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Tuesday 2 April 2013

21 Jumada I 1434 - Volume 18

Number 5657 Price: QR2

C E R T I F I E D N E W S P A P E R

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Bahrain protest

A Molotov cocktail thrown by a protester explodes and engulfs a riot policeman during clashes at an anti-government protest in the village of Diraz, west of Manama, Bahrain, yesterday.

Business | 18 Sport | 26

Qatari bourse gains 49.14 points in March

Top teamsprepare forEmir Cup

The Heir Apparent H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani visiting a stall at the 6th edition of Qatar Career Fair 2013 at Qatar National Convention Center yesterday.

DOHA: Plenty of career oppor-tunities for Qatari youth were promised by companies as the sixth Qatar Career Fair opened at the Qatar National Convention Centre yesterday.

The six-day recruitment fair, which has the theme, ‘Write the Next Chapter in Qatar’s Success’, was officially inaugurated by Heir Apparent H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

The Heir Apparent went around the stalls put up by more than 140 exhibitors from the pri-vate and government sectors, from the fields of energy, commu-nications, tourism, sports, media, health, banking and finance.

A fire alarm went off at QNCC a few minutes after the Heir Apparent and other offi-cials had left the place, causing panic. All visitors and exhibitors

were quickly evacuated from the building.

The situation returned to nor-mal as soon as it was found to be a false alarm and the event was open to the public after 12 noon. The first day saw many expatri-ates visit the fair, despite the fact that it is meant to provide job opportunities exclusively to Qataris.

Exhibitors at Qatar Career Fair 2013 have been grouped into ‘vil-lages’, and these companies will provide job opportunities, train-ing and development programmes for Qatari students and graduates to help to meet the needs of the labour market.

The event is being organ-ised by the Emiri Diwan, Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, Qatar Petroleum, Qatar

University and the Ministry of Labour.

“Qatar Foundation has many job, training and scholarship opportunities for young Qataris. We are looking forward for tal-ented fresh graduates and expe-rienced professionals as well,” Ghaniam Al Naimi, Director, Talent Sourcing and Development at Qatar Foundation, said on the sidelines of the career fair.

He said Qatar Foundation had recruited more than 150 Qataris as employees and trainees through last year’s fair, and there were 135 opportunities available under the graduate career devel-opment programme. The selected candidates are trained in 18 to 24 months.

THE PENINSULAContinued on page 5

See also page 2

Budget keepsQR74.88bn forpublic projects40 percent increase over last yearDOHA: Qatar yesterday unveiled the budgetary esti-mates for the current financial year (2013-14) — the largest in its history so far — earmark-ing a record over QR210bn (QR210.6bn, or $57.9bn) for pub-lic spending, up 18 percent over the previous budget.

The spending in the previ-ous budget was QR178.5bn. The government has allayed fears of higher spending causing a price rise and said it will be on an alert and manage inflationary pressures through effective fis-cal and monetary measures. The maximum increase is on spending on public projects — 40 percent — with the allocations totalling a whopping QR74.88bn as against QR62.11bn in the last budget.

A highlight, though, is that the outlay for education has been upped 15 percent with the gov-ernment saying this is a crucial shift of the Qatari economy as the country marches towards a knowledge-based economy.

“This is a key step ahead as the education sector now has a share of 3.8 percent in the country’s GDP,” the Minister of Economy and Finance H E Yousuf Hussein Kamal said, reports Qatar News Agency. It is important to note that the esti-mates make a large portion of the allocations for the education sector on research and development.

Likewise, as expected, health-care has also been accorded priority with spending on the

sector going up 13 percent over the last fiscal year. The Minister said the outlay includes spending on Al Wakra Hospital (making it full-capacity), Sidra Hospital and building several specialised hospitals for women and children.

The aim is to bolster the non-energy sectors in an effort to help raise their share in the country’s GDP in line with the national policy to diversify the economy away from oil and gas.

QNA earlier reported that the Emir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani issued a Decree (No. 9 of 2013) endorsing the state’s general budget for the current fiscal year (April 1, 2013 to March 31, 2014).

Total revenues estimated are QR218bn ($60bn), up six per-cent over the previous fiscal year (QR206.27bn). Much of the estimated increase is expected through tax collections. The ‘tax holiday’ tenures of companies that enjoyed that privilege are expected to end this financial year, the Minister said explaining raised revenue estimates.

The surplus estimated is QR7.4bn, down from QR27.7bn in the previous budget — a result, according to analysts, of higher allocations for spending on develop-ment and an expected lower band of oil prices in the global markets during the current financial year.

THE PENINSULAContinued on page 5Reaction on page 17

Heir Apparent opens career fair

Qatar wants stable gasprice: PMDOHA: The Prime Minister and Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani has said that Qatar is seeking to develop a joint inter-national gas transportation net-work that would link the Middle East with Southern Europe.

Addressing the opening session of the Brookings Doha Energy Forum 2013 here yesterday, the Prime Minister said the idea behind developing the interna-tional transportation network emerges from the fact that Qatar is a top global gas exporter and its commitment to stabilise the global commodity market.

THE PENINSULAFull report on page 17

GAZA CITY: Veteran Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal was elected for a new term as head of the Palestinian Islamist movement, a party official said yesterday.

There had been speculation that Meshaal, who is based in exile, would be forced aside by the movement’s powerful leaders in the Gaza Strip, which it has controlled since 2007. Meshaal himself had said last year that he would not seek a new term.

But a Hamas official said that the party’s governing Shura Council re-elected him for another four years at a meeting in Cairo late yesterday. “The lead-ers of Hamas chose Meshaal,” the high-ranking official said from the Egyptian capital, requesting anonymity.

Another Hamas official said: “The elections take place in total secrecy, but it’s widely known that Meshaal’s term will be renewed.”

Hamas officials were in Cairo on Sunday and yesterday for the vote, and to discuss with Egyptian leaders reconciliation with the rival Fatah faction of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Meshaal will be aided by Gaza’s Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah and the movement’s number two Mussa Abu Marzuq, who would have been favoured for leadership had Meshaal not run for another term. AFP

RIYADH: A Saudi newspaper says the kingdom’s religious police are now allowing women to ride motorbikes and bicycles but only in restricted, recrea-tional areas.

The Al Yawm daily yesterday cited an unnamed official from the powerful religious police as

saying women can ride bikes in parks and recreational areas but they have to be accompanied by a male relative and dressed in the full Islamic head-to-toe abaya.

Saudi Arabia bans women from driving. Women are also banned from riding motorcycles or bicycles in public places. The

newspaper didn’t say what trig-gered the lifting of the ban.

The official says women may not use the bikes for transporta-tion but “only for entertainment” and that they should shun places where young men gather “to avoid harassment.”

AP

CAIRO: Cairo’s international airport will be partly closed at night due to fewer incom-ing flights and to save energy, reports said yesterday, high-lighting the economic crisis sweeping Egypt.

Two runways will be closed for four hours starting from 1.30am (2330 GMT) “in order to save energy”, said civil aviation min-ister Wael Al Maadawi in state-ments carried by the press. Only one runway, at Terminal 3 — which serves as a regional hub — will remain open 24 hours a day.

Maadawi said airport rev-enues were not enough to cover the costs of keeping the run-ways open. The decision, which comes into effect in June, “could be seen as an honest reflection of the deteriorating economic condi-tion in Egypt,” said an editorial in

the state-owned English language daily The Egyptian Gazette. It also comes at a time of increasingly frequent power cuts aimed at sav-ing energy.

The oil ministry last week admitted it does not have money to buy enough fuel for all of its power stations. Fuel-laden ships are docked at Egyptian ports but have not unloaded their cargo because there are no funds, it added.

Foreign reserves have plunged from $36bn to $13bn in two years, and the budget deficit is increasing. A mission from the International Money Fund (IMF) is expected in Cairo in the coming days to resume discussions over a $4.8bn loan, which authorities believe would help restore inves-tor and foreign lenders’ confi-dence in Egypt.

AFP

Saudi police lift ban on women on bikes

Khaled Meshaal re-elected as Hamas leader

Cairo airport to partly close as crisis bites

Bashir’s gestureKHARTOUM: Sudan’s President Omar Hassan Al Bashir yes-terday ordered the release of all political prisoners, a move welcomed by the opposition. “I announce today my decision to release all political prisoners. I also renew a commitment to cre-ate a climate to hold a national dialogue with the other political forces.” Full report on page 7

UN arms treatyNEW YORK: The 193-nation United Nations General Assembly is expected to pass the long-anticipated draft arms trade treaty today, after a UN conference failed to approve it in a vote requiring unanimity. A document co-signed yesterday by 64 countries allows for the agreement to be approved by majority vote. Full report on page 10

Saudi deports thousands of Yemenis SANA’A: Saudi Arabia has begun deporting thousands of Yemeni labourers following new regulations requiring for-eigners to work only for their sponsors, a Yemeni official said yesterday, a move that could “significantly damage” the poor country’s economy.

Some two million of Yemen’s 25 million citizens work abroad, more than half of them in Saudi Arabia. Remittances bring in $2bn a year to Yemen.

“If the decision is implemented, it will cause significant damage to the ... Yemeni economy, of which expatriates are a backbone since their remittances reach about $2bn a year,” Rajeh Badi, adviser to Yemen’s prime minister, said.

REUTERSFull report on page 6

02 HOMETUESDAY 2 APRIL 2013

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Career Fair gives more opportunitiesMany government firms offer training programmesDOHA: Qatar Career Fair 2013, which opened yesterday at the Qatar National Convention Centre, is offering opportuni-ties to support Qatari youth to develop their career skills.

SIDRA

The Sidra Medical and Research Center, member of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, the Pearl Sponsor of the Qatar Career Fair 2013 will provide attendees with informa-tion on career opportunities for clinical and non-clinical posi-tions within the hospital. The Sidra booth, located in Hall 8 of the education, health and sports section (booth number Ehs-ps01), will offer visitors a chance to win an iPad everyday. Sidra will also

be taking part in the ‘Search for Information’ competition, which runs until April 6.

Sidra Communications Project Director Khalid Al Mohannadi, said: “Sidra is committed to Qatarisation and we are keen to give Qatari can-didates every possible opportunity to apply for roles at Sidra.”For those who do not have experience in rel-evant fields to date, Sidra will also be offering opportunities through the Sidra Scholarship Program and the JANA program. The Sidra Scholarship helps to prepare those interested in building a career by equipping them with the necessary skills and experience.

PHCC

Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) will offer around 400 career opportunities

Qatar Airways’ pavilion at the fair. RIGHT: A false fire alarm caused panic at the Qatar National Convention Centre during the opening of Qatar Career Fair 2013 yesterday. All visitors and exhibitors were quickly evacuated from the venue. SALIM MATRAMKOT

The Heir Apparent H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani visits a pavilion at the sixth Qatar Career Fair, at the Qatar National Convention Centre, yesterday.

in 2013 for Qatari nationals with the list topped by clinical vacan-cies such as medical, nursing or laboratory and radiology techni-cians. A number of other, non clinical positions, in the admin-istration are will be introduced at Qatar Career Fair as well. Dr Mariam Ali Abdulmalik, PHCC Managing Director, stressed the importance of selecting and empowering a qualified Qatari manpower for attaining a sustain-able progression of the country, especially in the health care sector.

TASWEEQ

Qatar International Petroleum Marketing Company Ltd. (Tasweeq) is participating as Gold exhibitor in the Energy and Industry section in Qatar Career Fair 2013. Saad Al Kuwari,

Chief Executive Officer, Tasweeq, said, “Tasweeq regards Qatar Career Fair as an ideal plat-form to meet promising national graduates and professionals who could be inducted into Tasweeq’s

workforce, in line with Tasweeq recruitment needs. Tasweeq seeks to train and develop these graduates into world-class pro-fessionals with the right busi-ness acumen to market Qatar’s

petroleum products of crude oil, condensates, refined products and LPG globally.” Tasweeq currently reached 42 percent Qatarisation and aims to reach 50 percent by end of 2015, which is well in line with Qatar National Vision 2030. In addition, Tasweeq’s Executive Management reached 47 percent Qatarisation.

KAHRAMAA

Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (KAHRAMAA) has announced employment opportunities with technical jobs for promising Qatari graduates and cadres in vari-ous engineering areas (electrical, mechanical, civil, electronic and IT, etc). Employment opportunities pertaining to the administrative and business development-related positions are also being offered for fresh graduates and quali-fied cadres matching with their qualifications and experiences. Besides, a number of educational programmes and personal develop-ment opportunities are also avail-able to Qatari students.

THE PENINSULA

03TUESDAY 2 APRIL 2013

www.thepeninsulaqatar.comHOME

SPINAL INJURIES

All spinal injuries that lead to paralysis or already have, require operation. Injuries which have led to disability or deformation, for example vertebral fractures, must also be operated on.

First day in school

Several Indian and Pakistani schools started their new academic year yesterday, amid a rush for admissions. The picture shows KG students of an Indian school on their first day in school. SALIM MATRAMKOT

DOHA: Dr Reinhard Schneider, spine specialist and Director of the Munich-based specialised Back-Pain-Center, says he is interested to set up a branch of his centre in Qatar in view of an increase in the number of patients with back pain in the region.

“I think that would be a very good idea. We clearly see an increase in demand from the large number of patients in the Gulf region. Our treatment phi-losophy forms an important gap here between the classic, con-servative treatment and the clas-sic back surgery approach. The aspiring and modern-thinking Qatar would be an ideal location. Perhaps my visit to Doha from March 30 to April 5 will lead to interesting discussions with leaders on this issue,” Schneider told The Peninsula in a recent interview.

He said studies show that in western countries (Europe, the US, Canada, etc.) and more recently in Arab nations, about 20 per cent of the population suffer from chronic back pain.

They have lasting back pain and are under continuous medi-cal care. However, 80 percent of the population have treatment-requiring pain at least once in their lives.

Obesity is a major risk fac-tor associated with back pain. “Obesity often leads to incorrect straining. This straining leads to wear and tear, such as joint and disc deterioration. Preliminary stages of deterioration are often inflammation. Little movement or strain only exaggerates these negative spirals further,” said Schneider.

The main causes of spinal injury and illness is a lack of movement,

DOHA: The Central Municipal Council (CMC) will discuss the safety of tents being set up inside residential facilities and the issue of street vendors in its session today.

The meeting is also expected to discuss complaints about dump-ing household wastes on building roofs and a proposal to cancel allotment of plots to Qatari citi-zens that they did not develop so for. The above proposals had been

made by several CMC members and its services committee, Al Sharq reported yesterday.

CMC issued a new internal regulation and it was approved by the State Cabinet. The regulation allows the CMC to set up a new committee to deal with environ-mental issues, Engineer Jassem bin Abdullah Al Maliki told the daily.

The new regulation has also allowed the CMC to select its new

secretary general through voting in one of its forthcoming sessions, he added.

Based on the results of the elec-tion, the Minister of Municipality and Urban Planning will appoint the new secretary general.

As per the new rules, the CMC members are not permitted to be absent in more than three ses-sions in a row or six sessions altogether.

THE PENINSULA

CMC to focus on street vendors

German spine specialist keen to set up clinic20pc people in West, Arab region have chronic back pain

Dr Reinhard Schneider

or rather, unhealthy movements and deterioration of the spinal disks and the spinal canal.

“Children around the world sit for hours in school and don’t play enough sports. They come home, sit at a desk and do their home-work. To relax, they sit and play at their computers. Thus, they sit for no less than 10 hours a day without real physical activity.”

“Professionally, modern jobs predominantly involve sitting.

Alternatively, there are, where applicable, travel opportunities, in which people also sit. Then there are meetings and confer-ences; naturally we sit there as well. For physical activity and sports, most simply do not have time,” he added.

Every person experiences from the age of 20 alterations as a result of deterioration of the spine. Acute herniated discs occur more frequently between the ages 30 and 50. The joint wear normally has an impact in later years, typically from the age of 60. Muscular tension affects all age groups. Tension in the cer-vical spine is especially common in women, while men are more affected in the lumbar region.

Patients with back pain should visit a specialised spine center as soon as possible. Already existing changes must be diagnosed, and where applicable, specific treat-ments be applied, for example spinal disc laser treatment, mini-mally invasive catheter therapy or endoscopic intervention.

All spinal injuries that lead to paralysis or already have, require operation. Injuries which have led to disability or deformation, for example vertebral fractures, must also be operated on. “From Arab nations, we already have experience treating numerous members of ruling families, high ranking politicians and business people. All of such patients value our treatment philosophy “first minimally invasive, before open surgery,” as well as our years of experience, our high quality promise and our interdisciplinary medical and specialist team. The number of treated patients from Arab nations is well over 2,000 at our clinic,” he said.

THE PENINSULA

04 HOMETUESDAY 2 APRIL 2013


Human trafficking and media workshop beginsDOHA: Recognising the impor-tance of creating more aware-ness about human trafficking, Qatar Foundation for Combating Human Trafficking started a two-day workshop on ‘Human Trafficking and Media’ at Sharq Hotel yesterday.

The workshop is being held in response to recommendations of an Arab initiative to build national capacities to combat human traf-ficking and the Doha Forum on Combating Human Trafficking in all its versions.

Its objectives include the intro-duction of issues of human traf-ficking along with the principles and the rules of media work.

Another goal of the workshop is to hone participants’ skills to cover human trafficking-related content and report in the media in a way that serves the cause and helps combat the problem in an effective way.

The workshop started with opening speeches by Dr Abdullah Al Mal, Chairman of QFCHT, and Maryam Al Malki, Director General of QFCHT.

Topics discussed on the first day included ‘Introducing the phenomenon of human traffick-ing and the role of the Qatar Foundation for Combating Human Trafficking,’ ‘The con-cept of human trafficking from

the media perspective,’ and ‘The importance of media and its role in human trafficking cases’ by Dr Rabia’h Sabah Al Kawari.

‘UNODC’s role in promoting the importance of media in pre-venting human trafficking’ was discussed by Smera Rehman, Programme Coordinator-UNODC, ‘Human Trafficking in cinema and drama’ by Director Ahmad Atif, and ‘A documentary about human trafficking’ — sub-jective experience (criticism and analysis) by Ahmad Mahfouz, Al jazeera Documentary Manager.

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development is inviting all football enthusiasts to attend a ‘Fan Zone’ event tonight outside the Recreation Centre at QF main campus.

The event marks the first leg of the Champions League Quarter Final tie between FC Barcelona (FCB) and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG). Participants will be able to compete for prizes as they enjoy a variety of fun-filled sporting com-petitions in a special ‘Fan Zone’ area before watching a screening

of the match. The event is open to the public,

and spectators will be invited to enter a ‘golden goal’ contest where they attempt to guess the correct time of the first goal scored in the live game.

The contestant whose guess is closest to the right answer will win two tickets to Barcelona to watch the second leg of the FCB vs PSG tie live in Camp Nou on April 10.

There will also be a number of other giveaways and souvenirs for fans to take home. The game, which will be broadcast on giant

screens, will take place at PSG’s iconic Parc des Princes stadium. It has a strong local connection due to PSG’s Qatari ownership and Qatar Foundation’s partnership with FCB.

On the evening of the second leg, Qatar Foundation will again set up a fan zone, running a simi-lar programme of competitions before a live screening of the game. This time they get a chance to win two tickets to a Primera Liga match at Camp Nou later in the season.

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: A novel weight man-agement programme to fight obesity among Qatari school-children is one of the three major research projects that have been awarded special funding by the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF).

The three “exceptional” research projects will get a total of $10.4m.

The second project will expand the Qatar Exoplanet Survey and could lead to discovery of more planets by Qatari researchers and the third will improve solar power conversion systems.

The projects were selected under the second wave of the National Priorities Research Program — Exceptional Proposal (NPRP-EP), an extension of QNRF’s flagship National Priorities Research Program (NPRP).

It offers a maximum budget of $5m for up to five years to propos-als of exceptional scientific merit requiring resources in excess of the normal level of funding avail-able under the NPRP.

“The NPRP-EP was created to enable scientists with exceptional ideas, approaches, procedures and models to undertake grand projects aimed at solving key issues for Qatar and the world,” said Dr Abdul Sattar Al Taie, Executive Director of QNRF.

“This is exemplified by the second set of grants in this pro-gram, with three new proposals of great significance for Qatar in the fields of health, alternative energy and astronomy.

“The program is open for submissions throughout the year and we look forward to receiving similarly exceptional proposals for the next round of

funding,” Dr Al Taie added. Through the first project, sci-

entists will implement and evalu-ate a novel weight management programme for Qatari schoolchil-dren aged 8 to 12 years.

According to latest figures from the National Health Strategy 2011-2016, about 75 percent of Qataris are overweight and 40 percent are obese, increasing the likelihood of a person developing diseases and health problems such as diabetes.

This project aims to help address the issue at its source by increasing awareness at an early stage in the Qatari population about how to manage weight and avert risks associated with being overweight.

Professor and Associate Dean for Research in the College of Arts & Sciences at Qatar University, Dr Mohamed Ahmedna, in

collaboration with world-lead-ing surgeon Lord Ara Darzi of Imperial College, London, will lead the project to administer a comprehensive weight manage-ment programme that has been adapted for Qatar from a cogni-tive behavioural approach and methodology developed and vali-dated in the UK.

QNRF has only awarded the first phase of the project, a pilot study that will last one year and has been granted $980,000.

Based on the outcome of the pilot study, QNRF will grant funding for the second phase of the project. The second grant, awarded to Qatar Environment and Energy Institute, will expand the Qatar Exoplanet Survey, led by Qatari astronomer Dr Khalid Alsubai.

In collaboration with scien-tists from the UK and the US,

the survey has already led to the discovery of giant Jupiter-like planets ‘Qatar-1b’, ‘Qatar-2b’ and ‘Qatar-2c’.

With $4.83m NPRP-EP grant, Alsubai and his team are plan-ning to expand Qatar Exoplanet Survey capabilities by establishing more observing stations in new locations around the world, paving the way for future discoveries.

The third research proposal will attempt to solve problems in integrating up to one mega-watt of power from photovoltaic power conversion systems into the national utility grid, using a silicon carbide-based inverter.

Dr Haitham Abu-Rub, Professor in Electrical Engineering at Texas A&M University at Qatar and a promising researcher in the field of power electronic con-verters, will lead the project,

which has been granted $4.6m. The project is significant as

research in power electronic con-verters is expected to play a major role in the conversion of alterna-tive energy sources and the inter-face of this energy with power grids, QNRF said yesterday.

Noor Al Merekhi, Program Manager of QNRF’s NPRP said, “Thirteen proposals were initially presented to a panel of experts for this round of the NPRP-EP.

“Of those, eight were accepted for the second stage of evalua-tion, with the scientists’ full pro-posals being sent to seven peer reviewers.

“The QNRF Steering Committee then assessed the reviews when making the final funding decision, awarding three projects $10.4m over a period of five years.”

THE PENINSULA

Research fund to fight obesity in childrenQNRF provides $10.4m for three exceptional projects, including a weight management programme

Dr Abdullah Al Mal, Chairman of Qatar Foundation for Combating Human Trafficking, speaking at the event at the Sharq Hotel, yesterday.

Fan Zone event for football enthusiasts

Kahramaa starts e-service for companiesDOHA: Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) has launched its new e-service exclusively targeting companies and business organisations.

Through this facility, a com-pany can buy tender documents online by getting itself registered at Kahramaa website (http://www.km.qa). They should fur-nish information such as name of the company, e-mail, phone and fax, Commercial Registration (CR) number and its expiry date, among others.

THE PENINSULA

Air India Express to continue operations from DIADOHA: Air India Express flights will continue to operate from the Doha International Airport (DIA), since opening of the Hamad International Airport (HIA) has been postponed, the company said yesterday.

Air India Express was among the 10 airlines that were supposed to start flights from the new air-port beginning yesterday.

A soft opening of the airport scheduled for yesterday was postponed following instructions from the Civil Defence Department. A new date is expected to be announced shortly.

GCC Labour Programme meeting today DOHA: The Supreme Council of Health will host a two-day meeting for the Gulf Central Committee for Labour Programme from today. The meeting will review achievements in the electronic linking of labour programme in GCC countries.

THE PENINSULA/QNA

HOME 05TUESDAY 2 APRIL 2013


BY RAYNALD C RIVERA

DOHA: Hundreds of car-pets made by leading manu-facturers around the world are showcased at the third Qatar International Carpet Exhibition (QCarpet 2013) which opened yesterday at the Doha Exhibition Centre.

Some of the largest manufac-turers and distributors of carpets from Iran, Egypt, China, Iraq, Pakistan, Qatar, Syria, and the UAE brought the carpets which come in various sizes, colours, design and materials.

Most of the exhibitors at the exhibition which occupies an area of 5,000sqm are from Iran, the leading producers of handmade carpets in the world.

“Any exhibition organised in Qatar helps in stimulating eco-nomic activities and promotes tourism especially if it is being

conducted continuously,” Nasser Ahmed Al Meer, Qatar Chamber board member, told reporters after inaugurating the week-long expo.

Al Meer said specialised exhibi-tions like QCarpet 2013 are of great help for consumers to easily pur-chase the product they want and for manufacturers to exhibit their products of best quality.

It is Qatar Chamber’s role to support economic activities that help the Qatari economy which includes encouraging foreign investment, said Al Meer.

“I came to know from some exhibitors they have branches in other GCC countries but none yet in Qatar. I hope they open their branches here and if they face any difficulties, we will try to solve them together. Our role is to support economic activities which serve the Qatari economy and we are always ready to help

International carpet expo beginsMost exhibitors are from Iran

Visitors look at carpets on display at the third Qatar International Carpet Exhibition at Doha Exhibition Center yesterday. SHAIVAL DALAL

PM meets Ethiopian agriculture minister DOHA: The Prime Minister and Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani met yes-terday Ethiopian Minister of Agriculture Tefera Deribew and his delegation. Talks during the meeting dealt with relations between the two countries and means of developing them.

Eritrean president arrives today DOHA: Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki arrives today. He will hold talks with the Emir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani on bilateral relations. QNA

Workshop for students

Continued from page 1

However, Al Naimi said, “the career development programme is more performance-based than time-based.” Visitors to Qatar Career Fair 2013 can submit their applications through a specially designed data entry system available at the Qatar Foundation booth. Qatar Airways, another major exhibi-tor, is seeking 140 Qatari youth interested in the aviation indus-try. It is also offering 80 gradu-ate development opportunities and 150 scholarships.

“We are looking for Qataris who are interested in working in the aviation sector, especially to work at the Hamad International Airport,” said Kholode M Al Obaidli, Vice President, Nationalisation, Human Resources, Qatar Airways.

At present, 109 Qatari pilots are employed with Qatar Airways, besides a large number of engi-neers and professionals working for the administration, human resources and other departments.

Qatar Career Fair 2013 is also holding several workshop and lec-tures for students and graduates to develop their skills and abili-ties. THE PENINSULA

anyone who wants to invest in Qatar,” he said.

Concerning the difficulties faced by some exhibitors in get-ting entry visa to Qatar, he said “Had we been informed about that

earlier we would have facilitated it in collaboration with concerned government bodies.”

One of the highlights of the seven-day exhibition is live dem-onstrations by some companies

on the process of carpet weav-ing. QCarpet 2013 is open to the public until Sunday from 10am to 10pm at the Doha Exhibition Centre.

THE PENINSULA

Current expenditure estimated at QR77.52bn

Continued from page 1

The budgetary estimates are based on an oil price of $65 per barrel—unchanged from the previous budget. Analysts said they hoped the average crude price in the international markets to be much more than the budgeted level, so the sur-plus could be much higher by 2013-14-end.

Current expenditure has been estimated at QR77.52bn, up 27 percent over the previous fiscal year, while salaries and wages have been given an outlay of QR44.26bn (up 24 percent) in the current budget.

Capital expenditure is also up (nine percent), from QR11.35bn last fiscal to QR13.93bn in the cur-rent financial year.

QNA quoted Yousuf Hussain Kamal as saying that the budget reflects the way forward towards achieving the lofty goals set within the Qatar National Vision 2030 and the National Development Strategy (2011-16).

About increased spend-ing, he said Qatar faced the challenge of main-taining the momentum of development at a time the global economy was still struggling. Qatar has managed to ride over the global financial crisis since its onset in 2008 and its impact is still being felt here.

The message this budget sends across is that “We

2013-14 BUDGET SPENDING

QR74.88bnPublic projects including health and education (with R&D) Last fiscal year: QR62.11 bn12.77 percent increase this year

QR44.26bnSalaries & Wages Last fiscal year: QR36.68 bn24 percentincrease this year

QR13.93bnCapital expenditureLast fiscal year: QR11.35bn9 percentincrease this year

QR7.4bn Budget surplus

QR77.52bnCurrent

expenditureLast fiscal year:

QR68.75 bn27 percent

increase this year

Total: QR210.6bnLast fiscal year QR178.5bn, up 18 percent this year

Revenue Estimates: QR218bn(Last fiscal year QR206.27bn)

are on the right track as for execut-ing the development plans as part of National Development Strategy (2011-16) is concerned,” said the Minister.

The current budget has been pre-pared in the light of several facts: one, that the world economy is showing signs of improvement but uncer-tainties mar expectations; two, the estimates are based on a conserva-tive oil price of $65 per barrel; and, three that the pace of development has been maintained.

He said the country’s economy was expected to grow over four

percent backed mainly by the growth of the non-hydrocarbons sector. The budget reflects the state policy of supporting the private sec-tor in helping widen its role in the national economy.

The estimated surplus will be used to enhance the reserves of the Qatar Central Bank and other state funds, repay the debt and back the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA).

“We will continue to monitor the ratio of debt to the GDP as the aim is to achieve sovereign debt rating of AAA over the next three years,” said the Minister. THE PENINSULA

06 MIDDLE EASTTUESDAY 2 APRIL 2013


Truck bomb kills 9 as Iraq unrest spikesSuicide attack on police headquartersBAGHDAD: A suicide truck bomber killed nine people at a police headquarters yester-day as data showed March was Iraq’s deadliest month since August, raising fears of a surge in violence leading up to elections.

The latest attack, in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, comes as Iraq marks 10 years since the US-led invasion of the country that intended to oust Saddam and install a stable, dem-ocratic ally in the Middle East but instead unleashed brutal violence and endless political disputes.

The attacker detonated the tanker truck at a police head-quarters in Tikrit, 160km north of Baghdad, killing nine people and wounding 28, according to Mohammed Hassan Attiya, the head of the security committee within the provincial council of Salaheddin, of which Tikrit is the capital.

Among the victims were eight policemen who died and 25 who were wounded, Attiya said.

Also north of the capital, separate attacks in Mosul, Tuz Khurmatu and near Tikrit left a policeman dead, a town mayor and his two bodyguards wounded, and a tribal chief kidnapped and his bodyguard wounded, officials said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the Tikrit attack, but Sunni militants linked to Al Qaeda often use sui-cide bombers and vehicles packed with explosives to target security forces and officials in a bid to destabilise the country.

The bombing comes ahead of provincial elections scheduled for April 20, due to be held in 12 of Iraq’s 18 provinces, the country’s first polls since a parliamentary vote in March 2010.

“Because we are approaching elections, which are a key event in the country, this is pushing terrorist groups... to carry out maximum damage against inter-nal security,” a senior security official said, speaking on condition

of anonymity.“They are aiming to hinder the

elections.”John Drake, a London-based

security analyst for AKE Group, warned that insurgent groups may be trying to “instil the elec-torate into voting along sectar-ian lines, further dividing society, which in turn harms the gov-ernment’s efforts to consolidate voters.”

“A divided society is also easier for the terrorists to operate in.”

Questions have been raised about the credibility of the polls as they have been postponed in two provinces roiled by months of protests, and 11 candidates have been killed, according to an AFP tally.

Officials cited security threats to candidates and election officials in justifying the delay in Anbar and Nineveh province, but dip-lomats have voiced concern over the move.

“The fact is that while security has been put forward as a ration-ale for that postponement, no country knows more about vot-ing under difficult circumstances than Iraq,” US Secretary of State John Kerry said on a surprise visit to Baghdad last month.

The vote is seen as a key barometer of support for Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki as he grapples with criticism from within his unity cabinet and pro-tests in the minority Sunni Arab community.

Though violence remains high by international standards, Iraq’s military and police are consist-ently described by Iraqi and American officials as capable of maintaining internal security, but are not yet fully able to protect the country’s borders, airspace and maritime territory.

Figures based on reports from security and medical officials, meanwhile, showed that March was the deadliest month in Iraq since August with 271 people killed and 906 wounded in attacks.

AFP

Smoke rises after what activists said was shelling by forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar Al Assad in Houla near Homs.

March was bloodiest month in Syria war: Rights groupBEIRUT: March was the bloodiest month yet in Syria’s two-year conflict, with more than 6,000 people killed, a third of them civilians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said yesterday.

The group opposes President Bashar Al Assad but has moni-tored human rights violations on both sides of a revolt that began as peaceful protests but is now a brutal war between forces loyal to Assad and an array of rebel militias.

The Britain-based Observatory, which has a network of sources across Syria, has documented 62,554 dead in the conflict, said Rami Abdelrahman, the head of the group.

“But we know the number is much, much higher,” he said by telephone. “We estimate it is actually around 120,000 people. Many death tolls are more dif-ficult to document so we are not officially including them yet.”

As in previous months, around a third of those killed in March were civilians, the Observatory

said. Almost 300 children died, taking the number killed in the conflict to around 4,390.

The United Nations says more than 70,000 people have died in Syria. Abdelrahman said both sides have found ways to minimise their dead to keep morale high among their followers.

“There are some groups where it took us longer to get access to sources. For example we started counting deaths much later among the shabbiha,” said Abdelrahman, referring to pro-Assad militias that have fought alongside security forces.

His group has a rough count of 12,000 dead shabbiha fighters but has yet to include those in its toll.

Also unknown is the number of dead among the tens of thousands jailed by Assad’s forces since the conflict began. There was also no way to count the number of Syrian soldiers killed after being captured by rebels. Activists believe those are also likely to number in the thousands.

Some 2,250 dead opposition

fighters are unknown, and the Observatory said it believed most of those are fighters from abroad who joined the rebels in Syria, which has become a site for jihad, or “holy war”, to many Islamic militant groups.

Assad has long accused his opponents of being “terrorists” funded by Gulf and other foreign powers.

Disunity among the opposition in exile and the armed factions on the ground has hindered the struggle against Assad and con-tributed to Western reluctance to intervene.

Abdelrahman called on foreign powers to take action to help ease Syria’s crisis as violence continues to rise.

“It seems that Bashar Al Assad is satisfied killing as much as needed to keep his throne. But it also seems that Syrian blood is of no value to Arab or Western powers who have been making promise after promise, while Syrians are led to slaughter,” he said.

REUTERS

Saudi begins deporting thousands of YemenisSANAA: Saudi Arabia has begun deporting thousands of Yemeni labourers following new regulations requiring foreigners to work only for their sponsors, a Yemeni official said yesterday, a move that could “significantly damage” the poor country’s economy.

Some two million of Yemen’s 25 million citizens work abroad, more than half of them in larger and richer neighbour Saudi Arabia. Remittances bring in $2bn a year to Yemen, a country still grappling with revolt, a sepa-ratist movement and an Islamist insurgency.

“If the decision is implemented, it will cause significant damage to the ... Yemeni economy, of which expatriates are a backbone since their remittances reach about $2bn a year,” Yemeni presidential advisor Rajeh Badi said.

Badi said the issue would affect more than 200,000 Yemenis who will have entered Saudi Arabia on a work visa, but who do not work for the sponsor they originally registered with.

Saudi Arabia is stepping up efforts to cut unemployment among its citizens. In recent days Saudi media has reported an increase in Labour Ministry checks of companies looking for employees not properly registered with the firm they work for.

Badi said the Yemeni govern-ment was holding talks with Saudi officials to try and give the Yemeni workers a chance to “rec-tify their legal situations”.

The Yemeni Defence Ministry’s website estimated up to 2,000 Yemenis were being deported daily since the new regulations went into effect some 10 days ago.

It quoted an expatriate worker as saying some Saudi sponsors impose what he described as “humiliating conditions”, such as making them give up a portion of their salary, forcing them to change sponsors.

Saudi officials were not imme-diately available to comment on the report.

Most Gulf Arab states require foreign workers to have a local sponsor, who will apply for visas on their behalf and who they are expected to work for until their contracts run out.

REUTERS

Turkey scraps flights to ArmeniaANKARA: Turkey has cancelled the first ever scheduled Turkish flights to its long-time rival Armenia, days before the first plane was due to take off, offi-cials have said, following fierce opposition from Turkey’s ally and energy partner Azerbaijan.

The twice-weekly flights between Turkey’s eastern city of Van and the Armenian capi-tal Yerevan were due to begin on April 3 and, encouraged by a US push for rap-prochement, were meant to boost bilateral tourism and trade.

But with just over a week until the first flight, and with tickets already on sale, Turkey’s civil aviation authority stepped in and ordered the flights to be suspended.

Officials at Turkey’s transport ministry confirmed the flights had been stopped but

declined to give a reason. BoraJet, the pri-vate Turkish carrier set to fly the 45-minute route, has also declined to comment on the stoppage. One BoraJet official twice denied the Van-Yerevan flights had ever been planned, even though the route was still available as a booking option on the firm’s website on Monday.

Narekavank Tour, a Yerevan-based travel agency which has spent the last three years organising the flights together with a Turkish travel agency in Van, said the reason was political.

“The organisers were keen on staying away from politics. It is very sad and discouraging that Turkish authorities were not able to do the same and finally let politics interfere with this promising initiative,” it said in a statement. Asked if he thought this was due

to specific pressure from Azerbaijan, Armen Hovhannisyan, co-founder of Narekavank Tour, said: “Of course, it’s part of the whole formula, and maybe they have been working behind the scenes.”

Officially at war, Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a bitter dispute over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh - a moun-tainous enclave within Azerbaijan with a majority Armenian population - which Armenian-backed forces seized along with seven surrounding Azeri districts in 1991.

Turkey, which has never opened an embassy in Armenia, closed its land border in 1993 in a show of solidarity with Azerbaijan, a Muslim and Turkic-speaking ally which also supplies Ankara with billions of cubic metres of Caspian natural gas each year.

REUTERS

Kuwait hangs three in first executions since 2007KUWAIT CITY: Authorities in Kuwait yesterday hanged three convicted murderers in the first executions in the state since May 2007, the Ministry of Justice said.

The men, a Pakistani, a Saudi and a stateless Arab, were hanged at the central jail, west of the capital Kuwait City, in front of judicial and security officials, the ministry said.

Pakistani Parvez Ghulam was convicted of killing a Kuwaiti cou-ple and the Saudi national, Faisal Al Oteibi, of stabbing a compa-triot to death. The stateless Arab, Dhaher Al Oteibi, was hanged for shooting and killing his wife and five children after claiming he was a long-awaited imam.

AFP

One of three men awaiting execution is seen before being hanged, outside the Central Prison of Kuwait, near Kuwait City, yesterday.

MIDDLE EAST 07TUESDAY 2 APRIL 2013


Palestinian PM in hospital with stomach pain RAMALLAH: Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was hospitalised yesterday with stomach pains, but his life was not in any danger, medics in Ramallah said.

Fayyad “suffered from a mild infection of the stomach and is being treated with antibiotics,” a doctor at the hospital in the West Bank city said.

The 61-year-old, a smoker who suffered a heart attack during a private visit to the US in May 2011, could be kept at the hospi-tal overnight for observation, the source added.

A former senior official at the International Monetary Fund, Fayyad is an economist who won respect for cleaning up the finances of the Palestinian Authority and improving secu-rity in the West Bank. He has headed the Palestinian govern-ment since June 2007, after Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip.

Bahraini’s 10-year jail term for spying for Iran confirmedDUBAI: A Bahraini accused of spying for Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards unit has had his 10-year jail sentence confirmed by a court of appeal, the state news agency BNA news agency reported.

The sentence, passed in July 2011 by a lower court, was confirmed on Sunday by the Court of Appeal in Manama, the report said.

The convicted man, who has not been identified, was accused of passing “military information and identifying sensitive sites in Bahrain” to two Iranian diplomats posted to Kuwait, according to local media.

The reports said he was recruited as a paid spy by the dip-lomats when he visited relatives in Kuwait.

AGENCIES

Sudan to free all political prisonersOpposition hails Bashir’s gestureKHARTOUM: Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir said yesterday that he will release all political detainees, a move welcomed by the opposition as tensions ease with South Sudan.

“Today, we announce a decision to free all the political prisoners and renew our commitment to all political powers about dialogue,” Bashir said in a speech opening a new session of parliament.

“We confirm we will continue our communication with all polit-ical and social powers without excluding anyone, including those who are armed, for a national dia-logue which will bring a solution to all the issues,” the president said.

Farouk Abu Issa, who heads the opposition alliance of more than 20 parties, said Bashir’s announcement was “a step toward genuine dialogue.”

He said the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), which has been fighting government forces for almost two years in South

Kordofan and Blue Nile states, had been demanding a prisoner release.

“Very good news,” said Farouk Mohammed Ibrahim, of the Sudanese Organisation for Defence of Rights and Freedoms, a group of activists.

He said there are “a large number” of detainees in South Kordofan and Blue Nile. These include 118 SPLM-N prisoners whose cases are being handled by his organisation in southern Blue Nile alone. “It’s a step forward,” Ibrahim said.

But SPLM-N Chairman Malik Agar declined comment on Bashir’s announcement, saying he was “not sure which political prisoners he is referring to”.

Bashir’s statement elaborated on an offer made last week by Vice-President Ali Osman Taha, who reached out to the SPLM-N and opposition political parties, whom he invited to join a consti-tutional dialogue.

Sudan needs a new constitu-tion to replace the 2005 document

Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir addresses a new session of parliament in Khartoum yesterday.

based on a peace agreement which ended a 23-year civil war and led to South Sudan’s separation in July 2011.

Bashir’s regime had long rejected negotiations with the insurgents.

In a written message to AFP on Monday, Agar reiterated that the rebels want talks on the basis of UN Security Council Resolution 2046, “full stop”.

The resolution, passed in May last year, called for an end to fighting between Sudan and South Sudan along their disputed fron-tier and demanded talks to settle

outstanding issues including the war between Khartoum and the SPLM-N.

Negotiations should occur on the basis of a deal which the SPLM-N signed in June 2011 with Bashir’s assistant Nafie Ali Nafie, the UN said.

That agreement, which was not implemented, recognised the SPLM-N as a legal political party.

It committed the SPLM-N and the Islamist government to a “political partnership” in the two states and a national vision that recognised the country’s diversity.

Last week Agar said the

government had been misleading by mooting negotiations under the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement which ended Sudan’s civil war.

The CPA led to South Sudan’s independence after an over-whelming vote in a referendum.

South Kordofan and Blue Nile both have large non-Arab com-munities and were accorded spe-cial status under the CPA, which said they would have “popular consultations” as well. “The pop-ular consultation got buried with the end of the CPA,” Agar said.

AFP

Lebanese gunmen kidnap eight Syrians, demand hostage exchangeTRIPOLI: Gunmen kidnapped eight men from Syria’s Alawite minority as they crossed into northern Lebanon yesterday, residents and security sources said, in a bid to gain the release of a Sunni Muslim man believed to be held by Syrian forces.

Lebanon’s frontier has increas-ingly been drawn into violence from neighbouring Syria’s civil war, now in its third year. Sectarian ten-sions have been on the rise in both countries, with Sunni Muslims in Lebanon supporting the largely Sunni revolt against President

Bashar Al Assad in Syria. Residents of Lebanon’s northern border town of Wadi Khaled said gunmen attacked a bus carrying the men who came to Lebanon for work, beating the driver and kid-napping eight Alawites.

They said the gunmen would

release their hostages when a Lebanese Sunni man named Mohammed Hussein Al Ahmad, who residents say is being held by Syrian forces, was freed.

A security source said Lebanon’s armed forces sent patrols to the northern border area to look for

the Syrian hostages.The Lebanese-Syrian border

has grown increasingly tense with battles raging close to the frontier. Syrian forces have threatened to increase shelling on Lebanon’s border areas.

REUTERS

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BY ADITYA CHAKRABORTTY

T HE past few days have taught us occasionally voting ingrates a lot about our politicians. Today we

discovered that Iain Duncan Smith can live on just £7.57 a day. Last week we learned that David Miliband was “the best and the brightest” (Keith Vaz), whose departure from Westminster was “a massive loss to UK politics” (Tony Blair). On the one hand, you have an entire political class hyperventilating over one of their own; on the other, a cabinet minister blithely claiming he can manage on 2% of the £2,587.79 he actu-ally gets paid every week. Add these two news morsels together, and you glean a third and more fundamental lesson:

that our elected representatives are ever more remote from the rest of us.

Let’s treat that Duncan Smith boast with the contempt it deserves, and instead try a thought experi-ment. Let us go, you and I, to the constituency of South Shields on byelection polling night.

After 12 years of David Miliband as MP, the local Labour party has opted for a local

candidate, a woman born and raised in the area. Karen is a bus driver with a disabled husband, who has lived in a three-bedroom home for years – but the coalition thinks they have too much space and has cut their housing ben-efit. So when Karen attacks Cameron’s bedroom tax, she draws on personal experience of being forced to downsize. And if she speaks at hustings about the urgent need for decent, secure jobs, it’s not because Ed Miliband and Chuka

Umunna now talk about industrial pol-icy – but at least partly because she’s sick of flocks of unemployed teenagers forever cycling up and down her street.

Now why does an MP such as Karen – local and working class – seem so fanciful? Because in real life they’re rarer than hen’s teeth. In 1979, 40% of Labour MPs came from a manual occupation; according to analysis by the Smith Institute that is now down to 9%. Just 4% of all representatives in the Commons can claim a background in a manual occupation, which is roughly the same proportion as went to Eton. Over one in four of all Tory MPs were previ-ously employed in finance; more parlia-mentarians came from jobs in politics than from health, teaching, the army, agriculture and voluntary services put together. With his frictionless ascent from thinktanks to backroom Labour politics to the cabinet, David Miliband is typical of the gilded class who masquer-ade as our delegates in Westminster. The consequences of this narrowness are easy to see. In this paper and else-where there has been much wistfulness about the Spirit of 45, after Ken Loach’s recent film. But that spirit, as the film outlines, came from people’s lived expe-riences. Think about the Class of 45: Ernie Bevin – a former lorry driver; Peter Mandelson’s granddad, Herbert Morrison – a grocer’s assistant. And, the father of the NHS, Nye Bevan: a bolshie ex-miner. However different their politics, it’s hard to imagine any of these three accepting a retrospec-tive law imposing benefit sanctions on unemployed people refusing private “workfare”, as Ed Miliband’s party did last month.

It’s true that manual workers con-stitute a smaller section of the British labour force than they did even when Thatcher came to power; but there are still more of them than went to David Cameron’s alma.

Undeniably, parliament now has more women and more ethnic minorities, although still not in proportion with the wider population. But like those HR-monitoring forms that come with

job applications, class as a category has fallen by the wayside. Yet as doyen of parliamentary analysis Philip Cowley points out from his recent polling, if vot-ers want any change at all in who sits in the Commons, it’s towards more local and more working-class MPs.

Not only is that completely at odds with the people going into Westminster politics, it’s also at odds with the culture of the place. At only 47, David Miliband is taking up a £300,000 job, following on from the nearly £1m he has raised since leaving government in 2010. Nor is he alone. James Purnell is going to the BBC for another six-figure salary. Ruth Kelly is now at HSBC. John Hutton went from being energy minister to a seat on the board of a US nuclear giant. And we could go on, with Patricia Hewitt and Alan Milburn ... Westminster has become the equivalent of a gap year for middle-aged overachievers, a place to earn a few CV points before catapult-ing themselves into the private-sector plutocracy. If today’s Treasury minister is tomorrow’s investment bank director, what hope of overhaul of Britain’s rotten finance sector?

This debasement of our politics starts early, with the exorbitant cost of being selected as a candidate. As Peter Watt, former Labour general secretary, recently wrote about his party’s selec-tion procedure: “If you can’t afford to take a couple of months off work, pay for accommodation and travel, abandon your family and pay for your own mate-rials you are screwed. In other words you need to be a political insider whose boss is supporting them; a trade union official or very rich.”

And that’s before you even run for a seat, the bill for which can easily top £10,000. If Cameron, Miliband and Clegg want to fulfil their promises to make their parties more diverse, they can start by funding those on low incomes to become candidates. The Labour Diversity Fund calls for 5% of all party donations to go towards such a cause; it’s a small enough step that all the main sides could and should do it.

THE GUARDIAN

THE spotlight is on Qatar as Afghan President Hamid Karzai is likely to reveal his strategy on his future interactions with the

Taleban militia.Karzai, who is on a two-day state visit

to Doha, is expected to explore the pos-sibility of granting permission to open a Taleban office in the Gulf state, as part of a deal to formally kickstart peace talks. The demand for Taleban’s acknowledg-ment as a political force and opening up of a channel of communication with the world at large has been at the centre stage of negotiations with the West. The Pakhtoon militia, which once enjoyed legitimacy from Saudi Arabia, the United

Arab Emirates and Pakistan as it ruled Afghanistan, has for long been in the woods since its dismissal in the wake of 2001 attacks on the United States. Though it has been a corner stone of Taleban policy that it would not enter into formal negotiations with the Karzai government, which it calls a puppet of Washington, it did hold inconclusive discussions with the United States offi-cials last year. The talks between the State Department nominees and the second-tier leadership of Taleban were conducted in France and Qatar. It is from this forum that the idea to engage the Taleban was born — and as a major concession the militia was offered to set

up an executive office in Qatar.Doha’s proactive diplomacy through

which it has, of late, played an impor-tant diplomatic role in many of the Middle Eastern issues, especially in Libya and Syria, has enabled the Taleban too to rest their trust in mediatory politics. Similarly, it is a foregone conclusion that the United States, Britain and many of the Western countries who were instrumental in dis-lodging the Taleban have now agreed to embrace the militia as the coalition forces plan to exit Afghanistan by the end of 2014. So was the consensus at the triangular-summit held at British Prime Minister David Cameron’s retreat, the Chequers, in London wherein Karzai

and his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari and the British premier agreed to formally invite the Taleban for talks on both sides of the Durand Line. Thus, on such a choreographed diplomatic can-vas, Karzai has little to differ or make amends. All he needs to do in all humility is to broaden the base of his government and make it truly representative in nature. The forthcoming presidential elections are an opportunity to put Afghanistan on a pluralistic mosaic, and broker a power-sharing deal between the Hazara, the Pakhtoon and other minorities in order to end the prevalent discrimination and also to set in balance of power.

Khaleej Times

David Miliband and the debasement of politics

We announce a decision to free all the political prisoners and renew our commitment to all political powers about dialogue.

Quote ofthe day

Omar Hassan Al BashirSudanese President

The other side

British MPs are increasingly remote from the voters – Westminster has become the equivalent of a gap year for middle-aged overachievers.

T HE arrest of Bassem Youssef, the Middle East’s most popular satirist, by the Egyptian government on charges of insulting Islam and the country’s president has raised concerns that the Brotherhood

government is restricting freedom of expression. It is the latest in a series of arrests of opposition activists, lawyers and politicians and shows the nervousness and discomfiture of a government which has been facing criticism for its dismal performance and failure to revitalise the economy.

There is no doubt that the arrest of such a popular artist will backfire. Youssef rose to prominence after the country’s 2011 uprising. His show has more than 30 million viewers across the Middle East and he has been sued several times by individuals. But this is the first time that the prosecutor general, Talaat Abdallah, has followed up one of the complaints with legal action. It will be interpreted as a crackdown against the government’s critics. “You can’t prevent people from suing us. The tipping point would be if these lawsuits are activated by the attorney general,” he had once said in an interview.

The arrest is something the government could have avoided. It will not produce the results the government is aiming at. Bassem is now an international celebrity, with fans all over the world. His arrest has created huge negative publicity for

the government and has triggered international condemnations.

The chaos and stalemate which prevail in the country provide a fertile ground for satirists like him. It’s true that his shows are causing a huge embarrassment to the government but the government needs to focus on finding solutions to the problems of the country.

Youssef ’s arrest raises the possibility of a wider censorship of the media. Reports say that

for several months, the prosecutor-general has summoned journalists for questioning on charges of criminal defamation. But no related legal proceedings have yet been set in motion, which is why this week’s developments have so alarmed the opposition. One of the positive outcomes of Egyptian revolution has been the emergence of a free media, which has been using its newly acquired freedom to criticise the government. The freedom of the media must be protected at any cost and Mursi must refrain from doing anything that will undermine this freedom.

Youssef has been criticising everybody in his shows. The format of his show Al Bernameg, meaning “the Programme,” combines political commentary and spoof interviews. It includes digs at Egypt’s politicians, members of the media and other public personalities, at times juxtaposing their current positions with contradictory statements they have made in the past. Videos of Morsi and other Islamists have been featured prominently •

An unwise move

The arrest of TV satirist Bassem Youssef has dented the image of Muhammad Mursi’s government.

Editorial

08 VIEWS TUESDAY 2 APRIL 2013


Karzai’s Doha task

BY GLENN GREENWALD

Yesterday I had the privilege to watch Dirty Wars, an upcom-ing film directed by Richard Rowley that

chronicles the investigations of journalist Jeremy Scahill into America’s global covert war under President Obama and specifically his ever-growing kill lists. I will write comprehensively about this film closer to the date when it and the book by the same name will be released. For now, it will suf-fice to say that the film is one of the most important I’ve seen in years: Gripping and emotionally affecting in the extreme, with remarkable, news-breaking rev-elations even for those of us who have intensely followed these issues. The film won awards at Sundance and rave reviews in unlikely places such as Variety and the Hollywood Reporter. But for now, I want to focus on just one small aspect of what makes the film so crucial.

The most propagandistic aspect of the US war on terror has been, and remains, that its victims are rendered invisible and voiceless. They are almost never named by newspapers. They and their sur-viving family members are vir-tually never heard from on TV. The Bush and Obama DOJs have collaborated with federal judges to ensure that even those who every-one admits are completely inno-cent have no access to American courts and thus no means of hav-ing their stories heard or their rights vindicated. Radical secrecy theories and escalating attacks on whistleblowers push these victims further into the dark.

It is the ultimate tactic of Othering: Concealing their humanity, enabling their dehu-manisation, by relegating them

to nonexistence. As Ashleigh Banfield put it in her 2003 speech denouncing US media coverage of the Iraq war just months before she was demoted and then fired by MSNBC: US media reports systematically exclude both the perspectives of “the other side” and the victims of American vio-lence. Media outlets in predomi-nantly Muslim countries certainly report on their plight, but US media outlets simply do not, which is one major reason for the disparity in world views between the two populations. They know what the US does in their part of the world, but Americans are kept deliberately ignorant of it.

What makes Dirty Wars so important is that it viscerally conveys the effects of US milita-rism on these invisible victims: by letting them speak for them-selves. Scahill and his crew travel to the places most US journalists are unwilling or unable to go: to remote and dangerous prov-inces in Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia, all to give voice to the victims of US aggression. We hear from the Afghans whose family members, including two preg-nant women, were slaughtered by US Special Forces in 2010 in the Paktia Province, despite being part of the Afghan Police, only for Nato to outright lie and claim the women were dead from “honour killings” by the time they arrived (lies uncritically repeated by lead-ing US media outlets).

Scahill interviews the still-trau-matised survivors of the US cruise missile and cluster bomb attack in Southern Yemen that killed 35 women and children just weeks after Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. We see the widespread anger in Yemen over the fact that the Yemeni journalist who first exposed US responsibility for that attack, Abdulelah Haider

Shaye, was not only arrested by the US puppet regime but, as Scahill first reported, has been kept imprisoned to this very day at the direct insistence of President Obama. We hear from the grand-father of 16-year-old American Abdulrahman Al Awlaki (he is also the father of US cleric Anwar Al Awlaki) — before and after a CIA drone killed his son and then (two weeks later) his teenaged grand-son who everyone acknowledges had nothing to do with terrorism. We hear boastful tales of summary executions from US-funded-and-directed Somali warlords.

There is an unmistakable and singular message sent by these disparate groups and events. It’s one particularly worth think-ing about with news reports this morning that two more Afghan children have been killed by a Nato air attack.

The message is that the US is viewed as the greatest threat and that it is US aggression and violence far more than any other cause that motivates support for Al Qaeda and anti-US senti-ment. The son of the slain Afghan police commander (who is the

husband of one of the killed preg-nant woman and brother of the other) says villagers refer to US Special Forces as the “American Taliban” and that he refrained from putting on a suicide belt and attacking US soldiers with it only because of the pleas of his grieving siblings. An influential Southern Yemeni cleric explains that he never heard of Al Qaeda sympa-thizers in his country until that 2009 cruise missile attack and subsequent drone killings, includ-ing the one that ended the life of Abdulrahman (a claim supported by all sorts of data). The brutal Somali warlord explains that the Americans are the “masters of war” who taught him everything he knows and who fuel ongo-ing conflict. Anwar Al Awlaki’s transformation from moderate and peace-preaching American cleric to angry critic of the US is shown to have begun with the US attack on Iraq and then rapidly intensifying with Obama’s drone attacks and kill lists. Meanwhile, US military officials and officers interviewed by Scahill exhibit a sociopathic indifference to their victims, while Al Awlaki’s

increasingly angry sermons in defence of jihad are juxtaposed with the very similar-sounding justifications of endless war from Obama.

The evidence has long been compelling that the primary fuel of what the US calls terrorism are the very policies of aggression justified in the name of stopping terrorism. The vast bulk of those who have been caught in recent years attempting attacks on the US have emphatically cited US militarism and drone killings in their part of the world as their motive. Evidence is overwhelm-ing that what has radicalised huge numbers of previously peaceful and moderate Muslims is grow-ing rage at seeing a continu-ous stream of innocent victims, including children, at the hands of the seemingly endless US com-mitment to violence.

The only way this clear truth is concealed is by preventing Americans from knowing about, let alone hearing from, the vic-tims of US aggression. That con-cealment is what caused huge numbers of Americans to wan-der around in a daze after 9/11

innocently and bewilderingly wondering “why do they hate us”? — despite decades of continuous US interference, aggression, and violence-enabling in that part of the world. And it’s this conceal-ment of these victims that causes Americans now to react to endless stories of the killing of innocent Muslims with the excuse that “we have to do something about the Terrorists” or “it’s better than a ground invasion” — without real-ising that they’re affirming what Chris Hayes aptly describes as a false choice, and worse, without realizing that the very policies they’re cheering are not stopping the Terrorists at all but doing the opposite: Helping the existing Terrorists and creating new ones.

To be fair, it’s not difficult to induce a population to avert its eyes from the victims of the vio-lence they support: We all like to believe that we’re Good and peaceful people, and we partic-ularly like to believe this about the leaders we elect, cheer and admire. Moreover, what the Nigerian-American writer Teju Cole recently described as “the empathy gap” — the failure to imagine how others will react to situations that would cause us (and have caused us) to be driven by rage and violence — means that the US government need not work all that hard to silence its victims: there is a pervasive desire to keep them out of sight.

If Americans are going to sup-port or even tolerate endless mili-tarism, as they have been doing, then they should at least have to be confronted with their victims — if not on moral grounds then on pragmatic ones, to understand the effects of these policies. Based on the out-of-sight-out-of-mind reality, the US government and media have been incredibly suc-cessful in rendering those victims silent and invisible. Dirty Wars is a crucial tonic to that propaganda. At the very least, nobody who sees it and hears from the victims of US aggression will ever again wonder why there are so many people in the world who believe in the justifiability or even necessity of violence against the US.

THE GUARDIAN

VIEWS 09TUESDAY 2 APRIL 2013


The most propagandistic aspect of the US war on terror has been, and remains, that its victims are rendered invisible and voiceless.

BY JACKSON DIEHL

The 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq has prompted plenty of analysis of the mis-

takes made there, along with a few tendentious claims that “the same people” who supported war in Iraq are now pressing for US intervention in Syria. I’m one of those people. So, to paraphrase the polemicists: Did I learn noth-ing from the last decade? Do I want to repeat the Iraq “fiasco”?

Let’s start with the second question. Iraq was unquestionably costly and painful to the US — in dollars, in political comity and, above all, in lives, both of Iraqis and Americans. It hasn’t turned out, so far, as we war supporters hoped. Yet in the absence of US intervention, Syria is looking like it could produce a much worse humanitarian disaster and a far more serious strategic reverse for the US.

Iraq and Syria are similar in many respects. Both are unnatu-ral creations, drawn on a map by British and French diplomats in 1916. Both contain a potentially volatile mix of ethnic groups and sects, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds and Christians.

Both were held together through the 20th century by dictators who, representing a minority sect, used repression, militarism, Arab nationalism and, when necessary, genocide to hold their states together. Both Saddam Hussein and the Assad regime in Syria courted terrorists and stockpiled weapons of mass destruction — but the Assads, unlike Saddam, never had to give up their chemical and biological arsenal.

It was inevitable that, with the exhaustion of their ideolo-gies and economic models, these states would unravel — and that

Iraq’s repressed Shia majority, like Syria’s downtrodden Sunni majority, would demand redress. The difference is that the US mil-itary triggered the transforma-tion of Iraq, quickly disposing of the old regime and buffering the subsequent sectarian struggle. In Syria it has leaned back, provid-ing humanitarian aid and prod-ding the opposition to unify but otherwise refusing to intervene.

The results? No US soldiers have been killed or wounded in Syria, and the cost is in the hun-dreds of millions rather than the hundreds of billions. But so far, the larger humanitarian price of Syria has been far greater. With 70,000 killed in two years, Syria is producing fatalities at twice the rate of Iraq after the US invasion; with 1.1 million people having fled to neighbouring countries and 3 million expected by the end of this year. Syria is on course to produce 50 percent more refugees than Iraq after 2003.

In Iraq, the US faced down Al Qaeda and dealt it a decisive defeat. In Syria, the Al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Al Nusra is steadily gaining strength — and prompting, across the border, a revival of Al Qaeda in Iraq. The Obama administration’s hands-off approach offers no means for checking this menace or for pre-venting Al Qaeda from eventually gaining control over chemical and biological weapons.

The Iraq war prompted low-level meddling by Iran, Syria and other neighbours but other-wise left the surrounding region unscathed, thanks to the US pres-ence. Syria’s unchecked carnage is spilling over into Lebanon and Iraq, and it threatens US allies Israel, Turkey and Jordan. Iran, Persian Gulf states and other neighbours are pouring in weapons and, in some cases, fighting units.

Iraq prompted a temporary

souring of relations between the US and France and Germany, and many countries never fully accepted the Shia-led government that democracy produced.

But US influence in the Middle East remained strong. Now it is plummeting: Not just Britain and France but every neighbour of Syria has been shocked and awed by the failure of US leader-ship. If it continues, Syria — not Iraq — will prove to be the turn-ing point when America ceases to be regarded as what Bill Clinton called the “indispensable nation.”

Does all this mean that the US should be dispatching hundreds of thousands of troops to Syria? No.

The tragedy of the post-Iraq logic embraced by President Obama is that it has ruled out

not just George W Bush-style invasions but also the more modest intervention used by the Clinton administration to prevent humanitarian catastrophes and protect US interests in the 1990s. As in the Balkans — or Libya — the limited use of US airpower and collaboration with forces on the ground could have quickly put an end to the Assad regime 18 months ago, preventing 60,000 deaths and rise of Al Qaeda.

It could still save the larger region from ruin.

The problem here is not that advocates of the Iraq invasion have failed to learn its lessons. It is that opponents of that war, starting with Obama, have learned the wrong ones.

WP-BLOOMBERG

BY RAY TAKEYH

Optimism and progress are words seldom asso-ciated with diplomatic encounters involving

Iran. But Tehran’s seeming interest in negotiations during the recent talks in Kazakhstan has led to hope in Western capitals that perhaps economic sanctions have finally produced a reliable Iranian inter-locutor. As the great powers con-template a solution to the Iranian nuclear conundrum, they would be prudent to appreciate how Tehran uses diplomacy to complement its quest for nuclear arms.

Iran’s path to the bomb is con-tingent on its ability to produce vast quantities of low-enriched uranium while introducing a new generation of high-velocity centri-fuges. Both are being produced at an unimpeded pace at the Natanz enrichment plant.

Tehran insists that the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) gives it the right to construct an industrial-size nuclear infrastruc-ture involving substantial deposi-tories of uranium enriched to 5 percent and cascades of advanced centrifuges. The developments in Natanz, even more so than the hardened, underground Fordow facility, are likely to pave the way for an Iranian bomb.

Should the Natanz plant reach its optimal production capacity, the Islamic Republic would be well on its way to manufacturing a nuclear arsenal. The lax nature of the NPT’s basic inspection regime makes it an unreliable guide to detecting persistent diversion of small quantities of fuel from an industrial-size installation.

Iran’s mastery of advanced centrifuges will give it the ability to build secret installations that

can quickly enrich uranium to weapons-grade quality. The speed and efficiency of these machines means that only a limited number would be required, so the facilities housing them are likely to be small enough to escape exposure. Iran’s nuclear weapons strategy does not necessarily require either the Fordow facility or continued pro-duction of uranium enriched to a medium level, or 20 percent.

Iran’s problem all along has been that its illicit nuclear activi-ties were detected before it could assemble such a surge capacity. Tehran knows that as it incre-mentally builds its nuclear appa-ratus, it risks the possibility of a military strike. To mitigate this danger, Iranian diplomats insist that the “P5 + 1” — the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (Britain, China, France, Russia and the US), plus Germany — recognise its right to enrich. The purpose of such an acknowledgment is to give Iran’s nuclear apparatus legal cover. Today, Iran’s nuclear programme exists outside the parameters of international law, as numerous UN resolutions have insisted that Tehran suspend its programme and come to terms with the IAEA regarding weaponisation activi-ties. Should the great powers formally acquiesce to Iran’s right to enrich, the bar for a military strike would be set at a much higher level. It is more justifi-able for the US or Israel to bomb illegal Iranian installations than those legitimised by all the per-manent members of the Security Council. Iran’s insistence on rec-ognition of its enrichment rights is a ploy designed to provide its nuclear weapons ambitions with a veneer of legality.

WP-BLOOMBERG

Invisible victims of US war on terror

What Iraq teaches about Syria The best red line for a nuclear Iran

Internally displaced children from Helmand province gather around a hand pump as they fill containers with water at the Charhi Qambar refugee camp on the outskirts of Kabul.

An Iraqi woman walks next to a damaged car at the site of a bomb explosion in Baghdad, Iraq.

10 INTERNATIONALTUESDAY 2 APRIL 2013


Floods in Spain

People stand on a medieval bridge over the swollen Pisuerga river in Simancas, in the province of Valladolid, Spain, yesterday.

Rainbow

A rainbow is reflected in a fountain on river Alster in Hamburg, northern Germany, yesterday. After cold weather in previous weeks, temperatures rose to 5 degrees Celcius in northern Germany.

NEW YORK: The 193-nation United Nations General Assembly is expected to pass the long-anticipated draft arms trade treaty today, after a UN conference failed to approve it in a vote requiring unanimity.

A document co-signed yester-day by 64 countries — includ-ing permanent Security Council members the United States, Britain and France — allows for the agreement to be approved by majority vote.

The move comes after North Korea, Iran and Syria last week opposed the agreement, which seeks to regulate international arms sales. The treaty, which has been seven years in the making, outlines global guidelines for the sale of arms aiming to prevent weapon trades that could poten-tially lead to violence.

The treaty needs a simple majority — or 97 votes if all 193 member states are present and voting — to pass. Mexico and other supporters of the treaty say they will easily get that and are hoping for something closer to a two-thirds majority.

It is possible that other coun-tries in addition to Iran, Syria and North Korea that criticised the draft treaty last week — including India, Pakistan and Russia — will call for reopening negotiations on the text, but the treaty’s support-ers say they will oppose such calls.

The point of an arms trade treaty is to set standards for all cross-border transfers of any type of conventional weapon — light and heavy. It would also create binding requirements for nations to review all cross-border arms contracts to ensure the munitions will not be used in human rights abuses, terrorism or violations of

humanitarian law; do not breach UN arms embargoes; and are not illegally diverted.

It would require governments to refuse to export weapons to countries that would likely use them to violate human rights and humanitarian law or commit genocide or other war crimes. It would also require governments to regulate arms brokering.

The draft treaty says the fol-lowing weapon types will be cov-ered: Battle tanks; armoured combat vehicles; large-caliber artillery systems; combat aircraft; attack helicopters; warships; mis-siles and missile launchers; small arms and light weapons, ranging from assault rifles to handguns.

Some rights groups have com-plained that the scope of weapons covered in the treaty is too nar-row. It would not cover uncon-ventional weapons like nuclear, chemical and biological arms. Separate treaties cover those.

According to the UN Office of Disarmament, the treaty will not do any of the following: Interfere with domestic arms commerce or the right to bear arms in member states; ban the export of any type of weapon; harm states’ legitimate right to self-defence; undermine national arms regulation stand-ards already in place.

The National Rifle Association, the powerful US gun rights lobby-ing group, opposes the arms trade treaty. The group has vowed to fight the convention’s ratification by the US Senate if Washington backs it at the United Nations.

If approved by the General Assembly, countries will need to sign and ratify it. The treaty will enter into force 90 days after the 50th signatory ratifies it.

AGENCIES

UN set to okay draft arms trade treatyVote in General Assembly today

WASHINGTON: A venerable Washington tradition yester-day staved off the budget axe in an era of austerity, as President Barack Obama welcomed tens of thousands of people to the White House Easter Egg Roll.

Obama and his family, appear-ing with the Easter Bunny and their dog Bo, officiated at egg rolling contests, storytelling and basketball and tennis demonstra-tions, at the annual event dating back to 1878.

“The Easter egg roll is the big-gest event that we have here on the South Lawn of the White House each year,” Michelle Obama said. “Today, we’re going to have more than 30,000 people who will pass through this yard in celebration of nutrition and health and activity.”

Since the Obamas moved into the White House, the Easter Egg roll has been linked to the First Lady’s “Let’s Move” campaign, designed to promote healthy eat-ing and exercise for kids.

President Obama acted as hon-orary starter of an Easter Egg roll contest for young kids on the South Lawn and read a children’s book called “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” to a group of youngsters.

The first White House Easter Egg Roll took place in 1878.

AFP

White House Egg Roll beats budget axe

US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama pose with children at the 135th annual Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, yesterday.

BANGUI: The Central African Republic’s new post-coup gov-ernment vowed yesterday that it would get straight to work, as anger rose in South Africa over its military presence in the res-tive country.

Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye on Sunday named a 34-member cabinet that includes nine minis-ters from the Seleka rebel coalition which seized Bangui in a rapid-fire assault a week ago that left doz-ens of people dead including South African troops.

“We must get to work as soon as possible,” government

spokesman Crepin Mboli Goumba said, adding that ministers would be sworn in this week. The new government includes eight min-isters from the former opposition and one close to ousted president Francois Bozize, who fled the country after the coup.

Rebel leader Michel Djotodia, who named himself president after ousting Bozize, added the post of defence minister to his job titles. The latest coup in the chronically-unstable nation came after a January peace deal between Bozize’s regime and Djotodia’s rebels collapsed amid allegations

the ousted leader had failed to hon-our the terms of the accord.

One rebel fighter welcomed the government. “It is a Seleka-opposition government. It is what we wanted. Bozize’s people have nothing to do with it.” However some opposition members were critical. “It is bogus. They wanted to please too many incompetent people. There are too many peo-ple in government for it to work,” one said.

After days of looting and chaos, rebel soldiers have largely secured the city with the aid of a regional African force, but looting and

abuses continued in outlying areas. “We are busy securing the country but there are FACA (Central African Armed Forces) who have fled into the bush, there are Mbororo and bandits disguised as Seleka who are com-mitting abuses,” said new Security Minister Nourendine Adam.

In South Africa, the main opposition Democratic Alliance said it will lodge a parliamentary motion to force the government to withdraw its troops from the Central African Republic after 13 soldiers died during the coup.

AFP

Central African rebels form government

MOSCOW: The 23-year-old girlfriend of the late Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky said yesterday that she did not believe he had killed himself and that they had been planning to go to Israel on holiday together days after he was found dead.

Katerina Sabirova said in a magazine interview that she did not believe Berezovsky, 67, whom she first met in 2008, would have killed himself, and that in their last conversation a day before his death, his voice “had sounded bet-ter than usual”.

Berezovsky was found on March 23 in the bathroom of a mansion outside London and a postmortem found that he had been hanged and no evidence of a struggle. “He was definitely plan-ning to come to Israel on Monday (March 25). I know that for sure,” she told the liberal weekly New Times, and showed a printout of her air ticket to Tel Aviv. “He had big plans” of going to the Dead Sea, she said, adding that he had been down but that she had not believed he was suicidal.

Berezovsky “used to say: ‘Imagine if I’m not around, all the problems will go away,’ but this wasn’t a guide to action, I could not and cannot imagine that he could do this. It’s very hard to believe this,” Sabirova said.

Berezovsky was due to meet her at Tel Aviv airport’s VIP lounge, after flying out with his bodyguard Avi, she said. He had proposed the trip on March 18, choosing Israel because Sabirova’s British visa had run out.

The magazine printed a photograph of Sabirova with Berezovsky, his arm around her shoulder. Friends of Berezovsky confirmed that they were in a long-term relationship, it said. When she came to a Moscow res-taurant for the interview, “heads turned,” the magazine wrote.

AFP

Mandela spends time with familyJOHANNESBURG: Nelson Mandela visited with family members yesterday at his hos-pital bedside, the South African government said, adding that there was no significant change in the condition of the frail anti-apartheid hero.

The 94-year-old former presi-dent and Nobel peace laureate has been in hospital since Wednesday being treated for a recurrent bout of pneumonia. “He spent part of Family Day today with some members of his family,” the presi-dency said. “There is no significant change in his condition” since the previous presidency statement late Sunday said doctors had reported “a further improvement in his con-dition”. Doctors last week drained excess fluid that had built up on the lining of the anti-apartheid icon’s lungs because of infection.

The procedure, described as the tapping of a pleural effusion, has helped him breathe without difficulty, it said. Mandela’s lat-est health troubles have led to an outpouring of prayers and good wishes from around the world, including from US President Barack Obama. AFP

WASHINGTON: People age 65 and older who eat fish may live an average of two years longer than people who do not con-sume the omega-3 fatty acids found mainly in seafood, a US study suggested yesterday.

People with higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids also had an overall risk of dying that was 27 percent lower, and a risk of dying from heart disease that was 35 percent lower than counterparts who had lower blood levels, said the study.

The research was led by sci-entists at the Harvard School of Public Health and was pub-lished in the Annals of Internal Medicine. While other studies have demonstrated a link between omega-3 fatty acids and lower risk of heart disease, this research examined records of older people to determine any link between fish-eating and death risk.

Researchers scanned 16 years of data on about 2,700 US adults aged 65 or older. Those considered for the study were not taking fish oil supplements, to eliminate any

confusion over the use of supple-ments or dietary differences.

Those with the highest blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids found mainly in fish like salmon, tuna, halibut, sardines, herring and mackerel, had the lowest risk of dying from any cause, and lived an average of 2.2 years longer than those with low levels.

Researchers identified docosa-hexaenoic acid (DHA) as most strongly related to lower risk of coronary heart disease death. Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) was strongly linked to lower risk of nonfatal heart attack, and docos-apentaenoic acid (DPA) was most strongly associated with lower risk of dying from a stroke.

“Our findings support the importance of adequate blood omega-3 levels for cardiovas-cular health, and suggest that later in life these benefits could actually extend the years of remaining life,” said lead author Dariush Mozaffarian, associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health. AFP

LONDON: Britain’s govern-ment yesterday defended a raft of new welfare spending cuts, a key plank of efforts to rein in spending as the economy flounders, after church leaders attacked the changes as unjust.

Finance Minister George Osborne and Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith labelled opponents of their plan as “shrill”, and insisted it would lead to a fairer benefits system and encourage more Britons to work.

“Of course, if you listened to the shrill voices of the Left you’d think that every change to the welfare system, and any attempt to save money, marks the beginning of the end of the world,” Osborne and Duncan Smith wrote in an article published in Telegraph newspaper.

“We are just restoring the original principles of the welfare state: that those who can work must work, and a life on benefits must not be more attractive than working,” they added.

The welfare cuts, which are going into effect this month, are

part of government efforts to reduce state spending to tackle a big budget deficit, a plan Osborne says is necessary to retain the confidence of international money markets and keep Britain’s bor-rowing costs low.

However, Britain’s economy has suffered two bouts of recession since the plan was introduced with the election of the Conservative-led government in 2010, and growth remains weak — the economy is expected to expand by just 0.6 per-cent this year.

The Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Methodist and United Reformed Churches, and the Church of Scotland on Sunday attacked the cuts as being unfair to the poor, echoing comments by Anglican leader Justin Welby last month. The churches said they rejected Conservative attempts to frame the debate on welfare as aspirational “strivers” versus work-shy “skivers”, a narrative that is gaining traction in Britain according to some opinion polls.

REUTERS

Osborne defends new welfare cuts

Girlfriend rules out suicide bid by Berezovsky

Eating fish linked to longer life: US study

MANILA: Freed Australian hostage Warren Rodwell met a Philippine prosecutor yesterday to help prepare charges against the Islamic extremists who held him in captivity for 15 months.

A gaunt, grim-looking Rodwell, who was in a wheelchair and escorted by Australian embassy personnel, filed a statement describing his ordeal before assistant prosecutor Aristotle Reyes at the Justice Department in Manila. “This is to process the investigation of the case. The statement can be used by the PNP (Philippine National Police) to pursue a complaint,” said Reyes, without disclosing details

of the statement. Armed men posing as police abducted 54-year-old, Rodwell, from his home in a coastal town of the southern Philippines in December, 2011, and demanded $2m for his safe release.

The militants freed a deeply emaciated Rodwell on March 23 after a payment, reportedly of four million pesos (nearly $100,000), was made. Authorities say the Abu Sayyaf, a small group of militants based in lawless islands of the southern Philippines and designated by the US government as a terrorist organisation, was responsible for the kidnapping.

AFP

SEOUL: South Korea’s new president yesterday promised a strong military response to any North Korean provoca-tion after Pyongyang announced that the two countries were now in a state of war.

President Park Geun-Hye’s warning came as North Korea’s rubber-stamp par-liament was set to hold its annual session and a day after ruling party leaders vowed to enshrine Pyongyang’s right to nuclear weapons in law.

It also came as the US announced it had deployed stealth fighters to South Korea as part of an ongoing joint military exercise.

In a meeting with senior military offi-cials and Defence Minister Kim Kwan-Jin, President Park said she took the near-daily stream of bellicose threats emanating from the North over the past month “very seriously”.

“I believe that we should make a strong and immediate retaliation without any other political considerations if (the North)

stages any provocation against our peo-ple,” she said. Park, a conservative who had advocated cautious engagement with the North during her election campaign, has been compelled to take a more hard line posture after assuming office in February.

The defence minister made it clear that the South would carry out pre-emptive strikes against the North’s nuclear and missile facilities in the event of hostilities breaking out.

“We will establish a so-called ‘active deterrence’ aimed at neutralising the North’s nuclear and missile threats quickly,” Kim said.

The Korean peninsula has been caught in a cycle of escalating tensions since the North’s long-range rocket launch in December which its critics condemned as a ballistic missile test.

United Nations sanctions were followed by a nuclear test in February, after which came more sanctions and apocalyptic

threats from Pyongyang as South Korea and the US conducted joint military drills.

Those threats have run the gamut from limited artillery bombardments to pre-emptive nuclear strikes, and have been met with warnings from Seoul and Washington of severe repercussions.

The US military said yesterday it had deployed F-22 Raptor stealth fighters to South Korea as part of the ongoing “Foal Eagle” military exercise.

North Korea has already threatened to strike the US mainland and US bases in the Pacific in response to the participation of nuclear-capable US B-52 and B-2 stealth bombers in the exercise.

The US Saturday said it took the “state of war” announcement “seriously” but noted the North’s “long history of bellicose rheto-ric”. China and Russia are among those who have also called for calm.

Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr said the major concerns were “the

belligerence in their statements accompa-nied by the development of a ballistic mis-siles capacity and the testing of nuclear weapons”.

The annual gathering of the North’s Supreme People’s Assembly, or parliament, was closely watched for any sign of the cur-rent crisis impacting on the fortunes of members of the ruling elite.

“The North has played most of its politi-cal cards, so I don’t see any fresh, tangi-ble threats to come out after the meeting,” said Cho Han-Bum, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification.

The parliament session was preceded by a gathering Sunday of the central commit-tee of the ruling Workers’ Party, chaired by North Korea’s young leader Kim Jong-Un.

The meeting declared that the North’s possession of nuclear weapons “should be fixed by law”, and that its nuclear arse-nal should be beefed up “qualitatively and quantitatively”. AFP

South Korea warns NorthPresident Park says she would take immediate action in case of any provocations

Myanmar police failed to stop killings: HRWBANGKOK: Human Rights Watch (HRW) yesterday urged Myanmar to investigate the failure of police to stop a recent wave of Buddhist-Muslim kill-ing and arson attacks.

The New York-based rights watchdog released satellite images which it said showed more than 800 buildings were totally destroyed in the central town of Meiktila, leav-ing several charred areas where homes and properties once stood.

“The government should inves-tigate responsibility for the vio-lence in Meiktila and the failure of the police to stop wanton kill-ings and the burning of entire neighbourhoods,” said HRW Asia director Brad Adams.

Last month’s unrest, which later spread to several other towns, has left 43 people dead and more than 1,300 homes and other buildings destroyed, according to state media in the former army-ruled nation.

According to the United Nations, about 12,000 people have been displaced.

The worst-hit areas in Meiktila are believed to be neighbour-hoods once home to “a signifi-cant number of Muslims”, said HRW deputy Asia director Phil Robertson. AFP

Filipinos face court for abducting Australian

More landslide bodies recoveredBEIJING: Recovery crews have found 36 bodies after a huge landslide in Tibet buried more than 80 mine workers three days ago, Chinese state-run media said yesterday, but dangerous conditions forced a halt to operations.

Another 47 miners remained missing under two million cubic metres of earth east of the Tibetan capital Lhasa, and more than 4,000 emergency workers had been battling snow and alti-tude sickness to search for them, said the official news agency Xinhua. But it added: “Their odds of survival are slim.”

Work at the site was suspended yesterday because of the risk of another landslide. Some workers dug with their bare hands fol-lowing Friday’s landslide to avoid damaging bodies or because the disaster had blocked roads needed to deliver large-scale rescue equipment, reports said.

Chinese ships in Japan waters TOKYO: Three Chinese gov-ernment ships entered the territorial waters of disputed Tokyo-controlled islands yes-terday, Japan’s coastguard said.

The three surveillance ships were navigating in the 12-nau-tical-mile territorial waters around the Senkakus, which Beijing claims and calls the Diaoyus, at around 1.30pm, the coastguard said. Chinese govern-ment ships have frequently spent time around the disputed island chain since Tokyo nationalised three of the isles last September. The islands are also claimed by Taiwan. AGENCIES

North Korea appoints reformist PMSEOUL: North Korea appointed a new prime minis-ter yesterday, choosing a former premier who was sacked from the post in 2007 in a reported backlash against his pursuit of economic reforms.

Pak Pong-Ju, 74, was sworn in at the annual meeting of the Supreme People’s Assembly, the North’s rubber-stamp parliament, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. He replaces Choe Yong-Rim.

Pak previously served as prime minister from 2003-2007 when he spearheaded hesitant market reforms that sought to provide state firms with more autonomy and gradually reduce state ration-ing of food and daily necessities.

But an apparent backlash from the party and the military saw him suspended from duty in June 2006 and sacked the following year.

Yesterday’s parliamentary ses-sion also adopted a special ordi-nance formalising the country’s position as a nuclear weapons state.

The ordinance on “consolidating

the position of nuclear weapons state for self-defence” was adopted unanimously, along with two laws on space development and the

establishment of a state space development bureau, KCNA said.

On Sunday a meeting of the ruling party’s leadership had

stressed the importance of having the North’s possession of nuclear weapons “fixed by law”.

AFP

North Korea yesterday announced the appointment of Pak Pong-Ju (left), an economics expert, as new Prime Minister in a reshuffle endorsed by parliament.

Indonesian Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry seized 687 endangered pig-nosed turtles illegally captured by poachers to be smuggled out of the country, at Soekarno-Hatta international airport. These turtles are found only in Papua and Australia.

Turtle smuggling

ASIA / PHILIPPINES 11TUESDAY 2 APRIL 2013


Taiwan leader’s aide suspendedTAIPEI: Taiwan’s ruling Kuomintang party yesterday suspended the membership of Lai Su-ju, a confidante of the island’s president, for her alleged involvement in a cor-ruption scandal. President Ma Ying-jeou, who rose to power on an anti-corruption platform, apologised last week after Lai, a member of Taipei City Council, was implicated in graft allegations over a $2.34bn construction project in the capital. She was detained on Saturday on the grounds that she could collude with witnesses and other suspects to cover up the alleged crime.

Carter’s plea to Nepal Maoists KATHMANDU: Former US president Jimmy Carter yesterday urged a hardline Maoist faction in Nepal to renounce violence in the run-up to general election in com-ing months. Carter, 88, met leaders of major parties dur-ing a four-day visit and said he was assured by Mohan Baidya, leader of a splinter Maoist faction, that they would not resort to violence.

Manila says ‘no’ to short cops MANILA: Short people hoping to join the long arm of the law in the Philippines will be left disappointed after President Benigno Aquino vetoed a bill removing height requirements for police yesterday. Parliament had passed a bill repealing mini-mum height requirements for police, fire and jail personnel, but Aquino felt that some jobs required people of a certain stature, his spokeswoman Abigail Valte said. The mini-mum height of five feet, four inches for men and five feet, two inches for women apply-ing for these jobs would still apply, she added.

16 feared killed by Bangla pirates DHAKA: Pirates in south-eastern Bangladesh are believed to have killed at least 16 fishermen by tying them up and throwing them into the Bay of Bengal to drown, police said yesterday. A fishing boat was recovered at Kutubdia Island in Cox’s Bazaar resort district and 16 bodies were found floating in the sea. The pirates were thought to have killed the fishermen to steal the engine, fishing nets and their catch.

Japanese, 80, to scale Everest KATHMANDU: An 80-year-old Japanese moun-tain climber, who has had heart surgery four times, is heading to Mount Everest to try for a third ascent of the highest peak and will become the oldest person to reach the top if he succeeds. Yuichiro Miura climbed the 8,850-metre peak in 2003 and 2008. He skied down Everest from an altitude of 8,000 metres in 1970. He and a nine-person team will climb the stand-ard southeast ridge route, pioneered by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay who became the first people to reach the summit in May 1953.

HIV cases up among students BEIJING: The number of Chinese students infected with HIV increased by 24.5 percent year-on-year in 2012, a senior health expert said. A total of 1,700 were infected with HIV last year, Yu Jingjin, Director of the Bureau of Disease Control and Prevention under the National Health and Family Planning Commission, was quoted by Xinhua News Agency as saying. AGENCIES

Sri Lanka monks heldCOLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s police arrested three Buddhist monks yesterday over the destruction of a Muslim-owned clothing store that heightened religious tensions in the country, an official said.

Police Superintendent Buddhika Siriwardena said the monks were detained four days after a mob of Sinhalese-Buddhist men vandalised and torched a section of the three-storey building in the Pepiliyana suburb of Colombo.

“Three monks were arrested after they surrendered today. They will be taken before a magistrate tomorrow. We are looking for more suspects.”

The monks were among 17 held in connection with Thursday’s attack which the main Muslim party in the ruling coalition said was a “sequel” to an ongoing hate campaign against Muslims and other religious minorities.

TV footage, some of which is posted on the YouTube website, showed a Buddhist monk bringing down a CCTV camera in front of a cheering mob outside the Fashion Bug store, watched by at least four policemen. Another monk is seen threatening a news camera-man who was attacked by the mob and taken to hospital.

The newly-formed monk-led Bodu Bala Sena, or Buddhist Force, denied any involvement and urged the government to bring the culprits to justice and clear the group’s name. AGENCIES

12 PAKISTAN / AFGHANISTANTUESDAY 2 APRIL 2013


Protest for aid

Afghans, who have lost limbs to war, take part in a protest for financial support from the government, in Kabul, yesterday.

QUETTA: Gunmen in Pakistan yesterday set ablaze five trucks carrying Nato equipment out of Afghanistan as the interna-tional military alliance winds down its combat mission there, officials said.

Four masked gunmen on two motorbikes opened fire at the vehicles, forcing them to stop and then doused them in petrol to set them on fire in the southwestern province Baluchistan.

“Five Nato trucks were carry-ing Nato equipment back. Gunmen first fired on the first vehicle and then sprinkled petrol on all of them,” Iftikhar Bugti, a senior gov-ernment official said by telephone. The incident happened in Bolan district, around 120 kilometres (75 miles) southeast of Quetta, the provincial capital.

“All five trucks have been almost completely destroyed,” Bugti said. One driver was slightly injured in the attack, he added.

Syed Waheed Shah, another government official in Bolan, con-firmed the attack.

Military officials said Sunday it would cost the United States $5-6bn to remove military hardware and vehicles from Afghanistan, where Nato is end-ing its combat mission by the end of next year.

Brigadier General Steven Shapiro described it as “one of the most challenging military trans-portation operations in history in terms of scale and complexity”.

Most of the hardware will be flown out of land-locked Afghanistan or taken by road to Pakistan’s port of Karachi, despite complications with the route.

Pakistan in July 2012 tempo-rarily stopped Nato traffic after gunmen attacked Nato trucks, killing a driver, in the northwest-ern border town of Jamrud.

Islamabad also imposed a seven-month blockade on over-land Nato traffic after US air strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November 2011. AFP

Gas pipeline blast disrupts supply ISLAMABAD: A 22-inch diameter gas pipeline exploded as a result of a blast in Malguzar area of Baluchistan prov-ince, suspending gas supply to Karachi, Pakistan’s Geo News reported.

According to a Sui Northern Gas Supply Company spokesman, a shortfall of 190 million cubic feet in the system had occurred after the pipeline explosion incident.

The spokesman said that com-pressed natural gas would not be available to Faisalabad, Multan, Jhang, Bahawalpur and various other areas while gas supply to the textile sector and other indus-tries would also be suspended.

AGENCIES

ISLAMABAD: With Pakistan’s general election around the corner, the coun-try’s Supreme Court has taken up cases against senior lead-ers of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) who are in-charge of party campaign across the country.

The cases to be taken-up include former Premier Raja Pervez Ashraf ’s contempt and Rental Power Projects scam, alleged involvement of Amin Fahim in NICL scam and con-tempt proceedings against Rehman Malik that may be a set-back for the PPP with the elec-tions just over a month away.

Meanwhile, an eight member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry will take up former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s intra-court appeal (ICA) yesterday, praying the court to set aside his conviction and sentence for contempt of court.

Another five member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali hear NAB Chairman Admiral Fasih

Bukharis ICA yesterday against court’s March 20 order to frame the charge against him.

NAB chairman in his ICA expressed mistrust over the CJP, saying that in the past, he was attacked in his personal capacity by the chief justice and his son, therefore he should recused him-self from this case.

On April 26, 2012, a seven-member bench convicted and sentenced the former PM under Article 204(2) of the constitution read with the section 3 of con-tempt of court Ordinance till the rising of the court.

On June 19, 2012, a three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry disquali-fied Yousaf Raza Gillani, from the office of Prime Minister as well as member of the Parliament.

In February 2013, Gilani had filed a review petition against his disqualification but a three-mem-ber bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, on March 13, ordered him to first remove the hurdle in the way of his disqualification as member of National Assembly.

In pursuance of that order Gilani on March 14 filed the intra court appeal, in person, under section 19 of the Contempt of Court Ordinance 2003.

Former PM stated that during the entire contempt proceed-ings, neither the court, nor the counsel involved in prosecuting the appellant broached upon the issue whether the ‘disobedi-ence of court’ directions in the NRO case, ‘tended to bring the Supreme Court and the judiciary into ridicule.’

The petitioner stated that despite his clear and unequivo-cal support and respect for the judiciary he was erroneously con-victed and sentenced for wilful flouting, disregard and disobedi-ence of apex court in the order passed in National Reconciliation Ordinance.

Even before taking oath as the prime minister and assuming his office as the prime minister, his first official order on the floor of the parliament was the release of all deposed judges of the Supreme Court and the high court who were arrested by the military dictator.

The ICA contended that in March 2009, when the issue of restoring the chief justice cropped up, there was a strong lobby eagerly requesting him to make the next senior judge as the chief justice. However he took a principled stand and passed the orders for the restoration of the chief justice and other judges.

“The appellant has always obeyed the orders of the apex court and held the judiciary in highest esteemed as he firmly believes that a free and inde-pendent judiciary serves one of the most vital functions of the State by enforcing the laws of the country and the delivery of justice,” the ICA stated.

ICA further stated that despite his clear and unequivocal support and respect for the judiciary, he was erroneously convicted for contempt of court for wilful flout-ing, disregard and disobedience of this court.

The conviction and sentence awarded to the appellant till the rising of court, the ICA stated, was harsh and not justified under the law and therefore liable to be set aside. INTERNEWS

KHAR/TIMERGARA: Two women, one from Pakistan’s northwestern Bajaur tribal agency and the other from Lower Dir district, made his-tory yesterday when they became the first tribal women to file nomination papers to con-test parliamentary elections.

Election Commission officials said 40-year-old Badam Zari, wife of Sultan Khan, filed papers for NA-44, Bajaur, yesterday. Bajaur has two seats of the Lower House of parliament.

Asad Sarwar, returning officer in Bajaur, confirmed the filing of nomination papers by Badam Zari for NA-44.

Zari said she would contest election to work for the tribal women’s welfare.

“I want to work for the

betterment of women in the tribal area, especially Bajaur Agency, which has suffered immensely in the tribal system,” she said.

She said no lawmaker from the tribal area had raised issues of women of the area in the National Assembly.

She said she was not scared of anything or anyone and was determined to contest election because this was her constitu-tional and religious right. She said she would launch her campaign soon.

The other woman candidate Nusrat Begum of Lower Dir, filed her papers for NA-34 constitu-ency as an independent candidate.

Begum, wife of Karim Khan, is the first woman in Lower Dir to pick up courage and decide to contest election.

Begum, who was the dis-trict vice-president of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf, said she would contest election as an independ-ent candidate because her party had allotted ticket to another candidate.

“All the people who won from the constituency in the past did nothing for people’s betterment,” she said, adding that if elected she would work to provide basic amenities to people, especially women, children and minorities.

Political observers and analysts termed submission of nomination papers by both women a major development.

They said now no one could stop women from taking part in election and exercising their right to vote.

INTERNEWS

ISLAMABAD: Climbers will be gathering at the Mount Everest this month to celebrate the 60 years since it was first conquered in 1953.

Samina Beg, 21, is about to become the first Pakistani woman to be part of it. While the climb-ers from around the world will be celebrating the event, the Pakistan young woman is accompanying her brother with another mission.

“Together we are promoting gender equality,” said Samina before leaving for Karachi to catch a flight to Katmandu, Nepal.

Although the brother and

sister have not attempted any of the five 8,000 metres-plus peaks in Pakistan, they claim to be well-prepared to take on the world’s highest peak.

Samina and her brother Mirza Ali have been climbing for the last three years together. In 2010, she became the first to ascend the virgin peak Chashkin Sar (above 6,000 metres) now called the ‘Samina Peak’.

She conquered another virgin peak in 2011 that was named Koh-i-Brobar or the Mount Equality in 2011. Samina and her brother were not so lucky

on the 7,027 metres high Spantik Peak when bad weather forced them to abandon their summit attempts.

“We have also attempted two winter expeditions to be better prepared for the challenges that we might face on the Everest,” said Samina, explaining how she braved and survived minus-35 degrees centigrade temperatures in the Shimshal valley.

Samina is an arts student and probably the only Pakistani to adopt mountaineering as a pro-fession. She has been climbing for the last four years.

Her goal is to empower women through adventure and outdoor sports and to encourage them to explore the mountains. She comes from a family of climbers.

Her 29-year-old brother Ali has 14 years of climbing experiences.

When asked who was better, the two laughed. She obviously pointed to her brother. ‘But what she lacks is experience, she eas-ily makes up for courage and determination,” said Ali who supported his sister every step of the way to make her dreams come true.

INTERNEWS

Two tribal women to contest electionPakistani duo make history by filing nominations

Badam Zari (right) talks with journalists about her decision to contest election from Federally Administered Tribal Areas, in Bajauar near the Afghan border, yesterday.

Gunmen torch 5 Nato trucksin Baluchistan

Top court to decide PPP officials’ fate

Pakistani woman eyes Everest to mark 60-year fete

New curriculum for religious schools

Sharifs still enjoy security protocolLAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz patron and former premier Nawaz Sharif, his brother and former chief minister Shahbaz and their family members are still enjoying ‘extraordinary’ security protocol despite an interim government in place in the province and acting IGP Khan Baig’s orders a few days ago to withdraw 50 percent force and 25 percent vehicles.

Officials said forces were asked to extend only necessary protocol to them, keeping in view security threats to VVIPs.

Sources said some 1,000 policemen from Lahore were still deployed at Jati Umra and Model Town residences of Sharifs while their fami-lies were using more than 38 vehicles.

US soldier killed by Afghan boyKABUL: An Afghan boy killed a US soldier in east-ern Afghanistan by stabbing him in the neck while he played with children, officials said yesterday. Sgt Michael Cable, 26, was guarding an Afghan-US officials meeting in a province near the border with Pakistan. Sources said the attacker was thought to be about 16. The soldier was playing with children when the boy came from behind, stabbed him with a large knife and escaped into Pakistan.

5,000 soldiers quit every month KABUL: For every 10 sol-diers recruited to the Afghan National Army, at least three are sacked, captured or killed in action, latest figures show. Afghan Khama news agency said around 5,000 troops are quitting every month, citing attrition rates con-firmed by British officials. As the Afghan army and police forces are seen as vital for preventing the return of the Taliban, the Afghan National Security Forces’ failure to achieve recruitment and retention targets is trou-bling International Security Assistance Force.

Britain’s assessments of Afghanistan’s progress towards the goals of stability and democracy confirm that the rate of recruits leaving is worse than targets set by coa-lition leaders — 63,000 every year, or more than a third of the current size of the army. The issue has raised concerns over the ability of Afghan secu-rity forces to protect emerg-ing democracy when coalition forces leave the country by the end of next year. AGENCIES

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani reli-gious scholars and US experts have developed a model curric-ulum for Pakistan’s madrassas, combining religious studies with physical and social sciences.

International Centre for Religion and Diplomacy says the model is based on best educational practices in the Muslim world.

Dr Douglas Johnston, President of the centre said: “The basic idea behind the model is not to force madrassa leaders to use a pre-scribed curriculum, but to offer them an alternative for accom-plishing what many of them already want.

“This should be viewed as only the beginning of what will be an ongoing process of madrassa-led curriculum enhancement.”

INTERNEWS

Gujarat protest

A Congress party activist stands on a police barricade during a protest at Gandhinagar in Gujarat yesterday. Hundreds of activists and farmers held a protest against 12-hour electricity supply for farmers and a rollback of the Gujarat Irrigation and Drainage Bill.

INDIA 13TUESDAY 2 APRIL 2013


Bengal panel, govt to contest polls in court‘Mamata delaying panchayat polls’KOLKATA: The standoff between the West Bengal gov-ernment and the State Election Commission over conducting the upcoming panchayat polls turned into a legal battle with the commission moving the Calcutta High Court yesterday, seeking rejection of the rural body election date notified by the government.

The Trinamool Congress gov-ernment said it would contest the commission in the court, saying it was “strong enough” to fight the legal battle.

After days of stalemate, the commission yesterday morning moved the Calcutta High Court, seeking rejection of the panchayat election date notified by the state government.

The commission approached the court of Justice Biswanath Samaddar, who directed counsel L C Bihani to get the petition listed before it could be taken up.

The Mamata Banerjee-led gov-ernment in West Bengal has been engaged in a war of words and let-ters with the election panel over the scheduling of the dates and deployment of central paramili-tary forces.

On March 22, the government had announced two-phased polls to be held on April 26 and April 30, under the supervision of the state police personnel.

This ran counter to the com-mission’s suggestion of a three-stage poll, with deployment of central paramilitary troopers.

The commission has been ask-ing for 800 companies of central paramilitary troopers, but the government has indicated its willingness to only rope in police personnel from neighbouring states.

As the ongoing dispute went to court, state Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjee said his gov-ernment would contest the com-mission in the court.

“They (the commission) did not appeal for a discussion with us but directly moved the High Court. We got the copy of the petition.

We are contesting it,” Mukherjee told reporters at the state secre-tariat. “We are strong enough to fight this legal battle. Legally, the government is in a good position,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Left Front as well as the Congress took a dig at the Banerjee government for the stalemate over rural polls in 17 districts of the state.

The Left Front accused Banerjee’s regime of hatching a conspiracy to stall the elections. It alleged that state Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjee deliberately did not abide by the laws as a part of the conspiracy.

“Jurisdiction is amply explained through different provisos that the time frame (of rural body polls) can be announced by the government, but the phase cannot be notified or announced by it. It is definitely known to the minis-ter,” state Left Front chairman Biman Bose told a media confer-ence here.

“When knowingly they are adopting wrong things as per laws and regulations, this is definitely motivated to stall the upcom-ing elections,” said Bose, also the state Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) secretary.

He alleged that the ruling Trinamool Congress did not want to hold the polls now as the party was going through several inter-nal conflicts.

The Congress also alleged that the Trinamool Congress regime was planning to delay the polls as it feared unfavourable results.

“They (the government) have a plan not to allow other parties to file nominations for the upcoming panchayat polls. The Trinamool Congress is trying to delay the rural body elections because the results may go against the party,” state Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya said.

The Congress alleged that Trinamool Congress cadres were threatening its workers in the dis-tricts so that they do not submit nomination papers.

IANS

Steam part of Kudankulam tests: NPCILCHENNAI: India’s atomic power plant operator Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL) said yesterday that only steam was being let out of the first unit of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) as part of tests.

“As a part of commissioning tests of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project, the steam relief valves on the steam lines are being tested. These tests are conducted only during the day and only steam, or water vapour, is released as part of the tests,” said RS Sundar, KNPP site director.

Disputing NPCIL’s stand, M. Pushparayan of the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) said: “For the past three days we heard loud noises from the plant. Thick black and white smoke emanated from the plant and there was a strong stench.”

IANS

Police arrest four suspects in BSP leader’s murderNEW DELHI: Four people were arrested yesterday in connection with the murder of BSP leader and realtor Deepak Bhardwaj here last week, police said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Chhaya Sharma said four people had been arrested for their involvement in the murder.

The arrested are Rakesh alias Bhola, the owner of the Skoda car used in the murder and shooters Sunil Mann alias Sonu, Purushottam Rana alias Monu. The fourth arrested is Amit, who was driving the car at the time of the murder.

Amit was arrested on Sunday from northwest Delhi’s Jahangirpuri area while Rakesh had been detained on Friday after the recovery of the car from his possession. The car had a fake registration number.

“An investigation is on. It is too early to say what was the motive for the murder. We cannot reveal

who was the main conspirator behind the incident,” Sharma said.

She added that police are yet to ascertain the involvement of Bhardwaj’s family or any relative in the murder.

The Crime Branch of Delhi Police got a tip-off that both the shooters — Sunil and Purushottam — were to surren-der in Patiala House Court here

Police sources said Purushottam was apprehended from outside Patiala House Court complex Monday morning but Sunil man-aged to evade the police and entered Metropolitan Magistrate Prashant Sharma’s court room to surrender.

However, the judge refused to hear the matter and handed him over to the Crime Branch police.

As police took Sunil outside the courtroom, a ruckus was created by people accompanying him.

Both the shooters were later

handed over to South Delhi police, who are investigating the case. Sources said police had issued Look Out Circulars (LOC) to nab the alleged shooters.

Police have questioned Bhardwaj’s wife Ramesh Kumari, their sons and staff over the past few days.

Investigators are also look-ing into the role of an insider who might have tipped off the killers about the movement of Bhardwaj and the topography of the farmhouse.

Bhardwaj, a realtor and the richest candidate in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections with declared assets of over Rs.600 crore, was shot dead March 26 around 9am at his 35-acre farmhouse in Rajokri in south Delhi.

The killers entered the farm-house on the pretext of meeting Bhardwaj. He was shot in the head and chest.

IANS

Never dreamt of becoming astronaut: SunitaNEW DELHI: Space almost feels like home and she misses it while back on earth but Indian American Sunita Williams said yesterday during her childhood, she never dreamt of becoming an astronaut.

“Space is an amazing place to be in... it feels like home now. Four months was like vacation from earth and it went quite fast,” Sunita, 47, said during an interaction with students at the National Science Centre here as she began a week-long promo-tional tour.

Students posed some inter-esting questions to the US Navy captain and she obliged the group during the more than an

hour interaction. Sunita, who holds the record of the longest spacewalk by a woman astro-naut, told students she never dreamt of becoming an astro-naut and it happened as her career progressed.

“My father is a doctor and biology is in our family. I love animals so I had thought of becoming a veterinarian but I didn’t manage to get into the college of my choice so joined the US Naval Academy. Then I wanted to be diver in Navy but ended up becoming a pilot,” she said in a jam-packed auditorium.

Sunita said the idea of becom-ing an astronaut only came when she met an astronaut

during a pilot training course.“So, for me it was never a

direct route. I had a couple of failures in college and failure is good. My suggestion is that everyone should find something that they like to do well and enjoy it,” she said.

Speaking about the most memorable part of her space stay, Sunita said: “The first time I did a spacewalk, it was the most memorable thing. As I opened the hatch and stepped out I was pretty scared seeing the earth flying below me I was like as if I will fall but then I realised I am in space and was flying.”

She shared some inter-esting pre and post launch

training activities and her experience during the stay at the International Space Station.

“In space you don’t walk so bone density and muscle den-sity leeches away. There are also other physiological changes that you notice and you have to do rig-orous physical activity like weight lifting and squat exercise to maintain bone density,” she said.

Sunita said her space stay has changed her perspective about the world. “The most impressive part of being in space is when you look down at earth. There are no borders and it seems human beings are citizens of a universe with no nationalities,” she said.

IANS

‘ISI spy’ arrested in Tripura AGARTALA: A suspected spy for Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency was arrested in Tripura, police said here yesterday.

“Acting on a tip off, BSF (Border Security Force) troop-ers arrested Rasel Mia, 30 from Bishalgarh area bordering Bangladesh late on Sunday night. Later, he was handed over to the Tripura police,” a police officer told reporters.

The officer said that some tel-ephone numbers of Pakistani and Bangladeshi citizens were found in his mobile phone. “He is sus-pected to be an ISI spy.”

Senior police and intelligence officers have been interrogating Rasel Mia.

IANS

Pakistan yet to give report on prisoner’s death: KhurshidNEW DELHI: As Pakistani authorities denied that Indian prisoner Chamel Singh had died after being assaulted by jail staff, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said yesterday that India was waiting for a full and detailed report on the circumstances of his death.

Khurshid, asked if he accepted Pakistan’s explanation of the death, said: “I don’t have to take Pakistan’s explanation... We are awaiting the autopsy, and when a full report is given to us and detailed investigation report given, we will be able to reflect on it.” Asked when India would be given the report, he said: “We have been told that it will be given to us.”

A senior official of Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore, where Chamel Singh died in January, had on Sunday termed as “malicious Indian propaganda” the reports that Singh died after allegedly being

tortured in the jail and said a stroke was the reason.

Singh, said to be in his 60s and serving a five-year-term for espionage, had died at the state-run Jinnah Hospital on Jan 15. During an autopsy done on March 13 - nearly two months after his death - marks of injury had reportedly been found on Singh’s body.

Rafiq Chaudhry, senior superintendent of Central Jail, Kot Lakhpat, said Chamel Singh, a native of Jammu & Kashmir, had suffered a stroke while working in the compound of Barrack No. 4 with other Indians and was rushed to the nearby Jinnah Hospital. However, he died on the way to hospital.

Soon after Chamel Singh’s death, reports sur-faced that he had been beaten up by prison staff for washing clothes in the prison compound.

IANS

Kashmir protest

Police officials detain Mohammad Ahsan Untoo, a human rights activist wearing a symbolic device to protest against illegal detention of political activists in Jammu and Kashmir yesterday.

14 INDIATUESDAY 2 APRIL 2013


Novartis loses patent battle, experts hail rulingVerdict to allow continued supply of cheap generic drugs; company to invest cautiously in India: Top officialNEW DELHI: The Supreme Court rejected yesterday a pat-ent bid by Swiss drug giant Novartis in a landmark ruling activists and experts say will allow continued supply of cheap generic drugs and save lives in poorer nations.

Novartis fought a seven-year legal battle to gain patent pro-tection for an updated version of its blockbuster leukaemia drug Glivec, arguing the compound was a significant improvement because it is more easily absorbed by the body.

Justice Aftab Alam said the claim was “beyond the realm of patents”.

“We firmly reject the appellant’s (Novartis) case that Imatinib Mesylate is a new product and the outcome of an invention... We hold and find that Imatinib Mesylate is a known substance...” and its pharmacological properties are also known, the court said, in a judgment running into 36,089 words.

“In whatever way Section 3(d) of the Indian Patents Act is inter-preted, Novartis cannot claim that it is a patent. It fails the test of patentability,” he said.

But in a judgement that went to the heart of patent law in a country known as the “pharmacy to the world”, the top court said the compound “did not satisfy the test of novelty or inventiveness” required by Indian legislation.

India’s law restricts pharma-ceutical companies from seeking fresh patents for making minor modifications — an industry prac-tice known as “evergreening” —and the ruling enables generic drug makers to continue copying Glivec.

Health experts welcomed the ruling, saying it would ensure that patients get access to cheaper life-saving drugs.

“This is a landmark judgment. This will have a long-term and

wide impact, as the generic ver-sion makes it more affordable for the poor,” Y K Sapru of the Mumbai-based Cancer Patients Aid Association said.

“Now the prices of life-sav-ing drugs will be reduced from Rs160,000 per month to just Rs6,000,” Sapru added.

Sameer Kaul, a senior surgi-cal oncologist at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, also hailed the ruling. “The government should have stepped in much earlier to negotiate the prices with the com-pany,” Kaul said.

“The government should encourage the local pharmaceu-tical industry to spend more on research, so that we can develop own molecules. Also, the pat-ent time-period of 20-30 years is absurd. It should not be more than two or three years,” he said.

Leena Menghaney, a lawyer with medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), said yes-terday’s ruling was “a big relief” that would save lives in India and elsewhere in the developing world and set a legal precedent.

“Breakthrough, innovative medicines will still get patents in India but the judgement means drug companies cannot keep seeking patents for small changes to one drug,” such as introduc-ing paediatric dosages, she told a news conference.

The legal case was the highest-profile of several being pursued by multinationals in the vast Indian market, set to touch $74bn in sales by 2020 from $11bn in 2011 according to a study by financial services firm PwC.

Global drugmakers say India’s powerhouse generics industry and strict patent filtering reduce commercial incentives to produce cutting-edge medicines.

Novartis, which reported a net profit of $9.6bn in 2012 on sales of $56.7bn, condemned the judgement, saying it “discourages

People gather at Novartis India headquarters in Mumbai yesterday.

innovative drug discovery essen-tial to advancing medical science”.

“The ecosystem in India to encourage investment is not there. We have been boxed in from all sides,” Novartis India Managing Director Ranjit Shahani said in Mumbai. He said the company would continue to invest “cau-tiously” in India.

Shares of Novartis India, the local unit of the Basel-headquartered group, slid nearly seven percent before paring losses to end down 1.81 percent at Rs587.95.

AIIMS’ P K Julka said: “The ruling is good for poor patients. It will ensure continued access to cheap drugs.”

Unni Karunakara, inter-national president of medical humanitarian aid organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres, said: “This is a huge relief for the mil-lions of patients and doctors in

developing countries.”“The Supreme Court’s decision

now makes patents on the medi-cines that we desperately need less likely,” Karunakara said.

Indian generic medicines are exported abroad to other devel-oping countries also.

Anand Grover, the lawyer representing Indian companies, said: “We are very happy that the court has rejected attempts by Novartis to water down our pat-ent laws.”Mark Elliot, executive vice president of the US Chamber of Commerce’s Global Intellectual Property Center, also criticised the ruling as damaging prospects for “future innovation”.

But shares of Indian generics giant Cipla gained 1.2 percent to 384.30 rupees and its chairman, Yusuf Hamied, who revolutionised Aids treatment over a decade ago by supplying cut-price drugs to the world’s poor, praised the ruling.

It “prevents use of frivolous pat-ents to deny access to medicines” and “is a victory for patients both in India and around the world,” Hamied said.

It “prevents use of frivolous pat-ents to deny access to medicines” and “is a victory for patients both in India and around the world,” Hamied said.

The Supreme Court upheld the view of India’s Intellectual Property Appellate Board, which refused to grant Novartis protec-tion in 2009.

India’s huge generic drug industry has been a major sup-plier of vastly cheaper copy-cat medicines to treat diseases such as cancer, TB and Aids for those who cannot afford expen-sive branded versions across the developing world.

The copycat drugs sector grew because India did not issue drug patents until 2005 when it began

complying with World Trade Organisation rules.

Just two other nations, Argentina and the Philippines, have similar legislation but their laws are not as strict at filtering patents, Grover told reporters.

“Only 25 percent of patents in the West are awarded for break-through drugs. This judgement should encourage companies to look for genuine innovations” rather than claiming ever longer patent protection on older drugs, MSF’s Menghaney said.

The ruling might only be a “breather” as patient rights campaigners fear a new India-European Union free trade deal expected soon could contain intel-lectual property clauses seeking to restrict generic drugmakers, she said.

“But today we are celebrating,” she added.

AGENCIES

NIA to probe killing of two Kerala fishermenNEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has been asked to probe the killing of two Indian fishermen alleg-edly by Italian marines off the Kerala coast, official sources said here yesterday.

The sources said the inves-tigation agency will probe the case afresh and file the charge sheet in an NIA special court or any other special court set up by the government in con-sultation with the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court had ruled in January this year that the Kerala government had no independent jurisdiction to try two Italian marines — Chief Master Sergeant Massimilano Latorre and Sergeant Salvatore Girone —for shooting down two fishermen.

The apex court held that it was only the union of India that had the jurisdiction to hold the trial of the two marines, and asked the central government, in con-sultation with the chief justice, to set up a special court to hold the trial.

The Italian government will be free to raise the question of jurisdiction.

If the issue is raised, the spe-cial court will decide the ques-tion whether the Indian or the Italian government has the jurisdiction to conduct the trial of the two marines under the maritime law.

The two Italian marines, on board the Italian cargo vessel Enrica Lexie, had allegedly shot dead two Indian fishermen Feb 15 last year suspecting them to be pirates.

The Italian government had last month reversed its earlier decision not to send back the two marines, who had gone to Italy to cast votes in elections.

IANS

We have to respect Saudi labour law: ChandyKOCHI: Chief Minister Oommen Chandy yesterday told the state assembly that the concerns of Kerala on the strict implementation of the new labour policy in Saudi Arabia were being conveyed to that government.

He cautioned, however, that nothing could be said or done that would affect the good relations that the state enjoyed with Saudi Arabia. “We have no right to ques-tion the laws in Saudi Arabia... all what we can do is to tell them that if they go very strict, it would

affect our state badly. We already have initiated steps to see that there are more high-level dip-lomatic talks to tell (them) our viewpoint,” Chandy said.

The chief minister was replying to a leave sought for an adjourn-ment motion moved by the Left opposition to discuss the new labour policy in Saudi Arabia, requiring every establishment there to offer a minimum number of jobs to Saudi nationals.

Nearly two million people from outside Saudi Arabia working in that country stand to lose their

jobs, among them thousands of people from Kerala. “Both the central and state governments have miserably failed to come to the rescue of the hapless Keralites who are on the verge of losing their jobs on account of the new labour laws,” said K V Abdul Khader from the opposition, who moved the motion in the assembly.

Speaker G Karthikeyan emphasised that speeches in the assembly should not attack the Saudi laws.

“I am only saying this because it is quite natural that when a

motion is moved, the rival fronts blame one another. Also, there is likelihood to even blame the laws of other countries,” said Karthikeyan.

Chandy also told the opposition that while they are free to trade charges against the state and cen-tre, no reference should be made against Saudi Arabia.

“I have requested the centre to see that they put up a request with the Saudi government to provide a six-month amnesty for Keralites before implement-ing their law in letter and spirit.

This gap will enable our people to get their papers right and make it possible for them to find new employers,” Chandy said.

“Another request to the centre is to see that all those who have to leave that country do not get banned for employment in other Middle Eastern countries. The state government has also asked the cen-tre to see that all those who have to return are brought back free of cost. From our side, we will see that a rehabilitation package is provided to returnees,” Chandy said.

IANS

Kejriwal supporters held at Dixit house NEW DELHI: Over 500 Aam Admi Party (AAP) volunteers were stopped by police here yes-terday as they headed to Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s house to deliver hundreds of thousands of letters protesting “inflated water and power bills”.

Police briefly detained 34 AAP supporters who were protesting outside Dikshit’s house.

Police stopped the volunteers in auto-rickshaws at Bhairon Marg near Pragati Maidan, with Arvind Kejriwal’s supporters walking alongside. Many of them carried Indian national flags and shouted anti-government slogans.

AAP leaders Manish Sisodia, Kumar Vishwas and Sanjay Singh demanded that Delhi Police allow 272 representatives of each ward in Delhi to move towards Dikshit’s house.

Police arranged four buses to ferry them but they were dropped off at Indraprasta metro station, AAP said in a statement.

“It is surprising that the Congress, which has failed to make any headway in scams that have rocked the nation, could barely in 15 minutes not only go through the letters but also

declare them as fake,” the state-ment said.

The 272 auto-rickshaws repre-sented the 272 municipal wards in Delhi.

The unique protest began from Sundar Nagri area where Kejriwal’s indefinite hunger strike against the allegedly inflated utility bills entered the 10th day yesterday.

Addressing supporters outside his house in Sundar Nagri in east Delhi, AAP leader Kejriwal said: “My fast will continue.”

He said that an opportunity to fight corruption had come after many decades, and they may not get another chance in many more years to come.

Kejriwal was not participating in the march to Dikshit’s house.

Around seven lakh residents of the capital had signed the protest letters.

The protest journey began despite Delhi Police’s refusal to allow so many auto-rickshaws to go to the chief minister’s house.

Kejriwal’s health is reportedly stable. Doctors said he had lost seven kg since he began his fast March 23.

IANS

100-year-old is army First CitizenCHANDIGARH: On a day he celebrated his 100th birthday, a retired lieutenant colonel of the Indian Army was yester-day declared the First Citizen of the force. Lieutenant Colonel Kartar Singh was felicitated by top army commanders and offic-ers at the Khetarpal Officers

Institute at Chandimandir Cantonment, the headquar-ters of the swordarm Western Command near here.

The felicitation was done by the Western Command headquarters and the Mahar Regiment.

Lieutenant Colonel Kartar Singh was commissioned in

1937 and was nominated for service in Egypt and Sudan during the Second World War. He was the first Indian com-manding Officer of 1 Mahar Regiment from 1947 to 1951 and saw action in the 1947-48 Kashmir operations.

IANS

MORNING BREAK16TUESDAY 2 APRIL 2013


Fajr (Dawn) 4:08

Shorook (Sunrise) 5:25

Zuhr (Noon) 11:38

Asr (Afternoon) 3:06

Maghrib (Sunset) 5:52

Isha (Night) 7:22

PRAYER TIME

Weather Conditions:

Fine with some clouds.

High: 35° Low: 25°

High:33° Low: 22°

High:33° Low: 26°

ClearClear Partly cloudy

Today Wednesday Thursday

SUNRISE | SUNSET

05:25 17:52 08:00 & 22:15 04:30 & 14:15 05-10 KT

HIGH | LOW WIND

SUN TIDE SEA

TODAY TOMORROW

HI/LO WEATHER HI/LO WEATHER

THE REGION

TODAY TOMORROW

HI/LO WEATHER HI/LO WEATHER

THE WORLD

DOHA - SUN & SEA

WEATHER

MUSCAT 30/23 Partly cloudy 31/23 Partly cloudy

MAKKAH 35/24 Clear 33/22 Clear

KUWAIT 32/23 Partly cloudy 31/22 Clear

BAHRAIN 34/18 Partly cloudy 37/22 Partly cloudy

SANAA 25/13 Cloudy 25/12 Partly cloudy

RIYADH 35/20 Clear 36/23 Partly cloudy

DUBAI 30/20 Clear 32/22 Clear

BAGHDAD 32/18 Chance of rain 32/19 Partly cloudy

ATHENS 20/14 Rain 23/11 Chance of rain

WASHINGTON 10/02 Clear 11/01 Clear

SYDNEY 22/17 Chance of rain 22/15 Chance of rain

LONDON 07/00 Clear 06/01 Mostly cloudy

PARIS 10/02 Clear 07/04 Mostly cloudy

ISTANBUL 18/13 Partly cloudy 18/11 Chance of rain

MANILA 35/24 Partly cloudy 35/24 Partly cloudy

DHAKA 39/23 Clear 40/24 Partly cloudy

DELHI 33/21 Clear 31/22 Partly cloudy

ISLAMABAD 26/15 Chance of rain 26/13 Partly cloudy

CHART: 1

Source : http://www.qsa.gov.qa/

News in Numbers RATIO OF PROTECTED AREA

The State of Qatar attaches great importance to maintaining and developing biodiversity. Therefore, it developed a set of policies and procedures that preserve all types of marine and land wildlife. It also founded more natural reserves in order to resettle endangered wildlife species in their natural habitats. The protected area is about 29.6% of the total area of the State of Qatar.

��

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

11.213.1

29.3 29.3 29.3 29.6 29.6

Ratio of area ( land and sea ) protected to maintain biodiversity to the total land area (2005 to 2011)

Americans wish they had studied more in collegeNEW YORK: Americans wish they had studied more in col-lege, view admissions tests as a necessary evil and would tell their children to finish their degrees rather than follow in the path of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who dropped out, a poll released yesterday showed.

Nearly half of the adults ques-tioned in the survey said they wished they had made more of an effort in college, while another 40 percent said they should have done more networking, which is more typically associated with the professional world, according to the 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll.

When it came to the standard-ised aptitude tests (SAT) taken by teenagers applying to colleges, 39 percent described it as a neces-sary evil. Smaller numbers said they were either a waste of time or a failed ideal.

When offered a choice of a college movie they wished their school years had resembled, one quarter of the people ques-tioned chose the Matt Damon-Ben Affleck Oscar winning film Good Will Hunting, while The Social Network about Zuckerberg had 21 percent. Eleven percent chose the fraternity house com-edy Animal House or the comedy Legally Blonde.

Many parents said they did not want their children to emulate college dropouts like Zuckerberg.

Forty-five percent said that if their child was offered a dream job while in college, their advice would be to stay in school, while 27 percent would withhold an opinion and 23 percent would tell them to take the job.

And while the Greek social and housing system of fraternities and sororities is popular on some campuses, 86 percent said they would not care if they found out a friend had been a member. Three percent said they would think less of the person, while two percent would think more highly.

REUTERS

Barbara Walters laughs off talk of retirementWASHINGTON: US television news icon Barbara Walters, 83, laughed off reports of her immi-nent retirement yesterday, indi-cating she has no immediate plans to draw a line under her long and storied career.

Chatting with Whoopi Goldberg and other fellow co-hosts of her ABC daytime talk show “The View,” a vivacious Walters said “nothing is going on” regarding her future after more than a half-century on US television.

“There was an assumption I would be making an announce-ment today. However, here I am and I have no announcement to make,” she said to loud applause from the studio audience.

“But I do want to say this: if and when I might have an announce-ment to make, I would do it on this program, I promise.”

The New York Times, quoting “an executive familiar with the newswoman’s plans,” reported on Thursday that a formal announcement of Walters’ retire-ment would probably be made on “The View” in May.

The Hollywood Reporter, a showbiz trade journal, meanwhile, said it had been told by its sources that Walters — who weathered a bout of chicken pox at the start of this year — was poised to retire in May 2014.

Walters did not address either time frame in her remarks yes-terday, nor did she explain why she or ABC let four days go by before reacting to the reports.

In a career spanning more than half a century, Walters has some-times made news herself.

In 1976, she became the first woman to anchor a US evening network newscast, and her inter-views with entertainers and poli-ticians, notably on ABC’s “20/20” news magazine programme, were often must-see viewing.

AFP

LONDON: The April Fool is dead. Or at least the gentle jester of the common folk has been converted into a corporate colossus controlled by global marketing executives.

Companies around the world, from Google to BMW and Sony, have adopted the tradition of goading the gullible on April 1 to show their lighter sides and steal some free publicity.

Google Inc extended a prac-tice dating back a decade or so in poking fun at its own ubiquity: it introduced a database of smells, pretended that it was shutting down its YouTube service, offered a treasure-hunting mode and old parchment style navigation on Google Maps, and unveiled Gmail Blue, a new version of its email service that is ... blue.

In Japan, telecoms company KDDI offered a mobile phone that was actually a bed — to save ever having to get up. And Sony Corp went to the dogs, rather lit-erally, introducing a TV that only displays pictures in dog-friendly colours and has a remote with paw-enabled buttons.

A blog at Twitter, or rather “twttr”, said users who wanted to use vowels would have to pay $5 a month. “Trd th nw Twttr yt? Mr tm fr mr twts!” was one of the blog’s more easily deciphered examples.

Procter and Gamble Co’s mouthwash brand Scope offered a new “Bacon” flavour with taglines like “For breath that sizzles” and the appetizing “Indulge your meat tooth.”

German carmaker BMW offered British readers excited at

the impending arrival of a royal baby the P.R.A.M. (Postnatal Royal Auto Mobile) complete with picture of a sportily styled buggy and corgis at Windsor Castle — inquiries to [email protected].

In the more traditional realm of news-based fun, Yahoo’s French website led its front page with the announcement that, to save money, President Francois Hollande would move his offices from the Elysee Palace to one of Paris’s grittier suburbs.

In Britain, the Guardian offered its leftish, liberal readers “aug-mented reality” spectacles to let them “see the world through the Guardian’s eyes at all times.”

By staring at a restaurant, cin-ema or retail product the paper’s critics’ reviews would come into vision without all the hassle of reaching for the phone, wrote the Guardian’s anagrammatic corre-spondent Lois P. Farlo.

“Nesta Vowles” had a story in Britain’s Daily Mail about owls being trained, Hogwarts-style, to deliver internal mail in an office. It carried photographs of what it called the “Roy-owl Mail.” The Sun mocked up a shot of Mick Jagger in a tent and said the millionaire Rolling Stones were practising for the Glastonbury rock festival by spending Easter outdoors.

But few papers may top the Times Daily of Florence, Alabama, which fronted yesterday’s edition with a picture of a local bridge coming under simultaneous attack by the Loch Ness Monster, a UFO and Godzilla.

“Panic unnecessary: No deadly tomatoes reported near scene,” the paper reported.

It took French post office, La Poste, to highlight the struggle for survival faced by traditional media in a new technological age; it issued a press release announc-ing that airborne drones were delivering newspapers to people’s homes.

Blurring the lines between mirth and marketing, Britain’s Daily Mirror carried a story on the launch of glass-bottomed airlin-ers — offering special sightseeing trips over Loch Ness. It would, it said, be operated by Richard Branson’s Virgin airline — which duly carried its own online advert for the new planes, along with publicity for its real new domes-tic service.

With April Fools Day ever more an ad man’s dream, Coca-Cola put an ironic, post-modern twist on the whole bluff-or-dou-ble-bluff atmosphere by advertis-ing a relaunched vanilla version of the fizzy drink in Britain:

If the stress of sifting fact from fiction seemed too much, particu-larly for fellow journalists writ-ing reports from the frontline of foolery, once could have left it to Britain’s Metro newspaper to do the legwork and make things easier. Its 2013 “round-up of the best jokes” from other media included a BBC story on NASA’s Mars rover tweeting that bully-ing by Internet trolls was forc-ing it off Twitter, the Telegraph on rabbits bred with human ears and a supermarket press release offering to deliver food via a 3D printer.

Trouble is, those were all made up by Metro. April Fools!

REUTERS

April Fool now a marketing gimmick

Street candy sellers dressed in costume stand in front of the Opera and Ballet Theatre in Odessa, Ukraine, yesterday. Traditionally, Odessa receives visitors from neighbouring countries to celebrate April Fool’s Day, known locally as ‘Yumorina’.

Beloved New York zoo gorilla Pattycake diesNEW YORK: Pattycake, a gentle giant of a gorilla who was born in New York’s Central Park Zoo 40 years ago, has died, city officials said yesterday.

The gorilla, the first born in the Big Apple, lived beyond the average 37-year life span of the big primates in captivity,

said the Wildlife Conservation Society, which manages zoos in the megacity.

Pattycake (pictured) was born in 1972 to parents Kongo and Lulu. From the day she broke an arm at the age of five months, she captivated the public.

After 1983, Pattycake moved

permanently to the much larger Bronx Zoo, where she gave birth to 10 infants, including twins in 1995. The brood is now divided among zoos across the United States.

“Pattycake was perhaps the best known gorilla at the Bronx Zoo, and an institution in New

York City,” said Jim Breheny, director of the Bronx Zoo.

“Millions of children in New York City grew up with Pattycake at the Bronx Zoo. Pattycake was a very special animal and her presence will be deeply missed,” he added.

AFP

Tuesday 2 April 201321 Jumada I 1434

Volume 18Number 5657

Price: QR2

[email protected] | [email protected] Editorial: 44557741 | Advertising: 44557837 / 44557780www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

DOHA: Due to a rapid expan-sion in its generation capacity, Qatar is sitting on a high 40 percent reserves in the power sector. The country’s power capacity has doubled in just two years – from 2009-2011.

“Qatar currently enjoys very high reserve margin of almost 40 percent. Hence, Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) has announced no further capacity building plans till 2014 but focus will be in the transmission and distribution sec-tor. Over a dozen of projects are under execution in transmission and distribution sector, with a gross investment of $4bn,” Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz) said in its latest research note.

Qatar is one of the few countries in the Gulf, where power genera-tion has grown considerably in the last decade.

Because of high GDP growth rates and population explosion, power consumption in Qatar has increased by a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 9.3 per-cent between 2001 and 2011.

To keep pace with the demand, Qatar saw its installed power capacity getting doubled in just two years, from 2009 to 2011. Qatar’s per capita power consump-tion is expected to remain as one of the highest in the GCC, Markaz said.

Qatar, being one of the largest per capita greenhouse emitters in the world, is committed to reduc-ing the levels. Qatar National Vision 2030 has stated its ambition to use non-hydrocarbon mecha-nisms for power generation.

Recently, Qatar announced plans to utilise solar power for cooling the 2022 FIFA World Cup stadia. Because of high reserve margins, Qatar could look forward to electricity exports through the Gulf Cooperation Council Interconnection Authority (GCCIA) power grid. Bahrain and Kuwait have reportedly shown interest in purchasing electricity from Qatar.

Natural gas is the only source fuelling power plants in Qatar and the country does not have any major alternative energy projects. Going forward, creating opportu-nities and making investments in the alternate energy space will be important for Qatar, the report said. THE PENINSULA

Qatar has 40pc reserve margin in electricityDOHA: The budgetary esti-

mates for the current fiscal year (2013-14) with increased public spending, that were unveiled yesterday, have evoked mixed response from the country’s trade and industry, with the private sector lamenting that foreign companies are being preferred for mega projects at its expense.

And at least one top corpo-rate executive said larger outlays for development projects would make more sense and would be more convincing if the govern-ment also declares how much of the amounts earmarked for development in the last budget (2012-13) have actually been spent.

“Also, infrastructure develop-ment projects are long-term and take at least five years to com-plete so how yearly outlays are going to be helpful,” asked Nasser

Al Khaledy, CEO of Qatar-Oman Investment Company, a listed entity.

He added: “We don’t know how much of the sums that were ear-marked for development in the

last budget have been spent, so how can we be sure what has been allocated in the new budget is going to be spent.”

Al Khaledy said he didn’t see much benefit in the budget for the private sector since major contracts in development projects were always awarded to foreign companies and the local firms were just left playing a sup-portive role.

“They only get sub-contracts.” The government, according to him, is sincere about supporting the private sector and has been making laudable effort in that direction.

“But, sadly, the effort isn’t bearing the desired fruit.”

The government believes that local companies do not have enough expertise and capacity to handle mega projects.

“But the fact is that although it might have been true a decade

ago, today the situation is differ-ent. There are many local players that are quite capable of handling large projects,” said prominent businessman, Ahmed Al Khalaf.

He, though, hailed a larger outlay for public spending in the current budget and said it would overall lead to added vibrancy in the local market, more foreign workers would arrive, and the trading activity would accelerate.

Al Khalaf said that rules were in place that foreign companies bagging contracts here must have tie-ups with local players but they (the rules) did not specify the ratio or the extent of the partnership that they must have with local entities.

Due to this, foreign compa-nies entering tie-ups with the local players and awarding them sub-contracts dictate terms and impose a lot of conditions, some of which are so difficult to comply

with. “So, in my view, the regula-tions should specify a percent-age of partnership that a foreign entity must give to its local coun-terpart,” said Al Khalaf.

“We have examples like the new airport, the upcoming Doha Port and so many other mega projects in which local compa-nies have been relegated to play-ing only a supportive role,” said Al Khaledy.

This is the biggest budget in Qatar’s history so far and it will have a positive impact on all aspects of life and economy, said Al Khalaf.

“It bodes well for the country. The pace of development is being upped.”

“I would say that the private sector needs more support from the government to play a more proactive role in the national economy,” he added.

THE PENINSULA

Budget evokes mixed response

Ahmed Al Khalaf

DOHA: The Prime Minister and Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani has said that Qatar is seeking to develop a joint inter-national gas transportation net-work that would link the Middle East with Southern Europe.

Addressing the opening session of the Brookings Doha Energy Forum 2013 here yesterday, the Prime Minister said the idea behind developing the interna-tional transportation network emerges from the fact that Qatar is a top global gas exporter and its commitment to stabilise the global commodity market.

Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem called on all producing countries, both the members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries

(Opec) and non-members, to coor-dinate with consuming countries and have a better idea about the future energy demands.

The Prime Minister said the issues to be debated at the Doha Energy Forum are key for both the producing and consuming coun-tries. He added that the global demand for gas is fast increas-ing compared to oil. International Energy Agency (IEA) studies have already found there is a growing demand for gas across the world.

The global demand for natu-ral gas is set to double within the next thirty years, triggered by a number of reasons including a steady growth in population, growth in electricity generation supported by gas and a decline in reliance on nuclear power. He

said projections indicate increased demand by Asian countries for energy sources in 2015, especially China and India.

China’s demand is expected to increase by a third and India by three folds over the current demand. According to estimates by the IEA, he said, the global demand for gas will increase by 50 percent in 2035 to up to 8.4 trillion cubic meters per year.

At least half of this increase will be met from non-conventional sources of gas, especially in the US and China. The US ‘shale revolu-tion’ will have a significant impact of the energy market.

The prime minister said the shale discovery is set to redraw the global energy map of the last 50 years.

The growing global investment in the energy production sectors is a strong indication of a huge future demand.

Citing recent industry data, the prime minister noted that the energy companies are currently spending an estimated $90bn in the exploration operations com-pared to $21bn just five years ago. Australia is spending about $183bn for its gas export projects alone.

The global control on oil and gas resources helps countries to influence the global politics in a big way. Citing US president Barack Obama’s recent interview with the Time magazine he said Obama stated ‘the US’s self-reliance in oil and gas will give it more leeway to talk with the Middle East’.

THE PENINSULA

Qatar wants stable gas price: PMPlans to develop international transport network to link Mideast, Europe

Demand for Saudi oil to grow: Minister

The Prime Minister and Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani addressing the Brookings Doha Energy Forum yesterday.

DOHA: Demand for Saudi crude is likely to rise over the next few months, Saudi oil minister Ali bin Ibrahim Al Nuaimi said yesterday, in a sign that the world’s largest oil exporter sees a recovery in its biggest export market, Asia.

State-run Saudi Aramco cut production sharply in the fourth quarter of last year because of weak economic growth abroad and lower seasonal demand for oil for power generation at home.

It kept oil output steady at around 9.05-9.15 million barrels per day (bpd) in January and February, but industry sources have said exports could rise in the second quarter, driven by Asian demand.

Naimi confirmed on the side-lines of an industry event in Doha yesterday that he expected external demand for Saudi crude to rise over coming months, but said it remained to be seen by how much. China’s factory activ-ity rebounded in March in a sign that its underlying economic recovery is strong enough to weather any patchy export peri-ods, surveys showed yesterday.

China imported 1.08m bpd of crude from Saudi Arabia in 2012,

up 7.24 percent from 2011, and state-run CNPC expects China’s total net imports to rise again in 2013.

Saudi Arabia, Opec’s lead-ing producer and holder of the world’s only significant spare capacity, slashed its output by around 700,000 bpd over the last two months of 2012, helping drive a rise in crude prices from early December to February.

With Europe wallowing in debt and the US consuming more of its own oil, demand from Asia has become the main driver of oil exports from producers in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) over the last decade.

Asia collectively bought more than three times as much Saudi crude in 2011 as buyers in North America, and five times more than Europe, according to Saudi government data. Rapid popu-lation growth in Asia, and a booming middle class in China in particular, is likely to see ever more Saudi crude head east as European and US oil import demand wanes.

“For decades, GCC energy sup-plies helped support economic growth in the US and across Europe... We have done the

same in Asia, supplying energy to help fuel its increasing growth and prosperity,” Nuaimi told the Brookings Doha Center.

“It is thanks to Asian demand and GCC energy supplies that our region’s combined GDP is at an historic high - and that eco-nomic growth remains strong,” he said, pointing to population growth as a firm driver for future demand.

Opec oil producers have played down the potential threat of a surge in North American shale oil production over the last few years, arguing that more supplies are good for price stability.

“I, for one, welcome all new energy sources to the market. I don’t think anyone should fear new supplies when set against increasing global demand,” Nuaimi said. REUTERS

Saudi oil minister Ali bin Ibrahim Al Nuaimi in Doha yesterday.

NEW YORK: Brent crude rose above $111 a barrel in choppy trading yesterday as Saudi Arabia predicted robust demand from Asia, while US crude prices fell as a pipeline leak in Arkansas threatened to increase the glut of oil in the US Midwest.

ExxonMobil’s Pegasus pipeline, which can carry more than 90,000 barrels per day of Canadian oil through the US Midwest to the Gulf Coast, has been shut since rupturing on Friday.

The shut pipeline compounds expectations of a 2.3 million- bar-rel rise in crude oil stocks in the US last week, a provisional poll of analysts and traders showed. “It’s kind of a landlocked situa-tion,” said Thomas Mooney, presi-dent of Southeast Energy, Inc. “They’re making more crude in the Midwest than they can use.”

Rising US production, imports from Canada, and limited pipe-line flows from the Midwest to the Gulf Coast have weighed on US crude prices relative to seaborne benchmark Brent, causing the prices of the two main oil con-tracts to diverge. REUTERS

Brent higher in choppy trading

DUBAI: A buyout offer for Orascom Telecom, Egypt’s second-largest listed company, failed to buoy a sinking Cairo stock market yesterday — an indication of how negative investors have become about medium-term prospects for the market.

A Cyprus-based subsidiary of Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman’s Altimo is making a $3.7bn offer for all of Orascom Telecom at $0.70 (4.76 Egyptian pounds) per share, according to a statement on the exchange.

But shares in Orascom Telecom edged up just 0.2 percent to 4.38 pounds yesterday, staying well below the offer price. Egypt’s main stock index lost 0.8 percent to 5,057 points, extending year-to-date losses to 7.4 percent.

A few weeks ago, the buyout offer could have sparked major activity on the exchange. But investors now worry that the government will block such offers for economic and possibly politi-cal reasons. The government last week said it would impose a 10 percent capital gains tax on the sale of National Societe Generale Bank shares during Qatar National Bank’s mandatory offer for them.

And the country’s largest stock Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) — like Orascom Technology, an affiliate of the Sawiris family — is embroiled in a tax dispute with the government. At the same time, authorities have been pres-suring the firm not to delist from Cairo and have delayed a buyout offer that could lead to a delisting.

Many investors have concluded the administration of President

Mohammed Mursi is prepared to intervene in the stock market at any time to raise money and clip the wings of the business com-munity. So there is doubt over whether the Orascom Telecom buyout will be completed.

“People are worried the acquisi-tion will drag on like OCI — and the upside is not worth it if there is a capital tax,” said an Egypt-based trader, who asked not to be identified because of the political sensitivity of his remarks.

One hope for Orascom Teleco, however, is that its Russian par-ent Vimpelcom may soon reach an agreement with the Algerian government on operational issues surrounding Djezzy (Orascom Telecom Algeria), including the issue of SIM cards, accord-ing to Egyptian news reports. If this happens, Orascom Telecom shares could benefit, analysts say.

In Saudi Arabia, the index climbed 0.5 percent to 7,158 points, halting a two-session decline, but trading was slow as investors lacked positive catalysts. The market rose to a 10-month high last week, but failed to break strong technical resistance around 7,200 points, where it has peaked several times since the third quarter of 2012.

“The market is anticipat-ing earnings and there is some position-building by specula-tors before the results,” said Mohammad Omran, an inde-pendent financial analyst based in Riyadh.

First-quarter earnings are expected to be announced later this month.

In the UAE, Dubai’s index slumped to a two-month low,

losing 0.2 percent, as investors awaited first-quarter earnings in the absence of other news. Dubai trading volume dropped to a two-week low.

Abu Dhabi’s benchmark slipped 0.6 percent, trimming 2013 gains to 14.5 percent.

In Qatar, the index fell 0.9 percent to its lowest finish since

March 6, its third straight decline. REUTERS

DOHA: Qatar Exchange (QE) Index gained 49.14 points or 0.58 percent during March 2013 compared to the previ-ous month to close at 8,577.72 points.

The trading value during March decreased by 9.47 percent to reach QR4.69bn compared to QR5.18 during February. Trading volume decreased by 14.36 per-cent to reach over 106m as against more than 124m shares. The total number of transactions in March fell by 9.64 percent to reach 59,215 compared to the February’s 65,533.

The industrials sector led

trading value during March, accounting for 30.7 percent of the total trading value. The QE’s market capitalisation rose by 0.73 percent at the end of March to reach QR469.528bn as compared to QR466.135bn in February.

The banks and financial serv-ices sector led trading volume during March 2013, accounting for 27.84 percent of the total trad-ing volume, followed by the real estate sector, which accounted for 22.73 percent. The transpor-tation sector accounted for 20.39 percent, which the industrials sector and the Telecom sector accounted for 15.29 percent and

7.16 percent respectively. They were followed by the consumer goods and services sectors.

Fourteen of the 42 listed companies ended the month higher, while 27 fell and 1 com-pany remained unchanged. Total trading days in March were 20, against 19 trading days in February.

The local bourse was down 76.76 points or 0.89 percent yes-terday to 8,500.96 points from the previous closing of 8,577.72 points.

The volume of shares traded crossed 3.77m against Sunday’s 2.1m. The value of shares

increased to QR258.66bn from QR197.8bn

Among the top losers were Qatar National Bank whose share dropped 0.15 percent to QR133.40, Industries Qatar lost 1.68 percent to QR158.10, Qatar Telecom fell 3.60 percent to QR109.90 and National Leasing down 5.82 percent to QR61.50.

The Qatar Banking and Financial sector yesterday dropped 0.27 points while the Insurance sector rose 0.46 points. The Qatar industrial sector lost 1.09 points and the Services sec-tor fell 0.27 points.

THE PENINSULA

18 BUSINESSTUESDAY 2 APRIL 2013


IMPORTANT NOTE: Published by HSBC Bank Middle East Limited, P O Box 57, Doha, Qatar which is licensed and regulated by Qatar Central Bank and Jersey Financial Services Commission. Information quoted is from publicly available sources or proprietary data and subject to change. HSBC accepts no liability for any loss or damage arising out of the use of all or part of this material. This information is general and does not take into account individual circumstances, objectives or needs. The price of bonds can and does fluctuate. The secondary market for bonds may not provide significant liquidity or may trade based on prevailing market conditions. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. You should consider these matters and consult your financial advisor prior to making any investment decisions.

*Periodic Distribution Amount

QATARI MARKETBond Coupon Maturity Currency Mid-Price Yield Moody’s S&P

Qatar Govt 5.15% 4/9/2014 USD 104.44 0.75 % Aa2 AA








Qatari Diar 3.5% 7/21/2015 USD 105.25 1.18 % Aa2 AA

Qatari Diar 5% 7/21/2020 USD 114.63 2.77 % Aa2 AA

Comqat 5% 11/18/2014 USD 105.75 1.42 % A1 A-

Comqat 3.375% 4/11/2017 USD 104.50 2.20 % A1 A-

QIB 3.856% 10/7/2015 USD 104.50 2.01 % NR NR

QNB 3.125% 11/16/2015 USD 103.63 1.70 % Aa3 A+

QNB 3.375% 2/22/2017 USD 104.50 2.16 % Aa3 A+

Doha Bank 3.5% 3/14/2017 USD 104.63 2.27 % A2 A-

Qtel 3.375% 10/14/2016 USD 105.50 1.76 % A2 A

Qtel 7.875% 6/10/2019 USD 130.75 2.49 % A2 A

Qtel 4.75% 2/16/2021 USD 111.75 3.06 % A2 A

Qtel 5% 10/19/2025 USD 110.75 3.91 % A2 A

Rasgas 5.5% 9/30/2014 USD 106.63 1.03 % Aa3 A

Rasgas 5.832% 9/30/2016 USD 108.13 3.35 % Aa3 A

Rasgas 5.298% 9/30/2020 USD 111.38 3.56 % Aa3 A

SOVEREIGNSBond PDA* Maturity Currency Mid-Price Yield Moody’s S&P

Abu Dhabi Govt 5.5% 4/8/2014 USD 105.13 0.42 % Aa2 AA

Abu Dhabi Govt 6.75% 4/8/2019 USD 125.50 2.20 % Aa2 AA

Dubai Govt 6.7% 10/5/2015 USD 110.13 2.51 % NR NR




Qatar Govt 4% 1/20/2015 USD 105.63 0.85 % Aa2 AA

Bahrain Govt 6.273% 11/22/2018 USD 115.50 3.24 % NR BBB

Bahrain Govt 5.5% 3/31/2020 USD 109.75 3.89 % NR BBB

Egypt Govt 5.75% 4/29/2020 USD 87.50 8.11 % Caa1 B-

Morocco Govt 4.5% 10/5/2020 EUR 106.13 3.56 % NR BBB-

Orascom bid fails to buoy Cairo bourseQatar Exchange falls 0.9pc to its lowest since March 6

YESTERDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS QATAR: The index dropped 0.9

percent to 8,501 points.

SAUDI ARABIA: The index climbed

0.5 percent to 7,158 points.

BAHRAIN: The index climbed 0.5


DUBAI: The index retreated 0.2


ABU DHABI: The index fell 0.6 per-

cent to 3,008 points.

KUWAIT: The index gained 0.2 per-


OMAN: The index slipped 0.4 per-


EGYPT: The index fell 0.8 percent

to 5,057 points.

Traders work at the Egyptian Exchange in Cairo, yesterday.

Qatari bourse gains 49.14 points in March

KUWAIT CITY: The Kuwait Stock Exchange yesterday sus-pended trading in the shares of 17 listed firms for failing to report their annual financial results on time, a statement said. The com-panies violated a rule that requires them to post their results of the previous year within three months. A number of the companies had already been banned from trading for previous periods for the same reason. KSE, the third largest Arab bourse in market value after Saudi Arabia and Qatar, lists around 204 companies. AFP

TUNIS: Tunisia expects to sign a $1.7bn loan deal with the International Monetary Fund next month after a delay due to the crisis that followed the kill-ing of an opposition politician in February, the finance minister was quoted as saying yesterday.

A report on Al Arabiya televi-sion quoted Elyess Fakhfakh as

saying the precautionary loan agreement would be reached “by May”.

Last week, the IMF said it would send a team to Tunis between April 8 and 15 to discuss the loan.

Tunisia plunged into crisis on Feb. 6 as the assassination of secular politician Chokri Belaid

ignited the biggest street protests since the overthrow of strongman Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali two years ago.

But a new government has now been formed and protests have died down. Al Arabiya also quoted Fakhfakh as saying Tunisia planned to issue its first sovereign sukuk, or Islamic bond, in July to

raise $700m. Tunisia’s govern-ment, led by moderate Islamists, is keen to develop Islamic finance, which was neglected for ideological reasons by Ben Ali’s government.

A Tunisian sukuk issue could potentially attract large amounts of Islamic funds from the wealthy Gulf. REUTERS

Tunisia expects $1.7bn IMF deal in May 17 firms suspended in Kuwait

NEW YORK/BEIJING: Strong demand at home boosted activity at Chinese factories last month, but US manufactur-ing hit an unexpected speed bump after expanding rapidly in February, weakened by a slower pace of new orders.

Other surveys released yesterday showed manufacturing sec-tors in South Korea and Japan growing as exports increased, while Brazil faced sharply slower output and rapidly rising prices, suggesting a manufacturing recovery remained tenuous.

Most European markets were closed yesterday for Easter.For the US and China, last month was largely a story of

domestic demand. The US Institute for Supply Management’s factory purchasing managers index showed new orders slowed sharply in March, a month after rising demand boosted the index to its highest level since mid-2011.

“This comes as a disappointment,” said Tom Porcelli, chief US economist at RBC Capital Markets, who noted that recent strong consumer income and spending data last week had sug-gested the broader economy would grow strongly in the first quarter.

“What this support suggests is that the quarter probably ended with a loss of momentum,” he said, adding RBC expects the economy to have grown by 3.2 percent at an annualized rate between January and March after expanding 0.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012.

“The biggest concern was the drop in new orders,” said Craig Dismuke, chief economic strategist at Vining Sparks in Memphis, Tennessee. “Maybe we are seeing a cutback in business spending. We could see a slowdown in the spring.”

However, a separate gauge of US manufacturing from finan-cial information firm Markit showed the first quarter was the sector’s best in two years and should contribute to overall first-quarter growth. While the two surveys use the same sub-indexes, they give different weights to the components.

New orders at Chinese factories, meanwhile, rose sharply, though an uncertain outlook for exports could still slow the speed of economic recovery there. So, too, economists say, could premature tightening of China’s current loose monetary policy.

The central bank eased conditions last year, thereby increas-ing credit and helping avert a more pronounced slowdown in the world’s second largest economy.

“Growth momentum has been stabilizing, but headwinds remain,” Liu Li Gang and Zhou Hao, economists at ANZ, said in a note to clients. “The current economic rebound remains fragile, and could falter with tightened monetary policy conditions.”

China’s official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) released by the National Bureau of Statistics rose to an 11-month high of 50.9 in March. REUTERS

China factories rise; US manufacturing slows

19BUSINESS TUESDAY 2 APRIL 2013


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DUBAI: Dubai’s flagship car-rier Emirates and Australia’s Qantas Airways Ltd will look to extend their partnership to include ground services and catering, they said, a day after launching an alliance.

Their tie-up received a final sign-off from Australia’s compe-tition regulator last week but has been criticised by rival airlines for being too broad and further entrenching Qantas’ dominant position in the Australian domes-tic market.

“Of course, there will be any number of possibilities when two companies come together,” Emirates president Tim Clark told a press conference in Dubai. “As we move forward we will be looking at some of those possibili-ties like catering, ground handling and others.”

The struggling Australian air-line announced the Emirates deal in September, ending its 17-year alliance with British Airways, owned by IAG.

Under its new venture, Qantas is switching its hub to Dubai from Singapore for European flights, enabling it to cut loss-making international routes and focus on its profitable domestic and

budget operations. Analysts esti-mate the alliance could save it up to A$100m ($104.4m) pre-tax annually.

“We do think that this partner-ship will build from what we’ve offered today. We will explore ways of potential synergies,” said Alan Joyce, Qantas chief executive.

Qantas has been stripping costs out of its business after a year troubled by a record fuel bill, rising competition and a labour union that has opposed its spend-ing cuts.

The companies say the alliance is deeper than a straightforward codeshare — in which airlines share some flights — but stops short of a global revenue-shar-ing deal or equity injection from either side.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission granted the deal conditional approval based on the airlines maintaining at least their pre-alliance capacity on routes between Australia and New Zealand amid concerns about reduced competition.

However, it has halved the desired alliance framework from 10 years.

Emirates, which has been look-ing to increase its business glo-bally amid challenges from the aggressive growth of rivals Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways, said it would consider further alliances.

“We are looking for opportuni-ties. If we are fortunate enough to come across an airline that has the vision of Qantas then may be

we would,” said Clark. Qantas, which has firm orders for 14 Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft earmarked for its budget arm Jetstar and options over 50 more Dreamliners, said there were no delays in the delivery of its share of the troubled aircraft.

“We have not been informed formally of any delays. We want the aircraft as soon as we can,”

said Joyce, of the planes which are expected to be delivered from August.

“We are told by Boeing that they intend to manufacture new batteries for our arrivals.”

He also added Qantas has no immediate plans to sell its long-term leases on airport terminals in Sydney, Melbourne and else-where in Australia. REUTERS

Emirates, Qantas seek more tie-upsDubai carrier plans more alliances amid challenges from Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways

Emirates aircraft taxi at the Dubai International Airport yesterday.

DUBAI: Bahrain’s economic growth slowed sharply in the final quarter of 2012 as growth in hydrocarbon output stalled and two years of social unrest weighed on the banking sector.

The economy grew 3.4 percent in full-year 2012, government figures showed, compared to a median forecast of 3.5 percent in a Reuters poll and up from 1.9 percent in 2011 when the gov-ernment crushed pro-democracy protests.

The country has reported a decline in crude output from its key Abu Safa field shared with Saudi Arabia, which accounts for around 70 percent of budget rev-enue. Output in the hydrocarbon sector, which accounts for a quar-ter of Bahrain’s $30bn economy, grew by a mere 0.4 percent in October-December from the pre-vious quarter and plunged nearly 8 percent on an annual basis.

Growth of Bahrain’s gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation, slowed to 0.5 percent quarter-on-quarter in October-December from a revised 2.8 percent in the third quarter. On an annual basis, the growth rate decelerated to 2.7 percent from 3.3 percent, the data showed.

The country of 1.3 million people has based its economic strategy on becoming a regional financial hub as it lacks the pet-rodollar wealth of its Gulf Arab neighbours.

The plan was dealt a blow from the political violence of 2011, in which the island’s Sunni Muslim rulers crushed protests led by the Shia majority. Lingering unrest continues to knock confidence in Bahrain’s economy and growth of the financial industry, which makes up around 16 percent of GDP, slowed in the final quarter of 2012. REUTERS

Bahrain’s growth slows as energy output stalls

NICOSIA: The Cypriot presi-dent pledged yesterday that not even his own family will be immune from a commission of inquiry into allegations of wrong-doing in the run-up to a crippling eurozone bailout.

President Nicos Anastasiades was responding to allegations that family members of leading politi-cians had taken advantage of privi-leged information to protect their assets from a hit on bank deposits imposed by European Union-led creditors last month.

Anastasiades said the panel, which is to start its work today, would have explicit terms of ref-erence to exclude nobody from their investigations, even his own extended family.

“I want to emphasise that dur-ing tomorrow’s swearing in cer-emony for the three distinguished judges, they be given a mandate to investigate everything that is possibly related to me, including those relatives linked to me by marriage,” he said.

The massive losses suffered by savers in the island’s two largest banks in the first eurozone rescue package to punish larger deposi-tors has sparked huge resentment against anybody seen as having taken unfair advantage to shirk their share of the burden.

Big depositors in largest lender Bank of Cyprus (BoC) face losses of up to 60 percent, while those in second lender Laiki will have to wait years to see any of their money as the bank is wound up with the loss of thousands of jobs.

The government said on Sunday it was looking to free up the remaining 40 percent of BoC deposits of more than 100,000 euros that are not frozen as part of the bailout agreed with the “troika” of the EU, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund.

“Our aim is to hopefully release the 40 percent tomorrow morning in order to get a basic level of nor-mal business activity going,” said government spokesman Christos Stylianides. “We want to convince everyone connected to this freezing (the troika) that freezing cannot continue on the 40 percent capital of businesses.”

Allegations have swirled of big movements of cash out of both banks in the run-up to the bailout agreement as those in the know scrambled to protect their money.

The panel, which has three months to report its findings, will also probe a list published by Greek media of Cypriot politicians who allegedly had loans forgiven dur-ing the meltdown, Justice Minister Ionas Nicolaou said last week. AFP

Cyprus leader says nobody immune to inquiry

DUBAI: The flagship company in the ruler of Dubai’s personal business empire increased prof-its sixfold in 2012, benefiting from cost cuts and a recovery in the emirate’s property market.

Dubai Holding Commercial Operations Group’s (DHCOG) net profit rose to Dh1.2bn ($326.7m) from Dh204m in 2011, it said in a statement yesterday on the

Nasdaq Dubai bourse, where its bonds are traded.

Impairment charges dropped to just Dh7m from Dh2.4bn in 2011, said the company, which has booked billions of dollars of writ-edowns on its real estate business since Dubai suffered a corporate debt crisis in 2009.

Revenues at DHCOG, the main business unit of Dubai Holding

rose 3.8 percent to Dh9.2bn. Dubai’s economic recovery has been helped by its role as a tour-ism and business hub for the region and its strategic location between Europe, Africa and Asia, and a pick-up in residential sales has boosted the property market.

Revenues from property sales, rental and hotel occupancy con-tributed to the increase in net

profit, the company said. As well as property division Dubai Properties Group, DHCOG incorporates hotels group Jumeirah, busi-ness park TECOM Investments and Emirates International Telecommunications.

DHCOG had a cash balance of Dh1.7bn at the end of 2012 after it repaid a $500m bond.

REUTERS

CAIRO: Egypt raised the price of state-subsidised cooking gas for the first time in two decades yesterday, a government official said, trimming an unaffordable subsidy bill but increasing the risk of unrest.

The price rise comes two days before an IMF mission arrives in Cairo to continue talks on a $4.8bn loan needed to stave off a budget crisis and support a fast-weakening currency.

Paralysed by political and eco-nomic instability since President Hosni Mubarak was ousted more than two years ago, the govern-ment is now scrambling to pay for vital food and fuel imports and Egypt’s foreign reserves are at a critical level.

Progress in reducing the state subsidy bill would help Egypt secure a long-awaited deal with the IMF. The government increased the price of cooking gas cylinders sold for domestic use by 60 percent to 8 Egyptian pounds ($1.18) a bottle, and doubled it for the bigger bottles used by busi-nesses, an official at the supplies ministry said.

Although it marks a big rise, Egyptians had grown used to pay-ing as much as 50 pounds a bottle last year on a black market where the state-subsidised gas bottles are sold at a mark-up.

Those prices have now fallen to

10 to 15 pounds a bottle, according to Egyptian media reports.

The official said the move was part of a government reform pro-gramme to bring down the cost of subsidizing energy. He said the price for butane gas cylin-ders would rise to 16 pounds for commercial use from the current price of 8 pounds.

Citing the ministry, the state news agency MENA said anyone found overcharging in the future would face “tough punishment according to the law which could include prison sentences”. It did not say how the distribution sys-tem would be improved.

The IMF delegation is due to arrive tomorrow.

President Mohamed Mursi initialled an IMF agreement in November but postponed ratifi-cation in December when a row over the extent of his powers trig-gered unrest. In another step to curb the energy subsidy bill, the government has said it plans to introduce a new fuel rationing system from July 1.

But in a sign that implemen-tation could be delayed, the oil minister was quoted as saying the government had planned for a scenario in which implementa-tion is delayed until January, and another where it is put off until the next financial year.

REUTERS

Profits surge at Dubai ruler’s flagship firm

Egypt lifts gas price ahead of IMF visit

BRENT

$109.66

DUBAI

$105.88

QATAR EXCHANGE | DAILY TRADING REPORT | 01-04-2013

INTERNATIONAL MARKETS A List of Shares from the worldCOMPANY CLOSE NET VOLUME NAME CHG TRADED

COMPANY CLOSE NET VOLUME NAME CHG TRADED





A B G Infra-B/D 51.5 4.6 2152

A C C-A/D 1160.4 -0.85 19023

Aarti Drugs-B/D 136.1 -7.15 6112

Aban Offs-B/D 274.2 10.3 46886

Aegis Logis-B/D 131.3 4.25 8201

Alembic-B/D 16.2 0.55 10112

Alok Indus-B/D 8.96 0.76 1954817

Andhra Paper-B/D 195.3 2.45 9479

Apollo Tyre-A/D 85.8 2.4 97176

Asahi I Glass-/D 48.95 0.95 16718

Ashok Leyland-/D 22.15 0.2 192247

Bajaj Hold-A/D 911.55 -3 2906

Ballarpur In-B/D 17.85 0.45 28112

Bannari Aman-B/D 863.8 -8.4 32993

Bata India-A/D 721.4 5.6 14733

Beml Ltd-B/D 153.45 7.7 92415

Bhansali Eng-B/D 15.02 0.27 2005

Bhartiya Int-B/D 202.2 2.2 2803

Bhel-A/D 181.95 5 572170

Bom.Burmah-B/D 114.1 1.15 8662

Bombay Dyeing-/D 92.4 4.9 101172

Cable Corp.-B/D 18.8 0.1 2500

Canfin Homes-B/D 142.7 4.85 4590

Castrol Ind-A/D 321.95 5.25 21486

Century Enka-B/D 102.95 2.1 2413

Century Text-A/D 296.35 8.55 68510

Chambal Fert-B/D 51.4 1.45 115503

Chola Invest-B/D 279.4 8.05 3928

Chowgule St-B/D 11.32 -0.06 6214

Cipla-A/D 384.3 4.55 115344

City Union Bk-/D 53.3 0.65 46529

Cmc Ltd-B/D 1376.6 34.85 1457

Colgate-A/D 1278.85 32.4 16977

Container Cor-/D 1057.55 27.1 301148

Dcm Shram Ind-/D 37.75 -0.5 4104

Dhampur Sugar-/D 42.9 1.3 215945

Dr. Reddy-A/D 1825.3 59 20894

E I H-B/D 56.35 1.05 18003

E.I.D Parry-B/D 152.35 3.35 11473

Electrosteel-B/D 15.95 0.45 55068

Emco-B/D 19.75 0.9 15701

Escorts Fin-B/D 2.87 0.13 2410

Escorts-B/D 52.7 3.15 98305

Essar Oil-A/D 80.7 3.1 1470748

Eveready Indu-/D 17.45 0.75 51587

F D C-B/D 92.25 0.1 13000

Federal Bank-A/D 486.5 5.95 21623

Ferro Alloys-B/D 5.33 0.2 23621

Finolex-B/D 98.15 1.95 28662

Forbes-B/D 617.8 -12.2 2101

Gail-A/D 320.9 1.75 27060

Gammon India-B/D 24.5 1.45 9711

Goodricke-B/D 133.75 2.4 3558

Hcl Infosys-B/D 39.05 1.5 109377

Him.Fut.Comm-B/D 8.35 0.16 153792

Himat Seide-B/D 31.05 1.7 11511

Hind Motors-B/D 9.09 0.4 77035

Hind Org Chem-/D 12.14 1.25 23908

Hind Unilever-/D 471.55 5.45 115045

Hind.Petrol-A/D 283 -2.1 52350

Hindalco-A/D 91.7 0.2 817909

Hous Dev Fin-A/D 823 -2.75 81755

I F C I-A/D 27.3 1.2 2470645

Idbi-A/D 82.5 2.25 213901

Ifb Agro-B/D 168.95 17.5 96525

India Cement-B/D 85.15 1.4 68589

India Glycol-B/D 131 3.45 4265

Indian Hotel-A/D 55.2 1.7 154458

Indo-Bcount-B/D 10.63 0.73 3965

Indusind-A/D 416 11.05 682570

J.B.Chemical-B/D 75.8 2.25 12600

Jbf Indu-B/D 102.95 3 9133

Jct Elect P -B/D 0.4 0.01 29949

Jct Ltd-B/D 0.81 0.02 21824

Jenson&Nich.-B/D 3.04 0.25 10671

Jik Indust-B/D 0.97 -0.05 31356

Jktyre&Ind-B/D 104.2 2.7 7543

Jmc Projects-B/D 78.25 -0.4 1795

Kajaria Cer-B/D 187.8 -4.45 2102

Kalpat Power-B/D 80.45 -2.15 13635

Kalyani Stel-B/D 37.8 1.6 16931

Kg Denim-B/D 14.5 0.64 2257

Kilburnengg-B/D 11.57 -0.31 7140

Klg Systel-B/D 11.3 0.36 4463

Kopran-B/D 13.68 0.55 35454

Lloyd Steel-B/D 10.35 0.35 83067

Lloydsfin.-B/D 0.77 -0.03 7750

Lok.Hous&Con-B/D 15.37 0.67 21694

Lumax Ind-B/D 337.7 -12.15 2625

Lupin-A/D 631.2 2.15 21523

Mafatlal Ind-B/D 101.75 1.5 2314

Mangalam Cem-B/D 135.7 3.05 1203

Maral Overs-B/D 10.1 0.24 5200

Mastek-B/D 121.65 -0.8 3600

Max India L-A/D 224.55 0.65 3170

Mrpl-A/D 50.65 1.05 41816

Nagreeka Ex-B/D 17.15 1.3 1220

Nagreeka Ex-B/D 17.15 1.3 1220

Nahar Spg.-B/D 73.55 2.25 5353

Nath Seeds-B/D 3.99 0.05 2140

Nation Alum -A/D 34 0.85 231749

Navneet Pub.-B/D 59.45 1.35 38136

Nepc India-B/D 1.75 -0.11 19419

Nrb Bearings-B/D 31.5 0.45 1503

O N G C-A/D 308.2 -3.35 208352

Ocl India-B/D 144.5 2.7 5173

Oil Country-B/D 42.8 0.7 2468

Orchid Chem-B/D 65.95 3.1 266460

Oudh Sugar-B/D 18.95 1.55 11630

Patspin India-/D 4.54 0.06 10572

Radico Khait-B/D 130 0.2 2126

Rallis India-B/D 112.85 -2.5 41120

Rallis India-B/D 112.85 -2.5 41120

Reliance Indus/D 326.75 15 53256

Ruchi Soya-B/D 69.55 6.95 91452

S Bk Bikaner-B/D 415.9 2.85 2527

Salora Inter-B/D 17.05 0.83 1010

Sterling Tool-/D 91.05 -1.95 3555

Timexgroup-B/D 14.26 0.91 34192

Tinplate-B/D 41.55 1.25 5596

Ub Engineer-T/D 23 0.45 5251

Ub Engineer-T/D 23 0.45 5251

Ucal Fuel-B/D 51.55 2.4 1682

Ucal Fuel-B/D 51.55 2.4 1682

Ultramarine-B/D 63.1 -0.3 13985

Unitech P -A/D 24.95 1.45 3883969

Uppergsugar-B/D 38 -0.75 1296

3I Group/D 314.8013 6.2 2125351

Assoc.Br.Foods/D 1898.0196 29 795769

B Sky B/D 882.3223 6.5 2064232

Barclays/D 288.05 3.25 35909705

Bg Group/D 1127.5 6.5 8713417

Bp/D 459.9 -3.55 32870898

Brit Am Tobacc/D 3527 13.5 2667308

British Airway/D 276.4574 0 0

Bt Group/D 278 3.5 12636818

Centrica/D 367.7 0.7 9167174

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Hsbc Holdings/D 693.8 4.9 21577381

Imperial Tobac/D 2278.3187 46 2347539

Kingfisher/D 287.4861 3.1 9045799

Land Secs Grou/D 830 15.5 1908131

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Lloyds Bnk Grp/D 48.69 -0.01 149461329

Marks & Sp./D 390 -0.4 3821324

Next/D 4351.9752 10 412791

Pearson/D 1182 8 2420481

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Rank Group/D 165 -5.1 77147

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Standrd Chart /D 1709.0127 -0.5 4265743

Tate & Lyle/D 854.78132 25 3772423

Tesco/D 382.1142 3.85 18078886

Tomkins/D 0 0 0

Unilever/D 2784 34 2695382

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LONDON

EXCHANGE RATE

GOLD & SILVERWORLD STOCK INDICES

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Buying Selling

QE Market Summary Comparison Today Previous day

01-04-2013 31-03-2013

Index 8,500.96 8,577.72

Change 76.76 8.54

% 0.89 0.10

YTD% 1.70 2.62

Volume 3,779,081 2,198,117

Value (QAR) 258,669,468.05 197,800,993.09

Trades 2,340 1,639

Up 14 | Down 23 | Unchanged 02

INDEX Day’s Close Pt Chg % Chg Year High Year Low

20 MARKETTUESDAY 2 APRIL 2013


GOLDQR187.6464

SILVERQR 3.3038

US$ ..........................QR 3.6305 QR 3.6500

UK ...........................QR 5.4973 QR 5.5740

Euro .........................QR 4.6387 QR 4.7031

CA$ ..........................QR 3.5504 QR 3.6203

Swiss Fr ..................QR 3.8093 QR 3.8656

Yen ..........................QR 0.0385 QR 0.0392

Aus$ ........................QR 3.7595 QR 3.8331

Ind Re ......................QR 0.0666 QR 0.0679

Pak Re .....................QR 0.0366 QR 0.0374

Peso ........................QR 0.0884 QR 0.0901

SL Re .......................QR 0.0285 QR 0.0291

Taka .........................QR 0.0462 QR 0.0471

Nep Re ....................QR 0.0418 QR 0.0426

SA Rand ..................QR 0.3914 QR 0.3996

All Ordinaries 4979.868 -27.179 -0.54 5174.4 4664.6

Cac 40 Index/D 3731.42 19.78 0.53 3871.58 3600.81

Dj Indu Average 14578.54 52.38 0.36 14585.1 12035.1

Egypt Cma Gn Idx 1026.29 32.57 3.28 999.95 312.38

Hang Seng Inde/D 22299.63 -165.19 -0.74 23944.74 21975.9

Iseq Overall/D 3958.27 45.15 1.15 3993.49 3396.67

Karachi 100 In/D 18272.11 228.8 1.27 18312.65 16036.31

Nikkei 225 Index 12135.02 -262.89 -2.12 12650.26 10398.61

S&P 500 Index/D 0 0 0 1570.28 1266.74

Straits Times/D 3307.58 -0.52 -0.02 3321.62 3160.83

Straits Times/D 2989.31 24.69 0.83 3035.78 2657.77

QE Indices SummaryQE Index 8,500.96 0.89 %

QE Total Return Index 12,105.69 0.30 %

QE Al Rayan Islamic Index 2,564.17 0.53 %

QE All Share Index 2,156.42 0.33 %

QE All Share Banks & Financial Services

2,033.83 0.27 %

QE All Share Consumer Goods & Services

5,184.34 0.12 %

QE All Share Industrials 2,970.67 1.09 %

QE All Share Insurance 1,999.19 0.46 %

QE All Share Real Estate 1,527.82 0.18 %

QE All Share Telecoms 1,166.12 0.57 %

QE All Share Transportation 1,460.07 0.79 %

23SPORT TUESDAY 2 APRIL 2013


Bosh dazzles as Heat beat SpursPower forward scores winning 3-pointerSAN ANTONIO, Texas: Miami superstars LeBron James and Dwyane wade sat out the NBA’s marquee match-up against San Antonio yesterday, but Chris Bosh provided enough star power to lift the Heat to an 88-86 victory.

Reigning NBA champions and Eastern Confernce leaders Miami forged a three-game advantage over Western Conference leaders San Antonio for the best record in the league and home-court advan-tage throughout the playoffs.

They have also swept the sea-son series with the Spurs, earning the head-to-head tiebreaker for home-court.

Bosh, the often overlooked member of Miami’s “Big Three,” made sure the Heat didn’t miss injured James and Wade.

With the Heat trailing 85-86, the power forward drained the go-ahead 3-pointer with 1.9 sec-onds remaining as Miami held on for their second straight victory since having their 27-game win-ning streak snapped by Chicago on Wednesday.

Bosh scored 23 points on 9-of-15 shooting and grabbed nine rebounds.

Ray Allen added 14 points, Norris Cole scored 13 and Mike Miller chipped in 12 for the Heat, who improved to 58-15.

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said shortly before the game that James and Wade would sit out.

James had played on after straining his right hamstring in the first half of Friday’s win against New Orleans, although he sat out the final quarter with the Heat holding a comfortable lead.

Wade hurt his right ankle in Wednesday’s loss to the Bulls, but played on Friday.

“We’re a deep team for a rea-son. We’re prepared for this,” Spoelstra said via the team’s Twitter account as he addressed sitting his biggest stars for the key contest.

The move still raised eyebrows, because for a game at Miami early in November Spurs head coach

Gregg Popovich sent guards Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, along with forwards Tim Duncan and Danny Green home prior to the contest.

The NBA fined the club $250,000 for the move, and the Heat won the game 105-100.

Spoelstra said before the game yesterday that his decision to sit Wade, James and usual starter Mario Chalmers wasn’t in retali-ation for that move.

“I can see where you guys would draw those conclusions, but no,” Spoelstra told reporters.

“This was unforeseen.”The Spurs weren’t at 100 per-

cent either. Ginobili sat out with a hamstring strain, an injury that Popovich has indicated could see him miss the start of the play-offs.

Tony Parker had a chance at the buzzer for San Antonio, but his bank shot didn’t drop.

The Spurs’ French playmaker finished with 12 points on 4-of-14 shooting and eight assists.

Duncan registered 17 points and 12 rebounds, while Kawhi Leonard added 17 points and 11 boards for the Spurs, who had won six of their last seven games coming into the contest. AFP

Jordan Crawford #27 of the Boston Celtics tries to pass the ball as Chris Copeland #14 of the New York Knicks defends at Madison Square Garden in New York City, yesterday.

Blackhawks trounce Wings 7-1DETROIT: In less than two minutes, the Chicago Blackhawks did all the damage they needed to do. And then they just kept scoring.

The Blackhawks scored three goals during a span of 1:39 early in the first period and Brandon Saad and Dave Bolland finished with two goal apiece in the Chicago Blackhawks’ 7-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings yesterday.

“Especially these early games, it’s nice to get off to a good start,” Saad said.

“We got a couple of bounces and got a couple of goals and it was nice to play with the lead.”

Jonathan Toews added a goal and two assists and Jeremy Morin and Nick Leddy, also scored for Chicago. Cory Crawford made 33 saves.

“Contributions from everybody. It certainly helps when you get a quick start like that right off the bat,” Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said.

Cory Emmerton scored Detroit’s goal. Jimmy Howard was pulled in favor of Jonas Gustavsson early in the second period. Gustavsson made nine saves.

Chicago led 3-0 at the end of the first period after scoring on its first three shots in a 1:39 span in the game’s first four-and-a-half minutes. Morin, who was recalled from the minor leagues on Saturday, opened the scoring when he put one in from a goal-mouth scramble at 2:33.

Saad capitalized on a breaka-way off left wing to beat Howard, for his fifth goal of the season, 48 seconds later and Bolland was credited with his first goal of the game, at 4:12, when Detroit defenseman Jakub Kindl acciden-tally flipped the puck into his own net while trying to clear it from the crease. AGENCIES

Astros beat Rangers in season openerNEW YORK: The Houston Astros made their leap to the American League in some style yesterday, upstaging the Texas Rangers 8-2 to open their new era and the Major League sea-son with the franchise’s 4,000th victory.

After spending half a cen-tury in the National League, the Astros switched to the AL West this year to give baseball an even 15 teams in both leagues.

“It’s obviously a great feat for the organisation being the 4,000th win in franchise history and our first win as an American League team,” Houston manager Bo Porter told reporters.

“I’m happy for those guys in that clubhouse.”

The change is a fresh start for the Astros, who are coming off consecutive 100-loss seasons but are hoping to redefine the

franchise with first year manager Porter, and new uniforms.

In front of an excited home crowd at Minute Maid Park, the Astros made the most of their moment in the spotlight as they got their season underway a day ahead of the majority of teams.

Starter Bud Norris tossed 5 2/3 solid innings while the offense came alive behind him.

Justin Maxwell opened the scoring with a two-run triple in the fourth inning and the Astros added two more runs in the fifth before Texas cut the lead to 4-2 in the top of the sixth.

In the bottom of the sixth, how-ever, pinch-hitter Rick Ankiel delivered the game’s biggest blow, a three-run home run against reliever Derek Lowe that made it 7-2.

Lowe had just entered the game in relief of Matt Harrison, who

suffered a tough start after his career-best 2012 season earned him a five-year extension with Texas.

Despite nine strikeouts, the left-hander was charged with six runs and the loss.

“They were a very aggressive team. I knew I was in for a fight,” Harrison said.

The fight will now be a famil-iar one as the Rangers and Astros embark on a new divisional, Texas rivalry.

The Rangers, too, unveiled a new-look roster without former MVP Josh Hamilton, catcher Mike Napoli and infielder Michael Young.

Off-season acquisition Lance Berkman was slotted third in the lineup, the old hitting spot of Hamilton, and he went 2-for-4 with a run scored in his debut.

REUTERS

Texas Rangers pitcher Matt Harrison (back) throws to Houston Astros’ batter Brett Wallace in the first inning of play on opening night of

their MLB American League game in

Houston, yesterday.

NBA ResultsWashington 109 Toronto 92

New Orleans 112 Cleveland 92

Chicago 95 Detroit 94

Miami 88 San Antonio 86

NY Knicks 108 Boston 89

Indian boxer took heroin 12 times: PoliceNEW DELHI: Indian Olympic bronze-medallist boxer Vijender Singh took heroin 12 times, according to police who are investigating his links to an alleged dealer and a $24m drug haul last month.

Police in northwestern Punjab said investigations showed both Vijender, who won a bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and fel-low boxer Ram Singh procured the drug from the alleged dealer between December and February.

“Vijender Singh consumed the drug about 12 times and Ram Singh about five times,” Punjab police said in a statement Sunday which did not specify how they had reached this conclusion.

“However, they did not actively connive with the smug-glers in their activities and noth-ing was recovered from them -- as such both of them are not being arrested in the case at this stage.”

The police said Vijender, him-self a police officer in the neigh-bouring state of Haryana, had declined to provide hair and blood samples for testing last month.

Vijender, 27, who became a household name in India after winning the Olympic medal, has strongly denied any link to the drug dealer and has slammed as “ridiculous” the allegations against him.

The high-profile sportsman has not been seen in public for the past few weeks and has not issued any statement on the latest police allegations.

Police seized 26 kilograms of heroin with a street value of Rs1.3 bn ($24m) in March in the north-ern state of Punjab. The alleged dealer was arrested along with five others.

Vijender was linked to the haul after a car belonging to his wife was found outside the resi-dence of the alleged dealer near Chandigarh. AFP

Puerto doping trial reaches climax Injury forces Powell to withdraw from Stawell GiftMELBOURNE: Jamaican former 100m world record-holder Asafa Powell has with-drawn from Australia’s Stawell Gift with a hamstring injury, race organisers said yesterday.

Powell was due to race in Monday’s semi-finals but informed organisers he was experiencing tightness in his hamstring and would not line up in Australia’s oldest and richest short-distance foot race.

Powell said he would have a scan of the injury in Melbourne tomorrow.

The Jamaican sprint super-star developed soreness in the hamstring during the warm-up on Saturday although he chose to compete and finished third in his heat in 12.32 seconds off the scratch mark.

That time was good enough to qualify for the semi-finals, along with fastest qualifier and 2011 winner Mitchell Williams-Swain (12.08) and two-time Gift champion Josh Ross. Powell was competing for the first time since damaging his groin in the 100m final at last year’s London Olympics. The 120-metre Stawell Gift has been held annually since 1878 except for four years during the Second World War. AFP

MADRID: The Operation Puerto doping trial involving Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes and four co-accused is set to con-clude today with the judge ruling on whether the five were guilty of endangering public health.

Fuentes is on trial with his sis-ter and fellow doctor Yolanda as well as Manolo Saiz, Vicente Belda and Ignacio Labarta who held various positions in the Liberty Seguros and Kelme cycling teams.

The latter three are accused of facilitating Fuentes’ involvement with riders in their teams, whilst

it is claimed that Eufemiano and Yolanda Fuentes performed blood transfusions and stored and transported blood bags in a manner that represented a health risk to those undergoing the treatment.

However, it is not only Fuentes and his accomplices that have been scrutinised over the course of the 10-week long trial. The wider image of how Spanish sport deals with doping has also come under the spotlight.

From the first day of the trial Judge Julia Patricia Santamaria

did not require Fuentes to provide a comprehensive list of the sports-men and women he worked with, something which frustrated the many foreign journalists waiting to see which stellar names from other sports would be implicated.

However, the problem Santamaria has had throughout is balancing the contrasting ele-ments between the trial many wanted to see and that which was actually brought before her.

Fuentes and his co-accused are not on trial for any type of dop-ing offence as when they were

arrested in 2006, doping was not a crime in Spain.

That lack of legislation allied to the haul of some 200 blood bags seized from properties belonging to him has led to an outside view that the Spanish authorities are a soft touch when it comes to doping.

In light of the trial and Madrid’s bid for the 2020 Olympics, a new law has been drafted by the Spanish government which will bring Spanish law into line with the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) code on doping. AFP

NHL ResultsChicago 7 Detroit 1

Columbus 2 Anaheim 1

Los Angeles 3 Dallas 2

Philadelphia 5 Washington 4

Boston 2 Buffalo 0

RadioShack team rider Fabian

Cancellara (second right) of Switzerland smiles as he is kissed, as

second-placed Cannondale

team rider Peter Sagan (left) of

Slovakia poses, on the podium of the 97th Ronde van Vlaanderen

(Tour of Flanders) Classic

cycling race in Oudenaarde on

Sunday.

Boonen out of Paris-RoubaixPARIS: Tom Boonen will be unable to defend his Paris-Roubaix crown as he has yet to recover fully from a bad fall during the Tour of Flanders, his Omega Pharma team confirmed late on Sunday.

“It’s tough to have to pull out of a big race like this, but I just cannot cycle,” the 32-year Belgian champion said. “The pain is very strong and it is unlikely to get better in the next few days.”

Boonen came to grief 19 kilo-metres into Sunday’s race, fall-ing heavily and injuring his left hip and elbow as well as his right knee. AFP

SPORT24 TUESDAY 2 APRIL 2013


Al Rayyan trounce Qatar SC Pakistan will not panic: PCB chiefKARACHI: The Pakistan Cricket Board will not press the panic button after the team’s Test series whitewash in South Africa and has no plans to sack captain Misbah-ul-Haq or coach Dav Whatmore, PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf said yesterday.

Ashraf said he wanted to bring consistency and continuity to Pakistan cricket and one way of doing this was to not react harshly after one or two bad series.

“I don’t see any threat to Misbah’s captaincy or Whatmore’s tenure. They have done well with the team in the last one year and we must keep that in mind while assessing the performances in South Africa,” Ashraf said.

Pakistan were whitewashed in the three-Test series but won the T20 international and narrowly lost the five match one-day rub-ber 3-2. Critics and former play-ers have called for changes and Misbah and Australian Whatmore have come under fire for failing to motivate the team in South Africa.

Misbah, in particular, has been criticized for his slow batting and captaincy. Ashraf said losing the Test series was disappointing but he wanted to give continuity and confidence to the team.

“Whatmore has a two-year contract with us we will assess his performance at the right time. Similarly Misbah rallied the team in the ODI series and led by example,” Ashraf said.

He pointed out that in the past the problem in Pakistan cricket had been to panic early.

“Nowadays cricket is like a science and we need to give con-fidence to the players and man-agement. We will try to provide them with the best environment and facilities. We then expect them to perform accordingly.”

The PCB chief said the board realised the urgency of having a full-time batting coach attached to the team.

“We are looking into this issue and we have invited applications from interested candidates from abroad and in Pakistan. Hopefully before our next tour we will have made a decision,” he added.

He also made it clear that as long as Misbah is 100 percent fit and committed and was perform-ing himself the board expected him to deliver good results.

“Since he took over as cap-tain he has handled things well and also performed himself. He has again hit good form and his performance in the national T20 super eights cup has been very impressive.”

Misbah, 39, took over as Test captain after the spot-fixing scan-dal hit Pakistan cricket in 2010.

REUTERS

Points holds nerve to win Houston Open HOUSTON, Texas: DA Points stayed steady yesterday after a lengthy rain delay, firing a six-under par 66 for a one-stroke victory in the $6.2m US PGA Tour Houston Open.

Points was on the course at 16-under with four holes to finish -- one shot in front of clubhouse leader Henrik Stenson -- when a thunderstorm halted final round play.

The American player came back after a delay of almost three hours and parred his way in, celebrating with a shout and fist-pump when his 13-foot par putt dropped at 18 to give him a 16-under winning total of 272.

“To have a putt to win, you want that starting out every week,” said Points, who has endured a diffi-cult season that included missing seven of nine cuts.

The win gives Points a place in the Masters, as did his only prior PGA Tour triumph at Pebble Beach two years ago.

“I was in a real good flow before the rain delay, I was kind of firing on all cylinders,” Points said. “I’m real proud of myself that the rain delay didn’t put any hitch in that.”

Points had parred three holes after the rain delay before a wob-ble at 18, where his second shot just missed a bunker right of the green.

He chipped to 13 feet, and rolled in the putt to avoid a playoff with

Stenson and Horschel. “I would have liked to have been a little closer, but I’ve been putting well and I just thought you know what, just whatever happens, happens,” Points said. “Just hit a good putt and you can’t control the breaks.”

Sweden’s Stenson had birdied four of his last five holes to seize the clubhouse lead before the delay.

Stenson, a former top-five player whose effort enabled him to qualify for the Masters, carded a six-under par 66 to finish 72 holes on 15-under 273.

“To be heading back to Augusta is really special for me. I’m extremely happy with what I’ve done,” Stenson said. “It’s a very pleasing finish to birdie four of my last five holes. I played some great shots coming down the stretch.”

American Billy Horschel was level with Stenson at 15-under with only the 18th hole remain-ing. He finished with a par to complete a 66 that left him tied for second.

Dustin Johnson was in the clubhouse with a 65 for 14-under 274 before the break, and was joined there by fellow American Ben Crane, who carded a 68.

“I played really well,” Johnson said.

“I played a lot better than that but I’m not complaining shooting 65 on Sunday.”

American Jason Kokrak was

Houston Open Scores

272 DA Points 64-71-71-66

273 Henrik Stenson (SWE) 69-70-68-66, Billy Horschel 68-72-67-66

274 Dustin Johnson 69-70-70-65, Ben Crane 69-70-67-68

275 Brian Davis (ENG) 67-70-71-67, Kevin Chappell 70-70-67-68, Stewart Cink 71-66-68-70

276 Jason Kokrak 66-69-71-70

277 Brendon de Jonge (ZIM) 71-68-72-66, Charles Howell 69-72-70-66, Keegan Bradley 70-70-67-70, Lee Westwood (ENG) 68-72-67-70, Louis Oosthuizen (RSA) 70-72-65-70, Bill Haas 68-70-67-72

Golf Rankings1. Tiger Woods (USA) 11.74

2. Rory McIlroy (NIR) 10.87

3. Justin Rose (ENG) 7.01

4. Luke Donald (ENG) 6.69

5. Brandt Snedeker (USA) 6.29

6. Louis Oosthuizen (RSA) 6.05

7. Adam Scott (AUS) 5.70

8. Steve Stricker (USA) 5.68

9. Matt Kuchar (USA) 5.29

10. Phil Mickelson (USA) 5.24

11. Keegan Bradley (USA) 5.21

12. Ian Poulter (ENG) 5.17

13. Lee Westwood (ENG) 5.12

14. Bubba Watson (USA) 5.08

15. Charl Schwartzel (RSA) 4.94

16. Sergio Garcia (ESP) 4.84

17. Graeme McDowell (NIR) 4.79

18. Jason Dufner (USA) 4.64

19. Dustin Johnson (USA) 4.63

20. Webb Simpson (USA) 4.47.

14-under through 15 holes when the horn sounded to stop play, with a dozen players on the course.

Kokrak couldn’t keep pace, closing with a double-bogey at 18 to fall into ninth place. In all, eight

players had seized at least a share of the lead during the last-round shootout for the $1.08m top prize. Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, who could have reclaimed the World No. 1 ranking from Tiger Woods with a victory this week,

matched his best round of the event with a two-under 70 to fin-ish on 284.

He birdied the last two holes on both the front and back nines but consecutive bogeys at 11 and 12 set him back. AFP

DA Points poses with the trophy on the 18th green after winning the Shell Houston Open at the Redstone Golf Club in Humble, Texas, yesterday.

Emir Cup basketball: Easy victory for Al Gharafa against Al WakraBY DANOTZKI SANTOS

DOHA: Al Rayyan trounced Qatar Sports Club 78-48 in the Emir Cup basketball at the Al Gharafa Indoor Arena here yesterday.

Qatar SC looked good at the start and soared to a 13-2 advan-tage behind Leslie’s intense out-side sniping at the start of the ball game.

Tanguy Ngombo retaliated with 7 unanswered markers and Harold Boney Watson added a rainbow conversion bringing down the deficit to a solitary point at 12-13 at the end of the first period.

Leslie and Adel Khalifa drilled three successive long bombers after Okuson opened up the sec-ond quarter with a winner to tow the yellow shirts back to a double-digit lead at 24-14 midway in the period.

Al Rayyan went on a 10-1 run before Leslie and Khalifa con-spired once more for 6-2 spurt to wind up the first half with Qatar SC on top at 31-26.

Coach Brian Rowsom’s boys ran berserk in the third quar-ter to wrest the upper hand and rampaged their way to a 51-37 advantage enroute to the lopsided 30-point victory.

In the second match, Al Gharafa beat Al Wakra 89-75.

THE PENINSULA

Al Gharafa’s Awako Emanuel (left) breaks free from Mostafa Amro Samer of Al Wakra to score a point in their match of the Emir Cup basketball at the Al Gharafa Indoor Arena, yesterday. RIGHT: Al Rayyan’s Davidson Jeremeo (centre) tries to score while being challenged by Qatar Sports Club Okosun Augustin (left). PICTURES BY: ABDUL BASIT

Jordan win in AFC U-14 girls’ championship DOHA: Jordan cruised to a 5-0 victory against Bahrain as the inaugural AFC U-14s Championship kicked off here yesterday.

The star of the show was striker Leen Yasin who helped herself to a brilliant hat-trick.

Jordan took the lead after 22 minutes when little striker Leen Yasin punished slack defending in the Bahrain defence.

Jordan did score a second just before half-time – thanks to some brilliant work from Nour Zoqash.

She beat three players down the left wing before delivering for Leen Ayman, who coolly slotted into the back of the net.

Three minutes after the re-start Leen Yasin scored her sec-ond of the match and two minutes from end Leen got her hat-trick.

In the second match of Group B, Palestine trounced United Arab Emirates 7-1.

THE PENINSULA

Palestine midfielder Laila Al Shaikh scores his team’s second goal against United Arab Emirates during their AFC U-14 girls’ championship football match at Al Arabi Stadium, yesterday. Palestine won 7-1. RIGHT: Jordan defender Ityn Ayman Mohammad Alawineh (left) and Bahrain forward Zainab Qarooni vie for ball possession at Al Arabi SC Stadium, yesterday. PICTURES BY: KAMMUTTY VP

25 SPORT TUESDAY 2 APRIL 2013


Qatar ITF Futures kicks off in DohaDOHA: Three Qatari players have received a wildcard for the 1st Qatar ITF Futures 2013 tournament which kicked off here yester-day at the Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex.

Abdulla Al Mohamoud, Ali Al Saygh, and Jassem Al Zeyara will compete in the seven-day tournament hosted by the Qatar Tennis Federation (QTF).

Jordi Samper-Montana of Spain is the top seed of the tournament. The Spaniard is ranked 278 in the world.

The 22-year old has won eight ITF Circuit singles titles, three in 2013 with the most recent being his championship win at the Bahrain F1 Futures.

Jules Marie of France is the tournament’s second seed, ranked 283 in the world.

The 21-year old has won five ITF Futures titles, winning in Croatia and Portugal in 2013.

Matches start at 4:00pm and admission is free, said the QTF.THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The organising com-mittee of the Schools Olympic Program (SOP) has completed the arrangements for the finals to be staged on April 4 and 5 at the Aspire Academy of Sports Excellence.

A coordination meeting of rep-resentatives of national sports federations discussed the latest arrangements for the SOP finals to be staged on Thursday and Friday at Aspire Academy, the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) said in a press release.

The meeting was attended by the SOP Executive Director Mohammad Eisa Al Fadhala and Directors of the SOP Committees.

The SOP Preliminary Competitions featured the par-ticipation of about 25,000 students from governmental, private and

community schools. The sixth edition of SOP

under the theme of ‘Sport and Investment’ is organised by the QOC and Supreme Education Council in cooperation with Enterprise Qatar.

Al Fadhala extended his appre-ciation to the national sports fed-eration for their contributions to the success achieved by the SOP Competitions.

The national sports federations have supervised the competitions and provided referees to officiate the SOP matches.

The closing days of boys and girls competitions will feature the final matches of volleyball, basket-ball, football, handball, athletics, gymnastics, swimming, table ten-nis, tennis and fencing.

THE PENINSULA

Schools Olympic Program finals on April 4 and 5

A young kid gets instructions from a trainer during a swimming session held at Al Arabi Sports Club in this file picture of December 8, 2012. The session was part of the Schools Olympic Program (SOP). The finals of the SOP will be held on April 4 and 5.

Action from the 1st Qatar ITF Futures 2013 tour-nament at the Khalifa

International Tennis & Squash

Complex. The Qatar Tennis Federation is hosting the tournament

which will end on April 7.

Ba’s brilliance helps Chelsea beat United FA Cup: Senegalese striker nets winner for the holdersLONDON: Holders Chelsea kept one hand on the FA Cup by overcoming a lacklus-tre Manchester United 1-0 at Stamford Bridge yesterday in their quarter-final replay.

Senegalese striker Demba Ba settled the tie with a memorable goal early in the second half to send Chelsea into the last four for the sixth time in eight seasons.

Winners of four of the last six tournaments, Chelsea will play Manchester City in the semi-finals at Wembley Stadium on April 14.

Despite his unpopularity with the Chelsea fans, interim man-ager Rafael Benitez could yet end the season with two trophies, as Russians Rubin Kazan await in the Europa League quarter-finals on Thursday.

“It was a great win,” said Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech, who produced a breath-taking save from Javier Hernandez to preserve his side’s lead.

“We love Wembley, we respect the FA Cup as a whole and we always want to win.

“For my save, it was a great ball into the box and I just went as fast as I could and let my left arm do the job. Luckily I was able to reach it.”

United, meanwhile, have now gone nine years without winning the FA Cup, having seen hopes

of a league, cup and Champions League treble evaporate in the space of a month.

Their 15-point lead in the Premier League means they are virtually guaranteed to succeed City as champions, but manager Alex Ferguson faces the odd pros-pect of an end to the campaign with nothing to play for.

Benitez complained that Ferguson snubbed his offer of a handshake prior to the 2-2 draw in the sides’ first meeting, but the United manager put the matter to bed by offering Benitez a perfunc-tory handshake as the Spaniard emerged from the tunnel.

With Wayne Rooney absent due to a groin injury and Robin van Persie on the bench, Danny Welbeck supported Javier Hernandez in attack, while Phil Jones bolstered the midfield.

Neither goalkeeper was tested until United number one David de Gea blocked from Ba in the 31st minute, by which time the hosts had already lost Ashley Cole to an apparent hamstring injury.

United’s imprecision in attack forced them to rely on shots from range, with Nani drilling nar-rowly wide from 25 yards and Hernandez almost embarrassing Cech with a skidding shot that the Czech goalkeeper kicked away in unorthodox fashion.

Juan Mata had been quiet, but four minutes into the second half he created the opening goal with a lofted pass that Ba hooked past De Gea with a sublime volley.

A United equaliser seemed certain in the 61st minute when Hernandez ghosted in to meet Welbeck’s cross with a close-range header, but Cech showed astonishing reflexes to deflect the ball over the bar. AFP

Chelsea’s Demba Ba celebrates after scoring against Manchester United during their English FA Cup quarter final replay match at Stamford Bridge in London, Britain, yesterday.

Murray bounces back to No. 2MIAMI: Andy Murray’s razor-thin victory over David Ferrer for the Miami Masters crown will send the Scot to No. 2 in the world rankings for the second time in his career, but he was too tired to celebrate on Sunday.

Murray rallied after a slow start in the opening set and sur-vived a Hawk-Eye replay call at match-point down in the final set to subdue Spain’s Ferrer 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/1) in a punishing match in the heat and humidity of Key Biscayne.

Ferrer was stricken by cramps in the final-set tiebreaker, while Murray opted not to receive treatement on a tweaked ankle just to avoid prolonging the endurance test.

“We were both in the locker room afterwards,” Murray said. “I wasn’t up celebrating with my team. We were just kind of sitting there, because we’re just incred-ibly, incredibly tired after a match like that.”

The 25-year-old Scot captured his first title in the ATP’s elite Masters series since he beat Ferrer in Shanghai in 2011.

Since then, he has gone on to claim the Olympic singles gold in front of adoring British fans in London last year and capture the US Open crown.

Sunday’s victory takes him back to No. 2 in the world rank-ings for the first time since 2009.

His rise to the second spot behind No. 1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia will edge Swiss great Roger Federer down, while Ferrer will move back to No. 4 in the world at the expense of compatriot Rafael Nadal.

It will mark the first time since November 10, 2003 that neither Federer nor Nadal has been in the top two.

Murray, who had a chance to move to No. 2 at Indian Wells prior to Miami, said it was a relief to finally get the job done in time to turn his attention to the claycourt season capped by the French Open.

ATP Top Rankings1. Novak Djokovic (SRB) 12,370

2. Andy Murray (GBR) 8,750 (+1)

3. Roger Federer (SUI) 8,670 (--1)

4. David Ferrer (ESP) 7,050 (+1)

5. Rafael Nadal (ESP) 6,385 (-1)

6. Tomas Berdych (CZE) 5,145

7. Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG) 4,750

8. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) 3,660

9. Richard Gasquet (FRA) 3,230 (+1)

10. Janko Tipsarevic (SRB) 3,000 (-1)

11. Marin Cilic (CRO) 2,705

12. Nicolas Almagro (ESP) 2,435

13. Gilles Simon (FRA) 2,390

14. Tommy Haas (GER) 2,260 (+4)

15. Kei Nishikori (JPN) 2,135

16. Milos Raonic (CAN) 2,095

17. Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) 1,960

18. Andreas Seppi (ITA) 1,865 (+1)

19. Juan Monaco (ARG) 1,835 (-5)

20. Sam Querrey (USA) 1,825

Andy Murray of Great Britain holds aloft the trophy after his three set victory against David Ferrer of Spain during their final match at the Sony Open at Crandon Park Tennis Center in Key Biscayne, Florida, on Sunday.

“I was getting asked about it quite a lot, and it’s nice just to have been able to do it this week,” he said.

“So I don’t have to go into Monte-Carlo or Madrid or Rome and kind of be worrying or think-ing about that.

“For me it doesn’t change a huge amount, but the fact that

I’m moving up the rankings is a good sign. I have been winning a lot of matches. My consistency has been better over the last few months. The rankings obviously reflect that.

“So I will try and keep working hard during the clay and hope-fully, you know, I can go higher.”

AFP

WTA Rankings1 (1) Serena Williams (USA) 11115

2 (2) Maria Sharapova (RUS) 10015

3 (3) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) 9325

4 (4) Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) 6845

5 (5) Na Li (CHN) 5880

6 (6) Angelique Kerber (GER) 5475

7 (7) Sara Errani (ITA) 5405

8 (8) Petra Kvitova (CZE) 5225

9 (10) Samantha Stosur (AUS) 3865

10 (9) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) 3760

11 (12) Nadia Petrova (RUS) 3125

12 (13) Maria Kirilenko (RUS) 2811

13 (15) Roberta Vinci (ITA) 2715

14 (11) Marion Bartoli (FRA) 2710

15 (14) Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) 2695

16 (16) Sloane Stephens (USA) 2520

17 (17) Ana Ivanovic (SRB) 2466

18 (24) Jelena Jankovic (SRB) 2115

19 (19) Lucie Safarova (CZE) 1930

20 (21) Navarro Suarez (ESP) 1875

English FA CupLONDON: Updated draw for the English FA Cup semi-finals after yesterday’s quar-ter-final replay:

Millwall vs Wigan

Chelsea vs Manchester City

Ties to be played on the weekend of April 13/14

SPORT26 TUESDAY 2 APRIL 2013


Top teams prepare for Emir CupDraw ceremony held in Doha; 18 teams get set to take part in April 22-May 18 event DOHA: The 2013 Emir Cup draw ceremony was held yester-day with the yet-to-be-named teams pitted against each other in the five-stage event.

The draw was conducted by the Qatar Football Association (QFA).

The draw ceremony was attended by Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Thani, President of QFA, Saoud Al Mohannadi, General Secretary of QFA, Ali Al Naimi, Assistant Secretary, Ahmed Albuainain, Treasurer of QFA, and Mohammed Mubarak Al Mohanadi, Board Member of QFA.

The tournament will be con-tested by 18 teams and divided into four groups, ceremony anchor Hamad Al Hajri said.

The Emir Cup is the most pop-ular football tournament in the country.

The top officials of all the par-ticipating clubs were present at the draw ceremony held at Grand Hyatt Hotel.

A few of the Qatar Stars League (QSL) club coaches like Sebastiao Lazaroni and Alain Perrin were also present

QFA officials were also present to conduct the draw which was telecast on Al Kass Sports

Channel. The first-round matches will be held between April 22 and 28.

The second phase will be held on May 5, whereas the quarter-finals will be staged on May 8.

The semi-finals will be held on May 11 while the title clash - to be played at Khalifa Stadium - will be played on May 18, QFA said.

Commenting on the draw ceremony, Khalid Mubarak Al Kuwari, Director of Marketing and Communications, QFA, said: “Preparations for the draw cer-emony started early this year and we are happy that we have delivered and hosted a unique cer-emony this year.”

He also added: “We strive to incorporate new ideas every year to bring together astonish-ing events that are in line with the Emir Cup season. We hope all the fans will enjoy the events planned and attend the tourna-ment matches to support their teams.”

The Emir Cup will take place in 4 stadiums - Qatar Sports Club, Al Arabi Stadium, Al Sadd Stadium and Khalifa Stadium, Al Kuwari said.

More details will be made pub-lic once the QSL ends in the sec-ond week of April.

THE PENINSULA

Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Thani,

President of QFA, places the Emir Cup

trophy on the top of a dais prior to

the draw cer-emony held at Grand Hyatt

Hotel in Doha yesterday. At right is Jassim

Al Maheza, former Al

Shamal and Qatar national team player.

PICTURES: ABDUL BASIT

2013 Emir Cup - The five stages DOHA: This year’s Emir Cup will be played in five stages, Qatar Football Association (QFA) announced yesterday.

The tournament begins on April 22 and ends on May 18.FIRST STAGE:

Four Second Division teams - ranked three to six - have been placed in Group A.

SECOND STAGE:The first two teams in the Second Division and the Qatar Stars

League (QSL) teams ranked nine to 12 have been placed in Group B.

THIRD STAGE:The winners of the first two rounds and QSL teams ranked from

five to eight (5 to 8) have been placed in Group C.

FOURTH STAGE: QSL teams ranked one to four (1 to 4) plus four top sides from

the first three rounds will contest the quarter-finals.

FIFTH STAGE:The top four sides in the tournament contest the semi-finals.

FINAL MATCH:The winning sides from the two semi-finals will contest the final

on May 18 at Khalifa Stadium.

Paintings, vintage shots and the trophies ... DOHA: Football history in the country was captured through paintings, vintage shots of play-ers in action and a collection of gold-plated trophies at the draw ceremony of the 2013 Emir Cup yesterday.

A specially designed ‘Wall of Fame” had vintage pictures of past football matches and title clashes and paintings produced by schoolchildren.

The draw ceremony was attended by various high-rank-ing dignitaries including Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Thani, President of QFA, Saoud Al Mohannadi, General Secretary of QFA, Ali Al Naimi, Assistant Secretary, Ahmed Albuainain, Treasurer of QFA and a host of other top officials.

However, the charm of the ceremony was the collage of vin-tage pictures showing games and goal-scoring moments captured by photographer Sultan Al Jassim

in the last four decade. The col-lage was split into two groups - colour and black and white photos that adorned a huge wall at Grand Hyatt Hotel.

The ceremony also featured artwork made by schoolchildren who created the drawings spe-cially for the draw ceremony with Emir Cup as the theme.

The QFA president selected the 11 best drawings and later appeared in person to view the ‘remarkable’ photography of pre-vious Emir Cups with Al Jassim who documented the rich history of Qatari football.

Commenting on the occasion, Sheikh Hamad said: “We are cer-tain that this year’s tournament will be highly competitive among the teams. We wish everyone the best of luck.”

Saoud Al Mohannadi, QFA General Secretary, said: “We thank everyone for the continuous and invaluable support received

in hope of bringing together an exceptional tournament this year. We hope to see everyone at the games and we are eager to witness a competitive tournament that will exhibit good sportsmanship.”

Khalid Al Kuwari, QFA Director of Marketing, said: “The preparations and joint efforts for this year’s Emir Cup demon-strate innovative and brand new ideas which aim to showcase the

excitement and amusement asso-ciated with the tournament. We thank everyone for their efforts especially the media who play a very important role in promoting this event.”

The 2013 Emir Cup will follow a knock-out format and is divided into a five-stage event. The win-ners of the fifth stage will com-pete in the final on May 18.

THE PENINSULA

Qatar Football Association

(QFA) President Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin

Ahmed Al Thani (second right), and Saoud Al

Mohannadi (right), General Secretary of QFA, join other officials to see the ‘Wall of Fame’ at

Grand Hyatt Hotel yesterday.

We can still qualify, says coach Fahad DOHA: Coach Fahad Thani is optimistic of Qatar’s chances of qualifying for next year’s FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

Qatar must beat Iran and Uzbekistan in their next two 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches to be played in Doha in June.

“Our chances of qualifying for the World Cup are still alive,” coach Fahad said in a report posted on the www.qfa.com.qa website. “We lost to Korea last week but we are confident of pick-ing up six points in the next two matches,” he added.

Qatar take on Iran on June 4 and Uzbekistan on June 18.

‘Al Anabi’ must pick up points in their next two games. The top two sides in each group get a direct berth at the 2014 FIFA World Cup to be held in Brazil.

“We have picked up valuable lessons in the matches we have played so far,” coach Fahad said.

“We have beaten Lebanon, Egypt and Thailand in friendlies whereas we beat Malaysia in an Asian Cup qualifier. We have done well in the recent past,” he added.

Observers says the team has combined well under Fahad who took over from Brazilian Paulo Autuori at the end of January this year.

Experts also say the team has plugged the gaps on the pitch and

players have responded well to team work during matches.

Fahad also pointed out the team showed spirit in the 2-1 loss against Korea who scored the winner in the dying seconds of the Asian Zone, Group A clash at Seoul World Cup Stadium.

Qatar have scored eight goals in their last six matches, a vast improvement from the last season when the national team failed to score in key games.

Football experts also say that Fahad has brought out the best in players with strikers like Khalfan Ibrahim showing form in attacks.

Ibrahim, who plays as forward for Qatar Stars League (QSL) side Al Sadd, fired the equaliser in the game against Korea that delighted the ‘Al Anabi’ camp.

“Many positive changes have emerged,” a fan said yesterday. “The team is playing as a unit which is good to see,” the fan added.

Korean coach Choi Kang-Hee also praised Qatar last week.

“This team is different to what we have seen in the past,” he was quoted as saying. “We won late in the match and that tells you they fought hard,” he added.

Coach Fahad said: “Our target is six points from the next two matches. This is do-or-die for us, but we are confident.”

THE PENINSULA

A collection of Emir Cup trophies on display at Grand Hyatt Hotel in Doha yesterday. The one on the extreme right will be given to the winning team of the Emir Cup on May 18, 2013.

Saoud Al Mohannadi,

General Secretary of QFA, is seen

delivering a speech

at the draw ceremony.

A visitor takes

pictures with his

cellphone prior to

the draw ceremony of the Emir

Cup in Doha yesterday.

27 SPORT TUESDAY 2 APRIL 2013


In-form Juventus all smiles for big clash at Bayern MUNICH: Juventus will enter today’s heavyweight clash with Bayern Munich with smiles on their faces, an 18-match unbeaten record in Europe behind them and no concerns about the Bavarians’ nine-goal demolition of Hamburg.

Today’s quarter-final first leg is a match where the Champions League can live up to its hype, with teams who have dominated the season in Germany and Italy respectively and share 50 domestic titles between them.

Bayern, who won 4-1 in Turin when the teams last met in the 2009/10 season, have a 20-point lead at the top of the Bundesliga and produced their most emphatic win of the season on Saturday when they flattened Hamburg 9-2.

They need two more points from six games to wrap up their 23rd German league title.

Italian champions Juventus come into the game with a nine-point lead at home and well on course for a 29th Serie A title.

“We’ll head to Munich with a spring in our step knowing that we’ve done our job on the domestic front,” said Juventus coach Antonio Conte after his side won 2-1 away to bitter rivals Inter Milan on Saturday.

“We’ll head there to keep alive our dream and to test our mettle in the European arena, and we’ll do it with a smile and no fear,” added Conte, himself a rather dour figure.

“We just want to see how far behind Europe’s best we are. We’ll try to put out a strong physical side but I’ll sleep on it first,” he added.

Back in the quarter-finals after a seven-year wait, Juventus have been happy to accept the underdogs’ role, saying they cannot match the brash Bavarians’ spending power.

Yet, in European terms, they have looked more impressive than their opponents. Although Bayern are a fearsome prospect on their day, they are prone to sudden lapses especially at the Allianz Arena which hosts the first leg.

They lost last season’s Champions League final at their own stadium, beaten on penalties by Chelsea after a 1-1 draw, and were knocked out by Inter Milan at home two seasons ago, losing 3-2 in front of their own fans after winning the first leg 1-0 away.

Bayern suffered another bout of Allianz jitters earlier this month when, having won 3-1 at Arsenal in the first leg of their last-16 tie, they froze in the return and lost 2-0, surviving by the skin of their teeth thanks to the away goals rule. Bayern also suffered a shock 3-1 defeat away to BATE Borisov in the group stage this season, although they bounced back convincingly to reach the last 16.

Juventus, aiming to reach the semi-finals for the first time in a decade, have not lost in European competition for three years since a 4-1 defeat to Fulham in the Europa League.

They were knocked out of the following year’s Europa League with-out losing any of their 10 games and are also unbeaten in the current campaign, where they have won their last six games.

Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes, struggling to contain the climate of jubilation at a club nicknamed FC Hollywood, did his best to calm things down after Saturday’s gala display.

“We played textbook football at times, and that’s basically what we have to do on Tuesday,” said Heynckes, who will be without midfielder Javi Martinez because the Bundesliga’s record signing is suspended.

“It definitely won’t be possible in the same way,” he said cautiously. “Tuesday will be a totally different match. Juventus are one of the top teams in Europe, very aggressive and full of running.” REUTERS

Paris Saint-Germain players gather for training during a practice session at the Camp des Loges in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, west of Paris, on the eve of a Champions League quarter-final football match against Barcelona.

PSG face toughest test against Barcelona today Champions League: First leg of quarter-finals in Paris

This combo made on March 31, 2013 shows Barcelona’s Argentinian forward Lionel Messi (left) and Paris Saint-Germain’s (PSG) Argentinian forward Ezequiel Lavezzi. Barcelona will face PSG in their Champions League quarter-final, first-leg match in Paris today.

PARIS: Qatari-backed Paris St Germain’s mission to be considered one of Europe’s top clubs faces its toughest test yet when they host Barcelona in an intriguing Champions League quarter-final first leg today.

Barcelona, having recovered from a first-leg stumble in their last-16 tie against AC Milan to qualify for the last eight 4-2 on aggregate, are widely considered favourites to win the trophy for the fourth time in eight seasons at Wembley in May.

PSG, who saw off Valencia in the last 16, believe however that this could be a turning point in their climb to the peak of the European game.

The wealthy French club, under experienced coach Carlo Ancelotti, are on course for their first domestic title for 18 years as well as being in the last eight of the Champions League after an 18-year absence.

They go into today’s tie, how-ever, as underdogs for the first time this season - and will do well to survive it.

Qatari fund QSI has set PSG a tough agenda of winning the Champions League within five years, having bought the club last year and poured huge amounts of money into transfers to build a team made for Europe.

Centre back Thiago Silva, front man Zlatan Ibrahimovic and for-ward Ezequiel Lavezzi, who all signed last year, have been key in helping PSG reach this stage, and at least they have a good omen on their side.

The last time they reached the quarter-finals in 1995, they beat Barcelona but much has changed since. PSG have been absent while Barcelona have been crowned European champions three times.

Thiago Silva said the tie was “the game we all were dreaming

about” and the expensively pur-chased trio will have to raise their level to the heights if PSG are to stand any chance of winning.

Latest signing David Beckham, who joined them on a five-month deal in January, believes they can meet these expectations.

“This club have high aspira-tions. We want to go as far as we can in all competitions,” the former England captain told reporters after the Ligue 1 home win over champions Montpellier on Friday.

“It’s obvious that we have the players for it. There’s no doubt we have the mentality. Now, it’s up to us to prove it on the pitch.

“Or course, it will hard, but very exciting too,” added Beckham.

PSG’s chances were boosted when Ibrahimovic was freed to face his former club after the two-match ban imposed following his dismissal at Valencia was halved.

“It changes the deal,” midfield Clement Chantome said.

Ibrahimovic had a mixed year-long spell at Barca but said facing them again would not pose any problems for him.

“I have already played against Barcelona since I left and the game will be special for every-body here,” said the Swede, who faced his former team-mates in the group stage with AC Milan

in 2011. “How to beat them is the question. We will need to stay focused and the coach will prob-ably set up specific tactics to block the best team in the world.”

While PSG will bank on Ancelotti’s tactical expertise, his Barcelona counterpart Tito Vilanova could return to the dug-out for the first time after two months in New York receiving cancer treatment during which his assistant Jordi Roura has been in charge.

Vilanova flew back to Barcelona last week and took training on Friday but did not travel with the side to Vigo on Saturday.

“The return of Tito re-ener-gises the whole team,” goalkeeper Jose Manuel Pinto said after their 2-2 draw at Celta Vigo.

The La Liga leaders main-tained their 13-point advantage over Real Madrid at the top of the standings, with nine games left to play, but were disappointed to concede a late equaliser despite having fielded a weakened side.

World Player of the Year Lionel Messi set up the first and scored the second to complete a run of netting in 19 successive league games, against every team in La Liga consecutively.

Vilanova called up Jordi Alba and Xavi, who missed Saturday’s game but have both recovered from hamstring strains they suf-fered while on international duty with Spain.

Captain Carles Puyol and Adriano Correia are out injured and, with forward Pedro sus-pended, Cristian Tello could feature in Paris. The pacy 21-year-old winger scored Barca’s first against Celta and set up the second for Messi.

“Tello is an option,” Roura said. “He is a player with a lot of talent who brings something different to the team.” REUTERS

Mario Gomez (left) and Philipp Lahm (right) of German Bundesliga soccer team FC Bayern Munich during the final training on the club grounds in Munich, Germany, yesterday. The FC Bayern team takes on Juventus Turin from Italy for the quarter-final, first leg, of the Champions League today.

European Champions League FixturesPARIS: European Champions League quarter-final first leg fix-tures this week (all kick-offs 1845GMT):

Today

At Paris

Paris SG (FRA) vs Barcelona (ESP)

At Munich, Germany

Bayern Munich (GER) vs Juventus (ITA)

Tomorrow

At Malaga, Spain

Malaga (ESP) vs Borussia Dortmund (GER)

At Madrid

Real Madrid (ESP) vs Galatasaray (TUR)

Second legs

Tuesday, April 9

At Dortmund, Germany

Borussia Dortmund (GER) vs Malaga (ESP)

At Istanbul

Galatasaray (TUR) vs Real Madrid (ESP)

Wednesday, April 10

At Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona (ESP) vs Paris SG (FRA)

At Turin, Italy

Juventus (ITA) vs Bayern Munich (GER)

Semi-final draw - Friday April 12

PSG want Beckham to extend his contract PARIS: Paris St Germain chairman Nasser Al Khelaifi wants former England captain David Beckham to extend his contract with the French club for another year.

“We are going to talk with him about it. But frankly, we really want to keep him with us next season,” Al Khelaifi told French sports daily L’Equipe yesterday.

Beckham, 37, joined the wealthy French side as a free agent in January on a five-month deal and said he was considering a second season at the capital club.

“He’s fantastic, on and off the pitch. Signing David has been one of my best decisions,” Al Khelaifi said.

“He’s outstanding as a person, as a player, as an ambassador. He

has really made an impact in this squad. Everybody loves him.”

Meanwhile, Barcelona sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta has said UEFA have set a precedent by clearing Paris Saint-Germain striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic to play against his former club in the Champions League quarter-finals today.

Ibrahimovic had originally been given a two-match ban after being sent-off in his side’s 2-1 win over Valencia in the first-leg of their last-16 round tie.

However, an appeal against the second match of his ban was upheld last week.

“What matters to me about this decision is the result. The fact that Ibra is going to be able to play,” he told reporters.

“I suppose that from now on UEFA will continue to use this same criteria in similar cases.

“We already know Ibrahimovic well. He is a great player. He scores goals, is quick and has great technical ability. With Ibra it is obvious that PSG is a better team.”

Zubizarreta was though delighted to have manager Tito Vilanova back amongst the party that flew to the French capital on Monday morning.

Vilanova only returned to Barcelona last week after under-going cancer treatment in New York for the past two months and is expected to take his place on the touchline for the first time since January at the Parc des Princes. AGENCIES

Cole out for ‘at least two weeks’ LONDON: Chelsea left-back Ashley Cole will be out for at least a fortnight after injur-ing his hamstring in his side’s FA Cup win over Manchester United yesterday, interim man-ager Rafael Benitez revealed.

Cole pulled up mid-way through the first half of the quarter-final replay at Stamford Bridge and was replaced by Ryan Bertrand after hobbling off.

“With this kind of injury, it’ll be at least two weeks,” Benitez said yesterday.

He also revealed that centre-back Gary Cahill will be on the sidelines for “another 15 days at least” due to a knee complaint.

Chelsea won the game 1-0 through a 49th-minute Demba Ba volley to set up a semi-final meeting with Manchester City on April 14.

Benitez must manage his squad through a congested period - the United clash was the second of six games in 16 days. AGENCIES

Teams (probable): Paris St Germain: 30-Salvatore Sirigu; 26-Christophe Jallet, 2-Thiago Silva, 13-Alex, 17-Maxwell; 29-Lucas, 24-Marco Verratti, 14-Blaise Matuidi, 27-Javier Pastore; 18-Zlatan Ibrahimovic, 11-Ezequiel Lavezzi Barcelona: 1-Victor Valdes; 2-Dani Alves, 3-Gerard Pique, 14-Javier Mascherano, 18-Jordi Alba; 16-Sergio Busquets, 6-Xavi, 8-Andres Iniesta; 4-Cesc Fabregas, 10-Lionel Messi, 7-David Villa

Probable teams:Bayern Munich: 1-Manuel Neuer; 21-Philipp Lahm, 5-Daniel Van Buyten, 4-Dante, 27-David Alaba; 6-Bastian Schweinsteiger; 25-Thomas Mueller, 39-Toni Kroos, 10-Arjen Robben, 7-Franck Ribery; 9-Mario MandzukicJuventus: 1-Gianluigi Buffon; 15-Andrea Barzagli, 3-Giorgio Chiellini, 19-Leonardo Bonucci; 21-Andrea Pirlo; 23-Arturo Vidal, 6-Paul Pogba, 8-Claudio Marchisio, 22-Kwadwo Asamoah; 32-Alessandro Matri, 27-Fabio Quagliarella.

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The Emir Cup trophy is seen

at the draw ceremony held at Grand Hyatt Hotel in Doha

yesterday. A total of 18

teams will take part in the April

22-May 18 event. The Emir Cup is the most popular football tournament in the country. Fierce battle is expected

among the 18 participating teams. The

event will be played at four

venues. PICTURE: ABDUL BASIT

Teams get ready for Emir Cup

QMMF aims higher in new Moto2 season DOHA: The Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) is pinning hopes on experienced Australian rider Anthony West and his junior partner from Indonesia Rafid Topan Sucipto to better last sea-son’s performances in this year’s Moto2 World Championship which begins later this week.

At the fag end of the 2012 sea-son, QMMf Racing Team rider West powered his way to podium twice, finishing second at Sepang Circuit and Phillip Island in spec-tacular fashion.

It was the first time that a QMMF Racing Team rider had reached the podium in a team that is only two seasons old.

“Everybody in the MotoGP family knows that we are invest-ing in our plans, in our teams. We are planning carefully,” Nasser bin Khalifa Al Attiyah, QMMF President, said yesterday.

“We were looking to compete hard with other teams,” he said.

“We hope we can produce good results this year also.

“We hope better results are recorded. We know it is not easy but we have given our riders very good exposure,” Al Attiyah pointed out.

“We have done well in pre-sea-son testing. (In 2013), we won’t accept anything lower than last year,” he added.

THE PENINSULA

A night shot of Losail International Circuit. The same venue will host the opening round of the 2013 MotoGP World Championships on April 7. The bike family starts to arrive in Doha today.

Anthony West of Australia is seen with Nasser

bin Khalifa Al Attiyah, President of Qatar

Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) in

Sepang, Malaysia, in this October 2012 file photo.

West, who managed two podium finishes

last season, will race for QMMF Racing Team with Grand Prix rookie Rafid Topan Sucipto (pictured

right) this week.

‘Spectacular’ weekend planned at Losail CircuitDOHA: The Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) will mark the 10th edition of Grand Prix of Qatar with a series of ‘spec-tacular’ events at Losail International Circuit this week, it emerged yesterday.

Visitors will check into modern-day luxury this week at Losail Circuit that is set to unveil its new grandstand, a footbridge linking the merchandise area with the paddocks and an open-roof VIP Village for bike fans.

Fireworks, a gala dinner involving the MotoGP family or riders and backroom staff and ‘track fun’ between races is part of the plans beginning April 3 until the 7th, QMMF said. THE PENINSULA

Test for La Liga sidesThree Spanish clubs set sights on emulating 2000 feat PARIS: Barcelona, Real Madrid and Malaga will look to set themselves up for a place in the Champions League semi-finals with impressive performances in their quar-ter-final first legs this week.

The last time the Spanish had three sides in the last four was in the 1999/2000 season.

Barcelona travel to Paris Saint Germain, whose limited defensive style of play may appeal to the offensive-minded Catalan outfit.

With both Real and Malaga hosting the first legs against Galatasaray and Borussia Dortmund respectively they will want to take solid leads to Turkey and Germany the fol-lowing week.

The other quarter-final sees runaway German league leaders Bayern Munich host Serie A pacesetters Juventus, who will be hop-ing Bayern left their best form behind them with the 9-2 mauling of Hamburg on Saturday.

Barcelona will be boosted by the return of ailing coach Tito Vilanova to the dugout for the first time since undergoing two months of treatment for cancer in New York.

They will also make the trip to Paris with full-back Jordi Alba and playmaker Xavi Hernandez, although there are doubts over the fitness of both with Alba having missed Spain’s midweek 1-0 2014 World Cup qualifier

win over France. However, they are reported to have recovered from their respective ham-string problems and leaves Barcelona only without injured defensive duo Carles Puyol and Adriano.

Spain’s scorer last week, Pedro Rodriguez, is suspended.

PSG have plenty to be encouraged about as they are unbeaten at home in European competition for over six years while Barcelona have already lost twice on their travels in this season’s tournament.

They also welcome back leading striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who had his two-match Champions League suspension reduced last week, and he will be looking to deny one of his former sides a place in the last four.

PSG coach Carlo Ancelotti, a winner of the competition both as a player and as a manager, said that he would not be changing anything in their strategy as they bid to emulate their 1995 predecessors’ achievement in eliminating Barcelona in the quarter-finals.

“Everyone knows all about Barca,” said the 53-year-old Italian. “But we want to put out a side that is looking to play football, even if we are up against one of the best sides in the world.”

Real coach Jose Mourinho, who is bidding

to win the trophy for the third time with a different side, having won with Porto in 2004 and Inter Milan in 2010, had been reported to have advised Ancelotti on how to beat his bit-ter domestic rivals, though, the Italian denied such help had been forthcoming.

Mourinho has enough of a challenge in keeping his job than helping others do so after a disappointing title defence in Spain and only a Champions League win might suffice to see him at the Bernabeu next term.

“It will be tough, but we must try and get a positive result at home in the first leg, which is not what we managed to do against Manchester United (a 1-1 draw in Madrid),” he said. “We must go there with at least a small advantage.”

While Mourinho revels in his nickname of ‘The Special One’ his Galatasaray counterpart, Fatih Terim, is known as ‘The Emperor’ after three spells in charge.

Having guided them to their first Champions League quarter-final since 2001 he is looking forward to taking them further.

“We don’t need to describe Real Madrid, everyone knows they are a very good team, known across the world, and they eliminated Manchester United,” he told The Guardian.

REUTERS

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