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Issue No. 1469 www.alwatandaily.com 150 Fils with IHT

SUNDAY, JUNE 24, 2012 @alwatandaily 12 PAGES

Government to ‘carefully’ handle court verdictMohammed Al-Salman, Mohammed Al-Khaldi, Osama Al-Qatari and Ahmed Al-ShemmariStaff Writers

KUWAIT: The government has decided to carefully go about instituting the procedures pertaining to the re-instatement of the 2009 Parliament to avoid the country from plunging into another political crisis, an informed government source reported.

Reportedly, the executive authority intends to take its time in handling this issue even if this might be a pro-tracted process so that a solid constitutional basis is put in place.

The source indicated that the main problem lies in the convening of the dissolved 2009 Parliament amid the res-ignation of certain MPs and the refusal of others includ-ing the former Speaker of Parliament Jassem Al-Kharafi to call a session to offer the government a constitutional cover.

While the Majority Bloc is closely monitoring the political situation in the country, a source within the Mi-

nority Bloc affirmed that members of the bloc will meet at MP Ali Al-Rashed’s diwaniya to examine the situation in the political arena and listen to some of the MPs who served the 2009 Parliament.

An informed source within the Minority Bloc point-ed out that the bloc wants to ascertain the mechanism that would be employed by the government to address the situation and the manner by which it will enforce the Constitutional Court’s verdict. The said MPs would try to establish whether those procedures would involve any concessions for the Majority from the government at the expense of the State’s constitutional and legal prin-ciples.

Meanwhile, Al-Kharafi is expected to return home today and to meet with His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah to discuss the recent political developments and the stance toward the enforcement of the court’s ruling.

It has been reported that they will also discuss what is required of the 2009 MPs in order to break the stale-mate. A parliamentary source informed that the Minority

Bloc will relay to the speaker the outcome of their meet-ing to pass it on to the Amir.

For his part, the Minister of Information Sheikh Mo-hammad Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah asserted that the committee formed by the government to explore a proper mechanism for enforcing the court’s order will not be hasty in issuing its report before having a clear insight into all the relevant constitutional and legal aspects.

Speaking to Al Watan in an exclusive interview, Al-Abdullah stated that the committee seeks not to preoc-cupy the entire Cabinet with the issue throughout the week and reduce its meetings so that proper solutions are put forth in regards to the application of the law.

He explained that the committee has not been given a deadline to offer its vision; rather it has been asked to take its time until desired results are reached.

In another twist, a constitutional expert affirmed that the government has no right to dissolve the 2009 Par-liament until its takes oath before it, warning that the upcoming assembly will meet the same fate as the 2012’s unless proper measures are followed.

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We will not be hasty in dealing with court ruling: Al-Abdullah

Kuwaiti crude continues downwards trend hitting $87.75 pb

KUWAIT: Price of Kuwaiti crude oil went down by 1.01 US dollars on Friday reaching $87.75 per barrel (pb), compared with $88.76 pb the day before, said Ku-wait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) on Saturday.

Persistent fall of the Kuwaiti crude price that put it at its lowest level this year coincided with drastic decline of the oil prices on international markets, as a result of tension and apprehension resulting from the European economic and financial crises. However, prices of the for-ward deals of the Brent crude rose, on Friday, by two dollars, posting $91.01 pb for the August deliveries. Like-wise, the prices of the forward deals rose two percent, after a drop of four percent on Thursday. Stormy weather in Mexico bay prompted some oil companies to evacu-ate non-necessary workers from operations’ sites. Price of the American light crude for the August delivery stood at $79.76 pb. More on 6

Egypt to announce next president today

Tensions soar ahead of Egypt poll result

CAIRO: Tensions soared in Egypt on Satur-day a day before the result of a divisive presi-dential election and as the Muslim Brotherhood sparred with the ruling generals over what it sees as a military power grab. The electoral commis-sion overseeing the divisive contest between Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Mursi and for-mer Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq said it will an-nounce the official winner on Sunday.

“Faruk Sultan, the head of the presidential election commission, will announce the results of the presidential election run-off on Sunday at 3:00pm (1300 GMT),” the commission’s secre-tary general, Hatem Bagato, said in a statement.

Hundreds of Brotherhood supporters spent the night in Cairo’s iconic Tahrir Square, having

vowed to stay there until the election result is published.

“Mursi, Mursi, God is the Greatest,” the pro-testers chanted in anticipation of a victory for their candidate, who says he won according to tallies provided by electoral officials. Both Mursi and Shafiq have claimed victory in the election for a successor to Hosni Mubarak, sparking ten-sions between the rival camps that have deepened after the electoral commission delayed announc-ing the official outcome.

The delay in the announcement of the result of the June 16-17 run-off, initially scheduled for Thursday, has raised suspicions that the outcome of the election is being negotiated rather than counted. More on 3

Egyptian protesters sleep under a tent in Tahrir Square during continuing protests as the country awaits the outcome of a presidential runoff vote in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, June 23, 2012. (AFP)

Syria forms new government, keeps top ministers

BEIRUT: Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad issued a decree to form a new gov-ernment on Saturday, shaking up many cabinet posts but keeping the heads of the interior, defense and foreign ministries, state television reported.

The reappointment of Defense Minis-ter Daoud Rajha will quash widespread rumors, previously denied by the govern-ment, that he had been assassinated by rebels who are struggling to bring down President Bashar Al-Assad’s rule.

The 16-month uprising, which has faced a brutal government crackdown, is increasingly being termed a civil war by foreign observers.

Assad argues he is pursuing reforms even as he fights a revolt he says is led by foreign-backed militants.

But critics say Assad’s appointment of Riyad Hijab as prime minister earlier in June was a sign the president was turning

to hard-line loyalists. Hijab formed the new government given Assad’s approval, Syria TV said on Saturday. Hijab, a for-mer agriculture minister, is a committed member of Assad’s Baath Party, which has ruled Syria for nearly four decades since his father Hafez al-Assad took power in 1970. Most of the top government posts were given to Baathist loyalists. Critics consider the cabinet to be largely symbol-ic and say power in Syria remains in the hands of Assad and his close inner circle of family and security force elites.

The new cabinet follows a May 7 par-liamentary election which Assad said was part of the path to reform but the oppo-sition boycotted as a sham, insisting the president must step down.

Other than Rajha, the ministers to re-tain their post were Interior Minister Mo-hammed Ibrahim Al-Shaar and Foreign Minister Walid Al-Mouallem. More on 3

Turkish, Syrian forces seek downed Turkish jet

ANKARA/BEIRUT: The Turkish and Syrian navies conducted a joint search on Saturday for Turkish airmen shot down by Syria over the Mediterranean, only a short distance from a Turkish province hosting thousands of rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad. Signals from both sides suggested neither wanted a military confrontation over Friday’s shooting down of the jet near their borders. However, the joint operation will clearly sit uneasily with both forces, given the bitter hostility between the two former allies over Assad’s 16-month-old crackdown on opponents. Iraq, which borders both countries, said the incident marked a serious escalation of the Syrian conflict and demonstrated its potential to infect other countries in the region.

“No country is immune from this spillover because of the composition of the societies, the extensions, the connections, the sectarian, ethnic dimensions,” Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said in Baghdad. “This is not an ex-cuse to do nothing about Syria, no. But there will be an impact.” Turkey has declared it will respond decisively. -Reuters See also 5

Hamas threatens to escalate attacks on Israel

JERUSALEM: Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers threatened to escalate fighting with Israel on Saturday after airstrikes killed several gunmen in the coastal territory, and Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel wounded one person and damaged an elemen-tary school in the country’s south. There are periodic exchanges of strikes between Gaza and Israel but this flare-up is the most serious in months. It started with an attack by a little known al-Qaida-inspired Palestinian militant group but has extended to drag in Hamas. Hamas has largely stayed out of direct confronta-tion with Israel since a war more than three years ago although other factions have launched cross-border attacks.

Gaza militants fired over 30 rockets and mortar shells on Sat-urday alone, bringing the week’s rocket tally to more than 150, according to the Israeli military. Over a million people in south-ern Israel live in range of the rockets and the Israeli military has advised the residents to make sure they can get to a bomb shelter quickly. An Egyptian official in Ramallah said that he is trying to broker a cease-fire between the Palestinian militant groups and Israel. He said he hoped calm would be restored by late Saturday. Egypt traditionally plays a mediatin g role between the sides. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because negotiations were ongoing. There was no comment from either the Palestinian or Israeli side on the Egyptian efforts. -AP See also 3

China to conduct first manual space docking today

PARIS: China, which sent three astronauts into orbit a week ago, said they would conduct the nation’s first manual space docking on Sun-day – a key step to building a space station. In a brief dispatch, the official Xinhua news agency Saturday quoted an unnamed spokesman for China’s manned space program as saying that the highly complex maneuver would take place at noon (0400GMT) the following day. The technique is hard to master as it involves two vessels – placed in the same orbit and revolving around Earth at thousands of kilometers per hour – coming together very gently without destroying each other. China’s current space mission kicked off last Saturday when the Shen-zhou-9 spacecraft took off carrying China’s first female astronaut. Two days later, it came together with the Tiangong-1 module already in orbit around Earth. China has carried out automatic dockings three times al-ready, but the main goal of the current manned mission – China’s fourth – is to complete the first manual ‘kiss in space’, which requires great accuracy from astronauts.

China aims to complete construction of a space station by 2020, a goal that requires it to perfect docking technology – a delicate maneuver that the Russians and Americans successfully completed in the 1960s. China sees its space program as a symbol of its global stature, grow-ing technical expertise, and the Communist Party’s success in turning around the fortunes of the once poverty-stricken nation. -AFP

Primitive eye, tiny liver grown in the labNEW YORK: Japanese scientists claim to

have coaxed stem cells to develop into a ru-dimentary human liver, replete with working blood vessels and the ability to metabolize.

At the same time, another group in Japan reports the growth from stem cells of a pre-cursor of a human eyeball according to Live-Science.

Both feats were presented at the annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research in Yokohama, Japan, last week.

Although further progress is needed before fully functional lab-grown livers and eyes will be ready to implant into a human, outside experts say the new results constitute genu-ine advances in that direction - and they have other medical uses in the meantime.

Takanori Takebe, a stem-cell biologist at Yokohama City University in Japan, and his team grew a small, rudimentary liver using a recipe of just three types of cells.

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PARIS: Flash floods in Afghanistan trig-gered by days of torrential rain have killed more than 30 people, officials said Saturday, with dozens reported missing. Waters swept through villages and parts of the city of Cheghcheran in central Ghor province early on Saturday, engulfing dozens of homes, provincial spokesman Abdulhai Khatibi told AFP. “So for I can confirm that 24 people have been killed in these floods, but some are also missing,” Khatibi said.

The floodwaters also destroyed hundreds

of hectares of farmland and displaced hun-dreds of people in the impoverished prov-ince, he said.

In the northeast of the country, two days of torrential rains and hail triggered flooding in the remote province of Badakhshan, kill-ing at least eight and destroying up to 100 houses, the provincial head of the national disaster management authority told AFP.

Hundreds of villagers in high-risk areas have been evacuated as a precaution against further flooding, he said. -AFP

Afghanistan f lash f loods kill more than 30Protesters from the Climate Siren group hang a banner from the gates of Buckingham Palace, London Saturday June 23, 2012. Police say four climate change activists scaled the gates of Queen Elizabeth II’s Bucking-ham Palace home and locked themselves to railings. The group, from the Climate Siren group, wore T-shirts with the slogan “Climate emergency. 10% annual emission cuts.” The protesters unfurled a banner quoting a 2008 speech by Prince Charles, the queen’s son and heir, warning over a lack of progress on tacking climate change. It read: “’The doomsday clock of climate change is ticking ever faster towards midnight.” In a letter to the queen posted to the group’s website, the activists said they were carrying out their protest in the hope of drawing attention to stalled progress on environmental issues. “It is time that you and all public figures with influ-ence followed the example of your son by speaking up loudly ... about the escalating threat of catastrophic climate change,” the group said. About 100 people stood at the scene, watching the protest. (AP)

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1770 illegal residents come forward to modify statuses

Global Innovation Index 2011 ranks Kuwait 52nd among 125 countries

Minister announces stages of implementation of development plan

KUWAIT: The Central apparatus for Illegal Residents (Bedoun) affairs has announced that 1770 illegal residents modified their status within the last five months.

Head of Modifying status Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed al-Wahib told Kuwait news agency (Kuna) saturday that 1061 illegal residents modi-fied their status and became saudi nationals, 464 people became syrians, 170 people became Iraqis, 20 people became Jordanians, 15 people became

Iranians and 40 people changed their status to other nationalities.

al-Wahib said that the Central apparatus for Illegal Residents affairs provides a number of privileges to illegal residents who change their sta-tus including getting free residencies for all fam-ily members for five years according to article 24 (they sponsor themselves), noting that the residen-cies can be renewed.

al-Wahib urged those who would like to mod-

ify their status to visit the Central apparatus for Illegal Residents affairs’ office at the Immigration department at Mubarak al-Kabeer Governorate to submit their applications.

al-Wahib said that the Central apparatus for Illegal Residents affairs provides other privileges, in cooperation with other bodies, such as free edu-cational and health services, free ration cards and other privileges according to the Cabinet decision no 409 for 2011. -Kuna

Mervat AbduldaymStaff Writer

KUWAIT: The Global Innovation Index 2011 ranked the state of Kuwait in 52nd place among 125 countries included in the report.

director General of Kuwait Institute for sci-entific Researches (KIsR) dr. naji al-Mutairi said that the report is issued by Institut Europen d’administration des affaires (InsEad) in France in cooperation with other organizations such as the Indian Industries union, International Orga-nization for Intellectual Property Rights and aL-

CaTEL. al-Mutairi said that the report evaluates the innovative activities in the society, depending on an index for measuring innovative performance based on two elements; sub indicator of innova-tion participations and sub-indicator of innovation output.

The results of the sub-indices are based on five bases which are the activities of national institu-tions, human resources capital, research activities, infrastructure and the development of the market. The sub-indicator of innovation output is based on the scientific and innovative outcome.

dr. al-Mutairi said that Kuwait came in 52nd

place among 125 countries, however the report placed Kuwait in the 51st place in respect to inno-vative participation and innovative outcome, add-ing that Kuwait came in 39th place in respect to in-stitutes and in 32nd place for scientific outcome.

al-Mutairi said that the sub-indicator for in-novation output placed Kuwait as sixth out of 14 participating countries at arab level. He added that Kuwait came in third place in respect to institu-tions, infrastructure, development of market and scientific outcome, and came in second place at Gulf states level after Qatar in respect to scientific outcome.

KUWAIT: Minister of Electricity and Wa-ter and Minister of state for Municipality affairs Engineer abdulaziz al-Ibrahim said that the mu-nicipality prepared a plan for the stages of imple-menting the strategies of the national plan for the structural plan from 2005-2030, based on the role of the municipality to provide lands required for all development activities.

In a press statement made saturday, al-Ibrahim said that population is distributed on new residen-tial areas in each stage according to the expected capacity of each stage. He added that a plan was

prepared for conducting planning studies required to decide the locations and size of residential areas in light of the environmental, economic, planning and topographic studies.

He noted that the municipality is working, in coordination with all service ministries, on provid-ing new sites, adding that 288 square kilometers have been allocated for the Public authority for Housing Welfare (PaHW).

al-Ibrahim said that the municipality has con-ducted engineering consultancy studies based on which a number of proposals were made and raised

to the Municipal Council to take the proper deci-sion about allocation of other areas for the PaHW. He added that these sites include a city north of subiya residential area and overlooks subiya Creek. He added that the new area is 79.9 square kilometers and is near the main bridge leading to Bubyan island and Mubarak al-Kabeer port.

al-Ibrahim said that the residential area west of abdullah al-Mubarak City is 9.02 square kilo-meters, noting that it is near the current residential areas as well as the sixth Ring Road and opposite to the shadadiah university. -Kuna

Minors’ Affairs headquarters is 27.5 percent completed: Ministry

Kuwaiti travel documentations handwritten, unprinted in 1930s: researcher

KUWAIT: up to 27.5 percent of construction of the Headquarters of Minors affairs in Mirqab area has been accomplished, announced Ministry of Public Works on saturday. The ministry launched this project on June 15, 2011, on a total area of

10, 555 square meters, said director of office of Public Relations (PR) in the Ministry of Public Works, Hameed yousef Bushehri. The main build-ing is an area of 5,550 square meters and consists of two towers of different heights. It includes ad-

ministrative offices for the staff with a capacity of 1,200 employees and the higher tower consists of 25 storeys and the lower tower has 16, he added. Bushehri pointed out that more work will be done to this project to be finalized. -Kuna

KUWAIT: Travelling in the 1930s was not as a familiar process as it is nowadays since Kuwaiti people, back in the days, had no passports to travel with; their travels targeted few countries and were restricted to an agreement between the government of Kuwait and the British empire, researcher in the Kuwaiti heri-tage dr. yagoub al-Ghunaim told Kuwait news agency (Kuna).

People who wanted to travel had to go the amir’s secretary scholar saleh bin Mohammad al-Mulla. as a secretary of the amir sheikh ahmad al-Jaber al-sabah, the 10th ruler of Kuwait, he was assigned for the duties of issuing travel-ling documentations.

“These documentations were hand-written and unprinted, however; these simple forms served the purpose of iden-tifying the traveler by name and the des-tination he or she wanted to travel to,” al-Ghunaim noted.

He further explained that whoever wanted to travel had to stop by scholar saleh’s office who, on this part, had to write a letter to the resident British po-litical agent in Kuwait. The letter men-tioned the traveler’s name and his or her nationality. The letter, then, was given to the British house of accreditation. after paying one Rupee (75 fils), a travelling certificate was issued.

This procedure was necessary because

Kuwaiti people back then did not have any official identification cards or other official documents.

The travelling documentations were 30 centimeters long. They contained pho-to and personal information of the carrier of the document. at the top of the paper, there was the royal crest of the British Empire.

On his part, Talal saad al-Rumaidi, another researcher in the Kuwaiti heri-tage, said that these travel documenta-tions continued to be issued from the British Council in 1945 since the British were responsible for the Kuwaitis back then.

He clarified that Kuwait was under the British protection after an agreement signed between Britain and former ruler of Kuwait sheikh Mubarak al-sabah in 1899.

This protection shifted Kuwait’s for-eign affairs to the British, therefore; the latters had the duty to protect the Ku-waitis during their travels. The protection agreement was cancelled after Kuwait gained its independence in 1961. after 1961, al-Rumaidi noted, “Everything has changed and ministries emerged to take over more specific responsibilities, hence, the emergence of the ministry of interior that has been assigned the issuance of passports as they are known by everyone nowadays.” -Kuna

Handout dia-gram of the Headquarters of Minors Af-fairs in Mirqab area currently being built. (KUNA)

Handout image showing Kuwaiti travel documentations handwritten and unprinted form the 1930’s. (KUNA)

Inspection team busts 2.5 tons of expired foodstuffs before distribution

KUWAIT: The assistant undersecretary of Ministry of Commerce and In-dustry abdullah al-ali unveiled that the emergency inspection team of the min-istry has discovered a store containing expired foodstuffs. Moreover, the dealer who runs the store attempted to sell the expired foodstuffs to some markets during the weekend. The team confiscated about 2.5 tons of expired foodstuffs which the dealer attempted to distribute during the weekend.

al-ali affirmed that the emergency inspection team works around the clock and always follows up the local markets during weekends because some em-ployees who watch and inspect markets are off on Fridays and saturdays leaving room for violations to occur.

Room view of the store containing expired foodstuffs that was discovered by inspectors, Saturday, June 23, 2012. (Al Watan)

Marine rescuers recover two bodies of drowned expats

KUWAIT: Marine rescuers recovered bodies of two expatriates who drowned while swimming in the southern al-Mahboula area, Kuwait Fire service direc-torate (KFsd) said Friday.

“Eyewitnesses informed KFsd operations room that two persons who were swimming off coasts in al-Mahboula were missing, prompting al-shuaiba ma-rine rescue teams to rush to the scene, and immediately began searching for the missings,” KFsd’s public relations and media director Lieutenant Colonel Khaleel al-ameer said in a statement.

“The rescue team, who were assisted by the coast guards and helicopter, found the first body off al-Mesila coast and the second was discovered today (saturday),” added al-ameer.

The two bodies were transferred to the criminal investigation department, he noted. -Kuna

NIC, Edara organize second industries, building exhibition

Online shopping thrives but some reserved

KUWAIT: The Chairman and the Manag-ing director of the national Industries Company (nIC), dr. adel Khalid al-sabeeh, announced in a press release that nIC and Edara (management) Company for organizing exhibitions will organize the second Industries and Building Exhibition next november. The exhibition will be inaugurated by the Minister of state for Housing affairs shuaib al-Muwaizri, at the hall of national industries in shuwaikh area which was already assigned for this exhibition.

al-sabeeh said in a press statement that the

exhibition will be patronized by several govern-ment authorities and a distinguished hall was as-signed for the exhibition.

“This will enable the participating companies to show as many constructional objects as possible, especially the leading factories and importers par-ticipating in the second exhibition,” he noted.

Visitors will also have enough time to view the constructional objects as the exhibition will last eight days.

More than 60 leading companies from Kuwait and saudi arabia will participate in the exhibition,

added al-sabeeh.However, the hall has an area of roughly 1,200

square meters and a car park is available that can accommodate more than 200 cars.

al-sabeeh said that participating companies will have seven days to install dcor before the ex-hibition is opened and they will have five days to remove move it after the exhibition closes.

He affirmed that the participating companies will provide great discounts and contract offers to obtain constructional objects, which will be signed during the exhibition.

KUWAIT: Online shopping has noticeably grown in Kuwait due to various reasons such as save of effort, time and availability of a wide-scale display of items that can be easily examined.

Laden al-abdul-Razzag, owner of the store, Walkin Closet, for clothes and accessories of inter-nationally renowned labels, said her promotion of the items through the internet, namely social web-sites the facebook and twitter, resulted in increas-ing number of her customers. Easy promotion of the store and its items enhanced its reputation not only locally but also abroad, abdul-Razzag told Kuwait news agency (Kuna).

Interaction with the clients on the internet, namely exchange of ideas and proposals, has con-tributed in upgrading services and promoting the

products, she affirmed.ali abdul-Rahman, an employee at a local

bank, said he entirely depends on the electronic shopping, particularly for purchase of electronic sets, spare parts and telephones, but he abstains from resorting to the websites for buying other items such as shoes and clothes, fearing that sizes may not fit. However, some dealers can be sought for they accept return of the purchased goods.

His purchase surfing covers food, movies, household items and needs as well as personal things, that are delivered within maximum one hour.

nora al-Mefrej, a media company staff mem-ber, said surveying the internet for purchase is easy, diverse and entertaining, where a large amount

of commodities can be examined. such shopping spares her time and effort of the traditional direct shopping, particularly in these times of the year when the weather is too hot, in addition to traffic jams and difficulty of parking the car.

al-Merej shops on the computer other things such as flowers that can be addressed to friends easily. Fatmah ali says she does not trust such form of dealing and prefers going personally to the mar-kets and malls to closely examine, touch and try the purchased pieces, particularly clothes.

However, she scans the sites to examine latest fashion and innovations for preliminary assess-ment of the item. Moreover, she doesn’t trust elec-tronic payments and favors the traditional way of paying. -Kuna

WORLD SUNdAY, JUNe 24, 2012

ALWATAN DAILY

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Syria forms new government, keeps top ministers

Troop shelling kills at least 30 close to Iraq border

BEIRUT: Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad is-sued a decree to form a new government on Sat-urday, shaking up many cabinet posts but keeping the heads of the interior, defense and foreign min-istries, state television reported.

The reappointment of defense Minister daoud Rajha will quash widespread rumors, previously denied by the government, that he had been assas-sinated by rebels who are struggling to bring down President Bashar Al-Assad’s rule.

The 16-month uprising, which has faced a brutal government crackdown, is increasingly be-ing termed a civil war by foreign observers. Assad argues he is pursuing reforms even as he fights a revolt he says is led by foreign-backed militants.

But critics say Assad’s appointment of Riyad Hijab as prime minister earlier in June was a sign the president was turning to hard-line loyalists. Hijab formed the new government given Assad’s approval, Syria TV said on Saturday.

Hijab, a former agriculture minister, is a com-mitted member of Assad’s Baath Party, which has ruled Syria for nearly four decades since his father Hafez al-Assad took power in 1970.

Most of the top government posts were given to Baathist loyalists. Critics consider the cabinet to be largely symbolic and say power in Syria re-mains in the hands of Assad and his close inner circle of family and security force elites.

The new cabinet follows a May 7 parliamen-tary election which Assad said was part of the path to reform but the opposition boycotted as a sham, insisting the president must step down.

Other than Rajha, the ministers to retain their post were Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim Al-Shaar and Foreign Minister Walid Al-Moual-lem.

Several new ministries were created in the new cabinet.

The moderate Qadri Jamil, a centrist who has said he is speaking both to the government and to rebels, was appointed minister of internal com-merce and consumer protection. The post is newly formed and likely to be mostly ceremonial.

Meanwhile, Syria’s army battled rebels and shelled neighborhoods in deir el-Zor on Saturday, killing at least 30 people in the eastern city in an oil-producing region close to the border with Iraq, opposition activists said.

The victims, who included three women and several children, were mostly civilians killed when shells hit their houses in the city’s Old Airport and Al-Hamidya districts, a source at a city hospital told Reuters.

“The death toll is likely higher. There are more bodies at the morgue, but they have not been iden-tified yet,” the source said.

Syria has restricted media access since the start of the uprising against President Bashar Al-Assad in March 2011, making it hard to verify accounts from authorities or activists.

Loyalist forces have lost control of parts of the surrounding deir el-Zor province, which borders Iraq’s Sunni Muslim heartland as alliances be-tween Assad’s ruling elite and Sunni tribes have collapsed.

The artillery barrage on the Old Airport area on the edge of the city started late on Friday, fol-lowing the defection of at least 30 members of the Hajjana, a border force that has a base in the area, opposition campaigners told Reuters from the city.

The central Al-Hamidya district came under shelling after Free Syrian Army rebels fought off a tank incursion into the area, they added.

Rebels have been mounting attacks on road-blocks, tanks and fortifications belonging to loy-alist troops in deir el-Zor, the provincial capital on the euphrates river, 420 km (262 miles) north-east of damascus. A main oil pipeline from deir el-Zor province feeds Syria’s two refineries, in the city of Homs and an export terminal on the Mediterranean. -Reuters

A handout image released by the Syrian opposition’s Shaam News Network shows anti-regime demonstrators flashing the sign for victory while they hold a banner reading in Arabic: “The contact group is an opportunity for the regime to commit more massacres” during a protest in Hass in the restive northern province of Idlib on June 22, 2012. (AFP)

Tensions soar ahead of Egypt poll result

CAIRO: Tensions soared in egypt on Saturday a day before the result of a divi-sive presidential election and as the Mus-lim Brotherhood sparred with the ruling generals over what it sees as a military power grab.

The electoral commission overseeing the divisive contest between Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Mursi and former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq said it will announce the official winner on Sunday.

“Faruk Sultan, the head of the presi-dential election commission, will an-nounce the results of the presidential election run-off on Sunday at 3:00pm (1300 GMT),” the commission’s secretary general, Hatem Bagato, said in a state-ment.

Hundreds of Brotherhood support-ers spent the night in Cairo’s iconic Tahrir Square, having vowed to stay there until the election result is published.

“Mursi, Mursi, God is the Greatest,” the protesters chanted in anticipation of a victory for their candidate, who says he won according to tallies provided by elec-toral officials. Both Mursi and Shafiq have claimed victory in the election for a suc-cessor to Hosni Mubarak, sparking ten-sions between the rival camps that have deepened after the electoral commission delayed announcing the official outcome.

The delay in the announcement of the result of the June 16-17 run-off, initially scheduled for Thursday, has raised suspi-cions that the outcome of the election is

being negotiated rather than counted.As the ruling Supreme Council of the

Armed Forces (SCAF) and the Brother-hood clashed publicly over recent mea-sures that consolidated the army’s power, privately they have been engaged in talks, sources told AFP.

On Friday, the SCAF warned it would deal “with utmost firmness and strength” with any attempts to harm public in-terests, while the Brotherhood warned against tampering with the election re-sults but said it had no intention of insti-gating violence.

The Brotherhood rejects a constitu-tional declaration by the military which strips away any gains made by the Isla-mist group since the popular uprising which forced Mubarak to stand down in February last year.

The document dissolves the Islamist-led parliament and gives the army a broad say in government policy and control over the new constitution. It was adopted just days after a justice ministry decree grant-ed the army powers of arrest.

even if Mursi wins, the changes leave the Brotherhood with no parliament, no say in the constitution and a powerless president. “It’s a problem which we are trying to resolve,” one Brotherhood of-ficial said earlier.

The standoff comes amid a blizzard of conflicting reports over who would be de-clared the election winner and when the result would be announced. -AFP

Israel bombs Hamas targets in Gaza as truce unravels

Yemen army takes control of Al-Qaeda bastion Azzan

GAZA: Israel launched air raids on Hamas security targets in Gaza on Saturday, wounding more than 20 people, medical officials in the Islamist-ruled territory said, as militants stepped up rocket fire, wounding an Israeli man.

The escalating violence threatened to unravel Wednesday’s shaky egyptian-brokered truce, which had temporarily calmed violence that erupted on Mon-day after a raid across egypt’s Sinai border in which an Israeli man and two gunmen were killed.

Hamas medical officials said a six-year-old Pales-tinian boy had been killed in an air strike but Israel’s military denied any involvement.

Israel confirmed its aircraft had struck two militant targets in the Islamist-ruled territory. Hamas medical officials said a third Israeli air raid had killed the six-year-old boy at a soccer field near the town of Khan Younis, and wounded two other people. They said a baby was wounded in a separate attack in Rafah, at the egypt border. Lieutenant Colonel Avital Leibovich, an Israeli military spokeswoman, denied any Israeli in-volvement in the boy’s death, saying on Twitter that the report was the result of “false rumors” and that the boy had died due to an explosion of ordnance belonging to Palestinian militants.

Another Israeli military spokeswoman said she had

no report of any air strikes in Rafah, where the baby was reported to have been hurt.

The Israeli strikes were reported after the worst rocket assault in six days of fighting. One projectile slammed into the Israeli town of Sderot wounding an Israeli man in the neck just as he was trying to enter a concrete shelter.

The rocket was one of more than 150 fired into Is-rael in the past week, the military said, after a relatively calm period. At least 15 were fired at Israel on Satur-day, nearly three times as a day ago.

At least six other rockets were intercepted by an Israeli missile defense system, the military said.

Israel’s military chiefs scheduled urgent consulta-tions to weigh a “course of action,” a military spokes-woman said. Israeli authorities also urged many of the 1 million Israelis who live in the south to stay indoors or close to fortified shelters.

Officials in Gaza said Israel had attacked security targets in Gaza City and in northern and southern parts of the crowded coastal strip before dawn.

Nobody in Gaza claimed responsibility for the rocket fire at Israel, but a security source said the mis-siles had been launched by members of a fringe Salafi group sympathetic to Al-Qaeda, two of whose militants were killed in Israeli raids on Friday. -Reuters

ADEN: Yemeni troops took control on Saturday of the southeastern town of Azzan, a known Al-Qae-da bastion, after the group’s fighters left it a week ago, an official said.

Thirty-five people, meanwhile, were killed in the southern Abyan province over the past 10 days in explosions from landmines laid by Al-Qaeda fighters before they fled from the province, officials said.

“Some 60 vehicles of army and security forces have been deployed across central Azzan,” a local government official told AFP on condition of ano-nymity, adding that army warplanes were seen flying over the area.

Witnesses confirmed that Azzan, in the southeast-ern Shabwa province, was finally handed over to the army by a committee of tribal mediators to whom the Al-Qaeda fighters had initially handed over the town.

On June 17, Al-Qaeda militants fled from Azzan, the last town in Yemen where they had established complete control. Al-Qaeda had declared an Islamic emirate in the desert town where hundreds of fight-ers were believed to have sought refuge after fleeing their strongholds in the nearby Abyan province.

Taking advantage of a weakening central govern-ment control by an Arab Spring-inspired uprising last year, the militants had overrun most of Abyan, capturing Zinjibar, Jaar, Shuqra and several other vil-lages. But on May 12, Yemen’s military launched an all-out offensive to recapture the lost province.

The army and local militiamen have succeeded in taking over all of Abyan’s towns except for Mahfad where jihadists still have a strong presence.

Meanwhile, landmines the jihadists had laid in Abyan before fleeing have killed at least 35 people in the past 10 days, officials said.

Twenty-seven people were killed only in the pro-vincial capital of Zinjibar, while eight died on the outskirts of the town of Jaar.

“Landmine explosions in Zinjibar have left 27 people dead” since the army, backed by local militia-men, drove out Al-Qaeda militants from the capital of the province on June 13, said Zinjibar deputy mayor Ghassan Sheikh.

He said of the 27 people killed, nine died on June 14 while returning to Zinjibar from where they had fled after the militants seized it in May 2011, local official Mohsen Saleh said. Sheikh said the Yemeni army has so far been unable to clear all the landmin-es, adding the explosives were sown in most streets of Zinjibar.

“Most of Zinjibar’s residents have been unable to return yet” from the main southern city of Aden to their town which has been totally destroyed by the fighting, he said.

eight other civilians were killed in similar land-mine blasts on the outskirts of the nearby town of Jaar which was a major stronghold of Al-Qae-da since last year, rights activist Wahid Abdullah said. -AFP

New protests against ‘dictatorship’ in SudanKHARTOUM: Sudanese demonstra-

tors staged on Saturday small-scale pro-tests sparked by rising prices, witnesses said, the day after unrest engulfed the capital Khartoum and cities across the country. “We will not be governed by a dictatorship!” demonstrators in the east-ern town of Gedaref shouted, according to two witnesses.

They said about 200 people gath-ered in the main market where they de-nounced the high cost of food before po-lice dispersed them with batons. Poverty is endemic in Gedaref and the two other eastern states of Kassala and Red Sea.

In Khartoum, an AFP reporter ob-

served the aftermath of a demonstration in a southern district of the city.

Burned tires, stones lay in the street, and tear gas hung in the air as riot police stood by and residents clustered in alleys, the reporter said.

The unrest continued after neighbor-hoods throughout the capital and in key towns around the country demonstrated on Friday, in the most serious expression of discontent since student-led protests began eight days ago.

Riot police have violently dispersed a string of demonstrations since they be-gan on June 16 outside the University of Khartoum. -AFP

OPINION / VIEWSSUNdAY, JUNe 24, 2012

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Crisis-weary Hungarians lose faith in government Impulsive and irrational behavioral patternsShamlan Yusuf Al-Eisa

In what seems to be a growing negative phenomenon witnessed across the coun-try these days, local newspapers have

been publishing some alarming news of as-saults being launched against government employees; irrespective whether they are teachers, doctors, or even policemen. In a recent report; a local daily published news about a Kuwaiti citizen who assaulted a cor-oner at the Criminal evidences department while another report was published about a Kuwaiti mother who insulted a doctor at a public clinic for prescribing some cheap medicines for her ailing son.

Isn’t it strange indeed that the woman could actually gauge the quality of the medi-cation that was prescribed by the attending doctor? Was she a pharmacist or doctor by profession to ascertain that the prescribed medication was cheap? And even in the likely event that she was; did she really have to go to such extremes of heaping a volley of insults at the doctor in full view of other patients and medical staff? do they actually think that it is their constitutional right as citizens to go about insulting government employees and worse; even get away with it?

The government must take the initiative of studying and ascertaining the actual rea-sons why citizens resort to such behavioral patterns and come up with effective mea-sures to rectify this negative trend and bring all those who abuse government employees verbally and physically to justice. I simply cannot comprehend the reasons why they do not vent their antagonisms on the con-cerned members of the executive and legis-lative authorities instead of attacking those that are simply following orders and instruc-tions at their respective workplaces?

It is now absolutely clear that the situ-

ation has taken a turn for the worse as is evident in the fact that our honorable MPs are now witnessed attacking the judiciary for acquitting some police officers who as-saulted citizens and MPs during a gathering that was held at MP Jamaan Al-Harbash’s diwaniya. These uncalled for and unneces-sary attacks on the judiciary over its verdict are now actually encouraging and prompt-ing several citizens to insult the judicial sys-tem on Twitter and Facebook. I just cannot comprehend the reasons why they resort to such lowly behavior especially taking into consideration the underlying fact that it sim-ply does not concern them?

On the other hand, I personally believe that members of the executive authority should be blamed for their own shortcom-ings as they have always maintained a care-less and lenient attitude. They have always literally allowed such people to avoid being punished after attacking public employees. Why can’t the government enforce the law on one and all without any fear or hesi-tance? The answer to that is straight, simple and conclusive. The government has actu-ally succumbed to the threats of MPs and is overwhelmed by the negative influence that MPs impose on it.

Isn’t it strange indeed that MPs who ef-fectively shoulder their responsibilities in enacting legislations over international is-sues are actually the first to impose their in-fluence in Kuwait to enable all those crimi-nals, defaulters and assailants to escape the punishments and sentences that they de-serve. It is no secret that these MPs do all that they can in their power and use their mighty influence to help criminals, convicts, drug dealers and a host of other defaulters dodge the long arm of the law. This phenom-enon has now become so rampant that it has now become near impossible to do away with.

In fact, the attitudes and mentalities of these citizens are so depraved that they think they are far superior beings and hence; show no respect towards non-Kuwaitis em-ployed in government sectors. even Kuwaiti parents are least interested in their chil-dren’s welfare and upbringing as is evident in the fact that they leave their children at the mercy of domestic servants and teachers to raise them. How can parents depend on others to raise their own children? How will these children ever learn to respect and care for their parents if the parents themselves maintain a distance from them?

Another phenomenon that is witnessed among Kuwaitis is when they travel abroad for their holidays or even to study. They strictly abide by and respect the laws of those countries and will never ever dare vio-late them; be it in the United States, europe, or even other GCC countries. What are the reasons that actually prompt us to behave decently whenever we visit other countries in the GCC or those across the world but resort to hooliganism in our own country? Is it some kind of a trend that we have created ourselves or is it part of our culture?

I personally believe that Kuwaiti citizens suffer from an acute lack of control with re-spect to expressing their emotions, feelings and sentiments. They are aggressively impul-sive and it is this negative trait that triggers verbal abuse and physical assaults. Control-ling that irrational and impulsive behavior is just not as easy as it seems since it involves exerting immense control over our minds. However, this does not mean that we can go ahead and do as we please just because we cannot control our impulses while on the other hand, all those abused and attacked the judiciary must be brought to justice sim-ply because members of the judiciary must always be held in high esteem and respected by one and all.

Share the Work

The deepening economic crisis is taking its toll on Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government -- two years after a landslide

election victory his party’s support is crumbling and three-quarters of voters believe the country is on the wrong track. Growing disillusionment can be felt across the central european nation, whose economy is sliding into recession again after a sharp downturn in 2009, with the rising living standards that Orban promised when his party won power failing to materialize. While still paying off a 2008 bailout from the european Union and the Interna-tional Monetary Fund, the government is seeking a new financing backstop to shield the indebted economy from the neighboring euro zone’s mount-ing debt crisis.

Negotiations with the IMF will be difficult, however, as Orban will be reluctant to give up or tweak his Fidesz party’s main policies, including a flat income tax and family tax breaks aimed to sup-port the middle class, the party’s core voter base. Orban has been at loggerheads with Brussels over several laws that critics say served to cement his party’s strong powers beyond the end of his term, while huge windfall taxes imposed on banks and selected business sectors eroded investors’ trust. “Orban is in a corner regarding his popularity: If he sticks to the status quo, the economy and living standards will be impacted. But if he does a U-turn, this will also be seen as implicit acknowledgement that his strategy was wrong,” said Mujtaba Rah-man, analyst at think tank eurasia Group.

The big game changer would be an escalation of the euro zone crisis, which could sharply weaken the forint currency and send Hungary’s markets plunging. That, say analysts, would quickly drive the government to embrace IMF support despite Orban’s earlier rebuff of the Fund in the name of sovereignty over finances and economic policy. When Hungarians gave Orban’s conservative Fi-desz party a two-thirds parliamentary majority two years ago, they were hoping for a recovery, stabil-ity, and new jobs after years of successive Socialist governments.

Instead, most ordinary Hungarians, who have benefited little from the income tax cuts, feel life has turned into a grinding struggle as prices and taxes are rising. “Things may have improved for the rich, but those who are poor will remain poor,” said erzsebet Pupos, 46, who is selling vegetables and mushrooms at one of Budapest’s main markets. “Nothing will change here, everything is just get-ting more expensive ... The biggest problem is that there are no jobs.”

discontent is palpable in the bustling market hall, with most people complaining about a surge in fuel and food prices. Inflation was running at 5.3 percent in May. The forint is trading near 300 to the euro, sharply weaker from levels of 265 when Fidesz took power, even though it has firmed from record lows of 324 hit in early January when Hun-gary’s debt rating was cut to “junk”.

Widespread ApathyAccording to a survey by pollster Median, Fi-

desz’ support dropped to its lowest in a decade at 22 percent last month, even though it still has a lead over the opposition Socialists, who stand at 16 percent. Far-right Jobbik hovers around 11 per-cent. The survey showed 76 percent of the people are pessimistic about the country’s outlook while another recent poll by Ipsos showed this rate even higher, at 81 percent. Half of Hungary’s 8 million

electorate is undecided or would not vote if par-liamentary elections were held now, although the next election is not due until 2014.

“I have become so skeptical that I would not (vote) for anybody,” said Maria Gubicsak who sells pickled vegetables and complains her customers are spending less and less. “Unfortunately, people are getting poorer, the pensioners who used to buy a pound (of pickles) before, now ask for half a pound or less ... Those young people who work for a bank, have two degrees and speak 3-4 languages, and those in Information Technology (are fine). But the rest are also suffering.” Fidesz is still strong among its core voters and the opposition is fragmented.

Orban’s strong anti-Brussels rhetoric, push for national sovereignty and combative style, which has turned him into a bugbear of europe in the eyes of many, appeals to part of the population. But the rapid erosion of Fidesz’ support will put pressure on Orban to act, while his hands are tied on the fiscal front and markets are pushing him to secure a deal with the IMF after months of delays. “With the IMF or without the IMF, the government will be forced to keep the politically painful road of fiscal discipline, after six years of belt tightening, while the Hungarian public has developed a strong aus-terity fatigue,” said Peter Kreko, analyst at Political Capital.

Fairy Tale?Hungary’s economy shrank by 1.2 percent in

the first quarter, posting the biggest quarterly drop in the whole of the 27-member eU. Analysts proj-ect only modest, 1.1 percent growth for next year according to a recent Reuters poll. The government is more upbeat and says growth could pick up to 1.6 percent by 2013 on the back of two big automotive investments by daimler and Audi. A government spokesman said most of this growth would come from net exports, while a public works program would employ at least 200,000 people this year and structural measures affecting the labor market would boost growth in the medium term.

“The present government governs by taking the steps which Hungarian society and economy needs in the medium term,” spokesman Andras Giro-Szasz said.

“The Hungarian fairy tale or the Hungarian ex-ample will be a successful one in a year’s time,” economy Minister Gyorgy Matolcsy told CNN in a recent interview.

However, few share his optimism. The budget deficit will be below the eU’s 3 percent ceiling this year and next year, which is a significant achieve-ment after a series of budget overshoots.

But unemployment remains high at about 11 percent, and investments are falling after uncon-ventional measures in the past two years, including europe’s biggest bank tax and a nationalization of private pension funds.

While cutting state spending, the government also hiked the main value-added tax rate to 27 per-cent from 25 in January and announced new taxes on telecoms services and financial transactions. “I have three children and my income has increased significantly. We can say that I have benefited from the new tax policy,” said Attila Garai, who came for a snack lunch. “I’m skeptical but hard work-ing. I’m disappointed over what has been done, it seems rather hopeless but I don’t give up,” added Rita Giovannoli, who came for her daily shop. She says the worst is an increased uncertainty over the future.

Krisztina Than is a Reuters correspondent. The views expressed here are her own.

The United States today is facing a crisis of long-term unemployment unlike any-thing it has seen since the 1930s. Some

40 percent of the unemployed have been out of work for six months or more, which, as US Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Ber-nanke noted in a recent speech, is far higher than in any other post-World War II reces-sion. This crisis of long-term unemployment is having a profoundly damaging impact on the lives of those bearing the brunt of it. We know this thanks to a series of careful studies of the problem conducted in the depths of the 1930’s Great depression. The most famous such study, of the long-term unemployed in New Haven,

Connecticut, was conducted by e. Wight Bakke, a graduate student and subsequently a profes-sor of economics at Yale University.

Through participant interviews, personal observation, time diaries, and longitudinal studies, Bakke showed how extended spells of unemployment caused workers’ skills to dete-riorate and made it difficult for them to acquire new ones. The long-term unemployed also expe-rienced a variety of physical and psychological problems, among them demoralization, apathy, and a sense of social isolation. For those unfor-tunate enough to experience it, long-term un-employment - now, as in the 1930s - is a tragedy. And, for society as a whole, there is the danger that the productive capacity of a significant por-tion of the labor force will be impaired. What is not well known, however, is that in the 1930s, the United States, to a much greater extent than today, succeeded in mitigating these problems. Rather than resorting to extensive layoffs, firms had their employees work a partial week. The average workweek in manufacturing and min-

ing fell from 45 hours in 1929 to 35 hours in 1932. We know this from a 1986 article by my Berkeley colleague James Powell and his co-au-thor, none other than - wait for it - Ben Bernan-ke. The 24 percent unemployment reached at the depths of the Great depression was no pic-nic. But that rate would have been even higher had average weekly hours for workers in manu-facturing remained at 45. Cutting hours by 20 percent allowed millions of additional workers to stay on the job. They continued to earn an income. They continued to acquire skills. They had hope and the possibility of advancement. Why was there so much work-sharing in the 1930s? One reason is that government pushed for it. In his memoirs, President Herbert Hoover estimated that as many as two million workers avoided unemployment as a result of his efforts to promote work-sharing.

Second, legislation encouraged it. The in-dustrial codes of the New deal set ceilings on the workweek for specified industries and workers. The Fair Labor Standards Act provided

financial incentives by requiring overtime pay for employees working long hours.

Third, there was no unemployment insur-ance to discourage it. An individual today, faced with the option of working 20 hours a week or drawing unemployment benefits, might be tempted by the latter. But, back in the 1930s, before unemployment insurance, 20 hours was better than nothing. Of course, unemployment insurance replaces only a fraction of most work-ers’ previous wages, which suggests that its ef-fect in this regard is not very strong. But, even if unemployment insurance does not discourage work-sharing, it could be restructured to en-courage it.

Partial benefits could be paid to workers on short hours, rather than limiting payments to those who are fully unemployed. The pro-gram would at least partly pay for itself, with additional payments to workers on short hours offset by lower unemployment (and thus lower payments to those who are completely without work). In fact, the US already has something

along these lines: a program known as Short-Time Compensation. Workers can collect un-employment benefits pro-rated according to their hours when their employer submits an approved work-sharing plan, while the federal government compensates the states for a por-tion of the set-up costs.

Other countries have gone further. In Ger-many, for example, the federal government’s Kurzarbeit program makes up a significant fraction of the difference when, owing to short hours, a worker’s earnings fall by more than 10 percent. The US federal government could emulate this example by compensating the states more generously for their Short-Term Compensation programs. Its failure to do so not only inflicts avoidable pain and suffering on the unemployed, but also threatens to inflict long-term costs on American society.

Barry Eichengreen is Professor of Economics and Political Science at the University of Cali-fornia, Berkeley.

Project Syndicate

Barry Eichengreen

Hungary’s economy shrank by 1.2 percent in the first quarter, posting the biggest quarterly drop in the whole of the 27-member EU.

Reuters

Krisztina Than

Ali Farzat

“The Problem”

NEWS IN BRIEF5.9 quake hits Indonesia’s Sumatra: USGSJAKARTA: A 5.9-magnitude earthquake hit the north of Indonesia’s Sumatra is-land on Saturday, the US Geological Survey said, but there were no reports of damage or casualties. The quake struck at 11:34 am (0434 GMT), 66 kilometers (41 miles) west-southwest of Kabanjahe at a depth of 97 kilometers, the USGS said. Indonesia’s Meteorological and Geophys-ics Agency put the magnitude at 6.6. “The quake’s epicenter was on land. There are no reports of damage so far,” Indonesian agency official Dedi Sugianto told AFP, adding the quake was felt moderately in a number of areas. Indonesia sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” where continental plates collide, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity. -AFP

Gunmen kill eight in Pakistan laundry attackQUETTA: Gunmen on motorcycles on Saturday shot dead eight men at a laun-dry in the restive southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, police said. The gunmen were riding two motorcycles when they struck at the laundry in a busy area of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan prov-ince, before fleeing, they said. “At least eight men were killed and another man was wounded,” senior police official Is-kandar Tareen told AFP. Initial investiga-tions indicated that the victims were “set-tlers,” he said, referring to people who have settled in Baluchistan but come from other provinces of Pakistan. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, but Baluchistan suffers from Islamist militan-cy, sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims and a separatist insurgency which also targets non-natives. -AFP

Blast at Afghan music market, two deadKABUL: An improvised bomb exploded at a music market in an Afghan city on Saturday, leaving two people dead, of-ficials said, a day after Taliban militants stormed a lakeside resort near Kabul, kill-ing at least 18. The blast at the market in the eastern city of Jalalabad, close to the border with Pakistan’s militant-infested tribal areas, wounded four people, lo-cal government spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai said. Two of the casualties later died from their injuries, Sayed Afandi Sayedi, a senior doctor at the local hos-pital, said. Under the hard-line rule of the Taliban, overthrown by a US-led invasion in 2001, music was regarded as un-Islam-ic and banned, and Afghan music shop owners particularly in Jalalabad, have re-cently complained of being threatened by extremists. -AFP

WORLD SUNDAY, JUNe 24, 2012

ALWATAN DAILY

5

Eight killed, 44 injured in Croatia bus crashZAGREB: A Czech bus carrying more than

50 passengers crashed near a tunnel in Croatia early Saturday, killing eight people and injuring at least 44, the national rescue services said.

“A bus with Czech license plates drove through a safety barrier and turned over” near a tunnel in Sveti Rok, some 230 kilometers (138 miles) south of Zagreb, the National Pro-tection and Rescue Directorate said.

The accident occurred around 4:00 am (0200 GMT) on the road to the Adriatic city of Split, a popular tourist destination. The bodies of seven victims were found immediately while an eighth was pulled out later, local media re-ported. The injured were taken to a hospital in nearby Gospic, while three victims with serious injuries, a woman and two children, were trans-ferred by a military helicopter to the capital Za-greb, rescuers said. In Prague, a Czech foreign ministry’s spokesman Karel Srol was quoted by CTK agency as saying that the lives of two in-jured passengers were in danger. A Gospic hos-pital’s surgeon, Goran Nola, said a dozen others were seriously injured, adding that passengers were of all ages, from children to the elderly.

The bus belonged to a travel agency from the southern Czech town of Brno, Srol said. A spokesman for the travel agency, Martin Vasu-lin, said all the passengers in the bus, that was heading towards Croatian coastal resort Basko Polje, were Czech nationals, mostly from Brno and its surroundings but also from Prague. Lo-cal media said the bus hit the barrier, turned over and smashed into a concrete fence oppo-site. Some 10 million tourists visit Croatia each year, among them hundreds of thousands of Czechs, vacationing on the picturesque Adri-atic coast.

The accident is the most serious involving a Czech bus since a crash in March 2003 near the southwestern Czech town of Nazidla, when 20 people were killed. -AFP

An aerial view of the scene of the bus crash near Gospic, Croatia, Saturday, June 23, 2012. At least seven Czech tourists were killed and 44 injured in a bus crash on a major highway in Croatia early Saturday, police said. (AP)

Turkey says downed jet may have breached Syrian airspace

Ecuador’s envoy heads to Quito for Assange talks

Bolivian officials, striking police plan new talks over pay

New Greek PM to stay in hospital after eye surgery

ANKARA: Turkey said Saturday one of its fighter jets may have violated Syrian airspace after Damascus confirmed shooting it down, in comments seen as a bid to cool the latest spat between the former allies.

President Abdullah Gul said it was not un-usual for warplanes flying at high speed to cross maritime borders, stressing that such actions were not “ill-intentioned.” Both countries were now searching for the two missing crew of the Turkish F-4 Phantom jet shot down over the eastern Mediterranean on Friday.

“An unidentified aerial target violated Syr-ian airspace, coming from the west at a very low altitude and at high speed over territorial

waters”, a Syrian military spokesman told the official SANA news agency early Saturday.

Anti-aircraft batteries opened fire, hitting the plane as it was about a kilometer from the coast and it crashed about 10 kilometers (six miles) off Latakia province, he added. It had been established that the plane was a Turkish fighter jet and the two countries’ navies were now cooperating in an operation to find the two pilots, SANA reported.

Turkey summoned a new meeting Saturday of key ministers, as well as top military and in-telligence officials to discuss efforts to locate the crew and future steps, a foreign ministry diplo-mat told AFP. The two-hour meeting followed

a midnight security summit chaired by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip erdogan, who said after-wards Ankara “will announce its final position and take necessary steps with determination after the incident is entirely clarified.”

Relations between the two neighbors were already strained by erdogan’s outspoken con-demnation of Syria’s bloody crackdown on protests against the government of President Bashar al-Assad. But Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc downplayed the tensions and in-stead called for restraint.

“We should be calm... Yes, we accept this is a critical matter but we don’t have clear in-formation,” he told Anatolia news agency, add-

ing that the results of the ongoing investigation would be publicized “as soon as possible.”

Arinc further noted that the downed jet was on a reconnaissance mission, implying that it did not carry weaponry. The Phantom vanished off radar screens around 0900 GMT Friday after it took off from an airbase in Malatya in Turkey’s southeast. President Gul said contacts were established with Syria although Ankara had withdrawn diplomats from its Damascus embassy and expelled Syrian diplomats after the violence escalated in its neighbor.

“We withdrew our envoy from Syria for se-curity reasons. This does not mean that we have no contacts (with Damascus),” he said. -AFP

LONDON: ecuador’s embassy in London said Sat-urday that Ambassador Anna Alban was scheduled to travel to her country’s capital for talks on the bizarre request for political asylum made by Wikileaks chief Julian Assange.

Assange took refuge inside ecuador’s embassy on Tuesday, and remains camped out in an office, as his legal options ran out for avoiding extradition from Brit-ain to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning for alleged sex crimes.

ecuador’s leftist President Rafael Correa has said his government is considering Assange’s request, but has not indicated when a decision will be made.

A spokesman for the country’s embassy, who re-quested anonymity to discuss the visit in advance, said Saturday that Alban would travel to Quito this week-end for talks on the matter.

Speaking Thursday from inside the embassy, As-sange said he had made his bid for asylum becase the “ecuadoreans were sympathetic in relation to my struggles.” He had previously interviewed Correa, with whom he shares skepticism toward the United States.

Assange has been fighting since 2010 to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for ques-tioning over alleged sexual assaults on two women. As-sange denies the claims, and says the case against him is politically motivated.

Both he and supporters insist that if he was sent to Sweden he would then likely become the target of a US request to extradite him there over allegations linked to his leaking of hundreds of thousands of secret US documents via the secret-spilling WikiLeaks website.

U.S. soldier, Pfc. Bradley Manning, a 24-year-old from Crescent, Oklahoma, has been charged with aid-ing the enemy by passing the secret files to WikiLeaks and is awaiting trial.

A Virginia grand jury is studying evidence that might link Assange to Manning, but no action has yet been taken.

“We are hoping what I am doing now will draw attention to the underlying issues,” Assange told Aus-tralian Broadcasting Corp. radio in an interview Thurs-day.

Correa said his country would discuss the case with both Britain, Sweden and the United States before reaching a final decision.

While inside the embassy, Assange remains outside the reach of British authorities - but police are poised to arrest him the moment he steps foot outside the building.

Police said Assange will be arrested for breaching the terms of his bail, which included an overnight cur-few at a registered address.

Assange’s lawyer Jennifer Robinson said Saturday that filmmaker Michael Moore has sent Assange a mes-sage of support, urging him not to despair.

Robinson posted an email sent by Moore, among supporters who offered money to meet Assange’s 200,000 pounds (316,000 US dollars) bail, to her Twit-ter account.

In the message, sent Wednesday, Moore told the WikiLeaks founder it was a crime “that you even have to seek asylum, and I stand with you through this. Do not despair.” -AP

LA PAZ: Bolivian government officials and police officers demanding better pay planned a new round of talks Saturday after

failing to reach agreement amid a nationwide mutiny. The mutiny, which began Thursday when protesters took over the headquarters

of the country’s riot police just steps from the presidential palace and eight other po-lice stations, has spread across the nation.

A crowd of some 200 officers in civilian clothes, covering their faces, attacked the National Intelligence Directorate on Friday, smashing windows and pulling out furniture, documents and computers, and even setting flags ablaze.

“Mutiny, police mutiny!” chanted the protesters as they ransacked the office.

In an upscale La Paz neighborhood, roughly 300 protesters hurled rocks and shattered windows at national police head-quarters. Police on duty outside the building offered no resistance.

Police currently earn an average of 195 US dollars a month, and want their lowest pay raised to $287 a month. Demands also include full pay upon retirement and annul-ling a law that forbids them to publicly ex-press their opinions.

Demonstrators have also demanded the resignation of the national police chief, Col-onel Victor Maldonado.

“The government does not want to listen to the police, does not want to give us a good salary, a better life,” Guadalupe Cardenas, leader of a union of police wives, told erbol radio. Cardenas said that protesting police and their wives would meet early Saturday to agree on “new strategies to pressure the government to hear us.”

Government officials held negotiations for nearly seven hours Friday with the two unions representing the striking officers and their wives, who have joined the protests. But they failed to reach agreement.

“We have made every effort we can as a government with realistic proposals,” said Interior Minister Carlos Romero, who opened the talks. Some 20 police stations in the country’s 10 main cities, including La Paz and Cochabamba, have joined the uprising.

Protesters had asked to negotiate direct-ly with President evo Morales, who spent the day Friday in the presidential palace un-der heavy military protection after returning home from the UN’s Rio+20 conference on sustainable development in Brazil. -AFP

ATHENS: Newly-elected Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras was to remain in an Athens hospital for at least a day after eye surgery following a retinal detachment, doctors said on Saturday.

“The prime minister underwent sur-gery under general anesthesia,” Ilias Lambiris, director of Attiko Hospital, told state television.

“The operation was a success. The PM has regained consciousness and will remain in hospital for the customary post-surgery monitoring,” Lambiris said.

Samaras, 61, was expected to remain in hospital until Monday and his recovery pace will determine whether he can at-tend an eU summit on Thursday.

“This is one of the most serious ail-ments of the eye, the retina macula, the heart of the eye, can become detached,” said Samaras’ surgeon Panagiotis Theodo-siadis, denying reports that laser surgery had been used.

“Rehabilitation was complete but he needs monitoring at regular intervals,” Theodosiadis said.

“I will be able to say more (about when Samaras can exit hospital) some-time on Monday,” he said.

Samaras was forced to cancel a speech to his lawmakers on Friday and the exact date when the new parliament is expected

to convene is also unclear.The incoming finance minister Vassilis

Rapanos was also taken ill as Greece pre-pares to receive a team of auditors from the european Union, the International Monetary Fund and the european Cen-tral Bank to assess reforms. Rapanos, 65, was hospitalized on Friday hours before taking his oath of office with strong stom-ach pains, vertigo and nausea.

The coalition government that emerged from last Sunday’s elections,

backed by conservative, socialist and moderate leftist parties, is under intense international pressure to implement the terms of an eU-IMF bailout package that has kept the indebted country’s economy afloat for two years. Pressure is mounting in view of Monday’s upcoming visit of european Commission, IMF and europe-an Central Bank inspectors, who return to Athens to resume discussions suspended because of Greece’s two-month political deadlock. -AFP

Newly appointed Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras looks on during the first cabinet meeting of his government at the parliament in Athens June 21, 2012. (Reuters)

Wives of police officers on strike march along the streets of La Paz, Bolivia, on June 22, 2012. Looting broke out near Bolivia’s presi-dential palace as junior members of the police force angry over low wages joined a nationwide mutiny. (AFP)

US warns of imminent attack in Mombasa, Kenya

NAIROBI: The US embassy in Kenya on Saturday warned of the threat of an imminent attack on Mombasa and urged nationals to shun the country’s second city. “This is to alert all US citizens in Kenya, or planning to travel to Kenya in the near future, that the US embassy in Nairobi has received information of an imminent threat of a terrorist attack in Mombasa, Kenya,” a statement said. “All US government travel to Mombasa is suspend-ed until July 1, 2012.” The warning came as Kenyan po-lice said they had detained two Iranian nationals over suspected links to a terror network planning bombings in Nairobi and Mombasa. “We are holding these two sus-pects, and they are being interrogated to establish their involvement in terrorism activities,” said Aggrey Adoli, police chief for Coast province. “They have been help-ful, it is through them that we were able to find some chemicals which we believe is used to make explosives,” he told AFP. One was arrested in Nairobi and the other in Mombasa. Kenya, which invaded southern Somalia last October to help oust Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabaab insur-gents, has seen a wave of attacks blamed on Al-Shabaab or their supporters recently. In 1998 a series of truck bomb explosions in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam in Tanza-nia killed hundreds of people. -AFP

Well done OPEC

Kamel Al-HaramiIndependent energy analystExclusive to Al Watan Daily

KUWAIT: Yes, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) needs such appraisal for their successful conclusion in short time in keeping their previous production quota unchanged. OPEC agreed to keep its produc-tion at 30 million barrels per day, leaving the production for each of its member an unfixed number and leaving them free to produce as they wish. Iraq and Libya were left out of the production zone and free to produce to compensate for lost volumes.

Its decision was reached in short time despite the pressure that was exerted on them by the decline of oil prices.

Oil prices were declining before OPEC’s meeting and it was clear signal to take drastic action to stop the decline.

This didn’t happen and the organization reached an excellent result that will be appreciated globally, perhaps not in their own home countries, but for sure outside their home lands.

Before the start of their meeting in Vienna, last week everybody was expect-ing disagreements and internal fight between Iran and the Arab Gulf states over production.

Iran was accusing everybody of over production except itself, realizing very well that it couldn’t sell its crude volume due to international boycott. As oth-erwise it was going to continue to overproduce enjoying the $100 plus price of crude oil. Now this is becoming impossible, Iran began to accuse us, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates for spoiling oil prices and forcing it to be sold at below $100 a barrel.

The meeting however ended up with full agreement on keeping the output as per last meeting of December 2011. The meeting didn’t last long and the organization came up stronger than ever and every minister left Vienna happy.

Actually, there was no need for the bad publicity and the noise that Iran made before the meeting.

It was known that Saudi Arabia will not like to see oil prices going down all the way.

Their stand was made a long time ago, as it didn’t want to hurt the world economy and just wanted a fair price for oil that will last and keep demand for oil growing even at lower pace than before. Saudi also knows that any price level below $90 is not acceptable for Saudi or its OPEC colleagues, so it played safe and everybody knows that. Accordingly the oil organization gave their blessing and agreed to roll over their production level untouched and until the end of the year.

The impact of the organization decision will be felt some time during next month by crude oil price movements. Most likely prices will remain quiet and at $100 or below and in line with the Arab Gulf states wishes to keep prices stable in view of the current fragile economy.

Well done OPEC for your professionalism.

The author of this article can be reached at naftikuwaiti@yahoo.com

Disclaimer: Please note that the views and opinions presented in the col-umn are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of Al Watan Daily and its staff.

BUSINESSSUNDAY, JUNE 24, 2012

Kuwaiti crude continues downwards trend hitting $87.75 pb

Global oil market to remain weak in 2012

KUWAIT: Price of Kuwaiti crude oil went down by 1.01 US dollars on Friday reaching $87.75 per barrel (pb), compared with $88.76 pb the day be-fore, said Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) on Saturday.

Persistent fall of the Kuwaiti crude price that put it at its lowest level this year coincided with drastic decline of the oil prices on international markets, as a result of tension and apprehension resulting from the European economic and finan-cial crises.

However, prices of the forward deals of the Brent crude rose, on Friday, by two dollars, posting $91.01 pb for the August deliveries. Likewise, the prices of the forward deals rose two percent, after a drop of four percent on Thursday.

Stormy weather in Mexico bay prompted some oil companies to evacuate non-necessary workers from operations’ sites.

Price of the American light crude for the Au-gust delivery stood at $79.76 pb.

Due to the retreating global economic growth and the increase in oil production, the oil market is expected to remain weak during the rest of 2012, a specialized economic report forecasted Saturday. “Because the market is currently weak, it is an-ticipated that the countries which exceeded their official quota would begin its reduction, as started already by Saudi Arabia. OPEC believes that any slight increase in the remaining part of the year will cover production from outside OPEC,” reads the report compiled by Kuwait-based Al-Shall Economic Consulting Company.

“OECD stocks -the advanced states and stocks of states outside it are measured by consumption days at their highest rates; therefore, the oil market will remain weak during the rest of the year.” The report added that this development would oblige OPEC members, including Kuwait, to cut its oil production levels.

“During last May, Kuwait produced three mil-lion barrels per day according to one source and about 2.858 million barrels per day according to another. Kuwait consumes about 300 thousand barrels per day; thus only 2.7 million barrels per day (or 2.558 million barrels per day in the second case) are exported, this operation can be used as an index.

It, however, warned that the production cut

may cause budget deficit in Kuwait and several countries.

“This means that there are between 780 thousand barrels per day and 638 thousand bar-rels per day provisional surplus, but they prevent the occurrence of actual budget deficit. If Kuwait complies with its prescribed quota, as decided in OPEC’s latest meeting (2.220 million barrels per day), its exports will drop to 1.92 million barrels per day with a value of KD 18.1 billion per annum (at a price of $92.38 per barrel on 20/06/2012 and exchange rate of 279 fils per US dollar) and with a budget deficit by KD 4.6 billion. But the deficit won’t be realized in reality because of the increased production and because prices change.

Facing the challenge of oil revenues decline, Al-Shall stressed that prudent policy should adopted to bring Kuwait back to the flexibility in control-ling its economic potentials.

“There should be a nation agreement on a law that fortifies public finance, or freeze its expendi-tures at an agreed ceiling for three forthcoming fis-cal years. Then it will not hurt to submit proposals with financial costs outside the state’s budget, after

their approval, for a three-year term. It does not harm either to introduce tax policies that would begin by some additional fees on luxurious articles and the extravagance in consuming subsidized ser-vices that comes second on the global level in wast-ing natural resources, “The initial aim of the taxes is to reduce waste, restoring balance between the citizenship rights and obligations, in addition to setting foundations for taxation policy to build on it. Once that is accomplished, the state will begin restoring its ability to control its future.

Meanwhile, the weekly report of Oula Wasata Brokerage Company, ascribed the slight increase on US crude prices in the closing sessions of this week to the tropical storm that hit Gulf of Mex-ico.

It noted that US crude futures ended slightly higher on Thursday in very choppy trading, as support from a tropical storm shutting some pro-duction was offset by uncertainty about the debt limit row in the United States. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, September crude rose four cents, or 0.04 percent, to settle at $97.44 a barrel, trading from $96.51. -KUNA

Indian farmers till a field at a village on the outskirts of Siliguri in the eastern state of West Bengal on June 23, 2012. Monsoon rains are a key factor for global commodities markets, strengthening the output of various crops in India, which could help bring relief to Asia’s third-largest economy in its battle with high food prices. (AFP)

DFM general Index suffers largest 1-month drop since January 2010ADX retreats for 3rd consecutive month in May

KUWAIT: The following is a report pro-duced by Kuwait Projects Company (KIPCO) Asset Management Company (KAMCO).

ADX reviewThe Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange re-

treated for the third consecutive month in line with global and regional markets which wit-nessed all Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) ex-changes record losses in May. Fears of a global economic slowdown stoked by high Euro-zone debt, slowing global growth and geopoliti-cal tensions pressured markets lower, with oil prices under downward pressure falling more than 14 percent in May, which if sustained may weigh down on the economies of the GCC states. The ADX General Index shed 2.51 per-cent to 2,441.03 eroding its YTD-12 return to 1.61 percent. Trading indicators were mixed as volume dropped slightly by 2.8 percent to 1.19 billion shares, while value increased 20 percent to two billion UAE dirhams with a 5.6 percent decrease in deals to 21,528. Trading was con-centrated in the Banks and Real Estate sectors which captured 32.5 percent and 29.6 percent of all value traded, respectively. Low liquidity in the stock market reflects the unclear direc-tion as investors remain cautious about the re-gional uncertainty and the European-debt cri-sis. Trading indicators will most likely remain light following the summer season while the positive outcome of MSCI review of the UAE market- the possible inclusion in MSCI emerg-ing markets index- will boost liquidity and cause upward movement in the market.

Total market capitalization for the month decreased by 4.54 percent to 262.1 billion dir-hams as compared to 274.5 billion dirhams in April 2012. No sectors gained for the month with the Real Estate and Investment & Finan-cial sectors suffering the sharpest drops in mar-ket cap of 11.3 percent to 8 billion dirhams and 8 percent to 1.15 billion dirhams. The heavyweight Banking sector shed 3.7 percent to 117.9 billion dirhams while, the Energy and Telecom sectors shed 5.55 percent and 5.54 percent respectively to 9.92 billion dirhams and 95.25 billion dirhams.

In earnings news, 66 out of 68 compa-nies announced earnings for Q1-12 recording almost double the profits with a 95 percent surge to 29.2 billion dirhams as compared to a previous 14.99 billion dirhams for Q1-11. The exceptional earnings results are attribut-able to the reversal of the real estate sector’s fortune from a loss of 12.46 billion dirhams in Q1-11 to a profit of 1.08 billion dirhams in Q1-12 largely on the back of Al-Dar Properties. The real estate developer had received a bail out from the Abu Dhabi government last year, along with general steps by the government to bolster the sector; Al-Dar properties had regis-

tered losses of 12.66 billion dirhams in Q1-11. The banking sector also registered an increase in earnings of 26.3 percent to 16.16 billion dir-hams as compared to 12.80 billion dirhams in Q1-11 with profits in the sector greatly aided by Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank’s 694 percent whopping jump in earnings to 3.03 billion dir-hams. On the other hand, profitability of the In-dustrial, Consumer Staples and Investments & Financial Services sectors decreased 65.3 per-cent to 270.71 million dirhams, 55.6 percent to 101.35 million dirhams and 47.9 percent to 130.98 million dirhams. Market heavyweight Emirates Telecommunication (Etisalat) suffered a 23.5 percent decline in earnings during Q1-12 to 5.84 billion dirhams from 7.63 billion dirhams in Q1-11, as the company continues to suffer from increased competition due to the introduction of Du in Dubai and a maturing home market with one of the highest mobile penetration rates in the world. Etisalat’s plunge in earnings significantly impacted the sector’s earning to drop 19.3 percent to 8.6 billion dir-hams as compared to 10.67 billion dirhams.

The UAE’s non-oil foreign trade achieved a 23 percent annual growth according to the Federal Customs Authority; the total value of non-oil foreign trade has soared to 927.7 bil-lion dirhams in 2011 from 754.3 billion dir-hams in 2010. On the other hand imports also increased 24 percent to 602.8 billion dirhams from 485.4 billion dirhams but remained lower than exports, which contributes towards mini-mizing the financial deficit due to a trade sur-plus.

According to the IMF, UAE’s nominal GDP grew by an estimated $62 billion in 2011 around 20.8 percent to $360 billion on the back of strong crude prices with high oil production allowing it to maintain its position as the second largest Arab economy; nominal GDP is projected to grow by $26 billion this

year to record $386 billion.

DFM reviewA regional downturn in equity markets on

the back of fears of a global economic slow-down and increasing investor anxiety regarding the Euro-zone debt crisis following the French elections, which may complicate economic policy in the Euro-zone, coupled with fears of a worsening situation in Greece and Spain, drove market behavior during the month. The DFM General Index suffered its largest one month drop since Jan-10 as it shed 9.78 percent to 1,471.49 paring its YTD-12 gains to 8.73 per-cent and marked 3-months of corrections fol-lowing February’s whopping 20.53 percent surge in the index; the exchange has now shed 11.45 percent in the last 60 days and 13.54 per-cent in the last 90 days, while market volatility has settled down during May to 13 percent as compared to the previous 4-month average of 23 percent. Liquidity in the market continued to drop building on last month’s slump with volume plunging a further 47 percent to 2.48 billion shares, while value traded sunk 52 per-cent to AED 3.24 billion down from AED 6.74 billion. All sectors ended in the red except the Consumer Staples sector as aggregate market capitalization lost 6.73 percent of its value dur-ing May to reach AED 175 billion from AED 187.6 billion.

In earnings, 54 of 66 companies have an-nounced their Q1-12 results that recorded AED 3.12 billion down 7 percent from a AED 3.35 billion reported in Q1-11. The drop was signifi-cantly impacted by the heavyweight banking sector’s 33.5 percent drop in earnings to AED 1.49 billion from a previous AED 2.23 billion. Dubai’s largest lender Emirates NBD was sig-nificantly impacted the drop in banking sector revenues as its earnings plunged 54.6 percent to AED 641.1 million from AED 1.4 billion in

Q1-11 due to booking high provisions of AED 1.7 billion. Despite the drop, Emirates NBD had managed to grow its revenues 19 percent to AED 2.7 billion and increase its operat-ing profit by 20 percent since Q1-11. Dubai’s troubled investment sector managed to dimin-ish overall losses by 70 percent to AED 77.27 billion in Q1-12 as compared to a loss of AED 258.19 billion in Q1-11, indicating an improve-ment in conditions as the emirate’s debt crisis subdues while market conditions improve. The real estate sector which was also challenged by the Dubai’s fiscal problems is reaping benefits from the market turnaround as it posted a 30 percent jump in profits to AED 777.55 million in Q1-12 as compared to AED 596.18 million for Q1-11. In telecom, Emirates Integrated Telecom (Du) posted a 62 percent growth in earnings to AED 333.13 million from AED 205.83 million with the company growing on its increasing presence and strategy.

On the economic front, an optimistic view has been emerging as Dubai’s Economic Coun-cil estimated that GDP would grow by 4-5 percent in its latest forecast, up from 3 percent for 2011 and double the projections of some international agencies. According to the coun-cil’s chief economist the growth will be broad-based rather than by one or two individual sectors. The leaders of the growth are expected to be Dubai’s strong trade, tourism, and indus-trial sectors, while increased opportunities for investors will emerge during the year. The busi-ness community seems to be echoing the senti-ment as a survey by the Department of Eco-nomic Development revealed that the Business Confidence Index (BCI) stood at 120.5 points at the end of March, with any reading over 100 indicating a positive outlook. The recent confi-dence also stems from the government’s suc-cessful in dealing with its debt; the government has lowered its debt to 11.6 percent of Dubai’s

2010 GDP. Furthermore, many government-related entities (GREs) are reforming and have won the approval of lenders and rating agen-cies, which has increased the market’s confi-dence in the government’s ability to support GREs due to a clearer strategy.

In its latest paper that looked at the global spillovers to the UAE financial system, the IMF concluded that the UAE’s financial system is highly integrated and still remains exposed to global financial vulnerabilities. The IMF stated that “while vulnerabilities have decreased since 2008, the results nonetheless suggest that the authorities need to remain vigilant to glob-al shocks and continue to strengthen buffers. Also the IMF recommended that “The Central Bank of UAE (CBU) should continue to closely monitor the liquidity of individual banks and encourage them to proactively manage liquid-ity risks”. The global outlook and the height-ened uncertainty in foreign funding highlight the need to develop domestic debt markets. Domestic debt markets would facilitate banks’ liquidity management, help reduce reliance on foreign funding, and eventually allow cor-porates to raise funds from domestic capital markets. The credit stress-testing exercise un-derscores the need to mitigate increasing credit concentration to strengthen capital. The CBU should ensure that banks recognize Non-per-forming Loans (NPLs) fully and continue to provision adequately, while monitoring the performance of restructured loans. The concen-tration of risk in a few banks indicates the need for close supervision of these banks and closer monitoring of their cross-border and domestic interbank exposures. Enabling a more robust risk assessment culture, conducting regular stress testing of banks, and strengthening the framework for an early warning system would help mitigate risks to the banking system and strengthen financial stability.

KAMCO Research

GCC Equity Markets Review

1

Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange

ADX Review

The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange retreated for the third consecutive month in line with global and regional markets which witnessed all GCC exchanges record losses in May. Fears of a global economic slowdown stoked by high Euro-zone debt, slowing global growth and geopolitical tensions pressured markets lower, with oil prices under downward pressure falling more than 14 percent in May, which if sustained may weigh down on the economies of the GCC states. The ADX General Index shed 2.51 percent to 2,441.03 eroding its YTD-12 return to 1.61 percent. Trading indicators were mixed as volume dropped slightly by 2.8 percent to 1.19 bn shares, while value increased 20 percent to AED 2 bn with a 5.6 percent decrease in deals to 21,528. Trading was concentrated in the Banks and Real Estate sectors which captured 32.5 percent and 29.6 percent of all value traded, respectively. Low liquidity in the stock market reflects the unclear direction as investors remain cautious about the regional uncertainty and the European-debt crisis. Trading indicators will most likely remain light following the summer season while the positive outcome of MSCI review of the UAE market- the possible inclusion in MSCI emerging markets index- will boost liquidity and cause upward movement in the market.

ADX General Index 52 Week Performance Relative to Volume

Source: KAMCO Research

Total market capitalization for the month decreased by 4.54 percent to AED 262.1 bn as compared to AED 274.5 bn in April-12. No sectors gained for the month with the Real Estate and Investment & Financial sectors suffering the sharpest drops in market cap of 11.3 percent to AED 8 bn and 8 percent to AED 1.15 bn. The heavyweight Banking sector shed 3.7 percent to AED 117.9 bn while, the Energy and Telecom sectors shed 5.55 percent and 5.54 percent respectively to AED 9.92 bn and AED 95.25 bn.

In earnings news, 66 out of 68 companies announced earnings for Q1-12 recording almost double the profits with a 95 percent surge to AED 29.2 bn as compared to a previous AED 14.99 bn for Q1-11. The exceptional earnings results are attributable to the reversal of the real estate sector’s fortune from a loss of AED 12.46 bn in Q1-11 to a profit of AED 1.08 bn in Q1-12 largely on the

KAMCO Research

GCC Equity Markets Review

3

Dubai Financial Market

DFM Review A regional downturn in equity markets on the back of fears of a global economic slowdown and increasing investor anxiety regarding the Euro-zone debt crisis following the French elections, which may complicate economic policy in the Euro-zone, coupled with fears of a worsening situation in Greece and Spain, drove market behavior during the month. The DFM General Index suffered its largest one month drop since Jan-10 as it shed 9.78 percent to 1,471.49 paring its YTD-12 gains to 8.73 percent and marked 3-months of corrections following February’s whopping 20.53 percent surge in the index; the exchange has now shed 11.45 percent in the last 60 days and 13.54 percent in the last 90 days, while market volatility has settled down during May to 13 percent as compared to the previous 4-month average of 23 percent. Liquidity in the market continued to drop building on last month’s slump with volume plunging a further 47 percent to 2.48 bn shares, while value traded sunk 52 percent to AED 3.24 bn down from AED 6.74 bn. All sectors ended in the red except the Consumer Staples sector as aggregate market capitalization lost 6.73 percent of its value during May to reach AED 175 bn from AED 187.6 bn.

DFM General Index 52 Week Performance Relative to Volume

Source: KAMCO Research

In earnings, 54 of 66 companies have announced their Q1-12 results that recorded AED 3.12 bn down 7 percent from a AED 3.35 bn reported in Q1-11. The drop was significantly impacted by the heavyweight banking sector’s 33.5 percent drop in earnings to AED 1.49 bn from a previous AED 2.23 bn. Dubai’s largest lender Emirates NBD was significantly impacted the drop in banking sector revenues as its earnings plunged 54.6 percent to AED 641.1 mn from AED 1.4 bn in Q1-11 due to booking high provisions of AED 1.7 bn. Despite the drop, Emirates NBD had managed to grow its revenues 19 percent to AED 2.7 bn and increase its operating profit by 20 percent since Q1-11. Dubai’s troubled investment sector managed to diminish overall losses by 70 percent to AED 77.27 bn in Q1-12 as compared to a loss of AED 258.19 bn in Q1-11, indicating an improvement in conditions as the emirate’s debt crisis subdues while market conditions improve. The real estate sector which was also challenged by the Dubai’s fiscal problems is reaping benefits from the market turnaround as it posted a 30 percent jump in profits to AED 777.55 mn in Q1-12 as

BUSINESSSUNdAY, JUNe 24, 2012

ALWATAN DAILY

7

KSE closes week with 0.10% retreat, KSX-15 up 7.92%Kuwait Stock Exchange report for week ending June, 21, 2012

KUWAIT: Kuwait Stock exchange (KSe) ended last week with variance in its indices. The price index ended last week with a decrease amounted to 0.10 percent, while the weighted index increased by 1.08 percent compared to the closings of the week before, where KSX-15 Index raised by 7.92 percent. Furthermore, last week’s average daily turnover decreased by 7.92 percent, compared to the preceding week, reaching Kd 16.60 million, whereas trading volume average was 191.33 million shares, re-cording decrease of 21.36 percent.

KSe witnessed a state of caution as a re-sult to the possibility of delisting some com-panies. Capital Markets Authority gave eight listed companies a notice period that ends on June 30, 2012, to correct its financial positions, in order for its stocks to be traded back in the market. This situation had a negative impact on the market in general and on traders in par-ticular.

As far as the annual indices performance, two of the market main indices recorded losses. While the price index recorded gain of 1.50 per-cent, in spite of its losses during the last weeks; the weighted index recorded loss amounted to 1.87 percent and KSX-15 index retreated by 3.59 percent. By the end of the week, the price index closed at 5,901.57 points, down by 0.10 percent from the week before closing, whereas

the weighted index registered a 1.08 percent weekly loss after closing at 398.02 points. Moreover, the KSX-15 index recorded 1.38 percent weekly loss after closing at 964.08 points.

Sectors’ indicesSeven of KSe’s sectors ended last week in

the red zone, while the other Five recorded in-creases. The Insurance sector headed the losers list as its index declined by 3.69 percent to end the week’s activity at 916.75 points. The Tech-nology sector was second on the losers’ list, which index declined by 2.84 percent, closing at 1,115.72 points, followed by the Industrials sector, as its index closed at 914.53 points at a loss of 0.98 percent. The Basic Materials sec-tor was the least declining as its index closed at 926.12 points with a 0.16 percent decrease. On the other hand, last week’s highest gainer was the Consumer Services sector, achieving 1.95 percent growth rate as its index closed at 943.26 points. Whereas, in the second place, the Telecommunications sector’s index closed at 879.33 points recording 1.70 percent in-crease. The Banks sector came in third as its in-dex achieved 1.25 percent growth, ending the week at 950.04 points.

Sectors’ activityThe Financial Services sector dominated

total trade volume during last week with 408.06 million shares changing hands, repre-senting 53.32 percent of the total market trad-

ing volume. The Real estate sector was second in terms trading volume as the sector’s traded shares were 19.74 percent of last week’s total trading volume, with a total of 151.04 million shares.

On the other hand, the Financial Services sector’s stocks where the highest traded in terms of value; with a turnover of Kd 21.57 million or 32.48 percent of last week’s total market trading value. The Banks sector took the second place as the sector’s last week turn-

over of Kd 18.76 million represented 28.24 percent of the total market trading value.

Market capitalizationKSe total market capitalization grew by

1.04 percent during last week to reach Kd 27.04 billion, as seven of KSe’s sectors re-corded an increase in their respective market capitalization, whereas the other five recorded declines. The Consumer Services sector headed the growing sectors as its total market capital-

ization reached Kd 761 million, increasing by 4.39 percent. The Telecommunications sector was the second in terms of recorded growth with 2.59 percent increase after the total value of its listed companies reached Kd 3.87 billion. The third place was for the Health Care sector, which total market capitalization reached Kd 222.46 million by the end of the week, record-ing an increase of 1.13 percent. The Oil & Gas sector was the least growing with 0.29 percent recorded growth after its market capitalization amounted to Kd 378.79 million.

On the other hand, the Technology sector headed the decliners list as its total market cap-italization decreased by 4.21 percent to reach, by the end of the week, Kd 74.24 million. The Consumer Goods sector was second on this list, which market value of its listed companies declined by 2.63 percent, reaching Kd 569.80 million, followed by the Insurance sector, as its market capitalization amounted to Kd 311.34 million at a 1.83 percent decrease.

Disclaimer: This report has been prepared and issued by the Studies & Research Depart-ment @ Bayan Investment Co. on the basis of publicly available information, internal data, and other sources considered reliable. While great care has been taken to ensure that the facts stated are accurate, neither Bayan In-vestment Co. nor any of its employees shall be in any way responsible for the contents. This report is not an offer to buy or sell any of the securities referred in the report.

15

MY: Contribution to IP growth% chg, YoY

Since 2010

10Electricity Mining Manufacturing IP Growth

5

0

5

1010

Apr1

0

May

10

Jun10

Jul10

Aug1

0

Sep1

0

Oct1

0

Nov1

0

Dec1

0

Jan11

Feb1

1

Mar

11

Apr1

1

May

11

Jun11

Jul11

Aug1

1

Sep1

1

Oct1

1

Nov1

1

Dec1

1

Jan12

Feb1

2

Mar

12

Apr1

2

Source: KCIC Research on Datastream, 2012. www.kcic aisa.com/research

GCC Equity Markets Report for Week No.25

GCC Equity Markets Weekly PerformanceIndex Weekly Benchmark Volume Value Current Trailing Trailing Dividend

Benchmark Closing Return (%) YTD-12 Return (000's shrs) (000's USD) (USD Mln) (USD Mln) (%) P/E (X) P/B (X) Yield (%)

KSE - Price Index 5,901.6 (0.10%) 1.5% 2,940,293 675,236 98,271 1,056 1.09% 25.55 1.27 3.1%KSE - Weighted Index 398.0 1.08% (1.9%)KSE - KAMCO TRW Index 2,564.4 0.77% (0.8%)Saudi Stock Exchange (TADAWUL) 6,838.1 1.39% 6.5% 1,676,908 9,686,877 360,575 4,290 1.20% 13.68 1.85 3.8%Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange 2,508.6 2.54% 4.4% 147,505 78,133 76,811 4,607 6.38% 9.23 1.07 4.9%Dubai Financial Market 1,470.5 0.46% 8.6% 310,960 125,452 46,706 54 0.12% 33.17 0.89 2.8%Qatar Exchange 8,253.5 0.01% (6.0%) 27,304 198,764 124,625 2,573 2.11% 11.86 1.82 3.7%Bahrain Bourse 1,128.2 (0.18%) (1.4%) 79,880 47,327 16,458 (29) (0.18%) 10.38 0.89 5.2%Muscat Securities Market 5,665.7 (0.76%) (0.5%) 30,788 22,483 17,345 (105) (0.60%) 11.92 1.62 4.3%

Total GCC Equity Markets 5,213,638 10,834,271 740,792 12,446 1.71% 13.83 1.50 3.8%

Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE)Top 10 Largest Kuwaiti Companies by Market Cap

Price Weekly Market Cap. Volume Value Trailing Trailing Dividend Beta ROE YTD Price(KWD) Return (%) (KD Mln) (000's shrs) (000's KD) P/E (X) P/B (X) Yield (%) Chg. (%)

1- National Bank of Kuwait 1.020 0.0% 4,441 2,770 2,847 14.7 2.0 3.5% 1.49 13.4% 3.9%2- Zain 0.710 2.9% 3,039 6,905 4,861 10.6 1.6 8.3% 1.58 15.2% (13.8%)3- Kuwait Finance House 0.710 2.9% 2,062 5,182 3,618 26.5 1.6 1.9% 1.48 6.1% (13.1%)4- Boubyan Bank 0.620 3.3% 1,084 11,679 7,237 NM 4.4 0.0% 1.50 3.4% 5.1%5- Gulf Bank 0.410 1.2% 1,080 3,975 1,621 38.3 2.5 0.0% 0.88 6.5% (15.5%)6- National Mobile Co. 2.120 1.9% 1,069 147 307 10.1 1.4 2.3% 1.21 13.3% 11.9%7- United Ahli Bank 0.870 0.0% 1,029 144 127 31.3 4.0 1.5% 1.03 12.8% 18.0%8- Commercial Bank of Kuwait 0.770 1.3% 979 64 49 NM 1.9 0.0% 0.81 NM (2.5%)9- Ahli Bank 0.560 0.0% 847 72 40 18.7 1.8 2.5% 0.72 9.4% (8.6%)10- Ahli United Bank 0.168 1.2% 795 1,206 204 9.1 1.0 5.3% 0.59 10.8% (1.5%)

Saudi Stock Exchange (TADAWUL)Top 10 Largest Saudi Companies by Market Cap

Price Weekly Market Cap. Volume Value Trailing Trailing Dividend Beta ROE YTD Price(SAR) Return (%) (SAR Mln) (000's shrs) (000's SAR) P/E (X) P/B (X) Yield (%) Chg. (%)

1- Saudi Basic Industries Corp 92.00 1.9% 276,000 21,960 1,998,741 9.6 1.9 5.4% 1.23 19.8% (4.4%)2- Al-Rajhi Bank 74.25 0.7% 111,375 6,118 448,600 14.5 3.4 4.4% 1.06 23.6% 6.8%3- Saudi Telecom 39.50 1.0% 79,000 3,651 142,706 9.0 1.6 5.1% 0.83 17.9% 16.9%4- Saudi Electricity Co. 13.00 0.4% 54,166 9,589 124,656 22.5 1.1 5.4% 0.76 4.7% (6.5%)5- Al-Etihad Etisalat Co. 64.75 3.6% 45,325 2,812 178,794 8.6 2.5 5.0% 0.99 29.1% 23.3%6- Kingdom Holding Co. 12.00 (1.6%) 44,471 1,927 23,319 68.4 1.7 1.0% 0.83 2.4% 35.6%7- Saudi Arabia Fertilizers Co. 173.50 (1.3%) 43,375 601 104,054 10.7 4.8 7.5% 1.07 44.8% (1.4%)8- Samba Financial Group 45.00 (1.1%) 40,500 738 33,317 9.4 1.4 3.7% 0.68 14.8% (3.4%)9- Riyad Bank 23.10 1.1% 34,650 950 21,876 10.5 1.1 5.6% 0.74 10.9% (0.9%)10- SABB 33.60 0.0% 33,600 365 12,345 11.2 1.9 1.7% 0.73 16.9% (17.4%)

Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX)Top 10 Largest Companies by Market Cap in Abu Dhabi

Price Weekly Market Cap. Volume Value Trailing Trailing Dividend Beta ROE YTD Price(AED) Return (%) (AED Mln) (000's shrs) (000's AED) P/E (X) P/B (X) Yield (%) Chg. (%)

1- Emirates Telecom. Co. 9.82 6.3% 77,605 11,985 115,045 13.3 2.0 7.1% 1.00 15.2% 7.6%2- National Bank Of Abu Dhabi 8.39 (6.4%) 32,508 786 6,591 8.5 1.2 2.6% 1.17 14.1% 3.4%3- First Gulf Bank 7.85 (1.5%) 23,550 2,951 23,216 6.3 0.9 6.4% 1.31 14.5% 1.6%4- Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank 3.34 4.7% 18,689 5,787 19,263 5.7 0.8 6.0% 1.31 14.1% 20.1%5- Abu Dhabi National Energy 1.28 6.7% 7,968 845 1,052 7.0 0.9 7.8% 1.34 12.5% 6.7%6- Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank 3.04 (1.3%) 7,189 2,570 7,855 6.2 0.8 8.0% 1.24 13.0% (3.8%)7- Union National Bank 2.80 0.0% 6,988 1,845 5,171 4.6 0.5 5.4% 1.13 11.7% (3.1%)8- National Bank of Ras Al-Khaimah 4.00 (2.4%) 6,095 169 681 4.9 1.2 5.7% 0.14 24.6% 5.6%9- National Bank of Fujairah 4.95 0.0% 5,445 0 0 18.5 2.7 2.0% NA 14.6% 8.8%10- AL DAR Properties Co. 1.13 1.8% 4,616 39,439 44,227 5.0 0.6 4.4% 1.52 12.7% 74.1%

KAMCO Research21-Jun-12

Weekly Trading Indicators Valuation Multiples

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Dubai Financial Market (DFM)Top 10 Largest Companies by Market Cap in Dubai

Price Weekly Market Cap. Volume Value Trailing Trailing Dividend Beta ROE YTD Price(AED) Return (%) (AED Mln) (000's shrs) (000's AED) P/E (X) P/B (X) Yield (%) Chg. (%)

1- EMAAR Properties 2.910 2.1% 17,726 47,129 137,776 9.0 0.6 4.4% 1.40 6.2% 13.2%2- Emirates NBD 2.710 (2.9%) 15,062 706 1,933 8.6 0.4 7.4% 0.61 5.1% (7.8%)3- Emirates Integrated Telecom. 3.06 1.7% 13,989 5,224 15,853 11.4 2.4 4.9% 0.98 20.9% 5.9%4- Mashreq Bank 65.000 0.0% 10,990 0 0 13.3 0.9 3.1% 0.06 6.8% (36.0%)5- Dubai Financial Market 0.957 (0.3%) 7,656 14,438 13,883 77.8 1.0 0.0% 1.61 1.3% 13.9%6- Dubai Islamic Bank 1.880 0.0% 7,138 5,626 10,666 6.9 0.8 6.6% 1.14 11.6% (3.1%)7- Commercial Bank of Dubai 2.760 (3.5%) 5,626 0 0 7.0 0.9 6.9% 0.27 13.0% (4.8%)8- Arabtec Holding P.J.S.C. 2.880 2.1% 4,521 14,601 41,859 14.2 1.5 1.7% 1.31 10.5% 81.1%9- Air Arabia Co. 0.590 0.3% 2,753 13,931 8,196 8.9 0.5 7.6% 1.01 5.8% 0.7%10- Aramex 1.750 (1.7%) 2,562 6,428 11,397 11.5 1.3 2.9% 1.10 11.5% (2.8%)

Qatar Exchange (QE)Top 10 Largest Qatari Companies by Market Cap

Price Weekly Market Cap. Volume Value Trailing Trailing Dividend Beta ROE YTD Price(QAR) Return (%) (QAR Mln) (000's shrs) (000's QAR) P/E (X) P/B (X) Yield (%) Chg. (%)

1- Qatar National Bank 131.00 0.2% 91,665 336 44,211 11.7 2.2 2.8% 0.85 18.8% (3.7%)2- Industries Qatar 131.80 (1.3%) 72,490 581 77,407 9.4 3.0 5.7% 1.07 32.2% 0.7%3- Ezdan Real Estate Co. 20.00 1.0% 53,050 22 438 117.2 1.9 0.8% 0.53 1.6% (9.9%)4- Qatar Telecom. (Q-Tel) 107.80 (1.7%) 34,530 351 38,282 13.8 1.6 1.5% 0.64 11.8% 40.0%5- Masraf Al Rayan 26.90 (0.4%) 20,175 1,721 46,460 14.1 2.4 4.1% 0.85 16.9% (3.1%)6- Qatar Islamic Bank 76.60 (0.5%) 18,100 297 22,741 12.6 1.7 5.9% 1.03 13.5% (9.1%)7- Commercial Bank of Qatar 69.10 2.1% 17,099 450 30,972 9.0 1.3 8.7% 1.14 14.3% (18.0%)8- Qatar Electricity & Water Co. 135.00 2.4% 13,500 94 12,565 9.9 4.5 4.8% 0.79 45.3% (2.6%)9- Qatar Fuel Co. (Wokod) 233.60 (1.2%) 12,141 35 8,165 10.8 2.6 3.4% 0.71 24.2% 18.9%10- Doha Bank 55.00 0.4% 11,368 96 5,320 9.0 1.7 8.2% 1.04 19.3% (13.1%)

Bahrain Bourse Top 10 Largest Bahraini Companies by Market Cap

Price Weekly Market Cap. Volume Value Trailing Trailing Dividend Beta ROE YTD Price(BHD) Return (%) (BHD Mln) (000's shrs) (000's BHD) P/E (X) P/B (X) Yield (%) Chg. (%)

1- Ahli United Bank (Price in USD) 0.600 1.7% 1,184 77,259 17,476 9.9 1.2 4.8% 2.10 12.4% (9.8%)2- Aluminum Bahrain 0.540 0.0% 767 218 118 3.8 1.0 12.4% 0.22 25.9% (18.2%)3- Bahrain Telecommunications Co. 0.456 (3.8%) 657 120 56 8.3 1.3 8.8% 0.93 15.3% 16.3%4- Arab Banking Corp. (Price in USD) 0.460 0.0% 539 0 0 6.8 0.4 0.0% 0.76 5.7% 9.5%5- National Bank of Bahrain 0.550 1.9% 470 81 43 10.2 1.7 5.5% 0.57 16.9% (4.3%)6- Al Baraka Banking (Price in USD) 0.945 (5.5%) 361 25 9 8.0 0.8 8.4% 0.77 9.8% (13.3%)7- Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait 0.380 0.0% 324 0 0 10.1 1.4 6.6% 0.34 13.4% (8.2%)8- Investcorp Bank (Price in USD) 796.950 0.0% 240 0 0 60.6 0.6 0.0% 0.48 1.0% 0.0%9- United Gulf Bank 0.23 0.0% 195 0 0 NM 0.9 0.0% 0.51 NM (22.0%)10- ITHMAR Bank (Price in USD) 0.135 8.0% 143 661 32 NM 0.6 0.0% 1.20 NM 107.7%

Muscat Securities Market (MSM)Top 10 Largest Omani Companies by Market Cap

Price Weekly Market Cap. Volume Value Trailing Trailing Dividend Beta ROE YTD Price(OMR) Return (%) (OMR Mln) (000's shrs) (000's OMR) P/E (X) P/B (X) Yield (%) Chg. (%)

1- Bank Muscat 0.568 (11.1%) 1,021 2,460 1,401 8.3 1.2 3.8% 1.21 14.2% (25.8%)2- Oman Telecom Co. 1.329 0.7% 997 580 768 8.6 2.2 7.5% 0.88 25.8% 1.5%3- HSBC Bank Oman 0.239 (3.2%) 478 412 99.3 29.9 2.9 2.3% 1.00 9.7% (14.6%)4- Bank Dhofar 0.422 (1.9%) 464 24 10 33.9 2.0 1.4% 0.66 5.9% (22.9%)5- Omani Qatari Telecom (NAWRAS) 0.508 0.0% 331 778 396 7.3 3.6 7.5% 1.29 29.6% (21.8%)6- National Bank of Oman 0.290 0.3% 321 422 122 8.9 1.2 5.9% 1.02 13.2% (9.4%)7- Raysut Cement 1.334 0.3% 267 539 718 15.4 2.7 3.7% 0.97 17.5% 75.5%8- Shell Oman Marketing 2.510 0.0% 251 39 98 21.0 11.6 4.7% 0.38 55.3% 4.9%9- Oman Cement Co. 0.654 (2.4%) 216 464 305 15.7 1.5 4.6% 0.99 9.6% 51.4%10- Ahli Bank 0.196 (1.0%) 187 439 86 9.3 1.5 0.0% 0.81 12.0% (26.0%)

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Malaysia’s industrial production logs a surpriseDomestic demand remains robust

Why is this graph important?Malaysia, South east Asia’s third largest

economy, witnessed a larger-than-expected rise in its industrial production (IP) figure for the month of May, on the back of an uptick in growth in both the manufacturing and electric-ity sectors. IP grew from 1.5 percent in March to 3.2 percent in April, compared to the same time last year, versus the forecasted 2 percent. The recent figure is also high relative to the historical average: from 2007 to 2012, Malay-sia posted an average IP growth rate of 1 per-cent. Manufacturing growth accelerated from 2.6 percent in March to 5.7 percent year-on-year (yoy) in April, which more than offset the slight slowdown in the electronics sector and the continued contraction in the mining sector due to declining commodity prices. The rise in IP growth comes in spite of the contraction in exports in April by 0.1 percent yoy, which suggests that the growth in IP should be com-ing from resilient consumption growth. The contraction in exports was mainly attributed to the fall in global demand for electrical and electronic products and palm oil. domestic de-mand however, is expected to remain robust for the next coming months, which could help con-

tinue to offset dwindling export demand as the euro zone, which imports about 11 percent of Malaysia’s exports, continues to be plagued by its burgeoning debt crisis. If domestic demand does remain high, then this should keep IP buoyant and in turn help Malaysia achieve its targeted economic growth rate of somewhere between 4 and 5 percent by year-end.

What does the indicator tell us?IP is a measure of economic activity, sur-

veying factory production, related manufac-turing processes and mining. IP reflects the consumer sentiment and interest rate condi-tions because levels of production are highly sensitive to those factors. Thus, due to its quali-ties, forecasters use IP to understand future economic activity. IP is a coincident indicator, which means that it reflects the current state of the economy. If production activity acceler-ates, this could mean the economy is recover-ing or growing, but can also be a warning sign

of up-coming rising inflationary pressures. The relatively strong industrial production figure in Malaysia justifies the central bank’s recent move to leave its key interest rate unchanged at 3 percent, to avoid the risk of over stimulat-ing the economy. On the other hand, if prices accelerate and the central bank undergoes monetary tightening by raising interest rates in order to curb inflationary pressures, IP, as well as economic activity, could decelerate due to more expensive credit.

What are the economic and financial implications?

Malaysia’s IP will continue to rise, just as long as robust domestic consumption contin-ues to outweigh the fall in exports, as demand from europe sputters due to its lingering debt crisis. The robust domestic consumption can be mainly attributed to the government’s cash giveaways to the poor and the implementation of the minimum wage for the very first time in May. Malaysia’s policymakers enacted a mini-mum wage law to help support low income households, in a bid to achieve a rich nation status by 2020 and amid speculation that the government may call elections soon. The poli-cymakers are hoping that the lowest paid will now be guaranteed enough income to lift them out of poverty and meet the rising costs of liv-ing. Thus, if the cash giveaways and minimum

wage do feed through into the hands of the con-sumer and the domestic economy does subse-quently remain buoyant, then Malaysia should see its IP continue to climb. The shift from be-ing an export-led economy to a domestically driven economy in Malaysia, to help sustain long-term economic growth, is in line with our view for Asia as a whole and justifies our rea-soning as to why Asia will become increasingly attractive in the eyes of investors.

Prepared by Dana Al-Fakir - For more information please visit: www.kcic-asia.com or email: research@kcicasia.com. KCIC is an Asia-focused investment company. Licensed and regulated by the Central Bank of Kuwait, it facilitates capital flows between the Middle East and emerging Asia by providing financial and advisory services, and managing third party capital.

Important Disclaimer: The information contained in this report is prepared by the Research Department of the Kuwait China In-vestment Company (KCIC) and is believed to be reliable, but its accuracy and completeness are not warranted. Research recommenda-tions do not constitute financial advice nor ex-tend offers to participate in any specific invest-ment on any particular terms. Investors should consider this material as only a single factor in making their decisions.

PARIS: The biggest UN summit on sustainable develop-ment in a decade approved a strategy to haul more than a billion people out poverty and cure the sickness of the bio-sphere. But critics branded the plan a cruel failure, saying it had been gutted of ambition by national interests.

“It’s a demonstration of political impotence, of system paralysis, and it makes me feel pessimistic about the system’s ability to deliver,” Laurence Tubiana, director of a French think-tank, the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), said in an interview.

“The multilateral process today is not delivering the urgent action we need,” WWF’s Jim Leape told AFP in an email.

“International action is in fact important, to galvanize a global response to these challenges, but it’s clear that we need to look to leadership in other places... that means looking for changes everywhere – communities, cities, na-tional governments and companies.” The gathering of 191 UN members crowned a 10-day forum marking 20 years since the Rio Earth Summit, where leaders vowed the world would live within its environmental means. In a sprawling 53-page statement, the three-day summit voiced dismay at entrenched poverty and mounting ecological stress.

“We... renew our commitment to sustainable develop-ment, and to ensure the promotion of an economically, so-cially and environmentally sustainable future for our planet and for present and future generations,” it said. Entitled “The Future We Want,” the statement highlighted the many perils facing a planet whose human population is set to surge from seven billion today to 9.5 billion by 2050. The long list includes climate change, desertification, fisheries depletion, pollution and deforestation, and the danger that thousands of species will go the way of the dodo.

“Sustainable Development Goals” will replace the UN’s Millennium Development Goals from 2015, although defin-ing the aim will be left for future talks -- a process likely to be long and fiercely fought.

The strategy also promotes the green economy, a con-cept that breaks new ground in official UN terminology but is viewed suspiciously by many developing economies.

The statement also reflected the worries of advanced

economies battling a deep financial crisis. Despite the demands of developing nations for $30 bil-

lion in help, the text stipulated no funding figures to achieve sustainability goals. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the outcome “provides a firm foundation for social, economic, environmental well-being.”

“It will guide us, all of us, towards a sustainable path. It

is now our responsibility to build on it.” President Dilma Rousseff told a press conference that

Brazil, the host country, had secured the compromise after months of haggling. “The consensus is a point of departure, not arrival,” she cautioned. “With this document, nations move forward. We cannot allow anyone to remain behind. The next conference will have to be a leap forward.”

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the docu-ment “marks a real advance for sustainable development. We know this is one of the most pressing matters of our time.” But others said a historic opportunity had been thrown away.

“The two defining challenges we face today are eradi-cating global poverty and managing the risks of climate change,” said British economist Lord Nicholas Stern, author of a landmark study into the costs of global warming.

“But the conference has failed to acknowledge the com-pelling evidence about the scale and urgency of action re-quired.” A registry that was opened during the conference showed that nearly 700 commitments, mobilizing $513 bil-lion, had been made for sustainable development by gov-ernments and businesses, the UN said on Friday. It gave no details about whether the funding was new or the criteria for determining whether the projects were sustainable.

In the green movement, many activists branded Rio+20 a disappointment to rank alongside the 2009 Copenhagen climate summit, a near-fiasco. “The only people dancing in Rio tonight will be those who continue to benefit from a broken economic model that puts profit ahead of people and planet,” said Asad Rehman of Friends of the Earth.

“Rio+20 has been a failure of epic proportions,” said Greenpeace’s executive director, Kumi Naidoo.

“We must now work together to form a movement to tackle the equity, ecology and economic crises being forced on our children. The only outcome of this summit is justifi-able anger, an anger that we must turn into action.”

Ban had named the Conference on Sustainable Devel-opment as the cornerstone of his plan for fairer, cleaner growth, the “No. 1 priority” of his tenure.

But talk of a summit that would draw as many 130 heads of state or government to give a push to his goals was way off the mark. In the end, less than half of the UN’s roll call of countries sent their leader, with the remainder repre-sented by deputies, ministers or simply chief negotiators.

Absentees included US President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and British Prime Minister David Cameron. -AFP

LIFESUNDAY, JUNE 24, 2012

UN summit approves strategy on poverty, environment

An activist takes part in a protest during the last day of the People’s Summit in Rio de Janeiro, 22 June, during the UN Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development. (AFP)

CONNECTICUT: Contrary to popular belief, happi-ness in life has more to do with respect and influence than status or wealth, according to a new study reports Health-Day News.

Researchers said one possible reason money doesn’t buy happiness is that people may get used to their higher income, but they never tire of being admired by others.

“We got interested in this idea because there is abun-dant evidence that higher socioeconomic status – higher income or wealth, higher education – does not boost sub-jective well-being (or happiness) much at all. Yet at the same time, many theories suggest that higher status should boost happiness,” said Cameron Anderson, a psychological sci-entist at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, in a journal news release.

The study’s authors said the respect people receive from their peers, such as friends, neighbors or teammates,

has more to do with happiness than money. “Having high standing in your local ladder leads to receiving more re-spect, having more influence, and being more integrated into the group’s social fabric,” Anderson said.

The researchers put their idea to the test in a series of studies. First, they surveyed 80 college students from 12 groups on campus. The amount of respect the students re-ceived from their peers, known as their sociometric status, was calculated based on peer ratings, self-reports and the number of leadership positions the students held. The re-searchers also took into account the students’ household income and asked them about their social well-being. They found the admiration the students received from their peers predicted their social well-being. Their wealth or income did not.

When the researchers expanded the group of partici-pants in another study, they saw similar results.

In a final study, the researchers followed graduate stu-dents in business school. They found the MBA students’ so-cial well-being was tied to changes in the admiration they felt from their peers before and after graduation. They noted respect had more to do with the student’s well-being after graduation than how much money they made.

“I was surprised at how fluid these effects were -- if someone’s standing in their local ladder went up or down, so did their happiness, even over the course of nine months,” Anderson said.

“One of the reasons why money doesn’t buy happiness is that people quickly adapt to the new level of income or wealth. Lottery winners, for example, are initially happy but then return to their original level of happiness quickly,” he concluded.

“It’s possible that being respected, having influence and being socially integrated just never gets old.”

Money really can’t buy happiness, study finds

CERN to give update on search for ‘Higgs Boson’

PARIS: The European Organization for Nuclear Re-search said Friday it may announce next month wheth-er tests with its atom-smasher have found the elusive “God particle”.

Known formally as the Higgs boson, the particle is the theoretical missing link in the standard model of physics and is believed to be what gives objects mass, though scientists have never been able to pin it down.

The organization, known as CERN, saids that at a July 4 Geneva conference it will “deliver the latest up-date in the search for the Higgs boson” it is carrying out with its atom-smasher, the Large Hadron Collider.

The theory behind the so-called God particle is that mass does not derive from particles themselves but in-stead comes from a boson that interacts strongly with some particles but less, if at all, with others.

“In December we said that there were hints in the data that there may be something there (but) not strong enough to say it’s a discovery or not,” CERN spokes-man James Gillies told AFP by telephone.

“On July 4 we will be able to say whether either there is nothing in the data this year; or there are still hints in the data, but not strong enough for us to be able to say that it is a discovery; and possibly a discovery,” he said. “Either of those three things is possible.” The seminar will precede a major physics conference in Mel-bourne, Australia, where progress in the search for the Higgs boson will be reported.

The Large Hadron Collider, sometimes called the world’s largest machine, is located in a 27-kilometre (17-mile) ring-shaped tunnel near Geneva that straddles the Franco-Swiss border up to 175 meters (580 feet) below ground. It fires streams of protons in opposite, but paral-lel, directions in the tunnel. The beams are then bent by powerful magnets so that some of the protons collide in four giant labs, which are lined with detectors to record the sub-atomic debris that results.

Data-taking for the Melbourne conference conclud-ed on Monday, CERN’s director for accelerators and technology, Steve Myers, said in a statement.

“I’m very much looking forward to seeing what the data reveals.” The agency’s research and computing di-rector, Sergio Bertolucci, added there was now twice as much data as last year.

“That should be enough to see whether the trends we were seeing in 2011 data are still there, or whether they’ve gone away. It is a very exciting time.”

If and when a new particle is discovered, scientists will need time to ascertain that it is indeed the Higgs boson, or some other, unknown particle. -AFP

Primitive eye, tiny liver grown in the lab

NEW YORK: Japanese scientists claim to have coaxed stem cells to develop into a rudimentary human liver, replete with working blood vessels and the ability to metabolize. At the same time, another group in Japan reports the growth from stem cells of a precursor of a human eyeball according to LiveScience. Both feats were presented at the annual meeting of the International So-ciety for Stem Cell Research in Yokohama, Japan, last week.

Although further progress is needed before fully functional lab-grown livers and eyes will be ready to im-plant into a human, outside experts say the new results constitute genuine advances in that direction - and they have other medical uses in the meantime. Takanori Take-be, a stem-cell biologist at Yokohama City University in Japan, and his team grew a small, rudimentary liver using a recipe of just three types of cells. The trick was figuring out when to introduce each ingredient into the mix of cells: “It took over a year and hundreds of trials,” Takebe was quoted as saying in Nature.

First, the researchers placed genetically repro-grammed human skin cells, called “induced pluripotent stem cells,” on growth plates in a specially designed chemical bath. After nine days, the cells began devel-oping into hepatocytes, or liver cells. At that point, the researchers added cells taken from an umbilical cord, which would develop into the lining of blood vessels, and cells from bone marrow that can differentiate into bone, cartilage or fat. Two days later, the cell assortment had self-organized to form a three-dimensional “liver bud” - a 5-millimeter-wide chunk of tissue that performed basic liver functions. When they grafted the liver bud into a mouse, the researchers said the tiny organ’s blood vessels worked correctly, and it successfully metabolized some drugs that human livers metabolize but which mouse liv-ers normally cannot.

Takebe said a more developed version of the liver could eventually be used for long-term organ replace-ment, as well as serving as a short-term graft for patients whose damaged native livers are expected to recover. Much more work is needed to get to that point, however, as the liver bud lacks critical features called bile ducts, and its cells do not produce as much of a plasma protein called albumin as natural liver cells. Still, the group’s ef-forts thus far “blew my mind,” said George Daley, direc-tor of the stem-cell transplantation program at the Bos-ton Children’s Hospital in Massachusetts.

Meanwhile, Yoshiki Sasai and colleagues at the RIK-EN Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe, Japan, reported that they had managed to induce human stem cells called “retinal precursor cells” to develop into a central component of the human eye called an optic cup. In a petri dish, the cells spontaneously bulged to form a bubble called an eye vesicle, which folded back on itself

to create a half-millimeter-wide pouch layered with reti-nal cells - the optic cup.

Most impressively, according to outside research-ers, this process unfolded correctly without any exter-nal guidance by the researchers. “The morphology is the truly extraordinary thing,” said Austin Smith, director of the Centre for Stem Cell Research at the University of Cambridge in the UK. In fact, scientists didn’t even know quite how optic cups developed until Sasai and his team watched it happen spontaneously in the lab. Research-ers say the achievement lends hope to the possibility of restoring vision in humans who have lost their sight. Masayo Takahashi, an ophthalmologist on Sasai’s team, has already started transferring sheets of retina from lab-grown optic cups into blind mice in hopes of restoring their vision, and she plans to do the same with monkeys by the end of the year.

The open question is whether transplanted tissue will integrate into native tissue. Sasai insists that the group’s optic cups are “pure,” meaning they do not contain any leftover embryonic stem cells, which pose a risk of devel-oping into cancerous growths or unrelated tissues.

“You’d have no more reason to expect bone to be growing in these eyes,” he said. Stem cells have success-fully been used to generate functional human windpipes and bladder walls, and several animal organs have been grown from stem cells in the lab, including lungs and pe-nises.

FILE - Ophtalmogram of a human eye. The bright circle is the optic disc, and the especially bright inner circle is the optic cup, which researchers have man-aged to grow in the lab with stem cells. (Agencies)

Arctic once had extreme warm periods: Study

PARIS: An international team of scientists said Thurs-day that the Arctic went through ice-free periods of extreme warmth over the past 2.8 million years, based on a new anal-ysis of deep sediment in Russia.

The team led by Martin Melles of the University of Co-logne, Germany, drilled into an iced-over lake formed by a meteorite impact on the Chukchi Peninsula in Siberia for the longest sediment core ever collected in the terrestrial Arctic.

Since the meteorite struck an area of Lake El’gygytgyn that was not eroded by glaciers, the sediment record reach-es back nearly 30 times further in time than ice cores from Greenland that cover the past 110,000 years. The sediment reveals periods of extreme warmth that show the polar re-gions are much more vulnerable to change than previously thought, and are difficult to explain by greenhouse gases alone, said the study in the journal Science. Scientists have long known that the Arctic went through climate cycles, but the latest research shows some of these warm phases were “exceptional,” with temperatures four to five degrees Cel-sius (7.2 to nine degrees Fahrenheit) warmer and 12 inches (30 centimeters) wetter than during normal interglacials, the study said. Two of these “super-interglacials” happened about 400,000 years ago and 1.1 million years ago, and the data suggests it was virtually impossible for Greenland’s ice sheet to have existed in its present form at those times.

But just what caused these extreme changes remains a mystery. Since some of the Arctic changes mirror variations in the Antarctic discovered by previous studies, events at one pole may have triggered events at the other, the researchers said. One possibility is that reduced ice cover in Antarctica led to less cold bottom water mass in the northern Pacific, triggering warmer surface waters, higher temperatures and more precipitation. -AFP

WASHINGTON: The interior of Mars holds vast reser-voirs of water, with some spots apparently as wet as Earth’s innards, scientists say according to SPACE.

The finding upends previous studies, which had estimat-ed that the Red Planet’s internal water stores were scanty at best - something of a surprise, given that liquid water appar-ently flowed on the Martian surface long ago. “It’s been puz-zling why previous estimates for the planet’s interior have been so dry,” co-author Erik Hauri, of the Carnegie Institu-tion of Washington, said in a statement. “This new research makes sense and suggests that volcanoes may have been the primary vehicle for getting water to the surface.”

The scientists examined two Martian meteorites that formed in the planet’s mantle, the layer under the crust. These rocks landed on Earth about 2.5 million years ago, af-ter being blasted off the Red Planet by a violent impact.

Using a technique called secondary ion mass spectrom-etry, the team determined that the mantle from which the meteorites derived contained between 70 and 300 parts per million (ppm) of water. Earth’s mantle, for comparison, holds roughly 50-300 ppm water, researchers said.

“The results suggest that water was incorporated during the formation of Mars and that the planet was able to store water in its interior during the planet’s differentiation,” Hau-ri said. Some of this water apparently made its made to the surface in the ancient past. NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity rovers, which landed on the Red Planet in 2004, have found plenty of evidence that Mars was far warmer and wetter bil-lions of years ago than it is today.

The two golf-cart-size robots have even spotted signs of ancient hydrothermal systems, suggesting that some places on the Red Planet once had both water and an energy source - two key ingredients for the existence of life as we know it.

While the new results should help scientists better un-derstand Mars and its history, they could also shed light on the evolution of large, rocky bodies in a more general sense, researchers said. “Not only does this study explain how Mars got its water, it provides a mechanism for hydrogen storage in all the terrestrial planets at the time of their formation,” lead author Francis McCubbin, of the University of New Mexico, said in a statement.

Parts of Mars interior as wet as Earths’

TechnologyAlWATAn DAIly

9SUNDAY, JUNE 24, 2012

APP OF THE WEEK

Facebook allows fix for embarrassing mis-takes: For those embarrassing mistakes people make in their Facebook posts, there is finally some relief. The giant social network said Friday it started allowing users to edit their comments, avoiding a more cumbersome deletion. -AFP

Twitter sets off jitters as ‘bug’ hits site: Twitter said a “cascading bug” caused outages affecting millions of users of the wildly popular site, and dismissed claims of a hacker attack. The outage led to a bar-rage of complaints and comments, some serious and others ironic, which the com-pany said underscored “how critical Twit-ter has become.” The on-again-off-again service led to a range of speculation and one claim of a denial of service attack, but Twitter said this was unfounded. -AFP

PlayStation 3 consoles get free shooter game: Sony on Wednesday launched a shooter title PlayStation 3 (PS3) users can play in an unprecedented blend of hard-core console and free casual gaming. “No Man’s Land” released on PlayStation Home network was billed by the Japanese entertainment and consumer electronics giant as a “first-of-its-kind” free-to-play multi-person shooter for videogame con-soles. -AFP

Aggregator Flipboard now available for Android: The application for social net-work aggregation service Flipboard, which allows users to create their own magazine-style page layout from numerous sources (news feed, social networking profiles and updates, photos and videos), is, as of June 22, available for Android devices. Also new on Flipboard is the ability to integrate all content from Google+. -AFP

Google rolls out custom themes for Gmail: If you like your webmail person-alized you’ll be a fan of Google’s newly introduced custom themes for Gmail. The new feature lets you add a personal touch to your inbox by setting your own back-ground image. Users can choose to upload their own photo, a picture they have pre-viously uploaded to Google+, any image URL from the web, or one of the many Featured Photos on Google for an en-hanced inbox look. -AFP

Face recognition technology startup bought by Facebook: Facebook on Mon-day said it has bought a startup specializ-ing in software that lets computers recog-nize people’s faces in digital images. It was not disclosed how much the leading social network paid for Face.com or what its plans are for the company. “People who use Facebook enjoy sharing photos and memories with their friends, and Face.com’s technology has helped to provide the best photo experience,” a Facebook spokesman said in response to an AFP in-quiry. -AFP

TECH TALK

Jumanah Al-GhadbanStaff Writer

App: Photo Editor by AviaryCategory: Photo & VideoPrice: FreePlatform: iOSWorks with: iPhone, and iPod Touch.Briefly: A truly one stop shop for photo ed-iting, whether you need to crop, rotate, en-hance, adjust brightness or contrast, sharpen or blur a picture or add some gorgeous effects to one, this app is the one for you. You have all the tools you would ever need and more, such as fun stickers; cosmetic tools to help fix redeyes, remove blemishes and whiten teeth; drawing and adding text are among them. New tools are being added with each update and as a bonus feature you can pur-chase effect packs, save a higher resolution picture, drag and drop to customize a toolset and more.

Flame virus can destroy computer files: Symantec

BOSTON: The Flame computer virus is not only capable of espionage but it can also sabotage computer systems and likely was used to attack Iran in April, according to a leading security company, Symantec Corp.

Iran had previously blamed Flame for causing data loss on computers in the coun-try’s main oil export terminal and Oil Minis-try. But prior to Symantec’s discovery, cyber experts had only unearthed evidence that proved the mysterious virus was capable of espionage. Symantec researcher Vikram Thakur said on Thursday that the company has now identified a component of Flame that allows operators to delete files from comput-ers. “These guys have the capability to delete everything on the computer,” Thakur said. “This is not something that is theoretical. It is absolutely there.” - Reuters

Engineers build smallest, fastest digital gigapixel camera

PARIS: Engineers in the United States have built a prototype gigapixel camera the size of a bedside cabinet that can capture an image in a single snapshot with 1,000 times more detail than today’s devices.

It is not the world’s first gigapixel camera, but it is the smallest and fastest and opens up prospects for improving airport security, military surveillance and even online sports coverage, its developers say. A pixel is a small light point in a digital image, concentrations of which to-gether form a picture. Today’s cameras capture images measured in megapixels - a million pixels - normally between eight and 40 for an average consumer device. A thousand megapixels make a gigapixel, which is thus comprised of a billion pixels. Most of today’s gigapixel images are made by digitally merging several megapixel pictures. “Our camera records a one gigapixel image in less than a 10th of a second,” project member David Brady told AFP of the project reported in the journal Nature.

Gigapixel imaging captures details that are invisible to the human eye and can later be exam-ined by zooming in without losing clarity.

Dubbed AWARE-2, the device is housed in a box of 75 cm X 50 cm X 50 cm - most of which comprises electronic processing and communica-tion equipment. The optical system consists of a six-centimeter (2.4-inch) ball-shaped lens sur-

rounded by an array of 98 micro-cameras each with a 14-megapixel sensor.

Brady said the optical system on its own weighs about 10 kilograms (22 pounds), but with

the case about 45 kg. “The electronic system shrinks by a factor of four in the next generation, however.”

In use today are highly specialized gigapixel astronomical telescopes and airborne surveil-lance systems, which are comparatively large and have a narrow field of view, said Brady of Duke University in North Carolina.

There are also some film-based gigapixel cameras.

The cost of such a camera today would be similar to that of a high-resolution digital movie camera, he said - about $100,000 to $250,000.

But as the electronics improve, the price should become affordable for professional and serious amateur photographers within about five years, followed soon thereafter by hand-held gigapixel cameras entering into widespread use.

Brady said the technology could be used, for example, to stream sporting events over the In-ternet - enabling viewers to zoom in and watch the game from whatever perspective and reso-lution they choose. Similarly, cameras mounted in game parks or at scenic lookouts would allow online tourists to examine a scene in much more detail than if they were actually there. “Ubiqui-tous gigapixel cameras may transform the central challenge of photography from the question of where to point the camera to that of how to mine the data,” said the Nature report. -AFP

Engineers build smallest, fastest digital gigapixel camera. (AFP)

Nintendo to start selling 3DS with larger screens

LinkedIn sued for $5 million over data breach

TOKYO: Japanese game maker Nin-tendo Co. has upgraded its 3DS hand-held to sport a screen nearly twice as big as the previous model amid hot competi-tion against smartphones and tablets that are wooing people away from dedicated gaming machines.

The Kyoto-based maker of the Super Mario games and Wii home console said Friday the Nintendo 3DS LL, called 3DS XL in overseas markets, goes on sale in Japan and Europe July 28, and in the US from Aug. 19. It will sell in Japan for 18,900 yen ($236) and $199.99 in the US It did not give a price for Europe.

The 3DS, which has a touch panel and delivers 3-D imagery without spe-cial glasses, has two screens - one is 3.53 inches and the other is 3.02 inches.

The LL or XL version’s screens are 4.88 inches and 4.18 inches, according to the company. Screen inches refer to the diagonal measurement so LL screens are 1.9 times bigger.

“There were demands for a bigger screen, and so we are ready to respond with a size-variation model,” Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said in a video on the company’s website. “You can enjoy

powerful 3D imagery.”It weighs a bit more and is slightly

bigger than the previous model. But bat-tery life was extended to up to six and a half hours for 3D games from the previ-ous five hours, and up to 10 hours from

eight hours for regular games.Yusuke Tsunoda, analyst at Tokai To-

kyo Securities Co., said bigger screens are generally almost always a plus for game machines sales, and the affordable price adds to the appeal. -AP

LONDON: An Illinois woman has filed a $5 million lawsuit against LinkedIn Corp, saying the social network violated promises to consumers by not having bet-ter security in place when more than 6 million customer passwords were stolen.

The lawsuit, which was brought in fed-eral court in San Jose, California, on June 15 and seeks class-action status, was filed less than two weeks after the stolen pass-words turned up on websites frequented by computer hackers.

The attack on Mountain View, Califor-nia-based LinkedIn, an employment and professional networking site with more than 160 million members, was the latest

massive corporate data breach to have at-tracted the attention of class-action law-yers.

A federal judicial panel last week consolidated nine proposed class-action lawsuits in Nevada federal court against online shoe retailer Zappos, a unit of Am-azon.com, over its January disclosure that hackers had siphoned information affect-ing 24 million customers.

The LinkedIn lawsuit was filed by Ka-tie Szpyrka, a user of the website from Il-linois. In court papers, her Chicago-based law firm, Edelson McGuire, said LinkedIn had “deceived customers” by having a security policy “in clear contradiction of

accepted industry standards for database security.”

LinkedIn spokeswoman Erin O’Harra said the lawsuit was without merit and was driven “by lawyers looking to take advantage of the situation.”

“No member account has been breached as a result of the incident, and we have no reason to believe that any LinkedIn member has been injured,” O’Harra said on Wednesday.

Legal experts say that meaty settle-ments in online customer data theft cases will likely be difficult to obtain because plaintiffs will have to show that they were actually harmed by a breach. -Reuters

In this image released by Nintendo Co., Japanese game maker Nintendo’s 3DS LL, left, and 3DS are shown. (AP)

Samsung probes burnt out Galaxy phone in IrelandSEOUL: Samsung Electronics Co said it was investigating re-

ports that one of its flagship Galaxy S III smartphones exploded in a user’s car in Ireland.

Samsung launched its latest Galaxy S, the strongest rival for Apple’s iPhone, in Europe on May 29 and in the United States on Thursday. It plans to roll out the device in its lucrative home market in South Korea on Monday.

A Dublin-based consumer posted comments and photos on a web site on Wednesday, saying his Galaxy phone “exploded” while mounted on his car dashboard. He wrote that while he was driving, “suddenly a white flame, sparks and a bang came out of the phone.”

“There’s no confirmation it was a fault with the phone. It may actually have been caused by a combination of my car mount and my car’s heating system,” he added.

There have been other reports of Samsung smartphones overheating. In March, a Korean schoolboy reported that a spare battery for his Galaxy S II exploded in his back pocket. Samsung said then that the cause was massive external pressure or force.

On Friday, the company said it was still looking into the re-ported Irish incident. “Our initial investigation found no fault with the phone, but we’ll conduct further investigations to de-cide the exact cause of the problem,” spokesman James Chung said, adding the result of those investigations could be released as early as next week.

Heat issues have been reported with other devices. In March, influential consumer watchdog Consumer Reports said Apple’s latest iPad tablet threw off a lot more heat than the previous ver-sion, lending weight to complaints on Internet forums that the device could get uncomfortably warm after heavy use. -Reuters

US computer scientist wins Kyoto Prize

TOKYO: America’s Ivan Sutherland has won Japan’s annual Kyoto Prize for his contributions to computer graphics technol-ogy and interactive interfaces that allow people to use comput-ers without the need for complicated programming.

Sutherland, of Portland State University, was named the winner Friday in the category of advanced technology.

Japan’s Yoshinori Ohsumi, a molecular biologist at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, was awarded for his work in the basic sciences. India’s Gayatri Spivak, a literary critic and professor at Columbia University, won the prize for arts and philosophy.

The Kyoto Prize is awarded each year by the Inamori Foun-dation, a charitable body established by the founder of Japanese electronic component maker Kyocera Corp. It is Japan’s highest private award for global achievement. -AP

Microsoft unveils ‘Surface’ tablet, new phone softwarePARIS: Software giant Microsoft unveiled its

first tablet computer, Surface, in a major hardware launch clearly designed to take on long-term rival Apple’s market-ruling iPad. Later on in the week Microsoft ramped up its push to regain ground in the precious mobile computing market by giving developers a “sneak peek” at new Windows soft-ware for smartphones.

Chief executive Steve Ballmer described the iPad challenger - complete with a built-in stand and ultra thin covers-cum-keyboards in a range of colors -- as a tablet that “works and plays.” “The Surface is a PC, the Surface is a tablet, and the Surface is something new that we think people will absolutely love,” he said at an hour-long pre-sentation in a Hollywood design studio. No prices or release dates were given, but the Surface is ex-pected to go on sale in the fall, with retail prices “competitive with a comparable ARM tablet or Intel Ultrabook-class” computers, Microsoft said.

There were spontaneous bursts of applause and whoops from tech journalists and bloggers as key features of the new tablet, which has a slightly bigger screen than the iPad, but in wide-screen movie-style 16:9 format.

There was also one nerve-jangling moment for Windows Live Division chief Steven Sinofsky, when the first Surface model he was demonstrat-ing failed to respond to a touch command. To his relief, a replacement worked immediately. “It feels natural in your hands,” he told the invite-on-

ly event, shrouded in secrecy reminiscent of Apple icon Steve Jobs, and held in a venue underlining cutting-edge design values, traditionally not Mi-crosoft’s strong point.

A version of the Surface tablet running on Windows RT software tailored for ARM mobile device chips will measure 9.3 millimeters thick and weigh 676 grams. It boasts a 10.6-inch (26.9 centimeter) high-definition screen and will be available with 32 or 64 gigabytes of memory. A model powered by Windows 8 Pro weighs 903 grams and will be available with 64 or 128 giga-bytes of memory. The Surface features a flip-out rear “kickstand” to prop it up like a picture frame and can be combined with a 3mm-thick Touch Cover that, when opened, acts as a keypad so tab-lets could be switched into “desktop” mode.

There is also a 5 mm-thick Type Cover with moving keys for a more traditional typing feel. The keypad-cover attaches with a magnetic clasp familiar to iPad users, combining to feel like a book in weight and form, as confirmed when jour-nalists were briefly given a brief chance to hold the device after the presentation. Microsoft did not specify when the tablet would be available but it is likely to be timed with the release of Windows 8 software later this year.

Windows 8 for smartphonesA key feature of Windows 8 Phone is that it

will be keenly in tune with the similarly named

next-generation operating system for personal computers as the technology titan creates a stage on which popular devices can play together.

“Windows Phone 8 is based on the same core technologies that power Windows; the most suc-cessful and powerful operating system on the planet, and one used by more than a billion peo-ple.”

The early glimpse at Windows 8 Phone came at a gathering of software developers and press in San Francisco a day after Microsoft set the tech-

nology world abuzz by unveiling its own tablet computer to challenge Apple’s iPad.

“If you’ve seen Windows 8, Microsoft’s groundbreaking new release for PCs and tablets, you’ve probably noticed it bears more than a pass-ing resemblance to the look of Windows Phone,” Belfiore said.

“Windows Phone and its bigger sibling will share common networking, security, media and web browser technology, and a common file sys-tem.” -AFP

Microsoft Surface design team members demonstrate the new tablet during a news conference at Milk Studios on June 18, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. (AFP)

Song Of The Day

Fahad AlSabahStaff Writer

Song: Don’t Tell Me What To DoArtist: RobynAlbum: Body Talk, Pt.1Genre: PopIn short: Ever felt like everything around you is killing you? Robyn captures that feeling into a song, flawlessly. Listing everything that is killing her, from her belt to her mother, Robyn lets it all out on the peculiar track.

To listen to the song visit www.alwatandaily.comE-mail your feedback to falsabah@alwatandaily.com

The Buzz

ENTERTAINMENTALWATAN DAILY

10sunDay, JunE 24, 2012

Devious Maids finds a 2013 home at LifetimeThe Lifetime channel says it’s picking up a new series from the creator of “Desperate Housewives.” The channel said Friday it has ordered 13 episodes of “Devious Maids” from producer Marc Cherry. The series is about maids working for the rich and famous in Beverly Hills and counts “Desperate House-wives” star Eva Longoria as an executive producer. “Desper-ate Housewives” ended its run on aBC this season. The net-work had been weighing “Devious Maids” for its 2012-2013 schedule but passed. The “Devious Maids” cast includes ana Ortiz, Judy Reyes, Grant show and susan Lucci. Lifetime is aiming for a 2013 debut for the series, which is based on a Mexican telenovela and produced by aBC studios. -aP

Music mogul Rosemond indicted on NY murder chargeHip-hop mogul James Rosemond has been indicted in new york on a murder-for-hire charge. Prosecutors brought the revised indictment Friday accusing Rosemond of ordering others to kill a man in the Bronx in 2009 as payback for an assault on his 14-year-old son. The 47-year-old chief ex-ecutive of new york-based Czar Entertainment is already imprisoned. He was recently convicted in federal court in Brooklyn on drug trafficking charges. Rosemond’s lawyer did not immediately return a message seeking comment. He is behind such hits as salt-n-Pepa’s “shoop.” -aP

Hudson, Mirren, others to get Walk of Fame starsHelen Mirren, Jennifer Hudson, James Franco and the Back-street Boys are among the famous folks getting stars on Hol-lywood’s Walk of Fame in 2013. actress Marg Helgenberger and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce announced the new 24 inductees Friday at a press conference on Hollywood Boulevard’s star-lined sidewalk. a committee selects celeb-rities eligible for a star and those who accept pay $30,000 in costs and fees. Other entertainers slated for a star next year are Javier Bardem, Viola Davis, simon Baker, Bryan Cranston, Jane Lynch, Katey segal, Matthew Perry, Ellen DeGeneres and Olympia Dukakis; performers Penn & Teller; makeup artist Rick Baker; filmmaker Ron Howard; radio personalities steve Harvey and “shotgun” Tom Kelly; and musicians Jane’s addiction, new Kids on the Block, Janis Joplin, usher, Thalia and Luther Vandross. -aP

Elvis Presley’s crypt pulled from auction blockElvis Presley’s crypt has left the auction block. Celebrity auctioneer Darren Julien said Friday that his company has agreed not to sell the crypt after fans worldwide demanded that it be kept as a shrine to his memory. Julien’s auctions announced in May that it would sell the empty tomb at the Forest Hill Cemetery in Memphis, Tenn., at its “Music Icons” auction sunday. Julien said the company won’t sell the crypt “until Forest Hills finds a plan that best suits the interests of the fans while respecting and preserving the memory of El-vis Presley.” Presley was interred there alongside his mother, Gladys, after he died aug. 16, 1977. Two months later, they were reburied at his Graceland home. The original crypt has remained empty ever since. -aP

R&B singer Maxwell cancels short tour due to voiceR&B singer Maxwell has cancelled his short us tour after developing vocal swelling and hemorrhaging. a representa-tive for the singer said Friday that he has been advised by doctors to rest and undergo treatment. Maxwell’s six-date summer tour had shows planned for Los angeles, atlanta and newark, n.J. for July and august. Maxwell said in the statement that cancelling the tour “sucks” and he plans to hit the road when his new album, “blacksuMMERs’night,” is released later this year. The 39-year-old made his return to music in 2009 after a seven-year break with the platinum al-bum “BLaCKsummers’night.” It won the singer-songwriter two Grammy awards, among other accolades. -aP

Baby girl for Lily Aldridge, Caleb FollowillVictoria’s secret model Lily aldridge and Kings of Leon frontman Caleb Followill are the new parents of a baby girl. The couple welcomed Dixie Pearl Followill on Thursday morning at Vanderbilt university Medical Center in nash-ville, Tenn. spokesman Ken Weinstein says both aldridge and the baby are happy and healthy and are resting at their home outside of nashville. Dixie Pearl was born at 1 a.m., weigh-ing in at 7 pounds, 11 ounces. aldridge, 26, and Followill, 30, married in California in May 2011. Dixie Pearl is their first child. -aP

Composer, lyricist Richard Adler dies at 90 in NY

NEW YORK: Composer and lyricist Rich-ard adler, who won Tony awards for co-writ-ing snappy and infectious, songs for such hit Broadway musicals as “The Pajama Game” and “Damn yankees” and who staged and produced President John F. Kennedy’s birth-day celebration featuring a breathy Marilyn Monroe, has died. He was 90.

adler died Thursday at his home in southampton, n.y., his widow, susan a. Ivo-ry, said.

some of adler’s biggest songs are “you Gotta Have Heart,” ‘’Hey, There,” “Her-nando’s Hideaway,” ‘’Whatever Lola Wants,” ‘’steam Heat,” ‘’Rags to Riches,” and “Every-body Loves a Lover.”

adler staged and produced several shows for u.s. presidents, including the unforget-table 1962 extravaganza for Kennedy at Madison square Garden where Monroe sang

“Happy Birthday.”He and Jerry Ross wrote the music and

lyrics to “The Pajama Game,” a light com-edy about labor-management relations at the sleep-Tite Pajama Factory, which won the best musical Tony in 1955.

In a 2006 interview with The associated Press, adler recounted how the song “Her-nando’s Hideaway” began from “The Pajama Game.” The show’s authors, George abbott and Richard Bissell, needed a tune for the second act, and abbott approached adler.

“He said, ‘Write a song that can be per-formed in a dimly lit, smoke-filled nightclub with a lot of fervent-looking people. Oh, and make it Latin,’” adler said. “It was a piece of cake for me.”

What emerged was a frothy Latin tango with the lyrics: “I know a dark secluded place/a place where no one knows your

face/a glass of wine a fast embrace/It’s called Hernando’s Hideaway... Ole!”

The song went on to have a successful life outside the theater, hitting the top of the pop charts and later being recorded by archie Blyer, band leader Billy May and even Ella Fitzgerald.

Did adler think it would be a hit? “no. I had no idea,” he said.

adler teamed up with Ross again for “Damn yankees,” in which a rabid baseball fan sells his soul to the devil in exchange for a chance to lead his favorite team to american League pennant glory. It won the best musical Tony crown the next year.

The fruitful Ross-adler union ended when Ross died of a lung ailment in 1955 at age 29. adler went on to earn a Tony nomination for writing the lyrics and music for 1961’s “Kwa-mina.”

adler was born in new york City in 1921 and graduated from the university of north Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1943. He served in the us naval Reserve during World War II.

He composed several symphonic works, including “Wilderness suite,” which was commissioned by the u.s. Department of the Interior, and “The Lady Remembers,” to cel-ebrate the statue of Liberty’s centennial. He also composed two ballets for the Chicago City Ballet: “Eight by adler” in 1984 and “Chicago.”

adler also produced works on Broadway, including the play “The sin of Pat Muldoon” and the musical “Rex.” He is a member of the songwriter’s Hall of Fame. adler is survived by his wife; his children, andrew adler, Kath-erine adler and Charles shipman; and three grandchildren, Damien and scarlett adler and Lola Jane shipman. -aP

FILE - This Feb. 10, 2006 file photo shows composer and lyricist Richard Adler in New York. (AP)

FILE-This Sept. 8, 1961 file photo shows Broadway composer Richard Adler, left, and his wife actress-singer Sally Ann Howes in New York. (AP)

Actor Rajesh Khanna admitted to hospital

MuMBaI: Bollywood actor Rajesh Khanna was admit-ted to a city hospital on saturday, a hospital spokesman said.

Khanna, 69, a popular Bollywood actor in the 1970s, had been unwell for months and media reports this week said his health was deteriorating.

“Rajesh Khanna has been admitted to Lilavati hospital this afternoon,” a hospital spokesman told Reuters, declin-ing to give more details.

On Thursday, the gaunt-looking actor waved to fans from the balcony of his residence, flanked by son-in-law akshay Kumar and estranged wife Dimple Khanna, after media reports said he had stopped eating.

Khanna made his acting debut with “aakhri Khat” but shot to fame three years later, playing a dashing young pi-lot in the 1969 hit “aradhana”. Often called India’s first su-perstar, Khanna featured in successful films such as “amar Prem” and “anand” over the next decade. -Reuters

Veteran Indian Bollywood actor Rajesh Khanna (center) flanked by his wife Dimple Kapadia (right) and son in-law Akshay Kumar (left), wave to well-wishers gathered outside his Ashirwad bungalow in Mumbai on June 21, 2012. (AFP)

Barbra Streisand to direct first film in 16 yearsLONDON: Barbra streisand is to take her first trip be-

hind the camera in 16 years when she directs “skinny and Cat”, a biopic about the love affair between the american novelist Erskine Caldwell and the photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White. Oscar winners Colin Firth and Cate Blanchett have already signed on to star, while the independent produc-tion will be produced and scripted by Linda yellen, reports The Guardian. streisand, now 70, first found fame as a singer and has shifted a record-breaking 140m albums over a 50-year career. she won the best actress Oscar for role in 1968’s “Funny Girl” and picked up another nomination for her turn opposite Robert Redford in “The Way We Were”. Her previ-ous directing credits include the 1983 Golden Globe-winning “yentl” and the 1991 drama “The Prince of Tides”, in which she starred with nick nolte. “skinny and Cat”, however, marks her first stint in the director’s chair since “The Mir-ror Has Two Faces”. streisand’s ill-starred 1996 romance cast her opposite Jeff Bridges and suffered a rough ride from the critics. Variety magazine described it as “a vanity production of the first order”, adding that “the narcissism on display is astonishing to behold”.

Woody Allen dislikes own films, but won’t retireFRANCE: Woody allen says he can’t

stand watching any of his own films -- but the 76-year-old us filmmaker insists he has no plans to retire.

speaking in Hollywood -- the home of an industry the new york veteran famously scorns -- he also joked about his latest movie, “To Rome with Love” in typically self-depre-cating style.

“’To Rome with Love’ is a terrible title. My original title was ‘Bop Decameron,’ and nobody knew what the Decameron (a 14th century Italian book of stories by Giovanni Boccaccio) was, even the Italians didn’t know,” he said.

“so I changed it to ‘nero Fiddles,’ and half the countries in the world said ‘we don’t know what that means, we don’t have the ex-pression.’ so finally I settled on a generic title like ‘To Rome with Love’ so everybody would get it.”

The director who made his name with films including “annie Hall” and “Manhat-tan,” and who famously makes movies at the rate of more than one a year, compared the process to cooking.

“When you make a film, it’s like a chef who works on a meal. after working all day

in the kitchen, dicing and cutting and putting sauces on you don’t want to eat it,” he told reporters, promoting “To Rome with Love” in Beverly Hills.

“and that’s what I feel about a film. I work on it for a year. I’ve written it, I’ve worked with the actors, I’ve edited, I’ve put the music and I just never want to see it again.”

He elaborated: “When I begin a film, I al-ways think that I’m gonna make ‘The Bicycle Thief,’ ‘Grande Illusion’ or ‘Citizen Kane’ and I’m convinced this is gonna be the greatest thing that ever hit celluloid.

“and then, when I see what I’ve done afterward, I’m just praying that it’s not an embarrassment to me. so I’ve never been satisfied or even pleased with a film that I’ve done.

“I make them, I finish them and that’s all. I made my first film in 1968, I’ve never seen it since. I just cringe when I see them, I don’t like them.

“I’ve never liked any of them, and I’m always thankful that the audience like some of them in spite of my disappointment. It’s always to me less than the masterpiece I was certain I was destined to make.”

Even Woody allen’s fans concede that

the director has gone through weak periods -- most agree the last few years have seen a return to form, and even commercial success.

But he insisted that his embarrassment about his own movies extends to classics in-cluding “annie Hall (1977) and “Hannah and Her sisters” (1986).

In “annie Hall” “the relationship be-tween myself and Diane Keaton, that was not what I cared about. That was one small part of another big canvas that I had.

“and in the end, I had to reduce the film to just the relationship between me and Di-ane, so I was quite disappointed in the end of that movie,” he said.

“’Hannah and Her sisters’ was a big dis-appointment, because I had to compromise my original intention tremendously to sur-vive with the film.”

“To Rome with Love” -- which was re-leased in the united states on Friday -- tells parallel stories about a series of couples. It stars Penelope Cruz, Jesse Eisenberg, Ellen Page and Roberto Benigni.

allen, who has not acted in one of his films since “scoop” in 2006, also returns to the screen as the father of a young american woman about to marry her Italian boyfriend.

“When I write the script, if there is a part for me, I take it. as I’m getting older, the parts diminish,” he said.

“When I was younger, I could always play the lead in a movie, and I could do romantic scenes with women, and it was fun.... now, I’m older and I’m reduced to playing the backstage doorman or the uncle and I don’t really love that.”

But he insists he has no plans to retire.“Retirement is a very subjective thing.

Guys I know are retired and they are very happy, they travel all over the world, the go fishing, they play with their grandchildren. and they never miss work at all.

“and then, there are other people, I’m one of that kind, that love to work all the time. I can’t see myself retiring. I need to get up and work and go out.”

He added: “Maybe I’ll suddenly get a stroke or a heart attack and I’ll be forced to retire. But if my health is good, I don’t expect to retire. But the money could run out.

“It could be that sooner or later, the guys that back my films get wise and they say: ‘this is not really worth all the suffering’ and just stop giving me the money. But I would still write for the theater, or the books.” -aFP

Former President Bill Clinton, (right) poses with Barbra Streisand, (center) and her husband James Brolin at the dedication of the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center in the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, on Thursday June 14, 2012 at Streisand’s home in Malibu, Calif. (AP)

EASTBOURNE, England: Unseeded Austrian Tamira Paszek saved five match-points and overcame a leg injury to beat eighth seed Angelique Kerber 5-7 6-3 7-5 and win the Eastbourne Internation-al tennis tournament on Saturday.

Paszek, the world number 59, was a quarter-finalist at Wimbledon last year but had never won a grass-court title un-til Saturday when she put up a fierce fight against the German.

Kerber had five matchpoints at 5-3 in the deciding set but Paszek, who had problems with her right leg after slip-ping in the seventh game, saved them all, helped by some unforced errors from the German. Paszek, 21, took a medical time-out to have her right ankle strapped and called the trainer again to massage her calf during a changeover before clinch-ing the match on her third matchpoint.

The Austrian, who will face former world number one Caroline Wozniacki in the first round at Wimbledon next week, sank to her knees and kissed the grass at Devonshire Park.

The early games had been accompa-nied by chants from a delegation of Dutch dockers, standing outside a gate close to Centre Court, who accused insurance company Aegon, the principal tourna-

ment sponsor, of mishandling their pen-sion fund, but the notorious Eastbourne winds carried away their cries before the men were shepherded away by security staff.

In the men’s final later on Saturday, American Andy Roddick, who was given a wild card into Eastbourne, was playing defending champion Andreas Seppi of Italy. -Reuters

SPORTSSUNDAY, jUNE 24, 2012

ALWATAN DAILY

11

Basketball

Cricket Tennis

Formula one

MIAMI: The ‘Big Three’ of the Miami Heat won their first NBA titles together when they silenced the Oklahoma City Thunder in five games of the championship series, but the achievement was not as easy as one, two, three.

LeBron james, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh had to make sacrifices in the blending of their talents under an emerging young coach in Erik Spoelstra.

The trio arranged to play for the Heat two years ago in a quest for championships, but fell short against the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals in their first season before find-ing the winning formula in the second.

james had to step up into the role of team leader and polish his post-up game. Wade had to step aside as the team’s ‘closer’ to allow james room to grow, and Bosh had to shift from power forward to center to make the grand plan work.

“We all knew that this team was built a little bit dif-ferently, and we needed to absolutely embrace what some would see as unconventional,” said Spoelstra, whose team could attack the basket while kicking out for three-pointers without the benefit of a dominant center.

“We would need an inside presence to be able to play inside out. LeBron knew that, as well. We were all on the same page about it,” added Spoelsra.

“He dedicated the summer to develop that game, and that allowed us to play like the power teams that you see with a big center. Dwyane Wade also helped with that.”

james, driven in his pursuit of an NBA crown, dedicated himself to improving his play down low, and went to work with Hall of Fame center Hakeem Olajuwon to boost his scoring moves near the basket.

Last year the team seemed unsure of who would take charge at the end of games, particularly in the Finals series, but james emerged as the team’s go-to man and brought a

greater resolve to the court.“just to see the perseverance that he’s had, and just

to witness every day, day in, day out, his progression as a leader and his will to win, I mean, it’s been incredible,” Bosh said about james. “I’m really proud to call myself a team mate of his. It’s just been unbelievable to witness.”

Having the slender, sweet-shooting Bosh, who had thrived as a power forward, to play center was critical to the plan.

“Chris embracing the center position really took our team to another level,” Spoelstra said. “Because of his speed, his skill set, he could defend multiple positions. But as a center, he became one of the tougher guys to cover in the league.”

Bosh did not resist the challenge.“I didn’t fight it. I just wanted to be the best big man I

could be. I knew how important defense was and is, and I just wanted to make sure I could play the best basketball I possibly could at that role for this team,” he said.

“I know a bunch of people made fun of me and said I was soft. We wanted it so bad, I just wanted it so bad, I didn’t care what anybody said, I didn’t care what anybody thought.”

Wade said the road to the title was built on pain and hard work, rather than the inspiration of a few champion players. “Man, this process is unbelievably hard, and I don’t care who you put on a team. To be a champion would be the hardest thing you do in sports,” said Wade, MVP of the Heat’s 2006 NBA title run. “Two years ago, putting this team together, obviously we all expected it to be a little easier than it was.

“But we had to go through what we had to go through last year. We needed to. And as much as it hurt, we had to go through that pain and that suffering.” -Reuters

Not as easy as one-two-three for Miami Heat

From left, Miami Heat shooting guard Dwyane Wade holds the the Larry O’Brien NBA Championship Trophy, and small forward LeBron James holds his most valuable player trophy during a team picture with power forward Chris Bosh, point guard Norris Cole, and guard Terrel Harris after Game 5 of the NBA finals basketball series against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Friday, June 22, 2012. (AP)

GALLE: Kumar Sangakkara missed out on a dou-ble hundred by one run but his team ended the second day of the first test on a high with Pakistan reeling at 48 for five at the close on Saturday.

Sri Lanka were dismissed for 472 shortly after tea with Sangakkara stranded on 199 not out made off 387 balls and including 18 fours and two sixes. Pakistan were rocked by Nuwan Kulasekara who snapped up the wickets of Taufiq Umar lbw for nine and Azhar Ali for a golden duck caught behind by Prasanna jayawar-dene.

Stand-in skipper Mohammad Hafeez and Younis Khan took the score to 43 when off-spinner Suraj Ran-div made a double strike by trapping Hafeez lbw for 20 and sending back nightwatchman Saeed Ajmal caught first ball off bat and pad by Tharanga Paranavitana. Left-arm spinner Rangana Herath joined the party when he forced Asad Shafiq to edge a catch behind the wicket to jayawardene for a duck. At stumps Younis Khan was unbeaten on 15 and Mohammad Ayub on one.

Sri Lanka’s innings was built around Sangakkara’s 29th test hundred which nearly brought him joint sec-ond on the all-time list with West Indian Brian Lara on nine test double hundreds. A blunder by the scoreboard had Sangakkara celebrating his double century with when he slog-swept Ajmal for six but actually his score was 199. When told by his team mates that he still re-quired one run he tried desperately to steal a single off the final ball of the over but failed.

That left last man Nuwan Pradeep exposed to Hafeez and after defending the first ball Pradeep was bowled to end the Sri Lanka innings. Pakistan fought back in the afternoon session through their spinners to restrict Sri Lanka to 439 for eight at tea. Sri Lanka scored 73 runs and lost three wickets, squandering some of their advantage having resumed the day on a commanding 300 for two.

Off-spinner Hafeez broke a threatening sixth-wicket stand of 80 between Sangakkara and Prasanna jayawardene (48), who drove at a ball that spun and offered an outside edge to wicketkeeper Adnan Akmal. Left-arm spinner Rehman caught Suraj Randiv (eight) off his own bowling and Hafeez picked up his second wicket when he removed the scoreless Kulasekara on the stroke of tea. The morning session was dominated by Ajmal who claimed his sixth five-wicket haul in tests with figures of five for 146. The 34-year-old spinner captured three wickets for 10 runs off 22 balls.

Pakistan’s new ball bowlers Umar Gul and junaid Khan once again toiled without luck, prompting Hafeez to introduce Ajmal after seven overs of seam and the spinner did not let down his skipper. The top-ranked test spinner struck a crucial blow when he bowled Ma-hela jayawardene for 62 when the Sri Lanka captain fluffed a slog-sweep. The spinner then lured Thilan Sa-maraweera (six) out of his crease with a doosra to get him stumped and Ajmal caught Angelo Mathews for a duck from the next delivery. -Reuters

Sangakkara misses milestone but Pakistan toil

Ferrer beats Petzschner to win Unicef Open

Vettel takes Valencia pole hat-trick

Paszek overcomes leg injury to beat Kerber in finalSri Lanka cricketer Kumar Sangakkara (right) plays a shot as Pakistan wick-etkeeper Azhar Ali looks on during the second day of the opening Test match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan at the Galle International Stadium in Galle on June 23, 2012. (AFP)

NOTTINGHAM: England Twenty20 captain Stu-art Broad is confident his side can mount a successful defense of their World Twenty20 title in Sri Lanka this year despite the absence of Kevin Pietersen.

Star batsman Pietersen, man of the tournament when England won the World Twenty20 title in the Ca-ribbean two years ago, recently quit all limited overs internationals after officials refused his request to carry on playing Twenty20s while opting out of 50-over one-day games.

England play their first Twenty20 match since South Africa-born Pietersen’s one-day retirement when they face the West Indies at Nottinghamshire seamer Broad’s Trent Bridge home ground on Sunday.

“Kevin is a world-class Twenty20 player so of course it is disappointing that he is not with us, but it’s a great opportunity for someone else to put their hand up and stake a claim for that spot,” said Broad, who will aim to celebrate his 26th birthday on Sunday with a victory.

England will now look to a group of inexperienced batsmen to cover the gap left by Pietersen’s absence, with the likes of Alex Hales, jonathan Bairstow, jos Buttler and Samit Patel having no more than eight Twenty20 international appearances.

Broad, who with 34 appearances is England’s most

capped Twenty20 player, added: “We’ve got an exciting group of players in that changing room and everyone is really excited about getting on that field and doing the job.” Sunday’s fixture will be one of just four Twen-ty20s England play before they head to Sri Lanka to begin the defense of their title in September.

“We have quite a short period of time and a short number of games until that World Cup so you want to make as much use of that as possible when we do get the opportunity,” said Broad.

Meanwhile Broad said he hoped batsman Eoin Morgan could return to his best form despite a lack of international cricket this season.

The former Ireland left-hander was dropped from England’s Test side and had limited chances in the one-day series win over the West Indies due to the form of openers Alastair Cook and Ian Bell.

But Broad said there was every chance Morgan could star on Sunday: “Very much so. We’ve seen some amazing performances from Eoin in Twenty20 cricket and one-dayers for a long time.

“He’s now probably our most experienced bats-man in that set-up. Obviously we’ll be looking to him to make big contributions and share his experiences with the guys in the squad. -AFP

England T20 vision intact after KP exit: Broad

DEN BOSCH, Netherlands: Top-seeded David Ferrer beat unseeded Philipp Petzschner 6-3, 6-4 Saturday to win the Unicef Open grass-court tourna-ment for the second time.

Ferrer broke the German’s serve twice in the opening set and once in the second, closing the match with a love game to comfortably win the Wimbledon warm-up.

Ferrer, who also won the title in 2008, said he ‘’played his best match of the week’’ to beat Petzschner.

Later Saturday, eighth-seeded Nadia Petrova of Russia was playing Urszula Radwanska in the women’s final. -AP

David Ferrer of Spain returns in the men’s final match against Philipp Petzschner of Germany at the Unicef Open grass court tennis tournament in Rosmalen, central Netherlands, Saturday, June 23, 2012. (AP)

Tamira Paszek of Austria poses with her trophy as she celebrates winning her women’s final singles match against Angelique Kerber of Germany on the eighth day of the AEGON International tennis tournament in Eastbourne, southern Eng-land on June 23, 2012. (AFP)

VALENCIA, Spain: Red Bull’s Se-bastian Vettel took a big step towards becoming Formula One’s first repeat winner of the season after qualifying on pole position for Sunday’s European Grand Prix for the third year in a row. The 24-year-old double world champion whooped with joy over the team radio after beating McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton to the top slot with a best time of one minute 38.086 seconds in the Valencia heat. “Oh yes, we did the right thing at the end. That was a challenge, boys,” shouted the German after being told that Hamilton and “the rest of the world” was behind him on the provisional grid.

His 33rd career pole lifted Vettel to equal third place with four times cham-pion Alain Prost and the late jim Clark in the sport’s all-time records. “I had a good feeling on the last lap, put ev-erything in and it was good enough for pole,” he told reporters. Team principal Christian Horner said it was more than good: “He strung it all together. He put together a perfect lap, probably his best lap this year I would say.”

Hamilton, winner in Canada two weeks ago but whose team have yet to

triumph in Valencia, was surprised to have made second on the grid - a hefty 0.324 seconds behind - after a difficult time in Friday practice. “I expected to be further back,” said the 2008 world champion, who leads Spaniard Fernando Alonso by two points after seven races with Vettel a point further adrift. “We had to make some adjustments and it seemed to work. I am surprised,” added the Briton, whose team mate jenson But-ton qualified ninth.

Venezuela’s Pastor Maldonado, a sur-prise winner of the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona last month, was an impres-sive third for Williams.

The two Lotuses of Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen, who have been go-ing well in hot weather this season, made the most of the 46 degree centigrade track temperature to take fourth and fifth place.Hopes of an unprecedented eighth different winner in the first eight races faded, with the top three all having won this season and no winner in four previ-ous races in Valencia having ever started lower than third.

Germany’s Nico Rosberg was sixth in a Mercedes and local favorite Alonso was

back in 11th, with Ferrari president Luca Di Montezemolo watching from the ga-rage on a rare race visit. Alonso’s Brazil-ian team mate Felipe Massa was back in 13th, a place behind Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher, while Vettel’s Australian team mate Mark Webber failed to get through the first session and starts 19th.

“He’s going to have to go for it,” said Horner of Webber’s chances at a tight track that has produced processional races in the past.

“He’s had a wretched day today and very unlucky to have a hydraulic issue with the DRS (rear wing) that wouldn’t allow it to activate. He came close to making the cut, it was a really good lap he’s going to have a busy race from there.”

Caterham benefited from Webber’s woes with Heikki Kovalainen qualifying 16th and ahead of both the Toro Rosso cars.

Marussia’s German driver Timo Glock missed qualifying with a stomach bug and remains a doubt for Sunday’s race, with the decision in the hands of stewards as much as doctors and his tail-end team. -Reuters

LONDON: Three-time world foot-baller of the year Lionel Messi told The Times on Saturday that he will retire from football the day he feels he is no longer having fun.

The 24-year-old Argentinian - who scored 73 goals in 60 games for Barcelona last season, breaking the European club record of 67 goals set by Bayern Munich’s Gerd Mueller in 1972-73 - hinted that for him the fun was going out of the game in general.

Messi said that he was trying to be the epitome of a ‘pibe’ - a man boy who is fearless in running at older players with the ball at his feet and a magical dribbler shorn of all inhibitions. “A pibe! That’s what I am trying to do,” he said.

“Football is a game. I’m trying to have fun on the pitch, always just to play. That’s why I do it. The day I stop having fun is the day I retire. “I never want to lose that spark, that passion.

“Today teams are playing more stati-cally, more for the final score than pro-ducing good football.

“For them its more important to win than to play well. We need more players with passion coming up for the good of football.”

Messi, who was brought to Barcelona aged just 13 by his steelworker father and was taken on after a brilliant trial despite his suffering from Growth Hormone Dis-order which was remedied by the club with hormone therapy, said despite his goal-scoring record last season there was ‘the one that got away’ that stayed with him.

It came in the Champions League semifinal second leg at the Camp Nou against Chelsea as the holders looked to press home their one man advantage after

the English side’s skipper John Terry was sent off at the end of the first-half.

Barcelona were awarded a penalty early in the second-half and Messi stepped up to take it only to miss - Chelsea were to go on to draw the game 2-2 and prog-ress 3-2 on aggregate.

“I felt terrible,” he said.“Angry at myself because I knew that

at that moment the whole tie was in my hands, but I can’t do anything about it now. It’s past but it was a very tough mo-ment for me and I still think about it.”

Messi says that while he is grateful for all that he has experienced so far he still

has much to learn.“I am playing for one of the best

teams in history,” he said.“I’m very grateful for everything I’ve

been able to achieve, for the family I have, for the people who surround me.

“But I always believe better things will come, I want to grow and mature as a person. I still have so much to learn. I am the way I am at every moment. I am not playing a role.

“It makes it easier to be myself. I don’t have to watch what I do. I just do what I do. And remember I am only 24 years old.” -AFP

SPORTSSUNDAY, JUNE 24, 2012

Football

VSSpain

2France

0

DONETSK, Ukraine: Xabi Alonso struck twice in his 100th international to lead Spain to a comfortable 2-0 win over a feeble France on Saturday and through to a Euro 2012 semi-final against Portugal.

It was an efficient and calm performance from world champions Spain, who started without a recog-nized striker before clinching their first competitive win over the French.

But it was a display which left most of the crowd at the Donbass Arena indifferent to its cautious prag-matism.

France coach Laurent Blanc’s tactics of playing two right backs in a defensive lineup failed as Spanish left back Jordi Alba skipped through to the goal-line after 19 minutes and picked out an unmarked Alonso who headed firmly home at the far post.

The experienced midfielder coolly converted a penalty in stoppage time to give the holders the victory margin their dominance deserved.

“We controlled the match well from start to finish and Iker Casillas hardly had a save to make. The impor-tant thing now is that we recuperate for the next game,” said Spain coach Vicente del Bosque.

Alonso added: “The team was phenomenal and personally I am very satisfied with the two goals. We

didn’t have that many chances but we completely con-trolled the match.”

France, who had won five and drawn one of the teams’ six previous competitive meetings, were specta-tors for long spells as Spain played their usual patient possession game without taking any risks.

The only real goal French effort on goal in the first half was a 32nd-minute free kick from Yohan Cabaye which was curling into the top corner before Casillas pushed it around the post.

France livened up marginally after the break with Mathieu Debuchy heading just over after Franck Rib-ery had wriggled into space for a cross.

Blanc brought on attacking midfielders Samir Nasri and Jeremy Menez just after the hour as he sought a way back into the game but they were unable to make any real impact against a solid Spanish defense.

Alonso added his second goal from the penalty spot in stoppage time after substitute Pedro was tripped by Anthony Reveillere.

Spain are now unbeaten in 18 competitive games since their 1-0 defeat by Switzerland in the group stage of the 2010 World Cup and have not conceded a goal in their last eight knockout games in tourna-ments. – Reuters

Alonso double puts Spain into semis

 Xabi Alonso ofSpain scores the second goal from the penalty spot during the UEFA EURO 2012 quarter final match between Spain and France at Donbass Arena on June 23, 2012. (AFP)

KIEV, Ukraine: England captain Steven Gerrard believes goalkeeper Joe Hart could prove the decisive influence as his team attempts to end their quarter-final curse against Italy here Sunday.

Gerrard said the in-form Hart is poised to become recognized as the world’s best goalkeeper in future and may well tip Sunday’s Euro 2012 battle with the Az-zurri in England’s favor.

“We’ve got one of the best goalkeep-ers in the world and eventually he will go on to be the best in the world,” Gerrard said of Hart.

“His performances so far in the tour-nament have been fantastic. He’s going to be one of our key players tomorrow night.

“We need Joe to perform to his maxi-mum level because at some time in the game, or maybe in extra-time or even penalties he’s going to be called upon to make a fantastic save -- and we all trust he can do that.”

England head into Sunday’s tie at Kiev’s Olympic Stadium in buoyant mood after topping Group D ahead of highly rated France. A five-match unbeaten streak since Roy Hodgson was appointed as manager last month has fuelled genu-ine belief that England could reach the semi-finals of a major tournament for the first time since 1996.

Gerrard, 32, was a member of Eng-land sides beaten in the quarter-finals at the 2004 European Championship and the 2006 World Cup. However the inspi-rational midfielder is confident of a dif-ferent outcome against Italy following England’s displays in the first round. “The level of performance of the team and the squad so far in this tournament gives me the confidence and belief,” Gerrard said.

“I think in previous tournaments the reason we’ve gone out is because the lev-el of performance has been under what we’re capable of.

“I think we’ve got stronger as the tournament’s gone on and hopefully that will be the same tomorrow night.”

Meanwhile Hodgson acknowledged England were determined to improve their record against World Cup-winning sides in major tournaments overseas. So

far England have never won a knockout match against an established power when playing outside Wembley.

“It’s a nasty statistic because it’s a very negative one,” Hodgson said.

“The more statistics which can be made to look negative with regard to the nation’s football have got to be statistics

that we have to try and do something about.

“But the fact is you don’t change sta-tistics by talking. You change statistics by getting on to the field of play and hope-fully winning a game that you haven’t for a long time and putting that statistic to bed.” – AFP

Hart can be our match-winner says Gerrard

England’s goal keeper Joe Hart controls the ball during a training session in Kra-kow, Poland, Friday, June 22, 2012.  (AP)

FILE- Argentina’s  forward Lionel Messi  celebrates after  scoring  the  team’s  third goal against Ecuador their Brazil 2014 FIFA World Cup South American qualifier football match at the Monumental stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina on June 2, 2012. (AFP)

GDANSK, Poland: Germany coach Joachim Loew is out to unearth a mole in the camp who has been tipping off German media about his starting lineups at Euro 2012, the players said on Saturday.

A day after Germany beat Greece 4-2 to book a semifinal spot, attacking midfielders Marco Reus and Andre Schuerrle revealed Loew had been unhappy with the lineups being leaked hours before their group games and again on Friday.

“It is unfortunate that this has happened because at 1400 (local time) all the German media knew. There must be a leak,” said Schuerrle.

“It is true that the coach talked to us about it and he was not happy. I do not think it is someone from

the team because I cannot imagine it being someone from the team,” he said. “There must be a leak and it is very unfortunate.”

Loew made three surprise changes to his forward line against Greece but hours before the game the lid on his secret was blown with several German media outlets running the overhauled lineup.

Schuerrle and Reus, along with striker Miroslav Klose, were the three players who had slipped into a surprise starting team that took the Greeks by storm.

There were similar leaks in Germany’s three group games. “I do not know who the mole is but in the end I don’t think it was a drawback for us,” said Reus, who scored on his Euro debut. -Reuters

Germany’s Loew fuming over mole in the camp

Messi: I’ll retire from football when I stop having fun

German headcoach Joachim Loew (right) gestures during the Euro 2012 football championships quarter-final match Germany vs Greece on June 22, 2012. (AFP)

WARSAW, Poland: The Russian FA has been fined 35,000 Euros (43,900 US dollars) after fans set off and threw fire-works and displayed illicit banners dur-ing their team’s final group match against Greece at the National Stadium on June 16, UEFA said on Saturday.

The Russian FA was fined 30,000 Eu-ros for similar incidents as well as for a supporter entering the pitch when Rus-sia played co-hosts Poland on June 12, an occasion marred by fighting amongst supporters before and after the match in Warsaw.

The Russians were also fined 120,000 Euros when about 30 fans attacked stew-ards in Wroclaw leaving four hurt follow-ing their 4-1 win over the Czech Repub-lic on June 8.

“Some people in the stadium carried out acts which were unworthy of real soccer fans,” the Russian soccer federa-tion said in a statement two days later.

In a poor tournament for Russia on and off the pitch, UEFA also said it would dock the Euro 2008 semi-finalists six points in qualifying for the next Eu-ropean Championship if their fans are

involved in similar incidents to those in Wroclaw. Russia failed to reach the knockout stage of the tournament after finishing second-bottom of Group A.

Separately, European soccer’s gov-erning body also opened proceedings against Portugal on Saturday after a fan tried to enter the pitch during their 1-0 quarter-final win against the Czech Republic at the National Stadium on Thursday. “The UEFA Control and Dis-ciplinary Body will deal with the case on Monday June 25,” UEFA said in a state-ment. -Reuters

Russia get third UEFA fine for fans’ antics