KUWAIT: Kuwait’s First Deputy Prime Minister andDefense Minister Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah received Monday a phone call from SaudiCrown Prince and Defense Minister Mohammad binSalman to congratulate him on assuming his new post.Prince Mohammad wished Sheikh Nasser best of luckin the service of Kuwait to achieve prosperity andadvancement, and to boost cooperation between thetwo countries, the Office of the Minister of Defense

said in a statement. Prince Mohammad, who invitedSheikh Nasser to visit Saudi Arabia, wished Kuwait’sleadership, government and people enjoy further devel-opment and security, it added. Sheikh Nasser thankedPrince Mohammad and prayed to Allah the Almighty tobestow protection upon Saudi Arabia and its people.

MAREA, Syria: In a rehabilitation center in northernSyria, young men huddle over an innocuous game ofchess and some cigarettes - activities they once brutal-ly suppressed as Islamic State group militants. Based inthe rebel-held town of Marea, the Syrian Centre forCountering Extremist Ideology is home to around 100onetime IS fighters from Syria, the Middle East andeven Europe. “I used to dream of establishing anIslamic state... but now, we take courses that clear upwhat’s wrong with what we once believed,” 23-year-oldMohammad Haj Ahmad says.

Ahmad hails from Raqqa, the northern city thatserved as the de facto capital of a now-collapsed mili-tant “caliphate” sprawling across Syria and Iraq. Hejoined IS in 2014 and took part in one of its most grue-some battles at Tabqa airport near Raqa, where mili-tants executed more than 200 army troops. “I wascompletely convinced by their slogans about jihad, thatthey were the only ones implementing religion correct-ly, and that everyone else was an infidel and an apos-tate,” he tells AFP. “My father was scared I’d be con-vinced to blow myself up.”

Now, Ahmad and fellow ex-militants are undergoingintensive rehabilitation courses in Marea aiming towash away extremist habits so they can ultimately rein-tegrate into society. Ahmad doesn’t know what he will

do once he is cleared by rebel authorities to leave thecenter. “Maybe I’ll start a business, continue my studies,or go to Europe,” he shrugs.

The two-storey center in Marea opened on October27. “We founded the center because of the many fight-ers coming to northern parts of Aleppo province afterthe collapse of IS, which created a security problem,”says its head, Hussein Nasser. Some lodgers checked involuntarily, while others are undergoing therapy as partof the jail sentence dished out by rebel authorities forjoining IS. They are split into three categories: Short-

term IS fighters, those who fought heavily or for anextended period and foreigners from Tunisians toUzbeks.

Treatment lasts up to six months, which can berenewed, Nasser says. The administrators, doctors, andactivists who run the center coordinate closely withrebel authorities, particularly the court system. “Thecenter’s lecturers provide an assessment to relevantjudicial authorities, who decide if the person can beintegrated into society or not,” Nasser adds.

Continued on Page 11

KUWAIT: Kuwait maintains a close rapport with inter-national organizations involved in the fight againsthuman trafficking, a Kuwaiti diplomat said yesterday.Kuwait’s assistant foreign minister of developmentaffairs Nasser Al-Sabeeh was addressing a seminar onthe country’s efforts to combat human trafficking, wherehe spoke of the foreign ministry’s plan to bring thecountry’s well-chronicled contributions to humanitariancauses into the limelight.

He recalled that Kuwait had actively participated in the72nd session of the UN General Assembly in September,

where a UN plan to rid the world of human trafficking waspromulgated, underlining the gravity of the scourge.

Continued on Page 11

14ISSUE NO: 17405

32 Pages 150 Fils

www.kuwaittimes.net

Established 1961 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf

Macron warns world losing battle against climate change

US filmmakers in Kuwait to make documentary on Rowe

Kuwaitis, residents exempt from Russia visa to attend World Cup

RABI ALAWWAL 25, 1439 AHWEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2017

31Gulf defense, aerospace exhibition boosts Kuwait leadership vision4 11

Max 20ºMin 07º

New Cabinet members take oath of office before Amir

Sheikh Sabah calls on ministers to work as one team

KUWAIT: HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah received at the Amiri Airport yesterday,in the presence of HH the Crown Prince Sheikh NawafAl-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, HH the Prime MinisterSheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, whopresented to the Amir his government’s ministers whotook oath before the Amir on the occasion of theirappointment in their new posts.

HH the Amir delivered a speech on the occasion, inwhich he welcomed and congratulated the new mem-bers of the Cabinet, appreciating their acceptance to

take part in the new lineup. Sheikh Sabah welcomed thetremendous efforts exerted by the prime minister in theformation of the Cabinet, hailing at the same timeefforts of the previous ministers who had worked tire-lessly in carrying out the responsibilities entrustedupon them, wishing them all the best.

The Amir added that the new government formationcomes amidst critical internal and external challengesthat require wisdom and farsightedness to deal with, inaddition to doubling efforts in order to address suchcritical circumstances for the best interests of the

homeland and its people. He also called on the newministers to work as a one team based on cooperation,confidence and mutual respect between the legislativeand executive branches, saying he was fully confidentthat the ministers will be able to achieve best interestsof the dear homeland and citizens, wishing peace, sta-bility and prosperity to prevail.

The prime minister responded to HH the Amir’sspeech by thanking him for the confidence entrustedupon himself and the rest of the government members,especially amidst these critical circumstances, express-

ing his appreciation. “We will work hard to be fit forit,” Sheikh Jaber vowed. The premier asserted thatsuch challenges and dangers facing the region requirethat efforts be doubled in order to address such chal-lenges in order to achieve the ambitions of the dearhomeland and its people. He also expressed commit-ment to work tirelessly with his colleagues to fulfilltheir oath, thanks to the noble directives of the Amir,saying that the government will work positively withthe National Assembly to achieve the sought-afterambitions. — KUNA

KUWAIT: HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah receives, in the presence of HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah and his newly sworn-in Cabinet members at the Amiri Airport yesterday. — KUNA

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia decided yesterday to hike ener-gy prices while paying compensation to Saudi families,as the world’s top oil exporter seeks new revenuesources. The cabinet, in a session chaired by KingSalman, approved plans to “reform” electricity and fuelcharges, as part of measures to counter lower oil priceson the world market, the official news agency SPAreported. In a first, the government also approved cashtransfers to some 3.7 million Saudi families, covering 13million of the country’s 20-million population, to com-pensate them for the hike.

Expatriates working and living in the kingdom havebeen excluded from the cash transfer program whichwill start next week. The electricity authority hasannounced minor price increases from early next year.The energy ministry said new prices for petrol, dieseland aviation fuel will be applied in the first quarter of2018, but without giving details on the planned increas-es. The hikes are the second wave of Saudi subsidy cuts.

The kingdom, which pumps around 10 million barrelsper day of oil, has embarked on a series of reforms andprice hikes since oil revenues plummeted in mid-2014.Saudi Arabia has posted huge deficits in the past threefiscal years, totaling over $200 billion, and withdrawnanother $250 billion from its fiscal reserves. — AFP

Riyadh to raise energy prices, compensate Saudi families

Prince Mohammad congratulates Sheikh Nasser

Sheikh Nasser Prince MohammadKUWAIT: Kuwait’s assistant foreign minister for devel-opment affairs Nasser Al-Sabeeh speaks during theseminar yesterday. — KUNA

Kuwait keen to clamp down on human trafficking

Chess, therapy for ex-militants at Syria rehab

MAREA, Syria: Syrian men attend a lecture at the Syrian Centre for Countering Extremist Ideology in this town inAleppo district on Nov 30, 2017. — AFP

KUWAIT: The key challenge for the new cabinet to over-come, as identified by His Highness the Amir SheikhSabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, is protecting Kuwaitagainst perils of sectarian strife, and maintaining nationalunity, His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah told the cabinet’s first ses-sion yesterday.

In a statement to the session which took place afterthe new ministers were sworn in in front of His Highnessthe Amir, His Highness Sheikh Jaber stressed the primeimportance of preserving and enhancing national unityas the pillar, shield and fence safeguarding the domes-tic front.

This requires the utter rejection of any sectarian ortribal line-up since “We are all for Kuwait and Kuwait isfor us all,” Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Statefor Cabinet Affairs Anas Khaled Al-Saleh said after thesession. His Highness the Amir stressed these challengesin an address to the opening of the Second Term of theNational Assembly’s 15th Legislative Term. MaintainingKuwait’s security and stability has always to be the topconcern of everyone, His Highness Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak said, referring to the perilous repercussionsand implications of the changes and developmentssweeping the region, and the world at large, promptingtop alertness and caution.

No doubt, security is realized through achieving therule of law, applying it to all, with no distinction, as wellas upholding the power of the judiciary, and enforcingprinciples of justice and equality. The concept of securi-ty includes - in addition to fighting and exterminatingterrorism - achieving social security, and providing allbases of safety for people, now and in the future.

Economic reformInevitability of economic reform, and remedying

structural imbalances resulting from relying on one non-renewable source, namely oil, offer the second challenge

facing the new cabinet only worn in a day earlier, HisHighness the Prime Minister said. Economic reformrequires diversification of sources of income, enhancingnon-petroleum revenues, pushing economic reform rateshigher, improving the climate of investment and localiz-ing distinguished foreign capital, besides bettering busi-ness environment to provide further job opportunities.

Improving planning for development, promoting gov-ernment performance, supporting prerequisites of offi-cial administration through reducing duration of proce-dure, are further requirements. Others are modernizingmanagement methods, reinforcing sound institutionalwork and cooperation with the control bodies to unravelshortages and imbalances, for a remedy and avoidingrepetition. Moreover, economic reform needs disciplineof the state’s finances, bolstering rationalization andcurbing losses, and in the meantime preserving the basisof dignified living and stability for the Kuwaiti people,both at present and in the future. Closely related to thisis the necessity of protecting public funds by all means,and activating the fight against corruption to extermi-nate it, and to dry up its sources, besides crystalizingintegrity, transparency and honesty through all officialprocedures.

A key commitment is achieving “Kuwait 2035”vision, with all its vital content and ambitious develop-ment plans, His Highness the Prime Minister said. Thisprompts harder work to complete development of theinfrastructure, and public services; remedying educa-tion - maintaining the firm Islamic values and well-established constants- and promoting health and otherservices.

“I would like to point out the necessity of reviewingthe agenda of the former government which I submittedto the National Assembly during this legislative chapter,to check if it copes with the views to face the outstand-ing challenges, and to meet the needs of the approveddevelopment plan,” His Highness Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak said.

National commitmentThe last challenge His Highness the Amir indicated was

emending the path of parliamentary work as a nationalcommitment, that can never be postponed, for “maintain-ing, and consolidating our national gains,” His Highnessthe Prime Minister said.

Putting things right could be realized through seriouscommitment to the rulings of the Constitutional Court, theNational Assembly’s bylaw, the Court’s explanatorynotes on parliamentary work, commitment by each powerto its domains with no concession of such authoritywhatsoever, in line with their responsibilities, as well asreaffirming independence, according to Article 50 of theConstitution. His Highness the Premier stressed that thegovernment is always extending hand in cooperation withthe National Assembly.

This is achieved through a work method that allows a

‘constitutional’ compromise formula for joint work mech-anisms to realize the aspired fruitful cooperation achieve-ments. Amid the widespread of misuse of social media bysome people under the claim of freedom of expression, toincite sedition, enmity, and hatred, as well as stirring thepublic opinion in a way that threatens social security andthe society’s values and morals, His Highness the Amir hascalled for speeding up efforts to ‘legally’ curb this, HisHighness Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak said.

This will be realized through appropriate mechanismsthat preserve the values and constants of the society,protecting it against perils of sedition. Concluding thestatement, His Highness the premier told the ministersthat the Kuwaiti people are looking forward to theirefforts and work to push a head progress and prosperityfor the dear nation.

Sharing the burdensAt the onset of the statement to the first session of the

newly formed cabinet, His Highness Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak highly appreciated His Highness the Amir’sassignment to the cabinet, praying Allah Almighty to helpthem fulfill their duty as should be.

His Highness the Premier thanked the ministers foraccepting to share him the “burdens of this stage ournation is going through, with its challenges and com-mitments that require hard efforts and sacrifices andjoint work, inspired by ‘Kuwait’s interests, glory andprosperity.’”

His Highness Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak also appreciat-ed the fruitful efforts by the last cabinet, which led toremarkable achievements for serving the nation and thepeople. “Based on our responsibility toward our nationand His Highness the Amir’s dear confidence in us, welook forward to fulfilling the expectations of the (Kuwaiti)citizens and their hopes in a brighter future, so thatKuwait will remain - as it has always been-an oasis ofsecurity and safety, a state of law, and institutions,” HisHighness the Premier told the session.

In this way “we will be up to the responsibility HisHighness the Amir has vested in us. This requires moreefforts and sacrifices to combat the massive challengesand the outstanding files, combining good planning withassiduous and sincere work for efficient implementationand pursue of development.” Following the statement,First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of DefenseSheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, on behalf offellow ministers, highly praised the confidence of HisHighness the Amir and His Highness the Premier in thenew cabinet. Sheikh Nasser reiterated will and determi-nation to work seriously and lavish utmost efforts toserve the nation and the citizens and achieve glory andprosperity for Kuwait. Meanwhile, the cabinet reviewedHis Highness the Amir’s latter appreciating the hardefforts by the different ministries and bodies for the GulfCooperation Council (GCC) 38th Summit Kuwait hostedrecently. — KUNA

L o c a l Wednesday, December 13, 2017

2 Established 1961

Major challenges ahead fornew Cabinet: Prime Minister

KUWAIT: His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah takes oath before HisHighness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah yesterday. — KUNA

First Deputy Premier and Defense Minister Sheikh NasserSabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign AffairsSheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior retiredLieutenant-General Sheikh Khaled Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah.

Minister of Finance Dr Nayef Falah Mubarak Al-Hajraf.

Minister of Social Affairs and Labor and Minister of Statefor Economic Affairs Hind Sabeeh Barrak Al-Sabeeh.

Minister of Commerce and Industry and Minister of Statefor Youth Affairs Khaled Nasser Abdullah Al-Roudhan.

Minister of Information Mohammad Naser Al-Jabri.Minister of Health Dr Basel Hmoud Hamad Al-Sabah.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for CabinetAffairs Anas Khaled Al-Saleh.

State Minister for Housing Affairs and State Minister forServices Affairs Dr Jenan Mohsen Hasan Ramadan Boushehri.

Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education DrHamed Mohammad Al-Azmi.

Minister of Public Works and State Minister for MunicipalityAffairs Husam Abdullah Al-Roumi.

State Minister for National Assembly Affairs Adel Musaed Al-Jarallah Al-Kharafi.

Minister of Justice and Minister of Awqaf and Islamic AffairsAdviser Dr Fahd Mohammad Mohsen Al-Afasi.

Minister of Oil and Minister of Electricity and Water BakheetShbib Al-Rasheedi.

‘Economic reform and remedying structural imbalances is inevitable’

L o c a l Wednesday, December 13, 2017

3Established 1961

Dear Kuwaitifriends, or rather, Ishould say “DearKuwait,”

I address thismessage to Kuwaitand my friends andto the meetings andgatherings I hadwith them, as wellas the work wea c c o m p l i s h e dtogether in fouryears and threemonths, which allowed me to discover anextraordinary country in the Arab world that Icame to know quite well. I arrived from Parison the 15th September 2013 and, literally, I didnot know any person here at that time. Mydiplomatic life has allowed me to visit yourcountry only once about ten years ago and itwas for a short visit. I was a student in 1990when, just like everybody else, I was shockedwith the invasion of Kuwait and, seven monthslater, I was happy to know that Kuwait was lib-erated. In the courses I attended in preparationfor the competition to the Ministry of ForeignAffairs in France, Kuwait was often mentionedas an example in the administrative work wehad to prepare and submit in the field of inter-national relations and law enforcement.Directly after liberation, a friend of mine, ajournalist who was living with me in Cairo atthe time, visited Kuwait upon an invitationfrom Kuwaiti authorities to witness the lootingand robbery that Saddam Hussein’s forces hadcarried out. He returned with a live testimonythat I kept all these years among my personalbelongings without ever imagining that oneday I would be with you during my term ofoffice, which is about to end in a few days.

This message of friendship, or rather, thismessage of love, is my testimony on the years Ispent with you: a message of love to thosefriends I met; young and old, women and men,students, artists, businessmen, politicians, min-isters, members of the National Assembly andhuman rights defenders. During my stay inyour country, I highly appreciated the spirit ofdebate that prevails, whether in offices, inpress or through social networks. Democracyin your country is not an empty word, but areality, and your diplomacy is a diplomacy ofpeace, just like diplomacy of France. Kuwaitowes this to its leaders, in particular to HisHighness the Amir, who is a true example ofwisdom to the region as a whole and a“humanitarian leader” for the entire world.

The family spirit, which I treasure the most,prevails in Kuwait; everyone knows each otherand exchanges visits in joyful occasions, suchas weddings, and in times of grief at the deathof any person. Kuwait is a large family in itself,with a very important trade heritage that ispart of the country’s fundamentals, in additionto its cultural dimension, with photographers,painters and musicians. I also learned the art of“selfies” and I did notice how distinguished thebloggers are on social networking sites and theactivists in the fashion world. Your country isone of the most modern countries in the Araband the entire world!

I am leaving behind in Kuwait severalfriends with whom I spent quality times chat-ting, exchanging conversations and dreamingabout a better future for the region and peacein the world. Of course, as always, H.H. SheikhSabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, from thevery moment His Highness received me at

Bayan Palace, when I visited to deliver my cre-dentials on the 4th November 2013, and whilespeaking in Arabic with me in a very nice andfriendly manner, he just said to me gently andhumorously: “Welcome in your second home!”

His Highness was extremely right! It tookme mere few hours after my arrival on theevening of the 15th September 2013 to feel athome. I knew the Gulf States by then because Iworked as the General Consul in Jeddah formany years. I also knew Lebanon, Syria andPalestine, as much as I knew Iran and its lan-guage, in addition to my knowledge of theArabic language and the history of this regionof the world. What I did not know is that allthis, mixed in a high-speed mixer, would makeme a friend to many Kuwaitis whom I foundenjoying all the above characteristics; allexcept for the language. I had to get used tothe local dialect and the use of feminine andmasculine, which I mistook all the time. Therewas a friend who used to address me at thebeginning of my stay saying “Shlonek” (Howare you?), yet I always thought he wasaddressing the lady behind me, but then Ifound out that when he spoke to her he used“Shlonech” instead. Here I figured that I obvi-ously have a lot of work on this subject or Ishall look stupid in my conversations!

Now that we have become friends, I allowmyself to reveal some secrets and perhaps givesome advice, in a spirit of humor of course!Please, dear Kuwaitis: Travel less because it isalmost impossible for me to know if I can seeyou at the end of the week except by followingup your accounts on Instagram. Stop publish-ing Snapchat because whenever I am about toopen this app the story disappears. Guys,spend less time at the gym and more time atthe French Institute to get a certificate inFrench! Also, an advice from a friend aboutvisas: do not submit your requests on Mondaythe 12th while you would like to travel onSunday the 11th! You also shall have to find asolution to WhatsApp; this “national epidemic”with the “Selfie” pictures, which hit me as well,since I consult my messages by my right handwhile dipping a “darabeel” into a glass of hotmilk with saffron with my left hand; frankly, Icannot do them at the same time without end-ing up dipping my iPhone in the milk instead ofthe biscuits!

Kuwait has been a school for me; a schoolof working with excellent professionals at alllevels, not to mention in foreign affairs andother ministries, as well as with the AmiriDiwan. Moreover, in the private sector, I learntperseverance, patience and taking enough timeto think, in addition to friendship in work rela-tions and the desire to share with my country,France, which loves you so much in return.

In the last few weeks, I have visited many“diwaneyas” and offices that I have visited dur-ing my stay to say goodbye to my friends. I metsome of you personally to pay tribute. I alsosent messages on WhatsApp and made somephone calls ... to bid farewell to you all and con-firm that I shall see you again real soon. As ourdear poet Sheikha Suad Al-Sabah says withgreat skill, “We Remain”. I shall always enjoyseeing you again and I shall definitely accept allfuture invitation to ‘majbus’ dish on Tuesday orto share a dish of ‘Naqror Fish’, because, as perthe old saying, “He who eats the eye of Naqrorshall never leave”. I shall come back!

Christian NakhleAmbassador of France to the State

of Kuwait

Christian Nakhle

ISTANBUL: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah arrived in Istanbul yesterdayto attend the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s(OIC) urgent summit. Heading Kuwait’s delegation to themeeting, His Highness the Amir was received upon hisarrival at the airport by senior Turkish officials, alongwith Kuwait’s Ambassador to Turkey Ghassan Al-Zuwawie and its Consul General Mohammad Al-Mohammad.

Upon their departure from Kuwait, His Highness theAmir and the accompanying delegation were seen offat Kuwait internationalairport by His Highnessthe Crown Prince SheikhNawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Speakerof the NationalAssembly Marzouq Al-Ghanem, senior Sheikhs,Deputy Chief of theKuwait National Guard(KNG) Sheikh MeshalAl-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, His HighnessSheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-AhmadAl-Sabah, His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh JaberAl-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, First Deputy PrimeMinister and Minister of Defense Sheikh Nasser SabahAl-Ahmad, Deputy Minister of the Amiri Diwan AffairsSheikh Ali Jarrah Al-Sabah, Deputy Prime Minister andMinister of Interior Sheikh Khaled Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah,Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State forCabinet Affairs Anas Al-Saleh, senior officials of theState, and the top brass at the police, army, KNG, andKuwait Fire Service Directorate (KFSD).

His Highness the Amir’s delegation includes DeputyPrime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh

Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, head of HisHighness the Amir’s office Ahmad Al-Fahad, Amiri DiwanAdvisor Mohammad Abulhassan, Amiri Diwan head ofprotocols Sheikh Khaled Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah, DeputyForeign Minister Khaled Al-Jarallah, Head of Media andCulture at the Amiri Diwan Yousef Al-Roumi, Chief ofPolitical and Economic Affairs at the Amiri Diwan SheikhFawaz Saud Al-Sabah, Assistant Foreign Minister SheikhAhmad Nasser Al-Sabah, in addition to senior AmiriDiwan and Foreign Ministry officials.

The OIC will hold its urgent summit today to discussthe US decision to recog-nize Jerusalem as the capi-tal of Israel as well as thestep to move the Americanembassy to the holy city.Last Saturday in Cairo,Foreign Minister SheikhSabah Al-Khaled stressedthat Kuwait will not com-promise went the issue ofsupporting the Palestiniansis at stake. He called onthe United States to backdown from the decision ithas taken and remain neu-

tral on the issue of the Mideast peace process.Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled said it was important to

implement Arab summit resolutions concerningJerusalem’s status, affirming that the US decision wasagainst international laws and norms. Turkish PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdogan deemed the decision taken by hisUS counterpart Donald Trump as void from any legitima-cy, saying that the OIC will showcase to Trump that hisdecision was wrong. Erdogan had contacted severalregional and world leaders to discuss the recent develop-ment. Trump’s decision has been met by protests world-wide especially in Arab and Muslim states. —KUNA

Amir in Istanbul to attend Organizationof Islamic Cooperation’s urgent summit

US Jerusalem decision highlights urgent summit

ISTANBUL: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah is welcomedby Kuwait’s Ambassador to Turkey Ghassan Al-Zuwawie upon his arrival to Istanbul. —KUNA

Trump decisionmet by protests

worldwide

Message of love fromFrench Ambassador to hisfriends before leaving Kuwait

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

4L o c a l

Established 1961

KUWAIT: Throughout the years, foreign archaeologicalmissions in Kuwait have contributed significantly to thediscovery of several historic civilizations, some of whichdate back more than 7,000 years. The story of archaeo-logical excavations in Kuwait dates back to 1957, beforethe independence of Kuwait, when the British administra-tor at the time invited the Danish exploration mission inFailaka Island, which is located 20 km from Kuwait City.

This was followed by the issuance of a law regulatingarchaeological work in 1960, the first in the Gulf region,and the later establishment of Kuwait National Council forCulture Arts and Letters (NCAAL) in 2004.

Since its conception, NCAAL has signed several coop-

eration agreements in the field with international academicbodies like the Slovak Academy of Sciences, the FrenchInstitute for the Near East, University of London, DurhamUniversity and University of Warsaw, amongst others.

NCAAL also has its own department of antiquities andmuseums, which is currently cooperating with a GulfCooperation Council (GCC) counterpart on a project onthe island of Failaka, where homes and a mosque datingback to the late Islamic period have been discovered.

The above-mentioned excavation missions are predomi-nantly focused on two areas, namely the island of Failakaand the Al-Sabbiyah area, north of the Kuwait Bay. OnFailaka, a whole city inhabited by the Dilmun civilization wasunearthed by a joint team of French and Kuwaiti archaeolo-gists. The civilization was around during the Bronze Age,around 2,000 BC.

The Dilmuns thrived between Mesopotamia (modernday Iraq) across the eastern regions of Saudi Arabia andBahrain, up until the northernmost tip of the United ArabEmirates. The same team is also responsible, along with ateam of Greek archaeologists, for the discovery of aHellenic castle, also on Failaka, which dates back between323 and 146 BC.

Two churches and a village, inhibited by Christians pre-Islam, were also discovered on the island along withkitchen utensils made from pottery. On the other hand, anKuwaiti-Italian team are carrying out the excavation of an800m area, where buildings dating back to the early andmid-Islamic periods have been found. —KUNA

History ofarchaeologicalexcavations in Kuwait

Italian excavations’ team in Failaka.

A statue believed to be of ancient Persianking Mithridates II found in Failaka. A historic lamp unearthed in Kuwait. An ancient sculpture unearthed in Kuwait.

By Nawara Fattahova

KUWAIT: Over 130 companies from 20 countries are par-ticipating in the Gulf Defense and Aerospace Exhibitionand Conference at Kuwait International Fairground inMishref from Dec 12-14, 2017. Justin Webb, President ofTNT Productions, said all four editions of this major eventhave been held in Kuwait. “This is the largest of the foureditions, and has grown by over 30 percent from the pre-vious edition,” he said during the opening ceremony.

The exhibition strives to assist in realizing the KuwaitVision 2035 to develop Kuwait into a business, trade andcommercial hub. “Bringing these international companieshelps achieve this goal. The event attracts most of theworld’s leading private defense manufacturers who willmeet members of the GCC and other regional armedforces and help in transforming Kuwait into modern finan-cial, business and trade center,” Webb said.

In addition to commercial displays of latest cutting-edge defense technologies, the exhibition also features alarge display of defense technologies that are currently inuse by the ministry of defense. Such exhibitions are verytransparent and everyone can see the kind of productsthat the ministry of defense is trying to acquire to keeppeople safe,” explained Webb.

Brig Gen Ali Al-Shanfa, Assistant Chief of Staff of theSupply Department, noted that part of the objective of thislarge display is to showcase to the people of Kuwait thatthe government has invested and is still investing in theworld’s most modern defense technologies. “Most defenseexhibitions take place in Turkey or Dubai, and today wehave it in Kuwait. Kuwait is always participating in anyevent that aims for peace and defense. Some of the com-mercial companies participating in this year’s event are

worldwide industry leaders, including EurofighterTyphoon, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Company, MBADMissile Systems, Textron Systems Corporation, LurssenShipbuilding, Aselsan, and many others,” he pointed out.

“Furthermore, we hope that young Kuwaitis who areconsidering their future careers will be able to visit theexpo and may decide to join the Kuwait Armed Forces, asit’s a highly professional organization, and they would betraining and using the most modern defense equipment.They will also have the opportunity to speak directly tomembers of the army who are experts in using theseequipment, and who will encourage them to join the army,”concluded Shanfa.

International leading defense manufacturers are partic-ipating in this event from Kuwait, US, UK, France,Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, China, Canada, Denmark,Kazakhstan, Korea, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway,Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Turkey, which has alarge pavilion.

The interior ministry is participating in this expo. “Theministry is displaying some of the equipment that we areusing. This event is an opportunity for experts in the fieldto view our machines and equipment and exchange expe-riences. Having all these participants in one place saveseffort and time to travel to other places. This event alsoserves the economy of Kuwait, and brings various publicinstitutions together in one place to exchange their experi-ences. We are here to strengthen national security. Ourofficials will visit the expo during these three days tocheck their needs, based on which they can place orders,”said Interior Ministry Undersecretary Maj Gen MahmoudAl-Dossari. The exhibition’s opening hours 10:00 am to5:00 pm on Wednesday and 10:00 am to 3:00 pm onThursday.

Gulf Defense and Aerospace Exhibition, Conference opens

Event assists in realizing the Kuwait Vision 2035

KUWAIT: Officials inaugurate the Gulf Defense and Aerospace Exhibition and Conferenceyesterday. —Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

A model of a Eurofighter Typhoon jet on display at the exhibition.A visitor looks at shotguns on display at the exhibition.

By A Saleh

KUWAIT: In a bid to lower expenses, theMinistry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs plansto lay off 2,032 employees working onassignment basis in various sectors, espe-cially in the Quran affairs sector which cur-rently employs 2,390 citizens and expatri-ates. The ministry’s central assignmentcommittee addressed the AssistantUndersecretary for Quran and IslamicStudies Dr Waleed Al-Shuaib andinformed him that the second phase ofreduction should include at least 15percent of assignees and demanded alist of them by December 15, 2017.The committee explained that only tenout of 68 assignees working atShuaib’s office, 173 out of 1,153 in theQuran affairs department, 133 out of888 in the Islamic studies department,eight out of 56 at the family develop-ment department and 34 out of 225working at ‘Al-Seraj Al-Muneer’ departmentwill be able to keep their jobs.

Expats replacedMeanwhile, the Ministry of Education

(MOE) is currently coordinating with theCivil Service Commission (CSC) to replaceexpatriate social workers with citizens,

Undersecretary Dr Hisham Al-Athari saidyesterday. In other news, CSC yesterdayapproved proposed incentives for membersof the judiciary and designated public pros-ecutors assigned by the Supreme JudicialCouncil to perform extra tasks. Designees intechnical offices, those working in Kuwaitinstitute for judicial studies, judicial inspec-

tion and judges will receive KD 500-600monthly. In the meantime, designees in thepublic debts protection apparatus willreceive KD 1,000-1,250 monthly.

Jailed MPsSeveral lawmakers met yesterday at MP

Mohammad Al-Mutair’s office to discuss the

issue of the detainees over charges ofbreaking into the National Assembly build-ing. Mutair is one of three lawmakers jailedin the case, along with Waleed Al-Tabtabaeand Jamaan Al-Harbash. MP Adel Al-Damkhi said that the meeting came in con-solidation with the detainees and to listen tobriefings from the legal team following up

the case in courts. He added thatanother meeting will be held todayat MP Tabtabae’s diwan, notingthat a message was sent to thespeaker asking him and the parlia-ment to act. Damkhi said thatanother meeting will be held nextMonday at MP Harbash’s office todiscuss the issue regarding the newcabinet formation. The list of MPswho attended the meeting includesMohammed Hayef, Thamer Al-Suwait, Omar Al-Tabtabae, Al-Humaidi Al-Subai’e, Abdul WahabAl-Babtain, Osama Al-Shaheen,

Damkhi, Abdullah Fahhad, Khaled Al-OTaibi, Nayef Al-Merdas, Abdul KareemAl-Kandary and Mohammed Al-Dallal.

Not enoughEnvironment Public Authority (EPA)

Director Sheikh Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah said that the recently approved

authority budget was enough for all theduties and tasks stated in the environ-ment law, but noted that the currentbudget of KD 25 mi l l ion wi l l not beenough in the future to perform all EPAduties, and therefore needs to beincreased. On a different concern, SheikhAbdul lah stressed that the KuwaitInstitute for Scientific Research (KISR)and the Public Authority for AgriculturalAffairs and Fish Resources (PAAAFR) willhave to cooperate on protecting fishreserves and national waters.

‘Co-op’ brandThe Union of Consumer Co-operative

Societies (UCCS) Secretary Ahmad Al-Mutairi said that a directive was distrib-uted to various co-ops around Kuwait onproviding ‘Co-op’ brand onions to helpcontrol onion prices in local markets.Mutairi added that the union has set theprice of selling five kilos of Turkish onionto co-ops at KD 0.910, allowing them tosell the same to consumers at a KD 1price. He added that co-ops wishing topurchase onions will have to request theirpurchases directly from the union andthat they should respect the prices set forsale to consumers. Mutairi urged co-opsto shelf ‘Co-op’ brand products in out-standing places to encourage their sale.

L o c a l Wednesday, December 13, 2017

5Established 1961

Awqaf ministry to lay off 2,032employees in massive budget cut

MPs meet to discuss jailed comrades’ status

KD 25 millionnot enough

for EPA

Man arrestedwith 14,600psychoactive pillsBy Hanan Al-Saadoun and Agencies

KUWAIT: Criminal detectives arrested an Asian manwith possession of 14,600 psychoactive tablets andcash. The suspect was arrested red-handed whileexchanging the drugs with an undercover agent. Heshowed strong resistance before police were able toput him under arrest. The suspect confessed to tradingin illicit substances and led detectives to an apartmentwhere he hid the drugs. He was sent to the properauthorities to face charges.

FireA family was rescued from a fire reported in a Salwa

apartment Monday night. Firemen from two differentfire stations responded to the scene and rescued thefamily members, before they successfully tackled theblaze. No injuries were reported.

BlackmailDetectives arrested a Pakistani man who threatened

to post a female citizen’s personal photos on socialmedia if she does not pay him KD 400. The woman’ssocial media account was hacked by the suspect whoblackmailed her and asked for KD 400 so that he doesnot post her private photos online. The woman obligedto the Pakistani’s request to gain control of her account,and then went to police. Detectives identified andarrested the suspect.

KUWAIT: Drugs and cash found with the suspect.

KIB welcomesstudents for ‘Dayas a Banker’ initiativeKUWAIT: Following the great success of its previous‘Day as a Banker’ initiatives which saw the bank hoststudents from various schools across Kuwait, KuwaitInternational Bank (KIB) recently welcomed studentsfrom the Nasiba Bint Kaab Middle School for Girls atits Head Office Branch. This initiative aimed at introduc-ing students to the world of banking and the many dif-ferent roles and functions within a bank.

The ‘Day as a Banker’ initiative provided studentswith a unique opportunity to spend an entire day at abranch and experience firsthand the life of a banker, byallowing them to carry out several roles and tasks with-in the branch, including serving as tellers and greeters.During the visit, KIB staff provided students with a

basic overview of the fundamentals of Islamic bankingand presented them with the chance to practicallyapply their newly-learned saving skills.

Speaking about this visit, CorporateCommunications Team Leader at KIB, Fahad Al-Sarhan,commented: “KIB is keen on organizing numerous andvaried initiatives that engage directly with the localcommunity’s youth, aiming at promoting greater finan-cial literacy and enhanced economic awarenessamongst the younger generations. Through this initia-tive, we aim at providing students with an educationalexperience that develops their financial knowledge,taps into their potential, and encourages them to pur-sue a career in the banking sector.”

Throughout the year, KIB organizes several visits toschools and hosts students from areas all over Kuwait.In doing so, the Bank hopes to build a more financially-conscious future generation. One of the first-of-its-kindprograms, KIB’s financial literacy program aims at pro-moting economic awareness across all segments of thelocal community. Focusing primarily on youth, the pro-gram seeks to instill basic values of saving and goodmoney management.

ABK sponsors ‘The Space Within’ seminar by Michael NeillKUWAIT: In line with the Bank’s strong belief in self-development of individuals, Al-Ahli Bank of Kuwait(ABK) was the main sponsor at yesterday’s seminartitled ‘The Space Within’ by internationally renownedtransformative coach Michael Neill. The seminar, whichtook place at Al-Thuraya Ballroom in JW Marriott, wasorganized by the Institute of Banking Studies (IBS) withthe aim of helping attendees unleash their personal andprofessional potential through a deeper understandingof the mind.

Listed in the top 30 coaching gurus worldwide,Michael Neill shared the three principles behind all

human experience and how understanding the mind atthis level opens both employees and works teams up tohigher levels of productivity and creativity with lesseffort, stress, or pressure than before.

“As part of our commitment to support ouremployees to undertake sustainable programs and ini-tiatives that enable personal development, we are veryproud to sponsor ‘The Space Within’ seminar,”acknowledged Hamza Enki, General Manager ofHuman Resources at ABK.

“We are confident that by attending the seminar, indi-viduals will be encouraged to tap into their innate intelli-gence for easier decision making, better problem solving,and higher levels of performance.” Enki further added.

Some of the key takeaways from the seminar includedthe three fundamental principles behind all human expe-riences which helps people become the best versions ofthemselves, implications for handling pressure and stress,and building higher quality relationships with staff,clients and customers. Michael Neill also shared insightinto producing quality results over time and where cre-ativity stems from and how to make the most of it, whichis an important skill to master in our industry.

New York bomber not on Bangladesh terror list: PoliceDHAKA: Bangladesh police scrambled yester-day for details about alleged New York subwaybomber Akayed Ullah, but uncovered few earlyleads that might shed light on what might havedriven him to try and kill commuters with ahomemade bomb. US police say the 27-year-old immigrant from Bangladesh set off a crudebomb strapped to his body in a crowded NewYork subway passage on Monday but thedevice failed to detonate properly, leaving himthe only one seriously harmed. Ullah told policeinvestigators he wanted to avenge US airstrikeson the Islamic State group and was also inspiredby Christmas terror plots in Europe, US mediareported.

Bangladesh police are investigating whetherUllah was radicalized in his Muslim-majorityhomeland, where foreigners have been amongthose targeted in deadly assaults claimed by theIS group and Al-Qaeda. “So far, his name is noton our wide-range list of radicalized persons ormembers of terror groups, both fromBangladesh and outside,” senior counter terror-ism police officer Sanwar Hossain said. “We aretrying to gather more details,” he said. USauthorities say Ullah migrated seven years agoas the member of a family already living thereunder what is known as “chain immigration”.

But a police spokeswoman in Bangladesh

said preliminary investigations suggested thefamily left “17 or 18 years ago”. Bangladeshauthorities are unclear exactly when Ullah left,but speculated he could have been shuttlingback and forth between the two countries.“Maybe he was 10 or 11 years old (when thefamily left for the US),” police spokeswomanSahely Ferdous said, adding Ullah’s “develop-ment of thinking” likely took place there.Bangladesh police said Ullah’s family hailed fromSandwip, an island off the coast of the southernport city of Chittagong but his father had left forthe capital Dhaka some 30 years ago.

Visited Bangladesh in Sept A friend of the family told AFP that Ullah

married two years ago, but did not take hiswife to the US. “His wife lives in Hazaribaghneighborhood in Dhaka, where the family livedfor the last three decades, and where his fatherran a grocery shop. They were married in2015,” Sazzad Hossain Mukul, a friend ofUllah’s mother said. He said Ullah visitedBangladesh in September, and spent a monthwith his wife. Police confirmed the date of hislast visit, but could not say whether Ullah wasmarried. — AFP

InternationalAbortions in India 20 times higher than estimated

Page 9Syria forces not yet victorious - but IS already defeated

Page 7

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2017

RAMALLAH: A masked Palestinian protester dressed as a clown kicks a flaming tire towards Israeli security forces during clashes in the West Bank city of Ramallah yesterday, following the US president’scontroversial recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. — AFP

JERUSALEM: Less than an hour after US PresidentDonald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capi-tal, Palestinians protested by turning off the lights onthe Christmas tree outside Bethlehem’s Church of theNativity, the traditional birthplace of Jesus. It was atimely reminder that while headlines focused onIslamist calls for uprisings and Trump’s references toJewish historical ties, the president’s words alsostirred deep feelings among the Palestinians’ smallChristian community.

Coming out of the Sunday service in his AssyrianCatholic church in Jerusalem, Fredrick Hazo accusedTrump of “dragging all the world into trouble”, andcalled on the US leader to reverse his decision. “Weare united - Christians, Muslims, we are one,” said the59-year-old Palestinian musician, standing in an alleyin the heart of the Old City, surrounded by shops sell-ing religious trinkets. He was frustrated by the poli-tics, but confident the delicate balance the threefaiths kept in the holy city would prevail. “In thissacred place, God is protecting us all. We are guard-ed by his angels in Jerusalem,” Hazo added.

Christians make up around just one percent of the

Palestinian population in Gaza, the West Bank andEast Jerusalem - though they punch above theirweight in local and national politics. Back in July,Hazo protested alongside Muslims against Israel’sinstallation of securityscanners at the nearbyAl-Aqsa mosque -Islam’s third holiest site- after two Arab-Israeligunmen shot dead twoIsraeli police officers atthe site. It removed themetal detectors afterdays of bloody clashes,scenes that have notbeen repeated in thecity since Trump’s dec-laration.

United in prayerThe appeals to religious unity inside Jerusalem’s

walls stand in contrast to the more divided voicesoutside. In the hours running up to Trump’s statement,

Pope Francis called for the status quo in the city to berespected. The Episcopal Church of the United Statessaid Trump’s announcement “could have profoundramifications on the peace process and the future of a

two-state solution”. ButTrump’s decision foundstrong backing fromanother corner of theChristian community -many among his owncountry’s polit ical lypowerful evangelicalswho see God’s hand inthe modern-day returnof Jews to a bibl icalhomeland.

Trump convened acircle of evangelicaladvisers during his

presidential bid, and he was the overwhelmingfavorite of white evangelical voters in last year’s USelection. “We are all bible-believers and we believethat this is the bible-land and that Jerusalem is the

ancient capital of Israel back to the days of KingDavid,” said Dallas-based Mike Evans, part of anevangelical group that met Trump on Monday. “So forour president to stand up and declare it makes usextremely proud and honored.” For Palestinian super-market cashier Mohammed Al-Hawa, however,Trump’s words and the logic behind them ignored themore complex reality on the ground.

People of all faith in Jerusalem were united inprayer, the 33-year-old said, even if they were divid-ed over politics. “Christians, Jews and Muslims live inthis city together. There is no problem between them.Only the politics. The governments want to makewars,” he said. “This is my city - my blood, my life,”added a 70-year-old Palestinian, walking through thepilgrim-packed courtyard of Jerusalem’s Church ofthe Holy Sepulchre, revered by Christians as the siteof Jesus’s tomb. The church is packed into a smallparcel of land that also holds the Al-Aqsa compoundand Judaism’s Western Wall “I can go to the church,to anywhere in Jerusalem, not Trump nor Netanyahucan stop me,” added the man who identified himselfonly as a “Jerusalemite”. — Reuters

‘We are one’: Palestinian Christians, Muslims unite Three faiths keep delicate balance in Jerusalem

Russia onalert forreturningmilitants MOSCOW: Russia’s security serviceyesterday said it was on alert for thepossible return of jihadists fromSyria ahead of the World Cup andthe presidential election in 2018. TheFSB’s warning came after theRussian military last week declaredSyria “liberated” from the IslamicState group, and after a visit onMonday by President Vladimir Putinto Russia’s airbase in the war-rav-aged country.

Russia first intervened in theSyrian conflict in 2015, staging airstrikes in support of PresidentBashar Al-Assad which targetedboth IS and other jihadists as well asrebels fighting government troops.As many as 40,000 fighters travelledfrom all over the world, includingRussia, to join IS in Russia after the2014 declaration of its self-styled

“caliphate” straddling Syria and Iraq.In 2015, Russian security services

estimated that 2,900 Russian citizenshad joined IS, as well as “severalthousands” from Central Asia. Nowthat IS’ “caliphate” has all but col-lapsed, its “leaders and fighters arelooking for ways to continue theirterrorist activities in the territory ofother countries, including Russia”,FSB director Alexander Bortnikovwas quoted by Russian agencies assaying. “The return of former mem-bers of illegal armed groups from theMiddle East to Russia poses a realdanger” as they can form sleepercells and recruit new members, headded.

Attacks thwarted Bortnikov said the security serv-

ices had ensured the ConfederationsCup ran smoothly this year. They willdraw on this experience to ensurethey prevent attacks on venues in 13cities hosting the World Cup fromJune 14 to July 15 next year. “Ourpriority is to secure locations wherecrowds will gather, as well as energyinfrastructure sites ... and sports ven-ues that will host the 2018 footballWorld Cup, to ensure they are nottargets for terror attacks,” Bortnikovsaid. — AFP

US evangelicals welcome Trump

statement

NEW YORK: Police officers stand guard as commuters make their way through the passage-way connecting the Times Square subway station to the Port Authority subway station andbus terminal, near the site of attempted terror attack in New York City. —AFP

I n t e r n a t i o n a l Wednesday, December 13, 2017

7Established 1961

News in brief

Two Palestinians killed

GAZA: Two Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip yes-terday with authorities in the Hamas-run territory blamingan Israeli strike, but Israel’s military immediately denyingthe claim. The circumstances of the incident, whichoccurred near Gaza’s northern border with Israel, were ini-tially unclear. Palestinian health ministry spokesman AshrafAl-Qudra said the two men were killed “in Beit Lahia innorthern Gaza after an Israeli strike targeted a motorcy-cle”. The Israeli army immediately denied this, saying in astatement “contrary to Palestinian reports earlier today, the(army) did not attack in the northern Gaza Strip”. Qudranamed the two men as Hussein Ghazi Nasrallah andMustafa al-Sultan, both in their 20s. Family members at thehospital where the bodies were taken told AFP the twomen were members of Islamic Jihad, an Islamist group thatfought alongside Hamas in the last war with Israel in 2014.

Washington blasts Maduro

CARACAS: The US accused Venezuela’s PresidentNicolas Maduro on Monday of a dictatorial bid to wipehis opponents off the political map following his latest pollvictory, after he announced the main opposition is barredfrom next year’s presidential election. Maduro’s rulingsocialists triumphed as expected in mayoral polls Sunday,taking 300 of the country’s 335 mayorships after a boy-cott by the main opposition parties. But the presidentinsisted that boycott would cost the opposition dearly: “Aparty that has not participated today and has called forthe boycott of the elections cannot participate any more.That is a criterion of the National Constituent Assembly...and I support them.” That removes from the electoral fraykey figures such as Henrique Capriles, Leopoldo Lopezand others, and led the United States to say Maduro wasseeking to consolidate his “dictatorship.”

Fugitive wins seat

KATHMANDU: A fugitive wanted over a deadly attack onpolice won a seat in Nepal’s national parliament yesterday,despite being in hiding and not once appearing in publicduring his campaign. Resham Chaudhary won the seatfrom Kailali in western Nepal by a landslide, securingmore than double the votes of his closest rival, accordingto results from the election commission. Chaudhary hasbeen in hiding since 2015 when he was accused of master-minding an attack in which eight police officers and a tod-dler were killed. “He is in our wanted list and we can arresthim even though he has been elected as a member of par-liament, if we find him,” said police spokesman ManojNeupane. Chaudhary was a key figure in violent proteststhat erupted in 2015 over a contentious new constitution.

Australian MP quits

SYDNEY: A prominent Australian opposition senator, SamDastyari, said yesterday he would resign from parliamentafter a series of allegations emerged about his links withChinese-aligned interests in Australia. Relations betweenAustralia and China have become strained since Australiaannounced last week it would ban foreign political dona-tions as part of a crackdown aimed at preventing externalinfluence in domestic politics. In announcing the ban,Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull specifically singled outChina, citing “disturbing reports about Chinese influence”.China hit back, with the ruling Communist Party’s officialPeople’s Daily describing media reports about its interfer-ence as “racist” and “paranoid”. Dastyari, widely viewedas a rising star of the centre-left Labor opposition party,has been under fire since domestic media reported he hadsought to encourage the party’s deputy leader not to meeta Chinese pro-democracy activist opposed to Beijing’srule in Hong Kong in 2015.

THE HAGUE: The daughter of an Iranian Arab activistkilled in the Netherlands last month linked his death topolitical conflict in the Middle East, and warned otherexiles in Europe to be on their guard. Ahmad MolaNissi, 52, was gunned down by an unidentifiedassailant in front of his home in The Hague on Nov 8in a suspected political killing. Hawra Ahmad Nissisaid her father’s death was reminiscent of a string ofmurders of Iranian dissidents in Europe in the 1990s.

“Europe seems safe, but be careful,” she toldReuters in an interview. “The conflict between SaudiArabia and Iran is notconfined to the MiddleEast. It is spreading intoEurope.” Relationsbetween Shiite MuslimIran and Sunni MuslimSaudi Arabia havesoured in recent months,with the struggle forinfluence between thetwo long-standingregional rivals playedout through increasinglybitter proxy confronta-tions, notably in Syria,Yemen and Lebanon. Mola Nissi established the ArabStruggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz (ASM-LA), which seeks a separate state in Iran’s oil-richsouthwestern Khuzestan province, in 1999.

Since his murder, his family have been under Dutchpolice protection at a safe house. “We came here to besafe but we don’t feel safe. European governments shoulddo more to secure the safety of activists,” Hawra Nissi,

25, said. Ahvazi Arabs are a minority in mainly ethnicPersian Iran, and some see themselves as victims of occu-pation and want independence or autonomy. Tehran,which has condemned Mola Nissi’s killing and promisedto investigate it, accuses Riyadh of funding separatistgroups active in Iran, a charge the Saudis deny.

‘Open to all scenarios’A source close to Mola Nissi’s family, who asked not

to be named due to security concerns, said he hadaccepted Saudi financial support but did not want the

Ahvazi cause to be usedas a pawn in the proxywar. This attitude couldhave made him an obsta-cle to efforts to bring theASMLA movementunder Saudi influence,the source said. “Thefamily is open to all sce-narios. Iran is a primesuspect, but not the onlysuspect,” Hawra Nissisaid. Police are exploringa possible link betweenMola Nissi’s killing and

the unsolved murder of another Iranian nearAmsterdam in December 2015, a spokeswoman said.

They are looking for two suspects believed to havegunned down Ali Motamed. The police declined tocomment on the circumstances of Motamed’s death ora motive, but Iranian media have linked him to exiledIranian opposition Shiite group the People’sMujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI), which would

have made him a potential target. A man detained inrelation to Mola Nissi’s death has since been released,the spokeswoman added. The most prominent amonga string of killings and disappearances of Iranian dis-

sidents in the 1980s and 1990s was the shooting ofthree Iranian Kurdish opposition leaders in Berlin in1992, which a German court ruled had been orderedby the government in Tehran.—Reuters

Dutch police investigating shootings of Iranians

‘Be careful,’ murdered activist’s daughter warns Europe exiles

Iran, SaudiArabia locked

in regional power struggle

TEHRAN: Portraits of US President Donald Trump burn during a demonstration in the capital Tehran todenounce his declaration of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. —AFP

Syria forces not yet victorious - but IS already defeated BEIRUT: Syria is expected to soon follow in Iraq’sfootsteps in proclaiming victory against the IslamicState group, whose fighters are either on the run ortrapped and largely toothless. On Saturday, theBaghdad government declared the end of a huge mili-tary effort that saw Iraqi forces painstakingly reclaimevery little piece of the third of the country thejihadists controlled three years ago. The Syrian sideof the “caliphate” IS proclaimed in 2014 has also dis-integrated, with now only gaggles of fighters launch-ing short-lived attacks or clinging to small pocketswhere they are completely besieged.

IS no longer controls a single town in Syria andwhile it may still count several thousand fightersamong its ranks, observers expect Damascus todeclare final victory before the end of the year. Syria’stop ally Russia called it last week when senior militaryofficer Sergei Rudskoi claimed “Syria has been com-pletely liberated from fighters of this terrorist organi-zation”. On Sunday, French President EmmanuelMacron argued that was slightly premature and pre-dicted that “military operations against Daesh (IS) inSyria will continue until mid- to late February”.

Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Britain-basedSyrian Observatory for Human Rights, argued that ISwas now largely rudderless and that surviving unitswere essentially fending for themselves. “There nolonger is one central command giving orders. IS hasbeen turned into groups scattered over Syria,” saidAbdel Rahman, whose monitoring group relies on awide network of sources across the country. Thegroup’s fighters are most active in Syria’s eastern DeirEzzor province, where they are defending the lastspecks of land that used to be part of their“caliphate”.

Several hundred fighters remain in that provincealone, not enough to plan any realistic territorialreconquest but enough to cause damage in guerrilla-style attacks. According to Abdel Rahman, 23 pro-government forces were killed Monday in an attack

near Albu Kamal, the last major town IS controlledfully before it eventually lost it in November.

Dregs of the caliphate -IS is still active in the following areas: The group

still holds 18 villages on the eastern side of theEuphrates river in Deir Ezzor province, according tothe Observatory. It controls a small area in thenortheastern province of Hasakeh, which Kurdish-led forces hope to reclaim swiftly. The jihadists alsohold remote areas in the central Homs province,mostly two pockets which the regime is expected totake on soon.

IS fighters are also in a small sliver of Hamaprovince, further north, where they are battlingjihadists from a rival group. IS also has a presence inthe Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmuk, in Damascus,but IS fighters there have been besieged for years.The group also has fixed positions in two other areasof southern Damascus, Hajar al-Aswad and Tadamun.In the southern province of Daraa, fighters affiliatedto IS also have a small presence.

No cohesion“We will probably witness the end of IS as a land-

holding force very soon but it will keep existing throughsleeper cells,” Abdel Rahman said. As the myriad ofanti-jihadist forces clawed back land from IS over thepast three years, thousands of routed jihadists arebelieved to have simply melted back into the desert orblended into civilian life. The “caliphate” was doomedalmost from birth and IS has long begun morphing backinto an insurgency that can still strike almost anywherein Iraq and Syria with deadly suicide attacks.

“It has tried to maintain governance where it exer-cises formal and full control, but the norm now is func-tioning as an insurgent group,” said Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, an academic and expert on jihadists. Thewhereabouts and current level of involvement of ISsupremo Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi are unknown. Thegroup no longer has a clear centre of power and itsonce unstoppable propaganda machine is sputteringout a now anaemic production. “I am sure there is still achain of command but the overall structure is likely lesscohesive than before,” Tamimi said. —AFP

RAQA: A member of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) runs to take cover from sniper shots near thecentral hospital of Raqqa. —AFP

EU summit set to unlock next phase ofBrexit talksBRUSSELS: European Union leaders are set toopen the next phase of Brexit talks at a summitthis week, but may toughen their conditions afterBritain cast doubt on whether a deal on divorceterms is binding. British premier Theresa Mayand European Commission chief Jean-ClaudeJuncker reached a last-minute agreement Fridayregarding the Irish border, Britain’s divorce billand the rights of EU migrants.

The leaders of the 27 remaining countriesare to decide on Friday whether to approve thatdeal and green light the opening of talks on apost-Brexit transition period and the bloc’sfuture relationship with Britain. But they havebeen alarmed by comments by Britain’s BrexitMinister David Davis in which he said thatBritain would not pay the bill without a tradeagreement, and that Friday’s deal was a “state-ment of intent” rather than “legally enforceable.”

European Parliament Brexit coordinator GuyVerhofstadt said Davis’s comments were “unac-

ceptable” and a self-inflicted “own goal” forBritain as the EU would now take a tougherstance. “I have seen a hardening of the positionof the council (of EU leaders) and hardeningposition of the parliament,” Verhofstadt toldreporters at the parliament in Strasbourg,France on Tuesday. The European Parliament isset to back in a vote today the opening of thesecond phase of Brexit talks. MEPs will alsohave a final say on any Brexit deal in 2019.

‘Most difficult challenge’With the possibility of a British backtrack in

mind, the EU negotiating guidelines that leadersare set to adopt on Friday will say phase twotalks can only start once the divorce commit-ments are “translated faithfully in legal terms.”The EU leaders will also say that talks on tradewill not start until March, to give the Britishgovernment time to provide “further clarity” onwhat it wants from the future relationship.

Britain has said it will leave the EU’s singlemarket and customs union but has given no hintof a wider plan, with May’s cabinet only havingits first meeting on the subject next week-a fullyear and a half after the June 2016 Brexit refer-endum. The EU guidelines will add that talks onthe transition-a period of around two years dur-ing which the bloc says Britain will have to fol-low EU law cannot start until January. The clockis ticking, as the EU says an outline deal needsto be in place by October 2018, so that theBritish and EU parliaments can approve it by

the time Britain leaves the bloc on March 29,2019. EU President Donald Tusk warned lastweek after the divorce deal that “the most diffi-cult challenge is still ahead”.

Euro reformsThe EU leaders, again without Britain,

will also on Friday discuss ways to reformthe euro single currency, a top priority ofFrench President Emmanuel Macron as wellas Juncker. In a draft of the “leader’s agenda”to prepare the summit, Tusk said there was

broad convergence among the heads of stateon creating a crisis-f ighting EuropeanMonetary Fund, as well as forging aheadwith the banking union. But Macron’s ambi-tions have been stymied by political uncer-tainty in Germany, where a weakenedChancellor Angela Merkel is still trying toform a government.

Germany is especially reticent to reformingEU public spending rules or setting up aEuropean-wide deposit insurance scheme, thelast remaining pillar of the banking union. —AFP

LONDON: Pro-EU protesters wave EU and Union Flags outside the Houses ofParliament in central London as Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May makes a state-ment to the House on the phase one Brexit interim agreement with the EU. —AFP

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

8I n t e r n a t i o n a l

Established 1961

RIO DE JANEIRO: While the fighting in Rio de Janeiro’scrime war is done by commando-style police and heavilyarmed drug traffickers, a growing number of the victimslook quite different: innocent, joyful children like MariaEduarda. Firefights erupt in densely packed, poor favelaneighborhoods, leaving thousands of people withnowhere to hide each time the shooting, involvingKalashnikovs and other military grade rifles, begins.

AFP has investigated the stories of those caught inthe middle, like 13-year-old schoolgirl Maria Eduarda, ina new multimedia report: “Stray Bullets: violence andbroken lives in Rio.” Witharound 60,000 murders ayear, Brazi l is among theworld’s most dangerouscountries. Rio, host of the2016 Olympics, has longbeen one of the hotspots.

But as AFP’s investiga-tion highlights, stray bulletincidents add a cruel twistto the wider crisis. Peopleare shot outside church, inparks or in restaurants, indaytime or at night. Sincethe cheap construction of favela houses will not neces-sarily stop a bullet, even staying at home can be dan-gerous. Off ic ia l f igures for stray bul lets are notreleased, but reports of incidents come in steadily. Acount by Globo newspaper found that 632 people wereshot by stray bullets in Rio state, at least 67 of themkilled, in the first half of 2017 alone.

‘So much blood’ For Maria Eduarda Alves da Conceicao, sudden death

came at the northern Rio school where she was knownas a diligent student and mad keen basketball player. Ina tough city, she was doing everything right. On March30, though, everything went wrong. Just outside herschool gates, police with automatic rifles were firing ondrug dealer suspects. It was the type of violent opera-

tion that would make top news in many cities aroundthe world but is so common in Rio that it passes largelyunnoticed. One burst of bullets tore past the schoolfence, hitting Maria Eduarda as she went to fetch waterduring gym class.

The police officers almost certainly didn’t realizewhat had happened. They were busy wrapping up theiroperation outside: on a bystander’s cellphone footage,they can be seen executing two apparently woundedsuspects on the sidewalk in an almost casual manner.Inside, Maria Eduarda already lay dead. “I hugged and

hugged her,” the girl’s moth-er Rosilene Alves Ferreirasaid, recalling her arrival atthe scene shortly after thetragedy. “She was still allwarm. I hugged her and therewas so much blood,” said the53-year-old mother, creasesof worry etched across herforehead. “Two of the bulletshad hit her little head.”

‘Logic of death’Despite the lack of trans-

parency on overall stray bullet casualties, an NGO calledRio de Paz (Rio of Peace) has kept a careful count ofchild victims since 2007. In just over a decade, the toll is42 killed, including babies, toddlers and adolescents.Some died in the family car, some playing football, orwhile asleep. The rate is rocketing: 10 children died in2016 and 10 so far this year, a steady increase on theseven slain in 2015, and a huge jump from the combinedtotal of 10 in the five previous years.

Antonio Carlos Costa, founder of Rio de Paz, saysthe combination of dense populations, powerful riflesand ceaseless turf wars between different drug factionsmakes a lethal cocktail in the favelas. But he reserveshis harshest criticism for the police, who treat the areasas war zones. “Police operations follow the logic ofdeath, the logic of shooting first and finding out who it

was afterward,” Costa said. “They’ve lost sight of therisks they impose on civilians.” The police answer thatruthless drug traffickers, ruling entire neighborhoods atthe point of a gun, are to blame. So far this year, 126officers have been killed in Rio state this year, so theyhave reason to feel they are in a war.

Police are also hampered by funding problems andfalling morale in the wake of the Olympics spendingsplurge. But while the debate about what needs chang-

ing goes on, the likes of Maria Eduarda are likely tokeep getting maimed or killed. “I know they didn’t tar-get Maria, they didn’t want to kill her, but they werereckless,” her mother said.

“They killed her. Although they saw a school there,they still let off more than 60 shots.” AFP’s investiga-tion “Stray Bullets: violence and broken lives in Rio”looks at eight cases, including children, a universitystudent and a kindergarten employee.— AFP

Rio’s stray bullets give the innocent nowhere to hide

Brazil among the world’s most dangerous countries

News in brief

Somali journalist killed MOGADISHU: A Somali television journalist was killedby a car bomb in front of his children, relatives said, thefifth murder of a journalist in the war-torn country thisyear. Mohamed Ibrahim Gabow, a journalist workingfor Kalsan TV, had taken a break from work to spendtime with his children. He had just left his home onMonday afternoon in the capital Mogadishu when abomb planted beneath the driver’s seat ripped throughthe car. He died in hospital. “He was a professionaljournalist dedicated to working for the public,” griev-ing relative Mohamed Abdirahman said late Monday.“We don’t know why they killed him in front of his chil-dren.” No one has claimed responsibility for the attack,but journalists have been regularly targeted by rivalforces in the long-running conflict. “The explosivedevice was attached beneath the driver’s seat of thecar,” said police officer Ibrahim Mohamed.

Mugabe flies to Singapore HARARE: Zimbabwe’s former president RobertMugabe has left the country for medical checks inSingapore, his first foreign travel since the army forcedhim from office last month, a state security official saidyesterday. The 93-year-old, who ruled the southernAfrican nation for 37 years, resigned after the armyand his ruling ZANU-PF party turned against himwhen it became clear that his 52-year-old wife, Grace,was being groomed as his successor. Until recently theworld’s oldest head of state, Mugabe had a reputationfor extensive and expensive international travel, includ-ing regular medical trips to Singapore - a source ofpublic anger among his impoverished citizens. He leftHarare with Grace and aides on Monday evening, theofficial said. He is expected to make a stop-over inMalaysia, where his daughter, Bona, is expecting asecond child.

170 killed in S Sudan JUBA: The death toll from inter-clan fighting in SouthSudan’s Great Lakes region last week - a new sourceof violence in a country devastated by a four-year civilwar - has reached at least 170, officials said yesterday.The clashes in the province’s Malek county broke outafter a group of young men from the Ruop ethnicgroup attacked rival youth from the Pakam group onWednesday and Thursday. Revenge attacks have sincetaken place. Dharuai Mabor Teny, a member of parlia-ment from the region, updated an earlier death toll of45. “Right now, from both sides, we have 170 plus peo-ple who lost their lives. 342 houses have been burntand almost 1,800 people displaced,” Teny said. Theviolence prompted the government to declare a three-month state of emergency in the region and surround-ing areas on Monday. The military has also beenordered to deploy troops to quell the unrest.

Quake hits southeast Iran BEIRUT: An earthquake of magnitude 6.2 hit Kermanprovince in southeast Iran yesterday, injuring 15 peo-ple and causing the walls of some houses to collapse,state media reported. The quake struck near the townof Hojdak, according to state TV. The US geologicalsurvey recorded its magnitude as 6.1 and said it struckat a depth of 57 km. Another quake, which Iranianstate media reported at 6.0 and the USGS reported at5.4, hit western Iran on Monday, in the same regionwhere a magnitude 7.3 earthquake killed at least 530people last month. There have been no reports ofdeaths or injuries from Monday’s quake. Hardlinerivals of President Hassan Rouhani have criticized thegovernment’s response to last month’s quake as tooslow and inadequate.

Stray Bullets: violence and broken lives

Anger brewing in German SPD against Merkel power pactBERLIN: To many German Social Democrats it sounds likea monster that will destroy their party if not democracyitself: the GroKo. The term is shorthand for “grand coali-tion”, the mega-alliance of Chancellor Angela Merkel’sconservatives and their own SPD labor party that hasruled Europe’s top economy for the past four years.

“Never. Again. GroKo,” read a pin-on button handedout by the party’s youth wing at a fractious party congressin Berlin last week that was dominated by painful soul-searching over its worst election result in post-war history.The blunt message was illustrated with a picture of twohands forming a diamond shape, Merkel’s standard gesturein front of cameras, which has come to symbolise the vet-eran chancellor dubbed “Mutti” (mummy). “We don’t wanta grand coalition,” said one member, Michelle Rauschholb,25, who fears the SDP will be forced to “betray its ideals”if it has another stint as Merkel’s junior partner.

Going into talks with Merkel this Wednesday, SPD chiefMartin Schulz is deeply sceptical about another GroKopower pact, and aware much of his party base is openlyhostile to another coalition. But after months of post-elec-tion deadlock, Schulz has agreed to meet Merkel to soundout plans to give the unhappy partnership another lease oflife, even though many Social Democrats fear it spells amortal threat to their 150-year-old party.

‘Political suicide’The U-turn came after Schulz declared on the night of

his September 24 election defeat that he would take the

battered party into opposition rather than again play sec-ond fiddle to Merkel. But he had to eat his words threeweeks ago when Merkel’s efforts to build an alternativealliance with two smaller parties collapsed and pressurerose on the SPD to avert political paralysis.

Schulz consented to “open-ended” talks that may ormay not allow Merkel to lead another GroKo governmentfrom sometime in early 2018. At the Berlin party congress,speaker after speaker argued passionately that to againgovern under Merkel would further weaken the party’smessage and credibility. The revolt was led by the party’syouth wing, which collected reasons against a GroKo inmessages stuck onto a white board. “Political suicide,”read one, while another stated: “GroKo is the final nail inthe coffin of Social Democracy.” A third featured a draw-ing of a “GroKodile” with a gaping jaw about to swallowup a hapless SPD stickman. One declared simply: “Ialready have a Mutti.”

‘A little lost’ The SPD leadership itself has been brutally honest after

four election defeats in a row, stating in a discussion paperthat “many voters are unclear about what the SPD standsfor”. It was a sobering admission for the traditional work-ing class party that long battled for the rights of workers,women and minorities, and whose members start theirspeeches with “dear comrades”.

Now the SPD is struggling to reinvent itself in the ageof vanishing factories, mines and dockyards and as robotsand algorithms threaten to destroy ever more jobs. “That’sthe big question that hovers above everything,” said youthwing leader Kevin Kuehnert, 28. “In future who will be theSPD’s voter base?” At the congress, Kuehnert vowed topush on with the #NoGroKo campaign when delegatesand members get to vote on a potential coalition deal.“The last GroKo was voted out when the two big partiesbetween them lost 14 percentage points,” he said. “That’scertainly not a mandate for a new coalition.”—AFP

California wildfires LOS ANGELES: It’s been a week since southern Californiahas been charred by a devastating wave of wildfires, blastedby almost hurricane force winds. Vast areas have beendestroyed, hundreds of thousands of people have been evac-uated and thousands of firefighters are working around theclock. The future of the infernos is at the mercy of the wind.The biggest concern is Thomas, which broke out last Mondayand has already destroyed an area five times larger than theUS capital Washington and threatens Pacific coast towns likeCarpinteria, Summerland and Montecito. Here is a review ofthe present situation.

Number of fires Six were registered during the week: in addition to

Thomas, in Ventura County, there were three in Los Angeles(Creek, Rye, Skirball), Lilac in San Diego; and Liberty inRiverside. Other than Thomas, almost all are contained andthe evacuation orders have already been lifted. But there havebeen long hours of panic. Los Angeles evacuated 150,000people. Skirball - 85 percent controlled-affected the exclu-sive neighborhood of Bel-Air and millions of dollars of man-sions were caught in the flames. The losses have not yet beencalculated. Lilac, which engulfed a rural area with many sta-bles, forced hundreds of horses had to be evacuated. Justover two dozen perished.

Extent of Thomas’ damageIt still remains to be seen how much harm Thomas will do.

The fire continues to grow and threatens nearby areas. In oneweek it wiped out 23,000 acres (93,000 hectares) and “severeweather conditions” could lead to “significant growth,”according to the latest California firefighters bulletin (Cal Fire).More than 800 buildings have been destroyed, including 644homes, while almost 6,400 officials work to try to contain theflames. Evacuation orders remain standing in areas of Ventura,Ojai, Carpinteria, Montecito and Santa Barbara.

Victims Despite its hellish intensity, which has left behind scenes

reminiscent of a moonscape in many areas, authorities so far

have reported one fatality-a 70-year-old woman who died ina car accident while fleeing from the flames in the Thomasarea. Tens of thousands had to leave their homes, some endingup in shelters opened by the authorities and the Red Cross.

Weather forecastThe causes of the fires are under investigation. But whatever

they are, it is the hurricane-strength winds and the low humiditythat cause them to spread over huge areas of land at an amaz-ingly alarming speed. Eric Boldt, a meteorologist at the NationalWeather Service (NWS), explained to AFP that even when the

wind dies down, the drought conditions complicate everything.The fire is already the biggest disaster in California’s history, butBoldt believes he has the potential to climb to the top spot.

Financial lossesThere is no exact figure for the losses from this fire wave

that has not even ended. The California Department ofInsurance told AFP that the calculation is the product of thefigures from insurance companies. As the fires are not over yet,there are people who do not even know if they lost their homesor businesses and did not activate their insurance. —AFP

RIO DE JANEIRO: A graffiti portraying late Maria Eduarda Alves is seen at the entrance of Daniel Piza MunicipalSchool in Rio de Janeiro, near the same courtyard where she was killed by stray bullets. —AFP

CALIFORNIA: A man watches the Thomas Fire in the hills above Carpinteria, California. —AFP

BERLIN: Parliamentary group leaders of the far-right AfD(Alternative for Germany) party Alexander Gauland (frontright) and Alice Weidel (front left) and other AfD mem-bers of parliament stand to pay their respects to arecently deceased MP yesterday. —AFP

I n t e r n a t i o n a l Wednesday, December 13, 2017

9

NEW DELHI: Some 15.6 million abortions take place in Indiaeach year, with the majority of women taking pills at homewithout adequate counseling, a study said yesterday, callingfor more trained doctors in public hospitals. The New York-based Guttmacher Institute’s research found that abortionsare more than 22 times more common than the government’sestimate of less than 700,000 terminations, produced byfocusing on state-run hospitals and clinics. Just over 80 per-cent of abortions took place at home using drugs like mifepri-stone and misoprostol, 14 percent were performed surgicallyin clinics and hospitals, and5 percent were conductedusing other, typicallyunsafe, methods.

“Women in India faceconsiderable challengestrying to obtain abortioncare, including the limitedavailability of abortionservices in public healthfacilities,” the GuttmacherInstitute’s investigatorSusheela Singh, said in astatement. “Our findingssuggest that a shortage oftrained staff and inadequate supplies and equipment are theprimary reasons many public facilities don’t provide abortioncare,” she said of the study, published in the Lancet GlobalHealth journal.

It is India’s first national study of the incidence of abortionand unintended pregnancy, researchers said. Half of India’smore than 48 million pregnancies were unintended, and athird resulted in abortions, the study said, using 2015 abortionpill sales and distribution data and surveys of six highly pop-ulated states. Researchers said that close to three in fourabortions were achieved using drugs from chemists and infor-

mal vendors, rather than from health facilities where propercounseling and health checks should be provided.

In addition, the public sector - the main source of healthcare for rural and poor women - accounted for only a quarterof abortions, partly because many state-run hospitals and clin-ics do not offer abortion services. “Although abortion has beenlegal under a broad range of criteria in India since 1971, wehave never had a reliable estimate of the number occurringuntil now,” said Chander Shekhar from the Mumbai-basedInternational Institute for Population Sciences, which collabo-

rated on the study. “Thisnew evidence provides pol-icymakers with informationthat is essential for design-ing and implementing effec-tive reproductive healthcare programs,” he added ina statement.

Condom advertisements Meanwhile, India has

slapped a nationwide banon television ads for con-doms during prime timehours, citing rules prohibit-

ing “vulgar” content and concerns over children viewing sala-cious material. The information and broadcasting ministryordered India’s estimated 900 television channels to restrictcondom commercials to between 10pm and 6am, threateningrepercussions if the ads fall outside graveyard hours. “All TVchannels are hereby advised not to telecast the advertise-ments of condoms which are (a) for particular age group andcould be indecent for viewing by children,” the order saidMonday. It also cited broadcasting regulations prohibiting“indecent, vulgar, suggestive, repulsive or offensive themes”.

India’s public and private television channels beam into

nearly 183 million households across the country, data fromthe Broadcast Audience Research Council industry groupshows. Advocates for birth control warned the blackoutrisked undoing decades of progress on sexual and repro-ductive health. The Population Foundation of India, a Delhi-based nonprofit, said condoms were one of the few meth-

ods available for family planning and encouraged men toalso take responsibility for birth control. “What we need isa more sensitive approach without compromising on infor-mation and advocating for sexual and reproductive choice,”the charity’s executive director Poonam Muttreja said in astatement. —Agencies

India abortions 20 times ‘higher than estimated’

15.6 million abortions take place in India each year

Established 1961

News in brief

Forced labor uncovered NEW YORK: US authorities have accused two men in NewYork of recruiting immigrants from the Philippines to workfor little or no pay at an historic catering hall in a case ofhuman trafficking happening “in plain sight”. The pair luredworkers with promises of good jobs and paid money intotheir bank accounts but took it back and threatened toreport them if they complained, the US Immigration andCustoms Enforcement (ICE) agency said in a statement.Many of the workers were living with expired visas in thebasement of one of the accused men, ICE said. “This caseis an example of ruthless labor trafficking hiding in plainsight,” said Angel Melendez, ICE special agent in chargeof Homeland Security Investigations in New York, in astatement. “These individuals allegedly committed visafraud while forcing people to work in their catering hallunder horrible conditions, in what seemed to be aninescapable situation.”

Sri Lankan rail strike COLOMBO: Hundreds of thousands of pupils were leftstranded yesterday after railway workers in Sri Lankarefused to abandon a strike during national exams.President Maithripala Sirisena had appealed to drivers,station masters and technical staff to end their industrialaction to enable students to get to school. More than400,000 students aged around 15 are sitting the examina-tions, which began yesterday, and the president’s officesaid the transport difficulties would cause them severestress. “Those who go on strike must realize the plight ofthe students sitting the exams today,” one parent told theITN television network. “Don’t they have children of theirown?” But a trade union spokesman said staff would notreturn to work until their demands for higher pay were met.And he condemned parliament for declaring railways anessential service, effectively making the strike illegal. “Wedid not want to cause inconvenience to the students, butwe are continuing the strike because the governmentslapped the essential services order against us,” JanakaFernando said.

New ‘supernote’ found SEOUL: A new high-quality counterfeit $100 bill has beenfound in South Korea, bank officials said yesterday,prompting suggestions the sanctions-hit North might haveresumed forging “supernotes”. A team of forgery special-ists at KEB Hana Bank have confirmed that a $100 notefound at a Seoul branch in November was a fake which wasalmost impossible to distinguish from real banknotes, theysaid. “It was the first of a new kind of supernote ever foundin the world,” Yi Ho-Joong, head of the KEB Hana Bank’santi-counterfeit centre said. Previous “supernotes” weredated either 2001 or 2003 but the new forgery is dated2006. The same methods including raised and dentedprinting and no-smudge inks that are normally used for realbanknotes have been applied to the newly found super-note, he said. “You need facilities worth some $100 millionto produce counterfeit bills of this quality and no crimerings would invest that much to make fake dollars,” he said.

French oppn veers rightPARIS: France’s new opposition leader Laurent Wauquiezscrambled yesterday to hold his Republicans party togeth-er, two days after it picked the controversial rightwinger totake on centrist President Emmanuel Macron. Wauquiezwas elected head of the centre-right Republicans onSunday, running on a hard-right platform that has seen himaccused of cosying up to far-right National Front (FN)voters. Twenty-four hours later, Xavier Bertrand, a partyheavyweight from the northern Pas-de-Calais region, quitthe Republicans-the first of a handful of politicians to walkout. “I no longer recognize my political family, so I’vedecided to quit,” Bertrand, a moderate who served as theparty’s secretary-general from 2007 to 2010, said Mondayevening, accusing Wauquiez of “aggressiveness”. OnTuesday, the mayor of the northern town of Roubaix,Guillaume Delbar, followed suit, as did two other Bertrandloyalists in the north.

India bans condom

ads during prime time

SRINAGAR: A Kashmiri resident walks along a road following fresh snowfall on the outskirts ofSrinagar yesterday. —AFP

A British murderer appeals convictionHONG KONG: A British banker jailed for life for the horri-fying murder of two Indonesian women at his upscaleHong Kong apartment in a cocaine-fuelled rampageappealed against his conviction yesterday. CambridgeUniversity graduate Rurik Jutting tortured Sumarti Ningsihfor three days-filming parts of her ordeal on his phone-before slashing her throat with a serrated knife and stuff-ing her body into a suitcase.

Days later, and with Ningsih’s corpse on his balcony,the former Bank of America worker picked up SenengMujiasih, intending to play out the same fantasies. He killedher when she started screaming. Jutting, now 32, hadpleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of dimin-ished responsibility but was found guilty of murder withthe judge at the time describing the killings as “sickeningin the extreme”.

However, Jutting’s defense team yesterday argued thatjudge Michael Stuart-Moore had repeatedly given wrongdirections to the jury during the trial last year whenexplaining how they should determine whether his stateof mind had impaired his responsibility for his actions.Defense lawyer Gerard McCoy argued the judge hadwrongly told the jury to look for mental “disorders”rather than the broader spectrum of “abnormality of themind”. “Abnormality of mind need not be a disorder,”McCoy told the court Tuesday. “The judge has wronglyand prescriptively directed the jury that they should lookfor disorders because disorders are what is an abnormal-ity of mind,” he added.

Diminished responsibilityThe defense team during the trial had argued that

Jutting’s mental responsibility had been substantiallyaffected by heavy alcohol and cocaine use as well as sexu-al sadism and narcissistic personality disorders. Not allfour medical experts who testified agreed that Jutting’sbehavior met the criteria for a “disorder” in all four areas,

said McCoy. However, they did all find that Jutting wassuffering from an abnormality of mind because he hadimpaired mental functioning, he added. “The ground ofappeal is the judge wrongly directed the jury as to the truemeaning of abnormality of the mind,” McCoy argued yes-terday afternoon.

“All four experts agreed there were four concurrentabnormalities of the mind,” he added. “That’s what the juryshould have been asked: did those four functionings con-stitute an abnormality of the mind?” Jutting was alert andtaking notes in court Tuesday, dressed in a blue shirt andwearing dark-rimmed glasses, at one point smiling andtalking with the guards in the dock. In the gruelling 10-day

trial last October and November, the jury heard howJutting became obsessed with slavery, rape and torture-fantasies he acted out on his first victim, Ningsih.

The jury was forced to watch iPhone footage of partsof the attack as well as Jutting’s own self-recordeddescriptions of how he had used pliers, sex toys and a beltduring the killing. He then went on to murder his secondvictim, Mujiasih, slashing her throat in his living room. Atthe end of the trial, Stuart-Moore said Jutting had knownwhat he was doing and described him as an “archetypalsexual predator” who presented an extreme danger towomen. The hearing will continue today for prosecutionarguments.—AFP

Nehru-Gandhi dynasty; the 5 things to know NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi, the scion of India’s Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, was Monday named as the newleader of the main opposition Congress party, which hasruled the country for much of its independent history. Hereare five key things to know about India’s most famouspolitical family:

Longevity The Nehru-Gandhi family has dominated Indian politics

since independence from Britain in 1947, when JawaharlalNehru became the country’s first prime minister. Thedynasty has produced three prime ministers and a memberof the family has been in charge of the country for nearly50 of the 70 years since independence. The Gandhi sur-name derives from Feroze Gandhi, who married Nehru’sdaughter Indira in 1942. He was unrelated to MahatmaGandhi, but sharing his name is unlikely to have harmedthe family’s political fortunes.

TragedyIn 1984, Nehru’s only daughter Indira Gandhi was

assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards when she was primeminister, following a deadly confrontation between Indiansecurity forces and Sikh separatist militants at the GoldenTemple in Punjab state. She had groomed her younger sonSanjay to be her political heir, but he was killed in 1980when the small plane he was piloting crashed. Her eldestson Rajiv reluctantly took over her political mantle, andserved as prime minister from 1984 to 1989. He too wasassassinated in 1991.

SecrecyThe family has long cultivated an air of secrecy that some

see as alien to modern politics. Even the details of Rahul’spromotion to president were shrouded in mystery, with

Indian media taken by sur-prise at every turn. The par-ty’s outgoing president,Rajiv’s Italian-born widowSonia Gandhi, has said noth-ing publicly about her inten-tion to stand down after 19years. There has been spec-ulation about her health sinceshe travelled to the UnitedStates in 2011 for surgery.She was believed to be suf-fering from cancer, but thishas never been confirmed. Rahul’s sister, the charismaticPriyanka Gandhi Vadra, is hardly seen in public except onthe rare occasions she campaigns for the party. RahulGandhi rarely gives interviews to the media and onlyrecently took to social media-a space his political rivalNarendra Modi has conquered-in earnest.

DominanceThe Nehru-Gandhi family’s decades-long dominance of

Indian politics began to diminish in the late 1990s with thefortunes of the Congress party. Critics blamed the declineon a failure to identify with a new class of aspirationalyoung voters. After Rajiv’s death, the party was not led bya member of the Nehru-Gandhi family for several years,but in 1998, Sonia Gandhi agreed to take over. She pro-pelled Congress back to power in 2004 and ruled behindthe scenes for 10 years. But in 2014, the party was routedby the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party following a stringof corruption scandals.

FutureDespite a series of electoral setbacks, few in the party

have questioned the leadership of Sonia and Rahul. Manyparty veterans regard Sonia as untouchable after sheagreed to take on the party presidency but turned downthe chance of high office, choosing instead to rule frombehind the scenes. But analysts see her hand in Rahul’selevation and warn that her reputation and that of thedynasty as a whole-now hangs on his performance asparty leader.—AFP

HONG KONG: A migrant worker holds up a piece of paper showing photos of Sumarti Ningsih (left) andSeneng Mujiasih (right), both in their 20s, who were found dead in British banker Rurik Jutting’s Hong Kongapartment on November 1, 2014. —AFP

Rahul Gandhi

In Jakarta, flood-hit slum residents aim for a drier futureJAKARTA: Whenever floods hit her one-room shack innorthern Jakarta, Irma Susanti hangs her most preciousfurniture - a bed and a table - from the ceiling with a rope.“You can never be too prepared,” says the resident ofMuara Angke, a coastal area in Jakarta. In July alone heavyrains flooded her home up to knee level, she said.

“But that wasn’t the worst - once, the water was up toour necks and destroyed all the food, clothes, everything,”she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, mimicking theaction of waves with her arm. Jakarta, a coastal city builton a swampy plain, faces no end of flood worries, not leastbecause roughly 40 percent of its land sits below sea level.Increases in sea level and regular floods from heavy rainand monsoons, combined with crumbling infrastructure tocope with excess water, mean the city’s slumdwellers oftenface the brunt of water problems, experts say.

But an effort by the city to rehouse some of the city’sthreatened poor in low-cost but flood-resilient buildings iswinning converts, not least among flood-battered slumd-wellers. “Residents in informal settlements along the river-bank, like (in) Muara Angke, are most at risk of flooding,”said Nyoman Prayoga, flood resilience program managerat charity Mercy Corps Indonesia. “Not only are theyexposed to sea-level rise, they also have to deal with thedrainage system being clogged up with trash, which makesthe flooding worse,” he added.

The Indonesian government is trying to address the grow-ing problem by demolishing homes in flood-prone areas likeMuara Angke to make way for new, affordable housing, saidMuhammed Andri, head of the Penjaringan district in north-ern Jakarta. “Four years ago, 90 percent of the district wasflooded, and people’s homes and belongings destroyed,” theofficial said. “Since then we’ve relocated 1,200 families tonew low-cost buildings in the area.” —Reuters

By repeatedly hitting out at the US move to recognizeJerusalem as Israel’s capital, President Recep TayyipErdogan may be catering to his voter base, but he riskssabotaging Turkey’s already fragile relations with theJewish state. While US President Donald Trump’s deci-sion last week was met with near-universal condemna-tion, particularly from the Muslim world, Erdogan hasemerged as its most outspoken critic.

Following Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalemas Israel’s capital and to move the embassy there,Erdogan has levelled a string of accusations againstIsrael and the US, in his usual strident style. Amongother things he said Israel was a “terrorist state” thatkills Palestinian children, adding that the US had“become a partner to this bloodshed”. Such sentimentsecho those held by many among Erdogan’s traditionalvoter base of Sunni Muslims in Turkey. His statementshave also galvanized his popularity among someMuslims in the Arab world.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu respond-ed to Erdogan, saying he was “not used to receivinglectures about morality from a leader who bombsKurdish villagers in his native Turkey, who jails journal-ists, who helps Iran go around international sanctions,and who helps terrorists, including in Gaza”. Erdogan,who considers himself a fervent supporter of thePalestinians, will hold a summit of leaders of Muslimcountries today, which he claimed will mark a “turningpoint” in the response to Washington’s decision.Traditional heavyweights of the Middle East like SaudiArabia and Egypt have condemned the move, but with-out announcing any concrete measures of their own.

‘Serious risk’ Erdogan, who comes from a conservative Islamist

background, frequently criticizes Israel and does notconceal his support for the Palestinian Islamist move-ment Hamas, listed as a terrorist organization by theUS, Israel and several countries around the world. Hisstatements have been “consistent with the prevailingfeelings among his own followers inside Turkey”, saidMarc Pierini, visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe andformer EU ambassador to Turkey.

But Erdogan’s escalation comes as Turkey and Israelare working to normalize ties since last year after anear-break in relations triggered by Israel’s storming of

a Gaza-bound ship in 2010 which left 10 Turkishactivists dead. “Given the Israeli reaction to thesestatements, there is indeed a serious risk for Turkey-Israel normalization. I think this is a risk that both sidesare ready to take,” Pierini said.

According to Aaron Stein, resident senior fellow atthe Atlantic Council’s Rafiq Hariri Centre, Erdogan is

already thinking about elections scheduled for Nov2019 when he is expected to run for a new term aspresident with boosted powers under an executivepresidency approved in an April referendum. By takinga firm stand against the Jerusalem move, it is “part ofhis broader effort to paint himself as the protector ofoppressed Muslims around the world,” Stein added.“The two sides don’t like each other, but are not stand-ing in the way of normal economic relations. I think thisis likely to continue, given Erdogan’s political calcula-tions and Netanyahu’s own legal and political prob-lems,” he added.

‘Domestic considerations prevail’ Sinan Ulgen, chairman of the Istanbul-based Centre

for Economics and Foreign Policy and visiting scholarat Carnegie Europe, believes that Erdogan’s rhetoric onJerusalem more broadly reflects a shift in Turkey’s for-eign policy approach since the arrival of the Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2002.“Traditionally, Turkey was able, in its diplomatic prac-tice, to operate more in isolation from domestic politicalconsiderations,” Ulgen said. “This has changed underAKP rule so that Turkey finds itself at almost anotherextreme where most foreign policy decisions are drivenby domestic calculations.” Ulgen said that it was fromthis perspective that Turkey’s efforts to lead the cam-paign against the US move should be read. Erdogan“believes that there is public support at home to justifythis more aggressive rhetoric against Israel”, even if itrisks provoking a new diplomatic crisis, Ulgen said.“One more time, domestic considerations tend to prevailover more cautious diplomatic practice.” — AFP

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

10A N A LY S I S

Established 1961

Communities across the United States are looking toreplace their dirty diesel buses, ushering in what someanalysts predict will be a boom in electric fleets. Buttransit agencies doing the buying are moving cautious-ly, an analysis by Reuters shows. Out of more than65,000 public buses plying US roads today, just 300are electric. Among the challenges: EVs are expensive,have limited range and are unproven on a mass scale.

A typical 40-foot electric bus costs around$750,000, compared with about $435,000 for a dieselbus. Cheaper fuel and maintenance expenses can lowerthe overall costs over the 12-year life of the vehicles.But those costs can widely depending on utility rates,terrain and weather.

The technology is still a gamble for many cities at atime when bus ridership is falling nationwide and offi-cials are trying to keep a lid on fares, says ChrisStoddart, an executive at Canadian bus maker NewFlyer Industries Inc. A top supplier of conventionalbuses to the US market, the company has just a handfulof pure battery electrics in service. “People worryabout being an early adopter. Remember 20 years agosomeone paid $20,000 for a plasma TV and then 10years later it was $900 at Best Buy,” said Stoddart,senior vice president of engineering and customerservice for New Flyer. “People just don’t want a sci-ence project.”

Rival electric bus manufacturers expect dramaticgrowth; the most ambitious forecasts call for all buspurchases to be electric by 2030. But even green-ener-gy advocates are skeptical of such rosy predictions.CALSTART, a California-based nonprofit that pro-motes clean transportation, figures 50 percent to 60percent of new buses will be zero emissions by 2030.Market research firm Navigant Research expects elec-tric buses to make up 27 percent of new US bus salesby 2027.

Not Quite There YetTransit agencies have found EV performance lags in

extreme conditions. In environmentally friendly SanFrancisco, officials have resisted electrics over con-cerns about the city’s famously steep hills. “The tech-nology isn’t quite there yet,” Erica Kato, a spokes-woman for the San Francisco Municipal TransportationAgency, said in a statement. Weather is also a majorchallenge. An electric bus tested last year near Phoenixwilted in the summer heat due to the strains of runningthe air conditioning. The vehicle never achieved morethan 89.9 miles on a charge, less than two-thirds of itsadvertised range, according to a report by the ValleyMetro Regional Public Transportation Authority.

In Massachusetts, two agencies running small num-bers of electric buses - the Pioneer Valley TransitAuthority in Springfield and Worcester’s RegionalTransit Authority - say the vehicles weaken in extremecold and snow. They have no plans to acquire addition-al EVs, officials at those agencies said. Even placeswith successful pilots have downplayed expectations.Seattle’s King County Metro transit agency soon willbe operating more than a dozen vehicles by three man-ufacturers, according to Pete Melin, director of zeroemission fleet technologies. The agency likes what ithas seen so far.

Still, Melin said, high electricity rates from the localutility at peak demand periods are a concern. And thelack of a uniform charging system among bus makershas complicated Seattle’s goal of running an all-electricfleet by 2034. “We have caveats to becoming zeroemissions,” Melin said in an interview. Another worry isgovernment funding. Federal money for bus purchasesis about 25 percent lower than it was five years ago,according to Rob Healy, vice president of governmentaffairs for the American Public TransportationAssociation. An Obama-era program that sets aside$55 million a year in grants to help transit agenciespurchase clean buses will expire in 2020 if not renewedby Congress.

The EV Bus HeavyweightsIn addition to New Flyer, the fledgling US electric

bus industry has two other major players: Chineseautomaker BYD, which is backed by Warren Buffett’sBerkshire Hathaway Inc; and Silicon Valley startupProterra Inc. BYD and Proterra began selling electricbuses into the US market several years ago, and have165 and 126 vehicles on the road today, respectively.Both are ramping up US manufacturing on expecta-tions that EVs will account for nearly all new bus salesin a little over a decade. BYD has a plant in Lancaster,California, while Proterra has manufacturing facilities inCity of Industry, California and Greenville, SouthCarolina.

Buffett paid $230 million for a 10 percent stake inBYD in 2008. Today the company has a market capital-ization of $25 billion, thanks mainly to China’s aggres-sive move to electrify transportation. More than 15 per-cent of the 608,600 buses in China are pure electric,according to government data. Proterra investorsinclude venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield &Byers and the venture capital arm of General MotorsCo. Proterra, based in Burlingame, California, is plan-ning an initial public offering, but would not give atimeline for the debut.—Reuters

US cautious on electric buses despite forecasts

Erdogan risks diplomatic spat with Israel

Five years after a gunman killed 20 childrenand six adults at a Connecticut elementaryschool, advocates who are disappointed withthe failure of efforts to limit access tofirearms are changing their strategy. Insteadof pressuring lawmakers to push new gun-control measures through the US Congress,volunteers from groups including MomsDemand Action for Gun Sense in America arenow running for office themselves.

Nine of 13 volunteers trained by the groupran for office this year and won seats, rangingfrom New Hampshire state representative tocity council member in West UniversityPlace, Texas. Fourteen more have alreadydeclared their intentions to run for office in2018, seeking seats in Congress, state legisla-tures and local government, all running asDemocrats. “The reality is that the workdoesn’t really start in Congress. That’s whereit ends,” said Moms Demand Action founderShannon Watts, who launched her group theday after the Dec. 14, 2012, massacre atSandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown,Connecticut.

The group began training candidates aftermore than 400 of its 70,000 members saidthey were interested in running for office.“This is a marathon, not a sprint,” Watts said.“It’s going to take several election cycles.”Even if the next class of candidates, none ofwhom are running as Republicans, succeed inwinning office, they will face an uphill battleagainst a US Congress controlled byRepublicans, who are staunch defenders ofthe right to bear arms protected by theSecond Amendment of the US Constitution.

Sandy Hook was at the time the second-deadliest mass shooting carried out by a sin-gle gunman in US history. It sparked new

energy among gun-control advocates whopushed for fresh federal restrictions onassault weapons, which were blocked byRepublican lawmakers and the powerfulNational Rifle Association lobby. A steadystream of mass shootings have continuedacross the United States since Sandy Hook,including two deadlier incidents - the slaugh-ter of 58 people at a Las Vegas concert inOctober and the massacre of 49 people at anOrlando gay nightclub last year.

Grassroots EffortMark Barden, whose son Daniel was

among the 20 first graders kil led inNewtown, said he believes grass rootsachievements like the new crop of gun-con-trol candidates will lead to more action.“This is a social change and it takes time,”Barden said. “What’s happening in Congressnotwithstanding, the change is going tocome from the ground up.”

In the meantime, Barden is working withSandy Hook Promise, a volunteer effort toprevent more shooting deaths. The groupsaid that in the past two years it has trained2.5 million students and families to recognizesigns of potential gun violence and reportthem to authorities. Social change, whether itis about drunk driving or recycling, comesfrom the ground up, said Nicole Hockley,whose 6-year-old son Dylan died in theSandy Hook attack. “In the gun violence pre-vention movement, we have not focused ongetting behavioral change. It’s all beenfocused on top-down and that is not how youget change,” she said.

Next year’s class of gun-control candi-dates includes a mother whose son was shotdead and a bystander paralyzed from themiddle of her chest down in a drive-byshooting. Lara Kennedy is running for USHouse of Representatives in the Texas districtthat encompasses Austin and north of SanAntonio. Lucy McBath, whose only childJordan Davis was shot dead after an argu-ment over music while parked in Florida in2012, is running for the Georgia House ofRepresentatives.—Reuters

US gun control advocatesswitch strategy

When Sheila Chimoyo’s husband died in2011, it didn’t take long before accusationsstarted to fly. Her in-laws claimed she hadused witchcraft to kill her husband, andseized the small house where she lived withher two children in the Zimbabwean capitalHarare. “I was accused of bewitching myhusband. I am not a witch and I did not killmy husband. It was a terrible experiencebecause everything happened when I wasstill mourning,” she said. “I hope and prayother women will not go through what Iwent through,” she told the ThomsonReuters Foundation.

But Chimoyo is not alone. Many widowsin Zimbabwe lose property to in-laws, evenon the day their husband dies. ManyZimbabwean widows face insurmountableobstacles defending their property or tak-ing legal steps to reclaim it, according to areport by Human Rights Watch publishedlast January.

Fending off relatives while mourningtheir husbands and selling assets like cattleto pay court fees to fight eviction wereamong the challenges widows face, thereport said.

“This is a problem I am familiar withsince I am a widow that suffered the samefate,” Zimbabwe legislator PriscillaMisihairabwi-Mushonga told the ThomsonReuters Foundation. She was widowedafter her husband died from injuries sus-tained in a botched armed robbery at herhome. Even though she is an influentialpolitician and a former government minis-ter, in 2010 she signed over her late hus-band’s estate to his relatives after theyhounded her for months - both on her

doorstep and in the courts.

Customary LawThe country’s 2012 national census

counted more than half a million widows inthe country, most of them over 60 yearsold. And at least 70 percent of women inrural areas are in unregistered traditionalmarriages and are living under customarylaw, say rights groups, which offers no pro-tection when it comes to property. “Manywidows lose property on the day their hus-bands die, whilst they are mourning,”Misihairabwi-Mushonga said. “Relativesbegin to take livestock from the widow andon extreme cases will insist that if sherefuses (to marry another member of thefamily) she can’t continue to stay in thefamily homestead.”

In cities, this also includes cars, furni-ture and banishing the widow from thematrimonial home. “Once in court, widowswithout an official record of their marriage,if it was a customary union, face a lot ofchallenges. Courts look to the in-laws -the very people who stand to gain - toconfirm the marriage, putting widows atthe mercy of their husband’s family,” saidthe Human Rights Watch report.

In 2013, Zimbabwe adopted a new con-stitution which has provisions for equalrights for women, including for inheritanceand property. But, in practice, the reportsaid, existing laws only apply to widows inofficially registered marriages. The oustinglast month of former President RobertMugabe brought to power his former vicepresident, Emmerson Mnangagwa. It wasnot clear what steps Zimbabwe’s post-Mugabe government would take to protectthe land rights of widows. The newMinister of Justice, Ziyambi Ziyambi, saidthe government would look into the issue.“I am only a day in office but we will lookinto the problems and see how best we canaddress them,” Ziyambi told the ThomsonReuters Foundation.—Reuters

Zimbabwewidows leftin the cold

Popularity of president

boosted among Muslims

THE LEADING INDEPENDENTDAILY IN THE ARABIAN GULF

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Founder and Publisher YOUSUF S. AL-ALYAN

Editor-in-ChiefABD AL-RAHMAN AL-ALYAN

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Continued from Page 1

The Kuwaiti envoy explained how human traffickinghas morphed into a global dilemma with destructive

effects on the social and economic fronts, citing effec-tive legislations Kuwait has passed in efforts to crackdown on this nefarious practice.

In a related note, Sabeeh said that he was ecstaticthat Kuwait has been granted “observer status” at theInternational Organization for Migration, which is a tes-tament to the country’s diligent efforts to eradicatesocial ills. Meanwhile, Amy Mahoney, the head of theIOM’s counter-trafficking and protection unit in NewYork, heaped praise on Kuwait for its commitment tocrush human trafficking. — KUNA

Kuwait keen to clamp down on...

Continued from Page 1

He says the center is financed locally but seekingadditional funds to take in more foreigners and open abranch for female IS members.

Inside, patients shuffle into classrooms for group andindividual therapy sessions as well as courses onIslamic law, civil rights, and psychology. Some sportbeards and others are clean-shaven. Most wear anunofficial uniform of bright sweatshirts under sleevelessback vests. “The courses are similar to corrective treat-ment, giving them positive outlooks on themselves andtheir abilities,” says the centre’s psychosocial therapistAbdulkarim Darwish.

Darwish listens to their life stories, then runs therapysessions to identify what social factors led them to joinIS. During breaks, the ex-militants pray, eat modestmeals on mattresses lined around a windowless room,and play chess - one of the many forms of entertain-ment IS considered un-Islamic - or spend time with

their wives and children, who also stay at the center. “I never thought I would turn into a militant,” says

Hawas Al-Ali, 26, who quit his job as a cook in northernIraq in 2016 and moved to east Syria. He joined an ISpolice unit deployed to bolster flailing militant fightingbattalions. “My aim was the victory of Islam, but after awhile I began thinking about returning to civilian life,society, my relatives and children,” says Ali. He checkedhimself into the center and now says he’s excited toreturn “to my life before Daesh (IS)”. Ali fears beingarrested if he returns to Iraq, so for now is stuck innorthern Syria and may travel to Turkey.

Ashraf Nasir, 24, says he is ready to become againan active member of a society which IS once terrorized.“I’m an essential part of society - I didn’t come fromunder a rock or from Mars, even though I joinedDaesh,” he says. The problem, Nasir worries, lies in“how society will accept us”. Going home will be evenharder for foreigners like Muslim Gadzhimetov. TheUkrainian entered Syria in 2016 coming from Turkey tojoin IS and earlier this year he was detained by rebels.Gadzhimetov says he decided to defect when helearned of the atrocities committed by IS against otherMuslims. “I consider myself guilty for this,” he says. “Ofcourse I want to socialize and so on, I want to return tocivilian life. I dream about this life.” — AFP

Chess, therapy for ex-militants...

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron delivered ableak assessment on the global fight against climatechange to dozens of world leaders and company execu-tives yesterday, telling them: “We are losing the battle”.“We’re not moving quickly enough. We all need to act,”Macron said, seeking to breathe new life into a collec-tive effort that was weakened this summer whenPresident Donald Trump said he was pulling the UnitedStates out of an international accord brokered in theFrench capital two years ago.

Modern-day science was revealing with each day thedanger that global warming posed to the planet, he said.“We are losing the battle,” he said, urging the assembledheads of states, ministers and executives to launch anew phase in the fight against global warming. No inter-nationally binding commitments were to be made atyesterday’s “One Planet” summit.

In focus is how public and private financial institu-tions can mobilize more money and how investors canpressure corporate giants to shift towards more ecolog-ically friendly strategies. More than 200 institutionalinvestors with $26 trillion in assets under managementsaid yesterday they would step up pressure on theworld’s biggest corporate greenhouse gas emitters tocombat climate change. That, they said, would be moreeffective than threatening to pull the plug on theirinvestments in companies, which include Coal India,Gazprom, Exxon Mobil and China Petroleum &

Chemical Corp. Separately, European Commission VicePresident Valdis Dombrovskis said the executive was“looking positively” at plans to reduce capital require-ments for environmentally-friendly investments bybanks in a bid to boost the green economy. The movecould be part of a broader set of measures the EU plansto present in March to meet the target of cutting carbonemissions by 40 percent by 2030, for which it estimatesaround Ä180 billion ($212.2 billion) in additional low-carbon investments are needed per year.

Climate change is causing more frequent and severeflooding, droughts, storms and heatwaves as averageglobal temperatures rise to new records, sea ice melts inthe Arctic and sea levels rise. Developing nations say therich are lagging with a commitment dating back to 2009to provide $100 billion a year by 2020 - from publicand private sources alike - to help them switch from fos-sil fuels to greener energy sources and adapt to theeffects of climate change. “The missing piece of the jig-saw is the funding to help the world’s poorer countriesaccess clean energy so they don’t follow the fossil fuel-powered path of the rich world,” said Mohamed Adow,charity Christian Aid’s lead on climate change.

Yesterday, the European Commission unveiled 9 bil-lion euros worth of investments targeting sustainablecities, sustainable energy and sustainable agriculture forAfrica and EU neighborhood countries. Some 50 worldleaders and ministers are in Paris, including MexicanPresident Enrique Pena Nieto and leaders of states atthe sharp end of climate change such as Chad, Boliviaand Haiti. The United States has sent only an official del-egation from the Paris Embassy, but screen superstarsLeonardo Di Caprio and Arnold Schwarzenegger andCalifornia Governor Jerry Brown, leader of the world’ssixth largest economy, are championing more action. Ina pointed piece of timing, Macron used the eve of thesummit to award 18 grants to foreign climate scientists,most of whom are currently US-based, to come andwork in France. — Reuters

Macron warns world losing battle against climate change

KUWAIT: Workers conduct maintenance on overhead power lines yesterday. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

LONDON: Saracens director of rugby says theEuropean champions have given themselves six weeksto save their season after crashing to their sixth succes-sive defeat. The team went down 46-14 to Clermont onMonday-their heaviest-ever defeat in European com-petition-capping a miserable weekend for EnglishPremiership clubs.

The Pool 2 match had been delayed by a day due toadverse conditions around Allianz Park but it was theFrench giants who adapted better to the unfamiliarMonday late afternoon kick-off in front of a near-emp-ty stadium.

“We didn’t see thatcoming,” said McCall. “Iknow we’ve lost a fewgames in a row but theywere relatively tightgames that we lost by apoint or two here orthere.” McCall said heand the players had puttheir heads together afterthe match a repeat of lastseason’s final-to thrashout how the two-timedefending Europeanchampions could pull themselves out of their slump.

“What we said in the changing room is that by theend of January we hope we can be proud of how werespond to this difficult situation we find ourselves in,”he said. “Potentially, that isn’t just about outcomesbecause we have a difficult game against Clermontaway in six days-it’s also about staying tight as a groupand sticking together as a group.

“We’ve got enough good players at the club andpeople who care about the club enough to respond inthe right way over a six-week period.” The rivals meetagain in France on Sunday with Clermont now occupy-

ing first place in Pool 2 with three rounds of the groupphase remaining-the final two matches will be playedon successive weekends in January.

Clermont were infuriated by the decision to post-pone the fixture from 3:15 pm on Sunday to 5:30 pm onMonday due to the hazardous condition of theapproaches to the stadium after a night of snowfall.

Last season’s beaten finalists said they were notconsulted throughout a process they described as“completely absurd” and were angry at multiplechanges to the kick-off time for the rearranged fixture.

The main target oftheir ire was ChampionsCup organisersEuropean ProfessionalClub Rugby (EPCR),which Saracens ownerNigel Wray claimed wasnot fit for purpose. On amiserable weekend forEnglish clubs in theEuropean ChampionsCup, Harlequins, Wasps,Exeter, Bath,Northampton andLeicester also lost.

Northampton, whose European hopes are all butover, announced on Tuesday they had sacked long-serving director of rugby Jim Mallinder.

Meanwhile, English Premiership side Northamptonyesterday announced the sacking of long-servingdirector of rugby Jim Mallinder following a string ofpoor results.

The club’s board said in a statement that a change inmanagement-with immediate effect-was in the bestinterests of the club, who have lost their past fourmatches. “Jim has been an outstanding director of rug-by,” said chairman John White. “We have been very

lucky to have him at Franklin’s Gardens and he willalways be a part of the Saints family.

“This is not a decision that has been taken lightly butthe board and major shareholders felt that the time wasright for some change.”

Alan Dickens, the club’s attack coach, will take over

as interim head coach until a replacement is found forMallinder, who was appointed in 2007.

Saints were Premiership champions in 2014 but arecurrently languishing in 10th spot and are on the brinkof elimination from the European Champions Cup afterSaturday’s defeat by the Ospreys. —AFP

Wednesday, December 13, 2017S p o r t s

Established 1961

McCall gives Sarries January deadline to save season

Northampton sack director of rugby Mallinder

12

We didn’t see that coming

MOSCOW: The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC)yesterday gave a green light for its athletes to com-pete under a neutral flag at the 2018 Winter Olympicsdespite a ban on the country’s national team.

“We all had the same opinion: our athletes need togo to South Korea and try to bring back a victory forRussia. Russian athletes have expressed their will totake part in the games,” the ROC president AlexanderZhukov, who is suspended from the IOC, told a press-conference in Moscow.

The ROC “will respect the will of every athlete. TheROC will take all necessary measures for financial,legal and sport-related assistance for those who willtake part in the games and those who will be refusedor will not receive an invitation”, Zhukov added.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) lastweek decided to ban Russia from the 2018 Games,from February 9-25, over accusations of a state-spon-sored doping programme at the 2014 Sochi Games.

It said it would only allow “clean” Russian athletesto participate under strict conditions and under theOlympic flag. Zhukov said the Russian OlympicCommittee will send a delegation to Lausanne,—AFP

ROC approves athletes competingunder neutral flag

Mark McCall

By Abdellatif Sharaa

KUWAIT: Kuwait ShootingSporting Club with the sup-port of Sheikha Latifa Al-Fahad Al-Salem Al-Sabah willorganize the annual tourna-ment of the Late Sheikh FahadAl-Salem shooting tourna-ment. Starting tomorrow inthe Olympic skeet, trap, dou-ble trap, 10m air pistol andrifle, 50m pistol and rifle, inaddition to the Olympicarchery with the participationof Kuwait National teamsmembers as well shooters from the national guard, UAEand Qatar shooting federations. Secretary General ofKuwait and Arab Shooting Federations thanked SheikhaLatifa for her support and patronage of this annual tourna-ment, which carries the name of one of Kuwait’s nationalsymbols who contributed to the development and flourish-ment of modern Kuwait.

Obaid Al-Osaimi welcomed the participation of UAEand Qatari shooters pointing out this tournament attractslarge participation. He said that local competitions and thesupport it receives from respectable dignitaries andnational contributions, all in the interest of youth and con-tributes significantly to the local activities of the club andhelp enhance the technical level of Kuwait shooters.

The tournament will conclude on Saturday with a clos-ing ceremony at Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad OlympicShooting Complex.

Late Sheikh Fahad Al-Salem shooting tournament begins tomorrow

Obaid Al-Osaimi

MOSCOW: The President of the Russian Olympic Committee, Alexander Zhukov (5thR) and officials prepare to start a meeting in Moscow yesterday on decidinghow to respond to IOC ban on Russia participating in Winter Games. — AFP

MOSCOW: Russia’s Olympic Committee agreed yester-day to support its athletes who choose to compete innext year’s Winter Games in South Korea as neutralsfollowing a ban on the Russian national team.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) lastweek banned Russia from the Games, due to take placein Pyeongchang in February, for what it called“unprecedented systematic manipulation” of the anti-doping system.

But it left the door open for Russian athletes with aclean history of non-doping to be invited to compete asneutrals under an Olympic flag, not a Russian one.

President Vladimir Putin said last week Russia wouldnot prevent its athletes from competing, dismissing callsby some for a boycott, and an ROC official said onMonday most Russian athletes still wanted to attend.

The Russian committee(ROC) agreed its position ata meeting on Tuesday attended by sporting figuresincluding the national men’s hockey team, figureskaters, speed skaters and the presidents of winter

sports federations. ROC President Alexander Zhukovsaid: “All the participants were of the same opinion -our sportsmen need to go to Korea, need to compete,achieve victory for the glory of Russia, for the glory ofour motherland.” Zhukov said Russia would do its bestto support Russian athletes competing under a neutralflag and hold serious talks with the IOC in the nearfuture to discuss the problems and practicalities of thearrangement. He did not say what form this supportwould take.

“Russian sportsmen have stated their readiness totake part in the Olympic Games, despite the difficultconditions and decision of the IOC, which is undoubt-edly unfair in many ways,” he said. Zhukov added thatRussia would also support the athletes who had decid-ed not to compete in Pyeongchang.

Senior Russian Olympic official Vitaly Smirnov, whoheads Russia’s state-backed anti-doping commission,said the country had made the “right decision” not toboycott. “A boycott is not a solution,” Smirnov said.“That (would mean) new sanctions and problems forour athletes.” In the weeks leading up to the IOC ban,more than 20 Russian athletes who competed at the2014 Sochi Games were banned for life from theOlympics for allegedly breaching anti-doping rules.

Russian authorities have vehemently denied anystate support for doping and have pledged to co-oper-ate with international sports bodies to counter the useof banned performance-enhancing drugs.

Russia’s athletics federation, paralympic committeeand anti-doping agency RUSADA remain suspendedover doping scandals.

“OLYMPIC ATHLETE FROM RUSSIA”Sitting in the front row of the Russian Olympic

Committee auditorium ahead of the meeting, hockeystar Ilya Kovalchuk said he would not mind competingat the Games as an “Olympic Athlete from Russia,” theterm the IOC uses to designate the Russians who willgo to Pyeongchang.

“We are athletes from Russia, after all,” Kovalchuktold reporters. “They took the flag away but they can’ttake away our honour and our conscience.”

Kovalchuk, one of the first to call for athletes tocompete in Pyeongchang after the IOC ban, thankedauthorities for taking the opinions of athletes into con-sideration. “Thank you for having heard us, for havingbelieved us,” Kovalchuk said. “I think that every athletewho takes part in the Olympic Games in Pyeonchangwill do everything possible.”

Olympic fencer Sofya Velikaya, chair of the ROC’sathletes commission, called on the Russian public torespect athletes’ decisions to go to Pyeongchang amidconcerns that some could be branded traitors foragreeing to compete without the country’s flag. “Theathletes will show their love for their motherland andtheir patriotism through their results, through theiraccomplishments and medals,” Velikaya said. —AFP

Russia’s Olympic Committee to support neutral athletes at Winter Games

SYDNEY: Australia all-rounder Mitchell Marsh said hewas ready to go if his improved batting in domesticcricket earned him the nod for the third Ashes testagainst England that starts in Perth tomorrow.

The 26-year-old underwent shoulder surgery earlierthis year and faced nine months on the sidelines butreturned for Western Australia in October and scored680 runs in all forms of cricket at an average of 68.

He has scored two centuries, a 95 and 80 in his 14

innings and is expected to be in competition with PeterHandscomb for a position in the third Test lineup. Ifselected, elder brother Shaun is likely to move to num-ber five with Mitchell slotting in at six, where his medi-um-pace bowling will complement the all-out pace trioof Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins.

“I am renowned as the ‘glue’ of the fast bowling car-tel,” Marsh told reporters in Perth yesterday. “I did abit of sucking up and I’m back in their WhatsAppgroup. The cartel are happy to have me back. I gotinvited to dinner last night. It was a huge honour,” headded with a laugh.

While Marsh’s improved batting had no doubt puthim back in the frame, the all-rounder said his recon-structed shoulder was holding up well to the rigours ofbowling. “Shoulder’s feeling really good, body’s feelingreally good, got through the last two Shield gamesbowling, ready to go if I get the chance,” he said.

“I know I’m in great form at the moment, I probablydidn’t expect to get back in so soon after my injury. I’veworked hard over the last nine months to get my bodyback into shape. “If I get an opportunity to play, I’llbowl as many overs as Smudger (captain Steve Smith)needs me to bowl.

“Rhythm-wise, the ball’s coming out really well,pace-wise I think I’m up where I was 18 months ago.”Marsh added that his possible test return on his homeground, which was hard and generating good pace,would be special if he gets to play with his brother, butthe job was to wrap up the series with two testsremaining.

“It’d nice to be back playing for Australia and play-ing with Shaun again, it’s always special,” he said. “Butwe’re playing an Ashes test and we have an opportunityto win the series so all I’m focused on, if I get an oppor-tunity, is doing my job for the team.” — Reuters

Marsh raring to go if called in Perth Test

Wednesday, December 13, 2017S p o r t s

Established 1961

New Zealand wrap up Windies series with 240-run victory

SCOREBOARD

New Zealand first innings 373 (J. Raval 84, C. deGrandhomme 58; Gabriel 4-119, Roach 3-58).West Indies first innings 221 (K. Brathwaite 66; Boult 4-73)New Zealand second innings 291-8 dec (R. Taylor 107not out, K. Williamson 54; Cummins 3-69).

West Indies second innings (overnight 30-2)K. Brathwaite c Williamson b Boult 20 K. Powell c Southee b Boult 0S. Hetmyer c Wagner b Southee 15S. Hope c de Grandhomme b Wagner 23R. Chase c de Grandhomme b Wagner 64S. Ambris retired hurt 5S. Dowrich c Nicholls b Wagner 0R. Reifer c Williamson b Southee 29K. Roach b Santner 32M. Cummins c Boult b Santner 9 S. Gabriel not out 0Extras: (lb5, w1) 6Total: (for 9 wickets; 63.5 overs) 203Fall of wickets: 1-4 (Powell), 2-27 (Hetmyer), 3-43(Brathwaite), 4-68 (Hope), 4-80 (Ambris retired), 5-80 (Dowrich), 6-158(Chase), 7-166 (Reifer), 8-203 (Cummins), 9-203(Roach)Bowling: Southee 19-3-71-2, Boult 16-1-52-2, Wagner15-5-42-3 (1w), de Grandhomme 9-5-20-0, Santner 4.5-0-13-2

Result: New Zealand won by 240 runsSeries: New Zealand won 2-0

HAMILTON: Scoreboard in the second Test betweenNew Zealand and the West Indies in Hamilton yesterday:

Hostile Neil Wagner bounces out Windies

13

HAMILTON: New Zealand congratulated themselveson a smart plan as they decimated the West Indies witha day to spare in the second Test to sweep the series 2-0 yesterday. The tourists struggled to cope in theirsecond innings against New Zealand’s three-prongedfast bowling attack in Hamilton, particularly against abarrage of bouncers from Neil Wagner.

A brutal spell from Wagner produced three wicketsand a broken arm as the hosts romped to a 240-runvictory. The West Indies, set a target of 444 to win afterlosing the first Test by an innings, folded at nine for 203with the injured Sunil Ambris unable to continue bat-ting. “The way we were able to keep putting pressureon them with the ball and bat was a credit to the waywe executed our plans,” said captain Kane Williamson.

“Here the bounce became a little bit variable whichis great in a Test match. You want to see the surfaceage a little bit and the way (the bowlers) were able toexecute plans was outstanding.”

Wagner, who tormented the West Indies throughoutthe series with his aggressive short balls, took three for42 while new-ball pair Tim Southee and Trent Boultgrabbed two wickets apiece, as did spinner MitchellSantner. The victory improved New Zealand’s homerecord to 13 wins, three losses and seven draws in theirlast 10 home series.

‘DIDN’T WORK OUT’ While Wagner was the chief destroyer, Williamson

said the two significant factors were Boult andSouthee’s 61-run stand at the tail of the first innings andRoss Taylor’s unbeaten 107 in the second. West Indiescaptain Kraigg Brathwaite laid the blame on his bats-

men for failing to learn from the first Test when Wagnertook nine wickets. “We didn’t bat well. The key was totake it over by over, session by session. Obviously itdidn’t work out that way,” he said. “It’s key to haveyour plans worked out and be very decisive in yourshot selection.” Ambris was taken to hospital after avicious blow to the forearm during a blistering spell byWagner. It ended a tough Test baptism for Ambris whomade unwanted history in the opening Test when hebecame the first person to be out for a golden duck inhis debut innings by stepping on his wicket.

In the first innings of the second Test, his misfortunecontinued when he became the first person to step onhis stumps in consecutive Tests. Shai Hope, on 23, wasalso hit on the forearm by a rising Wagner delivery.

When play resumed after medical treatment, he tried totake on Wagner only to be caught at long leg.

Shane Dowrich lasted two balls after Ambris left,fending a Wagner bouncer to Henry Nicholls at shortleg. Roston Chase and Raymon Reifer manufactured asolid 78-run partnership until Chase, on 64, went insimilar fashion to Hope, pulling a Wagner bouncer tothe safe hands of de Grandhomme. Reifer was out soonafter for 29 as the tail folded with the last three wicketsadding 45. The series now moves to three one-dayinternationals and three Twenty20s with the tourists tobe reinforced with the inclusion of Chris Gayle andMarlon Samuels for all six matches, while AndreFletcher, Sunil Narine and Kieron Pollard will play theTwenty20s. —AFP

HAMILTON: Neil Wagner of New Zealand bowls during day four of the second Test cricket match between NewZealand and the West Indies at Seddon Park in Hamilton yesterday. — AFP

Win improved New Zealand’s

home record

MELBOURNE: England’s hopes of clawingtheir way back into an Ashes series fastslipping from their grip will be put to theultimate test at the WACA where thetourists have won only once in nearly 50years. The WACA bore witness to themeek surrender of the 2013/14 series byAlastair Cook’s England, and at 2-0 downafter Brisbane and Adelaide, Joe Root’smen face a similar predicament when thethird Test starts tomorrow.

With its traditionally quick and bouncywicket playing to the strengths of homepacemen, the WACA has been a house ofpain for English cricket and Australians willbe hoping for more of the same when theground hosts its final Test. One has to delvedeep in the records to even find the lasttime England drew a match.

That was in 1986, when Mike Gatting’sunlikely band of hard-partying tourists puton 592 in the first innings to frustrate AllanBorder’s team.

The maiden win was in 1978 when MikeBrearley’s side thrashed Graham Yallop-captained Australia by 166 runs, a victorythat might otherwise have been remem-bered as a triumph of English cricket butfor the fact that the hosts had been guttedby the World Series Cricket rebellion.Australia have beaten England in their lastseven matches at the WACA and with thehosts’ pacemen licking their lips, it maytake something truly special from JoeRoot’s men just to keep the series alive to

the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.Managing that would be a victory of

sorts, given England need only to squarethe five-test series at 2-2 to keep the cov-eted urn. Having fought hard but ultimatelycrumbled at both the Gabba and theAdelaide Oval, England’s chances of rally-ing at the WACA have been given shortshrift by bookmakers.

Their week has also included furtheroff-field problems with coach TrevorBayliss left fuming after English Lionsbatsman Ben Duckett poured a drink overthe head of James Anderson in a Perth bar.

And yet, a small increase in applicationby the tourists could ensure a contest atthe WACA. England have paid dearly for afew dreadful sessions and the scorelinehas, to an extent, flattered Steve Smith’sAustralia.

The vulnerability of the home side’s bat-ting was on full display in the secondinnings at Adelaide Oval as they crashedout for 133 to raise England’s hopes of anunlikely victory. Several of Australia’s bats-men are under pressure, most notablynumber five Peter Handscomb whose placecould be taken by Mitchell Marsh, an all-rounder with a poor batting record at testlevel. Anderson and the England seamers,meanwhile, will have enjoyed a boost ofconfidence from Adelaide, where CraigOverton provided much better supportthan Jake Ball at the Gabba.

More will be needed from the Englishbatsmen, though, given none have manageda century this series. Root and his mostsenior batsman Alastair Cook have beenparticularly culpable for failing to set thebenchmark by converting promising startsinto big scores. Both were present forEngland’s last capitulation at the WACAand will be desperate to make a contribu-tion to avoiding another. — Reuters

NEW YORK: Andrew Ladd and John Tavaresscored less than a minute apart early in thesecond period as the New York Islanderssnapped a three-game losing streak with a 3-1 win over the Washington Capitals atBarclays Center. Brock Nelson scored in thefirst period for the Islanders, who vaultedpast the idle New Jersey Devils into a tie forsecond place in the Metropolitan Divisionwith the Capitals. Jaroslav Halak recorded 31saves. Dmitry Orlov scored in the third periodfor the Capitals, who had their season-high,four-game winning streak halted as they lostfor the second time in the past nine games (7-2-0). Braden Holtby made nine saves beforebeing chased after Tavares’ goal. PhilippGrubauer stopped all 17 shots he faced.

AVALANCHE 2, PENGUINS 1Defenseman Mark Barberio’s goal at 6:17

of the third period broke a scoreless tie, andColorado downed Pittsburgh. Blake Comeauadded an empty-net goal with 1:29 left beforePhil Kessel broke up what would have been ashutout by Avalanche goaltender JonathanBernier with 11.8 seconds left. Bernier made39 saves. Tristan Jarry stopped 26 shots forthe Penguins and is on a 1-2-0 stretch plus ano-decision after getting pulled following oneperiod Saturday.

STARS 2, RANGERS 1 (SO)Jason Spezza scored the decisive goal in

the third round of a shootout as Dallas edgedNew York. The Stars, who snapped their sec-ond three-game losing streak of the season,got a goal from Julius Honka. The Rangers’Rick Nash forced overtime by scoring hiseighth goal of the season on a deflection with3:41 remaining in regulation.

PANTHERS 2, RED WINGS 1 (OT)Mike Matheson scored 2:02 into overtime

as Florida rallied past Detroit. After RedWings goalie Jimmy Howard sprawled tomake a save on Nick Bjugstad, Mathesonpounded a rebound into the net for his firstgoal of the season. Vincent Trocheck alsoscored for the Panthers, while HenrikZetterberg had the Red Wings’ goal.

JETS 5, CANUCKS 1Mathieu Perreault scored two goals,

including what proved to be the game-win-ner, and assisted on an insurance goal to helpWinnipeg beat Vancouver. Nikolaj Ehlers,Josh Morrissey and Dmitry Kulikov alsoscored for the Jets. The Canucks, who losttheir third straight, got a goal from rookie

Brock Boeser, his team-leading 16th of theseason. Boeser matched Tony Granato’s 1988-89 mark for the most goals by a U.S.-bornrookie through his first 30 games.

DUCKS 3, HURRICANES 2Logan Shaw had a goal and an assist, and

John Gibson recorded 28 saves as Anaheimdefeated Carolina. The Ducks celebrated thereturn of Ryan Getzlaf to the lineup after the

captain missed 19 games due to facial frac-tures. However, Anaheim’s Corey Perry left inthe first period with an apparent knee injury.Derek Grant and Jakob Silfverberg alsoscored for the Ducks. Justin Williams andVictor Rask had the goals for the Hurricanes,who went winless on their three-gameCalifornia road trip, though they took boththe San Jose Sharks and the Los AngelesKings to overtime. — Reuters

Islanders snap3-game losingstreak with a 3-1win over Capitals

NHL results/standings

Western ConferenceCentral Division

W L OTL GF GA PTS St. Louis 21 8 2 104 78 44 Winnipeg 18 8 5 107 87 41 Nashville 18 7 4 95 84 40 Dallas 17 13 1 91 90 35 Minnesota 15 11 3 87 87 33 Chicago 14 11 5 90 82 33 Colorado 14 13 2 92 95 30

Pacific DivisionLos Angeles 20 8 3 97 68 43 Las Vegas 19 9 1 103 91 39 San Jose 16 10 3 79 69 35 Calgary 16 12 2 88 94 34 Anaheim 13 11 7 83 91 33 Vancouver 14 13 4 82 90 32 Edmonton 12 16 2 86 99 26 Arizona 7 21 5 75 114 19

Eastern ConferenceAtlantic Division

Tampa Bay 21 6 2 110 74 44 Toronto 20 10 1 106 88 41 Boston 14 9 4 78 75 32 Montreal 13 14 4 85 99 30 Florida 12 14 4 90 105 28 Detroit 11 13 6 81 99 28 Ottawa 9 12 7 77 98 25 Buffalo 7 17 6 64 102 20

Metropolitan DivisionColumbus 19 10 1 86 73 39 NY Islanders 17 10 3 108 100 37 Washington 18 12 1 95 91 37 New Jersey 16 9 4 89 91 36 NY Rangers 16 11 3 99 89 35 Pittsburgh 16 13 3 94 104 35 Philadelphia 11 11 7 83 86 29 Carolina 11 11 7 80 91 29 Note: Overtime losses (OTL) are worth one point in thestandings and are not included in the loss column (L).

Anaheim 3, Carolina 2; Winnipeg 5, Vancouver 1; Florida 2, Detroit 1 (OT); NY Islanders 3, Washington 1; Dallas 2,NY Rangers 1 (SO); Colorado 2, Pittsburgh 1.

PITTSBURGH: Sven Andrighetto #10 of the Colorado Avalanche skates on the ice against RileySheahan #15 of the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG PAINTS Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. — AFP

PERTH: File photo shows spectators cheering after Australian fieldsman MichaelHussey took an outfield catch to dismiss South African batsman Vernon Philander. TheWACA ground, where the third Ashes Test will be played from tomorrow has beendescribed as ramshackle, frozen in time, evocative and a veritable graveyard for visit-ing teams. —AFP

England on thebrink at WACA house of pain

HOUSTON: Chris Paul and James Harden came alivelate, and the Houston Rockets erased a 13-point, third-quarter deficit and extended their winning streak to 10games with a 130-123 victory over the New OrleansPelicans on Monday. Harden scored 12 of his 26 pointsin the fourth quarter and matched his career high of 17assists. Paul scored 16 points over the final 13-plus min-utes while adding nine rebounds and six assists. TheRockets remained undefeated with Paul in the lineup at11-0. Houston also got a career-high 28 points fromClint Capela and 27 points from Eric Gordon. Jrue

Holiday poured in a season-high 37 points for thePelicans, and E’Twaun Moore scored a career-high 36points. DeMarcus Cousins posted 24 points, 14rebounds and eight assists, and Rajon Rondo had atriple-double (13 points, 12 boards, 12 assists).

BULLS 108, CELTICS 85Nikola Mirotic scored 24 points in his first start of the

season, and Bobby Portis scored 23 as Chicago won itsthird consecutive game. David Nwaba finished with 13points for the Bulls, who have not lost since snapping a10-game losing streak on Friday with an overtime victoryover the Charlotte Hornets. Kris Dunn added 12 points forChicago. The Celtics played without Kyrie Irving, who satout due to a left quadriceps contusion. Al Horford scored15 points, and Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart and TerryRozier each contributed 13 points for Boston.

WARRIORS 111, TRAIL BLAZERS 104Despite missing Stephen Curry (sprained right

ankle) and Draymond Green (sore right shoulder),Golden State earned its seventh consecutive win. KevinDurant scored 28 points, Klay Thompson had 24 points,and four other Warriors, including replacement startersOmri Casspi and Jordan Bell, also scored in double fig-

ures. Oakland native Damian Lillard poured in 39 pointsfor the Trail Blazers, who were short-handed as wellwithout Jusuf Nurkic (sprained right ankle) and MoHarkless (bruised left quad). Portland dropped its fifthgame in a row.

CLIPPERS 96, RAPTORS 91Montrezl Harrell and Lou Williams each scored 17

points as Los Angeles held on for a victory overToronto. Jonas Valanciunas scored 23 points andgrabbed 15 rebounds as the Raptors saw their six-game winning streak end. In his first game back aftermissing 22 contests with a strained left foot, guardMilos Teodosic made a key 3-pointer with 40.5 sec-onds remaining, giving the Clippers a late 91-87 lead.Teodosic was just 2 of 9 from 3-point range for thegame but finished with 12 points.

HORNETS 116, THUNDER 103Dwight Howard scored 23 points and Kemba Walker

added 19 as Charlotte used a big third quarter to beatOklahoma City. Charlotte snapped a three-game losingstreak by earning just its second win in nine games. TheThunder failed at yet another attempt to crawl back to.500. Oklahoma City has lost three games with achance to even its record since Nov. 15, when it was 7-7. Russell Westbrook scored 30 points for the Thunder.Paul George added 20 in his first game back after miss-ing two consecutive games with a calf injury. StevenAdams had 11 points and 10 rebounds.

HEAT 107, GRIZZLIES 82Goran Dragic scored 19 points as Miami defeated

Memphis. The Grizzlies have lost four straight and 15 oftheir past 16 games, and their home record fell to 5-11. TheHeat shot 56.1 percent from the floor and went 14 of 27from 3-point range, 51.9 percent. Miami got 17 points fromguard Josh Richardson and 14 points each off the benchfrom center Bam Adebayo and guard Tyler Johnson. MarcGasol led the Grizzlies with 19 points. —Reuters

S p o r t s

Established 1961

Rockets, Warriors roll on as depleted Celtics crash to defeat

NBA result/standings

Eastern ConferenceW L PCT GB

Boston 23 6 79.3 0Cleveland 19 8 70.4 3Toronto 17 8 68.0 4Milwaukee 15 10 60.0 6Indiana 16 11 59.3 6Washington 14 12 53.8 7.5Detroit 14 12 53.8 7.5New York 13 13 50.0 8.5Miami 13 13 50.0 8.5Philadelphia 13 13 50.0 8.5Brooklyn 10 15 40.0 11Orlando 11 17 39.3 11.5Charlotte 10 16 38.5 11.5Chicago 6 20 23.1 15.5Atlanta 6 20 23.1 15.5

Western ConferenceHouston 21 4 84.0 0Golden State 22 6 78.6 1.5San Antonio 19 8 70.4 3Minnesota 16 11 59.3 6Denver 14 12 53.8 7.5New Orleans 14 14 50.0 8.5Portland 13 13 50.0 8.5Utah 13 14 48.1 9Oklahoma City 12 14 46.2 9.5LA Clippers 10 15 40.0 11LA Lakers 10 15 40.0 11Phoenix 9 19 32.1 13.5Sacramento 8 18 30.8 13.5Memphis 8 19 29.6 14Dallas 7 20 25.9 15

Golden State 111, Portland 104; LA Clippers 96, Toronto 91; Chicago108, Boston 85; Houston 130, New Orleans 123; Memphis 82, Miami107; Oklahoma City 103, Charlotte 116.

Raptors six-game winning streak ends

14

SHANGHAI: Vitor Pereira wants to go one better thanpredecessor Andre Villas-Boas by winning a title afterbeing named coach of big-spending Chinese SuperLeague side Shanghai SIPG yesterday.

The 49-year-old, who was once assistant to Villas-Boas at Porto, has been out of football since leaving1860 Munich following relegation to the German thirdtier in May. Pereira, who had notoriously poor relationswith Dutch striker Robin van Persie before beingsacked by Turkish giants Fenerbahce in August 2016, istasked with breaking Guangzhou Evergrande’s stran-glehold on the Chinese Super League (CSL).

Villas-Boas left SIPG two weeks ago after a turbu-lent season failed to yield a trophy despite reaching thelast four of the Asian Champions League, the final of theChinese FA Cup and coming second behind Guangzhouin the CSL.

“The Chinese league is a big challenge at themoment, a lot of (foreign) coaches come here, a lot ofgood players come to this league at this moment,” saidPereira, who plans to speak to his fellow Portugueseand “friend” Villas-Boas about the job.

“I will do my best to help the club to fight to achieveour goals. I know what the club wants and I know whatI want for my career, and both of us want to win titles,”he told a press conference at his unveiling. “This is themain reason why I decided to come here to China, toShanghai. Together, for sure, we will reach our targetsat the end of the season.” Pereira was number two toVillas-Boas at Porto in the 2010-2011 season andtogether they won the Portuguese League, Cup andEuropa League.

Villas-Boas subsequently left for Chelsea andPereira took charge of Porto, lifting the PortugueseLeague twice, before spells in charge of Al Ahli in SaudiArabia, Olympiakos in Greece and then Fenerbahce.SIPG boast a squad led by 60-million-euro attackingmidfielder Oscar and his fellow Brazilian internationalHulk, while in winger Wu Lei they have China’s bestoffensive player. Hulk worked under Pereira at Portoand the new coach said he was looking forward toreacquainting with the powerful forward. “I was withHulk at Porto for three years and I know the personalityand the quality of the player,” said Pereira. “For sure hewill help us a lot, but the key player for me is the team.”

Compared to former Chelsea and TottenhamHotspur manager Villas-Boas and the Italian legendFabio Cannavaro at Guangzhou, Pereira is a relativeunknown to Chinese football fans and some SIPG sup-porters were quick to criticise his appointment.

“To be honest, from the bottom of my heart, I feellike he won’t be able to control the dressing room,”wrote one unhappy fan on Weibo, China’s equivalent ofTwitter. “Not really looking forward to his performance,but I hope the results will prove me wrong.”—AFP

New Shanghai boss Pereira vowsto go one betterthan Villas-Boas

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Thunder fails yet anotherattempt tocrawl back

HOUSTON: Clint Cappella #15 of the Houston Rockets grabs the rebound against the New Orleans Pelicans onMonday at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. — AFP

By Faten Omar

KUWAIT: The Russian Embassy announced Kuwaitisand residents who want to travel to Russia to attend the2018 FIFA World Cup are exempt from visa require-ments. Gaidar Gamzatov, Counselor, Deputy Head ofMission, said at a press conference on Monday thatspecial procedures are already in place. “All thosewishing to visit Russia during the tournament arerequired to obtain a FAN ID from FIFA’s official web-site (www.fifa.com) and have a passport. No bankstatement or hotel reservations are required,” he said.

Gamzatov noted people should not visit Russia onlyfor the 2018 World Cup, but also because Russia is abeautiful country and has many places to visit to enjoythe beauty of nature and cultural heritage. “We invitethem to take advantage of their presence there to enjoythe atmosphere of tourism in Russia,” he added.

Bassel Al-Aswad, head of the Russian NationalBureau of Tourism in Kuwait at Yaish Travel, said thecompany is ready for the huge number of people whohave applied to attend the big event, adding economyclass tickets are available online starting from $200.Aswad said Yaish Travel is offering a “match hospitali-ty” ticket and will provide the customers hotel rooms,travel tickets, free transportation and the FAN ID thatgives them the free visa to Russia”. He pointed out thatall procedures will be handled by the travel company.He noted that Russia is keen on welcoming Gulf andArab tourists, adding tourists are welcome to arrive 10days before the date of the booked match and remainfor another 10 days after the fixture.

Kuwaitis, residentsexempted from visasto attend 2018 WCup

From left to right Ayaz Ismagilov, diplomatic attache Bassel Al-Aswad, head of the Russian National Bureauof Tourism and Gaidar Gamzatov, deputy counselor. —Photos by Yasser Al Zayyat

S p o r t s Wednesday, December 13, 2017

15

MANCHESTER: Manchester United players will haveto motivate themselves at home to Bournemouth todayafter manager Jose Mourinho suggested their PremierLeague title challenge was probably over.

The 2-1 defeat at home to Manchester City onSunday leaves United second in the table but a daunt-ing 11 points behind their city rivals. However, United’sSpanish forward Juan Mata issued a stirring rallyingcall in the wake of the defeat.

“We must carry on, knowing there’s still a long wayto go,” said Mata. “Thecalendar gives you no timefor mourning and we haveto focus on what’s next.“The list of fixtures is verydemanding this month soit ’s important to get toeach game in the best con-dition possible. “I think wehave the ability to do it,even though we knowthese are the toughestweeks of the season. “Weare Manchester United andwe have experience in playing every few days.”United’s fixture list is indeed a hectic one-today’smatch is the fourth of nine games they face duringDecember.

It does not help that they will once again be withoutFrance midfielder Paul Pogba, who serves the secondgame of a three-match ban incurred for his sending-offat Arsenal on December 2. Pogba’s influence wasundoubtedly missed during Sunday’s derby, althoughBournemouth should be far less of a test for NemanjaMatic and Ander Herrera than Manchester City were.

‘PICKED UP LITTLE NIGGLES’ Herrera still needs to watch his step, though, as he

is one booking away from a one-match suspension, asis wing-back Ashley Young. Mourinho has given everyindication so far that he intends to persist withRomelu Lukaku, despite the Belgium striker’s poor runof form in front of goal.

Having scored 11 goals in his first 10 United games,Lukaku has hit just two in 14 appearances since.Bournemouth’s 2-2 draw at Crystal Palace at the

weekend left Eddie Howe’sside three points clear ofthe bottom three.

The Cherries had JermainDefoe to thank for claiminga point with the veteranscoring twice and offeringsigns he is returning to hisbest form after an inconsis-tent start to the season.“Hopefully it’s a start forhim, he had a few nigglesearly on in the season so hewas set back a little,” said

Howe.“Now he’s getting back to where he wants to be

and that will give us a big lift.” Defoe concurred withHowe. “I have picked up little niggles and it’s been abit stop-start,” said the 35-year-old England interna-tional.

“I thought once I get a run of games and thechances come then I will score goals. “All I have to dois make sure my recovery is right and be professional,like I have always been. We have a lot of games com-ing up in a short space of time.” — AFP

Mata rallies Man United in wake of Mourinho defeatism

Lukaku has scored just two goals in 14 appearances

Established 1961

We must carry on, knowing there’s a

long way to go

OLD TRAFFORD: File photo shows Manchester City’s Brazilian goalkeeper Ederson (2L) makes the second of adouble save from a shot from Manchester United’s Spanish midfielder Juan Mata (3L) during the EnglishPremier League football match between Manchester United and Manchester City. — AFP

LIVERPOOL: Liverpool defender Joe Gomez has urgedhis team-mates to bounce back from the draw in theMerseyside derby when they host West Bromwich Albiontoday. The Reds were held 1-1 by Everton at Anfielddespite having the bulk of possession in the match afterWayne Rooney’s penalty cancelled out Mohamed Salah’sopening goal.

The share of the points leaves Liverpool in fourth spot,16 points off leaders Manchester City. Gomez believes thevisit of the ‘Baggies’ so soon after that result givesLiverpool the opportunity to address their frustrations,even if West Brom try to adopt a similar defensiveapproach to Everton. “That’s one of the positives,” saidGomez.

“Obviously it’s tough, it’s a gruelling schedule but itgives you a chance to try and fix it straight away. “We’vegot to take the positives from the derby. I think we all putin a good fight and we knew the importance of the gameand what it means and we all did our best.

“We’ve seen it a few times this season at Anfield-peo-ple know the attacking threats we have and tend to sit offa bit, especially because we are so quick on the counter.”Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was criticised for leavingout Brazilian attacking duo Philippe Coutinho and RobertoFirmino against Everton. The pair are expected to returnto the starting line-up for today’s game having been intro-duced as late substitutes in the Merseyside derby.

Gomez regularly has to face Coutinho, Firmino in addi-tion to Salah and Sadio Mane on the training ground andsaid the quality of Liverpool’s attacking players leaves himopen-mouthed at times.

“Sometimes they do a few things and I am like ‘wow!’,”said the 20-year-old Englishman.—AFP

Gomez urges team-matesto make WestBrom sufferMANCHESTER: Manchester City look unstoppable in

their relentless surge towards the Premier League title,and only have lowly Swansea standing in the way ofPep Guardiola’s men setting a new record of consecu-tive wins today.

City are 11 points clear at the top of the PremierLeague and the managers of Manchester United andChelsea both effectively conceded defeat in the titlerace at the weekend.

Their victory against Jose Mourinho’s United onSunday was their 14th straight win in the PremierLeague-a single season record that also equalled thebest-ever run Arsenal established over two seasons in2002. Yet despite their frightening form, City defender

Kyle Walker is urging caution. “We have to keep ourfeet on the floor and keep working hard, preparingphysically and mentally,” he said. “We have anotherimportant one today against Swansea. We have to keepgetting three points.”

Guardiola has declared repeatedly that his team willlose a league match at some point this season but fewpeople would expect that to happen at second-from-bottom Swansea. David Silva is in dazzling form, withgoals in each of his past two appearances and a man-of-the-match display on Sunday but the PremierLeague’s leading scorers have an array of talent sup-porting him.

However there could be consequences on and off thefield following derby victory. Captain Vincent Kompanywas substituted after an hour with what appeared to bethe latest in a sequence of muscle injuries.

With John Stones out until early January with a ham-string injury, it means Guardiola has just two fit seniorcentre-backs-Nicolas Otamendi and Eliaquim Mangala.And the Football Association has demanded answersfrom both United and City following reports of an uglyfracas in the Old Trafford tunnel after the match that

reportedly left City assistant coach Mikel Arteta blood-ied. Guardiola must decide whether to recall strikerSergio Aguero, who was an unused substitute onSunday, after Gabriel Jesus played in a front threeagainst United alongside Raheem Sterling and LeroySane. Swansea striker Wilfried Bony may feel he has apoint to prove against his former club. Bony had a dis-appointing year-and-a-half in a City shirt, scoring just10 goals in 46 appearances after joining them fromSwansea in January 2015.

An uninspiring season on loan at Stoke failed torebuild his reputation and the Ivory Coast forward isnow back at the Liberty Stadium for a second spell.

After failing to score in his first eight games back atSwansea, Bony has now found the net in each of hispast two. He struck on Saturday as they beat WestBrom 1-0, climbing off the bottom of the PremierLeague and easing some of the pressure on managerPaul Clement. “We have to go into our next game withno fear,” said winger Nathan Dyer.

“Manchester City are doing very well so we willhave to ensure we are concentrating for the full gameand then take the chances we create.” —AFP

Manchester City eye record against Swansea

MADRID: Real Madrid can round off the most success-ful year in the club’s already glorious history by claim-ing a fifth trophy in 2017 at the Club World Cup in AbuDhabi this week. They won La Liga, the ChampionsLeague, UEFA and Spanish Super Cup in a thrillingfashion after hitting top form in a four-month spellbetween April and August, but since then the Europeanchampions have faded, understandably fatigued by aheavy schedule.

Madrid trail Barca by eight points at the top of LaLiga and finished second to Tottenham Hotspur in theirChampions League group, which proved costly as theywere paired with free-spending Paris Saint-Germain ina blockbuster last 16 tie on Monday.

However, traces of the Madrid that swept aside thelikes of Bayern Munich, Juventus, Atletico Madrid,Manchester United and Barcelona in the spring andsummer were back as Real hit five past Sevilla beforehalf-time in a 5-0 rout on Saturday.

Until then Madrid had lacked the same killer instinctas last season with Cristiano Ronaldo and KarimBenzema scoring a combined total of just six times inLa Liga, while Gareth Bale has made just one briefappearance as a substitute since September.

“We are improving in every sense,” said Zidane afterthrashing Sevilla. “If you play well, you will create morechances. We created plenty of chances.”

Ronaldo scored twice at the weekend to celebratepicking up his fifth Ballon d’Or in style and his return toform is timely, as Madrid face Barcelona in their finalgame of the year on December 23 once their work inthe Middle East this week is done.

“It is a reward just to be here,” said Madrid captainSergio Ramos. “We have the opportunity to defend ourtitle. “We are preparing with plenty of desire andexcitement. After a great game against Sevilla we arevery motivated and our confidence is very high.”

TACTICAL SWITCH Real’s return to form coincided with a change of tac-

tics from Zidane as the pace of Marco Asensio andLucas Vazquez on the wings produced an instantimpact. However, if the Spanish duo are to keep theirplaces then the French coach has to bench two of hispreferred midfield diamond of Casemiro, Toni Kroos,Luka Modric and Isco.

After missing out at the weekend, Casemiro and Iscoare expected to feature on Wednesday when Real takeon local side Al Jazira, who have already dealt withOceania’s Auckland City and Asian champions UrawaRed Diamonds to reach the last four. “We don’t justplay as Jazira now, we play for the UAE,” Al Jaziracoach Ali Mabkhout told FIFA.com.

“We know Real Madrid are one of the best teams inthe world and this is incentive for all the players.”

Yet, after the scare of falling behind to Kashima

Antlers in last year’s final before a Ronaldo hat-trickwon the competition in extra-time, Zidane warnedagainst complacency and thinking ahead to a potentialfinal with Brazilian giants Gremio on Saturday.

The newly crowned South American champions takeon Mexican side Pachuca in the other semi-final onFriday. “Everyone thinks the game on Wednesday willbe easy, but it won’t,” added Zidane. “We need to thinkabout today and doing things right to try and win thistrophy once again.” — AFP

Rejuvenated Real Madrid eye fifth prize of 2017

Matches on TV (Local Timings)

FIFA CLUB WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2017AlJazira v Real Madrid 20:00 beIN SPORTS HD 1

ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUENewcastle United v Everton 22:45beIN SPORTS HD 8Southampton v Leicester City 22:45beIN SPORTS HD 9Swansea City v Manchester City 22:45beIN SPORTS HD 2Liverpool v West Bromwich Albion 23:00 beIN SPORTS HD 3Tottenham Hotspur v Brighton & Hove Albion 23:00beIN SPORTS HD 7Manchester United v Bournemouth 23:00beIN SPORTS HD 1West Ham United v Arsenal 23:00beIN SPORTS HD 4

GERMAN BUNDESLIGATSG 1899 Hoffenheim v Stuttgart 20:30beIN SPORTS HD 5Hertha Berlin v Hannover 22:30beIN SPORTSBayer 04 Leverkusen v Werder Bremen 22:30beIN SPORTS HD 12 ENBayern Munich v Koln 22:30beIN SPORTS HD 5Schalke v Augsburg 22:30beIN SPORTS

ABU DHABI: Real Madrid players take part in a training session two days prior to their FIFA Club World Cupsemi-final football match at the New York University Abu Dhabi stadium in the Emirati capital yesterday. -—AFP

Sport

MIAMI GARDENS: Dion Lewis #33 of the New England Patriots rushes during the fourth quarter against the Miami Dolphins at Hard Rock Stadium on Monday in Miami Gardens, Florida.— AFP

McCall gives Sarries January deadline to save season

New Zealand wrap up Windies series with 240-run victory

Mata rallies Man United in wake of Mourinho defeatism1512 13

Established 1961

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2017

Dolphins snap Patriots’ 8-game win streakMIAMI: Jay Cutler threw three touchdown passes asthe double-digit underdog Miami Dolphins upset theNew England Patriots 27-20 on Monday night at HardRock Stadium. Jarvis Landry caught two of Cutler’s TDthrows. After his second touchdown grab, he celebratedby pretending to inflate the football-perhaps mockingNew England quarterback Tom Brady’s “Deflategate”issues. Cutler completed 25 of 38 passes for 263 yards.Kenyan Drake led Miami’s ground game with 114 yardson 25 carries. It was the second straight 100-yard gamefor Drake, who also had five receptions for 79 yards.

The Patriots (10-3), who visit the 11-2 Pittsburgh

Steelers on Sunday in what was looking like a battle forhome-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs,may have been caught looking ahead. Their eight-gamewin streak was snapped. Brady got off to a poor start,missing all four of his first-quarter passes. He complet-ed 24 of 43 passes for 233 yards and one touchdown,but he was intercepted twice, both times by cornerbackXavien Howard.

Before Monday, Brady had just four interceptions allseason and never more than one in a game. Miami (6-7)compiled an impressive 123-2 yardage advantage afterone quarter but led just 6-0. The Dolphins scored on

field goals of 30 and 44 yards by Cody Parkey. The firstfield goal was the result of a 13-play, 69-yard dive. Thesecond was set up by an interception by Howard.

New England got untracked in the second quarter,taking a 7-6 lead on a 3-yard run by Rex Burkhead. Onthe next possession, Miami drove 80 yards in sevenplays and took a 13-7 lead on a 5-yard touchdown passfrom Cutler to Landry.

New England closed its deficit to 13-10 on a 46-yardfield goal by Stephen Gostkowski with two seconds leftin the first half. Miami extended its advantage to 20-10when Jakeem Grant made a spectacular, leaping, 25-

yard touchdown catch, crashing to the turf in the endzone. The Dolphins closed the third-quarter scoringwith Landry’s 4-yard reception for a 27-10 lead. NewEngland crept closer as Brady’s 3-yard touchdown passto James White cut the deficit to 27-17 with 13:05 toplay.

The Patriots, who had a first-and-goal at the Miami1-yard line late in the fourth quarter, had to settle for a33-yard Gostkowski field goal after getting hit with ille-gal-shift and holding penalties. Trailing 27-20, NewEngland failed to recover an onside kick, sealing thewin for Miami. — Reuters

Cutler shines with three touchdown passes

BERLIN: Bayern Munich star Franck Ribery brieflyappeared in court in Germany yesterday over claims heowes 3.5 million euros ($4.1m) to his ex-agent before thecase was adjourned until January. The 34-year-old is con-testing claims over unpaid commission from his 2007transfer from Marseille to Bayern, which cost 25 millioneuros. A decision by Munich’s district court has beenpostponed until January 16 because Ribery’s former agent,Bruno Heiderscheid from Luxembourg, was unable toappear after his flight from Brussels was cancelled.Heiderscheid claims the pair made a verbal agreement adecade ago, which was later put in writing.

This is not the first time Heiderscheid has taken thefootballer to court. In December 2015, Luxembourg’sCourt of Appeal ordered the Bayern forward to payHeiderscheid 1.6 million euros, plus legal fees, for a breachof contract over the 2007 deal. Ribery is out of contract atBayern in June, but has just returned from a knee injury.

He played in last Tuesday’s 3-1 win over Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League and Saturday’s 1-0 vic-tory at Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga. —AFP

Ribery takento court byex-agent

MUNICH: Bayern Munich’s Franck Ribery (L) and his attorneyCarlo Brusa leave the courtroom after the court hearing on acase filed by his former agent Bruno Heiderscheid. —- AFP

TOKYO: An own goal from Ri Yong-chol gave SouthKorea victory over North Korea, while Japan downedChina 2-1 to set up a showdown between the WorldCup-bound nations for this year’s East AsianChampionship.

Japan’s Gen Shoji scored with an effort from theedge of the centre circle three minutes from time todouble his side’s lead after Yu Kobayashi had put VahidHalilhodzic’s side ahead just three minutes earlier.

A penalty in stoppage time from China’s Yu Dabaocould not deny the hosts, who move to the top of thestandings with six points having already defeatedNorth Korea on Saturday, with South Korea second onfour points.

“It was a wonderful game and it was a wonderful winfor my team,” said Halilhodzic.

“In the second half we had some problems and

China could create chances to score, but after that thequality of play was really good.

“We showed really good football and the combina-tions, especially up front, were really good. We hadsome very good chances to score but the ball didn’t goin.” South Korea picked up their first win of the compe-tition after Ri deflected a cross from Kim Min-woo intohis own goal under pressure from the opposition.

The win follows on from their 2-2 draw with theChinese on Saturday to keep the pressure on Japan. Avictory for Shin Tae-yong’s team at the weekend willsee them successfully defend the title they won in 2015.

“Japan are playing at home, but South Korea havevery strong players and we want to show our strengthbecause both teams are going to the World Cup,” saidShin. “The best thing would be if both teams do theirbest and play to win and then everyone can be happy.We are preparing ourselves for that.”

North Korea coach Joern Andersen has seen his sidenarrowly lose both of their opening games in the com-petition and the Norwegian claimed his players wereoverawed against the Japanese.

“It was a special game for us, for the players and thecountry, and I think in the first 30 minutes they werenervous and not as free as in the game against Japan,”he said. “They were a little closed and not so preparedlike against Japan.” — Reuters

Japan, S Korea set up East Asian showdown

Kuwait’s consumer inflation bounces to multi-month high 2218 19

LONDON: British inflation has hit its highest level inalmost six years, official data showed yesterday, forcingBank of England governor Mark Carney to explain therise in an exceptional letter. The Consumer Price Indexclimbed to 3.1 percent on a 12-month basis inNovember compared to 3.0 percent in October, theOffice for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement.Analysts’ consensus forecast had been for no change tothe CPI reading. Carney must send a letter to Britishfinance minister Philip Hammond, explaining why infla-tion overshot the Bank of England’s 2.0-percent targetrate by more than one percentage point. The open let-ter, which must outline what action the BoE’s MonetaryPolicy Committee is taking to return inflation to target,will be published by the bank in February. Such a letterwas last published a year ago, after inflation fell by

more than one percentage point below target inOctober 2016. The headline measure for November thisyear was spurred on by the high price of air fares,recreational goods and the rising cost of food and non-alcoholic drinks, the ONS said. It said that rising pricesof computer games had a notable upward effect andhigher transport prices were fuelled by the rise in Brentoil prices and a falling pound.

Expensive Christmas “Christmas dinner is going to be a lot more expensive

this year,” said Frances O’Grady, head of the TUC umbrellabody for unions. “Food prices have gone up at twice therate of wages.” Average wage growth continues to lagbehind the rise in prices, meaning that real pay packets arefalling. Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Mel Stride said

she recognized families were “feeling the squeeze”. “Weare determined to help,” she added, pointing to recentpay-boosting measures by the Conservative governmentof Prime Minister Theresa May. Last month, the Bank ofEngland increased its main interest rate for the first timesince before the financial crisis, in a bid to tackle high infla-tion caused largely by the pound falling in the wake ofBritain’s vote for Brexit. “While the one rate hike so far wasnever meant to slay the inflation dragon straight away, (thelatest inflation figure) will doubtless come as an unpleasantshock, and a sign that there will be further tough decisionsin the months to come,” commented Chris Beauchamp,analyst at online trader IG. “While inflation is expected toweaken in due course, potentially lessening the pressureon the BoE, it could be an anxious time over Christmas,”the expert said. —AFP

Expensive Christmas this year as food prices skyrocket

British inflation soars to 6-year highLONDON: British Airways airplanes on the runway with the towers and buildings of the Canary Wharf financial district in background before taking off at London City Airport in London. —AFP

Ryanair hit by further strike actionLONDON: Strike action at embattledRyanair intensif ied yesterday, withGerman pilots the latest to plan possiblewalkouts over conditions, following similarmoves by staff based around Europe.

Germany’s powerful pilots’ union saidmembers would strike at Ryanair for bet-ter pay and conditions, although theyinsisted they would not disrupt flightsover the Christmas holiday.

Pilots “announce a strike at Ryanair”,the Cockpit union posted on Twitter. Theyaim “to force the start of talks to createemployment and pay condit ions forRyanair pilots in line with the market”, theunion said in a statement. Ryanair had a“last chance” to avoid strikes by immedi-ately coming to the negotiating table,union president Ilja Schulz said.

The Irish airline, which is cancellingthousands of f l ights because of pi lotshortages, said it had not been notified ofany industrial action by its German pilots.Unions have long complained that no-frillsRyanair does not offer pilots pay and con-ditions up to standards elsewhere in theaviation industry. German prosecutorssearched offices belonging to the carrierat six airports last year, part of an investi-gation into possible tax evasion and with-holding salaries against two British tempagencies that supply the Irish airline with

self-employed pilots. In its statement,Cockpit claimed pilots were leaving theairline “in droves” for the better condi-tions offered by other carriers, leavingRyanair with a shortage of aircrew.

Italian pilots for the Irish carrier havealready set dates for strike action, whileIr ish and Portuguese aviators haveannounced unspecified industrial action.

Ryanair said last week that it would“ignore” the Italian pilots’ move, saying itsstaff rarely heeded calls to walk out. Thecarrier on Monday said some of its pilotsin Dublin had voted for strike action.

The unspecified industrial action wasbacked by less than 28 percent of around300 pilots based in the Irish capital forRyanair, the airline said. Although the air-

l ine has around 300 pi lots based inDublin, reports said the strike ballot wasissued to the 84 pilots directly employedby Ryanair.

The move comes less than a week afterRyanair pilots and flight attendants in Italyannounced a four-hour str ike forDecember 15. The planned industr ia lact ion comes after Ryanair said inSeptember that it had to cancel 20,000flights until March because of pilot sched-uling problems.

Air traffic control delays and weatherdisruption also contributed to the cancel-lations. Despite such difficulties, Ryanairsaid last month it still expected to deliverannual profit after tax of 1.40-1.45 billioneuros ($1.65-1.71 billion). —AFP

BusinessEstablished 1961

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2017

US Treasury halts pension investments toavoid debt default

WASHINGTON: The US Treasury onMonday announced it was haltinginvestments for two governmentemployee pension funds in the latestmove to avoid hitting Congressionally-mandated borrowing limit. The book-keeping moves are part of the effortto avoid defaulting on the US debtuntil Congress raises the debt ceilingfrom the current level of more than$20 trillion.

Treasury Secretary StevenMnuchin in a letter to Congressionalleaders urged them to “protect thefull faith and credit of the UnitedStates by acting to increase thestatutory debt limit as soon as pos-sible.” Last week Mnuchin informedCongress the department wouldneed to begin taking “extraordinarymeasures” to prevent a default asthe government again bumps upagainst the debt ceiling.

The latest action means Treasurywill not invest retirement savingsheld in two government pension

funds until Congress acts. Treasuryon Friday suspended the sale of cer-tain securities for state and localgovernments that count towards thedebt limit.

While the Congress on Fridayapproved a stopgap spending bill tofund the government throughDecember 22, it did not address thecap on borrowing, after the tempo-rary fix expired December 8.

Because the federal governmenttraditionally runs a budget deficit, ithas no choice but to borrow tofinance government operations,including salaries, retirement bene-fits, social spending and otherexpenses approved by Congress.Under the administration of formerpresident Barack Obama, Congressrepeatedly pushed the governmentto the verge of default asRepublicans used the debt limit toforce spending cuts. According tothe Congressional Budget Office,President Donald Trump’s adminis-tration likely can continue to func-tion until spring while still makingtimely payments to meet its obliga-tions, such as Social Security andMedicare.

Analysts say a default by the USwould have catastrophic conse-quences for the world financialsystem. —AFP

CB chief forcedto explain rise

to finance chief

Soaring energy prices drive US inflation to 5-yr record

Ooredoo launches ‘Shamel Home,’comprehensive entertainment plan

DUBLIN: This file photo shows a Ryanair plane parked on the tarmac at Dublin Airport. —AFP

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

18B u s i n e s s

Established 1961

Kuwait’s consumer inflation bounces to multi-month high

Retail sector provides a healthy boost to price index

EXCHANGE RATES

Bahrain Exchange Company

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co.

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd

ASIAN COUNTRIESJapanese Yen 2.690Indian Rupees 4.700Pakistani Rupees 2.866Srilankan Rupees 1.966Nepali Rupees 2.937Singapore Dollar 225.740Hongkong Dollar 38.713Bangladesh Taka 3.640Philippine Peso 5.967Thai Baht 9.305

GCC COUNTRIESSaudi Riyal 80.747Qatari Riyal 83.166Omani Riyal 786.383Bahraini Dinar 804.040UAE Dirham 82.441

ARAB COUNTRIESEgyptian Pound - Cash 19.900Egyptian Pound - Transfer 17.069Yemen Riyal/for 1000 1.215Tunisian Dinar 122.760Jordanian Dinar 426.680Lebanese Lira/for 1000 2.017Syrian Lira 0.000Morocco Dirham 32.538

EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIESUS Dollar Transfer 302.600Euro 360.550Sterling Pound 408.810

CURRENCY BUY SELLEurope

British Pound 0.398314 0.405814Czech Korune 0.005897 0.017897Danish Krone 0.043822 0.048822Euro 0. 350958 0.358458Georgian Lari 0.112379 0.112379Norwegian Krone 0.032083 0.037283Romanian Leu 0.059983 0.076833Russian ruble 0.005128 0.005128Slovakia 0.009034 0.019034Swedish Krona 0.031490 0.036490Swiss Franc 0.298738 0.309738

AustralasiaAustralian Dollar 0.219753 0.231753New Zealand Dollar 0.203464 0.212964

AmericaCanadian Dollar 0.230317 0.239317US Dollars 0.298900 0.303320US Dollars Mint 0.299400 0.303320

AsiaBangladesh Taka 0.003301 0.003885

Chinese Yuan 0.044268 0.047768Hong Kong Dollar 0.036721 0.039471Indian Rupee 0.004119 0.004760Indonesian Rupiah 0.000018 0.000024Japanese Yen 0.002584 0.002764Korean Won 0.000267 0.000282Malaysian Ringgit 0.070275 0.076275Nepalese Rupee 0.003023 0.003193Pakistan Rupee 0.002634 0.002924Philippine Peso 0.005937 0.006237Singapore Dollar 0.218694 0.228694Sri Lankan Rupee 0.001699 0.002279Taiwan 0.009961 0.010141Thai Baht 0.008949 0.009499

ArabBahraini Dinar 0.796825 0.805325Egyptian Pound 0.014525 0.020243Iranian Riyal 0.000084 0.000085Iraqi Dinar 0.000186 0.000246Jordanian Dinar 0.422755 0.431755Kuwaiti Dinar 1.000000 1.000000Lebanese Pound 0.000150 0.000250Moroccan Dirhams 0.022747 0.046747Omani Riyal 0.780695 0.786375Qatar Riyal 0.078937 0.083877Saudi Riyal 0.079713 0.081013Syrian Pound 0.001284 0.001504Tunisian Dinar 0.117389 0.125389Turkish Lira 0.073806 0.084105UAE Dirhams 0.081071 0.082771Yemeni Riyal 0.000985 0.001065

Rate for Transfer Selling RateUS Dollar 302.650Canadian Dollar 236.265Sterling Pound 406.995Euro 358.030Swiss Frank 301.810Bahrain Dinar 803.260UAE Dirhams 82.790Qatari Riyals 83.615Saudi Riyals 81.565Jordanian Dinar 428.150Egyptian Pound 17.101Sri Lankan Rupees 1.977Indian Rupees 4.708Pakistani Rupees 2.832Bangladesh Taka 3.671Philippines Pesso 6.011Cyprus pound 18.010Japanese Yen 3.665Syrian Pound 1.590Nepalese Rupees 2.945

Malaysian Ringgit 75.085Chinese Yuan Renminbi 46.230Thai Bhat 10.270Turkish Lira 79.420

Canadian dollar 239.870Turkish lira 78.700Swiss Franc 309.090Australian Dollar 232.550US Dollar Buying 301.400

GOLD20 Gram 260.52010 Gram 133.1805 Gram 67.430

KUWAIT: Consumer price inflation bounced to a multi-month high of 1.4 percent in October, as inflation in theretail sector provided a healthy boost to the generalindex. Inflation excluding housing rent, food costs andenergy prices, rose from 2.5 percent y/y in September to3.3 percent y/y in October, highlighting some upwardinflationary pressures from retail goods and services,which coincided with the improving momentum in theconsumer sector.

The annual averageinflation rate for 2017 islikely to ease to 1.6 per-cent, from the 3.5 percentannual average recordedin 2016. While there aresome upward pressuresfrom the retail goods seg-ment and some services,these pressures are likelyto be offset by continuedsoftness in housing rentand food prices. Housinginflation remains subduedduring the third quarter of 2017. The slowdown in the realestate sector sales in 2015 and 2016 has led to an orderlyand slow correction in property prices and rents. Housinginflation trended down from 2Q16 to reach deflationaryterritory in 1Q17. Housing inflation witnessed an uptick inOctober to -0.3 percent y/y, due to basis effects.

Local food price inflation remained soft in tandem withweaker inflation in global food prices. Inflation in localfood prices advanced slightly in October to 0.4 percenty/y, following a flat month. According to the CommodityResearch Bureau, inflation in international food prices

contracted slightly. This weakness is likely to limit any sig-nificant increases in local food costs in at least the near-to-medium term.

Inflationary pressures in the retail sector rose inOctober, just as consumer spending continued to seeimprovement. Consumer spending improved in 3Q17 withgrowth in card spending (POS) accelerating to 12.5 per-cent y/y, following a systematic moderation in 2016. Card

spending has bouncedback as the sector stabi-lized. At the same time,inflation in the threemajor retail goods relat-ed components acceler-ated to near multi-monthhighs, with inflation inclothing and footwearaccelerating to 2.9 per-cent y/y in October from1.9 percent y/y the previ-ous month.

Inflation in servicesexcluding housing serv-

ices continues to trend downward in October on the backof fading price growth in transportation costs due tobase effects. Despite the downward pressures fromtransportation prices, inflation in services excludinghousing services remained supported by continued gainsin inflation in the recreation and culture segment andsteady inflation in restaurants and hotels. Inflation inrestaurants and hotels was steady at its multi-month highof 3.0 percent y/y in October, while inflation in recre-ation and culture rose from 5.4 percent y/y to 5.7 per-cent y/y during the same period.

IMF: Sudan must float currency to boost growth, investmentCAIRO: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) hasurged Sudan to float its currency to boost growth andinvestment, a measure the government has opposed evenafter the United States lifted 20 years of sanctions inOctober. The government would need to accompany amarket-determined exchange rate with other toughreforms such as expanding the country’s tax base ifKhartoum hopes to benefit from sanctions relief, theIMF said in a report published on Monday.

The Sudanese pound has weakened against the dollarsince Washington lifted sanctions encouraging traders tostep up imports, putting pressure on scarce hard curren-cy. It hit an all-time low of 27 pounds against the dollaron the black market in November but strengthened to 23pounds per dollar after a raft of emergency measuresthat included capping currency transfers and crackingdown on currency traders.

The IMF said the end of sanctions was an opportuni-ty for Sudan to strengthen its economic outlook but itrequired a currency float. “Fiscal policy should be tight-ened to eliminate the monetization of deficits, thus help-ing to reduce inflation and buttress macroeconomic sta-bility,” it said. It projected GDP growth of 3.25 percentfor 2017, down from 3.5 percent in 2016.

The weakened pound has contributed to surginginflation, which reached 33.08 percent year-on-year inOctober, according to the Central Statistics Office.

The central bank has held the official exchange rateat 6.7 pounds to the dollar but currency is largelyunavailable at that price. “The tax base should be broad-ened, energy and wheat subsidies phased out andreplaced by increased cash transfers to the poor, andcapital investment increased,” the IMF said. The import-dependent country has suffered both from the sanctionsand from the secession of South Sudan in 2011, when itlost three-quarters of its oil output, its main source offoreign currency.—Reuters

Housing inflationsubdued

NBK Economic Report

Beirut redeveloper Solidere struggles through Lebanon’s crisisBEIRUT: The company formed to rebuild Lebanon’s capi-tal Beirut after its civil war ended in 1990 is struggling toovercome the latest period of political turmoil roiling theMiddle East. Until the 2011 Arab uprisings and the start ofneighboring Syria’s civil war, Solidere’s property businesswas booming along with Lebanon’s real estate sector. Butpolitical tensions have put a security cordon aroundSolidere’s glittering central Beirut showcase and scared offinvestors. Low oil prices also weigh on a market longdependent on petrodollars from the Gulf.

“(Investors) have to believe Lebanon is going some-where stable to start to invest ... At the moment people arestill in a wait and see mode, even though there are somebullish investors negotiating deals to benefit from thelong-term value of downtown properties,” OussamaKabbani, Chief Operating Officer of Solidere International,told Reuters.

Solidere has sold no land this year, recording an unau-dited net loss of $18.9 million in the first half of 2017. Butthe company said some negotiations are in progress. Itsreliance on land sales means revenue can swing dramati-

cally between profit and loss. However, the peaks are nowmuch lower and the troughs deeper than a decade ago.

In response, Solidere is offering new deals to potentialland buyers, has focused more on rent revenues and cutexpenses. “Solidere is trying to make it easy for peoplewho are serious to buy,” said Kabbani, who was involvedin drawing Solidere’s original masterplan for Beirut.

Analysts say the scarcity of land in Lebanon andSolidere’s ownership of prime sites mean the company hasgood value medium to long-term, but maintaining liquidityin the short term is more of a challenge.

DeclineThe Lebanese Company for the Development and

Reconstruction of Beirut Central District (Solidere) wasfounded by then prime minister Rafik Al-Hariri in 1994,aiming to finish its work and dissolve by 2019. But he wasassassinated in 2005, prompting a series of political, secu-rity and economic crises in Lebanon that also pushed cen-tral Beirut into steady decline.

Solidere’s mandate has been extended to 2029, but itstill has around 1.7 million square meters of land to sell andshareholders received no dividend this year. Because ofthe tight security around the showpiece Place d’Etoilearea near Lebanon’s parliament, people cannot access thearea freely and most shops and restaurants have closed.

Solidere has sold on most of the buildings there, but thearea’s decline has deterred investors. It has also reducedthe flow of people to the adjacent Beirut Souks shopping

area, where Solidere makes money from rent. “There was aperiod where people from the Gulf, their dream was tocome and sit ... to do nothing but sit and watch peoplegoing by,” Kabbani said, referring to the boom years in2004-05. “If we didn’t have those security enclaves inDowntown, I’m sure Downtown could have continued tobe the center of attraction.”

Investor deals Instead, land prices in Downtown have fallen by 1-2

percent annually and by around 15 percent in the past 5-7years. In response Solidere plans to start convertingunused office space into small apartments and is offeringinvestors better deals. “Today Solidere might give youmore flexible terms to pay (or) to develop, simply becauseit understands you are taking a country risk with yourcash,” Kabbani said. It is also trying to reduce costs andhas cut overheads by 25-30 percent, he said. This includedwithdrawing from the London Stock Exchange becausethe low trading volume was not worth the fees.

Solidere’s share price in Beirut, which peaked at around$40 mid-2008, has declined to around $8 today. Some ofLebanon’s political problems appeared to abate earlier thisyear, only to flare again in November when Prime MinisterSaad Al-Hariri, Rafik al-Hariri’s son, unexpectedly resignedin a shock broadcast from Saudi Arabia — a move linked toconflict in the wider region between Riyadh and Tehran. Hesubsequently withdrew the resignation, with Western statespledging support for Lebanon’s stability. —Reuters

UK pipeline outage sends oil price to more than 2-year high

LONDON: Britain’s biggest oil pipelinefrom its North Sea fields is likely to be shutfor a number of weeks for repairs, operatorINEOS said yesterday, sending interna-tional crude prices to their highest sincethe middle of 2015. The closure has also

disrupted gas flows through the network,which carries a third of Britain’s gas pro-duced offshore. It has struck during a win-ter freeze in Britain, where snow and icehave driven up demand for heating fuel.

The pipeline, which carries about450,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Fortiescrude, was shut on Monday after crackswere found. Benchmark Brent crude pricesrose above $65 per barrel for the first timesince mid-2015. “We’re hearing it will belikely down for two weeks,” an industrysource familiar with the operations said.

INEOS, which completed the purchaseof the Forties pipeline system from oilmajor BP in October, said it was too soon

to say how long repairs would last but saidthat it would be “weeks rather than days.”A minor leak had caused a partial shut-down on Dec. 7.

The pipeline has particular significance toglobal markets because Forties is the largestout of the five crude oil streams that under-pin the dated Brent benchmark, againstwhich other crude prices are broadly based.Forties is carried to Hound Point on theScottish coast, where it is either loaded ontotankers, stored in tanks or piped to the200,000-bpd Grangemouth refinery.

“If it’s a lengthy outage, then a recoveryperiod for the fields will be long as well,”the trading source said. A number of pro-

ducers including BP, Shell and Chrysaor,said they had closed down oil fields inresponse to the outage.

According to monthly loading pro-grams, supply of Forties is expected toreach 21 cargoes of 600,000 barrels eachthis month, equal to a daily supply rate of406,000 bpd. The closure has createdhavoc with loading schedules in the NorthSea, with one trading source saying cargoowners had been offered options to dropcargoes from the loading program. “At thispoint we would expect a large deferral listfor the Forties loading program to spillover into January,” analysts from JBCEnergy said in a note. —Reuters

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

19B u s i n e s s

Established 1961

Fed to open policy meeting, rates hike likelyWASHINGTON: The US central bank was toopen its final two-day policy meeting of the yearyesterday, and is likely to raise the benchmarkinterest rate despite the absence of inflation.

It would be the third rate hike this year, andpossibly the final time Federal Reserve ChairJanet Yellen presides over a policy move sincePresident Donald Trump has opted to replaceher in February.

Analysts say the booming labor market, whichin recent months has pushed the unemploymentrate down to 4.1 percent, the lowest in 17 years,will outweigh the Fed’s perplexity over why infla-tion has stayed stubbornly below the centralbank’s two percent target.

And with Republicans in Congress working tofinalize a unified final version of a massive taxoverhaul that will slash corporate taxes, centralbankers likely will be thinking about the meas-ure’s potential to add fuel to the economy andfinally ignite price increases, economists say.

“Labor markets and prospects of fiscal stimu-lus outweigh soft inflation” in the rate decision,Barclays said in its Fed outlook note.

With the rate-setting Federal Open MarketCommittee widely expected to increase thebenchmark lending rate, analysts will focus onthe wording of the Fed statement and the quar-terly forecast for hints about how fast rates arelikely to increase next year.

Most economists see three increases again in2018, but will watch to see if more Fed officialsforecast four rate hikes or make any mention ofthe tax cuts’ likely impact on economic growth.

Even so, “Further upward adjustment willlikely have to wait until either the tax cut passesor there is sufficient evidence to suggest thatinflation is firming faster than anticipated,”Barclays said.

But Jim O’Sullivan of High FrequencyEconomics said “we expect officials will signalno let-up in tightening in response to a tight andstill-tightening labor market.” He is projectingfour rate increases next year.

Job gains, while slower than last year, are run-ning at 174,000 a month on average, and com-panies around the country are reporting difficul-ty finding workers to fill open positions.

Normally that would be expected to drivewage gains and fuel price increases, but the Fed’spreferred measure of annual inflation hasremained well below the two percent target, slip-ping to 1.6 percent in October.

The absence of inflation has baffled Fed offi-cials and led to a split among those policymak-ers who want to go slow, and those who want tohike more quickly before price increases hit theeconomy.

Yellen will preside over one more FOMCmeeting in January, and then Trump’s pick forcentral bank chief, Fed governor Jerome Powell,is due to take over in early February. —AFP

NEW YORK: Soaring gasoline prices drove USwholesale inflation higher in November, with onemeasure hitting its second straight five-year record,according to government data released yesterday.

However, other signs of price pressures were mut-ed, with less volatile categories holding steady orslowing. Producer prices rose in November as gaso-line prices surged and the cost of other goodsincreased, leading to the largest annual gain in nearlysix years.

The fairly strong report from the LaborDepartment yesterdaysuggested a broadacceleration in whole-sale price pressures,which could assuageconcerns among someFederal Reserve officialsover persistently lowinflation. The LaborDepartment said itsproducer price index forfinal demand increased0.4 percent last month,advancing by the samemargin for three straightmonths. In the 12 months through November, the PPIshot up 3.1 percent. That was the biggest gain sinceJanuary 2012 and followed a 2.8 percent rise inOctober.

Economists had forecast the PPI rising 0.3 percentlast month and increasing 2.9 percent from a year ago.A key gauge of underlying producer price pressuresthat excludes food, energy and trade services rose 0.4percent last month. The so-called core PPI hadincreased by 0.2 percent for two straight months. It

rose 2.4 percent in the 12 months through November,the largest gain since the series started in August2014, after increasing 2.3 percent in October.

The dollar advanced against a basket of currencieson the data, while prices for US Treasuries fell. USstock index futures were trading slightly higher. Thebroad rise in producer prices supports views thatweak inflation readings experienced through the firsthalf of the year have probably run their course. SomeFed officials had worried that the factors that had helddown inflation early in the year could become more

persistent. The Fed offi-cials were due to gatherfor a two-day policymeeting. The US centralbank is expected toraise interest ratestoday, for a third timethis year, with a robustlabor market andstrengthening economyexpected to overshadowpolicymakers’ earl ierconcerns about tameinflation.

The central banktracks the personal consumption expenditures (PCE)price index excluding food and energy, which hasundershot the Fed’s 2 percent target for nearly 5-1/2years. Last month, gasoline prices surged 15.8 per-cent, the biggest gain since August 2009, after drop-ping 4.6 percent in October. Gasoline accounted fortwo thirds of the 1.0 percent increase in the finaldemand goods index. There were also increases in theprices of light motor trucks, pharmaceutical prepara-tions, beef, residential electricity and jet fuel.

Wholesale food prices rose 0.3 percent inNovember after increasing 0.5 percent in October.Prices for services increased 0.2 percent last monthafter increasing 0.5 percent in October.

Core goods increased 0.3 percent in November,rising by the same margin for a third consecutive

month. Prices for passenger cars increased 0.5 per-cent last month, the largest increase since December2016, after being unchanged in October. The cost ofhealthcare services was unchanged last month afterrising 0.3 percent in October. Those costs feed intothe Fed’s core PCE price index. —Agencies

Producer prices increase 0.4% in November

Soaring energy prices drive US inflation to 5-yr record

Core PPI gains; up 2.4%

year-on-year

Singapore launcheselectric car-sharingserviceSINGAPORE: Singapore yesterday launched an elec-tric car-sharing service, the latest transport innovationaimed at encouraging people away from owning vehi-cles and keeping gridlock at bay in the space-starvedcity-state. BlueSG, a subsidiary of France’s BolloreGroup, rolled out the scheme with 80 cars and 32charging stations-which serve as drop-off and pick-uppoints — and plans to expand its fleet more than 10-fold in coming years.

It is the latest effort by authorities in the tightly-controlled financial hub of 5.6 million to prevent thesort of gridlock that has blighted other fast-develop-ing Asian cities.

Officials have already introduced tough measures,including a license fee that has pushed the average carprice to over $80,000, a freeze on car numbers on theroads, and major new investments in public transport.The electric car scheme is being launched in partner-ship with the government, and the company hopes toeventually provide Singapore with the second-biggestelectric car-sharing service in the world, after Paris.

BlueSG plans to increase the number of its cars to100 by the end of the year, and is targeting 1,000 carsand 2,000 charging points by 2020. The specially-builtBluecars — four-seaters with two doors-are slightlybigger than a smart car and were designed with Italiancoachbuilder Pininfarina.

Users will be able to book an electric car onlineor with a mobile app, and charged for the time theyrent the vehicle rather than the distance travelled.There is also an option for a monthly membership

costing SG$15 ($11). Marie Bollore, managing director of Bollore’s elec-

tric vehicles division, said Singapore’s high populationdensity and well-developed network of roads made itan ideal launchpad for the company’s foray intoSoutheast Asia.

Ngien Hoon Ping, chief executive of Singapore’sLand Transport Authority, said he hoped the initiative

“will pave the way for greater adoption of electric vehi-cles in Singapore.”

The city-state’s tough traffic-control policies havelargely been a success, with its streets relatively clean,orderly and clear of traffic. But the rising price of carsand a series of recent public transport breakdownshave caused anger and prompted calls for the systemto be improved. —AFP

SINGAPORE: Singapore transport minister Khaw Boon Wan, tries out a BlueSG electric vehicle during thelaunch of an electric car-sharing service in Singapore yesterday. —AFP

ANZ Bank sells life insurance arm to Zurich for $2.14bnSYDNEY: ANZ Bank unveiled plansyesterday to offload its life insurancearm to Zurich for Aus$2.85 bi l l ion($2.14 billion), making the Swiss giantAustralia’s largest retail life insurer bypremiums. It follows National AustraliaBank selling most of its life insurancebusiness to Japan’s Nippon andCommonwealth Bank shedding i tsinsurance arm to AIA in recent yearsas Australia’s top lenders streamlineoperations.

ANZ said the sale of One Path LifeAustralia Holdings, subject to regulato-ry approvals, was another step in itsstrategy to create “a simpler, betterbalanced bank focused on retail andbusiness banking in Australia and NewZealand”.

“From the outset we’ve been focusedon partnering with a high-qualityorganization culturally aligned to ANZ,”said ANZ’s Executive Wealth Australiachief Alexis George. “We’re pleased wewill be able to provide our customerswith access to wealth products fromone of the world’s leading and mostrespected global insurers.”

It described the deal as a good out-

come for both customers and share-holders, citing Zurich’s “commitment toinnovation and strong presence inAustralia”. It follows ANZ’s sale of itsOnePath pensions and investmentsbusiness to IOOF Holdings in Octoberfor Aus$975 million. The bank’s shareswere 0.44 percent higher at Aus$28.62in afternoon trade.

Asia-Pacific in Zurich’s sights All of Australia’s big banks are bat-

tling higher funding costs and lowerinterest margins, with rules nowdemanding they hold more reserves asa buffer against rising mortgage liabili-ties and fears over bad loans. They alsoface a hefty new government levy toraise Aus$6.2 billion over four yearsthrough a 0.06 percent charge on theborrowings of the big five — ANZ,Commonwealth, Macquarie, NAB andWestpac.The Commonwealth sold itsAustralian and New Zealand life insur-ance business to AIA for $3.0 billion inSeptember, while NAB received US$1.7billion from Nippon Life for an 80 per-cent stake in its insurance arm in 2015.

As part of the agreement, ANZ andZur ich wi l l enter into a 20-yearstrategic alliance to offer life insur-ance solutions through ANZ’s distri-bution channels.

Following completion of the deal,funded through cash and debt andexpected to be finalized late next year,Zurich will be Australia’s largest retaillife insurer as measured by in-forcepremiums, with more than 1.5 million

customers, or 19 percent market share.The deal comes on the heels of a

string of Asia-Pacific acquisitions bythe Swiss firm, whose chief executiveMario Greco said it was a good fit forits growth strategy.

“ANZ’s portfolio of non-traditionaland profitable retail products fits wellwith Zurich’s strategy to focus on capi-tal-light protection and unit-linkedbusiness,” he said. Zurich’s Asia-Pacifichead Jack Howell said the region was an

important market for the company.“Zurich has earmarked the Asia-

Pacific region to be a major engine ofgrowth in distribution and servicecapabilities, building on our recentacquisitions of Macquarie’s retail lifeinsurance business and the Cover-MoreGroup,” he said. “Importantly, we areacquiring a profitable business (ANZ’slife insurance) with loyal customers anda track record of strong, stable cashflows.” —AFP

MEXICO CITY: This file picture shows a British Petroleum petrol station in Ciudad Satellite, Naucalpan deJuarez municipality, Mexico State, near Mexico City. —AFP

A file photo shows an ANZ sign adorning a branch of the bank in Sydney. —AFP

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

20B u s i n e s s

Established 1961

European equities rise as US Fed meetsLONDON: Global stock markets were higheryesterday, as investors girded themselves forthis week’s key interest rate decisions, with theenergy sector boosted by firm oil prices.

Wall Street opened tentatively higher as theUS Federal Reserve sat down for its last policy-setting meeting of the year. On this side of theAtlantic, however, Germany’s DAX was under-performing

Europe’s other main indices, “losing groundamid a slightly stronger euro,” said AccendoMarkets analyst, Mike van Dulken.

Meanwhile, the Dow rose from record peaksearly yesterday, lifted by a Boeing dividendboost and as investors prepared for a likelyFederal Reserve interest rate increase.

Aerospace giant Boeing surged 3.2 percentafter announcing it would increase its dividendby 20 percent and undertake a new $18 billionshare repurchase program.

Analysts expect shareholders to benefit fromsimilar moves once the tax bill moving throughCongress becomes law, even as President DonaldTrump has touted the corporate tax cuts as away to boost economic growth and job creation.

“If the tax cuts are approved and signed intolaw, those reductions should help boost earn-ings and cash flow, which are the fuel for divi-dend payments and share repurchases,”Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare said.

About 15 minutes into trading, the DowJones Industrial Average stood 24,492.20, up

0.4 percent . The broad-based S&P 500added 0.1 percent to 2,661.50, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.1 percentto 6,870.49.

In London, however, the FTSE was outper-forming “thanks to a weaker pound versus thedollar and higher Brent Crude oil prices after aNorth Sea supply shutdown,” the expert said.

London’s FTSE 100 index advanced 0.3 per-cent in mid-afternoon deals and the Paris CAC40 index won 0.4 percent, while Frankfurt’s DAX30 was only fractionally higher. “The shutdownof the Forties pipeline can have a durable impacton the price because it adds to the tighter sup-ply picture brought about by OPEC’s outputcuts,” said London Capital Group analyst, Jasper

Lawler. “We suspect... that Brent is on its way tochallenge the 2015 high near $68 per barrel.”Some degree of profit-taking had set in by mid-afternoon, with crude prices coming off recenthighs, the overall rise has energized the oil sectorbecause higher prices tend to translate intobumper profits and revenues.

In London, Anglo-Dutch energy giant RoyalDutch Shell’s ‘A’ shares jumped 1.4 percent to2,445 pence and British rival BP gained 1.5 per-cent to 506.40 pence. French oil and gas titanTotal saw its share price rally 1.6 percent to47.84 euros in Paris.

Central banks in focus Focus this week, meanwhile, is also on mone-

tary policy meetings of central banks in theUnited States, Britain and the eurozone. Today,the US Federal Reserve unveils its latest deci-sion, followed on Thursday by both the Bank ofEngland (BoE) and the European Central Bank.

“European markets are trading in positiveterritory, with oil stocks particularly buoyantafter the shutdown of the Forties Pipelinesent Brent crude oil to a 30-month high,”said Rebecca O’Keeffe, head of investment atonl ine stockbroker Interactive Investor.“With all eyes on central banks this week,investors will be hoping that (ECB chief)Mario Draghi will remain the benevolentSanta Claus for markets and not turn intoScrooge,” she told AFP. — AFP

Tuesday 12 December 2017

Boursa Kuwait supports educational initiatives by endorsing Q8 open quiz 2017KUWAIT: Building on its CSRportfolio, Boursa Kuwait hasparticipated at the Q8 OpenQuiz Show 2017, held on the24th of November 2017. Theshow is an annual signatureevent organized by the IndianInstitutes of Technology (IITs)and the Indian Institutes ofManagement (IIMs) Alumni, andis open to all nationalities.

Eman Ali, Executive Director - Strategic Transformationand CEO Office, represented Boursa Kuwait at the event, agesture that reflects its commitments to supporting education-al initiatives conveying the importance of this function in ele-vating the overall performance metrics of communities in theKuwaiti market.

Boursa Kuwait’s CSR strategy focuses on providing thenecessary support to the different segments of the society, invarious areas such as children care, health, environment, socialdevelopment, providing job opportunities to young Kuwaitisand give them an opportunity to excel and shine in their areasof expertise, educating the society through various forums,seminars & internship programs, investing in our employeesand provide them with an ideal work environment.

The show is supported by Indian Business & ProfessionalCouncil, with a directive to promote economic co-operationbetween Kuwait and India, and to provide a platform for inter-action between Kuwaitis, Indians and other foreign residents.

The Open is hosted by acclaimed and popular Quiz masterfrom India - Giri Balasubramaniam well known as Pickbrain. Giriholds seven Limca records for quizzing achievements and hashosted more than 1250 shows across 65 destinations of India,USA, Sri Lanka, Singapore, London and the Middle East Region.

The inaugural 2014 as well as 2015 events were resoundingsuccesses with more than 100 teams (3 members a side) from10 nationalities participating for the Crown. Following lastyear’s success which marked the participation of more than 30international schools and more than 1500 audience atten-dances during the finals, this year’s edition continued to marka grand success.

The IIT IIM Alumni Association in Kuwait is an associationof alumni of the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs)and the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). Registered asa professional association with the Embassy of India inKuwait, the association functions under the auspices of theAmbassador of India to Kuwait as its patron. The Associationrepresents a vast blend of talent and experience from verysenior executives to the high energy of youngsters who havejust embarked on their professional journeys.

In-line with its CSR strategy, Boursa Kuwait’s team hasrecently conducted a visit to Bayt Abdullah Children’s Hospice- BACCH and presented gifts to children, the company hasalso hosted schools and universities students to raise theirawareness on the history and future of Kuwait stock exchange.Additionally, and conducted health driven activities for itsemployees. Boursa Kuwait keep on hosting educational work-shops, seminars and forums targeting different stakeholders.

B u s i n e s s Wednesday, December 13, 2017

21Established 1961

DUBAI: Representatives from the Guinness WorldRecords certified two new broken records forChevrolet Middle East last night. Thanks to customersand fans across the Middle East, Chevrolet was able torally enough passion for the brand to attempt two suc-cessful record breaking attempts simultaneously.

The first record, ‘largest online photo album of peo-ple holding a sign’, garnered a total of 37,163 photosbreaking the previousrecord held by a DubaiEntity by 4,947 photos.

The second worldrecord broken byChevrolet was for ‘mostpeople contributing to astamp image’ with atotal of 4,948 participat-ing Chevrolet customersand fans, the new recordimproves on the old by1,795. The previousrecord was held by acompany based in China.

Chevrolet’s #iamarecordbreaker campaign kickedoff in Beirut in October and toured across the GCCthroughout November and December with overwhelm-ing success. Participants from Oman, Kuwait, SaudiArabia and the UAE came together to set GuinnessWorld Records titles with Chevrolet Middle East.

Commenting on the achievement, Chevrolet MiddleEast Head of Brand Ahmed Soudodi said: “We set oursights on breaking these two Guinness World Recordstitles in celebration of Chevrolet’s best-ever line-up.We were humbled and honored by the amount of par-ticipation, and shows Chevrolet’s true relevance to ourregion and the passion that exists for our brand, it alsoreiterates our commitment to putting customers at the

center of everything wedo.” He added; “Going into 2018, Chevrolet cus-tomers and prospectscan expect one of themost diverse, and amongthe youngest portfolioson the market, combin-ing cutting-edge auto-motive engineering,innovative technologies,advanced safety fea-tures, sleek design andunrivalled practicality.”

Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is one of theworld’s largest car brands, doing business in morethan 100 countries and selling more than 4.0 millioncars and trucks a year. Chevrolet provides cus-tomers with fuel-efficient vehicles that featureengaging performance, design that makes the heart-beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-

use technology, all at a value. The Chevrolet portfolio for the Middle East for

2018 features award-winning passenger cars such asthe Spark, Aveo, Mal ibu, Impala, Camaro andCorvette; crossovers such as the Trax al l new

Equinox and Traverse; and, SUVs and pickupsincluding the Trailblazer, Tahoe, Suburban andSilverado. Chevrolet also offers customers a high-level aftersales service experience through ChevroletComplete Care.

Chevrolet Middle East breaks two Guinness World Records

Brand rallies enough passion with support of customers and fans across GCC

Participantsfrom Oman,

Kuwait, Saudi and UAE attend

Renault Al-Babtain awards winners of 23rd annual NBK Walkathon event KUWAIT: Abdulmohsen Abdulaziz Al-Babtain Co, theauthorized agent of Renault in the State of Kuwait recentlyawarded Ibrahim Dsousky and Dan Solo with a RenaultKoleos and Renault Megane respectively upon their partici-pation at the annual NBK walkathon. Visitors also had thechance to enter a draw and win fun test drive cars during theweekend of which are the latest models of the Renault Koleos,Renault Talisman & Renault Megane.

Demonstrating passion, integrity and commitment throughevery community engagement that Al-Babtain initiates orparticipates in, Saleh Al-Babtain The Chief Executive Officerof Al-Babtain group recognized the winners for their determi-nation. Starting from the walk from Green Island on the GulfRoad to the Shuwaikh Beach Park, for a distance of 11 Km, theevent witnessed participation of over 9,000 people. The win-ners were delighted to receive the Renault Koleos, a powerfuland refined SUV and the Renault Megane, a dynamic com-pact saloon car.

Al-Babtain group emphasized on its role in supporting thesports activities which help in a healthy lifestyle for Kuwaitcommunity. The leading group in automotive brands in Kuwaitwill continue in its major role in the social responsibilitythrough the continuous participation and support to socialinitiatives.

Dutch classrooms empty againas primary teachers strikeAMSTERDAM: Elementary schools stayed closed across theNetherlands yesterday, as thousands of teachers went on strikefor the second time in two months to demand higher pay and bet-ter working conditions. The previous one-day strike was inOctober, when eleventh-hour funding promises by the govern-ment failed to avert the largest work stoppage by Dutch primaryschool teachers since the 1980s. Prime Minister Mark Rutteoffered them 700 million euros ($825 million) in extra funds overthe next four years, but they say they need double that to coversalary increases and pay for classroom assistants. Participation inyesterday’s stoppage among the Netherlands’ 100,000 primaryteachers appeared to be high, with unions estimating around 90percent of schools remained shut. The strike reflects growingfrustration across the Dutch workforce, with employees in manysectors feeling left behind by strong economic growth that hasnot been matched by wage increases.

Primary school teachers have demanded a one-time 1.4 billioneuro cash injection to bring their salaries up to the level of theircounterparts in secondary schools, who on average earn 20 per-cent more. For many teachers the confrontation with the state isalso about a serious labor shortage that has increased their work-load. The Netherlands will have a shortfall of 11,000 primaryschool teachers by 2027, estimates by the Ministry of Educationshowed last month, while a pay gap with other professions isexpected to grow. —Reuters

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

22Te c h n o l o g y

Established 1961

KUWAIT: Ooredoo, announced the launch of ShamelHome, a comprehensive plan that offers customers withfixed and mobile internet in addition to online digitalentertainment content from beIN, OSN and STARZ-PLAY. The announcement was made during the launchevent held yesterday in Four Seasons Burj Al ShayaHotel in Kuwait City.

As part of this plan, customers can benefit fromhigh-speed up to 10 Mbps fixed internet with unlimitedcapacity courtesy of FASTtelco, a company owned byOoredoo Kuwait, in addition to speeds up to 10 mbps,on their mobile lines, and they can enjoy 100 GB inter-net that can be shared with four additional SIM cardswhich are considered add-ons and customers canchoose them upon their discretion. Customers will alsoenjoy 1500 local minutes. Additionally, customers canchoose between beIN’s beIN CONNECT, OSN’sWAVO or STARZPLAY,for digital services. Theycan get 2 years of digitalcontent subscriptionwith WAVO, whichincludes a comprehen-sive range of entertain-ment, movies, series andsports programs as wellas 21 live TV channels,STARZPLAY , which has10,000+ Hours ofblockbuster Hollywoodmovies, latest series,Arabic shows,Bollywood, children’s entertainment, and one year ofdigital content from beIN CONNECT to watch livestreaming of the biggest sports events. The content canbe streamed through the service providers’ websitesand their apps for smart devices, including smart TVs,smartphones and tablets. It is worth mentioning thatcustomers can choose from a diverse portfolio ofdevices which include handsets, tablets, and gamingconsoles.

Pioneering digitalizationCommenting on the launch of this unique plan,

Ooredoo Kuwait’s CEO and General Manager Sheikh

Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Thani noted that ShamelHome is an important step form Ooredoo towardsembracing digitalization, especially as digital entertain-ment content witness substantial growth and demand inthe region due to the rising popularity of smart devices.Underscoring that the move comes in tandem with thecompany’s core values of caring, connecting, and chal-lenging, Al-Thani said, “Ooredoo Kuwait is committedto providing customers with services and plans thatmeet customers’ expectations and complement theirlifestyle and mode of usage of the internet at home andon the go. We believe that it is vital to embrace thistransformation of telecommunication and the role itplays in people’s everyday life; it is no longer exclusiveto making phone calls on mobile devices.”

He also highlighted Ooredoo’s pride in partneringwith reputable service providers such as STARZPLAY,

a content provider thatgarnered substantial fol-lowing in a short periodof time, in addition toWAVO, the all-newonline and mobile appentertainment platformof OSN, the region’sleading entertainmentnetwork, which offersexclusive content fromthe likes of HBO andDisney and exclusivesporting events such asthe UFC and IPL and

beIN CONNECT, the renowned sports entertainmentprovider in the region that offers exclusive internation-al events such as the Champions League. “I would liketo take this opportunity to thank our respected part-ners for their trust in collaborating with us in launchingthis product; it is such an honor to work with partnerswho are aligned with our strategy in providing cus-tomers with the best possible experience,” he added.

Commenting on this initiative, Yousef Al-ObaidlyDeputy CEO, beIN MEDIA GROUP said, “Young andmobile Kuwaiti consumers expect to catch up with theirfavorite sports and programs on-the-go at their con-venience. The partnership between Ooredoo Kuwait

and beIN enables sports fans in Kuwait to watch theabsolute best in football, tennis, cricket, F1, handball,basketball and many other sports, anytime anywhere.We expect this initiative to be an instant hit in Kuwait.”

Francesco Perta, VP of Telecom Partnerships, atOSN, said: “OSN’s strategic partnership with Ooredoofor our leading online and mobile entertainment plat-form, WAVO, reflects our commitment to putting cus-tomers first, offering them world class entertainment,anytime, anywhere, at a price to suit every pocket. As aresult of this partnership, even more people in Kuwaitcan now enjoy WAVO’s unrivalled blend of exclusiveEnglish and Arabic content across a vast array of gen-res. WAVO is unmatched anywhere in the region.WAVO offers customers an unprecedented 21 live TVchannels, capitalizing on some of OSN’s top exclusivepartnerships with leading studios, including HBO andDisney, making it the home of Emmy Award-winninghits, Westworld and Big Little Lies; as well as Disneyfamily favourites. WAVO also offers customers access

to a massive library of video on demand and catch upTV, with everything from exclusive Western and Arabicprogramming to major sporting events; all of which canbe enjoyed anytime, anywhere.

WAVO is the perfect online and mobile entertain-ment companion to Ooredoo’s Shamel Home offer, andwe are delighted to announce that when OoredooKuwait customers select any one of the WAVO Sports,WAVO Entertainment or WAVO Movies packages,they will get complementary access to the other twoWAVO packages until February 2018.”

Danny Bates, Co-Founder and CCO of STARZPLAY commented: “Our growing library aims to meetour customers’ desires, and through our partnershipwith Ooredoo Kuwait, we continue to help our sub-scribers receive value for money. We enjoy a solidbond with Ooredoo and look forward to workingtogether. “We are excited to bring customers our lat-est exclusive shows such as Knightfall, Vikings, Powerand Taboo.”

Ooredoo launches ‘Shamel Home’Kuwait’s first comprehensive internet, mobile and entertainment plan

Online contentfrom beIN, OSN,

STARZPLAY, and FASTtelco

The work team during the event. —Photos by Joseph Shagra

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdullah bin Mohammed Al-Thani Danny Bates Francisco Berta

Mijbil Al-Ayoub

A group photo of the event.

The Toyota Mobility Foundation, in partner-ship with Nesta’s Challenge Prize Centre,has launched a $4 million global challenge,‘Mobility Unlimited Challenge,’ to changethe lives of people with lower-limb paralysis,culminating in the unveiling of the winnersin Tokyo in 2020.

The Mobility Unlimited Challenge isseeking teams around the world to create agame-changing technology that will help toradically improve the mobility and inde-pendence of people with paralysis.

The Mobility Unlimited Challenge aimsto harness creative thinking from across theworld to accelerate innovation and encour-age collaboration with users to find winningdevices that will transform the world forpeople with lower-limb paralysis. TheChallenge will reward the development ofpersonal mobility devices incorporatingintelligent systems.

The mobility solutions of the futurecould include anything from exoskeletons toartificial intelligence and machine learning,from cloud computing to batteries.

“We are delighted to launch this uniquechallenge, which seeks the world’s innova-tors and problem-solvers to create game-changing technology,” said TakayukiYoshitsugu, Chief Representative, MiddleEast and North Africa Representative Office,Toyota Motor Corporation. “Toyota believesthat mobility goes beyond cars; it is aboutovercoming challenges and making dreamscome true. Throughout our history, we havebeen driven by a commitment to contribut-ing to society, and this challenge will helpradically improve the mobility and inde-pendence of those with lower-limb paralysis.We thank our customers for continuing toinspire us and their support to our initiativesaimed at building a more joyful mobile soci-ety by advancing mobility for all.”

Around the world, millions of people havelower-limb paralysis (the most commoncauses being strokes, spinal cord injury, andmultiple sclerosis). While there are no statis-tics on paralysis worldwide, the WorldHealth Organization estimates there arebetween 250,000 and 500,000 new cases

of spinal cord injury globally every year. Innovation in ‘smarter’ mobility technolo-

gy has the potential to create personaldevices that are better integrated with theuser’s body and the environment. But theapplication of this groundbreaking technol-ogy is slow due to disincentives such assmall and fragmented markets, regulatoryburdens, and reimbursement complexitiesfrom healthcare systems and insurers.

This can make the field unattractive tosmall or new entrants, and prevent innova-tive solutions by existing innovators fromgetting to market. Even though hugeadvances have been made in improvingtravel between places, innovation in every-day functionality still lags behind.

The Mobility Unlimited Challenge Prizeis supported by a number of ambassadorsfrom around the world, all of whom haveexperience of living with lower-limb paral-ysis. Global ambassadors include AkiTaguchi, Director of ParalympianAssociation of Japan; August De LosReyes, Head of Design at Pinterest; Turner-Prize nominated British/Nigerian artistYinka Shonibare (MBE); South Africanrower Sandra Khumalo; Indian athlete andcampaigner Preethi Srinivasan; British TVpresenter Sophie Morgan; US track andfield athlete Tatyana McFadden; and Dr.Rory A. Cooper, Director of the HumanEngineering Research Laboratories at theUniversity of Pittsburgh.

Ryan Klem, Director of Programs forToyota Mobility Foundation, stated: “This isthe beginning of our challenge - a three-year journey concluding in Tokyo in 2020. Ajourney where the greatest minds in tech-nology, design, and engineering, from everycorner of the world, will compete to makethe environment and society more accessi-ble for people with lower-limb paralysis. Weknow we don’t have solutions yet; thisChallenge is about working with the peoplewho can help develop them.”

Charlotte Macken of Nesta’s ChallengePrize Centre, commented: “Challenge Prizesare a way to make innovation happen. TheMobility Unlimited Challenge is about the

freedom to move. It will support innovators,creating cutting-edge personal mobilitydevices incorporating smart technologyand intelligent systems that will transformpeople’s lives.”

A panel of expert judges will pick fivefinalists who will each receive $500,000(equivalent to AED 1.83m) to take their con-cepts from an intelligent insight to a proto-type. The Challenge winner will receive$1,000,000 (equivalent to AED 3.67m) tomake the device available to users?with thewinning concept unveiled in Tokyo in 2020.

The Mobility Unlimited Challenge aimsto attract and support smaller innovatorswho might otherwise struggle to break intothe assistive technology market. TheDiscovery Awards will provide seed fundingof $50,000 (equivalent to AED 183,000) for10 groups with promising concepts, butwho might otherwise lack the resources toenter the Challenge. Interested innovatorscan apply online at mobilityunlimited.org.

Building on universal design principles tocreate a more equitable environment,entries for the Mobility Unlimited Challengewill be user-centered. The Challenge will be

a catalyst for innovation through co-cre-ation with the people around the world whowill benefit most from the solutions discov-ered by our entrants.

At the end of the Mobility UnlimitedChallenge, the Toyota Mobility Foundationand Nesta’s Challenge Prize Centre willhave supported teams of innovators in cre-ating leading-edge technological solutions,opening a new chapter in personal mobilityfor people with lower-limb paralysis.

Watch the video here to understandToyota Mobility Foundation’s vision, and formore information, please visit mobilityun-limited.org.

This has included projects such as:* IBot mark 2 stair-climbing wheelchair,

soon to be made slimmer and more afford-able;

* Human Support Robot (HSR) A ‘part-ner robot’ to assist people with everydayactivities;

* Project BLAID A future mobility tech-nology that could help people who are blindor have visual impairments gain better envi-ronmental awareness.

H e a l t h Wednesday, December 13, 2017

23Established 1961

Four-million-dollar challenge to transform theworld of people with lower-limb paralysis

Solutions will come from across the technological and design spectrum

Tasmanian tigerdoomed longbefore humanscame alongSYDNEY: The Tasmanian tiger was doomed longbefore humans began hunting the enigmatic marsupi-al, scientists said yesterday, with DNA sequencingshowing it was in poor genetic health for thousandsof years before its extinction. Scientists geneticallymapped the animal-also known as a thylacine-usingthe genome of a pup preserved more than a centuryago in a jar. The research revealed the creaturebegan to undergo a decline in genetic diversity morethan 70,000 years ago, leaving it less resilient toenvironmental change even before Aborigines arebelieved to have first inhabited the continent 65,000years ago.

“Our hope is that there is a lot the thylacine cantell us about the genetic basis of extinction to helpother species,” said University of Melbourne biolo-gist Andrew Pask, co-author of a study published inNature Ecology and Evolution. Pask added theresearch may eventually enable scientists to clonethe Tasmanian tiger and bring it back from the dead.“As this genome is one of the most complete for anextinct species, it is technically the first step to‘bringing the thylacine back’, but we are still a longway off that possibility.”

The animal was once widespread across Australia,but was wiped out on the mainland around 3,000years ago, having likely succumbed to drought. Theysurvived in the southern island state of Tasmania until1936 when the last known one died in captivity atHobart Zoo after the species was hunted to extinctionin the wild. Scientists found the genetics of the animalto be more closely related to fellow Australian marsu-pial the Tasmanian devil than the dog-like dingo withwhom it shared many physical features. —AFP

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

24W h a t ’ s O n

Established 1961

In commemoration of the hotel 15th anniversary,Hilton Kuwait Resort celebrated a successful yearwith guests and corporate partners at the hotel’s

2017 Annual Corporate ‘15 Years of success’ themedgala. Ziad Tantawi, General Manager of Hilton KuwaitResort along with Fady Iskandar , Director of BusinessDevelopment and Karim Fattouh, Assistant Director ofSales sided by the Sales, Public Relations andMarketing team gave a warm welcome to the elite

guests wishing them a pleasant time. Hosted by thefamous MC Tamara Saab, the party was held in thehotel’s impressive Al-Dorra Ballroom, where guestswere treated to entertainment from the famous LEDwheel performer Omar Fuentes who flown from Mexicoparticularly to attend the special occasion.

During the event, Ziad Tantawi, The GeneralManager of Hilton Kuwait Resort gave an engagingspeech, commended the business partners for their

efforts and support throughout 2017. He commented“It is an honor to be standing here surrounded by alarge number of our friends, esteemed guests andpartners whom we have been associated for manyyears. We are very fortunate to be celebrating thismilestone together, and our happiness is doubled bythe fact that Hilton Kuwait Resort is celebrating its15th anniversary with business leaders and members ofKuwait’s elite community.”

“This event provided us with the perfect opportuni-ty to thank those individuals and companies who haveshowed continuous support throughout the year.” headded. In addition to the delicious cuisine and world-class entertainment guests enjoyed throughout theevening, a raffle draw also took place with guests win-ning valuable gifts including complimentary night staysin Hilton Hotels and Resorts around the world as well asprecious gifts from Hilton Kuwait Resort.

Hilton Kuwait Resort celebrates2017 Annual Corporate Night

Company representatives are honored during the event.

Mubarak ELT holds3rd school Scrabblecompetition By Hassan Abdul Bari

Mubarak Al-Kabeer ELT supervision recentlyorganized the third annual school Scrabblecompetition for the area’s male high school

students. The event was hosted at Abdullah Al-Mubarak Secondary School for boys where a studentrepresented each of the area’s seven male high schools.

The organizing committee was headed by MubarakELT Senior Supervisor Hadeel Al-Kandari and includedELT supervisors Mahmoud Al-Najjar, Habib Rezzoukand Jawad Amrani in addition to English teachersMulham Adnan, Hassan Abdul Bari and Ameer Khalloufas judges.

The students played three qualifying rounds beforethe final game, where student Hussein Khaled Al-Sabtifrom Imam Malek school won the first place, followedby Waleed Khaled Al-Sonni from Jaber Al-Ali School.The two students will accordingly represent the areain the second round of the competition featuring alleducational areas in Kuwait. Notably, Scrabble wasintroduced as a school activity two years ago, andever since, the game has been attracting more interestand participation from students.

A general view of the audience.A draw in progress to select the winners.Ziad Tantawi, The General Manager of HiltonKuwait Resort delivers his speech.

The winners and teachers pose for a group photo.

The 2nd qualifying game in progress.The 1st and 2nd place winners face off in the finalgame.

Students warm up before the start of the official games.

Blood donationdrive at ACK

The Australian College of Kuwait (ACK) organizeda blood donation drive, in collaboration with theCentral Blood Bank of Kuwait. Organized by

ACK’s Health and Safety Department, the BloodDonation drive brought together students, faculty, andstaff members from around the College to support thetheme of the campaign - ‘Every Drop Matters.’ Donors

were greeted with a quick quiz arranged by studentsrelating to the types of blood and compatible bloodtype donors in addition, to fresh juices were given todonors following the donation process.

In total, the Central Blood Bank collected 85 bloodbags from ACK. The Central Blood Bank of Kuwaitshared their heart felt appreciation towards ACK’scommunity for having one of the highest numbers ofdonors from educational institutions in Kuwait. Due tohigh level of engagement and success, further BloodDonation drives will be scheduled to encourage stu-dents and staff to raise awareness concerning theimportance of regular blood donations.

NBK, LOYACarrangeyouth trip toThailand KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait(NBK) and LOYAC arranged a tripfor Kuwaiti youth to Thailand. Thisone-week trip will include socialinitiatives and activities with localsto get to know different culturesand learn their daily life.

This sponsorship goes withNBK’s support to LOYAC’s annualactivities and events including thetrips. A group of volunteers fromdifferent backgrounds will partici-pate in this trip which is designed tobuild the humanitarian and adven-turous skills in their personality.

The trip focuses on a communityservice project that includes meet-ing with locals to know more aboutthe Thai culture, a visit to rice fieldswhere volunteers will have thechance to prepare meals for familiesin need and teach English. . The vol-unteers will also have the chance toparticipate in a group of social ini-tiatives to provide a better under-

standing of the life and culture oflocals. During the trip, participantswill be introduced to the Elephantconservation project to learn andcontribute in the methods of con-servation for elephants.

Yaqoub Al-Baqer, NBK PublicRelations Team Leader, said: “Thissponsorship is part of NBK’s com-mitment to its Corporate SocialResponsibility as well as the vitalrole it plays in supporting students,youths and self-building initiativesin Kuwait.”

“NBK always strives to empowerKuwaiti youth to realize theirpotentials, build their personalitiesand motivates their ambition. This

trip with LOYAC came in line withour strategy to invest in youth anddevelop their capabilities,” headded. NBK continues to promote arange of philanthropic missions andsocial welfare programs as part ofits corporate social responsibility toassert its leadership in supportingKuwait’s social development, stand-ing as a model in serving all aspectsof the community.

LOYAC is a nonprofit organiza-tion that runs several programs forthe youth to develop their profes-sional skills, enhance their personalgrowth and help them find theirsense of purpose by extendingthemselves to others.

ACK students during the event

T V Wednesday, December 13, 2017

25Established 1961

01:20 Blood Circus02:55 Ant-Man05:00 The Last Witch Hunter06:50 Project Almanac08:40 Point Break10:35 Age Of Tomorrow12:10 The Last Witch Hunter14:00 Ant-Man16:05 The 5th Wave18:00 Eagle Eye20:00 Thor22:00 Blood Diamond

00:50 Untamed & Uncut01:45 Treehouse Masters02:40 Cats 10103:35 Shamwari: A Wild Life04:00 Shamwari: A Wild Life04:25 North Woods Law05:15 Australia Doesn’t Just Want ToKill You06:02 Deadly Islands06:49 Untamed & Uncut07:36 Orangutan Island08:25 Shamwari: A Wild Life09:15 Treehouse Masters10:10 Cats 10111:05 Deadly Islands12:00 Shamwari: A Wild Life12:55 North Woods Law13:50 Australia Doesn’t Just Want ToKill You14:45 Cats 10115:40 Deadly Islands16:35 Untamed & Uncut17:30 Treehouse Masters18:25 Tanked19:20 Treehouse Masters20:15 Cats 10121:10 Shamwari: A Wild Life21:38 Shamwari: A Wild Life22:05 Tanked23:00 Treehouse Masters23:55 Deadly Islands

00:55 Silent Witness01:55 Silent Witness02:55 Orphan Black03:40 Doctors04:10 New Tricks05:05 Holby City06:00 Holby City06:50 Death In Paradise07:45 Doctors08:20 Holby City09:10 Holby City10:05 Death In Paradise11:00 New Tricks11:55 Doctor Who12:50 Stella13:35 Holby City14:30 Death In Paradise15:25 Doctor Who16:20 Stella17:05 New Tricks18:00 Doctors18:30 EastEnders19:05 Death In Paradise20:00 Poldark20:55 The Durrells22:00 Line Of Duty22:55 Top Of The Lake

00:00 Campus Nightmares01:00 Homicide: Hours To Kill02:00 It Takes A Killer02:30 It Takes A Killer03:00 The First 4804:00 Campus Nightmares05:00 Homicide: Hours To Kill06:00 It Takes A Killer06:30 It Takes A Killer07:00 Homicide Hunter08:00 Nightmare In Suburbia09:00 It Takes A Killer09:30 It Takes A Killer10:00 Homicide Hunter11:00 Homicide: Hours To Kill12:00 Escaping Polygamy13:00 Leah Remini: Scientology AndThe Aftermath14:00 It Takes A Killer14:30 It Takes A Killer15:00 Homicide Hunter16:00 Homicide: Hours To Kill17:00 The First 4818:00 It Takes A Killer18:30 It Takes A Killer19:00 Crimes That Shook Britain20:00 Crimes That Shook Britain21:00 Crimes That Shook Britain22:00 Homicide: Hours To Kill23:00 I Escaped My Killer

00:05 The Half Hour00:30 The Half Hour00:55 Amy Schumer-MarkNormand: Don’t Be Yourself01:45 South Park02:10 Chappelle’s Show02:35 Real Husbands Of Hollywood03:00 The Daily Show With TrevorNoah03:25 Tosh.003:50 Chappelle’s Show04:15 Kroll Show04:40 Key And Peele05:05 Important Things WithDemitri Martin05:30 Impractical Jokers05:55 Disaster Date06:20 Ridiculousness Arabia06:50 Tattoo Disasters07:15 Tattoo Disasters07:40 I Live With Models08:05 Impractical Jokers08:30 Disaster Date08:55 Workaholics09:20 Kroll Show09:45 Key And Peele10:10 Important Things WithDemitri Martin10:35 I Live With Models11:00 Impractical Jokers11:25 Disaster Date11:50 Ridiculousness Arabia12:15 Impractical Jokers12:40 Tattoo Disasters13:05 Tattoo Disasters13:30 Important Things WithDemitri Martin13:55 Friends14:20 Friends14:45 Workaholics15:10 Key And Peele15:35 Kroll Show16:00 Comedy Central PresentsComedy 3alwagef16:30 Impractical Jokers16:55 Friends17:20 Friends17:45 Disaster Date18:10 Ridiculousness Arabia18:35 Lip Sync Battle19:00 Lip Sync Battle

19:25 Impractical Jokers19:50 Real Husbands Of Hollywood20:12 Friends20:35 Friends21:00 The Daily Show With TrevorNoah21:30 Comedy Central PresentsComedy 3alwagef22:00 Teachers22:25 Tosh.023:15 Real Husbands Of Hollywood23:40 The Daily Show With TrevorNoah

00:05 Origins00:30 Destroyed In Seconds00:55 Destroyed In Seconds01:20 React To That01:45 React To That02:10 Kids Do The Craziest Things02:35 Kids Do The Craziest Things03:00 Ultimate Survival03:50 Destroyed In Seconds04:15 Destroyed In Seconds04:40 How It’s Made05:05 How It’s Made05:30 Origins05:55 Origins06:20 Nextworld07:00 Destroyed In Seconds07:25 Destroyed In Seconds07:50 Origins08:15 Origins08:40 How It’s Made09:05 How It’s Made09:30 Nextworld10:20 Ultimate Survival11:10 How To Build... Everything11:35 How To Build... Everything12:00 The Big Brain Theory12:50 How It’s Made13:15 How It’s Made13:40 Nextworld14:30 Destroyed In Seconds14:55 Destroyed In Seconds15:20 North America16:10 Ultimate Survival17:00 Head Games17:50 The Big Brain Theory18:40 Nextworld19:30 How It’s Made19:55 How It’s Made20:20 Destroyed In Seconds20:45 Destroyed In Seconds21:10 Head Games22:00 The Big Brain Theory22:50 Ultimate Survival23:40 North America

00:50 Killing Richard Glossip01:45 Chandra Levy: A MistressMurdered02:40 Guilty Rich03:35 American Monster04:30 Killing Richard Glossip05:25 The Locator05:50 The Locator06:20 I Almost Got Away With It07:10 Evil Online08:00 The Locator08:25 Deadline: Crime With TamronHall09:15 The Locator09:40 The Locator10:10 Evil Online11:05 I Am Homicide12:00 Gone12:55 Deadline: Crime With TamronHall13:50 I Almost Got Away With It14:45 Evil Online15:40 I Am Homicide16:35 Murder Chose Me17:30 Deadline: Crime With TamronHall18:25 The Locator18:50 The Locator19:20 I Almost Got Away With It20:15 Evil Online21:10 I Am Homicide22:05 Evil Stepmothers23:00 Killing Richard Glossip23:55 Murder By Numbers

00:05 Disney Mickey Mouse00:10 Sabrina Secrets Of A TeenageWitch00:35 Binny And The Ghost01:00 Hank Zipzer01:25 Alex & Co.01:45 Disney Mickey Mouse01:50 Evermoor Chronicles02:15 Sabrina Secrets Of A TeenageWitch02:40 Sabrina Secrets Of A TeenageWitch03:05 Binny And The Ghost03:30 Binny And The Ghost03:55 Hank Zipzer04:15 Disney Mickey Mouse04:20 Hank Zipzer04:45 Alex & Co.05:10 Alex & Co.05:35 Sabrina Secrets Of A TeenageWitch06:00 Sabrina Secrets Of A TeenageWitch06:25 Binny And The Ghost06:45 Disney Mickey Mouse06:50 Rolling With The Ronks07:00 Miraculous Tales Of LadybugAnd Cat Noir07:25 Miraculous Tales Of LadybugAnd Cat Noir07:50 Tsum Tsum Shorts07:55 Elena Of Avalor08:20 K.C. Undercover08:45 Bunk’d09:10 Hotel Transylvania: The Series09:35 Tangled: The Series10:00 Good Luck Jessie10:50 Bob’s Broken Sleigh11:40 Austin & Ally12:05 That’s So Raven12:30 That’s So Raven12:55 Disney Mickey Mouse13:00 Bunk’d13:25 Tangled: The Series13:50 Jessie14:15 Hotel Transylvania: The Series14:40 K.C. Undercover15:05 Miraculous Tales Of LadybugAnd Cat Noir15:30 Bizaardvark15:55 Elena Of Avalor16:20 Stuck In The Middle16:45 Star vs The Forces Of Evil17:00 Tangled: The Series17:25 K.C. Undercover17:50 K.C. Undercover18:15 Descendants Wicked World18:20 Bunk’d18:45 Hotel Transylvania: The Series19:10 Disney Mickey Mouse19:15 Liv And Maddie19:40 Miraculous Tales Of LadybugAnd Cat Noir20:05 Star Wars Forces Of Destiny20:10 Miraculous Tales Of LadybugAnd Cat Noir20:35 Disney The Lodge21:00 Alex & Co.21:25 Alex & Co.

21:50 Lolirock22:15 Lolirock22:40 Evermoor Chronicles23:05 Rolling With The Ronks23:20 Miraculous Tales Of LadybugAnd Cat Noir23:45 Lolirock

00:00 Mickey And The RoadsterRacers00:25 Unbungalievable00:35 Loopdidoo00:55 Henry Hugglemonster01:15 Calimero01:30 Art Attack01:55 Henry Hugglemonster02:05 Loopdidoo02:20 Henry Hugglemonster02:35 Calimero02:50 Henry Hugglemonster03:05 Art Attack03:30 The Hive03:40 Loopdidoo03:55 Henry Hugglemonster04:10 Art Attack04:35 Loopdidoo04:50 Calimero05:05 Art Attack05:30 Henry Hugglemonster05:45 Henry Hugglemonster06:00 Art Attack06:30 Henry Hugglemonster06:45 Loopdidoo07:00 Henry Hugglemonster07:15 Calimero07:30 Loopdidoo07:45 Henry Hugglemonster08:00 P-King Duckling08:30 Puppy Dog Pals09:00 Mickey And The RoadsterRacers09:30 Sofia The First10:00 Sofia The First: The Curse OfPrincess Ivy10:45 Minnie’s Bow-Toons11:00 Sheriff Callie’s Wild West11:30 Sheriff Callie’s Wild West12:00 The Lion Guard12:30 The Lion Guard13:00 Sofia The First13:30 Sofia The First14:00 PJ Masks14:30 PJ Masks15:00 P-King Duckling15:30 Goldie & Bear And The MagicMap15:35 Sofia The First16:00 PJ Masks16:30 Mickey And The RoadsterRacers17:00 Doc McStuffins17:30 Vampirina18:00 Sofia The First: Once Upon APrincess19:00 Sofia The First19:30 Mickey And The RoadsterRacers20:00 The Lion Guard20:30 P-King Duckling21:00 Doc McStuffins21:30 PJ Masks22:00 Sofia The First: The Curse OfPrincess Ivy22:45 Minnie’s Bow-Toons23:00 P-King Duckling23:30 Puppy Dog Pals

00:20 Street Outlaws01:05 Madiba01:50 Bushcraft Build-Off02:35 Ed Stafford: Left For Dead03:20 Diesel Brothers04:05 Deadliest Catch04:50 Alaska: The Last Frontier05:35 How Do They Do It?06:00 Gold Divers: Under The Ice06:45 Street Outlaws07:30 Diesel Brothers08:15 Deadliest Catch09:00 Container Wars09:25 How Do They Do It?09:47 How Do They Do It?10:12 Madiba10:57 Bushcraft Build-Off11:42 Ed Stafford: Left For Dead12:25 How Do They Do It?12:48 Storage Hunters UK13:10 Alaska: The Last Frontier13:55 Deadliest Catch14:40 Gold Divers: Under The Ice15:25 Diesel Brothers16:10 Street Outlaws17:00 How Do They Do It?17:25 How Do They Do It?17:50 Storage Hunters UK18:20 Container Wars18:50 Deadliest Catch19:40 How Do They Do It?20:10 How Do They Do It?20:35 How Do They Do It?21:00 Sean Conway: On The Edge21:50 X-Ray Mega Airport22:40 Breaking Magic23:05 Breaking Magic23:30 Diesel Brothers

06:00 Disney1106:25 Supa Strikas06:50 Marvel’s Spider-Man07:15 Right Now Kapow07:40 Disney Mickey Mouse07:45 Walk The Prank08:10 Phineas And Ferb08:35 Mech-X409:00 Marvel’s Spider-Man09:25 Lab Rats Elite Force09:50 Star Wars FreemakerAdventures10:20 Gravity Falls10:45 Kid vs Kat11:10 Milo Murphy’s Law11:35 Right Now Kapow12:00 Phineas And Ferb: Star Wars12:55 Pair Of Kings13:20 Pair Of Kings13:45 Phineas And Ferb14:10 Disney Mickey Mouse14:15 Phineas And Ferb14:40 The Suite Life Of Zack &Cody15:30 Gravity Falls16:20 Two More Eggs16:25 Lab Rats17:15 Kirby Buckets18:05 Supa Strikas18:30 Marvel’s Ant-Man18:35 Disney1119:00 Penn Zero: Part Time Hero19:50 Marvel’s Rocket And Groot19:55 Walk The Prank20:45 Supa Strikas21:35 Marvel’s Rocket And Groot21:40 Disney Mickey Mouse21:45 Lab Rats Elite Force22:10 Lab Rats Elite Force22:35 Phineas And Ferb23:00 Programmes Start At 6:00am

00:10 WAGs La01:50 E! News02:50 Celebrity Style Story

03:20 Celebrity Style Story03:50 Botched By Nature04:40 Botched By Nature05:30 Celebrity Style Story06:00 Hollywood Medium WithTyler Henry06:55 E! News07:10 Hollywood Medium WithTyler Henry08:10 E! News: Daily Pop09:10 WAGs La10:10 WAGs La11:05 WAGs La12:00 E! News12:15 Keeping Up With TheKardashians13:10 Keeping Up With TheKardashians14:05 Keeping Up With TheKardashians15:00 E! News15:15 E! News: Daily Pop16:15 WAGs La17:10 WAGs La18:05 WAGs La19:00 E! News20:00 The Platinum Life21:00 The Platinum Life22:00 The Platinum Life23:00 E! News23:15 Keeping Up With TheKardashians

00:00 Diners, Drive-Ins And Dives00:30 Diners, Drive-Ins And Dives01:00 Man Fire Food01:30 Man Fire Food02:00 Diners, Drive-Ins And Dives02:30 Diners, Drive-Ins And Dives03:00 Man Fire Food03:30 Man Fire Food04:00 Chopped Junior05:00 Guy’s Grocery Games06:00 Barefoot Contessa06:25 Barefoot Contessa06:50 Bake With Anna Olson07:15 The Kitchen08:05 The Pioneer Woman08:30 The Pioneer Woman08:55 Siba’s Table09:25 Siba’s Table09:55 Bake With Anna Olson10:25 Bake With Anna Olson10:55 The Kitchen11:45 Cooking For Real12:10 The Pioneer Woman12:35 The Pioneer Woman13:00 Siba’s Table13:30 Siba’s Table14:00 Diners, Drive-Ins And Dives14:30 Diners, Drive-Ins And Dives15:00 Chopped16:00 The Kitchen17:00 Bake With Anna Olson17:30 Bake With Anna Olson18:00 Chopped Junior19:00 Holiday Baking Championship20:00 Chopped21:00 Bakers vs. Fakers22:00 Diners, Drive-Ins And Dives22:30 Diners, Drive-Ins And Dives23:00 Chopped

00:10 Who’s Doing The Dishes?01:00 Emmerdale01:30 Coronation Street02:00 Coronation Street02:30 The Chase03:25 I’m A Celebrity...Get Me OutOf Here!04:20 Gino’s Hidden Italy05:15 Murdoch Mysteries06:10 Who’s Doing The Dishes?07:05 The Chase08:00 I’m A Celebrity...Get Me OutOf Here!09:10 Gino’s Hidden Italy09:35 Gino’s Hidden Italy10:00 Murdoch Mysteries10:55 Who’s Doing The Dishes?11:50 The Chase12:45 Emmerdale13:15 Coronation Street13:45 Coronation Street14:15 Who’s Doing The Dishes?15:10 The Chase16:00 The Doctor Blake Mysteries17:00 Little Boy Blue17:50 Murdoch Mysteries18:45 Emmerdale19:15 Coronation Street19:45 Coronation Street20:10 The Chase21:00 The Doctor Blake Mysteries22:00 Little Boy Blue22:50 Emmerdale23:15 Coronation Street23:40 Coronation Street

00:00 Million Dollar Genius01:00 What Really Happened02:00 Clash Of Warriors03:00 Missing In Alaska03:50 Ancient Aliens04:40 UFO Files05:30 Million Dollar Genius06:20 What Really Happened07:10 The Universe08:00 Clash Of Warriors09:00 Missing In Alaska10:00 Ancient Aliens11:00 UFO Files12:00 Million Dollar Genius13:00 What Really Happened14:00 Clash Of Warriors15:00 Missing In Alaska16:00 Ancient Aliens17:00 UFO Files18:00 The Universe19:00 What Really Happened20:00 Clash Of Warriors21:00 Missing In Alaska22:00 Ancient Aliens23:00 How The States Got TheirShapes23:30 How The States Got TheirShapes

00:21 Ultimate Wheels01:11 American Pickers02:00 Swamp People02:50 Counting Cars03:15 American Pickers04:05 Time Team05:00 Counting Cars05:25 Counting Cars06:00 Ultimate Wheels06:50 American Pickers07:40 Counting Cars08:05 Counting Cars08:30 Pawn Stars08:55 Pawn Stars09:20 Aussie Pickers10:10 Ax Men11:00 Ultimate Wheels11:50 American Pickers12:40 Counting Cars13:05 Counting Cars13:30 Time Team

14:20 Swamp People15:10 Alone16:00 American Pickers16:50 Counting Cars17:15 Counting Cars17:40 Swamp People18:30 Alone19:20 Mountain Men20:10 Pawn Stars20:35 Pawn Stars21:00 Leepu And Pitbull21:50 Billion Dollar Wreck22:40 Time Team23:30 Alone

00:15 What’s For Sale?00:45 Valentine Warner EatsScandinavia01:10 Rustic Adventures Argentina01:40 Ariana’s Persian Kitchen02:05 Ariana’s Persian Kitchen02:35 World’s Best Beaches03:30 Island Hunter04:25 David Rocco’s Dolce India04:50 Angelo’s Outdoor Kitchen05:20 Angelo’s Outdoor Kitchen05:45 The Food Files06:15 Fearless Chef07:10 Ariana’s Persian Kitchen07:35 Ariana’s Persian Kitchen08:05 World’s Best Beaches09:00 Island Hunter09:55 David Rocco’s Dolce India10:20 Angelo’s Outdoor Kitchen10:50 Angelo’s Outdoor Kitchen11:15 The Food Files11:45 Fearless Chef12:40 Ariana’s Persian Kitchen13:05 Ariana’s Persian Kitchen13:35 World’s Best Beaches14:30 Island Hunter15:25 David Rocco’s Dolce India15:50 Angelo’s Outdoor Kitchen16:20 Angelo’s Outdoor Kitchen16:45 The Food Files17:15 Fearless Chef18:10 Eat Street18:35 Eat Street19:05 David Rocco’s Dolce India19:30 Angelo’s Outdoor Kitchen20:00 Angelo’s Outdoor Kitchen20:30 The Food Files21:00 Fearless Chef22:00 Eat Street22:25 Eat Street22:55 Ariana’s Persian Kitchen23:20 Ariana’s Persian Kitchen23:50 World’s Best Beaches

00:10 Yukon Gold01:00 Cold Water Gold02:00 Air Crash Investigation03:00 Seconds From Disaster04:00 Yukon Gold05:00 Disappeared: The Search ForCody Dial06:00 Sea Of Hope07:00 The Long Road Home08:00 Every Singaporean Son08:30 Every Singaporean Son09:00 Disappeared: The Search ForCody Dial10:00 No Man Left Behind11:00 Human Ape12:00 Brain Games12:30 How To Win At Everything13:00 Startalk14:00 Every Singaporean Son14:30 Every Singaporean Son15:00 The Long Road Home16:00 No Man Left Behind17:00 Dian Fossey: Secrets In TheMist18:00 Classified: Secret ServiceFiles19:00 The Long Road Home20:00 No Man Left Behind20:50 Dian Fossey: Secrets In TheMist21:40 Classified: Secret ServiceFiles22:30 The Long Road Home23:20 Brain Games23:45 How To Win At Everything

00:20 Predator Battleground01:10 Monster Fish02:00 Kings Of The Kill02:50 Monster Fish03:45 Caught In The Act GPUReversions04:40 Ultimate Predators GPU05:35 Kings Of The Kill06:30 Monster Fish07:25 Caught In The Act GPUReversions08:20 Ultimate Predators GPU09:15 Botswana10:10 Man v. Monster11:05 Savage Kingdom: Uprising12:00 Life On The Barrier Reef12:55 Dangerous Encounters13:50 Monster Fish14:45 Snake City Compilations15:40 Ultimate Predators GPU16:35 Planet Carnivore: PerfectKillers17:30 Man v. Monster18:25 Savage Kingdom: Uprising19:20 Snake City Compilations20:10 Ultimate Predators GPU21:00 Planet Carnivore: PerfectKillers21:50 Man v. Monster22:40 Savage Kingdom: Uprising23:30 Life On The Barrier Reef

00:12 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles00:36 Rabbids Invasion01:00 Rabbids Invasion01:24 Sanjay And Craig01:48 Sanjay And Craig02:12 Winx Club02:36 Winx Club03:00 Harvey Beaks03:24 Harvey Beaks03:48 The Loud House04:12 The Loud House04:36 Breadwinners05:00 Breadwinners05:24 Get Blake05:48 SpongeBob SquarePants06:12 SpongeBob SquarePants06:36 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles07:00 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles07:24 Rabbids Invasion07:48 Get Blake08:12 Harvey Beaks08:36 Sanjay And Craig09:00 SpongeBob SquarePants09:24 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles09:48 Henry Danger10:12 Game Shakers10:36 Regal Academy11:00 Winx Club11:24 SpongeBob SquarePants11:48 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

12:12 The Loud House12:36 Rabbids Invasion13:00 Breadwinners13:24 Sanjay And Craig13:48 Hunter Street14:12 I Am Frankie14:36 The Thundermans15:00 Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn15:24 School Of Rock15:48 SpongeBob SquarePants16:12 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles16:36 The Loud House17:00 Sanjay And Craig17:24 I Am Frankie17:48 Hunter Street18:12 Henry Danger18:36 Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn19:00 School Of Rock19:24 Game Shakers19:48 The Thundermans20:12 SpongeBob SquarePants20:36 SpongeBob SquarePants21:00 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles21:24 Sanjay And Craig21:48 Rabbids Invasion22:12 Breadwinners22:36 Harvey Beaks23:00 SpongeBob SquarePants23:24 SpongeBob SquarePants23:48 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

00:14 Shimmer And Shine00:38 Shimmer And Shine01:01 Max & Ruby01:24 Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom01:34 Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom01:45 The Day Henry Met01:50 The Day Henry Met01:56 Blaze And The MonsterMachines02:18 Blaze And The MonsterMachines02:40 Zack & Quack03:02 Shimmer And Shine03:24 Nella The Princess Knight03:35 Paw Patrol03:58 Little Charmers04:10 Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom04:22 Dora The Explorer04:45 Max & Ruby05:07 The Day Henry Met05:12 Nella The Princess Knight05:35 Shimmer And Shine05:45 Shimmer And Shine05:58 Wallykazam!06:21 Zack & Quack06:31 The Day Henry Met06:38 Blaze And The MonsterMachines07:00 Rusty Rivets07:13 Paw Patrol07:37 Dora The Explorer08:00 Nella The Princess Knight08:23 Bubble Guppies08:47 Blaze And The MonsterMachines09:09 Paw Patrol09:32 Shimmer And Shine09:44 Shimmer And Shine09:56 Nella The Princess Knight10:17 The Day Henry Met10:23 Paw Patrol10:46 Rusty Rivets11:10 Wallykazam!11:34 Bubble Guppies11:57 Team Umizoomi12:21 Shimmer And Shine12:44 Shimmer And Shine13:07 Max & Ruby13:30 Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom13:41 Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom13:53 The Day Henry Met13:58 The Day Henry Met14:04 Blaze And The MonsterMachines14:26 Blaze And The MonsterMachines14:49 Zack & Quack15:11 Shimmer And Shine15:33 Nella The Princess Knight15:45 Paw Patrol16:08 Little Charmers16:21 Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom16:33 Dora The Explorer16:56 Max & Ruby17:19 The Day Henry Met17:24 Nella The Princess Knight17:47 Shimmer And Shine17:58 Shimmer And Shine18:10 Wallykazam!18:33 Zack & Quack18:44 The Day Henry Met18:50 Blaze And The MonsterMachines19:12 Rusty Rivets19:25 Paw Patrol19:49 Dora The Explorer20:12 Nella The Princess Knight20:35 Bubble Guppies20:59 Blaze And The MonsterMachines21:21 Paw Patrol21:45 Shimmer And Shine21:56 Shimmer And Shine22:08 Nella The Princess Knight22:30 The Day Henry Met22:36 Paw Patrol22:59 Rusty Rivets23:22 Wallykazam!23:46 Bubble Guppies

00:00 Pan01:55 Mostly Ghostly: One Night InDoom House03:25 A Tiger’s Tail04:50 Lego DC: Justice LeagueGotham City Breakout06:20 Pan08:15 Mostly Ghostly: One Night InDoom House09:45 Get Santa11:30 A Tiger’s Tail12:55 Mune14:25 Santa Claws15:55 Big Baby17:20 All She Wishes18:55 The Amazing Wizard Of Paws20:40 Mune22:10 Santa Claws23:40 All She Wishes

00:15 Art School Confidential02:05 Cooties03:40 Surviving Christmas05:15 Joe Somebody06:55 The Tiger Hunter08:35 The Duff10:15 Once I Was A Beehive12:15 Joe Somebody13:55 The Tiger Hunter15:35 Summer Villa17:05 Hearts Of Spring18:35 Big20:20 The Boss22:00 Deuce Bigalow: EuropeanGigolo23:25 Dead 7

02:00 Waking Life03:45 To Kill A Mockingbird05:55 Goal!

08:00 The Better Angels09:35 To Kill A Mockingbird11:45 Waking Life13:30 Not Without My Daughter15:30 Alex Of Venice17:00 Rushmore18:35 Infinitely Polar Bear20:15 Lost River22:00 Suffragette23:55 A Dangerous Woman

01:15 A Town Called Panic02:40 The Happy Cricket And TheGiant Bugs04:10 Funny Little Cars05:15 Get Squirrely06:45 Quest For A Heart08:15 Rh+ The Vampire Of Seville09:45 Azur & Asmar: The Prince’sQuest11:30 Micropolis13:05 Ploddy Police Car14:25 A Town Called Panic15:50 Zodiac: The Race Begins17:30 Azur & Asmar: The Prince’sQuest19:15 Back To The Sea21:05 Free Birds22:35 Zodiac: The Race Begins

01:05 Sommersby03:00 Hail, Caesar!04:50 Chloe And Theo06:15 Rocky III08:00 Rocky IV09:35 Before We Go11:15 Eddie The Eagle13:05 Hail, Caesar!14:55 Rocky IV16:30 The Finest Hours18:30 Norbit20:15 Dangerous Minds21:55 Sisters23:55 Pushing Tin

00:40 Mythbusters01:30 How Do They Do It?01:55 Food Factory USA02:20 How It’s Made02:45 How It’s Made03:10 Space Voyages04:00 Prototype This04:48 Mythbusters05:36 How Do They Do It?06:00 Food Factory USA06:24 How It’s Made06:48 How It’s Made07:12 Space Voyages08:00 How Do They Do It?08:26 Prototype This09:14 Mythbusters10:02 Space Voyages10:50 How Do They Do It?11:14 Food Factory USA11:38 How It’s Made12:02 How It’s Made12:26 Prototype This13:14 Mythbusters14:02 How Do They Do It?14:26 Food Factory USA14:50 Space Voyages15:38 Prototype This16:26 How It’s Made16:50 How It’s Made17:14 Mythbusters18:02 Space Voyages18:50 Prototype This19:40 Mythbusters20:30 Future Firepower21:20 How Do They Do It?21:45 Food Factory USA22:10 Space Voyages23:00 Future Firepower23:50 Prototype This

01:30 Haven03:15 First Snow05:00 The Mothman Prophecies07:00 Crash09:00 Hostage11:00 The Human Stain12:45 Win A Date With TadHamilton!14:25 Haven16:00 Find Me Guilty18:00 Wicker Park20:00 Ali22:30 Half Light

00:00 Grey’s Anatomy01:00 Grey’s Anatomy02:00 Grey’s Anatomy03:00 Fashion StartUp04:00 Project Accessory05:00 House Of DVF06:00 Grey’s Anatomy07:00 Grey’s Anatomy08:00 Grey’s Anatomy09:00 Fashion StartUp10:00 Project Accessory11:00 House Of DVF12:00 Grey’s Anatomy13:00 Grey’s Anatomy15:00 Fashion StartUp16:00 Project Accessory17:00 House Of DVF18:00 Cedar Cove19:00 Cedar Cove20:00 Cedar Cove21:00 Fashion StartUp22:00 Project Accessory23:00 House Of DVF

00:20 My Giant Life01:05 Fat Chance01:50 Monsters Inside Me02:35 Meet The Putmans03:20 Little People, Big World:Wedding Farm04:05 Toddlers & Tiaras04:50 Designer Darlings05:35 Say Yes To The Dress UK06:00 Ugly House To Lovely House06:45 First Lady Michelle ObamaSays Farewell07:30 Oprah: Where Are TheyNow?08:15 Little People, Big World:Wedding Farm09:00 Cake Boss09:25 Toddlers & Tiaras10:10 Ugly House To Lovely House10:55 Sweet 15: Quincea?era11:40 Outdaughtered: Busby Quints12:25 Meet The Putmans13:10 Say Yes To The Dress UK13:32 Say Yes To The Dress UK13:55 Toddlers & Tiaras14:40 Little People, Big World:Wedding Farm15:25 Too Ugly For Love?16:10 Love, Lust Or Run16:35 Cake Boss17:00 First Lady Michelle ObamaSays Farewell

Welcome all new ideas. You should take every opportunity to get outsideand enjoy the natural world as well. Work will seem easier and your creative side willbecome more expressive. You should feel more relaxed as well. If ever there was a day towork with groups, this is it! Your acute sensitivity to other people’s moods will help youtame and reshape the most frustrated attitude as one would play a violin. You enjoy goodrelations with family members and the financial position is on the upswing. You must bepractical in personal decisions about finances. You could be feeling a particular close-ness to lovers, children and other people that are near and dear to your heart. Beingwell-thought-of for your gifts and talents is a wonderful feeling.

Aries (March 21-April 19)

STAR TRACK

Your smart shopping is to be envied. Of course, with your ability to social-ize, you can be a very good salesperson. Importer, exporter or buyer for a departmentstore would not be an unusual option as a profession for you. There may be muchresponsibility at this time but much of your work is recognized by people that may notexpress appreciation. Perseverance, however, is crucial to your own sense of accomplish-ment—you will be glad you finished what you set out to accomplish. You may show youreasygoing manner to friends and family. The need to relax and enjoy the home setting isgreat. You may decide to do some sort of creative work that will add to the atmosphereor comfort of your surroundings. This is a good time to return a favor.

Taurus (April 20-May 20)

Something may spell out your need to reorganize and be more conserva-tive. Later today, you may find your friends calling on your talent in some

special way. This should all work out well. Your more reserved side will be what otherssee. You will soon be playing the part of the listener and that is something that most peo-ple appreciate. There are far too many talkers and just not enough real listeners!Listening is how you learn. If there is any disagreement today you know how to agree todisagree, in a very diplomatic way. Those around you appreciate your kindness andhelpful behavior; you can always present new ideas when your listener is ready. Youenjoy your friends—they are a great source of strength and encouragement.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

You may feel a sense of satisfaction and completeness from the choicesyou make. Religion, philosophy, law and education are some of the consid-

erations lately. Sympathy for others is an emotional quality that takes on a greaterimportance. It is commonsense, not just information that counts now. Your taste in artand appreciation of the artist is keen. You may not want to purchase too many things justnow but you will enjoy having a list of items that you would like to eventually add to yourpossession as investments and conversation pieces for your home. Your sense of value isstrong. This is also a super time to just sit back and enjoy what you have. A sense of sup-port and harmony makes this a relaxed time.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

Leo (July 23-August 22)

You have a natural sense for communicating with others, especially thoseyounger than yourself. Today you may be asked to branch out a bit and show off yourskills for another department, business or trade fair. Your mind is exceptionally sharp, withthe result that you may be able to work out the most difficult problems. There is little timeto do your regular volunteer service this year but you will find plenty of ways to help peo-ple as you go about your next few days. The lights are so pretty this evening that you maydecide to experiment a little with a camera and its settings for night pictures, light, video,etc. A fun distraction from the work of your day will help you relax and reset the energiesthat will prepare you for another full day.

Virgo (August 23-September 22)

You could find yourself representing or speaking for your company or com-municating about your skills. Positive energies are in your corner. You may even feel that allyour hard work this year has been worth the effort. Doubts are no longer part of your dailythinking. You are sure of yourself and know that you make good decisions and your co-workers can depend on you as well as you can depend on them. Your motto may be tomove full speed ahead. You are ambitious and your supervisors detect the high achieve-ment status. You are practical and will continue to be successful for yourself and your com-pany. You should find this an exceptionally good day for anything job related. You may findnew methods of working that will help simplify the process.

Libra (September 23-October 22)

Working in a place where you often interact with children and their parentsis exciting, although loud upon occasion. There is always something to learn as well assomething to teach. It may seem to you that a little breeze has blown that same energy ofcommunication with others throughout your neighborhood. You talk with neighbors anddiscover the travel or the entertainment that they plan to enjoy in the next few days. Itwould be good if we could enjoy the friendly interactions and polite expressions all year.This afternoon you could be viewed as the perfect person to put in charge of some projectrequiring a conservative mind. Expect some new and fresh approaches in your habit pat-

terns. Nighttime hours seem to be made for having fun.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21)

This day could be a time of challenge from a career standpoint. Some of therequests coming to you at this time may be stressful. You must know you

are ready, willing and able to extend your energies and your time to learn and accomplishwhat is set before you. It is a compliment to be a part of the group that will accomplishimportant tasks. Your primary goal will be to do things that make you proud of yourselfand the way that you get things completed. You have an opportunity this afternoon torelax in a new surrounding that is quite enjoyable. Diet, exercise and work all will somehowmean more to you at this time. Finding a place for all of your interests is a good thing.Organization will probably be the number one key.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)

There are new concepts that you are aware of and you may find yourselftalking about them with co-workers. It is an excellent time to solicit the help

of others, though it’s important that you truly know the needs of your company or businessbefore asking. Your sharp mind will see all aspects from all angles. Any high-level mentalpursuits should be rewarding and stimulating. Your ability to make good commonsensedecisions both for yourself and others is an admirable trait just now. Expect to make someclear-cut decisions that will affect others. Something you are doing or something that youown could spur compliments from others. It’s always nice to receive flattery as it usuallyindicates that you are doing something right.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

This is a positive day to sign contracts, conclude business deals or makefuture plans. The things that will pique your interest and stir your heartstrings are adven-tures that take you completely out of your realm of thinking. You will need to travel, possi-bly internationally, to achieve a particular goal. There are new worlds, new cultures andnew and different approaches to things. This is a time of romantic crusades, a universallove that could conceivably steal your heart away. This could even be the love of a place,versus an individual. These are very deep and powerful longings. Expect pleasant conver-sations with others and be like a sponge—absorb new ideas and thoughts. You will have alot to offer and can be quite pleased with the results.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18)

CROSSWORD 1783

ACROSS1. 10 hao equal 1 dong.4. A plane curve formed by the intersectionof a right circular cone and a plane parallelto an element of the curve.12. A former monetary unit in Great Britain.15. The sense organ for hearing and equi-librium.16. Relating to the blood vessels or blood.17. A self-funded retirement plan thatallows you to contribute a limited yearlysum toward your retirement.18. Electrical conduction through a gas inan applied electric field.19. Bring order and organization to.20. Light informal conversation for socialoccasions.21. The state prevailing during the absenceof war.23. A block of metal that is cast in a partic-ular shape for convenient handling.25. A Russian river.26. A hard malleable ductile silvery metallicelement that is resistant to corrosion.27. Type genus of the Sillaginidae.29. Expletives used informally as intensi-fiers.32. A literary or scientific association forthe promotion of learning.34. A river in northern England that flowssoutheast through West Yorkshire.36. The branch of computer science thatdeal with writing computer programs thatcan solve problems creatively.37. United States liquid unit equal to 4quarts or 3.785 liters.40. Wearing or provided with clothing.41. An international organization ofEuropean countries formed after WorldWar II to reduce trade barriers andincrease cooperation among its members.43. A blow that renders the opponentunconscious.45. Russian country house.47. Alternatively, a member of the familyNymphaeaceae.49. Morally bad or wrong.51. Either of two folds of skin that can bemoved to cover or open the eye.52. A radioactive element of the actinideseries.53. A compartment in front of a motor vehi-cle where driver sits.54. A program for a race meeting.56. A light strong brittle gray toxic bivalentmetallic element.58. (Scotland) A small loaf or roll of softbread.60. Soviet geneticist whose adherence toLamarck's theory of evolution was favoredby Stalin (1898-1976).61. A soft silvery metallic element of thealkali earth group.63. Resinlike substance secreted by certainlac insects.65. A white trivalent metallic element.66. (Welsh myth) The other world.69. An expression of open-mouthed aston-ishment.71. Any culture medium that uses agar asthe gelling agent.75. Old World wild swine having a narrowbody and prominent tusks from which mostdomestic swine come.76. 100 agorot equal 1 shekel.79. Tropical starchy tuberous root.80. A tricycle (usually propelled by ped-alling).82. Having much flesh (especially fat).83. A light springing movement upwards orforwards.

84. A state in the southeastern UnitedStates on the Gulf of Mexico.85. The federal agency that insures resi-dential mortgages.

DOWN1. A collection of objects laid on top of eachother.2. A river in north central Switzerland thatruns northeast into the Rhine.3. Predatory black-and-white toothedwhale with large dorsal fin.4. The cardinal number that is the sum offour and one.5. A river in north central Switzerland thatruns northeast into the Rhine.6. The provincial capital and largest city ofSaskatchewan.7. Genus of widely distributed agarics thathave white spores and are poisonous withfew exceptions.8. A vigorous blow.9. Serving no useful purpose.10. Continuing or enduring without markedchange in status or condition or place.11. Fermented alcoholic beverage similar tobut heavier than beer.12. A word that is written with two letters inan alphabetic writing system.13. Large long-armed ape of Borneo andSumatra having arboreal habits.14. Used as a Hindi courtesy title.22. A black-tipped plug clogging a pore ofthe skin.24. Scale-like structure between the base ofthe wing and the halter of a two-winged fly.28. Not treated with lead.30. Of a pale purple color.31. An Arabic speaking person who lives inArabia or North Africa.33. A foot traveler.35. Cubes of meat marinated and cookedon a skewer usually with vegetables.38. Make a shrill creaking, squeaking, ornoise, as of a door, mouse, or bird.39. A group of Plains Indians formerly livingin what is now North and South Dakota andNebraska and Kansas and Arkansas andLouisiana and Oklahoma and Texas.42. A clique that seeks power usuallythrough intrigue.44. Rounded like an egg.46. Group of people related by blood ormarriage.48. One million periods per second.50. Devoid of warmth and cordiality.55. Of or like a cecum.57. Enclose or enfold completely with or asif with a covering.59. An Asian temple.62. A positively charged electrode by whichelectrons leave an electrical device.64. A member of an American Indian peo-ples of NE South America and the LesserAntilles.67. A quantity of no importance.68. Plant with an elongated head of broadstalked leaves resembling celery.70. Large burrowing rodent of South andCentral America.72. A spar rising aft from a mast to supportthe head of a quadrilateral fore-and-aft sail.73. A woman hired to suckle a child ofsomeone else.74. (Roman Catholic Church) The supremeecclesiastical tribunal for cases appealed tothe Holy See from diocesan courts.77. A colloid in a more solid form than a sol.78. A loose sleeveless outer garment madefrom aba cloth.81. Before noon.

Yesterday’s Solution

Yesterday’s SolutionDaily SuDoku

Wordsearch Puzzle

You should experience all the benefits of this most powerful planet. You willprobably be in a talkative and quick-witted mood. Ideas are clear and

accessible. This could be a good time for designing, planning, creating the best advertise-ment or toy, etc. You may have a conversation with an older person or someone in author-ity and learn about past interests that could fit in with new invention developments. Yourcreative output is strong and you are enthusiastic to apply your talent to the work athand. If you give your best effort now, considerable success will follow. There may be atendency to want to socialize later this evening. Family members seem to like your ideaand want the same thing. A favorite pizza place is filled with laughter tonight.

You are happy to be with others and to have work. On top of your regularjob, you may be sought after as just the person for a new type of technical

equipment. You are ready to dive in and accomplish what you can. Your attitude is positiveand many co-workers have discovered that about you. The attitude that you have whenyou have times of doubt determines the time you stay in a quandary and you are deter-mined to get in and get out of whatever difficulty you find. Your directional abilities are inhigh focus. It is important during this time to stay focused and discourage co-workers fromtoo much chatting on the job. You want to accomplish your work and be recognized for thequality of work that you provide. Obstacles are about to disappear.

Yesterday’s Solution

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

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Established 1961

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ClassifiedsWednesday, December 13, 2017

112

Automated enquiry aboutthe Civil ID card is

1889988

Established 1961

SITUATION WANTED

CHANGE OF NAME LOST

Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)

DIAL161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION

Arrival Flights on Wednesday 13/12/2017Airlines Flt Route TimeJAI 572 Mumbai 00:05KAC 504 Beirut 00:30JZR 267 Beirut 00:40KAC 102 London 00:50JZR 539 Cairo 00:55PGT 858 Istanbul 00:55THY 772 Istanbul 00:55RJA 642 Amman 01:05SAI 441 Lahore 01:30UAE 853 Dubai 01:45DLH 625 Bahrain 01:45THY 764 Istanbul 01:50AXB 395 Kozhikode 02:00ETH 620 Addis Ababa 02:15JZR 555 Alexandria 02:15QTR 1086 Doha 02:20GFA 211 Bahrain 02:30KLM 446 Bahrain 02:30OMA 643 Muscat 02:55KKK 1268 Istanbul 02:55MSR 606 Luxor 03:05ETD 305 Abu Dhabi 03:10MSR 612 Cairo 03:15QTR 1076 Doha 03:50LMU 510 Cairo 04:00KAC 382 Delhi 04:15KAC 544 Cairo 04:25KAC 418 Manila 04:25KAC 784 Jeddah 04:35FDB 069 Dubai 04:55DHX 170 Bahrain 05:20THY 770 Istanbul 05:25JZR 143 Doha 05:25KAC 358 Kochi 05:40KAC 332 Trivandrum 05:40KAC 344 Chennai 05:50KAC 302 Mumbai 06:20KAC 362 Colombo 06:25KAC 678 Dubai 06:30KAC 284 Dhaka 06:30WAN 342 Sohag 06:35JZR 529 Asyut 06:50KAC 206 Islamabad 06:50BAW 157 London 07:10KAC 204 Lahore 07:10QTR 8511 Doha 07:35FDB 053 Dubai 07:35KAC 354 Bengaluru 07:35JZR 503 Luxor 07:45KAC 384 Delhi 08:00UAE 855 Dubai 08:35IRA 667 Esfahan 09:00ETD 301 Abu Dhabi 09:05ABY 125 Sharjah 09:05QTR 1070 Doha 09:10FDB 055 Dubai 09:40SVA 512 Riyadh 10:00JZR 1331 Al Najaf 10:00IAW 157A Al Najaf 10:00IRA 673 Ahwaz 10:10GFA 213 Bahrain 10:40WAN 114 Bahrain 11:00SYR 341 Damascus 11:00JZR 1337 Al Najaf 11:10JZR 1335 Al Najaf 11:10MSC 403 Asyut 11:15QTR 1074 Doha 11:20NIA 161 Cairo 11:35MEA 404 Beirut 11:55KAC 614 Bahrain 12:10FEG 933 Sohag 12:40FDB 075 Dubai 12:45JZR 561 Sohag 12:45UAE 871 Dubai 12:50KAC 742 Dammam 12:50FDK 803 Damascus 13:00MSR 610 Cairo 13:00AXB 393 Kozhikode 13:15KAC 792 Madinah 13:20

JZR 903 GYD 13:30KAC 774 Riyadh 13:40KNE 231 Riyadh 13:55PAL 668 Manila 14:00SVA 500 Jeddah 14:15KAC 618 Doha 14:15FDB 059 Dubai 14:20QTR 1078 Doha 14:20KAC 516 Tehran 14:20KAC 672 Dubai 14:25JZR 1333 Al Najaf 14:30KAC 412 Bangkok 14:35KAC 352 Kochi 14:35GFA 221 Bahrain 14:40KAC 304 Mumbai 14:50KNE 529 Jeddah 14:55KAC 788 Jeddah 15:10ETD 303 Abu Dhabi 15:15JZR 787 Riyadh 15:30KAC 562 Amman 15:30KAC 502 Beirut 15:30OMA 645 Muscat 15:35UAE 857 Dubai 15:45QTR 1072 Doha 15:55RJD 135 Abu Dhabi 16:00ABY 127 Sharjah 16:00SAW 705 Damascus 16:00KAC 118 New York 16:00JZR 535 Cairo 16:05KNE 531 Jeddah 16:05JZR 779 Jeddah 16:15FDB 051 Dubai 16:40RJA 640 Amman 16:55KAC 542 Cairo 17:05SVA 510 Riyadh 17:15GFA 215 Bahrain 17:30JZR 125 Bahrain 17:35JZR 777 Jeddah 17:45UAE 875 Dubai 18:00FDB 063 Dubai 18:10JZR 177 Dubai 18:15MSR 620 Cairo 18:30QTR 1080 Doha 18:50KAC 744 Dammam 19:10KAC 776 Riyadh 19:20ABY 123 Sharjah 19:25RBG 555 Alexandria 19:25KAC 662 Abu Dhabi 19:25GFA 217 Bahrain 19:30KAC 156 Istanbul 19:30NIA 361 Alexandria 19:40KAC 674 Dubai 19:45FDB 057 Dubai 19:50KAC 616 Bahrain 19:55KNE 381 Taif 20:00JZR 189 Dubai 20:10KAC 620 Doha 20:15OMA 647 Muscat 20:20KAC 692 Muscat 20:40DLH 624 Frankfurt 20:45ALK 229 Colombo 21:20MEA 402 Beirut 21:20ETD 307 Abu Dhabi 21:20KAC 168 Paris 21:20KAC 786 Jeddah 21:25UAE 859 Dubai 21:35KAC 676 Dubai 21:40GFA 219 Bahrain 21:45KLM 445 Amsterdam 21:50WAN 116 Bahrain 22:00KAC 564 Amman 22:00QTR 1082 Doha 22:05ETD 309 Abu Dhabi 22:15AIC 981 Chennai/Ahmedabad 22:25JZR 241 Amman 22:40JZR 185 Dubai 23:10JAI 574 Mumbai 23:15WAN 836 Sarajevo 23:25BBC 043 Dhaka 23:30MSC 405 Sohag 23:30FDB 071 Dubai 23:45

Departure Flights on Wednesday 13/12/2017Airlines Flt Route TimeAIC 976 Goa/Chennai 00:05JZR 528 Asyut 00:15JAI 573 Mumbai 00:30WAN 341 Sohag 00:30FDB 072 Dubai 00:35PIA 240 Sialkot 00:40MSC 412 Asyut 01:00JAI 571 Mumbai 01:05JZR 502 Luxor 01:30JZR 142 Doha 01:45KAC 677 Dubai 01:50KAC 417 Manila 02:00THY 773 Istanbul 02:30PGT 859 Istanbul 02:30SAI 442 Lahore 02:30DLH 625 Frankfurt 02:45AXB 396 Kozhikode 02:55ETH 621 Addis Ababa 03:05KAC 351 Kochi 03:05UAE 854 Dubai 03:40QTR 1087 Doha 03:40KLM 446 Amsterdam 03:55KKK 1269 Istanbul 03:55OMA 644 Muscat 03:55THY 765 Istanbul 04:00MSR 607 Luxor 04:05ETD 306 Abu Dhabi 04:05MSR 613 Cairo 04:15LMU 511 Cairo 05:00QTR 1077 Doha 05:30FDB 070 Dubai 05:45KAC 303 Mumbai 06:05JZR 1330 Al Najaf 06:20JZR 560 Sohag 06:25THY 771 Istanbul 06:50RJA 643 Amman 07:05GFA 212 Bahrain 07:15JZR 1334 Al Najaf 07:30KAC 167 Paris 07:35JZR 1336 Al Najaf 07:45JZR 902 GYD 07:50KAC 501 Beirut 08:00KAC 413 Bangkok 08:10FDB 054 Dubai 08:35KAC 791 Madinah 08:35KAC 787 Jeddah 08:40KAC 613 Bahrain 08:55BAW 156 London 08:55KAC 117 New York 09:00QTR 8512 Doha 09:05JZR 534 Cairo 09:10KAC 561 Amman 09:40KAC 671 Dubai 09:45KAC 741 Dammam 09:45ABY 126 Sharjah 09:45KAC 101 London 09:45KAC 515 Tehran 10:00KAC 541 Cairo 10:00UAE 856 Dubai 10:00IRA 668 Mashhad 10:00KAC 773 Riyadh 10:10ETD 302 Abu Dhabi 10:10KAC 617 Doha 10:15QTR 1071 Doha 10:20KAC 155 Istanbul 10:25JZR 778 Jeddah 10:30FDB 056 Dubai 10:35RSB 7684 Baghdad 11:00SVA 513 Riyadh 11:00IAW 158A Al Najaf 11:00JZR 1332 Al Najaf 11:00IRA 672 Ahwaz 11:10GFA 214 Bahrain 11:25JZR 776 Jeddah 12:00SYR 342 Damascus 12:00JZR 786 Riyadh 12:00MSC 404 Alexandria 12:15QTR 1075 Doha 12:30VIZ 205 IQA 12:30

NIA 362 Alexandria 12:35WAN 835 Sarajevo 12:35MEA 405 Beirut 12:55VIZ 201 TQD 13:30FEG 932 Alexandria 13:40JZR 176 Dubai 13:40FDB 076 Dubai 13:45MSR 611 Cairo 14:00FDK 804 Damascus 14:00UAE 872 Dubai 14:15AXB 394 Kozhikode 14:15JZR 124 Bahrain 14:30KNE 382 Taif 15:00KAC 661 Abu Dhabi 15:00KAC 673 Dubai 15:05FDB 060 Dubai 15:10KAC 691 Muscat 15:20GFA 222 Bahrain 15:25KAC 785 Jeddah 15:25JZR 188 Dubai 15:25QTR 1079 Doha 15:30SVA 501 Jeddah 15:45KNE 530 Jeddah 15:45KAC 775 Riyadh 15:50KAC 743 Dammam 16:05KAC 563 Amman 16:10KAC 619 Doha 16:10PAL 669 Manila 16:10ETD 304 Abu Dhabi 16:20OMA 646 Muscat 16:35KAC 615 Bahrain 16:40ABY 128 Sharjah 16:40RJD 136 Abu Dhabi 16:55KNE 532 Jeddah 16:55SAW 706 Damascus 16:55KAC 675 Dubai 17:00QTR 1073 Doha 17:15KAC 503 Beirut 17:15JZR 240 Amman 17:15JZR 266 Beirut 17:15KAC 283 Dhaka 17:30FDB 052 Dubai 17:40KAC 357 Kochi 17:45UAE 858 Dubai 17:45RJA 641 Amman 17:55KAC 331 Trivandrum 18:00KAC 343 Chennai 18:00JZR 538 Cairo 18:15SVA 511 Riyadh 18:15GFA 216 Bahrain 18:20JZR 184 Dubai 18:30WAN 115 Bahrain 18:50KAC 381 Delhi 18:50FDB 064 Dubai 19:10JZR 554 Alexandria 19:20UAE 876 Dubai 19:30MSR 621 Cairo 19:30QTR 1081 Doha 20:00ABY 124 Sharjah 20:05RBG 556 Alexandria 20:05GFA 218 Bahrain 20:15FDB 058 Dubai 20:35KAC 345 Ahmedabad 20:40NIA 162 Cairo 20:40KNE 232 Riyadh 20:45KAC 353 Bengaluru 20:55KAC 301 Mumbai 21:00KAC 1543 Cairo 21:20OMA 648 Muscat 21:20DLH 624 Bahrain 21:30DHX 171 Bahrain 21:50QTR 1089 Doha 22:00KAC 205 Islamabad 22:05KAC 203 Lahore 22:10ETD 308 Abu Dhabi 22:10MEA 403 Beirut 22:20ALK 230 Colombo 22:25GFA 220 Bahrain 22:30KAC 783 Jeddah 22:35KAC 383 Delhi 22:40KLM 445 Bahrain 22:50UAE 860 Dubai 23:00ETD 310 Abu Dhabi 23:05QTR 1083 Doha 23:20

American Airlines 22087425

22087426

Kuwait Airways 171

Jazeera Airways 177

Jet Airways 22924455

FlyDubai 22414400

Qatar Airways 22423888

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AIRLINES

I, Shaik Shabbir Hussain,S/o Shaik Ibrahim holder ofIndian Passport No.M3439430 & Civil ID no.275072002729 herebychanged my name to ShaikRafi Hussain hereinafter inall my dealings and docu-ments. (C 5368)7-12-2017

Lost Indian PassportJ1331475, Name: KalidindiSujata on 29th November2017 at airport, finderplease inform 97942497. (C 5367)7-12-2017

Admin/ facilities/ accom-modation/ transportationmanager with 20 yearsexperience in Gulf, seekingsuitable placement.Contact: +965 55259659.(C 5366) 7-12-2017

I, Dias Lily Roney D/o PeterStephen holder of IndianPassport No. L3462505 &Civil ID No: 267121103885has changed my name toLily Eugin hereinafter in allmy dealings and documents. (C 5369)11-12-2017

Wednesday, December 13, 2017L i f e s t y l e G o s s i p

Established 1961 28Lily Allendrops first songin three years

The ‘Smile’ hitmaker hasn’t put out any tunes since her album‘Sheezus’, but surprised fans on Monday night, by droppingthe coming-of-age banger about her wild past. On the track,

she sings: “When I was young I was blameless/ Playing with rudeboys and trainers/ I had a foot in the rave ‘cause I was attracted todanger/ I never got home for Neighbors, hey/ When I grew up, noth-ing changed much/ Anything went, I was famous /I would wake upnext to strangers/ Everyone knows what cocaine does/ Numbing thepain when the shame comes, hey (sic)” In October last year, Lilydebuted a new track at Mark Ronson’s show at The Savoy hotel inLondon. The ‘Alfie’ hitmaker took to the stage to perform three songsat the MasterCard Priceless event, including a brand new electronicdance track which she created with the superstar DJ. The 32-year-oldsinger was still learning the words to the as-yet-untitled track as shehad to read most of it from a lyrics sheet. Speaking at the show, whichwas her first concert in over a year, Lily told the crowd: “I haven’tplayed anything for about a year I’m really nervous.” An album shouldbe on the way from the British star as she told the audience then she’dbeen in the studio with Ronson, 42. Before performing the track, shesaid: “Mark and I have been in the studio a little bit this week.” It waspreviously revealed Lily has teamed up with the ‘Uptown Funk’ hit-maker - her long-time collaborator - for her upcoming record and theproducer said she’d channeled the heartbreak caused by her separa-tion from Sam Cooper into her lyrics. Speaking last year, he said:“We’ve been writing together again on the new record. I feel likethey are some of the best songs she’s written. “Her voice soundsincredible. The stuff I’m working on is some of her most honest andheartbreaking music ever. She writes so honestly you can feel it.”Mark said he believes the music world needs an “honest” star like Lily- who has two daughters, Ethel, six, and Marnie, four, with Sam -back. He said: “She’s like a needed performer. There’s nobody reallydoing something like that, really honest.”

Camila Cabello thinks there is a lot of “breaking barriers” inthe music industry right now. The ‘Havana’ hitmaker is thrilledto see Latin artists getting mainstream recognition now and

thinks there has been a big shift in the industry. She said: “I thinkthat the good thing about social media and the internet is that I feellike it makes the world smaller and it just kind of breaks down barri-ers between languages, between people, between cultures, and Ithink that might have something to do with that. I’ve been listeningto Spanish music forever because that’s just not even Spanish musicto me, it’s just music “But I feel like with everything that’s gone onthis year and also with groups like K-pop groups performing onAmerican award shows and making their way into the mainstreamAmerican industry, I just feel like there’s a lot of just breaking barri-ers. Which I think is super beautiful, and I don’t know exactly whatthere is to credit for that, but I’m definitely glad it’s happening.” The20-year-old singer likes to reference her heritage wherever she can.Asked on why she chose to give her ‘Havana’ video a telenovatheme, she told Teen Vogue magazine: “I think that it’s really impor-tant to represent and to be proud of your story, and be proud ofwho you are. And I think that being the most “you” is what makesyou different. Also, for me, when I was growing up in Miami, I didn’treally have anybody that shared my story to look up to. So that’swhy, for a long time, I thought that having a career in music was notpossible for somebody like me that was in Miami. “I came from afamily that didn’t really speak English, and we had no money tomove to LA and do meetings. That was not even in my vocabulary.So I think that’s why, for a long time, it was only by chance that Iauditioned for X Factor. If it weren’t for that chance, I don’t thinkthat I would even be here. So I just think it’s important for me to beauthentic and to hopefully inspire young girls and young peoplethat share a similar story.”

Cabello praisesartists for ‘breaking barriers’

U2 choseKendrick Lamarfor his ‘spirit’ The Irish rockers featured on the US rapper’s hit ‘XXX’and he repaid the gesture by appearing on their tracks‘Get Out Of Your Own Way’ and ‘American Soul’ onnew album ‘Songs Of Experience’, and the group admit-ted he was “top of [their] list” for potential collabora-tions. Band member The Edge said: “It was really justthat we were fans. “We were just thinking about artistswe really respect and like, and he was on the top of ourlist. We look for artists that we feel have a similar spirit.”Frontman Bono added: “There’s a righteous anger thatis hard to argue with. “I asked him would he rap aboutwhere America is at, his reply was to rap about whereAmerica isn’t at. Smart dude.” Bono is pleased with thedirection the group - who have released 14 studioalbums - have taken over the years with their latestalbum inspired by recent political changes, such asDonald Trump’s election and Brexit, and he likes listen-ing to people have “violent disagreements” about U2’sstyle. Speaking to Stereogum, he added: “I’ve had peo-ple talk to me about what they think is or is not authen-tically U2. They’re often in violent disagreement witheach other and I like that and I’ve had those conversa-tions for 40 years. “We’ve had some bad haircuts overthe years but stylistically, musically speaking, I’m notembarrassed about anywhere we’ve gone. Lyrically, yes.Vocally, yes. But in terms of the present tense, who isn’tcurious about what’s going on around them?”

Kasabian and Courteeners will headline Teenage CancerTrust shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 2018. The‘You’re In Love With A Psycho’ hitmakers and the

indie rock group are the first acts confirmed for the iconiccharity shows with Tom Meighan and co performing onMarch 24, and the ‘What Took You So Long?’ stars - frontedby Liam Fray - playing the world famous venue on March 23.It’s a special gig for the latter, who are celebrating the 10thanniversary of their seminal album ‘St. Jude’ by performing the2008 LP in full. It follows their homecoming gig atManchester’s Old Trafford to 50,000 fans, following the hor-rific terrorist attacks at Ariana Grande’s Manchester Arenaconcert in May. Liam said: “It’s a great honor and privilege toperform for such a brilliant charity at such a legendary venue.“This will be the first and last time we’ll ever perform ourdebut album St. Jude in full in London and we’re reallypleased to be doing it for a such a great cause.” Kasabianrecently completed a 12 date UK Arena tour, in support ofchart-topping record ‘For Crying Out Loud’, and can’t wait toentertain the masses next Spring. Frontman Tom said: “Welove playing the Royal Albert Hall for the Teenage CancerTrust. It is a show we have come back to throughout ourcareer for the special atmosphere and the amazing cause. Ourfans love it and we do too, it will be a highlight of 2018 for us.”The concert series was launched by the charity’s HonoraryPatron Roger Daltrey CBE, the legendary frontman of TheWho, who said: “I’m really pleased to announce the firstshows for The Teenage Cancer Trust at the Royal Albert Hallnext March. This will be the 18th year of these concerts for thecharity. “It’s great to be welcoming back Kasabian, they havebeen fantastic supporters of this charity since they first head-lined for us back in 2007.” Tickets go on sale on Friday.

Kasabian and Courteeners’ Teenage Cancer Trust gigs

Robbie Williams hasruled out a reunionwith Take That in the

next five years. The 43-year-old singer has dashedhopes of him and JasonOrange rejoining GaryBarlow, Howard Donaldand Mark Owen for showsand new music to marktheir 30th anniversary in2022. He told the latestissue of OK! magazine: “I’min if it’s a five-piece. I’dprobably be in even if itisn’t. “That being said,that’s not on any calendarfor the next five years.” The‘Giants’ trio have been eye-ing getting Robbie andJason back for what seemslike years, and there wassome hope when Gary saidearlier this year that hethinks part-timer Robbieand Jason, 47 - who quit in2014 - could return in 2022for a “greatest hits” tourand possibly a record. He said: “I don’t think anything we do with Rob isgoing to relate to like a big 25-year project. “In fact, I’ll tell you this forthe first time, we’re looking at 30 years. “We’re planning something to dofor the 30-year all together. We’re looking that far ahead, something big,maybe a new record, maybe a greatest hits with a big tour.” Howard, 49,said then he would love to see the five of them back for good, but said hedoubts it will ever happen. He added: “A five-piece would be incredible.Whether that ever happens or not, that’s a different story. My gut’stelling me no. I’d love it to happen. “That’s the nice thing, that we can allhope it will happen but, you know, no pressure on anybody to do any-thing.” Gary - who announced a solo UK tour for 2018 - later admittedhe’d given up hope on Jason rejoining the band. He said: “He didn’t wantcreative involvement because we’re day-to-day on this and he wanted toleave. “This has been weird with the whole Jason thing. He’d told us for awhile, ‘I don’t want to be in music anymore, I don’t want to do this any-more’, and we’d push, push, push. “At the end of the day you’ve got toaccept someone doesn’t want to do what you’re doing anymore.”

Robbie Williams

won’t rejoin Take

That in 2022

The ‘Friday I’m InLove’ hitmakers -fronted by Robert

Smith - have produced30 million combinedsales of 13 studio albumsand more than 40 singlesduring their four-decadecareer, and will celebratethe milestone performingat the iconic landmark onJuly 7, with support fromInterpol, Goldfrapp,Editors, Ride, Slowdiveand The Twilight Sad.James King, Senior VicePresident, AEG Presentscommented: “The Cureplaying at Barclaycardpresents British SummerTime Hyde Park will bean incredible day whereThe Cure join the list ofother global legends whohave played the GreatOak Stage. On July 7 wecelebrate the 40thanniversary of a trulyiconic British band andit’s an honor that theyhave chosen to share this magical experience with us in Hyde Park.” Itfollows the announcement that guitar legend Eric Clapton will head-line on July 8. The 72-year-old rocker first performed at the Londonlocation in 1969 as his debut with new group Blind Faith, and he can’twait to return. Eric said: “I have happy memories of performing inHyde Park in the past and I’m really looking forward to playing thereagain - the whole atmosphere is very special.” The ‘WonderfulTonight’ star - who also performed at the park in 1996 and in 2008 -will be supported by Santana, Steve Winwood, and Gary Clark Jr Alsoperforming next summer will be Pink Floyd star Roger Waters onFriday July 6, Michael Buble, making his only performance of 2018, onFriday July 13, and Bruno Mars on Saturday July 14. They follow in thefootsteps of The Rolling Stones, Carole King, Stevie Wonder and TomPetty, who have all headlined the Great Oak Stage since the BST waslaunched in 2013.

The Cure’s 40th anniversaryBST Hyde Park gig

Kasabian’s Serge Pizzornosays artists who use a teamof songwriters usually end

up with tracks that “lack soul”. The‘Processed Beats’ star prefers itwhen musicians pen their ownlyrics because they share a part ofthemselves with the listener. Hetold the Metro newspaper: “It’s the‘writing team’ thing. “I understandit, it’s like American TV shows, thereason why they’re so great isbecause 15 people in a room writeit. “I can’t deny the tunes they’rewriting. “I just have time for thatband that gets in a room andsmashes it, or a singer/songwriter... you get them ... you get a feelingof their soul.” The 36-year-oldrocker says it’s frustrating whenother people get involved withwriting music. He said: “I’m sure Ispeak on behalf of any songwritertrying to get something together.“You write one that’s great thensomeone comes along, ‘I wrote thetop line melody’, I wrote the cho-rus.” One person, who he thinks isnailing it though, is ‘New Shoes’hitmaker Paolo Nutini. Asked whois doing a good job, he said: “Paolo Nutini. I love that guy.” Serge’s commentscome after Kasabian frontman Tom Meighan said Arctic Monkeys and TheLibertines are the only indie rock bands of the 2000s that survived. He said:“There’s only us and the [Arctic] Monkeys left on that level. “They’re great.Kaiser Chiefs too, probably. When we came out in 2004, you had FranzFerdinand, Razorlight, Kings Of Leon, The Holloways, The Paddingtons, TheMaccabees, Libertines had just finished. “It was just a good time. We were 22and there was so much good music. Bands were back, there were loads of rockmagazines, indie and rock ‘n’ roll were cool. We survived it.” The singer con-cluded that rock ‘n’ roll was dead with pop music taking over. He added:“Where is rock ‘n’ roll at the minute? It’s gone, isn’t it? I reckon it’s a mixture ofeverything. “What runs the world at the moment? It’s R&B, pop, solo artists.Adele, she’s amazing ... Ed Sheeran. There are no bands. “ And Serge agreed:“Interestingly, they are the three - and the best three, which makes sense.We’ve got tunes, and strong, defined characters. Love them or hate them,you’re interested in where they’re going and what they’re going to do.”

Serge Pizzorno: Writing teams are spoiling music

Kesha and Macklemore haveannounced an extensive jointtour for 2018. The ‘Praying’

singer - whose fans are known asAnimals - announced the NorthAmerican shows called ‘The Adventuresof Kesha & Macklemore Tour’ onTwitter on Monday. In a video promot-ing the gigs, ‘Thrift Shop’ starMacklemore says: “I woke up todayand I had an idea ... music? I’ve found anew language. My feet on blades.Everybody knows blades are super hotright now. So what better way to con-nect with America’s youth by becominga roller-blade coach.” Kesha then stepsout of a car in a glittering ensemble andstarts singing, she then asksMacklemore - real name Ben Haggerty- “Hey Ben, what are you doing?” Towhich he replies: “I’m just kind of overmusic. Honestly, I just feel like blading iscurrent, it’s new, it’s trendy.” ThenKesha says: “You are not a blader. Ihave a much better idea, what about ifwe go on tour, me and you together?”Ben agrees: “OK, alright.” Kesha adds:“Me, you, the fans.” However, when Bensuggests: “Blading?”, Kesha says: “No.”He then says: “Just shows?”, and the‘Hymn’ hitmaker replies: “Music.”Macklemore then says he’s “in”. AndKesha pointing to his skating shoes,concludes: “Good, take these thingsoff.” Alongside the clip, Kesha wrote:“Animals! I ’m going on tour with

@macklemore. Come out and havesome adventures with us. Get in linefor the Adventures of Kesha &Macklemore Tour Presale here:http://tnspk.co/MKZi9WM Can’twait to see you all, let’s boogie! (sic)”The tour kicks off in Phoenix, Arizonaon June 6 and ends in Tampa, Floridaon August 5. Pre-sale tickets are onsale now.

L i f e s t y l e Wednesday, December 13, 2017

29Established 1961

G o s s i p

Hugh Jackman wants

to see Wolverine

in the MCU

Hugh Jackman wants to see Wolverine in the MarvelCinematic Universe. The 49-year-old actor portrayedthe iconic Marvel comic book character eight times

across the ‘X-Men’ series and his own standalone franchise- and had a cameo in ‘X-Men: First Class’ - but made itclear after shooting 2017’s ‘Logan’ that he would neverreturn to the big screen as the adamantium enforcedmutant. However, Disney - who purchased Marvel Studios -are currently in negotiations to secure the film and TV stu-dio side of 21st Century Fox - who own the rights to theMarvel created ‘X-Men’ and ‘Fantastic Four’ franchises.Jackman thinks the prospect of those characters joining therest of the Marvel family is very excited but is adamant cin-ema goers will never see him in the MCU. Speaking toCollider, Jackman said: “It’s interesting because for thewhole 17 years I kept thinking that would be so great, like Iwould love to see, particularly, Iron Man and the Hulk andWolverine together. “And every time I saw an ‘Avengers’movie I could just see Wolverine in the middle of all ofthem, like, punching them all on the head. “But it was like,‘Oh well, that’s not gonna happen,’ and it was interestingjust when I first saw that headline - it was just the possibili-ty of it and who knows what’s gonna happen, obviously - Iwas like, ‘Hang on!’ But I think, unfortunately, the ship hassailed for me, but for someone else I would like to seeWolverine in there.”

Sylvester Stallonehands Creed II reinsto Steven Caple Jr

Sylvester Stallone has stepped down from directing‘Creed II’. The 71-year-old star took to Instagramto confirm he has handed over the helming reins to

Steven Caple Jr on the forthcoming film because hethinks the ‘Land’ filmmaker is more in touch with “thisgeneration”. He wrote: “The character of Adonis Creedreflects this generation, and I believe it is important tohave a director who is part of it , that is why I think weare Lucky to have Stephen Caple ,Jr A wonderful newtalent take over The directorial chores and make thestory as relatable as possible... He and Michael B Jordanwill deliver a knockout!u (sic)” Caple is said to havebeen hand-picked by Stallone and Michael B. Jordan -who will reprise his role as boxer Adonis “Donnie”Johnson Creed - to helm the motion picture. He toldVariety: “It’s an honor to be a part of such an iconicfranchise and to work with such great collaborators.“Mike, Sly, and Tessa are extraordinarily talented andbring something special to today’s culture. I look for-ward to joining the family and continuing the precedentset by this franchise’s alumni of incredible filmmakers.”Jordan admitted he was “excited” for Caple to take overfrom the first film’s director Ryan Coogler. He tweeted:“Excited for Coogler to hand over the reins to StevenCaple, Jr - our director for Creed 2! Can’t wait to bringyou guys the next chapter of our story ... coming at youNovember 2018. #Creed2 (sic)” Coogler is expected tojoin the movie in an executive producer capacity but adeal has not yet been completed. As well as announcingCaple’s role, Stallone also teased fans that WWE starBrock Lesnar could be playing Ivan Drago’s son in‘Creed II’, but admitted a “new unknown” star will takeon the role. Stallone wrote on Instagram: “Big chal-lenges come in all shapes and forms!

James Mangold thinks it would be “sad” if Disney buys the film side of 20th Century Fox. The 53-year-oldfilmmaker helmed Fox’s recent R-rated success ‘Logan’ but Disney - which now owns Marvel Studios - iscurrently closing in on a deal to try and get back the rights for the iconic comic book characters. Fox

owns the complete rights to both the ‘X-Men’ and ‘Fantastic Four’ franchises and any new character withinits universe belongs solely to the studio - which led to the cancellation of the ‘Fantastic Four’ comic series.However, Mangold told Deadline that if Disney buys out the studio it would mean “less movies” will be made.He said: “If they’re actually changing their mandate, if what they’re supposed to do alters, that would be sadto me because it just means less movies. “The real thing that happens when you make a movie rated R,behind the scenes, is that the studio has to adjust to the reality that there will be no Happy Meals. There willbe no action figures. The entire merchandising, cross-pollinating side of selling the movie to children is deadbefore you even start. And when that’s dead, it means you’re making a grown-up movie.” The ‘X-Men’ fran-chise and spin-offs have been successful for Fox with both the Bryan Singer trilogy, the ‘First Class’ movies,the Wolverine standalone series and R-rated ‘Deadpool’ all doing very well at the box office. However,Marvel still does retain some input into the franchises and Fox needs Marvel to sign off on all TV dealsregarding the superheroes, however, since the Marvel owns ‘The Avengers’ there has been some overlapwith characters such as Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch - who have been members of both teams in thecomics. Unlike the popular ‘X-Men’ franchise, the ‘Fantastic Four’ films haven’t been as popular at the boxoffice. In 2015, the franchise was rebooted starring Miles Teller, Jamie Bell, Kate Mara and Michael B. Jordanas the titular Four, however, the film was poorly received by fans and critics alike. These two franchises arenot the only Marvel comic book heroes that belong outside of the Marvel Studios, with ‘Spider-Man’ beingowned by Sony Pictures. However, 2017 saw the first time Marvel Studios and Sony have worked togetheron the fan favourite superhero after Marvel sold the rights in 1985 for $225,000, with ‘Spider-Man:Homecoming’. This collaboration meant that Tom Holland - who portrays the webslinger - is part of theMarvel Cinematic Universe rather than Sony’s.

James Mangold speaks out on Disney and Fox talks

Anthony McCarten thinks Gary Oldman took his portrayal of Winston Churchill to a “whole new level” andhis work on ‘Darkest Hour’ is the “performance of his lifetime”. The 56-year-old screenwriter wrote the newJoe Wright movie - which follows the hero British Prime Minister at the beginning of World War II - and

McCarten thinks Oldman is more than a worthy Best Actor nominee at the Golden Globes. Speaking exclusively toBANG Showbiz at the UK premiere of the new movie at the Odeon Cinema in London’s Leicester Square onMonday night McCarten said: “When you write a role like Winston you want to write a role that an actor, whenthey do it, will be magnificent. You have to write magnificent into the script but then someone has got to do it. AndGary then took what I did and took it to a whole new level and I think it’s the performance of his lifetime or ofmost actors’ lifetimes.” ‘Darkest Hour’ tells the true story at the beginning of World War II and within days ofbecoming the UK’s leader, Churchill must face one of his most turbulent and defining trials: exploring a negotiatedpeace treaty with Nazi Germany and deciding whether to back out of conflict in return for assurances AdolfHitler’s army will leave Britain alone. McCarten spent eight hours writing the script for the film and he admits hedid a lot of research into the famous political figure to show sides of Churchill that hadn’t be portrayed before. Hesaid: “I did a bit more research and then found out, not only was there pressure, he yielded to it to some degreeand seriously consider a peace deal but then he changed his mind and that was key. And I thought I want to writea movie about a guy who can change his mind. I thought that ability to change his mind was not something that wegenerally were lead to believe about Winston. “We’ve never seen the humorous Winston yet he is really belovedfor his sense of humor but we’ve never seen him as a witty man, the witty Winston. And we have never seen aromantic Winston, the letters he wrote to (his wife) Clementine reveal a very romantic emotional side. So it wasjust all these colors to play with that no one has ever played with before and then you give it all to an actor likeGary Oldman and see what happens.”

Anthony McCarten: Gary Oldman’s givesdefining performance in Darkest Hour

Octavia Spencer felt she was “livingin a bubble” on the set of ‘TheShape of Water’. The 47-year-old

actress has opened up about what it waslike on the set of the science fictionturned romance film and how she kept inthe character of a woman from the 1960s.She said: “I don’t really venture into thereal world, because you know it is hardto play a woman from this era and thenhave all of these things you’re able to donow. “So it is kind of like living in a bub-ble. So I spent a lot of time with SallyHawkins.” In the movie, Octavia plays amute cleaner who stumbles on aamphibious man and admits playing amute character has an “even deepermeaning” for her because her brother ismute. She added: “I know this very well.My brother is mute. So it has an evendeeper meaning for me. It’s more beauti-ful because I understand the beauty ofnot being able to say words but still con-vey feelings.” Octavia enjoyed workingalongside Sally and admits she waspleasantly surprised how she managed tochannel a “different person” despitebeing painfully shy. She told king5.com:“Well, here’s something people don’tknow about Sally. She is painfully shy. Ihave never met anyone as shy as she is.When she becomes Elisa, it is a differentperson so to see her at work and to knowhow she really doesn’t like the spotlightat all. It’s just so beautiful and humbling,and I love her. Just love her.”

Spencer felt like she wasliving in a bubble

Kesha and Macklemore’sjoint tour for 2018

Jil Sander wants to empowerpeople with her brand Jil Sander wanted to empower people with her designs. The 74-year-old fashion designer - who launched her

eponymous label in 1968 - has “never” considered herself to be a “feminist”, even though her motivation to cre-ate clothes was to make the customer feel “strong”. Speaking to Vogue.co.uk, she said: “I never thought of

myself as a feminist, but maybe I was, since I was not happy with the way women presented themselves. I think mywork was more about the rapprochement of the sexes and a more androgynous look for men and women. I waslooking for more supportive ways to dress myself as a working woman. And since my needs were collective needs inthe era of women entering the business world, my work turned out to help them. “We had to give a lot of strength towomen and give them the power that men knew. It was the start of globalization, we were travelling, and neededclothes to feel strong.” And Jil - whose full name is Heidemarie Jiline Sander - also felt it was “very important” forher to give “class, quality and personality” in her garments. She said: “I needed the strength and the energy, andalso for me it was very important to give class, quality and personality to clothing. It was a time when women had toask their husbands if they could work, or if they could get a driver’s license.” Although Jil has hinted she struggledsetting up her company, she believes inner strength was the key to get her through. She explained: “I’m maybe nota feminist, but I was quite young when I started, nothing was easy and I always said you need a lot of strength to dowhat you want to do when you have a vision and want to build a company. So I always believed in strong women.I’m not a feminist, but I was looking for strong personality. “Women have to be strong. And we have to supportwomen so that they are able to be in important, responsible jobs. I was always a believer in both, and with my com-pany, I thought women and men needed to work together. I think a woman’s situation is much more open today. Ithas changed a lot. There is still a lot of need but we have to be optimistic and move forward.”— Bang Showbiz

Wednesday, December 13, 2017L i f e s t y l e Fe a t u r e s

Established 1961 30

Shining spotlighton slavery, dancehelps survivors inUK find their feet

Grabbed, groped and thrown to the ground, theyoung woman adopts the foetal position asthe four female attackers loom over her.

Dragged, kicked and strangled, the woman goeslimp, drawing gasps from the audience as she lieslifeless on the stage. For the victim and her abusersare in fact performers, using theatre and dance toshock their spectators and throw a spotlight onmodern slavery in Britain, while also helping sur-vivors to regain their confidence through dancing.“Art is a very powerful way of speaking out aboutthe issue,” Erena Bordon Sanchez, founding directorof The Natashas Project, a modern dance and the-atre company set up in 2013, told the ThomsonReuters Foundation after a recent show in London.

While modern slavery is increasingly capturingthe attention of the media worldwide, few in Britainhave grasped the scale of a crime estimated to trapat least 13,000 people in the country in forced labor,sexual exploitation and domestic servitude. One infive people in Britain have never heard of modern-day slavery, and more than half say they wouldn’tknow what to do, or who to talk to, if they suspectedthat someone was a victim, according to a poll inOctober by British supermarket Co-op.

“Our aim is to connect with the public, by por-traying through dance what people might experienceduring slavery,” said Sanchez, whose company alsovisits schools and youth groups to talk to youngpeople about the drivers and signs of slavery.

LifelineOn top of their performances and educational

visits, The Natashas Project also holds dance ses-sions at shelters for survivors of domestic abuse,sexual violence and slavery. “We don’t see it as ther-apy,” Sanchez said. “It’s about creating a community,having fun and building up confidence.” For somewomen staying in shelters - abused, battered andbroken - dancing offers respite from the horrors theyhave endured and the stress and uncertainty aroundtheir future. “Many of these women have sufferedfrom the destruction of their sense of self, and theirown worth,” said Charlotte Desorgher, project direc-tor at the Company of Dreams, a dance group thatoffers free belly dance classes for women in refuges.

“We need to give them some fun,” she said. “Agiggle, some music and a dance is very powerful - itcan lift the spirits.” Yet dance classes can do morethan just boost self-esteem. “A lot of the women saythe classes have saved their lives, often those whohave been abused or raped,” Desorgher added.

‘I feel free’While there is no solid data on survivors of slav-

ery in Britain, at least 3,800 possible victims werereferred to the government last year. About half werewomen and girls and many came from countries suchas Albania, Vietnam and Nigeria. These people areplaced in safe houses and given help ranging fromlegal aid to counseling while the government decideswhether to class them as victims of slavery - mean-ing that they may be allowed to remain in Britain inthe short-term. Activities including arts and crafts,dancing and gardening provide a welcome distrac-tion, and a creative outlet, to such people living inlimbo, said Anne Read of the Salvation Army.

“Victims in safe houses often don’t want to talkabout their experiences, or engage with counselingservices,” she said. “Art, dancing, gardening ... theyoffer people another way to express themselves, toovercome the language barrier,” added Read, thecharity’s head of anti-trafficking and modern slavery.While no survivors of slavery wanted to be inter-viewed in person or over the phone by the ThomsonReuters Foundation - for personal and safety reasons- two women were willing to share over email theirthoughts about a recent dance session. — Reuters

Istanbul, Galata Tower Kastamonu, Ilgaz Bursa

Turkish Airlines announces specialfares to Turkey this winter, offeringpassengers an opportunity to experi-

ence the beauty of Turkey on their holidays.Passengers from Kuwait can now book aticket directly to Ataturk and to SabihaGokcen Airport for special fares. Passengerscan also travel to any other destination with-in Turkey for an additional fee depending onthe location.

The offer is valid for passengers bookinga flight from now till December 22nd as longas they are intending to travel during theperiod of December 15, 2017 to May 31,2018. Winter is one of the best seasons totravel to Turkey, if you are looking to expe-rience centuries of history, wonderfully richcuisine, authentic local life, and unparallelednatural beauty in every corner. Turkey isalso a ski paradise for anyone who is inter-ested in winter sports, and travelers can take

their ski equipment with them for free onTurkish Airlines. Visit some of the mostimportant ski centers: Uludag, Palandoken,Erciyes, and Kartal Kaya. Explore the hotwater spas in Pamukkale, Cave Oylat,Ayder,and Yalova. Enjoy the quiet serenityof Sapanca, Abant, and Tarakli. Be blownaway by the striking beauty of Uzungol,Yedigoller and Cappadocia, or put on a pairof comfy shoes and discover the magic ofIstanbul’s winter scene on foot.

Turkish Airlines, currently one of thefastest growing airlines in the world, hasbeen providing excellent services to its pas-sengers through its business class services,it’s Flagship CIP Lounge which can beaccessed by Business Class travellers atAtaturk Airport, and its strong reputation foramazing Turkish hospitality and convenienceon all levels. Book your winter holiday tick-ets now on www.turkishairlines.com

Turkish Airlines announces specialfares for a magical winter in Turkey

Kastamonu, Ilgaz

Istanbul, Istiklal Street

From a World War Two drama and a fantasy tale to agay romance and a coming of age movie, a variedcrop of films and veteran actors as well as new faces

received Golden Globe nominations on Monday. The fol-lowing are some reactions, through statements, telephoneand social media, to the nominations, which are chosen bythe Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA):

Tom Hanks, best actor nominee for “The Post”: “Very happy the work of the others on ‘The Post’ has

been given the attention they deserve. Thank you to theHFPA.”

Steven Spielberg, best director nominee for “The Post” :“I am thrilled by today’s recognition by the HFPA and par-ticularly happy for our nominees who made this moviehappen ... I only wish (former Washington Post publisher)Kay Graham were still here to experience how much herstory affects all of us.”

Timothee Chalamet, best actor nominee for “Call Me byYour Name”:

“Wow! I’m floored ... I’m humbled to be sharing thisacknowledgement with my co-star and friend ArmieHammer - and to be included alongside actors I havelooked up to and studied closely - it’s just a massivehonor!”

Hugh Jackman, best actor nominee for “The GreatestShowman”: “Over 7 years ago we began the journey to get@GreatestShowman made into a major motion picture.Through all of the (literal) blood, sweat and tears .... givingup was never an option. As it is said - with great risk comesgreat reward.”

Emma Stone, best actress nominee for “Battle of theSexes”: “Thank you to the HFPA for this honor and thankyou beyond measure to the one and only Billie Jean King.She is a brilliant, brave and game-changing human being,and I wish to be half the woman she is someday.”

Helen Mirren, best actress nominee for “The LeisureSeeker”: “I am honored that our film, ‘The Leisure Seeker,’has been recognized with this nomination. I would like torecognize the work of the two men in my life of this film:

Paolo Virzi and Donald Sutherland.” James Franco, best actor nominee for “The Disaster

Artist”: “Thank you to the HFPA, who have been support-ive of my work since I played James Dean 16 years ago. Iam grateful that they have recognized our film, ‘TheDisaster Artist,’ for Best Comedy, and for nominating me asan actor.”

Saoirse Ronan, best actress nominee for “Lady Bird” :“I’m very humbled to be recognized for this role - to seethe effect this film has had on so many people of all ageshas meant so much to us ... Lady Bird is a strong, uniquefemale character - I am just honored to be able to tell herstory.”

Guillermo del Toro, best director nominee for “TheShape of Water” : “On behalf of the entire cast and crew of‘The Shape of Water’ and Fox Searchlight, I am profoundlygrateful for the seven nominations the Hollywood ForeignPress Association has bestowed upon our picture. Aboveall, ‘The Shape of Water’ is about love overcoming fear and

embracing the Other. I cannot begin to thank the HFPA forrecognizing the very spirit in which we made this film.”

Richard Jenkins, best supporting actor nominee for “TheShape of Water” : “It is a huge honor to be recognized witha Golden Globe nomination and for there to be so muchlove for ‘The Shape of Water.’ I am very proud to be part ofthis incredible group that brought Guillermo del Toro’sbeautiful story to life.”

Sally Hawkins, best actress nominee for “The Shape ofWater” : “What a beautiful gift. Thank you with all my heartto the Hollywood Foreign Press for honoring this specialfilm and my part in it. I am so very humbled by thisacknowledgement. Every piece of this film was and is a giftfor me.”

Gary Oldman, best actor nominee for “The DarkestHour”: “I am amazed, flattered and very proud of my firstGolden Globe nomination. I am also honored to find myselfin such company as I am a serious admirer of all the workof all the other nominees.”

Octavia Spencer, best supporting actress nominee for“The Shape of Water”: “Thanks #HFPA @goldenglobesfor all of the #SHapeOfWater love. Congrats to all #ggnominees.”

Willem Dafoe, best supporting actor nominee for “TheFlorida Project”: “It is gratifying. It is encouragement, andit also helps the film get seen. This will help people findtheir way to what I think is a very good movie.”

Allison Janney, best supporting actress nominee for “I,Tonya”: “I am so thrilled to be recognized for the role ofLaVona in “I, Tonya”! My wonderfully talented friend,Steven Rogers, wrote the part for me, which makes it somuch sweeter.”

Martin McDonagh, best director nominee for “ThreeBillboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” : “I’m thrilled toreceive the news today of the film’s six Golden Globenominations, and especial ly that my good friendsFrances McDormand and Sam Rockwell, and our com-poser Carter Burwell, have been recognized for theirbrilliant work.”— Reuters

(From left) Sharon Stone, Alfre Woodard, Garrett Hedlund andKristen Bell speak during the 75th Annual Golden GlobeNominations Announcement on December 11, 2017 in LosAngeles, California. — AFP

Honored, humbled, amazed: Stars react to Golden Globe nominations

Furry, wide-eyed and winged critters called Porgs areinvading the “Star Wars” galaxy, and Walt Disney Cohopes they will soon be roosting under fans’ Christmas

trees. Porgs make their debut in “The Last Jedi,” the new“Star Wars” movie that reaches theaters Thursday. Filmtrailers have offered only glimpses of a single Porg thatrides shotgun on the Millennium Falcon and, in one scene,lets out a squawk. The limited view of their role has sparkedquestions: are the Porgs sweet or sad? Funny or irritating?

Cuddly creatures are rare in a movie franchise betterknown for metallic droids and the grotesque Jabba theHutt, and their occasional appearances haven’t alwayspleased fans. Many filmgoers believed the teddy bear-likeEwoks ruined the ending of 1983’s “Return of the Jedi.”“‘Star Wars’ fans, understandably, always have suspicionabout anything that’s too adorable,” said Rian Johnson,who wrote and directed “The Last Jedi,” in an interviewwith Reuters. But, he added, “I think the Porgs have theirproper place in the movie. I think they fit.” Fan reactionwas mixed after a Porg appeared in a “The Last Jedi” trail-er in October. Many embraced the creature as cute andhuggable, but detractors speculated that Porgs mightbecome the next Jar Jar Binks, a much-derided character

from 1999 film “The Phantom Menace.” “I hate porgs,” oneTwitter user wrote in October. “I don’t think they’re cute atall, and I dislike how blatantly gimmicky they are.”

Cast members have joined the debate. John Boyega,who plays Finn, likened Porgs to cockroaches in an inter-view, while Luke Skywalker actor Mark Hamill has rallied totheir defense on Twitter.

When Disney showed “The Last Jedi” to more than6,000 people at the movie’s premiere on Saturday, thePorgs seemed to captivate audience members, who

laughed at their playful scenes with Chewbacca. Commentson social media were largely positive.

Holiday shoppersSales of “Star Wars” toys are important to Disney, which

bought the franchise in 2012. “Star Wars” items were the UStoy industry’s top-selling line in both 2015 and 2016, with $1.5billion in sales over the two years, research firm NPD Groupsaid. Disney licensees are already selling plush Porgs of allsizes, including one that measures four feet (over one meter)tall, to holiday shoppers at malls, online and at theme parks. Ifthe Porgs take off, they could boost sales of plush toys, whichaccounted for just 2 percent of “Star Wars” US toy sales relat-ed to 2015 film “The Force Awakens,” according to NPD toyindustry analyst Juli Lennett. A Hasbro Inc Porg is the best-selling “Star Wars” plush toy in the 13 weeks ending Nov 25,Lennett said. Porg is the most searched for “Star Wars” char-acter on the shopDisney website in December, Disney said.Jim Silver, editor-in-chief of toy review website TTPM, pre-dicts Porgs will be popular with younger children, as Ewokswere. “As much as people criticized them, they sold a gazillionof them,” Silver said. “The collectors say they didn’t likeEwoks, but the kids thought they looked cute.”— Reuters

Adorable or deplorable? Porgs stir debate in ‘Star Wars’ galaxy

The kids thought they looked cute

L i f e s t y l e Wednesday, December 13, 2017

31Established 1961 T

M u s i c & M o v i e s

By Ben Garcia

In the world of art, many are admired for beingself-taught. Some of them are unknown andunrecognized, yet they certainly leave a

remarkable imprint on the world. One out of themwas Nellie Mae Rowe, an African-American self-taught artist from Fayette, Georgia. People respecther for her simple yet expressive work. Relativelyunknown during her lifetime, she is now recog-nized as one of the most important American folkartists.

When US filmmakers found out that Dalal Al-Nafisi, an art studio owner and an art schoolfounder, teaches Rowe as part of her art curricu-lum, they decided to visit Kuwait. The two film-makers - Petter Ringbom (Swedish) and RuchiMital (American) - are here to film “This World isNot My Own”, a creative documentary on the life

and influence of Rowe (1900-1982). Rowe’s workcan be seen at the American Folk Art Museum inNew York City, the High Museum of Art in Atlantaand the Smithsonian American Art Museum inWashington, DC, among other venues.

Why in Kuwait? Dalal is an alumna of the Rhode Island school of

Design and the Design Institute of San Diego,California. At her school, she has featured severalunknown but exemplary unique artists from allaround the world. One of the artists is Rowe,whose work is not just displayed in the studio, butis being used as a part of the ‘Manifesto13’ art cur-riculum. Dalal said Rowe deserves the highestrespect and recognition. Although her work wasnot widely known when she was alive, her legacyremains as a self-taught artist.

“My art school is located in Hawally. It is veryessential and it is our goal to bring such unique artto the people,” Dalal said. “We want to use art insocial awareness campaigns to connect with chil-dren, and perhaps help these kids become moreaware of what’s going on in our society,” sheadded. Launched in 2014, Manifesto13 teachesseveral works of international artists. “Nellie MaeRowe’s work is on level 3 of our art foundationprogram Manifesto13. One of the many reasonswhy I love Rowe’s work is because kids can con-nect to it easily and it emphasizes on the impor-tance of self-expression,” she said.

Rowe’s art is all about self-expression - onevery a distinct characteristic of her art is how she

uses art as a tool, especially while sending out amessage. She expresses every tiny detail andessence of personal issues through art. The workof Nellie Mae Rowe has been regarded as the eas-iest to understand by kids - children love her work;they can relate to it faster than adults. “Art is self-expression - people can explore regardless ofeducation and background as she herself camefrom a poor family,” Dalal said.

The two filmmakers who were invited by Dalalconducted a lecture yesterday on documentaryand filmmaking titled “Storytelling through Film,Globally and Locally: An American Artist Inspires”at GUST’s Global Studies Center. “We are produc-ing a documentary on the life of Nellie Mae Rowe.Though she was a black woman from a poor back-ground, she gained respect for her work in the ear-ly 1900s. She was a self-taught artist and her workhas been exhibited in many countries around theworld,” said Ringbom.

Ringbom pointed out that Rowe wasn’t verywell-known, but her work has been labeled as thebest example of self-empowerment. “At the artschool in Hawally, we are going to film how herstory is being relayed to art students atManifesto13. We will also document the class andthe process of teaching children through herwork,” said Ringbom.

Dr Zennia Paganini said since the past twoyears as the US Embassy’s cultural attache, she hasfacilitated about three visits of several filmmakersto Kuwait, some of them channeled through vari-ous NGOs. “They are here for a documentary andlecture. This lecture is a part of the Public AffairsSection’s ongoing programming on the theme offilmmaking in support of the creative economy.We support local filmmakers. There are manyyoung Kuwaiti filmmakers who are very keen toknow more about the filmmaking industry, so weare here to support these young people interestedin entrepreneurship through this form of the artis-tic genre,” Paganini noted.

Recent activities include visits by Kohl Glassand Tim Skousen, who conducted a workshop andlectures for filmmakers and university students inOct 2016, and Bill Megalos, who held a workshopfor local filmmakers at LOYAC in Nov 2016.

He’s the “king” of Indian cricket.She’s a glamorous Bollywoodactress and former model.

Newlyweds Virat Kohli and AnushkaSharma are celebrity royalty and Indiais cock-a-hoop over their marriage.“Officially India’s First Couple,”screamed the front page of Mumbaitabloid Mid-Day yesterday-a day afterthe pair tied the knot at a private cere-mony in Tuscany, Italy. “Cleanbowled!” read the Mumbai Mirror’sheadline, one of several newspapers toreport the much-anticipated newsusing a cricket theme. Another publi-cation wished them the best in their“new innings”.

Kohli and Sharma, dubbed“Virushka” by local media, have generat-ed the same sort of excitement and cov-erage in India as Britain’s Prince Harryand fiance Meghan Markle have in theWest. Both 29, Kohli is India’s cricketcaptain and one of the world’s highest-paid athletes, while Sharma is an award-winning Hindi film star whose creditsinclude the hit movies “Sultan” and “PK”.

“We don’t have a more power-packed combination than this acrossBollywood or the cricketing world. Theycan be called new-age royalty,” IndranilDas Blah, a marketing executive, toldAFP. Monday’s wedding ended weeks ofspeculation in the gossip pages ofIndia’s newspapers and on the airwavesof the country’s excitable 24-hour newschannels that the couple had recentlygot engaged. But while messages ofcongratulations poured in fromBollywood and cricket stars, some pes-simistic astrologers in India-where manyare superstitious-struck a differentchord by sounding a note of caution.

“While all seems to be perfect intheir fairytale wedding, it might not bea very smooth sailing together forthem in the years to come, predict

astrologers,” read an article in MailToday, ominously. Astrologers are con-cerned there may be “disharmony” and“disputes” in their marriage if they areunable to “maintain a balance betweentheir personal and professional lives”,it went on to say.

South African honeymoon Kohli and Sharma started dating in

2013 after they met during the filmingof a shampoo advert, and made theirfirst public appearance a year laterduring a football match. Indian news-papers have been gripped by theirfour-year relationship-which included areported break-up in early 2016 — andrumors of their impending nuptialsintensified recently when theyappeared in a wedding commercialtogether. Speculation then reachedfever pitch when Kohli pulled out ofIndia’s limited-overs matches againstSri Lanka, and Sharma ducked out ofher busy acting schedule in Decemberbefore being spotted at Mumbai’sinternational airport with her family.

The couple will host a reception inNew Delhi for relatives on December21, followed by a celebration in Mumbaion December 26 to be attended byBollywood stars and cricketers. Theywill then honeymoon in South Africabefore setting up home in Mumbai, thecradle of India’s multi-billion-dollarHindi film industry. Theirs is the latest inseveral marriages between Indian crick-et players and movie stars over theyears, from former India captainMansur Ali Khan Pataudi and actressSharmila Tagore to the recent ZaheerKhan-Sagarika Ghatge union. Nonequite has the star appeal of “Virushka”though. “Their brand value will definite-ly sky rocket. Companies will pay a pre-mium to sign them up as it’s a one-of-a-kind association,” said Blah. — AFP

Indian cricketer Virat Kohli and Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma performingtheir wedding ceremony.

India celebrates Kohli, Sharma ‘royal’ wedding

This handout picture released by Yash Raj Films shows Indian cricketer Virat Kohliand Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma performing their wedding ceremony inBuoncovento near Siena. — AFP photos

Animated comedy “Coco” showedserious staying power holding on totop spot at the North American box

office for its third weekend running, indus-try monitor Exhibitor Relations reportedMonday. The colorful Pixar movie, whichtells the story of Miguel (AnthonyGonzalez), a young Mexican who longs tobe a musician and stumbles into the Land

of the Dead to unravel a surprising familysecret, took $18.5 million. Rewarded with aGolden Globe nomination on Monday,“Coco” has taken $135.7 million since itsrelease over the long Thanksgiving week-end, and is already the top-grossing filmever in Mexico.

It is one of just four films to lead theNorth American box office for threeweekends in a row this year, according toentertainment industry weekly Variety.But that is expected to change with the

much-anticipated release next week of“Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” predicted tonet up to $220 million in its openingweekend. Second on North Americanscreens this weekend was “JusticeLeague,” taking in $9.7 million, for a four-week total of $212 million.

The Warner Bros movie features GalGadot as Wonder Woman, Ben Affleck asBatman, Henry Cavill as Superman andJason Momoa as Aquaman, plus CiaranHinds as a supervillain. Third wasLionsgate’s feel-good film “Wonder,”which netted $8.4 million. The movie, star-ring Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson and JacobTremblay, tells the story of a determinedfifth-grade boy with a facial deformity whomust deal with rudeness and bullying byschoolmates.

Shooting up to fourth place was “TheDisaster Artist,” distributed by A24, a com-edy-drama directed by James Franco aboutthe making of 2003 cult movie “TheRoom,” reputedly one of the worst filmsever. Starring Franco, Seth Rogen andAlison Brie, “The Disaster Artist” took in$6.4 million for the weekend. In fifth was“Thor: Ragnarok,” featuring the self-effac-ing humor of Chris Hemsworth as the pow-erful Norse god and Cate Blanchett asdeath goddess Hela. The Disney film netted$6.3 million, bumping up its six-week totalto $301 million.Rounding out the list were:“Daddy’s Home 2” ($5.9 million)“Murder on the Orient Express” ($5.2 million)“The Star” ($3.7 million)“Lady Bird” ($3.5 million)“Just Getting Started” ($3.2 million)—AFP

‘Coco,’ a charmer from the Land of the Dead, lives on

US filmmakers in Kuwait film a documentary on Nellie Mae Rowe’s life

Ruchi Mital is a filmmaker, producer,and writer with a social justicebackground. In 2014, Ruchi pro-

duced a feature documentary, ‘We CouldBe King,’ which won the Emmy for out-standing sports documentary, as well asthe follow up short doc series, Hell Week[ESPN]. Her next production, Sky Ladder:The Art Of Cai Guo-Qiang, premiered atthe 2016 Sundance Film Festival. She iscurrently producing a documentary seriesfor HBO about the women’s movement;and a feature-length hybrid documentaryabout the artist Nellie Mae Rowe: ‘ThisWorld Is Not My Own.’

Her experimental short films havescreened at festivals from NYC to UK.Ruchi spent over a decade working innon-profit organizations and published achapter in critical anthology, MichaelJackson: Grasping the Spectacle. Ruchi isa graduate from New York University andholds a Masters in Media Studies fromThe New School.

Petter Ringbom’s debut feature docu-mentary ‘The Russian Winter,’ premieredat the Tribeca Film Festival in 2012. Hisfollow up, ‘Shield and Spear,’ premiered atToronto’s Hot Docs in 2014, and won thesilver price at UK’s Passion for FreedomAwards. His films were screened at IDFA,Sheffield Doc/Fest, BAM, the HammerMuseum, Film Society of Lincoln Center,the International Film Festivals of Moscow,Gothenburg, Durban, and Stockholm.

His art video collaboration with KarlHaendel, ‘Questions for My Father,’ washailed as a “genuine sleeper” by the NewYork Times, and was selected for the ArtVideo program at Art Basel Miami.Ringbom has a BFA from the CooperUnion for the Advancement of Science andArt in New York City. He started his careeras a designer and art director, and previ-ously taught at Parsons School of Designand at New York University. He alsoserved on the Board of the New YorkChapter of the American Institute ofGraphic Arts.

Biographies

Dalal Al-Nafisi, center, poses with US filmmakers Ruchi Mital (left) and Petter Ringbom before the lecture.— Photo by Joseph Shagra

Nellie Mae Rowe (1900-1982)

Some of Nellie Mae Rowe artwork.

Beyonce, with little argument one of the topstars in pop music, Monday ended anunlikely drought-nine years since she had a

number-one US song. Beyonce hit the top of theBillboard Hot 100 chart for her new duet with EdSheeran on a remix of the English songwriter’s“Perfect,” a tender guitar ballad. The song sold181,000 digital downloads in the week throughThursday on the benchmark US singles chart,which also tracks streaming and radio airplay.“Perfect” is Beyonce’s first tune to lead the Hot100 since December 2008 with “Single Ladies(Put a Ring on It),” her blockbuster danceanthem of female empowerment.

Beyonce moved in a more experimental direc-tion with her latest album “Lemonade.” But sheinitially released it last year as an exclusive on

Tidal, the streaming service led by her husbandJay-Z, impeding the chart performance of indi-vidual tracks. “Drunk in Love,” her duet with Jay-Z off her self-released 2013 album, only reachednumber two on the Hot 100. The longest gapbetween number one songs in the chart’s historybelongs to Cher, who waited nearly 25 yearsbetween her 1974 hit “Dark Lady” and her 1999chart-topper “Believe.” — AFP

After near decade, Beyonceback on top of US song chart

This file photoshows singer

Beyonce at the2016 MTV VideoMusic Awards inNew York. — AFP

People walk next to Christmas decorations in Cali, Colombia. — AFP

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2017

Established 1961 T

Lifestyle

Participantsdressed in Father

Christmas costumes take

part in the traditional Santa

Claus run inMichendorf,

eastern Germany. — AFP

Seeking music edge, Apple buyssong recognition app Shazam

Pregnant woman wants seat on

Tokyo metro: There’san app for that

Pregnant women struggling to bag a seat onthe famously packed Tokyo subway could findtheir salvation in a new app connecting them

with nearby passengers willing to give up theircoveted perch. The digital match-making app beingtrialled this week on the metro aims to overcometwo problems especially prevalent in Japan: pas-sengers generally have their nose buried in theirphones and talking is strictly frowned upon. Theservice allows a pregnant woman to send a mes-sage when she wants a seat.

The app will then look for generous pre-regis-tered users who have said they are willing to give uptheir seats. If there is a match, the pregnant womangets a seat map on her smartphone screen showingher partner’s location. The exchange can be madewithout giving personal information to each other.Printing and IT firm Dai Nippon has been testingthe service this week on one of the key subway linesin conjunction with Tokyo Metro and the Line mes-saging app company.

“This may be particular to Japan but some peo-ple hesitate to speak to a person who may need aseat,” said a spokeswoman at Dai Nippon Printinginvolved in the project. “Many people are alsolooking at smartphone screens and do not alwaysrealize quickly that someone in need is standingnearby,” said the official, who declined to be named.“We try to take advantage of the situation.” It is yetto be decided when the service will be rolled outbut the companies also hope to expand assistanceto elderly and disabled people. Japan has one of theworld’s lowest birth rates and authorities are tryingout several policies to encourage people to havemore children. — AFP

Apple said Monday that it would buyleading song recognition app Shazamin a fresh bid to secure an edge in the

intensifying battle of streaming services.Apple, whose streaming service has rapidlygrown but still has only half the paid sub-scribers of Spotify, said that Shazam hasconsistently been one of the most popularitems on its App Store. The two companiesdid not disclose financial terms. The technol-ogy news sites Recode and TechCrunch,quoting unnamed sources, both put the dealat around $400 million.

The market signaled its approval, withApple share prices jumping 2.0 percent, welloutpacing the 0.2 percent rise on the DowJones Industrial Average. “Apple Music andShazam are a natural fit, sharing a passionfor music discovery and delivering greatmusic experiences to our users,” Apple saidin a statement. London-based Shazam saidin a separate statement: “We can’t imagine abetter home for Shazam to enable us to con-tinue innovating and delivering magic forour users.”

Shazam, which was founded in 1999 inthe early age of online music, has offered asolution to a longtime agony of listeners-putting a name to elusive songs. With a click,the app identifies tracks playing on the

radio, at parties or as background music. ButShazam has struggled to find a way to makemoney off its technology, even as it said thatit had reached one billion downloads onsmartphones last year.

Shazam only recently announced it hadbecome profitable, thanks to advertising andsteering traffic to other sites such as Spotifyand Apple Music. The technology is also nolonger quite as novel, with Shazam facingrivals such as SoundHound and with smart-phones capable of ever more advancedrecognition functions. Mark Mulligan, whowrites a popular blog on the music industry,described Shazam as “cool tech without abusiness model” and said Apple was a rareplayer that could bring out the app’s value.

Facing tough competition The world’s most valuable publicly trad-

ed company, Apple earns most of its revenuefrom iPhones but has also found it vital to beseen on the cutting edge culturally. Apple,which revolutionized online music a genera-tion earlier with iTunes, in 2015 launchedApple Music as the market turns to stream-ing, which offers unlimited on-demand lis-tening. Apple said in September that theservice had more than 30 million sub-scribers-a quick rise, but stil l trailing

Spotify. Spotify-which has emphasized abarebones, user-friendly interface instead ofunique features-said it had 60 million pay-ing users as of July and 80 million more onits free tier. And with streaming experienc-ing rapid growth, competition has becomeeven fiercer. Retail giant Amazon seized onits vast consumer reach as it launched itsown streaming service last year. YouTube,

the video-sharing behemoth owned byApple’s rival Google, also has its own musicstreaming platform and recent reports said itwas looking to launch a new paid subscrip-tion package next year.

Tech battle turns to services Shazam has already proven it can be

woven into another service. A year ago, itformed a partnership with SnapChat, theyouth-driven social media platform whosevideos evaporate, with users able to “snap”to friends the music they discover aroundthem on Shazam. Neil Saunders, managingdirector of GlobalData Retail, said theShazam sale “underlines the fact that thebattle of the technology companies is firmlymoving beyond hardware and into services.”

“This is a good move for Apple that helpsto consolidate its already strong position inmusic content. It won’t be the last takeoverof a tech firm by these big giants,” he said.Apple has already invested in buying big-name music brands, in 2014 paying an eye-popping $3 billion for Beats Electronics, theheadphones, speaker and streaming brandof rapper Dr Dre. Soon afterward, it boughtSemetric, a British company that tracksmusic consumption on behalf of labels andartists. —AFP

“ “Cool tech without a

business model