QATAR | Page 36

INDEX
QATAR

3 11, 34 36

COMMENT

REGION

12

BUSINESS

ARAB WORLD

13

CLASSIFIED

INTERNATIONAL

14 31

SPORTS

32, 33
1 9, 15 20
10 14
1 12

Strauss says
trust issue
reason for
Pietersen
exile

The Himalayan region was rattled

by another earthquake yesterday,
causing at least 65 deaths across
Nepal, India and China and raising
fresh concerns just weeks after
another major earthquake left
thousands dead in Nepal. Pages 27, 31

By Ramesh Mathew
Staff Reporter

Barcelona march
into Berlin final
Barcelona reached the Champions
League final, despite losing 3-2 at
Bayern Munich yesterday, with
an aggregate 5-3 win and will face
either Real Madrid or Juventus in
Berlin next month.

HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani yesterday met with Senator John
McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee of the US Congress, and
a number of the committee members. The meeting reviewed relations between the
two countries and prospects for developing mutual co-operation. It also exchanged
views on developments in the Middle East region, especially those related to Yemen
and Syria. Members of the official delegation accompanying the Emir attended
the meeting. The Emir arrived in Washington on Monday to participate in the GCC
summit with US President Barack Obama at Camp David this week.

No visa on arrival for GCC

residents in UAE from May 15

CC residence permit holders

will not be eligible for the visa
on arrival facility at airports
in the UAE from May 15, it is learnt.
They should apply for e-visa in order
to obtain entry into the UAE, a source
said.

However, the new rule will be

strictly implemented from September
1 this year only. It may be because the
new requirement has not been publicised widely and many people have
already bought the tickets and nalised
their travel plans, the source added.

60.76

-28.96
-0.24%

+1.51
+2.55%

WEDNESDAY

Vol. XXXVI No. 9721

May 13, 2015

Rajab 24, 1436 AH
www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals

Work to start on
QR17bn mega
reservoir project
The mega reservoirs are being
built as part of a government plan
to meet the growing requirements
for potable water in the country

SPORT | Champions League

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18,075.50

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Latest Figures

GULF TIMES
Emir meets Senator McCain

DOW JONES

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Vodafone Qatar
offers widest
4G+ coverage

SPORT | Page 1

he foundation stone of the

QR17bn Mega Reservoirs Project
was laid yesterday by HE the
Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdulla bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani at Al Mazrouah, on the
outskirts of Umm Salal Ali and about
40km from Doha.
The function was held at a site adjacent to where the excavation for the gigantic project commenced a little more
than a year ago. The project site, spread
over 1sq km, is about 12km off the
truck route between Lusail and Salwa.
The reservoir in Al Marzouah is one
of the ve mega reservoirs to be set up
in the country as part of the project,
expected to be fully commissioned by
the middle of 2018.
The works of other reservoirs will
be taken up in coming months in Umm
Birka, Rawdat al Rashed, Abu Nakhla
and Al Thumama, HE the Minister
of Energy and Industry Dr Mohamed
Saleh al-Sada said.
The mega reservoirs are being built
as part of a government plan to meet
the growing requirements for potable

water in the country which witnessed

a huge growth in its population in the
last one decade.
Potable or desalinated water for the
countrys residents is generated at locations in Ras Laffan and Ras Aboud
Fontas. The water, now delivered directly to 24 or so small reservoirs across
the country, will be routed to the mega
reservoirs when their construction is
completed, three years from now.
As part of the latest development,
more than 650km of water pipelines
of approximately 900mm to 1600mm
will be laid along the route, covering
about 180km.
The design of the project is made in
such a way that water will be delivered
directly from the desalination plants to
any of the new reservoirs. Construction allows water to be passed along
the corridor in either direction, ensuring security and operational exibility.
Qatar now has facilities to store more
than 900mn gallons a day (mlgd). The
ve new reservoirs, when completed,
will together have 24 storage tanks and

they will ensure an additional storage

capacity of nearly 2,273mlgd.
In terms of their size and capacity, the new reservoirs, each of which
spread over 1sq km, are among the
largest in the world, according to Kahramaa officials.
The new reservoirs are designed to
channel the water back in transmission network to existing reservoirs for
nal distribution onto other reservoirs.
Each of the storage tanks at the new
reservoirs measures 150m by 300m
and has 12m in depth. At present, the
peak daily demand of potable water in
the country exceeds 330mlgd.
The ceremony was attended among
others by HE the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for the Council
of Ministerial Affairs Ahmed bin Abdulla bin Zayed al-Mahmoud, HE the
Minister of Transport Jassem Seif bin
Ahmed al-Sulaiti, HE the Minister of
Environment Ahmed Amer Mohamed
al-Humaidi, Kahramaa president Essa
bin Hilal al-Kuwari and Ashghal president Nasser Ali al-Mawlawi. Page 11

60,000 truck loads of pipes needed for construction

The construction of the five major water
reservoirs across the country would
require no less than 60,000 truck loads of
pipes, it was informed yesterday. The Qatar
General Electricity and Water Corporation
(Kahramaa) sources said the construc-

tion, which could spread over three years,

would require more than 510,000 tonnes
of pipes. The water stored in each of the
new facilities at one time would be close
to what is usually stored in more than 500
Olympic standard swimming pools.

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

QATAR
Qatar-Indonesia ties reviewed

HE the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid al-Mahmoud yesterday
met with the Deputy Speaker of Peoples Representative Council of Indonesia Mohamed Hidayat Nur. Talks dealt with QatariIndonesian relations and means to develop them in various fields in addition to a host of issues of common concern. The
meeting was attended by Indonesian ambassador Deddy Saeful Hadi.

Ooredoo crosses 3mn

mobile users milestone
O

oredoo has reached the milestone of 3mn mobile customers,

as the company continues to
offer a wide portfolio of services on its
bigger and faster network.
In 2014, Ooredoo announced the
achievement of 3mn total customers,
which included xed, mobile and other
services. Now the company has reached
more than 3mn customers using mobile
services, a truly ground-breaking accomplishment for the national telecom company.
Ooredoo director (Community &
Public Relations) Fatima Sultan alKuwari said: Ooredoo believes in investing in the best technology, infrastructure, and employees to provide
our customers with the best possible

ex p e r i e n c e ,
which is why
our network
is the fastest in Qatar
and the only
one that can
reach up to
225
Mbps.
This
3mn
milestone
is a huge
Fatima Sultan al-Kuwari achievement
for our Hala,
Shahry and mobile Internet service,
and we promise to continue to offer
the latest and fastest services in the
country.
As well as Ooredoos popular pre-

paid (Hala) and post-paid (Shahry)

services, the company offers top speeds
for all mobile Internet users with its 4G
network offering 96% outdoor coverage - an unmatched service in Qatar and up to 225 Mbps, nearly double the
average speed in areas of Doha, for its
4G+ Network.
The 4G+ network offers customers
access to superfast mobile Internet so
they can take advantage of a smooth
browsing experience to stay in touch,
check e-mails, video call, and more.
Ooredoo is Qatars leading communications company, delivering mobile, fixed, broadband Internet and
corporate managed services tailored
to the needs of consumers and businesses.

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

QATAR
Foreign minister meets UN chief
HE the Foreign Minister
Dr Khalid bin Mohamed
al-Attiyah on Monday held a
meeting with UN SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon in
New York.
During the meeting,
they discussed key
developments in the region,
including the question of
Palestine and the situation
in Yemen, Syria and Libya.
The foreign minister
highlighted the efforts
of the Gulf Co-operation
Council (GCC) to back a
political solution in Yemen,
noting the importance of a
meeting called by Yemeni
President Abd-Rabbu
Mansour Hadi in Riyadh
to which various Yemeni
parties were invited.
He also stressed the
importance of all parties
accepting the invitation as
well as the role of the UN.
He said it was important
for all parties to implement
the Security Councils
resolution 2216.

Al-Attiyah referred to the

humanitarian assistance
provided by Qatar to the
Yemeni people.
On the situation in Syria, the
foreign minister reiterated
that Geneva 1 communiqu
is the basis for a political
solution, and expressed
support for Special Envoy
Staffan de Mistura and his
efforts to hold a political
dialogue in Geneva.
He said the results of the
talks must meet the Syrian
peoples aspirations.
About the situation in Libya,
al-Attiyah expressed Qatars
full support to the efforts of
the Special Representative
of the Secretary-General
Bernardino Leon in order
to reach a political solution
that satisfies all parties,
asserting that the interests
of one party should not
prevail over another.
The UN secretary-general
praised the mediation
efforts of Qatar between
Eritrea and Djibouti.

Official stresses
importance of
home insurance
T

he Qatar Insurance Company (QIC) has underscored the importance of

securing a home insurance policy
despite the low crime rate in the
country.
QIC Group senior deputy president and CEO Ali Fadala stressed
that while Qatar has a low crime
rate, homecare insurance helps
guarantee that valuables, including artworks are protected from
theft, re and other untoward incidents.
A vast majority of Qataris
and expatriates living in Doha
are connoisseurs of art and they
like decorating their homes with
expensive accessories, artworks,
murals and antiques, Fadala said.
According to Fadala, artworks
can be damaged by re or ooding caused by water leakage from
pipes or air-conditioners.
By insuring art collection under a home insurance policy, they
can protect it against any damage
or burglary attempt, especially
when they are travelling. With
homecare insurance from QIC,
you can rest assured that your
cherished belongings and valua-

Fadala: stress on home insurance

bles are insured every day, Fadala
said.
He added: If you choose to
carry your jewellery or an expensive watch while you travel, you
can insure them so that you can
have your jewellery sparkling and
safe.
Fadala also cautioned travellers to refrain from indiscriminate
posting of travel plans and locations on social media unless the
site has the appropriate privacy
settings.
Think twice before posting
your detailed vacation plans on
Twitter or Facebook, especially if
that information is visible to users
other than your friends and family. This gives a hint that you will
be leaving your house unattended
during your vacation. Asking

friends to watch over your house

will also serve as a precaution
since the house will seem more
inhabited. In addition, you could
also insure your expensive laptops, cameras, and television sets
before you travel, he said.
Fadala said that keeping a low
key by making the house appear
inhabited will deter passersby
from being tempted to commit a
crime.
Newspapers piled up in front
of the doorstep could tip off criminals that the homeowner is out
of town. Make sure that you stop
your supply of newspapers for the
days you travel, he said.
Fadala also advised homeowners to unplug faucets and to turn
off appliances such as oven toasters, air-conditioners and water
heaters. At same time, jewellery
and other valuables should be
kept in a re-resistant locker or
safe, he said.
Be a smart traveller. Make sure
to have adequate home insurance
protection for your property and
belongings before taking that
much awaited vacation, Fadala
said.

Al-Kuwari, Jesse Jackson hold talks

Real estate deals

HE the Minister of Culture, Arts

and Heritage Dr Hamad bin Abdul
Aziz al-Kuwari yesterday met with
former US presidential nominee and
civil rights activist Jesse Jackson.
He is in Qatar to take part in the
15th Doha Forum and the Enriching
the Middle Easts Economic Future
Conference.
Talks during the meeting covered

Real estate transactions

registered with the Land Registry
Department of the Ministry of
Justice from May 3 to 10 was
worth QR2.63bn. According to
the weekly bulletin issued by the
Department, the real estate sales
included lands, shopping centres,
houses, residential complexes
and towers.

cultural and humanitarian issues

in the international arena, and the
role of culture in bridging the gap
between people.
Jackson praised Qatars policies
and its important role in promoting
freedoms, and said Doha has truly
become the capital of conferences
aimed at achieving a bright future
for all people.

Ties discussed at meetings

HE the Assistant Foreign Minister for Foreign Affairs Mohamed

bin Abdullah al-Rumaihi yesterday met separately with
Malaysian Deputy Foreign Minister Hamzah Zainuddin,
Myanmars Deputy Foreign Minister U Thant Kyaw, former
Italian Deputy Foreign Minister Adolfo Urso and Brazilian Under
Secretary of Foreign Affairs Paulo Cordeiro. Talks dealt with
bilateral relations and regional and international issues.

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

QATAR
QTA in pact with Chamber for bazaar at expo

atar Tourism Authority (QTA) has

signed a co-operation agreement
with Qatar Chamber (QC), to organise a bazaar at the fourth edition of
the Made in Qatar exhibition, scheduled
to be held from May 19-22, under the patronage of HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin
Hamad al-Thani.
The agreement was signed by QC deputy general manager and organising committee head Saleh Hamad al-Sharqi and
QTAs director of exhibitions Hamad alAbdan. The bazaar is a space allocated for
the sale of products from Qatari factories
and those made by families.
Hemaya Security Services Company
has announced its support to the Made in
Qatar exhibition. Hemayas CEO Khalid
Umran al-Umran signed the partnership
agreement with al-Sharqi.

Al-Abdan and al-Sharqi shake hands after signing the agreement.

QGBC to launch guide

on creating healthy city

atar Green Building Council

(QGBC), a member of Qatar
Foundation is devising a guide,
Doha: A Rough Guide to Healthy Cities,
focusing on the importance of creating a
healthy environment for its inhabitants.
Experts at the Green Infrastructure Interest Group, a subcommittee
of QGBC, released an infographic preview of the guide yesterday. Due to be
launched later this year, the guide will
tackle the issue of the environmental
health of urban areas which is becoming
increasingly important to the worlds
population as a majority of people are
shifting towards inner cities. The World
Health Organisation (WHO) anticipates
that by 2025, approximately 80% of global citizens will live in cities.
Qatar is currently witnessing unprecedented urban development, which have
all harnessed the need to incorporate
healthy living into their frameworks.
QGBCs Green Infrastructure Interest
Group works in line with QFs commitment to fostering knowledge about environmental best practices and encouraging
sustainable development in Qatar, on its

way to achieving the objectives of Qatar

National Vision 2030.
Highlighting the benets of planning
and designing a healthy city, the nontechnical infographic provides design
and planning professionals, senior school
students and advocates of sustainable
development, with interesting guidelines
on how to create a healthy city. The infographic is available as a digital document
on the QGBC website.
Meshal al-Shamari, QGBC director, said:
QGBC works with a number of institutions to introduce innovative concepts to
raise awareness about and respond to Qatars urban growth. The Green Infrastructure Interest Group has worked closely with
Atkins, a founding member of QGBC, to design the rst phase of the bigger guide.
Lee Allen, senior urban designer at
Atkins, and a member of the Green Infrastructure Interest Group, said: Doha
is an ideal t for the application of the
healthy city concept for a number of
reasons. The fact that the development
of the city is still in its initial stages allows
us to incorporate the principles in the best
way possible.

Embassy seeks
probe over
assault of
Indian expat
The Indian embassy has
requested Qatari authorities to
undertake thorough investigations into an incident in which an
Indian national was reportedly
beaten up by some persons at
a shopping outlet in Doha last
Friday.
The embassy is concerned
about the wellbeing of this
person and has sought consular
access to him, the mission said
in a statement yesterday.
The embassy was represented
at a senior level during a meeting
convened by a senior officer
of Ministry of Interior, Government of Qatar on Sunday, with
representatives of the large,
diverse, accomplished and highly
regarded Indian community in
Qatar. During the highly friendly
and useful discussions held
at this meeting, all the attendees shared the view that any
complaint/grievance should
be brought to the attention of
the authorities concerned and
nobody should take any unlawful
action, the embassy added.

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

QATAR

More than 23,000 to

vote in CMC election
M

ore than 23,000 Qatari

voters are set to cast their
vote in the Central Municipal Council (CMC) election
for 26 constituencies across the
country today.
Hundred and eighteen candidates, including ve women, are in
fray. Three seats have already been
won uncontested. Eighteen candidates have pulled out of the contest. The current number of candidates includes sitting member
Sheikha al-Jufairi.
The voting will begin at 8am at select independent schools, with one
school for each constituency. The
election will end at 5pm and the results will be announced later today.

In the last minute push, the candidates made best use of social media to woo the voters by responding
to their comments and questions.
They also have been interacting
with their voters throughout the
campaigning making promises like
improvement in civic services.
The Supervisory Committee of
the Executive Committees for CMC
at its fth round held a forum on
Monday to introduce the polling
staff to the rules and procedures of
voting.
Brigadier Abulrahman Ali alMalki, assistant director at the
General Directorate of Information
Systems at the Ministry of Interior
(MoI), head of the technical com-

mittee of elections, explained the

technical aspects of the process.
He said the role of security personnel is limited to keeping order
and security outside the voting centre and they are not allowed to enter
the voting hall, unless asked for.
Only voters and candidates or
their representatives are allowed in
the voting hall. Voters should leave
the centre as soon as they cast their
votes.
Voters should produce their identity cards and registration cards and
cast their votes in secrecy. Also, the
candidates are not permitted to post
any ads or promotional material
outside or inside the voting centre.
Though the jurisdiction of the

council is limited to making suggestions and recommendations,

addressing them to the authorities concerned through the Ministry of Municipality and Urban
Planning (MMUP), the popularity
of CMC has increased considerable among Qataris in the recent
years.
The council has matured and
grown greatly throughout its four
rounds and people are becoming
more aware of its importance and
active role. Many of its recommendations on municipal affairs have
been implemented by the authorities, said outgoing CMC chairman
Saud al-Hinzab, who opted out in
this election.

A billboard bearing the portrait of Sheikha Jufairi, right, one of the women candidates
running for the Municipal Council elections, is seen in a Doha street.

Women call for

quota system
By David Harding and Ibrahim Badawy/AFP
Doha

atari voters will today choose candidates to sit on the countrys only directly elected body, with calls growing to ensure more women are selected.
Only one woman was elected onto the
29-seat municipal council at the last vote
and out of 118 candidates this time, only ve
are female, one fewer than the number who
stood in the rst such election 16 years ago.
Although the electorate of more than
23,000 people is split almost equally between men and women, the gender imbalance between the candidates is striking.
It would be very disappointing if again
only one female candidate won this time,
said one of the hopefuls, Amal Issa al-Mohannadi.
Todays vote is only the fth time there
have been direct elections in Qatar, with
elections to the council taking place every
four years, beginning in 1999.
In the streets of Doha the candidates
posters are hung on hundreds of lampposts,
alongside promises to improve services in
their respective constituencies.
Mohannadi said: I am running for the
second time despite all the challenges.
Mohannadi, a computer engineer who is
studying for a PhD in public administration,
said she is motivated this time because at
the last vote she outpolled more than seven
male rivals, but lost out to an eighth.
I came second, she said. If it were not
for a tribal meeting in which they decided
to vote for the male candidate, I would have
been the winner. Without a quota for women, the challenge is huge.
Qatar, she added, is a conservative society still inclined to vote in favour of the
candidate son of the tribe and believes
a male candidate is best able to deliver a

voice, no matter if he is efficient or not.

Fatma Yusuf al-Ghazal, a retired school
principal who is running for election for a
second time, said the problem was not in
getting women to stand, but the traditional
way of voting along certain allegiances.
There are no political barriers to run for
the election, she said.
On the contrary, the country encourages
women to practice their political right, but
the problem is in the tribalism and voting for
the family.
We need a law amendment to allow a
quota for women, she said.
When the elections were rst established,
the Qatari authorities also set up a committee to look at ways to encourage women to
vote and stand for election.
One woman who has broken new political ground in that time is Sheikha Jufairi,
the only female candidate elected last time
round who rst won a seat on the council in
2003.
She has managed to hold onto it ever
since, but plays down the role of gender.
Its not a matter of male or female, it depends on ones efficiency and continuous
contact with people, she said.
I keep contacting people to encourage
them to go to the polls and vote, its a national duty.
Voting is limited to Qataris aged 18 and
over, even though locals make up just over
10% of the population (around 280,000
people). There have been some calls to increase turnout by extending the franchise,
though Mohannadi says the vote should be
kept to Qataris.
One reform that could increase voter participation is to give the council powers as it
plays only an advisory role, making recommendations but having no legislative authority.
The Municipal Council needs more executive powers, said Ghazal.

Ooredoo launches education

application for children

oredoo has launched

Lamsa, an educational app for children that aims to address
the needs of Arabic-speaking children through entertainment, education and
interactivity, in Qatar.
The application is designed for pre-schoolers up
to six years old, and can be
enjoyed by kids as young as
2-3 years, offering a collection of interactive stories, a
wide range of entertainment
content, colouring, rhymes
and games, according to a
statement.
Lamsa is the rst educational childrens app that

Fire breaks out

at work site
A fire broke out at a
construction site near
Bani Hajer roundabout
at the western end of
Qatar Foundation, causing
extensive damage to
construction materials and
an office at the site.
Several porta cabins were
reportedly destroyed in the
fire which started around 10.30
pm on Monday and continued
beyond 3.30am yesterday.
The fire destroyed
the project office of a
construction firm which is
executing several projects
in and around Gharaffa and
Bani Hajer.
Several fire engines and
water tankers were deployed
to extinguish the fire.
Since Thursday, there has
been a spate of fire incidents
in Doha, especially in
Sailiyah and on the western
side of Doha.

Ooredoo has added to its

portfolio of mobile content
and apps.
Fatima Sultan al-Kuwari,
director of Community and
Public Relations at Ooredoo,
said: One of our main goals
is to champion children and
ensure they get access to
the life-enhancing content
that mobile technology can
deliver. We are delighted to
support the launch of Lamsa
in Qatar and believe it will
offer an incredible range of
experiences for young children through our bigger,
faster network.
Badr Ward, Lamsas chief
executive officer, said: By

launching Lamsa, Ooredoo

leads the innovation and
digital space by catering to
a very important and rising
consumer. With the launch
of Lamsa in Qatar, Ooredoo is
clearly contributing towards
building a knowledge-based
generation of Arabic children.
We look forward to working
hand in hand with Ooredoo to
launch Lamsa in various markets as it expands its footprint
across the region.
The new service is available on iPhone, iPad and
Android.
Parents can subscribe to
the service by sending SUB
1 to 92268.

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

QATAR

Officials inaugurating the service station. PICTURES: Jayaram

Woqod opens service

station in Lijmiliya
Q

atar Fuel (Woqod) opened a new

service station in Lijmiliya yesterday.
The facility, which is located about
70km from Doha, was officially inaugurated by Woqod CEO Ibrahim Jaham
al-Kuwari along with several board
members, representatives of the local
community and the companys senior
management team.
We are glad to inaugurate the Lijmiliya service station. It is the 25th
service station that Woqod has completed, said al-Kuwari. In designing this service station, we took into
account the varied needs of the local
community in the Lijmiliya area.
The service station will provide
gasoline and diesel for motorists and
LPG for the local community. It will
also have a Sidra convenience store
providing a full range of hot and cold

The new Woqod service station in Lijmiliya.

beverages, fast food and a wide variety
of daily needs items for the community and visitors. The site includes a car
wash facility, a multipurpose automobile service bay for basic vehicle maintenance and an additional nine shops
under Woqod Kenar.
Al-Kuwari said more facilities would
open this year in different locations.
Woqod currently has 11 additional

service stations under construction,

which are expected to be inaugurated
in 2015 or the beginning of 2016.
The company is also planning to establish Fahes inspection lines at existing fuel stations subject to the availability of space. These are in addition
to 10 expansion projects, which are
almost complete and expected to be
opened this year.

10

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

QATAR

NHRC opens help

desks for expats
By Joey Aguilar
Staff Reporter

atars National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) inaugurated

four help desks at its headquarters yesterday as it aims to build
bridges of communication with
expatriate communities in the
country.
Help desks of India, Nepal, Egypt
and the Philippines have been established at the NHRC building
manned by representatives from
four expatriate communities.
In a speech read out on behalf of NHRC chairman Dr Ali
bin Samikh al-Marri by International Co-operation Division
head Saad Sultan al-Abdulla, it
was stated that the NHRC want
to continuously spread human
rights awareness in the country which has a huge number of
foreign workers.
NHRC wants to reach out to
people those who have difficulty
accessing the services available
to them whether due to working
hours, transportation costs, language difficulties, legal fees or
fear of raising a complaint.
Al-Marri pointed out that the
move is just the rst stage of the
initiative aimed at further promoting and protecting human
rights in the country.
These desks you see today
are not simply desks, they are
also a symbol of NHRCs openness to the constructive contributions of migrant communities
in Qatar and a commitment to
a continued engagement with
you, he stressed.
NHRC also saw the need to
have help desks to easily address
various human rights issues and
concerns lodged by workers.
Al-Marri said the representatives nominated by their respective embassies in Qatar will now
have a more official role and representation with them.
He sees these representatives

to function as a communication
channel with their respective
community populations.
It will reect the problems
faced by members and to suggest
practical and creative approaches
and solutions, he added.
Former president of the Indian
Community Benevolent Forum
(ICBF) Kareem Abdulla has been
appointed co-ordinator of the
Indian Community Help Desk set
up at the NHRC headquarters.
The other members of the help
desk are Indian Cultural Centre
president Girish Kumar, ICBF
president Arvind Patil, former
ICBF chief Nilangshu Dey, N
Musthafa (We Care Foundation),
Dr Sameer Moopan and officebearers of the present managing
committee of the ICBF.
Abdulla told Gulf Times that
his team members would render
voluntary assistance to the
members of the Indian community who seek their help to overcome the issues at work places
and other difficulties arising
on account of problems there.
Community members will be

helped to register and lodge complaints at appropriate places, if

necessary.
Abdulla said their team would
soon appoint a full-time staffer
at the NHRC headquarters to
help the community members
seeking assistance during office
hours. The Indian team members
would be available at the help
desk after the office hours.
In their absence the security personnel at the NHRC have
been asked to collect documents
from the community members
concerned and pass them on to
the help desk the next morning.
The services of the Indian help
desk, which may be reached on
55509454, Abdulla added.
Echoing the statements of
al-Marri, Philippine labour attach Leopoldo De Jesus told
Gulf Times that many expatriate
workers like Filipinos will benet
from NHRCs initiative.
He said his compatriots will
be more aware of their rights and
the resolutions of their concerns
and complaints.
According to De Jesus, the

NHRC officials and members from four expatriate communities in Qatar at the opening of the help desks
at NHRC office in Doha. PICTURE: Thajudeen

Al Bandary says
entire tower booked
A

number of landmark
deals have been announced at the ongoing
fourth edition of Cityscape Qatar, which concludes at Doha
Exhibition Centre today, according to a statement.
Among the 85 exhibitors
participating in Cityscape Qatar 2015, which include the
likes of United Development
Company, United Developers, Azizi Properties and Dubai
Properties, is Qatar-based Al
Bandary Real Estate.
Al Bandary has a number of
high-prole projects on display
at the three-day event, including the Al Kheesa Gate project,
standalone villas in Lusail and
its new project, Jumana Two, a
tower at The Pearl-Qatar.
Maen al-Haj, property and
real estate manager, said:
During the rst day of City-

scape Qatar, Al Bandary showcased our new project, Jumana

Two, which is located in Porta
Arabia at The Pearl-Qatar. We
are pleased to conrm that on
Day One, all the units in Jumana Two were sold and we
also enjoyed similar success
with other projects, including
Al Shahad Tower, The Dream
Tower and projects located in
the Lusail area.
Meanwhile, Retaj Group is
exhibiting its buildings and
apartments in Lusail City, along
with its land-selling project in
the UK, at Cityscape Qatar.
Dr Mohamed bin Johar alMohamed, vice-chairman and
managing director of Retaj
Group, said: We made sure to
participate in Cityscape Qatar 2015 in order to introduce
our latest projects and interact
with other companies as well

as commercial and investing

entities. At Cityscape Qatar,
we are able to exchange experiences and have a closer look at
the real estate market, and see
how to develop it further in the
future.
Day 2 of Cityscape Qatar focused on retail and the sectors
rapid expansion in Qatar. The
Cityscape Qatar 2015 conference programme will conclude
with the Sector Series on Day
3, which will feature in-depth
discussions on social infrastructure, residential, office
and tourism & hospitality, to
be led by a number of respected
panelists.
Cityscape Qatar is open from
11am to 9pm, showcasing real
estate development opportunities and the diversity of
projects. For more, visit www.
cityscapeqatar.com

Tamuq hosts computational science and engineering conference

Texas A&M University at
Qatar (Tamuq) hosted the first
International Computational
Science and Engineering
Conference (ICSEC).
The two-day event was coorganised by the Texas A&M
advanced scientific computing
group (TASC) in collaboration
with Qatar Computing Research
Institute and Qatar Environment
and Energy Research Institute.
Eyad Masad, executive associate
dean at Tamuq, stated that such
events help realise sustainable
solutions to real-world issues
and encourage the exchange
of knowledge, ideas and
expertise that is essential to fuel
innovation and new thinking.
The conference illustrated the
importance of industry, academic
and government partnerships in
developing scientific solutions
that have direct impact on the
world around us, said Masad.
Researchers, experts and

help desks could be an extension of services for overseas Filipino workers, complimenting the
role of the Philippine Overseas
Labour Office in Doha.
At least they have the Ministry of Labour, NHRC, labour
court, and the embassy to deal
with their concerns, he said.
About the representatives,
the labour attach noted that
these volunteers have the time,
credibility and knowledge to attend to the concerns of their
compatriots.
While legal experts at the
NHRC can speak English uently, he hopes that the volunteers
can also speak Arabic as well.
Besides the four help desks,
the NHRC is looking forward to
establish more offices for other
communities in the future.
De Jesus and other dignitaries including Indian ambassador
Sanjeev Arora, Egyptian embassy
counsellor Yasser Said, NHRC
member/judge Fawaz al-Jathaal
and members of the four expatriate communities attended the
event.

Ashghal officials with students during a visit to Al Wakrah Preparatory School.

Ashghal makes
presentation of its
projects at school
O

fficials from the Public

Works Authority (Ashghal) have visited Al
Wakrah Preparatory School as
part of its efforts to enhance
communication with different
segments of the community,
During the visit, Ashghal showcased a number of
projects being implemented in
Al Wakrah and south Qatar in
order to raise students awareness about the authoritys role
in improving and developing
their areas.
The presentation also aimed
to introduce the students to
engineering elds that they
could pursue to join Ashghal
in its mission to implement
the states infrastructure and
buildings projects.
A team from Ashghals Public
Relations Department, headed
by Abdulla Saad al-Saad, Public Relations and Communications manager, and Bader
Darwish from Infrastructure
Affairs were part of the visit.
A comprehensive presentation and explanation was given
to the students regarding the
authoritys mission and the
projects being carried out by
Ashghal in Al Wakrah and the
southern areas.

This visit represents a part

of the integrated community
outreach programme carried
out by the authority to raise
awareness and involve the
community in the achievement of the mission assigned to
Ashghal, said al-Saad.

This visit represents

a part of the integrated
community outreach
programme carried out
by the authority to raise
awareness and involve
the community in the
achievement of the mission
assigned to Ashghal
The presentation provided
an overview of the projects being implemented in Al Wakrah and south Qatar, including their stages, features and
photographs of what have been
achieved so far. Brochures were
also handed out, which included general information on the
projects guidelines to ensure
the safety of residents as well
as contact details for Ashghal
and community engagement
officers responsible for each
project.
The students showed a lot
of interest in what was being

presented and interacted with

the Ashghal officials. The authority also received a welcome
from the school administration and teaching staff, who
lauded the implementation
of programmes that involve
school students in the overall
development system that the
country aspires for in all elds,
especially in infrastructure
development.
Expressway projects being carried out by the authority in the southern areas were
showcased before the students.
These include the East West
Corridor, Al Wakrah Bypass
and the New Orbital Highway
and Truck Route.
The presentation also showcased various local roads and
infrastructure projects in Al
Wakrah west, Al Wukair south,
Al Wakrah north-east, Al Wakrah south, Al Wukair north,
Al Mashaf west and from the
Abdul Ghani roundabout to
Al Mashaf in Al Wukair. The
presentation also showcased
building projects such as the
construction of two schools in
Mesaieed and one in Al Wukair,
as well as the construction of
the Al Wakrah and Al Mashaf
health centres.

HMC observes World Hand Hygiene Day

amad Medical Corporation (HMC) observed

World Hand Hygiene
Day (WHHD) 2015 by holding a
slew of activities across its eight
hospitals to emphasise the importance of hand hygiene.
According to WHO, every
year, millions of patients globally
are affected by healthcare-associated infections. More than half
of these infections can be avoided with properly cleaned hands.
The day-long campaign was
organised at HMC by the Corporate Infection and Prevention
Control Programme (CIPC), under the theme Save Lives: Clean
Your Hands. The CIPC is a strategic programme that aims to
develop effective infection control practices to drive continuous
quality improvement within the
organisation. Such practices can
prevent the spread of hospitalacquired infections due to blood
or other bodily uids.
Dr Jameela al-Ajmi, assistant
executive director, CIPC Programme, said, Hand washing
with soap and water has been
proven to be one of the most effective and inexpensive measures to prevent the transmission
of infections among healthcare
professionals, patients and their
families, as well as visitors at the

HMC staff promoting hand hygiene.

hospital. This campaign is part of
our ongoing efforts to ensure the
safety and wellbeing of our patients and our staff.
During the campaign staff
were encouraged to revisit the
ve key moments of hand washing dened by WHO for healthcare workers are: before touching a patient, before cleaning
and aseptic procedures (insertion of devices such as catheters), after contact with bodily
uids, after touching a patient,

and after touching a patients

surroundings.
Dr Moza al-Ishaq, assistant
executive director of Corporate
Risk Management at HMC, noted, This is the third year HMC
is supporting the global effort
to educate the public and staff
about hand hygiene. One of the
major objectives of the campaign
is to foster and strengthen a culture of safety at every level within healthcare facilities in Qatar.
This will certainly reect in bet-

ter patient care and enhanced

treatment outcomes.
A number of educational and
entertaining activities were organised as part of the awarenessraising campaign such as site
visits and interaction with the
visitors in hospital lobbies by a
staff member from each hospital dressed in a hand-costume.
The representative distributed
free-of-cost hand hygiene gels
and gifts to staff, patients and
visiting families.

Qatari, Turkish experts

attend urology meet
The participants of the ICSEC.
stakeholders locally and
globally converged to discuss
recent research topics in
computational science and its
role to tackle the most complex
problems locally and globally.
Dr Othmane Bouhali, conference
chair and research associate
professor and director of
research computing at
Tamuq, said the event was
unique as it brought together

computational material
scientists, computational
biologists and researchers in
High Performance Computing.
We succeeded to collect more
than 80 abstracts, including
participation from Europe, the
US, Asia and the Gulf region.
All selected papers will be
published in a special issue of
the Journal of Computational
Science.

he urology department at
Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) organised
the rst Qatar-Turkey Urology Symposium in collaboration
with the Turkish Association of
Urology in Antalya, Turkey.
Dr Khalid al-Rumaihi, consultant in surgery and head of
HMCs urology department,
stated that the symposium was
a result of the fruitful collaboration between the department
and the Turkish Association of

Urology. As many as 30 healthcare professionals from HMC

took part in the symposium
during which they exchanged
knowledge and discussed the latest diagnostic and therapeutic
advances in the eld of urology.
Dr al-Rumaihi presented a paper on prostate tumors; Dr Sabah
al-Qadhi, consultant in surgery at
HMCs urology department spoke
about urinary bladder stulas;
and Dr Abdulla al-Naimi, also a
consultant in surgery at HMCs

The Qatari delegation at the symposium.

urology department presented
a paper on minimally invasive
surgery of ureteral calculi.
The Turkish participants also
gave three presentations on the
Turkish education system, training
and new techniques in urosurgery.
The opening session of the
symposium was jointly chaired
by Dr Abdulla al-Ansari, head of
the surgery department at HMC

and Dr Ates Kdioglu, head of the

Turkish Association of Urology.
Dr Rumaihi said that the second Qatar-Turkey urology symposium is being planned within
the next one or two years, adding
that plans were also being discussed between the two countries to boost the exchange of
expertise and knowledge in the
eld of urology.

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

11

QATAR
Two new funding
plans announced
By Joseph Varghese
Staff Reporter

Researchers from Texas A&M University at Qatar receiving the award.

QNRF awards grants to

120 research proposals
Q

atar National Research

Fund (QNRF) has awarded grants to 120 research
proposals across 17 institutions
in Qatar for the eighth cycle of its
agship National Priorities Research Programme (NPRP).
Announced at the seventh
QNRF Annual Forum held at
the Qatar National Convention
Centre yesterday, the top three
results saw Qatar University
awarded for 57 proposals, Texas
A&M University at Qatar (Tamuq) for 23 proposals and Weill
Cornell Medical College in Qatar
awarded for eight. The remaining 32 research proposals were
awarded across a number of other
institutions in the country.

Best researchers from the previous NPRP cycles were also recognised at the event and received
awards at the seventh Annual
Forum with Tamuq winning in
the three categories. The Best
Researcher Award for 2015 was
granted to Dr Haitham Abu-Rub
in recognition of his impactful
research outcome. The Best Research Project Award for 2015 was
won by the project titled Chaotic Dynamics of Distributed
Parameter Systems Containing
Nonlinearities, led by Dr Tingwen Huang. Finally, Tamuq was
also acknowledged as the Best
Research Office in 2015 for the
organisations excellent punctuality and compliance during the

Katara
Hospitality
showcases
portfolio
K

atara Hospitality has

showcased its worldwide
collection
of
hotels at this years Arabian
Travel Market (ATM) in addition to its standalone operating division Murwab Hotel
Group for the rst time.
The company, which recently crossed its target of 30
hotels by 2016 two years ahead
of schedule, is focusing on
adding 30 more properties to
its portfolio by 2026.
Newly opened hotels showcased at ATM included The
Peninsula Paris and Excelsior
Hotel Gallia, A Luxury Collection Hotel, Milan. Besides,
ve recently acquired InterContinental hotels exhibited
were InterContinental Carlton Cannes, InterContinental
Amstel Amsterdam, InterContinental Madrid, InterContinental Frankfurt and
InterContinental De La Ville
Rome.
The recently established
Murwab Hotel Group manages
an international collection of
boutique upscale hotels and
brands across three main business areas, which were represented at ATM for the rst
time - Murwab Hotels, The
Brgenstock Selection and
a collection of independent
non-branded upscale properties.
With an existing portfolio of 11 hotels, showcased at
ATM, Murwab Hotel Group is
aiming to manage a total of 20
properties over the next ve
years, owned both by Katara
Hospitality and other thirdparty owners, with expansion
planned not only in Qatar but
also the wider GCC and internationally.
This year, ve new Doha ho-

tels operated by the Murwab

Hotel Group will open - Simaisma, a Murwab Resort; the
Grand Murwab City Center;
The Avenue, a Murwab Hotel;
the Saraya Corniche Hotel and
City Gate Hotel.
In Switzerland, The Brgenstock Selection will oversee the operations of four new
hotels currently under development. Hotel Royal Savoy of
Lausanne, owned by Katara
Hospitality, will officially reopen this summer. The Brgenstock Hotel, Waldhotel
and Palace Hotel part of the
overall Brgenstock Resort development project - are being
built. These new openings will
further strengthen the groups
presence in Switzerland, with
the existing operation of Hotel Schweizerhof in Bern, the
statement adds.
Sheikh Nawaf bin Jassim bin
Jabor al-Thani, chairman of
Katara Hospitality, said: Katara Hospitality has achieved
major milestones in terms of
acquisitions, investment and
development over the past
year. We are proud to represent
such an iconic portfolio of internationally treasured hotels
and will continue to strive for
hospitality excellence as we
continue our expansion in both
Qatar and the worlds leading
international destinations.
Katara Hospitality also received two accolades at the
2015 World Travel Awards in
Dubai announced last week Middle Easts Leading Hospitality Development Company
for the second year running
and Middle Easts Leading
Tourism Development Project
for the Katara Towers development in Marina District of
Lusail City.

Officials and employees of Katara Hospitality.

pre-funding and post-funding

phases.
Dr Abdul Sattar al-Taie, executive director of QNRF, said: The
growing number of applications
to our agship programme shows
the growing interest in research
within the local community. The
increasing creativity and originality evident in the proposals we
receive year on year is a testament
to the success of our programme,
and by supporting work of direct
relevance to Qatar and the region, QNRF continues to play a
major role in the countrys journey towards a knowledge-based
economy.
Of the 120 of awarded proposals, aligned with the four pillars

of the Qatar National Research

Strategy, 38% fall under energy
and environment, 27 % under
health and life sciences, 20 % under social sciences, arts and humanities, and the remaining 15 %
under computer science and information and communications
technology.
The 8th NPRP cycle received
869 eligible proposals, an 8%
increase on the number of applications from the previous cycle.
The awarded proposals will engage 120 lead principal investigators, including several Qatari
nationals.
Dr Abdulnasser al-Ansari,
QNRF deputy executive director commented: I am personally

pleased to participate in the distribution of QNRFs prestigious

annual awards during this forum.
These awards were competitively
granted based on research output
and compliance with QNRF rules.
It is remarkable to see the performance of the nominated candidates during the past year and
how close and competitive the
nalists were with each other.
Each successive cycle of the
NPRP has seen an increasing
number of projects addressing
one of Qatars Grand Challenges
dened in 2013, said Noor alMerekhi, programme manager of
the NPRP at QNRF. In this cycle,
the winning projects focus on 11
of the 12 Grand Challenges.

atar National Research

Fund (QNRF) announced
two new funding programmes meant for supporting
specic topics in research in several areas and to support emerging local scientists in the country
at the 7th Annual Forum yesterday.
The rst programme comes
under the Grand Challenges
Research Programme (GCRP).
This
is the rst funding
programme by QNRF to focus
on a specic theme of research
which is The Path towards
Personalised Medicine (PPM).
The second programme is Early
Career Research Award (ECRA) to
encourage local talent.
Announcing the new funding
programmes, Dr Rekha Pillai,
programme director, QNRF said
that both the QNRF programmes
will be open for submission
of applications from eligible
candidates from next month.
She explained. The new
funding
programmes
aim
to create a pool of scientic
talent and build up research
infrastructure in the country.The
programmes will be focused on
specic problems related to the
grand challenges identied in the
Qatar National Research Strategy.
The strategy has 23 goals, 26
research objectives in 12 areas.
The earlier programmes were
investigation driven, while the

Dr Rekha Pillai
new programmes will be outcome
driven.
The new QNRF programme
The Path towards Personalised
Medicine will be jointly funded
by Qatar Biobank and will be
aligned with the genome project.
The outcome of this inaugural
cycle will pave the way to
embark on in-depth research
in personalised medicine one
of the niche research areas for
Qatar. PPM provides a grant of
$1mn for a period of 2 years. The
submission period will be from
June to October this year. Those
who are selected for the grant will
be announced by January 2016
and they can start working on the
project thereafter.
The second new funding
programme ECRA aims to develop
Qatars local scientic talent
pool by providing professional
research experience to Qatari and
Qatar-born scientists who have
recently embarked upon their
research career. ECRA provides
a grant up to $150,000 per year.
The submission period will start
from next month to October this
year. The awardees of the fund
will be announced in NovemberDecember.

Mega Water Reservoir at Al Mazrouah

HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdulla bin Khalifa bin Nasser al-Thani, HE the Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed bin Abdulla bin Zayed al-Mahmoud,
HE the Transport Minister Jassem Seif Ahmed al-Sulaiti, HE the Minister of Energy and Industry HE Dr Mohamed Saleh al-Sada and HE the Minister of Environment Ahmed
Amer Mohamed al-Humaidi being briefed by Kahramaa president Essa bin Hilal al-Kuwari on the Mega Water Reservoir at Al Mazrouah, on the outskirts of Umm Salal,
Yesterday. The reservoir in Al Marzouah is one of the five mega reservoirs to be set up in Qatar as part of a project, expected to be fully commissioned by the middle of
2018.PICTURE: Shaji Kayamkulam.

ictQATAR launches project to

enhance digital skills of elderly
By Joey Aguilar
Staff Reporter

he Ministry of Information and

Communications
Technology
(ictQATAR) yesterday launched a
national initiative encouraging youth to
teach the elderly on how to use modern
technology.
Reem al-Mansoori, Assistant Undersecretary of Digital Society Development,
ictQATAR, said Wasla (which means
link in Arabic) aims to help the elderly
have better access to technology with the
help of their children, grandchildren and
younger relatives.
She noted that Wasla Intergenerational
ICT Learning Programme will help develop and enhance the digital skills of older
persons to bridge the digital generation
gap.
The initiative will enable all components of society to integrate the elderly
into the digital world and to forge positive co-ordination between members of
the same family through volunteer work
that will be led by high school students as
pioneers of digital inclusion, stressed alMansoori in her speech.
She added that Wasla will also contribute in further strengthening family relationships in the country.
During the presentation, ictQATAR
noted that the biggest obstacle for the elderly in Qatar is their lack of digital skills.
Of the 45,000 people in Qatar aged over
40, the ministry hopes to target at least

ictQATAR honors some of the Wasla Pilot Project participants.

one third with the help of secondary students who have the digital knowledge and
skills.
The ministry wants to ensure that all
members of the society have the ability to
access technologies.
By providing better understanding
about ICT, al-Mansoori believes that
Wasla will reduce isolation of older people
in the digital society and create a lifelong
learning mindset.
Wasla is a part of ictQATARs plans to
cultivate digital literacy for all people in
Qatar in alignment with government steps
toward building a knowledge-based society as detailed in the Qatar National Vision
2030, al-Mansoori explained.
The ministry had identied 43 students
and 47 older relatives in its pilot project
which was launched in February and ended
last month. It was completed at three educational institutions: Qatar Academy, Newton
International School and Al Maha Academy.

Maha Khodadad , project manager of

Digital Inclusion of Digital Society Department, ictQATAR said they plan to
continue the programme for three years
with the help of independent and international schools in the country. SEC conrmed that 10 of its schools will join the
programme.
We want Wasla to have a programme of
its own to make it sustainable, she added.
The initiative will also involve collaboration of various government agencies,
schools, organisations and other groups of
varying ICT skills, according to ictQATAR
as it cited the important role of schools
and youth organisations in the success of
the programme.
Literacy no longer means being able
to only read and write if you are still digitally illiterate. Digital literacy has become an end goal for nations that seek
to build modern, knowledge-based societies. They do so by increasing their

Reem al-Mansoori, Assistant

Undersecretary of Digital Society
Development, ictQATAR.
PICTURES: Najeer Feroke.
populations ICT knowledge and skills,
said Fawzia al-Khater, director of Supreme Education Council (SEC) Education Institute.
The Ministrys Digital Inclusion team
had developed Wasla training resources
and tools and made it available for use by
any newly joining entity.

Fawzia al-Khater, director of Supreme

Education Council (SEC) Education Institute.

12

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

REGI0N

Iran aid ship

should go to
Djibouti, not
Yemen: US
AFP
Washington

A
People ride atop a van as they flee their homes in an area where a rocket base was hit with air strikes in Sanaa yesterday.

Yemen ceasere begins,

coalition warns rebels
The five-day ceasefire
aims to allow deliveries of
desperately needed relief
supplies, although aid
groups have already warned
they need more time
AFP
Riyadh/Sanaa

ceasere after weeks

of Saudi-led coalition
bombing in Yemen began last night, but the coalition
warned Iran-backed rebels that
it would strike back at any violation.
Absolutely. 11 Oclock, coalition spokesman Brigadier General
Ahmed al-Assiri said when asked
whether the ceasere had begun
on schedule at 11pm local time.
We are committed to respect
this, he said, but the coalition
will continue its intelligence,
reconnaissance and surveillance

in case it has to respond.

We will be ready to react to
any violation of the pause, he
told AFP. We are very clear. If
they do not respect... we will
continue.
The ve-day ceasere aims to
allow deliveries of desperately
needed relief supplies, although
aid groups have already warned
they need more time.
Explosions at an arms depot in
the capital hit by Saudi-led coalition strikes since Monday killed
at least 69 people and wounded
250, mostly civilians, an official
said.
The blasts at Mount Noqum,
on the eastern outskirts of the
rebel-held capital, lasted until
midday yesterday, when a fresh
wave of strikes hit the depot.
Unesco director general Irina Bokova condemned severe
damage caused to heritage sites
in Yemen, such as Sanaas old
city, during intense bombing.

She called on all parties to

keep cultural heritage out of the
conict.
Quiet returned to Sanaa as
the newly appointed UN envoy
to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh
Ahmed, arrived for talks with
the Shia Houthi rebels, ahead of
other meetings this week, possibly in Iran.
We are not ready to announce a date for talks but that
remains the goal, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said,
adding that the fact that he got
into Sanaa and is meeting with
the Houthis today is a sign in the
right direction.
The Houthis have promised to
respond positively to the truce,
and allied troops loyal to ousted
president Ali Abdullah Saleh have
accepted the ceasere.
The truce is the rst since the
Riyadh-led alliance launched the
air war aimed at restoring the
crumbling authority of exiled

President Abd-Rabbu Mansour

Hadi.
The ceasere has strong backing from Washington, which has
said it could be extended.
But doubts have been cast on
the initiative.
There might be a ceasere but
it wont end the conict, said a
Western diplomatic source. Id
be surprised if it was honoured
across Yemen. There will still be
skirmishes going on.
The Houthis, who hail from
Yemens mountainous north near
the border with Saudi Arabia,
overran Sanaa in September and
extended their control to other
regions.
Hadi ed to Riyadh as the
rebels closed in on his refuge in
the main southern city of Aden,
where clashes between his opponents and supporters have shown
no sign of relenting.
Clashes raged in the southern provinces of Abyan, Shabwa

and Daleh, as well as Jawf farther

north, residents said.
Bloody clashes were also reported in the central province
of Baida, as well as coalition air
strikes on a Houthi-held camp in
Marib province, east of Sanaa.
Air raids rocked the Houthi
stronghold province of Saada
late yesterday, according to witnesses.
The Red Cross said a longer
ceasere was needed.
We hope the truce would last
longer, and become permanent.
And we hope all sides respect it,
spokesman Adnan Hizam said,
lamenting a catastrophic humanitarian situation.
Human Rights Watch warned
the Houthis had intensied recruitment of children in violation
of international law.
Commanders of the rebels and
other groups should stop using
children or risk prosecution for
war crimes, HRW said.

n Iranian ship purportedly carrying aid to Yemen should change course

and head to Djibouti where the
United Nations is overseeing
humanitarian deliveries, US ofcials demanded yesterday.
The US military is tracking the
ship after Tehran reportedly said
it would send warships to escort
the vessel to Yemen, Pentagon
spokesman Colonel Steven Warren told reporters.
The ship, the Iran Shahed,
had moved through the Strait of
Hormuz and was now in the Gulf
of Oman, according to the marinetraffic.com site. But the vessel
was not under any naval escort
at the moment, Warren said.
We are monitoring the Iranian ship, he said. We are aware
of the Iranians statement that
they plan to escort this ship with
warships.
The state Iranian Irna news
agency earlier quoted a naval
commander, Rear Admiral Hossein Azad, saying naval forces
would be safeguarding the
vessel.
Irans Red Crescent had said
last week that it would send a
ship carrying 2,500 tons of humanitarian aid to Yemen, where
Tehran-backed Houthi rebels
are ghting pro-government

forces supported by a Saudi-led

coalition.
The Iranians have stated that
this is humanitarian aid, Warren said.
If that is the case, then we
certainly encourage the Iranians to deliver that humanitarian
aid to the United Nations humanitarian aid distribution hub,
which has been established in
Djibouti.
This will allow the aid to be
rapidly and efficiently distributed to those in Yemen who require
it, he added.
When asked if the US military would try to search the
ship or prevent it from docking
in Yemen, Warren declined to
comment.
The warnings from Washington raised the possibility of a potential confrontation at sea after
tensions ared in recent days in
the Strait of Hormuz.
If the Iranians are planning
some sort of stunt in the region,
they know as well as we do that
it would be unhelpful and in fact
could potentially threaten the
ceasere (in Yemen) that has
been so painstakingly brought
about, Warren said.
We call on the Iranians to
do the right thing here and deliver their humanitarian aid in
accordance with UN protocols
which is through the distribution hub thats been established
in Djibouti, he added.

Summit to focus on aggressive Iran: Saudi FM

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel
al-Jubeir said a summit between Gulf Arab leaders and
US President Barack Obama
later this week will focus on
Irans aggressive moves in
the Middle East, Saudi state
news agency SPA reported
yesterday.
We see Iranian support for
terrorist organisations and

facilitating the work of terrorist

organisations, so the challenge
will be in how to co-ordinate
US-Gulf efforts in order to collectively face these aggressive
moves on the part of Iran, alJubeir said, according to SPA.
Jubeir said the summit would
focus on conflicts in Syria and
Iraq and also on the fighting in
Yemen.

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

13

ARAB WORLD

Israeli general sees shared interests with Hamas

Reuters
Jerusalem

srael and Hamas share common interests, and the Palestinian Islamists must stay
in power in the Gaza Strip to
prevent the enclave descending
into chaos, an Israeli general was
quoted as saying yesterday.
Major-General Sami Turge-

man, who as commander of Israels forces outside Gaza had

a leading role in last years war
with Hamas, cast the group in a
pragmatic light in remarks reported in the top-selling Israeli
newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.
By doing so, he appeared to
take a softer public line towards
Hamas than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has likened the movement to Islamic

State insurgents sweeping Syria,

Iraq and elsewhere in the region.
Speaking to the heads of Israeli
villages on the Gaza periphery
on Monday, Turgeman said Hamas seeks stability and does not
want global jihada term Israel
uses to describe Islamic State, Al
Qaeda and their offshoots.
Israel and Hamas have shared
interests, including in the current situation, which is quiet and

calm and growth and prosperity,

said the general.
With neither side apparently
interested in renewed conict
for now, an Egyptian-brokered
ceasere that halted ghting in
the 50-day conict last July and
August has largely held.
There is no substitute for
Hamas as sovereign in the Strip.
The substitute is the IDF (Israel
Defence Forces) and chaotic rule

... and then the security situation

would be much more problematic, Turgeman said.
An Israeli military spokesman
did not contest the accuracy of
the quotes. Netanyahus office
had no immediate comment.
Without responding directly
to Turgemans remarks, Hamas
spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said
the onus was on Israel to shore
up the relative peace by easing

its Gaza blockade and helping reconstruction.

The ball is in the Israeli court,
he said. Hamas is willing to maintain the ceasere because it is in
the interest of our people in Gaza.
Turgeman predicted a continued build-up of Hamass armed
capabilities and renewed Gaza
ghting every few years.
The alternative is to try to
nd periods of quiet, as much

as possible, Turgeman said, arguing against rightist proposals

that Israel, which withdrew from
Gaza in 2005, retake the territory.
Hamas, which took power in
Gaza in a brief civil war in 2007,
preaches Israels destruction and
has fought three wars against it.
But Hamas has also voiced interest in a long-term truce with Israel
and occasionally clamped down on
Al Qaeda-aligned armed groups.

Blasts kill 6
in Baghdad
as pilgrims
are targeted
AFP
Baghdad

bomb blast and two mortar rounds targeting Shia

worshippers marching to
a Baghdad shrine killed six people yesterday in the Iraqi capital,
security and medical sources
said.
An explosion killed four people
and injured 12 near Tahrir Square
in central Baghdad, police said.
A medic conrmed the casualty gures but it was not immediately clear whether the blast was
caused by a car bomb or a suicide
attacker.
Two other people were killed
and four wounded by two mortar
rounds red on Boub al-Sham, a
neighbourhood on the northern
outskirts of Baghdad, the same
sources said.
Iraq has deployed 75,000
members of the security forces to
protect the droves of worshippers
who have been walking for days
towards Kadhimiya in northwestern Baghdad.
It is the site of a shrine dedicated to Imam Musa Kadhim,
the seventh of 12 revered imams
in Shia Islam, who died in 799
AD.
Several major thoroughfares
in Baghdad have been blocked
to traffic for several days already,
bringing the capital to a standstill.
The government declared a national holiday today and tomorrow, which will see the climax of
the commemoration.
The marching worshippers and
the hundreds of tents along their
path where they can rest, eat and
drink are considered particularly
vulnerable to attacks.
At least seven people were
killed in a car bomb attack against
worshippers in Baghdad on Saturday.
In other violence yesterday,
a roadside bomb blast killed a
Kurdish peshmerga major general
and three of his bodyguards in the
Daquq region, senior officers said.
The device exploded as Major
General Salah Dilmani was touring the peshmerga front against
the Islamic State group south of

the city of Kirkuk, Lieutenant

Colonel Ismail Hamid said.
The explosion led to his martyrdom and that of three of his
bodyguards, peshmerga Colonel
Burhan Sheikha said, adding that
the blast also wounded ve people.
The attack took place in Atshana village near Daquq, about
200km north of Baghdad.
The peshmerga forces of Iraqs
autonomous northern region of
Kurdistan have been battling IS
militants on several fronts, from
Iraqs northwestern borders with
Syria to areas just northeast of
Baghdad, near the border with
Iran.
Sheikha said Dilmani was the
commander of the peshmerga
118th brigade.
zThe number of people displaced by conict in Iraq since the
start of 2014 has reached a new
high of 2.8mn, the International
Organisation for Migration said
yesterday.
The IOM put the number at
exactly 2,834,676 and said a
wave of displacement caused by
ghting in Ramadi, the capital of
the western province of Anbar,
was the cause of the latest rise.
The organisation said that
133,000 people left their homes
when IS attacked parts of Ramadi
a month ago. More than 16,000
have since returned to the city
centre.
IOM Iraq chief of mission Thomas Lothar Weiss said the quantity of life-saving humanitarian
aid available is insufficient.
There were around 300,000
internally displaced persons in
Iraq at the beginning of 2014.
Unrest broke out in Anbar early
last year, forcing hundreds of
thousands from their homes. The
biggest wave of displacement occurred when IS launched a huge
nationwide offensive on June 9.
The International Committee
of the Red Cross on Monday appealed for an additional $38.5mn
from donors to fund its emergency response in Iraq.
It will bring the total funding it requires for 2015 to 122mn,
making Iraq its second largest operations in the world, right after
Syria, said the ICRC.

Civil defence members carry a stretcher at the scene of the barrel bomb attack in Aleppo yesterday.

At least 20 die in Syria

barrel bomb massacre
scraps of metal strewn across
the cratered pavement where
the station was, underneath a
bridge.
Fireghters and civilians
worked with hoses to tackle
erce blazes in several vehicles
that produced thick clouds of
smoke.
A least one car had been
ipped on its side.
A second video showed several
men hoisting a male victim missing a large section of the back of
his torso onto an orange stretcher
and into an ambulance.
It was unclear whether he was
still alive.
Once Syrias economic powerhouse, Aleppo was been divided between government control in the citys west and rebel
control in the east since shortly
after ghting there began in
mid-2012.
For months, the regime has
waged an unrelenting aerial
campaign against the opposition-held part of the city, making
particular use of crude so-called
barrel bombs.
Rights groups criticise the
weapons as indiscriminate and

The toll is expected to rise

because of the number of
serious injuries among the
wounded, a monitor says
AFP
Beirut

t least 20 people were

killed yesterday in a regime barrel bomb attack
on a mini-bus stand in a rebelheld part of Syrias Aleppo city, a
monitor said.
Helicopters committed a
massacre, dropping a barrel
bomb on a mini-bus station in
the Fardous district of Aleppo,
killing 20 civilians, among them
children, and injuring 30 more,
the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights group said.
The Britain-based monitor
said the toll was expected to rise
because of the number of serious
injuries among the wounded.
The group said the bodies
of most of those killed were
charred.
Video footage distributed by
activists and posted on YouTube
showed rubble and twisted

say they are more likely to cause

civilian casualties.
More than 220,000 people
have been killed in Syria since
anti-government
protests
broke out in March 2011 spiralling into civil war in the face of
a bloody crackdown by security
forces.
The lives of more than 5mn
Syrians, including 2mn children,
are at risk from explosive weapons used in the conict, a nongovernmental organisation said
yesterday.
Handicap
International
warned that explosive weapons
were being widely used in heavily populated areas in violation of
international law, and that unexploded ordnance posed a longterm threat.
In total, 5.1mn peopleincluding 2mn childrenare living
in areas highly affected by the use
of explosive weapons, creating an
immediate and long-term threat
to their lives, the NGO said.
It said use of the weapons by
all parties to the conict was
having dreadful consequences
for civilians.
Because of their blast or

fragmentation effects, explosive

weapons kill or generate complex
injuries, the groups regional coordinator Anne Garella said.
The wide use of explosive
weapons combined with the lack
of appropriate surgical care in
Syria has a devastating impact on
peoples lives.
The groups study found explosive weapons had been massively used by all parties to the
conict, accounting for more
than 80% of all recorded incidents of violence.
Three-quarters of incidents
involving the weapons were in
densely populated areas, suggesting that the belligerents
have no intention of effectively
distinguishing between civilians
and combatants, a violation of
international humanitarian law,
the report said.
The group noted that explosive
weapons also pose a longer-term
threat, creating injuries that can
leave the wounded permanently
disabled, but also exposing the
population to unexploded ordnance.
The impact of explosive
weapons thus goes beyond the

immediate casualties: the presence of explosive remnants of

war remains an obstacle not only
for the security and the wellbeing of the civilian population, but
also for the overall reconstruction of the country.
Handicap International urged
parties to the conict to end
the use of explosive weapons in
densely populated areas, and to
facilitate humanitarian access to
those injured.
It called on the international
community to condemn the use
of explosive weapons in populated areas and to enforce a UN
Security Council resolution demanding unfettered humanitarian access in Syria.
The Syrian government has
been repeatedly condemned
for its widespread use of barrel bombs, crude weapons made
from oil drums, gas cylinders
or water tanks, packed with explosives and scrap metal and
dropped from helicopters.
Rebel groups have been condemned for their use of rudimentary rockets that lack targeting
mechanisms and have repeatedly
hit civilian areas.

Gaza engineer seeks solution to water shortage

AFP
Gaza City

ith Gazas supply of

drinking water expected to dry up by 2020, a
Palestinian engineer is pioneering
a machine to make seawater potable for residents of the coastal
territory.
Diaa Abu Assi, a 29-year-old
father-of-two, has spent much
of his spare time in the past 18
months developing the system,
which he hopes will be instrumental in saving lives in the besieged enclave.
In ve years, there will be no
drinkable water in Gaza, Abu
Assi says. Water shortages are a
real threat to life in Gaza. The only
solution is to lter water from the
Mediterranean.
Funded by Gazas Islamic Universitywhich is linked with the
enclaves rulers Hamasin cooperation with an Omani research
organisation, the project uses nanotechnology to reduce the salin-

Engineer Diaa Abu Assi operates the machine that makes seawater potable.
ity in seawater to a drinkable level.
It pumps water at high speed
through large iron pipes and lters
made of nano-material to extract
the saline. The water is then retreated with minerals that were

removed during the desalination

process.
The lter contains microscopic
pores which are small enough to
block the chlorine and sodium
ions in seawater while allowing

through the water molecules.

The idea is to save Gaza from
the disaster that awaits it in the
next ve years by using the one
resource we do haveseawater,
Abu Assi says.

Gaza, home to 1.8mn Palestinians, consumes 180mn cubic

metres of water per year, half of
which is used in agriculture and
industry.
The United Nations estimates
that Gazas population will grow
by almost another 500,000 people in the next ve years, which
will push demand to an expected
260mn cubic metres of water annually.
Given Gazas current water
resources, the territory would
become uninhabitable, according to Robert Turner, director of
operations in Gaza for the UN
agency for Palestinian refugees
(Unrwa).
Gaza now depends on groundwater from its coastal aquifer for
supplies, but the enclaves water
authority says 97% of its resources
are polluted due to over-extraction
and sewage contamination.
Abu Assis machine can treat
some 1,000 litres a daya drop in
the ocean for now, but he and his
partner, fellow engineer Ala alHindi, say they will not stop there.

Hindi says they are seeking

$300mn to build a water treatment plant that has a much greater capacity.
But given the reality in Gaza,
the two have struggled to raise
funds.
Theres always a fear that
projects will be destroyed in the
next Israeli bombardment, Hindi
says.
During last summers 50-day
war with Israelwhich claimed
2,200 Palestinian lives and 73 on
the Israeli sideGazas sole power
station was hit, causing hourslong blackouts.
Abu Assi and Hindi have asked
the Palestinian government based
in Ramallah for assistance, but
have had no response.
Local officials have no doubt of
the need for a sustainable water
supply.
Munzer Shublaq, a water authority official in Gaza, said it
was essential to nd alternative
sources and stop pumping from
the aquifer.
To meet current needs, au-

thorities are having to pump four

times the amount of water from
the aquifer than is acceptable,
Shublaq said.
The UN has warned the aquifer
could become unusable as early as
next year.
With no perennial streams
and low rainfall, Gaza relies almost completely on the underlying coastal aquifer, an Unrwa report from 2012 said.
As groundwater levels subsequently decline, seawater inltrates from the nearby Mediterranean Sea.
Pollution of drinking water is
compounded by contamination
of the aquifer by nitrates from uncontrolled sewage, and fertilisers
from irrigation of farmlands, it
said.
The World Health Organisation
has warned of the danger, noting
that diarrhoea among children is
on the rise.
Abu Assi hopes his project can
help before its too late.
The lives of nearly 2mn people
are at stake, he says.

14

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

AFRICA
SA holds
over 1,000
illegals

Burundi
protests
rage on
AFP
Bujumbura

urundi police yesterday opened

re on protesters as President
Pierre Nkurunziza deed international pressure to end a controversial
third term bid, ahead of a regional summit to address the crisis.
One protester died in fresh clashes
with police on the streets of Burundis
capital Bujumbura, while two others
were reported killed overnight in a grenade explosion.
The latest deaths bring the number
killed in more than two weeks of antigovernment demonstrations to over 20
and come as East African leaders prepare to hold an emergency meeting in
Tanzania on Wednesday.
Over 50,000 Burundians have ed
into neighbouring nations since the unrest began.
Leaders of the ve-nation East African Community - made up of Kenya,
Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda as well

as Burundi - are due to meet in Dar es

Salaam.
Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila, South Africas
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and
the US top diplomat for Africa Linda
Thomas-Greeneld are also expected
to attend.
Police in Bujumbura opened re yesterday on protesters in an apparent attempt to scatter crowds who wanted to
attack the house of a police officer.
An AFP journalist at the scene also
saw two other people with gunshot
wounds, one of them a boy of around 10,
hit in the arm.
In another part of the capital, officers red tear gas to break up a crowd of
some 200 youths.
While the police have ripped down
barricades on main roads, side streets
in key opposition areas remain blocked,
guarded by angry demonstrators.
Nkurunziza, a former rebel leader
from the Hutu majority who has been
in power since 2005, has come under
intense international pressure to with-

AFP
Johannesburg

Burundian refugees gather at the shores of Lake Tanganyika in Kagunga village in Kigoma region of western Tanzania,
awaiting transport to Kigoma township. Government officials in Tanzania have told local media that at least 80,000
refugees have arrived in Kigoma since Burundis pre-election skirmishes begun.
draw from next months election and
stand down.
Nkurunziza, a former rebel leader
from the Hutu majority who has been
in power since 2005, has come under
intense international pressure to withdraw from next months election and
stand down.
Opposition groups insist that it is unconstitutional for Nkurunziza to run for
more than two terms.
But he argues that his rst presidential term did not count as he was elected
by parliament, not directly by the people.
The presidents should be clear with
Nkurunziza... they must tell him to
leave for the good of everybody, said
Aremus, a 24-year old protester.
The summit tomorrow is a test... the

5 killed in DR Congo rebel attack

AFP
Goma

ive
people
were
killed in a new attack
blamed on Ugandan
rebels near Beni in the east
of the Democratic Republic
of Congo, officials said yesterday.
More than 300 people, most whom have been
hacked to death, have been
killed during seven months
of massacres in the troubled North Kivu province
by Muslim rebels of the
Allied Democratic Forces
(ADF).
Hundreds of Beni residents marched yesterday
through the streets of the
trading town of some half a
million people, accusing the
authorities of doing nothing
to protect the local population.
The Civil Society of Beni,
an association of civic bodies, on Monday called for
strikes and protests until
further notice, but acting
mayor Angele Nyirabitaro
urged people to return to
work.
The latest murders occurred late on Monday at
Mavivi, close to Beni, which

lies 250km north of Goma,

the capital of the mineralrich province.
We found the bodies
of five people killed with
machetes and axes, and
seven injured, regional
official Amisi Kalonda
told AFP.
He said the victims had
been coming back from
the elds at nightfall when
they were set upon by men
presumed to be from the
ADF, a movement that rose
up in the mid-1990s against
Ugandan President Yoweri
Museveni, and which later
established bases on the
Congolese side of the border.
Major Victor Masandi,
spokesman for the Congolese military operation
against the rebels, said that
one group of guerillas attacked an army position
while another set upon the
civilians.
President Joseph Kabila
visited Beni last October
and promised that the national army would conquer the ADF in military
operation Sukola-1, which
is commanded by his close
ally General Muhindo Akili
Mundos.
Kabila also announced

that he would change the

leadership of Sukola-1, but
he has not followed up on
this commitment.
Two days after he went
to the town in the wake of
another massacre, an angry crowd pulled down a
local statue of the president.
Police red in the air
yesterday to disperse students and other demonstrators near the city hall,
an AFP photographer saw.
The widespread protests
brought usual business to a
halt.
At a separate rally, police
opened re with tear gas,
witnesses said.
The security forces had
orders to break up protesters, acting mayor Nyirabitaro told AFP, stating that he
had no magic wand to end
the killings.
The security situation in
the region dramatically deteriorated in the past week,
with seven more people
killed in an additional massacre similar to the Mavivi
attack on Friday.
Two Tanzanian UN soldiers from the large UN
peacekeeping mission in
DR Congo, Monusco, were
killed in an ambush near

Beni on May 5, in which

13 other UN troops were
wounded.
The UN mission includes
a Force Intervention Brigade
with a special mandate from
the UN Security Council to
take offensive action against
the wide range of armed
movements active in the
east of the country.
Last
December,
UN
troops launched a joint operation with the Congolese army against the ADF,
which restored a degree of
calm to the Beni region but
failed to end killings - mostly by machete.
Last week, Monusco had
announced that a rapid
response unit had been
sent to the Beni area,
while the UN Security
Council reiterated that
targeting
peacekeepers
may constitute a war
crime.
Military cooperation between the UN mission and
the Congolese army was
seriously hindered when
Kabilas regime named
two generals to head an offensive against a separate
rebel force from Rwanda.
Both men are on a UN
blacklist of serious rights
violators.

heads of state must show their maturity

in crisis management by telling Nkurunziza to leave, said Donatien, manning one of the street barricades.
The clashes between security forces
and demonstrators have raised fears of
a return to violence in the central African state, which is still recovering from
a brutal 13-year civil war that ended
in 2006. The European Union and US
called Monday for the elections set for
late June to be delayed.
African Union Commission chief
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma last week
warned the time was not right for elections, and that it was clear that there
shouldnt be a third term.
But Nkurunziza said in a BBC interview that postponing the vote would
worsen the situation.

I can tell you that for enduring stability in Burundi you cant say that you
cant organise elections, Nkurunziza
said. There would be many violence
and many problems.
In Bujumburas Musaga district,
some 300 women marched singing and
chanting slogans against a third term.
No to the third term for Nkurunziza, one group shouted.
Asked to rule on the third-term issue,
the constitutional court found in Nkurunzizas favour but not before one of
the judges ed the country claiming its
members were subject to death threats.
Today we are optimistic that the
elections will be very peaceful, transparent and also fair, Nkurunziza said.
We can assure (you) that we will accept
the outcome of the ballot box.

Niger targets traffickers

Reuters
Niamey

iger has approved a law against

the smuggling of migrants in an
effort to stem the deadly ow
of vulnerable Africans across its vast
desert north, many of them headed towards Libya and on to Europe.
The law, approved unanimously by
parliament late on Monday, translates
onto Nigers statutes a UN protocol
against the smuggling of migrants, allowing judges and police to take action.
Nigers desert town of Agadez is one
of the main transit points in the Sahara
for migrants leaving poor West African
nations en route for north Africa and
Europe. Up to 4,000 migrants without
travel papers can pass through Agadez
every week, according to the UN Office
on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
A spike in the numbers of immigrants
attempting the dangerous sea crossing
from Libya has sparked alarm in Europe, particularly after some 800 people drowned in a Mediterranean shipwreck last month.
Authorities in Niger promised a
crackdown after at least 92 migrants
from Niger died of hunger and thirst in
the desert in October 2013 after being
abandoned by traffickers who were taking them to Algeria.
In an effort to prevent migrants
without papers from being brutalised
by security forces, the law emphasised
that smuggled persons were victims of

human rights abuses. The adoption of

this law aims essentially to protect the
frontiers of our country, said Justice
Minister Amadou Marou.
In these times of uncertainty, where
organised cross-border crime is sowing
terror in our country, it is indispensable
that all those who travel in our country
carry their identity documents. This
law imposes that.
The desolate, empty spaces of the
Sahara in northern Niger and neighbouring Mali are home to drug and
arms traffickers, people-smugglers and
armed Islamist militant groups, some
of them linked to al Qaeda.
UN officials said Niger was the rst
country in the region to pass a law specically against the smuggling of migrants.
You cannot train the judiciary to
combat this crime if there are no laws
on the books. So we start with the laws
and we take it from there, said Pierre
Lapaque, regional representative for
the UNODC, which helped draft the
law.
Despite past pledges by Nigers government to tackle people-smuggling,
local officials in the Agadez region have
proted from bribes paid at checkpoints on the route, a Reuters investigation found.
The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime estimated
last month that smuggling of migrants
was worth up to $323mn a year in Libya,
some of which was used to fund terrorism.

outh African rights activists yesterday criticised

the government for arresting about 1,000 suspected
illegal immigrants in the wake of
an outburst of deadly xenophobic violence when mobs hunted
down foreign nationals.
Immigrant workers from Zimbabwe, Malawi and other African countries were targeted in
weeks of unrest that left at least
seven people dead and forced
thousands to ee their homes.
The South Africa government
sent the army in to help police
arrest ringleaders behind the attacks, but it also launched a series of raids to pick up hundreds
of suspected illegal immigrants.
In the latest raid, about 400
immigrants were arrested last
Friday in an operation at the
Central Methodist Church, a renowned shelter for refugees in
downtown Johannesburg.
Large sections of police have
been unleashed on people, Steve Faulkner, of the Coalition of
Movements Against Xenophobia, told reporters. It was a military operation in the middle of
the night... People were herded
together and taken to the police
station.
Right to Know, a campaign
group, called the mass arrests
state-funded xenophobia.
The raids were a heavyhanded response that have seen
families being separated and led
to various human rights abuses,
Murray Hunter, spokesman for
the group, told AFP.
Millions of African migrants
- many of them illegal - work in
South Africa, often on construction sites or as casual labour.
The government has defended
Operation Fiela, meaning clean
sweep, and said raids on workers hostels and informal settlements would continue.

Duo pleads guilty

to rape, murder of
86-year-old nun

wo South African men

charged with the rape and
murder of a 86-year-old
Austrian-born nun pleaded guilty
yesterday, saying they had broken
into the convent to steal food.
Sister Gertrud Tiefenbacher,
from the Sacred Heart Home
Convent in the village of Ixopo,
southwest of Durban, was murdered last month.
In a statement read in court,
Sibongiseni Phungula, 25, said
he and his co-accused, Mondli
Shozi, 26, had gone to the convent to look for food after a night
of drinking. They were interrupted by Tiefenbacher, who
shouted at them, the News 24
agency reported from Pietermaritzburg High Court.
I wish I could undo what I
have done, Phungula said in his
statement.

New plan for outbreaks after WHO Ebola asco

AFP
Geneva

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf poses with Chinese soldiers yesterday after a ceremony marking the decommissioning of an Ebola
treatment unit run by China in Monrovia.

eeling under stinging criticism for its late response

to the worst ever Ebola
outbreak, the World Health Organization said yesterday it was
creating a blueprint to handle future disease outbreaks.
A two-day meeting of the UN
agency was aimed at creating
better research and diagnostic
facilities, improving data sharing
between countries, and creating biobanks, said Marie-Paule
Kieny, WHO assistant director for
health systems and innovation.
WHO chief Margaret Chan said
the latest Ebola epidemic - which
has left more than 11,000 dead,
mainly in the west African nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra
Leone - had intensied research
into what was until recently considered a rare disease.
New tools have been developed with unprecedented speed,
Chan said Monday, on the rst
day of the experts meeting in
Geneva.
We are likely very close to
having a vaccine that can protect
against Ebola, Chan said, without elaborating.

Kieny said the meeting was focussed on building better preparedness for potential outbreaks of
deadly diseases such as the Ebola
and Marburg viruses, and Rift
Valley and Lassa fevers.
We know there will another
outbreak of Ebola, she said. We
are at number 25 already, since
it rst surfaced in 1976.
Now, with more frequent travel between countries, outbreaks
that would once remain localised and easier to ght now have
a bigger chance of spreading,
Kieny said.
We need to be prepared for
such a possibility in the future,
she added.
If another Ebola happens, the
world needs to be ready... R and
D needs to happen before an outbreak.
At the Geneva meeting, there
was a discussion for the use and
the need to develop standard
protocols for clinical trials... so
that when the time comes these
protocols are already developed
and pre-approved, Kieny said.
When the time comes, they
can be activated quickly.
Kieny said the other proposals,
which would be developed over
the course of the year, included
setting up biobanks and carrying

out the types of tests that are

acceptable.
She said Liberia, which was
declared Ebola-free on Friday
after 4,700 people died from the
disease in one year, had already
said it would set up a biobank, or
a repository of human biological
samples.
We need to build biobanks
that are owned by countries but at
the same time can be made available for research, Kieny said.
But the question that cropped
up was whether countries in Africa should each build their own
banks, or if there should be a
centralised bank in Africa and if
so, who will control it.
Chan said the latest Ebola
emergency had shown that research and development models
can be adapted, timeframes can
be compressed, and partnerships
that are otherwise unlikely can
be formed.
In such crises, coordination
and transparent informationsharing are vital, she added.
The more we know about
what other partners have discovered or achieved, the better
equipped we will be to make informed decisions and take the
right steps with the greatest possible speed, Chan said.

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

15

AMERICA

Picasso painting sets auction record in New York

Reuters
New York

hen Picassos Les

Femmes dAlger (Version O) set a record
on Monday as the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction,
it was by a wide margin of nearly
$40mn, fetching just under
$180mn.
Christies sale of 35 works
spanning the 20th and nascent 21st centuries also became
the rst auction at which two
works each topped $140mn,
when Giacomettis Pointing

Man bronze sold for a record

$141.3mn.
While Christies did not identify any buyers of the top 10 lots,
even by region, officials said a
bevy of new collectors had entered the market in just the last
ve years or so - and at the very
top echelons.
We have entered a new era
of the art market, said Jussi
Pylkkanen, Christies global
president, after Mondays sale.
Collectors from all parts of
the world compete for the very
best across categories, generating record prices at levels we
have never seen before.

The Picasso surpassed the

$142.4mn paid for Francis Bacons Three Studies of Lucian
Freud in November.
Pylkkanen said bidders at the
highest levels, including Christies top nine lots which each
fetched some $25mn or far more,
have probably only been in the
market for ve or six years.
That is going to continue, he
added.
Asian buyers have been spending heavily at New Yorks spring
sales, with at least some winning bids for Christies top works
taken via telephone by executives
from its Asian operations.

Since a hiccup following the

2008 nancial crisis, the art
market at its top levels has enjoyed an unprecedented boom,
driven by super-rich collectors
ush with cash.
European, Middle Eastern,
Russian, American and Asian
buyers are competing for a limited supply of masterworks.
Christies had ve collectors vying for the Picasso at the
$120mn level, which is virtually
unprecedented. Such spending
compels collectors to sell masterpieces.
New collectors are also crossing categories, unlike others who

Immigration: past to present

focus on Impressionism versus

contemporary art.
Collectors from different
countries are appreciating masters from Picasso to Rothko,
said Pylkkanen. Whether its
furniture or porcelain or artists
who represent the best in 20thcentury painting, they appreciate the best in class.
Such appreciation means
records will continue to tumble.
Speculating on the lifeline for
the new mark set by the Picasso,
Pylkkanen said, It could be a
decade, it could be longer.
If recent history is any guide,
it could be far less.

Republican
Christie bashes
Obama, Fed
on economy
Reuters
Washington

The Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration is seen during a press preview for a new exhibit at the museum yesterday in New
York City. The exhibit, titled, The Journey: New Eras of Immigration, looks at immigration to the US from 1954 to the present.

American public likes it when

politicians talk nicely: study
AFP
Washington

hen politicians talk

in a friendly way that
focuses on helping
others, US public approval ratings rise, according to a study
out on Monday.
But when elected leaders in
the US House of Representatives stop stressing co-operation, public approval declines,
according to research that
spanned nearly two decades
and 124mn words spoken during debates in the halls of Congress.
The individual words whose
use most strongly predicted
public approval were as follows: gentle, involve, educate,
contribute, concerned, give,

tolerate, trust and co-operate,

said the study by Canadian
and German researchers in the
Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, a peerreviewed US journal.
Researchers used software to
analyse 123,927,807 words spoken in the US House of Representatives between 1996 and
2014.
The computer checked for
linguistic markers of what is
known as prosocial language,
meaning words that indicate
a concern with the collective
good.
Then, the researchers compared levels of prosocial language within each month of
Congress with its approval ratings by the American public.
They discovered a striking
match, said the study.

Obama presidential
library, museum will
be built in Chicago
Reuters
Chicago

arack Obamas presidential library and museum

will be built in his hometown of Chicago, the Obama
Foundation announced yesterday.
Chicago beat out proposals by
New York City and Hawaii to be
the home the library.
The foundation, a nonprot
organisation that conducted
the site-selection process, will
oversee the development and
building of the library. It has not
decided on the facilitys exact
location but it is expected to be
in one of two parks near the University of Chicagos main campus.
The library and museum are
expected to be open to visitors by
2020 or 2021.
Obama grew up in Hawaii and
went to college in New York but
owns a home and spent most of

his pre-White House political

career in Chicago, starting as a
community activist before becoming an Illinois state senator
and US senator.
All of the strands of my life
came together and I really became a man when I moved to
Chicago, Obama said in the
foundations video announcement of the decision.
Obama met his wife, Michelle
Obama, in Chicago and his two
daughters were born there.
Im thrilled to be able to put
this resource in the heart of the
neighbourhood that means the
world to me, Michelle Obama
said in the video. I consider
myself a South Sider.
People in Chicagos South
Side, which includes many
poor and crime-ridden neighbourhoods, hope jobs and
investment come with the library. Some small businesses
are concerned they may be
forced out of the area if rental
prices go up.

Auctioneer Jussi Pylkkanen takes bids on the Picasso masterpiece

Les Femmes dAlger (Version O) at Christies in New York City on
Monday, which went for $179.3mn, smashing the record for most
expensive art sold at auction.

Public approval peaked in

the aftermath of the (2001)
September 11 attacks, declined
over the next seven years, rose
slightly in the wake of the 2008
nancial crisis, and then declined again, it added.
Prosocial language followed
a nearly identical trajectory.
In 2002, public approval of
Congress reached 84%. But in
2013, public approval reached
an all-time low of 10%, according to background information
in the article.
A relatively small drop in cooperative language - 20% from
2002 to 2014 - was associated
with a much larger, nearly 75%
decrease in public approval.
Researchers said the effects
of language remained apparent
even when they controlled for
the impact of major world and

national events.
Warm, prosocial language
still predicted public approval
when removing the effects of
societal and global factors (e.g.
the September 11 attacks) and
Congressional efficacy (e.g.
passing bills), suggesting that
prosocial language has an independent, direct effect on public approval, according to the
study.
Researchers said language
caused the approval rating to
change because they could
observe a time lag between
changes in the types of words
used and the varying approval
ratings - typically about six to
seven months later.
In other words, what Congress says today best predicts
their approval ratings 29 weeks
into the future, the study said.

ossible Republican presidential candidate Chris

Christie yesterday said
the policies of President Barack
Obama and the Federal Reserve
had widened the gulf between
rich and poor.
Christie, who is governor of
New Jersey, said Obama had
failed to curb spending and that
his regulatory policies had led to
stagnant growth. As for the US
central bank, he said that while
middle-class families struggled,
the Fed had boosted stock prices which beneted people who
were already wealthy.
Bottom line: the Feds easy
money policies and the presidents anti-growth policies
have made the rich even richer
and made our middle class work
longer and harder for less pay

and less promise for the future, Christie said in excerpts

of a speech he is due to deliver in
New Hampshire, a state which
votes early in the presidential
nominating contest.
Christie, who has yet to say
whether he will run in the November 2016 election, detailed
an economic plan he said would
simplify the tax system, lower
tax rates for corporations, and
eliminate payroll taxes for those
over 62 and under 21.
Christie also pledged to revoke rules and executive orders issued by Obama that he
deemed egregious and unlawful. Obama, a Democrat, cannot
seek another term as president.
Christie was considered a Republican 2016 favourite until the
Bridgegate scandal in which
transportation and state officials
were alleged to have engineered
a traffic jam as political punishment.

Chris Christie: Obama and the Federal Reserve had widened the gulf
between rich and poor.

Tallest thermometer

Three men facing

Brooklyn terror
trial plead guilty
Reuters
New York

Motorists make their way past the worlds tallest thermometer in Baker, California. The
134-ft-tall structure off Highway 15 between Los Angeles and Las Vegas was built in 1991
to honour the highest temperature ever recorded, which was 134 degrees in Death Valley
National Park, north of Baker.

Recent opinion polls show

him lagging other Republicans,
including former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Senator Marco
Rubio of Florida.
New Jerseys economic recovery has lagged that of its neighbours and the nation. The state
also faces a large public pension
gap and has seen its credit rating
downgraded a record nine times
since Christie took office in January 2010.
Income inequality has been
a main theme for Democratic
politicians, including Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, a vocal critic of Wall Street.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has also
emphasised the issue.
The share of income has
been shifting toward betteroff households since the early
1970s, with a particularly sharp
jump during the presidency of
Ronald Reagan, a Republican, US
Census data shows.
The shift, partly due to the
rising value of stocks, real estate and other assets, slowed
during the Obama years. During
Obamas rst term, the share of
incomes earned by the wealthiest 5% of Americans jumped to
22.2% from 21.7%. The middle
fths share, meanwhile, fell to
14.4% from 14.6.
In a statement, Holly Shulman, press secretary for the
Democratic National Committee, said Christies proposed tax
cuts would further enrich the
wealthy and corporations without helping the middle class.

former British and two

Swedish citizens about to
face trial on US terrorism
charges pleaded guilty yesterday
to conspiring to provide material
support to the militant group Al
Shebaab in Somalia.
Madhi Hashi, 25, whose UK
citizenship was revoked in 2012,
and Swedish citizens Ali Yasin
Ahmed, 30, and Mohamed Yusuf, 32, pleaded guilty in federal
court in Brooklyn, New York, to
a single conspiracy count. The
guilty pleas came just three hours
before potential jurors were to receive questionnaires in preparation for a June 1 trial.
I agreed along with others to
provide support to a designated
foreign terrorist organisation by
the US, specically Al Shebaab in
Somalia, Hashi said in court.
The deal will spare the men the
30-years-to-life in prison they

faced if convicted on all of the

charges against them.
Instead, the trio, Somalis by
birth, will face a maximum term
of 15 years in prison when US
District Judge John Gleeson sentences them on Sept. 25. The men
also face deportation following
their release.
Prosecutors said that from
2008 to 2012, the men participated in weapons and explosives
training with members and associates of Al Qaeda-allied al
Shebaab and agreed to support
its agenda.
The men also were deployed
in combat operations to support
Al Shebaabs military action in
Somalia and participated in a
suicide bomber programme, authorities said.
Al Shebaab has carried out attacks in Somalia and neighbouring countries aimed at overthrowing the Somali government.
The case involved no allegations the men intended any direct
harm to the US.

16

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

AMERICA

Ex-CIA officer get 3.5 years for NY Times leak

AFP
New York

ormer CIA officer Jeffrey

Sterling was sentenced
on Monday to 3.5 years in
prison for leaking classied information to a New York Times
journalist.
Sterling was convicted in
January of revealing details of
a botched US attempt during

president Bill Clintons administration to thwart Irans nuclear

programme.
The court has to impose a very
clear message, US District Judge
Leonie Brinkema said at Sterlings
sentencing in the Washington
suburb of Alexandria, Virginia.
Sterling, who had been free
on bail pending sentencing, was
told to report to a federal prison
in his home state of Missouri to
serve his sentence.

His conviction marked a

victory for President Barack
Obamas administration in its
crackdown on whistleblowers.
The case had dragged on in
court for years as prosecutors
pressed Times journalist James
Risen to reveal his sources. He
refused to do so.
Risen was rst subpoenaed in
2008, but he fought against it
until the subpoena expired the
following year.

President Barack Obamas administration subsequently took

the unusual step of renewing the
subpoena in 2010.
The legal ght ended seven
years after the original subpoena, in January this year, after Attorney General Eric Holder said
prosecutors would not force Risen to reveal his sources after all.
Sterlings 42-month prison
sentence contrasted sharply
with the two years probation

and $100,000 ne given to disgraced former CIA chief David

Petraeus for sharing classied
information with his mistress.
Im satised that a higher
sentence is appropriate in this
case because (Petraeus) admitted his guilt, Brinkema said.
Dana Boente, the US district
attorney for eastern Virginia,
welcomed Sterlings sentence in
a statement issued shortly after
it was handed down.

For his own vindictive purposes, Jeffrey Sterling carelessly

disclosed extremely valuable,
highly classied information
that he had taken an oath to keep
secret, Boente said.
His attempt to leverage national security information
for his own malicious reasons
brought him to this sentence today.
From November 1998 through
May 2000, Sterling was assigned

to a classied clandestine operational programme designed to

undermine the Iranian nuclear
programme, officials said.
In 2000, he led a complaint
against the Central Intelligence
Agency alleging racial discrimination.
Prosecutors claimed that
Sterling disclosed classied information in retaliation for the
CIAs refusal to settle the lawsuit.

Boston trial:
prosecutors,
lawyers spar
over victim
Reuters
Boston

S prosecutors yesterday rejected a claim by

the Boston Marathon
bombers lawyers that they had
not proven that the death of the
attacks youngest victim took a
heavy enough toll on his family
to inuence a jury to sentence
bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to
death.
The prosecutions statement,
in a ling in US District Court in
Boston, comes a day before the
two sides are to give their closing arguments. After those arguments, the same jury that found
the 21-year-old ethnic Chechen

guilty of killing three people in

the April 15, 2013, attack begin
deliberations on whether to sentence to Tsarnaev to death by lethal injection or to life in prison
without possibility of release.
On Monday, defence attorneys had argued that prosecutors had not shown evidence to
back up the claim that the death
of eight-year-old Martin Richard was one of the aggravating
factors that the jury could take
into account in making its decision on Tsarnaevs fate.
Richards father, William,
during the rst phase of the trial
described being thrown through
the air by the twin pressure
cooker bombs, seeing his three
childrens injuries and making

Defence rests in Boston bombing trial

Jury deliberations will soon
begin to decide the fate of
convicted Boston Marathon
bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as
the defence rested its case on
Monday in the final phase of the
federal death penalty trial.
The jury will soon have to
decide whether Tsarnaev
should be sentenced to death
or life in prison for carrying
out the April 15, 2013, bombing

attack with his older brother,

killing three people and injuring
more than 260 bystanders.
During the sentencing phase,
the defence called witnesses,
including Tsarnaevs family
members, to prove that
Tsarnaev does not deserve the
death penalty because he had
been swayed by his radicalised
older brother, Tamerlan, the
mastermind behind the attacks.

the gut-wrenching decision to

leave badly wounded Martin at
the scene with his wife, who was
also injured, so that he could
save the life of his youngest
daughter, Jane.
None of the Martin family was
called to testify in the trials sentencing phase after they asked
federal prosecutors in a statement
published on the front page of the
Boston Globe newspaper to drop
their quest for the death penalty.
Instead they heard from a
doctor who described the enormous injuries Martin Richard
had sustained.
The injuries to Martin covered his entire body and were
described as extraordinarily
painful, prosecutors wrote in a
court ling yesterday. This evidence comports with the type of
victim impact evidence which
is clearly admissible.
In making their sentencing
decision, the jury is expected to
weigh the aggravating factors of Tsarnaevs crime, including the young age of some of his
victims and the large number of
people injured, against mitigating factors put forth by the defense, which contends Tsarnaev
played a secondary role in an attack planned and driven by his
26-year-old brother, Tamerlan.

A homeless woman packs up her belongings after a night sleeping on the street in Los Angeles yesterday. A report released by the Los
Angeles Homeless Authority on Monday showed a 12% increase in the homeless population in both Los Angeles city and county.

LA homelessness rises 12%

amid slow economic recovery
Reuters
Los Angeles

os Angeles Countys
homeless population has
grown by 12% during the
past two years amid a sluggish
economic recovery that has
left the poorest residents of the
second-largest US metropolitan area falling farther behind,
a study released on Monday
found.
The Los Angeles Homeless
Services Authoritys report
cited stagnant or falling wages
among the lowest-income
earners, a local jobless rate that
remains above state and national averages, and a worsen-

Cuomos
girlfriend
has breast
cancer

crease was recorded within

the city of Los Angeles proper,
home to a notorious downtown
Skid Row district that ranks
among the greatest concentrations of homeless in the US. The
city alone accounted for more
than a third of the countys total.
The number of families with
children included in the overall
count also rose 12% from 2013.
As in past years, many of the
homeless suffered from substance abuse, mental illness
or physical disabilities. The
number who were victims of
domestic violence increased
substantially since 2013, along
with the number considered
chronically homeless.

A major factor cited for rising

homelessness in Southern California has been the rising cost
of housing, coupled with wage
stagnation at the lower end of
the income spectrum that has
led to a housing affordability
crisis in the region.
The states lowest-income
households spent two-thirds of
their income on rent, according
to a recent report by the California Housing Partnership.
That left little money for food,
healthcare, transportation and
other needs.
That study also found that
1.5mn low-income households
- half of them in the greater Los
Angeles region - lacked access
to housing they could afford.

Hollywood excludes women

lm directors: rights group
AFP
Los Angeles

AFP
New York

he television chef girlfriend of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo

yesterday became the latest
American celebrity to announce
she will undergo a double mastectomy after being diagnosed
with breast cancer.
Sandra Lee, 48, revealed her
diagnosis in a tearful television
interview that aired on ABCs
agship Good Morning America show in which she urged
women to get screenings as early as their 20s and 30s.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
currently recommends that
women get one mammogram a
year starting at age 40. Other
groups recommend the procedure only after the age of 50.
Doctors caught the cancer
early and she had opted for a
double mastectomy after undergoing a lumpectomy, Lee
told ABC.
Both the radiologist and
the doctor said, Youre a ticking time bomb. And they both
said, You need - I would just
get them both done, Lee said
of her decision to undergo the
invasive operation.
Lee said boyfriend Cuomo

ing lack of affordable housing.

The economy has improved,
but not for the persons at greatest risk of homelessness, said
Peter Lynn, the authoritys executive director.
According to the agencys
latest biennial count, an estimated 44,300 people are living
on the streets, in cars, in abandoned buildings or in shelters
and government-funded transitional housing on any given
night in Los Angeles County.
That tally, based on a census
conducted in January, is up 12%,
or nearly 5,000 people, across
Los Angeles County, compared
with numbers reported from
the previous survey in 2013.
The same percentage in-

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and his girlfriend Sandra Lee in a file photo. Lee, a television chef
and longtime girlfriend of Cuomo, has been diagnosed with breast cancer.
was the second person she rang
with her diagnosis - after her
sister. He had been extremely
supportive and would be in the
operating room with her, she
said.
Cuomo released a statement
yesterday saying he was devastated by Lees diagnosis and
that he would be taking some
personal time to support his
girlfriend through the operation and her recovery.
Lee said she was speaking
publicly about her diagnosis
because she wants women in
their 20s and 30s to be screened
for cancer.
If it saves one person, and
makes one more person go get a

mammogram, and if theyre sitting down right now watching

this, dont watch this TV.
Go pick your phone up,
and call your doctor and get
your rear end in there and get
a mammogram right now, she
told ABC.
It is becoming increasingly
common for American celebrities to speak out about personal
battles with breast cancer and
mastectomies.
Hollywood
star
Angelina Jolie has been one of the
most high prole symbols in
the battle against cancer, announcing in The New York
Times two years apart that she
had undergone surgery to pre-

vent ovarian and breast cancer.

Jolie wrote in the newspaper in March that she had her
reproductive organs removed
after blood tests revealed what
could be markers for an early
stage of cancer.
Two years previously she
publicised her double mastectomy. Both surgeries sparked
public discussion about the
pros and cons of the procedures
as a preventative measure - before cancer was diagnosed.
Last month, Rita Wilson,
the 58-year-old actress wife of
Hollywood star Tom Hanks, revealed she had also undergone a
double mastectomy after being
diagnosed with cancer.

he American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called

yesterday for government
action to confront widespread
exclusion of women directors
in the US lm and television industries.
In letters to federal and California state civil rights authorities,
it said women directors face a
systematic pattern and practice
of discrimination and exclusion
that cannot be allowed to stand.
Hollywood does not get a
free pass when it comes to civil
rights, Melissa Goodman, an
ACLU attorney in Los Angeles
involved in the campaign, said.
The ACLU - the nations leading civil rights organisation - believes government oversight and
pressure is needed to resolve the
issue, she said.
The 15-page letters were made
public on the eve of the Cannes

lm festival, when Hollywoods

movers and shakers decamp to
the French Riviera for 12 days of
deal-making, networking and
promotion.
Their call for action follows
months of interviews and factnding among 50 women directors who, Goodman said, prefer
to remain anonymous for now.
By some estimates, fewer
women are working as lm and
television directors today than
there were two decades ago, the
ACLU said in a statement.
In 2014, it said, women accounted for only 7% of directors on the years top 250 grossing lms, down two percentage
points from 1998.
In television, meanwhile,
70 American network shows nearly a third of the total - employed no women at all to direct
any of their episodes.
The failure to hire women
directors in film and television cannot be attributed to a
lack of qualified or interested

women, the ACLU argued.

Women are well represented at top lm schools, and the
number of women studying to
become directors is roughly
equal to that of men.
Yet women directors encounter an intentional and discriminatory failure by studios,
networks and producers to consider or hire from their ranks, the
ACLU said in its three letters.
They also run across sex stereotyping in hiring and evaluation, with no help from ineffective programmes that ought to
be correcting Hollywoods gender imbalance.
Nearly every woman with
whom we spoke had either experienced directly or was aware
of the widespread perception
that women are better suited to
and typically only considered
for projects that are womenoriented, such as romantic comedies, women-centered shows,
or, commercials for girl products, the ACLUs letters said.

Bird flu found in Indiana; 15th state to report it

A strain of avian flu that until
now had been found only in the
Western US has cropped up in
Indiana, bringing the total number
of states affected by the virulent
outbreak to 15, the US Department
of Agriculture said on Monday.
The eastward spread of any
strain of the highly contagious H5
virus is worrying to farmers and
investigators, who have hoped that

warmer spring weather would help

lower the number of infections in
birds and curtail the virus spread.
The H5N8 strain found in a
backyard poultry flock in Indiana
is concerning to them also. It is
different from the H5N2 strain
that has been confirmed in scores
of Midwestern farms and resulted
in the death or culling of nearly
30mn birds so far.

The highly pathogenic H5N8

strain had been seen only in
the Pacific flyway during this
outbreak. Federal and state
officials have confirmed it
in commercial chicken and
turkey farms in California and a
backyard poultry flock in Oregon.
It was also found in captive
falcons in Idaho and Washington,
according to the USDA.

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

17

ASEAN
Wife of killed
journo puts
hope in
civilian court
Reuters
Yangon

he wife of a Myanmar
journalist who was killed
in military custody said
yesterday she hopes a civilian
court can provide justice after
an army court martial acquitted
two soldiers accused in connection with the death.
Than Dar has called for a
transparent investigation into
the circumstances surrounding
the death of her husband, Par
Gyi, who she suspects was tortured.
The case triggered calls from
the US and rights groups in Myanmar and abroad for an inquiry.
Myanmars government ordered
the National Human Rights
Commission to investigate.
The commission in turn recommended that the case be tried
in a civilian court.
The judges from civilian
court told me yesterday that
there was no inuence from the
military court on them, she
said. So I think the court might
bring justice in my husbands
case.
Par Gyi was killed in army
custody in October, ve days
after being arrested following a
photo assignment documenting
clashes between the military and
the rebel Democratic Karen Benevolent Army, the Myanmarbased Assistance Association for
Political Prisoners said.
The military said Par Gyi was
detained as a member of an ethnic Karen rebel organisation and
was shot when he tried to steal a
gun from a soldier and escape.
A military court martial acquitted two guards, the Myanmar National Human Rights
Commission said on Friday,
without specifying the charge.

Mentally ill woman

gets 1-year jail term for
insulting monarchy
A Thai court yesterday jailed a
mentally ill 65-year-old woman
for one year for allegedly defaming the monarchy by insulting a
portrait of the nations revered
king. Thitinan Kaewjantranont, a
so-called Red Shirt supporter of
the toppled former government,
was accused of inappropriate
action against a portrait of the
king at the Constitutional Court
in northern Bangkok on July
13, 2012, with no further details
given. Initially Thitinan was
given a suspended sentence
for the 2012 offence as she was
deemed to suffer from mental
health problems, but the Court of
Appeals rolled back the one-year
suspended sentence yesterday
after prosecutors appealed. The
defendants behaviour was so
evil... her actions should not be
imitated by others, so the Court
of Appeals lifted her one year jail
term suspension, a judge said,
reading the ruling. Recognising
she suffers from mental health
issues, the court said she is
ordered to see doctors every six
months, without giving details of
her condition.

A Rohingya woman carries her child who is being treated for malnutrition by a Malaysian medical team a day after they landed at Pantai Pasir Berdengung beach in Langkawi island, in Malaysias northern state of Kedah
yesterday. Right: A migrant believed to be Rohingya uses a mobile phone inside a shelter after being rescued from boats at Lhoksukon in Indonesias Aceh Province.

Southeast Asia urged to save

migrants feared adrift at sea
Underscoring the concern,
a migrant organisation
has said a vessel was adrift
somewhere near the
Thai or Malaysian coast with
around 350 people, while
Thailand called a regional
summit on the issue
AFP
Langkawi

housands of migrants believed to be stranded at

sea without food and water could die unless Southeast
Asian governments act urgently
to rescue them, migrant groups
and the UN warned yesterday.
Underscoring the concern, a
migrant organisation said a vessel was adrift somewhere near
the Thai or Malaysian coast
with around 350 people including women and children
but no food or water, while
Thailand called a regional summit on the issue.
Indonesias navy, however,
said earlier it had turned away
one boat carrying hundreds of
migrants from Myanmar and
Bangladesh, whose fate remains
uncertain.
Dhaka, meanwhile, detained
a trawler after it was cast adrift

A boat that carried Rohingya migrants for three months is seen at

Langkawi island, in Malaysias northern state of Kedah yesterday.
with 116 Malaysia-bound illegal
migrants on board.
Nearly 2,000 boatpeople
from the two impoverished nations many of them members
of Myanmars oppressed Rohingya minority have swum
ashore, been rescued or intercepted off Malaysia and Indonesia in recent days.
Many of them were thin,
weak or in poor health after
weeks at sea.
The Arakan Project, a group
advocating for the rights of
Muslim Rohingya says as many
as 8,000 other people may be
adrift.
The group said it had spo-

ken by phone with passengers

aboard the vessel carrying 350
people, who said they were
abandoned by their Thai human-traffickers.
They told us they have had
no food and water for the last
three days. They have called for
urgent rescue, said Chris Lewa,
the groups founder.
Ali Hussein, a 31-year-old
Rohingya from Myanmar, is
among more than 1,000 people
who swam ashore in Malaysia from their smuggling ships
Sunday and Monday.
Like thousands from the Rohingya community, he said he
was running for my life from

sectarian violence in Buddhistmajority Myanmar.

He and about 800 other people endured 43 days on an overcrowded vessel bound for Thailand as meagre food and water
supplies dwindled to nothing.
The ship diverted to Malaysias Langkawi island where the
hungry passengers leapt into
the sea in a desperate swim to
safety.
There was no more food or
water so we just jumped out of
the boat, he said.
Rohingya survivors of the
route have previously said
of harrowing sea passages in
which passengers died of hunger or sickness or were beaten to
death by smugglers, their bodies tossed overboard.
People-smugglers are believed to be dumping their human cargoes after being diverted from Thailand -- a key stop
on illicit migration routes -where authorities have cracked
down on the trade.
The International Organisation for Migration said searchand-rescue operations were
urgently needed.
It needs a regional effort...
we dont have the capacity to
search for them, but governments do. They have boats and

satellites, said Joe Lowry, a

Bangkok-based spokesman for
the IOM, a 157-member-state
intergovernmental
organisation.
He said those still at sea may
be in a very bad condition or
even dead soon.
Thailand launched its crackdown after discovering dozens
of migrant corpses in secret
jungle camps earlier this month.
Yesterday, it said it would
host a summit on May 29 to address the unprecedented increase in trafficking.
In Europe, governments have
already been forced to look at
concerted action with more
than 1,800 people drowning
this year alone in sinkings of
boats run by migrant smugglers
in the Mediterranean.
Indonesias navy turned away
a vessel that approached its
northwestern Aceh region on
Monday carrying an estimated
400 migrants, naval spokesman
Manahan Simorangkir said yesterday.
The ship was given fuel and
towed out to international waters, he said.
We are not forcing them to
go to Malaysia or Australia. That
is not our business. Our business is they dont enter Indone-

sia because Indonesia is not the

destination, he said.
Bangladeshs coast guard
yesterday said it had detained
a trawler which appeared to be
from Myanmar with 116 illegal
migrants on board and which
was cast adrift when its crew
abandoned it.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR says 25,000 people are
believed to have embarked on
the Southeast Asian route from
January to March, double the
previous year, and that an estimated 300 had died.
Vivian Tan, spokeswoman for
the UNHCR in Bangkok, said
traffickers may now be unwilling to land in Thailand and are
holding people captive at sea
or abandoning them.
Theres denitely a need for
countries in the region to come
together to see how best to (address the problem), she said.
But the IOMs deputy chief
of mission in Indonesia Steven Hamilton said any regional
effort to nd stricken vessels
would be daunting.
Its like trying to nd a needle in a stack of needles, not a
needle in a haystack, he said.
Those waters are dense with
other boats. Youre really not
sure what youre looking for.

El Nino has emerged, Asia braces for crop damage

Reuters
Singapore

n 2009, the El Nino brought

the worst drought in four
decades to India. It razed
wheat elds in Australia and
damaged crops across Asia.
Food prices surged. A closely
watched forecast by Japan yesterday conrmed its return this
year.
A strong El Nino will roil
economies that are heavily dependent on agriculture, particularly India which is already reeling from bad weather. It would
also unhinge supply chains of
commodities such as rice, corn
and palm oil. In fact, the heat is
already up in some places in the
Asia Pacic.
Weve already been hit by
a three-month dry spell. We
could not plant anything since
January. All of us here in Taculen are praying for more rains,
said Benny Ramos, a rice farmer
in North Cotabato in southern

A man walks through a dried-up dam after collecting firewood in Gondang village of East Java province,
Indonesia in this August 4, 2009 file photo.
Philippines. Prayers for rains
in Asia, however, may not be
answered as weather forecasts
show an intensifying El Nino has
set in.
The El Nino, or a warming of
sea-surface temperatures in the
Pacic, can lead to scorching
weather across Asia and east Af-

rica but heavy rains and oods in

South America.
This year, the El Nino arrived
in spring and is likely to continue
into autumn, said the Japan Meteorological Agency, which was
the rst bureau to project the
emergence of an El Nino in 2015.
Forecasts in May tend to be

more accurate as weather models become more dependable

here onwards, said Paul Deane,
senior agricultural economist at
ANZ Bank, Melbourne.
Now we are getting to a point
that you start having more condence in those models, he said.
Grain prices have, however,

not yet factored in the threat to

supplies from an El Nino, largely because similar calls for bad
weather in 2014 did not come to
pass. In fact, good crops replenished stocks last year.
In the absence of a weather
premium, prices of grains such
as wheat and rice remain near
multi-month lows. Wheat futures , down a fth so far this
year, are near ve-year lows,
while Asia rice is at its weakest
since June.
The last El Nino led to tens of
billions of dollars in economic
damages in the Asia Pacic. This
year, a strong El Nino could take
an even bigger toll in certain
countries, analysts said.
For India, it would be a double whammy. Dozens of farmers
have already committed suicide
in India after damage from unseasonal rains this year. Now if
the summer rains are below normal, rural discontent will deepen. The monsoons are vital for
India as half its croplands lack
irrigation while the farm sector

accounts for 14% of its economy.

Indias weather bureau has forecast weaker rainfall this year, citing a 70% El Nino probability.
Crops like soybean and cotton are under El Nino watch for
being sown mainly in rainfed
conditions, said K K Singh, the
head of agricultural meteorology
division of the Indian weather
office. El Nino looms large over
soybean areas of the central parts
and cotton belts of the western
and the northern regions.
Fewer domestic soybeans,
which are crushed to produce
soyoil, will prompt the worlds
No 1 edible oil importer to buy
more palm oil from top producers Indonesia and Malaysia.
Indias rice crop would also be
hit. While the No 2 rice exporter
could use its record-high stocks
to meet a local shortfall, it would
leave less available for sales at a
time when demand could rise
from countries like the Philippines.
More than half of the provinces in the Philippines, one of the

worlds top rice importers, are

already suffering from dryness
which has curbed its rice output.
The other countries bracing
for an El Nino are China, Indonesia and Malaysia. China typically escapes the fury of El Nino,
but it is still on guard for its corn
crop, which needs a lot of water,
said Ma Wenfeng, analyst at Beijing Orient Agri-business Consultant Co.
For the Southeast Asian countries, concerns are about palm.
Although the impact of a dry
spell on oil palm trees will be felt
later, rising Indian demand and
fears of tight supply should drive
up prices of the tropical oil.
Palm prices soared 57% in
2009, partly due to El Nino.
Palm yields may be hit if it is
really dry because that will hurt
the fruits, but otherwise if an El
Nino emerges in June, the effect will only be seen nine to
12 months later, said Roy Lim,
group plantations director at
planter Kuala Lumpur Kepong.
Page 20

20

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

AUSTRALASIA/EAST ASIA

China lauds
Russia ties,
naval drill
AFP
Beijing

People eat outside on a sunny autumn day in Sydney. Australias Bureau of Meteorology has warned the El Nino weather phenomenon, will pack a punch this year.

Substantial El Nino
effect forecast for 15
Natural disasters are likely to hit
agricultural production this year
AFP
Sydney

ustralian
scientists
yesterday
forecast a substantial El Nino
weather phenomenon for 2015, potentially spelling deadly and costly climate
extremes, after officially declaring its onset in the tropical Pacic.
El Nino had been expected last year
when record-breaking temperatures made
2014 the hottest in more than a century.
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology
said while the thresholds were not met
until now it was expected to be a signicant event.
The Japan Meteorological Agency also
conrmed the phenomenon had begun
and forecast it would continue into late
2015.
Theres always a little bit of doubt
when it comes to intensity forecasts, but
across the models as a whole wed suggest
that this will be quite a substantial El Nino

event, David Jones, from the bureaus climate information services branch said.
Certainly the models arent predicting
a weak event. They are predicting a moderate-to-strong El Nino event. So this is a
proper El Nino event, this is not a weak one
or a near miss as we saw last year.
The El Nino phenomenon which is
associated with drought conditions in
Australia can cause havoc for farmers and global agricultural markets, hitting economies heavily dependent on the
land.
The last El Nino ve years ago had a
major impact with monsoons in Southeast Asia, droughts in southern Australia,
the Philippines and Ecuador, blizzards in
the United States, heatwaves in Brazil and
killer oods in Mexico.
It occurs when the trade winds that circulate over waters in the tropical Pacic
start to weaken and sea surface temperatures rise.
US officials announced earlier this year
that the long-awaited El Nino had arrived,
but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration described it as of weak
strength.

Australian scientists said models were

now showing it was likely to see an increased intensity from about September
and have potential global impacts.
Last year we saw some indices, such
as the sea surface temperatures at times
exceed El Nino thresholds... but we didnt
see them all coming together at the same
time or we didnt see it sustained, Jones
explained.
He said this years pattern could create
drier conditions in Indonesia, Papua New
Guinea and parts of Southeast Asia.
In the past it has caused heavier-thannormal rainfall in the eastern Pacic and
South America raising the spectre of
oods and landslides, while the southwest
United States and southern Africa tend to
be drier.
An El Nino is potentially a bad sign
for large swathes of Australia, including
the states of Queensland and New South
Wales, which are already in the grip of severe drought.
Neil Plummer, the bureaus assistant
director for climate information services,
said it was often associated with below average rainfall across eastern Australia and

Antarctic sea ice may

force researchers to
relocate Mawson base
AFP
Sydney

rowing sea ice surrounding Antarctica could

prompt scientists to consider relocating research stations on the continent, according
to the operations manager of the Australian Antarctic Division.
Rob Wooding said that resupplying Australias
Mawson Station the longest continuously operated station in Antarctica relied on access
through to a bay, a task increasingly complicated by
sea ice blocking the way.
We are noticing that the sea ice situation is becoming more difficult, Wooding told a media briefing on Monday ahead of two days of meetings between science and logistics experts in Hobart.
Wooding said that at Mawson, the ice typically
only breaks out for one or two months of the summer, but in the last four to six years this has not
happened every year, and some years only partially.
In the 2013-4 season we couldnt get anywhere
near Mawson due to the sea ice and we had to get fuel
in there by helicopter which is inadequate for the longterm sustainability of the station, he said, adding that
the French and Japanese had similar problems.
Wooding said Australia had not yet come close to
shutting down a base because of sea ice, but had to
look at unusual measures to keep operating.
Antarctic sea ice hit a new record in September
last year, with the US-based National Snow and Ice

Data Center reporting that the ice averaged 20mn

sq km during the month.
Scientists have struggled to predict sea ice conditions, which are believed to be affected by the strong
winds of the Southern Ocean which can push the ice
out from the continent of Antarctica.
Local conditions can also have a dramatic effect,
with icebergs sometimes unpredictably grounding
themselves in inconvenient locations and staying
there for years as more sea ice builds around them.
Wooding said potential solutions included using
large aircraft to deliver crucial fuel and other supplies to the outposts, as well as hovercraft, or funding other ways to resupply stations.
I think a lot of it really will revolve around perhaps shifting more to an over-ice approach, or to
even thinking about where your stations are located
-- I think (that) is something that will have to be
looked at over time as well, he said.
There are some spots that may become more
difficult for operations.
Tony Worby, from an Australian centre studying
Antarctic climate and ecosystems, said he did not
believe the ice would become so thick that operations would become impossible.
But he told the brieng: Its almost an inevitability that we are going to get ships stuck occasionally
its just the nature of working down in Antarctica.
He said because the ice was thickest around the
continent, sometimes several metres, logistics
teams could unload heavy equipment such as tractors off ships and drive them ashore.

warmer temperatures in the southern half

over the hottest months.
The onset of El Nino in Australia in
2015 is a little earlier than usual, he said,
adding that this was the rst such phenomenon in the tropical Pacic since
March 2010.
Prolonged El Nino-like conditions
have meant that some areas are more vulnerable to the impact of warmer temperatures and drier conditions.
El Nino is forecast to strengthen during
the southern hemisphere winter but while
the event increases the risk of drought, it
does not guarantee it -- with only 17 of the
26 El Nino events since 1900 resulting in
widespread drought in Australia.
On the upside, the bureau said it would
expect the tropical cyclone season to be
below average for Australia.
Every El Nino is different and we
know that some years like 1972, 1982 and
1994 really fit the stereotype strongly,
severe drought, very hot daytime temperatures, bushfire activity and so on,
said Jones.
But not every El Nino event follows
that pattern.

hinese state-run media lauded Beijing and

Moscows
increasing
closeness yesterday, dismissing Western suspicion over
the relationship as the two
countries began their rst joint
naval exercises in European
waters.
The drills, involving nine
Russian and Chinese warships
and set to last 11 days, were
launched at a Russian naval
base near the Black Sea port of
Novorossiysk, Moscows defence ministry said late Monday.
It is the Peoples Liberation Armys farthest naval
exercise from Chinas home
waters.
The vessels will now sail for
the Mediterranean, Chinas
official Xinhua news agency
said, adding that the drills
clearly demonstrate that
both countries will work with
each other to safeguard peace
and post-war international
order.
The commentary hit out at
the West, saying that the exercises show those suspicious
of such cooperation that
closer China-Russia relations can contribute to a better
world.
Chinese president Xi Jinping
was in Moscow last week to attend a massive military parade
marking the 70th anniversary

of the surrender of Nazi Germany.

But the event was snubbed
by many Western leaders,
who blame Russian president
Vladimir Putin for the current
crisis in Ukraine.
The Russian defence ministry statement said the naval exercise was not directed against
a third party and has nothing to
do with the political situation
in the region, adding it would
further deepen the friendly
and practical cooperation between the two countries.
The West may have cold
shouldered Russia, but relations between Moscow and
Beijing have become increasingly warm in recent months
and years.
Xi and Putin have developed
strong personal ties and their
countries, both permanent
members of the United Nations Security Council, often
take similar stances there on
divisive issues such as the conict in Syria.
The West should ask themselves whether they did something irksome to both Russia
and China, whose close relationship is disturbing them so
much, Chinas Global Times,
affiliated with the official
Communist Party mouthpiece
Peoples Daily, wrote in an editorial.
Despite cultural differences, both nations, unlike the US
and Japans master and servant ties, are on an equal footing.

Historic island to lose

rights to Canberra
DPA
Sydney

orfolk Island, once a

penal colony for Pacic
convicts, was expected
to lose its self-governing rights
to the Australian central government yesterday in what an
island official called a travesty
of justice.
The tiny picturesque island
had become run down and its
1,800 residents lacked proper
health care, territories minister Jamie Briggs told parliament as he presented legislation on the issue.
Under a new administrative
structure - that has cross-par-

ty support - the islanders will

be stripped of their local parliament and powers handed to
Canberra.
Residents will have to pay
Australian taxes and in return
Australia will provide welfare.
Norfolk Islands minister for
cultural heritage Robin Adams
said the governments legislation was an absolute denial of
human rights and a grave travesty of justice. Norfolk Island
got a notorious reputation as
the worst convicts from Australia were sent there between
1824 and 1855. When the convicts left, the island was settled by descendants of the mutineers of HMS Bounty from
Pitcairn Island.

Stormy day

A passerby holding an umbrella struggles against the wind and heavy rain caused bytropical storm Noul in Tokyo yesterday. Tropical
storm Noul is approaching Japans capital with heavy rain and winds.

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

21

BRITAIN
CONTROVERSY

DECISION

LAW AND ORDER

EMPLOYMENT

LEGAL

Prince Charles letters

to be published today

Govt not to participate in

migrant resettlement plan

Savile sex-attack claim

mishandled: watchdog

GCHQ to recruit
computer experts

Glitter appealing sex

attacks conviction

A series of potentially embarrassing letters

written by Prince Charles to government
ministers in 2004-05 will be published today,
a step that could cast doubt over the political
neutrality of the future king. The government
has long blocked disclosure of what it has
called the particularly frank letters, but its
veto on publication was declared unlawful by
the Court of Appeal last year, a decision which
was upheld by the Supreme Court in March.
The 27 letters to ministers in seven government
departments have been dubbed the black
spider memos because of the princes scrawled
handwriting.

Britain yesterday said it would not participate in

any European Union plan to resettle refugees
using country quotas, saying it preferred to focus
its efforts on tackling people traffickers instead.
The European Commission is planning to legislate
before the end of the year to ensure the burden
of housing immigrants is shared across the bloc,
according to binding quotas based on criteria
such as economic health and population. But
the government yesterday said it would exercise
its right to opt out of any such legislation. We
will not participate in any legislation imposing a
mandatory system of resettlement or relocation,
a Home Office statement said.

A police force missed an opportunity to

investigate Jimmy Savile after mishandling a
report that he sexually assaulted a woman, a
watchdog investigation has found. Detectives at
Sussex Police did not follow all lines of inquiry
properly after a woman alleged in March 2008
that she was attacked by the late entertainer in
a caravan in Worthing in 1970, the Independent
Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said.
Although there was no evidence that officers
deliberately dissuaded the woman from
pursuing the allegation, she felt reluctant to do
so following contact with police, the IPCC report
said.

Computer experts, your country needs you GCHQ is looking for IT specialists to help fight
terrorists and cyber criminals. For the first time,
the UKs listening post is openly recruiting for
computer network operations specialists (CNOS).
The posts have a starting salary of 27,913, are
open to both graduates and non-graduates
who are at least 18, and have complex coding
and problem-solving skills. GCHQ said it wants
committed and responsible applicants, with
the potential to carry out computer operations
to keep the UK safe. They will join a team of
world-class experts who help to protect the
UKs sensitive information, the agency said.

Gary Glitter has begun an appeal bid after he was

found guilty of a string of sex attacks on girls as
young as eight. Lawyers for the former singer have
lodged papers at the Court of Appeal after he was
jailed for 16 years in February. A jury at Southwark
Crown Court had found him guilty of one count
of attempted rape, one count of unlawful sexual
intercourse with a girl under 13, and four counts
of indecent assault. A spokesman for the court
confirmed it had received notice that Glitter was
seeking permission to appeal in March. The court
said it is not known how many or which of the
counts the 71-year-old is challenging. The case is at
an early stage and no hearing dates have been set.

Umunna
to stand for
leadership of
Labour Party
Agencies
London

ising political star Chuka

Umunna yesterday announced he will run for
leadership of the Labour Party as
it seeks to rebuild following last
weeks devastating election defeat.
The 36-year-old posted a video
on Facebook lmed while meeting
activists in the town of Swindon,
which saw a huge swing away from
Labour and helped seal the demise
of Ed Miliband, who stepped down
as leader on Friday.
I will be standing for the leadership of the party, Umunna said.
He said he had held back from
making his announcement while
he spoke to defeated candidates
from the partys disastrous general
election performance.
He appeared alongside defeated
candidate Mark Dempsey, who he
said was one of dozens of thwarted
would-be MPs in key target seats
to whom he had spoken in the days
since defeat forced Miliband to
quit.
Of the 80 Conservative seats
we were targeting, we made a net
gain of just four last Thursday. We
have got to do better than that if
we are to win next time, he said dismissing suggestions from some
in the party that it would need a
decade to recover sufficiently to
pose a threat.
We can and we should be winning in seats like Swindon. North,
South, East, West - we can absolutely do it as a party.
Some have actually suggested
over the last few days that this is
now a 10-year project to get the
Labour Party back into office. I
dont think we can have any truck
with that at all.
I think the Labour Party can do
it in ve years. I want to lead that
effort as part of a really big team,
getting Labour back into office,
changing this country and building a fairer, more equal society.

That is why we all joined the

party in the rst place.
Defending his decision to remain coy about his intention in
weekend interviews, he said he
had wanted to discuss the challenges with defeated candidates
rst and get out of London and
say what I was going to be doing
here.
If victorious, Umunna - whose
father is Nigerian - would become
the rst ethnic-minority leader of
a major British political party.
His slick style and centrist philosophy has raised comparisons to
Tony Blair, the former party leader
who won three general elections
before the party moved to the left
by electing Miliband.
He is the second official candidate after outsider Liz Kendall
threw her hat in the ring on Sunday.
Kendall said it is maybe time
the party had a female leader.
She argued that the party needed to blast out of these old debates about Blairite, Brownite, Old
Labour, New Labour and create
something new, rooted in peoples
values and concerns.
She told BBC Radio 4s Womans Hour: People might think
Im a bit biased in this, but I think
its maybe time that Labour had
a woman leader. People like Margaret Beckett and Harriet Harman have been the acting leaders
of their party, they have blazed a
trail and Id be beyond proud if I
was elected as Labours leader.
Asked if the dynamic would be
better for Labour if it had a female
leader up against Conservative
Prime Minister David Cameron
in the House of Commons, she
said: I dont know. I think, hopefully, people will judge me on the
strength of my arguments. Theres
a long way to go.
The MP for Leicester West said
she did not have all of the answers to what happened to Labour, adding it would be arrogant
to suggest she did.

Prime Minister David Cameron holds his first cabinet meeting after winning the general election at 10 Downing Street, in Westminster, London, yesterday.

Cameron could hold EU

vote earlier than 17-end
Reuters
London

rime Minister David Cameron will hold an early referendum on membership

of the European Union if he can
rst reach a deal that satises
his demands for major changes
in Britains relationship with the
bloc, his spokesman said yesterday.
Cameron, who won a majority
in Thursdays general election,
has pledged to renegotiate Britains ties with Europe and then
give voters an in-out referendum
on EU membership by the end of
2017.

MPs buy new iPads in

70,000 spending spree
London Evening Standard
London

arliament was hit by a new

expenses storm yesterday
after it emerged that 60
MPs went on a 70,000 spending
spree to buy new iPads, iPhones
and laptops just months before
the general election.
The
Commons
expenses
watchdog was so concerned at
the use of public money that
it challenged the MPs over the
signicant capital expenditure.
Former Cabinet minister Peter
Hain claimed nearly 2,000 for
an iPad, iPhone and new PC, according to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority.
It wrote to 60 MPs, demanding
assurances that the equipment
was exclusively and necessarily needed to carry out parliamentary duties.
Some MPs sent back angry
letters, taking exception at the
questioning of their purchases,
which were made last September after IPSA said restrictions
on buying IT equipment would

come into force at the end of the

month.
IPSA concluded that the expenditure was within the rules.
But it advised MPs who were
standing down or have not be reelected to donate the devices to
charity after May 7, while admitting that it could not force them
to do this.
The watchdog is now to review the rules governing capital
expenditure and change them
where necessary.
An IPSA spokesman said:
Having looked into these
claims we are satised that they
are within the rules. The total value of the purchases for all
MPs in September amounts to
71,216.48.
Peter Hain bought an iPad,
iPhone and new PC in September. The total value of those purchases was 1,907.90.
The former welsh secretary is
reported to have previously said
the items were to replace broken
kit.
There is no evidence to suggest
any wrongdoing on his behalf.
But the revelation that so many
MPs were ordering IT equipment

before a moratorium came into

force which would have required them to get prior approval
for purchases sparked criticism.
Sir Alistair Graham, former
chairman of the Committee on
Standards in Public Life, said: It
still seems to show its difficult to
trust MPs on expenses matters.
They seem to want to stretch the
rules beyond what they were intended to provide.
Andy Silvester, campaign director of the Taxpayers Alliance,
said: IPSA must strengthen the
rules and MPs should be obliged
to hand back these expensive
gadgets when they leave Westminster so that fears of another
spending spree in ve years are
allayed.
In guidance to new MPs,
IPSA warned that expenses they
wish to claim for had to be evidenced - so they should keep
receipts. They can apply for an
IPSA payment card, a Barclaycard credit card, to use for allowable expenses.
IPSA said details of their expenses would be published every
two months on its website.

If we can do it earlier we
will, his spokesman said when
asked if Cameron would like
to hold the vote earlier. The
spokesman added that Cameron would seek changes to EUs
basic treaties as part of the renegotiation.
The prospect of a vote on
membership by the EUs second-biggest
economy
has
worried both investors and allies, who say Britains inuence would be diminished if it
dropped out of the worlds biggest trading bloc.
Cameron says he wants to
stay in a reformed EU but has
also said that he would not
be heartbroken if Britain left.

Opinion polls show British voters are divided, with a little over
half in favour of membership.
Since unexpectedly winning a
second term, Cameron has been
offered talks on reforms by European leaders but the EU executive has stressed that there can
be no renegotiation of the EUs
basic treaties.
But Camerons spokesman
was clear: He wants treaty
change.
All the advice that he has had
is that treaty change is required,
for example in terms of some of
the changes that we want to see
in welfare, said the spokesman.
Making amendments to the
basic treaties requires unanim-

Royal party

ity among all 28 states and even

if such an agreement could be
reached those changes would
need to be ratied in each country.
Ratication would require
votes in parliaments or in some
cases national referendums. And
France, among others, fears that
it would not be able to secure a
Yes vote for new EU deals in the
face of mounting Eurosceptic
sentiment.
Last year Cameron set out
plans to limit welfare payments
to EU migrants. Some analysts
believe those measures would
require treaty change, though
lawyers are split on the question.
Cameron wants to cut red tape

PM warned of tough
ght to win over Lords
London Evening Standard
London

Britains Queen Elizabeth meets guests at the Queens

garden party at Buckingham Palace in central London
yesterday.

emanating from Brussels, and

restrict its powers. He thinks
national parliaments should be
able to work together to block EU
legislation. He also wants to limit
EU inuence on British policing
and justice.
Cameron has thus far won
limited backing from other EU
leaders and while German Chancellor Angela Merkel does favour
treaty change, she wants something more narrower as a way of
deepening eurozone integration.
Germany will work with Britain to improve the European
Union, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said after meeting Camerons nance minister,
George Osborne, in Brussels.

ory grandee Baroness

Shephard yesterday warned
David Cameron that he
faces a mammoth task pushing
Tory pledges through the House of
Lords. The former Cabinet minister said Labour and Liberal Democrat peers who vastly outnumber
Tories have set the stage for lots
of late nights.
But she cautioned the prime
minister against stuffing the Lords
with new friendly peers, claiming it would damage the Houses
reputation.
There has been speculation
Cameron will hand peerages to
former coalition ministers voted
out in the election. Meanwhile a
Labour Lord yesterday threatened
to join LibDems to block parts of
the Tory manifesto which went
against the will of the people.
Former cabinet minister Baroness Shephard, who served in
John Majors government, told the
Standard: Its true that if all the
Liberal Democrats (in the Lords)
move to opposition we are very
much outnumbered.
But there is also lots of anxiety

in the Lords that the appointment

of new peers will not do the reputation of the House any good.
She argued Cameron should
rely on negotiation, persuading
crossbenchers and using the Parliament Act to pass legislation.
Baroness Shephard went on:
While things could be hard, itll
be lively and there will be lots of
late nights, with manifesto commitments the elected government
of the day must have its way.
The Conservatives currently
have 224 peers, compared to Labours 213 and the LibDems 101.
Other parties have 15 peers, there
are 22 non-affiliated and 149
crossbenchers.
Even with LibDems in coalition,
Cameron struggled in the Lords,
but he must now push through
major constitutional changes, a
British Bill of Rights and an EU referendum, without their support.
Labour peer Jim Knight claimed
that where the Labour and LibDem manifestos aligned, the two
parties arguably had a mandate to
block Tory commitments.
There has been speculation
Cameron may offer peerages to
former coalition ministers Esther
McVey, David Laws, Danny Alexander and Vince Cable.

22

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

BRITAIN
ART

ENTERTAINMENT

PEOPLE

RULING

CRIME

Architects shortlisted
for Turner Prize

Garden designers hit

out at reality TV show

Cricket star condemns

rude airport treatment

Pet ban for man who

locked dogs in bathroom

Robbers try to
raid hospital ATM

An architects collective that helped transform a

rundown part of Liverpool has been shortlisted
for Britains prestigious Turner Prize, along with
three female artists, organisers said yesterday.
Assemble, a group of 18 activist architects
based in London, was nominated for its project
in the Granby Four Streets area of the northwest
port city. The collective works hand in hand
with the local community, mixing art, design
and architecture. The three other finalists for
the art award are three women living in London:
Bonnie Camplin, 44, Janice Kerbel, 45, and Nicole
Wermers, 43. The winner is announced at a
ceremony on December 7.

Garden designers have accused the BBC of

dumbing down their profession with its new
reality TV show in which six amateurs compete to
win a coveted plot at next weeks Chelsea Flower
Show. The winner of BBC2s The Great Chelsea
Garden Challenge will get the prime site on Main
Avenue. Experienced landscapers will help create
the garden. The Royal Horticultural Society
says the aim of the MasterChef-style knockout
competition, which began on Monday night, is to
nurture new talent and gain a wider TV audience
for gardening. But some professional designers
say allowing an amateur to build a Chelsea garden
demeans their industry.

Cricketer Kumar Sangakkara

has hit out at the rude and
discourteous treatment he
says he received as he arrived
in the UK. The Sri Lankan
player, currently the number
one ranked Test batsman, said
he suffered an horrendous
experience at the hands of a member of
immigration staff at a London airport. He wrote
on Twitter: I understand the need for vigilance
but common courtesy and manners is not too
much to ask for... Luckily for me it was one
person and just this once.

A pet owner has been banned from keeping

animals for three years after seven dogs, including
four puppies, were found living in squalid and
cramped conditions. Gary Peterkins animals
were confined to a cupboard, a hallway and a
bathroom without light, ventilation or food, the
RSPCA said. A three-year-old greyhound cross
called Kit was discovered by the RSPCA with her
four puppies, aged six to eight weeks old, living in a
cupboard covered in urine-soaked newspaper with
hazardous junk piled up in one corner. A Lakeland
terrier, called Penny, was found in the hallway and
a four year-old greyhound cross named Spring was
shut inside a small bathroom.

A gang of robbers attacked and tied up hospital

security guards before attempting to steal
thousands of pounds from a cash machine.
Four men burst into Queen Marys Hospital,
Roehampton, in the terrifying raid around
3.30am on Sunday. Staff told how the robbers
battled with security guards as patients slept yards
away, before trying to use an angle grinder to get
inside an ATM in the ground-floor foyer. A member
of staff said: They knew what they were doing.
They went straight for the guards. They were tied
up and dragged across the floor... but a guard who
they hadnt seen called police. The four robbers
fled the scene before emergency services arrived.

Fanatic
plotted to
kill Charles
to make
Harry king

Harry in Christchurch

Heathrow
expansion
not likely,
says mayor

AFP
London

right-wing fanatic who

felt marginalised because
of his ginger hair plotted the assassination of Prince
Charles in the hope that his redhaired son Harry would become
king, a court heard yesterday.
Mark Colborne, 37, from
Southampton in southern England, is on trial accused of preparing terrorist acts for several
months in the run-up to his arrest in June 2014.
In a notebook seized by police,
Colborne said he wanted to kill
dark haired people, prosecutor Annabel Darlow told the Old
Bailey court in London.
I want them to see my transition from poor red-haired
victimised minority that is constantly walked over to a fully
transformed military terrorist,
he wrote.
Colborne
allegedly
said
he wanted to put a bullet in
Charles head.
I would sacrice my life for
that one shot. Kill Charles and
William and Harry become king.
Kill the tyrants, he wrote.
Colborne compared himself to
Anders Behring Breivik, a Norwegian extremist who in 2011
killed 77 people in a murderous
spree directed at proponents of
multiculturalism.
In his notes Colborne also referred to his racial hatred for
non-Aryans whom he refers to as
blacks and Caucasian idiots and
his hatred of the prevailing system
and organs of the state, the BBC
quoted Darlow as saying.
During the trial proceedings
on Monday, Darlow said that
Colborne perceived himself as
marginalised and belittled by
society because he was a white,
ginger-haired male.
He trawled the Internet for explosives and acquired chemicals
necessary to create the deadly
poison cyanide, as well buying
up dust masks, metal lter funnels, plastic syringes and latex
gloves, the court was told.

The appointment of Johnson

to Camerons political
cabinet was seen by some
as an indication the new
administration was leaning
towards rival Gatwick for
much-needed expansion
Agencies
London

Prince Harry plants vegetables with members of the University of Canterbury Student
Volunteer Army in Christchurch, New Zealand, yesterday.

Woman refuses to erase

stripes from building
London Evening Standard
London

he property developer
who painted red and
white stripes on her multi-million-pound Kensington
townhouse yesterday insisted
she would defy a council order to
remove them.
Zipporah Lisle-Mainwaring,
71, said: It is my house. I am
entitled to do what I wish with
it, and there are a lot of people
who agree with me.
The developer was accused
of carrying out the unusual
paint job on the building
currently used as a warehouse
to get her own back on
neighbours who objected to her
plans to demolish the property
and rebuild it as a home with a
two-storey basement.
Although she did not require
planning permission to paint
the building, Kensington and
Chelsea Council ordered her
to repaint it following a large
number of complaints.
But speaking to the Stand-

having the commission at all,

Johnson told LBC radio: You
may well ask.
The prospect of expanding
Heathrow and putting in a third
runway - and then a fourth
runway because (they) are very
clear that thats what they want
- are virtually nil, he said.
Its not thought through,
its not likely to happen.

ard in her first full interview,

Lisle-Mainwaring hit out at
her hysterical neighbours
and the councils handling of
the matter, saying she would
appeal the order in the courts
and adding that the court process would likely take a year,
meaning the stripes will not be
removed any time soon.
She added: For most people it is cheaper to do what the
wretched council wants than
argue with them. There has
been so much misinformation
about this. My neighbours say
they want the building kept in
commercial use. But that is not
true. What they mean is they
dont want any building work
going on ... It is just not realistic.
They (the stripes) add to the
gaiety of the nation. Children
absolutely love it ... They are
fun.
I did not think they (my
neighbours) would get quite so
excited. I did not realise they
would get hysterical.
She denied the paint-job had
been done to spite her neigh-

bours, claiming she had done

it to point out to them that it
is currently a warehouse, not a
house, and, simply, because she
is entitled to as they are
entitled to object to her planning proposals.
People have mixed motives
for doing things. My neighbours have not played nice,
she said.
This was intended to be my
nal house. It is not going to be
sold in my lifetime. It is not a development property. At this rate
it may well be my sarcophagus.
The council is enforcing a
section 215 notice under the
Town and Country Act, which
provides a local planning authority with the power to order owners to clean up land or
buildings when its condition
adversely affects the amenity
of the area. But the decision
can be appealed in the courts.
The news of such planned action will come as a blow to local
residents, who have branded
the faade an eyesore and
said it is reminiscent of a beach
hut.

oris Johnson said he believed the chances of the

new Conservative government backing the expansion
of Heathrow was virtually nil
as he vowed to continue his
fight against a new runway in
Parliament.
The appointment of the
newly-elected MP for Uxbridge
and South Ruislip - who also
remains London mayor for the
next year - to David Camerons
political cabinet was seen by
some campaigners as an indication the new administration
was leaning towards rival Gatwick for much-needed expansion.
A recommendation as to
whether a new runway is built
at Gatwick or one of two shortlisted runway-expansion plans
at Heathrow should go ahead
is due in a few weeks time in
a report by the Whitehall-appointed Airports Commission,
led by Sir Howard Davies.
The Conservative manifesto
committed only to respond
to its recommendations and
Johnson said that if it came out
in favour of Heathrow it should
be filed vertically like others
that came to similar conclusions over recent decades.
Asked what was the point of

Star Wars exhibition

The prospect of expanding

Heathrow and putting in
a third runway - and then
a fourth runway because
(they) are very clear that
thats what they want - are
virtually nil
Urging ministers to swing
behind opposition to Heathrow
expansion, he said: It is for
others to man up, to get some
cojones and actually to say
what they think should happen.
The truth is that Heathrow
is just undeliverable and the
sooner we face that the sooner
our salvation will come.
Asked if, like fellow Tory
MP Zac Goldsmith, he would
quit the Commons if the party
backed more runways at Heathrow, he said: I think would
be better off staying in Parliament to fight the case.
I would certainly oppose
the expansion of Heathrow, as

Rail staff vote

for strike action
DPA
London

A fan poses with the wax figure of Star Wars character Yoda
at the Star Wars At Madame Tussauds attraction in London
yesterday.

would every other MP in West

London.
Johnson warned that a congestion charging zone could be
brought in around Heathrow if
plans to expand the airport are
given the go-ahead.
The mayor said he was
against motorists paying a fee
to use roads to the airport as
it would be the wrong thing
for locals, businesses and passengers. But in a sign of his
increasing desperation to slow
the march towards a third runway, he said the policy could be
needed to cope with an increase
in vehicle numbers.
We might have to set up a
congestion charge zone around
Heathrow to cope with the extra cars coming in, he said.
I dont want to, I think its
the wrong thing, but if you look
at the pollution impacts that
would be caused by having a
third runway and a fourth runway, the congestion impacts,
you would almost certainly
have to go forward with such a
proposal.
Johnsons remarks came as
defeated Liberal Democrat MP
Vince Cable warned that the
Tories would press ahead
with expansion of Heathrow.
In his first interview since
losing his Twickenham seat at
last weeks election, the former
business secretary said: I suspect now the Conservatives are
back in with a majority government, they will press ahead
with Heathrow expansion it
will give Osborne the confidence to press ahead.
I think this government is
going to become extremely unpopular.

housands of Network
Rail staff yesterday
voted in favour of
strike action over pay, increasing the possibility of
Britains first national rail
strike for 20 years.
More than 80% of nearly
10,000 members of the Rail,
Maritime and Transport
(RMT) union voted for strike
action, said Mick Cash, the
unions general secretary.
This is a massive mandate for action and shows the
anger of safety-critical staff
across the rail network at attacks on their standards of
living and their job security,
Cash said.
The union executive will
now consider this overwhelming mandate for action
and decide on our next steps
aimed at securing pay and
workplace justice, he said.
Mark Carne, Network Rails
chief executive, urged union
leaders to come back to the
table for further discussion,

saying the company had made

a generous pay offer.
We will do everything we
can to keep our railways moving during these times of uncertainty and to stop the RMT
from behaving in a way that
will cause untold misery to
our passengers and will hurt
the economy, Carne said.
The RMT members had rejected the companys offer of
a 500 annual bonus tied to
a three-year pay freeze and
the removal of a guarantee
against redundancies.
Carne said the company,
which operates most of Britains railway infrastructure,
had promised no redundancies for the next two years.
He accused the union of rejecting a number of proposals that would boost productivity, removing our ability to
offer them more.
Our employees have received pay rises eight times
higher than other public sector workers over the last four
years and have now been offered a deal for the next four
years that is unmatched elsewhere, Carne said.

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

23

EUROPE

220 Russian troops died

in Ukraine, says report
Nemtsov report claims
hundreds of Russian soldiers
were forced to end their
contracts before being
deployed to Ukraine
AFP/Reuters
Moscow

llies of murdered Russian

opposition leader Boris
Nemtsov have unveiled a
report that he worked on, claiming that hundreds of Russian soldiers have been killed ghting in
Ukraine.
The report based on media
articles and information from
families of Russian soldiers allegedly killed in Ukraine repeats widespread allegations of
Russian military involvement in
Ukraine that Moscow has consistently denied.
We gathered what we think is
comprehensive proof of the presence of Russian troops, said Ilya
Yashin, one of the authors of the
report entitled Putin. War as he
presented it to reporters in Moscow.
Nemtsov a former deputy
prime minister who became a
erce Kremlin critic had started work on the report before he
was gunned down just yards from
the Kremlin in late February.
The 64-page report said the
Russian army made two major
incursions into Ukrainian territory in the summer of 2014 and in
the winter of 2015.
Both turned the tables in the
ghting and came ahead of negotiations on the conict.

All key military successes of

the separatists were ensured by
regular Russian army contingents, Yashin said of the conict
between Kievs forces and separatists in eastern Ukraine, which
has resulted in over 6,200 deaths
since April 2014.
The rst major deployment
of the regular Russian army to
eastern Ukraine resulted in the
deaths of soldiers around the
strategic railway hub of Ilovaysk,
with more than 150 coffins returning to Russia after ghting
there.
Their relatives received 3mn
roubles in compensation provided they did not speak publicly
about the deaths, according to
the report.
After the winter incursion at
least 70 troops died, including
around the town of Debaltseve,
which was captured by the separatists shortly after the signing of
the latest truce agreement.
The report added that the
relatives of these troops killed
around Debaltseve were left
without compensation.
The army forced the soldiers
to officially end their contracts
before deploying them across
the frontier, the report says, and
threatened relatives with criminal cases, forcing them to stay
quiet.
Authors said the Russian soldiers earned up to 90,000 roubles ($1,774) a month.
Moscow further backed the recruitment of volunteers through
army offices and oversaw the
transfer of military equipment
across the border, including the

surface-to-air BUK system that

was used to shoot down the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over
the Donetsk region in July last
year, Yashin said.
The report also said Russia had
spent more than 53bn roubles
($1.04bn) in 10 months to fund
the conict and deprived people
of 2.75tn roubles of money lost to
ination.
Nemtsov, who was serving as
a regional MP at the time of his
death, made several requests for
information from the security
services and border authorities
regarding the ow of soldiers
across the border to Ukraine,
without receiving any response.
Russian
authorities
have
ercely denied accusations from
Kiev and the West that they are
backing the separatist rebellion
in Ukraine.
The Kremlin refused to comment on the claims, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling Russian news agencies: I am not
familiar with the report so I have
nothing to say.
Yashin said the nal version
of the report had a lot of debatable data removed so that every
letter, every word, every fact and
every testimony has been proven.
The war with Ukraine is an
undeclared war, a vile cynical
war which amounts to a crime
against all of the Russian nation.
Putin will go down in history as
the president who made Russians and Ukrainians foes, said
Yashin.
Nemtsovs colleagues believe
the Kremlin is implicated in his

Yashin presenting the independent expert report entitled Putin. War in Moscow yesterday. Allies of
murdered Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov (pictured on the left of Yashin) unveiled a report
based on research he compiled that they claimed proved large-scale Russian military involvement in
Ukraine.
brazen killing as all opposition
gures are closely watched and
often followed, while the bridge
where he was shot is heavily
monitored by police.
The Kremlin has denied any
involvement and ve men from
Russias volatile North Caucasus region have been arrested on
charges of carrying out the hit.
Nemtsovs former colleague
and friend, former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov, said that

Nemtsov wanted to compile the

report to offer an alternative
source of information for Russians who are overwhelmingly
dependent on state television.
It is a document for Russian
citizens to be able to compare information and understand what
is happening, he said. Propaganda ... is not letting citizens
make their own conclusions.
The investigation of Nemtsovs murder has stalled, Kasy-

anov said, as the mastermind is

still at large.
The leading suspect currently
in detention, former Chechen
police officer Zaur Dadayev, has
retracted his confession amid allegations he was tortured in custody.
Yashin said that Nemtsovs
work on the report could be one
of the reasons for his killing and
called for investigators to look
into it.

Three soldiers killed,

one injured in east:
Ukraine military
Three Ukrainian soldiers have
been killed and another one
injured as clashes with pro-Russian rebel fighters flared despite
a shaky truce, Kievs military
spokesman said yesterday.
The situation is still tense in the
conflict zone, spokesman Andriy
Lysenko told journalists in Kiev.
Over the past 24 hours three
Ukrainian soldiers died and one
was injured in fighting.
He said pro-Russian separatists
were firing 120mm and 122mm
calibre weapons at Ukrainian positions in violation of the battered
February ceasefire agreement
and that the Ukrainian military
was responding to the attacks.
Despite the peace deal damping
down fighting around much of
the eastern conflict zone, the daily
casualty tolls along the frontline
with the self-declared Donetsk
and Luhansk peoples republics
have been increasing in recent
days, after weeks of relative calm.
According to the United Nations,
the fighting in eastern Ukraine
has killed more than 6,200
people since last April, when Kiev
launched a military operation
against pro-Russian separatists.

The work Nemtsov did was

dangerous and provoked irritation in the Kremlin, he said.
The website of the report was
opening slowly yesterday afternoon and Yashin said it was undergoing a cyber DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack.
He and other authors of the
report have received threats in
the course of their work to nish
the pamphlet, he said, calling it
psychological pressure.
The West rst imposed sanctions on Russian businessmen
and officials after Moscow annexed Ukraines Crimean Peninsula in March 2014, before unrest
spread to the east of the country.
Reuters has collected testimony from soldiers and their families about Russian servicemen
ghting in Ukraine, which also
calls into question the Kremlins
arguments.

Kerry has frank talks with Putin

Reuters
Sochi, Russia

Putin shakes hands with Kerry during their meeting at the Bocharov
Ruchei state residence in Sochi.

S Secretary of State John

Kerry said he had frank
talks about Ukraine, Syria
and Iran with Russian President
Vladimir Putin yesterday and
said it was important to keep in
contact.
With the United States and
Russia on opposite sides of the
conicts in Ukraine and Syria,
Kerrys trip appeared designed
as much to maintain contact as
anything else with US-Russian
relations at their lowest ebb since
the Cold War.
Kerry met Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov for more
than four hours before he sat
down with Putin in the Black Sea
resort of Sochi in what was the
highest-level US visit to Russia
since the Ukraine crisis began in
the autumn of 2013.

Germany gives US NSA huge

amount of telephone, text data
Reuters
Berlin

ermanys BND intelligence agency sends

mammoth amounts of
phone and text data to the US
National Security Agency (NSA)
each month, Die Zeit Online reported, highlighting the scale of
spying co-operation which has
unleashed a political row here.
Critics have accused Chancellor Angela Merkels staff of giving
the nod to the BND to help the
NSA spy on European rms.
They also say officials lied
about the prospects of a US-

German no-spy deal before the

2013 election.
Polls show the scandal is starting to hurt popular Merkel whose
office is responsible for the oversight of intelligence.
Citing condential documents, Die Zeit Online reported
yesterday that of about 220mn
pieces of metadata gathered per
day, some 1.3bn pieces per month
go to the NSA.
The data includes raw material from phone calls and text
messages which shows contact
details and times of activity but
does not contain content.
In particular, it sends raw material on foreign communication

in crisis regions, said Zeit Online.

It is questionable as to
whether this practice is covered
by German laws, wrote Die Zeit,
citing a BND official responsible
for data protection.
A spokeswoman for the BND
declined to comment on the report.
The agency has now halted
its Internet surveillance for the
NSA, German intelligence sources said last week.
Privacy is a potent issue in
Germany due to extensive surveillance by Communist East
Germanys Stasi secret police
and also by the Gestapo in the
Nazi era.

Gay sailor to deter Russian subs from Swedish waters

A Swedish peace group said yesterday that it
has lowered a sonar device into the Baltic Sea off
Stockholm to deter Russian submarines, emitting the
message This Way if You Are Gay.
The Swedish Peace and Arbitration Societys (SPAS)
cheeky device emits the message in Morse code and
is designed to scare off subs from Russia, which does
not share Swedens acceptance of homosexuality.
The so-called Singing Sailor also features a flashing
pink neon outline of a seaman clad only in white
underpants and a boaters hat, gyrating his hips

above the text Welcome to Sweden Gay Since

1944.
That was the year when Sweden decriminalised
homosexuality.
In contrast, rights groups have recently sounded the
alarm over a rising number of homophobic attacks
in Russia, saying that a ban on gay propaganda
effectively legalises discrimination.
SPAS said on its website that its device was made to
provide interesting info for any submarines passing
close by.

Had frank discussions with

President #Putin & FM #Lavrov on key issues including
#IranTalks, #Syria, #Ukraine,
Kerry said on his official Twitter
feed. Important to keep lines of
communication between the US
and #Russia open as we address
pressing global issues.
Speaking before the talks began, Putins spokesman, Dmitry
Peskov, welcomed the meeting as
a positive step.
Through dialogue, it is possible to nd ways for a normalisation, closer co-ordination in
dealing with international problems, he said, although adding:
Russia was never the initiator of
this cooling of relations.
Ties between Washington and
Moscow have deteriorated since
Russia annexed Ukraines Crimea Peninsula in March 2014 and
backed pro-Russian separatist
rebels in eastern Ukraine.
Moscow accuses Washington

of orchestrating last years overthrow of a Ukrainian president

who was supported by Russia.
The United States has accused
Russia of failing to withdraw
heavy equipment such as air defence systems, tanks and artillery
from eastern Ukraine in violation
of a peace plan agreed in February and known as Minsk 2.
Russia denies Western and
Ukrainian accusations that it is
arming the pro-Russian separatists battling the government and
supporting them with its own
military forces.
More than 6,100 people have
been killed since April 2014 in the
Ukraine crisis.
The United States and European Union imposed economic
sanctions on Russia after it took
over Crimea and have intensied
them since.
The US official hinted they
could be eased if Russia complied
with the Minsk plan, which calls

for withdrawing heavy weaponry

and respecting Ukraines border.
Despite the strains, Putin
smiled as he met Kerry, and the
US secretary of state and the
Russian foreign minister earlier in the day placed wreaths at
a memorial to World War II victims.
However, Russias foreign
ministry spokeswoman said Lavrov gave Kerry baskets of fresh
tomatoes and potatoes, a possible allusion to Russias decision last year to ban imports of
European fruit and vegetables in
response to Western sanctions.
He also presented Kerry with
a T-shirt with Victory and
1945-2015, a reference the 70th
anniversary of victory over Nazi
Germany.
Western leaders boycotted
Saturdays Moscow parade to
mark the occasion because of its
role in the Ukraine crisis.
Kerry gave Lavrov a leather

portfolio, US officials said.

Washington and Moscow are
also at odds over the civil war in
Syria, where Russia has backed
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
while the United States wants
a political transition to end his
familys 45-year-old rule.
While there have been no outward signs of a Russian reversal
on Syria, US officials hope recent
defeats to Assads forces may
change the Russian stance.
Insurgents overran the northwestern Syrian town of Jisr al
Shughour last month and the
provincial city of Idlib a month
earlier, both in the rich agricultural province of Idlib.
A senior US official also said
it was important to meet Putin
to discuss the Iran nuclear talks,
which aim to reach an agreement by June 30 under which
Tehran would curb its atomic
programme in exchange for the
easing of economic sanctions.

Airbus holds rst

A400M test ight
since deadly crash
AFP
Seville

irbus carried out yesterday the rst test ight of

a new A400M since one
of the military transport planes
crashed in Spain over the weekend, killing four people.
In a sign of the companys
condence in the plane, the
boss of Airbus Military Fernando Alonso was onboard the
test ight, which took off from
the companys Toulouse, France
headquarters bound for Seville,
site of Saturdays crash.
The A400M behaved normally, all scheduled tests were
carried out. This is our tribute
(to the victims), Alonso wrote
on his Twitter account.
Onlookers and journalists applauded as the huge transport
plane landed at Seville airport at
4.35pm (1435 GMT) after doing a
loop above the runway.
Passengers on the A400M

were met at the airport by Airbus staff before heading to Sevilles cathedral for a memorial mass for the victims of the
crash, the rst of an A400M
military airlifter.
The A400M that crashed in a
eld and burst into ames just
north of Sevilles airport was
several minutes into a test ight,
and due to be delivered to Turkey in July.
Two of the six people on
board the plane, a mechanic and
an engineer, survived. They are
in hospital in serious condition.
Earlier yesterday Spain became the fth country to ground
its A400Ms awaiting for the
causes of the accident to become clearer, following similar
decisions by Britain, Germany,
Turkey and Malaysia.
France, which has six of the
planes in active operation, said
it would only carry out the most
pressing ights until more facts
emerge on why the plane went
down.

People take pictures of an Airbus A400M landing in Seville after a

test flight yesterday.
Obviously, as a precaution,
while waiting for the results of
the investigation, it is better if
the planes in production and
which are about to be tested do
not y without knowing what
actually happened, Spanish Defence Minister Pedro
Morenes said on radio station
Onda Cero.
The A400M is a large, propeller-driven transport aircraft
that is being assembled in Seville.
The planes 12-wheel landing
gear allows it to land on soft and
rough airstrips as short as 750m,
making it ideal for military and

humanitarian missions.
It was launched in 2003 to respond to the needs of seven Nato
members Belgium, Britain,
France, Germany, Luxembourg,
Spain and Turkey with Malaysia joining in 2005.
A total of 174 A400M planes
have been ordered by the eight
nations, which are seeking to
replace their ageing Hercules
eets.
About 20 of the planes are
currently on the assembly line
in different stages of production, Airbus said, and all must
undergo testing before they can
be delivered to clients.

24

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

EUROPE
Pope says environmental sinners will answer to God
AFP
Vatican City

P
Francis: The planet has enough food for all, but it seems that there is a
lack of willingness to share it with everyone.

ope Francis has warned

the powerful of the earth
that they will answer to
God if they fail to protect the environment to ensure the world
can feed its population.
The planet has enough food
for all, but it seems that there is
a lack of willingness to share it
with everyone, Francis said at a
mass to mark the opening of the
general assembly of the Catholic

charitable organisation Caritas.

We must do what we can so
that everyone has something to
eat, but we must also remind the
powerful of the earth that God
will call them to judgment one
day and there it will be revealed
if they really tried to provide food
for Him in every person and if
they did what they could to preserve the environment so that it
could produce this food.
The striking comments from
the Argentinian Pontiff came
ahead of the upcoming publication of a papal encyclical on the

ethical aspects of environmental

issues that is eagerly awaited by
campaigners for action to address global warming.
An encyclical is a statement of
fundamental principles designed
to guide Catholic teaching on a
subject.
It is issued in the form of a
letter from the Pope to bishops
around the world.
Campaigners
on
climate
change believe that a signal from
Francis that the Catholic Church
considers global warming a grave
danger could inuence the global

Refugee quotas plan

divides EU: sources
AFP
Brussels

U plans for binding refugee

quotas across the 28-nation bloc could be sunk because Britain, Ireland and Denmark do not have to accept them,
European sources said yesterday.
The European Commission,
the EU executive, is due today to
propose quotas as part of a new
migration policy after the worst
migrant shipwreck left 750 people dead in the Mediterranean
last month.
As the death toll mounts off
its southern shores, the European Union is trying to put in
place a strategy to deal with both
the growing number of arriving
refugees and to halt the inow at
source in conict-torn North Africa and the Middle East.

The nal plan is supposed to

be put before EU leaders at their
June 25-26 summit but immigration is such a sensitive political
issue for many member states
that agreement could prove elusive, especially when it comes to
sharing the burden.
Commission
spokeswoman
Natasha Bertaud said yesterday
that Britain and Ireland have
opt-in rights on certain policy
areas under EU treaties, meaning in this case that they had the
right to decide whether or not to
participate in a quota system.
Denmark has an opt-out
right whereby they do not participate at all on this issue, Bertaud added.
The exemptions granted to
the three countries are making
it difficult for the commission
to impose binding quotas on the
25 remaining EU member states,

European sources told AFP.

The issue is so divisive that
after further talks yesterday, ofcials still had not fashioned
an agreement before the 28 EU
Commissioners were due to meet
today to formally sign off on the
new migration policy, the sources
said.
Commission President JeanClaude Juncker has said he wants
the quotas to be binding, commission sources told AFP, but
Britain, among others, has insisted it will only accept quotas
on a voluntary basis.
Some member states have already made a major contribution
to global resettlement efforts,
said a draft copy of the proposals
seen by AFP.
But others offer nothing -and in many cases they are not
making an alternative contribution in terms of receiving and ac-

cepting asylum requests or helping to fund the efforts of others,

the draft added.
Hungary is one member state
that has faced a huge inux of
refugees recently, mainly from
Kosovo, but also Syria, Iraq and
Afghanistan.
The European idea that
somebody allows refugees into
their own country and then distributes them to other member
states is mad and unfair, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday.
Orban, like many of his European partners, is facing an opposition upsurge of anti-immigrant
populism.
The UN High Commissioner
for Refugees has urged the EU to
admit annually a total of 20,000
Syrians who have taken refuge in
neighbouring countries.
But one European source said

no gure has so far been offered

to the Commissioners.
Until now, EU states have admitted refugees on a voluntary
basis under the principle that
their asylum requests are processed in the country where they
land, not the country they are
trying to get to.
Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Malta have borne the brunt of the recent upsurge in migrants crossing the Mediterranean and have
called on their EU peers to take
up more of the burden.
The EU statistics agency Eurostat said yesterday that EU member states granted protection to
more than 185,000 asylum seekers last year, an increase of nearly
50% over 2013.
The gure includes those given
refugee status.
See also page 21

Many would-be migrants to Europe

die unrecorded, says Dutch study
Reuters/DPA
Amsterdam

lmost all the migrants who

died seeking a better life
in Europe over the past
quarter century vanished without trace, according to research
released by a Dutch university
yesterday.
Authorities in southern Europe found the bodies of just
3,188 would-be migrants between 1990 and 2013, yet about
1,800 people are thought to have
drowned in the Mediterranean
already so far this year.
The survey by VU University Amsterdam was the rst in
which researchers studied death
registries in southern European
countries to establish how many
migrants had been recorded as
dying in transit.
The numbers come as the European Unions member states
argue over how refugees entering the 28-nation bloc should be
apportioned between countries.
Britain opposes a quota system.
The dangers faced by those
seeking refuge from wars in
the Middle East and North Africa were highlighted last month
when 900 people drowned in the
Mediterranean after their rickety boat sank on its journey from
Libya.
The incident prompted calls
for a European Union rescue
mission to be strengthened after
a similar Italian coastguard mission was suspended last year.
But Thomas Spijkerboer, a
professor who worked on the
study, said the change of heart
underscored the need for more
data about the nature and scale
of the dangers faced by migrants.
Policymakers in Germany,
the Netherlands and Britain said

this kind of large-scale mission

encourages people to cross and
leads to more lives lost. But after
the big shipwreck in April they
changed their minds, he said.
They are now spending more
money on something which a few
months ago they said would cost
lives. Its irresponsible to make
these major policy decisions
without asking whether the factual assumptions are right.
Migrant tragedies happen
regularly in the Mediterranean,
but death tolls from shipwrecks
and other fatal accidents are usually estimated because authorities ignore how many people are
missing, and many bodies lost at
sea are never found.
Researchers found migrant
death numbers had risen steadily
between 1990 and 2000, and remained at a high level ever since.
Anecdotal evidence of yet
higher numbers since the 2011
Arab Spring appeared to reect
increased media attention to the
phenomenon, Spijkerboer said.
Only 40% of the bodies found
since 1990 were identied, with
migrants from further aeld in
Afghanistan and sub-Saharan
Africa the least likely ever to be
named.
Spijkerboer urged European
governments to set up a central
repository of coroners photographs of identifying marks such
as tattoos to help the Red Cross
and similar organisations to
identify the dead.
While the study focused on
Europes southern borders, he
said there was also evidence
of migrants dying crossing the
Black Sea to Europes east.
This database underlines
decades of indifference of European states. They had this information all the time, but failed to
collect it, said Spijkerboer.

discussion on the severity of the

problem, what has caused it and
what can be done.
Pope Francis is due to address
the UN Special Summit on Sustainable Development in September and the international
community will seek to agree a
universal agreement on climate
change at a summit in Paris in
December.
Climate change sceptics have
warned Francis not to take sides
in the debate but all the signs so
far are that he sees the problem as
man-made and as one which can

be alleviated by political action.

Caritas is a confederation
of 165 Catholic charity and aid
groups operating in 200 countries worldwide.
It holds a general assembly
once every four years. This years
meeting, the rst under Franciss
papacy, runs to Saturday.
Manila archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle is tipped to take over
from Hondurian cardinal Oscar
Rodriguez Maradiaga as the organisations president, the latter
cleric having served the maximum two terms.

A student of the Roentgen school takes a selfie with Merkel

during her visit to the school in Berlin.

Merkel slams clichs

of work-shy Greeks,
tightsted Germans
AFP
Berlin

weeping
stereotypes
about work-shy Greeks
and stingy Germans are
wrong, Germanys Chancellor
Angela Merkel warned yesterday, praising Europes diversity to pupils at a Berlin high
school.
Merkel noted that she has
tried to ght against clichs
among Europeans.
Namely, one suddenly saying Oh, the Bulgarians, the
Greeks, we know what theyre
like, she said. We cant ever
say that.
She was answering questions from teenagers at a
school where many pupils have
immigrant, especially Turkish,
backgrounds.
The visit was part of European Union Day, initiated by
Merkel nine years ago to raise
awareness among youngsters.
The Germans are all so different, the Turks are all so different, she added. If I start
now to say, The Greeks are not

so hardworking, and the Germans, they of course are hardworking, on the other hand
they are tightsted ... neither
are correct.
You nd generous people,
you nd petty-minded people, she said, adding that you
can really get to know diversity
in Europe.
At the height of the eurozone
crisis in May 2011, Merkel, who
won popularity at home for
her perceived strong guardianship of German interests,
faced criticism for comments
she made about pensions and
holiday entitlements in several
southern European countries.
Back then the Chancellor said that we cant have a
common currency with some
getting a lot of holidays and
some very little, the national
DPA news agency quoted her as
saying at a meeting of her conservatives in the western town
of Meschede.
Berlins insistence on tough
reforms in return for aid to
struggling eurozone peers in
turn sparked claims of Germans being penny-pinching.

Journalist calls for

more protection for
whistleblowers
DPA
Brussels

Demonstrators dressed in black take part in a protest against European immigration policies at the Riazor
beach in Coruna, northwestern Spain, on Saturday. European governments have come under increasing
pressure to tackle the Mediterranean migrant crisis, with the last shipwreck claiming hundreds of lives.
The 13 Dutch researchers who compiled the Death at
the Borders Database searched
death certicates in Spain, Italy,
Greece, Malta and Gibraltar and
saw that the conrmed number
of migrant deaths during 19902013 was 3,188.
Some 65 children under 10 and
a further 190 aged 10-19 were
among the recorded casualties.
Researchers worked out that
1,977 people died from drowning, 145 from hypothermia, 116
from injuries or acts of violence,
76 from cardiac arrest, 67 from
dehydration, 51 from suffocation,
and 756 of unknown causes.
Researchers found that no

name was given to dead migrants

in 65% of cases.
The year 2013 was the deadliest, with 477 fatalities, including the 366 from a single shipwreck near the Italian island of
Lampedusa.
Annual death tolls ranged from
50 to 142 in the 1990s, and from
88 to 247 during 2000-2012.
The overall death count calculated by VU University was much
lower than estimates circulated
by non-governmental organisations and migrant rights activists, which usually include the
missing.
For example, the Fortress Europe blog, whose information is

based on press reports, says that

at least 21,439 migrants have died
at Europes doors since 1988.
Spijkerboer said a European
Migrant Death Observatory
should be set up to collect data
from 2014 onwards, and suggested that it should be managed
by the Council of Europe a panEuropean human rights watchdog backed by 47 nations.
Humanitarian organisations
say that migrant deaths in the
Mediterranean are intensifying.
The International Organisation for Migration reported on
Monday that 1,829 people died
since January in sea attempts to
reach Spain, Italy or Greece.

Norwegian court remands terror suspect

Spain police arrest two suspected IS recruiters

A Norwegian court has ordered an Iraqiborn man to be remanded in custody on

suspicion of promoting terrorism.
The 48-year-old, who has had Norwegian
citizenship since 2006, was arrested on
Monday at his workplace in western Oslo.
The District Court in Asker and Baerum
ruled that he should be held for four weeks.
The man has denied the charges, his

Spanish police have arrested two Moroccan

men accused of using the Internet to recruit
Islamic State (IS) group supporters, the
latest in a string of operations in Spain.
The two suspects were arrested in the
Barcelona suburb of Cornella del Llobregat
following an eight-month investigation, the
interior ministry said in a statement.
The two were responsible for a cell based

attorney Brynjar Meling told news agency

NTB.
His employer Aker Solutions, which
provides systems and services to the
oil and gas industry had tipped off the
Norwegian police security service PST
that he had been active on Internet sites
used by radical Islamist groups, the online
edition of Oslo daily VG reported.

in Spain dedicated to the compilation

and distribution (online) of propaganda
of a terrorist nature which praised and
advocated for the jihadist terrorist group
Daesh, the statement said using an Arabic
acronym for the IS.
The two men ensnared, radicalised and
indoctrinated new militants to serve the
organisation in the future, it added.

French journalist who

has been charged in
Luxembourg after investigating
tax-avoidance
schemes has called for more
protection for whistleblowers in Europe, as he testied in
an EU parliamentary probe on
such scal practices.
Edouard Perrin worked with
the International Consortium
of Investigative Journalists
(ICIJ) on a project that accused
Luxembourg of helping multinational companies avoid billions of euros in taxes in a
scandal that came to be known
last year as LuxLeaks.
I would like to alert you
about the threats that weigh
not only on whistleblowers,
but also the journalists who
take the risk of tackling this
kind of les, Perrin told EU
parliamentarians in Brussels.
It is both symptomatic and
dramatic to see that in this affair, the only actions existing
until now are directed against
those who revealed the problem and not against those who
are the sources of the problem,
he added.
The EU has moved to crack
down on tax avoidance in the
wake of the controversy.
The European Parliament
has set up a special committee

to investigate tax arrangements

that EU countries offer companies.
Perrin told the committee on Monday that he had
twice reported on tax avoidance in Luxembourg for the
French broadcaster France 2
before participating in the ICIJ
project.
Luxembourg
prosecutors
announced last month that
they were bringing charges
against Perrin in connection
with a complaint led by accounting rm PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2012 one
of the companies that the ICIJ
identied as having negotiated
Luxembourg tax deals.
The prosecutors justied the
move by saying that Perrin did
not just receive information,
but directed whistleblowers in
looking up certain documents,
playing an active role in
helping break the law.
There should be much
greater protection for ... those
who are blowing the whistle ...
not simply on the grounds of
law-breaking, but public interest, which is what Edouard and
his whistleblower have done
very bravely, journalist Richard Brooks, who helped Perrin,
told EU lawmakers.
The parliaments 45-member special committee is expected to complete its probe by
August and present proposals
for tackling tax avoidance.

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

25

EUROPE
EU, and Turkey
agree to update
customs union
The EU and Turkey agreed to
update a 20-year-old customs
union yesterday, while Brussels
promised to address Ankaras
concerns about a huge European
trade deal with the United States.
Turkey is a long-standing
candidate for EU membership,
beginning so-called accession
talks in 2005, but the process
has been bogged down for years
amid opposition from some key
EU states.
The customs union was set up in
1995 as a stepping stone to EU
accession. Turkey complains it is
now outdated.
In the talks, EU Trade
Commissioner Cecilia
Malmstroem and Turkish
Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci
agreed to a roadmap to expand
the customs union, broadening it
to include services, government
contracts and most agricultural
goods.
Turkey has not given up on
becoming a full member of the
EU and at the end of this process
it will be nearer, said Zeybekci.
The ministers biggest worry
is the Transatlantic Trade and
Investment Partnership (TTIP),
the huge free trade pact being
negotiated by the US and the
EU that would create the worlds
biggest market.
Turkey would like to be in the
league of the world economic
powers, therefore Turkey would
very much like to take part in the
TTIP process, Zeybekci said.
Malmstroem said Brussels was
committed to bringing the
20-year-old customs agreement
into the 21st century.
This initiative will boost EUTurkey commercial relations,
she said.

Mistake raid
Turkish police hunting an alleged
drug smuggler mistakenly
raided the home of the leader
of the pro-Kurdish Peoples
Democratic Party (HDP),
Selahattin Demirtas, local media
reported yesterday.
Plain clothes police officers
showed up at Demirtass
home in the Kurdish-majority
southeastern city of Diyarbakir
on Saturday, saying that they
were looking for a man accused
of drug smuggling, Hurriyet daily
reported.
They were acting on information
provided by an informer, who
described the address by saying
that the suspect lived in the same
building and on the same floor as
Demirtas.
But the officer who took the
tip-off call got the details wrong,
leading the police to launch a raid
on Demirtass home instead.
The officers scuffled with
Demirtass bodyguards when
they demanded to search the
house, where Demirtas, who ran
for president in 2014, lives with
his wife and two daughters when
in Diyarbakir.
The 42-year-old politician was
at home at the time, on a break
from campaigning in June 7
general elections.
He explained the mistake to the
police, who later left the building,
Hurriyet said.

Cypriot presidents agree

to resume peace talks
Reuters/AFP
Nicosia

eaders of ethnically split

Cyprus agreed late on
Monday to restart peace
talks on Friday, May 15, a UN
envoy said, offering fresh hope
of healing one of Europes most
enduring frozen conicts.
Espen Barth Eide was speaking to media after a meeting
between Greek Cypriot leader
Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish
Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci.
It was their rst encounter
since Akinci, a moderate leftist, swept to victory in a Turkish
Cypriot leadership election on
April 26.
They agreed it was important to use the momentum created and opportunity to move
forward without delay, Eide
told journalists outside a landmark hotel straddling a buffer
zone that has split the capital
Nicosia for decades.
Once catering to Hollywood

royalty, the Ledra Palace Hotel

is now a shabby shadow of its
former self, and is used as living
quarters for British peacekeepers.
The division of Cyprus has
deed attempts by generations
of diplomats to nd a settlement.
The east Mediterranean island has been divided since the
Turkish army invaded in 1974
in response to a brief Greek-inspired coup aimed at union with
Greece.
The seeds of division had been
sown at least a decade earlier,
when power-sharing crumbled
into violence just three years after independence from Britain.
Eide said the two leaders had
agreed to meet on May 15 to have
a general exchange of views
and discuss the modalities and
structure of negotiations.
This is a unique opportunity,
an opportunity to be grasped,
said Eide, a former Norwegian
foreign minister.
Both sides officially agree in

principle that the island should

be united under a two-state federal umbrella, but past negotiations have foundered on issues
such as the powers of a central
government and the residency
and property rights of thousands
of internally displaced people.
The last major peace push
collapsed in 2004, when Greek
Cypriots rejected a reunication
blueprint accepted by the Turkish Cypriots.
Northern Cyprus is nancially
and militarily supported by Turkey, the only country which recognises it as a separate state.
The Greek Cypriot government, which in practice controls
only the south, represents the
whole island in the European
Union.
Yesterday the White House
welcomed the news.
The United States welcomes
the announcement that Greek
Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot
leaders will resume settlement
talks on May 15, said National
Security Council spokesperson

Cypriot President Anastasiades (right), Turkish Cypriot President

Akinci (left), and Eide pose for a photograph following a meeting at
Ledra palace late on Monday.
the north as an important opportunity.
Kotzias previously served as
an adviser to former Greek foreign minister George Papandreou in the late 1990s, and was
one of the forces behind the socalled earthquake diplomacy
of the period, which initiated a

long period of Turkish-Greek

rapprochement.
Cavusoglu said there were
enough reasons to be optimistic, branding the two Cypriot
leaders meeting as an important development.
2015 is a good opportunity.
Lets not miss this.

Turkish military holds state funeral for 1980 coup leader

AFP
Ankara

urkeys army held a state

funeral service yesterday for former president
Kenan Evren, but no government official attended the burial
of the man who masterminded
the bloodiest military coup in
Turkish history.
Evren died aged 97 at a military hospital in Ankara on Saturday almost a year after he received a life sentence for his role
in the coup, which unleashed a
wave of arrests, torture and extrajudicial killings.
He was hailed as a hero at the
time for ending years of violence
between leftists and rightists,
but has proved to be a divisive
gure even in his death, with the
ruling Justice and Development
Party (AKP) and the opposition
boycotting his funeral.
The Turkish army held a military funeral honours ceremony
for Evren the countrys seventh president at its headquarters in Ankara, which was
attended only by military officials and his family.
Private
NTV
television
showed Evrens coffin wrapped
in the Turkish ag and carried on
a gun carriage accompanied by a
military band.
Military officials were also
seen observing a moment of si-

Soldiers carry the coffin of Turkeys former army chief and president
Evren during his state funeral in Ankara.
lence during the ceremony.
Conspicuous in their absence
were officials from the AKP and
three other parties represented
in parliament, all of which had
already declared that they would
not join the funeral for a convicted junta leader.
Army chief of staff Necdet
Ozel was absent, too, as he is
currently on medical leave. But
other four forces commanders
were present at the ceremony,
Dogan news agency reported.
The military ceremony was
followed by a quiet funeral
prayer at a nearby mosque attended by around 300 people, a
stark contrast to the heros sendoff former presidents usually receive, an AFP reporter said.
Two women in headscarves

and a man were detained by

police outside the mosque after chanting slogans against the
former general.
An elderly woman told AFP:
Its a shame. All of todays leaders kissed his hand once.
Evren was buried in the state
cemetery reserved for Turkeys
presidents, prime ministers and
the comrades of Mustafa Kemal,
the founder of modern Turkey.
Evren seized power in a predawn assault on September 12,
1980 following years of street
clashes between rival left- and
right-wing militias, and went
on to rule for the next nine years
as the countrys self-appointed
president.
Fifty people were executed in
the aftermath of the coup, more

Deputy premier questions

Turkeys record on justice
Reuters
Istanbul

top gure in Turkeys AK

Party said that trust in
the judiciary had been
eroded during its time in office,
comments likely to anger President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and
pointing to unease in the ruling
party ahead of a parliamentary
election.
Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc, a rare senior voice of
dissent in the party in the past,
suggested in a television interview that the Justice and Development (AK) Party had lived up
to only half its name over more
than a decade in power.
What I am sad about is that
we are very good on development, but are we so good on justice? Arinc, who has served the
maximum three terms in parliament and is not standing in the
June 7 election, told Haberturk
TV late on Monday.
We have made very nice palaces but we have to work hard
to increase condence in justice and the judiciary, he said,
referring to palaces of justice,

Bernadette Meehan. We reiterate our willingness to assist the

process in any way the parties
nd useful.
We encourage the parties to
reach a settlement as soon as
possible to reunify the island as
a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation, which would benet all
Cypriots as well as the wider region, she said.
Yesterday Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias also said the
resumption of UN-brokered
peace talks present a window
of opportunity to reunify the
divided island of Cyprus.
We are facing a window
of opportunity for Cyprus, as
American diplomats say, Kotzias told a joint news conference
with his Turkish counterpart,
Mevlut Cavusoglu, in Ankara.
In his rst visit to the Turkish
capital as foreign minister, Kotzias speaking in Greek said
that a settlement to the Cyprus
problem will help solve a lot of
problems in the region.
He hailed Akincis election in

Arinc: What I am sad about is that we are very good on

development, but are we so good on justice?
the new courthouses built under
the AKP, which was founded by
Erdogan.
Domestic and foreign critics
accuse Erdogan of undermining
the judiciary as a counterweight
to his growing power.
Some senior party officials
have privately expressed unease
over Erdogans continued interference in government affairs
since assuming the presidency

- which in its current form is

constitutionally largely a nonexecutive post and suggested
it is chipping away at AK Party
support ahead of the June vote.
While Arincs latest comments did not target the president directly, they follow judicial reforms under Erdogan to
purge the inuence of an Islamic
cleric whom he accuses of trying
to topple him.

Hundreds of judges and prosecutors and thousands of police

officers have been purged or reassigned since the corruption
investigation targeting Erdogans inner circle emerged in late
2013.
Related court cases have since
been dropped.
Erdogan says that the scandal was contrived by US-based
cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former
close ally who denies the accusation.
Opinion polls point, for all the
controversy, to a clear AKP victory in June; but it may fall short
of the strong majority Erdogan
wants to anchor his power with
a full presidential system, something the AKP sees as a priority.
In February, Turkeys outgoing top judge warned that
the judiciary could become an
instrument of revenge in the
hands of political authorities,
after government-backed candidates strengthened their grip
on key courts.
If the trust felt for the judiciary has fallen to around 20% in
a country ... we should put our
heads between our hands and
think hard, Arinc said.

Protesters hold pictures of missing relatives during a demonstration in Istanbul against Evren, whose
funeral was held in a low-key ceremony yesterday.
than half a million were arrested
and dozens died under torture
while many others were reported missing over the next three
years.
Evren was convicted of
crimes against the state and

sentenced to life imprisonment

in 2014, along with former air
force commander Tahsin Sahinkaya, now 90.
Neither went to prison due to
ill health.
Evren remained unrepent-

ant in the years after the coup,

defending the hanging of a
17-year-old convicted of killing
a soldier in the unrest by recalling his hands didnt tremble
as he signed death sentences
under his junta.

Judicial body sacks

judge, prosecutors
behind Erdogan
corruption probe
AFP
Istanbul

urkeys top judicial body

has expelled four prosecutors and a judge who
oversaw a massive corruption
investigation that tarnished the
Islamic-rooted government and
reached into the inner circle of
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The Supreme Board of Judges
and Prosecutors (HSYK) voted
to bar prosecutors Zekeriya Oz,
Celal Kara, Muammer Akkas and
Mehmet Yuzgec, as well as judge
Suleyman Karacol, state-run
Anatolia news agency reported.
They were expelled for undermining the honor of their
profession and damaging the
inuence and reputation of their
public post, Anatolia said.
Oz immediately took to Twitter to denounce the ruling as
null and void.
Shame on the HSYK for act-

ing upon orders from above,

violating the laws and the constitution and not even taking our
statements, he wrote.
The prosecutors and judge,
who have already been removed
from their positions, had been
accused of abusing their authority by leading the December 2013 graft probe that rocked
then-prime minister Erdogans
government, claiming four of his
ministers.
The corruption case was later
dropped due to a lack of evidence.
Erdogan, who came out ghting from the crisis and won the
presidency in August, claimed
the investigation was an attempted judicial coup staged
by US-based Muslim cleric
Fethullah Gulen and his followers
in Turkish state administrations.
The president has promised no
mercy in the ght against Gulen,
and authorities have effectively
purged the police force and judi-

Gulen: accused by Erdogan of

staging an attempted judicial
coup.
ciary of pro-Gulenist elements,
arresting people considered
close to the preacher.
In the tense run-up to June
7 parliamentary elections, Erdogan has signalled the crackdown against Gulen supporters
will widen, vowing that arrests
would denitely continue.

26

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

INDIA
SOCIETY

CORRUPTION

INVESTIGATION

TRAVEL

POLITICS

Woman divorces husband

for lack of toilet facility

14 years on, IT officer,

wife sent to prison

15 hurt as bomb goes off

inside train in W Bengal

Railways schedules
now on Google Maps

Smriti Irani visits

Rahul Gandhi bastion

A woman in a Bihar village has divorced her

husband for not constructing a toilet in their
house, officials said yesterday. I was fed up with
my husband for not building a toilet and was
forced to leave him, Sunita Devi, of Paharpur
village in Vaishali district, said. I was upset over
being forced to make way to an open field every
day under the cover of darkness to defecate.
The owner of the land used to abuse and
humiliate me repeatedly, Devi said. For the last
four years, I have been requesting my husband
to construct the toilet. But he always ignored it
and advised me to seek the help of my parents
for it, Devi said. Bihar has a population of over
105mn, of which 21.9mn lack toilet facilities.

Fourteen years after he was caught over

corruption charges, a former income tax
commissioner was sentenced to three years
in jail while his wife was jailed for two years.
Special Central Bureau of Investigation judge
R N Joshi found A K Purwar and his wife
Chhaya Purwar guilty of various charges on
Friday, an official said yesterday. Purwar was
also fined Rs100,000, and his wife Rs50,000.
If they dont pay the fines, they will undergo
an additional six and three months in jail
respectively. In December 2001, the CBI
found that Purwar had assets of Rs20.28mn about 400% more than his known sources of
income.

At least 15 people were injured when a bomb

detonated inside a passenger train in eastern India
yesterday, police said. The explosion took place
about 20km from Kolkata, West Bengal, following
an argument between suspected criminals, an
officer at the Barrackpore police control room
said. Witnesses said a group of people got on the
train at Titagarh. There was altercation between
them and later a bomb exploded. Police are
investigating what happened, Tushar Mandal said.
The injured were admitted to nearby hospitals
where the condition of two passengers was said to
be critical. The man who was carrying the bomb
was among the injured. He was found to have a
criminal record, railway police said.

Google yesterday announced the addition of

Indian Railways schedules as well as updated
information about public transport in eight
Indian cities to Google Transit. This update will
now allow people to access information about
12,000 trains, as well as updated details for bus
and metro routes from Ahmedabad, Bengaluru,
Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi
and Pune, the company said in a statement.
Google Transit is a feature in Google Maps
which helps people plan public transport trips
quickly and easily. At present, Google Maps has
public transportation schedules for more than
1mn transit stops worldwide in 2,800 cities,
including New York, London, Tokyo and Sydney.

Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister

Smriti Irani yesterday visited Amethi, the
parliamentary constituency of Congress vice
president Rahul Gandhi. Irani unsuccessfully
contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election from
Amethi but gave the Gandhi scion a run for his
money. Having promised to stay in touch, Irani
has been meeting people from Amethi in New
Delhi on a regular basis, a senior Bharatiya Janata
Party leader said. She was accompanied by
Minister of State for Agriculture Sanjeev Baliyan.
Sources said Irani is leaving no stone unturned to
cultivate goodwill for herself and the party in the
Gandhi bastion. Rahul Gandhi is set to visit Amethi
on May 18.

Policeman
in custody
after attack
on woman

Dust storm hits Allahabad

Judge in Jaya
case got his
calculations
wrong: DMK

IANS
New Delhi

traffic policeman accused

of attacking a woman
brick after she refused pay
Rs200 as a bribe, was sent to 14
days judicial custody by a New
Delhi court yesterday.
Special
Judge
Narottam
Kaushal remanded Satish Chandra in judicial custody till May 26.
Chandra was arrested on Monday after he attacked the young
mother of three children with
a brick when she refused to pay
him the bribe. The shocking incident of bribery and police brutality was caught on camera and
triggered national outrage.
The attack occurred when Ramandeep Kaur, 30, was returning
home with her three daughters
from Guru Harkrishan Public
School after attending a parentsteachers meeting.
Unknown to the policeman, a
motorist lmed the ugly brawl.
The clip, which went viral on
news channels, showed the
woman grappling with the policeman.
He was dismissed after the incident.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind
Kejriwal praised the woman and
said: We are proud of you!
Lauding Kaur, 30, for her bravery when she and her husband
Gurdeep called on him, Kejriwal
said Delhi needed people like her.
We are proud of you. We are
strongly with you and will do
whatever we can. Delhi needs
citizens like you.
I alone cant change the system. We all need to work together
to battle corruption, Kejriwal
said.
Kaur complained to Kejriwal
that neither did she get a copy of
the rst information report (FIR)
registered by her nor proper medical treatment at the hospital.

DMK, PMK want Karnataka to

challenge verdict
IANS
Chennai

A woman covers herself as she walks on the banks of the river Ganges during a dust storm in
Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh yesterday.

wo major opposition parties in Tamil Nadu Tuesday

urged the Karnataka government to challenge in the Supreme Court the state high courts
verdict acquitting former chief
minister J Jayalalithaa in a corruption case.
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Pattali Makkal
Karchi claimed that there were
arithmetical errors in the calculations of the Karnataka High
Court.
In a statement here, DMK
president M Karunanidhi said
Karnataka High Court judge C R
Krishnaswamy in his verdict has
said Jayalalithaa did not have assets worth around Rs660mn and
overruled the trial courts order
which had sentenced her and
three aides to four years in jail.
Karunanidhi said listing out
the borrowings from Indian Bank
by Jayalalithaa and others, the
judge had arrived at a total of
Rs24,17,31,274 (Rs240.17mn).
Anybody who knows addition would know the total
would be only Rs10,67,31,274
(Rs106.73mn). But the judge had
totalled it as Rs24,17,31,274 and

said it was wrong to le a case

against Jayalalithaa for disproportionate assets of Rs66 crore
(Rs660mn), Karunanidhi said.
The difference between the two
gures is around Rs1.46mn.
Similarly, the judge has reduced
the amount spent on the wedding
of Jayalalithaas adopted son Sudhakaran and value of her house at
Poes Garden without explaining
the rationale for that, Karunanidhi said.
The judge in his order said the
prosecution has mixed up assets
of the accused, rms and companies and also added the cost
of construction amounting to
Rs27,79,88,945 and marriage expenses at Rs6,45,04,222 to value
the assets at Rs66,44,73,573.
If we remove the exaggerated
value of cost of construction and
marriage expenses, the assets will
work out at Rs37,59,02,466, Justice Kumaraswamy said.
The total income of the accused, rms and companies is
Rs34,76,65,654 and thus the percentage of disproportionate assets is 8.12%.
It is relatively small. In the
instant case, the disproportionate asset is less than 10% and it is
within permissible limit. Therefore, accused are entitled for acquittal, the verdict stated.
When the principal accused
has been acquitted, the other accused, who have played a lesser

role are also entitled for acquittal, Justice Kumaraswamy said.

PMK leader Ramadoss said as
per the high courts order, a sum
of Rs130.50mn been wrongly
added to Jayalalithaas income.
He said if this sum is deducted from Jayalalithaas income
then her total income would be
Rs212.6mn.
According to Ramadoss, going by the high courts order,
Jayalalithaas assets are valued at
Rs375.9mn.
The difference between the value of assets and her total income
works out to Rs163.36mn, which
is 76.75% higher than Jayalalithaas income, Ramadoss said.
He added that Jayalalithaa
and her associates could not be
acquitted even under the criterion in the Krishnanand Agnihotri
(Krishnanand Aggnihotri vs State
of MP) case, where it was held
that if there is disproportionate
asset to the extent of 10%, the accused are entitled for acquittal.
Neither could Jayalalithaa and
her associates be released under
the Andhra Pradesh government
circular that states that disproportionate assets to the extent of
20% can also be considered as a
permissible limit, Ramadoss said.
Hence Karuanidhi and Ramadoss have urged the Karnataka
government to go in appeal in the
Supreme Court against the high
court judgment.

When the going gets tough, blame the media!

H

eres a rhetorical question:

If the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement
piloted by Arvind Kejriwal had
happened in the 1980s or even in
the 1990s, would India have reacted the way it did? And by extension would the name Kejriwal
be so familiar in every household
from Kerala to Kashmir?
The one dening factor that
changed the way India looked at
social and political events over the
past decade-and-a-half is private
television news channels. Carpet
coverage of politics by the electronic media was ably enhanced
by in-depth analysis in newspapers the next day keeping the audience well informed.
Heres a sampling: More than
400,000 people took part in
the 1998 anti-nuclear protest
in Kolkata - then known by its
former name Calcutta - but the
nations capital and the rest of
the country barely knew or heard
about what was happening there.
Just about half that number took
part in the agitation organised by
the IAC in Delhis Ramlila Maidan
in August 2011 and not just India
but the whole world took note.
If Kejriwal was against corruption, so was the Indian media. You
need someone to lead the way and
Kejriwal was the man of the moment. He was the Pied Piper who
led millions of Indians who listened to him on television or read
about what he said in newspapers.
So, with his then mentor Anna
Hazare listening in, when Kejriwal
declared at the Ramlila Maidan

that neither he nor his movement

had any political ambitions, the
media reported it as such. In interview after interview Kejriwal
said all politicians are crooks and,
therefore, he would not want to
enter politics.
Kejriwal changed his mind, but
Hazare didnt. He said people of
Delhi wanted him to form a party.
And when he formed the Aam
Aadmi Party (AAP) the media reported it with enthusiasm. The
subsequent Delhi assembly election rallies saw the upstart AAP
getting far more airtime and print
space than the more established
parties like the Congress, the BJP
or the BSP. Kejriwal was a happy
man. He would meet prominent
anchors of television channels
and senior correspondents of national newspapers to put forth his
views of how Delhi, and presumably India at large, should be governed. (Nobody can say he lacked
ambition.) He would even take
a free ride provided by a media
house in its private plane to attend
a conference hosted by it.
And so Kejriwal rose to become
the chief minister of Delhi. In 49
days he became an ordinary citizen again because he said, and
this the media reported, that the
people of Delhi wanted him to resign. When Kejriwal took oath for
a second time - this time with an
unprecedented majority - on February 14 this year and in his inaugural speech he prayed that he and
his party men be not overtaken by
the arrogance of power, the media hailed it as a heart-warming

Delhi Diary
By A K B Krishnan
Gulf Times Correspondent
change from the run-of-the-mill
political speeches.
But soon charges of arrogance
on the part of Kejriwal himself
were being made by his own party
men. Kejriwal brooks no opposition. All who criticised him were
expelled from party. Naturally,
these also had to be reported. He
took on the federal government on
several fronts, confronted Delhis
Lieutenant-Governor and Police
Commissioner and nally began
targeting the media. He wants
mediapersons and media houses
that publish unfounded criticism to be put on public trial. He
has asked his ministers and bureaucrats to le criminal defamation cases against such people or
institutions.
Curiously, Kejriwal himself has
approached the Supreme Court
seeking to drop the criminal defamation law. He is also planning
to help those good journalists
favourably inclined towards his
party to start television channels
and newspapers.
Kejriwal resigned on February 14, 2014 saying if he could not
get his Lok Pal bill through there
was no point in continuing. But
the real reason, as everyone knew
then, was Kejriwal did not want to

continue to head a minority government. He wanted more power

- in fact, all the power.
His overwhelming victory this
year gave him all the power. It
came on the promise of several
utopian promises that the voters
of Delhi bought into. But Kejriwal
has found that promising is one
thing and fullling those promises is another. He has already said
that even if 50% of those promises
come true he would consider it a
great achievement.
If in less than 100 days the target has to be scaled down by half,
no marks for guessing where it
will be at the end of ve years.
Arvind Kejriwal is an intelligent
man. Perhaps too intelligent for
his own good, some would say.
He has found the going tough. So
is he preparing the ground for a
second resignation by blaming
everything except himself and his
party for the anticipated failures
of his government? The jury is out
on that one.

Out of office but

not out of action
In any government structure,
there are those who do politics

24X7 and there are experts in their

chosen elds - technocrats, if you
wish - who come in at the request
of ministers to assist in governance. And then, of course, there
are bureaucrats some of whom
have their legs on both boats.
So when a regime change happens, many of these technocrats/
bureaucrats, who had till then
made headlines, would simply
retire or vanish altogether. Brijesh Mishra, who some maintain
was the de facto prime minister
during the Vajpayee era, is a classic example of a man who just
disappeared from the limelight
once the government changed
hands.
Several top names in the Manmohan Singh government are also
leading very private lives presently. Foremost among them is
perhaps Montek Singh Ahluwalia
who, as deputy chairperson of the
then very active Planning Commission, had virtually set the
economic agenda of the UPA regime. Ahluwalia was handpicked
by Manmohan Singh and, truth to
tell, he did throw his considerable
weight around in the company of
federal economic ministers and
state chief ministers.
Ahluwalia is now a distinguished professor at New York
University and news trickling
down here says he recently gave
a lecture on Indias economy at
the University of Pennsylvania
wherein he was less than generous about his own former bosss
government. The former director of the International Monetary

Fund is of the view that the land

acquisition bill, as championed
by the Congress Party, was detrimental to the overall interests of
the nation. He is especially critical of the social impact assessment clause which is now one
of the main bones of contention
between the Modi regime and the
Congress.
Another name that hogged the
headlines during the UPA rule
was that of Shivshankar Menon
who served under Manmohan
Singh in various capacities - as
ambassador in Washington, foreign secretary and nally as the
National Security Adviser to the
Prime Minister. Menon, too, has
retired to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is reportedly in the thick of writing
a book. Should be an interesting
read!
A couple of luminaries who did
politics 24X7 till recently are also
keeping low proles lately. Palaniappan Chidambaram is back to
his original profession as a senior
lawyer of the Supreme Court. He
is also a columnist with the Indian Express. Chidambaram had
announced he was quitting active politics and had, therefore,
decided not to contest last years
Lok Sabha elections. (In hindsight that was an intelligent move
because the Congress Party was
wiped out of Tamil Nadu altogether and Chidambaram could
not have withstood that avalanche.)
One man who failed to read that
mood correctly was Chidambar-

ams former colleague and fellowprofessional Kapil Sibal. Curiously, like Tamil Nadu, Delhi too
witnessed a whitewash for the
Congress and Sibal is back to arguing cases before the apex court.
In his spare time he is also demonstrating his talent for poetry.
These are early days yet to predict whether the Modi regime will
have a second innings, as it were,
or not. But some of those who
have padded up for this rst innings are already having a tough
time thanks to the Prime Ministers punishing work schedule.
Modis principal secretary Nripendra Mishra, additional principal
secretary P K Mishra and public
relations officer Jagdish Thakkar
have apparently not had a day
off since assuming office. What
is more, they get to go home very
late every night only to be woken
up by calls from the Prime Ministers residence for some work or
the other in the early hours of the
following day because Modi is a
very early riser.
Another top bureaucrat, Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam
Jaishankar, has found a way
around the situation. With a
globe-trotting Modi in different
time zones on different days, Jaishankar realised that sleep is going
to a big casualty as Modi could call
him at office any time. So Jaishankar added a new divan to his
office furniture and catches some
shuteye on it as and when possible. When the going gets tough
the tough too can nd ways to
sleep!

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

27

INDIA
CRIME

ACCIDENT

INVESTMENT

VERDICT

TRAGEDY

Police officer charged

with raping model

Fire breaks out in

Delhi bank, 13 injured

Google to set up
campus in Hyderabad

Pro-Maoist tribal
leader gets life term

Police car fatally knocks

down three women

The Mumbai polices Crime Against Women

Cell has filed a charge-sheet in a court against
a police officer for allegedly raping a 26-yearold model last year, officials said yesterday.
The charge-sheet against Indian Police Service
officer Sunil Paraskar, 57, who was accused of
rape in July 2014 by the up-and-coming model,
was filed in the Borivali Metropolitan Magistrate
Court. The woman alleged that Paraskar
sexually assaulted her twice in 2013. Soon after
the complaint was filed, Paraskar had filed for
anticipatory bail and later a special court for
womens cases granted him a pre-arrest bail.
In August 2014, then chief minister Prithviraj
Chavan had ordered Paraskars suspension.

At least 13 people were injured in a fire that

broke out at a bank in a multi-storeyed building
in New Delhi yesterday, an official said. The
blaze started around 11.40am in a branch of the
Oriental Bank of Commerce in Harsha Bhawan
in Connaught Place. It was completely doused
by 12.30pm, the fire official said. Thirteen
people, including nine women, who inhaled
smoke and fell unconscious, were taken to
Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) hospital but their
condition is stable now, the official said. Fifteen
fire tenders were rushed to the spot. Short
circuit in an electric cable caused the fire which
spread in all the four floors of the building
through the lift, the fire official said.

Global Internet services company Google

will build its largest campus outside the US
in Hyderabad with an investment of Rs10bn,
Telanagana Information Technology Minister
K Tarakarama Rao announced yesterday. The
minister, who is on a visit to the US, said the
state government has signed a memorandum
of understanding (MoU) with Google, which
will develop the 2mn sq ft campus, the first
in Asia. Excited to announce that Google &
Government of Telangana have inked an MoU
to build their largest campus (outside US) in
Hyderabad, tweeted Rao. It was immediately
not clear if Google campus would come up at
Kokapet or Raidurg.

Pro-Maoist tribal group Peoples Committee

Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) convener
Chhatradhar Mahato and five others were
yesterday sentenced to life imprisonment by
a West Bengal court. Mahato and Sukhsanti
Baske, Sambhu Soren and Sagun Murmu were
handed down life sentences by the court of
Additional Sessions Judge (West Midnapore)
Kaveri Bose under the Unlawful Activities
Prevention Act. Charges were slapped
against them under various provisions of the
Indian Penal Code (IPC) dealing with murder,
criminal conspiracy, waging war against the
state, and various other sections of the Arms
Act and the Explosives Act.

A Delhi police sub-inspector rammed his

speeding car into three women on a flyover
in the capital yesterday morning killing them,
officials said. Rishipal, 59, was arrested for rash
driving. But witnesses said his car brakes failed
and hit the three women sanitation workers
on the flyover. According to a witness, the
speeding car hit all the three women one by
one from behind and dragged one of them
to some distance. The three victims were
identified as Meera, 55, Shakuntala, 55, and
Maya, 28. The sub-inspector was heading
home in Faridabad after his night shift, the
officials said. The family members of the
victims later staged a protest on the flyover.

Modi set for

crucial visit
to China
Reuters
Beijing

hen Prime Minister

Narendra Modi arrives
in the ancient city of
Xian on Thursday at the start of
a visit to China, he will be met by
Chinese President Xi Jinping, in
an unusual departure from normal protocol.
Top Chinese leaders almost
never travel outside Beijing to
meet senior foreign guests on
bilateral visits, and Xis appearance in Xian, located in Xis
home province of Shaanxi, underscores Chinas determination
to set aside past rancour between
the worlds two most populous
nations, experts said.
It denitely indicates the
signicance our president puts
on Mr Modis visit, said Li Li,
an India expert at the government-backed China Institutes
of Contemporary International
Relations.
From the Chinese side, we
were very impressed by the hospitality extended by Mr Modi
during Xi Jinpings visit to India, he added, referring to the
Indian prime minister greeting
Xi in his home state of Gujarat
when the Chinese president visited India last year.
Modi will visit a Xian pagoda
connected to Xuanzang, also
known as Tripitaka, the monk
who bought the Buddhist sutras
to China from India thousands
of years ago, according to people
briefed on the trip.
It is sending a very important
message, Li said of Xis going
to Xian to greet Modi, a place
closely connected to the deep
historical links between China
and India.
Still, the problems both
countries face are considerable,
ranging from a festering border
dispute to Chinas support for
Pakistan.
Mistrust runs deep, something Xi will be keenly aware of
despite the bonhomie and billions of dollars in deals likely to
be signed.
New Delhi had raised the issue

of a proposed China-Pakistan
economic corridor with Beijing,
Indian Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told a
press conference yesterday.
The corridor would pass
through Kashmir, a region disputed by Pakistan and India.
Xi announced the trade and
transit route from Pakistans
southern Gwadar port on the
Arabian Sea to Chinas western
Xinjiang as part of a $46bn investment programme during his
visit to long-time ally Pakistan
last month.
Modis new account on Chinese social media site Weibo,
Chinas version of Twitter, was
lled with messages soon after
launching this month asking him
to return what China calls South
Tibet, otherwise known as Arunachal Pradesh in India.
This is the great, great pressure the Chinese government is
facing, said Mao Siwei, a former
senior Chinese diplomat who
was based in India and Pakistan,
talking about the need to manage
Chinese public concern about
the disputed area.
China claims more than
90,000 sq km disputed by New
Delhi in the eastern sector of the
Himalayas.
India says China occupies
38,000 sq km of its territory on
the Aksai Chin plateau in the
west.
In September, the two armies
faced off in the Ladakh sector in
the western Himalayas just as
Xi was visiting India for the rst
summit talks with Modi. This
time, the border has been quiet
ahead of Modis arrival.
While chances of a breakthrough on the border look distant, the exchange of visits by
Modi and Xi so soon after both
took office is a positive sign, said
Ram Madhav, a senior leader
of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh, a hardline Hindu nationalist organisation that has close
ties to Modis Bharatiya Janata
Party.
There is an earnest eagerness
to connect with the Indian leadership, Madhav told a forum in
Beijing.

Students write examination papers as they sit in an open ground at Siliguri College in Siliguri, West Bengal yesterday, following an earthquake.

Tremors rattle India,

17 die in Bihar and UP
The government puts
National Disaster Response
Force on alert
Agencies
New Delhi

eventeen people were

killed and 39 injured
in India after a strong
7.4-magnitude earthquake jolted neighbouring Nepal yesterday, officials said.
Federal
home
ministry
spokesman K S Dhatwalia said
16 deaths occurred in Bihar
while another casualty was reported from Uttar Pradesh as
houses and buildings collapsed
in the region.
Sunil Kumar, joint secretary of Bihar states disaster
management department, said
many houses and buildings

were damaged in the quake and

authorities were estimating the
damage.
Metro services were suspended in the capital as television footage also showed
schoolchildren evacuated from
schools.
It was really scary, said
Manbir Singh, who works in
the Delhi suburb of Gurgaon.
My desk and computer were all
shaking. Everyone started rushing downstairs.
Tremors were felt across India for over 30 seconds. The
National Disaster Response
Force (NDRF) was put on alert
for rescue and relief operations.
The quake shook Nepal,
nearly three weeks after a more
powerful temblor killed over
8,000 people in the Himalayan
nation. The tremors were also
felt in parts of northern and

eastern India including Delhi,

Patna, Lucknow, Guwahati,
Bhubaneswar and Jaipur.
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi held a meeting to take
stock of the situation and directed authorities to be on high
alert for rescue and relief operations.
Modi tweeted that he has directed all concerned authorities
to be on alert for carrying out
rescue and relief operations, as
required.
The home ministry said it was
in touch with state governments
and put the NDRF on alert.
India Meteorological Department (IMD) director general L
S Rathore said the earthquakes
epicentre was 60km east of
Kathmandu.
After the quake, three major
aftershocks were reported at
close intervals.

ormer Bharatiya Janata Party ideologue K N

Govindacharya
yesterday described Prime Minister
Narendra Modi governments
land acquisition policy as worse
than that of the previous Congress administration.
There is no doubt about
Prime Minister Narendra Modis
intention. However, his policies
are questionable. There is a gap
in the understanding about the
implementation mechanism of
projects, Govindacharya said at
a press conference.
The land acquisition policy
was formulated only on the basis
of compensation. The consent
of gram sabhas (village councils)
and public interest, which was
part of UPAs policy, has been
sidestepped, he said, referring
to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance.
Questioning the Modi govern-

ments policies, Govindacharya

also described the Make in India campaign as licence to foreigners to benet at the cost of
national interest.
Govindacharya said he was
unable to understand the policies of the government and felt
so were those in the government.
No poor and tribal will
benet from Make in India
programme and Smart City
project. It seems that this government is taking decisions
without proper home work. This
government is not even following basic rules of governance,
he added.
The Modi government is
about to complete its rst year
in office, but it looks no different
from its predecessors. Still four
years are left with the government. Lets hope they will full
the aspirations of the people,
what they promised during the
Lok Sabha polls.
Also yesterday, Congress vice
president Rahul Gandhi accused
the government of killing the

land bill passed by the UPA government.

An aggressive Gandhi warned
the government that it wont be
easy for them to get their way.
This government is in a hurry
to pass this bill... It will not happen so easily. If we are not able
to stop it here (in parliament),
we will hit the streets against it
outside, he said, speaking in the
Lok Sabha on the land acquisition bill.
The Congress leader said the
government has removed the essential clauses on consent and
social impact in its new bill.
He took repeated digs at the
government, terming it suit boot
ki sarkar and pro-corporate.
We took two years to bring
the land bill. The (BJP-led National Democratic Alliance) NDA
government killed it within a few
days, he said.
He termed the consent clause
of the 2013 land act brought
by the UPA government as the
most important part of the
legislation.

shidabad, Durgapur, Siliguri.

Earthquake has once again
struck many parts of our state
and other parts of the country and abroad. I appeal to our
people to maintain calm. Our
government will provide all
support, she posted on Facebook.
She said a round-the-clock
control room had been opened
at the state secretariat Nabanna in nearby Howrah. The
numbers are 1070 and 22143526.
Kolkata Metro as well as the
metro services in Delhi were
halted due to the tremors, while
cell phone services were also
reportedly disrupted in several
stretches.
Mild tremors were also felt
in various parts of Odisha, including Bhubaneswar, Cuttack,
Ganjam, Kendrapada and Rourkela.

Modi keen on cricket

diplomacy with Pak

Former BJP ideologue

criticises govt policies
IANS
New Delhi

The rst measured 5.4 on

the Richter scale, the second
was of 6.2 magnitude, and the
last of 4.8, he said, adding the
aftershocks would continue for
weeks or even months.
In Bihar, at least 16 people,
including three children, were
killed.
Over half a dozen girl students of a government middle
school at Bihya in Bhojpur district were injured when they
tried to rush out of their classroom.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish
Kumar announced early summer vacation for students. The
vacation was supposed to start
from May 16.
West Bengal Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee urged people to stay calm in the wake
of tremors felt in several parts
of the state, including Mur-

IANS
New Delhi

Former BJP ideologue K N Govindacharya gestures as he addresses

a press conference in New Delhi yesterday.

rime Minister Narendra

Modi is determined to
resume peace process
with Pakistan through cricket
diplomacy, sources said.
We have taken the decision
to start a cricket series between
the two countries to improve
our relations, Modi said yesterday during a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parliamentary
party meeting, a ruling party
MP who was present said on
the condition of anonymity.
Soon after a resolution was
adopted appreciating the initiatives taken by the government during its rst year in
office, Modi said some of the
members have expressed concern over the series and that is
why he was clearing the air,
said the MP.
Party lawmaker R K Singh,
a former federal home secretary, had raised apprehension over the issue in the Lok
Sabha on Monday. Cricketer-turned BJP MP Kirti Azad

had also opposed the move.

According to the MP, Modi
also asked the MPs to prepare
a report on the progress in the
governments rst year in ofce and the works undertaken
to be given in their respective
constituencies.
The initiatives will help in
ensuring social security of the
poor and vulnerable sections
of the society, Modi said.
The parliamentary party
also commended Modi for his
achievements during the past
one year and a resolution was
passed, the MP said.
The resolution appreciated
the prime ministers efforts
in enhancing Indias image
among the international community, the MP said.
Meanwhile, Minister of
State for Parliamentary Affairs
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said
Modi also said the government
has come up with a tough bill
on black money.
Naqvi also said that the governments ght is not with the
opposition parties but those
who were spreading corruption in the country.

28

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

LATIN AMERICA
LEGAL

POLL

SPORTS

FALLOUT

OFFBEAT

Bolivia to extradite
ex-ally of Peru president

Mexicos PRI over 7 points

ahead for election rival

Footballer attacks fan

following pitch invasion

Firms cost-cutting steps

leave workers in the dark

Jumbo graves for

Brazils obese

A Bolivian court has authorised the extradition to

neighbouring Peru of a former adviser to Peruvian
President Ollanta Humala in a corruption scandal
that could dent the leaders popularity. Martin
Belaunde, Humalas campaign adviser during
his failed 2006 presidential bid, fled to Bolivia
last year to escape charges of graft and unlawful
association. Peruvian prosecutors say Belaunde,
under house arrest in La Paz, belongs to a vast
criminal network with links to public officials.
Belaunde has denied the accusations and said he
is a victim of political persecution. His return to
Peru will likely draw more attention to the closely
followed scandal ahead of elections next year.

Mexicos ruling party has a lead of more than

seven percentage points against its nearest rival,
less than a month before voters elect a new lower
house of Congress, a poll showed. After stripping
out undecided voters, the survey by Consulta
Mitofsky showed 31.1% of respondents backed the
Institutional Revolutionary Party, which hopes
to defend the slight majority it has with its allies
in the lower house. Mexicans will on June 7 elect
500 new federal lawmakers for the lower chamber
of Congress, as well as nine state governors and
hundreds of local politicians. Behind President
Enrique Pena Nietos PRI was the National Action
Party, or PAN, with 23.6% support, the poll said.

A player in Honduras reacted to a post-match pitch

invasion by fans by kicking one of the supporters
in the head. The event took place following the
game between Club Deportivo Marathon and Real
Espana in San Pedro Sula. Marathon won the cup
quarter-final but Real Espana progressed to the
semi-finals on aggregate. Marathon fans who were
angry at their sides failure to progress, ran on to
the pitch before chasing and attacking players
from either side. They were soon followed by fans
of Real Espana as well as the police, who restored
order. However, before that could happen, Marlon
Pena, the Real Espana right-back, ran and kicked an
opposing fan in the head, before retreating.

A rigorous cost-cutting programme at debtburdened Oi SA has hundreds of measures including leaving the Brazilian telecommunications
companys 17,000 staff sweltering in the dark if
they work late in its offices. Chief executive Bayard
Gontijo said in an interview that the companys
strict new 7pm policy to switch off the air
conditioning and turn off the lights is both a source
of power savings and a big way of reinforcing a
crackdown on the amount of overtime worked.
The Brazilian constitution mandates a pay bump of
at least 5% for work beyond eight hours per day. Oi
has been struggling with a massive debt load and
mounting losses following a series of missteps.

A cemetery in Rio has come up with a solution

for the obese departed jumbo-sized
graves that can lay to rest bodies weighing
up to 500kgs. But the large graves carry a
similarly hefty price tag of 75,000 reais (some
$25,000). Obesity is a growing problem in
Brazil and Alberto Junior Brenner, curator of
the Penitencia cemetery in Rios port district,
told G1 web news portal that he and his
colleagues had created tombs measuring 260
centimetres (eight feet six inches) long, 130
centimetres wide and 60 centimetres high.
The supersized graves are sold continuously
and occupy their own section of the cemetery.

US accepts
plan to suspend
weed killer use
on coca crop
Tribune News Service
Bogota, Colombia

he US ambassador to Colombia said he accepted

the countrys decision
to suspend a longstanding programme of aerial spraying of
weed killer on coca crops but
that other tools will be used to
try to contain farming of coca,
the base material of cocaine.
The spraying of glyphosate by
crop-dusters own mainly by civilian US pilots has been a linchpin of US drug-control policy in
Colombia for two decades. Critics question the programme for
potential health risks to farmers,
and some drug-policy analysts
say spraying merely pushes coca
farming to other countries.
In a public appearance in
Manizales, ambassador Kevin
Whitaker said the US will respect
President Juan Manuel Santos
decision to stop the controversial
programme at least temporarily
over concerns that glyphosate,
known by the trade name Roundup, poses a health risk.
Health Minister Alejandro
Gaviria this month recommended stopping the use of the weed
killer, saying the chemical made
by Monsanto may cause cancer.
The St. Louis-based manufacturer denies the chemical poses
a health risk if applied correctly.
While acknowledging that the
decision to halt the US-nanced
programme is Colombias to
make, Whitaker indicated the US
would not abandon efforts to curb
Colombian production of the leaf,
which is grown mainly in rural,
jungle and mountainous areas.
Colombia and the US have
developed a number of approaches as part of a comprehensive effort to confront narcotrafficking, Whitaker said.
Whitaker gave no indication
whether the US would boost
other coca-reduction methods
such as alternative crops and
manual eradication by workers
uprooting coca plants.
Manual eradication has de-

clined in recent years partly because of deaths and injuries that

eradication teams suffered from
snipers and landmines.
In announcing the suspension
on Saturday, Santos also said
sprayings effectiveness was debatable. Recent gures from the
White House Office on National
Drug Control Policy showed Colombian coca cultivation in 2014
grew to 280,000 acres, up 40%
from the previous year.
US officials blamed the increase
on higher cultivation in restricted
areas including indigenous reservations and national parks.
Vanda Felbab-Brown a fellow
who specialises in global security
issues at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said Colombias decision is the right one.
Aerial spraying is politically
controversial, costly and causes
a tremendous amount of counterproductive side effects such
as destroying legal crops, negative environmental effects as the
chemical washes into streams,
and alienating coca farmers
from government authorities,
Felbab-Brown said.
The governments decision
may also have been inuenced
by peace talks underway in Havana with the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia, a
rebel group known by its Spanish initials, Farc. No nal peace
deal has been signed, but rebels
have agreed to end their involvement in cocaine trafficking and
to help in de-mining efforts in
coca elds and elsewhere.
University of Miami international relations professor and
Colombia expert Bruce Bagley
said the Santos government had
little choice but to halt spraying
after studies showed inescapable evidence of negative health
consequences.
Santos decision is both scientically and environmentally
appropriate and may well aid
progress in the peace talks with
the Farc, Bagley said. The US
has dissented, but not very stridently, so this decision is a winwin for Santos.

Hollande in Haiti

French President Francois Hollande and Haitian President, Michel Martelly (centre) walk to the National Palace after official ceremonies in Port-au-Prince, Haiti,
yesterday. After a historic visit to Cuba, French President Francois Hollande landed in Haiti yesterday to sign co-operation agreements and support reconstruction
efforts that continue since the deadly 2010 earthquake.

Illegal activity at US
mission worrying: Castro
Reuters
Havana

uban President Raul

Castro yesterday said
dissidents are receiving
illegal training at the US diplomatic mission in Havana, an
issue he raised with US President Barack Obama in talks on
restoring diplomatic ties.
Cuba and the US are working to
re-establish diplomatic relations
that were severed in 1961, but a
number of differences still need
to be worked out, including a US
request for freedom of movement

Weak Mexico industrial

output hits growth hopes
Reuters
Mexico City

exican industrial output unexpectedly stagnated in March compared with February, dampening
growth hopes and putting pressure on the governments forecast for a third year running.
Adjusted for seasonal swings,
output was at in March monthon-month, gures from the national statistics office showed
yesterday. That fell short of expectations from a Reuters poll of
economists for a 0.35% increase.
Compared with the same
month a year earlier, industrial
production in March increased
by 1.7%, below the survey forecast for a rise of 1.85%.
The disappointing gures,
which were dragged down by
weak performances by the mining sector and the oil industry,
suggest the government will
have to cut its 2015 growth forecast after rst quarter gross domestic product (GDP) data next
week.

Economists polled by the central bank in April forecast the

economy would grow by almost
2.9% this year, a gure which
would be an improvement on
2014, when Latin Americas second-biggest economy expanded
by just over 2%.
Given weaker-than-expected
industrial output, Goldman
Sachs said in a note it had cut its
2015 Mexican GDP growth forecast to 2.8% from 2.9%.

Pena Nieto pledged to

ramp up annual growth
to five percent or more,
but instead it has slowed
significantly
The government has predicted growth of between 3.2%
and 4.2%, and Finance Minister
Luis Videgaray has said he will
decide whether an adjustment
is needed once rst quarter GDP
gures have been released on
May 21.
Hopes for stronger growth
were high when President Enrique Pena Nieto took office in
December 2012 promising to

reform the economy, which has

underperformed its Latin American peers.
Pena Nieto pledged to ramp up
annual growth to ve percent or
more, but instead it has slowed
signicantly.
Videgaray had to slash the
growth forecast last year and in
2013.
A sharp decline in global crude
prices has hurt Mexicos economy, and dealt a blow to Pena Nietos agship economic reform,
the opening up of the oil and gas
industry.
The government depends on
revenues from state oil and gas
giant Pemex for about one third
of the federal budget. But Pemex
output has hit multi-year lows
and the company posted a loss
of more than $6bn in the rst
quarter.
Growth in industrial output
in February was revised up by
one-tenth of a percentage point
to 0.3% month-on-month, the
data showed. That was preceded
by month-on-month contractions in January 2015 and December 2014.

for its diplomats in Cuba.

The two countries have interests sections rather than embassies in each others capitals.
These would be upgraded to
embassies once diplomatic ties
are restored.
Castro, 83, did not say
whether Cubas complaint
would impede the move toward
diplomatic relations. He suggested ambassadors could be
named after Cuba comes off the
US list of state sponsors of terrorism on May 29, but that the
procedures were being debated.
What I told them, concretely to the president, what

most concerns me is that they

continue doing illegal things
... for example, graduating independent journalists, Castro
told reporters at Havanas international airport after seeing
off visiting French President
Francois Hollande.
They give them I dont know
how many classes, on screen,
in teleconferences from the US.
I dont know if they give them
a diploma and of course they
give them their corresponding
monthly payment, Castro said.
The US interests section offers free classes in journalism,
English and information tech-

Rousseff visits workers

nology, but students are not

paid. Cuba sees them as an attempt to meddle in Cubas internal affairs and a violation of
international conventions on
diplomacy.
Cuba tightly controls its
state-owned media and blocks
websites run by independent
journalists, who are typically
critics of the one-party political
system and denied journalism
credentials.
Castro spoke with Obama
last month at a regional summit
in Panama, the rst meeting of
the leaders of both countries in
nearly 60 years.

Argentina debt
holdouts in new plea
Reuters
New York

Brazils President Dilma Rousseff poses with workers

during a visit to the construction site of the subway line
which will connect the south zone to Barra da Tijuca, in Rio
de Janeiro yesterday.

Once diplomatic relations

are restored, the longtime adversaries will work on the more
complicated task of normalising
overall relations. The US trade
embargo of Cuba, which only
Congress can remove, remains
a snag.
They have to completely
eliminate the blockade and the
base at Guantanamo must be
returned, Castro said.
In 1903, the US acquired
rights to 45 square miles of Cuban territory for a naval base at
Guantanamo Bay, now the site
of the military prison where the
US holds terrorism suspects.

rgentina debt holdouts

have asked a US court to
make more of the countrys debt, including bonds issued last month, subject to a
prior court order blocking the
country from making payments
on its obligations without paying the holdouts as well.
Aurelius Capital Management, one of the lead holdout
investors in defaulted Argentina sovereign debt, wants its
prior victory in US District
Court on the principal of pari
passu, or equal treatment, extended to all the countrys external indebtedness.
Argentinas economy ministry responded by saying this
was a new attempt at extortion that would achieve nothing toward the effort to negotiate a fair solution.
At issue is the treatment of
Argentinas BONAR bonds,
which are denominated in US
dollars but governed by local
law. The government issued
$1.4bn in BONAR 2024 bonds

last month in order to raise

desperately needed capital.
Aurelius and other holdouts
contend the government is issuing this kind of debt to get
around the order, which entitles
the holdouts to be paid in full for
the defaulted bonds they hold.
Argentinas BONAR 2024
Bonds and its other External
Indebtedness also are subject to
the Equal Treatment Provision,
and Argentina can present no
reason why it should be allowed
to issue more of these bonds and
make payments on these bonds
without making a ratable payment under Plaintiffs bonds,
Aurelius said in its ling.
Aurelius chairman Mark Brodsky said in a statement e-mailed
to media organisations that Argentine Economy Minister Axel
Kicillofs boasts that Argentinas
BONAR 2024 issuance was international proves the point that the
government is thumbing its nose
at the US courts.
Kicillof likes to brag that
the recent BONAR 24 offering
was international. We agree.
That makes those bonds subject to our pari passu covenant , said Brodsky.

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

29

PAKISTAN/AFGHANISTAN

Defector
was key in
bin Laden
operation
AFP
Islamabad

wo former senior Pakistani military officials told AFP yesterday

that a defector from Pakistani
intelligence assisted the US in its hunt
for Osama bin Laden but denied the two
countries had officially worked together.
The officials accounts come after the
publication of a controversial new report
by US journalist Seymour Hersh in which
he claims to have uncovered a secret deal
between Washington and Islamabad that
resulted in the killing of the terror chief in
2011.
The White House has atly rejected
Hershs claims that Pakistan was told in
advance about the May 2 Special Forces
raid in the garrison town of Abbottabad,
110km north of the capital.
The operation sparked allegations Pakistani authorities had colluded with Al
Qaeda, a claim denied by Islamabad.
A source - who was a serving senior
military official at the time of the raid told AFP yesterday that the defector was
a resourceful and energetic mid-ranking intelligence officer whose efforts were
critical to the operations success.
Hershs report quoted a senior US
source as saying a walk-in approached
the then-Islamabad station chief for the
American Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) in 2010 promising to lead them to
bin Laden, who according to the journalist had been imprisoned by Pakistani
authorities at the Abbottabad compound
since 2006.
However, the Pakistani military source
told AFP the defector had no knowledge
his target was bin Laden but was instead
given a task that would help verify the
terror chiefs identity.
The source declined to elaborate on
what that task was, but a Pakistani investigation found that the CIA had run a fake
vaccination programme with the help of
physician Shakeel Afridi who obtained
DNA samples.
On the defectors role, the source said:
This guy was inducted at a much later
stage only to carry out the ground conrmation.
He added that the defector did not
belong to the Inter Services Intelligence
(ISI), the countrys main spy agency, but
another branch, and was now residing in
the US.
Another former official, ex-ISI chief

Hamid Gul, told AFP he was also aware of

the defector. That is in my knowledge,
that someone defected, he said. There
was too big a reward, he became a mole
and agent to put in practice their plan.
The US had placed a $25mn bounty on
information leading to the capture or killing of bin Laden - a sum Washington has
said it never paid because no human informants were used.
According to Hershs report, the US
learned that Pakistani authorities had bin
Laden in their custody and were hoping to
use him as a shield against Al Qaeda and
Taliban attacks.
Later, Hersh reported, the US convinced Pakistan to stage a fake raid to
kill bin Laden, providing a boost for US
President Barack Obama - then in his rst
term - while also allowing the Pakistanis
to deny having anything to do with the
killing.
Both former Pakistani officials, however, and several other serving officials,
have dismissed the allegation that such a
deal had been brokered.
The then-serving senior military official said that in the aftermath of the raid,
the mood here and the reaction here was
of great frustration even at the top level.
If the top guys had been part of the
plan - they were the worst hit. They were
almost forced to resign.
With the kind of bad name and reputation that came with such a great risk, it
wasnt worth it.
A leaked Pakistani government report
in 2013 said bin Laden arrived in Pakistan
in the spring or summer of 2002 - after
the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan
- and settled in Abbottabad in August
2005.
The report, which coined the term
governance implosion syndrome to
explain the extent of official failures to
detect him, said he was once stopped for
speeding and enjoyed wearing a cowboy
hat.
Hershs report has been met with some
scepticism, but an editorial in Pakistans
English-language daily Dawn argued it
should force the government to officially
release the ndings of the 2013 investigation, and bring the countrys powerful
military-run intelligence agencies under
civilian supervision.
Qazi Khalilullah, Pakistans foreign
ministry spokesman, meanwhile said the
government was investigating Hershs
account and would announce its reaction
soon.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif shake hands after a news conference in Kabul yesterday.

Sharif pledges co-operation in hunt for militants

Reuters
Kabul

akistani Prime Minister Nawaz

Sharif yesterday promised coordinated military operations
with Afghan forces to hunt down
militants along their shared border,
saying on a visit to Kabul yesterday
that he condemned a recent Taliban
offensive.
Former Afghan president Hamid

Karzai had long accused Islamabad of

tacit support of the Afghan Taliban,
whose leaders are believed to be hiding in Pakistan.
Any effort by any militant or
group to destablise Afghanistan will
be dealt with severely and such elements will be outlawed and hunted
down, Sharif said yesterday.
Coordinated operations will be
planned and conducted on a mutually agreed basis to target militant
hideouts along the border.

He was speaking during a joint

appearance with Afghan President
Ashraf Ghani, who has made improving relations with Pakistan a priority
since taking office last year.
The neighbours are seeking to increase military cooperation to ght
the two main branches of the Taliban,
one ghting to topple the US-backed
government in Kabul and the other
against Pakistans government.
I assure you, Mr President, that
the enemies of Afghanistan cannot

be friends of Pakistan, Sharif said.

Ghanis move to mend ties with Pakistan is partially aimed at convincing
Islamabad to use whatever inuence
it has among Taliban leaders to persuade them to join peace talks.
The Afghan Taliban have been
ghting to restore their hard-line
Islamist regime that was ousted in a
US-led military action in retaliation
for sheltering the al Qaeda planners
of the September 11, 2001 attacks on
American cities.

Former MQM activist is hanged for murder

AFP
Karachi

akistan yesterday hanged a

political activist convicted of
murder, whose execution was
delayed after he claimed in a video
that his party chief had ordered him
to carry out the killing.
Saulat Ali Khan, also known as
Saulat Mirza, was in 1999 sentenced
to death for the murder of the then
managing director of the citys stateowned electricity company two years
earlier.
Saulat Mirza was hanged at

4.30am today, Sikandar Kakar, a

senior official at Mach jail in southwestern Baluchistan province where
Mirza was imprisoned, told AFP.
A doctor examined his health just
before the execution and declared
him fully t, Kakar said, adding that
the convict apologised to all jail inmates and staff for any offence he had
caused before heading to face the gallows.
A senior official of the jails department Zia Tareen also conrmed the
hanging.
Mirza was due to be hanged on
March 19, but his execution was
postponed several times on medical

grounds after he appeared in a video

making striking allegations against
Karachis main party, the Muttahida
Qaumi Movement (MQM), for which
he was an activist.
In the video he said the party chief
Altaf Hussain - who has been in selfimposed exile in London since 1992
- had ordered him to carry out the
murder.
Altaf Hussain directed us through
Babar Ghauri (a senior party leader)
that the KESC (Karachi Electric Supply Company) MD has to be killed,
Mirza had said in the video, which
was leaked to dozens of news channels.

It was not clear who shot or leaked

the video.
Hussain strongly denied Mirzas
allegations in comments broadcast
by all major TV channels.
The MQM, the most powerful political force in Pakistans biggest city
of Karachi, stands accused by critics
of running a violent maa-like organisation, but the party strongly denies
this and presents itself as a voice of
political moderation and secularism.
Human rights group Amnesty International estimates that Pakistan
has more than 8,000 prisoners on
death row, most of whom have exhausted their appeals.

For rent: 52-room villas in the Beverly Hills of Kabul

By Anuj Chopra
Kabul/AFP

he houses are painted in gaudy

carnival colours, with multitier chandeliers, ornately gilded
porticos and giant eagle rooftop sculptures, in a neighbourhood touted as the
Beverly Hills of Kabul.
These multi-million dollar dwellings, derided as poppy palaces over
suspicions they were built on illicit
cash from Afghanistans opium boom,
appear garishly out of place in a city
scarred by decades of war.
But if wedding-cake mansions dont
make you cringe and having notorious ex-warlords as neighbours doesnt
inspire dread, the wealthy enclave of
Sherpur could be your home - for a
monthly rental of $25,000 to $60,000.
The villas, which emerged during
Afghanistans construction boom after
the 2001 US-led invasion, were valued
at nearly twice as much two years ago
due to soaring demand for luxury accommodation from hordes of foreign
contractors, aid agencies and security
companies.
But the steady departure of foreigners - as Natos 13-year war in Afghanistan winds down - and fears of impending doom sparked by an ascendant
Taliban insurgency have sent rental
values plummeting, with available for
rent signs becoming a familiar sight in
Sherpur.
The market is close to zero, Kabul
estate agent Abdul Latif said ruefully,
prayer beads wrapped around his wrist,
as he showed AFP around an empty
52-room property overlooking a rosefestooned garden.
The oyster-coloured, marble-and-

A sculpture of an eagle swooping on a snake adorns the rooftop of a house in the

Sherpur neighbourhood of Kabul.
granite dwelling behind high walls
topped with rolls of concertina wire
has been on the market for nearly six
months.
The owner threw in a sweetener, offering to build a blast-proof safe room
to protect against any insurgent attack,
Latif said.
But the demand for such properties
has hit rock bottom.
People with big money are leaving
Kabul, Latif said, his voice bouncing
off the walls of the empty villa.
The rows of vacant mansions in
Sherpur, also home to some former
warlords, symbolise the hobbled state
of Afghanistans economy, propped up
for years with hundreds of billions of
dollars of foreign aid.
With the inexorable exodus of aid and

investment, the war-battered nation is

in the throes of what local observers
describe as a transition from a dollar
economy to an Afghani economy.
For many Afghans, concerns over
rampant unemployment driven by a
tanking war economy, after more than
a decade of double-digit growth, outstrip fears over deteriorating security.
As the country struggles to wean itself off its heavy dependence on foreign
assistance, cynics liken Afghanistan to
a coma patient surviving on a glucose
drip for years.
The articial nourishment is suddenly stopped, the joke goes, and the
patient is expected to get up and start
running.
But Sherpurs kitsch mansions,
viewed widely as symbols of megalo-

maniacal excess, also highlight another

woefully pervasive problem: corruption.
Sherpur is widely lampooned as
Sher-chur - or lions loot.
Before the 2001 US invasion, Sherpur
used to be a barren patch of hillside that
was home to refugee colonies.
But human rights groups accuse Kabuls nouveau riche former warlords
and bureaucrats - the lions - of sending
in bulldozers in 2003 to evict the refugees.
The source of wealth funnelled into
these mansions remains a subject of
hushed speculation, with suspicion
falling on Afghanistans booming opium production - which the UN says is
estimated to be worth $3bn a year.
Think about it. How does a government bureaucrat earning a monthly
salary of $2,000 afford a $2.5mn luxury
mansion on land valued at $1mn? said
Bashir Omar, the owner of Kabul-based
Bashir Omar Real Estate.
You have to ask: where has their
wealth come from? he said, adding
that the real ownership structures of
Sherpurs villas remain opaque.
When Latif got the owner of the 52room villa on the phone, he declined to
be interviewed.
The government is caught in a
Catch-22, unable to clamp down hard
on money laundering activities to prevent the elite from shifting their wealth
overseas, Omar said.
That exodus of money is happening
anyway at an alarming pace, experts
say, with the wealthy parking their cash
overseas in Dubai, Turkey and Pakistan.
Sherpurs poppy palaces symbolise not just impunity, corruption and
abuse of power but also the great stratication of Afghan society over the past
decade, said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a

Drug users double in Afghanistan

The number of drug users in Afghanistan soared to a record high of 3mn last
year, almost doubling over a two-year
period in the worlds leading producer of
opium, officials said yesterday.
Opium poppy cultivation touched
a record high in 2014 and this year
is expected to yield another bumper
harvest, highlighting the failure of the
multi-billion dollar US-led campaign to
crack down on the lucrative crop.
Addiction levels have also risen
sharply - from almost nothing under the
1996-2001 Taliban regime - giving rise
to a new generation of addicts since the
2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan.
In 2005, the number of drug users
was 900,000, it went up to... 1.6mn in
2012. In 2014, the number increased to
3mn, which is very worrying, Afghan
Health Minister Ferozuddin Feroz told
reporters, citing a survey conducted
jointly with the US State Department.
This survey shows an alarming increase of drug users in Afghanistan both
in the cities and in rural areas, he said,
adding that children and women were
among the drug users.
Opioids, including opium, are the

senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and an expert on illicit economies

in conict zones.
A small section of Kabuls elite dubbed the 9/11 millionaires - harvested enormous wealth in the years
after the 2001 invasion from the billions of dollars of foreign aid, mostly as
private contractors with military bases
and international NGOs.
International donors have expressed
outrage that so much of that money has

most prevalent class of drugs used in

the country, the survey said.
It showed a national drug use rate
of 11%, one of the highest in the world,
with drug use in rural areas three times
higher than in urban areas.
Drug use is an Afghan problem, an
American problem and a problem for all
the 195 countries represented in the UN,
said William Brownfield, US assistant
secretary for counter-narcotics affairs.
It is not a foreign problem, it is a
national problem.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani
echoed similar views on Sunday, saying
drug addiction was fuelling the countrys
insurgency.
Those days when we thought drug
addiction is not a problem affecting
us have ended, he said. This is a big
threat because a young addict turns into
a soldier fuelling instability.
Poppy farmers are often taxed by the
Taliban, who use the cash to help fund
their insurgency against government
and Nato forces.
Afghanistan grows about 80% of the
worlds opium, which is used to produce
highly addictive heroin.

disappeared into private pockets while

Afghanistan remains wracked by poverty and violence.
Felbab-Brown said that while the
elite have broadly insulated themselves
from the wrenching war, a large majority of Afghans in the Taliban-infested
countryside suffer daily bloodshed.
The poppy palaces symbolise the
unequal benets of the past decade and
the unequal distribution of the cost of
war, she said.

30

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

PHILIPPINES
Armed forces chief
Catapang says
new naval base
is top priority
Reuters
Puerto Princesa City

This handout photo released by the Philippine Navy yesterday shows Japan Maritime Self Defence Force Escort Division Two ships JS Harusame (centre) and the JS Amigiri (left) with the BRP
Ramon Alcaraz of the Philippine Navy during a joint naval exercise less than 300 kilometres from a Philippine-claimed shoal now under Chinese control in the South China sea.

Philippines, Japan hold naval

exercises in ashpoint waters
The day-long war games,
the first bilateral naval
exercises between the
former World War II
enemies, took place less
than 300 kilometres from
a Philippine-claimed shoal
now under Chinese control
AFP
Manila

wo Japanese destroyers
and one of the Philippines newest warships
began historic naval exercises in
the ashpoint South China Sea
yesterday, showcasing a deepening alliance aimed at countering a rising China.
The day-long war games, the
rst bilateral naval exercises
between the former World War
II enemies, took place less than
300 kilometres from a Philippine-claimed shoal now under
Chinese control.
Philippine authorities insisted the exercises were merely
focused on building military capabilities, but security analysts
said they were clearly a signal to
China over bitter maritime territorial disputes.
First they demonstrate that
Chinas Pacic neighbours are
beginning to balance against
China, said professor Michael
Tkacik, a foreign policy expert
at the Texas-based Stephen F
Austin State University.
Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam, and assorted other states
are threatened by Chinas behaviour, even as far away as
India. Thus, the Philippines

This handout photo released by the Philippine Navy yesterday shows sailors of the Japan Maritime Self
Defence Force Escort Division Two JS Harusame guiding a Philippine Navy helicopter as it lands on the
deck of the Harusame during a joint naval exercise.
and Japan are jointly making an
important statement about how
seriously they view Chinas actions.
China has caused deep concern regionally in recent years
as it has become more aggressive in staking its claims to the
South China Sea and Japaneseclaimed islands in the East China Sea.
China insists it has sovereign
rights to nearly all of the South
China Sea. However the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and
Brunei have competing claims
to parts of the sea, which is vital
to the global shipping industry
and is believed to contain huge

deposits of fossil fuels.

In 2012, China took control of
Scarborough Shoal, a rich shing ground within the Philippines exclusive economic zone
and more than 650 kilometres
from the nearest major Chinese
landmass.
Chinese coastguard vessels
have since guarded the shoal
and denied Filipino shermen
access, triggering a series of
protests from the Philippines
that have been brushed aside in
Beijing.
Although the Philippine Navy
declined to say exactly where
yesterdays
exercises
took
place, it said the vessels would

sail into the South China Sea

from a former US naval base in
Subic Bay, about 270 kilometres southeast of Scarborough
Shoal.
It would be naive for anyone to think this is just an
ordinary joint exercise in the
light of some assertive actions
by China in the South China
Sea, said Wilfrido Villacorta,
an international relations lecturer at the Manila-based De
La Salle University.
He described this as a natural reaction by the Philippines after recent provocations.
Villacorta cited in particular

Chinas recent flurry of reclamation activities on reefs in

the Philippine-claimed Spratlys archipelago, turning them
into islands capable of hosting
significant military outposts.
China has repeatedly rejected allegations it is breaking
international law in the South
China Sea, insisting it has
sovereign rights to the waters.
China hit out at the Philippines again yesterday, as it reasserted its rights to the Spratlys, which it calls the Nansha
islands.
The Chinese side is firmly
opposed to the Philippines
occupation of some of the
maritime features of Chinas
Nansha islands by force, foreign ministry spokeswoman
Hua Chunying told reporters
in Beijing.
Facts have proven once
again that the Philippines
is the real rule breaker and
troublemaker.
Security analysts said Japans decision to deploy warships into the South China
Sea for the exercises, part of a
broader trend to give military
support to the Philippines,
would anger China. Chinese
foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua said the exercises were being closely
followed, describing them as
hyping up tensions.
China and Japan are separately engaged in a bitter and
longstanding row over ownership of a Japanese-controlled
island chain in the East China
Sea. They are known as Diaoyu
in China and Senkaku in Japan.

he Philippine militarys top priority is to

build a naval base on
the countrys western coastline, opposite the disputed
Spratly islands, although
the plans have been delayed
by funding bottlenecks, the
Philippine armed forces chief
said.
General Gregorio Catapang
said US, Japanese and Vietnamese naval vessels would
be allowed to make port calls
once the facility at Oyster Bay
on the Philippine island of
Palawan was finished.
Developing the island
paradise into a military facility could exacerbate tensions
with China, which claims
sovereignty over almost the
entire South China Sea, including the Spratlys. The
Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan
also claim parts of the vital
waterway.
Palawan, part of the main
Philippine island chain, is
about 160km from the Spratlys, where Chinas rapid land
reclamation around seven
reefs is causing alarm among
some Asian countries and
drawing increasing criticism
from Washington.
We feel this is the number
one priority because of the
emerging security situation, Catapang said in an
interview late on Monday at
a military base in the Palawan
capital, Puerto Princesa City,
after taking reporters to a
Philippine-held island in the
Spratlys.
As soon as we have the
money, we will pour resources there, he said.
China last month offered a
detailed defence of its recla-

mation in the Spratlys, saying the new islands would

provide civilian services
such as weather forecasting
and search and rescue facilities that would benefit other
countries.
China rebuked the Philippines yesterday for taking
journalists to one disputed
island, dismissing its occupation as futile and illegal
in the latest war of words between the two sides.
Catapang said 800mn pesos ($18mn) was needed for
the initial development of the
naval facility and then 5bn
pesos to turn it into a major
operating base.
While plans had been
drawn up, they were stalled
by a lack of funds, he said.
There is nothing there
yet, we are still constructing
an access road and upgrading
the water and oil depots that
would service ships. Theres
still much work to do, he
said. Japan, which is helping
Manila boost its maritime
capabilities, might fund infrastructure around the base
but not the facility itself, a
Japanese source with knowledge of the plan said earlier
this year.
Washington has asked for
access to Philippine military
bases in eight locations to rotate troops, aircraft and ships
for training as Washington shifts more of its forces
to Asia, Catapang said last
month.
Security ties between the
Philippines and Vietnam are
also growing in light of Chinas assertiveness.
The Philippine navy has
said it planned to base two
former US Coast Guard cutters at Oyster Bay, a sheltered
cove within the much larger
Ulugan Bay, once the facility
was finished.

Immigration bureau
hit by fee racket
By William B Depasupil
Manila Times

he so-called entry-for-afee, y-for-a fee-racket is

back at the Bureau of Immigration (BI).
Entry for a fee refers to the
practice of allegedly corrupt
Immigration personnel and ofcials allowing entry of banned
foreigners or those on the immigrations black list in exchange
for a big sum of money that
could reach severalmns of pesos.
Fly-for- a fee involves foreigners who are on the bureaus
hold departure order list because of pending cases in the
country.
The return of the old racket
was discovered with the recent
arrest of Wong Iek Man, a Chi-

nese, at the Mactan City International Airport (MCIA) in Cebu

by Customs authorities after
suspicious substances, believed
to be illegal drugs, were found in
his luggage.
Documents obtained by Manila Times showed that Wong,
58, a native of Fujian, China, was
placed on the BIs blacklist order
on January 14, 2015 for being an
undesirable alien.
According to the documents:
Wongs name was included in
the blacklist as a consequence
of exclusion on January 12,
2015 The inspector noted
Wong is a possible courier,
having been monitored by the
Travel Control and Enforcement Unit as arriving on different occasions with different
Chinese nationals but not departing with them.

Court freezes bank Govt to announce national

rules for ride-sharing services
accounts of Binay
By Jomar Canlas
Manila Times

division of the Court of

Appeals (CA) has frozen
242 bank accounts and
insurance policies belonging to
Vice President Jejomar Binay.
A freeze order was issued
by the First Division, which is
composed of Presiding Justice
Andres Reyes Jr and Associate
Justices Edwin Sorongon and
Ricardo Rosario.
The order shall last for six
months. A source of Manila
Times yesterday said a resolution, which was dated May 11,
granted a petition of the AntiMoney Laundering Council
(AMLC) to allow the council to

scrutinise the bank accounts of

Binay and members of his family, as well as Corps linked to the
vice president.
The AMLC and the Office of the
Ombudsman wanted to ensure
that personal assets of Binay that
were allegedly ill-gotten would
not be dissipated and so a freeze
order must be issued by the appellate court
The CA issued the resolution on
the basis of nding probable cause
with the petition led by AMLC .
It also ordered banks to immediately make a reporting of
amounts remaining in the bank
accounts of the Binays within 24
hours, after the banks concerned
receive a copy of the order.
The AMLC led the petition
upon request of Ombudsman

Conchita Carpio-Morales, who

had ordered preventive suspension of Makati City Mayor Jejomar
Erwin Junjun Binay Jr for six
months. Implementation of the
suspension has since been held in
abeyance after the CA granted the
mayors petition for a temporary
restraining order.
The petition for application
for the freeze order was led by
the AMLC last week and was
represented by the Office of the
Solicitor General under officerin-charge Karl Miranda, since Solicitor-General Florin Hilbay was
then in The Hague, Netherlands.
The Manila Times learned that
it was also Morales who made a
request for examination of the
bank accounts of the Binay family
last February.

AFP
Manila

he Philippines has become the first country

to come up with national rules governing Uber and
other ride-sharing services,
the transport department said
yesterday, following criticism
of the industry as unsafe and
unregulated.
The transport department
will today publicly issue the
new country-wide guidelines for the likes of Uber and
GrabTaxi, a spokeswoman
said, in a bid to promote better
transport services.
Ride-sharing services -typically Internet and mobile
app-based alternatives to tra-

ditional taxis are gaining

popularity in the Philippine
capital Manila, notorious for
creaking train systems, decrepit buses and traffic jams.
The new framework makes
the Philippines the first country to have nationwide rules
on ride-sharing, according to
both the Philippine transport
department and Uber. Previously, only local and city governments have regulated the
services.
Prospective drivers will
have to initially register with
the ride-sharing company
they want to work for, and
then pay an annual $12 fee to
a regulatory agency to allow
them to operate, according to
transport department spokeswoman Karen Lacsamana.

Previously the drivers did

not have to pay a franchise fee
or to register.

Ride-sharing services
typically Internet
and mobile appbased alternatives to
traditional taxis are
gaining popularity in the
Philippine capital Manila
We
view
technological innovation as a driver for
progress, especially in transportation where it can provide
safer and more convenient
commuting options to the
public, Transport Secretary
Joseph Abaya said in a statement. Internet and mobilephone-based
ride-sharing
services like Uber have come

under attack in the Philippines

and other countries.
Critics have charged that
because they were unregulated, such services were unfair
competition to traditional taxi
companies or were unsafe.
Abaya said that recognising
the new firms would compel
traditional transport companies to modernise, innovate
and be more competitive.
At the end of the day, when
theres competition, theres
better services for people, he
said.
In a statement, Uber senior
vice-president David Plouffe
hailed the Philippine action,
which he said would advance
urban mobility, create new
economic opportunity and put
rider safety first.

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

31

SRI LANKA/BANGLADESH/NEPAL

Dozens dead
as new quake
hits Nepal
AFP
Kathmandu

new earthquake and

powerful
aftershocks
killed dozens of people
and brought fresh terror to a
traumatised Nepal yesterday as
buildings already damaged in a
monster quake last month came
tumbling down.
Weeks after the countrys
deadliest quake in more than 80
years, terried residents once
again ed onto the streets as
houses collapsed and landslides
blocked roads, hampering the
relief effort.
Authorities in Nepal said at
least 48 people were killed and
more than 1,100 injured.
The 7.3-magnitude quake
struck at 12:35 pm, some 76km
(47 miles) east of Kathmandu, the
US Geological Survey said, after a
7.8-magnitude quake on April 25
killed more than 8,000 people.
A second tremor of 6.3-magnitude struck Nepal around half
an hour later, followed by yet
more aftershocks, according to
the USGS.
Eight people died in Kathmandu Valley and two major buildings collapsed in the
capital.
But Dolakha and Sindhupalchowk, two of districts worst
affected by the original quake,
bore the brunt of the damage. In
Dolakha alone, 26 people were
conrmed dead.
Many houses have collapsed
in Dolakha ... there is a chance

that the number of dead from the

district will go up, said Home
Minister Bam Dev Gautam.
The Red Cross said it had received reports of large-scale
casualties in the town of Chautara in Sindhupalchowk, where
its Norwegian branch is running
a eld hospital.

Eight US, Nepalese

troops missing
A US Marine Corps helicopter
carrying out earthquake relief
in Nepal was reported missing
yesterday with eight personnel
on board, officials said.
The incident occurred near
Charikot, Nepal while the aircraft was conducting humanitarian assistance and disaster
relief operations, said Major
Dave Eastburn, spokesman for
US Pacific Command.

Hundreds of people are

pouring in. They are treating
dozens for injuries and they have
performed more than a dozen
surgeries, said spokeswoman
Nichola Jones.
An emergency tent hospital
in Tatopani near the Chinese
border run by the Canadian Red
Cross had been damaged by a
landslide, she said.
There have been several reports of landslides in the worsthit areas, making the task of
getting relief to remote communities in the mountainous
country even more difficult.
Save the Children said the

Gorkha region, near the epicentre of the April 25 quake, had also
been hit by landslides and many
key roads were blocked.
The charity said two major
buildings had collapsed in Kathmandu, while many more multistorey buildings were showing
large ssures.
Nepalese television showed
the parliament building swaying,
forcing lawmakers to ee.
Regine Kopplow, a German aid
worker who was in the Dolakha
district headquarters of Charikot when the latest quake hit,
saw huge dust clouds rise into
the air as buildings collapsed.
I saw a woman in the building opposite jump from the third
oor who suffered injuries to her
leg, elbow and hand, said Kopplow, who works for Concern
Worldwide.
People stayed outside, the
shaking continued. Some people were crying, hugging each
other and sitting on the ground
supporting each other.
The Nepalese government
has acknowledged that it was
overwhelmed by the scale of
the April 25 disaster, which
destroyed
nearly
300,000
homes and left many more too
dangerous to live in.
At an hour of a natural disaster like this, we have to face
it with courage and patience,
Nepals Prime Minister Sushil Koirala said after an emergency meeting of his cabinet
yesterday.
Residents of Kathmandu
meanwhile described their sense

US rescue team officials with a sniffer dog search for survivors at a collapsed house in Kathmandu yesterday after an earthquake struck.
of terror when the quake struck.
We felt it and suddenly there
were huge crowds running up and
down, said Suresh Sharma, who was
in a vegetable market at the time.
It was very scary and very
difficult to make my way out,
said 63-year-old.
I cant believe its happening
again.
Many in Kathmandu had begun to return to their homes after weeks sleeping in the open
air, but after the second major
quake in less than a month, several said they would go back to
sleeping in tents.
I was thinking of moving to
a rented room, but today was
so scary I cant risk my familys life, Dipak Koirala, who has
been living under a tent since
April 25, said by phone from central Ramechhap district.
We will continue to stay in
the tent but its wet here and the
rain came into the tent, which we
are sharing with 24 people.
Kathmandus airport, the
main entry point for ights
bringing in aid, was briey
closed yesterday.

Another blogger hacked

to death in Bangladesh
Reuters
Dhaka

Boat adrift with 116

migrants detained
AFP
Dhaka

blogger was hacked

to death by machetewielding attackers in
Bangladesh yesterday, the third
killing of a critic of religious
extremism in less than three
months.
Ananta Bijoy Das, a blogger
who advocated secularism, was
attacked by four masked assailants in the northeastern district of Sylhet yesterday morning, police official Mohammad
Rahamatullah said.
Rahamatullah said Das was a
33-year-old banker.
He was also editor of science
magazine Jukti, which means
logic, and on the advisory
board of Mukto Mona (Free
Mind), a website propagating
rationalism and opposing fundamentalism that was founded
by US-based blogger Avijit
Roy.
Roy himself was hacked to
death in February while returning home with his wife from
a Dhaka book fair. His widow,
Rada Bonya Ahmed, suffered
head injuries and lost a nger.
According
to
monitoring service SITE Intelligence
Group, Islamist militant group
Ansar al-Islam Bangladesh said
Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcon-

Nepalese citizens race into the streets of Kathmandu yesterday in response to a 7.3 magnitude aftershock
hitting the country.

Forensics police investigate the site where blogger Ananta Bijoy Das was hacked to death in Sylhet yesterday.
tinent (AQIS) had claimed responsibility for the attack.
The regional arm of the Al
Qaeda network has not issued
a statement on the killing, but
Ansar says it has ties to AQIS
and previously reported on
similar attacks which AQIS
later took credit for, SITE said.
Imran Sarker, the head of a
network of activists and bloggers in Bangladesh, said Das
was a progressive free think-

er and a good human being.

What is going on? The government will have to end this
culture of impunity, Sarker
added. Otherwise, the fundamentalists will turn our secular
country into another Pakistan
or Afghanistan.
More than 120 people have
died in violent anti-government protests this year.
Militants have targeted secularist writers in Bangladesh in

recent years, while the government has tried to crack down on

hardline Islamist groups seeking to make the South Asian nation of 160mn a Sharia-based
state.
On March 30, Washiqur Rahman, another secular blogger who aired his outrage over
Roys death on social media,
was killed in similar fashion
on a busy street in the capital,
Dhaka.

angladesh discovered
116 nationals, some
sick from a lack of food,
adrift in a shing trawler in the
Bay of Bengal yesterday after
being abandoned by smugglers en route to Malaysia,
officials said.
A joint navy and coast
guard patrol boat detained
the trawler near Bangladeshs
southernmost island of St.
Martins close to the border
with Myanmar, an official said.
There were 116 illegal migrants in the shing trawler.
They are all Bangladeshis,
coast guard station commander Dickson Chowdhury
told AFP by phone.
Many had been stuck on
the trawler for weeks off the
Bangladesh coast waiting to
begin the perilous journey to
Southeast Asia, and many had
gone without food for days,
Chowdhury said.
They have been on the boat
from 15 days to three months.
For the last seven days some of
them have not eaten anything
other than water. Some were
found in emaciated condition, he said.
Chowdhury said the crew,
thought to be Myanmar nationals, had abandoned the
trawler yesterday morning after being spotted and chased

by Bangladeshi border patrol

boats.
Officials said the migrants
had come from all over impoverished Bangladesh for the
journey to Malaysia in search
of a better life.
There are 16- and 17-yearold boys in the ship as well as
a 60-year-old man, Chowdhury said.
Another coast guard official
said navy and coast guard patrol boats detained the trawler
at 5.30pm (1130 GMT).
We learnt that it was heading to Malaysia with the illegal
migrants, Al Imran, of the
coast guards press department, said.
The discovery comes after
nearly 2,000 boat people from
Myanmar and Bangladesh
were rescued or had swum to
shore in Malaysia and Indonesia in recent days.
The spate of arrivals comes
as Thailand, a key stop on
a Southeast Asian peoplesmuggling route, cracks down
following the discovery of
mass graves that has laid bare
the extent of the thriving
trade.
Thousands of Bangladeshis
and ethnic Rohingya refugees from Myanmar attempt
the journey to Malaysia every
year, mainly from Bangladeshs southern coastal town
of Teknaf, which borders
Myanmars western Rakhine
coast.

Lankan reforms to boost womens representation

Missing BNP leader found in India

AFP
Dhaka

he chief spokesman of
Bangladesh
Nationalist Party (BNP) who went
missing in early March was
found yesterday in a hospital in
northeastern India, his wife said.
Salahuddin Ahmeds disappearance at the height of deadly

anti-government protests drew

widespread concern following
similar disappearances of opposition activists in the past two years.
He has been found at a hospital in Meghalaya. The hospital
authorities called me just a moment ago and then I spoke to my
husband, Hasina Ahmed said.
She could not describe the circumstances that led to Ahmeds
disappearance from a hideout in

Dhaka and of his re-emergence

at the Indian hospital, close to
the Bangladeshi border.
There was no comment from
the government or police.
Ahmed, a former junior minister, took over as the BNP chief
spokesman after two other senior members were detained in
January at the start of a campaign
of
anti-government
protests.

Sri Lankas new electoral

reforms should make space for
more women representation
in parliament, Deputy Foreign
Minister Ajith Perera has said.
Following the election of
President Maithripala Sirisena
in January, the government has
pledged to implement elections
reforms with a new amendment
to the constitution.
The composition of the new
parliament and how it should be
elected is a hot topic of debate
in political circles.
Current plans include increasing

Sri Lankas 225-member

cabinet to 255 and adopting
a proportional representation
system.
Perera believes all major
political parties have to commit
that 50% of parliamentarians
selected under the National List
be women, according to Xinhua.
Sri Lanka has many competent,
qualified and intelligent
women. But even though 52%
of the population is women,
we have a tiny amount of them
in parliament. These reforms
are the ideal chance to change

that, he said.
Perera argued it would be
impossible to promote equitable
legislation unless more women
enter parliament.
Sirisena has already insisted
parliament would be dissolved
once electoral changes are
passed into the constitution
setting the stage for a fresh
election.
Currently, female representation
in Sri Lankas parliament is
about 4.8% with just 13 female
members out of 225 members
of parliament.

Quake part
of chain
reaction
AFP
Paris

he fresh earthquake that

struck Nepal yesterday, 17
days after a lethal 7.9 temblor, is part of a chain reaction in
a seismic hotspot, scientists said.
Large earthquakes are often followed by other quakes, sometimes
as large as the initial one, said Carmen Solana, a volcanologist at Britains University of Portsmouth.
This is because the movement produced by the rst quake
adds extra stress on other faults
and destabilises them, she told
the Science Media Centre (SMC),
a not-for-prot organisation
based in London.
It is a chain reaction.
Since the rst earthquake in
April, aftershocks have been migrating more or less southeastwards, Nigel Harris, a professor
of tectonics at Britains Open
University, told the SMC.
There has been a rip in the
underlying plate which has suddenly moved west to east, and
this second earthquake is an
extension of that process.
The April 25 and May 12 quakes
were shallow, which means that
ground shaking is far greater
than with temblors that occur at
depth, the scientists said.
Pascal Bernard, a seismologist at the Institute for Planetary
Physics in Paris, said aftershocks
in the region were unlikely to be
greater than 5 magnitude.
Over 80 years prior to yesterdays quake, eastern Nepal had
an 8.1 temblor in 1934. Around
10,700 people were killed in Nepal and neighbouring India.
This means that pressure
between the two tectonic plates
in this region has signicantly
eased, Bernard said.
At the interface of the two
plates, the Indian plate is riding
upwards at around 2cm (fourthfths of an inch) a year.
The movement is not smooth but
rather laden with friction, leading
to sharp and potentially destructive
jolts as stress builds up.

32

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

COMMENT
Chairman: Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Attiyah
Editor-in-Chief : Darwish S Ahmed
Production Editor: C P Ravindran

P.O.Box 2888
Doha, Qatar
editor@gulf-times.com
Telephone 44350478 (news),
44466404 (sport), 44466636 (home delivery)
Fax 44350474

GULF TIMES
Saudi Arabia bourse
opening lures but
a stampede unlikely
As Saudi Arabias stock market is preparing to
receive its rst direct foreign investment in stocks next
month, global investors cannot help getting excited
about the prospects unlocked by the $590bn Tadawul
in a $750bn economy. The Riyadh-based Capital
Market Authority has nalised rules for the bourse
opening up, getting closer for its inclusion in the MSCI
Emerging Markets Index as early as 2017.
The Tadawul, the kingdoms bourse, is currently
limited to domestic investors and foreigners from the
six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC). Others
can invest only indirectly, using derivatives sold by
Saudi intermediaries. The benchmark has topped the
seven major GCC indexes this year; up 17% to near the
highest level since November.
Its not an easy entry, though. Foreign investors must
manage $5bn in assets; only a maximum of 49% of a
company can be owned by outsiders; and no more than
5% by individual investors. Total foreign investment in
the bourse cannot exceed 10% of its value.
The main aim of the opening up is to attract
institutional investments and improve corporate
governance standards, CMA chairman Mohamed alJadaan has said. We welcome the money, but it is not
our objective. What we are looking for is institutional
investments, he said.
But, for all the
optimism, there are
plenty of strings
attached.
The expectation of
an avalanche of money
coming in to the stock market on day one may not be
reective of realistic market expectations, Jamal alKishi, chief executive officer for Deutsche Securities
Saudi Arabia, said. The level over time will stabilise at
a level consistent with the size and scale of the Saudi
market, he said.
There are other issues. Inclusion in the MSCI index,
still uncertain, is at least two years away. Valuations
dont look particularly attractive. With a forward
price-to-earnings ratio of 17.2, Saudi Arabia is pricier
than even developed market benchmarks such as the
Dow Jones Industrial Average at 16.0 and the FTSE 100
at 16.5.
Oil accounts for about 90% of the kingdoms foreign
revenue, and its eating up the cash reserves at a record
pace amid a 48% plunge in oil prices last year.
The Saudi market regulator has still way to go too.
While the exchange is the biggest in the Arab world,
it ranks fth out of the six GCC peers for quality of
stock-market regulation, according to the World
Economic Forum data. Accounting issues at Mobily,
Saudi Arabias second-biggest phone operator, and the
subsequent clean-up announced by the regulator early
this year, could be a signal to outsiders.
Sure, nobody doubts the prospects of the Tadawul,
one of the worlds last major markets to open up. But
outside investors, eager to tap into the tantalising
prospects of the hitherto restricted market, need to be
cautiously optimistic to ensure decent returns in the
long term.

National identity reshaping

Europes political landscape
One major reason for the
resurgence of identity
politics in Europe
is globalisation, which has
limited the capacity
of countries or peoples to
control their economies
By Kemal Dervis
Barcelona

he United Kingdoms recent

general election provided
a clear example of how
the question of national
identity is reshaping Europes political
landscape. The Scottish National
Party (SNP), embodying a left-wing
version of identity politics, wiped
out Labour in Scotland, allowing the
Conservatives to gain an absolute
majority in Parliament.
The government of Prime Minister
David Cameron who has focused on
British identity, rather than the UKs
common destiny with Europe will
undoubtedly hold a referendum on the
UKs continued membership in the
European Union, with unpredictable
consequences.
For decades, political debate
in Europe focused largely on
economic institutions and policies.
Conservatives argued for a private
sector-driven economy, unfettered
markets, low taxes, reduced
government spending and limited
public goods. Liberals and social
democrats supported a privateownership economy, markets,
European integration, and increased
trade, tempered by substantially
redistributive taxes and transfers, a
strong social safety net, and some
public ownership in areas such as
infrastructure and nance.
In this bi-polar system, the

parties differed on the nuances of

economic policy, but broadly agreed
on democratic values, the European
project, and the need to adapt to and
manage globalisation, rather than
reject it wholesale. But, with the
growing success of appeals to identity
and renewed ethnic or religious
nationalism, that is changing. Are the
ghosts of the early and mid-twentieth
century returning? The question is
particularly relevant for Europe, but
it also has global signicance. In the
Middle East, for example, identity
politics is manifesting itself in its most
sinister form: a chaotic and violent
sectarian clash, exemplied by the rise
of the Islamic State.

The rise of
identity-driven
political movements
presents a huge
challenge for
Europes traditional
political parties
Loyalty to a perceived identity
can have innocuous and enriching
components, such as, say, the
promotion of a regional language. The
problem with identity politics is that it
places the in group at odds with the
perceived other an approach that
can easily foster chauvinism, invidious
discrimination and open antagonism.
One major reason for the resurgence
of identity politics in Europe is
globalisation, which has limited the
capacity of countries or peoples to
control their economies. Indeed,
the global economy has become so
interconnected, and world markets
so powerful, that there appears to be
little scope for national policies to

disrupt hyper-mobile capital ows.

While globalisation has helped to
boost overall prosperity, it has been
most benecial for those who form
the new global elite. Meanwhile, many
people in Europe face greater economic
insecurity, owing to new technologies or
competition from lower-cost workers
elsewhere. Unless they can upgrade
their knowledge and skills and, in
some cases, move to a new industry
or location they face constrained
economic opportunities. These
disadvantaged groups are particularly
large in the countries that were hit
hardest by the recent global nancial
crisis and now struggle with high
unemployment.
But even people who are relatively
prosperous are frustrated by some
features of globalisation. They
may oppose the use of their taxes
to subsidise poorer people who
do not share their identity, such
as immigrants, French-speaking
Belgians, southern Italians, or Greeks.
When it comes to trade
protectionism, European integration,
and economic globalisation, those
on the far right and the far left often
share the same views. In France, for
example, many supporters of the
National Front voted communist 30
years ago. And, indeed, the National
Fronts economic programme is rather
similar to that of the Left Front (an
electoral bloc comprising the French
Communist Party and the Left Party).
Of course, when it comes to
immigration and human rights, the
internationalist ideological tradition
of socialism prevents extreme
nationalist and racist discourse on the
far left. But, given that these parties
are competing with the far right for
the same disenchanted voters, their
humanism on these issues has become
a severe political handicap, which may
explain why the extreme right has
lately been more successful electorally.
Meanwhile, the rise of identity-

driven political movements presents a

huge challenge for Europes traditional
political parties. Mainstream
conservatives, widely perceived
as being in thrall to the economic
interests of the wealthy, must nd
ways to appear populist but without
sounding too much like their far-right
competitors on immigration and
human rights. Cameron has succeeded
in this delicate balancing act and has
been rewarded by voters. Mainstream
Republicans in the US, pressured by
the more extreme forces within their
party, face a similar challenge.
For centre-left parties, the task is
even more daunting. They must offer
voters a realistic economic programme
that is market-friendly and open to
international trade, while promising
tangible benets to the poorer
60-70% of the population who are
understandably frustrated with their
lack of economic progress. If a left
partys economic policy is perceived as
a weak copy of the rights agenda, the
poorest segments of the population
will gravitate to chauvinist forces and
their false promises of protection from
the consequences of globalisation.
The upcoming elections in Spain,
Turkey, Denmark and Portugal not
to mention next years US presidential
election will present their own
versions of these challenges. The left,
in particular, will have to defend the
principles of equality and democracy,
while nding ways to manage
irreversible globalisation, including
through international co-operation.
The great paradox is that if the
rise of identity politics continues,
governments will be even less able to
address the problems that are fuelling
it. - Project Syndicate
zKemal Dervs, former minister of
economic affairs of Turkey and former
administrator for the UN Development
Programme (UNDP), is a vice president
of the Brookings Institution.

What we are
looking for is
institutional
investments

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Scotlands First Minister and leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), Nicola Sturgeon, talking to the media outside the Houses of Parliament in London . The SNP
won a landslide in Scotland in the May 7 general election, destroying the Labour party north of the border in a historic leap forward which could increase pressure
for a fresh referendum on independence. The nationalists won 56 of 59 parliamentary seats in Scotland up from just six at the last vote in 2010. The problem with
identity politics is that it places the in group at odds with the perceived other an approach that can easily foster chauvinism, invidious discrimination and open
antagonism.

Organised crime muscling in on migrant trafficking

By Michel Moutot
Paris

he prots are huge, the risks

limited and the demand
virtually inexhaustible:
trafficking illegal migrants
to Europe is increasingly becoming
the domain of organised crime groups
attracted by the multibillion-dollar
pay-off, experts say.
Transporting desperate migrants
from conict zones in Africa or the
Middle East is a lucrative business that
generates an estimated $7bn a year,
and maa groups want a slice of the
pie.
Cross-border trafficking ows ...
are more often connected to organised
crime. Complex trafficking ows can
be more easily sustained by large and
well-organised criminal groups, said
the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in a
recent report.
With better connected and broader
big sh networks taking over, even
the journey itself has changed, said
Arezo Malakooti, who works for
Paris-based Altai, a group that advises
the International Organisation for
Migration (IOM).
In 2013, the immigrants told us
that they took a journey in stages,

and at each stage they would change

smugglers and pay a new price.
Sometimes they would stop at
locations to work and make money to
be able to afford the next step, said
Malakooti.
In 2014 we increasingly saw
migrants paying for a journey from
home to destination. Its happening
more and more now.

So far this year, some

1,750 migrants have
perished in the
hazardous journey
to Europe
She said she had talked to
Palestinian migrants who said the
process was now akin to going to a
travel agent and buying a package,
organised from beginning to end.
So there is evidence to suggest
that there are networks operating all
the way, or at least some cooperation
between different networks.
There is also an interconnection
between different networks, suggested
by the fact that some migrants passing
through Libya end up working as

prostitutes in Europe, noted Joel

Milman, IOM spokesman.
One of the things attracting the
big fish mafia bosses is a richer
clientele of middle-class Syrians
escaping their war-torn country - a
more prosperous group than their
African counterparts.
Last year, some 170,000 migrants
entered Italy via the Mediterranean,
with each boat bringing in tens of
thousands of euros for the smugglers.
Malakooti said there was an
aggressive marketing campaign in
place on social media with options
and packages available depending
on the price a migrant is willing to
pay.
For an increased price you can have
a safer journey, meaning a life jacket
and you can sit on the upper deck of
the boat. If youre on the lower deck
and the boat capsizes, youre going to
be the rst to drown.
With the recent dismantling of
some criminal networks and the
arrest of some of the major players,
authorities are building up an idea of
the prole of people involved.
Italian authorities are now
searching for an Egyptian superboss,
identied through phone taps.
And in lawless Libya, people
traffickers, smugglers and militias

are joining forces to create a whole

industry.
There are detention centres set
up by militias there to enable the
smugglers to come in and advertise
their services, said Malakooti.
Mohamed Abdelsalam al-Kuwiri, in
charge of combating illegal migration
for the Tripoli-based government set
up by the Fajr Libya militia alliance,
said the traffickers in the country are
part of a wider worldwide network
with strong connections in Italy and
other European countries.
Most of them are Libyans but
some of them are not, they have Arab
nationalities, he said.
So far this year, some 1,750 migrants
have perished in the hazardous
journey to Europe, according to the
IOM, a 30-fold increase over the same
period in 2014.
And when there are people so
desperate to risk the journey, there
will be organised criminal groups
willing to take advantage of them, said
Malakooti.
As long as there is a demand for
irregular migration then there will be
people who are going to try to exploit
that.
As long as the migrants dont have
the option of legal migration, there
will be a demand for these services.

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

33

COMMENT

Black Miss Japan ghts for race revolution

The hostility Miyamoto
faced sits at odds with a
government-sponsored
drive to promote the country
overseas as Cool Japan and
entice foreign tourists for the
2020 Tokyo Olympics
By Alastair Himmer
Tokyo/AFP

riana Miyamoto entered the

Miss Universe Japan beauty
contest after a mixed-race
friend committed suicide.
And she endured abuse after winning
the crown because of her skin colour.
Far from being put off by the
backlash, Miyamoto resolved to use
her new-found fame to help ght racial
prejudice - in much the same way
British supermodel Naomi Campbell
broke down cultural barriers in the
fashion industry a generation ago.
Im stubborn, said Miyamoto, the
daughter of a Japanese mother and
black American father, who turned 21
on Tuesday.
I was prepared for the criticism. Id
be lying to say it didnt hurt at all. Im
Japanese - I stand up and bow when I
answer the phone. But that criticism
did give me extra motivation, she told
AFP in an interview.
I didnt feel any added pressure
because the reason I took part in the
pageant was my friends death. My
goal was to raise awareness of racial
discrimination, added Miyamoto,
who was bullied as a schoolgirl
growing up in the port town of Sasebo,
near Nagasaki.
Now I have a great platform to
deliver that message as the rst black
Miss Universe Japan. Its always
hard to be the rst, so in that respect
what Naomi Campbell did was really
amazing.

Ariana Miyamoto: Im stubborn.

Social media lit up after Miyamotos
victory in March, many critics
complaining the title should have gone
to what they called a pure Japanese,
rather than a haafu (the Japanese
pronunciation of half, a word used to
describe mixed race).

Miyamoto, who turns heads in Japan

with her caramel skin and height of
1.73m (5ft 8ins), admitted she has had
to toughen up.
I used to get bullied as a kid but
Ive got mentally stronger, to protect
myself, said the model, whose rst

language is Japanese, screwing up her

nose in mock horror when handed an
English menu by a waitress.
When I was small I stood out
and always felt I had to t in with
everyone. Id try not to bring attention
to myself, but now I say what I feel. I

Weather report

Letters
A common
responsibility
Dear Sir,
The letter Hit-and-run driver
ees the scene (Gulf Times, May
11) illustrates the irresponsible
and aggressive behaviour of some
motorists in Doha.
The driver who hit the letter writers
car, it seems, has got away with it. He,
it seems, will not be penalised as his
vehicle number is not known yet.
As the letter writer suggests, in such
cases the other drivers on the road
should note down the number of the
vehicles involved so that action can be
taken against the guilty parties. Road
safety is the responsibility of all of us,
not just the police.

Three-day forecast

southern state of Tamil Nadu Jayaram

Jayalalithaa of corruption charges.
According to the court, the charges are
not sustainable.
Meanwhile, another court has
granted bail to Satyam Computers
founder B Ramalinga Raju and
nine others convicted in a major
accounting fraud and suspended their
seven years rigorous imprisonment
sentences.
Both these decisions have raised
eyebrows of several Indian legal
luminaries.
V Kalyanaraman
(e-mail address supplied)

The power
of nature
Dear Sir,

BG
(Full name and address supplied)

Surprising
decisions
Dear Sir,
An appeals court in India has
acquitted former chief minister of the

do things my own way.

I want to start a revolution,
Miyamoto added with a laugh. I
cant change things overnight but in
100-200 years there will be very few
pure Japanese left, so we have to start
changing the way we think.

The hostility Miyamoto faced sits at

odds with a government-sponsored
drive to promote the country overseas
as Cool Japan and entice foreign
tourists for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Some point to the success of mixedrace celebrities such as Rola - a model
of Bengali, Japanese and Russian
descent - and half-British singer
and actress Becky as proof of Japans
openness to change.
Its possible that some
conservative people might feel Ariana
Miyamoto doesnt t the traditional
Japanese image to represent the
country, said psychologist Yoko
Haruka, a regular on Japanese TV.
Its just the shock of the new.
But she certainly has the chance to
be a pioneer, and its an excellent
opportunity for Japan to become more
globally aware.
Miyamoto argues that any shift still
favours Caucasian or Eurasian lineage
in an overwhelmingly homogenous
country, where multi-racial children
make up just 2% of those born
annually.
In Japan there are hardly any black
models or TV personalities, she said.
Most celebrities are like Rola or
Becky. Hopefully I can help create a
Japan where anyone can make things
happen.
Should Miyamoto win the Miss
Universe nals later this year, she
would spend a year living in splendour
at New Yorks Trump Towers - and
her inuence over issues close to
her heart, which also include gender
identity disorder, would be greatly
enhanced.
But despite her noble intentions,
Miyamoto has no plans to run for
political office just yet.
Id like to use my position to
become a leader, she smiled. Im
like a sponge - always absorbing new
things. But I havent thought too
deeply about politics yet. Its still a bit
early to think about becoming prime
minister!

The massive earthquakes that

continue to rock Nepal and the mighty
Himalayas graphically illustrate
the awesome power of nature. The
Himalayan region has faultlines that
could destroy and devastate the entire
area in a mountain of rubble. These
faultlines could produce even a 9.0
magnitude earthquake, according to
experts.
India could face a mega quake

within the next 20 years. It is

estimated that 38 Indian cities are
vulnerable to major earthquakes:
among them are Delhi, Chennai, Pune,
Greater Mumbai, Kochi, Kolkata,
Patna, Ahmedabad and Dehradun.
Research reveals that 58.6% of
land in India is highly vulnerable to
earthquakes. Around 235 districts are
situated under active seismic zones.
Mega quakes over the past 60 years
are a warning to the world that we
should be better prepared for theses
catastrophes.
On December 26, 2004, the world
was shocked by one of the worst
natural disasters of all time. The
epicentre of the 2004 Indian Ocean
earthquake was off the west coast
of Sumatra, Indonesia. The event is
known by the scientic community as
the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake.
The resulting tsunami devastated
many coastal regions.
The undersea earthquake was
caused when the Indian Plate
was subducted by the Burma Plate
and triggered a series of devastating
tsunamis along the coasts of most
landmasses bordering the Indian
Ocean, killing 230,000 people in 14
countries.
Around 400mn people live in cities
that are ready to erupt in a major
earthquake; they are Panama City,
Tehran, Istanbul, Tokyo, Los Angeles,

Shanghai and Rio De Janerio. A 9

magnitude earthquake could kill 1mn
people in any one of these cities.

TODAY

High: 41 C
Low : 31 C
Hot during the day with slight dust at
places at times

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Johannesburg
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Live issues

Breakthrough in stroke treatment

By Walter Willems
Glasgow/DPA

hat is your name? The

doctor asks a man on a
stretcher in a corridor
of the University of
Pittsburgh Medical Centre (UPMC).
The man moves his hands and lips, but
is mute. Medical intervention is begun
immediately.
I could see the words, but I
couldnt speak them, the man says
several hours later from a hospital bed,
no longer showing signs of having
suffered a serious stroke.
The scenes are from a UPMC video
on YouTube, and the doctor is Tudor
Jovin, director of its Stroke Institute,
who explains the benets of a new
clot-retrieval procedure known as
endovascular treatment (ET).
The UPMC participated in what
it called a landmark study of ET,
one of two global trials of the stroke
treatment that were published online
in the prestigious New England
Journal of Medicine (NEJM) early
this year and recently presented at
the European Stroke Organisation

Conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

People applauded during the
presentations. That doesnt happen
often, said Dr Hans-Christoph
Diener, director of the Clinic for
Neurology at Essen University
Hospital in Germany and co-author of
one of the trials, called Swift Prime.

Were on the verge of

a revolution in acute
stroke care
The reason for the excitement is
that both trials conrmed the ndings
of three previous trials also published
in NEJM: namely, the addition of ET
to current pharmaceutical treatment
signicantly reduced permanent
disability in stroke patients.
Were on the verge of a revolution
in acute stroke care, says Jovin, who
was involved in both trials, in the
UPMC video.
An ischaemic stroke, the most
common kind by far, typically occurs
when a blood clot blocks an artery to
the brain. The interrupted blood ow
causes brain cells to die, and about one

in three patients remains permanently

disabled, for example by paralysis or
speech impairment.
To restore blood ow, doctors have
relied on intravenous injection of
drugs that dissolve the blood clot. This
is usually insufficient when a large
artery responsible for anterior cerebral
circulation is blocked, however, in
which case the addition of ET can be
decisive.
ET generally takes about 30 to
45 minutes. A neuroradiologist following the procedure on a monitor
- inserts a micro-catheter in a blood
vessel in the groin and threads it
through the aorta and carotid artery
into the blocked vessel in the brain.
The catheter is pushed into and
past the clot, after which a stent is
deployed, its expansion creating a
channel for restored blood ow.
Then the stent is used to snag the
blood clot and pull it out of the body.
Its a race against time, Jovin says
in the video. The faster you restore
blood ow to the brain, the more brain
you save and the higher the chance of
a good outcome.
In the Swift Prime trial, 196 stroke
patients received - determined by

lot - either a clot-busting drug only

or the drug supplemented with ET.
About 60% of those given ET had
returned to functional independence
after 90 days, compared with less than
36% from the other group. There was
hardly any difference in the frequency
of side effects.
Dr Joachim Roether, a neurologist
and spokesman for the German
Stroke Society, said ET had already
been incorporated in European
stroke therapy guidelines. Judging
from all the trials to date, he said,
four to six patients must receive ET
in order for one to retain functional
independence.
In the eld of medicine, thats
an unbelievably good result, he
remarked.
The procedure also pays off in
monetary terms, points out Dr
Jens Fiehler, a neuroradiologist at
Hamburg-Eppendorf University
Medical Centre in Germany. Although
ET is expensive, you can keep a
patient from becoming permanently
bedridden and care-dependent, he
said. Endovascular therapy is one of
the most cost-efficient procedures
imaginable.

Around the world

Athens
Beirut
Bangkok
Berlin
Cairo
Cape Town
Colombo
Dhaka
Hong Kong
Istanbul
Jakarta
Karachi
London
Manila
Moscow
New Delhi
New York
Paris
Sao Paulo
Seoul
Singapore
Sydney
Tokyo

Weather
today
Sunny
Sunny
S T Storms
P Cloudy
Sunny
M Cloudy
T Storms
S T Storms
Showers
Sunny
S T Storms
Sunny
M Sunny
M Sunny
P Cloudy
M Sunny
P Cloudy
M Sunny
S Showers
Sunny
S T Storms
M Sunny
Clear

Max/min
26/17
24/18
34/28
18/06
30/17
20/15
30/24
33/27
30/26
22/13
32/24
37/26
20/09
34/25
24/12
39/27
21/11
22/14
21/14
22/13
32/27
17/09
30/18

34

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

QATAR

Islamic society never got stalled

By Umer Nangiana
Staff Reporter

he narrative that the Islamic civilisation stopped

developing 700 years ago
has been developed in the West
and is insidious, a senior academic has stressed.
Professor Ahmed Keeler, a
visiting fellow at the Centre of
Islamic Studies, University of
Cambridge, feels this incorrect
account has unfortunately been
adopted throughout the Muslim
world and it is particularly damaging for the Muslim youth.
Prof Keeler expressed these
views while talking to Gulf
Times in an exclusive chat prior
to his public lecture on the topic, The West and Islam: The
Changing Narratives, which is
scheduled to be held at the Mu-

seum of Islamic Art auditorium

at 7pm today.
The reality, he said, is very different and is wonderful, which
he is set to reveal in his lecture.
Encouraging Muslims to understand what modernity and the
modern world really are and how
they came into being, Prof Keeler
also wants them to question the
prevalent narrative.
The narrative, which has become very prevalent throughout
the Muslim world that somehow
the Islamic civilisation became
stagnant 700 years ago and Muslims fell out of the race, taken
over by Europeans and now the
Muslims are a part of the developing world and have to catch
up, is very insidious, said the
professor, who converted to Islam in 1976, six months before
he organised The World of Islam
Festival in London.

This narrative was born in

the West and it has actually been
adopted by the Muslims. It has
not come out of Islam. The reality is very different. Because
this particular narrative is one
of failure and that sense of failure, I believe, is very insidious.
It is something that distorts the
Muslims understanding and it is
poison to the young, said Keeler.
As someone young and growing up, one would think that ones
civilisation has failed if s/he buys
this narrative. What I am doing
is to try and show how it is not
true and what the real narrative
is and that is my mission. I know
the West. I have been through it
and I know what it is and Alhamdulillah (Thank God), I have also
been introduced to the beauty
of Islam and it is still there, said
the professor.
However, he disregarded the

kind of frustration, anger and

hitting out in rage in reaction to
such a narrative as something
not part of Islam. It is something
that, he believed, has come about
through not understanding what
the modern world is or not understanding the story of Islam.
I have had such a wonderful
experience with Islam, it saved my
life, took me out of a world of confusion and chaos, said Prof Keeler.
Speaking about the so-called
Islamophobia in the West, the
professor said it was difficult for
him to explain why it was there
but the fear does exist. The reality of the spread of Islam is also
true because Islam is spreading
and in the most unusual ways.
A very small part of that is
related to extremism. I dont
like to call it a form of Islam because it is not a form of Islam. It
is just a kind of strange ideology

that has developed. But the fact

is that people are drawn to Islam
through many different ways,
says the professor, who, while
residing in Cambridge for the
past 22 years, has had a profound
impact on a number of students
passing through the university.
One factor, he believed, could
be the huge disparity when it
comes to treatment of different
communities, which, from a
Muslim point of view, is enough
to drive anybody crazy.
But that is why we have to be
so careful. We have to really understand and be aware of what
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) had
to put out with in Makkah, what
those rst Muslims went through
in Makkah and what did He (the
Prophet, PBUH) do. He taught
patience and forbearance in the
face of that kind of a persecution, said Prof Keeler.

Prof Ahmed Keeler will deliver a lecture at the MIA auditorium today.
It is very difficult to weigh these
disparities, he added. However, he
said in England a lot of work has
gone into creating good relations
between communities. And it
continues. And Insha Allah (God
Willing), this would mean that we
dont have this terrible situation
in our country. And I hope so because there is a lot of goodwill,
hoped the professor.
He said he was made to re-

ect upon his life experiences by

people close to him as he turned
70, at which point with some
trepidation he put together a
presentation that deals with his
understanding of the West and
Islam. The paradigm that he is
proposing, and will discuss in his
lecture, is one that does radically
change the way Muslims view
the West or the way they view the
narrative of Islam.

Alfardan Automobiles
brings fun to Qatar
with #YourMINIHome
C

ontinuing the success

of its launch at the Yalla
MINI roadshow last year,
the MINI 5-Door Hatch has made
another appearance in Qatar.
The newly launched model has
been used in typical MINI fashion
with a new fun and intuitive display called Your MINI Home to
showcase the new MINI connected features in a relaxed environment, according to a statement.
Alfardan Automobiles displayed the MINI 5-Door Hatch
at Ezdan Mall in Doha during the
weekend, bringing MINI fans

closer to the British brand in a

lounge area.
The new and unique concept
enabled customers to engage with
MINIs world of comfort with
MINI Connected, an innovative
spectrum of in-car infotainment,
communication and online functions, the statement adds. Visitors
were also able to understand how
the new levels of comfort, safety
and intuitive control could transform their MINI experience.
Ihab Allam, general manager
of Alfardan Automobiles, said:
MINI has enjoyed unprecedent-

ed growth and a large following in

Qatar. #YourMINIHome is a great
concept and one that has been
a huge success in Doha, providing a great platform for visitors to
come and enjoy the world of MINI
in a fun and interactive way and
displaying all the technologies
each MINI has to offer. The MINI
5-door Hatch and MINI 3-door
Hatch was the perfect model to
display all the exciting features to
visitors at the mall.
The #YourMINIHome lounge
activation saw hundreds of visitors engaging with MINI and its

range of MINI Connected features that deliver new levels of

connectivity, including Web Radio, Twitter and News, Dynamic
Music and more.
The lounge also included the
MINI John Cooper Works body
kit accessories as well as a variety
of MINI lifestyle items.
MINI has enjoyed a 6% sales
growth in the rst three months
of 2015 compared to the same
period in 2014. Both the MINI
3-Door Hatch and MINI 5-Door
Hatch claimed the top spots for
MINI sales.

Two planes carried 120 tonnes of varied relief materials.

Qatar continues to
send aid to Yemen
QNA
Doha

The new and unique concept enabled customers to engage with MINIs world of comfort with MINI Connected.

n the directives of HH
the Emir Sheikh Tamim
bin Hamad al-Thani,
Qatars aid for the people of
Yemen continued as two planes
with Qatari relief assistance arrived at Djibouti-Ambouli International Airport yesterday.
The two planes carried 120
tonnes of varied relief materials
and were escorted by members
of the Qatari Research and Rescue Team (Lekhwiya). Two more
planes with 120 tonnes of aid
would arrive today, taking the
total aid delivered in two days to
240 tonnes.
Qatars ambassador to Djibouti Jassim Jaber Jassim Souror and a delegation from the
embassy, as well as officials
from Djibouti and Yemen, were
present to receive the planes

Qatari relief material for the people of Yemen.

and facilitate the transportation
of the Qatari assistance by sea to
the Yemeni people.
In April, Qatar sent two
planes carrying aid for Yemenis, including 66 tonnes
of foodstuff and medicines.
They were received by Yemeni
Foreign Minister Riyadh Ya-

seen at the Djibouti airport.

The permanent research and
rescue and humanitarian assistance committee, headed by Lekhwiya, assumed the task of coordinating with the authorities
concerned and prepared relief assistance, which includes a variety
of relief materials and items.

Ezdan discount card programme launched

E

zdan Real Estate Company, a

subsidiary of Ezdan Holding
Group, has announced the
launch of the Ezdan discount card
programme for 2015.
The programme is being implemented in collaboration with
60 outlets, including restaurants,
hotels, shops and services for
training, Haj and Umrah, healthcare and beauty centres, insurance
companies and others.
Vodafone Qatar, 23 restaurants
that offer oriental, Western and
Asian dishes, as well as three major hotels, LuLu Hypermarket, Al
Siddiqi Holding Group, Sharaf DG,
Al Jazeera Media Training and Development Centre, Aqua Park and
Jungle Zone are among the outlets.
The scheme also includes Islamic
Insurance Company and the Labbaik campaign for Haj and Umrah as
well as Regency Travel & Tours. The
card will allow discounts in three
major companies of car accessories
and services in addition to a number
of jewellery, watches and perfume
shops. The Ezdan discount card
provides a discount ranging from
10% to 50%, Ezdan Holding Group
deputy CEO Nasser al-Abdulla said.

Ezdan officials and stakeholders at the launch of the discount card programme.

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

35

QATAR

QM, Oxy
push art
initiative
Q

atar Museums (QM), under

the guidance of chairperson
HE Sheikha al-Mayassa bint
Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, has announced a new partnership with Occidental Petroleum of Qatar Ltd (Oxy
Qatar).
The partnership makes Oxy Qatar
the principal sponsor of QMs Fire
Station Artist in Residence, a new
programme designed to support artists in Qatar from a range of disciplines and provide a hub for creative
exchange.
Qatar Museums CEO Mansoor bin
Ebrahim al-Mahmoud said: It is with
great pleasure that we announce our
partnership with Oxy Qatar today.
Since 2012, QM has been renovating
the old Civil Defence building (commonly known as the old Fire Station)
in preparation for hosting the Artist
in Residence programme. To honour
the heritage and traditions of the past
while embracing the future, QM has
sought to preserve the original faade
of the building and recycle many of its
features, allowing the original integrity of the building to remain intact.
Preparations for the programme
will continue apace ahead of commencing in September. Between now
and then, the emerging artists will be
chosen through a carefully managed
selection and decision-making process involving an independent jury.
Initially spanning a period of nine
months, the programme will host 20
artists from a range of disciplines such
as art, photography, design and architecture.
The building will be home to 24 studios and a gallery space for exhibitions
and community interaction. Twenty

studios will be open to artists selected

to join the residency, while four will
be reserved for visiting artists. In this
way, the residency programme will involve mentoring and tutoring from respected local artists and provide residents with the opportunity to benet
from the experience of some of the
big international names that QM continually attracts to Qatar. These have
previously included Richard Serra,
Louise Bourgeois, Takashi Murakami
and Damian Hirst. Residents will also
have access to world-class curators,
art historians and professors.
Hala al-Khalifa, director of the Fire
Station, said: I am delighted to announce our partnership with Oxy
Qatar to the public, as this guarantees
the continued success of our groundbreaking Fire Station Artist in Residence Programme.
The Fire Station premises will also
feature public attractions such as a
park, library, an arts and crafts shop, a
cinema, a plaza and a restaurant.
Oxy Qatar has supported QMs activities and initiatives earlier, too,
having sponsored events such as both
Mal Lawal exhibitions and Hey Ya:
Arab Women in Sports. The company
is also helping connect the Museum
of Islamic Art (MIA) and Mathaf:
Arab Museum of Modern Art at Qatar Foundation through its continued
sponsorship of the MIA-Mathaf shuttle bus service.
Stephen Kelly, president and general manager of Oxy Qatar, said:
Oxy Qatar is delighted to continue
its long-established partnership with
Qatar Museums. We are proud to support the establishment of this unique
multi-faceted project.

A computer generated rendering of the KidzMondos main entrance.

KidzMondo promises 2016 debut

K

idzMondo, a scaled-down city

where kids rule, is coming to
Mall of Qatar (MoQ) in early
next year.
MoQ, the regions largest leisure,
entertainment and shopping complex,
has entered into a partnership with
Kidz Holding to bring KidzMondo, a
popular child edutainment concept,
to Qatar for the rst time, a statement
issued yesterday said.
KidzMondo, a miniature city, accurate down to the last detail, is built
for children between the ages of two to
14. The $25mn project, which will be
prominently featured as part of MoQs
family entertainment zone, covers over
8,000sqm on multiple levels.
Design on its more than 70 minibusiness establishments is in the nal

stages, with many of the structural elements already in place. When open,
children will be able to engage in real
life situations and professional role
play, under the supervision of the staff.
We are delighted to announce this
partnership which will bring the rst
city of education and entertainment
to Qatar, allowing children to truly immerse themselves in a highly stimulating environment, said Ayman alJamil, CEO of Aura Retail Company,
owner of KidzMondo Doha.
KidzMondo Doha will co-operate
with more than 70 corporate partners
to sponsor various activities and bring
the city to life. Children will be able
to play all the traditional roles such as
remen, bankers, doctors, pilots, actors, beauticians and earn salaries in

KidzMondos currency that they can

spend in the KidzMondo stores.
The architectural layout is much like
a real city with a central plaza, clock
tower, re station, police station, hospital, theatre and many other establishments spread throughout in two storey
buildings all under one sprawling roof.
In addition, KidzMondo Doha is being
carefully planned to include many features unique to Qatar and introduce new
jobs in space, energy and technology
that will challenge children in the future.
We are excited to introduce this
intellectually stimulating venue to Qatar, and in doing so, bring our younger
visitors a little closer to a grownups
world, said Shem Krey, managing director of MoQ.
From its rst location on the Beirut

Waterfront in Lebanon, Kidz Holding

has been actively growing its global
reach, engaging with partners in many
countries across the Middle East, including, UAE, Kuwait, Turkey, Jordan,
Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, as well as in
other countries.
When complete, MoQ, with over 500
stores, will offer visitors a wide selection of major international brands, dining options, a 5 star luxury hotel, part of
the Curio Collection by Hilton, and an
array of unique entertainment experiences, including the largest IMAX Laser
3D projection system in the world.
It will also feature a professional live
theatre in an eight-storey high central
glassed dome, complete with resident
performance troupe and animated water features.

36

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

QATAR

GCC Awqaf ministers begin meeting in Doha

QNA
Doha

he second meeting of GCC

Awqaf (Endowment) ministers started in Doha yesterday.
The two-day meeting will discuss the major challenges facing
those in charge of Awqaf and Islamic affairs in the GCC countries and ways to address them.
It will also discuss the proposals of the GCC Awqaf ministers
assistants who held their rst
meeting in Doha on March 1.
Opening the meeting, HE the
Qatari Minister of Awqaf and
Islamic Affairs Dr Ghaith bin
Mubarak al-Kuwari delivered a
speech welcoming the GCC ministers and wishing the meeting
success.
He lauded the keenness and
guidance of the GCC leaders on
uniting stances, pointing out
that this meeting comes at a critical time because of the ongoing
developments at the Islamic and
international levels.
More than ever, it has been
conrmed that we are called to
strengthen solidarity and co-ordination to secure our communities and guard our values against
the ideas of extremism threatening our nation, he said.
Dr al-Kuwari pointed out

that the previous meeting held

in Kuwait in April last year emphasised the necessity of coordination between the ministries and institutions of Awqaf
and Islamic affairs in Gulf Cooperation Council countries and
strengthening the co-operation
to develop their administrative
performance.
He stressed that Kuwait
meeting resulted in promising
prospects for the development
and activation of scientic programmes, and achieving integration.
The State of Qatar is honoured
to host the second meeting of
GCC Awqaf ministers, HE Dr alKuwari said extending thanks to
Kuwait for chairing the previous
session.
He also stressed the keenness
for the speedy implementation
of what has been agreed upon in
the previous meeting and urged
all the committees emanating
from the meetings to intensify
their efforts and continue to innovate and propose new initiatives to serve the endowment
sector and Islamic governance in
the GCC countries.
The Qatari minister wished
that this meeting would contribute to the prosperity and development of joint performance of
Awqaf and Islamic affairs under
the guidance of the GCC leaders.

HH the Deputy Emir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Thani and HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani (below) met yesterday with
the GCC Awqaf (Endowments) ministers, who called on them to greet them on the occasion of their second meeting in Doha. HH the Deputy Emir and HE the Prime Minister expressed
hope that their meeting would succeed in reaching a positive outcome that would contribute to further strengthening the GCC joint action.

Vodafone unveils fastest

data network with the
widest 4G+ coverage
By Pratap John
Chief Business Reporter

odafone has launched

its fastest data network
with the widest 4G+
coverage in the world, which
the service provider said will be
available throughout the country by the year-end.
The network launch follows a
project of substantial upgrades
and expansions of Vodafones 3G
& 4G network.
In January this year, Vodafone began phase one of their
network evolution by upgrading every network site in Doha
with the latest state-of-the-art
technology which means 65% of
their network is brand new.
In addition, the company installed 134 new outdoor sites,
some 42 indoor sites, 290 4G
outdoor sites and 25 4G indoor
sites. With this, Vodafone has
increased both its 3G and 4G
coverage, doubled 3G capacity, tripled 4G capacity and data
capacity for better user experience.
The rst areas to benet from
this upgrade were Al Aziziyah, Al Rayyan, Murayk, Salwa
Road, Bin Omran, Forousiya and
Industrial Area. This was followed by West Bay, The PearlQatar, Westbay Lagoon, all of
greater Doha as well as Wakrah,
Wukhair and Al Shahaniya.
Vodafone Qatar CEO Kyle
Whitehill said: We are committed to offer people in Qatar
the best from one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world, Vodafone
Group. In the past ve months
alone, we have invested more
than QR500mn in our network
infrastructure and mobilised a
team of hundreds of engineers
and technicians that have been
working round the clock to provide world-class telecommunications to support Qatar National Vision 2030.
We are proud that our growing 1.4mn-customer base rely
on us each and every day and
now they can enjoy Qatars fastest data network.
Explaining the impact of this
upgrade, Vodafones chief technology officer Ramy Boctor said:
We have immediately seen the
impact of this upgrade in terms
of network speed. Based on Vodafone Qatars analysis of Ookla speed test results provided
by Ookla, the global leader in
broadband data network testing, clearly show Vodafone now
has the fastest data network in

Date set for

third Ajyal
Youth Film
Festival
T

Dalya Ahmed al-Khalaf, Vodafone Qatar Strategy Director (centre) with Norris (left) and Boctor giving details of Vodafones 4G+ coverage at a press
conference in Doha yesterday.
Qatar. For customers this means
instantaneous Instagram and
Whatsapp, seamless YouTube
playback and no more long waits
for your Facebook feed to load.
The completion of this phase
of the network upgrade also
marked the launch of 4G+ for
Vodafone, less than a year after
their 4G launch in June 2014.
Explaining the enhancements,
Vodafones chief commercial ofcer Marc Norris said: Seventy
per cent of our 4G network sites
in Qatar are now 4G+ capable
giving us the widest 4G+ coverage in Qatar with speeds of
up to 150 Mbps and an average
30Mbps. We are acutely aware
of the populations high demand
for data and we aim to liberate this with Vodafones 4G and
4G+ network that is currently
supporting customer data usage
of 1 Peta Byte per month. With
this in mind, a special focus lies
on 4G and 4G + coverage expansion, which we will continue to
drive within the next couple of
months. Never before has browsing the Internet, social networking, watching videos and making
downloads on your mobile been
so fast, seamless and enjoyable.

To support their 4G+ launch,

Vodafone has several 4G+ capable devices in its stores including the Huawei Mate 7, the new
Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge,
Samsung Galaxy Note Edge, HTC
One M9 and Motorola Nexus 6.
Philip Fu, Huawei Qatar general manager, who was present at
the announcement said: Huawei Mate7 is a light and thin 6
inch large-screen mobile phone
with metal body. Its ultra-slim
frame design gives it the highest
screen-to-body ratio on a large
screen phone at 83%. Huawei
Mate7 Moreover, it has the fastest ngerprint unlock in the industry.
Vodafone will now start phase
2 of their network enhancements
that will complete the upgrade
on their remaining cell sites
across Qatar. In addition, Vodafone will continue to increase the
number of indoor and outdoor
4G and 4G+ sites to their network in key locations across the
country to make sure their customers always enjoy enough network capacity and data speeds.
Regular network updates will be
posted on Vodafones social media networks.

Norris (right) shakes hands with Fu.

he Doha Film Institute

(DFI) has announced
that the third edition of
the Ajyal Youth Film Festival
will be held from November 29
to December 5 this year.
Ajyal, Arabic for generations, brings people of all ages
together through screenings
and events that inspire creative
interaction and stimulate cinematic dialogue.
Youth participation is at the
heart of the festival and its jury
programme provides young
people between the ages of 8
and 21 with an opportunity
to watch, analyse and discuss
lms from all over the world,
developing critical thinking,
self-expression, and an appreciation of cinema.
The second Ajyal Youth Film
Festival took place in December
2014, and hosted 450 young jurors of 45 nationalities, alongside a public programme of
screenings and events which
included the world premiere
of Palestinian racing documentary, Speed Sisters, and
the regional premiere of Kahlil
Gibrans The Prophet attended
by producer Salma Hayek and
directors Roger Allers and Mohamed Saeed Harib.
The lm programme featured
90 lms from 43 countries including critically acclaimed
award-winners Whiplash by
Damien Chazelle, Theeb by
Naji Abu Nowar, Gente de Bien

by Franco Lolli and Macondo by

Sudabeh Mortezai along with a
programme of 20 lms by Qatar-based lmmakers screening in the popular Made in Qatar section.
Katara Cultural Village continues as the Cultural Partner
to the festival for the third year
running. Occidental Petroleum
Corporation will serve as a
Principal Partner marking its
third year of partnership with
DFI.
Fatma al-Remaihi, CEO of
DFI and director of the Ajyal
Youth Film Festival, said: In
just two editions, we have dened a unique niche for Ajyal
in the international lm festival
landscape. The rst two editions have shown us that we
can make a positive impact on
young peoples lives through
cinema, and the feedback we
have received from festivalgoers both young and old, reinforces our belief that there is a
need for a cultural event of our
own that addresses the creativity of our youth.
The third edition of the Festival will welcome back popular
initiatives including The Sandbox digital exhibition space,
outdoor screenings and the
Doha Giffoni Youth Summit
industry gathering. The event
will be extended by one day to
allow for an expansion to the
competitive sections voted on
by the youth jury.

FLAWED ATTEMPT | Page 6

RATE CALL | Page 16

HK-Taiwan stock
link running into
wall of scepticism

India inflation
cools; factory
output down

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Rajab 24, 1436 AH

GULF TIMES

BUSINESS

CREDIT FLOWS: Page 20

Doha Bank launches

new financing options
for the SMEs under
QDBs Al Dhameen

Rules integration a must to keep QSE edge

Qatars pro-business and open
economy endeavours to become
business hub of region

egulatory integration and harmonisation is the need of the hour

for the emerging market Qatar to
create competitive investment climate in
view of the challenges being faced by the
nancial sector and asset management
in the country, according to Doha Bank.
Addressing the rst Exchange Views,
organised by the Qatar Stock Exchange
(QSE), Doha Bank chief executive Dr. R
Seetharaman highlighted the importance
of regulatory issues as regulators must
hear and understand the concerns and
challenges facing the nancial sector and
the asset management industry in Qatar.
The fast dynamics of economic
globalisation and the rapid changes of
nancial markets impose a lot of challenges on the local nancial market due
to the vulnerability of any nancial market to be affected by the global variables.
Hence it is vital to have constructive discussions and adopt exible and transparent methodology to deal with such
challenges, he said.

The meeting witnessed increased calls

for the integration of the nancial regulation as many participants felt that due
to lack of harmony among the norms of
various regulators; it was not only difficult to come up with new products and
services but there were also considerable
delays.
There is ample liquidity in the market and there is vast scope for expanding the product universe, but what is
needed is an unambiguous framework,
one of the participants said, highlighting that many of the legislations of
regulators are out of sync with one another.
In his introductory remarks, QSE chief
executive Rashid bin Ali al-Mansoori
said Qatar is a pro-business, strong and
open economy that endeavours to become the business hub of the region in
the coming years and there is much talk
about reforms in the regional and global
capital markets.
The QSEs success is linked to this
positive performance, which has been
motivated by the strong policies of Qatars leadership. The exchange supports
local companies and promotes investment in Qatars future, and we are con-

stantly adapting to help achieve the goals

of the national vision, he said.
He said the QSE plays a signicant
role in the national economy, serving
as a platform for listing and offering
the shares of privatised companies and
for the involvement of the citizens in
the economic life. It is also a platform,
through its venture market, for many
Qatari small and medium enterprises
seeking corporate growth and expansion.
We are ever mindful of the important
role we play in the economy of Qatar,
providing information on our leading
companies and giving investors the opportunity to benet from their continued growth, al-Mansoori added.
The rst session, entitled The Investment Climate in Qatar, saw the presence
of a group of investors, nancial experts,
and decision makers from the nancial
industry. It also had a group of panellists including Yousef al-Jaida, deputy
chief executive of Qatar Financial Centre
Authority; Fahmi al-Ghussain, chief executive of Amwal; Ajay Kumar, assistant
general manager (Asset management)
at QNB and Akber Khan, director (asset
management) at Al Rayan Investment.

FTA between GCC, top 10 partners to add $64.4bn to Gulf economies: GPCA
Removal of tariffs and reduction of non-tariff barriers
between the GCC and the top 10 trading partners,
including the European Union will add $64.4bn to the Gulf
economies, a report has shown.
Chemical exports alone could account for $5bn, said the
Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA).
It said a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (FTA)
between the Gulf Cooperation Council and the top 10
trading partners, including the European Union, could
result in substantial GDP increases.
As part of the EU-GCC Trade and Business Cooperation Facility
project, key government and business leaders from the GCC
and Europe met in Riyadh for a round table discussion earlier
this month. The meeting was chaired by Abdulrahim Naqi,
secretary general of the Federation of GCC Chambers.
Dr Abdulwahab al-Sadoun, GPCA secretary general,
represented the chemical industry, the second largest
manufacturing industry in the GCC, during the meeting.
He said, The GCC petrochemical industry has

consistently exported around 80% of its products in the

last five years, counting the EU has a major market after
Asia. A comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with this
key trading partner, which would include the removal
of customs tariff and associated non-tariff barriers, will
reduce operational costs for chemical exporters from the
Gulf region, increasing returns up to $2.1bn for producers.
Petrochemical production capacity in the GCC region has
grown nearly four-fold since 2000, producing 147.2mn
tonnes last year.
As mega-projects for plastics and fertilisers come onstream, capacity is expected to hit 198.6mn tons by the
end of this decade, GPCA said.
Thorough and effective trade reforms between the
EU and the GCC will result in closer ties between two
regions, al-Sadoun said. The EU and GCC are significant
trade partners, with exports from the regions accounting
for 5% and 11% of trade respectively, according to data
from the European Commission.

Moodys upgrades QIIB

issuer rating to A2
M

oodys Investors Service has

upgraded QIIBs long term
and short term issuer rating
to A2 from A3; the outlook is stable.
The upgrade comes on the heels
of international ratings agency Fitch
upgrading the banks rating from A
to A+ with a stable outlook.
QIIB yesterday said Moodys rating action reected its strong nancial position and the quality of its
nancial portfolio in addition to the
banks improved and consistently
strong asset quality performance,
solid capitalisation.
QIIB chairman and managing director Sheikh Dr Khalid bin Thani
bin Abdullah al-Thani said, QIIB is
proud to be an active participant in
the renaissance of the national economy. Our success, which has again
been endorsed through Moodys upgrade of our ratings, is very much part
of the overall success achieved by the
Qatari economy in various elds.
Sheikh Dr Khalid said, The considerable efforts made by the executive management and employees of
QIIB facilitated the upgrade of the
banks credit ratings, which will help
create a solid basis for our expansion,
strengthen the banks position and
enhance its contribution to Qatars
banking sector.
He stressed that QIIB would continue to play its signicant role in the
Qatari economy and contribute to the
nancing of different projects in various sectors.

Sheikh Dr Khalid (left) and al-Shaibei: Deriving strength from Qatars growth.
QIIB chief executive officer Abdulbasit al-Shaibei said, The banks
rating upgrade is a proof of the
steadiness of its nancial position
and a reection of its strong performance. We are pleased with the
progress we are making, which was
the result of long and continuous efforts and a thorough application of
the strategic plan laid down by our
board of directors, one that focuses
on improving the banks overall work
and performance standards and
maximising shareholders rights,
customers services while meeting
their needs and expectations in an
optimum way.
He said, We are also proud to see
our success and accomplishment as
part of the revival and success of Qatars economy, which is advancing
at an accelerated pace and achieving
growth and higher indicators, which
are one of the best at the global level

and fully endorsed by economic experts.

Al-Shaibei said Moodys and
Fitchs decisions to upgrade QIIBs
rating was a strong indication that
the bank was moving steadily towards
achieving its interim and strategic
goals and that, in future, it will see
more growth and upgradation in its
various nancial indicators.
Al-Shaibei also said QIIBs capital
base would get further strengthened
with the banks shareholders at their
March 15 General Assembly approving the issuance of sukuk of up to
QR3bn, which will be used to support
the banks capital requirements for
future growth and expansion, locally
and overseas.
This will improve QIIBs liquidity
and capital adequacy ratios, he said,
and noted that the banks capital adequacy (based on Basel III) in December 2014 was 18.8%.

From left: Al-Mansoori, al-Ghussain, Seetharaman and al-Jaida attend the QSEs first exchange views programme. The
meeting witnessed increased calls for the integration of the financial regulation as many participants felt that due to
lack of harmony among the rules of various regulators, it was not only difficult to come up with new products and
services but there were also considerable delays.

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

2 ISLAMIC FINANCE

GULF

TIMES

Hong Kong, Ningxia to emerge as Chinas Islamic finance centres

By Arno Maierbrugger
Gulf Times Correspondent
Bangkok
With China showing growing interest to participate in the global Islamic finance market,
the country is working on establishing hubs
for Shariah banking within its borders. The first
such centre to emerge will undoubtedly be the
southern metropolis of Hong Kong which is very
serious about becoming an East Asian hub for
Islamic finance with a side glance on its regional
competitor Singapore.
Following the successful placement of the Hong
Kong governments debut sukuk in September
2014 worth $1bn, the Hong Kong Monetary
Authority announced plans in April this year to
sell another $1bn of five-year sukuk, which would
solidify its position as one or the regions largest
emerging Islamic finance centres.
In developing the Islamic finance market in
China, the country is signalling its readiness
to build up the industry not just for the sake of
its own 20mn Muslim population, but also for
cross-border deals and foreign Islamic investment especially into its envisaged 300 large
new infrastructure projects approved in January
2015, worth a total of $1.1tn and set to be rolled
out in the coming decade.
In this respect, China is drawing a lot of expertise
from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries,

namely Qatar. Qatar International Islamic Bank

(QIIB) and QNB Capital just signed an agreement in April with Chongqing-based Southwest
Securities to develop Shariah-compliant finance
products in the country while it is also seeking
access to investors primarily in Qatar and the
Middle East. The partnership is further intended
to help the Qatari lenders access the Chinese
market in a more direct way. In case of the first
Hong Kong sukuk, lenders such as National Bank
of Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Emirates
NBD and QInvest were all involved.

Gulf Times
Exclusive
In another development, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Chinas biggest bank by
assets last week signed a deal with Jeddahbased Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to develop Shariah-compliant banking products not
just in China, but in all of the IDBs 52 member
states.
But many eyes are also on Chinas majorityMuslim autonomous province of Ningxia in the
northwestern part of the country located along
the historic silk trade route. Ningxia, where a
third of the 6.5mn-population is Muslim, plans

a $1.5bn debut sukuk sale as early as this year.

The deal, managed by Nanchang-based AVIC
Securities, will be Chinas first local-government
overseas bond issuance and the first Islamic
bond issued by a province.
Ningxia, home to the Muslim Hui ethnic group,
has in the past increasingly tried to boost trade
and financial ties with the Muslim world, particularly with GCC investors and business partners,
for its growing halal industry a sector where
Ningxia took the leading role in China , infrastructure and Islamic finance. Just last month, a
high-level delegation from Ningxia paid a visit to
Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE to investigate
such business collaborations.
Most importantly, there are plans to gradually
establish a Ningxia Islamic Finance Centre
in the provinces capital Yinchuan over the
coming years to facilitate financial cooperation
between China and the Middle East, establish
Islamic banks and banking products in China
and develop a wholesale Islamic capital market,
including Islamic bonds, equities and funds as
an alternative to conventional finance products.
Plans to launch the first Islamic bank on Chinas
soil are also ongoing in collaboration between
Ningxia-based Bank of Shizuishan and Bank
Muamalat Malaysia.
These developments would put Ningxia which
currently has the third-smallest GDP among
Chinas provinces very visibly on the world
map of the Islamic finance sector.

The Nanguan Mosque in Yinchuan, the capital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, is the largest mosque
in the province and has a distinctive Chinese-Arabic architectural mix. Ningxia wants to establish itself as
an Islamic finance centre in China and along the New Silk Road.

Saudi set to foster sukuk

market as bourse opens

Oman plans private

placement for debut
$520mn sukuk

guidelines if it wants to emulate

Malaysia, the worlds biggest sukuk market, he said.
The kingdom is pursuing a
$130bn spending plan to diversify its economy away from oil,
and has vowed to invest in major projects including railroads,
power stations, desalination
plants and universities. Even
with its underdeveloped sukuk
market, Saudi borrowers raised
$7.9bn from the sale of Islamic
bonds in 2014, the most in the
world after Malaysia.
For now, pricing means many
companies prefer the loan market. Saudi Arabian Oil Co, the
worlds largest oil exporter, secured a $10bn loan in March,
including a 7.5bn riyal ($2bn)
Shariah-compliant
tranche
priced at 11 basis points over
the three-month Saudi Riyal
Interbank Offered Rate, or
about 0.88%.
The three-month Saibor, used
as a benchmark for some localcurrency loans, is less than half
the ve-year midswap rate. It has
risen less than one basis point to
0.774% since falling to the lowest in more than three years on
March 23. That compares with
1.67% for midswaps at 11.24am in
London on Monday.
One of the reasons Malaysias sukuk market is among the
worlds most mature is that the
regulator has clear guidelines,
AAOIFIs Merah said. Issuers
dont have to waste any time or
effort in guring things out, he
said. Viewpoint: Page 32

man plans to sell its rst sovereign Islamic bond, an

issue of 200mn rials ($520mn) of sukuk, through
a private placement and will launch subscriptions
soon, an Omani official was quoted as saying.
Tahir Salim al-Amry, director-general of treasury and
accounts at the Ministry of Finance and head of the committee arranging the issue, told the Times of Oman that it
had received in-principle regulatory approval and was now
in advanced stages of structuring and documentation.
Bank Muscat, the banks Islamic banking window
Meethaq, and Standard Chartered have been appointed to
advise the government on the issue, Times of Oman quoted officials as saying.
The sovereign sukuk issue will be through a private
placement process and marketed primarily to Islamic nancial institutions, and sophisticated investors with a
minimum subscription amount of 500,000 rials, al-Amry
said.
Abdullah al-Salmi, executive president of the Capital Market Authority, told Times of Oman that the sukuk
would have a face value of 1 rial and the broad investor
community would be able to buy them once they were listed on the Muscat Securities Market.
The officials did not give other details of the sukuk issue
such as its tenor and structure.
Sovereign sukuk issuance would boost Omans edgling
Islamic banking industry, giving it a badly needed liquidity
tool as well as a pricing benchmark. Two Shariah-compliant banks, Al Izz Islamic Bank and Bank Nizwa, obtained
licences in 2013, and there are half a dozen Islamic windows of conventional banks. The Islamic banks and windows account for about 5% of the countrys total banking
assets.
Starting sukuk issuance would also give the Omani government a valuable new instrument to raise funds. The
plunge in oil prices since last year has put its nances under heavy pressure; its state budget plan this year envisages a decit of 2.5bn rials, equivalent to about 8% of gross
domestic product.
Central bank executive president Hamood Sangour alZadjali has said Oman will consider in the second half of
this year whether to issue an international bond for the
rst time since 1997. It is not clear whether that issue
would be conventional or Islamic.

Bloomberg
Dubai

pening its $568bn stock

exchange to foreigners for
the rst time may be the
push Saudi Arabia needs to boost
its sukuk market.
The Riyadh-based Capital
Market Authority plans to make
the process of structuring bonds
that comply with Islams ban on
interest easier, according to Adel
al-Ghamdi, chief executive officer of the Saudi Stock Market Tadawul. The kingdoms debt capital
market needs improvement, he
said at the Euromoney Saudi Arabia Conference last week.
Saudi Arabia, the birthplace
of Islam and home to two of the
religions holiest sites, has a relatively undeveloped debt market
as banks ush with cash offer
competitive lending rates. While
Saudi companies have borrowed
$6.7bn in Shariah-compliant
loans so far this year, none have
sold sukuk. Islamic loans have
outpaced sukuk sales for four of
the past ve years.
To grow and deepen the Saudi
debt capital markets, it is important to streamline process and regulations to facilitate listing of sukuk, Rizwan Kanji, a partner at law
rm King & Spalding who helps
structure Islamic deals in Saudi
Arabia, said by phone from Dubai
on May 6. This will create incentives for a wider pool of investors
and improve appetite for trading of
sukuk over the exchange.

The headquarters of Saudi Arabias central bank in Riyadh. The Islamic banking assets in the kingdom are
estimated to total about $122bn and are the worlds biggest after Irans $482bn.
Saudi Arabias Islamic banking assets total about $122bn
and are the worlds biggest after
Irans $482bn, according to Dubai government data. There will
be a push to improve the nations
debt capital market this year,

EDUCATION/Glossary
Bai al-urbun
'Urbun refers to the deposit or
earnest money that the buyer gives
the seller, on the understanding that
it will be part of the buying price
once the sale is finalised. In the event
that the sale falls through the seller
keeps this initial amount. Among the
different schools, only the Hanabalis
have validated al'urbun.
Bai'
Literally means sale. Commonly
used as a prefix in referring to
different types of sales: muajjal,
murabaha, tawliyah and wadi'ah.
Bai' Bithaman Ajil
In modern Islamic banking, the
term refers to a buying and selling
transaction between the bank (or financial institution) and the customer,
whereby the former buys a property
(or a asset, e.g. a house) at the prevailing market price and sells it to the
customer at a mark-up price where
payments are made by instalments
over a period of time agreed upon by
both parties. The profit earned by the
bank is legitimate from the Shariah
point of view since the transaction is
based on a sale contract rather than
a loan contract. Any predetermined
profit arising from the loan is prohibited in Islam as it amounts to riba.
Baitul Mal
An Islamic treasury intended for the
community development as well
as provision for masakeen (needy
Muslims).

Bay' al-dayn
The sale of debt.
Bay' al-murabaha
The sale of a commodity at a cost
price plus a known profit.
Bay' al-tawliyah
The sale at cost without profit or
loss.
Bay'al-wadiah
The sale below the cost price or at a
discounted price.
Bayt al-mal
A government treasury.
Dayn
A debt or the obligation to deliver.
Diminishing Musharakah
Another form of Musharakah (a
financing mode), developed in
recent years. According to this
concept, a financier and his client
participate either in the joint ownership of a property or equipment,
or in a joint commercial enterprise.
The share of the financier is further
divided into a number of units and
it is understood that the client will
purchase the units of the share of
the financier one by one periodically, thus increasing his own share
until all the units of the financier
are purchased by him so as to make
him the sole owner of the property,
or the commercial enterprise, as the
case may be.
Sources: IslamIQ; Certificate in
Islamic Finance and Banking: Book 2
via Bloomberg

the CMAs Chairman Mohammed al-Jadaan said last week in

Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia is one of the
worlds most important markets
when it comes to Islamic nancing, Hamed Hassan Merah, sec-

retary general of the Accounting

and Auditing Organization for
Islamic Financial Institutions, a
Bahrain-based group that drafts
standards for the industry, said in
an interview in Riyadh on May 6.
The regulator should set out clear

Reuters
Muscat

Indonesia ag carrier Garudas

6.9% debut bond holds appeal
Bloomberg
Kuala Lumpur

T Garuda Indonesias offer to pay

as much as 6.9% on its debut global sukuk looks good to Islamic
banks betting the government will stand
behind its ag carrier.
The state-owned airline will issue
$500mn of unrated ve-year dollar
notes via private placement, it said in a
statement to the stock exchange on Friday. That compares with a yield of 2.7%
in the secondary market for Indonesias
sovereign US currency Shariah-compliant bonds due 2019 and the 2.11%
coupon on non-Islamic dollar securities
that were restructured by the carrier in
2010.
Garuda joins Malaysian Airline
System Bhd, Emirates Airline, Dubai Aviation Corp and AirAsia Bhd
in tapping demand for debt from an
Islamic finance industry that Ernst
& Young sees doubling in assets to
$3.4tn by 2018 from 2013. While Indonesias economic growth fell to
a five-year low last quarter, CIMB
Group Bhd, the worlds top sukuk
arranger in 2014, sees a shortage of

Shariah-compliant bonds boosting

appetite for the notes.
Even with the slowing economy,
Garuda offers a growth story, given that
Indonesia has the largest population in
Southeast Asia and air travel is gaining
popularity, Badlisyah Abdul Ghani, the
Kuala Lumpur-based chief executive
officer at CIMB Islamic Bhd, which isnt
involved in the offer, said in an interview
on Monday. The sale will be successful
as theres enough liquidity in Indonesia
to absorb the offering.
Indonesias Islamic banking assets
will reach $100bn by 2018 from $20bn in
2012, E&Y estimates. Apart from sovereign debt, domestic Shariah-compliant
investment options are scarce. Garudas
offer will be the rst dollar-denominated Islamic notes sold by an Indonesian
company and there is only 7.68tn rupiah
($582mn) of local-currency company
sukuk outstanding, data compiled by
Bloomberg show
Garuda, which is 60.5% state-owned,
posted net income of $11.4mn in the rst
quarter, compared with a loss of $168mn
in the same period last year, the company said in a statement on Monday.
Revenue rose to $805.5mn from $735mn.
Selling debt that complies with Is-

lams ban on interest will help diversify

Garudas funding base and the proceeds
will be used for renancing, chief nancial officer Askhara Danadiputra said in
a February interview in Jakarta.
If an issuance is rated with a good
rating, the yield will surely be lower,
he said in a mobile-phone text message
on Friday. But with strong support
from the government, we are condent
through sukuk we can get investors who
are keen on airlines.
The yield of as much as 6.9% outlined
in Garudas statement on Friday, compares with Emirates 2013 sale of 10year Shariah-compliant dollar debt to
yield 3.875%. Those notes last yielded
3.56% in the secondary market.
The fact that Garudas planned offering isnt rated doesnt necessarily mean
that its high risk, according to Pheim
Asset Management Asia Sdn.
Investors should do their own credit
assessment, James Lau, an investment
director at Kuala Lumpur-based Pheim
Asset Management Asia, who oversees
$300mn, said in an interview in Kuala
Lumpur on Monday. Garudas sukuk
rate is very attractive for fund managers
chasing yields in the current low interest-rate environment.

The Southeast Asian carrier will use

rights to travel in the form of tickets
sold to customers to back its planned
Islamic bonds, the company said in a
May 8 statement. There has been $7.7bn
of sales of foreign-currency sukuk so
far this year, 6.1% more than at the
same point in 2014, data compiled by
Bloomberg show.
Garudas offer comes as Indonesia
holds investor meetings in preparation
for a sale of 10-year sovereign Islamic
dollar bonds. Southeast Asias largest
economy expanded 4.71% last quarter from a year earlier, the slowest pace
since the three months through September 2009.
The Indonesian carrier aims to carry
36mn passengers this year from 30mn
in 2014, chief executive officer Arif Wibowo said in a March 4 interview in Jakarta. The company is working on a 10year eet plan and may need to acquire
at least 250 aircraft for expansion and
replacement of older planes during that
period, he said.
The rupiah has weakened 6.2%
against the dollar so far in 2015 in Asias
worst performance, following drops of
1.7% last year and 21% in 2013, prices
from local banks show.

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

BUSINESS

Aramco 14 oil, gas output

reaches near-record high

Oil giant
reiterates it
will spend
to keep
leading
position

Bloomberg
Kuwait
Reuters
Khobar

audi Arabian Oil Co, the worlds largest

crude exporter, boosted 2014 production
of hydrocarbons close to an all-time high
while adding reserves amid a supply glut that led
to a drop in oil prices by almost half last year.
Saudi Aramco, as the state-owned company is
known, produced 9.5mn bpd of crude last year,
up from 9.4mn bpd in 2013, according to the annual review the company posted on its website on
Monday. Natural gas output rose to 11.3bn standard cubic feet a day from 11bn, it said.
The company discovered ve gas elds and
three oil deposits in 2014 and booked reserves
that signicantly exceeded production, despite
the fact our combined oil and gas production approached an all-time high, former chief executive officer Khalid al-Falih said in the review.
Aramco increased oil production amid a global
glut that drove benchmark prices down almost
50% last year. Opec, led by Saudi Arabia, chose
in November to keep pumping crude to protect
its share of the market rather than cutting output
to boost prices. The 12-nation Organisation of
Petroleum Exporting Countries produced more
than 31mn bpd last month, data compiled by
Bloomberg show.
The Saudi companys oil reserves grew to
261.1bn barrels in 2014 from 260.2 in 2013, while
reserves of gas increased to 294tn standard cubic
feet from 288.4tn, the review showed. The company said it maintains an oil-production capacity
of 12mn bpd.
Oil-rening capacity was 3.1mn bpd at the end
of last year, Aramco said. Its rening venture with
China Petroleum & Chemical Corp in Fujian, China, raised capacity to 280,000 bpd, while a plant
in Jazan, Saudi Arabia, is set to start processing in
2017, according to the review.
Aramco is seeking to upgrade three reneries in
Indonesia, it said.
Aramco is planning to spend between $70bn
and $80bn on overseas acquisitions and investments during the next ve years, according to
three people with knowledge of the matter, asking not to be identied as the information is private.

A supertanker berths at Aramcos Ras Tanura Sea Island Terminal, part of the Port of Ras Tanura, the worlds largest crude oil export terminal complex. Saudi
Aramco produced 9.5mn bpd of crude last year, up from 9.4mn in 2013, according to the annual review the company posted on its website on Monday. Natural
gas output rose to 11.3bn standard cubic feet a day from 11bn, it said.

Qatar shares edge down

as institutional buys dip
By Santhosh V Perumal
Business Reporter

ower net buying interests from

domestic and foreign institutions yesterday led the Qatar
Stock Exchange to decline after remaining at since the beginning of
this week.
Industrials, telecom and real estate
counters came under prot-booking
pressures as the 20-stock Qatar Index
settled 0.24% lower at 12,250.21, even
as trade volumes also fell.
Large and small cap equities were
seen melting in the bourse, which is
down 0.29% year-to-date.
Trading was skewed towards banking and real estate stocks, which together accounted for more than 67%
of the overall volume.
Market capitalisation was down
0.17%, or more than QR1bn, to
QR658.85bn with large and small cap
stocks losing 0.28% and 0.18%; even
as micro and mid caps gained 0.35%
and 0.28% respectively.
The Total Return Index shrank
0.24% to 19,037.46 points, the All
Share Index by 0.17% to 3,277.25
points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index
by 0.31% to 4,687.38 points.
Industrials stocks tanked 0.57%,
followed by telecom (0.52%), realty (0.33%) and insurance (0.01%);

whereas transport rose 0.15% and

banks and nancial services (0.08%).
The consumer goods stocks were
largely unchanged.
Major losers included Industries
Qatar, Qatar Islamic Bank, Masraf Al
Rayan, Aamal Company, Gulf International Services, Ezdan, United Development Company, Mazaya Qatar,
Vodafone Qatar, Ooredoo, Nakilat
and Alijarah Holding. But Doha Bank,
Barwa, Milaha and Qatari German
Company for Medical Devices bucked
the trend.
Domestic institutions net buying weakened to QR1.47mn against
QR5.81mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari institutions net buying plunged to QR14.66mn compared
to QR55.24mn on Monday.
Non-Qatari individual investors turned net sellers to the tune
of QR8.77mn against net buyers of
QR6.26mn on May 11.
Local retail investors net selling
plummeted to QR2.52mn compared
to QR54.49mn the previous day.
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)
institutions net prot-booking
weakened to QR4.34mn against
QR12.22mn on Monday.
GCC individual investors net selling fell to QR0.5mn compared to
QR0.55mn on May 11.
Total trade volume fell 35% to
7.02mn shares, value by 41% to

QR293.16mn and transactions by

39% to 3,906.
There was a 71% plunge in the telecom sectors trade volume to 0.34mn
equities, 79% in value to QR7.61mn
and 82% in deals to 231.
The transport sectors trade volume
plummeted 45% to 0.21mn stocks,
value by 42% to QR10.7mn and transactions by 41% to 148.
The market witnessed a 33%
shrinkage in the industrials sectors
trade volume to 0.62mn shares, 44%
in value to QR46.25mn and 24% in
deals to 779.
The banks and nancial services
sector saw its trade volume decline
32% to 3.45mn equities, value by 48%
to QR134.54mn and transactions by
29% to 1,479.
There was a 32% fall in the real estate sectors trade volume to 1.28mn
stocks, 35% in value to QR40.3mn and
42% in deals to 592.
The consumer goods sectors
trade volume was down 15% to
0.99mn shares but value rose 36% to
QR44.61mn, even as transactions fell
7% to 595.
However, the insurance sectors
trade volume gained 8% to 0.14mn
equities; while value tanked 12% to
QR9.15mn and deals by 42% to 82.
In the debt market, there was no
trading of treasury bills and government bonds.

Volatile oil, Yemen concerns leave Gulf markets mixed

Reuters
Dubai
Gulf stock markets were mixed
yesterday as oil prices swung from
loss to gain and it remained unclear
whether an agreed truce in Yemen
would take effect and stay in place.
Saudi-led air strikes pounded the
Yemeni capital Sanaa yesterday,
hours before a five-day truce was
set to begin between the alliance of
Gulf Arab nations and the Iran-allied
Houthi militia that controls much of
the country.
Brent crude, which fell in early trade,
pared losses and rose towards $66
a barrel as the Yemen conflict and a
weaker US dollar lifted prices.
Oils recovery helped the main
Saudi stock index edge up 0.5% as
petrochemicals giant Saudi Basic

Industries climbed 1.3%.

Kingdom Holding jumped 2.1%,
extending gains after a 6.2% surge in
the previous session.
A development company which is
building the worlds tallest tower
in the city of Jeddah, and in which
Kingdom has a stake, said on Sunday
that residential apartments at the
tower would likely go on sale later
this year. Newly listed Saudi Company
for Tools and Hardware was the top
gainer, surging its daily 10% limit. The
retail tranche of the firms initial public
offer which ended this month was
covered 620%. Including shares sold
to institutional investors, the flotation
raised around 504mn riyals ($134.4mn).
Other Gulf markets close earlier in the
day and had little if any time to react
to oils turnaround.
Dubais stock index fell 0.4% and the
most traded stock, developer Union

Properties, dropped 3.3%. The stock

fell its daily 10% limit on Monday after
Union Properties said its first-quarter
profit had fallen to 28.1mn dirhams
($7.7mn) from 179.8mn dirhams a
year earlier.
Abu Dhabis benchmark inched up
0.1% thanks to Abu Dhabi Commercial
Bank (ADCB), which rose 1.8% ahead
of the semi-annual review of MSCIs
emerging markets index.
Kuwaits bourse slipped 0.1%, but
Oman inched up 0.1% thanks to Al
Madina Investment Co, which surged
8.6% after proposing a 5% cash
dividend, its first payout since 2012.
Egypts market edged down 0.2% as
most stocks declined after several
smaller companies, which are not
part of the index, reported declining
first-quarter profits.
Elsewhere in the Gulf, Bahrains index
slipped 0.1% to 1,389 points.

Saudi Aramco will dedicate most of

its spending to oil production over
the next decade to maintain its
position as the worlds top crude oil
exporter, the state-owned energy
giant reiterated in its annual report
for 2014.
The bulk of this spending will
be in our upstream activities to
ensure we maintain adequate spare
crude oil production capacity to
help stabilise the world oil market
whenever disruptions occur, it
said, referring to both exploration
and production. Aramco added
that in the shorter term it would
also invest in boosting natural gas
production to meet rising domestic
demand. It did not give a monetary
value for projected spending.
Global oil demand is expected to
rise to 111mn bpd in 2040 from
around 93mn bpd currently, it said.
The oil giant has completed a massive investment programme which
took its output capacity up to 12mn
bpd. Aramco said in its latest report
that it planned to bring online the
expansion of the Shaybah oilfield to
1mn bpd in April 2016, earlier than
initially thought. Previously, officials
had indicated this would happen by
end-2016 or early 2017.
But Aramco did not give any
updates on the expansion of the
Khurais oilfield, another big project.
At the end of 2014, its Manifa
oilfield almost hit its full production
capacity of 900,000 bpd, it said.
Aramco also said its Wasit gas plant
was expected to go online this year,
while the Fadhili gas plant was due
by 2019.

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

BUSINESS
CORPORATE RESULTS

Zain Q1 profit falls 26.7%

impacted Zain Iraqs and consequently the
Groups overall key financial metrics, Zain said
in a statement. We recognise the exceptional
circumstances in one key market over the past
nine months that has impacted us significantly.
The firm had posted falling profits in eight of
the preceding 10 quarters as tougher domestic
competition, service interruptions in war-torn
Iraq and foreign exchange volatility weighed
on the bottom line.
First-quarter revenue was 279mn dinars. This
compares with 311mn dinars a year ago.

Ahli United Bank

Zain, Kuwaits No1 telecom operator by subscribers, reported a 26.7% fall in first-quarter
profit yesterday, extending a sustained earnings slump as its Iraq business suffered from
political instability and intense competition.
The former monopoly, which operates in eight
countries in the Middle East and Africa, made
a net profit of 41mn dinars in the three months
to March 31, down from 55.9mn dinars in the
year-earlier period.
SICO Bahrain forecast Zain would make a
quarterly profit of 41.1mn dinars.
The continued political instability in Iraq and
heightened levels of competition, severely

Ahli United Bank (AUB), Bahrains largest

lender, posted a 7.8% increase in its first-quarter net attributable profit, it said yesterday, as it
benefited from growth in fee income.
The banks net attributable profit for the three
months to March 31 was $147.18mn, compared
with $136.56mn in the corresponding period of
2014, it said in a statement.
Investment bank SICO Bahrain had forecast the
bank would make a net profit of $131.60mn.
One of the drivers was fee income, which grew
by 5.6% to $41.5mn.
Gulf banks have fallen back on fee income as a
way of boosting their bottom line as revenue
from lending remains under pressure as a
result of low interest rates.
The banks net interest income grew by 0.7%.
In April the bank completed a $400mn Tier
1 bond issue that will enhance its capital
reserves.

A general view of the Opec building in Vienna. Opec said its oil output rose further in April, keeping an excess supply in the market despite stronger
demand and signs the producer groups strategy of letting prices fall to hurt other producers is taking effect.

Opec oil output boost

keeps supply surplus
despite higher demand
Upbeat on prospects for oil
demand in 2015, ups forecast;
sees slightly higher demand for
Opec oil in 2015; trims forecast
for 2015 US oil output growth;
points to 1.52mn bpd excess
supply in 2015
Reuters
London

pec said its oil production rose further in April,

keeping an excess supply
in the market despite stronger
demand and signs the producer
groups strategy of letting prices
fall to hurt other producers is taking effect.
In a monthly report yesterday,
Opec said demand for its oil this

year would be 50,000 barrels per

day (bpd) higher than previously
thought, thanks to a slightly lower
supply forecast for countries outside the group.
Oil prices have almost halved
from $115 a barrel in June 2014, in
a decline Opec officials have said is
stimulating fuel use.
The report made a small upward
revision to forecast oil demand
growth in 2015 and was upbeat
about the outlook.
Despite the slow start in some
countries, world economic growth
could strengthen further as the year
progresses, leading to an improvement in crude oil demand in 2015,
the report said.
Last year, Opec refused to cut its
output despite the price collapse,
seeking to recover market share by

slowing higher-cost production in

the US and elsewhere that had been
encouraged by Opecs previous policy of keeping prices high at around
$100 a barrel.
Instead, key members have raised
supply and the report said the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries pumped an extra
18,000 bpd in April, due to increases in top exporter Saudi Arabia, Iraq
and Iran.
According to secondary sources
cited by the report, Opec produced
30.84mn bpd in April, after raising
supply by a massive 850,000 bpd in
March.
Saudi Arabia, the driving force
behinds Opecs refusal to cut output, told Opec it raised output to
10.308mn bpd in April, the highest
rate on record.

If Opec keeps pumping at Aprils

rate, the report indicates there will
be an excess supply of 1.52mn bpd
in 2015, unchanged from the surplus
implied last month.
In a sign Opecs strategy to slow
rival supply is working, Opec cut
its forecast for the growth in US oil
output this year by 40,000 bpd to
700,000 bpd.
It left the estimate for all nonOpec countries supply growth unchanged at 680,000 bpd.
The main factors for the lower
growth prediction in 2015 are low
oil price expectations, the declining number of active rigs in North
America, the decrease in drilling
permits in the US and the reduction in the 2015 spending plans of
international oil companies, the
report said.

Iraq aims for record Basra oil exports in June

Reuters
Singapore

raq plans to export a record volume of crude oil from its southern ports in June, as it splits its
production for the rst time into
two grades to resolve quality issues,
trade sources familiar with the matter said yesterday.
This is the second attempt to be
made this year by Opecs secondbiggest producer to increase Basra
crude exports to a record high. Bad
weather in February held up crude

Bank Dhofar to
issue dollar
Tier 1 bonds
Omans Bank Dhofar,
the sultanates secondlargest lender by assets,
has picked three banks
to arrange fixed income
meetings starting
tomorrow for a potential capital-boosting
perpetual bond issue,
a document from lead
arrangers showed.
The lender, rated BBBplus by Fitch and A3 by
Moodys, chose National
Bank of Abu Dhabi and
Standard Chartered
Bank as global coordinators. They are joined by
Emirates NBD Capital as
lead arrangers for the
fixed income meetings.
The US dollar bonds
would boost the banks
Tier 1 (core) capital, the
document showed. The
size and tenor of the
bonds were not specified.
Investor meetings will
be held in Hong Kong
tomorrow, Singapore on
Friday and the UAE on
Sunday.

loading, thwarting Iraqs previous

attempt.
It would be tough unless they
have installed new equipment at
the ports, said a Singapore-based
trader who handles Iraqi crude.
Iraq has allocated over 3.1mn barrels per day (bpd) of Basra crude to
buyers in a preliminary June loading programme, up from the usual
monthly total of between 2.6mn
and 2.7mn bpd, the sources said.
The allocation includes 1.22mn
bpd of the new Basra Heavy grade,
nearly double the expected volume,
they said, while Basra Light exports

have been reduced to 1.93mn bpd.

Iraqs State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO) had told its partners that it would export 450,000800,000 bpd of Basra Heavy.
The unexpected large supply of
the new grade could pressure the
market, especially as Asian buyers
were still assessing if the oil is suitable for their reneries, traders said.
It should go into discount as the
quality is unknown and its a big
parcel size, a trader with a North
Asian rener said. Few reners in
Asia would be able to buy 2mn barrels of Basra Heavy in one shipment

due to its high sulphur content,

traders had said.
In one of the rst deals for the
new grade, Japan Petroleum Exploration Co (Japex) sold 4mn barrels of Basra Heavy crude for June
loading via a tender at 20-30 cents a
barrel above its official selling price
(OSP).
Iraqi crude exports hit a record
3.08mn bpd in April, including
2.63mn bpd from southern terminals. The producer hopes to stabilise
the quality of Basra Light by separating rising heavy oil production from
the southern export pool.

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

BUSINESS

BoJ becomes ETF managers best friend

Bloomberg
Tokyo

t a conference last month in

Tokyo celebrating Japans exchange-traded funds, the biggest buyer was nowhere to be seen.
I think they registered, but Im not
sure if theyre attending, Kana Kawasaki, who works for the event organiser
S&P Dow Jones Indices, said from the
oor of the Imperial Hotel in the centre
of the city.
She was referring to officials from
the Bank of Japan, whose low prole
belies its inuence in a market where it
owned 6tn ($49.9bn) of ETFs, about
half of those trading in the country as
of the most recent bourse data. Passive
investments are the vehicle of choice
for the central bank as it tries to stimulate the economy without favouring
specic companies.
The foray into the stock market is
sparking a boom that, helped by a near
doubling of stock prices, has swelled
ETF assets by 159% over two years and
jacked up prots at managers running

the funds. Now, with ination continuing to fall short of the BoJs target, analysts are expecting Governor
Haruhiko Kuroda to expand easing and
pump even more cash into equities.
When you ask who we should thank
for this, in Japan its Prime Minister Abe
and Governor Kuroda, Hibiki Muneta,
director of investment at Simplex Asset
Management Co, which oversees about
$2bn of ETFs, said to the crowd at the
conference on April 2. If it wasnt for
them, our assets wouldnt be at this level.
Central banks venturing into markets to buy securities like bonds isnt
unusual - the Federal Reserve and Bank
of England have both done so. Buying
stocks via ETFs, however, is unique.
The BoJ started doing it in 2010 as a
catalyst to spur more trading and promote more risk-taking activity in the
overall economy, the bank said.
Not everyone sees how ETF buying
will spur ination, the broad objective
of Kurodas stimulus measures. Maiko
Noguchi, an economist at Daiwa Securities Group and a former official at the
central bank, said its ne for bolstering
investors sentiment and even pushing

Pedestrians walks past the Bank of Japan building (rear) in Tokyo. Passive
investments are the vehicle of choice for the central bank as it tries to stimulate
the economy without favouring specific companies.
up share prices. But thats not their
end goal, Noguchi said. Theyre ultimately pursuing ination. So the
question is how do the two connect?
And its a little hard to nd a straightforward answer to that.With ination
barely eking out a gain in March, 23 of

34 economists surveyed by Bloomberg

expect the central bank to ease more by
the end of October.
Having stretched the stimulus programme so far that the BoJ can already
buy every new bond issued by the government each month, further expan-

Hedge funds get

windfall from
runaway stock
rally in China
Bloomberg
Hong Kong
Chinas runaway stock
rally delivered a windfall
for hedge funds focused on
the worlds second-largest
economy in April.
Greenwoods Asset Managements $1.8bn Golden China
Fund returned an estimated
18% during the month,
while Rays Capital Partners
$192mn Asian Equity Special
Opportunities Portfolio was
up almost 19%.
The Zeal China Fund ended
the month 12.5% higher.
Sumeru Capital Fund, which
has less than $50mn of assets, returned 20%.
Chinas equity markets have
been on a tear on anticipation of further government
stimulus as the countrys
economy expands at the
slowest annual rate since
1990. The Shanghai Composite Index surged 19% last
month and the Hang Seng
China Enterprises Index
advanced 17%, among the
five top- performing primary
equity indexes globally, according to data compiled by
Bloomberg.
The outperformance is
quite widespread given the
uptick in large blue chips
and index plays, said Marlon
Sanchez, head of Asia-Pacific
prime finance distribution at
Deutsche Bank. Funds that
did well were generally long
asset plays which moved
higher on speculation of
more policy reforms in the
second quarter.
The Chinese central bank
announced the most aggressive cut in lenders reserve
requirement since the global
financial crisis in April. Effective Monday, the Peoples
Bank of China cut interest
rates for a third time since
November.
The HFRI China Index, which
tracks hedge funds focused
on the country, jumped 13%
in April, the largest monthly
gain since Chicago-based
Hedge Fund Research
started the gauge in 2008.
The April profits extended
the Greenwoods Golden
China Funds return this year
to 23%, said Joseph Zeng, a
Hong Kong-based partner.

Sumerus record month led

to a 26% gain for the first
four months, said Ernest
Ng, who co-manages the
Hong Kong-based fund that
focuses on Greater China
stocks.
Zeal China Fund was up
just shy of 20% this year,
according to Franco Ngan,
chief executive officer of
Hong Kong- based Zeal
Asset Management which
oversees about $500mn
assets.
The Rays fund returned an
estimated 24% over four
months, said David Ruan,
one of its managers.
The Zeal China Fund was
helped by increases in materials, insurance and banking
stocks that it held going into
April, according to Ngan.
The market rally accelerated
price gains of technology,
financial and utilities companies such as power and
water treatment plants that
Sumeru owned and thought
would remain undervalued
for longer, said Ng. Rays
profited from healthcare and
environment-related bets,
said Ruan.
The Shanghai stock index
has more than doubled in
the past year through May
8, and the Hong Kong gauge
rose 44%, raising concern
that the rallies are overdone.
Quarterly earnings of
companies on the Shanghai
index are trailing analyst
estimates, with the widest
gaps in technology and
basic materials, according to
Bloomberg-compiled data.
Shanghai stocks retreated
5.3% last week and the Hang
Seng China Enterprises
Index was 4.7% off this years
peak on April 27.
Portfolios are seeing rotation as less confident investors take profits here and
potentially stay sidelined
until we have more clarity on
the direction of policy, said
Sanchez.
Share-price surges have not
been supported by company
fundamentals in pockets of
the markets over the last few
months, forcing investors to
be more selective, Ruan said.
The fund managers and
Deutsche Banks Sanchez
also note global funds are
still underweight China.

Investors follow financial information at a securities

brokerage in Shanghai. Chinas equity markets have
been on a tear on anticipation of further government
stimulus as the countrys economy expands at the
slowest annual rate since 1990.

sion means the central bank may have

to focus on other securities.
The BoJ didnt respond to e-mailed
questions about the programmes
goals. In March, Kuroda said the
amount of ETFs that the central bank
buys is extremely small. While its
holdings account for about half the
ETF market, theyre still a fraction of
the Tokyo bourses main board, which
is valued at about 580tn according to
data compiled by Bloomberg.
For ETF managers, Kuroda has been
a godsend. Originally limited to about
450bn when started in October 2010,
the BoJs programme was set to expire
by around the end of 2011. After several
extensions, buying began to swell under Kuroda, who expanded purchases
to 1tn a year in April 2013 before tripling them in October.
Assets in the 17 funds the central
bank is permitted to buy have more
than doubled since Kurodas rst round
of easing. Growth has been concentrated in those funds, which accounted
for about 85% of the industrys $101bn
of assets in Japan as of February 10,
Bloomberg and exchange data show.

After the BoJ started buying, newspapers began writing about it and suddenly
people became aware of ETFs, said Junichi Honda, head of the ETF department
at UBS Global Asset Management Co in
Tokyo. For those of us working in the industry, it was a real life-saver.
The biggest beneciary has been the
money-management arm of Nomura
Holdings. Assets in three funds that
the BoJ is eligible to buy jumped to
5.4tn yen at the end of March, up 123%
from two years earlier, data compiled
by Bloomberg show. The unit of Japans biggest brokerage was the worlds
seventh-largest ETF provider as of
February, up from a ranking of ninth in
2013, according to BlackRock.
Like other fund managers, Nomura
charges investors a management fee on
its ETFs that amounts to about 0.2%
of assets. Based on that math, revenue
from such fees probably climbed to a
record 9.1bn in the year ended March,
data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Nomuras overall revenue in the scal
year ended March shrank by 12% from
two years ago, while its asset-management unit recorded a gain of 34%.

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

BUSINESS

Mooted HK-Taiwan
stock link runs into
wall of scepticism
Reuters
Taipei/Hong Kong

mooted equity trading link between Hong Kong and Taiwan has
been described by some traders
and investors as a awed and potentially costly attempt to replicate the
hugely successful Hong Kong-Shanghai
stock connect.
Hong Kongs tie-up with Shanghai
since November has sparked an explosion in turnover, with a ood of mainland
money boosting Hong Kong Exchanges
& Clearings (HXEx) market capitalisation to nearly $4tn in recent weeks.
Much of the trading has exploited
unique arbitrage opportunities created
by the large discount between shares of
Chinese companies listed in both Shanghai and Hong Kong.
But such conditions do not exist for
Hong Kong and Taiwan, and with their
stock markets already liquid and open to
foreign institutional investors, allowing
direct trading on each anothers bourse
would be a needless and expensive programme, many traders say.
Major banks and investors are already
able to access both markets, so a new link
would create additional infrastructure
costs, said Stephane Loiseau, head of
cash equities Asia Pacic at Societe Generale. The Hong Kong-Shanghai link
was a unique proposition to give investors access to something they couldnt
already access.
For Taiwan, a link to the mainland
via Shanghai could be a more attractive proposition. Taiwans technologyfocused stocks may attract Chinese
investors looking to diversify their
portfolios.
The true benet of a Shanghai-Taiwan link would be the potential uptick
in liquidity should Chinese investors
start investing in Taiwan like weve seen
hit Hong Kong over the last couple of
weeks, said Joel Hurewitz, managing director at international brokerage Instinet
in Hong Kong.
Last month, HXEx Chairman Chow
Chung Kong said the exchange had had
preliminary discussions on a link with
the $900bn Taiwan stock market.
A HKEx spokesman said the exchanges
would have to consult the Taipei authorities before anything beyond very preliminary discussions could take place.
Michael Lin, president at the Taiwan

The stock exchange building in Hong Kong. A mooted equity trading link between Hong Kong and Taiwan has been described by
some traders and investors as a flawed and potentially costly attempt to replicate the hugely successful Hong Kong-Shanghai
stock connect.
Stock Exchange, said the bourses had not
officially discussed a link-up, and that
such a scheme will require policy changes that would not be happening soon.
His comments reect the political
hurdles that any link bringing Taiwan
closer to mainland China would have to
overcome.
Stock connect is a China-led initiative with clear policy aims, and anything
done with Taiwan would also have to be
led by China. From a practical and politi-

cal perspective, this could be enormously

problematic, said David Millhouse, head
of China research at boutique investment advisory rm Forsyth Barr Asia.
Taiwan split from mainland rule following the end of the Chinese civil war
in 1949 but has never formally declared
independence from China.
Several investors said work on a Taiwan link could not begin before the islands presidential election in January
2016 which is expected to see Taiwans

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)

gain power. The DPP is widely perceived
as leaning towards independence from
mainland China, making a link in the
short term unlikely.
In the near term, China will be handling Taiwan relations in a slow way,
said Alex Huang, a professor on crossstraits ties research of Tamkang University, Taipei. There is just no need to
give benefits such as the Stock Connect
to the DPP.

Sensex declines; rupee weakens

Bloomberg
Mumbai
Indian stocks declined before the
release of monthly retail inflation
data, halting the benchmark
indexs biggest two-day gain in
a year.
Vedanta, the largest copper-ore
refiner, slumped the most in two
months. Tata Motors, the owner
of Jaguar Land Rover, decreased
the most in five weeks. State
Bank of India lead a gauge of
lenders to its first loss in three
days, while Oil & Natural Gas
Corp retreated to a one-week
low.
The S&P BSE Sensex lost 2.3%
to 26,877.48 at the close, the
most in Asia, after rising 3.4%
on Friday and Monday. Stocks
tumbled as the rupee fell toward
a 20-month low after global
funds sold local assets amid
concern over the pace of profit
growth. Delays in the passage of
key economic bills in the upper
house of parliament, where
Prime Minister Narendra Modis
Bharatiya Janata Party doesnt
have a majority, also weighed on
investor sentiment.
Nothing has changed from last
week as company earnings are
expected to remain weak over
the next couple of quarters,
Mayuresh Joshi, vice-president
at Mumbai-based Angel Broking,
said in an interview with
Bloomberg TV India today. The
market will stay volatile in the
short-to-medium term, with the
CNX Nifty Index trading in the
8,000-8,500 band, he said.
The Nifty tumbled 2.4% to
8,126.95, falling below its 200day average for a fourth time in
two weeks.

The rupee retreated 0.5%, snapping two days of gains, to

64.17 a dollar in Mumbai
The Sensex entered a correction
on Thursday, with the gauge
dropping more than 10% from
its January 29 record. While
eight of the 13 Sensex firms that
have announced results for
the March quarter have beaten
or matched estimates, profits
will drop for a second straight
quarter, forecasts compiled by
Bloomberg show.
Lawmakers yesterday delayed
voting on a proposal to create a
national sales tax. A committee
will now scrutinise the bill and
submit its report in the first
week of the next parliamentary
session that starts in July,
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley
told parliament. The delay
makes it tougher for Modi to
meet his April 2016 deadline
for implementing the goods
and services tax, one of Indias
biggest reforms in decades.
Foreigners bought a net $49mn
of Indian equities on May 11,
turning net buyers for the first

time in 12 days. The withdrawals

that began on April 22 through
May 8 trimmed this years
purchases to $6.7bn. Funds sold
a $942mn of local debt last week,
the most since July 2013.
The rupee slid 0.5%, snapping
two days of gains, to 64.16 per
dollar. The currency had fallen to
64.28 on May 7, the weakest level
since September 2013.
Consumer prices probably
rose 4.9% in April from a year
earlier, according to the median
estimate in a Bloomberg survey.
A 21% rally in Brent and the
weather agencys forecast of
below-normal monsoon rains
reignited concern about retail
inflation, which eased to 5.17% in
March. Interest-rate cuts look
more remote as the monsoon
may be poor and crude oil has
moved up, Dipan Mehta, a
member of BSE, told Bloomberg
TV India. There are no positive
triggers unless the RBI cuts rates
and changes its assessment

of the economy. Governor

Raghuram Rajan maintained
rates at a scheduled review
April 7 as he waited for banks
to pass on two previous cuts
to customers. He said his next
move would depend on data
showing risks to inflation, which
hes mandated to keep below 6%
by January.
The government also releases
industrial output data for March
on Tuesday. Production probably
increased 3%, from 5% a month
earlier, according to the median
estimate of 35 analysts in a
Bloomberg survey.
The benchmark gauge of Indian
option prices advanced for
the first time in four days. The
India VIX Index climbed 10.3%
to 20.54, the highest level since
Feb. 26.
Meanwhile the rupee fell toward
a 20-month low and sovereign
bonds dropped as global funds
pared holdings of the nations
assets amid speculation of an
increase in US interest rates this
year.
Overseas investors sold a net
$942mn of rupee notes last
week, the biggest outflow since
July 2013, data compiled by
Bloomberg show. They withdrew
another $607mn from stocks.
The dollar climbed with US
Treasury yields on Monday as
San Francisco Federal Reserve
President John Williams
said policy makers could lift
borrowing costs at any meeting,
depending on economic data.
Higher US rates will reduce the
allure of emerging-market assets.
The rupee retreated 0.5%,
snapping two days of gains, to
64.17 a dollar in Mumbai, prices
from local banks compiled by
Bloomberg show.

Euro bounces in
Asia trading as
Shanghai jumps
AFP
Tokyo

he euro recovered yesterday after being hit by

concerns about Greeces
bailout reform talks, while
Shanghai added to the previous
days strong rally after Chinas
interest rate cut raised hopes
for further economy-boosting
measures.
However, regional investors
still remain jittery about proceedings in Europe as Athens
warned it is close to running out
of money, while Wall Street also
provided a negative lead.
Tokyo reversed early losses
thanks to bargain buying and
ended marginally up, adding 3.93
points to close at 19,624.84.
Sydney rose 0.88%, or 49.50
points, to 5,674.70 hours before the government unveils its
budget later in the day.
Shanghai jumped 1.56%, or
67.64 points, to 4,401.22 a day
after rallying more than 3% but
Hong Kong retreated 1.12%, or
311.02 points, to 27,407.18.
Seoul closed at, edging down
0.61 points to 2,096.77.
In other markets, Bangkok
fell 1.04%, or 15.58 points, to
1,458.72.
Kuala Lumpur fell 0.38%,
or 6.88 points, to close at
1,798.61; SapuraKencana Petroleum led energy stocks lower, falling 1.8% to 2.73 ringgit
per share, while Petronas Gas
fell 1.77% to close at 22.20
ringgit. IOI Corp rose 0.73% to
4.16 ringgit.
Singapore closed down 0.82%,
or 28.47 points, at 3,442.33; oil
rig maker Keppel Corp declined
0.57% to Sg$8.73 while public
transport rm ComfortDelGro
fell 0.97% to Sg$3.05.
Jakarta ended up 0.64%, or
33.13 points, at 5,205.61; food
manufacturer Indofood Sukses
Makmur gained 4.14% to 6,925
rupiah, while pharmaceutical
rm Kalbe Farma slipped 2.97%
to 1,795 rupiah.
Taipei rose 0.18%, or 17.01
points, to 9,680.73; Taiwan
Semiconductor Manufacturing
Co fell 0.67% to Tw$147.5 while
smartphone maker HTC was
0.45% lower at Tw$110.5.
Wellington was at, edging
down 1.72 points to 5,746.23;
Air New Zealand fell 0.36% to
NZ$2.8 and Spark rose 1.41% to
NZ$2.87.
Manila closed 0.21%, or 16.65
points, higher at 7,794.55; Uni-

versal Robina was up 2.9% at

205.80 pesos, Bank of the Philippine Islands eased 0.49% to 101
pesos while Bloomberry Resorts
was up 3.76% at 12.14 pesos.
US shares ticked down on
Monday, ending a two-day advance, as nerves set in over
Greeces bailout reform talks.
Athens has managed to garner enough money to repay the
International Monetary Fund
750mn ($840mn) and avoid a
default, keeping it from tumbling out of the eurozone for
now.
However, the blocs nance
ministers, meeting in Brussels,
said Greece could not hope for
any of the nal 7.2bn tranche of
its 240bn EU-IMF bailout until
it makes key reforms.
And with Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis admitting
the country faced an imminent
crisis, investors fear for its future
in the eurozone.
On Wall Street the Dow fell
0.47%, the S&P 500 dropped
0.51% and the Nasdaq lost
0.20%.
The euro, which suffered a
sell-off Monday in US trade, was
higher after Athens made said it
would make its IMF payment.
It bought $1.1236 and 134.74
in Tokyo yesterday, compared
with $1.1154 and 133.97 in New
York.
The dollar was at 120 against
120.11 in US trade.
In Shanghai, buying was supported by Sundays 25 basis
point rate cut, the third since
November.
Its pretty clear that the Chinese officials are still very much
in easing mode and the rally for
now is still well supported, more
by liquidity than economic fundamentals, Ankur Patel, chief
investment officer at R-Squared
Macro
Management,
told
Bloomberg News. We do expect
more easing.
Shanghai and Hong Kongs
stock markets have surged this
year on expectations the government will unveil a slew of
stimulus measures to kickstart
growth in the Chinese economy, which expanded last year
at its slowest pace in a quarter
of a century.
On oil markets US benchmark West Texas Intermediate
for June delivery added 19 cents
to $59.44 while Brent crude for
June gained 19 cents to $65.10 in
afternoon trade.
Gold fetched $1,184.73 from
$1,185.20 late Monday.

Indias fund outows

ag more bond pain
Bloomberg
Mumbai

ocal investors are exiting

Indian debt funds at the
fastest pace since September, a sign of more losses ahead
for bonds that are the worst
performers among the largest
emerging markets this quarter.
Fixed-income funds saw an
outow Rs25bn ($392mn) in
April, a third straight month of
withdrawals, data from Association of Mutual Funds in India
show. Investors left just in time
to avoid a global bond market
rout that saw the benchmark
10-year rupee sovereign yields
surge 19 basis points in the last
two weeks.
Birla Sun Life Asset Management Co and Tata Asset Management say returns could worsen
further as a rebound in oil prices
and a drop in the rupee limit the
scope for the Reserve Bank of
India to cut interest rates. Investors in Indian government notes
lost 0.6% this quarter, compared
with returns of 7.1% in Russia,
4% in Brazil and 1.4% in China
securities, JPMorgan Chase & Co
indexes show.
We may not see the kind of
returns expected earlier, said
A Balasubramanian, chief executive officer at Birla Sun Life
in Mumbai. Oils reversal can
be a source of volatility as far
as ination is concerned. The
rates trajectory wont be the
same and markets will adjust

to the new indicators on oil and

the monsoon.The rupees drop
past the 64 a dollar level reduces
chances of an interest-rate cut at
the central banks June 2 meeting, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
The 10-year sovereign yield
jumped 13 basis points, or 0.13
percentage point, in April, the
most since September 2013, as a
21% rally in Brent crude and the
weather departments forecast
of below-normal monsoon rains
reignited concern about consumer ination, which eased to
5.17% in March.
Brent prices are key to Indias
ination outlook as the nation
imports about 80% of its oil and
the commoditys 49% plunge in
the 12 months through March
helped slow price gains, paving
the way for two interest-rate
cuts in 2015.
Fixed-income funds took in
Rs122bn in January, AMFI data
show. Thats when RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan lowered
benchmark borrowing costs for
the rst time since May 2013. Investors withdrew Rs116bn in the
next three months.
We saw a lot of traction into
the income funds around January as distributors and analysts
sold them as get equity- like
returns in debt, which was too
good to be true but some people did bite into the story, Killol Pandya, a senior debt- fund
manager at LIC Nomura Mutual
Fund Asset Management Co in
Mumbai, said in a May 7 phone

interview. Expectations were

that a lot of rate cuts will happen
and theyll be front-loaded, but
that whole sentiment has seen a
reversal.
Inows into so-called gilt
funds, which invest solely
in sovereign debt, slowed to
Rs1.64bn in April, the smallest
since September, according to
AMFI data.
The June-September monsoon season is crucial for Asias
third-largest economy as agriculture accounts for about 15%
of its gross domestic product.
Insufficient rains can potentially
hurt crop output and stoke food
costs.
The RBI will consider factors
including the likely strength
of the monsoon rains before deciding on future actions, Governor Rajan said in the latest policy
statement on April 7 when he
kept the benchmark repurchase
rate unchanged.
Theres a chance that the
June rate cut gets pushed back
because of the rebound in oil
prices and the rise in global bond
yields, Rajeev Radhakrishnan,
Mumbai-based head of xed income at SBI Funds Management,
a unit of Indias largest lender,
said. The sudden drop in the
rupee will also impact monetary
policy. To that extent, investors
will position themselves.
LIC Nomuras Pandya said he
doesnt expect large outows
from debt funds because interest
rates are still headed lower, even
if less than earlier expected.

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

BUSINESS

Global bond rout deepens as

equities fall, dollar weakens

Russian
rouble
rises as oil
rebounds

Bloomberg
London

Reuters
Moscow

he Russian rouble rose

strongly yesterday after a three-day holiday
weekend passed without negative news, and with a rming oil
price lending support.
The rouble was 1.7% stronger
against the dollar at 50.16 and up
1.4% to 56.43 versus the euro.
The rouble fell 1.2% against
the dollar on Friday as investors
typically x prots before extended holidays.
Brent crude oil, an important
driver for all Russian assets, was
trading 2.2% higher on the day at
just over $66.3 a barrel.
Veles Capital analyst Alexander Kostyukov said in a note that
the external backdrop for Russian assets was moderately positive yesterday as the main event
during the holiday period was
the Chinese central banks decision to cut interest rates.
China is a major market for
Russian commodities and the
state of its economy helps drive
the global oil price.
Participants had already
priced in various risks in the
Russian currencys exchange
rate before the holidays, and
because nothing negative happened during the long weekend
the purchase of roubles has resumed, BCS Express analyst
Ivan Kopeikin said in a note.
An additional positive factor is
the resumption of the rise in oil
prices.
He added that Russian companies will need to repay less
than $5bn in foreign debts in May
- well below the repayments in
March and April - which would
keep demand for foreign currency modest.

onds fell around the world, with

10-year Treasury yields spiking
to a ve-month high, as governments added to supply amid a global
rout. European stocks slid with US equities futures, while oil led commodity
gains.
Treasury note yields rose two basis points to 2.30% at 8:50 am in New
York. Germanys 10-year bund yield
is now 14 times higher than a month
ago and Japanese yields climbed. The
Stoxx Europe 600 Index slid 1.4% and
Standard & Poors 500 Index futures
retreated 0.5%. The Bloomberg Dollar
Spot Index dropped 0.4%. Oil in New
York increased 1.3% to $60.01 a barrel.
Overblown expectations for the European Central Banks quantitativeeasing plan helped push debt valuations to extreme levels, triggering a
large and vicious selloff in European
bonds thats infected other markets,
Goldman Sachs Group said. Treasuries
fell as the US prepared to sell $64bn of
debt this week, extending a slump on
Monday that sent yields 13 basis points
higher.
Whats new in this is that now
it seems to be the US side of things
driving things lower, said Christoph
Rieger, the Frankfurt-based head of
xed-income strategy at Commerzbank, which is ranked rst among dealers by the nations debt agency. With
the supply that is coming up, which is
certainly a factor, the market still may
be tempted to test the lows. Now is not
the time to be bold.
The drop in Treasuries stabilised
at the end of last week before resuming Monday amid continued selling in
European debt markets. Those losses
spread to Asia yesterday, with Japanese
10- year yields rising six basis points to
0.45%. German yields have advanced
in 11 of the past 12 sessions, climbing 56
basis points to 0.71%.

The dollars decline yesterday wiped out all of its gains from the previous day. It weakened 0.9% to $1.1252 per euro.
The selling comes as governments
add to supply. In Japan, a 10-year
bond auction drew the fewest bids in
six years. The nations nance ministry is due to sell 30-year debt May 14.
The Netherlands auctioned 2.4bn
($2.7bn) of 10-year bonds yesterday,
while Germany sold index-linked debt
due in April 2026. Italy is scheduled to
offer as much as 7bn of securities.
It all sounds like were absolutely
doomed in the bond markets but I think
it is a realisation thats hitting bond investors that they need to be extremely
cautious at the moment, Bill Blain, a
London-based strategist at Mint Partners said in an interview on Bloomberg Televisions On The Move with
Jonathan Ferro. The selling in the

bonds spread to global equities yesterday, with the MSCI All-Country World
Index slipping 0.2%. European shares
led losses, falling for the rst time in
four days as all industry groups in the
Stoxx 600 retreated.
All but two of 18 western-European
markets fell. Germanys DAX Index led
declines, tumbling 1.9%. Frances CAC
40 Index, Portugals PSI 20 Index and
Spains IBEX 35 Index slipped more
than 1.2%.
Greece has readied a repayment to
the International Monetary Fund, ofcials said, as the European Central
Bank prepared to reassess emergency
funding for the countrys banks.
The weakness today is broadbased, said Espen Furnes, who helps

oversee $85bn at Storebrand Asset

Management in Oslo. Short term,
Greece is still an issue. The bond market is showing more volatility and can
possibly signal a less sanguine attitude
towards QE.
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index
fell 0.8%, dropping for the rst time
in three days. Currencies were mixed,
with Russias rouble strengthening
0.8% and Indias rupee sliding 0.5%.
The Shanghai Composite Index increased 1.6% after climbing 3% Monday in the wake of Chinas third interest- rate reduction in six months. The
Hang Seng China Enterprises Index fell
1.5% in Hong Kong.
The dollars decline yesterday wiped
out all of its gains from the previ-

ous day. It weakened 0.9% to $1.1252

per euro. The Norwegian krone and
Australian dollar were the best- performing major currencies tracked by
Bloomberg.
Brent crude advanced 2.2% to $66.34
a barrel, ending three days of declines.
Production from shale formations in
the US fell by about 1% this month and
the decline will persist in June, the US
Energy Information Administration
said on Monday.
Crude inventories probably dropped
by 500,000 barrels through May 8, declining for a second week, a Bloomberg
survey of analysts showed before EIA
data today. Stockpiles are still more
than 100mn barrels above the ve-year
average for this time of year.

CORPORATE RESULTS

Capital worries weigh on UniCredit after in-line profit

ernay and Montney plays fell in the first quarter ended March 31
from the fourth quarter.
The company has said it would direct most of its investments
into these four areas, which its says are its highest margin growth
plays.
Still total production averaged about 430,100 barrels of oil
equivalent per day (boe/d) during the quarter, down from about
536,100 boe/d a year earlier, reflecting the sale of lower-margin
assets and a shift to produce more liquids. Oil and natural-gas
liquids production rose 78% to about 120,700 barrels per day
(bbls/d) in the quarter. Realized liquids prices fell to $37.83 per
barrel from $69.19.
Natural gas output fell 34%, while realised natgas prices fell 18%.
Encana posted a net loss attributable to shareholders of $1.71bn
compared with a year-ago profit of $116mn, mainly due to $1.22bn
in impairment charges.
The companys operating profit, which excludes most one-time
items, fell 98% to $9mn, or 1 cent per share. Analyst on average
were expecting a loss of 9 cents per share, according to Thomson
Reuters I/B/E/S.

D/S Norden

The CEO of UniCredit said disposals were one option for Italys
biggest bank by assets to boost its financial strength, after core
capital increased slightly in the first quarter of 2015 but not
enough to quell investors jitters.
The banks net profit in the three months to March fell 28%
year-on-year to 512mn ($575mn), in line with an analyst forecast
distributed by the bank.
Earnings were helped by an 82% rise in trading income and
higher fees. However, the bank took a 91mn charge linked to
its contribution to the Single Resolution Fund, a fund meant to
finance eurozone bank closures.
UniCredit said its fully-loaded Common Equity Tier 1 ratio, a key
measure of financial strength, stood at 10.35% from 10.02% at the
end of December.
The number includes a 25 basis points contribution from a deal
sealed in April to merge the banks Pioneer unit with Santander
Asset Management and is well below the 13.2% level reported by
domestic rival Intesa Sanpaolo.
The shares turned lower after the results, with traders and analysts citing the still weak core capital number as the main reason
for the fall. They were down 3.3% by 1422 GMT.
The numbers are in line or even slightly better than expected,
the net operating margin is good. The market reaction is due
to the fact that the CET 1 continues to be weaker than Intesas.
UniCredit right now is paying a price because of this gap, said
Vincenzo Longo of IG.
IThe bank said that of its 5.7bn in revenues for the quarter, Italy
contributed 2.2bn, corporate and investment banking 1.1bn and
its extensive central and eastern European operations 976mn.

Imtech
The CEO and finance chief of Dutch builder Imtech will step down
from the company, after a drop in sales and weaker profit margins
showed the difficult work ahead to restore confidence in the

company following an accounting scandal.

Chief Executive Gerard van de Aast and Chief Financial Officer
Hans Turkesteen were appointed in 2013 after the previous management quit over an accounting fraud in Germany and Poland
that wiped millions off its balance sheet.
Board member Paul van Gelder will take over as as CEO. Van de
Aast will retire at the end of 2015, while Turkesteen will leave after
this years results have been finalised.
A spokeswoman said Imtech would not necessarily make a profit
this year, even though it said it would make positive earnings
before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.
The company was forced to make an emergency 500mn euro
($560mn) rights issue after taking write-downs of 370mn euros
and had to slash its workforce.
The builder, which is also battling a prolonged slump in the
Netherlands and in Europe more widely, said revenue in the first
quarter fell 11% to 873.1mn ($980.49mn), although it narrowed
its net loss to 49mn, an improvement on last years 77.3mn.
Some analysts were surprised by the departure of the top officials
of the 150-year-old firm, which put the first electric lighting in
Dutch buildings in the 19th century.

Encana
Encana Corp, Canadas largest natural gas producer, posted a
surprise quarterly operating profit as investments in technology
to lower well costs and increase production begin paying off.
Encana has been diversifying into oil production and has invested
heavily in technology and drilling techniques, such as applying
simultaneous drilling and completions operations on wells, to
drive greater productivity and cost efficiencies.
The company said the application of such drilling techniques is
increasing initial production rates and delivering stronger well
performance.
Encana said production costs in the Permian, Eagle Ford, Duv-

Danish shipping company D/S Norden beat first-quarter operating profit forecasts on Tuesday, boosting its shares by as much
as 9%.
One of the worlds largest dry bulk shipping company, D/S Norden
has been hit like others in the industry by low freight rates due to
overcapacity and a faltering global economy.
However, its quarterly results were lifted by its tanker vessels.
Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) swung to $30mn in
January-March from a loss of $22.6mn in the first quarter of last
year, topping the average forecast for a loss of $1mn in a Reuters
poll of analysts.
The Copenhagen-based still expects a full-year operating result
between a loss of $40mn and a profit of $40mn.
It is a conservative guidance for the year but is understandable
since the dry bulk market is doing so poorly, Sydbank analyst
Jacob Pedersen said.
He has a buy recommendation on the shares and points to the
fact D/S Norden only needs to make an additional operating profit
of $10mn in the rest of the year to reach the high end of its guidance. With 203 owned and chartered vessels carrying goods such
as grain, iron ore and timber, D/S Norden competes with companies including China Cosco, operator of the countrys largest dry
bulk fleet, and Hong Kong-based Pacific Basin .
The $30mn profit was driven by its 48 tanker vessels, carrying
refined products, contributing $28mn.

Pandora
Danish jewellery maker Pandora increased its operating profit by
almost 40% in the first quarter, exceeding analysts expectations,
and raised its full-year sales forecast.
However, shares in the company fell, together with the main
Copenhagen stock exchange index, as analysts noted higher than
foreseen costs, while the revenue upgrade was anticipated and
due to a strong US dollar.
Pandora shares, which have risen 40% so far this year, were 0.5%
lower at 701.50 crowns by 0740 GMT compared with a 1% fall of
Nasdaqs C20 index.
The sales growth is strong but the development in fixed costs is
not good, analyst Jesper Christensen from Alm. Brand Bank said.
Costs for the quarter rose 35% to 2.3bn Danish crowns ($346mn)
as Pandora continued to open new stores and launch marketing
campaigns.
It also raised its capital expenditure forecast for the year. The
group now sees 2015 sales of more than 15bn crowns, up from

an earlier forecast of more than 14bn crowns. The 2015 EBITDA

(earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation)
margin is still seen at around 37%.
Operating profit rose to 1.24bn Danish crowns from 887mn
crowns a year earlier and above a forecast for 1.17bn in a Reuters
poll. Former Scandinavian Tobacco Group chief Anders Colding
Friis took over as chief executive from Alan Leighton last month.

Rackspace
Rackspace Hosting, a web hosting company, forecast revenue
for the current quarter below market estimates and said a strong
dollar hurt its revenue growth in the first quarter.
Shares of the company, which faces tough competition from
Amazon.com, Google and Microsoft Corp were down 13% in
extended trading on Monday.
Revenue from a contract with a large financial services company will be realized only in the third quarter, hurting revenue
growth in the second quarter, Rackspace Chief Executive Taylor
Rhodes said in a post-earnings call.
Rackspace Hosting will also take a one-time charge in the quarter
as a customer moved some of its production elements away
from a Rackspace data centre in the United Kingdom.
The company said it expects revenue to grow between 1.5% and
2.5% in the current quarter on a constant currency basis from first
quarter. That would translate to revenue of $487.4mn-$492.2mn.
Analysts on average were expecting revenue of $502.1mn, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
The company said foreign currency exchange rates hurt its
revenue growth. Revenue increased 14.1% to $480.2mn in the first
quarter ended March 31. On a constant currency basis, revenue
grew 16.6%.
Analysts had expected revenue of $481.6mn.
The dollar has risen about 23% against a basket of major currencies in the past year. Net income rose to $28.4mn, or 20 cents per
share, from $25.4mn, or 18 cents per share, a year earlier.

Numericable-SFR
French telecom group Numericable-SFR raised its medium-term
profitability target yesterday and promised more cost savings
than originally planned from its merger.
In its first full quarter of business since Numericable bought
mobile operator SFR from Vivendi last November, Frances
second-largest telecoms company continued to lose mobile and
broadband market share because of its emphasis on higherpaying customers instead of volume.
But aggressive cost-cutting efforts by SFRs new owner and its
parent company, Altice, paid off in higher operating profit that
comfortably beat analysts expectations.
Despite high leverage and integration risks, investors see Altice
as a rare growth story among Europes telecom operators, which
are mostly managing declining sales and selling assets. Its shares
were up 47% this year before the results, outperforming a 19%
rise in the European telecom stocks index.
First-quarter revenue fell by 4.6% to 2.74bn ($3.06bn) hurt by
the departure of some 400,000 mobile customers as Numericable-SFR suffers from poorer 4G coverage than rivals Orange and
Bouygues Telecom .
But adjusted operating profit grew 21% to 930mn because of
Numericable-SFRs efforts to trim the fat from its operations.
Analysts had expected sales of 2.76bn and 850mn in operating
profit. The company raised its medium-term EBITDA (earnings
before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) margin target
to above 45% from 40%.
The group also gave 2015 financial targets for the first time, saying it aims to achieve above 20% growth in adjusted EBITDA and
generate operating free cash flow of between 1.9bn and 2bn.

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

BUSINESS
SAUDI ARABIA
Company Name

QATAR
Company Name
Zad Holding Co
Widam Food Co
Vodafone Qatar
United Development Co
Salam International Investme
Qatar & Oman Investment Co
Qatar Navigation
Qatar National Cement Co
Qatar National Bank
Qatar Islamic Insurance
Qatar Industrial Manufactur
Qatar International Islamic
Qatari Investors Group
Qatar Islamic Bank
Qatar Gas Transport(Nakilat)
Qatar General Insurance & Re
Qatar German Co For Medical
Qatar Fuel Co
Qatar Electricity & Water Co
Qatar Cinema & Film Distrib
Qatar Insurance Co
Ooredoo Qsc
National Leasing
Mazaya Qatar Real Estate Dev
Mesaieed Petrochemical Holdi
Al Meera Consumer Goods Co
Medicare Group
Mannai Corporation Qsc
Masraf Al Rayan
Al Khalij Commercial Bank
Industries Qatar
Islamic Holding Group
Gulf Warehousing Company
Gulf International Services
Ezdan Holding Group
Doha Insurance Co
Doha Bank Qsc
Dlala Holding
Commercial Bank Of Qatar Qsc
Barwa Real Estate Co
Al Khaleej Takaful Group
Aamal Co

Lt Price
104.00
61.80
17.41
23.76
14.30
17.05
99.60
128.00
200.90
85.10
45.50
80.80
51.90
106.00
22.60
56.30
17.40
180.10
214.00
41.40
87.00
100.10
21.10
18.98
26.00
250.00
173.50
114.00
47.75
20.35
144.50
132.00
75.20
84.50
16.78
24.95
55.30
27.85
56.50
51.00
44.25
16.35

% Chg
4.84
0.49
-0.85
-0.63
-0.07
1.55
0.61
0.00
0.20
0.00
-1.73
0.62
-1.14
-0.66
-0.22
0.00
1.10
-0.50
-1.20
-2.13
0.00
-0.40
-1.17
-0.21
-0.19
0.77
-0.52
-0.26
-0.42
0.64
-0.41
-0.38
0.13
-0.71
-0.83
-0.20
0.91
0.00
0.18
0.79
0.00
-0.30

Volume
3,800
49,732
323,522
72,244
332,881
1,379,654
45,012
1,702
55,272
2,405
17,104
81,974
34,210
82,118
112,960
6,844
450,024
18,952
4,012
79
87,039
19,637
73,226
120,153
113,577
22,998
112,586
22,550
691,251
320,054
140,626
44,324
48,772
178,342
551,803
38,188
452,285
78,282
187,234
532,254
960
106,640

SAUDI ARABIA
Company Name
Saudi Hollandi Bank
Al-Ahsa Development Co.
Al-Baha Development & Invest
Ace Arabia Cooperative Insur
Allied Cooperative Insurance
Arriyadh Development Company
Fitaihi Holding Group
Arabia Insurance Cooperative
Alabdullatif Industrial Inv
Al-Ahlia Cooperative Insuran
Al Alamiya Cooperative Insur
Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Dev
Al Babtain Power & Telecommu
Bank Albilad
Alujain Corporation (Alco)
Aldrees Petroleum And Transp
Fawaz Abdulaziz Alhokair & C
Alinma Bank
Alinma Tokio Marine
Al Khaleej Training And Educ
Abdullah A.M. Al-Khodari Son
Allianz Saudi Fransi Coopera
Almarai Co
Saudi Integrated Telecom Co
Alsorayai Group
Al Tayyar Travel Group
Amana Cooperative Insurance
Anaam International Holding
Abdullah Al Othaim Markets
Arabian Pipes Co
Advanced Petrochemicals Co
Al Rajhi Co For Co-Operative
Arabian Cement
Arab National Bank
Ash-Sharqiyah Development Co
United Wire Factories Compan
Astra Industrial Group
Alahli Takaful Co
Aseer Trading Tourism & Manu
Axa Cooperative Insurance
Basic Chemical Industries
Bishah Agriculture
Bank Al-Jazira
Banque Saudi Fransi
United International Transpo
Bupa Arabia For Cooperative
Buruj Cooperative Insurance
Saudi Airlines Catering Co
Methanol Chemicals Co
City Cement Co
Eastern Province Cement Co
Etihad Atheeb Telecommunicat
Etihad Etisalat Co
Emaar Economic City
Saudi Enaya Cooperative Insu
United Electronics Co
Falcom Saudi Equity Etf
Filing & Packing Materials M
Wafrah For Industry And Deve
Falcom Petrochemical Etf
Gulf General Cooperative Ins
Jazan Development Co
Gulf Union Cooperative Insur
Halwani Bros Co
Hail Cement
Herfy Food Services Co
Al Jouf Agriculture Developm
Jarir Marketing Co
Jabal Omar Development Co
Al Jouf Cement
Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Co
Knowledge Economic City
Kingdom Holding Co
Saudi Arabian Mining Co
Malath Cooperative & Reinsur
Makkah Construction & Devepl
Mediterranean & Gulf Insuran
Middle East Specialized Cabl
Mohammad Al Mojil Group Co
Mouwasat Medical Services Co
The National Agriculture Dev
Najran Cement Co
Nama Chemicals Co
National Gypsum
National Gas & Industrializa
National Industrialization C
Maadaniyah
National Shipping Co Of/The
National Petrochemical Co
Rabigh Refining And Petroche
Al Qassim Agricultural Co
Qassim Cement/The
Red Sea Housing Services Co
Saudi Research And Marketing
Riyad Bank
Al Rajhi Bank
Saudi Arabian Amiantit Co

Lt Price
46.65
15.91
13.50
72.07
38.42
23.01
25.39
13.97
39.91
17.17
67.42
9.57
47.12
38.92
22.88
63.62
101.97
24.00
49.94
53.35
31.00
54.10
90.52
0.00
20.75
105.13
13.36
29.42
105.52
21.51
56.08
30.11
79.99
34.54
82.80
35.13
32.79
65.35
28.80
24.55
35.90
69.75
31.32
38.61
59.50
216.05
28.97
170.62
14.48
26.21
49.35
7.53
36.76
16.62
28.40
76.30
33.80
51.86
38.56
30.20
30.31
15.38
19.17
85.75
23.04
123.05
42.93
227.77
76.39
17.20
12.09
29.75
22.07
44.45
28.79
103.98
55.34
15.81
12.55
128.90
33.46
29.88
12.34
28.59
31.69
24.93
36.90
47.30
27.09
24.28
15.28
94.03
42.35
18.10
17.45
63.20
13.96

% Chg
-1.04
0.38
0.00
1.34
0.26
-0.78
1.52
2.95
-0.25
7.65
0.54
1.38
-0.25
0.93
0.39
0.41
-0.80
0.80
-1.98
-0.11
1.04
0.61
0.56
0.00
-1.00
-0.64
-4.02
0.34
0.79
1.18
1.74
1.11
0.55
-0.17
1.21
1.27
0.34
1.44
1.12
4.65
0.11
0.00
0.74
-0.36
1.04
-0.40
0.52
4.60
0.84
-0.08
-0.14
0.27
0.38
1.09
0.21
-0.01
-0.29
1.71
1.80
-5.33
0.90
0.13
1.86
-0.19
0.74
-0.77
0.12
-0.55
-0.08
2.08
1.26
1.29
2.22
1.11
2.93
-0.92
4.79
0.83
0.00
-0.29
0.09
1.46
0.57
0.35
0.92
0.24
1.12
-0.17
1.57
0.29
0.07
-0.31
0.26
0.06
0.58
0.81
0.65

Volume
106,383
2,080,325
87,633
1,523,340
801,597
261,928
3,412,718
125,337
3,776,390
71,149
25,829,975
91,770
236,054
620,868
149,913
157,878
13,882,487
189,497
106,498
405,849
64,502
95,843
512,348
313,526
2,347,554
164,124
66,056
763,612
637,523
499,978
289,305
87,362
440,312
150,002
235,185
94,148
518,010
1,467,641
144,905
828,805
145,832
138,735
29,467
559,505
728,308
5,232,214
854,628
88,984
1,557,462
1,769,401
13,049,686
294,182
159,820
113,686
407,223
543,051
67,302
290,041
377,665
362,980
14,727
568,329
37,171
126,628
52,867
350,448
8,698,636
6,387,069
4,853,912
1,323,894
1,858,934
1,706,208
50,315
891,269
1,434,463
56,821
793,460
960,382
1,796,550
324,920
184,876
3,865,517
230,679
490,687
236,354
1,928,031
1,101,443
137,329
178,240
152,187
835,087
1,983,537
1,462,562

Saudi British Bank

Sabb Takaful
Saudi Basic Industries Corp
Saudi Cement
Sasco
Saudia Dairy & Foodstuff Co
Saudi Arabian Fertilizer Co
Al Sagr Co-Operative Insuran
Saudi Advanced Industries
Saudi Arabian Coop Ins Co
Salama Cooperative Insurance
Samba Financial Group
Sanad Cooperative Insurance
Saudi Public Transport Co
Saudi Arabia Refineries Co
Hsbc Amanah Saudi 20 Etf
Saudi Re For Cooperative Rei
Savola
Saudi Cable Co
Saudi Chemical Company
Saudi Ceramic Co
Saudi Electricity Co
Saudi Fisheries
Al-Hassan G.I. Shaker Co
Dur Hospitality Co
Arabian Shield Cooperative
Saudi Investment Bank/The
Saudi Industrial Development
Saudi Industrial Export Co

KUWAIT
Lt Price
36.29
37.06
102.86
95.04
25.61
135.75
118.28
30.36
19.85
43.70
28.01
29.01
15.23
28.16
61.88
32.50
11.29
76.50
9.70
77.47
86.52
18.93
25.06
83.70
37.18
42.29
25.21
18.20
53.63

% Chg
0.39
2.80
1.19
0.04
0.04
0.00
0.26
0.73
1.07
2.20
0.21
-1.39
0.00
0.18
1.43
0.00
0.44
0.33
1.57
0.82
-0.08
-0.42
1.17
0.24
1.58
0.12
0.04
0.39
0.56

Volume
44,034
511,719
5,613,213
63,941
457,880
99,650
177,202
394,408
596,617
464,613
153,737
1,181,901
1,226,774
136,817
1
934,939
181,862
2,054,435
174,618
277,544
1,880,543
299,721
379,331
80,112
204,164
299,213
1,416,109
520,204

KUWAIT
Company Name
Securities Group Co
Sultan Center Food Products
Kuwait Foundry Co Sak
Kuwait Financial Centre Sak
Ajial Real Estate Entmt
Gulf Glass Manuf Co -Kscc
Kuwait Finance & Investment
National Industries Co Ksc
Kuwait Real Estate Holding C
Securities House/The
Boubyan Petrochemicals Co
Al Ahli Bank Of Kuwait
Ahli United Bank (Almutahed)
National Bank Of Kuwait
Commercial Bank Of Kuwait
Kuwait International Bank
Gulf Bank
Al-Massaleh Real Estate Co
Al Arabiya Real Estate Co
Kuwait Remal Real Estate Co
Alkout Industrial Projects C
Aayan Real Estate Co
Investors Holding Group Co.K
Markaz Real Estate Fund
Al-Mazaya Holding Co
Al-Madar Finance & Invt Co
Gulf Petroleum Investment
Mabanee Co Sakc
City Group
Inovest Co Bsc
Kuwait Gypsum Manufacturing
Al-Deera Holding Co
Alshamel International Hold
Mena Real Estate Co
National Slaughter House
Amar Finance & Leasing Co
United Projects Group Kscc
National Consumer Holding Co
Amwal International Investme
Jeeran Holdings
Equipment Holding Co K.S.C.C
Nafais Holding
Safwan Trading & Contracting
Arkan Al Kuwait Real Estate
Gulf Finance House Ec
Energy House Holding Co Kscc
Kuwait Slaughter House Co
Kuwait Co For Process Plant
Al Maidan Dental Clinic Co K
National Ranges Company
Kuwait Pipes Indus & Oil Ser
Al-Themar Real International
Al Ahleia Insurance Co Sak
Wethaq Takaful Insurance Co
Salbookh Trading Co K.S.C.C
Aqar Real Estate Investments
Hayat Communications
Kuwait Packing Materials Mfg
Soor Fuel Marketing Co Ksc
Alargan International Real
Burgan Co For Well Drilling
Kuwait Resorts Co Kscc
Oula Fuel Marketing Co
Palms Agro Production Co
Ikarus Petroleum Industries
Mubarrad Transport Co
Al Mowasat Health Care Co
Shuaiba Industrial Co
Kuwait Invest Co Holding
Hits Telecom Holding
First Takaful Insurance Co
Kuwaiti Syrian Holding Co
National Cleaning Company
Eyas For High & Technical Ed
United Real Estate Company
Agility
Kuwait & Middle East Fin Inv
Fujairah Cement Industries
Livestock Transport & Tradng
International Resorts Co
National Industries Grp Hold
Marine Services Co
Warba Insurance Co
Kuwait United Poultry Co
First Dubai Real Estate Deve
Al Arabi Group Holding Co
Kuwait Hotels Co
Mobile Telecommunications Co
Al Safat Real Estate Co
Tamdeen Real Estate Co Ksc
Al Mudon Intl Real Estate Co
Kuwait Cement Co Ksc
Sharjah Cement & Indus Devel
Kuwait Portland Cement Co
Educational Holding Group
Bahrain Kuwait Insurance
Asiya Capital Investments Co
Kuwait Investment Co
Burgan Bank
Kuwait Projects Co Holdings
Al Madina For Finance And In
Kuwait Insurance Co
Al Masaken Intl Real Estate
Intl Financial Advisors
First Investment Co Kscc
Al Mal Investment Company
Bayan Investment Co Kscc
Egypt Kuwait Holding Co Sae
Coast Investment Development
Privatization Holding Compan
Kuwait Medical Services Co
Injazzat Real State Company
Kuwait Cable Vision Sak
Sanam Real Estate Co Kscc
Ithmaar Bank Bsc
Aviation Lease And Finance C
Arzan Financial Group For Fi
Ajwan Gulf Real Estate Co
Manafae Investment Co
Kuwait Business Town Real Es
Future Kid Entertainment And
Specialities Group Holding C
Abyaar Real Eastate Developm
Dar Al Thuraya Real Estate C
Al-Dar National Real Estate

Lt Price
118.00
83.00
275.00
104.00
206.00
600.00
60.00
200.00
32.50
63.00
630.00
365.00
580.00
850.00
640.00
250.00
280.00
55.00
43.50
55.00
610.00
90.00
35.00
1.54
122.00
21.00
84.00
970.00
540.00
63.00
120.00
43.00
0.00
34.50
0.00
49.00
740.00
0.00
0.00
57.00
82.00
87.00
0.00
126.00
67.00
86.00
226.00
260.00
0.00
32.00
0.00
90.00
460.00
41.00
138.00
80.00
58.00
405.00
120.00
210.00
136.00
106.00
124.00
0.00
150.00
81.00
156.00
350.00
0.00
33.50
0.00
32.50
55.00
315.00
94.00
790.00
40.00
76.00
108.00
39.50
188.00
102.00
120.00
204.00
68.00
134.00
0.00
470.00
20.00
460.00
56.00
355.00
86.00
1,300.00
176.00
0.00
56.00
132.00
430.00
640.00
43.00
335.00
65.00
41.50
79.00
33.50
53.00
200.00
55.00
59.00
41.00
71.00
36.00
59.00
49.00
220.00
49.50
36.00
0.00
40.50
80.00
112.00
34.00
0.00
24.50

% Chg
0.00
-1.19
0.00
-5.45
0.00
-3.23
0.00
0.00
6.56
-1.56
0.00
1.39
3.57
0.00
0.00
0.81
1.82
0.00
2.35
-1.79
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
1.67
2.44
-1.18
2.11
0.00
0.00
0.00
3.61
0.00
-6.76
0.00
0.00
-1.33
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-2.25
0.00
0.00
-1.47
-1.15
0.00
0.00
0.00
-1.54
0.00
0.00
0.00
-1.20
-6.76
0.00
1.75
0.00
-1.64
-1.87
0.00
3.92
0.00
0.00
0.00
-1.22
0.00
2.94
0.00
1.52
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
1.28
0.00
1.33
1.89
1.28
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
3.03
0.00
0.00
1.08
0.00
0.00
1.82
0.00
-1.15
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
1.54
-1.15
0.00
2.38
0.00
0.00
3.75
-2.47
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
1.43
0.00
3.51
0.00
1.85
0.00
0.00
0.00
2.53
0.00
-8.20
1.49
0.00
-3.92

Volume
76
71,750
26,700
67,172
500
18,429
484,890
56,045
250
832,600
221,110
134,492
1,544,598
966,232
37,719
139,461
710,276
82,000
797,949
1,203,565
10
3,180
3,318,968
1,094,189
230,059
530,986
39,804
1,202
200,000
10,000
3,185,731
151,000
342,857
4,000
100
779,273
28,000
2,010
19,380,718
890,614
30,000
79,803
969,701
375
3,750
11,500
1,963,029
2,300
93,300
12,807
30,863
3,010
10,280
320,100
59,801
204,160
430,014
2,000
175,000
1,662,755
484,900
145,120
2,650
1,750
1,223,714
355
70,000
31,350
1,465,924
458,262
150
4,986
100
2,039,477
10,000
3,179,415
9,247,016
30,000
2,570,695
509
217,950
150
10
1,042,749
6,908
233,180
333,492
11,036,602
580
1,250
2,831,294
2,727,793
1,525,187
416,875
2,750
556,000
735,596
24,000
1,132,545
10,016
739,900
873,550
226,550
1,000
2,322,051
2,921,013
7,000
35,000
4,011,700
7,352,346

Company Name
Kgl Logistics Company Kscc
Combined Group Contracting
Zima Holding Co Ksc
Qurain Holding Co
Boubyan Intl Industries Hold
Gulf Investment House
Boubyan Bank K.S.C
Ahli United Bank B.S.C
Al-Safat Tec Holding Co
Al-Eid Food Co
Qurain Petrochemical Industr
Advanced Technology Co
Ekttitab Holding Co S.A.K.C
Kout Food Group Ksc
Real Estate Trade Centers Co
Acico Industries Co Kscc
Kipco Asset Management Co
National Petroleum Services
Alimtiaz Investment Co Kscc
Ras Al Khaimah White Cement
Kuwait Reinsurance Co Ksc
Kuwait & Gulf Link Transport
Human Soft Holding Co Ksc
Automated Systems Co
Metal & Recycling Co
Gulf Franchising Holding Co
Al-Enmaa Real Estate Co
National Mobile Telecommuni
Al Bareeq Holding Co Kscc
Housing Finance Co Sak
Al Salam Group Holding Co
United Foodstuff Industries
Al Aman Investment Company
Mashaer Holdings Co Ksc
Manazel Holding
Mushrif Trading & Contractin
Tijara And Real Estate Inves
Kuwait Building Materials
Jazeera Airways Co Ksc
Commercial Real Estate Co
Future Communications Co
National International Co
Taameer Real Estate Invest C
Gulf Cement Co
Heavy Engineering And Ship B
Refrigeration Industries & S
National Real Estate Co
Al Safat Energy Holding Comp
Kuwait National Cinema Co
Danah Alsafat Foodstuff Co
Independent Petroleum Group
Kuwait Real Estate Co Ksc
Salhia Real Estate Co Ksc
Gulf Cable & Electrical Ind
Al Nawadi Holding Co Ksc
Kuwait Finance House
Gulf North Africa Holding Co
Hilal Cement Co
Osoul Investment Kscc

OMAN
Lt Price
78.00
900.00
74.00
12.50
53.00
52.00
440.00
216.00
48.00
130.00
206.00
920.00
45.00
700.00
30.00
290.00
112.00
580.00
78.00
110.00
186.00
53.00
650.00
495.00
83.00
91.00
66.00
1,420.00
0.00
0.00
56.00
202.00
67.00
128.00
42.00
55.00
48.00
415.00
510.00
87.00
122.00
68.00
31.50
88.00
134.00
350.00
108.00
23.00
1,000.00
83.00
375.00
72.00
350.00
620.00
102.00
660.00
40.50
170.00
57.00

% Chg
-2.50
1.12
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
1.12
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
1.92
-5.80
0.00
0.00
-5.21
1.54
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-1.47
0.00
-1.18
-1.79
-5.88
0.00
-1.92
0.00
3.39
0.00
0.00
-1.12
0.00
0.00
1.89
-2.13
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-1.49
0.00
0.00
0.00

Volume
243,022
3,000
37,021
707,300
51,877
5,611,649
127,722
599,594
34,900
1,000
162,684
50
1,321,300
250
27,000
130,000
125,000
1,361
714,000
102,962
3,011
173,700
20,004
40,161
1,000
63,500
750,206
5,934
748,265
250
58,260
101,373
2,134,209
394,029
8,502,296
11
947,351
823,096
5,250
2,269,112
101,505
11,830
320
1,638
359,798
5,841,670
2,502
826,600
500
431,071
5,300
1,204
571,001
961,761
320,100
50
60,000

OMAN
Company Name
Voltamp Energy Saog
United Finance Co
United Power Co
United Power/Energy Co- Pref
Al Madina Investment Co
Taageer Finance
Salalah Port Services
Asaffa Foods Saog
Sohar Poultry
Shell Oman Marketing
Shell Oman Marketing - Pref
Smn Power Holding Saog
Al Shurooq Inv Ser
Al Sharqiya Invest Holding
Sohar Power Co
Salalah Beach Resort Saog
Salalah Mills Co
Sahara Hospitality
Renaissance Services Saog
Raysut Cement Co
Port Service Corporation
Packaging Co Ltd
Oman United Insurance Co
Oman Textile Holding Co Saog
Oman Telecommunications Co
Sweets Of Oman
Oman Orix Leasing Co.
Oman Refreshment Co
Oman Packaging
Oman Oil Marketing Company
0Man Oil Marketing Co-Pref
Oman National Investment Co
Oman National Engineering An
Oman National Dairy Products
Ominvest
Oman Medical Projects
Oman Ceramic Com
Oman Intl Marketing
Oman Investment & Finance
Hsbc Bank Oman
Oman Hotels & Tourism Co
Oman Holding International
Oman Fiber Optics
Oman Flour Mills
Oman Filters Industry
Oman Fisheries Co
Oman Education & Training In
Oman & Emirates Inv(Om)50%
Oman & Emirates Inv(Emir)50%
Oman Europe Foods Industries
Oman Cement Co
Oman Chlorine
Oman Chromite
Oman Cables Industry
Oman Agricultural Dev
Omani Qatari Telecommunicati
National Securities
Oman Foods International Soa
National Pharmaceutical-Rts
National Pharmaceutical
National Packaging Fac
National Mineral Water
National Hospitality Institu
National Gas Co
National Finance Co
National Detergents/The
National Carpet Factory
National Bank Of Oman Saog
National Biscuit Industries
National Real Estate Develop
Natl Aluminium Products
Muscat Thread Mills Co
Muscat Insurance Company
Modern Poultry Farms
Muscat National Holding
Musandam Marketing & Invest
Al Maha Petroleum Products M
Muscat Gases Company Saog
Majan Glass Company
Muscat Finance
Al Kamil Power Co
Interior Hotels
Hotels Management Co Interna
Al-Hassan Engineering Co
Gulf Stone
Gulf Mushroom Company
Gulf Invest. Serv. Pref-Shar
Gulf Investments Services
Gulf International Chemicals
Gulf Hotels (Oman) Co Ltd
Global Fin Investment
Galfar Engineering&Contract
Galfar Engineering -Prefer
Financial Services Co.
Flexible Ind Packages

Lt Price
0.42
0.13
1.60
1.00
0.00
0.14
0.65
0.86
0.21
2.00
1.05
0.66
1.04
0.14
0.37
1.38
1.50
2.50
0.36
1.55
0.22
0.48
0.30
0.24
1.65
1.35
0.14
2.51
0.23
2.23
0.25
0.46
0.26
0.00
0.46
0.00
0.45
0.52
0.23
0.00
0.24
0.00
5.25
0.50
0.00
0.05
0.14
0.11
0.00
1.00
0.52
0.53
3.64
2.11
1.45
0.00
0.17
0.48
0.00
0.10
0.00
0.09
2.05
0.39
0.15
0.70
0.00
0.31
3.75
0.00
0.31
0.13
0.00
0.00
1.86
0.00
2.19
0.83
0.24
0.14
0.31
0.00
1.25
0.10
0.11
0.39
0.13
0.14
0.23
10.50
0.11
0.13
0.39
0.17
0.00

% Chg
0.00
0.81
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
3.73
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.56
-0.64
0.00
0.00
1.35
0.00
0.30
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.87
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
1.89
0.00
3.74
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-1.27
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-0.45
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
1.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
6.15
0.89
0.00
-0.87
0.77
0.00
0.00
0.00

Volume
212,000
17,627
556,038
49,787
188,640
450,734
165,545
1,474
242,073
1,600
80,684
1,814,146
111,086
91,246
83,840
16,323
237,092
1,587,038
30,670
30,000
1,359,475
-

Company Name
Financial Corp/The
Dhofar Tourism
Dhofar Poultry
Aloula Co
Dhofar Intl Development
Dhofar Insurance
Dhofar University
Dhofar Power Co
Dhofar Power Co-Pfd
Dhofar Fisheries & Food Indu
Dhofar Cattlefeed
Al Batinah Dev & Inv
Dhofar Beverages Co
Computer Stationery Inds
Construction Materials Ind
Cement & Gypsum Pro
Marine Bander Al-Rowdha
Bank Sohar
Bankmuscat Saog
Bank Dhofar Saog
Al Batinah Hotels
Majan College
Areej Vegetable Oils
Al Jazeera Steel Products Co
Al Sallan Food Industry
Acwa Power Barka Saog
Al-Omaniya Financial Service
Taghleef Industries Saog
Gulf Plastic Industries Co
Al Jazeera Services
Al Jazerah Services -Pfd
Al-Fajar Al-Alamia Co
Ahli Bank
Abrasives Manufacturing Co S
Al-Batinah Intl Saog

Lt Price
0.11
0.49
0.18
0.53
0.48
0.21
1.47
0.00
0.00
1.28
0.18
0.13
0.26
0.26
0.04
0.00
0.00
0.18
0.53
0.28
1.13
0.50
5.51
0.26
0.00
0.84
0.32
0.00
0.39
0.34
0.55
0.75
0.21
0.05
0.00

% Chg
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-0.55
4.80
0.00
0.00
2.56
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.38
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.48
0.00
0.00

Volume
128,261
7,216
488,454
349,467
137,894
2,137,618
3,134
11,155
3,000
51,000
-

UAE
Company Name
National Takaful Company
Waha Capital Pjsc
Union Insurance Co
Union National Bank/Abu Dhab
United Insurance Company
Union Cement Co
United Arab Bank Pjsc
Abu Dhabi National Takaful C
Abu Dhabi National Energy Co
#N/A Invalid Security
Sorouh Real Estate Company
Sharjah Insurance Company
Sharjah Cement & Indus Devel
Ras Al Khaima Poultry
Ras Al Khaimah White Cement
Rak Properties
Ras Al-Khaimah National Insu
Ras Al Khaimah Ceramics
Ras Al Khaimah Cement Co
National Bank Of Ras Al-Khai
Ooredoo Qsc
Umm Al Qaiwain Cement Indust
Oman & Emirates Inv(Emir)50%
National Marine Dredging Co
National Corp Tourism & Hote
Sharjah Islamic Bank
National Bank Of Umm Al Qaiw
National Bank Of Fujairah
National Bank Of Abu Dhabi
Methaq Takaful Insurance
#N/A Invalid Security
Gulf Pharmaceutical Industri
Invest Bank
Insurance House
Gulf Medical Projects
Gulf Livestock Co
Green Crescent Insurance Co
Gulf Cement Co
Foodco Holding
Finance House
First Gulf Bank
Fujairah Cement Industries
Fujairah Building Industries
Emirates Telecom Corporation
Eshraq Properties Co Pjsc
Emirates Insurance Co. (Psc)
Emirates Driving Company
Al Dhafra Insurance Co. P.S.
Dana Gas
Commercial Bank Internationa
Bank Of Sharjah
Abu Dhabi Natl Co For Buildi
Al Wathba National Insurance
Intl Fish Farming Co Pjsc
Arkan Building Materials Co
Aldar Properties Pjsc
Al Ain Ahlia Ins. Co.
Al Khazna Insurance Co
Agthia Group Pjsc
Al Fujairah National Insuran
Abu Dhabi Ship Building Co
Abu Dhabi National Insurance
Abu Dhabi National Hotels
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank
Abu Dhabi Aviation

Lt Price
0.70
2.45
1.12
6.45
2.00
1.22
6.00
5.50
0.70
0.00
0.00
3.85
1.08
1.45
1.30
0.68
3.60
3.24
0.88
7.80
95.50
1.20
1.20
6.30
4.80
1.75
3.00
5.01
11.20
0.71
0.00
2.61
2.67
0.81
1.96
2.70
0.59
1.06
3.60
3.05
15.35
1.35
1.50
11.35
0.85
6.90
4.80
4.80
0.43
1.62
1.65
0.65
5.35
6.85
1.03
2.69
60.00
0.41
7.60
300.00
2.18
5.85
2.70
5.08
7.43
2.88

% Chg
0.00
0.82
0.00
-2.27
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-5.41
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
7.44
0.00
0.00
0.31
1.15
-0.26
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.57
0.00
0.00
0.45
-2.74
0.00
-3.33
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
11.11
0.44
-2.30
0.00
0.00
0.00
-2.27
0.00
1.85
-4.41
0.00
0.00
-6.36
0.75
0.00
0.00
0.13
0.00
14.74
0.00
0.00
0.00
1.78
0.00

Volume
2,438,467
945,368
140,046
42,585
4,141,489
1,100,000
289,011
361,991
450,000
339,311
1,120,146
337,064
4,000
10,740
1,119,663
284
2,094,918
27,823,975
8,661,344
48,390
100,000
1,500
8,852,586
166,947
490,987
999,266
277,963
531,164
-

BAHRAIN
Company Name
United Paper Industries Bsc
United Gulf Investment Corp
United Gulf Bank
United Finance Co
Trafco Group Bsc
Takaful International Co
Taib Bank -$Us
Securities & Investment Co
Seef Properties
#N/A Invalid Security
Al-Salam Bank
Delmon Poultry Co
National Hotels Co
National Bank Of Bahrain
Nass Corp Bsc
Khaleeji Commercial Bank
Ithmaar Bank Bsc
Investcorp Bank -$Us
Inovest Co Bsc
Intl Investment Group-Kuwait
Gulf Monetary Group
Global Investment House Kpsc
Gulf Finance House Ec
Bahrain Family Leisure Co
Esterad Investment Co B.S.C.
Bahrain Duty Free Complex
Bahrain Car Park Co
Bahrain Cinema Co
Bahrain Tourism Co
Bahraini Saudi Bank/The
Bahrain National Holding
Bankmuscat Saog
Bmmi Bsc
Bmb Investment Bank
Bahrain Kuwait Insurance
Bahrain Islamic Bank
Gulf Hotel Group B.S.C
Bahrain Flour Mills Co
Bahrain Commercial Facilitie
Bbk Bsc
Bahrain Telecom Co
Bahrain Ship Repair & Engin
Albaraka Banking Group
Banader Hotels Co
Ahli United Bank B.S.C

Lt Price
0.00
0.10
0.00
0.00
0.22
0.10
0.00
0.00
0.20
0.00
0.14
0.35
0.00
0.81
0.17
0.06
0.17
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.22
0.00
0.21
0.85
`
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.82
0.03
0.69
0.15
0.84
0.00
0.77
0.45
0.34
2.10
0.72
0.07
0.72

% Chg
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-2.05
0.00
0.00
0.62
0.00
-6.06
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
1.32
0.00
0.59
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00

Volume
85,917
24,060
185,183
40,000
296,586
8,353
4,500
64,978
2,183,829
54,756
85,040
213,133
71,000
7,000
64,000
74,641
12,000
5,000
6,400
20,000
9,874
3,750
28,000
120,000
107,997

LATEST MARKET CLOSING FIGURES

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

BUSINESS
DJIA

WORLD INDICES
Company Name

Apple Inc
Microsoft Corp
Exxon Mobil Corp
Johnson & Johnson
General Electric Co
Wal-Mart Stores Inc
Jpmorgan Chase & Co
Procter & Gamble Co/The
Pfizer Inc
Verizon Communications Inc
Chevron Corp
Walt Disney Co/The
Coca-Cola Co/The
Merck & Co. Inc.
Visa Inc-Class A Shares
Intl Business Machines Corp
Intel Corp
Cisco Systems Inc
Home Depot Inc
Unitedhealth Group Inc
United Technologies Corp
3M Co
Boeing Co/The
Mcdonalds Corp
Goldman Sachs Group Inc
Nike Inc -Cl B
American Express Co
Du Pont (E.I.) De Nemours
Caterpillar Inc
Travelers Cos Inc/The

Lt Price
125.87
47.27
87.09
100.56
26.95
78.78
65.26
79.88
33.77
49.45
107.71
109.18
40.84
59.38
68.52
170.23
32.22
29.30
111.98
114.62
117.25
159.64
145.40
98.06
200.05
102.14
78.93
74.61
87.91
101.77

% Chg
-0.36
-0.20
0.36
-0.47
0.11
0.87
-0.29
-0.49
-0.56
-0.70
0.33
0.53
-0.24
-1.03
-0.72
-0.52
-1.44
0.31
0.07
-0.13
-0.38
-0.17
-0.34
0.56
-0.83
-0.63
-0.97
-1.05
-0.97
-0.44

24,845,990
13,072,432
4,040,622
2,295,617
13,507,699
4,705,108
6,490,867
3,078,170
8,270,916
11,368,362
2,287,703
3,269,793
5,383,906
5,545,362
3,370,612
1,399,446
12,858,247
15,260,264
1,712,126
1,826,001
1,223,654
853,844
1,628,807
1,970,646
1,280,226
1,072,564
2,448,905
2,342,753
2,261,991
909,415

FTSE 100
Company Name
Wpp Plc
Wolseley Plc
Wm Morrison Supermarkets
Whitbread Plc
Weir Group Plc/The
Vodafone Group Plc
United Utilities Group Plc
Unilever Plc
Tui Ag-Di
Travis Perkins Plc
Tesco Plc
Taylor Wimpey Plc
Standard Life Plc
Standard Chartered Plc
St Jamess Place Plc
Sse Plc
Sports Direct International
Smiths Group Plc
Smith & Nephew Plc
Sky Plc
Shire Plc
Severn Trent Plc
Schroders Plc
Sainsbury (J) Plc
Sage Group Plc/The
Sabmiller Plc
Rsa Insurance Group Plc
Royal Mail Plc
Royal Dutch Shell Plc-B Shs
Royal Dutch Shell Plc-A Shs
Royal Bank Of Scotland Group
Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc
Rio Tinto Plc
Reed Elsevier Plc
Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc
Randgold Resources Ltd
Prudential Plc
Persimmon Plc
Pearson Plc
Old Mutual Plc
Next Plc
National Grid Plc
Mondi Plc
Merlin Entertainment
Meggitt Plc
Marks & Spencer Group Plc
London Stock Exchange Group
Lloyds Banking Group Plc
Legal & General Group Plc
Land Securities Group Plc
Kingfisher Plc
Johnson Matthey Plc
Itv Plc
Intu Properties Plc
Intl Consolidated Airline-Di
Intertek Group Plc
Intercontinental Hotels Grou
Imperial Tobacco Group Plc
Hsbc Holdings Plc
Hikma Pharmaceuticals Plc
Hargreaves Lansdown Plc
Hammerson Plc
Glencore Plc
Glaxosmithkline Plc
Gkn Plc
G4s Plc
Fresnillo Plc
Experian Plc
Easyjet Plc
Dixons Carphone Plc
Direct Line Insurance Group
Diageo Plc
Crh Plc
Compass Group Plc
Coca-Cola Hbc Ag-Cdi
Centrica Plc
Carnival Plc
Capita Plc
Burberry Group Plc
Bunzl Plc
Bt Group Plc
British Land Co Plc
British American Tobacco Plc
Bp Plc
Bhp Billiton Plc
Bg Group Plc
Barratt Developments Plc
Barclays Plc
Bae Systems Plc
Babcock Intl Group Plc
Aviva Plc
Astrazeneca Plc
Associated British Foods Plc
Ashtead Group Plc
Arm Holdings Plc
Antofagasta Plc
Anglo American Plc
Aggreko Plc
Admiral Group Plc
Aberdeen Asset Mgmt Plc
3I Group Plc
#N/A Invalid Security

Lt Price
1,515.00
3,896.00
181.20
5,205.00
1,896.00
233.60
983.50
2,819.00
1,253.00
2,106.00
227.45
178.00
468.50
1,036.00
926.50
1,625.00
656.00
1,123.00
1,124.00
1,063.00
5,185.00
2,126.00
3,310.00
279.00
541.00
3,502.50
426.00
483.50
2,068.00
2,033.50
350.90
1,005.00
2,995.00
1,068.00
5,719.00
4,741.00
1,608.00
1,748.00
1,301.00
226.60
7,275.00
890.60
1,298.00
452.20
515.50
560.50
2,480.00
87.02
263.40
1,258.00
357.50
3,338.00
260.80
336.20
550.50
2,638.00
2,735.00
3,185.00
620.00
2,026.00
1,198.00
663.50
302.00
1,445.50
351.60
290.90
713.50
1,214.00
1,654.00
450.60
319.00
1,756.00
1,818.00
1,163.00
1,398.00
278.30
3,021.00
1,250.00
1,756.00
1,874.00
464.70
846.50
3,557.50
456.05
1,575.00
1,175.00
545.50
257.45
498.00
1,083.00
529.00
4,400.00
2,839.00
1,139.00
1,116.00
791.50
1,132.00
1,648.00
1,475.00
434.50
506.00
0.00

% Chg
-1.62
-1.96
-0.93
-0.48
-1.10
-0.49
-1.60
-1.26
-1.34
-1.13
-2.17
-1.33
-1.35
-1.15
-1.49
-0.73
0.38
-1.92
-0.97
-1.48
-1.14
-0.42
-1.98
-0.89
-2.70
-2.61
-1.50
-2.83
-0.82
-0.90
-1.90
-1.47
-1.16
-1.57
-1.38
0.85
-2.40
-1.13
-1.29
-2.62
-1.56
-1.65
-1.82
-1.42
-1.34
-0.62
-2.25
0.48
-1.90
-0.16
-3.53
-1.18
-1.55
-1.29
-2.57
-0.68
-1.72
-2.21
-1.95
-1.36
-3.00
-1.04
-1.31
-2.17
-0.96
-1.22
1.71
3.14
-9.77
-1.44
-1.30
-1.60
-1.03
-1.27
-1.13
-0.82
-2.30
0.32
-1.13
-1.06
-1.13
0.24
-1.75
-0.36
0.19
-0.84
-2.06
-1.28
-2.35
-0.28
-2.22
-2.83
-1.39
-3.23
-2.45
1.15
0.35
0.00
-2.19
-3.44
-1.84
0.00

Volume
4,329,207
636,249
9,791,168
767,167
1,042,448
69,868,633
2,554,981
2,357,870
1,002,000
570,607
19,439,316
20,952,710
4,669,255
5,872,499
1,863,063
2,731,240
1,683,876
896,682
2,934,966
3,885,787
2,290,892
788,197
465,356
8,506,933
4,721,932
2,576,523
3,047,965
4,851,507
6,538,148
5,833,935
12,646,141
4,211,536
4,505,401
5,236,303
1,425,543
656,214
4,899,147
1,477,768
3,252,601
10,634,367
514,771
8,884,989
1,457,044
1,345,076
1,906,347
5,179,262
1,386,996
199,371,181
13,528,122
2,642,450
9,367,420
494,031
14,085,767
2,726,571
11,522,874
294,125
1,176,280
1,989,996
29,107,131
459,650
1,108,266
2,093,901
43,435,613
13,178,887
5,670,505
3,366,855
1,833,502
4,108,652
9,275,835
2,847,907
6,083,618
4,675,760
2,010,676
5,523,271
436,005
15,516,477
702,913
3,333,434
1,379,449
807,708
20,124,694
3,686,929
3,646,469
40,564,021
8,503,206
8,134,258
5,383,734
38,611,349
10,818,567
1,369,605
11,255,671
3,300,389
1,362,139
1,507,032
4,895,330
4,166,380
7,023,995
872,821
1,028,922
7,373,852
1,793,659
-

TOKYO
Company Name
Inpex Corp
Daiwa House Industry Co Ltd
Sekisui House Ltd
Kirin Holdings Co Ltd
Japan Tobacco Inc
Seven & I Holdings Co Ltd
Toray Industries Inc
Asahi Kasei Corp
Sumitomo Chemical Co Ltd
Shin-Etsu Chemical Co Ltd
Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings
Kao Corp
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd
Astellas Pharma Inc
Eisai Co Ltd
Daiichi Sankyo Co Ltd
Fujifilm Holdings Corp
Shiseido Co Ltd
Jx Holdings Inc

Lt Price
1,463.50
2,692.00
1,900.00
1,688.00
4,302.50
5,169.00
1,024.00
1,120.50
674.00
7,291.00
751.30
5,631.00
6,220.00
1,755.50
7,945.00
2,081.50
4,601.00
2,147.00
540.00

% Chg
-1.25
0.43
0.13
0.18
0.81
0.45
-0.19
-1.97
0.90
-2.25
0.07
0.18
0.21
-3.17
-0.70
0.00
0.97
-0.35
2.12

Indices

Volume

Volume
6,367,000
2,239,000
3,642,100
3,712,100
3,545,600
1,376,600
5,021,000
6,383,000
5,467,000
2,448,700
3,887,100
1,262,200
1,836,800
13,539,100
931,700
2,386,400
1,884,900
1,778,400
20,370,400

Lt Price

Change

Dow Jones Indus. Avg

S&P 500 Index
Nasdaq Composite Index
S&P/Tsx Composite Index
Mexico Bolsa Index
Brazil Bovespa Stock Idx
Ftse 100 Index
Cac 40 Index
Dax Index
Ibex 35 Tr

18,048.78
2,097.01
4,970.78
15,060.87
44,955.69
57,207.73
6,933.80
4,974.65
11,472.41
11,322.60

-56.39
-8.32
-22.79
-91.77
-224.28
+10.63
-96.05
-53.22
-200.94
-123.20

Nikkei 225
Japan Topix
Hang Seng Index
All Ordinaries Indx
Nzx All Index
Bse Sensex 30 Index
Nse S&P Cnx Nifty Index
Straits Times Index
Karachi All Share Index
Jakarta Composite Index

19,624.84
1,602.27
27,407.18
5,673.08
1,136.60
26,877.48
8,126.95
3,442.33
23,269.92
5,205.61

+3.93
+3.94
-311.02
+45.50
-1.40
-629.82
-198.30
-28.47
+324.31
+33.13

TOKYO
Company Name
Bridgestone Corp
Asahi Glass Co Ltd
Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Meta
Sumitomo Metal Industries
Kobe Steel Ltd
Jfe Holdings Inc
Sumitomo Metal Mining Co Ltd
Sumitomo Electric Industries
Smc Corp
Komatsu Ltd
Kubota Corp
Daikin Industries Ltd
Hitachi Ltd
Toshiba Corp
Mitsubishi Electric Corp
Nidec Corp
Nec Corp
Fujitsu Ltd
Panasonic Corp
Sharp Corp
Sony Corp
Tdk Corp
Keyence Corp
Denso Corp
Fanuc Corp
Rohm Co Ltd
Kyocera Corp
Murata Manufacturing Co Ltd
Nitto Denko Corp
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
Nissan Motor Co Ltd
Toyota Motor Corp
Honda Motor Co Ltd
Suzuki Motor Corp
Nikon Corp
Hoya Corp
Canon Inc
Ricoh Co Ltd
Dai Nippon Printing Co Ltd
Nintendo Co Ltd
Itochu Corp
Marubeni Corp
Mitsui & Co Ltd
Tokyo Electron Ltd
Sumitomo Corp
Mitsubishi Corp
Aeon Co Ltd
Mitsubishi Ufj Financial Gro
Resona Holdings Inc
Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdin
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Gr
Bank Of Yokohama Ltd/The
Mizuho Financial Group Inc
Orix Corp
Daiwa Securities Group Inc
Nomura Holdings Inc
Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Holdin
Ms&Ad Insurance Group Holdin
Dai-Ichi Life Insurance
Tokio Marine Holdings Inc
T&D Holdings Inc
Mitsui Fudosan Co Ltd
Mitsubishi Estate Co Ltd
Sumitomo Realty & Developmen
East Japan Railway Co
West Japan Railway Co
Central Japan Railway Co
Ana Holdings Inc
Nippon Telegraph & Telephone
Kddi Corp
Ntt Docomo Inc
Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc
Chubu Electric Power Co Inc
Kansai Electric Power Co Inc
Tohoku Electric Power Co Inc
Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc
Tokyo Gas Co Ltd
Secom Co Ltd
Yamada Denki Co Ltd
Fast Retailing Co Ltd
Softbank Corp

Lt Price
4,749.50
793.00
318.80
0.00
221.00
2,773.00
1,828.50
1,691.00
36,505.00
2,410.00
1,882.50
7,974.00
824.70
400.70
1,578.50
8,888.00
410.00
689.10
1,688.50
211.00
3,833.00
8,910.00
64,750.00
6,078.00
25,800.00
8,240.00
6,515.00
18,090.00
8,278.00
721.00
1,258.50
8,284.00
4,171.00
4,126.50
1,704.00
4,900.00
4,264.00
1,251.50
1,255.00
20,805.00
1,556.00
710.90
1,692.00
7,228.00
1,446.00
2,683.00
1,513.00
864.70
651.40
539.70
5,400.00
778.00
235.30
1,896.00
982.00
787.90
4,055.50
3,656.00
2,043.00
4,986.50
1,809.00
3,520.00
2,670.50
4,617.00
10,915.00
6,829.00
21,425.00
332.30
8,161.00
2,856.00
2,178.00
518.00
1,696.00
1,277.50
1,601.00
1,315.00
692.50
8,240.00
506.00
48,335.00
7,349.00

% Chg
-3.30
0.51
1.11
0.00
1.38
1.71
-0.11
0.65
2.24
0.61
0.03
-0.76
0.05
-0.64
-1.00
-0.84
0.49
2.82
-0.73
11.05
2.84
0.68
1.81
1.32
1.28
-1.67
-0.37
0.17
-0.44
0.83
0.20
0.60
-0.94
7.81
-0.23
6.65
0.04
-1.88
0.64
1.02
0.94
0.45
-0.15
2.06
0.31
1.51
-0.85
-0.84
2.05
0.48
0.37
1.63
0.77
0.37
0.34
-2.04
2.06
4.25
0.47
-0.19
2.15
0.13
-2.94
0.69
-0.50
0.04
0.45
1.43
-0.11
-0.44
0.14
1.17
2.26
2.78
3.02
3.79
0.26
-5.23
-0.59
-0.24
-0.69

Volume
7,214,800
3,757,000
24,341,000
46,919,000
1,991,700
3,357,000
2,378,100
205,500
4,253,300
5,609,000
1,207,800
14,081,000
424,898,000
7,897,000
975,200
12,079,000
25,129,000
7,900,000
187,329,000
15,569,900
795,600
148,000
1,723,300
935,800
719,200
1,110,700
849,200
772,800
22,583,000
6,814,200
7,056,400
3,752,900
8,704,000
2,801,800
2,660,000
2,736,200
5,821,300
1,808,000
560,300
8,363,700
11,161,700
6,242,600
5,442,700
5,742,200
6,896,000
2,451,100
84,280,100
17,059,000
14,913,000
7,580,000
4,028,000
125,597,700
5,298,700
8,408,000
43,607,600
1,691,600
3,052,100
4,750,900
2,659,000
2,216,300
4,866,000
8,542,000
1,938,000
1,023,600
570,700
482,100
13,974,000
1,624,800
5,363,900
5,732,500
15,773,300
2,680,200
5,147,000
2,366,700
7,232,300
9,129,000
1,488,200
5,545,700
556,400
6,903,500

SENSEX
Company Name
Zee Entertainment Enterprise
Yes Bank Ltd
Wipro Ltd
Vedanta Ltd
Ultratech Cement Ltd
Tech Mahindra Ltd
Tata Steel Ltd
Tata Power Co Ltd
Tata Motors Ltd
Tata Consultancy Svcs Ltd
Sun Pharmaceutical Indus
State Bank Of India
Reliance Industries Ltd
Punjab National Bank
Power Grid Corp Of India Ltd
Oil & Natural Gas Corp Ltd
Ntpc Ltd
Nmdc Ltd
Maruti Suzuki India Ltd
Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd
Lupin Ltd
Larsen & Toubro Ltd
Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd
Itc Ltd
Infosys Ltd
Indusind Bank Ltd
Idfc Ltd
Idea Cellular Ltd
Icici Bank Ltd
Housing Development Finance
Hindustan Unilever Ltd
Hindalco Industries Ltd
Hero Motocorp Ltd
Hdfc Bank Limited
Hcl Technologies Ltd
Grasim Industries Ltd
Gail India Ltd
Dr. Reddys Laboratories
Coal India Ltd
Cipla Ltd
Cairn India Ltd
Bharti Airtel Ltd
Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd
Bharat Heavy Electricals
Bank Of Baroda
Bajaj Auto Ltd
Axis Bank Ltd
Asian Paints Ltd
Ambuja Cements Ltd
Acc Ltd

Lt Price
308.50
822.65
533.85
218.25
2,748.85
616.20
353.60
71.50
513.55
2,522.90
949.65
267.40
868.70
142.75
139.30
309.65
141.65
129.85
3,577.45
1,177.10
1,748.25
1,559.40
1,318.85
324.25
1,947.10
800.25
153.75
168.15
308.20
1,191.35
843.95
137.60
2,466.40
971.95
915.65
3,488.15
367.25
3,468.90
369.20
664.10
198.05
391.55
725.90
222.60
158.40
2,128.90
532.35
758.35
228.85
1,449.95

% Chg
-2.90
-2.57
-1.41
-5.23
-2.65
-2.39
-6.23
-3.77
-3.05
-1.29
-1.53
-3.13
-3.04
-4.26
-2.59
-2.93
-2.28
-1.59
-2.03
-1.44
-1.22
-3.46
-1.51
-0.67
-2.33
-2.37
-4.38
-1.72
-4.73
-2.83
-2.40
-3.44
3.45
-1.85
-2.79
-1.93
-1.55
3.25
-0.74
-0.30
-5.67
-1.17
-3.32
-5.16
-6.66
-2.45
-3.40
-1.72
-4.05
-3.27

Volume
1,808,205
2,782,384
1,496,982
4,731,462
346,580
2,881,633
6,758,997
4,316,655
5,233,571
1,264,381
4,531,924
14,238,460
4,179,204
12,990,841
2,660,762
3,240,118
6,024,839
3,147,723
362,983
826,510
1,053,401
2,416,523
810,741
9,832,088
2,254,637
1,485,039
6,112,284
8,076,304
13,128,770
3,947,585
2,016,483
6,279,305
2,108,795
3,216,184
1,278,119
103,554
1,014,793
1,383,346
5,153,312
2,890,727
3,244,718
6,435,134
1,191,339
3,781,505
17,033,159
303,563
6,736,159
1,271,422
1,475,848
385,416

Shares in EasyJet dived yesterday after the budget carrier said a strike by French air traffic controllers last month would
slash profits.

European stocks fall on

Greece euro exit fears
AFP
London

uropes main stock markets

slumped yesterday, as Greece
warned that it could run out of
cash in two weeks with debt repayments looming, rising fears about its
euro zone future.
Londons benchmark FTSE 100 index slumped 1.37% to 6,933.80 points,
while the CAC 40 in Paris fell 1.06% to
4,974.65 points.
The DAX 30 in Frankfurt meanwhile
slid 1.72% to 11,472.41 points compared with Mondays close.
European equities are trading
sharply lower... extending yesterdays
(Monday) losses after Greeces increasingly dire nancial situation is
once again taking centre stage, said
Markus Huber, senior analyst at brokers Peregrine & Black.
Greece was forced to tap into an emergency account to meet a debt repayment
of 750mn ($845mn) due yesterday to
the International Monetary Fund, a central bank source told AFP.

Athens thus narrowly averted a default that could have seen it crashing out of the euro, but warned that
without a bailout deal with its EU-IMF
creditors it faces another cash crunch
in two weeks.
In foreign exchange the European
single currency managed to rise against
the dollar on some relief at Athenss
paymenttrading at $1.1235 from
$1.1154 late in New York on Monday.
Greeces new radical left government scraped enough cash together
Monday to place the order for the repayment of 750mn after pledging to
honour both its international and domestic debt obligations.
Greece won some support in the
latest round of debt talks as it battles
to keep itself solvent, but eurozone nance ministers have demanded more
key reforms before they agree to release
the nal 7.2bn tranche of its EU-IMF
bailout.
While the Greeks may have
stumped up some cash to appease
their creditors in the short term, unless they can get through the current
impasse and reach agreement on aus-

HONG KONG

HONG KONG

Company Name
Aluminum Corp Of China Ltd-H
Bank Of East Asia
Bank Of China Ltd-H
Bank Of Communications Co-H
Belle International Holdings
Boc Hong Kong Holdings Ltd
Cathay Pacific Airways
Ck Hutchison Holdings Ltd
China Coal Energy Co-H
China Construction Bank-H
China Life Insurance Co-H
China Merchants Hldgs Intl
China Mobile Ltd
China Overseas Land & Invest
China Petroleum & Chemical-H
China Resources Enterprise
China Resources Land Ltd
China Resources Power Holdin
China Shenhua Energy Co-H
China Unicom Hong Kong Ltd
Citic Ltd
Clp Holdings Ltd
Cnooc Ltd
Cosco Pacific Ltd
Esprit Holdings Ltd
Fih Mobile Ltd
Hang Lung Properties Ltd
Hang Seng Bank Ltd
Henderson Land Development

terity measures, markets will remain

jittery, said Mike McCudden, head of
derivatives at stockbroker Interactive
Investor.
On the corporate front, shares in
EasyJet dived after the budget carrier
said a strike by French air traffic controllers last month would slash prots.
It comes after the British airline said
it had managed an unlikely prot during its rst half, a period when carriers
normally report losses, thanks to lower
fuel costs and a stronger pound.
But EasyJet shares tumbled 9.77% in
London afternoon deals to 1,654 pence
after it said that Aprils strike action
by French air traffic controllers would
hit pre-tax prots by 25mn ($39mn,
35mn).
Warning of turbulence ahead has
taken the shine off a sunny start after delivering prots in its seasonally weaker rst half, said Peter Ward,
dealer at London Capital Group.
Cheaper fuel costs helped the rst
half as expected, but... French strike
action as EasyJet embarks upon its key
summer travel season has ruffled investors.

Lt Price
4.73
33.65
5.11
7.62
9.86
29.80
19.42
162.00
4.78
7.30
37.40
33.60
106.20
29.50
6.94
24.45
27.15
22.55
19.20
14.16
15.08
68.05
12.74
11.72
6.87
4.02
24.70
151.40
62.20

% Chg
-1.05
-0.59
-2.11
-1.17
0.20
-1.00
0.83
-0.43
-1.04
-0.95
-2.09
-1.32
-1.39
-3.59
-2.25
0.20
0.00
-0.22
-1.13
-2.75
-1.95
-0.29
-0.93
-0.34
-1.29
-0.99
-0.40
-0.20
-0.64

Volume
22,194,460
1,663,591
277,657,763
25,888,463
15,037,033
6,712,708
4,397,998
2,377,645
20,095,249
266,926,119
30,595,375
3,667,584
12,964,632
39,660,079
116,220,701
7,360,477
6,620,830
14,485,059
37,241,437
25,301,067
2,841,123
39,198,235
4,565,179
4,346,582
5,295,892
5,293,015
880,399
3,355,133

Company Name
Hong Kong & China Gas
Hong Kong Exchanges & Clear
Hsbc Holdings Plc
Hutchison Whampoa Ltd
Ind & Comm Bk Of China-H
Li & Fung Ltd
Mtr Corp
New World Development
Petrochina Co Ltd-H
Ping An Insurance Group Co-H
Power Assets Holdings Ltd
Sino Land Co
Sun Hung Kai Properties
Swire Pacific Ltd-A
Tencent Holdings Ltd
Wharf Holdings Ltd

Lt Price
18.54
284.00
75.15
110.60
6.50
7.36
37.55
10.64
9.40
111.20
77.80
13.72
129.90
103.70
157.00
55.65

% Chg
-0.22
-1.80
-0.79
-0.18
-1.22
-0.41
-0.40
-0.19
-1.26
-0.54
0.13
-0.29
-1.22
-0.96
-1.01
-1.33

Volume
16,049,834
8,437,670
21,971,966
2,325,252
264,855,885
16,224,247
3,791,474
16,204,505
78,218,337
18,309,504
1,873,842
4,235,302
3,641,400
1,052,286
21,883,049
5,627,597

GCC INDICES
Indices
Doha Securities Market
Saudi Tadawul
Kuwait Stocks Exchange
Bahrain Stock Exchage
Oman Stock Market
Abudhabi Stock Market
Dubai Financial Market

Lt Price
12,250.21
9,627.41
6,382.62
1,389.01
6,322.59
4,594.19
4,056.32

Change
-28.96
+44.17
-6.22
-1.25
+8.75
+6.57
-15.26

Information contained herein is believed to be reliable and had been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. The
accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed. This publication is for providing information only and is not intended
as an offer or solicitation for a purchase or sale of any of the financial instruments mentioned. Gulf Times and Doha Bank
or any of their employees shall not be held accountable and will not accept any losses or liabilities for actions based on
this data.

CURRENCIES
DOLLAR

QATAR RIYAL

SAUDI RIYAL

UAE DIRHAMS

BAHRAINI
DINAR

KUWAITI
DINAR

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

15

BUSINESS
Ahold,
Delhaize
in talks to
create top
20 global
retailer
Reuters
Brussels/Amsterdam

Output from the Banyu Urip field, part of ExxonMobils Cepu block in East Java, is crucial to Indonesias long-term efforts to meet rising domestic demand as production declines at ageing fields.

ExxonMobil ramps up output

at new Indonesian oileld
Reuters
Singapore

xxonMobil has begun ramping up

production at a new Indonesian
oileld, targeting peak output
later this year of more than 200,000
bpd that will add to an already oversupplied crude market.
Output from the Banyu Urip eld,
part of ExxonMobils Cepu block in East
Java, is crucial to Indonesias long-term
efforts to meet rising domestic demand
as production declines at ageing elds

in the former member of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec).
We continue to see strong capacity results on the Banyu Urip wells
and will continue to ramp up production until we reach peak field production of more than 200,000 bpd, later
in 2015, Erwin Maryoto, vice president of public and government affairs
at ExxonMobil Indonesia, said in an
e-mail response to questions late on
Monday.
The oileld was producing 75,000
bpd at the end of last month, Exxon-

Mobil said during a conference call on

April 30.
The Banyu Urip discovery in 2001
was one of the largest in Asia in the last
15 years, but disagreements between
the US oil major and Indonesias state
oil company Pertamina slowed its development.
The eld will help Indonesia meet a
target of producing some 830,000 bpd
this year, up from output of just below
800,000 bpd in 2014. These gures are
around half the countrys peak production in the mid-1990s.
Indonesia, an Opec member until

2008, was once self-sufficient in oil

and gas but has been struggling for
years to attract investment to halt declining output. The countrys energy
minister said last week he would seek
approval for the country to rejoin the
oil cartel.
The rst shipment of Banyu Urip
crude, was lifted from the Gagak
Rimang offshore storage terminal in
April jointly by Pertamina, local government interests and the Indonesian
government, Maryoto said.
Traders said they expect rst exports
from the eld in the third quarter. The

new production will add to a global

oversupply of crude that triggered a
drop in oil prices of more than 60% between June and January.
Banyu Urip is a light to medium waxy
crude with very low sulphur content
that will yield good output of diesel,
kerosene and vacuum gas oil, which is
used to make gasoline, ExxonMobil said
on its website.
Recoverable resources at the eld are
estimated at more than 450mn barrels.
At full production, Banyu Urip will be
Indonesias largest oil project, ExxonMobil said.

upermarket groups Ahold

and Delhaize are in talks
to create a top 20 global
retailer with a major presence in
the US, a move that would help
them ght booming discounters by increasing their buying
power.
A deal would see Netherlands-based Ahold, which operates Stop&Shop and Giant
in the US, and Belgium-based,
Delhaize, the owner of the Food
Lion chain, combine to create
a retailer worth around 23bn
($25.85bn), with sales of 61.5bn
($69.3bn) from 6,600 stores.
If successful, the combined
company would rank close to the
top 10 of North American retailers, but still behind market leaders like Wal-Mart, Costco and
Kroger , according to Deloitte.
Tie-up talks between the food
retailers, which jointly make
around two-thirds of sales in the
US, failed in 2007, but analysts
expect them to succeed this time
because Delhaizes founding
family is now more receptive to
a tie-up.
There is strong argument for
the potential merger given the
contiguous geographic exposure
of both the grocers in the US as
well as in Europe, said Citi analyst Pradeep Pratti, who rates
Ahold buy. ABN Amro said
cost savings imply 35% upside
on the current combined market
capitalisation.
Ahold and Delhaize, which issued identical statements conrming media reports they were
in talks, did not release further
details of any transaction.
Ahold, with more than double
the market value of its Belgian
rival, could issue shares to fund
the deal, Pratti said.
Shares in both companies,
which soared on the weekend media reports on Monday, rose again
yesterday. Ahold was up 1.9% and
Delhaize rose 1.4%, while Belgian
rival Colruyt fell 1.5%.
Analysts said a deal could be a
precursor to splitting the merged
business into a European retailer
and a North American one.

US media CEOs are top paid even in year when stock prices lagged
Reuters
Boston

nvestors in some top US media companies have had a rough ride as their shares
have lagged the rest of the market. You just
wouldnt know it if you looked at the bank accounts of their top executives.
The CEOs of 11 major media companies
were given median compensation of $32.9mn
for 2014, much higher than any other industry
group in the Standard & Poors 500 index, according to regulatory lings posted in the rst
four months of this year and analysed by executive pay consulting rm Farient Advisors for Reuters. Food & staples retailers came in a distant
second at $24.5mn.
It is set to be the seventh successive year media industry executives come out on top - gures before 2008 are not comparable because
of the way pensions and stock options are disclosed. In many of the years, media company
stocks were outperforming the broader market as revenue and earnings surged. Last year,
though, the median total return of the 11 companies was 10.76% against 13.69% for the S&P
500 as a whole.
The weakness reects more challenging
times in much of the business, with advertising
growth stuttering and the increasing amounts
of video delivered and viewed over the Internet
upsetting a cozy business model for program
makers and the traditional pay-TV distributers,
such as cable companies.
Many companies justify big awards by stressing difficulty retaining top talent in a competitive market.
But some compensation experts say there is
another explanation a number of the major
media companies are controlled by top executives and their families, which means boards
dont have to worry much about objections from
other shareholders. CEOs at companies with
less family inuence benet anyway because
boards tend to benchmark pay against their major rivals.
Robert McCormick, chief policy officer of
proxy adviser Glass Lewis & Co, said the controlling shareholders can pay whatever they
want, and disregard views of other sharehold-

Media company CEOs stay pay leaders

Media trumps other S&P 500 industries on pay.
CEO pay: the top 5 industries in 2013 and prior year medians
$20 million
18
16
14
12
10
8

2013 median CEO pay

Media: $18.1 million

Household & personal products: $15.9 million

Diversified financials: $13.7 million

Insurance: $13.4 million

Pharma, biotech, life sciences: $13.4 million

0

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

Source: Farient Advisors

S. Culp, 12/05/2015

ers. For example, Sumner Redstone, 91, controls about 80% of the voting shares in CBS and
Viacom through a holding company.
So far this year, the CEOs of Discovery Communications Inc, CBS, Walt Disney Co and Viacom accounted for the rst, third, fourth and
fth spots among the ve highest-paid CEOs
across the S&P 500. The only non-media CEO
in that group was Steven Mollenkopf of telecom
technology company Qualcomm Inc, who was
second.
Often in the media industry, the pay is not

reecting the performance, said Michael McCauley, senior officer for the Florida State Board
of Administration, which manages pension assets for Florida state and other local authority
employees, and holds shares in all four of these
media companies.
The Florida agency earlier this year cast its
advisory votes against Disneys executive
compensation even though Disneys shares have
been climbing. McCauley cited concerns about
a feature that would award Disney CEO Robert
Iger as much as an additional $60mn if Disney

hits certain targets through 2018. Iger received

$46.5mn in the year ended September 27.
Disney spokesman David Jefferson said 92%
of Igers pay is performance-based. He also
noted the companys shares are trading near
record highs and that the company has returned
more than $51bn to stockholders through share
repurchases and dividends on Igers watch since
2005.
To be sure, not all major US media companies
gave their CEOs big pay rises even when their
shares did well. For example, Time Warner Incs
total return for shareholders was around 30% in
2014 but compensation for CEO Jeffrey Bewkes
rose 1% to $32.9mn.
Such sober raises helped to bring the increase
in median CEO compensation to 5% in 2014 for
the 11 companies. That was still higher than the
0.8% US ination rate, but lower than some industry groups in the S&P 500 such as Pharma,
Biotech and Life Sciences, where median CEO
compensation rose 46% to $19.8mn after 16
companies reported, according to Farient Vice
President Eric Hoffmann.
Known for its cable networks like Discovery
Channel and Animal Planet, Discovery is smaller than most of the companies in this survey,
and its share price fell 25% in 2014.
And yet its CEO David Zaslav, has at least
for now become the best-paid CEO in the
S&P 500 with $156mn in compensation, more
than four times what he got in 2013. It is more
than twice the $75mn Forbes estimated the
best-paid US actor Robert Downey Jr earned in
the year to June 2014.
The companys board gave CEO Zaslav a new
six-year contract at the start of 2014, citing
outstanding business success under his leadership such as a quadrupling of market capitalization to $20bn since he became CEO in 2007.
The deal gave Zaslav stock and options valued at
$145mn, tied to performance goals and meant to
align his interests with shareholders.
In an advisory vote held at the companys annual meeting last May, the executive compensation plan won support from only 59% of votes
cast. The company said its board decided not to
make changes in light of the result.
The 2014 awards were front-loaded, Discovery said in the ling, meaning Zaslav is unlikely
to make as much in future years.

Included in Zaslavs pay was a $1.5mn contribution the company made to his retirement
plan. It also included $296,930 for personal use
of company aircraft.
A Discovery official declined to comment.
Pay for Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman rose
19% to $44.3mn for the year to September 30,
despite an 8% drop in its shares in that year.
Such increases at a time when net income
and revenue were little changed was one reason
proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services recommended investors withhold support
from the ve members of Viacoms compensation committee at its annual meeting in March.
All the directors easily won election, reecting
Redstones control.
None of the media CEOs named in this story were available for comment, according to
spokespeople for their companies.
Given the media industrys hoopla, including star-studded awards and top sports events,
there are other perks for the CEOs. Top executives at Viacom receive occasional tickets to
company events, DVDs and merchandise related
to our businesses and their spouses also get to
go, the company says in a ling. The company
says this comes at little or no cost.
Viacom spokesman Jeremy Zweig said via email that executive compensation practices are
consistent with peers and align managements
interests with those of our stockholders.
At CBS, CEO Leslie Moonves saw his compensation cut as its shares dropped 13%. He
was awarded $57.2mn in 2014 against $66.9mn
in 2013. His transport benets last year totaled
$702,855, up from $533,527 in 2013.
Moonves has one of the best golden parachutes in America if he quits or loses his job.
In some circumstances, he will be owed three
times his base salary and bonus, plus payments
like the accelerated vesting of equity awards.
As of Dec 31, the proxy states, these would have
been worth a combined $225mn.
He is likely to have an option to continue as
a senior advisor for ve years, a position that
would reward him with $35mn over that period.
A CBS spokeswoman declined to comment.
In its proxy CBS said Moonves delivered key
strategic results during 2014 such as securing
deals for retransmission, station affiliation and
streaming.

16

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

BUSINESS

Indias April ination eases;

factory output growth slows
AFP
New Delhi

A woman buys vegetables at a market in Ahmedabad. Indias consumer price inflation eased to a four-month low of 4.87% in April, on slower annual increases
in food costs, government data showed yesterday.
businesses to buy land, have become stuck in
parliament.
Ination has cooled in recent months thanks

largely to plummeting global oil prices. But a recent recovery in crude prices has raised concerns
of higher ination in India, which is heavily de-

pendent on imported oil. The RBI has a target of

bringing ination consistently below 6% by January 2016, and to 4% for the 2016-17 nancial year.

Japan puts focus on growth to repair nances

Reuters
Tokyo

apans government shifted focus

yesterday to boosting economic
growth and tax revenues to repair
public nances, increasing concerns
the government will shy away from
painful and unpopular spending cuts.
The change in policy came after a
meeting of the governments top advisory panel, where private-sector members said the government should aim
to keep gross domestic product growth
above 2% in real terms and 3% in nominal terms.
The plan could come under attack

due to worries that the economic assumptions are too optimistic and that it
does not spell out how it will erase the
budget decit and meet an important
scal discipline target in 2020.
Ratings agencies have already downgraded Japan twice since late last year
due to frustration over the pace of scal
reform, and its credit rating could come
under further pressure if the latest plan
is regarded as inadequate.
Without economic revival, there
will be no scal consolidation, said
Economics Minister Akira Amari.
Weve
tried
across-the-board
spending cuts before, but in the end it
didnt work. This time we cannot fail.
Many members of the Council on

Economic and Fiscal Policy (CEFP),

the governments advisory panel, made
comments on Tuesday praising an increase in tax revenue since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office in late 2012.
Many also said Japan cannot lower its
debt burden without economic growth
and warned that spending cuts could
cause revenues to fall, which marked
a clear shift from past comments that
were more welcoming of spending cuts.
The growth targets in the plan can be
achieved, some economists say. But the
bigger concern is that by shifting the
debate to growth, spending cuts will be
left behind.
Having growth targets is ne, but
it could give the impression the gov-

ernment will try to rely too much on

growth, said Hiroshi Miyazaki, senior
economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan
Stanley Securities.
The government is scheduled to raise
the nationwide sales tax to 10% from
8% in April 2017.
Abes cabinet is not considering raising the sales tax beyond 10%, Amari
said yesterday, but many economists
have said an even higher sales tax rate is
needed to lower the debt burden.
Japans government also set a new
target of reducing its primary budget
decit to 1% of gross domestic product
in scal 2018.
The new goal is aimed at returning to
a primary budget surplus in scal 2020,

Hang Seng to sell stake in

Industrial Bank for $2.7bn
Bloomberg
Hong Kong

ang Seng Bank, the Hong Kong lender

controlled by HSBC Holdings, will
sell a second stake in Chinas Industrial Bank Co for as much as $2.7bn as it tries
to boost capital.
The company is offering almost 5% of Industrial Bank to money managers, cutting
its holding to less than 0.9%, HSBC said in a
statement yesterday.
Hang Seng Bank joins global banks including Bank of America Corp and Goldman Sachs
Group Inc, which have raised at least $14bn
divesting shares in Chinese nancial institutions since the start of 2012. The lender sold
a 5% stake in Industrial Bank in February for
about $2bn as regulators made it more expensive for banks to hold minority investments.
The proceeds from the sale will be used to
support future business expansion and the
lender will regularly review its remaining
shareholding in Industrial Bank, Hang Seng
Bank said in the statement.
Goldman Sachs Gao Hua Securities Co and
UBS Securities Ltd are managing the offering
of about 950.7mn shares.
The Industrial Bank shares are on sale for
17.68 yuan ($2.8) each, 6% less than yesterdays closing price of 18.80 yuan.
Industrial Bank has climbed 71% in the
past six months, in line with a 76% gain in the
Shanghai Composite index. HSBC fell 2.4%
to 617.30 pence as of 12:52 pm in London yesterday, paring its gain this year to about 1.8%.
Hang Seng bought 16% of Industrial Bank
in December 2003 for HK$1.62bn ($209mn).

Bloomberg
New Delhi

ndias ination rate fell to its lowest level in

four months and growth in industrial output
slowed, official data showed yesterday, increasing calls for an interest rate cut next month.
Consumer ination eased to 4.87% in April from
a year earlier, the slowest pace since December, on
the back of lower food costs, and down from 5.25%
in March, the data showed.
The latest gure was close to the 4.9% gure
predicted by economists surveyed by Bloomberg
News.
Production at Indias factories, mines and utilities, meanwhile, grew just 2.1% in March from a
year ago, lower than the 3% forecast.
Output growth was also sharply lower than the
nine-month high of 5% the month before. With ination staying below the central banks target range
of 6% and with slower-than-expected growth in
industrial output, analysts are predicting another
interest rate cut by Indias central bank.
The Reserve Bank of India has room to reduce
rates by 25 basis points before or on June 2, said
Rupa Rege Nitsure, chief economist for L&T Financial Services, in Mumbai.
Although the RBI has cut rates twice this year,
the bank held rates steady at its last meeting, saying banks were failing to pass on lower borrowing
cuts to customers.
Siddharth Roy, economic advisor to Indias giant Tata Group, called on the RBI to again lower
rates in a bid to help businesses and boost growth
in Asias third-largest economy.
Investment-led growth has stalled. Banks are
grappling with bad loans and corporate balance
sheets are weak, Roy told AFP.
Small rms are not getting money at lower
costs. So consumer demand-led growth is the only
option. The RBI has to cut.
After 12 months in office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has introduced a string of reforms to help
businesses and attract foreign investment to try to
revive the economy.
But his governments efforts to pass other
key reforms, including one making it easier for

Lawmakers
defer vote
on national
tax in Modi
setback

Hang Seng Bank is offering almost 5% of Industrial Bank stake to money managers, cutting its
holding to less than 0.9%, HSBC said in a statement yesterday.
In January 2013, it reclassied its shares in the
bank as a nancial investment, reaping a onetime HK$9.5bn accounting gain.
Hang Seng Bank said it will review its
remaining stake, taking into account its

planned future business growth, regulatory

requirements, market conditions and delivery
of sustainable long-term value to shareholders, HSBC said. The London-based lender
owns about 62% of Hang Seng Bank.

and tackling Japans massive debt burden, which is the worst of any nation
at more than twice the size of its $5tn
economy.
Previously, the government estimated that the primary budget decit would be 2.1% of GDP in scal
2018, which is worth around 11.6tn
($96.6bn).
These estimates assume around 3%
nominal economic growth and that the
government does not take additional
steps to cut spending. Over the past
ve years, Japans GDP grew an average 0.7% in nominal terms, so aiming
for 3% nominal growth may be seen as
unrealistic at a time when economic
growth has struggled to speed up.

ndian lawmakers delayed voting on a proposal to create

a national sales tax, setting
back Prime Minister Narendra
Modis plans to boost growth in
Asias third-largest economy.
A committee will now scrutinise the bill and submit its report
in the rst week of the next parliamentary session that typically
starts in July, Finance Minister
Arun Jaitley told lawmakers. The
delay makes it tougher for Modi
to meet his April 2016 deadline for
implementing the goods and services tax, or GST, one of Indias biggest economic reforms in decades.
The honeymoon is over,
said Sandeep Shastri, pro vice
chancellor at Jain University in
the southern city of Bengaluru
and an author on Indian politics.
Things wont be getting easier
for the government. Modi has
found it difficult to pass legislation through the oppositioncontrolled upper house despite
winning control of the lower
house in an election a year ago.
Indias benchmark stock index,
among the top gainers globally
last year, has been the worlds
worst performer over the past
month, losing more than 9% in
that time.
The S&P BSE Sensex index fell
2% as of 2:30 pm in Mumbai, the
most in Asia. The rupee weakened 0.5% and the yield on the
10-year sovereign bond rose to
7.94% from 7.89%.
The GST aims to ease the
transfer of goods across the
country and reduce opportunities
for bribery. The National Institute of Public Finance and Policy,
a private research group, initially
estimated it would add about 2
percentage points to Indias gross
domestic product before it was
diluted to win political support.
The bill before parliament
would amend Indias constitution, a move that would need to
be approved by more than half
of the countrys 29 states before
it takes effect. Details on the rate
and composition of the tax are
being negotiated separately. Once
in force, the GST would streamline tax administration and ease
compliance, leading to higher
revenues for both the federal government and states, according to
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
Investors need to take note of
the mega tax reform while making
any investment in India, said Nihal Kothari, a tax expert and executive director at Khaitan & Co,
a Mumbai-based law rm. The
cost of doing business in India
will change signicantly.

Mumbais Shanghai dreams broken

as rule flip-flop hurts builders
Bloomberg
Mumbai
Mumbais long-cherished dream of becoming
another Shanghai risks remaining just that as
regulatory flip-flops frustrate plans for modern
skyscrapers in place of the citys many rickety-old
structures.
Two months after announcing a proposal to
ease the citys 24-year-old Floor Space Index
rules to accommodate taller buildings, the
local administration scrapped the plan, leaving
developers in a limbo. DB Realty said it may take
at least two more years for a new set of rules to be
prepared, while Mumbai-based Godrej Properties
said some of its projects face delays.
It is very unfortunate to see these delays, said
Pirojsha Godrej, chief executive officer of Godrej
Properties.
Due to the uncertainty in the development plan,
the authorities stopped giving any approvals,
and we had to hold back on some launches. The
island-city, which has little space available for
development, is counting on growing vertically
to help increase supply and ease prices that
have kept housing beyond the reach of most
of its 19mn residents. Delays to those efforts
risk undermining Prime Minister Narendra
Modis Housing for All programme that seeks
to eliminate urban slums across India. The
Municipal Corp of Greater Mumbai had proposed
in February to increase the Floor Space Index,
or FSI, to range between 2 and 8, compared
with an earlier cap of 1.33. The FSI determines
the maximum floor area allowed in a building
relative to the land. A higher number means more
apartments can be built on a parcel of land.
The new draft rules could take a few months
to be ready, NM Gattu, chief financial officer
at DB Realty, said in a telephone interview.
Redevelopment projects could come to a
standstill until clarity emerges. The so-called new

Development Plan came in for criticism from nongovernment organisations and political parties
over the increase in FSI, the opening up of nodevelopment zones for residential development,
and factual mistakes in existing land use.
The plan needs to address the lack of affordable
housing and elaborate on how the citys
infrastructure can keep pace with its population
growth, Ashutosh Limaye, the head of research at
Jones Lang LaSalle India, said in an April 22 note.
Mumbai needs $60bn of investment in public
transportation over the next 20 years and the
current plan falls short, according to estimates
by McKinsey & Co In a 2010 study, the consultant
said India must spend $2.2tn by 2030 on urban
transportation, housing and office space to boost
infrastructure ranked below that of Guatemala and
Namibia by the World Economic Forum.
It is a good thing that the government has
asked to redraw the proposed Development Plan
that wasnt connected to ground realities, said
Vyomesh M Shah, managing director of Hubtown,
a Mumbai-based developer. This may slow down
a minuscule part of property developments for
some time, but it makes sense to wait for a better
development plan that addresses all needs of the
city. Mumbai is the worlds second-most densely
populated megacity after Dhaka and Modis plan
includes building 20mn homes across the country
by 2022. There may be a silver lining to the delay
as it may help clear unsold inventory to some
extent, Limaye at Jones Lang LaSalle said. The
new rules should address the lack of affordable
housing, inadequate infrastructure and the need to
increase open spaces, he said.
Home prices in the city declined 2% to Rs12,835
($201) a square foot last quarter from the earlier
three-month period, according to data from Liases
Foras. Unsold homes totalled 192.3mn square feet,
which will take 46 months to be sold at the current
pace of sales, according to Liases Foras. A healthy
market maintains between eight and 12 months of
inventory.

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

17

BUSINESS
NEW FORAY

PARTNERSHIP DEAL

OFFLOADING STAKE

ACQUISITION PROBE

BILATERAL RELATIONS

Alibaba rolls out 3-hour

healthcare goods delivery

Apple in talks with banks

over Apple Pay in China

Chinese tech founders said

to join $1.2bn Fosun sale

S Korea prosecutors raid

KNOC, BofA-Merrill offices

China to lend Belarus $7bn

for new business projects

Chinese online shopping giant Alibaba Group

Holding is rolling out a three-hour delivery
service for healthcare goods, mimicking rival
JD.com. The service will launch in five Chinese
cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, and
expand to 19 by the end of 2015, Alibaba said
yesterday. Products beyond healthcare will
be added in the future. It works through a
partnership with five pharmacy chains that sell
goods via stores on Alibabas Tmall.com website.
The service, called Ji Su Da or fast delivery,
links shoppers who buy eligible products to the
nearest of more than 1,500 drugstores.
Cainiao, an Alibaba affiliate operated in
partnership with various logistics firms, collects
and delivers the order.

Apple Inc is in talks with Chinese banks and

Alibaba Group Holding on launching the
firms mobile payments system in China, chief
executive Tim Cook told the official Xinhua news
agency in an interview published yesterday. We
very much want to get Apple Pay in China, Cook
told Xinhua during a visit to the country. Im
very bullish on Apple Pay in China.
Apple could not immediately be reached to
comment on the report. Apple Pay, which allows
consumers using Apple devices to buy goods
by holding the device up to readers installed
by store merchants, was launched in the US
last September and quickly began to handle
more transactions than all other contact less
payment methods combined, Apple said.

Founders of Chinas two biggest Internet

companies are taking part in Fosun
Internationals $1.2bn share sale, people with
knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg
yesterday. Funds backed by Alibaba Group
Holding founder Jack Ma and Tencent Holdings
chairman Ma Huateng are buying shares in the
private placement, the people said, asking not
to be identified as the information is private.
Fosuns parent is selling 465mn shares at HK$20
each, the company said in a statement to the
Hong Kong stock exchange. Fosun, backed by
Chinese billionaire Guo Guangchang, is selling
stock to take advantage of a rally that has driven
Hong Kongs benchmark index to a seven-year
high.

South Korean prosecutors raided Korea National

Oil Corp (KNOC) and the local office of Bank
of America Merrill Lynch yesterday in a probe
over the state oil firms 2009 acquisition of a
Canadian refiner, two people familiar with the
matter said. South Korean authorities have been
investigating loss-making overseas energy
investments by state-run companies during the
government of the countrys previous president,
Lee Myung-bak. The raids were conducted by
a total of about 30 prosecutors and included
a visit to the home of former KNOC CEO Kang
Young-won, KNOC spokesman Han Kwang-yeol
told Reuters. At KNOCs headquarters in Ulsan,
prosecutors took documents and computer
disks related to the investment, Han said.

China has agreed to lend Belarus about $7bn

with credit lines set to open this month,
Belarusian Economy Minister Uladzimir Zinouski
said on Monday. About $3bn will be in so-called
soft financing with a relatively low interest rate
and about $4bn will be a commercial credit
line to Belarusian banks for financing business
projects, the minister said in comments carried
by Belarusian state media. Zinouski also said
China would grant 800mn yuan (about $130mn)
to Belarus over the next three years to be used
primarily for humanitarian projects, such as
building housing. He did not provide a timeframe
for paying back the loans, according to the
reports. Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in
Belarus on Sunday for a three-day visit.

Australia unveils budget to

stimulate ailing economy
AFP
Sydney

Reuters
Singapore

he Australian government yesterday unveiled a budget it said

would support small businesses
and promote jobs growth as it sought
to stimulate a agging economy hit by
slumping commodity prices.
The budget shifted away from a focus
on reining in a huge decit after harsh
cuts to welfare, education and health
sparked a voter backlash last year and
triggered a challenge to Prime Minister
Tony Abbotts leadership.
Instead, the government will roll out
a Aus$5.5bn (US$4.4bn) small business
package, mostly tax cuts, to stimulate
investment in the sector, as well as a
Aus$4.4bn boost to funding for familyfocused policies such as childcare.
In this budget, whilst we are continuing with a credible path of scal
consolidation of around half a per cent
of GDP per year, we are mindful that we
continue to deal with some headwinds,
but we are coming through the most
difficult days, Treasurer Joe Hockey
said.
The Australian economy is going
to grow faster. The decit is coming
down.
The budget papers showed that
forecast tax receipts had been cut by
Aus$52bn over the four years to 201718, driven by an almost 50% fall in the
price of iron ore Australias biggest
export and weak wages growth.
But the treasurer said despite the
hit to revenue, the budget decit was
expected to come in at Aus$35.1bn, or
2.1% of GDP, in 2015-16, below analysts
expectations of more than Aus$40bn.
The government also continued to
forecast a return to surplus by 2019-20.
Australia has struggled to rebalance
away from a dependence on mining as
an unprecedented resources investment boom helped the economy avoid
a recession for more than two decades.
Unemployment has edged up over
the past year, peaking at an 11-year high
of 6.3% in January. Consumer and business condence were soft on economic
concerns.
The central bank has sought to stimulate growth by cutting interest rates to
a new record low of 2% at its last meet-

Exxon Mobil
ramps up
output at
new oileld
in Indonesia

Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey speaks at a press conference in Parliament House in Canberra yesterday. Hockey insisted he will deliver a responsible and fair budget
as the government battles to juggle slumping revenue and a huge deficit while avoiding a voter backlash.
ing. The government forecast that the
jobless rate could rise to 6.5% in 201516 before declining to 6.25% the following year.
Economic growth was projected to
remain below-trend at 2.75% in the
coming nancial year before lifting
to around trend growth of 3.25% in
2016-17. Despite the multibillion dollar
spending measures, Capital Economics
Paul Dales said the stimulatory policies
were insufficient to boost growth.
The treasurer has decided to turn his
back on the economy and not provide a
helping hand, he said in a note, add-

ing that when last years and this years

budgets were combined, expenditure
was reduced rather than increased.
The soft economic data, as well as
voters displeasure with last years cutbacks, saw the government take a cautious approach.
Defence was another big winner,
with the government committing an
additional Aus$9.9bn over four years
compared to last year.
More than Aus$400mn would be allocated over four years for Australias
involvement in combating the Islamic State group in Iraq with an extra

Aus$450mn to ght home-grown terrorism and bolster intelligence agencies. The government sank $100mn
into Great Barrier Reef projects ahead of
a Unesco decision in June that could see
the site listed as in danger.
Some of the spending will be supported by an Aus$980.2mn cut to
the foreign aid budget and more than
$500mn saved following a successful
military-led operation to stop asylumseekers reaching Australias shores by
boats. At the same time, Australia is to
go after large multinational rms shifting prots offshore to minimise taxes,

although no gures for revenue increases were forecast.

The budget also outlined proposals to
force companies selling digital products
to impose a goods and services tax, with
projected revenues of Aus$350mn over
four years.
Labour opposition treasury spokesman Chris Bowen said the budget was
about saving Abbotts job rather than
growing the economy.
The fundamental unfairness of last
years budget disaster remains, he said.
This is a short-sighted attempt to save
Tony Abbotts job.

xxonMobil has begun

ramping up production at
a new Indonesian oileld,
targeting peak output later this
year of more than 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) that will add
to an already oversupplied crude
market.
Output from the Banyu Urip
eld, part of ExxonMobils Cepu
block in East Java, is crucial to
Indonesias long-term efforts to
meet rising domestic demand
as production declines at ageing
elds in the former member of
the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec).
We continue to see strong
capacity results on the Banyu
Urip wells and will continue to
ramp up production until we
reach peak eld production of
more than 200,000 barrels per
day, later in 2015, Erwin Maryoto, vice president of public and
government affairs at ExxonMobil Indonesia, said in an e-mail
response to questions late on
Monday.
The oileld was producing
75,000 bpd at the end of last
month, ExxonMobil said during
a conference call on April 30.
The Banyu Urip discovery in
2001 was one of the largest in
Asia in the last 15 years, but disagreements between the US oil
major and Indonesias state oil
company Pertamina slowed its
development.
The eld will help Indonesia
meet a target of producing some
830,000 bpd this year, up from
output of just below 800,000
bpd in 2014. These gures are
around half the countrys peak
production in the mid-1990s.
Indonesia, an Opec member
until 2008, was once self-sufficient in oil and gas but has been
struggling for years to attract
investment to halt declining
output. The countrys energy
minister said last week he would
seek approval for the country to
rejoin the oil cartel.

Once a little fishing village Shenzhen set to surpass Hong Kong

Bloomberg
Shenzhen
Whatever happened to Shenzhen?
Remember the place that spawned
Chinas meteoric rise in manufacturing?
The little fishing village opposite
Hong Kong on the Pearl River delta
that became a sprawl of factories and
pollution and 10mn migrants from all
over the nation.
Well, the city has reinvented itself once
more with an economy set to overtake
Hong Kong this year.
The sheds full of workers banging out
the worlds toys and clothes are mostly
gone. The board-stuffing electronics
lines filled with migrant workers are
headed the same way. In their place
are bankers, tech entrepreneurs,
researchers and hipsters.
Shenzhen reported a 7.8% rise in gross
domestic product in the first quarter,
topping the biggest Chinese cities.
Gone is the model of cheap labour
and foreign investment pioneered by
Deng Xiaoping, its now driven by a
force current Premier Li Keqiang wants
replicated across China: innovation.
Its a true paradise if you want to
create your own business, said
James Wang, a 39-year-old Internet
entrepreneur based in Kexing Science
Park, where the canteen can serve
12,000 diners. Shenzhen is no longer
a fishing village or a sweatshop. There
are thousands of firms like mine in this
park. Deng made Shenzhen a test

ground for a market-based economy

in 1980, and it succeeded beyond all
expectations. In the Nanshan district,
the technology heartland of the city,
the per-capita GDP last year was
308,700 yuan ($49,730), higher than
Japan, Germany and Hong Kong.
The city is home to many of Chinas
most successful companies, including
telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co,
web portal Tencent Holdings and Ping
An Insurance (Group) Co.
In China, while places like the rust-belt
in the northeast or the coal-mine area
of Shanxi are falling into economic
stagnation, Shenzhen is offering new
hope, said Shen Jianguang, chief Asia
economist at Mizuho Securities Asia
in Hong Kong. Shenzhens growth is
relying on innovation, technology and
the efficient use of capital. The switch
to innovation and finance helped
almost double the size of the citys
economy to 1.6tn yuan in the five years
to 2014. At that rate it would this year
eclipse Hong Kong, whose economy is
growing more slowly.
Behind that recent growth are
companies like SZ DJI Technology
Co, maker of the top-selling Phantom
drones, and OnePlus, whose
smartphones are taking on Samsung
Electronics and Apple Inc under cofounder Carl Pei, who is in his mid-20s.
You want to do something or get
something, you can get it here, said
Hellen Tse, director of venture capitalist
Oneworld Investment Co, while sipping
tea in her 30th-floor office, surrounded

by books and statues of Buddha.

Outside her window, construction
crews are finishing the 600-meter Ping
An Financial Center, one of about a
dozen skyscrapers over 200 metres.
The breakneck speed of Shenzhens
rise has come with the usual corruption
and pollution that permeated Chinas
boom years. Jiang Zunyu, a former
district party chief, is suspected of
taking more than 250mn yuan in
bribes in an official probe that caused
the countrys first developer bond
default by Shenzhens Kaisa Group
Holdings. While the air quality is better
than other major Chinese cities, the
rivers are still tainted by the citys
industries, despite billions of dollars
spent trying to clean up the provinces
waterways. Two of the most polluted
rivers in Guangdong in the first quarter
flowed through Shenzhen, according
to the local environmental protection
agency.
Even so, Shenzhen is doing better
than most places in the country, which
had the slowest expansion last year
since 1990, as the central government
grapples to stamp out corruption and
inefficiency in dominant state-run
companies. Profits at Chinas stateowned enterprises fell by 8% in the first
quarter from the same period a year
earlier.
State companies value seniority and
formality, but the Shenzhen gene
is different, said Shorn He, 36, who
moved to the city four years ago after
working for a decade in a Beijing-based

state company. He rented a small

factory near the airport to process
after-market smart-phone screens.
Shenzhen has everything I need
the clients, the materials, the trained
workers, and the knowledge. Its a
combination that made drone-maker
DJI the darling of investors. In less than
a decade, it has gone from start-up to
a valuation estimated in billions of US
dollars.
Its the first time for a Chinese
company to create a new global
market, said spokesman Michael
Perry, from Texas, who estimates the
company sells more than half the
worlds private drones. When Perry
joined a year and a half ago, the
company occupied three floors. Now
it has 11.
Downtown, on a scrolling ticker board
in front of the dark-grey Shenzhen
Stock Exchange, an abundance of the
lucky colour red shows Chinas equities
market is having another bullish day.
The bourses benchmark index has
more than doubled in 12 months.
In the new financial free-trade zone
of Qianhai to the west of the city,
companies have special dispensation
to borrow yuan from Hong Kong at
lower rates than mainland banks offer.
Each working day, 100 new companies
register in the zone, according to
an official report. One was WeBank,
Chinas first private-funded Internetbased bank, where Premier Li hit
the button to make the first loan in
January.

For the citys traditional manufacturers,

its a question of upgrade or move
inland, where land is cheaper. In the
suburb of Longhua, the citys largest
employer, Foxconn Technology
Group, churns out gadgets for Apple,
Microsoft and Sony. Once the sole
manufacturing base for iPhones and
iPads, its Shenzhen workforce has
dropped to 200,000 from 350,000
five years ago, as the company
spread assembly to other cities like
Zhengzhou and Chengdu.
Many of the positions that remain are
higher skilled. Teams develop robots
and train employees from other plants
to operate them. Factory workers
retrain as software engineers or
animators.
Though labour prices are higher, you
need to consider that labour quality is
also higher, said spokesman Bruce Liu,
sitting under a sun umbrella at one of
Foxconns campus cafes.
Feng Wanzhi, general manager of
poster-maker TCK Printing, has had to
relocate her factory further and further
out and is now at Buji Lianchuang
Science Park, more than 10 subway
stops from the new Ping An building.
She complains that her margins have
been squeezed by competition, falling
prices and rising wages.
Perhaps the biggest change is a new
sense of belonging.
Young women in Mini Coopers zip
past families in Audi Quattro SUVs, and
property projects like Shuangxi Garden
offer luxury condos at 200,000 yuan

per square metre ($3,000 per square

foot).
Shenzhen has no concept of outsiders
because everyone is from somewhere
else, said Song Lifeng, vice president
of Shenzhen Yuanhengjia Education
Group, which runs private schools and
more than a dozen kindergartens in
the city.
For the first time, Shenzhen enrolled
more primary school children than
Beijing in 2014. It has the youngest
population of Chinas top-tier cities,
with an average age of 34 last year.
I remember when there were just
fields and mountains, said Feng
Zhifeng, 40, an interior designer and
restaurateur who moved to the area in
1995 as a student.
On the seafront at Shekou, where
refugees were smuggled to Hong Kong
on fishing boats in the 1970s, Fengs
restaurant serves duck with truffles
and Australian wines.
One thing that hasnt changed in
Shenzhen is a feeling that this city is
special in China. That here, things are
done differently.
The biggest advantage of Shenzhen
used to be policies you could get
things done in Shenzhen that were
impossible in other parts of China, said
Ye Qing, chairwoman of the Shenzhen
Institute of Building Research Co,
which designs eco-friendly buildings.
That advantage has gone completely.
The new advantage for Shenzhen is
its people, the young and ambitious
people who love the city.

18

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

BUSINESS
Banks face crunch time in bid to soften FSB too-big-to-fail fix
Bloomberg
London
Banks are running out of time as
they try to convince regulators
that rules designed to smooth the
wind-down of failed global lenders could actually diminish their
ability to manage a cross-border
crisis.
The Financial Stability Boards
proposal on internal total loss-absorbing capacity, or TLAC, requires
the worlds 30 most systemically
important banks to ensure that
their key subsidiaries can be stabilised and shut down in an orderly

way, without a taxpayer bailout.

Banks say the requirement
for allocating liabilities that can
be written down in a crisis to
subsidiaries is too high and would
hamper their ability to tackle
problems within a corporate
group. The FSB says the rule will
boost trust between national
regulators and avert more onerous local measures. A final version of TLAC, of which the internal
allocation rule is a part, has been
promised for the Group of 20
summit in November.
The measure is a powerful way
to incentivize cross-border cooperation if its done right, Credit

Suisse Group AGs Wilson Ervin

said in an interview. But if its not
done right, it could compartmentalize a bank and make it more
brittle.
If national regulators impose
their own loss-absorbency requirements on subsidiaries, then
capital may be stuck in the wrong
countries and cant go where its
needed, said Ervin, Credit Suisses
vice chairman of the Group Executive Office. A structure like that
could have made 2008 worse; you
couldve lost more banks.
The FSBs TLAC proposal,
made last year, would require the
biggest banks to issue ordinary

shares, subordinated debt and

other loss-absorbing securities
equivalent to as much as a fifth
of their assets weighted for risk.
They are currently about $700bn
short of that goal, according to
Credit Suisse.
The internal TLAC requirement
sets minimum loss-absorbency
rules for material overseas subsidiaries, to be fixed at between 75 to
90% of what the TLAC requirement
would have been if the unit were a
standalone bank. The standard way
for a subsidiary to meet the rule
would be selling subordinated debt
or other eligible instruments to the
parent bank.

Bank of England Governor Mark

Carney, who heads the FSB, has
ruled out sweeping changes to
TLAC, saying in March that the
final rules will be very similar to
last years draft. The regulations
would take effect at the earliest
in 2019.
In their response to the FSB, the
Institute of International Finance
and the Global Financial Markets
Association said an internal TLAC
requirement of 65% to 75% would
be a better range within which to
fix a requirement, with a presumption toward 65%.
A higher level, certainly at the
90% level, would seriously constrict

Verizon to buy AOL in

push for digital content
Offer of $50/share a premium
of 17.4%; deal includes
$300mn in AOL debt; AOL
CEO Tim Armstrong to
continue to lead company
Reuters
New York

erizon Communications
Inc said it would buy
AOL Inc in a $4.4bn deal
that gives the biggest US wireless carrier access to AOLs mobile video platform and content
including the Huffington Post
news website.
The offer of $50 per share
represents a premium of 17.4%
to AOLs Monday close of
$42.59.
AOL shares traded as high as
$50.70 before the opening bell
yesterday. Verizon shares were
down about 1% at $49.32.
The offer highlights the need
of telecom companies to diversify as their wireless businesses
mature and more consumers
watch videos and access other
content on cellphones.
AOL chief executive Tim
Armstrong, who will continue to
lead the company after the sale,
said mobile will represent 80%
of media consumption in the
coming years.
...If we are going to lead, we
need to lead in mobile, he said in
a memo to AOL employees.
Verizon brings with it over
100mn mobile consumers, content deals with the likes of the
NFL and a meaningful strategy in mobile video, Armstrong
said in the memo.
AOL bought Time Warner for

A image combination shows the company logos of Verizon Communications and Internet provider AOL.
Verizon yesterday said it is buying AOL for about $4.4bn in a deal that will give the US telecoms giant
increased digital content and advertising platform space.
more than $160bn in 2000 in
what turned out to be one of the
most disastrous corporate merg-

ers in history. AOL was spun off

from Time Warner in 2009 at a
value of about $3.4bn.

Armstrong has since spearheaded AOLs transformation

into one of the most successful

advertising technology companies. Activist-investor Starboard Value LP had urged Yahoo

Inc to consider a merger with
AOL, whose businesses include
the TechCrunch blog.
Starboard could not immediately be reached for comment.
The primary attraction of
AOL was the technology it has
developed for selling ads and
delivering online and mobile
video, Wells Fargo Securities
analyst Jennifer Fritzsche wrote
in a note.
Verizon has been investing in
emerging technology to tap into
the market shift to digital content and advertising.
AT&T Inc, the second biggest
US telecom company, is diversifying by buying the No 1 US satellite TV provider, DirecTV, for
$48.5bn.
AOL reported a 7.2% rise in
rst-quarter revenue to $625mn,
boosted by demand for its realtime bidding platform that helps
advertisers place video and display ads on other digital properties.
The deal, which includes
about $300mn of AOL debt, will
take the form of a tender offer
followed by a merger, with AOL
becoming a subsidiary.
Verizon said it expects to fund
the transaction from cash on
hand and debt. LionTree Advisors, Weil Gotshal & Manges and
Guggenheim Partners advised
Verizon.
AOLs advisers were Allen &
Co LLC and Wachtell Lipton
Rosen & Katz. Up to Mondays
close, AOLs shares had gained
12% and Verizons 3.4% in the
past 12 months.

the flexibility required to move

resources to avoid difficulties
that may arise in one market or
another, the groups said.
Regulators say the internal
standard is needed to enhance
trust among themselves and that
without it local authorities might
take tougher measures.
Having internal TLAC in place is
a comfort for regulators and at least
makes clear the rules of engagement in an emergency, Richard
Reid, a research fellow for finance
and regulation at the University of
Dundee in Scotland, said by e- mail.
I very much doubt if there is much
of an appetite amongst regulators

to unpick the proposals. The FSBs

next full meeting takes place in
September, at which it will seek
to push forward work on the final
TLAC standard.
Internal TLAC essentially
serves as collateral from the home
authority to the host authority, in
exchange for accepting the leadership of the home authority in a
resolution situation, Emil Petrov,
head of capital solutions, EMEA at
Nomura Holdings Inc, said in an
interview.
The host authority needs to be
happy with the amount of internal
TLAC thats prepositioned, he said.
It is a political compromise.

Swedens deation
reprise heaps
pressure on Riksbank
Reuters
Stockholm

wedish prices fell in April,

dashing expectations that
deationary risks were
receding and putting pressure
on the central bank to ease already record-loose monetary
policy further.
Betting on forecasts that ination had bottomed out, the
central bank kept rates on hold
at 0.25% in late April, defying
market expectations of another
rate cut, while expanding its
bond-buying programme.
But gures published yesterday showed that while global
deation fears are receding,
Swedens headline prices fell
again, in part due to low fuel
prices, after two months of
rises.
The next meeting on Monday will be very exciting, we
have a hard time believing that
they will not act, Roger Josefsson, chief economist for Sweden at Danske Markets said.
The Riksbanks dilemma
is that Swedens economy is
growing at one of the strongest rates in Europe, while it
must also manage concerns
about a housing bubble and
high household debt all arguments for higher interest
rates.
A further complication is
that a spike in global and Swedish bond yields in the last few
weeks could diminish the impact of ultra-low official interest rates.
Consumer prices were down
0.2% from the same month last
year in April while underlying
ination, which strips out interest rate effects, was below
expectations at 0.7%. Analysts

and the central bank expected

headline prices to increase by
0.2% year-on-year.
The crown weakened around
8 ore versus the euro to 9.33
crowns at 1020 GMT versus
9.25 crowns just before the gures were published.
Mondays Riksbank meeting
is not scheduled as a rate-setting event but the last rate cut
came after a similar meeting.

Figures published
yesterday shows that
while global deflation
fears are receding,
Swedens headline prices
fell again, in part due to
low fuel prices
While central bankers expressed worries about the
impact of their record-loose
policy in minutes of the April
meeting, also published yesterday, they emphasised readiness
to ease further if ination failed
to pick up.
Great vigilance is needed
with regard to the downside
risks for ination, Riksbank
Governor Stefan Ingves said in
the minutes.
Deputy governor Per Jansson highlighted the possibility
of cutting rates further between
scheduled monetary policy
meetings in the minutes and said
in a speech yesterday that the
central bank may have to act fast.
After the speech, Jansson
told reporters yesterdays ination gures were not good
and the situation needed to be
reassessed.
Policy makers are worried
that after years when ination
has undershot the Riksbanks
2% target, employers will ignore it in wage negotiations,
perpetuating the cycle.

At the gas pump, US biofuel lobby scores a point against big oil
Reuters
New York

n a long-running battle between oil reners and the US

farm lobby over the future of
ethanol fuel, biofuel producers may
have just made a small, but important dent in big oils formidable defences.
Over the past few months, privately held retailers Kum & Go and
Sheetz have become the rst signicant chains to announce plans
to start selling E15, a gasoline with
15% of ethanol, 50% more than the
typical US blend.
By the end of 2016, those two retailers plan to add E15 at pumps at
125 stations. That will more than
double the number of US outlets
offering cheaper fuel with a higher
ethanol content than the standard E10 blend that contains 10% of
ethanol.
If retailers continued to add stations at a similar pace over the next
ve years, there would be some
1,300 stations offering E15.
That would still be just a fraction
of the 150,000 stations nationwide,
but the roll-out of the fuel by two
signicant operators with outlets in
17 states challenges a central pillar
of oil industrys opposition to ethanols wider use.
Effectively forced to surrender a
tenth of the US market by government policies promoting biofuels,
oil rms have argued the US market
for ethanol has reached a saturation
point.
Yet retailers expansion plans
suggest room for greater E15 acceptance.

Until now, the conversation

around E15 was: why in the world
would you have that? said John
Eichberger, Executive Director of
the National Association of Convenience Stores Fuels Institute.
Now, its that there may be a reason, an economic incentive.
For retailers that blend their own
fuel, the incentives are clear.
Bumper crops have sent corn
prices tumbling and shaved a quarter off ethanols cost over the past
year. At the same time blenders,
such as Kum & Go and Sheetz get
government credits for mixing in
ethanol, which they can sell to oil
companies that need them to meet
federal biofuels targets.
Ultimately at stake is about $15bn
oil rms would lose to ethanol
producers in a motor-fuel market
worth $370bn, based on futures
and retail prices compiled by the US
government, if E15 replaced E10 as
the new standard.
Based on last years E10 consumption, Aakash Doshi, vice
president at Citigroup in New
York, estimates countrywide
adoption of E15 would boost ethanol-for-fuel consumption by
40% to some 20bn gallons.
That increase would propel consumption in the US beyond the level
set by the 2007 biofuels policy of
some 15bn gallons annually through
2022.
Itll be years before E15 really
takes off, but it is becoming a larger
market, Doshi said.
Even incremental increases in E15
use would be a boon for corn producers as ethanol inventories stay
at multi-year highs.
Eichberger, whose group repre-

sents gas retailers and fuel blenders, warns E15 has yet to win broader acceptance among retailers and
drivers.
Long painted by oil rms as an
engine-killer, E15 has been cleared
by the US authorities as safe for
most newer cars and several manufacturers including Audi, Ford Motor Co and General Motors have approved its use in newer models.
However, the majority of automobiles on the road are still not
approved to run on E15 and drivers
who use it could risk losing their
warranty, said a spokesman for the
American Automobile Association.
Gas station owners fears that
they might be held liable for engine
problems have largely limited E15s
availability to some 100 mom-andpop stations, primarily in the US
Corn Belt states that support the
ethanol industry.
Selling for 5-10 cents a gallon
less than an already cheap E10, the
higher blend may still appeal to
cost-conscious drivers and an important test of its popularity will be
whether it can spread beyond the
Midwest, the US farm and biofuel
heartland.
Kum & Go started its roll out in
April in Iowa, the largest ethanolproducing state and the center of
political support for the renewable
fuels, and will add it at pumps in six
more states.
Sheetz plans to start offering the
fuel by the end of this month and
will have it at 60 stations throughout North Carolina by spring 2016,
a company spokeswoman said.
We are getting closer to a point
of critical mass, said Kum & Go
vice president of fuels Jim Pirolli.

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

19

BUSINESS
Fed said to have emergency plan to intervene if US defaulted on debt
Reuters
Washington
The Federal Reserve drew up extensive
plans for handling a US debt default that
included scheduling deferred payments
and lending cash to investors, according
to a lawmaker who cited Fed documents.
America courted disaster in 2011 and
2013 when political fights over the national debt nearly left the federal government
unable to pay its bills.
Analysts and officials warned that
missing payments could lead to economic
calamity, and details have only slowly
emerged over how financial officials
braced for the unthinkable.
In a June 2014 letter to Treasury
Secretary Jack Lew seen by Reuters on
Monday, Republican Representative Jeb
Hensarling of Texas said his staff had
reviewed the Feds unclassified plans
for how to handle a default. The plans

included scheduling new payment dates

for defaulted securities, Hensarling
said in the letter which was also signed
by Republican Representative Patrick
McHenry of North Carolina.
The New York Fed, which carries out
the will of the Fed in financial markets,
would also conduct business as usual
with regard to accepting Treasury securities as collateral, according to the letter.
The New York Fed declined to comment.
The plans continue to be relevant to
investors because debt ceiling debates
have become a perennial danger from
Washington.
The Treasury is currently scraping up
against an $18.1tn borrowing cap, and the
Congressional Budget Office estimates
the government could struggle to pay
bills by October or November if Congress
and the White House do not agree to lift
the cap.
Debt defaults in other countries have

triggered financial crises. In an effort to

try to maintain calm on Wall Street, the US
central bank could lend investors money
after taking Treasuries as collateral under
so-called repo transactions, Hensarling
said. The Fed also proposed compensatory payments for investors who were
paid late.
In the letter, Hensarling said the documents also showed that the Treasury had
the ability to pick which obligations it can
pay, which would allow it to favour bond
investors over its many other obligations.
The Treasury has maintained that picking which bills to pay would be experimental and dangerous.
Earlier on Monday, Hensarling subpoenaed documents from the Treasury
and New York Fed regarding debt ceiling
contingency plans. The Treasury had no
comment on Hensarlings letter, but an official at the department said it was willing
to work with the committee to get it the
information it needs.

Dudley applauds rate hike consensus

A top Federal Reserve official said yesterday he does
not know when interest rates will rise, but he tempered
that uncertainty by applauding an apparent consensus
between markets and the US central bank that it will
happen later this year.
William Dudley, president of the New York Fed and a close
ally of Fed Chair Janet Yellen, mostly repeated recent
comments that the policy tightening will depend on the
US economy. It will likely affect global capital flows and
foreign exchange markets, he said, but should not be too
surprising to investors.
To be as direct as possible: I dont know when this will
occur, Dudley, a dovish policymaker, said in prepared
remarks to a monetary conference in Zurich.
He later applauded improved communications by the US
central bank, saying: Market participants now seem to
share policymakers individual forecasts that lift-off is
likely to begin sometime later this year.
Those average forecasts, from March, suggest the Fed
will raise rates twice before year-end. While economists

generally predict modest hikes in September and again in

December, futures traders do not expect the Fed to tighten
until December or later. Dudley, who has a permanent
vote on policy, had been flagging a rate hike by mid-year
but, in recent months, he backed off that prediction as the
economy slowed through winter. Last month he said he
was hopeful the Fed would move this year.
After 6-1/2 years of near-zero interest rates, the Feds
liftoff is expected to ripple through financial markets
globally. Dudley said it will have implications for global
capital flows, foreign exchange valuation and financial
asset prices even if it is mostly anticipated when it
occurs. While he sounded optimistic the Fed can pull off
a relatively smooth rate hike, he warned that the more than
$10tn in asset purchases by central banks globally have
dramatically shrunk the size of bond risk premia globally.
This affects markets in a different way compared to
changes in short-term interest rates, and we should be
humble regarding what we claim to understand about this
distinction, he added.

Greece tapped its emergency IMF

reserves to pay IMF debt: sources
Reuters
Athens

reece emptied an emergency

IMF holding account to repay
750mn ($839mn) due to the
international lender, a Greek central
bank official said, avoiding default but
underscoring the dire state of the countrys nances.
With Athens close to running out of
cash and a deal with its international
creditors still elusive, there had been
doubts about whether the leftist-led
government would pay the IMF or opt
to save cash to pay salaries and pensions later this month.
Member countries of the International Monetary Fund are required to
keep a holding account which may be
used for emergencies but the money
can only be used with the lenders approval, the central bank official said.
A government official told Reuters
that Athens used about 650mn from
the holding account and 100mn from
its cash reserves to make the payment
on Monday.
The Greek central bank official conrmed the account had been tapped after government officials met the central
bank chief last week to gure out how to
make the payment.
The negative is that the account was
emptied but in order to avert a default
it was necessary to weigh the options,
the Bank of Greece official said.
Made a day early, the payment calmed
immediate fears of a Greek default, but
Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said
on Monday the liquidity situation was
terribly urgent and a deal to release
further funds was needed in the next
couple of weeks.
The IMF yesterday conrmed Athens had made its payment to the fund
but declined to give details about how
it was made.
Regarding aspects of the payment
that some of you have asked conrmation about, we dont publish information on the details of members
transactions with the Fund, an IMF
spokeswoman said in response to questions about how Greece made the payment.
Central bank chief Yannis Stournaras met Deputy Prime Minister Yannis

People sit at the central Athens square. Greece admitted yesterday it was scraping the bottom of the barrel for cash as another huge debt repayment loomed.
Dragasakis and Deputy Foreign Minister Euclid Tsakalotos, a top negotiator
in talks with lenders, on two occasions
last week on how to meet the May IMF
repayment, the central bank official
said.
The central bank governor put forth
the idea to tap the 650mn in the holding account, which needed IMF approval, the official said, declining to

be named. Governor Stournaras made

the arrangement with the IMF and on
Saturday we got their okay and the account was unlocked.
Greeces IMF holding account
which is held at the Bank of Greece
has been in existence for 30 years for
emergency needs, the official said.
A second Greek official said yesterday
that the reserves the government tapped

Startup NerdWallet raises $64mn

in first round of funding
Reuters
San Francisco
NerdWallet said it had raised $64mn in its first
round of funding, far more cash than it needs
to run the personal finance startup, in part
to underscore its growth and show it has the
potential to one day be valued at over $1bn.
The cash, an outsized sum for initial funding, will
serve as a signalling device as much as it will
help NerdWallet expand, said founder and chief
executive officer Tim Chen.
I really think that winning in this market is about
attracting the best talent out there, said Chen
about his personal-finance advice company.
The more talent, the better. The funding round
values NerdWallet in the mid-hundred millions,
a person familiar with the situation said. Once a
company hits a $1bn valuation, it becomes what
Silicon Valley calls a unicorn.
Since the beginning of 2014, just eight US startups
have raised Series A funding rounds of $50mn or
more, according to CB Insights, a consultancy.
While the San Francisco-based company has
already attracted top engineers and product
managers from companies such as LinkedIn Corp
and Twitter Inc, having such a large first check
from a top-tier venture capital firm, IVP, will help it
recruit more in Silicon Valleys tough job market,

he said. A recruiter says the strategy makes

sense.
Its like a seal of approval, said Karen Myers, cofounder of the Talent Farm.
When helping recruit for Lytro, the industrial
camera company, the ability to tout the
companys $50mn initial funding round helped
considerably. It was a big deal, Myers said.
With a few exceptions, companies generally raise
sums in the single-digit millions for their first
serious funding round, known as a Series A.
Those exceptions include companies with
established revenue-generating businesses, such
as developer platform GitHub, which raised a
$100mn Series A in 2012.
NerdWallet, whose competitors include
companies such as Bankrate Inc and Credit
Karma, makes money from fees earned by
matching consumers with appropriate financial
products, such as credit cards. It is profitable,
Chen said.
The company helps consumers understand how
to pick the best life insurance, say, or financial
decisions they need to make around a major life
event such as buying a house or having a baby.
NerdWallet also has a $36mn revolving loan
from Silicon Valley Bank. Venture firm IVP led
NerdWallets funding round, with participation
from RRE Ventures, iGlobe Partners and others.
NerdWallet was founded in 2009.

must be replenished in the IMF account

in several weeks. Following legislative
changes, Greece has meanwhile gathered 600mn of local government and
other public entity money to help it deal
with the cash crunch, the governments
spokesman said yesterday.
Eurozone nance ministers said on
Monday that more work was needed to
reach a cash-for-reform deal between

Athens and the IMF, the European

Commission and the European Central
Bank.
Created in 1945, the IMF is accountable to the 188 countries that make
up its near-global membership. Each
member is assigned a quota, based on
its relative size in the world economy,
which determines its contribution to
the funds nancial resources.

UK sells $779mn
more shares in
Lloyds Group
Reuters
London
Britain has sold another
500mn ($779mn) worth of
shares in Lloyds Banking Group
and has now raised more than
10bn through the sale of more
than half its stake in the bailedout bank.
The Treasury said yesterday
that it had reduced its stake by
a further 1 percentage point to
19.93%, days after a surprise
election triumph for the Conservatives sent the banks shares
soaring to multi-year highs.
Lloyds was rescued during the
2007-9 financial crisis at a cost
of 20bn to taxpayers, leaving
Britain with a 41% stake.
UK Financial Investments
(UKFI), which manages the
shareholding, began selling
Lloyds shares to institutional
investors such as pension funds
and insurers in September 2013.
Finance Minister George Osborne
has said the government plans to
sell at least another 9bn worth
of the shares over the next year,
including a sale at a discount to
private retail investors.
These sales have only been
made possible by our long term
economic plan, and we are
determined to build on this success, and to continue to return
Lloyds to the private sector
and reduce our national debt,
Osborne said yesterday.
The latest sale was through a
pre-arranged trading plan,
which UKFI appointed US investment bank Morgan Stanley
to undertake. The governments
stake has been cut from 24.9%
through the plan, which was
launched last December, raising
over 2.5bn for taxpayers.
Britains remaining stake in
Lloyds is valued at about 12bn,
based on current share prices.
Osborne is expected to press
ahead with a plan to sell Lloyds
shares to private investors later
this year and the government
could sell around 4bn worth
of stock through a retail offer,
sources said. The government
has said the retail offer would be
sold at a 5% discount to market
value. Investors would be able to
buy between 250 and 10,000
worth of Lloyds shares.

UK industrial output rises most in six months

Bloomberg
London

K industrial production rose the most since

September as oil and gas
extraction surged and manufacturing increased for a second
month.
Output gained 0.5% in March
from the previous month, the
Office for National Statistics
said in London yesterday. Economists had forecast no change,
based on a Bloomberg survey.
In the rst quarter, industrial
output was revised to a 0.1%
increase from a 0.1% decline,
though the ONS said the impact
on GDP would be minimal.
The industrial sector may
have turned the corner, no doubt
helped by the lower oil price, said
Vicky Redwood, an economist
at Capital Economics in London. We remain hopeful that we
should see at least a little rebalancing of the economy this year.
The data come a day before
Bank of England Governor Mark
Carney will publish new fore-

Molten iron is reflected in an employees safety visor as he

removes slag from the furnace at AGA Rangemaster foundry in
Coalbrookdale, UK. The UKs industrial output gained 0.5% in
March from the previous month, the Office for National Statistics
said in London yesterday.
casts for growth and ination.
While UK economic growth
slowed to 0.3% in the rst quarter, Markit Economics said its
industry surveys point to a pickup since then, led by services.
The pound erased its decline
against the dollar after the data
and was up 0.5% at $1.5656
as of 10:15am London time. It

weakened against the euro, to

71.87 pence. Its risen about 12%
against the single currency in
the past year.
Manufacturing rose 0.4% in
March from February, the ONS
said, exceeding the 0.3% estimate in a Bloomberg survey.
Oil and gas extraction surged
4.9%, the most since February

2014. Within manufacturing,

the monthly increase was led by
pharmaceuticals and a broad category that includes furniture and
the repair of ships and aircraft.
From a year earlier, industrial
output rose 0.7% and manufacturing production increased
1.1%, both more than economists had forecast.
Carneys press conference in
London will be his rst public
comments since the surprise
May 7 general election result
that gave Conservative Prime
Minister David Cameron a majority in Parliament. Hell discuss the outlook for monetary
policy and the risks to growth
as activity in Europe, Britains
biggest trading partner, shows
signs of recovery.
On the export front, manufacturers will hopefully benet
from improving growth in the
eurozone, said Howard Archer,
an economist at IHS Global Insight. However, the strength
of the pound against the euro
threatens to continue to dilute
the upside for UK manufacturing exports.

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

BUSINESS

GULF TIMES

UNECE, IATA enhance co-operation for trade facilitation implementation

he International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) signed a
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
to strengthen their support to developing countries seeking to implement
the World Trade Organisation (WTO)
Trade Facilitation Agreement.
The agreement promises enormous potential for countries to reduce
transport costs by up to 10% through
more efficient facilitation, making

them more competitive in the global

economy.
Specically for air cargo, countries
implementing the agreement will need
to build capacity to facilitate automated
and smart border solutions and secure
supply chain processes.
Through the MoU, IATA and UNECE
will help developing countries implement the relevant measures to realise
the costs savings.
Tony Tyler, IATA director general
and CEO said, The air cargo industry

ships around 35% of global trade by

value. For up to 90% of the transport
time the goods may actually be on the
ground waiting to be processed. Aligning regulation and procedures with
global standards and best practices has
the potential to deliver major efficiency
gains. Thats the aim of the WTO Trade
Facilitation Agreement, which presents
a great opportunity for our industry to
reduce these delays and costs, particularly in developing countries. Together
with UNECE, we will work with devel-

oping countries to simplify their procedures and enhance their facilities. This
is a win-win scenario for everyone
the industry, economies and local communities.
UNECE, through our UN Centre
for Trade Facilitation and Electronic
Business (UN/CEFACT), has worked
with the business community for
many years to develop trade facilitation recommendations and standards
that reduce the cost of doing business.
An excellent example of the applica-

tion of these instruments is the IATA

e-Freight Programme, which reects
UNECE standards. This MoU with
IATA will strengthen the implementation of our standards in developing and
least developed countries, and as a consequence, help create growth and new
jobs, said Christian Friis Bach, UNECE
executive secretary.
Specic areas of collaboration include joint promotion of the use of
international recommendations and
standards and best practices in Trade

Doha Bank launches new

nancing options for
SMEs under QDBs
Al Dhameen programme
D

oha Bank has launched

new nancing options for
small and medium enterprises (SMEs) under Qatar Development Banks Al Dhameen
programme, a move that ought
to enhance liquidity in the private sector and provide increased credit ows to the SME
sector.
Doha Bank has offered a complete range of SME products and
services including working capital nancing, trade nance services, consultancy services and
electronic banking services under QDBs Al Dhameen, through
which SMEs and startups in Qatar can receive capital nancing
up to QR15mn.
Any Qatari small and medium enterprise or joint venture
whose annual turnover does not
exceed QR30mn can apply for
nance from Doha Bank under
the Al Dhameen programme. For
existing companies, Al Dhameen
guarantees of up to 75% of the
unsecured outstanding principal
are issued, whereas for startups,
companies less than three years
old that are 51% Qatari-owned
are eligible for guarantees of up
to 85% of the loan amount.
The Al Dhameen program
marks a milestone in the development of the SME sector in Qatar, providing medium and long-

term nancing options that have

enabled businesses across an
array of industries to succeed
and ourish. Doha Banks active
participation under this initiative will further catalyse growth
in the SME sector, which forms
a fundamental part of Qatars
economy, Dr R Seetharaman,
CEO of Doha Bank, said.
Highlighting that last year,
Doha Bank managed to garner about 20% share of the Al
Dhameen guarantees issued by
QDB, he said. We remain determined to continue meeting the
nancing requirements of SMEs
in order to facilitate their journey towards the next stage of
growth and contribute to Qatars
diversication agenda.
All these projects will not
only generate local employment
but will also enable consumers
to meet their consumption demands from these locally produced products. Such projects
help the country to reduce its reliance on Oil & Natural Gas based
industries and to bring the knowhow to the countrys doorsteps.
Demonstrating its commitment to the success of SMEs,
Doha Bank recently nanced
eight new projects under the Al
Dhameen program, with total
outlay on the projects exceeding
QR70mn.

Facilitation and Electronic Business;

joint outreach activities to support
countries in their implementation of
such recommendation and standards
- subject to available resources; and
consultation and cooperation in these
activities with other international institutions, including the World Customs Organisation, World Trade Organisation, the International Monetary
Fund, the World Bank, UNCTAD, ITC,
OECD and the International Chamber
of Commerce.

GWC to raise QR458mn

from secondary markets
to support Bu Sulba
logistics hub construction
Gulf Warehousing Company
(GWC), which has won the right
to construct Bu Sulba logistics
hub for small and medium
enterprises, is planning to raise
as much as QR458mn from the
secondary markets as part of
strengthening its capital base to
support the expansion plans.
The company has received
approval from the Ministry of
Economy and Commerce to
increase the capital by 25%
or additional 11.89mn shares
at QR38.5 a piece (including a
premium of QR28.5), the company said in communiqu to the
Qatar Stock Exchange.
Having received the ministerial approval, the proposal will
now have to be ratified at an
extraordinary general assembly
of shareholders. The company is
planning to hold such a meeting
at the earliest, it is understood.
However, the proposed rights
issue size has been reduced
by QR18mn as the company
had in December last year
announced the proposed is-

suance of 11.98mn additional

shares at QR40 a piece, totalling
QR476mn.
GWC is constructing the BuSulba logistics hub, which will
be self-contained facility built
on 517,376 sqm with planned
built-up area exceeding 40%
of the total area, at estimated
cost of QR685mn. Approximately 194 warehousing units
of different specs optimised
for SMEs, container yard, staff
accommodation, a mosque,
first-aid unit and commercial
and other amenities
The first phase of 305,200 sqm
Logistics Village Qatar (LVQ),
which is located 20km away
from all the key transportation
hubs and businesses and industrial centres, matured into a fully
functional and revenue generating asset of the company during
2012.
In 2012, the construction of
LVQ Phase 2, comprising of
60,560sqm of additional warehousing space, was completed
and made operational.

Gulf Warehousing Company has received approval from the

Ministry of Economy and Commerce to increase the capital
by 25%, the company said in communiqu to the Qatar Stock
Exchange.
Seetharaman and a top QDB official shaking hands after announcing the new SME funding initiatives.

Milaha subsidiary takes part in 11th

Trans Middle East 2015 conference
Milaha Maritime & Logistics, a Milaha
subsidiary focusing on integrated
transport and supply chain solutions in
Qatar and the GCC, participated in the
11th Trans Middle East 2015 Exhibition
and Conference, which was held in
Doha recently.
Senior Milaha executives made
presentations on emerging global
maritime trade trends and their impact
on the Middle East region in addition to
modernisation initiatives at Doha Port.
Visitors to Milahas exhibition booth
were also provided with a unique
opportunity to operate a crane
simulator.
On Milahas participation in the event,
Khalifa Ali al-Hetmi, president and CEO
said,
The regional maritime sector has
been rapidly developing for the past
few years, which is why events like
this are important as they give us the
chance to sit down with our peers and
have a discussion about what kind

Deleuran: Changing patterns.

of impact all these changes will have
on us in terms of new opportunities
and challenges. The conference also
allowed us to showcase the incredible
work that Milaha Maritime & Logistics
has been doing in its various sectors,
including port management and
container shipping.
Michel Deleuran, Milahas executive
vice-president (Maritime) delivered
a key presentation at the conference

in which he talked about the everchanging global maritime industry, and

emphasised on the need for companies
to be agile in reaction to changing
trade patterns.
He highlighted the macroeconomic
figures and various developments that
continued to support the growth story
of the Middle East.
He also called for more investments
in the shipping industry, which was a
key driver of global economic growth,
despite the challenging environment.
Milaha vice-president (Port Services)
Peter Hope discussed multiple
initiatives that Milaha has undertaken
to improve efficiency and capacity
at Doha Port as part of its ongoing
partnership with Qatar Ports
Management Company (Mwani).
Hope highlighted the importance
of cohesive efforts to upgrade
technical and physical infrastructure
while driving key behavioral changes
through training and planning.

Devoteam managing partner Osama Ghoul (left) moderates the panel discussion on Digital Transformation: A Long
Journey that Needs to Start Now.

ICT expert says Digital revolution

will push Mideast economic growth

Milaha Maritime and Logistics booth at 11th Trans Middle East 2015.

conomic growth and improved

living standards could be
achieved if economies in the
Middle East region would embrace
the digital revolution, an expert in
information communications technology (ICT) said during the Beyond
Connectivity 2015 summit hosted
by Samena Telecommunications
Council in Doha.
Digital technology is the single
most important factor in enhancing
productivity. Countries that adopted
the digital agenda managed on average to enhance productivity by more
than 40% over the last ve years,
which meant that their citizens are
enjoying better living standards than
other countries that did not adopt
the digital agenda.
It is clear, therefore, that one of

the means to bridge the gap between

regional economies and the economies of the developed countries is to
embrace the digital revolution, said
Osama Ghoul, managing partner of
ICT service provider, Devoteam.
Ghoul, who moderated the discussion on the topic Digital Transformation: A Long Journey that Needs
to Start Now, said while the Middle
East region has been witnessing several initiatives towards adopting the
digital agenda, these remain largely
in the envisioning stage.
Growing the economy is a primary objective of the countries in the
Middle East. A major approach to do
that is by increasing the productivity
of their citizens, organisations, and
establishments.
Increasing productivity has a ma-

jor impact on citizens standard of

living, especially if we consider that a
small increase of 4% in productivity
would double living standards every
17 years, said Ghoul.
He added, We believe that the
proof of the pudding will be in the
execution and the associated change
management culture that will embrace the use of the digital agenda for
the benet of people and communities.
The Beyond Connectivity 2015
summit was held under the theme,
Meeting the Digital Agenda: Maximizing Telcos Revenues through
Harmonised Excellence and gathered senior decision-makers from
the regions leading telecom operators, technology providers, and government and industry bodies.

FOOTBALL | Page 3

NBA | Page 7

Juve
boosted
by Pogba
return

Warriors beat
Grizzlies,
Hawks hold
off Wizards

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Rajab 24, 1436 AH

FORMULA ONE

GULF TIMES

Hamilton to sign
three-year 130mn
deal with Mercedes

SPORT

Page 6

CRICKET

Strauss says trust issue

reason for Pietersen exile
He is not banned from the side but I can give him no guarantees for the future
AFP
London

As England captain, Andrew Strauss (left), now the new England director of cricket, infamously had his own issues of trust with Kevin Pietersen in 2012 when
the star batsman sent provocative texts critical of his skipper to opposition South Africa players.

ngland director of cricket Andrew Strauss said yesterday that

Kevin Pietersen was not part of
our plans for the summer, saying there was a massive trust issue
between the England and Wales Cricket
Board and the controversial batsman.
Strauss stopped short of saying there
was no way back into the international
set-up for fellow former England captain Pietersen, adding: He is not banned
from the side but I can give him no guarantees for the future.
Pietersen, 34, Englands leading alltime run-scorer across all formats, was
sent into international exile last year following the teams 5-0 Ashes thrashing
in Australia. But the South Africa-born
batsman was given hope of an international recall when new ECB chairman
Colin Graves said there could be a way
back if he scored enough runs in county
cricket. Yet just hours after he made his
maiden rst-class triple century for Surrey on Monday, Pietersen was told there
was no prospect of him being selected by
England in the immediate futureand
in practice that may mean the end of Pietersens England career.
As England captain, Strauss infamously had his own issues of trust
with Pietersen in 2012 when the star
batsman sent provocative texts critical
of his skipper to opposition South Africa
players.
Strauss, in his rst press conference
since being appointed to the director role
after the ECB sacked former managing
director Paul Downton, told Sky Sports:
No one is doubting his (Pietersens)
ability. His record stacks up and he
should be proud of that, added Strauss,
with Pietersens tally of 23 Test hundreds
just shy of the England record of 26 held
by current captain Alastair Cook.
But over months and years the trust
has eroded between him and the ECB and
there is a massive trust issue between
Kevin and me, said Strauss who, while
working as a television pundit last year,
embarrassingly let slip exactly what he

thought of Pietersen with an obscenity

picked up on a stray broadcast mic.
I wish that wasnt the case. Im not
apportioning blameits just a fact. That
is the realityand because of that, weve
decided it is not in the best short-term
interests of the side for him to be in it,
explained Strauss, with Pietersen having published an autobiography last year
which was severely critical of many England teammates and former coach Andy
Flower. I went to see him last night to let
him know hes not part of our plans for
the summer.
That meant Pietersen had been ruled
out of the upcoming two-Test series
against New Zealand, which starts next
week, or the ensuing Ashes campaign as
well as Englands home limited overs internationals in 2015.
My job is to look to the future of English cricket and develop a side capable of
winning tournaments over the next four
years. He (Pietersen) is not barred from
playing for England but he is not part of
our plans for this summer.
Strauss subsequently told Sky he had
offered Pietersen a role as an advisor
on one-day cricket but that he didnt
feel he was in a position to accept.
Meanwhile Strauss conrmed his support for former opening partner Cook
to continue as Test captain, with rising
star Joe Root to become his vice-captain,
while Eoin Morgan would continue as
one-day skipper.
He added that former Australia fast
bowler Jason Gillespie was one of the
candidates to replace the sacked Peter
Moores as England coach. Strauss insisted his would not be a tracksuit role
but said he had still to decide if he would
be a selector. As Strauss was speaking,
Pietersen, 326 not out overnight, took
his score to an unbeaten 355 before Surrey lost their last wicket in a total of 557
against Leicestershire in a Second Division County Championship match at
The Oval.
After Mondays play, and before his
meeting with Strauss, Pietersen said: I
was told to score runs, I think Im scoring
runs...Im dedicated to getting back my
England place. I want my England place,
and I think I deserve my England place.

FOCUS

England a laughing stock over Pietersen, says Smith

AFP
London

ormer South Africa captain Graeme

Smith was among several pundits who
slammed Andrew Strausss decision
to maintain Kevin Pietersens international exile, saying it had made English cricket
a laughing stock.
Strauss, one of several England captains
whose time as skipper came to an end after a
series against a Proteas side led by Smith, has
recently been installed as Englands director of
cricket. Yesterday, Strauss said Pietersen would
remain in the international wilderness, with
the South Africa-born batsman exiled from
the England squad ever since the team returned
from a 5-0 Ashes thrashing in Australia last
year.
Strauss, whose nal months as England captain were clouded by provocative texts sent
by Pietersen to Proteas players, said a massive
trust issue lay at the heart of his decision.
Pietersen, 34, had been given hope of a Test
return when new England and Wales Cricket
Board (ECB) chairman Colin Graves said he

ECB Director of Cricket Andrew Strauss (left) and Chief Executive Tom Harrison at Lord's. (Reuters)

would be considered if he made enough runs in

county cricket.
But just hours after he scored a maiden triple century for Surrey on Monday, Strauss met
with Pietersen to tell him to forget about playing for England this season.
Yet yesterday also saw Strauss announce
that hed offered Pietersen a role as an advisor to the one-day side which the star batsman
had turned down. I see the head boy is making English cricket the laughing stock again!
#StraussLogic, tweeted Smith.
Former England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff, who played in the same 2005 Ashes-winning side as Pietersen, said players became
more mature as they got older.
I have no agenda in this, Flintoff tweeted. I
thought If @KP24 (Pietersen) was to play again
he should ght his way back in which he has, as
for personality he can be high maintenance then
again so was I, but you do grow up and change .
I wish I had the chance to play in my mid
30s reckon Id have been better!, added Flintoff, whose international career was cut short
by injury.
Meanwhile Strauss defended his decision to
bar Pietersen from the England side this sea-

sonand potentially end his international career completelywhile at the same time asking
him to be an advisor, saying it would be madness not to utilise his knowledge.
Kevin has got brilliant experience in oneday cricket, hes played Twenty20 competitions all around the world, hes got some very
strong views on one-day cricket and I think it
would be madness not to try to get that information out of his head and help us form a strategy for English cricket going forwards.
The way in which the ECB have dealt with
the Pietersen issue for more than a yeara
shambles according to former England captain Nasser Hussainhas led many to conclude
the ECB hierarchy cannot handle awkward or
maverick players.
However, the 38-year-old Strauss, often
portrayed as an establishment gure, said: I
dont believe he (Pietersen) is unmanageable,
but I do believe youve got to have trust with
each other. We dont have that.
He added: I think theres a real bad assumption that teams have got to be like the Waltons
and get on brilliantly together. Thats not the
case, never has been. You dont have to get on
brilliantly with people, at all.

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

CRICKET
SPOTLIGHT

Kevin Pietersen and

England: checkmate
It feels like Pietersens unbeaten 355 was both a last appeal, and, more than likely, a
farewell to the first-class game. He always had a sense of occasion
By Andy Bull
The Guardian

Kevin Pietersen.

n 2001, after nine years spent hiding from public view, the great Bobby
Fischer began to play internet chess. At
least we think he did. No one can be certain, because the player many reckoned to be
Fischer was using a pseudonym. The British
grandmaster Nigel Short said he was 99%
sure that he had played, and lost to, Fischer.
My unseen opponent began with some
highly irregular, if not totally absurd, opening moves, Short said. From this deliberately unpromising position emerged moves
of extraordinary power. Fischer was a man
blessed with such unique, imaginative and
powerful talent that his opponents knew him
by his style of play alone.
In the morning he is on edge, almost uneasy. Kumar Sangakkara edges a catch to
second slip, soon after so does Steve Davies. Twenty minutes in, two batsmen gone,
and Surrey four down now. Leicestershire
havent won a championship match in the
last two years. Easy pickings, some say. But
under their new coach, Andrew MacDonald,
and captain Mark Cosgrove, they have a hard
edge. Their lines are tight, their chatter loud,
their elding sharp.
Ask me then, at the start of play, and Ill
give you the same answer Ive been using for
a year. Should they pick KP? No, not now.
It was the wrong decision to sack him, when,
if theyd really wanted, they could simply have dropped him from the side as they
would have done any other player. But now
he was too old, his form too poor, and had
offended too many people, for it to be worth
bringing him back.
For an hour, he relies on two of his least
celebrated shots, the leave, in which he
twists his torso till hes front on to the bowler, and that distinctive block, in which he
lurches towards the ball and pats it down, as
though it were a rambunctious puppy leaping up at his legs.
He aps at a sharp short ball from the
young all-rounder Ben Raine. The ball
catches something, perhaps his arm, perhaps
his bat. Leicestershire are sure they have got
him. They dont. Two balls later, hes up on
his toes, and is hit on his pads playing outside
the line. Another appeal. Another not out.
Soon after, his 50 is up.
It had been one year, nine months, and 11
days since Pietersens last rst-class hundred. Since then, his only three-gure score
in any format was the 170 he took off the students at The Parks at the start of this season.
In the 29 innings he played last year there
were only two fties, one for Delhi Daredevils, another for Melbourne Stars.
He said it was all down to a dodgy knee
which needed regular cortisone injections.
Once it was treated, his form started to come
back. After Christmas, there were a couple
more fties, both in the Big Bash. Even so,
playing T20 was no way to make a case for
winning Test selection. Not if he was serious.
Half an hour before lunch, he begins to
tick. He is calmer now. One drive whistles past cover, another disappears straight
back past the bowler. There is that signature
back-foot drive of his, both feet together,
elbow high, body bending like a reed in the
wind. The spinner is on before lunch. Step,
step, swat. Four. His feet seem sure of themselves, his movements are uid. Step, step,
swat. Six. Thats 95.
All of a sudden he gets nervous. A tough
caught-and-bowled goes down. There is
an appeal for a catch down the leg side, another for a catch down the off. He grins at

the bowler. A late cut, and as he comes back

for the third run he punches the air. Theres
a leap, too. But he doesnt bother taking his
helmet off as he waves his bat to the crowd.
You get the impression he still has business
in the middle.
It was Colin Graves who changed the
game. He blew a great breath of fresh air
through English cricket when he said that
the rst thing Pietersen has to do is play
county cricket for somebody, if he does
that and then comes out and scores a lot
of runs they cant ignore him I would have
thought. But that is up to him. Its the oldest, fairest, law in cricket: make your case
with runs and wickets.
So Pietersen persuaded, Sunrisers Hyderabad to release him from the group stages
of the IPL so he could play for Surrey. But he
only made 19 and 53* against Glamorgan, 32
and 8* against Essex. Sunrisers said all along
they would, most likely, want him back for
the nal stages of the IPL. This match against
Leicestershire was his last, best chance to do
what Graves had asked of him.
When Tom Curran gets out, caught off an
ambitious cut, he is on 154. A cover drive,
played as he walks towards the ball, takes him
to 158. The same score he made here a decade
ago, in the fth Test Ashes Test of 2005.
A fortnight or so ago, I interviewed Peter
Siddle, who has played more Tests against
Pietersen than any other bowler. Got him
out more times than anyone else too. People keep saying that Id be happy to have him
back, Siddle says. But at the end of the day
he averages 50 in Test cricket, so Im pretty
happy if he stays out of the side.
We cant know for sure, but it seems likely
that Pietersen knew what was coming on
Monday evening, that the ECB was going
to tell him there was no way back after all.
His friend and cheerleader Piers Morgan revealed as much at the end of the day, when
he tweeted that Andrew Strauss and Tom
Harrison asked to see KP tonight. I believe to
tell him he wouldnt play for England again.
Strauss says it is only in the short-term,
that he hasnt banned him from playing in
the future. But it feels like this innings was
both a last appeal, and, more than likely, a
farewell to the rst-class game. He always
had a sense of occasion.
Through the afternoon he had bided his
time. He trusted in both Gary Wilson and
Gareth Batty, shared the strike, showed the
bowlers an almost incongruous level of respect, and took few risks. When Curran was
out he began to play as only he can, striding
forward into straight drives that disappeared
over long-off, dropping into squats to play
reverse sweeps.
He was back, now, in a realm all of his
own, one unapproached by any other modern English batsman. Leicestershires captain, Mark Cosgrove, set eight men back on
the boundary, ve of them on the off side. It
didnt make a whit of difference.
First, 250. Then, 254, his highest rstclass score, then, the 300, the rst of his career; 70 in a 100-run partnership with Chris
Tremlett, an undefeated 95 in another with
Matthew Dunn. Bowling became an entirely
futile pursuit, like trying to swim up Niagara
Falls. The shots highly irregular, if not totally absurd, and yet had extraordinary
power. It could only be Pietersen.
They say the issue was never with his talent. Theyve likely forgotten how extraordinary, how immense, his talent is. It has, after
all, been a long while since weve seen him
play like this. And if it comes down to attitude, you could rightly ask whether it says
more about theirs or his that he is not in the
team.

Pietersen right to feel let

down by England: Stewart
London: The former England
captain Alec Stewart has said
Kevin Pietersen is entitled
to feel let down a little bit by
Andrew Strausss confirmation that there will be no
England recall for the Surrey
batsman in the immediate
future. Strauss used his opening media conference in his
new role of director, England
cricket to say that Pietersen
is not part of our plans.
Pietersen had reiterated his
desire for an England return
after scoring a career-best
triple-hundred for Surrey on
Monday.
Stewart, however, stressed
that Strauss should be given
time to make his own mark
in the role. Its very, very
important that Andrew
Strauss makes his own decisions, Stewart, now Surreys
director of cricket, told BBC.
Hes been put in charge of
Englands fortunes over the
next four or five years so hes
got to be comfortable with
that decision.

I do think he may have

contradicted himself a little
bit, in saying on one hand he
wont be playing at all this
summer, effectively finishing
his England career, but then
offering Kevin an advisory
role in one-day cricket. Im
not sure how those two
marry up, but again Andrew
has to be comfortable with
that.
And again with trust I
think Kevin is entitled to feel
let down a little bit by the ECB
following the comments of
the incoming chairman Colin
Graves when he said six or
seven weeks or so ago the
slate had been wiped clean,
to find himself a county, score
runs and hed be considered,
or words to that effect, which
Kevin has done hes had two
phone conversations with
the incoming chairman, so it
wasnt a misinterpretation.
Stewart played 133 Tests
and 170 one-day internationals for England between 1990
and 2003.

ROUND-UP

Root named
vice-captain
Reuters
London

ngland cricket director

Andrew Strauss gave
his full backing to Test
captain Alastair Cook
yesterday and appointed JOE
ROOT as his deputy in a signicant move for the future.
Cook has been under pressure due to a poor run of form
with the bat but he scored his
rst Test century for nearly
two years in the recent drawn
series in West Indies. Alastair
Cook is the right man to lead
the England team, Strauss
told reporters at Lords yesterday. It has been a difficult 18
months but it was great to see
him come back to form in the
West Indies.
The decision to name the
24-year-old Root as vice-captain in place of Ian Bell suggested Strauss is already planning a long-term strategy for
the development of the team.
It was time to bring Joe into a
leadership role, Strauss said.
I hear he is a strong voice in
the dressing-room. It is a strategic decision.
Strauss also hinted that
there would be more differentiation between the Test and
one-day teams, conrming
that Eoin Morgan would continue as captain of the limited-overs side. We need more
separation between the Test
and one-day teams and Eoin
has my full support, Strauss
said. I will be looking at ways
in which we can rest players
and support staff so we can
achieve maximum success on
the pitch.
Strauss also explained his
decision to re Peter Moores as
coach. I felt it was important
to change the coach, Strauss
said. In some areas of strategy and tactics he (Moores) was
exposed. The England coachs
job is a very powerful position

in world cricket and we need a

guy who has the energy and vision to take the team forward.
Strauss, who captained
England to two Ashes triumphs, tried to sound a positive note despite all the recent
criticism of the team. It is an
exciting time, he said. We
should not forget that the last
decade has been one of the
most successful in Englands
history but the game is evolving very quickly. I have to implement a team culture which
is fundamental to any success
and we have to nd self-reliant
cricketers who can make the
right decisions where it matters most out on the eld.

IPL

Zaheer, Iyer script Delhis six-wicket win over Chennai

IANS
Raipur, India

n impressive bowling display from

Delhi Dardevils earned them a sixwicket victory against league leaders Chennai Super Kings in an Indian
Premier League encounter at the Shaheed Veer
Narayan Singh Stadium yesterday.
Chasing 120, Delhi reached the target fairly
comfortably in 16.4 overs with 20 balls to spare.
The win was Delhis fth in what has been a disappointing campaign for them. They improved
to 10 points after 13 matches but remained at
the seventh spot in the standings. Chennai too
retained their summit spot with 16 points from
13 matches.
Delhi oundered initially while chasing
the modest target losing South African duo
of Quinton de Kock (3) and skipper Jean Paul
Duminy (6) in a space of 10 deliveries to be reduced to 24 for two in the fth over. But opener
Shreyas Iyer (70 not out) and Yuvraj Singh (32)

Delhi Daredevils Zaheer Khan (centre) ended with figures of 4-1-9-2 against Chennai Super Kings.

steadied the Daredevils innings, forging a 69run third-wicket partnership to guide them
towards the target. By the time Yuvraj was dismissed in the 14th over, Delhis score swelled to
93, virtually conrming a rare victory for them.
Earlier, a stupendous bowling effort from
Delhi Daredevils ensured they restricted Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for a modest score of 119
for six. Faf du Plesis top-scored for CSK with
29, with skipper M.S. Dhoni (27) being the other
major contributor as the visitors set an asking
run rate of 6 runs per over.
Zaheer Khan and Albie Morkel were the pick
of the bowlers for the Daredevils claiming two
scalps each. The Daredevils opening bowlers,
spinner Shahbaz Nadeem (4-1-18-0) and Zaheer (4-1-9-2) bowled an impeccable line and
length in the rst few overs and kept the CSK
batsmen on a tight leash giving away just 16
runs in the rst six overs, the lowest in this IPL.
Zaheers patience was eventually rewarded as
swashbuckling opener Brendon McCullum (11)
fell lobbing one straight to Duminy at mid-on.
McCullums opening partner Dwayne Smith

(18) sent a few balls yin g into the fence but

then was adjudged leg-before wicket.
CSK added 30 more after the rst six overs to
be at 46 for three at the halfway stage as Suresh
Raina (11) too spooned one to cover. But South
African middle order bat du Plesis and Dhoni
then resurrected the innings running hard
between the wickets and picking up the odd
boundaries.
However, on a pitch that was keeping slow
and low, Morne Morkel came back to castle du
Plesis (29) as he chopped one onto his stumps at
83 for four in 15.2 overs. Dhoni then upped the
ante belting Yuvraj for 13 runs. Dwayne Bravo
(8) hit another six to help his team get past the
100-run mark in the 18th over but was caught
out a delivery later. Zaheer in his rst ball of the
second spell got rid of the dangerous Dhoni (27)
foxing him with a slower one that he skied into
the hands of long-off.
BRIEF SCORES
Chennai Super Kings 119 for 6 (Zaheer 2-9,
Morkel 2-21) lost to Delhi Daredevils 120 for 4
(Iyer 70*, Ishwar 2-27) by six wickets

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

FOOTBALL
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE REAL MADRID VS JUVENTUS 09:45PM

Factfile: Real Madrid v Juventus

Juve boosted by
Pogba return, Real
season the the line
We need to have a cool head... The game is 90 minutes long and we need to make
that seem like a long time for Juventus and make them suffer without the ball

Factfile on Real Madrid

and Juventus ahead of the
Champions League semi-final,
second leg between the clubs
in Madrid today (Juventus
lead 2-1):

tion-threatened Cagliari at the

weekend was most notable for
the return of French star Paul
Pogba after two months out
through injury as he scored
his 10th goal of the season.

Form: Real Madrids La Liga

title hopes all but ended on
Saturday as Cristiano Ronaldo
saw a penalty saved in a 2-2
draw at home to Valencia. The
European champions now
trail Barcelona by four points
with just two league games
remaining.
A point also extended Madrids poor run against the
other sides in La Ligas top
four as they took just four
points from a possible 18
against Barca, Atletico Madrid
and Valencia this year. Moreover, it was the fourth time in
their last five games in which
Carlo Ancelottis men have
conceded twice.
Juventus had already clinched
their 31st Italian title before
beating Real 2-1 in last weeks
first leg.
A 1-1 draw at home to relega-

Coaches:
Real Madrid - Carlo Ancelotti
(ITA) -- 55 yrs
Juventus - Massimiliano Allegri (ITA) -- 47 yrs
Domestic performance:
Real Madrid - Second in La
Liga, four points adrift of
Barcelona.
Juventus - Top of Serie A,
already crowned champions
with three games left to play.
Road to quarter-finals:
Real Madrid - Winners of
Group B ahead of Basel. Beat
Schalke 5-4 on aggregate in
the last 16 and Atletico Madrid
1-0 in the quarter-finals.
Juventus - Runners-up in
Group A behind Atletico Madrid.
Beat Borussia Dortmund 5-1
on aggregate in the last 16 and
Monaco 1-0 in the quarter-finals.

SPOTLIGHT

Bales agent talks too

much: Ancelotti
AFP
Madrid

Real Madrids Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo (left) speaks with Real Madrids Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti during a training session in Madrid.
AFP
Madrid

eal Madrid must overcome a

2-1 rst-leg decit to keep their
season alive when a Juventus
side boosted by the return of
Paul Pogba visit the Santiago Bernabeu
in the return of their Champions League
semi-nal today.
Los Blancos La Liga title hopes are all
but over despite coming from 2-0 down
to draw 2-2 with Valencia on Saturday as
Barcelona moved four points clear at the
top with just two games remaining.
However, Carlo Ancelottis men recovered from exactly the same result against
Valencia that proved an almost fatal blow
to their title hopes at the same stage last
season to go on and win the clubs 10th
European Cup in Lisbon a few weeks
later.
Defensive lapses have cost Madrid
in recent weeks as they have conceded

twice in four of their last ve matches

and right-back Dani Carvajal insists
they cant go for a clinical Juventus side
from the off and risk being caught on the
counter-attack.
We need to win, that is fundamental. However, above all, we need to have a
cool head, be patient and not go crazy, he
told the clubs website.
The game is 90 minutes long and we
need to make that seem like a long time
for Juventus and make them suffer without the ball.
Carvajal gave away the penalty, converted by Carlos Tevez, at the end of a
counter-attack which gave the Italian
champions the advantage in last weeks
rst leg.
And he believes Madrid will not be so
generous in front of a packed house at the
Bernabeu.
They created danger from us giving the ball away or our errors. I think if
we stay calm, have patience, move them
around, then we will win the game.

After the rst leg the feelings of the

coach and the players were clear. We cannot commit so many errors in easy passes
because that breathed life into them.
CLOSE TO FULL STRENGTH
Madrid could be back close to full
strength as Toni Kroos is expected to
shrug off a hip injury picked up against
Valencia, while Karim Benzema is set to
feature up front after a month out with a
knee problem.
Benzemas French international teammate Pogba is certain to play a part after
making a goalscoring return from a near
two-month injury layoff in a 1-1 draw at
home to Cagliari on Saturday.
Juventus have waited 12 years to get
back to the biggest game in European
football, when they also beat Real in the
semi-nals in 2003, and defender Giorgio Chiellini described the game as the
biggest in his 10 years with the club.
We cant wait for Wednesday evening
to come. This is the most prestigious and

important game Ill be playing in since I

joined the club, he said.
Ive been here for 10 years and 12 have
gone past since we last reached a seminal.
Weve got better and matured as the
competition has worn on and getting
past the last 16 and then the quarter-nals gave us added awareness in our own
abilities.
Weve never been as close as we are
now, but weve still got 95 really tough
minutes to get through. The nal is still
a long way away and well need a super
performance to get there.
Juventus biggest threat could come
from a very familiar source for the Madrid faithful as Real academy product Alvaro Morata returns to the Bernabeu after
scoring the opener in the rst leg.
The Spanish international joined the
Bianconeri last summer and could still
return to his boyhood club should they
exercise a buy-back clause at the end of
the season.

eal Madrid coach Carlo

Ancelotti
launched
an attack on Gareth
Bales agent for claiming the Welshmans poor form
this season is because his teammates dont pass him the ball.
Jonathan Barnett, who oversaw Bales world record transfer
to Madrid in September 2013,
responded to erce criticism of
his star clients performance in
Reals 2-1 Champions League
semi-nal, rst leg defeat to
Juventus last week by saying:
Real have to work with Gareth
and pass the ball to him more.
However, Ancelotti responded angrily to those comments,
whilst also defending Bales output this season despite a return
of just three goals since January.
I think that Bale has had a
good season. Last season he
scored in the important moments, in the nals, and it could
be that with some luck he will
have the opportunity to do the
same again, Ancelotti said on
Tuesday ahead of his sides
return leg against the Italian
champions.
We are happy with Bales
season. There are many people
in this world that like to talk and
at times they do so too much.
Bales agent has never been
to one of our training sessions,
he doesnt know our atmosphere
and he is talking from the outside. Bale has never had a problem with his teammates, neither
have they with him. Bale loves
his teammates and they love
him. It would have been better
for him not to say anything.
World Cup star James Rodriguez denied that Bale is treated
any differently to his Madrid
teammates and called for unity
as they look to get back to the
Champions League nal for a

second consecutive season.

Gareth is a good player, we all
want to play with him, but not
just him with Cristiano (Ronaldo), Chicharito and many more,
said the Colombian.
I think that this is a team and
we all have to be united.
Madrids only realistic hope
of a major title this season rests
with becoming the rst side to
retain the Champions League
after Barcelona opened up a
four-point lead at the top of La
Liga with just two games remaining on Saturday.
The team is concentrated
and desperate to play a great
semi-nal to have the chance to
return to the nal of this competition, added Ancelotti, who
could become the rst coach to
ever win the European Cup four
times.
It is the most important moment of the season because we
are very close to playing another
nal and entering into the history of this competition.
Ancelotti conrmed that
striker Karim Benzema would be
t to feature after a month out
with a knee problem, but didnt
say whether he or Javier Hernandez would start up front.

BOTTOMLINE

Casillas the target of boo boys in key clash

DPA
Madrid

t would be logical to expect that a

veteran captain who had led his team
to three Champions League triumphs
- and his country to the World Cup
and two Euros - would be venerated, or at
least respected, at his club.
After all, Barcelona veterans Xavi and
Andres Iniesta are hallowed gures at
the Camp Nou, cheered and applauded
even when playing poorly - and never
whistled or jeered no matter how many
times they lose the ball.
In sad contrast, Iker Casillas has become a gure of loathing, even of ridicule, for many fans of Real Madrid.
Should Juventus, defending a 2-1
rst leg lead, manage to score in todays
Champions League semi-nal showdown at the Estadio Bernabeu, Casillas is bound to take the blame, whether
guilty or not.
Every time that Los Merengues concede a goal at home, Casillas is booed by
a sizeable minority of Madridista fans.
He was jeered every time he touched the
ball Saturday, after conceding two early
goals in the 2-2 draw against Valencia.

File picture of Spain and Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas.

Understandably, he nally lost his
self-control and shouted some abuse
back at the boo boys - then stormed off
home without talking.

On the face of things, Casillas should

really have almost God-like status in
Madrid. After all, he showed a maturity
far beyond his 19 years when helping

Real to beat Valencia in the 2000 nal

- becoming the youngest ever keeper to
win the coveted trophy.
And two years later, he came off the
subs bench to replace the injured Cesar, and turned in a superlative display
to keep Bayer Leverkusen at bay in the
2002 nal.
At the same time as helping Real
to the silverware, Casillas has guided
Spain to glory at three major tournaments, becoming his countrys highest
capped player ever with 161 appearances.
So why is he being regularly booed by
his own fans?
On the one hand, it is simply because
his performances have dropped alarmingly in the past three years, since he
reached 30.
Casillas, now 33, is not ageing well
at all.
He was largely to blame for Valencias
rst goal, and for Juventus rst goal in
the 2-1 rst leg defeat - just as he was
at fault in Atletico Madrids goal in last
seasons nal.
Another explanation for the jeers lies
in Casillas feud with Jose Mourinho,
the coach at Real from 2010 to 2013.
Mourinho accused the goalkeeper of

leaking secret dressing-room information to friends in the media.

Mourinho sensationally dropped
Casillas in 2013, just before returning
to Chelsea, and publicly regretted not
having signed an alternative keeper
three years earlier.
The Portuguese coach had a small
but fanatical following among some
Real ultras, and it is clearly this group
that is leading the jeers nowadays.
Also, it is question of familiarity
breeding contempt. Casillas has been
rst-choice keeper at Real since 2002,
while in every other position expensive
signings have come and gone practically every season.
A particularly demanding section of
the fans has taken upon itself over the
years the task of pulling down to size
illustrious veterans like Alfredo di Stefano, Emilio Butragueno and Luis Figo
- though it is not clear whether their
aim is to motivate them or demoralise
them.
Many of Reals great players have
been jeered over the years, said
Butragueno, nowadays the clubs head
of public relations.
This happened to Di Stefano towards the end of his time here, to

Michel, to Guti - to me as well. It is not

pleasant. It certainly doesnt help you
to play better.
All you can do is roll up your sleeves
and try to prove them wrong, which is
what Casillas should do now.
Butragueno added that it is only a
small minority of fans who jeer, but it
sounded more like a large minority Saturday.
A crumb of comfort for Casillas is
that he is not the only target of the boo
boys.
Their second favourite target is
Welsh striker Gareth Bale, who has
struggled to justify his world record
price-tag.
Sports daily Marca on Monday tried
to persuade the boo boys to leave Casillas in peace against Juventus, saying. The importance of Wednesdays
match demands the union of all madridismo.
Casillas role today will be to prevent
Juventus from scoring what could be a
vital away goal.
Whether the jeers from the crowd will
increase his motivation to do this, or instead make him nervous and unsure of
himself, is one of the fascinating questions surrounding todays showdown.

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

FOOTBALL
SPOTLIGHT

Wenger irked by
Swansea accident
In the last two home games we didnt score and thats frustrating when you have so
much of the ball, as we did tonight, and you play with such accuracy around the box

Arsenal legend Wright urges Walcott

to weather rough patch
Arsenal legend Ian Wright
urged England international
Theo Walcott not to quit the
club yesterday despite a
rough patch and speculation
over his future. Wright, speaking ahead of the Barclays Asia
Trophy in Singapore, said
Walcott, 26, needed to work
hard and regain his place after
a season plagued by injury.
The former teenage star,
whose contract expires next
year, is feeling his way back
to form and manager Arsene
Wenger says he hopes he will
blossom into a centre-forward.
However, he was ineffective
from the bench as Arsenal
lost 1-0 to Swansea yesterday,
a defeat which undermined
their push for next years
Champions League.
As a professional hes just got
to wait his time... and push
himself to make sure he starts
in the first team for the start
of next season, Wright told
reporters.
That is what youre meant to
do as a professional, youre
not meant to, as soon as the
going gets rough, you go to
the exit, and thats not what
Theo wants to do, he added.
Wenger has backed Walcott
to make the switch from wing
to striker, following in the
footsteps of Arsenals record
scorer Thierry Henry.
Talks for Walcotts new contract are under way at the end

of a Premier League season in

which he has made just three
starts after returning from a
serious knee injury.
But Wright, who scored 185
goals for the Gunners, said:
We need people like Theo in
the team, we need him in the
squad, and so hopefully hell
finish the season well.
Fingers crossed well win
the FA cup and finish as high
as we can. Theo will have a
great pre-season, start the
season well and this will all be
forgotten.
Wright added that he was
tired about the debate over
Wengers position at the club
as Arsenal head for an 11th
season without winning the
Premier League.
But he said Arsenal, who play
Aston Villa in the FA Cup final
on May 30, need to strengthen
with a new goalkeeper and
defender in the July transfer
window.
He (Wenger)s got another
two to three years left (on his
contract) and he is now in the
position where he has got
the financial clout to go into
the market and buy the same
players any of the top teams
will try to buy, said Wright.
Arsenal are one of three
Premier League teams playing
at the Barclays Asia Trophy in
Singapore on July 15 and 18,
along with Everton and Stoke
City, plus a Singapore XI.

NO CLARITY

Toure silent on his

Man City future
AFP
Manchester

Arsenals French manager Arsene Wenger watches his players during the English Premier League football match against Swansea City at the Emirates Stadium in London.
AFP
London

rsenal manager Arsene Wenger

brushed off his sides 1-0 loss to
Swansea City as an accident
and challenged his players to
atone when they visit Manchester United
on Sunday.
Arsenal dominated Mondays game at
the Emirates Stadium, but having been
kept at bay by their former goalkeeper
Lukasz Fabianski, they capitulated in the
85th minute when David Ospina was unable to keep out a header from Swansea
substitute Bafetimbi Gomis.
United can dislodge third-place Arsenal from the automatic Champions
League qualifying positions if they beat
them at the weekend and Wengers annoyance was plain during a post-match
press conference in which he said Swansea had refused to play completely and
just defended.
We have still a game in hand, said
the Frenchman, whose team play host to
Sunderland on May 20 before tackling
West Bromwich Albion on the seasons
nal day.

What is crucial is to respond on Sunday and show it is an accident today

(Monday). That is the most important
(thing).
Arsenal had won nine of their previous 10 games, only dropping points in a
goalless draw with Chelsea, and elded
an unchanged team for the fth game in
succession for the rst time since January 1994.
It took until the 59th minute for them
to register a shot on target and although
they mustered eight more, there was no
way past Fabianski, who saved from Olivier Giroud, Santi Cazorla, Theo Walcott, twice, Nacho Monreal, Aaron Ramsey and Alexis Sanchez.
We scored plenty of goals until recently, added Wenger, who felt that his
forwards had been guilty of rushing
their nishing.
In the last two home games we didnt
score and thats of course frustrating
when you have so much of the ball, as we
did tonight, and you play with such accuracy around the box.
But they defended well. They came
just to defend, with four defenders and
six midelders. They defended, thats
it. If you win, youre fantastic. If you

If we didnt play, I dont know how

we got three points. Thats the
double over Arsenal. Weve done
the double over Manchester
United. So if people dont like it, its
not my problem.
lose people say to you, Why did you not
play?
Having beaten Arsenal 2-1 at the Liberty Stadium in November, Swansea became only the second team to do the double over the London club and Manchester
United in the Premier League era after
West Ham United (2006-07) and Chelsea (2009-10).
EUROPA LEAGUE CHANCE
Swansea manager Garry Monk took exception to Wengers criticism of his sides
approach and said their victory proved
that they have become a more multifaceted team.
If we didnt play, I dont know how we
got three points, he said.
If you watched all our games, weve
won games totally dominating possession. The number one thing for me is that
we try to do that in as many games as
possible. The players know that.

But there are times where you have to

be adaptable and weve shown that time
and time again this season.
Thats the double over Arsenal. Weve
done the double over Manchester United.
So if people dont like it, its not my problem.
Swansea are now just one point off
seventh place, which will yield a Europa
League place if Arsenal beat Aston Villa
in the FA Cup nal, and two points off
six place, which is a guaranteed Europa
League berth.
But Monk appeared less than enthused
about the prospect of a resource-stretching European campaign.
What will be will be, he said. Its
not my focus. I wont lie in bed worrying
about it.
The only thing that will change in
that instance will be that the planning for
the summer in terms of recruitment will
have to be a lot more, not that the chairman will want to hear that.
Weve got two games left. Weve got a
very difficult game next week against Man
City. Well have to see where it takes us.
Im not one to deny it if we get there,
but if not, it wasnt to be.
All to play for then.

BOTTOMLINE

anchester City midelder Yaya Toure

refused to discuss
his future at the club
on Tuesday when asked about
the subject at the launch of
FIFAs new anti-discrimination
monitoring system.
Toures agent, Dimitri Seluk,
accused City of ignoring his clients birthday last year and said
last week that the Ivory Coast
international, whose contract
expires in 2017, was 90 percent certain to leave during the
close-season transfer window.
Toure, who turns 32 on
Wednesday, has been linked
with Inter Milan and Paris
Saint-Germain, but he declined
to comment on the reports.
Today we have more important things to talk about, he
told journalists at Wembley Stadium. The racism issue is more

BUSINESS OF SPORT

Premier League
promote local perks
of lucrative tours
Reuters
Singapore

Chelseas Hazard doubles up

W
with Footballer of Year honour
Reuters
London

den Hazard was named

Englands
Footballer
of the Year on Tuesday after his consistently outstanding performances
throughout the season helped
Chelsea win the Premier League
title.
Tottenham Hotspur striker
Harry Kane was second in the
voting by members of the English Football Writers Association
with Hazards Chelsea club mate
and captain John Terry third.
The 24-year-old Belgian international midelder adds the
award to the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) honour he collected last month and
becomes the rst player from his
country to claim the accolade
since it was launched in 1948.
Only two other Chelsea players have won Englands most
prestigious and soccers oldest
individual honourGianfranco

Chelseas Belgian midfielder Eden Hazard.

Zola in 1997 and Frank Lampard

in 2005.
Kane, who has scored 30 goals
in his rst full season for Spurs
and was awarded his rst England
cap, was named the PFAs Young
Player of the Year last month,
while defensive rock Terry has
played every minute of every Premier League game to date.
FWA chairman Andy Dunn
told Reuters: The list of truly
world class players on the Football Writers Association roll of
honour is a long one and Eden
Hazard is a worthy addition.
A creator, a goalscorer and
the hardest of workers, he has
been a constant source of threat
for the champions.
He has started all 36 Premier
League matches Chelsea have
played so far and, considering
the particularly close attention
he receives from opponents, that
is a feat in itself. His electrifying,
attacking talent has made him
the rst Belgian to win the Footballer of the Year award.
He is a brilliant successor to

He has started all 36

Premier League matches
Chelsea have played so
far and, considering the
particularly close attention
he receives from opponents,
that is a feat in itself
Luis Suarez and we just hope he
stays in the Premier League for
a lot longer than Luis did after
collecting the trophy.
Uruguay striker Suarez, who
won the award after scoring 31
goals for Liverpool last season,
joined Spanish giants Barcelona
before the start of this campaign.
Hazard collected 53 percent of
the vote making him a comfortable winner, while he and Terrys
Chelsea team mates Cesc Fabregas, Branislav Ivanovic and goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois also
featured in the top 10.
Four other players received
votes: Alexis Sanchez of Arsenal, David De Gea of Manchester
United, Sergio Aguero of Manchester City and Esteban Cambiasso of Leicester City.

important than my future.

Toure, a four-time African
Footballer of the Year, joined
City from Barcelona in 2010 and
has helped the previously success-starved club to two Premier League titles, the League
Cup and the FA Cup.
City manager Manuel Pellegrini played down the speculation when questioned about
Toures future prior to his sides
6-0 win over Queens Park
Rangers in the Premier League
on Sunday.
We will talk about next season in the right moment, Pellegrini said.
Everyone at this moment
can say what they want about
rumours. I have never answered
to Yayas agent, so I will not do
it now.
Yaya has a contract here for
two years more, so in this moment we are only thinking about
the best way to nish the season,
then we will see what happens
next season.

ith the English Premier League medals

decided, the sports
marketing
mammoth is looking east to mine the
riches of Asia once again, promising value in return for a glimpse
of its stars amid a small but
growing resistant voice.
Champions Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur
are due to play friendlies in the
region, including games in Australia, Thailand and Malaysia,
while the leagues official Asian
Trophy, featuring Arsenal, Stoke
City and Everton, will he staged
in Singapore in July.
The arrival of the English sides
over the coming weeks will cause
a halt to the Southeast Asian
leagues and falls either side of
the start of the next phase of
World Cup qualifying matches in
the region.
Some fans in Malaysia, long
used to the arrival of European
clubs for lucrative xtures, have
labelled the Spurs and Liverpool
matches circus games and
called for a boycott.
Their malcontent is fuelled by
the xture disruption and a perceived apathy towards the national team, who wallow at 166th
in the FIFA rankings, their worst
ever position.
Across the border in Singapore, the Premier League ar-

rived to open arms from the local

football association yesterday as
they announced ticketing prices
for their event and local initiatives they hope will keep everyone happy.
For us it is about leaving the
best possible impression on behalf of the Premier League, its
director of sales and marketing
Richard Masters told Reuters
yesterday.
We will be doing knowledge
transfer workshops, we will be
trying to improve the standard
of refereeing, Mike Riley is coming to host a referee workshop,
and we are going to be making
an announcement in the next
few weeks with the Singapore
FA about an investment we are
making out here.
They are small things but
helpful and we think they are
important.
39TH GAME
Masters said it was not for the
league to offer touring advice to
its clubs when presented with
the reports of Malaysian unrest
at Spurs and Liverpools visit and
whether teams should just play
overseas in the official Asia Trophy competition.
Masters said the tournament
could be expanded to take place
in multiple locations biennially
and added the controversial 39th
game, a Premier League overseas
match, was not completely ruled
out but off the agenda for now. A
relief for the clubs then.

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

FOOTBALL
EUROPA LEAGUE

IN SHORT

Resourceful Dnipro
near the end of a
marathon journey
A goalless draw, or one-goal win, against Napoli in the second leg of their semi-final
tomorrow in Kiev will see the Ukrainians through to Europa League final in Warsaw

Napoli coach Benitez hit with ban

over offensive remark
Napoli coach Rafael Benitez
has been handed a onegame touchline ban for
making an offensive remark
about the nature of Italian
football.
Benitezs contract at the
Serie A giants expires at the
end of the season and the
sanctionwhich will see him
sit out next Mondays home
game with Cesenawill only
fuel speculation that he will
not renew his deal.
A statement by Serie A officials yesterday said the Spaniard was
issued a one-game ban and a fine of 5,000 euros for, proclaiming in a loud voice while leaving the pitch, this shitty Italian
football....
The incident occurred following Napolis 2-2 away draw with
already relegated Parma, during which Napoli striker Gonzalo
Higuains insults towards Parma goalkeeper Mariano Andujar
earned the Argentinian a 10,000 euros fine.
With three games remaining Napoli sit fourth in Italys top flight,
three points behind Lazio in the last possible Champions League
qualifying place.
Napoli can however qualify for the Champions League if they
win the Europa League. They drew their semi-final first leg with
Ukraine outfit Dnipro 1-1, with the second leg scheduled for
tomorrow.

FIFA to introduce racism monitors at

World Cup qualifiers
FIFA observers are to attend certain qualifying matches for the
2018 World Cup in Russia in a bid to crack down on racism, the
world football governing body said yesterday.
As part of the new monitoring system, specially trained AntiDiscrimination Match Observers will be appointed to games
that have been identified as high risk, FIFA said in a website
statement.
After every monitored match, the Match Observer will provide
a report within 24 hours to FIFAs disciplinary body, which will
analyse the information and decide on the potential opening of
disciplinary proceedings.
FIFA president Joseph Blatter welcomed the move, saying: Im
very happy to see this programme taking shape and being rolled
out first for the 2018 qualifiers.
The new monitoring system is a very concrete measure in order
to ensure that football sends a clear message for diversity and
against any form of discrimination.

Tevez, Pastore get Copa call

File picture of Dnipros Yevhen Seleznev (right) celebrating after scoring against Napoli during their Europa League semi-final first leg match at the San Paolo stadium in Naples.
Reuters
Berne

eventeen matches, nearly 10

months and eight countries after
setting out, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk are tantalising close to reaching their rst European nal after a campaign which has been resourceful, even if
not pretty.
A goalless draw, or one-goal win,
against Napoli in the second leg of their
semi-nal in Kiev on Thursday will see
the Ukrainians through to the Europa
League nal in Warsaw after a campaign
which started against FC Copenhagen on
July 31.
Dnipro, who have never won the
Ukrainian league but were twice winners
of the old Soviet league, have overcome

a limited budget and the disadvantage of

staging home games in Kiev due to Dnipropetrovsks proximity to the conict in
eastern Ukraine.
Although everyone loves an underdog,
Dnipros pragmatic style, based on a defence built around Brazilian Douglas and
ever-present goalkeeper Denys Boyko,
means they are likely to have won grudging respect rather than joyful admiration.
Their performance in last Thursdays
rst leg was typical as they set out to
frustrate Napoli, clung on grimly in the
second half after falling behind and then
snatched a late equaliser against the run
of play.
According to UEFA statistics, they
have committed 226 fouls and suffered
214 in the competition, more than anyone else in both categories, and also top
the yellow card charts with 45 received.

It will be tough, it will be difficult

but we are confident that if we
create chances we will score goals,
said coach Rafael Benitez. We won
4-1 against Wolfsburg away so I
think we can do the same
They have mustered only 14 goals and
have made a habit of muddling through
ever since they began by losing 2-0 on
aggregate to FC Copenhagen in the third
qualifying round of the Champions
League.
That defeat allowed them to qualify for
the Europa League playoff round where
they beat Hajduk Split 2-1 on aggregate.
After that, they snatched a secondplaced nish in Group F by beating St
Etienne 1-0 at home in their nal game to
leapfrog both the French side and Qarabag, having managed four goals and con-

ceded ve in their six matches.

A sudden goal urry saw them beat Olympiakos 4-2 on aggregate in the round
of 32, before they beat Ajax on away goals
and Club Bruges 1-0 on aggregate in the
last eight.
This under coach Myron Markevych,
who briey coached Ukraine in 2010 and
has earned a reputation for attacking
football during a lengthy stint at Metalist Kharkiv.
On the other hand, Napoli, UEFA Cup
winners in 1989, are the tournaments
topscorers and will be looking to repeat
their impressive quarter-nal win at VfL
Wolfsburg.
It will be tough, it will be difficult but
we are condent that if we create chances
we will score goals, said coach Rafael
Benitez. We won 4-1 against Wolfsburg
away so I think we can do the same.

BOTTOMLINE

Fiorentina chasing improbable

Europa comeback versus Sevilla
This is a team that always
manages to bounce back and
always shows the necessary
sacrifice, he added.
Our stadium has been our
strength in recent years and
well need the fans more
than ever on Thursday

Reuters
Madrid

iorentina must pull off a

feat that has only been
achieved once before if
they are to get past Sevilla into the nal of the Europa
League when the holders visit
the Tuscan capital tomorrow.
Florence-based
Fiorentina
were thumped 3-0 by the Andalusian club in their semi-nal, rst leg in Seville last week
and will have to match another
Spanish side, Valencia, if they
are to make the showpiece in
Warsaw on May 27.
Valencia hammered FC Basel
5-0 after extra time in the second leg of their quarter-nal last
season to become the only team
to overturn a 3-0 rst-leg decit in a knockout tie in Europes
second-tier club competition.
We know its a difficult task
but its not impossible, Fiorentina sporting director Daniele

File picture of Mario Gomez of ACF Fiorentina.

Prade said after Sundays 3-2

Serie A win at Empoli.
This is a team that always
manages to bounce back and always shows the necessary sacrice, he added.
Our stadium has been our
strength in recent years and
well need the fans more than
ever on Thursday.
Sevilla, meanwhile, are rmly
on course to win a record fourth
UEFA Cup/Europa League title,
eclipsing Inter Milan, Juventus and Liverpool, who all have
three.
The La Liga side won backto-back UEFA Cups in 2006 and
2007 and beat Benca on penalties in Turin to secure the re-

named trophy last term.

Another triumph would secure them a lucrative berth in
the group stage of next seasons
Champions League.
Sevilla are fth in La Liga with
two games left and still have a
chance of overhauling Valencia
and securing fourth, which carries a place in the playoff round
of Europes elite club competition.
There are two ways we can
get into the Champions League
and well just take each game at a
time, Sevilla forward Kevin Gameiro said after Sundays 1-1 La
Liga draw at Celta Vigo.
Anything can happen in
football and we know we are going to have to suffer (on Thursday), added the Frenchman.
Fiorentinas Serie A rivals Napoli play at Ukrainian side Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in Thursdays other semi-nal, second
leg after last weeks clash in Naples ended 1-1. Now to see how
the match turns out.

Carlos Tevez and

Javier Pastore, overlooked for the 2014
World Cup, have
been named alongside Lionel Messi,
Sergio Aguero and
Ezequiel Lavezzi
in Argentinas
preliminary 30-man
squad for the Copa
America.
Coach Gerardo
Martino will cut the
list to 23 on June 1
with the tournament
taking place in Chile from June 11 to July 4.
However Mauro Icardi, the third highest scorer in Serie A with 18
goals for Inter Milan, has been overlooked again, with Martino
spoilt for choice among the strikers.
Argentina, champions in 1991 and 1993, have been drawn in
Group B with Paraguay, Uruguay and Jamaica.
Jamaica and Mexico have been handed invitations to the South
American tournament.

Mexico without Javier Chicharito

Hernandez for Copa America
Real Madrid striker Javier Chicharito Hernandez has not been
named by Mexico coach Miguel Herrera in his 23-man squad for
the Copa America in Chile next month.
Hernandez is expected to instead feature in the Gold Cup in July,
as Mexico prepare for two tournaments this summer.
Miguel also overlooked strikers Carlos Vela from Real Sociedad
and Villarreals Giovani dos Santos for the Copa.
Only four players who compete in foreign leagues were selected
including young Atletico Madrid striker Raul Jimenez, 24, and
veteran captain Rafael Marquez, 36, who plays for Verona in Italy.
Mexico are in Group A with hosts Chile, Ecuador, and Bolivia in
the tournament which runs from June 11 to July 4.

Australian top-scorer denied World

Cup berth
Record goal-scorer Kate Gill was a shock omission yesterday as
Australia unveiled a new-look squad for the upcoming Womens
World Cup in Canada.
Gill, 30, has 40 goals in 83 games for the Matildas, and on Monday collected the golden boot for her 12 strikes for Perth Glory in
last seasons domestic W-League.
But just hours after Gill won her award late on Monday, national
coach Alen Stajcic dropped a bombshell by leaving her out of his
23-player squad for Canada.
I dont think its the equivalent to Tim Cahill at all, theyre separate teams, said Stajcic, referring to Australias record mens
scorer who has 39 goals.
The Socceroos dont get a four-month preparation time and we
did and players were picked on form during that period.
Shes performed really well. The problem is the other players
have as well.
Stajcic told Australian media: When you look at our strike force,
youve got people like Sam Kerr, Caitlin Foord and Lisa De Vanna,
Michelle Heyman and Kyah Simon.
You can only pick so many and we had to make a decision on
who was going to be more effective for us at the World Cup.
Kate missed out by a small inch but theyre the decisions that
have to be made at this level. Its very hard. Its heartbreaking for
those players. Its the end of their dream.
Asian player of the year Katrina Gorry is one of the leading lights
in a group which heads to Canada just a year after Australia were
runners-up at the Womens Asian Cup.
Goalkeeper Melissa Barbieri, 35, is set for her fourth World Cup
after Stajcic also swung the axe and discarded regular custodian
Brianna Davey.
Barbieri is the senior player in a squad including 10 World Cup
first-timers, plus 18 survivors from the Asian Cup. Football-cumcricket international Ellyse Perry missed out through injury.
The Matildas will have their work cut out at the June 5-July 5
tournament after being drawn alongside Olympic champions the
United States, Sweden and African title-holders Nigeria.

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

SPORT
SPOTLIGHT

Happy 40th birthday

Lomu the superhuman
still in a league of his own
As rugby unions first superstar turns 40 its a pertinent time to consider the impact the New
Zealander made at the start of the professional era and ask if we will ever see his like again
By Robert Kitson
The Guardian

ot many rugby players have

changed their sport forever
inside a few weeks. Even
fewer athletes have been so
far ahead of their time that, two decades later, the global impact they made
remains unsurpassed. As Jonah Lomu
reached his 40th birthday yesterday,
the events of 1995 continue to be etched
in the minds of those lucky enough to
witness them.
Happily Jonah was still around to
celebrate yesterdays milestone, the big
man having being dragged dangerously
low at times by the rare kidney disorder which necessitated a transplant in
2004. In those halcyon May and June
days of 1995, lest we forget, he was as
formidable a try-scoring presence as
the union code has ever witnessed.
Above my desk sits a card bearing the
immortal words sent via fax by a New
Zealand fan to the teams hotel in Johannesburg. Remember rugby is a
team game all 14 of you pass the ball
to Jonah!
Most people tend only to remember
the human steamroller who attened
Mike Catt in Cape Town in 1995. They
overlook the scarcely credible fact that
he scored four tries in that semi-nal
alone to prompt the pithiest of verdicts He is a freak and the sooner he
goes away the better from Englands
defeated captain Will Carling. In all he
scored seven in ve games and still retains the all-time World Cup record of
15.
Despite increasing health issues
he contributed 37 tries in 63 Test appearances for New Zealand, raising
rugby unions prole to unprecedented
heights.
All of which begs a few pertinent
questions. Given rugby union turned
professional that same year would the
game have developed as it has done
without the sudden re-invention of
wings as 19 stone, 6ft 5in tall stormtroopers? Were Lomu to burst on to
the scene now, would he be as absurdly dominant given the signicant
advances in tness and conditioning
levels?
And, perhaps most relevant of all in
a World Cup year, is there anyone else
out there capable of springing from
relative obscurity and leaving the same
indelible mark on our imaginations?
On the rst count, someone somewhere would surely have decided at
some point that sticking a giant on
the wing was an idea worth pursuing
with or without Lomu as a role model.

Lomu: once in a lifetime talent

Dominance-wise, it is also worth remembering that Lomu never actually
won a World Cup winners medal. That
adoring All Black fan was wrong; even
if you do possess one superhuman athlete a team still needs the intelligence
and ability to nd him some space occasionally.
As for unearthing little-known
youngsters genuinely worthy of the
new Lomu tag, the internet no longer

makes it easy to keep rare talent a secret. The teenage Jonah had starred in
the 1994 Hong Kong Sevens take a
look at YouTube, the footage is remarkable but came into the World Cup
having won just two relatively lowprole caps. Not many northern hemisphere countries seem inclined to take
such a risk nowadays. Even if they were,
social media can strip away a players
mystique with cruel speed.

On the other hand, the conveyor belt

of Pacic Island talent is still churning
out exceptional ball carriers, the latest
of whom neatly sums up the eligibility
and club v country debates currently
entangling the game. Taqele Naiyaravoro, a rugby league convert built on
similar physical lines to Lomu, scored
the type of individual try for the Waratahs last weekend that would make any
talent scout sit up. As things stand the

Fijian-born Naiyaravoro is wanted by

Edinburgh for next season but only if
the Wallabies do not pick the 23-yearold rst. At present he is also awaiting
his Australian residency visa and is
steadfastly keeping his options open.
Mate, if thats Gods plan for me,
was his opaque response when asked by
the Sydney Morning Herald if declaring
for the Wallabies was a possibility.
The Sevens World Series circuit is

also home to some sensational runners,

not least Fijis Semi Kunatani and the
USAs Perry Baker who can cover 100m
in 10 seconds. Both certainly possess
the talent to illuminate any stadium.
In terms of transxing all-comers at a
15-a-side World Cup, however, Lomu
remains in a world of his own. Happy
40th birthday, Jonah, and good luck to
anyone looking to eclipse his towering
legend.

BOTTOMLINE

Hamilton to sign three-year 130mn deal

By Paul Weaver
The Guardian

ewis Hamiltons protracted

contract negotiations with
Mercedes are likely to come
to a conclusion in Monaco
next week, with the world champion
ready to sign a three-year deal worth
130mn.
Talks have been going on since
last year to extend Hamiltons existing three-year deal, which expires at
the end of this season. Hamilton will
be doubling his money as he moves
ahead of Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel as the best paid driver
in the sport. I will have some news
for you in Monaco, he said after his
second place in Sundays Spanish
Grand Prix.
A story at the weekend suggesting talks had stalled was quickly
dismissed by Hamilton. Thats
not the case, he said. Money has
always been the main issue during
the negotiations which, according
to Hamilton, have been in their nal
stages for more than two months.
But another possible sticking point
is that the driver wants to keep all
the trophies he has won, something

denied him during his six years at

McLaren.
He is bargaining from a strong
base; he won the world championship last year, his second title, and
is expected to make it three this season. He is also F1s outstanding box
office attraction.
He was subdued on Sunday
evening but he claimed he had not
been disheartened by Nico Rosbergs
ninth grand prix win and his rst
since Brazil last year. I feel great. I
honestly feel really good, he said. I
dont look at it as a setback. It wasnt
the perfect weekend. But I had to
face some problems. Lots of things
were up against me.
The poor balance of his car hurt
him on Saturday, possibly costing
him pole position. Then, on race day,
he got off to a bad start on the dirty
side of the track before being further
punished by some untidy pit-stops,
while Rosbergs afternoon was as
smooth as a snooker table.
When asked if the result had been
a wake-up call, Hamilton added: I
dont feel I needed a wake-up call
because I won the last race. The fact
is in life you cant win everything. So
[complacency] is absolutely not the
situation. I was pushing all week-

end. I worked as hard as I could. I

just didnt get it right. I didnt get the
set-up right for qualifying.
But I came second. I dont really
feel like I lost one. Naturally I didnt
win. But I drove a race which I felt
I won. I did a three-stop. I pushed
all the way. So I feel amazing right
now. It could have been a lot worse. I
could have come third or fourth.
So now he is preparing for Monaco, where Rosberg won last year
after being accused of deliberately spoiling Hamiltons chances
of winning pole. For the past two
years Ive had the car to win. The
rst year I struggled with it. Last
year I had the pace but other things
were up against it. This year, hopefully, it will be different. Third time
lucky.Hamilton seems destined
not to win the championship easily.
When he did lift the trophy, in 2008
and last year, it went to the last race
of the season.
Rosberg could become champion
this year but not without, one feels,
a degree of co-operation from his
great rival. Hamilton is not accident-prone exactly. But he is incident-prone. If he is beaten it is more
likely to be by himself than anyone
else.

Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton celebrate with the Mercedes team after finishing first and second respectively at the Spanish Grand
Prix on Sunday.

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

SPORT
BASEBALL

SPOTLIGHT

Bryant
homers
as Cubs
beat Mets
AFP
Los Angeles

ighly rated rookie third

baseman Kris Bryant christened the
reopened Wrigley Field
bleachers with a two-run homer
in the rst inning as the Chicago
Cubs edged the New York Mets
4-3 on Monday.
First basemen Anthony Rizzo
followed Bryants blast with another home run as the Cubs got
off to a ying start and second
baseman Addison Russell singled
home what proved to be the decisive run in the fourth.
Left-hander Jon Lester (3-2)
threw six innings of three-run
ball for his third consecutive
win and closer Hector Rondon
worked a scoreless ninth for his
seventh save as the Cubs won for
the rst time in three games.
Elsewhere, New York starter
CC Sabathia won for the rst time
in more than a year and the Yankees hit a season-high ve home
runs in an easy 11-5 win over
Tampa Bay at Tropicana Field.
Sabathia (1-5) earned his rst
victory since April 24, 2014, despite allowing four runs (three
earned) in seven innings. He gave
up six hits and two walks while
striking out nine.
Manny Machado, Chris Davis
and Adam Jones all homered,
and Ubaldo Jimenez threw seven
strong innings as Baltimore celebrated its return home from a
long road trip with a 5-2 victory
over Toronto.
Machado led off the rst with a
homer off Marco Estrada (1-2) and
the right-hander gave up a tworun shot to Davis later in the frame
for a quick 3-0 Baltimore lead.
Shelby Miller pitched seven
strong innings and pinch-hitter
Phil Gosselin singled and scored
the go-ahead run on a wild pitch
in the ninth, lifting Atlanta to a
2-1 victory over Cincinnati.
Shortstop Andrelton Simmons
homered and Luis Avilan (1-0)
earned his rst victory for Atlanta in a game that was delayed
one hour and 40 minutes by rain.
Texas starter Colby Lewis was
effective once again and third
baseman Adrian Beltre homered
in the Rangers 8-2 victory over
Kansas City at Globe Life Park.
The Rangers, coming off a 5-2
road trip, opened their sevengame homestand with a rare
home win. Texas (14-18) entered
the four-game series with baseballs worst record at home. The
win improved the Ragers home
record to 4-9.

Results
Baltimore
Pittsburgh
Atlanta
NY Yankees
Milwaukee
Chicago Cubs
Texas
Washington
Boston
LA Dodgers

5
4
2
11
10
4
8
11
5
5

Toronto
Philadelphia
Cincinnati
Tampa Bay
Chicago W Sox
NY Mets
Kansas City
Arizona
Oakland
Miami

2
3
1
5
7
3
2
1
4
3

NFL suspends Brady

four games, hits Patriots
hard for Deflategate
I think its absolutely right and proper if hes been complicit in some kind of wrongdoing
Reuters
New York

he National Football
League came down hard
on the New England
Patriots on Monday for
their role in Deategate, suspending star quarterback Tom
Brady for the rst four games of
next season and ning the franchise $1mn.
The NFL also said the Patriots will forfeit their rst-round
selection in the 2016 draft and
a fourth-round pick in 2017 for
using under-inated footballs
in last seasons AFC Championship game.
Bradys agent and Patriots owner Robert Kraft both
sharply criticized the punishment, prolonging a turbulent
season for the most-protable
US sports league, which has already had to deal with scandals
involving domestic violence
and child abuse.
The discipline is ridiculous
and has no legitimate basis,
said Bradys agent Don Yee,
adding that the quarterback will
appeal the suspension.
Ted Wells, an attorney hired
by the NFL to investigate the
allegations, said in a 243-page
report that it was more probable than not that Patriots
personnel were involved in a
deliberate effort to circumvent
rules by using deated footballs
in the teams 45-7 win over the
Indianapolis Colts in the AFC
championship game.
An underinated football
would likely give Brady a better grip and allow him to throw
longer and with more accuracy,
especially in the chilly and wet
conditions the Colts and Patriots played in to determine who
would go to the Super Bowl.
The $1mn ne ties the largest ever for a team in the NFL,
equaling the amount the league
ordered San Francisco 49ers
owner Edward Debartolo, Jr.
to pay in 1999 after he pleaded
guilty to a felony for his role in a
Louisiana gambling scandal.
In a statement, Kraft, considered one of the leagues mostpowerful owners and an ally of
Commissioner Roger Goodell,
expressed his disappointment
in how this one-sided investigation was handled and said
Brady, who has led the Patriots
to four championships, has
our unconditional support.
Despite our conviction that
there was no tampering with

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady takes a football from a ball boy as he warms up before Super Bowl XLIX against the Seattle
Seahawks at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, in this file photo from February 1, 2015.
footballs, it was our intention
to accept any discipline levied
by the league, Kraft said in a
statement.
Todays punishment, however, far exceeded any reasonable expectation. It was based
completely on circumstantial
rather than hard or conclusive
evidence.
Brady has a guaranteed base
salary of $8mn for the 16-game
2015 NFL season. If the fourgame suspension with no pay is
upheld, Brady will miss games
against Pittsburgh, Buffalo,
Jacksonville and Dallas. Ironically, his rst game back on Oct.
18 would be against the Colts.
INTEGRITY
Vincent, the NFLs vice presi-

dent of football operations who

handed down the sanctions,
said he was inuenced by the
Patriots 2007 Spygate scandal
and the lack of cooperation by
Brady and the Patriots.
We relied on the critical
importance of protecting the
integrity of the game and the
thoroughness and independence of the Wells report, Goodell said in a statement.
While the ne is large by NFL
standards, it wont dent the
bottom line of a team that was
valued by Forbes at $2.6bn in
2014.
The $1mn is in many respects a slap on the wrist, thats
lunch money during the football
season, said Daniel Durbin, di-

rector of the Institute of Sports,

Media and Society at the University of Southern California
Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
The larger issue is taking
away their quarterback for four
games, that has some impact
on revenue because one of their
star players is gone.
Although there was no smoking gun, the Wells report, which
took nearly four months to
complete, found Brady and two
members of the Patriots equipment staff were all likely culpable.
The footballs were intentionally deated in an effort to
provide a competitive advantage to Tom Brady after having

been certied by the game ofcials as being in compliance

with the playing rules, Vincent
said in a letter to the Patriots
concerning the punishment.
The team told Goodell last
week that Patriots employees
John Jastremski and James McNally, who were linked to the
scandal, have been indenitely
suspended without pay by the
club, the NFL said.
The punishment was a rare
loss for Brady, who has played
15 years in the NFL after coming out of the University of
Michigan as an unheralded
sixth-round draft choice. He
has won four Super Bowls in six
tries with the Patriots, and was
chosen the most valuable player

in three of the victories. He has

denied playing any role in deating the footballs.
QUICK REACTION
Reaction to the sanctions was
quickand mixed.
They had no denitive proof
against Tom Brady or #patriots, tweeted real estate mogul Donald Trump. If Hillary
doesnt have to produce Emails,
why should Tom? Very unfair!
Arizona Cardinals linebacker
Sean Weatherspoon tweeted:
I think the suspension is warranted, they came down hard on
the organisation though. #Deategate
Brady, 37, who is married to
Brazilian fashion model Gisele
Bndchen, refused to turn over
his cell phone and other personal information for the investigation, Wells said in the
report.
I think its absolutely right
and proper if hes been complicit in some kind of wrongdoing, said Jamie Johnson, 34, a
graduate student from London
at Harvards John F. Kennedy
School of Government outside
Boston.
It doesnt matter who he
is, what kind of player he is, or
what hes accomplished.
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, who was not implicated in the deflated football
scandal, was fined $500,000
in 2007 for illegally videotaping defensive signals
from New York Jets coaches in
what was dubbed Spygate.
The Patriots were also fined
$250,000 and forfeited a firstround draft pick.
The Deategate issue has
been another headache for
Goodell, who came under re
last year for his lenient stance
on domestic abuse, which
caused him to re-vamp the
leagues personal conduct policy and strengthen the penalties against players who commit
such crimes.
While Goodell was being
heavily criticised for his light
punishments on domestic violence, Kraft was his staunchest defender, leading many to
speculate league would go easy
on a star player who is considered one of the greatest of his
generation.
Its a good thing the @n
suspended Tom Brady now everyone knows that NOBODY is
above the system #NFL #FairGame, tweeted Shawne Merriman, a retired former threetime Pro Bowl linebacker.

NBA

Warriors crush Grizzlies, Hawks hold off Wizards

DPA
Los Angeles

tephen Curry was back

looking like the newly
crowned NBA Most
Valuable Player, and
the Golden State Warriors the
leagues best team again.
Curry scored 33 points with
eight rebounds and ve assists,
and the visiting Warriors routed
the Memphis Grizzlies 101-84
on Monday to square their Western Conference semi-nal playoff series at 2-2.
Youre desperate when youre
down 2-1 on the road so you have
to compete on every possession,
Warriors coach Steve Kerr said
of his top-seed team. It was
probably our most competitive
effort.
Kerr wanted to send a message
to his team even after the impressive beatdown of the physically tough fth-seeds.
I want them to be satised
with the effort and hungry to

improve, he said. I want them

to understand that nothing has
happened yet. Were 2-2.
Draymond Green added 16
points and 10 rebounds, Klay
Thompson scored 15 for the
Warriors, who used their stingy
defence to fuel the runaway
win.
We knew we had to set the
tone defensively because theyve
been getting anything they
wanted, Green said. If we came
out and got stops we could get
our offence going.
Curry had suffered a shooting
slump since being crowned the
league MVP. He shot just 15-of
40 from the eld and 4-of-21
from behind the arc in the backto-back losses before bouncing
back in a big way.
As long as theres another
game you have an opportunity
to come back and do something
better, said Curry, who made 11of-22 shots and four triples.
Curry hadnt totaled more
than 23 points in any of the previous three games. But he red

Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors dribbles the ball against
Memphis Grizzlies during Game four of the Western Conference
Semi-finals of the 2015 NBA Playoffs at FedExForum on Monday in
Memphis, Tennessee.

in 21 in the rst-half, including

14 in the second quarter, staking
the Warriors to a 61-44 cushion.
It was only a matter of time,
Thompson said. Hes one of the
best shooters of all time.
The Warriors went to the long
ball in the third quarter, knocking down ve, including two
apiece by Splash Brothers
Curry and Thompson, as the
lead swelled to as many as 26.
Golden State carried an 82-64
advantage into the nal frame
and coasted to the win.
We had a good mindset as
a group coming into this game
if we play like ourselves we can
change the tide of our series,
Curry said.
Thats what we did, so mission
accomplished. Im proud the way
we played from start to nish.
Spaniard Marc Gasol had 19
points and 10 rebounds, while
Zach Randolph netted 12 with 11
boards for the defensive-minded
Grizzlies, who were outmuscled
in the rout.
They really stepped up so

hats off to them, Grizzlies coach

Dave Joerger said. They were
very physical with us.
Golden State returns home to
host pivotal game 5 today.
In the East: Jeff Teague scored
26 points, including a key triple
with just over a minute left and
the visiting Atlanta Hawks held
off the Washington Wizards
106-101 to level their seminal
conference matchup also at 2-2.
It was a must-win for us and
we took care of business, Teague
said.
Paul Millsap added 19 points,
Al Horford 18 with 10 rebounds, while Germanys Dennis Schroeder netted 14 off the
bench for Atlanta, which nally
resembled the top seed.
This is the best we played all
series the way we stepped up,
Millsap said. We were more
physical and more aggressive.
But we havent proven anything
yet. We still have to get two more
wins.
Bradley Beal poured in a playoff career-high 34 points and

Game 3 hero Paul Pierce added

22 with ve triples for fthseeded Washington, playing its
third consecutive game without
All-Star point guard John Wall
because of a broken left hand.
We had a great opportunity
to go up 3-1, Beal said. We were
right there until the end and we
didnt play well. Were 2-2 its
the rst to get to two wins now.
The Hawks led most of the
game and 104-97 on a Teague
3-pointer with 72 seconds left.
The Wizards would not quit,
and a dunk by Brazils Nene drew
them within 104-101 with 36.7
ticks remaining.

Results
Eastern Conference
at Washington
Atlanta
106 Washington 101
(Series tied 2-2)
Western Conference
at Memphis
Golden State 101 Memphis 84
(Series tied 2-2)

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

SPORT
FOCUS

The Patriot Way redefined by NFL in Deflategate penalty

By Dave Hyde
Sun Sentinel

arsh but fair. Tough but

just. Thats the verdict on
the NFLs Deategate
verdict, in which quarterback Tom Brady was suspended for
four games and the New England
Patriots were taken to the woodshed for the underinated footballs
scandal.
Right is right. Wrong is wrong.
And everyone knows the difference,
even if Brady and the Patriots did
their best to muck up the investigation into the secret and systematic
deation of the game balls. Which
only added to the penalty.
This wasnt just about Brady,
even if he was front and centre. It
was equally about, The Patriot
Way, that signature catchphrase
the team so proudly uses to describe
how they work and why they win.
The Patriot Way? Serial cheating. Regular stonewalling of investigators. Loud proclamations
from owner Robert Kraft, rst in
Spygate and now in Deategate,
which range from demanding a
league apology to calling investigator Ted Wells ndings incomprehensible.
For all their trophies, for all their
slogans, and for all the manner Kraft
has built a winning organisation on

and off the eld, theres only one

way to view the Patriots now:
Theyre this generations Al Davis
Raiders. If youre not cheating,
youre not trying, those Raiders said.
Well? Has any team in pro sports
been caught cheating more than
the Patriots? They were caught
videotaping teams signals in 2007,
which led to one round of penalties
in Spygate.
Now their quarterback led an
end-run of rules to deate footballs,
which was uncovered during New
Englands win over Indianapolis in
this years AFC championship game.
And he refused to cooperate with the
investigation. And the team declined
to have all employees cooperate fully.
And they loudly proclaimed this was
based on jealousy.
Praise their winning. Praise their
consistency. But praise their methods?
This is what rankles old-timers,
such as Dolphins legend Don Shula,
who has referred to Patriots coach
Bill Belichick as Beli-cheat and
pointedly said Saturday, We never
deated any balls.
From Spygate to Deategate,
with the unseemly story of murderer Aaron Hernandez thrown in,
the once-smug idea of The Patriot
Way takes on an entirely different
meaning.
The Raiders at least embraced
this rogue motif. They were outlaws

and roughnecks and led by Davis,

who fought the NFL and commissioner Pete Rozelle openly in court
or privately in any back alley he
could nd.
The Patriots want it both ways.
They want to be praised for their
winning and their Fortune 500
ways. They want to be seen as titans
of football and leaders of corporate
America.
This ends that idea. They win
better than anyone. Give them
that. And this penalty, stiff as it is,
doesnt spell the end of the Patriots,
or even probably more than a speed
bump in the upcoming season.
They took a punch beyond losing Brady for the rst four games.
They lose a rst-round draft pick in
2016, a fourth-round pick in 2017
and were ned $1 million. Thats not
all for Deategate, you can bet.
Spygate doubled the ne.
Still, if youre picking a favourite
in the AFC East today, its New England. If youre picking a team to win
the AFC, its New England or Baltimore. Theyll be there in the end,
just as they always have been for a
football generation.
No one ever said Belichick and
Brady arent great. They are. But
that just adds to the mystery of why
they cheat like this. Videotaping
signals? Deating footballs? They
should be above that. They instead
dene, The Patriot Way.

TOM BRADY

NHL

SPOTLIGHT

Quackers present
mighty challenge to
Blackhawks, Crawford
Were aware of the other team, but for the most part were focused on being ready for the first game
By Paul Skrbina
Chicago Tribune

pile of pucks in the net behind him Monday, a business trip in front of him, Corey Crawford plans to keep
pucks in front of him and put business behind him during the upcoming
Western Conference nals.
A week-plus playoff layoff will end
in a few days when the Blackhawks
travel to Anaheim, Calif., to face the
Ducks, who advanced beyond the
second round for the rst time since
winning the Stanley Cup in 2007.
The Ducks won an NHL-record
18 games during the regular season
when trailing in the third period and
tied for the most victories in a season,
12, when trailing after two. They added four such wins during the rst two
rounds of the playoffs.
The Hawks, meanwhile, are 30-00 when leading after two periods.
Were aware of the other team, but
for the most part were focused on being ready for the rst game, Crawford
said. We have good feelings against
them, but you dont want to fall into
getting complacent at all or feel like,
because things have gone well, that
theyll automatically go well.
Crawfords rst career victory and
shutout came March 5, 2008, against
the Ducks. He said he wont have a lot
on his mind while facing the top seed
with a trip to the Stanley Cup Final
hanging in the delicate balance.
Especially when hes staring down
the postseason points leader in Corey
Perry (seven goals, eight assists) and
his pals Ryan Getzlaf (two goals, 10
assists, tied for third in playoff scoring) and Ryan Kesler (four goals, ve
assists, tied for eighth).
Theres not much thinking going
on, Crawford said. Maybe a little bit
before the play develops, but during
actual play its more just read and react. Its feel and seeing the puck more
than thinking. If youre thinking too
much, thats when things go wrong.
Not much went wrong for either
team during the second round. The
Hawks swept the Wild, and the Ducks
beat the Flames in ve games.
While Crawford plans to spend his
time not thinking too much, winger
Bryan Bickell has spent his not remembering what Crawford alluded
to _ the Hawks two 4-1 victories
and a 1-0 loss against the Ducks this
season.

Babcock
coaching
tour starting
to heat up
By Helene St James
Detroit Free Press

ike Babcock is in the midst of

a busy week.
Reports indicate that he
already has talked to the Toronto Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres
about their head coaching jobs. And he
is still planning to go to Prague for the
world championships, with a scheduled
arrival of Tuesday morning.
Weekend reports out of Toronto had
him talking with Leafs president and
former Wings star Brendan Shanahan
about the coaching vacancy there, and
reports out of Buffalo say that he met
with the Sabres ownership Sunday. The
Edmonton Oilers are also believed to be
highly interested in Babcock. The Philadelphia Flyers, San Jose Sharks and New
Jersey Devils also are conducting coaching searches.
Last Friday, the Detroit Red Wings
gave Babcock permission to talk to other
teams, at his request. General manager
Ken Holland said he wants Babcock to
stay, but only if Babcock decides that Detroit is his best option. Babcock told the
Free Press that it would be 100 percent
easier for my family if he stays.
Holland and Babcock both declined to
comment further on the matter.
Babcocks contract with the Wings
runs through June 30, which is why
teams have to sign a letter stating that
they will compensate the Wings with one
third-round draft pick within the next
three seasons if they hire Babcock. The
date on the letter gives teams until May
25 to work out a deal.
Babcock, 52, is seeking at least $4 million annually, double his current salary,
and an amount that would make him the
highest-paid coach in the NHL.

Chicago Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford makes a save during the third
period against the Minnesota Wild in game three of the second round of the
2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Xcel Energy Center. PICTURE: USA TODAY Sports
One thing Bickell does remember
is the physical challenge the Ducks
present. Twenty-three players on
their roster, not including goalies,
weigh at least 200 pounds, compared
with seven for the Hawks. The Ducks
also have nine players 6-foot-3 or
taller to the Hawks four, one of whom
is backup goalie Scott Darling.
I cant really recall those games,

they were so long ago, said Bickell, whose 64 hits rank second in the
postseason. Theyre more physical.
Theyre more of a team that can bump
and grind and play offense and go up
and down the ice and use their speed
too.
The bigger they are, the harder
they fall, I guess, centre Andrew
Shaw added.

Falling is not part of either teams

plan, of course. Hawks coach Joel
Quenneville said time will be of the
essence in becoming reacquainted
with the foes.
Theres a little bit of that unfamiliarity, Quenneville said. Youll
have to maybe feel your way through
it initially.
Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau,

whose defensemen have accounted

for a league-best 29 points in the
postseason, was careful to keep an
even keel Monday.
I dont want to disrespect us, and
I dont want to over-respect them,
Boudreau said. Theyre good too. We
know a little bit what to expect. ... Its
going to be interesting.
And all business.

MIKE BABCOCK

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

SPORT
SPOTLIGHT

Wrestling, taekwondo joins SportAccord exodus

Reuters
Munich

he international wrestling federation (UWW)

and the world taekwondo federations (WTF) on
Monday pulled out of the sports
umbrella organisation SportAccord until relations improve
following a row with the International Olympic Committee
(IOC).
Our decision, which is based
on our full commitment to the
Olympic Movement and its leadership, implies that for the time
being, United World Wrestling
shall refrain to participate in the

F1 drivers to
launch fan
initiative in
Monaco
LONDON: Formula One
drivers are hoping to give
more back to their fans, at
a time when unfavourable
comparisons are being
made with other series,
with a new initiative to be
presented in Monaco next
week.
Alex Wurz, the chairman
of the Grand Prix Drivers
Association (GPDA), told
Reuters that more details
would be presented on the
Friday rest day before the
race in the Mediterranean
principality.
The Austrian said the drivers
had unanimously agreed the
move at a meeting at last
weekends Spanish Grand
Prix in Barcelona.
To make sure this sport
remains at the pinnacle and
gets ever more popular, we
would like to engage more
with the fans, said the
former Formula One driver
who now competes in the
world endurance championship and is a two times Le
Mans winner.
How we are doing this I dont
want to go into because this
will be announced in Monaco
in great detail.
I hope its cool. The fans will
tell us if they like it or not
and thats what we want...we
want to give a little bit back
and communicate with the
people who love the sport
equally to us, said Wurz.
Social media is expected to
feature largely in the plans,
with many drivers already
attracting a large number of
followers.
Great GPDA meeting today!
At the Monaco GP we will
announce big plans on how
to properly connect with
you, the fans, Lotus driver
Romain Grosjean told his
438,000 followers on Twitter
after last Fridays meeting.
Mercedes double Formula
One world champion Lewis
Hamilton has 2.74mn followers on Twitter, more than
3.0mn likes on Facebook and
1.2mn followers on Instagram.
However the sport still has a
reputation for being exclusive
and inaccessible compared
to series like the world endurance championship, where
fans have much more access
to the paddock and drivers
during race weekends.

activities and games organised

by SportAccord, until the relations with ASOIF has improved
to the latters satisfaction,
UWW President Nenad Lalovic
said in a statement.
The Association of Summer
Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) has suspended
links with SportAccord after its
President Marius Vizers scathing attack on the IOC last month.
This was a difficult decision,
in particular as we have worked
closely with SportAccord in the
past to secure additional opportunities for wrestling and traditional wrestling, Lalovic said.
I sincerely hope that the crisis within SportAccord can be

UWW President Nenad Lalovic

new events emerging.

SportAccord may not be
of huge benefit for big sports
such as athletics and soccer
but for some smaller sports it
is an annual showcase of their
development to the largest
possible audience of sports
administrators, governments,
federations and event organisers.
SportAccord also organises
the World Combat Games in
2017 with fencing, weightlifting and judo, the international
federation of which is led by
Vizer himself, the only Olympic sport left after the withdrawal of boxing and wrestling.

Canada rout Austria 10-1

at world championship
The next game will be a dangerous game for us and we need to be sure there isnt a let-down
Reuters
Prague

anada crushed Austria

10-1 at the ice hockey
world championship
yesterday, riding a
four-goal opening period to an
easy win that left the tournament favourites unbeaten at the
end of the group stages.
That wincombined with a
5-4 overtime victory for the US
over Slovakiameans the two
North American teams claimed
the top spots in each of the two
groups after the rst round.
Even without Pittsburgh
Penguins center Sidney Crosby,
who was rested ahead of the
quarter-nals on Thursday,
the Canadians had no trouble
sweeping aside the Austrians
in what was effectively a warmup game for a team well stocked
with NHL talent.
Dallas Stars center Jason
Spezza, who scored two goals,
said it was good to nish unbeaten after the rst round but
the focus for the players was on
winning a medal.
The next game will be a
dangerous game for us and we
need to be sure there isnt a letdown, said Spezza. Its going
to come down to execution and
having intensity to start the
game is going to be big for us.
Belarus, led by former NHL
coach Dave Lewis, will meet
Canada in the last eight after
defeating Norway 3-2 on Tuesday.
The Canadians spent most of
the opening period in Austrias
zone and peppered goalie Bernhard Starkbaum with shots.
They
inevitably
broke
through after six minutes when
Colorado Avalanche center
Ryan OReillys cross-ice pass
found his NHL team mate Tyson Barrie in front of the net for
an easy tap-in.

Austrias goaltender Bernhard Starkbaum fails to save a goal of Canadas Matt Duchene (right) during their Ice Hockey World Championship game at O2 arena in Prague, Czech
Republic yesterday.
Three minutes later the Avalanches Matt Duchene made
it 2-0 before Edmonton Oilers
winger Taylor Hall notched
his sixth goal of the tournament and Florida Panthers
defenseman Aaron Ekblads

wrist shot put Austria four

down.
Canada kept their foot on
the gas as eight different players ended up beating Starkbaum
and late-game replacement
Rene Swette who faced a com-

bined 46 shots.
Opposing netminder Mike
Smith had a quiet night, facing
15 shots and only being beaten
when Dominique Heinrich
scored early in the third period.

The US clinched top spot in

Group B after holding off a Slovak team that rallied from an
early three-goal decit to send
the game in overtime.
But 18-year-old Jack Eichel,
who has just nished his fresh-

man season at Boston University, gave the US the win when

he collected the puck in the corner before spinning around and
beating the Slovak goalkeeper
with a wrist shot late in the extra period.

HORSE RACING

Force India F1 team aiming

to sign reserve driver
orce India expect to sign
a reserve driver now that
Formula One has kicked
off its European season,
according to deputy principal
Bob Fernley.
We are looking. And sometime in the European bit now we
will sign someone, the Briton
told Reuters before a two-day test
at Barcelonas Circuit de Catalunya that started on Tuesday.
Mercedes-powered Force India, who failed to score points
in Sundays Spanish Grand Prix
and have had cash-ow problems, will have French teenager
Esteban Ocon in their car on
Wednesday.

The international boxing

federation (AIBA) withdraw
last week from SportAccord,
an organisation representing
close to 100 Olympic and nonOlympic sports federations
and organisers of multi-sports
games.
More have pulled out since
Vizers attack last month.
The withdrawals are a major
blow to Vizer who emerged as a
self-styled reformer of international sport when he took over
the SportAccord presidency two
years ago.
But he accused the IOC last
month of interfering with the
autonomy of federations, being dated and blocking other

ICE HOCKEY

FORMULA ONE

Reuters
London

resolved soon, in the best interest of sport.

The WTF also joined the
string of departures following a
board meeting on Monday.
After consultation with the
WTF members, the WTF Council has unanimously decided to
suspend the WTFs membership with SportAccord with immediate effect, WTF President
Chungwon Choue said.
It is with regret that taekwondo will not participate in the
World Combat Games. However,
we will continue to promote
taekwondo and the Olympic values around the world and develop our sport for our athletes and
ourmns of fans worldwide.

They had planned to test Pascal Wehrlein, who is also the

Mercedes F1 reserve, on Tuesday
but he was unwell and Britains
Nick Yelloly, who has been doing
simulator work with the team,
took his place instead.
Ocon, the 18-year-old European F3 champion, is competing
in GP3 with Mercedes support
and was also recently appointed
test and reserve driver for the
Mercedes AMG team in the German Touring Car (DTM) series.
Fernley said the team would
have been able to nd a reserve
easily enough if they had needed
an emergency replacement for
Mexican Sergio Perez or Germanys Nico Hulkenberg but the
role was more than just that.
Weve always run a reserve
driver in an integral role, he

said. The fact that we havent

got that at the moment doesnt
mean we couldnt nd somebody if we had to. That would be
something we could achieve.
Several
drivers,
including
Hulkenberg, have in the past used
the Force India reserve seat as a
stepping stone to a full F1 race drive.
Fernley shrugged off any concern about Hulkenberg who has
already completed a six-hour
endurance race with Porsche at
Spa in Belgium this season and is
due to compete in next months
Le Mans 24 Hours as well as his
full F1 programme.
The race at the Sarthe circuit
has seen some big accidents in
the past, with current endurance
world champion Anthony Davidson breaking two vertebrae in
a 2012 crash.

Al Shahania Studs Rawah wins Prix Nefta

Agencies
Paris

H Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa alThani owned Rawah

(Amer) came up with
a dazzling performance to annex the Group II Prix Nefta in
Bordeaux-Le Bouscat, France
on Monday.
Sporting the colours of Al
Shahania Stud, the FrancisHenri Graffard trained Rawah
imposed herself with a brilliant
turn of foot in only her second
career start. Though she was
going against her elders and
a lot of quality, Rawah placed
herself just behind the leader
AJS Rudainah (Dahess), in a
eld running at a moderate
pace. AJS Rudainah started to
accelerate at the beginning of
the last straight but was soon

Al Shahania Studs Rawah gallops to victory in the Group II Prix Nefta Bordeaux-Le Bouscat, France
caught by Rawah and Sahabba. Once into top gear, Rawah

quickly got past the favourite,

Loraa FR (Mawwod) who was

nominated as the best three and

four year old lly.

10

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

SPORT
SPOTLIGHT

Haile Gebrselassie retires from competition

IAAF
London

istance running legend

Haile Gebrselassie has
announced his retirement from competitive running after nishing 16th
at the Great Manchester Run, an
IAAF Gold Label Road Race.
The hugely popular and
world-famous Ethiopian will
still participate in races but no
longer with the intention of getting on the podium.
It brings to an end a phenomenally successful career which
stretched back more than two
decades in which he claimed

Struggling
Nadal has
no plans
to replace
coach Toni
Rafael Nadal yesterday put up
a strong defence of his coach
and uncle Toni Nadal as the
king of clay struggles to find
his former devastating game
at the Rome Masters.
Nadal has not won a European pre-Roland Garros title
this season as he heads into
his final event prior to starting
a bid for a record 10th French
Open crown on May 24.
He is playing as fourth seed
this week at the Foro Italico
with his ranking standing seventh, his lowest in a decade.
With a Wednesday start in the
second round against Turk
Marsel Ilhan, everything is
on the line for the seven-time
champion at the Foro Italico,
who lost the 2014 final to
Novak Djokovic.
But Nadal remains absolutely
opposed to the idea that
changing his coach might be
the key to help him back to
his former best.
When I win or lose its my
fault, said the 14-time grand
slam winner. If I change
someone of my team, it will
not be because Im
losing or winning,
It will be that there is not
enough motivation from one
or another part (person).
It would be stupid to do
something I dont believe. I
play well obviously with the
help of other people. Ive had
the same team for my career and mine is not a bad career.
Nadal said that tennis comes
second to blood: I dont know
if Ill be with uncle until end of
my career, I dont even know
what will happen tomorrow.
And remember, my coach
is more my uncle than my
coach. Family is much more
important than tennis.
He added: Im happy playing
tennis though Ive not been
consistent enough since the
start of the season.
Dont forget that Im sixth in
the season points race and Im
fighting for important things.
Playing a Masters 1000 final
is not a bad result for me. My
life has been fantastic, even
if today Im not winning as
much as in the past - but life
continues.

two Olympic gold medals over

10,000m, in 1996 and 2000,
nine IAAF world titles, including four consecutive IAAF
World Championships 10,000m
wins, and he set 15 official world
records outdoors as well as ve
world indoor records.
He rst came to international attention when he won the
5000m and 10,000m double
at the 1992 IAAF World Junior
Championships.
His road running career saw
him become the rst runner to
go under 2:04 for the marathon
when he ran 2:03:59 in Berlin in
2008.
Although some of his records
have since been surpassed, no-

tably on the track by his compatriot Kenenisa Bekele, Gebrselassie remains the world
record holder at 20,000m and
one hour.
Im retiring from competitive running, not from running.
You cannot stop running, this is
my life, he told local reporters in
Manchester.
Im very happy to stop here. I
knew this was going to be the last
one, he added.
Indeed, after crossing the nishing line for the rst time, Gebrselassie went back to the start
to run the 10km route again as a
part of the mass eld.
His decision came as a something of a surprise although he

Haile Gebrselassie

had told some close condents

in recent days that this would be
his last serious race.
The announcement of his retirement was conrmed to the
IAAF by his manager Jos Hermens.
In addition to his feats on the
track, he is also a successful
businessman in Ethiopia, employing thousands of his compatriots in variety of elds but
particularly in real estate and the
local coffee industry.
He is also an Ambassador for
several United Nations organisations, including the United Nations Development Programme
and created the Great Ethiopian
Run.

CYCLING

Formolo claims win,

Clarke takes Giro lead
I decided to attack when I did because if Id waited until the finale of the climb I might have left it too late
Cavendish squeaks past
Sagan to win second stage

AFP
Rome

talian Davide Formolo

capped a daring solo attack
with victory on the fourth
stage of the Giro dItalia
yesterday when Australian Simon Clarke took over the race
lead from Orica team-mate
Michael Matthews.
Formolo nished the 150km
ride from Chiavari to La Spezia
in a time of 3hr 47min 59sec,
just 22sec ahead of a small
group of chasers including race
favourites Alberto Contador
and Richie Porte.
It was the 22-year-olds
maiden professional win in his
rst season with CannondaleGarmin, and was fully deserved
after a difficult stage whose
technical nish had several riders in trouble.
Formolo was among the 14
riders still remaining from a
larger, earlier breakaway and as
they rode over winding terrain
on their way towards the Ligurian port town of La Spezia the
young Italian used his climbing
skill, and some perfect timing,
to make the difference.
With 13km remaining Formolo soloed away from the
leading bunch to build a lead of
a handful of seconds on Frenchman Amael Moinard and Italian
Giovanni Visconti, with Contador further back in another
chase group being led by Fabio
Arus Astana team.
By the time he crested the nal small climb of the day, 10km
from the nish, Formolo had
taken his advantage on Moinard and Visconti to 32sec, with
Contadors chasers a handful of
seconds behind.
It was a nervous 10km descent to the nish line for Formolo, who was constantly

Italian Davide Formolo crosses the finish line to win the fourth stage of the Giro dItalia, Tour of Italy, cycling race yesterday in La Spezia.
turning around to check the
progress of his chasers, and he
waited until the nal 100 metres of the home straight before
throwing his arms in the air in
triumph.
I decided to attack when I
did because if Id waited until
the nale of the climb I might
have left it too late, said Formolo, who despite a clamour
over his title potential, admitted his rst Grand Tour would
be a learning experience.
Im here at my rst Giro,
there is no pressure on me and

when its like this good things

happen.
Perhaps not realising there
had been a solo breakaway
ahead of him, Clarke also threw
his arms up in the air after he
won the bunch sprint for second place, only to slap his hands
on to the top of his helmet in
embarrassment when told by
Visconti the stage had already
been won.
Nevertheless, the Australian
domestiques endeavours were
enough to hand him the race
leaders pink jersey, keeping the

maglia rosa in the Orica team

for one more day.
Weve had quite an impressive start to the race, said
Clarke, who becomes the third
Australian from his team, after
Matthews and opening stage
winner Simon Gerrans, to wear
the jersey.
Clarke, who is not an overall
race contender, leads Colombian teammate Esteban Chaves
by 10secs in the general classication with Czech contender
Roman Kreuziger third at 17.
Contador, bidding for a rare

Giro dItalia-Tour de France

double this year, did well to survive some unsettling tactics late
in the stage when Astanas Fabio Aru, third overall last year,
went on the attack briey in a
bid to test his rivals.
The Spaniard held rm to
nish just behind Clarke to sit
fourth at 17 with Australian
contender Porte 20secs further
adrift ahead of todays 152km
fth stage.
It begins in La Spezia and nishes with a 17km ascent to the
summit of the Abetone climb.

Mark Cavendish won his

second straight stage by once
again beating out Peter Sagan
in a sprint to the nish during
the second stage of the Tour of
California on Monday.
The race was marred by a
huge crash with 10 kilometres
(six miles) to go. It sent Ben
Jacques-Maynes to the hospital
with a dislocated shoulder and
cuts on his face. The American
has started in every Tour of California which is celebrating its
10th anniversary this year.
Cavendish (Etixx) had to
work much harder to hold off
Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) in Mondays sprint nish than he did in
the rst stage on when the same
pair nished 1-2 on Sunday.
He came underneath me in
the last corner, and it was perfect, said Cavendish, who nished the 193-kilometre stage in
four hours, 47 minutes and two
seconds.
With the pressure hes under he would hit out early, so
I was happy to come off his
wheel.
He actually did a good job of
boxing me in so I had to really
start the sprint late.
Cavendish extended his overall race lead to eight seconds
over Sagan. Breakaway rider
Robin Carpenter (Hincapie
Racing) moved into third thanks
to his three time bonuses on the
stage.
This years race comprises 13
host cities and eight stages run
over a total distance of 1,165
kilometres (724 miles).
The key stages for the overall
are expected to be the stage six,
24-kilometre time trial at Big
Bear Lake and a gruelling climb
to the Mount Baldy nish line
the next day.

TENNIS

Djokovic starts with win, Murray decides to play

AFP
Rome

older Novak Djokovic

needed a late break
in the nal set to beat
Nicolas Almagro 6-1,
6-7 (5/7), 6-3 in an opening
match at the Italian Open on
Tuesday.
The Serb world number one
rank took his record on the clay
of the capital to a 30-5 career
record here, with titles in 2008,
2011 and a year ago over Rafael
Nadal.
Djokovic broke for 5-3 against
his Spanish opponent and served
out the victory, nishing with 11
aces and just one break of serve.
It was the rst competitive outing for Djokovic since
winning Monte Carlo almost a
month ago. The Serb is now riding an 18-match win streak.

Andy Murray will take to

the court on Wednesday after agonising with his team as
to whether he should play. The
back-to-back titleholder at
Munich and Madrid will start
against Frances Jeremy Chardy.
Murrays team was split on
whether he should compete or
rest, with the competition view
winning out.
Murray, who defeated Nadal in
the shock Madrid nal, said that
his preparation for Roland Garros seems to be on track.
This year I feel a lot healthier
on the clay, I have to thank my
team, which has made some big
changes in my clay preparation.
Thats helped for sure, the Scot
said.
I also didnt feel much pressure last week, I didnt have very
high expectations. I just played
and felt better and better in each
match.

Novak Djokovic of Serbia returns the ball to Nicolas Almagro of Spain

during their match at the Rome Open in Rome, Italy, yesterday.

As the complex scheduling

of the event proceeded, results
were all over the charts.
In the womens rst round,
Spanish tenth seed Carla Suarez
Navarro beat German Mona Barthel 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 while Frenchwoman Kristina Mladenovic defeated Monica Puig 7-5, 6-3.
Former number one Victoria
Azarenka, nalist two years ago
against Serena Williams, continued her revival after 2014 injuries, advancing over Czech Lucie Hradecka 7-5, 2-6, 6-1.
Third seed Maria Sharapova
became the rst into the third
round as she advanced when
Australian Jarmila Gajdosova retired trailing 6-2, 3-1.
In the mens rst round, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez beat slumping US Open winner Marin Cilic,
the Croatian ninth seed going
down 6-4, 6-3.
Australian hopes met a quick

end a week after Nick Kyrgios

beat Roger Federer in Madrid:
Spanish 11th seed Feliciano Lopez
won his rst-round match over

Kyrgios 6-4, 7-6 (7/4). Bernard

Tomic was then eliminated in a
battle, Serb Viktor Troicki advancing 7-6 (7/3), 6-7 (4/7), 7-6

RESULTS
Women: First round: Carla Suarez Navarro (ESP x10) bt Mona Barthel (GER) 6-4,
2-6, 6-3 Kristina Mladenovic (FRA) bt Monica Puig (PUR) 7-5, 6-3 Elena Svitolina,
(UKR) bt Flavia Pennetta (ITA) 6-4, 6-2 Alexandra Dulgheru (ROM) bt Misaki Doi
(JPN) 6-7 (2/7), 6-3, 6-3 Irina Begu (ROM) bt Ursula Radwanska (POL) 4-6, 6-2, 6-1
Daria Gavrilova (RUS) bt Belinda Bencic (SUI) 6-7 (2/7), 7-5, 6-2 Irina Begu (ROM)
bt Ursula Radwanska (POL) 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 Bojana Jovanovski (SRB) bt Caroline
Garcia (FRA) 7-6 (7/4), 4-6, 6-2 Victoria Azarenka (BLR) bt Lucie Hradecka (CZE)
7-5, 2-6, 6-1 Second round: Maria Sharapova (RUS x3) bt Jarmila Gajdosova (AUS)
6-2, 3-1, retired
Men: First round: Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP) bt Marin Cilic (CRO x9) 6-4, 6-3
Thomaz Bellucci (BRA) bt Diego Schwartzman (ARG) 6-4, 4-3, retired Feliciano
Lopez (ESP x11) bt Nick Kyrgios (AUS) 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR)
bt Martin Klizan (SVK) 6-4, 6-1 Viktor Troicki (SRB) bt Bernard Tomic (AUS) 7-6
(7/3), 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (7/4) Kevin Anderson (RSA x15) bt Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER)
3-0, retired Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP x14) bt Marcel Granollers (ESP) 6-1, 6-3
David Goffin (BEL) bt Andrea Arnaboldi (ITA) 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 Second round: Stan
Wawrinka (SUI x8) bt Juan Monaco (ARG) 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 Novak Djokovic (SRB x1) bt
Nicolas Almagro (ESP) 6-1, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3

Gulf Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

11

SPORT
SQUASH

YACHTING

Arnold stuns Waters

at British Open
I dont get to play on a show-court like this very often, so Im even more pleased
AFP
London

DELIA ARNOLD

elia
Arnold,
who
caused an upset to
reach the semi-nals
of the Asian Championships in Kuala Lumpur a week
ago, followed it with the best win
of her career in the rst round of
the British Open yesteday.
The Malaysian qualier overcame the fth-seeded Alison
Waters, a player more than
good enough to inuence the
destination of this years title,
by 11-8, 11-5, 11-4 - a result as
startling for its manner as its
outcome.
Arnold trailed 3-6 in the rst
game yet outplayed Waters almost totally thereafter.
She relentlessly took advantage of the many strange errors
made by the Englishwoman,
who clinched the world team title for her country in December
and has risen to a career-high
world number three.
There was no doubting the
focus and level-headedness of
Arnold once she saw her chance,
but Waterss ineffectual performancepossibly affected by
a collision to the back of her leg
early onremained a mystery.
She departed the arena in
Hull, northern England, quickly
without speaking to reporters.
Meanwhile a level-headed
Arnold said afterwards: I just
wanted to go on there and see
what I could do, without pressure. But I was denitely helped
by what happened at the Asian
Championships. That gave me
condence. I am quite surprised by what has happened
though. I had played the qualifying, but it was Alisons rst
match, and it was before her
home crowd, so obviously there
was a lot of pressure on her.
I dont get to play on a glass
show-court like this very often,
so Im even more pleased with
this result, but I shall have to see
how it feels tomorrow, she said,
sounding a warning note. That
may be because she next plays
Annie Au, the 11th-seeded Hong

Walker fuelled by
round-the-world
injustice
ing for granted however.

AFP
Abu Dhabi

an Walker believes his Abu

Dhabi team are on course for
a victory in the Volvo Ocean
Race that would settle a
sense of injustice from the last
round-the-world epic.
The Walker-skippered Abu
Dhabi Ocean Racing have a six
point lead over Frenchman Charles
Caudreliers Dongfeng Race Team
going into the nal three legs of the
nine month battle.
Hiking up the pressure the
Chinese-backed vessel won the
latest duel into Newport, Rhode
Island to narrow the lead. Walker, a two-time Olympic silver
medallist, is hoping however
that the disasters of 2011-2012
can be avoided.
In that race, the Abu Dhabi
boat broke a mast during the
opening leg and later suffered
hull damage, which forced it to
retire from the crucial race from
Auckland to Itajai, in Brazil. The
team eventually limped home
fth. But Walker denied he was
seeking revenge.
The word is too strong. I always felt a sense of injustice in
the previous race. I knew we
were sailing well. I knew we had
a good team and I knew that we
deserved better.
But its like a Formula One
race. If you havent got the car,
never mind how good the driver
is. We had the potential to win
but we never had the opportunity to demonstrate it.
This time Abu Dhabi Racing
are in control and Walker says
they only have to nish in the
top three in each leg to claim the
coveted title. He is taking noth-

Errors to avoid
In offshore sailing, you can
always break something, crash
into something or make a big
tactical error.
The race is not over yet at all.
But we are in a strong position,
a position where we dont have
to beat Dongfeng in every leg.
Which is important.
We can afford to lose a point
here and there. We dont have to
chase the race. Fundamentally, if
we nish in the top three in every
leg, then its OK. We dont need
to change anything in the way
we sail.
Walker was to gather the eight
man crew together on Tuesday to
discuss tactics before they leave
on May 17 for the NewportLisbon leg. The Briton said that
changing the race so everyone
has the same boat design has had
a dramatic impact on the competition.
Last time, we had big differences between the boats. And
therefore, you had teams who
had no chance of winning.
Last time, boats had different
strengths and weaknesses.
This time around its amazing. There are still differences
between the teams and the
boats, but obviously its down to
you and how you sail the boat.
You cannot modify the boats
but you can play with the weight
you carry. You can be generous or
tight with your food weight. Not
much else.
We have learned a lot against
Dongfeng going downwind in
light air. The team that wins this
race will be the team who improves most. Were still learning
a lot.

Australia to play US in WC warm-up game

Kong player, to whom she lost in
a close ve-game semi-nal in
the Asian Championships.
El Weleily scare
The winner of that match
could have a quarter-nal with
Raneem El Weleily, whom some
people are tipping to become the
rst Egyptian woman ever to win
the British Open, but who had to
survive a rst round scare.
The gifted second-seeded
Alexandrian was twice within
a point of being taken to a fth
and deciding game by a qualier,
before prevailing 11-6, 11-5, 7-11,
13-11 against Line Hansen, the

world number 28 from Denmark.

El Weileily had let slip a lead
of 9-4 in the fourth game before
both she responded with a closer focus and the skills to snatch
the two points, at 9-10, and 1011, which turned the match.
It was my rst tournament
for a while. So I can kind of understand why I played the way I
did today, El Weleily said.
I was playing good for the
rst two games. Then I made too
many errors and she was getting
a lot of things I wasnt expecting
her to get. In the fourth game I
was happy with my focus, and I
tried to be more sharp and accu-

rate. I was at 9-4 and she came

back to 10-9. Credit to her of
course, but it was not my best
match.
El Weleily will hope to play
better when she takes on the
winner of the match between
Yathreb Adel, her talented
young compatriot, and Rachael Grinham, the veteran fourtimes former British Open
champion from Australia.
El Shorbagy serves
up warning
Mohamed El Shorbagy served
up a warning that he intends
to achieve the last of his three

main goals this season by winning the Open for the rst time.
The world number one from
Egypt did that with a 11-7, 5-11,
11-4, 11-7 win in a scary rstround match against the former
world number one from England, James Willstrop.
El Shorbagy felt it was scary
because he had been given a
freakishly awkward start against
an opponent of exceptional
calibre, as a result of Willstrop
having fallen outside the seeding positions during a recovery
from a hip injury.
I got a shock when I saw that
draw, El Shorbagy admitted.

Australia will play the United States in Chicago on September 5 in a

warm-up for the Rugby World Cup in England, it was announced on
yesterday. The Wallabies match at Soldier Field will be the highlight of
a two-week Stateside tour.
The match will be Australias first Test in the USA in almost 40 years
and just the fourth time the Wallabies have played on American soil.
Australia have won all seven of the internationals between the two
nations. The lead up and match will be a critical part of our preparations before we head to England, Wallabies coach Michael Cheika said.
Australia will fly from the USA to London ahead of their opening World
Cup match against Fiji in Cardiff on September 23.
Although we havent met on many occasions, theres a rich history
between our two Rugby nations, with the Eagles playing their first ever
Test match against the Wallabies some 40 years ago, Cheika added.
We know it will be a spirited encounter for that very reason and look
forward to playing in front of a big Chicago crowd. Bill Pulver, the chief
executive officer of the Australian Rugby Union, said the tour would
also provide significant strategic benefits for the organisation.

EMIR CUP FOOTBALL

Semi-finals proceeds to go to Nepal quake victims

By Sports Reporter
Doha

Sout Al Khaleej named

official radio station

atar Football Association (QFA) and

Rota announced at
a press conference
held at QFAs Headquarters, Al
Bidda Tower, that the Emir Cup
semi-nals ticket sales proceeds
will be donated to the earthquake victims in Nepal through
Rotas development and relief
projects.
Rota and QFA have also organised an initiative to place donation boxes around Al Sadd Stadium before the semis kick off this
Friday at 5:30pm and 8:00pm.
Funds that are donated by the
spectators will go towards Rotas
local and regional projects.
Mansoor al-Ansari, QFAs Secretary General commented: We
are very happy to be donating
the Emir Cup semi-nals ticket
proceeds to support the people of
Nepal who have suffered a great
loss as a result of the devastating
earthquake. QFA continuously
involves its partner non-prot
and charitable organisations in its
leagues and competitions for the
aim of raising funds to help those
who are in need.
Rota is a renowned charity
organisation known for its outstanding humanitarian work and
we are proud to be partnering
with them to try to change the
lives of people living in underprivileged communities, especially during such tough times.
Commenting on the allocation of ticket proceeds to Rota,
Mohamed al-Naama, Rotas Acting Executive Director said: Our
collaboration with QFA is one of

Qatar Football Association (QFA) yesterday signed

an agreement with Sout Al Khaleej radio station
to become the Official Radio Station of Emir
Cup 2015. The nature of the agreement involves
utilising the station by promoting all the Emir Cup
matches, activities, and sponsors events.
The signing ceremony took place in Al Bidda tower
between Mansoor al-Ansari, General Secretary
of QFA and Salem al-Mansoori, Assistant General
Manager of Sout al-Khaleej. The radio will also
be running different competitions with countless
prizes awarded to the winners. The agreement
signing characterizes the strong level of commitment that QFA continuously adopts to heavily
promote this prestigious tournament across various media channels.
Mansoor al-Ansari, General Secretary of QFA said:
We are delighted to partner with Sout al-Khaleej
and announce them as the Official Radio Station of
this esteemed tournament. We have a long term
relationship with Sout Al Khaleej which dates back
to the 17th Gulf Cup. Sout Al Khaleej plays a very
important role in promoting QFA activities and

events, and we look forward to working with Sout

Al Khaleej again this year.
He added: Through this long-term and unique
partnership, Sout al-Khaleej will help ensure that
all Emir Cup events are promoted heavily amongst
the football fans and reaching new audience this
year.
Commenting on the announcement of the partnership Salem al-Mansoori, Assistant General Manager
of Sout Al Khaleej said: We are very proud to partner with QFA again this year for the 43rd edition of
Emir Cup and are confident that this partnership
will reach both parties goal which is to promote
the Emir Cup to all fans in Qatar. We appreciate the
opportunity given by QFA to be the official radio
station of the Emir Cup 2015 and look forward to
promoting this prominent football event of the
year. He added: We are going to be organising
many competitions on the radio in which 10 winners will have the opportunity to watch the final
match in Al Gharafa Stadium. The winners will be
chosen from around the Gulf and London, and all
expenses will be covered by Sout Al Khaleej.

Mansoor al-Ansari QFAs secretary general and Rotas acting executive director Mohamed al-Naama (R)
during the MoU signing ceremony.
a kind as we jointly aim to reach
out to different communities locally and regionally. We thank
QFAs interest in Rotas mission
and for sharing with us the same
humanitarian beliefs to help the
earthquake victims in Nepal.

QFA and Rota signed an MoU

last year that sets out the commitment of both parties to support the advancement of youth
capabilities and furthering longterm development and leadership capacity-building.

The Emir Cup nal match will

be held in Al Gharafa Stadium on
May 23. The venue has a capacity of 25,000 spectators. It has
12 gates designated for spectators, media, families, and VIP
spectators.

Qatar Football Association and Sout al-Khaleej radio station officials at the signing ceremony.

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

SPORT

GULF TIMES
BASKETBALL

FOCUS

Qatar SC bounce
back to beat Arabi

Injured Lavillenie
withdraws from
IDL Doha 2015

Cox and Ilic were the stars for Qatar SC with 21 and 19 points respectively

By Sports Reporter
Doha

atar Sports Club overcame a

9-point rst quarter decit
to beat Al Arabi in the Emir
Cup basketball tournament
last evening.
Wallace Cox and Mile Ilic were the
stars for Qatar Sports Club with 21 and
19 points respectively as they won 7467 in a tense encounter at the Al Gharafa Indoor Hall.
Both teams hit the court ring on all
cylinders and were running neck and
neck for the rst ve minutes before Al
Arabi took control to post a handy 22-13
lead rst quarter lead.
However, Qatar Sports Clubs fortunes began to change at the start of
the second quarter when they scored 11
points in the rst ve minutes while restricting their rivals to a mere four.
Al Arabi lost their momentum after
that and went into the third quarter
trailing Qatar Sports Club by a point
(39-38). From thereon, it was Qatar
Sports Club who were in control as they
scored 22 points in the third quarter as
against Al Arabis 12.
Carrying a 65-57 lead into the last
session, Qatar Sports Club closed out
the match with some degree of comfort.
Jama al-Rahman and Mahmoud
Ahmed also contributed handsomely to
Qatar Sorts Clubs win, scoring 12 and
11 respectively.
For Al Arabi, Tanguy Ngombi scored a
game-high 24 points but still ended up
on the losing side. Hassino Ndoye and
Oumar Seck had 19 and 10 respectively.
In another match, Al Gharafa
thrashed Al Khor 84-67 at their home
venue. Gharafa took a massive 20-point
lead after the rst period as they dominated the proceedings right throughout
the match. Khor did manage to make a
comeback reducing the decit to 12 in
the second period and 10 in the third.
However, Gharafa were too strong on
the day and came out ring in the last
period to close out the match easily.
For Gharafa, Samuel Jr. Monroe was
in in form as he top-scored with 33
points, followed by 15 from Deangelo
Downey and 14 from Abdelkader Salem
. For the vanquished Al Khor, Anthony
Coleman scored 23 while Rashaad Singleton contributed 18 points.
In todays matches. Al Shamal face Al
Ahli at 5pm, while Al Wakrah will take
on El Jaish.

Qatar Sports Club and Al Arabi players vie for the ball during the Emir Cup basketball tournament. PICTURE: Othman Iraqi

TRIUMPHANT

ebanese rallying ace Emil

Khneisser, driving Nissan Patrol, stormed to
victory in the exhausting
Qatar Baja Championship, and is
currently leading the series with
three rounds remaining.
Five rounds were held in succession last month and in the
T2 eld Khneisser piloted his
mighty Nissan Patrol to top three
nishes each of the ve days, including two rst placings.
Khneisser and the Patrol,
known as the Hero of All Terrains in Life, picked up seven
trophies for their sensational
achievements. And in the nal
tally for the week Khneisser and
the Patrol were out in front of the
Qatar series. The Qatar National
Baja is as demanding as any Baja
event and is famous around the

n his very last competition

and only a few days before
the kick-off 2015 IAAF Diamond League meeting in
Doha, Renaud Lavillenie suffered
a minor injury which unfortunately forced him to cancel his
trip to Qatar.
The Pole Vault world record
holder honoured his allegiance
to his club and anchored the
4x100m relay squad at a National Clubs competition in Lyon last
Sunday, but fell while crossing
the nish line and to his dismay
hit his shoulder.
After being examined by doctors in his training base in Monaco, Lavillenie was advised to
avoid any sort of competition
until his shoulder is properly
healed.
Lavillenies manager, Rene
Auguin, said the Olympic and
European champion was out for
10 days and couldnt compete in
Doha on Friday.
Renaud went through a series of medical exams in order
to check if ligaments or tendons were affected by the fall.
Thankfully he had not suffered
any severe injury. Nevertheless,
he must stay out of action for

the next ten days, which means

he will miss the Doha Diamond
League. explained the Frenchmans manager Ren Auguin.
Lavillenie was frustrated, but
he hopes he will be able to compete again in Doha, the next time
Pole Vault will be included in the
schedule:
I was feeling t and ready
for the rst real challenge of the
season and I was really looking
forward to competing in Doha.
Unfortunately, the injury is preventing me from coming to Qatar, but hopefully I will have the
chance to return to Doha in the
near future.
The 28-year-old is bidding
to win his rst title at the world
championships in Beijing in August. It is the only title missing
from his collection.
Lavillenie was the IAAF athlete of the year and the Diamond
Leagues top pole-vaulter for the
fth straight season in 2014.
He said last month that he
wanted to break the Doha meet
record of 5.82 meters to kickstart
his season. A gold medal at the
world championships is the only
major title missing from his collection.
Frances European triple jump
champion Benjamin Compaore
has also been ruled out of the
Doha meet for personal reasons.

Renaud Lavillenie has suffered a minor shoulder injury.

SPOTLIGHT

Khneisser powers
to victory in Qatar
Baja Championship
Agencies
Doha

By Sports Reporter
Doha

world for the toughness and is

designed to make racing more
accessible for those who have a
passion for the desert. First ve
rounds in Qatar have been part of
the Sealine Cross-Country Rally.
Khneisser said: Baja events
are as tough as they come but
when youre in a Patrol youre in
the right vehicle to take on the
conditions while many others
will fall by the wayside. The team
came to Qatar totally focused on
success and were delighted with
what we have achieved. The Patrol can cope with anything. But
the job isnt done by any stretch
there are three rounds left.
Qatar has a great tradition in
off-road racing and has produced
some wonderful drivers of international standing so its very
gratifying to win here.
Samir Cherfan, the managing
director of Nissan Middle East,
has hailed the Japanese auto
makers teams latest results.

Al-Attiyah and Baumel eager to

impress in Pharaons Rally
Agencies
Cairo

Qatars Nasser al-Attiyah

(right) and Mathieu Baumel.

he Qatar Rally Team duo of

Nasser al-Attiyah and Mathieu
Baumel are aiming to add to their
outstanding string of victories,
when they speed away from the start line
of the 2015 Pharaons Rally today.
The ve-stage cross-country race,
which will conclude on Saturday, May 16,
is the latest appointment for the pair in
what has so far been a season of signicant success.
Nasser and Mathieu arrived in South
America at the start of the year to contest
the Dakar Rally having secured the previous seasons FIA World Rally Championship-2 title. A fortnight later, Nasser
was celebrating the second Dakar victory
of his racing career. In the following ve
months further wins have been clocked
up at WRC2, FIA Cross-Country Rally
World Cup and Middle East Rally Championship events.
Nasser has even found time to swap
his Red Bull ying Mini with 2011 DTM
champion Martin Tomczyks vehicle for
a completely different racing experience.
With such strong form behind them its
no surprise that the car to beat in Egypt
will be the Mini of the Qatar Rally Team
containing Nasser and Mathieu.
Nasser Al-Attiyah said: The Pharaons
Rally is completely different from the last
race we did in Qatar. Im expecting there
to be a lot of sand here in Egypt, but we
will not be altering the set-up of the car
too much. The set-up we have been using is the one that worked so well for us
at the Dakar and so far there has been no
reason to make any big changes. I think

the terrain here in Egypt will make this a

fun race for us to compete in.
My recent drive in the DTM car was
a very useful learning experience. Getting the feeling for the car, knowing the
braking point and the downforce were
all things that I found enjoyable. I love to
drive fast and the DTM test was a great
chance to do that, the Qatari ace added.
Mathieu Baumel said they they are
looking too continue their winning trend.
We are aiming for the best result we can
get in Egypt to give us as many championship points as possible. We always enjoy racing here so were looking forward
to a good race and a winning result, The
Frenchman said.
Racing on the sand is an interesting

challenge and Nasser has proved his expertise on this type of terrain many times
already. We hope there will be many kilometres of dunes waiting for us because
we have been showing great speed over
sand recently. We will look to push on the
nal three days of the rally because we
know these stages well already. I think we
can afford a steady start before planning
to attack on the last stages of the rally,
he added.
However, the duo will need to guard
against complacency as they have
throughout all of their victories this year.
Nothing will come easy over the 1,500km
of timed special stages stretching across
perilous terrain from the Mediterranean
to the Pyramids.

On each of the ve days of the Pharaons

Rally the challenges of dunes, pistes,
fesh-fesh and canyons await Nasser
and Mathieu not to mention a top class
eld of competitors. Fellow Mini drivers
Vladimir Vasilyev (fth at the last Dakar)
and Adam Malysz (world champion ski
jumper turned rally racer) will both be
looking to build on solid starts this season in a bid to pick up further 2015 FIA
Cross-Country Rally World Cup ranking
points in Egypt.
If Nasser is to arrive quickest to the
Giza Pyramids he will need to show his
trademark speed over the dunes while
Mathieu will once again have to be on the
top of his game to meet the navigational
challenges to come.