothing you can do to make it look right today. Relax. You'llsee things differently tomorrow.

Virgo (August 23-September 22)

A gathering in your neighborhood could attract all your friendsand many of your neighbors, Libra, but you may feel a littleunder the weather and consider staying home. Your energymay be lagging, as all energy does once in a while after a stress-ful time. It might do you good to make the effort and go. It's upto you, of course, but enjoy the evening whatever you do.

Libra (September 23-October 22)

A quick check of your bank balance might reveal that it's a bitlower than you expected, Scorpio. You probably won't panic,but you're apt to feel a little disappointed. Don't waste timekicking yourself. Money can always be earned. Relax, resolve totighten your belt a little, take care of the necessities, and stickwith a financial plan. Soon you'll be glad you took action.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21)

Working late, Sagittarius? What could be so important that itkeeps you from paying attention to your family or partner?Probably nothing! Take a good, objective look at what youthink must be done tonight. You'll probably find that your com-pany won't go broke if you leave some tasks. Get as much doneas you can and then go home to your loved ones. They'reimportant, too!

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)

You could go over your accounts today and find that there's con-siderably less there than you thought. It isn't serious, but it canstill be disappointing. There could be a new contract in the finalstages of negotiation that will prove favorable, and you can find away to make up for the shortfall. In the meantime, cut expensesso finances stay healthy until the new contract materializes.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

Love matters have been going well for you recently, Aquarius,but today you could be alone and unable to reach a current orpotential romantic interest. This could bring about a twinge ofthe blues, which up until now have passed you by. Don't wastetime feeling down. Find something to distract you until yourfriend can come around to see you and you can have a littlefun.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18)

COUNTRY CODES

A prayer or meditation group could meet tonight,Capricorn, and you may get carried away with the spiritualdimensions these meditations take on. You feel comfort-able with the people in this group, and you're grateful forthe friendship and support they provide. Be with this feel-ing tonight, and try to hang onto it for as long as you can.It can help you through some rough times.

H e a l t hFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

KUWAIT: Jahra health zone continued its campaign to make people aware of the Ebola virus, as it held a weeklong campaign in various health centers. Yesterday witnessed the last of such eventsin Taima area, health center, with lectures, literature and instructions to the public, particularly the pilgrims. Sebamed, as usual was on hand with products that are suitable for pilgrims.

Sebamed raises awareness on Ebola

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

Kuwait KNCC PROGRAMME FROM THURSDAY TO WEDNESDAY(25/09/2014 TO 01/10/2014)

SHARQIA-1NO GOOD DEED (DIG) 12:30 PMTHE NOVEMBER MAN (DIG) 2:30 PMNO GOOD DEED (DIG) 4:30 PMLIFE OF CRIME (DIG) 6:30 PMNO GOOD DEED (DIG) 8:30 PMNO GOOD DEED (DIG) 10:15 PMNO GOOD DEED (DIG) 12:05 AM

SHARQIA-2TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (DIG) 1:30 PMTEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (DIG) 3:30 PMJAWAZA MIRI (DIG) (Arabic) 5:30 PMTEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (DIG) 7:45 PMJAWAZA MIRI (DIG) (Arabic) 10:00 PMTEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (DIG) 12:15 AM

SHARQIA-3AS ABOVE, SO BELOW (DIG) 12:45 PMAS ABOVE, SO BELOW (DIG) 2:45 PMINTO THE STORM (DIG) 4:45 PMIF I STAY (DIG) 6:45 PMAS ABOVE, SO BELOW (DIG) 8:45 PMINTO THE STORM (DIG) 10:45 PMAS ABOVE, SO BELOW (DIG) 12:45 AM

MUHALAB-1NO GOOD DEED (DIG) 12:30 PMNO GOOD DEED (DIG) 2:15 PMLIFE OF CRIME (DIG) 5:00 PMNO FRI+SAT+MONPOWER (DIG) (Telugu) 4:00 PMFRI+SAT+MONNO GOOD DEED (DIG) 7:00 PMTEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (DIG) 8:45 PMNO GOOD DEED (DIG) 11:00 PMNO GOOD DEED (DIG) 1:00 AM

MUHALAB-2HERCULES (DIG) 1:30 PMAS ABOVE, SO BELOW (DIG) 3:30 PMIF I STAY (DIG) 5:45 PMAS ABOVE, SO BELOW (DIG) 7:45 PMINTO THE STORM (DIG) 9:45 PMAS ABOVE, SO BELOW (DIG) 11:45 PM

MUHALAB-3TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (DIG)1:30 PMTEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (DIG)3:45 PMTEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (DIG)6:00 PMJAWAZA MIRI (DIG) (Arabic) 8:15 PMJAWAZA MIRI (DIG) (Arabic) 10:30 PMTEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (DIG)12:45 AM

FANAR-1TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (DIG) 1:30 PMTEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (DIG) 3:30 PMIF I STAY (DIG) 5:45 PMTEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (DIG) 7:45 PMIF I STAY (DIG) 10:00 PMTEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (DIG) 12:05 AM

FANAR-2AS ABOVE, SO BELOW (DIG) 1:00 PMAS ABOVE, SO BELOW (DIG) 3:00 PMINTO THE STORM (DIG) 5:00 PMFINDING FANNY (DIG) (HINDI) 7:00 PMTHU+FRI+SATAS ABOVE, SO BELOW (DIG) 7:00 PM

NO THU+FRI+SATINTO THE STORM (DIG) 9:00 PMAS ABOVE, SO BELOW (DIG) 11:00 PMAS ABOVE, SO BELOW (DIG) 1:00 AM

FANAR-3SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR 12:45 PMSIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR 2:45 PMHERCULES (DIG) 4:45 PMLIFE OF CRIME (DIG) 6:45 PMHERCULES (DIG) 8:45 PMSIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR 10:45 PMSIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR 12:45 AMFANAR-4NO GOOD DEED (DIG) 12:30 PMNO GOOD DEED (DIG) 2:30 PMNO GOOD DEED (DIG) 4:15 PMJAWAZA MIRI (DIG) (Arabic) 6:00 PMNO GOOD DEED (DIG) 8:15 PMJAWAZA MIRI (DIG) (Arabic) 10:00 PMNO GOOD DEED (DIG) 12:15 AM

FANAR-5THE EXPENDABLES 3 (DIG) 1:00 PMTHE EXPENDABLES 3 (DIG) 4:00 PMPOWER (DIG) (Telugu) 3:30 PMMARY KOM (DIG) (HINDI) 6:30 PMPOWER (DIG) (Telugu) 6:30 PMNO THUPOWER (DIG) (Telugu) 9:30 PMPOWER (DIG) (Telugu) 10:00 PMTHE EXPENDABLES 3 (DIG) 12:30 AM

MARINA-1IF I STAY (DIG) 12:30 PMTEENAGE MUTANT NINJATURTLES (DIG) 2:30 PMAS ABOVE, SO BELOW (DIG) 4:30 PMIF I STAY (DIG) 6:30 PMIF I STAY (DIG) 8:30 PMAS ABOVE, SO BELOW (DIG) 10:30 PMAS ABOVE, SO BELOW (DIG) 12:30 AM

MARINA-2NO GOOD DEED (DIG) 1:00 PMINTO THE STORM (DIG) 3:00 PMINTO THE STORM (DIG) 5:00 PMNO GOOD DEED (DIG) 7:00 PMTEENAGE MUTANT NINJ TURTLES (DIG) 8:45 PMNO GOOD DEED (DIG) 11:00 PMNO GOOD DEED (DIG) 12:45 AM

MARINA-3TEENAGE MUTANT NINJATURTLES (DIG) 1:30 PMJAWAZA MIRI (DIG) (Arabic) 3:30 PMHERCULES (DIG) 5:45 PMJAWAZA MIRI (DIG) (Arabic) 7:45 PMJAWAZA MIRI (DIG) (Arabic) 9:45 PMTEENAGE MUTANT NINJATURTLES (DIG) 12:05 AM

AVENUES-1HERCULES (DIG) 2:00 PMHERCULES (DIG) 4:00 PMNO FRI+SATPOWER (DIG) (Telugu) 4:00 PMHERCULES (DIG) 7:00 PMHERCULES (DIG) 10:00 PMPOWER (DIG) (Telugu) 7:00 PMPOWER (DIG) (Telugu) 10:00 PMHERCULES (DIG) 1:00 AM

AVENUES-2INTO THE STORM (DIG) 12:45 PMINTO THE STORM (DIG) 3:00 PMINTO THE STORM (DIG) 5:15 PMINTO THE STORM (DIG) 7:30 PMSONE3A FI MASR (DIG) 9:45 PMINTO THE STORM (DIG) 12:05 AM

AVENUES-3JAWAZA MIRI (DIG) (Arabic) 1:45 PMTHE NOVEMBER MAN (DIG) 4:00 PMJAWAZA MIRI (DIG) (Arabic) 6:15 PMJAWAZA MIRI (DIG) (Arabic) 8:30 PMJAWAZA MIRI ( D I G )(Arabic) 10:45 PMTHE NOVEMBER MAN (DIG) 1:00 AM

AVENUES-4NO GOOD DEED (DIG) 1:30 PMNO GOOD DEED (DIG) 3:30 PMNO GOOD DEED (DIG) 5:30 PMSpecial Show “THE NOVEMBER MAN (DIG)5:30 PMNO GOOD DEED (DIG) 7:30 PMNO GOOD DEED (DIG) 9:30 PMTHE NOVEMBER MAN (DIG) 11:30 PMTHU+FRI+SATNO GOOD DEED (DIG) 11:30 PMNO THU+FRI+SAT

360º- 1NO GOOD DEED (DIG) 1:30 PMNO GOOD DEED (DIG) 3:30 PMNO GOOD DEED (DIG) 5:30 PMNO GOOD DEED (DIG) 7:30 PMNO GOOD DEED (DIG) 9:30 PMNO GOOD DEED (DIG) 11:30 PM

360º- 2IF I STAY (DIG) 2:15 PMIF I STAY (DIG) 4:30 PMIF I STAY (DIG) 6:45 PMIF I STAY (DIG) 9:00 PMIF I STAY (DIG) 11:15 PM

360º- 3THE EXPENDABLES 3 (DIG) 1:00 PMTHE EXPENDABLES 3 (DIG) 3:30 PMPOWER (DIG) (Telugu) 3:30 PMTHE EXPENDABLES 3 (DIG) 6:30 PMTHE EXPENDABLES 3 (DIG) 9:30 PMPOWER (DIG) (Telugu) 6:30 PMPOWER (DIG) (Telugu) 9:30 PMTHE EXPENDABLES 3 (DIG) 12:30 AM

AL-KOUT.1NO GOOD DEED (DIG) 1:00 PMINTO THE STORM (DIG) 3:00 PMNO GOOD DEED (DIG) 5:00 PMNO GOOD DEED (DIG) 6:45 PMINTO THE STORM (DIG) 8:30 PMNO GOOD DEED (DIG) 10:30 PMNO GOOD DEED (DIG) 12:30 AM

AL-KOUT.2SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR (DIG)1:30 PMSIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR (DIG)3:30 PMSIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR (DIG)5:30 PMJAWAZA MIRI (DIG) (Arabic) 7:30 PMJAWAZA MIRI (DIG) (Arabic) 9:45 PMSIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR (DIG)12:05 AM

AL-KOUT.3TEENAGE MUTANT NINJATURTLES (DIG) 1:15 PMTEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (DIG) 3:30 PMTEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (DIG) 5:45 PMHERCULES (DIG) 8:00 PMTEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (DIG) 10:00 PMTEENAGE MUTANT NINJATURTLES (DIG) 12:15 AM

AL-KOUT.4AS ABOVE, SO BELOW (DIG) 12:30 PMDigital (2D) 2:30 PMAS ABOVE, SO BELOW (DIG) 4:30 PMIF I STAY (DIG) 6:30 PM

Prayer timings

Fajr: 04:18Shorook 05:38Duhr: 11:40Asr: 15:106Maghrib: 17:42Isha: 18:58

Sabah Hospital 24812000Amiri Hospital 22450005Maternity Hospital 24843100Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital 25312700Chest Hospital 24849400Farwaniya Hospital 24892010Adan Hospital 23940620Ibn Sina Hospital 24840300Al-Razi Hospital 24846000Physiotherapy Hospital 24874330/9

Kaizen center 25716707Rawda 22517733Adaliya 22517144Khaldiya 24848075Kaifan 24849807Shamiya 24848913Shuwaikh 24814507Abdullah Salem 22549134Nuzha 22526804Industrial Shuwaikh 24814764Qadsiya 22515088Dasmah 22532265Bneid Al-Gar 22531908Shaab 22518752Qibla 22459381Ayoun Al-Qibla 22451082Mirqab 22456536Sharq 22465401Salmiya 25746401Jabriya 25316254Maidan Hawally 25623444

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Sharing accommodation -two fully furnished & spa-cious bedrooms in CAC flatare available in Ishbiliya,block 1. Bachelor/SinglePakistani/Indian Muslims arepreferred. Contact Afzal Shafi:99714430. (C 4771)25-9-2014

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21-9-2014

WASHINGTON: Apple yesterday acknowledged abug in its iPhone software update that causedusers to lose cellular service, offering a temporaryfix and a full update “in the next few days.”

A statement on Apple’s website was the first toacknowledge the problem, which came afternumerous users complained on social media andonline forums that the iOS 8.0.1 update left theirphones largely inoperable. The update was devel-oped to add in fitness monitoring programswhich were omitted from the iOS 8 platformreleased last week.

The Apple website acknowledged that the lat-est update, which was pulled shortly after itsrelease Wednesday, caused a loss of cellular serv-ice and the touch identification which allows usersto operate their phones with a fingerprint ID.

“We have a workaround for you if you have aniPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus and you lost cellularservice and Touch ID functionality today afterupdating to iOS 8.0.1,” Apple said.

The temporary fix allows users to reinstall iOS 8

through iTunes. “We are also preparing iOS 8.0.2with a fix for the issue, and will release it as soonas it’s ready in the next few days,” Apple added.

In a statement to some media outlets, Applesaid, “We apologize for the great inconvenienceexperienced by users, and are working around theclock to prepare iOS 8.0.2 with a fix for the issue.”

The news caused further embarrassment toApple after some users posted comments aboutbends in the bodies of the oversize iPhone 6 Pluswhen carried in trouser pockets. On theMacRumors forum of Apple users, one iPhonebuyer noted that, after carrying the handset in afront pocket for 18 hours, “I saw the reflection ofthe window in the iPhones slightly distorted.”

The user posted a picture of the bent iPhone,and dozens posted similar complaints on Twitter,using the hashtag #BendGate. Apple sharesmeanwhile tumbled 3.4 percent to $98.24 on thenews, amid concerns the problems could hurtsales of the hugely profitable iPhones.

“It’s certainly a black eye for Apple,” said Roger

Kay, analyst at Endpoint Technologies Associates.Kay said the software glitch “is not a major

problem, they can fix that” in a short period oftime. More serious, said Kay is the whether Apple’snew “phablet” will be viewed as too fragile forsome buyers.

“The bending problem is baked into thedesign of the phone, so its something they can’tjust fix,” Kay told AFP. “They’re committed to thisdesign.” Kay said Apple may have to respond insome manner if it gets more complaints, butwon’t be able to quickly redesign the handset. Theanalyst said Apple may offer some compensationto buyers or it may take a “hardball” approach by

saying “you’re not supposed to abuse your phoneor sit on your phone, you’re supposed to treat itlike a piece of electronics.”

Apple said Monday it sold more than 10 mil-lion of the new smartphones in the first three dayssince launching in a handful of countries, setting anew record for opening weekend sales.

The new iPhones were launched Friday inthe United States, Britain, Australia, Canada,France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, PuertoRico and Singapore. They will be available inmore than 20 additional countries onSeptember 26, and 115 countries by the end ofthe year. — AFP

BusinessFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

Modi pledges to cut red tape in ‘Make in India’ campaign

PAGE 41

Marka jumps 59% in first DFM flotation since 2009PAGE 38

KUWAIT: Kuwait Airways and Boeing arenearing a deal for the purchase of 10 wide-body 777 aircraft, with a list value of $3.3 bil-lion, according to Bloomberg reports. Citingunnamed sources, the report said that theaircraft may arrive as early as 2016 if a deal isreached by year end. Kuwait’s civil aviationcouncil has reportedly ok’d the deal whichhas also been backed by the government.Neither KAC nor Boeing commented for theBloomberg article.

In February, Kuwait Airways agreed to

buy 25 aircraft and lease 12 others fromEuropean aircraft manufacturer Airbus.The deal is estimated worth was $4.4 bil-lion at list prices and included 10 A350-900and 15 medium-haul A320neo airlinersdue for del ivery beginning 2020.Controversy over the deal lead to thelaunching of a parliamentary investigation.Kuwait Airways competes regionally withglobal carriers Emirates, Qatar Airways andEtihad as well as local low cost carrierJazeera Airways.

KAC and Boeing near deal

PASADENA: A man checks out his iPhone 6 Plus outside the Apple store in Pasadena,California. Apple yesterday acknowledged a bug in its iPhone software update thatcaused users to lose cellular service, offering a temporary fix and a full update “in thenext few days.”— AFP

Apple acknowledges bug in iPhone software Smartphone giant offers temporary fix, full update in next few days

B u s i n e s sFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

DUBAI: Shares in Dubai retailing and restaurants start-up Markajumped 59 percent yesterday in the first flotation on the emirate’smain stock market since 2009, showing a hunger for fresh equityamong local retail investors. Marka shares closed at 1.59 dirhams onthe Dubai Financial Market (DFM), up from their initial public offerprice of 1.00 dirham. The firm raised 275 million dirhams ($75 million),55 percent of its capital, in April via an offer that was 36 times sub-scribed.

The shares swung wildly yesterday, hitting a high of 2.00 dirhamsand a low of 1.53, in massive volume of 119 million shares - almosthalf the number of shares sold in the IPO. Marka was by far the mostheavily traded stock in Dubai, where the main index fell 0.2 percent.

IPOs in Dubai dried up when the emirate’s financial crisis eruptedfive years ago, and since then restrictive listing requirements haveencouraged several United Arab Emirates companies to float inLondon rather than at home. But a strong rebound in Dubai’s equityand property prices over the past 18 months has revived investors’spirits, and the Marka IPO appears to signal the start of a string ofoffers on the DFM. Emaar Properties, Dubai’s top real estate develop-er, has attracted heavy demand for the much bigger IPO of its shop-

ping malls unit on the DFM, which will end this week and is expectedto raise $1.58 billion.

The huge oversubscription for Marka’s offer was partly a vote ofconfidence in Dubai’s travel and tourism boom. Founded this year byprominent United Arab Emirates investors, the firm plans to spendproceeds of the offer on opening fashion retail outlets, restaurantsand cafes across the Gulf Arab region.—Reuters

But because Marka is a start-up which does not yet have majorunderlying businesses, the stock mostly attracted retail investors; ana-lysts at institutions contacted by Reuters said they had not assignedthe stock fair value or target price estimates.

“We should expect the stock to fluctuate,” said Sebastien Henin,head of asset management at The National Investor in Abu DHabi.“The volume is likely to be dominated by retail investors.”

A Dubai-based asset manager said: “With no underlying business,it’s not an investment we would consider. I believe the IPO was domi-nated by retail investors.” Khaled Almheiri, Marka’s vice chairman, saidthis week that the company was looking at possible acquisitions inthe retail and hospitality sectors, but did not name the targets. Markasays it has obtained rights to introduce six international fashion

brands to the Gulf, including the CR7 footwear of soccer star CristianoRonaldo. It plans to open its first three store outlets in Dubai and AbuDhabi in early 2015.

The company has said it aims over the next five years to open over100 fashion stores, restaurants and cafes across the Gulf Arab region,where personal consumption is rising rapidly because of strong eco-nomic growth. Marka’s 151 founders are a virtual who’s who of theUAE business community, including Jamal Al Hai, a top executive atDubai’s airports operator, Abubaker Al Khoori, chairman of AbuDhabi’s biggest real estate developer Aldar Properties , and KhaledAlmheiri, founder of Evolvence Capital.

The firm obtained regulatory approval to list in Dubai as a “green-field” company, meaning it did not have to file financial records forpast years as existing companies would have to do. Greenfield IPOswere popular at the height of the UAE’s stock market boom a decadeago but then fell out of favour as financial storm clouds gathered.

Marka initially planned to list its shares on the DFM around the firstweek of June, but the market was hit by massive volatility that month.Two companies have listed shares on the smaller of Dubai’s two stockmarkets, NASDAQ Dubai, over the past 12 months. — Reuters

Marka jumps 59% in first DFM flotation since 2009

Strong retail investor demand shows hunger for new equity

KUALA LUMPUR: Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ(BTMU), Japan’s largest lender, hopes to secure alicense for its Malaysian unit to expand operationsby providing Islamic loans in the local currency.This would allow BTMU Malaysia, a wholly ownedunit, to meet the needs of existing clients forIslamic loans in ringgit, the unit’s chief executiveNaoki Nishida told Reuters yesterday.

He said the bank might obtain the license nextyear and hoped to start such lending in the nearfuture, though other issues such as accounting sys-tems also needed to be resolved.

Nishida was speaking after BTMU earlier in theday became the first Japanese commercial bank toissue Islamic bonds, selling $25 million of sukuk in aUS dollar tranche and 2.5 billion yen ($22.9 million)in a yen tranche. Its issue underlined growing inter-est in Islamic finance among big, international con-ventional banks. Goldman Sachs raised $500 mil-lion with its debut sale of sukuk earlier this month,while France’s Societe Generale set up a sukuk pro-gram in Malaysia this year.

Currently, BTMU’s Islamic operations are onlyallowed to provide loans in currencies other thanringgit and they conduct nearly all transactions inUS dollars. That is the reason why BTMU’s first

sukuk issue, part of a $500 million multi-currencysukuk program established in Malaysia in June, wasnot denominated in ringgit.

“We did not choose ringgit because of the lackof ringgit assets on our books,” said Nishida, notingthat issuing ringgit sukuk at this stage would haveentailed negative carry on the cost of funding.

BTMU Malaysia serves large Malaysian firms andgovernment-linked companies, particularly thosewith operations abroad in the oil and gas, palm oiland real estate sectors.

Debut sukukBTMU was conservative with the size of its first

sukuk issue, which was at the bottom of its targetrange of $50 million to $100 million. The one-yearsukuk were privately placed with a mix of local andforeign institutional investors, which the bankdeclined to name. Pricing details were not dis-closed. Nishida said it took time to explain toinvestors the structure of the sukuk wakala and thedecision to issue in yen. “With yen, there were addi-tional explanations, additional questions,” he said.“Although yen-denominated sukuk were new andnot familiar to investors, we were able to find a cer-tain amount of appetite.”—Reuters

LANG SON: Vendors selling Chinese-made blankets at Dong Kinh market in the northern townof Lang Son bordering with China. China and Vietnam, once close ideological allies, are lockedin a bitter dispute over disputed waters and island chains in the South China Sea. — AFP

Japan’s BTMU seeks to offer Islamic ringgit loans


TOULOUSE: Airbus yesterday sent its new A320neo-an updat-ed, more fuel-efficient version of its hugely popular medium-haul A320 passenger plane-into the skies on its first of severaltest flights before deliveries next year to waiting customers.The narrow-body, two-engined aircraft took off fromToulouse-Blagnac airport in southwest France where Airbus isheadquartered for a two-hour flight, an AFP reporter wit-nessed.

The European planemaker has orders from 60 customersfor 3,257 of the A320neos after they start to be delivered inOctober 2015, Airbus chief operating officer John Leahy toldreporters. The stated catalogue price is between $94 millionand $120 million (74 million and 94 million euros) each,depending on configuration, but is often discounted.

The plane-whose “neo” designation stands for “new engineoption”-is designed to consume 15 percent less fuel than the

current A320s in service, a significant selling point for airlinesin the cutthroat medium-haul sector.

The neo boasts aerodynamic improvements including littlecurved winglets, trimmed weight and more efficient engines.Airbus says its current version of the A320 family, whichincludes the smaller A319 and bigger A321, has 60 percent ofthe medium-haul market, ahead of US rival Boeing with its 737aircraft. — AFP

Airbus test-flies less-thirsty A320neo

TOULOSE: Airbus employees look at Airbus A320neo taking off for its first test flight, yesterday in Blagnac near Toulouse. — AFP

LONDON: GlaxoSmithKline said yesterday it had chosenPhilip Hampton, who currently chairs Royal Bank ofScotland, as its next chairman. Hampton will be taking thehelm at Britain’s biggest drugmaker at a testing time. GSKwas hit last week by a record $489 million fine in China forbribing doctors and has warned on profits in 2014 due toweak sales of its core respiratory drugs.

He will join the board in January, become deputy chair-man on April 1 and chairman with effect from Sept. 1, 2015- or earlier if released from other commitments. He willleave RBS during 2015 and the bank said the process forselecting his successor was being managed by the board’snominations committee.

A person close to the process had previously said thatHampton was set to be named as GSK’s chairman thisweek. Reuters reported on Monday that GSK was underpressure to make changes, including a possible earlyreplacement of current Chairman Chris Gent, as a result ofits problems, which have undermined investor confidence.

Gent, best-known for leading mobile phone companyVodafone during a period of rapid growth, has chaired GSKfor nine years. He was due to retire by the end of 2015 andthe drugmaker said it had been planning for his successionover the last two years.

Naming a new chairman may be seen as a sign thatchange is coming at GSK to address shareholder concernsover both the China affair and the company’s recent poorfinancial performance. As the new chairman, a key task forHampton will be to steer the group back to sustainablegrowth and, in the long term, to find an eventual successorto Chief Executive Andrew Witty, who was appointed byGent and has been in the job since 2008.

Witty has been viewed as a star manager for much of hissix-year tenure but he has been damaged by the China

scandal, which forced GSK to make an abject apology tothe Chinese people last week. Investors have becomeincreasingly disillusioned with GSK’s management in thepast year and the company’s shares have lagged badly.While the European healthcare sector has risen by arounda fifth this year on optimism over new drugs, GSK shareshave lost 11 percent as forecasts for its sales and earningshave fallen.

Parachuted in Hampton has been chairman of RBS since 2009 when he

was parachuted in to help rescue the bank following its 45billion pounds ($74 billion) bailout during the financial cri-sis. He has previously said that a chairman should typicallyserve between five and seven years at a listed companyand is expected to stay at RBS until a successor is appoint-ed, according to industry sources.

Hampton has led RBS, which is 80-percent owned by theBritish government, through a turbulent period of transi-tion during which it shed assets worth 1 trillion pounds torid itself of toxic loans built up during a period of aggres-sive lending in the run-up to the financial crisis.

However, the bank’s attempts to return to health havebeen held back by the legacy of past misconduct, whichincluded fines of $612 million for the fixing of benchmarkinterest rates and accusations over how it treated strug-gling small firms. Hampton had hoped to oversee the startof RBS’s return to full private ownership but that prospectis still seen to be several years away with its shares tradingwell below the price the government bought them at, leav-ing taxpayers sitting on a loss of 13 billion pounds. BeforeRBS, Hampton chaired supermarket chain Sainsbury andwas previously group finance director at Lloyds TSB, BTGroup, BG Group, British Gas and British Steel. — Reuters

Air France pilots digin despite offer to

scrap low-cost plansPARIS: Air France pilots refused to budge yesterday after man-agement offered to scrap plans to expand its low-cost sub-sidiary, as their strike became the longest ever at Europe’s sec-ond-largest flag carrier. The striking pilots brushed off calls toreturn to the skies, leaving half the fleet grounded for an 11thday running, as they sought to push management even fur-ther at talks later yesterday.

The company proposed “the immediate withdrawal” ofplans to expand Transavia Europe on the continent, but said itwould pursue the development of the low-cost airline inFrance. It called for pilots to return to work “immediately”, toend a dispute that has crippled the airline at a cost of 20 mil-lion euros ($25 million) a day. But the main pilots union SNPLsaid it had made a “counter-offer” that would be discussed astalks resume later yesterday. Many Air France pilots, who earnup to 250,000 euros a year, are angry at the plans to developTransavia, which currently serves holiday destinations acrossEurope and the Mediterranean. They fear management willeventually seek to replace Air France flights with services oper-ated by Transavia, whose pilots earn considerably less.

‘Into the red’ The withdrawal of plans to expand Transavia will come as a

blow to the airline’s efforts to be more competitive in thecrowded and changing European skies, increasingly dominat-ed by no-frills airlines. The MEDEF employers association saidthe conflict at Air France — 16 percent state-owned-encapsu-lated the malaise gripping the country’s crisis-hit economy.The union action is “again dragging a company into the red,”said MEDEF vice-president Jean-Francois Pillard. “For thosewho want to invest or travel in France, this does not con-tribute, at an already extremely difficult time, to improving theimage of the country,” he said.

Air France has already implemented an ambitious restruc-turing plan to reduce costs and improve efficiency. “Low-costairlines now represent between 25 and 45 percent of air trafficin Europe, depending on the country,” said Didier Brechemier,an aviation expert at consultants Roland Berger.

Irish low-cost airline Ryanair will soon expand its fleet to400, which would take it above Air France’s stable of 350 air-craft. —AFP

GlaxoSmithKline namesRBS’s Hampton as head

Appointment comes amid pressure for change


WASHINGTON: The number of people seeking US unemploy-ment benefits increased last week after falling sharply twoweeks ago. Despite the rise, the level of applications remainsnear pre-recession levels, a sign that hiring will likely remainhealthy.

Weekly unemployment benefit applications rose 12,000 toa seasonally adjusted 293,000, the Labor Department said yes-terday. Yet the four-week average, a less volatile measure, fellfor the second straight week to 298,500.

Two weeks ago, applications had plummeted to 281,000,near a 14-year low first reached in July. Over the past year, thefour-week average for applications has fallen 7.1 percent. Theyclimbed above 650,000 during the recession in 2009.

Applications are a proxy for layoffs. Fewer applications indi-cate that employers are holding onto their workers, likelybecause they are more confident about the economy. It mayalso indicate they will boost hiring. The total number of peo-ple receiving benefits ticked up by 7,000 to 2.4 million. A yearago, 3.9 million people were receiving unemployment aid.That number has fallen sharply partly because of the expira-tion of extended benefits, a program that ended at the begin-ning of this year.

Applications fell steadily through the summer. At the sametime, job gains have been solid, despite a slowdown in hiringin August.

Employers added just 142,000 jobs last month, accordingto the Labor Department, down from an average of 212,000 inthe preceding 12 months. It was the end of a six-month streakof monthly job gains in excess of 200,000. The unemploymentrate fell to 6.1 percent from 6.2 percent, but only becausesome of those out of work gave up looking. The governmentdoesn’t count people as unemployed unless they are activelysearching. Still, most economists expect hiring will continue ata healthy pace this year. Surveys of both manufacturing andservices firms show that companies in both sectors addedworkers in September.

Meanwhile, business orders for long-lasting manufacturedgoods fell by a record amount in August, dragged lower by aplunge in demand for commercial aircraft. But orders in a keycategory that tracks business investment plans posted a gain.The Commerce Department says that orders for durablegoods fell 18.2 percent in August following a 22.5 percentincrease in July. Both the big increase and the big drop wererecords. They reflected a sharp swing in demand for commer-cial aircraft, an extremely volatile category. Airplane orders fell74.3 percent in August. A key category that serves as a proxyfor business plans for investment rose 0.6 percent.Manufacturing production has been a key source of strengthfor the economy this year, and economists are looking for thisto continue. — AP

Applications for US jobless claims rise

Durable goods fell 18.2% in August

China, Spain signbusiness deals

worth $4bnSHANGHAI/BEIJING: China and Spain signed business deals worthabout 3.2 billion euros ($4 billion) yesterday during a visit by SpanishPrime Minister Mariano Rajoy to the Asian powerhouse to drum upsupport for his country’s economy. At a ceremony in Beijing’s GreatHall of the People, Chinese and Spanish companies signed 14 deals inindustries ranging from telecommunications to nuclear power tofinance. Rajoy, who will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping today, isthe latest European leader to visit China to lure investment from theworld’s second-biggest economy. He was welcomed to the capital byPremier Li Keqiang late yesterday following a morning gathering ofChinese and Spanish business executives in Shanghai, where Rajoycalled for Chinese investment in Spain, saying the Spanish economywas back on track after its problems during the euro zone debt crisis.

“Few countries offer such a good investment opportunity as Spainwith its open and competitive market,” Rajoy said in Spanish, addingthat the food and consumer industries were areas where the compa-nies of both countries could increase cooperation. Companies thattook part in the meetings included Spain’s largest bank, BancoSantander, Inditex, the owner of global fashion chain Zara, andChinese e-commerce juggernaut Alibaba Group Holding, which listedon the New York stock exchange last week.

There was no word late on Thursday of a tie-up between Inditexand Alibaba despite reports in Spain that Rajoy was hoping to pushthrough a partnership between the world’s largest clothing retailerand the Chinese e-commerce company that now has a market capi-talization of more than $220 billion. The 14 agreements includeddeals between China’s Huawei Technologies, the world’s largesttelecommunications equipment maker, and Spanish telecom giantTelefonica SA and a 150 megawatt contract in Hebei Province forwind turbine maker Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologica SA.

Spain is one of few economic brightspots in the euro zone thisyear. It grew at its fastest pace in six years in the second quarter, accel-erating a recovery from an on-off recession that began in 2008 after aproperty bubble burst. “As the world economy slowly recovers, tradebetween China and Spain has been growing against the trend thisyear,” Li said during his meeting with Rajoy. As China’s economymatures, its companies are increasingly investing abroad in search ofhigher returns. By 2014, China’s overseas direct investment is expect-ed to exceed the direct investment it receives from foreign firms, thetrade ministry said this month. Chinese firms invested $90.2 billion in156 countries last year, government data showed, up 17 percent onan annual basis. — Reuters

BEIJING: Chinese central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan, an advo-cate of pro-market financial reforms, may lose his job in a reshufflingthat follows internal battles over overhauling the economy, the WallStreet Journal reported yesterday.

President Xi Jinping is considering replacing Zhou, the paperreported, quoting officials with knowledge of the plans. The top con-tender to head the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) is Guo Shuqing, aformer banker and securities regulator who is currently governor ofeastern Shandong province, the paper said. Xi wants more allies intop government, military and Communist Party positions, and per-sonnel changes were expected around a major party meeting nextmonth, the newspaper said.

It added that no final decision has been made about the centralbank post. In a statement to the Wall Street Journal, the PBOC saidZhou, 66, would not be stepping down soon. When asked by Reuterson Thursday whether Zhou was leaving the central bank, the PBOCsaid: “There is no such thing.” In response, a spokeswoman for DowJones & Co., which publishes the Wall Street Journal, said it stood byits story.

Zhou, who has led the central bank for the world’s second-largesteconomy since 2002, has been the architect of broad financial reforms

that have spawned fledgling capital markets, liberalized some interestrates and broken the peg between China’s yuan and the US dollar.Christian Lundblad, professor of finance at the University of NorthCarolina at Chapel Hill, said if Zhou left it would increase uncertaintyabout whether China wanted to slow the pace of reforms designed toopen the economy.

“If this means they are going to be moving away from that in theface of concerns about a slowdown (in economic growth), I’m disap-pointed,” he said. Zhou was reappointed as the PBOC chief in March2013, although he had already reached the normal retirement age of65 for cabinet-ranked Chinese officials.

Economy stumblesChina’s economy has stumbled in recent months and is at risk of

falling short of the government’s 7.5 percent growth target, raisinginvestor expectations that policymakers would further loosen fiscaland monetary policy to stoke growth. However, senior leaders, includ-ing Premier Li Keqiang, have publicly ruled out any dramatic policyeasing, saying China cannot always depend on easy credit to lift itseconomy. Instead, he said authorities would only make “targeted”adjustments in the economy as needed.—Reuters

China considering replacing CB head

SHANGHAI: People waiting at the Shanghai Entry- Exit Inspection And Quaratine Bureau in the China (Shanghai) Pilot FreeTrade zone during a media trip. Concerns over China’s economy — a key driver of global growth — have intensified followinga string of lackluster recent data, with economists calling for authorities to take further action to kickstart growth. — AFP

German minister not happy about ECB’s asset purchases

BERLIN: German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said yes-terday he is not particularly happy about the European CentralBank’s plans to buy up asset-backed securities on a large scale.

Speaking to the lower house of German parliament orBundestag at the start of a debate on Europe’s new bankingunion laws, Schaeuble expressed reservations about the ECB’sasset purchase plans. “In this respect, I’m not particularly happyabout the debate about loan purchases. It’s something that hasto be looked at with caution.”

Asset-backed securities (ABS) are bundles of individual loanssuch as mortgages, auto credit and credit-card debt that are soldon to investors, allowing banks to share the risk of default andencouraging them to offer more credit. The ECB believes that themarket for such securities-an important source of financing forsmall and medium-sized enterprises-has effectively dried upsince the financial crisis.

And the ECB hopes that by buying them on a large scale, itcan help revive the market and free up some of the credit chan-nels which have seized up during the long years of crisis.

The problem is that it was precisely complex financial deriva-tives such as ABS which are seen as the the root of the sub-primecrisis in the United States in 2008, leading many observers, partic-ularly in Germany, to harbor deep reservations about them. Thehead of the German central bank or Bundesbank, JensWeidmann, is opposed to the ECB’s ABS plans.

It is, however, unusual for members of the German govern-ment to openly comment on the ECB’s decisions in case the com-ments are interpreted as an attack on the central bank’s inde-pendence. —AFP


Newsi n b r i e f

Egypt’s CA deficit shrinks to $2.4bn

CAIRO: Egypt’s 2013-14 current account deficit shrank to$2.4 billion in the 2013-14 fiscal year from $6.4 billion theprevious year, boosted by billions of dollars in foreign trans-fers, the central bank said yesterday. The improvement in thecurrent account deficit was driven by a rise in remittancesand other payments from abroad, including aid, the centralbank said. Net official transfers increased to $11.9 billion inthe 2013-14 fiscal year which ended in June, from $835.6 mil-lion the previous fiscal year, the bank said. Arab Gulf coun-tries have provided Egypt with aid worth billions of dollars inthe form of financial support and oil products since formerarmy chief Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi deposed Islamist PresidentMohammad Morsi last year after mass protests. Sisi tookoffice as president in June and pledged to combat terrorism,improve the economy and restore stability after three yearsof upheaval, which began when a popular uprising endedthree decades of iron-fisted rule by Hosni Mubarak. The cen-tral bank said the improvement might have been larger with-out a sharp decline in tourism revenues. They fell 48 percentto $5.1 billion from $9.8 billion a year earlier.

Lufthansa pilots’ union threatens new strikes

BERLIN: A union representing pilots at Germany’s Lufthansasays talks aimed at resolving a dispute over early retirementbenefits have broken down and is threatening further strikes.The Vereinigung Cockpit union staged three strikes, each ofwhich lasted several hours, in recent weeks against Lufthansaand its Germanwings subsidiary. However, it called off anoth-er strike planned for Sept. 16 after receiving a new offer fromthe airline. The union said yesterday it “regrets that the nego-tiations have failed again.” It said more walkouts can beexpected though no dates were given. The two sides are atodds over the pilots’ demand that Lufthansa keep a transi-tion payment for those wanting early retirement. The airline,which faces tough competition from European budget air-lines and major Gulf carriers, wants to cut those payments.

Ryanair annual profit at top end of forecast

DUBLIN: Irish low-fare airline Ryanair said yesterdaythat annual net profits will be at the top end of expec-tations, citing improved customer services and a newoffering for business travellers. Profits after taxation forthe current financial year to March 2015 are expectedto be “towards the upper end” of its previously-announced forecast range of between 620 millioneuros and 650 million euros ($790 million and $827million), Ryanair said in a statement. The group alsoraised its prediction for annual passenger traffic to 87million customers from 86 million. Ryanair had lastmonth launched a new ‘Business Plus’ service targetingcompanies wanting to cut costs, with benefits includ-ing ticket change flexibility, greater baggageallowance, priority boarding and premium seats. Theairline is also pushing ahead with its ‘Always GettingBetter’ customer service overhaul, which has alreadyseen a new website and app, a free second carry-onbag, and a new service for families. “Our customers andour shareholders have responded favorably to ourimproving customer experience, our better digital plat-form and the positive initial uptake of our Business Plusservice,” said Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Learyin yesterday’s statement.

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged yesterday toslash red tape and harness the benefits of a huge young populationas he launched a campaign to attract global business to manufacturein India. India’s business-friendly new leader wants to revive his coun-try’s flagging economic fortunes by kickstarting a manufacturing sec-tor long eclipsed by that of neighboring China.

“We don’t need to invite the world to India, they are ready tocome. We just need to give them our address,” Modi said at thelaunch of his ‘Make in India’ campaign.

“India is the only country in the world that has the power ofdemocracy, demographic dividend and demand,” he added, sayingIndia’s young people stood to benefit from manufacturing growth.

Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party swept to power in Mayon a mandate to revive the economy which is going through its worstslowdown in two decades. The government has already relaxed rulesfor foreign investors, eager to create jobs for the millions of Indianswho enter the employment market each year.

But any company seeking to do business still has to go throughbyzantine rules and regulations as well as from having to deal with astringent tax regime.

Modi said he had been “pained” to hear stories of companiesabandoning India because they had lost confidence in a countrynotorious for cumbersome bureaucracy and high taxation. “I askedmy staff, ‘why are government forms so lengthy?’ And there was noreason,” he told an audience of business leaders including RelianceIndustries head Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man, saying the gov-ernment should facilitate business, not make it more complicated.

Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said there was “hugeuntapped potential” for manufacturing in India, which accounts forjust 15 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), far less than manyother Asian nations. “We want to make India a global manufacturingdestination,” she said, adding India would aim to have a manufactur-ing sector that accounted for 25 percent of its GDP. The World Bankrecently placed India a poor 134th among 189 economies in its easeof doing business report while regional rival China ranked 96th.

British mobile giant Vodafone is locked in a $2.4 billion tax rowwith the Indian government while Finnish company Nokia also saw itsplant in India being seized over a tax dispute.

Kenichi Ayukawa, head of Indian car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki,said India had the potential to be a world leader in the sector, but wasbeing held back by red tape and other issues.

“Costs of production in India increase because of various govern-ment policies, procedures, regulations and the way some of the lawsare implemented,” he said at the launch, adding he was confidentsuch barriers to growth could now be removed.

Red carpet for investors In the lead-up to the launch, the government revamped an Invest

India unit which will now act as the “first reference point” for guidingforeign investors on all aspects of regulatory issues.

In addition, a newly created web portal www.makeinindia.comwill answer all investment-related queries from business entities. Thegovernment has identified 25 sectors including automobile, aviationand construction that have potential to attract investment.

Although it has moved to open the insurance, defense and trans-port sectors to foreign investors, the government has also closed thedoor on foreign supermarket chains such as Wal Mart who had beenhoping to enter the Indian market.

The campaign comes just hours before Modi is set to travel to theUnited States where he will have breakfast with heads of Google andPepsiCo, seeking to attract investment.

The government’s manufacturing push comes at a time whenmany global companies are seeking an alternative to China as costsand risks there rise. “India can become an alternative to China forglobal manufacturers,” Anjan Roy, an independent economist basedin Delhi told AFP. “We have a large domestic market that is beinglargely serviced from imports. “Manufacturing has been lagging for along time, growth in this sector has been marginal and sometimes ithas even slipped into the negative zone. So this push by Mr Modi isvery timely.”— AFP

Modi pledges to cut red tape in ‘Make in India’ campaign

Flagging manufacturing sector to get a boost

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Miniser Narendra Modi (center) launches the ‘Make In India’ project as Minister for Commerce andIndustry Nirmala Sitaraman looks on in New Delhi yesterday. — AFP

HONG KONG: India’s economy shows promise of a “turnaround”following Narendra Modi’s election while Asian markets will likelyride out the effects of further stimulus tapering by the UnitedStates, the Asian Development Bank said yesterday. The Manila-based lender was bullish on India’s future in a supplement to its2014 economic outlook for the region saying it expected grossdomestic product (GDP) to grow by 6.3 percent next year, com-pared to an earlier projection of six percent.

“After winning a decisive parliamentary victory, the new (Modi)government is better positioned than the old to pursue the reformnecessary to unlock the economy’s growth potential,” the bank

said in its summary. “Reform to stimulate investment, the timelyaward of environmental clearances, and measures to control infla-tion are expected to augment firming exports demand from majorindustrial economies to boost economic growth,” it added. PrimeMinister Modi swept to power in May on a pro-business platformthat generated a tide of hope after years of political stagnationand slowing economic growth. India’s economy expanded by 5.7percent in the first quarter of the financial year, the best quarterlyperformance in more than two years.

And a sharp narrowing of its current account deficit-the broad-est measure of trade-also boosted investor sentiment. But despite

winning the biggest mandate in 30 years, Modi’s right-wing gov-ernment has not yet introduced big-ticket reforms that are need-ed to kickstart economic growth. Industrial output expanded byan unexpectedly slow 3.4 percent in June.

In a cheer for regional stock markets ADB said the developingregions of Asia would likely avoid much of the panic caused in2013 by the beginning of the Federal Reserve’s stimulus taperingwhen investors moved vast sums of money towards safer havens.The bank said regional economies had kept policy rates elevated“limiting the risk that a surprise factor will worsen any financialturbulence”.—AFP

ADB: Modi election points to economy ‘turnaround’

42S p o r t sFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

CAPE TOWN: Australia recalled hooker SaiaFainga’a and wings Joe Tomane and AdamAshley-Cooper for tomorrow’s RugbyChampionship test as the Wallabies chase afirst win in South Africa since 2011.

Fainga’a was due to return to Australia’ssquad for the South Africa game in Perth onSept. 6 but missed out to return home for thebirth of his first child. Tomane and vice-captainAshley-Cooper recovered from injury to earn

starting places at Newlands this weekend. TheWallabies said Thursday that Tomane hadrecovered from a broken cheekbone and ahamstring problem to make his first appear-ance this year. Ashley-Cooper, a veteran of 97tests, is back after a neck injury forced him outof Australia’s victory over Argentina in its lastouting. Coach Ewen McKenzie also gave aplace on the bench to experienced prop BennRobinson and retained the half-back pairing of

NSW Waratahs teammates Nick Phipps andBernard Foley. Former captain and scrumhalfWill Genia missed out on the 23-man match-day squad after being recalled for the tour toSouth Africa and Argentina.

McKenzie said the selection of Fainga’a inthe run-on team and Robinson on the benchwould boost the Wallabies’ set-piece and for-ward effort against a typically muscular SouthAfrican team that bases much of its game

around its lineout and scrum. “The set-piece isalways an important area of focus for us, evenmore so when you play South Africa, and weknow the outcome of the scrum and lineoutwill be crucial to the final result,” McKenzie saidin a statement announcing his selection.

The 24-year-old Tomane made the teamahead of Rob Horne, who dropped to thebench as Australia aims to combat the physi-cality of the Boks. —AP

Three changes for Australia in Rugby Championship test

Europe shrugs off Mickelson remark

GLENEAGLES: European golf stars brushedoff a Phil Mickelson barb aimed at RoryMcIlroy and Graeme McDowell, saying yes-terday that such banter will have no impacton the Ryder Cup.

On the eve of the 40th biennial matchupbetween US and European squads atGleneagles, 2013 US Open winner JustinRose of England said the five-time majorchampion’s remark might have been a bit ofbolstering by the Americans for their ownbenefit. “I can imagine just to spice things upand have a bit of fun with it,” Rose said.“Maybe looking for that spark themselves.‘Don’t forget about us, we’re here.’ Andthat’s something the European team certain-ly have not forgotten.”

On Wednesday, Mickelson was askedabout US teamwork and replied, “Not onlyare we able to play together, we also don’tlitigate against each other and that’s a realplus, I feel, heading into this week.”

The barb was in reference to a lawsuit byworld number one McIlroy, who won theBritish Open and PGA Championship in thepast two months, against his former man-agement company, one still used by goodpal McDowell. Both players said the issue isbehind them and they are better friendsthan ever off the course.

“You need to see how Rory and G-Macare in the team room. They are very comfort-able,” said 2012 Europe Ryder Cup hero IanPoulter. “There’s no animosity in there what-soever. The guys are good. So I just have to

laugh at the comment.“I don’t think it’s a big factor. I don’t think

mind games come into play. There are nopersonal vendettas. There are no grudgesagainst anybody out there.” Germany’sMartin Kaymer, the reigning US Open cham-pion, said the remark was set aside almost asit was brought up. “It’s not really a topic forus. It’s one of those things you read it, youlaugh about it and that’s it,” Kaymer said. “Ithink in the end of the day, we should justplay golf. It’s fairly simple. If things like thisstart, it’s a little-I don’t know if that’s neces-sary.” Rose said Mickelson and McIlroy spokeat a concert Wednesday night in Glasgow.“It’s a bit of banter and getting things going.We don’t have a problem with that at all,”Rose said. “There’s no real angst between theplayers and in our team room it’s a non-issue.

“Of course it was mentioned last night.Phil came up to Rory and was like, hey, thisand that. It’s no real big deal. “Phil likes tosort of be that guy that will throw a goodline, especially amongst friends, which Iassume that was his intent. Amongst friendshe loves the banter and he loves to throw afew barbs out there, which is great.”

Don’t look for Europe to build it into extramotivation either, Rose said. “We’re very con-fident and comfortable with our games andour situation and we’re very confident as ateam,” Rose said. “We’re going to have torely upon hard work, commitment, concen-tration and focus to get the job done so any-

thing extra to that is not going to help thecause. It comes down to being professional.It comes down to getting the job done onthe golf course.”

Poulter, whose emotional fightbacksparked Europe’s 2012 winning rally atMedinah, took being made a US target byAmerican captain Tom Watson as highpraise.

“I take Tom Watson’s comment as a hugecompliment to me as a player, as someonethat has loved the Ryder Cup,” Poulter said.“For Tom, accomplished as he is, to pay methat compliment is amazing.”

Europe owns US lately The US team leads the all-time rivalry 25-

12-2 but Europe has won seven of the pastnine meetings and owns a 9-7-1 edge sinceexpanding beyond a British-Irish team.

The Americans have not won a Ryder Cupon European soil since Watson captained the1993 US triumph at The Belfry in England.

Watson, who won four of his eight careermajor titles on Scottish soil, becomes theoldest captain in Ryder Cup history at age 65.

McIlroy sparks a Europe side that includesPoulter, Kaymer, third-ranked SpaniardSergio Garcia and Sweden’s fifth-rankedHenrik Stenson.

The Americans counter with two-timeMasters champion Bubba Watson, Cup veter-an Jim Furyk, five-time major winner PhilMickelson and young rising stars JordanSpieth and Rickie Fowler. —AFP

GLENEAGLES: Phil Mickelson of Team US (R) and Keegan Bradley of Team US speak during a practice session atthe Gleneagles golf course in Gleneagles, Scotland, yesterday, ahead of the 2014 Ryder Cup golf competitionbetween Europe and the USA. —AFP

Tiger remains Ryder Cup one-win wonder

GLENEAGLES: Injured star Tiger Woods has 14 major titlesand 79 career PGA crowns, second-most all-time in both areas,but when it comes to Ryder Cups, he’s only a one-trophy won-der.

The former world number one, who turns 39 in December,is absent from this year’s Ryder Cup, back surgery in March toease a pinched nerve having caused him to miss most of therest of the season and tell US captain Tom Watson not to con-sider him as a captain’s pick.

“The US team and the Ryder Cup mean too much to me notto be able to give it my best,” Woods said. “I’ll be cheering forthe US team. I think we have an outstanding squad going intothe matches.”

Watson says the Americans miss Woods’ intimidation fac-tor, which has dimmed of late due to recent injuries and hiseight-year major win drought.

“I said right from the beginning, I would love to have Tigeron the team,” Watson said. “He brings an element of intimida-tion. Even though he’s not on the team, he is here in spirit.”

While Woods ranks second to the all-time major win markof 18 by Jack Nicklaus and career win mark of 82 by SamSnead, he has found little success in the Ryder Cup.

The only winning side Woods has played for was the 1999squad that rallied for 8 1/2 points in singles to edge Europe 141/2-13 1/2 at Brookline. He missed the 2008 US team that wonin Valhalla with an injury after winning his most recent major,the 2008 US Open at Torrey Pines, on a broken leg.

Woods was still an teen amateur in 1993 when Watsonguided the Americans to a Cup victory in England, the mostrecent US triumph on European soil as this week’s showdownin Scotland is set to begin at Gleneagles.

Ball of energyWoods has a 13-17-3 (win-loss-halved) Ryder Cup record.

Only Phil Mickelson has more losses, 18 as he enters his 10thCup start, three more than Woods.

“I’ll tune in to the Ryder Cup to see how our guys do,”Woods said in a blog posting last week on his website. “I thinkTom Watson made three great captain’s picks. Hunter Mahanhits the ball on a string and is one of the best ball-strikers outhere. And when he putts well, he wins, hands down.

“Webb Simpson is a great grinder. He’s a great person tohave in these team events because he can get up and downand make putts. And Keegan Bradley is just a ball of energy.He’s the guy you want on the team because he’s fired up.”

Little mention has been made of Woods this week at theCup, although British star Justin Rose was asked about racialdiversity in golf and said the full measure of Woods’ impact ondeveloping elite talent and wider fan followings has yet to befully seen.

“It is reflected a lot of times of who the kids see on TV and Ithink there’s going to be a bit of a lag effect obviously with theTiger effect,” Rose said.

“I think the people he has encouraged to start playing thegame, I’ve definitely seen a huge change in the States, espe-cially with people coming out to watch golf. There’s a greatmix of people out there and that’s fantastic for the game.

“I just think there could be a 15-, 20-year cycle before wesee the real impact, certainly of what Tiger has been able todo to the game and some of the changes he’s been able tomake.” —AFP


American LeagueEastern Division

W L PCT GBBaltimore 95 63 .601 -NY Yankees 81 77 .513 14Toronto 81 77 .513 14Tampa Bay 76 82 .481 19Boston 69 89 .437 26

Central DivisionDetroit 88 70 .557 -Kansas City 86 72 .544 2Cleveland 83 76 .522 5.5Chicago White Sox 72 86 .456 16Minnesota 68 90 .430 20

Western DivisionLA Angels 98 61 .616 -Oakland 86 72 .544 11.5Seattle 83 75 .525 14.5Houston 69 90 .434 29Texas 65 93 .411 32.5

National LeagueEastern Division

Washington 92 64 .590 -Atlanta 77 81 .487 16NY Mets 76 81 .484 16.5Miami 75 82 .478 17.5Philadelphia 72 86 .456 21

Central DivisionSt. Louis 88 71 .553 -Pittsburgh 86 72 .544 1.5Milwaukee 81 77 .513 6.5Cincinnati 73 85 .462 14.5Chicago Cubs 71 88 .447 17

Western DivisionLA Dodgers 91 68 .572 -San Francisco 85 73 .538 5.5San Diego 76 82 .481 14.5Colorado 66 93 .415 25Arizona 63 96 .396 28

MLB results/standingsBaltimore 9, NY Yankees 5; Detroit 6, Chicago White Sox 1;Minnesota 2, Arizona 1; LA Angels 5, Oakland 4; Toronto 1,Seattle 0; Boston 11, Tampa Bay 3; Atlanta 6, Pittsburgh 2;Milwaukee 5, Cincinnati 0; Philadelphia 2, Miami 1;Cleveland 6, Kansas City 4; Texas 5, Houston 1; ChicagoCubs 3, St. Louis 1; San Diego 4, Colorado 3; LA Dodgers 9,San Francisco 1.

DETROIT: The Detroit Tigers looked dormant with the bats until a pitchfrom Chicago’s Chris Sale hit Victor Martinez around the back of his leftshoulder. Then tempers flared, the benches and bullpens emptied - andSale’s shutout didn’t last much longer.

Martinez came around to score the tying run in the sixth inning, andafter Sale came out of the game, Chicago’s bullpen was no match for theTigers. Detroit won 6-1 on Wednesday - and clinched a spot in the post-season when Seattle lost to Toronto.

The worst the Tigers can end up with now is a wild card. Detroit is try-ing for its fourth straight AL Central crown, and the Tigers took a two-game lead over second-place Kansas City, which lost at Cleveland.Detroit’s magic number to clinch the division is three.

With one out in the sixth and Chicago up 1-0, Sale’s first pitch toMartinez hit the Detroit slugger. Martinez walked slowly to first, and thetwo started jawing at each other. Sale appeared to point out toward cen-ter field in agitated fashion as Martinez went to first.

“They were claiming that someone with binoculars in center field wasgiving signs to Victor,” Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said. “I think it’s a lit-tle weak that they would hit him. If they injure Victor there and we’re inthe playoff hunt, that’s bad news. That just can’t happen.

“He clearly did it on purpose. He made it obvious.” Sale didn’t accusethe Tigers of stealing signs afterward, and he said he wasn’t specificallygesturing toward center field. “I was just throwing my arms up, like youdo when you are upset,” the left-hander said. “I wasn’t really trying tocontrol where they pointed.” Sale appeared to tip his hat toward the out-field in the third inning after striking out Martinez.

“There was a fan that was just wearing me out in the bullpen beforethe game, telling me that I wasn’t any good, and telling me how muchVictor was going to hit me,” Sale said. “So that was just having some funwith him.” Justin Verlander (15-12) allowed a run in eight innings forDetroit. Sale allowed a run and four hits in six innings. He struck out 10and walked three, becoming his franchise’s career leader with his 18thgame of at least 10 strikeouts. Ed Walsh had 17.

But Chicago’s slim lead slipped away after he hit Martinez. “I think hejust woke the whole team up,” said Martinez, who is 15 of 29 for hiscareer off Sale. The benches and bullpens emptied, but order was quicklyrestored. J.D. Martinez followed with a double and Nick Castellanos hit asacrifice fly to tie it at 1.

Ian Kinsler’s RBI double the following inning off Javy Guerra (2-4) putDetroit ahead, and when Kinsler reached second, he put his hands up infront of his eyes, pantomiming someone looking through binoculars.Miguel Cabrera added a sacrifice fly in the seventh. Detroit scored threeruns in the eighth on a well-executed squeeze play by Andrew Romineand RBI singles by Rajai Davis and Kinsler.

Indians 6, Royals 4Yan Gomes belted a three-run homer in the first inning and Michael

Brantley had three hits to boost his season total to 199 as the ClevelandIndians beat the Kansas City Royals. Brantley needs one hit in the lastthree games to become the first Indians’ player with 200 hits in a season

since Kenny Lofton had 210 in 1996. The Royals fell two games behindfirst-place Detroit in the AL Central thought they remain tied withOakland for the first wild-card spot with identical records of 86-72, threegames ahead of Seattle.

Braves 6, Pirates 2Justin Upton hit a two-run homer to break out of a September slump

and right-hander Julio Teheran helped himself with a two-run single asthe Braves defeated the Pirates. The home run was the 28th for Upton,who finished 2-for-4 with a walk, and moved him to 99 RBIs. Pittsburgh(86-72), who had clinched at least a wild-card spot in the postseason onTuesday, remained 1-1/2 games behind the Cardinals in the NationalLeague Central.

Cubs 3, Cardinals 1Right-hander Jake Arrieta tossed a two-hitter while striking out 10 as

the Chicago Cubs wrapped up their home season with a victory over theSt Louis Cardinals. But the Cardinals (88-71) maintained a 1-1/2 gamelead over Pittsburgh in the NL Central.

Angels 5, Athletics 4Left-hander Hector Santiago pitched 5-1/3 shutout innings, second

baseman Howie Kendrick drove in three runs, and the Los AngelesAngels withstood a furious rally to hold off the Oakland A’s. The A’s (86-72), who scored four runs in the seventh inning, remain tied with theKansas City Royals in the AL wild-card playoff race with the pair threegames ahead of the Seattle Mariners.

Brewers 5, Reds 0Kyle Lohse allowed just two base runners en route to his ninth career

shutout and Jean Segura went 2-for-3 with a double and two RBIs, liftingthe Milwaukee Brewers to a victory over the Cincinnati Reds. With thewin, Milwaukee (81-77) remained mathematically alive for the postsea-son. Lohse (13-9) was sharp throughout, retiring the final 13 batters and21-of-22 for the 12th complete game of his career.

Blue Jays 1, Mariners 0Mark Buehrle pitched into the ninth inning and Ryan Goins singled in

the run with two outs in the eighth as the Toronto Blue Jays defeated theSeattle Mariners to dent their playoff hopes. Buehrle (13-10) held theMariners to three hits and a walk while striking out 10 in eight-plusinnings. It was the fifth successive loss for the Mariners (83-75), who havefallen three games behind a wild card spot with just four to play.

Phillies 2, Marlins 1Marlon Byrd hit an eighth-inning, game-winning single and Jonathan

Papelbon returned from a suspension to get the save and lead thePhiladelphia Phillies past the Miami Marlins. Papelbon-who was sus-pended for seven games after making an obscene gesture-pitched ascoreless ninth, working around a one-out double by first baseman

Tigers beat White Sox 6-1, clinch post season spot

LOS ANGELES: Los Angeles Dodgers’ Hanley Ramirez, right, scores on a single by Juan Uribe as San FranciscoGiants relief pitcher Javier Lopez takes a late throw during the sixth inning of a baseball game, Wednesday,in Los Angeles. —AP

Garrett Jones. Papelbon ended the game by striking out center fielderEnrique Hernandez, getting his 38th save for the Phillies.

Orioles 9, Yankees 5Nick Markakis hit a two-run single during a six-run fourth inning as

the Baltimore Orioles officially eliminated the New York Yankees frompostseason contention. Shortstop Ryan Flaherty had a two-run doubleahead of Markakis, while left fielder David Lough added an RBI triple andcenter fielder Adam Jones had a RBI bunt single as the Orioles cameback from an early 3-0 deficit. Bud Norris (15-8) settled down after arocky beginning and won his fourth successive decision.

Red Sox 11, Rays 3Rookie right-hander Anthony Ranaudo overcame a shaky start to

pitch the Boston Red Sox to a rout of the Tampa Bay Rays. Ranaudo, oneof seven rookies to start the game for Boston, gave up two runs in thefirst inning but settled down to snap a personal three-game losingstreak. Xander Bogaerts drove in three runs and combined with rightfielder Daniel Nava for back-to-back, two-run hits in a five-run fourthinning that knocked Tampa Bay starter Jake Odorizzi out of the game.

Rangers 5, Astros 1Starting pitcher Lisalverto Bonilla tossed six scoreless innings and

struck out seven batters while Ryan Rua hit a three-run home run forTexas as they beat the Astros. —Agencies


SHENZEN: Top seed David Ferrer was bundledout of the Shenzen Open second round by SerbViktor Troicki, while Andy Murray began his bidto end a 14-month title drought with an easywin yesterday.

To compound the Spaniard Ferrer’s misery,the 6-3 6-4 defeat by Troicki will not help hischances of reaching the year-ending ATP WorldTour Finals in London.

Ferrer, 32, is currently seventh in the race toqualify for the Nov. 9-16 event in London. NovakDjokovic, Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal havealready booked three of the eight spots for thesingles.

Tomas Berdych is almost neck and neck with

Ferrer , just 25 points behind in e ighth spotbefore th is week ’s tournaments , but n inth-p l a c e d M i l o s R a o n i c i s n o t f a r b e h i n d , w i t hGrigor Dimitrov and Andy Murray on his heels.

World number 174 Troicki f ired 13 aces tocanter to victory in just 66 minutes, his first overw o r l d n u m b e r f i v e F e r r e r i n f o u r m a t c h e s .S e c o n d s e e d M u r r a y p r e v a i l e d 6 - 3 6 - 3 o v e rIndia’s Somdev Devvarman in his f irst matchsince losing to Novak Djokovic in the US Openquarter-finals.

The Scot capita l i sed on four of h is sevenbreak points against the Indian who skipped theongoing Asian Games at Incheon, South Korea tofocus on the professional tour.

ATP Race to London standings (top eight qualify)

1. Novak Djokovic 8150-qualified2. Roger Federer 7020-qualified3. Rafa Nadal6645-qualified4. Stanislas Wawrinka 47955. Marin Cilic39356. Kei Nishikori 36757. David Ferrer35358. Tomas Berdych 35109. Milos Raonic3440

10. Grigor Dimitrov 333511. Andy Murray315512. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 2650. —Reuters

Troicki dumps top seed Ferrer out of Shenzen

SYDNEY: Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke iswatched by young players at his cricket academy as hegives a press conference in Sydney yesterday. Clarke isbattling a hamstring injury which threatens hisinvolvement in the two Tests against Pakistan startinglate next month, however the skipper is confident he’son track to a full recovery. —AFP

WUHAN: World number three PetraKvitova powered into the semi-finals ofthe $2.4 million WTA Wuhan Open yes-terday, joining Eugenie Bouchard andCaroline Wozniacki in the last four,while Angelique Kerber crashed out.

Wimbledon champion Kvitovaadvanced at the expense of CarolineGarcia, who had previously performedheroics at the inaugural tournament,beating Venus Williams and world num-ber six Agnieszka Radwanska.

The third seed in Wuhan proved tobe a step too far for the 20-year-oldFrench rising star, who took only onegame in the opening five, before goingon to lose the set 6-3.

The pair matched each other earlyon in the second set before Kvitovabroke serve in the seventh game andclosed in on victory by taking the set 6-4. Garcia, who is ranked 49th, has wonone WTA title in her career, at Bogota inApril.

Kvitova told reporters after thematch that she was content with theconditions in Wuhan. “The court feels alittle bit faster... and that probably iswhat suits my game,” she said. “I justfeel well here. The people are coming tosupport us every time, so it’s beautifulto see them there. I feel good, and Iwork(ed) hard before I came here.”

The Czech will now face ElinaSvitolina in Friday’s semi-final after theUkrainian beat German seventh seedAngelique Kerber in their quarter-finalmatch 6-4, 7-6 (7/3).

‘No excuse’ It was a feisty performance from the

34th-ranked player in the world, whoshowed greater composure in the hotand humid conditions.

Svitolina was 4-1 down in the secondset, but dug deep to win the match. “Ithink I was proud of myself today,because I was really fighting for everyball and didn’t give up on 4-1,” she said.

“I think it’s the main thing for methat I could find the way to win thesekind of matches, because they are greatplayers and they are not giving easyballs.”

But it was heartbreak for AlizeCornet, who went out after putting uplate resistance against sixth seedBouchard. The pair traded breaks early

on before Bouchard claimed the first set6-3. Cornet appeared to argue with theumpire in the first game of the secondset after a video showed that she hadserved an ace, but it was ruled out. TheFrench player lost her serve two gameslater and Bouchard looked to be cruis-ing with the scores at 5-2.

The world number 22 staged a

revival which saw her claw her way backto 5-5, but the Canadian took theremaining games in quick succession. “Ifeel like I could have closed much bet-ter,” Bouchard said.

“There is no excuse for that. That’ssomething I really need to work on isclosing out better in my matches. It’shappened a few times this week.”Cornet has been on terrific form inChina, having reached the final of theWTA Guangzhou Open last Saturday.

She also became the first womansince Justine Henin in 2007 to gainthree victories over world number oneSerena Williams in a season when thetop seed in Wuhan retired from theirsecond round match with a viral illness.

Her other victories over the Americanpower-hitter came at Wimbledon inJune and in Dubai in February.

Bouchard will go on to playWozniacki in the semis, after the worldnumber seven overcame Switzerland’sTimea Bacsinszky after a scare.Bacsinszky, who beat Maria Sharapova inthe last round, took the first set againstWozniacki 6-4, but the Dane poweredback to take the remaining sets 6-2, 6-3.

The Wuhan Open in the centralprovince of Hubei features the world’stop 20 women players and reaches itsclimax on Saturday. —AFP

Kvitova, Bouchard, Wozniacki in semis

WUHAN: Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic hits a return during her quar-ter-final match against Caroline Garcia of France at the Wuhan Open ten-nis tournament in Wuhan, in China’s Hubei province yesterday. —AFP

Clarke guided byphysio on injury

SYDNEY: Australia captain Michael Clarke said yesterday hewill be guided by the team physio on whether he will play innext month’s two-Test series against Pakistan in the UnitedArab Emirates.

The 33-year-old plans to fly out on Tuesday, six days aheadof the rest of the Test squad, to ensure he is acclimatisedbefore beginning to stretch himself at training.

Clarke, who said he was improving daily from hamstringtendon damage, is adamant he will not play unless 100 per-cent fit. “Alex knows my body very well,” Clarke told reportersof Alex Kountouris, the Australian physio.

“He’ll be the one that gives me the all clear to play the Testmatches if he thinks I’m fully fit. If I pass what Alex needs meto pass that will give me a lot of confidence as well.”

Clarke, who has a catalogue of back and hamstring trouble,has already been ruled out of the upcoming one-day seriesagainst Pakistan with what was described as a “significant”hamstring injury that was worse than first thought.

He was forced to retire hurt in a one-dayer againstZimbabwe in Harare on August 31 and returned home fromthe tour early. Subsequent scans revealed tendon damage inthe affected area.

The three-game one-day series against Pakistan starts onOctober 7 with the first of two Tests not until October 22.Meanwhile, Clarke insisted fellow veteran Shane Watson’sTest career was not finished after the injury-plagued all-rounder was ruled out of the entire UAE tour with an ankleinjury, opening the door for Mitch Marsh.

CompetitionHe said Watson, 33, could expect more injuries and

increased competition for his spot between now and when heretires, but that he still had plenty to offer, especially lookingahead to next year’s World Cup and Ashes series againstEngland.

“I think if Watto is batting and bowling, he’s a huge part ofour team, but he’s obviously got some stiff competition nowas well,” Clarke said. —AFP


BERLIN: There are few things that can liftthe spirits of Borussia Dortmund fans, andhelp them forget a stuttering start to theBundesliga, like a win over Ruhr valley rivalsSchalke 04. So that is exactly what coachJuergen Klopp’s team will look to deliver onSaturday given Dortmund’s failure to sparklein the German league so far.

Two wins and two defeats were followedby a last-gasp 2-2 draw against strugglingVfB Stuttgart on Wednesday as last season’srunners-up struggle to cope with a string ofinjuries, including the absence of their entirefirst choice midfield. “Besides the three

points, there are a lot more brownie pointsto be won with our fans in a game like this,”said defender Neven Subotic.

“We all know that a derby victory overSchalke can last the whole year. That is ourbig aim, to beat Schalke.” Subotic, onlyrecently back from a cruciate ligament tearthat saw him miss most of last season, couldbe partnered from the start with fellow cen-tral defender Mats Hummels.

Crucial hummelsThe Dortmund captain and fellow central

defender made a brief second half appear-

ance against Stuttgart in his season debutwith his defensive work much needed.

“Mats is crucial for us. He does not allowanything at the back and that is what weneed these days,” said Subotic.

Hummels warned their defence wouldneed to come together if they were to returnto their winning ways.

“We need defensive stability because wehave already let in nine goals in five (league)games,” the World Cup winner said. “That isa very bad ratio. We have to defend as ateam because it is only like that that you canbe successful.”

For Schalke the game presents an equallygood opportunity to convince their fans thattheir own bad start is now a thing of the past,especially after Tuesday’s 3-0 win at WerderBremen, their first victory of the season.

“We do not need to motivate anyone forthis duel,” said Schalke coach Jens Keller. “Itis the greatest derby in the country and weare looking forward to it.”

He will be without suspended midfield-er Julian Draxler but will have playmakerKevin-Prince Boateng back after he sat outhis one-match ban for a dismissal lastweek. —Reuters

Dortmund eye Schalke derby for redemption

BARCELONA: Barcelona droppedtheir first points of the La Liga seasonas their star-studded forward line mis-fired in a 0-0 draw away to Malaga onWednesday.

Lionel Messi and Neymar have bothshone in recent weeks as Barca wontheir first four games under new coachLuis Enrique but they failed to makean impression against Malaga with theCatalan side struggling with their link-up play.

Barca are still yet to concede a goalbut that too came under threat in thesecond half as Malaga pressed forwardand came closest to scoring from aLuis Alberto free-kick from a tightangle which keeper Claudio Bravoturned onto a post.

“We tried to move the ball aroundand get on top in the game but it wasdifficult as Malaga defended in depth,”Andres Iniesta told reporters.

“Malaga did very well but at thesame time we lacked speed to causethem problems and create chances.“We tried different tactics but it alwaysdepends on how sharp we are and it

didn’t work out for us today.”Barca top the standings on 13

points, ahead of Sevilla, who beat RealSociedad 1-0, on goal di f ference.Malaga have not been an easy team tobreakdown, especially at home wherethey have not conceded a goal, andthey held their positions well withSergi Darder and Ignacio Camachogiving them little space in the middleof the pitch.

At the same time Messi and Neymardid not look the potent duo that hadhelped Barca thrash Levante 5-0 at theweekend. The closest Barcelona cameto scoring was through a Marc Bartraheader from a corner which went justwide but there was a more consistentthreat at the other end.

A Roberto Rosales drive whistledjust past Bravo’s right post and thenthe Barca keeper pushed an Albertofree-kick against the same post andaway for a corner midway through thesecond half.

Atletico winA second-half Miranda header end-

ed the res istance of determinedAlmeria as third-placed At let icoMadrid won 1-0 away from home.

Atletico, missing injured strikerMario Mandzukic, looked toothless inattack but they pressed forward moreearnestly after the break and got theirreward with Miranda heading home aKoke corner on the hour mark.

It was the Brazilian’s third goal ofthe season and Diego Simeone’s sideonce again capital ised on theirstrength in the air for an importantwin on the back of their ChampionsLeague defeat by Olympiakos and aweekend home draw with Celta Vigoin La Liga.

“We controlled the game and wehad chances in the first half which theirkeeper dealt with and then after thegoal we again moved the ball aroundwell,” Simeone told a news conference.

“To have a corner you have toattack and the team worked hard tocreate the chance which Miranda tookwell. “It is an important win for us at aground which is always difficult forus.” —Reuters

Fit Ronaldo back to his prolific best

BARCELONA: Cristiano Ronaldo’s seven goals in two matches show he isback to his prolific best following a run of injury niggles as Real Madridprepare to face Villarreal this weekend in La Liga.

The Portuguese admitted he had over-stretched himself after havingknee problems at the back end of the last season which he carried intothe World Cup and then suffered a hamstring injury at the start of thiscampaign. He was rested for Real’s match against Real Sociedad and fol-lowing time-off for the international break at the beginning of this monthhe has returned reinvigorated.

Carrying the ball home after his four-goal haul in the 5-1 win overElche in mid-week, the 29-year-old showed that he has lost none of thedesire. “As far as I remember I’ve never scored seven goals in five days,”Ronaldo told reporters at the Bernabeu. Ronaldo also bagged a hat-trickagainst Deportivo La Coruna last weekend in an 8-2 demolition and hasnow made his best ever start to a league season with nine goals so far. “Ineeded an active break as in my 12-year career I have always had presea-son but this year I was unable due to the problems I had at the end of thelast season,” Ronaldo explained. “Those days without a match workedvery well for me because I trained, rested and recovered. These goalsreflect the work I did. “Each day I am now feeling quicker and gradually Iam finding my rhythm. This is the fourth game that I have played a full 90minutes but I think I may be still lacking something as I have been a longtime out.

“For that reason it is not the moment to rest and I think the coach willhave other opportunities to rotate the squad.” Real made a stutteringstart but have responded to back-to-back defeats with two big wins andhave also closed the gap on leaders Barcelona who drew 0-0 away toMalaga on Wednesday. They were the first points the Catalan side havedropped this season and with 13 points are joint leaders with Sevilla whonow take on champions Atletico Madrid, two points behind. Barca are stillto concede a goal but it was their forward line that let them down againstthe Andalusian side with Lionel Messi and Neymar failing to make animpact. It came only a few days since they swept aside Levante 5-0 lastweekend playing their usual cavalier football.

“We aren’t machines and we can’t play with the same intensity everythree games,” Barca coach Luis Enrique told a news conference inMalaga. Their target now is Granada on Saturday at Camp Nou. “It wasn’ta great game from us but we know what we are trying to do and ourobjectives. It was a difficult match and we were not clinical enoughinside the area. It is not as though we were in any danger ourselves eventhough Malaga did play well.” —Reuters

Misfiring Barca drop first points away to Malaga

MALAGA: Gerard Pique, Sergio Sanchez, Marc Bartra, Welligton Robson FC Barcelona’s Gerard Pique, left, inaction with Malaga’s Sergio Sanchez, second left, during a Spanish La Liga soccer match between Malagaand Barcelona at La Rosaleda stadium in Malaga, Spain, Wednesday. —AP

FRISCO: FC Dallas defender Moises Hernandez (3)moves the ball downfield against the SeattleSounders during an MLS soccer game Wednesday, inFrisco, Texas. —AP

S p o r t sFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

INCHEON: China swept eight of the 10gold medals fought for in the Asian Gamesshooting yesterday, breaking one worldrecord even as revised rules handed themand South Korea new world marks.

Zhao Shengbo, Lan Xing and Liu Gangshot a combined score of 1,876 in themen’s 50m rifle prone, surpassing the pre-vious record of 1,873.6 by the French teamof Cyril Graff, Michael Halluin and ValerianSauveplane at the European champi-onships in Croatia last year.

The win helped China avenge their lossto South Korea in the same event at theprevious Asiad in Guangzhou four yearsago. The Koreans won the silver with 1,869points and Kazakhstan retained the bronzewith 1,859. Zhao then triumphed in theindividual eight-man final that featuredthe entire Chinese and Korean team, but itwas Muhammad Nasir Khan of Malaysiawho stole the show with a silver.

Khan ended just 0.5 points behindZhao’s score of 198.6 in a keenly-foughtlast round. Park Bong-Duk of South Koreaclaimed the bronze.

Khan said he was delighted to win hisfirst medal in an international event. “Withsuch good shooters around, one can onlyhope for the best and that is what hap-pened today,” he said.

“I am on a high like never before.Maybe this is just the start I need to boostmy career.” South Korea’s Kim Mi-Jin foundherself in the list of world record holdersafter winning the women’s double trapwith 110 points, two more than second-placed Zhang Yafei of China.

World recordThe record came automatically to Kim

under new rules set by the InternationalShooting Sport Federation (ISSF) whichrequire more than 15 competitors from at

least five countries to make it a world-levelevent. The Asian Games, where 19 trapshooters from six countries took part, wasthe first competition to be covered by therules that were introduced last year. Kimwas not even aware of being handed aworld record as she ran and hugged herfour-year-old son, Son-Yeon-Ho, after theevent. “My son gave me a drawing onwhich it was written ‘Go Mom. AsianGames!,” she said. “I just wanted to say‘thank you’ to him for being a good boywhile I was training.”

China’s women’s double trap teamwere also awarded a world record underthe same rules after they finished with 315points, one ahead of the hosts. India tookthe bronze.

The Chinese won both the team andindividual gold medals in the 25m stan-dard pistol with Ding Feng’s 577.15 pointsin the final proving too much for silver-

medallist Kim Jong-Hong of South Korea.With the men’s 10m running team gold

in the bag, China also clinched the individ-ual title through Zhai Yujiya. Jo Yong-Cholof North Korea took the silver andBakhtiyar Ibrayev of Kazakhstan claimedthe bronze. In a well-contested men’s dou-ble trap team final, Qatar, China andKuwait finished with 404 points each butan aggregate of 84 points in the fifth roundhanded the Qataris the gold.

China’s fifth round score was 83 andKuwait had 81. However, Hu Binyuan wonthe individual title beating FehaidAldeehani of Kuwait in the final. Juma Al-Makhtoum of the United Arab Emiratesearned a bronze.

With 30 titles decided so far in the 44-event shooting competition, China havewon 18 golds and South Korea seven. Therest have been shared by India, Iran,Mongolia, Qatar and Kazakhstan. — AFP

China win eight shooting golds in a day

INCHEON: Kuwait’s national shootingteam has added two new medals, onesilver and one bronze, to Kuwait’smedals tally at the 17th Asian Gamesin South Korea’s Incheon.

Shooter Fehaid Al-Deehani wonthe silver medal in men’s individualcompetition and the national teamwon the bronze medal in teams’ dou-ble trap contest. “We were too closeto snatching gold medals in trap anddouble trap of individuals and teamscontests, but luck was not in our side,”Al-Deehani told reporters after receiv-ing the silver medal.

He expressed satisfaction was hisand all the shooting team’s perform-ance. The new medals take Kuwait tal-

ly up to five medals; one gold insquash, three silver and one bronze inshooting competitions.

The Asian Games, which this yearcombines total 45 nations from acrossthe continent, is considered the sec-ond largest multi-sport event after theOlympics.

Meanwhile, Kuwait’s nationalsquash team has qualified for thesemi-final phase after trouncing thetitle holder Pakistani team 2-1.

“The national team players haveput in an outstanding performanceduring the various group matches,”national team coach Nasser Zahrantold KUNA. Zahran added that there isa remarkable progress in the perform-

ance of Kuwaiti players which helpedthem defeat the Asian Games champi-on Pakistani team.

The new win places the Kuwaititeam at the top of its group with foursuccessive wins. Kuwait will face thetop team in the other group in thesemi-final stage. On Tuesday,Abdullah Al-Mezayen won his coun-try’s first gold medal at the 17th AsianGames after beating Indian rivalGhosal Saurav.

The Asian Games, which this yearcombine a total 45 nations fromacross the continent, is considered thesecond largest multi-sport event afterthe Olympics. The Games will end onOctober fourth. — KUNA

INCHEON: Kuwait team and officials (right) during the medal awarding ceremony. Qatar won gold, Kuwait silver andChina bronze.

Kuwait shooters snatch new two medals at ASIAD 2014

INCHEON: Football player Ueda Naomichi of Japan (L) andPalestine players compete for the ball during the men’s1/8 final at the Hwaseong Main Stadium during the 17thAsian Games in Incheon yesterday. — AFP

INCHEON: Defending champions Japan hammered Palestine 4-0yesterday to set up an Asian Games quarter-final clash with SouthKorea, while 10-man China crashed out against Thailand. WataruEndo, Musashi Suzuki, Takuma Arano and Riki Harakawa scoredthe goals that ended the Palestinians’ impressive run in the tour-nament. In other second round games, South Korea beat HongKong 3-0, while Jordan dealt with Kyrgyzstan 2-0 after extra timeto book their quarter-final slots. The Jordanians now playThailand, who beat China 2-0 with two spectacular AdisakKraisorn goals.

Palestine, who won their qualifying group, struggled to createchances and their goal was soon under siege. Endo smashedhome a one-two with Suzuki to make it 1-0 for Japan in the 17thminute. Suzuki headed in a right-wing cross by Harakawa for hisfifth goal of the tournament midway through the first half.

Within a minute of coming on as second-half substitute forSuzuki, Arano shot home the third and in the 82nd minute,Harakawa picked up a rebound of Gakuto Notsuda’s close-rangeeffort for the fourth. Japan coach Makato Teguramori said he wasnow looking forward to Sunday’s quarter-final against hostsSouth Korea, who beat Hong Kong with second-half goals fromLee Yong-Jae, Park Joo-Ho and Kim Jin-Su.

The Asian Games is an under-23 event and the Palestinian fullnational side will play Japan again in the first match of the AsianCup in January. Coach Abdalnasser Barakat said he was notdemoralised by this defeat. “We have many professional playersin the first team so that game will be different than this,” he said.“Most of the players here don’t have the experience of suchgames.” China’s hopes of reaching the quarter-finals shrank in the33rd minute when defender Ting Yang was ordered off for ascything foul. —AFP

Champions Japancrush Palestinefootball hopes

S p o r t sFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26 , 2014

INCHEON: China’s controversial swimming superstar SunYang has taken a potshot at rival Japan’s national anthem atthe Asian Games, describing it as “ugly”.

The double Olympic champion told Chinese media hehad taken great pleasure in helping the men’s 4x100 metresfreestyle relay team beat the Japanese on Wednesday. Hethen indulged in a spot of diplomatic jousting. “The Chineselet their anger out tonight,” he is heard as saying on aChinese-language audio passed to AFP. “Honestly speaking,the Japanese national anthem sounds ugly.”

Japanese rival Kosuke Hagino, who ruffled Sun’s feath-ers with a shock 200m victory last weekend, gave a meas-

ured response when asked for his thoughts. “I didn’t hearwhat he said so it’s hard to comment,” he said. “But first andforemost we’re all athletes and we have to respect each oth-er. We also have to show human values so hopefully we cancontinue to compete in that atmosphere.”

Sun is no stranger to controversy, getting himself sus-pended from swimming for six months after policedetained him last year for colliding with a bus while drivinghis Porsche without a license.

China’s swimming bad boy previously had a public bust-up with his coach after he voiced disapproval of the swim-mer’s dalliance with an air hostess.

Japan got off to a flying start over the first two days ofthe Asian Games swimming competition, triggering anangry rant from a top Chinese swim official, who orderedHagino to sit down as he tried to leave a press conference.

China have since roared back to open up an 18-11 leadin gold medals after five days. Sun won gold in the 400mfreestyle, in which he is the Olympic champion, but blameda thumb injury for his stunning defeat by Hagino in the200m. The sore digit also forced him to switch to the thirdleg of the relay. “My hands still hurts and I have the 1,500mto go,” said the giant Chinese, also the Olympic championand world record holder in the 1,500 free.—AFP

China swim king bashes Japan’s ‘ugly’ anthem

INCHEON: This photo taken on September 24, 2014 shows members of the Qatar women’sbasketball team walking off the court after withdrawing ahead of their women’s preliminaryround match against Mongolia during the 17th Asian Games at the Hwaseong Sports ComplexGymnasium in Incheon. — AFP

INCHEON: India’s Ramandeep Singh and Pakistan’s Rashid Mehmood battle for the ball duringthere A pool hockey match at the 17th Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, yesterday. — AP

INCHEON: China widened its lead in the AsianGames medal race yesterday as the competitionwas overshadowed by the Qatari women’s bas-ketball team withdrawing because of a banagainst wearing Muslim headscarves duringgames. Three world records were also set inarchery, shooting and weightlifting. At the endof day six of the 16-day continental games, with173 of the 439 total gold medals awarded, Chinahad won 78 golds, with South Korea and Japanin a tie for second with 28 each.

The dispute over the Qatari players’ refusal toremove their hijabs - considered by conservativeMuslim women to be a requirement of their faith- has raised new questions about rules over headcoverings and efforts to promote Muslimwomen’s sports participation.

Qatar delegation leader Khalid al-Jabir saidthe team had decided to withdraw and wasalready preparing to return home.

The Qatari women were due to play Nepalyesterday afternoon but didn’t show up at thevenue. The women weren’t allowed to wearhead coverings in their opening game onWednesday and refused to play, surrenderingthe game to Mongolia. Although sports rangingfrom bowling to badminton allow hijabs to beworn during the Asian Games, basketball’s worldgoverning body does not allow them in interna-tional competition.

The Olympic Council of Asia had no immedi-ate comment on the issue, nor did the Asian

Games organizing committee.Away from the controversy, attention again

focused on the swimming competition, withrivals Japan and China splitting the medals overthe day’s six races. With one day to go, Chinaholds the overall lead with 18 swimming goldsto Japan’s 11.

China’s Shi Yang won the men’s 50-meterbutterfly in 23.46 seconds, with 100 butterflygold medalist Joseph Schooling coming in sec-ond to earn his third medal of the competition.Yang Jung-doo of South Korea was third.

Despite collecting the full set of gold, silverand bronze, Schooling said he’d fallen short ofhis goal of winning all three of his races. “Itwasn’t too bad. I was pretty pleased with that.There are a lot of positives I can take out of this,”said the University of Texas freshman, whose winon Wednesday was Singapore’s first men’sswimming gold medal at the Asian Games in 32years.

Hometown favoriteJapan’s Olympic silver medalist Satomi Suzuki

outpaced the favorites to win the women’s 50breaststroke in 31.34 ahead of China’s Suo Ranand He Yuzhe. Meanwhile, hometown favoritePark Tae-hwan continued his mediocre run atthe games with a silver in the men’s 100 freestylebehind China’s Ning Zetao, who set a new Asianrecord at 47.70 seconds. Japan’s Shinri Shiourawas third.—AP

INCHEON: Muhammad Waqas scored the winnersix minutes from time as defending championsPakistan downed arch-rivals India 2-1 to reach theAsian Games semi-finals yesterday.

In a keenly contested pool B encounter,Muhammad Bhutta put Pakistan ahead in thethird quarter before Nikkin Thimmaiah drew levelat the start of the fourth. Waqas took advantageof a defensive lapse to hit the winner that gaveunbeaten Pakistan a place in the semi-finals evenbefore their last league match against Omantomorrow.

The winner between India and China tomor-row will determine the other semi-finalist fromthe pool. Both teams are level on six points fromthree matches. Pakistan’s coach Shahnaz Sheikhplayed down the rivalry against India, saying itwas more important to gain full points from thematch.

“I think we played our best game in the tour-nament,” Sheikh, a former international said.“Every match counts in an event like this and weare capable of doing well against any team.

“In Pakistan, hockey is a national sport andpeople celebrate when we win. It is not onlyabout India. They want us to do well against everyteam.” With the winner gaining a direct entry intothe 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Sheikh is anx-ious to get the gold medal again.

“We did not qualify for the World Cup and thatwas a huge blow,” he said. “We need to win thisone because the qualifiers are tough.” India’sAustralian coach Terry Walsh was livid at thedefeat, but said his team’s campaign was not overyet. “It was frustrating to watch the game from

outside,” said Walsh. “But the good thing is that itwas just a three-point match, not a semi-final or afinal.

Pakistan desire “Pakistan had more desire to win than we did.

Now we have to concentrate on the matchagainst China. I will make sure our guys get morecompetitive.”

Hosts South Korea also advanced to the lastfour with a 2-1 win over Malaysia, their third suc-cessive win in pool A. Nam Hyun-Woo banged intwo penalty corners in the second and third quar-ters, before Mohammad Jalil narrowed the marginfor Malaysia in the fourth.

Meanwhile, Kenta Tanaka and ToshiroTachibana slammed hat-tricks as Japan blankedSingapore 13-0 to remain in contention for thesemi-finals from pool A.

With two wins from three games, Japan drewlevel with Malaysia, whom they play on Saturdayto decide the second semi-finalist from the pool.

Japan’s Korean coach Kang Keon-Wook saidhis team was geared for the crucial game againstthe Malaysians, silver-medallists in Guangzhoufour years ago. “Malaysia are a strong team so Iguess it is going to be a pretty intense match,”Kang said. “We have made plans for that gameand ensure our strong points are not wasted.”Singapore ended the competition with four loss-es, having conceded 35 goals and scored onlythree. Oman recorded their first win in three poolB games with a 3-1 romp over winless Sri Lanka,but the effort came too late to stay in line for thesemi-finals. — AFP

Waqas winner as Pakistan beat India

China stays top at Asian Games amid hijab flap

Qatar withdraws, prepares to return home

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INCHEON: Shooting ath-lete Afrah Mohammad ofKuwait carries her shot-gun before a practice atthe 17th Asian Games atGyeonggido ShootingRange in Incheon, SouthKorea, yesterday. — AP

Kuwait shooters snatch two medals at ASIAD 2014

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