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Monday 19 November 2012

5 Muharram 1434 - Volume 17

Number 5523 Price: QR2

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

ISO 9001:2008

Doha Tribeca Film Festival

Egyptian actresses Yusra (centre) and Nelly Karim (right) at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival yesterday. See also page 5

Emir meets Erdogan

The Emir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Cairo yesterday. They discussed bilateral relations and the latest developments in the region, especially the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and the Syria crisis.

Business | 18 Sport | 28

QInvest signs co-financing agreement

Czech Republic win Davis Cup

DOHA: Qatar is expected to have its first energy-efficient ‘passive house’ early next year, with the Qatar Green Building Council partnering with Barwa Real Estate company and Kahramaa to launch this groundbreaking experiment in the region’s green build-ing industry. A passive house (Passivhaus in German) boasts an ultra low energy, airtight building design that requires lit-tle energy for space cooling.

See also page 4

Ministry cracks down on fake ‘sales’DOHA: The consumer rights watchdog has launched a mas-sive crackdown on shopping centres amid complaints that many businesses are taking cus-tomers for a ride by announcing false promotions.

The clampdown is also aimed at making sure that no retail outlet launches a promotion without a nod from the Ministry of Business and Trade. Inspectors of the Consumer Protection Department (CPD) affiliated to the trade min-istry have been given orders to raid major outlets indiscreetly.

The CPD is in a belligerent mood as an increasing number of people have been complaining that many major outlets are launching promotions which are basically

aimed at cheating customers.The CPD has been under the

public scanner for quite a while and is widely accused of not doing enough to prevent retail outlets from preying on customers.

A major public complaint is that some outlets increase the prices of certain products and then announce ‘special offers’ which ensures sales without the cus-tomer realising that he has been a victim of price manipulation.

These are misleading promo-tions and one can produce pur-chase vouchers at the CPD with a complaint if there is a suspi-cion of fleecing, say knowledgeable sources.

And, arguably for the first time, the CPD is deploying women

inspectors to run checks on beauty salons and see if they com-ply with rules regarding display of prices for their various services and if so, whether they are fol-lowing the tariff list.

The CPD move apparently fol-lows customer complaints that some salons do not stick to the price lists they display in their premises to comply with govern-ment rules.

The municipal ministry has women inspectors who regu-larly visit beauty salons but their brief is to check compliance with health and safety rules.

There have also been com-plaints that some outlets charge a two percent commission instead of one, on purchases made using

credit cards. “No outlet is allowed to charge more than one percent on a purchase made using a credit card,” said a knowledgeable source.

There are some who even claim that outlets at times charge one percent commission on purchases they make using an ATM card, which is illegal.

According to CPD rules, no outlet can offer discounts on products and services and what can only be offered in a promotion (special offer) is ‘buy-one-and-get-one-free’.

In other words, outlets are not alowwed to give price discounts as part of a ‘special offer.’

They can offer another item or a different product free.

THE PENINSULA

Kuwait detains Twitter users for insulting rulerKUWAIT CITY: Kuwait’s public prosecution yesterday ordered the detention of four Twitter users for 10 days for allegedly insulting the ruler of the oil-rich Gulf state, a rights group said.

The four were arrested on Wednesday and remanded in police custody pending further investigation before the prosecu-tion issued its detention order, Kuwait Human Rights News Centre said on its Twitter account.

Three other Twitter users, including a woman, who were arrested with them were each freed on bail of $3,550.

The seven, described as oppo-sition sympathisers, were inter-rogated on allegations of tweets deemed offensive and critical of the Emir H H Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah.

The clampdown on users of the social network was strongly criti-cised by opposition figures with a member of the scrapped 2012 parliament saying that Kuwait was becoming a “police state”. AFP

Israel should lift siege of Gaza: EmirABU DHABI: The Emir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who visited Gaza ear-lier this month, said in com-ments broadcast yesterday that Israel should lift its siege of the Gaza Strip.

In an interview with Aljazeera, the Emir also said that Israel would not halt its offensive in Gaza unless it met strong resistance.

“The nature of Israel means that it will not stop its aggression unless there is firm resistance like what happened in Gaza and with Lebanon’s Hezbollah in the south,” he said.

The offensive that started last Wednesday has killed 69 Palestinians, 11 of them yesterday when an Israeli missile flattened the home of one family. More than 500 rockets fired from Gaza have hit Israel, killing three civil-ians and wounding dozens.

The Emir was in Cairo on Saturday and yesterday where he held talks about Gaza with Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi and Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Qatar has carved a role for itself as a major player in both the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Syrian civil war.

An Israeli missile attack that killed at least 11 Palestinian civil-ians included four children was apparently an attack on a top mil-itant that brought a three-storey home crashing down.

International pressure for a ceasefire seemed certain to mount in response to the dead-liest single incident in five days of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel and Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip.

Egypt has taken the lead in

trying to broker a ceasefire and Israeli media said a delegation from Israel had been to Cairo for talks on ending the fighting, although a government spokes-man declined to comment on the matter.

Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi met Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal and Islamic Jihad’s head Ramadan Shallah as part of the mediation efforts, but a presidency statement did not say if they were conclusive.

Izzat Risheq, a close aide to Meshaal, wrote in a Facebook message that Hamas would agree to a ceasefire only after Israel “stops its aggression, ends its policy of targeted assassina-tions and lifts the blockade of Gaza”.

Israel’s terms for ceasing fire, Moshe Yaalon, a deputy to the prime minister, wrote on Twitter: “If there is quiet in the south and no rockets and missiles are fired at Israel’s citizens, nor terrorist attacks engineered from the Gaza Strip, we will not attack.”

Gaza health officials said 72 Palestinians , 21 of them children and several women have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s offen-sive began. Hundreds have been wounded.

Israel gave off signs of a pos-sible ground invasion of the Hamas-run enclave as the next stage in its offensive, billed as a bid to stop Palestinian rocket fire into the Jewish state. It also spelt out its conditions for a truce.

US President Barack Obama said that while Israel had a right to defend itself against the sal-voes, it would be “preferable” to avoid a military thrust into the Gaza Strip. REUTERS

See also page 7

11 Palestinians killed in Israel strike

Judges outnumber lawyers in QatarDOHA: There are more judges in Qatar than lawyers.

Official statistics reflect that there were 202 judges here last year as opposed to only 177 legal practitioners.

In fact, the number of judges almost doubled last year from a mere 105 in 2010 due, possibly, to an ever-increasing number of court cases.

Qatari courts heard more than 38,000 cases last year, up from 22,709 in 2010, with the yearly jump in the number being over 15,000.

Figures released by the national office of statistics, Qatar Statistics Authority (QSA), suggest that court cases totalled barely 11,729 in the year 2009.

In other words, the cases have more than trebled over a span of just three years — from 2009 until last year. A vast majority of the cases in 2011 pertained to bad cheques (cheques that were issued without sufficient balance in bank accounts). The problem of bad cheques seemed to have peaked last year as a worrisomely large

number of cases (23,422) were filed — as against only 11,578 such disputes having gone to court in 2010.

It is interesting to note that in 2009 not a single bad cheque com-plaint was taken to court, QSA statistics reflect.

Traffic violations accounted for the third largest number of court cases last year, but their number was only 3,096 as opposed to more than 5,400 cases registered in 2010.

Crimes to do with breach of residency and immigration laws accounted for the second highest number of cases after bad cheque litigations, totaling 7,514.

As regards lawyers, they totalled 167 in 2010, 16 of them women, whereas only two of the 202 judges were females in 2011.

Out of 177 lawyers, 117 were Qatari in 2011, four from other GCC states, 43 Arab and 13 from non-Arab countries. There were an additional eight trainee coun-sels—two of them women.

THE PENINSULAContinued on page 6

Qatar to invest $13.1bn in power

Qatar to get ‘passive house’ next year

DOHA: Qatar is set to invest an estimated $13.1bn in the power sector in the next eight years. Most of the investments will be in transmission and dis-tribution. Qatar is one of the countries in the Gulf, where power generation has grown considerably in the last decade. Driven by high GDP growth rates and population explosion, power consumption in Qatar has increased by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.3 percent between 2001 and 2011. See also page 17

02 HOMEMONDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2012

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

DOHA: Following the success of Qatar Japan 2012, Qatar Museums Authority (QMA) yesterday launched Qatar UK 2013 – a year-long celebration of the long-lasting friendship between Qatar and the UK.

Qatar UK 2013 is being held in partnership with the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the British Council, the British Embassy in Doha, and the Qatari Embassy in London.

The official launch of Qatar UK 2013 at the Museum of Islamic Arts was attended by H E Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad Al Thani, Chairperson of the Qatar Museum Authority, Ed Dolman, QMA Executive Director, Ed Vaizey MP, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries for the United Kingdom, and H E Dr Hamad bin Abulaziz Al Kuwari, Minister for Culture, Arts and Heritage for Qatar. H E Michael O’Neill, British Ambassador to Qatar, Graham Sheffield, Director Arts, British Council, and Martin Hope, British Council Director in Qatar were also in attendance.

Inspired by the Qatar National Vision for 2030, Qatar UK 2013 aims to forge new part-nerships in education, sports, creative industries, and science, while promoting an awareness and appreciation of each oth-er’s culture, achievements and heritage.

World-class events will take place in Qatar and across the UK, showcasing the quality, diversity, breadth and inno-vation of creative Britain and Qatar. Art exhibitions organ-ised by QMA, cultural events at Katara and the screening of a British cinema series by the Doha Film Institute are only a small portion of the rich calen-dar of events that both nations will host throughout 2013.

Qatar UK 2013 will kick off at the Cultural Village, Katara, with the opening of Encounter: The Royal Academy in the Middle East on December 6, 2012. The exhibition aims to spark a dialogue between Royal Academy members and Middle Eastern artists, foster-ing cultural exchange and better understanding of one another’s artistic practices. The exhibition is the result of a combined effort by the Royal Academy, Fortune Cookie Projects and Katara.

Commenting on the impor-tance of the Cultural Diplomacy Programme, H E Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad Al Thani stated: “We are proud of the

success achieved with Qatar Japan 2012, and we hope next year will give us the opportu-nity to further promote cultural dialogue and programmes that build bridges between nations. We are looking forward to a year of valuable cooperation and exchange, which will celebrate our cultures and friendship.”

Commenting on the Qatar UK 2013, Ed Vaizey said: “I am very excited by this initiative and welcome the opportunity to build on the already strong relationship the UK shares with Qatar. Qatar UK 2013 will celebrate the best of our two nations, showcasing the finest we have to offer in the fields of

culture, art, sport and educa-tion while looking to the excit-ing new opportunities for the future.”

Graham Sheffield, Director Arts, British Council, said: “Qatar is a dynamic sup-porter of arts and culture, and I am delighted that the British Council is a partner in this exciting programme alongside the UK sector and key Qatari institutions. Sharing innovative ideas and practices from both sides, building new audiences for the arts, and developing creative talent across society are at the heart of Qatar-UK 2013 Year of Culture”.

THE PENINSULA

Qatar UK 2013 launchedAttack on Gaza media centres condemnedDOHA: The Doha Center for Media Freedom (DCMF) has strongly con-demned the Israeli attack on two media centres in Gaza yesterday that injured at least eight journalists. “We strongly condemn the Israeli bomb-ing of media offices in Gaza which resulted in injuring several journalists. We demand the Israeli army to stop targeting journalists, media organisa-tions and innocent civilians,” DCMF said in a statement yesterday.

“The presence of media is essential for reporting the truth. Therefore, we urge the Israeli authorities to stop attacking journalists deliberately as it violates basic human rights principles,” it added.

DCMF said, it will provide through its associate office in Gaza all possible assistance to journalists in Gaza to be able to perform their duties.

One of the media buildings that came under the Israeli attack houses foreign news outlets and the other is used by the media operations unit of Hamas.

THE PENINSULA

H E Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad Al Thani, Chairperson of the Qatar Museum Authority, during the official launch of Qatar UK 2013 at the Museum of Islamic Arts.

Year-long celebration to mark long-lasting friendship between two countries

03MONDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2012

www.thepeninsulaqatar.comHOME

H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser applauds as University of Calgary-Qatar (UCQ) graduates receive nursing degrees during the convocation ceremony at the St Regis Hotel yesterday. AISHA AL MUSALLAM

DOHA: The University of Calgary–Qatar (UCQ), yester-day held its third convocation of Bachelor of Nursing graduates in the presence of H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser.

The convocation ceremony held at the St Regis Hotel, saw twelve students receive their Bachelor of Nursing degree to join the coun-try’s healthcare sector.

The nursing professionals graduated this year as Qatar Foundation together with the University of Calgary-Qatar, has taken a new initiative to attract more Qataris to the nursing pro-fession and change the society’s attitude toward nursing.

The 2012 class were presented with grandaunts and conferral of degrees from Jim Dinning, Chancellor University of Calgary and Dr Carolyn Byrne, Dean and CEO University of Calgary, soon after making their graduation pledge. Munachiso Bob-Ume, was

awarded with a gold medal for her academic excellence.

“We are proud of the contribu-tions the University of Calgary is making to healthcare and educa-tion in Qatar: of graduating excep-tional students, and training them to become researchers and future nursing leaders in this coun-try,” said Dr Elizabeth Cannon, President, University of Calgary addressing the convocation.

“You are well-prepared for the challenges ahead, to meet the healthcare demands of one the fastest-growing countries in the world. You are critical think-ers, evidence-based learners and developing researchers,” she said.

She further announced that a masters programme will be intro-duced at the Qatar campus next year. University of Calgary- Qatar has graduated 40 nursing profes-sionals, educators and research-ers during it three convocations. Student enrolment too has

increased during the five years since University of Calgary- Qatar admitted its first student.

Hamad Medical Corporation has worked closely with the University of Calgary in Qatar to deliver accredited Diploma and Bachelor Degree courses in nursing. In previous years, many students have graduated from the university and joined HMC full-time. “Nurses working at the Hamad Medical Cooperation can be a multi disciplinary role,” said Dr Hanan Al Kuwari, man-aging Director, Hamad Medical Cooperation, addressing the con-vocation as the guest speaker.

“University of Calgary-Qatar has been a strong partner in promoting the nursing profes-sion in the country,” Dr Al Kuwari further said. The University of Calgary - Qatar currently has about 300 nursing students with a 25 percent of Qataris.

THE PENINSULA

UCQ graduates 12 nursesH H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser attends convocation ceremony



First energy-efficient house likely next yearBY FAZEENA SALEEM

DOHA: Qatar is expected to have its first energy-efficient ‘passive house’ early next year, with the Qatar Green Building Council partnering with Barwa Real Estate company and Kahramaa to launch this groundbreaking experiment in the region’s green building industry.

A passive house (Passivhaus in German) boasts an ultra low energy, airtight building design that requires little energy for space cooling, reducing its envi-ronmental footprint.

The three partners yester-day jointly announced the first Passivhaus project in the coun-try, named Baytna (our home) in Arabic. A Memorandum of Understanding was also signed to develop the Qatar Case Study Passivhaus project at the Four Seasons Hotel.

Two houses will be built side by side near the Barwa Village in Mesaimer under the project- a passivhaus villa and a con-ventional villa to compare their energy usage and environmental footprint.

The conventional villa will be built to one-star rating of the Global Sustainability Assessment System (GSAS) developed in Qatar while the country’s first passivhaus will bear all the com-forts of modern dwelling and consume at least 50 per cent less energy, water and operational carbon dioxide. Construction of the 225 sqm villas is expected to complete by January next year and the two houses will be occu-pied by similarly-sized families, with at least one child.

“The project aims at educating the public about the concept of a Passivhaus. It will foster discus-sions about green living and sus-tainable practices for the public to

implement in their daily lives and raise Qatar’s profile in the field of sustainable and green building,” said Ahmad Abdullah, Deputy Group CEO, Barwa Real Estate, presenting the project.

“Qatar Green Building Council is extending great support to this initiative which is a main pillar of the energy saving campaign in Qatar, along with a number of other consultancy firms, research-ers and contractors whom we wouldn’t have been able to achieve current progress,” he added.

Testing and commissioning of the houses are expected to end by March 2013. Energy, potable water and solid waste will be monitored for six months before occupation, and the two families are expected to move into the three-bed room villas by mid-2013. At a later stage, the project will be handed over to Kahramaa.

Occupants will inhabit the houses with no prior training of

how to minimise energy and water consumption and with no prior education about the environmen-tal principles that underline the development of the experiment. After a period of monitoring to establish a regular base for energy and water consumption patterns, an intense educational and oper-ational training package will be delivered to both families.

The project will work to obtain Passivhaus Building Certification and GSAS Certificate and estab-lish the benchmark for all future buildings in Qatar. Texas A&M University in Qatar, Siemens, AECOM, Global Sustainability System and EPS Qatar also has joined the project as scientific partners.

The passive house concept

remains the same for all of the world’s climates. A building ful-filling the passive house standard will look much different from area to area. The number of Passivhaus buildings around the world as of August 2010 was approximately 25,000. The vast majority of pas-sive structures have been built in German-speaking countries and Scandinavia. THE PENINSULA

BY ISABEL OVALLE

DOHA: Qatar will hold the Excellence in Paediatrics Conference from December 4 to 7, 2013. Over 3,000 health pro-fessionals from 98 different countries will gather for this meeting hosted by Sidra Medical and Research Center. Dr Edward Ogata, Chief Medical Officer at Sidra, and Dr Dimitri Christakis, a US-based pediatrician and Chairman of Excellence in Paediatrics, signed the agreement yesterday to organise the event, that will take place at the Qatar National Convention Center.

The CMO of Sidra said: “We are very proud to be hosting this event in 2013 and look forward to working with the Excellence in Paediatrics Institute (EIPI) to make it an outstanding success. We are particularly excited about sharing our vision for Sidra with those visiting Qatar, and having the opportunity to showcase some of the innovations that will help to make Sidra a beacon of excellence in pedi-atric care”. About the partnership with Sidra, the chairman of EIPI said : In 2013, the Excellence in Paediatrics Institute will

make the Qatar conference one of the most exciting and innovative in the world”.

More than 90 top academics will take

part as speakers in this event. In addition, there will be 10 workshops-interactive case studies and 80 bursaries for clinicians from

the developing world to participate in pre-conference workshop and attend the con-gress, among other activities.

The EIPI emerged from the Excellence in Paediatrics Conference to attend pediat-ric academics and healthcare professionals. Operating on a nonprofit basis, EIPI pro-vides medical education to a global network of over 60,000 providers. The fourth edition of the Excellence in Paediatrics Conference will take place this year in Madrid. When this event is closed, organisers will start planning Doha event which will address the particular issues that affect this region.

Ogata, who took over as CMO of Sidra in July, added that the construction of the building that will house this new hospital is “in active mode”, while the recruitment of the senior medical staff is being finalised. Sidra will have seven clinical departments: Paediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, sur-gery, anesthesia, radiology, pathology and psychiatry. According to Doctor Ogata, Sidra is doing especially well in the recruit-ment of staff for three of these seven depart-ments. So far, over 100 professionals have participated in the screening process after applying for a position. THE PENINSULA

Essa Al Mohannadi, Chairman, Qatar Green Building Council; Essa Hilal Al Kuwari, Chairman, Kahramaa and Abdullah Abdul Aziz T Al Subaidi, CEO, signing a Memorandum of Understanding to develop the Qatar Case Study Passivhaus project at the Four Seasons Hotel, yesterday. ABDUL BASIT

Doha to host Excellence in Paediatrics meet in 2013

Groundbreaking experiment in green building industry

Dr Edward Ogata (centre), Chief Medical Officer, Sidra Medical and Research Centre; Dr Dimitri Christakis (second left), Chairman, Excellence in Paediatrics (EiP) after signing an agreement for Sidra to host Excellence in Paediatrics Conference, at a function held at the Sidra headquarters in Doha yesterday. Kyrakos Griveas (left), of EI Congresses and Communications UK; Irette Ferreira (second right), Sales Manager, Qatar National Convention Centre; and Khalid Al Mohannadi (right), Communications Project Director, Sidra are also seen. SALIM MATRAMKOT

Deputy Emir greets leaders of Oman, Morocco and Latvia

DOHA: The Deputy Emir and Heir Apparent H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has sent a cable of greetings to H M Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman, the King Mohammed VI of Morocco and the President of the Republic of Latvia on the occasion of their Countries National Day.

PM receives phone call from ClintonDOHA: The Prime Minister and Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani received a tel-ephone call from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. During the phone call, they discussed the latest developments in the region, particularly the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.

QNA

Leadership training for police officersDOHA: The 32nd leadership training course for top-level officers started yesterday at Leaders’ Training Centre at the Police Training Institute. The course will continue till December 13, 2012 which is being atttended by 20 officers from different department of the Ministry of Interior. It is conducted in cooperation with British International College.

The course is held with the aim of providing the offic-ers modern techniques in their field and skills need to mould them as ideal policeman who can deal with rapid changes and keep pace with them combating all forms of crime. As well, it contributes in achieving one of the objectives of the strategy of the Ministry of Interior that is to prepare and qualify human resources to address present and future challenges.

The sessions will cover security concepts needed to raise strategic awareness and qualification of officers to become leaders eligible for the future. The topics wills be covered under three basic themes - self-development, development of others, and leadership and development of teams. THE PENINSULA

Police officers attending the leadership training course.

DOHA: The Spanish Navy OPV ‘Relámpago’, designed and built by Navantia, to leave Doha today.

The Spanish Embassy organ-ized a reception on board, inviting the most representa-tive military authorities in the

country. Navantia has recently opened a permanent office in Doha for the purpose of sup-porting Qatar Emiri Naval

Forces’ future requirements. This area is especially interest-ing for Navantia.

THE PENINSULA

Spanish naval ship OPV Relampago concludes Doha visit today

HOME 05MONDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2012


Mira Nair looks to support more local filmmakersBY FAZEENA SALEEM

DOHA: Doha Tribeca Film Festival’s ‘Made in Qatar’ seg-ment is seen by renowned film-maker Mira Nair as a perfect venue to look for local talents as she look to support training more filmmakers from Doha.

“Made in Qatar’ is exciting, it’s a perfect place to look out for local filmmakers,” said Mira Nair, speaking to the media yesterday at the Al Najada boutique hotel in Souq Waqif.

“Doha Film Institute’s intention of training Qatari Youth remark-able. If we don’t tell our stories, who will tell? These are the ways to teach the fire,” said Mira, who had been with the DTFF since its launch in 2009.

Number of films screened in the ‘Made in Qatar’ section has increased significantly this year reflecting the growth in the local film industry.

Presenting talents of the local community 19 short and fea-ture films are screened in this section.

DFI has been collaborating with Mira Nair on her educa-tional initiative, Maisha Film Lab, which was established to foster East African, South Asian, and Arab filmmaking.

In 2011, six Qatari students were selected to represent Qatar in two screenwriting and film-making workshops.

Also four interns have been working in the film The Reluctant Fundamentalist, which opened this year’s DTFF.

Speaking about the making of the political thriller Mira said, “it was a long journey to make it a human thriller,”

referring to how she adopt the novel by Mohsin Hamid about a Pakistani man working on Wall Street and finds himself embroiled in a conflict between his American Dream, a hostage crisis, and the enduring call of his family’s homeland.

Making a special reference to Riz Ahmad, the British Pakistani actor who played the lead role of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mira said, “he is as focused and deeply intelligent.”

Sharing his experience of The Reluctant Fundamentalist author Hamid also joined saying as

many military attacks take place around the world the film is sig-nificant in its making.

“Making the film is part of the world; it gives a powerful univer-sal message.”

According to Hamid the book written by a Pakistani, film directed by an Indian filmmaker, with North American cinephotog-rapher, British, Pakistani, Indian and American artistes, as well as the film shot in Delhi, Istanbul, New York City, Atlanta, and Lahore, give the world a stronger message on co-existence.

THE PENINSULA

Renowned filmmaker Mira Nair and author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist Mohsin Hamid at the roundtable discussion at the Al Najada Boutique Hotel in Souq Waqif, yesterday.

‘Made in Qatar’ segment screens 19 local films

HMC observes Infection Control WeekDOHA: The Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) is observing Infection Control Week to raise awareness among HMC staff about cre-ating an infection-free environment.

The activities are organised by the Infection Prevention and Control Department in collabo-ration with Women’s Hospital.

The activities include a wall photo gallery at the main entrance of Women’s Hospital to highlight meth-ods to prevent the spread of infection.

Infection Control Week is usually celebrated on October 17 every year, however HMC is observ-ing the week in November this year to coincide with the launch of its Academic Program for Infection Prevention. Infection Control Week focuses on methods and practices to prevent contracting infec-tions due to the spread of blood and other body fluids.

Visits are conducted by infection control staff to dif-ferent hospital departments to directly communicate with staff and answer their queries regarding infection control measures. An exhi-bition on the latest medi-cal equipments took place, which provided information on the purposes of these equipments and on how to control infections while using them.

The Academic Program me for Infection Prevention is also holding lectures to update the knowledge of healthcare teams on how to protect themselves and procedures that should be taken in case of the spread of infections. Meanwhile, HMC marked the World Radiographers Day by recognizing the work radi-ographers do in a clinical setting.

THE PENINSULA

BY RAYNALD C RIVERA

DOHA: Hundreds of fans of multi-awarded actor Robert De Niro relished some of the best moments of the Hollywood icon’s lauded career during an intimate conversation with Tribeca Enterprises Chief Creative Officer Geoff Gilmore yesterday at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival’s Doha Talks event at Al Rayyan Theatre in Souq Waqif.

It was a nostalgic moment for the fans as a montage of films from De Niro’s decades-long career was flashed on the wide screen before and during the hour-long event. From his first major film Mean Streets in 1973 and other earlier movies like The Godfather II and Taxi Driver to his 1995 film Casino and his direc-torial debut A Bronx Tale, the films depicted some of the most memorable performances by the actor in his illustrious career.

Having started in theatre, he attributed his approach to act-ing to plays though he said he found film more complicated as it involves a complex process.

Recalling his longtime col-laborations with director Martin Scorsese who directed his first major film Mean Streets, he said Scorsese was easy to work with giving him the freedom to do what he wanted to give his best in every role he played.

“Giving the actor the chance to try everything he wants is the most important thing. When a director gives his guidance and trust, he encourages him to deliver what he could for the role,” he said.

He said he became more

sensitive to everyone when he started as a director because “you need the support of every one as you work as a team.”

Looking forward to the future, he said “I don’t see myself stop-ping. I’m looking into everything I’ve done until now and see what else I can do-something that you have not seen before.”

On his advice to young actors, he said, “Don’t expect to be famous. It’s great if it happens. You just have to do what you love doing,” he said adding among the most admirable young actors for him include Matt Damon, Leonardo Di Caprio and Bradley Cooper whom he worked with in his latest film Silver Lining Playbook.

Directed by David O Russel,

the film to be released interna-tionally this week will be shown tonight at 8pm at Al Rayyan Theatre and will be shown again on Friday, 6pm at the same venue. He considers Silver Lining, which won the People’s Choice Awards at the Toronto International Film Festival, as one of his favourite movies with its multi-layered characters and genre.

A film in collaboration with Al Pacino is in the works, he revealed. Doha Film Institute CEO Abdulaziz Al Khater praised De Niro as an award winning actor, director, pro-ducer and Doha Tribeca co-founder, whose performances have inspired generations.

THE PENINSULA

I don’t see myself stopping: De Niro

US Actor Robert De Niro (right), and Vice President of Studio Relations & Special Project TFF Patty Newburger on the red carpet for the gala screening of ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ during the 2012 Doha Tribeca Film Festival in Doha.



DOHA: Yan Fuchang, the former Chinese foreign min-ister, currently visiting Qatar has described the formation of the new Syrian opposition alli-ance in Doha as a positive step towards dialogue and negotia-tion to find a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis.

Fuchang is heading a del-egation from the China-Arab Cooperation Forum, which is in Doha on the first leg of a tour to the Arab region. Addressing a press conference at Ritz-Carlton yesterday, Fuchang said the China didn’t support any government in the Arab Spring countries includ-ing Syria.

“This is because we don’t inter-fere in the internal affairs of any other country. Political change in any Arab country is the people’s choice. China gives its support to international decisions to achieve political solutions. China sup-ported the Syrian mission of both Kofi Annan and Lakdar Brahimi,” said Fuchang.

He said China never added “fire to the fuel” but it called to stop vio-lence and war. The UN does not have the mandate to take a deci-sion to change the regime of any country because it is for the people

DOHA: The total number of students in Independent and private schools in Qatar stood at 197,000 during the 2010-2011 academic year, according to lat-est data released by the Qatar Statistical Authority (QSA).

Girls constitute nearly half (49 percent) of all the school students in the country, QSA said in state-ment issued on the occasion of the International Student’s Day that fell on November 17. The number of students in government and private universities in the country during the year was put at 15,000, of whom the majority - 64 percent - were women.

Majority of the students - 64 percent - were in government uni-versities. The total number of uni-versity graduates was more than 2,000, of whom 59 percent were women. The number of admin-istrative and teaching staff at the schools stood at 25,000, with women forming the majority - 78 percent. The universities have a total of 2,600 administrative and teaching staff, of whom 45 percent were women.

A total of 4,600 people joined the adult education and literacy pro-gramme during the year, of whom 85 percent were men. The figure shows a 6.5 percent increase com-pared to the previous year.

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) is conduct-ing paediatric pain awareness month for the first time in the Gulf region in order to raise staff and public awareness and enhance pain management for infants, children and adoles-cents. The Children’s Hospital Project team at HMC is lead-ing this major initiative as part of HMC’s partnership with SickKids Hospital Canada.

The event builds on Qatar’s capacity to keep pace with glo-bal strategies for the manage-ment of pain in infants, children and adolescents. As part of the awareness campaign, educational workshops are being conducted to enhance the knowledge of 240 health care professionals in using evidence-based tools to assess and manage pain in children. Public educational activities will also be conducted in HMC hospitals, as well as through newspaper and television broadcasts. A Pain

Awareness symposium will be held later this month to close the event.

Speaking on the programme for pain awareness month, Dr Abdulla Al Kaabi, Project Director for the Children’s Hospital Project, said: “We have been working for many years with SickKids to improve the level of care that children in Qatar receive, part of which is pain management in children from birth until adolescence. We started this campaign to raise the level of awareness among health care staff as well as families about recognising and managing pain in children of different ages.”

Dr Al Kaabi explained: “It can be challenging to recognize pain in young children, and pain is sometimes underestimated by people. Awareness is always the first step – if we cannot recognize it, we cannot treat it or refer it to the right people. We are involving people from different disciplines in this course to make sure that

HMC campaign to raise awareness on pain in kidsChildren’s Hospital Project team leading the initiative

multidisciplinary teams who care for children use the best available methods to assess and manage pain. We are also aiming to edu-cate families so that they know how to recognise pain in children, especially in babies who cannot talk to express their pain.”

Dr Mansour Ahmed Ali, Head of Paediatric Surgery at HMC, said: “Being aware of pain in children can also improve the outcome of treatment. For example, when a child experiences pain after an operation and this is not prop-erly managed, it can affect the success of the operation and can cause complications in the form of infection. This can be easily avoided if there is proper manage-ment from the beginning, and the patient’s treatment will have a bet-ter outcome.”

Dr Mohammed Janahi, Chairman of Paediatrics at HMC, said paediatric specialists are par-ticipating along with other health care professionals in the work-shops to enhance their knowledge on assessing and managing pain in their patients.

Pointing out that the campaign is part of efforts to change the culture of pain being suppressed, Dr Janahi said: “In our culture men and boys are discouraged from complaining if they are feeling any pain, but this is not right because we need to be aware if children are feeling pain. The purpose of holding pain awareness month is to educate our people that children should be encouraged to express their pain, and people who are caring for children should not ignore this, as it could indicate a serious condition which we can better diagnose if we are aware of the pain that the child is feeling.” THE PENINSULA

Syrian rebel alliance a positive step, says ex-Chinese foreign minister

who should decide that, he added.“We have already recognised

the Syrain National Council and we invited them to visit China before. We tried to medi-ate between the regime and the opposition but the officials have not responded until now,” said Fuchang.

Lakdar Brahimi visited China and “we discussed with him a number of issues including

establishment of a transitional entity comprising different politi-cal parties and reaching a con-sensus on how to manage the situation during the provisional period,” he added.

“We agreed with him that the solution must be political not military,” said Fuchang. He said the Arab-Chinese relations were historical and remained stable.

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: In a significant move, Qatar has begun receiving applications for patent reg-istration and the first such request it received was on August 8 this year.

Qatar has joined the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) which allows filling International patent applications that are valid in all member states of this treaty. The director of the Intellectual Property (IP) center at the Ministry of Justice, Abdulla Ahmed Qayed, said in a statement yesterday that the first applica-tion to register a patent was received on August 8.

The IP center has received a total of 41 patent applications so far, 30 of them for the PCT. Nevertheless, the director of the IP center is expecting an increase in PCT applications which will indicate that International com-panies want to protect their inventions in Qatar.

The IP center was first estab-lished by Amir Decree number 53 for the year 2005, aiming to promote innovation and creativity in all intellectual property rights topics, and promote a culture of intellectual property among the public and the education sector.

The main departments of the IP center under the umbrella of the Ministry of Justice, according to the organizational structure,

are: International Cooperation and Agreement unit, Copyright and Neighboring Rights unit and Patent and Design of Integrated circuits unit.

The Intellectual Property Center is competent in main-taining and implementing the fol-lowing intellectual property laws: Law No. (7) for the year 2002 on the Copyright and Neighboring Rights; Law No. (5) for the year 2005 on the Protection of Trade Secrets; Law No. (6) for the year 2005 on the Protection of Design of Integrated circuits; and Law No. (30) for the year 2006 for Patents .

The Government of Qatar has the intention to further develop the legal and technical infra-structure in the field of intellec-tual property rights protection in order to ensure a better integra-tion in the global economy. The state’s vision 2030, in the field of Intellectual Property, plans to extend the area of cooperation with international and national organizations and agencies via joining several agreements and treaties. Qatar also aims to put intellectual property into practice to achieve more welfare to the society by establishing a National Strategy of Intellectual Property under one umbrella in order to save resources and effort.

THE PENINSULA

Qatar starts receiving patent applications

Greek PM to visit Doha on November 26

Continued from page 1

Contacted for comment, lawyer Mohsin Thiyab Al Suwaidi told this newspaper that not many law graduates preferred to take up legal practice since it called for high competence.

Most law graduates preferred employment, he said. Al Suwaidi insisted that the fact that there were more judges in the country than lawyers showed that Qatar had a very efficient judiciary.

According to another lawyer

who didn’t want to be named, only 20 percent of fellow Qatari professionals (lawyers) attend court and many of them do not even depute any representative to pursue a case.

As for judges, the maximum number was in the courts of First Instance (66), followed by presidents (heads of three-judge panels) of these courts (45). The Courts of Appeal had 42 judges in 2011.

THE PENINSULA

Law graduates prefer other jobs

BY ISABEL OVALLE

DOHA: Facing a severe debt crisis, Greece will have its Prime Minister on an official visit to Qatar from November 26 to 28. An official from the Greek Embassy told this news-paper yesterday that Antonis Samaras, the premier, will be here at the invitation of Qatar.

He will be accompanied by the Minister and the Deputy Minister of Development, Kostas Hatzidakis

and Notis Mitarachi, respec-tively, the Deputy Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Change, Asimakis Papageorgiou, the Secretary General for International Economic Relations and Development Assistance at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Panagiotis G Mihalos, and a busi-ness mission comprising of the largest Greek companies.

Samaras, in office since June 2012, will be meeting with the Emir and his Qatari counterpart.

During the visit, the Greek del-egation will address various issues and approach potential investors, in areas like infrastructure, trans-port and real estate, among others.

There have recently been major investments in Greece by Qatari companies, such as Qatar Holding, which bought shares in a company that owns a gold mine. There’s also Qatari participation in a tender to build a residential area 10km away from the old Athens airport of Hellenikon. THE PENINSULA

197,000 students in Independent, private schools

Internet experts to attend Doha meetDOHA: Nearly 400 global, regional and local Internet experts will attend - iNET Qatar: ‘The Rise of the Arab Information Society’ – at Education City on November 27 from 10am to 4pm. The one-day conference is being organised by ISOC Qatar in partnership with the Internet Society (ISOC), ictQATAR and Carnegie Mellon Qatar.

This is the first iNET confer-ence that ISOC has run in the region, following recent events like INET Madrid, INET Tallinn and INET Bangalore.

THE PENINSULA

Yan Fuchang addresssing a press conference at Ritz-Carlton yesterday.

Members of the Children’s Hospital Project team at HMC.

07MIDDLE EAST MONDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2012


Israel bombs media houses in Gaza CityEight journalists injuredGAZA CITY: Israeli jets yes-terday bombed two Gaza City media buildings, injuring at least eight journalists, with the Israeli army saying it had hit Hamas communications sites.

Russia’s state-run RT global television broadcaster said its office was badly damaged in the incident, adding that none of its staff were hurt.

The military defended the strike, which left one Palestinian journalist without a leg, saying it had targeted Hamas operational communications and had sought to minimise civilian casualties.

But the local Foreign Press Association expressed its concern.

The first Israeli strike on a media building came around 2am (0000 GMT), as Israeli navy ships fired a barrage at the Gaza shore elsewhere.

“At least six journalists were wounded, with minor and mod-erate injuries, when Israeli war-planes hit the Al Quds TV office in the Showa and Housari build-ing in the Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City,” said health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra.

Witnesses reported extensive damage to the building, and said journalists had evacuated after an initial strike, which was followed by at least two more on the site.

The wounded were taken to Gaza City’s Shifa hospital. One journalist lost his leg in the attack, Qudra said.

A second raid hit a different, nearby media building at around 7am (0500 GMT).

“We have two journalists injured in the Shuruq building, which houses Al Aqsa TV, where there has been an air strike,” Qudra said. Al Aqsa TV is another Hamas-affiliated television

station. The Gaza reporter with Russia’s RT was separated by only a “thin wall” from the Palestinian station’s office and was damaged in the attack.

“We were not directly hit,” cor-respondent Saed Swerky said. “The Israelis fired four rockets and destroyed the office of the (Palestinian) channel. Our office was next door and so we could not work any more.”

The station had earlier issued a statement reading: “RT’s office in Gaza destroyed after Israeli attack.”

Imad Efranji, director of the Al Quds TV office, slammed the incident as “a new crime against the media.”

The Israeli military in a state-ment said it had “targeted two Hamas operational communica-tion sites that were identified by precise intelligence.”

“The first site... was an infrastruc-ture of Hamas’ operational commu-nications, located inside a civilian building,” the statement said.

“As a result, and in order to minimise the damage to non-involved persons, the IDF (army) only targeted the communication devices which were located on the roof of the building, and not the operations room of Hamas... on one of the floors.”

The military said the second strike, on the Shuruq building, also targeted “part of Hamas’ opera-tional communications that was deliberately located on the roof of the building, in which several inter-national media bureaus reside.”

The statement called on “inter-national journalists... to stay clear of Hamas’ bases and facilities, which serve them in their activ-ity against the citizens of Israel.”

AFP

A Palestinian student from Birzeit University pushes a burning tyre during clashes with Israeli soldiers for the second consecutive day as they protest against the Israeli offensive on Gaza Strip yesterday.

Obama hopes for no ramping up of crisisBANGKOK: US President Barack Obama yesterday said it was “preferable” for the Gaza crisis to be ended without a “ramping up” of Israeli military action, as fears mounted of a new invasion of the Hamas-run territory.

“Israel has every right to expect that it does not have missiles fired into its territory,” Obama said, adding, “if that can be accom-plished without a ramping up of military activity in Gaza, that is preferable”.

“That is not just preferable for the people of Gaza, it is also preferable for Israelis because if Israeli troops are in Gaza, they are much more at risk of incur-ring fatalities or being wounded,” he said.

Obama spoke, in Thailand, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was ready to “significantly expand” its operation against militants in

the Gaza Strip, sparking fears of a new invasion.

The US president said the “precipitating event” of the Gaza crisis was a string of extremist rocket attacks on Israeli territory, which he said no nation in the world would tolerate.

He also backed the Jewish state’s right to self-defence on a day in which the crisis deep-ened, with two rockets shot down over Tel Aviv and the Palestinian death toll from retaliatory strikes reaching 56.

Obama, who visited Israeli border areas around the town of Sderot when he was a candidate for president in 2008, said it was clear what had caused the latest crisis over Gaza.

“Let’s understand what the pre-cipitating event here was... that was an ever-escalating number of missiles that were landing not just in Israeli territory but

in areas that are populated.”“There is no country on earth

that would tolerate missiles rain-ing down on its citizens from out-side its borders.”

Obama has spoken to Netanyahu, with whom he has had a tense relationship, several times since the start of the crisis, most recently on Friday.

Netanyahu has expressed deep appreciation for US investment in the Iron Dome rocket and mor-tar defence system, which he said has stopped hundreds of incoming rockets from Gaza.

Netanyahu said Israel was ready to “significantly expand” its operation against militants in the Gaza Strip.

“We are extracting a heavy price from Hamas and the ter-ror organisations,” he said at the weekly cabinet meeting. “The army is prepared to significantly expand the operation.”

AFP

Israel facing ‘millions’ of cyber-attacks over GazaJERUSALEM: Israel admitted yesterday it has been targeted in a mass cyber-warfare cam-paign that has witnessed mil-lions of attempts to hack state websites since the start of its Gaza offensive four days ago.

Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz told reporters the government had been forced to wage war on “a second front” — of cyber attacks against Israel.

“This is an unprecedented attack,” Steinitz said, indicating that Israel had “deflected 44 mil-lion cyber attacks on government websites” since it began a wide-spread air campaign over Gaza on Wednesday.

“All the attacks were thwarted except for one, which targeted a specific website that was down for six or seven minutes,” he said.

The comments from Israel’s overseer of Internet security came a day after the Anonymous online activist group claimed downing dozens of websites of state agencies and a top bank in protest over the Jewish state’s deadly air assault.

It also coincides with both Israeli and Palestinian attempts to exploit the social networks to win over public opinion amid the worst outbreak of Middle East violence in four years.

Steinitz did not say who was responsible.

But he said the government had fended off almost every attack, with analysts pointing out that the Jewish state has sophisticated protection that shields its online assets.

Anonymous on Saturday claimed it had downed or erased the databases of nearly 700 Israeli sites that included the powerful Bank of Jerusalem finance house.

It also claimed to have briefly downed the foreign ministry web-site in protest over an alleged Israeli threat to cut Gaza’s Internet access.

“For far too long, Anonymous has stood by with the rest of the world and watched in despair the barbaric, brutal and despica-ble treatment of the Palestinian people in the so called ‘Occupied Territories’ by the Israel Defence Force,” it said in a statement.

“But when the government of Israel publicly threatened to sever all Internet and other tel-ecommunications into and out of Gaza they crossed a line in the sand.”

Steinitz made no direct refer-ence to Anonymous, but stressed the Israeli government had a backup plan for “essential web-sites” should they be taken down.

AFP

Children in Gaza struggle to cope with life under fireGAZA: Barefoot boys chase each other in circles around the street, pointing pretend guns made out of rubber pipes up at the Gaza sky, which is thick with Israeli F-16s and surveil-lance drones.

“We’re not afraid of the Jews’ bombs!” said Sharif Al Ewad, whose plump cheeks make him look younger than his 15 years. “Al Qassam (Hamas’ armed wing) has raised its head high, and is really beating them up this time!” he smiled.

But beneath the swagger and bravado there is also a yearning for peace and quiet after five days of Israeli air strikes that killed at least 65 Palestinians, including 20 children.

With one of the youngest

populations in the world, over half of Gaza’s 1.7 million residents are aged under 18 and they have little to com-fort them beside the heady local cul-ture of armed struggle against Israel.

The Jewish state pulled its troops and settlers out of the coastal territory in 2005 but ever since has come under regular rocket fire from Islamist group Hamas and its allies in the Gaza Strip, which refuse to recognise Israel’s right to exist.

Israel launched its latest wides-cale operation last Wednesday with the stated aim of putting a halt to the attacks.

Psychiatrist Hasan Zeyada says the constant exposure to shocking violence has left many children suffering trauma and all that it entails — bed-wetting,

nightmares, flashbacks, and fear of going out in public.

“Part of this is related to our culture and religion, which values sacrifice and duty. The other part is a kind of denial. It’s normal to be scared, but in the messages they’ve watched and heard, they’re taught just to show strength,” said Zeyada, manager of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme.

“When there’s no safe place to go, they respond naturally with denial. In a situation like Gaza’s, the best families and the com-munity can do for children is to keep them close and go about life as normally as possible,” he said.

That isn’t very easy.With schools shut while the

fighting rages, some children express delight at their newfound

freedom. “Of course we’re happy!” squealed one boy, drawing out gig-gles from his mates.

Looking more serious, Sharif shook his head. “No, it’s no good. We want to learn. It’s boring, and our parents try to make us stay inside. But we’re not scared,” he insisted.

On the other side of the fence, Israeli schools are also shuttered within a 40-km radius of Gaza because of an incessant rain of incoming rockets, with children confined to their homes. Tragically, some young Gazans will never get to see school.

Tamer, 1, and Joumana Abu Sefan, 3, were blasted from their beds by an Israeli strike early on Sunday. Their father Salama, blood

gushing down his face from his owns wounds, rushed them to hos-pital, where they were pronounced dead.

Male relatives stared on in tears, women cried out and swooned while the little bodies were swaddled in white cloth and gauze was placed in their nostrils to keep still-flowing blood from staining their faces.

REUTERS

Bahrain bans pro-Gaza demonstrationDUBAI: Bahrain rejected requests by sev-eral groups to organise a pro-Gaza march yester-day, after a protest ban announced last month, but instead allowed sit-ins in office buildings, the interior ministry said.

“Several political asso-ciations asked that they be allowed to organise a march to the UN offices in Manama this afternoon (Sunday) under the slogan ‘Save Gaza’,” a ministry statement said.

Bahrain’s interior min-istry “told the organisers that their requests for a march have been rejected in order to preserve security in implementation of the deci-sion to ban demonstrations and gatherings,” it said.

Instead, it “suggested holding solidarity sit-ins in the headquarters” of these groups, it said.

AFP

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The other side

08 VIEWS MONDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2012


Editorial

A historic visit

US President Barack Obama is visiting Myanmar today. It has been called historic because he is the first US head of state to travel to Myanmar. He will meet President Thein Sein,

a former junta member who has spearheaded reforms since taking office in March 2011, and famed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who led the struggle against military rule. Obama’s trip to Myanmar is meant to highlight what Washington has called a major foreign policy achievement -- its success in pushing the country’s generals to embrace reforms that have unfolded with great speed over the past year. But there is an equally important and urgent task he needs to do: persuade Myanmar’s authorities to stop ethnic cleansing and ensure the protection of minority Rohingya Muslims. President’s aides have promised that he would address the issue directly with Myanmar’s leaders and he needs to take up the issue with equal vigour and force.

Violence between the majority Buddhist population and the Rohingya Muslim minority in western Myanmar has been a subject of interna-tional concern. At least 167 people were killed in two periods of violence in Rakhine state in June and October this year, and 111,000 people were made homeless. Myanmar leaders have been under intense interna-tional pressure, especially from Muslim countries, to take measure to stop the bloodshed and ensure the rehabilitation of Rohingyas, but little

has changed on the ground. Such is the division and hatred between Buddhists and Rohingyas that leaders have expressed their helplessness to solve the problem. Even Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel laureate, has been reluctant to intervene fearing reprisals from her own people. In such a scenario, intervention of Obama can help immensely to force leaders to address the problem and his statements can help create public aware-ness about the need for reconciliation and tolerance.

International pressure is the only way to solve the Rohingya issue. Recently, Thein Sein said that the crisis in the west is tarnishing the country’s image abroad, as foreign media has been assiduously exposing the atrocities on Rohingyas. The crisis has also affected the country’s reforms and economic development. This realisation and public admission is a positive step towards addressing the problem.

The visit will help Myanmar speed up reforms and the transition to democracy, though there has been criticism the visit is too early and will amount to rewarding the former military regime. Speaking in Thailand on the eve of his visit, Obama denied he was going there to offer his “endorsement” or that his trip was premature, as many international human rights advocates have charged. He insisted his intention was to acknowledge that Myanmar had opened the door to democratic change but there was still much more to do.

The goal of the operation is to send Gaza back to

the Middle Ages.Quote ofthe day

Obama must use his visit to Myanmar to persuade its leaders to stop discrimination

against Rohingya Muslims.

Recognition is the key Eli YishaiIsrael’s Interior Minister

BY GLENN GREENWALD

A CENTRAL premise of US media coverage of the Israeli attack on Gaza -

beyond the claim that Israel is justifiably “defending itself” - is that this is some endless con-flict between two foreign enti-tles, and Americans can simply sit by helplessly and lament the tragedy of it all. The real-ity is precisely the opposite: Israeli aggression is possible only because of direct, affirma-tive, unstinting US diplomatic, financial and military support for Israel and everything it does. This self-flattering depiction of the US as uninvolved, neutral party is the worst media fic-tion since TV news personali-ties covered the Arab Spring by pretending that the US is and long has been on the side of the heroic democratic protesters, rather than the key force that spent decades propping up the tyrannies they were fighting.

Literally each day since the latest attacks began, the Obama administration has expressed its unqualified support for Israel’s behavior. Just two days before the latest Israeli air attacks began, Obama told Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas “that his administration opposes a Palestinian bid for non-state membership of the UN”. Both the US Senate and House have already passed resolu-tions unequivocally supporting Israel, thus earning the ulti-mate DC reward: the head-pat from Aipac, which “praised the extraordinary show of support by the Senate for Israel’s strug-gle against terrorist attacks on its citizens”.

More bipartisan Congressional cheerleading is certain to come as the attacks continue, no mat-ter how much more brutal they become.

In reflexive defense of Israel, the US government thus once against put itself squarely at

odds with key nations such as Turkey (whose prime minister accused Israel of being moti-vated by elections and demanded that Israel be “held to account” for mounting civilians deaths), Egypt (which denounced Israeli attacks as “aggression against humanity”), and Tunisia (which called on the world to “stop the blatant aggression” of Israel).

By rather stark contrast, Obama continues to defend Israel’s free hand in Gaza, caus-ing commentators like Jeffrey Goldberg to gloat, not inaccu-rately: “Barack Obama hasn’t turned against Israel. This is a big surprise to everyone who has not paid attention for the last four years” (indeed, there are few more compelling signs of how dumb and misleading US elections are than the fact that the only criticism of Obama on Israel heard over the last year in the two-party debate was the grievance that Obama evinces insufficient fealty - rather

than excessive fealty - to the Israeli government). That the Netanyahu government knows that any attempt to condemn Israel at the UN would be instantly blocked by the US is a major factor enabling them to continue however they wish. And, of course, the bombs, planes and tanks they are using are subsidized, in substantial part, by the US taxpayer.

If one wants to defend US support for Israel on the merits - on the ground that this esca-lating Israeli aggression against a helpless population is just and warranted - then one should do so. As I wrote on Thursday, it’s very difficult to see how those who have cheered for Obama’s foreign policy could do anything but cheer for Israeli militarism, as they are grounded in the same premises.

But pretending that the US - and the Obama administra-tion - bear no responsibility for what is taking place is sheer

self-delusion, total fiction. It has long been the case that the cen-tral enabling fact in Israeli law-lessness and aggression is blind US support, and that continues, more than ever, to be the case under the presidency of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner.

The US is not some neutral, uninvolved party. Whatever side of this conflict you want to defend - or if you’re one of those people who love to announce that you just wish the whole thing would go away - it’s still necessary to take responsibility for the key role played by the American government and this administration in enabling eve-rything that is taking place.

Due to extensive travel the past few days, I’ve been sub-jected to far more television news coverage than is prob-ably healthy, and it’s just been staggering to see how tilted US media discourse is: Israeli offi-cials and pro-Israel “experts” are endlessly paraded across

the screen while Palestinian voices are exceedingly rare; the fact of the 45-year-old brutal occupation and ongoing Israeli dominion over Gaza is barely mentioned; meanwhile, every primitive rocket that falls harm-lessly near Israeli soil is trum-peted with screaming headlines while the carnage and terror in Gaza is mentioned, if at all, as an afterthought. Two cartoons perfectly summarize this cover-age: here and here.

On a related note, the Nation’s Jeremy Scahill was inter-viewed on Tuesday night after a Sundance Institute panel on political documentaries which I moderated.

Scahill, who is working on a documentary entitled “Dirty Wars” about the US violence in Yemen and other parts of the Muslim world, spoke for 12 min-utes to We Are Change about Obama’s terrorism and foreign policies; I highly recommend it:

THE GUARDIAN

WITHIN 48 hours of Syrian opposition groups agreeing a new coalition, after six days of tough negotiations in Doha, France joined the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council in

recognizing the new body, the Syrian National Coalition, as being the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people.

Other countries, most notably the United States and Britain, while warmly welcoming the new organization, have held back from echoing the unreserved endorsement of French President François Hollande. It must be wondered why. Behind the scenes, diplomats from Washington and London were briefing journalists that the new SNC needed first to demonstrate that its 60 members, not all of whom have yet been named, could form a cohesive political body that would speak with a unified voice. More darkly, one briefer said that the failure of the opposition groups to reach a substantive deal in Doha had been key. The inability to place the need for unity above individual political interests, had sug-gested that Syria’s would-be political leaders had learned nothing from their past failure to present a genuine coalition platform. Thus, to give immediate formal recognition would run the risk of severe embarrass-ment, if the coalition fell apart or indeed, failed even to come together properly in the first place.

This is, however, a deeply cynical and unhelpful view. It seems clear that little thought has been given to the degree to which the failure to recognize the SNC, could undermine the still-delicate process of completing its membership, and then forming a Free Syrian govern-ment, to administer liberated areas.

Moreover, the Americans and their British cousins ignore the reality that immediate recognition by a large number of states, would have empowered the new body, not least in terms of the way its members behave toward one other. Now Washington sitting on the sidelines, invites fresh discord. Some SNC members may start insisting that it was the recalcitrance of rivals, that caused the Americans to pull back from unreserved recognition.

There is another issue as well. Washington was exerting almost constant pressure on opposition participants during the Doha meet-ing. There were quiet meetings in coffee bars, corridors and delegates’ hotel rooms. There was, according to one Syrian, a succession of ‘phone calls’, some of them from people high up in the State Department, all seeking to coax and persuade those involved to reach a full agreement, on personnel, policy and procedures, before the Doha meeting ended.

ARAB NEWS

Stop pretending US is uninvolved in Israeli assault on Gaza

Cartoon Arts International / The New York Times Syndicate

VIEWS 09MONDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2012


Monti pressed to run in polls

BY WILLIAM WAN

For the past week, the focus in China has been on the country’s outgoing leaders and their replace-

ments, who were announced on Thursday in a once-a-decade transition.

But those looking further down the line have been studying a sub-set of attendees — the likely suc-cessors to this year’s new leaders.

Just as Vice President Xi Jinping, 59, was named at the just-ended Communist Party congress to replace President Hu Jintao, someone in the next generation of officials will probably replace Xi 10 years from now. And lead-ing the pack, according to some party insiders and experts, is a man widely known as “Little Hu.”

The party chief of Inner Mongolia, Hu Chunhua, acquired the nickname Xiao Hu (shee-ow hoo) years ago, when it became clear that he had been singled out by Hu Jintao as a rising star and was being groomed for the higher echelons of power.

Another frequently mentioned standout in the next generation is Sun Zhengcai, party chief in the northeastern province of Jilin. On Thursday, Hu and Sun, both 49, were promoted to the Politburo, making them the youngest mem-bers of that body and propelling them into contention for one of China’s top leadership positions in coming years. Little Hu is rumored to be transferring soon to lead the important province of Guangdong, which would position him well for the future.

Many experts point out that such speculation is premature, given the unpredictable power of competing factions within the party, the secretive nature of such internal decisions and the many years remaining before any selec-tion is made.

But that has not dissuaded the

Chinese media. During a rare party congress meeting that was open to journalists, camera crews crowded into a small room Nov. 9 to capture footage of Little Hu chairing a relatively inconsequen-tial session.

When he got up suddenly, the media scrum dashed to follow him out the door, afraid it might lose its prey. The stampede stopped only when guards and officials pushed the journalists back in place.

“Please, everyone, he’s just going to the bathroom,” one official shouted in exasperation. “He’ll be back, I promise.”

The two Hus are not related by blood, but they share strik-ingly similar backgrounds, career paths, early achievements and strong pragmatic streaks — reasons the elder Hu may have

identified the younger Hu more than two decades ago and begun moving him up the ranks.

“How do you describe Hu Chunhua? You look at Hu Jintao and imagine him a little younger,” said Cheng Li, a China politics expert at the Brookings Institution. “He’s an exact copy.”

Both built their careers from humble beginnings — a sharp con-trast to many current officials, including China’s new leader, Xi, who were born into prominent Communist families. Both were shaped by long stints in Tibet and a network of allies they cultivated while at the Communist Youth League.

Like Hu Jintao, who is renowned for a photographic memory, Little Hu distinguished himself early in academics. He began college at the unusually

young age of 16, becoming the first from his home town of Wufeng to be admitted to the prestigious Peking University.

After graduation, he turned down a job in Beijing and chose to work in the rougher, more challenging region of Tibet. He became fluent in the Tibetan language and culture, and met and worked with Hu Jintao, who became Tibet’s party secretary in 1988. As a young official, Little Hu moved through a series of impor-tant jobs, including governor of Hebei province.

“He was parachuted into Hebei province, staying there only a year and a half to get his credentials and then moving on. It’s those kinds of assignments along the way that made it obvi-ous he was being groomed by the

top level,” said Li Datong, who worked under Little Hu at the Communist Youth League during the 1980s and 1990s as an editor of its newspaper.

Hu escaped relatively unscathed from a 2008 scandal in Hebei over contaminated milk. But he has encountered more controversy during his posting in Inner Mongolia.

Ethnic tensions resulted in large demonstrations last year amid complaints that Han Chinese were reaping huge prof-its from environmentally dam-aging mining operations, while much-poorer Mongolians did not benefit.

While the traditional gov-ernment reflex is to respond to such protests by cracking down, Hu Chunhua deployed a more

subtle mixture of appeasement and force. He severely tightened security, but he also visited the area of unrest and closed some coal mines at the heart of the controversy.

Asked after the recent party congress meeting about this mix-ture of hard and soft, Hu scoffed at such characterizations.

“The media tends to try to label us officials,” he said. “But we will act tough when it is needed and shift to soft when it is needed.”

Even in the way he answered questions from reporters — allow-ing a free-for-all and often reply-ing off the cuff — Hu distinguished himself from most party officials at the congress, who gave stiff, bland responses to questions that were often screened or scripted.

His hair also set him apart — unusual for its grayness amid a sea of dyed jet-black pompadours, the tradition among China’s party officials.

Despite his meteoric rise, Little Hu’s trajectory is not assured. Much will depend on how much power the elder Hu retains once he retires from the presidency in March. Some speculate that Hu Jintao will become a more forceful player in personnel decisions after his predecessor, Jiang Zemin, dies. Others think he may find him-self struggling against other party elders as well as Xi, all eager to advance their proteges.

But throughout the past week, even as the party prepared to unveil its new leaders, it was obvi-ous that the jockeying and position-ing for the next round had already begun.When asked about such rumors, Little Hu was wry, dip-lomatic and tight-lipped.

“I’d like to express my thanks to the attention the media has paid to me, but right now I am still working in Inner Mongolia, so I will only answer questions related to Inner Mongolia.”

WP-BLOOMBERG

BY ANDREW FRYE

Supporters of Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, whose non-elected govern-ment is nearing the end of its stipulated time in office,

started a political party to push for a continuation of the premier’s policies at home and abroad.

“Monti can do the job of reconstruc-tion on Italy and Europe better than anyone else,” Ferrari Chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo said at a Saturday rally in Rome called to inau-gurate the movement, named Toward the Third Republic. “Admitting it isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s an assumption of responsibility.”

Monti will need a new political vehicle if he chooses to seek a second term, given that his biggest allies in parliament are opposed to a renewed mandate. The 69-year-old premier, who appeals to Italians weary of recurrent government scandals and instability, will have to defend his tax increases and spending cuts if he opts to run. He would also have to convince voters he can end a recession that has only deepened on his watch.

Italy needs “stability as far as the government is concerned,” Francesco Trapani, president of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton’s watch and jewelry division, said yesterday in a Bloomberg Television interview. “If the Monti government could go on for a few years, it would be great news for us.”

Elections are due in April, though may be held sooner. President Giorgio Napolitano said last night that regional voting should be held on

March 10. He said he would consider holding the national ballot the same day, if parliament completes its leg-islative agenda by passing the budget plan and new voting rules.

Public confidence in Monti as pre-mier rose one percentage point this week to 36 percent, according to a poll released by SWG Institute yesterday.

That’s down from 59 percent in March and up from 33 percent in June. Sixty-two percent of respondents in

the poll said they opposed a second Monti term, against 22 percent in favour. “We’re not asking the prime minister to take the leadership of this movement today,” said Montezemolo, whose group includes union leader Raffaele Bonanni and International Cooperation Minister Andrea Riccardi. “That would prejudice his work, and this is something we can’t permit,” Montezemolo said.

Monti has won the support of

bankers and business leaders even as disapproval of his budget rigor rose among the general electorate. Public support for the anti-austerity cam-paign of Beppe Grillo has surged, while Monti’s biggest parliamentary backer, former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, on Friday disavowed the government’s record as “disastrous.”

Monti defended his record of budget rigor, telling an audience in Milan on Saturday that it restored Italy’s prestige abroad. Deficit reduction also helped save the 17-nation euro area from dissolution, Monti said in a statement of policy principles posted to the government’s website.

“Maybe today, without the aus-terity measures put in place by the government, we wouldn’t have the euro zone,” Monti’s office said in the document, which highlighted achieve-ments of the premier’s first 12 months. Monti declined to specify his plans for after the term ends.

Opinion polls show a fragmented electorate that may make it diffi-cult for any candidate to muster the majority of seats needed to form a government. Monti, a senator for life, has said in recent months that, while he won’t run for election, he would be open to serving again after the vote if asked.

“It will be up to him to decide in what way to continue,” Andrea Olivero, president of the Italian Christian workers association known as Acli and one of the leaders of Toward the Third Republic, said in an interview with Sky TG24.

The movement headed by Montezemolo, who is the former head of business lobby Confindustria, adds weight to initiatives by Pier Ferdinando Casini, the top Christian Democrat lawmaker, and Gianfranco Fini, the speaker of Italy’s lower house of parliament, who also head two sep-arate parties. The two politicians have said they will run on a platform of returning Monti to power.

The SWG poll yesterday indi-cated that Montezemolo’s new party would have 8.5 percent support, while Casini’s UDC party and Fini’s Future and Liberty for Italy bloc would attract a combined 6.9 percent. That compares with 25 percent for the Democratic Party and 14.8 percent for Berlusconi’s PDL.

WP-BLOOMBERG

LEFT: China’s newly elected President Xi Jinping talks to the media at the end of the 18th Communist Party Congress (CPC) in Beijing. TOP: Hu Chunhua, the party secretary of Inner Mongolia and slated to be a next generation Chinese leader.

‘Little Hu’ eyed as potential top leader in 10 years

BY ARI RABINOVITCH

With fighting in the Gaza Strip entering its fifth day and Palestinian rockets landing deeper into Israel than ever before, travelers who had hoped to visit

the holy land are starting to think twice.A number of hotels in Israel, along with flagship

carrier El Al, have already seen some cancellations and believe the number will grow if the violence rages into a second week. “The continued firing on the south ... is expected to exact a heavy price on the tourism industry which is one of the central anchors in the region,” said Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov said.

Israel unleashed an intensive air campaign against the Gaza Strip on Wednesday with the stated inten-tion of stemming Islamist-militant rocket fire out of the coastal enclave. Since the start of the con-flagration, hundreds of missiles have been launched into Israel, with several speeding towards the com-mercial hub of Tel Aviv, which had previously been out of range from Gazan militants.

Air raid sirens even sounded in Jerusalem on Friday for the first time in decades before a rocket landed nearby, in the occupied West Bank.

Three Israelis were killed by a direct hit on their apartment building in a small southern town on Thursday, but none of the longer-ranged salvoes struck populated areas or caused any injuries. However, the threat alone is taking a toll.

It was still too soon to assess just how badly the tourism industry will be hurt, said the ministry, which has set up its own situation room to mitigate damages. There have already been a few registered cancellations and trips cut short, coming mostly from the region closest to Gaza.

A spokeswoman for Fattal, Israel’s biggest hotel chain, said a few bookings have already been can-celled. “We see the start of a trend, but only in a few days will we be able to see where the overall trend is headed,” she said, declining to give numbers.

Likewise, Jerusalem’s American Colony hotel reported that some clients had pulled out of visits at the last minute. An El Al spokeswoman said there have been a few cancellations “here and there” though nothing significant, while Delta and US Airways said some families of Israelis called up by the army had decided to stay home.

The slowdown was not limited to Israel . Tourism represents 12 percent of gross domestic product f or the Palestinian Authority and it could bear the brunt of the damage, Israel’s Tourism Ministry said. In comparison, tourism accounts for only 2-3 percent of Israel’s GDP, the ministry noted. The Palestinian West Bank city of Bethlehem, where the Church of the Nativity attracts Christian pil-grims from around the world, had lost nearly half its reservations due to the Gaza violence.

REUTERS

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti (left) and Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al Mubarak Al Sabah arriving at the Al Bayan Palace, in Kuwait City, yesterday.

The 69-year-old

premier will need

a new political

vehicle if he

chooses to seek a

second term, given

that his biggest

allies in parliament

are opposed to a

renewed mandate.

Tourism hit by Gaza offensive

Training exercise in Basra

Members of Iraq’s anti-terrorism unit for oil facility protection take their positions during a training exercise in Basra, 420km southeast of Baghdad, yesterday.

Syria slams hostile France; fighting ragesAl Hajar Al Aswad bombardedDAMASCUS: Syria yesterday slammed as “hostile” a French decision to host an ambassador from the opposition National Coalition, as regime forces bombarded southern districts of the capital and clashes raged nationwide.

France on Saturday invited the group to send an envoy to Paris, after President Francois Hollande met National Coalition leader Ahmed Moaz Al Khatib.

“France is acting like a hostile nation,” National Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar said in key ally Tehran. “It’s as if it wants to go back to the time of the occu-pation,” he added, of the French mandate in Syria after the First World War.

Haidar was speaking as Iran prepared to host talks between Syrian officials and opposition groups tolerated by President Bashar Al Assad’s regime.

No National Coalition repre-sentatives were invited to the talks. “Invitations were extended to all those who accept dialogue, not to those who refuse to talk as a mat-ter of principle,” Haidar said.

Opening the meeting, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi warned against sending weapons to Syrian rebels, saying that this would threaten regional stability and increase the “risk of terrorism.”

The opposition coalition, formed in Doha on November 11, says it is committed to building a provisional government composed of representatives of all ethnic and religious groups in conflict-ridden Syria.

But it refuses to engage with the Damascus regime before Assad’s departure.

Despite the French offer to host an envoy, Paris remained cautious on the issue of supply-ing weapons to Syrian rebels amid

fears of the conflict spreading.Israeli artillery responded early

yesterday after gunfire from Syria hit an army vehicle but caused no casualties, Israel’s military said, in the latest spillover of violence across the ceasefire line.

“Shots were fired at IDF (Israeli army) soldiers ... in the central Golan Heights,” an army spokeswoman said, adding that the Syrian fire hit “a vehicle.”

“Soldiers responded with artillery fire towards the source of the shoot-ing... a direct hit was identified,” she said. Israel has complained repeat-edly to the United Nations after sev-eral such incidents.

In Damascus, government artillery bombarded the southern district of Al Hajar Al Aswad, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Britain-based watchdog, which relies on a network of activists and medics in civilian and military hospitals to com-pile its tolls, said one civilian was killed and several wounded.

Several mortar rounds also hit the mainly Alawite regime heart-land of Mazzeh in west Damascus, which state television blamed on “terrorist groups.”

Aleppo and its environs in the north too saw heavy combat, the Observatory said, reporting fierce clashes at regime Base 46 in the province, which has been besieged for weeks. Artillery fire also hit the provinces of Daraa in the south and Deir Ezzor in the east, where rebels on Saturday said they seized Hamdan airport, a helicopter gunship base.

Yesterday’s fighting came a day after at least 146 people were killed nationwide, according to the Observatory, which has put the death toll in more than 20 months of conflict at upwards of 39,000.

AFP

Demonstrators hold opposition flags during a protest against Syria’s President Bashar Al Assad at Houla near Homs.

Iran warns against arming Syrian rebelsTEHRAN: Iran yesterday warned against sending weap-ons to Syrian rebels battling its ally in Damascus, saying that this would threaten regional stability and increase the “risk of terrorism.”

“Some countries envisage arm-ing the opposition with heavy and semi-heavy weaponry,” Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in a speech to open an inter-Syria dialogue in Tehran.

“In reality, they seek to legiti-mise publicly what they have been doing in secret,” Salehi said, with-out naming any country.

Today, EU foreign ministers at talks in Brussels are due to dis-cuss lifting a strict embargo on arms deliveries to Syria. France has publicly said it favours

sending “defensive” weapons to the Syrian opposition.

France on Tuesday became the first Western power to recognise the opposition coalition as the sole representative of the Syrian people.

Turkey and the Gulf Arab states have also officially rec-ognised it, and Britain’s foreign minister William Hague said on Friday London was considering following suit.

The initiative would allow the arming of the National Coalition of opposition groups formed in Doha on November 11.

Salehi said such arms deliver-ies would set a “dangerous prec-edent” and constitute “a clear interference in the affairs of an independent country.”

“It will spread insecurity, the risk of terrorism and organised violence in all of the region,” he said.

Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s regime and its main allies, Iran and Russia, accuse some Arab and Western countries of having secretly provided weapons to Syrian rebels for months.

The opposition National Coalition, recognised by France, Turkey and Gulf countries, has asked for weapons to bring down the regime and hasten the end of a conflict which has killed more than 39,000 people since mid-March last year.

Russia has warned that pro-viding the coalition with weap-ons would be a “gross violation” of international law.

In a message to the Tehran

meeting, Moscow’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia and Iran “shared a com-mon position on the crisis in Syria,” the official IRNA news agency reported.

Lavrov also warned against the risk of weapons ending up in the hands of “Al Qaeda and other extremist groups” which he said were seeking to seize Syria.

No representative from the Syrian opposition coalition attended the Tehran meeting, as it rejects dialogue for as long as Assad remains in power.

Iranian media said the meeting brought together some 200 rep-resentatives of the Syrian gov-ernment and different political, religious and ethnic groups.

AFP

Saudi king has ‘successful’ back surgeryRIYADH: The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, 89, has “successfully” undergone a new operation on his back, the royal cabinet announced yesterday.

The operation, to correct “a lig-amentary slackening in the upper back” of the elderly monarch, ended at dawn yesterday, said a statement quoted by the official SPA news agency. The king had already undergone a similar oper-ation in October last year.

In November 2010 he was oper-ated on in New York for a slipped disc complicated by a blood clot that put pressure on his spine, and underwent a further operation the following month before convalesc-ing for a month in Morocco.

The king’s age and his frequent hospitalisations regularly feed rumours about the future leader-ship of the kingdom, a key player in the Middle East and the world’s top oil exporter.

Three killed as Egyptian soldiers, residents clashCAIRO: Three people were killed and 12 injured in a firefight between soldiers and armed resi-dents over a disputed island in the Nile west of Egypt’s capital Cairo, a security source said.

An army statement said the authorities were clearing the island, which the army says it owns and is a centrepoint for its operations to keep Cairo secure, after armed-residents raided it on Friday night forcing guards out.

Residents exchanged fire with security forces from buildings overlooking the island, at Giza, injuring four soldiers.

AGENCIES

Kurd militants end hunger strike in Turkey jails; deal seenISTANBUL/DIYARBAKIR: Hundreds of Kurdish mili-tants ended a hunger strike in jails across Turkey yesterday in response to an appeal from their leader, fuelling hopes a deal had been struck that could revive talks to end a decades-old conflict.

Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan called on his supporters to end their protest after holding a series of discussions with Turkish MIT intelligence agency officials, according to one media report.

Top MIT officials have held secret meetings with senior PKK representatives in Oslo in recent

years and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said in September more talks were possible.

More than 40,000 people have been killed in 28 years of fighting between Turkey and the PKK — designated a terrorist group by Ankara, the United States and the European Union.

Ocalan’s call for an end to the hunger strike, which militants staged to demand an end to his isolation in an island prison south of Istanbul, was announced by his brother on Saturday.

“On the basis of our leader’s call ... we end our protest as of November 18, 2012,” Deniz Kaya, a spokesman for the jailed PKK

militants, was quoted as saying in a statement by an associa-tion representing the inmates’ families.

The announcement was wel-comed by the government, which had been increasingly worried any deaths during the hunger strike might provoke more violence.

“I hope we will not face such protests from now on. Turkey is a democratic country,” Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc was quoted as telling reporters by state-run Anatolian news agency.

“Whatever demands the people have, the government and politi-cians can air them in parliament,” he added.

A newspaper said yesterday talks between Ocalan and Turkish intelligence officials over the last two months had paved the way for his appeal to end the protest, which lasted 68 days.

“A delegation went to Imrali on three occasions. A senior MIT official joined one of these visits and Ocalan’s intervention was sought to end the hunger strike,” the liberal daily Radikal said. It did not identify its sources.

Fighting between the PKK and Turkish forces surged over the summer. Ankara has linked the renewed hostilities to the conflict in neighbouring Syria and accused Syrian President Bashar Al Assad

of arming the PKK.In the latest violence, five

Turkish soldiers were killed in clashes with PKK fighters in Hakkari province near the bor-der with Iraq on Sunday, the local governor’s office said. Four PKK militants were killed, two surren-dered and one wounded militant was captured.

Ocalan, imprisoned on Imrali island in the Marmara Sea south of Istanbul since his capture in 1999, has significant support among Kurds but is widely reviled by Turks who hold him responsi-ble for the conflict since the PKK took up arms in 1984.

REUTERS

Insurgents shell near North Darfur capitalKHARTOUM: Insurgents have shelled near the capital of Sudan’s troubled North Darfur state for the second time in less than a month in an attempt to disrupt government air raids, a senior rebel said yesterday.

Residents of El Fasher con-firmed they heard explosions for about one hour around midnight on Friday but the army described the incident as a clash between its forces and rebels outside the town.

“Basically it sounded like mor-tar fire,” with eight or 10 intermit-tent explosions which appeared to be coming from just west of the town, one resident said, asking not to be identified.

The Sudan Liberation Army’s Minni Minnawi faction said it targeted a military facility on the edge of El Fasher airport, where air force planes are based.

“We want to stop these air-planes which are escalating

bombing in East Jebel Marra,” a mountainous area about 100km southwest of El Fasher, said Hussain Minnawi, a member of the rebels’ political bureau. The airport remained open yesterday.

Sawarmi Khaled Saad, the Sudanese army spokesman, said the clash occurred 25km from El Fasher as Minnawi’s forces were on their way to attack the town’s defences.

“Our troops defeated them. They ran away, leaving huge quantities of ammunition,” and were targeted by army artillery as they fled, the official SUNA news agency quoted him as saying.

El Fasher is the headquarters of the African Union-UN Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), the world’s largest peacekeeping opera-tion, which last week expressed “grave concern” about escalating violence.

AFP

10 MIDDLE EASTMONDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2012


Seven killed in Kenya explosion

A woman runs past a policeman as residents disperse during a rampage near the wreckage of a passenger mini-bus (matatu) after it was hit by an explosion in the Eastleigh neighbourhood of Kenya’s capital Nairobi, yesterday. Seven people were killed in the explosion.

Video shows Nigeria troops killing captives KADUNA, NIGERIA: A video obtained by Reuters shows Nigerian troops shooting unarmed captives in broad daylight by the roadside in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, the bastion of an Islamist insurgency.

Nigeria’s military has long been accused of human rights abuses, including summary executions, in the troubled north but there has been no video proof since the first crackdown on the Islamist sect Boko Haram in 2009.

A spokesman for the army said it was “impossible” for Nigerian troops to do such a thing.

Boko Haram is fighting to carve an Islamic state out of Nigeria, and its fighters have killed hundreds in bomb and gun attacks, many of them from the security forces, since beginning the uprising three years ago.

The video was taken by a soldier who said he was present while the shootings took place two weeks ago. The soldier, who requested anonym-ity, passed it to Reuters yesterday.

In the grainy footage, a man sits down next to three or four corpses piled together on the roadside. He pleads for his life while soldiers shout at him and a crowd looks on a few metres away. “Please don’t fire,” the man says in pidgin English.

He tries to stand up and get onto the back of a pick up truck to the left. A Nigerian soldier shouts “come out”, and drags him off it, shoving him on the ground.

One of them kicks him in the head. Then he and another soldier aim assault rifles at him. Four gunshots are heard and the man lies still next to the others. Nigerian army spokes-man Colonel Mohammed Yerima said he had not seen the video but that the events must have been staged.

“How can they do that? It is not possible. This is the Boko Haram tactics,” he said. “They will do the killing, say it’s the military and then Amnesty International and so on will blame us. It’s not possible for Nigerian troops to act in this way.”

Nigerian forces have repeatedly denied accusations of such abuses,

saying the only times they kill sus-pected militants is during combat. Those captured are questioned or freed, they say.

US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour Michael Posner said on Friday that the United States was seriously concerned by reported abuses committed by Nigerian secu-rity forces in their efforts to quell the insurgency.

Such alleged abuses usually occur shortly after members of the security forces have been killed or wounded in an attack by the sect. The killings in this video happened after a bomb attack on a military patrol further up the road, the soldier who provided the footage said.

Another video from the same source, which he said was taken after the executions, shows soldiers piling up about two dozen bodies in two bloody heaps on the ground from the back of a military truck.

The videos could spur renewed calls for Nigeria’s security forces to change their approach to the insur-gency, which critics say is prompting desperate, angry youths to join Boko Haram and encouraging the north-ern population to shelter them.

That uprising was sparked by a military crackdown on the sect in which hundreds were killed, includ-ing its founder and spiritual leader Mohammed Yusuf, who died in police custody.

President Goodluck Jonathan has been accused of treating the conflict as a security problem that can be solved with force alone, rather than addressing the root causes of the insurgency. Amnesty International issued a report this month in which it said human rights abuses commit-ted by security forces were fuelling the conflict they were meant to end.

The report said a “significant number” of people accused of links with Boko Haram had been executed after arrest without due process, while hundreds were detained with-out charge or trial and many of those arrested disappeared or were later found dead. REUTERS

Army doubts authenticity of footage

Spanish vessels made 178 illegal incursions, says UKLONDON: Spanish state ves-sels have made what Britain terms illegal incursions into Gibraltar’s territorial waters 178 times in the past 12 months — a sharp increase from previous years, figures released yesterday showed.

The figures come during a rise in diplomatic tensions between London and Madrid over Gibraltar, with each coun-try summoning the other’s ambassador on Thursday to protest about naval face-offs in disputed waters.

London and Madrid have already been embroiled in testy exchanges this year over fishing rights around the tiny peninsula at the mouth of the Mediterranean, which Spain

ceded to Britain in perpetu-ity under the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht.

Britain’s Ministry of Defence said its navy had responded to 178 incursions between November 1 last year and October 31 this year — with 40 incidents in July alone.

There were only 23 such inci-dents in 2011, 67 in 2010 and 26 in 2009. “So far as marine incursions are concerned we are absolutely confident of the United Kingdom’s sovereignty over British Gibraltar territorial waters,” said Europe Minister David Lidington. “That is why the Royal Navy challenges... Spanish state vessels whenever they make unlawful maritime incursions into British Gibraltar

territorial waters and we back this up through formal diplo-matic protests to the Spanish government about all unlawful incursions.”

The ministry said no live ammunition had been dis-charged by British ships in any of the incidents.

Andrew Rosindell, chairman of parliament’s all-party group on the British overseas terri-tories, said it was time to start detaining Spanish ships. “These figures show it is a growing problem. The Spanish are get-ting bolder and bolder in enter-ing British sovereign waters. It’s another way for them to try to assert their sovereignty claim, which obviously we com-pletely oppose,” he said. AFP

Two killed in South Africa protests

CAPE TOWN: Violent protests by South African farm work-ers demanding wage hikes have left two people dead this week, police said yesterday, after the body of a seasonal worker was discovered.

“The body of 40-year-old Bongile Ndleni was found in his residence on Saturday morning. Indications are that he was shot on Wednesday... on a farm in the Prince Alfred Hamlet area,” about 150km northeast of Cape Town, said regional police spokesman Andre Traut. “We have reason to believe that his death was caused by... gunshot wound, and therefore a murder case was registered.”

The unrest shaking the Western Cape farming heartland started earlier this month in De Doorns, a grape farming town outside Cape Town, where vine-yards were set alight. AFP

German Greens reshaping their ideologyHANOVER, GERMANY: Germany’s Greens have gone grey. The world’s most suc-cessful pro-environment party has turned deadly seri-ous about gaining power by stealing votes from Chancellor Angela Merkel — and perhaps by joining her.

The muesli, woolly sweaters, thick beards and endless debates about abstract issues that were once part of any Greens con-gress are largely gone. In their place is a more mature party of smartly dressed professionals with one clear aim: getting back into government after federal elections next year.

At their unusually harmoni-ous three-day party congress in Hanover that ended yesterday, Greens leaders were applauded for hailing their party’s “con-servative values” and una-bashedly trying to appeal to center-right voters, using lan-guage that a decade ago would have had them booed off the stage.

Pollsters put support for the Greens at 13 percent, enough if the electoral arithmetic goes their way to make them king-makers after Germans vote in September, 2013.

The party would prefer a coa-lition with the Social Democrats,

renewing a government which ruled Germany from 1998 to 2005. But Greens are quietly thinking the unthinkable and opening up to a possible alliance with Merkel’s conservatives, long their political arch enemy.

Greens express distaste for an alliance with Merkel and her Christian Democrats (CDU), but interest in her supporters. “We don’t want the CDU, we want only your voters,” Katrin Goering-Eckart, a newly-elected party leader, told the Congress.

Goering-Eckart, a Lutheran church leader, expresses the Greens’ pride in their weighti-ness, openly admitting their

hope that the makeover will attract conservative voters.

“If you want to run the coun-try, if you want policies that add up, then you’ve got to be serious about it,” she said. “It’s not something you can do with smoke and mirrors.”

The problem for the Greens is that their preferred partners, the Social Democrats (SPD), are languishing at 30 percent support in opinion polls. This may not be enough for the two parties to win a parliamentary majority and oust Merkel, whose conservatives are polling about 39 percent.

REUTERS

Obama may have known about Petraeus affair before electionsWASHINGTON: The head of the House Intelligence Committee suggested yes-terday that President Barack Obama might have known about former CIA Director David Petraeus’ extra-marital affair before the November election, and said Attorney General Eric Holder should address this question soon before Congress.

US Representative Mike Rogers, a Republican, said Holder’s statement that the Justice Department had not informed the president before the election implied that Holder might have told Obama privately.

He noted that the FBI inves-tigation of the communications between Petraeus and his biog-rapher Paula Broadwell arose due to concern over a coun-ter-intelligence threat. Both Petraeus and Broadwell have said they did not share any security secrets, and investiga-tors have said they have found no security breach.

“It probably should have been brought forward earlier as a national security threat,” Rogers said.

“I’m not sure that the president was not told before Election Day. The attorney gen-eral said that the Department of Justice did not notify the

president, but we don’t know if the attorney general...(notified him),” Rogers said.

He said Holder should come before the intelligence committees to discuss it. “We could resolve this very quickly with a conversation in the intelligence spaces if he did have that conversation with the president.”

Senate Inte l l igence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein disagreed, saying Holder had explained to the intelligence commit-tees there was no notification while the investigation was under way.

REUTERS

Colombia negotiators leave for Farc talksBOGOTA: Colombian gov-ernment negotiators left for Havana yesterday, heading to peace talks with leftist Farc rebels aimed at ending Latin America’s longest-running insurgency. Rebel delegates, including Tanja Nijmeijer, a Dutch woman who fights alongside the Farc rebels, are already in Cuba awaiting talks delayed since Thursday over a lack of clarity over the role of civilian representatives. “This will be a rapid and effective process. A process of months, not years,” lead government negotiator Humberto de la Calle told reporters in Bogota before boarding the plane for Havana. Latin America’s largest rebel group may be ready for a truce after many setbacks. AFP

11INTERNATIONAL MONDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2012


Crocodile hunters

Filipinos crowd around a crocodile measuring 13 feet caught in Suba Datuh Indanan, Sulu province, southern Philippines, yesterday. Residents claim that children initially saw two crocodiles in water in the area.

Myanmar trip not to endorse regime: Obama US president to visit Myanmar todayBANGKOK: US President Barack Obama denied yes-terday his upcoming trip to Myanmar was an endorsement of the government there, call-ing it an acknowledgement of the progress made in shaking off decades of military rule and encouragement for it go further.

Today, Obama will become the first serving US president to visit Myanmar, also called Burma, part of a three-country Asian tour that, as his first post-election trek abroad, will show he is serious about shifting the US strategic focus eastwards.

Some human rights groups object to the Myanmar visit, saying Obama is rewarding the country’s quasi-civilian govern-ment before democratic reforms are complete. But he told a news conference in Thailand he knew there was much still to do.

“I don’t think anybody is under the illusion that Burma’s arrived, that they’re where they need to be,” he said.

“On the other hand, if we waited to engage until they had achieved a perfect democracy, my suspicion is we’d be waiting an awful long time,” he added. “One of the goals of this trip is to high-light the progress that has been made and give voice to the much greater progress that needs to be made in the future.”

Late yesterday, state television

in Myanmar said 66 more prison-ers would be released on Monday, bringing to 518 the number released over the past week.

The previous batch did not appear to include any political prisoners, but a senior prison department official, who declined to be identified, said that Myint Aye, a prominent human rights activist, would be among those freed on Monday.

It was not clear if other politi-cal detainees would be included. Obama has made the freeing of all political prisoners one of the conditions for the full lifting of sanctions imposed on Myanmar for rights abuses under the junta.

Obama will meet President Thein Sein, a former junta mem-ber who has spearheaded politi-cal and economic reforms since taking office in March 2011, and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who led the struggle against military rule and, like Obama, is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. She is now a lawmaker.

“I’m not somebody who thinks that the United States should stand on the sidelines and not want to get its hands dirty when there’s an opportunity for us to encourage the better impulses inside a country,” Obama said.

“And, in part, I’m taking my guidance from what Aung San Suu Kyi, who I think knows quite a bit about repression in Burma,

Southeast Asia leaders sign controversial rights pactPHNOM PENH: Southeast Asian leaders endorsed a con-troversial human rights pact yesterday at an annual sum-mit in which they also sought to step up pressure on China over a bruising territorial dispute.

Heads of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) hailed their declaration on human rights as a landmark agreement that would help protect the region’s 600 mil-lion people.

“It’s a legacy for our children,” Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario told reporters after the signing ceremony.

But critics said it allowed too many loopholes for Asean, which groups a diverse range of political systems ranging from authoritar-ian regimes in Laos and Vietnam to freewheeling democracies such as the Philippines. “Our worst fears in this process have now come to pass,” said Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director Phil Robertson.

On the day the pact was signed, leaders were having to discuss the ethnic violence in Asean mem-ber Myanmar, where clashes in Rakhine state between Muslim and Buddhists have left 180 people dead since June.

Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said yesterday that the violence was disturbing and risked destabilising the region.

He said leaders would discuss the bloodshed and potentially include a statement referring to it in their end-of-summit communique.

The Asean event will be expanded into a two-day East Asia Summit starting today that includes the leaders of the United States, China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Russia. US President Barack Obama is due to arrive in Phnom Penh today after making an his-toric visit to Myanmar.

Obama decided to make the trip to Myanmar, the first by a sitting US president, to reward and further encourage political developments by the new reform-ist government there.

However, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, which on Saturday described the Muslim Rohingya minority as victims of “genocide”, has urged Obama to pressure Myanmar’s government to stop the bloodshed.

AFP

US President Barack Obama and Thailand’s Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra at a dinner at Government House in Bangkok yesterday.

sees as the best means to continue the development and progress that’s being made there.”

White House officials have said Obama would press Myanmar’s leaders to restore calm to the western part of their country and bring instigators of ethnic violence there to justice.

After a recent meeting with senior Obama aides, rights activ-ists left satisfied that Obama wanted to push hard on human rights and political and economic reform in closed-door talks with Thein Sein and in his public remarks, including a speech.

After Myanmar, Obama will attend an East Asia summit in Cambodia as he seeks to recali-brate US economic and security

commitments to counter China’s influence at a time when America is disentangling itself from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But his attention will be divided during his travels as he faces a simmering crisis in the Gaza Strip pitting Israel against Hamas mili-tants, plus economic problems at home.

Obama, who was born in Hawaii and spent part of his youth in Indonesia, has called himself America’s first “Pacific president”.

The US administration regards Thailand as a key ally for advanc-ing the “Asia pivot” that Obama announced last year with an eye to an increasingly assertive China.

At a joint news conference with

Obama, Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra announced Thailand would join talks on deeper trade ties with the United States and other countries under the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

The TPP is a trade pact being negotiated between the United States and Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei plus, more recently, Canada and Mexico.

It aims to tear down barri-ers to trade, going further than existing bilateral and other pacts, although some in Thailand worry that its provisions could conflict with rules governing a Southeast Asian economic community to be established in 2015.

REUTERS

Asean unites against China’s sweeping maritime claimsPHNOM PENH: Southeast Asian nations displayed a rare show of unity yesterday against China’s sweeping maritime claims, calling for the first for-mal talks with Beijing over a sea dispute that has raised tensions and exposed deep divisions in the region.

As Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao

arrived in Cambodia for meet-ings with Southeast Asian lead-ers, the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) appeared determined to avoid a repeat of an embarrassing break-down of talks in July over com-peting claims in the mineral-rich South China Sea, its biggest secu-rity challenge.

Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen will tell Wen that Asean wants to begin talks on a binding Code of Conduct, aimed at reducing the chance of naval flashpoints, as soon as possible, Asean Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan told reporters.

“Prime Minister Hun Sen him-self will be discussing with the

PM of China tonight and deliv-ering this consensus on the Asean side,” Surin said.

“They would like to see the commencement of the discussion as soon as possible because this is an issue of interest, concern and worry of the international community.”

China’s assertive claims in

the South China Sea have sown deep divisions within the bloc at a time when military spending in the region is surging and the United States refocuses attention on Asia — a “pivot” that President Barack Obama will reinforce on his visit to the summit today in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh.

REUTERS

Skin cream factory sealed off in BangladeshDHAKA: Authorities in Bangladesh said yesterday they had sealed off a cosmetics fac-tory in Dhaka for using harmful chemicals including mercury in skin-lightening creams.

A mobile court that disperses instant sentences sentenced the owner of the Botanic Aroma com-pany to two years in prison and ordered the seizure of all of its products.

“They were putting the health of many young people under threat by luring them with claims about the magical skin-lightening power of their products,” magis-trate Anwar Pasha said.

He said the raid on the factory followed extensive laboratory tests on four types of creams that the company produced.

Bangladesh banned the use of mercury in skin care products in 2006.

Slum fire in Dhaka kills 11DHAKA: At least 11 people, all women and children, died in Bangladesh as a fire swept through one of the biggest slums in the capital Dhaka early yes-terday, police said.

Officials said the blaze started in a rickshaw garage as thousands of residents in the Boubazaar shanty town were sleeping.

“The victims were five women and six children. They were burnt to death,” local police chief Rafiqul Islam said from the scene.

“The fire service and the locals have brought the blaze under con-trol. Scores of people were also seriously injured,” Islam said.

AGENCIES

Sri Lanka army recruits Tamil womenCOLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s military has recruited 100 women soldiers in the big-gest single intake of ethnic Tamils from the island’s former war zone, a spokesman said yesterday.

The women, who come from the northern district of Kilinochchi where Tamil Tiger rebels had their political headquarters before they were defeated in 2009, were enlisted on Saturday.

“These women soldiers will be deployed in the same area after completing a four-month training,” Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya told AFP. “There are no former Tiger combatants among the new recruits.”

He said the Sri Lankan army already had nearly 4,000 women soldiers. “We have not discriminated on ethnic lines in recruitment,

but we focused the enlisting in Kilinochchi where we have set up a training camp and the local population there is Tamil,” Wanigasooriya said.

The new recruits will initially be asked to “assist civil-military coordination work” in the region, according to the Sri Lanka army website.

The number of minority Tamils joining the military declined during the height of fighting between troops and Tamil rebels, who cam-paigned for an independent homeland in the island’s northeast.

The guerrillas were crushed by security forces in a massive offensive in May 2009 after decades of fighting that claimed more than 100,000 lives, according to UN estimates.

AFP

12 ASIA / PHILIPPINESMONDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2012


Preparation for D-8 group meeting

Pakistani commuters travel past a portrait of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, ahead of a D-8 group of developing nations conference in Islamabad yesterday. The summit of the D-8 group of developing nations Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria and Turkey is scheduled to begin in Islamabad today.

Govt decides to put on hold two billsAccountability, fair trial bills frozenISLAMABAD: The ruling Pakistan Peoples’ Party gov-ernment will not present two expected bills — the National Accountability Commission Act and Investigation for Fair Trial Act — till the next session of parliament though it earlier was keen to get them adopted during the ongoing session.

The reason cited by sources in the law ministry is a request by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N for time to study the Investigation for Fair Trial Act and to finalise notes of dissent on the proposed account-ability law that has already been passed by a standing committee of the National Assembly.

“The decision has been made to defer the bills till the next ses-sion scheduled for December on PML-N’s request,” a minister said. The sources said the government had taken the decision in order to reciprocate the PML-N’s positive response to the two bills during meetings of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Law and Justice where it had agreed to the need for the “fair trial act”.

The committee will meet today to review the act on which the PML-N has raised some minor reservations.

According to PML-N’s member of the committee Zahid Hamid, it has completed the first reading of the draft and the opposition has told the government that it wants cer-tain amendments to the bill so that the law could not be misused. “We need further safeguards to minimise chances for the misuse of law and we have already made a number of sug-gestions, some of which are accept-able to the government,” he said.

The federal cabinet approved the act in September, arguing that it would allow investiga-tion through ‘modern techniques and devices’. The bill has become controversial amid criticism from certain quarters that it will pose a serious threat to people’s privacy by authorising the state to tap

phone calls and intercept other private communication in order to capture terrorists.

The government claims that “existing laws neither compre-hensively provide for nor specifi-cally regulate use of advanced and modern investigative techniques such as covert surveillance and human intelligence, property interference, wire tapping and communication interception that are used extensively in other countries, including the US, UK and India and are an indispensa-ble aid to law enforcement and administration of justice”.

Under the proposed law, e-mails, SMSs, phone calls and audio-visual recordings will become admissible evidence, while suspects will be held for six months after a war-rant issued by a sessions and dis-trict judge in his chambers.

A day earlier, the commit-tee approved the National Accountability Commission (NAC) Bill with minor amendments through a majority vote despite the opposition’s reservations.

Hamid said the law minis-ter had promised that the bill would not be put to the vote in the assembly till the opposition members submitted their notes of dissent. He said the ruling party had rejected almost all of their proposals, leaving no choice for them but to oppose the bill when it would be presented before the National Assembly.

The proposed law, which will repeal the Musharraf-era National Accountability Ordinance of 1999, provides for the establishment of a three-member NAC to be headed by a chairman who has been a judge of the Supreme Court or a federal government officer in basic pay scale BPS-22, a deputy chairman who has been a judge of a high court or a federal gov-ernment officer in BPS-21 and a prosecutor general who is qualified to be appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court.

IANS

Steep hike in CNG prices likely soonISLAMABAD: The reprieve provided to Pakistani energy customers by the slash in CNG prices might be coming to an end.

The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) has proposed a hike in CNG prices of up to Rs13 per kilogramme to keep CNG sta-tions operating in the country.

The Supreme Court will con-sider the proposed CNG prices plan in its hearing scheduled on Monday. In its orders issued on October 25, the Supreme Court directed CNG prices to be cut after declaring the mechanism of basing CNG prices on the price of petrol as illegal.

Ogra subsequently placed a price cut of Rs30 per kg, ending a memorandum of understand-ing between the government and the CNG Association on a formula for the operating cost of CNG stations.

Subsequently many stations shut down due to the lower prices, saying that they were not even able to pay gas utility bills.

In its report submitted to the Supreme Court on Saturday, in line with the final forensic report conducted by a consult-ant, Ogra recommended the price increase of up to Rs13 per kg for Region-1 comprising Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and the Potohar Region (Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Gujjar Khan) and Rs11.56 per kg increase in Region-2 Sindh and Punjab (excluding Potohar Region) to let CNG stations remain operational.

Presently, consumers are being charged Rs61.64 per kg in Region-1 and Rs54.16 per kg in Region-2. After the proposed increase, the price of CNG in Region-1 will rise to Rs74.64 per kg. In Region-2, the price will rise to Rs65.72 per kg.

Sources said that Ogra had rec-ommended the increase in a bid to keep CNG stations open and prevent consumers from facing hardship. According to the report, Ogra also proposed to reduce the profit margins of CNG dealers by revising the margins formula.

CNG dealers have been receiv-ing margins following the present formula that ensures a 20 per cent rate of return on the total cost of gas, including operating expenses. But the regulatory authority has said that it will be delinked with the cost. According to the report, it has proposed to link the mar-gin for dealers with investment by investors to set up CNG stations.

According to the price slash on October 25, the margin of CNG has already been reduced from Rs11 to Rs6.22 per kg. This mar-gin will be further slashed from the existing Rs6.22 to Rs3.50 per kg following the new profit

margin formula, sources added.Ogra had awarded a contract

to a chartered firm, Avais Hyder Liaquat Nauman, to conduct an audit of 11 CNG stations regard-ing how much profit they earn to determine the new pricing formula.

The audit firm was asked to submit its findings to Ogra within four days. Sources said the recom-mendations of the audit firm are close to the proposed increase in CNG prices by Ogra.

According to the break-up of the current CNG prices, the government?s tax share in Region-1 is Rs35.89 per kg, which breaks down into

Rs11.57 per kg of cross subsidy, Rs7.77 per kg sales tax at a rate of

25 per cent, Rs13.24 per kg for Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) and a sales tax on GIDC at a rate of 25 per cent, amounting to Rs3.31 per kg.

INTERNEWS

Roadside bombs kill five near Afghan borderMIRANSHAH: Roadside bombs killed a total of five people and wounded 10 yes-terday in two separate blasts in Pakistan’s lawless tribal zone near the Afghan bor-der, officials said.

One of the improvised explosive devices was planted along the route of an army convoy in the Mir Ali area 35km east of Miranshah, the main town in the North Waziristan district, they said.

“The explosion killed at least two sol-diers and injured seven others,” a security official in Miranshah said on condition of anonymity.

Another local security official con-firmed the attack and said two of some 10

to 15 vehicles in the convoy were severely damaged.

In the Shin Qamar area of the Khyber tribal region, at least three labourers were killed and three wounded Sunday in an explosion caused by a roadside bomb, said senior local official Nasir Khan.

He said the bomb went off as the labourers, who were carrying construc-tion materials on mules, passed by. Local intelligence officials also confirmed the incident.

Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt is made up of seven districts. In North Waziristan, Taliban and Al Qaeda-linked militants have carved out strongholds

used to plot attacks across the border in Afghanistan. The Al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network in North Waziristan, blamed for some of the deadliest attacks in Afghanistan, is one of the thorniest issues in relations between Islamabad and Washington.

Washington has long demanded that Pakistan take action against the Haqqanis, which the then-top US military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, last year described as a “veritable arm” of the Pakistani intel-ligence service.

Pakistan says it will act according to its own needs and priorities and not on the wishes of a foreign government.

AFP

Islamabad, Quetta most expensive cities in PakistanKARACHI: The cities of Islamabad and Quetta are turn-ing out to be the most expensive in Pakistan as they witnessed high-est rate of inflation in October, while it was lower in Peshawar as compared to the average inflation pace among the five major cities during the same month, accord-ing to the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) latest inflation figures.

The consumer price index (CPI), benchmark for inflation measure, was recorded at eight percent in Islamabad and Quetta, whereas it was at 5.3 percent in Peshawar. However, CPI inflation in Karachi and Lahore stood at 7.5 percent.

A report released by the cen-tral bank on city-wise inflation indices showed that CPI infla-tion on year-on-year basis in the federal and provincial capitals showed mix trend during October.

INTERNEWS

LAHORE: While the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N of former prime minis-ter Nawaz Sharif alleges the government has ‘virtually dropped’ its plan to launch an investigation into the Asghar Khan case after moving the court for a review, a leader of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party of President Asif Zardari has claimed that the two parties have reached an ‘understanding’ and decided to challenge the Supreme Court’s decision for their ‘mutual benefit’.

The verdict in the Asghar Khan case had landed the leaders of both the parties in hot water, he said.

PPP chief Asif Zardari faces a dilemma whether to continue with his political activities as the country’s president, while PML-N’s Sharif and his brother Shahbaz are facing charges of receiving money from the ISI to stop the PPP from coming to power in the 1990 elections.

“The PPP did not consult us before going for a review. In fact the PPP is doing so to save its own skin. The party is perturbed over the impli-cation of the verdict on the President’s political activities and also it does not want a probe into withdrawal of Rs270m from the secret fund of the Intelligence Bureau to topple Shahbaz’ Punjab

government in 2009,” PML-N Senator Pervaiz Rashid said.

He said PPP believed that the Federal Investigations Agency would not be able to estab-lish anything against the PML-N leadership in the Asghar Khan case and seeking a review meant it had almost dropped the idea of hand-ing the case to the agency.

“The PPP’s decision to move the court against the decision in fact vindicates us,” Rashid said, speculating the People’s Party might have reached ‘some understanding’ with Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik Insaf as its leader Javed Hashmi was fac-ing ‘banking transaction evidence’ of receiving money in the case.

A Punjab PPP leader, however, said that his party and PML-N had reached an understanding that none of them would benefit at the end of the day if an inquiry was initiated against some generals and politicians on the directive of the Supreme Court. “The PML-N knows the implications of FIA’s probe which the PPP may start, but some-one else (interim set-up) would conclude. By the time the court decides about the review petition in the Asghar Khan case, the tenure of the PPP-led government may be nearing completion,” he said.

INTERNEWS

Asghar case lands leaders in hot water

13PAKISTAN / AFGHANISTAN MONDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2012


Martyrdom Day observance

Sikh devotees pay their respects at the Golden Temple in Amritsar yesterday on the occasion of Martyrdom Day — Jyoti Jot Divas — of Guru Gobind Singh and Sikh warrior, Shaheed Baba Deep Singh.

Teeming crowds bid farewell to Bal ThackerayShops close for Shraddhanjali Day todayMUMBAI: A sea of human-ity poured into the streets here yesterday to bid adieu to Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray in an unprecedented and historic show of idolatry for a regional leader who was for five dec-ades the torchbearer of militant Marathi chauvinism and Hindu supremacism.

India’s entertainment and financial capital ground to a halt as 86-year-old Thackeray’s cortege slowly wound its way through jostling crowds from his home Matoshri in Bandra East to Shivaji Park, the venue of his large rallies, where the mortal remains of the demagogic leader were con-signed to the flames.

All shops and businesses remained closed for the second consecutive day yesterday. The shops had shut down voluntar-ily after Thackeray was declared dead Saturday afternoon. Shops and educational institutes across the state would also remain closed today — which shall be observed as ‘Shraddhanjali Day’.

But the rest of India remained virtually unmoved and there was business as usual with most peo-ple watching the funeral’s daylong live coverage on TV as another public spectacle.

“There were an estimated 15 to 20 lakh (about two million) peo-ple on the roads today and about three to four lakh people were present in Shivaji Park,” a senior police official said.

The short distance of seven kilometres to Shivaji Park took about seven hours as mourners surged forward for a last glimpse

of a leader, who had never con-tested an election, been out of Maharashtra only twice in his political career and yet was one of the most powerful politicians in the state.

The public cremation, telecast live nationwide, is also a first for Mumbai. His body was wrapped in the tricolour and he was cre-mated with full state honours, a gesture that did not go do well with liberal intellectuals as Thackeray was not seen to be a national leader deserving of such an honour.

Thackeray’s death after months of liver and pancreatic ailments came at 3.33pm on Saturday. His son and political heir Uddhav Thackeray performed the last rites at 6.17pm — even as the sun set on Mumbai’s skyline in the background — to the chanting of Hindu hymns, a picture of stoic calm.

He had broken down at the beginning of the funeral proces-sion but thereafter maintained composure as he acknowledged the condolences of the mourn-ers. His cousin and political rival Raj Thackeray, who had split from the Shiv Sena to form the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), stood by his side.

When Mumbai police played the final march, Raj could be seen crying. The two cousins hugged, fuelling speculation about whether the two could resolve their dif-ferences and come together — as Balasaheb, the name Thackeray was known by, would have wished.

Amidst the chanting of holy mantras, while conducting the

Uddhav Thackeray (left) performs the last rites of his father Bal Thackeray during the funeral in Mumbai yesterday.

final rites, Uddhav led Raj by his hand, implying they be together during the sad moment.

But the future of the Shiv Sena and its extreme, often violent and coercive, politics that often took anti-minority turns and staunchly supported a sons-of-the soil policy that turned local Maharashtrians, or Marathis, against people from other states who worked there, could not be determined by the emotional scene, cautioned ana-lysts. It was too early to tell what this would translate into.

Thackeray’s estranged son Jaidev was also present at Shivaji Park — the historic venue of ral-lies during the freedom struggle and of many a Shiv Sena gath-ering that Thackeray called Shiv teerth, or pilgrim spot.

Before lighting the funeral Thackeray’s personal physician

Jalil Parkar was amongst the first people to offer flowers fol-lowing which a stream of politi-cians, industrialists and showbiz personalities also paid tribute.

The gathering was reflective of the power of the posterboy of radical Hindu nationalism and regional chauvinism. Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders like L K Advani, Nitin Gadkari, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley were there of course but so were several union ministers.

The Congress’ Rajeev Shukla was there as was close friend and political rival Sharad Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party.

Besides, the chief ministers of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, the BJP’s Narendra Modi and Shivraj Singh Chauhan, as well as Maharashtra’s Prithviraj Chavan were there too.

Business tycoon Anil Ambani was also present. The glamour world, with which Thackeray had an enduring connection, was represented by old friends Lata Mangeshkar and Amitabh Bachchan, Nana Patekar, Sanjay Dutt and others.

Thackeray never hesitated to take to the streets or resort to mob violence. But, contrary to apprehensions, the funeral pro-cession was orderly and Mumbai remained calm but tense. Reports said over 50,000 policemen, including rapid action forces, were out on the streets.

Thackeray’s legacy has been a divisive one, his party all about practicing anti-migrant and anti-minority, mostly anti-Muslim, politics. With him gone, maybe things might change in this Maximum City.

THE PENINSULA

Thackeray had strong bond with his Muslim physicianMUMBAI: He was consid-ered a right-wing Hindu leader — but Shiv Sena patriarch Bal Thackeray, who died on Saturday, had full faith in a Muslim doctor, who was treat-ing him for the last four years.

One might never to able to solve the mystery as to why Thackeray trusted his family’s health on Jalil Parkar, but the meticulous chest physician ensured that the trust was never broken.

In 2009, when Thackeray had severe breathing difficulty, it was this doctor, trained in the United States, who came to his aid and over a period of time became a permanent visitor to Matoshri — the Thackeray residence.

Even as Thackeray headed a party known for its right-wing Hindu nationalist views, Parkar never complained of any religious biases. He in fact said Thackeray was one of the kindest souls he had interacted with.

It was evident from the fact that Parkar was choked up and had visibly damp eyes while he, and not a party member, announced the death of the 86-year-old Shiv Sena founder.

Party workers also acknowl-edged Parkar’s required presence at Matoshri. He was even seen sitting behind a frail Thackeray as he addressed the party’s sig-nature Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park in central Mumbai last year.

Such was the faith Thackeray had in Parkar that even party spokesperson Sanjay Raut pub-licly acknowledged it and praised Thackeray and Parkar for the bond that they shared.

Raut had said Thackeray never had any problems with a Muslim doctor leading a team of doctors treating him. “He had immense faith in Dr. Parkar,” Raut had said earlier.

IANS

Delhi calls for direct talks between Israel, PalestineNEW DELHI: India yesterday conveyed its deep concern over escalation of violence between Israel and the Palestinians in the Gaza strip and called for “direct talks” to end the ongo-ing conflict.

India asked Israel and the Palestinian Authority to find a com-prehensive solution to the conflict which broke anew on Wednesday. “We are deeply concerned at the steep escalation of violence between Israel and Palestine, focused around Gaza, that threatens the peace and security of that region,” a spokes-person of the ministry of external affairs said.

He said there was urgent need to de-escalate the situation as the region was already undergoing “turmoil”. “We urge both sides to exercise maximum restraint and avoid taking any action that may further exacerbate the situation,” the spokesperson said.

He said an emergency meeting on the Palestinian issue was held at the UN Security Council on November 14 under India’s presidency to send a strong message from the council on the need to de-escalate the situation and to immediately stop the violence.

“It is also necessary that direct talks begin without any further delay between Israel and the Palestinian Authority leading to a comprehen-sive resolution of the situation.”

IANS

CPM undecided over Trinamool’s no-confidence moveNEW DELHI: The CPM has yet not decided on the Trinamool Congress’s move to bring a no-confidence motion against the UPA government in the winter session of parlia-ment but it will push for voting on the issue of FDI in multi-brand retail, a party leader said yesterday.

“We have not decided yet ... It has not been discussed in the party,” Communist Party of

India-Marxist (CPM) leader in the Lok Sabha Basudeb Acharia said.

The winter session of parlia-ment begins on November 22.

Acharia, however, said the out-come of a no-confidence motion was likely to depend on the stance of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) — two of the parties supporting the United Progressive Alliance gov-ernment from outside.

“(We) do not know if SP, BSP will do it (vote against govern-ment),” he said.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee had Saturday announced that her party will bring a no-confidence motion against the UPA government in the winter session of parliament.

She asked all political par-ties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and her bete noire CPM, to support her

move and said party leader Sudip Bandopadhyay would move the no-confidence motion on the opening day of the session.

Acharia said voting on the gov-ernment decision to bring foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail was a must to pre-vent its implementation.

“We have given notice (for discussion) under rule 184. Voting is essential. If the reso-lution is adopted, FDI will not

be implemented,” Acharia said. The government had taken the decision to allow FDI in multi-brand retail in September this year.

The CPI-M has given notice in both houses of parliament - the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha — for discussion on the govern-ment’s decision to allow FDI in multi-brand retail under rules which entail voting.

IANS

Aviation growth to benefit small citiesNEW DELHI: Despite the current turbulence in India’s commercial aviation space, the government sees robust growth ahead if airlines reduce tariff, induct small aircraft and con-nect cities beyond metros — for which a policy will be announced soon.

“We need more connectivity to smaller cities. There is also the need to build low-cost airports at these places. This will surely encourage a growth in passenger traffic,” Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said in an exclusive interview.

“Tier-II and Tier-III cities are the ones that are showing rapid eco-nomic growth. These are the places where the aviation service must improve,” said Singh, who completes one year at the helm at Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan here next month.

According to the minister, even though India’s overall economic growth slumped to around seven percent in the past few years, the domestic commercial avia-tion business continued to log a robust growth of over 15 percent, notwithstanding a dip in the past eight months.

“As a result of this growth, India’s metros are now well con-nected. The need now is to pro-mote this kind of growth in smaller cities, and that will be our main focus,” said Singh, an alumnus of

the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur. “For this, we will soon announce a major policy for regional airlines. We have already hired a consultant for this,” said Singh, who also has a masters of science degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

The minister, who represents the Baghpat constituency in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha, said airlines must induct small air-craft that can land on short run-ways, as only 90 runways in the country can handle jet operations.

“In fact, many out of those 90 runways are non-operational. This leaves a gap — how to connect places which have shorter runways. Airlines are in touch with the manu-facturers of small aircraft that can land there,” Ajit Singh said.

The minister’s mantra for the aviation industry comes at a time when passenger traffic slipped 8.03 percent for the fifth straight month in September, due to slowing econ-omy and high operating costs.

Singh said he has already started taking steps required to address such issues. “High price of aviation turbine fuel is the biggest issue. I have already written to the petro-leum minister and I will also meet him in a couple of weeks,” said Singh, referring to a proposal to notify this fuel as a declared good.

IANS

Kerala diaspora makes beeline to citizen’s call centreKOCHI: More than 30 per-cent of the calls arriving at the Citizen’s Call Centre (CCC) facility introduced by the state government are from the Kerala diaspora, and mostly from the Middle East, according to offi-cial data.

The facility has processed 6.5 lakhs calls this year (January-November 2012), said the Kerala

State IT Mission (KSITM), which manages the centre.

Envisaged as a Government to Citizen (G2C) interface, the call centre enables quick delivery of critical information to citizens.

According to the director of the KSITM S Jayasankar Prasad, the diaspora calls are increasing and has crossed more than 30 percent.

“The call centre is meant

to clear doubts of people who wish to know the formalities for obtaining a ration card, an electricity connection, a building permit, correction of the date of birth or registering one’s name in an employment exchange, for instance,” Prasad said.

The call centre is equipped with 30 lines and a team of highly experienced and skilled executives

who address the queries of the citizens round-the-clock.

The call centre is available at 155300 (mobile users may pre-fix 0471). Networks other than BSNL may use 0471-2335523, 0471-2115054 or 0471-2115098.

The State Consumer Helpline can also be accessed through a toll free number 1800-425-1550.

IANS

14 INDIAMONDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2012


MORNING BREAK16MONDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2012


News in Numbers

Source : GCC Achievers League 2012

A 16.07%

increase in revenues has led to a rise in the gross profit figure to $130.51m in 2010 to

135.83m in 2011.

Key Finacial Highlights(All figures in US$m)

�� Gross Premiums

��

2011: Trading StatisticsMCCS ( QE )Ticker/Symbol (Exchange)

Total Volume (No of shares) 935.736

Total Value (QR) 86,180.458

Year High Close Price (08 Feb 2011) QR,114.24

Year Low Close Price (09 Aug 2011) QR,92.62

Closing Price (29 Dec 2011) QR,99.00

Net Profit

Shareholders’ Equity

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Total Assets

MANNAI CORPORATIONChairman: H E Sh. Hamad bin Abdullah bin Khalifa Al Thani

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Occupied: Italy school students lock themselves inROME: At dawn before lessons could start last week, high school pupils at the Nomentano Science School in a northern suburb of Rome slipped chains around the gates and blocked the doors with chairs taken from classrooms.

Between the ragged European Union flag and Italian tricolour over the entry they hung a new banner: a white sheet spray painted with the word “Occupied”.

With youth unemployment more than three times the national average and Prime Minister Mario Monti’s austerity policies biting into education spending, high school and university students have moved to the front of anti-government protests.

As strikes swept Europe on Wednesday, teenagers armed with makeshift riot

shields painted to look like the covers of famous books led a march of thousands through Rome. The demonstration ended in violent clashes, with riot police chasing protesters down the banks of the Tiber under clouds of teargas.

In a speech this week at Milan’s Bocconi University, where he was an economics professor before becoming prime minister, Monti expressed sym-pathy, saying young people were paying for “serious errors accumulated over the past decades”.

Nomentano is one of more than a dozen schools around Rome to be seized by students in a revolt against reforms and economic crisis cuts imposed by Monti’s technocrat government.

Student Nicholas Giordano, 18, pointed to gaping holes in the school’s outdoor

paving and its broken roofs. “There are toilets that haven’t worked for months. When it rains, in some classrooms the water comes in,” Giordano said. “We want to show the government that this is unacceptable.”

Students have been camping inside the school in sleeping bags since Monday, and said their occupation would last at least through the week.

Proposals which the CGIL union says will shave ¤182m ($232.81m) from schools’ annual budgets have become a rallying point for groups that oppose Monti from across the political spectrum, from neo-fascists to the far left.

Italy’s young people are among the hardest hit by an economy that has been dipping in and out of recession since 2008. The youth unemployment

rate is 35 percent. Italy has repeatedly cut education spending in recent years, despite allocating just 4.9 percent of gross domestic product to education accord-ing the most recent OECD figures, from 2009. Of the 31 members of the group of rich countries for which it had data, only the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia spent less.

Concern increased last week when the head of the association representing local governments said planned cuts to regional spending would force schools to extend Christmas holidays.

“We do not have the money to pay to heat the classrooms,” Antonio Saitta told a conference. For those who do find work after graduation, university has not always led to skilled jobs.

REUTERS

German singer Udo Lindenberg (left) and his partner Tine Acke arrive for the premiere of the musical ‘Rocky’ at TUI opera house in Hamburg, Germany, yesterday.

Did the shift make Petraeus vulnerable?WASHINGTON: The head of the Senate Intelligence Committee wondered yes-terday whether the transi-tion from four-star general to civilian intelligence chief may have thrown ex-CIA Director David Petraeus off his game and into an adulterous affair.

“You see the medals he has, you see the stars. One day he takes all of that off. He’s in a plain blue suit. ... There’s no entourage. There’s no driver. He gives an order at the CIA, there’s discussion, there’s flak ... and then he goes home to wash dishes,” US Senator Dianne Feinstein said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

The interviewer cautioned Feinstein that she was close to giving the former top com-mander in Afghanistan a “men behaving badly” defence.

While Feinstein said the resignation of “one of our best and our brightest,” was a “heartbreak,” she agreed the decision was the right one. But she said current expectations

of the military to make long and repeated tours of duty away from home need to be examined.

“Whether you are a private or a four-star, coming back into civilian society is difficult,” she said, adding “this is not an excuse.”

Petraeus surpr ised Washington with his resig-nation over an extra-marital affair days after President Barack Obama won a sec-ond term on November 6. Subsequent reports revealed the other woman was the retired general’s biographer, Paula Broadwell.

Attorney General Eric Holder last week defended his decision to wait to inform the White House because he had felt secure there was no national security threat.

Law enforcement officials have said that they believe the investigation into the affair is likely to end without criminal charges.

REUTERS

A student holds the chain used to close the main gate of Nomentano Science School in Rome.

Rocky duoBond takes troops in Afghanistan by surpriseLONDON: James Bond actor Daniel Craig yesterday sur-prised British servicemen at the Camp Bastion base in Afghanistan when he dropped in for a visit shortly before a screening of his new film “Skyfall”.

Craig introduced the film to the 800 troops and then toured the camp, met soldiers and hos-pital patients before firing off some machine-gun rounds at the heavy weapons range, a Ministry of Defence statement said.

“We get quite a lot of visitors here, but having James Bond was special,” said soldier Rob Ingham.

The critically-acclaimed new Bond movie swept North American box offices last week, taking in $88.4m in its first weekend of release, according to box office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

“It was great morale and the atmosphere in the tent when we were watching the film was buzz-ing,” said soldier Shane Awbery. “The film was really good too.”

AFP

Britain lost 44 million breeding birds in 50 yearsLONDON: The UK has lost more than 44 million breeding birds in less than half a century, including an average of 50 house sparrows every hour, according to a report.

Scientists estimate the number of nesting birds has plummeted from 210 million in 1966 to 166 million today. The shocking sta-tistics are contained in the State of the UK’s Birds 2012 report, published yesterday, and charting the ups and downs of the nation’s bird populations.

One of the biggest losers is the house sparrow, with a population of around 10 million — 20 million fewer than in 1966, when the first reliable all-species bird moni-toring scheme was conducted — despite numbers starting to increase in the last 10 years.

There has been a steep decline in willow tits, especially since the 1990s, with the species all but disappearing from most of the UK, and only the Midlands and Yorkshire boasting sizeable popu-lations. Lesser spotted woodpeck-ers are now too few to monitor properly, as are arctic skuas. The report estimates there could be as few as 1,500 pairs each of the three species left in the UK.

The populations of farmland bird species is now less than half what it was in 1970, according to the report, which draws on data from leading organisations including the RSPB, the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) and Birdlife International, as well as govern-ment agencies.

Experts say breeding birds have vanished from the British countryside at an average rate of one pair every minute. Changes in land use and management of the coastal waters are believed to have contributed to the losses.

GUARDIAN NEWS

Fajr (Dawn) 4:29

Shorook (Sunrise) 5:53

Zuhr (Noon) 11:19

Asr (Afternoon) 2:23

Maghrib (Sunset) 4:45

Isha (Night) 6:15

PRAYER TIME

Weather Conditions:

Humid and hazy at first becoming moderate in temperature and partly cloudy to cloudy by afternoon.

High: 29° Low: 22°

High: 28° Low: 23°

High: 27° Low: 22°

Chance of storms

Mostly sunnyMostly sunny

Today Tuesday Wednesday

SUNRISE | SUNSET

05:53 | 16:45 09:00 & 21:15 01:00 & 17:00 05-14 KT

HIGH | LOW WIND

SUN TIDE SEA

TODAY TOMORROW

HI/LO WEATHER HI/LO WEATHER

THE REGION

TODAY TOMORROW

HI/LO WEATHER HI/LO WEATHER

THE WORLD

DOHA - SUN & SEA

WEATHER

MUSCAT 29/22 Clear 29/21 Mostly sunny

MAKKAH 34/24 Mostly sunny 35/23 Clear

KUWAIT 26/17 Thunderstorms 24/16 Mostly sunny

BAHRAIN 28/23 Partly sunny 27/22 Chance of rain

SANAA 26/08 Mostly sunny 26/09 Mostly sunny

RIYADH 27/18 Chance of rain 25/13 Partly sunny

DUBAI 29/23 Chance of storms 28/22 Clear

BAGHDAD 17/11 Chance of rain 20/12 Mostly sunny

ATHENS 20/14 Rain 19/13 Chance of storms

WASHINGTON 14/05 Mostly sunny 13/07 Mostly sunny

SYDNEY 19/13 Chance of rain 22/16 Mostly sunny

LONDON 10/11 Partly sunny 12/07 Chance of rain

PARIS 12/06 Fog 12/07 Partly sunny

ISTANBUL 18/12 Mostly sunny 20/13 Partly sunny

MANILA 33/25 Mostly sunny 32/25 Partly sunny

DHAKA 30/20 Mostly sunny 20/17 Partly sunny

DELHI 26/15 Clear 25/14 Clear

ISLAMABAD 25/09 Clear 25/10 Mostly sunny

Business | 19

QInvest signs $106.7m agreement

Top honoursfor QatarExecutive

Monday 19 November 20125 Muharram 1434

Volume 17Number 5523

Price: QR2

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

Business | 18

Vodafone IndustriesQatar

Nakilat Barwa Gulf Holding Int. IslamicBank

Qatar IslamicBank

Comm. Bankof Qatar

Rayyan Bank

115,195104,696 33,065 142,954 30,594 133,967 21,6478.60268,509 707,768 26.15 75.9015.16148.90 27.60 23.40 72.50 52.00

BY SATISH KANADY

DOHA: Qatar is set to invest an estimated $13.1bn in power sector during the next eight years. Most of the investments will be in the trans-mission and distribution segments.

Qatar is one of the countries in the Gulf, where power generation has grown considerably in the last decade. Driven by high GDP growth rates and population explosion, power consump-tion in Qatar has increased by a com-pound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.3 percent between 2001 and 2011.

To keep pace with the demand, Qatar saw its total installed power capacity getting doubled in a span of just two years, from 2009 to 2011. As a result of this, reserve margin of electricity in Qatar stands at 40 per-cent despite the tremendous growth in demand. Qatar is expected to have sufficient capacity to meet the peak demand till 2017, “GCC Power 2012” released by Markaz Infrastructure Research noted.

Renewable energy in Qatar is in

early stages, various viability tests and studies were conducted, however, none have so far been converted into a live project. Though, Qatar has plans to utilise solar technologies for cooling its stadia for 2022 FIFA World Cup.

According to the report, more than a dozen projects are under execution in the transmission and distribution sector of Qatar. These projects will bring a total investment around $4bn in Qatar by 2015.

The GCC countries have been mak-ing concerted efforts toward enhanc-ing their power generation capacity to satiate the rising demand due to the growing population and economy. The power consumption across the GCC has grown at an annual rate of about 9 percent from 2002; Saudi Arabia and the UAE account for the combined 75 percent of the total GCC consumption.

The major power projects, com-pleted across the GCC during the past decade, have now commenced opera-tions; installed capacity has doubled from nearly 53,823MW in 2002 to almost 112,722MW in 2011-a CAGR

of 9 percent. The last few years saw a massive increase in capacity as sev-eral plants in Qatar and Saudi Arabia started operations. Currently, the GCC operates with a reserve margin of about 19 percent-mainly in Qatar and Abu Dhabi-43 percent and 30 per-cent respectively.

The report said with the linking of Oman to GCC power grid, the inter-connection grid is expected to bring in substantial cost savings. Saudi Arabia and Qatar are expected to be major players in selling power and has begun studying the possibility of link-ing the grid to North Africa and even to Europe. The GCC states have also begun exploring alternative sources of energy including solar power, nuclear and natural gas to boost capacity and diversify the energy mix.

Power demand is expected to grow at between 7 percent and 8 percent annually over the coming years, and the GCC countries are expected to spend $46.22bn until 2015 in order to add an additional 24,395MW of capacity.

THE PENINSULA

Qatar to invest $13.1bn in power sectorPM to open Euromoney meetDOHA: Euromoney Qatar Conference, the major event set for Qatar in December, has announced its opening day line-up of finan-cial experts from around the world.

The Prime Minister and Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani is opening the conference. H E Yousuf Hussein Kamal, Minister of Economy and Finance, will also address the audience.

Prominent figures from Qatar will partici-pate in interactive roundtables at the event. Attendees include H E Sheikh Abdullah Saoud Al-Thani, Governor of Qatar Central Bank; Ali Shareef Al Emadi, CEO of Qatar National Bank Group; and Shashank Srivastava, CEO of Qatar Financial Centre Authority.

Topics to be addressed include the new global economic paradigm in the wake of the global financial crisis, the role of capital-exporting nations like Qatar, Islamic finance and if it could have prevented the financial crisis, the role of the financial sector in Qatar’s National Vision 2030, and adapting the cur-rent real estate financing model.

International speakers will come from countries in the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia. The speakers include Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Governor, Bank Negara

Malaysia; Marek Belka, the President of the National Bank of Poland; Chedly Ayari, Governor of the Central Bank of Tunisia; and Murat Çetinkaya, the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey.

Richard Banks, Euromoney’s Regional Director, said: “We’re working hard to make this conference and its associated projects meaningful to our audience and our partners in Doha.” Euromoney’s editorial teams will also be speaking, in addition to participants such as Ibrahim Dabdoub, CEO of National Bank of Kuwait Group; Roger Jenkins, Managing Partner of BTG Pactual; Charlie Mc Creevy, the former EU Commissioner for Internal Market and Services and former Ireland Minister for Finance; and Lado Gurgenidze, the CEO of Liberty Capital and former Prime Minister of Georgia.

“Global Finance: Re-Designed,” is being co-hosted by QCB, and is being sponsored by QNB; Commercial Bank; International Bank of Qatar, J P Morgan, Masraf Al Rayan, QFC, QIB, Saxo Bank, and QFIB. The conference is the first part of a three-year programme to chart the role of nations such as Qatar in the emerging global financial system.

THE PENINSULA

18 BUSINESSMONDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2012


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DOHA: Qatar Exchange index was down 71.17 points or 0.84 percent to 8,377.32 points yes-terday from the previous closing of 8,448.49 points. Among the top losers were Qatar Insurance whose share dropped 1.49 per-cent to QR66, Qatar Electricity and Water lost 1.21 percent to QR130.80, Qatar Navigation fell 2.68 percent to QR61.70 and Vodafone Qatar was down 1.59 percent to QR8.68.

The banking and financial sector dropped 17.33 points, the Insurance sector lost 19.73 points, the industrial sector was down 7.60 points, while the serv-ices sector added 5.52 points.

Analysts had been expecting Doha’s market to rally as the year-end nears, with investors positioning for dividend payouts. But banks raising capital may deter the tradition. Doha Bank announced plans in October to increase its share capital by 50 percent in the first quarter of next year, raising about $1.6bn.

Meanwhile, regional mar-kets lost ground as investors reduced risk across the board after Israel bombed Palestinian militant targets in the Gaza Strip for a fifth day.

Egypt’s benchmark, amongst the world’s best performing markets this year, tumbled 3.3 percent to its lowest close since November 5. Egypt’s Palm Hills dropped 5.8 percent after the developer posted a net loss of 83.3m Egyptian pounds in the first nine months of the year. Citadel Capital declined 5.4 percent and Orascom Telecom slipped 3.8 percent.

“The regional picture looks bleak — unless we get some clarity on the regional political tension, as well as economic policy future in US, I don’t think we’ll see much buying momentum,” said Amer Khan, fund manager, Shuaa Asset Management.

UAE markets also fell with Dubai’s index slumping 1 per-cent to its lowest close since

September 30. Dubai’s Drake & Scull dropped 5.1 percent. The contracting firm reported a 93 percent plunge in third-quarter profit, widely missing analysts’ forecasts. Dubai Islamic Bank slipped 1 percent, while builder Arabtec and Dubai Financial Market each fell 2.5 percent.

Shares in Dubai-based Islamic mortgage provider Tamweel dropped 3.9 percent, underper-forming the property sector after fire damaged parts of the 34-sto-rey, mixed-use Tamweel Tower in Dubai. Tamweel said it would provide hotel accommodation to residents who needed it. There were no reports of casualties.

“UAE... is not at a point where bargain hunters will return. Bluechips will have to fall before people will buy on valuations,” said Khan. Abu Dhabi’s bench-mark shed 0.4 percent, down for a third session since Monday’s 16-month high.

Elsewhere, Saudi Arabia’s bourse fell to a near four-week low as banks extended losses and insurance stocks dipped. “Local investors have been and will be mainly following renewed politi-cal escalations in the Middle East as tensions rise and oil soars,” a Riyadh-based trader said.

Banks fell with Samba Financial Group and Alinma Bank closing 2.2 and 1.2 per-cent lower. The sector’s index lost 0.7 percent, while the petrochemical index shed 0.2 percent. Insurance stocks dominated trade and the sec-tor’s index fell 1.1 percent. The kingdom’s benchmark slipped 0.4 percent to 6,765 points, its lowest close since October 23.

“The index found some resist-ance at 6,950 points,” said Mohabeldeen Agena, head of tech-nical analysis at Cairo’s Beltone Financial. He said the market will move sideways between 6,700 and 6,950 in coming sessions as bulls absorb the selling pressure from the 7,200-7,500 points range.

QNA/REUTERS

DOHA: Mazaya Qatar Real Estate Development Company QSC has signed a dual-cur-rency, $106.7m 8-year syn-dicated facility to finance the development of the Sidra Village Residential Project.

QInvest acted as Financial Advisor to Mazaya Qatar Real Estate Development Company and Sole Bookrunner for the facility. Qatar Islamic Bank took the Investment Agent and Mandated Lead Arranger roles and was joined in the facility at MLA level by a group of regional financial institutions comprising ABC (Arab Banking Corporation and ABC Islamic Bank), National Bank of Abu Dhabi, and First Gulf Bank, with Ahli United Bank taking a Lead Arranger role.

Mazaya Qatar Real Estate Development Company, through its wholly owned subsidiary Qortuba Real Estate Investment LLC, is developing the Sidra Village, for the purpose of pro-viding quality accommodation facilities to the employees of the Sidra Medical and Research Center. Sidra Village Residential Project will consist of two-storey buildings, green spaces and a community club. Each building will host one-bedroom and two-bedroom units. Upon comple-tion, the project will offer 1,165 residential units.

Speaking on the occasion of the signing ceremony, Seraj Al Baker, Chief Executive Officer of Mazaya Qatar Real Estate Development Company, com-mented: “We are pleased to sign this transaction as it represents a milestone agree-ment towards the financing of one of our landmark projects, and allows Mazaya Qatar Real Estate Development Company

Qatari bourse index down 0.84 percentMost regional markets fall

QInvest signs $106.7m co-financing pactOfficials at the signing ceremony.

to establish solid relationships with a wide group of renowned financial institutions”.

Ahmad Meshari, Acting Chief Executive Officer of Qatar Islamic Bank, commented: “We are pleased to be part of such a landmark transaction, reflect-ing our strong commitment to the State of Qatar, and the confidence we have in Mazaya Qatar Real Estate Development

Company as a valued client”.Shahzad Shahbaz, Chief

Executive Officer of QInvest, said: “QInvest is honoured to have advised Mazaya Qatar Real Estate Development Company on this prestigious transaction and further the QIB Group’s solid relationship with Mazaya Qatar Real Estate Development Company.

“The success of this trans-action is a testament to the

strength of the QInvest financing franchise and ability to leverage its relationships with regional financial institutions to support Qatari clients and projects. The strong market reception of this transaction is demonstrated by the diverse group of regional banks that are participating, as well as the continued interest in participating in Qatar’s story”.

THE PENINSULA

Mazaya Qatar Real Estate Development Company, QInvest and banking officials in talks prior to the signing ceremony in Doha yesterday.

DUBAI: Emaar Properties’, revenue from apartments sales more than tripled in the third quarter, helping Dubai’s larg-est developer overcome a sharp decline in the sale of commer-cial units.

Revenue from sales of condo-miniums in the third-quarter more than tripled to Dh567m ($154.4m) from Dh183m in the same period in 2011, a detailed earnings state-ment released yesterday showed. However, revenue from sale of vil-las dropped slightly to Dh123m from Dh126m a year-ago.

Income from sale of commer-cial properties and plot sales took a major hit, generating only Dh109m compared with Dh798.4m in the prior-year period. Emaar is one of the better performers

among property companies in Dubai as the sector recovers from a roughly 60 percent drop in real estate prices from their peak in 2008. The builder of the world’s tallest tower, reported a 4.7 per-cent drop in third-quarter rev-enue in October, missing analyst’s forecasts.

Emaar launched three new real estate projects this year, with residential units generat-ing strong interest. The report also showed that Emaar is owed Dh242m by troubled mortgage affiliate Amlak, down from Dh595m in 2011. This amount earns an average interest of 1.45 percent per annum compared with 3.13 percent to 4 percent last year, Emaar said.

REUTERS

DOHA: The Board of Directors of Ahli Bank recently appointed Mahmoud Malkawi as Acting CEO. Malkawi was previously the Deputy CEO - Corporate Banking, Investment and Treasury. Before joining Ahli Bank he served Arab Banking Corporation in the capac-ity of Executive Manager for Large Companies and Head of Business Development. He joined Ahli Bank in January 2001 as Executive Manager of Corporate & Retail Credit.

Malkawi started his profes-sional career in 1978 and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting and a Diploma in Business Administration from Jordan University. Commenting on the appointment, Sheikh Faisal bin Abdul-Aziz Al Thani, Chairman of Ahli Bank, said: “Malkawi’s expe-rience and deep knowledge in the banking industry will be a substan-tial added-value to the Bank. Ahli Bank has been performing strongly in the past and the Board and I are confident that this progress will continue under his leadership”.

Mahmoud Malkawi said after assuming the position of Acting CEO: “I am very grateful to the Board of Directors for the confidence they have placed in me and this appointment is a great honour. We will continue to provide clients with superior services and products. With the continuous support of our shareholders, customers and employees and the guidance of Qatar Central Bank we hope to pursue this successful journey”.

Ahli Bank has a credit rating of A- (Stable) by Capital Intelligence. Fitch Ratings, the international credit rating agency, has also affirmed Ahli Bank’s long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ‘A-’ with ‘Stable Outlook’. Fitch Ratings has also confirmed a ‘BBB-’ rating in respect of the Bank’s financial strength and ‘F2’ for its short-term IDR.

Recently the bank was awarded the coveted “Best Commercial Bank in Qatar” by leading international finance magazine World Finance and also by Arabian Business at the prestigious Arabian Business Qatar Awards. THE PENINSULA

Mahmoud Malkawi is Ahli Bank Acting CEO

Sheikh Faisal bin Abdul-Aziz Al Thani

Mahmoud Malkawi

Emaar’s apartment sales jump in third quarter

19BUSINESS MONDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2012


DUBAI: Qatar Airways’ cor-porate jet division Qatar Executive has been honoured with the Best Business Aviation Operator of the Year 2012 award by the prestigious Middle East industry publication Aviation Business.

Qatar Executive beat stiff com-petition to pick up the coveted accolade at an awards evening in Dubai attended by leading figures from across the regional travel and aviation industry.

The Best Business Aviation Operator of the Year award is tra-ditionally given to the company that consistently delivers world-class service and excels through key achievements and solid busi-ness strategies.

Qatar Executive was recog-nised for its strong commit-ment towards offering a superior inflight experience and achieving major accomplishments such as the recent new partnership with the North American fractional jet

programme provider Flexjet and the appointment by Bombardier as an Authorised Service Facility in the Middle East.

Qatar Executive’s Executive Vice President Tilmann Gabriel received the award on behalf of Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker.

Qatar Executive will be exhibiting at the Middle East Business Aviation Show (MEBA) in Dubai where it will showcase its products and serv-ices to aviation brokers and key industry players.

Al Baker said: “Being awarded Best Business Aviation Operator of the Year is a significant achievement and proud moment for the national airline’s corporate jet arm that has been flying for just three years.

“We operate in a competitive business aviation market with impressive players across the region, so winning this award amid the quality competition out

there is a great honour and testa-ment to the hard work we have put into our corporate jet division in such a short space of time. It also clearly shows that our prod-ucts and services are fully recog-nised, demonstrating we are truly a cut above the rest.”

Qatar Airways is one of the few airlines in the world to pro-vide a private jet service as part of its premium product portfo-lio and, since its inception three years ago, Qatar Executive has evolved into a leader in exclu-sive air charter services not just regionally, but worldwide.

The company operates six wholly-owned all-Bombardier private jets – the youngest fleet of its kind in the Gulf. These include three Challenger 605s, two Global 5000s and a Global Express XRS – all featuring spacious cabins, the latter in a two-cabin configuration accom-modating up to 13 passengers.

THE PENINSULA

Aviation Business honours Qatar ExecutiveQatar Airways’ corporate jet arm bags Best Business Aviation Operator of the Year 2012 award

DOHA: Business leaders from the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) gathered in Doha yesterday to provide regional input on the recommendations of the Business World Trade Agenda, an initiative launched by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in partner-ship with Qatar Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The aim of this initiative is ultimately to drive World Trade Organization (WTO) multilat-eral trade talks out of an 11-year deadlock and “beyond Doha”. ICC and Qatar Chamber launched the initial trade recommendations in Beijing in September 2012, and are carrying out a series of glo-bal consultations to seek feedback from business leaders from all regions of the world.

ICC and Qatar Chamber are mobilising international business – representing small, medium and large enterprises that produce the goods and services traded daily throughout the world – to define a practical and forward-looking multilateral agenda for stimulat-ing the global economy.

“The ICC Business World Trade Agenda has great poten-tial benefits for economies in the Middle East and North Africa,” said Qatar Chamber and ICC Qatar Chairman, Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani. “As economies in this region continue to grow, it is becoming increasingly important for countries to diversify their export of goods and services and to further integrate themselves into the global economy.”

Business in the region is uniquely placed to recognize and identify areas where WTO rules have been overtaken by 21st century trading realities. The current economic crisis has only intensified the urgency to redefine trade rules and to har-ness the potential of new multi-lateral agreements, with a “Doha victory”.

“Governments must unblock current trade negotiations to increase international trade and investment, which are great potential engines of economic growth and job creation,” said ICC Secretary General Jean-Guy

Carrier. “In the context of the economic crisis, trade and invest-ment could unleash a debt-free stimulus to the global economy.”

ICC Business World Trade Agenda recommendations include a call on governments to conclude a stand-alone trade facilitation agreement,“multilateralise” trade liberalization, liberalise trade in services, lower barriers to trade in information technology products and services and work towards a multilateral framework on inter-national investment.

These recommendations will be developed and further refined in preparation for the World Business Summit, being hosted by Qatar Chamber on 22 April 2013, the first day of the ICC World Chambers Federation 8th World Chambers Congress.

“Qatar Chamber is proud to support the ICC Business World Trade Agenda initiative,” said Sheikh Khalifa. “Business strongly believes that advancing global trade negotiations is crucial for further economic development in this region.”

THE PENINSULA

Qatar Chamber and ICC Qatar Chairman Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani (centre) with other officials in Doha.

Doha meet provides Mena input on Business World Trade Agenda

TUNIS: Tunisia’s government will need about 7bn dinars ($4.4bn) of loans and aid next year as it proceeds with a costly plan to compensate former political prisoners freed by the 2011 revolution, Finance Minister Slim Besbes said.

His comments, made in an interview at the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit, illus-trated the financial pressures Tunisia faces as its post-revo-lution government, led by the moderate Islamist Ennahda movement, rebuilds the economy.

Industrial production and tour-ism earnings were hit hard by last year’s political turmoil, driving the state budget deep into deficit. At the same time, the government cannot ignore demands for support from the poor, thousands of former politi-cal prisoners and other groups that suffered under ousted president Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali.

“The government is also com-mitted to restoring many of the former prisoners to work, and this will cost the state a lot of money,” said Besbes, a former academic who previously served as deputy finance minister.

“The state will carry out its responsibility to provide imme-diate compensation to former prisoners who are in difficult situ-ations because of their ideology,” he added, without specifying the amount of aid required.

Besbes’ predecessor as finance minister, Hussein Dimassi, resigned in July, complaining about the cost of the compensation scheme and accusing the government of being more concerned about winning votes than about the health of public finances. “The draft law for the compensation of beneficiaries of the general amnesty is the most serious of all; it was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” a state-ment from Dimassi’s office read when he resigned.

“It will result in a very heavy expenditure for the state’s budget, considering the high number of beneficiaries and the amount of the compensation.” Tunisian news-papers said the plan might cost as much as 750m dinars. Besbes said that next year’s state budget could not escape pressures from the compensation program, as well as projects to develop less affluent regions of the country and spend-ing on social welfare for the poor.

REUTERS

PHNOM PENH: Southeast Asian nations will launch talks this week for a giant free trade pact with China, Japan, India and other neighbours aimed at easing the region’s reliance on the struggling West.

The planned zone would would span across 16 countries of the Asia-Pacific that currently account for a third of global trade and economic output, making it the biggest free trade area outside the World Trade Organization.

Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist at IHS Global Insight, described the initiative as stra-tegically very important to the Asia-Pacific as it would help offset weaknesses in the United States and the European Union.

“Fast growth in trade within the Asia Pacific region could significantly mitigate the weak growth prospects in Asia’s tradi-tional growth markets in the EU and US,” he said.

“The (pact) could provide the framework for accelerating regional trade and investment flows, reducing the dependence of East Asia on the traditional

EU and US export markets and boosting trade amongst Asian developing countries.”

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen will launch the start of negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) tomorrow in Phnom Penh on the final day of a regional summit.

The RCEP would bring together the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations with China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Asean secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan said a successful RCEP would further cement a shift in global economic power from the West towards Asia. “The trend is already here. It’s how to consoli-date. This one is going to be a big leap forward if we can make it,” he said yesterday.

Diplomats and analysts said the RCEP could also serve as a “coun-terbalance” to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), another planned free-trade grouping cur-rently being negotiated by the United States and 10 other coun-tries. AFP

SAN FRANCISCO: Smartphones and tablets powered by Google’s Android soft-ware are devouring the mobile gadget market, eating into Apple’s turf by feed-ing appetites for innovation and low prices, analysts say.

The Android operating system powered nearly three out of four smartphones shipped worldwide in the recently ended quarter as the mobile platform dominated the market, according to industry trackers at IDC.

“Android has been one of the primary growth engines of the smartphone market since it was launched in 2008,” said IDC’s mobile phones research manager Ramon Llamas. “In every year since then, Android has effectively outpaced the market and taken market share from the competition.”

In tablets, Apple’s market share has fallen to just over 50 percent from 65 percent in the second quarter as Android devices gain ground, according to IDC figures.

“Having a lot of people building a lot of things covering a lot of price points with multiple brands in multiple places makes a big difference,” said NPD Group analyst

Stephen Baker. “Variety is strength when it comes to moving units.”

Android smartphones shipments surged to 136 million, topping those in the same three-month period last year by slightly more than 90 percent, IDC reported.

Samsung’s Galaxy S3 overtook Apple’s iPhone 4S in the third quarter to give the South Korean firm the world’s best-selling smartphone model for the first time ever, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.

“The pace of innovation in Android is faster than Apple,” said Gartner vice pres-ident of mobile computing Ken Dulaney. “They are just trying harder; Apple is way behind in that area.” Android is benefit-ing from being an “open-source” platform that gadget makers use free of charge and improve as they deem fit, providing Google with insights along the way.

Apple tightly controls its products from the software to the hardware and even the online shop for music, books, games or other content. “What you get with Android is this incredible feedback loop with devel-opers, equipment makers, customers, and

designers,” Dulaney said. “At Apple, as long as they have a great vision internally it is fine but they don’t have the feedback Android does.”

Having thousands of different Android devices vying for consumers’ cash is a strength when it comes to market share but puts hardware makers into a fiercely com-petitive arena, Baker noted. “Other than Samsung, I don’t know if other Android guys are making money,” the analyst said.

Google gives Android away free, but the platform is crafted to make it easy for peo-ple to use the California Internet titan’s money-making services such as search and maps, and get content at its online Google Play shop.

Forrester analyst Charles Golvin said that forces powering Android momentum include changing demographics of smartphone buy-ers. Early adopters of smartphones focused more on new technology than on price, but the devices have gone mainstream with cost increasingly important to shoppers, accord-ing to Golvin.

AFP

Tunisia needs $4.4bn in loans, aid next year, says Minister

Asia-Pacific to launch talks on giant free trade zone

Google’s Android is eating Apple’s lunch

Zuari plans fertiliser plant in the UAEABU DHABI: Indian fertiliser maker Zuari Industries has signed a memorandum of under-standing to set up an $800m manufacturing facility in the UAE. The plant in Ras Al Khaimah will produce one million tonnes of di-ammonium phosphate fertiliser a year when it comes on stream, Zuari’s adviser on the deal, Alpen Capital, said. The plant will be Zuari’s first manufacturing facility out-side India. REUTERS

Qatar Executive’s Tilmann Gabriel receiving the award.

20 BUSINESS VIEWSMONDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2012


Wall Street: Going off ‘cliff’ with a bungee cordBY RODRIGO CAMPOS AND JONATHAN SPICER

THE 1987 crash. The Y2K bug. The debt ceiling debacle of 2011. All these events, in the end, turned

out to be buying opportunities for stocks. So will the “fiscal cliff,” some investors say as they watch favorite stocks tumble during the political give-and-take happening in Washington.

The first round of talks aimed at avoiding the “fiscal cliff” caused a temporary rise in equities on Friday, signalling Wall Street’s recent declines could be a buying opportunity. The gains were small and sentiment remains weak, but it suggests hope for market bulls.

Though shares ended mod-erately higher on Friday, it was not enough to offset losses for the week. The S&P was down 1.5 percent, while both the Dow and the Nasdaq fell 1.8 percent.

The S&P 500 is down more than 5 percent in the seven ses-sions that followed President Barack Obama’s re-election. Uncertainty arose as attention turned to Washington’s task of

dealing with mandated tax hikes and spending cuts that could take the US economy back into reces-sion. Some see the market’s move as an overreaction to hyperbolic headlines about policy gridlock in Washington, believing stocks may start to rebound in what should be a quiet few days ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday next Thursday.

“It just doesn’t seem to make any sense that you suddenly wake up the day after the election and realize we’ve got a fiscal cliff,” said Krishna Kumar, partner at New York hedge fund Goose Hollow Alpha Advisors.

Not long ago the S&P was on target for its second-best year in the last 10, riding a 17 percent advance in 2012. That’s been halved to about 8 percent, which isn’t bad but disappointing com-pared with just a month ago.

Investors have been selling the year’s winners. Apple is down 25 percent from its peak above $700. General Electric is down 14 per-cent; Google has lost 16 percent. Overall, the stocks that make up the top 10 percent of performers in the month prior to Election

Day have been the worst perform-ers since, according to Bespoke Investment Group of Harrison, New York.

“I think it’s a good opportunity to be long stocks at these levels,” said Kumar. Hikes on capital gains and dividend taxes are on the line, and Obama has dug in his heels on what he sees as a man-date to make the tax code more progressive.

He seems to have the upper hand in dealings with Congress because Republican lawmak-ers don’t want to see tax rates increase, which is what will hap-pen if no solution is found by the beginning of 2013. Republicans don’t want to take the blame for driving the economy over the cliff.

The current crisis is similar to last year’s fight to raise the US debt ceiling, which led to the downgrade of the United States’ top credit rat-ing in early August 2011. During the dealings, the S&P 500 lost 18.8 percent between its peak in July 2011 and its bottom in August. As the market slid, the political stand-off badly hurt investors’ confidence in Washington, setting off a spike in volatility.

In the end a deal was announced that raised the ceiling and put off longer-term fiscal decisions until Jan. 1, 2013, setting the stage for today’s “fiscal cliff” crisis. After staying flat through September 2011, the S&P 500 jumped 31 per-cent between its October low and the end of March.

BUY THE DIP?Gridlock in Washington and

all that could possibly go wrong with the economy if a deal is not reached have grabbed the headlines, but the negotiations leave room for stock market gains. Congressional leaders said on Friday that they will work through the Thanksgiving holiday recess to find a solution.

“The debate over how to solve (the fiscal cliff) may be more productive than is commonly recognized,” said Brad Lipsig, senior portfolio manager at UBS Financial Services in New York.

“The US is facing a major debt overhang, and serious steps toward addressing it might ulti-mately be viewed as a positive for future growth,” he said. “The market may recognise this and,

after a time of hand wringing, recover from the concerns with a renewed sense of optimism.”

The recent selling took the S&P 500’s relative strength index - a technical measure of internal strength - below 30 this week, indicating the bench-mark is oversold and due for a rebound.

The RSI in four of the 10 S&P sectors - utilities, telecoms, con-sumer staples and technology - is below 30 and the highest RSI reading, for the consumer dis-cretionary sector, is below 40, suggesting a bounce is in store.

“What I want to do is what we did during the decline fol-lowing the budget negotiations in the summer of 2011: The lower the stock market goes, the more I want to own stock,” said Brian Reynolds, chief mar-ket strategist at New York-based Rosenblatt Securities. “If we go off the cliff it will be with a bun-gee cord attached,” he said.

KEEP CALM AND HEDGE Volatility is expected to rise

through the end of November and to spike in late December if

no agreement on the fiscal cliff is reached in Congress. Alongside comes opportunity for those with high risk tolerance.

“Recently, volatility has increased in the market overall. You can’t really pick it up in the VIX yet, but I think as we get through November, I think you’re likely to see the VIX be at a rela-tively higher level,” said Bruce Zaro, chief technical strategist at Delta Global Asset Management in Boston.

In 2011, the VIX averaged 19.2 in July and 35 in August. So far this month the average is 17.8 and it is expected to spike if negotia-tions on the cliff drag into late next month.

“Looking at the range of pos-sibilities, I would say any of them would be better than sitting here waiting. I would even put going off the fiscal cliff in that category,” said Jill Cuniff, presi-dent of Seattle-based Edge Asset Management Inc, which manages about $20bn. “But we don’t believe Congress will let that happen; there’s going to be some middle ground here.”

REUTERS

BY MIKE DOLAN

THE longest losing streak on world markets since the dark-est days of the euro crisis in late 2011 shows how reluctant investors are to trust in any sustained recovery after years of crisis. Global equity indices on Friday flirted

with a record eight consecutive days in the red for the first time in a year. Do a sweep of all related risky assets around the world and there’s been a similar pattern of pullback.

And given those are the eight trading days since the U.S. elec-tion results on November 7, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out the dominant market concern of the moment.

Investors of all hues just seemed to have downed tools for the year as they await the outcome of the battle between re-elected Democrat President Barack Obama and Republican-dominated House of Representatives over how to avert the “fiscal cliff”.

If there were any doubt about the shift in dominant risks over the year, Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s latest investment funds poll this week showed 54 percent citing the impending threat of automatic US tax rises and spending cuts as the biggest global risk - more than twice those citing the euro crisis.

For the record, they swapped places in the September poll after 17 months in which euro angst was seen as the top threat. But the result of the election was exactly as most people had forecast for months, the nature of the cliff hasn’t changed an iota and the big funds nearly all expect some resolution anyhow. So, it might seem just a little odd why people waited until after the election to dump stocks. At the very least it begs yet another question about how efficient markets really are in discounting future risks. Some strategists, such as Barclays, say it was important to wait for post-election negotiating positions to be laid out and, on that basis, reckon the chances of hitting the cliff are now “non-trivial.”

But maybe the sudden funk is less rooted in Washington than it is in the edginess of year-end markets - markets that have been tossed around for two years now on a welter of crises and crisis-manage-ment but making about as much net headway as their “zig-zagging” underlying economies, to borrow this week’s phrase from Bank of England chief Mervyn King. What looked like a pretty impressive year for virtually all asset classes up to November is now in danger of wimping out as funds bank profits on their winning 2012 trades.

With a little over a month to go, Wall Street’s once double-digit year-to-date rises have shrunk to less than 8 percent, while German equity gains of more than 25 percent have slipped into the teens. Emerging market equities, which were up almost 20 percent by February, have pared back to 10 percent.

RUMP GAINSWith the rump gains still relatively punchy given the economic

backdrop, then it’s easy to see persistent temptation to cash in without any breakthrough stateside. Hard currency emerging mar-ket debt and global high-yield bonds, for example, are still up over 15 percent each. In fact, in a year driven by central bank monetary stimuli it was hard to lose money anywhere beyond a near 20 percent drop in soft commodities. So-called safe-havens are up alongside the riskier plays, with gold still up 10 percent and 10-year US Treasuries up more than 5 percent. But with the global economy still slowing and major economies in Europe and Japan flatlining or in recession, are these market moves all just monetary smoke and mirrors?

A quick check of net asset moves over the two years of both euro sovereign debt and US fiscal anxiety offers perspective. Since the end of 2010, developed market equities have actually done very little, with total returns just 3 percent. Ditto for the US dollar. Emerging market equities have done even worse, with net losses over the two years still at more than 10 percent.

The big winners are all monetary-policy sensitive or safety plays - with some 15-25 percent gains in gold, oil, US Treasuries, German bunds, corporate and emerging market debt. Gold and oil aside, other demand-driven commodities such as copper and soft commodities have been hammered by 10-30 percent.

So, how important then is the cliff or even the euro crisis if the monetary taps keep coming on at every critical juncture? Well, one way to look at this year’s moves is to watch the jump in positive surprises on U.S. economic data - as captured by Citi’s economic surprise index - even as equivalent European measures have turned down again.

But Wall Street has not followed this leading signal yet as it appears to have done routinely in the past - in fact it’s gone the opposite direction over the past fortnight. Is this then the fiscal cliff factor? Will macro data roll over if the cliff is hit? Or has a dour earnings season been swamped by all the tax uncertainty that means at least some pent-up demand will be seen come an eventual deal?

With the bulls rather than bears setting up for hibernation this winter, maybe the long-term pessimists have an answer.

REUTERS

Bulls, not bears, go into hibernation

Fiscal cliff worries marketsS

INCE the end of the US elec-tion, the US dollar index failed to make news highs despite the sharp drop in stocks. The weak-ness in currencies last week was in commodity currencies and the

Yen. Indeed, equity markets sold off heavily during the week on worries that the US pol-iticians would not be able to solve the fiscal cliff. The main game in the US remains the ongoing painfully slow negotiations between both parties while the end of the year is approaching quickly and investors continue their profit taking.

As European headlines took a backseat this week, the Euro remained resilient as European politicians continue to negoti-ate another Greek debt relief program and announced that they agreed to give Greece two more years to meet their budget deficit targets. The Euro range traded this week started Monday at a low of 1.2714, reaching a high of 1.2802 after the Greek decision however could not maintain gains to end the week at 1.2743

After starting the week on a positive note, The sterling pound dropped after Bank of England Mervin King mentioned that they had decided to freeze their main stimulus program due to the higher inflation in the UK. The pound ended the week at 1.5883.

US housing market: In a speech delivered on Thursday in Atlanta, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, said the improv-ing housing market is “far from being out of the woods.” and “Although there are good reasons to be encouraged by the recent direction of the housing market, we should not be satisfied with the progress we have seen so far.” He also noted that tighter credit standards were an appropri-ate response to the peak in house prices and Americans remain worried over the labor market, housing prices, and the economy in general, which in turn is keeping potential homebuyers on the sideline.

Expect QE3 to continue in 2013: According to Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President John Williams, the Central Bank will continue its WE3 pro-gram well into 2013 even if the economic outlook improves, as employment growth remains fragile. Additionally, Richmond Fed president reiterated similar comments this week as he mentioned that the uncer-tainty over the US fiscal policy is hold-ing back business investment and hiring, though he expects “meaningful progress” on budget issues now that the election is over.

Retail sales in the US hit: US Retail sales fell in October by the most since June, hurt by the effects of Hurricane Sandy. Retail sales dropped 0.3 percent last month, while economists had expected a smaller 0.1 per-cent decline. The data released also showed a weak consumer demand in a number of areas as retail segments, and auto dealers where sales sank 1.5 percent in October, marking the biggest drop in more than a year. Excluding the auto sector, retail sales were unchanged even though most segments

reported a drop in business. If service sta-tions were omitted, retail sales fell a sharper 0.5 percent in October.

Europe & UK

Greece’s fate: With Greece at the center of attention again this week, the European Finance ministers praised reforms taken by the country and gave them two more years to make budget cuts; a concession that is expected to require additional fund-ing of nearly ¤33bn. A German newspaper reported that Germany’s finance minister Juncker implied that the troika report on Greece was largely “positive” in tone. However, no final decision has yet been made on the payout.

Merkel added on Thursday that she expected next week’s Eurogroup/ECOFIN meeting to decide on the next steps for Greece in terms of a disbursement and debt sustainability. Greece also issued on Thursday an additional ¤937m of one and three-month T-bills, bringing the pro-ceeds from the past week’s auction to ¤5bn. Tensions however continue between Jean Claude Juncker of the EU and IMF presi-dent Lagarde on Greece’s debt-sustainabil-ity target, with Juncker saying that Greece should be given until 2022 to cut debt to 120 percent of GDP while Lagarde said that target should be by 2020.

Spain inflation: The Spanish annual infla-tion reached 3.5 percent in October, high-est rate since May 2011. The increase was attributed to the increasing prices in educa-tion, personal care services, leisure and cul-ture, food and soft drinks, many affected by the sales tax increase from 18 to 21 percent in September. If the November rate remains high, the government could face a shortfall of around ¤5bn more in order to maintain pensioners’ purchasing power.

German sentiment: German ZEW Survey, a gauge of the economic sentiment fell to -15.7 points in November, from -11.5 points registered in October. Analysts had expected an increase to -7 points, making investors worried that Germany is starting to feel the effect from the ongoing crisis.

Additionally, the country’s gross domes-tic product (GDP) rose 0.2 percent in the third quarter, beating economists’ estimates of 0.1 percent gain. The figure, however, is slightly lower than the 0.3 percent increase posted in the second quarter, which add to the concerns that the country’s activities has slowed down in the third quarter. The government also cut its growth forecast next year to 1 percent from 1.6 percent last month. Main reasons for the changes were

the ongoing euro zone debt crisis and slow-ing growth in emerging economies in Asia and Latin America.

Bank of England: In its quarterly infla-tion report, the Bank of England lowered its growth forecast but raised its inflation outlook. The bank projected annual growth of around 2 percent in two years. It also indicated that inflation is likely to be around 1.8 percent in two years’ time, slightly above Augusts’ 1.7 percent forecast. Additionally, the Bank of England governor, Mervyn King stated that the UK faces an ‘unappealing combination’ of a subdued economic recov-ery and above-target inflation.

Asia

Japan election: Japan’s finance minister Koriki Jojima said it was up to the Bank of Japan to decide whether to implement unlimited monetary easing, as the oppo-sition leader Shinzo Abe called for on Thursday. Meanwhile, Abe said in sepa-rate comments that a change to the BoJ law was a possibility in order to implement bold easing steps. Other news reports sug-gested that Abe was prepared to establish a foreign bond-buying fund composed of the Bank of Japan, the government and private investors. This move would be a significant step as it would translate in JPY weakness, and the market was currently pricing little chance of it happening.

On Friday, Japan’s government cut its economic forecasts for the fourth straight month in its monthly economic report. Japan’s economy ‘shows weakness recently due to the deceleration of the world econ-omy,’ while exports to Asian and European economies will remain sluggish

Commodities

Global gold demand subdued: Global gold demand dropped 11 percent in the three months to September from record levels seen in the same period last year. Main rea-sons cited were fading Chinese demand as its economy slowed, with Indian demand experiencing a larger fall according to the world gold council. Chinese gold consump-tion fell 8 percent in the July to September period, while bar and coin investment dropped 12 percent. Gold prices however were supported over the $1,700 level on prospect that the Fed would continue its quantitative easing program well into 2013.

Oil markets: Although tensions have been escalating in the Middle East, with reports that Israeli government may imminently begin ground operations in Gaza to neutral-ize the threat of further rocket attacks, oil prices remain subdued as investors continue to fear the repercussion from the US econ-omy falling off the Fiscal Cliff. Oil remained below the $90 level for a second week.

KUWAIT: Kuwaiti Dinar at 0.28230. The USDKWD opened at 0.28230 yester-day morning.

THE PENINSULA

Weekly Money Market Review

Previous Week Levels This Week’s Expected Range 3-Month

Currencies Open Low High Close Minimum Maximum Forward

EUR 1.2714 1.2662 1.2802 1.2743 1.2560 1.2960 1.2760

GBP 1.5984 1.5829 1.6019 1.5883 1.5700 1.6000 1.5910

JPY 79.47 79.08 81.46 81.32 79.60 82.60 81.20

CHF 0.9458 0.9403 0.9513 0.9455 0.9300 0.9600 0.9440

BRENT

$ 110.15

DUBAI

$ 107.34

QATAR EXCHANGE | DAILY TRADING REPORT | 18-11-2012

EXCHANGE RATE

GOLD & SILVERWORLD STOCK INDICES

CRUDE OIL

Buying Selling

QE Market Summary Comparison Today Previous day

18-11-2012 15-11-2012

Index 8,377.32 8,448.49

Change 71.17 17.57

% 0.84 0.21

YTD% 4.58 3.77

Volume 3,287,577 2,021,678

Value (QAR) 144,281,763.38 78,323,159.30

Trades 2,345 1,745

Up 10 | Down 28 | Unchanged 03

INDEX Day’s Close Pt Chg % Chg Year High Year Low

21MARKET MONDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2012


GOLDQR202.3285

SILVERQR 3.8366

US$ ..........................QR 3.6305 QR 3.6500

UK ...........................QR 5.7491 QR 5.8162

Euro .........................QR 4.5987 QR 4.6848

CA$ ..........................QR 3.6044 QR 3.6737

Swiss Fr ..................QR 3.8129 QR 3.8863

Yen ..........................QR 0.0451 QR 0.0460

Aus$ ........................QR 3.7225 QR 3.8170

Ind Re ......................QR 0.0651 QR 0.0666

Pak Re .....................QR 0.0377 QR 0.0384

Peso ........................QR 0.0867 QR 0.0893

SL Re .......................QR 0.0276 QR 0.0282

Taka .........................QR 0.0442 QR 0.0450

Nep Re ....................QR 0.0414 QR 0.0422

SA Rand ..................QR 0.4049 QR 0.4130

All Ordinaries 4370.612 -40.058 -0.91 4602.5 4033.4

Cac 40 Index/D 3389.17 -10.85 -0.32 3600.48 2922.26

Dj Indu Average 12570.95 -185.23 -1.45 13661.87 11231.56

Egypt Cma Gn Idx 1026.29 32.57 3.28 999.95 312.38

Hang Seng Inde/D 21108.93 -333.06 -1.55 22149.7 18056.4

Iseq Overall/D 3212.44 -20.88 -0.65 3382.77 2882.71

Karachi 100 In/D 16144.92 24.4 0.15 16292.45 10771.13

Nikkei 225 Index 8829.72 164.99 1.9 10255.15 8238.96

S&P 500 Index/D 1355.49 -19.04 -1.39 1474.51 1158.66

Straits Times/D 2945.92 -32.11 -1.08 3110.86 2657.77

Straits Times/D 2989.31 24.69 0.83 3035.78 2657.77

QE Indices SummaryQE Index 8,377.32 71.17

QE Total Return Index 11,337.54 96.32

QE All Share Index 2,020.97 14.57

QE All Share Banks & Financial Services 1,987.05 17.33

QE All Share Industrials 2,582.32 7.60

QE All Share Transportation 1,329.95 19.49

QE All Share Real Estate 1,608.22 21.84

QE All Share Insurance 1,879.93 19.73

QE All Share Telecoms 1,075.62 7.01

QE All Share Consumer Goods & Services

4,739.71 5.52

RISK adversity caused

by worries about the

outlook for global

economic growth

continues to set the

agenda for most financial mar-

kets. On-going concerns about

the US President’s ability to reach

an agreement with Congress on

how to avoid the now famous fis-

cal cliff are very much in focus.

If this issue is not resolved before

the January 1 deadline it could

trigger a return to recession -

not only in the US but across the

world. During the past week the

S&P 500 index dropped to a three-

month low and the dollar rose

against an index of currencies.

These market movements cre-

ated a lot of headwind for com-

modities with only a handful

managing a positive return dur-

ing the past week. As a result,

the DJ-UBS index keeps hover-

ing near a four-month low with

the agriculture sector, especially

grains, continuing to show weak-

ness. The energy and industrial

metals sectors showed small gains

primarily driven by natural gas

and aluminium respectively.

Brent: Middle East tensions

briefly gave crude oil a lift this

week but overall the focus remains

on the weak economic outlook and

general risk adversity that is cur-

rently driving most asset classes.

As a result Brent crude continues

to trade in its now well established

range between $105 and $112 a bar-

rel, the latter being the 200 DMA.

Likewise, we see WTI crude trad-

ing around $85 a barrel.

Natural gas spikes: US natu-

ral gas was another strongly

performing commodity. It rallied

particularly before the weekly

inventory data from the Energy

Information Administration

which showed the first decline of

the season as below-normal tem-

peratures have increased demand.

The withdrawal of 18bn cubic feet

from underground storage was

the earliest seasonal decline since

2007 compared with a five-year

average injection of 17bn cubic

feet for this particular week.

Forecasters are expecting the

coming US winter to be colder

than last year, which should help

support prices as stockpiles will be

reduced, especially during January

and February when gas consump-

tion for heating peaks. That said,

the price will likely remain within

a $3.5 to $4.25 range as coal to

gas switching would be negatively

impacted above $4.25 because nat-

ural gas needs to remain competi-

tive against US coal.

Last winter was the fourth

warmest on record and it helped

trigger the collapse in natural gas

prices earlier this year as inven-

tories were not withdrawn at the

normal speed. This raised worries

that maximum storage capacity

would be breached during this

year’s injection season from April

to November. As we all know, this

did not materialise as an unprec-

edented switch from coal to natu-

ral gas helped stabilise prices and

inventory levels.

Gold and silver up: The strong

rally following the US election

ran has run out of steam as both

metals looks for a driver to move

the price forward. Until a driver

emerges, they are both back to

being just another risky asset tak-

ing direction from weaker equity

markets and a dollar which rose to

a ten-week high against a basket

of currencies. ETF investors are

undeterred by these current head-

winds and have now taken their

total gold holding to a new record

of 2,600 tonnnes (Bloomberg).

Leveraged investors continues

to sit on the fence waiting for a

clearer picture to emerge but will

undoubtedly be keeping a close eye

on the market impact of a break

out of the current range between

$1,700 and $1,740 and ounce.

Copper: A recent improvement

in economic data out of China

together with speculation that

Japan could be considering fur-

ther means of stimulating its ailing

economy also helped copper to halt

its six-week slide. Whether this

recent price action is a sign that

we have reached a turning point

is still too early to say but traders

will be keeping an eye on trend line

support at $3.40/lb. which stands

in the way for further losses while

a move above $3.51/lb. will further

help sentiment.

Cocoa spikes: Cocoa is another

top performing commodity

despite hitting some profit tak-

ing towards the end of the week.

Two pieces of news have been

supporting the bean. Initially the

price began to recover follow-

ing reports that cocoa grinders

have increased production by the

largest amount in two years to

meet record demand for choco-

late, especially from developing

nations. Reduced supply from

West Africa could lead to the

first shortage of beans in three

years. The rally gathered pace

on Wednesday when it jumped

by $70 to 2457 USD/MT after

the President of the Ivory Coast

dissolved the government after

it rejected a bill proposing that

woman would have the same

rights as men to head a family.

Palladium: Both platinum and

palladium received a boost from

a report by Johnson Matthey, a

world leader in platinum distri-

bution. In their “Platinum 2012

Interim Review” they helped give

palladium a unilateral boost by

projecting a shortfall of 915,000

ounces for 2012 due to lower mine

supply, reduced Russian stock

sales (down to 250koz from 755koz

in 2011) and record demand auto

catalytic manufacturers.

Palladium, being part of the

platinum group metals, has a rea-

sonable strong correlation to plati-

num but also takes direction from

other precious metals such as gold

and silver. Palladium is the least

traded of the two and often suf-

fers from lack of investor interest

due to its illiquidity and ability to

trigger sharp price moves in both

directions. It remains the worst

performing metal this year as it is

down five percent compared with

plus 10 percent on platinum.

THE PENINSULA

Brent hovers, copper stabilises and palladium shinesWeekly Commodity Update

BY OLE HANSEN

(Head of Commodity Strategy,Saxo Bank)

SPORT24MONDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2012


Jimenez claims historic victoryThe 48-year-old Spaniard become the oldest player to win a European Tour title

Miguel Angel Jimenez of Spain poses with his trophy after winning the Hong Kong Open Golf tournament, yesterday.

FANLING, Hong Kong: Miguel Angel Jimenez fired a final round five-under 65 to become the oldest player to record a European Tour victory with a one-stroke triumph at the Hong Kong Open yesterday.

The Spaniard completed the tournament on 15 under par to edge out Sweden’s Fredrik Andersson Hed, who had earlier shot a 64, and secure a hat-trick of Hong Kong titles at the age of 48 years and 318 days.

Jimenez is 284 days older than Irishman Des Smyth was when he won the 2001 Madeira Islands Open and his triumph comes a week after Italy’s Matteo Manassero became the first teenager to claim a hat-trick of European Tour titles at the Singapore Open.

After also winning the Hong Kong title in 2005 and 2008, Jimenez saw off the chal-lenge of joint-overnight leader Michael Campbell when the New Zealander fired a disappointing two-over 72 to slip down into a tie for eighth.

As Jimenez gleefully accepted the Hong Kong Trophy for a third time, he refused to rule out adding further victories to his 19 European Tour triumphs.

“I hope its not the last one,” he said at the victory ceremony. “The way I am playing and handle myself I can be fit to win another one.”

Jimenez admitted the Hong Kong Golf Club, with its tree-lined

fairways, was totally suited to his shot-shaping golf game and he made only two bogeys in four rounds.

“Distance does not matter here,” he said. “I controlled the ball well and gave myself many chances for birdie which you have to do here.”

Andersson Hed chased Jimenez

all the way to the wire with two runs of three birdies on the trot as he ended the tournament with an impressive six-under-par final round.

However, there was disappoint-ment for Campbell, who had gone into the final round looking to end a winless streak stretching back to 2005 when he won the US Open and World Match Play Championship.

After opening with a birdie, Campbell’s round began to unravel when he dropped a shot at the par-five third hole and his misery was completed when he made a double-bogey after driving into trees at finding the water on the 18th.

Third place went to Australia’s Marcus Fraser after he matched Anderson Hed’s 64 to finish three shots behind the leader.

Stephen Gallacher of Scotland, Peter Lawrie of Ireland and Manassero tied for fourth place, a further shot adrift.

As the tournament was draw-ing to a close, the European Tour announced that the Hong Kong Open would not be included in the 2013 Race to Dubai schedule.

A change of date to December next year would see it as one of the first tournaments on the 2014 tour calendar.

It also emerged that American John Daly will face disciplinary action after throwing his putter across the 11th green following a double-bogey there in Friday’s second round. REUTERS

BACK ROW, FROM LEFT: Renee Woodman, Doug Thomson, Flight B winner Don Blewett, Andre Josiah, Adrian Lobley and Geoff Blewett. FRONT ROW, FROM LEFT: Valerie Dalton, Qatar Golf Lovers President PK Mathew, Manoj Megchiani and Albert Dalton pose for a picture at Doha Golf Club. Clark White and Don Blewett won Flight A and B respectively in the golf tournament organised by Qatar Golf Lovers at the Doha Golf Club. Andre Josiah won the second prize in Flight A while Geoff Blewett was runner-up in Flight B of the competition which was participated by 60 golfers.

White, Blewitt win QGL tournament

Scott holds off Poulter to win Masters

Adam Scott of Australia holds the trophy after winning the Australian Masters golf tournament played at the Kingston Heath golf course in Melbourne, yesterday.

MELBOURNE: Adam Scott donned his first Australian Masters gold winner’s jacket when he beat England’s Ian Poulter by four shots yesterday and said it made up “in a small way” for his capitulation at the British Open.

Australia’s top-ranked golfer blew a four-shot lead over the last four holes at Royal Lytham in July but said after his Masters win he had to put it quickly out of his mind.

“I had to or otherwise I could never have come back to a golf course,” Scott said after a final round 67 gave him a tournament total of 17-under 271 around Melbourne’s Kingston Heath.

Scott began the day trailing defending champion Poulter by a shot but Europe’s Ryder Cup hero could only manage a final round 72.

Scott said he was pleased he could “blow away” any negative thoughts that could have crept in from Royal Lytham once he found himself in a winning posi-tion although he realised the Australian Masters was a much smaller stage.

“I did not want to let another opportunity slip by. It was good to get back in that position and close a tournament out,” said Scott,

who in the process also won his first tournament of the year.

“Winning is a habit but win-ning a Major is all I’m out here to do and this is part of the process.

“It’s not easy to win golf tour-naments you don’t win very often. That (winning a Major) has been my focus for the last few years and I’ve always said that.

“Maybe I can get a set of these winners’ jackets. Maybe I can make it a green one (for winning the Masters at Augusta) by this time next year.”

Scott said he was thrilled to finally win an Australian Masters and an event he watched his childhood hero, Greg Norman, win on six occasions.

“I was beaten in a playoff in 2002 and 2003 so it’s nice to finally win one on my favourite Australian golf course,” he said.

Poulter said a couple of criti-cal errors cost him on the back nine holes.

Among them was what he described as “the fatal mistake” of stretching over a tap-in par putt on 17 to avoid standing on Scott’s line.

He missed and Scott led by three shots as the marquee pair walked to the last tee.

Poulter was irritated by a sug-gestion that Scott was vulnerable

Hong Kong Open Scores

HONG KONG: Leading final-round scores from the $2m UBS Hong Kong Open yesterday (par 70):

265 Miguel Angel Jimenez (ESP) 65-67-68-65

266 Fredrik Andersson Hed (SWE) 66-66-70-64

268 Marcus Fraser (AUS) 67-69-68-64

269 Matteo Manassero (ITA) 67-70-64-68, Stephen Gallacher (SCO) 68-68-68-65, Peter Lawrie (IRL) 68-68-67-66

271 Matt Kuchar (USA) 69-69-66-67

272 Pablo Larrazabal (ESP) 69-70-65-68, Michael Campbell (NZL) 67-64-69-72

273 Chris Wood (ENG) 72-70-68-63, Mark Foster (ENG) 69-68-68-68, Paul Lawrie (SCO) 69-69-67-68, Thongchai Jaidee (THA) 72-66-67-68, Anders Hansen (DEN) 69-64-70-70

European Tour South African Open Scores

Scores from the European Tour South African Open at the par-72 course yesterday in Ekurhuleni

271 Henrik Stenson (Sweden) 66 65 69 71

274 George Coetzee (South Africa) 70 70 63 71

275 Thomas Aiken (South Africa) 73 66 69 67; Martin Kaymer (Germany) 70 70 68 67

277 Charl Schwartzel (South Africa) 68 68 74 67

279 Tommy Fleetwood (Britain) 70 69 71 69; Darren Fichardt (South Africa) 68 70 68 73; Magnus Carlsson (Sweden) 68 67 68 76

Australian Masters Final Round Scores

MELBOURNE: Final round scores at the Australian Masters at Kingston Heath (par 72) in Melbourne yester-day (Australia unless stated):

271 Adam Scott 67-70-67-67

275 Ian Poulter (ENG) 67-72-64-72

279 Gareth Paddison (NZL) 71-71-69-68, Mark Brown (NZL) 72-71-67-69

282 Adam Crawford 72-76-69-65

284 Peter Senior 74-74-68-68, Michael Hendry (NZL) 67-69-79-69

286 Graeme McDowell (NIR) 71-77-67-71, David Bransdon 71-69-74-72

under pressure durign the game.“He’s the world number five.

Give the guy a bit of respect,” he snapped at reporters. “He’s just shot 10 under on the weekend around this golf course.”

Scott and Poulter said the golf they played over the last two

rounds at Kingston Heath was world class.

They had 27 birdies between over the weekend.

The two highest-ranked play-ers in the tournament finished well clear of the rest of the field in Melbourne. AFP

Stenson clinches South African Open

Sweden’s Henrik Stenson holds the winners trophy after winning the South African Open at Serengeti Golf Club in Johannesburg, yesterday.

JOHANNESBURG: Sweden’s Henrik Stenson claimed the South African Open at the Serengeti Golf and Wildlife Estate yesterday, helping him to qualify for the lucrative DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.

Heading into the event, Stenson was 59th in the Race to Dubai rankings and knew he could be in danger of missing out if he could not produce a good enough result this week.

The victory also ended a five-year drought of European Tour wins with Stenson’s last success coming back in 2007. He won on the US Tour in 2009.

Stenson had to fight off South African local George Coetzee to lift the trophy after he pushed for overall honours right up until the 15th hole of the final round.

A mistake from Coetzee handed Stenson the initiative and birdies on 16 and 17 secured the win by three shots, boosting his Race to Dubai ranking up to a much safer 45.

“It was great that I came down here,” Stenson told www.europe-antour.com.

“One of the bigger reasons was I was 59th in The Race to Dubai standings and I needed a good week,” he added after the win yesterday. REUTERS

QBL: Al Arabi trounce Al ShamalBY DANOTZKI SANTOS

DOHA: Badly hurt by the deba-cle in the hands of Al Sadd last week, Abdullah Jalloh led Al Arabi to a big 85-66 win against Al Shamal, in the Qatar Basketball League (QBL) at the Al Gharafa Indoor Arena, yesterday.

Arabi started off with a fiery 13-2 opening assault and went on to finish the first period pulling away at 27-16.

Jalloh kept the Al Arabi jug-gernaut going in the next stages of the game as they soared to a 48-32 advantage at half-time and grabbed their biggest lead at 70-45 at the end of the third period.

Al Shamal played harder in the final quarter but could only man-age to cut the deficit to 19 after 40 minutes of play.

Nevertheless, the result gives Al Arabi four wins and one loss, while Shamal slumped to their fourth defeat this season.

Meanwhile, Al Gharafa edged

Qatar SC 84-75 in the other match yesterday.

Al Gharafa led throughout the match, 24-12 in the first quar-ter, 47-29 at half-time and 68-53 entering the final period.

Leslie Lamont began to hit his stride early in the fourth quar-ter and ignited Qatar’s 12-2 run to come to within five points at 65-70.

But Al Gharafa regrouped and fought back hard enough to maintain their lead until the final buzzer.

William Brandon had an explo-sive game for Al Gharafa scoring 24 and contributing to 13 assists.

Emanuel Awako helped with 22 points and 13 rebounds. Lamont led Qatar with 28 points while Omar Seck hauled 21 rebounds and chipped in with 24 points.

League hostilities resume tomorrow as Al Gharafa return to action versus Al Ahli at 5:00 pm.

Elsewhere, Al Rayyan hope to maintain their winning streak against a resurgent El Jaish.

THE PENINSULA

A Qatar SC player (in

white) tries to score

during his team’s Qatar

Basketball League

(QBL)match against Al Gharafa

yesterday. Al Gharafa won 84-75.

In the other QBL match, Al Arabi beat Al Shamal

85-66.

25SPORT MONDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2012


Clippers brush aside BullsThe Los Angeles side records their fifth straight victory this season

LONDON: England coach Stuart Lancaster insisted a week was long enough for his side to up their game after a 20-14 defeat by Australia at Twickenham saw them again fall short against one of the world’s top sides.

Under Lancaster, England have yet to beat one of the old Tri-Nations in four matches, with this loss following two defeats and a draw away to South Africa earlier this year.

The Springboks, fresh from a 21-10 victory over Scotland, arrive at Twickenham this coming Saturday with world champions New Zealand at ‘headquarters’ on December 1.

Three Toby Flood penalties and a somewhat fortunate Manu Tuilagi try gave England, who the previous week had hammered Fiji 54-12, a scarcely deserved 14-11 half-time lead on Saturday.

But Australia, with assured full-back Berrick Barnes kicking three second-half penalties in a 10 minute spell, bounced back to prevent England scoring at all after the break.

And with wing Nick Cummins having by then scored his first Test try to end a Wallaby drought of more than three-and-a-half hours, it was a good day all-round for Australia as they recovered impressively from last week’s 33-6 thrashing by France in Paris.

England’s defeat could have a long-term impact as it means Lancaster’s men, currently fifth in the world rankings, are now unlikely to earn a top four seeding for the 2015 World Cup on home soil.

“I’m disappointed we lost but I thought Australia played a smart game and bounced back from their defeat against France last week,” said Lancaster

“There were lots of positives from our own performance but the reality is we needed to take the opportunities we created.

“They are the lessons we have to learn for South Africa next week.”

Asked if a week was long enough to put things right, a confident Lancaster replied: “Of course it is. Every game’s a new game. AFP

Goran Dragic (1) of the Phoenix Suns lays up a shot past Shane Battier (31) of the Miami Heat during their NBA game at US Airways Center in Phoenix, Arizona, yesterday.

LOS ANGELES: The Los Angeles Clippers have contin-ued their impressive opening to the NBA season, matching their best start to a year in fran-chise history by thumping the Chicago Bulls 101-80 at Staples Center yesterday.

The victory was the fifth straight for the Clippers, who were led by big man Blake Griffin’s double-double and Jamal Crawford’s prolific shooting to improve to 7-2.

Griffin scored a game high 26 points and added 10 rebounds while Crawford chimed in with 22 points of his own as the home side dominated.

“It’s about my team mates, it’s about how they space the floor and are giving me the confidence throughout the game,” Griffin told reporters.

“It was a very important win.” Having played eight of their

opening nine games at home the Clippers must now prove their worth on the road as they head

Al Malki, Al Sulaiti ready to battle in last race

NBA ResultsBoston 107 Toronto 89

Utah 83 Washington 76

Memphis 94 Charlotte 87

Dallas 103 Cleveland 95

Milwaukee 117 New Orleans 113

San Antonio 126 Denver 100

Miami 97 Phoenix 88

LA Clippers 101 Chicago 80

for a tough four-game run in five days, including contests against the San Antonio Spurs (8-2) and Oklahoma City Thunder (7-3).

The only other time in fran-chise history the Clippers won seven of their opening nine games was 2005-06 where they finished 47-35 on the year, and ended up one victory short of the Western Conference Finals.

“Yeah, we’re thrilled. But it’s early,” head coach Vinny Del Negro said.

“We’re happy but we let a cou-ple of games slip away.

“Against some of the top teams I felt we played solid basketball at times but we have to be more consistent.

“It’s early on and guys are still getting their feet under them a little bit.

“We have a tough road trip coming up and we have to handle it right. We’ll see where we are after that; it will be a good test for us.”

The Bulls, still playing with-out injured former league MVP Derrick Rose, trailed for the majority of the night and dropped to 5-4 on the season.

Carlos Boozer was the pick of the Bulls line-up with 22 points and 12 assists.

Elsewhere, Boston point guard Rajon Rondo returned from an ankle injury and handed out 20 assists as he piloted the Celtics to a 107-89 NBA victory over the

Toronto Raptors. Rondo, who missed Thursday’s loss to the Brooklyn Nets with a sprained right ankle, had the Celtics’ offense firing on all cylinders.

Jason Terry made four three-pointers en route to scoring 20

points and Paul Pierce added 19 points and six rebounds for the Celtics, who improved to 6-4.

“He’s Peyton Manning out there,” Boston’s Courtney Lee said after the match, likening Rondo to the master NFL quarterback

now with the Denver Broncos. “He’s picking the defense apart

and he’s getting the ball to guys in the right position to score. He was actually mad about the 20 assists -- he thought he could have gotten 30. REUTERS

VALENCIA: QMMF Racing Team riders Nasser Al Malki and Saeed Al Sulaiti made sig-nificant progress at the 2012 Spanish Championship in Valencia, yesterday.

Both riders who followed Anthony West’s advice, have improved their times, dropping some tenths in every lap.

In the second session the rides recorded the 18th and 24th posi-tion of the grid for the race. But the race will be a challenge with the weather conditions unknown.

Al Malki, who is in 18th posi-tion, with a time of 1min 40.793 seconds said: “Last year here it wasn’t a good experience because of the weather. This year I could try the dry conditions and I get a better feeling. This is the last round in the Spanish Championship and, I am happy because I had learned a lot and it is good for the next year.”

Al Malki believes he can go better.

He said: “I think I can go faster I do my best but I know I can do it better.”

He added: “I have to thanks West because today (yesterday) he helped me to change a little bit my style with this bike, because I didn’t get the feeling with this bike. Today (yesterday) we had done too much changes and know I feel better I can push more. I want to thanks my team, my sponsor QMMF, for giving me the chance to improve my riding

QMMF Racing Team rider Nasser Al Malki takes a bend at the 2012 Spanish Championship in Valencia, yesterday. RIGHT: Al Malki and Saeed Al Sulaiti (left) are seen in the pit stop before their qualifying sessions.

style.” Al Malki’s team-mate, Al Sulaiti is in 24th position, having recorded a time of 1min 41.913 seconds was satisfied with the qualifying.

He said: “Today (yesterday) in the first qualifying I did 1 min, 42.102 seconds and it was faster than my best lap yesterday and also in the last testing.”

He added: “I think I dropped one second in the first qualify-ing and, in the second qualifying I tried to fix some problems and change some body positions, in order to go faster in some corners where I had problems.”

After giving some thoughts on how to rectify the problems, Al Sulaiti was happy. He said: “I have been thinking about it and, in the second qualifying I did my best to fix it. Then I did a 1:41.9 and I’m very happy with the results, although in some turns when I was very focused I found some traffic and I lost time.”

He added: “Despite of that, I need to go even faster to fight with other riders.”

The rider also thanked his team and West for the advice.

He said: “I want to thanks my team for the hard work and the

setting that they achieved, also thanks to Anthony for his coach-ing. Having such a good rider teaching me, helps me a lot.”

Australian rider West, who recently claimed two back-to-back podiums in Moto2, has seen improvement from Al Sualiti.

He said: “For sure the results could be better, but looking at the riding not to the lap time or the position.”

He added: “Al Sulaiti has improved a lot from the first time I saw it until now, his movements in the bike is a hundred percent better than what it was, so he has

improve a lot but he must look to close the gap with the front. When you are looking him at the track you think he is a fast rider.”

Speaking of Al Malki, he said: “Nasser, I think that the last qualifying was better and he has to learn that it is what he should do every time he is on the bike. He has to understand the bike quicker in order to get a better set up, a few changes will make the bike better.”

He added: “Both of them are going in good direction, they have improved too much this year.”

THE PENINSULA

Qatar National Badminton coach, Manoj Sahibjan (back row, fourth right), along with other coaches pose for a picture. Sahibjan is one of the ten coaches from the GCC region who have passed the Badminton World Federation (BWF) Level 1 Coaching Course held in Bahrain recently. The nine-day basic training programme was hosted by the Bahrain Badminton and Squash Federation (BB&SF) at Sheikh Khalifa Stadium, Bahrain. Trainers, coaches and teachers from Qatar, Libya, Jordan and Saudi Arabia besides Bahrain took part in the course. Sahibjan said the course will definitely help him to develop the game at the school level and at the national level.

Badminton: Qatar coach Sahibjan passes Level 1 Course Controversial women’s duo wins China OpenSHANGHAI: Chinese women’s doubles team Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli won the China Open yes-terday in their first tournament together since being booted out of the Olympics in a playing-to-lose scandal that rocked the London Games.

The second-seeded pair bested No. 6 seeds Miyuki Maeda and Satoko Suetsuna 21-19, 14-7 after the Japanese duo retired from the match when Suetsuna indicated she could not continue due to pain in her back following a fall.

Yu called it a “good restart” for the pair.

“We have won many titles before, but we’re extremely happy with this one. It is a huge boost to our confidence,” China’s Xinhua news agency quoted her as saying.

In women’s singles, Chinese Olympic champion Li Xuerui beat Ratchanok Inthanon of Thailand 21-12, 21-9, while in the all Chinese men’s singles final top-seed Chen Long edged compatriot Wang Zhengming 21-19, 21-18.

In men’s doubles, top seeds Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen of Denmark beat Ko Sung-Hyun and Lee Yong-Dae of South Korea 21-15, 21-14.

Ko and Lee were newly matched after Lee’s former partner retired following the Olympics.

Yu and Wang were were among eight players disqualified from the 2012 Olympics this year for attempting to drop round-robin games in a bid to secure a favour-able quarter-final draw.

AFP

Lancaster vows England will improve after loss

TOKYO: Japan’s 25-22 Test win over Georgia with a 25-metre last-gasp drop goal from Kosei Ono gave their Australian coach Eddie Jones some atonement for the Wallabies’ nightmare loss to England in 2003.

Fly-half Ono’s goal three min-utes into time added on in Tbilisi on Saturday gave Japan their second win during their tour of Europe. They beat Romania 34-23 a week ago for their first-ever Test victory on the continent.

“I’ve lost one big game through a drop goal but never won one till now,” the 52-year-old Australian quipped to Kyodo News in the Georgian capital.

Before a home crowd at the 2003 rugby World Cup final in Sydney, Jones’ Wallabies bowed to England 20-17 as Jonny Wilkinson kicked a drop goal in extra-time.

“We showed plenty of courage with the ball in hand and then when we defended without the ball,” Jones said, according to the Japan Rugby Football Union website.

“The mental courage was shown by our desire to attack from our own goal line.”

Ono’s decisive drop goal and Hirotoki Onozawa’s try in time added on in the first half both came from quick tap penalties close to the Japan line.

“We were physically out-manned. They were better in the scrums and the line-outs but we still won so it is not a bad achieve-ment,” Jones said. “You have got to admire the players.”

After the two wins, the Brave Blossoms will take on a Basque select team next Wednesday and the French Barbarians four days later. AFP

Japan’s late win delights coach Jones

SPORT26MONDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2012


Southee leads New Zealand fightback

New Zealand’s Tim Southee (second left) celebrates with team-mates after taking the wicket of Sri Lanka’s Thilan Samaraweera during the second day of their first Test match in Galle, yesterday.

Jaya helps Sri Lanka gain slender leadGALLE, Sri Lanka: Mahela Jayawardene cracked an impressive 91 to lead Sri Lanka’s fightback on an absorb-ing second day of the opening Test against New Zealand in Galle yesterday.

Sri Lanka were in deep trouble at 50-5 following fast bowler Tim Southee’s three-wicket burst in the morning before posting 247 in their first innings in reply to New Zealand’s 221.

The tourists reached 35-1 in their second innings at stumps after losing hard-hitting opener Brendon McCullum, caught by Nuwan Kulasekara off left-arm spinner Rangana Herath who was pressed into the attack after three overs.

The match is evenly poised at this stage, with New Zealand nine runs ahead with as many wickets in hand.

Skipper Jayawardene and vice-captain Angelo Mathews (79) ear-lier propped up the innings with a 156-run stand for the sixth wicket.

“It’s very even at the moment. At one stage this morning it looked like we were quite away

behind the game, but a brilliant fightback by Mahela and Angelo got us right into the game,” said Sri Lanka coach Graham Ford.

“We would have been certainly happy for a bigger lead but again you can’t be greedy when you are 20-4 and 50-5. Credit to New Zealand who bowled fantastically well up front, particularly with the new ball.”

The hosts looked like gaining a big lead when they reached 206-5 but lost their last five wick-ets, including those of well-set

Jayawardene and Mathews, for 41 runs.

The tourists, who went wicket-less in the afternoon, came back strongly to take five wickets in the last session, with off-spinner Jeetan Patel striking three times to finish with 3-55.

“After a disappointing batting effort in the first innings, the bowlers had to step up and get us back into the game. It’s an inexpe-rienced bowling attack and we did an outstanding job,” said Southee, who finished with 4-46. AFP

Cook and Prior come to England’s rescue againAHMEDABAD: A brilliant 141-run partnership between skipper Alistair Cook and Matt Prior helped England wipe out the deficit and score 340 for five at the end of play on the fourth day of the first cricket Test at the Sardar Patel Stadium, in Motera, here yesterday.

Cook (batting 168) and Prior (batting 84) led England’s fight-back as the visitors took a 10-run lead.

England looked headed for an innings defeat when the pair met with the score on 199 for five. Both batted patiently, manag-ing to negate any threat from India’s spin twin Pragyan Ojha (2/102) and Ravichandran Ashwin (0/104) -- the later going wicket-less in the day.

The pitch slowed down fur-ther with the ball taking very slow turn and giving the batsmen ample opportunity to play late.

Ashwin was not patient enough and tried too hard to get a wicket -- though the lanky spinner bowled in good areas, beating the bat on more than one occasion.

The visitors lost Ian Bell (22) and Samit Patel (0) in post-lunch session, both departing on suc-cessive balls off speedster Umesh Yadav (2/60).

Following-on after India had bowled them out for 191 in the

first innings, England put on a much better show in the second.

Pragyan Ojha (2/102) and Zaheer Khan (1/38) struck for India in the morning session.

England, who resumed the day at 111 for none, lost Nick Compton (37), Jonathan Trott (17) and Kevin Pietersen (2).

Compton was the first to go, adding only five more runs to his overnight score. Zaheer took his second wicket of the match and his first in the second innings, trapping the 29-year-old plumb in front of the wicket.

Trott was coaxed by an Ojha ball that spun viciously and bounced and was caught behind by India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Pietersen’s woeful form against the spinners continued as he once again fell to the guile of Ojha. Pietersen walked too far across the stumps and tried to sweep a full ball only to be castled.

Ojha continued his dream run in the Test taking his wicket-tally to seven in the match even as Ashwin failed to make an impact.

IANS

India (I innings): .................... 521/8 declEngland (I innings): .......................... 191England (II innings):A Cook (batting) ................................... 168N Compton lbw Khan ..............................37J Trott c Dhoni b Ojha ..............................17K Pietersen b Ojha ....................................2I Bell lbw Yadav .......................................22S Patel lbw Yadav .....................................0M Prior (batting) ......................................84Extras (B-4, LB-6) ...................................10Total (for 5 wkts) ............................... 340To bat: SCJ Broad, TT Bresnan, GP Swann, JM Anderson.Fall of wickets: 1-123 , 2-156, 3-160, 4-199, 5-199.Bowling: U T Yadav 19-1-60-2; P P Ojha 44-13-102-2; R Ashwin 41-9-104-0; V Se-hwag 1-0-1-0; Z Khan 18-3-38-1; S R Ten-dulkar 1-0-8-0; Yuvraj Singh 4-0-17-0.

Scoreboard

Proteas’ bowlers must do better: De Villiers ADELAIDE, Australia: South Africa have learned lessons from the drawn first Test and are looking for their star bowl-ers to lead the way in this week’s Adelaide Test, wicketkeeper AB de Villiers said yesterday.

The Proteas salvaged a draw under pressure by batting out 68 overs to finish the final day of the Brisbane series-opener on 166 for five, after trailing by 115 runs in the first innings.

“The bowlers can improve and they know they can,” de Villiers told reporters.

“We had our chances, we had opportunities and we just didn’t take them. There were a lot of edges and a lot of 50-50 chances didn’t go our way.”

The 78-Test veteran lamented South Africa’s inability to press their advantage home after hav-ing Australia struggling at 40 for three in the first innings, only for the hosts to reach 565 for five declared.

“When we had them three down early on, I thought there was an opportunity to really run through the batting line-up,” de

Villiers said. “We still created chances... we just didn’t take them, which is a bit of a worry.

“But at the end of the day you’re not always going to bowl a team out for 150, 200, you some-times have to work hard. We beat the bat a hell of a lot... it looks pretty but it’s not effective.

“For a really good bowling attack to beat the bat that much but not get the results is disap-pointing, but what can you do, it’s millimetres we’re talking about.

“But I believe we will improve in this Test match, we have learnt a lot of lessons.”

De Villiers said he had no prob-lems with his troublesome back which flared up before setting off on the Australian tour.

“I felt really good in the first Test match, obviously I spent quite a bit of time on the field,” de Villiers said.

“They put us out in the field for quite a few hours and my body did really well to go through that and I think it did me extremely well, to test it out and to see where I am at at the moment.”

AFP

Sri Lanka’s captain Mahela Jayawardene reacts as he walks off the field after his dismissal during the second day of the first Test against New Zealand in Galle, yesterday.

New Zealand (I innings): .....................221Sri Lanka ( Iinnings):Paranavitana b Southee ..............................0Karunaratne lbw Southee ............................0Randiv c Guptill b Southee ...........................9Sangakkara c McCullum b Boult ..................5 M Jayawardene c van Wyk b Patel .............91Samaraweera lbw Southee ........................17Mathews c van Wyk b Franklin ...................79P Jayawardene c Bracewell b Patel ..............4Kulasekara c&b Patel ..................................8Herath (not out) ........................................11Eranga c Bracewell b Boult ..........................4Extras (B-9, LB-8, NB-2) ...........................19

Total (all out) ........................................247Fall of wickets: 1-2 2-9 3-18 4-20 5-50 6-206 7-215 8-229 9-242 10-247.Bowling: Boult 16.2-3-46-2 (nb-2), Southee 18-4-46-4, Bracewell 16-1-67-0, Franklin 7-2-16-1, Patel 23-7-55-3.New Zealand (II innings):Guptill (batting) .........................................13McCullum c Kulasekara b Herath ...............13Williamson (batting) ....................................9Total (for 1 wkt) .....................................35Fall of wicket: 1-18.Bowling: Kulasekara 4-0-17-0, Eranga 1-0-4-0, Herath 4-0-13-1, Randiv 1-0-1-0.

Scoreboard

Don’t write off Nuerburgring for 2013: OwnerFRANKFURT: The owner of Germany’s Nuerburgring motor racing track has said the popu-lar Formula One venue could still host the German Grand Prix next year despite uncer-tainty linked to the track’s insolvency.

The current operator NAG, which has leased the facili-ties from the owner, is in talks with F1 commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone to secure the race and keep him from awarding the July event to Hockenheim - which alternates each year with its rival.

“If the issue over whether there will be a Formula One race at Nuerburgring in 2013 is sorted out by year-end, that would still be early enough,” Thomas Schmidt, the managing director of track owner Nuerburgring GmbH, said.

Nuerburgring GmbH - 90 percent owned by the German regional state where the track is based - ran into financial trou-ble amid a dispute with operator NAG over leasing fees.

The German state of Rhineland-Palatinate has sought to restructure the company with the help of a bridge financ-ing package but EU competition regulators in August stepped up their investigation into state aid.

The state is under pressure to make the track pay after pouring millions of euros into a racing-themed amusement park there.

Nuerburgring, located in a rural area about 120 km north-west of Frankfurt, is adjacent to the famous Nordschleife circuit.

That track, dubbed “the Green

Hell”, holds allure for F1 drivers and viewers alike and it was the scene of the 1976 fiery crash of then reigning world champion Niki Lauda, which almost killed the Austrian.

It is also used by automakers including BMW and Toyota to test cars and amateur racers pay to take their sports cars on laps around the dangerous but exhila-rating circuit.

Nuerburgring managing director Schmidt, who runs the company with an insolvency administrator, said he had met with Ecclestone in London, “but only to get to know one another”.

NAG, owned by hotelier Joerg Lindner and real estate investor Kai Richter, for now remains at the negotiation table with the F1 supremo.

Even though Schmidt is relying on NAG’s fortune to secure the race, he is fighting for NAG’s lease to expire by year-end.

Apart from the spat over the lease payments, he is keen for NAG to cede the operating licence because NAG itself plans to bid for the track when it is put up for auction in February or March and that could be seen as an unfair advantage in the bidding.

“We have to sell the Ring in a pan-European, transparent and discrimination-free auction. Otherwise the buyer could face EU demands for repayment of subsidies,” Schmidt said.

But the two quarrelling par-ties will put their differences aside when it comes to persuad-ing Ecclestone.

Boxing: Viloria stops Marquez to unify flyweight titlesLOS ANGELES: Brian Viloria stopped Hernan Marquez in the 10th round yesterday to add Marquez’s World Boxing Association flyweight world title to his own World Boxing Organisation belt.

Filipino-American Viloria knocked down Marquez with a right late in round one and con-tinued to dominate the early rounds. Mexico’s Marquez came alive in the fifth, unleashing a bat-tery of blows, but Viloria weath-ered the storm and sent Marquez to the canvas again.

“I knew it looked bad but I wasn’t hurt,” Viloria said.

“I knew he was going to get tired.”

When Viloria sent Marquez down a third time in the 10th with a left to the head, Marquez’s cor-ner threw in the towel and the referee stopped the bout at 1:01 of the round.

“I think my left hook was too fast for him,” said Viloria, who had won the WBO title with a victory over Julio Cesar Miranda in July 2011. Viloria, coming off a technical knockout victory over Mexico’s Omar Romero in the Philippines on May 13, stretched his winning streak to six fights since a defeat to Carlos Tamara in 2010. He took his record to 32-3 with 19 wins inside the distance, while Marquez fell to 34-3 with 25 knockouts. AFP

Spanish Formula One driver Fernando Alonso of Scuderia Ferrari during the third training session at the Circuit of the Americas, in Austin, Texas , USA, yesterday.

“We have agreed with NAG to plan for 2013 regardless of our dispute. Next year is shap-ing up to be a good year for the Nuerburgring,” Schmidt said.

Germany’s Formula world champion Sebastian Vettel has yet to win his home grand prix and was stripped of second place at Hockenheim this year

for an overtaking infringement. Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso will start the United States Grand Prix from seventh on the grid, and on the cleaner side of the cir-cuit, after his Ferrari team made a strategic decision to break the seal on Felipe Massa’s gearbox.

As a result Brazilian Massa, who had out-qualifed his Spanish

team-mate, was handed a five place penalty that drops him from sixth to 11th.

The team admitted it was a pragmatic decision taken in Alonso’s best interests because it gives him an improved chance of catching Vettel, who starts the race from pole position.

AGENCIES

27SPORT MONDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2012


Eljaish crush Al Arabi 3-0QSL: Soria on scoresheet as Lekhwiya beat Qatar SC; Umm Salal winDOHA: Wagner Ribeiro scored two goals as Eljaish cruised to a 3-0 victory over Al Arabi in the Qatar Stars League (QSL) yesterday.

In other QSL matches, Umm Salal beat Al Sailiyah 3-2 in a thrilling match at Ahmed Bin Ali Stadium.

Also, defending champions Lekhwiya beat Qatar SC 2-0.

Eljaish’s coach Razvan Lucescu did not have to wait long for his team to score.

In the eighth minute, Martins Adriano converted a penalty, after being fouled by an Al Arabi defender, who received a yellow card.

The Eljaish striker calmly struck the ball in the bottom right hand corner, sending Al Arabi’s goalkeeper Masoud Zareie the wrong way.

The home side continued to press forward, creating numer-ous chances.

In the 26th minute, Eljaish midfielder Ribeiro doubled his team’s lead with a glorious right-footed shot from the edge of the penalty area.

Receiving a short pass from his team-mate, the Brazilian struck the ball which gave Zareie no chance of saving.

Al Arabi tried to get back into the game, but Lucescu’s side was winning the battle in midfield. Five minutes from half-time, Adriano nearly got his second goal of the game.

Beating his opponent with pace and strength, the striker lashed a low shot that was was brilliantly saved by Zareie. The goalkeeper got his fingertips and deflected the ball onto the post.

However, three minutes later, Zareie had to pick up the ball again from the net, as Eljaish made it 3-0.

With some good foot-work from

Mohammed Ali (left) of Lekhwiya attempts to pass the ball despite the challenge of his Qatar SC opponent during their Qatar Stars League (QSL) match at Thani Bin Jassim Stadium, yesterday. RIGHT: Sebastian Soria celebrates after scoring the first goal in the 1-0 win against Qatar SC at the same venue. Three more QSL matches take place today. Al Gharafa vs Al Khor, Al Sadd vs Al Wakrah and Al Kharaitiyat vs Al Rayyan.

Mossaab El Hassan, the mid-fielder passed the ball to Ribeiro who slotted the ball past Zareie.

The goal piled on more mis-ery for Al Arabi coach Hassan Shehata who took over earlier this season.

In stoppage time, Ribeiro nearly grabbed his hat-trick, when Eljaish took advantage of an counter attack, and the midfielder slotted the ball past the Zareie. However, his celebrations were short lived, when the lines-man raised his flag for off-side.

As Eljaish continued to domi-nate in the second half, Al Arabi had no answer, losing the midfield battle.

In the 60th minute, Adriano nearly scored his second of the game, but Al Arabi defender Mabolo Baba Ketia intervened to keep the score to 3-0.

Despite Eljaish’s dominance, they were unable to add to their tally, thanks to the brilliant saves by Zareie.

Elsewhere, Lekhwiya won their fourth match in QSL this

season with goals from Sebastian Soria and Nam Tae-Hee. Soria, who scored the winning goal for Qatar in their World Cup qualifier against Lebanon on Wednesday, opened the proceedings in the first half.

South Korea’s Tae-Hee doubled to lead in the second half. The defending champions, coached by Eric Gerets have 13 points.

In other QSL action, Umm Salal’s Otman Elassaras scored two goals to help his side win 3-2.

THE PENINSULA

Lyon’s Argentinian forward Lisandro Lopez scores a goal during the French L1 football match against Stade de Reims, at the Gerland Stadium in Lyon, central-eastern France, yesterday.

Messi scores twice as Barcelona march on

Lyon go top with victory over Reims PARIS: Lyon moved provision-ally out in front in the French league title race yesterday after a 3-0 home win over promoted Reims and after previous lead-ers Paris Saint Germain had slumped Saturday to a home loss to nine-man Rennes.

An Anthony Weber own goal on the stroke of half-time set Lyon, who won all of their seven league crowns consecutively between 2002 and 2008, on their way and Bafetimbi Gomis, who struck the winner for France in midweek in their friendly away to Italy, hit the clincher with 17 minutes remaining.

Argentinian striker Lisandro added the gloss with the third in the final minute with his fifth goal of the campaign.

The three points moved Lyon provisionally two points clear of PSG, who were lethergic in the extreme on Saturday in bowing 2-1 to a Rennes side who had Benoit Costil and Cameroon mid-fielder Jean II Makoun dismissed in quick succession but who held on after Julien Feret’s freekick before the reak proved to be the winner.

PSG were miss ing

QSL Fixturesand Results

Yesterday’s Results

Eljaish 3 Al Arabi 0

Lekhwiya 2 Qatar SC 0

Umm Salal 3 Al Sailiyah 2

Today’s Fixtures

Al Gharafa vs Al Khor (4:00pm)

Al Sadd vs Al Wakrah (6:30pm)

AL Kharaitiyat vs Al Rayyan (6:30pm)

Spanish League Results

Real Madrid 5 Athletic Bilbao 1

Barcelona 3 Real Zaragoza 1

Osasuna 0 Malaga 0

Valencia 2 Espanyol 1

Playing today

Real Sociedad vs Rayo Vallecano

Barcelona’s forward Pedro Rodriguez (left) congratulates his team-mate Argentinian forward Lionel Messi after scoring against Real Zaragoza at the Camp Nou Stadium in Barcelona late on Saturday.

MADRID: Barcelona pulled six points clear of Atletico Madrid at the top of La Liga when Lionel Messi netted his seventh double of the campaign and set up Alex Song to open his account for the club in a 3-1 success at home to Real Zaragoza late on Saturday.

World Player of the Year Messi took his league tally for the sea-son to 17 with a pair of beautifully executed finishes as unbeaten Barca moved on to 34 points from 12 matches.

Atletico have 28 points ahead of their game at Granada, while third-placed Real Madrid closed to within two of their city rivals when they crushed visiting Athletic Bilbao 5-1 in Saturday’s late kickoff.

After Jon Aurtenetxe’s early own goal, Karim Benzema, Sergio Ramos, Mesut Ozil and Sami Khedira were on target for Real as Jose Mourinho’s side continued their recovery from a poor start to their title defence with a sev-enth win in eight games.

Real have now put 19 goals past Bilbao in their last four league meetings at the Bernabeu and the big surprise of the night was that Cristiano Ronaldo failed to add to his 12 La Liga goals this term.

The former Manchester United forward returned to action after suffering a gash above his left eye in last weekend’s 2-1 win at Levante that forced his with-drawal from the Portugal squad to play in Gabon midweek.

Messi, who also netted a hat-trick at Deportivo Coruna last month, opened the scoring in the 16th minute at the Nou Camp when he picked up Jordi Alba’s

pass and clipped the ball into the bottom corner.

Zaragoza, who haven’t won at Barca in almost half a century, pulled a goal back eight minutes later when a Francisco Montanes shot took a slight deflection off Carles Puyol, back in central defence after injury, and flew past Victor Valdes.

Cameroon midfielder Song, who joined from Arsenal in the close season, thumped a Messi pullback through a crowd of players into the net to restore Barca’s lead in the 28th minute and Messi curled in his second to kill off the game on the hour.

It was his 78th goal of 2012 for club and country - 66 for Barca and 12 for Argentina - and he is closing in on the record for a cal-endar year of 85 set by German Gerd Mueller in 1972.

Barca, who play at Spartak Moscow in the Champions League tomorrow, have dropped points only once in La Liga this term, a 2-2 draw at home to Real.

Saturday’s win means new coach Tito Vilanova, who took

over from Pep Guardiola at the end of last season, is the first to lead a side to 11 wins in their opening 12 La Liga matches since Radomir Antic achieved the feat with Real in 1991-92.

“The players made a big effort and you noticed they were tired after long trips to play with their national teams,” Vilanova told a news conference.

“Leo is decisive and the great teams have great players, but he doesn’t win games on his own,” he added of Messi.

Malaga extended their winless run in La Liga to three matches when they were held to a 0-0 draw at struggling Osasuna.

Manuel Pellegrini’s side, who are through to the last 16 of the Champions League with two games to spare, stay fourth on 19 points but Real Betis and Levante can climb above them on Sunday with wins at Sevilla and Deportivo Coruna respectively.

Roberto Soldado’s 89th-minute penalty gave erratic Valencia a much-needed 2-1 success at home to Espanyol. REUTERS

suspended Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic but coach Carlo Ancelotti, whose side have now dropped eight points from their past three games, said there could be no excuses.

“It’s incredible - we didn’t have a good attitude out there. Something will change - the atti-tude of the players will change. I am very annoyed,” said the Italian.

Yesterday, brought reports that the capital club, may be ready to jettison Javier Pastore, bought for 40m euros but who is woefully short of form. AFP

GUANGZHOU, China: Marcello Lippi has completed a league and cup double after Guangzhou Evergrande beat Guizhou Renhe yesterday to win the Chinese FA Cup.

After drawing the first leg 1-1 in Guizhou, Chinese Super League side Guangzhou won the second leg 4-2 at a packed Tianhe Stadium in their home city, a result which saw Lippi win only his second honour outside his native Italy.

Lippi opened his overseas’ hon-ours account after winning the Chinese domestic league title with Guangzhou two weeks ago, hav-ing joined it as coach in a multi-million dollar deal in May.

He coached Italy to the 2006 World Cup championship.

Guangzhou opened the scoring in the first minute, thanks to a stunning overhead kick by former Borussia Dortmund striker Lucas Barrios.

Chinese national team defender Zhang Linpeng added a second for Guangzhou just before half-time.

In the second half Spanish striker Rafa Jorda pulled one back for Guizhou, but Barrios again scored in the 65th minute to make it 3-1 to Guangzhou.

In an action-packed cli-max, Dario Conca scored to put Guangzhou 4-1 up in the 90th minute, before Rao Weihui secured a consolation goal in the dying seconds to make the final score 4-2.

Guangzhou won the cup 5-3 on aggregate.

Despite their defeat, Guizhou Renhe -- who have been linked with Chelsea’s and England mid-fielder Frank Lampard in recent weeks -- qualify for next year’s Asian Champion’s League by virtue of finishing fourth in the Chinese Super League. AFP

Lippi seals league, cup double at Guangzhou

PSG are not a team yet, says coach AncellotiPARIS: Paris St Germain have a lot of work ahead of them to play as a team rather than just a collection of players, coach Carlo Ancelotti said after the Ligue 1 leaders slumped to a 2-1 defeat against Stade Rennes late on Saturday.

PSG, suffered their second straight home loss despite the visitors being reduced to nine men early in the second half.

The megarich capital club, who have not won in their last three league games, had numerous chances to score but they wasted good positions by preferring to shoot rather than pass to team mates.

“I am here to build a team, which we are not yet,” the Italian coach told a news conference.

“It is not acceptable to play like we did tonight. It is not accept-able to lose two home games in a row. Some things will change for the next games,” he added.

“It is a huge disappointment. We are not a solid team yet, we do not have a good attitude. Our problem was psychological. Some things will change.” AFP

Ronaldo is now unbuyable, says boss Ferguson

LONDON: Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson has admitted he would be happy for Cristiano Ronaldo to return to the club but believes the Portuguese forward is now “unbuyable”.

Ronaldo remains a popular fig-ure at United, but Ferguson con-cedes it is unlikely the 27-year-old will ever return.

Ferguson said: “I’d like to think it would be, but I don’t think it will happen.

“You’re talking about incred-ible amounts of money now. What would you think his value would be? He’s definitely unbuyable,” the Manchester United coach said to reporters. AFP

French League ResultsYesterday

Nice 1 Toulouse 0

Lyon 3 Reims 0

Saturday

Paris SG 1 Rennes 2

Ajaccio 0 Sochaux 1

Evian 2 Saint-Etienne 2

Troyes 3 Nancy 3

Brest 3 Bastia 0

Valenciennes 1 Montpellier 1

Friday

Lorient 2 Lille 0

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Czech Republic win Davis Cup Stepanek stuns Spain’s Almagro in decisive rubber to give Czechs a rare doublePRAGUE: The Czech Republic won the Davis Cup after Radek Stepanek stunned Spain’s Nicolas Almagro in the decisive rubber of the 100th final here yesterday.

Stepanek, the world number 37, beat 11th-ranked Almagro 6-4, 7-6 (7/0), 3-6, 6-3 in three hours and 52 minutes in a clash of the teams’ number-two players on the hardcourt of Prague’s O2 Arena.

The Czech Republic lifted their first Davis Cup since gain-ing independence following a 1993 split with Slovakia. The former Czechoslovakia won the trophy in 1980.

The victory has also handed the Czechs a rare team double after their women lifted the Fed Cup here two weeks ago -- a feat last achieved by the United States in 1990.

“It’s amazing, we’ve written history here in our country,” a jubilant Stepanek said after the game.

“I cannot describe what I’m feeling right now,” added the 33-year-old.

“There are no words to say. Undescribable. This is the best thing that can be,” said Tomas Berdych, his teammate.

In yesterday’s key rubber, a wild home crowd of more than 14,000 fans was all that Stepanek needed to shake off the fatigue from Friday’s singles and Saturday’s doubles.

His game against a rested Almagro went with serve until Stepanek capitalised on a single set point to break the Spaniard for a 6-4 win in the first set.

“I came on the court with a mindset that I have to stay calm, hungry, motivated, concentrated, and always know what I’m doing. And that’s what I did,” Stepanek said.

The crowd got even louder as Stepanek, combining patience with aggressivity, pulled off a series of winning volleys as he came back from 4-2 down in the second set.

He failed to convert four set points but then thrashed Almagro 7-0 in the tiebreak.

“I played very aggressive today, I didn’t want to leave anything behind, I wanted to be the one who is active, who is controlling the game,” Stepanek said.

Almagro fought back and held on to his serve to take the third set.

But Stepanek, red hot and pro-pelled by the crowd, refused to bow and took the fourth and deci-sive set after breaking Almagro’s serve once again.

In yesterday’s first match, Spain’s David Ferrer beat Berdych in straight sets.

Ferrer, the world number five, needed just two hours and 25 minutes to see off sixth-ranked Berdych 6-2, 6-3, 7-5.

The 27-year-old Berdych got off

Fulham’s Bulgarian forward Dimitar Berbatov (right) vies for the ball with Sunderland’s Swedish midfielder Sebastian Larsson during the English Premier League football match at Craven Cottage in London, yesterday. Sunderland ended a run of five games without victory by overcoming 10-man Fulham 3-1.

Lee nominated for Asia player of the yearKUALA LUMPUR: Ulsan Hyundai’s Lee Keun-Ho and four others will vie for the Asian player of the year award, the Asian Football Confederation announced yesterday.

Iran’s Ali Karimi, the 2004 AFC player of the year, and the Iran national team’s Mohsen Bengar are also among those nominated, Asian football’s governing body said in a statement.

The other two are Socceroo defender Lucas Neill of Australia and Guangzhou Evergrande’s defender Zheng Zhi of China.

Lee, a winger for South Korea’s national team, helped Ulsan Hyundai win the AFC Champions League for the first time this year.

The women’s player of the year award will go to a Japanese, with all three nominees coming from the Japan national team.

They are captain Homare Sawa, last year’s winner Aya Miyama and Nadeshiko striker Yuki Ogimi. Sawa won the FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year award last year.

For Asian international player of the year -- a new category -- nominations went to Fulham’s goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer of Australia, Manchester United’s Japanese midfielder Shinji Kagawa and Inter Milan’s defender Yuto Nagatomo, also from Japan. AFP

Sunderland find scoring touch to beat Fulham LONDON: Sunderland reg-istered their first Premier League away win since February and ended a run of five games without victory by overcoming 10-man Fulham 3-1 yesterday.

Brede Hangeland was sent off for Fulham after half an hour, but although Steven Fletcher’s opener for the visitors was can-celled out by Mladen Petric, goals from Carlos Cuellar and Stephane Sessegnon gave Sunderland the win.

With 10 goals to their name, Martin O’Neill’s side are no longer the lowest-scoring team out of England’s 92 league clubs.

Victory lifted the Black Cats above Wigan Athletic into 15th place, three points above the rele-gation zone, while Fulham remain ninth.

Dimitar Berbatov headed wide from Damien Duff ’s cross after five minutes at Craven Cottage, but the first half was a sleepy affair until Hangeland was sent off by referee Lee Probert.

The Norwegian was shown a straight red card for jumping in two-footed on Lee Cattermole -- himself no stranger to full-blooded challenges -- and despite Fulham coach Martin Jol’s incredulous reaction, the decision was correct.

A pivotal 14-second passage

of play tipped the balance of the match in Sunderland’s favour after five minutes of the second period.

Fulham left-back John Arne Riise hit the Sunderland bar with a deflected shot but Sunderland broke quickly, with Adam

Johnson’s fine, sweeping cross freeing Fletcher to toe the ball past Mark Schwarzer.

Petric came on for the injured Bryan Ruiz and lifted a chance over the bar shortly after making his entrance, while at the other end, Schwarzer produced a full-stretch save to repel Johnson’s curler.

Fulham drew level a minute later, Petric steering the ball into the roof of the net from inside the six-yard box after Duff drilled a low cross across the face of goal from the left.

The teams were not level for long, however, with Spanish centre-back Cuellar heading Sunderland back into the lead from Johnson’s corner only three minutes later to register his first goal for the club.

Sessegnon put daylight between the teams with a superb goal in the 70th minute, rolling his marker and unleashing a glorious strike from 25 yards that found the net via the inside of the right-hand post.

Fletcher was denied a second goal by the assistant referee’s flag, while Sunderland were indebted to goalkeeper Simon Mignolet, who saved brilliantly from Steve Sidwell and Petric to preserve the visitors’ two-goal cushion. AFP

English Premier League Results

LONDON: English Premier League result yesterday:

Fulham 1 (Petric 62) Sunderland 3 (Fletcher 50, Cuellar 65, Sessegnon 70)

Playing today

West Ham vs Stoke (2000GMT)

Played Saturday

Arsenal 5 (Mertesacker 24, Podolski 42, Giroud 45, Cazorla 60, Walcott 90) Tottenham 2 (Adebayor 10, Bale 71)

Liverpool 3 (Suarez 47, 58, Enrique 65) Wigan 0

Man City 5 (Silva 43, Aguero 54-pen, 67, Tevez 65-pen, 74) Aston Villa 0

Newcastle 1 (Ba 90) Swansea 2 (Michu 58, De Guzman 87)

Norwich 1 (Pilkington 60) Man Utd 0

QPR 1 (Hoilett 49) Southampton 3 (Lambert 23, Puncheon 45, Ferdinand 83-og)

Reading 2 (Le Fondre 51, 79-pen) Everton 1 (Naismith 10)

West Brom 2 (Long 10, Odemwingie 50) Chelsea 1 (Hazard 39)

Davis Cup Results PRAGUE: Davis Cup final results here yesterday:

Czech Republic 3 Spain 2

David Ferrer (ESP) bt Tomas Berdych (CZE) 6-2, 6-3, 7-5

Radek Stepanek (CZE) bt Nicolas Almagro (ESP) 6-4, 7-6 (7/0), 3-6, 6-3

Played Friday

David Ferrer (ESP) bt Radek Stepanek (CZE) 6-3, 6-4, 6-4

Tomas Berdych (CZE) bt Nicolas Almagro (ESP) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3.

Played Saturday

Tomas Berdych/Radek Stepanek (CZE) bt Marcel Granollers/Marc Lopez (ESP) 3-6, 7-5, 7-5, 6-3

Czech Republic’s Davis Cup team (from left) Ivo Minar, Lukas Rosol, Radek Stepanek, Tomas Berdych and captain Jaroslav Navratil pose with the trophy after winning the Davis Cup final match against Spain in Prague, yesterday. Czech Republic defeated Spain 3-2.

to a slow start, losing his open-ing service game in the first set and then another to let Ferrer, 30, move ahead without too much trouble.

“I played very focused, very aggressive, I started really good and maybe that was the key,” Ferrer said, praising his first serve and forehand.

Ferrer broke Berdych’s serve

early in the second set for a 3-0 lead that prompted Berdych to take a bathroom break.

But even that did not help - Berdych was flat and allowed Ferrer to gain the upper hand in long exchanges and finally take the second and third sets too.

“It’s very difficult to beat Tomas in three sets but I played one of the best matches of my career in

Davis Cup,” said Ferrer. Berdych said he was upset he had failed to decide the tie.

“In Davis Cup this year, I have lost only one rubber and it was the last one,” he said.

On Friday, Ferrer beat Stepanek 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 and Berdych then put the Czechs level after beating Almagro 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3.

In Saturday’s doubles rub-ber, Berdych and Stepanek beat Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez 3-6, 7-5, 7-5, 6-3 for their 12th victory in Davis Cup doubles against a single loss.

Spain, who had won the Davis Cup three times in the past five years, were missing world number four Rafael Nadal, who is recover-ing from a knee injury. AFP

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